Images of the Day:

The Burning of Fossil Fuels is Killing Us!

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!

Capitalism as a Failed System: World Capilalism Has Been Aware of the Comming Catastrophe of Global Warming 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 very future of Humanity Is Now At stake!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:

If you don’t stick to your values when they are being tested, they’re not values, they’re hobbies. — Jon Stewart

The regions with the lowest incomes globally are the ones that suffer most from these extreme heat events. — Climate-Fueled Heatwaves Cost Global Economy Trillions; Poor Countries Hit Hardest: Study

As the WWF report states, “The evidence is unequivocal—we are living through the dual crises of biodiversity loss and climate change driven by the unsustainable use of our planet’s resources.” — The Animals We Lose and May Never Get Back

Videos of the Day:

Capitalism and Monopolies: How Five Companies Control All US Media

DeSantis Condemned For Using “Election Police” to Intimidate Florida Voters with Felony Convictions

Noam Chomsky & Vijay Prashad: A Lula Victory in Brazil Could Help Save the Plane

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 the poor and gives to the Rich. Rax the 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.” ― Louis Brandeis

The recent fiasco following the “Dear Mr. President” letter the so-called progressive caucus published, modified, and outright retracted in 24 hours pushes our faces into many bitter truths. One of them is that diplomacy has not dropped from first resort to second or even last. It no longer rates consideration of any kind among the policy cliques and on Capitol Hill. A few years ago those of us who advocated a neo-détente with Russia wondered amid all the primitive attacks we endured whether our critics were criminalizing diplomacy. This is a pretty close call given the fallout since 29 of the 30 congresspeople who signed the infamous letter, which meekly proposed opening talks with Moscow, now cower pitifully in the corner. Ro Khanna deserves mention here. The California Democrat is the sole signatory to stand by the letter amid the warmongers’ din, telling CNN last week that advocating a diplomatic channel between Washington and Moscow is nothing more than “common sense.” This is the case, open and shut, but common sense is plainly not welcome in the corridors of power anymore. I well recall thinking after Alexandria Ocasio–Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and their “progressive” colleagues were elected to Congress in 2018 that all the fuss and fanfare was misplaced. I figured Washington would either eat them alive or force them to fold their cards and conform. We now have confirmation, if any were needed, that the latter of these has come to be. “The Squad,” whatever its members’ youthful altruism, is a pack of nebbishes in a heated competition with President Biden to see who can break more promises. Utterly useless. — Patrick Lawrence: The Democrats’ Assault on Diplomacy

My Forefathers and The 1%’s Forefathers 2020 Preface: I first wrote this essay after I watched nominees for the ‘Supreme’ Court, state that they interpreted the conconsitution, based upon the intent of the ‘forefatherssthers’, who framed the realized that I identified with my ‘forefathers’, who led and/or fought adainst the king of England and the feudal system he represented! The final battle cry to organize the masses for a successful insurrection was Declaration of Independence. The opening lines of this declaration are/were: When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. The current majority of the surpreme court indentified with the ‘forefathers’ who wrote the constution! That the constitution codified a counterrevolution opposed to the ideals of the Declaration of Independence and the instutiton of wealth white male minority rule! And so. I wrote My Forefathers and The 1%’s Forefathers

John Pilger’s 2014 Guradian Article” In Ukraine, The US is Dragging Us Towards War With Russia Washington’s role in Ukraine, and its backing for the regime’s neo-Nazis, has huge implications for the rest of the world Why do we tolerate the threat of another world war in our name? Why do we allow lies that justify this risk? The scale of our indoctrination, wrote Harold Pinter, is a “brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis”, as if the truth “never happened even while it was happening”. Every year the American historian William Blum publishes his “updated summary of the record of US foreign policy” which shows that, since 1945, the US has tried to overthrow more than 50 governments, many of them democratically elected; grossly interfered in elections in 30 countries; bombed the civilian populations of 30 countries; used chemical and biological weapons; and attempted to assassinate foreign leaders. In many cases Britain has been a collaborator. The degree of human suffering, let alone criminality, is little acknowledged in the west, despite the presence of the world’s most advanced commun-ications and nominally most free journalism. That the most numer-ous victims of terrorism – “our” terrorism – are Muslims, is unsayable. That extreme jihadism, which led to 9/11, was nurtured as a weapon of Anglo-American policy (Operation Cyclone in Afghanistan) is suppressed. In April the US state department noted that, following Nato’s campaign in 2011, “Libya has become a terrorist safe haven“.

The Vote is Rigged by the 1%!: You, Poor Voter, Must Stand Back and Watch as Billionaire Plutocrats Purchase Democracy Regular people cannot, but the billionaire class can spend as much as their hearts desire to influence election outcomes. Do you have a favorite candidate in the upcoming congressional midterm elections? Want to do everything you can to see that candidate elected? Thinking about opening your wallet in the campaign’s final days? If you do feel so inclined, you’ll find out — as soon as you move to make an online contribution — that you can only open your wallet so wide. Federal election law sets strict limits on how much you can contribute, as an individual, to your candidate of choice. That limit now stands at $2,900 per election.

Biden’s Foreign Policy Is Sinking the Congressional Dems—and Ukraine The proxy war between the U.S. and Russia is devastating Ukraine, ironically in the name of saving Ukraine. President Joe Biden is undermining his party’s Congressional prospects through a deeply flawed foreign policy. Biden believes that America’s global reputation is at stake in the Ukraine War and has consistently rejected a diplomatic off-ramp. The Ukraine War, combined with the administration’s disruptions of economic relations with China, is aggravating the stagflation that will likely deliver one or both houses of Congress to the Republicans. Far worse, Biden’s dismissal of diplomacy prolongs the destruction of Ukraine and threatens nuclear war.

Two-Thirds of US Money for Fossil Fuel Pours Into Africa Despite Climate Goals Joe Biden will head to Egypt next week to tout America’s re-emergence as a leader on the climate crisis at the Cop27 talks. But he will be landing in a continent that the US continues to pour billions of dollars into for fossil fuel projects, with seemingly no end in sight despite the president’s promises. The US government has funneled more than $9bn (£7.7bn) into oil and gas projects in Africa since it signed up to restrain global heating in the 2015 Paris climate agreement, a tally of official data shows, committing just $682m (£587m) to clean energy developments such as wind and solar over the same period.

When Bodies Start Stacking Up From Climate Change-Related Disasters, Will These Monsters be Held to Account?Environment: Ecosocialism or Ecocide!:

Data Reveals Major Africa Pipeline as Climate Killer EACOP “promises to worsen the climate crisis, waste billions of dollars that could be used for good, [and] bring mayhem to human settlements and wildlife along the pipeline’s path,” said one climate expert.

PFAS Left Dangerous Blood Compounds in Nearly All US Study Participants The toxic ‘forever chemicals’ can stay in human blood for years, and are linked to cancers, kidney damage and heart disease. Nearly all participants in a new study looking at exposure to PFAS “forever chemicals” in the US state of North Carolina have multiple dangerous compounds in their blood, and most at levels that researchers say requires medical screening. The North Carolina State University study, which is among the largest ever conducted, checked about 1,500 blood samples from people living in the Cape Fear River basin over several years. It’s the first study to recommend screening for cancers, kidney damage, heart disease and other health issues linked to the chemicals, using newly developed physicians’ guidelines for PFAS exposure.

Civil Rights/ Black Liberarion:

The U.S. Student Population is More Diverse, But Schools are Still Highly Segregated The U.S. student body is more diverse than ever before. Nevertheless, public schools remain highly segregated along racial, ethnic and socioeconomic lines. That’s according to a report released Thursday by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). More than a third of students (about 18.5 million of them) attended a predominantly same-race/ethnicity school during the 2020-21 school year, the report finds. And 14% of students attended schools where almost all of the student body was of a single race/ethnicity.

Labor:

UCU Rising: For Coordinated and Indefinite Action!UCU members have won a whopping mandate for national strike action in their struggle over pay, conditions, and pensions. With other unions – on campuses and across the movement – also mobilising, the situation calls out for a united fightback. On 24 October, the Universities and Colleges Union (UCU) announced the results of two aggregated ballots. These have delivered the union its biggest mandate action yet. The two votes related to disputes over pensions and over pay and conditions. These saw turnouts of 60.2% and 57.8%, respectively. The support for fighting back could not be clearer. 84.9% voted for taking strike action in the USS pension dispute, and 81.1% voted to strike over pay and working conditions. The union is therefore in a very strong position. Around 70,000 members in higher education, across 150 branches of the UCU, are now set to take industrial action. Protests in Guinea Lay Bare the Greed of Foreign Mining Companies in the Sahel On October 20, 2022, in Guinea, a protest organized by the National Front for the Defense of the Constitution (FNDC) took place. The protesters demanded the ruling military government (the National Committee of Reconciliation and Development, or CNRD) release political detainees and sought to establish a framework for a return to civilian rule. They were met with violent security forces, and in Guinea’s capital, Conakry, at least five people were injured and three died from gunshot wounds. The main violence was in Conakry’s commune of Ratoma, one of the poorest areas in the city.

Letter by 300 Business Groups Urges White House to Intervene Against LGrowing Movement of Railroaders The Railroad Workers Rank-and-File Committee is holding its fourth public meeting this Sunday, October 30, at 7:00 p.m. On Wednesday, rail signalmen became the third of 12 crafts in the US railroad industry to vote down a national contract brokered by the Biden administration and union negotiators, which sought to prevent a national strike while meeting none of the workers’ demands. The deal is now on the verge of a humiliating collapse. White House officials, having worked out an agreement with a few dozen union bureaucrats behind closed doors last month, assumed everything was settled. But they did not count on one thing—120,000 railroaders, who are determined to fight for what they deserve. On Monday, voting is scheduled to begin for 60,000 engineers and conductors. The signalmen’s vote creates momentum for these contracts to be rejected as well.

Railway Workers Are Angry—and Rightfully So Rail workers are preparing to vote down an agreement that narrowly averted a work stoppage in September. In mid-September, the nation’s railway carriers were locked in tense negotiations with several rail labor unions, and a rail strike—a potential economic catastrophe for the country and global supply chains—loomed on the horizon.

Economy:

Adam Tooze recently wrote an op-ed in The New York Times that described the crisis of global capitalism very well. But he seemed to have little explanation for it. What is causing the current stagflation? Is it just the result of Covid and disruptions of supply chains, or something deeper? This is crucial. It is not enough to know how a crisis in capitalist production has developed, but most important, why. Otherwise, we cannot gauge what will happen and whether another can come along. Capitalism as a mode of production is failing to develop the productive forces necessary to meet the needs of billions on this planet, and yet is also cumulatively beginning to destroy the ecosystem of the planet itself. Investment growth in better technology, public services, and basic goods and services has been slowing for decades. Indeed, since the global financial crisis the major economies have been in what I have called a Long Depression, characterized by low investment and productivity growth, driving stagnant real wages for the majority. Only the very rich have gained (hugely) from the speculative booms in financial asset and property that has replaced productive investment. But those bubbles are now beginning to burst. The COVID slump damaged the major economies irreversibly: trend growth since COVID is lower than before the pandemic, and in turn, the ten years before the pandemic had slower growth than before the global financial crash. There is what economists call hysteresis in the major economies, or if you like, an economic long COVID. The brief economic recovery in 2021 is quickly fading and economies are returning to a slump that would have happened in 2020 without the pandemic intervening. Only this time, the recovery has been accompanied by accelerating inflation to 40-year highs. So, only a severe slump will cap and reduce inflation rates. Central banks seem determined to apply the shock therapy of tight monetary policy to achieve this. — The Crash after the Sugar Rush Interview With Michael Roberts on the World Economy Today

About those Brutal Losses in Your 401(K) – Here Are the Charts Whether your mutual fund was one of the popular 60/40 funds (60 percent equities and 40 percent bonds) or was 100 percent in equities, you’ve been battered this year. The Fed’s relentless hiking of interest rates this year beat down the market value of existing bonds because they have lower fixed rates of interest, thus making them less valuable than the newly issued bonds with higher rates of interest. Growth stocks, which have dominated the investment scene for years, were particularly crushed because growth companies need to borrow money to grow and higher interest rates mean that their cost of capital will become more expensive, thus slowing growth and hurting their earnings outlook. Another factor weighing on the negative performance of equities (stocks) is that higher interest rates pumped up the value of the U.S. dollar, hurting the earnings of U.S. companies that are big exporters. (Consumers in foreign countries hold foreign currency that has lost value to the U.S. dollar, thus making the cost of U.S. manufactured goods more expensive to them. That incentivizes those consumers to trim purchases of U.S. goods and/or switch to a less expensive foreign brand.)

World:

‘A Brazil of Hope’ as Leftist Lula Defeats Far-Right Bolsonaro in Presidential Runoff The Workers’ Party candidate, who completed a remarkable political comeback less than three years removed from a prison cell, tweeted one word following his win: “Democracy.”

Brazilian Left Alleges Voter Suppression as Police Highway Stops Soar 80% on Election Day “I don’t want to believe that it’s an orchestrated action for the people not to go to vote,” said one mayor, “but it’s happening at this exact moment, in the middle of Election Day, in a blitz by the Highway Patrol.”

On Eve of Brazil’s Election, Meta and TikTok Pushing ‘Stop the Steal 2.0’: Report “At this point, it is safe to say that Meta has become Bolsonaro’s official disinformation machine,” said one activist. As Brazilians prepare to vote in Sunday’s decisive presidential runoff, a report published Saturday revealed that social media giants Meta—Facebook’s parent company—and TikTok are driving traffic to content promoting a military coup to overthrow Brazil’s democracy.

Brazil’s Economic And Political Rollercoaster The latest polls put Workers Party leader Lula de Silva ahead in the two-horse race with incumbent right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro in today’s final round of the presidential election in Brazil. If Lula wins, it will be a dramatic comeback for the former president after having been jailed for alleged corruption under the previous right-wing Temer regime; and then finally released and allowed to run again. A Lula victory will mean that the Workers Party has regained the presidency after losing it when last WP leader Dilma Rousseff was impeached by a right-wing Congress in a ‘soft coup’ in 2016. The victory of ‘Tropical Trump’ Bolsonaro in 2018 was achieved mainly because of the disillusionment by sections of the working class with the Workers Party and the successful media campaign claiming that the WP was corrupt. After the collapse of commodity prices in resources and agriculture in 2014, the economy went into recession. The blame for this and corruption was laid at the door of the Workers Party. But the experience of the COVID slump under Bolsonaro, when over 750,000 Brazilians died, has been so searing that, apart from his base among evangelical Christians and petty-bourgeois business people, it seems enough Brazilians will have turned away from him and returned to Lula, despite his past record, in hopes for better.

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 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

Remember when federal, state and local governments actually seemed poised to do something about the great teacher exodus plaguing our schools? With an influx of money earmarked to help schools recover from the pandemic, many expected pay raises and bonuses to keep experienced teachers in the classroom. Ha! That didn’t happen In fact, the very idea seems ludicrous now – and this was being discussed like it was a foregone conclusion just a few months ago at the beginning of the summer. So what happened? — We found a cheaper way. — Just cut requirements to become a teacher. — Teacher Exodus Proves We (United States) Are Wilfully Destroying US Public Education