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Images Of the Day:
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!
Quotes 0f the Day:
. . . Listen to the yell of Leopold’s ghost
Like the wind in the chimney.
Burning in Hell for his hand-maimed host.
Hear how the demons chuckle and yell
Cutting his hands off, down in Hell.
Listen to the creepy proclamation,
Blown through the lairs of the forest-nation,
Blown past the white-ants’ hill of clay,
Blown past the marsh where the butterflies play: —
“Be careful what you do,
Or Mumbo-Jumbo, God of the Congo,
All the “O” sounds very golden. Heavy accents very heavy. Light accents very light. Last line whispered.
And all of the other
Gods of the Congo,
Mumbo-Jumbo will hoo-doo you, . . . — The Congo By Vachel Lindsay
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 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!
Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace (2002)
In his new book, Gore Vidal makes a scathing attack upon the bipartisan domestic and foreign policies of the US government. The introduction to this book sets its theme, that the bombings of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995 and the World Trade Center (WTC) in New York City on September 11, were used, respectively, to justify the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1996 and the current “war on terrorism”. Vidal explains that these bombings were in response to the more than 200 acts of war and (ongoing) worldwide military incursions by the US government since 1945, and the concurrent erosion of the Bill of Rights. Vidal refers to Newton’s theory “that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”. Without condoning the attacks, Vidal explains that the bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma, by Timothy McVeigh, was a response to the ongoing attacks on the Bill of Rights, and that the WTC attack, allegedly organized by Osama bin Laden, was a response to US government foreign policy/terrorism.
David Harris on Whatever Happened to Americans’ Moral Compass? Journalist and anti-war activist David Harris speaks to Robert Scheer about his resistance to America’s genocide in Vietnam and his education in federal prison. Journalist and anti-war activist David Harris speaks to Robert Scheer about his resistance to America’s genocide in Vietnam and his education in federal prison. Journalist and anti-war activist David Harris speaks to Robert Scheer about his resistance to America’s genocide in Vietnam and his education in federal prison. The Vietnam War is one of many heinous stains on American history that to this day often is told through a revisionist lens or outright ignored. Yet the truth remains beneath the layers of whitewashing that the U.S. government sent thousands of Americans to slaughter and be slaughtered over a conflict that had everything to do with Cold War ideologies and nothing to do with justice or freedom. The death tolls are still shocking to read: it is estimated that 2 million Vietnamese civilians were killed during the war, along with 1.1 million North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters and 58,220 American soldiers.
A History of the CIA in Congo The Belgian colonizers transformed Congo into a slave-state for rubber and ivory. The so-called Congo Free State (État indépendant du Congo) existed as a private colony of King Leopold II (1835-1909) until the Belgian government took over in 1908. Belgian rule killed an estimated 10 million people. Post-independence, the country split into what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC, known for a time as Zaire,) and the Republic of Congo (a.k.a., Congo-Brazzaville). By T.J. Coles
Environment:
Predicting the coming catastrophe if the mode of production does not change, Rachel Carson wrote in The Sea Around Us: “It is a curious situation that the sea, from which life first arose, should now be threatened by the activities of one form of that life. But the sea, though changed in a sinister way, will continue to exist; the threat is rather to life itself.” . . — Whither Humanity? The Environmental Crisis of Capitalism We Don’t Need a Green New Deal! — We Need a Green Industrial Revolution!
Nobel Laureates Urge Humanity to Stop ‘Taking Colossal Risks With Our Common Future’ “We need to reinvent our relationship with planet Earth. The future of all life on this planet—humans and our societies included—requires us to become effective stewards of the global commons.” By Brett Wilkins
As the Ocean Rises: Worldwide Glacier Retreat Speeds Up Glacier thinning rates have doubled over the past two decades The most comprehensive and accurate analysis to date shows that almost all the world’s glaciers are becoming thinner and losing mass and that these changes are picking up pace. Glaciers are a sensitive indicator of climate change – and one that can be easily observed. Regardless of altitude or latitude, glaciers have been melting at a high rate since the mid-20th century. Until now, however, the full extent of ice loss has only been partially measured and understood. A paper published in Nature this week provides the first comprehensive study of global glacier retreat. It includes all the world’s glaciers — about 220,000 in total — except for the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets.
“When Will They Ever Learn”: From Dust Bowl to California Drought: A Climate Scientist On he Lessons We Still Haven’t Learned California is once again in a drought, just four years after the last dry spell decimated ecosystems, fueled megafires and left many rural communities without well water. . . . “These are not accidental, strange dry periods,” said Gleick, the co-founder of the Pacific Institute, a global thinktank that has become a leading voice on water issues in California and around the world. “They’re increasingly the norm.”
Governments Insure Polluters!
Price–Anderson Nuclear Industries Indemnity Act: The Price-Anderson Nuclear Industries Indemnity Act (commonly called the Price-Anderson Act) is a United States federal law, first passed in 1957 and since renewed several times, which governs liability-related issues for all non-military nuclear facilities constructed in the United States before 2026. The main purpose of the Act is to partially compensate the nuclear industry against liability claims arising from nuclear incidents while still ensuring compensation coverage for the general public. The Act establishes a no fault insurance-type system in which the first approximately $15 billion (as of 2021) is industry-funded as described in the Act. Any claims above the $12.6 billion would be covered by a Congressional mandate to retroactively increase nuclear utility liability or would be covered by the federal government. At the time of the Act’s passing, it was considered necessary as an incentive for the private production of nuclear power — this was because electric utilities viewed the available liability coverage (only $60 million) as inadequate.[1] In 1978, the Act survived a constitutional challenge in the Supreme Court case Duke Power Co. v. Carolina Environmental Study Group (see below). The Act was last renewed in 2005 for a 20-year period.
The US Government Insurance Scheme for Nuclear Power Plant Accidents No Longer Makes Sense The Japan Center for Economic Research, a source sympathetic to nuclear power, recently put the long-term costs of the 2011 Fukushima accident as about $750 billion. Contrast that with the maximum of $13 billion that could be available after a catastrophic US nuclear accident under the plant owners’ self-insurance scheme defined by the Price-Anderson Act. The Act will have to be renewed before 2025; Congress should seize the opportunity not only to reflect on the lack of insurance in the event of a catastrophic accident, but also to reconsider our approach to nuclear power plant safety altogether Price-Anderson frees nuclear plant operators and all firms involved in nuclear construction and maintenance of any liability for offsite accident damage. The only chance for additional compensation lies in the act’s declaration that if accident damages exceed the legal limit “Congress will thoroughly review the particular incident” and will “take whatever action is determined to be necessary” to provide full compensation to the public. In short, a Fukushima-level accident would toss the costs of compensation and cleanup unto the lap of Congress. By Victor Gilinsky
Outrage as Canadian Regulator Lets Government-Owned Pipeline Keep Insurers Secret “These insurers can’t hide. Any company that refuses to rule out insuring tar sands extraction and pipeline projects is complicit in Indigenous rights violations.”—Kanahus Manuel, Tiny House Warriorsoperate,” said one Trans Mountain opponent. By Jake Johnson
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Labor:
Why I Do Not Celebrate Labor Day But I celebrate May Day! I celebrate May Day, but I don’t celebrate Labor Day — I just observe it. To me, Labor Day means the codification of the labor bureaucracy’s subservience to the capitalist class. That was the original purpose for the United States capitalist class when it made labor day a holiday. It was organized as such in opposition to the Labor Day that was/is celebrated everywhere else in the world — a demonstration class solidarity! — May Day! May Day was celebrated, in memory of the martyrs of the Haymarket Massacre in 1886 Chicago and the unending struggle of the world working class for their “unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” By RolandSheppard Retired Business Agent Painters Local # 4 San Francisco
May Day and the United States of Amnesia We must keep alive the memory of the early struggles of the working-class movement for a better future. May Day is celebrated in more than 90 countries around the world as International Workers’ Day, with large-scale marches and protests, in honor of the struggles of the working class. But not in the country where it began, the United States of Amnesia. The history of May Day has its origins in the summer of 1884 when the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions decided to launch a nationwide movement to secure an eight-hour workday and called for May 1, 1886 to be the beginning of this campaign. On May 1, 1886, hundreds of thousands of American workers staged a nationwide march demanding the creation of the eight-hour workday. Chicago was the epicenter of the protests as they were scheduled to go on for days. Eventually, the protests turned violent when the police attacked picketing workers on May 3, killing one person and injuring several, at the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, an event which led the next day to a bloodier confrontation between police and demonstrators Haymarket Square. By C.J. Polychroniou
On May Day, Gig Workers Are Organizing an Intersectional Movement Gig workers have organized a day of demonstrations and caravans led by rideshare drivers in cities across the U.S. Bt Robert R. Raymond
Economy:
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First-Quarter 2021 GDP Annualized Inflation Jumped to a 31-Year High of 4.1%, With Quarterly Real GDP Growth Hitting a Consensus 6.4%, Still Shy of Pre-Pandemic Recovery
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Monthly March Series Showed Broad Inflation Soaring on Top of Still-Faltering Jobs and Economic Activity [See the headlined paragraphs in the LATEST NUMBERS section]
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Fed Chairman Powell – “We’ve Got a Long Ways to Go”
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March 2021 Money Supply and Monetary Base Growth Continued to Explode
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U.S. Government’s Financial Condition Deteriorated Sharply in 2020 [See the headlined paragraphs in the SYSTEMIC RISK section]
General Headlines
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Pandemic-Driven U.S. Economic Collapse Continues to Harden in a Protracted “L”-Shaped Non-Recovery
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Severe Systemic Structural Damage from the Shutdown Is Forestalling Meaningful Economic Rebound into 2022 or Beyond, Irrespective of the Advances in Coronavirus Vaccines and Treatments
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Panicked, Unlimited Federal Reserve Money Creation and Federal Government Deficit Spending Continue and Will Expand, Triggering Major Domestic Inflation
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With Fundamental Dollar Debasement Intensifying, Holding Physical Gold and Silver Protects the Purchasing Power of One’s Assets, Irrespective of Any Near-Term Central Bank or Other Machinations to the Contrary.
Archegos Unpacked: Equity Derivative Contracts Held by Federally-Insured Banks Have Exploded from $737 Billion to $4.197 Trillion Since the Crash of 2008 During Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s press conference this past Wednesday, he took a question from Brian Cheung of Yahoo Finance. The question was: “It seems like to people on the outside who might not follow finance daily, they’re paying attention to things like GameStop, now Dogecoin. And it seems like there’s interesting reach for yield in this market to some extent — also Archegos. So, does the Fed see a relationship between low rates and easy policy to those things, and is there a financial stability concern from the Fed’s perspective at this time?” 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
End Vaccine Aparthide!
It’s not over yet. Daily confirmed deaths (7 day rolling) from COVID are near the peak since the pandemic started. It’s just that the virus has switched to the poorest parts of Asia and Latin America while deaths drop back in Europe and North America where the vaccines are rolling out. — Michael Roberts Blog
Conclusion: Breaking down the results by employment status and race/ethnicity, we find that Black and Hispanic households face significant socioeconomic challenges from the pandemic. Black and Hispanic communities are not only more likely to face an increased risk of exposure to COVID-19 but are also more financially vulnerable and less likely to withstand the financial strain of the pandemic. These disparities can be aided by government policies but in many cases are not. — The COVID-19 public health and Economic Crises — Brookings
Many Deaths During the Pandemic Were Simply Due to Lack of Access to Health Care And now that the dust has settled and the data are being tabulated, America’s excess death numbers over the past year are staggering. The importance of tabulating such a dark statistic is twofold: its record-breaking nature is due to both to our largely for-profit healthcare system, as well as government incompetence. Indeed, for decades our government ignored the warnings from public health experts that the U.S. was not properly prepared for the pandemic we are living through now. By Bob Hennelly
Who’s Controlling the COVID Vaccine: 10 Myths and Misdirections The only way these big pharmaceutical corporations and rich governments will move is by being shamed into it. MYTH #1: We’re all getting the COVID vaccine… No. Not all of us. Many developing countries don’t have any supply at all yet. Nothing. At best, many will only be able to vaccinate one person in 10 this year. Unless something changes, vaccinating everyone across the entire world will take years. But if you’re lucky enough to live in a rich developed country then you’ve either already had a jab or are very likely to get one soon. Rich countries are vaccinating at a rate of one person-per-second—which is fantastic!—but for most people in the world the future is an uncertain and unprotected one. By People’s Vaccine Alliance
The Lancet: SARS-CoV-2 Elimination, Not Mitigation, Creates Best Outcomes For Health, The Economy, And Civil Liberties The trade-off between different objectives is at the heart of political decision making. Public health, economic growth, democratic solidarity, and civil liberties are important factors when evaluating pandemic responses. There is mounting evidence that these objectives do not need to be in conflict in the COVID-19 response. Countries that consistently aim for elimination—ie, maximum action to control SARS-CoV-2 and stop community transmission as quickly as possible—have generally fared better than countries that opt for mitigation—ie, action increased in a stepwise, targeted way to reduce cases so as not to overwhelm health-care systems.1
Another Example Capitalism as a Failed System: World Capilalism Was Aware of the Danger of Cornovavirus Threat Over 5 Years Ago and Did Nothing!: Under Capitalism — Human Lives Don’t Matter Capitalism Does Not, and Never Has, Worked for the Masses! In Its Death Agony, Capitalism Is Traveling About The World Like The Four Horsemen of the The Apocalypse, Spreading Racism, War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death. The future of Humanity Is Now At stake!
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!