Daily News Digest November 15, 2023
Images 0f the Day:
World War I, ‘the war to end all wars’, since then, 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:
It’s important to emphasize that Engels is intervening in a particular debate in a particular historical movement. He isn’t proposing a comprehensive or dogmatic program in which reforms are a hindrance to revolution. Instead, he was insisting that the fundamental contradiction in the housing question is between the exchange value and its use value of housing. The core issue is that housing is a commodity rather than a right, and that this struggle must be part of a revolutionary program. “Each social revolution,” he says, “will have to take things as it finds them and do its best to get rid of the most crying evils with the means at its disposal.” Whatever form housing struggles take, whether it be rent freezes and strikes, community land trusts, or taking over abandoned buildings, they have the potential not only to improve people’s lives but to demonstrate the power of collective action, empower communities, and agitate against the inhumanity of capitalism—a system that produces homelessness within a landscape of excess housing, that keeps the ownership of housing and other fundamental necessities in the private hands of the few rather than the common hands of the many. — Engels on the Housing Question: Wishful Thinking Vs. Real Solutions
There is a famous quote: “Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind”–John F. Kennedy. It is self-explanatory, we eclipsed the capacity for mutually assured destruction—species extinction—decades ago. But I think there is a deeper meaning in what an end to mankind is. If we fail to recognize the cries of babies, Israeli or Palestinian or refugee, that is an end. The moment we fail to see humankind in innocent children—which happens in war—we start losing our own humanity. Elie Wiesel described the loss of his compassion in concentration camps during the holocaust as most concerning; to him it was most central to being human. Inexplicably and indefensibly, we continue to accept, allow, and tolerate the use of violence. Immoral in its civilian casualties and unthinkable in its counterproductivity; we have never bombed our way to peace. Maybe one day we will have a word to specifically describe such nonsensical devotion to failed strategy. For the meantime we will have to learn “thakla” because the only guarantee is more grieving parents. Sadly, for many it is a lesson they will never forget. — No Words to Describe the Suffering
Video of the Day:
Cornel West Speaks to Al Jazeera On War in Gaza
Cornel West Calls for an Immediate Ceasefire in Gaza
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 ford 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
U.S. Funded Palestinian Genocide:
‘Genocide Joe!’: 100 US Officials Sign Memo Decrying Biden’s Backing of Israeli ‘War Crimes’ in Gaza The State Department and USAID staffers denounced the president’s “unwillingness to de-escalate” Israel’s relentless attacks on Gaza, which have killed more than 11,000 Palestinians. One hundred U.S. foreign service officials have signed a “scathing” internal memo blasting President Joe Biden’s “unwillingness to de-escalate” Israel’s assault on Gaza and his failure to stop Israeli “war crimes and/or crimes against humanity” in the embattled Palestinian enclave. Axiosreported Monday that the five-pageinternal dissent memo was signed by officials at the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The memo was reportedly organized by Sylvia Yacoub, a foreign affairs officer in the State Department’s Bureau of Middle East Affairs who earlier this month accused Biden of being “complicit in genocide” as Israeli forces indiscriminately bombarded the Gaza strip by air, land, and sea—killing thousands of Palestinians, mostly women and children.
Seeking Emergency Order, Palestinians Sue Biden for Failing to Prevent Genocide “The United States has a clear and binding obligation to prevent, not further, genocide,” said a senior attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights. In an effort backed by some of the world’s leading genocide and Holocaust experts, a progressive legal advocacy group on Monday sued U.S. President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for “failure to prevent genocide” by Israeli forces in Gaza and sought an emergency court order to stop American military and diplomatic support for Israel.
The Biden Administration Says It Can’t Do Anything to Stop the War on Gaza. That’s a Lie! Following mounting criticism for its inaction, the Biden administration is claiming it is powerless to stop the Israeli onslaught against Gaza. This is a sick evasion, given how much military and diplomatic support the US unquestioningly provides Israel.
Weapons Makers Profit From Carnage, Not Defense of Democracy Praising the U.S. arms industry as the “arsenal of democracy” obscures the numerous ways it undermines our security and wastes our tax dollars. The New York Timesheadline said it all: “Middle East War Adds to Surge in International Arms Sales.” The conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine, and beyond may be causing immense and unconscionable human suffering, but they are also boosting the bottom lines of the world’s arms manufacturers. There was a time when such weapons sales at least sparked talk of “the merchants of death” or of “war profiteers.” Now, however, is distinctly not that time, given the treatment of the industry by the mainstream media and the Washington establishment, as well as the nature of current conflicts. Mind you, the American arms industry already dominates the international market in a staggering fashion, controlling 45% of all such sales globally, a gap only likely to grow more extreme in the rush to further arm allies in Europe andthe Middle East in the context of the ongoing wars in those regions. In his nationally televised address about the Israel-Hamas and Russia-Ukraine wars, President Biden described the American arms industry in remarkably glowing terms, noting that, “just as in World War II, today patriotic American workers are building the arsenal of democracy and serving the cause of freedom.” From a political and messaging perspective, the president cleverly focused on the workers involved in producing such weaponry rather than the giant corporations that profit from arming Israel, Ukraine, and other nations at war. But profit they do and, even more strikingly, much of the revenues that flow to those firms is pocketed as staggering executive salaries and stock buybacks that only boost shareholder earnings further.
Catastrophic Ethnic Cleansing As Maya Angelou wisely advised, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” Members of the Israeli government have been quite candid about their plans for the civilian population of the Gaza Strip, so candid that one has to wonder whether the current campaign is actually aimed at destroying Hamas (which everyone knows to be unlikely) and whether it is really intended to ensure the further ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. Some 70% of the families in Gaza are refugees from southern Israel, expelled there by Zionist militiamen in 1948. Now they will be displaced again.
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’!
Rising Seas, Flooding Coasts Key Concepts
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As sea levels rise, flooding is becoming more common along U.S. coasts, where about 30% of the population lives.
- High tide flooding can occur in the absence of heavy rainfall or storms, and the effects can be disruptive, dangerous, and costly for coastal communities.
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The annual frequency of high tide flooding in the U.S. has more than doubled since 2000 — and is projected to more than triple again by 2050 as sea levels continue to rise.
According to NOAA outlooks for 2023, the annual risk of high tide flooding is expected to peak during late September and October in many locations along the East and Gulf Coasts.
The Brockovich Report: Don’t Sweat It Don’t Sweat It Today’s story is a hard one, even for me. When I’m feeling stressed, I go for long walks, usually in my yoga pants. I also love to get sweaty in the gym. In a world full of so much chaos, working out helps brings me some calm. I hadn’t thought much about what my workout clothes were made of until this new research emerged earlier this year. Gah! Here we go…. Sports clothes are particularly problematic because most of their fabrics are made from synthetics like Spandex, nylon, and polyester, which are essentially plastic. These materials are made from petrochemicals, or the products obtained from petroleum refining. Many times, these clothes also contain harmful chemical additives such as phthalates, PFAS, and bisphenols. A 2022 report by Toxic-Free Future, an environmental health research and advocacy organization, found that nearly three-quarters of products labeled as water- or stain-resistant tested positive for PFAS. Another study by the American Chemical Society found textile products sold in the U.S. and Canada contained high concentrations of PFAS in materials used in children’s uniforms marketed as stain-resistant.
Black Liberation/Civil Rights:
Labor:
Economy:
With Yesterday’s Digest With a25.4% Unemployment Report— We are in a Stagflation!:
The Dollar Continues to Decline:Purchasing Power of the Consumer Dollar in U.S. City Average
FREd: Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: All Items in U.S. City Average
FRED Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Rent of Primary Residence in U.S. City Average
The Deposit Insurance Fund Has a Balance of $117 Billion to Protect Deposits at 4,622 Banks. But One of Those Banks Has $1.4 Trillion in Uninsured Deposits Today, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee will call federal banking regulators before it to testify at a hearing at 10 a.m. The underlying theme will be why these regulators were caught napping when the second, third, and fourth largest bank failures in U.S. history occurred in a span of seven weeks this past Spring and hear about the new plans of action to restore confidence in the U.S. banking system.
World:
The Real Origins of the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine Began Long Before 1948 Historian Zachary Foster discusses the history that has delivered us to this moment. . . . Zachary Foster: I think the real origins of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine began long before 1948. I think every Zionist leader, and every Zionist thinker from the late 19th century to 1948 all struggled with the same question, which was, “How is it that you establish a Jewish state in a land that is majority non-Jewish, in a land that is majority Palestinian Arab?” Different Zionist leaders took different positions, but I think that the dominant position was that the Palestinian people are not willing to subject themselves to Jewish domination. They have strong roots in the country. They have a strong national identity. The position for most Zionists was that, “We’re going to probably have to expel them.” That was the position of Theodor Herzl. That was the position of Yosef Weitz, Ze’ev Jabotinsky. Many, if not most of the Zionist leaders leading up to ’48 believed that. And then, in 1948, when the British decided to pack up and leave, to abandon this colonial enterprise, this British mandatory government, war broke out between the Palestinians and the Zionists. Over the course of the 1948 war, the Zionist forces expelled something like 750,000 Palestinians from their homes. Of course, some of those Palestinians left on their own, some were expelled by force. But the reason I would call it ethnic cleansing is because in the aftermath of the war. The Israeli military prevented Palestinians who were trying to return to their homes after the war. They prevented them from coming back, and they had a shoot to kill order.
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
Capitalism’s Rental Hell: Expropriate the Landlords! Horror stories emerge on a daily basis of the appalling conditions and eye-watering costs that millions of tenants face across the country, due to the anarchy of the market. Instead of government regulation or rent caps, we need workers’ control. The housing crisis in Britain is reaching staggering new extremes. The cost of renting is increasing faster than ever; evictions are on the rise; and all whilst one million homes sit empty across England alone. In August, UK rents increased year-on-year by a staggering 12% on average. This is the largest annual increase on record. Rents have increased fastest in cities. London saw a whopping 17% increase on top of already eye-watering rents. As a result, 52% of single renters now spend more than half of their incomes on rent.
Two million US children have been removed from Medicaid health insurance since April Research by Georgetown University and the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that at least two million children have been kicked off Medicaid and one million have no health insurance at all, following the Biden administration’s termination of pandemic-related public health measures. New research shows that at least two million US children who are eligible for government assistance have been kicked off of Medicaid health insurance since last April, when federal pandemic aid programs were halted. According to data compiled by the Georgetown Center for Children and Families and KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation), under the title “Medicaid Enrollment and Unwinding Tracker,” as of November 8 the two million children who qualified for ongoing coverage had their insurance terminated largely due to bureaucratic bungling, including missing paperwork and government errors. Additionally, the Georgetown and KFF study says that due to lags in data reporting by states, the numbers being reported “undercount the actual number of disenrollments to date.”