Daily News Digest March 23, 2022
Humanity Will Not be Covid Free, Until the Vaccines, Like the Salk Polio Vaccine, are Free For the Whole World
Images 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:
Defendants’ objectives are clear. By planning to, threatening to, and actually deploying armed agents to knock on doors throughout the state of Colorado, USEIP is engaged in voter intimidation,” the lawsuit states. “USEIP’s public-facing actions are a clear signal to Colorado voters — especially voters of color — that to vote in an upcoming election means facing interrogation by potentially armed and threatening USEIP agents at their doorstep thereafter. — Pro-Trump Group Sent Armed Members to Colorado Voters’ Doors, Lawsuit Alleges
Videos of the Day:
Russia’s Failed Strategy Leading to Stalemate?; CIA & US military in Ukraine
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: The Lie of American Innocence Our hypocrisy on war crimes makes a rules-based world, one that abides b The branding of Vladimir Putin as a war criminal by Joe Biden, who lobbied for the Iraq war and staunchly supported the 20 years of carnage in the Middle East, is one more example of the hypocritical moral posturing sweeping across the United States. It is unclear how anyone would try Putin for war crimes since Russia, like the United States, does not recognize the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court in The Hague. But justice is not the point. Politicians like Biden, who do not accept responsibility for our well-documented war crimes, bolster their moral credentials by demonizing their adversaries. They know the chance of Putin facing justice is zero. And they know their chance of facing justice is the same. We know who our most recent war criminals are, among others: George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, General Ricardo Sanchez, former CIA Director George Tenet, former Asst. Atty. Gen. Jay Bybee, former Dep. Asst. Atty. Gen. John Yoo, who set up the legal framework to authorize torture; the helicopter pilots who gunned down civilians, including two Reuters journalists, in the “Collateral Murder” video released by WikiLeaks. We have evidence of the crimes they committed. But, like Putin’s Russia, those who expose these crimes are silenced and persecuted. Julian Assange, even though he is not a US citizen and his WikiLeaks site is not a US-based publication, is charged under the US Espionage Act for making public numerous US war crimes. Assange, currently housed in a high security prison in London, is fighting a losing battle in the British courts to block his extradition to the United States, where he faces 175 years in prison. One set of rules for Russia, another set of rules for the United States. Weeping crocodile tears for the Russian media, which is being heavily censored by Putin, while ignoring the plight of the most important publisher of our generation speaks volumes about how much the ruling class cares about press freedom and truth.
It’s All Oligarchs All the Way Down Today’s US propaganda barrage seeks to demonize the Russians as thoroughly and completely as possible, which now ironically includes attacks on Russia’s oligarchy. This could, and hopefully will, open a can of worms for US oligarchic orchestrators of such propaganda, whose hypocrisy is apparently bottomless. If the Russian oligarchs are monsters, what about our own plutocrats? Today we are offered a typical capitalist “choice.” Which national set of oligarchs do we want to “support” and die for?
When The Press Tries to Hide or Discredit the Facts, It Discredits Itself Instead When the New York Post broke its “Hunter Biden laptop” stories in October 2020, mainstream media tried to ignore them. On the social media side, Twitter banned linking to them and Facebook used its algorithm to minimize discussion of them pending “fact checks” that apparently never happened. The Streisand Effect — a tendency toward keen public interest in anything that looks like a cover-up — came to the rescue. If you were the least bit interested in presidential politics, you knew as much as you wanted to about the matter (and then some) in short order. The fallback plan, as is so often the case these days, was to trot out “former intelligence officials” in an attempt to discredit the laptop’s provenance and contents as a “Russian disinformation” operation. Seventeen months later, even the New York Times admits the laptop (and the incriminating emails) are very real. Without, of course, admitting any prior error or bias. What was the problem back then? Or, alternatively, what’s the problem now?
Environment —Ecosocialism or Ecocide!
500+ Academics Call for End to Climate Research Funded by Fossil Fuel Industry “Universities in the U.S. and U.K. on Monday faced a demand from over 500 leading climate experts and academics to reject any environmental or energy research funding from the fossil fuel industry.””Our universities must be climate leaders, not climate laggards,” said one climate scientist. Universities in the U.S. and U.K. on Monday faced a demand from over 500 leading climate experts and academics to reject any environmental or energy research funding from the fossil fuel industry.
Rich Nations Must Cut Off Oil and Gas by 2034 to Keep Climate Hopes Alive: Report “This report is a stark indictment of the climate failure of rich countries,” said one climate advocate. “Rich countries have twelve years to end their production of oil and gas, but none has any plans to do so.”
Civil Right/Black Liberation:
Labor:
Economy:
We Need an Economy Without Bosses and Managers. Participatory Economics Is How. Author Michael Albert describes what a post-capitalist economy where workers run productive facilities could look like. Interest in worker cooperatives has been spreading lately across the U.S. This is largely due to growing insecurity in the face of structural changes in the workplace during the neoliberal era, which have intensified since the last financial crisis. In fact, worker cooperatives are well established in many countries of Europe, especially in France, Italy and Spain — countries with long anarchist and socialist traditions. The movement for workers cooperatives goes beyond capitalism as it breaks down hierarchical structures and puts workers and community at the core of business operations.
Flacks for the Rich Tell One Philanthropy Story, the Numbers Tell Another Wealth-X, a global research firm that helps businesses “uncover, understand, and engage with the world’s wealthiest individuals,” has just released some new data on the global $5-million-and-up crowd. Last year ended, Wealth-X calculates, with 3.6 million individuals worldwide worth at least $5 million, a total up 71 percent since a decade ago. North America hosts 43 percent of these global rich, with Asia at 26 percent and Europe at 24 percent accounting for considerably smaller shares.
$13.7 Billion in Credit Default Swaps on Russia’s Debt Were Executed in 61-Day Span of 2021 as It Amassed Troops Around Ukraine As the headlines in mainstream media grew ever more alarming in late 2021 regarding Russia’s troop buildup around Ukraine, approximately $225 million per day (or $13.7 billion over a span of 61 days) had been waged in bets that Russia might default on its sovereign debt. These bets are known as Credit Default Swaps and can be used to hedge exposure or simply speculate on a debt default in hopes of making a profit.This information resides in a publicly-available swap repository maintained by the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC). For the period of September 20, 2021 through December 19, 2021, the DTCC shows that an average of 26 trades per day were being made in the Credit Default Swaps on the Russian Federation’s sovereign debt, for a daily total of $225 million notional (face amount of credit default swaps).
While JPMorgan Is Saying “Buy,” Morgan Stanley Is Advising Clients to “Sell” The Fed has just raised its benchmark interest rate by a quarter point with a projection of six more rate hikes ahead this year – which is usually the death knell for stocks. Russia has invaded Ukraine, a sovereign country of 44 million people, which has forced NATO countries to provide weapons to Ukraine. This has brought threats of retaliation from Russian President Vladimir Putin, creating the worst military crisis since the beginning of World War II. None of this is the stuff of which bull markets in stocks are made.Despite that, the wizards at JPMorgan Chase are telling its millions of clients around the world that it’s time to buy this stock market. (Before you decide to take advice from JPMorgan Chase, you may want to read this.)
World:
Russia: Communist Youth Expels Opponents of War in Ukraine We have received a brief report about the political struggle taking place in the Moscow organisation of the Komsomol (youth wing of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation) about the question of the war in Ukraine. As a result of their opposition to the official, chauvinistic line of the leadership of the party, supporters of the Marxist Tendency and others have now been expelled. On 24 February, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, represented by its leadership, voted for the recognition of the Donetsk and Luhansk Peoples’ Republics (DPR/LPR), and supported President Vladimir Putin’s decision to commence a so-called “special military operation”, i.e. the invasion of Ukraine. As expected, groups who disagree with the “general line” began to appear in the “main opposition party of the country”, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF). Discussions on this issue in the party were discouraged by the leadership. In some cases, people who expressed their opinion were labeled “fascists” and “national traitors.”
Elections in Colombia: the Tise of Gustavo Petro and the Fall of Uribism n 13 March, Colombia held its legislative elections to the House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as “consultative elections” (primaries) in which each coalition voted on its presidential candidate for this year’s presidential election. Gustavo Petro, the center-left candidate, earned the nomination for his coalition, Pacto Historico, with overwhelming support both within his party and among the general electorate. As a result, Petro has become the favourite for the first round of the presidential elections, and he now aspires to avoid a runoff by winning a clear majority of 51 percent. Considering his base of support, it is well within his means to do so. Almost 80 percent of voters within the party consultation voted for Petro, and his coalition received 47 percent of all votes, well above the 32 percent obtained by the right-wing Team for Colombia and the centre coalition Centro Esperanza’s 19 percent.
The People of Yemen Suffer Atrocities, Too The ghastly blockade and bombardment of Yemen, led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, is now entering its eighth year. With Yemen importing more than 35% of its wheat from Russia and Ukraine, disruption to wheat supplies will cause soaring increases in the price of food.
Harvard Law School Recognizes Israel as Apartheid Regime The Massachusetts-based Harvard Law School has recognized Israel as an apartheid regime, joining an array of organizations labeling Israel as such for its practices in occupied Palestine, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported. In a recent report to the United Nations, the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School joined the international community by recognizing the apartheid character of the Israeli regime
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!
Unease About Possible New COVID Surge Grows With Rise of BA.2 Variant If BA.2 or another variant like it attacks with full force, our current “live with it” posture will leave us unprepared. Looking at the headlines this morning, you’d think COVID was all over. Sure, The New York Times tells us almost 30,000 new infections and more than a thousand deaths were recorded yesterday, but they do that every day now. infection number is 33 percent lower than last week’s, a number with dual meanings: Be cheered by the decrease, and be shaken by how high the number is anyway, how high it’s been and for how long. In truth, the only thing that’s really “over” with COVID is the wall-to-wall news coverage. It’s not over for the millions suffering from the multifaceted “long COVID,” which can linger for months in a variety of debilitating forms. It’s not over for the millions more whose health conditions force them to live in fear of the virus even after vaccination.Top Economists and Oxfam Leader Demand Truly Just Covid IP Waiver “Like civil society groups around the world, we believe a bad deal is worse than no deal,” they wrote to the South African president.” This text reflects the interests of multinational pharmaceutical companies in preserving the deadly status quo!