Miriam,
I understand. There are people...apparently bright people, who refuse
to read anything that contradicts their beliefs. And yes, there comes
a time when in order to salvage our own sanity, we must simply smile
and be still. But nonetheless, it is important to share the sorts of
articles you post, just for the balance, proof that we are still
connected with reality. So, for you and anyone wanting to learn
through the opinions of others, I add this piece by Dr. Richard D.
Wolff, the Marxist Economist.
Carl Jarvis
What should we celebrate on Labor Day 2020 when tens of millions of US
workers are jobless, the desperately needed extra $600 per week
unemployment compensation
is being reduced, and millions of jobs will never return? What should
the US majority – employees – do as employers cut their wages and
benefits, threatening
to replace them from millions of jobless desperate for paid work? To
answer such questions, we must face the real conditions of the working
class today.
The profiteers – the big, corporate firms that dominate the US economy
– have gained greatly at workers’ expense, especially over the last 40
years. They
installed technology that cost millions of jobs. They relocated
production overseas where wages and other costs are lower. The
combination of fewer jobs
and more people looking for them kept wages from rising for a long
time. Skilled, secure, and well-paid jobs gave way to low-skill,
insecure, and poorly
paid positions. Labor unions lost members and power.
Meanwhile, the income of the top 5% – employers and their top
executives – grew dramatically at everyone else’s expense. US
capitalism redistributed wealth
upwards, from the middle and the poor to the rich. Employers and the
Republican Party together deprived unions of their former power. The
Democratic Party
proved unwilling or unable to protect labor’s interests; it kept
promising but not delivering.
Automation, outsourcing jobs, and shrinking union memberships and
power produced workers’ mounting hardships, bitterness, and anger.
Taking on mountains
of debt (for mortgages, autos, credit cards and college educations)
only worsened their hardships. Then US capitalism’s 2008 crash exposed
how the richest
used the government to bail themselves out and further deepen
inequality. Employees saw the US becoming a small knot of the
super-wealthy surrounded by
a sea of economic pain.
Some upset and angry workers voted for Trump in 2016. They wondered
whether a Trump/GOP government would deliver on its promises to “make
America great
again” by reversing the long decline of its working class majority. By
now it should be clear that Trump’s promises may be more, louder and
extreme, but
they too have been broken. Inequality has gotten worse, government
failure to prepare for or contain Covid-19 is catastrophic, and
managing capitalism’s
2020 crash is another gross exercise in unjust economics.
The last 40 years show that expecting protection or support for
labor’s economic well-being from Republicans or Democrats is a tragic
mistake. Labor leaders
writing protest op-eds in newspapers will not work. Making some
protest remarks while endorsing yet another Democratic Party ticket
just repeats past mistakes.
US capitalism’s decline continues as competing economies rise (China,
the European Union, the BRICS countries, and so on). The rich in the
US use their
wealth to grab and hold everything they can amidst decline. Without a
changed strategy, working class conditions will be taken down with and
by the system’s
decline.
What the working class can do is move into the streets to stop
“business as usual” until steps are taken to reverse the last 40
years’ redistribution of
wealth. Workers must also stop endorsing and voting for candidates who
do not serve their interests. Nothing would better show workers’
seriousness about
reversing the last 40 years than building a new labor-based political
party to change US politics.
Labor Day 2020 needs honest self criticism and radically different,
new strategies for labor in the US.
Together with the Democracy at Work team, I will continue our work in
bringing these analyses to you. We hope it helps our collective effort
to assess
the world around us and to envision the future. We can do better than
capitalism.
In solidarity,
Richard Wolff
Richard D. Wolff
Founder, Board Member
On 9/1/20, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Well Carl, In my family, we don't have open discussions about politics, not
because we disagree about everything, but because no one is interested in
hearing my opinions. For one thing, no one is truly interested in domestic
or foreign policy, and they think that my consuming interest in these
subjects is crazy. Second of all, they are so attuned to TV news that they
aren't interested in other sources of information. People's opinions are
influenced by the mass media and by the people around them. This is Long
Island. Political opinion on Long Island tends toward the right. I observed
that when all of my generation and the one before it moved from New York
City to Long Island, they changed from being Democrats to being Republican.
That means that from being pro worker pro social welfare state to being pro
big business and every man for himself.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Tuesday, September 1, 2020 9:14 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: A House committee released reports showing
that the president's public proclamations about the virus diverged from
findings of White House experts.
Miriam,
On 9/11 my youngest daughter will turn 46. She's the Black Sheep of our
family, politically and Spiritually speaking. But in spite of our open
conversations and our disagreements on what the USA needs to do, she has
never doubted my love of this nation. Nor has she ever doubted my love of
her...or her 4 children. This is not true of several list members over on
the ACB Chat list.
I have never seen Americans so mentally lazy as we are today.
No questions asked, as long as what we hear is what we want to hear.
Donald Trump tells us that he heard of a group of big men all dressed in
black, boarding a plane and headed for trouble. No one asks him how he
knows that they are headed for trouble. He talks about the Deep State and
the Fake News that the Deep State is spreading. No one asks who the Deep
State is, or where their money comes from, since Wall Street and the
Military/Industrial Complex are all putting money on his nose. And if we
tell folks that we are raising questions and showing concerns it is because
we want a better America for our children and grand children. Still, in my
family, two out of three isn't too bad. And like I say, our youngest still
has open conversations and still seeks our advice. But in the quiet of my
room I still wonder how a devout Christian woman can possibly vote for an
nonreligious, womanizing, racist, self serving, self indulgent bully.
Carl Jarvis
On 9/1/20, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
And I just went through this evening's Common Dreams and I thought
about sending more articles. Another black man was shot today, this
time, in Los Angeles. Someone recently appointed to the Post Office
Board runs a McConnell superpack, etc. It's one horror after another.
There are more predictions of a civil war. The other night, my poor TV
watching younger daughter said to me, "You sound like you're pro Russia!"
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Tuesday, September 1, 2020 5:57 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: A House committee released reports
showing that the president's public proclamations about the virus
diverged from findings of White House experts.
Good article. But those folks I try to get to read it have a bucket
of articles supporting what they want to believe.
The thing that really cranks my chain is that to the candidates this
is all a political game, all the name calling. But to so many voters,
the divisiveness creates such a chasm that they will never reunite.
On 9/1/20, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
A House committee released reports showing that the president's
public proclamations about the virus diverged from findings of White
House experts.
White House Coronavirus Task Force Coordinator Deborah Birx at a
roundtable, July 30, 2020, at American Red Cross-National
headquarters in Washington, D.C. (White House, Tia Dufour)
By Jake Johnson
Common Dreams
As President Donald Trump and administration officials have been
publicly downplaying the Covid-19 crisis and even predicting its
imminent disappearance over the past several months, the White House
task force formed to coordinate the federal pandemic response has
simultaneously been issuing dire assessments of the nation's fight
against the pandemic behind the scenes.
Those assessments were kept secret from the public until Monday, when
the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis released a
trove of task force reports dated between June 23 and Aug. 9 that
highlight the extent to which Trump's public proclamations about the
Covid-19 crisis have diverged from the findings of experts operating
in the White House.
"The task force reports released today show the White House has known
since June that coronavirus cases were surging across the country and
many states were becoming dangerous 'red zones' where the virus was
spreading fast,"
said Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), chairman of the subcommittee.
Rep. James Clyburn in 2012. (Lingjing Bao, Talk Media News Photo
Archives, Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
"Rather than being straight with the American people and creating a
national plan to fix the problem," Clyburn continued, "the president
and his enablers kept these alarming reports private while publicly
downplaying the threat to millions of Americans."
Each of the eight task force reports released by the subcommittee on
Monday contain analyses and conclusions that run counter to the
recent public statements of Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, the
chair of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. The White House sent
its reports privately to states but never made them available to the
public until the subcommittee requested (pdf) that Pence and task
force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx turn them over late last month.
President Donald J. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, joined by
members of the Coronavirus Task Force at the White House, meet with
representatives from pharmaceutical companies, March 2, 2020. (White
House, Joyce N.
Boghosian)
In a report (pdf) dated July 19 - the same day Trump confidently
predicted that the coronavirus is "going to disappear" even as cases
surged across the country - the White House task force estimated that
20 states were in the "red zone," meaning more than 10 percent of new
Covid-19 tests were positive.
On June 29, just days after Pence declared that "all 50 states are
opening up safely and responsibly," the task force issued a private
assessement
(pdf) warning that "Mississippi reported an 117% increase in new
cases in the week ending June 26, resulting from increased community
transmission in multiple counties attributed to reduced social
distancing."
Chuck Idelson, communications senior strategist for National Nurses
United, tweeted that the newly released task force reports are
evidence of a "White House cover-up" and yet "another indication of
how Donald Trump could care less how many people die due to his
malfeasance on protecting lives from the
Covid-19 pandemic."
In a press release, the House coronavirus subcommittee listed several
other examples of the internal reports contradicting Trump's public
pronouncements on the Covid-19 pandemic, which has infected more than
six million people in the U.S. and killed at least 183,000:
June 23 Report. On June 16, Pence claimed in an op-ed that "panic"
over a resurgence of coronavirus infections was "overblown." But on
June 23, the White House task force concluded that seven states were
in the "red zone,"
indicating the highest risk of coronavirus spread. The task force
found new cases were up 70 percent in Arizona, 72 percent in Texas,
87 percent in Florida, 93 percent in Oklahoma, and 134 percent in Idaho.
July 14 Report. On July 14, Trump stated, "No other country tests
like us.
In fact, I could say it's working too much. It's working too well.
We're doing testing and we're finding thousands and thousands of
cases." The same day, the task force concluded 19 states were in the
"red zone" and recommended they increase testing. The report noted,
"Disease trends are moving in the wrong direction in Georgia with
record numbers of new cases occurring in urban, suburban, and rural
areas. Testing positivity continues to increase. The number of tests
has increased, but more testing is needed."
July 26 Report.On July 21, Trump tweeted: "You will never hear this
on the Fake News concerning the China Virus, but by comparison to
most other countries, who are suffering greatly, we are doing very
well - and we have done things that few other countries could have
done!" On July 26, the task force reported 22 states were in the "red
zone," and
stated: "Georgia is experiencing widespread community spread without
evidence of improvement.
Improvement will require much more aggressive mitigation efforts to
change the trajectory of the pandemic in Georgia."
2 Report.In a July 28 interview, Trump stated: "They are dying,
that's true.
And you have - it is what it is. But that doesn't mean we aren't
doing everything we can. It's under control as much as you can control
it."
On Aug. 2, the task force concluded 23 states were in the "red zone."
The report noted, "Widespread transmission continues to occur from
rural to urban areas" in Louisiana; "Aggressive continuation of
mitigation efforts will be required" in South Carolina due to
"widespread community spread throughout the state in urban,
periurban, and rural areas"; and, "The virus is spreading deeper into
the rural areas" of Oklahoma.
9 Report.On Aug. 3, Trump tweeted: "Cases up because of BIG Testing!
Much of our Country is doing very well. Open the Schools!" On Aug. 9,
the task force reported that 48 states and the District of Columbia
were in either red or yellow zones. In Indiana, the Task Force warned:
"Cases continue at a high plateau in Indianapolis and mitigation
efforts, testing, and contact tracing need to be aggressively
implemented. Covid-19 is widespread throughout the state and
mitigation efforts should be statewide."
The subcommittee went on to warn that despite the continued spread of
Covid-19 around the U.S., the Trump administration has refused to
support private task force recommendations aimed at stemming the
pandemic.
"The task force reports released today recommend that state and local
governments implement heightened public health measures to combat the
spread of the virus - including requiring face masks in public,
closing bars and gyms, and strictly limiting gatherings on a
statewide basis in certain states," the subcommittee said. "Yet the
Trump administration has failed to publicly support most of the task
force's recommendations. For example, President Trump has refused to
call for a nationwide mask mandate."
In a statement, Clyburn said that "as a result of the president's
failures, more than 58,000 additional Americans have died since the
task force first started issuing private warnings."
"It is long past time that the administration finally implement a
national plan to contain this crisis, which is still killing hundreds
of Americans each day," Clyburn added.
This article is from Common Dreams.
