Daily News Digest January 15, 2024 (MLK Day)
The Other America Speech Stanford UniversityApril 14, 1967 A Film by Allen Willis My introduction to King’s, The Other America, for the San Francisco BayView: The Jan. 15 birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. will be celebrated this year as America’s only ‘Black holiday’ Monday, Jan. 19. On this day, the ruling class and their mass media always feature his 1963 ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, as if he never evolved beyond that point. During his lifetime, as a leader of the civil rights movement, King was constantly hounded by the government with the most savage malice, the most furious hatred and the most unscrupulous campaigns of lies and slander. Since his death, an effort has been made to convert him into a harmless icon – to canonize him. Below is one of his last speeches, given over 40 years ago and one year before his assassination, at Stanford University in April 1967 and titled the ‘The Other America.’ Here he speaks not of a dream but of the nightmarish economic condition of Black people. When he talks about ‘work-starved men searching for jobs that do not exist’ and living on a ‘lonely island of poverty surrounded by an ocean of material prosperity,’ the speech remains timely in today’s world.
Images of the Day:
Over 100,000 March on Washington, Dc for a Free Palestine, Demanding Ceasefire
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:
Many things were gained as a result of these years of struggle. In 1964 the Civil Rights Bill came into being after the Birmingham movement, which did a great deal to subpoena the conscience of a large segment of the nation to appear before the judgment seat of morality on the whole question of Civil Rights. After the Selma movement in 1965, we were able to get a Voting Rights Bill. And all of these things represented strides. But we must see that the struggle today is much more difficult. It’s more difficult today because we are struggling now for genuine equality. And it’s much easier to integrate a lunch counter than it is to guarantee a livable income and a good solid job. It’s much easier to guarantee the right to vote than it is to guarantee the right to live in sanitary, decent housing conditions. It is much easier to integrate a public park than it is to make genuine, quality, integrated education a reality. And so today we are struggling for something which says we demand genuine equality. — Martin Luther King, The Other America
After the assassination of Martin Luther King and the subsequent rebellions in the inner cities protesting his assassination, the Democratic Party’s “war on poverty” started laying dollars on any potential Black leaders and grooming Black Candidates. John Lewis, formally of SNCC, became enlightened, he ignored the Black Panthers and saw the Democratic Party, symbolized by a jackass, as his party. Most of what W.E. B. Dubois described as the “talented tenth” were bought off by this process. The more radical concepts that Martin Luther King and Malcolm X had developed at the time of their deaths disappeared from the scene. No one took up where they left off. The governmental policy, directed towards the ‘leaders’ of the civil rights movement, of the carrot (dollarism) and the stick (assassinations) had proven to be successful. — The Rise and Fall of the Civil Rights Movement
Videos of the Day:
The Hague – The International Court of Justice (ICJ) holds public hearings in the case South Africa v. Israel – Oral argument of Israel
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 State of U.S. Infrastructure The Joe Biden administration is implementing the largest federal investment in infrastructure in decades. Here’s why infrastructure matters for U.S. economic competitiveness.
Summary
- Experts say that U.S. infrastructure is both dangerously overstretched and lagging behind that of its economic competitors, particularly China.
- In November 2021, Congress approved a historic investment in U.S. infrastructure that included hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending.
- Critics continue to debate the right approach to funding infrastructure projects. Proposals include more federal spending, public-private partnerships, and a national infrastructure bank.
Introduction
The $25 trillion U.S. economy relies on a vast network of infrastructure to keep it afloat. But the systems currently in place, including roads, railways, electrical grids, and internet providers, were built decades ago and are struggling to keep pace. Economists say that delays and rising maintenance costs are holding economic performance back, and civil engineers warn that structurally deficient bridges and antiquated water infrastructure pose safety risks. Meanwhile, the United States lags behind other advanced economies in infrastructure quality and spending.
The United States and the Middle East: Hoist On Its Own Petard “Who’s the fucking superpower around here?” — President Bill Clinton after his first meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 1996. “Don’t do stupid shit.” — President Barack Obama commenting on the U.S. military intervention in Libya in 2011. “We will not walk away and leave a vacuum to be filled by China, Russia, or Iran.” — President Joe Biden defending his fist bump with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2021. In 2011, the Obama-Biden administration announced that the United States would “pivot” from the Middle East to the Indo-Pacific region. This sent a signal to China that the United States would pursue a policy of “containment” against Beijing, not unlike the “containment” policy it pursued against the Soviet Union during the worst days of the Cold War. The fact that the United States was in no position—either economically or politically—to contain China was lost on one of the father’s of the policy—Kurt Campbell—who is waiting confirmation as the deputy secretary of state in the Biden administration.
U.S. Funded Palestinian Genocide:
‘This Is Illegal’: US Lawmakers Slam Strikes on Yemen “The people do not want more of our taxpayer dollars going to endless war and the killing of civilians,” said Democratic Rep. Cori Bush. “Stop the bombing and do better by us.” U.S. lawmakers said Thursday that the Biden administration’s barrage of airstrikes in Yemen—launched in coordination with American allies but without congressional approval—was blatantly unconstitutional and dangerous, heightening the risk of a full-blown regional conflict.
The Chris Hedges Report: The Case for Genocide The International Court of Justice may be all that stands between the Palestinians in Gaza and genocide. The exhaustive 84-page brief submitted by South Africa to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) charging Israel with genocide is hard to refute. Israel’s campaign of indiscriminate killing, wholesale destruction of infrastructure, including housing, hospitals and water treatment plants, along with its use of starvation as a weapon, accompanied by genocidal rhetoric from its political and military leaders who speak of destroying Gaza and ethnically leansing the 2.3 Palestinians, makes a strong case for genocide. Israel’s smearing of South Africa as “the legal arm” of Hamas exemplifies the bankruptcy of its defense, a smear replicated by those who claim that demonstrations held to call for a ceasefire and protect Palestinian human rights are “anti-Semitic.” Israel, its genocide live streamed to the world, has no substantial counter argument.
‘The Evidence of Genocide Is Not Only Chilling, It Is Also Overwhelming and Incontrovertible’ Notable quotes from Jan. 11 hearing From South African attorney Tembeka Ngcukaitobi: “There is an extraordinary feature in this case: that Israel’s political leaders, military commanders, and persons holding official positions have systematically and in explicit terms declared their genocidal intent… And these statements are then repeated by soldiers on the ground in Gaza as they engage in the destruction of Palestinians and the physical infrastructure of Gaza.”
In Genocide Case Against Israel at the Hague, The U.S. is the Unnamed Co-Conspirator South Africa laid out a meticulous case detailing Israel’s genocidal intent. The U.S. supported it all. . . . South Africa, a nation whose population suffered for decades under an apartheid regime backed by the U.S., has embarked on its historic effort to prosecute Israel for its genocidal war against the people of Gaza. Its 84-page filing Opens in a new tab at the ICJ is a harrowing document. In meticulous detail, it offers an overview of a murderous campaign waged against a civilian population under the fraudulent cover of “self-defense.” It lays out the horrifying scope of Israel’s destruction in Gaza of human life, civilian infrastructure, history, and culture, and paints a devastating picture of the grave conditions faced by those Palestinians who have managed to survive.
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’!
How Israel Killed Gaza’s Environment and Created an Unlivable Hellscape On a picturesque beach in central Gaza, a mile north of the now-flattened Al-Shati refugee camp, long black pipes snake through hills of white sand before disappearing underground. An image released by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) shows dozens of soldiers laying pipelines and what appear to be mobile pumping stations that are to take water from the Mediterranean Sea and hose it into underground tunnels. The plan, according to various reports, is to flood the vast network of underground shafts and tunnels Hamas has reportedly built and used to carry out its operations.
The Saga of Environmental Racism in Cancer Ally! The Ukraine War opened up the market for US LGN Gas. To speed up to production, the US Ends Critical Investigation in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley A Setback for Hopes to End a Longstanding Human Rights Crisis On Tuesday, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) abruptly closed a critical environmental justice investigation into whether the state of Louisiana had failed to protect predominantly Black communities living within the area known as “Cancer Alley.”
A Fossil Fuel Plant is Leaving Louisiana Families With ‘Barely Enough Water For Your Toothbrush’ Water shortages disrupt the Plaquemines parish as millions of gallons are used to construct Venture Global’s LNG terminal Katie Mazarac just wanted to give her daughter a bath. It was late summer evening, and the small Louisiana fishing community where she and her then 18-month-old live had been plagued by water issues for months. Saltwater from the ocean had been creeping up the Mississippi River since June, making the water in her town undrinkable. At one point, Mazarac had resorted to bathing her daughter in a reusable tote bag, using gallons of bottled water. By August, Mazarac was used to saltwater coming out of her faucets. But that night, she turn on the bathtub faucet and barely any water came out at all. . . . But all the while, an oil and gas company next door continued drawing millions of gallons of water from the municipal water supply, to construct one of the country’s largest fossil fuel projects ever built.
Nuclear Power: The Thousand Year-Plus Albatross Around Humanity’s Neck The only sane reaction to Japan’s December debut of its six-story experimental fusion reactor is uh-oh. You thought we had it bad with fission reactors blowing up in places like Fukushima and Chernobyl, spewing radioactivity over land and into the ocean? Well, if lotsa money starts pouring into fusion reactors, mark my words, we’ll have it even worse. Of course, fusion boosters claim there’s no danger or nuclear waste and fusion will be the cleanest energy ever. But rest assured there will be radioactive or other hiccups down the road. Like what happens if something goes wrong and a fusion reactor as hot as the sun blows up? Our species has its hands full with the environmental mess it made with fission power plants, whose waste litters the landscape because no one knows what to do with it. Why not hold the fusion ones till we solve the fission problems first?
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Challenging the Criminalization of Trauma Survivors The criminal legal system traumatizes survivors. Noncarceral alternatives are key to breaking the cycle of violence. What do successful alternatives to policing, prosecution and prison actually look like? And how would they work? A group of Chicago’s leading public safety, health and justice innovators gathered at the DePaul Art Museum last summer to provide much-needed clarity on these crucial questions.
Labor:
Economy:
Three Branches of U.S. Government Have Kept the Secrets of Jeffrey Epstein’s Money Man, Leslie Wexner, Locked Up Tight The U.S. Senate Finance Committee, part of the legislative branch of the U.S. government, is investigating why Wall Street billionaire Leon Black gave sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein $158 million. But the Senate has made no mention of investigating the more than $100 million in unexplained money and property that former retailing magnate and billionaire Leslie Wexner gave to Epstein. The Securities and Exchange Commission, part of the executive branch of the U.S. government, denied our Freedom of Information Act request for documents relating to Leslie Wexner’s relationship with Epstein. The Department of Justice, also part of the executive branch, has failed to bring any charges against Wexner.
World:
‘Solidarity for Humanity’: Hundreds of Thousands Rally in Jakarta to Support Palestine!
Champions of El Salvador’s Historic Mining Ban Face Legal Persecution An international coalition is demanding dubious charges against Water Defenders known as the “Santa Marta 5” be dropped. El Salvador made history in 2017 when lawmakers overwhelmingly voted to ban mining for gold and other metals after coming under intense pressure from international mining interests. Mining requires large amounts of water that is often left contaminated with toxic chemicals. Faced with an extremely limited supply of clean water, farmers and environmentalists alike cheered when El Salvador became the first and only nation to choose “water over gold.”
Hands Off Yemen! Imperialists Protect Profits and Israel’s Right to Commit Genocide! Last night, US and British airstrikes rained down dozens of sophisticated bombs over the heads of some of the world’s poorest people. The hands of the western imperialists are drenched with the blood of the Gazan people, but up until now they could hide behind the fact that whilst, yes, they may have supplied the guns, the bombs, the money and the political cover for the slaughter, they didn’t directly pull the trigger. No, they always insisted the slaughter should be carried out with “moderation”, with “proportionate force”. Now in Yemen, they have directly intervened, recklessly escalating the conflict in the region. We say: hands off Yemen! Down with the imperialist murderers!
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