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During ‘Dr. Trump’s’ ‘Coronavirus War’, Due to His Incompetence, Mis-Leadership, and Depraved Indifference, We Are Still The World Coronavirus Leader! As of 12/20/20 5PM Coronavirus Update:
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Total Cases: 18,084,356;
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Total Deaths 323,455;
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Total Recovered: 10,551,584;
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Total. Active Cases: 7,209,317; and
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27,963 People in Serious/Critical Condition!
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!
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:
Pandemic ProfiteersPlutonium’s chief danger is from inhalation, because its deadly alpha particles lodge in the lungs “bombarding the adjacent cells with highly toxic ionizing radiation,” Watnick wrote. Troops involved were exposed to “plutonium dust six to eight hours daily in an environment highly conducive to inhalation of alpha particles.” The class action is focused on the VA’s denial of Mr. Skaar’s claim of service-related illness, and the military’s “arbitrary and capricious” use of inadequate radiation data which is based on shoddy methods of recording and maintaining urine samples taken from clean-up crew members. The veterans also challenge the VA’s omission of Palomares cleanup operations from its list of radiation risk activities. The appeal is currently ongoing. Air Force Veterans of Plutonium Dust Disaster Win Class Action Standing
The New Jim Crow is a stunning account of the rebirth of a caste-like system in the United States, one that has resulted in millions of African Americans locked behind bars and then relegated to a permanent second-class status—denied the very rights supposedly won in the Civil Rights Movement. Since its publication in 2010, the book has appeared on the New York Times bestseller list for more than a year; been dubbed the “secular bible of a new social movement” by numerous commentators, including Cornel West; and has led to consciousness-raising efforts in universities, churches, community centers, re-entry centers, and prisons nationwide. The New Jim Crow tells a truth our nation has been reluctant to face. — The New Jim Crow
Videos of the Day:
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!
Pandemic Profiteers 
Disaster Capialism: With Perdue and Loeffler Under Fire for Shady Transactions, Warren Intros Bill to Ban Lawmakers From Trading Stock “With U.S. senators brazenly trading stocks to profit off a raging pandemic, the Anti-Corruption and Public Integrity Act is more urgent than ever.” . . . “With U.S. senators brazenly trading stocks to profit off a raging pandemic, the Anti-Corruption and Public Integrity Act is more urgent than ever.” By Jake Johnson
Day After GOP Senator Blocked Direct Payments Twice, Poll Shows 88% of Likely Voters Support More $1,200 Checks “Maybe—just maybe—it’s time Congress listened to the American people,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders.By Jake Johnson
Trump Reportedly Floated Michael Flynn’s “Martial Law” Suggestion During White House Meeting “A week ago 126 of my Republican colleagues violated the Constitution by supporting Trump’s attempt to steal the election. How many support Trump’s discussion of military dictatorship?” asked Rep. Bill Pascrell. “A week ago 126 of my Republican colleagues violated the Constitution by supporting Trump’s attempt to steal the election. How many support Trump’s discussion of military dictatorship?” asked Rep. Bill Pascrell. By Jake Johnson
‘Baffling’: Trump Admin Reportedly Slashing Vaccine Allocations to States While Millions of Doses Sit on Shelves “We have millions more doses sitting in our warehouse but, as of now, we have not received any shipment instructions for additional doses,” Pfizer said. By Kenny Stancil
On Capitalism, Racism, Trump, and Pandemo-Fascism The Covid-19 pandemic as it has played out in its favorite country the United States (home to a fifth of the world’s Covid-19 deaths but just over a twentieth of the world’s population) is a tragedy that will soon have claimed the lives of 1 in every 1000 Americans. It is also a fascism-tinged crime rooted in this nation’s multiple, overlapping, and mutually reinforcing structures, institutions, policies, and ideologies of inequality and oppression. It reflects the failed state spiritual death and fascism that Dr. Martin Luther King, J. said would befall this nation if it did not move off what King called “the triple evils that are interrelated”: capitalism, racism, and imperialism. By Paul Street
The Real Resistance Begins Now: 25 Groups That Will Keep Fighting No Matter Who’s President In less than a month the eviction crisis will hit the White House. The current tenants will be escorted out of the premises, the living space briskly decontaminated and the new occupants will set up shop in familiar quarters. The flags will be rearranged, the draperies changed, the Rose Garden restored to Jackie Kennedy’s original design, the stern portrait of Andrew Jackson sent back to its previous roost in the National Portrait Gallery, if not some dank storage locker at the Smithsonian. But these superficial changes, welcome as they are, will only serve to mask the underlying continuity of power. By Jeffrey St. Clair
Environment:
Michael Roberts: Books in the Year of the COVID Every year, I do a post on books that I have reviewed during the last 12 months. What’s a bit surprising in this year of the COVID is that I did not review any books specifically on the pandemic. Even the excellent book by John Bellamy Foster, The Return of Nature: Socialism and Ecology, which won this year’s Deutscher Memorial Prize, did not cover the impact of the coronavirus.Every year, I do a post on books that I have reviewed during the last 12 months. What’s a bit surprising in this year of the COVID is that I did not review any books specifically on the pandemic. Even the excellent book by John Bellamy Foster, The Return of Nature: Socialism and Ecology, which won this year’s Deutscher Memorial Prize, did not cover the impact of the coronavirus That was not its purpose, of course. Instead, Foster aims to show the close connection between socialism and ecology and, in particular, how Marx and Engels were always sensitive to the destructive impact of capitalism on nature as well as on labour (and it would appear in response, ‘nature’s revenge’, as Engels put it). So what did I review? Let me start with what I consider was the best book of the year. This year it is a dead heat between two, in my view. The first is Henryk Grossman, Capitalism’s contradictions: studies in economic theory before and after Marx, edited by Rick Kuhn and published by Haymarket Books. Kuhn brings together essays and articles by Grossman that include an analysis of the economic theories of the Swiss political economist Simonde de Sismonde, who exercised a powerful influence on the early socialists who preceded Marx. And there is a critical essay by Grossman on all the various ideas and theories presented by Marx’s epigones from the 1880s onwards.
Yara: Poisoning Our Soils, Burning Our Planet A profile of EU lobbying by the Norwegian fertilizer company Our planet is on fire, and global greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase. However, the resistance is also growing. From 19-25 September, activists will gather at the Free the Soil mass action in Germany in order to tackle one of the drivers of the climate breakdown: industrial agriculture. Norwegian fertilizer giant Yara, which dominates the global market for nitrogen fertilizer, will be in the spotlight Fertilizer companies like Yara have been dubbed the Exxons of agriculture. Not only are their products the largest source of emissions from agriculture and a major cause of organic matter depletion in soils, but with so-called ‘natural’ gas as their main raw material they are a major consumer of fossil fuels. Despite a crafty greenwash strategy promoting itself as part of the solution to the climate crisis, Yara has been the largest buyer of fossil gas in Europe for years.
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
If the facts hold true, Trump and his people attempted, and at least partially accomplished, a form of targeted genocide against the people, and particularly marginalized people, using COVID-19 as the vehicle for policy. Capitalism demanded the nation not shut down and the workers keep working, even in the teeth of a lethal pandemic. Lacking a vaccine for all those months, the only viable solution that satisfied “the markets” was to let the virus burn through the population — particularly disabled, elderly, Black, Indigenous, Latinx, low-income, houseless and incarcerated populations — unchecked. — Did Trump Deliberately Pursue Genocide via His “Herd Immunity” Strategy?
The New Jim Crow: During Covid-19 Crisis, All Crimes are Punishable By Death!: As Pandemic Rages On, Analysis Finds 1 in 5 People in US Prisons Infected With Covid-19 The new data follow the ACLU’s warning that America’s “unique obsession with incarceration has become our Achilles heel when it comes to combating the spread of Covid-19.” By Andrea Germanos
The Great Divider: Covid-19 Reflects Global Racism, Not Equality Poor, dark-skinned people should not be made to die when their lives can be saved by a simple vaccine, which is available in abundance. The notion that the COVID-19 pandemic was ‘the great equalizer’ should be dead and buried by now. If anything, the lethal disease is another terrible reminder of the deep divisions and inequalities in our societies. That said, the treatment of the disease should not be a repeat of the same shameful scenario. By Ramzy Baroud
Labor:
2020 Saw Resurgence of Strikes as a Key Tactic for Labor Around the World Like every other social movement in the U.S. this year, the compounding crises of 2020 proved a catalyzing force for the labor movement, compelling essential and frontline workers to join picket lines to ensure basic protections and increased pay as they continue to face disproportionate risks and increasingly perilous working conditions amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic intensified what was already an uptick in strike activity in the U.S. According to Payday Report’s Strike Tracker, there have been at least 1,100 strikes since March 1. Among those have been high-profile strikes launched by Instacart, Whole Foods and Amazon workers, as well as by frontline health care workers. Like every other social movement in the U.S. this year, the compounding crises of 2020 proved a catalyzing force for the labor movement, compelling essential and frontline workers to join picket lines to ensure basic protections and increased pay as they continue to face disproportionate risks and increasingly perilous working conditions amid the COVID-19 pandemic.But essential workers weren’t the only sector on strike this year: Prisoners and tenants across the country also withheld their labor and rent to fight for their fundamental human right to life and housing. Building momentum after major strike waves in 2018 and 2019, 2020 has cemented the strike’s resurgence as a crucial tactic for workers and organizers not only in the U.S. but around the world. The pandemic intensified what was already an uptick in strike activity in the U.S. According to Payday Report’s Strike Tracker, there have been at least 1,100 strikes since March 1. Among those have been high-profile strikes launched by Instacart, Whole Foods and Amazon workers, as well as by frontline health care workers. By Candice Bernd
‘Sick’: Most Profitable US Companies Fired Workers, Enriched Shareholders During Pandemic “This is a global crisis but the big companies are not treating it as one—they haven’t skipped a beat.” While the Covid-19 pandemic and corresponding economic crisis have made 2020 a devastating year for the vast majority of people throughout the United States, most of the country’s biggest companies have prospered—only to hand a larger chunk of profits to shareholders while firing thousands of workers. By Kenny Stancil
Economy:
FRED Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: All Items in U.S. City erage Since1947
Economic Consequences of a 2nd Economic ‘Mitigation’ Bill As of mid-December 2020 the US economy has begun showing increasing signs of an exceptionally weak 4th quarter, October-December, growth. After having collapsed -10.5% in the March-June 2020 period, followed by a partial ‘rebound’ (not sustained recovery) in the 3rd quarter, July-September 2020, the economy is now slowing rapidly once again. Dismal reports of consumer and especially retail sales in October-November appear driving the slowing growth—in turn driven by rising unemployment claims, a growing number of permanent layoffs by large businesses as the economy structurally changes long term, and, shorter term, by a sharp rise in Covid deaths, infections, and consequent partial shutdown of the services sector of the US economy throughout the US. By Jack Rasmus
World:
Argentina’s Wealth Tax: A Way Forward? Argentina’s approval of a one-off wealth tax has been presented as a model by some on the left in Britain, as well as in other Latin American countries – where the idea is very popular. What is its real content, however, and is it a useful proposal to deal with the crisis of capitalism and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic? On 11 December, the Argentinean senate passed a new tax on the very wealthy, which had already been approved by congress previously. The tax will affect about 12,000 of the country’s richest people, with assets worth over 200 million pesos (US$2.3m). Of those, a small minority of 380 ultra-rich people have assets worth over 35 million dollars! According to the government, 42 percent of those affected by the tax have their assets in dollars and 92 percent of those dollar-assets are held abroad. The starting rate of the tax will be 2 percent for assets held in the country, rising to between 3 to 5.25 percent for those holding assets in dollars abroad. Those who repatriate their assets held abroad within 60 days will benefit from a 30 percent discount. The government has calculated that the new tax, known as the Solidarity and Extraordinary Contribution, will raise US$3.5bn. Jorge Martin
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 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
Since World War I, ‘the war to end all wars’, there have been perpetual wars for perpetual peace, this 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!
Evicting Donald Trump
Quotes 0f the Day: