Daily News Digest August 8, 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:
Conspiracy theories are, of course, nothing new. What’s different now is that conspiracy fact is being replaced by conspiracy theory. We know that the oil industry has long known about the climatological impact of burning hydrocarbons. Yet the more we learn about the extent of Big Oil’s knowledge, the more these recharged denialists paint efforts to mitigate climate pollution as a wide-ranging conspiracy to “destroy America.” Their culprits, though, are not the self-incriminating corporations who’ve profited from knowingly polluting the atmosphere while gouging U.S. consumers at the pump. Instead, they blame a strange mélange of “Neo-Marxists,” so-called “climate cultists” and treacherous “global elites.” In essence, denialism is replacing a demonstrable, just-follow-the-money (and documents) conspiracy by Big Oil with a grand, fantastical and wholly unproven conspiracy by elites and radical environmentalists who are supposedly using climate change as an elaborate ruse to dismantle the United States — There Is a Climate Conspiracy — But Not the One Climate Denialists Are Peddling
Podcasts/Vidoes of the Day:
The Chris Hedges Report: Repairing America’s Trauma Epidemic by Confronting Sexual Violence
Envir0nment:
One of Many Ways to Begin to End Global Warming: Expose ‘Greenwashing’ — Tax the Polluters 100%!
After World War II Rosa Luxenburg Coined the Slogan: ‘S0cialism or Barbaism’! Now the Slogan Should Be: ‘Ecosocialism or Ecocide’!
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%!
TTime is Running Out! The Choice — Green Industrial Revolution or Ecocide!: George Monbiot: Here’s the truth About Sunak’s Plans for the North Sea: He Will Sell Out the Planet to the Dirtiest Bidders Despite grave new warnings about the depth of the climate crisis, plutocrats are fighting to keep their profits – and our PM is with them To understand this moment, we have to recognise that there is an existential struggle on both sides. While environmental scientists and activists fight for the very survival of the habitable planet, the fossil fuel, meat and internal combustion industries are fighting for their economic survival. Either they are regulated out of existence or human society across much of the world will fail. We cannot all win: either these industries survive or we do. But we can all lose, because, eventually, they will go down with the rest of us.
Significant Melting Expected in Greenland Deforestation in Indigenous Territories (ITs) in the Brazilian Amazon caused the emission of 96 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) between 2013 and 2021, modifying the forest’s role as a carbon sink in these areas. Emissions in the last three years of the period (2019–21) accounted for 59%, reflecting intensification of the destruction. Deforestation in Indigenous Territories (ITs) in the Brazilian Amazon caused the emission of 96 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) between 2013 and 2021, modifying the forest’s role as a carbon sink in these areas. Emissions in the last three years of the period (2019–21) accounted for 59%, reflecting intensification of the destruction.
Winter Heatwave in Andes is Sign of Things to Come, Scientists Warn Human-caused climate disruption and El Niño push temperature in mountains to 37C Exceptional winter heat in the Andean mountains of South America has surged to 37C, prompting local scientists to warn the worst may be yet to come as human-caused climate disruption and El Niño cause havoc across the region. The heatwave in the central Chilean Andes is melting the snow below 3,000 metres (9,840ft), which will have knock-on effects for people living in downstream valleys who depend on meltwater during the spring and summer.
Confronting the Climate Crisis Requires Disruptive Action and Radical Healing Disruptive climate activism is the single most effective way to intervene in the climate emergency. Climate disasters are unfolding so quickly one can barely keep track. Wildfires in Canada have already burned millions of acres and sent thick smoke across the entire East Coast of the U.S. Italy’s recent flooding has displaced more than 23,000 people. Heat waves in India, Spain, and beyond are devastating crops and killing people. And warming is not just increasing, it’s accelerating. July was the hottest month on record. Indeed, the World Meteorological Organization has issued a stark warning that we will likely reach 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming before 2027 — the amount of warming that the world agreed in Paris in 2016 to try to avoid.When I wrote the first edition of Facing the Climate Emergency: How to Transform Yourself with Climate Truth in 2019, I invited readers to get involved somehow. I shared a “big tent” vision of the climate movement that encouraged people to do something to spread the word about the climate emergency and need for a WWII-scale mobilization in response. But, at this late hour, we have to push ourselves beyond doing “something,” we need to ask ourselves: “What is the most effective way that I can participate in the movement? What is the fastest way for the movement to create rapid and transformative change?” As the executive director of the Climate Emergency Fund, I have spent hundreds of hours on a very similar question, considering the most strategic way to leverage funds to do that. I have come to the conclusion that we don’t have time for a “good” approach — we need breakthroughs on a tremendous scale and speed.
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!
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%!
Who Got Robbed and Who Got Richer The Debt Ceiling Theater In 2021, almost half of U.S. workers, and much higher percentages of Black and Latinx ones, didn’t earn enough to afford a one-bedroom apartment. What does this fact have to do with the brouhaha about suspending the debt ceiling that Congress passed on June 1, 2023? As it turns out, a lot. The corporate media focused on the phony fight between Republicans and Democrats over whether government could continue to pay its bills and avoid default. But the whole kerfuffle was really political theater to justify stealing from the poor and working class to fatten the rich. Wealth inequality in the U.S. is so extreme that the richest 0.1% take in 196 times more than the entire bottom 90%. It is the only rich nation without universal health care, paid family leave, affordable college, paid vacations, child and elder care, and much more. Yet it continually cuts social safety net spending. And the periodic deal to raise the debt ceiling has become a tool to do it. This year’s pact was even worse. On top of cutting aid, it increased military spending, cut funding for IRS enforcement of what meager taxes are levied on the rich, and gratuitously gutted environmental laws.
With Marines on Persian Gulf Vessels, Is Biden Risking War With Iran? Biden is charting a dangerous path in signaling to Saudi Arabia that Washington has its back in return for Israel normalization. The Washington Post reports that Biden is embarking on a “remarkable escalation” in the Persian Gulf that could lead to a U.S.-Iran war. He is reportedly preparing to authorize U.S. Marines and sailors to be stationed on interested commercial vessels in an effort to thwart Iran from seizing oil tankers in the region.
Ralph Nader: January 6th Indictment One Step Short of the Full Case Against Trump The January 6th indictment is solid as granite. All the incriminating testimony and evidence is from the former President’s appointees or political supporters, for example, former Attorney General William Barr and former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone. Democrats are nowhere to be seen. Even lavishly compensated private investigators, hired by Mr. Trump himself to unearth electoral fraud, came up empty handed. The knockout is from former Vice President Pence. He testified in various formulations that on January 6, 2021, Mr. Trump demanded that he “choose between [Trump] and the Constitution.” Mr. Trump’s demand showed his knowledge that he was haranguing the Vice President to do something contrary to the Constitution. Mr. Trump was not presenting legal arguments in favor of an alternative constitutional understanding. Mr. Trump, a few days earlier, had similarly assailed Pence for being “too honest” in denying any constitutional foundation for a lawsuit claiming the Vice President possessed the authority to reject state-certified electoral votes.
Oppenheimer: Communism, Mccarthyism, and the Bomb In a break from his usual Hollywood blockbusters, Christopher Nolan’s latest release offers a dramatic and tense look at the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the ‘father of the bomb’, exploring the politics of McCarthy-era America along the way.
Civil Rights/Blackliberation:
Labor:
Economy:
Shadow Government Statistics Augst ^tth Update August ShadowStats-Alternate Unemployment) Rate holding at a 21-month high of 24.9%, · Amidst deteriorating U.S. economic activity and high risk of surging inflation activity, the inaugural “ShadowStats New Weekly Commentary” should be advised and linked to Subscribers in the week head. With the new e-mail system now in place, at least three weekly Commentaries follow for the balance of August, with four weekly Commentaries following each month thereafter.
· This week’s pending Commentary will update and review the current ShadowStats Outlook for the U.S. Economy and Inflation. The Outlook has changed little. ShadowStats contends and will show that the economy remains in a deepening downturn, intensified by ongoing Federal Reserve Rate Hikes, with headline inflation facing a near-term rebound, thanks to the Fed’s continuing, broadly based, excessive an still-growing Money Supply and Systemic Liquidity.
· The systemic Inflation is not being driven by the Fed’s proclaimed overheating economy. Such an economy simply does not exist, at present.
· The pending Weekly Commentary also will review the deteriorating, big-picture conditions evident in the August 4th release of the Bureau of Labor Statistics July 2023 Employment/ Unemployment Report. Discouraged Workers increasingly are disappearing from BLS accounting, with the August ShadowStats-Alternate Unemployment) Rate holding at a 21-month high of 24.9%, while the BLS headline narrow U.3 Unemployment declined to 3.50% from 3.57%, with the broader U.6 declining to 6.67% from 6.88%. Other recent reporting and the various, latest Alternate Data detail also will be reviewed in this week’s Update.
The 25 Largest U.S. Banks Are Seeing the Largest Fall in Deposits in 38 Years With No Signs of Letting Up Deposits at the 25-largest domestically-chartered U.S. commercial banks peaked at $11.680 trillion on April 13, 2022, according to the updated H.8 data maintained at the Federal Reserve Economic Database (FRED). As of the most current H.8 data for the week ending on Wednesday, July 26, 2023, deposits stood at $10.709 trillion at those 25 commercial banks, a dollar decline of $970 billion and a percentage decline of 8.3 percent. Equally noteworthy, the decline shows no signs of letting up. According to the FRED data, between July 5 and the most current reading on July 26, the 25 largest U.S. banks shed $174 billion in deposit.
World:
Review: Brecht’s ‘The Decision’ – The crimes of Stalinism Based on the tragic events of the 1925-27 Chinese revolution, Bertolt Brecht’s ‘The Decision’ provides a powerful commentary on the betrayals of Stalinism and the idea of revolutionary sacrifice – something that liberal critics cannot understand Bertolt Brecht’s 1930 play, The Decision – recently performed by the Birmingham Opera Company (BOC), and available to watch on YouTube – revolves around four Soviet agitators sent to China to assist the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the 1925-27 revolution. Whilst there, they meet a young comrade who is swept up in the revolutionary movement. He is eventually shot by the agitators for “endangering the movement” by letting his honest and genuine attempts to help the Chinese masses get in the way of the overall task of spreading the ideas of Marxism and building the revolutionary 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
COVID-19 Wastewater Levels and Hospitalizations Continue to Rise Across the US The latest wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US, entirely hidden from the public, is continuing apace. On Thursday, Biobot Analytics released its latest data, showing that the level of SARS-CoV-2 viral particles in wastewater across the US has risen by 125 percent over the past six weeks. Every geographic region is undergoing a surge in wastewater levels, an advance indicator of the spread of the virus. Scientists are forced to estimate the spread of COVID-19 by sampling wastewater because the federal government has stopped counting the number of COVID-19 cases. In May, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stopped reporting the daily number of people who tested positive for COVID-19, in a deliberate effort to cover up the spread of the disease in order to condition the public to accept perpetual mass infection. Extrapolating from wastewater data, infectious disease modeler J.P. Weiland estimates that they translate to roughly 419,000 Americans currently being infected with COVID-19 each day, or one in every 790 Americans. Given that a COVID-19 infection lasts for 10 days on average, this means that roughly 4.2 million Americans are likely currently infected with the virus.