Daily News Digest May 30, 2019

Daily News Digest May 30, 2019

Daily News Digest Archives

Since World War I ‘the war to end all wars’ there have been perpetual wars for perpetual peace, 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: 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:

United States Democracy

Videos of the Day:

Six Children Have Died While in ICE Custody – Why?

Baltimore Cop Charged with Perjury, Misconduct

Quotes of the Day:

I am opposing a social order in which it is possible for one man who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars, while millions of men and women who work all the days of their lives secure barely enough for a wretched existence. ― Eugene Debs

Fromthe 2001 article: War on Drugs Dirty Money Foundation of US Growth and Empire Size and Scope of Money Laundering by US Banks, by James Petras, Professor of Sociology, Binghamton University, he explains that 500 Billion to a Trillion dollars gets added to world capitalist economy through “illegal means.” he concludes the article with the following: The increasing polarization of the world is embedded in this organized system of criminal and corrupt financial transactions. While speculation and foreign debt payments play a role in undermining living standards in the crisis regions, the multi-trillion dollar money laundering and bank servicing of corrupt officials is a much more significant factor, sustaining Western prosperity, U.S. empire building and financial stability. The scale, scope and time frame of transfers and money laundering, the centrality of the biggest banking enterprises and the complicity of the governments, strongly suggests that the dynamics of growth and stagnation, empire and re-colonization are intimately related to a new form of capitalism built around pillage, criminality, corruption and complicity.  ‘This Goes Straight to the Top.’

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! 

Colin Kaepernick Receives W.E.B. Du Bois Medal from HarvardColin Kaepernick was awarded the W.E.B. Du Bois Medal by Harvard University on Thursday.  The medal is considered “Harvard’s highest honor in the field of African and African American studies” and is awarded “to individuals in the United States and across the globe in recognition of their contributions to African and African American culture and the life of the mind.” By Alec NathanAtomic Veterans Were Silenced for 50 Years. Now, They’re Talking.After the tests, the soldiers, many of whom were traumatized, were sworn to an oath of secrecy. Breaking it even to talk among themselves was considered treason, punishable by a $10,000 fine and 10 or more years in prison. In Knibbe’s film, some of these atomic veterans break the forced silence to tell their story for the very first time. They describe how the blast knocked them to the ground; how they could see the bones and blood vessels in their hands, like viewing an X-ray. They recount the terror in their officers’ faces and the tears and panic that followed the blasts. They talk about how they’ve been haunted—by nightmares, PTSD, and various health afflictions, including cancer. Knibbe’s spare filmmaking approach foregrounds details and emotion. There’s no need for archival footage; the story is writ large in the faces of the veterans, who struggle to find the right words to express the horror of what they saw during the tests and what they struggled with in the decades after.

Classified Evidence: US Soldiers Raped Boys In Front Of Their Mother Now, over a decade later the evidence of these events are beginning to surface, but the Department of Defense is still doing their best to keep it under the radar. ccording to a number of global mainstream media sources, the Pentagon is covering up a disturbing video that was never made public with the rest of the recent torture report. According to various well respected journalists, including Seymour Hersh, the appalling video was recorded at Abu Ghraib, the notorious US torture dungeon in Iraq that made headlines roughly a decade ago, when the inhumane tactics being used at the prison were exposed.By  John Vibes

‘Let’s Expand Employee Ownership’: Bernie Sanders Backs Plan to Give Workers Power Over Corporate Decisions“We can move to an economy where workers feel that they’re not just a cog in the machine—one where they have power over their jobs and can make decisions.”BY Jake Johnson

The Western Media is Key to Syria deceptions By any reckoning, the claim made this week by al-Qaeda-linked fighters that they were targeted with chemical weapons by the Syrian government in Idlib province — their final holdout in Syria — should have been treated by the western media with a high degree of scepticism.That the US and other western governments enthusiastically picked up those claims should not have made them any more credible. By Jonathan Cook

How About a Peace Race Instead of an Arms Race?In late April, the highly-respected Stockholm International Peace Research Institute reported that, in 2018, world military expenditures rose to a record $1.82 trillion. The biggest military spender by far was the United States, which increased its military budget by nearly 5 percent to $649 billion (36 percent of the global total). But most other nations also joined the race for bigger and better ways to destroy one another through war.By Lawrence Wittner

 Environment:

Norway refuses to drill for billions of barrels of oil in Arctic, leaving ‘whole industry surprised and disappointed’ Move exposes rift in Norway’s Labour party as climate change competes with union concerns The largest party in Norway’s parliament has delivered a significant blow to the country’s huge oil industry after withdrawing support for explorative drilling off the Lofoten islands in the Arctic, which are considered a natural wonder.The move, by the opposition Labour party, creates a large parliamentary majority against oil exploration in the sensitive offshore area, illustrating growing opposition to the polluting fossil fuel, which has made the country one of the world’s most affluent.

The world is losing the war against climate change Earth smouldering. From Seattle to Siberia this summer, flames have consumed swathes of the northern hemisphere. One of 18 wildfires sweeping through California, among the worst in the state’s history, is generating such heat that it created its own weather. Fires that raged through a coastal area near Athens last week killed 91 (see article). Elsewhere people are suffocating in the heat. Roughly 125 have died in Japan as the result of a heatwave that pushed temperatures in Tokyo above 40°C for the first time.

Five Years In, the Flint Water Crisis Continues Its Deadly Toll The state’s death toll from the outbreak included only individuals who died while hospitalized with Legionnaires’ disease or from any cause within 30 days after leaving the hospital — a standard public health methodology. In a statement, MDHHS said it did not track patients beyond that because of the difficulty in determining the role Legionnaires’ may have played in a death. The department could not confirm FRONTLINE’s figures, but said: “Legionnaires’ disease frequently impacts people with comorbid conditions, such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease, which put people at increased risk of mortality over time.” The department said that 84 percent of cases in the outbreak had another significant health problem. By  Kayla Ruble  Abby Ellis  Jacob Carah and Sarah Childress

3,000 dolphins found dead on the coast of Peru Along just one stretch of coastline in Peru, more than 3,000 dead dolphins washed ashore in just three months, and the disturbing trend may only be escalating. With the latest discovery of 481 lifeless dolphins there, residents have begun to demand an explanation for the mysterious mass deaths — and as far as enlisted experts can tell, offshore oil exploration in the region is the most likely culprit. By Stephen MessengerAfter Years of Abuse, the Earth Has Sent Its Bill Collectors Does Mother Nature have a sense of irony? To answer that question, look no further than the lone star tick. Although the tick’s traditional range in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic includes the eastern half of the Lone Star State of Texas, it gets its name from a white, star-like “splotch” on its back. But thanks to climate change, this nettlesome little critter is on the move. It’s moving into the Northeast as far as Maine. And it’s gone well past its usual bailiwick in the Ohio Valley to make its way into the upper Midwest and into Wisconsin. By JP SottileExport of Banned US Pesticides Creates a Deadly Circle of Poison  An astonishing double standard exists in the United States. When the federal government bans a pesticide, pro-industry loopholes allow agrochemical companies to recoup lost profits by manufacturing the same pesticide for use abroad. In 2013, data from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) showed that pesticides — banned, restricted or unregistered in the U.S. — were manufactured in 23 states for export to other countries. By Elisabeth McLaughlinBlack Liberaation/Civil Rights:

9 People Showed Up for a KKK Rally in Dayton, Ohio. They Were Drowned Out by 600 ProtestorsPlans for a Ku Klux Klan rally in Dayton, Ohio set the city on edge and attracted national attention. But only nine people showed up for the rally Saturday, and their slogans were drowned out by 500 to 600 protesters who gathered to show their opposition to the hate-group’s message.By Tara Law

Black History: Blacks were slaughtered by whites in an episode forgotten by history books American streets ran with blood in 1919. In the small town of Elaine, Arkansas, racial tensions turned brutally violent after African-American sharecroppers tried to unionize. A staggering 237 people were estimated to be hunted down and killed in what is now known as the Elaine Massacre. The bloodbath made its way all the way up to the United States Supreme Court. This is “Dark History” by the New York Post.

Labor:

Economy:

 World:

Cuba, China Strengthen Bilateral Ties to Tackle US Sanctions  Foreign Ministers from both countries will analyze common interest issues, including the U.S. foreign sanctions. The Cuban Minister is just coming off a three-day visit to Moscow where he, along with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov rejected “unilateral coercive measures” by the United States administration against Russia, Venezuela and Cuba.  Namely, the two talked about the recent application of Titles III and IV of the U.S. Helms-Burton Act by President Donald Trump and his cabinet, a move that violates international law.

Sanctioner-in-Chief: 10 Countries Hit by Trump’s Favorite Regime Change Tactic in Just Two Years  This can be clearly seen on the 2017 “Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act”, as the name suggests President Donald Trump has opted on sanctions as his preferred mean to attack. Sanctions can take various forms as embargoes, travel bans, asset takeovers and freezes, capital restraints and trade restrictions. The United States government has been using them against countries and governments that do not comply with their interests.Malaysia to Return Plastic Waste to Western Nations“We urge the developed countries to review their management of plastic waste and stop shipping the garbage out to the developing countries.” Malaysia announced on Tuesday that their government is planning on sending over 3,300 tonnes of non-recyclable plastic waste to several Western nations. In a statement released on Tuesday, Malaysia’s Environment Minister Yeo Bee Yin said his nation will not be a dumping ground for western countries. Yeo said that his government is planning on returning more than 3,300 tonnes of plastic waste to countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

The Hate That Capiialism Creates: Nearly half of Israeli Jews believe in ethnic cleansing, survey findsIsraeli President Reuven Rivlin called the findings a ‘wake-up call for Israeli society’ Almost half of Jewish Israelis believe Arabs should be “expelled or transferred” from Israel, a survey has found. A study carried out by the Pew Research Centre found that around one in five adults questioned “strongly agreed” with the controversial statement, which amounts to ethnic cleansing under some definitions. By Lizzie DeardenHealth, Education, Science, and Welfare:

The government of the United States can pass laws, in a few days, to spend tens of trillions of dollars for war and the bailout of Wall Street and the bankers. Yet, those who ‘govern’, pass universal healthcare for themselves, but they cannot spend even one trillion dollars for universal health for those who are ‘governed’! This is what is considered, by the powers the to be,  a democracy and part of the democratic way. — Roland Sheppard, Let The People Vote on Healthcare!

 Washington State Moves Toward Free and Reduced College Tuition, With Businesses Footing the BillWashington State lawmakers have taken a major step toward offering free or reduced college tuition using funds from businesses there, including Amazon and Microsoft, in a move that is being applauded by policy analysts for its innovation and reach.By Emily S. Rueb 

Tennessee Makes Community College Free for All AdultsTennessee is about to become the first state in the nation to make community college free for all adults. Lawmakers approved legislation Wednesday that will expand the Tennessee Promise program that launched in 2014. It made tuition and fees free for recent high school graduates enrolled in a community college or technical school. Now, adults who don’t already have an associate’s or bachelor’s degree can go for free, too, starting in the 2018 fall semester. By Katie Lobosco