Always Remember: That President Obama, With a Majority Democrat Legislature Supported the Wall Street Bailout and Remember, That he Established, in writing, the United States Capitalist Austerity Program. — The Race to the Bottom/Pauperization of the 99%!
Democracy?: As the Capitalist Robber Barons Steal from the 99%, Only the 1% Voted For Austerity! The 99% Should Decide On Austerity — Not Just The 1% Who, Profit From Austerity!! Under Austerity, All of the World Will Eventually Be Pauperized, Humbled, and Desecrated Like Greece and Puerto Rico.! Socialism Means True Democracy, that the 99% Will Rule, Not the Few!
Quotes of the Day:
The New York Times published a prominent article defining the “Biden Doctrine” as seeing “China as America’s existential competitor; Russia as a disrupter; Iran and North Korea as nuclear proliferators, cyberthreats as ever-evolving and terrorism as spreading far beyond Afghanistan.” Against these threats, the article depicts U.S. strategy as representing “democracy,” the euphemism for countries with neoliberal governments that leave economic planning to Wall Street financial managers, and infrastructure in the hands of private investors, not provided at publicly at subsidized prices. Nations that restrict monopolies and related rent-seeking activities are accused of being autocratic. The problem, of course, is that although the United States, Germany and other nations grew into industrial powers in the 19th and 20th centuries by government-sponsored infrastructure, progressive taxation and anti-monopoly legislation, the post-1980 neoliberal rejection of these policies has led them into economic stagnation for the 99 Percent burdened by rising debt and other rentier overhead paid mainly to the Finance, Insurance and Real Estate (FIRE) sector. China is thriving by following precisely the policies by which the former leading industrial nations grew rich before suffering from the neoliberal financialization disease. This contrast prompts The New York Times article’s thrust, summarized in its summary of what it hopes will become a Congressionally supported Biden Doctrine of escalating a New Cold War against non-neoliberalized economies, juxtaposing U.S.-sponsored liberal-democratic imperialism against foreign socialism: — Michael Hudson, The Vocabulary of Neoliberal Diplomacy in Today’s New Cold War
Again,as I have argued before, the basic contradiction of China’s economy is not between investment and consumption, or between growth and debt; it is between profitability and productivity. The growing size and influence of the capitalist sector in China is weakening the performance of the economy and widening inequalities. In my view, the Chinese economy is now strong enough not to rely on foreign investment or on unproductive capitalist sectors for growth. Increasing the role of planning and state-led investment, the main basis of China’s economic success over the 70 years of the People’s Republic, has never been more compelling. — Michael Roberts, Not so Evergrande
Chris Hedges: Wendy Brown on Sheldon Wolin and Inverted Totalitarianism In his books “Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism” and “Politics and Vision,” a massive survey of Western political thought that his former student Cornel West calls “magisterial,” Wolin lays bare the causes behind the decline of American empire and the rise of a new and terrifying configuration of corporate power he calls “inverted totalitarianism.”
The United States is not a Democracy (A government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly)! Only the 1%, through. their ownership of the Reublicrats, who profit from war and the war budget, voted for War and the war budget — A policy, which Gore Vidal called a Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace. — The 99% Should Decide On War — Not Just The 1% Who Profit From War! Under a Democracy, The 99% would have the right to vote on the policy of Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace! Every ‘Tax. Reform’ From President Kennedy has Been an incrase in taxes from the Poor,the Woking Class, and the Middle Class, to the Rich! —The United States takes from the poor and gives to the Rich. Tax the Rich! — They Can Afford To Pay!
Freedom to Vote Act—For Capitalist Parties Only The Freedom to Vote Act, the pared down voting rights legislation that Democratic Senators unveiled on September 14, must be supported to preempt GOP state laws for partisan gerry-mandering, voter suppression, election subversion, and intimidation of voters and election administrators. Yet this bill also deserves vigorous protest from the Left for its public campaign financing provisions, which are effectively for the two big capitalist parties only. The bill eliminates the Presidential Election Campaign Fund on December 31, 2021. That is the fund which Green Party presidential candidates have used to qualify for presidential primary matching funds. That funding has been crucial in paying for petitioners to qualify the Green Party for state ballots under the onerous signature requirements of most states. No major party candidates used primary matching funds in 2020 because it limited total primary spending to $50 million, which is not enough for the corporate party candidates these days. So they are eliminating it because only the Green Party still uses the program.Understanding the Basics of 21st-Century Democracy, Autocracy, and Capitalism Democracy exists if and when a community organizes its self-governance around the full participation, on an equal basis, of all the members of the community. Its other, autocracy, exists when a community organizes (or allows) its governance by an individual or subgroup of that community, a ruler. Universal suffrage is clearly a step toward at least formal democracy because voters elect leaders. How real this formal democracy is depends on the inclusivity of the population voting and the concrete reality of voters’ equal influence on the election’s outcome.
The Big Spy in Your Little Phone Without a ban on Pegasus and spyware like it, human rights defenders, journalists, and others will continue to be targeted, spied on, beaten, arrested, and killed. Is the phone in your pocket spying on you? As cell phones have become ubiquitous, government intelligence agencies have poured vast resources into hacking them, remotely stripping people of their privacy in the name of national security. Now, a burgeoning industry has emerged, generating huge profits for shadowy corporations that specialize in developing ever-more innovative ways to secretly infect digital devices with spyware.
As the War Drones On: US Drones Still Fly Over the Afghan Horizon Despite its withdrawal from Afghanistan, the U.S. military maintains an “over-the-horizon capability,” which allows it to continue launching airstrikes. Facing unrelenting criticism over the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Biden Administration is insisting that the United States will maintain a capability to launch airstrikes in Afghanistan, regardless of the legal limitations and possibility of perpetuating the war.Glenn Greenwald and Iowa’s Latest WTF Moments “AOC’s Revolutionary and Subversive Socialist Gown” Glenn Greenwald’s latest Substack essay shows how it is possible to be bright, seemingly progressive, stupid, and stealthily reactionary all at one and the same time – a common affliction of petit-bourgeois intellectuals who’ve never had a proper Marxist education. “While AOC’s revolutionary and subversive socialist gown generated buzz,” Greenwald writes, “the normalization of maskless elites attended to by faceless servants is grotesque.”
America’s Homelessness Crisis Is About to Get So Much Worse The looming eviction crisis could precipitate the worst housing and homelessness disaster in American history.Over the past weeks, multiple crises have merged: a crisis of democracy with the most significant attack on voting rights since Reconstruction; a climate crisis with lives and livelihoods upended in the Gulf Coast and the Northeast by extreme weather events and in the West by a stunning fire season; and an economic crisis in which millions are being cut off from Pandemic Unemployment Insurance, even as August job gains proved underwhelming. There’s also a crisis taking place in state legislatures with an ongoing attack on women’s autonomy over our own bodies. The Supreme Court let a law go into effect that makes abortions nearly impossible in Texas and turns its enforcement over to vigilantes. And then, of course, there’s the looming eviction crisis that could precipitate the worst housing and homelessness disaster in American history.
‘There is Nothing Colder Than a Landlord’s Heart!’: Exclusive: Jared Kushner’s Family Firm Set to Unleash Eviction Wave Amid Pandemic “Kushner is the poster child for ultra-rich landlords clamoring to boost their bottom line by kicking families to the curb, even if it comes at the expense of public health.” Properties owned by former White House adviser Jared Kushner’s family company have filed at least 590 eviction lawsuits since the start of the coronavirus pandemic and more than 200 in 2021 alone, putting “countless tenants” at risk of losing their homes in parts of the U.S. where Covid-19 transmission levels remain dangerously high.
The Media Monopoly’s Motto’s Are: War is Peace!, Freedom is Slavery!, and Ignorance is Strength!!!!: A Journalist Dissects a Biased Chart of Media Biases Only 29% of people in the US trust the news. Some 37% of Mexicans do, and 43% of Australians. That figure drops even further when it comes to social media. Some 18% of Australians trust news there, and 13% of people in the US do. People are being inundated with content, marketing, and headlines, and it is understandable that they struggle to differentiate between what is reliable and what isn’t.
Environment: (The Elephant in the Room: The Prediction Below is Based Under a False Assumption that the Rate of Global Warming Will Remian the Same for the Next 80 Years. The Problem With That Assumption is the Global Warming Treadmill. — As the Global Warming Increases, the Rate of Global Warming Increases. As the Rate Increases Global Warming Increases, Overall Global Warming Increases. This, in Turn, Increases the Rate of Global Warming Increases. Every Time the UN Makes a Prediction, Based on Formal Logic, the Next Year, They Say Global “Warming is Happening fast Than They Thought. The Faster the Rate, The Faster the Earth Warms! That is the Dialectic of Global Warming!
‘What Betrayal Looks Like’: UN Report Says World on Track for 2.7°C of Warming by 2100 “Whatever our so-called ‘leaders’ are doing,” said Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, “they are doing it wrong.” The United Nations warned Friday that the planet is barreling toward 2.7°C of warming by the end of the century, a nightmare scenario that can be averted only if policymakers take immediate and sweeping action to slash greenhouse gas emissions. Even if the 191 parties to the Paris climate accord meet their current commitments, global greenhouse gas emissions will still rise 16% by 2030 compared to 2010 levels, according to a new report published by the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCCLetting the World Burn: The Question of Governance The primary cause of the worsening situation is not the combustion of fossil fuels, but the massive political dereliction that has allowed the bonfire to go on after we knew that it posed a potentially lethal threat to humankind. The sixth report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change confirms yet again that we are rapidly destabilizing the climate and making the earth a more dangerous and biologically impoverished planet. No surprise; we’ve known this since the 1970s. The primary cause of the worsening situation, however, is not the combustion of fossil fuels, but the massive political dereliction that has allowed the bonfire to go on after we knew that it posed a potentially lethal threat to humankind. We have no precedent for malfeasance at this scale therefore we have no law, no accountability—and so far—no remedy
What’s Up With COP26?What’s Up With COP26? What’s at risk at COP26? Chatham House, The Royal Institute of International Affairs answers that all-important query in a summary report intended for heads of governments, entitled: Climate Change Risk Assessment 2021.
The report introduces the subject with three key statements:
The World is dangerously off-track to meet the Paris Agreement goals.
The risks are compounding.
Without immediate action, the impacts will be devastating in the coming decades.
The 1% Horse Murderers and Their Lackies!: The Big Lie That’s Destroying the Wild Horses of the American West The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is busy clearing federally designated wild horse territory of wild horses on public lands — and BLM officials are telling some big lies to get the job done. At roughly 27 million acres, wild horse herd management areas (HMAs) constitute just 4% of the 750 million acres making up “the West” in the lower 48 states. There are 22 million cattle and sheep across that vast western expanse. That’s 265 times the number of wild horses (presently estimated at 86,000) in the 177 HMAs that were established principally for their use by the 1971 Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. But the livestock industry considers that 27 million acres with 86,000 wild horses on it (one wild horse per 314 acres) to be overpopulated, or, as the BLM puts it, “above AML.” This is an acronym for “appropriate management level” but “agribusiness management level” is more accurate. Science-based? No. The AML is a quota whose purpose is to maintain commercial cattle and sheep stocking rates inside wild horse territory.Alabama “Forever Chemicals” Plant Creates the Climate Pollution of 125,000 Cars The plant manufactures PFAS-coated fast food packaging and pumps out loads of a banned ozone-depleting compound. As evidence mounts that hamburger wrappers and other kinds of grease-proof packaging contaminate food with PFAS, states have started banning the toxic chemicals from food packaging.Now, a new report provides yet another reason to remove PFAS, or perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, from food wrappers: climate and ozone pollution.
ECONOMY – August 2021 Nominal Retail Sales Monthly Gain of 0.7% Was in Context of a 0.6% (-0.6%) Downside Revision to July Activity; Real Retail Sales Held on Track for a Quarterly Contraction
First Time in Five Years, the 2020 Poverty Rate Jumped and Real Median Household Income Plunged, with Surveying Disrupted and Distorted by the Pandemic-Driven Collapse
August 2021 Industrial Production Minimally Recovered Pre-Pandemic February 2020 Activity by 0.3%, but It Already Was Collapsing into the Pandemic in February 2020; Still Down Today by 2.5% (-2.5%) from its August 2018 Peak
How Can the Economy Be Minimally Recovered With Headline Annual Payroll Growth Weaker Than at the Troughs of the Last Seven Recessions, the 2007 Great Recession Excepted?
After Two Months of Decline, the August 2021 Cass Freight Index® Showed Some Seasonally Adjusted Rebound, With Trucks Taking Up Some Slack from Railroads, but Still at a Four-Month Low; Never Having Recovered its 2018 Peak Activity
INFLATION – August 2021 Consumer Price Index Annual Inflation Notched Lower to 5.25% from 5.37%
MONETARY BASE – No Suggestion of Tapering Here, With Early Indications of a Continuing Monetary Base Surge in September 2021; August 2021 Numbers Showed Ongoing Explosive Growth at the Cycle High
MONEY SUPPLY – July 2021 “Basic M1” Soared to an Historic-High 91.7% Above Its Pre-Pandemic Peak, Up from the Prior-Record 87.6% in June [See the ALTERNATE DATA Tab] • July FOMC Policies Were Unchanged [See the SYSTEMIC RISK and MONETARY DATA]
COMBINED IMPACT: Reflecting the Surge in Money, Inflation Has Exploded, While Business Activity Has Begun to Pull Back Anew, at an Intensifying Pace
Senator Elizabeth Warren and Bloomberg News Need to Give It a Rest with Bashing Wells Fargo and Turn Their Attention to 5-Count Felon, JPMorgan Chase On Tuesday of this week, Bloomberg News published its umpteenth negative article on the San Francisco-headquartered bank, Wells Fargo. This time around, the article was highlighting Senator Elizabeth Warren calling for Wells Fargo to be broken up, with its federally insured bank separated from its Wall Street businesses. . . . Based on all of this negative media coverage, particularly at Bloomberg News, one would think that Wells Fargo is the most criminally-inclined bank in the United States. But here is where this story gets particularly curious. While Senator Warren and Bloomberg News have turned Wells Fargo into a piñata, Wells Fargo has not actually been charged with even one felony count by the U.S. Department of Justice. JPMorgan Chase, on the other hand, is the only U.S. federally-insured bank in history to be charged with five felony counts in the span of seven years, while keeping the same man, Jamie Dimon, as its Chairman and CEO. So, to summarize: Wells Fargo did not facilitate the largest Ponzi scheme in history; it did not lose $6.2 billion of depositors’ money at its federally-insured bank through wild gambles in derivatives in London; it has not been criminally charged with rigging three separate markets – foreign exchange, precious metals, and the U.S. Treasury market.And, Wells Fargo’s regulators have not determined that it is the riskiest bank in America. That distinction, along with the five felony counts, belongs to JPMorgan Chase. If we’re going to start talking about breaking up behemoth banks and crime syndicates, that conversation needs to start with JPMorgan Chase and it needs to start right now.World:Education, Health, Science, and Welfare:
The government of the United States can pass laws in a few days to spend tens of trillions of dollars for war and the bailout of Wall Street and the bankers. Yet, those who pass universal healthcare for themselves, but cannot spend even one trillion dollars for universal health for those who are ‘governed’! This is what is considered, by the powers to be, a democracy and part of the democratic way. — Roland Sheppard, Let the People Vote on Healthcare!
Another Example of Capitalism as a Failed System: World Capilalism Was Aware of the Danger of Cornovavirus Threat Over 5 Years Ago and Did Nothing!: Under Capitalism — Human Lives Don’t Matter Capitalism Does Not, and Never Has, Worked for the Masses! In Its Death Agony, Capitalism Is Traveling About The World Like The Four Horsemen of the The Apocalypse, Spreading Racism, War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death. The future of Humanity Is Now At stake!
The future of Humanity Is Now At stake! Since World War I, ‘the war to end all wars’, there have been perpetual wars for perpetual peace, this Laura Gray’s cartoon from the front page of The Militant August 18, 1945, Under the Banner Headline: “There Is No Peace”
Due to Years of Austerity, Cuts to Public Health Care, And An Anti-Science and Profiteering President, The United States Now Leads the World In Coronavirus Cases and Deaths in the World!
Videos of the Day:
Understanding the Basics of 21st-Century Democracy, Autocracy, and Capitalism Democracy exists if and when a community organizes its self-governance around the full participation, on an equal basis, of all the members of the community. Its other, autocracy, exists when a community organizes (or allows) its governance by an individual or subgroup of that community, a ruler. Universal suffrage is clearly a step toward at least formal democracy because voters elect leaders. How real this formal democracy is depends on the inclusivity of the population voting and the concrete reality of voters’ equal influence on the election’s outcome.
Glenn Greenwald and Iowa’s Latest WTF Moments “AOC’s Revolutionary and Subversive Socialist Gown” Glenn Greenwald’s latest Substack essay shows how it is possible to be bright, seemingly progressive, stupid, and stealthily reactionary all at one and the same time – a common affliction of petit-bourgeois intellectuals who’ve never had a proper Marxist education. “While AOC’s revolutionary and subversive socialist gown generated buzz,” Greenwald writes, “the normalization of maskless elites attended to by faceless servants is grotesque.”
(The Elephant in the Room: The Prediction Below is Based Under a False Assumption that the Rate of Global Warming Will Remian the Same for the Next 80 Years. The Problem With That Assumption is the Global Warming Treadmill. — As the Global Warming Increases, the Rate of Global Warming Increases. As the Rate Increases Global Warming Increases, Overall Global Warming Increases. This, in Turn, Increases the Rate of Global Warming Increases. Every Time the UN Makes a Prediction, Based on Formal Logic, the Next Year, They Say Global “Warming is Happening fast Than They Thought. The Faster the Rate, The Faster the Earth Warms! That is the Dialectic of Global Warming!
Letting the World Burn: The Question of Governance The primary cause of the worsening situation is not the combustion of fossil fuels, but the massive political dereliction that has allowed the bonfire to go on after we knew that it posed a potentially lethal threat to humankind. The sixth report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change confirms yet again that we are rapidly destabilizing the climate and making the earth a more dangerous and biologically impoverished planet. No surprise; we’ve known this since the 1970s. The primary cause of the worsening situation, however, is not the combustion of fossil fuels, but the massive political dereliction that has allowed the bonfire to go on after we knew that it posed a potentially lethal threat to humankind. We have no precedent for malfeasance at this scale therefore we have no law, no accountability—and so far—no remedy
Alabama “Forever Chemicals” Plant Creates the Climate Pollution of 125,000 Cars The plant manufactures PFAS-coated fast food packaging and pumps out loads of a banned ozone-depleting compound. As evidence mounts that hamburger wrappers and other kinds of grease-proof packaging contaminate food with PFAS, states have started banning the toxic chemicals from food packaging.Now, a new report provides yet another reason to remove PFAS, or perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, from food wrappers: climate and ozone pollution.
Labor:
Shadow Government Statistics Daily Update (September 17th to 20th)
World:Education, Health, Science, and Welfare: