Daily News Digest October 20, 2023
Images of the Day:
Biden Repeats Israel’s Lies! Re: Gaza Hospital Bombing: The Chris Hedges Report: Israel’s Culture of Deceit 
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!
Qu0te of te Day:
When innocent life is lost in war, no matter where and when, those actions demand condemnation. In the US, however, there is some history of defending the speech of those who may make statements different from others. However, in times of war, that right has been criminalized or diminished. Many were sent to jail, lost jobs, or were deported for speaking out and protesting during times of war. World War I was a prime example. Certainly, a law school of the standing of NYU realizes that the First Amendment protects speech that is seen as atypical or abhorrent to some. A discussion of how human life has become so devalued across the globe might have been part of that dialogue. A discussion of how human life has been marginalized in war zones as collateral damage might have been part of that dialogue. A discussion of the denial of the right of the Palestinian people to a state may have been part of that dialogue. A discussion about how every answer now seems to be a military one may have been part of that dialogue. But dialogue is now almost forbidden, as the masters of war gather again and again and again in the Middle East ad nauseam. Human life, particularly the lives of the innocent in the Gaza Strip, Israel, Ukraine, and in many, many other places has been rendered subservient to the dictates of lawlessness and bestiality. Goodbye to Free Speech: Hello to More Militarism
Videos of the Day:
Democracy Now!; Evacuate to Where? Raji Sourani On Staying in Gaza“I expect you to Die” – Israel’s biggest Crime isn’t threatening Hospitals, it is Starving 2.2 Million Civilians of Potable Water Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Our eyes are naturally drawn to bombings and air strikes and statistics on the dead. This principle is exemplified by the furor over the bombing of al-Ahli Hospital, the responsibility for which it is difficult to fix amid the fog of war. It should be remembered, however, that Israel has threatened many other hospitals, demanding that they be evacuated, however unrealistic that demand might be. But the threat of total war on Gaza civilians comes from a different policy, which is endangering their lives on a much grander scale if in less garish ways.
Palestinian Genocide:
Israeli Attacks on Journalists Stifle Reporting on Gaza Horrors The Israeli communications minister’s attempt to shut down Al Jazeera’s bureau in Jerusalem—on the grounds that the Qatari news outlet is biased in favor of Hamas and is actively endangering Israeli troops (Reuters, 10/15/23)—should inspire some déjà vu. In the last war in Gaza, an Israeli air strike destroyed a Gaza building housing both Al Jazeera and Associated Press offices (AP, 5/15/21). And just months ago, Al Jazeera (5/18/23) reported that “the family of Shireen Abu Akleh,” a Palestinian-American AJ journalist killed by Israeli fire while on assignment, “has rebuked Israel for saying it is ‘sorry’ for the Al Jazeera reporter’s death without providing accountability or even acknowledging that its forces killed her.”
The Chris Hedges Report: Israel’s Culture of Deceit Israel, which always seeks to blame Palestinians for the atrocities it carries out, is the least trustworthy source about the bombing of the hospital in Gaza. Israel was founded on lies. The lie that Palestinian land was largely unoccupied. The lie that 750,000 Palestinians fled their homes and villages during their ethnic cleansing by Zionist militias in 1948 because they were told to do so by Arab leaders. The lie that it was Arab armies that started the 1948 war that saw Israel seize 78 percent of historic Palestine. The lie that Israel faced annihilation in 1967, forcing it to invade and occupy the remaining 22 percent of Palestine, as well as land belonging to Egypt and Syria. Israel is sustained by lies. The lie that Israel wants a just and equitable peace and will support a Palestinian state. The lie that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. The lie that Israel is an “outpost of Western civilization in a sea of barbarism.” The lie that Israel respects the rule of law and human rights. Israel’s atrocities against the Palestinians are always greeted with lies. I heard them. I recorded them. I published them in my stories for The New York Times when I was the paper’s Middle East Bureau Chief. I covered war for two decades, including seven years in the Middle East. I learned quite a bit about the size and lethality of explosive devices. There is nothing in the arsenal of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) that could have replicated the massive explosive power of the missile that killed an estimated 500 civilians in the al-Ahli Arab Christian hospital in Gaza. Nothing. If Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad had these kinds of missiles, huge buildings in Israel would be rubble with hundreds of dead. They don’t. The whistling sound, audible on the video moments before the explosion, appears to comes from the high velocity of a missile. This sound gives it away. No Palestinian rocket makes this noise. And then there is the speed of the missile. Palestinian rockets are slow and lumbering, clearly visible as they arch in the sky and then tumble in free fall towards their targets. They do not strike with precision or travel at close to supersonic speed. They are incapable of killing hundreds of people.
First and Foremost, Colonialism Must End It is What It isIt’s necessary to start with this, because it’s the core of the problem and must be put first and foremost: The horrific events over the last week in Gaza and Israel demonstrate at least one thing irrefutably: Zionism is colonialism. Israel is a colonial-settler, apartheid state that, as such, must exterminate, expel, or subjugate Palestinian Arabs. You may think it’s colonialism that’s justified for some reason, but it’s still colonialism. If you want to support it, you have to make the argument that it’s an acceptable exception to the now-universal prohibition of colonialism and apartheid under jus cogens—the preemptory, compelling norms of international law “from which no derogation is ever permitted.” And you will be making an argument for colonialism. You may think—as secular Western liberals are wont to do—that this exceptional colonialism is justified by the Holocaust, which you take as proof that Jews are the ur-victims of the planet and therefore are entitled to take and keep a global safe room for themselves, even if it means exterminating, expelling, and subjugating the people who have been living in that room for centuries. That’s an argument that the Palestinians (who had nothing to do with the European Holocaust) are just less important people, whose historical obligation is to get out of the way of the Jews (who, whether victims of the Holocaust or not, are always-already victims). It’s an argument for colonialism.
Why Do US Politicians Target Gaza Civilians With Bloodthirsty Rhetoric, Greenlighting Ethnic Cleansing? Chicago (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) -In retaliation for Hamas’ vicious and brutal attack of October 7, Israel enforced a total siege on Gaza, denying its 2.3 million inhabitants access to electricity, food, water and fuel while bombarding its population with a massive aerial assault whose targets include mosques, schools, and hospitals. No humanitarian supplies, except for some fuel, have been allowed into Gaza for over a week. The situation in Gaza has reached the “level of genocide,” said Shawan Jabarin, head of the al-Haq rights group. “You wanted hell — you will get hell,” declared Israeli general Ghassan Aliyan. Israel ordered 1 million Gazans — mostly refugees descended from refugees — to evacuate the northern part of the strip, in advance of an inevitably bloody ground invasion. The only exit from Gaza — the Rafah border crossing into Egypt — was bombed by Israel and remains closed by Egypt as of Tuesday. The United Nations said that it considered the evacuation “logistically impossible.” Therefore, the Israeli expulsion directive looks like a fabricated cover to “excuse” the reckless endangerment of civilian lives, which violates international law.
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!
As US Wildfires Pollute the Skies, a Loophole is Obscuring The Impact. Can It Be Fixed? An obscure part of the Clean Air Act grants regulators an opening to “forgive” air pollution from wildfires, meaning that it doesn’t count against air-quality goals. After wildfires flourished across North America this year, more US states east of the Mississippi may use this exceptional events rule to subtract smoke from the record, if not from the air we breathe. But these exceptional events are no longer exceptional, and the requests to obscure them from air-quality records are more common, according to an investigation from the Guardian, the California Newsroom and MuckRock. Without reform, the exceptional events rule is likely to become a regularly used tool, one that experts warn may divert resources or distract from addressing the growing problem of wildfire smoke.
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
Black Liberation/Civil Rights:
The Bipartisan Border Machine: Biden Never Really Stopped Building the Wall In other words, it is time to set aside tired partisan narratives. Whether it is the Trump regime’s racist overtures to pump up a “big, beautiful border wall” or the Democrats’ calls for a humane yet orderly border, the result has been the same: rising border budgets year after year, increasing fortification, more physical and virtual walls, and more detention centers and deportations. The CBP and ICE budgets in 2023 have yet again eclipsed the highest previous amount, and they now include a record number of contracts with private industry (more on that below). The border can’t be reduced to just partisan politics. This is not to say that partisan politics don’t matter, and ertainly disinformation about the border is real. But the border also supersedes these narratives. It is a machine that is beholden to no political party, a point that becomes more important as we head into an election year.
Pro-Palestine Nyu Law Student Speaks Out After Job Offer was Rescinded With tensions exploding over Gaza on campuses across the country, NYU Law student Ryna Workman lost their position as student body president and a job offer. THREE DAYS AFTER Hamas’s attack on Israel, New York University Law School student body president Ryna Workman sent a newsletter to classmates expressing “unwavering and absolute solidarity with Palestinians in their resistance against oppression toward liberation and self-determination.” Workman assigned the blame for “this tremendous loss of life” to Israel’s apartheid regime over Palestinians, while not mentioning Hamas, whose attack killed some 1,300 Israelis. Workman told The Intercept that the intention was an intra-community message that spoke to Israel’s 75-year violent regime over Palestine and expressed support for Palestinians’ basic human rights. Yet the newsletter drew widespread criticism for not directly condemning Hamas’s killing of Israeli civilians — and the backlash was swift. Workman was ousted as student body president; had a job offer rescinded by a firm they previously interned at, Winston & Strawn; and received a litany of threats online.
Billionaire Ceos Continue Campaign to Blacklist Students For Opposition to Israel’s War Crimes The vicious smear campaign against and blacklisting of students by billionaire CEOs, university administrators and state figures continue as mass opposition to Israel’s war crimes mounts on university campuses across the United States Mass opposition to the Israeli government’s genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza continues to mount across the United States and internationally. Despite the combined pressures of relentless propaganda and anti-democratic attacks against expressions of solidarity with the Palestinian people, millions of workers and youth throughout the world continue to pour into the streets to protest Israel’s war crimes. In the United States, where the Biden administration has fully backed the Israeli government, university campuses have emerged as a major battleground in the fight to defend democratic rights and expose the lies used to justify Israel’s policies. As the scale of Israel’s war becomes increasingly clear—including through the mass bombing campaign and the deliberate deprivation of food, water and fuel to the 2.2 million inhabitants of Gaza, half of whom are children—the class lines are being clearly drawn.
Labor:
We Demand AN All-Out Strike: An Open Letter to UAW President Shawn Fain From the Mack Trucks Workers Rank-and-File Committee The following open letter to UAW President Shawn Fain was adopted by the Mack Trucks Workers Rank-and-File Committee on October 10, 2023. A pdf version is available here. For updates and to discuss joining the Mack Workers Rank-and-File Committee, text MACK to (877) 861-4428.
To UAW President Shawn Fain:
Nearly 4,000 UAW members who work at Mack Trucks in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Florida are now on strike, after we overwhelmingly rejected a contract supported by the UAW leadership at the local and national level. Our massive no vote should make clear that your pro-company deal with Mack was the polar opposite of what the membership needs, and the time of forcing concessions on us has come to an end. But you and the UAW apparatus are now trying to cover your tracks and pretend as though you didn’t just try to force this contract on us. In the UAW International’s statement announcing the beginning of the strike, you are quoted as stating: “I’m inspired to see UAW members at Mack Trucks holding out for a better deal, and ready to stand up and walk off the job to win it.” You add, “The members have the final say, and it’s their solidarity and organization that will win a fair contract at Mack.” Neither you nor the UAW bother to mention the fact that you, as UAW President and Director of Heavy Truck, praised the agreement in a message sent out before the vote. You wrote that the UAW’s deal with Mack—reached behind our backs—was a “record contract for the Heavy Truck industry” that included “major gains” on all the demands of workers. We rejected the contract you and local officials “negotiated” because it fails to meet our minimal demands. Your “record contract” includes sub-inflation pay raises, no COLA, attacks on seniority and job security, and extensions to the length of the work day. Many of us are particularly outraged at the proposal to extend the contract from four years to five, which would separate us from our brothers and sisters at Deere, Volvo Trucks and the Big Three.
Economy:
World:
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