Daily News Digest July 5, 2021

Daily News Digest Archives

Images Of the Day:

The Recent Supreme Court’s Voting Rights Decision Clearly Makes Juneteenth Holiday a Symbolic VictoryAnother Example of Capitalism as a Failed System: World Capilalism Was Aware of the Danger of Cornovavirus Threat Over 5 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!

Quotes of the Day:

The bipartisan infrastructure framework announced last week by President Joe Biden and centrist lawmakers, Gupta explained, “promotes privatization schemes dressed up as ‘public-private partnerships’ and ‘asset recycling,’ which create dangerous, avoidable problems and ignore people’s needs.”     “Water privatization has failed communities across the country and must be rejected in all its forms,” Gupta continued.      “We need an infrastructure plan that directly invests federal dollars in communities, keeps water systems in public hands, and equitably addresses our nation’s infrastructure crisis for the long haul—not more corporate handouts.”     As Food & Water Watch Public Water for All director Mary Grant put it: “This White House-approved infrastructure deal would lead to communities handing over public infrastructure to Wall Street profiteers.” — 200+ Groups to Congress: ‘No Water Privatization’ in Any Infrastructure Deal

Videos of the Day:

Brookings Cafeteria Podcast: Dirty Money In Offshore Banks

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 ownershipof the Reublicrats, who profit from war and the war budget, voted 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.  Tax the Rich!  — They Can Afford To Pay!

The Definition of Democracy is majority rule, the constitution was written to prevent majority rule. The United States has never been a Democracy!      As Noam Chomsky stated in his interview on American History and Democracy:    “. . . If you go back to the record of the Constitutional Convention, which took place in 1787, almost immediately after the end of the war, you see that they are already moving in another direction. James Madison — who was the main framer, and one of the Founding Fathers who was most libertarian — makes it very clear that the new constitutional system must be designed so as to ensure that the government will, in his words, “protect the minority of the opulent against the majority” and bar the way to anything like agrarian reform.      The determination was made that America could not allow functioning democracy, since people would use their political power to attack the wealth of the minority of the opulent. Therefore, Madison argues, the country should be placed in the hands of the wealthier set of men, as he put it. . . .”    To this day, we have a government and state apparatus that is designed to “protect the minority of the opulent against the majority” — there is no Democracy! It has been endemic to this society to expand westward which included the genocide of the Native Americans. — My Forefathers and The 1%’s Forefathers

Supreme Court Drives a Stake Through the Heart of the Voting Rights Act The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold two Arizona voter suppression laws sends a dangerous signal to other states. Divided strictly along ideological lines, the Supreme Court construed what was left of the historic Voting Rights Act (VRA) to uphold two Arizona voter suppression laws that civil rights organizations had challenged for disproportionately burdening voters of color. This decision sends a dangerous signal to states that the courts are likely to uphold their voter suppression laws that make it harder for people of color to vote.By Marjorie Cohn (Marjorie Cohn is professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, former president of the National Lawyers Guild, and a member of the bureau of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers and the advisory board of Veterans for Peace.)

Poll Finds Majority of Americans Worry More About Access to Voting Than Fraud Two-thirds of Americans, according to the poll, also worry that democracy in America is under threat. Two-thirds of Americans, according to the poll, also worry that democracy in America is under threat.  Anew poll suggests that most voters in the U.S. think democracy is under threat, with a majority also stating that they are more concerned about making voting easier than rooting out supposed fraud in elections.  By  Chris Walker

The Federalist Supreme Court Ruling Delivers ‘Dark, Dark Day for Democracy’ “We are now on a clear path to enshrining a constitutional right to anonymous spending in our democracy, and securing an upper hand for dark-money influence in perpetuity.” By Brett WilkinsJulian Assange’s Father and Brother on the Public and Personal Urgency of His Case on Julian Assange’s Father and Brother on the Public and Personal Urgency of His Case.    On this week’s “Scheer Intelligence,” John and Gabriel Shipton speak to Robert Scheer about the WikiLeaks founder’s grueling struggle to be freed from a London prison as the Biden administration demands his extradition. The saga of Julian Assange’s persecution has been defined by leading human rights organizations as one of the most significant threats to press freedom in our time.      The WikiLeaks founder published, among other devastating leaks, the “Collateral Damage” video obtained by Chelsea Manning that revealed war crimes being committed in Iraq by U.S. soldiers.      As U.S. authorities attempted to extradite Assange for alleged violations of the Espionage Act of 1917, he took refuge for several years in the Ecuadorian Embassy in the U.K. until he was imprisoned in a high-security London facility in 2019.      The WikiLeaks founder has since been kept in appalling conditions there, and although a British judge denied the U.S. extradition request due to concerns for Assange’s health were he to be sent to an American prison, the Biden administration is still appealing the decision.

There Are No ‘Safe Radiation’ Levels! As we continue to learn at such a huge cost, there can never be a “perfectly safe” nuclear reactor, any more than there can be a “perfectly harmless” dose of radiation. “Impossible” accidents continue to happen, one after the other, each of them successively worse. What we fear most about TMI, then Chernobyl and now Fukushima, is not what has happened—but what is yet to come, there, and at the next inevitable reactor disaster. We are a pro-life movement. — There’s No “Safe” Dose of Radiation     Before 1945, cancer mortality was very rare. Large increases in cancer mortality in the past 100 years begin with the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945. A Japanese government map of the major causes of death in Japan from 1899 to 2004 shows that cancer mortality increased rapidly after 1945. With the introduction of each new nuclear technology since 1945 — atmospheric testing, nuclear power plants, depleted uranium — it is obvious that ionizing radiation is a major cause of cancer globally, and uranium is a major radioactive component of nuclear weapons, including depleted uranium weapons systems introduced to the battlefield in 1991 in Gulf War I.  This breast cancer map from Centers for Disease Control data (see below illustration) identifies that within a 100-mile radius of nuclear reactors is where two-thirds of all U.S. breast cancer deaths occurred between 1985 and 1989. The map (see below illustration) of nuclear power plants in the U.S. identifies them as the major cause of breast cancer in the U.S., as well as nuclear weapons labs in New Mexico, Idaho, Washington and California. This is further confirmed by the breast cancer clusters identified in Japan and California, which occurred where it rained the day the Chernobyl radiation cloud passed over and the rain deposited the fission products in the environment. — Leuren Moret     This ‘spike’ in cancer mortality is due to the introduction of manmade nuclear power radiation is proven by below graph.Background Radiation Has Increased 600 Percent – 1 mSv In 1950 To over 6 mSv Today; Where Is This Coming From? Physicist Dr. Paolo Scampa And Dr Busby Weigh In On The Evidence And Root Causes: Background Radiation Has Increased 600 Percent – 1 mSv In 1950 To over 6 mSv Today; Where Is This Coming From? Physicist Dr. Paolo Scampa And Dr Busby Weigh In On The Evidence And Root Causes “Eisenbud points out that the world Inventory of radioactive materials prior to World War II, both in the environment and in the laboratory, was confined to those which occurred in nature, with the exception of a relatively few millicuries of radioactivity produced in cyclotrons during the late 1930’s. Construction of large nuclear reactors during the war and the associated operations for extracting plutonium from irradiated uranium resulted in the first extensive occasions for contaminating the environment with radioactive substances.”     When you are told that a radioactive substance is a small percentage of ‘Natural  Background Radiation,’ remember that, before WWII, ‘Natural Background Radiation’ was close to zero. (See the Graph Below!) Scientists Call Northwest Heatwave the ‘Most Extreme in World Weather Records’ “Never in the century-plus history of world weather observation have so many all-time heat records fallen by such a large margin.” By Jake JohnsonGreenwashing and Sustainable Investment: Why Capitalism Can’t Solve the Climate Crisis Under pressure to address the climate catastrophe, politicians and investors are cynically putting a green spin on their exploitative activities. In truth, capitalism is killing our planet. Only socialist planning can end this destruction.      Addressing the G7 last month, Boris Johnson urged fellow world leaders to unite and “build back better”.     This exhortation marked the launch of the Build Back Better World (B3W) Partnership: a project instigated by the Biden administration, and backed by the G7 governments, to funnel private capital into climate, health, digital technology, and gender equality projects in developing countries.   Politicians and corporations understand that it is politically expedient to be seen to be doing something about burning issues like climate change and social inequality.     In reality, however, projects such as B3W are extremely cynical. Behind the superficial facade of environmental concern, and buzzwords about ‘ethics’ and ‘empowerment’, lie all the same old big business interests and imperialist exploits.  By Helena NicholsonBlack Liberation/Civil Rights:

 Labor:

For the Working Class There has Been Depression Level Unemployment Since the Economic Bubble Burst in 2008!

Since June 2009 Americans have lived in the false reality of a recovering economy.  Various fake news and manipulated statistics have been used to create this false impression.  However, indicators that really count have not supported the false picture and were ignored. For example, it is normal in a recovering or expanding economy for the labor force participation rate to rise as people enter the workforce to take advantage of the job opportunities.  During the decade of the long recovery, from June 2009 through June 2021, the labor force participation rate consistently fell from 65.7 to 61.6percent. —Paul Craig Roberts, The Diminishing American Economy (Updated)

FRED: Labor Force Participation Rate is 61.6Shadow Government Alternate Unemployment Charts.  The seasonally-adjusted SGS Alternate Unemployment Rate reflects current unemployment reporting methodology adjusted for SGS-estimated long-term discouraged workers, who were defined out of official existence in 1994. That estimate is added to the BLS estimate of U-6 unemployment, which includes short-term discouraged workers. The U-3 unemployment rate is the monthly headline number. The U-6 unemployment rate is the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) broadest unemployment measure, including short-term discouraged and other marginally-attached workers as well as those forced to work part-time because they cannot find full-time employment.

June 2021 Shadow Government Statsyics Alternate Unemployment is 25.8%Economy:

Robber Baron Capitalists: For Years Banksters Have Made $Trillions From The ‘War on’ Drugs!

Bankster Money Laundering

Dirty Money: World’s Largest Banks Failing to Stop Money Laundering on Vast Scale

In the 2001 article: War on Drugs Dirty Money Foundation of US Growth and Empire Size and Scope of Money Laundering by US Banks by James Petras, Professor of Sociology, Binghamton University, he explains that 500 Billion to a Trillion dollars gets added to world capitalist economy through “illegal means.”

Dirty Money: World’s Largest Banks Failing to Stop Money Laundering On Vast Scale Massive sums of allegedly dirty money have flowed for years through some of the world’s largest banking institutions, said an international journalism investigation published Sunday, which denounced shortcomings in sector regulations. “Profits from deadly drug wars, fortunes embezzled from developing countries, and hard-earned savings stolen in a Ponzi scheme were all allowed to flow into and out of these financial institutions, despite warnings from the banks’ own employees,” according to the probe from Buzzfeed News and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The investigation, which was led by 108 international media outlets from 88 different countries, is based on thousands of suspicious activity reports (SARs) submitted to the US Treasury Department’s financial law enforcement agency, FinCEN, by banks from around the world. “These documents, compiled by banks, shared with the government, but kept from public view, expose the hollowness of banking safeguards, and the ease with which criminals have exploited them,” wrote US outlet Buzzfeed News, in the introduction of its report. The documents relate to $2 trillion in transactions that circulated between 1999 and 2017. The investigation points in particular to five major banks — JPMorgan Chase, HSBC, Standard Chartered, Deutsche Bank and Bank of New York Mellon — accused of continuing to move assets of alleged criminals, even after being prosecuted or convicted for financial misconduct.

Wall Street Watchdog Assails Fed’s Stress Tests of Mega Banks as “Toothless” – Provides a Wakeup Call to Biden Administration Dennis Kelleher, the co-founder, President and CEO of the nonpartisan Wall Street watchdog, Better Markets, has issued a scathing rebuke of the Federal Reserve’s so-called “stress tests” of the mega banks on Wall Street, calling them “toothless.”     Kelleher’s criticisms revolve around two key points. The Fed is preordaining the outcome of the tests by (1) pumping up the banks’ capital with financial handouts prior to the tests and (2) by removing key aspects of the stress tests that would negatively impact the outcome. Kelleher writes that the Fed’s “unprecedented” support to financial markets and the economy since last March was $4 trillion and “has materially helped to bolster bank balance sheets and capital levels.”      But Kelleher is overlooking the more than $9 trillion in cumulative repo loans that the Fed showered on the trading units of these mega Wall Street banks, at far below market interest rates, from September 17, 2019 through early July of 2020, the month that the Fed simply stopped reporting this handout to the Wall Street banks. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens World:

Biden’s Tax Cut  For the 1%!/World Capitalism!     Oxfam Denounces OECD Global Tax Deal as ‘Skewed-to-the-Rich and Completely Unfair‘ “This deal is instead no more than a G7 money grab. Rich countries are forcing developing countries to choose between a raw deal or no deal.” The humanitarian group Oxfam International warned Thursday that a global tax reform framework pushed by the United States and newly endorsed by 130 countries would let corporate behemoths such as Amazon off the hook and further entrench deep inequities between rich and developing nations. By Jake Johnson

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!