Daily News Digest November 2, 20222
Images of the Day:
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: Poverty 
Videos of the Day:
Scott Ritter the End of American Hegemony Poland Becoming a Bumper State
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 Attack on Paul Pelosi and the Crisis of American Democracy On the eve of the 2022 elections, one capitalist party openly incites right-wing violence while the other capitulates to it. There are many factual details about the violent assault on Paul Pelosi, husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, early Friday morning in their San Francisco home, which remain to be determined: what security system was in effect and why Pelosi was entirely unguarded; how the attacker was able to gain entry without setting off an alarm; whether the man arrested for the assault, David DePape, had any accomplices or assistance. But of the political significance of this attempted murder, there can be no doubt: The growing threat of fascist violence in America, fanned by Donald Trump and the Republican Party, has reached the point that the husband of the top Democrat in Congress, the second in line of succession to the presidency, was beaten within an inch of his life.
Elon Musk Tweets Right-Wing Conspiracy Theory About Violent Assault on Paul Pelosi Three days after he assumed private ownership of the social media platform Twitter, Elon Musk joined with right-wing personalities and retweeted baseless information about the violent assault on Paul Pelosi, husband of Democratic Party House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, that took place early Friday morning. San Francisco authorities reported that 42-year-old David DePape had broken into the Pelosi residence, attacked and seriously injured the 82-year-old husband of the speaker with a hammer. It has been reported that DePape demanded to know, “Where is Nancy?” during the assault in which he planned to tie up her husband and remain in the house until she returned home. DePape was arrested at the scene and is expected to be charged with multiple felonies including attempted homicide, assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse and burglary. A subsequent review of his social media activity showed DePape to be a supporter of the stolen election lie of Donald Trump, a promoter of QAnon conspiracy theories and a spreader of bigoted screeds against racial minorities, Jews and women.
When the Rich Paid Taxes, Before the Kennedy ‘Tax Reform’, Higher Education was Free!: A Wealth Tax Won’t End Inequality But It Could Help Fund a Much Better Society Just a small annual levy on America’s grandest fortunes could finance a better future for all of America’s kids and families. Every time I hear that we as a nation cannot afford something—whether that might be assuring non-toxic water in Jackson and Flint or universal pre-K or an industrial policy with teeth—I have wondered how many dollars a national wealth tax might yield. So I looked the numbers up. Wealth turns out to run way bigger than income. Our total U.S. wealth in 2021 sat at $150 trillion. Total income, combining personal income and company profits, amounted to about $25 trillion. A small wealth tax would clearly produce much more government revenue than a much larger income tax. Like income, wealth in the United States remains highly concentrated. The wealthiest 1 percent of Americans hold about one-third of that $150 trillion in U.S. wealth. That comes to $50 trillion, twice the total annual income of all Americans, everyone from the millions of workers making less than $15 an hour to the corporate executives making multiple millions. Again, you don’t need an algorithm to figure out that even a tiny wealth tax on the top 1 percent could produce as much—or more—than a large income tax on everybody.
‘Military Madness’: US to Deploy Nuclear-Capable B-52s to Australia, Provoking China Deploying “bombers to Australia sends a strong message to adversaries about our ability to project lethal air power,” said the U.S. Air Force, alarming anti-war advocates.
Democracy is Rigged by the %!:
Independent State Legislature: the New Pitch-Black It is always darkest–right before it gets pitch-black. Sadly, that is also true in constitutional law. The case in point is Moore v. Harper, pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. That the Supreme Court even took this case begs a conclusion that the conservative fix is in and that the Court will decide before the summer of 2023 what J. Michael Luttig (former 4th Circuit Court Judge, appointed in 1991 by President George H.W. Bush) has described as “the most important case for American democracy in the almost two and a half centuries since America’s founding.”
The Democrats Murder Another Third Party Sixty percent of American voters will have a Republican election denier on their ballot in the mid-term elections for the House, Senate, governor, secretary of state, and/or attorney general. In 2021 and 2022, Republicans have passed 42 laws in 20 states to restrict voting. One in six election workers have received violent threats since the 2020 election. Forty-three percent of voters fear violence or intimidation at the polls in this year’s mid-term elections. Armed men in masks, dark glasses, body armor, and camouflage tactical gear are filming voters at drop-off ballot boxes in the Phoenix area as part of a nationwide right-wing mobilization of a vigilante-style army of poll watchers to intimidate voters. These despicable far-right Republican assaults on voting rights and honest elections must be condemned and resisted. But the Democrats are not so innocent – or effective in resisting right-wing voter suppression and election rigging. Federal voting rights and election protection bills that would pre-empt anti-democratic election laws passed by Republicans in the states have failed in Congress because the Democrats were not willing to make lifting the Senate filibuster that enabled Republican vetoes of these bills a high priority and major public issue. The Democrats are not innocent of voter suppression themselves because they suppress the votes of their opponents to their left. Their preferred strategy is to suppress ballot access for the candidates of independent progressive parties. Party suppression is a form of voter suppression. It denies independent progressive voters the right to vote for who they want once they get their ballot. I reviewed a number of Democratic efforts to suppress Green Party candidates in 2020 and 2022 in CounterPunch on July 15 in “The Democrats’ Third-Party Massacres.”
Environment: Ecosocialism or Ecocide!:
Humans (Capitalism) Are Devastating Wildlife, Report Warns Ahead of UN Biodiversity Talks A million species of plants and animals face extinction today The decline of wild populations doesn’t just translate into species loss but can also heighten extinction risk.
A Pre-Dead Obituary of Us Give capitalidism credit. When it comes to our urge to destroy, it seemd to see no limits, not even those of our own existence. Oddly enough, I’ve read obituaries with fascination from the time I was quite young. And yet, in all these years, I’ve never really reflected on that fact. I don’t know whether it was out of some indirect fascination with death and the end of it all or curiosity about the wholeness (or half-ness or brokenness) of an individual life in full. But here’s the odd thing: in all that time — put it down to the charm of youth or, later, perhaps a lingering sense of youthfulness or, at least, agelessness — I never really thought about my own obituary. Like so many of us when younger, I simply couldn’t imagine my own death. Against all reason, it seemed strangely inconceivable.
US Spent 13 Times More on Fossil Fuels Than Renewables in Africa Since Pairs Deal With the continent facing climate extremes despite its limited contributions to the crisis, political leaders and campaigners have called for global spending on clean energy development.
Civil Rights/ Black Liberarion:
Right-Wing Justices Appear Ready to Eviscerate Affirmative Action in College Admissions “Killing affirmative action will have a devastating impact on Black, Hispanic, and Native students,” wrote one journalist, “and such a ruling would be totally unjustified by the text or history of the Constitution.”
We Must Unlearn the Lie That State Violence Is Inherently Legitimate “There is no alternative to taking on both the police and the far right simultaneously,” says Kelly Hayes. “Kops and Klan go hand in hand!” This chant was shouted in street gatherings across the country during the 2020 uprising against white supremacy and police violence. The historic connection of white nationalist vigilante violence and the police became glaringly obvious in the disparity between the treatment of the Proud Boys and that of antiracist protesters, where police often refused to intervene while the far-right gangs leveled attacks on left-wing demonstrators.
Labor:
US Unemployment System ‘Wholly Unprepared’ as Fed Risks Throwing Millions Out of Work “If another wave of job losses does indeed hit, the unemployment safety net isn’t ready to cushion the blow without significant improvements,” warns the co-author of a new study.
Economy:
US Unemployment System ‘Wholly Unprepared’ as Fed Risks Throwing Millions Out of Work “If another wave of job losses does indeed hit, the unemployment safety net isn’t ready to cushion the blow without significant improvements,” warns the co-author of a new study.
Shadow Government Statisica Daily Update October 31 to November 1
- University of Michigan’s October 2022 Consumer Sentiment (October 28th) held shy by 40.7% (-40.7%) of recovering its Pre-Pandemic Peak. Such did not add any credibility to the Third-Quarter 2022 Gross Domestic Product (October 27th) rebound to an annualized quarterly growth pace of 2.6%, versus an unrevised 0.6% (-0.6%) contraction in the prior quarter.
- Third-quarter ShadowStats Alternate GDP, showed annualized real growth of 0.5%, up from the prior quarter’s contraction of 2.6% (-2.6%). The ShadowStats outlook remains solid for a deepening economic downturn, as reviewed here and in pending Commentary No. 1461. Click on ALTERNATE DATA at the top of this screen to view a GDP graph [theaccompanying data file there requires subscriber log-in].
Three 2nd Circuit Judges, all in their 80s, Decide Traders Rigging Libor Wasn’t Really a Crime Life in the United States of America increasingly feels like a bad translation of a Kafka novel. We are specifically referring today to the arbiters of justice in our society – the men and women appointed as lifetime judges on the U.S. Supreme Court, federal appellate courts and federal district courts. These courts have now become Kafkaesque with no apparent means for the public to hold these judges accountable for their actions. There is Justice Clarence Thomas on the U.S. Supreme Court making rulings in matters impacting Donald Trump while his wife, Ginni Thomas, was one of the people plotting to help Trump overturn the election of President Joe Biden. (Also see our report: The Money Trail to the Ginni Thomas Emails to Overturn Biden’s Election Leads to Charles Koch.)
World:
Brazil’s Deep Divisions and Strained Finances Pose Immense Challenges for Lula Narrow presidential victory a testament to enduring strength of ‘Bolsonarismo’ Rather than a triumphant, sweeping comeback, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s victory in the Brazilian presidential election on Sunday night was a tense, slow grind. His government promises to be an even harder slog. As the electronic vote count proceeded over three hours, it soon became clear there would be no repeat of the landslide victories Lula enjoyed in 2002 and 2006. His victory this time, over the hard-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, was eked out painstakingly. Just 1.8 percentage points separated the two men by the end. As the electronic vote count proceeded over three hours, it soon became clear there would be no repeat of the landslide victories Lula enjoyed in 2002 and 2006. His victory this time, over the hard-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, was eked out painstakingly. Just 1.8 percentage points separated the two men by the end.
Britain’s ‘Obama Moment’: The Cynical Charade of Identity Politics With Rishi Sunak becoming PM, the establishment media has made a song-and-a-dance about Britain seeing its first Asian premier. But the ‘diversity’ at the top is only skin deep. Regardless of colour or gender, this is a government of the rich. The liberal press has heralded Rishi Sunak’s arrival in Number 10 as the UK’s ‘Obama moment’. Hailing as the first Asian and practising Hindu to hold office, we are told that this is a symbolic moment for Britain. Sunak, of course, shares a few qualities with the former US president. He is not white. He is a multi-millionaire. And he wants the working class to pay for a crisis that the capitalists have caused. There is a very important difference between the two, however. Obama won on a ticket of ‘hope and change’, with millions of ordinary Americans only later discovering that they had lent their vote to a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
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