Daily News Digest September 23, 2022
Images of the Day:
Public Enemy 1!: The US Military-Industrial Complex Pollutes More Than 171 Countries!
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:
Videos of the Day:
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
War Spending Like This as the Climate Emergency Grows Is a Global Nightmare The military-industrial complex and Earth-killing capitalism only seem to grow ever mightier. On October 1st, the U.S. military will start spending the more than $800 billion Congress is going to provide it with in fiscal year 2023. And that whopping sum will just be the beginning. According to the calculations of Pentagon expert William Hartung, funding for various intelligence agencies, the Department of Homeland Security, and work on nuclear weaponry at the Energy Department will add another $600 billion to what you, the American taxpayer, will be spending on national security. Pentagon Spending Drains the National Budget and Leaves a Big Carbon Bootprint On October 1st, the U.S. military will start spending the more than $800 billion Congress is going to provide it with in fiscal year 2023. And that whopping sum will just be the beginning. According to the calculations of Pentagon expert William Hartung, funding for various intelligence agencies, the Department of Homeland Security, and work on nuclear weaponry at the Energy Department will add another $600 billion to what you, the American taxpayer, will be spending on national security. That $1.4 trillion for a single year dwarfs Congress’s one-time provision of approximately $300 billion under the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) for what’s called “climate mitigation and adaptation.” And mind you, that sum is to be spent over a number of years. In contrast to the IRA, which was largely a climate bill (even if hardly the best version of one), this country’s military spending bills are distinctly anti-human, anti-climate, and anti-Earth. And count on this: Congress’s military appropriations will, in all too many ways, cancel out the benefits of its new climate spending.
Environment: Ecosocialism or Ecocide!:
Stephanie Simeon is fighting the effects of all that lead every day, not only as a community organizer in Buffalo, but as a mom. As the executive director of the Buffalo non-profit Heart of the City Neighborhoods, Simeon is leading a campaign to help the city raise the funds and spur the community engagement needed to get rid of its buried lead pipes. Her adopted daughter, now 11, suffered lead poisoning as a baby and is now struggling to overcome a host of developmental delays. “Our kids are having low educational attainment and our schools have high rates of suspension,” she said, noting that lead has been linked to learning disabilities and behavioral problems in children. “We can do better than this. This is one of the richest nations in the world.” When the Guardian shared documents with her showing how the lead industry once pushed to get its product written into Buffalo’s city code, she was outraged. “It’s disgusting,” said Simeon, who said industry should have to pay for the lasting damage to children done by its profiteering. But legal efforts to hold the industry accountable for lead poisoning caused by paint and leaded gasoline, which were both promoted by the Lead Industries Association as well, have mostly faltered. The association itself went bankrupt in 2002, saying it could not afford insurance to fight off lawsuits. “It was profit over people,” said Simeon. “Now we’re paying for it.” — Profiting From Poison: How the US Lead Industry Knowingly Created a Water Crisis
‘It Took Everything’: The Disease That Can be Contracted by Breathing California’s Air Valley fever, derived from a fungus that lives in the US south-west’s soil, is on the rise as climate crisis dries out the landscape The illness that would change Rob Purdie’s life started with a headache, a terrible pain that began around New Year’s 2012 and stayed for months. It was only after several trips to urgent care facilities, multiple doctors and incorrect diagnoses – everything from sinus infections to cluster headaches – he learned what was wrong with him. The Bakersfield, California, resident had meningitis caused by Valley fever, a disease that comes from Coccidioides, a fungus endemic to the soil of the US south-west. Years of debilitating illness, struggles finding effective treatments and other hardships followed.
How the Climate Crisis s Fueling the Spread of a Brain-Eating Amoeba Naegleria fowleri grows in warm fresh water, making it well-suited to proliferate as temperatures rise in the US Te death of a child in Nebraska this summer put the rare but deadly Naegleria fowleri – more commonly known as brain-eating amoeba – back in the headlines. The amoeba lives in warm, fresh water and can enter the body through the nose, where it travels to the brain and starts to destroy tissue. The case underscored a troubling new reality – climate change is encouraging the amoeba to pop up in parts of the US where it isn’t typical, such as the north and west.
Why Are Wild Horses Brutally Uprooted From Public Lands While Private Livestock Can Stay? Every year, thousands of wild horses and burros are chased by helicopters and ripped from their native land in terrifyingly brutal, and often deadly, roundups. After capture, they are corralled in crowded dry lot holding pens, where many contract diseases or injuries and some then die or are killed. Some of the captured wild horses and burros are adopted out or sold to questionable buyers. Many of these horses are in turn sold to slaughterhouses. These horrendous actions are perpetrated by the U.S. government while using taxpayer dollars to protect the vested interests of cattle and sheep ranchers.
Civil Rights/ Black Liberarion:
- Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist:: Asylum, Migration and U.S. Foreign Policy Every day the republican governors of Texas, Greg Abbott, and Florida, Ron DeSantis, eagerly announce that they are sending people generically labeled as migrants to what are known as sanctuary cities. The corporate media report that thousands of people have been convinced to board buses to New York City or Washington DC or Sacramento or Chicago or even chartered flights to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. What they don’t explain is who these migrants are and why their status is highly problematic and a function of imperialist foreign policy.
- Editors, The Black Agenda Review: MANIFESTO: The Anti-Racist Manifesto of Colectiva Feminista en Construcción, 2020 The Anti-Racist Manifesto of Puerto Rico’s Colectiva Feminista en Construcción (La Cole) outlines a radical solution to capitalism, colonialism, and climate change. Natural disasters are also catastrophes of colonialism and neoliberalism. Take, for instance, Hurricane Fiona. A category 1 hurricane that made landfall on Puerto Rico on September 18th, Fiona knocked out power to the entire archipelago – some 1.4 million households – and left sixty percent of the territory without clean water. Bridges, roads, and buildings have been destroyed and massive flooding and landslides continue to be a problem. Capitalism-induced climate change is certainly a problem here: warming oceans have caused more frequent, and much more powerful, tropical storms, creating an existential state of ecological crisis for Puerto Rico, and for other territories of the Caribbean archipelago. Yet the problem of climate change has been made more acute, and more devastating, by the combined histories of colonialism and neoliberalism in Puerto Rico.
Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor: : Final Word on “MAGA Communism” and Social Conservatism Opportunism and foolishness have resulted in the latest example of U.S. decline, the concept of “MAGA Communism.” This absurdity is proof that a true socialist movement is badly needed. A fashionable online trend has emerged that presumes social conservatism and “Make America Great Again” (MAGA), the Trump-inspired ideology, as sufficient responses to the liberal branding of the Democratic Party. Some have even called for a “MAGA” communist movement. The reasoning behind this is simple. MAGA inspired millions of mostly white workers to support Trump’s anti-Free Trade, anti-NATO, and pro-détente with Russia campaign message. Trump’s political base therefore is assumed to possess more revolutionary potential than the Democratic Party camp. - Benjamin Norton: US Launched 251 Military Interventions Since 1991, and 469 Since 1798 The U.S. has interfered in the affairs of other nations since 1798 The United States launched at least 251 military interventions between 1991 and 2022. This is according to a report by the Congressional Research Service, a US government institution that compiles information on behalf of Congress. The report documented another 218 US military interventions between 1798 and 1990. That makes for a total of 469 US military interventions since 1798 that have been acknowledged by the Congress. This data was published on March 8, 2022 by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), in a document titled “Instances of Use of United States Armed Forces Abroad, 1798-2022.”
- A Final Word on “MAGA Communism” and Social Conservatism The U.S. has interfered in the affairs of other nations since 1798 with more than 250 military interventions in the last 30 years alone. This article was originally published in Multipolarista. The United States launched at least 251 military interventions between 1991 and 2022. This is according to a report by the Congressional Research Service, a US government institution that compiles information on behalf of Congress.The report documented another 218 US military interventions between 1798 and 1990.
- Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor:Survivors Uncensored: Voices from Rwanda and the Rwandan Diaspora Most reporting on the Rwandan 1994 atrocities was false and driven by the Clinton administration’s need to hide its culpability. The book Survivors Uncensored allows Rwandans to tell their own story. Samantha Power, former UN Ambassador, National Security Advisor, current USAID Chief, and a principal in the decisions to bomb both Libya and Syria “to stop genocide,” was on the ground in Yugoslavia in the 1990s as a pro-NATO journalist. She went on to build her whole histrionic career on a Machiavellian distortion of the Rwandan Genocide before writing “A Problem from Hell, America in the Age of Genocide ” and creating her laughable 1-800-GENOCIDE line.
- Black Alliance For Peace: Amidst the Biden Administration’s Forever-Wars Policy in Africa BAP October 1, 2022 is the 14th anniversary of the launch of the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM). Yet, jihadist terrorist violence on the African continent has increased since the founding of AFRICOM and NATO’s destruction of Libya resulting in civilian casualties and instability, which the West has used as pretext and justification for the continued need for AFRICOM. Since itLaunches a Month of Action Against AFRICOM (U.S. Africa Command) October 1, 2022 is the 14th anniversary of the launch of the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM). Yet, jihadist terrorist violence on the African continent has increased since the founding of AFRICOM and NATO’s destruction of Libya resulting in civilian casualties and instability, which the West has used as pretext and justification for the continued need for AFRICOM. Since its founding, coups carried out by AFRICOM-trained soldiers have also increased.That is why the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) is organizing an International Month of Action Against AFRICOM in October. This is an effort to raise the public’s awareness about how the presence of U.S. military forces exacerbates violence and instability throughout the continent.
- Don Fitz: Life Expectancy: The US and Cuba in the Time of Covid Recent data shows that between 2019 and 2021, life expectancy (LE) in the US plunged almost three years while for Cuba it edged up 0.2 years. Yet, in 1960, the year after its revolution, Cuba had a LE of 64.2 years, lower by 5.6 years than that in the US (69.8 years). As I document in Cuban Health Care , the island quickly caught up to the US and, from 1970 through 2016, the two countries were nip and tuck, with some years Cuba and other years the US, having a longer LE. But neither country was ever as much as one year of LE ahead of the other.
- Abayomi Azikiwe: COP27 to be Held in Egypt amid Global Challenges African nations are preparing for the United Nations Climate Conference (COP27) scheduled to take place in the Egyptian resort area of Sharm-el-Sheikh from November 6-20. This gathering is taking place during a period of rising uncertainty due to burgeoning food deficits along with the crisis of accumulation and distribution related to agricultural products in general. Since its founding, coups carried out by AFRICOM-trained soldiers have also increased
- Michael Richmond, Alex Charnley: Hard Stop: On Seeking Justice for Chris Kaba Over the past week, people in Britain and the world have been educated or reminded of some of the most archaic rudiments of its constitutional monarchy. Some of the population mourned the monarch. Others were puzzled or pissed off as Premier League football bowed to national grief. Society’s diversions locked down again, though wage-labour and rent were deemed “respectful” enough to continue as normal. Meanwhile, cancer patients’ appointments and “ordinary” funerals were shunted aside for the pageantry of national mourning and a coronation designed to symbolise the passing of British sovereignty from one deceased human body into that of the son and heir.
- World Rainforest Movement: Oil Palm Plantations and Water Grabbing: Ivory Coast and Gabon Industrial palm oil production in West and Central Africa is mainly controlled by five companies: Socfin, Wilmar, Olam, Siat, and Straight KKM (former Feronia). These multinationals control an estimated 67 per cent of the industrial oil palm planted area with foreign investment and may drive continuous expansion. (1) Their established industrial plantations have been linked to numerous impacts on the populations and territories. The impact on water availability for communities that live in and around industrial oil palm plantations is systematic and dramatic. This is becoming increasingly evident with the many community reports of water scarcity and water pollution.
- The Voice:Caribbean Activists Turn Up the Volume for Reparations Demands for reparations are growing across the Caribbean, following the passing of Queen Elizabeth II.The British monarchy have come under heightened demands from several Caribbean countries to undergo the reparatory justice process and issue an apology for their part in the slave trade. It comes after Royal tours of the Caribbean earlier this year led by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, followed by Prince Edward and Sophie, the Countess of Wessex were bundled by photo-ops dand 469 Since 1798isaster and tone deaf gifts.
Labor:
Economy:
Energy, Cost of Living and Recession The G7 governments have a problem. The war in Ukraine against Russia is not won. It looks set to be a long grinding conflict, possibly with no end. And yet the world and particularly Europe depends on Russian energy supplies. The G7 has agreed to stop buying Russian oil, as part of its programme of using economics sanctions as a war weapon. But up to now, energy imports from Russia have not been stopped because it would mean a catastrophe for the EU countries, particularly Germany. And Russia is still selling huge volumes—globally – albeit at a discount from the world price—to India, China and other energy-thirsty economies. At the beginning of June, the European Union agreed to bar its companies from “insuring and financing the transport, in particular, through maritime routes, of [Russian] oil to third parties” after the end of 2022 to make it “difficult for Russia to continue exporting its crude oil and petroleum products to the rest of the world.” But that is still not being implemented and Greek-owned tankers are delivering Russian oil exports across the globe and until this week, Russian gas was still being imported into Europe. As a result, the Russian trade surplus has rocketed as oil and gas export revenues rise, driven mainly by huge price increases.
Shadow Government Statistics Daily Update – September 21st to 23rd
- The September 2022 FOMC’s 75-basis point (0.75%) hike in its targeted Federal Funds Rate was as expected, intensifying the negative economic pressures desired by the FOMC. Such was against an economic downturn that already meets the standard “Recession” definition. T
- he surging Money Supply remains intact and is driving the inflation, not a moribund, not-overheating economy. Accordingly, orchestrated, intensifying economic deterioration will offer negligible promise of inflation relief.
- Separately, the FOMC economic and interest rate forecasts have proven worthless. As an aside, recent slowing in the headline CPI inflation primarily has reflected reduced gasoline prices (not surging interest rates).
- Yet, a rebound in gasoline prices is likely in the near future, particularly post-Election [see the OPENING HEADLINE and the LATEST NUMBERS: SYSTEMIC RISK – FEDERAL RESERVE Sections for extended detail.
World:
A barrister who wanted to test the limits of free speech journeyed to Westminster and held up a blank piece of cardboard in protest; the police questioned him but didn’t make an arrest. When he asked what they would do if he wrote “Not my king” on the cardboard, he was told he would be arrested. When a protester in Oxford called out “Who elected him?” when royal heralds came through the ancient university town to proclaim Charles the new king, he was promptly manhandled, handcuffed and thrown in the back of a police van. In Edinburgh, a man was arrested for holding up a sign reading “Fuck Imperialism. Abolish monarchy.” And the list goes on. There is an irony to all of this. The reason that so much of the world seems utterly preoccupied by the Queen’s death is that, in life, she did not seem to strive for autocracy and instead was associated in the public’s mind with a Britain characterized by democracy and free speech — the sort of place that could stand proud against the Nazis and their vicious totalitarian vision, or, more recently, offer safe haven to those fleeing Russian atrocities in Ukraine. — Queen’s Funeral in UK Set Off Harsh Crackdowns Against Critics of Monarchy
Liz Truss’s Overturn of Fracking Ban in the UK Is Sparking Grassroots Resistance Anti-fracking organizers in Britain are planning blockades and say they’re ready to “pull out all the stops.” New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) has filed a lawsuit against former President Donald Trump, his three adult children and executives of the Trump Organization, claiming that they engaged in fraudulent business practices to attain business loans and avoid tax liabilities. The complaint filed by James on Wednesday “demonstrates that Donald Trump falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to unjustly enrich himself, and to cheat the system, thereby cheating all of us,” James said at a press conference announcing the lawsuit.
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 Healthcar
While US life expectancy decreased from 78.6 years in 2019 to 76.9 years in 2020 and 76.1 years in 2021, a net loss of 2.4 years, in contrast, peer countries averaged a smaller decrease in life expectancy between 2019 and 2020 (0.55 years) and a 0.26-year increase between 2020 and 2021, widening the gap in life expectancy between the US and other advanced capitalist economies to more than five years. The decrease in US life expectancy was highly racialised: as the largest decreases in 2020 occurred among American Indian/Alaska natives, hispanics, black and Asian populations. For native Americans and Alaska natives, life expectancy fell to 65, close to the national average during World War II. This decline in life expectancy in rich US contrasts with the continued rise in China throughout the COVID pandemic – where the death rate from the virus was minimal compared to the US and Europe. As a result, in 2021, China’s life expectancy at birth is now higher than that of the US! — Life Expectancy and Human Development in the 21st century
Fed in ‘Full Recession-Creating Mode’ Comes Under Fire for Another Interest Rate Hike Corporate profits must be the target, not workers.”Raising interest rates puts the burden of fighting inflation on low-wage workers,” notes former Labor Secretary Robert Reich. “For once, let’s take aim at an actual driver of inflation: corporate profits.”
Reporting by U.S. news services often takes Press Coverage of Declining US Life Expectancy Evades the Truth Reporting by U.S. news services often takes China to task for its strict preventative measures imposed to prevent Covid-19 infection. Reports point to economic instability and people’s distress resulting from such the uncompromising attitude. The slant of New York Times reporting, which minimized Chinese lives saved, earned sharp criticism on September 9 from the fair.org website, a self-styled “national media watch group.” Reporter Jim Naureckas imagines the lament of Times writers that, “China has had the enormous misfortune of avoiding mass death.” He is sarcastically contrasting lives saved in China with lives unnecessarily lost in the United States, where Covid-19 deaths now exceed one million. He indicates that China now exceeds the United States in life expectancy.