Daily News Digest March 13, 2023
Capitalism is Now a Worldwide Threat to Humanity! It is on the Fast Track to Global Warming and/or Nuclear War Catastrophes!
Images of the Day:
Is Super-Polluting Pentagon’s Climate Plan Just ‘Military-Grade Greenwash’? 
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:
The golf links lie so near the mill
That almost every day
The laboring children can look out
And see the men at play. — Sarah Cleghorn
Bernard Collaery, David McBride and Julian Assange — deeply moral men who told the truth – are the enemies and victims of this paranoia. They, not Edwardian soldiers who marched for the King, are our true national heroes. On Julian Assange, the Prime Minister has two faces. One face teases us with hope of his intervention with Biden that will lead to Julian’s freedom. The other face ingratiates itself with ‘POTUS’ and allows the Americans to do what they want with its vassal: to lay down targets that could result in catastrophe for all of us. Will Albanese back Australia or Washington on Julian Assange? If he is ‘sincere’, as the more do-eyed Labor Party supporters say, what is he waiting for? If he fails to secure Julian’s release, Australia will cease to be sovereign. We will be little Americans. Official. — The Betrayers of Assange
Videos/Podcasts of the Day:
IMT vs TPUSA: Help Fund the Forces of American Marxism! Recently, a public meeting held by Socialist Revolution, the US section of the International Marxist Tendency, was ‘infiltrated’ by a member of the far-right group ‘Turning Point USA’. We encourage readers to watch the video made by Socialist Revolution in response to the vacuous ‘exposé’ produced by these reactionary idiots. It is clear that big sections of the US capitalist class, and its rabid dogs on the far right, are spooked by the increasing popularity of Marxism and communism, particularly among the young.
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. Tax 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
The greatest purveyor of violence in the world today — my own government. MLK, Beyond Vietnam
Biden’s $1 Trillion Budget for World War The White House unveiled its budget request for the 2024 fiscal year Thursday, with the largest ever proposed spending on the military. It is a $1 trillion budget for world war. The Biden administration wants the resources to fight Russia in Ukraine, intensify its buildup towards war with China in the Far East and sustain US military aggression in the Middle East. Besides $842 billion for the Pentagon, which will undoubtedly be pushed even higher in Congress, there is $24 billion for the Department of Energy, which maintains the US nuclear arsenal, and $20 billion for military-related programs in the State Department, CIA and other agencies, bringing the total official military spending to $886 billion. To this must be added the real cost of the war in Ukraine, which is listed as only $6 billion for the 2024 fiscal year, which begins October 1. In the previous fiscal year, the Biden administration requested $6.9 billion but ended up spending $114 billion. Given that there is no sign of the war ending—on the contrary, it is escalating rapidly—the cost of US support for the otherwise bankrupt regime in Kiev is likely to surpass the current level. This would swell total military outlays well above the $1 trillion mark.
Buttigieg Urged to Block Federal Funding for ‘Carbon Bomb’ Railway Along Colorado River. “The project could result in as many as five, two-mile-long crude-oil trains running over 100 miles directly alongside the headwaters of the Colorado River each day,” Colorado Democrats warned. With the toxic train derailment in eastern Ohio still in the national spotlight, Democratic members of Colorado’s congressional delegation are imploring U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to do everything he can to head off another potential railway disaster—one that could impact a river that supplies drinking water to 40 million Americans. In a letter to Buttiegieg on Thursday, Sens. Michael Bennet, John Hickenlooper, and Rep. Joe Neguse warned the secretary against approving a key federal funding mechanism for the Uinta Basin Railway, a project that aims to connect eastern Utah’s oil-rich Uinta Basin with the national rail system in order to massively expand fossil fuel production in the region.
Environment — Ecosocialism of Ecocide!:
Why the Pentagon Is the World’s Biggest Single Greenhouse Gas Emitter A new book explains how the US military came to consume more fossil fuels than most countries—and what we can do about it. The US military has spent decades cultivating a corrosive environmental legacy around the world. Just last December, about 6,000 people became sick when jet fuel from a World War II-era Navy storage facility reportedly leaked into the drinking water aquifers of Hawaiian residents. Famously, at North Carolina’s Camp Lejeune military base, up to 1 million people were exposed to contaminated drinking water over the course of 25 years. And on military bases constructed for America’s post-9/11 wars, trash was often destroyed in burn pits that contained everything from computers to furniture to medical waste that released toxic smoke, breathed in by soldiers and civilians alike. . . . Neta C. Crawford, a political scientist at Oxford University, aims to fix that in her new book, The Pentagon, Climate Change, and War: Charting the Rise and Fall of US Military Emissions. Although the Pentagon has been at the forefront of climate change research since the mid-20th century, Crawford writes, the US Department of Defense is also the single largest institutional fossil fuel user in the world. Since 2001, the military has been responsible for 77 to 80 percent of federal energy consumption. The DOD maintains more than 560,000 buildings on about 500 bases around the world, making up a large portion of its emissions. And like a goliath multinational corporation, it relies on an extensive network of fossil-fueled ships, trucks, planes, and other vehicles to support its operations—from dropping bombs to delivering humanitarian aid—all of which makes the military a key contributor to climate change. And although recent research has demonstrated that the US military is one of the largest polluters in history, it still tends to be overlooked in climate change studies.
Twelve Years and We Must Never Forget the Ongoing Horror of the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster Let the ongoing devastation in Japan be a rebuke to anyone who believes that nuclear is the answer to the world’s climate emergency. Tomorrow—March 11, 2023—twelve years will have passed since the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima-Daiichi reactor complex, a meltdown due to a massive, but not surprising, tsunami. Not surprising due to Japan’s location in what is known to geologists as “the ring of fire,” a powerful designation of the area around the Pacific Ocean where seismic activity is endemic. The Pacific shoreline of Japan is a very poor spot to build numerous nuclear reactors for that very reason. And yet, after closing all reactors in response to Fukushima, the government has reopened some shuttered nukes, and plans to open still more. In spite of all the seismic risks, the huge radiation exposure from the initial Fukushima meltdown, and in spite of the terrible nuclear toll the country paid due to the US bombing at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The government says they want to stop using gas and oil from Russia. If the Japanese government wants to do this, renewables are getting more affordable, better at their jobs, and more vital to the health of the flora and fauna on earth every day- and in fact, Japan has a huge, untouched capacity for offshore wind.
Revealed: 1,000 Super-Emitting Methane Leaks Risk Triggering Climate Tipping Points More than 1,000 “super-emitter” sites gushed the potent greenhouse gas methane into the global atmosphere in 2022, the Guardian can reveal, mostly from oil and gas facilities. The worst single leak spewed the pollution at a rate equivalent to 67m running cars. Separate data also reveals 55 “methane bombs” around the world – fossil fuel extraction sites where gas leaks alone from future poduction would release levels of methane equivalent to 30 years of all US greenhouse gas emissions. Methane emissions cause 25% of global heating today and there has been a “scary” surge since 2007, according to scientists. This acceleration may be the biggest threat to keeping below 1.5C of global heating and seriously risks triggering catastr
Polluters Full Of Promises & Apologies Apologies Are Not Enough. Find Out What Happened At The U.S. Senate Hearing On The Train Derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. On Thursday, the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works held a hearing on the East Palestine train derailment to discuss the environmental disaster. You can watch the entire 3-hour hearing below or check out C-SPAN’s coverage here. . . . . .Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw began with an apology: “I want to begin today by expressing how deeply sorry I am for the impact this derailment has had on the residents of East Palestine and the surrounding communities,” he said. “I am determined to make this right. Norfolk Southern will clean the site safely, thoroughly and with urgency. You have my personal commitment. Norfolk Southern will get the job done and help East Palestine thrive.” Shaw also detailed a number of financial commitments to help the community impacted including a direct investment of more than $21 million, which he referred to several times as a “down payment.” And he also shared that the company has committed $7.5 million to Pennsylvania for a community relief fund. Those numbers pale in comparison to profits. Sen. Jeffrey Merkley from Oregon stated that Norfolk Southern did $3.1 billion of stock buybacks in 2021, $3.4 billion last year and had $7.5 billion available for additional buybacks in December. When questioned on whether Norfolk Southern would halt stock buybacks until an array of safety measures are finished, Shaw responded that the company will “continue to invest in safety.”
‘We Don’t Feel Safe’: US Community in Shock After Record Methane Leak A billion cubic feet of the potent greenhouse gas were spewed into atmosphere in rural Pennsylvania amid state’s fracking boom. . . . “It sounded like two jets were directly above my house,” said Harrison, 50, a former steelworker from Jackson Township, a rural community in Pennsylvania. “I swear to God I thought this is it, those jets are going to crash into my property.” Residents for miles around exchanged frantic messages while scouring flight radar and emergency service scanner apps for clues, as the township’s volunteer firefighters sped past, sirens blazing. But this was no terrorist attack or aviation calamity. The deafening noise and the foul smell of rotten eggs that followed was a massive methane leak at a nearby gas storage facility, an unfolding climate catastrophe captured by satellites in space. Over the next few weeks, more than a billion cubic feet of methane and other toxins were spewed into the atmosphere from a failed storage well at an ageing fossil-fuel facility operated by Equitrans Midstream Corporation on Rager Mountain. This sleepy community, surrounded by rolling hills and forests, was the scene of the biggest gas leak in Pennsylvania’s history – and one of the worst ever detected in the US.
Civil Rights Black Liberation:
Labor:
Child Labor is Here Again!:
· Alone and Exploited, Migrant Children Work Brutal Jobs Across the U.S.
· Food Safety Company Employed More Than 100 Children, Labor Officials Say
· The GOP’s Abhorrent Attack on Child Labor Laws
Shadow Government Satistics Alternate Unemployment Charts The seasonally-adjusted SGS Alternate Unemployment Rate reflects current unemployment reporting methodology adjusted for SGS-estimated long-term discouraged workers, who were defined out of official existence in 1994. That estimate is added to the BLS estimate of U-6 unemployment, which includes short-term discouraged workers. The U-3 unemployment rate is the monthly headline number. The U-6 unemployment rate is the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) broadest unemployment measure, including short-term discouraged and other marginally-attached workers as well as those forced to work part-time because they cannot find full-time employment. Feb 2023 ShadowStats Alternate Unemployment increased to 24.6% on top of U.6 rising to 6.8% from 6.6%
Economy:
Bank Stocks Plummet as Bank Runs in the U.S. Gain Momentum at Federally-Insured, Non-Traditional Banks If you keep a diary or news journal, be sure to write down March 9, 2023 as the day that a full-blown bank run began at non-traditional banks in the U.S. Bank depositors were already nervous after federally-insured Silvergate Bank (ticker SI) announced on Wednesday evening that it was closing and liquidating. Its publicly-traded stock had already lost over 90 percent of its market value over the prior 12 months at that point. Silvergate had made the fatal decision several years ago to become the go-to bank for crypto companies, including scandalized Sam Bankman-Fried’s collapsed house of frauds, FTX and Alameda Research. As details of its questionable activities related to Bankman-Fried’s enterprises emerged, 68 percent of its deposits related to crypto companies took flight in just the last quarter of 2022. After Silvergate confirmed in an SEC filing on March 1 that an investigation of its conduct was underway at the U.S. Department of Justice, and that it had doubts about its ability to continue as a going concern, its fate was sealed.
World:
The World in 2023: Crisis, War and Revolution The following document was passed at a meeting of the international leadership of the International Marxist Tendency (IMT) at the start of February, for discussion at the coming 2023 IMT World Congress. In it, the main trends are analysed that are shaping world politics and the class struggle in this dramatic period of capitalism’s death agony.
Health, 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
Efficiency and East Palestine Derailing the notion that “business does better.” Let’s talk about efficiency. It’s a good thing, right? But what does that mean in the real world? Just ask the residents of East Palestine, Ohio. We’re all looking for new ways to be more efficient–maybe a quicker, more organized, and easier way to prepare a complicated meal (that still tastes great!) or a GPS-guided route to school or work that saves time and gas. Or, for a business, a more streamlined method of production that helps workers work smarter and safer, while still maintaining high quality. Those are good things. But as I travel across the country talking about my book, or helping an organization fight a privatization scheme, I am constantly hearing that businesses are always more efficient than governments (note: It’s not true). In fact, as a glance at the business section of any bookstore will show, there’s a cottage industry of consultants and business leaders who sell new efficiency ideas and methods while continuing to advance the inherent efficiency and superiority of private business. Let’s dig into the basic “mathematics of efficiency.” It’s about spending or doing less to get the same or better (cost/time + efficiency = same or better.) In that formula, “efficiency” could either be “smarter” or “cheaper.” The problem is that far too often it equals cheaper. Efficiency could mean fewer workers than are needed to ensure high quality or safe production on the shop floor. Efficiency could mean lower wage workers. Efficiency could be using lower-quality supplies and equipment. And sometimes, efficiency means fewer inspectors and less monitoring of safety protocols. Sometimes “same or better” means outsized profits, expensive stock buybacks, high-dividend payments, and high executive compensation packages–in other words, the fruits of high productivity built upon a package of “efficiencies.” So, I’ve come up with a new term. When efficiency means cutting corners for increased profits, we should call it: “Extractive Efficiency.” That’s what happened in East Palestine and could happen again if the underlying extractive efficiency isn’t dealt with. In fact, over the last few years, all the railroad companies have focused on efficiency to increase profits, cheering Wall Street, but not the residents of East Palestine. Less than two weeks before the derailment, it was reported that Norfolk Southern, the train operator, had improved the average speed of its trains from 17.5 miles per hour to 20.7 between the second and fourth quarter of 2022, and by January was at 22.2 miles per hour. —Here are a few of Norfolk Southern’s “efficiencies.” — Fewer workers: Norfolk Southern removed a senior type of inspector from the track division that runs through East Palestine, making more work for signal maintainers. Over the past five years, employment among the nation’s largest freight rail carriers has fallen about 18 percent. With fewer workers doing more work, they may miss telltale signs of safety failures. Harder work and more hours per worker: The industry, including Norfolk Southern, implemented “Precision Scheduled Railroading” that, according to The American Prospect “means no excess engines, no track not under constant use, no downtime in the yards, no employees not busy driving the trains or maintaining the tracks, and never have three one-mile-long trains when one three-mile-long train can be assembled.” Shockingly, railroad workers get no paid sick days. Less monitoring and oversight: Norfolk Southern skimped on heat detectors along the track designed to pick up overheated wheel bearings, a leading cause of derailments. Overheated wheel bearings may have been the cause of two derailments just last year from the same company. The current law allows the railroad industry to set its own standards for the use of sensors. While the rail industry lobby, the Association of American Railroads, says the sensors should be within 40 miles apart, its own research arm concluded 15 miles was the ideal for sensor spacing. And, oh yeah, the companies are doing well.
- Norfolk Southern’s 2022 profit was up 9 percent, to $3.27 billion.
- The top five executives at Norfolk Southern are doing well also. Their total compensation in 2021 totaled $14,828,772.
- And the company spent $1.8 million lobbying the federal government in 2022 and $1.3 million in political contributions to federal candidates and committees. What’s all the money spent on? According to Sherrod Brown, “Rail lobbyists have fought stronger safety standards for years, and Ohio communities like East Palestine and Springfield have paid the price.”
So, I guess businesses can be pretty “efficient.” The only question is at what cost and to whom. Donald Cohen, Executive Director, In the Public Interest