Daily News Digest May 11, 2016

Daily News Digest Archives

Daily News Digest May 11, 2016

Image of the Day:

The Results of the Wars on Drugs/TerrorismImageoftheDay Quotes of the Day:

The release comes as more than 300 economic experts sent a letter to world leaders urging them to abolish the veil of secrecy that surrounds offshore banking and close loopholes that allow the wealthy to avoid paying taxes. It also follows the publication of a manifesto last week written by the whistleblower, who still goes by the anonymous name John Doe, which slammed “America’s broken campaign finance system” and denounced capitalism as “financial slavery.” “In this system—our system—the slaves are unaware both of their status and of their masters, who exist in a world apart where the intangible shackles are carefully hidden amongst reams of unreachable legalese,” Doe wrote. “When it takes a whistleblower to sound the alarm, it is cause for even greater concern. It signals that democracy’s checks and balances have all failed, that the breakdown is systemic, and that severe instability could be just around the corner.” “Income inequality is the defining issue of our time,” Doe wrote. — Panama Papers Goes Live with Searchable Database of Tax Evaders

. . . The presidential primaries offer a single choice for both Democrats and Republicans to vote for empire and permanent war. This year’s entertainment spectacle, what we call democratic elections, is a particularly gross circus of meaninglessness, misinformation, sound bites, and lies. Both parties are in support in the continuation of the US/NATO global empire of permanent war and the protection of the capital of the global 1%. Even Bernie Sanders calls for drone strikes and continued war on Isis and other evil terrorists. . . . —  Voting for Empire is the Sole Option for Democrats and Republicans

The “social contract” that was first initiated by the UFCW leadership during the P-9 strike is being implemented more and more widely. Basically, with few exceptions, the rights of union workers have been atomized to the point that they are prevented, by labor-management and government policy, from organizing against the class collaborationism of the trade union bureaucracy. The bureaucracy acts in place of the union as a whole. The membership just pays dues, through the dues check-off system, with no control over how the unions function. The union bureaucrats have been in the forefront of organizing the decline of the standard of living of the whole working class as part of their ‘partnership’ with capital, with the bureaucrats receiving regular payment through the dues check-off system. This is the “partnership” that the trade union bureaucracy has been creating to police the working class. We have to understand that this has been done behind the backs of the working class and that the working class has suffered the consequences of the decline in its standard of living without a fight due to its systematic atomization. — The Fall of the Trade Union Movement (2010 Update) Elections: The Default of The Trade Union Movement

Video the Day:

A Tale of Two Police Shootings

U.S.:

Panama Papers Goes Live with Searchable Database of Tax Evaders: More than 200,000 documents now available to the public as fallout from last month’s leak continues by Nadia PrupisPanamaPapers Environment:

 Ongoing/Big Energy Disasters!:

Duke Study Finds A “Legacy of Radioactivity,” Contamination from Thousands of Fracking Wastewater Spills by Sharon Kelly

DukeStudy
The Missouri River runs by a fracking site in North Dakota. (Photo: EcoFlight)

Rail Safety Report Card: Only 225 Of Over 100,000 Unsafe Tank Cars Were Retrofitted in First Year By Justin Mikulka

Black Liberation/Civil Rights:

Black Agenda Radio for Week of May 9, 2016

      • Democrats  Black Liberation Movement  charter schoolsBarRadioDetroit Teachers “Browbeaten” Back to Work by National Union: The two-day teachers sick-out that closed Detroit public schools last week was about much more than paycheck issues, said Steve Conn, the former elected local union president who, along with activists from BAMN (By Any Means Necessary), has been leading teacher sick-outs since November. “It’s about fighting the governor’s plan to destroy the schools. Gov. Snyder wants to replace public education in Detroit with a charter model,” said Conn. More than half of Detroit students already attend charter schools, second only to New Orleans. The sick-out was popular among teachers and the public, but ended prematurely when national union president Randi Weingarten “and her local flunkies browbeat the teachers into going back to work,” said Conn. “They snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.”

        Towards a National Black Political Agenda: The Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations plans to hold events in cities around the country in coming months to put together a National Black Political Agenda. The project grew out the Coalition’s national conference on the 2016 elections, convened in Harlem, New York, last month. “The timing is excellent,” given the turmoil in the duopoly parties, said Coalition chairman Omali Yeshitela. “We don’t have to settle for an outcome that’s determined by these folks who are tied to the ruling establishment. We can speak for ourselves and have an agenda of our own that will influence the political direction of Black people.” Yeshitela hopes the agenda can be completed in time for the Coalition’s annual march on the White House and national conference, in November.

        Sawant Petitions for Sanders to Dump Democrats After Convention: Seattle city councilwoman and Socialist Alternative Party leader Kshama Sawant is circulating a petition that Bernie Sanders run as an independent to pave the way for a third electoral party. But, what about the Green Party, which expects to be on the ballot in most states in November? “If there is any possibility of Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein running together on a Green Party ticket this year, I would support that wholeheartedly,” said Sawant. “Something like that could help build the basis of an independent party of the 99%, which is the most critical project we have to get started on.”

        With GOP Help, Hillary Will Move Democrats Further Right:“Get ready for the whiplash,” said historian, activist and author Paul Street, predicting that an influx of anti-Trump Republicans will assist Hillary Clinton in pushing the Democratic Party even further rightward, once Bernie Sanders’ supporters on the left have been pacified. “The Democratic Party is about to go from being the party that allowed a self-declared democratic socialist to go very far in the primary process, to becoming the objectively truer and more fully explicit ruling class party in the country,” now that Donald Trump has split from the Republican corporate establishment. Street’s latest book is titled They Rule: The 1% Versus Democracy. Click to hear Black Agenda Radio, Read more

Breaking News: ‘There Is No Migrant Crisis’: In fact, the world is facing ‘a crisis of global injustice caused by war, poverty, and inequality,’ says Global Justice Now by Deirdre FultonNoMigrantCrisisLabor:

The Fall of the Trade Union Movement (2010 Update) Elections: The Default of The Trade Union Movement By Roland Sheppard

The Results of Taft-Hartley ActFallUnionsEconomy:

WallStreetOnParadeNew York Fed President Is Worrying About the Next Crash; He Should Be  By Pam Martens and Russ Martens:MartensWorld:

Britain: Labour’s May elections – Not what the Right Wing wanted: The election results across England and Wales were a shock – a shock for Labour’s right wing, who had been prophesying of electoral Armageddon for the Labour Party under Corbyn. By Rob SewellBritainThe Ugly Truth Behind the Greek Bailout: ‘Economists studied each loan separately to establish where the money ended up, and concluded that just 9.7 billion euros, or less than 5 percent, went to the Greek budget for the benefit of citizens’. by Robert HunzikerGreeceHealth, Education, and Welfare:

Daily News Digest May 10, 2016

Daily News Digest Archives

Daily News Digest May 10, 2016

Images of the Day:

Bread and Roses ImageoftheDayAccumulation of Wealth and Poverty  ImageoftheDay2 copy

Quotes of the Day:

“How can you have a war on terrorism when war itself is terrorism?” ― Howard Zinn

. . . The time has come to turn up the heat on the small band of companies and people still willing to get rich off fossil fuel, even though it’s now utterly clear they’re breaking the planet. . . . — The Time Has Come to Turn Up the Heat on Those Who are Wrecking Planet Earth

Like Hurricanes Katrina (2005) and Sandy (2012) and numerous other climate-related. not-so natural disasters, the Canadian Wildfire of 2016 is yet another attempt by Mother Nature (I write on Mother’s Day) to wake humanity up to the deadly costs of the fossil fuel addiction imposed on it by — and this is something you won’t hear on CNN or for that matter from McKibben or Hansen (you can hear it from Klein) — the ruling class masters of capital [1]. We cannot depend on the carbon-caked corporate and financial powers that be or their growth- and accumulation-addicted profits system to help us avert environmental catastrophe, which is unfolding before our very eyes and not just those of “our grandchildren.” — Paul Street, Break Free or Burn in Hell: a Message From the Canada

The men of the Niagara Movement coming from the toil of the year’s hard work and pausing a moment from the earning of their daily bread turn toward the nation and again ask in the name of ten million the privilege of a hearing. In the past year the work of the Negro hater has flourished in the land. Step by step the defenders of the rights of American citizens have retreated. The work of stealing the black man’s ballot has progressed and the fifty and more representatives of stolen votes still sit in the nation’s capital. Discrimination in travel and public accommodation has so spread that some of our weaker brethren are actually afraid to thunder against color discrimination as such and are simply whispering for ordinary decencies. — W.E.B. Duboise, Niagara Movement Speech

Video the Day:

Realist 3-Mins of his Career — George Carlin

U.S.:

‘There’s Never Been a Drug Law That Wasn’t Tied to Race’ By Janine Jackson

DrugLaw
Video image of the first SWAT raid–directed against the Black Panther Party (via New York Times)

Exclusive: Emails Reveal Navy’s Intent to Break Law, Threatening Endangered Wildlife By Dahr Jamail  Navy'sIntentEnvironment: 

Break Free or Burn in Hell: a Message From the Canada by Paul StreetPaulStreetTar Sands Boomtown Blaze Still ‘Burning Out of Control’: Tar Sands Boomtown Blaze Still ‘Burning Out of Control’ By Lauren McCauley TarSandsThe day climate change came to haunt tar sands country By Stuart Smith

The Time Has Come to Turn Up the Heat on Those Who are Wrecking Planet Earth: Break free and join the biggest global action against fossil fuel ompanies the world has ever seen by Bill McKibbenBillMcKibbenFrance To Ban All Pesticides Amid Worldwide Bee Death Epidemic: France have announced plans to completely ban the use of pesticides due to unusually high bee deaths worldwide, which French authorities claims pesticides are responsible for. By Sean Adl-TabatabaiFrancePesticidesGoodall Speaks Out As Revered Grizzlies Under Threat of Becoming $50 Trophy: Renowned conservationist is among 58 prominent scientists warning against Endangered Species de-listing by Lauren McCauley, staff writer GoodallOngoing/Big Energy Disasters!:

Black Liberation/Civil Rights:

Labor:

Economy:

Gimme Shelter (From the Tax Man): Disappearing Money and Opportunistic Candidates: . . . ‘a century and tax dodging has been woven into the fabric of the lives of the affluent and corporate worldwide in an extraordinary way’.  By Nomi Prins with Craig Wilson

WallStreetOnParadeReport: 2008 Bank Bailouts Are Still Alive By Pam Martens and Russ Martens MartensWorld:

Will Extreme Heat Trigger a Refugee Crisis?: By the end of the century, climate change could make the Middle East and North Africa uninhabitable. By Erica Tennenhouse MideastCuba Will Not Fall! by Andre Vltchek

Cuba
Welcome to Guantanamo! The First Anti-Imperialist Line of Defense

London’s New Mayor, Sadiq Khan, Hailed in U.K. and Pakistan: Khan’s wide margin of victory was seen as a repudiation of the Islamophobic campaign waged by his main rival, the Conservative Party candidate Zac Goldsmith, whose own sister, Jemima, expressed regrets about it after her brother’s 14-point defeat was confirmed.  By Robert MackeyLondonMayorHealth, Education, and Welfare:

The story of Trotsky’s unfinished biography of Stalin – Help publish the first complete edition! by Rob SewellStalinWhy Ignorance is StrengthIgnoraneAmerican Academic Freedom in Jeopardy: Professor James Tracy vs. Florida Atlantic University (FAU)  AcademicFreedom

Daily News Digest May 9, 2016

Daily News Digest Archives

Daily News Digest May 9, 2016

Images of the Day:

Israel’s Media Propaganda: Proving that ‘the press is so powerful in its image-making role, it can make a criminal look like he’s the victim and make the victim look like he’s the criminal.’ — Malcolm XImageoftheDayU.S. Democracy — The 1% Rule ImageoftheDay2Quotes of the Day:

On September 19, 2000, going on 16 years ago, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of the London Telegraph reported: “Declassified American government documents show that the US intelligence community ran a campaign in the Fifties and Sixties to build momentum for a united Europe. It funded and directed the European federalist movement. “The documents confirm suspicions voiced at the time that America was working aggressively behind the scenes to push Britain into a European state. One memorandum, dated July 26, 1950, gives instructions for a campaign to promote a fully fledged European parliament. It is signed by Gen. William J. Donovan, head of the American wartime Office of Strategic Services, precursor of the CIA.” The documents show that the European Union was a creature of the CIA. — Somnolent Europe, Russia, and China

These so-called “free trade agreements” are not trade agreements. The purpose of the “partnerships,” which were drafted by global corporations, is to make corporations immune to the laws of sovereign countries in which they do business. Any country’s sovereign law whether social, environmental, food safety, labor protections — any law or regulation — that impacts a corporation’s profits is labeled a “restraint on trade.” The “partnerships” permit corporations to file a suit that overturns the law or regulation and also awards the corporation damages paid by the taxpayers of the country that tried to protect its environment or the safety of its food and workers. The law suit is not heard in the courts of the country or in any court. It is heard in a corporate tribunal in which corporations serve as judge, jury, and prosecutor. In other words, the “partnerships” give global corporations the power to overturn democratic outcomes. Allegedly, Europe consists of democracies. Democracies pass laws protecting the environment and the safety of food and labor, but these laws democratically enacted reduce profits. Anything less than a sweatshop, with starvation wages, no environmental protection, no safety legislation for food or worker, can be overturned at will by global corporations under the terms of the “partnerships.” Only a traitor, a well paid one, could sign such a pact. Paul Craig Roberts, TTIP—American Economic Imperialism

Video the Day:

Warning Waxed Apple Causes Cancer

William Buckley Vs Black Socialist (It’s On!): The Presidential candidacy ticket (Halstead/Boutelle) from the Socialist Workers Party finds itself on Firing Line with William F. Buckley, Jr. Tensions flare as issues of race and slavery arise.

U.S.:

Panama Papers Leaker Criticizes Governments’ Inadequate Response to RevelationsPananmaPapersTTIP – American Economic Imperialism By Dr. Paul Craig RobertsPaulCraigRoberts.FBI Told Cops to Recreate Evidence From Secret Cell-Phone Trackers By Jenna McLaughlinWhen Liberals Run Out of Patience: the Impolite Exile of Seymour Hersh by Dave Wagner

FBIFCC in the Service of the Media Monopoly:  FCC Officially Approves Merger to Create ‘Price-Gouging Cable Giant’: Open internet advocates warn that the acquisition will only send cable prices skyrocketing and hurt low-income communities by Nadia PrupisFCCEnvironment:

Afghanistan: Bombing the Land of the Snow Leopard by Joshua FrankSnowLeopardOngoing/Big Energy Disasters!:

Exclusive: Release of Inspection Reports From TransCanada’s Keystone Pipeline Expose Risk of Future Spills By Julie DermanskyKeystonePipline

Energy News:

02:40 PM EST on May 7th, 2016 | TV: EPA data reveals “sharp spike in radiation level” around US nuclear site — “It’s been reportedly leaking huge amounts of radioactive materials for more than 2 weeks” — Evacuations enacted… Almost 50 workers have sought medical attention… Symptoms include bleeding ulcers, burned lungs (VIDEOS)

Black Liberation/Civil Rights:

Gangbusters: Law Enforcement’s Dubious Means to Police Public Housing Residents By Josmar Trujillo

Gangbusters
West Harlem Public Housing in Manhatten

Labor:

The Spoils of War — Child Labor: From war to sweatshop for Syria’s child refugees: Vast numbers of young Syrians in Turkey and beyond are having to work instead of going to school By Patrick Kingsley

ChildhoodLaborEconomy:

The ShadowStats Alternate Unemployment Rate for April 2016 is 22.9%. ShadowWallStreetOnParadeToday Is the 6th Anniversary of the ‘Flash Crash’; No Progress Made to Restore Confidence By Pam Martens and Russ Martens

Martens

World:

Labour'sAdvance U.S. Military Polluting the World: Contamination Revealed at Largest US Air Force Base in Asia: Kadena, Okinawa By Jon MitchellOkinawaContaminationSomnolent Europe, Russia, and China By Paul Craig RobertsSomnolentHealth, Education, and Welfare:

Toxic Phthalates Are Everywhere: Report Reveals Ubiquity of ‘Hormone-Assaulting Chemicals’ ‘Trying to protect my family shouldn’t be this difficult.’ By Andrea GermanosToxicPhtlatesInequality Soars as Retirement Benefits Dwindle for All But the Rich: The retirement forecast is quite sunnier for those at the top by Andrea GermanosRetirement

 

 

 

 

Daily News Digest May 6, 2016

Daily News Digest Archives

Daily News Digest May 6, 2016

Images of the Day:

Kwame Somburu (Paul Boutelle) 1934 -2016 (Kwame Was My Friend and Comrade for 66 Years)

KwameQuotes of the Day:

While Marxists opposed the attempts of the US to blockade Cuba into submission and historically have demanded the abolition of the embargo, it is important to recognize that this change of tactics on the part of the American bourgeois is only the latest maneuver in its campaign to reverse all the economic gains of the Cuban revolution. It is also important to avoid falling into the trap of supporting one or the other imperialist party simply because it seeks to normalize relations in the interest of US corporations. Instead, Marxists oppose all attempts—whatever form they may take—of the American bourgeois to impose market capitalism on Cuba and defend the conquests of the revolution against these encroachments. Furthermore, Marxists recognize that the problems now facing the Cuban revolution stem from its isolation, a small island in the sea of world capitalism. In these conditions there are sections of the Cuban leadership which have embraced the so-called “Chinese model,” which would lead to capitalist restoration on the island. — Obama’s Visit to Cuba: A Spoonful of Sugar

Any effective response to the critical climate situation would need to include elimination of the military. This is often met with derision although it was the ostensible aim of the United Nations Charter. Sara Flounders’ remarkable 2009 article on the Copenhagen climate meeting tied together the military and climate change, but delinking of the two persists. She wrote that “with more than 15,000 participants from 192 countries, including more than 100 heads of state, as well as 100,000 demonstrators in the streets – it is important to ask: How is it possible that the worst polluter of carbon dioxide and other toxic emissions on the planet is not a focus of any conference discussion or proposed restrictions? …the Pentagon has a blanket exemption in all international climate agreements.” — The Military’s “Securitization” of Climate Change

Video the Day:

Fracking: Much worse than we thought: Water supply poisoning – and earthquakes

 U.S.:

FBI Told Cops to Recreate Evidence From Secret Cell-Phone Trackers By Jenna McLaughlinFBI The Military’s “Securitization” of Climate Change by Judith DeutschMilitaryClimate Environment:

 Ongoing/Big Energy Disasters!:

Energy News:

 12:38 PM EST on May 5th, 2016 | Scientists: Over 60,000,000 killed by nuclear fallout… More than 120,000,000 cancers from radioactive releases… Doesn’t include millions more dead babies and fetuses — Professor: “Horrifying… This is a war crime far greater in magnitude than any that has occurred in recorded human history” (VIDEO)

09:18 PM EST on May 2nd, 2016 | Experts: Fukushima ‘ice wall’ could destroy reactor units, turn site into swamp — Risk of fractures, ground movement, building subsidence — Must be frozen for 200 years — Officials: High cliffs just behind plant may become unstable — Gov’t: “Observable heaving” and deformations possible (VIDEO)

Black Liberation/Civil Rights:

 Bar-2Bernie to Deliver Captive Constituencies to the Democratic Convention  by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

Building the Greens Into a Mass Party: Interview with Bruce Dixon by Ann GarrisonBarAnnGarrisonDrain the Swamp by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner

BarRasioMin. Farrakhan Should Join Anti-Police Terror Movement – and Stop Flirting with Trump:

Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan has said there are some things he likes about Donald Trump. What’s to like? asks Carl Dix, co-founder of the Stop Mass Incarceration Network. Trump’s campaign statements “drip with racism and misogyny,” and “anybody with progressive inclinations shouldn’t be seeing things they like in him.” Dix noted that Farrakhan spoke under the banner of “Justice or Else” at a giant rally, last year. “But, there has been no justice; the police continue to brutalize and murder people. So – where’s the ‘or else?’ I don’t see the Nation of Islam in the streets saying: ‘This must stop,’” said Dix.

Both Clintons Neck Deep in African Blood:

Bill and Hillary Clinton are deeply implicated in the death of six million Congolese, said Claude Gatebuke, a Rwandan genocide survivor and co-founder of the African Great Lakes Action Network. Bill Clinton’s Rwanda policies put dictator Paul Kagame in power “in spite of the overwhelming evidence of the massacres Kagame committed” and his role “in the death of more than six million people in the Congo and other millions of people in the region.” Hillary Clinton, as secretary of state under President Obama, tried to suppress a United Nations report that documented Rwanda’s culpability in the ongoing Congolese bloodbath – the worst genocide since World War Two

Black Colombians Block Highway in Land Fight:

Thousands of Colombians of African descent blockaded the Pan American Highway, demanding respect for Black people’s ancestral land rights. Millions of Black Colombians have been displaced by seizure of their lands by multinational corporations, said activist Charo Mina-Rojas. Afro-Colombians also fear that FARC guerillas covet Black territories as part of a peace deal being negotiated in Havana, Cuba. “We are concerned that we are not sitting at that table,” said Mina-Rojas. “We know that FARC has an interest in areas where Black people are located. This is a territorial control issue.”

Woodfox:

Recidivism Begins in the State Legislature: Albert Woodfox, the former political prisoner who served 44 years in Angola’s notorious Angola prison, most of it in solitary confinement, has some ideas on crime prevention. He agrees that nobody wants to be victimized by crime. “But, if you don’t want to be a victim of crime, stop letting these politicians pass these laws that make it impossible for an ex-felon to get out and survive unless he commits a crime.” Woodfox spoke at a University of Pittsburgh Law School symposium  on solitary confinement.  Listen

Labor:

Economy:WallStreetOnParadeFederal Reserve Tries Wizardry to Cure Derivatives Problem By Pam Martens and Russ MartensMaretnsWorld:

Welcome to Fortified Europe: the Militarization of Europe’s Borders by David L. Glotzer FortifiedEuropeThe Bailouts Were for the Banks — Study Confirms Rescue Loans Didn’t Serve Greeks: ‘The only reason why they effected this so-called bailout of Greece was to save their own banks and to present this as solidarity with Greece’ by Andrea GermanosGreece Health, Education, and Welfare:

 

Daily News Digest May 2, 2016

Daily News Digest Archives

Daily News Digest May 2, 2016

Yesterday Was May Day

Why I Do Not Celebrate Labor Day! By RolandSheppard Retired Business Agent Painters Local # 4 San Francisco

May Day/ Labor DayMayDay

I celebrate May Day, but I don’t celebrate Labor Day — I just observe it. To me, Labor Day means the codification of the labor bureaucracy’s subservience to the capitalist class. That was the original purpose for the United States capitalist class when it made labor day a holiday. It was organized as such in opposition to the Labor Day that was/is celebrated everywhere else in the world — a demonstration class solidarity, — May Day!  May Day was  celebrated, in memory of the martyrs of the Haymarket Massacre in 1886 Chicago and the unending struggle of the world working class for their “unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

May Day History:

The History of the Shorter Workday, pp. 20-22 . . .

. . . May 1, 1886, became historic. On that day thousands of workers in the larger industrial cities poured into the streets, demanding eight hours. About 340,000 took part in demonstrations in Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Baltimore, Washington, New York, Philadelphia, Boston and other places. Of these nearly 200,000 actually went out on strike. About 42,000 won the eight-hour day. Another 150,000 got a shorter day than they had had before. Chicago workers supported the movement most vigorously. To combat labor organization and activity, Chicago employers organized and acted. Pinkerton detectives and special deputies were in evidence. Policemen were swinging billies and breading up knots of workers on street corners. At the factory gates of McCormick Harvester Co., where a strike meeting was being held on May 3, policemen swung their clubs and then fired into the running strikers….The speaker at the meeting was August Spies, a member of the Central Labor Union, which had supported the May First strike. He was also a member of a militant labor group that was at the time influential in the Chicago Labor movement. Six workers were killed that day and many wounded. Anger ran high through the Chicago labor movement. About 3,000 attended a protest meeting the next day at Haymarket Square….The Chicago press reported the speeches were less “inflammatory” than usual. Mayor Carter H. Harrison who was present testified later that the meeting was “peaceable.” But as it was about to adjourn, policement swooped down and ordered the audience to disperse. Then some unknown person threw a bomb. It exploded, killing a police sergeant and knocking several core to the ground. The police opened fire. At the end of the day, seven policemen and four workers lay dead. At once several Chicago labor leaders were rounded up and thrown in jail. Eight of these finally came to trial–Albert Parsons, August Spies, Louis Lingg, George Engel, Michael Schwab, Samuel Fieldon, Adolph Fischer and Oscar Neebe. The presiding judge helped pick the jury which was strongly anti-labor and hostile to the defendants. The trial lasted 63 days. All of the men were declared guilty of murder. All were given death sentences, except Neebe who got a 15-year prison sentence. A nationwide defense campaign won wide popular favor…At the last moment, as a result of widespread protests, the Governor of Illinois communted to life imprisonment the sentences of Fieldon and Schwab. It was reported that Lingg “committed suicide” in his cell. On November 11, Albert Parsons, August Spies, Adolph Fischer and George Engel were hanged. On the gallows Spies cried, “There will be a time when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today.” Straightway the defense movement, now led by Albert Parsons’ widow, Lucy Parsons, turned to efforts to have the remaining three men freed. Fieldon, Schwab and Neebe were finally pardoned by Governor Altgeld in 1893. He was fully convinced, he said, of the innocence of all the eight men. Out of the eight-hour struggle which culminated in the strike of May 1, 1886, and its aftermath, the Haymarket tragedy, came international May Day. In Paris, France, on July 14, 1889, leaders from organized proletarian movements in many countries came together to form once more an international association of workers….At the first congress of the Second International, delegates listened to the story related by the United States representatives, considered a request from the American Federation of Labor for support of their eight-hour fight, and voted to make May 1, 1890, a day for an international eight-hour day demonstration. Demand for the eight-hour day became the main slogan of the international May Day celebrations. At a later congress, the International extended the purpose of the day to include wider labor demands and world peace. . . .

Reinstein, Boris, International May Day and American Labor Day, ppgs. 10-11

May Day was thus created by the workingmen themselves, in defiance of the capitalist class and its governments, and up to the present time the working people in many countries are compelled on the First of May to fight for their holiday at the sacrifice of their jobs, liberty, blood, and even life. When the police and cossacks of different countries appear on the scene on May Day it is always for the purpose of clubbing, maiming, arresting, and killing working people; for the police and cossacks recognize that May Day is the drilling day for the Social Revolution. The American Labor Day, on the contrary, was a “gift” which the workers received from their masters, the capitalists, through the capitalist politicians. That first Monday in the month of September was made a legal holiday under the name of Labor Day, at first by the legislature of one state some thirty years ago; the politicians of other states followed the clever example, so that at present Labor Day is a legal holiday all over the country. A vampire, when he settles down upon the body of a sleeping person and sucks its blood, is known to fan his victim with his wings, to soothe the victim’s pain, and to prevent him from waking up and driving the vampire away. So was the Labor Day created by the political agents of thc American capitalists to fan the sleeping giant, the American working class, while the capitalists are sucking its blood. American Labor Day can also be considered as a modern, capitalist version of the ancient custom of the days of serfdom and slavery. In those days the mastens, for recreation and amusement, often-times set aside one day to celebrate the “enthronment of slaves.” They would take a slave, take the chains off his limbs, put him on a mock throne, put a mock crown on his head and, bowing to him in mock humility and obedience, would humbly serve him and overwhelm him with flattery. And the Silly Fool on the mock throne would throw out his chest and swell with pride. But the day of mockery over, the chains were again clapped on his limbs, and the miserable slave, groaning, would resume his life of a beast of burden. Likewise with the unawakened American workman on Labor Day. On that day the chains of wage-slavery are, figuratively speaking, taken off his limbs; he is made the hero of the day; his masters, the capitalists, stand before him in mock humility; their spokesmen in the press, pul. pit and on their political platforms, overwhelm him with flattery; and the modern Silly Fool, likewise, throws out his chest and swells with pride. But, the day of mockery and of the Fool’s Paradise over, the masters, — who during this day are only slyly smiling-break out info sardonic laughter-though unheard by the slave — clap the chains back on his limbs and he again hears only the crack of the whip of Hunger and Slavery.  . .  .

The Idea of May Day on the March

Out of the eight-hour struggle which culminated in the strike of May 1, 1886, and its aftermath, the Haymarket tragedy, came international May Day. In Paris, France, on July 14, 1889, leaders from organized proletarian movements in many countries came together to form once more an international association of workers….At the first congress of the Second International, delegates listened to the story related by the United States representatives, considered a request from the American Federation of Labor for support of their eight-hour fight, and voted to make May 1, 1890, a day for an international eight-hour day demonstration.

Demand for the eight-hour day became the main slogan of the international May Day celebrations. At a later congress, the International extended the purpose of the day to include wider labor demands and world peace.

A worldwide demonstration, as Rosa Luxemburg stated:  “May Day is the autonomous, immediate stepping forward of the proletarian masses, the political mass action of the millions of workers who otherwise are atomized by the barriers of the state in the day-to-day parliamentary affairs, who mostly can give expression to their own will only through the ballot, through the election of their representatives. The excellent proposal of the Frenchman Lavigne at the Paris Congress of the International added to this parliamentary, indirect manifestation of the will of the proletariat a direct, international mass manifestation: the strike as a demonstration and means of struggle for the eight-hour day, world peace, and socialism.

Eugene V. Debs: Labor Day Greeting 1909 (Brought up to date)

The working people are the only people in whose presence I take off my hat. As I salute them, I honor myself.

The working people—and this is the day to write them in capital letters — has given me what I have, made me what I am, and will make me what I hope to be; and I thank them for all, and above all for giving me eyes to see, a heart to feel and a voice to speak for the working people.

Like the rough hewn stone from which the noble statue is chiseled by the hand of a sculptor, the Toiler is the rough—hewn bulk from which the perfect Human are being chiseled by the hand of  Nature.

All the working people of the earth are necessary to the whole Working People — and they alone will survive of all the human race.

Labor Day is a good day to rest the hands and give the brain a chance— to think about what has been, and is, and is yet to be.

The way has been long and weary and full of pain, and many have fallen by the wayside, but the Unconquerable Army of Labor is still on the march and as it rests on its arms today and casts a look ahead, it beholds upon the horizon the first glowing rays of the Social Sunrise.

Courage, comrades! The struggle must be won, for Peace will only come when she comes hand in hand with Freedom.

The right is with the labor movement and the gods of battle are with the Working Class.

The Socialist Party and the Trade Union Movement must be one today in celebration of Labor Day and pledge each other their mutual fidelity and support in every battle, eco-nomic and political, until the field is won and the Working People is free. Forget not the past on Labor Day! Think of Homestead! Think of Latimer! Think of Buffalo! Think of Coeur d’Alene! Think of Croton Dam! Think of Chicago! Think of Virden! Think of Pana! Think of Leadville! Think of Cripple Creek! Think of Victor! Think of Telluride!

These are some of the bloody battles fought in the past in the war of the Workers for Industrial Freedom and Social Justice.

How many and how fierce and bloody shall be the battles of the future?

Comrades, this is the day for Working people to think of the Class Struggle and the Ballot—the day for Labor to clasp the hand of Labor and girdle the globe with the International Revolutionary Solidarity of the Working Class.

We are all one of all workers of all lands and climes. We know not color, nor creed, nor sex in the Labor Movement. We know only that our hearts throb with the same proletarian stroke, that we are keeping step with our class in the march to the goal and that the solidarity of Labor will vanquish slavery and Humanize the World!

MayDay2
Eugene Debs

As a leader of the labor movement, Eugene Debs opposed Woodrow Wilson as the Socialist Party candidate in the 1912 Presidential Election. Later, he would continue to rally against President Wilson and his decision to take America into war — and be jailed for it under the Espionage Act. (He ran for President from Prison)

In 2009, in my city of San Francisco, The San Francisco Labor Council, hosted a $100 a plate breakfast for Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House of Representatives. It is an example of how far the labor bureaucracy has traveled in its quest for dues and a their higher standard of living. (By the price of the ‘breakfast’ one knew that the breakfast was not intended for rank and file workers.) This event and other ‘labor day events’ with politicians, are a codification of the labor’s bureaucratic cast’s open declaration of a partnership with capitalism and its role as an enforcer for capital against labor. This ‘partnership’ is politically expressed by the cast’s subservience to the Democratic Party.

The labor bureaucracy has no conception of  ‘labors’ unending conflict with capital, but the bureaucracy does have an unending quest for union dues. (This policy has gotten so bad, that “my” International Union President, of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT.com), has sent out a DVD to every member, at considerable expense, to inform my brothers and sisters, by their own admission, that the union will sound and act like a boss! Union Painters who may be late to work, abuse coffee break, take too much time for lunch, or (God Forbid!) leave work early, will face the wrath, not of the boss but of the Union’s “Three Strikes and You’re Out Policy”! If you are caught three times in violation of these rules, then these painters are not only out of a job but out of the union!) Today, these bureaucrats have nothing to say about the bailouts to the banks, and also nothing to say about the theft of workers’ pensions and life savings  as part of their partnership they have even led the way to cut workers’ wages! That is why I observe Labor Day but celebrate May Day. For more information, read my essay, The Fall of the Trade Union Movement.

MayDay3
Painting by Anthony Freda

Images of the Day:

Why is Bernie Madoff the only Wall St. Criminal to face jail time?BernieThe Majority of the World’s Workers are Still Struggling for the 8 Hr Day!ImageoftheDay2 Quotes of the Day:

. . . As for the broader picture on how many hours people are working: The average workweek for full-time employees in the U.S. is nearly 47 hours, according to a Gallup report released last year. . . . — Is A 10-Hour Workday The New Norm? (2015)

. . . The new TORCH report finds

  • 40,000 fatal cancers are predicted in Europe over the next 50 years

  • 6,000 thyroid cancer cases to date, 16,000 more expected

  • 5 million people in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia still live in highly contaminated areas (>40 kBq/sq.m)

  • 400 million in less contaminated areas (>4 kBq/sq.m)

  • 37% of Chernobyl’s fallout was deposited on western Europe;

  • 42% of western Europe’s land area was contaminated
    increased radiogenic thyroid cancers expected in West European countries

  • increased radiogenic leukemias, cardiovascular diseases, breast cancers confirmed

  • new evidence of radiogenic birth defects, mental health effects and diabetes

  • new evidence that children living in contaminated areas suffer radiogenic illnesses . . . — Chernobyl’s Ongoing Toll: 40,000 More Cancer Deaths?

Sally Jewell, US Secretary of the Interior, painted a stark picture of communities relocating and lives disrupted in her first official visit to Canada. The Arctic, which is warming at twice the rate of the global average, has just recorded its lowest recorded peak ice extent after what’s been called a “warm, crazy winter.”Obama administration warns of ‘climate refugees’ due to rapid Arctic warming

Video the Day:

U.S.:

US Presidential Election: Beyond Lesser Evilism: The ongoing presidential race in the United States has revealed a number of phenomena that seem to have been brewing under the surface of neoliberal austerity economics for years. For one thing, it has shown a widespread popular discontent with the status quo. For another, it has revealed that the American public is no longer averse to socialistic ideas. by Ismael Hossein-ZadehLessorEvilismEnvironment:

Droughts Are Giving Trees ‘Heart Attacks’By Tim Radford

TimRadford
Around 12 million trees have perished in California in the last year.

Ongoing/Big Energy Disasters!:

EU dropped climate policies after BP threat of oil industry ‘exodus’: Oil giant warned industry would pull out of EU if laws to cut pollution and speed clean energy take up were passed, letter obtained by the Guardian reveals By Arthur NeslenEUBPHanford, Not Fukushima, is the Big Radiological Threat to the West Coast by Robert JacobsHanfordRuined Chernobyl nuclear plant will remain a threat for 3,000 yearsRuinedChernobylChernobyl: A monument to folly that may outlast human civilization By Stewart Smith

Chernobyl’s Ongoing Toll: 40,000 More Cancer Deaths? byIan FairlieChernobylBlack Liberation/Civil Rights:

Labor:

Half-Million on Strike Across FranceFrenchStrikeEconomy: 

Shadow Government Statistics Commentary Number 803Shadow Shadow2WallStreetOnParadeBloomberg Outs Zero Hedge Today; Zero Hedge Strikes BackBy Pam Martens and Russ Martens:MartensWorld: 

Political Earthquake in Austria by Emanuel TomaselliAusriaBritain: Blairites stoop to allegations of anti-Semitism to attack Corbyn: Just a few days before the May elections, the Blairites in the Labour Party have stepped up their war against Jeremy Corbyn, using the slur of “anti-Semitism” to further their aims. By doing so, they are hell-bent on creating a “crisis” within the Party. by Rob SewellBritainHealth, Education, and Welfare:

The Devil Capitalism: Okay, here’s the proposition — you can have a good job, decent pay, lots of overtime, but only if you give me your grandchildren or maybe your great-grandchildren. Would you make this deal with the devil? by Gary Engler

DevilCapitalism
Devil Capitalism

Daily News Digest April 29, 2016

Daily News Digest Archives

Daily News Digest April 29, 2016

Images of the Day:

The richest 1% will own more than 50% of the world’s wealth by 2016 ImageoftheDay2Champaign for the 1% Tax Dodgers and Prison for the DebtorsImageoftheDay Quotes of the Day: 

. . . The ultimate logic of racism is genocide, and if one says that one is not good enough to have a job that is a solid quality job, if one is not good enough to have access to public accommodations, if one is not good enough to have the right to vote, if one is not good enough to live next door to him, if one is not good enough to marry his daughter because of his race, then at that moment, that person is saying that that person who is not good to do all of this is not fit to exist or to live. And that is the ultimate logic of racism. . . . — Martin Luther King

Little bitty Benton Harbor was the testing ground. It was the testing ground to see what they can get away with….It’s comin’ to your city next, whether you like it or not.  — Rev. Edward Pinkney

Due to illness, CTU leader Karen Lewis was unable to run against Emanuel for mayor in the last elections. Chicago workers must continue to organize, lay the foundations for running an independent labor candidate against Emanuel as well as against Rauner at the state level. This can spark a major break from the parties of big business for the labor movement across the country. Teachers have been a bulwark against attacks on children in the age of austerity, and now this movement can and must spread to the political arena. The fight against cuts in education is inseparably linked to the struggles against mass incarceration, low wages, high rent, and police violence. These problems all have a common root: the for-profit capitalist system and its representatives in the Republican and Democratic parties. We must fight with the CTU, fight for a mass socialist party based on the working class, and fight for a socialist revolution. — Chicago Teachers Union Strikes Back

Video the Day:

How the World Runs on Looting the Congo // Empire_File024

U.S.:

Inequality Will Increase Until There’s a Revolution: America’s wealth concentration has increased tenfold since Bill Clinton first ran for president. by Bob LordInequalityLetter Details FBI Plan for Secretive Anti-Radicalization Committees By Cora Currier and Murtaza HussainFBITaking Page from Israel War Tactics, US Military Employs Controversial ‘Roof Knocking’: Tactic criticized by UN commission used “extensively” during Israel’s deadly 2014 bombing of Gaza by Andrea GermanosRoofKnocking Erika Rocha’s Suicide Underscores the Damage That Prison Is Wreaking on Youth By Colby LenzEriksRoca Environment:

Genocide in Michigan: Michigan Official Tried to Manipulate Lead Tests—Eight Years Ago: In 2008, a Michigan environmental official told lead test technicians to “bump out” sky-high lead results by collecting more clean water samples by Nika KnightMichiganLead Why I Wrote a Book About How to Clean Up Toxic Debates By James HogganJamesHoggan Ongoing/Big Energy Disasters!:

Blind mice and bird brains: the silent spring of Chernobyl and Fukushima By Linda Pentz Gunter

Radioactivity warning sign on the hill at the east end of Chernobyl's Red Forest, so called due to the characteristic hue of the pine trees killed by high levels of radiation after the disaster. Photo: Timm Suess via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA).
Radioactivity warning sign on the hill at the east end of Chernobyl’s Red Forest, so called due to the characteristic hue of the pine trees killed by high levels of radiation after the disaster. Photo: Timm Suess via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA).

Energy News:

11:45 AM EST on April 28th, 2016 | TV: North America will not be safe from Fukushima radiation if plant keeps leaking — Animals “suddenly died” on west coast right after 2011 disaster… Whole world noticed this strange phenomenon — “Fatally high” levels of radioactive material has entered ocean… serious pollution is ongoing (VIDEO)

Black Liberation/Civil Rights:

Rev. Pinkney was Right: It’s Comin’ to Your City Next! by Polly Hughes

Rev.Pickney

What I Told the Attorney General and the HUD Secretary About My Criminal Record By Ronald Lewis, Helen Stokes, and Tyrone PeakeCriminalRecord Sanders Prepares to Bow Down to Hillary, But Many of His Supporters Won’t by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

  • 2016 presidential campaignGlenFordBernie Sanders has endorsed President Obama’s troop escalation in Syria, once again showing that “he is no more ‘progressive’ than Obama on foreign policy, and just as dishonest – a true Democrat. Sanders will ultimately bow to Hillary Clinton, while still claiming that the Democratic Party can be transformed from the inside. However, millions will have witnessed that the campaign proves exactly the opposite ‑— and will seek alternatives. Read more

Labor:

Chicago Teachers Union Strikes Back By Andrew WagnerChicagoTeachers Economy:

 Debacle at Doha: The Collapse of the Old Oil Order By Michael T. Klare DebacleAtDoha

WallStreetOnParadeIs the Wall Street Cartel Regrouping? Regulator Fires Warning Shot: Remember the chat rooms dubbed “The Cartel” and “The Bandits Club” that contributed to felony counts against the mega Wall Street banks last May for rigging the foreign currency markets? How about that classic from the Barclays chat room trader: “if you aint cheating, you aint trying.” By Pam Martens and Russ Martens

World:

Britain: Support strong for junior doctors as the struggle escalates by Socialist AppealBritainHealth, Education, and Welfare:

How a Democrat Killed Welfare: Bill Clinton gutted welfare and criminalized the poor, all while funneling more money into the carceral state. by Premilla NadasenClintonWelfareHow the Mainstream Corporate Media Get It Wrong on Student Debt By Pam VogelStudentDebt

 

 

Daily News Digest April 28, 2016

Daily News Digest Archives

Daily News Digest April 28, 2016

Images of the Day:

Genocide in the Middle EastImageoftheDatGuns and the $20 bill ImageoftheDay2Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground RailroadImageoftheDay3 Quotes of the Day:

. . . Harriet Tubman was a shooter. She was an escaped slave. She undertook numerous missions to convey slaves to Canada along the underground railroad to Canada, armed with a pistol and saber. During the Late Unpleasantness Between the States, she acted as an armed scout for Union forces and participated in the Combahee River Raid. She was a Republican. . . . —  Guns and the $20 bill  

. . . These lesser known and cryptically reported episodes are illuminated by accounts of other more widely known characters. Harriet Tubman is generally depicted with a long gun or a revolver. Some modern researchers, seemingly squeamish about an armed Tubman, argue that her guns were always unloaded. John Parker of Ripley, Ohio defies such speculation. Parker aided the escapes of countless fugitive slaves. He recounts keeping, carrying, and fighting with guns, as well as an armed rescue of cornered fugitives from a river bank in Kentucky. . . . — Negroes and the Gun: Slaves, fugitives, freemen, and citizens 

… that a majority of respondents in Harvard University’s survey of young adults said they do not support capitalism suggests that today’s youngest voters are more focused on the flaws of free markets. The word ‘capitalism’ doesn’t mean what it used to,” said Zach Lustbader, a senior at Harvard involved in conducting the poll, which was published Monday. For those who grew up during the Cold War, capitalism meant freedom from the Soviet Union and other totalitarian regimes. For those who grew up more recently, capitalism has meant a financial crisis from which the global economy still hasn’t completely recovered.  . . . — Survey: A Majority of American Millennials Now Reject Capitalism

Our ability to secure new contracts to develop and manage correctional and detention facilities depends on many factors outside our control. Our growth is generally dependent upon our ability to obtain new contracts to develop and manage new correctional and detention facilities. This possible growth depends on a number of factors we cannot control, including crime rates and sentencing patterns in various jurisdictions and acceptance of privatization. The demand for our facilities and services could be adversely affected by the relaxation of enforcement efforts, leniency in conviction or parole standards and sentencing practices or through the decriminalization of certain activities that are currently proscribed by our criminal laws. For instance, any changes with respect to drugs and controlled substances or illegal immigration could affect the number of persons arrested, convicted, and sentenced, thereby potentially reducing demand for correctional facilities to house them. Legislation has been proposed in numerous jurisdictions that could lower minimum sentences for some non-violent crimes and make more inmates eligible for early release based on good behavior. Also, sentencing alternatives under consideration could put some offenders on probation with electronic monitoring who would otherwise be incarcerated. Similarly, reductions in crime rates or resources dedicated to prevent and enforce crime could lead to reductions in arrests, convictions and sentences requiring incarceration at correctional facilities. — Corrections Corporation of America, Form 10-K For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2010

U.S.:

How Capitalism and Racism Support Each Other By Richard D. WolffRacismCapitalismSurvey: A Majority of American Millennials Now Reject Capitalism SurveyUS Pivot to Asia Poised to Enter Nuclear Phase by Peter LeeUSPivot Environment:

 Toxic Range: the Bureau of Land Management’s Growing Chemical Addiction by Katie FiteTo9xicRange Ongoing/Big Energy Disasters!:

Obama’s Offshore Drilling Proposal Based on Fossil Fuel Industry Research: The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management used industry-funded reports to tout economic benefits of offshore drilling in Gulf and Arctic by Nadia PrupisOffshoreDrillingChernobyl at 30: Thousands Still Living in the Shadow of Nuclear Disaster: ‘The suffering caused by Chernobyl shows why we need to get rid of nuclear power for good,’ says Greenpeace by Deirdre FultonChernobylBlack Liberation/Civil Rights:

Bar-2Freedom Rider: Honoring Harriet Tubman by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley

·     international solidarity BarDannyHaiphongBlack Lives Don’t Matter, Black Votes Do: the Racial Hypocrisy of Hillary and Bill Clinton by Richard W. Behan

·     Hillary ClintonBarRichardBehanHillary Clinton’s Support Base as Bogus as US Democracy by Eric Draitser

Economy:WallStreetOnParadeWhy the Vampire Squid Wants Small Depositors’ Money in 1 Frightening Chart By Pam Martens and Russ MartensMartensWorld:

 Health, Education, and Welfare:

 

Daily News Digest April 27, 2016

Daily News Digest Archives

Daily News Digest April 27, 2016

Tomorrow is Workers Memorial Day: If we dedicate war memorials to the memory of men and women, who are cut down before their time, these (Workplaces)  are war memorials. . . . — Homer Seguin, Video: “Before Their Time” Cancer & Health And Safety On Our Jobs

Images of the Day:

‘Old Glory’ImageoftheDayGrowth:ImageoftheDay2Quotes of the Day:

Mumia QuoteMumiaQuote. . . Elsewhere, the USA, Japan, and China have all attempted similar QE programmes in recent times, all to no avail. Yet Varoufakis is intent on Europe repeating a failed experiment again and again, at the expense of the working class. As for Europe’s democratisation, a “large democratic stimulus” is needed. What this means in practice is left to the reader to decide. Whether such a stimulus would rest on a movement of European workers and what form this should take is likewise not mentioned, leaving nothing more than an abstract call to build democracy with… democracy! Ultimately this book is more about Yanis Varoufakis than anything else: Embarking on this book as a wide-eyed student of Keynes, our protagonist is thrown aside by arrogant conquerors, only to return as a prophet of doom, foretelling an apocalyptic future for those who do not follow him. The foundation text for a new mass movement? Perhaps not. But as a Greek tragedy for our time it fits the bill quite well. — Book review: Varoufakis complains that Capitalism didn’t listen to him

Video the Day:

Paul Murphy TD exposes real nature of EU

U.S.:

Tired, poor, huddled millennials of New York earn 20% less than prior generation: Entering the workforce in the greatest economic downturn in living memory, millennials earn much less than Generation X and might never close the gap By Jana KasperkevicMillibieles20%LessSpy Chief Complains That Edward Snowden Sped Up Spread of Encryption by 7 Years By Jenna McLaughlinSpyChief Saudia Arabia and 9/11: the Kingdom May be in For a Nasty Shock by Patrick CockburnPatrickCockburnWorld War III Has Begun By Paul Craig RobertsPaulCraigRobertsLeading Advocates of “Dark Money” Previously Supported Disclosure By Lee FangDarkMoney Environment:

 Clay Bennett: Water FilterWaterFilter Ongoing/Big Energy Disasters!:

Australian Politician Sets Methane-Laden River on Fire to Protest Fracking: ‘This is the future of Australia if we do not stop the frackers.’ By Nadia PrupisNadia Prupis30 Ways Chernobyl and Dying Nuke Industry Threaten Our Survival by Harvey WassermanHarveyWassermanEnergy News:

Black Liberation/Civil Rights:

Black Agenda Radio for Week of April 25, 2016

BarRadioCharter Schools: Bad for Education: “On the whole, charter schools do not perform better than public schools, even though public school are being defunded and demonized all the time,” said Dr. Shawgi Tell, professor of education at Nazareth College, Rochester, New York, and author of Charter School Report Card. Whether test scores improve or not, charter schools are bad schooling policy because “they represent privatization and marketization of education.”

Youth Incarceration Down, But Racial Disparities Increase: In the past decade, overall rates of youth incarceration have been cut in half, but disparity in Black youth incarceration has gone up by 15 percent, according to Josh Rovner, of The Sentencing Project. Rovner is an author of the new report, “Racial Disparities in Youth Arrests and Commitments.” He said young people are committing less crime. “There’s fewer kids being driven into the system in the first place,” said Rovner. However, Black teenagers are still more likely to be detained, prosecuted and committed to juvenile facilities than whites.

Million Student March Against Massive Debt: “Just last year, a million students defaulted on their student loan payments,” said Darletta Scruggs, an activist with the Million Students March and a member of the Socialist Alternative Party. “You can’t file bankruptcy on it, and our government will start garnishing your wages after a certain time. There are people whose Social Security checks are being garnished because of past student debt,” said Scruggs, speaking to host Solomon Comissiong, of Your World Report.

Global Rich Play “Shell Games” with Wealth: The now infamous “Panama Papers” revealed how elites from around the world hide their money in offshore tax havens. Americans were conspicuous by their relative absence because the U.S. provides lots of hiding places for ill-gotten gains. “The United States is a tax haven for global wealth,” said Chuck Collins, senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies and author of the article, “Panama Papers Expose the Hidden Wealth of the World’s Super-Rich.” Said Collins: “If you’re a small business in the U.S. and you have to compete against a global company that’s playing these shell games, and you’re paying your fair share of taxes and they’re not, that’s an unlevel playing field.”

Hillary’s Conspiracies Against Democracy in the Americas: Back in 2009, then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “pretended it wasn’t a coup” when the Honduran military overthrew the country’s elected president, said Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Clinton’s charade “helped the coup government dictatorship consolidate itself.” The U.S. has encouraged the “silent coup” in Brazil, where corporatist lawmakers are trying to impeach the left-wing  president. “We know that the United States has always wanted to get rid of the left governments” in the region, said Weisbrot. Listen, Read more

After Freddie, We Woke Up : A Year After the Baltimore Uprising, the Real Work Is Just Beginning By Alice Speri AfterFreddie“I don’t have no faith in politicians. I don’t think they can make change.”

More Than a Few Rogue Cops: the Disturbing History of Police in Schools by Mary Anne Henderson and Brian Platt

Labor:

Austerity vs. the Planet: The Future of Labor Environmentalism By Trish KahleAusterityvs.PlanetEconomy:

 World:

 Independent Investigators Leave Mexico Without Solving the Case of 43 Disappeared Students By Ryan Devereaux Mexico43Book review: Varoufakis complains that Capitalism didn’t listen to him!VaroufakisHealth, Education, and Welfare:

Scamming US Veterans: Efforts to Privatize Veterans Administration’s Health System By Dean BakerDeanBaker Water Privatization: “Nestlé Is Trying to Break Us”: A Pennsylvania Town Fights Predatory Water Extraction By Alexis BonogofskyNestle

 

 

 

Daily News Digest April 26, 2016

Daily News Digest Archives

Daily News Digest April 26, 2016

Images of the Day:

Bill of Rights?ImageoftheDat The Dumification of the United StatesImageoftheDay2Quote of the Day:

Defenders of the NSA’s mass spying have lost an important talking point: that the erosion of our privacy and associational rights is justified given the focus of surveillance efforts on combating terrorism and protecting the national security. That argument has always been dubious for a number of reasons. But after a November 2015 ruling [.pdf] by the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) was unsealed last week, it’s lost another chunk of its credibility. The ruling confirms that NSA’s warrantless spying has been formally approved for use in general criminal investigations. The national security justification has been entirely blown. That’s because the secret court, over the objection of its hand-selected amicus, determined that once information is collected by the NSA for “foreign intelligence” purposes under section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act, that information can be searched by the FBI for regular criminal investigations without any need for a warrant or prior court oversight. Although the FISC has signed off on the FBI’s procedures claiming this authority for years, this ruling from late 2015 may be the first time the FISC has actually considered their legality. — Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (Secret) Court  Takes Another Bite Out of the Fourth Amendment

Video the Day:

The great Saudi Arabian scam: America’s favorite dictatorship

U.S.:

“Free Love — Not Free Trade”: With Obama En Route, 90,000 March Against TTIP Tens of thousands march in city of Hannover, Germany on Saturday ahead of visit by U.S. president by Jon Queally90.000MarchObama (2008’s ‘Lessor Evil’) — Corporations Über Alles: Calling Corporate-Backed Deals an “Indisputable” Good, Obama Makes Pitch for TTIP: Sitting next to Chancellor Angela Merkel during a summit in Germany, U.S. president continued to ignore opponents as he defended controversial agreement with European nations by  Jon QueallyTTIPI’m on the Kill List. This is what it feels like to be hunted by drones: Friends decline my invitations and I have taken to sleeping outside under the trees, to avoid becoming a magnet of death for my family By Malik JalalHuntedByDronesThe Rich Get Richer: 50 Billionaires Got Federal Farm Subsidies By Robert Coleman FarmSubcidiesOxfam Media Briefing — Broken at the Top: How America’s dysfunctional tax system costs billions incorporate tax dodging TaxDodgingThe Panama Papers: Laundering Havens for War Budgets (Video): In mid-April, economist Michael Hudson told The Real News Network that global oil and mining industries and the U.S. State Department created Panama and Liberia for the express purpose of tax evasion.

PanamaPapers

Big Brother Department:  Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (Secret) Court  Takes Another Bite Out of the Fourth Amendment By Cindy CohnSecretCourtThe Al-Qaeda Leader Who Wasn’t: the Shameful Ordeal of Abu Zubaydah by Rebecca Gordon

RebeccaGordonEnvironment:

In Flint, they’ll need to go after the bigger fish By Stewart Smith

Indictments don’t absolve Snyder in Flint water crisisStuarSmith Ongoing/Big Energy Disasters!:

Fracking Exec Reportedly Admits Targeting the Poor, Because They Don’t Have ‘The Money To Fight’ By Jessica KozikJessicaKozikFracking Energy News:

07:26 AM EST on April 25th, 2016 | “Dead animals litter California beaches… Alarming phenomenon” — “Graveyard of washed-up sea life” — “Influx of malnourished sea creatures” — Experts: We’re really starting to worry… The animals are starving to death… Covered in sores… Stunted growth… Weak immune systems (VIDEOS)

Black Liberation/Civil Rights:

Stephen Colbert on the Money: Harriet Tubman Will Grace $20 Bills; Now, How About That Wage Gap?StephenColbertLabor:

Economy:

Retail layoffs in 2016 could be highest since 2010: Bankruptcies and e-commerce shifts are among leading factors By TonyaGarciaRetailLayoffsWorld: 

Destruction of Gaza GazaAmazonian Tribe Seizes Military Helicopter And Takes Government Officials Hostage After Oil Spill by Dane Arr

Protests: A woman painted in black screams as dozens of activists gather in front of Petroperu HQ
Protests: A woman painted in black screams as dozens of activists gather in front of Petroperu HQ

Health, Education, and Welfare:

Detention at a Charter School:Detenion

 

 

Daily News Digest April 25, 2016

Daily News Digest Archives

Daily News Digest April 25, 2016

Images of the Day:

HoneypotsIsraelHoneypotsWe’re #1!ImageoftheDay2 When the Media Feed from Trump’s TroughImageoftheDay3 copy Quotes of the Day:

Thursday, while the nation debated the relative size of Republican genitalia, something truly awful happened. Across the northern hemisphere, the temperature, if only for a few hours, apparently crossed a line: it was more than two degrees Celsius above “normal” for the first time in recorded history and likely for the first time in the course of human civilization. — The mercury doesn’t lie: We’ve hit a troubling climate change milestone

After one woman broke his heart, Khalil Abu Rayyan, a 21-year-old Michigan man, contemplated suicide. Then, when he confided his dark thoughts to another woman, she suggested he steer his violence toward other people. Both women, it turned out, were FBI honeypots, and one of the recorded conversations with Rayyan entered into ongoing court proceedings provides a rare glimpse into how federal informants work. The U.S. government now alleges that Rayyan, who has been indicted on federal gun charges, is an Islamic State sympathizer who talked of attacking a church in Detroit. Federal prosecutors have not filed terrorism-related charges, yet they are handling Rayyan’s indictment with the secrecy of a national security investigation. The government has proposed a “limited protective order” that “would have kept sealed anything that even summarized material the government deemed sensitive,” according to a filing by the defense, which has so far refused to accept the proposal. — Listen to an FBI “Honeypot” on the Job

Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to mankind, and suddenly there was light, and warmth, and the gathering at the hearth. The gods never forgave, and ever since periodically they thrust a torch into villains’ hands and watch the hearths burn and bring the roofs down. Civilization weeps, in Troy, Hiroshima, Vietnam, Iraq, Libya, Syria. — The Fire Each Time

The CIA whistleblower returns to join Mnar Muhawesh on “Behind the Headline” to go into greater depth on Saudi Arabia’s role in manufacturing terrorism by re-writing the entire religious history of Islam and engineering hadeeth to serve its own political & oil interests. The effects of these efforts to re-write the history of a faith of over 1.5 billion people to suit the Saudi political agenda that limit women’s rights, promote radicalism and tyrannical leadership –are rippling across the region and the world, through radical groups like ISIS and the Nusra Front. These are some of the very same terror groups the United States claims to be fighting in its so-called “war on terror.” — Former CIA Agent John Kiriakou Takes Us Inside The Saudi Terror Factory w/ Mnar Muhawesh

Video the Day:

Former CIA Agent John Kiriakou Takes Us Inside The Saudi Terror Factory w/ Mnar Muhawesh

U.S.:

President Obama signs $8.7 billion food stamp cut into law By Ned ResnikoffFoodStampCut Oil and Amnesia: Obama and Saudi Arabia’s “Forgotten” Ties to 9/11 by Robert FiskOilAmnesia ‘Honeypot’ Entrapment — FBI Agent Provocateurs:

Listen to an FBI “Honeypot” on the Job: Both women, it turned out, were FBI honeypots, and one of the recorded conversations with Rayyan entered into ongoing court proceedings provides a rare glimpse into how federal informants work. By Trevor AaronsonHonnypot True Cost of Covert Killings’ Demanded as Drone Strike Victims Speak Out By Andrea GermanosDrone Military Spending is the Capitalist World’s Fuel by Pete Dolack MilitarySpendingBernie Sanders: the Candidate Who Came in From the Cold by Jeffrey St. Clair JeffreySt>Clair

Environment:

Time to Grow Up Into a Living Earth Economy: Humanity has been acting like a willful child, demanding everything and leaving messes everywhere. It is time for our species to take the step to maturity, to acknowledge that care and cooperation are key to happiness — and even survival. By David KortenDavidKortenTomorrow is Too Late:

The mercury doesn’t lie: We’ve hit a troubling climate change milestone By Bill McKibbenBillMcKibben Ongoing/Big Energy Disasters!:

Energy News:

10:09 AM EST on April 22nd, 2016 | Nuclear Expert: We’ve detected a lot of cases “gargantuanism” in Fukushima — Reporter: “Gigantic beet… it’s almost as big as the upper part of man trying to hold it” — “They’re seeing more and more of this… people are reporting more and more of these abnormalities” (PHOTOS & VIDEO)

Black Liberation/Civil Rights:

Harriet Tubman Armed For Self-Defense

HarrietTubmand

A disgrace before God: Striking black sanitation workers vs. black officialdom in 1977 Atlanta: “This article is a case study of the betrayal of the African American working class by the Black political class brought to power by the Civil Rights and Black Power movements of the 1960’s.”DicraseLabor:

NFL’s Handling of CTE Controversy Shows Compassionate Conservatism of Roger Goodell in Action: The Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision to affirm the NFL’s $1 billion settlement with 5,000 retired players is a coup for the league. The NFL admitted no wrongdoing. CTE wasn’t covered. The threat of further litigation was removed by putting all retirees under the terms of the agreement.  By Mark HeislerNFL Economy:

As Support Plummets, Is EU Moving Closer to Becoming ‘TTIP Free Zone’?: The next round of negotiations over the corporate-friendly trade deal will start in New York next week by Deirdre Fulton writerTPIP

WallStreetOnParadeGAO: JPMorgan Chase Customers Lost $5.4 Billion to Madoff: Buried in a report released yesterday by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) was a stunning piece of news. Customers of JPMorgan Chase, the bank that Wall Street analyst Mike Mayo has preposterously called the “Lebron James of banking,” were major victims of Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme — to the tune of $5.4 billion — because of negligence on the part of the bank. By Pam Martens and Russ MartensMartens World:

 If Not Now, When? Young Jews Refuse to Stay Silent on the Occupation This Passover By Sammy SassPalistineOccupation France: A new chapter in the class struggle: A massive protest movement in France has been taking place since February. Sparked by the announcement of a reactionary new “reform” of the labour laws, this movement is mobilising masses of youth. by Jules Legendre

France South Africa: The start of the election season – “a delicate time in a dangerous year”: When arguing the Nkandla case, President Jacob Zuma’s senior advocate, Jeremy Gauntlett, said that this was “a delicate time in a dangerous year, societally” and that the Nkandla saga has “traumatized the nation in many ways” — a profound statement which sums up the current state of mind of the ruling class.  by Ben MorkenSouthAfricaBritain: Steel industry on the brink – Tories impotent to stop this capitalist madness: Constrained by the straightjacket of their own dogmatic subservience to the invisible hand of the free market, Cameron and the Tories have shown themselves to be impotent in halting the decline and downward trajectory of British capitalism.  By Adam BoothBritain Ethnic Cleansing in Palestine: Home Demolitions on the Rise by Richard Hardigan

Health, Education and Welfare:

The Fire Each Time by Luciana BohneFireThisTimeThe Legacies of Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace and Austerity: The Known SoldierKnownSoldier

 

 

Daily News Digest April 22, 2016

Daily News Digest Archives

Daily News Digest April 22, 2016

Today Is Earth Day:

Human Society Stands At The Crossroads:Either Socialism Or The Destruction of Humanity: Today a new factor has been added. Production for profit has lead to the destruction of the habitat for humanity through global warming, nuclear radiation, perpetual wars, pestilence, starvation, and thirst. By Roland Sheppard

Socialist Change Not Climate Change!RolandSheppard

Images of the Day:

‘New World Order’ Social Manipulation and ControlImageoftheDatEngles QuoteImageoftheDay2 Quotes of the Day: 

The real battle of 2016 is about the duopoly, which tells Blacks there is “no contradiction in being in the same party as the former president who put more Blacks in prison than any other,” and urges staunch unionists to support the clique that has exported their jobs. Sanders and Trump are mere players in the larger drama. — The Sandernista Journey: An Epic Confrontation with Corporate Power, or a Slow Fade

When people discuss the formation of political movements outside the Democratic party in this or any other season they like to talk about ideas and policies, but not so much about how to guarantee some semblance of small d democratic leadership of these movements, leadership responsible to members. The answer pretty much suggests itself. If your funders will inevitably choose your movement’s leadership, and you need your leadership to be responsible to your rank and file members, then you need to have dues paying members as your principal funders. Membership funding, with organization structured so that leaders are directly accountable to, selected and un-selected by members. That’s the model we should be exploring. This is the way genuine left and socialist parties and movements for the last hundred years have funded their operations all over world, a fact not much taught to so-called community organizers here. Until these old lessons about choosing internal democracy and membership funding over s big donors and self-perpetuating leaders are re-learned, it’s hard to see how a new political movement left of the Democratic party will ever take hold and grow. — Will Bernie’s Burnout Lead To A New Movement? Maybe, Maybe Not.

The “People’s Brazil Front” and the “People Without Fear Front” (that the Marxist Left is part of) has said it does not recognise any legitimacy in any government coming out of this process, and calls for mobilisation in the streets to defeat the right wing, calling for a National Workers’ Assembly on May Day. The Marxist Left will do its utmost for the victory of this National Workers’ Assembly. There a fight from below should begin against all the institutions, to defend the working class and youth and open the way to expropriate the expropriators. — Brazilian impeachment unleashes forces the ruling class will regret

Videos the Day:

Behind the curtain of the CIA: “The Watchmen: Secrets of the CIA”

U.S.:

The Sandernista Journey: An Epic Confrontation with Corporate Power, or a Slow Fade  by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

 Monsanto’s LawMonsanto‘Worse things in store’: Steaming hot world sets more temperature records By Peter HannamPeterHannam Ongoing/Big Energy Disasters!:

Up to 3,500 Gallons Of Nuclear Waste Leaks At Hanford SiteHanfordEnergy News:

05:19 PM EST on April 20th, 2016 | TV: Alarm over “Catastrophic Leak” at US nuclear site — “Emergency response underway” — Surge in radioactive leakage after “essentially blowing a hole” in massive tank containing “deadliest substance on earth” — Former Worker: “I was very shocked to hear it breached that significantly” (VIDEOS)

Black Liberation/Civil Rights:

Labor:

Immigrant Women Lead Efforts to Transform Conditions for Domestic Workers in Illinois By Sheila BapatDomesticWorkersEconomy:

We Can’t Save the Economy Unless We Fix Our Debt Addiction: Our economy has increasingly been financialized, and the result is a sluggish economy and stagnant wages.  by Michael HudsonMichaelHudson

WallStreetOnParadeU.S. Government Is Now a Major Counterparty to Wall Street Derivatives By Pam Martens and Russ Martens MartensWorld:

The Cuban People will Win, Asserted Fidel at 7th PCC CongressFidelBrazilian impeachment unleashes forces the ruling class will regret: The impeachment of Dilma was approved on Sunday by a united front of bourgeois parties in order to establish a government of Temer  vice-president] and Cunha [Parliamentary speaker], with support from the PSDB (Brazilian Social Democratic Party), DEM (Democrats) and other parties.  by Serge Goulart

BrazilHealth, Education and Welfare:

What Comes After Capitalism? Upcoming Teach-Ins Can Show a Way Forward By Gar Alperovitz and Ben Manski, TruthoutAfterCapitalismBig PharmaBigPharmaThe Chicago School: How Chicago elites imported charters, closed neighborhood schools, and snuffed out creativity. by Rick PerlsteinChicagoSchools

 

 

Daily News Digest April 21, 2016

Daily News Digest Archives

Daily News Digest April 21, 2016

Images of the Day:

US PolicyImageoftheDatTTP ExplainedImageoftheDay2 Quotes of the Day:

Progressives at home and abroad are happy about how far “left” the campaign debates and rhetoric have gone in this year’s Democratic Party presidential primary race. But five harsh realities suggest that such enthusiasm should be qualified. First, the debates and rhetoric have been nowhere nearly as radical as required in a time when the capitalist profits system (endorsed by the nominally socialist presidential contender Bernie Sanders) is generating an environmental catastrophe that has emerged as the biggest issue of our or any time. (The cultural theorist Frederic Jameson has written “that it is easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine the end of capitalism.” The irony is that capitalism is quite tangibly, materially, and empirically – no imagination required – ending livable ecology). — Where Presidents and People Make History

Whereas, most leading climate scientists are not willing to honestly expose their greatest fears, as discovered by Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! while at COP21 in Paris this past December, interviewing one of the world’s leading climate scientists, Kevin Anderson of Tyndall Center for Climate Change Research, who said: “So far we simply have not been prepared to accept the revolutionary implications of our own findings, and even when we do we are reluctant to voice such thoughts openly… many are ultimately choosing to censor their own research.” — Global Warming and the Planetary Boundary

The absolute intransigence of the U.S. mass incarceration regime is most dramatically on display in Chicago, where Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s own special investigative task force has concluded that the “police have no regard for the sanctity of life when it comes to people of color.” The report backs up that conclusion with a now-familiar recitation of statistics that show, by the numbers, the raw nature of the police as an occupying army that perceives that its mission is to stop, humiliate, frame, physically abuse, torture and kill Black and brown people. Seventy-four percent of the 404 people shot by the Chicago police last year were Black. Seventy-two percent of those stopped on the street but who were not arrested, were Black. Three quarters of those singled out for tasering were Black. And, the bulk of the remainder were Latino. – Glen Ford, There’s Only One Cure for Chicago Police Lawlessness: Black Community Control

Videos the Day:

One Year After Freddie Gray’s Death, Baltimoreans See Little Change

There’s Only One Cure for Chicago Police Lawlessness: Black Community Control (Audio)

The Video the Poultry Industry Doesn’t Want You to See

U.S.:

It’s Unaminous!ImageoftheDayWhere Presidents and People Make History by Paul StreetPaulStreetWhat Really Stands in the Way of Closing Guantánamo by Karen J. GreenbergGuantaminoEnvironment:

Global Warming and the Planetary Boundary by Robert Hunziker Robert HunzikerCoral Bleaching Has All But Destroyed Great Barrier Reef, Study Confirms More than 90 percent of world’s largest living ecosystem has been hit by “severe” coral bleaching by Nadia PrupisNadia Ongoing/Big Energy Disasters!:

New study reveals Fukushima radiation reached U.S. coast far sooner than previously believed, as cesium levels reach record high off Western shores By Greg White

USFukushimaRadiationThyroid cancer cases rising in Northern California communities By Kevin Oliver

Further Deregulation of Nuclear Power by the NRC: NRC slashes budget and eliminates jobs NRCBlack Liberation/Civil Rights:Bar-2Freedom Rider: Not Feeling the Bern by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley

Economy:

WallStreetOnParadeNew York Does Elections Like It Does Wall Street: With Its Finger on the Scale:  New York State has the toughest financial fraud law in the country. Under New York’s 1921 Martin Act, the State Attorney General’s office can bring both criminal or civil charges. Despite that important fact, no CEO or CFO or key executive of any major Wall Street bank has been prosecuted by the New York State Attorney General for their role in the 2008 crash — which crippled the U.S. economy and has left the nation with GDP growth of two percent or less ever since.  By Pam Martens and Russ Martens

World:

Venezuela’s Opposition: Attacking Its Own People by Eric DraitserVENEZUELA Health, Education and Welfare:

Teachers union chief to parents on possible strike: ‘Be prepared By Mitch Dudek

ChicagoTeachers

 

Daily News Digest April 20, 2016

Daily News Digest Archives

Daily News Digest April 20, 2016

Images of the Day:

Einstein on CapitalismEinsteinOnly The 1% Can Declare Bankruptcy!ImageoftheDayQuotes of the Day:

Nellie Bailey, longtime tenants activist and co-host of Black Agenda Radio, told the conference that “housing activists are engaged in class warfare with finance capital for living space. We have to build a national movement that is a broad tent, that will bring in progressive forces” that can unite around principles of unity. — Black Agenda Radio

As the EPA notes: Cesium-133 is the only naturally occurring isotope and is non-radioactive; all other isotopes, including cesium-137, are produced by human activity. So there was no “background radiation” for caesium-137 before above-ground nuclear testing and nuclear accidents such as Chernobyl. — Comparing Japan’s Radiation Release to “Background Radiation”

Still, the Japanese government has reported estimates to the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency]. According to those estimated levels, reactors 1, 2, and 3 had been in operation on March 11, 2011, and all three suffered meltdowns. Those three reactors released 1.5×1016 Becquerels of Cs-137, which would make it a release of 168 times more radioactive material than the Hiroshima bombing. And this is only material released into the atmosphere-at least according to Japanese government estimates. — An Insider’s Exposé of the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster

After a period of months following its initial formation, Momentum — the pro-Corbyn movement inside and around the Labour Party — has taken the significant step of becoming a membership based organisation. By taking steps to tighten up the organisation of Momentum, the position of the Left within the Labour Party will be strengthened. This, in turn, will serve to solidify Corbyn’s position against the right wing of the Labour Party who are set on removing him. — Britain: Corbyn strengthened as Momentum moves forward: time to go on the offensive

Videos the Day:

WarkaWater Tower Collects Drinking Water From Air

Major US protest — totally ignored: Getting corrupt money out of politics

The Panama papers — Capitalism is Corruption

U.S.:

The Spoils of War:

US to Blame for Spike in Opium Production in Afghanistan: The production of opium increased 40-fold in the 13 years of the U.S. intervention in Afghanistan and thanks to CIA covert aidOpiumTradeObama Sides with Saudis, Opposes Bill to Release 9/11 Findings: The Obama Administration has been lobbying Congress to block a bill that would allow Saudi Arabia’s government to be held accountable in American courts for any role it played in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.ObamaSaudisObama Went From Condemning Saudis for Abuses to Arming Them to the TeethObamaSaudis2More ‘Boots on the Ground’ as Obama Again Bolsters Endless Iraq War: Department of Defense announces “boots on the ground” deployment, says U.S. troops are needed to fight ISIS by Nika Knight,IraqThe Steep Cost of Tax Dodging By Jasmine Tucker

TAXDodging
Supports to a bridge crumble in Iowa City, Iowa, in a photo taken on September 15, 2014. The long-deteriorating infrastructure of the United States is repaired and maintained with tax funds, much of which are currently being withheld in offshore accounts by large corporations long-overdue in paying their share. (Photo: Phil Roeder)

Environment:

On Earth Day, Commit to the Great Turning by Rivera SunEarthDayTeflon Toxin Contamination Has Spread Throughout the World By Sharon LernerTeflomn Ongoing/Big Energy Disasters!: 

An Insider’s Exposé of the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster by Katsuya Hirano and Hirotaka Kasai Fukushima

Black Liberation/Civil Rights:

Black Agenda Radio for Week of April 18, 2016

 “Renounce and Reject” the Black Misleadership Class:

Coalition Will Craft a National Black Agenda:  Read more

Labor:

Economy:

World:

Britain: Corbyn strengthened as Momentum moves forward: time to go on the offensive by James Kilby
Momentum
Brazil: Impeachment of Dilma opens up new period of class struggle by Fred Weston in Brazil BrazilBritain on the brink – part two:

The election of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader with 60% of the vote has transformed the political landscape in Britain. The fact that some 400,000 registered to vote shows that there are certain revolutionary features to the situation. The left-reformist Michael Meacher described the Corbyn phenomenon as “the biggest non-revolutionary uprising of the social order.” This situation is clearly far from ’normal’. by Socialist AppealBritainBritain: Dodgy Dave’s tax affairs – What is to be done?: Following the Panama Papers leak, David Cameron has faced relentless scrutiny over his tax affairs. by Ben GlinieckiBritain2 Health, Education and Welfare:

The First Draft of History: Dispatches From the Frontline of War by Patrick Cockburn

 

 

 

 

 

Daily News Digest April 19, 2016

Daily News Digest Archives

Daily News Digest April 19, 2016

Images of the Day:

The Tragedy of ‘American’ Healthcare ImageoftheDayPresident StrangeloveImageoftheDay2Quotes of the Day:

I think one of the most important things for all of us to keep in mind is that these problems can’t be solved simply through elections…My concern with endorsing candidates is that, given our two-party system, we are often seduced into believing that if we just vote for the right guy–or the right gal–then everything will be fine, when in reality, we are going to have to build a new party or an independent movement. — Michelle Alexander

We Are Ruled by CriminalsOuoteAnother MythQuote2The Sanctity of LifeOuate3

Videos the Day:

Greg Palast: Where did this guy, Barrack Obama come from, anyway?: Billionaire fraudster, Penny Pritzker picked Barrack Obama to become US president

Michael Sheen and Massive Attack members support Welsh anti-fracking film

U.S.:

From Flint’s Children to Nuclear Weapons, Funding our Nations Priorities by Robert Dodge

Dr. Strangelove’s Legacy: US’ $1,000,000,000 Nuclear Arms Program Lacks SenseDr.StrangeloveTerrorismUSSLiberty

Bill Clinton’s crime bill destroyed lives, and there’s no point denying it: The former president made sure low-level drug users felt the full weight of state power at the same moment bankers saw the shackles that bound them removed By  Thomas FrankBillClinton

The Inevitability of Nuclear War?: Nuclear war is coming. Our officials are currently increasing the chances of that. by Winslow Myers

It Took a FOIA Lawsuit to Uncover How the Obama Administration Killed FOIA Reform By Jason LeopoldObamaFOIA

New York Primary’s Dirty Little Secrets Come Out of the Shadows : According to OpenPrimaries.org, 43 percent of Americans identify as politically independent. In New York state, voters who haven’t chosen a party affiliation total more than 2 million – more than 20 percent of all registered voters in New York. Unfortunately for them, they will be shut out of tomorrow’s New York primary where the stakes for the country’s future have never been greater. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens

Environment:

Ongoing/Big Energy Disasters!:

The Problem: Nuclear Radiation and its Biological Effects Part I The Problem51 Sailors from USS Ronald Reagan Suffering Thyroid Cancer, Leukemia, Brain Tumors After Participating in Fukushima Nuclear Rescue Efforts Video Reports 51SailorsEnergy News:

08:14 AM EST on April 18th, 2016 | TV: Surge in babies being born with extra arms, legs after Fukushima — “I feel officials know the cause is radiation” — Nurse says many are getting abortions to avoid ‘inconvenient’ babies — “High number of stillbirths” — Many people reporting cancers, even far away from Fukushima (VIDEO)

Black Liberation/Civil Rights:

Labor:

Disposable Workers: Readers discuss the culture and lack of job security in tech companies today.

DisposableWorkers Economy:

China Says “No Dollars” For New Yuan:In a shocking move likely to crush the US economy overnight, China is refusing to make its new gold-backed Yuan, convertible from or to US Dollars.New YaunShadow Government Statistics No. 800: March Industrial Production, Economic Review ShadowShadow2

Shadow3World:

Just 62 people now own the same wealth as half the world’s population, research finds: The world’s richest are getting richer while the wealth of the poorest is being spread more thinly.62PeoplePanama and the Criminalization of the Global Finance System by Sharmini Peries and Michael HudsonMichael Hudson Health, Education and Welfare:

Hundreds of Baltimore Students Stage A Walkout Against Standardized TestingBaltimoreBlanket Student Debt Amnesty Now by Mike WhitneyMikeWhitney

 

 

Daily News Digest April 18, 2016

Daily News Digest Archives

Daily News Digest April 18, 2016

Images of the Day:

The 1% Pay No Taxes — They Have Representation!ImageoftheDayFeel the Burn!

ImageoftheDay2Quotes of the Day:

Yet another standoff between clean drinking water and mining profits has taken shape in Colombia, where two corporations insist their right to pollute trumps human health and the environment. As is customary in these cases, it is clean water that is the underdog here. Two million people are dependent on water from a high-altitude wetlands, which is also a refuge for endangered species, that a Canadian mining company, Eco Oro Minerals Corporation, wants to use for a gold mine. The wetlands, the Santurbán páramo in the Andes, has been declared off-limits for mining by Colombia’s highest court due to the area’s environmental sensitivity. Eco Oro is suing the Colombian government because of this under the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement. The dispute will likely be heard by a secret tribunal that is an arm of the World Bank, even though the World Bank has provided investment capital for Eco Oro to develop the mine. . . . — There’s no place for clean water under ‘free trade’

A 2016 study also shows that in England the young have lower basic skills than their counterparts in Europe. Monsanto’s secret studies revealed that glyphosate caused cataract as well as cancers. The incidence of cataract surgery in England increased tenfold between 1968 and 2004. Few can avoid the pollution of water, soil and air by genotoxic and teratogenic herbicides, insecticides and other industrial chemicals. Governments  and Regulators only measure a small fraction of them. Human health depends on biodiversity. Food depends on natural pollinators. The devastating effects of these silent killers on us and our environment do not distinguish between farmers or city dwellers, the wealthy or the poor, between media moguls, editors or their reporters, Monsanto or Syngenta Executives, Prime Ministers or Presidents. Humans and the environment are being silently poisoned by thousands of untested and unmonitored chemicals. — The British   Medical Journal is unaware of the links between  Cancer Research  UK and the  Pesticides  Industry

Videos the Day:

Real Time with Bill Maher: New Rule – Tax the Churches (HBO) “There are 300,000 religious congregations in this country that pay no taxes,” Maher explained. “And they own $600 billion in property.”

Black Is Back Conference: 2016 Elections and The Struggle for Self-determination Videos:

BIBC-1-Chairman Yeshitela: Electoral Politics

BIBC-3 Margaret Kimberley: Sanders and Black Self Determination

BIBC-2- Glen Ford: Elections Analysis

U.S.:

The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave: The history of the United States is over two hundred years of blood, exploitation and oppression. The November election will cause nothing to change.by Robert Fantina

$1,400,000,000,000: Oxfam Exposes the Great Offshore Tax Scam of US Companies: “We can’t go on with a situation where the rich and powerful are not paying their fair share of tax, leaving the rest of us to foot the bill.” By Andrea GermanosAndrea GermanosEnvironment:

The Case Against Glyphosate By Colin Todhunter

Colin TodhunterThere’s no place for clean water under ‘free trade’NoPlaceCleanWater Ongoing/Big Energy Disasters!:

Energy News:

05:31 PM EST on April 14th, 2016 | “Nuclear reactor fears after huge earthquake strikes Japan” — Plant operator “is further looking into any possible damage” — Quake measured “at highest possible level” on Japan’s intensity scale — Prime Minister: “We intend to do the utmost to grasp situation” — Official: “Extent of damage still unclear” (VIDEOS)

Black Liberation/Civil Rights:

Crime & Public Shaming by David RosenDavidRosen Labor:

In Synchronized Strikes Around the World, Workers #Fightfor15: Minimum-wage workers in over 300 cities and more than 40 countries are striking for a living wage by Nika Knight#Fightfor15 Economy:

The world economy — System says slow: The IMF sees political danger in the economic doldrumsIMFWorld:

Mexico: Explosive struggle of Polytechnic students: A new protest movement has started, in an explosive manner, at the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN) in Mexico City. On April 14th, three demonstrations were held totaling about fifteen thousand students and workers. by Ricardo MarquezMexicoThe “Night Stands Up” movement – a nightmare for the “one percent”by Suzanne MichelNightNetherlands: Referendum rejects EU-Ukraine treaty by Zowi Milanovi

Netherlands Marxist Students take part in Paris demonstrations by Marxist Student FederationMarxistStudents Syrian Elections Prove Again That Washington And Its Presstitutes Lie Through Their Teeth By Dr. Paul Craig RobertsPaulCraigRoberts Health, Education and Welfare:

UC Davis Spent $175,000 in an Attempt to Scrub This Story from the Internet:  Documents reveal university contracted with firm to “clean up” the school’s online reputation after November 2011 pepper-spraying of students by Deirdre Fulton, staff writer

UCDavisReport: UC Davis focused on web image after pepper spraying: Public Records Act request show some payments were made in hopes of eliminating negative search results for the school and Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi, . . . who became chancellor in 2009, the university has substantially increased its strategic communications budget from $2.93 million the year the embattled chancellor took over to $5.47 million in 2015.  Katehi has more recently been under fire for joining the boards of a textbook publisher and a for-profit university.

 

Daily News Digest April 15, 2016

Daily News Digest Archives

Daily News Digest April 15, 2016

Images of the Day:

American Justice!ImageoftheDayThe 1%’s Government!ImageoftheDay2  Quotes of the Day:

  • For the working class, reality is quite different from the media mythology. No matter who wins, no matter who occupies the White House, the situation for the working class will be the same :
  • Our sons and daughters will be called upon to shed their blood for American imperialism, which will be forced to resort to more and more military interventions throughout the world.
  • The economic crisis will continue unabated attacking our wages, our standard of living, our health care, our pensions, our housing conditions, social services.
  • The social divisions that exist in the U.S. will continue to worsen; the rich will get richer and the poor poorer. Unemployment will continue to grow.
  • The future will continue to look bleak. — Capitalist Elections and the Working Class

Consciously or unconsciously, when the bourgeois start to worrying about “outsiders” interfering in their system, what they actually express is the fear of the working class taking an interest in the way society is run, and interfering in their affairs. When the next global downturn arrives, the period between that crisis and 2008 will mark a watershed period in the history of the capitalist system. It will be characterised as one in which the system, far from developing, burned away many of the reserve layers at its disposal, economically, socially and politically, which had acted as “cushioning” in 2008. This will give the class struggles of the not-too distant future a far sharper character. The struggle on the part of the bourgeois will be far more desperate. The struggle on the part of the working class will take place after a period in which sick and enfeebled capitalism has been able to do nothing to solve its fundamental problems. Illusions that previously existed have been burned away, many defenders of the old system discredited. This is something we must prepare for, and intervene in, to build the forces of Marxism. — Capitalism’s depleted reserves

. . .The final stages of capitalism, Marx wrote, would be marked by developments that are intimately familiar to most of us. Unable to expand and generate profits at past levels, the capitalist system would begin to consume the structures that sustained it. It would prey upon, in the name of austerity, the working class and the poor, driving them ever deeper into debt and poverty and diminishing the capacity of the state to serve the needs of ordinary citizens. It would, as it has, increasingly relocate jobs, including both manufacturing and professional positions, to countries with cheap pools of laborers. Industries would mechanize their workplaces. This would trigger an economic assault on not only the working class but the middle class—the bulwark of a capitalist system—that would be disguised by the imposition of massive personal debt as incomes declined or remained stagnant. Politics would in the late stages of capitalism become subordinate to economics, leading to political parties hollowed out of any real political content and abjectly subservient to the dictates and money of global capitalism. . . .  — Chris Hedges

Videos the Day:

‘Days of Revolt’: Corporate Influence and the Pitfalls of a Two-Party System

Coal ash: The source of chemtrails? Hidden in plain sight

U.S.:

1976 Presidential Platform of the Socialist Workers Party: No to a ‘Lessor Evil ‘or ‘More Evil’ Capitalist Rule, But for a Workers Government and For Working Class/Majority Rule!1976CamejoDisenfranchised by Debt by Kathy MuladyDisenfranchisedPrisonFree From Jail, Imprisoned by Debt: People in at least 30 states are barred from voting because they’re unable to pay their court fines. By Libero Della PianaImprisonedbyDebtThis Election, We Can’t Afford to Ignore the Climate: As the seas rise, presidential candidates are arguing over whose wife is hotter. By Aaron MairAaron Mair Environment: 

Capitalist TerrorismWaterTerrorism Monsanto Stunned – California Confirms ‘Roundup’ Will Be Labeled “Cancer Causing”Monsanto Ongoing/Big Energy Disasters!:

Oil Industry’s Suppression of Climate Science Began in 1940s, Documents Reveal: “What we found is they knew a great deal, and they knew it much earlier and with greater certainty than anyone has recognized or that the industry has admitted.” By Nadia Prupis

Black Liberation/Civil Rights:

Bar-2(Late Edition)

Bill Clinton Insults Blacks in Order to Build Hillary’s “Big Tent” Party  by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

Labor:

Economy:

Capitalism’s depleted reserves: The capitalist crisis of 2008 was rescued by an enormous transfusion of public money into the banks. The system has been on life-support ever since. by Ben PeckDepletedReserves

Alternate Inflation Charts: The CPI chart on the home page reflects our estimate of inflation for today as if it were calculated the same way it was in 1990. The CPI on the Alternate Data Series tab here reflects the CPI as if it were calculated using the methodologies in place in 1980. In general terms, methodological shifts in government reporting have depressed reported inflation, moving the concept of the CPI away from being a measure of the cost of living needed to maintain a constant standard of living.ShadowInflationConsumer DebtWallStreetOnParadeThe Fed Sends a Frightening Letter to JPMorgan and Corporate Media Yawns: Yesterday the Federal Reserve released a 19-page letter that it and the FDIC had issued to Jamie Dimon, the Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, on April 12 as a result of its failure to present a credible plan for winding itself down if the bank failed. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens

World:

Echoes of Stalinism abound in the very modern Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict: The same old enemies are clanking around the black mountains of Karabagh: Russian power, Turkish expansionism and Armenian nationalism By Robert FiskRobertFisk

Health, Education and Welfare:

AusterityAusterity Chicago Teachers Union: Our Students’ Families Deserve Adequate Pay and Permanent JobsChicafo

 

Daily News Digest April 14, 2016

Daily News Digest Archives

Daily News Digest April 14, 2016

Images of the Day:

Oil Dominates Middle East Foreign PolicyImageoftheDatBarack (I’m Good at KillingPeople’) ObamaImageoftheDay2Quotes of the Day:

Socialist Alternative is  walking the well-traveled path of opportunism in supporting Bernie Sanders — a Democratic Party senator impersonating a “revolutionary” socialist. Their rare criticism of Sanders is presented within a supportive framework developed by the national leadership. Basically, they advise him on what he should say or do to get elected and are loyal fellow travelers. Bernie, for his part, ignores every overture. The problem with SA’s “Bernie Tactic” is that they are for Bernie and against (sort of) the capitalist party he clings to. They say they will not register voters as Democrats, but members should take part in caucuses if they can and vote for Bernie in primaries where being a registered Democrat is not required. Apparently they are under the illusion that the road to an independent working class party is through, or at least beside, the Democrats. Some in their own membership are calling this magical thinking. SA is hungry to traverse the territory between being a small propaganda group and “one with influence” and the Bernie Tactic is supposed to be smart politics. It is not. It’s criminal to confuse and/or deceive voters about the true nature of the anti-worker, pro-war Democratic Party. It’s a tactic that always fails to radicalize anyone. — Socialist Alternative’s twisted “Bernie tactic” 

Just as with the Occupy Movement of a few years ago, the task of containing and neutralizing the Movement will fall to Democratic administrations in the nation’s big cities.COINTELPRO Alive and Well in Los Angeles

Videos the Day:

Disaster Capitalism’s Coming Use of The Lead Water Pipe Crisis

Audio : COINTELPRO Alive and Well in Los Angeles

Exclusive: Climate Hustle’s Marc Morano Turns Down $20k Global Warming Bets From Bill Nye The Science Guy

U.S.:

The End of The American Empire By Chas W. FreemanAmericanEmpire2,500 Years of Class Hatred by Alexander Reid RossClassHatredThe Security-Digital Complex by Thibault HennetonSecurityDigitalEnvironment:

Ongoing/Big Energy Disasters!:

Energy News:

03:31 PM EST on April 12th, 2016 | Top Official: Over 60 million Japanese irradiated by Fukushima — Nuclear Expert: 50,000 sq. miles of Japan highly contaminated… Many millions need to be evacuated… Gov’t has decided to sacrifice them, it’s a serious crime — TV: More than 70% of country contaminated by radiation (VIDEOS)

01:10 PM EST on April 11th, 2016 | Nuclear Expert in Fukushima: People’s feet turned black for years because radiation so high — Every time I turned around I saw someone who had radiation damage — Hair falling out, caughing up blood, bodies covered with boils… Officials keeping doctors from telling truth… Public being brainwashed (VIDEO)

Black Liberation/Civil Rights:

Bar-2Freedom Rider: Barack, Hillary and the Libya Crime by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley

·     Black Panther PartyBarDannyHaiphongO.J.’s Journey From Super Nigger to Bad Nigger by Mark P. Fancher

Economy:WallStreetOnParadeElizabeth Warren Is Why JPMorgan Has a Living Will Problem By Pam Martens and Russ Martens

World:

South Africa: Nkandla, Guptas and splits in the ruling class – ANC in its deepest crisis ever by Ben Morken SouthAfrica‘Up All Night’ Protests Sweep France as 100,000 Join Pro-Democracy Movement: ‘This movement was not born and will not die in Paris…It has no limit, no border and it belongs to all of those who wish to be part of it.’ By Lauren McCauleyUpAllNight

Health, Education and Welfare:

Think Medicine is Expensive Now? Public Health Groups Warn of TPP’s Gifts to Big Pharma: Doctors Without Borders and more than fifty other Organizations sent a letter calling on lawmakers to reject the pending trade pact by Lauren McCauleyLaurenMcCauley

 

 

Daily News Digest April 13, 2016

Daily News Digest Archives

Daily News Digest April 13, 2016

Image of the Day: 

Capitalism Doesn’t Work!ImageoftheDayQuotes of the Day:

. . . We published three journal articles showing that babies born in the West Coast in the nine months after Fukushima had a 16% jump in defective thyroids, compared to little change in the rest of the country. It’s time that health researchers stop its corrupt approach to Fukushima, and produce some actual statistics on changes in disease and death rates among affected populations – in Japan and in other countries. Not coming to grips with the truth will only raise the chance of another catastrophic meltdown in the future, raising the already-enormous number of casualties from nuclear power. — Fukushima Five Years After: Health Researchers Turn Blind Eye to Casualties

That is the argument; but as Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy, observes: ‘The notion is that the economy’s poor economic performance is not due to the failure of economic policy but to people hoarding their money. The Federal Reserve and its coterie of economists and presstitutes maintain the fiction of too much savings despite the publication of the Federal Reserve’s own report that 52% of Americans cannot raise $400 without selling personal possessions or borrowing the money.’ — The War on Savings: the Panama Papers, Bail-Ins, and the Push to Go Cashless

This is neoliberalism hard at work. It champions privatization of public assets, one of its founding principles, or put another way, when the chips are down and prices at rock bottom, and when the people are looking down in despair, shift state assets to private enterprise. This is a universal principle of neoliberalism. The Chinese understand the neoliberal game and feast upon it. — Greece Loses its Soul

Videos the Day:

John Oliver on the Shocking Errors in Credit Reports and Background Checks That Ruin Lives\

Democracy Spring: Over 400 Arrested at U.S. Capitol Protesting Corruption & Money in Politics

U.S.:

Obama’s Partner,  Rahm Emanuel is Also ‘Good at Killing People’: A death in police custody: what really happened at Chicago’s Homan Square?HomanSquareEnvironment:

What Fidel Said, and Why It Matters for Earth Day by Susan BabbittFidelAustralia’s Great Barrier Reef: Biodiversity and Marine Life Threatened — The Day Nemo Died: Coal, Bleaching and the Great Barrier Reef By Dr. Binoy KampmarkBinoyKampmark Lawsuits Charge that 3M Knew About the Dangers of Its Chemicals By Sharon Lerner3M Ongoing/Big Energy Disasters!:

Fukushima Five Years After: Health Researchers Turn Blind Eye to Casualties by Joseph Mangano and Janette ShermanFukushimaRadioactive wild boars rampaging around Fukushima nuclear site: The animal population has been left unchecked since the disaster in 2011 By Will WorleyBoars Black Liberation/Civil Rights:

Black Agenda Radio for Week of April 11, 2016

 

When Prison Reform Means Prison Expansion PrisonReformBy Maya Schenwar

Labor:

Economy:

The War on Savings: the Panama Papers, Bail-Ins, and the Push to Go Cashless by Ellen BrownElenBrownWorld:

NDP Convention 2016: Rank-and-file revolt turfs Mulcair By Joel Bergman

CanadaGreece Loses its Soul by Robert HunzikerGreece Health, Education and Welfare:

Daily News Digest April 12, 2016

Daily News Digest Archives

Daily News Digest April 12, 2016

Images of the Day:

France: uprising against the labour law – ‘riots’, ‘looting’, ‘blockades’ & ‘sabotage’

ImageoftheDayQuotes of the Day:

We are no more immune to the forces of decay and death than were ancient Athens, ancient Egypt, ancient Rome, the Mayans, the Aztecs, Easter Island, Europe’s feudal society of lords and serfs, and the monarchal empires in early 20th-century Europe. Human nature has not changed. We will react as those before us reacted when they faced collapse. We will be increasingly consumed by illusion. We will seek to stop time, to prevent change, to embrace magical thinking in a desperate effort to return to an idealized past. Many will suffer.  This time, collapse will be planetwide. There will be no new lands to conquer, no new peoples to subjugate, no new natural resources to plunder and exploit. Climate change will teach us a brutal lessen about hubris. The wages of sin, as Paul writes in his Letter to the Romans, is death—first moral and intellectual death and then physical death. The first, we already are experiencing. It would be reassuring to believe we could as a species avoid the second. But if human history is any guide, we are in for it. And the worse it gets, the more we seek to thwart change through magical thinking, the more our eventual extinction as a species is assured. — Chris Hedges, The Wages of Sin

What are the circumstances that have led us to hold a congress such as the one we’re going to convene? Was it a question of principle to do it in April [i.e. exactly five years since the last Congress]? Could we not have waited a few more months so that the activist base as a whole would have an opportunity to read and express opinions on the documents, before they go to the Congress? I must say that I see no justification whatsoever for us committing the ‘grave political error’ of convening a Congress without the mass of grassroots activists — which I consider to be the real party — having access to the documents to be approved by the Congress in order to discuss them. Have we given up on being a Leninist party? I am yet to hear anyone tell me that. — Esteban Morales, The kind of Congress many of us wouldn’t have wanted

Video the Day:

Free Market Capitalism 

U.S.:

The Wages of Sin By Chris HedgesChrisHedgesCIA’s Work With Filmmakers Puts All Media Workers at Risk By Adam JohnsonCIAFilmsHow Not to Audit the Pentagon: Five Decades Later, the Military Waste Machine Is Running Full Speed Ahead By William D. Hartung

Trans-Atlantic & Trans-Pacific “Partnerships” Complete Corporate World Takeover By Paul Craig RobertsPaulCraigRobertsJudge Denies Motions by Fossil Fuel Industry and Federal Government in Landmark Climate Change Case

ClimateCaseEnvironment:

For The First Time, A State Just Banned Neonicotinoids, A Pesticide Threatening Pollinators by Natasha GeilingNatasha GeilingMonsanto’s Evil Twin: Disturbing Facts About the Fertilizer Industry By Martha Rosenberg and Ronnie Cummins, Organic Consumers AssociationMonsanto'sEvilTwinCapitalism And Global Agribusiness: From Ford To Monsanto, “It’s For Your Own Good” By Colin TodhunterGlobalArgribusinessMerle Haggard and the Politics of Salmon by Dan BacherDan Bacher Global Fisheries Are Collapsing — What Happens When There Are No Fish Left? By Dahr Jamail

Dahr Jamail  Ongoing/Big Energy Disasters!:

Pro-Nuclear Environmentalists and the Chernobyl Death Toll: With few if any exceptions, self-styled pro-nuclear environmentalists peddle misinformation regarding the Chernobyl death toll. by Jim GreenJim Green Keystone spill is more proof that pipelines are unsafe at any speed By Stuart Smith

Oil Leak From Keystone Pipeline 89 Times Worse Than Originally Thought by Alejandro Davila FragosoKeyStoneLeakEnergy News:

02:17 PM EST on April 9th, 2016 | “EMERGENCY DECLARED” at US nuclear plant — Newspaper: “High radiation triggers alert” — Officials: “Counties surrounding plant alerted of this event” — Gov’t: Unusual Event due to “HIGH HIGH” radiation condition

Black Liberation/Civil Rights:

‘I was struck with multiple blows’: inside the secret violence of Homan Square: Documents disclosed in Guardian lawsuit reveal for first time how Chicago police used punches, baton blows and Tasers at the off-the-books interrogation site.Homan SquareLabor:

Economic Crisis and The Protest Movement: French Lessons for U.S. Workers By Shamus CookeFrenchLessons Economy:

World:

Cuban CP ‘Leadership’ use Stalinist Tactics:

The kind of Congress many of us wouldn’t have wanted By Esteban MoralesEstebanMoralesBritain: #CameronResign – Tory government in crisis as Prime Minister embroiled in Panama scandal by Ben GlinieckiBritain The Corruption Revealed in the Panama Papers Opened the Door to Isis by Patrick CockburnPatrickCockburnNuit debout protesters occupy French cities in revolutionary call for change

For more than a week, vast nocturnal gatherings have spread across France in a citizen-led movement that has rattled the government.

NuitdboutProtestHealth, Education and Welfare:

Daily News Digest April 11, 2016

Daily News Digest Archives

The United States was never meant to be a ‘Democracy’:

. . . If these observations be just, our government ought to secure the permanent interests of the country against innovation. Landholders ought to have a share in the government, to support these invaluable interests, and to balance and check the other. They ought to be so constituted as to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority. The senate, therefore, ought to be this body; and to answer these purposes, they ought to have permanency and stability. Various have been the propositions; but my opinion is, the longer they continue in office, the better will these views be answered. . . . — James Madison, Notes of the Secret Debates of the Federal Convention of 1787

Daily News Digest April 11, 2016

Images of the Day:

United States’ Bloody History  Image of the DayThe War on Women ImageoftheDay2Quotes of the Day:

. . .The Panama Papers, containing info on thousands of shell companies set up to avoid taxes and hide assets for over four decades from 1977 to 2015, are all about millionaires and billionaires and the politically connected “sticking it to” average citizens of the world by hiding money from fellow countrymen’s taxation policies and/or theft of state funds and laundering money. It is outrageously heinous and deserving of criminal incrimination and/or tarring and feathering whilst run out of town on a rail. It also begs the question of how many more rich pillagers are out there. . . .  — The Panama Papers: Oozing Slime

. . . Some American intellectuals like Chris Hedges believe the public should/will revolt. “Hedges’ message is clear: Popular uprisings in the United States and around the world are inevitable in the face of environmental destruction and wealth polarization.” (Source: Wages of Rebellion: The Moral Imperative of Revolt, Truthdig.com). Some American intellectuals like Chris Hedges believe the public should/will revolt. “Hedges’ message is clear: Popular uprisings in the United States and around the world are inevitable in the face of environmental destruction and wealth polarization.” (Source: Wages of Rebellion: The Moral Imperative of Revolt, Truthdig.com). “Inevitable in the face of environmental destruction and wealth polarization” somehow fit together like peas in a pod; maybe because both originate from the same greedy, rapacious, devouringly insatiable thirst for opulent riches, at any cost. And, it’s proving to be a badge of cowardliness. — The Panama Papers: Oozing Slime

One of the deadliest strikes against civilians in Yemen’s year-long war involved U.S.-supplied weapons — The year-long campaign of Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen reached a new low last month with a deliberate attack on a marketplace full of civilians that killed over 100, including 25 children, and a new report has found that the bombs that did the killing came from the United States. — American Bombs Killing Civilians in Yemen, Report Finds

Videos the Day:

Election fraud season — As American as apple pie

LEAKED 9/11 ANNIVERSARY PENTAGON CRUISE MISSILE FOOTAGE WITH ANALYSIS

U.S.:

The Panama Papers prove it — America can afford a universal basic income:  If the super-rich actually paid what they owe in taxes, the US would have loads more money available for public services By Colin HoltzPanamaPapersU.S. Terrorism in Yemen: American Bombs Killing Civilians in Yemen, Report Finds: by Nika KnightYemenStand Your Ground, Unless You’re a Battered Woman: When victims defend themselves, they put themselves at risk of becoming doubly victimized — first by their abusers, then by the criminal justice system. By Amy Goodman and Denis MoynihanAmyGoodmanEnvironment:

Global warming is changing how the world WOBBLES: Nasa study says melting ice sheets are changing Earth’s weight distributionEarthWobbles

No Planet for Optimists: Coastal Flooding May Come Sooner Than We Fear by Pete DolackPete DolackOngoing/Big Energy Disasters!:

Energy News:

01:12 PM EST on April 7th, 2016 | Nuclear Engineer: “Alarm bells” are going off over Fukushima plume coming to US West Coast — People will be dying from radiation that’s flowing across Pacific — Massive amounts of nuclear waste are flowing into ocean every day, and will for more than a century — “We’ve contaminated the biggest source of water on planet, and there’s no way to stop it” (VIDEO)

Black Liberation/Civil Rights:

People Over For-Profit Prisons: a Social Movement in Gary, Indiana by Paul Street

Bill Clinton (The ‘First Black President”) Defends Prison Industrial Complex — New Jim Crow/Slavery:

Off-Script Bill Clinton Triggers Storm of Critics After Touting Welfare, Prison Legacy: ‘You are defending the people who kill the lives you say matter,’ former president tells racial justice activists who interrupted campaign rally by Jon QueallyBillClintonLabor:

‘Nuit Debout’: Huge anti-labor reform protests rock FranceLaborFranceEconomy:

Clash of the Ignobles: the IMF, the European Commission and Greek Debt by Binoy KampmarkBinoy Kampmark

WallStreetOnParadeSenator Elizabeth Warren Asks Jack Lew, Who Owned an Offshore Account at Citigroup, to Investigate Panama Papers By Pam Martens and Russ Martens

World:

The Panama Papers: Oozing Slime by Robert HunzikeRobert Hunziker Health, Education and Welfare:

 Healthcare in the 1%’s LandHealthcareImperialism, Political Corruption and the Real Face of Capitalism By Andre Damon Andre Damon