Daily News Digest August 24, 2021
Over a Hundred Years Ago. Rosa Luxemburg Raised the Slogan: Socialism or Barbarism! The Slogan for 2021 is Ecosocialism or Ecocide!!!!
Daily News Digest Archives
Images of the Day:
Withdrawal
The United States Has Almost Always Been In Perpetual War
Another Example of Capitalism as a Failed System: World Capilalism Was Aware of the Danger of Cornovavirus Threat Over 5 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!
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”
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 of the Day:
If you ever feel useless, remember it took 20 years, trillions of dollars and four US presidents to replace the Taliban with the Taliban. — Dr. Norman Finkelstein ( As the War Profiteers Profited!)
The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members. — Mahatma Gandhi
UNICEF has released a report showing the risks that children are *already* facing from climate breakdown. It shows that billions of children face disproportionate climate hazards – extreme heat, water scarcity, flooding, disease and pollution. These effects will get rapidly worse over time. Can you imagine anything more evil than sacrificing children for the sake of short term profits? It’s time for a social, political and economic revolution, which puts the needs of living beings first. Inform people about the crimes being committed. Organise. Resist. — Scientist Rebellion
I wear a mask for the same reason I drive on the correct side of the freeway. I wear a mask for the same reason I drive on the road instead of on the sidewalk. I wear a mask because it helps protect my young grandson who has a heart condition and lives in my home. I wear a mask because it is the right and intelligent thing to do. No one has the right to put the lives of others at risk by not masking up or being vaccinated. ‑ — Parents Do Not Have the “Right” to Opt Out of Public Health Measures
The startling conclusion is that continued exploitation of all fossil fuels on Earth threatens not only the other millions of species on the planet, but also the survival of humanity itself – and the timetable is shorter than we thought […] The tragedy is that the actions needed to stabilise climate are not only feasible, but provide additional benefits as well. — James Hansen, Nasa Chief Climate Scientist, Take Action
The main reason to defeat the fossil fuel corporations is that their product is destroying the planet, but their insidious propaganda, from spreading climate-change denial to pushing this climate footprint business, makes this goal even more worthwhile. — Sandra Steingraber
Videos of the Day:
August 14 Earthquake Reminds Haiti of Clinton Family Butchery In Haiti
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, who profit from war and the war budget, voted 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. Tax the Rich! — They Can Afford To Pay!
Far Right Groups Tied to Jan. 6 Attack Reporters and Others at Anti-Mask Rally As COVID-19 cases surge in the United States, anti-mask and anti-vaccine protests are continuing nationwide, with some turning violent. In a shocking story out of California, at least one person was stabbed and two journalists were attacked while covering an anti-vaccine, anti-mask demonstration outside Los Angeles City Hall on Saturday, August 14. The protest was attended by members of the Proud Boys and other right-wing groups. A Southern California mortgage broker named Tony Moon, who also participated in the deadly January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, was videotaped attacking the independent journalist Tina-Desiree Berg. “He started screaming ‘Unmask them all!’ He ripped my mask off and manhandled me,” says Berg, a reporter at Status Coup News in Los Angeles, who describes how the same people have been involved in violent protests nationwide. “This is a group that has been traveling around … and they instigate violence wherever they go.”
Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill Includes $25 Billion In Potential New Subsidies For Fossil Fuels Instead of reducing the role of fossil fuels in the economy, critics say, the bill subsidizes industry “greenwashing THE SENATE’S NEW bipartisan infrastructure bill is being sold as a down payment on addressing the climate crisis. But environmental advocates and academics are warning the proposed spending bill is full of new fossil fuel industry subsidies masked as climate solutions. The latest draft bill would make fossil fuel companies eligible for at least $25 billion in new subsidies, according to an analysis by the Center for International Environmental Law. A recent piece in the Washington Post titled “Welfare rolls decline during the pandemic despite economic upheaval” delves into one of the biggest domestic policy failures of Bill Clinton’s presidency: the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, which provides financial assistance for the country’s poor. TANF, explains reporter Amy Goldstein, is the reason why when the coronavirus spread and shelter-in-place mandates were issued, causing millions of Americans to lose their jobs at rates comparable to the Great Depression, even less people were able to receive needs-based cash assistance than prior to the pandemic.
Peter Edelman: What Democrats Did to Welfare Is Coming Back to Haunt Them On this week’s “Scheer Intelligence,” the former Clinton administration official examines how Americans are still tormented by the specter of President Bill Clinton’s worst domestic policy failure. On this week’s “Scheer Intelligence,” the former Clinton administration official examines how Americans are still tormented by the specter of President Bill Clinton’s worst domestic policy failure.
Afghanistan and the UK: Cold Reality of ‘Global Britain’ Begins to Bite The Western withdrawal from Afghanistan is not only a humiliation for US imperialism, but also for Brexiteer Tories, whose jingoistic delusions have been shattered. To help the Afghan masses, we must overthrow this rotten Tory government. In Kabul this week, there were scenes of chaos and tragedy, as ordinary Afghans attempted to flee the country and the dire prospect of Taliban rule. In the House of Commons yesterday, meanwhile, there were scenes of chaos and farce, as MPs returned from their summer recess to debate the government’s response to the rapidly unfolding events in
The Relative Decline of US imperialism The swift collapse of Afghanistan puppet government when US troops withdrew from the war with the Taliban and left the country after 20 years has been likened to the fall of Saigon at the end of the 30-year ‘American’ war against the Vietnamese people. The scenes of Afghans trying to get onto US planes at the airport to escape seem startlingly familiar to those of us who can remember the last days of Saigon. But is this a superficial similarity? After all, America’s occupation of Vietnam was way more costly as a share of US national output and in terms of the lives of American soldiers than the attempt at ‘regime’ change in Afghanistan. The Vietnam disaster led to the US government running deficits for the first time since WW2. But even more important, it meant a diversion of investment into arms rather than productive sectors at a time when the profitability of capital had already begun to fall, the Golden Age of investment and profitability having peaked in the mid-1960s.
Environment:
Methane Is Flaring Out of Control. Biden Administration, Congress Must Step In. This summer, methane got a nickname that stuck. Climate scientists and policy analysts have been calling the greenhouse gas a “low-hanging fruit” for years, but the term seems to have caught on more broadly among world leaders, journalists and organizers, due in part to a major United Nations report on methane and the most dire Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment issued yet. Methane is the second greatest contributor to the climate emergency after carbon dioxide, but unlike CO2, it only sticks around the atmosphere for about a decade. So cutting methane emissions drastically and immediately can have a sizable impact on keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius and thereby averting the most catastrophic impacts of climate change, such as global food shortage.
Toxic ‘Forever Chemicals’ Suspected at Oil Sites Across California PFAS chemicals persist indefinitely in the environment and are linked to severe illness At least 162 oil refineries and other petroleum-holding facilities in California have likely stored or used materials containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a class of synthetic chemicals that persist indefinitely in the environment and are linked to severe illnesses, according to state water regulators. The California State Water Resources Control Board sent a letter to
facility operators in March ordering them to submit work plans evaluating the presence of the toxic compounds at their facilities, including areas where PFAS are stored or disposed of and the potential ways the chemicals could have contaminated soil, surface water, storm water and groundwater as part of a multiyear phased investigation into PFAS contamination of drinking water.
Black Liberation/Civil Rights:
Labor:
Economy:
The Money Bubble: The Federal Reserve Is Financing Future Debt Problems
Who would be on the hook to bail out the Fed if it came to that? The American people. In May of last year, we explained in detail, using statements published by the Fed itself, why American taxpayers are on the hook for 98 percent of the Fed’s balance sheet. At that time, the Fed’s balance sheet stood at $6.98 trillion. Today, it’s balance sheet is $8.28 trillion. If you care about the future of your country, or your children’s future, pick up the phone today and call your Senators and demand hearings on structurally reforming Wall Street and its regulators, and stripping the Fed of its supervisory powers over the banks. The Fed needs to return to its core mission as a central bank, rather than functioning as Wall Street’s Sugar Daddy. — The Fed Just Published 36 Years of Its Money Data. It Shows a Spike in Repo Loans Is an Early Warning of an Impending Market Crash —The Jackson Hole Dilemma
These purchases are called ‘quantitative easing’. Instead of lowering interest rates to encourage borrowing, since the onset of the Great Recession in 2008-9, central banks have gone for increasing sharply the quantity of dollars, euros, yen and pounds pumped into the banking and financial system. ‘Policy’ (ie central bank short-term rates) interest rates had already been driven down to zero and below. The only weapon left to central banks to stimulate economies was to ‘print’ money, in practice buying government and corporate bonds from financial institutions holding them and hope that banks lend that cash on to firms. Throughout the Long Depression (as I call it) from 2009 to 2019, the level of central bank assets in these bonds rocketed. By December 2019, the assets held by the Federal Reserve in the United States were valued at 19.3 percent of the U.S. economy’s gross domestic product. This compares to 39.6 percent for the European Central bank, and 103.5 percent for the Bank of Japan (as of November 2019). And central banks have been purchasing $834 million an hour for the last 18 months. Since the start of the pandemic, the Fed’s balance sheet has more than doubled to $8tn. The European Central bank has total assets worth more than €8tn, the Bank of Japan has about $6tn, while the UK has doubled its QE programme to £895bn. Leading central banks now own more than £18tn in government bonds and other assets, an increase of more than 50% on pre-pandemic levels. Who would be on the hook to bail out the Fed if it came to that? The American people. In May of last year, we explained in detail, using statements published by the Fed itself, why American taxpayers are on the hook for 98 percent of the Fed’s balance sheet. At that time, the Fed’s balance sheet stood at $6.98 trillion. Today, it’s balance sheet is $8.28 trillion. If you care about the future of your country, or your children’s future, pick up the phone today and call your Senators and demand hearings on structurally reforming Wall Street and its regulators, and stripping the Fed of its supervisory powers over the banks. The Fed needs to return to its core mission as a central bank, rather than functioning as Wall Street’s Sugar Daddy. — The Fed Just Published 36 Years of Its Money Data. It Shows a Spike in Repo Loans Is an Early Warning of an Impending Market Crash 
Three of the Fed’s Wall Street Bailout Programs Vanish from Its Monthly Reports to Congress Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and Fed Vice Chairman for Supervision, Randal Quarles, would desperately like to make three of the Fed’s emergency bailout programs to Wall Street disappear from further scrutiny by Congress or the American people. That’s because the specific details of those programs do not comport with the testimony that Powell and Quarles have provided at Congressional hearings throughout the pandemic. Both Powell and Quarles have told Congress that the mega banks were a source of strength during the pandemic. (The chart above shows what was really happening.)
World:
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!
The Children are the Most Vulnerable!: One Billion Children At ‘Extremely High Risk’ of the Impacts of the Climate Crisis – UNICEF
. . . “For the first time, we have a complete picture of where and how children are vulnerable to climate change, and that picture is almost unimaginably dire. Climate and environmental shocks are undermining the complete spectrum of children’s rights, from access to clean air, food and safe water; to education, housing, freedom from exploitation, and even their right to survive. Virtually no child’s life will be unaffected,” said Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director. “For three years, children have raised their voices around the world to demand action. UNICEF supports their calls for change with an unarguable message – the climate crisis is a child’s rights crisis.”
The Children’s Climate Risk Index (CCRI) reveals:
-
240 million children are highly exposed to coastal flooding;
-
330 million children are highly exposed to riverine flooding;
-
400 million children are highly exposed to cyclones;
-
600 million children are highly exposed to vector borne diseases;
-
815 million children are highly exposed to lead pollution;
-
820 million children are highly exposed to heatwaves;
-
920 million children are highly exposed to water scarcity;
-
1 billion children are are highly exposed to exceedingly high levels of air pollution[1]
