Daily News Digest June 3, 2020

Daily News Digest Archives

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! And Now the Total Caronavirs Deaths in the United  States are Over 20%  of the Total Death in the Entire World!

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!

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!

Images of the Day:

Bedib: I Can’t BreatheQuotes of the Day:

. . .Therefore the capitalist class is applying the Precautionary Principle, in order to be prepared to apply the The Iron Heal to quash any upsurge. As their spokesman, Obama, is and has been slowly but surely setting up the police state The Iron Heal. As Obama moves toward disarming the people and the working class, he is organizing an extra-legal domestic police force as capitalism, with Obama their spokesman, establishes a  gradual slide into a police state.  The office of the President now has the power to declare martial law, if there is a ‘threat of teorrism” or protests that are ‘deemed terrorist’,in the United States — That would be the Envy of Hitler! — Obama Left Trump the Power to Declare Martial Law!

To Protect Their Unalienable Rights To Life, liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, Black People Have the Right to Defend Themselves By Any Means Necessary!

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. — The Declaration of Independence

Videos of the Day:

Social Justice Is The Way To End Riots

Police Repression Backfires As Protests Multiply

 Thousands In Baltimore March For Justice For George Floyd

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 Reublicrats 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.

Preparing The Media Monopoly for The Iron Heel!: Trump Boosts Video of Dallas Clash Edited to Cast Machete-Wielding Vigilante as Victim The danger OF relying on fragmentary video clips posted on social media by politically motivated witnesses to news events was on full display in Dallas on Saturday night. Two witnesses, a Black Lives Matter protester and a right-wing video blogger, both captured a shocking act of violence on camera. But while the protester’s raw footage, which gave a more complete picture of the incident, was not widely seen, the video blogger’s edited version, posted on Twitter with a misleading caption, was viewed more than 30 million times in 24 hours.  Among the Twitter users who unthinkingly swallowed the blogger’s misleading video — which was edited to remove footage of a white man who was beaten charging at black protesters with a machete before they pummeled him — was the president of the United States, who tweeted about the clip with an outraged call for “LONG TERM jail sentences” for the protesters. On Monday, the president referred to the edited clip as evidence that “innocent people have been savagely beaten — like the young man in Dallas, Texas, who was left dying on the street.” By Robert Mackey

In ‘Unhinged’ Call, Trump Urges Governors to ‘Use the Military’ and Throw Demonstrators in Jail ‘For 10 Years’ “He’s describing fascism.”  By Jake Johnson

 Trump Mulls Declaring an Insurrection and Sending Military Into Cities During the last few days, President Trump has bobbed and weaved in his reaction to the killing of George Floyd and the unrest that act unleashed. But as police-protester conflicts escalated and spread, he has grown more and more truculent, and more and more dismissive of the state and local officials (especially Democrats) trying to manage a difficult situation in the middle of a pandemic and an economic collapse. By Ed Kilgore

Last evening, at 6:43 p.m., the President appeared in the Rose Garden to read a brief statement. He said he was “dispatching thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel, and law enforcement officers” in Washington D.C. The President added that “If a city or a state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them.”  Clearly, it’s the potential of pitchforks coming for the billionaires that the President is really worried about. —  Trump’s Message of Unity: “Vicious Dogs,” “Ominous Weapons,” “Heavily Armed Soldiers”

Demands for Trump Removal Grow as ‘Fascist’ Speech Condemned as Declaration of War Against US Public” Trump needs to be removed now, because after the massacre it will be too late.” President Donald Trump’s pledge Monday evening to deploy the full force of the U.S. military against demonstrators protesting the killing of George Floyd—and the president’s authorization of police violence against peaceful protesters to clear the way for a photo-op—amounted in the eyes of lawmakers, rights groups, and commentators to “declaration of war” against the U.S. public that must result in Trump’s removal from office.  By Jake JohnsonACLU Demands Congressional Probe Into ‘Politically-Motivated’ Attack on Peaceful Protest Outside Trump White House “This appears to be grossly unjustified use of a dangerous chemical weapon on protesters and raises serious human rights concerns under international law,” the civil liberties group said. The American Civil Liberties Union is demanding a congressional probe into the deployment of tear gas, rubber bullets, and other “indiscriminate weapons” against nonviolent demonstrators in Lafayette Square outside the White House on Monday evening—a use of force apparently greenlit by President Donald Trump so that he could enjoy a photo opportunity of himself marching through the cleared area on his way to nearby St. John’s Episcopal Church.  By Jon Queally‘This Is No Game’: Trump Considering Insurrection Act to Deploy Military to US City Streets as Protests Continue “Trump is rejecting the rule of law and proposing military action that is antithetical to basic premises of the American experiment.” By Eoin Higgins 

In America, the Rich Get Immunity. The Rest of Us Get “Law and Order” America is a country that eagerly hands out get-out-of-jail-free cards to the rich and powerful, and rubber bullets, tear gas, and jail sentences to the rest. The protesters on the street this weekend were trying to change that. By David Sirota

Environment: 

Global Warming is Nuclear War The average global surface temperature rose by 1°C during the 110 years between 1910 and 2020. During the 50 years between 1910 and 1960, the average global temperature rose by 0.25°C, an average rate-of-increase of 0.005°C/year. Another 0.25°C of biosphere heating occurred during the 25 years between 1960 and 1985, a rate-of-rise of 0.010°C/year. During the 20 year span between 1985 and 2005 another 0.25°C of temperature was added, a rate-of-rise of 0.0125°C/year. During the 15 year span from 2005 to 2020 another 0.25°C of temperature rise occurred, with an average rate-of-rise of 0.0167°C/year. By Manuel García, Jr.

Civil Rights/BlackLiberation:

One in five Black Americans work in the public sector, where they earn more and face less wage disparities than in the private sector. The United States Postal Service (USPS) is one public sector employer that’s long been a center of Black labor organizing, and, subsequently, a target for privatization. In 2006, George W. Bush signed a law that forced the USPS to pre-fund its pensions 75 years into the future. Trump has tried to go even further, threatening back in March to veto the CARES Act should it contain any aid for the USPS, even as it faces bankruptcy. Despite this threat, the CARES Act contained a $10 billion loan for the postal service, to be administered by the Treasury Department, which is reportedly planning to use it as leverage to force changes. The Trump administration’s determination to let the post office fail is an attack on Black workers. As Thomas Kennedy wrote for Truthout, Black workers shut out of many jobs due to systemic racism have “traditionally found well-paid and stable employment through the post office.” A 2000 study by the Government Accountability Office found that as of 1999, 21 percent of USPS employees were Black, compared to the 11 percent of the overall country’s civilian labor force. As of 2011, about 25 percent of the USPS’s workers were Black. Black workers also made up 14.3 percent of the Post Office’s executive management. Like many frontline workers, USPS employees are especially at risk during the pandemic. According to the National Postal Mail Handlers Union, 1,100 postal workers have tested positive for coronavirus and 54 have died. During the Great Recession, losses in public sector jobs hit Black workers hardest, as they lost their jobs at twice the rate of whites. When Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell suggests that blue states should simply go bankrupt during the pandemic, he is expressing his determination to decimate Black employment. With state and local budgets staring down massive shortfalls, this all but guarantees that the loss in public sector work that Black Americans saw after the last recession will repeat in this one. — Trump’s Anti-Blackness Is Overt in Protest Response and Covert in Policymaking

Black Agenda Radio for Week of June 1, 2020 With Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford

• Anti-Abortion Forces Would Impose Slavery-like Controls on Black Women’s Bodies Larry Hamm, chairman of Newark, New Jersey’s Peoples Organization for Progress, “is one of the most consistent freedom fighters in Newark since the great Amiri Baraka,” said activist and public intellectual Cornel West.The Harvard professor said the entrance of movement leaders like Hamm into electoral politics “can help consolidate a larger mass opposition and bring about the collapse of the duopoly.” Hamm is running to unseat Sen. Cory Booker.

• Blacks Need to Organize for Self-Defense “Whether we’re in large numbers like we are in Mississippi, or in small numbers like in Minnesota, our lives are in jeopardy and it’s important for us to build community networks to defend ourselves,” said Akinyele Umoja, professor of African American Studies at Georgia State University and author of the book, “We Will Shoot Back: Armed Resistance and the Mississippi Freedom Movement.”

• Cornel West Endorses Larry Hamm for Cory Booker Seat in Senate Larry Hamm, chairman of Newark, New Jersey’s Peoples Organization for Progress, “is one of the most consistent freedom fighters in Newark since the great Amiri Baraka,” said activist and public intellectual Cornel West.The Harvard professor said the entrance of movement leaders like Hamm into electoral politics “can help consolidate a larger mass opposition and bring about the collapse of the duopoly.” Hamm is running to unseat Sen. Cory Booker.

Labor:

Economy:

Trump’s Message of Unity: “Vicious Dogs,” “Ominous Weapons,” “Heavily Armed Soldiers” The words of the President of the United States over the past three days suggest that he is determined to be a wartime president and that he has found the enemy: it’s the American people. As racial justice protests raged in cities across the United States on May 30 over the murder of George Floyd in broad daylight at the hands of four policemen in Minneapolis, President Donald Trump tweeted that if the protesters had breached the fence at the White House, “they would have been greeted with the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons, I have ever seen.” (Considering that the President avoided military service on the basis of bone spurs, he probably hasn’t actually seen too many ominous weapons.) 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

To Become Safer Amid Pandemic We Must Explore Our Responses to Abuse More Deeply Becoming safe from an abusive partner has most often been defined by the act of leaving the relationship. Leaving can cause hardship, including financial struggles, and is more difficult for survivors who are marginalized by race, gender identity, disability, language or immigration status. While leaving an abuser has been shown to increase danger in the short-term, it is still considered the gold standard for getting safe from abuse. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about stay-at-home orders, the shut-down of courts, slow-downs in obtaining orders of protection, and domestic violence shelters that cannot fill beds due to social distancing health measures for residents and staff. Advocates working with survivors of domestic violence are faced with having to re-think long-held safety-planning strategies, and consider more fully what many survivors have always known: leaving is not the only option. Safety planning in close quarters requires thinking about how to be, if not safe, then safer. By Catherine Hodes