Daily News Digest February 1, 2023
Images of the Day:
Desantis Goes After Black History
T0 Be Or Not To Be That is the Question!
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 Capitalism 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 response was the same whether he spoke in Harlem or in a debate at Oxford University in England.: One can hear the response that Malcolm got by watching the video of Malcolm X’s Oxford Union Debate (December 3, 1964), when he ended his speech quoting Shakespeare: “I read once, passingly, about a man named Shakespeare. I only read about him passingly, but I remember one thing he wrote that kind of moved me. He put it in the mouth of Hamlet, I think, it was, who said, ‘To be or not to be.’ He was in doubt about something—whether it was nobler in the mind of man to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune—moderation—or to take up arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them. And I go for that. If you take up arms, you’ll end it, but if you sit around and wait for the one who’s in power to make up his mind that he should end it, you’ll be waiting a long time. And in my opinion, the young generation of whites, blacks, browns, whatever else there is, you’re living at a time of extremism, a time of revolution, a time when there’s got to be a change. People in power have misused it, and now there has to be a change and a better world has to be built, and the only way it’s going to be built—is with extreme methods. And I, for one, will join in with anyone—I don’t care what color you are—as long as you want to change this miserable condition that exists on this earth.” —The Assassinations of M.L.K. Jr. and Malcolm X
DeSantis’s actions and what they are harbingers of cannot be ignored. As I write, there are over 50 hate groups, some of them armed, operating in the state of Florida, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Florida is the state where unarmed Black teenager Trayvon Martin was killed with impunity by a local racist vigilante. These are consequences of half-truths, lies and erasures. But again, racism is not just about ignorance or “hate,” but also about power, domination and exploitation. The spurious ideas and omitted truths are what the political and economic practices get wrapped up in. — Ron DeSantis’s Attack on Black Studies Is Textbook Proto-Fascism
Videos/Podcasts of the Day:
As US Secretary of State Arrives in Israel as Violence and Colonization Intensify: “An Intolerable Situation”: Rashid Khalidi & Orly Noy on Israeli Colonialism & Escalating Violence
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! Both Parties Support U.S. Capitalism’s Wars! (The Only War the Democrats Opposed was the Civil War!)
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 D. Brandeis Quotes
The greatest purveyor of violence in the world today — my own government. MLK, Beyond Vietnam
So You Wanna Reduce the Debt? Tax the Wealthy Like We Used To Here’s what most people don’t know: The wealthy used to pay higher taxes to the government. Now the government pays the wealthy interest on their loans to finance a swelling debt that’s been caused largely by lower taxes on the wealthy. Here’s what most people don’t know: The wealthy used to pay higher taxes to the government. Now the government pays the wealthy interest on their loans to finance a swelling debt that’s been caused largely by lower taxes on the wealthy.
Chris Hedges: Ukraine: The War That Went Wrong NATO support for the war in Ukraine, designed to degrade the Russian military and drive Vladimir Putin from power, is not going according to plan. The new sophisticated military hardware won’t help. Empires in terminal decline leap from one military fiasco to the next. The war in Ukraine, another bungled attempt to reassert U.S. global hegemony, fits this pattern. The danger is that the more dire things look, the more the U.S. will escalate the conflict, potentially provoking open confrontation with Russia. If Russia carries out retaliatory attacks on supply and training bases in neighboring NATO countries, or uses tactical nuclear weapons, NATO will almost certainly respond by attacking Russian forces. We will have ignited World War III, which could result in a nuclear holocaust.
I’m a Card-Carrying Member of the Military-Industrial Complex and Here Is the Unpleasant Truth What matters to the MIC isn’t either the truth or saving your taxpayer dollars but keeping those weapons programs going and the money flowing. My name is Bill Astore and I’m a card-carrying member of the military-industrial complex (MIC). Sure, I hung up my military uniform for the last time in 2005. Since 2007, I’ve been writing articles for TomDispatch focused largely on critiquing that same MIC and America’s permanent war economy. I’ve written against this country’s wasteful and unwise wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, its costly and disastrous weapons systems, and its undemocratic embrace of warriors and militarism. Nevertheless, I remain a lieutenant colonel, if a retired one. I still have my military ID card, if only to get on bases, and I still tend to say “we” when I talk about my fellow soldiers, Marines, sailors, and airmen (and our “guardians,” too, now that we have a Space Force).
Environment — Ecosocialism of Ecocide!:
Louisiana Democratic Party ‘Funneled’ Utility Donations to Climate Candidate Challenger After endorsing Davante Lewis in the state’s latest Public Service Commission election, Louisiana Democratic Party leaders accepted $90,000 from the utilities overseen by the commission, ultimately throwing the party’s weight behind Lewis’s pro-industry opponent.
As Profits Soar, US Utilities Lavish Shareholders While Shutting Off Power for Millions “The utility industry’s custom of shutting off power punishes people for being poor,” said the authors of a new report. . . . The authors of the report, titled Powerless in the United States, analyzed shutoff data from 30 states between January and October 2022, finding that utilities cut power to households more than 1.5 million times. Based on the rate of shutoffs recorded, 4.2 million households suffered utility shutoffs across the country in the first 10 months of 2022.
California’s Forests Are Permanently Stunted Trees have grown less fire-resistant, affecting the state’s plans to fight climate change. Ecosystems aren’t landscape paintings so much as mosaics, with different pieces that grow and change over time. In healthy forests, patches of recent disturbance, such as fire or logging, sit alongside patches of grasses and shrubs, fast-growing trees and centuries-old mature forests. But these ecological patterns require a climate stability that no longer exists. Due to human-caused climate change, California’s forest mosaics are vanishing. According to a study published in AGU Advances last July, the state’s forests lost almost 7%, or just over 1,700 square miles, of tree cover since 1985. That’s an area larger than Yosemite National Park. In particular, forests in California’s southwestern mountains lost 14% of tree cover.
California Holds Out as Western States Agree to Cut Colorado River Water Use State says it will release own plan as six others to dramatically cut water use from river stressed by drought and overuse Six western states that rely on water from the Colorado River have agreed on a model to dramatically cut water use in the basin, months after the federal government called for action and an initial deadline passed. California – with the largest allocation of water from the river – is the lone holdout. Officials said the state would release its own plan.
Recent Daily Average Mauna Loa Trends in Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Jamuary 29, 2023 is 420.14 ppn.
US renewable Energy Farms Outstrip 99% of Coal Plants Economically — StudyIt is cheaper to build solar panels or cluster of wind turbines and connect them to the grid than to keep operating coal plants Coal in the US is now being economically outmatched by renewables to such an extent that it’s more expensive for 99% of the country’s coal-fired power plants to keep running than it is to build an entirely new solar or wind energy operation nearby, a new analysis has found. The plummeting cost of renewable energy, which has been supercharged by last year’s Inflation Reduction Act, means that it is cheaper to build an array of solar panels or a cluster of new wind turbines and connect them to the grid than it is to keep operating all of the 210 coal plants in the contiguous US, bar one, according to the study.
Civil Rights Black Liberation:
Legal/Extra-Legal Terrorism Has Been a Tool of the United States 1% to Subjugate Black People 2021 Update: Modern DayPolice Terrorism! — White Supremacists Groups Have Become Part of Law Enforcement: FBI Warned of White Supremacists In Law Enforcement 15 Years Ago. Has Anything Changed?Increased attention toward the killing of black men and women by police throughout the past year has ignited national conversations on racism and law enforcement. From Freddie Gray in April 2015 to Deborah Danner — an “emotionally disturbed” woman fatally shot this week by an NYPD officer — protests around the country have forced many Americans to reassess how police engage with communities of color. In light of — or perhaps despite — the increased scrutiny, FBI director James Comey told police officers at a national conference last Sunday that because of insufficient data on use of force, “Americans actually have no idea” whether racial bias in policing is really an epidemic. Pointing to current public outrage over police killings of African-Americans, Comey said “the absence of good information” and data has aided in the growing belief that police officers target particular communities. By Kenya Downs 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 The Iron Heel to Everyone! After the civil war terrorism was used to overturn/betray promises made to win the civil war, the gains Blacks had made during reconstruction. How did they accomplish this betrayal? The answer is simple— The answer is simple —By the Use of Terrorism! — They used police and terrorist Ku Klux Klan violence — Lynchings!These extra-legal activities laid the basis for the overthrow of Black Reconstruction and the institutionalization of legal segregation (Jim Crow) in the former slave states. To enforce Jim Crow, Black people were, for decades, indiscriminately lynched and framed.
Labor:
Migrant Farmworkers Have No Safety Net in the Face of Catastrophic Flooding Many farmworkers are still out of work and struggling to afford food in the wake of California’s disastrous floods. Workers in California who grow and pick the majority of fruits and nuts in the United States are experiencing an acute crisis of un- and under-employment, and ensuing food insecurity, following the procession of atmospheric rivers that drenched the state in January. In a mere matter of days, many locations across the Golden State absorbed upwards of half the precipitation that tends to fall over the course of an entire year: over 32 trillion gallons between December 25 and January 20. Amid record drought conditions, soils shifted from scorched to soaked overnight, leading to hundreds of landslides, cars swept away by flood waters and at least 22 deaths. Farm owners are now tallying the damage to apply for federal disaster assistance, and amid the welcome sunshine, public discourse has turned to silver linings like fuller reservoirs and how the rainfall was “great for wine.” But the people at the heart of the “fruit basket” of the U.S. (over three-quarters of nuts and fruits and one-third of vegetables consumed in the U.S. are grown by California farmworkers) have weathered long stretches without work, or with significantly fewer hours, making it all but impossible to feed their own families.
Economy:
Sullivan & Cromwell’s Crypto Clients Are in Growing Distress The 144-year old law firm, Sullivan & Cromwell, which previously prided itself on being the go-to law firm for Wall Street, decided a few years back to get deep in the swamp with all things crypto. That dicey decision is now playing out in negative headlines that are dragging down the reputation of the 900-attorney law firm. Adding to questions swirling around its past legal representation of now indicted crypto kingpin, Sam Bankman-Fried, as well as his bankrupt crypto exchange, FTX, and his hedge fund, Alameda Research, is the fact that a growing number of Sullivan & Cromwell’s other crypto clients are also in various stages of distress. Notwithstanding that reality, the presiding judge in the FTX bankruptcy proceedings, John Dorsey, signed an order on January 20 naming Sullivan & Cromwell the lead counsel in the FTX bankruptcy case.
World:
Havana Declaration Outlines Vision for Building Just World Economy “What is the common vision to guide the Global South out of this crisis?” asked the Progressive International. “What is the plan to win it?” Delegates to the Havana Congress on the New International Economic Order—a gathering organized by the Progressive International and attended by more than 50 scholars and policymakers from 26 countries across all six inhabited continents—agreed over the weekend on a declaration that outlines a “common vision” for building an egalitarian and sustainable society out of the wreckage of five decades of neoliberal capitalism. “The crisis of the existing world system can either entrench inequalities,” the declaration asserts, or it can “embolden” popular movements throughout the Global South to “reclaim” their role as protagonists “in the construction of a new world order based on justice, equity, and peace.” Delegates resolved to focus their initial efforts on strengthening the development and dissemination of lifesaving technologies in low-income nations. —“Delegates Agreed That a Key Priority Must be to Secure Science and Technology Sovereignty.” — This decision comes one year after Cuban officials announced, at a press conference convened by the Progressive International (PI), their plan to deliver 200 million homegrown Covid-19 vaccine doses to impoverished countries abandoned by their wealthy counterparts and Big Pharma—along with tools to enable domestic production and expert support to improve distribution.
France: on the Split in the New Anticapitalist Party (NPA) The New Anticapitalist Party (NPA) in France – formed in 2009 by members of the now-disbanded Revolutionary Communist League (LCR), with the primary intention of uniting France’s far-left – announced at its 5th congress in December it would be undergoing a split, into two roughly similar-sized groups. The following article by Révolution, the French section of the IMT, draws the lessons of this split.
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 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!
Pfizer’s Record-Shattering $100 Billion in Revenue Denounced as ‘Sickening’ “Put simply, Pfizer has plundered health systems for profit,” said the People’s Vaccine Alliance. The U.S.-based pharmaceutical giant Pfizer reported Tuesday that it brought in a record-breaking $100.3 billion in revenue in 2022 and $31.4 billion in profit, sums that campaigners decried as “sickening” in the face of an ongoing pandemic and persistent inequities in coronavirus vaccine access.