Daily News Digest August 26, 2021
Over a Hundred Years Ago. Rosa Luxemburg Raised the Slogan: Socialism or Barbarism! The Slogan for 2021 is Ecosocialism or Ecocide!!!!
Leaked Report of the IPCC Reveals That the Growth Model of Capitalism Is Unsustainable The second draft of the IPCC Group III report, focused on mitigation strategies, states that we must move away from the current capitalist model to avoid surpassing planetary boundaries and climate and ecological catastrophe). It also confirms our previous reports, covered by CTXT and The Guardian, that “greenhouse gas emissions must peak in the next four years”. The new leak acknowledges that there is little or no room for further economic growth. The undersigned scientists and journalists have analyzed a new part of the Sixth Assessment Report, which has been leaked to us by the same sources as last time—Scientist Rebellion and Extinction Rebellion Spain. In this leak the usual more timid positions can be found, but also prominent statements that would have been unthinkable not long ago.
Daily News Digest Archives
Images of the Day:
Bendib: Afghan Graveyard
The Real Winners of the Afghanistan 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:
Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it. — Arundhati Roy: ‘The Pandemic is a Portal’
As is the way with big spending bills like this, much of the actual implementation will occur over the coming years at a city and state level. That’s critical to remember, because, for decades now, many localities have failed to invest adequately in infrastructure, preferring instead to cut taxes and to defer needed improvements. The result has been dilapidation, with the U.S. ranking 13th out of advanced economies in the quality of its infrastructure, according to a much-quoted study by the World Economic Forum. In 2019, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) reported that state and local government infrastructure investments had declined from a high of 3 percent of the country’s GDP in the 1960s to less than 2 percent a half century later. Making matters worse, the CBPP researchers found, was that the federal government was also pulling back on such investments. The result has been akin to what, in earlier decades, the economist John Kenneth Galbraith derided as “public squalor, private affluence” — a society with a glut of wealthy people living in wealthy neighborhoods, surrounded by a crumbling public infrastructure that they have largely opted out of. — The Real Impact of the $1.2 Trillion Infrastructure Bill Will Be Felt Locally
Videos of the Day:
Even When Fighting the Far Right, The Fbi Is Not Your Friend Combatting the extremist violence of the far right can lead well-meaning people to cheer on repressive institutions like the FBI. But these institutions, author Shane Burley argues, are not on our side. Combatting the extremist violence of the far right can lead well-meaning people to cheer on repressive institutions like the FBI. But these institutions, author Shane Burley argues, are not on our side. When it comes to the extremist violence and anti-democratic, even fascistic, designs of the far right, the threat goes much deeper than visible groups like the Proud Boys. Out of fear and a desire to protect those who are most vulnerable to these threats, some well-meaning allies have shown a troubling willingness to align themselves with repressive institutions like the FBI. But history has shown time and again that such institutions are not on the side of the progressive left or the working class, author and activist Shane Burley argues. In the first installment of this week’s Marc Steiner Show, Marc and Burley discuss the inner workings of the far right today and the need to counteract the reactionary threats it poses by organizing at the grassroots level and building robust community protection networks. Shane Burley is the author of Why We Fight: Essays on Fascism, Resistance, and Surviving the Apocalypse (AK Press, 2021) and Fascism Today: What It Is and How to End It (AK Press, 2017). His work has appeared in a range of outlets including NBC News, Jacobin, Al Jazeera, The Baffler, The Daily Beast, Truthout, In These Times, and Protean magazine.
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!
The Tragedy of State, Local, and Federal Governments Refusal to Pay What is Due to Renters: Only 11 Percent of Rental Aid Has Been Disbursed, Says US Treasury States are delivering funds so slowly that an eviction surge is likely even if the Supreme Court upholds the moratorium. As the White House prepares for a U.S. Supreme Court order that could invalidate the new federal eviction moratorium, data released Wednesday revealed that state and local governments have disbursed just 11% of the funds that Congress allocated to help pay off debts accrued by renters during the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the U.S. Treasury Department, which oversees the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, only $1.7 billion was distributed in July. The New York Times reported that last month’s amount “was a modest increase from the prior month, bringing the total aid disbursed thus far to about $5.1 billion.” That’s a small fraction of the $46.5 billion that Congress appropriated for rental assistance in two coronavirus relief packages passed in the last year.
Anti-Vaxxers Poison Themselves by Taking Cattle Deworming Drug Against COVIDHealth officials from a number of states, as well as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), are issuing warnings against the use of a medicine that is intended for deworming farm animals, which many vaccine-wary individuals have ingested themselves as a means to treat or prevent coronavirus, in spite of there being no proof of its being effective against COVID. The drug, called Ivermectin, is generally administered to horses. A version of the medicine for human consumption also exists, but it comes in lower dosages, and is used to treat parasitic infections, not viruses like COVID-19. Indeed, there is no evidence to suggest the drug is effective at all in treatment for the virus, a fact that has been known for over a year.
John Pilger: The Great Game of Smashing Countries As a tsunami of crocodile tears engulfs Western politicians, history is suppressed. More than a generation ago, Afghanistan won its freedom, which the United States, Britain and their “allies” destroyed. In 1978, a liberation movement led by the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) overthrew the dictatorship of Mohammad Dawd, the cousin of King Zahir Shar. It was an immensely popular revolution that took the British and Americans by surprise. Foreign journalists in Kabul, reported the New York Times, were surprised to find that “nearly every Afghan they interviewed said [they were] delighted with the coup”. The Wall Street Journal reported that “150,000 persons … marched to honour the new flag …the participants appeared genuinely enthusiastic.
Environment:
The Need to Prevent Orphans: the American Oil and Gas Industry is Leaving a Big, Dangerous Mess The United States is facing a crisis in abandoned infrastructure, or “orphanage,” among the oil and gas industry. This crisis has been succinctly described by Megan Milliken Biven & Regan Boychuk as well as extensively reported on by the think tank Carbon Tracker, as in here, here, and here. The problem is that plugging and abandoning oil wells is expensive, and abandoning them so far has not been. Many wells can produce indefinitely in lower and lower amounts, until the cost of operating them exceeds the available profits. At this point the operator will plug (if they are willing and able to plug) or walk away (if they aren’t). The problem with orphans has many facets. Having operators profit from assets and abandon their liabilities is a massive subsidy to the oil and gas industry at a time we should be investing in renewable energy.
Does Nature Have Rights? Does Nature Have Rights? A Case from the NW Ecuadorian Cloud Forests United Nations released a report warning that climate change is coming faster than predicted and that the world is losing time to act. Bio-cultural diversity loss contributes to the thrashing of livable planetary boundaries. As a cultural anthropologist and activist who has worked in NW Ecuador for more than thirty years, the zone Intag-Manduriacos has lessons for the world. Identified by global ecologists as a hotspot for biodiversity conservation, the local communities are at extreme risk of being turned into zones of mineral extraction. This potential catastrophic future comes despite Ecuadorians’ prescience in ratifying the 2008 Constitution of Monticristi, guaranteeing rights of Nature/Pachamama and cultural rights for the pluri-nationalities within Ecuador. Heralded by the global community as the first constitution to codify rights of Nature, Ecuadorians dared to transform rules of governance and created a legal blueprint for action to avert a grim climate future. The application of these rights in an area where biodiverse communities hold their cultural, economic, and hydrological systems together has both concrete and philosophical implications for us all
Black Liberation/Civil Rights:
Antifascists Stopped Proud Boys From Entering Portland’s City Center on Sunday The far right Proud Boys haven’t stopped holding rallies in progressive urban areas, but their ability to draw crowds and take over city centers is being checked by antifascists looking to halt their growth.On Sunday, August 22, a number of people associated with the far right “Patriot” movement held a rally in Portland, Oregon, featuring the Proud Boys, members of Patriot Prayer and unaffiliated supporters. One of its key organizers was Audra Price, a member of a Pacific Northwest–based “police supporters” group known as COPS NW, which organizes anti-Black Lives Matter rallies. Some of the organizations associated with the far right rally, such as the Proud Boys, are at the core of the recent spate of far right violence that has plagued both Portland and other cities around the country. As expected, numerous organizations and autonomous organizers prepared a series of interventions to challenge the far right rally, refusing to let the far right activists return to the city without objection.
Portland’s Bizarre Experiment With Not Policing Proud Boys Rampage Ends in Gunfire Portland’s police force chose to stand back and stand by as Proud Boys who came to the city to fight with anti-fascists assaulted protesters and a right-wing gunman opened fire. Portland narrowly avoided tragedy on Sunday as the city’s police force abandoned its duty to secure the streets and officers made no effort to stop assaults on residents by members of the far-right Proud Boys gang, many of whom had traveled from around the country to live out their fantasies of attacking anti-fascist protesters. The absence of the police, in line with a policy on nonintervention announced beforehand by Portland Police Bureau Chief Chuck Lovell, reinforced a sense among anti-fascists that they were on their own. So when a right-wing gunman fired in the direction of black-clad protesters who had chased him away from their protest at gunpoint, it was shocking but perhaps not surprising that one of the anti-fascists fired back, according to witnesses.
Labor:
Being Worked to Death – A New Report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) Global, regional, and national burdens of ischemic heart disease and stroke attributable to exposure to long working hours for 194 countries, 2000–2016: A systematic analysis from the WHO/ILO Joint Estimates of the Work-related Burden of Disease and Injury Globally in 2016, 488 million people were exposed to long working hours (≥55 hours/week). This exposure had 745,194 attributable deaths and 23.3 million DALYs from ischemic heart disease and stroke. These are 4.9% of all deaths and 6.9% of all DALYs from these causes. The Western Pacific, South-East Asia, men, and older people carried higher burdens.
The Working Poor (2019) Almost 25% of US workers earn less than 2/3 of median wage – by far the highest share of any large advanced economy. Only Canada comes close. Obviously, the US median wage is higher than in many other countries, but the gap between the average for a worker and the working poor is the largest.
Economy:
Depression Economics: Chicago Fed National Financial Conditions Index is -0.66728
Two Hedge Fund Billionaires Hedge their Bets on Regeneron as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Opens Regeneron Treatment Centers for COVID-19 Across Florida Billionaire hedge fund titan Ken Griffin’s Citadel Advisors has had a stake in the biotech company, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, since at least December 31, 2011 – a decade ago. The same is true for billionaire Jeffrey Yass’ giant hedge fund, Susquehanna International Group. Both stakes have grown in size in recent years.
World:
Graham Victory Reflects Real Mood of Discontent in the Unions Left-winger Sharon Graham has won the Unite general secretary race, appealing to rank-and-file members with a promise to defend jobs and conditions. This early tremor is a sign of the earthquakes that will shake the trade unions from top to bottom. Sharon Graham, the left-wing ‘underdog’ in the Unite general secretary contest, has secured a welcome victory, defeating the right-wing candidate, Gerard Coyne, to become the leader of Britain’s second largest union. This win is a major blow to the establishment and the so-called ‘moderates’ in the labour movement, who were hoping that their candidate – right-winger Coyne – could squeeze through the middle in this three-horse race. Graham’s success was possible thanks to her campaign’s strong support amongst grassroots Unite members – particularly those in rank-and-file groups in sectors such as construction. Her victory will give confidence to workers moving into struggle, with her pledge to use Unite’s muscle to fight all the way to defend jobs, pay, and conditions. With Unison, the country’s biggest union, also moving to the left recently, it is clear that an upheaval is beginning to take place inside the trade unions.
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!
Arundhati Roy: ‘The Pandemic is a Portal’ But unlike the flow of capital, this virus seeks proliferation, not profit, and has, therefore, inadvertently, to some extent, reversed the direction of the flow. It has mocked immigration controls, biometrics, digital surveillance and every other kind of data analytics, and struck hardest — thus far — in the richest, most powerful nations of the world, bringing the engine of capitalism to a juddering halt. Temporarily perhaps, but at least long enough for us to examine its parts, make an assessment and decide whether we want to help fix it, or look for a better engine.