Due to Years of Austerity, Cuts to Public HealthCare, And An Anti-science and Profiteering President, The United States Now Leads the World In Coronavirus Cases and Deaths in the World!
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 War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death. The very future of Humanity Is Now At stake!
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, that the 99% Will Rule, Not the Few!
The Cuban biotech sector has nearly 200 inventions and products marketed in 49 countries, with the capacity for large-scale production of Cuban and generic drugs for export cheaply to developing countries, and partnerships in nine countries in the global south. The difference between Cuba’s state owned and public-health orientated biotech industry, and the speculative profit-seeking of capitalist firms, has been exposed by the global pandemic. Cuba provides a lesson for us all. — Cuban Medical Science in the Service of Humanity
What the Coughing Cop Says About American Policing A cop caught coughing on residents and video of a man arrested and incarcerated for running a red light illustrates how America policing has evolved into an enforcer of social control.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.
OUR VIRAL FUTURE: Covid-19: Will Big Oil Emerge More Powerful Than Ever? The ecological dimensions of Covid-19 have become increasingly prominent in much recent discussion, with several important contributions exploring the pandemic in relation to capitalist agribusiness, widespread loss of biodiversity, and the destruction of natural ecosystems. There is, however, a further element to Covid-19’s ‘ecology’ that deserves much greater attention: the ways the escalating pandemic intersects with, and is simultaneously acting to accelerate, a profound shock to the fossil fuel industry. Global oil markets are undergoing an unprecedented transformation as a result of this shock, and while longer-term trajectories remain open, this moment will undoubtedly shape the politics of oil — and the prospects of mitigating climate change — for decades to come. By Adam HaniehCovid-19: The Ecological Dimension The Covid-19 pandemic continues to spread rapidly around the world and remains out of control – other than in those countries, led by China, that had (crucially) moved early and decisively to control it, and had prepared for such a situation in advance. The biggest governmental failures, on the other hand, are by administrations led by right-wing populists like Johnson and Trump who started, in effect, as virus deniers, but were forced belatedly to recognise Covid-19 as a serious threat after their actions had ensured that hundreds of thousands of people would lose their lives unnecessarily. Such pandemics, we have to be clear, are an integral part of the global ecological crisis we are facing, and must be seen and treated as such. They are not just happening at the same time. By Alan Thornett
Mumbai slums Photo: Abhisek Sarda
Civil Rights/ Black Liberation:
Coronavirus Outbreak: Hundreds of Infected, Quarantined Inmates in Prisons and Jails Challenging Officials As the as the coronavirus storm was making landfall in the U.S., prison and jail officials across the country were anxiously bracing for the onslaught. Thousands of potentially vulnerable inmates were set free or sent to home confinement to reduce the risk of large-scale outbreaks. Visitation was halted, and isolation wards were designated for those who would be exposed. Now, detention authorities are deep into managing hundreds of infected and quarantined inmates, whose numbers have been changing by the day. Chicago’s Cook County Jail, one of the largest in the country, reported 251 prisoner infections and one death as of Thursday. After announcing its first infection more than two weeks ago, the federal Bureau of Prisons has 253 infected inmates with eight deaths as of Thursday morning. At least 132 sick inmates were in medical isolation Thursday in Texas, while more than 10,000 have been assigned some form of medical restriction limiting their movements because they may have been exposed to COVID-19. By Kevin JohnsonMass Incarceration and the Coronavirus… a Death Sentence Waiting to Happen We could be about to witness the death penalty being given to thousands of people in America’s prisons. The 2.3 million people locked down in America’s prisons (about 60 percent Black or Latino) are being forced to face the deadly corona virus without consistent access to soap and water, without masks, with no ability to do “social distancing.” Many whose crimes were as petty as drug use or stealing a bicycle, and many who haven’t been convicted but just can’t pay bail. And all of whom are human beings now facing mass death if things continue as they are.
Shadow Government Statistics Alternate Gross Domestic Product Chart The SGS-Alternate GDP reflects the inflation-adjusted, or real, year-to-year GDP change, adjusted for distortions in government inflation usage and methodological changes that have resulted in a built-in upside bias to official reporting.
Shadow Government Statistics Alternate Inflation Charts The CPI chart on the home page reflects our estimate of inflation for today as if it were calculated the same way it was in 1990. The CPI on the Alternate Data Series tab here reflects the CPI as if it were calculated using the methodologies in place in 1980. In general terms, methodological shifts in government reporting have depressed reported inflation, moving the concept of the CPI away from being a measure of the cost of living needed to maintain a constant standard of living.
The Fed Is Killing the Two Main Functions of Wall Street: Price Discovery and Prudent Capital Allocation On Thursday, knowing that a three-day Easter weekend was coming and the attention of the public would be elsewhere, the Federal Reserve announced that it would allow two of its emergency lending programs to begin buying junk bonds. Those are bonds with less than an investment-grade credit rating, meaning they have a greater likelihood of defaulting. The Fed is not simply accepting junk bonds as collateral for loans, it will actually be buying junk bonds — potentially hundreds of billions of dollars of them. Two of the popular junk bond ETFs, iShares iBoxx High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (symbol HYG) and SPDR Bloomberg Barclays High Yield Bond ETF (symbol JNK) closed the trading day on Thursday up 6.55 and 6.71 percent, respectively, on the announcement. Those ETFs had been plunging in price for most of the month of March. By Pam Martens and Russ MartensWorld:
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 to be, a democracy and part of the democratic way. — Roland Sheppard, Let the People Vote on Healthcare!
UN Chief Warns About the Impacts of COVID-19 on Women ” A pandemic amplifies and heightens all existing inequalities. With COVID-19, this is even more so,” said Guterres in a policy brief. The policy brief highlighted the social and economic impacts of the pandemic on women across four areas: economic, health, unpaid care, and gender-based violence. Across every sphere, from health to the economy, security to social protection, the impacts of COVID-19 are exacerbated for women and girls simply by virtue of their sex, said the policy brief.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addresses his statement, during the opening of the High-Level Segment of the 43rd session of the Human Rights Council, at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Monday, Feb. 24, 2020. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)
We Should Never Forget
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Our Crumbling Infrastructure: Old Government Computers: Wanted Urgently: People Who Know a Half Century-Old Computer Language So States Can Process Unemployment Claims On top of ventilators, face masks and health care workers, you can now add COBOL programmers to the list of what several states urgently need as they battle the coronavirus pandemic. In New Jersey, Gov. Phil Murphy has put out a call for volunteers who know how to code the decades-old computer programming language called COBOL because many of the state’s systems still run on older mainframes. By Alicia Lee
Covid-19: The Ecological Dimension The Covid-19 pandemic continues to spread rapidly around the world and remains out of control – other than in those countries, led by China, that had (crucially) moved early and decisively to control it, and had prepared for such a situation in advance. The biggest governmental failures, on the other hand, are by administrations led by right-wing populists like Johnson and Trump who started, in effect, as virus deniers, but were forced belatedly to recognise Covid-19 as a serious threat after their actions had ensured that hundreds of thousands of people would lose their lives unnecessarily. Such pandemics, we have to be clear, are an integral part of the global ecological crisis we are facing, and must be seen and treated as such. They are not just happening at the same time. By Alan Thornett
Mass Incarceration and the Coronavirus… a Death Sentence Waiting to Happen We could be about to witness the death penalty being given to thousands of people in America’s prisons. The 2.3 million people locked down in America’s prisons (about 60 percent Black or Latino) are being forced to face the deadly corona virus without consistent access to soap and water, without masks, with no ability to do “social distancing.” Many whose crimes were as petty as drug use or stealing a bicycle, and many who haven’t been convicted but just can’t pay bail. And all of whom are human beings now facing mass death if things continue as they are.
Trump is Back To His Old Tricks Stiffing Workers: See Report: Trump Has Refused to Pay Hundreds of Workers (2016) — Trump Labor Secretary Condemned for ‘Despicable’ Efforts to Roll Back Unemployment Benefits, Paid Leave “Trump’s Labor Department has been working diligently to ensure that no U.S. worker has it too easy in the middle of a pandemic and burgeoning economic depression.” By Jake Johnson
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