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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:
I have asserted the right of Negroes to meet the violence of the Ku Klux Klan by armed self-defense — and have acted on it. It has always been an accepted right of Americans, as the history of our Western states proves, that where the law is unable, or unwilling, to enforce order, the citizens can, and must act in self-defense against lawless violence. — Robert F. Williams
In 1983, 50 corporations controlled the vast majority of all news media in the U.S. At the time, Ben Bagdikian was called “alarmist” for pointing this out in his book, The Media Monopoly. In his 4th edition, published in 1992, he wrote “in the U.S., fewer than two dozen of these extraordinary creatures own and operate 90% of the mass media”— controlling almost all of America’s newspapers, magazines, TV and radio stations, books, records, movies, videos, wire services and photo agencies. He predicted then that eventually this number would fall to about half a dozen companies. This was greeted with skepticism at the time. When the 6th edition of The Media Monopoly was published in 2000, the number had fallen to six. Since then, there have been more mergers and the scope has expanded to include new media like the Internet market. More than 1 in 4 Internet users in the U.S. now log in with AOL Time-Warner, the world’s largest media corporation. — Media Reform Information Center
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
‘This Is Not a Game’: Internet Defenders Warn Against Gutting of Section 230—Key Law for Online Speech “Section 230 is one of the most important laws protecting freedom of expression and human rights in the digital age.” A coalition of internet defenders on Wednesday cautioned lawmakers against responding to this month’s attack on the U.S. Capitol by making “uncareful changes” to section 230 of the Communications Decency Act that could “profoundly alter the state of digital free speech and human rights.” The warning came in a letter to members of Congress and the Biden-Harris administration from a diverse collection of over 70 groups representing issues such as racial justice, sex workers, digital rights, and global human rights. Signatories include Common Cause, Fight for the Future, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and the Wikimedia Foundation. “Gutting Section 230 would make it more difficult for web platforms to combat the type of dangerous rhetoric that led to the attack on the Capitol. And certain carve-outs to the law could threaten human rights and silence movements for social and racial justice that are needed now more than ever,” the groups wrote. By Andrea Germanos
Reflecting the Authoritarian Climate, Washington DC Will Remain Militarized The idea of troops in U.S. streets for an extended period of time—an extreme measure even when temporary—has now become close to a sacred consensus. Washington, DC has been continuously militarized beginning the week leading up to Joe Biden’s inauguration, when 20,000 National Guard troops were deployed onto the streets of the nation’s capital. The original justification was that this show of massive force was necessary to secure the inauguration in light of the January 6 riot at the Capitol.But with the inauguration over and done, those troops remain and are not going anywhere any time soon. Working with federal law enforcement agencies, the National Guard Bureau announced on Monday that between 5,000 and 7,000 troops will remain in Washington until at least mid-March. By Glenn Greenwald
Biden’s Private Prison Executive Order Doesn’t Undo Mass Incarceration Biden’s executive order is like moving chairs on the deck of the Titanic — it doesn’t actually reduce incarceration. On January 26, 2021, President Joe Biden signed a series of executive orders in the name of advancing racial equity. One of the most high-profile orders resurrected an Obama-era policy to phase out the Department of Justice’s contracts with privately managed prisons. As a politician whose career has been marked by championing federal law and order policies, including but not limited to the 1994 Crime Bill, Biden has been challenged by anti-prison activists and advocates to account for his past actions and to use his executive powers to reduce the scope and power of the federal penal system. (Read The Untold Story: Joe Biden Pushed Ronald Reagan To Ramp Up Incarceration — Not The Other Way Around) By Lydia Pelot-Hobbs
Ignorance is Strength: Federal Secrecy Protects the Crimes of Every President Ever since the 9/11 attacks, Republicans and Democrats have conspired to keep Americans increasingly ignorant of what the federal government does. The number of secret federal documents skyrocketed, and any information that was classified supposedly cannot be exposed without dooming the nation. Ever since the 9/11 attacks, Republicans and Democrats have conspired to keep Americans increasingly ignorant of what the federal government does. The number of secret federal documents skyrocketed, and any information that was classified supposedly cannot be exposed without dooming the nation. By James Bovard
Reflecting the Authoritarian Climate, Washington DC Will Remain Militarized The idea of troops in U.S. streets for an extended period of time—an extreme measure even when temporary—has now become close to a sacred consensus. Washington, DC has been continuously militarized beginning the week leading up to Joe Biden’s inauguration, when 20,000 National Guard troops were deployed onto the streets of the nation’s capital. The original justification was that this show of massive force was necessary to secure the inauguration in light of the January 6 riot at the Capitol.But with the inauguration over and done, those troops remain and are not going anywhere any time soon. Working with federal law enforcement agencies, the National Guard Bureau announced on Monday that between 5,000 and 7,000 troops will remain in Washington until at least mid-March. By Glenn Greenwald
This New ’Compromise’ Coronavirus Bailout Will Again Favor the 1% — Not he 99%!: As White House Floats Skimpier Relief Bill in Bid for GOP Support, Progressives Warn Going Small Would Be ‘Catastrophic’ “Congress should err on the side of offering generous relief to a larger pool of people, rather than too little.” With the Biden White House reportedly weighing the possibility of splitting its proposed coronavirus relief package into two parts in an effort to attract some Republican support, leaders of the Congressional Progressives Caucus are warning that anything less than the president’s $1.9 trillion opening offer would represent an unacceptable betrayal of economically desperate Americans. In a letter (pdf) to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday, more than two dozen members of the CPC Executive Board wrote that “if we aim too low, the financial consequences will be catastrophic, long-lasting, and borne by the American families who can least afford it.”By Jake Johnson
The FCC Seeks to Hinder Female and Minority Broadcast Ownership for Policies Favoring Concentrated Corporate Ownership The Supreme Court, hearing a challenge on Tuesday, should reject insufficient regulatory oversight. Over the last 17 years, the Federal Communications Commission has abandoned its Civil Rights Era stance and policies on female and minority broadcast ownership. As a consequence of its actions, the agency is handing control of media ownership outlets such as radio and television broadcasting stations to multimillion-dollar companies. By Beth Brodsky amd Daniel A. Hanley
Environment:
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
‘This Is Not a Game’: Internet Defenders Warn Against Gutting of Section 230—Key Law for Online Speech “Section 230 is one of the most important laws protecting freedom of expression and human rights in the digital age.” A coalition of internet defenders on Wednesday cautioned lawmakers against responding to this month’s attack on the U.S. Capitol by making “uncareful changes” to section 230 of the Communications Decency Act that could “profoundly alter the state of digital free speech and human rights.” The warning came in a letter to members of Congress and the Biden-Harris administration from a diverse collection of over 70 groups representing issues such as racial justice, sex workers, digital rights, and global human rights. Signatories include Common Cause, Fight for the Future, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and the Wikimedia Foundation. By Andrea Germanos
Biden’s Private Prison Executive Order Doesn’t Undo Mass Incarceration On January 26, 2021, President Joe Biden signed a series of executive orders in the name of advancing racial equity. One of the most high-profile ordersresurrected an Obama-era policy to phase out the Department of Justice’s contracts with privately managed prisons. As a politician whose career has been marked by championing federal law and order policies, including but not limited to the 1994 Crime Bill, Biden has been challenged by anti-prison activists and advocates to account for his past actions and to use his executive powers to reduce the scope and power of the federal penal system. Although couched in the language of taking on mass incarceration, Biden’s private prison executive order fails to scale back incarceration or to confront racial state violence head–on. By Lydia Pelot-Hobbs
Democratic Fascists Prepare to Drop the Hammer Democrats are determined to snuff out freedom of speech and assembly to protect the corporate ruling order – while pretending it’s to safeguard Black people. By Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
Black Citizenship Forum: Pan-Africanism and the Pitfalls of National Citizenship The Review interrogates the thought of academic and activist Layla Brown-Vincent, who says she was “reared and steeped in Pan-Africanist thought and organization” from birth. By Editors, The Black Agenda Review
Freedom Rider: Pro-Biden Propaganda Party and its corporate media have already white-washed Biden, and nothing will be demanded of him except that he not be Trump. ByMargaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist The Democratic
Ajamu Baraka: We Are Entering a New Totalitarian Era In this interview for Pacifica Radio’s Covid, Race and Democracy, Ajamu Baraka warned of a new era of totalitarian neoliberalism. By Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
First 100 Daze: A ‘new’ dance craze Everybody’s wild ‘bout this ‘new’ dance craze— this lewd, crude dance called “The 1st 100 Daze…” By Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
We Have To Stop Valorizing Black Cops The purpose of policing––to jail and kill Black folks––remains the same regardless of the officers’ race. By Mary Retta
Letters from Our Readers This week our readers talked about the weakness of the U.S. left, the storming of the Capitol, and the crisis of U.S. imperialism. By Jahan Choudhry BAR Comments Editor
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.
Where Trumpism Lives Support for pro-Trump Republicans remains driven by relatively well-off whites in fast-growing, rapidly diversifying suburbs – not by economic despair in rural America. By Jacob Whiton
Martin Luther King Jr. and the Socialist Within Each year in January as King is honored in the eyes of the public, there is little mention of the demands of the man and his mission: his fight for economic justice. By Stephen Joseph Scott
Amazon Launches Anti-Union Website to Derail Alabama Union Drive The drive at the Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama marks one of the few times in the company’s history that workers will have the opportunity to vote in a union election. By Lauren Kaori Gurley
New Toolkit Tallies Up Victories and Summarizes Strategies to Defund the Police It is more imperative than ever to reduce the funding, power, weaponry, and reach of law enforcement agencies that are committed to protecting a white supremacist status quo. By Andrea J. Ritchie
Still Can’t Breathe NYPD officers continue to use chokeholds on civilians without any meaningful punishment. By Topher Sanders and Lucas Waldron
Encoding Anti-Blackness: Castration in the Digital Age El Negro de WhatsApp outgrew the category of prank to become “the biggest meme produced by social media culture in our country.” By Kahlil Martin Wall-Johnson
Labor:
Economy:
How the Ongoing GameStop Fiasco Highlights the Sinister Nature of Modern Casino Capitalism “Wall Street and stock market are metaphors for a society rotting from self-indulgence, greed, widening inequality, and financial entrepreneurship that builds nothing, improves nothing, creates nothing, and solves nothing.” By Jon Queally
GameStop, Casino Capitalism and Chaos on Wall Street Since the beginning of the year, a group of amateur traders, organised on Reddit, have been playing the market against major hedge funds, who had shorted shares for GameStop: a US-based video game retailer. As a result, GameStop’s share prices have gone through the roof, and a billion-dollar hedge fund had to be bailed out to the tune of $2.75 billion. This circus exposes Wall Street as little more than a gambling den, and reveals a crisis-ridden capitalist system hooked on short-term speculation rather than meaningful productive development. By Jorge Martin
Stop the Game – I Want to Get Off! ‘Hedging’ used to be a way reducing the risk of selling or buying. Farmers waiting for their harvest to come in are uncertain what price per bushel they will get at the market: will they get a price that makes them a profit and a living for next year or will they be made destitute? To reduce that risk, hedge companies offer to buy the harvest in advance at a fixed price. The farmer is guaranteed a price and income whatever the price per bushel at the time of going to market. The hedge fund takes the risk that it can make a profit by buying the harvest at a price below the eventual market price. In this way, ‘hedging’ can smooth out the volatility in prices, often very high in agricultural and mineral sectors. But in financial markets, hedging and hedge funds take on a whole new function. It has become a game, with billions of other people’s money at stake, turning the market for goods and services into a casino for financial betting. In my previous post, I explained how what Marx and Engels called ‘fictitious capital’ (stocks and bonds) and their supposed value bore little relation to the real value of underlying earnings and assets of companies. By Michael Roberts
GameStop Shares: Dark Pools Owned by Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, UBS, et al, Have Made Tens of Thousands of Trades Dark Pools owned by the biggest names on Wall Street – such as Goldman Sachs’ Sigma X2, JPMorgan Chase’s JPM-X, UBS’ UBSA, Morgan Stanley’s MSPL, and Credit Suisse’s Crossfinder — have been making tens of thousands of trades in the shares of GameStop on an ongoing weekly basis. FINRA, Wall Street’s highly compromised self-regulator, reports the Dark Pool data on a stale basis, two to three weeks after the trading has occurred. It is then lumped together for the whole week, rendering it useless in terms of monitoring price manipulation. The chart above is taken from the latest available information from FINRA. (See our previous reporting on Dark Pools in Related Articles below.) By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
World:
Pakistan: countrywide student protest against on-campus exams A wave of student protests against on-campus exams has been sweeping across the country since last week. Social media for the last few weeks has been abuzz with the students’ demand “#StudentsReject OnCampusExams”, which has also been a top trend on Twitter for the last two weeks. By Progressive Youth Alliance
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!
Four More Years
Quotes 0f the Day:
