Daily News Digest June 16, 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:
Bendib: Head in the Tar Sands
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:
A means can be justified only by its end. But the end in its turn needs to be justified.— Their Morals and Ours
Videos/Podcasts of the Day:
How Do We Interrupt Violence Without Police?
Black Agenda Radio June 9, 2023 with Margaret Kimberley
Cornel West Discusses His Presidential Campaign
Trump Indictments Subvert the Legal and Political System
Envionment: Socialism or Ecocide!
One of Many Ways to Beginto End Global Warming: Expose ‘Greenwashing’ — Tax the Polluters 100%!:
Five environmental organizations, an Alaskan tribal leader and a south Louisiana fisher sued the EPA in 2020 to force the agency to update its regulations based on lessons learned from the BP oil spill and the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989. In 2021, US district court judge William Orrick ordered the EPA to update its oil spill response plan. Thousands of people who rushed into Gulf of Mexico waters to clean up BP’s oil spill have fallen ill, and some have died. A recent Guardian investigation spotlighted the difficult legal fight that clean up workers who got sick have been experiencing trying to bring medical cases against the oil giant. More than three decades earlier, those who cleaned up the Exxon Valdez oil tanker spill off the coast of Alaska suffered the same fate. A growing body of research has linked exposure to the dispersants used by BP to break up oil slicks with chronic illnesses, including increased risk of cancer, heart conditions and an increased rate of births of premature and underweight infants. — US Government Toughens Rules On Chemicals Used to Break Up Oil Slicks
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. And yet, as the air quality improves, I fear we will immediately return to our “normal lives,” rather than awaken to climate reality. Our politicians and institutions will move on, the press will get bored, and individuals will retreat into their busy days and personal priorities. The trance of normalcy will overtake us once again. We will put the painful knowledge of smoke out of our minds and pretend that the climate crisis isn’t accelerating.
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
The Phantom Limbs of America’s Failed War on Terror It’s vital that we remember the costs of war not only for ourselves but for those millions of people out there who experienced the — in every sense — wounds we inflicted in the name of an injured America in our nightmarish war on terror. America’s War on Terror, launched in response to the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, has had a staggering impact on our world. The Costs of War Project at Brown University, which I helped found, paints as full a picture as possible of the toll of those “forever wars” both in human lives and in dollars. The wars, we estimate, have killed nearly one million people, including close to 400,000 civilians in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan alone. Worse yet, they sickened or injured several times more than that — leading to illnesses and injuries that, we estimate, resulted in millions of non-battlefield deaths.
Trump’s Lie-Filled Bluster Disappeared Completely in Miami Courtroom — Reports The former president appeared visibly tense and grim during his arraignment in Miami, several sources reported. Hours after being formally arraigned for the 37 indictment counts that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged him with relating to his improper handling of sensitive government documents, former President Donald Trump, snidely and with great bravado, attacked special counsel Jack Smith, President Joe Biden, and others, accusing them of persecuting him. Within the courtroom itself, however, earlier on Tuesday, Trump’s demeanor was markedly different, a far cry from the confident strongman image he has tried to portray.
Civil Rights/Blackliberation:
Excess Mortality and Years of Potential Life Lost Among the Black Population in the US, 1999-2020 . . . Results From 1999 to 2011, the age-adjusted excess mortality rate declined from 404 to 211 excess deaths per 100 000 individuals among Black males (P for trend <.001). However, the rate plateaued from 2011 through 2019 (P for trend = .98) and increased in 2020 to 395—rates not seen since 2000. Among Black females, the rate declined from 224 excess deaths per 100 000 individuals in 1999 to 87 in 2015 (P for trend <.001). There was no significant change between 2016 and 2019 (P for trend = .71) and in 2020 rates increased to 192—levels not seen since 2005. The trends in rates of excess years of potential life lost followed a similar pattern. From 1999 to 2020, the disproportionately higher mortality rates in Black males and females resulted in 997 623 and 628 464 excess deaths, respectively, representing a loss of more than 80 million years of life. Heart disease had the highest excess mortality rates, and the excess years of potential life lost rates were largest among infants and middle-aged adults. Conclusions and relevance Over a recent 22-year period, the Black population in the US experienced more than 1.63 million excess deaths and more than 80 million excess years of life lost when compared with the White population. After a period of progress in reducing disparities, improvements stalled, and differences between the Black population and the White population worsened in 2020.
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist Trump Indictments Subvert the Legal and Political System The recent indictments of former president Donald Trump are political acts intended to keep him from becoming president again. But the impact of dubious legal precedent should be of greater concern… The recent indictments of former president Donald Trump are political acts intended to keep him from becoming president again. But the impact of dubious legal precedent should be of greater concern than helping the democrats achieve electoral victories that rarely benefit the people. “Do they consider as part of a potential plea offer, something that would proscribe him… proscribe him from running for office again? I don’t know.” “I would imagine if anything like that happened that it would have to come from the defense side of the negotiation. That the Trump team would say, ‘Oh, by the way, and with this, we will also, you know, drop out of the race for president.'” — Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell Donald Trump once again presents conundrums for those on the left. Like every other U.S. president his administration subverted justice at home and abroad. Unlike other presidents he didn’t have the wisdom to obey the niceties that absolve them of their many acts of terrible criminality. Invasions, proxy wars and crime bills are all forgotten by people eager to think well of political leadership.
Labor:
Economy:
Shadow Government Statistics Daily Update June 14th to 15th
Latest Headlines:
- The June FOMC paused in hiking Interest Rates, as promised, but Chairman Powell indicated that at least two more rate hikes are likely in coming months.
- Recent annual CPI and PPI inflation swings are tied to year-ago oil-price gyrations around the Russian Invasion of Ukraine
- May 2023 Producer Price Index (PPI) inflation slowed year-to-year to 1.09% from 11.09% in May 2022 thanks to collapsing gasoline prices.
- May 2023 Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) inflation slowed year-to-year to 4.05% from 8.58% in May 2022, with the ShadowStats Alternate CPI easing to 11.9% from 16.8% in the same period.
- Still hit by high Inflation and dropping Economic Activity, Non-Supervisory real average weekly earnings declined year—to-year by 0.9% (-0.9%) in May 2023, its 18th annual decline in the last 19 months.
- The t seasonally adjusted May 2023 Cass® Freight Index shipments declined year-to-year by a deepening 5.6% (-5.6)
World:
J4S: British Police Detain and Interrogate Journalist for Grayzone Reporting (w/ Kit Klarenberg) In today’s episode, co-hosts Diego Ramos and Max Jones talk to journalist Kit Klarenberg about his detainment by British police at London Luton Airport, in which he was invasively interrogated about many things, but mainly for his extremely revealing and courageous reporting for, hilariously according to Wikipedia, the first ever “far-left and far-right” publication, The Grayzone. The conversation was as frightening as it was captivating, as Kit astutely broke down the devolvement of the United Kingdom into an Orwellian state, and the increasingly repressive measures its government is taking to silence and persecute dissidents — effectively imposing self-censorship and state censorship in blatantly authoritarian ways.
Health. Welfare, and Education:
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
What is not mentioned in the Taibbi Article: CVID_19 was a varient of the SARs Virus : SARS-CoV-2 Variant Classifications and Definitions
What You Need to Know
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Viruses like SARS-CoV-2 continuously evolve as changes in the genetic code (caused by genetic mutations or viral recombination) occur during replication of the genome.
- SARS-CoV-2 has consistently mutated over the course of the pandemic, resulting in variants that are different from the original SARS-CoV-2 virus.
- Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, many variants of SARS-CoV-2 have been found in the United Statesand globally.
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Scientists use multiple classification systemsto describe and communicate similarities and differences between SARS-CoV-2 viruses.
Matt Taibbi: On The Explosive Coronavirus Story As months-long joint investigation goes public, some additional details and context. Michael Shellenberger’s Public today released a blockbuster story, “First Person Sickened By COVID-19 Was Chinese Scientist Who Oversaw “Gain Of Function” Research That Created Virus,” which generously credits Racket. The story cites three government officials in naming scientist Ben Hu, who was in charge of “gain-of-function” research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, as the “patient zero” of the Covid-19 pandemic. This is a major story, contradicting early official explanations pointing to zoonotic cross-species “spillover” at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, colloquially known as the Wuhan wet market. The mystery bat or pangolin suspected of transmitting the disease to humans at that market was never found. The Public story for the first time asserts the source of contamination: a Wuhan Institute scientist fell ill after exposure to a virus engineered at his place of work. The implications of this are enormous and represent a major problem for the federal health bureaucracy, several intelligence agencies, and the news media, to say nothing of politicians in both parties (but particularly those on the Democratic side) who’ve deflected public interest from the Wuhan Institute and gain-of-function research. The secrets of both the pandemic’s origin and the reason for America’s at-best-sluggish investigation of same have become the mother of all political footballs, and today’s news is likely to be just the first in a series of loud surprises.