Daily News Digest August 11, 2023

 Daily News Digest Archives

Images of the Day:

An Evil Man(Capitalist)Why the Path of ‘Capitalism’ Cannot Cure Climate Change?

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 falsificaton of history has done more to impede human development than any one thing know to humankind — JJ Rousseau 

The Labor Bureaucracy has Now Become  an Anchor on the Working Class, in the Service of the 1% Capitalist Ruling Class!— Quote Fom a Coal Miner Friend of Mine

Podcasts/Vidoes of the Day:

Michael Hudson:leven Objectives of Neoliberalism

The Chris Hedges Report: Why Psychiatrists Say We Have to Rebuild Society The pervasiveness of trauma in American society is intimately linked to the ubiquity of sexual violence in our culture, and ultimately, the politics that buttresses this reality. In the second installment of a two-part discussion, acclaimed psychiatrist Dr. Judith Herman returns to The Chris Hedges Report for a discussion on the political implications revealed by her medical expertise: the need to confront the violence of our present system by reconstructing society itself.Why psychiatrists say we have to rebuild society | The Chris Hedges Report The pervasiveness of trauma in American society is intimately linked to the ubiquity of sexual violence in our culture, and ultimately, the politics that buttresses this reality. In the second installment of a two-part discussion, acclaimed psychiatrist Dr. Judith Herman returns to The Chris Hedges Report for a discussion on the political implications revealed by her medical expertise: the need to confront the violence of our present system by reconstructing society itself.

Black Agenda Radio August 4, 2023 withMargaret Kiberly 

Environment:

One of Many Ways to Begin to End Global Warming: Expose ‘Greenwashing’ — Tax the Polluters 100%!

After World War II Rosa Luxenburg Coined the Slogan: ‘S0cialism or Barbaism’! Now the Slogan Should Be: ‘Ecosocialism or Ecocide’!

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%!

Europe’s Wildfires: Hellish Summers Under Capitalism An unprecedented number of wildfires have set Europe alight in the past month. Nine Mediterranean countries have been hit, leading to many people losing their homes and even their lives. These are the deadly consequences of capitalism’s climate catastrophe. Greece has been hit particularly hard. It registered its longest and most unrelenting heat wave since records began. Some 400 wildfires illuminated satellite photographs and devastated olive groves and pine forests, as well as homes, farms and flocks. 

Report Details How Big Ag Overexploitation Is ‘Draining the Colorado River Dry’ “We cannot save the Colorado River without combating corporate power.” As the dwindling Colorado River faces a potential “catastrophic collapse” due to the climate-driven loss of trillions of gallons of water, a report published Tuesday shines a spotlight on the dangerous overexploitation of the precious resource by specific sectors of industrial agriculture—and the federal government’s failure to address Big Ag’s abuses. 

Oil, Water Are Volatile Mix in West Energy Firms Buying River Rights Add to Competition for Scarce Resource (2009) Oil companies have gained control over billions of gallons of water from Western rivers in preparation for future efforts to extract oil from shale deposits under the Rocky Mountains, according to a new report by an environmental group that opposes such projects. The group, Western Resource Advocates, used public records to conclude that energy companies are collectively entitled to divert more than 6.5 billion gallons of water a day during peak river flows. The companies also hold rights to store, in dozens of reservoirs, 1.7 million acre feet of water, enough to supply metro Denver for six years.

Climate Activists Outraged Over Biden Claim He ‘Practically’ Declared US Emergency Biden said ‘I’ve done that’ when asked about declaring climate emergency, yet White House has not announced such a declaration Yet the White House has not yet announced such a declaration, despite years of pressure from climate-focused advocates and lawmakers. Doing so would unlock a host of new powers for the president, including the ability to speed the energy transition and block fossil fuel projects without congressional approval.     Biden’s statement outraged climate activists, who noted that it came amid a summer of record-breaking extreme weather events. “This summer, we experienced the hottest days in the past 125,000 years, wildfire smoke has filled the lungs of people across the country, people are losing their homes and literally jumping into the ocean to avoid flames,” Varshini Prakash, executive director of the youth-led climate advocacy group Sunrise Movement, said in a statement.

Native American Genocide: More Than 1m Acres Of Indigenous Land Flooded by Dams, New Study Finds Land dispossession and depravation was a mainstay strategy used by settler colonials to divide and disempower communities  The study, published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, is the first attempt to calculate the amount of land lost by Indigenous Americans due to the construction of dams that re-engineered America’s rivers and lakes to store, divert and control waterways.     By overlaying geospatial data on tribal land boundaries with the reservoirs created by 7,900 major dams, researchers at Penn State and Arizona university found that 1.13m acres of tribal land – an area larger than Great Smoky Mountains national park, Grand Teton national park, and Rocky Mountain national park combined – has been submerged underwater. The true figure is likely significantly higher, as reservoir data for tens of thousands of smaller dams is not available.     Land submerged by dams is in addition to more than 2bn acres – the equivalent of 97% of tribal territory taken through treaties, laws, purchases, violence and coercion since the arrival of colonial settlers more than 500 years ago.

 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 Corrupt $upreme Court!:

Supreme Court Judges Sharing an Opus Dei Seal of Approval To understand the goings on in SCOTUS today, you must understand Opus Dei, a fascist organization in the Roman Catholic Church.  Why? Because the person who forwarded five names to the senate for approval as supreme court judges is Leonardo Leo, who is an out of the closet Opus Dei operative.  It was he who pushed Mitch McConnell to nominate Roberts, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett for SCOTUS.  He is also “closest friends” with Clarence Thomas and has been called “one of the most powerful figures in the United States.”*.    Leo is executive vice president of the Federalist Society and co-director of the board of directors of “Catholic Information Center” which is a right-wing Catholic think tank in Washington DC that raises millions of dollars to promote conservative judges.  The Charles Koch Foundation is heavily involved also, having given $30 million to the cause; so too is the NRA. 

‘So Thoroughly Corrupt’: Clarence Thomas Has Taken Dozens of Trips Funded by Ultrarich Friends “Clarence Thomas should resign, or be impeached,” said one court accountability advocate. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has taken nearly 40 luxury vacations on the dime of wealthy right-wing friends and benefactors over the past three decades, according to a detailed account published Thursday by the investigative outlet ProPublica. 

Alito Urged to Recuse From Case That Could Preemptively Ban Federal Wealth Tax “First he accepted lavish gifts from billionaires and failed to disclose them. Then he gave a buddy-buddy interview to one of the case’s anti-wealth tax lawyers. Enough.” U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is facing growing calls to recuse himself from a case that could hamstring Congress’ ability to enact a federal wealth tax, a policy that progressive lawmakers and economists say is needed to rein in out-of-control inequality.     Late last week, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee sent a letter urging Chief Justice John Roberts to “take appropriate steps to ensure that Justice Alito will recuse himself” from Moore v. United States, which the Supreme Court recently agreed to take up.     The lawmakers’ demand was prompted by a friendly interview that Alito gave to The Wall Street Journal‘s opinion section, which in June allowed the right-wing justice to get out in front of a ProPublicastory on his luxury trip with billionaire hedge fund titan Paul Singer. 

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%!

Civil Rights/Blackliberation:

Black Agenda Report

Labor:

All Levels of Government Must Do More to Protect Workers From Extreme Heat President Joe Biden’s new measures are a modest step in the right direction—but this is no time for modest steps.  In Alabama, Arizona, Texas, and many other places, workers are getting sick and dying from extreme heat driven by climate change. In response, President Joe Biden announced on July 27 several measures to protect workers from extreme heat, including ramped up enforcement for heat safety violations and increased inspections in high-risk industries. These actions are a modest step in the right direction—but this is no time for modest steps. The President, Congress, federal OSHA, and state and local officials must take bold action, now, to reduce risk and save lives.   

Economy: 

Michael Roberts Facbook Blog: Demand by companies for US bank loans is plummeting as interest rates on borrowing rise. And that’s reducing the ability of companies to invest in productive capital.

World:

The Story of Palestine’s Colonization, and Resistance, Is Embodied in the Trees Israeli settlers create non-native pine forests on occupied land at the expense of Palestinian lives and olive groves. 

SAS Killings Inquiry Shows Brutality of British Imperialism Bereaved Afghan families have accused the British Special Air Service (SAS) of summarily executing up to 80 unarmed men between 2010 and 2013, as part of a policy to kill “all fighting-age males… regardless of the threat they posed”. This latest war crime accusation against British Special Forces during the war in Afghanistan is yet another blow to the credibility of a rotten establishment, which has exposed the naked barbarity of imperialism and the capitalist system.

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

‘Renters Are Struggling’: Economists Back Tenant-Led Push for Federal Rent Control “We have seen corporate landlords—who own a larger share of the rental market than ever before—use inflation as an excuse to hike rents and reap excess profits beyond what should be considered fair and reasonable.”