Daily News Digest January 11, 2023
Images:
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 Capitalism 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:
To state the self-evident, Putin took the terms of the Minsk accords seriously by Hollande’s own account. It is a matter of record that the offensive in the eastern provinces was Kyiv’s as it shelled its own citizens. The death toll reported by monitors of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the OSCE, tells the story of the next eight years: 14,000 civilians dead, more than 80 percent of them in the eastern provinces known as the Donbas. The lies come thick and fast from there. Early in the exchange The Kyiv Independent asks, “Did you have the impression that Vladimir Putin would respect the Minsk agreements?” to which Hollande replies, “We couldn’t know that.” Liar. Putin’s desire for a negotiated settlement was perfectly obvious from the D–Day meeting onward. He dreamt of a recreation of the Soviet Union,” Hollande says of the Russian leader. “Putin adopted an aggressive posture and waited to see what the West’s reaction would be.” The former point is a common perversion of a remark of a sentimental sort that Putin made many years ago: Anyone who approves of the Soviet Union’s collapse has no heart, anyone who thinks it can be brought back to life has no brain. As to “Putin the aggressor,” whatever happened to Moscow’s decades-long efforts to negotiate a working post–Cold War order? Whatever happened to the decades of American subterfuge in Ukraine by means of various U.S.–sponsored “civil society groups”? Whatever happened to the February 2014 coup, an aggression if ever there was one? — Patrick Lawrence: Europe and the Legitimization of Deception
Videos/Podcasts of the Day:
Richard Wolff: Economic Update: What’s Wrong with Capitalism?
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! Both Parties Support U.S. Capitalism’s Wars! (The Only War the Democrats Opposed was the Civil War!)
Bendib: Power to the Speaker!
Is the US Headed for a Breakdown? The governing structures of the United States seem to be on the verge of some sort of national nervous breakdown. The symptoms are in our face. The inability of the House Republican majority to elect a speaker, in its 13th round of voting as of this writing, is the latest, most visible sign. A group of hardcore, ideologically committed right-wing representatives has frustrated the bid of Kevin McCarthy to succeed Nancy Pelosi as House speaker. Whatever the outcome, they will extract concessions that will make it difficult to govern the body, and run the federal government as a whole. A group of staunch fiscal conservatives will hold the upcoming vote to raise the federal debt ceiling hostage, potentially undermining the “full faith and credit” of the U.S. government that has enabled it to vacuum capital from around the world into its supposedly safe Treasury bills. It seems inconceivable they will actually fail to raise the limit. But the level of extremism present on the right, seen a year ago in the January 6 Capitol invasion, does not exclude this possibility, or the global financial collapse it will cause. There is a certain burn-it-down nihilism on the right that sees crashing the system as the only way to change it. A Regeneration Through Violence, as historian Richard Slotkin named the first of his trilogy on how U.S. frontier mythology has shaped the country to this day.
Watchdog Says Social Media Giants ‘Directly Aided’ Fascist Insurrection in Brazil “We’ve now seen this happen in two of the world’s major democracies—if governments fail to respond, more will inevitably pay the price.” The fascist attack on Brazil’s main government complex was “directly aided” by major social media platforms such as Facebook, TikTok, and Telegram, the global watchdog group SumOfUs said Monday as the country’s authorities continued their cleanup efforts, investigation, and arrests of suspects involved in the anti-democratic assault. The insurrection, carried out by supporters of far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro, “can come as no surprise to social media executives, who were warned time and again that their platforms, tools, and algorithms were directly aiding a violent uprising in Brazil,” said Flora Rebello Arduini, campaign director at SumOfUs, a nonprofit that has been monitoring the proliferation of election lies on social media in the South American country. Referencing the January 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol, which was also abetted by social media giants, Arduini added that “we’ve now seen this happen in two of the world’s major democracies—if governments fail to respond, more will inevitably pay the price.”
Title 42, “Safe” Third Countries and Bipartisan Hypocrisy President Biden recently announced changes to US immigration rules that will effectively embed two Trump-era policies, one of which the Supreme Court’s conservative majority has temporarily refused to halt: Title 42. It is a measure ostensibly intended to curtail the spread of COVID-19 by expelling or refusing entry to migrants from Central America. The other is the so-called “safe third country” policy, which requires migrants to apply for asylum in a country through which they transit on their way to the southern border. They must show that the request was denied before attempting to make an asylum claim in the United States. Employing these measures displays the hypocrisy of both major political parties when it comes to asylum seekers and refugees. Also, defending these indefensible rules is often done with the aid of lies and misinformation.
The Bolsonaros of the world just fly right In, but not those seeking asylum!: Biden’s Expansion of Title 42 Takes Us Further From Humane Border Policy Far from enhancing public health, Title 42 undermines it by creating cruel and inhumane conditions for migrants. Before heading to El Paso, Texas, on January 8 for his first presidential visit to the U.S.-Mexico border, President Joe Biden announced a trifecta of hideous immigration policies, along with a familiar “crackdown” on “illegal” border crossings. The new initiatives include expanding the controversial Trump-era Title 42 to migrants from Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti as well as refusing asylum to those who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border between official ports of entry and to who traveled through another country but did not seek asylum there. Taken together, these policies promise more death and suffering to people forced to flee their homes by violence, economic privation and climate change to which the United States is a primary contributor.
Robber Barron Politicians: George Santos Hit With Campaign Finance Complaint 2 Days After Being Sworn In The Campaign Legal Center is urging federal officials to investigate Santos’s campaign for potential violations. Far Right GOP Now Champions Jail Reforms — But Only for January Sixers The GOP has a history of promoting policies that disregard human rights and create inhumane prison and jail conditions. Rep. George Santos (R-New York) appears to have broken campaign finance laws with a questionable loan and suspiciously-valued expenditures, according to a new complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) by a government watchdog. On top of the numerous fabrications that Santos created about his resume and religious and racial identity, the Republican appears to have told “equally brazen lies” about his campaign’s financial practices, the Campaign Legal Center (CLC) wrote in its complaint filed Monday. The nonpartisan group urged the FEC to investigate Santos’s campaign for the potential violations.
Environment — Ecosocialism or Ecocide — :Ecosocialism Not Extinction!
Relentless Rain, Record Heat: Study Finds Climate Crisis Worsened Extreme Weather Scientists describe as ‘very alarming’ research that shows severe weather events were made more likely by climate change Relentless drought in California, extreme rainfall in the UK, record heat in China – some of the most severe weather events that have occurred around the world in the past few years were made far more likely due to the climate crisis, new research has found. The analysis of extreme events in 2021 and 2022 found that many of these extremes were worsened by global heating, and in some cases would have been almost impossible in terms of their severity if humans had not altered the climate through the burning of fossil fuels.
90% of World’s People to Face Combined Extreme Heat and Drought Compound threats will most severely affect poor people and rural areas More than 90% of the world’s population is projected to face increased risks from the compound impacts of extreme heat and drought, potentially widening social inequalities as well as undermining the natural world’s ability to reduce CO2 emissions in the atmosphere — according to a study from Oxford University’s School of Geography. In the wake of record temperatures in 2022, from London to Shanghai, continuing rising temperatures are projected around the world. When assessed together, the linked threats of heat and drought represent a significantly higher risk to society and ecosystems than when either threat is considered independently, according to the paper, published this month in the journal Nature Sustainability.
Civil Rights Black Liberation:
Far Right GOP Now Champions Jail Reforms — But Only for January Sixers The GOP has a history of . Republicans are not known for championing the rights of incarcerated people. Doing so would run counter to their purposefully cultivated “tough on crime” image, which often includes a penchant for harsh prison and jail conditions. But in the two years since the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, the party — and especially its most extreme right wing — have made a cause célèbre of the several dozen accused insurrectionists languishing in the District of Columbia Jail.
Labor:
7,000 New York Nurses Go on Strike, Decrying “Unimaginable” Working Conditions Workers say that understaffing and patient safety issues have forced them to go on strike. Over 7,000 nurses across two hospitals in New York City went on strike early Monday morning after contract negotiations broke down over the hospitals’ refusal to meet nurses’ staffing demands. Nurses at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx and Mount Sinai in Manhattan walked out at 6 am, saying they are forced to work long hours with huge workloads that leave them burnt out, which could potentially put patients in danger. The workers “have been put in the unfortunate position of having no other choice than to strike,” said Mario Cilento, president of the New York AFL-CIO, of which the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) is an affiliate.
Economy:
Sullivan & Cromwell, FTX Lead Counsel in Bankruptcy, Says It Has No Adverse Relationships, Despite Representing Four of FTX’s Crypto Exchange Competitors Sullivan & Cromwell ranks among the oldest law firms in America. It was founded 144 years ago by Algernon Sydney Sullivan and William Nelson Cromwell in Manhattan’s financial district. During the financial bust in the 1930s, Sullivan & Cromwell garnered its reputation for defending Wall Street firms against shareholder lawsuits and antitrust actions. As Wall Street On Parade previously detailed, the firm’s Senior Chairman, Rodge Cohen, paved the way for the Fed’s unprecedented $29 trillion bailout of Wall Street banks after their corrupt activities collapsed the U.S. economy in 2008. And, of course, there was S&C partner Jay Clayton, who was tapped by President Donald Trump to Chair the SEC – and, in our opinion, left markets mired in the worst corruption since 1929.
World:
Germany’s Biggest Weekly Magazine Asks: “Was Marx Right After All?” This year’s New Year edition of Der Spiegel features an interesting piece titled, “Was Marx right after all?” Full of astute observations about the state of capitalism, it’s a piece symptomatic of the anxiety of the ruling class. But the ‘solutions’ it proposes – reactionary and utopian ideas based on keeping capitalism intact, like ‘degrowth’ and Keynesianism – are really no solutions at all “Was Marx right after all?” This is the question that Germany’s most widely read weekly magazine asks on the cover of its New Year edition. Fear seems to have gripped the editorial office of Der Spiegel. Something is very wrong with capitalism. As they themselves explain, this fear is widely shared within the ruling class. The article quotes Ray Dalio, a hedge fund manager worth $22bn, who believes “capitalism urgently needs to be fundamentally reformed. Otherwise it will perish, and deservedly so.” The Financial Times is equally alarmed. Goldman Sachs and Bosch are cited among the corporate giants questioning the resilience of the market in the face of looming catastrophe.
US Court Orders Cruise Lines to Pay Over $400 million for Sailing to Cuba On Friday 30 December, the South Florida U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom, ordered four Florida-based cruise companies (Carnival, MSC SA, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian) to pay more than US$100 million each in ‘damages’ to Havana. On Friday 30 December, the South Florida U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom, ordered four Florida-based cruise companies (Carnival, MSC SA, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian) to pay more than US$100 million each in ‘damages’ to Havana Docks. The latter, a US company, had owned a 1934 concession to several piers in Havana harbor, which was expropriated in 1960 by the Cuban Revolution. This decision, the first successful application of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, is capable of having a devastating impact on the Cuban economy and should be strongly rejected as an illegal act of imperialist bullying.
Brazil: Against The Coup-Plotting Right Wing – For Unity, Mobilisation And Class Independence! The Invasion Of The National Congress, The Planalto Palace And The Supreme Court Yesterday (8 January) By Bolsonarista Groups – In Opposition To The Electoral Result And Demanding Military Intervention – Must Be Firmly Repudiated And Fought By The Labour, Popular And Student Movements. We Say This Not Because The Working Class Has An Interest In Defending The Institutions Of The Bourgeois State. Rather, We Say This Because This Attack On These Institutions Comes From The Extreme Right, Which Wants To Replace Them With Something Even Worse. These Demoralised, Right-Wing Extremists, This Human Scum, Behaves In An Adventurist Manner, Plundering And Destroying Property. Their Methods Have Nothing To Do With The Traditional Methods Of Working-Class Struggle. The Invasion Of These Buildings Was Clearly Only Made Possible With The Connivance Of The Forces Of State Repression. The Reactionary Mob, Which Arrived In Brasilia In A Cavalcade Of Around 100, Was Escorted By The Military Police Of The Federal District To The Praça Dos Três Poderes (Three Powers Plaza).
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 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
When Big Pharma Spends More on Stock Buybacks Than R&D Because Big Pharma rarely invests in prevention, it has very little motivation to invest in preparedness for a public health crisis. The 14 largest publicly-traded pharmaceutical companies spent $747 billion on stock buybacks and dividends from 2012 through 2021 — substantially more than the $660 billion they spent on research and development. So argue economists William Lazonick, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Massachusetts, and Öner Tulum, a researcher at Brown University, in a new paper. Big business, Big Insurance, and Big Pharma industries dominate our government with public health taking a back seat to the need for large private profit. Many government leaders from both political parties share the same ‘profits over public health’ ideology, even though the Covid-19 pandemic clearly showed how our economic system failed to serve our citizens by allowing these groups to privatize, sabotage, fragment and cripple our health, public health and other social services. No greater disconnect exists between the public good and private interests than in the U.S. system of monopoly, for-profit Big Pharma.