Daily News Digest December 28, 2016

Daily News Digest Archives

As the Capitalist Robber Barons Steal from the 99% — Only the 1% Voted For Austerity — The 99% Should Decide On Austerity — Not The 1% Who Profit From Austerity!

Daily News Digest December 28, 2016

Images of the Day:

Original Sin Owned by the 1%

Quotes of the Day

The Invasion of Iraq, the disaster never that never ends. A problem Bigger that ISIS? The Mosul Dam is failing. A breach would cause a colossal wave that could kill as many as a million and a half people. “If the dam ruptured, it would likely cause a catastrophe of Biblical proportions, loosing a wave as high as a hundred feet that would roll down the Tigris, swallowing everything in its path for more than a hundred miles. Large parts of Mosul would be submerged in less than three hours. Along the riverbanks, towns and cities containing the heart of Iraq’s population would be flooded; in four days, a wave as high as sixteen feet would crash into Baghdad, a city of six million people. “If there is a breach in the dam, there will be no warning,” Alwash said. “It’s a nuclear bomb with an unpredictable fuse.”” — Jon Flanders re:,  A Bigger Problem Than ISIS?

The first civil and human rights movement by and for Black people started during the Civil War and the period of Black Reconstruction that followed. It was a time of radical hopes for many freed slaves. But it was also a time of betrayal. Then President Andrew Johnson and the non-radical Republicans, in collusion with the Democratic Party, the party of slavery, sold out the early post-war promises for full equality and “40 acres and a mule”. Instead, the promise of equality was soon replaced by the restoration of the property rights of the former slave owners in the South. This was accomplished by the Compromise of 1877. How did they accomplish this betrayal? The answer is simple—terrorism. They used police and terroristic Ku Klux Klan violence. These extra-legal activities laid the basis for the overthrow of Black Reconstruction and the institutionalization of legal segregation (Jim Crow) in the former slave states. To enforce Jim Crow, Black people were, for decades, indiscriminately lynched and framed. — Roland Sheppard, The Rise and Fall of the Civil Rights Movement

Videos of the Day:

Donald Trump: The Raw and Naked Face of a System That Showers Speculators with Obscene Riches Paul Jay says the enablers of Trumpism are the leaders of both major parties and the corporate media

Aleppo, Mosul, and the US Strategy of Permanent War The United States attempts to secure its national security interests in Syria and Iraq by sustaining conflict rather than pursuing political solutions, says professor Sabah Alnasseri  

An Interview with a Leader from Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement MST’s Gilmar Mauro on the struggle to build a mass organization as an alternative to fascism amidst Brazil’s ongoing political crisis

Are the Wheels about to Fall off of India’s Economy? Shankar Raghuraman of The Times of India says demonetisation has proved to be a farce. – TRNN/Newsclick Joint Production

Rival clergymen fight with brooms at Church of the Nativity

America’s Original Sin: Slavery Never Ended, It Just Evolved Author Jim Wallis dissects racism, White privilege, and helps us build a bridge to a new America.

U.S.:

Broken Promises: The Structural Legacy of Capitalist Democracies – OpEd This article begins with the campaign promises of the outgoing President Barack Obama and the President-Elect Donald Trump. We will then examine the reasons why rhetorical populist, peaceful and democratic promises always accompany campaigns and are immediately followed by the victor appointing cabinet members who are committed to elite-driven, militarist and authoritarian policies – so far from the expectations of the voters. By James Petras Post-Truthers, Bullshiters and Politics This is the time when the major dictionaries disclose their “word of the year”.  In 2016, two candidates were awarded this designation, namely, “surreal” and “post-truth”. It is easy to say, as many media outlets have done, that the election of the Orange Man and the Brexit vote were surreal.  But in truth they were not.  Both reflected a kind of “backlash” politics, and given that so many people have been screwed by neoliberal governments for decades, there is absolutely nothing surreal about these two outcomes. The only thing surreal about the US presidential election is the choice of the two candidates who contested the final vote– one a megalomaniacal chancer who looted his own “charitable” foundation to pay for portraits of himself, the other a craven opportunist with no deep convictions except for her entitlement to rule.  Both are crooked and avaricious. By Kenneth Surin

Obama signs anti-protest Trespass Bill Only days after clearing Congress, US President Barack Obama signed his name to H.R. 347 on Thursday, officially making it a federal offense to cause a disturbance at certain political events — essentially criminalizing protest in the States. Just Before Christmas, Obama Establishes Anti-Propaganda Agency  In the final hours before the Christmas holiday weekend, U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday quietly signed the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) into law—and buried within the $619 billion military budget (pdf) is a controversial provision that establishes a national anti-propaganda center that critics warn could be dangerous for press freedoms. The Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act, introduced by Republican Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, establishes the Global Engagement Center under the State Department which coordinates efforts to “recognize, understand, expose, and counter foreign state and non-state propaganda and disinformation efforts aimed at undermining United Sates national security interests.” Further, the law authorizes grants to non-governmental agencies to help “collect and store examples in print, online, and social media, disinformation, misinformation, and propaganda” directed at the U.S. and its allies, as well as “counter efforts by foreign entities to use disinformation, misinformation, and propaganda to influence the policies and social and political stability” of the U.S. and allied nations. By Lauren McCauleyTrump and the Phantom of Democracy After the Electoral College vote, the Trump presidency is now official. While denial and blame games continue, this was not a foreign government coup d’état. The truth is that democracy in America has been rotten to the core for decades. It is meddled with by corporate lobbyists, Big Pharma, Big Oil and Wall Street –those who are addicted to money and power. by Nozomi Hayase

 Environment:

Ongoing Big Energy Crisis:

Black Liberation/ Civil Rights:

Protest like your basic rights depend on it – because power is taken, never given The arc of change may be long, but we must keep fighting. Shared values can build momentum, shift culture and even influence policy over time< Initially, I didn’t plan to attend the Women’s March on Washington, slated for the day after the inauguration. My mom had other ideas. She called on a recent Monday at sunrise. “Get ready for a trip to Washington, DC. We’re going to that women’s march,” she said. Mom was a seasoned activist who marched with Dr Martin Luther King in 1963, survived the Orangeburg Massacre and participated in lunch counter sit-ins during segregation. “The election results illustrate how far we need to go. Let’s get to work.” By Jamia Wilson 

Attack on St. Louis Homeless Sneaks Under a Dark Cloud Protecting the homeless is key to protecting everyone else. By Don Fitz Why I Don’t Do Kwaanza Ron Karenga, the man who invented Kwaanza, headed the US organization, which was responsible for the murder of 4 Black Panthers in Southern California as a tool of COINTELPRO, and the torture of two of its own female members. Kwaanza may now be bigger than its inventor, but Karenga’s crimes do cast a shadow on the holiday for many of us. by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon Labor:

Economy:

Eight Years After an Epic Banking Crash, America’s Biggest Threat Is Still Its Banks In 1934 the U.S. had 14,146 commercial banks holding insured deposits. By 1985, that number had barely budged, standing at 14,417. Then came the Bill Clinton administration in the 1990s and its reckless and unprecedented banking deregulation which allowed the giant Wall Street banks to swallow up, or drive out of business, thousands of banks across America. According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), as of December 22 of this year, there are only 5,927 FDIC insured banks left in the U.S., a stunning decline of 59 percent from 1985. But those numbers are just the tip of the iceberg. Banking concentration in the U.S. has reached an unprecedented crisis level when it comes to deposits. Out of the dramatically shrunken base of 5,927 FDIC insured banks which were holding a total of $11.2 trillion in total deposits (insured and uninsured deposits) as of September 30, 2016, just four banks hold 44.6 percent of all deposits. Those four banks are JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A. with $1.486 trillion in total deposits; Bank of America N.A. with $1.3 trillion in total deposits; Wells Fargo Bank N.A. with $1.3 trillion in total deposits; and Citibank N.A. with total deposits of $947.8 billion. (Deposit figures are as of September 30, 2016. The source is the FDIC.) By Pam Martens and Russ Martens World: 

A Bigger Problem Than ISIS? The Mosul Dam is failing. A breach would cause a colossal wave that could kill as many as a million and a half people. By Dexter FilkinsLashing Out, Israel Vows More Settlements, Reduces Diplomatic Ties Allies to Netanyahu also promised to give ‘evidence’ to Trump that Obama was secret architect of anti-settlement resolution by Nika Knight

Health, Science, Education, and Welfare: