Daily News Digest March 4, 2022
Humanity Will Not be Covid Free, Until the Vaccines, Like the Salk Polio Vaccine, are Free For the Whole World
Image of the Day:
On the Subject of Invasions
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:
For the first time in history, a major war is being waged in a country with multiple nuclear reactors and thousands of tons of highly radioactive spent fuel. — Analysis: Nuclear Disaster in Ukraine Could Make Swaths of Europe ‘Uninhabitable for Decades’
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!Militarism has rarely been part of disability rights organizations’ policy priorities or discussions. Instead, most of the mainstream disability community’s advocacy efforts related to the military have centered around veteran rights, having disability inclusion in military service, or disabled refugee rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act. While these priorities may benefit individual rights, they do not tackle deeper issues of militarized violence against marginalized communities, how militarism divests community resources, and the broader cycle of injustice and inequity in which militarism and colonialism are active participants. Within disability rights organizations, the presence of board members and corporate partners who have contributed to and profited from militarism can act as an obstacle to having intersectional discussions and actions around militarism and ableism. A central example is Mitsubishi, a group of Japanese multinational companies that also has headquarters in the U.S., which frequently appears as a sponsor or partners with various disability organizations in the U.S. In 1991, the Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation (MEAF) was established with a $15 million endowment from Mitsubishi Electric Corporation and the Mitsubishi Electric U.S. group companies and provided grants to multiple disability programs in the U.S. For example, from 2002 to 2013, and 2016 to 2021, MEAF awarded total $1,433,000 grant to American Association of People with Disabilities for its summer internship program and alumni network. However, Mitsubishi is well-known for its engagement in militarism in collaboration with Japanese colonialism and imperialism: It has contributed to militarized violence across the globe. — Our Fight for Disability Justice Must Also Confront War and Militarism
Videos of the Day:
Ukraine Conflict: Cutting Through the Lies
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!
The United States of Torture!: ‘Disgraceful’: Supreme Court Sides With Hiding CIA Torture “Basically, the Supreme Court has allowed the CIA to decide what can be said in court about the torture of prisoners in CIA black sites.” Human rights advocates on Thursday sharply condemned the Supreme Court’s decision that the U.S. government can block the testimony of two former Central Intelligence Agency contractors for a Polish criminal investigation into the torture of a Guantánamo Bay detainee. “Basically, the Supreme Court has allowed the CIA to decide what can be said in court about the torture of prisoners in CIA black sites,” tweeted Jameel Jaffer, director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. “It’s really a disgraceful abdication of responsibility.”
Environment —Ecosocialism or Ecocide!:
According to Break Free From Plastic, 75% of people polled in a recent global survey believe single-use plastic should be banned. Negotiators said the final treaty will be modeled on the Paris climate agreement of 2015, demanding that countries set legally-binding targets to change how products are packaged, improve recycling systems, and assist the Global South in addressing plastic pollution. “Africa is not a major producer of chemicals or plastics,” Tadesse Amera , co-chair of the International Pollutants Elimination Networkin Ethiopia, told the New York Times. Yet countries including the U.S. export more than one billion pounds of plastic waste to countries all over the world. The U.S.—the second-largest plastic producer in the world after China—has yet to sign onto a 2020 agreement limiting plastic waste exports. — 175 Nations to Agree on ‘Historic’ Plastic Pollution Treaty
Youth Climate Activists: Our Answer to War Must Be Radical Exit From Fossil Fuel Within a matter of hours, young people around the world had rallied in full force, and are now planning targeted actions for Thursday, March 3, which will mark one week since Russian troops launched their invasion into Ukraine. Youth-led protests are planned in nearly 60 cities, according to organizers, including Lagos, Nigeria; Lisbon, Portugal; and Las Vegas, Nevada. “We’re seeing that climate justice and the call for peace has never been more intertwined than now, as we’re seeing a war being fought funded by fossil fuel exports taking people’s lives away,” Luisa Neubauer, 25, lead organizer with Fridays for Future Germany, told Truthout. “So for us, we know that there will be no real freedom or sustainable peace anywhere as long as there’s dependency on fossil fuels, and at the same time we need emergency help for Ukrainians,” she said.
Where to Crack Down on Russia Oligarchs? Try Delware ot North Dakota Tax havens are often associated with sleepy Caribbean backwaters, but increasingly the US, led by investor-friendly financial secrecy laws in states like South Dakota and Delaware (Biden;s Home State), has emerged as a global center for hiding illicit wealth. During his State of the Union address to Congress on Tuesday, President Biden reiterated his pledge to “go after the crimes of Russian oligarchs” in response to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. “We are joining with our European allies to find and seize your yachts, your luxury apartments, your private jets. We are coming for your ill-begotten gains,” he warned. Biden’s plan draws a clear link between U.S. and global security and a massive accumulation of high-profile assets within the U.S. financial system. Sanctioned individuals “sit atop Russia’s largest financial institutions and are responsible for providing the resources necessary to support Putin’s further invasion of Ukraine,” said a senior administration official on Sunday. In doing so, the Biden White House was furthering the case already repeatedly made, and all too often ignored, that Western financial systems were welcoming cash from kleptocrats and oligarchs at the expense of their own national security.
Civil Rights/BlackLiberation:
Inside Forest Defenders’ Blockade of Atlanta’s “Cop City” Military) Training Compound On January 28, Atlanta resident and activist April* joined about 60 racial and environmental justice protesters at Intrenchment Creek Park in the South River Forest — a vital green space that plays a crucial role in the region’s ecology, serving as Atlanta and south DeKalb County’s largest watershed and floodplain. She was there to protest preparatory work on what Atlanta-area activists have dubbed “Cop City,” an 85-acre, $90 million police militarization and training complex spearheaded by the Atlanta Police Foundation that, if built, would be one of the largest police training facilities in the country. The site would contain several shooting ranges, a helicopter landing base, an area for explosives training, police-horse stables and an entire mock city for officers to engage in role-playing activities.
Biden’s Prison New Immigrant Program to be Run by the Prison Industrial Complex!: Biden’s Immigration “Fix” Involves Jailing Migrants in Their Homes The Biden administration is launching a new program of digital incarceration – otherwise known as electronic monitoring or e-carceration — for migrants caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, according to a report from Reuters citing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The program, which will involve confining migrants through electronic monitors, is officially called “home curfew,” and is expected initially to include 164,000 people, but could expand to include up to 400,000. It will be run by BI Incorporated, a subsidiary of the private prison giant GEO Group. Immigrant advocates have criticized the program, arguing that home surveillance continues to criminalize migrants and further entrenches the for-profit immigration enforcement industry.
Ukraine: Black Agenda Report Special Issue This issue of Black Agenda Report gives special attention to events in Ukraine.
Ukraine Exposes White Supremacist Foreign Policy White supremacy is at the heart of US war propaganda. The exhortation to “stand with Ukraine” is no exception to this rule.
DOCUMENT: Of the Culture of White Folk, W. E. B. Du Bois, 1917 As the European-initiated World War I raged, W. E. B. DuBois reminded us about the destructive nature of the “culture of white folk.” It is a reminder sorely needed today.
From Crisis to Catastrophe? What is to be Done in Eastern Europe. The end of the cold war was the beginning of the America unipolar moment. But the “end of history” was followed by contradiction and arrogance which brought the conflict in Ukraine into being.
A Different “Fight for 15:” Haiti Garment Industry Workers Strike The garment workers’ strike in Haiti can’t be separated from that nation’s history. Continued US interference on behalf of oligarchic rule keeps workers in poverty.
For African and Colonized Peoples, to Understand Ukraine: De-center Europe and Focus on Imperialism The Black Alliance for Peace emphatically declares that the conflict in the Ukraine emerges from the ceaseless and single-minded drive of the U.S., NATO, and the European Union for global economic and political dominance.
BAR Book Forum: Yolanda Covington-Ward and Jeanette S. Jouili’s Book, “Embodying Black Religions in Africa and Its Diasporas” In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book. This week’s authors are Yolanda Covington-Ward and Jeanette S. Jouili . Covington-Ward is Associate Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. Jouili is Associate Professor of Religion at Syracuse University. They are editors of the book, Embodying Black Religions in Africa and Its Diasporas.
BAR Book Forum: Jafari S. Allen’s “There’s a Disco Ball Between Us” This week’s featured author is Jafari S. Allen . Allen is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Center for Global Black Studies at the University of Miami. His book is There’s a Disco Ball Between Us: A Theory of Black Gay Life.
In Ukraine, U.S. Support for Self-determination is Both Political and Conditional The US determination to exercise hegemony over Ukraine is the cause of this latest crisis. Despite those efforts, the multipolar world is asserting itself.
Without Even Realizing How We Were Being Played. Could This Be Russiagate’s Checkmate? Tales of Donald Trump collusion with Vladimir Putin absolved the democrats of electoral blame, and supported the war party in its attacks on Russia. Yet it was the democratic administration of Barack Obama which first made common cause with the Ukrainian right wing and set the stage for military conflict.
Short School Struggle Poem The latest from BAR’s poet in residence.
France Withdraws From Mali, But Continues to Devastate Africa’s Sahel The French presence in Africa continues. Even as its troops leave Mali, they head to Niger. The US and its EU/NATO allies should leave all of Africa alone.
As US Renews Support for Saudi War in Yemen, Civilian Death Toll Nearly Doubles Joe Biden’s pledge to end the war against Yemen is yet another broken promise. US ties to Saudi Arabia and the commitment to the military industrial complex keep that war raging.
Ukraine: Getting it Right: A Revolutionary Pan-African Perspective Knowledge of Russian, European and American history is necessary in order to understand events taking place in Ukraine.
US sanctions on Russia over Ukraine also target Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba US sanctions against Russia aim to hurt Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba as well.
The Biden Era, Ukraine, and the Crisis of the Left w/Dr. Anthony Monteiro Danny Haiphong and Margaret Kimberley speak with Dr. Anthony Monteiro, organizer of the Saturday Free School and a long time BAR contributor.
Labor:
Economy:
Suisse Secrets: Capitalism is Corruption A data leak has revealed that the major Swiss bank, Credit Suisse, has been managing the assets of global oligarchs, corrupt politicians and drug barons for decades. Clients included the sons of former Egyptian tyrant Hosni Mubarak, ousted Algerian dictator Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Antonio Velardo of the Calabrian mafia, and Eduard Seidel of the Siemens scandal, the biggest German corruption affair in recent years. Many accounts belong to former and current officials from the Arab world, who, according to the whistleblower, “extracted large sums of money from their countries at the time of the popular uprisings of the Arab Spring.” Some accounts also belonged to people accused of hollowing out the Venezuelan oil company PDVSA through corruption and money laundering.
Michael Roberts Blog: The Ukraine disaster is not only going to lead to thousands of deaths, it is going to push the Russian economy into a major slump. And the world economy, already slowing down after the ‘sugar rush’ of ending the pandemic lockdowns in 2021, is also going to suffer. Food and energy prices are rocketing and generalised inflation is at 40-year highs in the major economies. Stagflation is the prospect for 2022. Atlanta Fed’s latest real GDP forecast for the US in this first quarter of 2022 is for zero. The Ukraine disaster is not only going to lead to thousands of deaths, it is going to push the Russian economy into a major slump. And the world economy, already slowing down after the ‘sugar rush’ of ending the pandemic lockdowns in 2021, is also going to suffer. Food and energy prices are rocketing and generalised inflation is at 40-year highs in the major economies. Stagflation is the prospect for 2022. Atlanta Fed’s latest real GDP forecast for the US in this first quarter of 2022 is for zero. 
World:
The Ukraine War Follows Decades of Warnings That NATO Expansion Would Provoke Russia The more widespread and familiar view in the West, particularly in the United States, is that Russia is and has always been an expansionist state, and its current president, Vladimir Putin, is the embodiment of that essential Russian ambition: to build a new Russian empire. “This was … always about naked aggression, about Putin’s desire for empire by any means necessary,” President Joe Biden said on Feb. 24, 2022. The opposing view argues that Russia’s security concerns are in fact genuine, and that NATO expansion eastward is seen by Russians as directed against their country. Putin has been clear for many years that if continued, the expansion would likely be met with serious resistance by the Russians, even with military action. That perspective isn’t held just by Russians; some influential American foreign policy experts have subscribed to it as well. Among others, Biden’s CIA director, William J. Burns, has been warning about the provocative effect of NATO expansion on Russia since 1995. That’s when Burns, then a political officer in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, reported to Washington that “hostility to early NATO expansion is almost universally felt across the domestic political spectrum here.”
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!
The Ukraine War Follows Decades of Warnings That NATO Expansion Would Provoke Russia The more widespread and familiar view in the West, particularly in the United States, is that Russia is and has always been an expansionist state, and its current president, Vladimir Putin, is the embodiment of that essential Russian ambition: to build a new Russian empire. “This was … always about naked aggression, about Putin’s desire for empire by any means necessary,” President Joe Biden said on Feb. 24, 2022. The opposing view argues that Russia’s security concerns are in fact genuine, and that NATO expansion eastward is seen by Russians as directed against their country. Putin has been clear for many years that if continued, the expansion would likely be met with serious resistance by the Russians, even with military action. That perspective isn’t held just by Russians; some influential American foreign policy experts have subscribed to it as well. Among others, Biden’s CIA director, William J. Burns, has been warning about the provocative effect of NATO expansion on Russia since 1995. That’s when Burns, then a political officer in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, reported to Washington that “hostility to early NATO expansion is almost universally felt across the domestic political spectrum here.”