Capitalism vs. Science - who'd win?

I think I'll go with Science -

The WHO considered the possibility of a laboratory leak. But it dismissed this possibility as “extremely unlikely,” declaring, “There is no record of viruses closely related to SARS-CoV-2 in any laboratory before December 2019, or genomes that in combination could provide a SARS-CoV-2 genome.”

Instead, the report found that COVID-19 most likely originated in a population of bats – or potentially some other animal – before traveling through a series of animal intermediaries to infect humans. While the report recognized that the first major outbreak took place in Wuhan, China, and most cases were clustered around the Hua'nan wet market, it did not conclude that either Wuhan or the market – or even China for that matter – were the origin of the disease.

The report examines the closest relatives of the SARS-Cov-2 virus that causes COVID-19, most of which are bat viruses but some of which were identified in pangolins, as well as the closest human virus, SARS-Cov, which caused the SARS pandemic of the early 2000s. While these viruses closely resemble the virus that causes COVID-19, the differences between them suggest that another animal may have served as an intermediary.

 

Why is this important to note?

Two inter-related considerations lie behind the “Wuhan lab” lie. First, the ruling elites of the major capitalist powers want to shift blame for the pandemic from their own catastrophic policies, responsible for death on a massive scale, to China.

Last weekend, CNN ran a report on the US response to the pandemic that made clear that virtually the entire US response to the pandemic was dictated by the defense not of human lives, but rather the economic interests of the financial elite. As a result, more people have died from COVID-19 in the United States than in any other country. Desperate to shift the blame and create an external enemy, the US media and Biden administration are repeating Trump’s maxim: “It’s China’s fault!”

Second, the “Wuhan lab” lie is connected to the geopolitical imperatives of American imperialism. The Biden administration is carrying out a massive military escalation against China, seeking to ring the country with offensive missiles and doubling US military spending in the Pacific. Three decades of unending war by the American ruling class in the Middle East and Central Asia are developing into a “great power” conflict, targeting its major competitors, including China.

 

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/03/31/pers-m31.html

 

Habs back in action tonight.

https://sportsnaut.com/preview-canadiens-eager-going-again-with-oilers-up/

"The contest will make up one of games postponed after Montreal forwards Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Joel Armia were placed in the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol March 22."

Platitude for 03-30-2021.

Be the person you want, so you'll want the person you'll be.

See how easy it is to write this?

My birthday gift arrived.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez=establishment propoganda tool.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/03/26/aoc-m26.html

Such “bad faith actors,” Ocasio-Cortez says, only betray their disdain for the poor and oppressed by criticizing the president. Ocasio-Cortez adds a noxious dose of identity politics to the old Democratic trick of presenting left-wing opponents as aiding the right:

For anyone who brings that up [i.e., opposition to the Biden administration], we really have to ask ourselves, what is the message that you are sending to your Black and brown and undocumented members of your community, to your friends, when you say nothing has changed?... When you say ‘nothing has changed,’ you are calling the people who are now protected from deportation ‘no one.’ And we cannot allow for that in our movement.

The example of protecting immigrants from deportation is an unfortunate selection on Ocasio-Cortez’s part. In the weeks since the interview, Biden has suspended the right to asylum and deported tens of thousands of Central American refugees, denying them as much as a court hearing. Perhaps Ocasio-Cortez considers that the 15,000 children presently detained in immigration jails are “privileged bad faith actors” for opposing their own incarceration.

 

What the establishment truly fears - democracy.

Case in point -> https://the100million.org/

https://knightfoundation.org/reports/the-100-million-project/

A lesson political parties wanting to form in the US can learn.

https://consortiumnews.com/2021/03/25/lessons-to-learn-from-kerala/

I wonder how long it'll be before the Global Capitalist Establishment targets these countries.

"DPRK, Iran, Algeria, Angola, Belarus, Bolivia, Cambodia, Cuba, Eritrea, Laos, Nicaragua, Saint Vincent, and the Grenadines, Syria, Venezuela, and Palestine in addition to the largest of the developing countries, Russia and China."

https://blackagendareport.com/new-global-alliance-defends-un-charter-clear-rebuke-us-imperialism

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/china-russia-iran-north-korea-others-form-group/2173560

A 100 year-old business is closing.

https://komonews.com/news/local/borracchinis-bakery-closes-after-100-years-family-cites-pandemic-as-reason-for-closing

It is very sad. We hadn't been in the area for some time since we moved further south. And with it still not really safe to travel too far, we had no plans to be back there any time soon.

The trigger may have been COVID-19, but it was pulled by capitalism. This place is one of many.

How are you willing to bet the assets and property will be cannibalized by some corporation?

russiagate=Establishment deflection+projection.

https://consortiumnews.com/2021/03/20/russiagate-rolls-on-giving-biden-political-cover/

And just how many lives has all of this type of stupidity been for the many who had no say or interest in any of this?

What the FBI is in the USA, is what the Special Demonstration Squad (MI5) is in the UK.

The secret police.

Targets: anything and anyone that threatens the rule of the rich and powerful in the capitalist system.

https://consortiumnews.com/2021/03/17/britains-secret-political-police/

 

But a raft of new documents released by the public inquiry since it opened hearings in November last year makes clear that SDS activities were coordinated from the outset by MI5, Britain’s main domestic intelligence agency. 

In capitalism, death is more profitable to insurance companies than life.

This appears to be the case especially in a global pandemic like COVID-19:

A new report released Tuesday morning by consumer advocacy group Public Citizen makes the case that the United States' fragmented for-profit healthcare system hampered the nation's coronavirus response "at every turn," resulting in millions of Covid-19 infections and hundreds of thousands of deaths that likely would have been prevented under a Medicare for All system.

Titled Unprepared for Covid-19: How the Pandemic Makes the Case for Medicare for All, the white paper builds off a recent analysis showing that around 40% of U.S. Covid-19 infections and 33% of virus deaths are associated with uninsurance, which was high before the pandemic and soared last year as mass layoffs threw millions off their employer-provided coverage. The growing uninsured rate has hit frontline workers particularly hard.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/03/16/medicare-all-would-have-prevented-hundreds-thousands-covid-deaths-new-report (h/t Consortium News).

Union of Musicians.

https://www.unionofmusicians.org/

The right-wing, the establishment, capitalism ... whatever you want to call those that control things ... they ARE the problem.

And like any disease, they spread everywhere -> https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/03/13/slbj-m13.html

At the same time, the SLBJP’s founders made clear their acceptance of the BJP’s Hindu-supremacist, anti-working class program, hailing India’s BJP Prime Minister Narendra Modi and refusing to rule out Indian state involvement in their party. Asked what he would do if evidence emerged of future Indian involvement in his party, Muthusamy cynically responded, “Let’s just change the name.”

Why do I think 're-opening' is a bad idea?

Hmm ... it may have something to do with things like this:

Texas lifted its mask mandate on March 10, allowing all businesses to open at full capacity, one week after Gov. Greg Abbott’s March 2 announcement that “it is clear from the recoveries, vaccinations, reduced hospitalizations and safe practices that Texans are using that state mandates are no longer needed.”

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves made a similar announcement the same day. Both cited declining hospitalizations in their states and vaccine distribution as their rationale, which was repeated uncritically by some corporate media outlets reporting on the decision, including NPR and USA Today.

What these outlets failed to mention is that Covid-19 cases and deaths were rising significantly in Texas and Mississippi in the days leading up to their governors’ announcements. In Texas, average daily new cases rose from 4,252 on February 20 to 7,754 on March 1—an increase of 82% in nine days. Average daily deaths went from 127 on February 20 to 230 on March 1, an 81% rise.

 

 

Think Biden is somehow different than Trump?

 

A very interesting online resource to learn about the unsaid and hugely unacknowledged history of the United States.

https://sundown.tougaloo.edu/index.php

https://sundown.tougaloo.edu/content.php?file=sundowntowns-whitemap.html

A sundown town is not just a place where something racist happened. It is an entire community (or even county) that for decades was "all white" on purpose. "All white" is in quotes because some towns allowed one black family to remain when they drove out the rest. Also, institutionalized persons (in prisons, hospitals, colleges, etc.), live-in servants (in white households), and black or interracial children (in white households) do not violate the taboo.

"On purpose" does not require a formal ordinance. If, for example, a black family tried to move in, encountered considerable hostility, and left, that would qualify the town as "sundown." Note that some sundown towns kept out Chinese Americans, Jews, Mexican Americans, Native Americans, even Mormons.  

WA State initiative to implement single-payer health coverage.

https://wholewashington.org/whole-washington/

About Us

Whole Washington is a grassroots coalition of healthcare professionals, activists and volunteers from all sectors, age groups, and perspectives across the State of Washington and beyond. Our common belief is that healthcare is a human right, and with that principle in mind, we are passionately fighting for a single-payer, Universal Healthcare system to serve all of us.

We endorse efforts on both a state and national level and support organizations, officials, and candidates that are working with urgency to make Universal Healthcare a reality. Our focus is on those that are struggling and vulnerable, not the privileged few who may be inconvenienced. We do not support delay tactics, incremental approaches, or any effort that assumes the for-profit model can stay in place for necessary care. We believe the only way to true social justice, cost relief, and personal freedom is through a single-payer system.

 

What really is the bigger scandal?

The attempt to keep Lula from running for office, or the corporate media complicity?

Read and decide for yourself.

https://fair.org/home/nyt-fails-to-examine-its-participation-in-brazils-biggest-judicial-scandal/

Projection, deflection, misandry, and establishment/right-wing behavior all in one.

Amazing how this senator fails to deflect attention away from the fact that she voted against an increase to the Minimum Wage to $15/hour.

Quote of the day - 03-05-2021

Vijay Prashad -

The right to live in peace is not a meaningless phrase; it is effectively a challenge to the system now managed by people such as Biden, Modi, Piñera, and others. It is a call for a simple right that provokes war because it encroaches on the ability of the few to appropriate the greater share of social wealth.

Ecuador back on the path to saving themselves.

The rest of the world could learn and follow.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/03/05/what-the-ecuadoran-elections-mean-for-the-u-s/

 

Not quite there yet - there's still a chance the US might cheat or overthrow their establishment doesn't like the results.

We'll see.

Censorship, Science and Critical Thinking all in one.

https://blackagendareport.com/against-big-techs-algorithmic-cancel-culture

Read it end to end. And do your own research.

Quote of the day - 03-02-2021.

Chris Hedges:

The capacity to exercise moral autonomy, to refuse to cooperate, to wreck the megamachine, offers us the only possibility left to personal freedom and a life of meaning. Rebellion is its own justification. It erodes, however imperceptibly, the structures of oppression. It sustains the embers of empathy and compassion, as well as justice. These embers are not insignificant. They keep alive the capacity to be human. They keep alive the possibility, however dim, that the forces that are orchestrating our social murder can be stopped. Rebellion must be embraced, finally, not only for what it will achieve, but for what it will allow us to become. In that becoming we find hope.

I wonder - am I going to be part of the rebellion to survive, or remain one of the systems managers?

Cause over the years, I've certainly felt like I've been part of the latter despite wanting to be part of the former.

Often times, the reason most advocate for censorship ...

... so you don't notice reality.

Case in point -> https://consortiumnews.com/2021/03/01/there-were-no-calls-for-censorship-against-democrats-for-their-false-claims-about-the-2016-election/