Daily News Digest July 8, 2024
Four Died Trying is a documentary film cycle which explores the extraordinary lives and catastrophic deaths of President John Kennedy, Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King., Jr., and Senator Robert Kennedy. What connects their murders? Did their ever-deepening commitment to end war, poverty and injustice lead directly to their assassinations? What forces gained by their demise, and to what extent do they still shape the world of today? In more than 130 interviews, we put those and countless other questions to family members, colleagues, friends, enemies, and eyewitnesses to their murders. Some have spoken here for the for the first time, too many for the last. If you go to the Web Site, And try to watch chapter 1, you get the following Message:“Dear Future and current Patreon supporters, Four Died Trying has come under attack by forces that appear determined to suppress the series. As a result, our Patreon page has been suspended. We are fighting back and are confident that our page will be restored soon. In the meantime, links to the 4DT podcasts — free to all subscribers — are below, as are the password-protected links to the Prologue and Chapter One, available to those subscribed at the appropriate levels. We are not able to take more subscribers for the present, but please sign up for our mailing list to stay updated about future chapters and other Four Died Trying news. Many thanks for all your support,John Kirby, Director, Four Died Trying”. In my opinion, “forces that appear determined to suppress the series” are the same forces that have suppressed the truth about the assassinations, for past 50-60 years! To me, this act of censorship is proof about the accuracy of this documentary about theses assassinations.
Images of the Day:
Adderall Shortage Supply-chain problems and a dysfunctional marketplace in the pharmaceutical space have contributed to a shortage of the anti-ADHD drug Adderall with no end in sight. 
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:
To this day, we have a government and state apparatus that is designed to “protect the minority of the opulent against the majority” Democracy for white and wealthy men only! — Roland Sheppard, My Forefathers and The 1%’s Forefathers
Vide0s of the Day:
As the Rich Continue to Get Richer and the Poor Continue to Get Poorer: The United States of Monopolies(2018) How Monopolies Jack Up the Price of Everything 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/
The greatest purveyor of violence in the world : My own Government, I cannot be Silent. ― Martin Luther King Jr.
The Corrupt Supreme Court: The Arrogant Supreme Court is Now the Enemy Within Americans know the Supreme Court’s anti-democratic agenda when they see it. Americans know a judicial power grab when they see it. Americans know a king when they see one. Tell me, America, do you like what you see?
The “Land of the Free” Has Been the Enemy of Freedom Around the World For hundreds of millions across the world, the stars and stripes are symbols of US empire, not independence. Today, streets and lawns throughout the United States bristle with red, white and blue, and a settler colony built on genocide and slavery seeks to depict itself as a scrappy young underdog that overthrew the yokes of British tyranny. Yet for hundreds of millions around the world, the stars and stripes have been a symbol not of independence but of coercion, oppression and forced dependence. From Latin America to Southeast Asia, and from the Middle East and North Africa to Eastern Europe to sub-Saharan Africa, the “land of the free” has often been an enemy of self-determination. No people — including this country’s native inhabitants — have been safe from the reach of U.S. empire, which insisted on making the world an ungated playground for its interests.
US Imperialism is Driving Millions of People to Flee Their Homes Across the World The intensification and emergence of violent conflicts cause a significant increase in forcibly displaced individuals On this year’s World Refugee Day – June 20 – we must collectively reckon with the fact that more than 117 million people are victims of forced displacement. From Palestine to Sudan, Yemen to Ukraine, and the Democratic Republic of Congo to Myanmar, the specter of violence casts its long shadow across the world and results in the tragedy of death and displacement that we have become all too familiar with. According to the Armed Conflict Location and Events Data (ACLED) Conflict Index, the world is becoming more violent, as is synthesized by the fact that one in six people are estimated to have been exposed to conflict in 2024. This marks, according to ACLED, a 22% increase in political violence incidents in the past five years and begs the question, “Why is war becoming the norm around the world?”
U.S. Funded Palestinian Genocide:
To Prevent War in Lebanon, the US Must Stop Giving Israel the Support to Wage It The same muddled message to Israel—“We’d rather you didn’t, but we’ll still back you up when you do”—which may be the closest thing we’ve seen yet to a Biden Doctrine—is now being extended to Lebanon. As Israel’s chief political enabler and weapons supplier, the United States absolutely has the ability—even a responsibility—to constrain Israel from taking actions that directly harm broader U.S. interests As hopes for a Gaza cease-fire continue to fade, the threat of a full-blown war between Israel and Hezbollah is now greater than at any time since October 7.
Free Speech Under Fire: How Israel’s Tech Guard Is Killing Free Speech Online Hours after Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, as the Israeli government was readying for war, the Israeli tech sector was preparing for a war of its own. Entitled Israel Tech Guard, the coalition of Israeli tech employees has pulled together what it’s termed an “army” of citizen volunteers primarily to defend Israel’s image online. The group has launched or collaborated on several projects aimed at targeting pro-Palestine content while boosting Israeli propaganda. Israel Tech Guard comprises over 250 Israeli tech workers and was founded by entrepreneur Mor Ram-On, who worked for Israeli arms manufacturer Rafael Advanced Defense Systems; Ron Balter, a software engineer at Cybereason, a U.S. cybersecurity firm, and who served with the Israeli navy; and Lior Mizrahi, who heads the IT company Maveriks. Given how new the non-profit is, financial statements for Israel Tech Guard have yet to be made available. However, the group was seeking $2 million in funding in November, and the Jerusalem Post reported that it’s backed by Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms manufacturer, which produces weapons for the Israeli military.
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!
In its’ Protection of Profits, The Supreme Court Made the USA Less Habitable!: The Brockovich Report: A River Runs Through Last Year, SCOTUS Weakened The Clean Water Act; Now New Research Shows That About 55% of Water Flowing Out of Rivers Is Vulnerable To Pollution … Last year, the Supreme Court ruled that rivers that flow in response to weather events, or what are called ephemeral streams, do not fall under the protection of the Clean Water Act (CWA). New research suggests that this decision now leaves many U.S. waterways vulnerable to pollution. Researchers found that these short-lived bodies of water, which transport pollutants, sediments, and nutrients from land surfaces to rivers, lakes, reservoirs, and ultimately the oceans, can influence a substantial amount of water output of the nation’s rivers…. Scientists found that on average, ephemeral streams contribute 55 percent of the water that comes out of the mouth of regional river systems across the United States. Ephemeral streams are not flowing most of the time, but once a big storm rolls in, that extra water can push whatever has been accumulating in those rivers downstream, showing just how far pollution can travel. Without proper federal protections, these waterways are now “regulated” by state and local governments, which have less resources. “The irony is that the federal Clean Water Act was adopted precisely because state and local governments were thought to be doing a poor job of protecting the nation’s waterways,” said one of the study authors, Craig Brinkerhoff. “States don’t necessarily have incentives to adopt costly water protections when the benefits will be felt by ecosystems out of state.” In the nation’s largest rivers, such as the Mississippi and Columbia, more than 50 percent of the water originates from ephemeral streams at average annual discharge, they found. In some waterways, such as the Rio Grande, more than 90 percent of water comes from ephemeral streams. While the size of the river basin influences results, ephemeral streams on average account for 59 percent of drainage networks by length. These streams, the researchers say, pick up nitrogen, pesticides, and other pollutants that are likely relayed to the rivers at similar magnitudes as their water input. “When the Supreme Court narrowed the scope of the federal Clean Water Act, it did so by referring to abstract dictionary definitions rather than science,” Doug Kysar, another study author, said. “This research underscores the impact of that approach since, by our estimate, over half of annual discharge from U.S. drainage networks will no longer be protected by the Act.”
Black Liberation/Civil Rights:
The Victims of Capitalism’s Criminal Pauperization of Humanity, are Now Criminals!: The Supreme Court Criminalizes Being Homeless The Supreme Court’s recent decision to allow cities to ban people from sleeping outdoors presents a major shift in the perception of poverty and homelessness in the U.S. and what the Eighth Amendment represents. Clare Pastore, a law professor at the University of Southern California, joins her faculty colleague Robert Scheer on this episode of the Scheer Intelligence podcast to break down what the decision means and expand on her article published in The Conversation. Pastore explains that the legal precedent reversed by the conservative majority was that “it’s cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment to criminalize sleeping outdoors for people who have no other option.” Now, Pastore tells Scheer, cities are not barred from enforcing this kind of criminalization.
Labor:
Since June 2009 Americans have lived in the false reality of a recovering economy. Various fake news and manipulated statistics have been used to create this false impression. However, indicators that really count have not supported the false picture and were ignored. For example, it is normal in a recovering or expanding economy for the labor force participation rate to rise as people enter the workforce to take advantage of the job opportunities. During the decades of the long recovery, from June 2009 through June 2024, the labor force participation rate consistently fell from 65.7 to 62.7 percent. —Paul Craig Roberts, The Diminishing American Economy (Updated) 
Shadow Government Statistics Alternet Unemployment Rate is 26% The seasonally-adjusted SGS Alternate Unemployment Rate reflects current unemployment reporting methodology adjusted for SGS-estimated long-term discouraged workers, who were defined out of official existence in 1994. That estimate is added to the BLS estimate of U-6 unemployment, which includes short-term discouraged workers. The U-3 unemployment rate is the monthly headline number. The U-6 unemployment rate is the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) broadest unemployment measure, including short-term discouraged and other marginally-attached workers as well as those forced to work part-time because they cannot find full-time employment.
Economy:
One of the Major causes of Inflation is Government’s Military-Industrial Complex Spending! It Does not Add Wealth to the Economy. This is Graphically Reflected by the Declining Value of the Dollar!: Purchasing Power of the Consumer Dollar in U.S. City Average Is 31.8 Cents! Last Month was 31.9 cents! (1982-1984 = $1.00)
World:
In its’ Protection of Capitalists Profits, The Supreme Court Made the USA Less Habitable!: The Brockovich Report: A River Runs Through Last Year, SCOTUS Weakened The Clean Water Act; Now New Research Shows That About 55% of Water Flowing Out of Rivers Is Vulnerable To Pollution … Last year, the Supreme Court ruled that rivers that flow in response to weather events, or what are called ephemeral streams, do not fall under the protection of the Clean Water Act (CWA). New research suggests that this decision now leaves many U.S. waterways vulnerable to pollution. Researchers found that these short-lived bodies of water, which transport pollutants, sediments, and nutrients from land surfaces to rivers, lakes, reservoirs, and ultimately the oceans, can influence a substantial amount of water output of the nation’s rivers…. Scientists found that on average, ephemeral streams contribute 55 percent of the water that comes out of the mouth of regional river systems across the United States. Ephemeral streams are not flowing most of the time, but once a big storm rolls in, that extra water can push whatever has been accumulating in those rivers downstream, showing just how far pollution can travel. Without proper federal protections, these waterways are now “regulated” by state and local governments, which have less resources. “The irony is that the federal Clean Water Act was adopted precisely because state and local governments were thought to be doing a poor job of protecting the nation’s waterways,” said one of the study authors, Craig Brinkerhoff. “States don’t necessarily have incentives to adopt costly water protections when the benefits will be felt by ecosystems out of state.” In the nation’s largest rivers, such as the Mississippi and Columbia, more than 50 percent of the water originates from ephemeral streams at average annual discharge, they found. In some waterways, such as the Rio Grande, more than 90 percent of water comes from ephemeral streams. While the size of the river basin influences results, ephemeral streams on average account for 59 percent of drainage networks by length. These streams, the researchers say, pick up nitrogen, pesticides, and other pollutants that are likely relayed to the rivers at similar magnitudes as their water input. “When the Supreme Court narrowed the scope of the federal Clean Water Act, it did so by referring to abstract dictionary definitions rather than science,” Doug Kysar, another study author, said. “This research underscores the impact of that approach since, by our estimate, over half of annual discharge from U.S. drainage networks will no longer be protected by the Act.”
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