Daily Archives: August 19, 2020

2020-08-19: News Headlines

Caitlin Johnstone (2020-08-19). Saudi Arabia Is Just An Honest America: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix. thealtworld.com ~ | Look at Yemen with fresh eyes and it will haunt your dreams and fill you with mountain-moving rage. | That's why people don't. | That's why people should. | ~ | Steal from the wealthy and give a bit to your friend and they'll call you a thief. Steal from the working class and give a bit to agendas you approve of and they'll call you a philanthropist. | ~ | Placing yourself in the ideological center between two corporatist warmongering parties doesn't make you a centrist, it makes you a corporatist warmonger. | ~ | Watching liberals fake enthusiasm for Biden/Harris is like watching women fake enthusiasm in rea…

Editor (2020-08-19). Democrats vs. Republicans: Which party really CARES? workers.org While the corporate media focus public attention on the imminent opening of the Democratic and Republican Party conventions and the electoral contest, another battle matters much more to tens of millions of people still out of work: the failure of Congress to pass a second stimulus bill. The provisions of . . . |

yenisafak (2020-08-19). Brent oil price down with halt in US-China trade talks. yenisafak.com Oil prices eased on Wednesday after stagnant US economic stimulus talks, and with US President Donald Trump postponing US-China trade talks.International benchmark Brent crude was trading at $45.05 per barrel at 0614GMT for a 0.9% decrease after closing Tuesday at $45.46 a barrel.American benchmark West Texas Intermediate was at $42.56 per barrel at the same time, down 1.3% after ending the previous session at $43.12 a barrel.Trump on Tuesday said he postponed trade negotiations with China, commenting that he does not want to talk to China "right now."Scheduled talks between representatives from the US and China…

Bob Lord — Lee Price (2020-08-18). The Basic Case for a Wealth Tax. counterpunch.org Changes in tax policy since 1980 have been driving U.S. inequality to levels not seen since the original Gilded Age. Reversing that trajectory — and restoring a more egalitarian society — will require a complete overhaul of the changes in tax policy we've seen over the past four decades. Taxes as a share of national

WSWS (2020-08-18). "A poor man's virus:" COVID-19 reveals the class chasm in America. wsws.org America's extreme social inequality underpins all aspects of the US government's response to the pandemic, which has been characterized by total disregard for the health, safety and well-being of the vast majority of the population.

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.

_____ (2020-08-18). The Specter Of A Fascist Coup By Trump Haunts The US. popularresistance.org Spreading faster than COVID-19 among those on the portside, warnings of a fascist-style coup by Trump are rampant this presidential campaign season. Meanwhile, in the real world, more than 51 million Americans have filed for unemployment since March. Some 27 million people have lost their health insurance on top of around 30 million who were uninsured before, in the face of the massive pandemic. The Federal Reserve has pumped $7 trillion into corporate bonds, municipal securities, loans and grants to business, while millions are going hungry. The pandemic death toll in the US is 168,345 as it rages out of control…

_____ (2020-08-18). Make Corporate Landlords Pay For Housing Crisis. popularresistance.org While so many of us struggle to survive, some of the richest billionaires in the world dominate the residential real estate industry in the United States. These corporate landlords are companies owned by extremely wealthy individuals, Wall Street entities like private equity firms and hedge funds, and institutional investors. At least six leading residential property owners — Essex Property Trust, Brookfield Property Partners, Equity Residential, Related Companies, Irvine Company, and Blackstone — have top executives on the Forbes billionaires list. The U.S. real estate industry is led by some of the…

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.

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…