Humanity Will Not be Covid Free, Until the Vaccines, Like the Salk Polio Vaccine, are Free For the Whole World!
Images of the Day:
Capitalists View Evocide as Profitable!: Look at the Devastations
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!
Videos of the Day:
How many times have you heard a Democratic politician say, “I’m personally opposed to abortion, but…” You never hear a Republican say, “I’m personally in favor of abortion, but…” This duplicitous construction applies to a range of issues. From climate change to student loans to single-payer, Democrats habitually distance themselves from the animating issues of their base, while the Republicans embrace the agenda of their most militant wing. Which is one big reason why we are where we are. — Roaming Charges: Playing for Keeps
The Chris Hedges Report: Gerald Horne on the Unrelentingly Radical Life of Paul Robeson
Railroad Workers are Being Ground to Dust. Who Will Help Them?
Quotes of the Day:
How many times have you heard a Democratic politician say, “I’m personally opposed to abortion, but…” You never hear a Republican say, “I’m personally in favor of abortion, but…” This duplicitous construction applies to a range of issues. From climate change to student loans to single-payer, Democrats habitually distance themselves from the animating issues of their base, while the Republicans embrace the agenda of their most militant wing. Which is one big reason why we are where we are. — Roaming Charges: Playing for Keeps
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. Taxthe Rich! — They Can Afford to Pay!
‘Lesser Evilism’ Always Means More Evil!: Democrats Had 50 Years to Save and Protect “Roe.” They Failed. The GOP attack on “Roe” was enabled by a Democratic Party that intentionally deprioritized reproductive rights. Senator Bernie Sanders and DNC head Tom Perez gave a “unity tour,” during which they suggested abortion rights were a disposable part of Democratic ideology — later, Sanders added that stumping for anti-choice candidates is the kind of thing Democrats need to do “if we’re going to become a 50-state party.” And on Tuesday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi added to that, telling the Washington Post that the party should be open to anti-choice candidates.
With Roe on the Ropes, Students Stage Nationwide Walkouts People might look at us like we’re young, but I genuinely feel like we can make the most change,” said one Maine high school student. “Most of us are voting next year or this year.” College and high school students from coast to coast walked out of classrooms and off campuses on Thursday to defend reproductive freedom in the wake of this week’s revelation that the U.S. Supreme Court is set to overturn Roe v. Wade in what would arguably be the biggest rights rollback in American history.
Gillibrand Goes Off: ‘I Don’t Think a Man in America Could Actually Imagine Not Having Control of His Body’ “I hope every human being in this country understands that when you take away a woman’s right to make her decisions about her health and well-being, she is no longer a full citizen.” U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand on Thursday delivered an impassioned appeal to men who might oppose reproductive rights and a barbed blow to the five right-wing Supreme Court justices who she said lied about their jurisprudential stance on Roe v. Wade
Environment —Ecosocialism or Ecocide!:
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Blacks are the Only Group of People Who Ask Their Oppressors to Educate Their Children This Carter G. Woodson quote from his book “The Miseducation of the Negro” has never rung more true and loud than right here and right now in the 21st century: “The problem of holding the Negro down, therefore, is easily solved. When you control a man’s thinking, you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his “proper place” and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit. His education makes it necessary.”
- Margaret Kimberley The Poor Peoples Campaign Dishonors Martin Luther King It is disheartening to hear movement leaders say they are inspired by Martin Luther King while also supporting the U.S. proxy war against Russia. Like all wars it endangers the lives of civilian populations, enriches the military industrial complex, and robs Americans of public resources. Once King chose an anti-war stance he did not waiver in his condemnations of U.S. empire.
- Ajamu Baraka The Poor People’s Campaign and the Moral Dilemma of Liberalism The demands for justice at home and abroad must not be sacrificed on the altar of what is called pragmatism. The false choices presented by liberalism can undermine the movement altogether.
- Editors, The Black Agenda Review Essay: Record of Revolts in Negro Workers’ Past: Mary Adams, May 1, 1928 A May Day 1928 essay by Black communist Williana “Liana” Jones Burroughs – aka Mary Adams – recounts the history of African revolt in the Americas.Danny Haiphong The Road to Hell, Brought to You by Liberalism Elon Musk’s purchase of the Twitter platform was a hotly debated topic. But neither Musk nor any other individual is the root of the world’s problems. Liberalism which pretends to oppose capitalism and US state hegemony but which is in fact an ally, is the problem.
- Raymond Nat Turner The latest from BAR’s poet in residence.]
- Ann Garrison pump the brakes Notes from EritreaBAR contributor Ann Garrison continues her reporting from the Horn of Africa. She is now in Eritrea.
- Roberto Sirvent and Richard Medhurst U.S. Corporate Media Watch: An Interview with Richard Medhurst In this feature, we interview Syrian-born journalist Richard Medhurst about state propaganda, the mainstream media, and U.S. imperialism
- Roberto Sirvent BAR Book Forum: Interview with Adam Bledsoe and Willie Wright This week’s featured scholars are Adam Bledsoe and Willie Wright. Bledsoe is an Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota. Wright is an Assistant Professor at the University of Florida. Their article is “The Anti-Blackness of Global Capital.”
- Gus Griffin The Sports World’s Selective Moral Indignation Russian athletes have been banned from the Boston Marathon, Wimbledon tennis championships, and perhaps the next Olympic games. These punishments were not meted out to citizens of the U.S. and allied countries after the invasion of Iraq or destruction of Libya or to others whose governments commit war crimes.
- Djibo Sobukwe West African “Coup Contagion” Analysis The people of Africa’s Sahel region want truly sovereign governements that act in their interests. But U.S. interference, the continued influence of France and other colonizers, and neo-colonial governance all play a part in causing “coup contagion” in West Africa.
- A Statement on Ukraine from the Black Liberation Movement Black liberation movement organizations issued a joint statement opposing US/NATO actions in Ukraine.
- Ahjamu Umi From Black Power to Pan-Africanism with Mukasa DadaMukasa Dada was a leader in the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and is an unsung hero of the liberation movement.
- Eugene Purye Should We Really Blame NATO for the Ukraine War? Should we really blame NATO for arthe Ukraine war? The answer to that question is, “Yes!” Blame for the conflict in Ukraine can be laid at the doorstep of the U.S. and its NATO allies’
- New Frame Marking Workers’ Day in Dispiriting Times Previously in South Africa, millions of people were mobilised in the hope of a better future on May Day. Now, amid mass unemployment and the collapse of an emancipatory vision, that optimism is absent.
The Long Hand of Slave Breeding, Redux Alito’s draft opinion is correct on two points: The historical section of Roe is a mess; it says nothing about slavery, let alone controlled reproduction as intrinsic to it. And, indeed, state laws criminalizing abortion were initiated in the nineteenth century, before and after the Civil War. What Alito omits is that no woman had a say in those state laws. No man in a position to make or enforce those laws would have been thinking about black women’s experience of reproductive tyranny— just as subsequent white advocates of population control (eugenics, even contraception) would not have been. I hate liberalism’s language of choice. I always have. Redolent of the marketplace, it reduces the most intimate aspects of existence, of women’s physical autonomy, to individualistic purchasing preferences. A sex life or a Subaru? A child or a cheeseburger? Life, death or liposuction? In that circumstance, capitalism’s only question is, Who pays and who profits? The state’s only question is, Who regulates and how much? If there is a sliver of benefit to the right’s ongoing and grotesque multi-front assault on women, it is the clarion it sounds to humanists to take the high ground and ditch the anodyne talk of “a woman’s right to choose” for the weightier, fundamental assertion of “a woman’s right to be.”
Labor:
The Working Class has Never Recovered From the 2008 Crash!
Since June 2009 Americans have lived in the false reality of a recovering economy. Various fake news and manipulated statistics have been used to create this false impression. However, indicators that really count have not supported the false picture and were ignored. For example, it is normal in a recovering or expanding economy for the labor force participation rate to rise as people enter the workforce to take advantage of the job opportunities. During the decade of the long recovery, from June 2009 through May 2020, the labor force participation rate consistently fell from 65.7 to 62.9 percent. —Paul Craig Roberts, The Diminishing American Economy (Updated)
FRED Labor Force Participation Rate is 62.2%
Shadow Government Statistics Alternate Unemployment Charts The seasonally-adjusted SGS Alternate Unemployment Rate reflects current unemployment reporting methodology adjusted for SGS-estimated long-term discouraged workers, who were defined out of official existence in 1994. That estimate is added to the BLS estimate of U-6 unemployment, which includes short-term discouraged workers. The U-3 unemployment rate is the monthly headline number. The U-6 unemployment rate is the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) broadest unemployment measure, including short-term discouraged and other marginally-attached workers as well as those forced to work part-time because they cannot find full-time employment. The April 2022 ShadowStats Alternate Unemployment notched higher to 24.5% from 24.4%
Economy:
Shell Profits Nearly Triple as Oil Prices Surge
- Energy giant Shell has reported its highest ever quarterly profits as oil and gas prices surge around the world.
- Shell made $9.13bn (£7.3bn) in the first three months of the year, nearly triple its $3.2bn profit it announced for the same period last year.
- But the firm said pulling out of Russian oil and gasdue to the Ukraine conflict had cost it $3.9bn (£3.1bn).
- On Tuesday, rival BP also reported a sharp rise in profit, but the UK has so far ruled out a windfall tax.
- The invasion of Ukraine has helped oil and gas prices skyrocket. Russia is one of the world’s major exporters but Western nations have pledged to cut their dependence on the country for energy
We’ve been reading SEC filings for more than 35 years. We have to sadly say that the 10-Q that Goldman Sachs filed with the SEC on May 2, for the quarter ending March 31, 2022, shocks even our well-documented assessment of Wall Street as a crime syndicate. Goldman Sachs has listed pretty much everything the firm does as a target of an ongoing investigation, notwithstanding that the company and a subsidiary were criminally charged by the U.S. Department of Justice in the looting and bribery scandal known as 1MDB in October 2020, admitted to the charges, and had to pay over $2.9 billion. The good news is that Goldman Sachs’ Dark Pools are one of the areas it lists as being under a probe. Dark Pools (also benignly called Alternative Trading Systems or ATS) are effectively unregulated stock exchanges being run by the same megabanks on Wall Street that blew up the U.S. financial system in 2008 and received the largest taxpayer bailout in U.S. history. The radical right in the U.S. Congress apparently believes that unbridled greed and outrageously reckless conduct that craters America’s economy deserves to be rewarded with less regulatory oversight, thus Dark Pools have not been shut down.
World:
By Redefining UNRWA, Washington Destroys the Foundation for a Just Peace in Palestine Palestinians are justifiably worried that the mandate granted to the United Nations Agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, might be coming to an end. UNRWA’s mission, which has been in effect since 1949, has done more than provide urgent aid and support to millions of refugees. It was also a political platform that protected and preserved the rights of several generations of Palestinians. Though UNRWA was not established as a political or legal platform per se, the context of its mandate was largely political, since Palestinians became refugees as a result of military and political events – the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people by Israel and the latter’s refusal to respect the Right of Return for Palestinians as enshrined in UN resolution 194 (III) of December 11, 1948.
Health, Education. and Wealfare:
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!
Biden Broke His Promise to Support Generic Covid-19 Vaccines for the World A conversation with South African public health advocate Tian Johnson about outrageous global inequalities in access to Covid vaccines, tests, and treatments. Today marks one year since the Biden administration said it would support ”waiving intellectual property protections for Covid-19 vaccines” at the World Trade Organization (WTO). At the time, the announcement was met with an outpouring of hope that such a waiver, if passed, would allow Global South countries to manufacture their own generic versions of vaccines, tests, and treatments, and thereby close the international gap in access to life-saving technologies. Because the United States wields so much power at the WTO, many public health advocates assumed that if the Biden administration wanted to get a waiver passed, it could.
While Hoarding Vaccine Recipe, Moderna Got Another $300 Million From US Taxpayers “We take on the risk. They take away the profits,” said one vaccine equity advocate. The Massachusetts-based pharmaceutical giant Moderna disclosed in a financial filing this week that it received another $300 million in U.S. government funding for coronavirus vaccine development in March even as the company hoarded its technology from the world—and attempted to undermine a critical vaccine project in South Africa.