Daily News Digest May 11, 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:
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:
But the flooding should serve as a stark reminder that Congo has a long way to go in ensuring safety and security for its citizens in several areas. A report by Amnesty International highlights several of the most pressing issues in Congo including abuses by armed groups, internally displaced people’s rights, unlawful killings, denial of humanitarian access, the right to truth, justice and reparations, freedom of expression, association and assembly, inhumane detention conditions, and the right to education. In addition to the violent conflict and instability, Congo also faces multiple simultaneous crises including widespread poverty, high levels of violence against women, malnutrition and weak food security, and environmental challenges such as deforestation and forest degradation, according to Norad. A study published by the organization also showed that “since DRC is facing multiple crises on such an enormous scale, the country also faces funding shortages and an inadequate response to its vulnerable populations. — Congo Floods Serve as Reminder of Larger Problems
Videos/Podcasts of the Day:
Hyperobject Industries (Chevron is Actually Murdering People Daily)
[Podcast] Identity Politics: Capitalism’s Weapon of Division
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
The Debt Ceiling Debate is a Massive Deception of the American Public Future historians will likely look back at the debt ceiling rituals being reenacted these days with a frustrated shaking of their heads. That otherwise reasonable people would be so readily deceived raises the question that will provoke those historians: How could this happen? The U.S. Congress has imposed successive ceilings on the national debt, each one higher than the last. Ceilings were intended to limit the amount of federal borrowing. But the same U.S. Congress so managed its taxing and spending that it created ever more excesses of spending over tax revenues (deficits). Those excesses required borrowing to cover them. The borrowings accumulated to hit successive ceilings. A highly political ritual of threats and counterthreats accompanied each rise of the ceiling required by the need to borrow to finance deficits. It is elementary economics to note that if Congress raised more taxes or cut federal spending—or both—there would be no need to borrow and thus no ceiling on borrowing to worry about. The ceiling would become irrelevant or merely symbolic. Further, if taxes were raised enough and spending cut enough, the existing U.S. national debt could be reduced. That situation has happened occasionally in U.S. histort.
Censoring Away A President’s Criminal Activity The world has gotten little but grief from the post-World War II crop of U.S. presidents. Whatever the nature of their domestic policies, often influenced by selfish and biased special interests, their foreign policies have often been much worse. How many Central and South Americans have been murdered, tortured and raped by military thugs trained and supported by the U.S. government? U.S. presidents, blinded by ideology, pushed NATO to the borders of Russia and thereby bear much responsibility for the destruction of Ukraine. An entire people—the Palestinians—have been condemned to near destruction with the aid of U.S. support for Israel. And then there was Iraq where, on the basis of nothing more than deception, ignorance and an utter incapacity to think objectively, the administration of George W. Bush killed countless individuals through sanctions and war. These, of course, are only the highlights, but they tell the same generic story—a “superpower” that turned its back on the rule of law, in this case international law, and in the name of “national interest” wreaked havoc upon mostly innocent populations.
The Mercenaries Who Fight for American Empire Private military contractors are now an essential part of America’s increasingly privatized wars and will continue to be so, in seemingly ever greater numbers. The way mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and his private army have been waging a significant part of Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine has been well covered in the American media, not least of all because his firm, the Wagner Group, draws most of its men from Russia’s prison system. Wagner offers “freedom” from Putin’s labor camps only to send those released convicts to the front lines of the conflict, often on brutal suicide missions.
Reflections on a Long-Ago Tour of Los Alamos and the Trinity Atomic Test Site I turn 60 this year. My health is generally good, though I have aches and pains from a form of arthritis. I’m not optimistic enough to believe that the best years of my life are ahead of me, nor so pessimistic as to assume that the best years are behind me. But I do know this, however sad it may be to say: the best years of my country are behind me. Indeed, there are all too many signs of America’s decline, ranging from mass shootings to mass incarceration to mass hysteria about voter fraud and “stolen” elections to massive Pentagon and police budgets. But let me focus on just one sign of all-American madness that speaks to me in a particularly explosive fashion: this country’s embrace of the “modernization” of its nuclear arsenal at a price tag of at least $2 trillion over the next 30 years or so — and that staggering sum pales in comparison to the price the world would pay if those “modernized” weapons were ever used.
Environment — Ecosocialism of Ecocide!:
‘No Time to Waste’: Don’t Look Up Team Launches Studio to Push Back on Climate Disinformation Yellow Dot Studios announced its debut with a satirical commercial for “Big Money.” The filmmaker-producer team behind Don’t Look Up launched a new climate-focused, “anti-bullshit” media venture Tuesday with a spoof advertisement for “Big Money.” The satirical video is the first offering from Academy Award-winning writer-director-producer Adam McKay’s new Yellow Dot Studios, a nonprofit devoted to counteracting decades of fossil fuel-funded misinformation about the climate emergency.”The climate is changing much faster than large swathes of our media are telling us, and there is no time to waste,” McKay said in a statement. “Oil companies’ horrible and destructive disinformation created decades of delay in dealing with climate breakdown. Yellow Dot’s goal is to push back, whether that’s through in-house videos, or videos for climate orgs and activist groups, to help get people involved and activated at a rapid pace.”
Public Land Grab: Senate Bill Gifts Miners Pass to Pollute The bill represents an unfathomable giveaway of federal public lands to an industry responsible for contaminating the headwaters of 40 percent of western watersheds. Senators Catherine Cortez-Masto (D-NV) and Jim Risch (R-ID) have introduced legislation that makes it easier for mining companies and others to acquire rights to federal land and to be able to use them as dumping grounds and worse. The legislation reverses over 150 years of legal precedent and lifts one of the few substantive requirements of America’s antiquated and regressive general mining law.
Clouds Over Africa’s Energy Future Zimbabwe’s hydropower collapse is a harbinger of crises to come. In November of last year, Zimbabweans woke up to the shocking news that the country’s major hydropower station at Kariba Dam — which provides more than 70% of Zimbabwe’s energy needs — was shutting down due to low water levels. Hopes that the crisis would end soon were dashed by drought. Since December, daily electricity generation at Kariba has remained below 400 megawatts, down from a capacity of 1,050 megawatts. The country is not alone in struggling to maintain hydropower operations. Climate change related droughts are pummelling countries across Africa, leading scientists to warn that hydro is no longer a reliable source of energy in many parts of the continent. After crunching data from more than 24,000 hydropower stations across the globe, researchers from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Austria and Wageningen University in the Netherlands have concluded that climate change-related impacts will affect electricity production at more than 60% of hydropower plants worldwide.
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Economy:
Shadow Government Statistics Alternate Inflation Charts The CPI chart on the home page reflects our estimate of inflation for today as if it were calculated the same way it was in 1990. The CPI on the Alternate Data Series tab here reflects the CPI as if it were calculated using the methodologies in place in 1980. In general terms, methodological shifts in government reporting have depressed reported inflation, moving the concept of the CPI away from being a measure of the cost of living needed to maintain a constant standard of living.
FRED: Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: All Items in U.S. City Average
Shadow Government Statistics Daily Udate May 7th to 10th – Current Headlines:
- Narrowing the First-Quarter 2023 Real Merchandise Trade Deficit and driving gasoline prices lower, once again, the Administration resumed Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) depletion in First-Quarter 2023, taking advantage of earlier, Obama-era legislation aimed reducing Federal Debt. That action was taken irrespective of the extreme and unprecedented depletion in the prior two quarters and mounting systemic-security concerns. Otherwise, the Administration’s SPR depletion and related political gimmicks had ended in December 2022.
- As in earlier quarters, the effect of the 2023 depletion continued to dampen headline inflation and to boost, artificially, an otherwise moribund economy, as seen once again, with “improved” Net Exports, now with First-Quarter 2023 GDP. Such SPR depletion has continued at the cost of increasing National Security risks tied to maintaining an adequate Petroleum Reserve.
- That said, separately, the May 3rd FOMC hiked the Federal Funds Rate a quarter-point, as expected, with further rate hikes still to be determined. Such was amidst rapidly increasing signs of a tanking U.S. Economy and serious Inflation issues. Updated May 6th, 9:30 p.m. ET, addressing multiple, evolving developments, today’s missive is broken into two parts:
World:
‘Serbia Against Violence’: Tens of Thousands Demonstrate After Pair of Mass Shootings “I’m here to demonstrate solidarity against the pervasive violence in the media, in parliament, and in daily life,” said one participant. Tens of thousands of people in Serbia hit the streets on Monday to demand the resignation of top government officials and a prohibition on violence promotion in the media following a pair of mass shootings in the country that left 17 dead and 21 injured, many of them children. “I’m here to demonstrate solidarity against the pervasive violence in the media, in parliament, and in daily life… to show my support in the wake of events that have shattered us, and to pay tribute to the lives of the children we have lost,” one unnamed person told Agence France-Presse.
Britain: Coronation Clampdown – A Carnival of Reaction The nauseating nationalism surrounding the coronation celebrations in Britain was accompanied by a swathe of anti-monarchy arrests. The ruling class are gearing up for the battles ahead. Workers and youth must fight back with militant class struggle. The nauseating nationalism surrounding the coronation celebrations in Britain was accompanied by a swathe of anti-monarchy arrests. The ruling class are gearing up for the battles ahead. Workers and youth must fight back with militant class struggle. The coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla took place last weekend, in case anyone didn’t notice. But despite the establishment plastering this spectacle over television screens, social media, and electronic billboards across the country, for most people life went on as usual.
Zionist Baby Killers: ‘Heinous Crime’: Israeli Strikes on Gaza Kill at Least 13 Palestinians, Including Children While one United Nations official slammed the Israeli bombings as “unacceptable,” an Israel Defense Forces colonel called the deaths of four children “irrelevant.” Human rights defenders on Tuesday condemned an intense Israeli aerial bombardment of densely populated areas of Gaza that killed at least 13 Palestinians—including at least 10 civilians and three leaders of a militant resistance group—while wounding more than 20 others.
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 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
Glenn Greenwald: Reflections on Family Health Crisis On Sunday in Brazil, a large news site published a profile in Portuguese about how our family has been navigating the ongoing health crisis of my husband, the Brazilian Congressman David Miranda, who on that date completed three full months of hospitalization in ICU. As a result, I published an article in Portuguese on the same day that provided some more details on his health condition and how we have tried to deal with it, and I added an English translation of it for those interested.