Daily News Digest August 13, 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!

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! By Roland SheppardLaura Gray’s cartoon from the front page of The Militant August 18, 1945, Under the 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:

Coronavirus Is Taking Full Advantage of Your House Party! Quotes of the Day:

Wag the Dog: Two weeks prior to reelection, the United States president lands in the middle of a sex scandal. In need of outside help to quell the situation, presidential adviser Winifred Ames (Anne Heche) enlists the expertise of spin doctor Conrad Brean (Robert De Niro), who decides a distraction is the best course of action. Brean approaches Hollywood producer Stanley Motss (Dustin Hoffman) to help him fabricate a war in Albania — and once underway, the duo has the media entirely focused on the war.

 Videos of the Day:

COVID-19 Surges In Florida After Data Whistleblower Fired “Somebody needs to put a muzzle on [Trump] before he gets another 100,000 people killed. The United States does not have this under control.”

Climate, crude, and COVID devastate Ecuador’s Amazon

The Coronavirus Crisis System Update: Coronavirus Strengthens Ruling Class Grip On The U.S.

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. Rax the Rich!  — They Can Afford To Pay!

Wag the Dog Strategy?: Tomgram: Bob Dreyfuss, Could Covert War With Iran Become Overt Before November 3rd? History’s a joke, right? We know that from our president who creates laughable moments of history daily — as when, reading from a script recently, he pronounced America’s famed Yosemite National Park “Yo-Semite.” In that context, let me bring up one of his favorite countries: I-Run. Its modern history, if anybody remembered anymore, would leave us all chuckling grimly. If you’re thinking about alternate futures (and you happened to remember the past), you might wonder what that country would have been like if, in 1953, the CIA and British intelligence hadn’t overthrown an elected secular democratic government there led by Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh at the very moment when he wanted to nationalize the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (now known as BP). They then reinstalled the autocratic young Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi in power along with his terrible secret police, the Savak. By Bob Dreyfuss

Trump’s War On Arms Control and Disarmament Seventy-five years ago, the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing more than 200,000 Japanese and injuring another 100,000.  The great fires that raged in each city consumed many of the bodies.  If ever there was a visceral force for promoting a world free of nuclear arms, it should be the memory of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.By Melvin Goodman

Which Way for Today’s Mass Radicalization? Capitalism’s Impending Catastrophe…or a Socialist Future Predatory capitalism is facing its greatest crises ever. The gap between the exploiting few, who rule by guile and deceit – and brute force whexn necessary – and the vast majority, who are compelled to sell their labor to survive, has never been greater. A stunning half of the working-age population stand unemployed or subjected to a low-wage, part-time, gig economy wherein unprecedented numbers live paycheck to paycheck in fear of eviction or foreclosure. One in five families are unable to provide food for their children. 27 million Americans and their family members have lost health insurance coverage during the pandemic. By Jeff Mackler

A Dozen Reasons Now Is the Time for Housing as a Human Right Get it out of your head that American society is set up to be fair. Fair would be a roof over everyone’s head. Congress’s inability to actually represent the real-live human beings of America, combined with an economic system that rewards lack of empathy and an excess of greed, has brought us to a dark time when an oncoming tsunami of financial ruin, destitution and evictions towers over our heads, blocking out the sunlight. By Lee CampEnvironment:

Freakish Arctic Fires Alarmingly Intensify NASA satellite images of fires in eastern Siberia depict an inferno of monstrous proportions, nothing in modern history compares. And, as of July, it’s intensifying. Should people be concerned? Answer: Yes, and double yes. By Robert Hunziker

Civil Rights/Black Liberation:

Federal Judge Sets Out to Bring Down Law Shielding Police From Legal Liability In a 72-page opinion, a federal judge challenged the Supreme Court to abolish the qualified immunity defense. s the Massachusetts legislature debates whether to water down its qualified immunity defense, a federal judge in Mississippi filed a stunning 72-page opinion blasting the doctrine. Qualified immunity has entered the national discourse with the massive uprisings in the wake of the public lynching of George Floyd. It allows police and other government officials to escape liability for their law breaking. By Marjorie CohnLabor:

Yesterdays  Unions: When I Was A Union Official, I Never Petitioned the Boss, I Would Threaten Them to Comply or File a Grievance and Close Them Down With Lost Time Pay for The Workers!:

Todays  Unions: Labor and Environmental Groups File Legal Petition Demanding Trump Solve ‘Unconscionable’ Shortage of PPE for Essential Workers “Workers aren’t being honored or protected, they’re being sacrificed.” A coalition of labor and environmental justice groups joined forces Tuesday on behalf of millions of essential workers who face shortages of personal protective equipment five months into the coronavirus pandemic, demanding the Trump administration take emergency action to provide the life-saving supplies.  By Julia Conley

Economy:

Shadow Government Statistics Flash Economic Commentary No. 1445

  • Mounting, Fundamental Risks for Hyperinflation and Systemic InstabilitiesPromise New Highs for Gold and Silver Prices, Irrespective of the August 11th Sell-Offs
  • Historic GDP Collapse Wiped Out the Last Five Years of Economic Growth Second-Quarter 2020 Real GDP Plunged at an Unprecedented, Albeit Consensus, Annualized Quarterly Pace of 32.9% (-32.9%), Down Year-to-Year by 9.5% (-9.5%)
  • Given Limited-Quality Hard Data, Has Headline Reporting Turned to the Consensus?
  • Benchmarked GDP Received a Boost from New Trade-Deficit Reporting Gimmicks
  • Nonetheless, Rebound from the Pandemic-Driven Economic Collapse Is Faltering
  • L-Shaped Economic Recovery Has Begun to Take Form, asJuly Jobs and Unemployment Improvement Decelerated, Amidst Continuing Pandemic-Disrupted Surveying and Reporting Quality Issues
  • Labor-Market Stress Has Intensified as Unemployment Claims Gyrate Around Still-in-Depression Levels; Fed Sees Early Indications of Renewed Pullback in Consumer Activity 
  • S. Sovereign Credit Rating Rumblings Mount as Congress and the White House Negotiate a Second Round of Massive, Expanded Deficit Spending
  • Stalled Recovery Will Generate Even Greater Spending and Monetary Excesses Federal Reserve Record Money Supply Expansion Continues, Despite Benchmarked Money Numbers Showing Minimally Slower Growth

Wall Street Banks Are Dangerously Evading U.S. Derivatives Rules by Making Trades at Foreign Subsidiaries On May 30, with little mainstream media attention, four European academics published a report on how some of the largest Wall Street banks (all of whom received massive amounts of secret Federal Reserve bailout money during the 2007 to 2010 financial crash) were shamelessly gaming the system again.Rather than complying with the derivatives regulations imposed under the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation of 2010, the Wall Street mega banks had simply moved much of their interest rate derivatives trading to their foreign subsidiaries that fall outside of U.S. regulatory reach. This is known as regulatory arbitrage: seeking the most lightly regulated jurisdiction to ply your dangerous trading activity. (Think JPMorgan’s London Whale fiasco.) By Pam Martens and Russ Martens

World:

The Decrepit UK Political System The Covid-19 pandemic and the continuing Brexit crisis have cast an unforgiving light on the UK’s failed political system, the pivot of which lies with its “first past the post” (FTTP) election structure. It should be noted that in this respect the UK is similar to the US, and that the UK is the only country in Europe which uses FTTP. By Kenneth Surin

Haiti: Tremors Herald the Collapse of the Jovenel Moïse Regime! We received this article from ELAPRE, a group of revolutionary youth in Haiti. Haiti has experienced the same intensification of the class struggle we have seen in many countries around the world. In recent years, the masses in Haiti have fought to change society and could have overthrown the Moïse government many times. But his government is saved by the ruling class and the reformist leadership of popular movements. Seeing no way forward on this basis, ELAPRE was formed to study the ideas of Marxism, learn the lessons of the past, and to build a revolutionary organisation capable of leading the struggle for socialism.Education, Health, Science, 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 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

As Putin Pushes Russia’s Untested COVID Vaccine, Experts Worry Trump May Follow Russia’s vaccine did not go through Phase 3 testing involving thousands of subjects, meaning its efficacy is in doubt. ussian President Vladimir Putin announced that his country has created a coronavirus vaccine, adding that his own daughter has already taken it. “I know it has proven efficient and forms a stable immunity, and I would like to repeat that it has passed all the necessary tests,” Putin said upon announcing the vaccine. By Chris Walker