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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! And Now the Total Caronavirs Deaths in the United States are Over 20% of the Total Death in the Entire World!
Another Example Capitalism as a Failed System: World Capilalism Was Aware of the Danger of Cornovavirus Threat 4 Years Ago and Did Nothing!
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!
Images of the Day:
Quotes of the Day:
With Trump Encouraging Armed Racist Neo-Nazi Groups, Black People Have the Right And The Duty to Protect Their Rights to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, By Any Means Necessary!:
The armed citizens legally protesting Arbery’s death came as there have been calls for more Black people to arm themselves because of continued consequences from the coronavirus pandemic, which has disproportionately affected Black people well beyond the health spectrum. As Nylah Burton, a Black woman, wrote for ESSENCE, the combination of the way law enforcement tried to sweep Arbery’s death under the rug; the recent series of police brutality over nonviolent social distancing violations; and the armed militias storming statehouses across the country have left her reluctantly considering getting a gun. — Legally Armed Black Citizens Patrol White Neighborhood Where Ahmaud Arbery Was Killed
Videos of the Day:
Our window of opportunity is closing. If we fail to develop a national coordinated response, based in science, I fear the pandemic will get far worse and be prolonged, causing unprecedented illness and fatalities. While it is terrifying to acknowledge the extent of the challenge that we currently confront, the undeniable fact is there will be a resurgence of the COVID19 this fall, greatly compounding the challenges of seasonal influenza and putting an unprecedented strain on our health care system. Without clear planning and implementation of the steps that I and other experts have outlined, 2020 will be darkest winter in modern history.
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 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.
As of Yesday. the United States has Over 85,000 Coronavirus Deaths: Fauci Says U.S. Death Toll Is Likely Higher. Other COVID-19 Stats Need Adjusting, Too The U.S. has the most coronavirus deaths of any country in the world — on May 11, the death toll passed 80,000. And that’s likely an undercount.”Almost certainly it’s higher,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, at a virtual Senate hearing on Tuesday. “There may have been people who died at home who were not counted as COVID because they never really got to the hospital.” It’s not just the death toll that’s likely higher. Medical statisticians say we have been undercounting cases since the pandemic started — not only in the U.S. but also around the world. That’s because in countries rich and poor and in between, people who contract COVID-19 are not necessarily diagnosed — because of the shortage of tests and the difficulty of getting tested in some parts of the world, especially remote spots. By Pien Huang
Trump Expresses Capitalism’s Lack of Concern for Human Life! Downplaying Threat Covid-19 Poses to Children, Trump Calls Fauci’s Cautions Over Reopening Schools ‘Unacceptable’ “This isn’t complicated. Dr. Fauci is a highly decorated scientist and doctor, a respected medical expert who spent his life leading American efforts to fight infectious diseases. Trump is a compulsive liar who suggested we could fight Covid-19 by injecting people with bleach.” By Jake Johnson
To Divide and Conquer: Science, News, and Hate in the Age of Instant Media It is hard to see the signal amid the noise in the best of times, but the everyday chatter is especially difficult to comprehend in times of war, disaster, and infectious outbreak. Imagine a game of broken telephone with billions of speed-of-light internet connections – chances are the message will look nothing like the original at the other end, touched up by systemic misfirings and our own bias. But can we separate truth from pixie dust, fact from fiction? Can any of us agree if the sky is or is not falling? By John K. White
Environment:
Radioactive Muck Found in Pond; Liner May Be Leaking at SC Nuclear Fuel Plan Nearly 40 years ago, the operators of a nuclear fuel plant near Columbia installed a liner in a treatment lagoon, hoping to trap radioactive and chemical waste before it could trickle into groundwater beneath the pond. Now, the lagoon liner is wearing out. And that’s a concern. Recent research suggests radioactive pollution has seeped through the synthetic barrier that was supposed to protect soil and groundwater in the Congaree River flood plain. Soil below the liner is suspected of being polluted with waste from the east lagoon, according to a new report for the plant’s operator, Westinghouse Nuclear. By Ashlen Renner
Civil Rights/BlackLiberation:
Leftists Jump the Corporate Democratic Ship, Leaving Sanders Behind History may record that the corporate duopoly dike was finally broken in the Time of Plague, with the defection of Bernie’s former sheep from the Democratic Party. “Meaningful victories require the shattering of the duopoly, a process that has now begun.” The leftish exit from the two-corporate-party electoral racket has finally begun. Nearly three-quarters of the 10,000-strong Los Angeles chapter of Our Revolution , the mass organization birthed during Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential bid, voted to leave the Democratic Party and join the Movement for a People’s Party , also founded by operatives from Sanders’ 2016 campaign. In effect, Sanders’ most committed supporters have refused to once again be sheep-dogged by their mentor into the cemetery where U.S. social movements go to die. “Our Revolution Los Angeles’ members decided that the Democratic Party is irredeemably corporate and must be replaced,” said the organization’s press release . The LA chapter hopes to lead a national exit from the Democratic corporate straightjacket. “Our Revolution Los Angeles is calling on Our Revolution chapters and progressive groups nationwide to poll their members on joining the Movement for a People’s Party. Together they will co-host an informational meeting with interested chapters and groups on Thursday, May 14, to discuss and plan the new party.” By Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
Freedom Rider: New Attacks on Venezuela The Democratic Party’s “left” wing is mute on the latest US aggression against the people and government of Venezuela, thus giving assent to Trump by their silence. “Neither the Congressional Black Caucus nor the Congressional Progressive Caucus have spoken out against the latest intervention.” Karl Marx famously said that history repeats itself, the first time as tragedy and secondly as farce. One year after a bizarre coup attempt which looked more like a farcical photo opportunity, the U.S. sent a group of hapless dupes to sneak into Venezuela where they intended to arrest president Nicolas Maduro. By Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
Joe Biden, Kim Jong-Un, and the Dialectics of White Supremacy White supremacy shapes every aspect of imperialism and must be understood from a dialectical perspective if socialism is to ever become a possibility in the United States. “White supremacy protects Joe Biden like a prison guard protects the warden.” It is all too easy to forget that the birth of the United States is rooted in the perfection of white supremacy. A new generation of activists more friendly to the concept of socialism has not yet grasped the centrality of white supremacy in the fabric of U.S. society. Many of the most popular so-called “left” media analysts and activists hold the view that criticism of white supremacy is a “cultural issue” and one that divides workers amongst themselves. Failure to acknowledge white supremacy, however, only guarantees political defeat for the entire working class. White supremacy shapes every aspect of imperialism and must be understood from a dialectical perspective if socialism is to ever become a possibility in the United States By Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
Trump wins! Completing Obama’s Pivot to Asia and the Confrontation with China The Trump administration is determined to “put China in its place,” a white supremacist mindset that will inevitably lead to monumental errors of judgement. “U.S. policymakers are openly advocating war with China.” Even before becoming the 45th president of the United States, Donald Trump had one consistent foreign enemy – China. Partly fueled by his intrinsic white supremacy and his antipathy for the liberal elite “globalists” who evoked his personal inferiority complex, Trump has never wavered from his fierce opposition to what he saw as the “yellow peril” from China. By Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
Things Don’t Get No Better The current season of sickness – biological and political – is, indeed, strange, with no hint of a better day any time soon. “Paul Newman thought it was the most important film he ever made.” “Y’know things get funnier every day you live. They don’t get no better. Dig? But they sure as hell get funnier.” This week I kept hearing those words in the back of my mind, as spoken by a Black journalist named “Roosevelt,” played by B.J. Mason, who works for a Black New Orleans newspaper in the 1970 film WUSA . By Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
The Sheepdog Caucus and So-Called “Democratic” Socialists The “democratic” socialist worldview supports socialism except in places where people are actually trying to build it. “The notion of ‘democratic’ socialism as espoused in the US generally functions as a veiled accessory to the ideology of American Exceptionalism.” A couple of years ago a fellow Xicanx and I were discussing culture and politics. He’s a musician and had an EZLN (Zapatista) sticker on one his instrument cases. He identified as a socialist and good-naturedly made it clear that he did not have to add the adjective “democratic” to claim his socialist credentials. I got his meaning immediately. By Quetzal Cáceres
US Blocks Vote on UN’s Bid for Global Ceasefire Amid COVID-19 The US veto trashes the UN’s efforts to convince armed factions in more than a dozen countries to call for temporary truces as the world battles the pandemic. “The U.S. is playing the ‘blame game.’” International diplomats were stunned and frustrated Friday after the United States again blocked a United Nations resolution to call for a global ceasefire during the COVID-19 pandemic, only because the Trump administration objected to an indirect reference to the World Health Organization (WHO). By Telesur
First Somali Congressperson Legitimizes AFRICOM and US Drone War Rep. Omar recently commended the US war machine for increasing the “transparency” and “accountability” of its bombing of her native country. “Instead of this being an asset to expose AFRICOM and to the decolonization Africa, Rep. Omar validates the role of AFRICOM.” United States representatives, no matter their racial or ethnic backgrounds, appear unable to perceive the inherent white supremacy in the notion that the US has some altruistic responsibility to police the continent of Africa with military troops and supervisors. As a result, “people of color,” such as the Somali-“American” Congresswoman IIhan Omar provide political and moral cover to the presence of the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) and the dubious claims about “US interests” on the continent. By Tunde Osazua and Netfa Freeman
New York Tried to Get Rid of Bail. Then the Backlash Came The no-bail movement was on a roll from Vermont and New Jersey to Alaska and Georgia – and then the lock ‘em up mob struck back. “Lawmakers in Illinois and Colorado are feeling confident that they won’t face the same kind of backlash.” The national drive to reduce jail and prison populations is getting an unexpected nudge from the coronavirus pandemic, as many cities and counties across the country try to reduce exposure to the virus in crammed, unsanitary jails. One of their first targets: bail. By
Jamiles Lartey
Coronavirus is Making the Case for Black Reparations Clearer Than Ever The COVID-19 crisis only heightens the urgency of black reparations, which is now more essential than ever. “To bring the native black share of the nation’s wealth at least into equivalence with its share of the population would require $10 trillion to $12 trillion.” By William A. Darity Jr. and A. Kirsten Mullen
On George Jackson and Julian Assange Both see the United States as the Empire, and they agree that it must be opposed. “Both believe science is the best means of opposing Empire and securing self-determination for the peoples of the world.” In the summer of 1971, Julian Assange was born in Queensland, Australia amidst surging protests against the Vietnam War. Weeks later, George Jackson was murdered by correctional officers inside San Quentin, California’s oldest prison. Jackson spent his entire adult life behind bars, a political prisoner of the US Empire. Today, Assange faces a similar fate, a lifetime of imprisonment for daring to expose the Empire’s war crimes. Incarceration is the inevitable outcome for those who dare to challenge imperial power, for as Jackson wrote presciently in Blood in My Eye: “The ultimate expression of law is not order—it’s prison.” By Patrick D. Anderson 
Can We Simultaneously Oppose Bayer/Monsanto’s Biotechnology and Support Cuba’s Interferon Alpha 2B? It is necessary to compare the use of biotechnology by food corporations with that of Cuba to decide if they are the same or fundamentally different. “Food imperialism fosters dependency but Cuba promotes medical independence.” Genetically engineered crops are a form of food imperialism. This technology allows mega-corporations like Bayer/Monsanto to patent seeds, lure farmers into buying them with visions of high yields, and then destroy the ability of small farmers to survive. By Don Fitz
Chicago Mayor Lightfoot’s Coronavirus Threats and Government Incapacity to Handle a Pandemic The city’s Black mayor threatened Black house partyers with arrest, but ignored 500 un-masked white people protesting the Covid-19 lock-down. “Lightfoot opposed releasing those in Cook County jail who cannot pay bail.” Saturday May 2, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot declared you can be arrested and jailed for having house parties. “We will shut you down, we will cite you, and if we have to, we will arrest you,” said Lightfoot. “Don’t make us treat you like a criminal, but if you act like a criminal and you violate the law and refuse to do what’s necessary to save lives in the middle of a pandemic, we will take you to jail, period.” By Stansfield Smith
Labor:
tephen Hawking’s Final Words to the Internet: Robots Aren’t the Problem, Capitalism Is The last message Stephen Hawking posted to a public internet forum was an answer to a question in a Reddit AMA, querying how humanity will weather an age of technological unemployment. Professor Hawking’s answer said that there was no problem with robots taking jobs — only with the dividends from that robotic efficiency accruing solely to the capital classes thanks to market dynamics, rather than being broadly shared through redistributive state intervention.
Economy:
Shadow Government StatisticsAlternate 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.
Evidence Suggests U.S. Financial Crisis Started on August 14, 2019 In the Federal Reserve’s most recent “Supervision and Regulation Report” on the big bank holding companies it “supervises,” the Fed continued its attempts to perpetuate the narrative that “The banking industry came into 2020 in a healthy financial position” and has simply unraveled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. That narrative is built on the same flimsy house of cards that the New York Times and Andrew Ross-Sorkin built the narrative that the mega banks on Wall Street were not responsible for the 2008 financial collapse. The Fed is desperate to promote this narrative to stop a new Congress next year from holding hearings on why the Fed, for the second time in 12 years, had to engage in trillions of dollars in Wall Street bank bailouts after reassuring Congress for years that the financial system was fine as the Fed loosened or rolled back reforms like the Volcker Rule. The Fed needs this narrative to prevail in order to cover up its own negligent supervision of the behemoth banks. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
World:
The WHO’s Impotence and China-US relations The COVID-19 crisis is exposing the limitations of global bodies like the UN and the WHO, trapped between the competing interests of US and Chinese imperialism. Like an umbrella full of holes, they’re useless precisely when they’re most needed. On Friday 8 May, the UN failed to pass a resolution on the coronavirus pandemic. This means that four months into the greatest global crisis since World War Two, the organisation whose entire purpose is supposedly to foster global cooperation has nothing to say or do about it. It is unable to call for any cease-fires to tackle the pandemic or take any other action. It is truly impotent at the very moment it should be the most powerful and important organization on earth. By Daniel Morley
Amb. Moncada: Between 2007 and 2017 the US Spent $ 250 Billion on Mercenaries Between 2007-2017 the government of the United States spent 250 billion dollars on mercenaries. This was stated by the Venezuelan ambassador to the United Nations, Samuel Moncada, regarding the recent armed incursion thwarted by Venezuelan authorities and militia. “Mercenaries are 50% cheaper than conventional troops. They don’t cost anything before or after the contract. In Iraq, 50% of US soldiers were mercenaries. In Afghanistan, 70%. It is the preferred model to invade countries at the lowest economic and political cost,” he wrote in his twitter account.
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!
