Daily News Digest March 10, 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:
Bendib: Democracy a Must…Abroad!
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:
There can be no real and effective ‘freedom’ in a society based on the power of money, in a society in which the masses of working people live in poverty and the handful of rich live like parasites.” The status of women up to now has been compared to that of a slave; women have been tied to the home, and only socialism can save them from this. They will only be completely emancipated when we change from small-scale individual farming to collective farming and collective working of the land. The freedom of the bourgeois writer, artist or actress is simply masked ependence on the money-bag, on corruption, on prostitution. — Lenin
Videos of the Day:
A Dire Warning About the End of Human Civilization The latest report from the IPCC on the climate crisis is apocalyptic in its language. It’s clear that 1.5 degrees warming is a disaster, and we are on our way to 2 and even 3 or more degrees warming – which is beyond catastrophic. Peter Carter joins Paul Jay to review the report.
Carl Sagan Testifying Before Congress in 1985 on Climate Change
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!
Noam Chomsky: A No-Fly Zone Over Ukraine Could Unleash Untold Violence A no-fly zone would give the U.S. carte blanche to attack Russian planes and support installations, says Chomsky. As war rages on in Ukraine, diplomacy continues to take a back seat in spite of the heartbreaking devastation Russia’s invasion has wrought. The post-World War II global architecture is simply incapable of regulating issues of war and peace, and the West continues to reject Russia’s security concerns. Moreover, there are calls in some quarters for a declaration of a no-fly zone over Ukraine, although the actual enforcement of such a policy would quickly escalate violence, with potential consequences nearly too horrible to speak. The idea of a no-fly zone is profoundly dangerous, warns Noam Chomsky in this exclusive interview for Truthout.
War Is (Still) A Racket: Corporate Power and the Russian Invasion of Ukraine U.S. military contractors—Raytheon and Lockheed Martin corporations—are telling their investors the tensions are good for business, while General Dynamics corporation boasts that past such disputes have expanded their bottom line. This is more than a political war. It’s a resource war. There are many reasons for Russia’s invasion. Some concern politics, history, culture, and territory—including preventing NATO expansion. Not often mentioned, however, is that this small country has 5% of the earth’s natural and mineral resources, including coal, oil, natural gas (2nd most in Europe), lithium (for batteries), iron ore (for industry), titanium (20% of proven world reserves, for aerospace) and gallium (2nd most in world, for electronics). Ukraine is also incredibly rich agriculturally—1st in Europe in arable land and 25% of the world’s volume of black soil —capable of meeting the food needs of 600 million people.
Karen Greenberg, Old Wars on a New Planet Exactly what we needed: an invasion that sends us into the grimmest parts of our Cold War past just as the planet’s scientists are warning us that our future is all-too-desperately at stake. Count on one thing: in few countries that truly matter will money pour into fighting the endless burning of fossil fuels that could heat this planet to the boiling point. Count on something else as well. Money is going to pour into military-industrial complexes globally, into what everyone loves to call “defense” spending, just when it should be used to establish new clean-energy infrastructures that don’t use fossil fuels. Thank you, Vlad! Remember how that old song went? War, what is it good for? The hopeful answer then: Absolutely nothing! Unfortunately, in our present moment, that’s proving anything but true. In response to the invasion of Ukraine, Germany is now planning to radically raise the once relatively modest funds it put into its military machine. Meanwhile, it goes without saying that, just as they did last year, the Biden administration and Congress are expected to up the next U.S. “defense” budget to even more stratospheric heights.
One Ukraine or Two? Today West Ukrainians are predominantly Ukrainian speaking and largely Western-oriented. Their history and geography have given them more experience of the relatively open societies of the West than people in East Ukraine. They are more likely to be nationalists and anti-Russian, with more than a tinge of fascism, as exhibited by the continued popularity of the WW II pro-Nazi collaborator, Stepan Bandera. East Ukraine–the lands east of the Dnieper River and along the Black Sea coast, including Odessa–is by contrast largely Russian speaking, and perhaps more firmly Orthodox and more fearful of European invasion than it is of dominance from Moscow
Climate Hawks Fracture on CCS Subsidy, McKenna Questions Tax Credit as Federal Budget Looms The prospect of a new tax credit for carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) technology in this year’s federal budget has battle lines drawn across the Canadian climate community, with sharp disagreements on whether fossil companies should qualify for taxpayer support and a former federal environment minister maintaining it’s time for them to pay their own way.
Environment —Ecosocialism or Ecocide!:
Way Over the 450 CO22ppm ‘Tipping Point’!: Weekly average CO2 at Mauna Loa Week beginning on February 27, 2022: 419.20 CO22ppm. Weekly value from 1 year ago: 417.68 CO22ppmppm, andWeekly value from 10 years ago: 394.54 CO22ppmppm
Huge invasive spiders native to Asia expected to spread along US east coastHuge invasive spiders native to Asia expected to spread along US east coast Joro spiders will likely survive on the east coast because Japan has a similar climate and is located approximately on the same latitude The spider, Trichonephila clavata, is known for its ability to spin highly organized, wheel-shaped webs. Females have blue, yellow and red markings and can measure up to 3in when fully extended.
Capitalism was Aware of the Effects of Lead Poinsoning for Over 50Yeas, and Still the Poisoning Continues: Lead: Lead has been known to be toxic since the 19th century, and it can have adverse effects on most human organs by interfering with the function of enzymes in our cells. In adults, lead exposure can lead to” Reproductive. Dysfunction,kidney failure, and cardiovascular problems. However, the most potent and devastating effects of lead are on children because they are more likely to be exposed through play and exploration and because growing bodies absorb more lead. Lead is a neurotoxin, interfering with the growth and development of children’s brains. This can cause hearing and vision loss, behavioral problems, and learning disabilities, which may be irreversible. These effects occur at even low levels of lead exposure, and in extreme cases lead exposure can lead to death in children and adults. Alarmingly, even though the toxic effects of lead are well known, a recent study estimates that 800 million children worldwide are exposed to lead today. And Half of US Adults Were Exposed to harmful lead levels as Kids, Study Finds Researcher calls findings ‘infuriating’ as team finds significant impact on cognitive development Over 170 million Americans who were adults in 2015 were exposed to harmful levels of lead as children, a new study estimates.
Civil Right/Black Liberation:
On a Grim and Bloody International Women’s Day, Let’s Build Feminist Solidarity What can we do on International Women’s Day to honor the legacies of feminist internationalists? On this International Women’s Day, as the world watches a historic and bloody war unfold in Europe — while people in the United States and Europe largely continue to ignore the suffering of the millions of Black and Brown people who have been rendered stateless by war, corruption and the climate crisis, many of them women — we need to fortify ourselves, pump up our optimism and bolster our resolve to fight for a better world. Women are always vulnerable to sexual violence and abuse in the context of war and occupation. War is both a spectacle of toxic masculinity, expressed through the use of state power to dominate, conquer, occupy other territories. Even as some women are also soldiers (militarism is not solely a cis male phenomenon), women still are for the most part collateral damage in wars launched by men.
Labor:
Economy:
Deutsche Bank Has Lost 38 Percent of Its Market Value in a Month; That’s a Big Problem for Wall Street and the Fed Deutsche Bank (symbol DB on the above chart) closed at $16.50 on the New York Stock Exchange on February 10 of this year. It closed at $10.23 yesterday – a decline of 38 percent in a month’s time. That’s a big problem because Deutsche Bank is heavily interconnected to Wall Street banks via derivatives. According to Deutsche Bank’s most recent annual report, as of December 31, 2020, it held $35.4 trillion in notional derivatives. (Notional means face amount. See the table on page 147 of the 2020 Deutsche Bank Annual Report here.)
World:
Immigration: The Hypocracy of Capitalism: As Europe Welcomes Ukrainian Refugees, It Leaves Other Migrants Caught “Between Two Deaths” A new book describes the violence of EU-funded detention centers in Libya, exposing the racist double standard at the core of European border policy. last monday, the European Union’s commissioner for home affairs, Ylva Johansson, visited a border crossing and refugee camp in the Romanian town of Siret, as thousands of Ukrainians arrived fleeing war and seeking asylum. Speaking to the press, Johansson praised the “heartwarming” cooperation and solidarity of authorities and volunteers. Europe, she said, was united “in a way we have never seen before.” On Sunday, Johansson had announced plans to grant temporary protection to all Ukrainian refugees, and by Thursday, the EU had unanimously agreed to fast-track residency permits for everyone fleeing the war. The commissioner was not naive or sanguine about the situation: “We need to prepare for millions,” she said. . . . The EU’s commendable displays of sympathy and hospitality toward Ukraine’s mostly white, mostly Christian refugees stand in violent contrast to its policies of deterrence, detention, and state-sanctioned death targeting African and Middle Eastern asylum-seekers by the millions. “We are wondering,” Ahmad al-Hariri, who fled the war in Syria 10 years ago and has been trying to reach Europe ever since, told Reuters, “why were Ukrainians welcome in all countries while we, Syrian refugees, are still in tents and remain under the snow, facing death, and no one is looking to us?” The contrast, to put it crudely, is as clear as black and white: ven within Ukraine’s refugee population, African exchange students and other nonwhite residents have faced racist violence and segregation as they attempt to leave the country, with many reporting being blocked from crossing borders while their white peers are welcomed with open arms.
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!
‘Shocking’: Report Warns US Likely to Miss Modest Vaccine Donation Goal “The Biden administration is not on track to meet its commitment of donating 1.2 billion vaccine doses this year. The White House quietly dropped the timeline in its new pandemic plan. An analysis published Tuesday warns that the Biden administration is likely to miss its modest goal of donating more than 1 billion coronavirus vaccine doses to the world by the end of September, a concern the White House seemed to tacitly acknowledge last week by omitting the timeline from its new Covid-19 preparedness plan