Daily News Digest February 8, 2022
Humanity Will Not be Covid Free, Until the Vaccines are Free For the Whole World
Image of the Day:
The First Victim of War Propaganda: The Truth!
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 Plastic-Based Toxins if Our Food!” Given this new data points to the significant health risks associated with BPA, it is critical that the FDA set a maximum limit of BPA in food that is safe for consumers,” said Michael Hansen, Senior Scientist, Consumer Reports. “The constant exposure consumers have to BPA in food could pose an unacceptable danger and increases the likelihood of harmful outcomes, such as limiting brain development in children and negatively impacting reproductive health, so it is essential those levels be reduced to an acceptable level. These findings are extremely concerning and prove the point that even very low levels of BPA exposure can be harmful and lead to issues with reproductive health, breast cancer risk, behavior and metabolism,” said Endocrine Society BPA expert Heather Patisaul, Ph.D., of North Carolina University in Raleigh, N.C. “The FDA needs to acknowledge the science behind endocrine-disrupting chemicals and act accordingly to protect public health. It’s unacceptable that the FDA is allowing Americans to be exposed to BPA at levels over 5,000 times above what’s safe,” said Scott Faber, senior vice president of government affairs for the Environmental Working Group. “The Food and Drug Administration must heed EFSA’s warnings and take immediate and decisive action to lower our exposures to this dangerous chemical. EFSA’s findings expand on our knowledge of BPA including data generated by the NTP-FDA joint CLARITY project. And the results are sobering, indicating that the harmful effects from BPA can occur at minuscule levels, far below what we’re exposed to. The scientific evidence is now more than enough to require strict limits on the use of BPA in packaging and plastics that come in contact with our food,” said Dr. Linda Birnbaum, former director at NIEHS and NTP. — Groups petition FDA to Restrict Bisphenol A In Food Packaging
Videos of the Day:
Abolition Means Reclaiming the Commons and Rejecting Securitization (Podcast) Welcome to “Movement Memos,” a Truthout podcast about things you should know if you want to change the world. I’m your host, writer and organizer, Kelly Hayes. We talk a lot of this show about building the relationships and analysis we need to create movements that can win. Well, today, we are really going to nerd out. Because in addition to talking about the abolition of prisons, we are going to talk about the abolition of security. Some of our listeners are probably nodding, and some are probably wondering what I’m smoking, but yes, we are going to talk about the anti-security critique, Karl Marx, mutual aid and more. But I think we’re ready for this, because as my friend Ruth Wilson Gilmore recently said, “Activists throughout the history of struggle have been nerds.” My guest Brendan McQuade and I definitely fall within that proud tradition, so here we go.
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 th poor and gives to the Rich. Tax the Rich! — They Can Afford to Pay!
Katrina vanden Heuvel: The Exit From the Ukraine Crisis That’s Hiding in Plain Sight The crisis over Ukraine grows simultaneously more dangerous and more absurd. There is, however, a glimmer of hope. The crisis over Ukraine grows simultaneously more dangerous and more absurd. There is, however, a glimmer of hope. The crisis over Ukraine grows simultaneously more dangerous and more absurd. Russia has amassed more than 100,000 troops on the Ukrainian border, demanding that NATO not admit Ukraine and stop its expansion east. Russian officials want those demands answered immediately, but President Vladimir Putin also says he won’t make war. The Biden administration warns of “imminent war,” yet Ukraine’s president tells the administration to calm down, that the false alarms are damaging the country’s economy. Even though President Biden, his two predecessors, Germany and France have made clear that Ukraine is not a national interest worth fighting for, the Biden administration refuses to tell the Russians that it won’t do what it has no intention of doing, even at the risk of armed conflict. War is unimaginable
Environment —Ecosocialism or Ecocide!
Plastic Based Toxin in our Diet!: Americans Exposed to Toxic BPA At Levels Far Above What EU Considers Safe – Study Petition urges FDA to strongly limit use of BPA, which is linked to cancer and other health problems A comprehensive review of recent studies into a chemical often used in plastics and resins has revealed that the average American is exposed to levels of the dangerous compound that are 5,000 times higher than what the European Union now considers safe. The main exposure route for bisphenol-A (BPA) is via plastic and metal food packaging, and that has prompted a call for strong new limits on its use.In a petition sent last week to the US Food and Drug Administration, consumer advocates and food safety scientists led by the Environmental Defense Fund warned that the European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA) December review clearly shows that BPA exposure levels in the US represent a “high health risk” for Americans of all ages.
The Air That I Breathe, Part 3 – The U.S.’s Existing and Planned CO2 Pipeline Networks | RBN Energy
Gassing Of Satartia CO2 pipeline in Mississippi ruptured last year, sickening dozens of people. What does it forecast for the massive proposed buildout of pipelines across the U.S.? It was just after 7 p.m. when residents of of Satartia, Mississippi, started smelling rotten eggs. Then a greenish cloud rolled across Route 433 and settled into the valley surrounding the little town. Within minutes, people were inside the cloud, gasping for air, nauseated and dazed. Some two dozen individuals were overcome within a few minutes, collapsing in their homes; at a fishing camp on the nearby Yazoo River; in their vehicles. Cars just shut off, since they need oxygen to burn fuel. Drivers scrambled out of their paralyzed vehicles, but were so disoriented that they just wandered around in the dark.
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
February Is Black History Monthe’
Legal/Extra-legal Terrorism Has Been a Tool of the United States 1% to Subjugate Black People For Decades, Blacks Have Been Subjected to The Iron Heel! Currently, the US Capitalist Class is Divided Over When — Not If, to Apply The Iron Heel to Everyone! 2021 Update: Modern Day Police Terrorism! — White Supremacists Groups Have Become Part of Law Enforcement: FBI Warned of White Supremacists In Law Enforcement 15 Years Ago. Has Anything Changed? Increased attention toward the killing of black men and women by police throughout the past year has ignited national conversations on racism and law enforcement. From Freddie Gray in April 2015 to Deborah Danner — an “emotionally disturbed” woman fatally shot this week by an NYPD officer — protests around the country have forced many Americans to reassess how police engage with communities of color. In light of — or perhaps despite — the increased scrutiny, FBI director James Comey told police officers at a national conference last Sunday that because of insufficient data on use of force, “Americans actually have no idea” whether racial bias in policing is really an epidemic. Pointing to current public outrage over police killings of African-Americans, Comey said “the absence of good information” and data has aided in the growing belief that police officers target particular communities.
Labor:
US-backed SINTTIA Union Wins Representation As Workers At Silao, Mexico GM Plant Vote Out CTM There are over 6,000 workers at the plant, which builds the Chevrolet Silverado and G.M.C. Sierra pickup trucks. The CTM, aligned with the Institutional Revolution Party (PRI), has been at the plant since 1995 and is widely hated for its naked collaboration with management. Workers at the plant start out making less than $9 per day, barely above the minimum wage in Mexico, and top pay amounts to about $23 per day. While workers’ enthusiasm to throw off the CTM is understandable, SINTTIA does not represent a genuine alternative. The fact that it is being actively promoted by the US government and pro-company AFL-CIO and UAW as well as the Canadian Unifor union should be a warning. The promotion of SINTTIA at the Silao GM plant is part of a broader campaign supported by both the US and Canadian governments and the administration of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to push aside the hated CTM in favor of “independent” unions no less under the firm control of the corporations and the state. In this way, the ruling class seeks to divert the anger and militancy of workers into harmless channels. The victory of the so-called independent union SINTTIA is being hailed in glowing terms by the American trade union bureaucracy. In a press release just hours after the vote, the United Auto Workers declared, “The UAW congratulates the workers of GM Silao on forming a free, fair and independent SINTTIA union. We commend the Biden Administration and USTR for ensuring a fair election process and we look forward to a new era of free, fair, independent unions in Mexico.”
Labor Bureaucracy/ Government/Employer Partnership
This stratum of workers-turned-bourgeois, or the labour aristocracy, who are quite philistine in their mode of life, in the size of their earnings and in their entire outlook, is the principal prop of the Second International, and in our days, the principal social (not military) prop of the bourgeoisie. For they are the real agents of the bourgeoisie in the working-class movement, the labor lieutenants of the capitalist class, real vehicles of reformism and chauvinism. In the civil war between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie they inevitably, and in no small numbers. take the side of the bourgeoisie, the “Versaillese” against the “Communards”. — Lenin, Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism
In the 1980’s, the International Unions collaborated (made a deal) with the United States capitalist class and the Democrat Party to form ‘a partnership’, part of the deal was that the so-called International Unions pledged to the government and their employers to police any local areas that did not follow their austerity program of wage cuts and “productivity increases” (speedup) etc. . In essence they codified their privileged role as the Labor Lieutenants of Capitalism!
In the process, the International Unions consolidated their policies. The first ‘fruit’ of the ‘partnership’ was to break the 1981 strike of the dissent UFCW P-9 local Hormel meatpackers strike against the tow tier wage systrm. The UFCW International formed a Local P-10 Union of the scabs. The entire AFL-CIO was in full support of this ‘union Of Hormel scab workers! In 2019 this UAW local has been a center of militant opposition to the low wage economy forced onto the backs of Mexican workers by the American transnationals with the support of the corrupt CTM and Mexico’s capitalist political parties. A group of workers in the independent generated a movement at the plant has been campaigning against the corrupt CTM for years. This group organized support for striking U.S. GM workers in 2019 by refusing speed up and overtime. And so, the US Government, the AFL—CIO, The Mexican Government and Unions stepped into police to police this local areas that did not follow their austerity program of wage cuts and ‘productivity increases (speedup)’ etc.
Due the Labor Bureaucracy’s collaboration with the Boss, Real Wages Have Been Cut Over 100% Since1974! — Wages Have Not Kept Up With Inflation! Since the Neoliberal Labor Bureaucracy declared itself to be in a (Domestic) Partnership With the Boss’ (‘Bedding the Boss!’)! was fully institutionalized starting in the mid-1980s, this ‘partnership’ gave birth to the one, two, three, etc. .. wage tier system! Selling out the futures of future young workers entering the labor force. And, since the lowest union wage is immediately the highest non-union wage, this wage tier system cut the wages of the entire working class! As demonstrated by this Shadow Government Statistics Graph!:
Economy:
World:
The UK’s ‘Economygate’ The UK prime minister Boris Johnson is currently in danger of losing his job because of the blatant flouting by him and his staff of the COVID restriction rules imposed by his own government on the rest of the British people. But rather than ‘partygate’, the rocky road ahead for the economy and its impact on living standards for the many is much more likely to destroy the fortunes of this right-wing Conservative government at the next election (probably in 2024). What a mess the UK economy is in. At its monetary policy meeting yesterday, the Bank of England (BoE) forecast the year-on-year rate of inflation in prices would reach 7.25% this spring. This is after forecasting just 4% at its last meeting. Indeed, the BoE’s forecasts have been wildly short of reality for the last year. 
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!