Daily News Digest August 1, 2023
Images of the Day:
Don’t Worry (Be Happy): Nuclear War is so Much Better Than Mean Tweets
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:
Podcasts/Vidoes of the Day:
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%!
Table 1. Estimated Potential Maximum Sea-Level Rise From the Total Melting of Present-Day Glaciers. 
Record Setting July 2023 Greenland Heatwave Alert Long-Lost Greenland Ice Core Suggests Potential for Disastrous Sea Level Rise A recently discovered ice core taken from beneath Greenland’s ice sheet decades ago has revealed that a large part of the country was ice-free around 400,000 years ago, when temperatures were similar to those the world is approaching now, according to a new report – an alarming finding that could have disastrous implications for sea level rise. The study overturns previous assumptions that most of Greenland’s ice sheet has been frozen for millions of years, the authors said. Instead, moderate, natural warming led to large-scale melting and sea level rise of more than 1.4 meters (4.6 feet), according to the report published Thursday in the journal Science. “When you look at what nature did in the past, as geoscientists, that’s our best clue to the future,” said Paul Bierman, a scientist at the University of Vermont and a lead author of the study.
‘Polluters Must Pay’: Senators Urge Biden DOJ to Sue Big Oil Over Decades of Climate Lies “Thanks to the illegal lies of the fossil fuel industry, climate change is wreaking catastrophic damage upon the United States,” four progressive U.S. senators write in a new letter.
Huge Wildfire Explodes in Southern California and into Nevaad York fire, with zero containment Sunday evening, one of two major blazes burning in California as region faces hot and dry weather. A huge wildfire burning out of control in California’s Mojave national preserve is spreading rapidly amid erratic winds. The York fire erupted on Friday near the remote Caruthers Canyon area of the wildland preserve. It crossed the state line into Nevada on Sunday, and sent smoke further east into the Las Vegas Valley. The fire is one of two major blazes burning in California as the region faces hot and dry weather. Firefighters said they had made progress battling the other blaze, the Bonny fire in Riverside county.
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. 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!
The United States of Decaying Infastruture:The Brokovich Reprort: Think Towns Like Flint Are The Only Ones With Lead Issues? Think Again. Pipe Problems In The Big Apple: New Report Says One In Five New Yorkers May Be Drinking Lead-Contaminated Water. Unfortunately, the story of lead-contaminated drinking water has not come to an end in our country. On July 18, the New York City Coalition to End Lead Poisoning issued a report, No Excuses, NYC: Replace Lead Drinking Water Pipes Now, estimating that one in five New Yorkers, or 21 percent of the city’s residents, may be drinking water transported through lead service lines. The coalition consists of advocates, doctors, and lawyers, who came together back in the 1980s to create and pass Local Law 1 of 2004 to prevent childhood lead poisoning by remediating lead paint hazards in homes. But our lead problems have persisted.
The World has Never Been Closer to Nuclear War!: Seymour Hersh: Opera Buffa in Ukraine As the war drags on, delusions mount, with no end, or victory, in sight. Let’s take a look at recent events in the Ukraine war from the point of view of those in the American intelligence community who don’t feel they have the ear of President Joe Biden but should. On July 17 Ukraine attacked for a second time one of Russian President Vladimir’s proudest achievements: the 11.25-mile Kerch Bridge linking Crimea to Russia. The 3.7 billion dollar bridge, with separate spans for auto and train traffic, was opened for auto traffic in May of 2018 and for trucks five months later, with Putin himself driving the first one to make the crossing. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made it clear before the Russian invasion early last year that he considered the bridge a legitimate military target. Ukraine initially attacked the bridge last October, using a submersible drone, but it was fully repaired within seven months. The most recent attack, by a pair of submersible drones, killed a couple who were driving across when the explosion occurred and injured their child. Damage to one of the auto spans was severe. The Biden administration’s role in both attacks was vital. “Of course it was our technology,” one American official told me. “The drone was remotely guided and half submerged—like a torpedo.” I asked if there was any thought before the bridge attack about the possibility of retaliation. “What will Putin do? We don’t think that far,” the official said. “Our national strategy is that Zelensky can do whatever he wants to do. There’s no adult supervision.”
Seymour Hersh: Opera Buffa in Ukraine As the war drags on, delusions mount, with no end, or victory, in sight. . . . Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made it clear before the Russian invasion early last year that he considered the bridge a legitimate military target. Ukraine initially attacked the bridge last October, using a submersible drone, but it was fully repaired within seven months. The most recent attack, by a pair of submersible drones, killed a couple who were driving across when the explosion occurred and injured their child. Damage to one of the auto spans was severe. The Biden administration’s role in both attacks was vital. “Of course it was our technology,” one American official told me. “The drone was remotely guided and half submerged—like a torpedo.” I asked if there was any thought before the bridge attack about the possibility of retaliation. “What will Putin do? We don’t think that far,” the official said. “Our national strategy is that Zelensky can do whatever he wants to do. There’s no adult supervision.” Putin responded to the second attack on the bridge by ending an agreement that enabled Ukrainian wheat and other vital food crops, stymied by the ongoing war, to be shipped from blocked ports on the Black Sea. (Before the war Ukraine exported more grain than the entire European Union and nearly half of the world’s sunflower seeds.) And Russia began steadily intensifying missile and rocket attacks in Odessa, whose initial target list has expanded from port areas to inner city sites.
Medvedev Says ‘No Other Option’ But Nuclear War if Ukrainian Counteroffensive Succeeds The former Russian president and current deputy Security Council chair warned of “global nuclear fire” should Ukraine take back regions illegally annexed by Moscow.
The Cold War, Latin America and Washington, DC Living in the United States means living in a nation whose rulers have always been intent on expanding their wealth and their reach. This fact of history has created a legacy of death, destruction, and theft. It has also enabled a majority of the citizens in the nation to benefit from these crimes; a fact which has encouraged them to ignore the sources of their relative well-being. Of course, the dynamic involved in the creation of this collaborative populace is one that involves an ever more sophisticated system of propaganda. It is a system which plays on the arrogance and racism of the population and can be seen most graphically in the treatment of the indigenous peoples of northern America and the enslavement (and the legacy thereof) of Africans and their descendants. Similarly, this attitude is transmitted overseas via military aggression, trade deals and treaties. Perhaps the most obvious example of the latter is the 1823 doctrine named after President James Monroe. Known as the Monroe Doctrine and originally made policy in Monroe’s annual letter to Congress, it claims the Western hemisphere as Washington’s own.
Civil Rights/Blackliberation:
Boeing Criminal Case Epitomizes Biden Double Standard of Justice Nothing better illustrates the double standard of justice under President Biden than the way the Justice Department is handling the criminal case against Boeing. Earlier this week, Justice Department attorneys were in New Orleans, Louisiana before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals arguing, as were Boeing’s attorneys, that the family members of the 346 victims of the two Boeing 737 MAX crashes were not entitled to relief under the Crime Victims Rights Act. A federal judge in Ft. Worth, Texas had ruled that the Department violated the law by not allowing the family members to consult with Justice Department prosecutors as they negotiated the deferred prosecution agreement that in effect shut down the criminal prosecution of Boeing in what the judge called “the deadliest corporate crime in our nation’s history.” But the district court judge, Reed O’Connor, refused to order a remedy.
Labor:
It is undemocratic when the inion officials publicalltcall the agreement a ‘Historic Vitory’ Prior to the membership vote on the contact. If the membership votes no, they look ‘unreasonable pf they vote it down! It undermineds a free an open discussion about the terms of the contract! When the Media Monopoly, the Liberal Democrates, Social Democrates, and the Union officals, who are, by their own ad,ission,in paynship with boss Applaud!, Beware!
Some Rank-and-File Teamsters Plan to Vote “No” on Tentative Deal With UPS While many important gains were made in the deal, some key demands remain unmet, including starting pay for part-timers. This Tuesday, UPS and Teamsters announced they have reached a tentative agreement for a new contract for UPS workers nationwide, a week before over 340,000 workers were set to go on strike across the country in what would be the biggest strike of its kind in U.S. history. Now that strike is on hold as workers read, debate, and vote on the tentative agreement.
Vote “NO” on the UPS Tentative Agreement! Organize the rank-and-file to take matters into our own hands! We are calling on all 340,000 of us to vote “no” on the tentative agreement and send it to the garbage where it belongs. It is a sellout that meets none of our demands:
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The new $21 starting rate is not even close to enough. Because of market rate adjustments (MRAs), many of us already make more than this anyway. The deal also includes a second tier of all new part-time workers with a lower top rate than existing hires, a classic divide-and-conquer tactic;
- The $7.50 general wage increase, spread out over 5 years, is inadequate and even below the rate of inflation for drivers. New drivers will also have an inadequate 4 year progression;
- Only $400 more in monthly pensions for retirees in the IBT-UPS plan. In other regions, such as in the Western Conference and in Philadelphia, the company’s pension contributions will be frozen for the next five years;
- Only 7,500 new full-time jobs compared to nearly 200,000 part-timers, leaving part-timers waiting decades for the opportunity to move up;
- The deal continues the use of Uber-style personal vehicle drivers (PVDs) during peak season, the first step in eventually eliminating full-time drivers altogether;
- The deal on vehicle air conditioning applies only to new vehicles, meaning drivers on older trucks will be without AC for decades.
This is not a contract, it is an act of sabotage. All of the Teamster officials’ talk about striking by August 1 has turned out to be a lie. They never wanted to strike; they only wanted to get out in front of us before we got out of their control. But we were serious from the start about striking. When we voted 97 percent to strike, that was not a suggestion—those were marching orders, which the bureaucracy has now violated.
‘Gleefully Encouraging the Arsonists’: UK Government Commits to More Fossil Fuel Drilling “The U.K. government is blatantly in denial about climate breakdown.” U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced Monday that his government will approve hundreds of new licenses for oil and gas drilling in the North Sea, drawing anger from climate advocates who say he’s doing the bidding of the fossil fuel industry amid a nightmarish wave of extreme weather
Economy:
The Stock of Kidney Dialysis Firm, DaVita, Has Soared 2,500 Percent Since 1996; a New Book Reveals the Dangerous Cult Behind the Rise The chart above compares the stock price performance of the kidney dialysis company, DaVita (ticker DVA), with the Standard and Poor’s 500 Index since 1996. Right away, something looks very wrong. Why should a healthcare company delivering dialysis treatment to people with kidney failure make the kind of profits that would generate this outsized stock price return?
World:
‘Gleefully Encouraging the Arsonists’: UK Government Commits to More Fossil Fuel Drilling “The U.K. government is blatantly in denial about climate breakdown.” U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced Monday that his government will approve hundreds of new licenses for oil and gas drilling in the North Sea, drawing anger from climate advocates who say he’s doing the bidding of the fossil fuel industry amid a nightmarish wave of extreme weather.
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
Joe Biden Could Cancel Student Debt for Everyone Right Now Earlier this month, the Biden administration automatically discharged student debt for more then 800,000 borrowers. The move shows that, if he wanted to, Joe Biden could cancel debt for everyone else right now. He’s not doing that.
