Daily News Digest February 7, 2024
Images of the Day:
Carlos Latuff on X: “Hospitals Under Siege, @UNRWA Shelter Bombed In Southern #Gaza
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!
Quotes of the Day:
It is no secret that lately, the stance of the United States and South Korea has hardened against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK – the formal name for North Korea). Since the centerpiece for suggesting that war may be on the horizon is Kim’s speech at the 14th Supreme People’s Assembly, its content is worth examining in some detail. [3] What strikes one when reading the text is that mainstream media have taken quotes out of context and ignored much of the content of Kim’s speech, creating an impression of unprovoked belligerence. Also generally absent from media reporting is the speech’s relationship to the backdrop of events since the far-right Yoon Suk Yeol became president of South Korea in May 2022. Yoon came into office determined to smash every vestige of the improved inter-Korean environment established during his predecessor’s term. Instead, Yoon prioritized making South Korea a subordinate partner in the Biden administration’s hyper-militarized Indo-Pacific Strategy. — Is a New Korean War in the Offing?
Podcasta/Videos of the Day:
[Podcast] Defend the Cuban Revolution! The Cuban Revolution is rightly considered an inspiration by communists worldwide. This tremendous movement threw off the chains of capitalism and US imperialism, opening the way for incredible social, economic and technological advances in what had previously been a brutally oppressed society. Today, however, the Cuban Revolution faces a number of perils.
“Unconscionable”: American Pediatrician Who Worked in Gaza Hospital Recalls Horrors of Israel’s War
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 Sepctre of Fascism is Due to the Currrent Economic risis of Capitalism and its Constant Attack Upon the Working Class Since 1948, and The Default/Treachnrous Roll of the Trade Union Bureaucracy (2021) The majority of the American people were opposed to both Biden and Trump. The Majority of the People are worse off since Obama’s austerity progam, during his stay in office. Trump won because he filled a vacuum of leadership in opposition to the austerity program of the 1%’s United States. Hillary Clinton lost becuse she was a part of the austerity program. Both the Republican and the Dencratic parties support austerity and cuts to sociery’s ‘safetynet’, social security, public education. unemploymnet insurace, etc., that was won by the rise of the CIO during the 1930s and 40s. The following quotes explain the default of the trade union bureaucracy: If the organized workers become fully conscious of their combined power and learn to use it in their own interests, no power inside this country or outside could stand up against them. Instead of the bosses dictating terms to the workers, they could, as they should, dictate terms to the bosses. Even today, in scattered strike situations, detachments of workers demonstrate their invincibility. They sweep forward against the bosses, against administration “troubleshooters,” against military men, and even against their own top leaders, to win their demands. The employers feel the enormous power of the workers and often assess it more accurately than the workers or their leaders. The bosses know that, by themselves, they cannot curb labor nor deny its demands. From all sides now the employers are summoning allies to their aid: government officials, defense commissioners, arbitrators, preachers of patriotism, army officers and, most important of all today, their lieutenants in the ranks of labor itself: Green, Hillman, Murray, Tobin, Lewis, and their staffs. The function of these labor lieutenants and their policy of class collaboration ia to lower the self-confidence of organized labor, to underestimate its strength, to keep it from independent class action, and to weaken its will to struggle and to win. — Fourth International, January 1941, American Labor and the War 
Any Way You Look at It, You Lose Here it is, February 2024 and it’s as if the US’ two major parties had already held their nominating conventions. Biden vs. Trump. Two corpses of the US political system as the vaunted democracy’s choices. Reactionary neoliberalism or reactionary fascism. The key word in both phrases is reactionary. At this point in history, I don’t believe it could be any other way. As you might be able to tell, I don’t care much about presidential elections in the United States. Decades ago I concluded these exercises in hype, false promises and just plain lies were not about representation or democracy. Indeed, for most of the voting citizenry they end up affirming that they are okay with the forces that rule them. They are okay with the forces that fight wars in their name, absconding with their tax dollars and their children’s lives. They are okay with an economy that forces those with something to lose to accept the growing expansion of corporate profits at their expense. Those with less to lose vote for candidates who promise a less economically stressful existence while the billionaires fund their campaigns. They are okay with random massacres by unhinged individuals with powerful weapons protected by laws written for the gun manufacturers and passed by men who confuse their weapons with their masculinity. I could go on, but I believe you get the point.
White House Falsely Declared It Warned Iraq Of Impending Airstrikes The National Security Council walked back White House spokesperson John Kirby’s statement last week that Iraq had advance notice of the strikes. THE U.S. DID not notify the Iraqi government before conducting airstrikes in the country on Friday, contrary to an assertion by the White House that it did. During a press call on Friday, White House national security spokesperson retired Adm. John Kirby said, “We did inform the Iraqi government prior to the strikes occurring. On Monday, in response to questions from The Intercept, the White House said the Iraqis had not gotten advance warning of the strikes.
U.S. Funded Palestinian Genocide:
JVP ran a full page ad in the New York Times and other major newspapers, on January 26, in the form of a public letter addressed to Biden. “As American rabbis, we write to you with deep sorrow and fury,” the letter began. “Tomorrow is International Holocaust Remembrance Day: a time to honor the memory of the millions of people murdered through the genocide committed by the Nazi regime, including six million of our Jewish ancestors. “We will also remember this is the time in which Israel was committing genocide, aided and abetted by the United States. We know how painful it is for Jews to grasp that a Jewish state could possibly commit a genocide. Nevertheless, we are compelled to speak with moral clarity about what is happening to Palestinians. “We do so not in spite of our histories, but because of them. We know in our bones what it means to hear Israeli officials dehumanize an entire people, to witness the Israeli military mass murder tens of thousands of Palestinians, to watch Israel systematically destroy civilian infrastructure, cultural institutions, universities, and hospitals. To see Israel purposefully deny food, medicine and shelter. “The Torah teaches there are moments when we must make a critical moral choice. As Deuteronomy 30:19 says, ‘I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life.’ “President Biden, you have chosen death. “Instead of using your considerable power to prevent or end this genocide, you have directly abetted it with weapons, funds and diplomatic cover. If the words ‘Never Again’ have any meaning at all, they must mean ‘Never Again for Anyone.’ “With urgency, Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinical Council.” — United States: Biden Aids Genocide, Resistance Grows
‘Scandal’: Israeli Dossier ‘Provides No Evidence’ for Claims Against UNRWA Staff “People in Gaza are starving, and because of spurious allegations made in a dodgy dossier, they will experience worse hunger.” The ICJ instructed the Israeli government to ensure that sufficient humanitarian assistance flows to desperate and starving Gazans, but Israel’s allegations against UNRWA employees led at least 16 countries to suspend funding for the agency, the most critical aid body operating in the Palestinian enclave. Around a million displaced Gazans are currently sheltering at facilities run by UNRWA, which has 13,000 employees across the strip. The UNRWA is reportedly set to lose $65 million by the end of February as donors’ funding cuts take effect, imperiling the agency’s operations in Gaza and across the Middle East.
Gaza, the German Far-Right and the Hypocrisy of the Ruling Class Over the past two weekends, more than a million people in Germany have risen up in demonstrations against racist, inhumane positions advocated by the right-wing AfD party – the largest mobilization against the far right in recent German history. The demonstrations followed revelations about plans for forced resettlements of migrants that some AfD-officials endorsed. Members of the government – a coalition of social-democrats (SPD), Greens and liberals (FDP) –, and the conservative CDU/CSU parties have used this opportunity to present themselves as defenders of humanity. But how credible is this moral claim in reality? When we turn our gaze to the Gaza Strip, which the Israeli army has now largely reduced to rubble, we see that completely different ethical standards obviously apply there. The German government is still supporting Israel’s brutal military campaign, which has by now claimed the lives of about 27,000 people, the majority of them women and children. 66,000 people have been injured, countless severely traumatized, 1.7 million have been driven from their – largely destroyed – homes. As Israel is also bombing hospitals and blocking access to sufficient humanitarian aid, many children are having their limbs amputated without anesthesia. Anyone who sees these images and reports – which are rarely shown in the German media – can only be stunned that the much-vaunted “international community”, including the German government, can allow these atrocities to take place.
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’!
Michael Roberts Blog: UNCTAD’s World Investment Report 2023 reveals a widening annual investment deficit that developing countries face as they work to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. The gap is now about $4 trillion per year – up from $2.5 trillion in 2015 when the SDGs were adopted. The report shows that global foreign direct investment (FDI) fell 12% in 2022 and analyses how investment policy and capital market trends impact investment in the SDGs, particularly in clean energy. It highlights that developing countries need renewable energy investments of about $1.7 trillion each year but attracted only $544 billion in clean energy FDI in 2022. Although investments in renewables have nearly tripled since 2015, most of the money has gone to developed countries. More evidence of the end of globalisation. Re: World Investment Report
Diagnosing “Warming Winter Syndrome” One of the most robust measures of Earth’s changing climate is that winter is warming more quickly than other seasons. The cascade of changes it brings, including ice storms and rain in regions that were once reliably below freezing, are symptoms of what I call “warming winter syndrome.” Wintertime warming represents the global accumulation of heat. During winter, direct heat from the Sun is weak, but storms and shifts in the jet stream bring warm air up from more southern latitudes into the northern U.S. and Canada. As global temperatures and the oceans warm, that stored heat has an influence on both temperature and
Superfund: CERCLA Overview The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA): established prohibitions and requirements concerning closed and abandoned hazardous waste sites; provided for liability of persons responsible for releases of hazardous waste at these sites; and. established prohibitions and requirements concerning closed and abandoned hazardous waste sites;
- provided for liability of persons responsible for releases of hazardous waste at these sites; and
- established a trust fund to provide for cleanup when no responsible party could be identified.
- established a trust fund to provide for cleanup when no responsible party could be identified
Superfund Underfunded How taxpayers Have Been Left With a Toxic Financial Burden One in six Americans lives within 3 miles of a proposed or approved Superfund toxic waste site. Yet the program to clean up these sites has experienced a declining budget, and success, putting people at risk from hazardous contamination.
Since the Bipartisan Defunding of the Superfund Law There is No Protection From Environmental Catastrophes!: Vinyl Chloride Industry Keeps Expanding Despite East Palestine Disaster Proposed laws to curtail the use of PVC plastics have failed amid heavy lobbying. WHEN A NORFOLK SOUTHERN train derailed last February in East Palestine, Ohio, igniting a chemical fire and releasing 1 million pounds of toxic vinyl chloride into the surrounding air and water, politicians rushed to express their support for the impacted community. Within a month, senators introduced the bipartisan 2023 Railway Safety Act, a crucial effort to strengthen safety regulations for the transportation of hazardous materials. In the year since the disaster, vinyl chloride has also faced heightened scrutiny. But despite a newfound focus on the chemical’s dangers, the market for vinyl products is continuing to grow. Major petrochemical companies are expanding their operations — and the vinyl industry is spending more money before to lobby lawmakers on its talking points.
Black Liberation/Civil Rights:
Labor:
Economy:
Efficiency is Hilarious Dialogue works (Nima): when it comes to capitalism, they’re talking about that capitalism is by far the most effective and productive economic system. Ohio Senator, James Vance, just recently said that Russia produces as much ammunition in a day as the U.S. does in a month. what’s the problem with the U.S. economy that they’re not capable of producing enough ammunition to help Ukraine? Richard D. Wolff: Well, let me begin with a comment. I do not believe it is an exaggeration to say that the spokespersons for every economic system in the history of the world have included people who say that whatever system they are, the spokesperson of is the best and the most efficient and the most equitable and the most and the most fill in the blank with positive adjective. This is childish, and yet you would imagine that a reasonably mature people would get beyond this kind of cheerleading if they’re involved in a serious conversation. It is actually very easy to show whether you are looking at an ancient tribal economy or village economies or slave economies or feudal economies that they had their areas where they were remarkably efficient side by side with areas where they were remarkably inefficient.
Reporters Who Ask Tough Questions at Fed Press Conferences Have a Habit of Being Disappeared from the Room The Fed’s longstanding relationship with reporters who are allowed to attend the Fed Chair’s press conferences is akin to a master class in Stockholm Syndrome. Your survival in this room depends on your subservience to intellectual capture by the woman who runs this room with the precision of a heat-seeking missile.
World:
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
Pharmanomics: How Big Pharma Destroys Global Health How Big Pharma failed to end a pandemic, and what it tells us about the global economy In Pharmanomics, investigative journalist Nick Dearden digs down into the way we produce our medicines and finds that Big Pharma is failing us, with catastrophic consequences.
Big Pharma is more interested in profit than health. This was made clear as governments rushed to produce vaccines during the Covid pandemic. Behind the much-trumpeted scientific breakthroughs, major companies found new ways of gouging billions from governments in the West while abandoning the Global South. But this is only the latest episode in a long history of financialising medicine – from Purdue’s rapacious marketing of highly addictive OxyContin, through Martin Shkreli’s hiking the price of a lifesaving drug, to the 4.5 million South Africans needlessly deprived of HIV/AIDS medication.
Since the 1990s, Big Pharma has gone out of its way to protect its property through the patent system. As a result, the business has focused not on researching new medicines but on building monopolies. This system has helped restructure our economy away from invention and production in order to benefit financial markets. It has fundamentally reshaped the relationship between richer and poorer countries, as the access to new medicines and the permission to manufacture them is ruthlessly policed. In response, Dearden offers a pathway to a fairer, safer system for all.