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!
Images of the Day:
As California Brns: According to Accuweather My are Quality is Poor. This My 7AM View Looking Towards San Franciso at 7AMThis My 11:15AM View From Outside My BalconyMy 1:27 PM View Looking Norh From My Balcony! I can see the plum of the Olema Fire!Quotes of the Day:
The events in Kenosha are the latest in a long line of cases in which self-styled vigilantes have gathered under the banner of the “thin blue line” — a flag and movement devoted to the defense of law enforcement and the president — and engaged in violence with counterprotesters while police stood back. Days before the killings in a Wisconsin, a so-called Back the Blue rally in Gilbert, Arizona, saw armed pro-police demonstrators beating counterprotesters while law enforcement looked on. In the run up to the confrontation, which are now a weekly event, supporters of the rally posted violent fantasies online and death threats against their critics. Days later, police in Portland stood by as gun-toting men waving “thin blue line” flags brawled with leftist protesters in the city’s streets. The clash came just weeks after Portland authorities acknowledged that a former Navy SEAL who had boasted about infiltrating “ANTIFA” was under investigation in connection with the detonation of an explosive device near protesters. Pro-police protests New York have also devolved into violence. — The Thin Blue Line Between Violent, Pro-Trump Militias and Police
Trump kicked off the convention to shouts of “Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!” Trump replied, “Now, if you really want really drive them crazy, you say ’12 more years.’” The delegates dutifully shouted back “Twelve more years! Twelve more years! Twelve more years!” Trump responded, “Because we caught them doing really bad things in 2016. Let’s see what happens.” In 2016 Trump charged the the Democrats had organized over three million undocumented people to vote, overturning the real popular vote for Trump (Trump won the Electoral College but lost the popular vote). Trump could not win twelve more years legally unless there was a Constitutional amendment allowing more than the presently stipulated two terms, something which is impossible to do unless the Democratic Party were to be suppressed. This amounted to another example of Trump saying he would not accept the vote in November if it went against him. That would take a putsch to actually carry out. — United States: Trump’s Bonapartism
The Orangeman himself mirrors the worst fascist society in world history, Nazi Germany, in his disregard for science, attacks on the left, support of police violence, denial, demonization of people of color, and attacks of varying kinds against immigrants and women. One of his advisers, Stephen Miller (“Stephen Miller’s Dystopian America,” New York Times, August 28, 2020), has been an architect of the demonization of immigrants, including immigrant children. That Miller was born a Jew does nothing less than cause me great pain. — Death and Loathing Are on the Ballot
Videos of the Day:
COVID-19 could be a death sentence for elderly prisoners Members of the group Releasing Aging People in Prison talk about officials’ refusal to release aging prisoners with violent offenses, although studies show the chances of someone reoffending as they age are minimal.
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. Rax the Rich! — They Can Afford To Pay!
United States: Trump’s Bonapartism The Republican National Convention centered on two interrelated themes. One was adulation of Trump as the strong leader who can save the county, and he must hold onto power come what may. The other was his means to do this – blatant racism through mobilizing an assault on the Black Lives Matter movement, charging that it was violent thugs intent on physically destroying the country, and he would crush it in the streets. Trump dominated each session with his presence and speeches, culminating in his long acceptance speech with the White House as his backdrop. By Barry Sheppard
Saying ‘Underlying Premise’ of For-Profit System Out Loud, GOP Staffer Punished for Telling Constituent People Don’t Deserve Healthcare They Can’t Afford The staffer for North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis compared obtaining healthcare in the U.S. to purchasing new clothes, telling a three-time cancer survivor, “If I can’t afford that dress shirt, I don’t get to get it.” By Jake JohnsonBarr Slammed for Acting as ‘Personal Henchman’ of Trump as DOJ Moves to Take Over His Defense in Suit Filed by Rape Accuser “By putting the DOJ to work defending him over conduct that has nothing to do with his official capacity Democratic lawmakers and legal experts accused Attorney General William Barr of unethically acting as President Donald Trump’s “personal henchman” after the Justice Department on Tuesday moved to take over the president’s defense team in a defamation case brought by journalist and author E. Jean Carroll, who has accused Trump of raping her in the 1990s. By Jake JohnsonTrump Disses Troops but Correctly Labels 2 of America’s Costliest Wars Unjustified or ‘Stupid’ Let’s be honest about America’s wars and the men (overwhelmingly) and women who have fought them. Most of the wars that the US has launched or fought in, dating back to at least the War of 1812, were not just or necessary, could have been avoided, and wasted precious lives and national wealth, often while slaughtering the people of weaker nations. In the latest scandal precipitated by Commander in Chief Donald Trump — a man who notoriously got a doctor to lie for him about his having debilitating “bone spurs” so he wouldn’t have to serve in the military during the Vietnam War — we have a president who is the leader of the military who, it is reliably confirmed, has disparaged the people who fought in those wars. He has called them “losers” for being killed or captured in battle. He has declined to memorialize them. He has had wounded veterans kept out of military parades because he felt vets in wheelchairs and on walkers or crutches or missing limbs “are not a good look.” He has called soldiers who served in Vietnam “losers and suckers” for going and fighting and dying there, since, as he knew from his own experience, the draft was “easy to get out of.” And he has declined to visit the graves in France of US dead from WWI, calling them “losers” for getting killed. By Dave LindorffEnvironment:
Illegal Devices That Bypass Vehicle Emissions Controls Spread Across US Thousands of tons of pollution spew into the air in the US from devices that proliferate online and in body shops When officials at the Environmental Protection Agency began investigating Freedom Performance, LLC, they didn’t have to look very hard for evidence that the company was violating the Clean Air Act. According to legal documents, the Florida car parts distributor literally advertised violations on its website. “The road to hell is often paved with good intentions,” stated one ad for a kit to remove federally required emissions controls from diesel trucks. It identified a particular emissions control system that “is certainly noble in its intent” but “in reality it is putting your engine through hell … The best solution is deletion.” By Eli Wolfe and Alexandra Tempus‘How Pathetic’: Sanders Rips GOP for Proposing Massive Coal Industry Handout But No Direct Payments to Struggling Americans “While Senate Republicans tell us we can’t afford to give $2,000 a month to the working class during the economic crisis, the Covid-19 ‘relief’ bill they just released provides $161 million in corporate welfare to the coal industry during a climate emergency.” By Jake Johnson
The Real Unemplyoment Rate Has Been Over 10% Since 1996 and It Has Been Over 20% Since 2009!: Shadow Government Statistics Flash Economic Commentary, Issue No. 1447 Graph 4: Unemployment Rates (1994 to August 2020) – Corrected for Unemployed Misclassified as “Employed” Corrected for April to August 2020 Household Survey “misclassifications” of unemployed persons as “employed”—respective monthly misclassified counts, in millions per BLS: 1.5, 7.7, 4.9, 1.9, 1.3 and 1.1. BLS-Corrected Headline U.S. Unemployment Rates U.3 and U.6 versus the ShadowStats Alternate 1994 to August 2020, Seasonally Adjusted [ShadowStats, Bureau of Labor Statistics]In California’s Wine Country, Undocumented Grape Pickers Forced to Work in Fire Evacuation Zones Grape growers in Sonoma County are getting exemptions to send in farm workers who have few alternatives or options for support. as wildfire smoke billowed into the wine-producing region of Sonoma County, California, workers continued harvesting grapes, day and night. Even in evacuation zones, where the safety threat from flames was severe enough for officials to ask residents to leave the area, the county agriculture commissioner invited workers to continue laboring in the fields, doling out evacuation-area access passes to dozens of agricultural producers. With undocumented immigrants — many of them workers from Latin American Indigenous communities — already economically drained after surviving months of the pandemic with virtually no government support, workers were in no position to decline an offer for work. By Alleen Brown
New Claims, Jobs, Employment and Unemployment, Trade DeficitEconomic Rebound Continues to Falter
August 2020 Payroll and Unemployment Details Show Intensifying Flattening in the Developing L-Shaped Recovery
Year-to-Year Decline in Payrolls Has Stabilized Around 7.0% (-7.0%), a Level Last Seen When the U.S. Economy Reset After World War II
· Stalling Recovery Will Generate Greater Government Spending and Federal Reserve Monetary Excesses
· Developing Record Shortfall in Third-Quarter Real Trade Deficit Has Negative Implications for Third-Quarter 2020 GDP
· Handling of Needed Revisions to New Unemployment Claims Rivaled Reporting Games that President Nixon Wanted to Play
· Bureau of Labor Statistics Still Cannot Count the Number of Unemployed Persons, Six Months into the Pandemic
The Wall Street Bank Selloff Yesterday Was More About Oil than Big Tech The mega banks on Wall Street joined the tech wreck yesterday as illustrated on the chart above. The selloff in these banks can be attributed to, primarily, the selloff in the price of crude oil – which suggests the banks will be forced to increase loan loss reserves as the threat of more bankruptcies among debt-strapped U.S. oil producers increases.Domestic crude oil, known as West Texas Intermediate or WTI, had a $41 handle on Friday on the Nymex. Yesterday, that turned into a $36 handle – a decline of 12 percent from Friday. A WTI handle below $40 is panic-time for U.S. independent oil producers who are deep in debt and struggling to avoid bankruptcy. By Pam Martens and Russ MartensWorld:
Protests Continue in Belarus as Opposition Leader is Abducted Protests Continue in Belarus as Opposition Leader is Abducted Thousands in Belarus continue to protest the Lukashenko government. The abduction of opposition figure Maria Kolesnikova has exacerbated the crisis. On Sunday, thousands of people took to the streets of Minsk, the capital of Belarus, to protest the recent presidential elections which saw the reelection of President Alexander Lukashenko. The elections are widely suspected to have been rigged in Lukashenko’s favor. More than 100,000 demonstrators marched to the president’s residence to demand his resignation. Riot police wearing ski masks arrested 633 people, while groups of pro-government thugs beat protesters.
As the World Burns: ‘Catastrophe’ Warning As Thousands Left Homeless by Lesbos Refugee Camp Fire NGOs accuse police of blocking access to hospital for families and vulnerable migrants injured in Moria blaze NGOs in Lesbos have warned that a humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding on the roads around the still burning Moria camp, where thousands of migrants are allegedly being held by police without shelter or adequate medical help. Annie Petros, head coordinator of of the charity Becky’s Bathhouse, said she was blocked by police from taking injured people to hospital as she drove them away from the fire. By Harriet Grant
Refugees and migrants run as fire burns in the Moria refugee camp on the northeastern Aegean island of Lesbos, Greece, on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2020. Fire Service officials say a large refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos has been partially evacuated despite a COVID-19 lockdown after fires broke out at multiple points around the site early Wednesday. (AP Photo/Panagiotis Balaskas)
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
Remote Learning is Turning Classrooms Into Police States Virtual classrooms make punishment easier to dole out than connection. It doesn’t have to be this way Think of your favorite teacher. Whenever I ask people to do this, they usually tell me about a teacher who saw them: the one who took them aside and encouraged them to pursue art or computer science, who helped counsel them through a personal issue, who attended their Quinceañera — who, ultimately, just cared. By Victoria Theisen Homer
Laura Gray’s cartoon from the front page of The Militant August 18, 1945, Under the Banner Headline: “There Is No Peace”
This My 11:15AM View From Outside My Balcony
My 1:27 PM View Looking Norh From My Balcony! I can see the plum of the Olema Fire!
Quotes of the Day:
Barr Slammed for Acting as ‘Personal Henchman’ of Trump as DOJ Moves to Take Over His Defense in Suit Filed by Rape Accuser “By putting the DOJ to work defending him over conduct that has nothing to do with his official capacity Democratic lawmakers and legal experts accused Attorney General William Barr of unethically acting as President Donald Trump’s “personal henchman” after the Justice Department on Tuesday moved to take over the president’s defense team in a defamation case brought by journalist and author E. Jean Carroll, who has accused Trump of raping her in the 1990s. By Jake Johnson
Trump Disses Troops but Correctly Labels 2 of America’s Costliest Wars Unjustified or ‘Stupid’ Let’s be honest about America’s wars and the men (overwhelmingly) and women who have fought them. Most of the wars that the US has launched or fought in, dating back to at least the War of 1812, were not just or necessary, could have been avoided, and wasted precious lives and national wealth, often while slaughtering the people of weaker nations. In the latest scandal precipitated by Commander in Chief Donald Trump — a man who notoriously got a doctor to lie for him about his having debilitating “bone spurs” so he wouldn’t have to serve in the military during the Vietnam War — we have a president who is the leader of the military who, it is reliably confirmed, has disparaged the people who fought in those wars. He has called them “losers” for being killed or captured in battle. He has declined to memorialize them. He has had wounded veterans kept out of military parades because he felt vets in wheelchairs and on walkers or crutches or missing limbs “are not a good look.” He has called soldiers who served in Vietnam “losers and suckers” for going and fighting and dying there, since, as he knew from his own experience, the draft was “easy to get out of.” And he has declined to visit the graves in France of US dead from WWI, calling them “losers” for getting killed. By Dave Lindorff
Environment:
‘How Pathetic’: Sanders Rips GOP for Proposing Massive Coal Industry Handout But No Direct Payments to Struggling Americans “While Senate Republicans tell us we can’t afford to give $2,000 a month to the working class during the economic crisis, the Covid-19 ‘relief’ bill they just released provides $161 million in corporate welfare to the coal industry during a climate emergency.” By Jake Johnson
Labor:
In California’s Wine Country, Undocumented Grape Pickers Forced to Work in Fire Evacuation Zones Grape growers in Sonoma County are getting exemptions to send in farm workers who have few alternatives or options for support. as wildfire smoke billowed into the wine-producing region of Sonoma County, California, workers continued harvesting grapes, day and night. Even in evacuation zones, where the safety threat from flames was severe enough for officials to ask residents to leave the area, the county agriculture commissioner invited workers to continue laboring in the fields, doling out evacuation-area access passes to dozens of agricultural producers. With undocumented immigrants — many of them workers from Latin American Indigenous communities — already economically drained after surviving months of the pandemic with virtually no government support, workers were in no position to decline an offer for work. By Alleen Brown
Shadow Government Statistics Flash Economic Commentary, Issue No. 1447
The Wall Street Bank Selloff Yesterday Was More About Oil than Big Tech The mega banks on Wall Street joined the tech wreck yesterday as illustrated on the chart above. The selloff in these banks can be attributed to, primarily, the selloff in the price of crude oil – which suggests the banks will be forced to increase loan loss reserves as the threat of more bankruptcies among debt-strapped U.S. oil producers increases.Domestic crude oil, known as West Texas Intermediate or WTI, had a $41 handle on Friday on the Nymex. Yesterday, that turned into a $36 handle – a decline of 12 percent from Friday. A WTI handle below $40 is panic-time for U.S. independent oil producers who are deep in debt and struggling to avoid bankruptcy. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
World:
