Daily News Digest April 4, 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:
The Media
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!
Videos of the Day:
Calls Grow for Medicare for All; Uninsured & Communities of Color Hurt Most by End of COVID-19 Funds
Economic devastation and political repression: A trade unionist’s view from inside Ukraine
Quotes of the Day:
Flaring — or the burning of stranded natural gas directly at an oil well — is one of the drilling industry’s most notorious problems, often condemned as a pointlessly polluting waste of billions of dollars and trillions of cubic feet of natural gas. In early March, oil giant ExxonMobil signed up to meet the World Bank’s “zero routine flaring by 2030” goal, in part, it turns out, by burning stranded natural gas directly at its oil wells — not in towering flares, but down in mobile cryptocurrency mines. Sharon Kelly Reports.
It sickens me that liberal institutions are jumping on the war bandwagon in the mistaken belief that one side is more virtuous than the other. NATO and Russia are both imperial powers. NATO wants to expand into Eastern Europe, and Russia wants to stop NATO from capturing Ukraine. Neither imperial power is virtuous. Neither one deserves our support. Whoever wins this battle, the war for domination will continue, increasing the risk of human annihilation. War madness has taken hold, turning normally peace-loving folks into rabid war-mongers. This madness has infected the school where I used to teach. In a recent public statement, the school called Russia’s war in Ukraine “unnecessary, unprovoked, and brutal.” And while the statement expresses “hope for diplomatic resolutions that would restore peace,” it calls on “the global community to condemn the actions of the Russian Government and exert continued pressure to end this senseless attack.” — No Matter Who Wins This War, Humanity Will Lose
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. Taxthe Rich! — They Can Afford to Pay!
The Real “Big Lie” Has Nothing to Do With Donald Trump American working people have slogged through three crushing recessions, a worsening inequality that resulted in lower standard of living, and a grotesque pandemic that has exposed glaring inadequacies of our economic model. It is clear that our economic model is struggling to maintain basic living standards for most working people. To be sure there is an impressive list of “Big Lie” contagions with few apparent cures to slow them down. “Big Lies” are particularly dispersed by social media platforms where fiction masquerades as fact and thoughtful analysis is absent. Working people of all races and creeds are the recipients of “Big Lies” that work against their economic interests and benefit those of the dominant economic group. In the United States there is a faction of oligarchs funding a not-so-hidden political agenda favoring autocracy over democracy. This strategy is their best option to cement their economic power over working people. Despite the cacophony from the clash of cultural issues, it is really not about anything else to the oligarchs.
Corporate Profits Reached Record High of Nearly $3 Trillion in 2021 Corporate profits increased by 25 percent in 2021 while inflation rose by 7 percent. As working-class Americans struggled with high inflation, corporate profits soared to a record high in 2021, reaching nearly $3 trillion. Data from the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis shows that pre-tax profits over the whole year increased by a whopping 25 percent, reaching $2.8 trillion. The annualized rate of profit from the fourth quarter was even higher, at $2.94 trillion.
Environment —Ecosocialism or Ecocide!:
Ecosocialism: A Radical Alternative to Capitalist Catastrophe
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Labor:
Forward to a Non-concessionary , no Tiers, No ‘Partneship With tne Boss, Contract! Contract!: ‘Win for Workers Across America’: Amazon Union Victory Inspires Progressives “For everyone in the labor movement, it’s time to dramatically rethink what we imagine is possible,” said one organizer. Progressives hailed Friday’s unionization vote by employees at an Amazon warehouse in New York City as a historic victory for workers across the United States and an inspiring call to action for others seeking to organize. “This is the catalyst for the revolution.” In what’s being described as a “tremendous upset” of “David versus Goliath” proportions, employees at Amazon’s JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island—led by fired worker Chris Smalls—defeated a multimillion-dollar union-busting effort by one of the world’s largest and most powerful corporations and voted to form the Amazon Labor Union (ALU).
It’s Farmworker Awareness Week. Here’s What Those Who Feed Us Deserve. The workers who put food on our tables face poverty, deportation, and extreme heat. These are policy choices—and they can be changed. As the climate crisis accelerates, their already hard jobs are getting deadlier. Few workers play a more intimate role in our lives than the farmworkers who plant, pick, package, and ship the food we put on our tables. But unfortunately, few are more vulnerable. Few workers play a more intimate role in our lives than the farmworkers who plant, pick, package, and ship the food we put on our tables. But unfortunately, few are more vulnerable.
Airport Workers Protest Across US Demanding ‘Living Wage’ and Right to Union “We’re fed up after years of working jobs where we’re called essential, but treated as disposable. “As an immigrant who spent 10 years in refugee camps, I’ve faced plenty of hardship in my life, but none as great as the last two years.” Contracted airport workers—including baggage handlers, cabin cleaners, security officers, and wheelchair agents—in more than 20 U.S. cities staged coordinated demonstrations Wednesday to call for higher wages, better benefits, and the right to unionize.
The Working Class Still Hasn’t Recovered From the 2008 Crash!
Since June 2009 Americans have lived in the false reality of a recovering economy. Various fake news and manipulated statistics have been used to create this false impression. However, indicators that really count have not supported the false picture and were ignored. For example, it is normal in a recovering or expanding economy for the labor force participation rate to rise as people enter the workforce to take advantage of the job opportunities. During the decade of the long recovery, from June 2009 through March 2022, the labor force participation rate consistently fell from 65.7 to 62.4 percent. —Paul Craig Roberts, The Diminishing American Economy
Fred Labor Force Participation Rate
When I was a union official, I called this system labors’ rush to the bottom! The Graph Below is a Graphic Example of the Decline in Standard of Living of the Working Class, Since the Trade Union Bureaucracy Declared Itself to Be ‘In a (Domestic) Partnership With the Boss’(Class Cooperation)! Through the 1980s and 1990s they even included this ‘partnership’ into their work agreements and the partnership was fully established! Starting in the mid-1980s, This ‘partnership’ gave birth to the one, two, three, three, ect. wage tier system! Selling out the futures of future young workers entering the labor force. And, since the lowest union wage is immediately the highest non-union wage, this wage tier system cut the wages of the entire working class! When I was a union official, I called this system labors rush to the bottom! As in graphically shown in this: Shadow Government Statistics Graph
Shadow Government Statistics Alternate Unemployment Charts The seasonally-adjusted SGS Alternate Unemployment Rate reflects current unemployment reporting methodology adjusted for SGS-estimated long-term discouraged workers, who were defined out of official existence in 1994. That estimate is added to the BLS estimate of U-6 unemployment, which includes short-term discouraged workers. The U-3 unemployment rate is the monthly headline number. The U-6 unemployment rate is the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) broadest unemployment measure, including short-term discouraged and other marginally-attached workers as well as those forced to work part-time because they cannot find full-time employment. March 2022 ShadowStats Alternate Unemployment eased to 24.4% from
The Fed’s Secret Repo Loans, Another News Blackout, and a French Bank Scandal As thousands of businesses were forced to close in the U.S. as a result of the coronavirus outbreak in March of 2020, and millions of Americans were financially struggling, the Federal Reserve was pumping what would become a cumulative 3.84 trillion in secret repo loans into the U.S. trading unit of the giant French global bank, BNP Paribas, in the first quarter of 2020. The repo loan market is where banks, brokerage firms, mutual funds and others make loans to each other against safe collateral, typically Treasury securities. Repo stands for “repurchase agreement.” The Fed only comes to the rescue of this market when there is a liquidity crisis and Wall Street firms are backing away from lending to each other. September 17, 2019 was the first time the Fed had to intervene in the repo market since the financial crisis of 2008 and it was months before the first case of COVID-19 was discovered anywhere in the world.
World:
Russia has been forced to break with free floating FX markets for the ruble and apply stringent capital controls as the answer to financial sanctions by the ‘West’. Energy revenues continue to flow in from exports. The ruble has recovered — but this will all be at the expense of a severe slump in the domestic economy and living standards for most Russians. — Michael Roberts Blog re: Russia Steadies Rouble With Harsh Capital Controls and Investment Curbs
Sri Lanka: Masses Erupt in Protest at Unbearable Conditions Sri Lanka is currently in the throes of the worst economic crisis in its recent history, which yesterday led to protests right outside the President’s residence, and curfews across Colombo, the capital. The country faces bankruptcy. The masses are being tortured by spiralling prices, 13-hour long blackouts, and a lack of basic medicines, cooking gas and food. What is happening in Sri Lanka is not unique to that country. It is only an acute expression of the worldwide crisis of capitalism, that is crushing poorer nations. The sort of social unrest we are seeing in Sri Lanka, we can expect to see all around the world in the period to come.
Palestinian Genocide/Holocost: Gaza’s Forthcoming Water Crisis Might Be Worse Than Anything We Have Ever Seen When almost all of Gaza’s water is not fit for human consumption because of a deliberate Israeli strategy, one can understand why Palestinians continue to fight back as if their lives are dependent on it; because they are. “The water is back,” one family member would announce in a mix of excitement and panic, often very late at night. The moment such an announcement was made, my whole family would start running in all directions to fill every tank, container or bottle that could possibly be filled. Quite often, the water would last for a few minutes, leaving us with a collective sense of defeat, worrying about the very possibility of surviving.
Health, Education. and Wealfare:
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!