Daily News Digest August 3, 2022
Images of the Day:
Global Warming: Joe Biden: What Me Worry!
Bendib: Hard of Hearing
Another Example Capitalism as a Failed System: World Capilalism Has Been Aware of the Comming Catastrophe of Global for 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 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!
Quotes of the Day:
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— Supreme Court Judge Louis D. Brandeis
Videos of the Day:
The Assassination of Ayman al-Zawahiri: CIA Drone Kills al-Qaeda Leader at Safe House in Kabul
No Means Yes to Abortion: Kansas Votes on Confusing GOP-Backed Constitutional Amdt. to Ban Abortion
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!
Conflict Over Vet Bill Brings Renewed Attention to Military’s Toxic Legacies The U.S. military has burned toxic waste in open pits at home and abroad for decades.
Alarm Raised Over Manchin Side Deal That Would Pave Way for Major ‘Climate Bomb’ “Democrats shouldn’t be sacrificing communities in the path of the Mountain Valley Pipeline just to please a senator in the pocket of Big Oil.” Environmentalists raised grave concerns Monday over newly reported details of a side deal between the Democratic leadership and Sen. Joe Manchin that would reform the permitting process for energy projects and clear the way for final approval of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, which would carry fracked gas through West Virginia.
Meet Ken Klukowski, a Trump Administration Cooperating Witness in the Justice Department’s Criminal Investigation of January 6 Ken Klukowski is making a lot of people in the Charles Koch network of political operatives very nervous. According to a CNN report last Thursday, Klukowski “is cooperating in the DOJ’s January 6 criminal investigation, after investigators searched and copied his electronic records several weeks ago.” Those electronic records could open a lot of secrets that the Charles Koch network has kept behind a dark curtain for far too long. Klukowski arrived at the U.S. Department of Justice just 35 days before Trump’s term ended. According to the January 6 House Select Committee, Klukowski was “parachuted” into the Justice Department to help an environmental attorney there, Jeffrey Clark, prepare a letter to state officials which falsely claimed that the Justice Department had “identified significant concerns” about the vote totals in those states and the states should consider sending “a separate slate of electors supporting Donald J. Trump.”
Why Families Showed Up at Ron Klain’s House Dressed as Firefighters President Biden should act like he believes what he says and marshall the tremendous emergency powers of the presidency that he is not yet using. As parents, we would do anything to protect our kids. And nothing threatens their survival or their futures more than the climate crisis. That’s why, on a (fittingly) 96 degree Saturday morning, we joined a dozen families with young children in visiting White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain’s home in Chevy Chase with a message for President Biden: Declare a climate emergency, stop new fossil fuel expansion, use every executive tool possible to meet his own clean energy targets, and support Supreme Court expansion to protect the executive branch’s ability to act on climate.
Environment: Ecocide or Ecosocialism!:
How Climate Change is Intensifying the Water Cycle, Bringing More Powerful Storms and Hurricanes Powerful storm systems triggered flash flooding across the U.S. in late July, killing at least 25 people in eastern Kentucky as floodwater engulfed homes and set off mudslides. Record rainfall also inundated St. Louis neighborhoods, and another deluge in Nevada flooded the Las Vegas strip. The impact of climate change on extreme water-related events like this is becoming increasingly evident. The storms in the U.S. followed extreme flooding this summer in India and Australiaand last year in Western Europe. Studies by scientists around the world show that the water cycle has been intensifying and will continue to intensify as the planet warms. An international climate assessment I coauthored in 2021 for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change lays out the details.
California: Visitors to World’s Tallest Tree Face $5,000 Fine and Possible Jail Time ‘Hyperion’ in Redwood national park, 380ft high and up to 800 years old, now off limits after damage done by trampling visitor Tree enthusiasts who make the trek to the world’s tallest tree deep in a northern California forest will face a fine and possible jail time after park officials declared the remote area off-limits because of damage done by trampling visitors to the tree and surrounding forest, a park official said on Monday.
Chile’s Lithium Provides Profit to the Billionaires But Exhausts the Land and the People T The Atacama salt flat in northern Chile, which stretches 1,200 square miles, is the largest source of lithium in the world. We are standing on a bluff, looking over la gran fosa, the great pit that sits at the southern end of the flat, which is shielded from public view. It is where the major Chilean corporations have set up shop to extract lithium and export it—largely unprocessed—into the global market. “Do you know whose son-in-law is the lithium king of Chile?” asks Loreto, who took us to the salt flat to view these white sands from a vantage point. His response is not so shocking; it is Julio Ponce Lerou, who is the largest stakeholder in the lithium mining company Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile (SQM) and the former son-in-law of the late military dictator Augusto Pinochet (who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990). The Atacama salt flat in northern Chile, which stretches 1,200 square miles, is the largest source of lithium in the world. We are standing on a bluff, looking over la gran fosa, the great pit that sits at the southern end of the flat, which is shielded from public view. It is where the major Chilean corporations have set up shop to extract lithium and export it—largely unprocessed—into the global market. “Do you know whose son-in-law is the lithium king of Chile?” asks Loreto, who took us to the salt flat to view these white sands from a vantage point. His response is not so shocking; it is Julio Ponce Lerou, who is the largest stakeholder in the lithium mining company Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile (SQM) and the former son-in-law of the late military dictator Augusto Pinochet (who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990).
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Bill Russell Has Died, But His Legacies in Basketball and Racial Justice Live On! To place this in a modern context, consider the mind-bending run of success Boston-area teams have enjoyed since 2001. The Patriots won six Super Bowls, the Red Sox won four World Series, the Bruins won the Stanley Cup and the Celtics won the NBA championship. That’s 12 titles. From college to coaching, Bill Russell won 14 titles, two more than that run of all four professional Boston sports teams combined. Though not a natural shooter like his teammate Bob Cousey — Russell averaged 19 points a game throughout his career — he was one of the best defenders, if not the best defender, of all time. He is, according to Ray Ratto of Defector, “the answer to every historical basketball question ever posed.” On Bill Russell, who passed away on Sunday at the age of 88, was the personification of greatness. He did not need the context of basketball to earn this label, but there is no escaping his status in that realm. As far as winning goes, Russell is without peer. He brought two NCAA championships to the University of San Francisco, defeated the Soviet Union to win Olympic gold in 1956, won 11 NBA championships as a Boston Celtics player and as a player/coach — the first Black head coach in professional sports — including a preposterous run of eight title victories in a row.
Facial Recognition Technology Down Under The language is far from reassuring. Despite being caught red handed using facial recognition technology unbeknownst to customers, a number of Australia’s large retail companies have given a meek assurance that they will “pause” their use. The naughty will only show contrition in the most qualified of ways. It all began with an investigation by CHOICE which found that the department store chain Kmart, and household warehouse chain Bunnings, were using FRT to ostensibly protect customers and staff while reducing theft in select stores. The group also found a third retailer, The Good Guys, had not lived up to its distinctly smug name, using technology that stores the unique biometric information of its customers.
Labor:
Economy:
World:
Gazte Topagune Sozialista report: Communist Ideas on the Rise in the Basque country On the 20-23rd July, two comrades from the Marxist Student Federation were invited to attend the third Gazte Topagune Sozialista (Socialist Youth Gathering) held by GKS and the Ikasle Abertzaleak student organisation in the Basque Country. We were also joined by a comrade from Lucha de Clases, the section of the IMT in the Spanish State. GKS is a new socialist youth organisation in the Basque Country, with the aim of building a classless society with a particular slant against the class collaborationist tactics of the social democrats.
The Reality of Swedish Capitalism Whilst Sweden is often portrayed internationally as an egalitarian – even a ‘socialist’ country – the reality is that today it is one of the most unequal countries in the world, as demonstrated in the newly published book, ‘Sweden of the Greedy: how the welfare state became a paradise for the super-rich’. Moreover, as the recent sell-out of the Kurds reveals, the Swedish ruling class are vicious imperialists whose concern for ‘human rights’ is sheer hypocrisy.
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!