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Image of the Day:
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!
Quotes 0f the Day:
Following a decade of hope for a transition to a sustainable development pattern (Davidson et al., 2012), rapid deforestation and land-use change have returned to the Amazon. This resurgent change refocused popular attention on the fate of the Basin’s vast C stocks. Our current understanding of the biogeochemistry of climate in the Amazon, however, suggests that positive forcing from non-CO2 factors plays a large role in the regional and global climate system, now likely dominating the net radiative balance of the Amazon. More important than understanding the status quo of net radiative forcing of this more-diverse set of climate forcers is resolving their coupled responses to the accelerating local and global change agents at work in the basin and applying this understanding to manage the biogeochemistry of climate in the Amazon. — Carbon and Beyond: The Biogeochemistry of Climate in a Rapidly Changing Amazon Carbon and Beyond: The Biogeochemistry of Climate in a Rapidly Changing Amazon
IMF chief Georgieva reports that by the end of 2022, cumulative per capita income will be 13 percent below pre-crisis projections in advanced economies—compared with 18 percent for low-income countries and 22 percent for emerging and developing countries excluding China. “Put another way, the convergence between countries can no longer be taken for granted. Before the crisis, we forecast that income gaps between advanced economies and 110 emerging and developing countries would narrow over 2020–22. ..But we now estimate that only 52 economies will be catching up during that period, while 58 are set to fall behind. ..There is a major risk that most developing countries will languish for years to come.” — The Year of the Pandemic
And don’t forget, the COVID-19 pandemic is still not over, with the risk of new variants and slow and ineffective rollout of the vaccines, especially in the global south. Moreover, this will not be the last pandemic. There are more to come. It has been the argument of Rob Wallace and other Marxist epidemiologists that pandemics have become more frequent because of the rapacious expansion into remote areas by fossil fuel, logging and agro firms. This has led to deadly pathogens getting into the food chain. That theory has been now been supported by a new study suggesting that high pork prices in China after the recent swine flu epidemic there led to increased consumption of wild animals from markets. These animals were the conductors of the new pathogens. So industrial farming was the likely cause of COVID-19. “If more wildlife enters the human food chain, either through [individuals] hunting … or going to market and getting different meat sources. If that increases, it could just increase the contact opportunity,” said the author of the study, David Robertson, professor of viral genomics and bioinformatics at Glasgow University. “You’re just increasing the opportunity for the [Sars-CoV-2] virus to get into humans.” So maybe not just one year of the pandemic. — The Year of the Pandemic
Videos of the Day:
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
Federal Bureau of Internal Sabotage (FBI): Bipartisan Activities
The American Rescue Plan Does Not Address the Deep-Rooted Inequality Killing Us Biden’s bailout will not alter the structural inequities and other fundamental underpinnings of America’s death spiral. The established ruling elites know there is a crisis. They agreed, at least temporarily, to throw money at it with the $1.9 trillion Covid-19 bill known as American Rescue Plan (ARP). But the ARP will not alter the structural inequities, either by raising the minimum wage to $15.00 an hour or imposing taxes and regulations on corporations or the billionaire class that saw its wealth increase by a staggering $1.1 trillion since the start of the pandemic. The health system will remain privatized, meaning the insurance and pharmaceutical corporations will reap a windfall of tens of billions of dollars with the ARP, and this when they are already making record profits. The endless wars in the Middle East, and the bloated military budget that funds them, will remain sacrosanct. Wall Street and the predatory global speculators that profit from the massive levels of debt peonage imposed on an underpaid working class and loot the U.S. Treasury in our casino capitalism will continue to funnel money upwards into the hands of a tiny, oligarchic cabal. There will be no campaign finance reform to end our system of legalized bribery. The giant tech monopolies will remain intact. The fossil fuel companies will continue to ravage the ecosystem. The militarized police, censorship imposed by digital media platforms, vast prison system, harsher and harsher laws aimed at curbing domestic terrorism and dissent and wholesale government surveillance will be, as they were before, the primary instruments of state control. By Chris Hedges
Facebook Told Black Applicant With Ph.D. She Needed to Show She Was a “Culture Fit” “You wouldn’t like this job,” she says she was told. Facebook is only 3.9 percent Black and is facing an EEOC investigation. A Black woman passed over for a job at Facebook told federal regulators that even though she was exceptionally qualified for the position, she was rushed through interviews with entirely white staffers, told she wouldn’t like the job, and advised that the company wanted a strong “culture fit,” according to a complaint to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission provided to The Intercept.The woman joins three others who have recently complained to the EEOC about anti-Black racism at Facebook. The agency has begun conducting a “systemic” probe of Facebook, looking into whether the company’s own policies further discrimination, Reuters reported earlier this month. By Sam Biddle
Lives Before profits: Peoples Vaccine Day of Action Calls for Big Pharma to ‘Drop the Patents “The pandemic has made clear that we are connected to people around the world, and our futures are tied to theirs,” said Ben Levenson of People’s Action Justice is Global campaign. Public health advocates and progressive activists rallied outside the headquarters of major pharmaceutical companies Thursday to amplify their demands for a waiver of the World Trade Organization’s intellectual property rights to boost manufacturing capacity of Covid-19 vaccines and for Big Pharma to share vaccine knowledge—measures the protesters say will advance equitable vaccine access and put human lives over corporate profit. By Andrea Germano0s
Environment:
Today Maybe Too Late, To Do What Should Have Been Done Yesterday!: Capitalism is Plundering the World, Quickening the Demise of Humanity:
First Study of All Amazon Greenhouse Gases Suggests The Damaged Forest Is Now Worsening Climate Change The first broad look at all of the gases that affect how the Amazon works—not just CO2—reveals a system on the brink. The Amazon rainforest is most likely now a net contributor to warming of the planet, according to a first-of-its-kind analysis from more than 30 scientists. For years, researchers have expressed concern that rising temperatures, drought, and deforestation are reducing the capacity of the world’s largest rainforest to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and help offset emissions from fossil-fuel burning. Recent studies have even suggested that some portions of the tropical landscape already may release more carbon than they store. ycraig Welch
Carbon and Beyond: The Biogeochemistry of Climate in a Rapidly Changing Amazon Carbon and Beyond: The Biogeochemistry of Climate in a Rapidly Changing Amazon The Amazon Basin is at the center of an intensifying discourse about deforestation, land-use, and global change. To date, climate research in the Basin has overwhelmingly focused on the cycling and storage of carbon (C) and its implications for global climate. Missing, however, is a more comprehensive consideration of other significant biophysical climate feedbacks [i.e., CH4, N2O, black carbon, biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs), aerosols, evapotranspiration, and albedo] and their dynamic responses to both localized (fire, land-use change, infrastructure development, and storms) and global (warming, drying, and some related to El Niño or to warming in the tropical Atlantic) changes. Here, we synthesize the current understanding of (1) sources and fluxes of all major forcing agents, (2) the demonstrated or expected impact of global and local changes on each agent, and (3) the nature, extent, and drivers of anthropogenic change in the Basin. We highlight the large uncertainty in flux magnitude and responses, and their corresponding direct and indirect effects on the regional and global climate system. Despite uncertainty in their responses to change, we conclude that current warming from non-CO2 agents (especially CH4 and N2O) in the Amazon Basin largely offsets—and most likely exceeds—the climate service provided by atmospheric CO2 uptake. We also find that the majority of anthropogenic impacts act to increase the radiative forcing potential of the Basin. Given the large contribution of less-recognized agents (e.g., Amazonian trees alone emit ~3.5% of all global CH4), a continuing focus on a single metric (i.e., C uptake and storage) is incompatible with genuine efforts to understand and manage the biogeochemistry of climate in a rapidly changing Amazon Basin.
‘Kern Runs On Oil’: As California Confronts Climate Crisis, One County is Ready to Drill Kern county, which sprawls more than 8,000 square miles, connecting the Sierra Nevada slopes and the Mojave Desert to the counties on the Central Coast, is the oil capital of California. The county produces about 70% of the state’s oil and more than 90% of its natural gas – and it has plans to ramp up production. This week the county approved an ordinance that would allow thousands of new wells to be drilled over the next 15 years. The decision comes despite deep opposition from local farmers and environmental groups, and it puts the county directly at odds with a state that has branded itself as a trailblazer on climate and set ambitious goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. By Gabrielle Canon
Oil and Water Don’t Mix with California Agriculture Kern County, California From the “Petroleum Highway” — a rutted, dusty stretch of California State Route 33 — you can see the jostling armies of two giant industries. To the east, relentless rows of almonds and pistachios march to the horizon. To the west, an armada of oil wells sweeps to the foothills of the Temblor Range. Fred Starrh, who farms along this industrial front, has seen firsthand what can happen when agriculture collides with oil. On an overcast February day, he drives his mother-of-pearl Lincoln Town Car down a dirt road through his orchards. Starrh Farms has 6,000 acres of pistachios, cotton, almonds and alfalfa. Starrh proudly points out almond trees planted 155 to the acre with the aid of lasers and GPS. At the edge of his land, he pulls up beside 20-foot-high earthen berms, the ramparts of large “percolation” ponds that belong to a neighbor, Aera Energy. By Jeremy Miller
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Economy:
The Year of the Pandemic It is one year to the day since the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak or epidemic as a ‘pandemic’, namely the global spread of the disease. Of course, COVID-19 had emerged much earlier, maybe even in autumn 2019, but the outbreak really took hold in Wuhan, China first, before quickly sweeping across the globe. How does the health balance sheet look after one year of the pandemic? Well, 119m people (or just 2% of the world’s population) have been reported as infected, although if we include those who had no symptoms and those who did not report being ill, the figure is probably more like 15-20%. There have been 2.6m reported as having died of the disease. So that’s a case fatality ratio (CFR) of 2.2% globally. In some countries the CFR is way higher – Mexico’s CFR is close to 9%; Italy, the UK and South Africa CFRs are close to 3%. The variation is down to the age of those infected, the general health of the population and the resources and efficacy of the health systems in each country. By Michael Roberts
World:
Britain: Labour Right Wing Reject Democracy – For a Left Conference to Fight Back! Showing their contempt for democracy, Labour’s right-wing dominated NEC has rejected members’ call for a recall conference. The left must organise a conference of its own – to draw up a battle plan and mobilise to remove this disastrous leadership. The Labour Party National Executive Committee (NEC) met yesterday in the face of a systemic crisis that is enveloping the party. On the agenda was the question of whether to call a recall conference. According to the Labour Party’s constitution, a national conference – composed of elected delegates from local parties and affiliated organizations – must be called once a year. By Socialist Appeal (Britain)
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 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
Cases Down Deaths of the Poor, Uninsured, and Underinsured Continue to Die!: The United States Coronavirus ‘War’ Update: As of o3/13/2021: Over30,043,662 Cases (Casualties), Over 546,661 Deaths, and Over 11,359 are in Serious or Critical Condition.
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!
United States:
Labor: