Daily News Digest November 16, 2020

Daily News Digest Archives

Another Example Capitalism as a Failed System: World Capilalism Was Aware of the Danger of Cornovavirus Threat Over 4 Years Ago and Did Nothing!:  Under Capitalism — Human Lives Don’t Matter  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  Racism,  War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death. The future of Humanity Is Now At stake!Since World War I, ‘the war to end all wars’, there have been perpetual wars for perpetual peace, this Laura Gray’s cartoon from the front page of The Militant August 18, 1945, Under the 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!    For Decades, Blacks Have Been Subjected to The Iron Heel!   Currently, the US Capitalist Class is Divided Over When — Not If, to Apply It to Everyone!

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!

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:

Quotes 0f the Day:

Videos of the Day:

Trump Loss Decreases Chance of Iran War, But Many Iraqis Fear U.S. Policy Under Biden, Too

Brazil: Trump Ally Bolsonaro Refuses to Acknowledge Biden Win & Downplays COVID as Death Toll Mounts

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. Rax the Rich!  — They Can Afford To Pay!

Environment:

Civil Rights/Black Liberation:

Labor:

Economy:


World:

Education, Health, Science, 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 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 

Past The Tipping Point

70% support for Medicare for All (M4A)

Florida Voted for $15.0 Minimum Wage, But Trump for President

14 Successful Ballot Initiatives to Reduce InequalityWhile all eyes have been on the race for the White House, voters in states across the country also weighed in on economic proposals with huge implications for inequality. Here are 14 successful ballot initiatives that will help narrow the divides for millions.

  • Tax Increases On The Wealthy And Corporations

  • Worker Protections

  • Housing

  • Transit Equity

  • Money In Politics

  • Digital DivideCriminalization Of Poverty

Biden’s Mandate Is for Deep Solutions, Not Donor-Class Fetishism of Bipartisan Compromise Biden and the Democrats should put principles first and rally the nation around a serious vision: an agenda not simply to “restore the soul of America” but to expand that soul, make this country a true global leader as Planet Earth faces its treacherous future. By Robert C. Koehler

This last is an important point for the Biden-Harris energy team to note. By including so-called new nuclear, they are dooming themselves to wasting both time and money better spent focused on renewables. Small modular reactors will not, as their plan asserts, come in at “half the construction cost of today’s reactors.”    They will be far more expensive in relation to the electricity they would eventually produce. And of course they would arrive too late, and in too small a quantity and generate too little — and very expensive — electricity to make any difference to climate change at all. den-Harris must look at empirical data, not listen to spin doctors and establishment cronies who will keep them anchored to the status quo, thus deferring the very energy revolution they claim they will lead. If Biden-Harris remain in favor of action on climate AND for nuclear power, then they are part of the problem, not the solution. — In Promoting New Nuclear Power, Biden-Harris Back Fiction Over Science

The 1% K Know That the  Earth is Warming!:

But even while Perdue publicly rejects the scientific consensus about climate change, the Georgia senator and former CEO of Dollar General is part of a gated beachfront community that has taken the global phenomenon and its consequences extremely seriously. Perdue owns a more than 9,000 square-foot mansion with six bathrooms, arched doorways, and a pool on Sea Island, a gated community on St. Simons Island, the wealthiest ZIP code in the state. Over the past few years, as sea-level rise has accelerated, the Sea Island Company, which owns the island resort, has constructed an elaborate and expensive system of jetties and sea walls in an effort to protect the lavish homes there. According to his federal disclosure forms, Perdue’s net worth is somewhere between $13.7 million and $39.8 million. — Georgia Senator Dismisses Climate Change While Enjoying Protected Beachfront Mansion

An Alternate National Food Mandate America seems to have a romance with disease. Here is my National Mandate. Close all fast food chains. Put orange cone road blocks on all Dunkin’ Donuts drive thrus. Ban the sale of Coke and Pepsi. The war was not between those two Colas, it was a war against the human body.  The masks mask the elephant in the room. No human being can make a potent immune system with a diet of processed food and sugar. This promiscuous virus seems to have a field day with the the obese and the immune compromised.  The national and world wide addiction to sugar presents a feeding frenzy for a virus which, like all viruses, feed on sugar. Where are the scientists and leaders who can guide the populations of the world to actually combat the virus by starving it and also by strengthening its targets? We are told to behave like boxers in a corner with our gloves up to our face as we

Humans May Have Passed the ‘Point of No Return’ in Climate A Convergence of Calamities Record numbers of war-displaced to be dwarfed by those driven from their homes by climate change. I saw them for only a few seconds. One glimpse and they were gone. The young woman wore a brown headwrap, a yellow short-sleeved shirt, and a long pink, red, and blue floral-patterned skirt. She held the reins of the donkey pulling her rust-pink cart. Across her lap lay an infant. Perched beside her at the edge of the metal wagon was a young girl who couldn’t have been more than eight. Some firewood, rugs, woven mats, rolled-up clothing or sheets, a dark green plastic tub, and an oversized plastic jerry can were lashed to the bed of the cart. Three goats tied to the rear of it ambled along behind. They found themselves, as I did, on a hot, dusty road slowly being choked by families who had hastily hitched up their donkeys and piled whatever they could — kindling, sleeping mats, cooking pots — into sun-bleached carts or bush taxis. And they were the lucky ones. Many had simply set out on foot. Young boys tended small herds of recalcitrant goats. Women toted dazed toddlers.  In the rare shade of a roadside tree, a family had stopped and a middle-aged man hung his head, holding it in one hand. By Nick Turse

Crisis, Says Study—But That Doesn’t Mean All Hope Is Lost

In order to roll back catastrophic carbon emissions, humans must “start developing the technologies for large-scale removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere,” says one of the study’s lead authors. By Brett Wilkins

An Earth System Model Shows Self-Sustained Melting of Permafrost Even If All Man-Made GHG Emissions Stop in 2020 The risk of points-of-no-return, which, once surpassed lock the world into new dynamics, have been discussed for decades. Recently, there have been warnings that some of these tipping points are coming closer and are too dangerous to be disregarded. In this paper we report that in the ESCIMO climate model the world is already past a point-of-no-return for global warming. In ESCIMO we observe self-sustained melting of the permafrost for hundreds of years, even if global society stops all emissions of man-made GHGs immediately. We encourage other model builders to explore our discovery in their (bigger) models, and report on their findings. The melting (in ESCIMO) is the result of a continuing self-sustained rise in the global temperature. This warming is the combined effect of three physical processes: (1) declining surface albedo (driven by melting of the Arctic ice cover), (2) increasing amounts of water vapour in the atmosphere (driven by higher temperatures), and (3) changes in the concentrations of the GHG in the atmosphere (driven by the absorption of CO2 in biomass and oceans, and emission of carbon (CH4 and CO2) from melting permafrost). This self-sustained, in the sense of no further GHG emissions, melting process (in ESCIMO) is a causally determined, physical process that evolves over time. It starts with the man-made warming up to the 1950s, leading to a rise in the amount of water vapour in the atmosphere—further lifting the temperature, causing increasing release of carbon from melting permafrost, and simultaneously a decline in the surface albedo as the ice and snow covers melts. To stop the self-sustained warming in ESCIMO, enormous amounts of CO2 have to be extracted from the atmosphere. By. Jorgen Randers

 

The Problem of Capitalist Politics, Nukes and Climate Change Edition With Donald Trump soon to be exiled from the White House, four years of speculation about the precise degree of departure from the normal course of American imperial management is about to be put to the test. Any path forward will be a consequence of the trends, processes and trajectories that were set in motion at the end of WWII. These were given new meaning by the capitalist revolution (neoliberalism) of the 1970s. Two years ago various United Nations environmental committees began to issue warnings that unless dramatic changes are made, the planet will soon be uninhabitable. The question: will it be political leaders or capital that stands in the way? By Rob Urie

The Fed Says It’s Considering a Central Clearing Facility for the Treasury Market The Vice Chairman for Supervision at the Federal Reserve, Randal Quarles, dropped a bombshell during the House Financial Services Committee hearing held yesterday, but because mainstream media ignores these hearings unless they have something to do with Donald Trump, this critical news went unreported.Congressman Bill Foster of Illinois addressed Quarles with this statement: “The Treasury market is the most liquid fixed income market in the world. It serves as a critical benchmark for other bond markets that are essential. It allows the U.S. Dollar to operate as the world’s dominant reserve currency. That is why it is crucial that these financial pipes continue to function well, especially as we continue to fight COVID-19 and we work to provide fiscal relief to millions of struggling families and small businesses. “When the Fed has to step in to support the market for Treasury bonds, I view it as the financial equivalent of our military going to DEFCON 2. ….” By Pam Martens and Russ Martens

One-Time Stimulus Checks Aren’t Good Enough. We Need Universal Basic  Income. A universal basic income could restore a sense of safety that the pandemic has destroyed. “We set up a tent in the woods,” Bonnie said. “My husband will get money for us to eat.” We sat outside, sharing coffee and I asked how they became homeless. She begged at the off-ramp, held a cardboard sign and occasionally plucked a dollar dangled from a car window.

In New York City, the poor increasingly camp on sidewalks or in parks. In the nation at large, millions are at risk of eviction. The CARES Act, the first stimulus package during the pandemic, prevented masses of people from losing their homes and falling into poverty. It was emergency stopgap legislation whose effects have worn off. Another stimulus bill will not be enough. By Nicholas Powers

Welcome to Trump’s Last Act, the Most Dangerous Show on Earth Trump has two months to rage against his humiliation, and deadly weapons at his disposal.Now that the Trump administration has an expiration date, some have argued that Trump’s refusal to concede and his retaliatory governance will be of no consequence. But Trump is a showman rebelling against a narrative of loss and humiliation. Kelly Hayes talks about what’s at stake and why downplaying the risks we face is irresponsible.  By Kelly Hayes

Report Finds Over 100 Rebellions in Jails and Prisons Over COVID Conditions Demands for baseline safety measures by incarcerated people have been met with brutal repression and punishment. U.S jails and prisons, already death traps, have been completely ravaged by COVID-19. Crowded quarters, a lack of PPE, inadequate medical care, an aging population, and unsanitary conditions have contributed to an infection rate 5.5 times higher than the already ballooned average in the U.S. As of this writing, over 252,000 people in jails and prisons have been infected and at least 1,450 incarcerated people and officers have died from the novel coronavirus. Evidence suggests these figures are underreported, however. (The entire state of Wisconsin, for example, isn’t releasing any information to the public.) By Ella Fassler