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!
One of the most damaging provisions defines “employees” so as to exclude supervisors and independent contractors. This greatly diminished the pool of workers eligible to be unionized. For example, years ago AT&T widely expanded the number of “supervisors” to both deplete the union membership numbers and use their “supervisors” as management control tools. Taft-Hartley has other pro-management provisions, including controls over pensions, disclosure of information, and workplace time for union purposes. Once Taft-Hartley was on the books, its restrictions were strengthened by the courts and the National Labor Relations Board (whose last pro-corporate general counsel was just fired by Biden). With the expansion of the “gig economy,” by Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, and other companies whose business model is built on having no employees, the challenge for American workers is nothing less than displacing anti-labor dictates with a comprehensive worker’s human rights law. ±—If Biden is a “Union Guy” – Go After the Taft-Hartley Monster!
The last labor upsurge (Post World War II Labor Upsurge) in the United States occurred over 50 years ago in the late 1940s, The workers were victorious in their struggles to regaining their standard of living that was lost during the war and its ‘wage price freeze’. (Which was supported by the Communist Party as part of their defense of Stalin’s policy of subordination of the class struggle to the ‘Defense of the Soviet Union’.). The response of the ruling class was to amend the National Labor Relations Act, with the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act, (”The Slave Labor Act”) to give the employers a “level playing field” in their relations with labor. The right-wing of the labor bureaucracy, taking advantage of the class-collaborationist policies of the Communist Party, used this law to expel any opposition, to their class collaboration policies, from the leadership of the trade union movement. The whole process of stratification of the unions that was begun during World War II, delayed after the post-WWII upsurge (1945–46), then accelerated by the Cold War-based witch hunt of the late 1940s and the 1950s, including elimination of radicals and militants from leadership of the unions in compliance with the Taft-Hartley Law, is becoming complete or will be completed in the near future. During the period of the witch-hunt, the concept of partnership between capital and labor was solidified by the Democratic Party becoming the political party of the trade union leadership. 1The United States is one of the few countries in the world where the leadership of the unions openly belongs to and has allegiance to a political party of the ruling class. — m the leadership of the trade union movement.— The Fall of the Trade Unions
Since environmental illness and destruction are a global concern, it requires all of humanity to act collectively, in our overall interests for our survival as a species, to correct the problem and to remove the obstacle of capitalism. It requires a society where humanity has social, economic, and political control over the entire environment. Such a society, a socialist society, is needed to ensure that all decisions affecting the environment are under the democratic control of humankind so that the production of goods will be done for the needs and survival of humanity instead of the production and the destruction of humanity and other species for profit. With common ownership of the means of production, and common control and protection of all property and wealth, science and society will be in goals we can begin to build a more effective environmental movement. As we continue to organize against capitalism and its destructive course, we can and will transform the world. — Roland Sheppard, Human Society Stands At The Crossroads: Either Socialism Or The Destruction of Humanity
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 ownershipof the Reublicrats, who profit from war and the war budget, voted 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. Tax the Rich! — They Can Afford To Pay!
Environment:
Study Reveals Rapid Melting of Glaciers Has Shifted Earth’s Axis “Faster ice melting under global warming was the most likely cause of the directional change of the polar drift in the 1990s.Since 1980, the planet’s north and south poles have moved roughly four meters in distance, and new research shows that shifts in the Earth’s rotational axis have accelerated since the 1990s as a result of the widespread melting of glaciers—a clear manifestation, scientists say, of the climate emergency. “Faster ice melting under global warming was the most likely cause of the directional change of the polar drift in the 1990s,” Shanshan Deng—a researcher from the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research at the Chinese Academy of Sciences—told the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Thursday.” by Kenny Stancil
A Warmer, Drier World’s Deeper Wells Spell Trouble A warmer world could for billions be drier. The resultant deeper wells spell trouble for those reliant on groundwater. As many as one fifth of the world’s wells could be about to run dry, as levels of the subterranean water table continue to fall. And if they do, the resultant deeper wells spell trouble for billions of people who will face diminishing supplies of clean water, and water for their crops. By Tim Radford
Environment Now! The Earth is changing faster than at any point in human memory as a result of human-caused global heating. Since the mid-1800s, when we began burning fossil fuels at an industrial scale, we have been modifying our atmosphere and causing the globe to heat up. Greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere, which causes hotter temperatures, rises in sea level, disruption to ecosystems and more extreme weather. Scientists have forecast that if the world passes 2C of heating above pre-industrial levels, the consequences will be catastrophic for billions of people around the world. Governments signed the Paris agreement in 2015 in which they agreed to limit warming to 2C with an ambition to keep it below 1.5C. UN Declares 2021 is ‘Year For Action’ On Climate The year of plague and fire, record heat, melting ice and rising seas: who’s surprised 2021 is UN’s “year for action”? The world’s most authoritative global forecasters have soberly confirmed conclusions first outlined in January. The year 2020, the year of Covid-19, of planet-wide economic slowdown, did almost nothing to damp global heating, which is why the UN says 2021 must be a “year of action”. Even at a point in the natural weather cycle in which tropical conditions should have been cooler, it was hotter: one of the three warmest years on record. The decade 2011-2020 is now the hottest on record. Global average temperatures reached 1.2°C above the long-term average for most of human history. By Tim Radford
Where Does All The Radioactive Fracking Waste Go?A year-long investigation finds a major West Texas disposal site with a patchy record is also importing radioactive oilfield waste from abroad. On May 8, 2017, a drum of radioactive oilfield waste from Australia arrived at a remote West Texas disposal site operated by local oil and gas environmental services company, Lotus LLC. This drum of waste entered the United States aboard a Singapore Airlines cargo jet, appropriately packaged in a steel drum. According to files from the Railroad Commission of Texas, the state’s main oil and gas regulator, it contained the radioactive element radium at concentrations of 2,095 picocuries per gram. Those levels are more than 400 times the protective health limits designated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for toxic Superfund sites and uranium mills, where fuel for nuclear bombs was once assembled. This page will track a selection of the planet’s vital signs, from carbon dioxide levels to Arctic sea ice, and act as a reference point. The graphs are fed from data sources including Nasa, the US National Snow and Ice Data Center and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. They will automatically update and follow the Earth’s climate trajectory, providing a visual representation of the climate crisis. By Justin Nobel
Lotus LLC Global Radiactive Dumper
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:Police Violence: the Standards are Topsy-Turvy Responding to the conviction of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd, Libertarian National Committee Chair Joe Bishop-Henchman gets it exactly right: “Those who are given authority over others ought to be held to an even higher standard than what is expected of the general public.” That seems obvious, but when it comes to police officers, the American justice system routinely gets it backward. By Thomas KnappMedia Evasions on Racism and the Role of Derek Chauvin Although it’s acknowledged that Black people and other people of color are consistently at the bottom of the caste system, there’s no examination of the powerful interests that put them there. Let’s turn from healthcare to housing. We have a homeless crisis far worse than any other advanced industrial country. Gentrification in major cities disproportionately causes the evictions of people of color. Our longstanding housing crisis was made worse by the “Great Recession” begun in 2007, which most affected homeowners of color and African Americans in particular—a disaster sparked by a handful of greedy Wall Street firms and their allies in Washington. Unlike Chauvin, not one of these Wall Street criminals was given a televised trial. Corporate media sometimes showed us the victims of the housing crisis, but hardly ever their victimizers—and the policymakers behind the Great Recession, like Robert Rubin, are still served up as media experts today. Wall Street banks aren’t just major sponsors of news media. They’re also major donors to politicians of both parties, heavily to Democrats. So are big urban real estate interests responsible for gentrification—donating to Democratic officials who might criticize “systemic racism” while consistently enabling it By Jeff Cohen
Labor:
Minnesota Workers Took on the National Guard to Defend Black Lives ‘Labor Leaders’ Duck for Cover . . . But two days before Friday’s attack, union members took things into their own hands. A unit of the National Guard was using the St. Paul Labor Federation Center as a staging area for launching attacks against protesters. A single union local president gave them permission to use the building, even though the building is used by dozens of locals. When union activists heard, they converged on the Center to push back. Members of the Communications Workers of America, Minnesota Nurses Association, United Brotherhood of Carpenters, and other unions rejected the undemocratic decision and demanded that the Guard leave — an act of radical solidarity with the anti-racist protestors. A rank and filer from UNITE HERE points out that the union members didn’t just question the Guard’s presence. They started pushing the Guard — with members from working class and oppressed neighborhoods — to question what side they’re on and what class they serve: “Do you feel what you’re doing now is remotely close to helping people?” When the Guard drove off in its armored cars, they did it to chants of “Whose house? Our house!” and “What kind of power? Union power!”Economy:
Post-Keynesianism: The Principles In my view, Marxist economic theory does have an answer. It relies on an objective view of the laws of motion under capitalism, in particular, changes in the profitability of productive (value-creating) capital. If profitability is low in productive sectors, capitalists try to counteract this in several ways, one of which is to invest in what Marx called fictitious capital. But financial profits still depend on the profitability of the productive sectors and if profitability falls to the point that the mass of profits or new value (wages and profits) falls, then a crisis ensues in the productive sector that flows into the financial sector. I and other Marxist scholars have provided much empirical evidence to explain recessions and, in particular, the global financial crash and the ensuing Great Recession, not as a ‘Minsky moment’ when financial stability turns into instability suddenly, but as ‘Marx moment’; when profits drop to the point where the value of means of production and labour must be devalued, including fictitious assets. Indeed, as G Carchedi has shown (see graph below), when both financial profits and profits in the productive sector start to fall, an economic slump ensues. That’s the evidence from the post-war slumps in the US. But a financial crisis on its own (as measured by falling financial profits) does not lead to a slump if productive sector profits are still rising. see Carchedi, pages 59-62 Chapter 2 of World in Crisis. By Michael Robarts
The Fed Has Misled the Public about the “Strength” of the Wall Street Mega Banks: This Chart Shows the True Picture On Wednesday, March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 to be a pandemic. From that point on, through March 23, the share price performance of the Standard & Poor’s 500 began to diverge dramatically from the share price performance of the mega banks on Wall Street. (See chart above.)From the start of the year in 2020, the S&P 500 fell a little more than 30 percent through March 23 while Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan Chase were down from 40 to 50 percent. Citigroup was down by a stunning 56 percent. (Citigroup had closed at $79.89 on December 31, 2019. By the close of trading on March 23, 2020, it was a $35.39 stock.) By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
World:
As Long as Capitalism and Big Pharma Keep Profiting From the Vaccines, The Global Capitalist Pandemic Crisis Will Not End!
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
NIH Scientist Who Developed Key Vaccine Technology Says Patent Gives US Leverage Over Big Pharma Dr. Barney Graham says he joined the National Institutes of Health in order to leverage “public funding to solve public health issues. A leading National Institutes of Health scientist who helped develop a key technology used in Pfizer and Moderna’s coronavirus vaccines said this week that the U.S. government’s ownership of the patent for the invention gives the Biden administration significant leverage to compel pharmaceutical companies to help boost global production. Dr. Barney Graham, deputy director of the NIH’s Vaccine Research Center, told the Financial Times in an interview this week that “virtually everything that comes out of the government’s research labs is a non-exclusive licensing agreement so that it doesn’t get blocked by any particular company.” By Jake Johnson
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!
Where Does All The Radioactive Fracking Waste Go?A year-long investigation finds a major West Texas disposal site with a patchy record is also importing radioactive oilfield waste from abroad. On May 8, 2017, a drum of radioactive oilfield waste from Australia arrived at a remote West Texas disposal site operated by local oil and gas environmental services company, Lotus LLC. This drum of waste entered the United States aboard a Singapore Airlines cargo jet, appropriately packaged in a steel drum. According to files from the Railroad Commission of Texas, the state’s main oil and gas regulator, it contained the radioactive element radium at concentrations of 2,095 picocuries per gram. Those levels are more than 400 times the protective health limits designated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for toxic Superfund sites and uranium mills, where fuel for nuclear bombs was once assembled. This page will track a selection of the planet’s vital signs, from carbon dioxide levels to Arctic sea ice, and act as a reference point. The graphs are fed from data sources including Nasa, the US National Snow and Ice Data Center and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. They will automatically update and follow the Earth’s climate trajectory, providing a visual representation of the climate crisis. By Justin Nobel
Police Violence: the Standards are Topsy-Turvy Responding to the conviction of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd, Libertarian National Committee Chair Joe Bishop-Henchman gets it exactly right: “Those who are given authority over others ought to be held to an even higher standard than what is expected of the general public.” That seems obvious, but when it comes to police officers, the American justice system routinely gets it backward. By Thomas Knapp
Media Evasions on Racism and the Role of Derek Chauvin Although it’s acknowledged that Black people and other people of color are consistently at the bottom of the caste system, there’s no examination of the powerful interests that put them there. Let’s turn from healthcare to housing. We have a homeless crisis far worse than any other advanced industrial country. Gentrification in major cities disproportionately causes the evictions of people of color. Our longstanding housing crisis was made worse by the “Great Recession” begun in 2007, which most affected homeowners of color and African Americans in particular—a disaster sparked by a handful of greedy Wall Street firms and their allies in Washington. Unlike Chauvin, not one of these Wall Street criminals was given a televised trial. Corporate media sometimes showed us the victims of the housing crisis, but hardly ever their victimizers—and the policymakers behind the Great Recession, like Robert Rubin, are still served up as media experts today. Wall Street banks aren’t just major sponsors of news media. They’re also major donors to politicians of both parties, heavily to Democrats. So are big urban real estate interests responsible for gentrification—donating to Democratic officials who might criticize “systemic racism” while consistently enabling it By Jeff Cohen
Economy:
