Daily News Digest August 26, 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 Deaths 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:

The Buck Never Seems To Stop With Donald Trump

Quotes of the Day:

 Videos of the Day:

US Postmaster General Admits to Not Knowing Cost of Sending a Postcard in House grilling

A Wildcat Strike In 1970 Solved the Last Crisis At USPS

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!

We now have over 180,950 Coronavirus  deaths in the United States!:

If the U.S. Had Handled COVID at Vietnam’s Level of Competence Over the Past Eight Months, Then Fewer Than 100 U.S. Residents in Total Would Be Dead Today From The Pandemic.   T he U.S. has much to learn from Vietnam, which has recorded just 22 COVID-related deaths, says economist Robert Pollin.  As  the coronavirus pandemic rages on, exposing to the fullest the glaring weakness of our inequitable health system, and as the unemployment situation goes largely unaddressed, it’s becoming more than obvious that the U.S. is in dire need of fixing. An advanced social welfare state, with a full employment agenda, is the way out, argues world-renowned progressive economist Robert Pollin in this exclusive interview with Truthout. Pollin is distinguished professor of economics and co-director of the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and co-author (with Noam Chomsky and me) of the forthcoming book The Climate Crisis and the Global Green New Deal: The Political Economy of Saving the Planet. By C.J. Polychroniou

Confirming Progressive Warnings, Social Security Actuary Says Trump Payroll Tax Cut Would Effectively Destroy Program by 2023 “Trump’s disastrous plan to defund Social Security would eliminate retirement and disability benefits by 2023,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders. “That may make sense to the billionaires at Trump’s country club, but it makes zero sense to me.” By Jake Johnson

It is Obvious That Trump Will Do Time After He Is Out of Office, Like a Cornered Rat, He Will Do Anything to Stay in Office!: New York Attorney General Sues Trump Organization, Accusing President’s Company of Misleading Lenders and Dodging Investigation For months, the Trump Organization has “stalled, withheld documents, and instructed witnesses, including Eric Trump, to refuse to answer questions under oath” about its financial records. By Julia Conley

Environment:

The Devil’s Harvest: The Search for Justice in California’s Central Valley Review by Peter Richardson Journalist Jessica Garrison’s new book depicts a tableau of drug trafficking, sexual violence, revenge, the bonds of kinship, the vagaries of police work and local news, and seven kinds of social injustice. When I met journalist Jessica Garrison last year at the Bay Area Book Festival, she mentioned her forthcoming book about a serial killer in the Central Valley of California. Jose Martinez had escaped arrest for many years, she said, largely because he lived in an unincorporated and neglected part of Tulare County. She didn’t mention that Martinez’s story was part of a larger tableau that included drug trafficking, sexual violence, revenge, the bonds of kinship, the vagaries of police work and local news, and seven kinds of social injustice. But what Garrison omitted from our chat is told with impressive skill in The Devil’s Harvest: A Ruthless Killer, a Terrorized Community, and the Search for Justice in California’s Central Valley.

How Low Flows Due to Irrigation are Destroying Oregon’s Deschutes River  The majority of water removed from the Deschutes is used to grow irrigated pasture and hay for livestock not crops consumed directly by humans The recent article “Low Flows On Deschutes” highlights why irrigation is a significant threat to our river’s ecological integrity.According to the report, flows on a portion of the Deschutes dropped to 60 CFS leaving many parts of the river channel dry. To put this into perspective, historically, before irrigators took our water from us,  the river ran at 1000-1200 CFS year-round.  As a spring-fed river, the Deschutes supported outstanding fisheries. By  George Wuerthne

Vulture Capitalism: ‘What Stage of Capitalism Is This?’ Hedge Fund $3 Billion Richer Thanks to Wager on Wildfire Insurance Claims With over 100,000 people displaced by wildfires raging across California, Baupost Group collected more than $3 billion in July after betting on insurance claims against embattled utility company PG&E. By Kenny Stancil

The US Is In A Water Crisis Far Worse Than Most People Imagine Industrial runoff and lax standards have tainted water across the US.  Our water has become so toxic that towns are issuing emergency boil notices and shipping in bottled water to their residents. In 2016, as I started research for my new book Superman’s Not Coming: Our National Water Crisis and What We the People Can Do About Itmembers of our very own US Congress had their water shut down in Washington due to unsafe lead levels. We are in a water crisis beyond anything you can imagine. Pollution and toxins are everywhere, stemming from the hazardous wastes of industry and agriculture. We’ve got more than 40,000 chemicals on the market today with only a few hundred regulated. We’ve had industrial byproducts discarded into the ground and into our water supply for years. This crisis affects everyone – rich or poor, black or white, Republican or Democrat. Communities everywhere think they are safe when they are not. By Erin Brockovich

Civil Rights/ Black Liberarion:

A Riot is the Language of the Unheard — The Other America (Speech) – Martin Luther King Jr   The Unheard 99% Have No Mass Leader or Mass Organization That Claims to Represent the Exploited Workers and Oppressed People. These People Have Been Sold Out and Are Left in Despair, With Nowhere to Go to Express Their Exploitation But In  The Sreets! Malcolm X once said words to the effect that the ghetto was a tinder box ready to explode. Malcolm X want to organize the power of the streets into and effective instrument of liberation to gain freedom from want, exploitation and racial oppression.

Last summer, when the Blacks were rioting — the riots, actually they weren’t riots in the first place; they were reactions against police brutality. And when the Afro-Americans reacted against the brutal measures that were executed against them by the police, the press all over the world projected them as rioters. When the store windows were broken in the Black community, immediately it was made to appear that this was being done not by people who were reacting over civil rights violations, but they gave the impression that these were hoodlums, vagrants, criminals…. — Malcolm X on Racist Violence

In 1957, Malcolm X Stared Down The NYPD—And Won (Excerpt fromm Spike Lee’s Malcolm X)One time a riot in Harlem was about to breakout at Harlem Police satation, Malcolm went into the police station got things squared away. The Police Chief said words to the effect that none should have that power. The power to stiop a riot or organize the overthrow of the racust, sexist, anti-worker, and Undemocratic Anti 99% system! In this video Malcolm X Was Able to Prevent a Police Inspired Riot Over Police Brutality. At the end of the video the police chief says: That’s Too much power for one man to have.” (One of the reasons why the U.S. Government assassinated him in 1065!)

Protests Break Out In Wisconsin After Police Shoot Black Man In The Back At Point-Blank Range As Kids Watch From Car Protests broke out in Kenosha, Wisconsin and the state’s Justice Department launched an investigation Sunday evening after police officers shot 29-year-old Jacob Blake in the back multiple times at point-blank range as he tried to enter his vehicle.  Witnesses told local reporters that Blake was attempting to break up a fight prior to being shot by the officers, who closely followed Blake to his car and fired seven shots after he opened the driver-side door. According to civil rights attorney Ben Crump, Blake’s children were in the car when the officers shot their father. By Jake Johnson

‘We Want Justice’: Mass Demonstrations and Marches Erupt Nationwide to Protest Police Shooting of Jacob Blake “The video that came out of Kenosha is absolutely horrific. I don’t understand how people can watch it and not be here.” By Jake Johnson

Labor:

Wage Stagnation in Nine Charts(Wages Listed  Do Not Reflect RealWages.)

Economy:

After 92 Years, Exxon Is Booted from the Dow Jones Industrial Average: A Nod to Sustainable Energy? Yesterday, S&P Dow Jones Indices made the stunning announcement that Exxon Mobil, which has been in the Dow Jones Industrial Average for 92 years, will be replaced in the index before trading begins next Monday, August 31, by Salesforce, a company that went public in 2004. (Exxon Mobil became a component of the Dow in 1928 under the name Standard Oil of New Jersey.) Two other companies are also being replaced in the Dow before trading begins on Monday. The biotech company, Amgen, will replace the more traditional pharmaceutical company, Pfizer. Industrial technology products company, Honeywell International, will replace Raytheon Technologies. By Pam Martens and Russ MartensWorld:

Sanctions Are an Act of War:  Syria Faces Calamity as Trump’s New Sanctions Combine With Surging Coronavirus “If I don’t buy masks or medicine, I may die or survive, but if I don’t buy bread for the family, we will all die of starvation,” says a retired 68-year-old teacher in Damascus, explaining why he does not have masks, sterilisers or medicines. “We need two bundles of loaves every day which costs us at least 600 Syrian pounds (24 US cents), but if we buy masks, they will cost us about 1000 SP (40 cents). The choice is between bread and masks.” By Patrick Cockburn

Thailand: Mass Protests Shake the Regime Almost daily protests have been raging in Thailand for over a month. They are growing in size and audacity. Dozens of school children demanding democracy have become tens of thousands of protestors challenging the foundations of Thai society. If the government doesn’t respond by September, they say, things will escalate. The Thai establishment is like a rabbit caught in the headlights. By Ben GlinieckiFrom Boris to Donald: Stopid Is As Stupid Does:Schools in England Prepare to Defy Official Advice On Face Masks Headteachers call for urgent rethink on facial coverings as part of coronavirus strategy Hundreds of schools in England are preparing to allow or encourage pupils to wear face coverings in communal areas in defiance of UK government guidance on coronavirus. Boris Johnson is under growing pressure to review Public Health England advice that “does not recommend” the use of face masks in schools.As headteachers called for an urgent rethink of the official stance, Labour said there was a “growing body of evidence” to support the Scottish model in which all secondary school pupils will be told to wear face coverings in shared spaces from Monday.

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

If There Were no Blockade of Cuba, the United States Could Have Used Cuba;s Advance Medicine to ‘Flatten the Coronavurs Curve’!:  With COVID-19 Under Control, Cuba Launches New Economic Battle The exemplary domestic and international response of socialist Cuba to the global SARS-CoV2 pandemic has been recognised worldwide. By late July, authorities had the virus under control; 87 people had died, none of them children or healthcare workers, and Cuba was entering phase three of post-Covid-19 recovery. While Cuba’s public health response protected the population, the economic cost was high, particularly through the loss of international tourism – the country’s second largest source of foreign revenue – as borders were closed. This compounded adverse conditions already imposed by external factors, principally the economic crisis in Venezuela and the intensification of US sanctions under the Trump administration from 2017. By Helen Yaffe

Public Health Experts Watch ‘In Horror’ as FDA Approves Narrowly Tested Covid-19 Treatment Amid Pressure From Trump After the president accused the FDA of deliberately holding up approval of convalescent plasma, the agency authorized expanded use of the treatment despite a lack of randomized, controlled studies. Public health experts on Monday raised alarm over President Donald Trump’s overstating of the efficacy of convalescent plasma and his suggestion that the Food and Drug Administration purposefully held up approval of the potential Covid-19 treatment just before the agency authorized its expanded use. The FDA gave emergency approval for the use of antibody-rich plasma on Sunday, a day after the president publicly suggested—with no evidence and not for the first time—that “the deep state, or whoever” at the agency was slowing down the approval process to harm his reelection chances.  By  Julia ConleyEducation for Profit: COVID-19 and the Nakedness of the Corporate University The coronavirus pandemic has both changed everything and accelerated trends that were already occurring across the world in business, politics, and how people shop and interact. The same is true with American higher education. As colleges and universities across America are restarting, Covid-19  has laid bare the nakedness of the corporate university, revealing how education and learning have long been displaced as the primary purpose of colleges and universities. By David Schultz