Daily News Digest February 8, 2024
Images of the Day:
Bendib: Uppity Female
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:
The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum — even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there’s free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate. ― Noam Chomsky
Podcasta/Videos of the Day:
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
George Monbiot: Inequality Demands Oppression Corporate lobbyists are demanding a ban on protest – and getting it. Why are peaceful protesters treated like terrorists, while actual terrorists (especially on the far right, and especially in the US) often remain unmolested by the law? Why, in the UK, can you now potentiallyreceive a longer sentence for “public nuisance” – non-violent civil disobedience – than for rape or manslaughter? Why are ordinary criminals being released early to make space in overcrowded prisons, only for the space to be refilled with political prisoners: people trying peacefully to defend the habitable planet? There’s a simple explanation. It was clearly expressed by a former analyst at the US Department of Homeland Security. “You don’t have a bunch of companies coming forward saying: ‘I wish you’d do something about these rightwing extremists.’” The disproportionate policing of environmental protest, the new offences and extreme sentences, the campaigns of extrajudicial persecution by governments around the world are not, as politicians constantly assure us, designed to protect society. They’re a response to corporate lobbying.
U.S. Funded Palestinian Genocide:
Blinken in Middle East Reportedly Pushing for Pause to Israel’s Assault on Gaza Journalist Akbar Shahid Ahmed discusses where diplomatic negotiations stand today and the growing US dissent on Gaza Secretary of State Tony Blinken is heading to Qatar and then to Israel and the West Bank, after holding talks in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. This comes as Israel threatens to launch a ground invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where over half of all residents of Gaza have sought refuge. Palestinian health officials say Israeli attacks killed 107 Palestinians over the past day, bringing the Palestinian death toll to over 27,500, including over 11,500 children.
Israel isn’t Complying with the International Court of Justice Ruling – What Happens Next? More than a week has passed since the International Court of Justice (ICJ) mandated provisional measures against Israel following South Africa’s accusation of genocide. The court’s demands were clear: Israel must take immediate steps to prevent genocidal actions in Gaza; prevent and punish incitement to genocide; allow access to humanitarian aid; and prevent the destruction and ensure the preservation of evidence of alleged crimes. It must also report back to the court within a month on the implementation of these measures. There’s little evidence Israel has changed course, despite these clear orders. In fact, reports from Gaza suggest escalated violence and increased civilian casualties each day.
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’!
PG&E Announces Yet Another Increase to 2024 Utility Bills The California Public Utilities Commission and PG&E executives have said the rate changes are necessary for the company to update its aging infrastructure, meet a growing demand for electricity and reduce the risk of power line-sparked fires after years of disastrous blazes. The “Aging Infrastrure” is PG%E’s Disasterous Police of Decades of Differed Maintenance! They profit from not doing the proper maintenance and then use the consequences as an Excuse to raise rates and profits! It happens all the time! This is an essay I wrote after PG&D raise rates, after Xmas, in 2012 due do a gas pipe explosion.: Differed Maintenance!: PG&E’s Christmas Rip Off Time To Nationalize Energy Corporations!
How the Oil Industry Indefinitely Delays Cleaning up Oil and Gas Wells in California New analysis and documents reveal how industry lobbying has fueled a growing idle well crisis. A new report from the Sierra Club has found that more than 40,000 unplugged oil and gas wells are sitting idle across California — potentially leaking planet-warming gas and unsafe chemicals, but no longer actively extracting fossil fuels. In theory, it shouldn’t be possible to leave so many wells in that neglected state. Companies that operate in California are required to safely “abandon” wells that are no longer in use, removing pumpjacks and sealing off openings forever with concrete. And yet, the report found that more than 40 percent of unplugged wells in California haven’t produced oil or gas in at least two years, which is the state’s formal criteria for an “idle” well. According to Sierra Club’s review of California Geologic Energy Management Division (CalGEM) data, only three companies are responsible for most of these wells: Chevron, Aera Energy, and California Resources Corporation. And while operators do pay modest fees for letting their wells stay idle so long, aggressive industry lobbying has helped to keep those penalties as low as possible.
Black Liberation/Civil Rights:
Northwestern Students Face Criminal Charges For Pro-Palestine College Newspaper Parody Publishers of the school newspaper notified police. Now the students, charged under an obscure anti-KKK law, face a year in jail. students at Northwestern University, in the Chicago suburbs, woke up on October 25 to face an unexpected allegation. “Northwestern complicit in genocide of Palestinians,” declared the school’s venerable student newspaper, the Daily Northwestern, in a front-page story. The students, however, weren’t really looking at the Daily Northwestern. Instead, they had found the Northwestern Daily, a parody newspaper attacking the school’s stance on Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip.
The ‘Black Chronicle’ Offers an Unprecedented Look at Black History Compiling articles, essays, and other historical documents over 178 years, the ‘black chronicle’ is a treasure trove of rare, firsthand accounts of black history. Black people have produced their own historical accounts as long as Black people have been in America. From oral tradition to the first publications of Phyllis Wheatley, to the many Black publishing houses and newspapers that blossomed after emancipation, Black people have always been the foremost chroniclers and documenters of their own stories. Now, a new collection compiles some 400 historical documents across 178 years in an unprecedented single volume. Maloyd Ben Wilson Jr., founder of the Black Chronicle, and Carla Wilson join Rattling the Bars to discuss the new book. 
From The Rise and Fall of the Civil Rights Movement: To combat the rise of the Civil Right Movement, the “war on poverty” was first launched in 1964 along with the concept of “Black Politicians”. Malcolm X described this process in his Jan. 7, 1965 speech The Prospects for Freedom, at the Militant Labor Forum, in New York City (For complete an audio of the speech go here.): “They have a new gimmick every year. They’re going to take one of their boys, black boys, and put him in the cabinet so he can walk around Washington with a cigar. Fire on one end and fool on the other end. And because his immediate personal problem will have been solved he will be the one to tell our people: ‘Look how much progress we’re making. I’m in Washington, D.C., I can have tea in the White House. I’m your spokesman, I’m your leader.’ While our people are still living in Harlem in the slums. Still receiving the worst form of education. But how many sitting here right now feel that they could [laughs] truly identify with a struggle that was designed to eliminate the basic causes that create the conditions that exist? Not very many. They can jive, but when it comes to identifying yourself with a struggle that is not endorsed by the power structure, that is not acceptable, that the ground rules are not laid down by the society in which you live, in which you are struggling against, you can’t identify with that, you step back. It’s easy to become a satellite today without even realizing it. This country can seduce God. Yes, it has that seductive power of economic dollarism. You can cut out colonialism, imperialism and all other kind of ism, but it’s hard for you to cut that dollarism. When they drop those dollars on you, you’ll fold though.” 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.
Labor:
Stellantis Layoffs Underscore Why Unions Should Self-Organize “The [tentative agreement] was divisive. It didn’t go far enough. It didn’t meet the needs,” said one active UAW member. The beginning of last September marked the first time in history that the UAW went on strike simultaneously at all three auto companies: General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis. After six weeks, the strike ended with a contentious tentative agreement that did not have complete approval by all members of the rank and file. Now Stellantis is doing what all corporations do under capitalism to keep and maintain their profits, layoffs and cuts. Under Fain’s leadership, the strike didn’t go far enough. It’s true that only the workers, organized independently from the union bureaucracy and Democrats and Republicans, can achieve the demands they need.
No to the Jobs Massacre at Port Talbot! Workers Must Take Matters Into Their Own Hands! Workers in Port Talbot are facing a crunch time. Thousands will lose their jobs next month if the Tata bosses get away with the plans to close down the steelworks’ two main blast furnaces, effectively ending steel production. This action is nothing less than a jobs massacre. Thousands will be left on the scrap heap with no future. It is clear that the time for talking is over. If the workers of Port Talbot do not take matters into their own hands, it will be too late. The town, based on steel, will be reduced to a ghost town.
According to The U.S. Inflation Calculator if you made $15.00 per hour in 1980 you should be making $55.47 per hour today. (But this doesn’t account for the increasing in wage taxation since 1980,)
Economy:
NYCB Downgraded to Junk; Shocking Charts for Citigroup, Barclays and Deutsche Bank New York Community Bancorp (NYCB) closed out 2023 with a share price of $10.23. At the closing bell yesterday, its share price was $4.20 – a year-to-date decline of 59 percent. More pain is expected today as the credit rating agency, Moody’s, cut the regional bank’s credit rating two notches to junk after the market closed yesterday.
World:
Sent to me by email: Èzili Dantò’s Note: No Court Session to Hear Our Case due to Mass Demonstrations and Clerk Strike in Port au Prince
Hi folks, We had a court date put on the Port au Prince docket on Fe 5, 2024, for our case against the de facto Hayti government of Ariel Henry for the high crime of treason. Henry has no constitutional authority to bring in a US-led invasion force with Kenya acting as the fig leaf for Western imperialism. In this video, you see our team lawyer, Evel Fanfan. When he got to court in Port au Prince it was closed. Apparently, the Clerks of the Courts are on strike. Tension is running high in the mostly empty streets of Port au Prince this week. There are mass demonstrations expected everywhere in the capital to get rid of the U.S. puppet, PM Ariel Henry, whose last day is supposed to be soon, on Feb 7, 2024. Attorney Evel Fanfan, our team lawyer in Hayti, is telling the journalists why he came to court. What our case is about; the success of a similar Kenya case which we’re in solidarity with and how the Hayti clerk strike and mass demonstrations accounted for the court closure on Monday. We will be going back on the docket every Monday until our case is heard or, if the judge allows, we get a default judgment on the Ariel Henry government for non-appearance. Stay tuned for more updates. Here’s the link to the complaint in question: here. In the background, in front of the courthouse, a group of Haytian lawyers protests against the city prosecutor in the case of the assassination of former president Jovenel Moise for failing to follow the evidence in the case and charge defacto PM Ariel Henry and former president Michel Martelly and other high-level PHTK officials in the plot to assassinate of Jovenel Moise. (Join us on Patreon)
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