Plunge in Restaurant Jobs Due to COVID Leads to First Job Loss Since April
Staff | truthout.org | 2021-01-08
The economy lost 140,000 jobs in December, all of which can be attributed to a plunge in restaurant employment of 372,000. Other sectors highly sensitive to the pandemic, such as hotels and recreation, also lost jobs. The unemployment rate and employment-to-population ratio (EPOP) were both unchanged at 6.7 percent and 57.4 percent, respectively. | The resurgence of the pandemic further heightened the two-track nature of this recession. Construction and manufacturing, two sectors normally hard…
truthout.org/articles/plunge-in-restaurant-jobs-due-to-covid-leads-to-first-job-loss-since-april/

Pandemic-Caused Plunge in Restaurant Jobs Leads to First Job Loss Since April
Matt Sedlar | cepr.net | 2021-01-08
The pain from the recession is heavily concentrated among the long-term unemployed. The economy lost 140,000 jobs in December, all of which can be attributed to a plunge in restaurant employment of 372,000. Other sectors highly sensitive to the pandemic, such as hotels and recreation, also lost jobs. The unemployment rate and employment-to-population ratio (EPOP) …
cepr.net/jobs-2021-01/

Austerity, Democrats and the State
Rob Urie | counterpunch.org | 2021-01-08
The cynical D.C. farce around $600 versus $2,000 'stimulus' checks 1) ties in American history back to the pre-Revolutionary practice of delivering the least that will prevent the burning down of key government buildings, 2) serves as cover for the delivery of exponentially larger sums to connected insiders, and 3) illuminates the key impediments to recovering a government that functions for any but the oligarchs. What will be represented by officialdom in coming months as the natural challenges of managing a complex, multilayered and resource-strapped empire, will in fact be the purposeful ordering of political…
counterpunch.org/2021/01/08/austerity-democrats-and-the-state/

Defund the Pentagon: Refund the People
Frank Scott | dissidentvoice.org | 2021-01-07
When profit determines every outcome of social and economic life, the minority politics of lesser evil wins again, and again, and again. — Anonymous The pandemic has heightened public awareness of the injustice of a political economic system that profits private wealth at massive loss to the public good. All talk of change that simply …
dissidentvoice.org/2021/01/defund-the-pentagon-refund-the-people/

We Are Living In An Emergency That Requires Urgent Action
_____ | popularresistance.org | 2021-01-07
Large parts of the world — outside of China and a few other countries — face a runaway virus, which has not been stopped because of criminal incompetence by governments. That these governments in wealthy countries cynically set aside the basic scientific protocols released by the World Health Organisation and by scientific organisations reveals their malicious practice. Anything less than focusing attention to managing the virus by testing, contact tracing, and isolation — and if this does not suffice, then imposing a temporary lockdown — is foolhardy. It is equally distressing that these…
popularresistance.org/we-are-living-in-an-emergency-that-requires-urgent-action/

Georgia: Big voter turnout ousts wealthy Republican senators
Dianne Mathiowetz | workers.org | 2021-01-07
Atlanta Jan. 6 — Georgia voters made history on Jan. 5 by voting into the U.S. Senate Rev. Raphael Warnock, the first ever Black senator from Georgia. Warnock is senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, the famed church of Rev. Martin Luther King's family, esteemed for its long . . . | Continue reading Georgia: Big voter turnout ousts wealthy Republican senators at Workers.org…
workers.org/2021/01/53637/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=georgia-big-voter-turnout-ousts-wealthy-republican-senators

In 2021, Let's Ring A Global Alarm On Inequality That Everyone Can Hear
_____ | popularresistance.org | 2021-01-06
Remember that old joke they used to tell — and maybe still do — in luxury retail circles? The customer, precious product in hand, walks over to a haughty sales clerk at a high-end emporium and timidly asks: "How much does this cost." | "If you have to ask," the sales clerk smiles back, "you can't afford it." | How much more unequal have we become in 2020? This question demands that we turn that old joke inside-out: We have to ask because we can't afford not to know. And we can't afford not to know because inequality is killing us. We have to know exactly what we're facing. | And what we're facing, the…
popularresistance.org/in-2021-lets-ring-a-global-alarm-on-inequality-that-everyone-can-hear/

A tale of two classes
Monica Moorehead | workers.org | 2021-01-06
The second stimulus package finally passed in both houses of Congress Dec. 27, accompanied by much controversy. It woefully fails to provide any meaningful support for the millions of workers and their families teetering on the edge of economic disaster. Dec. 27 protest, Brooklyn, N.Y. The bill was delayed for . . . | Continue reading A tale of two classes at Workers.org…
workers.org/2021/01/53608/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-tale-of-two-classes

A Medical and Scientific New Year's Wish List
Bauchner H. | jamanetwork.com | 2021-01-05
The last 4 years have been difficult for science and medicine. The relentless attack by members of the executive and legislative branches of government on science and federal agencies that conduct science has shaken the fundamental pillars of great US institutions such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, and in some regards the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Although the 2020 NIH budget increased to almost $42 billion, more individuals are uninsured, and although health care costs have not increased substantially over the past 4 y…
jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2774575