Daily News Digest October 14, 2019

Daily News Digest Achives

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 banner headline: “There Is No Peace” Could Still Be Published Today!

During This Economic Crisis, Capitalism’s Three Point Political Program: Austerity, Scapegoat Blacks, Minorities, and ‘Illegal’ Immigrants for Unemployment, and  The Iron Heel.

The Capitalist Austerity Program = It’s Become the Race to the Botom! The 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 — The 99% Will Rule! — Not the Few!

Images of the Day:

The Results of John F. Kennedy’s ‘Tax Reform’: A First: U.S. Billionaires Paid Lower Tax Rate Than Working Class Last Year, Researchers Say

Quotes of the Day:

The Triumph of Injustice,” by economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman of the University of California at Berkeley, presents a first-of-its-kind analysis of Americans’ effective tax rates since the 1960s. It finds that in 2018 the average effective tax rate paid by the richest 400 families in the country was 23%, a full percentage point lower than the 24.2% rate paid by the bottom half of American households. — A First: U.S. Billionaires Paid Lower Tax Rate Than Working Class Last Year, Researchers Say

Under Growing Economic Pressure, and unable to rule in the old way, splits and disagreements are appearing among the ruling class and their state apparatus. / Image: Socialist Revolution The National Park Service even estimates that it reached $11.9 billion in deferred maintenance costs in 2015, according to the report.  — America’s infrastructure is decaying — here’s a look at how terrible things have gotten

Videos Of the Day:

Watch: The Huge Problem of Microplastic

“Know My Name”: The Stanford Sexual Assault Case Made Her “Emily Doe.” In New Memoir, Chanel Miller Tells Her Story

A Know-Nothing President Steps Into a Turkish/Kurdish Minefield

Peru’s Constitutional Crisis Cuts Deep Due to Endemic Corruption

IRS Audits Poor People Far More Often Than the Wealthy

“To Girls Everywhere, I Am With You”: Chanel Miller Reads from Her Victim Impact Statement

 U.S.:

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.

After Avoiding Safety Upgrades, PG&E Hired Lobbyists and Public Relations Instead The decision to shut off the electricity services, a precaution over concerns about high winds, raises the question of precisely how PG&E has been spending its rate-payers’ money. And the answer isn’t pretty: While neglecting safety upgrades and investments in its aging infrastructure (Deferred Maintenance), PG&E has instead been lavishly rewarding shareholders and buying political influence. By Lee Fang

Economy:

Two Investment Banks Eligible for Today’s Fed Loans Got Over $2 Trillion from the NY Fed in the Last Crisis It’s long past the time for the U.S. Congress to ask the overarching question: Is the New York Fed’s massive loan program to Wall Street firms even legal? And was it legal from 2007 to 2010 during the financial collapse on Wall Street? The Federal Reserve System was created in 1913 with a Discount Window that was to be the lender-of-last-resort to deposit-taking banks to prevent panics and bank runs from bringing down the U.S. banking system. To this day, only deposit-taking institutions are allowed to borrow at the Fed’s Discount Window. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens

In the Midst of a Liquidity Crisis, the Fed Rolls Back Liquidity Requirements at Banks There was an outcry in Washington yesterday over the latest move by the Federal Reserve. While the New York Fed is pumping hundreds of billions of dollars each week into Wall Street because of a liquidity crisis, the Washington, D.C. based central bank, the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, just changed its rules to lessen liquidity buffers at banks and rolled back other critical safeguards. The response from Gregg Gelzinis, policy analyst for Economic Policy at the Center for American Progress was swift. He released the following statement: “Today, the Federal Reserve eroded several critical banking protections put in place following the 2007-2008 financial crisis, further putting the economy at risk. The final rule threatens the safety and soundness of the banking system from multiple angles. Reducing the stringency of bank capital requirements, liquidity rules, and stress testing makes large bank failures more likely—while watering down living wills requirements magnifies the economic devastation caused by such failures. . . . “The beneficiaries of these rollbacks are not small firms. Domestic regional banks, the U.S. operations of foreign megabanks, and even Wall Street banks all enjoy various levels of deregulation in this package…  “When unchecked risk-taking leads to instability in the financial system, the pain will be felt by working families and taxpayers.” By Pam Martens and Russ Martens

 World:

Ecuador: Down With Moreno and the IMF – All Power to the People’s Assembly! What began as a protest against the IMF package imposed by President Lenin Moreno has become a national insurrection that poses the question of who rules the country. The enormous mass mobilisation has forced the government to flee the capital Quito and close the national assembly. It has also begun to open cracks within the armed forces. To move forward, the movement must raise the issue of power.  By Jorge Martin

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 ‘govern’, 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 the to be,  a democracy and part of the democratic way. — Roland Sheppard, Let The People Vote on Healthcare! 

There Are No ‘Safe Radiation’ Levels! By Roland Sheppard

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

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 ‘Natural Background Radiation’ was close to zero, before WWII. (See the Above Graph)