Daily News Digest October 3, 2024
Images of the Day:
Mr. Fish: Death Wish
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”There is No Democracy! When Less Than 1% Control the Wealth, Production, and Price of Everything Produced and Consumed in the World! In the present period of unfettered Capitalism, the pretense of democratic rule does not exist, except in the minds of ‘socialists’ like Bernie Sanders and the Labor Bureaucracy! Capitalists view all struggles as struggles against capitalist rule! Transition demands immediately become revolutionary demands! Therefore, any resistence to the attack of capitalists has to be organized by those that understand this! 
Today, the United States Capitalists are Consolidating Themselves as the Supreme Capitalists! 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 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:
Podcasts/Vide0s of the Day:
The Middle East Is Always At War Because The West Keeps Pushing It That Way The only reason the rest of the world got to cool down a bit after the world wars while the middle east remained embroiled in violence and chaos was because the west inserted this alien splinter of settler-colonialism into the region while constantly deliberately fomenting war and unrest.
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.
National Security State: Will the Forever Wars Ever End? The War on Terror 23 Years Later September marked the 23rd anniversary of al-Qaeda’s 2001 attacks on the United States, which left nearly 3,000 people dead. For the two decades since then, I’ve been writing, often for TomDispatch, about the ways the American response to 9/11, which quickly came to be known as the Global War on Terror, or GWOT, changed this country. As I’ve explored in several books, in the name of that war, we transformed our institutions, privileged secrecy over transparency and accountability, side-stepped and even violated longstanding laws and constitutional principles, and basically tossed aside many of the norms that had guided us as a nation for two centuries-plus, opening the way for a country now in Trumpian-style difficulty at home.
US Proxy War Against Russia:Ukraine has Lost: But the Bloodshed Continues The US has just announced another $8 billion tranche of deadly aid to prolong the war in Ukraine. Even though it has long been clear that Ukraine has lost, a section of the western imperialists are determined to fight to the last drop of Ukrainian blood. Meanwhile, Zelensky, for his own political reasons, like a gambler doubling down, has opened a new, bloody front in Kursk. The only result of all this will be further death and destruction. This is a clear demonstration of the correctness of Lenin’s statement that capitalism is “horror without end.” The West is to Blame. In March 2022, at negotiations with Russia in Istanbul, Ukraine proposed “adopting neutral status in exchange for security guarantees”, which would essentially rule out Ukraine’s NATO membership. According to David Arakhamia, a member of Zelensky’s party, Russia was “ready to end the war” on this basis. However, due to pressure from the West, Ukraine was pushed into abandoning these talks. Victoria Nuland, US Under Secretary of State at the time, explained that, during the negotiations, the Ukrainians came to the US for “consultations”. Here, Nuland explained, they were told in no uncertain terms that the US would not support a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. That is, they sabotaged the talks. They did this, in fact, despite the fact that they had no intention of inducting Ukraine into NATO.
United States Armed and Funded Middle East War/Palestinan Genocide:
There is a Danger of a Much Wider War! If the US and Israel ‘Retaliates’ Againts Iran, Always Remember this Speech at the UN 6 Days ago!:: At UN, China Slams US Sanctions on Iran, Accuses Israel of ‘Indiscriminate Attacks on Civilians’ Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, during his first appearance at the annual UN General Assembly meeting, met on the margins of the conference with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. He elicited from the Chinese one of the strongest statements of Chinese support we have seen. According to the UAE’s al-Khaleej, Wang told Pezeshkian, “No matter how the international and regional situation develops, China will always be a reliable partner of Iran.” This statement seems to have been intended to reassure Tehran in the wake of the Israeli attack on Lebanon, where the Hezbollah party-militia is a close ally of Iran. Wang continued, “China will continue to support Iran in maintaining its sovereignty, security, territorial integrity and national dignity.” He insisted that China will take a strong stand against all those who “interfere in Iran’s internal affairs and impose sanctions.” The latter is a slam at the United States.
Iran Retaliates Over Nasrallah Killing With Missile Strikes on Israel “Only through diplomacy can threats to Israel, the United States, and Iran be reduced and security restored,” said one advocacy group. “Only through diplomacy can threats to Israel, the United States, and Iran be reduced and security restored,” said one advocacy group. Just hours after Israel launched a U.S.-supported invasion of Lebanon and less than a week after the Israeli assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Iran’s firing of an estimated 200 ballistic missiles into Israel on Tuesday prompted new calls for a complete cease-fire in the region. Air sirens were blaring across Israeli cities as footage showed anti-aircraft systems lighting up the skies and incoming Iranian missiles exploding on the ground in Tel Aviv and elsewhere. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said it launched the missiles in retaliation for Israel’s recent assassination of Nasrallah as well as Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and an Iranian military commander. The massive bombing that killed Nasrallah in Lebanon last week also killeddozens of others, including many civilians, and was carried out with 2,000 lb. bunker-busting munitions. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres issued his latest condemnation of “escalation after escalation” in the Middle East, nearly a year after Israel launched its full-scale bombardment of Gaza in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack. “This must stop. We absolutely need a cease-fire,” said Guterres following Tuesday’s latest escalations.
Missile Attack on Israel Signals That Widely Feared Regional Conflict has Ignited As forces of restraint in the Middle East weaken with every passing day, Israeli officials declare Iranian attack a declaration of war The sight of missiles descending on Tel Aviv on Tuesday night was the clearest sign imaginable that the regional conflict so widely feared over the past year may finally have ignited. This is the second Iranian aerial attack on Israel in less than six months, but last time there was several days’ notice; the much slower drones and cruise missiles arrived first, and the principal target was a military base in the underpopulated Negev desert.
Israel Vows to Retaliate After Iran Launches Unprecedented Missile Attack Iran sends more than 180 ballistic missiles in dramatic escalation of conflict Israel has vowed to retaliate after Iran launched a barrage of ballistic missiles at targets across Israel in a dramatic intensification of a conflict that appeared to be escalating out of control. “Iran made a big mistake tonight – and it will pay for it,” Benjamin Netanyahu told a meeting of his security cabinet late on Tuesday. “The regime in Iran does not understand our determination to defend ourselves and our determination to retaliate against our enemies … They will understand.”
Sullivan: US Will Ensure Iran Faces ‘Severe Consequences’ for Attacking Israel US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday that the US would work with Israel to ensure Iran faces “severe consequences” for launching a missile attack on Israel, which came in response to recent Israeli escalations. “There will be severe consequences for this attack, and we will work with Israel to make that the case,” Sullivan told reporters at the White House.
As Israel’s Bombardment of Lebanon Grows, So Do Fears of Regional War Just as in Gaza, the displaced are “in schools, mosques, churches, community centers,” a journalist in Beirut says. After months of cross-border attacks and a week of heavy bombardment, Israel has announced a ground invasion in Lebanon in the latest stage of its war against the country. “Israel has been trying to carpet bomb the south as much as possible before invading,” Sintia Issa, editor-at-large of Beirut-based publication, The Public Source, told Truthout. “Israel will try to invade and occupy the south again, at least until the Litani River, but perhaps further.”
Environment:
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!
Hurricane Helene Dumped 20 Trillion Gallons of Rain, Destroying Entire Towns in Western North Carolina, Hundreds of Miles from any Coastline If you think you are safe from climate change, sea level rise, Category 4 and 5 hurricanes, storm surge and the like because you don’t live near an ocean or the Gulf of Mexico, the humanitarian crisis from Hurricane Helene that is playing out in Western North Carolina should quickly reorient your thinking on the matter. (You can be assured that it is doing just that in actuarial offices at insurance companies across the United States right now.). The worst hit areas of Western North Carolina – cities and towns like Asheville, Chimney Rock, Lake Lure, Fairview, Black Mountain, and Swannanoa – are 485 miles north of Perry, Florida, the town closest to where Hurricane Helene made landfall on Thursday night, September 26, as a Category 4 hurricane on the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico. These decimated towns in Western North Carolina are also hundreds of miles from the Atlantic Ocean coastline. But none of that prevented apocalyptic flooding from Hurricane Helene to reduce much of these towns to rubble, leaving citizens without electricity, running water, cell phone service, or the necessities of life like food and sanitary water. For those that survived, this is the fifth day of this dystopian hell. 
Black Liberation/Civil Rights:
Labor:
Georgia Judge Strikes Down State’s 6-Week Abortion Ban The state constitution’s liberty provisions include “the right to make personal healthcare decisions,” the judge said. On Monday, a Georgia judge struck down the state’s six-week abortion ban, finding that the law unconstitutionally violated residents’ liberties. The law — known as the LIFE Act — was signed by Gov. Brian Kemp (R) in 2019, but only went into effect in 2022, when the U.S. Supreme Court dismantled federal abortion protections that had been established by Roe v. Wade. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney found that the state law conflicted with previous state court interpretations of liberty regarding health care rights. “Our higher courts’ interpretations of ‘liberty’ demonstrates that liberty in Georgia includes in its meaning, in its protections, and in its bundle of rights the power” of people to control their own bodies, and to “reject state interference” with regard to personal health care choices, McBurney said in his ruling.
Newsom’s California Model for Prison Reform is All Smoke and Mirrors The failed model was supposed to help incarcerated people exactly like me. Black women constantly have to prove with hard evidence that we’ve been abused. For people who are abused in prison, it’s twice as difficult to get justice. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s vaunted prison reform, the so-called “California Model”—established to replicate more humane, rehabilitation-focused Norwegian prisons in places like the Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF) where I’m incarcerated—was supposed to change all that. But, instead of reform, all this has done is give Black women’s ugly realities a nice cosmetic cover-up.
Economy:
Michael Roberts China PRC Today … China is not a socialist society. Its autocratic one-party Communist government is often inefficient and bureaucratic. The Maoist regime suppressed dissidents ruthlessly and the cultural revolution was a shocking travesty. Nobody can speak out against the top regime without repercussions. China’s leadership is not accountable to its working people; there are no organs of worker democracy. But remember, all China’s so-called ‘aggressive behavior’ and ‘crimes against human rights’ are easily matched by the crimes of imperialism in the last century alone: the occupation and massacre of millions of Chinese by Japaneseimperialism in 1937; the continual gruesome wars post-1945 conducted by imperialism against the Vietnamese people, Latin America and proxy wars in Africa and Syria, as well as the more recent invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan; and the war in Ukraine and the devastation of Gaza and Lebanon; and the appalling nightmare in Yemen by the disgusting US-backed regime in Saudi Arabia. And don’t forget the horrific poverty and inequality that weighs for billions under US-led imperialism, unlike China. China is at a crossroads in its development. Its capitalist sector has deepening problems with profitability and debt. But the current leadership has pledged to continue with its state-directed economic model and autocratic political control. And it seems determined to resist the new policy of ‘containment’ emanating from the ‘liberal democracies’. The trade, technology and political ‘cold war’ is set to heat up over the rest of this decade, while the planet heats up too.
World:
In Bolivia Gigantic March Reveals Socialist Divide, Elections are Ahead Beginning on September 17, marchers proceeded north for 118 miles from Caracollo in Oruro department to La Paz, Bolivia’s capital city, arriving there on September 24. Numbering from 5000 to 15,000 – estimates vary – they were supporting former President Evo Morales. They called their march a “National March to Save Bolivia; for Life, Democracy, and Revolution.” They had signs saying “Evo President” and “Lucho Traitor” – in reference to current Bolivian president Luis Arce.
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