Daily News Digest August 30, 2022

Daily News Digest Archivess 

Images of the Day:

We’re On the Eve of Destruction

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!

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!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:

All the newspapers used to have foreign bureaus. Now they don’t. They call us to explain to them what is happening in Moscow or Cairo. Most of the outlets are reporting on world events from Washington. The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old, and their only reporting experience consists of being around political campaigns. That’s a sea change. They literally know nothing. — Patrick Lawrence: When Correspondents Came Home Patrick Lawrence: When Correspondents Came Home

Videos of the Day:

PBS Documentary Extinction the Facts David Attenborough explores the extinction crisis and how it drives pandemic diseases. With a million species at risk of extinction, Sir David Attenborough explores how this crisis of biodiversity has consequences for us all, threatening food and water security, undermining our ability to control our climate and even putting us at greater risk of pandemic diseases.  (He doesn’t mention thate there is a climate emergency, but one cannot reach any other conclusion after seeing the video.)

 Freedom Dreams: Black Women and the Student Debt Crisis

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! 

Permanent War Means Permannet Censorship:

Espionage Act Espionage Act limited dissent to the war The Espionage Act of 1917 prohibited obtaining information, recording pictures, or copying descriptions of any information relating to the national defense with intent or reason to believe that the information may be used for the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation.    The act also created criminal penalties for anyone obstructing enlistment in the armed forces or causing insubordination or disloyalty in military or naval forces.    

There is little ostensible reason for censoring critics of the war in Ukraine. The U.S. is not at war with Russia. No U.S. troops are fighting in Ukraine. Criticism of the war in Ukraine does not jeopardize our national security. There are no long-standing cultural and historical ties to Ukraine, as there are to Great Britain. But if permanent war, with potentially tenuous public support, is the primary objective, censorship makes sense.— Chris Hedges: Ukraine and the Politics of Permanent War  Permanent war requires permanent censorship

It’s All Political: Julian Assange Appeals his Extradition  Julian Assange’s legal team has taken its next step along their Via Dolorosa, filing an appeal against the decision to extradite their client to the United States to face 18 charges, 17 based on the odious US Espionage Act of 1917.     Since his violent eviction from the Ecuadorian embassy in April 2019, much to the delight of the national security establishment and its media cheerleaders, Assange has been held captive at Her Majesty’s Belmarsh Prison awaiting his fate.  In a facility reserved for the country’s most hardened criminals, Assange has had to face the COVID-19 pandemic, isolation, limitations on visits, restrictions on regular access to legal counsel, and a stroke.  Warnings about his declining health by health professionals have been coldly ignored.  The agenda is attritive, one of prolonged, even lethal process.

Patrick Lawrence: When Correspondents Came Home I have never gotten over a story The New York Times ran in its Sunday magazine back in May 2016. Maybe you will remember the occasion. It was a lengthy profile of Ben Rhodes, the Obama administration’s chief adviser for “strategic communications.” It was written by a reporter named David Samuels.    These two made a striking pair—fitting, I would say. Rhodes was an aspiring fiction writer living in Brooklyn when, by the unlikeliest of turns, he found his way into the inner circle of the Obama White House. Samuels, a freelancer who usually covered popular culture celebrities, had long earlier succumbed to that unfortunately clever style commonly affected by those writing about rock stars and others of greater or lesser frivolity. 

Deliberate Misrepresentation: Western Media Bias Makes Israeli War on Palestinians Possible The deadly Israeli wars on Gaza are made possible, not only by western weapons and political support, but through an endless stream of media misinformation and misrepresentation. Though Israel has killed thousands of Palestinian civilians in recent years, western media remains as committed to defending Israel as if nothing has changed. While US and western mainstream and corporate media remain biased in favor of Israel, they often behave as if they are a third, neutral party. This is simply not the case.

Facebook Tells Moderators to Allow Graphic Images of Russian Airstrikes But Censors Israeli Attacks Internal memos show Meta deemed attacks on Ukrainian civilians “newsworthy” — prompting claims of a double standard among Palestine advocates. AFTER A SERIES of Israeli airstrikes against the densely populated Gaza Strip earlier this month, Palestinian Facebook and Instagram users protested the abrupt deletion of posts documenting the resulting death and destruction. It wasn’t the first time Palestinian users of the two giant social media platforms, which are both owned by parent company Meta, had complained about their posts being unduly removed. It’s become a pattern: Palestinians post sometimes graphic videos and images of Israeli attacks, and Meta swiftly removes the content, providing only an oblique reference to a violation of the company’s “Community Standards” or in many cases no explanation at all.

‘The Squad’ Proposes H.R.794 – Climate Emergency Act of 2021 This bill directs the President to declare a national emergency with respect to climate change. The President, in responding to the emergency, must ensure that the government:

• invests in large scale mitigation and resiliency projects;
• makes investments that enable a racially and socially just transition to a clean energy economy by ensuring that at least 40% of investments flow to historically disadvantaged communities;
• avoids solutions that increase inequality or violate human rights;
• creates jobs that conform to labor standards that provide family sustaining wages and benefits and ensure safe workplaces;
• prioritizes local and equitable hiring and contracting that creates opportunities for marginalized communities;
• combats environmental injustice; and
• reinvests in existing public sector institutions and creates new public sector institutions to strategically mobilize and channel investments at the scale and pace required by the national emergency.

The President shall report annually on actions taken in response to the national emergency.

 The Inflation Reduction Act Is a Disappointing Act of Federal Greenwashing The Inflation Reduction Act approaches clean energy with the same extractive model beloved by the fossil fuel industry Congressional Democrats were very proud of themselves for passing the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), a bill that includes $370 billion for climate and energy initiatives, in addition to much-needed subsidies on prescription drug costs and Medicare benefits. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, who worked with the intractable Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, said the bill “will put the country on track to meet the climate goals we need to preserve for our planet for our children and for our grandchildren.”     It’s tempting to believe him: Many environmental advocates are reporting that the IRA, while imperfect, is a good start. We desperately need climate legislation and could use a win to stay optimistic about our future. Besides, there are aspects of the bill to celebrate, like funding to address air pollution and a tax on coal to support miners with Black Lung Disease.     But unfortunately, in order to win Manchin’s approval the Inflation Reduction Act was turned into a profit-fest for fossil fuel giants like ExxonMobil, and the parts of the bill that do invest in clean energy and greenhouse gas reductions are largely premised on false solutions. We cannot call something that does such grave harm a success, especially when the harm will fall hardest on disadvantaged communities. The Inflation Reduction Act is a disappointing act of federal greenwashing.

Environment: Ecocide or Ecosocialism!:

Capitalism is Taking Us Onward Upward! Monthly Average Mauna Loa CO₂:  July 2022 418.90 Ppm July 2021:416.96 Ppm

Declining ‘Resilience’ Pushing Amazon Rainforest Towards Tipping Point Three-quarters of the Amazon rainforest has lost “resilience” since 2003 – making it more vulnerable to extreme events such as droughts – according to new research.     Scientists have long warned that climate change and human-driven deforestation could push the Amazon rainforest past a “tipping point”, which would see the dieback of large sections of lush rainforest and a shift to dry savannah. However, modelling studies have been unable to agree on if and when this threshold might be crossed.     The new study uses observational data to explore how the forest’s “resilience” – a measure of how quickly the forest can recover from a drought or extreme weather event – has changed in recent decades.     The findings, published in Nature Climate Change, suggest that more than three-quarters of the Amazon rainforest has already lost resilience over the past two decades. The drier parts of the Amazon – and regions closer to human land use, such as roads and agricultural lands – are the least resilient, the study says.     These findings add further weight to concerns that the Amazon forest is approaching a “critical threshold” or “tipping point”, the authors say. However, in a press briefing, the lead author stressed that we cannot say when a tipping point might happen based on this analysis.

Rachel Carson, The Sea Around Us (1951): 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. 

“Climate change poses a multitude of threats to human health and nutrition security. We cannot extricate these things from each other,” said Jessi Silverman, a senior policy associate for the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Her group and 39 others, including the Union of Concerned Scientists and the American Academy of Pediatrics, in May wrote a letter urging the government to include sustainability in the 2025-2030 dietary guidelines, which are now in development.     A sustainability component would encourage Americans to eat less meat and dairy, which have a significantly higher climate impact than nutritionally comparable plant-based foods.      “It would be virtually impossible to even meet the two-degree [Celsius] limit in global temperature change without incorporating substantial reductions in beef intake,” said Mark Rifkin, senior food and agriculture policy specialist for the Center for Biological Diversity, another signatory to the letter. — How US government Diet Guidelines Ignore the Climate Crisis

 These peaks and valleys are laced with most of the same minerals found on land. Scientists have documented their deposits since at least 1868, when a dredging ship pulled a chunk of iron ore from the seabed north of Russia. Five years later, another ship found similar nuggets at the bottom of the Atlantic, and two years after that, it discovered a field of the same objects in the Pacific. For more than a century, oceanographers continued to identify new minerals on the seafloor—copper, nickel, silver, platinum, gold, and even gemstones—while mining companies searched for a practical way to dig them up.  Today, many of the largest mineral corporations in the world have launched underwater mining programs. On the west coast of Africa, the De Beers Group is using a fleet of specialized ships to drag machinery across the seabed in search of diamonds. In 2018, those ships extracted 1.4 million carats from the coastal waters of Namibia; in 2019, De Beers commissioned a new ship that will scrape the bottom twice as quickly as any other vessel. Another company, Nautilus Minerals, is working in the territorial waters of Papua New Guinea to shatter a field of underwater hot springs lined with precious metals, while Japan and South Korea have embarked on national projects to exploit their own offshore deposits. But the biggest prize for mining companies will be access to international waters, which cover more than half of the global seafloor and contain more valuable minerals than all the continents combined. — History’s Largest Mining Operation is About to Begin

While the specific nature of mining activities varies, the general process involves disturbance – and often damage – to seafloor habitats. In order to collect mineral deposits, ships “vacuum” sandy bottom habitats using dredging equipment, impacting the marine life that rely on these environments for survival. Such suction dredging stirs up sediments in the water column, blocking sunlight and disorienting plankton and fish. Large seabed mining machinery can also generate extraordinary noise pollution and spew toxic effluent, harming kelp forests, rocky reefs, eelgrass meadows, estuaries and other important ecological areas.     In deeper waters, seabed mining can involve scraping a foot or more off seamounts that are rich in nodules containing minerals. These “underwater mountains” are often located near hydrothermal vents at 4,600 to 12,100 feet below the ocean’s surface, and host complex communities containing incredible biodiversity. Such areas include sensitive species of corals and sponges, as well as tuna, sharks, dolphins and sea turtles. Regrettably, these magnificent places are increasingly being targeted by the destructive practice of seabed mining, which causes irreparable damage to these unique ecosystems. — Seabed Mining: The Next Big Threat to the Ocean 

Climate Crisis Is Killing Off Key Insects and Spreading Insect-Borne Diseases Love them or loathe them, we need insects, yet their numbers are decreasing. From declining monarch butterflies in North America to disappearing bumblebees in Europe, there is mounting evidence that insects are in rapid decline. This should worry us all, for insects are overwhelmingly important; they are food for innumerable larger creatures such as birds and bats, they control pests, recycle nutrients, help to keep the soil healthy and they pollinate three-quarters of the crops we grow. Without insects, life as we know it would grind to a halt.      The causes of insect declines are numerous, with habitat loss and the industrialization of global farming leading the way, assisted by growing use of pesticides, the depredations of invasive species, increasing light pollution, and more. Populations of many insects are now much reduced compared to the past, and most now exist in habitat “islands” — fragments of their favored habitat surrounded by inhospitable terrain.

Civil Rights/Black Liberation:

Labor: 

 Economy:

Goldman Sachs’ Secrets Spill Out in New Book by a Former Managing Director Tomorrow, Simon & Schuster will release a new book by Jamie Fiore Higgins, a woman who worked her entire Wall Street career at one firm. Over the span of just under 18 years, beginning on September 2, 1998 and ending officially on May 31, 2016 according to BrokerCheck, Fiore Higgins achieved a level of financial success rarely attained by a woman on Wall Street. She was fresh out of college, at age 22, when this journey began. She was a seven-figure Managing Director at the quintessential good ole boys club on Wall Street when it ended.     Now, six years after she resigned her post (possibly heretofore restrained by the customary non-disparagement agreement one is asked to sign when leaving a Wall Street investment bank) Fiore Higgins is spilling the beans on what she saw and heard and experienced at Goldman Sachs. The book title says it all: Bully Market: My Story of Money and Misogyny at Goldman Sachs.

World:

The UN Proved Its Usefulness in Crafting Ukraine Grain Deal  The United Nations has some bragging rights in Ukraine after months of criticism it could not stop the disastrous war, devising a deal with Turkey, Ukraine and Russia that could deliver much-needed corn, grain and wheat.     The landmark pact was announced on July 22 after two months of talks brokered by Turkey and the UN and was aimed at freeing up nearly 25 million metric tons of grain meant for the international markets that was trapped inside Ukraine’s blockaded Black Sea ports since February. Meanwhile, a separate agreement eases the shipment of grain and fertilizers from Russia.

Health, Education 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! 

How can somebody pay off their student debt if they can’t get a well-paying job, that they spent over $100,000 to get a college degree, to get a ‘better paying job’?!: 2013 Article: Only 27 Percent of College Grads Have A Job Related to Their Major! Here’s some interesting new data from Jaison Abel and Richard Dietz of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The vast majority of U.S. college grads, they find, work in jobs that aren’t strictly related to their degrees: There are two different things going on in this chart. First, a significant number of college grads appear to be underemployed: In 2010, only 62 percent of U.S. college graduates had a job that required a college degree.     Second, the authors estimated that just 27 percent of college grads had a job that was closely related to their major. It’s not clear that this is a big labor-market problem, though — it could just mean that many jobs don’t really require a specific field of study. (You can find Abel and Dietz’s longer paper here, and note that they are excluding people with grauate degrees in this second chart — so no doctors, lawyers, college professors, etc.)