Daily News Digest December 6, 2022
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:
Where workers fight for their rights, that’s where you Don’t/Won’t find Sanders and ‘The Squad’! — Roland Sheppard
Videos of the Day:
Abandoned? Meet a Student Suing Yale for Pressuring Those with Mental Health Needs to Withdraw
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 Republicrats 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
Betrayal of Railway Workers Ignites Working-Class Fury Toward Biden and Democrats “You can’t be ‘pro-labor’ if you don’t stand in solidarity with workers when they decide to strike. Period.”
Railroad Workers Slam Biden for Siding With Bosses to Avoid Strike Frustrated railroad workers consider allying with a third party after a push for paid sick leave failed in Congress. Railroad workers lashed out at both Republicans and Democrats on Friday after Congress and President Joe Biden blocked their unions from striking over paid sick leave and unsafe work scheduling, with militant workers calling for the various railroad craft unions to unite under one organization and consider allying with a third political party. Biden signed legislation on Friday finalizing a labor agreement with rail carrier companies that multiple unions representing more than half of railroad workers rejected in November after two years of bitter negotiations. Biden bills himself as a valiant supporter of organized labor, but the holiday shopping season loomed over his decision to buck the rail unions, with the president warning on Friday of an “economic catastrophe at a very bad time of the calendar” before changing the subject to boast about job gains and lower gasoline prices. Railroad workers lashed out at both Republicans and Democrats on Friday after Congress and President Joe Biden blocked their unions from striking over paid sick leave and unsafe work scheduling, with militant workers calling for the various railroad craft unions to unite under one organization and consider allying with a third political party. Biden signed legislation on Friday finalizing a labor agreement with rail carrier companies that multiple unions representing more than half of railroad workers rejected in November after two years of bitter negotiations. Biden bills himself as a valiant supporter of organized labor, but the holiday shopping season loomed over his decision to buck the rail unions, with the president warning on Friday of an “economic catastrophe at a very bad time of the calendar” before changing the subject to boast about job gains and lower gasoline prices.
US Railroad Workers ‘Under the Thumb’ Probably the most important US labor event of 2022 has been the 115,000 US railroad workers and their unions attempt to bargain a new contract with the super profitable Railroad companies. As of December 2, 2022, however, that negotiations has not turned out well for the workers. The US government—the Biden administration and Democrat controlled US Congress with the help of virtually all the Republicans—have repeatedly intervened on the side of the management in the negotiations.
Millions of Americans Lack Adequate Health Coverage, But the Pentagon Has a New Nuclear Bomber to Flaunt “This ominous death machine, with its price tag of $750 million a pop, brings huge profits to Northrop Grumman but takes our society one more step down the road of spiritual death,” peace activist Medea Benjamin said of the new B-21 Raide.
Once Upon a Time the US Taxed the Rich A little history might just inspire us to try that taxing again. Once upon a time, the United States seriously taxed the nation’s rich. You remember that time? Probably not. To have a personal memory of that tax-the-rich era, you now have to be well into your seventies.. The Post clan held on to that penthouse for the next 15 years and then decided to “move on.” The American people, by that time, had decided to move on as well—from bargain-basement tax rates on high incomes. In 1940, the federal tax rate on income over $200,000 started at 66 percent. By 1944, the top tax rate on all income over $200,000—about $3.4 million in today’s dollars—had jumped to 94 percent. . . . But the political winds were changing. In 1963, President John Kennedy, himself the product of one of America’s grandest fortunes, asked Congress to drop the nation’s top tax rate down to 65 percent. Congress would mostly oblige, and that top tax rate would sink to 70 percent in 1965. In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan and his friends on Capitol Hill would shove that rate down even further, first to 50 and then to 28 percent.
Environment: Ecosocialism or Ecocide!:
George Monbiot: From the Amazon to Australia, Why is Your Money Funding Earth’s Destruction? In every conflict over the living world, something is being protected. And most of the time, it’s the wrong thing. The world’s most destructive industries are fiercely protected by governments. The three sectors that appear to be most responsible for the collapse of ecosystems and erasure of wildlife are fossil fuels, fisheries and farming. In 2021, governments directly subsidised oil and gas production to the tune of $64bn (£53bn), and spent a further $531bn (£443bn) on keeping fossil fuel prices low. The latest figures for fisheries, from 2018, suggest that global subsidies for the sector amount to $35bn a year, over 80% of which go to large-scale industrial fishing. Most are paid to “enhance capacity”: in other words to help the industry, as marine ecosystems collapse, catch more fish. Every year, governments spend $500bn on farm subsidies, the great majority of which pay no regard to environmental protection. Even the payments that claim to do so often inflict more harm than good. For example, many of the European Union’s pillar two “green” subsidies sustain livestock farming on land that would be better used for ecological restoration. Over half the European farm budget is spent on propping up animal farming, which is arguably the world’s most ecologically destructive industry.
As Millions Face Poverty, Global Food Companies Paid Out Nearly 15 Billion to Shareholders World’s biggest food giants made £20bn in profits—while warning of price rises to come The world’s biggest food companies have paid out nearly £15bn to shareholders as spiralling prices leave desperate families struggling to afford to eat, openDemocracy can reveal. The world’s biggest food companies have paid out nearly £15bn to shareholders as spiralling prices leave desperate families struggling to afford to eat, openDemocracy can reveal.
An Indigenous Reservation Has A Novel Way Tio Grow Food – Below yhe Earth’s Surface Near the southern border of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, a curved translucent roof peeks out a few feet above the dusty plains. It’s a blustery November afternoon and the last remaining greens outside are fading fast. But below ground, at the bottom of a short flight of stairs, the inside of this 80ft-long sleek structure is bursting with life – pallets of vivid microgreens, potato plants growing from hay bales and planters full of thick heads of Swiss chard and pak choi. Two people bend over the pallets, using scissors to harvest delicate sprouts of microgreens. This is an underground greenhouse, or walipini, and the harvesters are members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe.
Civil Rights Black Liberation:
Labor:
The number of ballots tallied by the Monitor fell by nearly 30 percent, by approximately 40,000 votes, compared to the national referendum last year, in which workers voted to implement direct elections. Roughly 143,000 members voted in the referendum. Despite the UAW bureaucracy’s efforts to suppress the vote, Lehman won significant support at a broad swath of workplaces, including auto factories, parts warehouses, heavy and military equipment manufacturers, and universities. Lehman, a second-tier worker at Mack Trucks, ran on an explicitly socialist and internationalist platform, calling for the abolition of the corrupt, pro-corporate UAW Apparatus And The Transfer Of Power To Rank-And-File Workers. — Will Lehman, Socialist Candidate For UAW President, Wins 4,777 Votes Amid Anemic Turnout
Reformers Win Big in United Auto Workers Election, Reject Entrenched Leadership The progressive Members United slate may win every seat they ran for and force the union president into a runoff. What is the mood at United Auto Workers headquarters today? Day drinking? Shopping for retirement condos? Dunning staff for money to try desperately to win the run-off? Shredding documents? Reformers in the United Auto Workers are jubilant as they seem set to make a historic change in the top leadership of their union, ending 70 years of one-party top-down rule. As mail-ballot votes were counted this week, it appeared very possible that the UAW Members United slate would eventually take all seven of the seats it contested, out of 14 on the union’s executive board.
Economy:
Michael Roberts Blog: A new paper by Ludvig Wier and Gabriel Zucman on how much multi-nationals shift their profits around the world to low tax havens. Global Profit Shifting, 1975 – 2019 finds that the share of multi-national profits shifted into tax havens has increased from 2% in 1975 to 37% now and that has meant a 10% loss of tax revenue to national governments.
Shadow Government Statistics Daily Update December 4th to 6th
- IN THE NEWS: November 2022 U.S. Labor Force [Employed plus Unemployed] continued in decline for the fourth straight month, signaling contracting, not expanding domestic economic activity. Separately, the current pace of monthly growth in Payrolls is consistent with a potential return to full pre-Pandemic conditions in about four years, around Third-Quarter 2026.
- That circumstance has been pushed back further into the future by two years, or so, reflecting extreme FOMC rate hikes this year. Headline November U.3 unemployment was unchanged, holding at a headline 3.7% (easing to 3.65% from 3.68% at the second decimal point), with U.6 Unemployment notching lower from 6.8% to 6.7% and the ShadowStats Alternate Unemployment easing from 25.5 to 24.4%, both series reflecting minimal rounding differences.
- November headline and ShadowStats Alternate Unemployment numbers are posted and plotted on the Alternate Data Tab. — NEXT COVERAGE: The October 2022 Merchandise Trade Deficit (December 6th).
Sam Bankman-Fried: The Rigged Wall Street System that “Valued” His Company at $32 Billion If you have been following the Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX crypto exchange story since the company filed for bankruptcy on November 11, you have likely read the phrase “a valuation of $32 billion” dozens of times to describe the “valuation” of FTX as recently as February of this year. (We pulled up 47,600 results from a Google search.) But here’s the funny thing. No media outlet has bothered to explain how FTX came by that $32 billion valuation or precisely how Sam Bankman-Fried, the co-founder and CEO of FTX, became a billionaire overnight. FTX wasn’t publicly traded so its share price wasn’t determined by millions of investors buying and selling its stock on a public stock exchange five days a week.
World:
Europe Accuses US of Profiting From War EU officials attack Joe Biden over sky-high gas prices, weapons sales and trade as Vladimir Putin’s war threatens to destroy Western unity. Nine months after invading Ukraine, Vladimir Putin is beginning to fracture the West. Top European officials are furious with Joe Biden’s administration and now accuse the Americans of making a fortune from the war, while EU countries suffer. “The fact is, if you look at it soberly, the country that is most profiting from this war is the U.S. because they are selling more gas and at higher prices, and because they are selling more weapons,” one senior official told POLITICO. The explosive comments — backed in public and private by officials, diplomats and ministers elsewhere — follow mounting anger in Europe over American subsidies that threaten to wreck European industry. The Kremlin is likely to welcome the poisoning of the atmosphere among Western allies. “We are really at a historic juncture,” the senior EU official said, arguing that the double hit of trade disruption from U.S. subsidies and high energy prices risks turning public opinion against both the war effort and the transatlantic alliance. “America needs to realize that public opinion is shifting in many EU countries.”
Hugo Blanco: ‘Social Movements in Defense of Our Territories are Our Hope’ Peruvian peasant leader on the pain and hope of indigenous struggles At times we are struck by a feeling of reporting the same news over and over again. Such as the death of a Kukama child poisoned by leaking oil, together with the memory of other deaths marked by the same, obscenely inhuman cruelty. The same news of a river filling up with crude oil or a mine tailing killing our people. And another horrific murder inside a police station, the mob of uniformed beasts furiously beating vulnerable children, pregnant women and the elderly. It is perhaps because the people’s life of the last 530 years has been one of struggle, resisting the death that comes brandishing and bullets. Nonetheless, we are now well aware that these attacks by the capitalist system — pollution, persecution, and prison — are neither accidental nor isolated incidents. Rather, they are planned, strategic acts of war against the people, in the service of the growth of capitalist development. That is, not for the development of alternatives but of ever-increasing profits.
Protesters Across UK Demand Government Address Fuel Poverty Crisis This Winter As energy bills — and fossil fuel profits — soar, demonstrators demanded immediate action from PM Rishi Sunak. eople in dozens of cities across the United Kingdom hit the streets on Saturday to demand immediate government action to prevent thousands of struggling workers from freezing to death in their homes this winter. Demonstrators drew attention to the worsening crisis of fuel poverty and called on lawmakers to pick up more of the tab for skyrocketing bills, fund home insulation, and accelerate clean energy production — all of which would be made easier by enacting a stronger tax on oil and gas corporations’ windfall profits.
Protesting Fuel Poverty, People Tell UK Government to ‘Keep Everyone Warm This Winter’ As energy bills—and fossil fuel profits—continue to soar, demonstrators around Britain demanded immediate action from Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and members of Parliament. People in dozens of cities across the United Kingdom hit the streets on Saturday to demand immediate government action to prevent thousands of struggling workers from freezing to death in their homes this winter.
Zelensky Looks to Ban Christian Denomination With Ties to Moscow The Ukrainian President called for the Russian Orthodox Church to be outlawed after Kiev’s intelligence agency conducted several raids on Orthodox cathedrals. The Ukrainian President called for the Russian Orthodox Church to be outlawed after Kiev’s intelligence agency conducted several raids on Orthodox cathedrals
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