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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:
Total Vast Costs of Covid19: The economic cost of the pandemic during 2020 has been equivalent to 80% of US 2020 real GDP output, if you take into account the lost GDP, premature deaths, long-term health impairment and mental health.
Quotes 0f the Day:
So the outgoing US government (like many others) failed to save lives and also failed to save livelihoods. And this is particularly the case for the lowest paid, often unable to work from home, forced to work in dangerous conditions or being laid off; and that mainly means, black and other ethnic minorities, women and young people. Overall, the US economy has shrunk by about 4-5% in 2020. That is the largest contraction since the early 1930s – or 90 years ago! Employment has fallen by over 25m, with millions now on emergency benefits, unemployment benefits or given up. Swathes of American businesses, mainly in the services sector but not just there, have been closed and will not return as the economy recovers (once the vaccinations reach enough Americans). All the evidence suggests that there has been permanent ‘scarring’ to the economy in employment, investment and incomes. Most studies suggest that the US economy in GDP terms will not return to the levels of 2019 before the end of 2022 at the earliest, and certainly not to the levels that GDP would have reached if there had been no pandemic slump. So there will be no V-shaped recovery as was hoped – indeed of the major economies globally, only China is achieving that. Instead, there is what I have called a ‘reverse square root’ recovery where output falls but then does not recover to the same trajectory of economic growth that was there before. That output is lost forever, as the forecast for the US from Oxford Economics below shows. — Michael Roberts
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
Federal Student Loan Usury: ‘Now Let’s Cancel Them,’ Demands AOC as Biden Extends Pause on Student Loan Payments “Biden can cancel all $1.7 trillion of student debt by executive order,” said The Debt Collective. Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez late Wednesday called on President Joe Biden to use his executive authority to immediately cancel student loan payments after the president signed an order extending an existing pause through at least the end of September. By Jake Johnson
Total US Student Loan Debt Outstanding There is a total of $1.6 trillion in student loan debt outstanding, owed by 45.1 million borrowers, as of Q1 of 2019. Total outstanding student loan debt demonstrates linear growth and will reach $2.0 trillion by the end of 2023 or beginning of 2024 and $3.0 trillion by late 2037 or early 2038, if current trends continue.Student loan debt exceeded credit card debt in 2010, auto loan debt in 2011 and reached the $1 trillion, By Mark Kantrowitz
The New Domestic War on Terror is Coming No speculation is needed. Those who wield power are demanding it. The only question is how much opposition they will encounter. The last two weeks have ushered in a wave of new domestic police powers and rhetoric in the name of fighting “terrorism” that are carbon copies of many of the worst excesses of the first War on Terror that began nearly twenty years ago. This trend shows no sign of receding as we move farther from the January 6 Capitol riot. The opposite is true: it is intensifying.We have witnessed an orgy of censorship from Silicon Valley monopolies with calls for far more aggressive speech policing, a visibly militarized Washington, D.C. featuring a non-ironically named “Green Zone,” vows from the incoming president and his key allies for a new anti-domestic terrorism bill, and frequent accusations of “sedition,” “treason,” and “terrorism” against members of Congress and citizens. This is all driven by a radical expansion of the meaning of “incitement to violence.” It is accompanied by viral-on-social-media pleas that one work with the FBI to turn in one’s fellow citizens (See Something, Say Something!) and demands for a new system of domestic surveillance. By Glenn Greenwald
USA: Biden inaugurated as Democrats Take Charge for the Capitalists Yesterday, Joe Biden was sworn in as US president surrounded by armed troops, in the middle of a pandemic, weeks after a far-right mob stormed the Capitol building. These are unprecedented times. The capitalists are pinning their hopes on the new administration to pull US capitalism out of this period of chaos and decline, but the writing is on the wall. The swearing-in of the 46th President of the United States was not marked by the typical pomp and circumstance of previous inaugurations. For days, the militarized downtown district of Washington, DC has been described as a “besieged fortress,” patrolled by 25,000 National Guard troops. Soldiers have set up security checkpoints throughout the city and hundreds of troops have been quartered in the halls of the Capitol building itself. The scenes have prompted comparisons with Lincoln’s disguised entry into the capital on the eve of the Civil War, or FDR’s subdued inaugural ceremony, held in the throes of the Great Depression.
Trump’s ‘Coup’ and the Crisis of US Democracy In this recent talk to Socialist Appeal supporters, Antonio Balmer (from the Socialist Revolution USA editorial board) discusses the recent dramatic events in Washington, which are yet another symptom of the decline of American capitalism – and a harbinger of revolutionary explosions to come. The storming of Capitol Hill by a mob of Trump supporters on 6 January is a graphic illustration of the deep crisis gripping US capitalism and the whole system of American bourgeois democracy. The fact that these unprecedented events can occur within the ‘belly of the beast’ has sent shockwaves across the world, undermining the very foundations of US imperialism.Similarly, this extreme political polarisation to the right will embolden and radicalise those on the left. This ‘insurrection’ has exposed the fragility of the capitalist state, bringing the police and the army into question once again.At the same time, as Antonio explains, Joe Biden and the Democrats offer no way forward for workers and youth in the USA. The working class needs its own party – a mass socialist party that will fight to transform society. We must build the forces of Marxism with urgency, and prepare for the titantic struggles that are coming.
Environment:
Toxic Tuesdays: Chromium : Chromium is a metal element found in rock. A common form is called hexavalent chromium, used in manufacturing settings for textile dyeing, wood preservation, and metal plating. Through release and disposal of waste from these facilities, hexavalent chromium can end up in the surrounding water and soil. People can then be exposed to it through drinking contaminated water, breathing in contam-inated particles, or skin contact with contaminated materials. Exposure to hexavalent chromium is known to have many adverse health effects. When ingested, it can cause stomach and intestinal ulcers. When inhaled, it can cause breathing problems, nose ulcers, and asthma. When absorbed on the skin, it can cause skin ulcers and swelling. Hexavalent chromium exposure causes development defects in animals, but little is known about how it might impact children. The US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have also determined that hexavalent chromium is known to cause cancer, in particular stomach and lung cancer….
US Pays Rising Costs For Climate’s Flood Damage America’s rainfall patterns are changing with the global climate − and making catastrophic flood damage even more costly. Climate change alone has cost the United States a total of $73 billion in flood damage in the last 30 years. The figure is significant: floods are an expensive fact of life. But Californian scientists are now sure that more than one-third of the costs of US floods must be attributed to the global heating driven by human use of fossil fuels. The news comes hard on the heels of a second finding: that over the last century, the count of what hydrologists call “extreme streamflow” events in Canada and the US has increased significantly. This confirms that droughts are on the increase − and so are floods. By Tim Redford
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Eric Garner’s Mother Says We Must Push for Justice That Her Son Didn’t Receive The mother of Eric Garner, who was brutally murdered by New York City police officers applying a chokehold as he pleaded “I can’t breathe,” testified this week before the International Commission of Inquiry on Systemic Racist Police Violence Against People of African Descent in the United States. “They killed him. It is no justice for him. But we must still stand for justice,” Garner’s mother, Gwen Carr, said during the commission’s opening hearing on January 18, Martin Luther King Jr. Day. “We must get justice for those who come behind him.” By Marjorie Cohen
International Commission of Inquiry on Systemic Racist Police Violence against People of African Descent in the United StatesIn June 2020, the U.N. Human Rights Council (HRC) strongly condemned “the continuing racially discriminatory and violent practices perpetrated by law enforcement agencies against Africans and people of African descent,” noting in particular the death of George Floyd on 25 May 2020 in Minnesota, and the deaths of other people of African descent. The HRC also condemned structural racism in the criminal justice system and, by Resolution A/HRC/RES/43/1, mandated the High Commissioner to prepare a report on systemic racism, and violations of international human rights law against Africans and people of African descent by law enforcement agencies globally. Recognizing that killings and maimings of unarmed Black people by police authorities in the United States escalate unabated and that effective domestic remedies are either non-existent or exacerbated by the policies of the federal government of the United States, the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL), the National Conference of Black Lawyers (NCBL), and the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) decided to convene this International Commission of Inquiry. Hearings for the Commission will take place between January 18 and February 6, 2021. The Commission will issue a Final Report of its findings for submission to the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, relevant officials, and the public.
Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor:Trump as Othello in a Corporate Theater Trump the straw man has finally been knocked down, giving the Democrats a victory that costs their corporate masters nothing.
Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist: Freedom Rider: Why the Left Don’t Protest The worse the political and economic crisis becomes, the more lethargic the US left behaves – as if generations of collaboration with corporate Democrats has sucked the life out of the left.
The Left Lens: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and American Empire, with Ajamu Baraka Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday is often celebrated without any regard for his radical political legacy.Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday is often celebrated without any regard for his radical political legacy. Black Alliance for Peace national organizer Ajamu Baraka joins Danny Haiphong and Margaret Kimberley to assess the ongoing relevance of MLK’s work and worldview.
Editors, The Black Agenda Review: Return to the Source: Democracy is Dead By what stretch of the imagination can the US be a democracy when ordinary citizens have virtually no influence over what their government does?
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor: Uganda: Bob Wine Rocks the Vote but Museveni Claims Victory Ugandan pop star turned presidential candidate Bobi Wine is not Sankara or Lumumba, but he has risked his life to mount a fierce challenge to the 36-year dictatorship of President Yoweri Museveni.
mashing the state— Kristallnacht-style By Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Kristallnacht came casting lead ballots, overthrowing Black elected officials and Massacring those that VOTED for them—
Greg Felton: Defund the Police is Not Abolition
Greg Felton In practice, defunding police leads to endless dickering with local politicians and allows reformists to present themselves as abolitionists.
Too Black: The Crisis of White Squatters Rights
The white ruling class is evicting the squatter-in-chief (Trump) for violating the class collaborative agreement.
Priyam Madhukar: Police Shouldn’t Tag Students as Potential Criminals When cops create lists of kids “at risk” of falling into crime, it becomes a self-fulfilling indictment.
Eleanor J. Bader: Activists Are Mobilizing to Create an Eviction-Free United States Rent strikers are doing all they can to stop the violence of evictions and promote a vision of collective and community ownership of housing for everyone.
Kehinde Alonge: End SARS and Fanon’s Mission What is the direction of the mission that falls upon each generation of young Nigerians?
Peoples Dispatch Staff: Venezuela Sends Oxygen Tanks to Brazilian Amazon State Despite being deeply-sanctioned by the US, Venezuela is sharing medical resources with its neighbor.
Labor:
World:
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!
Economy: