Daily News Digest October 19, 2021

Daily News Digest October 19, 2021
Daily News Digest Archives
Images of theDay:
‘Corrupt Judiciary on the Bench. Justice: “Now Then, All Together!”‘ Cartoon by Thomas Nast, 1872The 1%’s Entitlements! Political cartoonAnother Example of Capitalism as a Failed System: World Capilalism Was Aware of the Danger of Cornovavirus Threat Over 5 Years 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 future of Humanity Is Now At stake!The future of Humanity Is Now At stake! 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”
During This Economic Crisis, Capitalism’s Three-Point Political Program: 1.Austerity,2. Scapegoat Blacks, Minorities, and ‘Illegal’ Immigrants for Unemployment, and 3.  The Iron Heel (Fascism)!    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:
We should measure the prosperity of a nation not by the number of millionaires, but by the absence of poverty, the prevalence of health, the efficiency of the public schools, and the number of people who can [and] do read worthwhile books. — W. E. B. Du Bois – February, 1953
Videos of the Day:
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 Reublicrats, who profit from war and the war budget, voted 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! Every ‘Tax. Reform’ From President Kennedy has Been an incrase in taxes from the Poor,the Woking Class, and the Middle Class, to the Rich! —The United States takes from the poor and gives to the Rich.  Tax the Rich!  — They Can Afford To Pay!
A Florida Anarchist Will Spend Years in Prison for Online Posts Prompted by Jan. 6 Riot Daniel Baker’s calls for armed defense against possible far-right attacks led to a much harsher sentence than that facing most Insurrectionists On Tuesday, a Florida judge sentenced Daniel Baker, an anti-fascist activist, to 44 months in federal prison for social media posts that called for armed defense against possible far-right attacks on the state’s Capitol in the wake of the January 6 riots. Baker, a 34-year-old yoga teacher and emergency medical technician trainee, had no previous criminal convictions and has already been held for 10 months of harsh pretrial detention, including seven months in solitary confinement. He never brought a weapon near a government building; he amassed no armed anti-fascist forces; he made no threats on a single individual.   Baker will, nonetheless, face considerably more prison time than most January 6 defendants, including those who crossed state lines, small arsenals in tow, with the aim of overturning a presidential election.Environment:              
The only solution to global warming requires international coperation. The survible of humanity is at stake! Under Capitalism cooperation is impossible. impossible. Coroperation requires a socialsts society. There has been no better time to build a scialist movement. The initial obstacle is that socialist organizations cannot unite for the common good of humanity! It is well. past time foe an ecosocialist internation! — The Habitat for Humanity is at stake!
Advocates of Humancide — The Banksters! The Climate-Conflicted Directors Leading the World’s Top Banks 65% of directors from the banks analysed had connections to polluting industries and obstructive lobby groups.   The majority of directors at the world’s biggest banks have affiliations to polluting companies and organisations, a DeSmog investigation shows. The findings raise concerns over a systemic conflict of interest at a time when the international financial sector is under increasing pressure to stop funding fossil fuels. DeSmog’s analysis found 65 percent of directors from 39 banks had 940 past or current connections to industries that could be considered climate-conflicted.Cop26 Corporate Sponsors Condemn Climate Summit As ‘Mismanaged’  Exclusive: NatWest, Microsoft, GSK and Unilever among firms to raise complaint over poor planning and breakdown in relations Alongside Sky, the summit has 10 other major sponsors, including energy giants Hitachi, National Grid, Scottish Power and SSE, US tech titan Microsoft, and FTSE companies GSK, NatWest, Reckitt, Sainsbury’s and Unilever. Other lower tier “partners” include the car maker Jaguar Land Rover and the furniture retailer Ikea.     One source, employed by a Cop26 sponsor, said that “the biggest frustration” was the lack of information about how the event will run, and the role for its key backers, because important questions have gone unanswered and planning decisions have been delayed.
The Five Biggest Threats to Our Natural World … And How We Can Stop Them
  1. Changes In Land And Sea Use: Clearing the US prairies: ‘On a par with tropical deforestation’
  2. Direct exploitation of natural resources Groundwater extraction: ‘People don’t see it’The Climate Crisis Climate and biodiversity: ‘Solve both or solve neither’
  3. Pollution The hidden threat of nitrogen: ‘Slowly eating away at biodiversity’
  4. Invasive species The problem for islands: ‘We have to be very careful’
  5. Climate and Biodiversity: ‘Solve both or solve neither’
Civil Rights/ Black Liberation:
Environmental. Racism: Lead Pipes Leave Benton Harbor, Michigan, With Toxic Water   Residents of Benton Harbor, Michigan, are calling for immediate action on replacing the city’s lead pipes, which have endangered their drinking water. Since 2018, tap water in the predominantly Black city has contained lead levels up to 60 times the federal limit. Yet government officials have only addressed the toxic contamination as an urgent crisis in recent days. Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, a pediatrician who exposed a similar water crisis in the neighboring city of Flint, sees parallels between the two emergencies. “Every day that goes by when there is lead in the water is one day too long for the children of Benton Harbor,” she says. Reverend Edward Pinkney, president of the Benton Harbor Community Water Council, emphasizes that racism plays a major role in the government’s slow response. He says, “Since it’s Benton Harbor, a Black city, they figure this can continue.”
Labor:
‘Take This Job and Shove It!:  Why Record Numbers of Workers Are Quitting and Striking The seriousness of the situation was confirmed by the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics report showing that a record 2.9 percent of the workforce quit their jobs in August, which is equivalent to 4.3 million resignations.If such a high rate of resignations were occurring at a time when jobs were plentiful, it might be seen as a sign of a booming economy where workers have their pick of offers. But the same labor report showed that job openings have also declined, suggesting that something else is going on. A new Harris Poll of people with employment found that more than half of workers want to leave their jobs. Many cite uncaring employers and a lack of scheduling flexibility as reasons for wanting to quit. In other words, millions of American workers have simply had enough.Labour Shortage Lunacy: Another Symptom of Capitalism’s Chaos Across the world, businesses are facing a severe shortfall of workers, leading to a standstill in production and a breakdown in supply chains. The capitalist market means anarchy and crisis. Only socialist planning can offer a way forward.  Labour shortages are an increasing problem across the world and across a range of industries. These are simply one expression of the acute crisis of capitalism today    As if there weren’t enough problems facing the capitalist class already, they are now having to grapple with the growing problem of labour shortages – seemingly too many job vacancies, but too few workers to fill them
Economy”
Disaster Capitalistts:  ‘Indefensible’: US Billionaires Became $2.1 Trillion Richer in 19 Months of Pandemic  New analysis shows that just 745 individuals have combined $5 trillion in wealth—most of which will never be taxed—as nations reels from pain inflicted by Covid-19
Oil Execs’ Congressional Hearing Brings Memories of Big Tobacco’s Downfall Ten days from today, Darren Woods will face a potential doomsday moment before the U.S. Congress.As the CEO of ExxonMobil, Woods was paid US$15.6 million last year to run the richest, most powerful private oil company in history. But his earnings and influence will be on the line when he appears before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform October 28. His testimony could mark the beginning of the end of big oil escaping legal and financial responsibility for the climate crisis. Joining Woods, assuming that they all show up without being compelled by subpoenas, will be the heads of three other giant oil companies: Michael Wirth of Chevron, David Lawler of BP, and Gretchen Watkins of Shell Oil. The Big Oil 4, let’s call them, will be questioned about what members of Congress call a “long-running, industry-wide campaign to spread disinformation about the role of fossil fuels in causing global warming”.
Another Fed Bank President’s Financial Disclosures Fail the Smell Test Private Banks operated by the mega Wall Street banks have an unseemly reputation. So when we opened Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic’s financial disclosure forms and saw that he had a financial relationship with Morgan Stanley’s Private Bank, a red flag went up immediately. Citibank’s Private Bank was previously the subject of an investigation by the U.S. Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. At a hearing on November 9, 1999, the Chair of the Subcommittee, the late Senator Carl Levin, explained how private banks work.
World:
Patrick Cocburn:The West Wants yo Engage Russia And China on the Climate Crisis While Also Demonising Them – It Won’t Work As Britain prepares to host the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow next month, it is pursuing two contradictory policies that undermine its chances of success. On the one hand, it is seeking a unified global response to the climate crisis with nations agreeing to targets for the reduction of their coal and petroleum emissions. But at the same time, it has joined the US in escalating a new cold war directed at confronting China and Russia at every turn. The two policies have polar opposite objectives in trying to persuade China, responsible for 27 per cent of global carbon emissions, to cut back on building new coal-fuelled power stations, but at the same time demonising China as a pariah state with whom political, commercial and intellectual contacts should be as limited as possible.
Beautiful World, Where Are You: This Is Not A Conflict. This Is Apartheid Citing Recent Rights Reports “confirming what Palestinian human rights groups have long been saying…that Israel’s system of racial domination and segregation against Palestinians meets the definition of apartheid under international law,” wildly popular Irish author Sally Rooney just announced she will honor the BDS boycott movement and decline to sell translation rights for her latest (hot) book to its previous Israeli publisher due to its support for apartheid. In her agent’s  statement, which cited work by Palestinian groups, Human Rights Watch and Israeli anti-occupation group B’Tselem, Rooney was careful to frame her decision within the institutional boycott guideliness of BDS, which she called “a Palestinian-led, anti-racist and non-violent campaign” modeled on the boycott movement of South Africa. She likewise judiciously noted that, “Of course, many states other than Israel are guilty of grievous human rights abuses.” Nonetheless, she said, “I am responding to the call from Palestinian civil society, including all major Palestinian trade unions and writers’ unions.”
Health, 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!
Ignroance is Strenght!: This phrase appears in George Orwell’s novel, 1984. The author has used it as the slogan of the Party in the very first part of the novel, where it reads, “War is Peace / Freedom is Slavery / Ignorance is Strength” (Part-I, Chapter-I). By using this slogan, Big Brother could reign supreme, destroy the past, and build up the future on account of the ignorance of people. Had they been aware, they would have understood Big Brother’s manipulations, and would not let him rule. Hence, their ignorance blinded them, and delegated their strength and power to the Party and Big Brother.
The $Billion Spent on Standardized Tests, Charter Schools, and the ‘No Child Left Behind Progams’,  Have Led to the Ignorance of the Many!: China’s Schoolkids Beat American Students In All Academic Categories
  • The academic performance of American schoolchildren hasn’t budged in two decades, despite billions of dollars in increased funding. The results come from the PISA survey, OECD’s triennial study of 15 year-old students across the world.
  • Compared to other OECD member nations, American students performed especially poorly in math.
  • Alarmingly, only 14 percent of American students were able to reliably distinguish fact from opinion in reading tests.
  • The results come from the PISA survey, OECD’s triennial study of 15 year-old students across the world. to other OECD member nations, American students performed especially poorly in math. Alarmingly, only 14 percent of American students were able to reliably distinguish fact from opinion in reading tests.