Daily News Digest April 26, 2024
Images of the Day:
Bendib: Give Me Your Silenced
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, and The 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!
The Majority of the World, Despite the Media Monopoly’s Lies, are Opposed to the Palestinian Genocide and Global Warming — The 1% Minority Funds Them! At, this Time in History, Capitalism is Exposing the Fact That it is Opposed to Majority Rule/Democracy!
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:
What is left out of the media and Whitehouse narrative is that there is a significant section of Jewish students who are part of the pro-Palestinian actions and often play a leading role. For example, at Columbia, the Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) has been playing such a leading role since November. The University officially banned the JVP, but it has carried on, regardless. The Jewish holiday of Passover began on April 22 and celebrates the liberation of Jews from Egypt. It has come to represent liberation for all oppressed people. Celebrations of Passover occurred in many of the occupations. The staunchly pro Israel NYT admitted that: “On the first night of Passover, the singsong of the Four Questions echoed from Jewish homes and gatherings around the world, including from unlikely, contested spaces: the center of pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia and other universities where demonstrations are taking place. “As evening fell over Columbia’s tent encampment on Monday, about 100 students and faculty gathered in a circle around a blue tarp heaped with boxes of matzo and food they had prepared in a kosher kitchen. Some students wore kaffiyehs, the traditional Palestinian scarf, while others wore Jewish skullcaps. They distributed handmade Haggadahs — prayer books for the Passover holiday — and read prayers in Hebrew, keeping to the traditional order.” So much for the “antisemitism” of pro-Palestinian students. Various commentators have raised the similarity of these campus occupations to those that occurred in the 1960s. Are we seeing a new wave of student radicalisation? — Barry Sheppard, Student Mobilizations Against Israel’s War Spread
In the Muslim Sufis’ Christology, we have a solid body of evidence in which we see the current animus presumed between various religions of Palestine as political hogwash. We need literary knowledge, historical consciousness, and intellectual responsibility with all of which to dismantle the thick apartheid walls that ignorant hateful people are erecting among us all. Merry Christmas everyone! Remember Christ was a Palestinian refugee – a Jewish Palestinian refugee, who is the founding figure of Christianity, and a beloved prophet for Muslims. The rest is commentary. Remember: Christ was a Palestinian Refugee!
Pocasts/Videos of the Day:
Capitalism is Anti-Democratic by Definition – Richard D. Wolff
Hundreds Arrested: Students Across U.S. Protest for Palestine as Campus Crackdown Intensifies
Black Agenda Radio April 19, 2024
Non-Citizen Voting: A Non-Existent Problem
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
Colleges With Palestinian Encampments 
Steven Donziger: Why Biden Should Pardon Me to Uphold Climate Justice No matter where one stands on the political spectrum, we should all be able to agree that what happened to me should not happen to anybody in any country that adheres to the rule of law. About a month ago, a group of 14 prominent lawyers from the United States launched a global campaign to demand a pardon from President Joe Biden for my misdemeanor contempt conviction after helped Amazon communities in Ecuador win a landmark $10 billion pollution judgement against Chevron. While I want a pardon for personal reasons—including the restoration of my freedom to travel and to earn a livelihood—this request is also a major opportunity for the White House to uphold its stated commitments on climate justice, human rights, and corporate accountability.
Whether It is Opposition, to Israel’s Palestine Genocide or Global Warming, Worldwide Capitalism is Applying the Iron Heal to Our Rights to Free Speech/or Protests!: Our Alarm at Escalating Repression of Protest on Campuses (Middle East Studies Assn. / CAF) The Board of Directors of the Middle East Studies Association and its Committee on Academic Freedom view with increasing alarm the growing number of attempts to intimidate, repress, and criminalize campus protests against the ongoing Israeli state violence against Palestinians and the US diplomatic, military, and economic support for it. Federal, state and local government officials—from the president, to congressional members, to governors and mayors—have exacerbated the threats on campuses by encouraging university administrators to violate basic commitments to freedom of expression, while casually smearing overwhelmingly peaceful protesters with unsubstantiated claims of violence or discriminatory speech. University leaders should constitute the first line of defense for students and faculty in the face of forces seeking to vilify, harass, and silence them. Instead, we regret that several university boards of trustees, presidents, and their administrations have acquiesced in the ugliest of campaigns targeting their students and faculty for engaging in what have been peaceful protests, joined by a wide cross-section of their campus community.
MESA Board Joint Statement with CAF Concerning Escalating Repression of Protest On Campuses The Board of Directors of the Middle East Studies Association and its Committee on Academic Freedom view with increasing alarm the growing number of attempts to intimidate, repress, and criminalize campus protests against the ongoing Israeli state violence against Palestinians and the US diplomatic, military, and economic support for it. Federal, state and local government officials—from the president, to congressional members, to governors and mayors—have exacerbated the threats on campuses by encouraging university administrators to violate basic commitments to freedom of expression, while casually smearing overwhelmingly peaceful protesters with unsubstantiated claims of violence or discriminatory speech. University leaders should constitute the first line of defense for students and faculty in the face of forces seeking to vilify, harass, and silence them. Instead, we regret that several university boards of trustees, presidents, and their administrations have acquiesced in the ugliest of campaigns targeting their students and faculty for engaging in what have been peaceful protests, joined by a wide cross-section of their campus community.
The Use of Terrorism (Iron Heel) to Stifle Freedom!: Texas State Troopers in Riot Gear Crack Down on UT Students’ Gaza Protest “Why do we even have these institutions of higher learning if we won’t let students speak their conscience and protest?” said one University of Texas professor.
U.S. Funded Plestinian Genocide:
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?
Climate Activists Blockade HQ of World’s Second-Largest Funder of Fossil Fuels Activists from around the world gathered in New York this week to condemn Citigroup’s environmental racism. Hundreds of climate activists gathered at the global headquarters of Citigroup in New York on Wednesday to demand the banking giant stop financing fossil fuel companies. The protests come on the heels of a first-of-its-kind Earth Day hearing where environmental activists from around the world gathered in New York this week to condemn what they call Citigroup’s environmental racism. Citibank is the world’s second-largest funder of coal, oil and gas. “They always say, ‘We care about the planet.’ … But actions speak louder than words,” says Alice Hu, climate campaigner for New York Communities for Change. “Citibank has poured over $332 billion into fossil fuels since the Paris Agreements were signed in 2015.” We also speak with Roishetta Ozane, a Black environmental leader from Sulphur, Louisiana, who has been leading the fight against the expansion of Citigroup-funded liquified natural gas projects in her community. She says she has seen the health impacts of such projects on her own family. “I’m fighting not only for myself and my community, but for my children. And by fighting for my children, I’m fighting for everyone’s children,” says Ozane.
Black Liberation/Civil Rights:
- Watching US Fascism in Action from China The contradictions and embarrassing antics of the fascist war-mongering United States appear with stark clarity when viewed from an outside perspective.
- APPEAL: BLACK AMERICANS AGAINST UNITED STATES SUPPORT OF THE ZIONIST GOVERNMENT OF ISRAEL, Committee of Black Americans for Truth about the Middle-East, 1970 After 200 days of genocide, Black solidarity with Palestine is needed more than ever. A 1970 appeal provides a blueprint.
- In Defense of Eric Nshimiye The Canton Repository published Ann Garrison’s op-ed in support of Eric Nshimiye on April 22.
- S. Corporate Media Watch In this feature, we interview Syrian-born journalist Richard Medhurst about state propaganda, the mainstream media, and U.S. imperialism.
- A Black Jew’s Passover Message In this time when Israel and Zionism have become the representation of Judaism, Jewish people, especially Black Jews, should reflect on what it means to observe Passover during an ongoing genocide.
- Colleges and Universities Collaborate With The State To Silence Pro-Palestine Protests On campuses across the country, students and faculty are finding various ways to take action against the unfolding genocide in Gaza.
- When Namibia Stands Up to Germany: Why the Global South is Rising for Palestine The Palestinian fight against colonialism is recognized by nations in the global south as one that mirrors their own.
- Operation Legacy: How Britain covered up its colonial crimes The British sought to cover up their atrocities in Africa and the Caribbean by manipulating information to obfuscate history.
- Russians Advisors Arrive in Niger While the Masses Demand the Immediate Withdrawal of Pentagon Troops Thousands gathered in Niamey to call for the departure of United States drone stations and soldiers.
- Tennessee Volkswagen Workers Vote Union The vote by Volkswagon workers in Tenessee to unionize with the United Auto Workers union is a clear indication that it is possible to organize in the South.
- Don’t Let Warmongers Greenwash their Ecocide this Earth Day The destruction of the environment and acceleration of the climate crisis happen silently under the veil of “national security,” despite the fact that the environmental toll of war is the most significant threat.
Labor:
Economy:
Wall Street’s Judge Shopping Continues: It’s Trying to Stop the FTC’s Ban on Worker Handcuffs Known as Non-Compete Agreements Sullivan & Cromwell, the go-to law firm for Wall Street in the past, has become a case study in how not to manage one’s corporate reputation. (See Wall Street’s Go-To Law Firm, Sullivan & Cromwell, Got in Bed with Crypto; Now Its Reputation Is Being Hammered.). Apparently, having previously represented FTX fraudster, Sam Bankman-Fried, and then grabbing FTX’s bankruptcy proceeding and billing $180 million, is not enough shame for Sullivan & Cromwell to heap on its reputation. It is now listed as the Big Law firm that filed a federal lawsuit yesterday on behalf of the corporate front groups, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable, and others, to stop the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC’s) new rule banning non-compete agreements for most workers. (An 8-attorney law firm in Texas, Potter Minton, is also listed on the filing for the plaintiffs.)
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