Daily News Digest December 13, 2024

Daily News Digest Archives 

Images of the Day:

Failed Strategy: ‘Reform the 1%’s Democratic Party’!:Ted Rall: Move Right, No Matter What Progressive Democrats and Corporate Democrats are blaming themselves for their party’s latest defeat. But the corporate Democrats run the party, it was their candidates including Biden and Harris who fell flat and they didn’t allow progressives to have anything to do with the campaign or their strategy.

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:

But the poor person does not exist as an inescapable fact of destiny. His or her existence is not politically neutral, and it is not ethically innocent. The poor are a by-product of the system in which we live and for which we are responsible. They are marginalized by our social and cultural world. They are the oppressed, exploited proletariat, robbed of the fruit of their labor and despoiled of their humanity. Hence the poverty of the poor is not a call to generous relief action, but a demand that we go and build a different social order.” ― Gustavo Gutiérrez

Podcasts/Vide0s of the Day:

Benjamin Netanyahu Is Hilariously Saying That Israel Has “No Intention f Interfering In Syria’s Internal Affairs. ”Only Israel could invade and occupy large stretches of a country, bomb it 480 times in 48 hours, destroy 80 percent of its military defenses, and then claim that it has no intention of interfering in that country’s internal affairs.

Black Agenda Radio December 6, 2024

Omali Yeshitela on the Uhuru 3 Sentencing and the Indictment of the U.S.

Richard Medhurst Discusses the Terrorism Act and the Criminalization of Journalism

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.

Survivor of US Atomic Bombing Makes Plea to World With Nobel Acceptance Speech “Let us all strive together to ensure that humanity is not destroyed by nuclear weapons, and to create a human society where there are no nuclear weapons and no war,” said Terumi Tanaka. 

More Unaccountable Money Going Down the Pentagon Money Hole!: Despite 100% Pentagon Audit Failure Rate, House Passes $883.7 Billion NDAA “Instead of fighting the rising cost of healthcare, gas, or groceries, this Congress prioritized rewarding the wealthy and well-connected military-industrial complex,” said Defense Spending Reduction Caucus co-chairs.

How a Decades-Old Loophole Lets Billionaires Avoid Medicare Taxes For most working Americans, paying their share of the taxes that fund Medicare is an unavoidable fact of life. It’s so automatic for many workers that they may not even realize it takes a bite out of every paycheck. In theory, everyone is required to contribute to the country’s health insurance program for seniors, no matter how poor or rich, from cashiers to CEOs.     Not on Wall Street. There, some of the most powerful people in finance found a way to opt out.The trove of tax records behind ProPublica’s “Secret IRS Files” series contains plenty of examples of billionaire financiers who avoided Medicare tax despite earning huge amounts from their companies. In 2016, Steve Cohen, the owner of the New York Mets, paid $0. So did Stephen Schwarzman, head of the investment behemoth Blackstone. Bill Ackman, the headline-grabbing hedge fund manager, was able to shield almost all his income from the tax.     How do they do it? Business owners, like any self-employed person, whether they’re a freelance Uber driver or a hedge fund manager, have the responsibility to declare their self-employment earnings on their tax returns. Indeed, the vast majority of small-business owners have no choice but to do so and pay the same taxes that wage earners pay, including Medicare.

United States Armed and Funded Terrorist Middle East War/Palestinan Genocide:   When Biden Says ‘He’s a Zionist’ —Believe Him!

Israel in It’s Role as Foot Soldiers for Imperialism in the Middle East!: Israel Says It Launched 480 Strikes in Syria Since Fall of Assad The Israeli military said Tuesday that it launched 480 strikes in Syria over 48 hours following the overthrow of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which Israeli media said marked the heaviest Israeli bombing of Syria in history.    The IDF said it struck “most of the strategic weapons stockpiles in Syria” and estimated it destroyed between 70% to 80% of the former government’s weapons. Israeli strikes hit targets across Syria, including the port of Latakia, which destroyed naval vessels.

Assad Falls, Islamists Take Over Syria The Syrian regime has collapsed. The resulting power vacuum is being filled by local militias and warlords, backed by various imperialist powers seeking to redivide the country and the region. The Syrian masses can only rely on their own strength.

  1. Assad falls, Islamists take over Syria (below)
  2. The unravelling of Syria: a legacy of imperialist war and meddling
  3. Syria from revolution to counter-revolution, how it happened and why – a reading guide

The Syrian regime has collapsed. Bashar al-Assad has fled the country. His army has disarmed, and his government has capitulated. The prisons have been overrun, and thousands have been released. Meanwhile, thousands of Syrians have taken to the streets in celebration.    The power vacuum is being filled by local militias and warlords who have taken hold of different localities throughout the country.     Druze militias have taken over Sweida and nearby localities in the south. US-backed militias in Al Tanf are advancing on the center of the country, and Iranian militias have reportedly retreated from Deir Ezzor, handing control to Kurdish SDF fighters.    Meanwhile, Russian forces have retreated to the western coastal areas along with remnants of Assad’s forces.    Nevertheless, in spite of all the talk of an inclusive transitional government, it is the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) that has undeniably emerged as the dominant force in Syria today.    What started ostensibly as a limited military operation in the Aleppo countryside by the group quickly developed into the unravelling of the Syrian army and state altogether.

 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!

‘A Human Face on an Abstract Problem’: ICJ Forced to Listen To Climate Victims Marginalised communities have been elevated during hearings in The Hague on impact of climate crisis The village of Veraibari in Papua New Guinea sits at the mouth of the Kikori River, just before it opens into the Pacific. “Veraibari was so beautiful when I was a child,” remembers Ara Kouwo, 52. “I used to walk down to the beach passing under mango trees.”     Kouwo’s testimony was one of many included in written submissions to the international court of justice (ICJ) before hearings that began last week and continue until Friday in a landmark case in which the court has been asked to give an advisory opinion on “the obligations of states in respect of climate change”

‘I have to Live IN A Cocoon’: Locals in Pennsylvania Feel ‘Sacrificed’ for Shell Plastics Plant Residents accuse the oil firm of overstating the benefits of its ethane cracker plant – and playing down the harms Nadine Luci lives on a breezy hill south-western Pennsylvania, but hardly ever opens her windows for fear the air outside is harming her.     “I have to live in a cocoon year-round,” she said.     Luci, 60, lives just two miles from the Shell Pennsylvania Petrochemicals Complex, a huge plant that “cracks” ethane, a byproduct of fracked gas, to make millions of tons of plastic each year. The plant, which became operational in 2022, sits on 386 acres along the Ohio River in Monaca, Pennsylvania.

Leaf Blowers: An Invisible Source of Climate Chaos and Harm to Human and Environmental Health Prologue   One of the reasons I moved to Claremont, California, in 2008 was Claremont’s banning of the gasoline-powered leaf blowers. I detested them long before 2008. I still do. They are harmful and useless.     Leaf blowers are mostly powered by Earth-heating petroleum and gasoline to move leaves from trees on the ground from one spot to another. Why would anyone want to do that? So that the “gardener” or homeowner can trash those leaves.     Tree leaves: ecology, beauty and light   Imagine the ignorance that also powers this process. Deciduous trees let their leaves drop to the ground in winter.      Lower winter temperatures stress trees and prepare them for spring renewal when the leaves reappear to support the life of the trees. And in a normal ecosystem without human intervention the fallen leaves would become food and protective cover for insects and other wildlife, small mammals and amphibians. Leaves would also become fertilizer, and eventually soil.      But in the unhealthy environment of cities, humans have this crazy notion they know more and better than nature. What about the overwintering wildlife without the cover of leaves? How’s that biodiversity is supposed to survive without tree leaves? Have we thought enough about the harm we cause with our mania to make trash all this fantastic energy, beauty and light in the leaves of trees?

Black Liberation Civil Rights:

The Media Monoply’s  Iron Heel!:  Chris Hedges: Letter to Refaat Alareer     Dear Refaat,     We are not silent. We are being silenced.   The students who, during the last academic year set up encampments, occupied halls, went on hunger strikes and spoke out against the genocide, were met this fall with a series of rules that have turned university campuses into academic gulags.      Among the minority of academics who dared to speak out, many have been sanctioned or dismissed. Medical professionals who criticize the wholesale destruction by Israel of hospitals, clinics and targeted assassinations of health workers in Gaza have been suspended or terminated from medical school faculties with some facing threats to revoke their medical licenses.     Journalists who detail the mass slaughter and expose Israeli propaganda have been taken off air or fired from their publications. Jobs are lost over social media posts. The tiny handful of politicians who condemn the killing have seen millions of dollars spent to drive them from office. Algorithms, shadow-banning, deplatforming and demonetizing – all of which I have experienced – are used to marginalize or ban us on digital media platforms. A whisper of protest and we are disappeared.     None of these measures will be lifted once the genocide ends.      The genocide is the pretext. The result will be one huge step towards an authoritarian state, especially with the ascendancy of Donald Trump.      The silence will expand, like a great cloud of sulfurous gas.   We choke on forbidden words.   They killed you.      They are strangling us. The goal is the same.     Erasure. Your story, the story of all Palestinians, is not to be told

Black Agenda Report

Labor:

Economy:

 Trump Takes Aim at BRICS and the Global Economy Donald Trump, a man who never shied from bold declarations, has once again turned the global stage into a theater of economic brinkmanship. His target: the BRICS coalition, a bloc of emerging powers that includes China, Brazil, India, Russia, and South Africa (and now Iran, the UAE, Ethiopia, and Egypt as well). With more than 30 countries showing interest, BRICS is steadily challenging the traditional economic order.     Trump, in his signature style, announced on Truth Social that BRICS nations could face 100 percent tariffs should they dare to establish a unified currency or undermine the U.S. dollar. “The idea that BRICS countries are trying to move away from the Dollar while we stand by and watch is OVER,” he declared, a warning laced with the defiance that defined his presidency.     Such rhetoric, pointed and pugnacious, reveals the deep unease in Washington as this coalition’s economic clout grows. Although the notion of a BRICS currency is tantalizing, it faces formidable obstacles: economic disparities, political tensions, and the challenge of aligning diverse national interests. Yet, the use by BRICS of alternative financial systems to sidestep Western sanctions—particularly for Russia and Iran—signals a shift that could chip away at the dollar’s dominance.

Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Purchasing Power of the Consumer Dollar in U.S. City Average is $32.7 (1982-1984=$1.00)Sent to me by Email: Shadow Government Statistics Weekly Commentary December 11, 2024John Williams, Shadow Government Statistics Banner

  • Headline, Unadjusted November 2024 Annual CPI Inflation Rates Rose to Four-Month Highs, With the CPI-U at 2.75% Year-to-Year, Up from 2.60% And the ShadowStats Alternate CPI at 10.5%, Up from 10.4%
  • Noted Previously: Both Federal Reserve Extreme Monetary Stimulus And the Federal Government’s Unfettered Deficit Spending and Debt Expansion Continue to Fuel Intensifying Consumer Inflation, Not the Fed’s “Storied,” Theoretical “Overheating Economy”
  • October 2024 Money Supply Numbers Confirmed a Continuing 58-Year Peak in Monetary System Liquidity and Likely Intensifying CPI Inflation
  • Unprecedented and Unconstrained Federal Deficit Spending Certainly Continue Fueling the Flames of Inflation
  • Holdings of Physical Gold and Silver Offer Meaningful Mitigation of Surging Inflation Risks
  • S. Government CPI Inflation Reporting Games vs. Gold Prices and Officially Depressed Annual Adjustments to Social Security Payments Are Reviewed Next Week, With the ShadowStats Alternate CPI and Related Adjustments to the Officially Depressed Headline CPI Used to Understate of Social Security COLAs (et al)

Donald Trump to Ring Bell at New York Stock Exchange Today as Hit List Posters Appear in Manhattan Targeting Wall Street CEOs The Associated Press is reporting that Donald Trump will ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange at 9:30 a.m. this morning as Time Magazine is expected to name him its “Person of the Year,” also today.     This appears to be the latest in growing efforts by Trump’s marketing machine to define deviancy down while attempting to normalize Trump’s unprecedented monetizing of the Presidency as nothing more than good ole capitalism. (The Trump Organization now has its own “official retail website,”     TrumpStore.com, hawking everything from sweaters and gift wrap to a line of home goods, all emblazoned with the “Trump” name.) If Trump does show up this morning to ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange, it will be his first time doing so. It will also be the first time that a 34-count convicted felon has rung the bell at the New York Stock Exchange while awaiting to be inaugurated as President of the United States on January 20.

World:

Health, Education, and Welfare:

USA: Class Hatred and the Assassination of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO Last week, a masked man shot to death the CEO of one of America’s largest healthcare insurance companies. While members of the ruling class shrink in fear, the class hatred amongst many ordinary Americans is palpable. Wednesday morning, Americans woke up to the news that UnitedHealthcare’s CEO, Brian Thompson, had been shot to death in a targeted attack outside a Manhattan hotel.     The country’s capitalists and their representatives shed collective tears for the death of one of their own.     One of the first to react was Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota, Kamala Harris’s running-mate in the last election, who described Thompson’s death as “a terrible loss for the business and health care community.”     Millions of workers across the country did not share in that sentiment. Health insurance is one of the most hated industries in the country, having negatively touched the lives of nearly every single worker in the form of increased premiums, denials of coverage, and more.     Medical expenses are the leading cause of bankruptcy in the US with 41% of the population in debt over medical bills and three million Americans in debt to the tune of $10,000 or more. This, despite 90% of Americans having insurance coverage.

 Malaria Cases Rise for Fifth Year as Disasters And Resistance Hamper Control Efforts The disease killed 600,000 people amid 263m cases globally in 2023, says WHO, calling for nations to address funding shortfall Malaria killed almost 600,000 people in 2023, as cases rose for the fifth consecutive year, according to a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO). Biological threats such as rising resistance to drugs and insecticides, and climate and humanitarian disasters continue to hamper control efforts, world health leaders warned.