Daily News Digest August 22, 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:
Carl Sandburg’s: To a Contemporary Bunkshooter You come along. . . tearing your shirt. . . yelling about Jesus. Where do you get that stuff? What do you know about Jesus? Jesus had a way of talking soft and outside of a few bankers and higher-ups among the con men of Jerusalem everybody liked to have this Jesus around because he never made any fake passes and everything he said went and he helped the sick and gave the people hope. You come along squirting words at us, shaking your fist and calling us all damn fools so fierce the froth slobbers over your lips. . . always blabbing we’re all going to hell straight off and you know all about it. I’ve read Jesus’ words. I know what he said. You don’t throw any scare into me. I’ve got your number. I know how much you know about Jesus. He never came near clean people or dirty people but they felt cleaner because he came along. It was your crowd of bankers and business men and lawyers hired the sluggers and murderers who put Jesus out
of the running. I say the same bunch backing you nailed the nails into the hands of this Jesus of Nazareth. He had lined up against him the same crooks and strong-arm men now lined up with you paying your way. . . .
While the floating wall is part of Abbott’s right-wing fear-fueled border operations, it is also a product of the broader border buildup in the United States. It embodies the deterrence strategy that has driven the buildup—via exponentially increasing budgets—for three decades, through multiple federal administrations from both sides of the aisle. In this sense, Cochrane is one of hundreds upon hundreds of companies that have received contracts, and made revenue, from border enforcement. Today, the Biden administration is giving out border and immigration enforcement contracts at a clip of 27 contracts a day, a pace that will top that of all other presidents. (Before Biden, the average was 16 contracts a day.) — The Floating Barrier and the Border Industrial Complex
Podcasts/Videos of the Day:
Michael Hudson: About the Debt, Sponsors of the Wars, Future of USD And BRICS
How America Took Out the Nord Stream Pipeline
Who Will Control Africa — and to Whose Benefit?
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 is Ecoscialism or Ecocide!
Nationalize Corporations Without Compensation! How Corporate Welfare Hurts You We must end this corporate welfareNow. There are several ways corporations get rich on the taxpayer’s dime. The most obvious comes through subsidies or tax breaks for certain businesses or industries get Consider the fossil fuel industry, one of the most profitable and privileged sectors of the economy.
U.S. Governement Subsidizes Agribusiness! — Agribusiness is. a Global Warmer! ‘Gigantic’ Power Of Meat Industry Blocking Green Alternatives, Study Finds Analysis Of EU And US Shows Livestock Farmers Receive About 1,000 Times More Public Funding Than Plant-Based And Cultivated Meat The “Gigantic” Power Of The Meat And Dairy Industries In The EU And US Is Blocking The Development Of The Greener Alternatives Needed To Tackle The Climate Crisis, A Study Has Found. The Analysis Of Lobbying, Subsidies And Regulations Showed That Livestock Farmers In The EU Received 1,200 Times More Public Funding Than Plant-Based Meat Or Cultivated Meat Groups. In The US, The Animal Farmers Got 800 Times More Public Funding.
Climate Change and Factory Farms Factory farming is a both a leading cause of climate change and susceptible to negative financial impacts because of it. The factory farming, transport, and slaughter of roughly 90 billion land animals each year contributes an estimated 37% of global greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs)—more than all forms of human transportation combined.[1] Factory farming is also the leading industrial emitter of both methane and nitrous oxide, each of which has a more destabilizing effect on climate than carbon dioxide.[2] Industrialized animal agriculture is also the leading cause of deforestation. Each year, the world’s largest meat, dairy, and egg producers contribute to the clearing of millions of acres of tropical forest for livestock grazing and soy production, 70 to 75 percent of which becomes feed for billions of factory-farmed chickens, pigs, and fish.[3] Whether forests are cleared or burned, their destruction releases sufficient carbon into the atmosphere to make deforestation responsible for 10 to 15 percent of total global greenhouse gas emissions, raising animal agriculture’s total contribution to between 20 and 30 percent.[4]
Which Country Took Out the Nord Stream Pipeline! Follow the Money—LGN Profits!: Industry Plans Thousands of Miles of New Gas Pipelines to Boost LNG Exports U.S. fossil fuel firms are pushing to build more than 2,900 miles of natural gas pipelines to feed liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facilities in Louisiana, Texas, and Alaska, in a bid to send more of the fuel to Asia and Europe, a new analysis by Global Energy Monitor shows. The pipeline projects would transport fracked natural gas from drilling sites to compressor stations and onto LNG export terminals where the fuel would be supercooled and loaded into tankers. The proposed build-out also includes 20 new LNG export terminals.
Dumping of Radioactive Waste into Hudson River Banned After Advocacy by New Yorkers “Communities have spoken loud and clear that it is unacceptable to use the Hudson River as a dumping ground,” said one campaigner. Public health advocates in New York celebrated what one organizer called “the power of our communities over corporations” after Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation passed two months ago into law, barring companies from dumping nuclear wastewater into the Hudson River.
From Locals Warned for Years About Lahaina Wildfire Risk: But much easier than pinpointing problematic land use decisions is condemning whoever lit the spark. And so far, many are blaming the Hawaiian Electric Company. No official cause has yet been determined, but at least four lawsuits have already been filed against the utility, sending its stock value plunging by $1 billion and casting doubt on the future of the company established in 1891 – two years before the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Attorneys point out that the utility recognized in a public filing last year that its risk of sparking a wildfire was “significant” and argue that the company was too slow to implement reforms. “The need to adapt to climate change is undeniable and urgent,” the company acknowledged in a public filing. Planning document after planning document suggests Hawaiʻi officials both knew this tragedy could happen, and yet couldn’t imagine it actually happening. A 2020 hazard mitigation plan identified Lahaina as a high risk area for wildfires. Maui’s draft climate change action plan notes that wildfire burn areas quadrupled in the last century. But in a state report on emergency planning, officials said wildfires were considered a “low risk” to human life. The more pressing concerns were hurricanes or tsunamis, so much so that although the state had invested in a state-of-the-art siren system — “the largest single integrated public safety outdoor siren warning system in the world” — local emergency officials didn’t turn it on even after learning that firefighters were being overwhelmed by the blaze.
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!
Tony Blinken, who publicly vowed just a few months ago that there would be no immediate ceasefire in Ukraine, is still in office and, if asked, would certainly dispute any notion of discontent with Zelensky or the administration’s murderous and failing war policy in Ukraine. So the White House’s wishful approach to the war, when it comes to realistic talk to the American people, will continue apace. But the end is nearing, even if the assessments supplied by Biden to the public are out of a comic strip.— Seymour Hersh: Summer of the Hawks
The World Would be Better Off Without NATO If you believed the two central tenets of western dogma and propaganda about the Ukraine war, namely that Russia’s invasion was unprovoked and that Moscow has imperial ambitions beyond Ukraine’s borders, then you naturally would regard NATO as the best defense against this threat. If, however, you paid attention to the history and to what Russian officials actually say and have done and their initially deliberately limited conduct of this war, you would conclude that Russia was massively egged on into invading by NATO’s looming absorption of Ukraine and by Kiev’s ongoing ethnic cleansing of Russian speakers in the Donbass, an assault which saw a tremendous uptick in early 2022.
Biden’s Trilateral Camp David Summit Advanced Preparation for War with China The summit’s much ballyhooed commitment to nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation serves more to manufacture consent for preparations for nuclear war than to reduce nuclear dangers. Meeting in a summit at Camp David on August 18, President Joe Biden, President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea, and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan posed for photos that confirmed and broadcast a long-term trilateral alliance designed to reinforce containment of China, Russia, and North Korea.
Casey, Fetterman Push Norfolk Southern to Join Close Call Reporting System “After the East Palestine derailment, Norfolk Southern announced on March 2 that it would join the C3RS report system,” they noted. “However, since your initial announcement, you have not followed through on this pledge.
The ‘Bought and Paid For’ Congess: Norfolk Southern Spent $1.9 Million In Washington as Congress Weakened Rail Safety Bill In the six months since the East Palestine derailment, the railway giant has activated its lobbyists and spread money around Congress. After laying low in the wake of the disastrous East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment, Norfolk Southern is back to spending millions in Congress — and a paper trail indicates that it’s lobbying for weaker regulation and rewarding members of Congress who play along. From the day of the derailment on February 3 through the end of April, the company made no political contributions, instead receiving refunds of donations it had made to a number of campaigns. But as the national spotlight dimmed, the company got back to work. In the last four months, Norfolk spent $1,657,500 on lobbyists who met with the same elected officials tasked with regulating the company. And in June and July alone, the company shelled out almost $200,000 to a myriad of congressional campaigns and political action committees, or PACs, according to its recent filings with the Federal Election Commission, including one from this week.
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
As Abortion Rights Win Votes Across US, Nebraska Becomes Latest State to Launch Referendum “We are committed to exploring all possible options to protect our rights in Nebraska and restore the rights Nebraskans lost when politicians passed an abortion ban earlier this year,” said one organizer. Three rights groups in Nebraska plan to make the state one of a growing number where constituents are being asked directly whether they approve of the Republican Party’s efforts to ban access to abortion care, with the coalition filing paperwork to include a ballot initiative in the 2024 elections.
Labor:
Economy:
New Court Documents Suggest the Justice Department Under Four Presidents Covered Up Jeffrey Epstein’s Money Laundering at JPMorgan Chase Remember all of that sensational social media buzz in 2016 about a politically-connected ring of pedophiles operating out of a pizza parlor in Washington, D.C.? The story was debunked by Snopes but not before it had gone viral. While the pizza parlor was getting plenty of attention, an actual, highly sophisticated, child sex-trafficking ring had been operating with impunity for more than a decade out of the largest bank in the United States, JPMorgan Chase.
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
The US Housing Crisis Is 4 Decades in the Making There is no developed country in the world besides the United States where the very ill, mothers who have just given birth, elderly people who worked all their lives, and veterans who fought for their country are unhoused. Yesterday, I read a story about a family of four—granted two were very young—so excited about all the money they were saving living in a tiny house. Today, the story was about a young man who had no cash, so he has tricked out a semitruck interior. Last week it was a renovated shipping container from Lowe’s, the week before, it was a fully fixed-up ancient school bus. Some of these projects look like they might be OK places to live, especially if you live in a climate where you can be outdoors much of the time—a very quickly shrinking portion of the world. What is going on? This is the wealthiest country in the history of the world, as Noam Chomsky reminds us. I am 69 years old. The people in my generation, and even more the generation older than I, were able to purchase homes at prices that haven’t been seen for decades, at sweet mortgage interest rates that made it possible in many cases for one parent to work and the family to prosper. This mostly applies to white Americans, as the GI Bill (for the WWII generation) mainly helped almost all returning white GI’s become homeowners.