Daily News Digest August 14, 2024
Images of the Day:
Ted Rall: To Save Democracy, Switch Out Puppets
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”There is No Democracy! When Less Than 1% Control the Wealth, Production, and Price of Everything Produced and Consumed in the World! In the present period of unfettered Capitalism, the pretense of democratic rule does not exist, except in the minds of ‘socialists’ like Bernie Sanders and the Labor Bureaucracy! Capitalists view all struggles as struggles against capitalist rule! Transition demands immediately become revolutionary demands! Therefore, any resistence to the attack of capitalists has to be organized by those that understand this! 
Today, the United States Capitalists are Consolidating Themselves as the Supreme Capitalists! Capitalism’s Gluttony is Demonstrated by It’s Quest for More and More Profits at the Expense of Humanity! 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:
I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs. — Thomas Jefferson, 3rd president of US (1743 – 1826), Letter to the Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin (1802)
Podcasts/Vide0s of the Day:
POTUS: ‘As Long As You Don’t Call It Genocide’ In this week’s episode of “Playing President,” Ray McGovern, 27-year CIA veteran and briefer of five presidents, continues to make sense of the world to “President” Scheer, who prepared for this role through his decades as a journalist, including in-depth interviews with five presidents from Nixon to Clinton. In the universe of “Playing President,” however, Scheer is not a journalist, but instead plays the President of the United States attempting to navigate the geopolitical landscape of governance and media with the help of his trusty daily briefer from the CIA, Ray McGovern. … POTUS 00:10 By the way, would you mind telling some people you run into that I’m coherent that I….. You know, I’m getting- I can’t stand it. Ray, I know you got a lot of important stuff to tell me, but you know… Here’s Kamala, I wish her well, you know my legacy and all that… But no press conferences and nobody holds… and what, because she’s got a Jewish husband, she could, every once in a while say something negative about Netanyahu? But Netanyahu he does whatever the hell he wants. We all know he holds our future in his hands, and he goes after a full blown war, yeah, Trump is right in… Right? So what’s Kamala? How come she gets away with this and I got slaughtered? I was, you know, she never told me she didn’t like Netanyahu or what Israel is doing? I never heard that. And now she’s, she’s getting the same briefings from you CIA people that I’m- What do you tell her? It looks more cheerful in the Ukraine. That’s also cheerful now? You give her a different briefing than you give me?
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.
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.
The Empire Is The Real Enemy The US has offered to drop its ridiculous criminal charges against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro if he agrees to leave power. These freaks really do believe the entire planet is their property.
- Normal person: Genocide is bad.
- Crazy person: DO YOU WANT TRUMP TO WIN??Normal person: The candidate you are supporting wants to commit actual genocide.
- Crazy person: Hey, look, nobody’s perfect.
- President Trump, 2025: [bombs a middle eastern hospital] I bombed that hospital because Muslims are terrorists.
- President Harris, 2025: [bombs a middle eastern hospital] Our thoughts are with the victims of this terrible tragedy as we work toward peace and stability in the region.
- Zionism and Christian fundamentalism are used as excuses to inflict vastly more violence than Islam is. Muslims are not the enemy, the murder machine of the globe-dominating US-centralized empire is.
CAIR: Blinken Must Resign “in Disgrace” After Ending Probe Into Israeli Unit The State Department previously found the unit has committed gross human rights violations in the West Bank.
As War Widens, U.S. Assets Become Easy Targets During a White House press conference on 31 July, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby underscored the US commitment to maintaining readiness to protect its security interests in West Asia. We have and will maintain a level of readiness to preserve our national security interests in the region. It’s not like we take a blind eye to what Iran is capable of doing and has shown their capability of doing in the region. His comments came amid spiked regional tensions, the highest since 7 October. Protecting Washington’s interests in the Levant and the Persian Gulf is a top priority for the B iden administration, especially given Tel Aviv’s dangerous recent provocations, including attacks and assassinations in Beirut, Tehran, and Hodeidah – inside key countries within the Axis of Resistance, which could escalate into a major conflict threatening US interests. US Militarization in West Asia. Nearly a month after the Gaza war began, the Pentagon outlined its primary goals in West Asia. These include protecting US forces and citizens, ensuring the continuous flow of critical security assistance to the occupation state, coordinating with occupation authorities to secure the release of prisoners held by Hamas, including American citizens, and bolstering the US military presence to deter any state or non-state actors from escalating the crisis further. Clearly, Washington’s focus extends well beyond Gaza. As of last October, when the Gaza war erupted following Hamas’ Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, over 45,000 US troops were stationed in West Asia, spread across US military bases in about 12 countries. This number does not include the naval fleets permanently stationed in the region’s many waterways.
Boiling The Judicial Frog Most of us have heard the story about boiling the frog. Drop a frog in boiling water, and he’ll jump right out. But, drop the frog in cool water, and then increase the temperature of the water slowly, and the frog won’t notice. Soon he’ll be cooked. That’s exactly what is happening to state courts around the country. The Brennan Center for Justice comprehensively reports that as state courts have taken on greater importance over polarizing issues involving abortion, voting, gerrymandering, judicial selection and independence, judicial decision-making, judicial review, Medicaid coverage of women’s health, climate change, and limiting enforcement of court rulings, right wing politicians and legislatures have redoubled their efforts to assert political power over state judicial branches and ensure judges will not be an obstacle to their partisan policy goals.[1]
Media Coverage of Venezuela’s Presidential Election Normalizes US Interference Corporate media’s coverage of Venezuela’s July 28 presidential election is akin to an investigation of a homicide that is focused not with identifying the murderer but with an unpaid parking ticket of the victim. Likewise, the media has shifted the narrative into the minutia of electoral procedures, ignoring the much larger issue of US interference in the internal affairs of another sovereign county. Nowhere in the corporate media is there even an inkling that US-imposed regime-change activities in Venezuela or elsewhere might violate some basic principles.
Harris Says “Far Too Many Civilians Have Been Killed” In Genocide She Supports “Far too many children have been eaten by hyenas,” the politician sobbed to the news camera while lowering more children into the hyena pit. “Finally, a candidate who cares deeply about those poor children who keep getting killed by hyenas,” said Sally, turning up the volume on the television.“What do you mean? She’s literally lowering those children into the hyena pit while she says that,” Phil objected.
United States Funded Genocide in Israel:
State and Local Efforts to Divest From Israel Are Gaining Steam Cross-movement coalitions have been vital to the progress of these campaigns to end the transfer of US taxpayer dollars. … Beyond the federal dollars funding the ongoing attack on Gaza, there are also investments made on the state and municipal levels to support Israel’s violence against Palestinians. “The ethnic cleansing and horrors that we’re witnessing being carried out by the Israeli government are deeply entangled in material support from the United States, and that happens on multiple levels,” says Jay Saper, an organizer with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) in New York City. As demands for Palestinian liberation grow louder than ever before in defiance of Israel’s continuing assaults on the occupied nation and its people, organizers with JVP and other groups critical of U.S. funding for Israel have ramped up efforts targeting this support in their own backyards. These efforts include the Not on Our Dime! campaign in New York state, which aims to end subsidies for New York–registered charitable organizations that fundraise to support the Israeli military and violent settler groups, and the Break the Bonds campaign, a JVP-led initiative that seeds and supports local efforts to demand divestment from Israel Bonds nationwide.
“Another Massacre” They bombed the Tabeen school in Gaza City with so much explosive force that not a single full body was recovered. They bombed the Tabeen school in Gaza City with so much explosive force that not a single full body was recovered. It was just pieces of people everywhere. They bagged body parts in 70-kilogram piles to try and estimate a death toll.
Environmanet:
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!
Heat aggravated by Carbon Pollution Killed 50,000 in Europe Last Year – Study. Continent is warming at much faster rate than other parts of world, leading to fires, drought and health problems The findings come as wildfires tore through forests outside Athens, as France issued excessive heat warnings for large swathes of the country, and the UK baked through what the Met Office expects will be its hottest day of the year.
Insurance industry: Climate Crisis Helped Drive Payouts To Seven-Year High, Say Insurers Weather-related claims hit £144m in second quarter of 2024 and total payouts rose by 5% to £1.4bn.
The Right to Pollute?!: US Air Force Avoids PFAS Water Cleanup, Citing Supreme Court’s Chevron Ruling EPA says Tucson’s drinking water is contaminated but air force claims agency lacks authority to order cleanup The US air force is refusing to comply with an order to clean drinking water it polluted in Tucson, Arizona, claiming federal regulators lack authority after the conservative-dominated US supreme court overturned the “Chevron doctrine”. Air force bases contaminated the water with toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” and other dangerous compounds.
Expensive, Deadly, and 50 Years Old: It’s Time to Retire the Gavin Coal Plant Blackstone has the opportunity to cement itself as a leader in the green transition by continuing to invest in clean energy solutions and closing the deadly General J Gavin Coal Plant in Ohio. Private equity giant Blackstone is invested in one of the largest and dirtiest coal plants in the United States, the General J Gavin Coal Plant in Ohio. Despite Blackstone’s commitments to reducing carbon emissions in new assets, various investments in renovating and constructing energy efficient buildings, and a $100 million investment in businesses that support the energy transition, the firm remains invested in this aging, polluting coal plant. As the Gavin Coal Plant celebrates its 50th birthday this year, it’s time for Blackstone to start planning the plant’s retirement.
Black Liberation/Civil Rights:
Labor:
Economy:
Has the Recession Started? To answer this question, we develop a new Sahm-type recession indicator that combines vacancy and unemployment data. The indicator is the minimum of the Sahm indicator—the difference between the 3-month trailing average of the unemployment rate and its minimum over the past 12 months—and a similar indicator constructed with the vacancy rate—the difference between the 3-month trailing average of the vacancy rate and its maximum over the past 12 months. We then propose a two-sided recession rule: When our indicator reaches 0.3pp, a recession may have started; when the indicator reaches 0.8pp, a recession has started for sure. This new rule is triggered earlier than the Sahm rule: on average it detects recessions 1.4 months after they have started, while the Sahm rule detects them 2.6 months after their start. The new rule also has a better historical track record: it perfectly identifies all recessions since 1930, while the Sahm rule breaks down before 1960. With July 2024 data, our indicator is at 0.5pp, so the probability that the US economy is now in recession is 40%. In fact, the recession may have started as early as March 2024.
These FDIC-Insured Banks Have Lost 69 to 40 Percent of their Market Value Year-to-Date Here’s a look at three FDIC-insured banks that have lost 69 percent, 57 percent and 40 percent, respectively, of their share price year-to-date. The decline represents the change from their share price at the close on the last trading day of 2023 (Friday, December 29) and their close yesterday, (Monday, August 12, 2024).
World:
The 1971 War of Liberation and Bangladesh’s Unfinished Revolution Today, Bangladesh is glowing with the white heat of revolution. The masses have once more entered the arena of struggle. They are rediscovering a rich revolutionary tradition that goes back decades. Really, the tasks of this revolution are the unfinished tasks of an unfinished revolution, which began more than fifty years ago and culminated in the War of Independence against the domination of Pakistan in 1971. Learning the lessons of that period is vital to not only understanding the present, but to ensuring that the revolutionary struggle today is carried forward to victory.
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