Daily News Digest July 14, 2022
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:
Rachel Carson’s Warnings 60 Yrears Ago: Rachel Carson was the first scientist to come forward and explain the potential dangers of the new pesticides, fertilizers, and other toxic pollutants. Her first book, The Silent Spring, is credited with the beginning of the environmental movement. This book explained that cancer and other diseases have become part of the world’s food chain and even present in the air we breathe and the water we drink. Predicting the coming catastrophe if the mode of production does not change, Rachel Carson wrote in The Sea Around Us: “It is a curious situation that the sea, from which life first arose, should now be threatened by the activities of one form of that life. But the sea, though changed in a sinister way, will continue to exist; the threat is rather to life itself.” . — Whither Humanity? The Environmental Crisis of Capitalism We Don’t Need a Green New Deal! — We Need a Green Industrial Revolution! (1962)
When I began work as an environmental journalist in 1985, I knew I would struggle against people with a financial interest in destructive practices. But I never imagined that we would one day confront what appears to be an ideological commitment to destroying life on Earth. The UK government and the US supreme court look as if they are willing the destruction of our life support systems. The supreme court’s ruling was neither random nor based on established legal principles. It arose from a concerted programme to replace democracy in the US with judicial dictatorship. — George Monbiot: It’s Democracy V Plutocracy – This is the Endgame For Our Planet
Laissez-faire: Laissez-faire (/ˌlɛseɪˈfɛər/ LESS-ay-FAIR; from French: laissez faire [lɛse fɛʁ] (listen), lit. ’let do’) is an economic system in which transactions between private groups of people are free from any form of economic interventionism (such as subsidies) deriving from special interest groups. As a system of thought, laissez-faire rests on the following axioms: “the individual is the basic unit in society, i.e. the standard of measurement in social calculus; the individual has a natural right to freedom; and the physical order of nature is a harmonious and self-regulating system.”
Videos of the Day:
How Sri Lanka Protests Led to a “Reawakening of the Citizen” & Pushed Out President & Prime Minister It may be hard for some to admit that the U.S. government disregards press freedom in order to maintain international power, but for those of us who have been following the trial of Julian Assange, it comes as no surprise — Biden’s Middle East Trip Shows His Disregard For Journalists Biden is demonstrating with his trip to Saudi Arabia and Israel and with his lack of response to police attacks on press within the United States that he takes no issue with emboldening attacks
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 Supreme Court is Turning the US Into a Constitution-Free Zone “No one should get used to their rights. Predicting with certainty which ones, if any, will go, or when, is impossible.”—Mary R. Ziegler, legal historian. The Supreme Court has spoken: there will be no consequences for cops who brutalize the citizenry and no justice for the victims of police brutality.
Did the Supreme Court Open the Door to Reviving One of Its Worst Decisions? Lochner v. New York, a 1905 decision on labor law, is imprinted on today’s law students as an example of bad jurisprudence. But those old days could be returning. In the annals of the Supreme Court, few opinions have been more reviled than the 1905 decision in Lochner v. New York. In striking down a law that prevented bakery employees from working more than 10 hours a day and 60 hours a week, the court, under the 14th Amendment, enshrined a constitutional right to “freedom of contract” — that is, the freedom of people to form contracts without the government’s involvement. The decision set the stage for what became known as the “Lochner era” of laissez-faire capitalism.
America’s Dirty Divide: Cancer Fears Plague Residents of US Region Polluted by ‘Forever Chemicals’ Exposure to harmful PFAS remains almost impossible to escape – particularly for the people of the Cape Fear River basin In Wilmington, 50-year-old Tom Kennedy thinks it might be time to stop fighting the cancer that started in his breast and now grips his spine. He’s endured 85 chemotherapy treatments since an inverted nipple sent him to the doctor five years ago, and he fears the endless struggle to keep him alive is more than his daughters can bear. He wonders if it’s time to let death take him so his family can move on.
Environment —Ecosocialism or Ecocide!:
Federal Logging Projects Put 10 Climate-Saving Forests on Chopping Block Federal agencies are targeting mature and old-growth forests for logging despite these trees’ extraordinary ability to curb climate change and President Biden’s directive to preserve them, according to a new report spotlighting the 10 worst logging projects in federal forests across the country. In the report released today, Worth More Standing, the Climate Forests coalition details federal logging proposals targeting nearly a quarter of a million acres of old-growth and mature forests overseen by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. The report outlines “a pervasive pattern of federal forest mismanagement that routinely sidesteps science to turn carbon-storing giants into lumber” and calls on the Biden administration to pass a permanent rule to protect these big old trees.
George Monbiot: It’s Democracy V Plutocracy – This is the Endgame For Our Planet The US supreme court is helping to destroy our climate. But it was a much smaller decision, closer to home, that was the final straw for me. It feels like the end game. In the US last week, the third perverse and highly partisan supreme court decision in a few days made American efforts to prevent climate breakdown almost impossible. Ruling in favour of the state of West Virginia, the court decided that the Environmental Protection Agency is not entitled to restrict carbon dioxide emissions. The US supreme court is helping to destroy our climate. But it was a much smaller decision, closer to home, that was the final straw for me. The day before, in the UK, the government’s climate change committee reported a “shocking” failure by Boris Johnson’s administration to meet its climate targets. So stupid and perverse are its policies on issues such as energy saving that it’s hard to see this as anything other than failure by design. On the day of the supreme court ruling, the UK government also announced that it intended to scrap the law protecting the UK’s most important wildlife sites. But the final straw for me was a smaller decision. After two decades of disastrous policies that turned its rivers into open sewers, Herefordshire county council, following a shift from Tory to independent control, finally did the right thing. It applied to the government to create a water protection zone, defending the River Wye against the pollution pushing it towards complete ecological collapse. But in a letter published last week, the UK’s environment minister, Rebecca Pow, refused permission, claiming it “would impose new and distinct regulatory obligations on the farmers and businesses within the catchment”. This is, of course, the point. It’s the pettiness of the decision that makes it so shocking. Even when the cost to the government is small, it seems determined to destroy everything good and valuable about this country. It’s as if, when ministers go to bed, they ask themselves, “What have I done to make the UK a worse place today?” Just at the point at which we need a coordinated global effort to escape our existential crises – climate breakdown, ecological breakdown, the rising tide of synthetic chemicals, a gathering global food emergency – those who wield power string razor wire across the exit.
How Climate Change is Making Flooding Worse Heavy rain combined with melting snow can be a destructive combination. In mid-June 2022, storms dumped up to 5 inches of rain over three days in the mountains in and around Yellowstone National Park, rapidly melting snowpack. As the rain and meltwater poured into creeks and then rivers, it became a flood that damaged roads, cabins and utilities and forced more than 10,000 people to evacuate. The Yellowstone River shattered its previous record and reached its highest water levels recorded since monitoring began almost 100 years ago. Although floods are a natural occurrence, human-caused climate change is making severe flooding events like this more common. I study how climate change affects hydrology and flooding. In mountainous regions, three effects of climate change in particular are creating higher flood risks: more intense precipitation, shifting snow and rain patterns and the effects of wildfires on the landscape.
Climate Insanity: The Biden Administration Wants to Drill on Alaska’s North Slope hey could artificially freeze the melting soil in order to extract more petroleum, which, when it burns, will raise the temperature even higher. If you want a snapshot of our insanity, this is it. The Biden administration seems to be leaning toward permitting this carbon bomb, which would mock its campaign commitments to ease off on new oil leases The bitter end of the fossil fuel era is playing out in one of the world’s wildest remaining places: Alaska’s North Slope. And it’s not pretty.
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Labor:
Michael Roberts Blog: The US inflation rate for June rose 1.3% over May – that’s an annualised 17.1%. Core inflation (excluding fuel and food) rose 0,7% over May or at an 8.8% rate. The inflation rate compared to June 2021 was bit lower, at 9.1% yoy up from 8.6% in May while core inflation actually slowed slightly to 5.9% yoy compared to 6% in May. These figures will confirm that the US Federal Reserve will hike its policy rate again at its next meeting, probably by another 0.75%. US real wage earnings rises are just not matching these prices. Average real hourly earnings are falling at their fastest rate in 40 years. Earnings after inflation are back at 2019 levels. So no real wage gains in three years.
Economy:
Economists Warn More Fed Rate Hikes Would ‘Push Millions Out of Work’ In the wake of a higher-than-anticipated inflation reading, experts implored the Federal Reserve not to pursue more “aggressive interest rate hikes.” Hotter-than-expected inflation data published Wednesday intensified fears among progressive economists that the Federal Reserve—in its single-minded drive to tame price increases—will needlessly lock in another major interest rate hike at its policy meeting later this month, further suppressing economic demand and moving the country closer to a recession.
Shadow Government Statistics Alternate Inflation Charts The CPI chart on the home page reflects our estimate of inflation for today as if it were calculated the same way it was in 1990. The CPI on the Alternate Data Series tab here reflects the CPI as if it were calculated using the methodologies in place in 1980. In general terms, methodological shifts in government reporting have depressed reported inflation, moving the concept of the CPI away from being a measure of the cost of living needed to maintain a constant standard of living.
FRED: Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: All Items in U.S. City Average
Over 1,600 of the Brightest Scientific Minds in Technology Have Signed a Letter Calling Both Crypto and Blockchain a Sham The letter is a punch in the gut to the Wall Street underwriters who have brought billions of dollars of crypto related companies to the public markets, most of which have now collapsed in price. It makes the billionaire venture capitalists who have invested billions in crypto startups look like fools. And it renders the big-name celebrities who have promoted this garbage in TV commercials look like the shills that they are. The letter was sent to key members of Congress and to the Chairs of the Senate Banking and House Financial Services Committees. It is signed by more than 1,600 computer scientists, software engineers and technologists from around the world. There are 45 signatories who currently work at Google; 19 who work at Microsoft; 11 employed at Apple. (Those three companies currently have a collective market capitalization of more than $5.75 trillion; they can afford to hire the best and the brightest.) There are signatories that are Ph.Ds from the most prestigious universities in the world, including the University of Oxford and MIT. And all 1,600 have signed a letter that says this about crypto and blockchain:
World:
An American’s Visit to Another Planet: Iceland A painful moment came when a guide in Iceland was describing the Viking era and how they were often in feuds, having violent conflict and almost constant litigious issues with each other. Then he added, “like America today”. The international group just nodded. They know. Well, maybe not another planet–I’m speaking about a trip to a country that is often utilized to portray other planets in film. I’m speaking about Iceland, but what I’m going to discuss has nothing to do with the otherworldly geologic landscape. It has everything to do with the cultural landscape, that for all practical purposes, may as well be another planet when compared to the current United States. Like most Americans, I don’t get out much. Cost, excessive work hours–all the reasons that keep one close to home are part of my world. A plan that started in 2019 allowed us to take a quick trip to Iceland that only materialized this summer. I was prepared for something radically different; I read about other nations (unlike most Americans), but the reality of seeing how other parts of the world live has made the return home all the more heartbreaking. To say we are off the rails in the United States implies there are rails to go off of (and we of course don’t want to pay for the infrastructure of any high speed rails in the US).
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!
United States #1 in Covid Cases/Deaths!— #1 in Pollution!: Nearly $2tn of Damage Inflicted on Other Countries by US Emissions Research puts US ahead of China, Russia, India and Brazil in terms of global damage as climate expert says numbers ‘very stark’ The US has inflicted more than $1.9tn in damage to other countries from the effects of its greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new analysis that has provided the first measurement of nations’ liability in stoking the climate crisis. The huge volume of planet-heating gases pumped out by the US, the largest historical emitter, has caused such harm to other, mostly poor, countries through heatwaves, crop failures and other consequences that the US is responsible for $1.91tn in lost global income since 1990, the study found.