Daily News Digest December 20, 2019

Since World War I, ‘the war to end all wars’, there have been perpetual wars for perpetual peace, this Laura Gray’s cartoon from the front page of The Militant August 18, 1945, under banner headline: “There Is No Peace” Could Still Be Published Today!During This Economic Crisis, Capitalism’s Three-Point Political Program: (1) Austerity, (2) Scapegoat Blacks, Minorities, and ‘Illegal’ Immigrants for Unemployment, and (3)  The Iron Heel

Always Remember That Obama Supported the Wall Street Bailout and Remember That President Obama, With a Majority Democrat Legislature, Established, in writing,  the United States Capitalist Austerity Program  — The Race to the Bottom/Pauperization of the 99%!

Democracy?:  As the Capitalist Robber Barons Steal from the 99%: Only the 1% Voted For Austerity — The 99% Should Decide On Austerity — Not Just The 1% Who Profit From Austerity!  Under Austerity, All of the World Will Eventually Be Pauperized, Humbled, and Desecrated Like Greece and Puerto Rico.    Socialism Means True Democracy — The 99% Will Rule! — Not the Few!

Images of the Day:

Healthcare Not Warfare!

Quotes of the Day:

From: The First Impeachment Trial:  Andrew Johnson in 1868: Edmund Ross, a Kansas Republican, cast the deciding vote that ended the impeachment proceedings against President Andrew Johnson. The proceedings began because doctrinaire ‘Radical Republicans,’ then in control of the Senate, passed a Tenure of Office Act to prevent a president from firing cabinet members without Senate consent. This was done to try to stop Johnson from firing Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. Johnson believed Stanton was a tool of the Radicals who wanted to establish a military dictatorship in the South. Johnson felt the wiser course would be to reconstruct the Confederate states back into the Union as quickly as possible without unnecessary military intervention, as Lincoln had intended. When Johnson fired Stanton, the impeachment began.  The House voted for impeachment and the trial then moved to the Senate. As the trial went on it became clear that the Republicans had no intention of giving Johnson a fair trial; rather, their emphasis was on convincing enough Senators to find Johnson guilty. Ross was overheard saying that while he had no sympathy for Johnson, he would do his best to see that he was fairly tried. Because Ross had previously been such a partisan Republican, he became the principal target of abuse from the press, the public, and his fellow Republican legislators. Nonetheless, Ross voted against convicting Johnson, reasoning that if a president could be forced out of office by insufficient evidence that was based on partisan disagreement, the presidency would then be under the control of whatever congressional faction held sway. Ross’s action unleashed relentless criticism. Neither he nor any other Republican who voted to acquit Andrew Johnson was reelected to the Senate, and Ross and his family suffered ostracism and poverty upon their return to Kansas in 1871.

Videos Of the Day:

FBI Surveillance of Trump Aide Reflects Flaws in Secretive FISA System That Mostly Targets Muslims

Protests Paralyze India After Racist Anti-Muslim Law Passed

U.S.:

The United States is not a Democracy (A government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly)! Only the 1%, through their ownership of the Republicrats and who profit from war and the war budget, vote for War and the war budget — A policy, which Gore Vidal called a  Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace. — The 99% Should Decide On War — Not Just The 1% Who Profit From War!  Under a Democracy, The 99% would have the right to vote on the policy of Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace! The United States takes from the poor and gives to the Rich.

Sanders Report Shows How Millennial Generation Is ‘Being Punished With Crushing Student Debt and Low-Paying Jobs’ “In the richest country in the history of the world, we have an obligation to turn this around and make sure our kids live healthier and better lives than we do.” By Jake Johnson

The Stubborn Persistence of the Military-Industrial State I’ve been writing critiques of the Pentagon, the national security state, and America’s never-ending military overreach since at least 1979 — in other words, virtually my entire working life. In those decades, there were moments when positive changes did occur. They ranged from ending the apartheid regime in South Africa in 1994 and halting U.S. military support for the murderous regimes, death squads, and outlaws who ruled Central America in the 1970s and 1980s to sharp reductions in the U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals as the Cold War wound down. Each of those victories, however complex, seemed like a signal that sustained resistance and global solidarity mattered and could make a difference when it came to peace and security.  Here’s a striking exception, though, one thing that decidedly hasn’t changed for the better in all these years: the staggering number of tax dollars that persistently go into what passes for national security in this country. In our case, of course, the definition of “national security” is subsidizing the U.S. military-industrial complex, year in, year out, at levels that should be (but aren’t) beyond belief. In 2019, Pentagon spending is actually higher than it was at the peak of either the Korean or Vietnam conflicts and may soon be — adjusted for inflation — twice the Cold War average. By William Hartung

This Story on Cellphone Tracking ‘Is the Most Important Article You Should Read Today. Period.’ The New York Times published the first piece in its “One Nation, Tracked” investigation based on a data set with over 50 billion location pings. The New York Times‘ on Thursday sparked calls for congressional action by publishing the first article in its “One Nation, Tracked” series, an investigation into smartphone tracking based on a data set with over 50 billion location pings from the devices of more than 12 million people in the United States.The data, from 2016 and 2017, “was provided to Times Opinion by sources who asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to share it and could face severe penalties for doing so,” explained reporters Stuart A. Thompson and Charlie Warzel. “The sources of the information said they had grown alarmed about how it might be abused and urgently wanted to inform the public and lawmakers.” By Jessica CorbettThe Impending Ruling Class Mental Breakdown and Riot: Although the Brexit dispute added deep and unique layers of complexity to the British electoral contest, the sheer magnitude of Labour’s loss to a discredited Conservative Party headed by the Trump-class clown Boris Johnson, is the result of a full-court, every-dirty-trick-and-lie-in-the-book campaign by British corporate media, working hand-in-glove with intelligence circles, the trans-Atlantic military industrial complex, and the pro-corporate wing of the Labour Party (“Blairites”), itself. Sanders faces the same demonic alignment of corporate/media-national security forces in 2020, against an identical “Russiagate” backdrop that has, over the past three years, revealed the fascist face of late stage capitalism on both sides of the Atlantic.  If anything, Sanders is even more vulnerable than Corbyn, whose grassroots supporters controlled the Labour Party machinery. The Democratic Party is firmly in the hands of corporate servants who are dishonor-bound to bring down the self-styled socialist by any means necessary, to blunt the momentum of the super-majority issues he champions: Medicare for All, Green New Deal, living wage, free higher education, and a steep wealth tax. Together, these measures would spell the death of the austerity “Race to the Bottom” regime that has been imposed over the course of two generations with the collaboration of both corporate parties. The corporate Democrats are, therefore, fully invested in Sanders’ demise, since it is their base that presents the greatest threat to the austerity regime — not Donald Trump’s race-obsessed deplorables, who threaten only Black, brown and Arab-looking Americans. By Glen Ford

Militarism Has Become Enormously Popular and Nearly Universally Accepted I watch The Real News regularly. Marc Steiner seems to have taken over the role that one of the program’s founders, Paul Jay, once had before he disappeared from the program at the beginning of last summer. Jay disappeared along with one of the lead reporters at The Real News with no official explanation ever given. Recently the comment section appended to segments on the program disappeared and I stopped receiving responses to emails I sent to The Real News. On December 13, 2019, the segment “188 Democrats vote for Trump’s Bloated Defense Budget” aired on The Read News. Here’s host Marc Steiner about 13 minutes into the discussion of the $738 billion so-called defense “budget” that will stoke the profits of the permanent war contractor class to levels of stratospheric proportions for the endless wars the US now fights and supports: ”I mean the people in this country and from many and interesting and good reasons support their military.” The Congress, in a bipartisan move, gave Trump $738 billion, but the kids in Flint had to wait for clean water in bottles and Trump is cutting food stamps. Are we exceptional yet? By Howard Lisnoff

 Chemical Weapons Watchdog Is Just an American Lap Dog A spate of leaks from within the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the international inspectorate created for the purpose of implementing the Chemical Weapons Convention, has raised serious questions about the institution’s integrity, objectivity and credibility. The leaks address issues pertaining to the OPCW investigation into allegations that the Syrian government used chemical weapons to attack civilians in the Damascus suburb of Douma on April 7, 2018. These allegations, which originated from such anti-Assad organizations as the Syrian Civil Defense (the so-called White Helmets) and the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), were immediately embraced as credible by the OPCW, and were used by the United States, France and the United Kingdom to justify punitive military strikes against facilities inside Syria assessed by these nations as having been involved in chemical weapons-related activities before the OPCW initiated any on-site investigation. The Douma incident was initially described by the White Helmets, SAMS and the U.S., U.K. and French governments as involving both sarin nerve agent and chlorine gas. However, this narrative was altered when OPCW inspectors released, on July 6, 2018, interim findings of their investigation that found no evidence of the use of sarin. The focus of the investigation quickly shifted to a pair of chlorine cylinders claimed by the White Helmets to have been dropped onto apartment buildings in Douma by the Syrian Air Force, resulting in the release of a cloud of chlorine gas that killed dozens of Syrian civilians. In March, the OPCW released its final report on the Douma incident, noting that it had “reasonable grounds” to believe “that the use of a toxic chemical as a weapon has taken place on 7 April 2018,” that “this toxic chemical contained reactive chlorine” and that “the toxic chemical was likely molecular chlorine.” By Scott Ritter

Environment:

In New Study Naming Pollution the ‘Largest Environmental Threat to Health,’ US Ranks Among Top 10 Nations for Premature Deaths The analysis found that “exposure to toxic air, water, soil, and chemical pollution” causes 8.3 million premature deaths worldwide each year.  An analysis published Wednesday found that “exposure to toxic air, water, soil, and chemical pollution” kills 8.3 million people worldwide each year, with the United States among the 10 countries that have the most pollution-related premature deaths—underscoring the necessity of urgent, collaborative efforts to safeguard public health. By Jessica CorbettLouisiana’s Cancer Alley: Huge Toxic Site To Be Built On Grounds Where Slaves Are Likely Buried, Files Reveal  Massive petrochemical complex proposed in southern Louisiana opposed by activists angered by revelations of site’s significance A proposed sprawling petrochemical complex in southern Louisiana will be built on landholding historic cemetery sites that experts believe were likely slave burial grounds, according to documents released Wednesday. The $9.4bn plastics complex named the Sunshine Project is being proposed by Taiwanese petrochemical company Formosa Plastics and would consist of 14 separate plants across 2,300 acres of land in Saint James parish. If approved, it would be allowed to roughly double the amount of toxic emissions in the parish annually. . . . . The discovery of slave burial grounds on industrial land in the heavily polluted region between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, known colloquially as “Cancer Alley”, has happened in the past. But the revelations are likely to intensify the fight in one of the most contentious new developments in the region. By Oliver Laughland and Lauren ZanolliEnergy Analysts Deliver More Bad News for US Fracking Industry’s Business Model This month, the energy consulting firm Wood MacKenzie gave an online presentation that basically debunked the whole business model of the shale industry. In this webinar, which explored the declining production rates of oil wells in the Permian region, research director Ben Shattuck noted how it was impossible to accurately forecast how much oil a shale play held based on estimates from existing wells. “Over the years of us doing this, as analysts, we’ve learned that you really have to do it well by well,” Shattuck explained of analyzing well performance. “You cannot take anything for granted.” For an industry that has raised hundreds of billions of dollars promising future performance based on the production of a few wells, this is not good news. And particularly for the Permian, the nation’s most productive shale play, located in Texas and New Mexico. By Justin Mikulka

A Scorched Earth Christmas is No Gift For millennia, humans have celebrated the end of the year under any number of names, from Saturnalia to Christmas. Those in the northern hemisphere see the long, dark days begin to lengthen and brighten, lifting spirits as the New Year approaches. But this year, the idea of peace on Earth, good will toward all seems terribly diminished. Our nation is as divided as it’s been in recent memory, the planet set yet another record for global warming, melting the polar ice sheets and causing extreme sea level rise. Although we have the means and ability to move the world in a more sane direction, we are led by those who deny its existence or are too timid to take the very real and necessary actions to combat climate change. Welcome, sadly, to our scorched earth Christmas. By George Ochenski

‘Red Lights Flashing’: Australia Smashes Heat Record Just a Day After Previous Record Hit “I think this is the single loudest alarm bell I’ve ever heard on global heating.” Calls for immediate and ambitious action to tackle the climate emergency piled up Thursday in response to preliminary analysis from Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology that Wednesday smashed the nation’s temperature record by a full 1°C just one day after the previous all-time record. The first record was set Tuesday, when Australia’s national average maximum temperature reached 40.9°C (105.6°F), eliciting alarm from climate and fire safety experts. Wednesday, the average rose to 41.9°C (107.4°F), sparking a fresh wave of warnings and demands for bold efforts to battle the planetary crisis. Calls for immediate and ambitious action to tackle the climate emergency piled up Thursday in response to preliminary analysis from Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology that Wednesday smashed the nation’s temperature record by a full 1°C just one day after the previous all-time record.By Jessica Corbett

Civil Rights/Black Liberation: Labor:

Economy:

The New York Fed Is Keeping JPMorgan’s Secrets Close to Its Chest The Federal Reserve Bank of New York (New York Fed) seems intent on stonewalling Wall Street On Parade from receiving some very basic information on JPMorgan Chase’s rapid drawdown this year on its liquid reserves at the New York Fed – a matter which some on Wall Street have fingered as a contributing cause of the ongoing repo loan crisis. More on that in a moment, but first some background. For the past decade Wall Street On Parade has been keeping close tabs on the crony operations of the New York Fed. (See related articles below.) The New York Fed has effectively morphed into a key cog in Wall Street’s wealth transfer system – where the little guy’s pocket is picked daily in the service of minting billionaires on Wall Street – who now increasingly want to rule the rest of us from the White House. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens

New York Fed’s Fake Borrowing Rates Raise Ghosts of Libor’s Fake Rates When it comes to Wall Street’s mindset, the thinking is that it’s legal if you can get away with it. That mindset seems to have captured the Federal Reserve Bank of New York which secretly pumped trillions of dollars into insolvent banks in violation of its statutory mandate during the financial crisis; is alleged to have fired a bank examiner for refusing to alter her negative examination of Goldman Sachs; and failed to investigate a litany of crimes to which it was made aware. (See U.S. Senate Tries Public Shaming of New York Fed President Dudley.) One of the crimes that the New York Fed failed to bring to the attention of U.S. law enforcement was mega banks cheating on the borrowing rates that they were reporting as their London InterBank Offered Rate or Libor, a benchmark interest rate used globally to settle derivative trades and used as a reference rate to set mortgage rates, credit card rates, student loans and other consumer loans. The largest banks on Wall Street have collectively paid billions of dollars to settle charges around the globe that they rigged Libor rates to benefit their own trading positions or, in some cases, to make themselves look healthier than they actually were by submitting a Libor rate that was below their true cost of borrowing from other banks. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens

World:

[Video] Britain: After The Election – Continue The Corbyn Revolution!Alan Woods, (editor of marxist.com) analyses last week’s UK election results, answering the lies of the establishment media and the Blairites, who have falsely attempted to place all the blame for Labour’s election loss on Jeremy Corbyn. In reality, it is not Corbynism that has failed, but Blairism, liberalism, and the center-ground. Labour activists must now regroup to kick the right-wingers and careerists out of the PLP, and to continue the fight for socialism.

Tories Break Promise On Minimum Wage Hike Just A Week Into Their Administration The news will come as a bitter blow to the blue collar workers who reportedly ‘lent’ their vote to the Conservatives in this election. Boris Johnson has been accused of breaking his promise on minimum wage increases just a week after the general election took place. The Conservatives pledged to hike the minimum wage to £10.50 an hour within five years in its manifesto, but today’s Queen’s Speech includes a cheeky get-out clause. The increase will now only happen “provided economic conditions allow”. And with a turbulent break up from the EU on the way, that may prove difficult. By Jack Peat

Disaster for DUP as ground shifts in the North of Ireland The focus of coverage of the 12 December general election has naturally been on the gains made by the Tories, particularly in the Midlands and the North of England. Less attention has been given to the seismic shift that took place in the North of Ireland. In an election marked by sectarianism, electoral alliances, Brexit and the border, the DUP received a hammering. Their fall from the position of kingmakers at Westminster two years ago has been dramatic. By Ben CurryEducation, Health, Science, and Welfare: