Daily News Digest February 12, 2020

Daily News Digest Archives 

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

During This Economic Crisis, Capitalism’s Three-Point Political Program: 1, Austerity,2 Scapegoat Blacks, Minorities, and ‘Illegal’ Immigrants for Unemployment, and 3.  The Iron Heel   Always Remember:  That President Obama, With a Majority Democrat Legislature Supported the Wall Street Bailout and Remember, That he Established, in writing,  the United States Capitalist Austerity Program. —  The Race to the Bottom/Pauperization of the 99%!

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 , thet the 99% Will Rule, Not the Few!

Images of the Day:

Ireland: Kick Out Israeli Ambassador, Demand Thousands of Dubliners

Moderation

U.S., Israel and Saudi Arabia Leading World to War With Iran, France Says

Quotes of the Day:

From:  Fusion TV’s: A First Look: Who Killed Malcolm X? — A More Subtle Assassination of Malcolm X  and The Man He Had Become When He Was Assassinated. . . . (However, in the last episode, Abdur-Rahman Muhammad finds the FBI file document that William Bradely was the assassin that shot the shotgun. And wonders why he was never arrested!

He was never arrested because he was a government agent!  

I identified Bradely as the assass in in my 2010 essay, The Day the Music Died: Malcolm X’s Assassination, Feb. 21, 1965.  (First Published by the San Francisco Bayview ) in 2010.: In that article is the picture shown here of William Bradley, who is the man that I had seen in the Audubon Ballroom and in the photos that the Harlem police showed me while I was being interrogated. Bradley was the man I saw coming out of the men’s room, walking by me, past the desks of the secretarial pool, and into his office inside the police station, as I was going to the men’s room! As I wrote in my original 2009 essay: “At that point, I knew that he and the government either killed Malcolm X or were part of the assassination plot.” And now I know his name. William Bradley is the man that Talmadge Hayer identified as the one who shot the shotgun. Zak Kondo also identified William Bradley as the assassin with the shotgun.                                                                                                                                  The picture below of William Bradley,  who is the man that I had seen in the Audubon Ballroom and in the photos that the Harlem police showed me, while I was being interrogated. Bradley was the man I saw coming out of the men’s room, walking by me, past the desks of the secretarial pool, and into his office inside the police station, as I was going to the men’s room! From that encounter, I knew that the government was behind Malcolm’s  assassination! . . .

The Real ID Act of 2005 requires states to standardize driver’s licenses across the nation into a single national identity card and database. While it is ostensibly aimed at improving driver’s license security, its actual effect is to turn those same licenses into national ID cards by stipulating that state driver’s licenses and state ID cards will not be accepted for “federal purposes”—including boarding an aircraft or entering a federal facility—unless they meet all of the law’s numerous conditions. If fully implemented, the law would facilitate the tracking of data on individuals and bring government into the very center of every citizen’s life. By definitively turning driver’s licenses into a form of national identity documents, Real ID would have a tremendously destructive impact on privacy. It would also impose significant administrative burdens and expenses on state governments, and it would mean higher fees, longer lines, repeat visits to the DMV, and bureaucratic nightmares for individuals. Because of these problems, many states oppose the use of Real ID, and it has not gone into full effect. The ACLU has joined with these states to support the repeal of the law. — ACLU

To assert that everyone has a right to live seems obvious. But many of those who live in poverty have to fight to live. The poor have to scramble to eat, to afford medication, to find an affordable place to live. They have to watch their neighborhoods being decimated by gentrification, as rising housing costs push long-time residents out. As many as 45,000 people a year die because they don’t have health insurance. And more than 10 percent of the US population is “food insecure,” which means that they either skip meals, eat less at meals, or cannot afford nutritious food. One in six children is food insecure. — Everybody’s Got the Right to Live

Videos of the Day:

Nina Turner: Politicians Shouldn’t Answer to the Billionaire Class, they Should Answer to the People

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.

What Is Happening to Assange Will Happen to the Rest of Us
David Morales, the indicted owner of the Spanish private security firm Undercover Global, is being investigated by Spain’s high court for allegedly providing the CIA with audio and video recordings of the meetings WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange had with his attorneys and other visitors when the publisher was in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. The security firm also reportedly photographed the passports of all of Assange’s visitors. It is accused of taking visitors’ phones, which were not permitted in the embassy, and opening them, presumably in an effort to intercept calls. It reportedly stole data from laptops, electronic tablets and USB sticks, all required to be left at the embassy reception area. It allegedly compiled detailed reports on all of Assange’s meetings and conversations with visitors. The firm even is said to have planned to steal the diaper of a baby — brought to visit Assange — to perform a DNA test to establish whether the infant was a secret son of Assange. UC Global, apparently at the behest of the CIA, also allegedly spied on Ecuadorian diplomats who worked in the London embassy. The probe by the court, the Audiencia Nacional, into the activities of UC Global, along with leaked videos, statements, documents and reports published by the Spanish newspaper El País as well as the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, offers a window into the new global security state. Here the rule of law is irrelevant. Here privacy and attorney-client privilege do not exist. Here people live under 24-hour-a-day surveillance. Here all who attempt to expose the crimes of tyrannical power will be hunted down, kidnapped, imprisoned and broken. This global security state is a terrifying melding of the corporate and the public. And what it has done to Assange it will soon do to the rest of us. By Chris Hedges

Psychopath Nation Why our foreign policymakers can’t quit interventionism If the news in the hours after the Trump administration assassinated the Iranian military leader Qassem Soleimani felt like the six months leading up to the Iraq War squeezed into one evening, then the weeks after the killing resembled, with uncanny absurdity, those events played backward. We watched Mike Pence attempting to link Soleimani to September 11 and Mike Pompeo describing Iranians dancing in the streets—even as video showed many of them mourning—and we listened to the administration’s ever-shifting explanations for the strike.    It’s as if instead of spending months building a case for war, the Bush administration suddenly announced that they had already arrested and executed Saddam Hussein, and only then got around to feeding cooked intelligence to The New York Times. Trump’s slapdash approach might be as effective as Bush’s carefully orchestrated Iraq rollout, in part because the American political press does not need much prodding to sanitize our deranged foreign policy. Journalists rarely question our national right to do as we please anywhere on Earth, merely what we choose to do. Or, as The New York Times’s editorial board put it:    “The real question to ask about the American drone attack that killed Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani was not whether it was justified, but whether it was wise.”    Whichever party occupies the White House or the Senate majority leader’s chair, America’s foreign policy always seems to remain deeply conservative, at least according to Corey Robin’s formulation of conservatism’s guiding impulse as “liberty for the higher orders and constraint for the lower orders.” On the international stage, that dictum means that the United States is allowed to act lawlessly, and other countries feel our wrath when they oppose us. “When it comes to projecting power,” the military historian Andrew J. Bacevich has written, “the United States exempts itself from norms with which it expects others to comply.”  By Alex Pareene

More Than 100 US Troops Suffered Traumatic Brain Injury in Iran Strike, Military Says

• TBI cases jump more than 50% from the 64 reported

• Trump previously downplayed reports of brain injury

The number of US service members diagnosed with traumatic brain injury (TBI) stemming from Iran’s missile attack on a base in Iraq last month has shot up to more than 100, the Pentagon said Monday. The department said 109 military members had been treated for mild TBI, a significant increase over the 64 reported a little over a week ago. The number of injuries has been steadily increasing since the Pentagon began releasing data on the injuries about a week after the 8 January attack at al-Asad airbase in Iraq.

Environment:

Civil Rights/ Black Liberation:

The Old Colossus ‘Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,I lift my lamp beside the golden door!’   Has been changed to: “‘Give me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet and who will not become a public charge,’ uttered by none other than a descendant of Italians and Irish, the Principle Deputy Director of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, Ken Cuccinelli.” It begins in civility. Eye contact. A smile. Do you think Trump will be removed? I hear the wall-size television screen behind me: Trump. Impeachment. Senate hearings. No. The Central Park Five, the Birther fantasies, the tossing of paper towels in the aftermath of an earthquake in Puerto Rico, the sexual assault charges, the big tax breaks to the wealthy class, the mocking of disabled people—why commence with an understanding of what justice means now? No! But she’s not interested in Trump, the impeachment, or the Senate hearing. She’s an older white woman, liberal on the edge, I suspect. If she’s anything like her fellow residents in this small Wisconsin town, she’s tolerant of those who must be tolerated, unless there’s an opportunity for her to ride rough-shod over my audacity to stand my ground. By Lenore Jean Daniels, PhD

Malcolm X Assassination May Be Reinvestigated As Netflix Documentary, Lawyers Cast Doubt On Convictions For decades after the assassination of Malcolm X, the confessed assassin maintained that the two other men convicted as his accomplices had nothing to do with the murder. Historians have long believed that police and prosecutors botched the investigation. Conspiracy theories about police misconduct and hidden evidence have festered. And some critics believe most of the assassins who fired at the civil rights leader managed to get away, leading to the wrongful convictions of two members of the Nation of Islam.But now, after a new Netflix documentary series extensively reviewed evidence in support of the two men’s innocence, the infamous assassination may be getting a second look. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said in an email to The Washington Post on Sunday that it “will begin a preliminary review” of the case to decide whether it should be reinvestigated. That development was previously reported by the New York Times ahead of the Friday release of the Netflix documentary series “Who Killed Malcolm X?” By Meagan Flynn

Labor:

‘We’re Just Getting Started,’ Says Union Leader, as Worker Strike Activity Hits 35-Year High Under TrumpIn yet another rebuke to President Donald Trump’s claims that the U.S. economy is “roaring” and his “relentlessly pro-worker” agenda is serving the American public, a report published Tuesday by a progressive think tank revealed that the “number of striking workers surged in 2018 and 2019” after decades of decline. “The increase in strike numbers shows that workers understand that joining together in collective action remains an effective way to raise wages and benefits, and improve working conditions.”  —Heidi Shierholz, EPI The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) report, entitled Continued Surge in Strike Activity Signals Worker Dissatisfaction With Wage Growth, noted that the spike marked “a 35-year high for the number of workers involved in a major work stoppage over a two-year period.” By Jessica Corbett

Economy:

Shadow Government Statistics  The seasonally-adjusted SGS Alternate Unemployment Rate reflects current unemployment reporting methodology adjusted for SGS-estimated long-term discouraged workers, who were defined out of official existence in 1994. That estimate is added to the BLS estimate of U-6 unemployment, which includes short-term discouraged workers.The U-3 unemployment rate is the monthly headline number. The U-6 unemployment rate is the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) broadest unemployment measure, including short-term discouraged and other marginally-attached workers as well as those forced to work part-time because they cannot find full-time employment.The seasonally adjusted Alternate Unemployment Rate for January 2020 is 21.0%.

Fed Chair Powell Is Grilled on Attending Lavish Party at Home of Jeff Bezos: Jared and Ivanka, Jamie Dimon Were in Attendancem The most sizzling moment thus far today in the House Financial Services Committee hearing with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell was a line of questioning by Congresswoman Katie Porter of California.Porter began by reminding Powell that he had “frequently spoken about wanting to maintain the independence of the Federal Reserve.” She then asked: “Do you still have that belief?” Powell said he did.Porter then held up a photo of Powell in black tie and asked where the photo was taken. He said it was at a party following the Alfalfa Dinner at the home of Jeff Bezos. Porter then made Powell indicate that the photo was recent, sometime in late January of this year. Porter looked squarely at Powell and stated: “Can you imagine how attending a lavish party at Jeff Bezos’ $23 million home, along with Jared and Ivanka and the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, might give off the sense to the public that you are not in fact immune from external pressures.” By By Pam Martens and Russ Martens

World:

Health, Science, 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 ‘governn’, 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!