Humanity Will Not be Covid Free, Until the Vaccines are Free For the Whole World
Image of the Day:
Oil Wars
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!
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:
Among the calamities of war may be jointly numbered the diminution of the love of truth, by the falsehoods which interest dictates and credulity encourages. — Samuel Johnson
Videos of the Day:
John Pilger on Ukraine: Russian Troops Are in Russia, US Missiles & NATO Troops Surround Russia John Pilger in his interview with us last month calls the coverage of the Ukraine crisis one of the most distorted stories in modern memory, asserting that Russian troops are moving within Russian borders while the US and NATO surround Russia with troops and missiles. (02/17/2022)
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!
Lee Camp: New Data Shows U.S. Government Has Been Bought For $14 Billion . . . It’s because both mainstream parties are owned by corporate America, stand for the same shit, and they haven’t actually been face-to-face with a regular blue-collar human being since they fathered the first of their 14 children and the surrogate mother happened to bring her boyfriend to the birth (or as the rich call it, “the human baby transfer to its rightful owners”). And sure enough, a new survey verifies that most Americans are not happy with the false choice between two political parties. The new poll from NBC News found that the Democrats and Republicans are about as popular as the horseback hemorrhoid clinic located near where I live.
Congressional Leaders Raise Millions Ahead of 2022 Midterm Elections Congressional leaders consistently pulled in millions of dollars from donors in 2021, campaign finance disclosures show. Their campaigns and leadership PACs took in over $90 million during 2021. Political committees aligned with House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who recently confirmed she’d run for reelection, raised the most among party leaders in Congress. Pelosi’s campaign drew about $12 million in 2021. In the final quarter of 2021, Pelosi’s campaign raised $2.9 million. The congresswoman’s leadership PAC raised $2.2 million in the latest quarter, and $8.3 million in total for 2021.
Calls to Reform the CIA Are Misplaced. It Shouldn’t Exist at All. New revelations about bulk surveillance of Americans are part of a pattern of abuse that dates to the CIA’s founding. The CIA recently declassified parts of a letter written by two U.S. senators that revealed the existence of a previously unknown bulk spying program that collects and stores Americans’ data. The letter, written by Senators Ron Wyden and Martin Heinrich, calls for the CIA to reveal the details of the program. It was sent to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines in April 2021. Much of the letter remains classified, and neither the senators nor the CIA have provided any specifics about what the underlying spying program entails.
Pax Americana and The Failure of ‘Lesser Evilism’ Just before the 2000 Presidential Election, in September 2000, George Bush’s think tank, The Project for the New American Century, put into writing a document titled Rebuilding America’s Defenses, Forces and Resources For a New Century. In that document they called for war upon Iraq, a US military presence in the middle east, and the construction of military bases throughout Asia and the world to enforce, what they termed, as a ‘strategic goal’, the preservation Pax Americana — the ‘new world order’ that was proclaimed after the first Gulf War. There has been no objection or opposition, from the Democratic Party, to this ‘strategic goal’ for this century
MSNBC Host: Disastrous Foreign Policy Leaves US With Less ‘Credibility’ to Condemn Russia In a number of current cases around the world, Mehdi Hasan observed, “the occupying nation is an ally of the United States, with the U.S. doing very little if anything to condemn such occupations.” MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan argued in a monologue Monday night that the United States would have “more credibility” to condemn the recent actions of Russia in Ukraine if it wasn’t currently supporting illegal occupations by its allies around the world—and if it didn’t have its own long record of carrying out brazenly unlawful invasions of sovereign countries.
‘Huge Victory’: Colombian High Court Decriminalizes Abortion “Women, girls, and people able to bear children are the only ones who should make decisions about their bodies,” said one advocate. “Today, women in this country have won.” Women in Colombia are now free to seek abortion care without fear of criminal prosecution following a ruling by the country’s Constitutional Court on Monday—the result of years of campaigning by reproductive rights groups.
The Sacralization of War, American-Style “To prepare for war, to give millions of men and women the opportunity to practice killing day and night in their hearts, is to plant millions of seeds of violence, anger, frustration, and fear that will be passed on for generations to come.” The violent infrastructure of this nation is like a noxious vine with destructive results for us all, but few connect this to other rising forms of violence in the U.S.
Declaring the Monroe Doctrine For the World!: Pax Americana!
State Department Gratuitously Invokes Monroe Doctrine Against Russia The Biden administration and the mainstream media are trumpeting a Russian effort to create allies in Latin America, America’s backyard. This is part of the U.S. propaganda campaign against Moscow. Last week, the press spokesman for the Department of State (DoS), Ned Price, gratuitously invoked the Monroe Doctrine against Russian involvement in Latin America, warning that the United States would “respond swiftly and decisively.” In so doing, Price inadvertently and implicitly begged the question of how Russian President Vladimir Putin’s defense of its western border differs from U.S. hegemony in the Western Hemisphere.
Environment —Ecosocialism or Ecocide!:
Big Oil Uses Ukraine Crisis to Push for Expansion of Dirty US Fossil Fuels Decreasing our use of gas is a way of not only deescalating the conflict but also acting on climate change. There are always those who will want to profit from war or the threat of war, as unscrupulous as it may seem. And for the American oil and gas industry there is no exception. As Ukraine and Russia stand on the brink of a potentially lethal and bloody conflict, the American Petroleum Institute and its allies have been active on social media, arguing that now is a perfect time to expand LNG exports.
A Growing Wave of Litigation Spurs Climate Action A new report suggests that lawsuits alleging false or misleading “climate-washing” claims are increasing and “pushing the cause forward.” In France, three non-governmental organizations sued the oil company Total over alleged “inadequate” environmental and human rights assessments of its oil project in Uganda and Tanzania. In Australia, a student filed a consumer complaint with Ad Standards against the financial services organization HSBC for claiming to support the protection of the Great Barrier Reef despite its links to fossil fuel operations. In South Africa, three civil society organizations launched a case alleging that the government’s plans to obtain new coal power threaten various constitutional rights.
Civil Rights/BlackLiberation:
Arbery’s Murderers Found Guilty of Federal Hate Crimes “Ahmaud Arbery was lynched in broad daylight,” said the NAACP’s president, “and today’s verdict brings us one step closer to justice.” A jury on Tuesday found three white men who murdered unarmed Black jogger Ahmaud Arbery guilty of federal hate crimes. Gregory McMichael, his son Travis McMichael, and William “Roddie” Bryan Jr. “are accused of interfering with Arbery’s right to use a public street because of his race as well as attempted kidnapping,” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. “The McMichaels are also accused of using weapons during a crime of violence because both were armed during the deadly chase.”
Biden Promised to Center Racial Justice. He Can Start by Canceling Student Debt. By one estimate, cancellation of student debt would result in an increase in Black wealth of nearly 40 percent. It has been said that if the U.S. catches a cold, the Black community catches the flu. Historically in the United States, communities of color feel the negative impacts of policy decisions disproportionately, and the student debt crisis is no exception. Nearly 45 million Americans owe on federal student loans. According to researcher Melanie Hanson of the Education Data Initiative, Black borrowers are more likely to default on student loans and have higher monthly payments. Four years after graduation, half of them owe on average 12.5 percent more than they originally borrowed. This means that despite having a college education, Black graduates will be more likely to struggle to make ends meet — perpetuating the cycle of poverty we were led to believe college education would free us from. Black borrowers also have lower familial wealth and post-college income, making debt harder to pay off and contributing to a higher debt-to-income ratio.
Chinese-American Wins Gold at Beijing Olympics, Faces Anti-China Backlash at Home Winning her second gold medal last week, 18 year-old Chinese-American Olympian Eileen Gu (Gu Ailing) is the first “action-sports” athlete to win three medals at the same Olympics. “My name is Eileen Gu,” she told journalists, “and I’m the best half-pipe skier in the world.” Gu was born in San Francisco and recently graduated from a top San Francisco high school. She will be attending Stanford University in September. Backlash Gu’s success should have been front page news in the San Francisco Chronicle. It wasn’t. The story was initially buried in the sports section. Instead of hailing her success, the paper sought to explain why Gu was competing for China and not the United States. Corporate media and many others described Gu as a misguided youth at best, or even a “traitor” for carrying the flag of China in the Beijing Olympics. However, Gu made the decision to do so at the age of 15. China is her mother’s home country, and she speaks fluent Mandarin. Her decision went unnoticed until December, after President Joe Biden and Congress stepped up its attacks on China’s alleged human rights violations and threats to national security. Sports Illustrated wrote after her first victory: “Gu got her gold medal and China got its pawn.” A Fox News analyst denounced her as “ungrateful”, and said her “reverse migration” was “shameful”.
Labor:
The ‘Supremes’ Recently Struck Down OSHA’a Workplace Covid Worlers Safety Regulations, Now All Regulation are On the Line!: The Supreme Court Could Hamstring Federal Agencies’ Regulatory Power in a High-Profile Air Pollution Case On Feb. 28, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in West Virginia v. EPA, a case that centers on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change. How the court decides the case could have broad ramifications, not just for climate change but for federal regulation in many areas. This case stems from actions over the past decade to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, a centerpiece of U.S. climate change policy. In 2016, the Supreme Court blocked the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan, which was designed to reduce these emissions. The Trump administration repealed the Clean Power Plan and replaced it with the far less stringent Affordable Clean Energy Rule. Various parties challenged that measure, and a federal court invalidated it a day before Trump left office.
Economy:
The Fed Just Added Short-Selling and Margin Loans to Its List of Trading Restrictions for Fed Officials – Opening a Big Can of Worms On October 21 of last year, when the Fed originally announced its list of trading restrictions that it planned to impose on Fed officials, it made no mention of restricting its officials from short-selling (making bets on a decline in price) or preventing Fed officials from trading on margin. But when the Fed announced its finalized rules last Friday, “short sales or purchasing securities on margin” were added to the list of prohibitions. Why do we find that noteworthy? Because it was Wall Street On Parade that asked the Dallas Fed if its President at the time, Robert Kaplan, was shorting the market when he made those “over $1 million” trades in and out of S&P 500 futures contracts in 2020, a year when the S&P 500 dropped by as much as 30 percent between January 2 and March 23.
World:
Russia-Ukraine is an Information War, So Government Intelligence Needs More Scrutiny Than Ever The threat of war is difficult to beat when it comes to mending or enhancing a damaged reputation. President Joe Biden and Boris Johnson, both derided as ineffective in domestic policy only a few weeks ago, are now reborn as statesmen capable of guiding their countries through the minefield of Eastern European politics. The American and British intelligence services seldom got things right during the Iraq, Libyan and Syrian conflicts, but they are now being cited as reliable guarantors of the credibility of stories about an impending Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine: Putin Ups the Ante by Recognising The Donbas Republics and Sending IN Troops Russian President Vladimir Putin has recognised the independence of the Donetsk and Luhansk Peoples’ Republic (DPR and LPR) in South Eastern Ukraine and sent Russian “peacekeeping” troops into both territories. This represents a significant escalation of the conflict between Russia and Western imperialism. What interests lie behind the conflict, and what should be the position of the international labour movement? The West has already announced it will respond with previously threatened economic sanctions. US imperialism, NATO, the European Union and the UK have all complained that Putin’s decisions are a “violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty” and a “flagrant disrespect for international law and norms”. This is completely hypocritical. The countries now denouncing Russia’s actions have themselves taken exactly the same kinds of measures before. Let us not forget that it was Western imperialism that pushed for the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1992. There was no talk of ‘national sovereignty’ then, and the reason was clear: it was in their interests to break up the former Yugoslavia in order to regain old spheres of influence. It was a completely reactionary move that unleashed civil war and ethnic cleansing in the heart of Europe. After the dramatic turn in events, with Russian President Vladimir Putin recognising the breakaway republics in eastern Ukraine followed by the sending in of Russian military forces, we are publishing a statement by the Russian IMT comrades, elaborated together with Marxists in Ukraine and the Donbas, in opposition to this inter-imperialist conflict.
Statement on Putin’s recognition of the DPR and LPR On 15 February, the Russian State Duma voted in favour of a proposal for immediate diplomatic recognition of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR). The majority of the Security Council of the Russian Federation spoke in favour of recognition on 21 February. The president followed suit. Finally, on the night of 21-22 February, a direct military intervention of Russian troops into these territories began. The initiators of this procedure appeal to the fact that the diplomatic recognition of the republics is a response to the military threat from Ukraine and the NATO bloc, and that the NATO countries are riven with internal divisions, both in relation to the Putin regime and the ongoing conflict. This line of argumentation reveals the hypocritical essence of the behaviour of the Russian political elite, which has so far stubbornly maintained that it “does not participate in the intra-Ukrainian conflict.” It was already obvious to anyone with eyes that there was Russian interference in the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine. Now, it has turned into an open invasion. Equally hypocritical are the statements made by the leaders of the NATO countries and their media servants, who pretend that they care about “human rights”, “territorial unity” and “Ukraine’s freedom from interference”. Hypocrisy is a trait common to all major parties in the conflict. The governments of Russia, the United States, the EU countries and Ukraine all justify their actions in every possible way by waxing lyrical about peoples’ interests and their rights. In practice, they are all interested in these people as nothing but cheap labour, and in the territory of the Donbas as an object for plunder and the creation of new markets. The lofty phrases of all bourgeois governments are but a cover for a cynical policy directed everywhere against the interests of the working-class majority and its rights.
Ukraine: Putin Recognizes Donetsk and Luhansk as Independent States Decision to recognise territories in south-east likely to scupper peace agreement and trigger tough new sanctions from west Vladimir Putin will recognise the Russian-controlled territories in southeast Ukraine as independent states in a pivotal decision, scuttling an existing peace agreement and triggering condemnation and new sanctions from the west. Putin announced the decision in a televised speech marked by the Russian leader’s visceral anger at a country he has called a “brother nation”
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!
