Daily News Digest May 28, 2020

Daily News Digest Archives

Due to Years of Austerity, Cuts to Public Health Care, And An Anti-Science and Profiteering President, The United States Now Leads the World In  Coronavirus Cases and Deaths in the World! And Now the Total Caronavirs Deaths in the United  States are Over 20%  of the Total Death in the Entire World!

Another Example Capitalism as a Failed System: World Capilalism Was Aware of the Danger of Cornovavirus Threat 4 Years Ago and Did Nothing!

Capitalism Does Not, and Never Has, Worked for the Masses! In Its Death Agony, Capitalism Is Traveling About The World Like The Four Horsemen of the The Apocalypse, Spreading War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death. The very future of Humanity Is Now At stake!occupy1

Laura Gray’s cartoon from the front page of The Militant August 18, 1945, under banner headline: “There Is No Peace”

During This Economic Crisis, Capitalism’s Three-Point Political Program: 1.Austerity, 2.Scapegoat Blacks, Minorities, and ‘Illegal’ Immigrants for Unemployment, and 3.  The Iron Heel!  Always Remember:  That President Obama, With a Majority Democrat Legislature Supported the Wall Street Bailout and Remember, That he Established, in writing,  the United States Capitalist Austerity Program. —  The Race to the Bottom/Pauperization of the 99%!

Democracy?:As the Capitalist Robber Barons Steal from the 99%,  Only the 1% Voted For Austerity!   The 99% Should Decide On Austerity — Not Just The 1% Who, Profit From Austerity!!  Under Austerity, All of the World Will Eventually Be Pauperized, Humbled, and Desecrated Like Greece and Puerto Rico.!   Socialism Means True Democracy, that the 99% Will Rule, Not the Few!

Images of the Day:

This Is Why!

Quotes of the Day:

Videos of the Day:

United States:

The United States is not a Democracy (A government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly)! Only the 1%, through their ownership of the Reublicrats and who profit from war and the war budget, vote for War and the war budget — A policy, which Gore Vidal called a  Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace. — The 99% Should Decide On War — Not Just The 1% Who Profit From War!  Under a Democracy, The 99% would have the right to vote on the policy of Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace! The United States takes from the poor and gives to the Rich.

Bipartisn Attack Upon the Bill of Rights: New PEN America Report Warns Surge of Anti-Protest Laws in Trump Era Is ‘Danger to Expressive Rights of All’ “There has been a determined movement, occurring largely outside the public eye, to delegitimize public protest and paint demonstrators as dangerous or even criminal.” As protest movements against racist police violence, planet-destroying pipelines, and the policies of President Donald Trump have intensified and spread rapidly across the U.S. in recent years, so have efforts by state lawmakers from both major political parties to criminalize protest by hitting peaceful demonstrators with draconian jail sentences and financial penalties. By  Jake Johnson

Trump Encourages Extra-Legal Police Violence: Trump Tells Police Not to Worry About Injuring Suspects During Arrests  During a speech on Long Island on Friday, President Trump took a break from discussing gang violence and illegal immigration to give the law enforcement officers gathered for his remarks some advice on how to treat suspects. “When you guys put somebody in the car and you’re protecting their head, you know, the way you put their hand over?” Trump said, miming the physical motion of an officer shielding a suspect’s head to keep it from bumping against the squad car. “Like, don’t hit their head, and they just killed somebody — don’t hit their head,” Trump continued. “I said, you can take the hand away, okay?” By Mark Berman

Environment: 

Capitalism Has Decided to Commit Humanicide!: New Report Details How G20 Nations Spend $77 Billion a Year to Destroy Climate“Government money must instead support a just transition from fossil fuels that protects workers, communities, and the climate.” By Jessica Corbett

 Rachel Carson was the first scientist to come forward and explain the potential dangers of the new pesticides, fertilizers, and other toxic pollutants. Her first book, The Silent Spring, is credited with the beginning of the environmental movement. This book explained that cancer and other diseases have become part of the world’s food chain and even present in the air we breathe and the water we drink.  Predicting the coming catastrophe if the mode of production does not change, Rachel Carson wrote in The Sea Around Us: “It is a curious situation that the sea, from which life first arose, should now be threatened by the activities of one form of that life. But the sea, though changed in a sinister way, will continue to exist; the threat is rather to life itself.” — Whither Humanity? The Environmental Crisis of Capitalism

Greenland’s Impact on the Rest of the World: What happens in Greenland could have important implications for the rest of the planet: Tedesco said that the Greenland Ice Sheet is currently the largest single contributor to global sea level rise.  And the impact of continued melting could be devastating. Eric Rignot, a glaciologist at the University of California, Irvine, not involved in the study, said that an enormous amount of the Greenland Ice Sheet is at high risk of melting. If this high-risk ice melted, he said, it would be enough to raise sea levels by 3 meters, or nearly 10 feet. In an even more severe scenario, if the entire ice sheet melted, sea level would rise by 7 meters, or nearly 23 feet, which would be catastrophic for many coastal cities and for the hundreds of millions of people who live close to sea level. — Unprecedented Clear Skies Drove Remarkable Melting in Greenland 

 It Hit 80 Degrees in the Arctic This Week This story will provide important context for the headline, and I encourage you to read it—but really, the headline tells you what you need to know: It was 80 degrees Fahrenheit above the Arctic Circle this week.  A little farther south, in Siberia—you know, the region of world we reference when we want to connote something cold—it was 86 degrees Fahrenheit. Arctic sea ice in the neighboring Kara Sea took the deepest May nose dive ever recorded. Oh, and random swaths of the region are on fire. Things are extremely wrong. By Brian Kahn

Civil Rights/BlackLiberation:

Over 70 percent of tested inmates in federal prisons have COVID-19 WASHINGTON (AP) — Michael Fleming never got to say goodbye to his father. He didn’t know his dad was fading away on a ventilator, diagnosed with coronavirus at the federal prison where he was serving time for a drug charge. His father, also named Michael, was held at FCI Terminal Island in Los Angeles and died April 19. At least half the population there has tested positive, the largest known hot spot in the federal prison system. But the first word the family received of the father’s illness was the day he died, from a prison chaplain asking if the body should be cremated and where the ashes should be sent. By Michael Balsamo

A Disgusting Display’: Police Fire Rubber Bullets, Stun Grenades, and Tear Gas at Demonstrators Protesting Killing of George Floyd “What is happening tonight in our city is shameful,” Rep. Ilhan Omar said of police behavior. By Jake JohnsonWith Whom Are Many U.S. Police Departments Training? With A Chronic Human Rights Violator – Israel When the U.S. Department of Justice published a report Aug. 10 that documented “widespread constitutional violations, discriminatory enforcement, and culture of retaliation” within the Baltimore Police Department (BPD), there was rightly a general reaction of outrage. But what hasn’t received as much attention is where Baltimore police received training on crowd control, use of force and surveillance: Israel’s national police, military and intelligence services. Baltimore law enforcement officials, along with hundreds of others  have all traveled to Israel for training. Thousands of others have received training from Israeli officials here in the U.S.

Labor:

Protecting Workers From Coronavirus: OSHA Leaves It to Employers Critics say the federal agency charged with protecting worker safety has played a conspicuously small role during the pandemic.  By Noam Scheiber

(By Law the Employers are Responsible for Workers Safety— Not OSHA — What is OSHA Good For?:    In addition, under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, employers are responsible for providing a safe and healthy workplace, free of recognized hazards. Because of this, employers must stay informed of the risks associated with COVID-19 and address any known hazards. OSHA recommends that employers develop an infectious disease preparedness and response plan considering risk factors of exposures. Employers should prepare to implement basic infection prevention measures such as promoting frequent handwashing, encouraging sick workers to stay home, encouraging respiratory etiquette (covering coughs and sneezes), considering alternative work schedules, maintaining regular housekeeping practices, limiting worksites to essential workers when possible and discouraging workers from sharing equipment. — OSHA Guidance Related to COVID-19 for Contractors)

 Economy:

Shadow Government Statistics Daily Update (May 26th to 28th) – Pending Commentaries: Next Day or Two – Special Commentary, Issue No. 1438 / May 29th – Flash Commentary, Issue No. 1439 / Pending Data: May 28th – April 2020 Durable Goods Orders, Revised First-Quarter 2020 GDP  Headlines: Pandemic-Driven Recession/ Depression Has Had Its Initial Gdp Contraction AND UNEMPLOYMENT SURGE, BUT THE BOTTOM STILL IS AHEAD

  • Latest New Claims for Unemployment Insurance Confirmed Continued Net Monthly Economic Decline in May 2020, Indicating Unemployment Rising to Around 27%-28%
  • April Existing-Home Sales, Housing Starts and Building Permits All Plummeted Month-to-Month and Year-to-Year Unstable New-Home Sales Benchmarked Lower, Effectively Flat in the Month
  • April Industrial Production Monthly Plunge of 11.2% (-11.2%) Was the Deepest in the 101-Year History of the Series / Capacity Utilization Also Collapsed to a Record Low, 1.8% (-1.8%) Below the Prior Record Trough in the Great Recession
  • April Real Retail Sales Collapsed by 15.8% (-15.8%) in the Month, by 21.9% (-21.9%) Year-to-Year, Deepest in the 73-Year History of the Current and Prior Series, Post World War II
  • April Cass Freight Index® Fell Year-to-Year by 22.7% (-22.7%), Plunging to Great Recession Levels Survey Quality of Plummeting Headline April PPI, CPI-U Inflation and Surging Real Earnings Data Was Heavily Disrupted by Coronavirus Impact
  • Negative CPI and PPI Inflation Was Dominated by Collapsing Oil and Gasoline Prices, Despite Surging Food Costs
  • April U.3 Unemployment Rate Really Was 19.5% per Bureau of Labor Statistics, Where the Reported “Headline” 14.7% U.3. Reflected 7.5 Million Unemployed Counted as “Employed” (Second Month of Misreporting)
  • Headline 14.7% Still Was Highest in the History of Series (Since 1948)
  • April 2020 Payroll Employment Plunge of 20.5 (-20.5) Million Was Worst in the History of the Series (Since 1939) April Money Supply Annual Growth Surged to Record Highs (ALTERNATE DATA TAB), March Trade Deficit Deepened, but First-Quarter Deficit Narrowed Due to Coronavirus in China Reducing February Exports to U.S.
  • Extreme, Accommodative FOMC Policies to Continue for the Duration (SYSTEMIC RISK Section)
  • As With the Retail Sales Benchmarking, the Benchmarked Durable Goods Orders Showed a Much Weaker Economy 2017 to Date
  • PANDEMIC AND OIL-PRICE COLLAPSE ECONOMIC IMPACT: April Payroll Plunge and Unemployment Rate Surges Were Worst Ever, and May Activity Should Deteriorate Significantly Further, Barring Bureau of Labor Statistics Continued Misclassification of “Unemployed” as “Employed”
  • First-Quarter 2020 GDP Plunged 4.8% (-4.8%), Worst Drop Since Depths of the Great Recession
  • Confirmed by Initial April Economic Data, Second-Quarter 2020 GDP Collapse Should Be Worst Ever – Order of Magnitude Down by 50% (-50%) Annualized / Depending on Some “Reopening” of the Economy, Third-or Fourth-Quarter GDP Could Be Moving Off Bottom

Fed Admits Corporate Bond Buying Will Be at Least a 5-Year Debt Bailout On May 13 the House Financial Services’ Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions held a virtual roundtable with federal regulators. One of the regulators in attendance was the Vice Chair for Supervision at the Federal Reserve, Randal Quarles. At the very end of what evolved into a roundtable beset with static and inaudible passages, it was Utah Congressman Ben McAdams’ turn to ask questions. McAdams’ voice was sharp and crisp. He politely said he had a question about the corporate bond buying program that the Fed was launching (for the first time in its 107-year history). The exchange went as follows: McAdams: “Do you anticipate holding these investments through the life of the purchased bond or do you anticipate selling them at a date TBD [to be determined]?Quarles: “Our intention is to buy and hold.” That answer from Quarles effectively means that the Fed plans to keep its corporate bond buying program alive for at least half a decade. Here’s how we know that. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens

World:

Cuba Credits Two Drugs With Slashing Coronavirus Death Toll  Health authorities have reported just two virus-related deaths over the past nine days among more than 200 active cases on the Caribbean’s largest island, a sign they may have the worst of the outbreak under control. The government, which hopes to increase its biopharmaceutical exports, has touted various drugs it produces for helping prevent infection with the new coronavirus and treating the  disease it causes. By Sarah Marsh

Why Iran’s Fuel Tankers for Venezuela Are Sending Shudders Through Washington The first oil tanker that came from Iran’s Bandar Abbas port into the Caribbean is called Fortune. The tanker entered Venezuelan waters on May 24 and was then escorted by the Venezuelan Navy and Air Force to the Puerto Cabello oil terminal; the gasoline will supply the El Palito refinery. A second tanker entered Venezuelan waters on May 25, and three others are on their way. The Venezuelan government paid for the gasoline at market rates; in another world, it would be an ordinary commercial transaction. Not in this world. By Vijay Prashad

Health, Science, Education, and Welfare:

The government of the United States can pass laws in a few days to spend tens of trillions of dollars for war and the bailout of Wall Street and the bankers. Yet, those who ‘governn’, pass universal healthcare for themselves, but they cannot spend even one trillion dollars for universal health for those who are ‘governed’! This is what is considered, by the powers to be,  a democracy and part of the democratic way. — Roland Sheppard, Let the People  Vote on Healthcare

Educators Must Use the Pandemic to Revolutionize Education for All Students It was 4:27 a.m. when Alejandra emailed a practice essay to me. In just a few hours, on May 15, the AP U.S. History exam would be administered, for the first time, online and at home for all students. Other students had completed extra practice essays at 10:00 p.m. the night before so I could advise whether they were ready for the exam the next day. The exam is now over and students have said time management and concerns about their grammatical and academic writing abilities were the biggest challenges of the exam. By Tussanee Reedboon