Daily News Digest August 19, 2020

Daily News Digest Archives

United States Coronavirus Pandemic Crisis: Lessons to be Learned

8/18/2o Coronavirus Update: As of 08/18/20, During ‘Dr. Trump’s’ ‘Coronavirus War’, Due to His Incompetence, Mis-Leadership, and  Depraved Indifference, We Are Still The World Coronavirus Leader! The The Casualty Count Is:

  • 5,655,942 Total Cases

  • 175,074 Total Deaths

  • 2,469,770

  • 3,011,098 Total Recovered

  • 2,469,770 2,469,770 Active Cases and

  • 16,966 People in Serious/Critical Condition!

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:

Steve Bell on Donald Trump and His Taxes New York prosecutors investigating the US president’s finances previously issued a subpoena to Deutsche Bank – and the bank complied, according to the New York Times

 Quotes of the Day:

“Ten thousand times has the labor movement stumbled and fallen and bruised itself, and risen again; been seized by the throat and choked into insensibility; enjoined by courts, assaulted by thugs, charged by the militia, shot down by regulars, traduced by the press, frowned upon by public opinion, deceived by politicians, threatened by priests, repudiated by renegades, preyed upon by grafters, infested by spies, deserted by cowards, betrayed by traitors, bled by leeches, and sold out by leaders, but, notwithstanding all this, and all these, it is today the most vital potential power this planet has ever known, and its historic mission of emancipating the workers of the world from the thralldom of the ages is as certain of ultimate realization as the setting of the sun.” — Eugene V. Debs

 Videos of the Day:

Black Lives Matter Movement in the United States — A Socialist Perspective

Our Electoral ‘Choices’ Aren’t Enough, Say Activists

The New Intellectuals: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, Settler Colonialism, and Capitalism This month Jordan T. Camp is in conversation with historian Gerald Horne about his new book, The Dawning of the Apocalypse: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, Settler Colonialism, and Capitalism in the Long Sixteenth Century (Monthly Review Press).

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!

Needed: Indicators for Measuring Injustice and Societal Decay Economic indicators – data points, trends, and micro-categories – are the widgets of the big information industry. By contrast, indicators for our society’s democratic health are not similarly compiled, aggregated, and reported. Its up and down trends are presented piecemeal and lack quantitative precision. We can get the process started and lay the basis for qualitative and quantitative refinement. Years ago, when we started “re-defining progress” and questioning the very superficial GDP and its empirical limitations, professional economists took notice. Unfortunately, with few exceptions, economists cling to the yardsticks that benefit and suit the plutocrats and CEOs of large corporations. By Ralph Nader‘Disturbing Milestone’: Just 12 US Billionaires Now Own More Than $1 Trillion in Combined Wealth “This is simply too much economic and political power in the hands of twelve people.” According to IPS, a progressive think tank, the 12 top U.S. billionaires have seen their combined wealth soar by 40%—or $283 billion—since the coronavirus began spreading rapidly across the U.S. in mid-March, sparking widespread economic shutdowns and mass job loss. By Jake Johnson

Gassing Immigrants With A Highly Toxic Industrial Disinfectant In Detention According to a report in the Independent, a UK newspaper, the powerful toxic ammonia-based chemical made by Spartan Chemical Co. is being sprayed in the occupied detention facility despite company warnings on the label that it only be used near people outdoors, not in confined spaces. Worse yet, there are allegations from detainees that the chemical is being sprayed directly on them, though the company’s label warns that exposure to the eyes can cause “permanent eye damage” while inhaling it can cause lung damage , breathing difficulty and asthma. By Dave LindorffMoney Becomes King: University Greed in the Midst of a Global Pandemic Students around the nation prepare to return to campus amid the COVID-19 pandemic and are met with empty promises of safety: social distancing in the classroom, a hybrid education system with in-person and online teaching, an overwhelming feeling that the return to campus will be just as lonely as the long trek home in early March. Yet despite the seeming decrease in the quality of education, many students nationwide received their financial aid packets and were faced with the shocking reality of a steep increase in cost. Why are institutions with billions of dollars in endowment funds forcing their students to drive themselves into even more overwhelming debt for a subpar on-campus experience? By By Lauren Novosat

Environment:

Extreme Weather Just Devastated 10m Acres in the Midwest. Expect More of This Unless we contain carbon, our food supply will be under threat. By 2050, US corn yields could decline by 30% By Art CullenCivil Rights/ Black Liberarion:

How Northern California’s Police Intelligence Center Tracked Protests The center sent daily emails listing upcoming protests to thousands of local police and circulated inflammatory online posts. Almost two weeks after a Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd while he was handcuffed face down in the street, a hacker began exfiltrating 19 gigabytes of documents from the poorly secured Northern California Regional Intelligence Center website. The NCRIC (pronounced “nick-rick”) fusion center shares information between federal agencies, local police departments across northern California, and private industry partners, including Silicon Valley companies. It also provides local cops with analytical and technical support services such as monitoring social media or helping break into locked smartphones, and it hosts events and law enforcement-related courses. By Micah Lee

Black Agenda Radio for Week of August 17, 2020 With Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford

  • You Can’t Understand Capitalism Without Race The centrality of race in the devilment of capitalism continues to be resisted by “the sort of hardline, orthodox folks who only look at class, alongside the sort of liberals and so-called racial multiculturals who have the misconception that race no longer matters,” said Charisse Burden-Stelly, professor of Africana Studies and Political Science at Carleton College. Dr Burden-Stelly authored a recent Monthly Review article titled “Modern US Racial Capitalism: Some Theoretical Insights.”

  • Cuba Deserves Nobel Prize for Sharing Medicine With the World  “Cuba should be a shoo-in” to win a Nobel Prize for sending doctors to health trouble spots and poor countries around the globe, said Don Fitz, a scholar and Green Party activist whose most recent book is titled “Cuban Healthcare: The Ongoing Revolution.” However, “given how much influence the United States has,” Fitz wouldn’t be surprised if Cuba doesn’t get the Prize

  • US Lies About Political Prisoners – and Almost Everything Else The official US position, that this country holds no political prisoners, is part of “the lie and the founding mythology of US ‘democracy,’” said Nyle Fort, a Princeton University doctoral candidate, activist and minister. “But those of us who live on the underside of that history know better,” said Fort.

  • Mumia: The Ravages of Capitalism-Fueled Contagion Social discontent rises with the level of fatalities and government incompetence during the current epidemic, said the nation’s best known political prisoner, Mumia Abu Jamal. “Children are being tossed into the hungry maw of Covid-19 so that politicians can ensure that their parents return to work, to fuel the engines of capitalism,” said Abu Jamal.

Labor:

Economy:

Charles Koch Walks a Tight Rope — Shaping Elections to His Liking while Quietly Using Popular Consumer Brands Like Dixie and Brawny to Fund His Agenda Charles Koch is the Chairman and CEO of the fossil fuels giant, Koch Industries, ranked by ValueWalk as the second largest private corporation in America. Forbes puts his net worth at $45 billion. While Koch Industries has sprawling holdings in pipelines and refineries, in 2005 it bought the paper and lumber company, Georgia-Pacific. That Koch Industries’ division relies on the goodwill and trust of consumers in order to achieve billions of dollars in revenues for its Dixie disposable paper plates, bowls and cups; its Northern Quilted and Angel Soft bath tissue; its Brawny and Sparkle paper towels; and its Vanity Fair and Mardi Gras table napkins.  The perception that Charles Koch, the man who has sat atop Koch Industries for more than half a century, is attempting to subvert the will of American voters on behalf of his fellow billionaires by untoward meddling in elections has gained traction in recent years. That’s a big problem for a company that needs a warm and fuzzy image in order to sell its household product brands. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens

World:

Lebanon:‘It is time for rage’ A Statement From Left-Wing Collective Ta’amim Al-Masaref Comrades, we are trapped. We are trapped between the barbarism of capital accumulation and the subsequent nonchalant greed it enables. As our lives become more worthless by the hour, we are trapped between the military machine deployed to defend private property at all costs, and the ruling class it has vowed to uphold. We are trapped between the death cult that is capital accumulation and its tendency to accumulate, store, bargain for better deals, negotiate and accumulate further, even at its own risk. Especially at our expense. The August 4 blast is an immediate and irreversible ramification of the ruling class’ deliberate indispensability of the masses. The capitalist, neoliberal system was built at our expense, and always – without exception – seeks to serve the interests of the ruling class. It will never be more evident and salient than it is today the extent to which our lives are regarded as expendable and worthless.

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

COVID Deaths Continue to Surge in Countries Led by Far Right Authoritarians Amid the pandemic, far right governments are focused on power grabs and appeasing capital while workers suffer. By Jack Delaney

The COVID Pandemic and the Housing Crisis Over 20 million people lost jobs and wages during the initial months of the pandemic. In July 2020, the economy was still down nearly 13 million jobs from its February level. The CARES Act, which was signed into law on March 27, 2020, included a number of provisions designed to replace lost income and keep people in their homes. These federal measures, along with ones adopted in some states and cities, have undoubtedly helped millions of people stay in their homes during the pandemic. Yet, housing insecurity — as measured by missing or deferring rent or mortgage payments, or having little confidence in one’s ability to make rent or mortgage payments — was very high during the initial months of the pandemic. By Yixia Cai – Shawn Fremstad