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Daily News Digest November 11, 2022

Images of the Day:

The I%’S Republicracts Won the Election!

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:

The biggest supervillains in the world are not human, they’re corporations. On this episode of The Most Censored News with Lee Camp, Cargill Inc. gets dragged into the light. The agricultural conglomerate is the largest privately-held corporation in the U.S. by a large margin, and the current price increases in the food market are driving their profits higher. Camp exposes their corrupt practices that are leading to such high returns. — The Most Evil Company in the World? The Most Evil Company in the World?

Videos of the Day:

Vigilante: Georgia’s Vote Suppression Hitman

The Most Evil Company in the World? The Most Evil Company in the World?

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

Midterms Show Republican Anti-Abortion Agenda Relies on Minority Rule But that doesn’t mean we can rest easy in the fight for reproductive justice. Insofar as abortion was on the ballot in yesterday’s midterm elections, abortion won. In all five states where ballot measures asked voters to decide the fate of abortion access, voters chose to protect or enshrine abortion rights. In North Carolina, Republicans failed to win a veto-proof legislative supermajority, ensuring that Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper maintains the ability to block abortion bans. And without the feared “red wave” sweeping Congress, GOP plans for a nationwide abortion ban are thwarted — for now, at least.

Abortion Rights Win in Several Statewide Ballot Initiative Contests On Tuesday, voters in several states moved to protect abortion rights in the midterm elections.

Three states — Michigan, Vermont and California — had pro-abortion measures on the ballot alongside regular midterm election contests. Montana and Kentucky had anti-abortion measures on the ballot, which voters appear to have rejected. In Michigan, the newly passed measure enshrines abortion rights in the state constitution, stating that an individual has the “right to reproductive freedom, including the right to make and carry out all decisions about pregnancy.”

The Chris Hedges Report: Andrew Bacevich on His Book ‘After the Apocalypse’ and the Folly of Endless War In the months of July and September 1940 the French historian and future resistance fighter Marc Bloch, who fought in World War I and World War II, wrote a short book called L’Étrange Défaite or Strange Defeat. It was a searing condemnation of the French high command and political class which was responsible for the humiliating defeat and disintegration of the French army with the Nazi invasion of France. Bloch, who went underground to fight the Nazi occupiers, was executed by the Gestapo in 1944. His book, published after the war, was the model for historian Andrew Bacevich’s book After the Apocalypse. In his book Bloch wrote: “Our war up to the very end, was a war of old men, or of theorists who were bogged down in errors, engendered by the faulty teaching of history. It was saturated by the smell of decay…” Bacevich is no less censorious of the political and military class that has led the United States into one debacle after the next since Vietnam, a war he served in as a young officer. He argues they are woefully out of touch with reality, crippled by self-delusion and unable to adapt to a changing world. Unless they are wrenched from power, he argues, the twilight of the American empire will be one filled, especially given our refusal to seriously address the climate crisis, with catastrophe after catastrophe. Joining me to discuss his book After the Apocalypse is retired Army Colonel Andrew Bacevich and emeritus professor of history and international relations at Boston University. He is also the cofounder and president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

FTX, Second Largest Crypto Exchange, Halts Withdrawals as Bankruptcy Nears and Justice Department Circles FTX, the second largest crypto exchange, is teetering near bankruptcy this morning; has shuttered withdrawals of money and crypto by its customers; and is dealing with investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice. At least one of those investigations is focusing on the potential misuse of customer funds between FTX and Alameda Research, a trading firm created by FTX founder and CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried. The Wall Street Journal reports that FTX has a “shortfall of up to $8 billion.” A deal by the largest crypto exchange, Binance, to buy out FTX as it faltered, was scrapped yesterday after due diligence lawyers for Binance didn’t like what they saw.

Arms to Ukraine? To Those Abusing Trotsky’s Words, We Say: “Learn to Think!” Vast quantities of arms have been poured into Ukraine from the West following Russia’s invasion in February. Even beforehand, NATO and the US provided the Ukrainian Army with a considerable amount of weapons and training. There are some on the left who argue it is the ‘duty’ of socialists and trade unionists to support the imperialists in providing ‘lethal aid’, to equip Ukraine in its ‘war of self-determination against Russian imperialism’. A few sophists even drag Leon Trotsky into the argument, twisting his words out of context to justify their class collaborationism.

Environment: Ecosocialism or Ecocide!:

Environment Crisis of Capitalism: World Capitalists’ OP 27 Meeting:Youth Are Demanding Loss and Damage Finance at COP27 Dedicated financing for loss and damage programming is a strong step towards global solidarity. Look no further than the flooding in Pakistan and South Africa, the Mauritius food shortage, and the drought in Sudan for clear examples of the crisis our planet is experiencing and the vulnerability of populations who’ve contributed the least to this crisis.

US Mega-Banks Behind 1/3 of Climate-Destroying Oil and Gas Expansion: Report “The outsized role of Wall Street in driving fossil fuel expansion globally is deeply alarming,” said one expert. Wednesday is Finance Day at COP27, the United Nations climate summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, and the advocacy group Rainforest Action Network published a report exposing how major U.S. banks are financing hundreds of billions of dollars worth of fossil fuel projects—even as they tout their purported commitment to a low-carbon future.

Ecosocialist Bookshelf, November 2022: The Value of a Whale: On the Illusions of Green Capitalism
A searing and insightful critique that examines the fatal biases that have shaped the response of our governing institutions to climate and environmental breakdown. Buller shows what’s wrong with carbon pricing, ‘green growth’, and the commodification of nature, exposing the self-defeating logic of ‘solutions’ based on creating new opportunities for profit. Future on Fire: Capitalism and the Politics of Climate Change
Only disruptive mass social movements can force governments to make the changes we need. Camfield argues that even a ravaged planet is worth fighting for and that ultimately the only solution to the ecological crisis created by capitalism is a transition to ecosocialism.

Onw Example of Industry Putting Profit Over a Community’s Health!: Cadmium:

Cadmium is a heavy metal found naturally in the Cadmium is a heavy metal found naturally in earth’s crust. It is usually found as a mineral combined with other elements such as oxygen, chlorine, or sulfur. Cadmium is used in many industries and is essential in the production of batteries, certain alloys, coatings, solar cells, plastic stabilizers, and pigments. It is also found in significant quantities in cigarette smoke. Mining and other similar industrial activities are the main source of cadmium in the environment. Once released, cadmium and cadmium compounds are relatively water soluble and, as a result, are more mobile in most mediums such as soil and water. Furthermore, they are generally more bioavailable and tend to accumulate in plant and animal life. Because of this, the main source of cadmium exposure in non-smokers is their diet. Among smokers, cigarette smoke is the main source of exposure, with numerous studies identifying cadmium blood levels 4-5 times higher than the normal population. Cadmium is toxic to humans, affecting multiple organs/systems including the kidneys, bones, and lungs. Additionally, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classifies cadmium as a Class 1 carcinogen. Cadmium bioaccumulates in the human body, especially in the kidneys. The accumulation of cadmium in the kidneys leads to loss of kidney function due to decreased reabsorption of proteins, glucose, and amino acids. Skeletal damage in both humans and animals exposed to high levels of cadmium has been observed, while chronic obstructive airway disease has been documented among workers. Farm workers and other residents of China’s Hunan province have experienced an epidemic of cadmium poisoning as recently as 2014. Since the early 2000s, smelting plants proliferated in the area, operating with very little government oversight. The result was heavily contaminated rice and other vegetables grown in the area. Locals developed multiple complications, including “itai-itai” disease – a sickness first recognized in Japan in the 1960s. Although some regulations from the Chinese government have limited farming activities in land with high cadmium levels, the health effects on the population remain- yet another example of industry putting profit over a community’s health.

Civil Rights/ Black Liberation:

Black Agenda Report:

Labor:

Economy:

FRED: Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: All Items in U.S. City Average

FREDL: Purchasing Power of the Consumer Dollar in U.S. City Average

Shadow Government Statistics Alternate Inflation Charts The CPI chart on the home page reflects our estimate of inflation for today as if it were calculated the same way it was in 1990. The CPI on the Alternate Data Series tab here reflects the CPI as if it were calculated using the methodologies in place in 1980. In general terms, methodological shifts in government reporting have depressed reported inflation, moving the concept of the CPI away from being a measure of the cost of living needed to maintain a constant standard of living.

World:

Poland Goes Nuclear Congratulations must go to Poland — and to US vice president, Kamala Harris, and US energy secretary, Jennifer Granholm for brokering the deal — for its commitment to purchase a triad of American nuclear lemons. With breathtaking myopia, the Polish government has signed a deal to partner with the US company, Westinghouse, in the construction of three nuclear reactors in Poland. Apparently, everyone concerned is happy to ignore the fact that Westinghouse was bankrupted by its disastrous nuclear projects in South Carolina and Georgia. The former was canceled mid-construction and the latter, at Plant Vogtle, is now years behind schedule and well beyond its originally predicted 2016 start-up date, with ever-ballooning cost over-runs that have now topped $30 billion.

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