Daily News Digest July 3, 2024
Images of the Day:
Democracy in Trouble! There are Major Challenges to World Democracies.
Carlos Latuff: Trump of Biden? I There Really a Choice?
The 10 Comandments: Some Exceptions May Apply
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 6 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 Five Horsemen of the the Apocalypse, Spreading Racism, War, Famine, Pestilence, Death, and Misinformation! 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:
The threat of military intervention has not gone away; what happened on 26 June is a warning of the instability to come. It is necessary to remain vigilant. The experience of 1973 in Chile shows that such failed coups can be mere rehearsals for a more serious attempt in the future. And the army in Bolivia continues to play the same role it played in the 1970s here and in the rest of Latin America. In a capitalist state, the armed forces will always serve the interests of national and international capital. The supposed ‘decolonisation’ of the armed forces that MAS promised when it came to power has failed. The only way to effectively ‘decolonise’ the army – that is, to abolish its role as a tool of imperialism – is not to change a few symbols but to destroy it and replace it with the armed people, with democratically elected officers, instead of the oligarchic and reactionary caste presently at the top of the army. But this would mean destroying the basis of the capitalist state and, with it, Bolivian capitalism itself. In other words, the only way to ensure that there will never again be a military dictatorship is socialist revolution and the institution of the dictatorship of the proletariat, i.e. the rule of the oppressed workers and peasants against the oppressive capitalist minority. Bolivia, which not so long ago seemed immune to the capitalist crisis, a shining example of the success of reformism, now marches hand-in-hand with world capitalism towards the abyss. The exhaustion of the cycle of high commodity prices that gave a certain stability to the MAS governments during their first decade in power, is now the cause of its crisis. This country has had many military dictatorships and a good number of failed revolutions. We hope never to see a military dictatorship again, but we can be absolutely sure that the mole of revolution will rise again in Bolivia and all over the world. The only guarantee of success for the revolution is the existence of a revolutionary communist leadership rooted in the working masses. We, comrades of Núcleo Comunista Revolucionario, the Revolutionary Communist International in Bolivia, are building the embryo of such a party – join us! — What Happened in Bolivia on 26 June?
Vide0s of the Day:
“A King Above the Law”: Supreme Court Rules Presidents Have Broad Immunity from Prosecution
Vijay Prashad: Resource-Rich Congo Still Fighting for Its Own Wealth 64 Years After Independence
“Power Grab”: SCOTUS Overturns 4 Decades of Federal Regulatory Control, Hands Power to Courts
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 : My own Government, I cannot be Silent. ― Martin Luther King Jr.
Patrick Lawrence: The State Failed to Break Assange After apparently lengthy negotiations via Julian Assange’s attorneys, the WikiLeaks founder agreed to plead guilty to one felony charge of illegally obtaining and publishing U.S. government documents of various kinds — many standing as evidence of war crimes and human rights abuses, others exposing the Democratic Party’s corruptions during the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton in 2016. Assange was sentenced Wednesday to a term of five years and two months, precisely the time he spent at Belmarsh, the maximum-security prison in southeast London. It was from Belmarsh that Assange fought requests for his extradition to the U.S., where he would have faced multiple charges and a lengthy sentence under the 1917 Espionage Act. When he departed for Australia at the conclusion of the proceeding in Saipan, the largest of the Northern Marianas and also the capital city, he became a free man for the first time in 14 years, counting from his time under house arrest in 2010. Let us take the utmost care with our diction at this surprising and welcome turn. This will enable us to fathom the moment clearly. Julian Assange has not been freed, passive voice, the beneficiary of decisions taken by the American and British judiciaries — and almost certainly in the Biden regime’s upper reaches. Julian Assange has achieved his freedom, actively. Even during the darkest moments of his years under house arrest, in asylum at Ecuador’s London embassy, and at Belmarsh, he never surrendered his sovereignty. He remained ever the captain of his soul, and never did he allow his captors entry onto his ship. It was for this, most fundamentally, that Assange has suffered these past years, especially the five he spent in a cell at Belmarsh. The project was precisely to destroy his sovereignty, to break him one way or another, and he refused to break. His will — and I simply cannot imagine the awesome muscularity of it — has seen him through to victory.
Biden’s Family can Get Richer, If Genocide Joe Doesn’t Drop Out!: Poll Shows Voters Want Biden to Drop Out. His Family Is Telling Him to Continue. Democratic insiders recognize that either option — staying with Biden or finding a new candidate — comes with concerns.
Outrage as Reports Suggest DOJ to Offer Boeing ‘Sweetheart Deal’ Over Fatal Crashes “There is no accountability, no admission that Boeing’s admitted crime caused the 346 deaths, and the families will most certainly object,” said one lawyer for victims’ relatives. The families of 346 people who were killed on two Boeing 737 MAX airplanes in 2018 and 2019 were expected to “strenuously object” to a plea deal reportedly proposed by the U.S. Department of Justice a week after federal prosecutors recommended criminal charges for the company.
Background Article: Boeing’s Largest Plant in ‘Panic Mode’ Amid Safety Crisis, Say Workers and Union Officials 2020 Managers in Washington accused of hounding staff to keep quiet over quality concerns, as employees point to union-busting Boeing’s largest factory is in “panic mode”, according to workers and union officials, with managers accused of hounding staff to keep quiet over quality concerns. The US plane maker has been grappling with a safety crisis sparked by a cabin panel blowout during a flight in January, and intense scrutiny of its production line as regulators launched a string of investigations
U.S. Funded Palestinian Genocide:
Pro-Palestinian Protesters Slam U of Michigan for Asking Michigan AG to Press Charges Against Students A coalition of student groups at the University of Michigan say Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is now looking into possible charges against students involved in pro-Palestinian protests on the Ann Arbor campus, which her office has confirmed for the Michigan Advance.
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’!
We Must Hold These Monsters to Account!
The Looming Threat of Renewed U.S. Nuclear Testing Most American voters may not realize it, but nuclear weapons testing may be on the ballot in November. The United States conducted the last of its 1,030 nuclear test explosions in late 1992 just before bipartisan congressional majorities approved legislation halting U.S. nuclear testing and mandating negotiations on a global treaty to ban all nuclear tests. The treaty has not entered formally into force due to the failure of China, the United States, and a handful of other states to ratify it, but the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) effectively has halted nuclear testing worldwide. The only country that conducted a nuclear test explosion in this century is North Korea.
Supreme Court Blocks the EPA’s Plan to Reduce Ozone Air Pollution Environmental advocates say the decision will leave millions of people breathing dirtier air this summer.
Hurricane Beryl Brings ‘Life-Threatening Winds and Dangerous Storm Surge’ to southeastern Caribbean The Category 4 hurricane made landfall on Grenada’s Carriacou Island on Monday morning, according to the National Hurricane Center. Hurricane Beryl entered the southeastern Caribbean on Monday, bringing “life-threatening winds and dangerous storm surge” to the southern Windward Islands, which include Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadine Islands and Martinique. The extremely dangerous Category 4 storm made landfall on Grenada’s Carriacou Island on Monday with 150 miles per hour winds.
‘We Can’t Let the Animals Die’: Drought Leaves Sicilian Farmers Facing Uncertain Future Rainfall is down 40% since 2003 and experts predict a third of Sicily will be desert by 2030 The desert is encroaching across Sicily, the largest and most populous island in the Mediterranean, where a European temperature high of 48.8C was recorded in 2021. Rainfall is down by more than 40% since 2003. In the last six months of 2023, just 150mm of rain fell. “The situation is dramatic, there is no longer any water for the animals to drink,” Cammarata said. “The only water resource we have is this artificial pond, but now there is nothing but mud. We ask the authorities to send the army to help us get water to the farms. We can’t let the animals die. A farmer can’t bear to see their animals die of thirst.” In May the government in Rome declared a state of emergency over the Sicilian drought, allocating €20m in assistance – well short of the €130m requested by the regional government
Ecosocialist Bookshelf, July 2024
Invisible Doctrin the Secret History of Neoliberalism Neoliberalism, the dominant ideology of our time, is widely presented as some kind of natural law: that unregulated capitalist competition produces the best possible results for all. But neoliberalism is neither inevitable nor immutable. Monbiot and Hutchison argue that it was conceived and fostered as a deliberate means of changing the nature of power, subordinating democracy to the power of money and preying on people’s hopelessness and desperation
The Blue Machine How the Ocean Works All of Earth’s oceans are a single engine powered by sunlight, driving huge flows of energy, water, life, and raw materials. Physicist and oceanographer Helen Czerski shows how temperature, salinity, gravity, and tectonic plates interact in a complex dance, to support life from tiny plankton to gigantic whales. Understanding the ocean’s vital role in the Earth system is an essential part of protecting the planet from catastrophe in the Anthropocene.
Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry
The deregulation of the American food industry has consolidated wealth in the hands of a handful of tycoons, and hollowed out rural towns and local businesses. Frerick paints a stark portrait of the consequences of corporate consolidation, and argues that a fair, healthy, and prosperous food industry is possible, if we take back power from the barons who have stolen it.
Black Liberation/Civil Rights:
Zionists Attack Workers Rights in the United States!: Opposing a Bill Proposed by National Union of Israel Students to make Criticizing Israeli Gov’t a Firing Offense … We write on behalf of the Committee on Academic Freedom (CAF) of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) to express our profound concern over the National Union of Israeli Students’ proposed bill and billboard smear campaign against faculty in Israeli higher education institutions who are critical of Israeli government’s actions and policies. The proposed bill and billboard smear campaign appear to target, in particular, Professor Anat Matar and Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian (about whom we sent letters on 9 November 2023, 21 March 2024, and 6 May 2024). (about whom we sent letters on 9 November 2023, 21 March 2024, and 6 May 2024).
Labor:
Capitalists Want a Longer Work Week Larger Unemployment!: Greece Just Became the First European Country to Impose a 6-Day Workweek Years of brutal neoliberal capitalism combined with the left’s betrayal have led to widespread political demoralization. Just when one thought that the neoliberal dystopia created in Greece since the eruption of its debt crisis could not get any darker, the current right-wing government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has replaced the nation’s five-day workweek with a six-day workweek and flexible working hours. The controversial new law kicks into effect July 1, as Greeks have accepted it with little resistance. The six-day workweek applies to both the public and the private sector. Specifically, the new labor law affects businesses, organizations and continuously operating enterprises that currently use the five-day workweek model and enables employers to compel their employees to work six days a week. The additional working day will be paid with an additional 40 percent of the daily wage.
Economy:
The Supreme Court Crowns a King, Immunizing Future Criminal Acts Under Project 2025 – a Right Wing Manifesto In the span of two business days, six of the nine justices on the U.S. Supreme Court have radically altered American democracy. On Friday, those six right-wing justices gutted the ability of federal government agencies to protect the waters Americans drink, the air they breathe, their ability to impose food and drug safety rules and worker protections. On Monday, the same six effectively crowned the President of the United States a king by immunizing the President from criminal prosecution for any conduct that can be construed as official acts.
World:
In This Election – What We Stand For Tomorrow, RCP activists and supporters will be mobilising en masse across Stratford & Bow to campaign for revolutionary communist candidate Fiona Lali. We publish here the bold programme that comrades are fighting for, in this election and beyond. The Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) was only launched a matter of weeks ago. But we have suddenly been thrust into the limelight, following comrade Fiona Lali’s viral takedown of reactionary Suela Braverman. The fact that Fiona is now standing in the general election, with the backing of the party, has only added to the growing interest in the RCP and what we stand for. As our regular readers know, the party’s main demands are printed in every issue of The Communist. This is not a complete programme covering all issues, but an outline of our essential views. And for this election, Fiona has formulated a ten-point programme that seeks to answer the key problems facing working people, arising from the crisis of capitalism, especially in Britain.
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