Daily News Digest August 30, 2021
Over a Hundred Years Ago. Rosa Luxemburg Raised the Slogan: Socialism or Barbarism! The Slogan for 2021 is Ecosocialism or Ecocide!!!!
Nearly one in 100 people worldwide have been pushed out of their homes due to war or political instability. — Top Refugee Statistics
Daily News Digest Archives
Images of the Day:
‘Freedom is a Constant Struggle’: Protesters March For Voting Rights on Anniversary of March on Washington As part of March On for Voting Rights, civil rights leaders, including Martin Luther King III, Arndrea Waters King and the Rev. Al Sharpton, were leading marches in Washington, D.C., Houston, Miami, Phoenix and more than 40 other cities.
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:
Whilst the science has been clear for decades, a rational and appropriate response from our governments has been lacking. New research has now demonstrated how powerful established economic powers have weaponized policy inaction and garnered undue support from within our political structures to lock an unjust system into its destructive ways. Outsourcing social costs to continue extracting every last dollar, these economic powers have generated an entire industry of obfuscation, lobbying, delay tactics and counter-scientific spin which has held back much-needed action since the 1990s, costing lives and valuable time that cannot be recycled. Scientists and people of all walks of life need to stand up against this radical evil and call it out, in solidarity with the Global South and victims of this unjust system. — Scientist Rebellion, re: Weaponizing Economics: Big Oil, Economic Consultants, and Climate Policy Delay
The world is coming apart at the seams as a result of greenhouse gas emissions from factories, utilities, cars, planes, trains, agriculture, and a horrifying meltdown of permafrost in the farthest northern latitudes, spiked by Biblical fires, and soon the rainforests will kick in as tipping points trigger, thus reversing the world’s greatest carbon sinks to carbon emission sources in competition with cars, trains, and planes. The entire planet is trapped in a drought that’s so severe that it’s difficult to quantify. It’s that pervasive. — Drought Clobbers the World
Videos of the Day:
The Domestic ‘War On Terror’ Is Giving the Fbi More Unchecked Power
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! Every ‘Tax. Reform’ From President Kennedy has Been an incrase in taxes from the Poor,the Woking Class, and the Middle Class, to the Rich! —The United States takes from the poor and gives to the Rich. Tax the Rich! — They Can Afford To Pay!
President Joe Biden vowed to make the U.S. the world’s vaccine “arsenal,” but of the more than $16 billion that Congress appropriated to strengthen the response to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the Biden administration has spent less than 0.01% of it to expand global vaccine manufacturing, even as experts emphasize that doing so is necessary to defeat the coronavirus. — Biden Has Spent Less Than 0.01% of Funds Earmarked to Defeat Covid on Vaccine Manufacturing: Report
We Lost the War in Afghanistan. We Need to Say So. Apparent suicide bombers struck at the Abbey Gate of the Kabul airport in Afghanistan just as evening was settling in, followed by a second bombing at a nearby hotel. The gate itself was not in use — other gates had been prioritized for the swift removal of U.S. personnel — but huge crowds of Afghan civilians were still gathered there, hoping for escape. U.S. intelligence had been warning such an attack was “imminent,” and had advised Americans to stay away from the airport for the time being. Multiple civilians and U.S. Marines were killed in the attack.
Afghanistan: Imperialists Cry Crocodile Tears As Refugees Suffer With the shambolic withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan earlier this month, thousands of Afghans are now looking to flee the country. Faced with an unprecedented humanitarian crisis of their own making, politicians in the US and Europe are crying crocodile tears over the hardships faced by refugees, while nonetheless abandoning them to their suffering. The mass displacement of people in Afghanistan didn’t begin with the US withdrawal. Currently, there are around 3.5 million internally displaced people in Afghanistan, and a further 2.5 million who are refugees in other countries as a result of the US occupation. The intensification of the conflict this year alone has made over half a million Afghans homeless. With the increased instability that is set to grip the country, however, this number is set to dramatically increase.
Maj. Danny Sjursen: America’s War Machine Refuses to Let Afghanistan Go On this week’s “Scheer Intelligence,” the veteran weighs in on the U.S. exit from Afghanistan and Gen. David Petraeus’ dangerously false narrative about our country’s longest war. When Kabul swiftly fell to the Taliban in recent weeks, war hawks emerged from all corners of the U.S. government and mainstream media to criticize the Biden administration’s decision to withdraw from America’s longest war. One such figure is General David Petraeus, the U.S. military official who commanded all forces in Iraq and later in Afghanistan during his 37-year military career before being confirmed as CIA director in 2011. The general was forced to resign in disgrace in 2012 after it was revealed that he shared highly classified information with his biographer–a journalist with whom he was having an extramarital affair.
High Suicide Rates for ‘Grunts’, But War Profits for Generals: Meet the Former US Generals Making Bank Off Afghan War Bloodshed Many of the military generals who directed the war in Afghanistan over the last two decades have taken up lucrative jobs as members of the boards of directors of major military contractors that take in billions of dollars in contracts from the Pentagon every year.
Environmen
Climate Reufgess: Crisis Looms Every day vulnerable people are forcibly displaced due to impacts generated by climate change. This isn’t something that will happen, this is something happening now. Numerous studies, like The World Bank, forecast a grim picture of internal displacement in the millions, as the adverse effects of climate change induce more extreme weather, rising sea levels, threaten food security and impact livelihoods. As we are seeing play out now, it is the poorest and most vulnerable communities – those who contributed the least to global warming – that are paying the price and are hit hardest by this crisis. Across and within borders, people are displaced. Recent trends indicate more internal displacement due to climate-related disasters than conflict, where in fact, of the 30.6 million people displaced across 135 countries in 2017, 60 percent were as a direct result of disasters.
More People Face Greater Risk From Extreme Heat In a hotter world, periods of extreme heat are on the increase. And that presents a massive threat to life and health. In 2019, extreme heat claimed almost a thousand lives a day worldwide. And that number will grow. If the world cannot limit planetary temperature increase by just 1.5°C by 2100 − a target agreed by 195 countries − then deaths in heat waves will become substantial. That’s the verdict of a careful study in one of the world’s oldest and most distinguished medical journals, The Lancet, which warns that almost half the world’s population and more than one billion workers are already exposed to episodes of extreme heat: more than a third of those workers already have what the scientists called “negative health effects.
Black Liberation/Civil Rights:
Big Brother Will be Watching You!: Planned Expansion of Facial Recognition by US Agencies Called ‘Disturbing’ “Face surveillance is so invasive of privacy, so discriminatory against people of color, and so likely to trigger false arrests, that the government should not be using face surveillance at all,” said one privacy advocate.
Police/Cops Collaboration:Minnesota Law Enforcement Shared Intelligence On Protest Organizers With Pipeline Company Documents reveal Enbridge’s close relationship with police, including offering training on responding to protests. Police responsible for public safety surrounding the construction of an oil pipeline in Minnesota have repeatedly denied having a close relationship with Enbridge, the company behind the controversial energy project. According to records obtained by The Intercept through public information requests, however, Enbridge has provided repeated trainings for officers designed to cultivate a coordinated response to protests. By the time construction on Line 3, a tar sands oil pipeline, began last December, a working relationship had been established between Enbridge and police officers. A public safety official even invited the company’s Line 3 security chief to regular intelligence sharing meetings. In one case, the official passed along intelligence to Enbridge’s security chief for Line 3: a list of people who attended an anti-pipeline organizing meeting.
Labor:
Economy:
Weaponizing Economics: Big Oil, Economic Consultants, and Climate Policy Delay Conclusion: For decades, the fossil fuel industry has hired economic consultants to help weaken and delay US and international climate policy. Among them, the economic consultants of Charles River Associates played a key role, helping to undermine carbon pricing, international climate agreements, and other climate policies from the early 1990s onward. The work of these economists was often portrayed to the public as independent, when in fact it was funded by the fossil fuel industry, and their models were incomplete and biased in favor of continued fossil fuel use. Yet their conclusions often passed without challenge and eventually came to represent a significant part of conventional economic wisdom. Research on the climate change counter-movement has traditionally focused on documenting the promotion of disinformation regarding climate science (Brulle 2014, Franta 2021). While such disinformation has played a crucial role in delaying effective climate policy, the fossil fuel industry and broader climate change counter-movement have also made frequent use of economic arguments to justify inaction. At the same time, the fossil fuel industry has made substantial investments in influential climate economics programs across the US. Further attention is needed on the role of economists and particular economic paradigms, doctrines, and models within climate politics and the perpetuation of fossil fuels.
Shad0w Government Statistic Daily Update (August 26th to 27th,)
- Money Supply – No Suggestion of Tapering Here – July 2021
- “Basic M1” Soared to an Historic-High 91.7% Above Its Pre-Pandemic Peak, Up from the 87.6% in June
- All Major Monetary Measures Hit Historic Levels and Record or Cycle-High Growth in July
- July FOMC Policies Were Unchanged [See the SYSTEMIC RISK and MONETARY DATA for Details]
- How Can the Economy (GDP) Be Recovered With No Recovery in Employment?
- Against Its Pre-Recession Peak, the July 2021 Percent Contraction in Payrolls Remained Deeper than Anything Seen in the Last Seven Recessions, Outside of the Great Recession [See Business Cycle]
- July 2021 Real New Orders Contracted for a Second Month
- Mixed July New-Home Sales on Early Track for Fourth Consecutive Quarterly Decline •
- Third-Quarter 2021 Housing Starts and Building Permits on Early Track for Consecutive Quarterly Contractions
- Spiked by Auto Manufacturers Canceling Regular Seasonal Shutdowns, July Industrial Production Gained 0.9%, Still Holding Shy of Recovering Its February 2020 Pre-Pandemic Peak by 0.2% (-0.2%) and Its August 2018 Economic Peak by 2.9% (-2.9%
- Real Retail Sales Fell for the Third Straight Month in July, to Its Lowest Level Since February • Inflation Continues to Explode at or near Historic or 40-Year Highs [see LATEST NUMBERS]
- Combined Impact: Reflecting the Surge in Money, Inflation Has Exploded, While Business Activity Has Begun to Pull Back Anew, at an Intensifying Pace
248 Chinese Companies with Off-Limit Audits and a Market Cap of Over $2.1 Trillion Are Listed on U.S. Exchanges – Now Congress Demands Action from the SEC For the past 19 years, China has been stonewalling U.S. regulators over access to the work papers of auditors of publicly traded companies that are based in China but listed on U.S. stock exchanges. China takes the position that these audit work papers hold state secrets and it prohibits audit firms from releasing the documents directly to U.S. regulators, effectively gutting U.S. law
World:
Massive Indigenous Protests in Brazil Ahead of Landmark Ruling on Land Rights “The fate of Brazil’s Indigenous peoples is entwined with the fate of our world.” Indigenous groups from across Brazil have been protesting this week ahead of an expected Supreme Court decision determining the fate of Indigenous lands in the country and which allies fear could unleash “devastating consequences” for human and environmental rights.
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!
Covid Strikes Back Anybody with a brain knows Trump loused up the U.S. covid response, causing hundreds of thousands of needless deaths. But lots of thinking people don’t want to admit that Biden made some mistakes too. This is natural, given his astonishing success in vaccinating roughly 200 million people in a matter of months. But when confronted with the life-and-death decision to suspend covid vaccine patents, Biden failed to press presidential muscle into the struggle. True, he publicly supported breaking the patents. But then German Prime Minister Angela Merkel so conveniently said no, and he caved. He didn’t have to. Moderna took plenty of taxpayer cash. Had Biden abrogated the patent and allowed India, China and other countries access to mRNA technology, they would have produced cheap generics, and billions of people in poor countries would have received the vaccine. That, in turn, would have constricted the viral pool in which the disease mutates. But Biden didn’t, and now we’ve got kids on ventilators thanks to the delta variant.
- Nearly one in 100people worldwide have been pushed out of their homes due to war or political instability.
- Nearly one in 100people worldwide have been pushed out of their homes due to war or political instability.
- Including 5.2 million Palestinian refugees, the total number of refugees in the world today is 21.3 million. This does not include internally displaced persons (IDPs) who have not left their country’s borders but were forcibly moved from their community. More than 65 millionpeople are affected by war and power struggles, including IDPs.
- Fifty-three percent of refugees come from Somalia, Afghanistanand Syria. Respectively, 1.1 million, 2.7 million, and 4.8 million refugees are from these countries.
- The Middle East and North Africa host 39 percent of refugees. Africa hosts 29 percent, Europe and the Americas host 18 percent, while Asia and the Pacific host 14 percent. Turkey, Pakistan, Lebanon, Ethiopia, and Jordan rank as the top hosting countries.
- The number of people seeking asylum in Europe has also reached a record high of 1.3 million. Most of these refugees are from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.
- Germany, Hungaryand Sweden have become the top destination countries in Europe for refugees.
- In the history of statistics on refugees, the last five years have seen the greatest rate of increase on record. The greatest rate of decrease occurred between the years 1994 to 1999. The lowest recorded number of refugees was in 1963.
- Nine out of 10 refugees head for neighboring countries. Most do not seek asylum in industrialized countries. About 86 percent are hosted in developing countries.
- Pakistan and Iranhouse nearly 95 percent of Afghan refugees.
- Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt house nearly 95 percent of Syrian refugees.
- The U.N. Refugee Agency was underfunded by $10.3 billion dollars in 2015. It is estimated that the annual cost of U.S. airstrikes against ISIS in Syria will be $10 billion.
- Several countries are doing their statistical “fair share” to assist in the latest refugee crisis. Canadais at the top of this list, receiving almost 250 percent of its estimated fair share of refugees. Norway is second, accepting 144 percent of its fair share, and Germany is not far behind, welcoming 118 percent.
- The countries that accept the least of their fair share include the S., Spainand France, all standing at 10 percent. Japan, Russia and South Korea rank last, having accepted zero percent of what would be considered fair.
- The largest refugee campsin the world include Kakuma Camp in Kenya, Zaatari in Jordan and Yida in South Sudan. Each of these camps hold more than 70,000 people, which is more than the population of Boston.
- Many case studies illustrate the need for clean water. In Kakuma camp, households that had access to 110 liters of water per day saw 11 cases of cholera; those who had access to 37 liters of water per day noted 163 cases.
These statistics on refugees show the extent to which this unprecedented crisis has affected the world. Certain regions are more affected than others, but affected most are the displaced persons themselves.