Daily News Digest March 16, 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:
They Got Money For War! — But Not For The Poor! 
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:
Our economy is at war with many forms of life on earth, including human life. What the climate needs to avoid collapse is a contraction in humanity’s use of resources; what our economic model demands to avoid collapse is unfettered expansion. Only one of these sets of rules can be changed, and it’s not the laws of nature. — Naomi Kline
The collapse of the Soviet Union did not lead to a “peace dividend” as Thatcher and Bush claimed at the time. Military spending is at an all time high, and conflicts between imperialist powers are intensifying around the world. NATO expansion is one of the ways this conflict is being pursued. This war is the product of conflicting capitalist interests. It is about how far NATO can go in its imperialist aspirations, and how far the smaller imperialist power, Russia, can resist and win back some of its lost spheres of influence. The task of Marxists is to explain all this patiently to the workers of all countries. We must explain that so long as capitalism survives, conflicts over markets and spheres of influence will continue. The barbarism of capitalism will continue once the war in Ukraine ends, and it will lead to new wars. Only when the workers of all countries finally put an end to capitalism will we see the end of this. — How Western Imperialism Prepared the Ground For the Conflict In Ukraine
Videos of the Day:
Uk Top Court Rejects Assange’s Request to Appeal Extradition Decision The decision represents “a blow to Julian Assange and to justice,” said one human rights campaigner.
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!
Chris Hedges: Waltzing Toward Armageddon with the Merchants of Death The doctrine of permanent war dominated our lives during the Cold War and dominates our lives now. The Cold War, from 1945 to 1989, was a wild Bacchanalia for arms manufacturers, the Pentagon, the CIA, the diplomats who played one country off another on the world’s chess board, and the global corporations able to loot and pillage by equating predatory capitalism with freedom. In the name of national security, the Cold Warriors, many of them self-identified liberals, demonized labor, independent media, human rights organizations, and those who opposed the permanent war economy and the militarization of American society as soft on communism. That is why they have resurrected it.
Biden Is A Dishonest Trump . . . Trumpism is here to stay and we are seeing that a man who ran on being “not Trump” is like him in many ways he doesn’t even realize. Trumpism then is a structural phenomenon on both sides of the aisle. What is Trumpism? An expression of a failed state. Biden pathetically chants “fund, fund, fund” the police, aiming to impress an imaginary person who wants to bash the left. Biden is a coward and a failure and he’s running away. He wants to blame everyone but those responsible for his failure. Is it true that any President, including Bernard Sanders (who I’ll still defend), would fail within our current system? Of course yes. Has Biden tried to succeed? Of course not.
Biden’s Sanctions on Afghanistan Threaten to Kill More People Than Two Decades of War . . . In fact, the real mistake was the opposite: The Biden administration did not end the war, but continued it by other means, which are turning out to be more violent and destabilizing. The economic sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies are causing widespread, severe hunger in this desperately poor country. Unless those sanctions are soon reversed, it is estimated that more people will die from the economic impact of sanctions over the next year than the number who died in 20 years of war. The most destructive economic sanction is the U.S. confiscation of more than $7 billion in international reserves belonging to Afghanistan’s central bank. The reserves are needed for essential imports such as food and medicine, but also for the central bank to play its normal role in maintaining a functioning financial system and economic stability
Environment —Ecosocialism or Ecocide!:
Methane Acceleration Sets Record In the year 2021 methane (CH4) concentration in the atmosphere exceeded 1,900 ppb for the first time in human history recorded by Global Monitoring Laboratory, Earth System Research Laboratories, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). That level of 1,900 ppb is triple the pre-industrial level of 700 ppb. Furthermore, it is suddenly mysteriously accelerating over just the past 13 years. In turn, this exceptional acceleration could hasten global warming considerably. Of even more concern, the acceleration appears to be regenerating on its own accord sans human influence.
Will California’s Fossil Fuel Industry Use the Ukraine War to Undermine Oil and Gas Legislation? The shock to the global financial system from the Russia-Ukraine war isn’t only driving up the cost of gasoline in the U.S., but also raising the price of gas to heat homes, boosting inflation and potentially undermining climate change legislation in California as well as the state’s efforts to ramp down oil and gas production. Although the U.S. is banning Russian energy imports, California doesn’t rely on Russia for oil or gas. Yet already the industry is aggressively pushing the Newsom administration to approve more than 1,000 permits (Fracking) for new production to help “reduce the need to increase imports from foreign sources, like Russia,” said the Western States Petroleum Association in a statement. Experts tell Capital & Main this won’t do anything to stop rising gas prices in the short term.
Higher Levels of PFAS Exposure May Increase Chance of Covid, Studies Say Four studies are first to support theory PFAS could hinder body’s ability to fight virus, but authors say more is research needed ‘There’s clear science and evidence that immunological response and PFAS are connected and associated,’ said Christel Nielsen, one of the study’s co-authors. Public health advocates and researchers have feared since the coronavirus pandemic’s onset that PFAS, which are known to be immunotoxic, could hinder the body’s ability to fight Covid-19, and the four studies represent the first bit of research supporting the theory. However, the authors caution that more research is needed.
Civil Right/Black Liberation:
(The police) are a very real menace to every black cat alive in this country. And no matter how many people say, ‘You’re being paranoid when you talk about police brutality’ – I know what I’m talking about. I survived those streets and those precinct basements and I know. And I’ll tell you this – I know what it was like when I was really helpless, how many beatings I got. And I know what happens now because I’m not really helpless. But I know, too, that if he (police) don’t know that this is Jimmy Baldwin and not just some other nigger he’s gonna blow my head off just like he blows off everybody else’s head. It could happen to my mother in the morning, to my sister, to my brother… For me this has always been a violent country – it has never been a democracy. — James Baldwin
Anti-Black Racism Is Global. So Must Be the Movement to End It. With the treatment of Black refugees in Ukraine, we witnessed in real time how Black lives do not matter globally. In her book, Killing Rage: Ending Racism, the late bell hooks communicates the weight of what feels like an axiomatic truth: “All black people in the United States, irrespective of their class status or politics, live with the possibility that they will be terrorized by whiteness.” As we bear witness to the authoritarian violence imposed upon Ukraine by Vladimir Putin’s deployment of Russia’s military might, and to his perverse fantasy of a “New Russia,” we must never forget that anti-Black racism in the U.S. is inextricably linked to the perverse fantasies of white supremacism and operates according to vicious, racist violence. This is one reason why, for me, all the oppressed people of the world — the colonized, the violated and the marginalized — must be heard, and their pain made legible on its own terms. At the end of the day, however, I know that, as Black, I am deemed by many to be the most racially abject monstrosity that there is. I continue, though, to be shocked by the global degree to which Black people experience anti-Black racism.
Labor:
Economy:
FRED: Producer Price Index by Commodity: All Commodities
5-Count Felon JPMorgan Is at the Center of a New, Multi-Billion Dollar Trading Scandal Traders who feel they were robbed of their profits trading nickel last week at the London Metal Exchange (LME) have taken to Twitter to verbally accuse the LME of favoring their “cronies” and behaving like “slime balls.”
World:
Bendib: Doom’s Day Clock
Ukrainian-Spanish Basketball Player Vlady Orlov Speaks Out: “90% of the News Here is False, Because Spain Is Part of NATO” Volodymyr Orlov is a basketball player with Benicarló, in the second division of Spanish basketball, LEB Plata. He was born in Ukraine but moved to Spain when he was 11 and has acquired Spanish nationality. His recent public statements on the Russian invasion of Ukraine ES Radio, which have been published by La Voz de Galicia and other newspapers, have created a stir in Spain. He started by explaining how most of his family – his parents, sister and grandparents – still live in his birthplace, Kharkiv, one of the first cities to be attacked by the Russian army: “It’s difficult to handle this situation. It hurts to see what is happening. My city was the first affected although there are bombings almost everywhere.” His family and friends, “are sheltered in the subway, because it is anti-bombing, or locked up at home.” Having said this, Orlov explained that he is very critical of the news coverage of the war and of the conduct of Ukrainian president Zelensky: “90% of the news here is false, because Spain is part of NATO”.
Rotten Rulings: Julian Assange and the UK Supreme Court Julian Assange, even as he is being judicially and procedurally tormented, has braved every legal hoop in his effort to avoid extradition to the United States. Kept and caged in Belmarsh throughout this farce of judicial history, he risks being extradited to face 18 charges, 17 based on the US Espionage Act of 1917. District Court Judge Vanessa Baraitser initially ruled on January 4, 2021 against the US, finding that Assange would be at serious risk of suicide given the risk posed by Special Administrative Measures and the possibility that he would end his days in the ADX Florence supermax facility. It took little to read between the lines: the US prison system would do away with Assange; to extradite him would be oppressive within the meaning of the US-UK Extradition Treaty.
Assange’s Fiancée Releases ‘Heartbreaking’ Response to UK Court Ruling “The cruelty against Julian is corrupting,” says Stella Moris. “It corrupts our most cherished values and institutions. They will be extinguished and lost forever unless this travesty is brought to an end.” . . . “Julian was just doing his job, which was to publish the truth about wrongdoing.”
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!