Daily News Digest October 31, 20222
Images of the Day:
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 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:
Let us not, however, flatter ourselves overmuch on account of our human victories over nature. For each such victory nature takes its revenge on us. Each victory, it is true, in the first place brings about the results we expected, but in the second and third places it has quite different, unforeseen effects which only too often cancel the first. —Friedrich Engels, — Friedrich Engels, The Part Played by Labor in the Transition from Ape to Man
The European Union’s top foreign-policy official Josep Borrell admitted the West’s new cold war on China and Russia is not a conflict of “democracies vs. authoritarians,” conceding, “On our side, there are a lot of authoritarian regimes.” — EU Admits New Cold War is Not ‘Democracy vs. Autocracy’: ‘On Our Side, There Are a Lot of Authoritarian Regimes’
Videos of the Day:
Nuclear Armageddon in Our Own Backyard NATO recently expanded to Sweden and Finland, has been de facto incorporated in Ukraine, and may extend to Georgia. Now, NATO’s entry into the Amazon is in the works under the aegis of newly elected President Gustavo Petro of Colombia. NATO is a primary instrument of US imperial dominion. It is Washington’s praetorian guard projected on a global scale. Earlier this month, President Petro invited US and NATO military forces into the Amazon on the pretext that the imperial war machine could be repurposed as “police” aimed at protecting the environment instead of the old ruse of the war on drugs. He proposed deployment of US Black Hawk helicopters to put out fires. Previous to the environmental alibi, the pretext for militarization of the jungle was narcotics interdiction.
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
Historic Exxon, Chevron Profits Signal ‘All-Out War on American Consumers’ “Instead of providing badly needed relief to consumers, they spent over $32 billion to enrich their wealthy shareholders while forcing American families to foot the bill.”
‘A Terrifying Document’: Critics Say Biden Nuclear Policy Makes the World More Dangerous “This Nuclear Posture Review continues decades of nuclear overkill, doubles down on needless weapons programs, and fails to advance overdue reforms. Just weeks after U.S. President Joe Biden warned that Russia’s assault on Ukraine has dramatically raised the risk of “Armageddon,” his administration on Thursday released a Nuclear Posture Review that nonproliferation advocates say does nothing to pull the world back from the brink of global catastrophe.
Celeste Ng’s Piercing Portrayal of the Dystopia in Which We Live Reading “Our Missing Hearts” becomes an exercise in recognizing the many ways today’s America is already a nightmare. Celeste Ng’s new dystopian novel Our Missing Hearts , though wonderfully written and often mesmerizing, is not what I expected. It is actually set in the United States and in the here and now, for starters. There are no posters of a dictator and there is no mention of an evil supercomputer. There is nothing unrecognizable. The characters are similar to people I know. The physical world, even descriptions of the weather, are familiar. So, I began to wonder if this was truly a dystopia. Then it occurred to me that familiarity was the key to my discomfort as well as the key to the effectiveness of the book. The constant distraction of “forever wars” with their unrelenting references to very powerful enemies who “threaten our way of life;” desperate attempts to control what young people are taught; extreme social and economic class divides; fear of outsiders (or immigrants) who also “threaten our way of life;” environmental devastation; and a loss of individuality. All of these familiar details had me asking: Might it be possible that we already live in a dystopia?
The Military-Industrial Media Complex Strikes Again Tens of thousands protested against the skyrocketing cost of living and against Macron in France October 16, led by left-wing politician Jean Luc Melenchon, but there were few front page or top-of-the hour headlines in the U.S. Huge protests occurred in Rome the same day to demand an end to Italy’s involvement in NATO, but no coverage on the west side of the Atlantic. Thousands protesting in Paris October 22 against NATO, but little notice in North America. Massive protests against NATO and inflation due to sanctions on Russian energy in France, Germany and Austria in September, but little news of it here in the heart of the empire. German police beat citizens protesting energy shortages and record-high inflation, both due to Russia sanctions, the week of October 17, but that was not covered in the USA. Seventy thousand Czechs protested in Prague September 3 against NATO involvement in Ukraine, demanding gas from Russia (before some mysterious imperial somebody with means and motive blew up Nordstream 1 and 2, probably to nip the political effects of those protests in the bud) and ending the war, but that got little coverage in U.S. corporate media.
The Real ‘Decider’: Wall Street Shrugs Off Biden and Reaffirms Commitment to Saudi Monarchy Even as President Biden questions the U.S.-Saudi alliance, big banks in the U.S. are cozying up to the crown prince. This month, President Biden has openly threatened to reconsider the close ties between the United States and Saudi Arabia, but the financial industry appears certain he’s not ready to put his money — or theirs — where his mouth is. Wall Street leaders are visiting Saudi Arabia this week for an investment conference sponsored by the Saudi government, just two weeks after the White House said it would be reexamining the long-standing U.S.-Saudi alliance.
Environment: Ecosocialism or Ecocide!:
Self-Accelerating Global Warming: As global warming increases, the rate of global warming increases. As the rate of global warming increases, global warming increases. ect.!: Climate Change Is Accelerating, Bringing World ‘Dangerously Close’ to Irreversible Change More devastating fires in California. Persistent drought in the Southwest. Record flooding in Europe and Africa. A heat wave, of all things, in Greenland. Climate change and its effects are accelerating, with climate related disasters piling up, season after season. Things are getting worse,” said Petteri Taalas, Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization, which on Tuesday issued its annual state of the global climate report, concluding a decade of what it called exceptional global heat. “It’s more urgent than ever to proceed with mitigation.”
“You can say goodbye to 1.5°C and 2°C too,”: ‘Worst Possible News’: Scientists Urge Immediate Action as Greenhouse Gas Levels Hit All-Time High “The brutal truth is here for everyone to see,” said one researcher in response to record CO2, methane, and N2O atmospheric concentrations. “Far from emissions being brought under control, they are actually accelerating.” Scientists and activists expressed shock and the need for urgent climate action Wednesday as the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization revealed that atmospheric levels of the three main greenhouse gases fueling catastrophic global heating all hit record highs in 2021.
Climate Change: CO2 and Methane in Our Atmosphere Reach Record Levels The agency’s yearly Greenhouse Gas Bulletin warns of the biggest year-on-year jump in methane concentrations in 2021 since systematic measurements began nearly 40 years ago. While the reason for the unprecedented increase is still unclear, it seems to be a result of both biological and human-induced processes according to the report. The increase in carbon dioxide levels from 2020 to 2021 was also larger than the average annual growth rate over the last decade, and according to WMO, the levels continue to rise through 2022. “[The report] has underlined, once again, the enormous challenge – and the vital necessity – of urgent action to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Windfall Tax Must Change in Face of ‘Excessive’ Oil Profits, Alok Sharma Says Exclusive: Outgoing head of climate talks says UK needs to encourage investment in renewables, not fossil fuels The UK’s windfall tax on oil and gas profits must be changed to raise billions more and to stop companies using loopholes to invest in further fossil fuel extraction, the outgoing president of global climate talks has said. “These are excessive profits, and they have to be treated in the appropriate way when it comes to taxation,” said Alok Sharma, the president of the Cop26 UN climate summit.
Civil Rights/ Black Liberarion:
CDC Finds Huge Racial Disparities in Access to COVID Treatment Paxlovid New research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reveals deep racial disparities in access to Paxlovid, a drug commonly used to treat COVID-19 infections for higher-risk patients, raising longstanding concerns about racism within the health system as officials fear an explosion of COVID cases over the winter. The CDC’s “Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report” released on Friday includes data showing that Black patients were prescribed Paxlovid for outpatient COVID treatment 36 percent less than white patients from April to July 2022, a period of time when Paxlovid became widely available and use of the drug surged.
Labor:
Now one of the answers, it seems to me, is a guaranteed annual income, a guaranteed minimum income for all people and for all families of our country. It seems to me that the Civil Rights Movement must now begin to organize for the guaranteed annual income. Begin to organize people all over our country and mobilize forces so that we can bring to the attention of our nation this need, and this something which I believe will go a long, long way toward dealing with the Negro’s economic problem and the economic problem which many other poor people confront in our nation. —MLK: The Other America Speech
Work is not Democratic: Unequal Pay—The Gender Gap!: Closing Gender Pay Gaps is More Important Than Ever.
- Women are concentrated in lower-paid, lower-skill work.
- For every dollar men earn, women earn 77 cents.
- Women are under-represented in decision-making roles.
- Women carry out at least 2.5 times more unpaid work than men.
- At the current rate, it will take 257 years to close the global gender pay gap.
Economy:
The Inflation Conundrum In many previous posts, I have argued the current sharp rise in inflation rates in all the major economies does not derive from so-called ‘excessive demand’; or from excessive money supply growth; or wage demands forcing companies to raise prices. It primarily relies on the failure of supply to match demand. Supply was drastically squeezed during the COVID pandemic slump of 2020 and the productivity of labour contracted sharply. Capitalist investment and the production revival during the economic recovery in 2021 were inadequate to meet to renewed spending by consumers and companies. That failure was exacerbated by supply-chain blockages (loss of employees in key industries and the collapse of trade and transport connections). And the Russia-Ukraine conflict then added to that in reducing energy and food supply and exports, causing rocketing food and energy prices.
Shadow Government Satistics Daily UpdateOctober 28th to 31st
- University of Michigan’s October 2022 Consumer Sentiment held shy by 40.7% (-40.7%) of recovering its Pre-Pandemic Peak. Such does not add any credibility to yesterday’s Third-Quarter 2022 Gross Domestic Product rebound to an annualized quarterly growth pace of 2.6%, versus an unrevised 0.6% (-0.6%) contraction in the prior quarter. Third-quarter ShadowStats Alternate GDP, showed annualized real growth of 0.5%, up from the prior quarter’s contraction of 2.6% (-2.6%). The ShadowStats outlook remains solid for a deepening economic downturn, as reviewed here and in pending Commentary No. 1461. Click on ALTERNATE DATA at the top of this screen to view a GDP graph [the accompanying data file there requires subscriber log-in].
- In other numbers this week, September 2022 Real New Orders for Durable Goods declined 0.9% (-0.9%) net of Commercial Aircraft Orders, taking parallel Third-Quarter Real New Orders into its first quarterly contraction since Second-Quarter 2021.
- In context of upside benchmark revisions to the current more-liquid Money Supply data, September 2022 Money Supply “Basic M1” (Currency plus Demand Deposits) notched minimally off its new 123.3% [previously 122.1%] August record-high gain, holding at 121.6% above its Pre-Pandemic Peak, still reflecting a 52-year peak in extreme flight to liquidity — no inflation relief is in sight, so far.
World:
Iran: Revolutionary Youth Movement Endures 26 October marked 40 days since the murder of the Iranian-Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, by the regime’s morality police. Being the final day of the traditional Shia mourning period, it was met with massive protests, becoming a new highpoint of the movement, with protests in nearly every major city. In many Kurdish towns, a general strike broke out; across the country, bazaari strikes were held in support of the movement; and in Tehran Metro conductors went on strike in support of the revolutionary youth. In many major cities, barricades have been set up. The usual slogans of “Death to dictators”, “Women, life and freedom”, “Freedom, freedom, freedom”, “Death to the tyrants – be they Shah or Supreme leader”, and others continue. Protests continued throughout Thursday across Iran, but especially in Teheran, Saqqez, Sandandaj and Mahabad. Funerals of the martyrs from Wednesday especially in Mahabad have turned into mass rallies and only stoked anger of the masses.
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
Paraquat is Outlawed in the EU, UK, Switzerland And China As a Growing Chorus of US Advocacy Groups Demand the EPA Change Its Position — Secret Files Suggest Chemical Giant Feared Weedkiller’s Link to Parkinson’s Disease When US regulators issued a 2019 assessment of the widely used farm chemical paraquat, they determined that even though multiple scientific studies linked the chemical to Parkinson’s disease, that work was outweighed by other studies that did not find such links.