Daily News Digest February 19, 2021

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!

Image  of the Day:

Cartoon by Drew Sheneman

Quotes 0f the Day:

Deacons for Defense Quotes Ossie Davis as Rev. Gregory (Ossie Davis) “I have been living in fear of the Klan all my life. Was bred in me as a child, and it made me less than a man. But all of that has changed because of you. You freed me, son. You woke up something in me, so don’t you stop. Don’t you dare stop. And tomorrow, I’m gonna be marching with you, and I’m gonna march every day to change what’s happening down here. And there ain’t gonna be no change in leadership. Ain’t gonna be no steppin’ down. Marcus is still in charge.”

Videos of the Day:

Failed State: Texas Power Grid Collapse Impacts Millions. Black & Brown Communities Are Worst Hit

“Not Doing This Is a Choice”: Biden Drags His Feet on Canceling Student Debt Despite Campaign Pledge

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

Texas Mayor Who Told Residents to “Sink or Swim” During Winter Crisis Resigns A mayor of a western Texas city resigned from his position on Tuesday after posting disturbing and insensitive remarks on a Facebook group, telling residents they should fend for themselves amid rolling energy blackouts in the area while temperatures were well below freezing. Tim Boyd, who earlier this week was the mayor of Colorado City, Texas, a city with a population of around 4,000 residents, had posted a response in the group to questions from individuals in his jurisdiction (as well as throughout Mitchell County, Texas) over where they could go to warm up if their power was knocked out, or where they could get drinkable water if their pipes failed to work. Instead of offering solutions, Boyd expressed outrage over people’s questions on what to do. By Chris Walker

‘Blood Is on Abbott’s Hands’: Anger at GOP Leaders Surges as Food, Water Shortages Compound Texas Power Crisis” Abbott has failed and passed off blame to somebody else. Texas is in dire straits. Texans are dying. Homes are being destroyed, people are cold and hungry, and we have no idea when things will begin to return to

Environment:

Big Oil Spent $10 million Lobbying California Officials in 2020 The powerful oil industry lobby in California in 2020 spent less on lobbying in California than it did in 2019, but still managed to defeat legislation it opposed and getting CalGEM, the state’s gas and oil regulatory agency, to double the number of new oil production well permits approved in the state. The top four oil industry lobbyist employers — the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), Chevron, Aera Energy and California Resources Corporation — spent $10,192,047 lobbying the Governor’s Office, Legislature and regulatory agencies to advance Big Oil’s agenda in 2020, according to data posted on the California Secretary of State’s website by February 1. By Dan Bacher

You Cannot Change the Heat and Soul of A Capitalist — But Can Make Him Wish He Had!: Making America’s Rivers Blue Again: Connecting the Dots Between Regenerative Agriculture and Healthy Waterways Building a regenerative food system where bees buzz, dragonflies hover, and fish and frogs thrive will begin when we change the necessary hearts and minds across this nation. By John W. RoulacGlobal Ice Melt: Much Faster Than Predicted Glaciers are disappearing up to twice as fast as previous studies estimated, with disastrous effects on many communities Two new studies suggest that recent estimates of global ice melt are conservative. In other words, ice is melting much more rapidly than experts thought. As a result, sea levels are rising faster as well. The first study combines various observations from satellites, on-the-ground measurements, and model-based estimates to create a clearer picture of the state of Earth’s ice between 1994 and 2017. Essentially, it captures a global tally of change in ice mass over that time period. The resulting measurements of ice loss and sea level rise fall in the upper range of scenarios forecast by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a body within the United Nations meant to provide objective science related to climate change. The IPCC’s scenarios were laid out in their 2019 special report on oceans and the cryosphere, itself a recent overview of assessment work. by Evan Lim

Civil Rights/Black Liberation:

The Day the Music Died: Malcolm X’s Assassination, Feb. 21, 1965 by Roland Sheppard (First Published by the San Francisco Bayview )In the afternoon of Feb. 21, 1965, I went to the Audubon Ballroom to hear Malcolm X speak. I also went to sell the newspaper, The Militant, a radical newspaper that printed the truth about Malcolm X, published his speeches and publicly defended him.   When I got to the ballroom, things were radically different – there were no cops. Normally, Malcolm’s meetings in Harlem were crawling with cops. As I was selling papers, Malcolm X approached the Audubon Ballroom. I offered to sell him the latest issue, but he told me, “Not today, Roland. I am alone and in a hurry.”     A while later as I entered the meeting room, again I did not see any cops. I went in to sit down where I normally sat along with the rest of the press in the front and the left side of the room. On the way to my seat, Gene Roberts, who later surfaced as a police agent member of the Black Panther Party, told me that I could not sit at my regular place but that on that day I had to sit in the front row on the right side of the hall, facing the stage.Jemima Pierre: Haiti: Black Despots and White Rulers The horror story in Haiti since 2004 is not really about despotic Black government, but is the consequence and crime of global white rule.

Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist: Freedom Rider: Impeachment Theater Democracy is hanging on by a thread — not due to marauding Trumpsters – but because of bipartisan support for neoliberal policies.

Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor: Hollywood is big, mostly white, capitalist business, so it’s no surprise that its new film on Fred Hampton provides little information on Black Panther politics and history

Editors, The Black Agenda Review: MANIFESTO: Ten Commandments of Democracy in Haiti, September 25, 1991 Almost 20 years ago, the president elected by Haiti’s poor majority gave the United Nations a lesson in the meaning of democracy for historically oppressed people

Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence: What did low Barr know? Liars, liars your loaded dice/tilted table theater’s on fire— But prosecutors and gas-lighting lawyers concur on  Empire…

Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor: Kizito Mihigo and the Struggle for Rwandan Truth and Reconciliation Rwandans around the world celebrate the life of the nation’s most popular singer, apparently killed for opposing Paul Kagame’s ethnic and military dictatorship, writes Ann Garrison

Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies: Is Biden Committing Diplomatic Suicide Over the Iran Nuclear Agreement?
Biden is taking the position that the US will not rejoin the agreement or drop its unilateral sanctions until Iran first comes back into compliance.

Margaret Flowers: Urgent Solidarity With Haiti Is Needed “President” Jovenel Moïse has dismantled the democratic institutions of the state and rules unilaterally with the support of the police, military and western allies.

Black Alliance For Peace: For Biden Administration, Black Lives Don’t Matter in Haiti!—A BAP Statement on Haiti The new US administration has already shown its support for paramilitary terror and political suppression in Haiti.

Sundiata Acoli: Black Liberation in Context: Political Prisoner Speaks on Torture at 2005 Human Rights Conference
Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army political/prisoner of war Sundiata Acoli told human rights activists “torture is nothing new” in U.S.

Deirdre Cooper Owens: Medical Racism Has Shaped U.S. Policies for Centuries A Black medical truth-teller traces the link between a 1793 yellow fever epidemic and today’s coronavirus racial disparities.

Duana Fullwiley: DNA and Our Twenty-First-Century Ancestors
Home DNA ancestry kits include no ancestors, instead comparing customers to other present-day people based on assumptions about race and ethnicity.

Labor:

Demanding ‘Dignified Work and a Living Wage’ as Legal Rights, Ayanna Pressley Unveils Jobs Guarantee Resolution “It’s time to establish a legal right to a job for all people in America.” By Jake Johnson

Economy:

GameStop Hearing: Citadel’s Ken Griffin Doesn’t Let the Brutal Facts Get in the Way of His Testimony The billionaire hedge fund titan of Citadel LLC and its market-making/trade execution arm, Citadel Securities, delivered a load of horse pukky in his written testimony to the House Financial Services Committee. Griffin is slated to appear as one of six witnesses at the hearing scheduled at noon today to examine the trading in shares of GameStop in January.GameStop is the brick-and-mortar video game retailer whose stock soared from $18.84 on December 31 of last year to an intraday high of $483 on January 28 – an unprecedented run of 2,465 percent in four weeks by a struggling retail outlet. The stock price then quickly plunged back to earth. It closed yesterday at $45.94. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens

World:

Canada: More Than 1,150 at Groundbreaking Montreal Marxist School! The 2021 Montreal Marxist Winter School was truly an unprecedented event. More than 1,150 people registered to participate in the school, which had ten presentations over three days, making this by far the largest Canadian Marxist meeting in recent memory. With big class battles on the horizon, the forces of Marxism are growing in preparation.

Britain: biggest-ever Marxist Student Federation Conference – Join the Revolution! The MSF recently held its largest ever national conference, with hundreds of young people from schools and universities across the country taking part. There has never been a better time to get involved and join the revolution!

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 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 

Rising Inequality: the ‘Pre-Existing Condition’ That Doomed the U.S. COVID Response Back in April 2017, only a few months after Donald Trump’s inauguration, one of world’s most prestigious medical journals, the London-based Lancet, established a special commission to keep tabs on “Public Policy and Health in the Trump Era.” The panel’s 33 commissioners — medical professionals of all sorts, along with assorted notables in legal and economic circles — have just delivered their final report, and media outlets worldwide are taking notice. They’re headlining the commission’s most stunning stat: that some 200,000 fewer Americans would have diedfrom the coronavirus if the United States had treated Covid with the same level of public health competence that its peer developed nations have demonstrated. By Sam PizzigatiWhy Politicians and Doctors Keep Ignoring the Medical Research on Vitamin D and Covid It is probably not a good idea to write while in the grip of anger. But I am struggling to suppress my emotions about a wasted year, during which politicians and many doctors have ignored a growing body of evidence suggesting that Vitamin D can play a critically important role in the prevention and treatment of Covid-19.  It is time to speak out forcefully now that a new, large-scale Spanish study demonstrates not a just a correlation but a causal relationship between high-dose Vitamin D treatment of hospitalised Covid patients and significantly improved outcomes for their health. The pre-print paper in the Lancet shows there was an 80 per cent reduction in admission to intensive care units among hospitalised patients who were treated with large doses of Vitamin D, and a 64 per cent reduction in death. By Jonathan Cook