Daily News Digest September 21, 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:
Bendib: Environmental Hoax 
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:
Biden’s polling numbers are not short of disastrous at this point, even among registered Democrats. His approval rate hovers at 40 percent or so in all polls; in some surveys the percentage of those who “disapprove” of the president is north of 60 percent. Three quarters of registered voters think he is too old to run for a second term. A CNN poll published two weeks ago found that 46 percent of registered voters would prefer any Republican candidate to Biden. Organized labor does not trust “union Joe,” as reports this week from the United Auto Workers’ picket lines indicate. Poverty levels, including child poverty, are rising swiftly, as is credit-card debt. Inflation, although down from its peak, has chewed up what wage gains working class Americans have achieved since Biden came to office, and the official inflation rate is a chisel in any case, as it does not include energy and food costs. The administration is doing absolutely nothing as private equity firms buy houses—neighborhoods, indeed—at a rate that is destroying communities and provoking a housing crisis that starts to look like the early 1930s. — Patrick Lawrence: Psychosis and Its Consequences
Videos of the Day:
Black Agenda Radio September 15, 2023
Corporate Media Spread Anti-Nicaragua War Propaganda
$75,000 Judgement for Black New York City Mother Whose Child was Taken Illegally
Stop Cop City Activists Charged as RICO Criminal Conspirators and Domestic Terrorists
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!
‘Gates Of Hell’ Must Be Closed With Ambitious Action On Fossil Fuels, Says UN Chief “We Must Make Up Time Lost To Foot-Dragging, Arm-Twisting, And The Naked Greed Of Entrenched Interests Raking In Billions From Fossil Fuels.”United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres Kicked Off His One-Day Climate Ambition Summit At U.N. Headquarters In New York City On Wednesday With A Simple, Clear, And Resounding Message For World Leaders: Do More. “Humanity Has Opened The Gates Of Hell” By Unleashing Potent Levels Of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Into The Environment Since The Industrial Revolution, Guterres Told The The Audience, Which Notably Did Not Include Some Leaders Of Top Polluting Nations—Such As U.S. President Joe Biden, U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, And Chinese President Xi Jinping—Who Refused To Attend The Event.
‘Damning’ Probe Finds 80% of Top Carbon Offset Schemes Are ‘Likely Junk or Worthless’ Carbon offset projects are “proving a dangerous diversion of political capital and time from the meaningful and just solutions needed to rise to the challenge of the climate crisis,” said one researcher.
‘Damning’ Probe Finds 80% of Top Carbon Offset Schemes Are ‘Likely Junk or Worthless’ Carbon offset projects are “proving a dangerous diversion of political capital and time from the meaningful and just solutions needed to rise to the challenge of the climate crisis,” said one researcher.
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
NATO Chief Admits NATO Expansion Was Key to Russian Invasion of Ukraine The continuing U.S. obsession with NATO enlargement is profoundly irresponsible and hypocritical. And now Ukrainians are paying a terrible price . . .According to the U.S. government and the ever-obsequious New York Times, the Ukraine war was “unprovoked,” the Times’ favorite adjective to describe the war. Putin, allegedly mistaking himself for Peter the Great, invaded Ukraine to recreate the Russian Empire. Yet last week, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg committed a Washington gaffe, meaning that he accidently blurted out the truth. In testimony to the European Union Parliament, Stoltenberg made clear that it was America’s relentless push to enlarge NATO to Ukraine that was the real cause of the war and why it continues today. Here are Stoltenberg’s revealing words: “The background was that President Putin declared in the autumn of 2021, and actually sent a draft treaty that they wanted NATO to sign, to promise no more NATO enlargement. That was what he sent us. And was a pre-condition to not invade Ukraine. Of course, we didn’t sign that.
Black Liberation/Civile Rights:
Land-Grant HBCUs Underfunded by $13 Billion, Biden Admin Says The underfunding limited HBCUs from competing for research grants other institutions pursued, the administration said. Two cabinet secretaries from the Biden administration have sent letters to 16 U.S. governors, informing them that, over the past three decades or more, their states have drastically underfunded Historically Black Colleges and Universities that receive land grants.
Filmmaker Connects Dots Between Fugitive Slave Law and Modern-Day “Karens” Award-winning filmmaker Stanley Nelson documents the history of anti-Black police violence in “Sound of the Police.” Since 1989 Oscar-nominated filmmaker Stanley Nelson has been among the leading chroniclers of Black liberation and civil rights struggles in the U.S. Some of the documentaries Nelson has directed and produced, such as 2003’s The Murder of Emmett Till, 2021’s Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Massacre and the 2021 short Lynching Postcards:‘Token of a Great Day’ — about souvenir postcards that commemorated some of the 4,000-plus lynchings of African Americans from 1880 to 1968 — depict the horrors of Jim Crow. But Nelson also documents Black communities’ heroic resistance to slavery, segregation and racism in films including 2022 biopics about abolitionists, Harriet Tubman: Visions of Freedom and Becoming Frederick Douglass.
Labor:
The Condition of the United States Working Class — Where Do We Go From Here? September 18, 2o23 Update: Shadow Government Statistics ShadowStats Weekly Commentary September 16, 2023 (Recieved by Email) August 2023 CPI Annual Inflation Notched Higher for a Second Straight Month, Despite a Weakening Economy August 2023 PPI Annual Inflation Also Notched Higher for a Second Straight Month Resurgent Gasoline Prices and Extreme Monetary Conditions Are at Fault, Not an Overheating Economy Early-September 2023 Consumer Sentiment Softened Anew, Shy By 33.0% (-33.0%) of Ever Recovering Its February 2020 Pre-Pandemic Peak Annual Poverty Survey: “Median Household Income After Taxes Fell 8.8% in 2022” August 2023 Industrial Production Annual Growth Held Flat In Recession Territory, August 2023 Real Retail Sales Continued on Track For a Fourth Consecutive Quarterly Year-to-Year Decline
Annual U.S. Poverty Survey – 2022 Perhaps Not So Coincidental With Still-Collapsed Consumer Sentiment, Inflation-Adjusted Real Household Income in 2022 Was Down by 5.5% (-5.5%) From Its Pre-Pandemic Annual Peak in 2019 Changed Inflation Measures in 2022 Reporting Muted Headline Real Household Income to Down by 4.7% (-4.7%) from an Otherwise Consistent Measurement of Down by 5.5% (-5.5%) Unlike the Headline Census Reporting, The Graph Here Is Shown on a Consistent Inflation BasisEnd The Tier Wage System! Equal Pay for Equal Work! Due the Labor Bureaucracy’s collaboration with the Boss, Real Wages Have Been Cut Over 100% Since1974! — Wages Have Not Kept Up With Inflation! Since the Neoliberal Labor Bureaucracy declared itself to be in a (Domestic) Partnership With the Boss’ (‘Bedding the Boss!’)! was fully institutionalized starting in the mid-1980s, this ‘partnership’ gave birth to the one, two, three, etc. .. wage tier system! Selling out the futures of future young workers entering the labor force. And, since the lowest union wage is immediately the highest non-union wage, this wage tier system cut the wages of the entire working class! When I was a union official, I called this system labors’ rush to the bottom! (See Graph Below)
Shadow Government Statistics): Graph 3 plots the seasonally-adjusted earnings as officially deflated by the BLS (red-line), and as adjusted for the ShadowStats-Alternate CPI Measure, 1990-Base (blue-line). When inflation-depressing methodologies of the 1990s began to kick-in, the artificially-weakened CPI-W (also used in calculating Social Security cost-of-living adjustments) helped to prop up the reported real earnings. Official real earnings today still have not recovered their inflation-adjusted levels of the early-1970s, and, at best, have been in a minimal uptrend for the last two decades (albeit spiked recently by negative headline inflation). Deflated by the ShadowStats (1990-Based) measure, real earnings have been in fairly-regular decline for the last four decades, which is much closer to common experience than the pattern suggested by the CPI-W. See the Public Commentary on Inflation Measurement for further detail. This process has led to a greater productivity and windfall profits for the capitalist, without more value being added to society.
Autoworkers Strike For Families, Communities, Justice National: The auto workers are striking in the public interest. “‘UAW’s demands also focus on the preservation of their communities,’ says Michael Shields of Policy Matters Ohio. ‘They seek the right to strike over plant closures, and a guarantee that if a company shutters a plant in their community, it will pay displaced workers to do community service work instead of leaving their families to transfer to a new state or losing their jobs. When General Motors closed its Lordstown Chevy Cruze plant in 2018, workers left behind spouses and children, aging parents, and houses they couldn’t sell as prices collapsed throughout the community. Research shows that every automotive job supports 7.1 other jobs in the labor market.’” On Lordstown see this. The structural issues, democracy foremost among them, facing the auto industry and the people who work in it also face every community in the U.S. It’s always been about democracy. “No justice, no Jeep.”
Economy:
Michael Roberts Facebook Blog: “Global debt has hit a new high according to the International Institute of Finance (IIF). Total debt — spanning sovereigns, corporates and households — rose by $10tn to about $307tn in the six months to June, the IIF said in its global debt monitor. The previous peak for global debt was in early 2022, before central banks started aggressively raising interest rates. Global debt as a share of GDP, which had been falling due to high inflation, rose to 336 per cent by June this year, a 2 percentage point rise since the start of the year. But it remains below a peak of about 360 per cent hit during the coronavirus pandemic. Debt interest costs are expected to keep rising as more debt is refinanced and interest rates stay higher to fight inflation, according to the report. The report follows a warning from the IMF last week that governments ‘should take urgent steps to help reduce debt vulnerabilities and reverse long-term debt trends’”. Re, Developing Debt Disaster 
Lobbyists Grab Control at House Financial Services Hearings, Backing Jamie Dimon’s Push to Gut Higher Capital Proposals We’re very sorry to have to tell you this, but if you’re not watching Senate Banking or House Financial Services Committee hearings when the topic is about increasing bank capital or any new regulations to make the U.S. banking system less prone to blowing up, you are likely seriously underestimating how corruption has become the new normal in the United States of America. The big banks’ trade associations and law firms that pay millions of dollars each year to registered lobbyists to bend Congress to their will are now dominating the witness list at these hearings. The right-wing Republican Senators that are funded by the banks and Wall Street then read from a script written by the lobbyists to ask their toady questions, pretending there is actually a give-and-take in these hearings.
World:
Syria: Class Lines Open As Protests Erupt Against Fuel Subsidy Cuts On 16 August, the Syrian regime issued a new resolution to deepen the suffering of the Syrian people, 80 percent of whom live below the poverty line, by increasing fuel prices by up to 200 percent. This decision has led to a reduction in purchasing power such that many Syrians are unable to even buy bread. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back, and pushed the poor in Syria to start to take to the streets after a long period of inactivity. A strike began several weeks ago in the Sweida governorate in southern Syria, which completely paralysed daily life. Demonstrations peaked in the second week to include thousands of participants. The start of these demonstrations sparked protests in other Syrian cities such as Daraa, Idlib, Deir ez-Zor and Aleppo.
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