Skip to content
Images of the Day:
During This Economic Crisis, Capitalism’s Three-Point Political Program: 1.Austerity,2. Scapegoat Blacks, Minorities, and ‘Illegal’ Immigrants for Unemployment, and 3. The Iron Heel (Fascism)! For Decades, Blacks Have Been Subjected to The Iron Heel! Currently, the US Capitalist Class is Divided Over When — Not If, to Apply It to Everyone!
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!
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:
Earlier this year the Icelandic news outlet Stundin reported that a key witness in the prosecution against Assange admitted to lying in his indictment. This witness was Sigurdur Ingi Thordarson, a convicted pedophile and fraudster. The FBI promised Thordarson immunity from prosecution under the condition that he lie about his relationship with WikiLeaks in an indictment which would strengthen the DOJ’s conspiracy charge against Assange. Along with the debunked claim that Assange pressured whistleblower Chelsea Manning into hacking a U.S. government computer, Thordarson’s indictment was supposed to paint Assange as having a pattern of pressuring sources to commit cyber crimes. The Stundin article should put to rest any belief that the United States is being honest about its stated reasons for going after Assange. — Fate of Anti-War Journalism Lies in Upcoming Assange Hearings
As The United States nters the twenty-first century, power over the American mass media is flowing to the top with such devouring speed that it exceeds even the accelerated consolidations of the last twenty years. For the first time in U.S. history, the country’s most widespread news, commentary, and daily entertainment are controlled by six firms that are among the world’s largest corporations, two of them foreign. Even with the dramatic entry of the Internet and the cyber world with their uncounted hundreds of new firms, the controlling handful of American and foreign corporations now exceed in their size and communications power anything the world has seen before. Their intricate global interlocks create the force of an international cartel. There are pernicious consequences. While excessive bigness itself is cause for economic anxieties, the worst problems are political and social. The country’s largest media giants have achieved alarming success in writing the media laws and regulations in favor of their own corporations and against the interests of the general public. Their concentrated power permits them to become a larger factor than ever before in socializing each generation with entertainment models of behavior and personal values. The impact on the national political agenda has been devastating, For years, the mainstream news has over dramatized its reporting of congressional and White House debate on the national debt and deficit beyond their intrinsic importance. Politicians raised the issue, but it was seized upon and overblown by the major media–media that politicians use as a bellwether on what issues will get them the most public attention and partisan advantage. During these crucial years, the American economy was undergoing an astonishing phenomenon that the mainstream news left largely unreported or actually glamorized in its infrequent references: the largest transfer of the national wealth in American history from a majority of the population to a small percentage of the country’s wealthiest families. — Ben Bagdikian, The Media Monopoly
Now let’s move on to layer two (which is already a layer beyond what your mainstream corporate media will ever report on). Layer two is the slightly deeper understanding that American oligarchs win each election no matter what. They win it in multiple ways — one is by making sure progressives, socialists, libertarians, anarchists, communists, etc. are purged from the process. The other way they dominate every election is with cold, hard cash. And the third — perhaps the most important way — is that our system simply does not pass anything through the government that isn’t beneficial to the business community, AKA Corporate America. A large 2014 Princeton study looked at 1,779 policy initiatives and found that the American public has zero impact on what gets passed through Congress. What we, the American people, want has no influence on American policy. The politicians tell you it does. They act like they care. But nothing you and I want ever gets done. — Lee Camp: The Four Layers of Reality — and Why We’re Only Allowed to Talk About One
Videos of the Day:
United States:
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!
“The 400 wealthiest U.S. billionaires paid an average income tax rate of just 8 percent between 2010 and 2018, much lower than most teachers and firefighters.” — We Need to Tax the Billionaires Right Now
Lenny Bruce: in the Halls. . . . 
1% ‘Justice’/99% Injustice: A Tale of Two Damages: Double Standard for Jessica Reznicek and Energy Transfer Partners Why would a billion-dollar corporation which intentionally and illegally destroyed private property for profit not even get a slap on the wrist while a person who commits civil disobedience to protect the earth and its people is labeled a terrorist and imprisoned for eight years Jessica Reznicek was sentenced to eight years in federal prison, ordered to pay millions in fines and labeled a terrorist by the government for her actions of civil disobedience that damaged the equipment of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) is owned by Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) a $54 billion dollar corporation that also co-owns the Bayou Bridge Pipeline. When ETP intentionally and illegally damaged the private property of hundreds of people in Louisiana, the company received no criminal consequences at all.
Study: US Is An Oligarchy, Not A Democracy The US is Dominated By Rich and Powerful Elite. So conclud In a recent study by Princeton University Prof Martin Gilens and Northwestern University Prof Benjamin I Page. This is not news, you say. Perhaps, but the two professors have conducted exhaustive research to try to present data-driven support for this conclusion. Here’s how they explain it: Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on US government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.
Another Killing Field of the United States: Suicide Finds Falsified Documents, Neglect, And Improper Confinement An internal review of Efraín Romero de la Rosa’s death in ICE custody found almost two dozen policy violations during his stint in detention. Medical and security staff at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center violated numerous agency rules when dealing with a detainee with mental illness, according to an internal agency investigation. Efraín Romero de la Rosa, who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, took his own life after 21 days in solitary confinement in Georgia’s Stewart Detention Center in July 2018.
Environment: 
Ecosocialism Not Extinction! Ecosocialist Alliance statement on the opening of UN climate talks in Glasgow COP 26 unfolds against a backdrop of growing climate chaos and ecological degradation, after an unprecedented summer of heatwaves, wildfires, and flooding events. Climate change is upon us, and we face multiple interlinked and inseparable crises- of climate, environment, extinction, economy and zoonotic diseases. As ecosocialists we say another world is possible, but a massive social and political transformation is needed, requiring the mobilization of the mass of working people across the globe. Only the end of capitalism’s relentless pursuit of private profit, endless waste, and rapacious drive for growth, can provide the solution not only to climate change, environmental degradation, and mass extinction, but to global poverty, hunger, and hyper exploitation.
The Path to a Livable Future Or will rich corporations trash the planet? This month will mark a critical juncture in the struggle to avoid climate catastrophe. At the COP26 global climate summit kicking off next week in Glasgow, Scotland, negotiators will be faced with the urgent need to get the world economy off the business-as-usual track that will take the Earth up to and beyond 3 degrees Celsius of excess heating before this century’s end, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Yet so far, the pledges of rich nations to cut greenhouse-gas emissions have been far too weak to rein in the temperature rise. Meanwhile, the Biden administration’s climate plans hang in the balance. If Congress fails to pass the reconciliation bill, the next opportunity for the United States to take effective climate action may not arise until it’s too late
Civil Rights/ Black Liberation:
ProPublica: 11 Black Children Were Arrested in Rutherford County, Tennessee, for a Crime That Doesn’t Exist ProPublica and Nashville Public Radio investigated a case that happened in 2016, when the police arrested 11young children for a crime that doesn’t exist. What they found was not simply an outrageous miscarriage of justice, but a county whose juvenile justice system is run by tyrannical officials who like to punish children to “straighten them out.” The initial arrests occurred after a scuffle among three boys. The boys who threw punches were not arrested, but the children watching the fight were. One was only eight years old. Some were handcuffed.
Labor:
(From my own experience, 25 years ago, I was told that initial Social Security Claims get automatically denied. One has to appeal once or several ‘false denials’ to finally get approved.!) The increased difficulty in obtaining disability benefits does save the program money, but potentially at a human cost, as many people who are genuinely disabled and unable to work may not be receiving the benefits to which they are entitled. In short, the financial health of the Disability Insurance Fund has improved, but individuals may be suffering due to an inability to receive the benefits they need to support themselves. The point of the program is, of course, to provide income to people who are unable to work because of disabilities. If people who are in fact disabled are too discouraged to apply or are being denied benefits, then the program is not performing the function for which it was designed. — The Social Security Disability Trust Fund Has Gotten Healthier: Have Workers?
The Struggle for Education is a Political Struggle that Could Lead to a Working Class Political Party!
It is Time for Teachers and Parnets (The Working Class) to stand up for education in opposition the Attacks on education!: Don’t Mistake School Board Protests for a Grassroots Campaign Conservatives are disrupting school board meetings by shouting, using Nazi salutes, and even physically assaulting anyone they disagree with. But these attacks are anything but spontaneous. School board meetings have been in the news lately, with parents and community members taking aim at board members and the policies they’re trying to implement. Frightening incidents have taken place at school board meetings in Florida, Texas, Michigan, and Wisconsin, among others, with angry citizens shouting and using Nazi salutes in the face of mask mandates, and some even sending death threats to board members over decisions with which they disagree.
The Fight for a Mass Workers’ Party in the US The Fight for a Mass Workers’ Party in the US (The Key is to Understand the Treachery of the Union Bureaucracy’s and Its’ Allegiance to the Capitalist Class) Millions of workers and youth in the US are fed up with the two parties of the capitalist class: the Republicans and the Democrats. The lack of a mass working-class party leaves voters with little real choice: either vote for one of the ruling class’s parties; cast a protest vote for a tiny third party; or abstain altogether. But why is there no mass workers’ party in the US? Why have past attempts to build one failed? What lessons can we learn from history to change this in the future?
Economy: 
Shadow Government Statistics Daily Update (October 24th to 26th) Downgraded GDP Outlook Intensifies — Sampling of economic Headlines:
-
Real Third-Quarter 2021 Economic Activity Is Turning Down Anew as the Inflation Surge Continues
-
Consensus Expectations for the October 28th Intitial Estimate of 3.0% Third-Quarter Real GDP Growth Should Soften or Likely Will Face a Downside Surprise
-
The Most-Accurate Atlanta Fed GDPNow™ Model Reduced Its Concurrent Estimate to 0.5% (Oct 19), Down from 1.2% (Oct 15), and from a 6.3% Peak in August; Final Estimate (Oct 28) Should See a Further Downside Notch
-
Third-Quarter Housing Starts and Building Permits Showed Their Second Consecutive Quarter-to-Quarter Contractions September 2021 Industrial Production Retrenched from
-
Recovering Its Pre-Pandemic Peak, Now Shy by 1.3% (-1.3%) of the Recovery Level •
-
Following Second-Quarter 2021 Gains, Seasonally Adjusted Third-Quarter Retail Sales (Nominal and Real) and the Cass Freight Index® All Showed Meaningful Quarter-to-Quarter Contractions • University of Michigan’s Preliminary-October 2021 Index of Consumer Sentiment Continued Near Its Pandemic Trough
-
How Can the U.S. Economy Be Minimally Recovered, With September 2021 Payroll Employment Still 3.3% (-3.3%) Shy of Recovering Its Pre-Pandemic/ Pre-Recession Peak, Otherwise Weaker Than at the Troughs of the Last Seven Recessions Back to 1957, the 2007 Great Recession Excepted?
-
September 2021 Finished Goods Producer Price Inflation Hit a 41-Year High of 11.8%, with the Final-Demand Producer Price Index (FD-PPI Series Created in 2009) at a Record 8.6% • 2022 Social Security Cost of Living Adjustment Was Set at a 39-Year High of 5.9%, while the Shadows Alternate-CPI Measure Suggested a 13.9% COLA Would Have Been More Realistic
-
Second-Quarter 2021 GDP Inflation Held at a 40-Year High, Amidst Mixed Revisions to “Final” Estimates of Second-Quarter 2021 GDP, GDI and GNP
Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow Says U.S. Third Quarter Growth Was Almost Nil at 0.5 Percent; Wall Street Economists Are Forecasting Over 3 Percent This coming Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m., the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) will release its advance estimate for U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the third quarter. Some folks are going to have a lot of egg on their face at 8:31 a.m. That’s because the Wall Street crowd of economists has remained wildly optimistic on how the U.S. economy behaved in the third quarter, despite an upsurge in the Delta variant of COVID-19 hobbling consumer confidence and spending. Most economists on Wall Street are forecasting real GDP growth in the third quarter of more than 3 percent.
World:
Heart of Darkness: Che Guevara’s Congo If Che Guevara were alive today he would be 93. Too old to be the kind of guerrilla he had been in Cuba, the Congo and Bolivia, where he was killed on 9 October 1967 by Mario Teran, a 27-year-old military officer who shot him 9 times, presumably not just to kill him but to inflict pain and suffering. Teran and the Bolivian military had the help of the CIA, which had been tracking and tracing Guevara’s movements for years, as he knew. There was no way Che could hide from the CIA. The agency kept track of flights and passengers and the kinds of purchases guerrillas would make to camp in a jungle and launch attacks on soldiers who were well trained and in the service of a repressive regime. Che didn’t blame the CIA. Instead, he blamed “imperialism” and explained that it had “power over all the airline companies and airports” and monitored “the purchase of unusual quantities of backpacks, nylon sheeting, knives, blankets, etc.” He wasn’t up against a “paper tiger.”
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!
Corporate Medicine Profiteers: Welcome to the Emergency Room. A Wall Street Honcho Will Decide Your Treatment! Doctors and medical experts say private equity firms and profiteering corporations are putting American lives at risk and compromising the practice of medicine. The emergency room. You go there for help when you’re really in trouble or have no place else to turn. But who decides what happens to you there? If you think the answer is “doctors,” think again. Large corporations are increasingly taking over these centers of life and death, and they are focused far less on your health than squeezing as much profit from your situation as possible/
Hospitals’ New Emergency Department Triage Systems Boost Profits But Compromise Care (The provider-in-triage model was created by health care consultants who applied the Toyota model of lean production to health care.) If you’ve needed emergency care in the last few years, you probably encountered this situation: Soon after entering the emergency department, you were asked to go to a triage area in the waiting room where a doctor, nurse practitioner, or physician assistant asked you a few questions and ordered some diagnostic tests while you waited. That’s a departure from the traditional form of triage, in which a nurse assesses the level of acuity of a patient’s illness or injury. This basic and time-honored system ensures that someone with a gunshot wound gets seen before someone with a sprained ankle. The new “provider-in-triage” system ostensibly accelerates care. On the surface, ordering tests in the waiting room to get the ball rolling might seem like a good way to save time. A closer look reveals a system that sacrifices spital profits.
Another Example of Capitalism as a Failed System: World CaAnpilalism 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!
