Daily News Digest May 26, 2023
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:
Bendib: Justice 4 sale
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:
Recently a new factor has been added to the equation — “The Drug Trade”. In the 2001 article: War on Drugs Dirty Money Foundation of US Growth and Empire Size and Scope of Money Laundering by US Banks by James Petras, Professor of Sociology, Binghamton University, he explains that 500 Billion to a Trillion dollars gets added to world capitalist economy through “illegal means.” — Reparations and Capitalism
Videos/Podcasts of the Day:
Black Agenda Radio May 19, 2023 With Margaret Kimberly
Haitian Flag Day and US Imperialism
Bail Reform Undermined in New York and Across the Country
Eric Adams’ Response to the Killing of Jordan Neely
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
Approval of US Troops to Train Peruvian Armed Forces Proves US Behind Coup National Strike, Day 140. Amid continuing social upheaval five months after the parliamentary coup against Pedro Castillo, the Peruvian Congress, controlled by the hard right, has approved the entrance of US troops into national territory to train the Peruvian military and National Police beginning June 1st through the end of the year. This comes after the Supreme Court ruled that protest is not a protected right under the 1993 Fujimori dictatorship era constitution. This also comes after a visit from the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Peaceful Assembly and Association Clément Nyaletsossi Voule stated that there was no evidence of terrorism from protesters and called for accountability and political reform to end the crisis. As multiple reports from human rights observers have confirmed, the armed forces carried out extrajudicial killings and massacres during the first few months of the popular uprising following the overthrow of President Pedro Castillo. The Peruvian masses have stated that this was a clear US backed coup from the beginning and are now getting concrete evidence that the right-wing coup regime works hand in hand with the North American hegemonic power to train armed forces in so called “conflict zones”, particularly in the south of the country where the strike and blockades have been the strongest. With 70 votes in favor, 33 against and 4 abstentions, the Peruvian Congress approved the military training of Armed Forces by US troops, who already occupy multiple bases through US SOUTHCOM (Southern Command) since the 1990s during the Fujimori dictatorship. The “conflict zones” where US troops will be training Peruvian Armed Forces include Lima, Callao, Loreto, San Martín, Huánuco, Ucayali, Pasco, Junín, Huancavelica, Cusco, Ayacucho, Iquitos, Pucusana and Apurímac, regions which saw incredible violence on the part of the coup regime during protests the past five months. Some of these regions are also active protest areas against extractive mining corporations, like the Las Bambas copper mine in Apurímac, where there are active blockades and protests by communities affected by extractive mining that has poisoned their waters and lands.
Drugs are Profitable1: War on Drugs Dirty Money Foundation of US Growth and Empire Size and Scope of Money Laundering by US Banks . . The second and related route which the big banks use to launder hundreds of billions of dirty money is through “correspondent banking” (CB). CB is the provision of banking services by one bank to another bank. It is a highly profitable and significant sector of big banking. It enables overseas banks to conduct business and provide services for their customers — including drug dealers and others engaged in criminal activity — in jurisdictions like the U.S. where the banks have no physical presence. A bank that is licensed in a foreign country and has no office in the United States for its customers attracts and retains wealthy criminal clients interested in laundering money in the U.S. Instead of exposing itself to U.S. controls and incurring the high costs of locating in the U.S., the bank will open a correspondent account with an existing U.S. bank. By establishing such a relationship, the foreign bank (called a respondent) and through it, its criminal customers, receive many or all of the services offered by the U.S. big banks called the correspondent. Today, all the big U.S. banks have established multiple correspondent relationships throughout the world so they may engage in international financial transactions for themselves and their clients in places where they do have a physical presence. Many of the largest U.S. and European banks located in the financial centers of the world serve as correspondents for thousands of other banks. Most of the offshore banks laundering billions for criminal clients have accounts in the U.S. All the big banks specializing in international fund transfer are called money center banks, some of the biggest process up to $1 trillion in wire transfers a day. For the billionaire criminals an important feature of correspondent relationships is that they provide access to international transfer systems — that facilitate the rapid transfer of funds across international boundaries and within countries. The most recent estimates (1998) are that 60 offshore jurisdictions around the world licensed about 4,000 offshore banks which control approximately $5 trillion in assets. One of the major sources of impoverishment and crises in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Russia and the other countries of the ex-U.S.S.R. and Eastern Europe, is the pillage of the economy and the hundreds of billions of dollars which are transferred out of the country via the corresponding banking system and the Private Banking system linked to the biggest banks in the U.S. and Europe. Russia alone has seen over $200 billion illegally transferred in the course of the 1990s. The massive shift of capital from these countries to the U.S. and European banks has generated mass impoverishment and economic instability and crises. This in turn has created increased vulnerability to pressure from the IMF and World Bank to liberalize their banking and financial systems leading to further flight and deregulation which spawns greater corruption and overseas transfers via private banks as the Senate reports demonstrate. The increasing polarization of the world is embedded in this organized system of criminal and corrupt financial transactions. While speculation and foreign debt payments play a role in undermining living standards in the crisis regions, the multi-trillion dollar money laundering and bank servicing of corrupt officials is a much more significant factor, sustaining Western prosperity, U.S. empire building and financial stability.
The scale, scope and time frame of transfers and money laundering, the centrality of the biggest banking enterprises and the complicity of the governments, strongly suggests that the dynamics of growth and stagnation, empire and re-colonization are intimately related to a new form of capitalism built around pillage, criminality, corruption and complicity. (@001)
House Slammed for Passing Fentanyl Bill That Repeats Worst Mistakes of ‘Failed Drug War’ “By passing this bill, the House has signaled that Congress is entering a new carceral era.” With the support of more than 70 Democrats, the Republican-controlled U.S. House on Thursday passed legislation that would permanently classify fentanyl analogues as Schedule I drugs and impose mandatory-minimum prison sentences on people found guilty of distributing the substances—an approach that critics slammed as a return to “failed drug war strategies of the past.””It’s sad to see lawmakers revert to over-criminalization once again when we have 50 years of evidence that the war on drugs has been an abject failure,” said Laura Pitter of Human Rights Watch, one of nearly 160 advocacy groups that signed a letter earlier this week imploring Congress to reject the HALT Fentanyl Act.
It’s Clear as Day the GOP Does Not Really Care About Debt or the Deficit the rich have been the single largest driver of the federal deficit over the last two decades, followed by bipartisan military spending.Republican tax cuts for.
Right-Wing US Supreme Court Delivers ‘Catastrophic Loss for Water Protections’ The court “ripped the heart out of the law we depend on to protect American waters and wetlands,” said one critic, warning that the ruling “will cause incalculable harm.” This is a breaking story… Please check back for possible updates… The U.S. Supreme Court’s right-wing majority on Thursday severely curtailed protections for “waters of the United States.” The decision in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is “unanimous in result but very split in reasoning,” explainedSlate‘s Mark Joseph Stern. “The upshot of Sackett is that, by a 5–4 vote, the Supreme Court dramatically narrows” which wetlands are covered by the Clean Water Act (CWA).
Environment — Ecosocialism of Ecocide!:
Wichita, Kansas, You’ve Got Contamination A Leak of Chemicals At The Union Pacific Rail Yard About 30 Years Ago May Be Causing Higher Rates of Cancer Earlier this month, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) released the results of a health study conducted on an area known as “the 29th and Grove environmental site” in Wichita. The site has contamination that, the KDHE says, originated with a leak of chemicals at the Union Pacific rail yard more than 30 years ago. After a request from the community, KDHE performed the health study on 2,793 addresses representing the affected area. The study had three key findings:
- The rate of liver cancer was higher in that area than in Sedgwick County or Kansas.
- In particular, the rate of liver cancer among non-Hispanic Black people in the area was more than twice the rate compared to the same population in Kansas.
- Rates of low birthweight among infants in the area were higher than in the rest of Kansas, though those rates decreased from 2000 to 2021.
Maine Plans Removal of PFAS From Sewage Sludge Used as Fertilizer Toxic ‘forever chemicals’, concentrated in sludge, are extremely difficult to dispose of safely and also poison farmland Utility officials in Maine and elsewhere around the country are developing first-of-their-kind plans to eliminate toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” from sewage sludge spread as fertilizer on farmland. Success would address a growing agricultural crisis and reshape how the nation handles its waste – the dangerous chemicals are thought to be contaminating all sludge at high levels, and poisoning food and water on around 20m acres (8m hectares) of farmland across the US.
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Black Agenda Report
Biden’s Debt Ceiling Betrayal is a Democratic Party Tradition Joe Biden is continuing the ignoble tradition of colluding with republicans while pretending to fight them. The latest debt limit drama is another
INTERVIEW: Amy Jacques Garvey, 1973 In one of the last interviews before her death, Amy Jacques Garvey provides a powerful riposte to those contemporary revisionists that would seek to dismiss the power of the UNIA and Garvey movement…
Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki in China Eritrea can chart an exciting new development path through mutually respectful collaboration with China.
Approval of US Troops to Train Peruvian Armed Forces Proves US Behind Coup Approval of US Troops to Train Peruvian Armed Forces Proves US Behind Coup
US Post-9/11 Wars Caused 4.5 million Deaths, Displaced 38-60 Million People, Study Shows Wars the US waged in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, and Pakistan following September 11, 2001 caused at least 4.5 million deaths and displaced 38 to 60 million people, with 7.6 million children…
Abolish the GILEE Program and Stop Cop City: A Statement From the Black Alliance for Peace Atlanta Citywide Alliance The purpose of U.S. law enforcement training in Israel is to learn the violent tactics used against Palestinians and bring them back to this country.
Rising Tensions in Colombian Government Peace Talks with the ELN Colombia’s president Gustavo Petro met with Afro-descendant, Indigenous and peasant communities affected by illicit crops and guerrilla and paramilitary groups in Colombia. Talks between the…
Sudan: The Left Welcomes Ceasefire, Calls for Involvement of Civil Society, Regional Institutions Sudan: The Left Welcomes Ceasefire, Calls for Involvement of Civil Society, Regional Institutions
Labor:
Economy:
New Evidence Emerges that the Investigation of the Fed’s Trading Scandal by the Inspector General Has Been a Coverup from the Beginning Unlike his three immediate predecessors who chaired the Federal Reserve (Janet Yellen, Ben Bernanke and Alan Greenspan), who all had doctoral degrees in economics, the current Fed Chairman, Jerome Powell, has a law degree from Georgetown University. Given his legal education, one might have expected that when Fed Chair Powell became aware of the largest trading scandal in the Fed’s history in September of 2021, he would have done his legal due diligence to determine where to refer the matter for investigation. While multiple Wall Street watchdogs called for Powell to refer the investigation to the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission – which conduct all legitimate insider trading investigations involving publicly-traded stocks — the Fed instead referred the investigation on October 4, 2021 to the Federal Reserve Board’s own Inspector General, who is appointed by the Chair of the Fed, reports to the Fed Board (including the Chair) and can be fired by a two-thirds vote of the vote of the Fed Board.
World:
Oxfam Says Rich Nations ‘Complicit’ as Looming Famine Threatens Millions in Horn of Africa “One person is likely to die of hunger every 28 seconds between now and July across Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and South Sudan alone—the highest on record,” said one advocate. A pledging event convened by the United Nations on Wednesday fell far short of the $7 billion that was called for to aid countries in the Horn of Africa, where more than 23.5 million people are currently suffering from hunger brought on by one of the worst droughts in recent history. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said as he announced the pledge drive that “action will make all the difference” to avert a catastrophic famine in Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia, where 43 million people have faced five consecutive rainy seasons which brought vastly insufficient rain.
Sanctions on Venezuela Aren’t Promoting Democracy, They’re Killing Venezuelans Biden has largely kept Trump’s policies in place, leading to widespread suffering by the Venezuelan people. Venezuela’s former so-called “interim president” Juan Guaidó had barely gotten a word out during an event at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. before a group of activists leapt from their seats in order to confront and denounce the far right opposition figure. Among them was Leonardo Flores, a Venezuelan political analyst and activist living in the United States.
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