Daily News Digest July 19, 2024

Daily News Digest Archives 

Images of the Day:

Democracy in Trouble

Pax Americana’s Democratic Ilusions Crumble as American Empire is Heading to a Hopeless End!

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’s Gluttony is Demonstrated by It’s Quest for More and More Profits at the Expense of Humanity!     The Rise of Capitalism was Under the Banner of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity! Now There is  Less Liberty, More Inequality, and Less Fraternity of Humanity!   Every Day, From Global Warming to Global War There is a New Example of Capitalism in Imperialist Decay!  Capitalism as a Failed  System: World Capitalism Has Been Aware of the Comming Catastrophe of Global Warming  Over 6 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 Five Horsemen of the the Apocalypse, Spreading  Racism,  War, Famine, Pestilence, Death, and Misinformation! 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, and 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! Globaly, With the Current Gaza War, The Right of Assembly is Under Attack! Due to Years of Austerity, Cuts to Public Health Care, And An Anti-Science and Profiteering President, The United States Still Leads the World In  Coronavirus Cases and Deaths in the World!

The Iron Heel

The Majority of the World, Despite the Media Monopoly’s Lies, are Opposed to the Palestinian Genocide and Global Warming — The 1% Minority Funds Them! At, this Time in History, Capitalism is Exposing the Fact That it is Opposed to Majority Rule/Democracy!

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:

Fidel Castros’ Prophetic Words At 1962 Earth Summit   ‘Tomorrow Will Be Too Late to Do What We Should Have Done A Long Time Ago.!’    [The following is the complete text of Cuban President Fidel Castro’s speech at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro on June 12. The text comes from Radio Havana via Pegasus.]:   

An important biological species — humankind — is at risk of disappearing due to the rapid and progressive elimination of its natural habitat. We are becoming aware of this problem when it is almost too late to prevent it. It must be said that consumer societies are chiefly responsible for this appalling environmental destruction.They were spawned by the former colonial metropolis. They are the offspring of imperial policies which, in turn, brought forth the backwardness and poverty that have become the scourge for the great majority of humankind.    With only 20% of the world’s population, they consume two-thirds of all metals and three-fourths of the energy produced worldwide. They have poisoned the seas and the rivers.     They have polluted the air.      They have weakened and perforated the ozone layer.      They have saturated the atmosphere with gases, altering climatic conditions with the catastrophic effects we are already beginning to suffer.     The forests are disappearing. The deserts are expanding. Billions of tons of fertile soil are washed every year into the sea. Numerous species are becoming extinct. Population pressures and poverty lead to desperate efforts to survive, even at the expense of nature. Third World countries, yesterday’s colonies and today nations exploited and plundered by an unjust international economic order, cannot be blamed for all this.    The solution cannot be to prevent the development of those who need it the most. Because today, everything that contributes to underdevelopment and poverty is a flagrant rape of the environment. As a result, tens of millions of men, women and children die every year in the Third World, more than in each of the two world wars. Unequal trade, protectionism and the foreign debt assault the ecological balance and promote the destruction of the environment. If we want to save humanity from this self-destruction, wealth and available technologies must be distributed better throughout the planet. Less luxury and less waste in a few countries would mean less poverty and hunger in much of the world.    Stop transferring to the Third World lifestyles and consumer habits that ruin the environment.    Make human life more rational.     Adopt a just international economic order.     Use science to achieve sustainable development without pollution.    Pay the ecological debt debt. Eradicate hunger and not humanity.    Now that the supposed threat of communism has disappeared and there is no more pretext to wage cold wars or continue the arms race and military spending, what then is preventing these resources from going immediately to promote Third World development and fight the ecological destruction threatening the planet?    Enough of selfishness. Enough of schemes of domination. Enough of insensitivity, irresponsibility and deceit. Tomorrow will be too late to do what we should have done a long time ago!

Vide0s of the Day:

Black Agenda Radio July 12, 2024The UK Left Lose Despite a Labour Party Victory

Tennessee Abortion Ban Impacts Marginalized Communities

Joe Biden’s Electoral Prospects

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 : My own Government, I cannot be Silent. ― Martin Luther King Jr.

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! — Roland Sheppard, My Forefathers and The 1%’s Forefathers.

China Stops Arms Control Talks With the US Over Arms Sales to Taiwan The Chinese Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that Beijing had stopped arms control talks with the US over continued US arms sales to Taiwan and other steps that go against China’s “core interests.”      The US and China held consultations on arms control back in November 2023. A reporter asked Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian about comments from US officials suggesting China declined to hold another round.    “Over the past weeks and months, despite China’s firm opposition and repeated protest, the US has continued to sell arms to Taiwan and done things that severely undermine China’s core interests and the mutual trust between China and the US. This has seriously compromised the political atmosphere for continuing the arms control consultations,” Lin said “Consequently, the Chinese side has decided to hold off discussion with the US on a new round of consultations on arms control and non-proliferation. The responsibility fully lies with the US,” the spokesman added.     Lin said China stands ready for arms control talks “in line with the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, but the US must respect China’s core interests and create necessary conditions for dialogue and exchange.”

Crisis in the West, Opportunity for the Rest? Whether we call it “polycrisis,” like Columbia University Professor Adam Tooze, or “the age of catastrophe,” like the distinguished Marxist Alex Callinicos, there is no doubt that we are living in a period where the very foundations of the contemporary world order are cracking. There is that enigmatic line Gramsci used to describe his era that is also appropriate for ours: “The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.”     This short essay will focus on a key dimension of the polycrisis: the unravelling of the global hegemony of the United States.     The downspin of the U.S. empire has had a number of causes, but key among them are military overextension, neoliberal globalization, and the crisis of the liberal political and ideological order. Let us discuss each in turn. 

Defending Democracy: When Wars Come Home  The elected majorities of both political parties argue Israel’s genocide of Palestinians must be supported because Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. $175 billion, in just 2 1/2 years, has been appropriated for war in Ukraine to defend democracy. The GOP and the Democrats have brought about a needless and reckless cold war with China, again, because of democracy.    The wars I took part in, Afghanistan and Iraq, were waged by the US under banners of freedom and democracy. The same with Libya and Syria. Millions were killed, wounded and made homeless. The hot wars of Cold War I that killed tens of millions were justified by the need to make the world safe for democracy.

US Funded Palestinian Genocide:

Genocide Joes’ Hypocrisy: Biden Says He’s Done “More” for Palestinians “Than Anybody” as He Backs Genocide Israel’s genocide, underwritten largely by Biden, has killed at least 39,000 Palestinians so far — but likely far more. President Joe Biden bragged about his supposed charity to Palestinians in an interview on Monday, claiming that he’s done “more” for Palestinians “than anybody” — despite the fact that he has done more to perpetuate the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza than any world leader outside of Israel.    In an interview on Complex’s “360 With Speedy” released Monday, Biden implied that he deserves praise for supposedly allowing Palestinians in Gaza to access humanitarian aid. In reality, however, his administration has consistently encouraged Israeli officials to block all humanitarian aid into Gaza, resulting in famine and widespread disease for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians

Encironment:

Fund Climate! — Not Genocide! 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’!

We Must Hold These Monsters to Account!

US Oil Company Ran 1977 Article Predicting Climate Crisis Could Cause Starvation Marathon Petroleum predecessor warned of potential for ‘social and economic calamities’ in decades-old publication

Hurricane Beryl’s Destruction Exacerbates the US Hunger Crisis As the cleanup continues, the urgency of the recovery will begin to dwindle — and so will the hunger relief efforts.  Amid the widespread destruction, brutal heat, heavy rains, and ongoing outages along the Gulf coast, relief organizations are scrambling to ensure people stay fed in the wake of Hurricane Beryl. Ever since the storm made landfall in southeastern Texas, causing millions to lose power, local churches and supermarkets have given away meals and soccer stadiums have become grocery distribution points.

‘It is Devastating’: Unprecedented Floods in US Strain Small Businesses As the climate crisis causes heavier and more frequent floods across the US, one in four small businesses are one disaster away from shutting down. 

The Brockovich Report: Why Slashing Water Infrastructure Funding Is A Bad Idea Last month, House Republicans introduced a spending bill that would cut federal funding for water infrastructure by 25 percent. If passed, this would mark the lowest level of funding in more than 15 years for both the Drinking Water (DWSRF) and Clean Water State Revolving Funds (CWSRF), the main sources of federal support for water infrastructure.

Black Liberation/Civil Rights:

The 1’%’s ‘Law and Order’: ‘In America’ Corporate Criminals/Thieves Get Rewarded:  In New York, Wage Theft Violators Get Millions in Government Contracts  ProPublica and documented identified 25 employers that, despite histories of wage theft, have received contracts worth more than a collective $500 million from city and state agencies since 2018.In the lobby of its midtown Manhattan headquarters, Fedcap Rehabilitation Services has a large wall display that pays homage to its near 90-year history of leading “the fight for equity and opportunity” for the disabled community.     The nonprofit is known in New York as having pioneered the field of vocational rehabilitation, a service that helps find jobs for people with disabilities.     Fedcap has received dozens of contracts worth more than $110 million from 10 New York City and state agencies since 2018. That’s despite the fact that the company has committed millions of dollars in wage theft against hundreds of its workers in recent years

Police Violence Is Also Political Violence — and Deeply Normalized in the US The threat of state-sanctioned violence is so constant in the US that it doesn’t even make the headlines. This week, responding to the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, President Joe Biden entreated the nation not to “descend into violence.”   In his Sunday night speech, Biden repeated an eerie set of talking points echoed by politicians around the country: “There is no place in America for this kind of violence — for any violence,” he said. “Ever. Period. No exception. We can’t allow this violence to be normalized.”     Biden’s speech renders invisible a crucial reality: the sun rises and sets over an America in which a different form of political violence – police violence – is normalized in every sense of the word. The grief and rage of countless families and communities sits in the darkness of that reality.      The World Health Organization defines political violence as “the deliberate use of power and force to achieve political goals.” As we search for explanations for increasingly visible examples of political violence, we must acknowledge that the problem we face as a nation is not merely one of polarization or an overheated populus. It is a problem at the roots, in the very seeds and the daily sunlight of how this country functions.

Black Agenda ReportThe Assassination Attempt on Donald Trump and Political Violence Waged by the U.S. The words “political violence” are the latest hackneyed and dishonest phrase emanating from the political class.

Labor:

Today. Capitalism’s Current Policy of ‘Understaffing” (Mot Hiring New Workers) is Putting Lives and the Environment at Risk! California Remains Short of Federal Firefighters as Fire Season Ramps Up      As California contends with an era of extreme wildfire, the U.S. Forest Service this summer boosted firefighter staffing in the state for the first time in five years. Still, the number of federal wildland firefighters in California remains greatly diminished after years of hiring challenges, renewing concerns about fire response.

Employed full time: Median usual weekly real earnings: Wage and salary workers: 16 years and over is $368 Which is far Less Than $15 Per Hour!

Pregnant Workers Fairness Act Includes Heat Safety Protections at Work While the law has been enforceable since 2023, it wasn’t until June that its final regulations went into effect.     Earlier this month, the Biden administration announced a new rule that, if finalized, would become the first federal regulation specifically designed to protect workers from extreme heat both indoors and outdoors. It would trigger requirements for access to drinking water and rest breaks when the heat index reaches 80 degrees Fahrenheit. At 90 degrees, it would mandate 15-minute breaks every two hours and require employers to monitor for signs of heat illness.

Economy:

World:.

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