Daily News Digest August 28, 2019

Daily News Digest August 28, 2019

Daily News Digest Achives

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.    Socialism Means True Democracy — The 99% Will Rule! — Not the Few!

Images of the Day:

Why the United States Killed Muammar GaddafyNASA Shows Amazon Rainforest Fires from Space as Environmentalists Caution About Impact on U.S.

Quotes of the Day:

The Curse of Moral Purity The continued inability of America’s liberal democratic establishment to address the ills besetting the country—climate change, unregulated global capitalism, mounting social inequality, a bloated military, endless foreign wars, out-of-control deficits and gun violence—means the inevitable snuffing out of our anemic democracy. Overwhelmed by the multiple crises, the liberal elites have jettisoned genuine political life and retreated into self-defeating moral crusades in a vain and futile attempt to deflect attention away from the looming social, political, economic and environmental catastrophes. By Chris HedgesIn the meantime, indigenous groups that are fighting for their lands and against the destruction of the environment are increasingly criminalized. On July 23, for example, an indigenous tribal leader was murdered, with the UN characterizing the murder as “a symptom of the growing problem of encroachment on indigenous land—especially forests—by miners, loggers, and farmers in Brazil.  The Brazilian group Movement of Revolutionary Workers said in a declaration,  ‘The phenomenon is a direct result of each of Bolsonaro’s incentives to deforestation and his actions to make the environmental code more flexible, allowing the rural capitalists who, incited by the president, make the Amazon burn in flames, increasing their large massive estates throughout the region. It is the result of the policies of all previous Brazilian leaders including Lula and Dilma, who gave billions to agribusiness, that sought more land for pasture and for soy.” — The Fires in the Amazon Were Set on Purpose

The current stage of capitalist development demonstrates the conflict between the accumulation process of capital and the construction of sustainable alternatives. But modern capitalism also opens up the technological possibilities and the social subject, the workers, who can overcome this system. Technological development is in the service of predatory use of resources and environmental destruction. Competition among nations transforms environmental discourse into demagogy so that developed nations, at the same time the world’s major polluters, blackmail the growth of developing countries with goals of sustainability. The transformation of this reality necessitates a radical change of the society in which we live. There is no possible historical conciliation between profit-oriented production, whose inexorable dynamic is the accumulation of capital, and anything similar to the rational and environmentally correct use of natural resources. Only the organization of a society emancipated from the clutches of capital and, therefore, a society based on the freely associated producers will be able to overcome the predatory exploitation of nature, the environmental crisis, and the social misery to which we are subjected. — Imperialist Profit from the Destruction of the Amazon

Videos of the Day:“This Ruling Is Huge”: Johnson & Johnson Ordered to Pay $572 Million for Fueling Opioid Epidemic

Corporate Media Bias Against Sanders Is Structural, Not a Conspiracy

Trump Is Politicizing the Power of Immigration Judges

DNC Kills Climate Debate Compromise

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! The United States takes from the poor and gives to the Rich!

The Curse of Moral Purity The con tinued inability of America’s liberal democratic establishment to address the ills besetting the country—climate change, unregulated global capitalism, mounting social inequality, a bloated military, endless foreign wars, out-of-control deficits and gun violence—means the inevitable snuffing out of our anemic democracy. Overwhelmed by the multiple crises, the liberal elites have jettisoned genuine political life and retreated into self-defeating moral crusades in a vain and futile attempt to deflect attention away from the looming social, political, economic and environmental catastrophes. By Chris Hedges

The Media Already has Merged into 5 Corporations — Sanderers  is Barkiing After the Crooks are Out the Door:  To Fight Corporate ‘Assault on Journalism,’ Sanders Unveils Plan to Stop Big Media Mergers and Bolster Independent News

Number of Corporations That Control the U.S. Mass MediaTrump, Greenland and Manifest DestinyOn August 18th, when President Trump first confirmed rumors that he was interested in buying Greenland, the American punditry chattered about it in every news outlet as an absurd joke. Trump himself seemed to play along by retweeting a meme showing a shiny gold Trump Casino towering over a Greenlandic village with the comment, “I promise not to do this to Greenland!” But as the week progressed and Trump himself, perturbed at the Danes very public denunciations of his “large real estate deal”, caused a diplomatic rift by postponing a scheduled visit to Denmark, the story line moved from humor to geopolitical strategies. Several major news outlets published op-eds from strategic wonks such as Marc A. Thiessen’s August 22 column in the Washington Post, “Trump’s idea of buying Greenland is far from absurd.”By Timothy Messer-Kruse

Are Sanders and Warren Throwing a Lifeline to the Military-Industrial Complex?Among the frontrunners in the Democratic Party presidential primary, Senators Warren and Sanders not only have the most progressive domestic agenda, but also the most anti-war, pro-diplomacy foreign policy agenda. The sharpest distinction between them is that Sanders has voted against over 80% of recent record military spending bills in the Senate, while Warren has voted for two thirds of them. But their pro-diplomacy worldview has blind spots. They have both tempered their calls for peace and diplomacy with attacks on Russia and China, framed as warnings against “authoritarianism.” These attacks—in the present-day context of bipartisan Russia- and China-bashing—carve out an ominous exception to their foreign policy agenda big enough to fly a squadron of F-35s through. This creates a pretext for continuing U.S. militarism and risks undermining their commitment to peace. By Medea Benjamin – Nicolas J. S. Davies

The Horsemen of the Apocalypse Fuel the Fires of Hate and Destruction “Politicians and media outlets seem happy to fuel the hate-filled ideologies of a once-despised and tiny minority,” reads the introduction of Owen Jones opinion piece in the Guardian “Far-right violence is on the rise,Where is the outrage?” (August 22, 2019). Even though the racist, neo-fascist Proud Boys were far outnumbered by anti-fascists, the far-right protest organizer, Joe Biggs, seemed pleased with the result of their hate-filled presence on the streets of Portland, Oregon on August 17, 2019 (“Far right Proud Boys claim ‘mission success’ in antifa protest, vow to hold monthly Portland rallies,”USA Today, August 18, 2019): By Howard Lisnoff

Environment:

States With Fracking Bans Are Still Building Fracking Infrastructure   Fracking bans have begun to sweep across the world, with Ireland, France, Germany and Bulgaria declaring a moratorium on the deadly fossil fuel process. While the U.S. is lagging behind in the effort to stop the ill effects of global climate crisis, states like Vermont, Washington, Maryland and New York have passed bans. Both Georgia and Florida have attempted these bans as well.  Banning fracking isn’t enough, though. Fracking infrastructure is being built in states with bans and is continuing the fossil fuel industry’s race to drain the remaining dirty energy sources from the Earth. By Jen Deerinwater 

Capitalists ‘Fiddle’ While the Amazon Burns!:$20 Million Dollars Will Not Stop The Amazon Destructionby  Fire:                                                        Brazil Won’t Accept US$20 Million G7 Aid to Tackle Amazon Fire “First of all, Macron has to withdraw his insults. He called me a liar. Before we talk or accept anything from France…,” Bolsonaro said. Brazil will reject an offer of at least US$20 million from the Group of Seven (G7) nations to fight fires in the Amazon rainforest unless French President Emmanuel Macron withdraws his “insults,” President Jair Bolsonaro said Tuesday. 

Civil Rights/Black Liberation:

Black Agenda Radio for Week of August 26, 2019

• The Low to No Cost of Killing a Black Man New York’s feeble slap on the wrist for Eric Garner’s murderer-in-blue is yet more proof that US policing cannot be reformed..

• FBI Targets Blacks and Left, Not White Supremacists The FBI has plenty of powers but chooses not to use them against violent white supremacists, said Chip Gibbons, of Defending Human Rights and Dissent. “If the FBI gets more domestic terrorism powers, who do you think they’re going to use them against?” Gibbons asked, and then answered: dissidents and Blacks. “If anything, the FBI’s power should be restricted.”

• Jay-Z Speaks, Raps and Cuts Deals for Himself Entertainment billionaire Jay-Z’s collaboration with the NFL to “move past” Colin Kaepernick’s “take a knee” initiative is another example of the rapper “positioning himself as an authoritative voice” for “the Black masses, without getting their opinion,” said writer and doctoral candidate James Hill, Jr. Hill wrote an article for BAR titled, “Kneeling and the (Re)Signification of the Black Fantastic.”

• Venezuelan Embassy Defenders Need Support Supporters of the four activists facing a year in prison and heavy fines for protecting the Venezuelan embassy from being handed over to pro-coup forces by the Trump administration are “using this case to organize people against the coup and in favor of international law,” said defendant Kevin Zeese, who expects the case to go to trial “in the spring.” Zeese and co-defendant Margaret Flowers are founders of Popular Resistance

Black Agenda Radio on the Progressive Radio Network is hosted by Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey. A new edition of the program airs every Monday at 11:am ET on PRN. Length: one hour.

Labor:

Economy:

The CEO and CFO of this Publicly-Traded Company Were Married for 25 Years; That Didn’t Stop Dozens of U.S. Mutual Funds from Buying the StockBurford Capital Ltd. is a lawsuit funding company that trades on AIM, part of the London Stock Exchange’s international market for young, growing companies. Securities and Exchange Commission filings in the U.S. show tens of millions of dollars of the stock to be part of the portfolios of big-name mutual funds in the United States, despite a governance structure that takes cronyism to a whole new level. Since August 7 the stock of Burford has lost 44 percent of its value, as of intraday trading this morning. That’s the date that U.S. short seller, Muddy Waters, released a 25-page detailed and damning report on the company suggesting its accounting is Enron-esque. What stopped us in our tracks while reading the report was the paragraph revealing that the Chief Executive Officer of Burford Capital Ltd., Christopher Bogart, is married to Elizabeth O’Connell, the Chief Financial Officer of the company. The couple had been married for 25 years when Burford’s Board of Directors approved her as the CFO in 2017, according to our own research. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens

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! 

‘About Damn Time’: In First of Thousands of Lawsuits Against Big Pharma, Johnson & Johnson Ordered to Pay $572M for Flooding Oklahoma With Opioids “The opioid crisis has ravaged the state of Oklahoma,” a federal judge said Monday. “It must be abated  immediately.” In the first decided case against a corporation accused of contributing to the opioid epidemic in the U.S., personal care and pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson was ordered on Monday to pay $572 million in fines for its role in perpetuating the crisis. Through contracts with poppy growers in Tasmania, the company supplied 60 percent of the ingredients that drug companies used in opioid painkillers like OxyContin, contributing to the deaths of about 400,000 Americans in the last two decades—including 388 Oklahoma residents just in 2017.