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Another Example Capitalism as a Failed System: World Capilalism Was Aware of the Danger of Cornovavirus Threat Over 4 Years Ago and Did Nothing!: Under Capitalism — Human Lives Don’t Matter 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 Racism, War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death. The future of Humanity Is Now At stake!
Laura Gray’s cartoon from the front page of The Militant August 18, 1945, Under the Banner Headline: “There Is No Peace”
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!
Images of the Day:
At her Senate Hearing, Amy Coney Barret, the soon to be Supreme Court Justice, Due to Her Training as an Originalist, Showed Her Iqnorance About the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. ( Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.) Does Anyone Actually Believe That the now Majority Opus Dei Supreme Court Will Defend the Rights of the People?
The United States Was Not Founded On Democracy! — The Rich Have Always Ruled!:
Noam Chomsky stated in his interview on American History and Democracy: . . . If you go back to the record of the Constitutional Convention, which took place in 1787, almost immediately after the end of the war, you see that they are already moving in another direction. James Madison — who was the main framer, and one of the Founding Fathers who was most libertarian — makes it very clear that the new constitutional system must be designed so as to ensure that the government will, in his words, “protect the minority of the opulent against the majority” and bar the way to anything like agrarian reform. The determination was made that America could not allow functioning democracy, since people would use their political power to attack the wealth of the minority of the opulent. Therefore, Madison argues, the country should be placed in the hands of the wealthier set of men, as he put it. . . .
Insider Trading?: To many of the investors who received or heard about the memo, it was the first significant sign of skepticism among Trump administration officials about their ability to contain the virus,” the Times reported. “It also provided a hint of the fallout that was to come, said one major investor who was briefed on it: the upending of daily life for the entire country. Moreover, at least some of the elite traders who had access to information from the administration used it to “gain financial advantage during a chaotic three days when global markets were teetering.” Anticipating that the stock prices of companies were on the verge of falling, one investor who had access to the memo made the recommendation to, in Wall Street lingo, “short everything,” or, bet on that outcome. Others “stocked up on toilet paper and other household essentials” weeks before the general public was made aware of the severity of the pandemic. — Trump Advisers Privately Warned GOP Donors About Covid-19 in February While Telling Public Virus Was ‘Very Much Under Control’
Videos of the Day:
The Arrest Of A Cop Watcher Shows Injustice Is The American Way Disabled free speech activist Blind Justice has been held in solitary confinement for a failure to appear charge, while George Floyd’s alleged murderer Derek Chauvin was released from prison.
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!
Harper’s Provides a Chilling Account of Secret Presidential Powers Andrew Cockburn has a stunning report in the November issue of Harper’s Magazine on secret Presidential Emergency Action Documents (PEADs) that “implement extraordinary presidential authority in response to extraordinary situations.” Cockburn notes that these sweeping powers have been “Compiled without any authorization from Congress” and were not on the public’s radar “until Donald Trump started to brag about them.” In March, Trump made this statement: “Well, we have things that I can do. We have very strong emergency powers under the Stafford Act. And we are — we have it — I mean, I have it memorized, practically, as to the powers in that act. And if I need to do something, I’ll do it. I have the right to do a lot of things that people don’t even know about.” Cockburn walks us through how Presidents throughout history have used (and abused) PEADs and declarations of national emergency. He expresses the hope that the next Congress will “move aggressively to assert the Constitution and close all the secret loopholes.” By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
In the Original Constitution, Black People Were 4/5ths Human!: Which Constitution Is Amy Coney Barrett Talking About? Her originalism ignores the significance of the second American Revolution. Barrett’s Constitution is the Constitution of 1787, written in Philadelphia and made official the following year. That’s why her formulation for originalism rests on ratification, as she states at the outset of a paper she wrote called “Originalism and Stare Decisis.”. . . Barrett’s Constitution is the Constitution of 1787, written in Philadelphia and made official the following year. That’s why her formulation for originalism rests on ratification, as she states at the outset of a paper she wrote called “Originalism and Stare Decisis.” By Jamelle Bouie
Steve Donziger: How Big Oil Weaponized Our Judicial System Against Him and the Indigenous People He Represented The epic battle by Steve Donziger to get Chevron to pay a $9.5 billion judgment he won in 2011 for its “mass industrial poisoning” of Indigenous Amazonian tribes in Ecuador has left him under house arrest for 13 months, disbarred, with, frozen bank accounts, $32 million in legal fees, a lien on his home, and no way to make a living. The judgment has not yet been paid. -disaster-aid-recoved.
‘Sadistic and Depraved’: Trump Rejects California Request for Federal Disaster Aid to Recover From Catastrophic Wildfires “That a sitting president—of any party—would deny their own citizens help during their time of greatest need, amid literal hellfire raining down on American cities, is beyond shameful.” After repeatedly downplaying the catastrophic wildfires that have ravaged California in recent months and falsely attributing the blazes to poor “forest management,” the Trump administration this week denied Gov. Gavin Newsom’s request for federal disaster assistance needed to recover from the destruction the fires inflicted across the state. By Jake Johnson The Coup Already Underway This might be a good time for Americans to stop masochistically worshipping at the feet of their nation’s authoritarian Constitution. A proto-fascistic genocidal racist maniac and anti-science eco-exterminist determined to kill two million more Americans with COVID-19 sits in the White House thanks in no small part due to the absurdly venerated 1788 United States Constitution. By Paul Street 
Environment:
Groundbreaking Study Finds 13.3 Quadrillion Plastic Fibers In California’s Environment Exclusive: report reveals far more microfibers than there are stars in the Milky Way – and they can easily enter oceans and waterways A study in California has laid bare the staggering scale of pollution from plastic microfibers in synthetic clothing – one of the most widespread, yet largely invisible, forms of plastic waste. The report, whose findings were revealed exclusively by the Guardian, found that in 2019 an estimated 4,000 metric tons – or 13.3 quadrillion fibers – were released into California’s natural environment. The plastic fibers, which are less than 5mm in length, are primarily shed when we wash our yoga pants, stretchy jeans and fleece jackets and can easily enter oceans and waterways. By Katharine Gammon
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Capitalism Made Women of Color More Vulnerable to the COVID Recession “For all the women who have lost their jobs during this pandemic, for Black women and Latinas who have performed the bulk of the essential work during lockdown and borne the brunt of the recession, for all the Black and Brown elders who have lost their lives during this crisis, it is capitalism that has been their preexisting condition.” by Tithi Bhattacharya
Karuk Tribe Leads Effort to Fight Racism and Climate Change with Fire The day after Indigenous Peoples Day was celebrated worldwide, the indigenous-led Western Klamath Restoration Partnership (WKRP) announced it is organizing its annual Klamath River Prescribed Fire Training Exchange (KTREX). though organizers said it will look very different from past years. “Organizers believe this is all the more urgent as the United States (and the World) reckon with the hard truths of how hundreds of years of ecological injustices have shaped our present threat of increasingly severe catastrophic wildfire in the West,” according to a press release from the WKRP and the Karuk Tribe. “This event occurs each fall and builds local capacity to utilize lower intensity prescribed fire as a fuels-reduction tool,” the partnership stated. “Although KTREX has only been happening for the last six years, Karuk (and other Indigenous People have been using prescribed fire since time immemorial. Burning is a cultural and spiritual practice that serves numerous vital functions to the natural resources on which Karuk People depend. For example, frequent burning increases the quality and quantity of basketry materials, acorn crops, fish and wildlife habitat, and ensures the community’s safety during wildfire season by reducing fuels.” By Dan Bacher
Labor:
The golf links lie so near the mill, That almost every day, The laboring children can look out, And see the men at play. — “The Golf Links Lie So Near the Mill” – Sarah Cleghorn
Resurgence of Child Labor Amid Global Pandemic Offered as Proof That ‘Capitalism Is Monstrous’ “Good time to remember that a number of free market economists defend child labor as being a good thing.”As the Covid-19 pandemic and corresponding economic upheaval threaten to push up to 150 million people into extreme poverty by 2021, in-depth reporting Thursday from the Associated Press showed that the coronavirus crisis is also undermining two decades of gains against child labor in the developing world, where an entire generation of impoverished children lacking access to safe education opportunities are being driven by economic necessity to work alongside their parents or in place of unemployed caretakers. By Kenny Stancil 
Real-time Estimates of Poverty Show Poverty Rose after Government Benefits Expired The coronavirus pandemic has taken a significant toll on the U.S. labor market. Since the start of the pandemic, more than 75 million claims for unemployment insurance have been filed. Improvements in the labor market have slowed with more than 12 million officially unemployed and millions of other former workers still without jobs. Early on in the pandemic the federal government offered a relief package that included large, one-time stimulus payments to households and greatly expanded unemployment insurance benefits. But some of these benefits have expired while unemployment persists, raising important questions about the long-term impact of the pandemic on poverty. Fortunately, James Sullivan, the Gilbert F. Schaefer College Professor of Economics and cofounder of the Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO) at the University of Notre Dame; Bruce Meyer, the McCormick Foundation Professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy; and Jeehoon Han, an economist at Zhejiang University, have constructed a new poverty measure that provides near-real-time poverty estimates using U.S. Census Bureau data. They are updating this measure on a monthly basis as new data become available. Their analysis shows that poverty declined in the first few months after the start of the pandemic. They find that the poverty rate fell by 1.5 percentage points from 10.9 percent in the months leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic (January and February) to 9.4 percent in the three months at the start of the pandemic (April, May, and June). The team also found evidence that poverty declined across a range of demographic groups and geographies, with some of the most noticeable declines evident for people with low levels of education and for those who fall into the “other race” (neither white nor Black) category.
Economy:
A Prize Auction This year’s ‘Nobel’ (actually the Riksbank) prize for economics went to Stanford University economists, Paul Milgrom and Robert Wilson. According to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, they “have studied how auctions work. They have also used their insights to design new auction formats for goods and services that are difficult to sell in a traditional way, such as radio frequencies. Their discoveries have benefited sellers, buyers and taxpayers around the world.” So in a world where inequality is at record levels, global warming and environmental degradation are threatening to destroy the planet and there is a world economic slump not seen since the 1930s, the prize givers recognise the work of two economists on how to make the auctions of commodities, land and services more efficient. Our prize winners used game theory to work out how to avoid the ‘winner’s curse’ of buyers paying too much for something in an auction, while making sure sellers getting a ‘fair price’ ie a fair exchange based on an agreed common value for a sale of a good or service. Milgrom and Wilson apparently came up with some auction rules that ensure that the ‘private’ estimates of value by bidders and sellers are combined to deliver a ‘common’ value acceptable to all. By Michael Roberts
Stock Mutual Funds Have Had Net Outflows for 25 Weeks, Bringing Total to $388.7 Billion — a Record Refinitiv Lipper, which has been tracking mutual fund flows for the past 18 years, reports that for the week ended Wednesday, October 14, equity (stock) mutual funds marked their 25th week of net negative outflows, losing -$8.6 billion for the week. Year-to-date, that brings their net outflows to -$388.7 billion. Refinitiv Lipper notes that if that figure stands, it will be the “largest annual net outflows ever, significantly outdistancing last year’s net negative result (-$294.0 billion).” That’s a pretty historic achievement given that the U.S. had the worst stock market freak out since the Great Depression in 2008 and early 2009. The S&P 500 Index lost 56.8 percent from October 9, 2007 to March 9, 2009. What raises further alarm bells about the steady outflow from stock mutual funds this year is that for the past 9-1/2 months there has been new money flowing into 401(k) plans from employees who have the money automatically deducted from their paychecks and sent along to their 401(k)s. Since stock-based Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) have barely cracked the 401(k) market, it’s the stock mutual funds in 401(k)s that should have been the big beneficiaries of this money – and yet they are still seeing historic net outflows of money. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
World:
Lesser-Evilism, Italian Style – And How It Destroyed the Left Fred Weston, editor for marxist.com, explains how the Italian left wrecked itself on the rocks of ‘lesser-evilism’, starting in the 1970s. With early voting for the US elections underway, and huge pressure on the left to vote for Joe Biden in order to kick out Donald Trump, there are valuable lessons to be learned from the Italian experience. There is huge pressure on the left in the United States to come out in support of Biden in the presidential elections. Even former hardline socialists who would never have contemplated voting for the Democrats in the past are falling over themselves to explain how “things are now different”. The difference being of course that “now we face the threat of fascism” in the form of Trump. Never has so much confusion been sown under the sun! This idea is argued for and defended even by many who say they are socialists and would like to see a third party emerge: a genuine party of the left. However, because they see the perspective of such a third party as being very far away, they content themselves with the idea of working within the Democrats, supporting them in elections, and so on, and then at some distant time in the future, the conditions will be created for a break with them. That is how the story goes.
Indonesia: From Viral Epidemic to Social Pandemic? The now almost recurrent images of water and tear gas cannons come this time from Indonesia. Workers and students have invaded the streets of the main towns and clashed with the police. In the face of the epidemic, authorities have been slow to take action. The number of doctors per capita is around 20 times lower than European averages and President Jokowi, sometimes presented by the press as progressive, declared the country immune … by religion: ginger and turmeric were advocated as remedies. To take up Rohana Kuddus’s phrase describing the management of the epidemic in New Left Review: “Lemongrass and prayer”.
Intersecting Crises and the Impact In Britain “These three crises (economic, ecological and political) are global in nature and have impacted countries in both the global north and south. In Britain, we also need to take into account the specific problem of Brexit – probably a no-deal one.” In Britain, we also need to take into account the specific problem of Brexit – probably a no-deal one.” The global world economy is currently in crisis as a result of a shock in the real economy caused by the coronavirus pandemic. There is also an ecological crisis that requires a serious response if we are to avoid permanent destruction as a result of climate change or the destruction of natural habitats and biodiversity. Unquestionably the pandemic is part of the ecological crisis and the latter crisis is due in large part to the laws of motion of the capitalist system which drives it to continuous growth and accumulation. What is not clear is whether the pandemic arose due to the nature of the capitalist system or is an external shock to the system already showing clear signs of stagnation due to the form of accumulation in use. By By Susan Pashkoff
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
Trump Got the Best COVID Treatment. For the Rest of Us He Wants “Herd Immunity.” The Great Barrington Declaration. Sounds heavy, yeah? Thunder of drums, hushed silence, and behold: A jagged stack of cruelty passing itself off as science that claims “herd immunity” is the way to get out from under the grinding crisis of COVID-19. In truth, it sounds like just more preposterous ooze from the primordial swamp of the far right, but for the fact that the White House has embraced it as the Trump administration’s defining COVID policy. By William Rivers Pitt
Quotes 0f the Day: