Daily News Digest June 10, 2024
Images of the Day:
Police State It Could Happen Here
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:
From:Police State: Could It Happen Here? … By Zainab Chaudry One such reminder manifests in the form of legislation like the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA – an act passed by Congress every year to monitor the budget for the U.S. Department of Defense. More than a year ago, on December 31, 2011, President Obama signed into law the NDAA for fiscal year 2012, or H.R. 1540, amidst a fury of controversy over unprecedented power granted to the military to seize suspected terrorists anywhere in theworld, including U.S. soil, and imprison them for an unspecified time without due process. This behemoth, 1,600 page charter, allotting $662 billion of taxpayers’ money towards defense funding, contained controversial, vaguely-worded provisions that allow for detention of persons – including Americans here at home – indefinitely by the military without trial or military tribunals, and contains implications for abuse of presidential powers by significantly broadening the scope of executive authority with a simple pen stroke. Specifically, sections 1021 and 1022, reminiscent of Draconian laws, authorized indefinite detention by the armed forces without trial – this, despite the Constitution’s sixth amendment which guarantees right to fair trial for all, and the Posse Comitatus Act which limits governments’ use of military intervention to enforce laws.Implications of the NDAA, its’ potential consequences, and the subsequent erosion of the diligently-drafted laws meant to preserve and uphold the principles and values our country was founded upon, have all elicited vehement protests in communities across America. Unfortunately, the protests appear to be falling on deaf ears. — The National Defense Authorization Act Passes Again In 2013 – Are You Watching Your Back?
Martial Law is when a city, state, or country is placed under the control of the military. This includes using military courts for trials during wartime and the use of military forces within the United States. Under the Constitution, both the President and Congress can declare martial law because both are in charge of the military. This article examines the President’s ability to declare martial law as part of the duties as Commander in Chief. — Can the President Impose Martial Law?
Note to Scheerpost Readers From Chris Hedges: There is now no way left for me to continue to write a weekly column for ScheerPost and produce my weekly television show without your help. The walls are closing in, with startling rapidity, on independent journalism, with the elites, including the Democratic Party elites, clamoring for more and more censorship. Bob Scheer, who runs ScheerPost on a shoestring budget, and I will not waver in our commitment to independent and honest journalism, and we will never put ScheerPost behind a paywall, charge a subscription for it, sell your data or accept advertising. Please, if you can, sign up at chrishedges.substack.com so I can continue to post my now weekly Monday column on ScheerPost and produce my weekly television show, The Chris Hedges Report. — Q&A w/ Chris Hedges — What I’m Doing After Real News
Podcasts/Videos of the Day:
Black Agenda Radio May 31, 2024 International Impact of Israel’s Ongoing War Crimes
African Uhuru: the Fight for African Freedom in the Rise of the Global South
Ukraine and the Threat to World Peace: a United Nations Briefing
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
‘What Are They Afraid Of?’: Columbia Law Review Board Shuts Down Website Over Nakba Article The author of the 106-page piece said the suppression attempt is “reflective of a pervasive and alarming Palestine exception to academic freedom.” The Columbia Law Review‘s board of directors temporarily shut down the prestigious legal journal’s website on Monday following its publication of an article arguing for the establishment of the Nakba—the ethnic cleansing of Arabs from Palestine to establish and expand the state of Israel—as a novel legal concept. The Interceptreported that Rabea Eghbariah, a Palestinian human rights lawyer and Harvard Law School student, initially tried to publish an article in the Harvard Law Review on the Nakba as a legal concept amid the backdrop of Israel’s Gaza genocide and apartheid in the illegally occupied West Bank of Palestine. The piece was fully edited and ready for publication when it was canceled. The Nationpublished the essay in November.
Who is the Biggest Liar Trump or Biden? (They Both are Like Rugs — They Lie All the Time!: Biden Claims Israel Isn’t Starving Gazans. Rights Groups Say ‘It Is Clear as Day’ “The fact that Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza is not in contention,” said a Human Rights Watch researcher. U.S. President Joe Biden said in an interview published Tuesday that he does not believe the Israeli government is using starvation as a weapon of warfare in Gaza, contradicting the findings of leading human rights organizations that have documented Israel’s deliberate obstruction of food aid as Palestinians die of malnutrition. “No, I don’t think that,” Biden said in response to TIME magazine’s Washington bureau chief Massimo Calabresi and editor-in-chief Sam Jacobs, who noted some have “alleged that Israel is intentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare.”
The Washington Post Is Pure AIDS, And Other Notes The Washington Post is one of the worst propaganda rags ever to exist in any country. If I’d published such an article for such a depraved empire propaganda outlet, I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night. The Washington Post’s unbelievably sleazy smear piece against independent media outlet The Grayzone can be summed up with its line “The First Amendment guarantees free speech rights even for Americans believed to be spreading foreign propaganda. But…” The whole thing is designed to manufacture support for criminally prosecuting dissident
U.S. Funded Palestinian Genocide:
A Federal Judge Visited Israel on a Junket Designed to Sway Public Opinion. Now He’s Hearing a Gaza Case Activists suing the Biden administration over Gaza policy are demanding the judge recuse himself over the sponsored trip. Plaintiffs suing THE Biden administration over Gaza policy have asked a federal appellate judge to recuse himself because of a trip he took to Israel in March. The World Jewish Congress, which sponsored the junket for 14 federal judges, framed the delegation as part of Israel’s “fight in the international court of public opinion.” In an emergency motion filed Tuesday, the plaintiffs’ lawyers argued they were “ethically compelled” to ask Judge Ryan Nelson of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to recuse himself because the WJC trip was “explicitly designed to influence U.S. judicial opinion regarding the legality of ongoing Israeli military action against Palestinians.”
Some of AIPAC’s Biggest Donors Are Also Financing Attacks Against Labor Rights The movements for labor and Palestinian rights have common cause against the billionaires who aim to destroy them both. In response to Israel’s genocidal siege of Gaza, a new progressive effort, the “Reject AIPAC” coalition, is calling on federal candidates to refuse endorsements and contributions from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), whose vast political operation has spent millions trying to crush left-leaning Democrats who criticize Israel. At the same time, the labor movement, including a burgeoning network of over 200 unions and worker organizations, has raised calls for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
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?
UAE Used COP28 to Push $100 Billion in New Oil Deals, New Analysis Shows Critics warn of the possibility of consecutive COPs being hijacked for the interests of big polluters and their profits. Anew analysis released by human rights and anti-corruption group Global Witness on Wednesday left no room for doubt, said one campaigner, that the host country of last year’s United Nations climate summit, the United Arab Emirates, prioritized fossil fuel interests over the planet. “Make no mistake, COP28 was hijacked by the interests of the fossil fuel industry,” said Patrick Galey, senior investigator for Global Witness, referring to the 28th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
Safe Drinking Water: In Michigan, As Nestle Makes Billions Bottling Free Water in Michigan, The Citizens of Flint Michigan, Sill Pay for Lead Poisoned Drinking Water!: The U.S. struggles to replace millions of lead pipes. ‘We’re just stuck.’
Scientists Discover Way to Destroy Harmful “Forever Chemicals” in Water Supply New technology could help water utilities remove stubborn PFAS chemicals linked to cancer and other maladies. Tap water delivered to an estimated 89 million people in communities across the U.S. tests positive for PFAS today, according to analysis of federal data by chemical industry watchdogs at the Environmental Working Group. However, researchers say the scope of the PFAS contamination crisis is likely much larger and more widespread, particularly in rural areas where testing on groundwater has yet to be conducted. Exposure to common types of PFAS is linked to deadly cancers, heart and liver damage, and developmental problems in infants and children. Contamination is so widespread that scientists say virtually everyone living in the U.S. has traces of PFAS in their bloodstream. Now, scientists may be discovering new ways to destroy stubborn PFAS molecules and remove the pollutants from the water supply for good. In 2022, a team at University of California at Riverside discovered that blasting wastewater with special “short-wave” ultraviolet rays causes PFAS chemical bonds to break down without creating harmful byproducts. Led by Haizhou Liu, a professor of chemical and environmental engineering, the team announced a new finding this week that builds on their previous work: the discovery of a chemical process that uses the high levels of salt found in wastewater to break down the chemicals’ strong bonds.
Black Liberation/Civil Rights:
In Preparation for a Police State! New York Spends $225 Million On Its Own “Cop City” — To Make the Whole City Run on Cops A proposed New York training facility shows how establishment politicians only understand governance through policing. New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced last Friday that the city would spend at least $225 million on a new police training facility in the borough of Queens. The mayor’s decision to pour further public funding into policing comes as he slashed services to the city’s most vulnerable, including cutting library budgets by $58.3 million. The priorities could not be clearer. Like many politicians across the country, the mayor wants to disinvest from public services and privatize them, while instead increasing mass policing and carceral enforcement as a response to social problems. To see just how much Adams has become the paragon of governance through policing, one need only look at the intended purposes of the police training facility. The site will be used to train law enforcement officers for all the city’s agencies — including the departments of Sanitation, Homeless Services, the Administration for Children’s Services, and the Taxi and Limousine Commission — under one roof, alongside New York Police Department officers.
Black Agenda Report Trump Derangement and the Phony Rule of Law Donald Trump is often portrayed as the worst president of all time and now his criminal conviction has made him the butt of many jokes. But his legal troubles may not prevent him from winning again. The worst crimes he and other presidents committed make hush money payments pale in comparison.
- PREFACE: So Spoke the Uncle/Ainsi parle l’oncle, Jean Price-Mars, 1928 Revisiting a powerful account of the psychology of colonialism and neocolonialism by Haiti’s Jean Price-Mars.
- Hardliner on the Hill: Senator Bob Menendez and US-Cuba Policy A Belly of the Beast documentary follows Afro-Cuban journalist Liz Oliva Fernández as she explores the Cuban American community and its relation to the long-running embargo on her country.
- Revolutionary Notes from the Western Front The international liberation struggles of colonized people in nations like Haiti, Palestine, as well as Indigenous nations on land stolen by the U.S., are inextricably linked to the struggle for the liberation of New Afrikan people.
- Reflections on the Legacy and modern-day impact of Malcolm X The contributions of Malcolm X to African liberation cannot be understated.
- Call to Action: The ICGSP Denounces Israel’s Brutal Attacks on Rafah The ICGSP put out this call for movements around the world to support the university movement for Gaza solidarity.
- An Open Letter to William Ruto, By Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o Kenyan President William Ruto is serving the role of a comprador facilitating the continued colonization of Kenya and betraying the revolutionary history of their people.
- State Repression and Palestine Solidarity The destruction of encampments and the arrests of more than 3,000 students and faculty members have not stopped the movement for divestment.
- Rudderless, Incompetent and Complicit The U.S. policy regarding the genocide in Gaza is one of incompetence and duplicity.
- Afghanistan News Update #22 May 27th, 2024
- Afghans for a Better Tomorrow discuss the current state of Afghanistan and their work organizing against U.S. imperialism.
- Webinar: National Liberation and Imperialism’s Crises Imperialism is in crisis around the world, and that crisis is being expressed through its extreme brutality and genocide.
Labor:
Economy:
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Is Making Enemies in All the Right Places Fresh off a big win at the U.S. Supreme Court on May 16, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is wasting no time in its heady pursuit of financial bad actors preying on the little guy.
World:
Education, Health, 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
U.S. Postpartum Mortality Rate 395 Percent Higher Than Other Wealthy Countries Postpartum death rates were far worse for Black people who had just given birth, the report stated. Anew report from The Commonwealth Fund shows that, despite better outcomes since the pandemic, the United States “continues to have the highest rate of maternal deaths of any high-income nation” in the world. Around four out of five of these deaths “are likely preventable,” the report states, suggesting that the U.S. could save lives through several societal and institutional changes, including shifting toward a universal form of health care.