Daily News Digest May 28, 2024
Images of the Day:
The Great American Voting Machine
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”
The Rise of Capitalism was Under the Banner of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity! Now There is Less Liberty, More Inequality, and Less Fraternity of Humanity! Every Day, From Global Warming to Global War There is a New Example of Capitalism in Imperialist Decay!
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 Still 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:
As the old saying goes: If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu. And our political system has been rigged by corporate lobbyists, lawmakers, and judges to hold public office hostage to big money—intentionally excluding the working-class majority from its rightful place at America’s policy table. — US Government Is of the Wealthy, by the Wealthy, and for the Wealth
Podcasts/Videos of the Day:
Pulitzer Winner Nathan Thrall on Gaza, Israel’s “System of Domination” and U.S. Complicity
The Monopolization of America The United States of Monopolies The most ripped off people on earth… How monopolies jack up the price of everything. One of the many unreported facts of life about American life.
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
Memorial Day Holiday was to Mark the End of World War I, the ‘War to End all Wars’, Since then the United States has Been in Over 200 Wars Since!: The United States has been in a Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace!: Book Review: Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace! In his 2001 book, Gore Vidal makes a scathing attack upon the bipartisan domestic and foreign policies of the US government. The introduction to this book sets its theme, that the bombings of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995 and the World Trade Center (WTC) in New York City on September 11, were used, respectively, to justify the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1996 and the current “war on terrorism”. Vidal explains that these bombings were in response to the more than 200 acts of war and (ongoing) worldwide military incursions by the US government since 1945, and the concurrent erosion of the Bill of Rights. Vidal refers to Newton’s theory “that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”. 
US Government Is of the Wealthy, by the Wealthy, and for the Wealthy Even though half of America’s jobs are working class, barely 1% of our nation’s 7,300 state legislative seats are held by the working class people, who actually make America work.
Best Government That Money can Buy!: Corporations Already Spent Over $1 Billion on Lobbying in First Quarter of 2024 Big businesses have already spent $1.2 billion to ensure pro-corporate policies and ever-rising profits. Federal lobbying spending exceeded $1.2 billion in the first quarter of 2024 — putting the year on track for another nominal record, a new OpenSecrets analysis found. The top-spending 166 clients accounted for about $404.1 million of that. When adjusted for inflation, the $1.2 billion in first-quarter federal lobbying spending represents a 1.3% increase compared to the same period last year.
Memorial Day: Ron Kovic: “A Dangerous Country: An American Elegy” Famed author’s excerpts from his Vietnam War trilogy’s just-published conclusion There are very few, if any, positive takeaways from America’s harrowing war in Vietnam. There are also few honest chronicles that made the atrocities from that insidious venture known to the world. Ron Kovic, who emerged from the Vietnam War severely wounded and distraught, became one of its most well known and celebrated truth tellers. Kovic has made his transformative experience accessible and comprehensible since 1976, beginning with his best-selling memoir, “Born on the Fourth of July,” adapted into a film directed by Oliver Stone. “Hurricane Street” followed, dealing with Kovic’s activism in leading a nationwide movement to organize the American Veterans Movement in 1974 and improve the deplorable conditions in VA hospitals, in which he spent much time. Kovic now ends his trilogy by detailing his metamorphosis as a young, naive, patriotic soldier to a disabled yet politically enlightened veteran. “A Dangerous Country: An American Elegy” traces Kovic’s journey that continues to leave in print an indelible mark on audiences worldwide. His experience serving two tours in Vietnam, leaving him paralyzed from his chest down, lays the context for this book’s intimate account of survival, both on the battlefield and back in society.
Massachusetts Proves It Is Possible to Share Make the Wealthy Pay Their Fair With three months still left in the state fiscal year, the new Massachusetts millionaires tax has already generated $1.8 billion in added new revenue, some $800 million more than state officials had projected.
Supreme Court Upside Down, Driven by Christian Theocracy The US Supreme Court has an integrity problem, freshly illustrated by their decision to allow a clearly racially motivated South Carolina re-districting map to stand. Led by Justice Sam Alito, they argue that the redistricting map gives Republicans an advantage, but is NOT racially motivated! Have they seen the South Carolina Republican Convention? When six legal scholars refuse to acknowledge the direct connection between “partisan” and “racism,” and how one fuels the other; they are engaging in verbal parsing to favor Donald Trump, upend Constitutional protections, and their own precious “originalist intent.” As if Republican ideology and policy since Ronald Reagan has nothing to do with racism. “Justice Samuel Alito suggested in his majority opinion, the legislature was merely seeking to make the seat safer for Republicans — a goal that does not violate the Constitution.” The decision is of a piece with Justice Alito’s “ethics” problem, for the brazenly partisan and white nationalist flags he flew at his homes on the Jersey Shore and Northern Virginia.
An Approval for Violence for Right Wing Violent Protesters!: Set the Killers Free: the Pardoning of Daniel Perry In one of the most egregious uses of the pardon power since Bill Clinton freed billionaire tax cheat, Israeli agent and international fugitive Marc Rich as the clock struck midnight on his lamentable administration, last week Texas Gov. Greg Abbott freed an avowed racist who ran a red light, before plunging his car into a crowd of protesters and fatally shooting a man who was trying to protect people from being run over. Abbott granted the killer a pardon, even though the gunman had been obsessed for months with the idea of killing BLM activists.
U.S. Funded Plestinian Genocide:
‘U.S.-Backed Massacre’ at Rafah Camp Intensifies Fury Over IDF’s Gaza Assault “We will never forget the images emerging from Rafah tonight. Human beings, including babies, were burned alive and torn apart. This genocide must end, it must end now,” said one group. Note: This article includes graphic descriptions and images of violence. International rights groups and leaders who for months have demanded a cease-fire in Gaza expressed renewed horror as images emerged from Israel’s Sunday bombing of a tent camp that had been set up by forcibly displaced Palestinians in Rafah, with women and children making up the majority of the 45 people who were reportedly killed in the attack. Emergency workers toldNBC News that the death toll was likely to rise, as many people had been trapped in the encampment as it was engulfed in flames.
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?
Trends in Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Week beginning on May 19, 2024: 426.68 ppm, Weekly value from 1 year ago: 423.83 ppm, Weekly value from 10 years ago: 401.84 ppm. Last updated: May 26, 2024
Alaskan Rivers Turning Orange Due to Climate Change, Study Finds As frozen ground below the surface melts, exposed minerals such as iron are giving streams a rusty color that pose a risk to wildlife Dozens of rivers and streams in Alaska are turning rusty orange, a likely consequence of thawing permafrost, a new study finds. The Arctic is the fastest-warming region in the globe, and as the frozen ground below the surface melts, minerals once locked away in that soil are now seeping into waterways. “It’s an unforeseen impact of climate change that we’re seeing in some of the most pristine rivers in our country,” said Brett Poulin, study author and assistant professor of environmental toxicology at University of California Davis
As Reservoirs Go Dry, Mexico City and Bogotá Face Impending Water Crises Cape Town, which beat a water crisis in 2018, holds lessons for cities grappling with an El Niño-fueled drought. In Mexico City, more and more residents are watching their taps go dry for hours a day. Even when water does flow, it often comes out dark brown and smells noxious. A former political leader is asking the public to “prioritize essential actions for survival” as the city’s key reservoirs run dry. Meanwhile, 2,000 miles south in the Colombian capital of Bogotá, reservoir levels are falling just as fast, and the city government has implemented rotating water shutoffs. The mayor has begged families to shower together and leave the city on weekends to cut down on water usage.
Far From Cutting Power Plant Emissions, New EPA Rule May Make Things Worse The rule relies on “carbon capture” technology that hasn’t been proven to work — and may introduce other dangers.
US-Backed Canadian Mine in Guatemala Threatens Water Supply for Millions Activists vow to fight the Cerro Blanco mine, which threatens a water supply for millions in Guatemala and El Salvador.
Black Liberation/Civil Rights:
Racism is Systemic to Capitalism: Settler Colonialism Was Justified by the Ideology of Racism!: How European Colonialism Led to the Invention of Race—And Why That Still Matters Which came first—race or racism? Two generations ago, Sociologist Oliver Cromwell Cox, a Trinidadian immigrant to the U.S., published a classic work, Caste, Class, and Race, in which he argued that the ideology of race as we understand it had its origins in European colonialism (Cox, 1948). It stuns me to know that, by some accounts, the first African slaves were brought to the Western Hemisphere in 1501, less than a decade after Columbus and his men arrived at Hispaniola (National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus, 2001). How could such conquest be justified by people who saw themselves as good Christians? The answer lay in demeaning the conquered. If American Indians and their mestizo descendants were less human than Europeans, then the confiscation of their lands and their gold could be justified. If Africans were less human than Europeans, then the confiscation of their very bodies could be justified. Better yet, if Europeans could conclude that Africans were particularly well-suited to slavery, then they could argue that they were acting in the best interests of the enslaved, in accordance with a divine plan for their earthly improvement and heavenly salvation. Lazy people needed the discipline of slavery. Rhythmic, athletic people could work long hours in the hot sun and not be bothered. Childish, violent people needed to be controlled, for their own good and the protection of others. The origins of contemporary stereotypes about Black Americans, then, can be found in the justification for the slave trade (Hudson, 2004).
FDA Maintains Discriminatory Rules on Donated Tissue for Gay and Bisexual Men Federal regulations prevent gay and bisexual men from donating tissue, such as corneas, ligaments, and blood vessel
Labor:
Economy:
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