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 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!
Quotes of the Day:
It is impossible for capitalism to survive, primarily because the system of capitalism needs some blood to suck. . . . Capitalism used to be like an eagle, but now it’s more like a vulture. It used to be strong enough to go and suck anybody’s blood whether they were strong or not. But now it has become more cowardly, like the vulture, and it can only suck the blood of the helpless. As the nations of the world free themselves, then capitalism has less victims, less to suck, and it becomes weaker and weaker. It’s only a matter of time in my opinion before it will collapse completely. —Malcolm X
As a nurse, I’m very concerned that not enough is being done to stop the spread of the coronavirus. I know because I am currently sick and in quarantine after caring for a patient who tested positive. I’m awaiting “permission” from the federal government to allow for my testing, even after my physician and county health professional ordered it. I volunteered to be on the care team for this patient, who we knew was positive. I did this because I had all the recommended protective gear and training from my employer. I did this assuming that if something happened to me, of course I too would be cared for. Then, what was a small concern after a few days of caring for this patient, became my reality: — I started getting sick. ‑— When employee health told me that my fever and other symptoms fit the criteria for potential coronavirus, I was put on a 14-day self-quarantine. Since the criteria was met, the testing would be done. My doctor ordered the test through the county. The public county officer called me and verified my symptoms and agreed with testing. But the National CDC would not initiate testing. They said they would not test me because if I were wearing the recommended protective equipment, then I wouldn’t have the coronavirus. What kind of science-based answer is that? What a ridiculous and uneducated response from the department that is in charge of our health in this country. . . . — From the Statement by a Quarantined Nurse from a Northern California Kaiser Facility
Coronavirus: White House Concedes US Lacks Enough Test KitsThe White House has acknowledged the nation does not have enough coronavirus test kits as cases of the disease ticked upwards on both US coasts. Vice-President Mike Pence said the Trump administration would not be able to meet its objective of delivering one million testing kits this week.
Pakistani activists take part in an International Women’s Day rally in Lahore, Pakistan, Sunday, March 8, 2020. Pakistanis held rallies across the country. Officially recognized by the United Nations in 1977, it is celebrated around the world on March 8. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudhry)
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.
Sanctions Kill! Call to Action for International Days of Action Against Sanctions and Economic War – March 13 – 15, 2020
USA: Super Tuesday – The Ruling Class Unites Against Sanders The outcome of Super Tuesday (in which the largest number of delegates in a single day of the US Democratic primary race are up for grabs) has been gleefully celebrated in the bourgeois media. They see Joe Biden’s “comeback” as the best way to put an end to Bernie Sanders’ momentum, which is seen as a major threat to market stability.Last week, CNN host Michael Smerconish inadvertently blurted out what many capitalist strategists were asking themselves: “Can either Bernie Sanders or the Coronavirus be stopped?” Following the results in South Carolina, the desperate panic of the commentators was turned into a feverish drumbeat about Biden’s growing momentum. The New York Times headline read: “Biden Wins South Carolina as Race Against Sanders Intensifies.” It would appear that beating Sanders—rather than beating Trump—is what’s really at stake for the Democrats!
Environment:
In Capitalism’s UnEding Quest For Profits — Profits Supercide the Habitat for Humanity: The Race To Save Polesia, Europe’s Secret Amazon . . . Polesia, Europe’s largest wilderness. More than two-thirds the size of the UK (18m hectares) and spread across Poland, Belarus, Ukraine and Russia, in spring this brittle landscape blooms into a labyrinth of gigantic bogs and swamps that supports large populations of wolves, bison, lynx and 1.5 million migratory birds. It has been called “the Amazon of Europe” for its extraordinary biodiversity. However, unlike its Brazilian cousin, this region is not best-known for its wildlife but something more sinister. In April 1986 this forgotten part of the Soviet Union made headlines after reactor 4 of the Chernobyl power plant blew up. The explosion cast a long shadow over Belarus, which absorbed 70% of the escaped radiation, making it one of the most contaminated places on Earth. Now another catastrophe could be about to befall its people: the construction of the E40 waterway, a 2,000km (1,240-mile) inland shipping route linking the Black Sea and the Baltic that would slice through the wilderness and involve dredging inside the Chernobyl exclusion zone. Experts say this will destroy vast ecosystems and stir up radioactive sludge that accumulated on the bottom of the river following the explosion, potentially contaminating the drinking water of millions of people. By Phoebe Weston
Civil Rights/ Black Liberation:
Tens of Thousands of Mexican Women Protest ‘Femicide,’ Gender-Based Violence Women poured into the streets on Sunday to start a two-day protest and national strike against gender-based violence, in what organizers hope will be a turning point for women’s rights in a country disfigured by violence and machismo. Tens of thousands of women streamed through the capital to the national palace. Many wore purple, the color symbolizing International Women’s Day, celebrated throughout the world on Sunday, and waved signs reading “Fight today so we don’t die tomorrow” and “We are the voice of those who are no longer with us.” By Mary Beth Sheridan
It’s impossible for a chicken to produce a duck egg … The system of this country cannot produce freedom for an Afro-American. It is impossible for this system, this economic system, this political system, this social system, this system period. It is impossible for it, as it now stands, to produce freedom right now for the Black man in this country — it is impossible. And if ever a chicken did produce a duck egg (heh heh), I’m certain you would say it was a revolutionary chicken! — Malcolm X, Harlem Hate Gang Scare speech at the Militant Labor Forum on May 29, 1964
Book Review: Supreme Inequality: The Supreme Court’s Fifty-Year Battle for a More Unjust America Supreme Inequality America has become more unequal since the 1960s. The middle class has shrunk, schools are more segregated, and mass incarceration has devastated African American and Latinx communities. Meanwhile, wealthy individuals and corporations have an outsize say in elections, resulting in lower taxes, more favorable legislation and preferential treatment from government agencies. What is not well known, however, is the role the Supreme Court has played in creating these inequities.The Supreme Court is often seen as the defender of the underdog. Cases like Brown v. Board of Education and Miranda v. Arizonaseemed to guarantee all Americans equal rights and due process under the law. However, as Adam Cohen meticulously documents in Supreme Inequality, certain justices on the Supreme Court have worked to not only erode the rights of the poor and middle class but also to extend the interests of the rich. In many ways, Cohen argues, the court is the author of the increased inequality in American society, and of that inequality’s many consequences. Review by Deborah Mason
School Segregation Is Not a Myth Skeptics claim that concerns over racially divided schools are false alarms—but they’re missing the full picture. Is school segregation getting worse? Plenty of people say yes, including scholars, journalists, and civil-rights advocates. For the first time in years, there’s something approximating a consensus: Racially divided schools are a major and intensifying problem for American education—maybe even a crisis.There’s seemingly compelling numerical evidence, too. According to my analysis of data from the National Center on Education Statistics, the number of segregated schools (defined in this analysis as those schools where less than 40 percent of students are white), has approximately doubled between 1996 and 2016. In that same span, the percentage of children of color attending such a school rose from 59 to 66 percent. For black students, the percentage in segregated schools rose even faster, from 59 to 71 percent. By Will Stancil
Income Segregation between School Districts and Inequality in Students’ Achievement Abstract: Large achievement gaps exist between high- and low-income students and between black and white students. This article explores one explanation for such gaps: income segregation between school districts, which cre- ates inequality in the economic and social resources available in advantaged and disadvantaged students’ school contexts. Drawing on national data, I find that the income achievement gap is larger in highly segre- gated metropolitan areas. This is due mainly to high-income students performing better, rather than low- income children performing worse, in more-segregated places. Income segregation between districts also contributes to the racial achievement gap, largely because white students perform better in more economically segregated places. Descriptive portraits of the school districts of high- and low-income students show that income segregation creates affluent districts for high-income students while changing the contexts of low-income students negligibly. Considering income and race jointly, I find that only high-income white fam- ilies live in the affluent districts created by income segregation; black families with identically high incomes live in districts more similar to those of low-income white families. My results demonstrate that the spatial inequalities created by income segregation between school districts contribute to achievement gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged students, with implications for future research and policy. By Ann Owens
The seasonally-adjusted SGS Alternate Unemployment Rate reflects current unemployment reporting methodology adjusted for SGS-estimated long-term discouraged workers, who were defined out of official existence in 1994. That estimate is added to the BLS estimate of U-6 unemployment, which includes short-term discouraged workers.The U-3 unemployment rate is the monthly headline number. The U-6 unemployment rate is the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) broadest unemployment measure, including short-term discouraged and other marginally-attached workers as well as those forced to work part-time because they cannot find full-time employment. The seasonally adjusted ShadowStats Alternate Unemployment Rate for February 2020 is 21.1%.
Economy:
Two Charts Explain Why Wall Street Banks Are Under So Much Selling Pressure Yesterday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average of 30 large cap companies closed with a loss of 969.5 points or 3.58 percent. That was bad enough but the losses among the biggest Wall Street banks outpaced the Dow losses by a significant margin. Typically, JPMorgan Chase is one of the better performers among the Wall Street banks in the midst of a big selloff. But not yesterday. It closed with a loss of 4.91 percent – a loss larger than Goldman Sachs (- 4.77 percent), which has a large criminal fine hanging over its head. The news that Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, had heart surgery on Thursday was not reported until after the stock market had closed. The losses among the other mega banks on Wall Street yesterday were equally unsettling. Morgan Stanley lost 5.86 percent; Citigroup closed down 5.79 percent, while Bank of America shed 5.07 percent. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens 3/6/20
Deutsche Bank Trading Chart from February 14 through March 5 Versus AIG, Ameriprise Financial (AMP), Prudential Financial (PRU), Lincoln National (LNC), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Bank of America (BAC), Morgan Stanley (MS), Goldman Sachs (GS) and Citigroup (C).
World:
Why Mexican Women Are Going On Strike On March 9 Three members of Mexico’s Congress – all from different parties – on the country’s failure to protect women from violence. Three members of Mexico’s Congress – all from different parties – on the country’s failure to protect women from violence. The three of us – three women representing three different political parties as federal deputies in Mexico’s Congress – support the historic national women’s strike being convened by women’s groups and feminist organizations on March 9 in honor of International Women’s Day. Here’s why we support the strike, and what we hope “A Day Without Women” – and the continued efforts of women’s social movements in Mexico – will achieve. By Lorena Villavicencio, Mariana Rodríguez Mier Y Terán and Martha Tagle
Britain: Flybe collapse – turbulence ahead for the airline industry After months of uncertainty, regional airline Flybe has been abandoned by the Tory government and gone bust. This is a symptom of the severe crisis facing the global aviation industry – and the entire capitalist system.In the end, it was the ‘free market’ that prevailed. Flybe – Europe’s largest regional airline – has gone into administration. This comes less than two months after the Tory government came up with a half-hearted rescue deal By Martin Swayne
Health, Science, 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 ‘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!
How the Drug Industry Got Its Way on the Coronavirus The drug industry is showing that even in a crisis, it can use its influence in Washington to fight off efforts to cut into its profits. Industry lobbyists successfully blocked attempts this week to include language in the $8.3 billion emergency coronavirus spending bill that would have threatened intellectual property rights for any vaccines and treatments the government decides are priced unfairly. Industry lobbyists successfully blocked attempts this week to include language in the $8.3 billion emergency coronavirus spending bill that would have threatened intellectual property rights for any vaccines and treatments the government decides are priced unfairly. By Sarah Karlin-Smith
Women’s Day or Working Women’s Day is a day of international solidarity, and a day for reviewing the strength and organization of proletarian women. But this is not a special day for women alone. The 8th of March is a historic and memorable day for the workers and peasants, for all the Russian workers and for the workers of the whole world. In 1917, on this day, the great February revolution broke out.[2] It was the working women of Petersburg who began this revolution; it was they who first decided to raise the banner of opposition to the Tsar and his associates. And so, working women’s day is a double celebration for us.
But if this is a general holiday for all the proletariat, why do we call it “Women’s Day”? Why then do we hold special celebrations and meetings aimed above all at the women workers and the peasant women? Doesn’t this jeopardize the unity and solidarity of the working class? To answer these questions, we have to look back and see how
Women’s Day came about and for what purpose it was organized. Not very long ago, in fact about ten years ago, the question of women’s equality, and the question of whether women could take part in government alongside men was being hotly debated. The working class in all capitalist countries struggled for the rights of working women: the bourgeoisie did not want to accept these rights. It was not in the interest of the bourgeoisie to strengthen the vote of the working class in parliament; and in every country they hindered the passing of laws that gave the right to working women.
Socialists in North America insisted upon their demands for the vote with particular persistence. On the 28th of February, 1909, the women socialists of the U.S.A. organized huge demonstrations and meetings all over the country demanding political rights for working women. This was the first “Woman’s Day”. The initiative on organizing a woman’s day thus belongs to the working women of America.
In 1910, at the Second International Conference of Working Women, Clara Zetkin[3] brought forward the question of organizing an International Working Women’s Day. The conference decided that every year, in every country, they should celebrate on the same day a “Women’s Day” under the slogan “The vote for women will unite our strength in the struggle for socialism”. During these years, the question of making parliament more democratic, i.e., of widening the franchise and extending the vote to women, was a vital issue. Even before the first world war, the workers had the right to vote in all bourgeois countries except Russia. [4] Only women, along with the insane, remained without these rights. Yet, at the same time, the harsh reality of capitalism demanded the participation of women in the country’s economy. Read More
Women’s Day History:International Women’s Day first emerged from the activities of labour movements at the turn of the twentieth century in North America and across Europe. Since those early years, International Women’s Day has assumed a new global dimension for women in developed and developing countries alike. The growing international women’s movement, which has been strengthened by four global United Nations women’s conferences, has helped make the commemoration a rallying point to build support for women’s rights and participation in the political and economic arenas. Increasingly, International Women’s Day is a time to reflect on progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of their countries and communities. Below is a brief history of how the Day has evolved.
1909 The first National Woman’s Day was observed in the United States on 28 February. The Socialist Party of America designated this day in honour of the 1908 garment workers’ strike in New York, where women protested against working conditions.
1910 The Socialist International, meeting in Copenhagen, established a Women’s Day, international in character, to honour the movement for women’s rights and to build support for achieving universal suffrage for women. The proposal was greeted with unanimous approval by the conference of over 100 women from 17 countries, which included the first three women elected to the Finnish Parliament. No fixed date was selected for the observance.
1911 As a result of the Copenhagen initiative, International Women’s Day was marked for the first time (19 March) in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland, where more than one million women and men attended rallies. In addition to the right to vote and to hold public office, they demanded women’s rights to work, to vocational training and to an end to discrimination on the job.
1913-1914 International Women’s Day also became a mechanism for protesting World War I. As part of the peace movement, Russian women observed their first International Women’s Day on the last Sunday in February. Elsewhere in Europe, on or around 8 March of the following year, women held rallies either to protest the war or to express solidarity with other activists.
1917 Against the backdrop of the war, women in Russia again chose to protest and strike for ‘Bread and Peace’ on the last Sunday in February (which fell on 8 March on the Gregorian calendar). Four days later, the Czar abdicated and the provisional Government granted women the right to vote.
1975 The United Nations began celebrating International Women’s Day (IWD) on 8 March during International Women’s Year 1975.
1977 In December 1977, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming a United Nations Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace to be observed on any day of the year by Member States, in accordance with their historical and national traditions
Shadow Government Statistics Alternate Unemployment Charts
