Daily News Digest August 29, 2016

Images of the Day:

Quotes of the Day:

Back in 1956, David Ben-Gurion, possibly struggling with his conscience, confessed: If I were an Arab leader, I would never make terms with Israel. That is natural, we have taken their country. Sure God promised it to us, but what does that matter to them? Our God is not theirs. We came from Israel, it’s true, but that was two thousand years ago, and what is that to them? There has been anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They only see one thing: we have come and stolen their country. Why should they accept that? —Thomas l. Are, A look at Yesterday

A big majority of such careerists are likely to split away as soon as they have their marching orders from big business. “The memory of Ramsay MacDonald’s betrayal of the 1931 government is etched in blood on the Party’s memory”, explained The Financial Times (23/4/16). The split in 1931 constituted one of the greatest betrayals in Labour history, when Ramsay MacDonald, the Labour Prime Minister, stabbed the Party in the back and joined the Tories and Liberals to form a “National” Government. For him, “Country” came before Party. MacDonald stood for the “national interest” – the national interest being of course the interests of big business. Then as now, there are those in the Party leadership who will jump ship when the time comes. It is better to deselect them now before they jump. The same types carried out the great betrayal of 1931. Then, facing certain opposition to cuts and austerity in the Labour Cabinet, Prime Minister MacDonald, Chancellor Philip Snowden, Lord Privy Seal J.H. Thomas and Lord Sankey resigned and crossed the floor to join the National Government. Now, 66 Labour MPs have voted with the Tories over the bombing of Syria and 140 of them over Trident renewal. — Britain: Lessons of the 1931 Labour split

Videos of the Day:

Children Suffer Nuclear Impact Worldwide Maggie Gundersen, Chiho Kaneko and Caroline Phillips of Fairewinds Energy Education discuss the nuclear risk concerns for children not only near the nuclear disaster sites of Fukushima-Dai-ichiin Japan and Chernobyl in Ukraine, formerly the Soviet Union, but globally where areas near all nuclear power plants are contaminated with radiation. Since mothers in Japan especially bear the responsibility to protect children, they experience greater hardships in an environment where just expressing one’s concern about radiation is seen as a treasonous act. Even 30 years later, the Belarus government recognizes the merits of relocating children away from radiation contaminated areas but the children of Japan are socially forced to stay put in highly contaminated areas.

Richard D. Wolff: Economic Update: Capitalism’s Lack of Sense

Phil Ochs: What are you fighting for?

U.S.

Colin Kaepernick Refuses To Stand For Anthem: “There Are Bodies In The Street” Colin Kaepernick is speaking out after the 49ers quarterback refused to stand for the U.S. national anthem before last night’s preseason game against the Green Bay Packers, telling the NFL that “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.” By Timothy Burke

Kaepernick continued: To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder. The 49ers responded to Kaepernick’s symbolic statement by recognizing his right to protest the anthem: The National Anthem is and always will be a special part of the pre-game ceremony. It is an opportunity to honor our country and reflect on the great liberties we are afforded as its citizens. In respecting such American principles as freedom of religion and freedom of expression, we recognize the right of an individual to choose and participate, or not, in our celebration of the national anthem. Kaepernick continued: To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder. The 49ers responded to Kaepernick’s symbolic statement by recognizing his right to protest the anthem: The National Anthem is and always will be a special part of the pre-game ceremony. It is an opportunity to honor our country and reflect on the great liberties we are afforded as its citizens. In respecting such American principles as freedom of religion and freedom of expression, we recognize the right of an individual to choose and participate, or not, in our celebration of the national anthem. Kaepernick is the highest-profile athlete to protest the national anthem since Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf in 1996—for which the NBA suspended him. Kaepernick’s Twitter feed has been tweeting out anti-white supremacist statements for a lengthy period of time. “I am not looking for approval. I have to stand up for people that are oppressed,” Kaepernick told NFL.com. “If they take football away, my endorsements from me, I know that I stood up for what is right.”

Arming the War for Terrorism!: Pentagon Has No Idea Where Hundreds of Thousands of Guns Went in Iraq and Afghanistan Over half of 1.4 million guns U.S. shipped into Iraq and Afghanistan after 9/11 are unaccounted for in DoD’s own records, watchdog discovers by Nika Knight Environment:

The Unbearable Killing of Yellowstone’s Grizzlies: 2015 Shatters Records for Bear Deaths If current trends continue – and this year is poised to break another record – the hard fought progress towards recovery of Yellowstone’s grizzly bear population will be quickly reversed. by Louisa WillcoxOngoing/Big Energy Disasters:

TV: “Astronomical amounts of radiation” found in downtown Tokyo… Directly outside gov’t building — ‘Horrific’ readings where kids playing in Fukushima, ‘extreme’ levels found where food is grown for elementary school lunches — Nuclear expert shocked, upset by discovery (VIDEO)

Scale of Threat Seismic Blasting Poses to Whales, Dolphins Laid Bare “These animated maps clearly show that marine life, including dolphins and whales, would be profoundly impacted by the proposed seismic blasting” by Andrea Germanos,Black Liberation/Civil Rights:

W.E.B. Duboise February 23, 1868 — August 27, 1963Labor:

Economy:

Finance is Not the Economy Why have economies polarized so sharply since the 1980s, and especially since the 2008 crisis? How did we get so indebted without real wage and living standards rising, while cities, states, and entire nations are falling into default? Only when we answer these questions can we formulate policies to extract ourselves from the current debt crises. There is widespread sentiment that this crisis is fundamental, and that we cannot simply “go back to normal.” But deep confusion remains over the theoretical framework that should guide analysis of the post-bubble economy. by Dirk Bezemer – Michael Hudson

World:

The Treachery of the Labor Party Bureaucracy Exposes It as a Fifth Column of the Capitalist Class in the Labor Party:

Britain: Lessons of the 1931 Labour split With Jeremy Corbyn on course to win another landslide victory in the contest for the Labour leadership, the Party Establishment are preparing the ground for a split. Rob Sewell, editor of Socialist Appeal, looks back at the Labour split of 1931 to analyse the important lessons of Labour’s history for today’s tumultuous events. By Rob SewellHealth, Science, Education, and Welfare:

Defunded to Fail A new class of galaxy has been discovered, one made almost entirely of dark matter Much of the universe is made of dark matter, the unknowable, as-yet-undetected stuff that barely interacts with the “normal” matter around it. In the Milky Way, dark matter outnumbers regular matter by about 5 to 1, and very tiny dwarf galaxies are known to contain even more of the stuff. By Rachel Feltman The Evidence Keeps Pouring In: Capitalism Just Isn’t Working Capitalism hasn’t been able to control runaway global inequality. For every $1.00 owned by the world’s richest 1% in 2011, they now own $1.27. They own almost half the world’s wealth. Just 70 of them own as much as 3.5 billion people. Capitalism has not been able — or willing — to control the “race to the bottom” caused by “free trade,” as mid-level jobs continue to be transferred to low-wage countries. Nor has capitalism been able to control global environmental degradation, with trillions in subsidies going to polluters that don’t even pay their taxes, and with corporations ignoring any semblance of social responsibility as they seek ways to profit from global warming. By Paul Buchheit

Daily News Digest August 29, 2016

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