Daily News Digest September 30, 2024
Images of the Day:
Ted Rall: Another Government Shutdown?
Bibi’s October Suprise
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:
The Big Lie Technique:
Naturally, The Common People Don’t Want War
A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, “This way of settling differences is not just.” This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation’s homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. — Martin Luther King, Beyond Vietnam — A Time to Lift the Silence
Podcasts/Vide0s of the Day:
Climate Change and Migration in Mexico: A Report Launch
Ignore Their Words; Watch Their Actions While the mass media publish White House press releases disguised as news stories about the president’s feelings and celebrity progressives assure us that this administration is “working tirelessly for a ceasefire,” the Israeli Defense Ministry is announcing that it has secured another $8.7 billion in military aid from the US.
Capitalism Is Driven By Mental Illness How bizarre is it that our entire civilization is structured around values and priorities which are so fake and ridiculous that ingesting an ancient psychedelic potion causes even wealthy CEOs to quit their jobs and change their lives?
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.
US Capitalism’s Attacks on Free Speech!: ‘Appalling’: US Funded Secret Industry Network Targeting Pesticide Critics “It’s one thing to have an industry come after you after publishing a critical article. This happens all the time in journalism,” said writer Michael Pollan, one of those featured in the corporate files. “But to have your own government pay for it is outrageous!”
Today’s Big Lie? — Immigration!: Who’s Nazi Now? The Dangerous U.S. War on Immigrants Faced with two wars, nuclear confrontation, extreme economic inequality, and a climate crisis — not to mention threats to reproductive rights, forever chemicals, housing shortages, gun violence, and rising educational debt – what do 82% of Republican and 39% of Democratic voters, according to a Pew Research poll, say is the most important issue in the Presidential election? Immigration. A nation of immigrants, with dying main streets, empty classrooms, and labor shortages in key industries, is about to cast its votes based in large part on which candidate can best be trusted to reduce rates of both legal and illegal immigration. The biggest news story in the past several weeks was whether or not Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio (population 58,000) have been snatching and eating their neighbors’ pets. (It was quickly established they haven’t.)
United States Armed and Funded Middle East War/Palestinan Genocide:
US Gives Israel $8.7 Billion in Military Aid for Operations in Gaza and Lebanon On Thursday, the Israeli Defense Ministry announced that it secured $8.7 billion in military aid from the US to support its “ongoing military efforts,” meaning the genocidal slaughter in Gaza and Israel’s dramatic escalation in Lebanon. The ministry said in a statement that its director-general, Maj. Gen. Eyal Zamir, concluded negotiations in Washington to secure the military aid. It said the package includes $3.5 billion for “essential wartime procurement” that has already been sent to Israel and a $5.2 billion grant for air defenses. The ministry said the $5.2 billion for air defenses “will significantly strengthen critical systems such as Iron Dome and David’s Sling while supporting the continued development of an advanced high-powered laser defense system currently in its later stages of development.” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin vowed Thursday that the US would continue arming Israel and brushed off the idea of the US setting red lines. “We’ve been committed from the very beginning to help Israel, provide the things that are necessary for them to be able to protect their sovereign territory and that hasn’t changed and won’t change in the future,” he said.
Lebanon: One Step Closer to Middle East war Airstrikes hit more than 1,600 targets inside Lebanon on Monday 23 September, the first day of Israel’s bombing campaign. Around 500 people were killed and over 1,600 were injured, while tens of thousands more fled the southern areas of the country. Israel’s undeclared war against Hezbollah has begun. A prolonged and massive bombardment of southern Lebanon is now taking place in preparation for a subsequent land invasion. In response, Hezbollah has launched hundreds of rockets, some long-range, towards Haifa, Galilee, Safad, the Sea of Galilee, and the Golan Heights. Meanwhile, the Israeli military continues to concentrate troops and armoured vehicles on the border with Lebanon.
At UN, China Slams US Sanctions on Iran, Accuses Israel of ‘Indiscriminate Attacks on Civilians’ Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, during his first appearance at the annual UN General Assembly meeting, met on the margins of the conference with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. He elicited from the Chinese one of the strongest statements of Chinese support we have seen. According to the UAE’s al-Khaleej, Wang told Pezeshkian, “No matter how the international and regional situation develops, China will always be a reliable partner of Iran.” This statement seems to have been intended to reassure Tehran in the wake of the Israeli attack on Lebanon, where the Hezbollah party-militia is a close ally of Iran. Wang continued, “China will continue to support Iran in maintaining its sovereignty, security, territorial integrity and national dignity.” He insisted that China will take a strong stand against all those who “interfere in Iran’s internal affairs and impose sanctions.” The latter is a slam at the United States.
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!
No, Europe Does’t Need US LNG Rather than channeling support into fossil giants like LNG export plants, we need a transatlantic strategy to get off fossil fuels. Europe is the biggest market for U.S. fracked gas exports. This fracked gas is liquefied—turned into LNG—and then shipped to the E.U.’s shores. Once regasified it runs in pipelines to fuel industry processes or heat homes or food. While it was enthusiastically titled “Freedom Gas” in 2019, when the E.U.-U.S. LNG deal was forged, more and more Europeans realize today that this gas comes with a very bitter aftertaste, concerning both our planet’s climate and the environment as well as human rights and the health of impacted communities. This spring, I had the opportunity to meet Corpus Christi and Southern Louisiana inhabitants and learn firsthand about the devastating impact that the LNG industry, on top of all other polluting industries impacting the community, has on people and their health, water, air, and livelihoods. Industry operations in petrochemical and LNG export locations in the U.S. Gulf Coast are linked with heart, lung, and kidney diseases; significantly lower life expectancy; water and air pollution; loss of biodiversity; and structural human rights violations as well as structural environmental racism. It becomes more and more clear to any remotely responsible energy user that all this is what Europeans are importing when they import LNG, molecule by molecule, vessel by vessel.
United Nations Climate Reports
- UNSurging Seas in a Warming World “Rising seas are a crisis entirely of humanity’s making. The world must act, and answer the SOS before it is too late.” The latest science on present-day impacts and future projections of sea-level WMO | United in Science 2024 The United in Science 2024 report offers much-needed grounds for hope. It explores how advances in natural and social sciences, new technologies and innovation enhance our understanding of the Earth system and could be game changers for climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction and sustainable development. Extreme heat is deadly and disrupts economies and societies. Modelled estimates show that between 2000 and 2019, approximately 489,000 heat-related deaths occurred each year, with 45 per cent of these in Asia and 36 per cent in Europe1. Heat exposurerelated loss in labour capacity resulted in average potential income losses equivalent to US$863 billion in 20222. In the past 100 days alone, we witnessed heat-related deaths in countries from Saudi Arabia to India, heatstroke warnings across Japan, schools closing in Bangladesh and the Philippines, severe heat warnings issued by governments in Southeast Europe, and new temperature records across the United States. The climate crisis is driving crippling heat everywhere. June 2024 was the 13th consecutive month to break global temperature records.3 As of writing, it is increasingly likely that 2024 will be one of the, if not the, hottest year in recorded human history.4 Billions of people around the world are wilting under increasingly severe heatwaves driven 1 Zhao et al, 2021 Global, regional, and national burden of mortality associated with non-optimal ambient temperatures from 2000 to 2019: a threestage modelling study https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34245712/ 2 https://www.lancetcountdown.org/about-us/interact-with-the-key-findings/ 3 https://climate.copernicus.eu/june-2024-marks-12th-month-global-temperatures-15degc-above-pre-industrial-levels 4 https://wmo.int/publication-series/state-of-global-climate-2023 largely by a fossil-fuel charged, human-induced climate crisis. This is a taste of the future and impels us to take bold decisions to change the way we live to avoid an even more scorched Earth in the future. II. UN | Call to Action on Extreme Heat
A first-of-its-kind product, underscoring the multi-sectoral impacts of extreme heat. Extreme heat is deadly and disrupts economies and societies. Modelled estimates show that between 2000 and 2019, approximately 489,000 heat-related deaths occurred each year, with 45 per cent of these in Asia and 36 per cent in Europe1. Heat exposurerelated loss in labour capacity resulted in average potential income losses equivalent to US$863 billion in 20222. In the past 100 days alone, we witnessed heat-related deaths in countries from Saudi Arabia to India, heatstroke warnings across Japan, schools closing in Bangladesh and the Philippines, severe heat warnings issued by governments in Southeast Europe, and new temperature records across the United States. The climate crisis is driving crippling heat everywhere. June 2024 was the 13th consecutive month to break global temperature records.3 As of writing, it is increasingly likely that 2024 will be one of the, if not the, hottest year in recorded human history.4 Billions of people around the world are wilting under increasingly severe heatwaves driven 1 Zhao et al, 2021 Global, regional, and national burden of mortality associated with non-optimal ambient temperatures from 2000 to 2019: a threestage modelling study https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34245712/ 2 https://www.lancetcountdown.org/about-us/interact-with-the-key-findings/ 3 https://climate.copernicus.eu/june-2024-marks-12th-month-global-temperatures-15degc-above-pre-industrial-levels 4 https://wmo.int/publication-series/state-of-global-climate-2023 largely by a fossil-fuel charged, human-induced climate crisis. This is a taste of the future and impels us to take bold decisions to change the way we live to avoid an even more scorched Earth in the future.
III. UN | Resourcing the Energy Transition Principles and recommendations to embed equity and justice in the energy transition. Executive Summary The global climate crisis has arrived. This year has already included the three hottest days in recorded history, with deadly extreme heat affecting much of Asia and the Middle East. Raging wildfires continue to devastate parts of North America and Europe. Record-setting floods have inundated communities from Brazil to Bangladesh. Severe droughts beset Southern Africa. Artic permafrost is in thaw. Sea levels are rising, wildfires are burning, extreme heat is crippling. The window to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and meet the goals of the Paris Agreement is closing. (More)
Black Liberation/Civil Rights:
Frederick Douglass: The Moral Physician for all Seasons Racism, like cancer, seems incurable as it continues to ravage our nation; its social, cultural and political life imperiled by a relentless disease affecting millions, many of whom deny its very existence. Even so, we must continue to celebrate the undaunted courage and determination of our moral physicians, those who, sustained by hope and idealism, persist in the struggle to find cures or, at the very least, mitigate the suffering of the most endangered. Theirs is a search for healing and truth, and it is that search that fundamentally inspired me to write a novel about Frederick Douglass, using a popular literary genre to introduce and familiarize readers with the life of a remarkable, complicated literary genius who consistently promoted the best in ourselves and in our nation. Douglass dedicated his life and work to celebrating and explaining freedom, equality, and justice for all while exposing the fundamental threat to the fulfillment of the American experiment: racism and its institutional arms, slavery and discrimination. He warned in a speech, “Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.”
Labor:
Economy:
World:
Sri Lanka: A New Chapter in the Revolution ‘Marxist-leaning president wins Sri Lanka’s elections’: this is how the result of the country’s presidential elections on the weekend have been reported in the international press. The headlines are incorrect, but the facts are sensational enough. For the first time, a party outside the duopoly that has dominated Sri Lanka since independence in 1948 has taken the presidency. All of the old politics, parties and dynasties, all of the old crooks and leeches who have sucked Sri Lanka dry for 76 years, were on the ballot paper and the masses rejected them roundly.
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
‘A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death’.:
New Report on Pandemic-Era Funding Shows ‘Childcare Crisis Is a Policy Choice’ “Childcare is a public good and needs robust federal investment to maintain progress that was made with relief funds and to avoid further crisis,” reads an analysis. With the last of the federal childcare funding included in coronavirus pandemic relief set to expire at the end of September, two civil society groups on Thursday released an analysis of the “significant benefits” the funding included for families and early childhood educators across the U.S.—showing that the federal government could, and “must,” gain control of the nationwide childcare crisis with robust investments. Published by the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) and the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), Cliff Notes: Key Takeaways From Pandemic-Era Child Care Relief and the Child Care Funding Cliff analyzes the childcare benefits included in the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021, which provided $24 billion in childcare stabilization grants and $15 billion in supplemental money for the existing Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG)—the latter of which is set to expire September 30.