Daily News Digest February 27, 2019

Laura Gray’s cartoon from the front page of The Militant August 18, 1945, under banner headline: “There Is No Peace”

During This Economic Crisis, Capitalism’s Three Point Political Program: Austerity, Scapegoat Blacks, Minorities, and ‘Illegal’ Immigrants for Unemployment, and  The Iron Heel.

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.

Image of the Day:

Perpetual War for Perpetual PeaceQuotes of the Day:

The question it asks remains a source of ongoing interest and curiosity about the role played by WikiLeaks in the information wars: “Wikileaks.org – An Online Reference to Foreign Intelligence Services, Insurgents, Or Terrorist Groups?”  The answer is implicit in the text: its all of the above. The document remains salient for the persistent strategy adopted against WikiLeaks and its chief publishing head throughout. To avoid the integrity and credibility of the information, target the man, the organisation and the method. Suggest he is wonky, a crank, generally wobbly on principles and ethics. Suggest, as well, that his reputation is questionable, as are his moral inclinations. The document highlights a feature that gained momentum in the 2016 US presidential elections: that WikiLeaks might serve “as an instrument of propaganda, and is a front organisation for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).” (The only difference in 2016 was that the CIA had fallen out of the orbit of paranoid reckoning, replaced by wily Russian operatives in the US imaginary of electoral manipulation.) Not only had the organisation denied this, but there was also “no evidence” mustered “to support such assertions.” — Binoy Kampmark, Shifting the Centre of Gravity: Julian Assange Receives His Passport

Videos of the Day:

Massive Protest in Support of the Bolivarian Revolution Largely Ignored While the world’s attention was focused on the Venezuelan opposition, as it tried to transport US aid into Venezuela against the government’s will, a major protest took place in Caracas that was opposed to US intervention in Venezuela

The “Permanent War State” Aims to Plunder Venezuela – Wilkerson and Jay Trump promises “democracy and freedom” to Venezuela, delivered by Elliott Abrams who brought you illegal wars, coups, and support for dictatorships; and Mike Pompeo and VP Pence, both with deep ties to the Koch brothers who need Venezuelan heavy crude to feed their Texas refinery – Col. Larry Wilkerson joins TRNN’s Paul Jay

U.S.:

US Media Ignore – and Applaud – Economic War on Venezuela Gregory Shupak examines the silences that organize the mainstream media’s coverage of the crisis in the Caribbean nation. The US media chorus supporting a US overthrow of the Venezuelan government has for years pointed to the country’s economic crisis as a justification for regime change, while whitewashing the ways in which the US has strangled the Venezuelan economy  (FAIR.org, 3/22/18)

USA: the class interests behind Trump’s wall The decision to take executive action has divided Republicans and sent the Democrats into a frenzy of preparations for legal and legislative maneuvers. Within days of Trump’s declaration, a coalition of 16 states led by California’s Attorney General had filed a complaint, and a wave of other lawsuits are in motion. Although the 1976 National Emergency Act leaves it up to the president to determine just what constitutes a “national emergency,” much of the litigation against Trump’s move focuses on the fact that he used this declaration to bypass Congress, after having his initial funding request denied, which no president has done before.It is not so much the “constitutionality” of the emergency declaration that worries the political establishment, but rather the fact that it is showing the true face of US In reality, it is not so much the “constitutionality” of the emergency declaration that worries the rest of the political establishment, but rather, the fact that it threatens to pull down the curtain of so-called “separation of powers” and the hallowed “checks and balances” that are used to give the state a veneer of impartiality and democracy. If executive action is sufficient to pass emergency measures without going through the hoops of securing congressional approval, this undermines the classic excuse justifying inaction on other reforms such as universal healthcare—which, in any case, is a much more plausible “national emergency.” By Antonio Balmer

Sanders Tackles Democratic Socialism, Racial Inequality, the ‘Fraud’ of Trump, the ‘Existential’ Climate Crisis, and Much More During CNN Town Hall “The message of our campaign is that we have got to bring the American people together around an agenda which creates a government that works for all of us, not just those on top.”By Common Dreams staff

Environment:

Extinction Rebellion There is one desperate chance left to thwart the impending ecocide and extinction of the human species. We must, in wave after wave, carry out nonviolent acts of civil disobedience to shut down the capitals of the major industrial countries, crippling commerce and transportation, until the ruling elites are forced to publicly state the truth about climate catastrophe, implement radical measures to halt carbon emissions by 2025 and empower an independent citizens committee to oversee the termination of our 150-year binge on fossil fuels. If we do not do this, we will face mass death. By Chris Hedges

Game Over? Report Card on Our Planet’s Environment The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report for 2019 indicates that most experts point to environmental problems as being the most serious threats to global stability—just as they found in the previous two years. That report follows on one in October 2018 by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It said with “high confidence” that at the current rate of greenhouse gas emissions, “global warming is likely to reach 1.5°C between 2030 and 2052 if it continues to increase at the current rate.” Avoiding the worst-case consequences would require measures that have “no documented historic precedent.” By Mel Gurtov

Of Insects and Men Insects are all over the world – in and over the waters at the edge of the seas, in and over the waters of lakes, rivers and creeks and swamps and irrigation ditches. They thrive in the forests, mountains, deserts, land, cities, villages, in the tropics and in the homes of the poor and the powerful. Their populations are the largest of all other species. They have been occupying the Earth for 400 million years. By Evaggelos Vallianatos

Yes, The Paris Climate Agreement Sucks The Paris Climate Agreement of 2015 was a big deal as 195 nations agreed to take steps to mitigate global temperatures to +2°C, but preferably +1.5°C, post-industrial or over the past 250 years. When temperatures exceed those levels, all hell breaks loose with our precious life-support ecosystems. Today, we’re already more than halfway to that first temperature guardrail but accelerating fast. Problematically, the latency effect of greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions impacting global temperature is several years; similarly, a household oven turned to 450°F doesn’t immediately go to 450°F. Earth’s atmosphere, similar to that oven, takes time (years and years) to respond to GHGs that essentially turn up its thermostat. By Robert Hunziker 

Slandering the Not-So Radical Green New Deal: A Bipartisan Operation  Calling the Left “antis” – people who are just against stuff but not for anything– is only one of the rhetorical mechanisms employed to slander and demean radicals and progressives.  Another set of false accusations come into play when progressive solutions see the light of day and threaten to garner significant popular support.  When that happens, it no longer suffices to say that the Left offers no alternatives. The slander shifts and portside activists and intellectuals are accused of calling for too much, not for too little.  They are charged with authoritarian, even totalitarian overreach. At the same time, Left proposals are smeared as “unrealistic,” “fantastic,” “pie-in-the sky,” “dreamy,” and the like. By Paul Street

Civil Rights/Black Liberation:

Corporate Media ‘Culpable,’ Say Women’s Rights Advocates, for Bolstering Trump’s Abortion Lies “Donald Trump believes that YOU will believe that doctors are monsters, women are completely craven, and Democrats have black souls, because that’s the only way his attacks make sense. Don’t prove him right by buying this BS.” By Julia Conley

Labor:

The Growing Wealth Gap Marks the Return of Oligarchy One of the most striking features of our era is the widening gap between rich and poor. In fact, wealth inequality may be higher today than any other era, although we lack the data to draw meaningful comparisons with the distant past. Moreover, the gap between the haves and the have-nots seems to be growing, as the annual reports from the development charity Oxfam clearly indicate. What are the key reasons for the growing divide between rich and poor, especially when governments claim that there is a recovery underway since the 2008 global financial crisis? And what can be done to reorganize society so wealth is no longer concentrated into so few hands while millions of people live in extreme poverty or are barely subsisting? In the interview below, Thomas Weisskopf, emeritus professor of economics at the University of Michigan and a long-time member of the Democratic Socialists of America, offers his insights on the state of economic injustice. By C.J. Polychroniou

Economy:

New Book: Corporate Agenda Moves into the Maternity Ward Jenny Brown has cracked the code that few writers, outside of analysts trained by the CIA, has cracked. In her new book scheduled for release on March 1 by PM Press, Birth Strike: The Hidden Fight Over Women’s Work, Brown performs a brilliant forensic examination of the money and people behind the stealth agenda to raise the low birth-rate in the United States. That agenda includes concerted campaigns against abortion, the “morning-after pill” and other forms of contraception. Using exhaustive research, Brown convincingly makes the case that it’s a well-financed corporate agenda implanted in Washington with an end goal of putting more American women in the maternity ward. By Pam MartinWorld:

India’s Attack on Pakistan Sparks Fear of Wider War The early morning air raid was the latest moment of escalation in a month of rising tensions. Warplanes from India launched an attack on an alleged militant camp Tuesday morning, violating Pakistani airspace in the disputed territory of Kashmir in the latest escalation between the two nuclear powers. The attack carried with it fears of wider war between the two countries.  By Eoin Higgins