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Images of the Day:
Native American activist Winona Laduke, who was a former Green Party vice presidential candidate, was clear about where the piping should be going. In an interview with Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman, Laduke said “Flint, Michigan, has a problem. That’s why everything is eroding in this country. And what we need is those skilled laborers to be put to work, pipelines for people. I’m saying take those pipes that are sitting there in northern Minnesota, and send them to Flint, Michigan.” — Call in the National Guard to Protect Against Native American People in North Dakota?
Videos of the Day:
U.S.
The Cost of the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars on ‘Terrorism’: What Did We Buy With the $5 Trillion That the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars Have Cost Us? A Boston U. political scientist estimates that as of 2016, The Iraq and Afghanistan Wars have cost the American taxpayers $5 trillion. That number isn’t important when we consider the human cost– Some 7,000 US troops dead, 52,000 wounded in action; hundreds of thousands of Iraqis dead who wouldn’t otherwise be, 4 million displaced and made homeless, etc. By Juan Cole
Slavery Flourishes Under Obama: Inmate Prison Strike Aims to ‘End Prison Slavery’ Inmates have gone on strike in prisons across the country to protest what they claim are unfair working and living conditions. The strike, which began on September 9, is said by organizers to be the largest inmate strike in American prison history, with inmates in as many as 24 states participating.At the forefront of the movement are the core issues that define any strike – wages, hours, and conditions. The looming issue beyond that, however, is the specter of mass incarceration. According to Amnesty International, the United States prison population numbers some two million, 22 percent of the total inmate population of the entire world. As pointed out by the Guardian, in federal prisons inmates can be paid as little as 12 cents per hour, with some state prison systems, such as those in Arkansas and Texas, not paying inmates for labor at all. Beyond the low wages, organizers of the strike have said that because of the cost involved in maintaining such a high incarceration rate, prisons would not be able to stay open at all without inmate labor. Inmates often hold all maintenance, food service, and domestic jobs within a prison facility, carrying out almost all of the day to day duties. By Eric Scott Packard
The Banks Consider The Debts to be Assets: Americans Are Drowning in Credit Card Debt, and It’s Not Because They Are ‘Irresponsible’ Systemic inequalities play a key role in our alarmingly high level of credit card debt. By Sarah Lazare
Environment:
Black Liberation/ Civil Rights:
In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. — Martin Luther King, Jr.
When King Needed Support — The Church Left: Only 13% Black Churches Supported Rev. Martin Luther King during Civil Rights Movement The 48th Anniversary of the Selma Jubilee concluded last week. For those who are not aware, the anniversary is significant as it marks the day when peaceful protesters were attempting to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge leaving Selma, AL and heading into highway 80. The scene shocked the nation and has been indicated as one of those seminal historic events as it was one critical event which helped persuade President Johnson to sign the 1965 Voting Rights act. The event featured many speakers. Among them was the legendary Rev., Dr. Jeremiah Wright. He was part of a panel fielding various questions and one lady was asking about the role of the church. Dr. Wright unabashedly recanted that most would be surprised, “Let me say it this way………Dr. Keri Day of Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth, Texas recently published a book which documents the period Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was planning the “Poor People’s” campaign that ONLY 13% OF BLACK CHURCHES supported him!!!”
Black Lives Don’t Matter to Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton America has its own killing fields. Over the Labor Day weekend, the city of Chicago recorded its 500th homicide of the year. Black residents account for more than 77 percent of the tally. Among the fallen was Nykea Aldridge (cousin of NBA superstar Dwyane Wade), who was gunned down on Aug. 26 by a two gang members while she wheeled a baby stroller on the municipality’s South Side. The murder rate in Chicago is the highest in 20 years. Still, it’s by no means the nation’s worst. New Orleans, St. Louis, Detroit, Baltimore and Newark all have greater levels of lethal violence. When the use of deadly force by police is factored in, a truly grim picture emerges. Thus far in 2016, according to statistics compiled by The Washington Post, 679 people have been shot dead by law enforcement officers across the country. Nearly a quarter of those slain were black. Yet, nationwide, African-Americans make up a mere 13.2 percent of the total population.
Letter from the US: Black Lives Matter movements issues a radical vision statement A coalition of about 60 Black Lives Matter groups from around the United States issued “A Vision for Black Lives: Policy Demands for Black Power, Freedom and Justice” on August 1. The document is long and detailed. It is the most important Black independent political action program since the National Black Independent Political Party and Black Power conventions of the early 1970s. It also is a reflection of the leading role of Black young people in the still-nascent radicalisation of US youth in general. By Barry Sheppard
1972 Gary Declaration, National Black Political Convention The Black Agenda is addressed primarily to Black people in America. It rises naturally out of the bloody decades and centuries of our people’s struggle on these shores. It flows from the most recent surgings of our own cultural and political consciousness. It is our attempt to define some of the essential changes which must take place in this land as we and our children move to self-determination and true independence
Tupac the Freedom Fighter: 20 Years Later Tupac Shakur died twenty years ago today, several days after he was shot in cold blood in Las Vegas. Tupac was the first prominent figure in America to defend women on welfare (“Keep Ya Head Up”). That was only one of the songs he wrote that defended women in the face of abandonment, beatings, rape, and government neglect (“Brenda’s Got a Baby,” “Part Time Mutha,” “Papa’z Song,” “Dear Mama”). by Lee Ballinger 
From Standing Rock, North Dakota to Atenco, Mexico: Imposing Petro Culture by Force by Johnny Hazard
Recent occurrences on and near the Standing Rock reservation in North Dakota, where goon squads apparently hired by the ominously-named Dakota Access outfit, which is building a pipeline from Canada, have many parallels with the situation in central Mexico, where the federal government is constructing what will be, if completed, one of the largest airports in the world. In both cases:
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Contractors bring their own security forces, who use old-school weapons to attack and intimidate protesters—attack dogs at Standing Rock, clubs and rocks in Mexico.
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Contractors deny having contracted the aforementioned thugs.
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Indigenous people bear the brunt of the dispossession of their traditional lands and will suffer the bulk of the ecological consequences.
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Contractors, following the lead of Goebbels, repeat ad nauseum that they have the legal right to be there, when the native population offers evidence, suppressed by major media, that that is not the case.
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The hypocrisy of governments that present themselves to the world as leaders in the fight against climate change is manifest, as they continue to promote, condone, or, as is the case in Mexico, initiate mega-projects that perpetuate and expand the reckless use of fossil fuels.
Labor:
Economy: Today’s Barons:
Wall Street Today: Fake Accounts, Fake Money, Fake Courts, Fake Regulators Last Thursday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that Wells Fargo was paying $185 million in fines and penalties for allowing its employees to open “more than two million deposit and credit card accounts” that were not authorized by its customers. The employees were attempting to “hit sales targets and receive bonuses.” In one of the most audacious forms of bank fraud, according to the CFPB, employees actually “transferred funds from consumers’ authorized accounts to temporarily fund the new, unauthorized accounts.” This resulted in untold numbers of customers being charged for insufficient funds in their legitimate accounts or paying overdraft fees.By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
World:
‘Democracy’ in Israel: Israel to arrest anyone for posting content deemed ‘Anti-Israel’ on Facebook (VIDEO) Last week, Mahmoud Asila from the Old City of al-Quds, was arrested for merely posting a picture on Facebook that claimed he was in support of the attacks carried out by the Palestinians against the Israeli forces occurring in the West Bank. Israel called this thought crime “incitement”.
Health, Science, Education, and Welfare:
The United States is Orwell’s Nightmare!
Quote of the Day:
‘Climate Change Is Here’: August Was Another Hottest Month for the Record Books As one climate scientist noted, the temperature has risen even though this year’s unusually strong El Niño is on the wane. By Deirdre Fulton
Dahr Jamail | Toxic Slime Spreads Across Oceans as Climate Disruption Continues It is August 30. I’m in Anchorage, Alaska, and it’s hot. Very hot. In fact, it’s the fourth straight day of record high temperatures, amidst a year that has seen record high temperatures becoming normalized across the entire state. Two days ago, this city (the most populous in Alaska) saw a record high temperature of 78 degrees, which beat the previous record by a whopping seven degrees. Last night, I returned here from a trip with the US Geological Survey (USGS), during which we measured the Gulkana Glacier in the Eastern Alaska Range. Almost needless to say, the glacier, like thousands across this northernmost state, is melting rapidly and is in full retreat.
Ongoing/Big Energy Disasters: