Daily News Digest November 22, 2022
Images of the Day:
The Reality That COP27 Inored: Catastrophic Climate Change!
After COP27: Climate Catastrophe and the Need for Revolution
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:
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore, There is society where none intrudes, By the deep Sea, and music in its roar: I love not Man the less, but Nature more, — George Gordon Byron
We’ve reached a point where the changes we’ve induced to the environment are so monumental that a transformation of the natural world has become inevitable. What’s not is how extreme those changes will be. So will we proactively redesign societies to reflect this changing reality? Or, will we continue on the path of business as usual, and then reactively respond to a far more aggressive transformation? The problem is that what we can and can’t do is constrained by what is possible within ideological boundaries set by capitalism. Should an idea question or undermine never-ending economic growth, then it will be rejected as unrealistic. But economic growth translates into more emissions, more waste, more habitat destruction. In other words, economic growth can’t be sustained, so by definition, it is an unsustainable economic goal. The refusal to accept this fact means it’s becoming ever more likely that transformation will be forced upon us through disaster. While that will undoubtedly lead to anxiety, fear, and doomism, what should breed hope is that the ideas, technological know-how, and an army of highly motivated environmentalists already exist. — Transformation By Design Or Disaster, What’s It Going To Be?
Videos of the Day:
Scheer Intelligence: Netanyahu Is What Israel Has Always Been
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 Republicrats 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
Zelensky and Media Lackeys Caught in Most Dangerous Lie YetWith Kiev exposed for a lie that could have triggered a third world war, it is time to examine past deceptions that Western media promoted. Amissile that exploded on Polish soil on November 15 killed two civilians and destroyed farm equipment. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Western corporate media rushed to blame the explosion on Russia in apparent hopes of triggering NATO’s Article 5, which requires NATO states to defend one another militarily when attacked by a hostile force. Polish and NATO members including US President Joseph Biden have since confirmed the missile that struck Poland was, in fact, a Ukrainian S-300 anti-aircraft missile. Yet Zelensky is sticking to his line, blaming Russia for the strike, while NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg still insists that “Russia bears ultimate responsibility.” Meanwhile, the media outlets that reflexively pointed the finger at Russia have been forced to take a step back from their initial reporting.
World War III Has Begun World War III has begun. Don’t take my word for it. In his 2022 National Security Strategy Report, US President Biden states, “We are in the midst of a strategic competition to shape the future of the international order.” As a subtitle makes clear, this means “Out-Competing China and Constraining Russia.” (p.23). In the contest for the future of our world… the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) is the only competitor with both the intent to reshape the international order in favor of one that tilts the global playing field to its benefit and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to advance that objective. (p.8). Biden assures us, “the United States has everything we need to win the competition for the 21st century.” — What does that mean?— Economically, the US is falling behind China. Its advantage is military. In 2021, the US invested $801 billion in armaments, almost three times more than the $293 billion invested by China. If the US can only defeat China by military means, then that is what it will do. Biden admits the US is not powerful enough to defeat China on its own, We will build the strongest possible coalition of nations to enhance our collective influence to shape the global strategic environment and to solve shared challenges. (p.11)
Call of Duty Is a Government Psyop: These Documents Prove It A closer inspection of Activision Blizzard’s key staff and their connections to state power, as well as details gleaned from documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, reveal that Call of Duty is not a neutral first-person shooter but a carefully constructed piece of military propaganda, designed to advance the interests of the U.S. national security state. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II has been available for less than three weeks, but it is already making waves. Breaking records, within ten days, the first-person military shooter video game earned more than $1 billion in revenue. Yet it has also been shrouded in controversy, not least because missions include assassinating an Iranian general clearly based on Qassem Soleimani, a statesman and military leader slain by the Trump administration in 2020, and a level where players must shoot “drug traffickers” attempting to cross the U.S./Mexico border.
Environment: Ecosocialism or Ecocide!:
Greenwashing Governments and Oil Companies Turned COP27 Into a Climate Disaster The international climate talks in Egypt — the 27th Conference of Parties to the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, or COP27 — have become a dystopian nightmare: Oil companies, dictators and greenwashers captured the process more effectively than ever. But there is hope: Alliances are taking shape — between civil society, scientists and labor — that aim to break the fossil fuel companies’ deathly grip on climate policy. —Corporate Capture. — This year’s United Nations climate summit, which ends on November 17 at the luxury Sharm el-Sheikh resort, is the first to which oil and gas companies were invited to participate in the official program of events. Rachel Rose Jackson of Corporate Accountability commented that “COP27 looks like a fossil fuel industry trade show.
Cop27 Failed on Keeping Global Heating to Just 1.5C, Ed Miliband Says – UK Politics Live Ed Miliband, the shadow secretary for climate change and net zero, told MPs that the Cop27 failed on the key issue of keeping global heating to just 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. In his contribution to the urgent question, he said: We should be clear, on the crucial issue of 1.5 degrees, this summit failed. We already see the disastrous effects of one degree of warming. And, rather than tackle this crisis, too many leaders are fiddling while the world burns. And, as a result, we are currently on track according to the UN for a catastrophic 2.8 degrees of warming. We should tell the truth. Unless we do something different and fast, we will leave a terrible legacy. With this backdrop, no country can be patting itself on the back. And as a country that considers itself a climate leader, we have a responsibility and opportunity to set the pace in the year ahead and our moral authority in the negotiations depends on it. Miliband also criticised the UK government for “indulging in a dash for new fossil fuel licences which won’t even make a difference to bills”.
The New York Times and a New Climate Denialism No longer can any rational person claim that climate change isn’t happening. Instead, the new deniers argue that people will be able to adapt to climate chaos and that swift, decisive action is “magical thinking.” “Yes, Greenland’s Ice Is Melting…”. The headline of the interactive New York Times opinion piece (10/28/22) by conservative columnist Bret Stephens is placed over an image of Greenland’s melting ice cap crashing into the slushy meltwater below. With one more scroll, the word “But…” appears over the ice, which resembles a melting snowplowed slush pile in a parking lot. From just a glance at the headline, it was clear where this article was going. The 6,000-word piece went on to chronicle Stephens’ trip to Greenland as a self-proclaimed global warming “agnostic.” There, the dramatic effects of climate change “changed [his] mind” about the problem, but reinforced his “belief that markets, not government, provide the cure.”
Civil Rights/ Black Liberation:
Capitalism Has Ended the Issue of Scarcity But Worsened the Crisis of Inequality Capitalism has been around for such a long time that it is hard for people even to imagine a world without it. Yet, it is far from an immutable physical law. In fact, capitalism is now “materially outmoded and ideologically defunct,” argues British author Steve Paxton in his forthcoming book, How Capitalism Ends (Zero Books, 2022). “The capitalist era has provided the material abundance required for a free human society, but capitalism cannot deliver the freedom its productive capacity makes possible.” In the interview that follows, Paxton shares his thoughts on the contours, contradictions and twilight of capitalism with Truthout.
Oklahoma’s “Child Abuse” Law Doesn’t Protect Children — It Criminalizes Mothers . . . On Christmas Eve, Karina woke up to find her baby no longer breathing. “She was already cold,” she recalled. Later, she learned that her boyfriend told police that he had choked the baby with a stuffed animal “because he would get frustrated due to her crying all the time.” Ultimately, her boyfriend was convicted of child abuse and sentenced to 20 years in prison. He was released in 2019 and is serving the remaining 10 years on probation. Karina went to trial. She was convicted of child abuse and sentenced to 65 years in prison. She has served 18 years and remains in prison today. Truthout agreed not to publish her legal name in this article (Karina is a pseudonym) because women with child abuse convictions are often bullied in prison.
Chicago Votes in Favor of Removing Police From Mental Health Crisis Response In cagoChi, the Treatment Not Trauma campaign won overwhelming community support for a non-binding referendum calling for investment in public mental health centers and a non-police crisis response system. Authored by 33rd Ward Alderperson Rossana Rodriguez and envisioned by a coalition of community groups and stakeholders, the ordinance calls for developing a Chicago Crisis Response and Care System within the Chicago Department of Public Health. On November 8, residents in three wards said “yes” to the Treatment Not Trauma campaign, for an overwhelming win. The 6th, 20th and 33rd wards received 98 percent, 96 percent and 93 percent “yes” votes, respectively. The Treatment Not Trauma campaign — which includes the Collaborative for Community Wellness, Southside Together Organizing for Power, 33rd Working Families, DefundCPD, and most crucial of all, individual community members — sustained the effort through thousands of calls, conversations and doorknocks from mental health professionals, community organizers and residents. The referendum results combat the idea that Black and Brown residents of Chicago are opposed to mental health investment and divestment from policing.
Labor:
Rank File Rail Workers Vote No to Labor Bureaucracy/Biden Brokered Deal!: Major Strike Looms as Largest Rail Union in US Rejects White House-Brokered Contract “It’s about attendance policies, sick time, fatigue, and the lack of family time,” said one union official. “A lot of these things that cannot be seen but are felt by our membership. It’s destroying their livelihoods.” This is a developing news story… Check back for possible updates… The largest railroad workers union in the United States announced Monday that its members voted to reject a contract negotiated with the help of the Biden White House, once again raising the prospect of a major strike or lockout as employees revolt over profitable rail giants’ refusal to provide adequate paid sick leave.
Economy:
FTX’s Latest Casualties: Federally Insured Crypto Banks On August 1 of this year, we penned this headline at Wall Street On Parade: Brace Yourself for Federally-Insured Bank Failures Caused by Crypto. Our research for that article was so stomach-churning and frightening that we emailed the article to key staff for the Senators who sit on the Senate Banking Committee. One of the banks we researched for that article was Silvergate Bank. We wrote: “FDIC-insured Silvergate Bank is part of the publicly-traded Silvergate Capital Corp., (ticker SI). Silvergate’s website says this about its hot pursuit of crypto: ‘We began pursuing digital currency customers in 2013 and have been deliberate in our approach to serving this community since then. Today, we have 1,300+ digital currency and fintech customers that are using our platform daily to grow and scale their businesses.’
World:
Italy: Neo-Nazi Terror Cell Linked to Western-Backed Ukraine Battalion Four members of a neo-Nazi terrorist cell have been arrested in Italy on suspicion of plotting terrorist attacks in the country. A police investigation revealed links between this organisation and fascist groups in Ukraine, including the notorious Azov battalion. This incident highlights the hypocrisy of western imperialism, which is funnelling cash and guns to armed groups in Ukraine with neo-Nazi and far-right roots, evidence of which are regularly dismissed as overblown or “Russian propagand
UK Autumn Budget Means Biggest Fall in Living Standards for 70 Years According to the Resolution Foundation, wages will continue to stagnate through to 2027, meaning almost 20 years of falling pay. Research on last week’s Conservative government’s Autumn Statement budget shows that it will lead to a devastating fall in workers’ living standards. The Financial Times wrote that Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s “£55bn plan for fiscal tightening” represented “the biggest drop in living standards for 70 years.”
The Waters are Running Red in Africa’s Great Lakes Region The M23 rebels—backed by Rwanda—have expanded their attacks in the DRC. In retaliation, the DRC expelled Rwandan Ambassador Vincent Karega. The M23 with the assistance of Rwanda troops captured Kiwanja and Rutshuru, two towns in the DRC’s North Kivu province. Rwanda argues that it was the DRC that violated agreements leading to the fighters being reinstated.
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
United States Is Still the Global Covid Leader With Over 100.000.000 Covid Cases and Over 1,102,505 Deaths! (And Counting)