(2020-08-21). "A disturbing milestone": America's top 12 plutocrats now own $1 Trillion in wealth. mronline.org 
New figures from the Institute for Policy Studies show that, despite a pandemic that has stunted the economy for months, America's billionaire class is becoming richer than ever, adding nearly $700 billion to their fortune since the nationwide lockdown in March.
(2020-08-21). Headlines for August 21, 2020. democracynow.org Joe Biden Accepts Presidential Nomination, Pledging End to "Season of Darkness", CDC Director: Up to 60 Million U.S. Residents Were Infected with Coronavirus, White House Declares Teachers "Essential Workers" as Unions Threaten Strikes over Coronavirus, Stock Markets Surge Even as 1.1 Million U.S. Workers File New Unemployment Claims, Protesters Call on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to #MakeBillionairesPay, Postmaster General to Face Congressional Grilling over "Sabotage" of Postal Service, Massive California Wildfires Leave 5 Dead, 700,000 Acres Burned, Steve Bannon Arrested, Charged with Pocketing Private Border W…
(2020-08-21). Dorothy Day Found Her Calling Fighting The 1918 Flu Pandemic. popularresistance.org In 1917, having dropped out of college and moved to New York with her family, Dorothy Day took her first New York job, with a daily Socialist news paper, The Call, and settled into her own one-room apartment on Cherry Street. She was 19 years old and quickly overcome by the poverty she encountered and the smell of that poverty inside the tenements she frequented. At this point, she mentions, for the first time, in her major autobiography, "The Long Loneliness," that she could feel "the spell of the long loneliness descend" on her.
(2020-08-21). Weekly jobless claims again top one million as mass evictions loom. wsws.org The number of new unemployment claims rose unexpectedly last week as workers facing mounting economic pressures due to the ending of federal supplemental jobless benefits and the end of eviction bans.
(2020-08-21). Underpaying Casual Staff and Forgetting Education: The Australian University Formula. dissidentvoice.org Scandalous underpayment has become common fare at Australia's universities. An inverse relationship can be identified here: the wealthier the institution, the more likely it will short change staff and avoid coughing up the cash. If anything is coughed up, it will be meagrely rationed. We are not all in this together. The casualization of the …
(2020-08-20). Twelve US Billionaires Have a Combined $1 Trillion. counterpunch.org For the first time in US history, the top twelve U.S. billionaires surpassed a combined wealth of $1 trillion. On Thursday August 13th, these 12 had a combined $1.015 trillion. This is a disturbing milestone in the US history of concentrated wealth and power. This is simply too much economic and political power in the
(2020-08-20). Warren Uses DNC to Demand Child Care as "Basic Infrastructure of This Nation" truthout.org Speaking on the third night of the Democratic National Convention from a Massachusetts kindergarten facility that's been shuttered for months due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday lamented the failure of the wealthiest country on the planet to provide crucial services to families with children and demanded that child care be treated as "part of the basic infrastructure of this nation." | "Our economic system has been rigged to give bailouts to billionaires and kick d…
(2020-08-20). US weekly jobless claims top 1M. yenisafak.com The number of Americans who filed for unemployment benefits last week slightly increased and topped 1 million after recording the lowest figure the previous week since the coronavirus pandemic began, the US Labor Department said Thursday.A total of 1,106,000, jobless claims were filed, representing a week-on-week increase of 135,000.The previous week, the lowest number recorded since mid-March, 963,000, signaled the virus-hit labor market is on the mend.However, claims entered a downward trend as the economy started moving toward reopening.The US is the worst-hit country by the pandemic, with more than 5.5 millio…
(2020-08-20). New Unemployment Claims Again Exceed 1 Million—A Reminder That 'Now Isn't the Time to Cut Benefits That Support Jobs'. commondreams.org Some economists reiterated calls for extending the $600 weekly boost that's opposed by Trump and congressional Republicans. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/headline/thumbs/unemployment_sanders_coronavirus_0.jpg …
(2020-08-19). Saudi Arabia Is Just An Honest America: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix. thealtworld.com Saudi Arabia is just an honest version of America. The tyranny is right out in the open, state censorship is straightforward instead of being outsourced to Silicon Valley, the oligarchs and the official government are the same people, they don't pretend their wars are humanitarian, and they just directly murder journalists they dislike instead of a using fake judicial system to do it. | ~ | 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…
(2020-08-19). Unemployment forum: "Bosses will throw you away" when they're done with you. peoplesworld.org 
CHICAGO—"You're only part of the machine the bosses need, and once you're done, they'll throw you away," Kooper Caraway, president of the Sioux Falls, S.D., Central Labor Council, told an online Unemployed Town Hall Forum on Aug. 16. That's what bosses tried to do to workers at the big Smithfield pork processing plant in his …
(2020-08-19). 'The rich should not be given priority' for Covid-19 vaccine, Pope Francis says, urges against return to 'normality' of inequality. rt.com 
Pope Francis has called on rich countries not to hoard any coronavirus vaccine and asked them to only give pandemic-related bailouts to companies committed to protecting the environment and helping the most needy. | "It would be sad if the rich are given priority for the Covid-19 vaccine. It would be sad if the vaccine becomes property of this or that nation, if it is not universal and for everyone," Francis said during his weekly general audience on Wednesday. | The pontiff also said that the world should not return to normality after the pandemic if 'normal' means social injustice and the degradation of the…
(2020-08-19). Lebanon: Poverty Increases at Alarming Rates-Report. telesurenglish.net The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) warned on Wednesday that the population living under poor conditions has doubled in 2020 compared to the same period last year. | RELATED: | ESCWA's latest report indicates that the poverty rate reached 55 percent in 2020, whereas in 2019, it stood at 28 percent. | The organization explains that "massive explosion and an accelerating increase i…
(2020-08-19). For Iraqis, the Choice Is Between Pandemic and Poverty. globalresearch.ca On Baghdad's al-Rashid street, stalls, tea houses and restaurants serve unmasked customers in crammed markets in spite of COVID-19 rapidly spreading among the populace. This busy street in Baghdad is a testament to pre-existing governance failure that has been felt …
(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 . . . |
(2020-08-19). The Terrorizing Simultaneity of Bounty. counterpunch.org The word "bounty" has been used in association with the supposed United States of America to describe the resources used for and the possibility of acquiring monetary wealth, but recent rumors have been a reminder that the word also has another connotation/meaning which is equally applicable. It is a payment of reward for the capture/elimination
(2020-08-19). The Basic Case For A Wealth Tax. popularresistance.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 income have now been remarkably stable for 40 years. Total federal tax revenue last year stood at 17 percent, about the average for the last half-century. Income taxes, meanwhile, have stayed steady at 8 percent of the economy. According to Saez and Zucman, a 10 percent tax rate on wealt…
(2020-08-19). Canada's Post-Pandemic Response. popularresistance.org The antithesis to a vision of austerity and increased privatization is the set of principles endorsed by hundreds of community organizations and groups across Canada known collectively as a just recovery. The pandemic has shown how crucial investments in communities and public services can be to lift vulnerable folks out of poverty and contribute to stronger public health outcomes. | David Bleakney, a representative of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, argued that any stability felt during this crisis has been dependent on frontline labour, including healthcare workers, postal workers, or those on the front l…
(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…
(2020-08-19). Pope Francis Says Covid-19 Vaccine Must Be 'Universal and for All'—Not Just the Rich and Powerful. commondreams.org In addition to coronavirus, Pope Francis said, "we must also cure a larger virus, that of social injustice, inequality of opportunity, marginalization, and the lack of protection for the weakest." | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/headline/thumbs/getty-pope.jpg …
(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…