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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:
A new Brookings analysis shows that pre-COVID-19, about half of workers earning less than $15 an hour were essential workers—a share that is likely higher now because of the pandemic’s disproportionate effects on low-wage occupations. Voters across the spectrum have come to agree that it is simply not possible for workers—essential or otherwise—to survive on the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour or the state wage floors close to that. —How A $15 Minimum Wage Could Help Restaurants and Other Hard-Hit Small Businesses
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
As US Mourns 500,000 Lives Lost, Report Shows Billionaires Added $1.3 Trillion to Their Fortunes During Pandemic “Taxing those who have experienced windfall wealth gains to pay for Covid relief and recovery is a matter of equity and justice.” —Chuck Collins, Institute for Policy Studies “It is unseemly that billionaires have experienced such gains as we mark a half a million lives lost and millions more who have lost their health, wealth, and jobs.” By Jake Johnson,
We Could End Homelessness Right Now, If Only Capitalism Didn’t Get in the Way At the heart of today’s housing crisis is a capitalist economy built on shadowy finances and esoteric debt. Though houseless folks number more than half-a-million in the United States, this number only begins to capture the gravity of our situation. What was already widely considered a “nationwide housing crisis” years ago has worsened amid the “corona crash.” At the time of writing, between 30 and 40 million people in the United States are at risk of eviction and homelessness as the federal eviction moratorium inches toward expiration on March 31, 2021. By Matthew Byrne 
Pandemic May Have Left 265 Million People With Acute Food Shortages in 2020 Beyond the questions surrounding the availability, effectiveness and safety of a vaccine, the COVID-19 pandemic has led us to question where our food is coming from and whether we will have enough. According to a United Nations World Food Program (WFP) report, COVID-19 might have left up to 265 million people with acute food shortages in 2020. The combined effect of the pandemic as well as the emerging global recession “could, without large-scale coordinated action, disrupt the functioning of food systems,” which would “result in consequences for health and nutrition of a severity and scale unseen for more than half a century,” states another UN report. By Robin Scher
Corporate Lawyers Line Up For Justice Department Top SlotsAttorney General Nominee Merrick Garland Defended Hiring Lawyers With Big Tech Experience at Yesterday’s Confirmation Hearing. Attorney General nominee Merrick Garland defended hiring lawyers with Big Tech experience at yesterday’s confirmation hearing. The first DAY of Senate Judiciary Committee hearings for Merrick Garland, President Joe Biden’s appointee for attorney general, was surprisingly uneventful. Garland faced little meaningful pushback from Republicans while assuring them repeatedly that he would not bring anything even resembling political motivation into the Department of Justice. “I would not have taken this job if I thought that politics would have any influence over prosecutions and investigations,” he said. With support from at least Sens. John Cornyn and Chuck Grassley on the Republican side, Garland is likely to sail through to confirmation. But while Garland was asked about investigating Hunter Biden, the president’s son, he was barely asked about the burgeoning ranks of corporate lawyers who are joining or expected to be joining the Justice Department. In both the transition team and early hires, the Biden Department of Justice, with Garland as its presumptive lead, looks to be drawing extensively on the ranks of Big Law representatives to staff its most powerful and important posts. By Alexander Sammon
Texas Gets Lay’d: How the Bush Family Turned Off T\the Lights I get that, but it’s not their fault, at least not the victims burning family heirlooms to stave off frostbite. “What happened was entirely predictable,” power distribution expert attorney Beth Emory said of the blackouts. She told me this twenty years ago, after the first blackouts in Texas and California, following the cruel experiment called “deregulation” of the power industry. Until 1992, the USA had just about the lowest electricity prices in the world and the most reliable system. For a century, power companies had been limited by law to recovering their provable costs plus a “reasonable,” i.e. small, profit. But in 1992, George H. W. Bush, in the last gasps of his failed presidency, began to deregulate the industry. “Deregulate” is a misnomer. “De-criminalize” describes it best. With the “free market” supposedly setting the price of power, Texas-based Enron was freed to use such techniques as “Ricochet,” “Get Shorty,” and “Death Star” to blow prices through the roof when weather shut down power plants. (This week was not the first game of Texas Gouge’m.). By Greg Pasast
Environment:
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
‘Tired Oof Getting Slapped in The Face’: Older Black Farmers See Little Hope in Biden’s Agriculture Pick Black farmers have been disregarded by the USDA for years. Will anything change in Tom Vilsack’s second stint?James “Bill” McGill has been a farmer for 40 of his 76 years. He can’t remember the year his 320-acre farm was put up for sale by the same man from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) he’d gone to for a loan to help him keep it. He can sum up the loss succinctly: “The government took it away. It has always been that way for us.” By Summer Sewell
White Supremacy Set the Stage for Texas’ Miserable Disaster Response In order to make sense of the natural and human-induced disaster that has struck Texas, the nation will first need an accurate picture of who lives here. Yes, Texas has its oil barons, fossil-fuel lobbyists, and opportunistic political “leaders” who have extracted wealth from the state at the expense of the environment and human needs. But the real figure that should stand out is 17 million people. That’s roughly the Latinx, Black, Indigenous, and Asian population of Texas, which comprises nearly 60 percent of the state. Only 3 states and 69 countries have a larger total population. Denmark, Finland, and Norway combined do not total 17 million residents. Of the 13 cities in the U.S. with populations above 900,000 today, five are in Texas (Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Austin, and Fort Worth) and only 25 to 48 percent “non-Hispanic whites.” Thus, any story of Texans freezing, dying or hospitalized from carbon monoxide poisoning, losing power for vital medical equipment, or suffering without water or pipes bursting is more than likely occurring among the states BIPOC majority. By Scott Kurashige
Labor:
How A $15 Minimum Wage Could Help Restaurants and Other Hard-Hit Small Businesses First of all, raising the minimum wage isn’t just a progressive position. There is now robust bipartisan support among voters for a significant increase in the federal minimum wage, which has not budged in a dozen years. In November, Florida voters approved an increase to the state minimum wage by a margin 11 points wider than Donald Trump’s victory there. (Florida became the first state in the South, and eighth in the nation, to approve a gradual hike to $15.) Meanwhile, a Quinnipiac poll conducted in late January found that 61% of Americans favor the increase to $15 at the federal level. A new Brookings analysis shows that pre-COVID-19, about half of workers earning less than $15 an hour were essential workers—a share that is likely higher now because of the pandemic’s disproportionate effects on low-wage occupations. Voters across the spectrum have come to agree that it is simply not possible for workers—essential or otherwise—to survive on the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour or the state wage floors close to that. But it’s even less possible to survive on restaurant and other service work that relies on tips and is still paid a subminimum rate: $5 an hour or less in 38 states. Heavy reliance on tips rather than wages meant that for many workers laid off during the pandemic, total earnings were too low to even qualify them for unemployment insurance, as labor researchers at the University of California at Berkeley found last year. First of all, raising the minimum wage isn’t just a progressive position. There is now robust bipartisan support among voters for a significant increase in the federal minimum wage, which has not budged in a dozen years. In November, Florida voters approved an increase to the state minimum wage by a margin 11 points wider than Donald Trump’s victory there. (Florida became the first state in the South, and eighth in the nation, to approve a gradual hike to $15.) Meanwhile, a Quinnipiac poll conducted in late January found that 61% of Americans favor the increase to $15 at the federal level. By Xavier de Souza Briggs and Russell Jackson
Economy:
Shadow Government Statistics Flash Economic Commentary, Issue No. 1458
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January 2021 Manufacturing Declined Year-to-Year for the 19th Consecutive Month, Still in the Downturn Induced by the FOMC 15 Months Before the Pandemic Collapse
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Where January 2021 Year-to-Year Manufacturing Contracted by 1.0% (-1.0%), It Also Contracted by 1.8% (-1.8%) from January 2019, Two Years Ago
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While the January 2021 Cass Freight Index® Gained Year-to-Year for the Fourth Straight Month, It Also Contracted by 1.6% (-1.6%) from Two Years Ago
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Despite Happy Headline Gains in January 2021 Real Retail Sales, Production and Construction, the Underlying Payroll Employment Numbers Tell the Opposite Story
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First-Quarter 2021 GDP Remains at Risk of Relapsing into Quarterly Contraction
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January 2021 Producer Price Index Monthly Inflation Hit a Record, 10-Year High
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S. Dollar Collapse Accelerates Holding Physical Precious Metals Remains the Best Hedge Against Developing Inflation and Financial-Market Turmoi
World:
General Strike Against Mynamar Junta! The Civil Disobedience Movement called for this one-day general strike, three weeks after the February 1 coup. Media reports confirm the success: across the country, offices, businesses, markets, shops and restaurants were closed. Neighbourhoods were barricaded, roads were cut. The military junta had tried to prevent this success by increasing the repression. There were more than 400 arrests. Sometimes, live ammunition was used. In Naypyidaw, the administrative capital, a 19-year-old grocer Mya Thwet Thwet Khine was killed. Her burial was followed by a long motorcade. A protest in her memory was held in Rangoon (Yangon), the business capital and largest city. This assassination radicalized the protest. Another large protest took place in the port of Mandalay, where security forces shot dead two people, while trying to force strikers refusing to load a ship to work.
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
Standardized Tests — Planned Ignorance: History of Standardized Tests: Standardized tests have been a part of American education since the mid-1800s. Their use skyrocketed after 2002’s No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) mandated annual testing in all 50 states.US students slipped from being ranked 18th in the world in math in 2000 to 40th in 2015, from 14th to 25th in science, and from 15th to 24th in reading. [1] [2] [3] [4] Failures in the education system have been blamed on rising poverty levels, teacher quality, tenure policies, and, increasingly, on the pervasive use of standardized tests.
Diane Ravitch is a former assistant secretary of education and historian. For more than a decade, she has been a leading advocate for America’s public education system and a critic of the modern “accountability” movement that has based school improvement measures in large part on high-stakes standardized tests. In her influential 2010 book, “The Death and Life of the Great American School System,” Ravitch explained why she dropped her support for No Child Left Behind, the chief education initiative of President George W. Bush, and for standardized test-based school “reform.” Ravitch worked from 1991 to 1993 as assistant secretary in charge of research and improvement in the Education Department of President George H.W. Bush, and she served as counselor to then-Education Secretary Lamar Alexander, who had just left the Senate where he had served as chairman of the Senate Education Committee. She was at the White House as part of a select group when George W. Bush first outlined No Child Left Behind (NCLB), a moment that at the time she said made her “excited and optimistic” about the future of public education. But her opinion changed as NCLB was implemented and she researched its effects on teaching and learning. She Found That The NCLB Mandate For Schools To Give High-Stakes Annual Standardized Tests In Math And English Language Arts Led To Reduced Time — Or Outright Elimination — Of Classes In Science, Social Studies, The Arts And Other Subjects. She was a critic of President Barack Obama’s policies and his chief education initiative, Race to the Top, a multibillion-dollar competition in which states (and later districts) could win federal funds by promising to adopt controversial overhauls, including the Common Core State Standards, charter schools and accountability that evaluated teachers by student test scores. In 2013, she co-founded an advocacy group called the Network for Public Education, a coalition of organizations that oppose privatizing public education and high-stakes standardized testing. She has since then written several other best-selling books and a popular blog focused primarily on education. — What You Need to Know About Standardized Testing
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!
