Daily News Digest September 7, 2023
Image of the Day:
Climate Energency: Irreversible While the war in Ukraine is escalating, the IPCC issues yet another report with the ominous warning that many of the effects of climate chage are now irreversible.
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:
In his 1984 novel, The principles of newspeak, George Orwell introduces newspeak, a language based on modern-day English but altered to have simplified grammar and vocabulary with the intention of completely shadowing the English language (oldspeak in newspeak) by 2050. Newspeak proponents are members of the Party who are determined to remove all words and phrases that have anything to do with freedom, rebellion and oppression among other afflictions of the regime. The party monitors everything in Oceania; it has telescreens everywhere and political rebellion is unheard of. Even thinking rebelliousness is deemed a horrible crime. — “The Principles of Newspeak” by George Orwell Essay
The press is so powerful in its image-making role, it can make a criminal look like he’s the victim and make the victim look like he’s the criminal. This is the press, an irresponsible press. If you aren’t careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressedand loving the people who are doing the oppressing. — Malcolm X, Audubon Ballroom, December 13, 1964
In a Reuters interview, Vidal gives the following summation of his outlook: One obvious fact is that the nation’s first unelected president, appointed by the US Supreme Court, has seized upon this event as well as the anthrax bio-attack to institute a far-reaching ‘anti-terrorist’ regime that for all practical purposes rips up the US Constitution and Bill of Rights so as to replace it with the caprice of executive fiat. “This in and of itself should be sufficient for some strong measure of alarm on the part of most Americans, one would think — if these were normal times. They are not normal times for precisely the opposite reason that the great master illusionists of our historical era would have us believe. The great master illusionists, the global corporate media empires, run by some of the wealthiest and most powerful individuals ever to have lived on this planet, would have us believe that the real dire deadly threat to our present safety and security comes from some shadowy group of terrorists that anyone with a high school education and even the most rudimentary computer skills could find out to have been created from the very ‘getgo’ by the very institutional power structure that now exploits the existence of these ‘terrorists’ as the reason for suspending the normal constitutional order and the use of extra-judicial measures (e.g., covert action) as the remedy for their Frankensteinian creation! How very convenient! The sadness, danger, and national disgrace of the present moment come not from the fact that this present crop of world class totalitarians come replete with jackboots and swastikas but rather that they don’t! Evil never wears a convenient label but more often than not portrays itself as an ‘angel of light’. That of course is what makes it evil because it is that which it pretends not to be or that which it claims, as in this case, to be fighting against. How is it then that humanity has survived in the face of this most monstrous of existential constructs? History, tradition, experience — or what Dostoyevsky referred to as ‘learning to live life through one’s stomach’ (aka guts!) — have taught us. It is this of course that is and always will be our ultimate and only source of salvation in whatever time or place we may find our sorry selves. Joy springs eternal from this happy fact!” — Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace
Video:
Michael Hudson: BRICS+ is Here Geopolitical analyst and journalist Pepe Escobar and Economist Michael Hudson join for a super panel discussion on the economics of BRICS following the historic expansion announced at the 15th Summit this week. (FYI: XV BRICS Summit Johannesburg II Declaration BRICS and Africa: Partnership for Mutually Accelerated Growth, Sustainable Development and Inclusive Multilateralism)
Environment:
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 is Ecoscialism or Ecocide!
International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC): Climate Change 2023 Synthesis Report Summary for Policymakers Panel Synthesis Report Summary for Policymakers C. Responses in the Near Term Urgency of Near-Term Integrated Climate Action C.1 Climate change is a threat to human well-being and planetary health (very high confidence). There is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a livable and sustainable future for all (very high confidence). Climate resilient development integrates adaptation and mitigation to advance sustainable development for all, and is enabled by increased international cooperation including improved access to adequate financial resources, particularly for vulnerable regions, sectors and groups, and inclusive governance and coordinated policies (high confidence). The choices and actions implemented in this decade will have impacts now and for thousands of years (high confidence). {3.1, 3.3,,
Crumbling Infrastucture of the United States: The Brockovich Report: Bursting Pipes & Opportunistic Pathogens These Water Stories Can Teach Us A Lot About Our Struggling Systems New York City. The city that never sleeps. Sometimes, because a 127-year-old water main breaks at 3 a.m. under Times Square, flooding midtown streets and the city’s busiest subway station. Gah! Last week, a 20-inch (half-meter) pipe burst under 40th Street and Seventh Avenue. This is why infrastructure is so important, friends! We forget about what’s under our feet and the age of these systems. There’s about 1.6 million miles of water and sewer pipes in the United States that help deliver our drinking water to homes, schools, and businesses. The average age of our municipal pipes is almost 50 years old. The cast iron pipes in at least 600 towns and counties are more than a century old, according to industry estimates. That cast iron pipe in NYC was actually built to last about 120 years, so it was more than past its prime. And just think about what the city was like more than a century ago versus now. That’s a huge demand for an old pipe!
Nearly 2 Million Gallons Of Water Flood New York’s Times Square After Pipe Breaks A 127-year-old water main under New York’s Times Square gave way, flooding midtown streets and the busy Times Square subway station. Subway service was suspended through much of Manhattan on the 1, 2 and 3 lines. through much of Mann on the 1 2 and 3 lines.
Biden Is Turning US Towns Into Test Subjects for Climate Scams Neither plastic burning nor carbon capture will help our climate change problem, but both are false solutions that threaten the health and safety of America’s rural communities. The Biden administration has betrayed its climate and environmental justice commitments in order to let the fossil fuel industry continue its dangerous and dirty practices. The consequences are hitting America’s small towns first. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently approved permits to allow a Chevron refinery on the Mississippi Gulf Coast to burn a boat fuel ingredient using a process the fossil fuel industry refers to as “chemical recycling” and environmental health advocates call burning plastic. According to EPA’s own data, Chevron’s fuel ingredient will cause virtually everyone with lifetime exposure to develop cancer. The cancer risk is six times higher than a lifelong cigarette habit.
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!
Why I Do Not Believe the Mainstream News — It’s the 1%’s Newspeak: Book Review: The Media Monopoly By Roland Sheppard 2010 Update: In 1983, 50 corporations controlled the vast majority of all news media in the U.S. At the time, Ben Bagdikian was called “alarmist” for pointing this out in his book, The Media Monopoly. In his 4th edition, published in 1992, he wrote “in the U.S., fewer than two dozen of these extraordinary creatures own and operate 90% of the mass media”— controlling almost all of America’s newspapers, magazines, TV and radio stations, books, records, movies, videos, wire services and photo agencies. He predicted then that eventually this number would fall to about half a dozen companies. This was greeted with skepticism at the time. When the 6th edition of The Media Monopoly was published in 2000, the number had fallen to six. Since then, there have been more mergers and the scope has expanded to include new media like the Internet market. More than 1 in 4 Internet users in the U.S. now log in with AOL Time-Warner, the world’s largest media corporation. — Media Reform Information Center
Michael Roberts Facebook. Blog: A new study on US taxpayers concludes that just $1 spent auditing taxpayers above the 90th income percentile (the highest incomes) yields more than $12 in revenue (NBER). “We estimate the returns to IRS audits of taxpayers across the income distribution. We find an additional $1 spent auditing taxpayers above the 90th income percentile yields more than $12 in revenue, while audits of below-median income taxpayers yield $5.” So, taxing the rich properly even on current tax rates would bring substantial increases in government revenues to provide funds for public services. Re: A Welfare Analysis of Tax Audits Across the Income Distribution
The ‘War of Terror’ From Hell We Chose After 9/11 Remembering the day that a war designed never to end started. The day after the U.S. government began routinely bombing faraway places, the lead editorial in the New York Times expressed some gratification. Nearly four weeks had passed since 9/11, the newspaper noted, and America had finally stepped up its “counterattack against terrorism” by launching airstrikes on al-Qaeda training camps and Taliban military targets in Afghanistan. “It was a moment we have expected ever since September 11,” the editorial said. “The American people, despite their grief and anger, have been patient as they waited for action. Now that it has begun, they will support whatever efforts it takes to carry out this mission properly.”
Google Doesn’t Want Public to Listen In on Historic Antitrust Trial “While ordinary Americans can get their whole lives exposed in court, a trillion-dollar company is opposed to an accessible public trial and attempting to shroud their own proceedings in secrecy.” Next week, a federal judge in Washington, D.C. is set to begin hearing arguments in what’s been described as potentially the most consequential antitrust case in the United States in decades.
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
‘There is an Attack on Black Literacy’: Why Education and Activism Go Together “Reading is a fundamental human right,” said movement lawyer Justin Hansford. “Wherever people are oppressed or marginalized, they need to have the power of education to be able to organize politically, advance economically, build their own businesses, to be able to do anything—fight against stigma, build strong, healthy families.” Justin Hansford of Howard University’s Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center explains why the contemporary Black liberation movement needs to emphasize political education. . . . A2022 report from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, dubbed the nation’s report card, reported that 33% of Maryland’s eighth graders could not read at a basic level. For Black students, this number was an alarming 46%. Furthermore, 82% of Black students could not read at a proficient level, according to the report.
Labor:
Econommy:
Senate Banking to Convene Hearing Today on Climate Crisis Becoming a Homeowners Insurance Crisis As climate-related disasters in the United States have taken on the look and feel of sci-fi films, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing this morning on the dramatic impact this is having on the ability of homeowners to find and keep affordable homeowners insurance policies.
World:
Feeding Big Ag While Africans Starve Industrial agriculture has failed to eliminate food insecurity in Africa. It is time for a radically different approach. On September 5, the annual Africa Food Systems Forum, organised by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), will launch in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Government officials, experts, policymakers and business leaders will come together to discuss – in their words – “building back better food systems and food sovereignty”. Sponsored by international philanthropic and bilateral donors and agrochemical and biotech companies such as Yara, Corteva and Bayer, the forum promotes hybrid and genetically modified seeds, chemical fertilisers and pesticides used in the type of industrial-scale agriculture that has failed to deliver “better food systems” or “food sovereignty”. This approach to growing food, involving problematic practices that harm soils, pollute the environment, and favour large landowners and big agribusiness, has been pushed on Africa in the past few decades. But it has not helped the continent overcome food insecurity.
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