Daily News Digest June 5, 2019
Daily News Digest Archives
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: 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:
The Imperialist God
Quote of the Day:
This week, Professor Nils Melzer, the UN Special Rapporteur on torture, came to a conclusion as unsurprising as it was necessary. After visiting Assange at the maximum security facility at Belmarsh on May 9, the UN official found that the publisher had been subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. This was all part of him becoming the cause célèbre of “a relentless campaign of public mobbing, intimidation and defamation […] not only in the United States, but also in the United Kingdom, Sweden and, more recently, Ecuador.” These governments had, be it through “an attitude of complacency at best, and of complicity at worst […] created an atmosphere of impunity encouraging Mr Assange’s uninhibited vilification and abuse.” — Findings of Torture: The UN Rapporteur and Julian Assange
Videos of the Day:
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez questions why US pays for ‘unlimited war’ but not Medicare-for-all
Trump slams CNN’s ‘false picture of USA’, urges AT&T boycott
Democracy Now:Ari Berman: GOP Docs Prove Census Citizenship Question Is About Preserving White Political Power
Democracy Now: How Voter Suppression & Gerrymandering Cleared the Path for Unprecedented Abortion Bans
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!
Half of Americans Are Effectively Poor Now. What The? America’s Collapsing Because it’s the World’s First Poor Rich Country There are days I feel like I read dystopian statistics for a living. And then there are day when the dystopian statistics take even my jaded breath away. Here’s one: 43% of American households can’t afford a budget that includes housing, food, childcare, healthcare, transportation, and a cellphone. Translation: nearly half of Americans can’t afford the basics of life anymore. By umair haque
Sears Buyer May Skip $43 Million in Severance Owed to Laid Off WorkersLampert was in charge of Sears for years before the bankruptcy filing and some people blame him for the retailer’s financial woes. He served as chairman and former CEO of the company through its bankruptcy filing. The $43 million was earmarked for employees who lost their jobs during the hundreds of store closings from the time of the bankruptcy filing through the time Lampert’s ESL Investments (via a new subsidiary called Transform Holdco) bought the company holdings. By Chris Morris
Manufacturing War With Russia Despite the Robert Mueller report’s conclusion that Donald Trump and his campaign did not collude with Russia during the 2016 presidential race, the new Cold War with Moscow shows little sign of abating. It is used to justify the expansion of NATO to Russia’s borders, a move that has made billions in profits for U.S. arms manufacturers. It is used to demonize domestic critics and alternative media outlets as agents of a foreign power. It is used to paper over the Democratic Party’s betrayal of the working class and the party’s subservience to corporate power. It is used to discredit détente between the world’s two largest nuclear powers. It is used to justify both the curtailment of civil liberties in the United States and U.S. interventions overseas—including in countries such as Syria and Venezuela. This new Cold War predates the Trump presidential campaign. It was manufactured over a decade ago by a war industry and intelligence community that understood that, by fueling a conflict with Russia, they could consolidate their power and increase their profits. (Seventy percent of intelligence is carried out by private corporations such as Booz Allen Hamilton, which has been called the world’s most profitable spy operation.) By Chris Hedges
Ralph Nader: American Society Is in Rapid DecayPlutocrats like to control the range of permissible public dialogue. Plutocrats also like to shape what society values. If you want to see where a country’s priorities lie, look at how it allocates its money. While teachers and nurses earn comparatively little for performing critical jobs, corporate bosses including those who pollute our planet and bankrupt defenseless families, make millions more. Wells Fargo executives are cases in point. The vastly overpaid CEO of General Electric left his teetering company in shambles. In 2019, Boeing’s CEO got a bonus (despite the Lion Air Flight 610 737 Max 8 crash in 2018). Just days before a second deadly 737 Max 8 crash in Ethiopia. This disparity is on full display in my profession. Public interest lawyers and public defenders, who fight daily for a more just and lawful society, are paid modest salaries. On the other hand, the most well compensated lawyers are corporate lawyers who regularly aid and abet corporate crime, fraud, and abuse. Many corporate lawyers line their pockets by shielding the powerful violators from accountability under the rule of law. By Ralph Nader
The US and China on a collision course In a series of provocative actions, the United States is making clear it is prepared to fight a war to block Beijing’s rise as an economic and geostrategic competitor. The “cold war” between the United States and China took a major step toward becoming a “hot” war over the weekend at the annual Shangri-La defense summit in Singapore. The Financial Times, not known for hyperbole, wrote that “The growing dispute between the US and China on trade and technology is increasing the risk of military conflict or outright war.” By Andre Damon
Almost Everything in “Dr. Strangelove” Was TrueThis month marks the fiftieth anniversary of Stanley Kubrick’s black comedy about nuclear weapons, “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.” Released on January 29, 1964, the film caused a good deal of controversy. Its plot suggested that a mentally deranged American general could order a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union, without consulting the President. By Eric Schlosser
Environment:
As Global Warming Increases. the Rate of Global Warming Increase ect.: Arctic Is Thawing So Fast Scientists Are Losing Their Measuring ToolsThat future is perhaps most visible at the poles. Greenland is melting much faster than previously understood, as melting has increased six-fold in recent decades, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “We wanted to get a long precise record of mass balance in Greenland that included the transition when the climate of the planet started to drift off natural variability, which occurred in the 1980s,” study co-author Eric Rignot told CNN. “The study places the recent (20 years) evolution in a broader context to illustrate how dramatically the mass loss has been increasing in Greenland in response to climate warming.” Rignot added, “As glaciers will continue to speed up and ice/snow melt from the top, we can foresee a continuous increase in the rate of mass loss, and a contribution to sea level rise that will continue to increase more rapidly every year.” By Dahr Jamail
New Search Warrants in Flint Water Crisis Probe Raise Serious and Urgent Questions“The people of Flint deserve answers,” Mary Grant, public water for all director at Food & Water Watch, said in a statement. “Hopefully this investigation will yield them. And there needs to be accountability for those involved in creating this crisis, including former Governor Snyder.” By Jessica Corbett
Everest glaciers ‘retreating dramatically’ as pollution found buried deep in snow, scientist says‘Warming temperature is melting the snow very quickly,’ claims Professor John All Glaciers in the Everest region are melting at an alarming rate because of increasing pollution and global warming, a scientist has claimed. Professor John All, of Western Washington University, said his team discovered that samples of snow taken from the world’s highest mountain and surrounding peaks were surprisingly dark.“What that means is there are little pieces of pollution that the snow is forming around, so the snow is actually trapping the pollution and pulling it down,” he explained.By Peter Stubley
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Black Agenda Radio – Black Agenda Radio, Week of June 3, 2019 With Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford:
Countering the FBI’s “Black Identity Extremist” Offensive – Part One The recently formed Black Identity Extremist Abolition Collective held a public meeting at the People’s Forum, in New York City, to counter the newest iteration of the FBI’s infamous Cointelpro strategy to neutralize and destroy Black and radical activists. In Part One:
Countering the FBI’s “Black Identity Extremist” Offensive – Part Two The recently formed Black Identity Extremist Abolition Collective held a public meeting at the People’s Forum, in New York City, to counter the newest iteration of the FBI’s infamous Cointelpro strategy to neutralize and destroy Black and radical activists. In Part Two::
Labor:
Economy:
What’s Behind the New Anti-Trust Movement around Google, Amazon and Facebook?On August 26, 2015 the market capitalization of just five Big Tech stocks totaled $1.889 trillion at the close of trading that day. Here’s the tally: Apple $625.532 billion; Google, $440.767 billion; Microsoft, $341.594 billion; Facebook, $245.795 billion and Amazon, $234.215 billion. At the close of trading yesterday, those numbers stacked up like this: Apple $797.366 billion; Google $720.206 billion; Microsoft $918.312 billion; Facebook $467 billion; and Amazon, $833.365 billion – or a total of $3.736 trillion – almost a doubling of market value in less than four years. Of particular note is that Amazon has increased its market value by more than three and a half times, despite its inability to show profits for much of its existence. By Pam Martens amd Russ Martens
World:
Tens of Thousands Flood Streets in UK to Protest Trump, ‘Everything He Stands For’“The protests will be about Trumpism: about confronting a resurgent global far right, defending the rights of women and minorities, fighting the climate emergency, opposing the threat of war.” “This protest is about Trumpism—the hatred and poverty that is spreading. Our movement is about joining the dots between hate, bigotry, and inequality.” —Shaista Aziz By Jake Johnson
Counter-revolution rears its head in Sudan: turn the general strike into an insurrection! Early this morning, the Sudanese armed forces violently raided and cleared the revolutionary sit-in that had camped in front of the Sudanese Ministry of Defence since 6 April. This was only the start of a campaign of terror, organised by the counter-revolutionary Transitional Military Council (TMC). At least 13 have been reported killed and hundreds more injured after the cold-blooded attack on the revolutionary campsite in Khartoum this morning. According to reports, last night, army ranks in the area around the site were partially withdrawn and replaced by the reactionary, tribal-based Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia and riot police. By Hamid Alizadeh
Algerian students retying the knot of history Sunday 19 May marked a new turning point in the Algerian Revolution, which is still growing day by day, when tens of thousands of students hit the streets of Algiers calling for a real change. By Anass Rahim
Health, Education, 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!
Black female physicist pioneers technology that kills cancer cells with lasersDr. Hadiyah-Nicole Green is one of fewer than 100 black female physicists in the country, and the recent winner of $1.1 million grant to further develop a technology she’s pioneered that uses laser-activated nanoparticles to treat cancer.
After Children Began Getting Sick by the Dozens, Parents Took a Hard Look at Their Town’s Toxic Legacy The carcinogen, Risk Management for Trichloroethylene (TCE) has been lurking in the ground beneath Franklin, Indiana, for decades. Now families are demanding answers. Thirteen-year-old Emma Grace Findley was having a routine eye exam in 2014 when her doctor saw that her optic disc was swollen, an indication of brain swelling. Her father immediately called Emma’s mom, Kari Rhinehart, who was working her nursing shift at a nearby hospital’s emergency room. He asked his ex-wife if she had ever heard of papilledema, the term the eye doctor had used. After a conversation with the hospital’s ophthalmologist, Rhinehart had Emma come straight over. One MRI and a few hours later, a doctor displayed the scan results on a computer. The images revealed several tumors in Emma’s brain: glioblastomas. “When he pulled them up, I knew she was going to die,” says Rhinehart. Three months and nine days later, Emma passed away. By Susan Cosier
