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 Deaths in the Entire World!
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 police continue to use extra legal means to subjugate the Black Community, as Malcolm X stated in speach at the Founding Rally of the Organization of Afro-American Unity (1964): The community must reinforce its moral responsibility to rid itself of the effects of years of exploitation, neglect, and apathy, and wage an unrelenting struggle against police brutality.” Yes. There are some good policemen and some bad policemen. Usually we get the bad ones. With all the police in Harlem, there is too much crime, too much drug addiction, too much alcoholism, too much prostitution, too much gambling. So it makes us suspicious about the motives of Commissioner Murphy when he sends all these policemen up here. We begin to think that they are just his errand boys, whose job it is to pick up the graft and take it back downtown to Murphy. Anytime there’s a police commissioner who finds it necessary to increase the strength numerically of the policemen in Harlem and, at the same time, we don’t see any sign of a decrease in crime, why, I think we’re justified in suspecting his motives. He can’t be sending them up here to fight crime, because crime is on the increase. The more cops we have, the more crime we have. We begin to think that they bring some of the crime with them. So our purpose is to organize the community so that we ourselves since the police can’t eliminate the drug traffic, we have to eliminate it. Since the police can’t eliminate organized gambling, we have to eliminate it. Since the police can’t eliminate organized prostitution and all of these evils that are destroying the moral fiber of our community, it is up to you and me to eliminate these evils ourselves. But in many instances, when you unite in this country or in this city to fight organized crime, you’ll find yourselves fighting the police department itself because they are involved in the organized crime. Wherever you have organized crime, that type of crime cannot exist other than with the consent of the police, the knowledge of the police and the cooperation of the police.
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. Rax the Rich! — They Can Afford To Pay!
An Incitement To Violence?: RNC Gave Prime Time to Vigilantes. The Next Day a Gunman Shot BLM Protesters. The RNC illustrates the many links between explicit and implicit endorsements of white supremacy and authoritarianism. The opening night of this week’s Republican National Convention (RNC) prominently featured a speech by Patricia and Mark McCloskey, the wealthy white couple who illegally brandished firearms at Black Lives Matter protesters in St. Louis, Missouri. Then, just one day after the McCloskeys’ RNC speech, a white gunman killed two people and injured a third at a Black Lives Matter protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin. By Mark BrayTrump Continues Assault on Democratic Norms at Republican Convention The event marks the evolution of one of the two major parties of American capitalism into an instrument for the development of a personalist and authoritarian movement with increasingly fascistic characteristics. By Barry GreyPolice Violence Continues Unabated Three Months After the Murder of George Floyd Three months after the murder of George Floyd sparked mass multiracial and multiethnic demonstrations demanding an end to police violence and racism, the police continue their reign of terror across the United States without any sign of slowing down.
It’s Time for a Pandemic Wealth Tax on Billionaires’ Windfall Gains Nothing symbolizes the inequality of sacrifice during the COVID-19 pandemic more than watching a few hundred billionaires gain while everyone else struggles through job losses, debilitating illness, or death. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have died from COVID-19 and over 32 million have lost their jobs. U.S. households lost an estimated $6.5 trillion in wealth during the first quarter of 2020 alone.It is time to levy an emergency wealth tax on billionaire profiteers and direct the funds to offset the cost of the nation’s health-care costs. By Chuck Collins – Frank ClementeSeattle’s High-End Wage Tax and Taxing Stock Returns Sometimes random events come together in ways that help clarify our thinking. I had such an event last Friday. I was happy that day because Bloomberg ran a column by me on an idea I’ve toyed with for years: replacing the corporate income tax with a tax on stock returns. The logic is that this is a simple and largely foolproof method of taxing corporate profits. Since the components of stock returns (capital gains and dividend payments) are public information, corporate tax liabilities could be determined on a simple spreadsheet. And, there is nothing for companies to argue over or contest, we know how much their stock rose and we know what they paid in dividends. If the corporate tax rate is 25 percent, that is what they owe, end of story. By Dean Baker
Environment
Scientists warned the world that, due to global warming, there will more extreme weather — droughts, hurricanes, etc,! To be forewarned means to be prepared! And yet, U.S. Capitalism, due to Its global warming denial, is totally unprepared for the annual fire and hurricane seasons!
This was a night with few parallels in recent hurricane history, with Laura tying for the 2nd-highest winds at landfall of any continental U.S. hurricane of the 21st Century (after Michael and tied with Charley). As with any storm of this magnitude, the devastation will take many days to fully understand as Southwest Louisiana slowly emerges from the chaos of the storm. — Hurricane Laura first Category 4 hurricane to make landfall in Western Louisiana
United States: California Fires Result of Climate Change Record wildfires in the San Francisco Bay Area rapidly erupted in less than two weeks, in the midst of a scorching heat wave. As of August 24, nearly 120,000 people have fled their homes as nearly 5000 square kilometres have burned and area greater than the state of Rhode Island. Two of the wildfires rank as the second- and third-largest in California’s history – and they’re still growing. The largest wildfire was in 2018. This is happening during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused increased difficulties for those evacuated from their homes. The areas where they find refuge must obey physical distancing rules, so cannot hold as many people. More than 1200 homes and other structures have been destroyed. By Barry Sheppard
Hurricanes Like Laura Are More Likely Because Of Climate Change Hurricane Laura’s top wind speeds nearly doubled in just 24 hours as it approached the border between Texas and Louisiana. The wall of water it pushed in front of it grew until forecasters warned that it would produce “unsurvivable” storm surge.Laura’s rapid intensification is one hallmark of climate change. As the Earth warms up, the water on the surface of the ocean gets hotter. Hot water is like a battery charger for hurricanes; it send energy and moisture into the storm as it forms and helps it grow more powerful and deadly. By Rebecca Hersher
Hurricane Laura Brings 150mph Winds yo Louisiana With More ‘Catastrophic Conditions’ to Come Three fatalities recorded in Louisiana, including a 14-year-old girl who died after a tree fell on her home Hurricane Laura, the most powerful hurricane to strike the US this year, was moving across Louisiana on a northerly path on Thursday morning, still at hurricane strength 170 miles inland after threatening an “unsurvivable storm surge” on the coast and tropical force weather as far as Tennessee. By Oliver Laughlandin New Orleans, Philip Kiefer in Lake Charles,Adam Gabbatt
Flooding caused by Hurricane Laura on Thursday in Sabine Pass, Texas. Photograph: Eric Thayer/Getty Images
Civil Rights/ Black Liberarion:
The Historic Role of Police Brutality in the Black Community and African American Oppression To begin to understand, the role of the police, the following quotes By Jam Baldwin, which are still true today — they act like a army of occupation.: “Harlem (The Black Community) is policed like occupied territory.”—James Baldwin, A Report from Occupied Territory “And the police are simply the hired enemies of this population. They are present to keep the Negro in his place and to protect white business interests, and they have no other function. They are, moreover — even in a country which makes the grave error of equating ignorance with simplicity—quite stunningly ignorant; and, since they know that they are hated, they are always afraid. One cannot possibly arrive at a more surefire formula for cruelty.” — James Baldwin, From ‘Victim’ to ‘Threat’: James Baldwin and the Demands of Self-Respect
Freedom Rider: Democrats are Officially Republicans The Democrats claim to be the opposition party, but they seek out Republicans, hate the left of their own party, and don’t seem to care if they lose the election. By Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
Obama, Harris and the Ruse of Racial Representation Racial liberalism attempts to shape the perspectives of communities of color through narrow ideas of national belonging, Manifest Destiny, and the American Dream. By Nelson Maldonado-Torres
Open Defecation Zones and the Shaming of Africa 3.0 “Voluntourists” in Africa are actually jihadists for the West who defecate all over the continent in every way that defecation is possible. By Zanga Chimombo
Labor:
Economy:
An Unprecedented 1,640 CEOs Departed in 2019; Now Execs Are Dumping Stock at Highest Pace Since 2006 A rather fascinating picture is emerging that suggests that things were not as rosy in the U.S. economic landscape prior to the pandemic as President Donald Trump and his Director of the National Economic Council, Larry Kudlow, would have the public believe. Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. has been tracking CEO departures for the past 12 years. Its Vice President, Andrew Challenger, called the numbers for 2019 “staggering.” It was the highest number since their surveys began in 2002. A total of 1,640 CEOs headed for the exits last year. That was 156 more CEOs than those who left their post in 2008 – the year that Wall Street blazed a scorched earth trail through the U.S. economy. By Pam Martens and Russ MartensWorld:
Cuban medical workers are risking their health to break the chain of the COVID-19 infection. Cuban scientists developed drugs—such as interferon alpha-2b—to help fight the disease. Now Cuban scientists have announced that their vaccine is in trials; this vaccine will not be treated as private property but will be shared with the peoples of the world. This is the fidelity of Cuban medical internationalism. On August 21, Raúl Castro—the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba—spoke at an event for the 60th anniversary of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC). At the meeting, Castro mentioned that 61 percent of the medical workers in the Henry Reeve Brigade were women; since the start of Cuban medical internationalism in 1960, over 400,000 medical workers have worked in more than 40 countries. These medical workers believe in the twin missions of medical care and internationalism; it is a lesson that they learned from the teachings of Che Guevara, a doctor and an internationalist. — Why Cuban Doctors Deserve the Nobel Peace Prize
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 ‘:’, 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
With Science Denial — Politics — Not Science. — Determines Coronavirus Policy!
Laura Gray’s cartoon from the front page of The Militant August 18, 1945, Under the Banner Headline: “There Is No Peace”
Trump Continues Assault on Democratic Norms at Republican Convention The event marks the evolution of one of the two major parties of American capitalism into an instrument for the development of a personalist and authoritarian movement with increasingly fascistic characteristics. By Barry Grey
Police Violence Continues Unabated Three Months After the Murder of George Floyd Three months after the murder of George Floyd sparked mass multiracial and multiethnic demonstrations demanding an end to police violence and racism, the police continue their reign of terror across the United States without any sign of slowing down.
Seattle’s High-End Wage Tax and Taxing Stock Returns Sometimes random events come together in ways that help clarify our thinking. I had such an event last Friday. I was happy that day because Bloomberg ran a column by me on an idea I’ve toyed with for years: replacing the corporate income tax with a tax on stock returns. The logic is that this is a simple and largely foolproof method of taxing corporate profits. Since the components of stock returns (capital gains and dividend payments) are public information, corporate tax liabilities could be determined on a simple spreadsheet. And, there is nothing for companies to argue over or contest, we know how much their stock rose and we know what they paid in dividends. If the corporate tax rate is 25 percent, that is what they owe, end of story. By Dean Baker
World:
Politics Trumps Science: 
