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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:
Quotes 0f the Day:
Videos of the Day:
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
Science and Politician For Sale
‘Cry Me a River’: Sanders Hits Back as Billionaire Whines About Potential Tax Hikes Amid GameStop Fiasco “Oh look, another billionaire is mad that he might have to pay more taxes while children in America go hungry and veterans sleep on the street.” As the ongoing GameStop saga sparked renewed calls for a financial transactions tax and other commonsense redistributive measures to tackle soaring inequality and Wall Street abuses, billionaire investor Leon Cooperman took to the airwaves Thursday to fume that the idea of compelling the mega-rich to pay their fair share is a “bullshit concept” and merely “a way of attacking wealthy people.” By Jake Johnson
A Top Biden Cybersecurity Aide Donated Over $500,000 to AIPAC as an NSA Official In mid-January, a week before being sworn in as president, Joe Biden announced that he would appoint Anne Neuberger as the deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology on the National Security Council. Cybersecurity experts praised the move, citing it as a clear sign the Biden White House would be serious about countering cyber-threats. The New York Times described Neuberger, who became the National Security Agency’s cybersecurity chief in 2019, as a “rising official” at the agency. She had run its Russia Small Group, which launched a preemptive strike against the Kremlin’s cyber operatives during the 2018 elections, and in addition to focusing on preventing cyber-assaults on the US government and military, she had overseen the development of new impenetrable cryptography. But the glowing reviews left out an unusual piece of her story: In recent years, Neuberger, through a family foundation, has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel lobby known as AIPAC, for its efforts to influence the US government and public opinion. By David Corn
Imerpialism uses racismism for its ideology to justicy its crimes and genocide throughout the world, The Racist Vigilantes are a reflecion of this when the United States was the only economic power! (Great!): Cops, Vigilantes and the Ruling Class As more and more evidence comes in, much of it reveals collusion between the neo-fascists who were the hard-core and vanguard of the mob and the police, military, politicians and President. While some of the overwhelmed Capitol Police resisted the mob others welcomed it, opening barriers and treating them like tourists — selfies and all. This collusion was not extraordinary, rather it fits a long- standing pattern with one huge exception: when cops collude with vigilantes, white supremacists and right-wing gangs, it’s always against Black and Brown people or workers. Never is it an attack on the ruling parties or ruling class interests — until now. And, that makes all the difference. By Richard Moser
The National Security State Has Militarized Our Democracy A particular irony of this century has been that the less effective the U.S. military has been abroad, the more it’s come to be treasured here at home. In the process, American democracy, too, has been transformed into a kind of Green Zone. This month’s insurrection at the Capitol revealed the dismal failure of the Capitol Police and the Department of Defense to use their expertise and resources to thwart a clear and present danger to our democracy. As the government reform group Public Citizen tweeted, “If you’re spending $740,000,000,000 annually on ‘defense’ but fascists dressed for the renaissance fair can still storm the Capitol as they please, maybe it’s time to rethink national security?”By By Mandy Smithberger and William Hartung
The Trump electoral victory is Representative of the Constant Attack Upon the Working Class Since 1948 and The Default and the Treacherous Roll of the Trade Union Bureaucracy The majority of the American people opposed both Clinton and Trump. The Majority of the People are worse off under Obama’s austerity, during his stay in office. Trump won because he filled a vacuum of leadership in opposition to the austerity program of the 1%’s United States. Hillary Clinton lost becuse she was a part of the austerity program. By Roland Sheppard
Environment:
Antarctica’s Ice Shelves Have Lost Millions of Metric Tons of Ice As these platforms are winnowed away, they imperil the continent’s glaciers and set the stage for further sea level rise Antarctic ice shelves have lost nearly 4 trillion metric tons of ice since the mid-1990s, scientists say. Ocean water is melting them from the bottom up, causing them to lose mass faster than they can refreeze. That’s according to a new study analyzing satellite data from 1994 to 2018. The results were published yesterday in the journal Nature Geoscience. That spells bad news for the hundreds of glaciers spread out along the Antarctic coastline. By Chelsea Harvey
Human Rubbish is Smothering the Planet’s Oceans In a throwaway world garbage may be unseen, but not gone. Human rubbish is everywhere, from ocean abyss to coastal mud. In the next 30 years, an estimated three billion metric tonnes of human rubbish − everything from abandoned trawl nets to plastic bottles, from broken teacups to tins of toxin − could find its way into the sea, to defile the ocean floor. One recent survey in the Strait of Messina, the seaway that separates Italy and Sicily, measured this detritus at concentrations of between 121,000 and 1.3 million items per square kilometre trapped in.
“After 13 Years, Justice!” Dutch Court Orders Shell Oil to Pay for Harm Done to Nigerian Farmers “Victims of environmental pollution, land grabbing, or exploitation now have a better chance to win a legal battle against the companies involved.” Global environmental justice campaigners heralded a Dutch court’s ruling Friday that Royal Dutch Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary must pay punitive restitution to Nigerian villages for oil spill contamination that brought death, illness, and destruction to Nigerian farmers and communities. By Andrea Germanos
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
The Afro-American militant is a ‘militant’ because he defends himself, his family, his home, and his dignity. He does not introduce violence into a racist social system – the violence is already there, and has always been there. It is precisely this unchallenged violence that allows a racist social system to perpetuate itself. When people say that they are opposed to Negroes ‘resorting to violence’ what they really mean is that they are opposed to Negroes defending themselves and challenging the exclusive monopoly of violence practiced by white racists. ― Robert F. Williams, Negroes with Guns
Negroes With Guns: The Untold History of Black NRA Gun Clubs and the Civil Rights Movement
Sam Pollard: The FBI’s Crusade Against MLK Was Darker Than You Think The film director discusses his documentary “MLK / FBI” on J. Edgar Hoover’s sickening surveillance of the civil rights hero. “You are done. There is only one way out for you. You better take it before your filthy, abnormal fraudulent self is bared to the nation.” That’s the shocking ending to the infamous letter Civil Rights hero Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. received in 1964 essentially urging him to commit suicide. The letter and accompanying package containing blackmail were sent by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as King quickly caught on. While the full, unredacted letter was finally published by the New York Times in 2014, the audio recordings of an extensive FBI wiretapping operation targeting King have been sealed until 2027. With just a few years left before they come to light, director Sam Pollard did a deep dive into the FBI’s surveillance of MLK under the leadership of J. Edgar Hoover in his documentary “MLK / FBI,” released by IFC Films earlier this month.
Labor:
Economy:
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Employment and Unemployment, Retail, Production, Freight, Trade, Construction, FOMC. Inflation, Money Supply, Financial Markets
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An Increasing Number of Unemployed People Were Misclassified as Employed; Corrected December Unemployment Would Have Jumped, Instead of Holding at 6.7%
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December 2020 Real Retail Sales Declined for the Third Straight Month, and Fourth-Quarter 2020 Activity Relapsed into Quarterly Contraction
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Momentum of Fourth-Quarter Data Suggests a First-Quarter 2021 GDP Contraction, As the Pandemic and Political Tumult Take on Negative New Dimensions
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Federal Reserve Chairman Powell: ―We Are a Long Way from Full Recovery
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Latest Weekly Money Supply M1 Jumped an Unprecedented 72.3% Year-to-Year
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Severe, U.S. Dollar-Debasing Inflationary Pressures from Existing, Extreme Monetary and Fiscal Policies Are About to Get Much Worse
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Risk of Hyperinflationary Economic Collapse Has Accelerated With Democrats Taking Control of Both the White House and Congress
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Holding Physical Precious Metals Remains the Best Hedge Against Coming Inflation and Market Turmoil
GameStop: Will the Real Keith Gill Please Stand Up The Wall Street Journal has an article up naming Keith Gill as the fellow that started the GameStop mania at WallStreetBets. The article says that Gill “until recently worked in marketing for Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co.” According to FINRA’s BrokerCheck, a Keith Patrick Gill, employed at a subsidiary of Massachusetts Mutual, MML Investor Services, has held trading licenses since 2012 and got his Series 7 stock trading license in 2016. On November 1, 2016, FINRA shows that Gill received his Series 24 Principal’s license, making him eligible to supervise other licensed brokers. FINRA also shows that Gill has worked for three trading houses since 2012. Could there be two Keith Gills working for MassMutual? Yes there could. But it would certainly behoove the Wall Street Journal reporters to revisit their reporting. By Pam Martens
World:
Netherlands: a turbulent start to 2021 The Netherlands is a European country where relatively little happens. By outsiders, it is often seen as sober, efficient and stable. The first month of 2021 however already saw the resignation of the third Rutte government and the most violent riots for 40 years. Meanwhile, the labour bureaucracy is moving against the left. By Zowi Milanovi
Greece: Students and Workers Defy The State and March Against New Democracy Yesterday, there was a series of rallies in Greece, mainly composed of students and teachers, against the reactionary measures that the New Democracy government is trying to pass in the universities and in the schools. More than 4,000 demonstrators came out in the streets of Athens. There were also demonstrations in Thessaloniki and other cities in Greece defying the ban imposed by the government.
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
How was this possible so quickly? Well, it was not due to big pharma coming up with the scientific research solutions. It was down to some dedicated scientists working in universities and government institutes to come up with the vaccine formulas. And that was made possible because the Chinese government quickly provided the necessary DNA sequences to analyse the virus. In sum, it was government money and public funds that delivered the medical solution. — Michael Roberts
Covid-19: “Shkreli Awards” Go o Pandemic’s Top Profiteers The Shkreli Awards for profiteering and dysfunction in healthcare, an annual tribute to the worst actors of the US health system, have unsurprisingly focused this year on misconduct during the covid-19 pandemic, with the place of dishonour taken by the Trump administration’s federal personal protective equipment (PPE) taskforce. Led by Jared Kushner, the procurement taskforce launched “Project Airbridge” to find PPE abroad and bring it quickly to the US. But rather than distribute it to needy state governments, the taskforce gave these supplies to six private medical supply companies to sell to the highest bidder, creating a bidding war among states. Half of the PPE was meant to go to designated pandemic “hot spots,” but no officials from the 10 hardest hit counties in the first covid-19 wave could confirm that they received any PPE from Project Airbridge, the Washington Post found. In distributing PPE, the administration “repeatedly put the profits of private sector enterprises above the health needs of the American people and the safety of healthcare workers,” said Merrill Goozner, former editor of Modern Healthcare and one of the award judges.
Why Has the Vaccine Rollout Been So Slow? Answer: Big Pharma Patent Monopolies In a normal flu season, close to 2 million shots are given every day, without any heroic efforts by the government. Given the urgency of getting the pandemic under control, it is hard to understand why we could not have administered shots at this pace, if not considerably faster. By Dean Baker
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!
Gamestop
United States:
Shadow Government Statisticss Economic Commentary, Issue No. 1455