If you've ever been in a Las Vegas casino when somebody is on a winning streak, you know that the casino won't just let them keep winning forever. Eventually large men in tailored suits will appear and escort the lucky gambler out of the casino. The casino will simply change the rules.
Robinhood, the app used by most reddit users on Wallstreetbets (ASB) has blocked all shareholders of GME (Gamestop) from buying new shares. They are only allowed to sell the shares they currently own, not buy new ones.
This is blatant market manipulation and Robinhood will be getting sued.
Our progressive representatives need to make it clear that this type of one sided manipulation is completely unacceptable.
I'm going to be updating this essay later, but for now check out this video to get you up to speed on what's been happening.
One of the legacy problems of Trump is that criticism of the covid response became a partisan issue. It should never have been. The Trump Administration completely botched the response to the pandemic, but that doesn't mean that doing the opposite of the Trump response is the correct response either.
And what an epic Twitter Bomb it generated:
Pro-LGBTQ anti-war activists, or right-wing extremists? Internet goes ballistic after Jimmy Dore interviews ‘Boogaloo’ member', RT.com, 25 Jan, 2021
Something/Someone Old
First: ‘Biden stimulus bill: What will it take to really ‘Rescue America?’, Jordan Woll, January 21, 2021, liberationnews.org (CC w/ attribution)
“Joe Biden’s recently-announced pandemic relief package, the so-called American Rescue Plan, is the new administration’s top legislative priority. With the bar set tragically low by the Trump government, any action at all by the Biden administration may feel like a welcome improvement. But the severity of the pandemic in the country and the threat of emerging, highly-transmissible new strains of the virus requires radical solutions to address the urgent daily needs of working and poor people.
The Democrats control both houses of Congress and the executive branch. The filibuster that requires 60 Senators to vote in favor of closing debate on a measure is not a law, but an internal Senate rule that the Democratic majority can simply decide to do away with. But despite having the power to pass laws without any Republican support, the Biden administration has introduced another bill that fails to measure up to the scale of the crisis facing the working class.
![[Portrait of Robert Burns, Ayr, Scotland] (LOC)](https://live.staticflickr.com/3610/3449543485_ccac6627ca_w.jpg)
Robert Burns
You may have caught Liza Featherstone's piece, "If Joe Biden Moves Left, You Can Thank The Left," in Jacobin dated three days ago.
The twins' cousin would always respond to political or economic complaints with the response, "It ain't gonna get no better, Cuz". And sure enough, I don't think it will. Biden will fulfill another local saying IMO, "it's better than it was when it was so bad". Unfortunately it won't be good, just less bad (maybe). This piece lays the situation out well.
There is an intense effort in the Democratic Party-aligned media to present the inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris as a fundamental turning point in American politics.
No doubt there is immense relief among millions in the US and around the world to see the fascist Trump leave Washington, two weeks after he spurred on an insurrection aimed at stopping the congressional certification of Biden’s victory.
But with the transfer of the White House from the Republicans to the Democrats, it is necessary to counter illusions about what this government will or even can do. Its actions will be determined by the interests of the ruling class under conditions of an unprecedented social, economic and global crisis. However, efforts are underway to chloroform the public about the realities of the procapitalist, imperialist politics of the Biden administration and the catastrophic economic and social conditions under which it begins.
...and the empire keeps rolling along
