Daily News Diest August 24, 2022
- Images of the Day:
Labor Aristocracy/Capitalist Partnership: Laura Grey: The Horror of it All 
Obama’s Coup D’état — A Police State In Imerging
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:
When Affordable Housing isn’t affordable: My partner and I live in a senior housing 2 bedroom aapartment in San Matea County, California. When we first moved, in 2014 we paid $1700 a moth rent. Now we pay over $ 3,370.21. Pretty soon, due to economic considerations, we will either have to split up and board with our children or find a place outside of California!
The banksters in London and Wall Street are the essential movers and shakers of US-UK-NATO foreign policy. The CIA is their primary arm of control. Add to them the burgeoning global military industrial complex and the political ‘mis-leaders’ they generously contribute to. The corporate controlled mainstream media are also accessories to the present day crimes. Together they add up to a formidable crew of what I call ‘pirates’ who are stealing the national treasures throughout the western capitalist world and using them to supress and colonize others across the Global South and here at home — Bruce Gagnon Interview: An Objective Look at U.S. Foreign Policy
Against this back-drop, a piece on the Guardian (8/18/22) headlined the question: “Are indoor vertical farms (sic) really ‘future -proofing agriculture’?” Given the immense energy consumption of these grow operations—— spoiler-alert—— it looks like the answer is no. But doubtless as a way of pretending to do something about the destruction of arable farmland and farmers while demonstrating the usual quest for a technological fix for a political problem — and our usual aversion to “dirt,” it’s a natural. Nate Storey, “chief science officer” at one of these syntho-shops proclaims that in a climate changed world, “…we’re future-proofing agriculture for our species.” That’s the magical thinking/ self-serving puffery of a modern ghost dancing/snake-oil salesman. In fact, the piece quotes Tamar Haspel calling out these capital-intensive vertical farming (sic) factories as producing “lettuce for rich people.” Staple grains can’t/won’t be grown this way. Ever. — Ghost Dancing Toward the Edge
Videos of the Day:
4 Reasons Why Housing Is Unaffordable
“A Crime of the State”: Mexico’s Attorney General Arrested in Case of 43 Missing Ayotzinapa Students
Tariq Ali: Terrorism Charges Against Pakistan’s Former PM Imran Khan Are “Truly Grotesque”
Walmart, CVS and Walgreens Must Pay $650M for Filling Prescriptions to Pill Mills in Opioid Crisis
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
Sanders Calls for Rent Control, Castigates Corporate “Vultures” in Fiery Speech At a labor rally in Boston, Sanders said a strong labor movement is the public’s best bet to fight corporate power. . . “We have the moral responsibility to be outraged when three people own more wealth than half of American society, when the top 1 percent are earning 45 percent of all incomes, when corporate CEOs are now making 350 times what their workers are making,” Sanders said. “That is not the America we accept. We’re going to change it, big time.” He castigated billionaires for their undue influence over the U.S. “These vultures are putting — I’m going to control my vocabulary here a little bit — these vultures are putting billions of dollars into campaigns to elect people who will pony to them and to defeat candidates who stand for working families,” he said. Meanwhile, corporate media and wealthy politicians distract from problems that the American public is facing, like a lack of universal health care, adequate support for child care, affordable higher education and affordable housing, Sanders said. He then spoke about meeting with Boston residents who said that renting a small apartment in the city could cost $3,000 a month, criticizing the costs as outrageous.“Don’t tell me we cannot build affordable and low-income housing, don’t tell me we can’t have rent control,” Sanders said, to cheers from the crowd.
The Government Wants to Silence the Opposition “Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.” — President Harry S. Truman Militarized police. Riot squads. Cam-oflage gear. Black uniforms. Armored vehicles. Mass arrests. Pepper spray. Tear gas. Batons. Strip searches. Surveillance cameras. Kevlar vests. Drones. Lethal weapons. Less-than-lethal weapons unleashed with deadly force. Rubber bullets. Water cannons. Stun grenades. Arrests of journalists. Crowd control tactics. Intimidation tactics. Brutality. Lockdowns. This is not the language of freedom. This is not even the language of law and order. This is the language of force.
Biden and the Democrats made us promises, You knew They’d never keep promises!: Biden Nears Decision On Student Loan Cancelation, Moratorium Extension the president is expected to cancel $10,000 per borrower making $125,000 a year or less. President Joe Biden is expected to announce as soon as Wednesday that he will cancel $10,000 of federal student loans per borrower making $125,000 a year or less. He is also expected to extend the federal student loan payment pause for several more months, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
Environment: Ecocide or Ecosocialism!:
90% of Marine Species Face Extinction Under Emissions Status Quo: Study While the research predicts “a potentially bleak future for many marine species,” the authors say it “also measures how much our oceans and the life within them stand to benefit from both climate change mitigation and adaptation.” A new study details the disastrous consequences that would result for marine life across the world’s oceans if current levels of fossil fuel emissions are maintained, with up to 90% of ocean species facing extinction.
Thanks to Manchin, IRA’s Methane Fee on Big Oil Is Riddled With Massive Holes The new law’s methane emissions penalty “was weakened so that it applies to basically no one,” said one climate campaigner. The new law’s methane emissions penalty “was weakened so that it applies to basically no one,” said one climate campaigner. The newly enacted Inflation Reduction Act contains the world’s first-ever fee on methane, a powerful greenhouse gas believed to be responsible for roughly 30% of global temperature rise since the Industrial Revolution.
Is There Enough Metal to Replace Oil? The short answer: No, not even close! Nations of the world are only too aware that fossil fuels need to be phased out for two reasons. First, oil is a finite commodity. It’ll run out in time. Secondly, fossil fuel emissions such as CO2 are destroying the planet’s climate system. However, a recent study puts a damper on the prospects of phasing out fossil fuels in favor of renewables. More to the point, a phase out of fossil fuels by mid century looks to be a nearly impossible Sisyphean task. It’s all about quantities of minerals/metals contained in Mother Earth. There aren’t enough. Simon Michaux, PhD, Geological Survey Finland has done a detailed study of what’s required to phase out fossil fuels in favor of renewables, to wit:
Ghost Dancing Toward the Edge The local paper reports that the year has been dry. And 2020 was dry too: “….Maine’s driest year in almost two decades.” Of course we dirt farmers have been trying to deal with the drought for most of the summer season. The water in the irrigation pond is low. You have to decide which crops get the water and which will be stunted and barren. It’s very unpleasant. In Europe rivers are running dry with too little water in them to float the barges so vital to commerce there. Reportedly it’s the worst drought in 500 years. Of course all this is quite consistent with the predictions of climate scientists, largely ignored for decades now. Perhaps owing to what climatologist James Hansen has labeled “scientific reticence” however, the increasingly alarming cascade of events is showing up earlier than predicted. We apparently have less time than we thought.
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Patrick Cockburn: The Age of Hypocrisies There is something hugely hypocritical in the way that American political leaders and media pundits denounce the imprisonment of American citizens abroad, while staying silent about mass incarceration for similar offences in the US. Quite rightly, general outrage was expressed when the basketball star Brittney Griner was sentenced to nine years imprisonment on drug charges in a Russian labour camp earlier this month. Vice-President Kamala Harris was swift to hop on to her moral high horse, demanding that Griner “should be released immediately. POTUS [President Biden] and I, and our entire Administration, are working every day to reunite Brittney …with loved ones.” Nothing wrong with protests over what looks like a nasty bit of Russian hostage taking, but not a word yet from the White House about an equally appalling case closer to home. This took place in Mississippi where the Supreme Court upheld in June a life sentence without parole for a man called Allen Russel who was convicted of possessing 43.71 grams of marijuana. On any given day, 374,000 Americans are in prison or jail for drug offences, often of the most minor kind.
Labor:
Economy:
Law Firm Williams & Connelly Takes the Fed to Court on Behalf of a Peculiar Crypto Startup Caitlin Long is the founder and CEO of a crypto startup called Custodia Bank, previously known as Avanti Financial Group. Custodia is allowed to call itself a “bank” – despite the fact that it does not have FDIC insurance on deposits — because of a 2019 law in Wyoming that allows Custodia to operate as a Special Purpose Depository Institution (SPDI). The lack of federal insurance on bank deposits and Wall Street’s wild speculations are what led to thousands of banks going belly up following the 1929 stock market crash. Wyoming has become to crypto what the state of Delaware is to corporate secrecy — a very friendly venue. Since 2018, Wyoming has passed a flurry of laws to effectively roll out the red carpet to crypto startups and their army of lobbyists. The University of Wyoming even offers a Minor in Blockchain, notwithstanding the fact that 1,600 of the smartest minds in technology have called both blockchain and crypto a sham.
World:
50+ Israeli Organizations Blast ‘Baseless’ Attacks on Palestinian NGOs “Documentation, advocacy, and legal aid are the core of human rights work around the world. Criminalizing such activity is a deplorable act characteristic of repressive regimes.” More than 50 Israel-based civil society organizations on Monday expressed solidarity with the Palestinian nonprofits that have been subjected to an ongoing legal and physical assault from the Israeli apartheid regime. “Defense of human rights is not terrorism,” the 53 signatories, including B’Tselem, Physicians for Human Rights Israel, and dozens of others, wrote in a statement. “Israel is persisting in its declaration of prominent Palestinian civil society organizations as terrorist groups. Recently, the military put words into action by raiding their offices and shutting them down.”
The Villainous Attack on Salman Rushdie and What It Says (and Doesn’t Say) about Islam The fatwa against the author did not result from religion or even religious extremism; it resulted from political extremism. The despicable violent attack on Salman Rushdie not only saddened the world, many Muslims included, it demonstrated how a single ignorant attacker could take Ayatollah Khomeini’s fatwa seriously—when the vast majority of Islamic scholars around the world never have—and reanimate the same old tropes about Islam.
Sri Lanka: Protest Ranil’s Repression! Repeal the PTA! As we have previously reported, for the past month the regime of Ranil Wickremesinghe in Sri Lanka has unleashed repression against trade unionists and left-wing activists. Now the regime has escalated its repression, using the notorious Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) to detain activists for long periods without trial. On Sunday 28 August there will be protests outside the UN Human Rights Council office in Geneva, and at Sri Lankan embassies around the world at 2pm local time. On 18 August, security forces in Sri Lanka brutally attacked a student protest, unleashing water cannons and tear gas against peaceful demonstrators. Police arrested 20 individuals. Whilst most were arrested, three have been held under the notorious Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).
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!