Daily News Digest February 9, 2024

Daily News Digest Archives

Images of the Day:

Chris Hedges

Never Forget!Israel Has Broken

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!

Quotes of the Day:

When the puppet talks back to the puppeteer, the pippeteers in bad shaw! — Malcolm X

In the October 25, 1998, New York Times Magazine, there is an article titled “Potato-Playing God in the Garden”By Michael Pollan.  This article explains that Monsanto has genetically engineered a potato (Labeled “New Leaf”) that is immune to insects that attack potatoes.    Monsanto has genetically engineered a naturally occurring pesticide into this new breed of potatoes.  Thus this potato is considered a pesticide by the FDA, under present law, and this means that consumers do not have to be told that they are eating a pesticide.       Monsanto see genetic engineering as a way to get off “the pesticide‡ treadmill”and to have environmentally safe agriculture.  But this course has many pitfalls.     In past articles I have explained that prior to the large scale introduction of pesticides one third of all crops were lost to insects, weeds and bacteria.  Today, the loses are exactly the same because insects, bacteria, and weeds multiply quickly and develop immunity to the pesticides.      This has led to more and more pesticides being used and continuously higher costs for agriculture.      The great tragedy is that humans (unlike insects) do not reproduce fast enough to develop immunity to the chemicals used in farming.  We now know that many pesticides cause cancer after long term exposures.  Unfortunately, there has been no extensive testing about the long-range effects of consumption of this pesticide.  — Monsanto: “Playing God in the Garden”

Podcasta/Videos of the Day: 

Black Agenda Radio February 2, 2024

Ray McGovern Analyzes U.S. Policy in the Middle East

Abolishing Prison Slavery in the U.S.

Black Politics and Pennsylvania in the 2024 Election Cycle – Part 2

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 

‘When the Puppet Talks Back’: Saudis Contradict Blinken: Want Actual Palestinian State now, not Vague ‘Peace Process’  . . . Blinken was also asked about his recent meeting with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the possibility of normalisation of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel. Blinken said (as quoted by the US Department of State): “But with regard specifically to normalization, the crown prince reiterated Saudi Arabia’s strong interest in pursuing that. But he also made clear what he had said to me before, which is that in order to do that two things are required: an end to the conflict in Gaza and a clear, credible, time-bound path to the establishment of a Palestinian state.”

When in Doubt, Strip Search and Restrain the Unwell Amid ongoing emergencies, including a would-be autocrat on his way to possibly regaining the American presidency and Israel’s war on Gaza (not to mention the flare-ups of global climate change), the U.S. has slipped quietly toward an assault on civil liberties as an answer to plummeting mental health. From coast to coast, state lawmakers of both parties are reaching for coercive treatment and involuntary commitment to address spiraling substance use and overdose crises — an approach that will only escalate despair and multiply otherwise preventable deaths while helping to choke the life out of America.

Unaccountable Hackers: The CIA, Vengeance and Joshua Schulte The release of the Vault 7 files in the spring of 2017 in a series of 26 disclosures, detailing the hacking tools of the US Central Intelligence Agency, was one of the more impressive achievements of the WikiLeaks publishing organisation. As WikiLeaks stated at the time, the hacking component of the agency’s operations had become so sizeable it began to dwarf the operations of the National Security Agency.  “The CIA had created, in effect, its ‘own NSA’ with even less accountability and without publicly answering the question as to whether such a massive budgetary spend on duplicating the capabilities of a rival agency could be justified.

 A Visit to Belmarsh Prison, Where Julian Assange Awaits His Final Appeal Against Extradition to the US The Wikileaks founder says he fears his own imprisonment, US government surveillance, and restrictions on the group’s funding have effectively scared off potential whistleblowers. . . . He has not been outdoors—apart from a minute when police dragged him into a paddy wagon—since he took refuge in London’s cramped Ecuadorian Embassy in June 2012. The embassy’s French windows had afforded glimpses of sky. Here at Belmarsh maximum security prison in southeast London, his abode since April 11, 2019, he has not seen the sun. Warders confine him to a cell for 23 out of every 24 hours. His single hour of recreation takes place within four walls, under supervision. His paleness is best described as deathly.

 The Downfall of Boeing: Its Planes and Company The documentary Downfall: the Case Against Boeing confines its scope to the crashes of Lion Air Flight 610 (which occurred on October 29, 2018, in Indonesia) and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 (March 10, 2019, in Addis Ababa). Both planes crashed shortly after their takeoffs (13 minutes for 602, six minutes for 210), killing everyone on board.    In both cases, the plane was a brand-spanking-new Boeing 737 MAX 8. In both cases, Boeing blamed pilot error by the stinky pagan wogs, who were too stupid to fly anything more complex than a paper airplane.    In both cases, the crash was traced directly to problems with the sensors and flight control systems on the plane–specifically, something called MCAS (Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System). The Lion Air crash led a number of countries to issue advisories about the MAX 8. After the Ethiopian Air crash, countries began grounding the model

U.S. Funded Palestinian Genocide:

Report Finds “No Evidence” in Key Dossier to Support Israel’s UNRWA Allegations The dossier has been used as a major basis for countries suspending their funding to the crucial aid group.

 The ICJ’s ‘Plausibility Test’ Undermines the Crime of Genocide The fact that the court in the Ukraine v. Russia case ordered an immediate cease-fire yet did not impose one in the Gaza conflict in the South Africa v. Israel case presents a quandary. The reality on the ground has not altered in either case, with the average person bearing the burden of armed war and the people of Gaza and Ukraine experiencing genocide, the worst kind of atrocity that is classified as a crime against humanity.

Palestinian Groups Condemn Silence of UN’s Top Official on Genocide “The glaring absence of any action in response to the sustained mass atrocities endured by Palestinians in Gaza raises significant concerns about the special adviser’s capability to execute her mandate

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’!

Temperature Rise in Past Year Exceeds 1.5-Dgree Warming Limit: Report In addition, January 2024 recorded the highest average temperature at 13.14 degrees Celsius, 1.66 degrees above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial average.

Why Friends of the Earth Marched with EU Farmers The next European Commission needs to steer the transition of our agricultural and food systems in a fair, just, and climate-friendly way.

Our Financial System Is a Suicide Machine Last week, Bank of America engaged in perhaps the single most irresponsible about-face of the climate era. Bank of America has its roots in California. Founded in Los Angeles in 1923, it was acquired by a San Francisco bank, which took the name in 1930—and over time it has grown to become the world’s second-largest bank by deposits, second only to New York-based Chase.     I tell you this for two reasons. One, California is, as of this writing, being absolutely battered by an “atmospheric river” that has knocked out power to hundreds of thousands and caused mudslides on high ground along the Pacific Coast. As Andrew Dessler pointed out yesterday, the physics are pretty simple: “A warmer planet has more water vapor in the atmosphere. And, everything else being the same, an atmospheric river carrying more water vapor will cause more rainfall when it hits land and starts rising.”     And second, Bank of America is a proximate cause of this kind of chaos, because it refuses to stop lending for fossil fuel expansion. Indeed, last week it engaged in perhaps the single most irresponsible about-face of the climate era.

Black Liberation/Civil Rights:

“It’s not whether you win or lose that counts, but how you play the game that matters.” That’s what my people are often told. But we are not told that this so-called game is rigged, and it’s rigged against us even before we are born.  This “game” is life in the divided states of America. This is especially true in the system of criminal justice, a system that has been rigged against Black people since its  inception. There Is no better example than this country’s morbid use and fascination with the cold-blooded and premeditated imposition of the death penalty against poor people and its disproportionate use on Black people. — White Man’s Justice Is Black People’s Grief: A Black History Month Truth

Prison Lockdowns Are Becoming More Frequent and More Brutal Across the US A largely unknown, frightening trend in the US prison system is impacting many incarcerated people and their loved ones.

Black Agenda Report

Labor: 

Economy:

China Is ‘World’s Sole Manufacturing Superpower’, With 35% of Global Output China’s state-led economic development model and robust industrial policy has transformed it into what an influential European think tank calls “the world’s sole manufacturing superpower”, making up 35% of global gross production – more than the 9 next largest manufacturers combined. China has overseen world-historic economic growth through a government-led development model, in which state-owned enterprises control the natural monopolies and “commanding heights” of the economy, state-owned banks give favorable loans to strategic industries, and the state’s robust industrial policy helps the country move up the value chain toward higher value-added forms of production.

S&P 500 Sets a Record on Wednesday as Banks Continue Tanking The S&P 500 closed at a record of 4995.06 yesterday while banks – big, medium, and small – continued to see their share prices hammered. And while the media is focusing the public’s attention on the share price collapse of New York Community Bancorp, which as of yesterday’s closing price is down 56 percent year-to-date and had its credit rating downgraded to junk by Moody’s on Tuesday evening, numerous other banks are trading at their lowest levels in two years. Below is just a tiny sampling of what’s going on in the U.S. banking system (that you’re not reading about in the mainstream news). The chart above shows the share price performance over the past two years of the six banks described below.

World:

Following General Strike, Argentine President’s Austerity Bill Withdrawn The anti-worker and austerity measures in the bill included massive privatizations, layoffs and labor reforms. This week in Argentina, members of congress voted on the highly repressive Omnibus Bill proposed by far-right president Javier Milei. After a general strike and four days of massive mobilizations, the bill was withdrawn. It’s a huge victory for the working class and the movement in the streets.

Major Japanese Firm Cuts Ties With Israel Arms Company Elbit After ICJ Ruling The company’s CFO said the decision was made in compliance with the ICJ’s recent genocide ruling.

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