Daily News Digest February 16, 2023

Daily News Digest Archives

Capitalism is Now a Worldwide Threat to Humanity! It is on the Fast Track to Global Warming and Nuclear War Catastrophes!

Images of the Day:

Capitalism is Dangerous to Your Health! 

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:

Paranoia strikes deep Into your life it will creep It starts when you’re always afraid ,You step out of line, the man come and take you away.— Buffalo Springfield,“Somethings Happening Here” (1966)

Videos/Podcasts of the Day:

[Podcast] James Webb and the Crisis of the Big Bang Theory

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 

Unequal Justice: The US Supreme Court is Reactionary, But is it Also Corrupt? Lawyer and former administrative judge Bill Blum continues his Truthdig series delving into the U.S. Supreme Court. Under the guise of the regressive legal theory of “originalism,” the United States Supreme Court Republican-appointed majority has issued a series of ultra-right rulings on such vital issues  as rights, voting- gerrymandering, unionorganizing, the death penalty, environmental protection, guncontrol, abortion, and campaign finance.  The end goal appears to be nothing less than the dismantling of the last vestiges of the New Deal and the Civil Rights movement.     But in addition to being reactionary, is the court also guilty of corruption? The answer depends on how we define and think of corruption.     In the strictest legal sense, the justices appear to be in the clear. Under federal law, “public corruption” is defined as “a breach of the public’s trust by government officials who use their public office to obtain personal gain,” asking for or receiving anything of value in exchange for an official act. In a 2016 decision reversing the bribery conviction of former Virginia GOP Governor Bob McDonnell, the Supreme Court narrowed the legal definition of public corruption to require strict proof of a “quid pro quo”—a swap of money or another benefit in return for a specific governmental favor.

Hersh, the US and the Sabotage of the Nordstream Pipelines The revelations contained Seymour Hersh’s analysis of the evidence pointing to US authorship of the blowing up of the  Nordstream pipelines[1] is compelling, and in a normal world this would cause a governmental crisis, a condemnation of the terror attack by the US Congress, a call for an internal investigation into illegal activities by the CIA and Pentagon, an international investigation under UN auspices, a cautious statement by the UN Secretary-General, a Protest by the United Nations Environmental Programme, a generalized media uprising, and even require the Biden Administration to step down in the light of the magnitude of the gross violation of the UN Charter and international treaties.     It is mind-boggling:  The country that claims to be a defender of international law engages is a brazen terror operation conducted in the name of the American people, who certainly would oppose the US government’s involvement in false flag operations and outright State terrorism. 

Missing Links in Textbook History: Cold War Origins.  Paranoia may be the major ingredient in American Exceptionalism. Where else can a kid grow up in security and relative wealth and yet learn to fear whatever seems different?      It started early for me. When I was in grammar school, I remember watching reruns of a black and white series called “I Led Three Lives” about a businessman who was also a Communist and an FBI agent. As a kid, it seemed like a documentary.      I also remember some of my parents’ friends talking about the Communist Russians as evil-godless-threats.      That’s why my elementary school classes held monthly atom bomb drills to prepare us for the Russian attack. During the drills we were made to hide under our desks while the nun told us not to look at the windows because our eyes would melt. I was doubtful that being under a desk would help, but I did as I was told and learned to fear the unknown. 

Blood, Money and Imperial War As we approach the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the only obvious certainty about the conflict is that some corporations are making a killing from the killing. Although there has been armed conflict in Ukraine since 2015, it wasn’t until the Russian invasion in 2022 that most western governments acknowledged the fact. Since that date in 2022, NATO governments and their cohorts have pumped tens of billions of dollars into the war. Despite this infusion of military aid, the conflict seems to be stalemated. Meanwhile, the clown prince of Kyiv–otherwise known as President Zelenskyy–continues his ostentatious and overblown solicitation of arms manufacturers and the governments that work for those manufacturers. It seems not a day goes by where Mr. Zelenskyy is not demanding more lethal and more numerous weapons and money. His demands border on the homicidal and reflect the reality of an arrogant and self-centered regime with a belligerent military alliance backing it up. Meanwhile, his allies in Washington, Berlin, and London feed his government’s self-importance while they lose count of the Ukrainian dead. 

How Spin and Lies Fuel a Bloody War of Attrition in Ukraine The American people must demand that U.S. political and military leaders tell the truth about this horrific war and our country’s role in it. And we must also demand that the media transmit the truth to the public.     In a recent column, military analyst William Astore wrote, “[Congressman] George Santos is a symptom of a much larger disease: a lack of honor, a lack of shame, in America. Honor, truth, integrity, simply don’t seem to matter, or matter much, in America today… But how do you have a democracy where there is no truth?”     Astore went on to compare America’s political and military leaders to the disgraced Congressman Santos. “U.S. military leaders appeared before Congress to testify the Iraq War was being won,” Astore wrote. “They appeared before Congress to testify the Afghan War was being won. They talked of “progress,” of corners being turned, of Iraqi and Afghan forces beingsuccessfully trained and ready to assume their duties as U.S. forces withdrew. As events showed, it was all spin. All lies.”

 Despite Defense Spending Reaches Record High as Pentagon Fails Its Audit – For Fifth Time , Pentagon Robber Barons to get More Funds!: As Pentagon Budget Nears $1 Trillion, Groups Tell Biden: Enough “We reject pouring our dollars into outdated ships, malfunctioning planes, or record-breaking contractor CEO salaries while everyday people remain hungry, unhoused, in need of adequate healthcare, or seeking a living wage.    As Pentagon Budget Nears $1 Trillion, Groups Tell Biden: Enough   “We reject pouring our dollars into outdated ships, malfunctioning planes, or record-breaking contractor CEO salaries while everyday people remain hungry, unhoused, in need of adequate healthcare, or seeking a living wage.

More on the China Balloon Episode: Much Ado About Very Little  We have just exited Phase 2 of the balloon incident. In Phase 1, “Discovery,” the Biden administration went into action mode on finding that a Chinese “spy” balloon had crossed over half the US. An air force jet shot the balloon down, displaying Cold War-style toughness with China. In Phase 2, “Evaluation,” new facts have emerged that shed further light on the episode. To wit: . . . . My conclusion: The Chinese balloon was not a significant security threat, the incident should not have been treated as though it was one, and the entire matter should instead have been put on Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s agenda when he visited Beijing as scheduled.    That’s what diplomacy is all about: heading off crises. During and since the Cold War, the US and China have had plenty of incidents of far greater magnitude that were settled diplomatically, such as the mistaken US bombing of China’s embassy in Belgrade in 1999 and the US shooting down of a Chinese jet over Hainan in 2001.      Both those incidents involved loss of life. China’s chief foreign policy official, Wang Yi, called Blinken to urge a calm, “professional” approach to their upcoming meeting in light of the balloon incident. But the Americans chose the opposite course, postponing Blinken’s trip and feeding the anti-China sentiment that has swept Congress.

Environment — Ecosocialism of Ecocide!: 

US Military Accused of Obstruction Over Cancer Linked to ‘Forever Chemicals’ (Pentagon Is the World’s Biggest Single Greenhouse Gas Emitter) Families fight for benefits after victims allegedly developed cancer from drinking water tainted by toxic PFAS at New Hampshire base.    For decades, Ken Brock and Gary Enos largely toiled in the same hangars at New Hampshire’s Pease national air base. The career US national guard members were responsible for giving fuel planes tail-to-nose inspections that prevented crashes.    “We were like general practitioners for planes,” Enos said.    Like hundreds of others who served at Pease, both developed cancer, which they and their families believe was probably from exposure to staggering levels of toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” in the base’s drinking water.

Civil Rights Black Liberation:

Editorial: Gun Control for Whom?  The rise in racist militarized police shooting sunarmed Black people, racists shooting demonstraters protesting police brutality, armed racist storming the capital, and mass shootings, the liberal wing of the United States ruling class have been agitating for gun control.  The real goal is prevent organized slef-defense.  For example: New York State has/had strict gun control restrictions. The crooks had no problem getting guns, but when Malcolm X and his supporters tried to get a gun permits, they were denied.     What gun control is intended to prevent is organized armed self-defense of the working class, Blacks, and oppressed sectors of society! With all the liberal  gun control agitation, here are a few examples of armed self defense that was part of the success of the 60’s civil rights movement’.Legal/Extra-legal Terrorism Has Been a Tool of the United States 1% to  Subjugate Black People By Roland Sheppard  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:

Economy:

Humanity Can No Longer Tolerate Corporations That Exist Almost Entirely to Make Money Society must make the necessary shift from a society that prioritizes wealth accumulation and economic growth to one that puts personal and societal well-being above profits.     In most countries, it’s left up to business owners, CEOs and boards to decide what their purpose is, and all too often the choice is ultimately based on greed.    In many countries — most notably the U.S. — corporations are considered “persons” under law, enjoying many of the same legal rights and responsibilities as “natural” persons. Judging by the way some corporations operate, you might conclude they’re not very good people.

“Largest Increase in Global Poverty Since WW2”: Capitalists Profit While the Rest of Us Suffer A new report from Oxfam titled ‘Survival of the Richest’, exposes what may be the biggest increase in global poverty and inequality since the Second World War. Such is the extent of the yawning chasm between rich and poor, that Oxfam’s CEO warned in his speech introducing the report that “the entire capitalist system is under threat”.     This data is one more piece in the enormous pile of evidence that capitalism is a corrupt system that benefits the rich at the expense of working people. As Marx wrote over 150 years ago, “Accumulation of wealth at one pole is at the same time accumulation of misery, agony of toil, slavery, ignorance, brutality, mental degradation, at the opposite pole”. Unfortunately, this quote is more relevant than ever before.

FTX Bankruptcy Judge to Rule Today on an Independent Examiner – After 76 Days of Delay Editor’s Update: Judge Dorsey denied the motion by the U.S. Trustee for the appointment of an independent examiner at this morning’s hearing. In making his ruling, he cited the arguments made by Sullivan & Cromwell. Judge John Dorsey is the presiding judge in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware where Sam Bankman-Fried’s collapsed crypto exchange, FTX, filed its Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition. The U.S. Trustee, who provides oversight on behalf of the U.S. Department of Justice in bankruptcy cases, filed a motion on December 1 of last year requesting the appointment of an independent examiner in the FTX bankruptcy case, reminding the court that the appointment is mandatory under bankruptcy law if requested by the U.S. Trustee and debts exceed $5 million. Today marks the 76^th day that this critical issue has been pending before this court.     The Big Law firm, Sullivan & Cromwell, for whom Judge Dorsey signed an order making it lead counsel in the FTX bankruptcy case, despite a mountain of conflicts of interest, has argued aggressively against the appointment of the independent examiner.

World:

Humanity Can No Longer Tolerate Corporations That Exist Almost Entirely to Make Money Society must make the necessary shift from a society that prioritizes wealth accumulation and economic growth to one that puts personal and societal well-being above profits.     In most countries, it’s left up to business owners, CEOs and boards to decide what their purpose is, and all too often the choice is ultimately based on greed.    In many countries — most notably the U.S. — corporations are considered “persons” under law, enjoying many of the same legal rights and responsibilities as “natural” persons. Judging by the way some corporations operate, you might conclude they’re not very good people.

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!