Daily News Digest September 13, 2023
Capitalism is Now a Worldwide Threat to Humanity! It is on the Fast Track to Global Warming and/or Nuclear War Catastrophes!
Images of the Day:
Captitalism’s G20 Summmit:No Solutions!
Spoiler
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 ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force. The class which has the means of material production at its disposal, has control at the same time over the means of mental production, so that thereby, generally speaking, the ideas of those who lack the means of mental production are subject to it. The ruling ideas are nothing more than the ideal expression of the dominant material relationships, the dominant material relationships grasped as ideas. — Theses on Feuerbach
Videos of the Day:
Greg Palast: Until They Killed Them…100 Crucial Seconds of A Story Buried The Osage of Oklahoma were the richest people on the planet. Until they killed them. For their oiL The Osage of Oklahoma were the richest people on the planet. Until they killed them. For their oil. This is an investigation I’ve worked on quietly for 27 years. And now I’m finally able to give you a 100-second preview, herE.: Teaser for Long Knife: Osage oil and the new Petroleum-Poisoned Trail of Tears.
“Capitalism Is an Insecurity Machine”: Astra Taylor on Student Debt & Our Radically Unequal World
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!
400+ Actions to End Fossil Fuels Planned Around the World for Sept. 15-17 “When we the people use our collective power we can win,” said one campaigner “September 15-17, 2023. Everywhere.” Those are the dates and location of the international mobilization against fossil fuels set to take place this coming weekend, and the last word is hardly an exaggeration as organizers with the Global Fight to End Fossil Fuels report that more than 400 actions, marches, rallies, and other events have already been registered around the world. More than 780 organizations have endorsed the day of action—up from 500 less than a week ago—and millions of participants are expected to rally from Cape Town, South Africa to Manila, Philippines and Lahore, Pakistan, as well as in dozens of cities and towns across the United States, the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in history.
US Has Faced a Record 23 Billion-Dollar Extreme Weather Disasters in 2023 One expert said the events “affirm what millions of people around the country already know—the climate crisis is a deadly and expensive reality today.” As a historically hot summer nears its end, U.S. government scientists on Monday announced that the nation endured 23 separate weather and climate disasters that caused at least $1 billion in damage from January to August—setting a new annual record with four months of the year left.
The Climate Crisis Is a War of Terror Our wars, barring the use of nuclear weapons, could prove to be next to nothing compared to nature’s war of revenge on humanity. From the earliest kingdoms to late last night, history has been the story not just of the rise of great powers but of their decline and fall. So, normally, there would be nothing particularly out of the ordinary about the aging America of Joe Biden and Donald Trump, a classic imperial power distinctly in decline and threatening to split into pieces.
Exposure to Contaminated Drinking Water Is Undercounted by EPA, New Study Finds Regulators aren’t adequately accounting for how extensively vulnerable communities are exposed to contaminated water. U.S. environmental regulators are failing to adequately account for how extensively vulnerable communities are exposed to contaminated drinking water, a new study has determined. From 2018-2020, one in ten people in the United States were exposed to water quality violations that could impact their health, the study found. And roughly 70% of those affected are considered “socially vulnerable” under a range of factors that include race, language, disability, and housing vacancy rates. The exposure risk was particularly noteworthy for Hispanic populations throughout the southwest and southcentral U.S. And when looking at people living on tribal lands, the numbers were more alarming: three in ten people were exposed to health-based water quality violations, the researchers found.
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!
San Francisco Bayview: Cornel West Offers Voters a Choice As a long-time member of the Green Party, I’m pleased that Dr. West has chosen to seek the Green Party nomination for president on the November 2024 ballot. Over the years, I’ve been a candidate for various offices in San Francisco. I believe that if the Green Party doesn’t have candidates, voters will never hear about us. In his campaign for president, voters all across the country will hear about the Green Party. “West is an outspoken voice in left-wing politics in the United States. During his career, he has held professorships and fellowships at Harvard University, Yale University, Union Theological Seminary, Princeton University, Dartmouth College, Pepperdine University, and the University of Paris. He is a frequent commentator on politics and social questions in many media outlets,” according to Wikipedia. “Philosopher and activist Cornel West has a question: Why do so many Americans languish in prison, put up with indecent housing, or cope with decrepit schools and without proper healthcare when they live in the richest empire in the history of the world?” he asked in a July 5 campaign press release.
Note the Lessor, Always, Evil Author, Put the Blame on Trump — Not Capitaliism!: World Bank Pumping Billions More Into Fossil Fuels Than Publicly Known: Study An analysis released Tuesday by the German nonprofit Urgewald estimated that the World Bank spent nearly $4 billion on fossil fuel financing last year, when it was under the leadership of a climate denier nominated by former U.S. President Donald Trump. The World Bank pledged in 2017 to end financing for upstream oil and gas—with narrow exceptions—after 2019. But Urgewald observed in its new report that the World Bank’s pledge applied only to direct finance, allowing the powerful institution to funnel cash to oil and gas projects through “trade finance” dished out by its private-sector arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC). “Despite trade finance’s vast and still-growing share of the IFC’s budget, over 70% of it is given out in secrecy,” Urgewald noted. “The types of goods and businesses it is funding are not even reported to the World Bank’s shareholders, i.e., our governments. The public has a right to know where all this money is going.”
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
“E-Carceration” Is the Newest Surveillance Trend Spreading Across the Globe As the use of “e-carceration” spreads globally, invasive, AI-powered surveillance comes with it. From the shanty town favelas of Rio de Janeiro, to working-class community housing estates in New Zealand, to the battle-weary streets of Chicago’s South Side, electronic monitors — digital tracking devices that monitor the location and behaviors of people facing increased surveillance by police — have become normalized. Like police cars and bodegas, they are part of the social landscape. While the traditional ankle monitor remains the dominant technology for electronic monitoring (EM), cellphone apps, wristlets and whatever other devices Big Tech comes up with are moving into the marketplace of human tracking. In the era of artificial intelligence, machine learning and global networks, electronic monitoring companies and their political supporters continue to make unfounded promises that electronic monitors will reduce crime and bring peace to violence-torn communities. Despite the lack of evidence that their devices have a positive impact, their usage and capacity continue to expand.
Labor:
Labor Officials/Boss Partnership Concession Stand is Open!: The UAW Bureaucracy is Making Massive Concessions Behind Autoworkers’ BacksStatements from the United Auto Workers, the Biden administration and the Big Three auto corporations make clear that a massive sellout is being worked out behind the backs of 150,000 autoworkers in the US whose contracts expire Thursday at 11:59 p.m. EDT. Late Monday afternoon, Automotive News reported that the UAW is making major concessions on workers’ central demands: “Days before it’s threatening to strike the Detroit 3, the UAW has reduced its demand for pay raises over the next four years to the mid-30 percent range, according to people familiar with the offer.” The pro-industry publication noted this “marks a willingness by the union to compromise on one of its top demands.” There is no doubt that the UAW bureaucracy is also planning to betray workers’ demands for the abolition of tiers, an end to layoffs and plant closures, the restoration of fully funded pensions and cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) and the immediate rollover of all temporary part-time (TPT) workers.
Econommy:
IIPPE 2023 Part Two – China, Profitability snd Financialisation . . .In the main IIPPE conference there were other presentations on China. I’ll single out just two. The first was again by Prof Dic Lo, called The Political Economy of China’s “New Normal”. This dealt with a key question being posed in the Western media – namely is China’s recent economic slowdown permanent, or even worse is it a signal of China’s imminent demise? Prof Lo considers whether the slowdown is due to a lack of domestic demand, as many Keynesian experts on China like Michael Pettis claim, or is it due to falling profitability of capital in China, as Marxists might suggest? Lo tends to argue for the latter as the main cause (indeed I find the same in my own study of this – see the book, Capitalism in the 21st century, pp213-14). . . . In another session, Grzegorz Kwiatkowski and David Luebeck of the Berlin School of Economics looked at the degree of state control over companies in China. Of the 100 largest Chinese enterprises, there are 78 state-owned companies. The dominance of state-owned enterprises in the Chinese economy is much greater than in most other countries, reflecting the unique role they play in China’s economic system. In another session, Grzegorz Kwiatkowski and David Luebeck of the Berlin School of Economics looked at the degree of state control over companies in China. Of the 100 largest Chinese enterprises, there are 78 state-owned companies. The dominance of state-owned enterprises in the Chinese economy is much greater than in most other countries, reflecting the unique role they play in China’s economic system.
Grab an Easy Chair and Watch 21 Experts Explore the Path from the Collapse of Lehman Brothers to This Spring’s Banking Crisis to the Urgency of Defanging the Mega Banks The outspoken nonprofit watchdog, Better Markets, and its co-founder, President and CEO, Dennis Kelleher, have planned a unique full-day webinar for tomorrow from 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET. (Register here at no cost. You do not need Zoom to watch the program.) For millions of Americans who understand that the U.S. cannot remain a superpower, or even compete effectively on the world stage without a first-class banking system and a properly functioning Wall Street, this is an opportunity to hear from people who have been on the front lines of the battle for genuine reform for decades. Wall Street On Parade has covered the efforts of many of these individuals over the years.
World:
Britain: TUC Congress – Solidarity With Ukraine, or Support for NATO Imperialism? A motion is up for discussion at this week’s TUC Congress, calling for ‘solidarity with Ukraine’. Instead of backing the Tories and their imperialist aims, the labour movement must fight for an internationalist, class-based position. This afternoon, TUC Congress will discuss a motion under the heading ‘Solidarity with Ukraine’. It might as well have been called the ‘solidarity with your own imperialist ruling class’ motion.
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