Daily News Digest August 24, 2023
Images of the Day:
Pax Americama: U.S. Stands Out as Arms and War Exporter
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!
Pass the OLIGARCH Act to Save the US From Oligarchy The act offers a powerful mechanism that can break the vicious cycle of unchecked wealth accumulation we now find ourselves trapped inside: a wealth tax tied directly to our level of inequality. The United States is experiencing a level of wealth inequality not seen since the original Gilded Age. This yawning gap between rich and poor has unfolded right out in the open, in full public view and with the support of both political parties. A malignant class of modern robber barons has amassed unthinkably large fortunes. These wealthy have catastrophically impacted our politics. They have weaponized their wealth to co-opt, corrupt, and choke off representative democracy. They have purchased members of Congress and justices of the Supreme Court. They have manipulated their newfound political power to amass ever-larger fortunes.
Quotes of the Day:
Because power corrupts, society’s demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases. John Adams
Podcasts/Videos of the Day:
“It’s Always About Oil”: CIA & MI6 Staged Coup in Iran 70 Years Ago, Destroying Democracy in Iran
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’!
G20 to the World: Burn Baby Burn!: (When Bodies Start Stacking Up From Climate Change-Related Disasters, Will These Monsters be Held to Account?)
G20 Nations Dished Out at Least $1 Trillion in Fossil Fuel Subsidies in 2022: Analysis “This support perpetuates the world’s reliance on fossil fuels, paving the way for yet more energy crises due to market volatility and geopolitical security risks.” An analysis released this week by the International Institute for Sustainable Development shows that G20 countries spent at least $1 trillion on fossil fuel subsidies in 2022, running afoul of recent pledges to curb financial support for the sector most responsible for the global climate emergency.
‘Climate Scam’: 180+ Groups Tell Biden to Drop Support for Hydrogen “Calling hydrogen clean energy is a scam to prop up the oil and gas industry,” said one campaigner. More than 95% of hydrogen produced in the United States is made using fossil fuels, but that hasn’t stopped its backers—including industry groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce—from touting the energy source as critical to the fight against climate change. A diverse coalition of advocacy organizations on Tuesday implored the Biden administration to stop buying into the hype.
“Stop Buying Into the Hype?” Biden is One of the ‘Hypsters’: Biden-Harris Administration Releases First-Ever National Clean Hydrogen Strategy and Roadmap to Build a Clean Energy Future, Accelerate American Manufacturing Boom The Biden-Harris Administration today released the U.S. National Clean Hydrogen Strategy and Roadmap, a comprehensive framework for accelerating the production, processing, delivery, storage, and use of clean hydrogen—a versatile and flexible energy carrier that can be produced with low or zero carbon emissions. Achieving commercial-scale hydrogen deployment is a key component of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, and critical to building a strong clean energy economy while enabling our long-term decarbonization objectives. Estimates indicate that America’s growing hydrogen economy has the potential to add 100,000 net new direct and indirect jobs by 2030. Developed by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), in partnership other federal agencies, the Strategy and Roadmap underscores the President’s whole-of-government approach to addressing the climate crisis and achieving a carbon-free grid by 2035 and a net-zero emissions economy by 2050.
Trust the Children, Not the System It will take an extended commitment to community organizing to expand the Held ruling into tangible relief as a vital state constitutional protection for nature. The 16 child plaintiffs in Held v. State of Montana, the Children’s Trust lawsuit over the meaning of Montana’s state constitutional right to a healthy environment, won an important decision on August 14. But as these things unfortunately go, its significance as more than just a hard-fought, symbolic feel-good ruling remains an open question. A state court judge in Montana found the “Plaintiffs have a fundamental constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment, which includes climate as part of the environmental life-support system” and that “Montana’s GreenHouse Gas (GHG) emissions and climate change have been proven to be a substantial factor in causing climate impacts to Montana’s environment and harm and injury to the Youth Plaintiffs.” This doesn’t sound so earth-shattering unless you realize that our system only grudgingly acknowledges that we all have a right to a clean and healthful environment. The judge also ruled that a recent Montana law “prohibiting analysis of GHG emissions and corresponding impacts to the climate, as well as how additional GHG emissions will contribute to climate change… violates Youth Plaintiffs’ right to a clean and healthful environment and is unconstitutional on its face.” Translation: The system had to be told by a court that climate chaos is real and that you can’t change reality just by passing a law to deny it.
Poisoning the Planet Much has been made — and rightly so — about the potential impact on human health and the Japanese fishing industry if Japan moves forward with its proposal to dump 1.2 million cubic meters — that’s 1.3 million tons —of radioactively contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean from the destroyed Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant site. Unfortunately, this looks likely to happen sometime this month or next despite the worldwide outcry. But when I say “happen”, that rather suggests a one-off dump. Instead, the discharge of these liquid nuclear wastes could go on for at least 17 years according to the Atomic Energy Society of Japan, but likely longer as decommissioning work at the site is expected to take at least 30-40 years.
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!
Next To Starting a War The Worst Thing Is To Keep It Going With No Hope the War Can Change The Outcome The complex nature of the war in Ukraine, and especially of the question of the relative responsibility of the different parties, has made difficult the mobilization of a powerful antiwar movement. A part of the left even opposes an immediate ceasefire and the resumption of negotiations, which were cut short abruptly at the end of March. The object of this article is to shed additional light on the war with a view to helping the opponents of imperialism to adopt an enlightened position. In view of the divisions within the left, I feel it necessary to begin with a few words about myself. I have taught the politics of the Soviet Union and the states that issued from it for many years. As a trade-unionist and socialist, I have participated actively in labour education in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, starting from the moment such activity became politically possible. That education is socialist in inspiration, and we defined socialism as consistent humanism. I have thus actively opposed both the Russian and Ukrainian regimes, both profoundly hostile to the working class. —Condition of the Working Class — The condition of workers in independent Ukraine has not been better than that of their counterparts in Russia. On certain dimensions, it is even worse. Since independence, a succession of predatory governments has transformed Ukraine from a once relatively prosperous region of the Soviet Union into Europe’s poorest state. Ukraine’s population over the last thirty years declined from 52 to 44 million (even before the present war led to huge additional migration). And of those 44 million, a good number are working in Russia. It is true that in Ukraine, as opposed to Russia, elections can change the government. But they cannot change the anti-worker nature of state policy. A violent coup in February 2014, executed by ultra-nationalist (neo-fascist) forces and actively supported by the US government, overthrew an elected, if corrupt, president, blocking an agreement, reached the day before with the opposition, under the auspices of France, Germany and Poland, to form a coalition government and to advance new elections. The coup, and the first measures of the new regime, in particular a law eliminating Russian, daily language of at least half the population, as one of the two official languages, provoked resistance and eventually an armed confrontation in the eastern, predominantly Russian-speaking, parts of the country. That opposition was put down everywhere, sometimes by violent means and with loss of life, as occurred in the city of Odessa in May 2014, except for the Donbass. A civil war broke out there, with Russian intervention on the side of the insurgents and NATO intervention on Kyiv’s side.
Sending Cluster Bombs to Ukraine Indicts the US’ Moral Posturing The Biden administration overrode the warnings of rights advocates and transferred the weapons, which are sure to pose a threat to life well into the future, as they have in other countries. President Joe Biden’s administration has taken a cruel weapon—the cluster bomb—off the shelf and sent it to Ukraine to be used in the war against Russia. Prior to being transferred to Ukraine, cluster bombs made in the United States were used by Saudi Arabia as recently as last year to devastating effect in its war in Yemen. The weapons pose such an extraordinary danger to civilians that—although the U.S. is among a minority of countries that refuses to sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions banning them, and retains such weapons in its arsenal—they have largely been gathering dust because their use and sale are so controversial on the world stage. The White House’s decision to transfer the bombs to Ukraine both escalates the already horrific war and legitimizes a weapon that has no place in our world.
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
‘Stop Cop City’ Referendum Organizers Call Atlanta’s Verification Regime ‘Voter Suppression’ “It’s clear that the city of Atlanta knows that they will lose a vote over Cop City, so now they are trying to prevent it,” said one activist. The Vote to Stop Cop City Coalition said Monday that its hundreds of paid and volunteer canvassers have collected 104,000 signatures for its proposed referendum that would let Atlanta voters decide whether to build the $90 million, 85-acre training facility in the Weelaunee Forest just outside Atlanta city limits in DeKalb County. The city requires 58,000 valid signatures—15% of registered voters—for a measure to qualify for the ballot. However, organizers typically collect many more signatures than needed, knowing a significant number of them could be disqualified. The coalition initially planned on submitting the petition on Monday. However, members are sounding the alarm on what they say may be an attempt by city officials to thwart their effort. Organizers say they now plan to continue collecting petition signatures through September 23, a deadline set last month by a federal judge. “In recent days, the coalition began to hear from reporters and sources inside City Hall that the city of Atlanta is planning to argue for a higher-than-previously-reported legal minimum signature count for ballot access,” the coalition said in a statement.
Labor:
‘It’s Not the Voting, But the Counting That Count!’: Teamsters Declares Ratification of UPS Contract Workers report difficulty voting at UPS Workers Rank-and-File Committee meeting The Teamsters declared the national agreement was ratified by 86 percent, in a statement released around 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time. According to the union, all regional supplemental agreements, save for one small one in the state of Florida, were also ratified. General President Sean O’Brien is scheduled to address an online webinar about the vote tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Workers are widely suspicious of the claimed margin of victory, given the existence of widespread opposition to the deal. “A bunch of BS,” one worker said on Facebook. “We all know that contract was already signed and dated. Many of my co-workers didn’t even accept the ballot. Teamsters work for UPS. We know the game.” One worker said, “There’s no way that we went from a 97 percent vote for a strike to 86 percent in favor of this deal. There are holes in this story.” But whatever the case may be, it is undoubtedly true that the Teamsters bureaucracy relied on deception and intimidation in order to ensure the contract’s passage. It was prepared months in advance with a theatrical “strike-ready” campaign designed to frame the deal that had already been worked out as the product of rank-and-file pressure.
Economy:
Deposits at the 25 Largest Banks Are Setting Lower Lows as Smaller Bank Deposits Set Higher Highs The speed at which the largest U.S. banks are shedding deposits is unlike anything seen in the last half century – at least. But then again, the speed at which those same banks gained deposits from the various stimulus programs during the COVID-19 pandemic was also unprecedented. According to Federal Reserve data, for the week ending April 13, 2022, deposits at the 25 largest domestically-chartered commercial banks in the U.S. stood at $11.68 trillion (a new record) before doing a bungee dive in the following week to $11.4 trillion – likely triggered by the horrific scenes on network television of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine along with the severe economic sanctions against Russia announced on April 6, 2022 by the U.S. and other nations. This likely triggered a rush by Russian oligarchs to get their billions of dollars out of U.S. banks.
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