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Humanity Will Not be Covid Free, Until the Vaccines are Free For the Whole World
Image 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 of the Day:
Inequality is Systemic to Caoitalism! — To Have Equality We Must Socialize the Wealth!:
During these crucial years, the American economy was undergoing an astonishing phenomenon that the mainstream news left largely unreported or actually glamorized in its infrequent references: the largest transfer of the national wealth in American history from a majority of the population to a small percentage of the country’s wealthiest families. — Book Review: The Media Monopoly (2001) Actually 2001-2022 has been‘largest transfer of the national wealth in American history from a majority of the population to a small percentage of the country’s wealthiest families.’ From Why Communism?: Plain Talks on Vital Problems (1933): Two professors of Columbia University, Adolf A. Berle, Jr., and Gardiner C. Means, recently published a book called The Modern Corporation and Private Property. In it they tried to sum up the concentration of wealth in the U. S. A. These very conservative economists came to the conclusion that out of a total of 367 billion dollars that formed the national wealth of the U. S. A. in 1929, 200 big companies held assets amounting to 81 billion or, roughly, 22 per cent. How many persons controlled those 200 companies? Possibly no more than 2,000. An insignificant handful of people controlling over one-fifth of the wealth of a country with a population of over 120 million. The professors call it “concentration of economic power” and they point out that that concentration is proceeding at a very rapid pace. — Why Communism?Plain Talks on Vital Problems (1933) “Since wealth is a major source of future economic gains, and increasingly, of power and influence, this presages further increases in inequality,” economists Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, who won a 2019 Nobel prize for their research on poverty, wrote in the introduction of the report. We are living in a world with an “extreme concentration of economic power in the hands of a very small minority of the super-rich,” they said. At the same time, inequality has also grown, particularly in countries without strong social welfare nets. The top 1% have grabbed 38% of all additional wealth accumulated since the mid-1990s, while the bottom 50% captured just 2% of it, the report found. — World’s Richest People Now Own 11% of Global Wealth, Marking The Biggest Leap in Recent History (12/07/2021)
Videos of the Day:
Cops Wanted to Keep This Disturbing Video a Secret. Now They’re Going After the Person Who Leaked It Eric Lurry’s death was a mystery to his family until a police whistleblower leaked damning evidence implicating the Joliet, Illinois, police department. Now Sgt. Javier Esqueda, who came forward with the video evidence, is facing a possible 20-year prison sentence for exposing his fellow police officers. In this episode of the Police Accountability Report, we examine the mechanics of a police coverup and the ramifications of holding police accountable, and ask Sgt. Esqueda what he witnessed that made him risk his career and his freedom by becoming a whistleblower.
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 th poor and gives to the Rich. Tax the Rich! — They Can Afford to Pay!
Here are some sobering numbers: 56% of all Americans cannot produce a meager $1,000 as an emergency expense from their existing savings, CNBC reported; 1 in 10 US adults have gone hungry last December as a result of poverty, Forbes.com reported; Columbia University Center on Poverty and Social Policy revealed that child poverty rate in the US stands at 17%, “one of the highest among developed countries.” If American workers are studied separately from the larger population, the numbers are even more grim: three quarters of American workers said that “it was very or somewhat difficult to make ends meet,” according to a study conducted by Shift Project, and reported in NBC News online, 40% of the polled workers said that they are not able to come up with $400 in emergency money. But the most shocking of all, according to the same study, is that “around 20% said that they went hungry because they couldn’t afford enough to eat.” — Biden’s Real Challenge Is Not Russia or China, but Poverty in America
Lessons from January 6th: an Inside Job Over a year after the harum-scarum storming of the U.S. Capitol, there is ample evidence that it was an inside job. Not only was the security detail intentionally minimized to the extreme, but decisions were made at the highest levels of the chain of command to allow a right-wing mob to rampage through the building. At the forefront of this antidemocratic horde, as we shall see, there were fascist or semi-fascist organizations whose leadership has multiple direct ties to the military and intelligence agencies. All of this raises fundamental questions regarding the true nature of the U.S. government and its relationship to fascism. Unfortunately, two false narratives concerning January 6th dominate the corporate media. On the one hand, the Democratic Party and its press allies have run a mawkish faith-in-government campaign, presenting themselves as the last great guardians of ‘our sacred democracy,’ while refusing to aggressively combat the fascist threat and back-peddling on all of Biden’s more progressive campaign promises. On the other hand, the Trump camp and its media have concocted a self-serving narrative according to which the storming of the Capitol was a false flag operation that lured ‘patriots’ into a trap, leading to the prosecution of innocent, freedom-loving MAGAs in the ‘second war on terror.’ Through an incredible act of ideological transubstantiation, which is unfortunately a common feature of white supremacy, the rioting antidemocratic mob is thereby transformed into victims rather than perpetrators of violence.
Environment —Ecosocialism or Ecocide!:
The Great Greenwashing Scam: PR Firms Face Reckoning After Spinning For Big Oil A comprehensive study confirms that oil companies are largely all talk and no action when it comes to clean energy initiatives his week a peer-reviewed study confirmed what many have suspected for years: major oil companies are not fully backing up their clean energy talk with action. Now the PR and advertising firms that have been creating the industry’s greenwashing strategies for decades face a reckoning over whether they will continue serving big oil.
Crumbling U.S. Infrastructure — Lead Poisoning!: Time to Get the Lead Out! On December 16, 2021, the Biden-Harris administration released its Lead Pipe and Paint Action Plan (LPPAP), which includes a commitment to replace all lead pipes in America within a decade. The plan details the release of $2.9 billion in infrastructure funding and an announcement of upcoming stricter EPA enforcement to protect public health. In conjunction with the White House announcement, EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan committed all available EPA tools, including statutory authority under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), technical assistance, and funding, to protect all Americans from lead in drinking water. “The science on lead is settled—there is no safe level of exposure and it is time to remove this risk to support thriving people and vibrant communities,” Regan said in an EPA statement. An Agency estimate puts the total of lead pipes in need of replacement at as many as 10 million lines nationwide, reports Bloomberg Law. A disproportionate amount of those lines are located in disadvantaged communities.
Lead Pipes Are Widespread and Used In Every State! Lead service lines—the pipes that carry water from the water main under the street to residences—have long been recognized as the primary contributor of lead in drinking water (we’ll call them lead pipes for simplicity’s sake). After conducting a survey of these lead pipes in the United States, NRDC estimates that there is a range of 9.7 million to 12.8 million pipes that are, or may be, lead, spread across all 50 states, including those that claim to have none. Unfortunately, given the lack of accurate state-provided data, this already shocking number could be a low estimate, and the associated health risks are enormous.
Nearly Half of US Bald Eagles Suffer Lead Poisoning America’s national bird is more beleaguered than previously believed, with nearly half of bald eagles tested across the U.S. showing signs of chronic lead exposure, according to a study published Thursday. While the bald eagle population has rebounded from the brink of extinction since the U.S. banned the pesticide DDT in 1972, harmful levels of toxic lead were found in the bones of 46% of bald eagles sampled in 38 states from California to Florida, researchers reported in the journal Science. Similar rates of lead exposure were found in golden eagles, which scientists say means the raptors likely consumed carrion or prey contaminated by lead from ammunition or fishing tackle.
Dangerously Awash in Chemicals Man-made chemicals have exceeded the limits of safety for the planet. This statement comes from the first-ever major scientific warning based upon a study of the dangers posed by the flood of chemicals across the globe as three hundred fifty thousand (350,000) chemicals slosh throughout the planet. “We have overwhelming evidence of negative impacts on Earth systems, including biodiversity and biogeochemical cycles,” according to Bethanie Carney Almroth, University of Gothenburg. (Source: Marc Préel, Plastic, Chemical Pollution beyond Planet’s Safe Limit: Study, Phys.org, February 15, 2022, Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University)
‘Cancel This Project’: Price Tag of Trans Mountain Expansion Nearly Doubles One campaigner called on Canada’s government to instead “put all of our energy and political will into a just transition that leaves fossil fuels in the ground and supports people,
Civil Rights/BlackLiberation
Labor:
Economy:
The Federal Reserve and Treasury painted the U.S. into a corner with its Quantitative Easing to save the banks and brokerage houses after 2008. The policy succeeded in supporting and even raising real estate prices, and providing arbitrage opportunities to borrow at low rates to buy higher-yielding stocks and bonds, vastly increasing the magnitude of financial wealth. This has been especially the case since the pandemic, creating an estimated trillion dollars in “capital gains” (including short term arbitrage) for the wealthiest One Percent. What seemed to be the financial death trap was the prospect of rising interest rates ending the free lunch of interest-dividend arbitrage, and easy mortgage money. The threat was to reverse the asset-price run-up. We already are seeing that in recent weeks as stocks plunged to reflect the rise in Treasury bond rates. But by now, 14 years after the Obama bailouts and QE rescue of insolvent banks, a new condition has emerged: a vast sum of private capital seeking to move out of the financial markets. Many of the most astute One Percent is taking their money and running – into private equity and real estate. The result is that housing prices are soaring as private capital is out-bidding owner-occupant home buyers. While the latter face rising mortgage-interest rates, private capital finds the likelihood for both current rental income and capital gains to be a much better bet than the stock and bond market. The result will not be a decline in real estate prices, but a decline in home-ownership rates as a shift to rental housing occurs. The financial class is becoming the new absentee landlord class. — Michael Hudson
Are the Big 4 Accounting Firms Focused on their Public Duty or Optimizing their Payday? Are the Big 4 Accounting Firms Focused on their Public Duty or Optimizing their Payday? Editor’s Note: Auditors have come under a harsh light over their failure to detect massive frauds over the past two decades. The Big 5 are now the Big 4 as a result of Arthur Andersen’s audit failures with the energy company, Enron. Despite the sagging reputations of the remaining Big 4, conflicts of interest continue to pervade this profession. This is the news beat of Francine McKenna, a CPA, veteran financial reporter and now an independent journalist writing for Substack. In the article below, McKenna provides an overview of where things stand today and profiles three recent cases of Big 4 audit failures: at Theranos, Autonomy-HP, and Carillion. (This was a talk McKenna delivered to a February 15, 2022 gathering of the CFA Society New York under the program title, “What Investors Need to Know about Audits.” It is published here with permission from the author.)
World:
Developing Countries’ Debt Problem: That is the theme of the latest World Development Report (WDR), entitled Finance for an Equitable Recovery, which was prepared under the direction of World Bank chief economist, Carmen Reinhart, a renowned expert on global finance. She notes, “In 2020, the average total debt burden of low- and middle-income countries increased by roughly 9 percentage points of the gross domestic product, compared with an average annual increase of 1.9 percentage points over the previous decades. “Fifty-one countries (including 44 emerging economies) experienced a downgrade in their sovereign debt credit rating.” Fifty-three per cent of low-income nations are now seen to be at high risk of debt distress. Sharp rises in indebtedness were a necessary response to the pandemic. Indeed, the problem for most emerging and developing countries was that they could afford to borrow too little, with grave results for their populations. Partly as a result, COVID has increased inequality not only inside countries but also between them. Not least, the number of people in extreme poverty jumped by 80 million in 2020, much the largest such rise in a generation. — Commentary: The Looming Threat of Long Financial COVID
The Northern Ireland Peace Agreement is Crumbling, But Boris Johnson does not Seem to Care . . . when Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), pulled it out of the devolved government in Northern Ireland last week, collapsing the power sharing administration, Johnson made no comment. That should not have caught anybody by surprise, as the British Government’s actions and inactions over the past couple of years had already gone far to degrade the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement of 1998 which brought an end to the violence. Given that Sinn Féin is likely to emerge as the largest party in May’s Assembly election, and the DUP is opposed to the Northern Ireland Protocol, a power sharing executive in Belfast may never be resurrected. The delicate compromise between unionist and nationalists, Protestants and Catholics, which was one of the historic successes of British diplomacy, is falling apart and the British Government shows little sign of taking notice.
Modern Day Capitalism; Banksters, Thieves, Itorturez, Drug Traffickingers, Money Launderingers, Corruption snd Other Serious Crimes.: Credit Suisse Leak Unmasks Criminals, Fraudsters and Corrupt Politicians A massive leak from one of the world’s biggest private banks, Credit Suisse, has exposed the hidden wealth of clients involved in torture, drug trafficking, money laundering, corruption and other serious crimes.
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Massive leak reveals secret owners of £80bn held in Swiss bank
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Whistleblower leaked bank’s data to expose ‘immoral’ secrecy laws
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Clients included human trafficker and billionaire who ordered girlfriend’s murder
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Vatican-owned account used to spend €350m in allegedly fraudulent investment
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Scandal-hit Credit Suisse rejects allegations it may be ‘rogue bank’
Education, Health, 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 they 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!
To Stop ‘Endless Cycle of Death,’ Biden Urged to Push Emergency Patent Waiver “President Biden must exercise his current power and bulk up Covid vaccine, test, and treatment production abroad,” more than 80 civil society groups write in a new letter. More than 80 civil society organizations said Monday that in order to finally put a stop to the “endless cycle of death and disability” caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, U.S. President Joe Biden should demand that the World Trade Organization convene an emergency session and swiftly approve a suspension of coronavirus vaccine patents.
Another Example Capitalism as a Failed System: World Capilalism Ws 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”, is Still True for Today’s World!
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!