Daily News Digest December 30, 2021

Daily News Digest December 30, 2021

Humanity Will Not be Covid Free, Until the Vaccines are Free For the Whole World!

Images of the Day:

Invade, Bomb, and Lose War — Apply Sanctions! Another Example Capitalism as a Failed System: World Capilalism Ws Aware of the Danger of Cornovavirus Thr eat 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!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”, is Still True for Today’s World!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!

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:

Desmond Tutu

Ignorance is Strength: The phrase “ignorance is strength” appears in George Orwell’s 1984, a novel that satirizes the role of government in our lives. The phrase appears in the slogan for The Party, the political ruling class in the totalitarian government: “War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength.”

To be fortold is to be forewarned!: It is a curious situation that the sea, from which life first arose should now be threatened by the activities of one form of that life. But the sea, though changed in a sinister way, will continue to exist; the threat is rather to life itself. ― Rachel Carson, — The Sea Around Us (1951)

Videos of the Day:

Desmond Tutu on Palestine

Arundhati Roy Talks Media, Authoritarianism in India and Challenging US Wars

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 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

Sanctions are a Form of War! — Sanctions Kill!: As Afghan Humanitarian Crisis Spikes, US News Coverage Plummets New data shows stunning plunge in coverage, just as the humanitarian crisis—much of it caused by Washington sanctions—peaks. No more U.S. soldiers and marines on the ground, no more coverage on the evening news, and Afghanistan, despite Washington’s enormous impact on the country, both through its military intervention and now through its sanctions, fades quickly into distant memory.

Ignorance is Strength!: ‘Madness’: Oklahoma Bill Would Empower Parents to Remove Books From School Libraries “These books are there to give our kids the language that they need to express how they are already feeling, and that’s it,” said one LGBTQ+ rights advocate. “And if we take those books away from their libraries, then we’re saying…that they are alone in those schools.”

Best of ‘Scheer Intelligence’ 2021: Assange, Kucinich, Abdullah and More Throughout another turbulent year of pandemic, protests, and economic troubles, Robert Scheer and the award-winning “Scheer Intelligence” team made sure to bring you left-wing perspectives from a wide range of distinguished voices including Ralph Nader, Melina Abdullah, Chris Hedges, and many more, as the progressive fight becomes as urgent as ever. With a new year around the corner, join us and listen to a selection of the most popular “Scheer Intelligence” episodes from 2021 in which guests grapple with America’s turbulent past and present, and discuss what we might expect from the future with Scheer.

Environment:

100 Years Ago Rosa Luxemburg Raised the Slogan: ‘Socialism of Barbarism!’ — Today the Slogan Should Be: ‘Ecosocialisn or Ecocide!’

Campaigners Force Shell to Halt Oil Exploration on South African Coast Court instructs company to stop tests along Wild Coast after concerns raised about wildlife and lack of consultation Shell will be forced to halt oil exploration in vital whale breeding grounds along South Africa’s eastern coastline after a local court blocked the controversial project.The court order calls for an immediate halt to Shell’s seismic tests which involve blasting sound waves through the relatively untouched Wild Coast marine environment, which is home to whales, dolphins and seals.

Finding Porpoise in Ocean Protection Is No Joke. In the New Year, we must rays awareness, seas the moment and sand together for cod and country and from sea to shining sea. Our oceans are in trouble and this holiday sea/sun is not a time to be shellfish about how we respond. Abalone you might say but I still believe giving beach receiving. It’s time to give back to the ocean. Too often when I talk to marine scientists and look into their faces I sea otter despair. But surrender is not an option we can float. Better we tuna into the problems we face and wrasse the alarm. I’d argue, herring no objections, that we find a new porpoise for the coming New Year, to protect and restore the blue in our red white and blue

The Selling of Degrowth Over the last three decades, a growing number of scientists and ecologists have argued that economic growth has long outstripped the capacity of the planetary ecosystem. They have developed numerous sophisticated models to demonstrate their point. They have boiled down the technical information—about the availability of mineral resources, the limits of energy generation, the constraints of food production, the effects of biodiversity loss, and of course the impact of climate change—into accessible texts. They have lobbied governments, and they have crafted soundbites for the media. Despite these efforts, economic growth remains at the heart of virtually every government’s national policy. Even the various Green New Deals that have been put forward around the world are wedded to notions of economic expansion. At the heart of these more recent attempts to bring carbon emissions under control is the concept of “green growth,” which has become the current mantra. So, inevitably, advocates of degrowth have addressed this new version of “sustainable” economic expansion.

Civil Rights/Black Liberation:

Roaming Charges: Police Crime Blotter, 2021 January 1

981: the number of people in the US shot and killed by police in 2020.
A Boston police cop sexually assaulted an intoxicated woman after she passed out. He was suspended without pay for a year, but when he returned, he was promoted. This year, he bragged about hitting BLM protesterswith his patrol car.
An investigation by Naples (Fla.) Daily News and the New Pressfound that thousands of police officers with records of abusive (including criminal) behavior were returned to their jobs as cops. At least 505 of those law enforcement and corrections officers who were given a second chance later committed an offense that led to their decertification…
Even though most police departments refused to share details about investigations and discipline or even officers’ names into police abuse during the George Floyd protests, Pro Publica compiled 68 videosfrom across the country showing specific instances of where police officers escalated violence.

LAPD Releases Footage From Police Killing of 14-Year-Old Girl “Her death was preventable!” said civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who was hired to represent the family of 14-year-old Valentina Orellana-Peralta. The Los Angeles Police Department released video footage Monday showing the moment when an officer fatally shot 14-year-old Valentina Orellana-Peralta while firing three rifle rounds at an assault suspect inside a Burlington Coat Factory store in North Hollywood. Orellana-Peralta was with her mother trying on clothes in a Burlington dressing room on Thursday when she was shot and killed by an officer whose name has yet to be released by the LAPD. Police said Monday that a bullet bounced off the floor and went through the wall of the dressing room.

The New Jim Crow 2021 Update: Corporate Exploitation of Prison Labor Reaches Deep into the Supply Chain When Congress passed the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865, they included a crucial exception clause that allows for slavery and involuntary servitude as punishment for crime. This clause has resulted in the forced labor of millions of people in our prisons and jails since, and the first beneficiaries of this labor were private corporations. The exception clause allowed states, often in the South, to pass Black Codes, laws that specifically criminalized Black life and filled jails with Black people. States then used “convict leasing” to rent incarcerated people to private individuals and corporations looking for cheap labor, often plantations. By the late 1800s, states like Alabama were deriving more than half of their revenue from “convict leasing.” . . . The practice would soon fall out of favor with the public, but the depression era of the 1920s created a new demand for prison labor. With businesses struggling, few jobs available, and manufacturing lagging, governments began using prison labor for everything from infrastructure construction to consumer goods production to agricultural farming. But the private sector quickly complained that prison labor gave governments an unfair advantage, and by the mid 1930s, Congress passed legislation that regulated prison-made products and prohibited their sale into interstate commerce – with a key exclusion for agriculture. That is until 1979, when Congress introduced the Prison Industry Enhancement Certification Program (PIECP) to allow corporations to once again use prison labor and the practice resurfaced broadly. Today, prison slavery produces billions of dollars for the economy with many corporations taking advantage directly or participating in the supply chain of products manufactured in prisons. And though it is the smallest group in the prison labor empire, there are still thousands of incarcerated people working for the benefit of private corporations

With Abortion Access in Peril, States Move to Protect Reproductive Rights in 2022 “People are activated and waking up and realizing that this is not something we can take for granted,” said one advocate for a Vermont constitutional amendment enshrining abortion rights.As the future of reproductive rights in the United States is threatened by the U.S. Supreme Court’s right-wing supermajority and a wave of anti-choice laws passed by states across the nation, some Democrat-led states are taking proactive steps to safeguard the right to choose in ways that go above and beyond affirmative legislation.

Labor:

Economy:

FRED: M3 for the United States

World:

Words Matter: The Bucharest NATO Summit and Its Contentious Promise Words do matter. Even when we think we have said something casually, or of not great importance, they can come back to haunt. Item 23 of the final declaration of the 2008 NATO Ministerial summit in Bucharest said: “NATO welcomes Ukraine’s and Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations for membership in NATO. We agreed today that these countries will become members of NATO.” 10 years later, speaking at a meeting with Russia’s ambassadors and permanent representatives, President Vladimir Putin warned about the eventual membership: “We will react to such aggressive steps, which pose a direct threat to Russia…” Following Presidents Biden and Putin talks this December, the Moscow Times reported that the Russian foreign ministry insisted that the United States should formally close the door to NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia. “In the fundamental interests of European security, it is necessary to officially disavow the decision of the 2008 NATO Bucharest summit that ‘Ukraine and Georgia will become NATO members,’” the Russian foreign ministry was quoted. The Russian Ministry had already argued in 2018 that the “verbal promise to Soviet President Gorbachev not to expand NATO to the East, in exchange for the Soviet leader’s consent to the annexation of East Germany (GDR) by Western Germany, was fragrantly violated and is the source of much of the present conflict between Russia and the West.”

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 they 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

Why We Must Vaccinate the World Unless the world is vaccinated, the likelihood is there will be another variant that will be far more lethal. If we believe in democracy, economic success or basic survival, the world’s media must send the message loud and clear. Never in the history of humankind has the blindingly obvious been ignored with such obviously high risk. Never have the cautious and persistent warnings of medical and biological scientists been so spectacularly and swiftly vindicated.

The Vaccine Monopolies Must Be Broken During the HIV/AIDS epidemic a generation ago, African countries were priced out of lifesaving drugs by pharmaceutical firms that prioritized profits over lives. If rich countries had learned the lessons of that historic injustice, the world might be celebrating the end of Covid-19, rather than bracing ourselves for another wave. This month, the world could have been celebrating the waning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, vaccine apartheid and restricted production continue to fuel the spread of the coronavirus. A year has passed since the first COVID-19 vaccines were approved, offering hope that humanity could be liberated from this disease. Scientists did their part by creating safe and effective vaccines with unprecedented speed. But world leaders failed to deliver them to all.