Daily News Digest August 19, 2022
Images of the Day:
Another Example Capitalism as a Failed System: World Capilalism Has Been Aware of the Comming Catastrophe of Global Warming 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:
Many opponents of nuclear power contend that the failure at the Ohio plant is systemic to nuclear power plants as they get older. Since these things have occurred in the short run, how can anyone claim nuclear power to be safe when the half-life of many radioactive materials is longer than the existence of humanity? Clearly, the history of nuclear energy—not just in the United States but worldwide — demonstrates that the human race is not yet organized to deal with this incredible power and the waste it produces. It has left death and destruction behind every step of the way, from the mining of raw uranium, to the manufacture of plutonium, to the assembly of weapons and reactors, to the operation of the reactors, to the disposal of the waste they create. The problem before us is to stop the deliberate killing of people by an otherwise insignificant number of them — the profiteers of the power industry. — Roland Sheppard, Nuclear Power: What Have They Done to the Rain?
Videos of the Day:
The Deacons for Defense and Justice: Guardians of the Black Community
As Afghan People Boil Grass to Eat, U.S. Refuses to Release $7 Billion of Frozen Afghan Assets
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!
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
The Understated Effects of Nuclear War on the World With nuclear war becoming a growing concern in the world, scientists, in an authoritative study published by Nature Food, dug deeper into the expected, horrid outcomes of such an event. Apart from the Hiroshima style obliteration of all signs of life in the directly affected areas, the new study led by Rutgers University scientists finds “global famine” and long term environmental damage on the Earth’s population from nuclear war would put much of the rest of humanity in fatal risk. As Alexandra Witze from Nature points out, “Even a small conflict in which two nations unleash nuclear weapons on each other could lead to worldwide famine, new research suggests. Soot from burning cities would encircle the planet and cool it by reflecting sunlight back into space. This in turn would cause global crop failures that — in a worst-case scenario — could put five billion people on the brink of death.”
Sanders Blasts ‘Rigged Economy’ as Chipmakers Cut Investments After Big Handout “Intel announced it will be cutting back on plans to increase jobs by $4 billion while increasing dividends for its wealthy shareholders,” the Vermont senator wrote on Twitter.
From Book Banning to Book Burning PEN America recently reported that over the previous nine-month period there were 1,586 instances of individual books being banned, affecting 1,145 unique book titles. These incidents took place in 86 school districts in 26 states; they represented 2,899 schools with a combined enrollment of over 2 million students.
Inflation Reduction Act’s Subsidies May Prop Up Aging Nuclear Plants for Years Nuclear plants have become practical and economic liabilities, but leaders are reluctant to give them up The much-heralded Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), while offering a vital lifeline to the renewable energy industry, also contains massive subsidies to keep dangerously aging atomic power plants operating for years to come.
Environment: Ecocide or Ecosocialism!:
Despite Boiling Planet, Big Oil Keeps Humanity on Path of Climate Catastrophe As bad as things may be now, if we do not act, then our climate emergency is going to get much worse. Europe is gripped by its baking temperatures and its worst drought for 500 years. Iconic rivers, such as the Rhine, the Po, and Danube, the lifeblood of countries’ economies, are reduced in some places to a mere trickle. Tens of millions of Europeans are facing water shortages or some kind of water restrictions. Lack of water is not the only problem. Across the continent, an area the equivalent to one-fifth of Belgium has been ravaged by wildfires, too. It is set to be a record year for drought, fire, and flames. And things are going to get worse. The European Commission warned this week that drought conditions could soon intensify and affect nearly half the continent.
Kids Born Near Fracking Sites 2-3 Times More Likely to Develop Leukemia: Study “Existing setback distances, which may be as little as 150 feet, are insufficiently protective of children’s heath” Exposure to fracking and its effects is “a major public health concern,” said a study co-author. Kids Born Near Fracking Sites 2-3 Times More Likely to Develop Leukemia: Study Exposure to fracking and its effects is “a major public health concern,” said a study co-author. The peer-reviewed study, published in Environmental Health Perspectives, examined the relationship between residential proximity to unconventional oil and gas development (UOGD) and risk of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common form of childhood leukemia.
Western ‘Naturalism’ Disrespects Nonhuman Animals and the Entire Natural World One species has transformed into a material backdrop for its tribulations the 10 million other species that constitute its extended family, its giving environment, and its daily cohabitants. More specifically, it is one small population of this species that has done so, the bearer of a merely historical and local culture. Making all other living beings invisible is a provincial and late phenomenon—not the product of mankind as a whole. Imagine a people approaching a land populated by a myriad of other related peoples, and declaring that they don’t really exist, and that they are the stage and not the actors (ah yes, it’s not a fiction that requires a lot of imagination, as it also comprises vast swaths of our history). How did we accomplish this miracle of blindness toward the other creatures of the living world? We could hazard here—to exacerbate the strangeness of our heritage—a rapid history of the relations between our civilization and other species, a history which leads to the modern condition: Once nonhuman living beings were debased ontologically (that is to say, considered as endowed with a second-order existence, of lesser value and lesser consistency, and thus transformed into ‘things’), human beings came to believe that they alone truly existed in the universe.
How Corporations are Stealing the Sea Overfishing, seabed mining, corporate greed: it’s time to take back control For most of human history, the oceans have been seen as a global commons, the benefits and resources of which belong to us all in equal measure. But our seas – and the marine environment as a whole – are being ravaged by exploitation for corporate profit. The result is a social, economic and ecological crisis that threatens the very life support system of the Earth. The oceans cover 70% of the planet’s surface, provide half the oxygen we breathe and help combat climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide. Some 40% of the world’s population live in coastal communities and depend on ocean, coastal and marine resources for their livelihoods and well-being. Many of the critical issues affecting the ‘blue commons’ require international action. These include the depletion of fish populations by subsidized industrialized fisheries; destruction of the seabed and vital coral reefs by oil multinationals; a threatened biodiversity wipe-out from deep-sea mining for minerals; and the reckless spread of commercial aquaculture.
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
“Big Brother Zuckerberg”, in the service of the cops, is watching you!: Facebook Is Collaborating With Cops to Criminalize Pregnancy Outcomes Now that “Roe” has fallen, Facebook is taking a lea role in the surveillance and criminalization of pregnant people. Celeste Burgess, a 17-year-old girl, and her mother, Jessica Burgess, now face felony charges in their home state of Nebraska after Celeste Burgess allegedly self-managed an abortion after Nebraska’s 20-week abortion ban. Celeste, who is being tried as an adult, faces a felony charge related to burying the fetal remains and two misdemeanor charges of “concealing the death of another person” and lying to police. Her mother, who allegedly helped her self-manage an abortion, faces five charges, including inducing an abortion and performing an abortion without a license. Law enforcement received a tip that Celeste Burgess allegedly miscarried and then buried the fetus with her mother’s help. Law enforcement then served Facebook a search warrant, with which Facebook complied, to find private messages in which the mother and daughter discussed Celeste Burgess’s self-managed abortion.
If ‘do nothing’ Biden doesn’t act, the Black residents of Lexington have the right and the duty to organize a new Deacons for Defense and Justice to defend the Lexington Black community!: Mississippi Goddan: Mississippi Town’s Black Residents ‘Terrorized’ by Racist Police Seek DOJ Probe Black residents of Lexington, Mississippi are calling for a U.S. Justice Department probe of systemic racism in the town as they filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the municipality, its police department, and current and former police officials, including an ex-chief fired for racist boasts about shooting a fleeing man 119 times. “We need both the courts and the Department of Justice to step in immediately,” said the head of one civil rights group involved in a new lawsuit against Lexington and its police department.
The US Must Acknowledge the Role Racism Plays in Migration Policies It is past due time that the U.S. acknowledges the role racism plays in enacting migratory policies by making sure that not just those of European descent with white skin can be welcomed.
New Research Finds CIA Used Black Americans as Drugs Experiment Guinea Pigs . . . A study by academics at the University of Ottawa’s Culture and Mental Health Disparities Lab sheds significant new light on this underexplored component of MKULTRA and illuminates a hitherto wholly unknown dimension of the program; people of color, overwhelmingly Black Americans, were disproportionately targeted by the CIA in its service. — A study by academics at the University of Ottawa’s Culture and Mental Health Disparities Lab sheds significant new light on this underexplored component of MKULTRA and illuminates a hitherto wholly unknown dimension of the program; people of color, overwhelmingly Black Americans, were disproportionately targeted by the CIA in its service. — Spoken of as Animals And Treated as Such — In 1973 , due to fears CIA covert action might be officially audited in the wake of the Watergate scandal, then-Agency chief Richard Helms ordered all papers related to MKULTRA destroyed. Tens of thousands of documents somehow survived the purge. Even more conveniently, a significant portion of the research yielded by the project’s experiments was published in freely-accessible, peer-reviewed scientific journals, as over 80 private and public universities, prisons, and hospitals – whether knowingly or not – conducted psychedelic drug experiments on behalf of the CIA. While LSD was the preponderant substance of interest, the effects of DMT, mescaline, psilocybin, and THC were also extensively explored.
Labor:
Economy:
Economists Fear Fed Minutes Show Central Bank Bent on ‘Unleashing Mass Unemployment’ Continued interest rate hikes “risk a recession throwing millions out of work,” a pair of experts warned. The newly released minutes of the Federal Reserve’s July meeting indicate that U.S. central bank officials have no plans to deviate from aggressive interest rate hikes as they attempt to tamp down high inflation, a policy response that one economist characterized as a commitment to “unleashing mass unemployment.”
Mar-a-Lago: Thousands of People of Questionable Character Have Visited this Resort/Hotel in the 18 Months That Trump Stashed Top Secret Documents There The narrative that the FBI took the unprecedented step of raiding former President Donald Trump’s “home” on August 8 has misdirected the media debate that should be happening right now. The majority of Americans hear the word “home” and think of a private residence where one family resides. But the property raided on August 8 by the FBI was Mar-a-Lago – which has as much resemblance to a private residence as Palm Beach International Airport has to a private airplane hangar. Yes, it’s true that there are private quarters located at Mar-a-Lago for Trump and his family.
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 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!