Daily News Digest January 26, 2024

Daily News Digest Archives

 Images of the Day:

Louisiana’s Petrochemical Pollution

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”

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:

To this day, we have a government and state apparatus that is designed to “protect the minority of the opulent against the majority” Democracy for white and wealthy men only!: As Noam Chomsky stated in his interview on American History and Democracy: . . . If you go back to the record of the Constitutional Convention, which took place in 1787, almost immediately after the end of the war, you see that they are already moving in another direction. James Madison — who was the main framer, and one of the Founding Fathers who was most libertarian — makes it very clear that the new constitutional system must be designed so as to ensure that the government will, in his words, “protect the minority of the opulent against the majority” and bar the way to anything like agrarian reform. The determination was made that America could not allow functioning democracy, since people would use their political power to attack the wealth of the minority of the opulent. Therefore, Madison argues, the country should be placed in the hands of the wealthier set of men, as he put it. . . . To this day, we have a government and state apparatus that is designed to “protect the minority of the opulent against the majority” Democracy for white and wealthy men only! —My Forefathers and The 1%’s Forefathers

Videos of the Day:

Joe Sacco, Author of ‘Footnotes in Gaza,’ on Journalism and Palestine | The Chris Hedges Report Israel’s status as a bona fide democracy is often taken to be a self-evident truth, but a more critical look at the history and reality of Zionism calls this into question. After all, how can a democracy exist in a country constitutionally defined as an ethnostate that can only exist through the suppression and gradual elimination of its Others? Israeli historian Ilan Pappé joins The Chris Hedges Report for a discussion on Israel as an inherently colonial, and therefore anti-democratic, project. Ilan Pappé is a professor with the College of Social Sciences and International Studies at the University of Exeter in the UK, where he directs the European Centre for Palestine Studies, and co-directs the Exeter Centre for Ethno-Political Studies. Prior to coming to the UK, Pappé was a historian and politician in Israel. He is the author of several books, including The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.

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 

How Israel’s Starvation of the Gaza Palestinians Has led Biden to try to Starve the Yemenis T he British Royal Air Force and the American Air Force bombed the Yemeni capital of Sanaa again on Tuesday, in a campaign that President Biden admits has had no effect. Washington and London ordered the airstrikes, now being launched almost daily, in retaliation for the rockets being launched at Red Sea container ships by the Helpers of God or Houthi militia that controls 80% of Yemen’s population. The Houthis say that they are punishing Israel for its total war on the Palestinians of Gaza by cutting off Red Sea traffic to the port of Eilat.      On Friday, massive crowds gathered in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa to protest the US air strikes. Houthi leaders addressed them, saying that they are standing up for the weak and oppressed among the people of Palestine. Hatred for the US is boiling over throughout the Arab world.

How Much Influence Does Iran have Over Its Strategic Allies — Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis? By Sara Harmouch, American University and Nakissa Jahanbani, United States Military Academy West Point    From attacks by rebels in the Red Sea to raids in northern Israel and the Oct. 7, 2023, assault by Hamas, Western analysts have pointed a finger of blame toward Iran.     Regardless of how involved Tehran is directly in the planning and carrying out of such incidents, the accusations get at a broader truth: In Middle Eastern geopolitics, Iran’s strategy of aligning with violent nonstate actors – notably Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen – influences the regional balance of power.     As experts in Iran’s relationship with its network of proxies, we understand that Iran’s connection with each group is distinct yet interlinked, revealing Tehran’s regional objectives. From southern Lebanon to Gaza to Yemen, these alliances shape the political landscape and highlight the nature of influence and control in proxy warfare. It serves as a counterweight to Iran’s relatively limited conventional military capabilities, forming a key part of its foreign policy.

Backed by AIPAC, 62 Dems Join GOP in Condemning Genocide Case Against Israel AIPAC is the top campaign contributor to Reps. Chris Smith and Kathy Manning, the leaders of a new letter denouncing South Africa’s International Court of Justice case.    More than 60 House Democrats joined 148 Republicans on Tuesday in condemning South Africa’s genocide case against the Israeli government, which has continued to commit atrocities in Gaza in the two weeks since the International Court of Justice heard arguments in the closely watched proceedings.

U.S. Funded Palestinian Genocide:

Rights Coalition Calls for Israel Arms Embargo to End Gaza Carnage “American taxpayers should not be subsidizing war crimes,” said Martin Butcher of Oxfam International A coalition of 16 leading human rights organizations issued a joint statement Wednesday calling on all nations to immediately stop sending weapons to both Israel and and Palestinian militants, warning that continued arms transfers risk exacerbating what’s already one of the worst humanitarian crises in modern history.

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’!

‘How to Greenwash’: Propane Industry Tries to Rebrand Fuel as Renewable Members of a propane industry lobbying group strategized to downplay the full climate impacts of propane and market it as renewable or “clean energy”, recordings reviewed by the climate newsletter Heated and the Guardian reveal.     The Propane Education & Research Council (Perc), a US lobbying group, has spent nearly $30m over the last two years on advertisements for the fossil fuel, according to data compiled by Drilled, a multimedia reporting project focused on climate accountability. The ads often promote propane, the vast majority of which is a by-product of natural gas or crude oil refining, as a form of clean and renewable energy.     But in a public November 2022 meeting recorded by the Energy and Policy Institute, Perc board members acknowledged that that characterization was inaccurate.

Devastating Drought in Amazon Result of Climate Crisis, Study Shows The climate crisis turned the drought that struck the Amazon rainforest in 2023 into a devastating event, a study has found.     The drought was the worst recorded in many places and hit the maximum “exceptional” level on the scientific scale.      Without planet-warming emissions from the burning of oil, gas and coal, the drought would have been far less extreme, the analysis found.      It also showed the drought was made 30 times more likely to happen by global heating. The return of the natural El Niño climate phenomenon is associated with drier conditions but played only a small role, the scientists said.     The climate crisis is supercharging extreme weather across the planet, but the extreme Amazon drought is a stark and worrying example because the rainforest is already thought to be close to a tipping point into a drier state.      This would result in a mass die-off of trees in the world’s most important store of carbon on land, releasing large amounts of CO2 and driving global temperatures even higher.

Extreme bed of Puraquequara lake in Brazil amid severe drought in October 2023. Photograph: Edmar Barros/AP

Systemic Environmental Racism:

EPA Can’t Enforce Civil Rights Protections, Trump-Appointed Judge Rules The judge said “pollution does not discriminate,” but numerous studies underscore the impact of environmental racism. Aruling in Louisiana by a federal judge appointed by former Republican President Donald Trump will make it even harder for communities to fight environmental racism and the establishment of “sacrifice zones,” said one advocacy group on Tuesday.      U.S. District Court Judge James Cain, Jr., appointed in 2018, ruled in favor of Louisiana eight months after GOP Attorney General Jeff Landry sued the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), aiming to stop the Biden administration from opening investigations into violations of Title VI under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Louisiana Court Upholds Air Permits for Petrochemical Complex in Cancer Alley Decision helps clear path for Formosa Plastics to build US’s largest petrochemical complex of its time  A Louisiana appellate court has upheld air permits for a giant proposed petrochemical complex in a region known as Cancer Alley, enraging local advocates.     The decision, issued on Friday, will help clear a path for Formosa Plastics to build the nation’s largest petrochemical complex of its kind. The project has long faced staunch opposition from local and national environmental justice groups.     Ted fellows resign from organisation afterBill Ackman named as speaker  “Once again the state of Louisiana is putting polluters before people,” Sharon Lavigne, a plaintiff in the case against the proposal and founder of the local grassroots organization Rise St James, said in an emailed statement.     Friday’s ruling overturns a 2022 decision that vacated air permits for the $9.4bn project.    Those air permits, which the new decision affirmed, will authorize the plant to spew out more than 800 tons of air pollution each year – including carcinogenic ethylene oxide, as well as fine particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide, which have been linked to respiratory and cardiac illnesses.

Black Liberation/Civil Rights:

Black Agenda Report

Labor: 

Economy:

The Battle Over Capital at the Mega Banks Must Expand to Breaking Them Up Last Thursday, 12 Democrats in the U.S. Senate sent a deeply insightful letter on a subject most Americans have never discussed around their kitchen table: adequate capital levels at the Wall Street mega banks that came close to bringing down the U.S. financial system in 2008. Before that financial crisis was over – the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s – millions of hardworking Americans had lost their jobs and millions more had their homes taken in foreclosure.     If the U.S. is going to avoid a replay of that crisis, Americans are going to have to start having these critical conversations about the structure of Wall Street mega banks around the kitchen table. Americans are going to have to start engaging in the battle to shape the future of American democracy and more equitable wealth distribution, which requires dramatic reform of the mega banks on Wall Street.

Robert Kaplan Was Heavily Trading on May 1, 2020; One Day After a Fed Blackout Period and the Same Day He Made a Shocking Prediction on TV o read main stream media headlines, one would think that the Federal Reserve Inspector General’s Office has exonerated former Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan of any legal action for trading like a hedge fund kingpin while he was privy to insider information at the Fed.     In fact, all that the Inspector General’s report has cleared Kaplan of is this: “we did not find that his trading activities violated laws, rules, regulations, or policies related to trading activities as investigated by our office.”    What the Inspector General did not investigate is everything that a real insider trading investigation would have encompassed. It did not investigate if Kaplan was shorting the market with his $1 million plus trades in and out of S&P futures contracts during a declared National Emergency over the COVID pandemic while making market diving predictions on TV; it did not investigate how big ticket trading by a Fed insider got past the compliance department of the brokerage firm Kaplan was using to transact his trades, which may have been the notorious Goldman Sachs; it did not investigate if that brokerage firm was cloning Kaplan’s trades (because he was a Fed insider) for its own profit and benefit.   

World:

General Strike: Argentina Rises Up Against Milei’s Shock Therapy More than 1.5 million workers walked off the job today in a massive general strike in Argentina against President Javier Milei. But more strikes and demonstrations are needed to defeat his brutal and authoritarian neoliberal reform program. On Wednesday, hundreds of unions and hundreds of thousands of workers, students, unemployed, and retired people took to the streets in cities across Argentina and the world to protest the neoliberal President Javier Milei’s emergency measures and reactionary, anti-worker omnibus bill, which is currently being debated and amended in congress. In Buenos Aires in particular, massive crowds (upwards of one hundred thousand people) composed of labor unions as well as independent blocs of combative unionists, left organizations, and organizations of the social movements descended on the Plaza De Los Dos Congresos and surrounding neighborhoods, completely shutting down the city. In addition, protests were held or scheduled to be held in front of Argentinian embassies in cities across the world including Paris, Berlin, and New York.

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