Daily News Digest March 8, 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:
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:
As reparationist Esther Stanford-Xosei argues, reparations are not simply a matter of financial compensation, but must include bigger, more radical changes that help us build “new economic systems that don’t produce and reproduce inequality.” Alongside the much needed adaptation and loss and damage finance, a climate reparations programme in this vein could include (but would not be limited to) the patent-free sharing of green tech with the Global South, wealth taxation, debt cancellation, tax transparency reforms, and reforms to international institutions. Demands such as these would not just be an attempt to right historical injustices created simultaneously by colonialism and climate change, but to prevent them occurring again in the future. As Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò says, these types of reparations are “central to the expansive project of building a more just world”. — The Need for Climate Reparations Is Now Undeniable
Videos of the Day:\
‘We are not Slaves!’: Haitian Garment Workers Strike for a Fair Wage
Urban Agriculture: What US Cities Can Learn From Cuba
Cuba Documentary: The Organic Isle Organic Farming Cuba I ARTE Documentary In Cuba, over 300,000 urban farms and gardens produce about 50 percent of the island’s fresh produce supply, along with 39,000 During the partial federal shutdown in December 2018 and January 2019, news reports showed furloughed government workers standing in line for donated meals. These images were reminders that for an estimated one out of eight Americans, food insecurity is a near-term risk.
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!
Another Casualty of the Ukraine Conflict: The Truth! The Ukraine conflict has engendered a dangerous frenzy in the West. Does it say more about us than it does about Russia or Ukraine? War and conflict are the enemies of truth. Accurate perception, precise language and objectivity are its first victims. For good reason. Emotion eclipses reason. The ‘we/they’ prism refracts and distorts our thoughts. The individual is swept up into the mass mood. Frenzy roils just below the surface. . . . Unfortunately, observation is blurred and selective. We are poor witnesses to ourselves. Sometimes, we never do gain the perspective needed for a clear rendering of what happened, how we felt and what we did. Oddly, the more peculiar the experience, the less the inclination and ability to reflect on it. Such is the case in regard to the current Ukraine affair. That singular feature is itself noteworthy. For that is not due to indifference – quite the opposite. Washington is the producer and would-be director of the drama as well as the co-star. The feature that cries out for our critical attention is the frenzy that the Ukraine conflict has engendered. This despite the absence of an American military presence, no obvious national interest of the first order at stake, and its erupting at a time when one would have thought the country’s appetite for this sort of thing satiated by two decades of endless, failed wars in nearly every part of the world.
Environment —Ecosocialism or Ecocide!:
The Need for Climate Reparations Is Now Undeniable The latest UN climate report highlights how communities that have contributed the least to climate change are suffering the most. “A brief and rapidly closing window to secure a liveable future.” That’s the sobering assessment made by scientists on the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which earlier this week published its latest report, on the impacts of the climate crisis. “A brief and rapidly closing window to secure a liveable future.” That’s the sobering assessment made by scientists on the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which earlier this week published its latest report, on the impacts of the climate crisis.
Black-Led Urban Farms Are Thriving – Until They Have to Fight for Their Land Urban farms play a vital role in feeding communities but are hampered by precarious leases and gentrification For the last 10 years, residents in the south Baltimore neighborhood of Cherry Hill who struggled to access affordable food had a reliable place to go. What happened in Baltimore is not an isolated event. Urban farms around the US are increasingly important, especially in “food desert” neighborhoods, yet they face big challenges with land security. It’s a struggle that particularly affects Black farmers: people of color own only 3% of all agricultural land in the US and Black farmers make up only 1.3% of farmers. Verbal and temporary leases are common, says Neith Grace Little, urban agriculture educator at the University of Maryland Extension in Baltimore. This can put urban farmers at a disadvantage, especially when developers show interest. Farmers can easily be forced to move, forfeiting years of investment.
The Colorado River Basin’s Water Forecast Looked Good in January. Now Everything has Changed. Data collected from Colorado River Basin sensors recorded near- or record-low snowfall in the last three weeks of January The National Resources Conservation Service maintains snow telemetry (SNOTEL) sites across the Colorado River Basin, which automatically report snow depth and quality. Beginning in December, NOAA produces regular reports based on the SNOTEL data, detailing how that snow might translate into streamflow come spring. Spring runoff is critical to irrigated agriculture, domestic water supplies, and the recreation industry in Colorado and across the West. More than 36 million people rely on the Colorado River for drinking water; farmers and ranchers use water from the river to irrigate more than 3 million acres of farmland. Water managers have also been closely monitoring Glen Canyon Dam at Lake Powell, which delivers hydroelectric power to more than 3 million customers. If the Utah reservoir falls below the 3,525-foot elevation level, it threatens the dam’s ability to generate electricity.
Civil Rights/BlackLiberation:
Labor:
Them and Us: Class Divide Turns Into a Chasm While workers struggle to maintain living standards in the face of rampant inflation, the bankers are awarding themselves record bonuses. As Marx stated, capitalism is misery for billions, and riches for billionaires. The real war is a class war. “To him that hath, more shall be given; and from him that hath not, the little that he hath shall be taken away,” wrote Percy Shelley in 1821, two hundred years ago. “The rich have become richer, and the poor have become poorer.” What has changed? Today, despite modern advances, the gulf between the classes has never been wider. It has become a gaping chasm.
Economy:
Trillion Dolar Capitalist Capitalist Theives/Robber Barons!
FOM the 2001 article: War on Drugs Dirty Money Foundation of US Growth and Empire Size and Scope of Money Laundering by US Banks by James Petras, Professor of Sociology, Binghamton University. He explains that 500 Billion to a Trillion dollars gets added to world capitalist economy through “illegal means.” he concludes the article with the following: “The increasing polarization of the world is embedded in this organized system of criminal and corrupt financial transactions. While speculation and foreign debt payments play a role in undermining living standards in the crisis regions, the multi-trillion dollar money laundering and bank servicing of corrupt officials is a much more significant factor, sustaining Western prosperity, U.S. empire building and financial stability. The scale, scope and time frame of transfers and money laundering, the centrality of the biggest banking enterprises and the complicity of the governments, strongly suggests that the dynamics of growth and stagnation, empire and re-colonization are intimately related to a new form of capitalism built around pillage, criminality, corruption and complicity. ‘This Goes Straight to the Top.’”
How London and the US Became Safe Havens For Dirty Money Three books examine how and why financial centres in Britain and the US responded to the challenges of the postwar world by assuming the role of ‘butlers’ for autocrats Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email [email protected] to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found here. When Liz Truss recently stood up in parliament to announce a “hit list of oligarchs” the UK foreign secretary said that she wanted “a situation where they cannot access their funds, their trade cannot flow, their ships cannot dock and their planes cannot land”. Her speech, along with others from the floor of the House of Commons slamming oligarchs and their associates, was just one prominent example of how Vladimir Putin’s savage attack on Ukraine has brutally brought to the fore the phenomenon known as “Londongrad”. The warm home the British establishment and its financial system provide for dirty money from the post-Soviet sphere and elsewhere may finally begin to be seen as the embarrassment — and worse — that it constitutes. Take Dmitry Firtash, exposed in 2006 as the part-owner of the company handling Russia’s Ukrainian gas shipments which long gave Moscow a stranglehold over Kyiv. After he spent money lavishly on everything from luxury houses to Cambridge scholarships and political donations, Firtash’s UK social status seemed to have no limits — he was feted by parliamentarians and shook hands with the Duke of Edinburgh — until he was arrested in Austria on an FBI indictment for corruption.
World:
Imperialism Today and the Character of Russia and China We publish here a document written in 2016 by the leadership of the IMT as part of a discussion about the role of imperialism today and the character of China and Russia. We think it can serve to clarify questions that have been raised in relation to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In any discussion of new questions, it is necessary to go back to the fundamentals. Lenin’s text, Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, provides us with the starting point for our analysis. No book has ever explained the phenomena of modern capitalism better than Lenin’s Imperialism. All the main predictions of that work, concerning the concentration of capital, the dominance of the banks and finance capital, the growing antagonism between nation states and the inevitability of war arising out of the contradictions of imperialism have been shown to be true by the history of the last 100 years.
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!