Daily News Digest June 15, 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:
A More Accurate View of the Cost of Living Inflation — The Declining Puchasing Power of the Dollar: Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Purchasing Power of the Consumer Dollar in U.S. City Average
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:
Rail Safety: Hornstein has been calling for more regulation of railroads for years. But his frustration with the industry intensified after 5 INVESTIGATES exposed a troubling history of defects on the same track where a BNSF train carrying ethanol derailed in March. That derailment, which forced the town of Raymond to evacuate, is one of several rail incidents across the country that have led to a hyperfocus on rail safety. After a Norfolk Southern train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in Ohio in February, congressional leaders demanded to know the safety record of the nation’s top railroad companies, including BNSF. “The American people desperately need greater insight into an industry that lacks transparency and clear safety standards,” U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote in a letter on March 15th. The letter also asked about the safety culture at those companies. When it comes to the largest railroad in Minnesota, Van Dyck said she already knows the answer. “There’s a culture that they don’t do wrong. They can’t do wrong.” — Destroyed Evidence and Retaliation: The Alarming Pattern at Minnesota’s Largest Railroad
Videos/Podcasts of the Day:
Envionment: Socialism or Ecocide!
One of Many Ways to Beginto End Global Warming: Expose ‘Greenwashing’ — Tax the Polluters 100%!:
As Smoke Recedes, the Climate Denial of Everyday Life Becomes Clear If humanity’s two choices are to transform or collapse, the only rational, moral choice is to become a part of the transformation. The smoke emergency faced by NYC and much of the Eastern Seaboard should be our “Pearl Harbor” moment. It should stir a collective awakening to the existential threat of climate change, and a shared understanding that our entire economy and society must be mobilized in response.
East Palestine Should Have Been Declared a Superfund Site After the ChemicalTrain Drailment!:
What is Superfund?
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The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980, or Superfund, is designed to grant authority to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), states and Native American tribes to manage and clean up the nation’s most dangerous waste sites.
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Superfund gives the EPA the responsibility to address acute local and national environmental emergencies that threaten public health and the environment.
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Most importantly, Superfund creates a system where polluters have to pay for the messes they create. The EPA identifies the potentially responsible parties (PRPs) that created hazardous sites and requires them to fund and/or manage the cleanups.
What is the history of Superfund?
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CERCLA came into existence after a State of Emergency was declared at Love Canal, New York in 1978. The act includes a retroactive liability provision that allows the EPA to hold past parties that created dangerous waste sites accountable for clean-up. Around 70 percent of Superfund cleanups have been paid by responsible parties.
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What is the Polluters Pay fee and why isn’t it being collected? The Polluters Pay fee is one of the ways Superfund ensures that people responsible for pollution fund its clean up. The EPA would collect a fee from the petroleum and chemical industries, which was used to fund cleanups for pollution sites that had no clearly identifiable responsible party or were polluted by bankrupt parties.
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The fee also served as a motivation to switch to less hazardous production methods.
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The tax has not been collected since 1995, however, and by 2004 there was no longer any money in the Superfund. Now, EPA is forced to fund Superfund through taxpayer money— taxpayers are paying to clean up pollution, rather than the polluters themselves.
Where’re on te Eve of Ecocide:
Dead Fish, Flesh-Eating Bacteria at the Beach Are Warnings From a Warming Ocean As dead fish wash up in Texas, a massive “belt” of seaweed stretching across the Atlantic closes beaches in Florida. Thousands of dead fish washed up on the gulf coast of Texas over the weekend, and massive globs of seaweed carrying plastic pollution infested with flesh-eating bacteria are raising public health concerns at Florida’s famous beaches. Like a cat leaving a mangled rat on the doorstep, the oceans seem to be trying to get our attention. A large school of Gulf menhaden died over the weekend and left miles of beaches at Texas’s Quintana Beach County Park covered in dead fish, leading to officials warning people to avoid the beach due to the stench and thousands of sharp bones and fins. The menhaden were likely feeding in shallow water when an increase in temperature robbed the fish of dissolved oxygen that must pass through their gills.
Pennsylvania Community Wins a Reprieve on Toxic Fracking Wastewater The decision by PGE to plug a well in a township of fewer than 700 residents rather than inject it with wastewater suggests that fighting the oil and gas industry may not be as futile as some would argue.
In ‘Climate-Wrecking’ Reversal, Shell Ditches Plans for Oil ProdOil Production Cut and Hikes Dividend “It will always be profit over people and planet for polluters,” said one campaigner. “Shell simply cannot be trusted—with either their own meager targets or our futures.”
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
Debt Crisis: Predatory Powers Fight Over Scraps in Pillage of Poor Nations A bankruptcy crisis is looming over the world. The New York Times has called it “a debt crisis unlike anything we have seen”. This isn’t the threat of a handful of banking behemoths going under, however, but rather of entire national economies. Some 54 low and middle-income countries are today teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. National bankruptcy ushered in a near 8 percent GDP collapse of the Sri Lankan economy last year. The consequences involved atrocious suffering for the masses in that country. Now, similar agony is being prepared for millions of others. How did this global debt crisis emerge? When reading about it in the capitalist press, you could be forgiven for imagining that it’s all down to sheer recklessness of governments in poor countries. The truth is that the whole thing is the product of a conscious policy of pillage by the finance capitalists of a handful of wealthy creditor nations.
Horrific Crash That Killed 275 People Exposes Structural Issues in Indian Railways As investigations continue into the railway accident in Balasore in the Indian State of Odisha, the failure to address staffing and safety has been widely condemned. Over 300,000 posts remain vacant in the Indian Railways. At least 275 people have died following a horrific train accident in the Balasore district of the Indian State of Odisha on Friday, June 2. Over a 1,000 people were also injured in what is being called the worst rail accident in 20 years. As the country recovers from the shock, questions are being asked about the government’s policies towards the railways. The accident involved three trains. On the evening of June 2, the Coromandel Express, a passenger train, rammed a stationary goods train that had been parked in the Loop Line of the Bahanaga Bazar railway station. According to a preliminary investigation, 21 coaches of the Coromandel Express derailed and some overturned, including on to the adjoining track. Just minutes later, another passenger train, the Yesvantpur-Howrah Superfast Express coming from Bengaluru hit the derailed compartments of the Coromandel Express, and itself derailed, becoming what is called “a wreck on a wreck.” Both trains had an estimated 2,000 passengers on board. At least 275 people have died following a horrific train accident in the Balasore district of the Indian State of Odisha on Friday, June 2. Over a 1,000 people were also injured in what is being called the worst rail accident in 20 years. As the country recovers from the shock, questions are being asked about the government’s policies towards the railways. The accident involved three trains. On the evening of June 2, the Coromandel Express, a passenger train, rammed a stationary goods train that had been parked in the Loop Line of the Bahanaga Bazar railway station. According to a preliminary investigation, 21 coaches of the Coromandel Express derailed and some overturned, including on to the adjoining track. Just minutes later, another passenger train, the Yesvantpur-Howrah Superfast Express coming from Bengaluru hit the derailed compartments of the Coromandel Express, and itself derailed, becoming what is called “a wreck on a wreck.” Both trains had an estimated 2,000 passengers on board.
Labor:
Economy:
Shadow Government Statistics Daily Update June 9th to 13th.
- LATEST ECONOMIC HEADLINES: — Fed easing appears to be continuing per the latest Monetary Base details.
- In context of various historical benchmarking, re-indexing and seasonal adjustment revisions back to 1994, the April 2023 Real Merchandise Trade Deficit was pummeled in the month, following three-quarters of Administration numbers games.
- May 2023 Jobs Reporting Conflict: Unemployment spiked sharply, but so too did Payroll Employment [the UNEMPLOYMENT ALTERNATE DATA Tab and accompanying graph are updated]. Hint: Early Payroll reporting often is revised massively, but not so the initial headline Unemployment Rate.
- April 2023 Real Construction Spending declined year-to-year for the 19th straight month, despite a monthly gain and upside revisions. — University of Michigan’s full-month May 2023 Consumer Sentiment held shy by 41.4% (-41.4%) of ever recovering its February 2020 Pre-Pandemic Peak level.
- Combined First-Quarter 2023 GDP and GDI signaled a Recession in place [The GDP ALTERNATE DATA Tab and accompanying graph are updated].
- Inflation pressures continued, with April 2023 Money Supply reflecting still-extreme flight to liquidity. The most-liquid “Basic M1” (currency plus Demand Deposits) held 118.1% above its Pre-Pandemic Level and is increasing year-to-year, versus the Aggregate M2 Money Supply holding up by 30.0%, but declining year-to-year, amidst no signs of an overheating economy.
Shadow Government Statistics Alternate Inflation Charts The CPI chart on the home page reflects our estimate of inflation for today as if it were calculated the same way it was in 1990. The CPI on the Alternate Data Series tab here reflects the CPI as if it were calculated using the methodologies in place in 1980. In general terms, methodological shifts in government reporting have depressed reported inflation, moving the concept of the CPI away from being a measure of the cost of living needed to maintain a constant standard.
