Daily News Digest July 20, 2022
Image of the Day:
Bendib: Pariah State Trio
Another Example Capitalism as a Failed System: World Capilalism Ws 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!
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”, is Still True for Today’s World!
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! 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!
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 of the Day:
There are also numerous environmental and community-based reasons to wean ourselves off of nuclear power. Intercontinental Cry, a non-profit newsroom that produces public-interest journalism centered on Indigenous Peoples, states that 75 percent of uranium mining worldwide occurs on Indigenous land, including in the United States. Furthermore, unlike solar and wind power, uranium reserves are not a renewable resource; eventually, we will run out of uranium. We have spent over half a century trying to find a suitable storage option for spent fuel rods and have failed miserably. Consequently, these rods, which remain radioactive for as long as 10,000 years, are generally stored on site at active or shuttered plants all over this country. They are sitting ducks for domestic or international terrorists, and they pose a serious potential threat to surrounding communities’ drinking water supplies if radioactive water leaks and makes its way into the ground. Contrary to public perception, nuclear power is a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions when considering the amount of fossil fuels required for mining, uranium enrichment, building and decommissioning of power plants, and processing and storing radioactive waste. In fact, nuclear power emits twice as much carbon as solar photovoltaics and six times as much as onshore wind power, according to the nonprofit organization Beyond Nuclear. — Nuclear Power is Not the Solution to Climate Change
Videos of the Day:
Biden Fails to Hold Saudi Arabia Accountable for Khashoggi Murder. Now UAE Arrests His Lawyer.
Bill McKibben: Record Heat Wave in Europe Is Latest Warning That Action on Climate Can’t Wait
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 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 th poor and gives to the Rich. Taxthe Rich! — They Can Afford to Pay!
The Billion Dollar Government!:
Fairness (ATF) details how “billionaires are increasingly using their personal fortunes and the profits of connected corporations to drown out regular voters’ voices and elect hand-picked candidates who further rig the nation’s economy—especially the tax system.” A pair of super PACs tasked with securing Republican majorities in the House and Senate—the Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF) and the Senate Leadership Fund (SLF)—raised a combined $188.3 million through the first 16 months of the 2022 campaign cycle, according to ATF. Nearly half—$89.4 million, or 48%—came from just 27 billionaires. A whopping 86% of the GOP’s billionaire money came from “Wall Street tycoons” who are arguably the biggest beneficiaries of glaring loopholes in the tax code. The Democratic counterparts of those two super PACs—the House Majority PAC and the Senate Majority PAC—raised a combined $154 million over the same time period. A smaller share—$25.8 million, or 17%—came from 19 billionaires. A majority of billionaire contributions to Democratic candidates also came from the finance and investment sector (35%), but other industries were also well-represented, including cryptocurrency (26%), and tech (18%). Titled Billionaires Buying Elections, the report from Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) details how “billionaires are increasingly using their personal fortunes and the profits of connected corporations to drown out regular voters’ voices and elect hand-picked candidates who further rig the nation’s economy—especially the tax system.” The Democratic counterparts of those two super PACs—the House Majority PAC and the Senate Majority PAC—raised a combined $154 million over the same time period. A smaller share—$25.8 million, or 17%—came from 19 billionaires. A majority of billionaire contributions to Democratic candidates also came from the finance and investment sector (35%), but other industries were also well-represented, including cryptocurrency (26%), and tech (18%). “Unlike candidates and party committees, super PACs can raise unlimited donations from individuals and corporations,” ATF explained. “In return they are not supposed to coordinate activities with the campaigns they support but instead act independently, though that rule is often flouted.” — Just 27 Billionaires Have Spent $90 Million to Buy GOP Congress: Report
The Great Crisis Of The 21st Century: Hijacked Democracies, Propaganda, And Rebellions The Super-Rich Are The Enemies Of Humanity. The current corporate capitalism is a legacy of the Slave system: in the name of freedom, the exploitation of those below, the concentration of wealth, the sacralization of the masters-entrepreneurs, and the demonization of the workers-slaves. Professor Walter Scheidel, in his book The Great Leveler, showed, more than convincingly, that from prehistory to the present day, all the socioeconomic systems known to humanity tended towards inequality and ended in global catastrophes. The first is quite obvious and we are seeing it today: those who have financial and economic power have inflamed political power, which produces a snowball effect. The rich and their corporations are the big donors to the political parties and then write the laws at their convenience. In 1971, a classic of political comics, The Wizard of Id summed it up best: “The golden rule is that he who has the gold makes the rules.”
Shared Values and Fist Bump Geopolitics: Biden’s Blurred Vision of Human Rights When it came to Israel, not only were human rights issues off the table, but Israel wa praised extravagantly and unreservedly as an ally with shared values. Biden even declared himself to be a non-Jewish Zionist as if disregarding the plight of the Palestinians was not enough of a demonstration of continued partisanship. Pro-Palestinians had anticipated this one-sidedness, and its pointed failure to take account of such developments as the condemnation of the most internationally respected human rights NGOs in Israel and Occupied Palestine being branded as ‘terrorist’ organizations by the Israeli Secretary of Defense and currently aspiring prime minister, Benny Gantz.
Barry Sheppard: Biden’s Middle East Trip a Failure United States President Joe Biden’s trip to the Middle East began in Israel. Biden then squeezed in a short three-hour stop off with Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas, before heading to Saudi Arabia. The New York Times reported from Jerusalem that Biden was welcomed by Israeli leaders with “a rapturous embrace, as if to prove that their love affair with the former president [Donald Trump] would not stand in the way of a close relationship with the new president” and that Biden “seemed just as determined to prove he took a back seat to no one in supporting Israel”. At the red-carpet airport ceremony, Israeli President Issac Herzog called Biden “our brother Joseph”, declaring “you are truly amongst family”. Interim prime minister, Yair Lapid, called Biden “a great Zionist and one of the best friends Israel has ever known”.
The Coup Allegations Against the Secret Service Are Astonishing This is perhaps the most gruesome scandal in Secret Service history. . . . It began with a report by The Intercept detailing how the service “erased text messages from January 5 and January 6, 2021,” the day before and the day of the insurrection attack on the Capitol. This erasure was part of a planned equipment upgrade, according to agency officials, but took place after oversight officials had ordered that all communications from those days be preserved. The House Select Committee on the January 6 attack has issued a subpoena for all deleted texts. After the deletion of these texts was revealed, a number of disturbing pieces began falling into place. On the day of the attack, as former Vice President Mike Pence was being led away from the violence, his Secret Service detail tried to get him into a limo. “I’m not getting in the car,” Pence replied; he knew that if he left the building, the process of certifying the election would falter, and Pence suspected such an end was the ultimate goal. “[Pence] uttered what I think are the six most chilling words of this entire thing I’ve seen so far,” committee member Rep. Jamie Raskin said at a recent Georgetown appearance. “He knew exactly what this inside coup they had planned for was going to do.” For its part, the Secret Service has vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
Environment: Ecocide or Ecosocialism!
Global Warming? — Now Globally Excessively Hot! The Fire This Time: —These Maps Show How Excessively Hot It Is In Europe and The U.S. These maps show how excessively hot it is in Europe and the U.S. The heat, which has killed hundreds in Portugal and Spain, is unprecedented in many areas. A historic and deadly heat wave has been scorching western Europe, killing hundreds in Spain and Portugal. Temperatures spiked to 115 degrees on the Iberian Peninsula amid bone-dry conditions, fueling wildfires and displacing thousands of people in France. The mercury topped 100 degrees (38 Celsius) in Britain on Monday and is expected to surge higher Tuesday.
‘Collective Action or Collective Suicide’: UN Chief Pleads for Real Climate Response “We need a concrete global response that addresses the needs of the world’s most vulnerable people, communities, and nations,” said U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres. Governments can either come up with a collaborative and urgent plan to tackle the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency that is already wreaking deadly havoc across the globe or keep allowing corporations to pollute the atmosphere without limit, thereby condemning humanity to a grim future.
‘We Are Sleepwalking Towards the Edge,’ Says Greta as UK Sees Hottest Day on Record “The climate crisis will continue to escalate and get worse as long as we stick our heads in the sand and prioritize profit and greed over people and planet,” said Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. “The climate crisis will continue to escalate and get worse as long as we stick our heads in the sand and prioritize profit and greed over people and planet,” said Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. As the United Kingdom endures its hottest day on record amid Europe’s unprecedented and ongoing heatwave, Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg warned Tuesday that the worst is yet to come—unless people around the world work together to dislodge the profit-maximizing economic system that is endangering life on Earth. “This is not ‘the new normal,'” Thunberg wrote on social media. “The climate crisis will continue to escalate and get worse as long as we stick our heads in the sand and prioritize profit and greed over people and planet. We are still sleepwalking towards the edge.”
Giant, Mysterious Hole In Antarctica’s Ice Has Scientists Stunned It’s winter in Antarctica, and a group of scientists are studying the frozen wasteland. Then, while battling howling winds and blistering cold, they make a perplexing discovery. According to the team’s high-tech gadgets, a colossal hole has opened up in the sprawling ice sheet nearby. It’s a chasm so enormous — several hundred miles across — that it has to be viewed from space to really take it all in. The experts are suddenly left with some serious questions to answer. Firstly, how on Earth did the gap get there? But more importantly, should we all be concerned? We’ve been hearing for some time now that the ice in the Arctic is melting. But even so, enormous holes — especially on this scale — aren’t an everyday occurrence. We’ve been hearing for some time now that the ice in the Arctic is melting. But even so, enormous holes — especially on this scale — aren’t an everyday occurrence. We’re talking here about a space of more than 29,000 square miles, which is broadly similar to the size of Austria. Surely an ice chasm of that scale can’t be good news.
Tipping Points in Antarctic Climate Components (TiPACCs) By P Langebroek, S Østerhus – EGU General Assembly …, 2020 – ui.adsabs.harvard.edu
Table 1. Estimated potential maximum sea-level rise from the total melting of present-day glaciers. 
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Labor:
Economy:
There Are Three Separate Cases in Federal Court Accusing JPMorgan Chase of a Culture of Fraud Yesterday we spotted a headline at the news outlet, Politico, that read: “Meeting the Moment: Without cryptocurrency regulatory approval, the U.S. risks its status as a financial leader.” Posing as actual journalism with a byline by a person named Jennifer Gregory, the article provides a lengthy interview with Michael Sonnenshein, the CEO of Grayscale Investments, a peddler of Bitcoin. Sonnenshein uses the interview to whine about a recent Securities and Exchange Commission decision that didn’t go his way and tout how his powerful outside law firm, Davis Polk, plans to appeal the decision. In small print, the article notes that it is actually “Sponsored by Grayscale Investments.” In other words, it’s an advertisement posing as real journalism.
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 they 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!
What Happens When Big Brother Meets Big Tech Author and law professor Maurice Stucke warns that as fundamental privacy rights vanish, your personal data can and will be used against you. University of Tennessee law professor Maurice Stucke, author of “Breaking Away: How to Regain Control Over Our Data, Privacy, and Autonomy” has been critical as tech firms have grown into giant “data-opolies” profiting from surveillance and manipulation. In a conversation with the Institute for New Economic Thinking, he warns that legislative inaction and wider government complicity in this surveillance are eroding fundamental rights to privacy along with the ability of federal agencies to regulate Big Tech.