Daily News Digest June 10, 2022
Humanity Will Not be Covid Free, Until the Vaccines, Like the Salk Polio Vaccine, are Free For the Whole World!
Images of the Day:
Bendib: Public Privates
Another Example Capitalism as a Failed System: World Capilalism Ws 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”, is Still True for Today’s World!
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!
Videos of the Day:
Quotes of the Day:
Weapons companies don’t mind. Their stocks are soaring. U.S. weapons exports exceed those of the next five leading weapons-dealing countries. The top seven countries account for 84% of weapons exports. Second place in international weapons dealing, held by Russia for the previous seven years, was taken over in 2021 by France. The only overlap between significant weapons dealing and where wars are present is in Ukraine and Russia — two countries impacted by a war widely recognized as outside the norm and meriting serious media coverage of the victims. In most years no nations with wars present are weapons dealers. Some nations get wars, others profit from wars. — U.S. Military Spending Is Undebatable Because Indefensible
. . . In this, Mr. Kissinger is on the same page as Mr. Guaino. “To make concessions to Russia would be submitting to aggression,” Mr. Guaino warned. “To make none would be submitting to insanity.” The United States is making no concessions. That would be to lose face. There’s an election coming. So the administration is closing off avenues of negotiation and working to intensify the war. We’re in it to win it. With time, the huge import of deadly weaponry, including that from the newly authorized $40 billion allocation, could take the war to a different level. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine warned in an address to students this month that the bloodiest days of the war were coming. — War in Ukraine May Be Impossible to Stop. And the U.S. Deserves Much of the Blame.
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 th poor and gives to the Rich. Taxthe Rich! — They Can Afford to Pay!
Weapons companies don’t mind. Their stocks are soaring. U.S. weapons exports exceed those of the next five leading weapons-dealing countries. The top seven countries account for 84% of weapons exports. Second place in international weapons dealing, held by Russia for the previous seven years, was taken over in 2021 by France. The only overlap between significant weapons dealing and where wars are present is in Ukraine and Russia — two countries impacted by a war widely recognized as outside the norm and meriting serious media coverage of the victims. In most years no nations with wars present are weapons dealers. Some nations get wars, others profit from wars. — U.S. Military Spending Is Undebatable Because Indefensible
Barry Sheppard Biden’s War Strategy in Ukraine — Russia’s Defeat, Rejection of a Negotiated Settlement The June 4 New York Times prom-inently printed a long opinion piece by Christopher Caldwell titled “U.S. Helps Prolong Ukraine War”. While not an editorial, it was printed in the space editorials appear when they are written. Caldwell is a neoconservative who opposes the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He is identified by the Times as “a contributing Opinion writer”. In the article, Caldwell says, “But the United States has helped turn this tragic, local and ambiguous conflict into a potential world conflagration.” He refers to an article written in the French daily Le Figaro by Henri Guaino, an advisor for past French president Nicolas Sarkozy: “Mr. Guaino argues by misunderstanding the war’s logic the West, led by the Biden administration, is giving the conflict a momentum that may be impossible to stop. He is right. “In 2014 the United States backed an uprising — in its final stages a violent uprising — against the legitimately elected government of Viktor Yanukovych …”
The War in Ukraine May Be Impossible to Stop. And the U.S. Deserves Much of the Blame. In the Paris daily newspaper Le Figaro this month, Henri Guaino, a top adviser to Nicolas Sarkozy when he was president of France, warned that Europe’s countries, under the shortsighted leadership of the United States, were “sleep-walking” into war with Russia. Mr. Guaino was borrowing a metaphor that the historian Christopher Clark used to describe the origins of World War I. Naturally, Mr. Guaino understands that Russia is most directly to blame for the present conflict in Ukraine. It was Russia that massed its troops on the frontier last fall and winter and — having demanded from NATO a number of Ukraine —related security guarantees that NATO rejected — began the shelling and killing on Feb. 24. But the United States has helped turn this tragic, local and ambiguous conflict into a potential world conflagration. By misunderstanding the war’s logic, Mr. Guaino argues, the West, led by the Biden adminis-tration, is giving the conflict a momentum that may be impossible to stop. He is right. In 2014 the United States backed an uprising — in its final stages a violent uprising — against the legitimately elected Ukrainian government of Viktor Yanukovych, which was pro-Russian. (The corruption of Mr. Yanukovych’s government has been much adduced by the rebellion’s defenders, but corruption is a perennial Ukrainian problem, even today.) Russia, in turn, annexed Crimea, a historically Russian-speaking part of Ukraine that since the 18th century had been home to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
CIA Torture:The NYT Acknowledges the CIA’s Big Lie for Gina Haspel The New York Times has finally acknowledged Gina Haspel’s direct involvement in the Central Intelligence Agency’s policy of torture and abuse. On June 4, 2022, an article provided details of Haspel’s role as chief of the CIA base twenty years ago that was known for conducting the most sadistic acts of torture and abuse. At her confirmation hearings to become CIA director in 2018, Haspel refused to answer any direct questions about her role in the policy of torture and abuse, which included the waterboarding of a Saudi prisoner, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. The CIA stopped me from writing about Haspel’s role in my 2018 memoir, “Whistleblower at the CIA.”
Environment —Ecosocialism or Ecocied!:
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Black Agenda Report June 8. 2022
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist U.S. Effort to Hurt Russia Undermines Itself and the World The U.S. drive to dominate creates self-inflicted wounds and self-imposed crises. It also creates suffering around the world with only the most servile vassal states willing to do what Washington… More Storiea
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Rejecting War Is Not Enough: Racism Curdles Peace War and racism have always been violently, tragically inseparable. For centuries, the most devastating and brutal conflicts in the world have been driven by destructive notions of racial superiority and murderous assertions of ethnic differences.
Police Have No Duty to Protect the Public (Just PrzThough often unsaid in police reform debates, numerous court precedents have established that cops aren’t obligated to act in the interests of citizens. A passenger looks out at the 36th Street subway station on April 13, 2022, where a shooting attack occurred the previous day. Supreme Court precedent holds that American police have no legal obligation to protect the public.
The Uvalde Police Sent an Important Message to the Nation We’re not going to save you or your children! Our hearts have been pierced over and over by the horrific events that occurred at the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Especially heart wrenching were the phone call cries, “send the police,” from that 10-year-old girl trapped in the room with the murderer and surrounded by the dead and dying bodies of her classmates. She made three 911 calls. See Breaking Points at about 7:30 mins. Apparently, she or another student, was told on a call to yell out, “We need help” perhaps with the idea that some of the nineteen heavily armed police just outside the door might hear and come to the rescue. Too bad for her, the only one who came to her was the shooter who promptly killed her.
Victims of Forced Sterilization in California Are Fighting for Reparations Gaining justice for survivors of the state’s abuse is not only a reproductive health issue, it’s a racial justice issue. In the mid-2000s, Moonlight Pulido experienced a bout of hot flashes, emotional ups-and-downs, and other symptoms of menopause that confused her — after all, she was in her 30s and far too young to be experiencing these kinds of hormonal changes.
Labor:
Unison Conference: The Battle Lines are Drawn Next week’s Unison conference will be an arena for the struggle between a right-wing bureaucracy attempting to maintain their stifling control, and an ascendant grassroots left seeking to transform the union. The left must seize the moment. This year’s Unison national delegate conference represents the culmination of eighteen tumultuous months in our union. From the onset of the election campaign for the general secretary position, right up until today, there has barely been a week without some degree of controversy.
Paul Holmes’ general secretary campaign and the subsequent victory of the Time for Real Change (TFRC) candidates in the NEC elections were a real earthquake, with implications far beyond Unison. The right wing in the union have tried to explain all this as being down to the intrigues of a left faction. But the truth is that the rise of the left in Unison reflects years, if not decades, of discontent with the status quo in Unison.
To Win Social Justice, We Must Win the Class War Book Review: Class Struggle Unionism (2022), by Joe Burns (Haymarket) In Class Struggle Unionism Joe Burns builds on his previous book, Reviving the Strike: How Working People Can Regain Power and Transform America (2011). As before, Burns grounds his argument in the class war, a battle-to-the-death between the employer class and the working class over who controls the wealth that workers create.
Economy:
The decline of the West is not necessary or historically inevitable. It is the result of choosing policies dictated by its rentier interests. … The threat posed to society by rentier interests is the great challenge of every nation today: whether its government can restrict the dynamics of finance capitalism and prevent an oligarchy from dominating the state and enriching itself by imposing austerity on labor and industry. So far, the West has not risen to this challenge.” “There are essentially two types of society: mixed economies with public checks and balances, and oligarchies that dismantle and privatize the state, taking over its monetary and credit system, the land and basic infrastructure to enrich themselves but choking the economy, not helping it grow. — Michael Hudson, The Destiny of Civilization
FRED Overnight Bank Funding Rate is 0.82%
As Tech Startups and Blank-Check Companies Blow Up in Investors’ Portfolios, SEC Chief Gensler Gives Yet Another Speech On September 14 of last year, we wrote this about SEC Chair Gary Gensler: “Gensler’s opening remarks at today’s Senate Banking Committee hearing include seven references to this phrase: ‘asked staff for recommendations…’ If past is prologue, this will mean that Gensler will run out the clock on actually advancing any meaningful ‘recommendations’ into concrete final rules.” Yesterday, Gensler gave a heavily promoted speech about cleaning up the way that retail stock orders are handled on Wall Street. But all the speech actually did was to ask his staff for more ideas and recommendations. The phrase “asked staff” appears 13 times in the speech. While Gensler spends his time giving speeches and asking his staff for recommendations that don’t go anywhere, large chunks of U.S. markets are blowing up in investor portfolios.
World:
Latin American Nations Skip Summit of Americas for Excluding Cuba and Venezuela Leaders from Mexico, Bolivia, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador are absent from Biden’s Summit of the Americas in LA. Top leaders from Mexico, Bolivia, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador are all absent from the ninth Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced he would boycott the conference after the U.S. said it would not invite Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. We speak with historian Alejandro Velasco and Roberto Lovato, award-winning Salvadoran American journalist and author, who calls the conference ”a failure of hemispheric proportions and a global embarrassment for the United States and for the Biden administration.” Lovato calls the Biden administration’s condemnation of some countries as anti-democratic hypocritical and says the absence of so many Latin American Countries Represents A Decline in U.S. Hegemony.
Mapping U.S. imperialism “The greatest threat looming over our planet, the hegemonistic pretentions of the American Empire are placing at risk the very survival of the human species. We continue to warn you about this danger, and we appeal to the people of the United States and the world to halt this threat, which is like a sword hanging over our heads.” — Hugo Chavez, US imperialism is the greatest threat to life on the planet, a force of ecological devastation and disaster impacting not only human beings, but also our non-human relatives. How can we organize to dismantle the vast and complicated network of US imperialism which includes US war and militarism, CIA intervention, US weap-ons/technology/surveillance corporations, political and economic support for dictatorships, military juntas, death squads and US trained global police forces favorable to US geopolitical interests, US imposed sanctions, so-called “humanitarian interventions,” genetically modified grassroots organizations, corporate media’s manipulation of spontaneous protest, and US corporate sponsorship of political repression and regime change favorable to US corporate interests?
Education, Health, 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 Heslthcare!
Corruption and Regulatory Capture Another day, our attention focuses on the problem arising due to the lack of infant formula and the trouble it poses for new new-born infants, including deaths. And we ask, how do “they” get away with it? These are but two examples of the social crises that seem to arise every day and appear to come out of nowhere. And, after a day or so of media attention, it seems to disappear, superseded by yet another headline grabbing crisis. Other crises have come and gone, like pharmaceutical industry’s role in widespread opioid addiction or airline crashes. Part of the reason we have these crisis – and so many others – is regulator capture. As Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) declared, “Regulatory capture is a big deal.”