Daily News Digest August 25, 2022
Images of the Day:America Spends Over $20bn Per Year On Fossil Fuel Subsidies. Abolish Them
Another Example Capitalism as a Failed System: World Capilalism Has Been Aware of the Comming Catastrophe of Global Warming for Over 5 Decades 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:
Cartel vs. Oligopoly: In economics, an oligopoly is a market structure where the industry is dominated by a small number of sellers (oligopolists). The dominant sellers, since they are so few in number, are each likely to be aware of the actions of the others. The decisions of one firm influence, and are influenced by, the decisions of other firms. A cartel is a special case of oligopoly when competing firms in an industry collude to create explicit, formal agreements to fix prices and production quantities. In theory, a cartel can be formed in any industry but it is only practical in an oligopoly where there is a small number of firms. Cartels are usually prohibited by anti-trust law.
Videos of the Day:
The Chris Hedges Report: Psychology of a Klansman In a new book about the Ku Klux Klan’s 1966 murder of Black civil rights activist Vernon Dahmer, author Curtis Wilkie offers insights into the psychology of white supremacists relevant to our current era.
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!
We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both— Supreme Court Judge Louis D. Brandeis
Anger Mounts Over Biden’s Reported Plan to Means-Test Student Debt Relief “If the history of means-testing in America is any guide, bureaucratic snarls will prevent vulnerable populations from receiving relief” Groups representing borrowers cast the emerging details of Biden’s plan as a betrayal. Melissa Bryne, executive director of We The 45 Million, said in a statement Tuesday that “the rumor of $125,000 means tests is an outrageous violation of President Biden’s March 2020 campaign promise of a minimum of $10,000 cancellation for all borrowers.” If the history of means-testing in America is any guide, bureaucratic snarls will prevent vulnerable populations from relief.
The Plea Bargain Originated as a Means to Undermine Working-Class Solidarity The U.S. criminal legal system is terrible by so many metrics: We lock up more people than anywhere else in the world, our penalties tend to be harsher, our arrest rates are many times higher than other democracies, and so on. Plea bargaining is not often at the top of the list when we think of all harm done by the system, but the U.S. is an outlier in this area as well. More than 95 percent of all American criminal cases end in a guilty plea, mostly due to bargained agreements, making our plea-deal rate much higher than that of any other country in the world. I n my book Pleading Out: How Plea Bargaining Creates a Criminal Class, I argue that the widespread use of plea bargaining is a chief enabler of our criminal legal system’s ills.
Environment: Ecocide or Ecosocialism!:
Liberal States Like California Are Also Failing to Make Progress on Climate California started strong, but a new analysis shows it’s now woefully failing to meet its emission reduction targets. California has a well-established reputation as a national and global climate leader, but despite its remarkable successes in cutting emissions between 2006 and 2016, it has recently begun showing signs of having lost its way. California is increasingly falling behind on its emissions reduction targets, and its existing policies have now been deemed insufficient to hit its 2030 target of reducing carbon emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030, according to new modeling from the climate policy think tank Energy Innovation.
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Re: PBS Documentary Slavery By Another Name: Black Codes: In U.S. history, any of numerous laws enacted in the states of the former Confederacy after the American Civil War and intended to assure the continuance of white supremacy. Enacted in 1865 and 1866, the laws were designed to replace the social controls of slavery that had been removed by the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution. The black codes had their roots in the slave codes that had formerly been in effect. The premise behind chattel slavery in America was that slaves were property, and, as such, they had few or no legal rights. The slave codes, in their many loosely defined forms, were seen as effective tools against slave unrest, particularly as a hedge against uprisings and runaways. Enforcement of slave codes also varied, but corporal punishment was widely and harshly employed. The black codes enacted immediately after the American Civil War, though varying from state to state, were all intended to secure a steady supply of cheap labour, and all continued to assume the inferiority of the freed slaves. There were vagrancy laws that declared a black person to be vagrant if unemployed and without permanent residence; a person so defined could be arrested, fined, and bound out for a term of labour if unable to pay the fine. Portions of a vagrancy law enacted by the state legislature of Mississippi in 1865 provide an example: Left to manage their own affairs, many of the former Confederate states passed Black Codes that stripped African-Americans of almost all rights and essentially returned them to a forced labor system. Republican legislators were appalled when they returned to Congress in December 1865, and immediately tousled with Johnson for the future of the country. “They’re worried about not fully solving the slavery problem and letting it fester, and that might cause instability and even civil war again in the future,” Benedict says. The Republican majority tried to pass both a Civil Rights bill and an extension of the Freedman’s Bureau, both of which were aimed at giving African-Americans the rights to property, contracts and legal access that white male Americans took for granted. But Johnson vetoed both, further angering the Republicans. Then came massacres in Memphis and New Orleans in the summer of 1866, resulting in the deaths of dozens of African-Americans. Republicans began arguing that they needed a military presence in the South to protect the newly made citizens. Leading up to the 1866 legislative elections, Nast harnessed the broad readership of Harper’s Weekly to skewer Johnson’s policies and convince voters to elect Republicans. In his political cartoons, he repeatedly framed Johnson as a danger to the country and to African-Americans, despite Johnson arguing to the contrary. . . . “What was at stake was the kind of nation the U.S. was going to be,” says historian Michael Les Benedict. “We had been a slave republic. Not a free republic. What kind of republic was going to emerge? A republic dedicated to freedom and equality? Or a racist republic, one in which African-Americans had a place subservient to whites?” In the late fall of 1866 (dates varied from state to state), elections were held for the Senate and House of Representatives. Republicans won a supermajority, and with their numbers were able to pass the Military Reconstruction Act. A number of Reconstruction Acts continued to be passed, forcing the southern states to ratify the 14th Amendment (which provided citizenship rights and equal protection by law to African-Americans). Johnson continued to work against Congress, encouraging southern states to reject the 14th Amendment. Ultimately the legislators grew frustrated enough to vote to impeach him, making him the first U.S. president to be impeached—though he did serve out the rest of his term. Reconstruction survived until 1877, when President Hayes withdrew the last federal troops from the South. — The Political Cartoon That Explains the Battle Over Reconstruction
Labor:
Economy:
Unfettered by Trust Laws: Food, Oil and Energy Oligopholies are Creating Windfall Profits at Humanity’s Expense!
‘Disaster Capitalism at Its Worst’: Profits of Grain Giants Spark Global Criticism “As a short-term measure there are strong arguments for a windfall tax on the food oligopoly,” said Natalie Bennett, a U.K. Green party peer. “Oligopoly in action.” That’s how Kartick Raj, a Human Rights Watch researcher focused on poverty and inequality in Western Europe, responded Tuesday to The Guardian‘s new reporting on the world’s four grain giants raking in record profits—which is fueling calls for a global windfall tax. The fact that global commodity giants are making record profits at a time when hunger is rising is clearly unjust”
Shadow Government Staticss Daily Update – August 23rd to 24th
- Money Supply continued to increase, showing no noticeable slackening suggestive of pending Inflation relief. Compounding rece22nt negative news out of the Housing Markets, today’s July 2022 New Home Sales plunged year-to-year by 29.6% (-29.6%) along with declining
- Existing Home Sales and Residential Construction covered in Friday’s review of these ever-evolving Housing numbers and rapidly deteriorating economy.
- Last Wednesday’s July 2022 Retail Sales, with an early suggestion of a quarterly contraction in Third-Quarter 2022 inflation-adjusted activity, followed Tuesday’s revisions to and slowing growth in annual and monthly Industrial
- Production growth, and the sharp collapse in Housing Starts to a Pre-Pandemic low.
- Also recently, the July 2022 Cass Freight Index®, was down unadjusted by 1.7% (-1.7%) in the month, up 0.4% year-to-year. August 2022
- Consumer Sentiment (University of Michigan) “moved up very slightly [off its historic low].”
- July 2022 Payroll Employment purportedly regained its Pre-Pandemic Peak by a minimal (albeit not statistically significant) 0.02% or 32,000 jobs [subject to review on August 24th];
- Real Second-Quarter 2022 GDP showed a second consecutive quarterly contraction, consistent with a “New Recession,” induced by the FOMC (see July 27th discussion) [subject to revision on August 25th].
- Indeed, a renewed downturn appears to be in play, despite intensifying official obfuscation that already is underway. July 2022 limited-history
- PPI Inflation softened month-to-month and year-to-year, off record highs of recent months, given declining gasoline/ energy prices, but otherwise at broad levels last seen 47-years ago in its traditional Finished Goods Series (Bureau of Labor Statistics – BLS).
- Similarly, although gasoline-prices are depressed off recent peaks, July 2022 CPI Inflation measures otherwise still were the highest seen in 75-years ago (ShadowStats-Alternate) and 41-years ago (BLS).
Shadow Government Statistics Money Supply Charts The Fed ceased publishing M-3, its broadest money supply measure, in March 2006. The SGS M-3 Continuation estimates current M-3 based on ongoing Fed reporting of M-3’s largest components (M-2, institutional money funds and partial large time deposits) and proprietary modeling of the balance.
World:
China Forgives 23 Loans for 17 African Countries, Expands ‘Win-Win’ Trade and Infrastructure Projects China is forgiving 23 interest-free loans for 17 African countries, after already cancelling $3.4 billion and restructuring $15 billion of debt from 2000-2019. Beijing pledged more infrastructure projects and offered favorable trade deals in a “win-win” model of “mutually beneficial cooperation.” China is forgiving 23 interest-free loans for 17 African countries, after already cancelling $3.4 billion and restructuring $15 billion of debt from 2000-2019. Beijing pledged more infrastructure projects and offered favorable trade deals in a “win-win” model of “mutually beneficial cooperation.”
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!
Newsom Vetoes Bill That Would Have Established Supervised Injection Sites Studies have proven that supervised drug injection sites result in fewer overdose deaths in cities that implement them. California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has vetoed a bill that would have allowed three major cities in the state to open supervised drug injection sites, which have been shown to decrease the number of overdoses in places that have implemented them. Newsom vetoed Senate Bill 57 just hours before it would have automatically become law. In a statement, Newsom called for the state Department of Health and Human Services, working alongside city and county officials, to review other practices for preventing overdoses, particularly those related to the opioid crisis. He also recognized that it was “possible that these sites would help improve the safety and health of our urban areas,” but disagreed with the bill’s substance, stating that, “without a strong plan, [drug injection sites] could work against this purpose.” Democratic colleagues in the state legislature are criticizing Newsom’s decision to veto the bill.
COVID Is Still Rampant, But Big Pharma Will Soon Charge for Shots and Treatments COVID isn’t gone, and it is about to get expensive. Back when this whole COVID thing started with the first wave of closures and lockdowns, I offered a prediction of sorts: “How long will it be before some rich person goes on TV and starts quacking about ‘getting the country going again’ because they’re losing money? Flash-forward to this past Sunday morning, and wouldn’t you know it, some self-satisfied capitalist was on one of the cable networks arguing that ‘low-risk,’ low-wage workers (who are the economy even as they seldom benefit from the economy) should go back to work and just let the virus ‘burn through’ their ranks.”