Daily News Digest January 16, 2023
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For their latest study, the pair and Rahmstorf analyzed all known global warming projections documented and modeled by Exxon scientists between 1977 and 2003. The researchers found that 63-83% of the company’s projections were accurate. “ExxonMobil’s average projected warming was 0.20° ± 0.04°C per decade, which is, within uncertainty, the same as that of independent academic and government projections published between 1970 and 2007,” the publication states. The study includes the following graphic, which shows Exxon scientists’ projections from internal documents and peer-reviewed publications for the review period in gray along with historically observed temperature change in red. — ‘Nail in the Coffin’: Study Shows Exxon Accurately Predicted Warming Decades Ago
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:
Happy birthday, Jack London, 1/12/1876 – 11/22/1916 The Scab
Our government teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it
invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. ― Louis D. Brandeis
As the wealth of the nation is concentrated in the 1%., 34% of Big, Profitable US Corporations Paid $0 in Federal Taxes in 1st Year of Trump Tax Law
War “at home” and “war abroad”: More funding for the war machine means less funding for the U.S. working class and the poor. While domestic spending is increased by 6 percent over the previous year, given that the U.S. inflation rate is 7 percent, the 6 percent rise in domestic spending is a cut in real terms, meaning fewer real resources for health care, education, housing, mass transportation and what remains of social benefit programs like food stamps and home heating assistance. It means, in particular, less funding for millions of children who during the pandemic have been entitled to Medicaid, a federal-state healthcare program for the poor, and who beginning April 1 will be removed from Medicaid assistance. Funding that is earmarked “domestic spending,” moreover, will be allocated for surveillance, repression, and operations in support of the military and U.S. foreign policy. This includes $61 billion for the Department of Homeland Security (up 5 percent), $152 billion for “Military Construction and Veterans’ Affairs” (up 20 percent), $60 billion for the State Department (up 6 percent), and $39 billion for the Department of Justice, which includes the FBI and other federal police operations. Record U.S. War Budget – Biden’s Promised 30,000 Visas – Right to Strike – Brazil Attempted Coup and Heightened Expectations
Videos/Podcasts of the Day:
“Argentina, 1985”: Oscar-Shortlisted Film Depicts Historic War Crimes Trial of U.S.-Backed Generals
Legendary Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo on “Argentina, 1985” and Why Democracy Is at Risk Today
The Crisis of Missing Migrants: Tens of Thousands of People Have Disappeared on Their Way to Europe
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!)
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 D. Brandeis Quotes
Record U.S. War Budget – Biden’s Promised 30,000 Visas – Right to Strike – Brazil Attempted Coup and Heightened Expectations On December 29, 2022, President Biden signed into law the $1.7 trillion Omnibus Appropriations Bill of 2023. More than half of this amount is allocated to the war budget, which is a record $858 billion (up 10% from last year). To this amount must be added $44.9 billion in “aid” to Ukraine and NATO countries, which brings the total military spending to more than $900 billion. And it doesn’t end there. The New York Times noted on December 18 that “a far bigger tranche of military aid for Kyiv is expected to pass through Congress later this year.” The war budget means huge profits for the U.S. military-industrial complex. “The increased spending creates a new boom for arms manufacturers,” reported the New York Times. “Lockheed Martin, the largest U.S. arms company, has secured more than $950 million worth of orders for missiles to replenish stocks used in Ukraine. The Army awarded Raytheon Technologies more than $2 billion in contracts to deliver missiles to Ukraine.” (Ibid.). On December 29, 2022, President Biden signed into law the $1.7 trillion Omnibus Appropriations Bill of 2023. More than half of this amount is allocated to the war budget, which is a record $858 billion (up 10% from last year). To this amount must be added $44.9 billion in “aid” to Ukraine and NATO countries, which brings the total military spending to more than $900 billion. And it doesn’t end there. The New York Times noted on December 18 that “a far bigger tranche of military aid for Kyiv is expected to pass through Congress later this year.” The war budget means huge profits for the U.S. military-industrial complex. “The increased spending creates a new boom for arms manufacturers,” reported the New York Times. “ecord U.S. War Budget – Biden’s Promised 30,000 Visas – Right to Strike – Brazil Attempted Coup and Heightened ExpectationsLockheed Martin, the largest U.S. arms company, has secured more than $950 million worth of orders for missiles to replenish stocks used in Ukraine. The Army awarded Raytheon Technologies more than $2 billion in contracts to deliver missiles to Ukraine.” (Ibid.)
Roaming Charges: Woke Me When It’s Over
- One begins to see the emerging contours of how Biden will triangulate with the House Republicans: gut Social Security (which he’s always wanted to do anyway) to fund his Ukraine war (which the Republicans want to do anyway). What Bill Clinton used to call the Old Win-Win. As people who managed to live through it will remember, one of the hallmarks of the Clintonian Win-Win Solution is that in reality almost everyone loses, except for Wall Street and the weapons contractors, who are, of course, the only ones who matter …
- The real problem with Trump and Bidenabsconding with classified documents is the classification system itself, top secret is now stamped on almost anything–especially documents recording the malfeasance and crimes of our own government Most of these documents should be available for all of us to read.
- You’re not really President until you have a) bombed someone, preferably a village few Americans have heard of; and b) had a special prosecutor appointed to rummage through the papers in your garage…
- A sign of where the War on Wokeness is headed: The GOP has opened the House side of the capitol to indoor smoking. (The first ban on smoking in the House was enacted in 1871, aka Year 8 AW (Anno Woke, which most historians say began with the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.)
- Only 65 Democrats(in a body with a 100-member strong Progressive Caucus) voted against the creation of a new Special Committee of the House on China, whose chair-designee, Mike Gallagher from Wisconsin, said would focus on how “to win this new Cold War with Communist China.”
Robber Barron’s Government: ‘This Is Corruption’: Manchin Chief of Staff Now Chief Lobbyist for Big Oil “‘Shocking!’ said absolutely no one,” responded one climate advocate. The top aide of Sen. Joe Manchin, a close ally of the fossil fuel industry, is leaving the West Virginia Democrat’s office to work directly for Big Oil as a lobbyist at the American Petroleum Institute, one of the most powerful influence-peddling organizations in the United States. Axios, which first reported the news of Lance West’s departure to API on Thursday, noted that “through the on-again and off-again Build Back Better negotiations, he developed a reputation as a fierce advocate for Manchin’s positions.”
Capitalism’s Disdain for Life: Food Insecurity Among Soldiers Shows Bloated Pentagon Budget Not ‘Going To the Troops’ That hunger is an issue at all in a military so wildly well-funded by Congress should be a grim reminder of how little attention we pay to so many crucial issues, including how our troops are treated. By any standard, the money the United States government pours into its military is simply overwhelming. Take the $858-billion defense spending authorization that President Biden signed into law last month. Not only did that bill pass in an otherwise riven Senate by a bipartisan majority of 83-11, but this year’s budget increase of 4.3% is the second highest in inflation-adjusted terms since World War II. Indeed, the Pentagon has been granted more money than the next 10 largest cabinet agencies combined. And that doesn’t even take into account funding for homeland security or the growing costs of caring for the veterans of this country’s post-9/11 wars. That legislation also includes the largest pay raise in 20 years for active-duty and reserve forces and an expansion of a supplemental “basic needs allowance” to support military families with incomes near the poverty line.
Environment — Ecosocialism of Ecocide!:
Our government teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it
invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. ― Louis D. Brandeis
Environmental Group Sues New York for Approving Crypto Mining Facility Lawsuit argues move to allow energy-intensive cryptocurrency miner to take over The group said the move violates the state’s landmark climate law that was passed in 2019 and the lawsuit is the first to test how energy-intensive crypto mining legally holds up against the state’s climate goals. In September, the New York Public Service Commission (PSC), which oversees and regulates public utilities, greenlit the takeover of the Fortistar power plant in North Tonawanda, a town close to Niagara Falls, by Canadian crypto mining company, Digihost.
Revealed: Exxon Made ‘Breathtakingly’ Accurate Climate Predictions in 1970s and 80s Oil company drove some of the leading science of the era only to publicly dismiss global heating The oil giant Exxon privately “predicted global warming correctly and skilfully” only to then spend decades publicly rubbishing such science in order to protect its core business, new research has found. A trove of internal documents and research papers has previously established that Exxon knew of the dangers of global heating from at least the 1970s, with other oil industry bodies knowing of the risk even earlier, from around the 1950s. They forcefully and successfully mobilized against the science to stymie any action to reduce fossil fuel use. A new study, however, has made clear that Exxon’s scientists were uncannily accurate in their projections from the 1970s onwards, predicting an upward curve of global temperatures and carbon dioxide emissions that is close to matching what actually occurred as the world heated up at a pace not seen in millions of years. Exxon scientists predicted there would be global heating of about 0.2C a decade due to the emissions of planet-heating gases from the burning of oil, coal and other fossil fuels. The new analysis, published in Science, finds that Exxon’s science was highly adept and the “projections were also consistent with, and at least as skillful as, those of independent academic and government models”.
The Rush to Commit Ecocide: Rush to Export Gas Is Making Gulf Coast an Industrial Wasteland, Residents Say With two terminals already causing pollution, residents say more gas exports will decimate their way of life. Local residents and environmentalists warn that the rush to export fracked gas to energy-strapped allies in Europe and the rest of the world threatens to create an “industrial wasteland” in southern Louisiana. At least two export terminals near the Gulf Coast are already releasing toxic air pollution as massive ships are loaded with liquified natural gas, or LNG. The climate crisis demands a steep reduction in the burning of fossil fuels, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has increased global demand for gas produced in the vast fracking fields of the United States. The industry is pushing to rapidly expand gas pipelines and liquification plants to feed existing export terminals while building out new terminals along the Gulf Coast, which would lock in access to global markets for decades and ensure a future for fossil fuels even if the U.S. decides to embrace renewable energy.
The Invisible Global Heat Danger Zone NASA claims that 2022 was one of the hottest years ever recorded with record-breaking heat waves around the world, as major commercial waterways, like the Danube, Po, Rhine, Yangtze, and Mississippi rivers temporarily dried up leaving humongous river barges choking in mud. But that was merely global-warming-lite. The real global warming threat is invisible. It’s the oceans where 90% of planet-generated heat is captured, and it’s starting to impact the climate system with increasing ferocity. Statistical records dating back to 1958 show a relentless rise in global ocean temperatures that rapidly accelerated post 1990. By now, it’s evident that climate change got a set of wings during the final decade of the 20th century, and it’s still soaring
Civil Rights Black Liberation:
The Other America Speech Stanford UniversityApril 14, 1967 My introduction to King’s, The Other America, for the San Francisco BayView: The Jan. 15 birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. will be celebrated this year as America’s only ‘Black holiday’ Monday, Jan. 16. On this day, the ruling class and their mass media always feature his 1963 ‘I Have a Dream’ speech as if he never evolved beyond that point. During his lifetime, as a leader of the civil rights movement, King was constantly hounded by the government with the most savage malice, the most furious hatred, and the most unscrupulous campaigns of lies and slander. Since his death, an effort has been made to convert him into a harmless icon – to canonize him. Below is one of his last speeches, given over 40 years ago and one year before his assassination, at Stanford University in April 1967 and titled ‘The Other America.’ Here he speaks not of a dream but of the nightmarish economic condition of Black people. When he talks about ‘work-starved men searching for jobs that do not exist’ and living on a ‘lonely island of poverty surrounded by an ocean of material prosperity,’ the speech remains timely in today’s world.
Labor:
Marjorie Cohn: The Supreme Court Is About to Eviscerate the Right to Strike The court will likely rule in “Glacier Northwest” that the union’s strike activity isn’t protected by federal labor law. The right to strike is on trial in the Supreme Court. At stake is a 64-year-old precedent that shields workers and unions from state lawsuits while they pursue unfair labor practice claims in the federal National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). If unions have to defend against costly lawsuits, it will likely discourage them from going on strike. On January 10, the high court heard oral arguments in Glacier Northwest, Inc. v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local Union No. 174. The case involves a 2017 strike called by a Teamsters local against Glacier Northwest, a ready-mix concrete company in Seattle. Eighty-five truck drivers walked off the job. Sixteen of them whose trucks had been loaded with cement but hadn’t made their deliveries returned the trucks to the employer, leaving the trucks running to prevent the concrete from hardening. Glacier was unable to deliver all of the concrete and had to dispose of it. The trucks, however, were not damaged. (When I was a union official, knowing that my International Union constitution gave it the right to intervene, I called for a no contract no work special called meeting, at which the membership voted in favor of the position of No contract no work, for it was unsafe to work without the protection of a contract!)
NYC Nurses’ Deal Is Just a Start — Health Care Advocates Demand Major Reforms The understaffing crisis in nursing is a prime example of the wider issues at play in U.S. health care, advocates say. Over 7,000 nurses, represented by the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) and employed by two major hospitals in New York City, ended their strike in the wee hours this week on January 12. Management had returned to the negotiating table to meet the nurses’ primary demands for increased staffing and wage increases. These nurses, from Montefiore Medical Center and Mount Sinai Hospital, were part of the last two bargaining units to settle their contracts in the city. They went back to work bright and early for the 7 am shift. Though the historic strike has ended, its ramifications will continue to be felt across the state. The strike was the largest nursing strike the city has experienced in decades, and experts and advocates agree it was years in the making.
Economy:
Shadow Government Statistics Alternate Inflation Charts The CPI chart on the home page reflects our estimate of inflation for today as if it were calculated the same way it was in 1990. The CPI on the Alternate Data Series tab here reflects the CPI as if it were calculated using the methodologies in place in 1980. In general terms, methodological shifts in government reporting have depressed reported inflation, moving the concept of the CPI away from being a measure of the cost of living needed to maintain a constant standard of living.
The Narrative Is that Two Women Under 30 Committed Fraud without Detection by Sophisticated Wall Street Law Firms Women have been demanding equal opportunity on Wall Street for the past 60 years. We’re pretty sure that equal opportunity to commit crimes on a par with the big boys on Wall Street is not what they had in mind. Confronting women on Wall Street today are two especially disheartening cases. In the photo on the left above is Caroline Ellison, who looks more like the wholesome star of a Disney children’s flick than a woman who has pled guilty to seven criminal counts for frauds she committed as CEO of Sam Bankman-Fried’s hedge fund, Alameda Research.
World:
Lula Is Giving a Lesson on How to Respond to Right-Wing Attacks on Democracy On January 8, far-right supporters of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro stormed the seat of Brazil’s government in a scene reminiscent of the US Capitol riot. But President Lula, unlike the US government, is swiftly cracking down on the perpetrators. . . . By early evening, however, things had changed. Lula signed off on federal security intervention in the Plaza invasion, putting the federal government in charge of the crackdown. Shortly thereafter, the military police moved in en masse and began to remove the protesters from the buildings, immediately detaining them and transporting them to centers where they are currently being processed and charged with crimes. As of today, over twelve hundred people are to be charged for invading the capitol and property destruction, with the government saying more arrests are likely. Though the ill-prepared protesters were removed from the scene within a few hours of their invasion, right-wing activity continued on the streets of Brazil. In major cities such as São Paulo, right-wingers blockaded major streets. Protesters were taken to regular detention centers, which right-wing complainers have rather pathetically dubbed “Lulags,” a portmanteau of “gulag” and Lula. Alexandre de Moraes, leader of Brazil’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal, has responded that protesters shouldn’t have expected to be held at a “summer camp” after their arrest. Brazil has also begun investigating and prosecuting the bus and transport companies that arranged for protesters to be bused to the 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
Health Care in Crisis: Warning! US Capitalism is Lethal Under capitalism, industrial production and consumer buying expands. Greenhouse gases fill the atmosphere, the climate changes, and people die. U.S. leadership of global capitalism leads to wars and from there, potentially, to nuclear annihilation. There is extra dying in the United States now. According to provisional government statistics released in August, life expectancy at birth (LEB) was 76.1 years at the end of 2021 – just as it was in 1995. LEB was 77.0 years in 2020 and 78.8 years in 2019. This “was the biggest two-year decline in life expectancy since 1921-1923.” Revised figures released in December placed LEB for 2021 at 76.4 years.
We’re Fighting Back’: California Sues Pharma Giants Over Insulin Price Gouging “No one should be forced to ration or go without basic medication that could mean the difference between life or death,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta. The California Justice Department on Thursday sued three large pharmaceutical companies as well as several major pharmacy benefit managers for unlawfully coordinating to drive up the cost of insulin, a lifesaving medication that patients in the United States are often forced to ration due to high prices.