Daily News Digest March 14, 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:
COVID-19 Vaccine Patents Patently Unfair
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:
Michael Roberts Blog: Squaring Russia’s missing barrels. The global economy may face one of the largest oil supply shocks in history, according to Goldman Sachs Research. Russian oil exports have fallen since the country’s invasion of Ukraine. If sustained, sanctions could lead to a drop in seaborne Russian oil amounting to 3 million barrels per day, which would be the sixth-largest disruption since World War II, according to strategists in Goldman Sachs Research.
We should not be surprised when the U.S. alliance with neo-Nazi proxy forces in Ukraine, including the infusion of billions of dollars in sophisticated weapons, results in similarly violent and destructive blowback. — There Is No Wisdom in Pretending That Ukraine’s Neo-Nazis Don’t Exist .
Videos of the Day:
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!
Ray McGovern: What Role Has the U.S. Played in the Ukraine Crisis On this week’s “Scheer Intelligence,” CIA veteran Ray McGovern spars with Robert Scheer about whether or not American politicians and pundits have Ukrainian blood on their hands. As Russia’s attack on Ukraine wages on, and Ukrainian civilians die daily, the fog of war has seemingly been clouding more nuanced analysis in the United States, argues “Scheer Intelligence” host Robert Scheer. To get more perspective on the historical context of the current conflict, Scheer invites former CIA analyst Ray McGovern to discuss the role the U.S. and NATO have played in Ukraine. McGovern has long been an outspoken critic of what he’s coined as the American Military-Industrial-Congressional-Intelligence-Media-Academia-Think-Tank (MICIMATT) for leading the world ever closer to a nuclear war. McGovern spent 27 years as a CIA analyst, during which time he led the Soviet Foreign Policy Branch and prepared The President’s Daily Brief for three U.S. presidents. Months before the Iraq War, the former intelligence analyst joined a group of his peers to ward against the “insanity” of war, creating the group Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS). Now, as news of the war in Ukraine fills American media, McGovern has attempted to call for sanity once more.
Threat of Nuclear Conflict is Higher Now Than in the Cold War The risk of a nuclear war is becoming greater than it was in the first Cold War because Russia under President Vladimir Putin is much weaker – and therefore more likely to use nuclear weapons – than the Soviet Union at the height of its power under Nikita Khrushchev and Leonid Brezhnev. It is only as a nuclear superpower that Moscow retains parity with the US in their capacity for mass destruction. Putin carried out some nuclear sabre-rattling at the start of his war in Ukraine byputting his nuclear forces on a higher level of alert, saying that he was determined to deter foreign interference in his military campaign. Many dismissed his threat as rhetorical at the time, but since then his ill-planned invasion has continued to falter, showing up Moscow’s conventional military forces as weaker than anybody had supposed.
Lawsuit Alleges 3 Lawmakers, Part of Trump Electors Plot, Cannot Run for Office Agroup of citizens from Wisconsin — as well as a brewing company in the state — are suing to disqualify three Republican candidates for office, arguing that they played a role in trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election and thus aided and engaged in an insurrection against the United States. The lawsuit requests that a federal judge rule that Republican Reps. Tom Tiffany and Scott Fitzgerald, as well as Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, are insurrectionists. All three Republicans represent Wisconsin, and are up for reelection in this year’s midterm elections. The challenge is similar to one being waged against Rep. Madison Cawthorn, a Republican from North Carolina, who faces eligibility questions from 11 residents in that state who say that he should be barred from running again due to his participation in the events of January 6, 2021.
Ukraine’s War of Illusions The NATO critique of the Russian army in Ukraine is that it is overly dependent on technology (cruise missiles, fighter jets, etc.) and less effective when fixing bayonets to rush a Kyiv housing project. At the same time, don’t believe all the press releases that you read about NATO’s effectiveness as a fighting force, as more than anything else it has lived well in the shade of the American nuclear umbrella, and when it has seen limited action its performance has been at best lackluster.
Ukraine as Game Board Washington cares less about Ukrainian independence and sovereignty than Russia. Its primary interest in the territory is its location right next to Russia; its other interests lie in the resources and markets a Ukraine under US influence offers. Of course, the latter also helps explain Russia’s determination not to let NATO assimilate Kyiv and the country it is the capitol of. If Washington was truly interested in the independence of the Ukrainian people, it would call for a resolution granting autonomy to the eastern Donbass region of Ukraine, where a war for that region’s secession from Ukraine has been waging since at least 2014 when the US/NATO sponsored color rebellion overthrew the elected government in Kyiv. It is that US-leaning government that Washington wants to preserve; a government first installed by US and NATO intelligence that may represent Ukrainian hopes, but certainly does not represent Ukrainian independence. Only the Ukrainian people can determine that and their voice is both muffled and mixed. Democratic socialists, unabashed capitalists looking towards the EU, families with old money stolen from the people after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, fascists whose legacy includes killing thousands of Jews and collaborating militarily with the Nazis, and millions of workers and farmers—these are the people of Ukraine. In my mind it is the last demographic which should have the greatest say in their nation’s future. However, if the rest of the world is any indication, their voice is the last to be heard
Environment —Ecosocialism or Ecocide!:
Fukushima Takes a Turn for the Worse Tokyo Electric Power Company-TEPCO- has been attempting to decommission three nuclear meltdowns in reactors No. 1 No. 2, and No. 3 for 11 years now. Over time, impossible issues grow and glow, putting one assertion after another into the anti-nuke coffers. The problems, issues, enormous danger, and ill timing of deconstruction of a nuclear disaster is always unexpectedly complicated by something new. That’s the nature of nuclear meltdowns, aka: China Syndrome debacles. As of today, TEPCO is suffering some very serious setbacks that have “impossible to deal with” written all over the issues..
Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine May Have Disastrous Cascading Effects for Climate Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has completely upended European military spending and the global energy market. The disruptions in both sectors could have massive ramifications for how the world addresses climate change. Already, Germany’s decision to increase its defense budget to 100 billion euros, and the move by the United States and its allies to release 60 million barrels of oil from their strategic reserves, are only the first of what is likely to be a huge reshuffling of global priorities and supply lines in reaction to the military attack instigated by Vladimir Putin. In the United States, President Joe Biden announced a ban on importing Russian oil, which had previously been exempt from the harsh sanctions imposed since the beginning of the war. Only about 8 percent of U.S. petroleum imports came from Russia in 2021, but even the small decline in supply could contribute to increasing gas prices. Europe hasn’t imposed its own ban, as the continent is far more reliant on Russia for oil and natural gas imports. Although European leaders have committed to decreasing their dependency on Russian energy, that transition will take years, as Russia supplies the continent with 40 percent of its gas and 25 percent of its oil.
Book Review: Endangered Maize Industrial Agriculture and the Crisis of Extinction Charting the political, social, and environmental history of efforts to conserve crop diversity. Many people worry that we’re losing genetic diversity in the foods we eat. Over the past century, crop varieties standardized for industrial agriculture have increasingly dominated farm fields. Concerned about what this transition means for the future of food, scientists, farmers, and eaters have sought to protect fruits, grains, and vegetables they consider endangered. They have organized high-tech genebanks and heritage seed swaps. They have combed fields for ancient landraces and sought farmers growing Indigenous varieties. Behind this widespread concern for the loss of plant diversity lies another extinction narrative that concerns the survival of farmers themselves, a story that is often obscured by urgent calls to collect and preserve. Endangered Maize draws on the rich history of corn in Mexico and the United States to uncover this hidden narrative and show how it shaped the conservation strategies adopted by scientists, states, and citizens.
Book Review: A BLUE NEW DEAL Why We Need a New Politics for the Ocean Yale University Press, 2022 We face two urgent challenges at sea: massive environmental destruction, and spiraling inequality in the ocean economy. Armstrong examines these crises, from the fate of people whose lands will be submerged by sea level rise, to the exploitation of people working in fishing, to the rights of marine animals, and presents a radical manifesto for putting equality, democracy, and sustainability at the heart of ocean politics.
Civil Right/Black Liberation:
The Unreprsented: In the United Sates, Minorities Don’t ‘Count’!: The 2020 Census Undercounted Native Americans, Black and Latinx People According to new estimates that the Census Bureau released on Thursday, the 2020 census undercounted Black people, Latinx people and Native Americans, which advocates have warned could potentially lead to voter disenfranchisement. All three groups were undercounted at higher rates than they were a decade ago. Latinx people were undercounted by about 5 percent, or over three times the rate from 2010. Black people were undercounted by about 3.3 percent, while Native Americans on reservations were undercounted by over 5.6 percent
Stemic Environmental Racism: How US Redlining Led to An Air Pollution Crisis 100 Years Later Study of 200 cities shows dangerous environmental inequality fueled by 20th-century practice dividing cities along racial lines A new study has found that neighborhoods in which the federal government discouraged investment nearly 100 years ago – via a racist practice known as redlining – face higher levels of air pollution today. Looking at more than 200 cities across the nation, researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, found that people who live in neighborhoods that were once categorized as “hazardous”, based on racist factors such as how many Black or “foreign-born” people lived there, now breathe 56% more of the freeway pollutant nitrogen dioxide than those in top-rated areas.
Labor:
Economy:
Shadow Government Statistics Alternate Inflation Charts The CPI chart on the home page reflects our estimate of inflation for today as if it were calculated the same way it was in 1990. The CPI on the Alternate Data Series tab here reflects the CPI as if it were calculated using the methodologies in place in 1980. In general terms, methodological shifts in government reporting have depressed reported inflation, moving the concept of the CPI away from being a measure of the cost of living needed to maintain a constant standard of living.
Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Are in the Hot Seat: Sever Cozy Ties with Russia or Earn the Wrath of U.S. and EU Clients Russia began its brutal invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Two days later the European Commission, U.S., U.K. and Canada announced sweeping sanctions, which have grown in granular details since then. By early this week, hundreds of corporations with the most famous brands in the world had announced that they were closing their stores in Russia, or ceasing to ship their products there, or severing joint business operations in a rebuke to Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine.But it wasn’t until this past Wednesday that anyone heard a peep from the largest U.S. banks on Wall Street about their plans to cease operations in Russia. Citigroup made its ambiguous announcement on Wednesday, March 9, followed by equally vague statements by Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase on Thursday, March 10.
World:
The Smearing of Emma Watson Anyone who has ever been critical of Israeli actions toward the Palestinian people knows what to expect next—an avalanche of pit-bull attacks and smears that their criticisms of Israel are motivated by racism and anti-Semitism. The latest example is the response to actress Emma Watson’s pro-Palestinian Instagram post, which led (predictably) to Israeli officials and supporters accusing her of anti-Semitism. Among many others, former Israeli UN Representative Danny Danon—in a tone-deaf post—wrote, “10 points from Gryffindor for being an antisemite.” The purpose of such false accusations is of course to deflect attention away from what is happening on the ground—the real (war) crimes that Israel is perpetrating against the Palestinian people—to the supposed motivations of the critics. Unable to defend its criminal actions, all that Israel’s increasingly desperate defenders have left is smear and innuendo, as the attacks on Emma Watson make clear.
‘Barbaric’ Russia and the ‘Civilised’ West The French philosopher Voltaire was supposed to have written the celebrated phrase: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Whether or not he actually pronounced them, these words are often cited to describe the principle of freedom of speech. Free speech, and by extension, freedom of the press, is always held up as one of the cornerstones of democracy. It is what is said to separate the proud citizens of the western world from all other, less fortunate nations. It is supposed to be the red line that distinguishes civilization from barbarism. Above all, in the present moment in world history, it is said to distinguish us civilised, democratic, freedom-loving peoples of the western world from Russian despotic barbarism.
Even After Acknowledging Abuses, The U.S. Continued to Employ Notorious Proxy Forces in Cameroon An exclusive document sheds light on a classified Special Operations partnership with a Cameroonian unit implicated in atrocities. MONTHS AFTER THE head of U.S. Africa Command announced that funding for Cameroon’s armed forces would be slashed due to human rights concerns, the Pentagon continued employing members of an elite Cameroonian military unit long known for committing atrocities — including extrajudicial killings — as proxies through a classified Special Operations counterterrorism program, The Intercept has learned.
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!