Daily News Digest February 13, 2023
Images of the Day:
Ted Rall
Balloon Spotters Quide
U.S. Today: Toxic Spill/Freedom of the Press Drailment
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:
Silence on the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.: There was a deafening void on what the nation’s leading left intellectual Noam Chomsky recently called the “four horsemen of the apocalypse” in the nation and world today: the heightened risk of thermonuclear war, ecocide, pandemicide, and fascism. Biden never frontally confronted any of these four existential threats to a decent and livable future. Maybe that’s because he’s actively advancing each one of them by: waging an ever more menacing proxy war with imperialist Russian in Ukraine (a war that has lead the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists to move its Doomsday Clock to the most perilous point in its history); signing off on more oil and gas release and drilling than his openly eco-cidal and tangerine-tinted redecessor; shutting down public health protections for a still globally rampant and mutating pandemic; failing to seriously confront and counter the not-so “semi”-fascism of the Republicans, who he repeatedly called “my friends.” — Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address: A Marxist Response
Videos/Podcasts of the Day:
Lambert: ‘No Journalist Expects to be Arrested When You’re Doing Your Job’
Forced Immigrant Labor Used to Clean Up After Climate Disasters in the US
The Iron Heel in Ohio!: TV Reporter’s Arrest There have now been two toxic derailments in East Palestine, Ohio. Fumes from the toxic train derailment appear to have clouded the judgment of an Ohio National Guard Commander, State Troopers, East Palestine and Columbian County police who all derailed the First Amendment Right of a TV reporter by arresting him for and while doing his job.
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
The Media Monopoly: An Overview “The media was envisioned by our country’s founders as the Fourth Estate, next to the Legislative, Judicial and Executive branches in power. Without a balanced and thorough media, we can not function as a true government of the people, because the public will be ignorant and manipulated by a selective presentation of biased information (Palmeri, 2004).”
Facts and Figures
- AOL/Time Warner, Walt Disney Co./ABC, Viacom, News Corp., and Bertelsmann, the renowned five giants in the field of mass communication controls the equivalent of almost 50 corporations that dominated 20 years ago, according to The New Media Monopoly, the latest edition of renowned media critic Ben Bagdikian’s book. Those five already control more than 80 percent of prime-time programming.
- The vast majority of Americans of at least 54 percent still rely on television for their news. Only 8 percent look to the Internet as their primary news reference and half of those sites are owned by the top media giants, according to media watchdog group Free Press.
- Corporate control of cable and satellite TV is even more striking, with monopolies representing 98 percent of all cable markets nationwide, and two companies controlling satellite TV.
- The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) heavily influenced by corporate lobbyists and narrow-minded free marketeers has consistently reinforced the power enjoyed by media conglomerates on what Americans see, hear, and read with moves such as handing the digital spectrum to current TV station owners for free five years ago (a gift worth $80 billion at the time) and fighting low-power FM radio stations.
- Today 29 corporations control most of the business in daily newspapers, magazines, television, books, and motion pictures. The movie industry is controlled by four firms. The nation’s newspapers are dominated by 15 firms. Six control magazines and a handful dominate the book publishing business. Three networks control the television airwaves (Bagdikian, 2004).
“We’ve Never Been Closer to Nuclear Catastrophe:” an Interview With Helen Caldicott This interview took place on January 25, 2023, one day after the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists advanced the hands of the Doomsday Clock to 90 seconds before midnight—in large part due to developments in Ukraine. Dr. Helen Caldicott, an Australian peace activist and environmentalist, discussed the extreme and imminent threat of a nuclear holocaust due to a proxy war between the U.S. and Russia in Ukraine. She also addressed the announcement by the U.S. Department of Energy of a controlled nuclear reaction and outlines the relationship between the nuclear power industry and nuclear weapons.
When I was in high school, The Rise of American Civilization. by Charles A. Beard, Mary R. Beard, was our US History textbook.:
The letter did not find favor with the NYRB editors. This outcome was perhaps understandable. The editors explain on their website that they receive thousands of such letters. Nevertheless, some effort needs to be made to bring fairness and accuracy to the debate about Beard. We owe him that much. He was, after Henry Adams, our greatest historian. His idea about following the money trail for a proper understanding of American imperialism and militarism constitutes a shaft of light in the fog of propaganda enveloping us today. Dismissing Beard as a racist in this day and age can be an effective—though historically irresponsible—means for getting rid of him once and for all. As ever since 1913, canceling Beard would come as a consummation devoutly to be wished by the guardians of our national mythologies. — Charles Austin Beard, a Racist Historian?
Environment — Ecosocialism of Ecocide!:
Can Political Ecology Save Us? Ecology in America barely exists. Business as usual capitalism is so entrenched, it acts like a religion. It has its hierarchies of billionaires, and armies of economists and political (and other social) “scientists” preaching its dogmas. The countless faithful are willing to transfer even more of the national wealth to the billionaires, lest they, too, become servants of the elect. Their church is about monopolies and national and global control. —America of the Republicans and Democrats — The two parties, the Democrats, and the Republicans, antagonize each other not so much for ideological reasons but for favors they seek from the billionaires. The Republicans protect the plutocracy run by the billionaires. They may even dream of a monarchy for the country. The Democrats want to keep calling themselves democrats. Yet their ambition is to strengthen the military-industrial complex of war and empire. That is their connection to the Republicans and the billionaire class. Obama-like administrations remain the political model for the Democrats. That gives them the pretense of sharing the country with non-whites.
The Arctic’s Iceless Upheaval Anybody who closely follows global warming knows that the Arctic has been clobbered 2-3 times beyond the impact on the planet. And knowledgeable sources also know that what happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic. After all, for millennia Arctic ice steadfastly served as the planet’s numero uno biggest reflector of solar radiation by reflecting 80%-90% of sunlight back to outer space. — But what if the ice is gone? —Where does all the heat go? — It’s a problem that threatens life as we know it. Alongside nuclear war, it’s one of the bigger threats to civilization since back in time when humans huddled together around smoldering fires in damp, darkened caves. Based upon scientific studies, including the fact that the following are already in motion, the impact of an iceless Arctic: (1) Disruption of the jet streams in the troposphere at 20,000-30,000 feet which, in turn, throws off normal weather patterns throughout the Northern Hemisphere, as the steady westerlies don’t know which way is up or down or stalled, causing flash floods, torrential rains, scorching droughts, and brutal cold snaps seldom witnessed before, bringing forth unpredictable conditions with extreme cycles that whiplash society, e.g. last year’s 2022-primer for 2023-24 (2) Amplifies Greenland’s disintegration, which is already showing signs of considerable weakness and frailty as 24 feet of sea level rise remains tenuously trapped in ice. Scientists, such as Dr. Jason Box, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, have already put Greenland on special alert status (3) Accelerated melting of permafrost across Siberia, Alaska and Canada where thermokarst lakes by the thousands, yes, by the thousands, are popping up almost overnight, spewing methane bubbles, according to Dr. Katey Walter Anthony, Aquatic Ecosystem Ecologist and professor, University of Alaska. Alas, methane is much more powerful at stimulating global warming than CO2.
Half the Wetlands in Europe Lost In Past 300 Years, Researchers Calculate Assessment shows 20% global loss since 1700 – far less than thought – but Europe, US and China bear the brunt Half the wetlands in Europe, continental US and China have been destroyed in the past 300 years, with some areas – including the UK, Ireland and Germany – losing more than 75%, new research shows. Globally, an area the size of India has disappeared.
Civil Rights Black Liberation:
We Need More, Not Less, Education on Black History and Structural Racism American history is wrought with the good, the bad, and the ugly. When we provide access to comprehensive educational opportunities for all students, it instills resilience and empathy for the shared American experience. On the first day of Black History month, the College Board stripped down AP African American History, removing references to elements of Black history that some called “politicizing” or “woke indoctrination.” This is a part of a national wave to erase and rewrite Black history–which is, by the way, American history. Proposed state legislation in Missouri, as well as laws passed in Iowa and Florida, uses phrases like “parents’ rights” to justify the banning of books and erasing images, stories and history of Black life from the k-12 curriculum. But I would suggest for that what we need is more, not less, education on structural racism and Black history.
Labor:
What the Republicrat Imposed Railworkers 1 Person Crews Contract Caused!:
Though no one died in the accident, the catastrophe serves as a wake-up call to the potential for more deadly freight rail derailments, public health advocates warn. By one estimate, 25 million Americans live in an oil train blast zone, and had the derailment occurred just a few miles east, it would be burning in downtown Pittsburgh, with tens of thousands of residents in immediate danger. Ineffective oversight and a largely self-monitoring industry that has cut the nation’s rail workforce to the bone in recent years as it puts record profits over safety is responsible for the wreck, said Ron Kaminkow, an Amtrak locomotive engineer and former Norfolk Southern freight engineer. — Ohio Catastrophe is ‘Wake-Up Call’ to Dangers Of Deadly Train Derailments
Child Labor was Stopped With the Rise of the CIO in the 1930s! Now, With the Labor Officials, in their back pocket, United States Capitalism, once again, has begun to use child labor. House Dems Urge Biden Administration to Rid Hyundai Supply Chain of Child Labor The call from congressional lawmakers comes amid a surge in child labor violations—and as Republican state lawmakers seek to roll back over a century of child labor protections. A group of 33 Democratic lawmakers on Friday implored the U.S. Labor Department “to take immediate action to rid Hyundai’s supply chain of child labor and hold those responsible to the fullest extent of the law” after a Reuters investigation revealed that dozens of kids as young as 12 years old—most of them Central American migrants—were working in Southeastern factories supplying the Korean auto giant. Last July, Reuters began investigating allegations of children working on the factory floor at Hyundai subsidiary SMART Alabama LLC’s metal stamping plant in Luverne after a 13-year-old Guatemalan girl who worked there temporarily went missing. Reporters Joshua Schneyer, Mica Rosenberg, and Kristina Cooke reported that children, the youngest of whom were 12 years old, worked at the plant, which supplies parts for vehicles manufactured at Hyundai’s flagship U.S. factory in Montgomery.
Economy:
FTX Bankruptcy Lawyers Channel their Inner Sam Bankman-Fried – Bill $21,000 for their Meals Over Just 20 Days The shenanigans going on in Judge John Dorsey’s bankruptcy courtroom, which is overseeing the FTX bankruptcy proceedings of Sam Bankman-Fried’s collapsed crypto empire, are reaching levels that should be attracting the attention of federal prosecutors. The head of the newly-created FTX Task Force, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, has called the looted FTX customer accounts “one of the biggest financial frauds in American history.”
Credit Suisse Tanks Yesterday to $3.02; It’s Lost Over 90 Percent of Its Market Value Since 2007; It’s Not Alone Credit Suisse continued its long death spiral yesterday, losing 15.64 percent of its market value in one trading session to close at $3.02 on the New York Stock Exchange. The trading action came on the heels of an earnings report that was excruciatingly bad – even for Credit Suisse. The Global Systemically Important Bank (G-SIB), which means it’s interconnected to other G-SIBs that could bring down the global financial system, reported yesterday that its clients had yanked over $100 billion in just the fourth quarter — which was more than eight times the outflow in the third quarter. Its pre-tax loss for the quarter was $1.51 billion, marking its fifth consecutive earnings loss.
World:
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!