Daily News Digest March 28, 2023
Capitalism is Now a Worldwide Threat to Humanity! It is on the Fast Track to Global Warming and/or Nuclear War Catastrophes!
Images of the Day:
Mike Luckovich: TikTok, Or Tick Tock?
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:
If an institution such as the ICC behaves ridiculously in these ways, it is not doing its credibility a great deal of good. To ask what use the ICC serves, despite its elevated purpose when it was founded 25 years ago, seems to be a good question. There is a history behind this kind of conduct. This is the second thing to say about what the ICC has just done. If we study this history even briefly, we are likely to be upset, because this history indicates that the many international institutions to which humanity has looked as a source of impartial order for the past 70–odd years do not work as intended. And they were fated not to work as intended so long as the United States insists, as it has since the 1945 victories, on global dominance. This is a case of either/or: We can have a stable world order on the basis of the U.N. Charter or other such instruments of international law, or we can have the American imperium, but we cannot have both. This leads us to the third thing to say about the ICC’s decision to issue a warrant for a head of state’s arrest. And the third thing to say is the one that seems to me to require our attention most urgently if we are to understand the world in which we live. — Patrick Lawrence: Biden And The ICC: ‘A New Level of Farce’
Videos/Podcasts of the Day:
Martin Wolf: The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism – The Realignment Podcast
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. Tax the Rich! — They Can Afford To Pay! Both Parties Support U.S. Capitalism’s Wars! (The Only War the Democrats Opposed was the Civil War!)
We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both. — Louis D. Brandeis Quotes
The greatest purveyor of violence in the world today — my own government. MLK, Beyond Vietnam
AUKUS Nuclear Submarines: Accelerating the Sleepwalking to War With China Nuclear-powered submarines are designed for one purpose: attack. We must recognize the perils of continuing down this dangerous path. The March 13 Biden-Albanese-Sunak summit in San Diego to demonstrate alliance solidarity and to sign the multi-billion AUKUS (Australia, United Kingdom, US) nuclear submarine deal accelerated the pace of the U.S. and China sleepwalking toward catastrophic war. Compounding the dangers that came with the creation of the alliance in 2021 as part of the Biden administration’s Indo-Pacific military buildup, the new deal also adds to the mountain of obstacles blocking the way to the U.S.-Chinese cooperation that is essential if the climate emergency is to be reversed, the world’s nuclear arms races stanched, and if the planet’s two most technologically advanced nations collaborating to prevent pandemics and discover cancer cures.
Patrick Lawrence: What Just Happened in Moscow Is Big Now that Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping have concluded their summit in Moscow– an unusually long series of meetings over three days–are those purporting to lead the United States prepared to drop their wishful thinking, their miscalculations, and their illusions as to the significance and durability of the Sino–Russian relationship and get with the 21st century? Our no-hesitation answer is, “Not a chance.” The policy cliques in Washington signaled daily last week their determination to misread the Russian and Chinese presidents’ 40th summit so as to carry on hallucinating as to America’s “global leadership” and its position at the center of a Ptolemaic universe, the U.S. the earth around which the sun and all other planets revolve.
Corporate Real Estate Investors Are Accelerating the Affordable Housing Crisis Four out of five homes are unaffordable to median income earners, thanks in large part to unlisted corporate purchases. With billions of dollars of cash on hand, and millions of working-class families unable to find affordable housing, corporations are increasing their share of the housing stock and expanding their portfolios. A 2021 report co-authored by the Institute for Policy Studies, Bargaining for the Common Good, and Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund demonstrated how corporate and institutional investors were well positioned to take advantage of a red-hot real estate market. In the final quarter of 2022, investors purchased more than $31 billion worth of residential property in 40 of the largest metropolitan markets in the country — not a small sum.
Norfolk Southern East Palestine Derailment: Norfolk Southern, the empoyer, is now doing the hazardous material testing!:
Initial soil testing already revealed dioxin levels hundreds of times above the threshold that Environmental Protection Agency scientists have found poses a cancer risk, but that sampling was limited in scope. Regulators have said further testing being conducted by the Norfolk Southern-funded contractor Arcadis US will provide a broader picture than the initial samples. But, among other problems, the plan relies on what experts characterized as an “unconventional” process to check for dioxins, and the results are “unlikely to give a complete picture”, of contamination in East Palestine, said Stephen Lester, a toxicologist with the Center for Health, Environment and Justice. — Plan to Test gor Dioxins Near Ohio Train Derailment Site ds Flawed, Experts Say
Environment — Ecosocialism of Ecocide!:
From the African Coast to Towers of Wall Street, the Climate Bombs Are Ticking The devastation of Cyclone Freddy serves as a stark illustration of the warnings included in the new IPCC report. “Your people can’t take it anymore, Lord In exchange for oil and gas they sell our country.” These lines, translated from Portuguese, are from the song “Vendem o Pais,” “They Sell the Country,” by the late, great Mozambican hip hop artist Azagaia. Born Edson da Luz, he died on March 9th at the age of 38. He was a movement artist, empowering millions with songs challenging the elite and inspiring grassroots action. A frequent theme in his lyrics is the exploitation of Mozambique by extractive industries like oil and gas. Thousands poured into the streets on the news of his death, to honor his life and to protest the power structures he so consistently and eloquently criticized. The Mozambican government responded with a brutal crackdown, unleashing tear gas, rubber bullets, and beating and arresting protesters. Azagaia’s death coincided with two events that reinforce central themes of his music. First, Cyclone Freddy, a world-record-breaking extreme storm, slammed Southern Africa not once but twice, wreaking devastation, killing over 500 people in Malawi, Mozambique, and Madagascar and displacing over one million people. And second, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, released its Sixth Synthesis Report, summarizing almost a decade of global scientific research on climate change and issuing its direst warnings yet on the urgency of immediate, concerted global climate action.
Plan to Test for Dioxins Near Ohio Train Derailment Site ds Flawed, Experts Say A plan to test for toxic dioxins near the site of a February train wreck in East Palestine, Ohio, is flawed and unlikely to find the dangerous substances, independent chemical pollution researchers in the US who reviewed the testing protocol told the Guardian. Initial soil testing already revealed dioxin levels hundreds of times above the threshold that Environmental Protection Agency scientists have found poses a cancer risk, but that sampling was limited in scope. Regulators have said further testing being conducted by the Norfolk Southern-funded contractor Arcadis US will provide a broader picture than the initial samples. But, among other problems, the plan relies on what experts characterized as an “unconventional” process to check for dioxins, and the results are “unlikely to give a complete picture”, of contamination in East Palestine, said Stephen Lester, a toxicologist with the Center for Health, Environment and Justice. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/mar/24/ohio-train-derailment-dioxin-test-plan-flawed
High Concentrations Of DDT Found Across Vast Swath of California Seafloor Barrels of the toxic chemical were dumped along the Pacific coast decades ago. New research shows the material never broke down For years industrial companies in southern California used the coast as a dumping ground for toxic chemical waste, including DDT. Decades later, scientists have found that the pesticide remains in high concentrations on the ocean floor and has never broken down.
Civil Rights Black Liberation:
The Deadly Results of Economic Inequality Inequality is not just an abstract concept or a set of numbers—it’s a real-world phenomenon that has tangible effects on the way that ordinary people live (or don’t live) their lives. If you grew up in America, then you almost definitely have heard some variation of the refrain: “America is the greatest country in the world.” . . . But when we look more closely at other metrics, America’s position as the top country in the world is called into question. There are many such metrics, but perhaps none more important than life expectancy. According to a report released last year by the National Center for Health Statistics, the average American can now expect to live 76.4 years. Life expectancy in the US has dropped off in recent years; as life expectancy in other wealthy countries rebounded after the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, it continued to decline in the US. All in all, the US now ranks 53rd among 200 countries in life expectancy. Citizens of all developed countries suffer from things like heart disease, cancer, and liver disease, but Americans suffer more and, as a result, live shorter lives.
Labor:
Qatargate: Corrupt Trade Union Bureaucracy Exposed A major corruption scandal, involving the head of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and members of the European Parliament, came to light at the end of 2022. All allegedly received bribes from the Qatari and Moroccan regimes, in exchange for cleaning up the country’s image in advance of the 2022 World Cup. An investigation by the Brussels daily Le Soir uncovered the scandal, leading to the arrest and later sacking of ITUC General Secretary Luca Visentini. He previously stepped aside in December, having spent only a few days in the role. The ringleaders of this bribery scheme are Greek MEP Eva Kaili (PASOK), her partner, a parliamentary assistant and two other politicians: Belgian Socialist Party member Marc Tarabella, and former MEP/CGIL bureaucrat, Antonio Panzeri. Visentini, former secretary general of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), was also arrested and later released. He is suspected of receiving money from an illegally funded NGO to finance his campaign as leader of the main trade union confederation. He later admitted receiving the money from this NGO.
Steven Rattner’s Not Afraid Of Work From Home, He’s Afraid Of Worker Power The real terror for Wall Street titans like Rattner? That workers aren’t going to put up with whatever he and his fellow bosses throw at them anymore. The United States is in the middle of a long-overdue resurgence in labor organizing, antipathy to corporate power, and class analysis. This is terrifying to business executives and the ultra-rich, especially those affiliated with the Democratic Party. What was once the party of Bill Clinton sounds more and more like the party of Franklin Delano Roosevelt again, as ever-greater numbers of Democratic voters bring back good-old American “us vs. the bosses” economic populism. I’m no psychoanalyst. But I do know that when people have an anxiety which they can’t say out loud, they tend to sublimate it into public anger about something else. Many wealthy Democrats don’t want to say out loud that they’re mad about growing worker power, or they’ll be correctly labeled union-busters and oligarchs by their co-partisans. So instead, they’ve begun to scream about things that are only somewhat related, and much, much sillier: work-from-home policies and “quiet quitting” (a term I don’t think I’ve ever heard an actual worker use unironically.)
Economy:
Banking Crisis: is it All Over? Bank stock prices have stabilized at the start of this week. And all the key officials at the Federal Reserve, the US Treasury and the European Central Bank are reassuring investors that the crisis is over. Last week, Fed Chair Jerome Powell called the U.S. banking system “strong and resilient” and there was no risk of a banking meltdown as in 2008-9. US treasury secretary Janet Yellen said that the US banking sector was “stabilizing”. The US banking system was strong. Over the pond, ECB president Lagarde has repeatedly told investors and analysts that there was “no trade-off” between fighting inflation by raising interest rates and preserving financial stability. So all is well, or at least soon will be, given the massive liquidity support that the Fed and other US government lending bodies are offering. Also the stronger banks have stepped in to buy up the collapsing banks (SVB or Credit Suisse) or plough cash into failing ones (First Republic). So is it all over? Well, it ain’t over til it’s over. The latest Fed data from show that US banks lost $100bn in deposits in one week. Since the crisis started three weeks ago, while the large US banks have added $67bn, the small banks have lost $120bn and foreign-owned banks $45bn.
Michael Hudson: The Collapse of Antiquity: Greece and Rome as Civilization’s Oligarchic Turning Point The Collapse of Antiquity, the sequel to Michael Hudson’s “…and forgive them their debts,” is the latest in his trilogy on the history of debt. It describes how the dynamics of interest-bearing debt led to the rise of rentier oligarchies in classical Greece and Rome. This caused economic polarization, widespread austerity, revolts, wars and ultimately the collapse of Rome into serfdom and feudalism. (‘The ‘Dark Ages’ — R.S.)That collapse bequeathed to the subsequent Western civilization a pro-creditor legal philosophy that has led to today’s creditor oligarchies. In telling this story, The Collapse of Antiquity reveals the eerie parallels between the collapsing Roman world and today’s debt-burdened Western economies.
The Banking Crisis Knock-On Effect Has Been a Stampede into Government Money Market Funds – Foiling the Fed’s Effort to Raise Market Interest Rates On Sunday, Financial Times reporters Brooke Masters, Harriet Clarfelt and Kate Duguid published an article under the headline: “Money market funds swell by more than $286bn as investors pull deposits from banks.” This article needs some important clarifications. First is the fact that money market funds had to be bailed out by the government during both the 2008 financial crisis and the more recent financial cpani of 2020 stemming from the COVID pandemic.
World:
Germany: Mega-Strike On 27 March – All Wheels Stand Still! Fully Enforce Wage Demands! Since the beginning of the year, there have been more strikes in Germany than for a long time. First the postal workers, then the public sector workers, and now the rail workers have taken action. The reasons for this are obvious: economic crisis, massively increased prices and the real wage losses of the last few years. On 27 March, a major strike is taking place, organised by ver.di (Germany’s second largest union) and the railway and transport union (EVG). This will involve bus and train drivers, as well as motorway and airport workers. Note: this article was published last Thursday, before the strike commenced. We will have further coverage soon!
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 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