Daily News Digest March 30, 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:
Capitalism’s is Hell Bent for the Point of No Return
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:
With the banks on the brink, a new global economic crisis looms. Workers are on the move, while young people are crying out for communism. But the left leaders are lagging behind. We must build the forces of Marxism and fight for revolution. While the queues at food banks grow longer and longer, the financial banks are terrified of another 2008-style meltdown. The world economy is in danger of suffering a lost decade of growth. This would be even more severe if the current financial turmoil sparks a global recession, as new research from the World Bank warns. This once again reveals the complete impasse of the capitalist system, which has lurched from one crisis to the next. —Capitalist Crisis, Class Struggle, and Calls for Communism
Michael Roberts Facbook Blog: The depositors at the bust SVB bank have been bailed. But it turns out that just ten depositors had $13m out of the $18m that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is paying out. So it is the extreme rich (not all companies) that are being bailed. And the FDIC has sold the assets of SVB to First Citizen Bank at a knock-down price (SVB’s $56.5bn in deposits as well as $72bn in loans) at a discount of $16.5bn ie 30% off. First Citizen shares rose sharply. FDIC will also help finance deal w/$35bn loan & $70bn credit line to help cover deposit flight. All the FDIC costs will be borne by other banks but what will follow is tighter credit terms and higher rates so the public will pay to bail out rich depositors.
Videos/Podcasts of the Day:
[Podcast] Germany: Mega-Strikes And Major Crisis
“Alone and Exploited”: NYT Exposé Shows Migrant Kids in U.S. Forced into Brutal Jobs for Major Brands
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
Making War Usually Means More War Paying attention to the news today is a lesson in how far those who desire war will go to convince the rest of us that war is the best means to solve problems between nations. This is despite the fact that history shows us time and time again that war most often does the exact opposite. Indeed, not only does it rarely solve the problems being fought over, most often it creates even more problems, some even more difficult and devastating then the previous ones. The fact that war seems to be as old as human history itself does not validate its usefulness as too many of its champions claim. It does however amplify the possibility that those who wish to rid humanity of war should be given a much greater hearing than the one they get.
‘Noah’s Wounds Were Not Survivable’: Parents Allow Detailed View of AR-15 Carnage The Washington Post exposé has been described as “the most powerful article you will read this week” and “one of the most important pieces of journalism ever produced.” On Monday morning, The Washington Postpublished a series of 3D animations to show “how bullets from an AR-15 blow the body apart.” A few hours later, a 28-year-old shooter armed with two assault rifles and a handgun killed six people at a private Christian school in Nashville. In the wake of that massacre—the 129th mass shooting in the United States in 2023—the Post‘s exposé has received sustained attention, with one person calling it “the most powerful article you will read this week” and another characterizing it as “one of the most important pieces of journalism ever produced.”
The Crumbling Differend Maintenance Infrastructure of United States’ Capitalism: The US Has Seen 50 Chemical Spills or Fires This Year, and It’s Only March The latest spill at a factory outside Philadelphia has sent thousands of gallons of chemicals into the Delaware River. The latest spill at a factory outside Philadelphia has sent thousands of gallons of chemicals into the Delaware River. Aspill at a factory outside Philadelphia that sent thousands of gallons of chemicals into the Delaware River has sparked worries among the area’s residents over a major source of drinking water. One of the chemicals in the spill — butyl acrylate — was also on the 50-car train that derailed last month in East Palestine, Ohio, which spewed toxic fumes into the air as it burned for days.
Fire Kills Nearly 40 at Migrant Detention Facility Near US-Mexico Border “The U.S. bears responsibility for pushing these migrants back into Mexico to face unsafe conditions,” argued one immigrant rights advocate.
Cancer as Weapon: Sowing Battlefields With Depleted Uranium With the UK’s unconscionable decision to send Depleted Uranium ammunition to Ukraine, it’s perhaps useful to revisit the environmental and health consequences of the US’s widespread use of such weapons in Iraq and Kuwait during the first Gulf War. This short essay is adapted from my book, Been Brown So Long It Looked Like Green to Me: the Politics of Nature. At the close of the first Gulf War, Saddam Hussein was denounced as a ferocious villain for ordering his retreating troops to destroy Kuwaiti oil fields, clotting the air with poisonous clouds of black smoke and saturating the ground with swamps of crude. It was justly called an environmental war crime. But months of bombing of Iraq by US and British planes and cruise missiles has left behind an even more deadly and insidious legacy: tons of shell casings, bullets and bomb fragments laced with depleted uranium. In all, the US hit Iraqi targets with more than 970 radioactive bombs and missiles.
Italy-Sized Chunk of Gulf of Mexico to be Auctioned off by The US For Oil Drilling In latest blow to Joe Biden’s reputation as the ‘climate president’, 73.3m acres of the gulf will be offered for fossil Crypto Mining at Gas Wells Sparks Regulatory Headaches, Outcry in Northwestern Pennsylvania Before obtaining the required permits, Diversified Energy began installing cryptocurrency mining infrastructure on one of its thousands of well pads.
When Bodies Start Stacking Up From Climate Change-Related Disasters, Will These Monsters (Fosil Furel Inc., Capitalims Be Held To Account?
Environment — Ecosocialism of Ecocide!:
Estimated Potential Maximum Sea-Level Rise From the Total Melting of Present-Day Glaciers. 
Greenland Ice Sheet Nears Point of No Return “Once we start sliding, we will fall off this cliff and cannot climb back up” Greenland Ice Sheet covers 1.7 million square kilometers (660,200 square miles) in the Arctic. If it melts entirely, global sea level would rise about 7 meters (23 feet), but scientists aren’t sure how quickly the ice sheet could melt. Modeling tipping points, which are critical thresholds where a system behavior irreversibly changes, helps researchers find out when that melt might occur.
The World Is Burning, but Fossil Fuel Companies Are Meeting Behind Closed Doors to ‘Future-Proof Gas’. This Should Be Criminal. “I want the fossil fuel industry to stop breaking the law and pay for their crimes against people and the planet.” France, Nigeria, Finland, South Sudan, Italy, Peru, Romania. What do all of these places have in common? They are just some of the countries in which Europe-headquartered fossil fuel companies stand convicted or credibly accused of criminal, civil, or administrative offences. The history of fossil fuels is a litany of criminal accusations, from corruption and bribery to human rights violations and even complicity in war crimes. Most of us only hear about fossil fuel crimes in the news. But for many, the industry’s law-breaking is a cold and hard lived reality, especially for people in climate-vulnerable communities and in the Global South.
Baltimore Blocks EPA Plan to Dump Toxic Wastewater From East Palestine “Too often cities with high rates of concentrated poverty and environmental degradation are asked to shoulder the burden for corporate malfeasance,” said a Democratic City Council member. “East Palestine and Baltimore deserve better.”
Civil Rights Black Liberation:
Bush, Pressley to Co-Chair New Congressional Equal Rights Amendment Caucus “It has been 100 years since the Equal Rights Amendment was first drafted and introduced in Congress,” noted Rep. Cori Bush. “That is far too long… and we refuse to wait any longe
West’s Uneven Response to Human Rights Crimes Exposes Broken Global System: Amnesty “As the Universal Declaration of Human Rights turns 75, Amnesty International insists that a rules-based international system must be founded on human rights and applied to everyone, everywhere.”
Labor:
Economy:
Michael Roberts Facebook Blog, The never-ending story of banking folk. JPM Morgan and sex crimes?: JPMorgan Chief Jamie Dimon to be Interviewed Under Oath in Jeffrey Epstein lawsuits Sworn testimony scheduled to take place behind closed doors in May as bank fights litigation Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Jamie Dimon, the longtime chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, will be interviewed under oath over his bank’s decision to retain the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein as a client, said people familiar with the matter. The sworn deposition, due to take place behind closed doors in May, is the latest development in two high-profile cases brought against the US bank by an alleged Epstein victim and by the US Virgin Islands, where the disgraced financier had a home. The lawsuits claim JPMorgan, where Epstein banked for 15 years from 1998 to 2013, benefited from human trafficking and ignored several internal warnings about its client’s illegal behaviour. The lender has described the claims as meritless.
Weird Things Are Happening at Silvergate Bank and First Republic Bank Silvergate Capital, the parent of Silvergate Bank – which has lost 90 percent of its share price year-to-date and announced it is winding down and liquidating — is still running a website that is putting a rosy glow on the bank’s operations. For example, under the heading of “Banking for the future,” the Silvergate website shares this: “Silvergate Bank has served entrepreneurs in unique and niche industries for over 20 years. Recognizing digital currency’s potential during the sector’s infancy, we built strong relationships with pioneers who were turned away by traditional banks. This solidified our position as industry-leading partners and innovators which remains true today.” Wait. What? (What ever happened to the Federal Trade Commission’s Truth in Advertising Law? Those so-called “strong relationships” with digital currency firms turned into highly-fickle hot money once markets learned that Silvergate had been doing highly questionable banking for Sam Bankman-Fried’s house of frauds, the FTX crypto exchange and his hedge fund, Alameda Research.
World:
German Mega-Strike: A Turning Point for the Working Class Not a wheel turned in Germany on Monday, as the country was shaken by its largest strike in 30 years. This ‘mega-strike’, organised by two of the country’s biggest unions, brought the German transport system to a complete standstill. The current strike wave in Germany has been building for several months now, with workers winning significant concessions as a result. Monday’s strike represented a turning point that could pave the way for an intensification of the class struggle in what, for many years, was a pillar of stability for European capitalism.
Education. 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