Daily News Digest December 1, 2023

Daily News Digest Archives

Images of the Day:

Bendib: Home, Sweet Home 

Landon Meeting

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: Austerity, Scapegoat Blacks, Minorities, and ‘Illegal’ Immigrants for Unemployment, andThe 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:

U.S.-backed wars — both proxy and otherwise — lead to environmental damage that destabilizes whole populations and regions. The U.S. military is the largest institutional emitter of fossil fuels in the world, at about 1.2 billion metric tons from 2001 through 2018. Double the number of cars on the road in the U.S. and add a few hundred thousand more — that’s how many pounds of greenhouse gases the military has added to the atmosphere in two decades. This number comes not from our government, but from independent research by a professor at Brown University. Arriving at this information was no easy task because a reporting loophole carved out in the 1997 Kyoto Protocol exempts the U.S. military from disclosing the exact amount of its emissions. — COP28 Must Address the US Military as World’s Largest Institutional Emitter The U.S. military Industry is Both a Cause and a Consequence of Climate Change.

Videos of the Day:

“Horror Show”: Doctors Without Borders Demands Permanent Ceasefire in Gaza, Medical Aid for Wounded

UAE Oil CEO Sultan Al Jaber Uses His Role as U.N. Climate Summit President to Push Fossil Fuel Deals

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 

Gilded Age for Billionaire Offspring as $5.2 Trillion Wealth Transfer Accelerates “Without robust wealth and inheritance taxes,” said one analyst, “the children and grandchildren of today’s billionaires will dominate our future politics, economy, culture, and philanthropy.”

Nearly 1 Million Across US Call For Cease-Fire in Gaza “Only a negotiated cease-fire can pave the way to addressing the current humanitarian crisis, the release of all hostages, and a long-term solution to this conflict,” said one campaigner. The groups delivered the petition signatures to the White House on Wednesday as the world waited to see if a temporary truce would be extended. The initial four-day pause in fighting—during which Hamas freed some hostages taken last month and Israel released some Palestinian prisoners—was extended by two days on Monday, but as of press time, no new announcement had been made.

U.S. Funded Palestinian Genocide: 

Prisoners, Propaganda, and the Battle Over the Gaza War Narrative As the fragile truce between Hamas and Israel continues to yield the release of hostages and prisoners, Israel is Vowing to Escalate ehe War. Despite a temporary pause in Israel’s massive bombardment and ground operations in Gaza, the humanitarian catastrophe continues to worsen. With more than 15,000 dead Palestinians and whole neighborhoods and towns left in ruin, Israel’s defense minister has defiantly vowed to dramatically escalate the attacks inside Gaza the moment the truce ends. This week on Intercepted, Jeremy Scahill and Murtaza Hussain discuss the state of the war as well as the propaganda campaigns being waged by each side. Then Roy Yellin, head of public outreach at Israel’s leading human rights organization B’Tselem, discusses recent developments on the hostage and prisoner exchanges, how the crisis has impacted Israeli society, and describes the conditions faced by Palestinians when they are thrown into Israel’s military justice system. Yellin also explains the state sponsorship of violent Israeli settlers, the mass detentions underway of Palestinians in the West Bank, and the dangerous nature of Israel’s far-right Interior Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

 The International Labor Movement Is Mobilizing for a Free Palestine Global labor unions are responding to Palestinian workers’ calls for solidarity and demanding an immediate ceasefire. “Which side are you on?” a worker with the independent New Seasons Labor Union asked other unionized workers at a November 11 rally in Portland, Oregon. “Now normally this means, ‘Are you on the side of the workers, or are you on the side of the bosses….’ But today when we ask what side are you on, we are asking, ‘Are you on the side of the oppressed, or on the side of the oppressor?’”    The rally was organized by the labor coalition Portland Jobs with Justice (JWJ)* and a group of union activists concerned with the growing death toll in Gaza. A recently extended “humanitarian pause” between Israel and Hamas has been in effect since November 24, but as Truthout reported, “Israeli forces have continued killing Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza throughout the supposed pause.” Moreover, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has said the assault will resume once the temporary truce ends. This means that a true ceasefire has yet to be established.     While many of the groups who joined the rally were familiar to the fight for Palestinian rights, such as the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), what was notable was that this was a rally by and for the labor movement. “At Portland Jobs with Justice, we mean it when we say ‘solidarity to workers everywhere,’” Jill Pham, the executive director of Portland JWJ, told Truthout. “Palestinian trade unions made a call for labor to take a stand and we’ve answered.”

The Israeli Government Turns Screws on Haaretz Newspaper to Cease Critical Coverage of War The Israeli government is putting pressure on the left-leaning newspaper Haaretz to line up in support of the government in its conduct of the war in Gaza.     The communications minister, Shlomo Karhi, has suggested financial penalties be applied to the paper accusing it of “lying, defeatist propaganda” and “sabotaging Israel in wartime”. The proposal aims to cancel state subscriptions to the paper and “forbid the publication of official notices”.     In response, the Israeli Journalists’ Union called the move a “populistic proposal devoid of any feasibility of logic”. Haaretz, which is an independent daily newspaper, has been publishing since 1919, and has frequently been the target of right-wing administrations.     On October 20 the government enacted emergency regulations, enabling it to temporarily shut down foreign media seen as harmful to the country. This legislation allows for the closure and signal blocking of any media for 30 days at a time.

Israel’s Foreign Labourers: Exploitation is the Norm A recent (November 26) report by CNN discusses a problem apartheid Israel is facing because of the Hamas uprising of October 7. The ‘journalists’ who wrote the article bemoan the fact that, due to that action, at least 10,000 farmworkers, and possibly as many as 40,000, have departed Israel since that day, and more are expect to leave.    This, of course, causes many hardships. “Without hands to work on the farms, crops and animals would have been left to die.” And, they lament, that without these workers, the future of Israelis farming on stolen land near Gaza will be impossible.     Oh, woe is me! The apartheid regime can no longer successfully exploit foreign workers, mainly from Thailand.

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’!

Weekly Average Atmoshere CO₂ at Mauna Loa

• Week beginning on November 19, 2023: 421.21 ppm

• Weekly value from 1 year ago: 418.38 ppm
• Weekly value from 10 years ago:  395.26 ppm

• Last updated: November 29, 2023

This figure shows the atmospheric increase of CO₂ over 280 ppm in weekly averages of CO₂ observed at Mauna Loa. The value of 280 ppm is chosen as representative of pre-industrial air because it is close to the average of CO₂ measured and dated with high time resolution between the years 1000 and 1800 in an ice core from Law Dome, Antarctica. [Etheridge et al., 1996]. Although the time resolution of old air locked in ice cores is not enough to preserve seasonal cycles, there is no doubt that the seasonal cycle, which is mostly caused by photosynthesis and respiration of ecosystems on land, was similar to what we observe today. Therefore, for the comparison with pre-industrial times the Mauna Loa weekly data have been first deseasonalized by subtracting the observed average seasonal cycle, and then subtracting 280 ppm. The enhancement of the CO₂ mole fraction in the atmosphere over pre-industrial is expressed both as ppm and as a percentage change since the year 1800.

Compendium of Scientific, Medical, and Media Findings Demonstrating Risks and Harms of Fracking and Associated Gas and Oil Infrastructure, Ninth Edition, October 19, 2023 The Compendium of Scientific, Medical, and Media Findings Demonstrating Risks and Harms of Fracking and Associated Gas and Oil Infrastructure (the Compendium) is a fully referenced compilation of evidence, spanning many scientific and social scientific fields, documenting continuing and increasing impacts on health and environment.     The risks and harms of fracking for public health, the climate, and environmental justice are real and growing. Many early warnings in our previous editions have been borne out.     The growing and substantial body of research reveals fundamental problems with the entire life cycle of operations associated with fracking and its infrastructure, which includes pipelines, LNG terminals, frack sand mining operations, and gas stoves inside homes.

Another Oil-Soaked Climate Summit Disaster Looms South African elites join forces with petro-imperialists at the 28th Conference of Polluters To explain environmental policy paralysis over the past quarter century, the hubris of Western governments’ delegations always looms large on my radar screen. U.S. climate czar John Kerry, for example, confirmed to Congress in July that the Biden Administration is unwilling to accept even rudimentary “polluter pays” logic. Asked by a Republican conservative, “Are you planning to commit America to climate reparations?”, Kerry answered, “No. Under no circumstances.” As for a new fund to pay compensation for what is termed “loss & damage,” Kerry emphasized, “We specifically put phrases in that negate any possibility of liability.”

‘Full, Fair, and Funded’? After all the $Trillions in Governmental Subsides and Wars for Oil, Keep it in the Ground, and no Idemification! We’re in a Climate Emergency!: WMO Climate Report Details ‘Deafening Cacophony of Broken Records’ “Governments at the COP28 climate talks must take real action for a full, fair, funded, and fast phaseout of fossil fuels,” one advocate said in response to the news.

COP28 Loss and Damage Fund Called ‘Drop in the Ocean’ The United States’ contribution of $17.5 million, in particular, was denounced as “embarrassing” for the wealthiest country in the world.

  Black Liberation/Civil Rights:

John Kiriakou: Reflections on the Deep State’s Media Watchdog Tool In early November, the leadership and board of Consortium News, the independent news site, filed a major lawsuit against the federal government and NewsGuard Technologies, Inc.  NewsGuard at first glance looks like a media watchdog organization, a group that seeks to keep misinformation and disinformation out of the mainstream. That notion is quickly dispelled, however, as soon as one takes a look under the hood. But first a little background:    Consortium News is one of the country’s most highly-respected independent news sources. It was founded in 1995 by journalist Robert Parry, who gained fame at the Associated Press, and later at Newsweek, for his role in uncovering the Iran-Contra affair and for breaking the story of CIA involvement in Contra cocaine trafficking. Parry was a winner of the prestigious George Polk Award for National Reporting and of the I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence, bestowed by Harvard University’s Nieman Foundation.

Labor:

BLET Members Vote to Authorize Strike at SEPTA The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) announced yesterday that its members who operate Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority’s (SEPTA) Regional Rail commuter trains have voted to grant BLET National President Eddie Hall the authority to issue a strike.

The FRA Fails to That Mention Severe Weather Conditions Accidents are More Likely With 1-3 Milie Long Trains!: FRA Wants Railroads to Bolster Winter Operation Procedures Severe weather conditions may have played a part in as many as 123 rail incidents since 2021 U.S. railroads should beef up the procedures they use for responding to adverse weather conditions, including seeing how weather-related technologies can be integrated into positive train control and whether the railroads can collaborate on developing best practices, according to a safety advisory from the Federal Railroad Administration.

 Swedish Tesla Strikes: Musk Vs. Mechanics! Mechanics at Tesla’s 10 workshops in Sweden have been on strike since 27 October: the first of its kind at the EV giant. The action was taken after the Swedish industrial union IF Metall told its members to down tools in response to the electric car giant refusing to sign a collective bargaining agreement in a move derided by CEO (and world’s richest man) Elon Musk as “insane”.     In fact, given the circumstances it would be madness not to take a stand. A collective agreement would provide the Tesla workers with guaranteed yearly wage increases, rather than relying on promises from the bosses. But the wage increase for this year as determined by the last bargaining period is actually a wage decrease, when adjusted for inflation.

Economy:

The U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crisis Warning Bell Didn’t Ring Before the Repo Crisis of 2019 or This Year’s Bank Runs The Office of Financial Research (OFR) is a unit of the U.S. Treasury Department. OFR was created as part of the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation of 2010 to keep the Financial Stability Oversight Council (F-SOC) informed about emerging threats that have the potential to spread contagion throughout the U.S. financial system — as occurred in 2008 in the worst financial crash since the Great Depression. Janet Yellen, the U.S. Treasury Secretary, chairs F-SOC. Its members include the heads of every federal banking and Wall Street regulator, who meet regularly to assess any threats on the horizon that could lead to financial instability in the U.S.

World:

The Cost Of Inequality 2023 Over the last few decades, inequality in the UK has increased rapidly. In particular, this has benefited the super-rich, to the point that the UK’s 171 billionaires1 now hold as much wealth as over 40 million of the rest of us: While billionaire wealth sky-rocketed by over 1000% since 1990,2 the rest of us have been left behind. The consequences of structuring society to allow for massive profiteering for the richest at the expense of the rest of us have been enormous. We’ve always found that more equal societies work better for everyone, with longer healthy lives, better education systems, less crime, and happier societies. The UK’s inequality has left us more unhealthy, unhappy, and unsafe than our more equal peers.

Ecuador Court Orders Stolen Land Returned to Siekopai People“This groundbreaking precedent paves the way for other Indigenous communities who dream of recovering their territories within protected areas,” said one campaigner.

Huge Win for the Planet’ as Panama Court Shuts Down Massive Mine “The people have spoken and expressed that they don’t want more mines, that they want sustainable economic development, and have no intention of destroying the country for profit,” said one campaigner. Indigenous and environmental campaigners this week hailed a landmark win for the Rights of Nature movement, the Panamanian Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling that the contract for the Cobré mineral mine—one of the world’s largest—is unconstitutional and must be shut down.   The November 24 ruling against Minera Panamá, a subsidiary of the Canadian company First Quantum Minerals, followed weeks of nationwide protests against the open-pit mine, which began operations in 2019 and where mainly copper, but also gold, silver, and molybdenum, are extracted. Opponents say the mine threatens area water supplies. A gunman shot and killed two people at a protest against the mine earlier this month.

Health, Education, 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