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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!
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!
Quotes of the Day:
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said Friday that the White House coronavirus task force is “seriously considering” pool testing for Covid-19 and acknowledged to The Washington Post that the Trump administration’s current testing strategy has proven inadequate. — Fauci Says Task Force ‘Seriously Considering’ New Testing Strategy
The stories of relatively small-bore grifting that surround the current administration and its coronavirus response—the investor who ripped off “not for medical use” labels from inadequate masks, the standard self-dealing—feel all too representative of the Trump era. It feels inevitable that having Trump, who is so rich and so famous because of his unpunished grifting, in the Oval Office would inspire hundreds of lesser crooks to imitate him, knowing that a country that allows such an obvious fraud to become president would probably let them get away with the same crimes. But there are daily, ongoing grifts that predate Trump’s election, perpetrated by major American institutions. Of these, there is no deadlier scam than the American health care system. Drug companies will soak patients for the crime of wanting to stay alive. Hospitals will charge completely made-up prices for coronavirus tests and treatment. Insurance companies will find ways not to cover treatment. All the while, people will continue to avoid care because they know the ruin that faces them if they seek it. If the pandemic doesn’t shake us out of this madness, maybe nothing will. — Big Pharma’s Got a Brand New Coronavirus Grift
According to an investigation conducted by Wall Street On Parade, Epstein’s ties to JPMorgan Chase date back to at least 2001 when Epstein presided as Chairman over an offshore company incorporated in Bermuda called Liquid Funding Ltd. That company grew to at least $6.7 billion in outstanding liabilities. JPMorgan Chase was one of three banks providing a $250 million liquidity facility to Liquid Funding Ltd. JPMorgan Chase was also listed as its “Security Trustee.” Liquid Funding appeared to be propping up dodgy subprime mortgage dealers by giving them loans. Bear Stearns, where Epstein had worked from 1976 to 1981, owned 40 percent of the equity in the company. Bear Stearns collapsed during the financial crisis of 2008 and received $853 billion in secret loans from the Federal Reserve, as well as the publicly-disclosed $28.8 billion purchase of toxic assets through a senior loan from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to sweeten the terms of the purchase of Bear Stearns by JPMorgan Chase. (See Jeffrey Epstein Chaired a $6.7 Billion Company that Documents Suggest May Have Received a Secret Federal Reserve Bailout.) The Justice Department, like many other formerly revered institutions in America, is no longer trusted by millions of Americans. A limited or corrupted case against Maxwell will simply deliver another black eye to an already tainted institution. — Ghislaine Maxwell, Wall Street’s Secrets and the U.S. Attorney’s Office
Image of the Day:
Majority Black Prison Populations In Maryland See Disproportionate COVID-19 Spikes Racial disparities in Maryland prisons are affecting COVID-19’s spread, with majority white populations receiving protective equipment even as Jessup institutions with majority Black populations struggle to get supplies.
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.
You Can’t Rely on Political Parties to Save Your Vote It’s been a rough primary season, and the presidential election is going to be even worse if thousands of voters can’t vote because their names have been wiped off the rolls. And voters can’t rely on political parties to save their votes, so they’re going to have to learn how to protect their vote themselves. And that’s precisely the point of Greg Palast new book, How Trump Stole 2020. In this interview, Act TV host Julianna Forlano talks to Palast about the book and the invaluable vote-saving info it contains. By Greg Palast and Julianna
Trump Rallies Round the Flag of the Slaveholders: Trump’s Racism May be Blatant, But the Culture He Defends Comes Out of the Civil War and Goes Well Beyond Racial Division President Trump is making plain the degree to which the country remains divided by the American Civil War. His threat to veto the $718bn Defence Bill if it renames military bases called after Confederate generals harks back to 1861. His stand highlights the bizarre way that the US military has named its biggest bases, like Fort Bragg in North Carolina and Fort Hood in Texas, after Confederate generals like Braxton Bragg and John Hood who fought a war to destroy the US. By Patrick Cockburn
‘Hunger Clock’ Billboards Blast McConnell and GOP Senators for Blocking $16 Billion in Food Aid “Let’s be clear: this delay in food aid may lead to even more Americans unnecessarily dying.” The nonprofit group Hunger Free America announced Monday that it is running “Hunger Clock” billboard ads across the country to call out GOP Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and other Republican senators for blocking $16 billion in food assistance for Americans struggling in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. By Jessica Corbett
The War on Logic: Contradictions and Absurdities in the House’s Military Spending Bill The House Armed Services Committee just passed a defense appropriations bill filled with moral contradictions and illogical absurdities. Consider: It removes some racist symbols in the military, but preserves Trump’s ability to use the military against anti-racist demonstrators. It abdicates Congress’ responsibility to declare war, but prevents the executive branch from moving toward peace. By Richard Eskow
Environment:
Global Warming Treadmill: As Global Warming Increases, the Rate of Global Warming Increases, As the Rate of Global Warming Increases. Global Warming Increases and so on and so on.. . . . — Roland Sheppard
Frightening numbers: Biosphere Heating AcceleratesThe Earth is warming at an astounding speed, equivalent to absorbing 907 times the USA’s annual energy use, far faster than biological species can adapt The Earth is warming at an astounding speed, equivalent to absorbing 907 times the USA’s annual energy use, far faster than biological species can adapt By Manuel Garcia Jr.
’24 Hours. 3 Dirty Pipelines Delayed’: Supreme Court Rejects Trump Effort to Greenlight Keystone XL Construction The Supreme Court late Monday upheld a federal judge’s rejection of a crucial permit for Keystone XL and blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to greenlight construction of the 1,200-mile crude oil project, the third such blow to the fossil fuel industry in a day—coming just hours after the cancellation of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the court-ordered shutdown of the Dakota Access Pipeline. By Jake Johnson
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
There is no democracy in the United States! — Just democracy for the 1%! When the order in the United States is economic and social inequality. The slogan ‘Law and Order’ means the maintenance of that order— Rich 1% First and the poorest of the 99% last!. Real democracy means that we all share the wealth equally! —Roland Sheppard
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George Floyd Protests Were Result of Years of Organizing There was nothing spontaneous about the breadth and scope of the protests that rocked the nation last month, said veteran activist Monifa Bandele, a member of the policy table of the Movement for Black Lives. “It really came off of six years of tough, exciting and inspiring mass organizing,” said Bandele. The unprecedented level of white participation was the result of “half a decade of telling non-white activists, ‘This is what it looks like, so follow the lead of Black organizations.’”
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AFRICOM Enforces US Colonial Project “We see AFRICOM as the colonization of Africa by the US,” said Tunde Osazua, of the Bllack Alliance for Peace. “Instead of working to end terrorism and stabilizing the African continent, “said Osazua, the US Military Command in Africa “actually destabilizes the continent.”
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Celebrating the “Father of Black Liberation Theology” Theologian James Cone, who died two years ago, “sent shock waves throughout the Christian world” in 1969 when he published his book on Black liberation theology, said Matt Harris, a doctoral candidate at UCLA who co-authored an article titled, “In the Hope That They Make Their Own Future: James H. Cone and the Third World.” “Cone’s critique of capitalism was always coupled with a critique of American imperialism,” said Harris.
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“Kwaito” Music Moves South African Youth Xavier Livermon, professor of African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, sees “many parallels” between the US-based Hip Hop phenomenon and the Kwaito music beloved by young South Africans. LIvermon is author of the book, “Kwaito Bodies: Remastering Space and Subjectivity in Post-Apartheid South Africa.” Livermon doesn’t see Kwaito as purely commercial and self-commodification. “South African youth play with and engage the system,” he said, “but also push back against it.”
Labor:
Counterpoint: Unemployment Benefits Should Depend on the Pandemic In recent weeks many members of Congress have been arguing against extending the $600 weekly supplement to unemployment insurance benefits that was put into the original pandemic relief package. Some members of Congress have even argued for extra payments to encourage unemployed workers to return to work. These proposals miss the logic that led Congress to originally put the supplements in place on a near unanimous vote. The Congress members who want to end the supplements and provide return-to-work bonuses quite explicitly are arguing that we want people to return to work By Dean Baker
Economy:
Will She, Like Jerry Epstein, Die, While in Prison, to Hide the Perversion of the US Ruling Rich?:
Ghislaine Maxwell, Wall Street’s Secrets and the U.S. Attorney’s Office Outside of the Wall Street executives that did business with child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, his first lieutenant, Ghislaine Maxwell, knows more about his Wall Street secrets than any other living person. Maxwell was arrested and indicted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (part of the U.S. Justice Department) on July 2, less than two weeks after the head of that office, Geoffrey Berman, was abruptly fired from his job by Attorney General William Barr. Berman’s former Deputy, Audrey Strauss, conducted the press conference regarding the Maxwell arrest. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
World:
Driving in London While Being Black: Athlete Stopped by Met Police Says It Feels Like ‘Being Black Is A Crime’ Bianca Williams says she feels obliged to speak out, as Keir Starmer questions police actions An athlete who was stopped and handcuffed by police alongside her partner and baby son has said the experience left her feeling like “being black is a crime”, as politicians questioned the officers’ actions.Bianca Williams and her partner, Ricardo dos Santos, who are both trained by the former Olympic champion Linford Christie, were stopped while driving back to their home in Maida Vale, west London, on Saturday.By Haroon Siddique
Ireland: ‘Programme for Government’ – Greens enable an establishment stitch-up This year has been an extraordinary one in Irish politics. The dominant political parties – Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael – were dealt a terrible blow in February’s election, so much so that the parties which could once command 80 percent in the polls have been reduced to a combined first-preference vote of 43 percent. The prevailing mood of the election was a demand for change and an end to their duopoly on power. Among the many parties calling for “change” in the election were the Green Party. However, in a craven move, the leadership of the Greens have now negotiated a ‘Programme for Government’ with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. By Séamas McLaughlin
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
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Goal 1 No Poverty
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Goal 2 Zero Hunger
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Goal 3 Good Health and Well-Being
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Goal 4 Quality Education
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Goal 5 Gender Equality
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Goal 6 Clean Water and Sanitation
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Goal 7 Affordable and Clean Energy
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Goal 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth
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Goal 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
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Goal 10 Reduced Inequalities
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Goal 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities
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Goal 12 Sustainable Consumption and Production
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Goal 13 Climate Action
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Goal 14 Life Below Water
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Goal 15 Life on Land
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Goal 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
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Goal 17 Partnerships for the Golas Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development
Peter Goodman: Why Is the New York Board of Regents “Bleeding” Public Schools by Expanding Charter Schools? Peter Goodman is a long-time observer of education politics in New York State and New York City. In this post, he asks a reasonable question: Why, at a time of fiscal stringency and uncertainty, is the Board of Regents of New York State rubber-stamping the expansion of charter schools? Charter schools, as he shows, cherry-pick their students to inflate their test scores. Despite state law, their doors are not open to all. He writes: If you look at charter school data virtually every charter school enrolls fewer than the “comparable” percentages required in the law. The reason is abundantly clear, students with disabilities and English language learners frequently have lower standardized test scores, impact the charter renewal process and are more costly to educate, i.e., lower class size = more teachers. By Diane Ravitch
Peter Goodman: Why Is the New York Board of Regents “Bleeding” Public Schools by Expanding Charter Schools? Peter Goodman is a long-time observer of education politics in New York State and New York City. In this post, he asks a reasonable question: Why, at a time of fiscal stringency and uncertainty, is the Board of Regents of New York State rubber-stamping the expansion of charter schools? Charter schools, as he shows, cherry-pick their students to inflate their test scores. Despite state law, their doors are not open to all. He writes: If you look at charter school data virtually every charter school enrolls fewer than the “comparable” percentages required in the law. The reason is abundantly clear, students with disabilities and English language learners frequently have lower standardized test scores, impact the charter renewal process and are more costly to educate, i.e., lower class size = more teachers. By Diane Ravitch
Laura Gray’s cartoon from the front page of The Militant August 18, 1945, Under the Banner Headline: “There Is No Peace”
Videos of the Day:
Black Agenda Radio for Week of July 6, 2020 With Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford