Daily News Digest December 12, 2024
Images of the Day:
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:
From Exclusive: Luigi’s Manifesto: “… A reminder: the US has the #1 most expensive healthcare system in the world, yet we rank roughly #42 in life expectancy. United is the [indecipherable] largest company in the US by market cap, behind only Apple, Google, Walmart. It has grown and grown, but as our life expectancy? No the reality is, these [indecipherable] have simply gotten too powerful, and they continue to abuse our country for immense profit because the American public has allwed them to get away with it. Obviously the problem is more complex, but I do not have space, and frankly I do not pretend to be the most qualified person to lay out the full argument. But many have illuminated the corruption and greed (e.g.: Rosenthal, Moore), decades ago and the problems simply remain. It is not an issue of awareness at this point, but clearly power games at play. Evidently I am the first to face it with such brutal honesty. …”
Permafrost is full of carbon that has been locked away by plants over millennia. But last year’s permafrost temperatures were the second warmest on record, hastening melting of the frozen soil. Once the ground thaws, microbes in the soil become active and consume the newly available carbon, releasing it into the atmosphere as methane and carbon dioxide. — Arctic Tundra Now Emits Planet-Warming Pollution, Federal Report Finds
Podcasts/Vide0s of the Day:
“Terrorist Organization” Means Whatever The US Wants It To Mean The US government is simultaneously (A) preparing to remove from its list of designated terrorist organizations the group which led the charge to oust Bashar al-Assad in Syria and (B) justifying Israel’s land grab in Syria by saying the nation has been taken over by terrorists.
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.
Cops apture Suspected CEO Shooter Luigi Mangione After evading authorities for five days, Brian Thompson’s assassin was finally caught at a McDonald’s in Altoona, PA. Dubbed “The Adjuster” on social media, Luigi Mangione has been received as a modern-day folk hero. The following is an update and supplement to our original article, written before his capture.
‘Tis the Season to Talk Climate Collapse, Nuclear Colonialism, and Freeing Leonard Peltier I don’t know about you, but personally, the whole festive holiday thing seems to be falling a bit flat this year. Don’t get me wrong, like every other year, I do plan to really go to town on a pumpkin pie or two. But this year, the annual deluge of Black Friday ads egging us on to higher levels of consumption–with corresponding carbon emissions and solid and liquid waste–seemed particularly hollow, morbid–predatory, even–falling as Black Friday did this year on November 29, the date the U.N. first recognized in 1977 as International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. This year all the excess, forced pageantry, and planned obsolescence of Black Friday seems in such stark and ironic contrast to the poverty in Gaza. From Plymouth to Palestine. Winter is coming soon to Gaza where hundreds of thousands of shell-shocked people are struggling against the odds to care for themselves and their families–from infants to elders and recent amputees on crutches and in wheelchairs, as well as people with other disabilities– eking out lives in the streets, tents, and precarious ruins of shelled out apartments. In The Guardian, Kaamil Ahmed and Ana Lucía González Paz describe Gaza as a “sonic hellscape” filled variously with the “incessant buzzing of drones” and “more violent intrusions: Israeli missile strikes, sirens, gunfire and the screams of frightened people.” And the situation is unlikely to get better under Herr
Resurgent Puerto Rico Independence Movement Challenges 126 Years of Colonialism Openly promoting decolonization and a social democratic alternative, a historic coalition made record electoral gains. Weeks after the November elections, officials in Puerto Rico are still counting votes. The agonizing delays and inefficiency have elicited frustration and calls for serious electoral reform. Yet one outcome appears undeniable: The pro-independence candidate for governor of Puerto Rico, Juan Dalmau, made record electoral gains. According to a preliminary review, Dalmau received the second-most votes while representing the Alliance, a historic coalition between the Puerto Rican Independence Party and Citizens’ Victory Movement.
The Drug War is/was Used to Funnel Labor to Corporate Slave-Labor for Progit Prisons and Profits for Capitalists Money Laundering! To Stop Make Drugs Legal and End Profits for Drug Dealers and Their Money Lunderes!: In the 2001 article: War on Drugs Dirty Money Foundation of US Growth and Empire Size and Scope of Money Laundering by US Banks by James Petras, Professor of Sociology, Binghamton University, he explains that 500 Billion to a Trillion dollars gets added to world capitalist economy through “illegal means.” he concludes the article with the following: “The increasing polarization of the world is embedded in this organized system of criminal and corrupt financial transactions. While speculation and foreign debt payments play a role in undermining living standards in the crisis regions, the multi-trillion dollar money laundering and bank servicing of corrupt officials is a much more significant factor, sustaining Western prosperity, U.S. empire building and financial stability. The scale, scope and time frame of transfers and money laundering, the centrality of the biggest banking enterprises and the complicity of the governments, strongly suggests that the dynamics of growth and stagnation, empire and re-colonization are intimately related to a new form of capitalism built around pillage, criminality, corruption and complicity. “‘This Goes Straight to the Top.’”
And while Obama’s drug czar, former Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske, has said the War on Drugs should no longer be called a war, Obama’s budget for law enforcement is actually worse than the Bush administration’s in terms of the ratio of dollars devoted to prevention and drug treatment as opposed to law enforcement.53 Obama, who is celebrated as evidence of America’s triumph over race, is proposing nothing less than revving up the drug war through the same failed policies and programs that have systematically locked young men of color into a permanent racial undercaste. — Chapter 5, The New Jim Crow: Obama—the Promise and the Peril By Michelle Alexander
U.S. Continues To Pump Billions Into International Drug War Since 1971, the U.S. has spent more than $1 trillion on the War on Drugs, through a law enforcement-focused approach that has continued despite evidence it doesn’t work. United States taxpayers continue to fund a destructive and deadly drug war in low- and middle-income countries across the world, with almost $13 billion allocated to counternarcotics efforts since 2015, details a new analysis. A joint report, “A World of Harm,” released Dec. 4 by Harm Reduction International and the Drug Policy Alliance reveals the extent of the funding dispensed from various U.S. government departments to militarized anti-drugs efforts in countries such as Mexico, Colombia and the Philippines. Some of the money comes from streams which are meant to aid poverty reduction projects, the report shows.
United States Armed and Funded Terrorist Middle East War/Palestinan Genocide: When Biden Says ‘He’s a Zionist’ —Believe Him!
US Probes n for Reportedly Blocking Port for Ships With Weapons for Israel International legal experts have said that countries sending weapons to Israel may be violating international law. The U.S. has opened an investigation into Spain after the government has reportedly denied port entry to ships carrying U.S. weapons bound for Israel, as part of the government’s opposition to Israel’s genocide in Gaza and obligations under international humanitarian law to block arms shipments to Israel.
This Needs to Stop’: UN Envoy Condemns Israeli Military’s Advance on Syria. “What we are seeing is a violation of the disengagement agreement from 1974,” said Geir Pedersen, the United Nations’ special envoy to Syria. The United Nations’ special envoy to Syria said Tuesday that the Israeli military’s rapid move to seize Syrian territory following the Assad government’s collapse is a grave violation of a decades-old agreement that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims is now dead.
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!
‘People Power Works’: Shell Backs Down in Anti-Protest Lawsuit Against Greenpeace “Shell thought suing us for millions over a peaceful protest would intimidate us, but this case became a PR millstone tied around its neck,” said the co-executive director of Greenpeace U.K. The United Kingdom-based oil giant Shell agreed Tuesday to settle a major lawsuit the company brought against Greenpeace after activists from the group boarded and occupied a company oil platform last year to protest fossil fuel expansion. Greenpeace said in a statement that as part of the settlement, it agreed to donate £300,000—roughly $382,000—to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, a charity that helps save lives at sea, but will pay nothing to Shell and accept no liability. The donation represents a fraction of the over $11 million in damages and legal costs defendants faced, the group said.
Drylands Now Make Up 40% Of Land On Earth, Excluding Antarctica, Study Says An Area Nearly A Third Larger Than India Turned Permanently Arid In Past Three Decades, Research Showsdrylands Now Make Up 40% Of All Land On Earth, Excluding Antarctica. Three-Quarters Of The World’s Land Suffered Drier Conditions In The Past 30 Years, Which Is Likely To Be Permanent, According To The Study By The UN Science Policy Interface, A Body Of Scientists Convened By The United Nations.
Arctic Tundra is Now Emitting More Carbon Than it Absorbs, US Agency Says Drastic shift driven by frequent wildfires, pushing surface air temperatures to second-warmest on record since 1900 The Arctic tundra is undergoing a dramatic transformation, driven by frequent wildfires that are turning it into a net source of carbon dioxide emissions after millennia of acting as a carbon sink, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said on Tuesday.
The US Must Join the Global Fight Against Desertification to Prevent a Second Dust Bowl Desertification is no longer a distant issue; it’s an urgent threat that directly impacts food security, economic stability, and the resilience of communities in the U.S. and beyond. You grab the duct tape and sprint to the windows in an attempt to seal them from the wind that blows in heavy dust and dirt. But your attempts at prevention are ineffective, yet again. You smother Vaseline inside your nostrils, hoping the moisture will catch the dust particles before they irritate your lungs. As you shelter from the dust storm, you feel the ache in your stomach from the lack of food. Crops have been failing due to the ferocity of the wind, and the sky is dark black from the dust clouds that hang overhead. Not a single ray of sunshine has broken through the complete obscurity in weeks. This description is not a dystopian imagining of a far-off future. It’s a real firsthand account from a farmer who lived in Oklahoma during the years of the 1930s Dust Bowl, one the most devastating natural disasters in U.S. history. The Dust Bowl wasn’t just the result of drought; it was driven by unsustainable land use practices, including the removal of native grasses and over-plowing for agriculture. What followed was environmental devastation, economic collapse, and the displacement of millions. This period remains a dark reminder of what happens when land is mismanaged, and its lessons are more relevant than ever as the world faces the growing crisis of desertification.
US Supreme Court Hears Oil Railway Case With Environmental Protections at Stake Backers of blocked Utah railway proposal want justices to narrow scope of 50-year-old environmental legislation The future of environmental safeguards protecting communities, wildlife and waterways from harm will be considered by the US supreme court on Tuesday, in a case about a proposed oil train that threatens to upend five decades of legal precedent. The case brought by Utah’s Seven County Infrastructure Coalition and Uinta Basin Railway LLC is asking the supreme court to overturn a federal appeals court decision blocking the approval of an 88-mile railway through the Uinta Basin in north-eastern Utah. The railway’s backers want the court to narrow the scope of the National Environmental Policy Act (Nepa) – the country’s landmark environmental legislation passed by Congress and signed by Richard Nixon in 1970
Black Liberation Civil Rights:
Labor:
Economy:
World:
Health, Education, and Welfare:
The Hated US Healthcare System Is Why Government Shouldn’t Be Run Like a Business Because the desire of right-wing billionaires not to pay taxes have prevailed ever since Truman first proposed single-payer healthcare, Americans spend significantly more on healthcare than other developed countries. The recent assassination of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare—the health insurance company with, reportedly, the highest rate of claims rejections (and thus dead, wounded, and furious customers and their relations)—gives us a perfect window to understand the stupidity and danger of the Musk/Trump/Ramaswamy strategy of “cutting government” to “make it more efficient, run it like a corporation.” Consider healthcare, which in almost every other developed country in the world is legally part of the commons—the infrastructure of the nation, like our roads, public schools, parks, police, military, libraries, and fire departments—owned by the people collectively and run for the sole purpose of meeting a basic human need.