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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!
Image of the Day:
The press is so powerful in its image-making role, it can make a criminal look like he’s the victim and make the victim look like he’s the criminal. This is the press, an irresponsible press. If you aren’t careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressedand loving the people who are doing the oppressing. — Malcolm X, Audubon Ballroom, December 13, 1964
2010 Update: 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:
BIDEN’S TEAM WON’T END THE FOREVER WARS From Afghanistan to Niger, the “new normal” of American warfare shows no signs of changing course under President Biden and his hawkish national security team. In this episode of “The Marc Steiner Show,” combat veteran and writer Danny Sjursen issues a dire warning about American military policy
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
Racist Wars Abroad Coming Home to Roost: Andrea Mazzarino, Living Up Close and Personal With Our Endless Wars If you don’t think that the January 6th attack on the Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters armed with everything from baseball bats to guns wasn’t as much of a sign of how America’s wars are coming home as the way the Pentagon has armed police forces with weaponry directly off those distant battlefields, think again. After all, the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys, the two “militia” groups that evidently did the most planning prior to leading the charge on the Capitol aimed at murdering America’s elected representatives and halting the presidential vote count, are evidently filled with veterans of this country’s forever wars (or at least of the military that has never stopped fighting them). In fact, as the New York Times reported recently, more than one-third of the members of those two groups known to have been at the Capitol were once in that military (unlike less than a fifth of the rioters generally). Even before that assault, such militias had evidently been thinking rather specifically about bringing war home. Within a week of Joe Biden’s November 3rd electoral victory, the Oath Keepers, for instance, were already setting up training sessions for “urban warfare” and stationing members near Washington, D.C., prepared to act on President Trump’s orders.
No, Biden’s Climate Plans Don’t Cut It Beneath the aspirational language of Biden’s climate plans is a continued reliance on climate-destroying fossil fuels. By Wenonah Hauter
Environment:
The Great Divide: America’s Water Problem: ‘It’s a toxic Blend’: Where The Kids Are Warned Not to Swallow the Bath Water Predominantly Latino towns in California like East Orosi face huge obstacles getting clean drinking water An invisible line splits the rural road of Avenue 416 in California’s Tulare county, at the point where the nut trees stretch east toward the towering Sierra Nevada mountains in the distance. On one side of the line, residents have clean water. On the other side, they do not. On the other side lies East Orosi, an unincorporated community of about 700 where children grow up learning to never open their eyes or mouths while they shower. They know that what comes out of their faucets may harm them, and parents warn they must not swallow when they brush their teeth. by Vivian Ho in East Orosi, California
‘A Red Alert for Our Planet’: New UN Report Shows Radically Bolder Action Needed to Hit 1.5°C Target “It’s staggering how far off track countries are to dealing with the climate crisis.” A United Nations report out Friday reveals just how far off the world is from meeting the goals of the Paris climate agreement based on the emissions reduction plans that governments across the globe have put forth for the next decade.The Paris agreement aims to limit global temperature rise this century to “well below” 2°C, and preferably 1.5°C, compared with pre-industrial levels. Scientists warn accomplishing its more ambitious target requires cutting planet-heating emissions 45% by 2030 from 2010 levels. The new report from U.N. Climate Change shows that if recent pledges were implemented, emissions would only drop 1%. By Jessica C
Texas Electricity Firm Files For Bankruptcy Citing $1.8 Billion Grid Operator Bill Brazos Electric Power Cooperative Inc. is one of dozens of electricity providers facing blackout-related charges stemming from last month’s severe cold snap. Texas’s largest and oldest electric power cooperative on Monday filed for bankruptcy protection in federal court in Houston, citing a disputed $1.8 billion bill from the state’s grid operator. Brazos Electric Power Cooperative Inc is one of dozens of electricity providers facing enormous charges stemming from a severe cold snap last month. The fallout threatens utilities and power marketers who collectively face billions of dollars in blackout-related charges, executives said.
Alpine Plants Face Risk From Growing Climate Heat Like many mountainous regions, the European Alps are warming fast. Alpine plants will suffer – and life below ground as well. The early melting of snow in the Alps is not just bad news for ardent skiers and for those who are dependent on the money they earn during the winter sports season: Alpine plants are in danger too. Rising temperatures due to climate change are also having a negative impact deep below the surface of the ground. New research by scientists at the University of Manchester in the UK demonstrates that warming in the area is threatening microbes which live in the Alpine soils. The microbes play a critical role in supporting life forms above ground, recycling key nutrients upon which animals, plants – and humans – depend By Kieran Cooke
Ancient Tree Tells Chaotic Tale of Earth’s Magnetic Field Reversal A perfectly preserved ancient tree fossil has offered scientists a unique peek into a moment 42,000 years ago when the Earth’s magnetic field went haywire. The impressive study paints a picture of temporary environmental chaos, potentially influencing everything from an increase in cave paintings to the extinction of the Neanderthals. By Rich Haridy
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Financial Reserves and the Racial Wealth Gap Why is it that the wealthiest country on earth has the highest death toll of any nation in the world? And why are Black and Latino people among those experiencing the greatest mortality and hardship during the pandemic? There is excellent research on how the Black-white wealth gap left Black households more vulnerable (see resources below). But let’s consider the racial wealth divide in financial reserves as measure of precariousness as the U.S. entered into the pandemic. A much higher percentage of Black and Latino households are part of the vulnerable “underwater nation,” with zero or negative wealth. By Chuck Collins – Omar Ocampo
Hollywood’s New Blackface Many more black faces on your movie screen. Same old shuck and jive from finance capital.AND . . . why are so many foreign Blacks impersonating African-Americans? I saw “Selma” six years ago. I could feel earnest sincerity radiating from the screen. It was pretty clear the filmmakers were trying to do justice to the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. By the time I saw the film, it had already been glowingly reviewed and the entertainment awards industry was showering nominations over the director, cast and crew. By Dave Clennon
Mumia Abu-Jamal, Now in His 40th Year as an Incarcerated Prisoner, Has Covid-19 Internationally known US political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal has reported to friends and family on the outside that he has contracted Covid-19 in the Pennsylvania prison where he is incarcerated, and says he is having difficulty breathing. His life is in immediate danger and he is in urgent need of hospital care. This latest outrage was sadly predictable. Prisons across the US have for years been allowing serious illness to serve as a form of “silent execution” of prisoners, many of them certainly innocent of the crimes they were convicted of. Many prisoners in the system, guilty or not, are serving unfairly punitive terms that keep them confined into an old age meaning they are particularly vulnerable to potentially fatal illnesses, whether that is flu, cancer, hepatitis, pneumonia or now Covid-19. By Dave Lindorff
Black Lives Still Don’t Matter in America There is a scene in the new film “Judas and the Black Messiah,” directed by Shaka King and produced by Ryan Coogler, in which Chairman Fred Hampton of the Illinois Black Panther Party explains to a group of Black students that just because their school was allowing them to change its name to “Malcolm X College” did not mean they were now free from oppression. Hampton, who is played by actor Daniel Kaluuya in the film, clarified that there is a “difference between revolution and the candy-coated façade of gradual reform.” Hampton, a real-life revolutionary who was murdered by the state in 1969 at just 21 years of age, was ultimately seen as the greater danger to American society than white supremacy and racism. Indeed “candy-coated” reform is all that most politicians have offered Black communities in America for decades. Evidence of it abounds in the form of damning statistical measures showing racial discrimination against Black Americans in health (including from the novel coronavirus), law enforcement, criminal justice, voting rights, education, employment(including during the pandemic), housing, and life expectancy before and especially during the past year. By Sonali Kolhatkar
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Condemns NYPD Test Deployment of K-9 Robot in Bronx Homeb “Please ask yourself: when was the last time you saw next-generation, world class technology for education, healthcare, housing, etc. consistently prioritized for underserved communities like this?”. Arguing that money would be better spent on uplifting programs and policies rather than on high-tech policing of underserved communities, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Thursday blasted the New York Police Department for deploying a robotic police dog in a Bronx apartment building earlier this week. Responding to a New York Post article about the NYPD’s use of a “DigiDog” robotic K-9 unit in response to a home invasion, Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) tweeted, “Shout out to everyone who fought against community advocates who demanded these resources go to investments like school counseling instead. Now robotic surveillance ground drones are being deployed for testing on low-income communities of color with under-resourced schools.” By Brett Wilkins
Child of Black Activists Bombed by Police: “My Activism Is My Religion” Philadelphia police killed 11 members of Mike Africa Jr.’s household in their attack on MOVE in 1985. Last summer, as protests against police-perpetrated killings of Black people emerged across the world, Philadelphians watched as officers from the Philadelphia Police Department (PPD) corralled protesters against an embankment along the side of the highway, trapping them between a wall and an onslaught of attacking police officers. Philadelphians watched as those officers continued to violently attack the panicked crush of bodies. Police officers sprayed tear gas and fired “less-than-lethal” rubber bullets (which are designed to ricochet off the ground before striking their target) toward protesters’ heads at point-blank range. All the while, across town, PPD officers palled around with right-wing agitators and neo-Nazis who were also violating the city’s curfew. By Richard Kent Evans
Labor:
Economy:
More than a Year Later, Americans Have No Idea Where $9 Trillion of Fed Money Went Beginning on September 17, 2019 – months before there was any report of a COVID-19 case anywhere in the world – the Federal Reserve turned on its money spigot to the trading houses on Wall Street. By October 23, 2019 the Fed announced that it was upping these loans to $690 billion a week – again, months before any report of COVID-19 anywhere in the world. Earlier in October 2020, the Fed had also announced that it would be buying back $60 billion a month in Treasury bills. Within a span of six months, the Fed had pumped out a cumulative $9 trillion in loans to Wall Street’s trading houses, according to its own spread sheets, with no peep as to which Wall Street firms were getting the bulk of that money. It’s more than a year later and the American people still have no idea what triggered that so-called “repo loan crisis” or which Wall Street firms were in trouble or remain in trouble. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
World:
‘This Will Embolden the Murderous Prince’: Biden Rebuked for Letting MBS Off Hook for Butchering of Khashoggi “That President Biden has chosen not to pursue that course suggests that the ‘fundamental’ change he promised in U.S.-Saudi relations will not include holding to account its reckless ruler, who consequently is unlikely to be deterred from further criminal behavior.” By Jon Queally
Under Israeli Apartheid, There Are Two Different Pandemics The situation is critical in Gaza, where the UN has repeatedly warned of the imminent collapse of the medical system. There is also serious discussion of a global approach, lifting patents for vaccines that were largely developed using governmental funding. The pandemic has revealed the glaring contradictions when both public health and medical care are allocated along racial, economic and geographic lines. Addressing these issues alerts us to the fact that when health care is treated as a privilege rather than a human right, individual and societal health suffer. One of the most glaring contradictions during the pandemic is in Israel/Palestine, where approximately 5 million Palestinians living under a 53-year military occupation are being left behind. Israel, a developed country with top-notch health care facilities and universal health care access for its citizens through large health maintenance organizations, has been an example of a successful vaccination rollout, despite its challenges reaching Palestinian citizens and ultra-Orthodox Jews. By Alice Rothchild
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!
Quotes 0f the Day:
