Welcome to The Now

(via Jimmy Dore): What part did Obama/Biden presidency play in the Russia/Ukraine conflict , and what other key US-related factors are in play?  (via Common Dreams): What part did George W. Bush play in Ukraine? (via WSWS): The entertainment world is becoming increasingly anti-Russian .  (via Alan MacLeod on Twitter): watch how the media's inner racist comes out when a European country faces war . (via Jimmy Dore): Speaking of which, even supposed alternative news media can't help but fall into the honeytrap of misinformation and ignoring historical content .

 Why? Because that's when the money runs out . Without Uncle Sam to foot the bill (What's that? Medicare For All?) we will see how restrictive or lackadaisical our towns/counties/states are. 

So with everyone in America taking every known position on COVID, I decided to read what WSWS had to say . Granted, it's something that would certainly tick off both the American Right and the American Left, but this part has me thinking about what the common link should be: Mass vaccination is only one component of what must be a global effort to eradicate the virus , through masking, social distancing, mass testing and the shutdown of nonessential production until the entire population of the world has been made safe. Such an effort, to be paid for by the trillions accumulated by the super-rich, requires the political intervention of the working class against the policies of the capitalist ruling elite, which at every point prioritizes profits over human life and the interests of rival nation-states over the collective needs of humanity. In other words, the desire to "get back to normal" by opening everything up instead of the bare necessities contributed to the spread

 I mentioned this before , but especially in light of Black History Month it needs to be repeated : the programs we have today that are dedicated to feeding children might not have existed if the Black Panthers Free Breakfast for School Children Program had not existed. 

 One of them is a " Geopolitical and Sanctions Briefing ."  Just sayin '. For what it's worth, just about every American-based company associated with AmCham is experiencing a stock drop (BP is looking pretty good). Will Wall Street stop the Military-Industrial Complex, or will they find common ground? 

The American Left is conditioned to dismiss anything by anyone who's screwed up in the past, even if they are correct on the issue at hand. This isn't a call for the critics to work with those who are, politically-speaking, Bad Take Machines. But if these people have little issue highlighting the Human Broken Clocks on cable news when they sporadically get something right, why not afford the Bad Take Machines the same leeway? Or put it this way, if you go out of your way to point out that Tucker Carlson/Rachel Maddow is right about Issue X, but not when Rachel Maddow/Tucker Carlson is right about Issue X, you're most likely in denial about your biases.   ESPECIALLY when 90% of the American Left still use Mainstream Media (frequency will vary) to get their information, even if to deconstruct it (the number of people who regularly use C-SPAN or the actual legislative websites to read bills and watch speeches unfiltered could be counted on one hand). The thing that the Americ

 While Status Coup has discovered some interesting  things regarding the party started by Nick Brana, The World Socialist Web Site called it (meaning MPP chances of success) back in 2020 : The MPP is an example of the type of formation produced by an extremely low level of political consciousness. It is somewhat difficult to comment on because it is not a serious organization. The term “party” is purely nominal. A party is based on a common program, a common assessment of historical experiences, and a common perspective . The MPP has none of these. It does not understand the past, it has nothing to offer for the present, and it has no future . What predominated among the eclectic combination of individuals, celebrities and media personalities brought together on August 30 was unseriousness, pessimism and a fair amount of dishonesty. The dominant line, however, was provided by those in and around the Democratic Party.  The article is definitely worth the read. That said, I'm curiou

 Mostly, because the legislation is  " an unnecessary and unjustified expenditure of the public’s resources that should be targeted instead toward addressing the human rights needs of the working class and poor in the U.S ."

 Force The Vote. General Strike(s). Marches. Protests. Rallies. Sit-Ins. Mutual Aid Programs. Ballot Initiatives. Phone Banking. Door-to-Door.  When things like the above are done or advocated outside of electoral politics, when they are not connected to a candidate or political party...the knives will come out. America is stuck in a Electoral Matrix: only by "participating" every two-to-four years can things "get done." You want your pothole fixed? Vote. You want municipal broadband? Vote. You want a better health care system? Vote. Thing is, voting is not how America accomplished what it has on behalf of it's people. Samuel Gompers was president of the American Federation of Labor, not President of the United States. Margaret Fuller was not a mayor and Martin Luther King, Jr. was not a congressman. Throughout history, men and women like these three put pressure on politicians to change things.  The Machine is too corrupt for the Idealistic Candidate; anyone

 " One of the worst companies in not getting back to customer inquiries or complaints is the Bank of America. Sources tell us the Bank has algorithms that measure how long they can keep customers waiting so as to have fewer workers needed to answer the calls ." - Ralph Nader , describing how Bank of America gets away with corporate crimes 

 New York's former cop and newly-elected mayor has fired 1,400 government workers and is proposing a budget aimed at cutting education funding . Quick Thoughts: 914 of the workers Eric fired were education workers; he seems to have some issue with education. As we know, poverty is a heavy contributor to crime in the US . Less education typically contributes to poverty. It appears that Adams is, by cutting education funding, creating an environment where more police will be necessary in the near future. Keep in mind that one of the safest states in America is also calling for more police .  Interesting that "defund the police" is a nonstarter for some because not only is the demand also the slogan, but because the demand is seem as "too harsh," but outside of educators there is no pushback to "defund education." For what it's worth, here's the NYC Department of Education page on their funding .

Jimmy Dore talks about how elites basically want the imprison the poor. 

 In terms of violent crime, it's hard to find a safer state than Connecticut . In 2020, it was the 4th-safest state in the country . It maintained that status the next year, even with the high property crime rate .  The places that are considered the "worst" is mostly attributed to (you guessed it) poverty . So it shouldn't be a surprise to see Gov. Ned Lamont advocate on continuing the policies that has helped pushing to give the police $64 million , right? Wait; what? Gov. Ned Lamont rolled out a list of multimillion dollar proposals on Monday that could add more state and local police in Connecticut, eliminate a backlog in the state’s court system, provide support for victims of crimes and reestablish a taskforce to help track down the sources of illegal weapons that are confiscated in the state. Lamont, who is up for reelection this year, pitched the ambitious public safety agenda after months of complaints from Republican lawmakers, who have voiced concern abou

  Notice how some politicians are like, "If you don't like how our state runs, then move?" Well, this is a story where the people mostly liked how their state was run, and it was changed anyway (for the worse).

  The primary role of American Law Enforcement is to protect the elites: their property, their person, their institution. Any movie or TV show that displays a police officer going up against someone in power on behalf of the powerless is portraying a fantasy.  If you were to peruse the quotes and testimony of officers who have recently gone to trial over the deaths of mostly innocent (and mostly minority) people, the common refrain is, "I was afraid for my life." It doesn't matter if the person shot/killed was unarmed, holding their wallet, committing misdemeanor, or even sitting in their own apartment minding their business, the mindset of today police officer is not, "I'm going to make sure my community even if it cost me my life;" it's, "I'm going to get home safe even if it costs me your  life."  The mainstream media and virtually all elected officials (go check and see who's calling for more police funding locally and nationally; t

  This one's about Vitamin D : Israel scientists say they have gathered the most convincing evidence to date that increased vitamin D levels can help COVID-19 patients reduce the risk of serious illness or death. Researchers from Bar Ilan University and the Galilee Medical Center say that the vitamin has such a strong impact on disease severity that they can predict how people would fare if infected based on nothing more than their ages and vitamin D levels. Lacking vitamin D significantly increases danger levels, they concluded in newly peer-reviewed research published Thursday in the journal PLOS One. The study is based on research conducted during Israel’s first two waves of the virus, before vaccines were widely available, and doctors emphasized that vitamin supplements were not a substitute for vaccines, but rather a way to keep immunity levels from falling. Vitamin D deficiency is endemic across the Middle East, including in Israel, where nearly four in five people are low on

 As this JD video shows, we need a media that asks these types of questions of our government all day, every day.  Reminder: they want us afraid of a country we have many business ties to...

While we are still dealing with a pandemic, a friendly reminder (from a nurse researcher) that our future nurses are currently lacking teachers : Despite a national nursing shortage in the United States, over 80,000 qualified applications were not accepted at U.S. nursing schools in 2020, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. This was due primarily to a shortage of nursing professors and a limited number of clinical placements where nursing students get practical job training. Additional constraints include a shortage of experienced practitioners to provide supervision during clinical training, insufficient classroom space and inadequate financial resources. Although the 80,000 may not account for students who apply to multiple nursing schools, it clearly suggests that not all qualified students are able to enroll in nursing school.

 For all the talk about how "evil" Russia is, not enough people are talking about Ukraine's rather disturbing extremism , courtesy (of course) of the CIA . But at least everyone's favorite co-opted progressive Democrat AOC is here to give a bad-take word salad:

 You would think that someone who has " liberal stances on health care, education, organized labor " and other such issues would think that giving a child tax credit with no strings would be a slam dunk for Rep James Clyburn. You would think : In an interview with the Washington Post, Clyburn (D-S.C.) said that during negotiations over Democrats' stalled Build Back Better package, " Manchin made it very clear that he had a problem... not with the child tax credit per se, but he wanted to see it means tested ." " I'm not opposed to that ," Clyburn said. " Who would oppose that? So, I would like to see him come forward with a bill for the child tax credit that's means tested. I think it would pass ." In fact, many—including dozens of Clyburn's fellow House Democrats—have voiced opposition to Manchin's demand for a lower income cut-off for the program, which lawmakers and the Biden White House are aiming to revive in some form. I

 So, Russia is moving some of there military around, it happens to be close to Ukraine, and everyone is...concerned : [Ukraine Minister of Foreign Affairs] Dmytro Kuleba estimates that Russia has between 100,000 and 130,000 troops amassed at Ukraine's border and is capable of mounting an invasion at short notice. Ukraine and the United States are threatening crippling sanctions if it does. Russian President Vladimir Putin is demanding that Ukraine never be allowed to join NATO. While military forces are marshaling on both sides of the border, diplomatic efforts continue in an effort to defuse the situation. [SNIP] At a tense meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Monday, representatives for Russia, Ukraine and the United States traded barbs but didn't come to any agreement on a path forward. Kuleba said Ukrainian officials have been busy preparing against any invasion but have deliberately gone about it quietly to avoid sparking panic in the country and hurting the economy. St