Daily News Digest October 7, 2024
Images of the Day:
E.V. Debs: I Rather Vote for Something I Want! 
Ted Rall: Assuming You Believe the Polls
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:
We are Approaching Complete Environmental Destruction: To avert disaster, we need to see the fastest economic transition in history. But capitalism has created vast inequality, meaning too much power is in the hands of a small elite that would rather sustain their privileges under the current economy than sustain life under a new one. — Extinction Rebellion
In The Part Played by Labor in the Transition from Ape to Man, Friedrich Engels wrote:Let us not, however, flatter ourselves overmuch on account of our human victories over nature. For each such victory nature takes its revenge on us. Each victory, it is true, in the first place brings about the results we expected, but in the second and third places it has quite different, unforeseen effects which only too often cancel the first.
Glenn Greenwald: Iran’s Missile Attack On Israel Explained
We’re The Fucking Terrorists In case you haven’t figured it out yet, “terrorist organization” is a completely arbitrary designation which is used as a tool of western narrative control to justify war and militarism.
The Western Media Helped Create These Horrors In The Middle East. All the mass media personnel who’ve been lying and manipulating for Israel helped pave the way to this.
Where Olive Trees Weep: Processing the Trauma of Occupation | The Chris Hedges Report The world has failed Palestine. The United States and European Union pay lip service to principles of human rights and democracy while providing limitless support to Israel’s genocidal project of ethnic cleansing and apartheid. Western media outlets censor reporting of Israeli atrocities, and international humanitarian organizations require that Palestinians prove their victimhood over and over again. Arab states, on the whole, remain silent and complicit. In the context of so much injustice, the new documentary Where the Olive Trees Weep offers a rare view into the everyday experience and psychological ramifications of occupation. Filmed in 2022 in the West Bank, the film follows Palestinian journalist and therapist Ashira Darwish, Israeli journalist Amira Haas, activist Ahed Tamimi, Dr. Gabor Maté, and others. On this episode of The Chris Hedges Report, Chris Hedges speaks with Ashira Darwish and with the film’s directors and producers, Zaya Ralitza Benazzo and Maurizio Benazzo.
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.
As Bombs Drop, Weapons Industry Stocks Take Off One wonders how the executives of these companies feel about their products being used for mass slaughter in Gaza and dangerous escalation in Lebanon. It’s a sad but familiar spectacle — as people die at the hands of U.S. weapons in a faraway war zone, the stock prices of arms makers like Raytheon and Lockheed Martin soar. A piece posted yesterday at Forbes tells the tale: “Defense Stocks Hit All-Time Highs Amidst Mideast Escalation.”
Media Urge Expansion of Ukraine War—Nuclear Risk Be Damned Ukraine has for months been asking the Biden administration for permission to use long-range US, British and French weapons to strike deeper in Russian territory, which would be a clear escalation in the war. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that the move would cross a red line for him, and recently announced that he was loosening Russia’s nuclear doctrine for using nuclear weapons. Despite the risks of such escalation—and a lack of evidence that it would shift the war in Ukraine’s favor—Biden’s public reluctance to loosen his limits has been met in the war-hungry media primarily with derision.
Corting War With China?! China Get Oil from Iran): Biden Says US ‘Discussing’ Possible Israeli Plans to Attack Iran’s Oil Industry President’s off-the-cuff remark outside White House over possible retaliation triggers global oil price rise. Joe Biden has said that his administration has been “discussing” possible Israeli plans to attack Iran’s oil industry in retaliation for the Iranian ballistic missile attack on Tuesday. Biden’s off-the-cuff remark did not make clear whether his administration was holding internal discussions or talking directly to Israel, nor did he clarify what his attitude was to such an attack.
United States Armed and Funded Middle East War/Palestinan Genocide:
Report: State Dept. Ignored Objection to Israel Arms Sale Early in Gaza Genocide Last October, a US bureau objected to sending arms to a unit that later carried out Israel’s deadliest attack on Gaza. Last year, just days into Israel’s genocide in Gaza, a bureau within the State Department raised objections to over a dozen arms shipments to Israel, citing “gross violations” of human rights by the unit slated to receive them. But these objections were ignored, a new report finds, and that unit would later be involved in the single deadliest massacre of the genocide so far.
In the Background of Genocide —The Days of Wine and Roses:Israeli Embassy Gifted State Dept Bureau With Wine After Arms Deals Top State Department political appointees repeatedly rejected appeals from staff to cut off arms to Israel. In late January, as the death toll in Gaza climbed to 25,000 and droves of Palestinians fled their razed cities in search of safety, Israel’s military asked for 3,000 more bombs from the American government. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew, along with other top diplomats in the Jerusalem embassy, sent a cable to Washington urging State Department leaders to approve the sale, saying there was no potential the Israel Defense Forces would misuse the weapons.
Fight Israeli Aggression, Fight Imperialism – Statement of the Revolutionary Communist International Storm clouds are gathering over the Middle East as Israel, backed by the western imperialist powers, pushes the region ever closer to a devastating all-out regional war, highlighting yet again the choice before humanity: either socialism or barbarism. In the first two weeks of its aggression against Lebanon, the Israeli army has bombed more than 3,600 sites across the country, killing at least 1,800 people and wounding more than 10,000, the vast majority of whom were men, women and children who had nothing to do with Hezbollah. So far, almost one million people out of a total population of 6 million have had to flee their homes, adding enormous strains to a country that is already beset by deep social and economic crises. The year-long Israeli carpet bombing has already turned the Gaza strip into rubble. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed, hundreds of thousands maimed, and millions displaced. The Zionist regime is now openly promising that a similar fate will befall Lebanon. They have unleashed an unprecedented campaign of terror on the Palestinian and Lebanese people. They have carried out the pager and walkie-talkie terrorist attacks in Lebanon, leading to dozens of deaths and thousands injured. In Beirut, they assassinated Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, the biggest political party in Lebanon. In Tehran, they assassinated Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas, the ruling party in Gaza. It is important to point out that at the times of their deaths, both of these men were leading ceasefire negotiations with Israel. In Syria, Israel has continuously bombed sites across government-controlled areas, killing hundreds of people and assassinating a series of Iranian, Lebanese and Syrian officials. They have also bombed Yemen, while also threatening to strike at targets anywhere in the region.
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!
Can You Afford Climate Change? Consumer pocketbooks are taking the heat. Climate change is no longer a theoretical issue that will happen at some distant point in the future, like 2050 or 2100. Already, unprecedented climate change is happening on a regular basis and clobbering the American capitalistic system via consumer pocketbooks. People can’t afford ordinary life. They’re priced out of the market. Everything is getting more expensive by the year, every year. “We’re no longer in a world where climate change affects the economy, or where voters prioritizing economic or inflationary concerns are responding to something distinct from climate change—we’re in a world where climate change is the economy.”(Source: Everything’s About to Get a Hell of a Lot More Expensive Due to Climate Change, Wired, June 22, 2024). According to Uncle Sam: “Already, over half of U.S. counties – home to millions of Americans – face heightened future exposure to at least one of the three climate hazards described in this report: flooding, wildfire, or extreme heat.” (Source: The Impact of Climate Change on American Household Finances, U.S. Department of the Treasury, September 29, 2023)
The Brockovich Report: Carolina on Our Minds. Science Says Stronger Storms are the Norm. A Shocking Amount of Rain Brought Utter Devastation To Appalachia & Beyond … Last year, a UN climate report warned that the world is failing to get a grip on the climate crisis, providing more evidence that the world remains massively off track to limit global warming and avoid the worst of climate catastrophe. Last month, researchers published a new temperature timeline from the planet’s last 485 millions years, revealing far hotter temperatures than scientists had previously realized. While it might seem like a good thing, that the planet has endured warmer temps, the scientists explained why it’s not. In fact, the current human-caused global warming is a dire concern, according to Emily Judd, a researcher at University of Arizona and the Smithsonian specializing in ancient climates and the lead author of the study. The timeline illustrates how swift and dramatic temperature shifts were associated with many of the world’s worst moments, including a mass extinction that wiped out roughly 90 percent of all species and the asteroid strike that killed the dinosaurs.
Millions of Americans Have Never Been This Hot in October Before as Historic Heat Wave Hits Millions of people in the West are experiencing a dangerous and historic October heatwave with temperatures so extreme they’d be considered hot during the peak of summer. The heat has been so potent the United States soared to and tied the highest temperature ever seen in the month of October on Tuesday. At least 125 places from the West Coast to the Rockies have tied or broken all-time October heat records since the month began. Many others have set daily high temperature records. It’s another reminder that extreme heat is no longer confined to the summer as the world warms due to fossil fuel pollution. “Climate change is causing the length of the heat season to increase and is making… fall heat waves like this more frequent,” Kristina Dahl, a climate scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists said. “If we continue to warm the plant by burning fossil fuels, late-season heat waves like this will become much more common.”
Black Liberation/Civil Rights:
Finally Free, Assange Receives a Measure of Justice From the Council of Europe In his first public statement since his release, Assange said, “I’m free today … because I pled guilty to journalism.” The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Europe’s foremost human rights body, overwhelmingly adopted a resolution on October 2 formally declaring WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange a political prisoner. The Council of Europe, which represents 64 nations, expressed deep concern at the harsh treatment suffered by Assange, which has had a “chilling effect” on journalists and whistleblowers around the world. In the resolution, PACE notes that many of the leaked files WikiLeaks published “provide credible evidence of war crimes, human rights abuses, and government misconduct.” The revelations also “confirmed the existence of secret prisons, kidnappings and illegal transfers of prisoners by the United States on European soil.”
Labor:
16 Years Since the 2008 Crash, The 1% have Gottne Richer and the 99% Haven’t Recovered!: “Since June 2009 Americans have lived in the false reality of a recovering economy. Various fake news and manipulated statistics have been used to create this false impression. However, indicators that really count have not supported the false picture and were ignored. For example, it is normal in a recovering or expanding economy for the labor force participation rate to rise as people enter the workforce to take advantage of the job opportunities. During the decade of the long recovery, from June 2009 through September 2024, the labor force participation rate consistently fell from 65.7 to 62.7 percent.” —Paul Craig Roberts, The Diminishing American Economy (Updated)
Labor Force Participation Rate is 62.7%
A 62% Wage Increase, Over 5 Years, Does Not Keep Up With Inflation!: Dockworkers End Strike After Offer of 62 Percent Wage Hike Over 6 Years The tentative agreement reached Thursday included a wage boost higher than the shipping giants’ original offer. The union representing East and Gulf Coast dockworkers suspended its strike on Thursday after reaching a tentative agreement with shipping giants that reportedly includes a 62% wage boost over six years.The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) said in a joint statement with the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) that the union would suspend its strike until January 15 so the two sides can “return to the bargaining table to negotiate all other outstanding issues.” “Effective immediately, all current job actions will cease and all work covered by the Master Contract will resume,” the statement added.
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