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Place a bet on Las Vegas and the economic recovery with these gaming stock picks – MarketWatch

Posted on May 29, 2021 by Danzig

As COVID-19 vaccinations continue across the U.S. and all eyes turn to the reopening of sectors that have been battered by the pandemic, investors may want to place a bet on Las Vegas.

Strategists at KeyBanc Capital Markets say strong revenue in April and accelerating May foot traffic in Sin City and other U.S. gambling centers have made them upbeat on the gaming and leisure sector.

In a report published on Wednesday, a team led by Brett Andress at KeyBanc said the strategists continue to see signals of an accelerated recovery taking place this spring/summer.

Also read:The World Is Reopening. Retailer Earnings Show Some Shoppers Still Like Stay at Home.

The comeback is accelerating in Las Vegas, they said, with data showing an encouraging pickup in the number of visitors from the lows of the pandemic. The number of people passing through the Vegas strip rose to 67% of 2019 levels in April 2021 from 57% in March.

So far in May, the number of visitors in Vegas is still picking up rising to 68% of 2019 levels, with traffic on the weekend continuing to make fresh highs. While the number of weekday visitors a better measure of normal, in the strategists view has fallen back from highs reached in March due to spring break and March Madness, it continues to remain above initial reopening levels.

The strategists said that while gross revenue from in-person gambling was strong in March, it grew again in April. In-person gross gaming revenues in 18 states, as a percentage of 2019 levels, grew an average of 16 percentage points from March to April. And data show May remains elevated, they said.

Plus:Time to Get Dressed for the Reopening. These Stocks Will Benefit.

The team at KeyBanc said that the continuing recovery, and the sustainability of margins in the gambling business, could lead to upgrades across the sector. The group is bullish on seven stocks.

In particular, the strategists highlightedBallys BALY, -0.43%, Boyd BYD, -1.50%, andChurchill Downs CHDN, -1.71%, with target prices on the stocks suggesting that shares in all three companies could climb 23%. The valuations of the three dont reflect strong opportunities in interactive gaming and other areas where the companies could benefit in the future, they said.

KeyBanc is also positive onCaesars CZR, -0.44%, MGM Resorts MGM, -2.10%, Penn National Gaming PENN, -1.55%, andRed Rock Resorts RRR, -0.97%. A risk across the whole sector remains a resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic that could lead to restrictions or curtail travel and in-person gambling.

Read: Bitcoin, GameStop and NIO bets turned this flight attendant into a millionaire: Now hes wagering it all in one final push to $3 million.

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Place a bet on Las Vegas and the economic recovery with these gaming stock picks - MarketWatch

What to expect on June 1 full reopening in Las Vegas amid pandemic – KTNV Las Vegas

Posted on May 29, 2021 by Danzig

LAS VEGAS (KTNV) Were just a week away from a fully reopened Las Vegas with no restrictions on businesses or activities, but what exactly will change when we hit that June 1 date?

A fully reopened Las Vegas coming soon to a business near you. The valley gearing up for a pre-pandemic normal starting June 1. This means having all the chairs and tables available at Pho Thanh in Chinatown.

its a big difference. Before it was kind of slow. After two more weeks, a lot of business is coming. Even like the traveling people and the residential people coming in," Julie Huang said.

Huang is a manager at Pho Thanh restaurant. She says employees are still wearing masks as a precaution and she feels safer with vaccinations widely available.

RELATED STORY: Clark County Commissioners pass COVID-19 mitigation plan revision, sets full reopening date

Everybody got the second shot and the whole state is more stable and people come more often, she said.

But dont expect more people at certain government agencies like the DMV, at least for the time being. The agency said it will be adding more chairs in the waiting area inside but wont be able to expand appointments. The pandemic creating staffing issues at the agency.

Well, were holding 64 positions open throughout the department for possible budget cuts as well. Due to the state's improved budget picture, the legislature was able to restore those cuts, so now were hiring and training people, said Kevin Malone, Nevada DMV public information officer.

The DMV says those new employees will be working by mid-August. For now, people are being asked to book online appointments; so, they will be able to conduct their business. The goal? Making the DMV an appointment-based agency.

So, please go on our website and make an appointment early in the morning. It will be 90 days out. If you have an appointment, youre not going to be able to keep, please go back on the website and cancel it, he said.

RELATED STORY: Free live music returns to Fremont Street Experience June 1

For those hoping to get their unemployment claim issues resolved in person, theyll have to wait. The Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation said it doesnt have a timetable to reopen its career centers for in-person services. It says any claimants can continue to access services online, meaning no change for now.

But change is coming to Pho Thanh. Huang says the restaurant will still keep the orders rolling in. Shes optimistic about a post-pandemic future.

I hope more people come over and try my food and I hope for more business in Las Vegas. I hope Las Vegas is more incredible, she said.

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What to expect on June 1 full reopening in Las Vegas amid pandemic - KTNV Las Vegas

Gov. Lujan Grisham touts key road project, meets with students in Las Vegas | Office of the Governor – Michelle Lujan Grisham – Office of the Governor

Posted on May 29, 2021 by Danzig

SANTA FE Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Wednesday participated with local leaders in celebrating the completion of an important state roadway infrastructure project in the heart of Las Vegas and visited with local public school elementary students at schools that are participating in well-rounded extended learning time programs this summer.

Alongside area state legislators and local elected officials, Gov. Lujan Grisham cut the ceremonial ribbon on a two-year, $15 million state revitalization of U.S. 85 South Grand Avenue, a thoroughfare leading into the heart of historic Las Vegas, encompassing the Old Plaza and various nationally recognized historical places. Construction of the 1.7-mile stretch included new lighting fixtures, new drainage system, Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant pedestrian amenities, new asphalt and street signs as well as a rehabilitation of the bridge over the Gallinas River.

The state Department of Transportation has put $1.6 billion into state roadway infrastructure since the beginning of the Lujan Grisham administration in 2019.

This kind of infrastructure investment can set the stage for revitalizing the local and area economy, said Gov. Lujan Grisham. High-quality infrastructure is a must for any community, and we will continue to invest statewide in building and rebuilding New Mexico.

The governor on Wednesday also visited with the students, staff and leadership of Sierra Vista Elementary School, one of two schools in the northeast region of the state currently participating in the K-5 Plus program this summer, through which schools provide additional instructional time to elementary students as a means of closing the achievement gap, particularly with respect to reading at grade level, before transitioning to middle school. Almost 30,000 students across the state are scheduled to participate in K-5 Plus next year, more than double the number who took part in the 2020-2021 school year.

The governor also visited with students from nearby Los Ninos Elementary, the other northeast region school participating in K-5 Plus this summer, who presented her with garden plants.

Im incredibly grateful to the local school leaders, including Superintendent Archuleta and of course the tireless educators of Sierra Vista, who are going the extra mile this summer to provide additional in-class time for students who need it, said Gov. Lujan Grisham. We owe our children every single opportunity. And Im proud of New Mexico districts that are stepping up in this way, even after this most challenging and exhausting school year.

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Gov. Lujan Grisham touts key road project, meets with students in Las Vegas | Office of the Governor - Michelle Lujan Grisham - Office of the Governor

Las Vegas-based Broadway in the Hood auditioning for ‘Annie’ – FOX5 Las Vegas

Posted on May 29, 2021 by Danzig

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Las Vegas-based Broadway in the Hood auditioning for 'Annie' - FOX5 Las Vegas

Where to find the best happy hours in Las Vegas – Eater Vegas

Posted on May 29, 2021 by Danzig

The Strats 108 Drinks and 108 Eats in SkyPod have two-for-one SkyPod admission access and two-for-one cocktails at 108 Drinks. Beverages include the Big Shot, made with Patrn Aejo tequila, triple sec, sweet and sour, lime juice, and a Grand Marnier float; The Jump made with Absolut vodka, Sammys Beach Bar Rum, Bombay gin, Santo Blanco tequila, triple sec, blue Curaao, and Sierra Mist; frozen Miami Vice, blended with Bacardi Superior rum, frozen strawberry daquiri mix, and pia colada mix; draft and bottled beer; and wine. Happy hour bite selections include an artisan cheese plate with local honey, fresh fruit, artisan cheeses, and lavosh; house-made hummus served with taro root and sweet potato chips; baked mozzarella cheese served with crostini and tomato sauce; and bacon-wrapped dates served with Boursin cheese, bacon and spiced jelly. Available from 3 to 7p.m. Monday through Thursday.

2000 S Las Vegas BlvdLas Vegas, NV 89104

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Where to find the best happy hours in Las Vegas - Eater Vegas

The Boring Company tests its Teslas in Tunnels system in Las Vegas – The Verge

Posted on May 29, 2021 by Danzig

Elon Musks Boring Company started shuttling passengers through the twin tunnels it built underneath the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) this week, as part of a test to get the system ready for its full debut in June.

Videos, images, and accounts shared around the internet by the people who showed up for the test offer the most coherent glimpse yet at Musks solution for traversing the LVCC campus. It is quite literally just Teslas being driven through two 0.8-mile tunnels a far cry from the autonomous sled-and-shuttle ideas that Musk once proposed for The Boring Company.

There are three stops to the LVCC Loop system. The stations at either end are above ground, while the one in the middle is at the same 30-foot depth as the tunnels. The Boring Company used a few dozen Tesla vehicles including Model 3 sedans, and Model Y and Model X SUVs during the test. While the company has talked about making riders call for cars using an app, the test only required them to walk up to the next available car. Test riders then hopped in, went to one of the other two stations, and repeated. It appears most riders got between seven or eight to a dozen rides during the test.

Schlepping from one end of the LVCC campus is no quick feat on foot, especially after the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) recently added a whole new wing. Taxi lines and ride-hailing wait times are notoriously long, too. So any solution that makes it easier to get around the grounds will likely appeal to convention-goers, even if the amenity cost the LVCVA $52.5 million ($48.6 million of which went to The Boring Company).

The Boring Company says the Loop will ultimately turn a 45-minute walk into a two-minute ride, though its not down to that level of efficiency yet (hence the test). In one video, one of the test riders said they had to wait about three to five minutes for a few of the rides, though even with a top speed of around 40 miles per hour, trips between stations appear to have taken about a minute to a minute-and-a-half.

One of the things increasing that total travel time was the underground station. There were times when test riders pulled into the station only to run into some congestion. The drivers have to maneuver around other parked Teslas, people getting in and out, and cars queueing up to reenter the tunnels. Its a tight fit.

There was also just some general confusion as people got used to how the system worked. Passengers were being constantly reminded to leave the doors open when exiting the vehicle to speed up the transition to the next ride. One person got bonked on the head by one of the Model Xs Falcon Wing doors.

The big question with The Boring Companys efforts in Las Vegas is pretty much the same as it always is with Musks ideas: how will it scale? The company says it wants to eventually transport 4,400 people per hour through the LVCC Loops tunnels, though TechCrunch discovered documents late last year that seem to show it will only be able to transport 1,200. Beyond the LVCC Loop, The Boring Company wants to build a massive tunnel system that runs under the whole city, including the Las Vegas Strip and the airport. It claims this massively scaled-up version of its underground highway will be able to handle a little more than 50,000 passengers per hour.

The Boring Company has claimed it plans to allow a max speed of 150 miles per hour in these tunnels but has limited speeds during the tests so far. And while the goal is to ultimately have the Teslas drive themselves, the system will rely on human drivers for the foreseeable future.

Reaching that top speed is one of the key things The Boring Company says sets its Teslas in Tunnels idea apart from, say, a subway system. (Another is cost, which weve seen the company tout in its most recent proposal in Miami.) It likely wont be attainable unless the company is able to automate the driving, as the tunnels are too tight for a human driver to continuously (and carefully) navigate at such high speeds another thing that was obvious from videos of the test.

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The Boring Company tests its Teslas in Tunnels system in Las Vegas - The Verge

Which geological period is called the Age of Fishes? The Weekend quiz – The Guardian

Posted on May 29, 2021 by Danzig

The questions

1 Which existentialists share a grave in Montparnasse Cemetery?2 Acqua alta is a problem in what Italian city?3 Which world leader played cricket for Sussex?4 Which geological period is called the Age of Fishes?5 Bull-leaping was an ancient ritual on which island?6 What is a Dutch cabbage salad better known as?7 What unit was based on the distance from the elbow to the fingertip?8 Which singer is rerecording all her old albums?What links:9 German spa; American Samoa capital; New York prison; Society island?10 Robot; clone; butler; private investigator; painter?11 Maritimus; arctos; americanus; thibetanus?12 Defunct Sunday tabloid; myocardial infarction; Marx Brothers films; bebop?13 Christiania; Sealand; Seborga; Kugelmugel?14 Pope (2); Shakespeare (24); both (1)?15 Space Force; Coast Guard; Army; Marine Corps; Navy; Air Force?

1 Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre.2 Venice (peak tides).3 Imran Khan (now Pakistan PM).4 Devonian.5 Crete (Minoan).6 Coleslaw (koolsla).7 Cubit.8 Taylor Swift.9 Repeated place names: Baden-Baden; Pago Pago; Sing Sing; Bora Bora.10 Narrators of Kazuo Ishiguro novels: Klara And The Sun; Never Let Me Go; The Remains Of The Day; When We Were Orphans; An Artist Of The Floating World.11 Scientific names of bear species (ursus): polar; brown; American black; Asian black.12 Albums by Queen: News Of The World; Sheer Heart Attack; A Day At The Races & A Night At The Opera; Jazz.13 Micronations: Copenhagen; North Sea off Suffolk; Italy; Vienna.14 Moons of Uranus: sources for names.15 Six branches of the US armed forces (since 2019).

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Which geological period is called the Age of Fishes? The Weekend quiz - The Guardian

‘Nuclear weapons and military budgets’ and more – The River Reporter

Posted on May 29, 2021 by Danzig

Nuclear weapons and military budgets

The recent Green Party Presidential candidate, Howie Hawkins, recently sent a message to the American people. He urged us to join the 54 nations that signed and ratified the Treaty to Ban Nuclear Weapons (607 NGOs (non-government organizations) joined 54 United Nations member nations), pledge no first use of nuclear weapons and reduce the United States military budget by 75 percent.

Here are some other numbers: 32 nations, including the United States, oppose the UN Treaty to Ban Nuclear Weapons. Currently, there are 13,400 nuclear weapons in arsenals. A great majority of Americans support the UN Treaty to Ban Nuclear Weapons. They also support a no-first-use pledge. Regarding the United States military budget, there are more than 800 United States military bases in other countries. The money to maintain them there is a significant part of the military budget.

Let us write, email and call our elected Congress-people and tell them what we think.

Mort MalkinMilanville, PA

It was disappointing to see an echo of the old nobody wants to work canard headlined recently.

Ive probably seen not many more than 100 economics textbooks, but the ones Im familiar with all point to one solution. If there is a labor shortage, the answer is quite simple: raise the wage rate or salary. And presto chango, one has gone from a labor shortage to a labor surplus.

Of course, there are additional barriers to workplace re-entry such as the treatment of workers by a boss with his hand on your behind or the dangers of contracting COVID-19, which, in some cases, can lead to death by suffocation as if by drowning. But even the military provides additional pay for hazardous duty.

An alternative method of dealing with the situation is to remove financial support so that workers become desperate to feed their children or pay medical bills. This doesnt always solve the problem. Back in the day of chattel slavery, people complained about the lazy slaves. Can you imagine?

Larry ShuteCallicoon Center, NY

'Nuclear weapons and military budgets' and more - The River Reporter

Letters: U.S. history is a mix of good and bad. We can handle it. – Palm Beach Post

Posted on May 29, 2021 by Danzig

When I was in grade school in the1950s, I was taught that three big events all happened in 1619. One was the introduction of Black slaves into the English colonies. One was the start of local representative government in America in Virginias House of Burgesses. And another was the start of the cultivation of tobacco for export.

All 1619. Imagine that. Quite a mix of good and evil. Yet I grew up loving my country. Still do.

Columnist Leonard Pitts ("Sometimes you wonder what's so scary," May 16)pointed out old schoolbooks that fell short of truthfulness about slavery. Other books, and then movies, did too.

There is a 1930s Tarzan movie with this setup: A stuffy old Englishman is leading an expedition. Theyre on a narrow mountain ledge. Local African porters bearing packs. One porter loses his footing and falls to his death. Yaaaah!

The stuffy Englishman says, Myword! What was in that package?

Ouch. And I probably watched that movie as a kid on Saturday morning TV without noticing the dismissal of a human life for a package.

Slavery ended and evolved:the Klans terror, Jim Crow, Civil Rights. All ongoing evolutions. I hope Ive evolved. We can all do better. And will.

Maybe being woke isnt so bad.

Emmett Elrod, West Palm Beach

I have read innumerablelettersin this section, presumably from Republicans, decrying the crisis at the southern border. I have also read many missives, likely from the same group, bemoaning the lack of people wanting to work in low-paying jobs.

Can right-wingers not see that we have lost a half-million people this past year from COVID, many of them minimum-wage workers? Can they notunderstand that a few thousand refugees seeking asylum are a small part of what we need to replenish those ranks?

GOP supporters should make up their minds. Do they want workers in low-wage jobs? If they do, they should stop their incessant yapping about the so-called crisis at the southern border.

Randolph Flint, Boynton Beach

Re theletterBiden victory has been bad for the country (May 17):

It lists a host of complaints about foreign policy, thejob market and no gas.

What President Biden has done is attackthe pandemicand returnto Americans some semblance of normal living. Perhaps the writer needs to reassess hisvalues of what really matters as a human being. Its not a full tank of gas.

Anthony Frigo, Jensen Beach

The last free, fair and peaceful election in America may have been the 2016 election.

Anyone who thinks the American experiment in democracy hasnt been highjacked by the Republican Party is kidding themselves. And ex-President Donald Trump cannot take all the credit for it.

The sneaky and insidious attack on the right to vote started well before Trump, but he was the man who had a huge reality TV following that hung on his every word. So when he said, If I dont win, the election was rigged,that was the magnet that brought it all together.

Lindsay Graham, the senior senator from South Carolina, basically said it on apopular conservative news program:Trump has neither the demeanor nor the character to be the president, but we cant win without him.

What is going on with the secret recount in Arizona and now Michigan is spreading. Can it be stopped likethe mid-stage of a cancer?Or is it terminal?

David Clendining, Loxahatchee

The Palm Beach Post is committed to publishing a diversity of opinions. Please send your views to letters@pbpost.com or by mail to Letters to the Editor, The Palm Beach Post,2751 S. Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach, FL 33405. Letters are subject to editing, must not exceed 200 words and must include your name, address and daytime phone number (we will publish only your name and city).

Letters: U.S. history is a mix of good and bad. We can handle it. - Palm Beach Post

Why We Need to Distribute and Democratise Wealth – NewsClick

Posted on May 29, 2021 by Danzig

Throughout its historywherever it arrived and settled in as the dominant economic systemcapitalism provoked struggles over the redistribution of wealth. In other words, this system always distributes wealth in a particular way and likewise produces dissatisfaction with that particular distribution. Those dissatisfied then struggle, more or less, consciously or not, peacefully or violently to redistribute wealth. The struggles are socially divisive and sometimes rise to civil war levels.

The French Revolution marked the end of French feudalism and its transition to capitalism. The revolutionaries slogans promised the transition would bring with it libert, galit, fraternit (liberty, equality and fraternity). In other words, equality was to be a key accompaniment to or product of capitalisms establishment, of finally replacing feudalisms lord-serf organisation of production with capitalisms very different employer-employee system.

Transition to capitalism would erase the gross inequalities of French feudalism. The American Revolution likewise broke not only from its British colonial master but also from the feudal monarchy of George III. All men are created equal was a central theme of its profound commitment to equality together with capitalism.

In France, the United States, and beyond, capitalism justified itself by reference to its achievement or at least its targeting of equality in general. This equality included the distribution of wealth and income, at least in theory and rhetoric. Yet from the beginning, all capitalisms wrestled with contradictions between lip service to equality and inequality in their actual practices.

Adam Smith worried about the accumulation of stock (wealth or capital) in some hands but not in others. Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton had different visions of the future of an independent United States in terms of whether it would or would not secure wealth equality later dubbed Jeffersonian democracy.

There was and always remained in the United States an awkward dissonance between theoretical and rhetorical commitments to equality and the realities of slavery and then systemic racist inequalities. The inequalities of gender likewise contradicted commitments to equality. It took centuries of capitalism to achieve even the merely formal political equality of universal suffrage.

Thus, there should be no surprise that US capitalismlike most other capitalismsprovokes a widely troubling contradiction between the actual wealth inequality it produces and tendentially deepens (as Thomas Piketty has definitively shown) and its repeatedly professed commitment to equality. Efforts to redistribute wealthto thereby move from less to more equal distributionsfollow. Yet, they also disturbingly divide societies where the capitalist economic system prevails.

Wealth redistributions take from those who have and give to those who have not. Those whose wealth is redistributed resent or resist this taking, while those who receive during the redistributions of wealth develop rationales to justify that receipt. Each side of such redistributions often demonises the other. Politics typically becomes the arena where demonisations and conflicts over redistribution occur. Those at risk of being deprived due to redistributions aim either to oppose redistribution or else to escape it. If the opposition is impossible or difficult, escape is the chosen strategy.

Thus, if profits of capitalists are to be taxed to redistribute wealth to the poor, big businesses may escape by moving politically to shift the burden of taxation onto small or medium businesses. Alternatively, all businesses may unite to shift the burden of such redistributive taxation onto higher-paid employees wages and salaries, and away from business profits.

Recipients of redistributions face parallel political problems of whom to target for contributing to wealth redistribution. Will recipients support a tax on all profits or rather a tax just on big business with maybe some redistribution flowing from big to medium and small business? Or might low-wage recipients target high-wage workers for redistributive taxation?

All kinds of other redistributions between regions, races and genders display comparable strategic political choices.

Conflicts over redistributions are thus intrinsic to capitalism and always have been. They reflect but also deepen social divisions. They can and often have become violent and socially disruptive. They may trigger demands for system change. They may function as catalysts for revolutions. Because pre-capitalist economic systems like slavery and feudalism had fewer theoretical and rhetorical commitments to equality in general, they had fewer redistribution struggles. Those finally emerged when inequalities became relatively more extreme than the levels of inequality that more frequently provoked redistribution struggles in capitalism.

No solution to divisive struggles over wealth redistribution in capitalism was ever found. Capitalisms keep reproducing both theoretical and rhetorical appeals to equality as self-celebrations alongside actualities of deep and deepening wealth inequalities. Criticisms of capitalism on grounds of wealth inequality dog the system everywhere. Divisive social conflicts over capitalisms unequal wealth distributions persist. Endless efforts to find and implement a successful redistributive system or mechanism continue. The latest comprises various proposals for universal basic incomes.

To avoid divisive social conflict over redistribution, the solution is not to distribute unequally in the first place. That can remove the cause and impetus for redistributive struggles and thus the need for endless and so far fruitless efforts to find the right redistribution formula or mechanism. The way forward is to democratise the decision about distributing wealth as it emerges from production. This can be accomplished by democratising the enterprise, converting workplaces from their current capitalist organisation (i.e., hierarchical divisions into employerspublic or privateand employees) into worker cooperatives. In the latter, each worker has one vote, and all basic workplace issues are decided by majority vote after a free and open debate. That is when different views on what distribution of output should occur are articulated and democratically decided.

No redistribution is required, necessitated, or provoked. Workplace members are free to reopen, debate and decide anew on initial wealth distributions at any time. The same procedure would apply to workplace decisions governing what to produce, which technology to deploy, and where to locate production. All workers collectively and democratically decide what wage the collective of workers pays to each of them individually. They likewise decide how to dispose of or allocate any surplus, which is above the total individual wage bill and replacement of used-up inputs, that the enterprise might generate.

A parable can illustrate the basic point. Imagine parents taking their twinsMary and Johnto a park where there is an ice-cream vendor. The parents buy two ice creams and give both to Mary. Johns wails provoke a search for an appropriate redistribution of ice creams. The parents take away one of the ice creams from Mary and hand it to John. Anger, resentment, bitterness, envy and rage distress the rest of the day and divide family members. If affection and emotional support are similarly distributed and redistributed, deep and divisive scars result. The lesson: we dont need a better or right redistribution; we need to distribute more equally and democratically in the first place.

Richard D. Wolff is professor of economics emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a visiting professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University, in New York.

This article was produced byEconomy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

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Why We Need to Distribute and Democratise Wealth - NewsClick

A future for everyone or profits for a few Thought-provoking insights into the way the human world works – Digital Journal

Posted on May 29, 2021 by Danzig

Ernst Robert Langlotz challenges the readers of A future for everyone or profits for a few to see the global crisis as the key to a system change.

Human beings have the inherent ability to live their lives in a self-determined and species-appropriate way, meaning oriented towards the conservation of the environment and the resources. When one looks at the current state of the world and the people who live on it, it becomes obvious that a part of humanity does not use this ability nor does it want other humans to use it. It has deliberately been suppressed for thousands of years by the elites that are in power, previously an alliance between throne and altar and currently by corporations and politicians. Power, money and prestige are the only things that count for them, and this elite has always understood how to make other people dependent and to inculcate them to serve with joy and obedience. Thus authoritarian social structures emerged and consequently people are treated like pets or worse: slavery, serfdom and wage-dependency today.

According to A future for everyone or profits for a few by Ernst Robert Langlotz, this development is currently reaching its limits. The global crisis has made clear that those who would like to retain Earths resources for future generations do not have the power to do so because they have relinquished this power to the elites. And the elites are not interested. The aspects of these authoritarian structures and the ramifications thereof on the consciousness of the dependents are examined critically in this book. Strategies to achieve a required change of awareness, changing from heteronomy to self-determination, are introduced to the readers and makes them think about how they could change their own behaviour towards a better future.

A future for everyone or profits for a few by Ernst Robert Langlotz is now available from tredition or can be ordered through retail using ISBN 978-3-347-03199-9. tredition assists young and unknown authors with publishing their own books, but also cooperates with publishers and publishing houses. tredition publishes books in print and digital formats, distributes locally and online, and actively markets all titles.

For more information on this title, click here: https://tredition.com

Media ContactCompany Name: Tredition GmbHContact Person: Nadine Otto-De GiovanniEmail: Send EmailPhone: 1-800-346-8460Address:Halenreie 40-44 City: HamburgCountry: GermanyWebsite: tredition.com

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A future for everyone or profits for a few Thought-provoking insights into the way the human world works - Digital Journal

Ending Poverty in the Richest Country on Earth – Common Dreams

Posted on May 29, 2021 by Danzig

This week, we introduced a congressional resolution asserting that we can end poverty in the richest country on Earth.

We've had the opportunity to study poverty deeply. Rep. Lee has chaired the Congressional Task Force on Poverty and Opportunity since 2013. Rep. Jayapal chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Both of us worked closely with the Poor People's Campaign to produce a "People's Agenda" for pandemic recovery.

Even before the pandemic, more than two in five people in this country were poor or low-income, just $400 or less away from financial ruin. That's 140 million of us. During the pandemic, it got even worse. By the fall of 2020, 8 million more Americans had been pushed into poverty.

We can't end poverty without attacking the interconnected injustices of systemic racism, inequality, militarism and the climate emergency. That's why our resolution calls for a comprehensive response that prioritizes the needs of these 140 million people.

The American Rescue Plan, the Biden administration's COVID-19 relief package, brought crucial relief. But millions of jobs that were lost have not returned. An astounding 30 million people were put at risk of homelessness, and experts warn that the American Rescue Plan will fall short of helping them all.

But being poor in this country means more than going without money, a job or a home. It also means experiencing the brunt of climate disasters. It means mass incarcerationand frequent contact with militarized police forces. And it means ever-increasing restrictions on your right to vote, join a union or see a doctor.

Poverty, in short, intersects with every other injustice in our country.

For instance, poor communitiesespecially Black, Latina/o, Asian and Pacific Islander communitiesare more exposed to air pollution that makes COVID-19 more dangerous. And they're more likely to work the front-line jobs that expose them to the virus.

While vaccines may eventually contain the pandemic, our costly and ineffective health care system will still leave us with the lowest life expectancy and the highest infant and maternal mortality rates among our peer countries. These crises most acutely affect poor and low-income Americans.

Meanwhile, poor people and communities of color are much more likely to be incarcerated or abused by police. Yet ballooning military spending and endless wars have siphoned resources from these same communitieswhile sending billions of dollars' worth of military equipment to civilian law enforcement, bringing the violence of those wars to our own streets.

And finally, with each passing day, new laws make it harder and harder for these impacted communities to vote. Hundreds have been introduced this year alone.

None of these problems stand alone. We can't end poverty without attacking the interconnected injustices of systemic racism, inequality, militarism and the climate emergency. That's why our resolution calls for a comprehensive response that prioritizes the needs of these 140 million people.

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Alongside expanded social welfare programs and unemployment insurance, we're calling for a national, universal single-payer health care program that puts people before profits.

We're calling for a living minimum wage, the right to form unions and a federal jobs guarantee.

We're calling for a housing guarantee that ends evictions and expands affordable housing options and accessible quality education at all levels.

We're calling to transform our climate chaos to a green and renewable futurewith equitable public transit, dramatic reductions in pollution and green jobs and infrastructure.

To root out systemic racism, we're calling on Congress to protect the right to vote, establish commissions on reparations for slavery and genocide and ensure the rights of Native people to their sacred lands. We must also enact comprehensive immigration reform that ends detentions, deportations and family separations. And we must end mass incarceration and the militarization of law enforcement.

Our nation has vast wealth and vaster inequality, which is why we're calling for fair taxation on the wealthyand cuts to our enormous military expenditures. We're calling to end our wars and reconsider the harm done by sanctions and forward military deploymentsand to transfer at least 10 percent of the Pentagon budget to fund community needs.

We call our resolution the "Third Reconstruction." During the First Reconstruction after the Civil War, Black Americans joined hands with white allies to build the power to rewrite state constitutions in most of the former Confederate states, winning the right to public education for all and other measures of progress. Multi-racial fusion coalitions were also key to the victories of the Second Reconstruction of the civil rights era in the 1960s.

Our current moment demands action of similarly historic proportions to heal and transform the nation. We need a Third Reconstruction.

A resolution is just the first step. Actually fulfilling it will require pressure from faith communities, unions, workers, immigrants and the racial justice, climate and peace movements. The Third Reconstruction is backed by the Poor People's Campaign, which will not rest until we achieve this goal.

Let's be clear: poverty exists because we allow it to exist. But in November, the people of this country gave their elected officials a new mandate to change that. With this resolution as a roadmap, we can do what needs to be done and deliver for people across America.

Jason Stanley on critical race theory and why it matters – The Economist

Posted on May 29, 2021 by Danzig

May 24th 2021

by Jason Stanley

Editors note: Twelve months on from the killing of George Floyd, The Economist is publishing a series of articles, films, podcasts, data visualisations and guest contributions on the theme of race in America. To see them visit our hub

POLITICIANS USE critical race theory (CRT) in much the same way that they use Keynesian economics: as cudgels in a propaganda campaign to advance their cherished political goals, with little regard for the actual philosophies at issue. CRT, a doctrine more caricatured than understood, rests upon the distinctly unradical claim that American institutions have systematically fallen short of the countrys egalitarian ideals due to practices that perpetuate racial hierarchies. It began in the 1970s as a way to analyse the intersection of American law and race; its creators were legal scholars such as Derrick Bell and Kimberl Crenshaw. It has since expanded its purview to analyse American institutions more broadly.

CRT stems from the need to provide a language for what institutions actually do, rather than how people in those institutions describe themselves. CRT thus seeks to explain the fact of persistent racial injustice by analysing the practices of American institutions. Such practices are racist because they perpetuate racial inequality, not because people within them seek deliberately to oppress individual and specific black people. Mortgage lending, for instance, can function in a racist way, even if the lenders themselves harbour no personal bigotry against non-whites.

CRT holds that such institutional practices are difficult to change and endemic to American institutions, and that they, rather than the malice of individual bigots or the supposed pathologies of black American behaviour, are primarily responsible for racial inequality. CRT is thus not about peoples individual characters. It is rather a claim about the structures, practices, and habits that perpetuate racial inequality. Even the most avowed anti-racist can participate in an institution with racist practices.

Martin Delany, a political philosopher and black abolitionist, writing in the year 1852, noted that even in Anti-Slavery establishments, by which he means institutions in Northern cities devoted to the abolition of slavery and the elevation of the colored man, by facilitating his efforts in attaining to equality with the white man, black citizens only occupy a mere secondary, underling position. Even whites most devoted to the cause of the advancement of racial equality hired black Americans for inferior jobs.

Such whites might have argued for a distinction between political and professional inequalitythey might have felt, in other words, that the law should treat everyone equally, but also that American citizens of African descent are best suited for menial work. But this is explicit racism, which no avowed anti-racist could accept. The professions of anti-racism from these whites, whom Delany called the truest friends, might have been sincere, but they coexisted with obviously racist practices. Delany denounces this faux liberal equality, declaring, There is no equality of persons, where there is not an equality of attainments.

Almost 170 years later, how has the American polity done on Delanys measure of equality? Consider the criminal-justice system, decried in W.E.B. Du Bois 1903 book The Souls of Black Folk as a a double system of justice, which erred on the white side by undue leniency and the practical immunity of red-handed criminals, and erred on the black side by undue severity, injustice, and lack of discrimination. As of this writing, the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. Black Americans are incarcerated in state and federal prisons at five times the rate of white Americans.

It is true that rates of violent crime among black Americans are higher. But just as higher covid-19 death rates among black Americans are best explained by differences in environmental conditions, higher crime rates are also due to racial disparities, such as harsher policing (a racial disparity not explained by differential crime rates), lack of decent job opportunities, homelessness, and poverty. Thus the longstanding American practice of addressing crime spikes through increased policing rather than, say, more job-training programmes is an example of a practice that perpetuates racist outcomes.

Inequalities in the justice system are mirrored, unsurprisingly, in inequalities in wealth. In 2016, the median black family had 10% of the wealth of the median white family. This is an improvement from 1963, when the median non-white family had only 5% of relative wealth. But it is a far cry from equality of attainment, 170 years after Martin Delany set that down as the standard for racial justice.

From sharecropping in the South to predatory lending in the North, white Americans have been materially invested in creating and maintaining racial domination. In addition to these material benefits of racial hierarchy, documented in a justly famous essay of Ta-Nehisi Coates, there is the desire to preserve what Du Bois in 1935 called the public and psychological wage of whiteness.

Jennifer Richeson and Michael Kraus, both psychologists, along with their co-authors, have documented a delusion among white Americans about the racial-wealth gap. They show that Americans estimate that in 2016 the median black family had 90% of the wealth of the median white familyrather than the true figure of 10%. Their research shows a bias towards what Ms Richeson calls a mythology of racial progress. As Ms Richeson writes in a recent article, People are willing to assume that things were at least somewhat bad 50 years ago, but they also assume that things have gotten substantially betterand are approaching parity. This belief that the present has come close to parity is longstandingin a Gallup poll from March 1963, 46% of white Americans agreed with the statement, blacks have as good a chance as whites in your community to get any kind of job for which they are qualified.

Many Americans believe that we are nearing racial equality after a long progression of positive change. That means that any attempt to push for structural change to address inequalities will be met by profound disbelief. Those who argue for such changes get painted as radicals with a devious and destructive hidden agenda. This sort of moral panic helps maintain the status quo.

But such panics might not happen if schools made more efforts to teach students how American institutions fell short of their ideals. Hence, in few arenas does the battle over CRT rage as strongly as in educationwhich fits the historical pattern. The aim of Du Bois 1935 work Black Reconstruction in America was to tell the true story of the end of Reconstruction (the brief period of racial progress that followed the end of the civil war), which is one of violent white backlash against emerging black political power. He denounces the teaching of history for inflating our national ego, and for years his work was overlooked in favour of an interpretation arguing that Reconstruction failed because black Americans were corrupt and incapable of self-governance.

More recently, Nikole Hannah-Joness 1619 Project, which seeks to illuminate how the legacy of slavery has shaped American institutions, was met by fury from the right, as well as demands for patriotic education. The same cycle again: illumination implying the need for structural change produces a moral panic seeking to reinforce a racist status quo.

The targets of the Republican attack on CRT reveal that the issue is not CRT, but something much broader. A recent education bill passed in Tennessee bans promoting division between, or resentment of, a racesubjective language that could easily bar teachers from discussing how race has shaped American institutions. In 1935, Du Bois explicitly argues that American history, properly taught, is divisive, as war and especially civil strife leave terrible wounds. White Americans enslaved black Americans, and shortly after the latter achieved their freedom during the brief period of Reconstruction, excluded them by legislation and force from civic and political life until the 1960s. American democracy is young. These facts are divisive. The Republican attack on CRTs aims is thus a broadside against truth and history in education.

CRT urges America to reform practices in virtually all of its institutions, including criminal-justice, education, housing, banking, and hiring. The United States has attempted this before most notably during Reconstruction, when the federal government poured large resources into empowering a newly free southern black population. That period saw formerly enslaved black legislators elected across the South, and free public education offered to children of all races. The response to these drastic changes was moral panic, widespread racist terrorism and rapid reversal of progress.

Decades later, in the 1960s, the civil-rights movement fought for major legal changes to end the era of legal segregation. During this fight, its leaders were denounced as anti-American communist sympathisers. It should come as no surprise now that the same Republican legislators who want to ban CRT are also advancing voter-suppression laws that target black communities.

Dramatic structural change is hard, and involves missteps. Diversity workshops that involve little more than people sharing feelings, or being told their race is the single most important and determinative thing about them, are no doubt examples. But critics vastly inflate the importance of these missteps, to make such calls, and CRT more broadly, seem outlandish. When such complaints dominate the discussion, they fuel moral panic that is cynically used to halt and reverse progress towards equality.

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Jason Stanley is the Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy at Yale University, and is the author of several books, including How Propaganda Works and How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them. For a contrary argument, please see John McWhorters essay here.

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Jason Stanley on critical race theory and why it matters - The Economist

A Resolution to End Poverty in the World’s Wealthiest Country | Opinion – Newsweek