Daily News Digest September 18, 2023
Capitalism is Now a Worldwide Threat to Humanity! It is on the Fast Track to Global Warming and/or Nuclear War Catastrophes!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, September 15, 2023
Cornel West for President
CornelWest24.org
[email protected]
New York City – Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Cornel West announced today that he will participate in the March to End Fossil Fuels in New York City on Sunday, September 17 as part of a week of events and appearances to present his vision for climate justice through global cooperation. “The only way the United States can lead this global fight is to reject the corporate duopoly, who give us false choices, false solutions, and false hopes,” said Dr. West. “There’s no more time for the empty proclamations and broken promises of this administration, the people won’t stand for it anymore. I hear them and look forward to taking the streets with them so we can take back our collective future.” The Cornel West campaign will emphasize the contradictions of the so-called Inflation Reduction Act that purports to be historic climate legislation while also handing out billions of dollars to fossil fuel cartels who have known about the harm they cause the planet since the 1970s. “This president has issued more oil and gas leases at this point in his presidency than the entirety of Trump’s, continuing the neoliberal approach to climate change of the Obama administration.” West added, “how in the world can Biden refer to himself as a climate president when his landmark climate policy will open up 600 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas leasing, and continue to litter hotspots like Cancer Alley with hazardous and demonstrably ineffective mechanisms like carbon and direct air capture that only fill the coffers of the fossil fuel industry while short changing environmental justice communities?” “The intransigent denialism of the Republican party coupled with the derelict climate policies of the Biden Administration, both of whom are more beholden to corporate interests than the interests of the people, have put us on a trajectory to irreparable atmospheric annihilation and global ecocide.” He continued, “We’re literally paying out climate criminals for years of destruction and environmental racism,” West remarked. ‘It’s time to flip the script, instead of paying the fossil fuel pipers, we need to make the pipers pay.” As a participant in the March to End Fossil Fuels, West will join a chorus of climate justice activists and other concerned earth citizens calling for President Biden to use emergency powers to acknowledge a climate emergency demonstrated by more powerful storms, cataclysmic wildfires and toxic smoke, as well as deadly heat waves. “I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, on my first day as president I will use the National Emergencies Act, the Defense Production Act, and the Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act to order an immediate cessation of all oil and gas leasing projects on federal lands and waters,” He continued, “I will ban the poisonous practice of fracking and demand an immediate moratorium on all liquefied natural gas facilities.” West further declared his intention to cancel unnecessary fossil fuel projects like the Mountain Valley Pipeline, which was handed to coal baron Joe Manchin as part of a, “low down, dirty, racist deal” included with the Inflation Reduction Act, and Joe Biden’s Willow Project. He also issued a declaration to halt and deny all extraction projects on indigenous lands if they do not have the free, prior, and informed consent of Indigenous peoples. “What we’re not going to do is create new energy sacrifice zones in the name of renewable energy production. Environmental racism and green capitalism have no place in cooperative, global solutions to the quintessential threat of climate change. We must make sure those that are suffering most have a seat at the table; we must ensure that our precious Indigenous siblings, our often overlooked working class and rural white brothers and sisters, and our suffering Black and brown people are not thrown underneath it.” West also announced his intentions to visit frontline communities across the country including the sites of Cop City and the Mountain Valley Pipeline, as well as “Cancer Alley” and throughout Indian Country. “The hypocrisy of the Democratic Party knows no bounds.” West continued, “they ask the same people, Black, Brown, Indigenous, and the poor to save democracy and then turn around and poison their communities in the same breath…that’s gangster.” During his week in New York City, West will call for a people centered climate justice and eco-socialist alternative to the inflation reduction act, including the nationalization of the fossil fuel industry.
About Cornel West
Dr. Cornel West is a renowned philosopher, author, and activist who is running to be the U.S. Green Party Presidential Candidate. He has made significant contributions to the fields of philosophy and social justice. He is a professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York, and has also taught the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University, and at several other institutions, including Princeton and Yale. Dr. West is known to be an outspoken advocate for social justice and has worked tirelessly to promote equality and fairness for marginalized communities in the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Fannie Lou Hamer, and bell hooks.. His academic, activist, and musical work have earned him a well-deserved reputation as one of the most important, principled, and influential thinkers of our time.
Images of the Day:
Why Isn’t This Map in the History Books? Native American Tribe Language Map
‘Brought to You by Big Oil’: US Billboards Call Out Companies For Record Heatwaves 
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:
For a Moratorium, on Factory Farms!: Five years before that, the American Public Health Association (APHA), the largest and oldest association of public health professionals in the world, was among those advocating for “radical” (from the Latin radix, for “root” 75 ) change. In 2003, the APHA passed a “Precautionary Moratorium on New Concentrated Animal Feed Operations,” in which it urged all federal, state, and local authorities to impose an immediate moratorium on the building of new factory farms—including industrial turkey, laying hen, broiler chicken, and duck facilities. 76 In November 2019, it reiterated its stance, publishing a new policy statement calling once again for a moratorium on new factory farms as well as a moratorium on the expansion of existing ones. 77 —Primary Pandemic Prevention, National Library of Medicine Am J Lifestyle Med. 2021 Sep-Oct; 15(5): 498–505. Published online 2021 May 3. doi: 10.1177/15598276211008134
Videos of the Day:
400 Climate Scientists Endorse Call to Halt Fossil Fuels Ahead of Major NYC Climate March
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!
New Files Shed Light on Exxonmobil’s Efforts to Undermine Climate Science Executives privately sought to downplay link between fossil fuels and climate change despite public pronouncements, WSJ reports ExxonMobil executives privately sought to undermine climate science even after the oil and gas giant publicly acknowledged the link between fossil fuel emissions and climate change, according to previously unreported documents revealed by the Wall Street Journal. The new revelations are based on previously unreported documents subpoenaed by New York’s attorney general as part of an investigation into the company announced in 2015. They add to a slew of documents that record a decades-long misinformation campaign waged by Exxon, which are cited in a growing number of state and municipal lawsuits against big oil.
Toxic Chemicals Banned By EU Since Brexit Still in Use in UK Exclusive: EU restricts use of eight chemicals, with 16 more in pipeline; UK has two under consideration Several toxic chemicals that have been banned in the EU since Brexit are still allowed to be used in the UK, it can be revealed, as campaigners say the lower standards are putting public health at risk. The UK has not been part of the EU’s chemicals regulations scheme since 2021 and instead has its own, called Reach. Eight rules restricting the use of hazardous chemicals have been adopted by the EU since Brexit, and 16 more are in the pipeline. The UK has not banned any substances in that time and is considering just two restrictions, on lead ammunition and harmful substances in tattoo ink.
Greta Thunberg Could Face 6-Month Jail Term for Blockade of Swedish Oil Port The climate activist was charged for a second time on September 15 for refusing to leave a protest at an oil terminal. Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg was charged for a second time on Friday for not leaving a protest near an oil terminal after police ordered her to do so. The new charge comes less than two months after Thunberg, who launched the School Strike for Climate movement five years ago in August, was convicted for the same offense. If convicted again, Reuters reported, she could face up to six months in prison.
The South China Sea’s Resource Wars: It’s Not Only About Fossil Fuels It’s an ocean of conflict and ecological decline. Despite its vast size — 1.3 million square miles — the South China Sea has become a microcosm of the geopolitical tensions between East and West, where territorial struggles over abundant natural resources may one day lead to environmental collapse. While the threat of a devastating military conflict between China and the United States in the region still looms, the South China Sea has already experienced irreparable damage. Decades of over-harvesting have, for instance, had a disastrous impact on that sea’s once-flourishing fish. The tuna, mackerel, and shark populations have fallen to 50% of their 1960s levels. Biologically critical coral reef atolls, struggling to survive rising ocean temperatures, are also being buried under sand and silt as the Chinese military lays claim to and builds on the disputed Spratly Islands, an archipelago of 14 small isles and 113 reefs in that sea. Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Vietnam have also laid claim to many of the same islands–
Too Bourgeois: Jeff Goodell’s “The Heat Will Kill You First” Jeff Goodell, The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet (New York: Little Brown and Company, 2023). In the current conjuncture, it is easier to imagine and end to the world than to imagine an end to capitalism. — Frederic Jameson, Seeds of Time, 1994. One of the rules of lucrative success in American “public intellectual” circles is that you must avoid full frontal engagement with the reigning socioeconomic and political order that is actively destroying life on Earth at a lethally escalating pace: capitalism-imperialism.Take the bestselling author and Atlantic Council and Guggenheim Fellow Jeff Goodell’s latest elegant and highly personable book The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet. What better time to dive into this highly readable volume, as I did, during the summer of 2023, when one heat record after another was broken, with killer wildfires, storms, floods, and heat waves naturally accompanying the historic hotness?
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!
Bidenomics: Millions to Rebuild Maui, Billions for Ukraine Last month, president Joe “No Comment on Hawaii” Biden’s twitter boosters hurried to claim that the measly $700 he initially boasted of for Maui fire victims was but the first installment of more generous help to come. But the proof is in the pudding, and even with Biden’s added ingredients, the pudding’s comparatively pretty thin and watery. On August 30, Biden pledged $95 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to aid Mauli’s rebuilding. It remains to see how far that goes – thousands of homes burnt to the ground. With an average home price in the most affected area, Lahaina, coming in at a cool million dollars, Biden’s promised bonanza, made after his disastrous hegira to Hawaii, may not stretch far.
The Bombs of August: Remembering Neak Luong, 1973 There was no intention to attack friendly soldiers and their families; however, this erroneous air strike was occurring in a context in which U.S. bombers had been striking Cambodia secretly and illegally for five years.
The Strategic Nightmare That Follows the “Forever War” One of these days, the “forever war” between Russia and Ukraine will be over, and the serious challenge of dealing with the strategic triangularity of the United States, Russia, and China will begin. The Biden administration has complicated this task by pursuing a strategy of “dual containment,” believing that the United States can “contain” both Russia and China. Unlike the Soviet Union of the Cold War era, China cannot be “contained.” It is a global economic and political power as well as a formidable military power in the Indo-Pacific region
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Incarcerated Youth at Angola Shed Spotlight on Louisiana’s Cruel Juvenile System A federal judge ruled that conditions at the adult prison amount to cruel and unusual punishment. This week the state of Louisiana was expected to transfer a group of mostly Black boys out of the former death row unit of Louisiana State Penitentiary — a maximum-security adult prison also known as Angola. But a federal appeals court on Wednesday temporarily paused a judge’s order requiring the state to move the children out of Angola by Friday. The American Civil Liberties Union, the Southern Poverty Law Center and several law firms, pushed for a year to stop the state from detaining children at the prison, which is located on a former slave plantation. The legal advocates praised a federal judge’s mandate last week that Louisiana officials move the teens out of Angola and back to a juvenile-focused facility by September 15.
Labor:
I Prefer the Slogan: : “No Contract No Work!”, in Preparation for Contract Negoiations. That Way Workers Immediately Walk Off the Jobs, When the Contracts Expires!: “We Want An All-Out Strike”: Autoworkers denounce UAW’s limited strikes | Updates on the Big Three autoworkers struggle On Thursday night, UAW President Shawn Fain announced that the union would call out workers at three factories if no agreement were reached by midnight. This includes the Stellantis Toledo Jeep Complex, GM’s Wentzville Assembly Plant near St. Louis and several thousand workers in the final assembly and paint shop at Ford’s Michigan Assembly Plant (MAP).
What’s happening:
- “We want an all-out strike”: Autoworkers denounce UAW’s limited strikes
- As Big Three contracts expire, UAW instructs vast majority of autoworkers to stay on the job
- Autoworker and UAW presidential candidate Will Lehman calls for all-out strike
- Unite the rank and file for an all-out strike!
- Warren Truck Stellantis workers: “We should strike to get what we deserve”
- 1,100 workers go on strike at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan
- German auto workers voice support for US workers in advance of strike deadline
- Indiana Lear worker: “Sometimes I have to not eat so my family can. We just want what’s fair.”
- The global implications of the auto struggle in the United States | Statement of the Socialist Equality Party (US)
- Unite Canadian, US and Mexican autoworkers in a joint fight against the Detroit Three! Build rank-and-file committees to seize control from the Unifor bureaucracy! | Statement of the WSWS Autoworker Newsletter
Econommy:
‘War Is Good for Business,’ Declares Executive at London’s Global Arms Fair “Deals done at DSEI will cause misery across the world, causing global instability, and devastate people’s lives,” one peace activist lamented. Military-industrial complex players big and small gathered in London this week, hawking everything from long-range missiles to gold-plated pistols to arms fair attendees—including representatives of horrific human rights violators—as weapon-makers and other merchants of the machinery of death reap record profits.
World:
Zimbabwe Election Results: Mnangagwa and Zanu PF declareZimbabwe election victory, but resultsare disputed by opposition.
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