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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 Always Remember: That Obama
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 , thet the 99% Will Rule, Not the Few!
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Quote of the Day:
Blue-collar workers and agricultural workers all have higher rates of cancer and other diseases because they receive higher doses of the toxic chemicals at the workplace than the rest of the population. Eventually, these toxins spread to the entire working class as they become part of the environment. An example of this fact is the population living “downwind” from the many oil refineries in Contra Costa County in the San Francisco Bay Area. People living near these refineries have very high rates of cancer. In EPA terms, this is called a “cancer cluster.” The EPA, in its corporate manner, determined that the high rates of cancer was caused by high rates of smoking in the area and not from the refineries’ carcinogenic pollutions! However, under the rules of Proposition 65 in California and after several years of litigation, the Gasoline Refining Industry had to post this warning in the February 24, 1999, issue of the San Francisco Chronicle: “Chemicals known to the State to cause cancer, birth defects, or other reproductive harm are found in gasoline, crude oil, and many other petroleum products and their vapors, or result from their use. Read and follow label directions and use care when handling or using all petroleum products. Chemmicals known to the State to cause cancer, birth defects, or other reproductive harm are found in and around gasoline stations, refineries, chemical plants, and other facilities that produce, handle, transport, store, or sell crude oil and petroleum and chemical products. Other facilities covered by this warning include, for example, oil and gas wells, oil and gas treating plants, petroleum and chemical storage tanks, pipeline systems, marine vessels and barges, tank trucks and tank cars loading and unloading facilities, and refueling facilities.” — Roland Sheppard, “Trade Secrets” Cancer and the Environment (What the Bill Moyers Program Trade Secrets Revealed
In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. — Martin Luther King, Jr.
Videos of the Day:
How Capitalism’s Structural and Ideological Crisis Gives Rise to Neo-Fascism Globalization sociologist William I. Robinson explains how global capitalism has been mired in a structural crisis since the 1970s, but especially since 2008, which has also led to a crisis of legitimacy, giving rise to neo-fascism around the world.
U.S.:
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 Republicrats and who profit from war and the war budget, vote 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! The United States takes from the poor and gives to the Rich.
Trump Delivers Right-Wing Tirade Against Socialism in State of the Union address US President Donald Trump delivered a right-wing tirade in his State of the Union address Tuesday evening, ranting against socialism and denouncing his political opponents. Trump feels emboldened by the failure of the Democrats’ impeachment efforts, which are expected to conclude with a vote in the Senate for acquittal today. He utilized the occasion to redouble his attacks on socialism, escalate his attacks on immigrants, and present himself as the force responsible for a supposed revival of the American economy. The annual State of the Union address has long been an exercise in delusion and fraud, but Trump’s remarks yesterday raised this ritualistic exercise to new heights. Amidst an extreme crisis of the entire political system, unending wars that threaten to develop into a global conflict, unprecedented levels of social inequality, and growing mass popular opposition, Trump attempted to paint a picture of hope, success, and optimism—all flowing from the beneficence of the president. By Andre Damon 
Trump’s SOTU Speech Bristled With Fascist Politics The ghost of Orwell has never been far from Trump’s misleading rhetoric, outright lies, dehumanizing invective and punitive policies. All of the latter were on full display in Trump’s 2020 State of the Union address. Trump’s speech moved between the kind of absolutes one expects from demagogues, including comments that ranged from how great America is (overlooking how millions live in poverty and millions have lost health care under Trump) and how the U.S. economy is in an unprecedented boom (when in reality it grew at its slowest pace since 2016). Trump’s speech also included outrageously false claims about the president’s supposed support for people who have preexisting conditions and protection of Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid, when in reality he has taken steps to weaken or eliminate protections for patients with preexisting conditions, and he has proposed cutting funding for all three social programs Authoritarian societies protect the powerful — not the poor or vulnerable — and Trump made that clear in boasting about tax policies that largely benefit the ultra-rich and major corporations. He lied about supporting workers’ rights and “restoring manufacturing rights” even as he continues to implement regulatory roll-backs that endanger both the environment and the health of workers and many other people in the U.S. His claim that he has launched the great American comeback is laced with death-dealing policies that range from criminalizing social problems, demonizing and punishing undocumented immigrants and their children, and laying claim to ultra-nationalist and white supremacist rhetoric that echoes the social and racial cleansing policies of earlier fascist societies. When Trump says in his speech “our families are flourishing,” he leaves out the misery and suffering he has inflicted on the many people who don’t fit into his white Christian notion of the public sphere, as well as on the immigrants and other people of color whom he has deemed disposable. By Henry A. Giroux
Trump’s Imaginary World, Maduro’s Real World Trump gave his State of the Union to his Congress this week. He is the president behind the curtain. But he is not the benevolent, comical, trickster, wanna-be Wizard of the famous story, but a malevolent and armed ogre that threatens his country and the world.He spreads lies like magic dust into his people’s eyes conjuring up for them an imaginary USA where all who are sick are sheltered; an America First policy that needs no allies; an imaginary planet that does not need climate accords or anti-nuclear accords; imaginary enemy aliens with the face of Muslims and Latin American migrants; an imaginary Venezuela where a vicious, corrupt gangster of his choosing is supposedly president. By Maria Paez Victor
Trump Plan Ratifies Israel As An Apartheid State Critics in the capitalist media of Trump’s Middle East “Peace Plan” claim he has given Israel everything it wants. Trump says he is just being realistic, recognising the reality on the ground. Trump is correct – he has given Israel nothing it did not already have, except United States official recognition and approval of that reality. What the critics don’t like is that Trump has exposed their hypocritical pretense that there is something to be gained by Palestinians “negotiating” with Israel for a “two state” solution — a fig leaf, chimera and fakery that never got off the ground. Trump has given the green light to Israel’s annexation of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank, the critics say. But these have always been part of Israel. The settlers vote in Israeli elections. They are protected by the Israeli armed forces. They are connected by roads to “green line” Israel that only Israelis may use, separating Palestinians into chopped up portions of the West Bank. By Barry Sheppard
Some of The ‘Fruits’ of War:
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About 11% of the adult homeless population are veterans. Roughly 45% of all homeless veterans are African American or Hispanic, despite only accounting for 10.4% and 3.4% of the U.S. veteran population, respectively. Homeless veterans are younger on average than the total veteran population. — National Coalition for Homeless Veterans – NCHV
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About 41 percent of those who served after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, in Afghanistan, Iraq and other war zones have disability ratings from the Department of Veterans Affairs, compared to 25 percent of veterans of other eras, according to the annual survey of veterans employment and status by the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. — why Is Veteran Unemployment So High?
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About 41 percent of those who served after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, in Afghanistan, Iraq and other war zones have disability ratings from the Department of Veterans Affairs, compared to 25 percent of veterans of other eras, according to the annual survey of veterans employment and status by the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. — Post-9/11 Vets Have Far Higher Disability Ratings Than Prior Generations: Report
Environment:
Refineries Are Spewing Cancer-Causing Benzene as Trump Slashes Enforcement On a spring evening in 2018, the sky across the New Orleans metro area lit up with fiery light. Friends and neighbors turned to each other with raised eyebrows, anxiety and dark humor. Did a nuclear bomb go off? Is an asteroid about to fall into Lake Pontchartrain? Is this the end? We would soon learn from the evening news that a massive fireball had eruptedfrom the aging oil refinery in Chalmette, a community on the Mississippi River near New Orleans. When equipment in refineries accidentally come under too much pressure, safety valves release burning gases into the air. The more than 100 refineries across United States release hundreds of flares each year, and many more occur at chemical plants and oil and gas drilling sites, according to environmental groups. By Mike Ludwig,
Black Liberation/ Civil Rights:
Bloomberg Becoming Oligarch-in-Chief of Democratic Party If Sanders wins the nomination, Michael Bloomberg and his filthy rich
brethren are already preparing to fund and erect an alternative
structure of dependable corporate governance By Glen Ford, BAR executive editor
Why Attacking the Green Party to Assist the War Party Helps Donald Trump, Not Bernie Sanders A public attack that characterizes the Green Party as a of spoiler for the Democrats amounts to a defense of the Democrats policies on never-ending war and austerity. By Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
Freedom Rider: Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents US presidents range from very bad to less bad, but none were “good” for Black people – including the first Black one. “Obama’s scolding and scorn of black men wasn’t far removed from Reagan’s imaginary welfare cheats.” Ten of the first twelve presidents of the United States were slave holders. This is just one of many historical facts that this columnist discovered while researching and writing Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents . The newly published book is an exploration of black American history viewed through the prism of the presidency. By Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
Guaido’s Failed Foreign Tour Ends With a Flop
As the Feb 11 court date approaches for the US activists that defended the Venezuelan embassy, would-be president Juan Guaido has been reduced to an evil clown. By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers
The Revolution on Your Momma’s Coffee Table: Lerone Bennett and the Schizophrenia of Ebony Magazine, from 1966 to 1976 Lerone Bennett’s de-colonized perspective was ultimately drowned out by the same capitalist forces that kept him alive in the first place. By Todd Steven Burroughs
Privatizing Oakland Schools Eli Broad (rhymes with “toad”) conconcted a scheme to privatize Oakland’s public schools and produce a revenue stream for his billionaire cronies. By Eugene Stovall
All US Presidents are Criminals BAR’s Margaret Kimberley dissects the anti-Black policies of all 45 presidents of the world’s most successful white settler state. She was interviewed by David Swanson on his Talk Nation radio program. By David Swanson
Between the Great Migration and Growing Exodus: The Future of Black Chicago? Recent population trends indicate that the city may be at risk of losing its status as a Black mecca. “In some neighborhoods, gentrification appears to be a driving force. In others, the destruction of public housing played a more prominent role in population change.” By William Scarborough, Iván Arenas, and Amanda E. Lewis
N.J. historic preservation officials insult the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. first formal protest and lawsuit, but the state refuses to recognize the events. New Jersey was the site of a young Dr King’s very protest and lawsuit, but the state refuses to recognize the events. By Linn Washington Jr.
Cornel West on Missing Zinn On the tenth anniversary of radical historian Howard Zinn’s death, Cornel West opens up about their friendship and what Zinn would have made of the decade – including whether he would have voted for Sanders. By Cornel West and Mordecai Lyon
Libya: Before and After Muammar Gaddafi Nine years after his death, residents in the chaos-wracked country’s
capital have grown to miss the longtime leader as the frustrations of daily life mount. By Roxana Baspineiro
Labor:
Economy:
JP MorganChase ia A Robber Baron Bank: JPMorgan Chase Is Under Fourth Criminal Probe after Pleading Guilty to Three Prior Felony Counts Yesterday, Bloomberg News reporters Tom Schoenberg and Liam Vaughan broke the story that JPMorgan Chase is under a criminal probe by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) over charges of rigging gold, silver and other precious metals markets. Six traders who worked on the precious metals desk at JPMorgan Chase have been indicted thus far but this is the first report that the bank itself is also under a criminal investigation. This marks the fourth criminal probe of the bank in the past 8 years by the U.S. Department of Justice with the bank pleading guilty to three felony counts in two of the prior criminal investigations. Throughout this serial crime wave, the Board of Directors of JPMorgan Chase has kept Jamie Dimon in his seat as Chairman and CEO. Despite knowing that three of the bank’s traders had been charged under the criminal RICO statute and that the investigation could very likely result in criminal charges against the recidivist bank itself, the Board recently awarded Dimon a pay package of $31.5 million for last year – buttressing presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’ message that the business model of Wall Street is fraud. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
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 ‘governn’, pass universal healthcare for themselves, but they cannot spend even one trillion dollars for universal health for those who are ‘governed’! This is what is considered, by the powers the to be, a democracy and part of the democratic way. — Roland Sheppard, Let the People Vote on Healthcare!
Chinese Doctors Are Using Cuban Antivirals Against Coronavirus Cuba produces one of the most potent medicines for the treatment of immunological diseases. The Recombinant Interferon Alpha 2B (IFNrec), an antiviral produced by the Cuban biotech industry, is being used by Chinese doctors to treat patients infected by the 2019-nCoV coronavirus, which has affected more than 28,000 people and has killed 564 patients worldwide.
Black Agenda Report February 6, 2020