Daily News Digest April 6, 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:
Bendib: In Dire Need
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:
UN Secretary-General on the Launch of the Third IPCC Report
Quotes of the Day:
How much more destruction must we witness, and how many more scientific reports will it take, before governments finally acknowledge fossil fuels as the real culprits behind the human suffering being felt across the globe?” asked Namrata Chowdhary, head of public engagement at the advocacy group 350.org. As we come ever closer to the tipping points for human existence, once again scientists are sounding a clear alarm: Massive cuts in emissions are unavoidable to avert the worst,”Chowdhary added. — Campaigners Say IPCC Report Reveals ‘Bleak and Brutal Truth’ About Climate Emergency “It’s not about taking our foot off the accelerator anymore—it’s about slamming on the brakes,” said one expert in response to latest U.N. assessment.
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!
January 6 Committee Says Criminal Referral on Trump to DOJ May Be Unnecessary The DOJ can choose to charge Trump with crimes based on evidence already gathered, committee members have said. The select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol is indicating that it may not make any direct referrals for criminal charges against former President Donald Trump. Evidence collected by investigators for the committee suggests the former president probably committed a crime in his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Indeed, a ruling issued last week by District Judge David Carter, who ordered former Trump lawyer John Eastman to turn over documents to the select committee, described the actions of Trump’s campaign as a “coup in search of a legal theory.”
As the Earth Burns, Biden ‘Fiddles’: Biden’s Call to Increase LNG Export Capacity on Gulf Coast is Tantamount To Sarah Palin’s Call to ‘Drill Baby Drill’ According to Environmental Advocates Louisiana regulator extends comment period for permit application for another LNG export project on the Gulf Coast after contentious public hearing, but does little to inform the public of the extension.
Environment —Ecosocialism or Ecocide!:
Scientists Sound Alarm at US Regulator’s New ‘Forever Chemicals’ Definition Narrower definition excludes chemicals in pharmaceuticals and pesticides that are generally defined as PFAS The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) department responsible for protecting the public from toxic substances is working under a new definition of PFAS “forever chemicals” that excludes some of their widely used compounds. The new “working definition”, established by the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics, is not only at odds with much of the scientific world, but is narrower than that used by other EPA departments.
UN Chief: Those Expanding Fossil Fuels—Not Climate Activists—Are the ‘Truly Dangerous Radicals’ “Some government and business leaders are saying one thing—but doing another,” António Guterres said in a scathing address. “Simply put, they are lying.” Following the publication of a key United Nations climate report on Monday, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres took aim at governments and corporations—whom he accused “a litany of broken climate promises”—while defending the activists fighting for a future free from fossil fuels.
IPCC: We Can Tackle Climate Change If Big Oil Gets Out of the Way Experts say criticism of oil and gas’s ‘climate-blocking activities’ cut from final draft, reflective of industry’s power and influence The fossil fuel industry and its influence over policy was the major elephant in the room looming over the release of the third and final report, out this week, from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world’s leading climate authority. The major source of contention: how do you talk about mitigating climate change without confronting the fossil fuel industry? “It’s like Star Wars without Darth Vader,” says environmental sociologist Robert Brulle, of Brown University.
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Socialists Take Up Critical Fight for Universal Child Care in the United States Child care is an ineluctable social need, and has become only more so due to systematic inequality and impoverishment. At the nexus of multiple injustices in the United States lies a particular cruelty visited upon working parents and their very young children: the crisis of child care. This point of failure involves poverty, neoliberal deprivation, patriarchal family structures, racial inequality and more, sited at the intersection of several of capitalism’s most glaring inequities. For many, options for child care are lacking, and the patchwork private system that does exist is deplorably expensive and of disturbingly low quality. These deficiencies introduce multiplying financial, logistical and emotional stressors into the lives of working-class parents, particularly women and people of color, along with grave outcomes for child development — and the social world writ large.
Barry Sheppard: United States: Republicans Attack Abortion, LGBTI Rights Since the achievements of the 1960s’ radical movements, the capitalist ruling class in the United States — as expressed by the two capitalist parties — has steadily rolled back those gains. Now the Republican Party’s sharp right turn, begun under Donald Trump’s presidency, has made it the spearhead of this reactionary drive. Foremost has been the drive to limit and suppress the right to abortion, which was codified into law by the Supreme Court in 1973, in a ruling known as Roe vs Wade.
Labor:
The Working Class’s Immediate Obstacle is the Labor Bureaucarcy’s ‘Partnership Withih the Boss!’: Hedges: Let Us Now Praise Courageous Men and Women The only way to halt the global assault on the human rights of workers is to unionize. Let us honor those workers who stood up to Amazon, especially Chris Smalls, described by Amazon’s chief counsel as “not smart, or articulate,” who led a walkout at the Amazon warehouse at Staten Island JFK8 at the beginning of the pandemic two years ago to protest unsafe working conditions. He was immediately fired. Amazon’s high-priced lawyers, however, were in for a surprise. Smalls unionized the first Amazon warehouse in the country. He, along with his co-founder Derrick Palmer, built their union worker by worker with little outside support and no affiliation with a national labor group, raising $120,000 on GoFundMe. Amazon spent more than $4.3 million on anti-union consultants last year alone, according to federal filings.
A Labor Market View on the Risks of a U.S. hard Landing This paper uses historical labor market data to assess the plausibility that the Federal Reserve can engineer a soft landing for the economy. We first show that the labor market today is significantly tighter than implied by the unemployment rate: the vacancy and quit rates currently experienced in the United States correspond to a degree of labor market tightness previously associated with sub-2 percent unemployment rates. We highlight that the super-tight labor market coincides with current wage inflation of 6.5 percent – the highest level experienced in the past 40 years – and that firm-side slack measures predict further increases in wage inflation over the coming year. Finally, we show that high levels of wage inflation have historically been associated with a substantial risk of a recession over the next one to two years. We argue that periods that historically have been hailed as successful soft landings have little in common with the present moment. Our results suggest a very low likelihood that the Federal Reserve can reduce inflation without causing a significant slowdown in economic activity.
Economy:
New Data Shows Fed Chair Powell Misled Congress on the Condition of the Megabanks and their Need for Emergency Loans Throughout 2020, Fed Chair Jerome Powell repeatedly testified to Congress that the banks in the U.S. had proven to be a “source of strength” during the pandemic. Last Thursday the Fed released the names of the banks and dollar amounts they had needed to borrow under some of the Fed’s emergency loan operations. The data showed that units of two of the largest depository banks in the country, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup, had required vast sums from the Fed’s emergency repo loan operations as well as its Primary Dealer Credit Facility (PDCF). 
World:
Hong Kong: workers Suffer As COVID-19 Finally Sweeps Into City The fifth (and by far the most serious) wave of COVID-19 infections began in December 2021 in Hong Kong. It rapidly increased up until the end of January 2022, and thereafter cases and deaths continued to climb. By 3 March, daily infections had reached over 76,000 (over 1 percent of Hong Kong’s population) – a peak in Hong Kong since the pandemic began.
Refugees of Color Fleeing Ukraine Held in Migrant Jails in Poland and EstoniaSome African students have been locked in “long-term detention centers” upon escaping Ukraine. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted an exodus of nearly 4 million people and an outpouring of support for many of the refugees. But a new report finds dozens of nonwhite people who fled Ukraine are being held in long-term detention centers in Poland and Estonia. We speak with Maud Jullien, investigations editor at Lighthouse Reports, which just published a series of reports in collaboration with The Independent, Der Spiegel, Radio France and others on the detention of African students fleeing Ukraine. She describes how the European Union’s temporary protection directive sets a double standard by permitting the safe entry of Ukrainian citizens into neighboring countries while withholding protection to third-party nationals escaping the same conflict.
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!
Housing is a Human Right, Here’s How to Make It a Reality Is housing a human right? Or is it a privilege affordable only to those who have made it under our unfair system of market capitalism? If you read CNBC’s recent financial advice column, you may come away believing the latter to be true. Economist and CNBC contributor Laurence J. Kotlikoff said Americans “are wasting too much money on housing,” and in order to be more financially savvy about housing he offered such innovative ideas as moving in with one’s parents, renting out part of one’s home to visitors through Airbnb, selling one’s home altogether in favor of a smaller, cheaper one, or—and this is my favorite—moving to a cheaper state.