Daily News Digest July 17, 2023
Images of the Day:
Capitalism is Now a Worldwide Threat to Humanity! It is on the Fast Track to Global Warming and/or Nuclear War Catastrophes!
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 problem is that we don’t know how many U.S. soldiers – to say nothing of American mercenaries – are in Ukraine. The Russian ministry of defense estimates that there have been over 900 American mercenaries in Ukraine. Meanwhile Washington remains mum, closely guarding its knowledge of this secret for the obvious reason that not doing so might provoke an open confrontation with Moscow. And since they don’t want a nuclear World War III, the white house and pentagon nurture an intense interest in concealing facts about the U.S. military footprint in Ukraine and their possible encouragement of it. Even if large numbers of American NATO officers were killed there, we, back in the so-called homeland, would doubtless be kept in the dark. — U.S. Soldiers Don’t Belong in Ukraine
The pretense that the NATO sponsored forces have some kind of moral high ground in their conflict with Moscow is fading quickly. Even retired Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy together with current senator Jeff Berkley acknowledged as much in a recent opinion piece in the newspaper of the warfare state, the Washington Post (7/8/2023). “Neither of these men oppose the U.S. involvement in the conflict, but providing a bomb banned by most governments in the world is too much for these humanitarian warmongers…. “As if the introduction of cluster bombs wasn’t bad enough, Zelensky was quoted in the Wall Street Journal earlier in the week as demanding long range missies from Washington. “His reasoning goes like this: ‘Without long range weapons, it is difficult not only fulfill an offensive mission, but also to conduct a defensive operation,’ Zelensky said after talks with Czech officials in Prague. ‘This means that you are defending your country and cannot reach the appropriate distance to destroy your enemy. That is, the enemy has a distance advantage.’ “In other words, the defense of the Ukrainian nation from Russian invaders now requires attacks deep into Russia. Beyond the obvious sophistry of Kyiv’s argument for the missiles, their delivery would make it even clearer that that war is about Washington’s rivalry with Moscow much more than it means defending Ukraine’s borders no matter where one places them. “I cannot help but wonder what those liberals, progressives and leftists who have supported Ukraine’s military since the Russian 2022 invasion are now thinking. As this war drags on I wonder if those who consider Ukraine’s nationalist war to be one of national liberation and therefore deserve to get any kind of weapons are okay with this addition [cluster munitions] to Ukraine’s arsenal. I truly hope this latest escalation is causing them to reconsider their position.” — The pretense that the NATO sponsored forces have some kind of moral high ground in their conflict with Moscow is fading quickly. Even retired Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy together with current senator Jeff Berkley acknowledged as much in a recent opinion piece in the newspaper of the warfare state, the Washington Post (7/8/2023). “Neither of these men oppose the U.S. involvement in the conflict, but providing a bomb banned by most governments in the world is too much for these humanitarian warmongers….“As if the introduction of cluster bombs wasn’t bad enough, Zelensky was quoted in the Wall Street Journal earlier in the week as demanding long range missies from Washington. “His reasoning goes like this: ‘Without long range weapons, it is difficult not only fulfill an offensive mission, but also to conduct a defensive operation,’ Zelensky said after talks with Czech officials in Prague. ‘This means that you are defending your country and cannot reach the appropriate distance to destroy your enemy. That is, the enemy has a distance advantage.’ “In other words, the defense of the Ukrainian nation from Russian invaders now requires attacks deep into Russia. Beyond the obvious sophistry of Kyiv’s argument for the missiles, their delivery would make it even clearer that that war is about Washington’s rivalry with Moscow much more than it means defending Ukraine’s borders no matter where one places them. “I cannot help but wonder what those liberals, progressives and leftists who have supported Ukraine’s military since the Russian 2022 invasion are now thinking. As this war drags on I wonder if those who consider Ukraine’s nationalist war to be one of national liberation and therefore deserve to get any kind of weapons are okay with this addition [cluster munitions] to Ukraine’s arsenal. I truly hope this latest escalation is causing them to reconsider their position.” — Malik Miah and Barry Sheppard No Cluster Munitions to Ukraine!
Podcasts/Vidoes of the Day:
Colonialism or Sovereignty? How the Global Financial System Traps Countries in Debt
How America’s Cops Became Untouchable w/Joanna Schwartz | The Chris Hedges Report
We Don’t Need the CIA – The Chris Hedges Report
West Ignores Role of NATO Expansion in Driving Russia’s War on Ukraine
Environment:
After World War II Rosa Luxenburg Coined the Slogan: ‘S0cialism or Barbaism’! Now the Slogan Should Be: ‘Ecosocialism or Ecocide’!
One of Many Ways to Begin to End Global Warming: Expose ‘Greenwashing’ — Tax the Polluters 100%!
Microplastics in Lake Tahoe Microplastics, small fragments of fibers from clothing, packaging, and other plastic residue have invaded freshwater lakes and watersheds globally and in alarming quantities, according to new research published in the scientific journal Nature under the title ‘Plastic debris in lakes and reservoirs.’ Lake Tahoe, known for its purity and high level of legal protection had the third highest concentration of plastic of 38 lakes tested around the world and higher than in the surface water at the ocean’s gyres where the floating islands of debris emblematic of the world’s plastic pollution crisis collect.
More Than 113 Million Americans Under Extreme Heat Alerts As Relentless Temperatures Continue Relentless, hazardous heat is expected to continue for at least another week across parts of the south More than 113 million Americans were under heat alerts on Thursday as stifling, life-threatening temperatures dug in across large parts of the country. In the south and southeast, relentless, hazardous heat is expected to continue for at least another week after constant triple-digit temperatures in the past month.
Health Alerts Issued As Blistering Heat Scorches Southern Europe Tourists collapse in Greece and Italy and worker killed near Milan amid heatwave worsened by carbon pollution A ferocious heatwave inflamed by carbon pollution is baking southern Europe, posing severe health risks to older people and those with underlying health conditions. Scorching heat has already hit several countries, with local media reports of tourists collapsing in Greece and Italy, and an outdoor worker dying near Milan. Temperatures are expected to hit 42C in Athens on Saturday, 41C in Seville on Monday and 40C in Rome on Tuesday.
John Kerry Says ‘Under No Circumstances’ Will US Pay Poor Nations for Climate Damages “This is unfair and goes against what was agreed upon at COP27 in Egypt. Climate activists especially from the Global South must stand up to the U.S. and other Western powers that want to short-change developing countries.” John Kerry, U.S. President Joe Biden’s climate envoy, made clear at a congressional hearing Thursday that Washington has no intention of compensating impoverished countries for destruction wrought by the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency despite playing an outsized role in creating it and continuing to accelerate it.
The UN’S Green Climate Fund Must Stop Financing False Solutions Climate finance must be redirected away from greenwashing and towards real solutions like a just transition, helping frontline communities, conservation, protection of land and forests, and reforestation. On July 12, 2023, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s Green Climate Fund, the largest global fund dedicated to combating climate change, approved a funding proposal by the &Green Fund for more than $189.3 million for monoculture plantations of oil palm, cocoa, and rubber, and for unsustainable industrial cattle farming. It was passed during the fund’s 36th Board Meeting, held in the Republic of Korea. Civil society organizations had earlier raised concerns that the Green Climate Fund (GCF) was considering more investments in false climate change solutions such as monoculture plantations and intensive livestock farming, which exacerbate the impacts of climate change. The GCF Observer Network had put forward their concerns prior to and during the board meeting outlining why &Green Fund’s proposal should not be approved. Despite strong opposition that the project—which has the Dutch Development Bank (FMO) as the accredited entity—would further undermine the rights of Indigenous Peoples and enable greenwashing, the proposal was passed.
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
A Vote for Trump or Biden is a Vote for Ecocide!
Press Release – Cornel West Responds to NATO Summit by Calling for an End to NATO Los Angeles – “What is needed now is not a path for NATO membership, but a path for peace,” says Dr. West, reacting to the news that the Summit did not invite Ukraine to join the alliance at this time. “But instead of seeking a negotiated solution to Russia’s criminal invasion – provoked by NATO expansion and nuclear-capable missiles – NATO’s been shunning peace talks and threatening Russia, violating its 1990 pledge not to move ‘one inch’ to the east. NATO is also pushing the world towards greater militarization at this most perilous moment in history. We need to put our resources into solving the climate crisis that threatens the future of this planet, and abolishing global poverty that devastates the lives of billions of our brothers and sisters worldwide. We need food, not bombs. We need healthcare, not warfare. We need to invest in the climate, not killing.” While NATO did not exacerbate the Ukraine conflict by offering Ukraine a set date for membership, NATO members are still fueling the war with increasingly destructive weapons–from cluster bombs and depleted uranium shells to Cruise missiles and F-16s–weapons that move us ever closer to potential nuclear war with Russia. West believes that those who seek peace must not only call for negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, but must also take a position against NATO itself. “NATO is an expanding instrument of U.S. global power that provoked Russia into this war, a proxy war between the American Empire and the Russian Federation that could lead to World War III,” warns West. For decades, NATO has been involved in wars from Kosovo to Afghanistan to Libya. And it now has its sights set on China, building up a provocative Asia-Pacific military alliance with South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand to counter China. Next year, the NATO Summit will be held in Washington DC, marking NATO’s 75th anniversary. “We need to build up a global peace movement that says 75 years is enough!,” says West. “Without NATO, Europe would build its own security architecture. Without NATO, we in the U.S. would be in a better position to build peaceful relations with China. Without NATO, the world would be a safer place.”
Civil Rights/Blackliberation:
US Employer Agency’s Environmental Racism: US Ends Critical Investigation in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley A Setback for Hopes to End a Longstanding Human Rights Crisis On Tuesday, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) abruptly closed a critical environmental justice investigation into whether the state of Louisiana had failed to protect predominantly Black communities living within the area known as “Cancer Alley.” More than 200 industrial plants – primarily fossil fuel and petrochemical operations – line the 85-mile (135 km) stretch along the Mississippi River. Toxic air pollution has resulted in among the highest cancer risk in the nation and documented elevated cancer rates, among other ailments, with harm disproportionately concentrated within Black communities. “We’re dying from inhaling the industries’ pollution,” Sharon Lavigne, President and Founder of Rise St. James, told Human Rights Watch in March. “I feel like it’s a death sentence. Like we are getting cremated, but not getting burnt.”
Labor:
Economy:
Michael Roberts Facebook Blog: The annual growth rate of global import volumes turned negative late last year and remained negative in early 2023. Global economic growth this year looks as if it will come in at about 2.3 per cent, and next year will almost certainly be weaker than this, not least because big central banks are, in effect, aiming to induce slowdowns to regain control over inflation. But the trade recession is also a feature of the Long Depression (my term) – putting downward pressure on global trade growth for more than a decade now. In the early 1980s, world exports were equivalent to 15 per cent of global gross domestic product, according to IMF data. Globalisation took that ratio to 25 per cent just around the time of the 2008 crisis, after which a steady decline set in, bringing it down to 20 per cent in 2020. In the 10 years to 2020, the average rate of global trade growth fell below that of global GDP growth: this was the first decade since the second world war for which that statement holds true. Re, Has the Global Trade Recession Already Started?
JPMorgan Chase Files a Notice of Appeal in Jeffrey Epstein Victim Case It “Settled” for $290 Million Unless you have been living off the grid for the past month, chances are you have seen a barrage of headlines blaring that the largest bank in the United States, JPMorgan Chase, agreed to settle a class action lawsuit for $290 million that was filed by sexual assault victims of Jeffrey Epstein, some when they were as young as 14 years old. The bank’s involvement stemmed from it providing the hard cash to Epstein from his accounts at the bank to pay off his victims and accomplices (in violation of money laundering rules) while he reciprocated by referring clients and profitable deals to the bank. It now turns out that the case is not actually “settled.” JPMorgan Chase and its 1,000-attorney law firm that is representing it in the matter, WilmerHale, have quietly filed a petition to appeal the decision rendered by the District Court Judge, Jed Rakoff, to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. The bank and its lawyers don’t like the fact that Judge Rakoff took the claims of the one plaintiff, Jane Doe 1, and certified them into a class action lawsuit on behalf of a large group of Epstein victims. The bank’s petition to appeal calls this decision by Judge Rakoff “rife with error.”
World:
Health. Welfare, and Education:
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
Press Release – Dr. Cornel West’s campaign Gathers Steam For a People-Powered Political Rebellion Dr. Cornel West’s campaign completes the transition to Green Party, gathering steam for a people-powered political rebellion. Dr. Cornel West announced today that his campaign has completed the transition to the Green Party, with the goal of giving working people, the poor and struggling Americans across the 50 states a real choice that’s of, by and for the people in the 2024 election. The campaign has switched its FEC filing to the Green Party and its infrastructure has been turned over to veterans of Green Party campaigns, including former Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein, who is the acting campaign manager. The West campaign plans to leverage the ballot access experience of the Stein/Baraka ticket that was on the ballot in 47 states. The campaign seeks to unite social movements, independents, labor groups and non-corporate political parties that are free from the stranglehold of billionaires, bankers and party bosses. Volunteers and donations are already pouring into the campaign, signs of a widespread voter rebellion against the two party duopoly that could reach unprecedented heights. In announcing the move, Dr. West declared “We can end poverty, endless war, cop cities, mass incarceration and ecological collapse, and provide housing, health care, reproductive rights, reparations, education and thriving wages for all. People have had enough of organized greed, institutionalized hatred, and normalized indifference to the lives of poor and working people of all colors. Yet the bipartisan consensus is siphoning trillions of dollars into wars that bring us to the verge of nuclear holocaust and tax giveaways to billionaires already drenched in obscene profits at the expense of struggling workers. “Meanwhile the parties of war and Wall Street are throwing millions of children back into poverty by allowing the child tax credit expansion to expire; they are stripping 15 million Americans of health care in their failure to extend Covid Medicaid coverage; and they are denying food stamps to untold numbers of the vulnerable unemployed in their use of a debt ceiling crisis, that could have been avoided, to impose austerity on everyday people. And this comes as two thirds of Americans are already living paycheck to paycheck, 40% of renters are economically stressed, young people are mired in hopelessness, and diseases of despair – including addiction, overdoses and depression – are surging, contributing, along with the Covid debacle, to the shocking decline in lifespan in recent years. “It’s no wonder Americans are abandoning the political parties that have brought us to this crisis. As the corporate parties betray our families and communities, the number of people who consider themselves politically independent is now twice the number identifying as either Democrats or Republicans. The number demanding a choice outside the corporate duopoly is at a record 62%. And a new poll shows the number of Americans who consider voting 3rd party vastly exceeds those who do not. “We must reintroduce America to the best of itself! In the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr., Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Dorothy Day, Fannie Lou Hamer, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Edward Said, Luisa Moreno, Chief Joseph, and so many other visionaries, we are demanding a world of justice, truth and love for us all. Let’s do it together.”