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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:
While Biden fell short of promising to cancel student debt, as the Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren had pushed for during her campaign, he promised to halve student loan payments by implementing a program where anyone making over $25,000 will pay 5% of their discretionary income – which does not count taxes or necessary spending like housing and food – to pay for their loans. Anyone who has paid loans for more than 20 years will have their loans forgiven. About 45 million Americans have student debt worth over $1.5tn. The Federal Reserve has reported that 43% of adults who went to college, about 30% of all adults in the country, took on debt to pay for their education. Race also plays a big role in who has debt: Black and Hispanic Americans with student debt are more likely to be behind on their loans than their white peers. ‘It’s the right thing to do’: Biden urged to cancel student loans in first 100 days
VA Admits Liability For Agent Orange:
We determine eligibility based on the facts of each Veteran’s claim. But we assume that certain cancers and other illnesses are caused by Agent Orange. We call these presumptive diseases. And we assume that Veterans who served in certain locations were exposed to Agent Orange. We refer to this as presumptive exposure. — Agent Orange Exposure and VA Disability Compensation
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
French Court Hears Case Against Chemical Corporations Over Agent Orange Use in Vietnam “I asked myself, what have I done to transmit this incurable disease to my children? Now I know that I am not at fault.” —Tran To Nga, Agent Orange victim “I’m not fighting for myself, but for my children and the millions of victims,” explained plaintiff Tran To Nga. A court in France on Monday heard a case brought by a French-Vietnamese woman against over a dozen multinational corporations she accuses of causing grievous harm by selling the defoliant Agent Orange to the United States government, whose use of the deadly chemical during the Vietnam War has killed, maimed, or seriously sickened hundreds of thousands of people to this day. By Brett Wilkins
Convict Donald Trump and the Bipartisan System That Put Him Into Power The world noticed when two billionaires, Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey, pushed a button and de-platformed Donald Trump from their social media empires. “After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the content around them,” Twitter wrote, “we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence.” Eighty-eight million Twitter followers and another 35 million from Facebook will have to look elsewhere to follow Trump’s daily rants. But there is no comparable “elsewhere” in this largely monopolized private-for-profit – not free speech – industry whose unprecedented reach covers the globe. With Twitter’s generous algorithm assistance for sure, Trump’s magnified tweets since he became a member in 2009 boosted Twitter’s corporate profits big time – capitalism’s bottom line endgame. No doubt, Twitter or Facebook accounts that challenge these prerogatives are accorded the reverse end of the algorithm spectrum, if not banned outright. The latter is the growing experience leftists concerned with social justice, antiwar, anti-racist and Palestinian rights. Many of their websites and/or posts are increasingly removed outright, with little or no recourse. By Jeff Mackler
The Political Fallout From the Capitol Hill Invasion May Prove More Significant Than 9/11 What we are seeing is political theatre, which is scarcely surprising since we have seen little else during Donald Trump’s four years in the White House. It is fitting that the end of the Trump presidency was marked by two events – the Capitol invasion and the exaggerated military response to it – that hover between theatre and reality. By Patrick Cockburn
The Media Monopoly Steps In: Like Clockwork, Corporate Media Become Deficit Hawks When It Comes to Passing Progressive Legislation The point of deficit hawkery is to scold and scare readers into accepting cuts to welfare and public services that are of no use to the wealthy, while they curiously have little problem with Republicans running deficits to suit their wealthy constituents. By Alan MacLeodGreed in the Suites, From Walgreens to Walmart Walgreens has no buzz. Most every week millions of us walk into a local outlet of this drab drugstore giant and give the enterprise all around us not a second thought. Maybe we should. Walgreens illustrates — personifies — the long-term economic trends that the Trump years so cavalierly doubled down upon. The core reality at the heart of these trends: Top corporate executives are busily pocketing immense paychecks at the direct expense of their workers. At Walgreens, workers start an $10 an hour. No chain store empire employing essential workers pays less. Could Walgreens afford to pay more? Just no way, the company’s flacks would like us to believe. Walgreens was cost-cutting, the excuses go, even before the pandemic hit, announcing plans in 2019 to shut down 200 of its 9,000 local U.S. outlets. By Sam Pizzigati
Environment:
Extreme Drought and Fire Risk May Double by 2060 As climate change threatens a doubling of the impact of extreme drought and fire within a generation, researchers are uncovering the influence of human activity on both these growing risks. One study has found that human numbers exposed to the hazard of extreme drought are likely to double in the decades to come, as global heating bakes away the groundwater and limits annual snowfall. Another team of researchers says the risks of extreme wildfire could also rise twofold in the next 40 years in the Mediterranean, southern Africa, eastern North America and the Amazon. In those places already severely scorched by frequent fire − western North America, equatorial Africa, south-east Asia and Australia − hazards could rise by 50%. By Tim Radford
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Biden Will Resume “Humanitarian” Wars The Biden Administration will “shift back to the ‘humanitarian’ interventionism model of US imperialism,” said Danny Haiphong, contributing editor of Black Agenda Report and co-host of the influential podcast The Left Lens. “Biden’s rhetoric from the beginning has not been encouraging on easing the Cold War against China” and heightened tensions with Russia, said Haiphong.
Haitians Tell President “Get Out by February 7” Protesters gather regularly in cities around the country to demand that Haitian President Jovenel Moise step down by February 7. “Jovenel has been ruling by decree” in the absence of a legally constituted national legislature, said Daoud Andre, an organizer with the Brooklyn, New York-based Committee to Mobilize Against Dictatorship in Haiti. The United States and its allies continue to support Moise, because “he does their bidding.”
“Expect Push for Censorship Under Biden Under the new administration, the State will attempt to “constrict political analysis and alternative information, to impose on us an ideological conformity,” said Ajamu Baraka, national organizer of the Black Alliance for Peace, speaking at a Dissenters online event. UCLA history professor, author and activist Robin DG Kelley said the movement must “do a better job of fighting on behalf of our prisoners of war,” some of whom have been incarcerated for three generations. These prisoners defended their actios under international law, “and that’s why judges hate them,” said Kelley.
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. 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.
Labor:
Covid-19 Has Cost Global Workers $3.7tn In Lost Earnings, Says ILO Women and young workers bear brunt of job losses and reductions in hours, says UN labour body The economic blow from Covid-19 has cost workers around the world $3.7tn (£2.7tn) in lost earnings, after the pandemic wiped out four times the number of working hours lost in the 2008 financial crisis, according to the UN’s labour body. The International Labour Organization (ILO) said women and younger workers had borne the brunt of job losses and reductions in hours, and warned that people in sectors hardest hit by the crisis – such as hospitality and retail – risked being left behind when the economy recovered. By Richard Partington
Economy:
Shadow Government Statistics Daily Update (January 26th to 27th) – MONEY SUPPLY [SYSTEMIC RISK] has been updated – January 11th Week M1 year-to-year growth soared to an all-time high 72.3%, in advance of the FOMC meeting. – Pending Publication [Subject to Change]: Commentary No. 1455 should post within the next couple of days [see UPDATED POSTING SCHEDULE]. – Pending Economic Releases/ Events: December 2020 New Orders for Durable Goods, January FOMC Press Conference (Wednesday, January 27th).
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Pandemic-Driven U.S. Economic Collapse Continues in a Hardening, Protracted “L”-Shaped Non-Recovery
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Severe Systemic Structural Damage from the Shutdown Will Forestall Meaningful Economic Rebound into 2022 or Beyond, Irrespective of Coronavirus Treatments and Vaccines
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Panicked, Unlimited Federal Reserve Money Creation and Federal Government Deficit Spending Continue and Will Expand, Triggering Major Domestic Inflation
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With Fundamental Dollar Debasement Intensifying, Holding Physical Gold and Silver Protects the Purchasing Power of One’s Assets
The Fed Has a Problem: Yields Have Doubled on the 10-Year Treasury in Six Months, Despite the Fed Buying $400 Billion in Treasury Securities The chart above reminded us of what happened in the London Whale saga at JPMorgan Chase. The London derivatives traders at JPMorgan Chase were making such huge bets in a specific credit index that they effectively became the market with no escape route to unwind their losing trades. The bank had, insanely, used customer deposits to make those wild bets and ended up losing at least $6.2 billion. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
World:
Global Report: The Richest Have Already Recouped Pandemic Losses, While Poorest Billions Will Need a Decade to Do the Same On the opening day of the World Economic Forum, new study shows the 1,000 wealthiest people recovered completely in just nine months The 1,000 richest people on the planet recouped their COVID-19 losses within just nine months, but it could take more than a decade for the world’s poorest to recover from the economic impacts of the pandemic, reveals a new Oxfam report today.
Philippines: Duterte escalates repression, mass fightback needed! The reactionary regime of Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines is attempting to harden its crackdown on dissent and consolidate power. Socialists, youth, and workers’ organizations must get ready for a fight. By Parson Young
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
The New York Times Has Not Heard About China’s Vaccines (or Russia or India’s) If developing countries are unable to get access to the vaccines developed by western drug companies, it is likely that they will turn to the vaccines developed by these three countries. It is more than a bit bizarre that the New York Times can run a major piece about the lack of access of developing countries to Covid vaccines and never once mention the vaccines developed by China, Russia, or India. The piece is very useful in highlighting the fact that the United States and Europe have secured the vast majority of the 2021 production of the vaccines developed by western drug companies, leaving relatively few doses for the developing world. As a result, developing countries may continue to be afflicted by the pandemic well into 2022, with enormous human and economic costs. By Dean Baker
A Practical Legal Maxim: ‘The Health of the People Should Be the Supreme Law’ While it isn’t clear how many people have lost their lives to COVID-19 in the US (is it under 400,000 still? Over 500,000 yet?) it is more clear than ever that we are experiencing a continent-wide public health catastrophe. Perhaps this is unsurprising. After all, the US has a health care system designed not for the public good but for the private good, for profit. A fundamental conflict of interests, the generation of profits, by law, prevails over the provision of care, and has resulted in fewer hospital beds over the years, lack of basic equipment, chronic understaffing, and other deprivations of care.
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!
Quotes 0f the Day:
Black Agenda Radio for Week of January 25, 2021 With Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford