Daily News Digest December 9, 2024
Images of the Day:
Billionaire Cabinet: We Share Your Concern
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:
Caitlin Johnstone
Let us not, however, flatter ourselves overmuch on account of our human victories over nature. For each such victory nature takes its revenge on us. Each victory, it is true, in the first place brings about the results we expected, but in the second and third places it has quite different, unforeseen effects which only too often cancel the first. The people who, in Mesopotamia, Greece, Asia Minor and elsewhere, destroyed the forests to obtain cultivable land, never dreamed that by removing along with the forests the collecting centres and reservoirs of moisture they were laying the basis for the present forlorn state of those countries. When the Italians of the Alps used up the pine forests on the southern slopes, so carefully cherished on the northern slopes, they had no inkling that by doing so they were cutting at the roots of the dairy industry in their region; they had still less inkling that they were thereby depriving their mountain springs of water for the greater part of the year, and making it possible for them to pour still more furious torrents on the plains during the rainy seasons. Those who spread the potato in Europe were not aware that with these farinaceous tubers they were at the same time spreading scrofula. Thus at every step we are reminded that we by no means rule over nature like a conqueror over a foreign people, like someone standing outside nature – but that we, with flesh, blood and brain, belong to nature, and exist in its midst, and that all our mastery of it consists in the fact that we have the advantage over all other creatures of being able to learn its laws and apply them correctly. — Engles. The Part Played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man
Podcasts/Vide0s of the Day:
The Real Villains None of the world’s worst people are in prison.
Why Bill Gates is Buying Up Varmland? Bill Gates made headlines for becoming the largest private farmland owner in the U.S. But he’s not the only one. Some of the wealthiest landowners including Jeff Bezos, John Malone and Thomas Peterffy are buying up forests, ranches and farmlands across the United States. Why? Watch the video to find out. Investments in farmland are growing across the country as people, including the ultra-wealthy like Bill Gates, look for new ways to grow their money. In 2020, Gates made headlines for becoming the largest private farmland owner in the U.S. He had accumulated more than 269,000 acres of farmland across 18 states in less than a decade. His farmland grows onions, carrots and even the potatoes that are used to make McDonald’s French fries. “It’s an asset with increasing value,” American Farmland Trust CEO John Piotti said. “It has great intrinsic value and beyond that, it is a limited resource.” The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that 30% of all farmland is owned by landlords who don’t farm themselves.
Lena Herzog: You Cannot Win a Nuclear War Though one can debate the reasons, statistics and precedent of nuclear war, what is often left out of the conversation is the reality of it: destruction of the world as a whole. In her new immersive art experience titled, “Any War, Any Enemy,” immersive artist Lena Herzog throws this reality literally right in the faces of viewers. The film can uniquely be experienced via virtual reality as well as a traditional screen and it plainly shows what nuclear war looks like. Herzog begins the film with a quote stating nuclear war is not war. She tells host Robert Scheer on this episode of Scheer Intelligence that she begins with this because “the word ‘war’ is disorienting, because in war, you can have a battle, you can lose a battle, you can win a war. You cannot win a nuclear exchange. It’s omnicide. It’s not war.”
[Podcast] French Government Falls, Syrian Civil War Reignites, Biden Pardons Corrupt Son, And Korean President Gambles On Martial Law This Week Has Been Full Of Sharp And Sudden Turns. The Syrian Civil War Has Suddenly Reignited Due To The Shock Advance Of A Turkey-Backed Rebel Group. The French President Was Forced To Resign After Trying To Force Through An Austerity Budget. Joe Biden Has Used His Last Few Weeks In Power To Pardon His Corrupt Son. And, To Top Things Off, The President Of South Korea Declared Martial Law, Only To Be Quickly Defeated By Opposition From The Whole Of Parliament And Mass Mobilisations. Everywhere We See Increasing Instability, War And Political Turmoil. All Of These Are Symptoms Of The Profound Economic And Social Crisis, A Product Of The Complete Impasse Of The Capitalist System.
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!)
Migration isn’t the Problem! The Migration of Wealth to the 1% is the Problem! The most significant “migration problem” is not the movement of people across borders, but rather the migration of wealth into the hands of a small elite (1%) which ultimately drives people to migrate in search of better economic opportunities! Addressing wealth inequality is key to tackling the root cause of global migration issues! — Roland Sheppard
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.
Patrick Lawrence: The Biden Family of Liars Given Joe Biden’s apparently intimate involvement in Hunter’s dealings, it follows that his intent in pardoning his son is effectively to secure a pardon for himself. With his shocking presidential pardon of his son Hunter, announced Thanksgiving weekend, when the maximum number of Americans would be watching football games and consuming potato chips, Joe Biden goes out just as he was the whole of his tatty career as a politician — a self-serving fiddler, indifferent to democratic process, ever going against his word.
Scott Ritter: Congress Must Prevent Nuclear War Today is the gravest danger of nuclear war than at any time in the nuclear era. ,,, Today Americans from all walks of life are confronted with the real threat of nuclear war — many experts, me included, believe that there is a greater danger today that at any time in the nuclear era for a nuclear war — greater than during the Cuban Missile Crisis. This is an overwhelming reality, one so stark and intimidating that many people feel powerless to do anything about it. But there is something that can be done. Stop the ATACMS. When one breaks down the myriad of factors that contribute to the risk of a nuclear conflict between the U.S. and Russia, one issue emerges as the principle trigger for conflict — the decision by President Joe Biden to authorize Ukraine to fire U.S.-made ATACMS missiles (with assistance of U.S. personnel and satellites) against targets on Russian soil. This action prompted Russia to escalate by launching an intermediate-range missile in retaliation against a target in Ukraine, and to threaten additional launches against targets located on soil belonging to NATO members, potentially triggering a larger war, one which could easily end up in a nuclear exchange between the U.S. and Russia (an exchange senior officers involved in the planning of nuclear war for the US have said they are prepared to engage in.) Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, back in September of this year, refused to greenlight the use of ATACMS missiles by Ukraine against Russia, noting that the weapons would not turn the tide on the battlefield, but would increase the risk of dangerous escalation. This was sound thinking. For some reason, President Biden, in mid-November, thought differently, and gave Ukraine the permission it had been seeking. And now we find ourselves on the cusp of a nuclear war.
United States Armed and Funded Terrorist Middle East War/Palestinan Genocide: When Biden Says ‘He’s a Zionist’ —Believe Him!
Tlaib: Congress “Can No Longer Deny” Israeli Genocide After Amnesty Report Advocates are reigniting calls for an arms embargo on Israel after landmark findings that Israel is committing genocide. Advocates for Palestinian rights have reignited their calls for the U.S. to stop sending arms to Israel following a landmark Amnesty International investigation concluding that Israel is committing genocide, as many Palestinians and experts have been saying for months. “My colleagues can no longer deny that this is genocide,” said Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan). “We must follow our own U.S. laws. We need an Arms Embargo now.”On Thursday, Amnesty released a sprawling report determining that Israel’s assault of Gaza amounts to genocide, citing Israel’s relentless attacks, blocking of humanitarian aid, targeting of health and other basic infrastructure, forced displacement of 90 percent of Gaza’s population, and more.
World’s Largest Sovereign Wealth Fund Drops Israeli Telecom Giant The Israeli economy continues to take hits weeks after major credit companies downgraded Tel Aviv’s rating. Norway’s sovereign wealth fund has sold all its shares in Israeli telecom giant Bezeq, citing the company’s presence in illegal West Bank settlements. “The company (Bezeq), through its physical presence and provision of telecom services to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, is helping to facilitate the maintenance and expansion of these settlements,” the Norwegian’s funds ethics council stated in its recommendation for the divestment.
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!
The Super-Rich Are Gobbling Up Earth’s Future and Our Leaders Are Letting Them “What wealthy nations do take seriously: the interests of their wealthy. And that seriousness is setting the world up for abject climate failure.” Billions upon billions give our world’s wealthiest an overabundance of mind-boggling political power, and right now they’re wielding that power to protect their fortunes at the expense of our planet’s future.
Big Oil Told 70 Years Ago That Fossil Fuel Emissions Could Impact ‘Civilization’ April 6, 1955, was a perfect spring day in Los Angeles. Downtown, the skies were unusually smog-free as Lauren B. Hitchcock, president of the Air Pollution Foundation, made his way up the marble steps of the city’s exclusive California Club for a meeting with some of the West Coast’s most powerful businessmen. Waiting inside the club’s oak-paneled rooms were top executives from California’s major oil companies. They were the Air Pollution Foundation’s largest funders, and they were not happy. As the foundation’s president, it was Hitchcock’s job to oversee a research program aimed at solving Southern California’s escalating smog crisis – a crisis that had provoked mass protests throughout Los Angeles County only a few months before. Determined to tackle every possible source of smog, Hitchcock was investigating the region’s numerous oil and gas refineries. On top of this, he was publicly demanding action to curtail air pollution across the state, angering the members of the industry’s oldest lobby group, the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), then known as the Western Oil and Gas Association (WOGA). Several weeks earlier, the foundation had also published a report containing the bombshell warning that carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from fossil fuels could have considerable long-term consequences for “civilization.” Displeased, WSPA’s senior leaders summoned Hitchcock to the California Club where they reprimanded him, spelling out in no uncertain terms exactly what they expected in return for their hefty financial contributions. Over lunch, WSPA’s oilmen criticized Hitchcock for supporting pollution controls across California, for drawing “attention” to refinery pollution, and for conducting “too broad a program” of research. Instead, they told him they had formed the Air Pollution Foundation to be “protective,” that Hitchcock should serve as “the research director for the oil industry” and the foundation should publish “findings which would be accepted as unbiased” where the oil industry’s findings were not seen as trustworthy!
As Oceans Warm, Weather Goes Berserk Hotter oceans kill plankton, upon which the entire maritime ecosystem depends. They are the meal at the base of the food chain – seas without plankton will rapidly become seas without fish and then without marine mammals. Already depleted by industrial over-fishing and immensely destructive techniques like trawling the sea floor (now fortunately banned in many locations across the globe), oceans cannot tolerate the disappearance of plankton due to hotter water; that would cause cataclysmic ichthyologic decimation. But hotter oceans don’t just mean no sushi on the menu. They engender more hurricanes, and indeed the most recent hurricane season so far cost the U.S. over $100 billion.
Insurance Companies Understand (Don’t Deny) the Risks of Global Warming! How Climate Risks Are Driving Up Insurance Premiums Around the Us – Visualized ‘Tight correlation’ between premium rises and counties deemed most at risk from climate crisis, experts say Concern over the climate crisis may evaporate in the White House from January, but its financial costs are now starkly apparent to Americans in the form of soaring home insurance premiums – with those in the riskiest areas for floods, storms and wildfires suffering the steepest rises of all. A mounting toll of severe hurricanes, floods, fires and other extreme events has caused average premiums to leap since 2020, with parts of the US most prone to disasters bearing the brunt. A climate crisis is starting to stir an insurance crisis.
Black Liberation Civil Rights:
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 November 2024, the labor force participation rate consistently fell from 65.7 to 62.5 percent. —Paul Craig Roberts, The Diminishing American Economy (Updated)
Labor Force Participations Rate is 62.5%
The Real Unemployment Rate Is 27.8%, a 30s Depression Rate!: Sent by Email: Shadow Government Statistics 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. November Unemployment U.3 (the Narrowest Measure) Widened to 4.25% from 4.15% in October, with U.6 Widening to 7.8% from 7.70%, and Alternate ShadowStats Rate widened from 26.7% to 27.8%!
Economy:
Sent by Email: Shadow Government Statistics
Commentary December6. 2024.: Today’s Headlines, Some as Previewed University of Michigan’s Early-December 2024 Consumer Sentiment Remained Suggestive of Mounting Inflation Concerns and An Economy That Has Yet to Recover. Pre-Pandemic Likely Was Only Reflected Partially in the December Sentiment Numbers
- University of Michigan’s Early-December 2024 Consumer Sentiment Remained Suggestive of Mounting Inflation Concerns and An Economy That Has Yet to Recover Pre-Pandemic Activity
- November Unemployment U.3 (the Narrowest Measure) Widened to 4.25% from 4.15% in October, with U.6 Widening to 7.8% from 7.70%, And Alternate ShadowStats from 26.7% to 27.8% Today’s Rising November Unemployment Likely Was Only Reflected Partially in the December Sentiment Numbers
- Activity November Unemployment U.3 (the Narrowest Measure) Widened to 4.25% from 4.15% in October, with U.6 Widening to 7.8% from 7.70%, And Alternate ShadowStats from 26.7% to 27.8% Today’s Rising November Unemployment .
- Previously Headlined, With Full Coverage Pending:
- Federal Reserve’s Money Supply Liquidity and the Federal Government’ Uncontained Deficit Spending and Exploding Federal Debt Are Fueling Inflation
- October Money Supply Confirmed a Continuing 58-Year Peak in Monetary System Liquidity and Likely Intensifying CPI Inflation Unprecedented,
- Unconstrained Federal Deficit Spending Also Continues to Fuel the Flames of Inflation U.S. Government CPI Inflation Reporting Games, Gold Prices and Officially Depressed Annual Adjustments to Social Security Payments Holdings of Physical Gold and Silver Offer Meaningful Mitigation to the Surging Inflation Risks
- Next Week’s Commentary Will Review the Background of All the ShadowStats Alternativee Measures, Specifically the CPI and Related Headline Understatements of Social Security COLA
Despite More than 1600 Tech Scientists Signing a Letter Calling Crypto a Sham, Trump Names a Crypto Cheerleader for SEC Chair Two years ago, more than 1,600 computer scientists, software engineers and technologists from around the world sent a letter to U.S. Senate and House Committee Chairs, Ranking Members, and Congressional leaders. There were 45 signatories that were employed at Google at the time; 19 who worked at Microsoft; 11 employed at Apple. There were signatories that are Ph.Ds from the most prestigious universities in the world, including the University of Oxford and MIT. And all 1,600 signed a letter that says this about crypto and blockchain:
World:
Health, Education, and Welfare: