Daily News Digest April 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:
Capitalism’s Endless Drive for Profits!
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:
Videos/Podcasts of the Day:
Malcolm X. Oxford University Union Debate in1964 “We are not human beings unless we band together and do whatever, however, whenever is necessary to see that our lives and property are protected, and I doubt that any person here would refuse to do the same thing were he in the same position.”
[Podcast] Pakistan on the Brink!
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
Bendib: Clarence and Co. 
Sanctions as Siege Warfare In the distant past, the one place that people could escape a marauding army was behind the walls of a castle. Though this usually protected them from any immediate danger, it created problems of its own. While under siege and waiting for outside help or for the attackers to leave in frustration, those behind the walls could ultimately run out of food and even potable water, which would lead either to surrender or a slow, terrible death. Although they’re never portrayed as such, in our own time, a form of siege warfare is applied to whole countries, usually poorer ones, through the misuse of sanctions. There are innumerable forms of sanctions: opprobrium, boycotts, embargoes, denial of service, travel bans, export bans, divestment, asset seizures, blockades, censure, and much more.
Ten Men, $1 Trillion, and the Personalization of American Capitalism Capitalism has always been about the accumulation and the concentration of wealth. Marx and Engels first described that phenomena in their 1848 Communist Manifesto. Thomas Piketty has also reminded us of that. But what they never focused on was the personalization of wealth in capitalism and what that means for society. The latest rankings of the richest individuals in America reminds us of the persistence and personalization of wealth. Forbes just released its ranking of the richest individuals in the world. Topping the list is Frenchman Bernard Arnault of LVHM, the fashion and cosmetics empire, with a net wealth of $211 billion. Yet if we focus simply the ten wealthiest in the world, seven of them are located in the US, with a combined wealth of $786 billion. The ten richest Americans, including the likes of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Larry Ellison, and Michael Bloomberg, total $1 trillion dollars. And this list does not even include the Waltons who own the Walmart empire or the Koch family. Of the twenty-five richest individuals in the world seventeen are American
Will It Never Stop? From Forever War to Eternal War When it comes to the war in Ukraine, there is a widely shared sense that it’s going to last and last — and last some more. “It is time,” President Biden announced in April 2021, “to end the forever war” that started with the invasion of Afghanistan soon after the tragic terror attacks on this country on September 11, 2001. Indeed, that August, amid chaos and disaster, the president did finally pull the last remaining U.S. forces out of that country. A year and a half later, it’s worth reflecting on where the United States stands when it comes to both that forever war against terrorism and war generally. As it happens, the war on terror is anything but ended, even if it’s been overshadowed by the war in Ukraine and simmering conflicts around the globe, all too often involving the United States. In fact, it now seems as if this country is moving at breakneck speed out of the era of Forever War and into what might be thought of as the era of Eternal War.
The War Machine Keeps Turning The war in Ukraine continues without mercy. Like every war in my lifetime (and like almost very war in history), the day-to-day media coverage of the conflict is a barely concealed combination of lies, exaggerations and nationalist propaganda. Beyond this are discussions of the weaponry and projections of their efficiency in killing humans and destroying their habitat. This is true no matter if one is consuming western media or Russian media. Of course, there are varying levels of censorship involved in each nation’s media, as well. For example, no major mainstream media outlet in the United States seems willing to allow any calls for an end to arms shipments or even negotiations. In addition, any coverage of a small but growing antiwar movement have been mostly kept from the public.
Course Correcting Toward Diplomacy in the Ukraine Crisis Washington must come to terms with its role in provoking and now prolonging the war. As the United States continues to deepen its involvement in Ukraine, policymakers say the dangers and costly sacrifices are still warranted. “As long as it takes” stressed President Joseph Biden at the NATO summit in Madrid this July, “so Russia cannot in fact defeat Ukraine and move beyond Ukraine.” This escalatory approach is sustained by twin assumptions about the war, which claim Russian president Vladimir Putin resorted to an “unprovoked” military invasion of Ukraine to fulfill “maximum” aims of conquest. But these purported assertions are erroneous. And yet, they’re propagated, repeatedly, within the Western discourse over the war. The purpose of the narrative they conjure up is straightforward. The distortion and inflation of the threat serve to compel and enable Western governments to pursue—and maintain—hardline policies to deny Russia a victory in Ukraine. Early on, with bias run amok in the West, the media’s glaring and lopsided access into the conflict had also undercut its legibility of what was happening on the ground. By default, it over-relied on information furnished by one side of the war’s ledger. This empowered Washington (and also Kyiv) with nearly unfettered access to shape the interpretation of the war and its events to Western audiences without facing much, if any, scrutiny.
US Lawmakers Implore DOJ to Drop ‘Unprecedented’ Charges Against Julian Assange “Every day that the prosecution of Julian Assange continues is another day that our own government needlessly undermines our own moral authority abroad and rolls back the freedom of the press under the First Amendment at home.”
Rejecting ‘Brazen’ Interference in Trump Criminal Case, New York DA Sues Jim Jordan “Rather than allowing the criminal process to proceed in the ordinary course, Chairman Jordan and the committee are participating in a campaign of intimidation, retaliation, and obstruction,” reads the lawsuit. Lawyers for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Tuesday filed a federal lawsuit against U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, who as chair of the House Judiciary Committee has launched numerous attempts to interfere with the prosecution of former Republican President Donald Trump.
Environment — Ecosocialism of Ecocide!:
Global Warming is Systemic to Capitalisn!
Ellen Brown: The Cobalt Gold Rush and the East Palestine Disaster Holidays in my childhood were spent at my grandparents’ farm in Plain Grove, Pennsylvania, 35 miles from East Palestine, Ohio. My grandfather’s grandfather fought at Gettysburg and homesteaded the 160-acre farm after the Civil War. My grandmother sold it in the 1960s for $13,000, lacking a male heir to do the work; but my relatives still live in the area.I have therefore taken a keen interest in the toxic chemical disaster that resulted when a Norfolk Southern freight train derailed in East Palestine on Feb. 3, although it is not my usual line of research. The official narrative doesn’t seem to add up. Something else must have been going on, but what? A Litany of Anomalies:
- The 150-car train was 1.76 miles long, and 10 of the 38 derailed carscontained hazardous materials, including vinyl chloride. The decision was made to create a hole in each of the suspect cars and allow the contents to flow into a pit, which was then lit on fire. As reported in Newsweek:
- The toxic mixture of chemicals and carcinogens released … could spread many miles out from the crash site, experts say.
- The chemicals—including vinyl chloride, butyl acrylate, ethylhexyl acrylate and ethylene glycol monobutyl, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)— were being carried aboard the train when it derailed. …
- The fire sent up a large plume of black smoke. When burned, vinyl chloride reacts to form phosphene gas, which was used as a chemical weapon in World War
50 Years of Waiting for Our ‘Inalienable Right’ to a ‘Clean and Healthful Environment’ Kudos to the Montana Environmental Information Center and Earthjustice for their recent court victory challenging the adequacy of the state’s pitiful permitting process for NorthWestern Energy’s Laurel natural gas power plant. Once again, a judge has found Montana’s mis-named Department of Environmental Quality guilty of cutting corners, ignoring and misinterpreting state law, and shuffling off another permit for a major polluter with a wink and a nod. As he put it bluntly: “DEQ granted the air permit…that dismissed some of the plant’s most troubling impacts with minimal analysis, improperly deferred others for future consideration and overlooked some harm entirely,”
It’s Again Time yo Tackle Reckless Water Firms, Just Like in the 19th Century Readers on the privatisation of water and the failure to rein in firms’ dumping of sewage At the launch of her department’s cleaner water plan (Thérèse Coffey accused of ‘throwing in the towel’ over sewage scandal, 4 April), the environment minister, Thérèse Coffey, suggested that to overcome the water pollution crisis we would have to return to the “natural state of our rivers from the year 1840”. This is ironic, as it was then that the limits of privatised water services were becoming increasingly clear. Rather than being in some kind of “natural state”, British rivers were being polluted on an industrial scale in the early 19th century, and private water companies were one of the main culprits, especially in London.
Urban Water Crises Driven by Elites’ Unsustainable Consumption Over the past two decades, more than 80 metropolitan cities across the world have faced severe water shortages due to droughts and un-sustainable water use. Future projections are even more alarming, since urban water crises are expected to escalate and most heavily affect those who are socially, economically and politically disadvant-aged. Here we show how social inequalities across different groups or individuals play a major role in the production and manifestation of such crises. Specifically, due to stark socioeconomic inequalities, urban elites are able to overconsume water while excluding less-privileged populations from basic access. Through an interdiscipl-inary approach, we model the uneven domestic water use across urban spaces and estimate water consumption trends for different social groups. The highly unequal metropolitan area of Cape Town serves as a case in point to illustrate how unsustainable water use by the elite can exacerbate urban water crises at least as much as climate change or population growth.
Lake Tahoe’s Best Clarity in 40 Years is the Work of This ‘Natural Cleanup Crew’ Scientists attribute the ‘unprecedented’ visibility of the water body to a boom in the population of zooplankton Lake Tahoe has attained a clarity that scientists haven’t seen in 40 years – and it’s all because of a microscopic animal acting as a “natural cleanup crew” to restore the clear blue waters.
Methane Leads ‘Alarming’ Rise in Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions Methane in the atmosphere had its fourth-highest annual increase in 2022, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported last week, part of an overall rise in planet-warming greenhouse gases that the agency called “alarming.”
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Federal Judges Issue Conflicting Rulings Over Abortion Pill. A federal judge in Texas blocked the FDA’s approval of Mifepristone. The matter now seems poised to head for the Supreme Court. Federal judges have issued contradicting orders about whether mifepristone—one of two drugs used to induce a medication abortion—can be legally distributed. A judge in Texas ruled Friday in a much watched case, saying that the federal government’s approval of the drug must be blocked; his decision, he wrote, takes effect in one week, giving the Department of Justice time to appeal the decision. But another federal judge, in Washington state, found the opposite in a separate case concerning the drug’s approval. That judge, who also ruled Friday, held that a nationwide injunction blocking mifepristone’s distribution would be “inappropriate.” The conflicting federal rulings increase the likelihood that mifepristone’s legality will ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court. The stakes for people seeking abortions are significant.
Labor:
Economy:
FRED Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers
Purchasing Power of the Consumer Dollar
First Republic Bank’s “Rescuers” Had Underwritten $3.6 Billion of its Preferred Shares, Which Have Lost 65 to 70 Percent of their Value Year-to-Date Four of the eleven big banks that announced on March 16 that they were going to dump a combined $30 billion of their own money as uninsured deposits into the plunging coffers of First Republic Bank were also the underwriters of $3.6 billion in preferred stock for First Republic Bank. Units of JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo were underwriters of the majority of the preferred stock outstanding at First Republic Bank. UBS, which did not contribute to the $30 billion deposit infusion, was also one of the primary underwriters. UBS was otherwise occupied last month by having a gun put to its head by the Swiss government to “rescue” the tanking Credit Suisse. The Swiss government also denied shareholders on both sides of the deal the ability to vote on the matter.
World:
The UK’s ‘Green Day’ Has Turned Into a Fossil Fuel Bonanza – Dirty Money Powers the Sunak Government Money for the criminals, prison for the heroes: this, in brief, is the government’s climate policy. If something is damaging to the public interest, it’s likely to be rewarded and subsidised. If it’s beneficial, it will find itself in a hostile environment. This government represents the denouement of the Pollution Paradox: as dirty money has the greatest incentive to invest in politics, it comes to run the whole system. Across these 13 years of misrule, we have seen the perversities of Conservative government multiply and intensify.
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
Talkspace Is a Business First and a Mental Health Resource Second, Critics Say This model of mental health care impacts therapists and their working conditions as much as the patients they care for. Naomi Weizman was working as a secretary in a school counseling office when she started looking for a therapist. Like many, she found Talkspace, the digital therapy app, through an Instagram ad. Talkspace took her insurance. So she downloaded the app and set up her account, filling out a questionnaire about some of her needs and preferences. But in March, Weizman filed a class-action complaint in California federal court, accusing Talkspace of lying about whether it has enough therapists to meet prospective patients’ needs and enrolling them in automatic payments regardless of therapists’ availability. Ari Scharg, an attorney for Weizman, said that Talkspace attracts users by promising that a personalized algorithm will match them with a suitable therapist.