Daily News Digest November 18, 2020

Daily News Digest Archives

Another Example Capitalism as a Failed System: World Capilalism Was Aware of the Danger of Cornovavirus Threat Over 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 future of Humanity Is Now At stake!Since World War I, ‘the war to end all wars’, there have been perpetual wars for perpetual peace, this Laura 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!    For Decades, Blacks Have Been Subjected to The Iron Heel!   Currently, the US Capitalist Class is Divided Over When — Not If, to Apply It to Everyone!

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!

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:

Signe Wilkinson: Post-election White House jobs for Donald Trump Quotes 0f the Day:

Simultaneously, media capitalism adds more gloss on glossy jobs for the new elite while simultaneously justifying joblessness, wage stagnation, and precarious employment in gloomy jobs. Increasingly, it also creates mass unemployment for workers and the middle-class. The increased alienation and exclusion of workers and the middle-class paralleled by the concentration of power in the hands of the new elite means precisely what Overall, the 100 most expensive U.S. hospitals charge from $1,129 to $1,808 for every $100 of their costs. Nationally, U.S. hospitals average $417 for every $100 of their costs, a markup that has more than doubled over the past 20 years. The full study is available here. — New Study – Hospitals Hike Charges by Up to 18 Times Cost

Videos of the Day:

With COVID Vaccines on the Horizon, U.S. Urged to Help Ensure Equitable Distribution Across Globe

“No End in Sight”: 9 Months into Pandemic, Nurses Are Tired, Demoralized & Still Lack Adequate PPE

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!

‘It’s Even Worse on Video’: Trump Adviser Welcomes Killing Loved Ones With Covid-19 as This May Be ‘Their Final Thanksgiving’ Anyway “Eat, drink, and be merry, because tomorrow my policies may kill you.” In his latest anti-science appeal to Americans, White House coronavirus adviser Dr. Scott Atlas on Monday night called on families to ignore the guidance of public health experts who say the holiday season should not include indoor gatherings—suggesting to Fox News that families should take the risk even for elderly or sick relatives this Thanksgiving because they will no longer be alive next year. By Julia ConleyTrump’s Slow Coup? The Crisis of US Bourgeois Democracy Tens of thousands of Donald Trump supporters rallied in Washington, DC on November 14. President Trump drove his motorcade through the marchers, expressing his support, on his way to Trump National golf course to play a round. The mainly white crowd waved flags, sang the national anthem and called Democrat Joseph Biden’s election to the presidency a “theft”. Prominent signs read: “Stop the steal”. The march began at Freedom Plaza then headed towards the US Supreme Court. The protesters attacked “big media” for calling state elections for Biden. When a reporter pointed out to a demonstrator that the media called North Carolina for Trump, the reply was “that’s different”. By Malik Miah

A youth Group Helped Biden Win. Now They Want Him To Fix Climate Crisis The Sunrise Movement helped reach 3.5m voters in swing states and are determined to hold the president-elect to his promises Joe Biden will have to navigate a path for the most ambitious climate agenda ever adopted by a US president through not only stubborn Republican obstruction but also an emergent youth climate movement that is already formulating plans to hold him to account. By Oliver Milman

Environment:

Solvay Withholds Data About Toxic Pfas Pollution in New Jersey New Jersey is battling the chemical company Solvay Specialty Polymers over critical information about a recently identified group of PFAS compounds. The company has provided the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection with studies showing that the chemicals, which it has released near its plant in West Deptford, are toxic. But Solvay has forbidden the state agency from sharing the details of the chemicals’ effects on health and the environment on the grounds that they are confidential business information.  On November 10, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection sued Solvay over the PFAS contamination, charging the chemical manufacturer with violating multiple environmental laws by releasing the toxic industrial compounds into soil, water, and air near the plant. The suit also demanded that the company allow the state agency to release information about the newly discovered chemicals’ effects on health and the environment. By Sharon Lerner

The Return of Nature: Socialism and Ecology John Bellamy Foster’s brilliant recovery of a century of ecological and socialist thought will inform, enable, and inspire a new generation of reds and greens In an age in which the call for system change is being heard more and more, in increasing recognition of the socio-economic causes of climate crisis, a book establishing the connection between socialism and ecology could not be more timely. In tracing the evolution of that connection, John BellamyFoster’s The Return of Nature identifies the conditions for an effective ecosocialism. Reviewed By Peter Critchley‘Unreal & Heartbreaking’: Experts Highlight Climate Crisis Connection as Category 5 Hurricane Iota Barrels Toward Central America “It’s a simple equation: as the global temperature rises storms get bigger, longer, and more frequent,” said Greenpeace. “We need governments to act on climate RIGHT NOW. By Jessica CorbettDisaster Capitalism: Fighting wildfires is lucrative for private contractors, which is making fires bigger and more deadly It feels like months ago already. But in mid-August, California was dealing with hundreds of out-of-control wildfires, causing hundreds of thousands to evacuate their homes—all while the pandemic raged on.  This week, fire crews struggling to contain the fires are reporting “great progress,” and experts are weighing in on how to do something—anything—to prevent future wildfires.   A number of those experts recently spoke to ProPublica about the dire need for more managed, intentional burning of uninhabited land. “We need to get good fire on the ground and whittle down some of that fuel load,” an environmental sociologist told reporter Elizabeth Weil.   But another front in the battle against wildfires rang loud and clear: Fire suppression is big business, especially for private contractors. By Jeremy Mohler

Scorched Earth Policy: Trump Administration Rushes to Auction Off Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Drilling Rights Before Biden Inauguration The pristine reserve is home to the Gwich’in people, who call it “Iizhik Gwats’an Gwandaii Goodlit,” or, “the sacred

Civil Rights/Black Liberation:

A Fresh Portrayal of Abolitionist John Brown When I was in high school in Houston in the 1950s, we studied the Civil War. John Brown was portrayed in the American history textbook as a zealot and a terrorist.I just read about a new film in which he is shown as a visionary far ahead of his times, a man who believed unconditionally in human equality. Of the day following John Brown’s raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Va., in 1859 — now understood by scholars and schoolchildren alike to be one of the precipitating events of the Civil War — pioneering Black historian W.E.B. DuBois described a nation of doubters, uncertain of Brown’s legacy and hesitant to claim it. With the benefit of 50 years’ hindsight, though, DuBois himself had no such compunction. “When a prophet like John Brown appears, how must we of the world receive him?” he asked in his 1909 biography of the antislavery crusader, combating Brown’s Jim Crow-era reputation as a bloodthirsty outlaw. “Only in time is truth revealed. Today at last we know: John Brown was right.”By Diane RavitchMalcolm X 1965: The Prospects for Freedom (Audi0): To combat the rise of the Civil Right Movement, the “war on poverty” was first launched in 1964 along with the concept of “Black Politicians”. Malcolm X described this process in his Jan. 7, 1965 speech The Prospects for Freedom, at the Militant Labor Forum, in New York City (For complete an audio of the speech go here.):  “They have a new gimmick every year. They’re going to take one of their boys, black boys, and put him in the cabinet so he can walk around Washington with a cigar. Fire on one end and fool on the other end. And because his immediate personal problem will have been solved he will be the one to tell our people: ‘Look how much progress we’re making. I’m in Washington, D.C., I can have tea in the White House. I’m your spokesman, I’m your leader.’ While our people are still living in Harlem in the slums. Still receiving the worst form of education. But how many sitting here right now feel that they could [laughs] truly identify with a struggle that was designed to eliminate the basic causes that create the conditions that exist? Not very many. They can jive, but when it comes to identifying yourself with a struggle that is not endorsed by the power structure, that is not acceptable, that the ground rules are not laid down by the society in which you live, in which you are struggling against, you can’t identify with that, you step back. It’s easy to become a satellite today without even realizing it. This country can seduce God. Yes, it has that seductive power of economic dollarism. You can cut out colonialism, imperialism and all other kind of ism, but it’s hard for you to cut that dollarism. When they drop those dollars on you, you’ll fold though.”

Black Agenda Radio for Week of November 16, 2020 With Margaret Kimberley and Glen FordThe Mulatta in White Brazilian and US Imaginations  “The mixed Black figure, the mulatta” is “a central focus of containing and managing Blackness and upholding whiteness” in both Brazil and the United States, said Jasmine Mitchell, professor of American Studies and Media and Communication at the State University of New York at Old Westbury. Brazilian media popularize “ideologies of racial mixing with the hope that the nation will become less Black,” said Mitchell, author of the book, “Imagining the Mulatta: Blackness in U.S. and Brazilian Media.”

Black Is Back Coalition: “Black Power Matters” “The mixed Black figure, the mulatta” is “a central focus of containing and managing Blackness and upholding whiteness” in both Brazil and the United States, said Jasmine Mitchell, professor of American Studies and Media and Communication at the State University of New York at Old Westbury. Brazilian media popularize “ideologies of racial mixing with the hope that the nation will become less Black,” said Mitchell, author of the book, “Imagining the Mulatta: Blackness in U.S. and Brazilian Media.”

BLM National Leadership Focused on Money and Careers Breya Johnson, co-chair of Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100) in Washington, DC, said her organization enjoys a “working relationship” with the local Black Lives Matter chapter, but views BLM’s national leadership as “more about career interests” and raising money “than it is about Black liberation.” BYP100 sees mutual aid as crucial during the Covid-19-induced economic crisis, “because the government failed us.” “How we keep us safe is critical,” said Johnson, a masters student at George Washington University.

Labor:

Economy:

Why Inflation Could Be on the Way Back Are we about to enter a new era of surprisingly high inflation, rather than below target inflation to which we are accustomed? Many reject this point of view. But the boy who cried wolf was right last time. A book which has just come out cries wolf with insistence. He indicates in particular that, because of the fiscal and monetary largesse of today, “as in the aftermath of many wars, there will be a surge in inflation, probably above 5%, or even of the order of 10%. in 2021 ”. It would change everything. The prediction comes from The great demographic shift by Charles Goodhart, a respected scholar, and Manoj Pradhan, formerly at Morgan Stanley. Its prophecy of impending inflationary catastrophe is, in fact, less significant than its analytical framework. These authors argue that the global economy is on the verge of regime change. The last time this happened was in the 1980s. The big changes of four decades ago were not so much the desire to control inflation, but globalization and the entry of China in the world economy. This era, they argue, which was marked by low inflation and high and growing debt, is coming to an end. Its reverse will follow soon. By Martin WolfWorld:

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 What For Profit Health Care Breeds: Study Detailing ‘Scandalous’ Hospital Price-Gouging During Pandemic Proves Medicare for All Urgently Needed “These are not markups for luxury condos, they are for the most basic necessity of your life: your health.” With hospitalizations due to Covid-19 infections surging across the country, new analysis released Monday by the nation’s largest nurses’ union reveals that thousands of coronavirus patients are among the Americans who could soon be hit with “scandalous” price hikes for healthcare services.  By Julia Conley

‘Ignorance is Strength: Citizenship In the United States, when catastrophes happen, one of the first public reactions is to blame the schools. A recent headline in Mother Jones typifies this: “Why Teaching Civics in America’s Classrooms Must Be a Trump-Era Priority.” Surely, the logic goes, if civics had been properly taught to them, more than 70 million Americans would not have just voted for a delusional sociopath determined to replace centuries of constitutional democracy with a corrupt dictatorship. It is true that since 1960 the teaching of civics in American schools has been largely obliterated by funding cuts and “core exam” strategies. By 2011, all federal support for the teaching of social studies and civics in schools had ended. Survey after survey has discovered just how ignorant Americans have become about their nation. For example, two-thirds of them can’t even name the three different branches of the US government. Or, presumably, spot the difference between the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech and Trump’s repeated claim that the news media are “enemies of the People.” By Paul Spike