Daily News Digest July 1, 2022
Images of the Day:
Mike Luckovich: Hard to Celebrate
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:
This is an ironic conclusion given the record of the IMF in squeezing down growth and public spending and living standards in so any countries over the last 40 years in the interests of ‘reducing debt and fiscal probity’. The IMF failed to alleviate the rise in poverty for millions from the COVID slump and still offers no effective program to relieve billions of people living in countries with huge debts. Not a word from Gourinchas about cancelling those debts. The IMF is less a bridge over the global fault-lines and more a contributor to more fissures. — The Global Solution: Private Or Public?
The American empire breeds on violence upon the people. Lately, I can’t help but notice the grotesque display of billboards showcasing sweet baby faces with “heartbeat 18 days” texts running across. The global pandemic with 1 Million deaths in the U.S. was one of the most shameful disregards of human life I have witnessed here. Instead of working together to save lives, our society was obsessed with individual freedom and a mask debate. Yet individual freedoms don’t seem to be relevant when it comes to women’s lives and their bodily autonomies. Women are criticized and judged for their right to an abortion, while not promised a safe and dignified life for their children. What hypocrisy in such a deplorable disregard of life without guarantee to accessible and quality healthcare, education, livable wages, or even safety in schools. How easily individual rights are protected to open carry guns and assault rifles in a society obsessed with individualism and freedom without responsibility to others. The American empire is filled with proclamations, anthems, and performative actions—our politicians are really good at partaking in those—about freedom and democracy, but it fails to protect humanity. It’s a facade of democracy, for it does not govern in a democratic manner. There is no fair democratic participation of citizens making decisions on how their society is to be governed, how their economy should be run. There is not even democracy in the workplace. — The People Must Create a New America
Videos of the Day:
Anatol Lieven on NATO Expansion & What a Ukraine Peace Settlement Could Look Like
ACLU’s David Cole: Supreme Court Conservatives Imposing “Truly Radical Ideology” on U.S. Population
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!
To limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees, we need to accelerate the deployment of renewable energy and transform energy production. In many countries, solar and wind are already the cheapest source of energy. And the renewable energy sector generates three times as many jobs as the fossil fuel sector. We need to shift to sustainable energy systems — everywhere. The addiction to fossil fuels must end, starting with coal, by 2030 in Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, and 2040 everywhere else. — Addiction to Fossil Fuels Must End, Secretary-General Tells Sustainable Energy Forum, Stressing Need to Expedite Deployment of Renewables Everywhere
We just lost our unalienable Rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness! The United States/Supreme Court has Issued the Death Penalty For Humanity: US Supreme Court Drops Carbon Bomb on the Planet One Democratic senator warned the high court’s right-wing majority “could unleash a new era of reckless deregulation that will gut protections for all Americans and the environment.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s right-wing majority handed down a decision Thursday that will severely limit the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, undermining the federal government’s ability to combat the climate emergency. In its 6-3 ruling in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency, the court’s conservative justices—led by Chief Justice John Roberts—sided with the coal industry and Republican attorneys general who sought to curb the EPA’s rulemaking powers under the Clean Air Act.
Supreme Court Rules For Coal-Producing States, Limits EPA’s Power to Fight Climate Change: Justice Elena Kagan wrote a scathing dissent, joined by the court’s two liberals, Justices Stephen G. Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor. “Today, the court strips the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of the power Congress gave it to respond to the most pressing environmental challenge of our time,” Kagan wrote. “Courts should be modest. Today, the court is not,” she said. “The court will not allow the Clean Air Act to work as Congress instructed. The court, rather than Congress, will decide how much regulation is too much. Whatever else this court may know about, it does not have a clue about how to address climate change. The court appoints itself — instead of Congress or the expert agency — the decisionmaker on climate policy. I cannot think of many things more frightening.”
This decision means that The United States Has Choosen Ecocide! The United State Capitalist Class’s Message to the World: Burn Baby Burn!
When Joe Biden Voted to Let States Overturn Roe v. Wade With an anti-abortion president, Ronald Reagan, in power and Republicans controlling the Senate for the first time in decades, social conservatives pushed for a constitutional amendment to allow individual states to overturn Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court ruling that had made abortion legal nationwide several years earlier. The amendment — which the National Abortion Rights Action League called “the most devastating attack yet on abortion rights” — cleared a key hurdle in the Senate Judiciary Committee in March 1982. Support came not only from Republicans but from a 39-year-old, second-term Democrat: Joseph R. Biden Jr.
‘Massive Betrayal’: Biden Cuts Deal With McConnell to Nominate Anti-Abortion Judge At a time when we are fighting to protect human rights, this is a complete slap in the face.” President Joe Biden has reportedly struck a deal with Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to nominate an anti-abortion lawyer to a lifetime federal judgeship in Kentucky, news that comes less than a week after the U.S. Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to abortion.
Who’s Murdering Immigrants? It’s No Mystery It’s a grisly affair: Dozens of immigrants locked in a semi-trailer in San Antonio, Texas, apparently abandoned by those attempting to smuggle them into the United States. After their cries for help were heard and rescuers arrived, 48 were found dead at the scene, four more died shortly thereafter, and 16 were hospitalized
US Immigration Policy Is to Blame for the Horrific Mass Death in San Antonio One hundred human beings were inside an 18-wheeler without water or air conditioning in the blistering 100-degree Texas heat. Fifty of them are now dead. Sixteen more people were taken to a hospital — including four children. That was this Monday in San Antonio. This is the deadliest of such tragedies in recent years, but it is not the first. In 2003, 19 migrants were found dead inside 18-wheelers in Victoria, Texas. In 2017, there were 10 migrants found dead in 18-wheelers — also in San Antonio.
Treatments for Ectopic Pregnancies in Missouri Are Delayed Due to “Trigger Law” Ambiguities in the new law make it difficult for providers to know when they can perform life-saving abortions. Due to a restrictive new anti-abortion law in Missouri, health care providers in the state are reportedly waiting until ectopic pregnancies become dangerous to provide medical treatment — despite the fact that such pregnancies are known to be painful, nonviable and potentially fatal to those who experience them.
Contraception Could Be at Risk Next — Especially IUDs and Plan B, Experts Say When news broke that the United States Supreme Court had voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling which had legalized abortion nationwide, many people began to scramble and stock up on contraceptives. Hoarding over the last few days has now caused some national pharmacy chains like CVS and Rite Aid to limit the number of emergency contraceptive pills customers can purchase. While the panic buying might seem reminiscent of the rush to buy toilet paper in the early days of the pandemic, it comes with a more consequential and very real threat. In Justice Clarence Thomas’ concurring opinion on the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, he opined that SCOTUS should revisit precedents that codified same-sex marriage, same-sex relationships and the right to contraception.
Environment —Ecosocialism or Ecocide!:
Chris Bowen to Announce Review of Carbon Credits System After Expert Labelled It A ‘Fraud’ Climate change minister says inquiry needed as carbon offset scheme is integral to target of 43% emissions reduction by 2030 The climate change minister, Chris Bowen, is poised to unveil a sweeping review into Australia’s carbon credit system after an expert whistleblower characterised it as a fraud and a waste of taxpayer money.
Trading “pollution rights” (Carbon Credits) is already fashionable in this country. This has been advanced by the the Environmental Defense (Offense?) Fund. Under these rules, polluting factories, oil refineries, and other polluting enterprises, may find it more “cost effective “by buying pollution rights or credits from non-polluting industries rather than cleaning up their mess. In reality, it grants corporations and nations (under the Kyoto accords) the right to pollute. The Kyoto accords actually open up the concept of private ownership of the air. (Good air being bought and sold for bad air.). Even if everything in the accord were enforced or capable of being enforced, the plan can not work. The developing nations are rapidly becoming the main producers of carbon dioxide (See my article on this page about the forest fires in Southeast Asia.). Along with this increase and the 5% of the 1990 levels the carbon dioxide levels are guaranteed to double! The basic problem is that the present economic system cannot stop from producing pollution. Individual capitalists may be for controls, but the system is based on production for profit. this causes anarchy in production plus intranational and international competition. Capitalist production is not based on human needs let alone on needs of the rest of the environment. Can one expect the developing nations to increase their costs in order to save the world from pollution? If there is a recession will this be possible? Will the present collapse of the “Asian Boom” lead to non-profitable expenditures to prevent pollution? The only conceivable solution under capitalism would be one super power monopoly that would own and control all of production. That would require wars of such magnitude that humanity would not survive. In reality, it requires collective ownership of the air by everyone who breaths and collective expropriation of all who pollute in order to stay the present course and maintain the balance necessary for humanity to survive within the terrarium called Earth. — Roland Sheppard, The Myth of Kyoto (2005)
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Black Agenda Report
Democrats Exposed By the End of Roe v. Wade
SPEECH: Revolution: It’s Not Easy, Quick, or Pretty, Pat Parker, 1980
Ethnic Violence Plagues Ethiopia Near its Mighty New Dam
Punch Left Move Right: Stacey Abrams and the Democratic Party Shuffle
Colombia Votes for Vivir Sabroso: Chronicle of an Historic Election
The Terrible Origins of July 4th
Belgium Returns Remains of Assassinated Congolese Leader Patrice Lumumba But What About Justice?
Only 4 of 55 African Leaders Attend Zelensky Call, Showing Neutrality on Ukraine and Russia
IMF Loans Continue to Undermine Health in Africa
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Historical Pact Victory in Colombian Election
Involuntary Servitude in the Prison System
Impeachment of Renato Freitas in Brazil
Labor:
Economy:
The Global Solution: Private Or Public? Inflation, risk of global recession, growing inequality and rising debt for the global south, global warming, war – I could go on. These are the fault-lines exhibited in the world economy in 2022. What is to be done about it? It is revealing to consider the solutions offered by analysts writing for the IMF in its monthly Finance and Development (F&D) journal. The new chief economist for the IMF, Pierre-Oliver Gourinchas kicks off in the June issue of F&D. “Like an earthquake, the war has an epicenter, located in Russia and Ukraine. The economic toll on these two countries is extremely large.” Gourinchas lists the toll. The first impact is on the price of commodities. Second, trade flows have been heavily disrupted, Third, the war caused financial conditions to tighten. He continues: “the earthquake analogy is perhaps most apt because the war reveals a sudden shift in underlying “geopolitical tectonic plates.” The danger is that these plates will drift further apart, fragmenting the global economy into distinct economic blocs with different ideologies, political systems, technology standards, cross border payment and trade systems, and reserve currencies. “The war has made manifest deeper divergent processes. We need to focus on and understand these if we want to prevent the ultimate unraveling of our global economic order.”
World:
‘They Continue the Crisis’: Parliamentary Breakup In Bulgaria Amidst War and Inflation Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov and his party “We Continue the Change” (PP, Prodalzhavame Promyanata) – Pro-West darlings, self-proclaimed heroes in the fight against corruption and for liberal democratic values – lost a vote of no-confidence in the National Assembly on 22 June, with 123 in support to 116 against.
Arms Profiteering Peaks as Capitalists Spy an Opportunity in Ukraine As the war in Ukraine drags on, with the US and British imperialists prolonging the conflict for their own narrow interests, weapons manufacturers are making a killing in extra profits. To end the horrors of war, we must fight to end capitalism. The war in Ukraine has ushered in a wave of militarism. The western imperialists have poured billions into sending military equipment to Ukraine. And ‘defence’ spending has rocketed across the NATO nations, most notably in Germany.
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!
Experts Are Worried About the Potential of Another Brutal COVID Winter Back in the first genuine COVID lull we experienced — you know, the one that started to make the long-term infection rate for this thing look like the low point on an endless “W,” that place where capitalism first said IT’S GONE NOW YOU GUYS COME MAKE US MONEY until the inevitable resurge came — I remember a day when it was reported that only 7,000 people had been infected. I celebrated at the time, which seems ghoulish in retrospect, but you have to remember what those early days were like. A tally of 7,000 new infections was what passed for good news. Flash forward to this morning, when it was reported that the 14-day average for new infections was 108,215 per day, a 1 percent increase. Few seemed to recoil in response to that six-digit number. The 14-day average has been reliably clocking in around 100,000 new daily infections for many weeks now, and that tally is no doubt an undercount, given that many tests are currently happening solely at home — or not at all. These rising numbers should register as a shouted warning that COVID is not over and winter is, inevitably, coming.
Total Coronavirus Cases in the United States: 89.236,449