Daily News Digest July 27, 2023
Images of the Day:
Bendib: At the BLood Bath Hammam
Capitalism is Now a Worldwide Threat to Humanity! It is on the Fast Track to Global Warming and/or Nuclear War Catastrophes!
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:
. . .Liar, liar the world’s on fire
Whatcha gonna do when it all burns down?
Fire, fire burning higher
Still got time to turn it all around Don’t get me started on politics
Now how are we to live in a world like this
Greedy politicians, present and past
They wouldn’t know the truth if it bit ’em in the ass . . .. —Dolly Paton, World on Fire
As we’ll hear today, the United States subsidizes the fossil fuel industry with taxpayer dollars. It’s not just the US: according to the International Energy Agency, fossil fuel handouts hit a global high of $1 trillion in 2022 – the same year Big Oil pulled in a record $4 trillion of income. In the United States, by some estimates taxpayers pay about $20 billion dollars every year to the fossil fuel industry Fuel industry. What do we get for that? Economists generally agree: not much. To quote conservative economist Gib Metcalf: these subsidies offer “little if any benefit in the form of oil patch jobs, lower prices at the pump, or increased energy security for the country.” The cash subsidy is both big and wrong. But the really big subsidy is the license to pollute for free. The IMF calls this global free pass an “implicit” fossil fuel subsidy. Economists call it an “unpriced externality.” Behind these benign-sounding phrases is a lot of harm. Start with harmful effects of local air pollution. Researchers from Harvard found pollutants from oil and gas combustion were responsible for 8.7 million premature deaths annually – the increased mortality rates from heat and air pollution we heard about at last week’s hearing. Then, growing costs from intensifying disasters: wildfires, floods, droughts, which according to OMB could cost the federal budget $2 trillion annually and reduce US GDP 3 to 10 percent by the end of the century. You tally up the harms, and the IMF estimates it at a $5.4 trillion annual subsidy worldwide. In the United States, it’s $646 billion – every single year. Worse, this is almost certainly undercounting the true costs. The London School of Economics reports that studies often underestimate the harm of climate dangers by failing to account for how hazards can cascade across ecological and economic systems. T hese cascades can cause irreparable damage to human well-being, to ecosystems, and to the US economy These are the systemic risks we’ve heard about from previous witnesses. And as we will hear from one of our witnesses today, the very act of extracting these dirty fuels has terrible consequences for human health – especially for children. From higher rates of birth defects to childhood leukemia, there’s ample evidence that communities around oil and gas extraction sites pay an especially high price. It’s textbook economics that the price of a good should reflect its true cost. The fossil fuel industry violates this rule of market economies. It does so by spending billions of dollars on disinformation, false doubts, climate obstruction, and political dark money. And why not, to protect one of the most lucrative subsidies in human history? This, ladies and gentlemen, is why we can’t have nice things like clean air, safe coral reefs, secure coast lines, and affordable clean energy.Over in the House, MAGA extremists are doubling down on polluter handouts to their big donors, with their Default on America Act that puts the American taxpayer on the hook for climate disaster. . — Sen. Whitehouse On Fossil Fuel Subsidies: “We are Subsidizing he Danger”
Podcasts/Vidoes of the Day:
Jeremy Corbyn: Only the Green Industrial Revolution can Save This Planet!
Fossil Fuel Subsidies: G20 Spends Billions to Push Us Closer to Climate Disaster
Is Financial Capitalism, Ruled by the Landlord Class and Banking Class, the Road o Debt Serfdom?
Environment:
After World War II Rosa Luxenburg Coined the Slogan: ‘S0cialism or Barbaism’! Now the Slogan Should Be: ‘Ecosocialism or Ecocide’!
One of Many Ways to Begin to End Global Warming: Expose ‘Greenwashing’ — Tax the Polluters 100%!
After the $Trillions of Subsidies: No Indemnifications!: Cornel West Calls for the Nationalization of the Fossil Fuel Industry and An Immediate Halt to Oil, Gas and Coal Extraction to Combat the Climate Emergency Los Angeles – Presidential candidate Cornel West called today for the nationalization of the, oil, coal and natural gas industries and an immediate halt to fossil fuel extraction to combat the climate crisis. “Democrats and Republicans are complicit in granting immunity to fossil fuel cartels to dig, slash, and burn our planet, accelerating global warming and creating vast toxic wastelands, sacrifice zones, inhabited by the poorest and most vulnerable,” West said. West said there is no time left, given the climate emergency, for “milquetoast reforms” such as Joe Biden’s so-called Inflation Reduction Act. “These programs are window dressing,” he said. “They will not significantly reduce emissions to avert climate catastrophe.” West excoriated the subsidies for the fossil fuel industry, which range from $10 to $50 billion per year. Fossil fuel subsidies globally were estimated at $1 trillion last year, even as the Oil giants earned some $4 trillion, according to the International Energy Agency. The arctic ice, West noted, is vanishing at rates that were unforeseen. “Even if we stop carbon emissions today – we have already reached 419 parts per million – carbon dioxide concentrations will continue to climb to as high as 550 ppm because of heat trapped in the oceans,” he said. “Global temperatures will rise for at least another century. The earth is rapidly becoming inhospitable to most life.” The average global temperature has risen, West warned, by about 1.1 Celsius (1.9 degrees Fahrenheit) since 1880. “We are approaching a tipping point of 2 degrees Celsius when the biosphere will become so degraded that feedback loops will ensure our extinction,” he said. West said the climate emergency, which requires a “swift and radical” response, is one of the major reasons for his campaign.. “On my first day in office I will use the National Emergencies Act, the Defense Production Act, and the Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act to order an immediate cessation of all oil and gas leasing projects on federal lands and waters,” West said. “I will impose a ban on the poisonous practice of fracking. I will demand an immediate moratorium on liquefied natural gas facilities. I will cancel proposed fossil fuel projects including Joe Manchin’s Mountain Valley Pipeline and Joe Biden’s Willow Project. All extraction projects on indigenous land will be halted if they do not have the consent of Native Americans.” West said the ownership of fossil fuel corporations must be shifted to local, state and federal governments, removing control over our natural resources from the billionaire class to the public. “The Green New Deal will only be possible once these oil, gas and coal corporations become publicly owned,” he said. “Until that happens the fossil fuel industry will continue to stymie serious environmental reform through its bought-and-paid for political class.” West rejected the claim that environmental reform means economic deprivation. “The corporate duopoly wants us to believe that the choice is between economic prosperity and environmental controls,” he said. “But the cost of refusing to confront this crisis, much of it already backed into the ecosystem, far, far outweighs whatever costs it takes to convert to renewable energy. We must emancipate ourselves from fossil fuels or be prepared for whole zones of the planet to become uninhabitable from extreme heat, toxic air, drought, wildfires and rising seas. This is a choice between sanity and greed. Greed has won out for too long.”
Burning More Fossil Fuels Will Lead to Longer and Worse Heat Waves, Report Finds The World Weather Attribution said many heat waves in July would have been virtually impossible without climate change. The climate crisis — driven by the burning of fossil fuels — has significantly increased the likelihood of the dangerous heat waves that baked three different continents this July. Without climate change, the heat wave that broke records in China would have been a one-in-250 year event and the temperatures measured in Mexico and the U.S. and in Southern Europe would have been “virtually impossible,” World Weather Attribution (WWA) concluded in a report released Tuesday. “Unless the world rapidly stops burning fossil fuels, these events will become even more common and the world will experience heat waves that are even hotter and longer-lasting,” the report authors warned.
‘Could Be a World Record’: South Florida Ocean Temperature Hits 101.1°F “I have no doubt a dip in Manatee Bay today would have been a hot tub-like experience,” said one meteorologist earlier this week. A buoy positioned roughly 40 miles south of Miami recorded a sea surface temperature of 101.1°F earlier this week, stunning scientists who say the reading could mark the latest in a string of global records as fossil fuel-driven extreme weather around the world brings unprecedented heat. Meteorologist Jeff Masters wrote that the temperature in Florida’s Manatee Bay reached hot tub levels on Monday and “could be a world record.”
Threat of AMOC Collapse Begs Question: If Not Now, Then When? If Not Us, Then Who? We must use this as a catalyst for massive behavior change and mass forms of protests to force our corrupt officials to rapidly decarbonize the economy by 2030—not 2050.
For Plastic Free July, the US Gov Should Hold Polluters Accountable Federal legislation is needed to establish a strong national strategy to hold plastic producers responsible for reducing their plastic footprint.
Warheads to Windmills: Put the Nuclear Brain Trust to Work Solving the Climate Crisis The only way to guarantee that nuclear weapons are never used is to eliminate them; and, likewise, the only way to avert climate catastrophe is to phase out and replace fossil fuels.
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
A Vote for Trump or Biden is a Vote for Ecocide!
3 Ways the US Refuses to Play by Global Rules In keeping Guantánamo open, continuing to use illegal weapons, and dragging its feet on climate action, this country has stood out from the crowd in a sadly malevolent fashion.
Groups, Lawmakers Demand FERC Deny Mountain Valley Pipeline Extension for NC “North Carolinians refuse to be led on by greedy energy corporations, and time and again our state’s residents have told legislators and regulators this pipeline and its extension are not needed,” said one campaigner. The Sierra Club and other advocacy groups on Tuesday highlighted the growing chorus of residents, political leaders, and organizations opposed to a partially built fracked gas pipeline in West Virginia and Virginia along with a proposed expansion into North Carolina.
Civil Rights/Blackliberation:
Labor:
Newly Elected Teamster Officals Announce ‘Historic Agreenent’ —Before Membership Decides/Votes!: Teamsters Announces “Historic” Agreement With UPS, Likely Averting Strike The agreement would raise wages for UPS employees across the board and end a controversial two-tiered employee system. The Teamsters have reached a new agreement with UPS that the union is touting as the “most historic” deal in the history of the company, likely avoiding a 340,000-worker strike that was slated to start August 1. The union and the company announced the deal on Tuesday, just hours after the parties had returned to the bargaining table following a collapse in negotiations earlier this month. The agreement includes an end to the two-tiered employee system that allowed the company to pay part-time and newer workers lower wages, as well as agreements to install air conditioning in delivery vehicles and wage raises across the board, according to the Teamsters.
Railroad Whistleblowers Keep Losing Their Jobs Michael Paul Lindsey II, a locomotive conductor and engineer of 17 years, tried to sound the alarm on railroad safety. Not long after, he was fired. When we hear the term “whistleblower,” we tend to think of names like Daniel Ellsberg, Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden, Julian Assange — people who have risked their freedom, even their lives, to expose government lies, abuses of power, and state secrets that the public needs to know about. But there are a range of federal statutes designed to protect those who blow the whistle on their employers, too, especially when those employers are breaking the law and/ or endangering their workers and the public.
Economy:
FRED: Effective Federal Funds Rate 5.8%
(The Decadence of Today’s Capitalists, Reminds Me of the Roman Empire During Its’ Decline! — R.S.) Court Filing: JPMorgan Chase “Actively Participated in Epstein’s Sex-Trafficking Venture” The Attorney General of the U.S. Virgin Islands, armed with highly effective legal talent from the law firm, MotleyRice – which stakes its reputation on its “boldness” – has filed new documents in its federal lawsuit against the largest bank in the United States, JPMorgan Chase. The new documents are, indeed, breathtakingly bold. The U.S. Virgin Islands’ attorneys have clarified to the court that they plan to show in a trial scheduled for October that JPMorgan Chase not only facilitated the sex trafficking of underage girls by Jeffrey Epstein but that the bank “actively participated in Epstein’s sex-trafficking venture from 2006 until 2019.” That is a very explosive assertion. For starters, it throws up a giant red flare as to why the American public has heard nothing from the criminal division of the U.S. Department of Justice about a criminal case against the bank for laundering money for Epstein. The case brought by the U.S. Virgin Islands is a civil case.
World:
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