Daily News Digest September 8, 2022
Images of the Day:
Capitalism as a Failed System: World Capilalism Has Been Aware of the Comming Catastrophe of Global Warming 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 very 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:
Children with assault rifles are not an anomaly. Rather, they embody two main industry trends. For decades, firms have both expanded and militarized the civilian market. — Arms Makers Have Embraced the Youth Market as Gun Ownership in the US Declines
Videos of the Day:
Black Agenda Report Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
The Struggle for Bodily Autonomy in Marginalized Communities
The History and Significance of Black August
Nicaragua: Anniversary of a Revolution
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 the poor and gives to the Rich. Rax the 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.” ― Louis Brandeis
The United States was Never Intended to be a Democracy!:The Supreme Court Isn’t Apolitical — It Was Set Up to Protect Monied Interests From the beginning, the Supreme Court was conceived as a bulwark against excessive democracy, as indeed was the Constitution itself. . . . During the years leading up to the 1787 constitutional convention in Philadelphia, the country was in a chronic state of upheaval. Local insurrections against heavy taxation, land and currency speculators, and merchant-bankers had called into question the security and sanctity of private property. Local legislatures proved vulnerable to take-over by the hoi polloi who felt free to cancel debts, print paper money, stop evictions, and oust elites from their accustomed positions of power. Various impediments to this kind of “mobocracy” were baked into the Constitution, including the electoral college for presidential votes and the indirect election of senators by state legislatures (until the 17th amendment was ratified in 1913). The Supreme Court was just another such obstacle. Founding Father James Madison typically saw that court as protection against “factious majorities” at the state and local level that might threaten the rights of property-holders. Fearing “passionate majorities,” he went so far as to propose a joint executive-judicial council with veto power over all legislation.
War/Arms Maker Profiteers ‘Have Have Come Homes to Roost’ in the Youth Market!: Arms Makers Have Embraced the Youth Market as Gun Ownership in the US Declines Arms manufacturers are using trade magazines like Junior Shooters to openly market “youth specific” rifles to children. . . . As gun ownership in the U.S. declines, arms makers have embraced the youth market to avoid industry contraction. Trade magazines such as Junior Shooters openly market rifles to children. And a recent lawsuit revealed that Remington sales tactics target minors. The confrontation between Uvalde families and the NRA highlights the polarizing strategy and political heft of arms makers. Yet it also reveals their irreducibly economic interests. Although the industry claims to defend the Constitution and individual liberty, it has spawned a gun violence epidemic by liberalizing markets and aggressively pursuing profits.
After Refusing Loan Forgiveness, Bank Of America Hits Ppp Borrowers With Inscrutable “Finance Charges” Bank of America says the charges are for accrued interest. Small business owners haven’t received any notice about how much they owe or the schedule for paying it back. Bank of America has refused to forgive some of the loans it made to small business owners through the Paycheck Protection Program. An early Covid-era program that gave business owners money to cover payroll and other costs to help keep them afloat during the pandemic, the loans were supposed to be forgiven if used correctly. But Bank of America forced borrowers to use its own opaque portal, rather than the Small Business Administration’s, giving business owners limited recourse to appeal when their applications for forgiveness were rejected. Now those business owners are faced with paying back loans they thought would be converted to grants, and they’ve been hit with another surprise: The bank is taking huge portions of their payments in the name of “finance charges.” Bank of America told The Intercept the charges are for interest that began accruing when the loans were dispersed; unforgiven PPP loans, according to the SBA’s rules, should accrue 1 percent annual interest.
The Iron Heel is coming: Biden’s “Safer America Plan” Should Follow the Science of Public Safety Instead of investing nearly $13 billion in hiring 100,000 new police officers, the science suggests these same funds should be invested in social welfare. However, one key feature of the plan is drawing near-universal ire from advocates, including the ACLU and NAACP Legal Defense Fund: the proposed hiring of 100,000 new police officers. Part of the backlash comes from the eye-popping price tag of the measure: a total cost of $12.8 billion, per White House estimates.
Patrick Lawrence: Unmaking History Every young journalist knows, and probably most newspaper readers know, too, the old thought: Journalists write the first draft of history. I like to think a few or more journalists and a few or more readers also know that this is sheer nonsense. Journalism, and I mean in its mainstream variety, is what the powers that control media publish precisely to keep true accounts of events out of the history books, not in them. This is why—and you will never get me off this point—independent media assume so great an importance in our time. As the derelictions of traditional media deepen, publications that hold themselves independent of power—political, administrative, corporate, financial—assume a responsibility outsized to their resources. They will prove the historian’s true friends.
Joe Biden’s Big “Save the Soul of the Nation” Speech Some Serious Soul-foolishness Joe Biden’s big speech last week to save the nation’s soul from the “MAGA Republicans” was (of course) deeply flawed. His reference to the United States as “the greatest nation on Earth” has long been contradicted by a giant mass of data on US inequality, poverty, health, violence, incarceration, and much more. His reference to the United States as a democracy, the greatest in the world, is belied by an empirical literature showing that majority public opinion is trumped by concentrated wealth and power on one issue after another.
Is the War in Ukraine Driven by International Agriculture Monopolies? Carl Schmitt, the lawyer to Adolf Hitler and legal philosopher for the Nazi Party, tells us that “Nomos comes from nemein – a Greek word that means both ‘to divide’ and ‘to pasture.’ Thus, nomos is the immediate form in which the political and social order of a people becomes spatially visible – the initial measure and division of pasture-land, i.e., the land-appropriation as well as the concrete order contained in it and following from it.” (Nomos of the Earth, pg. 70). Except for a few marginal news sources, nobody in the mainstream media is reporting on the evidence. Ukraine is important for American and Russian interests because of its rich dark soil, perfect for agriculture (known as “cernozëm”). As a result of this rich dark soil, Ukraine is responsible for a third of the world’s wheat production, some estimates range from putting Ukraine as the the second to the seventh ranked wheat exporter in the world, and the country produced $27 billion in agricultural production in 2021. According to some statistics Ukraine is the second most productive nation in the world according to agricultural output per acre. Many fertilizer chemicals are produced in Ukraine, along with Russia which is the chief supplier of nitrogen in the world, Ukraine and Russia combine for 28% of the world’s nitrogen-based fertilizer production.
Environment: Ecosocialism or Ecocide!
The Wealth Divide Linked for even more explosive blazes It was an explosive Labor Day across California, as an intense, days-long heatwave smashed temperature records, spurred the spread of deadly and destructive wildfires, and bathed cities in a stifling heat even long after the sun went down. The events mark a grueling start of what traditionally make up the highest fire-risk months in the west, with experts bracing for a higher potential of a punishing autumn even after a milder-than-expected summer.
The Wealth Divide Linked to 370 Heat Deaths in New York Each Year . . . The difference in temperature between the south Bronx and the Upper West Side reflect a myriad of other environmental inequalities. There are five major highways that run through and around the south Bronx, including the hulking Cross Bronx Expressway, which contributes to the surrounding area’s noise and air pollution. Despite being bounded to the south by the Harlem River, the waterfront in the south Bronx is so developed that residents cannot readily access the blue space. Meanwhile, the Upper West Side sits between Central park and Riverside park, which looks out on to the Hudson River. Asphalt roads and densely built buildings in cities trap heat. These urban pockets of heat can also overlap with other health disparities: the south Bronx has one of the highest asthma rates in the country. Residents here also live in housing that tends to trap heat, and where the median age of apartment buildings is nearly 90 years.“These spaces are not only deprived because of the heat they’ve acquired, the existing infrastructure is failing as well,” said Satpal Kaur, an architect who volunteered in the heat-mapping survey.
California’s Week of Heat and Wildfires Foretell a Punishing Autumn The fall season traditionally brings the highest fire risk to the west, but experts are bracing
Civil Rights/ Black Liberarion:
Systemic Environmental Racism: The Roots of the Water Crisis in Jackson Thinly veiled racism enshrined the idea that rugged individualism, not collective care, should be the ethic of government This week, many of us have been thinking about the people in Jackson, Mississippi. Heavy rains overwhelmed the aging water treatment plant. Now the city is without safe water. People cannot drink, wash, or brush their teeth with the sludge that comes out of the tap. Jackson, like most places across this land, has inherited an aging infrastructure and has been repeatedly denied funds to maintain, repair, and develop its water system. After WWII, many communities saw a resurgence in spending on public goods. Highways, bridges, and roads were upgraded. Public housing and health initiatives were created and educational programs from preschool through universities grew. Images of a war on poverty and model cities promised a renewed commitment to a more equal and generous society. None of these efforts funded by federal money was without contradiction. Often these programs became a means of benefiting whites at the expense of African Americans and other communities of color. Still, they reflected a belief that we are collectively responsible for the things that make life possible, meaningful, and productive: food, housing, transportation, health care, and education.
Black Agenda Report Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist Biden’s MAGA Obsession Won’t Help Democrats Because Joe Biden and democrats act on behalf of the oligarchy instead of the people, they now risk a mid-term election loss. His solution to this political problem is to speak endlessly about Donald Trump and shout the word MAGA at every opportunity. “MAGA proposals are a threat to the very soul of this country.” Joe Biden “The MAGA agenda represents an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our Republic.” Joe Biden “The MAGA ideology looks at America and sees carnage and darkness and despair.” Joe Biden “MAGA Republicans in Congress look at the mob that stormed the United States Capitol on January 6th not as insurrectionists but as patriots.” Joe Biden Anyone paying attention knows that Joe Biden’s accomplishments as president are pretty sparse. The oligarchy allowed his American Rescue Plan stimulus program to go through but then put a stop on Build Back Better or any other legislation that would help the people in a meaningful way. The student loan debt relief plan is a bait and switch scam used against desperate people. Biden brags about allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies but that won’t happen until 2026 and will only be allowed for ten drugs that are to be named later.
Labor:
Economy:
World:
Chile: Lessons of Constitutional Referendum Defeat – The October Process is Not Over, the Fight Continues! The results of a plebiscite on a proposed new Chilean constitution, resulting from the Constituent Convention, show a large majority (62 percent) voted to reject. This result is even worse than the polls predicted. It is necessary to explain why this has happened. The first observation to be made is that the distribution of the vote was similar to the second round of the presidential election in 2021: a very polarised vote between left-wing Gabriel Boric and far-right José Kast. In Santiago and in Valparaíso, the working-class and popular comunas (the smallest administrative districts) voted in greater numbers for approval (although they only exceeded rejection in very few cases), and the upper-class, bourgeois comunas voted over-whelmingly for rejection. However, unlike in 2021, the vote of the workers’ communes was not sufficiently in favour of approval to counterbalance the vote of the rich.
Education, Health, Science, 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
Stone Age Skeleton Missing Foot May Show Oldest Amputation The 31,000-year-old skeleton’s early surgery “rewrites the history of human medical knowledge and developments.” The 31,000-year-old skeleton of a young adult found in a cave in Indonesia that is missing its left foot and part of its left leg reveal the oldest known evidence of an amputation, according to a new study. Scientists say the amputation was performed when the person was a child — and that the “patient” went on to live for years as an amputee. The prehistoric surgery could show that humans were making medical advances much earlier than previously thought, according to the study published Wednesday in the journal Nature.