Daily News Digest June 6, 2019

Daily News Digest June 6, 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:

Debtors PrisonGeneral Motors/General Mayhem

Quote of the Day:

Videos of the Day:

‘Love America, Hate Trump.’ Inside Today’s Massive Anti-Trump Protests in London

UK Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn At Anti-trump Rally

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!

Walmart: A Study in Wretched Excess“The dogs bark, but the caravan passes.” —Arab proverb Years ago, when I first began writing indignant and wildly emotional polemics about Walmart, Inc., attacking the mega-retailer for its virulent, unethical and borderline illegal anti-union policies, the corporation (with headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas) had roughly 8,500 stores in 15 countries, a figure that, even then, seemed not only overly ambitious but near pathological. By David AacarsyEnvironment:

‘Existential’ Risk of Climate Crisis Could Lead to Civilizational Collapse by 2050, Warns Report“The world is currently completely unprepared to envisage, and even less deal with, the consequences of catastrophic climate change.” Even by the standards of the dire predictions given in climate studies, this one’s extreme: civilization itself could be past the point of no return by 2050.  That’s the conclusion from Australian climate think tank Breakthrough National Centre for Climate Restoration, which released a report (pdf) May 30 claiming that unless humanity takes drastic and immediate action to stop the climate crisis, a combination of food production instability, water shortages, and extreme weather could result in a complete societal breakdown worldwide.  By Eoin HigginsBreakthrough — National Centre for Climate Restoration:  Disaster Alley    Overview:                                                                                                               The first responsibility of a government is to safeguard the people and their future well-being. The ability to do this is threatened by climate change, whose accelerating impacts will also drive political instability and conflict, posing large negative consequences to human society which may never be undone. This report looks at climate change and conflict issues through the lens of sensible risk-management to draw new conclusions about the challenge we now face.                                             It is essential to now strongly advocate a global climate emergency response, and to build a national leadership group outside conventional politics to design and implement emergency decarbonisation of the Australian economy. This would adopt all available safe solutions using sound, existential risk-management practices.

  • From tropical coral reefs to the polar ice sheets, global warming is already dangerous. The world is perilously close to, or passed, tipping points which will create major changes in global climate systems.
  • The world now faces existential climate-change risks which may result in “outright chaos” and an end to human civilisation as we know it.
  • These risks are either not understood or wilfully ignored across the public and private sectors, with very few exceptions.
  • Global warming will drive increasingly severe humanitarian crises, forced migration, political instability and conflict. The Asia–Pacific region, including Australia, is considered to be “Disaster Alley” where some of the worst impacts will be experienced.
  • Building more resilient communities in the most vulnerable nations by high-level financial commitments and development assistance can help protect peoples in climate hotspots and zones of potential instability and conflict.
  • Australia’s political, bureaucratic and corporate leaders are abrogating their fiduciary responsibilities to safeguard the people and their future well-being. They are ill-prepared for the real risks of climate change at home and in the region.
  • The Australian government must ensure Australian Defence Force and
emergency services preparedness, mission and operational resilience, and capacity for humanitarian aid and disaster relief, across the full range of projected climate change scenarios.

Week 123: Off-Roading Over Endangered Species Really Revs Trump’s Engine The Trump administration kicked off Memorial Day weekend with the announcement that off-road vehicles will be allowed back near southern Utah’s Factory Butte, ending a 13-year ban that protected two cactus species from extinction. The decision is controversial, to say the least. In 2005 the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance successfully petitioned the Bush administration—no great friend to endangered species—to close off 5,300 acres of federal land to protect the Wright fishhook and the Winkler pincushion. Both species of cactus grow only in small ranges in Utah, flourishing around the base of the spectacularly beautiful Factory Butte. The Wright fishhook is in a particularly thorny situation, having spent 40 years on the endangered species list. By Brian Palmer 

Civil Rights/Black Liberation:

Jim Crow is Back!  — Blacks and Minorities Don’t Count!:                    Blacks, Latinos at Risk of Undercount in 2020 Census Emily Bonilla is worried her district in metro Orlando will be undercounted during next spring’s once-in-a-decade head count of everybody in the United States because of who lives there: new arrivals, immigrants, the poor, renters and rural residents who sometimes regard government with suspicion. “We’re growing so fast that I know we have more people in the area than the data is stating. This area already is undercounted,” said Bonilla, a county commissioner in one of the fastest-growing metro areas in the U.S. By Mike Schneider The 1%’s Crotch Grabbing Degenerate Government: Abuse of Migrant Children in U.S. Custody Goes All but UnpunishedProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom based in New York. Sign up for ProPublica’s Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox as soon as they are published. From 2009 to 2014, at least 214 complaints were filed against federal agents for abusing or mistreating migrant children. According to the Department of Homeland Security’s records, only one employee was disciplined as a result of a complaint. By A.C. Thompson

Will the Police Behind Ferguson’s ‘Debtors Prison’ Ever Face JusticeIn January 2014, Tonya DeBerry was driving through an unincorporated area of St. Louis County, Missouri, when a police officer pulled her over for having expired license plates. After discovering that DeBerry, 51, had several outstanding traffic tickets from three jurisdictions, the officer handcuffed her and took her to jail. To be released, she was told, she would have to pay hundreds of dollars in fines she owed the county, according to her account in a federal lawsuit. But after her family came up with the money, DeBerry wasn’t released from custody. Instead, she was handed over to the municipalities of Ferguson and Jennings, and in each city, she was told she would be released only after she paid a portion of the fines she owed them, according to the lawsuit. The Supreme Court ruled almost 50 years ago that a person can’t be jailed for not being able to pay a fine. But like so many people in Missouri, DeBerry had ended up cycling through a succession of jails for that very reason, caught up in what critics have called modern-day “debtors prisons,” used by towns to keep fines flowing into municipal coffers. By Topher Sanders

Freedom Rider: How to Protest Trump  If the British really oppose Trump’s policies they should dump their own government, which backs Washington to the hilt – and then they should apologize to the world for Britain’s crimes. “Floating giant Trump baby balloons is much easier than making an effort to challenge the system which gives him legitimacy.”
Once again, Donald Trump’s presence in the United Kingdom sparks protest, sneers, and theatrical outrage. There are countless reasons to take offense at Trump’s presence anywhere in the world. He has inspired and encouraged violent racists in the United States, given Israel more leeway to persecute the Palestinians than any other president, and his foreign policy team brag about starving Venezuelans and Iranians in the service of attempting futile regime change plots.By Margaret Kimberley , BAR editor and senior columnistElizabeth Warren Wants Green Bombs, not a Green New Deal Warren prides herself in fighting for a kinder capitalism but has no problem with a nasty, murderous imperialism. “Warren is decidedly to the right of Bernie Sanders on the issue of war and peace.” The Green New Deal has found little support among establishment Democratic Party members of Congress. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the comprehensive policy a “list of aspirations”  that could never be considered all at once. Senate Democrats mostly abstained from the 57-0 Senate vote against the Green New Deal in March, calling the gesture a Republican “stunt.” Yet this “stunt” revealed that the corporate Democratic Party is not very interested in the Green New Deal even though it is supported by over eighty percent of voters in both political parties . In this stage of capitalism, the Democrat side of the two-party duopoly is just as enthusiastic a patron in the endless regime of austerity as its Republican counterpart. By Danny HaiphongPaul Kagame and His House Negro, Félix TshisekediThe people of Congo will never forget that Paul Kagame brought death to more than 6 million of their mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters. “For the vast majority of the Congolese, Kagame will forever remain an enemy.” “The market analyst predicted a complete geostrategic restructuring in central Africa, with Rwandan Tutsis, an ethnic group that had faced existential threats for decades, now steering affairs. “You’ll see a de facto ‘Greater Tutsi Land’ there. What you’ve got is a situation where Rwanda and Uganda are clearly now the dominant military powers in the region. They will do pretty much what they want.” By Ann Garrison, Bar ContributerHow the ‘Central Park Five’ Changed the History of American Law  Despite no DNA evidence, fingerprints, blood, or semen linking any of the black and brown boys to the crime, all five defendants grew up in prison. “The term ’wilding’ became part of the national discourse.” Coverage of violent crime is a staple of American news, yet only a handful of stories capture the attention of the nation. Even fewer go on to inform the trajectory of American legal proceedings. The acclaimed filmmaker Ava DuVernay tackles one of the most significant criminal cases of the 1990s with her miniseries When They See Us , which premiered on Netflix on May 31. In four episodes, DuVernay provides the most complete account of the impact of the “Central Park Jogger” case on the lives of the defendants and their families. By Elizabeth Hinton

Climate Terrorism: The Politically Farsighted Way to Impeach Trump  By focusing on climate terrorism, Democrats could show voters that they care more about the common good than their self-serving Russiagate narrative. “If establishment Democrats gain control of the impeachment narrative, their voter-wearying Russiagate tale will likely crowd out far more compelling reasons for impeaching Trump.”  Introduction: Thinking Impeachment Outside the Mueller Box If ever a US president deserved impeachment, it’s Donald Trump. Right after Trump’s inauguration,even before Robert Mueller launched his investigation, Free Speech for People and Roots Action had launched a petition campaign demanding Trump be impeached on the very solid legal ground of his violations of the US Constitution’s domestic and foreign emoluments clauses . By
Patrick Walker

The Scandal of Puerto Rico’s Botched Disaster ReliefThe US government appointed a board of fat cats to oversee the “debt” of its mostly black and brown colony, Puerto Rico. “The vast majority of the board’s $1.1 billion budget goes to advisers and consultants.” Here is a scandal: Puerto Rico has a Financial Oversight and Management Board (FOMB), created by the US Congress and appointed by the president of the United States, in charge of its finances. Its budget, financed by Puerto Rico’s taxpayers, is $1.5 billion over five years, or $300 million a year. By  Mark WeisbrotClimate Terrorism: The Politically Farsighted Way to Impeach Trump  Frances’ former African colonies are still tied to Paris by the chains of the CFA Franc, which makes them neo-colonies of Europe.“In Francophone Africa, there was not really a full decolonization.” Ndongo Samba Sylla was interviewed by Scott Ferguson, Max Seijo & William Saas. Below is a transcription of the March 14th episode of the podcast Money on the Left. By Ndongo Samba SyllaHow US Foreign Policy Spawned Terror and TrumpThe end of the Cold War allowed the US to use its military with impunity, including support for Islamic jihadists against targeted countries. “This symbiosis went beyond ideology and ‘was consolidated through direct collaboration,’ where the US provided weapons and air cover to jihadist forces.”“AQ [al-Qaida] is on our side in Syria,” US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was advised in a February 2012 email from her deputy chief of staff. Journalist Max Blumenthal opens his latest book, The Management of Savagery, with this telling epigraph. By Rod SuchThe Bankers’ “Power Revolution” — How the Government Got Shackled by DebtThere is no reason for the government to borrow trillions from capitalists – except to enrich the financial classes and enforce austerity. “The government is at liberty to spend as needed to meet its budget, drawing on credit issued by its own central bank.” The U.S. federal debt  has more than doubled since the 2008 financial crisis, shooting up from $9.4 trillion in mid-2008 to over $22 trillion in April 2019. The debt is never paid off. The government just keeps paying the interest on it, and interest rates are rising.By Ellen BrownLabor:

Economy:

Yesterday’s Market Rally Was a Short Squeeze, Not a Reaction to Powell’s Speech It felt like headline writers were out to engineer a stock market rally yesterday by scaring hedge funds that had shorted the market to the tune of tens of billions of dollars. When traders who are short the market act simultaneously on breaking news, (news that suggests the stock market is going to rally), by buying back stock to close out their short positions, that causes a big upward spike in the stock market. In Wall Street parlance, it’s called a short squeeze. It happens a lot in a secular bear market and is a head fake to investors desperately looking for a bullish trend.  By Pam Martens and Russ MartensWorld:

US Troops Deployed in Guatemala to ‘Halt Migration’Guatemalan Defense Minister, Luis Miguel Ralda, confirmed on Monday that United States (U.S.) troops are already in the country, specifically in the Guatemala-Mexico border department of Huehuetenango. “The troops are already here, as has happened in the last 15 years, with programs such as ’Strong Roads’ and now [with] the one that is being developed, ‘Beyond the Horizon’,” Ralda told reporters after a cabinet meeting. The number of troops or further details has not been released.US President Trump Not Welcome in UK People in the United Kingdom took to the streets to protest the visit of United States President Donald Trump. The President started his three-day official state visit Monday. Before his visit, he insulted London mayor Sadiq Khan and endorsed far-right Boris Johnson as Theresa May’s successor. Britain’s opposition Labour Party boycotted Trump’s visit and many of the Labour leaders were also seen protesting the head of state’s U.K. tour.

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!