Daily News Digest September 1, 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:
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:
In The Part Played by Labor in the Transition from Ape to Man, Friedrich Engels wrote:“Let us not, however, flatter ourselves overmuch on account of our human victories over nature. For each such victory, nature takes its revenge on us. Each victory, it is true, in the first place brings about the results we expected, but in the second and third places, it has quite different, unforeseen effects which only too often cancel the first. …”
Videos of the Day:
Afghanistan Faces Future Under Taliban as U.S. Withdraws & Drone Strikes Continue to Kill Civilians
Peace Activist Kathy Kelly on Reparations for Afghanistan & What the U.S. Owes After Decades of War
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!
The Picture the Media Monopoly Paints!: Reflections on a Double Standard: the Right Absurdly Calls Democrats Socialists, but Liberals Can’t Correctly Call the Right Fascist I hope I am not the only one who has noticed a curious double-standard in American media-politics culture: right wing politicians and commentators are free to inaccurately and routinely describe corporate Democrats as “socialists,” “Marxists,” and even “communists” but it is exceedingly rare for politicos, pundits, and talking heads to properly describe the Amerikaner right as fascist. The irony behind this double standard is deepened by the fact that obsessive anti-socialism/anti-Marxism and the related conflation of liberals and centrists with “the radical Left” are central themes in fascist politics and propaganda past and present. Look at the mainstream media-politics treatment of a Twitter statement in which the putschist Congressman Mo Brooks (APoT[1]-AL) expressed compassion for the actions of the North Carolina Trumpist Floyd Ray Roseberry, who threatened to set off a bomb outside the Library of Congress last Thursday. Brooks voiced sympathy with Roseberry, saying this: “I understand citizenry anger directed at dictatorial Socialism and its threat to liberty, freedom and the very fabric of American society. The way to stop Socialism’s march,” Brooks added, “is for patriotic Americans to fight back in the 2022 and 2024 elections.” Brooks’ statement contained no forthright denunciation of Roseberry’s action (for which the pathetic terrorist could face life in prison) and ended with an ominous warning: “Bluntly stated, America’s future is at risk.”
Brazil, Amazon, World: Fake News and the Social Contract Fake news, disinformation, hate speech, post-truth, conspiracy theory, various forms of denialism, and the barefaced lies of politicians all come together as something like the ideational hallmark of neoliberalism. There are many lies, of many kinds, but there has to be a container where they all coexist comfortably. And this is neoliberalism’s enormous lie that, if we make “the” (as if there were only one) market free, it will run everything. Law trammels the freedom of the market as does the idea of a social contract. A contract requires that the parties tell the truth, and the idea of democratic government implies that those elected by the people to represent them won’t lie. But government, such as it exists, serves “the market” of rich and powerful individuals, corporations, and media outlets, white elites whose wealth supposedly demonstrates their superiority over historically marginalized groups. When people are monads whose freedom is restricted to consumption patterns dictated by profit, public responsibility is subservient to private interest.
The 2001 US Invasion Was Bound to Devastate the Afghan People What the U.S. got wrong about Afghanistan. The 2001 US Invasion Was Bound to Devastate the Afghan People What the U.S. got wrong about Afghanistan. It was always going to be difficult to turn a killing field into anything more than a cemetery. There are few examples in history where the military invaded a country (labelled “the enemy”) and then turned it into a respected friend.
Let’s Take the Profit Out of War CEOs shouldn’t have a financial stake in the murderous mass violence of modern warfare. In the 21st century, many of us are used to the murderous mass violence of modern warfare. After all, we grew up living it or hearing about it. The 20th century rates as the deadliest in human history — 75 million people died in World War II alone. Millions have died since, including a quarter-million during the 20-year U.S. war in Afghanistan. But for our forebears, the incredible deadliness of modern warfare came as a shock.
The Bible Thumpers Don’t Recognize the Sin of Glutany: Our “Trillion-Dollar Seven”: Can We Summon the Courage to Tax Them? The collective wealth of the seven wealthiest Americans, all white men, has now just about reached $1 trillion. These seven pay virtually nothing in income tax. This past April, I reported on another obscene milestone in U.S. wealth concentration. Back then, for the first time ever, $1 trillion sat in the pockets of just eight rich guys, a group small enough to squeeze inside a single SUV. Today, barely four months later, that “trillion-dollar club” will shortly kick another member to the curb. According to Forbes, the collective wealth of America’s seven wealthiest white men — Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Larry Ellison — stood at $996 billion at the end of the day yesterday. The seat in the Trillion-Dollar SUV about to be vacated belongs to Warren Buffett. The trillion-dollar club’s deep pockets soon won’t need his $100-billion net worth to make a trillion. So long, Warren.
Environmen
Metabolic Rifts: Robbing the Soil, 1: Commons and Classes Before Capitalism “All progress in capitalist agriculture is a progress in the art, not only of robbing the worker, but of robbing the soil.” (Karl Marx) To live, humans must eat, and more than 90% of our food comes directly or indirectly from soil. As philosopher Wendell Berry says, “The soil is the great connector of lives…. Without proper care for it we can have no community, because without proper care for it we can have no life.”[1]
Origins of Capitalist Agriculture: Robbing the Soil, 2: ‘Systematic Theft of Communal property’ “The expropriation of the mass of the people from the soil forms the basis of the capitalist mode of production.” (Karl Marx) In 1549, tens of thousands of English peasants fought — and thousands died — to halt and reverse the spread of capitalist farming that was destroying their way of life. The largest action, known as Kett’s Rebellion, has been called “the greatest practical utopian project of Tudor England and the greatest anticapitalist rising in English history.”[2]
The NYT Stopped Shilling For Cigarettes. Why Won’t It Stop Shilling For Fossil Fuels? S aAs climate disasters devastate America, activists aren’t the only ones wondering why the paper of record is still advertising fossil fuels. For more information on how to help those affected by recent climate disasters, try here, here, and here. Or leave a comment with your preferred organization/approach—and help start a conversation on the best ways to lend support. In perhaps the most depressing form of serendipity, a new activist campaign to pressure the Times to stop creating and running fossil fuel ads is launching today. Called Ads Not Fit to Print, the campaign argues that fossil fuel advertisements endanger Times readers’ health in the same way now-banned cigarette ads did—and likely, even more. “What the Times is doing right now is shameful,” said Genevieve Guenther, whose group End Climate Silence is spearheading the campaign. “On one hand, they’re trying to seem like part of the reality-based community who acknowledges the climate crisis and wants to solve it. On the other, they’re doing everything they can to keep the fossil fuel economy going because it is one of the sources of their own power and they believe in it.”
Fires and Floods This Time!:
Ida Hit One of the Country’s Biggest Oil and Chemical Hubs (Cancer Alley) Louisiana’s 17 oil refineries account for nearly a fifth of the nation’s capacity. Past hurricanes have caused toxic spills. The most intense hurricane on record to strike Louisiana swept through one of the nation’s largest chemical, petroleum and natural gas hubs. And while it may take days or weeks for the full extent of the storm’s impact to become clear, early reports of damage have heightened concerns over the vulnerability of the region’s fossil fuel infrastructure to intensifying storms.
Wildfire Approaches Lake Tahoe After Mass Evacuation A ferocious wildfire swept toward Lake Tahoe on Tuesday just hours after roads were clogged with fleeing cars when the entire California resort city of South Lake Tahoe was ordered to evacuate and communities just across the state line in Nevada were warned to get ready to leave. The popular vacation haven normally filled with tens of thousands of summer tourists emptied out Monday as the massive Caldor Fire rapidly expanded. Vehicles loaded with bikes and camping gear and hauling boats were in gridlock traffic, stalled in hazy, brown air that smelled like a campfire. Police and other emergency vehicles whizzed by.
Toxic ‘Forever Chemicals’ Contaminate Indoor Air At Worrying Levels, Study Finds Food and Water Were Thought to Be The Main Ways Humans Are Exposed to PFAS, But Study Points To Risk Of Breathing Them In Toxic PFAS compounds are contaminating the air inside homes, classrooms and stores at alarming levels, a new study has found.
Black Liberation/Civil Rights:
Black Agenda Report: “Nicaragua at a Revolutionary Crossroads and in Imperialist Crosshairs.”
Labor:
Economy:
US corporate profits booming… or are they? According to US Commerce Department data, US corporate profits from current productions soared 9.2 per cent to $234.5 billion in Q2, 2021. Pre-tax profits rose 12.3 per cent, marking up the highest readout since 2014, while national after-tax profits grew by 12.8 per cent or $303.6 billion over second quarter of 2021, well above a 9.4 per cent growth clocked over the first quarter. But these headline figures do not show that much of these gains in profits after the huge decline in the pandemic slump of 2020 are due to government fiscal handouts. ‘COVID subsidies’ have averaged nearly $700bn at an annualised rate since the end of 2019, or nearly 50% of annual total profits. And those subsidies are now coming to an end. Indeed, in the productive sectors of the US economy (the non-financial sector), prior to the pandemic, profits had fallen from a peak in 2014 by 12% up to end 2019 and the US economy was heading into recession. Now by mid-2021, excluding subsidies, non-financial sector profits are only 1.5% higher than at the end of 2014. Not a good prospect for productive investment from hereon. For a full and detailed account of trends in US corporate profits, see This Is the Last Quarter Us Profits Will Be Inflated y Covid Subsidies. — Michael Roberts Blog
This Is the Last Quarter Us Profits Will Be Inflated y Covid Subsidies. The BEA released its estimates for US corporate profits produced in the second quarter. (Spreadsheet for Table 1.14 attached.) This is the last time that profits will have been inflated by substantial subsidies as further fiscal support by Congress is unlikely. In quarter three, profits will have normalised, and for the first time the damage caused by the pandemic will become visible. The final $1.9 trillion Biden Relief Fund called the American Rescue Plan was a boon for profits in Q2. It overlapped the first and second quarter, but the bulk, or nearly two thirds of the $250 billion given to non-financial corporations, was taken in the second quarter. In conformity with previous articles graphs will be presented with both adjusted and unadjusted profit, by adjusted, we mean the removal of subsidies and by unadjusted we mean produced profits plus subsidies. In the article below, a rate of profit of 4.6% was posited for 2019. No rate of profit will be estimated here. That will have to wait for the estimates in quarter three, but the rate of profit is likely to have fallen to close to 4%. If we include inflation which is likely to be running above that, then this will suggest a negative rate of profit.
World:
Chilean Workers Are Not Disposable, No Support For Norwegian Imperialism! The Norwegian state energy company, Statkraft, has attempted to impose an extremely exploitative contract on construction workers involved in the ‘Los Lagos’ hydroelectric project in Chile. The workers of SINACIN union are fighting back. Meanwhile, comrades from the IMT have led efforts to build international solidarity for the workers, whose struggle has found a sympathetic echo in the Norwegian labour movement. We provide a report here by comrades of the IMT in Chile and Norway.
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 19 the Virus that Keeps on Mutating: What is C.1.2, the New Covid Variant in South Africa, And Should We Be Worried? The C.1.2 strain has scientists’ attention because it possesses mutations within the genome similar to those seen in variants of interest, like Delta