Daily News Digest September 6, 2024

Daily News Digest Archives

Images of the Day:

Bendib: Revolving Door

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 Iron Heel

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:

 Howard Zinn: Remember This

When the rich wage war it’s the poor who die.” ― Jean-Paul Sartre

Podcasts/Vide0s of the Day:

Campaigning Against Genocide (w/ Dr. Jill Stein & Butch Ware) | The Chris Hedges Report 

Jeremy Corbyn’s Scathing Analysis of Grenfell Inquiry Report “There is No Hideaway for These Crooks That Caused These Deaths!” Speaking following the release of the long-awaited Grenfell Inquiry report into the tragedy, Mr Corbyn branded the fire “social murder” and said the victims would have received greater protection if they were middle class. It follows the final conclusion of the inquiry, which found a “culmination of decades of failures” by the government and members of the construction industry led to the disaster.

Calling Harris A Communist Is An Insult To Communism Calling Kamala Harris a communist isn’t wrong because it degrades Harris, it’s wrong because it degrades communism.

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. 

Ralph Nader: Wrecking America and the Purpose of Nicknames for Trump  No matter what his advisers caution, Donald Trump cannot resist giving negative, insulting nicknames to his opponents and critics. Nor can the mass media resist reprinting them in CAPITAL LETTERS, without giving the named persons a right of reply. He gets a free ride day after day, month after month, year after year.

 Trump Tells Supporters Rallygoer Who Broke Through Press Fence Is “On Our Side” One critic decried Trump’s statement last week as a “disturbing open call to violence” against the press.

 Lethal Joy Dances with Lethal Idiocy It’s been a pretty rough last year or so for those in the reality-based community here in the United States. I’m sure we’ve had some mental health casualties; watching the international as well as the local play out in the fashion that it has—well, that hasn’t been exactly conducive for sanity. Even the very nature of cause and effect has been hijacked. Don’t believe your gut when you see wanton carnage, believe in the “joy” based toxic positivity being peddled by the Democrats. Or if you want to give in to the dark but magnetic Thanatos, the death drive, just embrace the carnage and go full “get the job done” with the Republicans.

United States Funded Genocide in Israel: 

Campaigning Against Genocide (w/ Dr. Jill Stein & Butch Ware) | The Chris Hedges Report “Genocide is the moral imperative of our era,” declares Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein in this episode of The Chris Hedges Reports as she continues her campaign for the U.S. presidency. Joined by running mate, Professor Butch Ware, the two make their case as to why they should earn the vote of every disenfranchised American, stuck in the woes of personal domestic struggles and the atrocities committed abroad on their behalf by a self-serving empire. Stein’s view is clear when looking at how the election is shaping up: “Forget the lesser evil, there is no lesser evil. You have two genocidal candidates, one conducting genocide right now and the other promising to finish the job.”

We’ve Organized for Palestinian Liberation for Years. Here’s What We Learned. Jewish anti-Zionists share insights on our collective struggle to build a strong left in the face of looming disaster. Left movements are engaged in some of the hardest work there is — politically, emotionally and spiritually — because it involves changing peoples’ perceptions of the world, fighting against a status quo that is accepted as a given. That is true for abolitionists, for queer and trans people fighting for their rights, for the Land Back movement, and for all those fighting against capitalism. It is also true of anti-Zionist Jews organizing for Palestinian freedom, as we have for over two decades. This work often requires challenging your own communities, engaging with and moving through painful feelings, and building a vision of a new world — tasks that can be very lonely for a long time. That has been the reality of our work too, and we have tried to share it in all its complexity, pain, beauty and strategic utility in our new book, Solidarity is the Political Version of Love: Lessons from Jewish Anti-Zionist Organizing, about our years in staff leadership at Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).

Stop Genocide: Israel’s Final Solution to the Palestine Problem The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result” Attributed to Einstein This is a short communication about a huge topic. The focus is the obvious steps to end the Gaza genocide, Israel’s Final Solution. The current Israeli protest is not about the genocide but about the Hannibal Policy directive to kill Israeli hostages so that these hostages cannot be used to bargain in prisoner exchanges. Here in fact is a report about what is concurrent to protests — Israel’s escalating massacres in the West Bank and Gaza.   In these times the most dire world situations worsen: Palestine, climate, nuclear weapons. See for example and re Palestine, nuclear weapons, climate.     Here is just one day of repetitive representative news about this genocide since Oct 7, reported by Democracy Now.

Black Agenda Radio August 30, 2024Jill Stein’s Green Party Campaign Green Party nominee for president, Dr. Jill Stein, talks to us   about her campaign and how she plans to surmount the challenges the Green Party faces from the Democratic Party.

 Richard Medhurst Arrested and Facing Terrorism Act Charges Our guest is Richard Medhurst . He is an independent journalist who covers international affairs on his Youtube channel and in other outlets. But Medhurst made news of his own when he was arrested on August 15 at Heathrow airport in London under Section 12 of the Terrorism Act of 2000 and was accused of ‘expressing an opinion or belief that is supportive of a prescribed organization.’ He was not permitted to contact his family and had difficulty contacting legal counsel during the nearly 24 hours that he was held and all of his electronic devices were confiscated. He joins us from London to discuss the Terrorism Act, his own case, and the implications of prosecuting journalists.

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!

‘Colossal Waste’: US Leads Way in Public Spending on False Climate Solutions “The fossil fuel industry delays climate action, distracts from real solutions that would end the fossil fuel era, and does everything in its power to squeeze the last drops of profit from a dying industry, at the expense of all of us.”

The Brockovich Report: A Big Office Blunder: Bacteria Found In EPA Buildings Legionella Detected At Federal Offices, Plus A Massive PFAS Spill in Maine First in Chicago. Drinking water samples tested positive for Legionella bacteria along with lead and copper at EPA offices at the Ralph H. Metcalfe Federal Building prompting the union representing EPA employees based there to file a formal complaint.    “If we can’t address it in our own building, then how can we have the credibility to address it on behalf of the people in the region?” Loreen Targos, executive vice president of AFGE 704, the union that represents about 1,000 federal EPA workers, and a scientist with the EPA, told CBS News.    Reminds me of the time I visited the U.S. Congress in 2016 and their water was shut down due to unsafe lead levels. In that case, staffers who worked at the Cannon House Office Building may have been exposed to lead-contaminated water for as long as nine months. Wild, right?

First Things First: Designate all Greater Yellowstone Wilderness Study Areas as Wilderness There’s a boiling controversy right now over the future of hundreds of thousands of acres of Forest Service lands abutting Yellowstone National Park and comprising the core of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. These lands are primarily in the Gallatin and Madison Ranges which are facing increasing pressures from a variety of development and recreational pressures.     The vast majority of the area is protected by the Wilderness Study Areas in Senator Lee Metcalf’s Wilderness Study Act of 1977 which mandates that they be managed under the provisions of the Wilderness Act of 1964 until Congress decides to either designate them as “Big W” Wilderness Areas or release them for multiple abuse.

Black Liberation/Civil Rights:

It’s Still the Same Old Prejudiced Media:

1994 Fact: Due to institutionalized racism of American society, Blacks are seven times more likely to be incarcerated than whites. The rate for whites is 289 per 100,00; the rate for African Americans is 1860 per 100,000.    In the aftermath of the rebellion in South Central L.A. two years ago, there has been a massive media blitz to make “violent crime” the major issue of the day. After all the hype, polls have been taken that show crime as the “major” issue—ahead of unemployment, health, taxes, etc.     According to a recent survey by the Center for Media and Public Affairs, the three major TV networks aired more than twice as many crime stories last year than in 1992. Meanwhile the crime rate has remained virtually the same. — Crime and Punishment: ‘Three Strikes and You’re Out’ Targets Blacks and Poor

2024 Headline: 4 Dead in Mass Shooting in Georgia dominated Media; 42 dead in Mass Bombardment in Gaza Ignored

Where’s Bernie?!:  In Vermont, Abolitionists Are Fighting a Prison-Building Boom Why is “progressive haven” Vermont spending millions on new prisons? Abolitionists like Jayna Ahsaf are fighting back. Vermont plans to build four new carceral facilities over the next decade — a project that could cost as much as half a billion dollars. Belying the state’s reputation as a progressive haven, Vermont’s prison-building boom is part of a national pattern. Across the country, state governments and corporations are justifying their expansion of mass incarceration by claiming they are constructing “trauma-informed prisons.” In this interview, abolitionist Jayna Ahsaf speaks with Truthout about the campaign in Vermont to stop the state’s prison-building plans. Ahsaf is an organizer with FreeHer Vermont, a campaign of the National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women.

Black Agenda Report

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 decade of the long recovery, from June 2009 through July2024, the labor force participation rate consistently fell from 65.7 to 62.8 percent. —Paul Craig Roberts, The Diminishing American Economy (Updated)

Labor Force Participation Rate is 62.7%

Economy:

A Wall Street Regulator Is Understating Margin Debt by More than $4 Trillion – Because It’s Not Counting Giant Banks Making Margin Loans to Hedge Funds Most market watchers rely on the monthly margin debt figures published by Wall Street’s self-regulator, FINRA, as the reliable gauge in determining how much of securities trading on Wall Street is being done with borrowed money, known as margin debt.    According to the FINRA data, as of March 31, 2024, margin debt stood at $784.136 billion.   Unfortunately, FINRA only has access to margin debt data filed by the brokerage firms it regulates (also known as brokers and dealers). Thanks to the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999, which allowed federally-insured banks to be gobbled up by the trading casinos on Wall Street, the vast bulk of margin debt is now being loaned out not by brokerage firms but by giant banks where the U.S. taxpayer will be on the hook for a bailout if they go belly up from bad gambles – as occurred in the crash of 2008.

World:

‘Calculated Dishonesty and Greed’ Blamed for London’s Deadly Grenfell Fire “The Grenfell Report gives us official confirmation: 72 people needlessly died because of corporate deceit, deregulation, privatization, ignorance, and contempt for working-class communities,” wrote Jeremy Corbyn. Seven years after the U.K.’s worst residential fire since World War II, the second half of a report on the causes of the Grenfell Tower disaster partly attributed the deadly blaze to corporate greed.     The Phase 2 report, released Wednesday, blamed both private malfeasance and government deregulation for the fire on June 14, 2017, which claimed the lives of 72 people, including 18 children, when the cheap, flammable cladding surrounding the building ignited.

Killing Bazaars: The Land Forces Expo Down Under Between September 11 and 13, the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC) will play host to a bazaar of networking and deal making as part of a show that really ought to be called The Merchants of Death Down Under.  And the times for these merchants are positively bullish, given that total global military expenditure exceeded US$2.4 trillion in 2023, an increase of 6.8% in real terms from 2022.     The introductory note to the event is, typically in the lingo of the industry, mildly innocuous, even dull.  “The Land Forces 2024 International Land Defence Exposition is the premier platform for interaction between defence, industry and government of all levels, to meet, to do business and discuss the opportunities and challenges facing the global land defence markets.”

 Paris Olympics 2024: Celebration Capitalism Around the Eiffel Tower The Eiffel Tower was unquestionably the focal point and the superstar of the recent Olympic Games in Paris. That is understandable, since Gustave Eiffel’s master piece has been the emblem of the city for a long time. However, the tower is also a symbol of the wealth and power of the bourgeoisie, the “capitalist class”, a patriciate whose exclusive ranks also happen to include the ladies and gentlemen of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). A soupcon of history may help us to understand the centrality the tower in the recent Olympic extravaganza in the “city of light”.

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