Capitalism is Now a Worldwide Threat to Humanity! It is on the Fast Track to Global Warming and/or Nuclear War Catastrophes!
Images of the Day:
Never Again War! — No More Global Warming! 
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:
Videos/Podcasts of the Day:
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. Tax 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
Washington Is Obstructing the Path to a Political Settlement in Ukraine The U.S.’s rejection of China’s proposal for a negotiated settlement reveals that it is drawing benefits from the war. The way President Joe Biden’s administration reacted to China’s offer to facilitate a political settlement of the Ukraine conflict clearly reveals Washington’s undeclared objective regarding that war. The contrast between the administration’s attitude toward China’s position and the attitudes of some of the United States’s allies is striking.
Foiled Escape: UC Global, the CIA and Julian AssangeHowever described, the shabby treatment of Julian Assange never ceases to startle. While he continues to suffer in Belmarsh prison awaiting the torments of an interminable legal process, more material is coming out showing the way he was spied upon while staying at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Of late, the Spanish daily El País has been keeping up its exemplary coverage on the subject, notably on the conduct of the Spanish-based security firm, UC Global SL. There is a twist in the latest smidgens of information on the alleged bad conduct by that particular company. As luck would have it, UC Global was commissioned by Rommy Vallejo, the chief of Ecuador’s now defunct national intelligence secretariat, SENAIN, to give the London embassy premises a security and technological touch-up.
The Myth of Free Speech in America In an April 18 out-of-court settlement minutes before formal court proceedings were set to commence, Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News family and publishing empire agreed to pay $787.5 million to Dominion Voting Systems for its repeated lies that Dominion rigged its machines to steal the 2020 US presidential elections from Donald Trump. The Fox family media empire includes The Wall Street Journal, The Times of London and The New York Post, all of which joined in promoting Trump’s fabrications. The settlement was a pittance in relation to Murdoch’s family wealth, which Forbes estimates at more than $17.1 billion, placing Murdoch 99th among the world’s richest multi-billionaires. US tax experts reported that some $250 million of the $787.5 million settlement can be written off as a business expense, given a tax cut loophole that allows corporate legal expenditures to be deducted regardless of whether they were incurred to pay off certified verdicts or settlements indicating malicious wrongdoing, a sort of Monopoly game “Get out of jail free” provision for the rich only!
‘Dangerous and Undemocratic,’ Says Zooey Zephyr as Judge Denies Bid to Return to Montana House “There is an awakening happening in this country, where people are seeing how willing certain groupsare to throw away democracy in pursuit of their ideological goals.”
To Close All US Military Bases, We First Have to Identify Them The global infrastructure of the American military empire must be mapped before it can be properly dismantled. Meet the person who is doing just that On the few occasions when a government moves toward converting property or weapon production facilities into something useful for human beings, I can’t restrain a tumbling brainstorm: What if this signals a trend, what if practical problem-solving begins to trump reckless war preparation? And so, when Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced on April 26 that his government will build 20,000 homes for social housing on land owned by the country’s Ministry of Defense, I immediately thought about crowded refugee camps around the world and inhumane treatment of people without homes. Visualize the vast capacity to welcome people into decent housing and promising futures if space, energy, ingenuity, and funds were diverted from the Pentagon to meet human needs.
Environment — Ecosocialism of Ecocide!:
The New Age of Catastrophe The world faces a multidimensional crisis, embracing the increasing destruction of nature and the degradation of labor, a world economy stagnant since the global financial crisis, and escalating inter-imperialist conflicts. The capitalist system is hitting the buffers and hurling us towards societal collapse. Multiple fault lines in the system will provoke still more mass movements that can challenge myriad forms of oppression and open the way to a just and sustainable world.
Thomas’ Citizens United Vote Enabled Billionaire Benefactor to Boost Political Power “The Crows used their fortune to buy access to and curry favor with one of the most powerful officials in Washington, then benefited from his central role in loosening rules meant to limit the influence of money over politics,” said one advocate. A report published Monday highlights potential connections between the political influence of Harlan Crow’s family and the billionaire GOP megadonor’s yearslong endeavor to shower U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas with lavish vacations and other undisclosed gifts. Since Thomas provided a deciding vote in the 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission case, the Crow family’s ability to influence federal elections has increased by a factor of almost nine, according to an Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) analysis of campaign finance data. In Travel Rewards: What the Crow Family May Have Bought by Hosting Those Luxury Trips for Justice Thomas, ATF shows how Thomas’ vote in the 5-4 decision that effectively legalized unlimited political spending has allowed the Crows to increase their average annual campaign contributions by 862%, from $163,241 pre-Citizens United to $1.57 million post-ruling.
What Do Paulsboro, NJ & East Palestine, OH Have In Common? On November 30, 2012, the community of Paulsboro, New Jersey thought the vinyl chloride clouds were fog after a train derailment caused a rupture in a tank carrying chemicals. Zoë Read, reporter for WHYY, recently posted an article recounting this incident. Trisha Dello Iacono, a resident she interviewed, recalled that a train carrying a colorless flammable gas called vinyl chloride derailed less than four miles from her home, in Paulsboro, N.J. After researching the carcinogen, she placed towels around her windows and doors. But it wasn’t long before she felt a sugary burn in her mouth. She said “it [tasted] sweet, but it [tasted] like a chemical sweetness that you know something is not right. And then I started feeling like a tight band was around my head.” The Paulsboro accident led to the evacuation of hundreds of residents, and dozens of people sought medical attention afterwards. Conrail, the company responsible for the train, offered cash settlements after hundreds of residents filed lawsuits against the company. Fast forward to 2023 from Paulsboro, New Jersey to East Palestine, Ohio and this sounds very familiar. — Paulsboro Residents Are Still Feeling Health Impacts._ Now, more than 10 years later, residents of Paulsboro still worry about long-term health impacts, and are still questioning whether enough has been done to prevent more accidents from occurring, especially after the Norfolk Southern freight train carrying the same product derailed in East Palestine, Ohio. Dello Iacono was not evacuated. Despite not living in the evacuation zone, Dello Iacono said she and her son dealt with symptoms like headache, sore throat, and nausea. These symptoms lasted a few weeks. Her son Liam’s symptoms (nosebleeds) didn’t show up until six months after the train derailment. Later, when he started kindergarten his teacher noticed that he had short-term memory loss. In 2020, he was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. She still worries about the potential for serious health problems to arise in the future. She says, “The fear doesn’t go away.”
Deadly Dust Storm in Illinois Blamed on Shortsighted Industrial Farming Methods “This tragedy should be a wake-up call to Congress to take action in the 2023 Farm Bill,” said one advocacy group. “We urge them to shift funds toward practices like cover cropping and conservation buffers, which protect soil from erosion.” Agricultural policy experts on Tuesday said the deadly dust storm that led to “zero visibility” for highway drivers this week in Illinois should be a “wake-up call” for lawmakers as advocates fight against industrial farming practices. A day after at least six people were killed and more than 30 were injured in a pileup on Interstate 55 outside Springfield, the research and advocacy group Farm Action said the dust storm may have been driven by the chronic erosion of soil in rural areas, which has resulted as agribusiness pushes practices such as monocropping—a profitable method which can trigger the depletion of soil nutrients and the weakening of soil.
Common US Consumer Products Release Toxic Compounds, New Research Shows Dangerous chemicals that can cause cancer and air pollution are often found in cosmetics, personal care products and cleaners Some of the most common consumer products probably release 5,000 tons of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in American homes annually, new research on the dangerous class of chemicals finds.
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Labor:
Hollywood Writers Strike: Abbott Elementary’s Brittani Nichols Decries “Gig Economy” in Streaming Era The way President Joe Biden’s administration reacted to China’s offer to facilitate a political settlement of the Ukraine conflict clearly reveals Washington’s undeclared objective regarding that war. The contrast between the administration’s attitude toward China’s position and the attitudes of some of the United States’s allies is striking.
Economy:
Rewarding Risk Drove First Republic to Failure Risk was at the center of every financial upheaval since the 1980s. What can be done to keep history from repeating itself and threatening the banking system, economy, and jobs of everyday people?
Short Sellers Cratered Silvergate Bank and First Republic; They’re Now Targeting PacWest and Numerous Other Regional Banks President Joe Biden is putting the national security of the United States at risk by not suspending the short-selling of federally-insured banks. Concerns over the safety and soundness of the U.S. financial system could cause money flight out of the U.S., impacting the strength of the U.S. dollar and a loss of confidence by our foreign allies. This is also a matter that impacts the financial lives of every American, because every American – rich, poor or middle class – will suffer the consequences in terms of ability to access bank credit and higher fees on that credit as a result of rebuilding the rapidly depleting federal Deposit Insurance Fund that protects bank deposits.
World:
On the Eve of a Global Global Migration!: Climate Refugee Crisis Looms Every day vulnerable people are forcibly displaced due to impacts generated by climate change. This isn’t something that will happen, this is something happening now. Numerous studies, like The World Bank, forecast a grim picture of internal displacement in the millions, as the adverse effects of climate change induce more extreme weather, rising sea levels, threaten food security and impact livelihoods. As we are seeing play out now, it is the poorest and most vulnerable communities – those who contributed the least to global warming – that are paying the price and are hit hardest by this crisis. Across and within borders, people are displaced. Recent trends indicate more internal displacement due to climate-related disasters than conflict, where in fact, of the 30.6 million people displaced across 135 countries in 2017, 60 percent were as a direct result of disasters. “ Climate change is an urgent and growing threat to our national security, contributing to increased natural disasters, refugee flows, and conflicts over basic resources like food and water.” — The White House, National Security Strategy, 2015.
Capitalists Prey on Syria and Turkey Following February Earthquakes These humanitarian tragedies have become opportunities for rapid growth and high profits for corporate predators. In early February, Turkey and Syria were both rocked by devastating earthquakes. Since then, the two nations have dealt with a series of destructive aftershocks, serious economic woes, currency challenges, and increasing poverty and unemployment. Underscoring a further relevant human rights dilemma was Turkey’s demand for cooperation from Sweden and Finland with respect to control of Kurdish exile activity in exchange for supporting NATO membership, a concern somewhat lessened by Turkish willingness to end its opposition to Finland joining NATO. In this exclusive interview for Truthout, international relations expert Richard Falk discusses both the importance of institutional responses as well as the instances of poor infrastructure built in the pursuit of profit. Falk emphasizes the political and international dimensions of the changing circumstances in Syria and Turkey, as well as the pertinence of the Russo-Ukrainian War and the major global players related to the ongoing crisis, especially Iran and Russia.
Chile: Boric’s ‘Trigger Happy’ Law Opens the Way to Reaction The International Marxist Tendency has warned from day one that the government of Gabriel Boric has been marching to the drumbeat of the right. As early as the second round of the presidential elections in 2021, we denounced his populist use of immigration and public security issues in the campaign. With this repressive agenda, he aims to win the support of moderate or depoliticised layers of society and draw them away from the right. Ultimately, this merely adds grist to the mill of the far right. Last month, President Boric spearheaded a policy that was overflowing with betrayals and inconsistency by supporting the enactment of a ‘trigger happy’ law for the police (the ‘Carabineros’, popularly nicknamed the ‘pacos’), known as the Naín-Retamal Law.
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