CAPITALIST SYSTEMIC POVERTY

DARWIN HOLMSTROM—The response of the matrix to its own demise exposes its ultimate failure. The ruling oligarchy being so desperate to regain control of the narrative that it’s resorting to ludicrous attempts to censor social media shows us that the matrix isn’t an omnipotent monolith. There are powerful forces that do conspire to achieve certain goals, but they operate using classic game theory–the competing powerful forces only cooperate as long as it serves their mutual interests; when their goals are achieved, they’ll be at one another’s throats once again.

J. HANKS—Cuba plans to vaccinate all of Havana by the end of May, 60% of the country by August and the entire country by the end of 2021, which will make it one of the world’s first to achieve “herd immunity.” Vaccinations are voluntary, but the government expects broad adoption by the public, who are highly educated and informed on issues regarding public health. This is due to decades of extensive public health campaigns, free national health care, free education and the promotion of science and technology. Cuba’s vaccine industry is currently reorganizing to be able to produce 100 million doses for export.

MICHAEL HUDSON—If China had been crazy enough to have student loans and leave its graduates impoverished instead of providing free universities, China’s central bank could simply write off the student loans. No investors would lose, because the banks are owned by the government. Its position is, “If you’re a factory, we don’t want you to have to close down and unemploy your labor. We’ll just write down the debt. And if your employees are having a really hard time, we’ll just write down their debts, so that they can spend their money on goods and services to help expand our internal market.”

America’s banks are owned by the stockholders and bondholders, who would never let Chase Manhattan or Citibank or Wells Fargo just forgive their various categories of loans. That’s why public banking is so much more efficient from an economy-wide level than private banks. It’s why banking should be a public utility, not privatized.

MoA—Such ships pay $700.000 to pass through the Suez canal. Smaller ones pay less. But the average is some $450,000 and at 50+ ships per day the losses for Egypt add up. The hundreds of ships which are currently blockaded and the owners of their cargoes may also ask for compensation.

The ship is insured for probably up to 140 million. That will not be enough to pay for this incident. Many court claims will be made.

CAITLIN JOHNSTONE—”The most significant thing happening in the world right now is the fact that the global capitalist order which is destroying our ecosystem is held in place by a US-centralized power alliance whose aggressions are putting our planet at increasing risk of nuclear war. There is nothing more urgent or newsworthy than the fact that multiple forms of human insanity are imperiling the entire human species, and indeed the life of every terrestrial organism. The fact that this isn’t at the forefront of our attention shows how propagandized we are…”