Daily News Digest January 1, 2023
Images of the Day:
The Fed In Bed FDA Corruption and Big Pharma The FDA´s metamorphosis from the consumer protectors to the industry buddys 
Revolving Door Between Environmental Groups and the Industries They Criticise 
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!
Capitalism as a Failed System: World Capitalism Has Been Aware of the Comming Catastrophe of Global Warming Over 5 Decades 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 very future of Humanity Is Now At stake!
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:
What’s worse than deregulation? When the Regulators are in bed with those they ‘regulate’!
Food And Drug Administration: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is a sub-agency within HHS responsible for protecting public health through regulation and monitoring of foods, drugs, vaccines, and medical devices. The FDA has been accused of ignoring its safety experts to approve the use of risky drugs. Most recently, the agency approved a new Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm overruling the concerns raised by its own scientific advisory committee. The drug, which is currently priced at $56,000 a year per patient, showed thin evidence of clinical efficacy in trials. Therefore, the FDA has ignored scientific advice to transfer government and patient funds to a single drug manufacturer. This pro-pharma approval process is likely related to the fact that approximately half of the FDA’s budget for regulating the drug industry comes from fees the industry pays to expedite the drug approval process. — The Industry Agenda: Big Pharma
The reason for modern war is always the competition for markets and the right to exploit nations backward in industry. In Europe, we no longer fight for the honor of kings. Armies are pitted against each other that the revenues of Messrs. Almighty Rothschild, of Schneider, of the Most Worshipful Company of Anzin, or of the most Holy Catholic Bank of Rome may remain unimpaired. Kings are no longer of any account. In fact, all wars in Europe during the last hundred and fifty years were wars fought for industrial advantage and the rights of exploitation. —Peter Kropotkin, Wars an Capitalism
According to the latest figures from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, 458 officers died in the “line of duty” in the US last year, making it the deadliest year in more than 90 years. There’s a big caveat in those numbers. Two-thirds of them 301 died because of Covid-19. — Roaming Charges: Watching the Detectives, the Year in Police Crime
Videos/Podcasts of the Day:
RIP Pelé: Afro-Brazilian Soccer Icon Overcame Racism & Poverty to Be Ambassador for Beautiful Game
More Jails Became Death Traps in 2022 Amid Lack of Mental Healthcare, Housing, Bail Reform Backlash
“Angola Do You Hear Us?” Oscar-Shortlisted Doc on Plantation Prison Takes On Mass Incarceration
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 Republicrats 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!
From Underwhelmed: Some Predictable Silences in the U.S. House Select Committee Report on January 6th : Still, the report is a deeply flawed and fascism-enabling “Weimar” document. It is overfocused on Trump himself, downplaying the broader authoritarian, white-palingenetic-nationalist, Christian fundamentalist, anti-intellectual, patriarchal, and Amerikaner-fascist movement that Trump stood atop – a movement that captured the Republican Party during the Obama administration. Even though leading Select Committee member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) once in a committee hearing described the Capitol rioters as “fascist traitors,” the report he helped compile and oversee fails to properly apply the “F-word,” fascism, to Trump and Trumpism’s clearly fascist effort to overthrow bourgeois democracy and constitutional rule of law.
The Fed In Bed FDA Corruption and Big Pharma The FDA´s metamorphosis from the consumer protectors to the industry buddies.
House Dems Say FDA ‘Inappropriately Collaborated’ With Biogen on New Alzheimer’s Drug “I am hopeful these findings are a wake-up call for FDA to reform its practices and a call to action to my congressional colleagues to continue oversight of the pharmaceutical industry to ensure they don’t put profits over patients,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney. Nearly two years after a leading U.S. consumer advocacy group sounded the alarm on the matter, House Democrats released a report Thursday showing the Food and Drug Administration and pharma giant Biogen “inappropriately collaborated” prior to the controversial approval of a new $28,000-per-year Alzheimer’s drug of questionable efficacy. Originally carrying a $56,000 annual price tag for uninsured patients—which Biogen’s then-CEO called “fair”—aducanumab, sold under the brand name Aduhelm, was approved by the FDA in June 2021. The approval came despite concerns that the drug—a monoclonal antibody treatment for patients with mild cognitive impairment caused by Alzheimer’s—might not work, as well as safety trial data showing that a staggering 4 in 10 participants suffered potentially fatal brain bleeding and swelling after taking it.
DOJ Suit Accuses Major Drug Distributor of Fueling US Opioid Crisis Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal welcomed the “strong action” from the Justice Department “to hold pharma and distributors accountable.” The Biden administration on Thursday filed suit against one of the nation’s largest pharmaceutical distributors, AmerisourceBergen, and two of its subsidiaries for allegedly violating federal law and contributing to the opioid epidemic. Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the complaint accuses AmerisourceBergen of at least hundreds of thousands of violations of the Controlled Substances Act. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is requesting civil penalties and injunctive relief.
Wars and More Wars: The Sorry U.S. History in the Middle East The American republic morphed well over a century ago into an empire of many endless wars. With U.S. troops still in Syria, Iraq, Somalia and numerous African countries, with over 800 military bases in more than 70 countries and a war budget of roughly one trillion dollars a year, it’s no surprise that one of our main exports is weapons and that arms merchants call the shots in Washington. Presidents come and go, but the wars don’t: they drag on. And when a president does manage to extract the country from one of these military quagmires, as Biden did in Afghanistan, he gets nothing but grief.
Book Review: Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace
In his book, Gore Vidal makes a scathing attack upon the bipartisan domestic and foreign policies of the US government. The introduction to this book sets its theme, that the bombings of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995 and the World Trade Center (WTC) in New York City on September 11, were used, respectively, to justify the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1996 and the current “war on terrorism”. Vidal explains that these bombings were in response to the more than 200 acts of war and (ongoing) worldwide military incursions by the US government since 1945, and the concurrent erosion of the Bill of Rights. Vidal refers to Newton’s theory “that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”. Without condoning the attacks, Vidal explains that the bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma, by Timothy McVeigh, was a response to the ongoing attacks on the Bill of Rights, and that the WTC attack, allegedly organized by Osama bin Laden, was a response to US government foreign policy/terrorism. Vidal also explains that wars are declared on nations and not on an indefinable term like “terrorism”. (As an afterthought, Vidal points out that the insurance companies do not have liabilities for an “act of war”, and so the declaration of “war on terrorism” may protect insurance companies from liabilities resulting from acts of terrorism.) (2001)
Environment — Ecosocialism or Ecocide:
Sowing Doubt: How Big Ag is Delaying Sustainable Farming in Europe New analysis sheds light on key industry lobbying tactics at a decisive moment for the future of agriculture. In the spring of 2020, the European Union announced an ambitious plan to overhaul farming practices in fields and valleys across the continent. Named Farm to Fork, it calls for less fertiliser and pesticide use, and more organic production. Veteran sustainable food and farming experts welcomed the strategy as one that just might have a genuine shot at transforming the agriculture sector and result in better public health, contribute to ending the vertiginous decline of biodiversity, and lower greenhouse gas pollution. The response from Europe’s powerful industrial agriculture sector was swift and unequivocal: Farm to Fork will result in disaster. “Lower yields”, “higher food prices”, “unviable incomes for farmers”’ are among the outcomes predicted by an army of Brussels lobbyists, who are employed by the agrochemical industry and its allies in the intensive farming sector. Since 2020, the world’s four largest pesticide companies have spent over 20 million euros on lobbying both EU officials and the public. In that time, they have issued dire warnings on the impacts of Farm to Fork in newspapers, at conferences, and during private meetings.
Biden Administration Drafts New Rules to Protect Streams and Wetlands Federal courts had thrown out Trump-era rule governing the Clean Water Act lifting regulations imposed by the Obama administration The Biden administration on Friday finalized regulations to protect hundreds of thousands of streams, wetlands, and other waterways, repealing a Trump-era rule federal courts threw out and environmentalists said left waterways vulnerable to pollution.
Civil Rights Black Liberation:
Colorado: EPA Investigates If Pollution Unfairly Harms Hispanic Residents The agency is evaluating if the state is properly scrutinizing polluters and assessing if minority communities face harm The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is investigating whether industrial pollution in Colorado disproportionately affects Hispanic and other minority communities. According to federal officials, the investigation centers on state oversight of its most prolific polluters.
Labor:
Since the 2008 Crash, Ther has been s Recovery for the 1%, But Not for the 99%!:
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 December 2022, the labor force participation rate consistently fell from 65.7 to 62.1percent. —Paul Craig Roberts, The Diminishing American Economy (Updated)
Labor Force Participation Rate is 62.1!% 
Shadow Governmeent Statistics Alternet Unemployment Charts 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.
Nov 2022 ShadowStats Alternate Unemployment eased to 24.4% from 24.5% on top of U.6 declining to 6.7% from 6.8%
Economy:
Michael Roberts: Forecast 2023: The Impending Slump At the end of every year, I attempt to make a forecast on what will happen in the world economy in the next year. Of course, forecasts are wrapped in error, given the many variables involved that drive economies. Weather forecasts are still difficult to make and here meteorologists are dealing with physical events and not (at least directly) with human actions. Nevertheless, weather forecasts up to three days ahead are now pretty accurate. And longer-term climate change forecasts have been broadly borne out over the last few decades. So if we consider that economics is a science (albeit a social science), and I do, then making predictions is part of testing theories and evidence in economics too. How did the predictions I made last year for 2022 work out? In 2022, the world economy was expected to grow around 3.5-4.0% in real terms – a significant slowing compared to 2021 (down 25% on that rate). Actually, 2022 looks like being worse than that consensus forecast, at just 3.2%. The advanced capitalist economies were expected to grow at less than 4% in 2022 – it now looks as though these economies will only manage 2.4%. The so-called emerging economies were expected to achieve an average 4% rise in 2022 – again a touch too optimistic with the likely result being 3.7%. So the major economies did much worse than in 2021 – and worse than the consensus forecasts. Indeed, the drop in growth in 2022 compared to 2021, was one of the deepest on record.
World:
Undisguised Fascists Hold Balance of Power in New Israeli Annexationist Regime Agreement on a new Israeli government — a coalition of extreme rightwingers, religious bigots, and outright fascists – was announced on Dec. 21. Binyamin Netanyahu will return once again as prime minister. Two open fascists, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Belazel Smotrich, will hold key posts dealing with the West Bank and the occupied Palestinian population, and indeed, hold the balance of power in the new ruling cabinet. A document issued by Netanyahu on Dec. 28 states that the new government’s first priority is to “advance and develop a settlement in all parts of Israel — in the Galilee, the Negev Desert, the Golan Heights, and Judea and Samaria [West Bank].” The Galilee and Negev are heavily Palestinian areas inside the 1948 borders of the Israeli state. The illegally annexed Golan Heights are Syrian territory conquered in the 1967 war that also brought the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza under Israeli control. Without a doubt, a key aim of the new government’s policy is to increase pressure on the Palestinian population everywhere inside historic Palestine to abandon their homeland. Netanyahu announced his intention to annex the West Bank “while choosing the timing and considering the national and international interests of the state of Israel.” The “international interests” here refer to Israel’s indispensable armer, funder and protector, the United States, which fears that outright annexation could lead to new upheavals and instability in the region. In recognition of this factor, the Israeli government is clearly going forward with an accelerated program of de facto annexation while holding back on an official announcement. 
‘Execution of the Palestinian People: Netanyahu Vows Massive Israeli Squatting on Palestinian Land An exclusive Jewish right to settle and live in the land implicitly announces that the 6.5 million Palestinians who live on it may have no right to be there at all.
The Roots and Results of the Parliamentary Coup and the People’s Uprising in Peru A member of the Socialist Workers Current, our sister group in Peru, explains the historical context of the crisis in Peru and the way forward for the working class and oppressed. The Roots and Results of the Parliamentary Coup and the People’s Uprising in Peru. A member of the Socialist Workers Current, our sister group in Peru, explains the historical context of the crisis in Peru and the way forward for the working class and oppressed. Massive protests are developing in response to the parliamentary coup that removed Pedro Castillo from the presidency of Peru and allowed the rise of Dina Boluarte. This mass uprising, which is especially dynamic in poor and working-class neighborhoods, fundamentally challenges Boluarte’s presidency and the actions of parliament, as well as the judiciary and the media. It is the largest and deepest process of protests and crises in years. At the time of this article’s publication, Boluarte has ordered a state of emergency enforced through brutal police and military repression, especially in the areas of greatest resistance to the coup regime. Already the militarization has killed 28 protesters and wounded hundreds, mostly by direct fire from members of the repressive forces.
Health 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, 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
Architects of Medicare Privatization: Congress, Biden, and the CMS It is easy and appropriate to target the private health insurance companies that earn excessive profits from the Medicare Trust Fund through Medicare Advantage plans, especially given the well-documented evidence of overcharging and fraud. But it is essential that we remember that it has been the U.S. Congress and the Executive Office that promoted the privatization of Medicare, to varying degrees, since it was first signed into law by President Johnson in 1965 and enacted the following year. In 2017 The Commonwealth Fund published “The Evolution of Private Plans in Medicare,” which detailed the increasing role in healthcare granted to private companies since 1966 through Acts of Congress and the Office of the President. Privatization was boosted significantly by the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003, which–in addition to providing private drug coverage (with non-negotiable prices) through Medicare Part D–provided an alternative payment structure to private health insurers as a way to incentivize and increase their participation in the Medicare program. And it worked; more health insurance companies decided to enter the Medicare “market” and labeled their plans “Medicare Advantage.” Almost 50% of Medicare beneficiaries are now enrolled in private plans, compared to those in traditional Medicare.