Daily News Digest April 11, 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:
Savage Capitalism: From Climate Change to Bank Failures to War David Barsamian: On March 20th, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued its latest report. The new IPCC assessment from senior scientists warned that there’s little time to lose in tackling the climate crisis. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, “The rate of temperature rise in the last half-century is the highest in 2,000 years. Concentrations of carbon dioxide are at their highest in at least 2 million years. The climate time bomb is ticking.” At COP 27 he said, “We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator. It is the defining issue of our age. It is the central challenge of our century.” My question to you is: You’d think survival would be a galvanizing issue, but why isn’t there a greater sense of urgency in addressing it in a substantial way? Noam Chomsky: It was a very strong statement by Guterres. I think it could be stronger still. It’s not just the defining issue of this century, but of human history. We are now, as he says, at a point where we’ll decide whether the human experiment on Earth will continue in any recognizable form. The report was stark and clear. We’re reaching a point where irreversible processes will be set into motion. It doesn’t mean that everybody’s going to die tomorrow, but we’ll pass tipping points where nothing more can be done, where it’s just decline to disaster. So yes, it’s a question of the survival of any form of organized human society. Already there are many signs of extreme danger and threat, so far almost entirely in countries that have had the smallest role in producing the disaster. It’s often said, and correctly, that the rich countries have created the disaster and the poor countries are its victims, but it’s actually a little more nuanced than that. It’s the rich in the rich countries who have created the disaster and everyone else, including the poor in the rich countries, face the problems.
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 American capitalists are richer and stronger than their counterparts in other lands. They are also younger and more ignorant, and therefore more inclined to seek a rough settlement of difficulties without diplomatic subtlety and finesse. All that does not change the fact that American capitalism operates according to the same laws as the others, is confronted with the same fundamental problems, and is headed toward the same catastrophe. — James P. Cannon
Videos/Podcasts of the Day:
The Public Has Never Seen the U.S. Government Force-Feed Someone — Until Now
Wall Street Journal: Why America’s Water Infrastructure Is Crumbling
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
US Corporate Media Celebrate France’s Attack on Pensions Which side are the editorial boards on? It’s very plain to see. The golden age of French pensions is coming to an end, one way or another, in an extreme example of the demographic stress afflicting the retirement systems of advanced economies throughout the world.
To Help End the Yemen War, All China Had to Do was Be Reasonable With Joe Biden nowhere to be found, China’s diplomacy set the stage for Saudi concessions and cease-fire talks. The war in Yemen looks like it’s coming to an end. U.S. media reported on Thursday that a cease-fire extending through 2023 had been agreed to, but those reports also included Houthi denials. On Friday, Al Mayadeen, a generally pro-Houthi Lebanese news outlet, reported optimism from the Houthi side that the deal is real and the war is winding down. Reuters later on Friday matched Al Mayadeen’s reporting, confirming that Saudi envoys will be traveling to Sana’a to discuss the terms of a “permanent ceasefire.” What’s startling here is the apparent role of China — and complete absence of the U.S. and President Joe Biden — in the deal-making.
The 1%’s Policy of Deliberate Ignorance is Profitable: 80 Percent of Norfolk Southern’s Massive Profits Go Into Executives’ Pockets The railway giant’s corporate practices are under fire after the toxic East Palestine crash. CLEVELAND — Unions, safety specialists, and — now — the residents of East Palestine, Ohio, have contended that corporate greed drove Norfolk Southern Railway to cut corners on safety inspections and prevention, thus leading to the disastrous February 3 wreck there. But buried deep in the March 31 federal Justice Department filing, for both itself and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, against Norfolk Southern in U.S. District Court in Cleveland, comes confirmation of the extent of that greed — and it’s mind-boggling. To be precise, “80 percent of the compensation” for Norfolk Southern’s top honchos, including its CEO, depends on how big its.
Wall Street ‘Overjoyed’ as Biden Lets Medicare Advantage Insurers Off Easy One healthcare stock analyst called the Biden administration’s weakened reforms a “sigh of relief” for the insurance industry. UnitedHealth Group, a dominant force in the lucrative Medicare Advantage market, has seen its stock jump over the past week as Wall Street analysts and investors embrace the Biden administration’s decision to delay reforms aimed at tackling abuse in the privately run, government-funded health program.
Expelled Tennessee Democrat Says GOP Is Threatening to Cut Local Funding If He’s Reinstated “This is what folks really have to realize,” said former state Rep. Justin Pearson. “The power structure in the state of Tennessee is always wielding against the minority party and people.”
Environment — Ecosocialism of Ecocide!:
Global Warming is Systemic to Capitalisn!
Water Is a Human Right. Let’s Create a Society That Affirms This. We have come to know water as the latest casualty of late capitalism’s doctrine of scarcity. . . . Without water, no life is possible. The Indigenous Water Protectors at Standing Rock echoed this sacred understanding, which was foundational to their cosmologies when they rallied around the phrase “Mní Wičóni” — or “water is life.” At the time, members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and allies were attempting to block the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, a project they argued would compromise the safety of the water in the Missouri River, which supplies water to 320,000 people. Construction of the pipeline was completed in April 2017 after an executive order from former President Donald Trump.
A Land Deal Threatens Alaska’s National Conservation Lands The interior secretary must reject a land exchange to build a road through Izembek National Wildlife Refuge Wilderness.
Protecting Civilization and Life on Earth The world in 2023 is in deep trouble. The United States and other countries act as if they care less about the future. They scarcely pay attention to the evolving horrors of climate change, ecological impoverishment of the planet, and rapidly growing population, which is surpassing 8 billion humans. Should most of these people ever reach the “lifestyle” of privileged Europeans and North Americans, it would be necessary to have several Earth-like planets to supply the materials and water and food of the entire human population.
Miami and New Orleans Face Greater Sea-Level Threat Than Already Feared Twin studies reveal that ‘acceleration’ of sea-level rise under way, leaving southern US cities in even greater peril Coastal cities in the southern US, including Miami, Houston and New Orleans, are in even greater peril from sea-level rise than scientists already feared, according to new analysis. What experts are calling a dramatic surge in ocean levels has taken place along the US south-eastern and Gulf of Mexico coastline since 2010, one study suggests, an increase of almost 5in (12.7cm).
Exxon’s New ‘Advanced Recycling’ Plant Raises Environmental Concerns Advocates warn plants like the latest addition to the Texas complex generate hazardous pollutants and provide cover for oil giants to produce new plastic products ExxonMobil just launched one of the largest chemical recycling plants in North America – but environmental advocates say the technology is a dangerous distraction from the need to reduce plastic production.
Monsanto’s Past and Our Food Future An in-depth history of a St. Louis chemical firm that used seed money from selling PCBs, Agent Orange and other toxic products to build a global agribusiness empire, promising endless bounty through genetic engineering. Monsanto’s products have reshaped modern agriculture, putting genetically modified food — and possible carcinogens — on tables around the world.
OIL BEACH How Toxic Infrastructure Threatens Life in the Ports of Los Angeles and Beyond University of Chicago Press, 2023
Built atop a land- and waterscape of vital importance to wildlife, the heavily industrialized Los Angeles Harbor contains estuarial wetlands, the LA River mouth, and a marine ecology where colder and warmer Pacific Ocean waters meet. Christina Dunbas-Hester reveals how logistics infrastructure threatens ecologies as it circulates goods and capital.
Snow, Floods and Wildlife in Peril: Grueling Winter Leaves Yosemite Scarred The national park is open again but intense storms mean the specter of climate crisis is more evident than ever It’s been a winter few in Yosemite valley will ever forget. After wildfires left the national park’s dramatic views shrouded in smoke over the summer, winter brought a series of historic storms that left the region inundated with snow. The deluge buried homes, cars and fire hydrants, chewed into stretches of winding mountain roads and downed trees along the park’s slopes.
Chemical Industry Spent Millions Lobbying Against Regulation of Toxic Substances Faced with a new regulatory push, the industry spent over $65 million lobbying Congress and federal agencies in 2022.
Water Is a Human Right. Let’s Create a Society That Affirms This. We have come to know water as the latest casualty of late capitalism’s doctrine of scarcity.
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Policing Does Not Have Problems — It Is the Problem Policing is neither reformable nor redeemable. Watching the brutal beating of Tyre Nichols for me drove home a deeper understanding that policing as an institution can never be reformed, and that policing itself is structurally tied to inherent forms of repressive control, “legitimate” violence and surveillance.
Anti-Protest Laws Are Not About Safety, They Are About Silencing Dissent We must not allow our movements for justice to be silenced by laws that criminalize dissent.
Labor:
Economy:
First Republic Bank: Dark Pool Trading by “Rescuers” Exploded in Volume as FRC Tanked Jamie Dimon, the Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, has cranked up his public relations machine since March 16 to promote the narrative that he came to the “rescue” of the plunging regional lender, First Republic Bank. The so-called “rescue” consisted of 11 banks, including JPMorgan Chase, dumping a total of $30 billion in “uninsured” deposits into First Republic. But one of the bank’s key problems was that it already had too many uninsured deposits. (This was like seeing a house on fire and throwing 11 expensive martinis at it.)
World:
Basque Country: Nationalist Left Bare Their Teeth as Communist Youth Surge Forward Since the emergence of the Gazte Koordinadora Sozialista (GKS), [click here to read more about the emergence of the communist youth movement, GKS] the official leadership of the Nationalist left (EH Bildu) in the Basque Country has treated them as a nuisance; maintaining an official appearance of ignoring them. Last year, Arkaitz Rodríguez, the general secretary of Sortu (the largest party in the EH Bildu coalition) described the group as ‘reactionary’. But in the next breath, he claimed that GKS is a mere fly in the ointment, and that the leadership had not dedicated “even half a minute” to their developments.
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
Neoliberalism and the Birth of Big Pharma Seventy-five years ago in Chicago, a conservative project was hatched to cure classical economics of its aversion to patents and monopolies. The drug companies were its first and biggest beneficiaries.
Grim Reaper Profiteers: Ambulances for All, You Scoundrels! Imagine if we had privatized fire departments. We would then see a “fire-fighting insurance industry” emerge. It doesn’t have to be this way. If you call 911 and the fire department comes, you will generally pay nothing. In virtually all cities, fire departments operate as a public service financed by local government, usually via property taxes. But if you call 911 for an ambulance, you could face a huge bill, even for a short ride. Ambulances typically don’t operate as a free public service. In many states the average balance due runs over $1,000.