2020-09-16: News Headlines

Teresa Gutierrez (2020-09-16). COVID and People of Color: Is it genocide yet? workers.org If you are a person of color, you too, like me, are probably traumatized and fed up with reading article after article that states: "Black and Brown people are especially affected by the coronavirus." Substitute "coronavirus" with most diseases or other dire social conditions such as unemployment, gentrification, hunger or . . . |

RT (2020-09-16). NYC Mayor de Blasio to furlough HIMSELF & nearly 500 staff for week amid revenue shortfall, blames Congress for lack of stimulus. rt.com New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and nearly 500 city staffers will be furloughed for one week to help the city deal with a $9 billion revenue shortfall due to the Covid-19 pandemic shutdown. | The week-long furlough will save the city $860,000. | In his announcement on Wednesday, the mayor said no pay cuts are planned at this time, but he admitted the city will be facing a "horrible budget situation" for years, and that it was heightened by the economic shutdown in March and April due to the coronavirus pandemic. | "We're going to be in a horrible budget situation for years, so this borrowing capacity is to…

Melissa Jones (2020-09-16). Western Wildfires Could Worsen Inequality. progressive.org As new threats compound old injustices, too many Americans are consigned to poverty and poor health.

Sam Pizzigati (2020-09-16). Why Don't They Call You a Genius? You Don't Have a Billion Dollars. counterpunch.org If you have a lot of money, one potent strain within American political folklore avows, you must have a lot of smarts. Or, as the classic putdown puts it, "if you're so smart, why ain't you rich?" By this folkloric yardstick, America's really rich — the wealthy, for instance, who fill the just-released latest annual

Income Movement (2020-09-16). Tuesday 9/15: Universal Basic Income Week: "Inherent Good" Global Film Premiere and Q&A. indybay.org Online…

Income Movement (2020-09-16). Friday 9/18: Universal Basic Income Week: Panel Discussion on the Basic Income Movement. indybay.org Online…

Basic Income Movement (2020-09-16). Saturday 9/19: Oakland: Car Caravan for Universal Basic Income Global March 2020. indybay.org Eastshore Park, MacArthur Blvd & Grand Ave Oakland, CA 94610…

Income Movement (2020-09-16). Wednesday 9/16: Universal Basic Income Week: Investing in Mothers Pilot Program Panel Discussion. indybay.org Online…

Jesse Jackson (2020-09-15). Myths and Lies About Poverty. commondreams.org Hundreds of community members line up early to pick up food boxes at Chelsea Collaborative during their weekly food drive in Chelsea, MA on July 15, 2020. (Photo: Erin Clark/The Boston Globe via Getty Images) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/views-article/thumbs/lineforfood.jpg

Rick Sterling (2020-09-15). While Trump Berates Portland Looters, the US Gov't Continues to Plunder Syria with Impunity. mintpressnews.com President Trump has lashed out at rioters and looters in Portland and Kenosha, yet halfway around the world, the US military is busy plundering what's left of Syria's wealth on a vastly greater scale and with little publicity.

Eds. (2020-09-15). The revolutionary answers of C.L.R. James. mronline.org The Black Lives Matter movement across the U.S. against police violence and racist inequality is one of the most dynamic political developments in years.

Hamilton Nolan (2020-09-15). How to Negotiate With People Who Don't Care If You Die. zcomm.org To win another stimulus bill, the Democrats need to embrace chaos…

Michael R. McBrearty (2020-09-15). Fighting Evictions: The 1930s and Now. zcomm.org The fight for housing security has already become a part of the general struggle against inequality made possible by the epochal rise of the Black Lives Matter movement…

Follow the Money (2020-09-15). 9/14/20 Trump Fund Raises in Cal While Learning of Fire Damage. indybay.org On 9/14/20, Republican Trump plans to land in Sacramento to be briefed on fire damage which has caused most of us to choke on the smoke for 28 days. Since he is cutting his staff's salaries, this can only be a fundraising trip to a wealthy state where he has no chance of winning Electoral College votes. See abc7news.com/trump-to-visit-fire-ravaged-california-monday/6420211/

Commonwealth Club (2020-09-15). Wednesday 9/16: The COVID-19 Pandemic in the SF Bay Area & the Societal Inequities Exposed. indybay.org Online…

commondreams (2020-09-15). US Poverty Measure Fails to Meet Government Standards of Reliability, Accuracy, Timeliness, and Objectivity. commondreams.org ______________________________…

Alan MacLeod (2020-09-14). Bezos Doubles Wealth as Amazon Essential Product Prices Rise 1000% Amid Pandemic. thealtworld.com A report by Public Citizen found that "Amazon is engaged in price gouging on products it sells directly" through its Amazon Essentials line, with products like facemasks and corn starch seeing elevenfold increases in price. | MPN- A

Dave Lindorff (2020-09-14). Screwing with the Unemployment Statistics. counterpunch.org Something is screwy about unemployment numbers out of Washington. In late July, just before the end of the supplemental $600 weekly checks for people collecting unemployment benefits, the New York Times reported that 30 million were receiving those checks. That's 30 million laid-off workers who qualified for unemployment benefits, which is not everyone who was

Dolores Perez Heilbron (2020-09-14). Sunday 9/13: The Racial Wealth Gap in the U.S. indybay.org Zoom lecture online from First Unitarian Unviersalist Society of San Francisco – Humanist & Non-Theist group.

_____ (2020-09-14). Our Unjust System Of Mass Supervision. popularresistance.org Wisconsin's disastrous system of mass supervision is at odds with our widely shared values of justice, human dignity and compassion. Detaining people struggling with poverty, housing insecurity, mental health issues and addiction issues for alleged rule violations is at odds with common sense approaches to justice. Yet, public officials in Wisconsin have been keeping its prisons and jails overcrowded for many years by doubling down on this unjust practice. | A new report by Human Rights Watch and the ACLU demonstrates the deep racial injustice and extent of the harm caused by mass supervision in Wisconsin.

Jim Miles (2020-09-14). Seeking Truth in a Country of Lies — Critical and Lyrical Essays. globalresearch.ca Edward Curtin writes, | "…We live in the era of massive fraud where the transnational wealthy elites, led by the American war and propaganda machine, …