Daily News Digest January 4, 2024
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”
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: Austerity, Scapegoat Blacks, Minorities, and ‘Illegal’ Immigrants for Unemployment, andThe 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!
Quote of the Day:
Capitalism and Profit Fuel Wars . . . That expansion, inside every capitalist nation, inevitably overflows its boundaries. Capitalist enterprises seek, find, and develop foreign sources of food, raw materials, workers, and markets. As competition becomes global, competing capitalist enterprises seek help from their nations’ governments to expand. Politicians quickly learn that companies in their nations that lose in global competition will blame those politicians for insufficient support. Meanwhile, companies that win in the global competition will reward such politicians for their help. The social result of this is that capitalism entails national competition alongside enterprise competition. Wars often punctuate capitalism’s national competition. The winners in those competitions thereby often tended to build empires, historically.
Videos of the Day:
Charles Kendal Hirschkind Sings “Palestine is Burning.”
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 ford 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
The Politics of Emergency Time and the Emerging Threat of Fascism The underbelly of contemporary violence is colonialism, the politics of disposability, religious fundamentalism, neoliberalism, and raw militarism. Violence seems to have engulfed the earth like a blinding sandstorm. Women and children are being killed en mass in Gaza, homelessness is increasingly spreading among youth in many countries, inequality exists at staggering levels, and a culture for justice has been replaced by a global culture of war. Gangster capitalism is waging a war on the working class, women’s reproductive rights, gay rights, people of color, and democracy itself–brazenly wrapping itself in the discourse of fascism.
The U.S. Assumes its Right to Mass Muder Throughout the World. Murder Comes Home to Roost! Dear President Biden: About your Record on Guns, Arms, and Belligerence: President Joe Biden Dear Joe, I would wish you a Happy New Year; but it seems trite and banal, given all the challenges and troubles you and our country face in 2024 – some inherited from previous administrations, others of your own making. Americans are 10 times more likely to be shot to death than people in other wealthy countries, with homicides, suicides and mass shootings on the increase. For the past four years, mass murders have skyrocketed into the 600s per year, breaking all past records. Since 2020 more children and teens are killed by firearms than any other cause.
US Slams Israeli Calls for Ethnic Cleansing—While Enabling It With Massive Arms Sales “How can we expect Netanyahu’s government to stop the mass killing of civilians and calls for ethnic cleansing if we continue to supply the weapons used to carry it out?” asked U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar.
U.S. Funded Palestinian Genocide:
Burying the Future Under the Rubble That Is Gaza Despite the data showing the devastating impact of violence and war on children, the last decades have been the worst of times for children. And the United States remains a global outlier by refusing to sign the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child issued a statement on grave violations of children’s rights in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory on October 13, 2023. “We reiterate that the Convention on the Rights of the Child requires States parties and all actors to respect and to ensure respect for the rules of international humanitarian law applicable in armed conflict with regard to children. The Convention also aims to ensure the highest level of protection for children. We call on all actors, including the international community, to act to restore peace and preserve the safety and recovery of children as their immediate priority.”
‘Serious Escalation’: Israeli Drone Strike Reportedly Kills Hamas Leader in Beirut “If Israel wants to kick-start a major war with Hezbollah, bombing a target in Beirut is exactly the way to do it,” said one analyst. This is a developing news story… Please check back for possible updates… Fears of an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah intensified Tuesday after an Israeli drone strike reportedly killed a senior Hamas official in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, an attack likely to further enflame a region reeling from Israel’s catastrophic assault on Gaza. Citing three unnamed security sources and Lebanese news outlets, Reutersreported that an Israeli drone attack on an office building in the suburbs of Dahiyeh killed Saleh Arouri, the deputy head of Hamas’ political wing and one of the founders of the group’s military arm. The strike also killed several others, with Reuters observing that “limbs and other pieces of flesh could be seen on the roadside.”
Environment:
Black Liberation/Civil Rights:
Opposing the Mother’s ‘Right to Life’: ‘Deeply Disturbing’: Federal Court Rules Texas Can Ban Emergency Abortions U.S. Sen. Patty Murray called the 5th Circuit’s ruling “a horrifying and astonishingly dangerous decision from a court that has shown repeatedly they have absolutely no regard for women’s lives.” The conservative-dominated 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled late Tuesday that Texas hospitals and physicians are not required by federal law to perform abortions under emergency circumstances.
Labor:
Older Workers Are Growing in Number and Earning Higher Wage
- They’re working more hours, on average, than in previous decades.Today, 62% of older workers are working full time, compared with 47% in 1987.
- They’re more likely to have a four-year college degree than in the past.Some 44% of older workers today have a bachelor’s degree or more education, compared with 18% in 1987. That puts them about on par with workers ages 25 to 64.
- They’re more likely than in previous decades to be receiving employer-provided benefits such as pension plans and health insurance.The same does not hold true for younger workers.
Economy:
Mainstream Media Is Avoiding the Big Story on Jeffrey Epstein and Sealed Court Documents Over the past week, more than a dozen of the biggest mainstream news outlets have published articles about the possibility of scandalous news breaking this week from the unsealing of documents in a federal court case involving the sex trafficker of minors, Jeffrey Epstein. . . . The real story that mainstream media refuses to investigate is why federal judges in New York have been allowed to secret away in sealed documents the puzzle pieces to how Epstein’s network of powerful men were able to run a sex trafficking ring for two decades with the “active participation” of the largest federally-insured bank in the United States, JPMorgan Chase; and right under the nose of its Chairman, CEO and media darling, Jamie Dimon. This is the Big Story that has been left to wilt on the vine by the likes of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and their peers.
Federal Agency Study Contradicts Fed Chair: Finds Banking System Is Ripe for Another Crisis and Remains “Fragile and Uncertain” Following the second, third and fourth largest bank failures in U.S. history in the spring of last year, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell gave his semiannual monetary policy report to the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking Committee in June. During both appearances, Powell stated the same thing: “The U.S. banking system is sound and resilient.” But according to a report last week from the federal agency whose mandate is to keep federal regulators apprised of the true condition of the U.S. banking system, it is actually ripe for another crisis a nd its condition is “fragile and uncertain.”
World:
Israel —U.S. Forttess in the Middle East: In Rebuke to Far Right, Israeli Supreme Court Strikes Down Autocratic Judicial Reforms The historic follows massive street protests against the measures last year and amid Israel’s ongoing Gaza onslaught. In the midst of Israel’s brutal total war on Palestinian civilians in Gaza and its apparent failure to attain its basic war goals, the country’s Supreme Court has issued a ruling sure to throw the country into an unprecedented constitutional crisis. Members of the government criticized the court for issuing its ruling in the midst of the Israeli campaign against Gaza, while others feared that it would reignite deep divisions in Israeli society that had provoked regular, massive demonstrations in the first eight months of 2023
Extreme Right Israeli Gov’t Brands “Illegal” Supreme Court’s Upholding ff Judicial Review; Divisions Loom Amid Gaza War In the midst of Israel’s brutal total war on Palestinian civilians in Gaza and its apparent failure to attain its basic war goals, the country’s Supreme Court has issued a ruling sure to throw the country into an unprecedented constitutional crisis. Members of the government criticized the court for issuing its ruling in the midst of the Israeli campaign against Gaza, while others feared that it would reignite deep divisions in Israeli society that had provoked regular, massive demonstrations in the first eight months of 2023.
A Top U.K. Official Displayed the Terrifying Ignorance of the World’s Leaders on Gaza (Or do they lie like Trump/Biden!—R.S.) Former Defense Minister Ben Wallace wrote about the Hamas charter without mentioning its revision in 2017. We need the people in charge to understand the facts. Do the people who run the world know the most basic facts about the world? This urgent question is raised by a recent column on the Israeli attack on Gaza by the British politician Ben Wallace, who, until a few months ago, was the United Kingdom’s defense minister. Terrifyingly enough, the answer appears to be no. The problem is that Wallace places great significance on Hamas’s original 1988 charter, which is explicitly antisemitic and rejects any coexistence with Israel. But he doesn’t appear to know Hamas issued a new charter in 2017. In it, Hamas affirms that its “conflict is with the Zionist project not with the Jews because of their religion.” And, while the revised charter rejects the legitimacy of Zionism, it accepts “the establishment of a fully sovereign and independent Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as its capital along the lines of the 4th of June 1967, with the return of the refugees and the displaced to their homes from which they were expelled, to be a formula of national consensus.” This reference to the lines of June 4, 1967 — before Israel captured the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the Six-Day War — is regarded as accepting the existence of Israel within the borders it had at that time.
Education, and Welfare:
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