Daily News Digest September 15, 2023

 Daily News Digest Archives

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:

Ripping Off Young America: The College-Loan Scandal the federal government has made it easier than ever to borrow money for higher education – saddling a generation with crushing debts and inflating a bubble that could bring down the economy

Is the College Try Worth Anything?

Bendib: Over the Ukrainian Cuckoo’s Nest

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:

Why would union leaders praise a contract that is worse than the original offer and well below the rate of inflation?  The average wage of full-time Metro workers in the GTA is $22.60 per hour, while the average wage of part-time workers is just $16.62 per hour. (The Ontario minimum wage is $15.50 per hour, rising next month to $16.55 per hour.) These poverty wages are too low for workers to afford the food they stock on Metro shelves. They are also below the minimum wage required to rent a one-bedroom apartment in Toronto.      Clearly this is a defeat. Grocery workers failed to get the living wage they fought for, despite a 5-week strike and substantial public support. To win the next battle, we need to examine why we lost this one.      Every day, the business class wage war against the working class, extracting profit from their labor and denying them life’s essentials. A strike is workers retaliating against these assaults. An effective strike disrupts the flow of profit – the lifeblood of capitalism. To protect their profit-driven system, the laws, the courts, and the government move to block any action that interferes with the flow of profit or threatens to do so. When governments pass back-to-work legislation or impose a contract, it is always on the employers’ terms and never on the workers’ terms.        The State also counts on union bureaucrats to surrender when threatened with heavy fines or imprisonment for breaking the law. Yet laws can be overturned. Last year, Ontario premier Doug Ford repealed Bill 28 after being threatened with a province-wide general strike. This proves there are no illegal strikes, only ineffective ones.     In a bureaucratic union, the members’ goals are not the same as those of union executives. This was evident when Unifor officials praised a contract that was actually another pay cut.         The 6-figure incomes of top union leaders do not depend on the contracts they negotiate for their members; they depend on maintaining good relations with management. In contrast, workers can only advance by challenging their relations with management, and their only reliable allies are other workers in the same boat. — Lessons from the Metro Grocery Workers’ Strike

And the Debt Collective’s position has always been that the president of United States has the authority, through the Higher Education Act of 1965, to cancel all student debt. This is the legal authority that President Biden has said he will now try to use in the wake of the Supreme Court decision that shot down his initial debt relief plan. We’re trying to push him to actually do that and use his full powers, because none of this is necessary. This debt can be erased. Again, the government doesn’t need student debtors to pay their bills to keep operating. And, you know, an incredible amount of suffering is about to commence. I mean, one thing we’re hearing from people who are filling out our new student debt release tool is that they’re going to have to make impossible decisions between paying their student loans and paying their rent or paying their medical or dental bills. We are hearing from people who are considering suicide. —Astra Taylor, “Capitalism Is an Insecurity Machine”: Astra Taylor on Student Debt & Our Radically Unequal World

Videos of the Day:

COVID-19, Shutdowns, and Emergency Powers | Aaron Kheriaty | Essay Highlights

“Complicit”: Columbia U. Shielded Predator OB-GYN Robert Hadden for Decades as He Assaulted Hundreds

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!

Earth ‘Well Outside Safe Operating Space For Humanity’, Scientists Find First complete ‘scientific health check’ shows most global systems beyond stable range in which modern civilisation emerged
Earth ‘well outside safe operating space for humanity’, scientists find First complete ‘scientific health check’ shows most global systems beyond stable range in which modern civilisation emerged, Earth’s life support systems have been so damaged that the planet is “well outside the safe operating space for humanity”, scientists have warned.     Their assessment found that six out of nine “planetary boundaries” had been broken because of human-caused pollution and destruction of the natural world. The planetary boundaries are the limits of key global systems – such as climate, water and wildlife diversity – beyond which their ability to maintain a healthy planet is in danger of failing.     The broken boundaries mean the systems have been driven far from the safe and stable state that existed from the end of the last ice age, 10,000 years ago, to the start of the industrial revolution. The whole of modern civilisation arose in this time period, called the Holocene.     The assessment was the first of all nine planetary boundaries and represented the “first scientific health check for the entire planet”, the researchers said. Six boundaries have been passed and two are judged to be close to being broken: air pollution and ocean acidification. The one boundary that is not threatened is atmospheric ozone, after action to phase out destructive chemicals in recent decades led to the ozone hole shrinking.

The 1%’s Greenwasher Leads COP28 Climate Conference: American PR Firm Edelman Enabled Oil Baron Al Jaber’s Ascension to Lead COP28 Climate Conference Edelman earned millions polishing the UAE’s green image — which helped propel Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber to the top levels of climate diplomacy. American PR Firm Edelman Enabled Oil Baron Al Jaber’s Ascension to Lead COP28 Climate Conference.  Edelman earned millions polishing the UAE’s green image — which helped propel Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber to the top levels of climate diplomacy.

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!

“Capitalism Is an Insecurity Machine”: Astra Taylor on Student Debt & Our Radically Unequal World As the COVID-19 era pause on federal student debt payments comes to an end and some 40 million Americans will resume payments next month, we speak with Debt Collective organizer Astra Taylor about Biden’s new Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE, plan and her organization’s new tool that helps people apply to the Department of Education to cancel the borrower’s debt. Taylor also discusses her new book, The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart, in which she writes, “How we understand and respond to insecurity is one of the most urgent questions of our moment, for nothing less than the future security of our species hangs in the balance.” She notes organizing is about “the alchemy of turning our vulnerabilities, turning our oppression, turning our insecurities into solidarity so that we can change the structures that are undermining our self-esteem and well-being.” 

US Posts August Budget Surplus After Student Loan Cost Reversal The U.S. government posted a rare August surplus of $89 billion due to a $319 billion reversal of costs from President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan after the Supreme Court struck down the program in June, the Treasury Department said on Wednesday. The August surplus – the first for that month since 1955 – compares to a year-earlier deficit of $220 billion. Receipts last month totaled $283 billion, down 7% or $21 billion from a year earlier, while outlays came to $194 billion after the student loan reversal, down 63% or $329 billion.

North Korea Denies Arming Russia’s Wagner Group Denial comes after the US accused North Korea of supplying rockets and missiles to the Russian military company, the Wagner Group.North Korea has denied providing arms to Russia after the United States accused Pyongyang of supplying rockets and missiles to the Russian Wagner Group and helping bolster Moscow’s forces in Ukraine.

Does Russia Need Arms From North Korea? Or  is It White House Spin? ! Answer Spin! Here are the World’s Top 10 Ranked Nations With The Most Powerful Militaries

  • United States (PwrIndex value= 0.0712)
  • Russia (0.0714)
  • China (0.0722)
  • India (0.1025)
  • United Kingdom (0.1435)
  • South Korea (0.1505)
  • Pakistan (0.1694)
  • Japan (0.1711)
  • France (0.1848
  • Italy (0.1973)

Here are the 10 Countries With the Most Nuclear Weapons:

  • Russia: 6,257 🇷🇺
  • United States: 5,550 🇺🇸
  • China: 350 🇨🇳
  • France: 290 🇫🇷
  • United Kingdom: 225 🇬🇧
  • Pakistan: 165 🇵🇰
  • India: 156 🇮🇳
  • Israel: 90 🇮🇱

Civil Rights/Black Liberation:

Student Debt is a Racial Justice Issue. Here’s What President Biden Can Do to Help. Canceling student debt is a critical step to closing the racial wealth gap and securing financial stability and economic mobility for Black and Brown borrowers. Student loan debt burdens more than 44 million Americans, and prevents millions from buying homes, starting businesses, saving for retirement, or even starting families. This debt is disproportionately affecting Black families, and Black women in particular. Higher education has long been held as a critical gateway to getting a job and achieving economic stability and mobility. But because of long-standing systemic racial discrimination, Black families have far less wealth to draw on to pay for college, creating barriers for Black communities to access higher education and build wealth. Black families are more likely to borrow, to borrow more, and to have trouble in repayment. Two decades after taking out their student loans, the median Black borrower still owes 95 percent of their debt, whereas the median white borrower has paid off 94 percent of their debt.     Students of color pursue higher education in a social and economic system built on racist ideologies that is set up to work against them and perpetuate racial wealth and income and achievement gaps. To redress this systemic inequality, the ACLU, Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), and more than 300 other organizations are calling on the Biden-Harris administration and Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona to use their authority under the Higher Education Act to cancel $50,000 of student debt per borrower, and Congress must act as well.

Prison is a Death Sentence!: Summer Heat Is Killing Incarcerated People – It’s Cruel and Unusual Punishment Without AC, prison cell temperatures can reach 130 degrees. Incarcerated in Texas heat, I feel I’m being tortured.   All summer long, incarcerated people have been dying from heat in U.S. prisons. The Prison Policy Initiative reports that temperature spikes are driving the increase in mortality nationwide: extreme heat days increase deaths by 3.5 percent, and two- to three-day heat waves cause increases of 5.5 percent and 7.4 percent respectively. The impact of the heat was highest in the Northeast, where two-day heat waves caused a 21 percent increase in deaths in prisons.   — Prisons are literally “heating people to death.” — Since the summer began, at least 51 people have died in unair-conditioned Texas prisons. Elizabeth Hagerty was one of those people; she was found dead in her cell on June 30, a little over a month before she was due to be paroled. As temperatures soared across the country, incarcerated people from Maryland to California have been forced to find creative ways to keep cool. While prison commissaries might offer some items to make the heat more bearable, those items are often too expensive for incarcerated people to afford — like a cooling towel in Oregon sold at almost twice its actual price in 2021. Texas prisons increased the price of bottled water by six cents a bottle in the week after Hagerty’s death — a small increase for people on the outside, but an insurmountable barrier for incarcerated people who are not paid for their labor and rely on struggling families for money to spend in the commissary.

The Right Petition is Under Attack!: Despite 116,000 Signatures, Atlanta Won’t Validate Stop Cop City Petition City officials are waiting to see if the 11th Circuit Court rules in favor of the activists and forces the validation. The Vote to Stop Cop City Coalition in Atlanta submitted more than 116,000 signatures on Monday to put a referendum about the embattled police training complex on the ballot for local voters, but city officials quickly refused to validate the signatures and move the petition along due to an ongoing legal fight over the signature-gathering process.    Stop Cop City activists accused Atlanta officials of once again subverting democracy after moving forward with the construction of the 85-acre, $90 million police training complex, despite months of fierce protest and loud community opposition to a facility that activists say would further militarize Atlanta cops. City of Atlanta officials claim their hands are legally tied after winning a favorable decision from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals that threw out a deadline extension granted to the activists by a lower court.

Black Agenda Report

Labor:

Econommy:

Another FDIC-Insured Bank Is Teetering, Closing at 27-1/2 Cents Yesterday, Down 96 Percent in a Year.  There may be a lesson here: don’t put the word “Republic” in the name of your bank; don’t hold a lot of uninsured deposits; and don’t have wads of unrealized losses on your investment securities.   If those lessons sound familiar, it’s because they played out in stunning fashion earlier this year when the second, third and fourth largest bank failures in U.S. history occurred. One of those banks that blew up was First Republic Bank, which was put into FDIC receivership on May 1 and later sold, under much controversy, to the already behemoth JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the U.S. (JPMorgan Chase can’t seem to stay away from criminal charges. It thus far has notched five felony counts in its belt and is currently being sued by the U.S. Virgin Islands for “actively participating” in Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking of minors by providing him with more than $5 million in hard cash over a decade.)

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

On Missouri v. Biden and “The New Abnormal”: Interview With Dr. Aaron Kheriaty One of the plaintiffs in the landmark censorship case offers thoughts on last week’s ruling, plus a general warning Soon to become one of the original plaintiffs in the landmark Missouri v. Biden First Amendment case, Dr. Aaron Kheriaty at the outset of the pandemic began seeing patients come to his clinical practice speaking in ways he hadn’t encountered before, expressing a “weird apocalyptic anxiety” that combined depressive reactions to isolation with paralyzing fixations on social media, commercial news, and various disastrous scientific scenarios.                   Acutely aware of real dangers of Covid-19 — as ethics consultant at the University of California-Irvine hospital he’d sat through “more conversations than I can count” informing families loved ones were dying of the new disease — Kheriaty nonetheless began to tally its psychiatric consequences as well. In late 2020 he wrote The Other Pandemic: The Lockdown Mental Health Crisis, addressing statistics matching his clinical experience. Anxiety disorders had tripled, depressive disorders quadrupled, and 11% of respondents contemplated suicide within 30 days. When it became consensus that questioning lockdowns was equivalent to murder — The Atlantic even ran a headline, “Georgia’s Experiment in Human Sacrifice” when Governor Brian Kemp allowed “gyms, churches, hair and nail salons, and tattoo parlors” to reopen — bringing up such issues guaranteed backlash, as he was to find out.