Daily News Digest September 24, 2024
Images of the Day:
Heat, Floods, Pests, Disease, and Death: What Climate Change Means for People in Prison
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:
We need leaders not in love with money but in love with justice. Not in love with publicity but in love with humanity. Leaders who can subject their particular egos to the pressing urgencies of the great cause of freedom…..a time like this demands great leaders. — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Negro leaders suffer from this interplay of solidarity and divisiveness, being either exalted excessively or grossly abused. Some of these leaders suffer from an aloofness and absence of faith in their people. The white establishment is skilled in flattering and cultivating emerging leaders. It presses its own image on them and finally, from imitation of manners, dress and style of living, a deeper strain of corruption develops. This kind of Negro leader acquires the white man’s contempt for the ordinary Negro. He is often more at home with the middle-class white than he is among his own people. His language changes, his location changes, his income changes, and ultimately he changes from the representative of the Negro to the white man into the white man’s representative of the Negro. The tragedy is that too often he does not recognize what has happened to him. — Martin Luther King Jr. 1967, The Black Power Defined
Podcasts/Vide0s of the Day:
The Tipping Points of Climate Change — and Where We Stand | Johan Rockström The Earth System in Crisis The Earth system scientists and climate scientists are getting seriously nervous. The planet is changing faster than we have expected. We are, despite years of raising the alarm, now seeing that the planet is actually in a situation where we have underestimated risks. Climate changes are occurring in a way that is way beyond the realistic expectations in science.
‘I’m Terrified for What Comes Next.’ Chris Hedges (w/ George Galloway)
To Be An Authentic Person Is To Stare Deeply Into The Face Of Uncomfortable Truths It’s to experience all the footage of shredded bodies in Gaza with a visceral understanding that these are real things happening to real people whose lives mattered just as much as your own.
Chris Hedges and Glenn Greenwald on Media, Terror, Gaza, and More
Israel Hates Truth Israel keeps attacking Al Jazeera, assassinating journalists and bombing press offices for the same reason the mafia kills witnesses.
Biden Didn’t “Fail” To Get A Ceasefire; He Never Tried
Europe Prepares For Hot War With Russia, US Readies For Hot War With China
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.
There is No Peace! Just Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace!: How Do We Observe the International Day of Peace in a Time of Genocide? Our movements must build a future where an arms embargo on Israel and a permanent ceasefire in Gaza is a reality. The International Day of Peace is marked around the world each year on September 21. But this year, as we mourn the deaths of more than 41,000 Palestinians killed by the Israeli military, I am struggling to find the words to express my grief. What is there to say that has not already been said — and ignored — millions of times in these last 11 months? How do we honor these lives and continue our struggle for a world where peace and justice prevail?
United States Armed and Funded Palestinan Genocide:
UN Officials Urgently Call for Lebanon Cease-Fire as Middle East on ‘Brink of Catastrophe’ However, there was no hint of de-escalation as Israeli warplanes bombed Beirut, killing dozens of people including senior Hezbollah commanders and women and children.
Hezbollah, Target Israel with Cruise Missiles, Drones Iraqi Shiite Militias Pledge Aid to Lebanese Tamim al-Hasan at the al-Mada newspaper in Baghdad reports that at a time when an imminent announcement is expected of the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, Iraqi paramilitary groups have declared their solidarity with Lebanon’s Hezbollah in the struggle with Israel. Moreover, they are putting their drones where their mouths are, attacking Israel on Sunday.
Hezbollah Targets Israeli Airbase as Lebanon-Israel Attacks Escalate; Americans told to Flee Al Jazeera reports that Hezbollah escalated its rocket attacks on northern Israel and Syria’s Golan Heights occupied by Israel. Some of these rockets targeted the Ramat David Air Base near Haifa. The Israeli military said that most of the Hezbollah rockets were intercepted.
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!
Elite US Universities Rake in Millions From Big Oil Donations, Research Finds Student-led analyses raise concerns of conflict of interest at six universities, including Princeton, Columbia and Cornell Prestigious US universities are raking in millions of dollars from fossil fuel interests, raising concerns about conflicts of interest. And one university even appears to have owned a petroleum company from which it has earned millions of dollars, according to a spate of new reports produced by student organizers. …Since 2003, the researchers found, the six schools have together accepted over $100m in fossil fuel industry-tied funding, defined as money from fossil fuel companies or their charitable arms. Millions more in funding are coming from firms that “enable” the fossil fuel industry, the students said, such as banks that fund oil expansion or groups that have spread climate disinformation. These numbers are sure to be understatements, the students said, as most university research centers do not disclose their donors publicly, and as some students only tracked contributions over the past decade.
‘Back With a Bang’: Climate Marches Kick Off Worldwide as Global South Seeks Reparations “It is unconscionable that Global North governments have continuously rejected their responsibility to deliver adequate climate finance for the Global South.” Climate protesters across the world hit the streets on Friday to kick off this year’s Global Climate Strike ahead of the opening of high-level United Nations General Assembly meetings next week, where climate finance for the Global South is on the agenda. Protests for climate justice were planned across 50 countries, with Germany alone seeing more than 100 rallies that together drew some 75,000 people. The protests were spearheaded by the youth-led group Fridays for Future (FFF), started by Greta Thunberg in 2018. The New York chapter of the group marched across the Brooklyn Bridge Friday afternoon aiming to “tear down the pillars of the fossil fuel industry.”
Corporations Plunder US West’s Water Amid Worst Drought in 1,200 Years Profiteering companies are lining up to buy water rights in the western US as the water supply dwindles.Rural La Paz County, Arizona, positioned on the Colorado River across from California, is at the center of a growing fight over water in the American Southwest. At the heart of the battle is a question: Should water be treated as a human right, to be allocated by governments with the priority of sustaining life? Or is it a commodity to be bought, sold and invested in for the greatest profits? As the West suffers its worst megadrought in 1,200 years, investors have increasingly eyed water as a valuable asset and a resource to be exploited. For years, investment firms have bought up farmland throughout the Southwest, drilling to new depths for their water-hungry crops and causing nearby wells to run dry. Now, new players have entered the scene: “Water management companies” are purchasing up thousands of acres of farmland, with the intention of selling the water rights at a profit to cities and suburbs elsewhere in the state. Some argue that treating water as a commodity can efficiently get it where it is needed most. But others fear that water markets open the door to profiteering and hoarding, leaving poorer communities in the dust.
Three Mile Island Nuclear Reactor to Restart to Power Microsoft AI Operations Pennsylvania plant was site of most serious nuclear meltdown and radiation leak in US history in 1979
From UK to Norway, Drillers Legally Dump Tonnes of Toxic, Radioactive Waste into the North Sea! The oil and gas industry has been using the basin as a free disposal site for decades.It was a stormy grey day in 1987 when a young environmental scientist found himself wearing a survival suit with a set of homemade sampling contraptions trailing in the ocean on an inflatable boat in the Baltic Sea. He was hunting a waste stream much of the world had never heard of: oilfield waste. …It was a stormy grey day in 1987 when a young environmental scientist found himself wearing a survival suit with a set of homemade sampling contraptions trailing in the ocean on an inflatable boat in the Baltic Sea. He was hunting a waste stream much of the world had never heard of: oilfield waste.
Black Liberation/Civil Rights:
‘Cruel and Unusual Punishment’: ‘Even the Breeze Was Hot’: How Incarcerated People Survive Extreme Heat in Prison The Marshall Project and the Prison Journalism Project asked incarcerated reporters to document the impact of extreme heat on their facilities. Their stories reveal the brutal reality
Evironmental Racism: Every Petrochemical District is a ‘Cancer Alley! Cancer Alley: Cancer Alley (French: Allée du Cancer) is the regional nickname given to an 85-mile (137 km) stretch of land[1] along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, in the River Parishes of Louisiana, which contains over 150 petrochemical plants and refineries.[2] This area accounts for 25% of the petrochemical production in the United States.[3] The region is considered a sacrifice zone.[4] In Cancer Alley, forty-six individuals per one million are at risk of developing cancer, compared with the national average of roughly thirty individuals per one million.[3] The abnormally high cancer risk and concentration of petrochemical operations inspired the “Cancer Alley” moniker.
‘This Is an Emergency’: 1 Million African Americans Live Near Oil, Gas Facilities In some states, 1 in 5 African-American residents lives within a half-mile of an oil or gas production, processing or storage facility, a new study says. A new analysis concludes what many in African-American communities have long experienced: Low-income, black Americans are disproportionately exposed to toxic air pollution from the fossil fuel industry. More than 1 million African Americans live within a half-mile of oil and natural gas wells, processing, transmission and storage facilities (not including oil refineries), and 6.7 million live in counties with refineries, potentially exposing them to an elevated risk of cancer due to toxic air emissions, according to the study.
Fossil Fuel Industry Disproportionately Harms Low-Income Women, Women of Color Six key issues impacting women are highlighted in a new report, including health outcomes and environmental racism. The report, published by Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN), analyzed existing research about fossil fuel extraction and related facilities to explore the unequal impacts on women of color in North America. WECAN identified nine regions that appeared most frequently, including the Gulf Coast, to focus additional research. From this, the group highlighted six issues that appeared most often in research associated with the fossil fuel industry: environmental racism, increased caretaking responsibilities, pollution, fertility and reproduction impacts, “man camps” and mental health effects. Impacts were either related to race, income status, gender identity or a combination of these three.
How California Police Agencies Dole Out Disability Pensions to Problem Officers: Key Takeaways From Our Investigation Few jobs are as dangerous as that of a police officer. Acknowledging this, California offers generous disability pensions to those who are so severely injured that they can no longer wear the badge. But an investigation by the San Francisco Chronicle and UC Berkeley’s Investigative Reporting Program found that law enforcement agencies have, in many cases, doled out tax-free pensions as an expedient way to get rid of a problem employee — not because they acknowledge a grievous on-the-job injury.
Labor:
United States: Turbulence Ahead as Class Struggle Heats Up at Boeing One minute after midnight on September 13, thirty-three thousand members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) Districts 751 and W24 walked off the job and set up picket lines. It’s the first strike since 2008 at Boeing, the aerospace behemoth employing 66,000 workers throughout Washington state and over 171,000 nationwide. A headline in the capitalist press summed up the situation this way: “Bosses bruised, blindsided, and on brink of crisis.” The bosses may have been “blindsided,” but to anyone following recent developments in the class struggle at Boeing, the steadfastness and determination of the workers comes as no surprise.
Economy:
World:
George Monbiot: More Floods are Coming to Britain, But You Ought to Know This: The System That Should Protect Us is a Scandal! A network of public bodies are supposed to safeguard us from flooding. But, like old boys’ clubs, they are bastions of self-interest.
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