Daily News Digest August 15, 2016

Daily News Digest Archives

Daily News Digest August 15, 2016

Images of the Day:

U.S. ‘War on Terror’ If Quotes of the Day:

Consider what’s happening today at Citigroup with not so much as a peep from its myriad Federal regulators. Citigroup is today bulking up on over $2 trillion dollars in notional value (face amount) of the riskiest derivatives, credit default swaps, that brought down AIG and helped make Citigroup the recipient of the largest taxpayer bailout in U.S. history. Given these facts on the ground, another President who takes a hands off approach to Wall Street while installing Wall Street cronies in the cabinet, will leave this nation terminally financially crippled. — Here’s Why Americans Are Mad as Hell at Wall Street and Washington

The Rockefeller clan exported the petrochemical intensive ‘green revolution’ around the world with the aim of ripping up indigenous agriculture to cement its hegemony over global agriculture and to help the US create food deficit regions and thus use agriculture as a tool of foreign policy. This was only made possible and continues to be made possible because of lavish funds, slick PR, compliant politicians and scientists and the undermining and capture of regulatory and policy decision-making bodies that supposedly serve the public interest. For example, writing in the British newspaper The Guardian earlier this year, Arthur Nelson noted that as many as 31 pesticides with a value running into billions of pounds could have been banned in the EU because of potential health risks, if a blocked EU paper on hormone-mimicking chemicals had been acted upon.
The science paper that was seen by The Guardian recommends ways of identifying and categorizing the endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) that scientists link to a rise in fetal abnormalities, genital mutations, infertility and adverse health effects ranging from cancer to IQ loss. Nelson writes that Commission sources say that the paper was buried by top EU officials under pressure from big chemical firms which use EDCs in toiletries, pesticides, plastics and cosmetics, despite an annual health cost that studies peg at hundreds of millions of euros. — Toxic agriculture: Poisoning of soils, human health and the environment

Among the most stark of the ACLU’s 2014 findings was the severe medical understaffing and “extreme cost cutting” that limited inmates access to healthcare. Elements of these findings are replicated in the inspector general’s report, which identified serious flaws in the oversight of medical care in a number of contract prisons. “In one instance,” the report documents, “when an inmate had trouble breathing, the contract prison medical staff told him to place a sick call, which would put him on a list of inmates waiting to be seen by medical personnel instead of being treated immediately. “However, after he died, the mortality reviews showing this deficiency gave the onsite monitors no guidance on what steps to take to require corrective action. As a result, contractor deficiencies went uncorrected and corrective actions were delayed.” — Private federal prisons more dangerous, damning DoJ investigation reveals ‘Low risk’ inmates at contract prisons were nine times more likely to be placed on lockdown and put in solitary confinement than others in the federal system

Videos of the Day:

Nina Simone — I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free (Lyrics)

Phil Ochs — Love me, I’m a Liberal

U.S.

American Simone Manuel speaks out on police brutality, race after earning Olympic gold Manuel said that her victory was extra special in the context of ongoing race issues in the U.S. “It means a lot, especially with what is going on in the world today, some of the issues of police brutality,” Manuel said. “This win hopefully brings hope and change to some of the issues that are going on. My color just comes with the territory.” WW3 News: Here’s How The US Is Preparing For Major War Vs. Russia & China With the constant threat of a WW3 breaking out over the United States’ continued conflicts of interest with two of the world’s major powers, Russia and China, Washington is reportedly preparing for an all out theoretical war against it near-peer adversaries. By Gurmeet Singh Pandher China denies US carrier group entry to Hong Kong amid South China Sea tensions Risky US nuclear bomb gets green light The most controversial nuclear bomb ever planned for the U.S. arsenal — some say the most dangerous, too — has received the go-ahead from the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration. By Len Ackland Now the truth emerges: how the US fueled the rise of Isis in Syria and Iraq The sectarian terror group won’t be defeated by the western states that incubated it in the first place By Seumas Milne, The Guardian Environment:

Toxic agriculture: Poisoning of soils, human health and the environment Our food system is in big trouble. It’s in big trouble because the global agritech/agribusiness sector is poisoning it, us and the environment with its pesticides, herbicides, GMOs and various other chemical inputs. by Colin Todhunter Michelle Obama’s Partner (Monstano) Killing Lake Erie: Researchers Find RoundUp Responsible for Harmful Algae Blooms In Great Lakes Glyphosate, the main ingredient found in Monsanto’s best-selling herbicide, RoundUp, has poisoned Lake Erie. Scientists from Ohio Northern University (ONU) in the U.S. have discovered that glyphosate is largely responsible for an increase in harmful algae blooms that contaminate lake water and kill off life dependent upon this habitat. How Factory Farming Is Giving Rise to Antibiotic-Resistant Superbugs In addition to causing immense animal suffering, factory farms are spawning dangerous superbugs that current antibiotics are powerless against. By Wayne Pacelle California’s 70 Million Dead Trees: A ‘Botanical Emergency Room’ Across the state, once-towering pines have collapsed, their desiccated limbs sprawled across forest floors. Toppled oak and tanoak trees, their trunks bleeding, decomposing from the inside out, litter the ground. Choked with the detritus of at least 70 million dead trees, vast tracts of the landscape have become a botanical emergency room, parched by drought, invaded by damaging insects and infected with a deadly organism that may have piggybacked its way to the state on rhododendron leaves. By Julie CartAt the Cost of $Trillions, the 1% Are at Permanent War with the World, They Have No Money for Their Crumbling Infrastructure: Flint’s water system is falling apart. Fixing it could cost $100 million. “In essence, [the system] was being held together with bailing wire and duct tape,” Edwards says. “It was in bad shape. But putting all that corrosive water in there really just pushed it over the edge.” For more than a year, the city pumped corrosive Flint River water through its system. Then, on top of that, it failed to add corrosion control. We’ve all heard what that did to the lead service lines in Flint, at a devastating human cost. But now it looks like the wider system is also breaking down. That means Flint has to figure out how to fix a whole water system, without making residents foot the bill. By Kate WellsNestle is Pumping Millions of Gallons from the Great Lakes for Free While Flint Pays For Poison Nestle is Pumping While Flint Pays For Poison One of the most infuriating aspects of the Flint water crisis is that residents are not only still being charged for their poisoned water, but they’re being charged higher rates than almost anywhere in the country. Meanwhile, less than two hundred miles away, multi-billion dollar corporation Nestle has been pumping millions of gallons out of Lake Michigan for free. In fact, they receive 13 million dollars in tax breaks to do so. By Nathan Wellman

The drought no one is talking about in the southeastern United States Crops are wilting in the fields in several states in the southeastern United States from an extreme drought that has crept up under the radar of most people living outside the region. Farmers in northern Georgia, northeast Alabama, southeast Tennessee, western North Carolina and northwestern South Carolina are desperate for rain as harvest time nears. Combined with above average heat this summer, the corn crop in numerous counties has already been wiped out. By John Hopewell Ongoing/Big Energy Disasters:

After Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a third nuclear atrocity: the corruption of science Following the atomic bombs exploded over Japan in 1945 a second crime against humanity took place, writes Chris Busby: the deliberate falsification of science to hide the dangers of ionising radiation, perpetrated to quell public opposition to a new age of nuclear bombs and energy. The fraud continues to this day, but finally the truth is winning out.

Black Liberation/Civil Rights:

The For Profit Prison Industrial Slave Complex: Private federal prisons more dangerous, damning DoJ investigation reveals ‘Low risk’ inmates at contract prisons were nine times more likely to be placed on lockdown and put in solitary confinement than others in the federal system By Oliver Laughland Labor:

Economy:

Real Median Income

Here’s Why Americans Are Mad as Hell at Wall Street and Washington Yesterday we published our 1,007th article here at Wall Street On Parade on the insidiously corrupt financial system in the United States known as Wall Street. It’s a system that now operates as an institutionalized wealth transfer mechanism that is hollowing out the middle class, leaving one of every five children in our nation living in poverty, while funneling the plunder to the top one-tenth of one percent. By Pam Martens and Russ Marten Health, Science, Education, and Welfare: