Daily News Digest March 19, 2020

Another Example Capitalism as a Failed System: World Capilalism Was Aware of the Danger of Cornovavirus Threat 4 Years Ago and Did Nothing!

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 War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death. The very future of Humanity Is Now At stake!occupy1

Cuba’s Interferon Alpha 2B, Successful in Treating COVID-19 For 40 years, Cuba has been using a molecule named Interferon Alpha 2B , which has successfully been used to combat the new Coonavirus in China and elsewhere. “The world has an opportunity to understand that health is not a commercial asset but a basic right,” Cuban doctor Luis Herrera, the creator of the Interferon Alfa 2-B medication, one of the most successful medications in the fight against COVID-19 told teleSUR Tuesday.

Daily News Digest Archives

Laura Gray’s cartoon from the front page of The Militant August 18, 1945, under banner headline: “There Is No Peace”

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!

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!

Quote/Image of the Day:

In The End, We Will Remember Not The Words Of Our Enemies, But The Silence Of Our ‘Friends’

Videos of the Day:

Finally, During the Silence of Ricard Trumpka, President of the AFL-CIO and Other Labor ‘Leaders’, A Real Labor Leader Speaks Up Against the Attacks Upon the United States Working Class!:

How to Make the Airline Bailout Work for Workers, Not Just CEOs    The government should provide direct wage subsidies to airline workers while restricting CEO pay to no more than 50 times median wages. The U.S. airline industry is asking for nearly $60 billion in taxpayer-funded direct assistance and loan guarantees.   The industry clearly needs extraordinary help. The pandemic is grounding flights the world over. But who within the industry should get that help? Will the imminent airline bailout mostly benefit top executives and shareholders or center on protecting the industry’s most vulnerable workers?     Sara Nelson, the dynamic president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, has made a powerful case for direct payroll subsidies to the employees who keep our airline industry passengers flying and safe, everyone from flight attendants and pilots to security screeners and wheelchair attendants.   “Absent payroll subsidies, mass layoffs and furloughs are inevitable,” Nelson notes. “This will have long-term consequences because nearly all aviation-related workers have to pass background checks and security and safety training requirements. If these lapse or people need to be rehired, it will slow aviation’s return to service. If airlines are slow to recover, other industries will be too. Travel to business conferences, Disneyland, cruises, and casinos are dependent on a functioning aviation industry.” (More)

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.

Environment:

The Global Warning Elephant in tr Room: As Global Warming Increases, the Rate of Global Warming Increases, as the Rate of Global Warming Increases Global Warming Increases Etc. Ect. ! Greenland, Antarctica Melting Six Times Faster Than in the 1990s An aerial view of the icebergs near Kulusuk Island, off the southeastern coastline of Greenland, a region that is exhibiting an accelerated rate of ice loss.Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center The two regions have lost 6.4 trillion tons of ice in three decades; unabated, this rate of melting could cause flooding that affects hundreds of millions of people by 2100.

Civil Rights/ Black Liberation:

Black Agenda Radio for Week of March 16, 2020With Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford

  • Racial Voyeurism and Light-Skinned Black BabiesBlack babies born to Black mothers are often treated by media as “miraculous, or a gift from God,” writes Sonita Moss, a University of Pennsylvania Fulbright Scholar and co-author of an article on public fascination with the phenomenon of blue-eyed children of brown-skinned parents. “Whiteness and Blackness have been diametrically opposed to each other for so long,” such babies “bring up a lot of discomfort” and attract “racial voyeurism.”

  • Black Voters Favor Medicare for All, But Think Biden is “Electable” “In all the states that have voted so far, Medicare for All, which Biden is explicitly against, wins a majority of voters” in exit polls, said Branko Marcetic, journalist and author of “Yesterday Man: The Case Against Joe Biden.” Marcetic noted that, when President Obama and vice president Biden were trying to forge a “Grand Bargain” with the GOP, “Biden basically rolled over and let Mitch McConnell and the rest of the Republicans just trample over him. He gave them everything they wanted.”

  • Black Misleaders Put Their Own Class Interest Above Black Health In their zeal to push Joe Biden for president, said Ajamu Baraka, the former Green Party vice-presidential candidate, “the Black Misleadership Class is concealing class contradictions, not only in the broader US society, but within Black America. They know that Black people would benefit if there were Medicare for All, but because of short-term class interest, they choose to mobilize Black opinion behind Biden.” Baraka, a BAR editor, predicts that “Blacks will disproportionately suffer” from the coronavirus epidemic.

Labor:

Labor Leader Sara Nelson Demands Stimulus Package That Bails Out Airline Industry Workers—Not Shareholders and CEOs The Trump administration is discussing a stimulus package with the Senate today which includes $50 billion for the airline industry, following demands from an industry trade group. Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, released a video on social media early Tuesday morning calling on lawmakers to prioritize the interests of working people in the industry as Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin prepared to meet with Senate Republicans to discuss an $850 billion economic stimulus package, which is set to include $50 billion for the airlines. By Julia Conlely

Facing Mass Layoffs, Restaurant Workers Living “Tip to Mouth” Demand Living Wage & Paid Sick Leave

‘Just the Beginning’: Nearly 1 in 5 Americans Say They or Someone in Their Household Already Lost Hours or Jobs From Coronavirus “There is no *good* coronavirus plan unless it includes compensation for these 18% of workers. Full stop.” In a troubling sign of the damage already done by the coronavirus outbreak on the U.S. economy, nearly one out of five Americans in a NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll released Tuesday reported themselves or someone in their household having their hours reduced or losing their jobs as a result of the public health crisis. By Eoin Higgins

‘Just the Beginning’: Nearly 1 in 5 Americans Say They or Someone in Their Household Already Lost Hours or Jobs From Coronavirus

Economy:

Wall Street Banks at the Federal Reserve Trough


Fed Announces Program for Wall Street Banks to Pledge Plunging Stocks to Get Trillions in Loans at ¼ Percent Interest The Federal Reserve Board of Governors announced at 6 P.M. last evening that it is following the directionof Steve Mnuchin, the former foreclosure kingwho now serves as U.S. Treasury Secretary, and authorizing the reinstatement of a hideously operated, multi-trillion dollar bailout program for Wall Street’s trading houses known as the Primary Dealer Credit Facility (PDCF). Veterans on Wall Street think of it as the cash-for-trash facility, where Wall Street’s toxic waste from a decade of irresponsible trading and lending, will be purged from the balance sheets of the Wall Street firms and handed over to the balance sheet of the Federal Reserve – just as it was during the last financial crisis on Wall Street. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens

World:

Health, Science, 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 ‘governn’, 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 Healthcare! 

Healthcare CEO’s Don’t Give a Damn About Patients!Sent to Me By Email: Coronavirus United States:

Meet the Climate Science Deniers Who Downplayed COVID-19 Risks On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the outbreak of novel coronavirus 2019, which causes the disease COVID-19, was officially a “public health emergency of international concern.” At the time, there were cases confirmed in 19 countries and deaths in China had reached 170. The very next day, the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) published an article titled, “Coronavirus in the U.S.: How Bad Will It Be?” “Is coronavirus worse than the flu?” it began. “No, not even close.”  “It already has spread from person-to-person in the U.S., but it probably won’t go far,” ACSHadded. “And the American healthcare system is excellent at dealing with this sort of problem.” ACSH is one of several organizations promoting climate science denial that are now spreading misinformation on the coronavirus, with potentially deadly consequences. By Sharon Kelly

Inside Prison Amid Coronavirus Pandemic: Incarcerated Journalist Says Millions Behind Bars at Risk

“It’s Inadequate”: Rep. Ro Khanna Says White House Stimulus Plan Helps Big Business, Not Workers

Facing Mass Layoffs, Restaurant Workers Living “Tip to Mouth” Demand Living Wage & Paid Sick Leave

Coronavirus Update: State Bans Evictions, Foreclosures, Utility Shutoffs During COVID-19 Emergency

With Many Lawmakers Out of Town, Democratic House Quietly Weakens Paid Leave Provisions in Coronavirus Relief Bill

Years of Austerity Weakened the Public Health Response to Coronavirus Years of austerity, at all levels of government, combined with profiteering inthe health care sector and the Trump administration’s bungled response, have severely weakened the nation’s ability to combat the coronavirus outbreak and is putting public health workers on the front lines of the crisis in danger, according to experts and labor advocates. Underfunded and overworked public health departments are tasked with tracking and stopping the spread of the disease. Hospitals and emergency rooms are struggling to respond to coronavirus cases, amid a lack of key workplace protections and shortages of protective equipment for nurses and health workers. Our health care system has gaping holes that leave millions uninsured and many wary of seeking medical treatment. Tens of millions of workers are without paid sick leave.  By Mike LudwigCoronavirus World:

‘Venture philanthropists’ seek climate change profits in Myanmar The last remaining underexploited economy in southeast Asia offers new opportunities for capital accumulation with a green veneer. There’s a saying, usually attributed to Einstein, that we can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking that created them. You won’t hear that from the many liberals who insist that the only way to solve problems caused by capitalism is more capitalism. By Gemma Dursle

 Why Sanctions During a Pandemic are Cruel Swiftly moves the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), dashing across continents, skipping over oceans, terrifying populations in every country. The numbers of those infected rises, as do the numbers of those who have died. Hands are being washed, tests are being done, and social distance has become a new phrase. It is unclear how devastating this pandemic will be.In the midst of a pandemic, one would expect that all countries would collaborate in every way to mitigate the spread of the virus and its impact on human society. One would expect that a humanitarian crisis of this magnitude would provide the opportunity to suspend or end all inhumane economic sanctions and political blockades against certain countries. The main point here is this: Is this not the time for the imperialist bloc, led by the United States of America, to end the sanctions against Cuba, Iran, Venezuela, and a series of other countries? By Vijay Prashad – Paolo Estrada

An International Virus Needs an International Response On the 75th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, with critics bemoaning a profound crisis of multilateralism, the COVID-19 pandemic poses a crucial moment for the international system. Newton’s third law of motion says that for every action there is a reaction. While many of the 17th century English physicist’s laws have been replaced by modern science, his third law has important implications for today’s coronavirus outbreak. We know the virus exists. It has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). What we don’t know is how to react to the virus. By Daniel Warner

Black Plague, Spanish Flu, Smallpox: All Hold Lessons for CoronavirusPandemics are nothing new in history, and their long record across the ages and continents has much to teach us about how best to handle the current outbreak, writes California State University professor Ibrahim Al-Marashi in a fascinating piece at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

As Coronavirus Death Toll Continues to Rise in Iran, Global Calls Mount for US to Lift ‘Immoral’ Sanctions

Coronavirus Updates: France Shutters Schools, New York Bans Gatherings Over 500

Coronavirus Pandemic Puts Countries on Lockdown

  • Millions are under lockdownin Europe.

  • The US is working to send money directly to Americans in a bid to curb economic fallout.

  • 37 states in the US have closed their public schools.

  • The White House has advised people not to gatherin groups of more than 10.