Daily Archives: August 18, 2020

2020-08-18: News Headlines

Brianna Cunliffe (2020-08-18). Embodied Inequality: The Intersections Between COVID, Racial Justice, and the Environment. indybay.org The consequences of our fossil fuel economy and a global pandemic fall heaviest on America's most vulnerable communities. Elected Officials are saying enough.

Stephen Lendman (2020-08-17). Lebanon Devastated by Corruption, Economic Collapse, and Beirut Explosion. globalresearch.ca A perfect storm affects Lebanon and vast majority of its near-seven million people, including: | Out-of-control rampant corruption. | Unemployment of a third or more of working-age Lebanese. | Poverty exceeding 50% of the population. | Over 80% inflation since last October, debasing the …

WSWS (2020-08-17). South Dakota governor first to reject unemployment aid from Trump executive order. wsws.org While four states have already been approved by FEMA to begin authorizing payments, Kristie Noem cited cherry-picked statistics to justify her rejection of federal benefits.

commondreams (2020-08-17). The Wealth of Just 12 US Billionaires Now Totals Over One Trillion Dollars. commondreams.org ______________________________…

Dean Baker (2020-08-16). Financing Drug Development: What the Pandemic Has Taught Us. zcomm.org If we want to have serious policy discussions, and not just protect existing patterns of inequality, government-granted patent and copyright monopolies have to be on the table…

Maegan Brejnik (2020-08-16). All across America elected officials urge Congress to take on a clean energy stimulus plan. indybay.org COVID-19 has had a detrimental effect on the national economy. In order for the nation to recover quickly and efficiently, Congress must issue a stimulus package for clean energy sectors. Elected Officials to Protect America is urging Congress to take action to ensure our national recovery.

Bob Lord, Lee Price (2020-08-16). The Basic Case for a Wealth Tax. commondreams.org People participate in a "March on Billionaires" event on July 17, 2020 in New York City. (Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/views-article/thumbs/basic-case-wealth-tax.jpg

David Rovics (2020-08-15). Tear Gas Ted has a Tantrum. dissidentvoice.org If the Portland Police decide they need to start killing protesters, the mayor has just justified it in advance. The liberal landed gentry dripping with multi-generational wealth and entitlement, as represented by Tear Gas Ted Wheeler, has made a pronouncement: the good folks trying to burn down the police station there in outer east Portland …

Mel Gurtov (2020-08-15). The World Bank's Poverty Illusion. zcomm.org Creating an economy based on social justice cannot be accomplished with quick fixes or "reforms." It really is a revolutionary enterprise…

WSWS (2020-08-15). Chicago Mayor Lightfoot announces police crackdown. wsws.org One thousand police officers are being deployed into downtown Friday evening after a press conference in which the Democratic mayor announced a plan to tighten police control of the city, involve more police agencies, increase social media surveillance and further limit access to the wealthy downtown.

Florian Rotzer & Thomas Schuster (2020-08-15). Twitter against Trump: It's all about truth. indybay.org Trump's track record in the summer of the 2020 pandemic is disastrous, 1K deaths every day with a total of around 150K. More than 30 million Americans are receiving unemployment benefits. Trump is trying to turn Biden into the destroyer of America. Trump is deliberatively working on the image of a dystopia that he claims only he can prevent.

Adolph Reed Jr., Walter Benn Michaels (2020-08-15). The Trouble with Disparity. commondreams.org "Because racism is not the principal source of inequality today," argue Reed and Benn Michaels, "anti-racism functions more as a misdirection that justifies inequality than a strategy for eliminating it." (Photo: Kena Betancu/AFP via Getty Images) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/views-article/thumbs/unemployment_coronavirus_0.jpg

Michael P Dunne, Franziska Meinck (2020-08-15). [Comment] Childhood adversity and death of young adults in an affluent society. thelancet.com Adversity in childhood can induce health, social, and economic problems that persist throughout the adult years and might be fatal. Systems for child protection, poverty alleviation, and family support are designed to minimise harm, and it is reasonable to expect that the impact of adversity should be lowest in affluent countries that have comprehensive social services. However, research from high-income countries has shown startling links between childhood adversity and premature death. Brown and colleagues1 in the USA, for example, followed up 17‚Äà000 adults who self-reported multiple adversi…

People's World (2020-08-14). People's World to co-sponsor Sunday town hall forum on unemployment crisis. peoplesworld.org Unemployment is at Depression levels, and with the new surge in COVID-19 infections, joblessness may grow still worse. The important HEROES Act, if passed over GOP objections in the Senate, will relieve only the crisis' most severe symptoms. Meanwhile the Trump administration, when not declaring the country "pandemic free" and attempting to bully workers back …

WSWS (2020-08-14). Congress adjourns for month-long vacation without action on US unemployment crisis. wsws.org The capitalist politicians will be holding their presidential nominating conventions while millions of workers have been cut off from federal benefits.

Fight Back (2020-08-14). Trump says congressional relief deal 'is not going to happen'. fightbacknews.org San José, CA – With the additional $600 in unemployment benefits gone along with federal eviction protection, President Trump announced that a deal to restore the benefits and protect renters and home buyers "is not going to happen." With tens of millions of people getting government aid, tens of thousands of evictions underway, and record numbers of people short on food, Trump's statement may seem so beyond uncaring as to be almost senseless. | But his opposition to a deal makes sense from the privileged point of view of a man born to wealth who grew up to be a billionaire. The stock market, one of Trump's favor…

Olivia Baaten (2020-08-14). Stimulus spending to promote clean energy as a vehicle for environmental justice. indybay.org Issues of environmental justice have been highlited in recent events, and it is high time that the nation take action. Minorities are disproportionately affected by Coronavirus, an issue which is exacerbated by environmental injustice. Low interest rates make the current hour opportune for clean energy stimulus spending, which would serve the state where fossil fuels have failed.

commondreams (2020-08-14). Happy 85th Birthday to Social Security—Crown Jewel of the New Deal. commondreams.org Nancy Altman, James Roosevelt Jr., and Tomlin Perkins Coggeshall | "Just as enacting Social Security was a solution 85 years ago, expanding Social Security, while requiring the wealthy to pay their fair share, is a solution we should embrace today," the authors write. (Photo: Courtesy of AFGE, Flickr | CC 2.0) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/views-article/thumbs/social_2_6.jpeg

RT (2020-08-13). Trump suggests he's withholding post office funds to stop 'universal mail-in voting'. rt.com Donald Trump is being accused of "trying to steal" the election after claiming talks with Democrats on Covid-19 economic relief was stalled when the president refused post office funding for "universal mail-in voting." | Asked by Fox Business' Maria Bartiromo what led to the standstill between the White House and Democrats on a coronavirus stimulus package, the president said one of the main points the left will not budge on is extra funding for the US postal service to handle universal mail-in voting, something he is staunchly against. | "They want three-and-a-half billion dollars for the mail-in votes. Unive…

Norbert Trenkle (2020-08-13). When Wealth Destroys Wealth: Inverse Capitalism and its Limits. indybay.org Ever-increasing real estate prices was an illusion. The boom that the US stock markets have experienced in recent years deserves the name fracking boom. Fictitious capital put the US economy back on the growth track. Inverse capitalism describes contemporary capitalism determined by dynamics of the financial market.