Daily News Digest March 24, 2023

Daily News Digest Archives

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:

The Jadadis

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:

Since environmental illness and destruction are a global concern, it requires all of humanity to act collectively, in our overall interests for our survival as a species, to correct the problem and to remove the obstacle of capitalism. It requires a society where humanity has social, economic, and political control over the entire environment. Such a society, a socialist society, is needed to ensure that all decisions affecting the environment are under the democratic control of humankind so that the production of goods will be done for the needs and survival of humanity instead of the production and the destruction of humanity and other species for profit.      With common ownership of the means of production, and common control and protection of all property and wealth, science and society will be in harmony with the ecosystem and humanity’s future.      With these goals we can begin to build a more effective environmental movement. As we continue to organize against capitalism and its destructive course, we can and will transform the world! — Whither  Humanity? The Environmental Crisis of Capitalism We Don’t Need a Green New Deal! — We Need a Green Industrial Revolution!

It is perfectly clear that the existing state is neither able nor willing to do anything to remedy the housing difficulty. The state is nothing but the organized collective power of the possessing classes, the landowners and the capitalists as against the exploited classes, the peasants and the workers. What the individual capitalists (and it is here only a question of these because in this matter the landowner who is also concerned acts primarily as a capitalist) do not want, their state also does not want. If therefore the individual capitalists deplore the housing shortage, but can hardly be persuaded even superficially to palliate its most terrifying consequences, then the collective capitalist, the state, will not do much more. At the most it will see to it that the measure of superficial palliation which has become standard is carried out everywhere uniformly. And we have already seen that this is the case. ― Friedrich Engels, The Housing Question

Videos/Podcasts of the Day:

Negroes With Guns: Rob Williams and Black Power   Negroes With Guns: Rob Williams and Black Power tells the dramatic story of the often-forgotten civil rights leader who urged African Americans to arm themselves against violent racists. In doing so, Williams not only challenged the Klan-dominated establishment of his hometown of Monroe, North Carolina, he alienated the mainstream Civil Rights Movement, which advocated peaceful resistance. For Williams and other African Americans who had witnessed countless acts of brutality against their communities, armed self-defense was a practical matter of survival, particularly in the violent, racist heart of the Deep South. As the leader of the Monroe chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Williams led protests against the illegal segregation of Monroe’s public swimming pool. He also drew international attention to the harsh realities of life in the Jim Crow South. All the while, Williams and other protestors met the constant threat of violence and death with their guns close at hand. In August 1961, the Freedom Riders, civil rights activists trained by Martin Luther King, Jr. to lead non-violent resistance, came to Monroe to demonstrate the superiority of passive resistance. An angry mob turned on the protestors and, by the end of the day, the Freedom Riders had been bloodied, beaten and jailed, and Rob Williams was on the run from the FBI. Backed by a jazz score by Terence Blanchard (Barbershop and the films of Spike Lee), NEGROES WITH GUNS uses interviews, rare archival footage and searing photographs to chronicle Williams’ rise to notoriety, his eight-year exile in Cuba and Mao Zedong’s China and his much-publicized return home in 1969. Voices include historians, members of Williams’ Black Guard—armed men committed to the protection of Monroe’s black community—and Williams’ widow, Mabel. For eight years, Williams and his family lived in exile, first in Cuba and then in China. In Havana, Williams began to broadcast a 50,000-watt radio program called “Radio Free Dixie.” Selected recordings are featured in NEGROES WITH GUNS. The radio show fused cutting-edge music with news of the black freedom movement and Williams’ editorials, which, among other things, urged blacks not to fight in Vietnam. In exile from 1961 to 1969, at the height of the American Civil Rights Movement, Rob Williams and his accomplishments have been largely erased from the public consciousness. According to the filmmakers, NEGROES WITH GUNS helps to “restore Rob and Mabel Williams to their rightful place as important civil rights figures who defied the white power structure without the protection of large numbers or the attention of According to the filmmakers, NEGROES WITH GUNS helps to “restore Rob and Mabel Williams to their rightful place as important civil rights figures who defied the white power structure without the protection of large numbers or the attention of television cameras.”

Black Agenda Radio March 17, 2023 yWith Margaret Kimberley

Stop Cop City

The Left in New York Join the Green TransformationProposed Ch

anges to Census Questions on Race and Ethnicity Would Improve Fairness and Accuracy

 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  

Ignorance is Strength!:

So now do you see why books are hated and feared? They show the pores in the face of life. The comfortable people want only wax moon faces, poreless, hairless, expressionless. — Fahrenheit 451

‘Never Seen Anything Like This’: US Librarians Report Book Bans Hit Record High in 2022 “Each attempt to ban a book by one of these groups represents a direct attack on every person’s constitutionally protected right to freely choose what books to read and what ideas to explore,” said one intellectual freedom advocate.     Librarians from across the United States released a report showing that pro-censorship groups’ efforts to ban books with LGBTQ+ themes and stories about people of color have driven an unprecedented rise in the number of book challenges, with right-wing organizers pushing library workers to remove works ranging from the dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale to children’s books about foods enjoyed in different cultures.     According to the American Library Association (ALA), a record-breaking 2,571 unique titles were challenged in 2022, a 38% increase from the previous year.

From Balloons to AUKUS: The War Drive Against China When will this hate-filled nonsense stop?  Surveillance balloons treated like evocations of Satan and his card-carrying followers; other innumerable unidentified phenomena that, nonetheless, remain attributable in origin, despite their designation; and then the issue of spying cranes.  In the meantime, there has been much finger pointing on the culprit of COVID-19 and the global pandemic.  Behold the China Threat, the Sino Monster, the Yellow Terror.

Human Rights and Global Wrongs Marjorie Cohn Analyzes Human Rights and Executive Branch Lawbreaking Series Introduction

In her column, “Human Rights and Global Wrongs,” legal and political analyst Marjorie Cohn provides a critique of U.S. militarism, racist police violence, immigration policy, torture, the death penalty, surveillance, attacks on whistleblowers, executive branch lawbreaking, the Supreme Court, and violations of U.S. and international law. Truthout is proud to have her in our lineup as a regular commentator.

Environment — Ecosocialism of Ecocide!:

A Global Cooperative Society is a Simple Explanation of Socialism.:

Global Climate Solutions Require Global Cooperation Our world has shrunk so much in this age of global markets and global climate change that it’s time to update John Donne: No nation is an island unto itself.     Our planet is an integrated physical and biological system. When it comes to the global climate, the nations and people of the world are fully integrated.

UN Urges Global Cooperation as Quarter of Humanity Lacks Safe Drinking Water “Water is our common future and we need to act together to share it equitably and manage it sustainably,” said the director-general of UNESCO. Amid a lack of global cooperation, the world is far off-track in achieving universal access to clean drinking water by 2030, according to a United Nations report released Wednesday as officials marked World Water Day. TheUnited Nations World Water Development Report 2023 was released by the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as global leaders convened in New York for the first international conference on water in nearly half a century.

Decline of More Than 500 Species of Marine Life on Australian Reefs ‘The Tip Of The Iceberg’, Study Finds  Increasing ocean temperatures present ‘existential threat’ with knock-on effects for ecosystems and commercial fisheries, researchers say More than 500 common species of fish, seaweed, coral and invertebrates that live on reefs around Australia have declined in the past decade, a study has found, as experts warn “not all is well in the ocean”.

Restarting Michigan Nuclear Power Plant Risks ‘Chernobyl-Scale Catastrophe,’ Coalition Warns . . . “This more than $10 billion in ratepayer and taxpayer robbery would merely fund an insanely high-risk game of radioactive Russian roulette on the Lake Michigan shoreline,” said one critic. Most importantly, PNP is unable “to operate safely due to a litany of chronic and acute problems associated with age-related degradation and neglected maintenance on safety-significant systems, structures, and components,” the coalition argued in its statement. “This includes the worst neutron-embrittled reactor pressure vessel in the country and perhaps the world, at risk of pressurized thermal shock through-wall fracture, which would lead to reactor core meltdown.””But additional pathways to catastrophic meltdown include a reactor lid, as well as steam generators, that have needed replacement for 17 years or longer,” the coalition continued. “Palisades’ control rod drive mechanism seal leaks have been uniquely bad in all of industry, for more than a half-century. Now added to this long list is Holtec’s neglect of vital maintenance, such as of the turbo-generator, bending under its own immense weight, as well as the steam generators, to name but two examples.”

Investment Fund Links to Atlanta Police and ‘Cop City’ Project Revealed Exclusive: Roark Capital and Silver Lake Management showed to have a web of connections to the Atlanta police foundation.     Investment fund links to Atlanta police and ‘Cop City’ project revealed Exclusive: Roark Capital and Silver Lake Management showed to have a web of connections to the Atlanta police foundation       new investigation has uncovered connections between private equity firms and the contentious development of a sprawling police and fire service training complex in Atlanta known as “Cop City” and the police force which fatally shot an environmental activist.      Private equity refers to an opaque form of financing away from public markets in which funds and investors manage money for wealthy individuals and institutional investors such as university endowments and state employee pension funds.

Civil Rights Black Liberation:

 Black Agenda Report

Labor:

Kids Found to Be Working Overnight Shifts at Minnesota Meat Processing Plant  Investigators discovered children as young as 14 years  The Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry (DLI) has asked a district court for a temporary restraining order and injunction against Tony Downs Food Company, a meat processing company in Madelia, following allegations that the business violated child labor laws.     In a 16-page complaint, the DLI requested that the court file an order declaring that Tony Downs violated the Child Labor Standards Act (CLSA), legally enjoin the company from violating the CLSA in the future, and require Tony Downs to take necessary steps to redress current violations.     After receiving a complaint that there were children working at the meat processing company, the DLI initiated an investigation into the allegations. During the investigation, the state agency found that there were at least eight children working overnight shifts and engaging in hazardous work at the company, including operating large machinery such as meat grinders, ovens and forklifts. The agency was also informed that Tony Downs was aware that they were illegally employing minors.

 Economy:

The Uncontrolled Insatiable Greed of Capitalists: Three Banks Have Now Collapsed. A Progressive Economist Explains Why.  . . . Gerald Epstein: There are five main causes of the SVB collapse and the subsequent knock-on problems facing the U.S. and global financial system: the Federal Reserve’s anti-inflation obsession causing it to raise interest rates too high and too fast; the inherent fragility of banking, which for centuries has periodically erupted in crises; inadequate regulation of this fragile system, which often leads to high profits that accrue to banks and their wealthy owners; the corruption and self-dealing that often result from banks’ insufficient supervision; and the lack of public alternatives for financial institutions and services that could perform many of the key functions of banking and finance with less risk and without the private financiers taking their cut. Some of the huge profits financiers make from this system are funneled to buy support from politicians to prevent adequate regulation, and to secure bailouts when the system crashes. There is a banking crisis underway and the problems are spreading, says Gerald Epstein.

The Fed Accused of ‘Playing With Fire’ After Latest Rate Hike “It shouldn’t take a lot of courage to resist another interest rate hike when the economy is this fragile,” said one critic. Progressive economists and other experts blasted Federal Reserve leadership on Wednesday for raising interest rates yet again despite concerns about recent bank failures and how the quarter-point increase will impact the U.S. and global economies. “Once again, interest rate hikes are going to fall hardest on low-wage workers and the poor—the same people who have already been hurt the most by rising prices,” tweeted University of California, Berkeley professor and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich. “Higher rates could also imperil more banks, and risk even more financial chaos. The Fed is playing with fire.”

Shadow Government Statistics Daily Update -FOMC Coverage and Related Graph, March 22, 2023 ©2023 ShadowStats.com March 2023 Federal Open Market Committee Raised Targeted Fed-Funds by a Minimal 0.25%, to 5.00%, in Hopes the Banking-System Crisis Would Dampen the Economy and Kill Inflation

  • Yet, With the Fed Funds Rate at a 15-Plus-Year High (Since July 2007), the Earlier FOMC Interest Rate Hikes Already Are Pummeling the Economy, but Not Inflation Surging Prices Still Reflect Extraordinary
  • Money Supply Stimulus and Liquidity Levels The Post-Pandemic Current Inflation Was and Is Due to the Monetary Explosion, Never to an Overheating Economy
  • Full Economic and Federal Reserve Coverage Follows in Commentary No. 1461 Heavily politicized nonsense continued to flow out of the Federal Reserve.
  • The March 2023 FOMC hiked the Federal Funds Rates by 0.25%, to a 4.75% to 5.00% range, while underlying headline regular monthly economic reporting (not the GDP) continues to show a collapsing economy. Such is amidst continuing Money Supply and Systemic Liquidity expansion, signaling pending higher inflation, from factors such as rising gasoline prices, which previously had been pushed into decline in context of pre-Election games with depletion of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Related exports of that oil also had the effect of artificially spiking SecondHalf 2022 Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which otherwise already continued in the Fed’s hoped-for quarterly economic declines. Reviewed and discussed extensively in this weekend’s long-pending
  • ·ommentary No. 1461, recent headline growth in broad U.S. economic activity has been heavily bloated and exaggerated in the context of unusual and unstable reporting, in a heavily politicized environment.
  • The U.S. Economy continues in broad economic deterioration, based on standard monthly economic reporting.
  • Where already high inflation is off its peak, it will remain high and likely move higher in the months ahead, driven by the Money Supply. Material updated here is posted in support of the regular DAILY UPDATE Section (right-hand column of the www.ShadowStats.com home page), which, in aggregate, covers most of the important monthly economic news and releases. Updated and new text (usually covered here) is determined by the flow of economic, financial and political information and developments. The material here also tends to preview elements of pending Commentaries.
  • 2 As seen in the following graph, the headline Federal Funds Rate is closing on a 16-year high, since July 2007. UPDATED FED FUNDS GRAPH AND FOMC STATEMENT

World:

20 years since the invasion of Iraq: The brutal legacy of imperialism The US-led invasion of Iraq began twenty years ago. Two decades on, the country has been torn apart by war, sectarianism, and fundamentalism. To end the horror and barbarism of imperialism, we must fight for revolution and overthrow capitalism.

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  

‘Shocking and Immoral’: Report Details Private Equity’s Stranglehold on US Healthcare “The damage that private equity has wrought on Americans’ healthcare from cradle to grave, simply for profit, has become a life-or-death situation.”     Private equity’s ownership of U.S. healthcare providers is incompatible with the needs and best interests of patients and should be checked with federal legislation, according to a report published Wednesday by the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen.