Daily News Digest January 13, 2022
Humanity Will Not be Covid Free, Until the Vaccines are Free For the Whole World!
Images of the Day:
Another Record: Ocean Warming Continues through 2021 despite La Niña Conditions 
Another Example Capitalism as a Failed System: World Capilalism Ws 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!
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:
The success of our Republic depends on the active participation of its citizens. As it says in the Resolution, the lack of an educational foundation regarding the fundamentals of the democracy established by this country’s founders and defended by generations of American soldiers increases the potential for incivility and threatens the sustainability of our American democracy. Civics education helps teach children the principles and history of constitutional democracy. I encourage parents to join me in promoting enhanced civics education in our schools. Civics education is vital to our nation’s future. Let’s make this happen together. — Civics Education: A Building Block of Our American Democracy
Videos of the Day:
Capitalism With Chinese Characteristics
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. Tax the Rich! — They Can Afford tp Pay!
To the 1%: ‘Ignorance is Strength’: The United States has become fertile ground for demigods: The following, education facts, mean that the majority of U.S. citizens do not know their democratic rights!: The ‘Fruits’ of Over Five Decades of Public Education Government Spending Cuts!
According to the U.S. Department of Education, 54% of U.S. adults 16-74 years old – about 130 million people — lack proficiency in literacy, reading below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level. That’s a shocking number for several reasons, and its dollars and cents implications are enormous because literacy is correlated with several important outcomes such as personal income, employment levels, health, and overall economic growth. — Low Literacy Levels Among U.S. Adults Could Be Costing The Economy $2.2 Trillion A Year
11 Facts About Literacy In America
- 2/3 of students who cannot read proficiently by the end of 4th grade will end up in jail or on welfare. Over 70% of America’s inmates cannot read above a 4th grade level.[1]
- 1 in 4 children in America grow up without learning how to read.[2]
- Students who don’t read proficiently by the 3rd grade are 4 times likelier to drop out of school. Start a badass book club to keep your peers reading. Sign up for Banned Books Club.[3]
- As of 2011, America was the only free-market OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) country where the current generation was less educated than the previous one.[4]
- Nearly 85% of the juveniles who face trial in the juvenile court system are functionally illiterate, proving that there is a close relationship between illiteracy and crime. More than 60% of all inmates are functionally illiterate.[5]
- 53% of 4th graders admitted to reading recreationally “almost every day,” while only 20% of 8th graders could say the same.[6]
- 75% of Americans who receive food stamps perform at the lowest 2 levels of literacy, and 90% of high school dropouts are on welfare.[7]
- Teenage girls between the ages of 16 to 19 who live at or below the poverty line and have below average literacy skills are 6 times more likely to have children out of wedlock than girls their age who can read proficiently.[8]
- Reports show that the rate of low literacy in the United States directly costs the healthcare industry over $70 million every year.[9]
- In 2013, Washington, D.C. was ranked the most literate American city for the third year in a row, with Seattle and Minneapolis close behind.[10]
- Long Beach, CA was ranked the country’s most illiterate city, followed by Mesa, AZ, and Aurora, CO.[11]
Basic Income Has Been Tried Successfully Countless Times. So Why The Hell Isn’t the U.S. Government Implementing It? This brings me to Universal Basic Income: everybody receiving money from a government simply for being a citizen, no questions asked. It’s high time we try it in the U.S. and see whether it works. Oh wait, I just remembered — it’s been tried countless times and worked every damn time. How do I know that? …Reading.
Holding $9 Billion Hostage, US Offers $300 Million as Afghan Starve By freezing Afghan government assets, one critic argued, “President Joe Biden is committing a crime against humanity.” The Biden administration said Tuesday that it will contribute roughly $308 million to humanitarian assistance efforts in Afghanistan, where millions are on the brink of starvation and at risk of freezing to death in the aftermath of the U.S.-led war. But the newly announced aid falls far short of estimates of the war-torn country’s immediate needs and pales in comparison to the $9.4 billion in Afghan government assets that the Biden administration is refusing to unfreeze, despite growing pressure from progressive members of Congress and human rights advocates.
Sanders Demands Refunds for Seniors Hit by Medicare Premium Hike The Vermont senator’s call came after federal officials said Medicare should limit coverage of an unproven and expensive Alzheimer’s drug. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday demanded refunds for seniors who have been hit by the 2022 Medicare premium hike after federal health officials recommended limiting the program’s coverage of Aduhelm, the unproven and expensive Alzheimer’s drug responsible for a large chunk of the premium increase. In a statement, Sanders said CMS officials’ preliminary decision Tuesday to restrict coverage of Biogen’s Aduhelm to patients taking part in approved clinical trials was “an important step forward.” CMS’ final decision on the drug is expected by April.
Environment —Ecosocialism or Ecocide!:
Oceans Hotter in 2021 Than Any Time in Recorded History “Ocean warming keeps breaking records, which is a reminder that the world needs action to combat climate change.” “This finding really underscores the urgency of acting on climate now!” New research out Tuesday shows that the world’s oceans last year were hotter than they’ve ever been in recorded history—part of a long-term warming trend driven primarily by planet-wrecking fossil fuel emissions.
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Now one of the answers, it seems to me, is a guaranteed annual income, a guaranteed minimum income for all people and for all families of our country. It seems to me that the Civil Rights Movement must now begin to organize for the guaranteed annual income. Begin to organize people all over our country and mobilize forces so that we can bring to the attention of our nation this need, and this something which I believe will go a long, long way toward dealing with the Negro’s economic problem and the economic problem which many other poor people confront in our nation. Martin Luther King. The Other America Speech Stanford University, April 14, 1067
My introduction to King’s 1967 Speech, The Other America, for the San Francisco BayView: The Jan. 15 birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. will be celebrated this year as America’s only ‘Black holiday’ Monday, Jan. 19. On this day, the ruling class and their mass media always feature his 1963 ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, as if he never evolved beyond that point. During his lifetime, as a leader of the civil rights movement, King was constantly hounded by the government with the most savage malice, the most furious hatred and the most unscrupulous campaigns of lies and slander. Since his death, an effort has been made to convert him into a harmless icon – to canonize him. Below is one of his last speeches, given over 40 years ago and one year before his assassination, at Stanford University in April 1967 and titled the ‘The Other America.’ Here he speaks not of a dream but of the nightmarish economic condition of Black people. When he talks about ‘work-starved men searching for jobs that do not exist’ and living on a ‘lonely island of poverty surrounded by an ocean of material prosperity,’ the speech remains timely in today’s world.
The Re-Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. This year, the Arkansas Martin Luther King Jr. Commission, an agency of the Arkansas Department of Education, has invited an un-reconstructed Southern Baptist preacher, right wing politician, and Fox News pundit named Mike Huckabee to deliver a “keynote address” during what it terms an “inter-faith prayer breakfast” on the King holiday (January 17). Attendance will be by invitation only. The event will be held at the Arkansas Governor’s Mansion. A year to the day before he was assassinated Martin Luther King Jr., a Baptist pastor, publicly defined the war in Vietnam as a civil rights issue on April 4, 1967, in an address titled Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence to a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned about Vietnam at Riverside Church in New York City. In doing so, King uttered the following prescient statement.
Labor:
American Capitalism: “Forget the Science!, Full Speed Ahead!: As COVID Surges, Teachers in Chicago Are Up Against a Wall of Neoliberal Cruelty The struggle between the Chicago Teachers Union and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot over how the city’s public schools should be operating in the face of the current COVID-19 spike has been a case study in neoliberal governance. One in four COVID tests taken in Chicago are currently coming back positive and the majority of potential exposure locations in Illinois are schools, according to the Illinois Department of Health and to Allison Arwady, the commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, who was appointed by Lightfoot herself.
How the Concerns of Teachers Have Been Misrepresented in Omicron Reporting The return to in-person K-12 education after holiday breaks hasn’t been smooth as some had hoped, as cases of Covid-19, made worse by the Omicron variant, have skyrocketed, and teacher groups have called for delays in reopening (Boston Globe, 12/31/21). In-person return plans were disrupted at schools in Milwaukee (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, 1/2/22) and Atlanta (WXIA, 1/3/22). Chicago canceled school after the Chicago Teachers Union “approved a labor action to work remotely due to safety concerns as Covid-19 and its Omicron variant surge in the city” (WTTW, 1/4/22). The Chicago labor dispute has drawn the most eyeballs, as it is the third-largest US city, but teacher unionists nationwide are indicating that the Omicron surge is pushing school systems to their breaking points. In San Francisco, the system saw as many as 600 educators out of work, with the union blasting the district for its severe deficit in Covid-19 testing kits (Mission Local, 1/6/22). The left caucus of New York City’s United Federation of Teachers reported 10,000 student absences and 2,000 staff absences, criticizing the mayor for inadequate “baseline testing” (Twitter, 1/6/22), while dozens of New York state and city lawmakers have demanded a remote option for the city’s schools.
Economy:
Judge Rakoff Signs a Dangerous Protective Order in Whistleblower Case Against 5-Count Felon JPMorgan Chase On January 6, Senior U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff signed a dangerous Protective Order in the Shaquala Williams v JPMorgan Chase case which resides in the Southern District of New York. Williams is a whistleblower who has critically important information to share with the public regarding this five-count felon bank. The Protective Order may make it impossible for the public to ever learn the essential details of what Williams is alleging. We’ll get to the problematic parts of the Protective Order shortly, but first some necessary background. Williams is an attorney who formerly worked in compliance at JPMorgan Chase. Part of her role was to make sure that the bank adhered to a non-prosecution agreement it had signed.
World:
Britain: a Spring of Discontent is Coming The crisis of capitalism is sharpening by the day. As a result, trade unions are moving onto a war footing. Already the ruling class is worried about a ‘Spring of Discontent’. This must become a generalised struggle to bring down the Tory government. After two punishing years of COVID, and relentless attacks by employers and the Tories, on top of a decade of harsh austerity, a breaking point is beginning in the class struggle. Several major unions are moving to indicative ballots for national industrial action. Signs indicate other unions are set to follow suit. If successful, this could set the stage for a Spring of Discontent.
Education, Health, 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
American Capitalism: “Forget the Science!, Full Speed Ahead!: Red Cross Declares First-Ever Blood Shortage Crisis in US Due to problems tied to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the American Red Cross on Tuesday declared its first-ever national blood shortage crisis, warning that already, “doctors have been forced to make difficult decisions about who receives blood transfusions and who will need to wait.”
One World or No World. Choose! The emergence of yet another COVID variant and a surge of new infections and restrictions have people wondering if this pandemic will ever end.We’ve known how to stop infectious disease transmission for over a century. The problem is that our profit-driven society is structured to a) promote the spread of infectious diseases and b) block effective measures to stop them. Consider the scale of the problem. COVID-19 spread so quickly around the globe because capitalism is an international economic system. Capitalists roam the globe to find the most favorable conditions for making profit and extracting capital. Computer components may be resourced in one country, manufactured in another country, assembled in a third, sold in a fourth, and serviced in a fifth. The entire process is coordinated through a ‘global supply chain’ that links resource extraction, manufacture, transportation, and distribution across the world.