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! For Decades, Blacks Have Been Subjected to The Iron Heel! Currently, the US Capitalist Class is Divided Over When — Not If, to Apply It to Everyone!
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!
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!
Progress in reducing poverty had been slowing before the pandemic, according to the report. About 52m people worldwide rose out of poverty between 2015 and 2017 but the rate of poverty reduction had slowed to less than half a percentage point a year during that period, after reductions of about 1 per cent a year between 1990 and 2015. What is also clear from the report is that all the reduction in poverty rates since 1990 have been in Asia, in particular East Asia, and in particular China. Strip China out and there has been little or no improvement in absolute poverty in 30 years. — Debt Disaster With No Escape
Systemic Racism: Breaking: Another Cop Charged With Assault, Another Example of a Broken System The latest charges against a Baltimore police officer for assault and misconduct highlight the inability of police to police themselves. And we analyze the exceptional privileges afforded to officers by a special set of laws: yhe Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill Of Rights.
CrossTalk | Quarantine Edition | Permanent Inequality? It remains unclear who will be the occupant of the White House next January. What can be easily predicted is the state of the economy for tens of millions of citizens. It appears what is called a K-shaped recovery is permanently dividing the country into the haves and have-nots. And this seems to be acceptable for those who are the haves!
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!
Assange Faces Extradition for Exposing US War Crimes (Related Article: Hillary Clinton says Julian Assange ‘has to answer for what he has done’) Three weeks of testimony in Julian Assange’s extradition hearing in London underscored WikiLeaks’s extraordinary revelation of U.S. war crimes in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay. But the Trump is seeking to extradite Assange to the United States to stand trial for charges under the Espionage Act that could cause him to spend 175 years in prison. Assange founded WikiLeaks during the Bush administration’s “war on terror,” which was used as a pretext to start two illegal wars and carry out a widespread program of torture and abuse of prisoners at Guantánamo and the CIA black sites. On October 8, 2011, Assange told a Stop the War Coalition rally in London’s Trafalgar Square, “If wars can be started by lies, peace can be started by truth.” By Marjorie Cohn
Appalling Criminal Conduct’: California GOP Accused of Operating Fake ‘Official’ Ballot Drop Boxes “Apparently they’re trying to prove voter fraud is real by committing actual election fraud.” California’s top election official is investigating reports that the state’s Republican Party has set up unauthorized ballot drop boxes posing as “official” in several major counties, an illegal practice that could deceive voters into depositing their ballots at unsecure locations. “Operating unofficial ballot drop boxes—especially those misrepresented as official drop boxes—is not just misleading to voters, it’s a violation of state law,” California Secretary of State Alex Padilla said in a statement responding to reports of unauthorized ballot drop boxes in Fresno, Los Angeles, and Orange counties. By Jake JohnsonTrump’s Election Day Coup Threat: Into the Streets! Shut it Down! The spectacle of some dozen U.S. TV stations broadcasting election returns on November 3 while Trump’s White House simultaneously prepares its own count is almost beyond belief. Yet, if would-be dictator Trump takes this route there is zero doubt that we will see a massive protest mobilization of unprecedented proportions in the streets of the nation. Anticipating such a mobilization the threatening Election Day coup plotter bigot Trump has announced his response in advance. He intends to interpret the 1807 Insurrection Act as empowering him to deploy the U.S. military and federalized National Guard troops to brutally repress demonstrators across the country who insist on the constitutional right to peacefully protest and insist on the right of the people to vote. Such were Trump’s stated intentions a few months ago when he called on his top general, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Mark Milley, Secretary of Defense Esper and an entourage of government officials to personally accompany him in a walk across Lafayette Square, adjacent to the White House, to St. Peters Church for a one-minute photo op, bible in hand. A few blocks away his National Guard troops viciously gassed and brutalized thousands of peaceful protestors, including several media reporters. Assembled on the outskirts of the city were federal troops awaiting Trump’s call while Pentagon helicopters flew low overhead to intimidate the peaceful demonstrators. By Jeff Mackler
Trump is Waging War on Us, We Ignore It at Our Peril From the very beginning of his presidency, Donald Trump was pushing every boundary, violating the Constitution, and breaking rules and norms. But during this past year, he has escalated his attacks on the nation enough that we are at a point where the American president is waging war on the nation—even if many of us don’t yet realize it. Tweeting from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center while battling the coronavirus, Trump posted a message to Twitter recruiting loyal soldiers. His post featured a photo of himself and the words, “Fight for President Trump!” It was linked to a page called “ArmyforTrump.com.” Trump’s campaign for reelection launched that website in March 2020 and sent out fundraising emails to “PATRIOTS ONLY,” telling them they would “make an excellent addition to the Trump Army.” Taking the theme of war even further, the campaign promised to send out camouflage hats with Trump’s campaign slogan in exchange for donations, saying, “The President wants YOU and every other member of our exclusive Trump Army to have something to identify yourselves with,” just as soldiers might sport identifying insignia or uniforms. And, according to the campaign message, Trump’s supporters are expected to be “the President’s first line of defense when it comes to fighting off the liberal MOB. By Sonali Kolhatkar
The ‘Law and Order’ Trump Administration Only Supports Their Version of Law and Order! Trump’s Public Lands Chief Refuses to Leave His Post Despite Judge’s Order William Perry Pendley says ‘I have the support of the president’ despite court ruling he is serving illegally as head of the Bureau of Land Management controversial environment chief in the Trump administration has said he has no intention of leaving his post after a US district court judge deemed his tenure and ongoing occupation of the position illegal. By Cassidy Randall
Fifth of Countries at Risk of Ecosystem Collapse, Analysis Finds Trillions of dollars of GDP depend on biodiversity, according to Swiss Re report One-fifth of the world’s countries are at risk of their ecosystems collapsing because of the destruction of wildlife and their habitats, according to an analysis by the insurance firm Swiss Re. Natural “services” such as food, clean water and air, and flood protection have already been damaged by human activity. More than half of global GDP – $42tn (£32tn) – depends on high-functioning biodiversity, according to the report, but the risk of tipping points is growing. By Damian Carrington
Op-ed: Battered by Hurricanes and Pollution, It Is Time for Louisiana to Imagine Life Beyond Oil Living in Louisiana, reconciling the environmental harm caused by the state’s often celebrated oil and petrochemical sectors amounts to cognitive gaslighting. The state experiences one of the highest relative sea-level rise rates in the world while it breathlessly promotes its oil and gas sector. It celebrates proposed expansions to its petrochemical corridor even as noxious fumes sicken residents and plastics litter its streams and rivers. A cognitive dissonance is required. Take the nurdle, the building block of plastic consumer products manufactured by Formosa Plastics and other plants in Louisiana. As yet another major hurricane batters Louisiana’s coast, there are millions of lentil-sized nurdle pellets washing up along the sandy banks of the Mississippi and into the Gulf after an August 2 shipping accident at the Port of New Orleans. By Ned RandolphPoisoning the Pacific: The US Military’s Secret Dumping of Plutonium, Chemical Weapons, and Agent Orange‘Poisoning the Pacific’: New Book Details US Military Contamination of Islands and Ocean More than 12,000 pages of US government documents show military operations contaminating the Pacific with radioactive waste, nerve agents, and chemical weapons like Agent Orange A new book, Poisoning the Pacific, to be released Monday, chronicles the US military’s decades-long contamination of indigenous lands across the Pacific as well as the ocean itself, endangering lives and ecosystems across the vast Pacific Ocean. Written by British journalist Jon Mitchell, Poisoning the Pacific is based on more than 12,000 pages of documents obtained under the US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and through interviews with local residents, military veterans and researchers. The book argues that for decades, the US has treated its territories in the Pacific with negligence, allowing its military to violate indigenous rights, seize land, and damage delicate ecosystems. By Rachel Ramirez
The Dome on Runit Island With a Crater Left Behind BB Another Nuclear Test. Photograph: Greg Nelson
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Labor:
Economy:
Debt Disaster With No Escape The IMF-World Bank semi-annual meeting starts this week. Earlier the IMF kicked off the show with a warning that the poor countries of the world are heading for a catastrophe from the pandemic slump, leading to defaults on the debts that their governments and companies owe to investors and banks in the ‘global north’. According to the IMF, about half of Low Income Economies (LIEs) are now in danger of debt default. ‘Emerging market’ debt to GDP has increased from 40% to 60% in this crisis. By Michael RobertsIf You’re Baffled as to Why JPMorgan Chase’s Board Hasn’t Sacked Jamie Dimon as the Bank Racked Up 5 Felony Counts – Here’s Your Answer For years we’ve been trying to figure out why JPMorgan’s Board of Directors hasn’t sacked its Chairman and CEO, Jamie Dimon, as the bank racked up two felony counts in 2014 for its failure to alert U.S. regulators to glaring red flags in the bank account it held for Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme; one felony count in 2015 for rigging foreign exchange markets; and two more felony counts just last month for rigging the precious metals and U.S. Treasury market. (The bank admitted to all five counts.) In addition, the bank came under another criminal investigation in 2012 and 2013 when it lost $6 billion of its bank depositors’ money gambling in credit derivatives in London (the London Whale scandal). Turns out Jamie Dimon has been taking very good care of the Directors on his Board and they have been taking very good care of Dimon – turning him into a billionaire, notwithstanding the worst criminal record of any major bank in the history of the United States. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
World:
The Black Death: the Pandemic That Changed the World The Black Death of the 14th century dealt a mortal blow to the feudal system, which was decaying even before the plague hit. Similarly today, the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the bankruptcy of capitalism – and the need for socialism. The present COVID-19 pandemic is a truly world-changing event. Its rapid and deadly spread has ruthlessly exposed governments, strained health services to breaking point, and triggered the deepest crisis of capitalism since the 1930s – if not ever. By Josh HolroydEducation, 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
Shocking Link Found Between Air Pollution and Alzheimer’s A new study based on nanoparticles found in the brainstems of young people could have wide-reaching consequences for global environmental policy. Environmental Research has published a new study carried out Lilian Calderón-Garcidueña at the University of Montana and a team of international researchers that sheds light on the possible damage dirty air can have on our brains. The researchers found copious amounts of nanoparticles linked to neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, in the brain stems of nearly 200 young Mexico City residents under the age of 27 who had died suddenly. While the Mexican capital has long struggled with toxic air quality, the new study has global relevance as a whopping 90% of the world is exposed to dangerous levels of air pollution.
Mexico City has Grappled With Dangerous Levels of Air Pollution for Decades. [sanpani / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0]
Laura Gray’s cartoon from the front page of The Militant August 18, 1945, Under the Banner Headline: “There Is No Peace”
Quotes 0f the Day:
Trump’s Election Day Coup Threat: Into the Streets! Shut it Down! The spectacle of some dozen U.S. TV stations broadcasting election returns on November 3 while Trump’s White House simultaneously prepares its own count is almost beyond belief. Yet, if would-be dictator Trump takes this route there is zero doubt that we will see a massive protest mobilization of unprecedented proportions in the streets of the nation. Anticipating such a mobilization the threatening Election Day coup plotter bigot Trump has announced his response in advance. He intends to interpret the 1807 Insurrection Act as empowering him to deploy the U.S. military and federalized National Guard troops to brutally repress demonstrators across the country who insist on the constitutional right to peacefully protest and insist on the right of the people to vote. Such were Trump’s stated intentions a few months ago when he called on his top general, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Mark Milley, Secretary of Defense Esper and an entourage of government officials to personally accompany him in a walk across Lafayette Square, adjacent to the White House, to St. Peters Church for a one-minute photo op, bible in hand. A few blocks away his National Guard troops viciously gassed and brutalized thousands of peaceful protestors, including several media reporters. Assembled on the outskirts of the city were federal troops awaiting Trump’s call while Pentagon helicopters flew low overhead to intimidate the peaceful demonstrators. By Jeff Mackler
Poisoning the Pacific: The US Military’s Secret Dumping of Plutonium, Chemical Weapons, and Agent Orange
‘Poisoning the Pacific’: New Book Details US Military Contamination of Islands and Ocean More than 12,000 pages of US government documents show military operations contaminating the Pacific with radioactive waste, nerve agents, and chemical weapons like Agent Orange A new book, Poisoning the Pacific, to be released Monday, chronicles the US military’s decades-long contamination of indigenous lands across the Pacific as well as the ocean itself, endangering lives and ecosystems across the vast Pacific Ocean. Written by British journalist Jon Mitchell, Poisoning the Pacific is based on more than 12,000 pages of documents obtained under the US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and through interviews with local residents, military veterans and researchers. The book argues that for decades, the US has treated its territories in the Pacific with negligence, allowing its military to violate indigenous rights, seize land, and damage delicate ecosystems. By Rachel Ramirez
If You’re Baffled as to Why JPMorgan Chase’s Board Hasn’t Sacked Jamie Dimon as the Bank Racked Up 5 Felony Counts – Here’s Your Answer For years we’ve been trying to figure out why JPMorgan’s Board of Directors hasn’t sacked its Chairman and CEO, Jamie Dimon, as the bank racked up two felony counts in 2014 for its failure to alert U.S. regulators to glaring red flags in the bank account it held for Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme; one felony count in 2015 for rigging foreign exchange markets; and two more felony counts just last month for rigging the precious metals and U.S. Treasury market. (The bank admitted to all five counts.) In addition, the bank came under another criminal investigation in 2012 and 2013 when it lost $6 billion of its bank depositors’ money gambling in credit derivatives in London (the London Whale scandal). Turns out Jamie Dimon has been taking very good care of the Directors on his Board and they have been taking very good care of Dimon – turning him into a billionaire, notwithstanding the worst criminal record of any major bank in the history of the United States. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
Education, Health, Science, and Welfare:
