Daily News Digest December 20, 2024

Daily News Digest Archives 

Images of the Day:

Sell Baby! Sell!

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 has Outlived its Time, It is Now a Threat to Life and Humanity! Capitalism as a Failed  System: World Capilalism Has Been Aware of the Coming 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!

The Current Five Current and Constant Threats to Humanity!:

  1. Pauperization of the World, as the 1% get Richer!
  2. Global Warming!
  3. Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace!
  4. The Crisis of Famine is Soaring Throughout the World! And
  5. Factory Farms Production is the Primary Cause of Pandemics!

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:

Biodegradable Polyurethane Foam The scientists focused on biodegradable polyurethane materials, which are currently utilized as foam in the production of biodegradable shoes. Through a series of tests, the research team observed that marine micro-fauna, including fungi and bacteria, efficiently colonize the polyurethane foam. These microorganisms then break down the polymer into its original chemicals, which they subsequently consume as nutrients.     A Safer Solution for Ocean Pollution.   The discovery of plastic-eating microorganisms thriving in natural marine environments has provided valuable insights for finding safer materials to combat ocean pollution. Traditional plastics break down into harmful microplastics, exacerbating the ecological crisis. However, the newly developed bioplastic degrades into substances that serve as food for microorganisms, preventing the accumulation of harmful plastic particles in the marine ecosystem. — Scientists Develop Bioplastic That Dissolves in Seawater

Podcasts/Vide0s of the Day:

Black Agenda Radio December 13, 2024Gerald Horne Analyzes the Collapse of the Syria Government

U.S. Still Protects Jihadists in Syria

U.S. Still Protects Jihadists in Syria

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!)

Migration isn’t the Problem! The Migration of  Wealth to the 1% is  the Problem!   The most significant “migration problem” is not the movement of people across borders, but rather the migration of wealth into the hands of a small elite (1%) which ultimately drives people to migrate in search of better economic opportunities! Addressing wealth inequality is key to tackling the root cause of global migration issues! — Roland Sheppard

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. 

From: The Government Assasssinated Malcolm X and Martin Luther King!  Book Review: The Judas Factor by Karl Evanzz In this book, Evanzz documents how the intelligence community, the CIA, the FBI, and the New York Police Bureau of Special Services (BOSSI) using agents provocateurs and infiltrators; set the stage for the assassination of Malcolm X.    It outlines the motives for their actions. Evanzz spent 15 years researching over 300,000 pages of declassified FBI and CIA documents. From Page 214 of The Judas Factor:      “(A few days after Malcolm X’s press conference announcing his split from the NOI) “William C. Sullivan (FBI) contacted the directors of BOSSI and asked them to recruit several African Americans to infiltrate Malcolm X’s new organization.    Among the directors at the time were two men who later would play key roles in the scandal that led to Richard Nixon’s resignation: Anthony Ulasewicz, the infamous bagman of Watergate, and Nixon advisor John J. Caulfield.      “Ulasewicz was all too happy to comply with Sullivan’s request. Malcolm X had been a thorn in the New York Police Department’s side for more than a decade. He told Sullivan that he would have officers ready to infiltrate Malcolm X’s new organizations within thirty days.    “While Sullivan was coordinating the domestic counterintelligence program against Malcolm X with BOSSI, the CIA initiated a similar program to determine the extent of Malcolm X’s influence with Third World leaders.

Capitalists Should Be Removed From All Our Systems, Not Just Health Care Imagine that your household was regularly broken into by a sadist who systemically beat-up everyone in your home. He’d start by punching folks in the stomach. Then he’d smack people on the both sides of their heads. Then he’d kick your legs out from underneath you and pound you all on your backs and necks before kicking you all in the jaw and punching your noses.   In forming a response to this outrageous oppression would you tell this monster that the next time he breaks into your home with his fists balled he’s going to have to forgo one of the shots he takes at people – say, the head smacks. Would you say, “listen, bully, you can punch us in the stomach and kick our legs out and pound our backs and necks and kick our jaws and smack our noses but you can’t smack our heads anymore!”    Hell No! You’d join forces to subdue him and call the police to have him hauled off to jail. 

Burning Witches and Torching American Democracy On December 1, President Joe Biden announced that he was pardoning his son Hunter for all the crimes he committed from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024. Biden’s sweeping pardon of all of his son’s abuses epitomizes how presidents and their families are now above the law. It also illustrates how the “King James Test for American Democracy” could become the death of the Constitution.     The American Revolution was heavily influenced by a political backlash that began across the ocean in the early 1600s. King James I claimed a “divine right” to unlimited power in England, sparking fierce clashes with Parliament. Since the 9/11 attacks, some of the same moral and legal principles have been advanced in this nation, but few people recognize the historical roots.

‘President Musk’ Trends After Trump’s Top Oligarch Torpedoes Federal Spending Deal “Welcome to the Elon Musk presidency,” wrote Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia. Congress is careening toward a government shutdown after U.S. President-elect Trump, egged on by billionaire Elon Musk—who helped bankroll Trump’s reelection campaign and is slated to help oversee cuts to government spending and regulation in the new administration—torpedoed a federal spending bill that would have kept the government open for the next few months. 

United States Armed and Funded Terrorist Middle East War/Palestinan Genocide:   When Biden Says ‘He’s a Zionist’ —Believe Him!

Report: Israel Kills Anyone Who Crosses Line Splitting North and South Gaza One soldier recalled how his commander told him “everyone’s a terrorist,” according to a new investigation. Israeli forces have deemed everyone a “terrorist” in Gaza, adult or child, and are killing any Palestinians who cross an arbitrary line drawn by the military, leaving their bodies to be eaten by dogs, a horrific new investigation reveals. 

Palestinians file Landmark Lawsuit against Blinken over Israel military Aid A groundbreaking federal lawsuit has been filed against US Secretary of State Antony Blinken accusing him of systematically failing to implement US law that prohibits military assistance to foreign security forces involved in gross human rights violations, according to legal documents seen by Middle East Monitor (MEMO).  

UN Security Council Denounces Illegal Israel Settlements in Palestine “Continued instability and settler violence in the West Bank should not be tolerated by Israel and the culture of impunity must end.” UN Security Council members warned on Wednesday about Israel’s illegal settlements and violent actions in the Occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, Anadolu Agency reports.      Some demanded a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.    Khaled Khiari, UN assistant Secretary-General for the Middle East and Asia and the Pacific, told the Security Council of the “relentless Israel settlement expansion near the Occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem,” and said that “in Gaza, the ceasefire is long overdue.”    “The continued collective punishment of the Palestinian people is unjustifiable. The relentless bombardment of Gaza by Israeli forces, the larger number of civilian casualties, the blanket destruction of Palestinian neighbourhoods and the worsening of the humanitarian situation are horrific,” he said.    Expressing deep concern about the continued illegal expansions by Israeli settlers, Khiari said it fuels tensions and impedes the possibility of an “independent, democratic, contiguous and sovereign Palestinian State”. 

Silencing Nonprofit Speech Would Be Another Giveaway to Corporate Power “Today, not only do corporations have greater means to speak more freely than the rest of us do, they are increasingly grabbing political power to cement their stranglehold. For-profit industries have enjoyed continuous and ever-growing impunity to advocate for whatever they want, no matter how destructive.”     This fall, shortly after the election, the U.S. House passed a dangerous piece of legislation that many are calling the “nonprofit killer” bill. The bill has an incongruous title: the “Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act.”    Among other things, it would give the Treasury Department the authority to unilaterally accuse nonprofit organizations of supporting “terrorism”—and revoke their nonprofit status. Critics like the ACLU say it’s a blank check for presidents to shut down organizations that criticize them.

 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!

‘Monumental Win’: Montana Supreme Court Upholds Decision on Youth Climate Case The court, said one attorney, “has affirmed the constitutional rights of youth to a safe and livable climate, confirming that the future of our children cannot be sacrificed for fossil fuel interests.” Youth plaintiffs celebrated on Wednesday after the Montana Supreme Court upheld a judge’s August 2023 decision that the state government’s promotion of climate-wrecking fossil fuels violates the young residents’ state constitutional rights.    “This ruling is a victory not just for us, but for every young person whose future is threatened by climate change,” said Rikki Held, the named plaintiff for Held v. State of Montana, in a statement. “We have been heard, and today the Montana Supreme Court has affirmed that our rights to a safe and healthy climate cannot be ignored.”

Revealed: How a US Public University Courted the Gas Industry Despite Climate Impacts McNeese State University in Louisiana building a liquefied natural gas center, prompting fears of ‘corporate capture’  One of Louisiana’s top public universities has prompted concerns about “corporate capture” over its expanding relationship with the liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry, despite environmental warnings about pollution and prolonging fossil fuel use.    As the US’s LNG boom gained momentum in south-west Louisiana, McNeese State University courted the industry to help launch a new LNG Center of Excellence currently under construction, hired a director doubling as an LNG industry lobbyist, and approached federal regulators to co-locate their own research center at the university, according to emails obtained via public records requests by DeSmog and the Guardian. 

New Congressional Reports Show How Dire the Climate Insurance Crisis Really Is With increasingly common climate disasters, analysts say “the model of insurance as it stands right now isn’t working.” Five hurricanes made landfall in the United States this year, causing half a trillion dollars in damages. Flooding devastated mountain towns along the East Coast. Scores of wildfires burned almost 8 million acres nationwide. As such events grow more common, and more devastating, homeowners are seeing their insurance premiums spike — or insurers ditch them all together.    An analysis released Wednesday by the Senate Committee on the Budget found that the rate at which insurance contracts are being dropped rose significantly in recent years, particularly in states most exposed to climate risks. In all, 1.9 million policies were not renewed.

Scientists: Cyclone Chido, which Devastated Indian Ocean Island of Mayotte, was 40% more likely to be a Cat 4 because of Climate Change Cyclone Chido devastated the Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, destroying an estimated 20,000 homes and wiping out entire shantytown neighborhoods. The island has about 65,000 households, so a third may be flattened. Godzilla-sized waves measured as high as 22 feet. About half the population still lacks electricity, and ironically water scarcity menaces many residents. The death toll is unknown. It is likely in the hundreds and possibly in the thousands.

Black Liberation Civil Rights:

Black Agenda Report

Labor:

‘Slap in the Face to Working-Class Families’: Senate Sends Biden $895 Billion Military Bill “We do not need to spend almost a trillion dollars on the military, while half a million Americans are homeless and children go hungry,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders. The United States Senate overwhelmingly passed an $895 billion military funding bill on Wednesday as critics blasted what many called misplaced spending priorities and highly controversial provisions that ban gender-affirming health coverage for children of active-duty service members and prohibit the Pentagon from citing casualty figures issued by the Gaza Ministry of Health. 

 

Fed Chair Jay Powell Sends a Bold Message to Trump and Tanks the Dow by 1123 Points If President-elect Donald Trump thought Fed Chair Jay Powell was going to be taking a loyalty oath to him, Trump got a rude awakening yesterday.     The Fed cut interest rates by a quarter point yesterday but issued a statement suggesting that rate-cutting would be far more subdued next year than the market had expected.    In response, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1123 points, closing near its lows of the day and marking its 10th consecutive day of losses.    The Dow gave up 2.58 percent of its value while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 3.56 percent.    The megabanks on Wall Street were among the big losers of the day. Morgan Stanley dropped 5.25 percent; Goldman Sachs was down by 4.25 percent; Citigroup gave up 4.22 percent; Bank of America lost 3.44 percent while JPMorgan Chase shed 3.35 percent by the closing bell.

World:

German Elections: No Matter Who Wins, War, Crisis and Austerity Remain! For three years, Germany’s ruling ‘traffic light’ coalition of Greens, Social Democrats (SPD) and Liberals (FDP) was under repair. Now it has finally been taken off the grid: the costs are too high, and the benefits are non-existent. The capitalist class threw it in the electoral recycling bin. Soon we will have to welcome a new selection of well-known crooks into office. The spectacle of so-called democracy continues uninterrupted, though it is hardly flawless and certainly not convincing.     Government of Crisis.    The ‘traffic light’ coalition was stricken by crises from its outset. This was the result of the crisis of capitalism: economic decline, political polarisation and the loss of confidence of the masses in the established parties.     On 6 November, after failing to pass a budget, the government collapsed. But contrary to the media’s claims, this was not a question of the parties or their ideologies. It was an expression of the profound contradictions of German capitalism itself, as well as of its position in the world.

Health, Education, and Welfare: