Daily News Digest August 2, 2023
Images of the Day:
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:
Man is the most insane species. He worships an invisible God and destroys a visible Nature. Unaware that this Nature he’s destroying is this God he’s worshiping. — Hubert Reeves
We cannot dismiss and demonize rural white Americans. The class war waged by corporations and the ruling oligarchs has devastated their lives and communities. They have been betrayed. They have every right to be angry. That anger can sometimes be expressed in inappropriate ways, but they are not the enemy. They too are victims. In my case, they are family. I come from here. Our fight for economic justice must include them. We will wrest back control of our nation together or not at all. — Chris Hedges: The Forgotten Victims of America’s Class War
Podcasts/Vidoes of the Day:
NATO Failed in Ukraine Against Russia. Now It’s Targeting China
Did Western Military Presence Help Foster Coup in Niger, Where U.S. Has Drone Base & 1,000+ Troops?
“A True Prophet”: Why Sinéad O’Connor Risked Her Career to Call Out Catholic Church Abuse
“A True Prophet”: Why Sinéad O’Connor Risked Her Career to Call Out Catholic Church Abuse
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 Hottest Month on Record, Oil Giant BP Reports ‘Hideous’ $2.6 Billion in Profits “Leaving this industry with the power to profit without consequence is not only morally abhorrent—it’s plainly ludicrous in the face of a climate catastrophe that threatens us all,” said one campaigner. The London-based oil giant BP reported second-quarter profits of $2.6 billion on Tuesday and announced a 10% dividend raise for shareholders on the heels of what was likely the hottest month on record—a grim milestone that scientists say was made possible by the burning of fossil fuels.
Climate Groups Announce Global Days of Action to ‘Propel Renewable Energy Revolution Forward’ “Around the world, people are uniting to wrest power and resources away from reckless fossil fuel companies,” said one campaigner. “The window to act is short—but there is still time to create enormous positive changes.” The climate justice group 350.org on Monday announced upcoming global days of action—November 3 and 4—aimed at accelerating the worldwide transition to clean energy.
Conservationists Push EPA to Add 1,000+ Pollutants to ‘Outdated’ List of Toxic Chemicals “It’s stupefying that the last time the EPA updated its toxic pollutant list, the 8-track was considered an advanced technology and Gerald Ford was president,” said one group
How the “Nuclear Renaissance” Robs and Roasts Our Earth Nuclear power not only costs twice as much as wind and solar, it’s responsible for superheating our air and waterways. Every day, as they burn with nuclear fission at some 571 degrees Fahrenheit, some 430 nuke reactors roast our Earth. They irradiate and superheat our air, rivers, lakes and oceans. They also spew radioactive carbon, and emit more greenhouse gasses in the mining, milling, enrichment and fabrication processes that produce their fuel. Still more is emitted as they attempt to store their wastes. Six big reactors and their fuel pools now threaten an apocalypse in Ukraine. Pleas for United Nations intervention are increasingly desperate
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!
“Oppenheimer” Ignores Birth of Nuclear-Industrial Complex — and Its Profiteers Nukes are big business, and beneficiaries have worked doggedly to limit any efforts to reduce or eliminate nuclear arms. Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past few months, you’re undoubtedly aware that award-winning director Christopher Nolan has released a new film about Robert Oppenheimer, known as the “father of the atomic bomb” for leading the group of scientists who created that deadly weapon as part of America’s World War II-era Manhattan Project. The film has earned widespread attention, with large numbers of people participating in what’s already become known as “Barbieheimer” by seeing Greta Gerwig’s hit film Barbie and Nolan’s three-hour-long Oppenheimer on the same day. Nolan’s film is a distinctive pop cultural phenomenon because it deals with the American use of nuclear weapons, a genuine rarity since ABC’s 1983 airing of The Day After about the consequences of nuclear war. (An earlier exception was Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove, his satirical portrayal of the insanity of the Cold War nuclear arms race.)
U.S. Invasion of Afghanistan: Two Years after Afghan Fiasco, There’s a Key Question We Still Aren’t Asking Two years ago this week Americans were shocked and dismayed at the incredibly rapid collapse of the US-backed government in Afghanistan. This despite the fact that over a 20-year period the US had suffered upwards of 40,000 casualties and spent $2.3 trillion dollars to support the government and to supply the Afghan National Security Forces with some of the best weapons and training available anywhere in the world. General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that in August 2021, “the vast majority of the Afghan units put their weapons down and surrendered without a fight. Kabul was taken with a couple hundred guys on motorcycles and not a shot fired…How is it an army that size, trained, manned, equipped…just collapsed?” Biden blames Trump and Trump blames Biden, while national security experts proffer a variety of explanations for this costly fiasco.
Civil Rights/Blackliberation:
The Prison-Industrial Complex: Burnin Im Hell! Facing the Climate Crisis From a Texas Prison Cell For the past seven summers, I have lived in solitary confinement without air conditioning. A trip to medical during a heat wave helped put the climate crisis into perspective. Even some of the most right-wing evangelical Texans acknowledge that climate change is real. They may debate the cause, but at a certain point, it becomes hard to argue with the effects. I know this because many of the guards who watch over me in my solitary confinement cell in a women’s prison in Texas are in this demographic. And they, like me, have had a front-row seat to the unfolding crisis.
Federal Law Enforcement Agencies Routinely Undercount Use-of-Force Incidents Following Biden’s executive order to improve transparency on use of force, the Department of Homeland Security has failed to accurately compile its data, a new report finds. TWO YEARS AFTER the murder of George Floyd ignited worldwide protests against police brutality, President Joe Biden ordered federal law enforcement agencies to update their policies on use of force. A new report, however, finds that the nation’s largest law enforcement agency ignored the spirit — if not the letter — of that order. The Department of Homeland Security has failed to accurately compile data on use-of-force incidents, according to a report issued Monday by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, or GAO. “We found the data were not sufficiently reliable for the purposes of describing the number of times agency law enforcement officers used force,” the watchdog agency wrote.
Labor:
Big Business Lobbies Against Heat Protections for Workers ss US Boils It could take years for the federal regulator Osha to set new heat rules as excessive temperatures are killing Americans at work Big-business lobbyists, including big agricultural and construction groups, are pushing to water down or stymie efforts at the federal and state levels to implement workplace heat protection standards. This summer, millions in the US have been exposed to some of the hottest days on record, inciting renewed urgency for federal protections from heat exposure for US workers. The Biden administration has proposed federal heat protections for workers. But those rules face stiff opposition and could take several years to be finalized under current rule-making processes and laws. They could even be scrapped depending on the outcome of 2024’s election.
Economy:
Michael Robert Facebook Blog: The US manufacturing sector remained in contraction during July according to the latest ISM survey. The measure came in at 46.4 near the three-year low of June. Anything below 50 means contraction. The employment indicator showed a faster pace of contraction than in June. The global manufacturing PMI also finished in contraction territory at 49.0. World manufacturing output has been falling for most of this year. Inequality of incomes between cities and regions in the major economies has been widening since 1970. ‘Spatial inequalities’ have almost doubled in all countries except France. By the end of 2010s,the USAhas the highest degree of spatial inequality. Re: Spatial Wage Inequality in North America and Western Europe 1975-2019 In recent decades, income inequality has been on the rise in most of the world’s leading economies. To what extent do spatial inequalities – such as the sharp divide between “superstar” global cities and “left-behind” post-industrial towns – contribute to this trend? This paper presents a systematic attempt to create internationally comparable evidence on how different countries perform in terms of geographical wage inequalities. Based on cross-country comparable measures of spatial wage disparities between and within similarly-defined local labour market areas (LLMAs) for Canada, France, (West) Germany, the UK and the US since the 1970s, it assesses their contribution to national inequality. Key findings are:
-
At the end of the 2010s, spatial inequalities in average wages are similar in Canada, France, Germany and the UK, with the US showing the highest degree of spatial inequality.
- Since 1970, spatial inequalities have almost doubled in all countries except France, where spatial inequalities have fallen back to 1970s levels.
- Over the 40-year study period, the role of places in explaining national wage inequality has has remained relatively stable. This is because the increase in spatial inequalities has been accompanied by a proportional increase in within-place inequalities.
Variance of Average Wages Across Local Labour Markets areas
The Stock of Kidney Dialysis Firm, DaVita, Has Soared 2,500 Percent Since 1996; a New Book Reveals the Dangerous Cult Behind the RiseThe chart above compares the stock price performance of the kidney dialysis company, DaVita (ticker DVA), with the Standard and Poor’s 500 Index since 1996. Right away, something looks very wrong. Why should a healthcare company delivering dialysis treatment to people with kidney failure make the kind of profits that would generate this outsized stock price return?Investigative reporter and author, Tom Mueller, has dedicated his latest book to pulling back the curtain on the dirty underbelly of this industry. The book, How to Make a Killing: Blood, Death and Dollars in American Medicine, will be available for sale in bookstores tomorrow. If you have a loved one receiving kidney dialysis at centers run by either DaVita or Fresenius, we urge you to stop what you’re doing, buy this book, and read it from cover to cover. The book presents nothing short of an indictment of rabid capitalism run amok, effectively turning what should be a life-saving branch of medicine into a criminal enterprise.
World:
Made in America!: Niger Coup Leader Joins Long Line of U.S.-Trained Mutineers Brig. Gen. Moussa Salaou Barmou, who trained at Fort Benning, Georgia, helped oust Niger’s democratically elected president. Brig. Gen. Moussa Salaou Barmou, the chief of Niger’s Special Operations Forces and one of the leaders of the unfolding coup in Niger, was trained by the U.S. military, The Intercept has confirmed. U.S.-trained military officers have taken part in 11 coups in West Africa since 2008. “We have had a very long relationship with the United States,” Barmou said in 2021. “Being able to work together in this capacity is very good for Niger.” Just last month, Barmou met with Lt. Gen. Jonathan Braga, the head of U.S. Army Special Operations Command, at Air Base 201, a drone base in the Nigerien city of Agadez that serves as the lynchpin of an archipelago of U.S. outposts in West Africa.
South Africa: EFF’s 10th Anniversary Celebrations ‑ To Fight For Real Radical Change, Break With Capitalism! On Saturday, 29 July the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), celebrated their 10th anniversary with a mass rally of 100 000 supporters at Johannesburg’s FNB stadium. This was an impressive turnout, which shows the party’s mass appeal particularly with the active layers of the youth. The rally was the culmination of various activities over the week, including a ceremony in Marikana on 26 July, which is the party’s actual founding day. In his address, EFF president Julius Malema said that the Marikana massacre of 16 August 2012, in which police opened fire on striking mine workers, killing 34 and wounding 78, played a decisive role in the formation of the party.
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
Corporate Consolidation Is Ruining Pharmacies and Hurting Patients CVS, the sixth-largest corporation in the US, has spent years consolidating its power. If you spent any time in a pharmacy on July 10 or 11, you may have noticed prescriptions were delayed, and the staff seemed even more stressed than usual. CVS Caremark, the pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) component of CVS Health, was non-operational for multiple days, meaning when the pharmacy tried to electronically submit a claim to insurance, it did not process. Pharmacy staff were unable to determine whether any prescriptions would be covered, or what patients’ co-pays would be. If America had a robust, competitive PBM market, perhaps this outage would have not been particularly disruptive. Unfortunately, like many markets these days, instead we have an oligopoly, and Caremark alone processes about one-third of all prescriptions in the country.