Daily News Digest October 2, 2023
Images of the Day:
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:
I conclude that, while it is true that science cannot decide questions of value, that is because they cannot be intellectually decided at all, and lie outside the realm of truth and falsehood. Whatever knowledge is attainable, must be attained by scientific methods; and what science cannot discover, mankind cannot know. — Bertrand Russell
Videos of the Day:
Cornel West JOINS UAW Strike, Blasts Biden’s “Symbolic Gesture” & Greedy Bosses
Cornel West Interview Discussing Pres. Biden on @UAW Picket Line (CNN)
90,000 Armenians Flee Nagorno-Karabakh After Azerbaijan Seizes Region by Force
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!
Climate Emergency in Action: NYC ‘Essentially Shut Down’ by Flash Flooding “One week ago, 75,000 people inundated New York City streets to demand the president end fossil fuels,” said one campaigner. “Now, climate-fueled rains are submerging those same streets.” “This is the climate crisis,” said youth-led grassroots organization Sunrise Movement on Friday as photos and videos of flooded streets and subway stations in the largest city in the United States went viral across social media.
Run Away Climate Change Though not being communicated, the accelerating data looks like the state of the climate is set up for feedback runaway global climate change. Runaway climate change is not a scientific recognized term, but it is by far the greatest danger of global warming. A runaway state is the result of greater climate change (locked in) commitment, plus many amplifying feedbacks that are caused (triggered) by global warming. If planetary feedback emissions are increasing to the extent of driving the increasing atmospheric GHG levels faster, for policy making we should consider that a state of committed climate change runaway exists (or at least an extreme zero tolerance risk exists). A sudden jump or accelerating global temperature increase at the same time makes the situation more definite. The situation in which ‘runaway’ generally used in the science is the runaway greenhouse effect which results in a dead planet and applies to Venus. The situation of ‘runaway’ climate change in the science is ‘runaway carbon dynamics’ and this is only to be found in the IPCC 2001 3rd assessment under ‘large scale singularities’ (above). It is not included in the 2014 IPCC 5th assessment. Runaway carbon dynamics means amplifying carbon feedbacks of CO2 and methane from the heated up planet, or weakening of the land or ocean carbon sinks. However feedback emissions of nitrous oxide are also caused by global warming, so the more complete term would be runaway GHG dynamics.
Corporations are Like Rugs – They lie All the Time!: Fossil Fuel Companies Made Bold Promises to Capture Carbon. Here’s What Actually Happened. A DeSmog review of 12 large-scale projects reveals a litany of cost-overruns and missed targets, with a net increase in emissions. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) was high on the agenda at New York Climate Week last week, where critics of the technology raised concerns it would be used to extend the life of the fossil fuel industry. For years, experts have pointed out that CCS has been primarily used to pump more oil out of the earth, using a process known as enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Burning that oil emits far more carbon dioxide (CO2) than what is captured, and therefore CCS doesn’t represent a viable solution to tackle climate change, critics argue.
New York Declares State of Emergency Amid Heavy Rainfall and Flash Flooding About 8.5 million people under flash flood warnings in area with 1-2in of rain an hour expected in Brooklyn and Queens Parts of New York City were swamped with dangerous flash flooding on Friday as intense rainfall continued across the city after torrenting all night, and a state of emergency was declared amid warnings from officials that the deluge could turn deadly. About 8.5 million people were under flash flood warnings in the New York City area, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). The city’s concrete and pavement exacerbates flooding, as overwhelmed sewers fail to adequately drain rain water during heavy and sustained downpours.
Forever Chemicals at Former Nasa Lab are Leaking Into LA River, Say Watchdogs Toxic substances pollute the Boeing and government-owned site and are probably contaminating nearby river used to water crops Two highly toxic chemicals polluting a former Nasa research site are also probably contaminating the Los Angeles River and aquifer from which the region’s agricultural growers draw their water, watchdog groups and a whistleblower charge. The Santa Susana field laboratory about 30 miles north of downtown Los Angeles is already notorious for its radioactive waste, but the site, which is owned by the federal government and Boeing, is also now suspected of leaching polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) “forever chemicals” into the water.
In Our Blood: How the US Allowed Toxic Chemicals to Seep Into Our Lives Experts say that the majority of the 86,000 consumer chemicals registered with the Environmental Protection Agency have never received vigorous toxicity testing. This article is co-published with the Examination, a new non-profit newsroom specializing in global health reporting. decades, it was the secret behind the magic show of homemaking across the US. Applied to a pan, it could keep a fried egg from sticking to the surface. Soaked into a carpet, it could shrug off spills of red wine. Sprayed onto shoes and coats, it could keep the kids dry on a rainy day. But the most clandestine maneuver of perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, was much less endearing: seeping into the blood and organs of hundreds of millions of people who used products containing the chemical.
Swiss Glaciers Lose 10% of Their Volume In Two Years Volume lost during hot summers of 2022 and 2023 equal to total depletion between 1960 and 1990, says report Scientists have said climate breakdown caused by the burning of fossil fuels is the cause of unusually hot summers and winters with very low snow volume, which have caused the accelerating melts. The volume lost during the hot summers of 2022 and 2023 is the same as that lost between 1960 and 1990.
US Insurance Giants Ditching Homeowners, But Still Underwriting Climate-Killing Coal Industry “The choices of these companies reflect a clear double standard in who is expected to pay the price for climate change,” said one advocate. Reports have mounted in recent months about U.S. insurers announcing plans to end new insurance policies for homeowners in certain parts of the country, including California, where residential areas are increasingly vulnerable to wildfires, and Florida, where residents face the threat of hurricane and flood damage. But a new report by consumer watchdog Public Citizen and advocacy group Insure Our Future shows that insurance companies’ newfound awareness of the climate emergency hasn’t stopped them from continuing to underwrite the top source of the carbon dioxide emissions that are heating the planet, causing sea levels to rise, and fueling extreme weather events.
Biden Administration’s New Offshore Drilling Plan Decried as ‘Climate Nightmare’ “President Biden says that climate change is an existential threat,” said one campaigner. “Unfortunately, this decision is yet another sign that his administration is not willing to take actions that would match that rhetoric.”
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
Seymour Hersh: A Year of Lying About Nord Stream The Biden administration has acknowledged neither its responsibility for the pipeline bombing nor the purpose of the sabotage, writes Seymour Hersh, the famous American investigative journalist. I do not know much about covert CIA operations — no outsider can — but I do understand that the essential component of all successful missions is total deniability. The American men and women who moved, under cover, in and out of Norway in the months it took to plan and carry out the destruction of three of the four Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea a year ago left no traces — not a hint of the team’s existence — other than the success of their mission. Deniability, as an option for President Joe Biden and his foreign policy advisers, was paramount. No significant information about the mission was put on a computer, but instead typed on a Royal or perhaps a Smith Corona typewriter with a carbon copy or two, as if the Internet and the rest of the online world had yet to be invented. The White House was isolated from the goings-on near Oslo; various reports and updates from the field were directly provided to CIA Director Bill Burns, who was the only link between the planners and the president who authorized the mission to take place on September 26, 2022. Once the mission was completed, the typed papers and carbons were destroyed, thus leaving no physical trace—no evidence to be dug up later by a special prosecutor or a presidential historian. You could call it the perfect crime.
Planning for the European LGN Gas Market: Prior to Russian Invasion of Ukraine, The United States Propsed the Expansion of LGN Gas Terminals From 7 Terminals to 17 LGN GasTerminals!: North American LGN Export Terminals
Expiration of Pandemic-Era Funding Threatens to Devastate US Child Care Industry If child care legislation isn’t passed soon, the funding cliff could decimate care sites and erase decades of progress.
Patrick Lawrence: The Undiscovered Country We are responsible for our irresponsibility When I travel abroad, which is infrequently these days, I find myself more than occasionally expressing gratitude to those I meet. “We Americans are fortunate,” I explain, “in that others are usually able to distinguish between the American people and the American government.” I made a remark such as this most recently to a couple of distinguished Serbians I met at a conference this past summer. Our topic was the American-led NATO bombing campaign in what was then Yugoslavia during the spring of 1999. People in Belgrade and elsewhere still suffer the consequences of the depleted uranium U.S. bombers dropped—premature deaths, very high cancer rates, the whole nine. O, say, can you see?
War Brings Business o Feinstein Spouse / Blum’s Firms Win Multimillion-Dollar Defense Contracts In Iraq, Afghanistan First up: a contract announced last week between the Army and URS Corp., the San Francisco planning and engineering company that specializes in defense work — and that happens to be partly owned by Blum’s investment firm. The contract — which could grow to $600 million — is to help with troop mobilization, weapons systems training and anti-terrorism methods. That’s on top of a $3.1 billion Army contract that URS snared back in February for weapons systems and homeland defense.
Corporate Bullsh*t Exposing the Lies and Half-Truths That Protect Profit, Power, and Wealth in America Greedy corporate interests have been lying to us for centuries. Here’s an illustrated, entertaining road map for navigating through their hypocrisy and deception “The wealthy and powerful are willing to say anything—even the worst things imaginable—to retain their wealth and power. But while there is simply no bottom to this well of shamelessness, there is a pattern.” —from the preface by Nick Hanauer. From praising the health benefits of cigarettes to moralizing on the character-building qualities of child labor, rich corporate overlords have gone to astonishing, often morally indefensible lengths to defend their profits. Since the dawn of capitalism, they’ve told the same lies over and over to explain why their bottom line is always more important than the greater good: You say you want to raise the federal minimum wage? Why, you’ll only make things worse for the very people you want to help! Should we hold polluters accountable for the toxins they’re dumping in our air and water? No, the free market will save us! Can we raise taxes on the rich to pay for universal healthcare? Of course not—that will kill jobs! Affordable childcare? Socialism! It’s always the same tired threats and finger-pointing, in a concentrated campaign to keep wealth and power in the hands of the wealthy and powerful’
Black Liberation/Civile Rights:
Labor:
Economy:
World:
How French Imperialism was Defeated in Algeria This article, marking 60 years since the end of the Algerian war of national liberation, appeared in Révolution, the paper of the French section of the International Marxist Tendency, in March 2022.
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