Daily News Digest March 7, 2024
Images of the Day:
Bendib: Tipping the Scales
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! Globaly, With the Current Gaza War, The Right of Assembly is Under Attack! 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:
I believe,” he said in a speech that electrified many Northerners who later read it, “that to have interfered as I have done in behalf of His despised poor, is no wrong, but right. Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I say ‘let it be done.. — John Brown
Pocasts/Videos of the Day:
Black Agenda Radio March 1, 2024
Moise Assassination Investigation, 2004 Coup, and the Impending Occupation of Haiti
What Aaron Bushnell Had to Teach Us
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
Why Should We Give All Our Money to Landlords? Who decided we should give all our money to landlords? Did you vote for that? I didn’t. You didn’t, either. And if you have thoughts of leaving renting behind to buy, the costs of mortgages are, not surprisingly, rising dramatically as well. As far as I know, no landlord has been recorded as holding a literal gun to the head of tenants to sign a lease. But then there is no need for them to do so, as “market forces” do the work for them. At bottom, the problem is that housing is a capitalist market commodity. As long as housing remains a commodity, housing costs will continue to become ever more unaffordable. To put this in other words: As long as housing is not a human right, but instead something that has to be competed for and owned by a small number of people, the holders of the good (housing) will take advantage and jack up prices as high as possible. This is simply “market forces” at work. If there isn’t enough housing, and especially insufficient lower-priced housing, the owners of that commodity in short supply will raise prices. Several decades of allowing the “market” to handle the supply has led to the result of renters struggling with high rents and facing the impossibility of obtaining an affordable mortgage. Despite what judges have ruled, rents do not rise without human intervention. The “market” in housing are landlords and developers, and their interest is the maximum amount possible of profit, regardless of cost to everybody else. The magic of the market, indeed.
The Estate Tax Exemption is $27.2 Million for a Couple The New York Times had a piece on the tax code changes that will take effect next year unless Congress acts to extend current provisions. One of the items on this list is an increase in the amount of wealth exempted from the estate tax. The piece lists the amount currently exempted as $13.6 million, with the possibility it will revert back to its pre-Trump level of $5 million (adjusted somewhat higher for inflation) if the Trump provision is not extended. It is important to point out that this is the exemption for a single individual. A couple would be able to pass on $27.2 million to their heirs without paying any tax whatsoever.
On Palestine and the Worthlessness of the Western Liberal There’s an infuriatingly common type of liberal who purports to oppose Israel’s actions in Gaza while also saying they support “Israel’s right to exist”, as though Israel’s existence is somehow separable from its genocidal murderousness. This is a state that literally cannot exist without nonstop violence and tyranny, as demonstrated by its entire unbroken history since its inception. It was set up as a settler-colonialist outpost for western imperialism from the very beginning, and that’s exactly what it’s been ever since.
U.S. Armed and Funded Palestinian Genocide:
Leaked U.S. Cable: Israeli Invasion of Rafah Would Have “Catastrophic Humanitarian Consequences” With 1.5 million Palestinians trapped in Rafah, a leaked U.S. diplomatic cable says an Israeli offensive would cut off all aid and seize an already collapsed health system. A diplomatic CABLE sent Monday from the U.S. Embassy in Israel today offers an unusually candid assessment of the humanitarian situation in Rafah, a southern city in the Palestinian Gaza Strip. The cable, written by officials with the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance at the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, warns about the potential effects of an all-out Israeli ground invasion of Rafah, where about 1.5 million Palestinians, driven south by Israeli evacuation orders, are sheltering from Israel’s war on Gaza. “A potential escalation of military operations in within Southern Gaza’s Rafah Governorate could result in catastrophic humanitarian consequences, including mass civilian casualties, extensive population displacement, and the collapse of the existing humanitarian response, multiple relief actors have warned USAID’s Levant Disaster Assistance Response Team,” the cable says.
“Pay No Attention To That Genocide Right In Front Of Your Face” Israel is committing genocide, our western governments are helping them, the sky is blue, a spade’s a spade, and the emperor has no clothes. “Pay no attention to that genocide right in front of your face.” That’s the constant message we’re getting from the dominant institutions in this present-day dystopia. From our news media. From our political parties. From our government. From our mainstream culture of diversion and superficiality.
Ralph Nader: The World Must Calculate the Real Gaza Death Toll
With virtually no healthcare left, no medications, and infectious diseases spreading especially among infants, children, the infirm, and the elderly, can anybody believe that the fatalities have just gone over 30,000?
Oxfam: “We’re 10 Years From Earth’s First Trillionaire… And 230 Years From Ending Poverty!”have more than doubled their wealth since 2020, while the vast majority of humanity is sinking deeper and deeper into squalor. Fearing for their system, a group of 250 “mega-rich,” calling themselves “Patriotic Millionaires,” are asking for a portion of their wealth to be taxed to fund social services. We say: we must take all their wealth and build a communist society fit for all. While the bosses have the audacity to blame workers’ wage demands for rising prices, the Oxfam report reveals that the wealth of billionaires has grown at three times the rate of inflation. CEO pay has risen by more than 1,200 percent since 1978, while workers’ wages have only increased by 15.3 percent. The wealth of billionaires has reached such obscene levels that, if the five wealthiest men were to spend US$1 million a day, it would take them 476 years to run out of cash!
Environment:
Fund Climate! — Not Genocide! 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’!
Capitalism’s Wars for Oil: When Bodies Start Stacking Up From Climate Change-Related Disasters, Will These Monsters be Held to Account?
Prisoners in Texas and Florida Face Biggest Risk of Increasingly Deadly Heat Almost 45% of detention facilities on US mainland suffered rise in hazardous heat days between 1982 and 2020, study says
These Economists Say You Can’t ‘Decouple’ Emissions from Growth At least, not fast enough to reach international targets. For nearly 200 years, two transformative global forces have grown in tandem: economic activity and carbon emissions. The two have long been paired together, or, in economist-speak, “coupled.” When the economy has gotten bigger, so has our climate footprint. This pairing has been disastrous for the planet. Economic growth has helped bring atmospheric CO2 concentrations all the way up to 420 parts per million. The last time they were this high was during the Pliocene epoch 3 million years ago, when global temperatures were 5 degrees Fahrenheit hotter and sea levels were 65 feet higher.
Study of Human Placenta Samples Found Microplastics in Every Single One of Them The study detected between 6.5 to 790 micrograms of microplastics per gram of tissue. Anew study on microplastics suggests that the tiny plastic pieces are indeed entering the bodies of nearly every human, and possibly every mammalian creature, on the planet. The study, carried out by a team of toxicology scientists led by Matthew Campen at the University of New Mexico, examined 62 human placenta samples to determine the rate at which they contained microplastics, and to what degree. According to their findings, all 62 samples had a worrying level of microplastics.
Despite Repression, Activists Continue to Shut Down Mountain Valley Pipeline A vigorous protest movement has fought the project at every step of the pipeline’s path, and they aren’t giving up now. Before dawn on March 4, 2024, a car painted with birch trees crept out onto a narrow dirt road granting Mountain Valley Pipeline construction workers access to the site. Two activists, 81-year-old River and 63-year-old Andy, unfurled a large banner reading “Older Than the Hills: Water is Life” and covered the rear of the car. The two — who asked to be identified only by their first names to protect them from reprisal — sat down, reached through specially drilled holes in the car, and locked themselves in for the long haul. Hours later, pipeline contractors attempting to drive to work found themselves stymied by the protest and called in the Virginia State Police — again. It took over 10 hours for police to extract Andy, during which time construction ground to a halt.
Black Liberation/Civil Rights:
Alabama Bills to Protect IVF Don’t Go Far Enough, Experts Say As lawmakers gear up to debate the protections, experts raise concerns about what the bills do and don’t address. Two weeks after facing a backlash when Alabama’s Supreme Court ruled frozen embryos are legally children, Alabama lawmakers scrambled to put together a new legislation to help protect in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics from civil lawsuits and criminal prosecution. As Salon previously reported, the February ruling unleashed chaos for families as clinics across the state paused IVF treatments due to concerns about how and if embryos can be discarded, and what happens if transfers fail.
Black Wall Street Wasn’t the Only Racial Massacre The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 has received much attention, at a time when America comes to terms with its legacy of systemic racism and racial violence against Black people. That massive human tragedy – when a white mob entirely lynched hundreds of Black people and destroyed the thriving community of Greenwood – is still being felt today. The bodies buried in mass graves are still being unearthed today. However, Black Wall Street is not the end of the story, but rather is the tip of the iceberg. Before, during and after Tulsa, lynchings and racial violence were taking place across the country.
Labor:
Economy:
Wall Street Mega Banks Have Created a Circular Firing Squad with Credit Derivatives and Capital Relief Trades – with the Fed’s Blessing On June 11, 2015, the Office of Financial Research (OFR) released a sobering report on how banks were reducing their requirements to hold adequate capital against potential losses by engaging in non-transparent “capital relief trades” with potentially questionable counterparties. The OFR researchers summarized the problem as follows: “Capital relief transactions may have benefits to banks. But, even if real risk transfer is involved, these transactions can pose financial stability concerns by increasing interconnectedness, transforming credit risk into counterparty risk, and obscuring capital adequacy to investors and counterparties. And while bank supervisors have extensive data about banks, they may have less information about the nonbanks who are selling credit risk to those banks and ultimately bearing the risk of loss.”
World:
France Becomes First Country to Enshrine Abortion Rights in Its Constitution Abortions are still restricted in France after week 14 of pregnancy. n Monday evening, France became the first country in the world to explicitly guarantee the right to an abortion within its constitution. Lawmakers were summoned by President Emmanuel Macron to the Palace of Versailles, the former royal palace that is oftentimes used for the passage of monumental laws instead of the Palais Bourbon in Paris, where the National Assembly usually meets. For an amendment to become part of the French constitution, three-fifths of lawmakers in parliament have to approve it, meaning that the measure required at least 512 votes in order to become law. With no major party in parliament opposing it, the measure received 780 votes in its favor, with just 72 voting against it.
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