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:
U.S. household debt climbed to a record high of fourteen point six trillion dollars at the end of 2020 as mortgage debt surpassed 10 trillion for the first time. Now, the GDP of the United States is only around 21 trillion. Americans owe over 1.71 trillion dollars in student loan debt spread out among 44.7 million borrowers. That’s about 739 billion more than the total U.S. credit card debt. While defaults and payments have been halted due to the pandemic, I’m talking now again about student debt, there’s no plan yet for forgiving such debt in spite of promises from Biden and many others in the Democratic Party. Biden said during a CNN town hall that he would not forgive 50 thousand dollars through executive action, as urged by Senator Schumer and Warren, Biden said, I’m prepared to write off the ten thousand dollars debt, but not the fifty thousand because I don’t think I have the authority to do it. Well, a group of 17 state attorneys general called on Biden to forgive fifty thousand dollars in student debt loans per borrower through executive action, asserting he does have the authority to do so under the Higher Education Act. — Surprise: Corporate Junk Before Students?
U.S. household debt climbed to a record high of fourteen point six trillion dollars at the end of 2020 as mortgage debt surpassed 10 trillion for the first time. Now, the GDP of the United States is only around 21 trillion. Americans owe over 1.71 trillion dollars in student loan debt spread out among 44.7 million borrowers. That’s about 739 billion more than the total U.S. credit card debt. While defaults and payments have been halted due to the pandemic, I’m talking now again about student debt, there’s no plan yet for forgiving such debt in spite of promises from Biden and many others in the Democratic Party. Biden said during a CNN town hall that he would not forgive 50 thousand dollars through executive action, as urged by Senator Schumer and Warren, Biden said, I’m prepared to write off the ten thousand dollars debt, but not the fifty thousand because I don’t think I have the authority to do it. Well, a group of 17 state attorneys general called on Biden to forgive fifty thousand dollars in student debt loans per borrower through executive action, asserting he does have the authority to do so under the Higher Education Act. — Surprise: Corporate Junk Before Students?
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!
Taxation is a Class Issue! The 1%, Who Don’t Pay Taxes, Rule!
US Denounced as ‘Biggest Peddler of Financial Secrecy’ After Pandora Papers Leak “U.S. President Biden must match his own rhetoric on shutting down global illicit finance, and start with the biggest offender—his own country.” The leak of an enormous trove of tax haven files over the weekend offered a further glimpse into the secretive world of offshore finance—a system facilitated by the U.S. and other rich nations—and prompted calls for immediate changes to global rules that let the powerful hide their wealth, skirt their obligations, and starve governments of crucial revenue. When Will the US Acknowledge its Secret Torture Site in Poland? The European Court for Human Rights ruled in 2015 that it was “beyond a reasonable doubt” that Zubaydah had been held in Poland… Warsaw asked Washington for assistance. Their request went unanswered Abu Zubaydah has been a prisoner at Guantánamo Bay for 15 years. He’s asking the Supreme Court to allow his lawyers to depose the two men who oversaw his torture.
Lee Camp Exposes Bill Gates and the Hidden Side of His Capitalist Projects Lee Camp exposes Bill Gates and the hidden side of his capitalist projects. The corporate media spend hours honoring his benevolent philanthropy but rich men never give anything away without a string attached and Gates’ empire has strings connected to dark activities around the world. After listening to Lee you’ll understand why it’s safe to assume that none of Gates’ charity is intended to help people. His pharmaceutical interests push unsafe drugs on the global south that drive profits back into Gates’ pockets. His agricultural interests build monopolies that harm local farmers. And the list goes on
Ralph Nader: While Americans Sleep, Our Corporate Overlords Make Progress Impossible Both the Republicans and the Democrats vote as if the nation’s middle-class taxpayer is a sleeping sucker. The quiet harmony between the two parties created by the omnipresent power of Big Business and other powerful single-issue lobbyists is often the status quo. That’s why there are so few changes in this country’s politics.
Both Parties allow unconstitutional wars violating federal laws and international treaties that we signed onto long ago, including restrictions on the use of force under the United Nations Charter. (Photo: US House Chamber/Flickr/cc)
Public Lands Open to Livestock Grazing Should Not Count Toward 30×30 Goals According to an article published on September 28, the Biden administration is considering including millions of acres of federal public lands permitted for cattle and sheep grazing toward meeting the goals of the 30×30 Initiative and “American the Beautiful” Program. Approximately 250 million acres of public lands—nearly 400,000 square miles—administered by the U.S Forest Service (USFS) and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for livestock grazing would count as “protected” land under the recent announcement. While much of the public (and apparently some in the Biden administration) might not know the difference between a national park, national forest, or BLM-administered public lands, the differences are stark. Most importantly, Forest Service and BLM lands are not necessarily managed to protect native wildlife and clean water or sequester atmospheric carbon, despite agency claims that they manage their lands for “long-term sustainability.” While the Forest Service’s Deputy Chief Chris French says “the majority of National Forest System lands meet the conservation goal” laid out in 30×30, history and reality demonstrate this statement is not based in reality.
Environment: As global meat and dairy companies have come under increasing scrutiny for their contributions to the climate crisis, net zero accounting has been a corporate lifesaver. Meat and dairy giants such as JBS, Tyson, Danish Crown, Nestle, Danone, Arla and Fonterra have all announced net-zero targets. Yet, in our examining of company documents, reports and projections, none of the major meat and dairy companies planned on reducing the number of animals in their supply chain, the source of 90% of their emissions. On the contrary, most have plans to significantly expand production and market share. For example, Tyson expects annual growth of 3-4 percent from beef and poultry sales, while Marfrig targeted 7.5–9.5 percent annual growth for 2015–2018. This target was set prior to the company’s acquisition of U.S.—based National Beef, making it the second largest beef processor in the world. Danish dairy giant Arla planned to add 2 billion kg of milk to its European supply chain between 2015–2020—a 14 percent increase. Fonterra projected a stunning 40 percent increase in its processed milk volume for 2015–2025. — Beware Big Ag’s Sleight of Hand on ‘Net Zero’
A Cry for Help! 126,000 Gallons of Crude is Not a ‘Spill’! — Its an Ecolgical Disaster! Massive Oil Spill Sends Crude Onto Orange County Beaches, Killing Birds, Marine Life Crews raced Sunday to contain the damage from a major oil spill off the Orange County coast that left crude spoiling beaches, killing fish and birds and threatening local wetlands. The oil slick, first reported Saturday, originated from a broken pipeline less than three miles off the coast of Huntington Beach connected to an offshore oil platform known as Elly. The rupture has poured more than 126,000 gallons of crude into coastal waters and seeped into the Talbert Marsh, a 25-acre wetland in Huntington Beach, officials said.Scientists For Extinction Rebellion This website provides scientific information about the climate and ecological emergency to members of the public and to other scientists. We also aim to connect scientists (from any discipline) with Extinction Rebellion. Follow the links below for more information about us, and about the planetary emergency and what we all can do to help.Air Pollution Do you know anyone who has an allergy or asthma? Or anyone who had a stroke, suffering dementia, or died from heart disease? Air pollution is likely to have been a contributor. 92% of the world population lives in locations that fail to meet the World Health Organisation (WHO) levels of air quality guidelines. The air can contain many different pollutants: some are gases that irritate your lung lining, like ozone, ammonia, nitrogen and sulphur oxides (called NOx and SOx); and some are particulate matter (PM) like smoke particles and sand from sandstorms. Sometimes gases can react with sunlight and other gases to from PM, and these are called ‘secondary PM’. Some PM is more toxic because of its shape (like the sharp fibres of asbestos that can lead to asbestosis), size (generally the smaller it is, the more toxic it is), surface charge, or its composition (PM from coal, for example, is more toxic than PM from soil dust). The composition of PM2.5 varies enormously, such as it being made of soot, sea salt, microplastics, metals, ammonium compounds, and others. The toxicity varies with all of these characteristics, so the measurement of PM2.5 mass per volume is not, in itself, enough to determine how bad the air is. The highest toxicity measured so far is from diesel engine exhaust particles, followed by gasoline engine exhaust particles, biomass burning particles, coal combustion particles, and road dust. Traffic and combustion of fossil fuels could play the most critical role in enhancing the toxic effects of fine particles. The research of the effect of composition on toxicity is still in its very early stages.
B.C. Fossil Subsidies Threaten Critical Caribou Habitat, New Mapping Shows British Columbia is subsidizing oil and gas well drilling on the same land it has promised to protect for caribou, new research has found. “The B.C. government has made a lot of commitments to caribou habitat restoration and it’s not really working,” said Adriana DiSilvestro, a University of British Columbia graduate student and lead author on the project, which is published on the website of ARCGis Online, a cloud-based mapping software.
Siberia’s Hot Streak Global warming in Siberia is on a hot streak! It was +6°C last year. In like manner, if the entire planet hit +6°C above pre-industrial, it would be lights out, life snuffed out, sayonara. Meanwhile, the Siberian hot streak theoretically threatens the entire planet with methane-induced runaway global warming, the dreaded monster of the North that takes no prisoners. As it’s happening now, in real time today, Siberia is demonstrating the impact of deadly serious climate reactions to too much heat, too soon. This fiasco cannot be dismissed or ignored. It should be at the top of the agenda for COP26 in Glasgow this coming November.
Ireland: Stop Scandalous State Repression 0f Young Climate Activists! As the world toboggans towards an environmental catastrophe created by the capitalist system, how is Ireland – one of Europe’s most polluting nations – responding to the crisis? By using state repression against young environmental activists. We say: protest is not a crime! Drop the charges against climate activists! On 19 March, Orla Murphy (then aged 19) walked up to the Department of Foreign Affairs building in Dublin and splashed pink paint against the building before spray painting the words, “No More Empty Promises” on the front of the building. Meanwhile, her friend, fellow activist and supporter of the Irish Marxists (the IMT in Ireland), Zac Lumley, live-streamed her protest.
Civil Rights/ Black Liberation:
Latuff: Echos of Slave CatchersWealth Inequality Demonstrates That ‘Equality For All’, Has Always Been a Myth!
The sentence, delivered by U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska in New York City, represents “an international outrage,” tweeted journalist Emma Vigeland following its announcement. . . . In 2019, U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of the Southern District of New York—a former corporate lawyer with investments in Chevron—held Donziger in contempt of court after he refused to disclose privileged information about his clients to the fossil fuel industry. Kaplan placed Donziger under house arrest, where he has remained under strict court monitoring for 787 days. In addition to Kaplan’s own connections to Chevron, the judge appointed private attorneys to prosecute the case, including one who had worked for a firm that represented the oil giant. Preska, who found Donziger guilty of the contempt charges in July, is a leader of the right-wing Federalist Society, which counts Chevron among its financial backers. — Six-Month Sentence for Lawyer Who Took on Chevron Denounced as ‘International Outrage’
Marjorie Cohn, Biden’s Expulsion of Haitian Migrants Is Racist, Illegal — and Trump:Notwithstanding President Joe Biden’s promise to pursue a more humane immigration policy than his predecessor, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been illegally expelling Haitian migrants, with the Border Patrol cracking whips and herding them like cattle. When U.S. authorities put them on a plane to Haiti, “they chained us like animals — our hands, feet and waist — and once we arrived, they unchained us so journalists wouldn’t see us,” one Haitian man told John Oliver on “Last Week Tonight.” Labor:
Paralleling Weakening Quarterly Contractions in Housing Starts and New-Home Sales, August 2021 Real Construction Spending Continued in Early Trend for a Third-Quarter 2021 Quarterly Decline, Following a Second-Quarter 2021 Drop and Booming Growth in Both First-Quarter 2021 and Fourth-Quarter 2020
Second-Quarter 2021 GDP Inflation Held at a 40-Year High, Amidst Mixed Revisions to “Final” Estimates of the GDP, GDI and GNP
Net of Surging Inflation and Extremely Volatile Commercial Aircraft Orders, August 2021 Real New Orders for Durable Goods Dropped 1.6% (-1.6%) Month-to-Month
August New-Home Sales Continued in Quarterly Downtrend • August 2021 New Residential Construction Was Stronger Than Expected, Yet Housing Starts Still Indicated a Quarterly Downturn, and Building Permits Were Suggestive of Potential Reporting Issues
Continuing Downtrend in Real Retail Sales Was Consistent With the Contracting Retail Trade Employment and Flat Leisure and Hospitality Jobs in August
S. Real Median Household Income Fell by 2.9% (-2.9%) in 2020, With the Official Poverty Rate Jumping by 1.0% to 11.4% • August 2021 Manufacturing and Mining Held Down Respectively by 2.2% (-2.2%) and 8.0% (-8.0%) from Recovering August 2018 Peak Activity in Industrial Production; Where Manufacturing has Regained Levels Seen at the February 2020 Pre-Pandemic Peak, Mining Has Not.
August 2020 Cass Freight Index® Gained an Adjusted 5.0% in the Month, Still Shy by 2.6% (-2.6%) of Its Recent May 2021 Peak • August CPI Inflation Notched Lower to 5.3%, from Its 5.4% 13-Year Peak in June and July, with the August ShadowStats Alternate Backing off a Notch from Its 41-Year Peak of 13.4% in July (Headline and Alternate CPI Details Are Posted on the ALTERNATE DATA Tab)
August PPI-FD Monthly Annual Inflation Set Its Fifth Consecutive Series High • Amidst Faltering August 2021 Labor Conditions, 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? • Full Recovery in Payrolls Remains Unlikely Before Late-2022/ Early-2023
Initial Estimate of the July 2021 Real Merchandise Trade Deficit Suggested an Early Trend for the Current Record Trade Deficit to Hold for a Third Consecutive Quarter
New Documents Show the Fed’s Trading Scandal Includes Two of the Wall Street Banks It Supervises: Goldman Sachs and Citigroup In the late eighteenth century, men gathered under a Buttonwood tree at 68 Wall in lower Manhattan and traded stocks among themselves. That’s not how it works today. Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan had to give his “over $1 million” trades in a litany of individual stocks and his “over $1 million” transactions in S&P 500 futures to a licensed broker at a registered broker-dealer. The same thing applied to Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren in placing his $1000 to $50,000 trades 68 times in 2020 in individual stocks and publicly traded Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). The safeguards that failed at the Dallas Fed and the Boston Fed to stop their Presidents from trading like hedge fund wannabes should not have failed at the SEC-regulated Wall Street broker-dealers that placed these trades. The accounts at the trading firms for these two men should have been coded to indicate that the men came into regular contact with sensitive, market moving information. The nature and level of their trading should have triggered the immediate involvement of the firms’ compliance departments and a halt to the trading. (See our earlier report on how a dozen legal safeguards failed, that should not have failed, to stop these men from humiliating the central bank of the United States around the world.) World:
Afghan Resistance Leaders, Long Backed by Cia, Have Fled Following Taliban Takeover The retreat of Ahmad Massoud and Amrullah Saleh belies public claims that they are still in Afghanistan. THE SON OF Afghanistan’s most celebrated anti-Taliban resistance leader has escaped into neighboring Tajikistan, less than a month after vowing to defend his homeland “no matter what happens.” Ahmad Massoud, son of the late Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud, fled to Tajikistan shortly after the Taliban seized control of the Panjshir Valley on September 6, according to a senior U.S. intelligence official, a Pentagon consultant, and two former senior Afghan government officials. Massoud was joined a few days later by Amrullah Saleh, the former Afghan vice president and longtime intelligence chief, who left Afghanistan by helicopter, the senior U.S. official and two former Afghan officials said.
Health, Education, 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!
Does Capitalism Make Us Crazy? The Short Answer is YES! Life under capitalist rule is perilous. We can’t survive on our own, and we can’t rely on society to support us. We live with perpetual uncertainty: Can I pay my bills? Will I lose my home, my job? What happens if I’m sick or injured? Add the constant threat of racism, war, and climate change disasters. Do you feel safe in this world? I don’t. Every morning, I wake up with a sense of dread, thinking, “OMG. I’m still here, and this is still happening.” I am not alone in this. A ten-country survey of 10,000 young people, aged 16 to 25, inquired what they thought and felt about climate change. Sixty percent felt very or extremely worried. More than half felt sad, anxious, angry, powerless, helpless, and guilty. Seventy-seven percent saw the future as frightening, and 56 percent believe that humanity is doomed. This breaks my heart. And it shows how desperately we need a social revolution. Psychologists see it differently: The Good Grief Network offers
NPE Action Grassroots Network Now Counts 175 Groups Nationally There are now more than 175 local organizations working for their public schools against privatization. If your group hasn’t joined yet, consider doing so. Here is a small part of the monthly report: Giving Voice to Friends of Public Education: NPE Action’s New Project The Network for Public Education is proud to announce a new project from NPE Action called Public Voices for Public Schools. Public Voices for Public Schools will give voice to former voucher and charter parents, educators, and community members who work tirelessly in their communities every day to improve our public schools, even as they fight well-funded efforts to privatize their schools. Public Voices for Public Schools will publish a story each Monday. Go here to subscribe to the website and get each story as it is launched. Please like them on Facebook and give them a follow on Twitter.
Justice Alito Doth Protest Too Much
Engles Quote
America Is BackAnother 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!
Kneeling On The Shoulders of Giants: Dave Zirin on ‘The Kaepernick effect’ When Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem in 2016, he wasn’t alone. He was carrying on a proud tradition of athletic protest, and his courage has inspired a new generation of athletes who are expanding that tradition today.
When Will the US Acknowledge its Secret Torture Site in Poland? The European Court for Human Rights ruled in 2015 that it was “beyond a reasonable doubt” that Zubaydah had been held in Poland… Warsaw asked Washington for assistance. Their request went unanswered Abu Zubaydah has been a prisoner at Guantánamo Bay for 15 years. He’s asking the Supreme Court to allow his lawyers to depose the two men who oversaw his torture.
As global meat and dairy companies have come under increasing scrutiny for their contributions to the climate crisis, net zero accounting has been a corporate lifesaver. Meat and dairy giants such as JBS, Tyson, Danish Crown, Nestle, Danone, Arla and Fonterra have all announced net-zero targets. Yet, in our examining of company documents, reports and projections, none of the major meat and dairy companies planned on reducing the number of animals in their supply chain, the source of 90% of their emissions. On the contrary, most have plans to significantly expand production and market share. For example, Tyson expects annual growth of 3-4 percent from beef and poultry sales, while Marfrig targeted 7.5–9.5 percent annual growth for 2015–2018. This target was set prior to the company’s acquisition of U.S.—based National Beef, making it the second largest beef processor in the world. Danish dairy giant Arla planned to add 2 billion kg of milk to its European supply chain between 2015–2020—a 14 percent increase. Fonterra projected a stunning 40 percent increase in its processed milk volume for 2015–2025. — Beware Big Ag’s Sleight of Hand on ‘Net Zero’
126,000 Gallons of Crude is Not a ‘Spill’! — Its an Ecolgical Disaster! Massive Oil Spill Sends Crude Onto Orange County Beaches, Killing Birds, Marine Life Crews raced Sunday to contain the damage from a major oil spill off the Orange County coast that left crude spoiling beaches, killing fish and birds and threatening local wetlands. The oil slick, first reported Saturday, originated from a broken pipeline less than three miles off the coast of Huntington Beach connected to an offshore oil platform known as Elly. The rupture has poured more than 126,000 gallons of crude into coastal waters and seeped into the Talbert Marsh, a 25-acre wetland in Huntington Beach, officials said.
Scientists For Extinction Rebellion This website provides scientific information about the climate and ecological emergency to members of the public and to other scientists. We also aim to connect scientists (from any discipline) with Extinction Rebellion. Follow the links below for more information about us, and about the planetary emergency and what we all can do to help.
Air Pollution Do you know anyone who has an allergy or asthma? Or anyone who had a stroke, suffering dementia, or died from heart disease? Air pollution is likely to have been a contributor. 92% of the world population lives in locations that fail to meet the World Health Organisation (WHO) levels of air quality guidelines. The air can contain many different pollutants: some are gases that irritate your lung lining, like ozone, ammonia, nitrogen and sulphur oxides (called NOx and SOx); and some are particulate matter (PM) like smoke particles and sand from sandstorms. Sometimes gases can react with sunlight and other gases to from PM, and these are called ‘secondary PM’. Some PM is more toxic because of its shape (like the sharp fibres of asbestos that can lead to asbestosis), size (generally the smaller it is, the more toxic it is), surface charge, or its composition (PM from coal, for example, is more toxic than PM from soil dust). The composition of PM2.5 varies enormously, such as it being made of soot, sea salt, microplastics, metals, ammonium compounds, and others. The toxicity varies with all of these characteristics, so the measurement of PM2.5 mass per volume is not, in itself, enough to determine how bad the air is. The highest toxicity measured so far is from diesel engine exhaust particles, followed by gasoline engine exhaust particles, biomass burning particles, coal combustion particles, and road dust. Traffic and combustion of fossil fuels could play the most critical role in enhancing the toxic effects of fine particles. The research of the effect of composition on toxicity is still in its very early stages.
Wealth Inequality Demonstrates That ‘Equality For All’, Has Always Been a Myth!
Labor:
Shadow Government Stistics Daily Update (October 4th to 5th) Economic Headlines:
World:
