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:
Is the College Try Worth Andything? 
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:
The 10 Most Popular Quotes From 1984
If you’re wondering what the most popular 1984 quotes are, here are the ten lines from the book with the highest number of votes on Goodreads, ranging from 15,000+ to 2,200+ votes.
- “Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.”
- “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”
- “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”
- “The best books… are those that tell you what you know already.”
- “If you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself.”
- 6.“But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.”
- 7. “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—for ever.”
- 8. “We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness.”
- 9. “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”
- 10. “Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.”
Videos/Podcasts of the Day:
Daniel Ellsberg Warns Risk of Nuclear War Is Rising as Tension Mounts over Ukraine & Taiwan
Black Agenda Radio April 28, 2023 Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Gerald Horne on U.S. Foreign Policy – Part 2 Dr. Gerald Horne is an author and historian who currently holds the John J. and Rebecca Moores Chair of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston.
Ralph Yarl and the History of Racist Violence Dr. Melina Abdullah is Director of Black Lives Matter Grassroots and Co-Founder of Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles. She is also a Professor of Pan-African Studies at California State University Los…
Restoring Voting Rights for People with Felony Convictions Dr. Kristen Budd is a Research Analyst with the Sentencing Project. She joins us from Washington to discuss their new report, “Increasing Public Safety by Restoring Voting Rights.” The report…
Joe Biden’s Re-Election AnnouncementMargaret Kimberley was a guest on the Sputnik program, The Final Countdown, with hosts Ted Rall and Manila Chan. In this excerpt, she discusses the announcement of Joe Biden’s re-election campaign.
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
Bendib: GOP’s Obsession
What Exact “Security Threat” Does China Pose? Any danger from China’s rise is to the U.S.’s business and political elites, not its people Everyone who abhors war, detests imperialism, and favors cooperation between nations on global warming, poverty reduction, protection of biodiversity, international disarmament, implementation of international law, and other left-wing priorities ought to be appalled by the escalating tensions between the U.S. and China and actively organizing against them. The new Cold War between “East” (including Russia) and “West” is more dangerous than the first one, not only in having already provoked a proxy war between great powers in Europe itself, and not only in undermining any progress toward goals that are urgent for all of humanity, but also in preparing the conditions for a horrific large-scale war that might well end in nuclear winter. The coming years will, to a substantial degree, determine the future of civilization, which puts a tremendous burden on all decent people to struggle to end the madness.
US Supreme Court Puts Chevron Doctrine ‘Squarely In the Crosshairs One legal expert said that overturning the nearly 40-year precedent “would lead to far more judicial power grabs.”
Environment — Ecosocialism of Ecocide!:
The Return of May ’68: Students Launch Occupations for Climate Justice Together, we will rise up, disrupt normalcy, and fight in our schools and universities for a fossil-free world. Sleeping bags, backpacks, shoes, and dishes from last night’s dinner are scattered around the halls. It has been three days since students at Liceu Camões, a high school in central Lisbon, began their occupation, using time away from class to educate each other on what really matters in a planet on fire: climate justice, revolutionary politics, and movement strategy. Grassroots teach-ins are interwoven with drums and chants that interrupt those remaining in class. “Pelo clima. Unidos. Ocupamos. Resistimos!” (For the climate. United. We occupy.)
What Amount of Dangerous Chemicals Used in Fracking Go Unreported? More Than Scientists Imagined! A group of scientists, led by a Northeastern environmental justice lab, analyzed available data on chemicals used in fracking and arrived at some staggering conclusions. Almost 18 million people, or 5.4% of the U.S. population, live within a mile of an oil or gas well. About one-third are non-white and from ethnic backgrounds. And older individuals, young children and people with low incomes are among the most vulnerable. The purpose of the research was to highlight the lack of mandatory disclosure in federal legislation. . . . Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a process that involves injecting water, sand and chemicals under high pressure into a bedrock formation through a well. This creates new fractures in the rock or increases the size and connectivity of existing fractures to free up oil or gas reserves. The study quantified the number of disclosures and the total mass of chemicals reported between 2014 and 2021. The researchers found that chemicals that were reported amounted to 2.82 million pounds, or almost twice as much as the weight of the Washington monument. But the real surprise was that they constitute only 4% of the chemicals reported in proprietary formulas (more than 7.2 billion pounds) that do not specify the composition of the fracking fluid.
Here’s How the ‘Jet-Owning Oligarchy’ Harms Both Planet and Workers “If we can’t ban private jets, we should at least tax them and require them to pay to offset their environmental damage and subsidies.” A new analysis catalogs alarming facts about the destructive private jet industry, which is emblematic of runaway economic and carbon inequality.
‘Toxic Trail Of Pollution’: States Step Up To Curb The Use Of ‘Forever Chemicals Partisanship has thwarted Congress’s attempts to limit PFAS, but a patchwork of state laws is pushing for their phase-out. Few chemicals have attracted as intense public and regulatory scrutiny as PFAS, but even as the highly toxic and ubiquitous compounds’ dangers come into sharper focus, industry influence has crippled congressional attempts to pass meaningful consumer protections. Federal bills designed to address some of the most significant sources of exposure – food packaging, cosmetics, personal care products, clothing, textiles, cookware and firefighting foam – have all failed in recent sessions
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Discrimination Against Moms Is Still Rampant in Most WorkplacesMoms are pushed out of workplaces and subject to stereotypes — but with few legal protections, many cases go unreported. Tori Needels had been back from parental leave for two hours before she was laid off. . . . Some part of her had expected this. It was January, and the tech industry had been bombarded with layoffs since last summer. More than 230,000 tech jobs have been eliminated in the past year. While on leave, Needels, who worked in marketing in Boston, even joked with her coworkers about whether she’d have a job to return to. But other things nagged her. A week after Needels went on leave, a new person stepped into the role of her supervisor, someone she never got a chance to know well and who later helped choose who to lay off. Needels’ baby was exclusively breastfed, and she’d talked to HR while on leave about how they could accommodate her for an important staff trip in another city that was coming up. The plan had been for her to join virtually while everyone else was in person. A thought had taken root in the back of her mind: “Am I risking my career by putting my family first, just for feeding my baby?”
Labor:
‘No Other Choice’: TV & Film Writers Strike to Fight Hollywood Greed “The companies have broken this business. They have taken so much from the very people, the writers, who have made them wealthy.” Unionized film and television writers are on strike Tuesday after a midnight deadline came without a deal with executives of the major producers and streaming giants in Hollywood. The negotiating committee representing both the East and West Coast branches of the Writers Guild of America said in a statement that the strike would be in effect as of 12:01 am and that members—who voted last month to authorize a strike if one became necessary—would be on the picket line beginning Tuesday afternoon in both Los Angeles and New York.
Mother Jones Organized Against Child Labor 120 Years Ago: Let’s Resume Her Fight This May Day, in a moment of resurgent child labor, let’s take time to remember and be inspired by Mother Jones. To the shock of many, the issue of exploited child labor has been grabbing headlines in the United States In late February, The New York Times published a major exposé that documented how migrant children as young as 12 are working as roofers and food deliverers, in slaughterhouses and industrial factories, for major corporations and private equity firms, suffering injury and even death, while authorities have ignored warnings and punished whistleblowers. All this comes as a barrage of states, driven by corporate lobbying and billionaire dark money, move to weaken child labor laws. For example, Iowa’s new legislation loosening child labor regulations was virtually written by industry lobbyists and secretive think tanks funded by wealthy far right donors.
Economy:
First Republic – The Case For Public Ownership The collapse of First Republic Bank is the latest chapter in the rolling banking crisis in the US. This was the second largest banking collapse in US financial history. It demonstrates yet further the case for public ownership of the banking system. First Republic is the third bank to fail after the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature. In total, $47bn in bank assets have disappeared into smoke, the losses being taken in part by the shareholders and holders of the bonds in these banks. But there has also been a cost to public funds. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is a public body financed by contributions from all the banks. The cost of arranging and financing the cost of these bankruptcies and takeovers is estimated at $20bn (for SVB), $13bn (for First Republic) and $2.5bn (Signature). So around three-quarters of the total losses are being taken by the FDIC. The FDIC will ask for new levies from the banks, so the burden will eventually be shared, but at the expense of reducing bank lending for households and business and at higher interest costs.
There Was a Blood Bath in Some Bank Stocks Yesterday: So Much for Jamie Dimon’s Prediction That It’s the End of the Banking CrisisThere are two critical things you need to know about JPMorgan Chase’s Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon’s ability to stabilize the banking crisis: (1) he’s tried twice and failed both times; (2) his bank is a key financier of hedge funds, some of which are undermining bank stock prices with short selling. The Financial Times reported on April 5 that “Hedge funds made more than $7bn in profits by betting against bank shares during the recent crisis that rocked the sector, their biggest such haul since the 2008 financial crisis.” Shares of First Republic Bank have lost billions of dollars more in market value since April 5, meaning the $7 billion haul for short sellers is now an understatement.
World:
In Largest May Day Turnout Since Pandemic, Workers Around the World March for Better Conditions Marches from South Korea to Italy called for higher wages and targeted anti-worker policies. Workers from Japan to France took to the street on Monday for the largest May Day demonstrations since Covid-19 restrictions pushed people inside three years ago. Marchers expressed frustration with both their nations’ policies—such as French President Emmanuel Macron’s raising of the retirement age in March—and global issues like the rising cost of living and the climate crisis. “The price of everything has increased except for our wages. Increase our minimum wages!” one activist speaking in Seoul told the crowd, as TheAssociated Pressreported. “Reduce our working hours!”
Education. Health, and Welfare:
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
Aiding and Abeting Harm?: Hospitals Are Investing Billions of Dollars in Fossil Fuels, Report Reveals First-of-its-kind analysis examines pension fund investments in the fossil fuel sector made by four major U.S. hospital systems. Major hospital systems and medical institutions in the United States are betraying their oath to “first do no harm” through their investments in the fossil fuel sector, warns a new report from a campaign advocating for fossil fuel divestment in healthcare. According to the report, The Biggest Malpractice: How Hospitals Betray the Public Trust with Billions in Fossil Fuel Pension Investments, it is likely that privately owned U.S. hospitals have investments amounting to well over $10 billion in the fossil fuel economy. The report, released today by the First Do No Harm campaign and the Climate Safe Pensions Network, examines fossil fuel pension investments made by some of the largest U.S. private hospital systems. It calls for the health sector to divest from the industry most responsible for driving the climate crisis, which the medical community has recognized as a public health emergency.