Daily News Digest Archives
Daily News Digest October 3, 2016
Images of the Day:
To the 1%’s Tune — Obama’s Drones Murder On!
Federal Government is a Robber Baron!
Quotes of the Day:
As I’ve been reporting for quite some time now, trillions of our tax dollars have been looted by Wall Street, wars, global corporations and the richest one-tenth of one percent of the population. The economic crisis has made this blatant fact much more evident to the average person. Now that these elaborate schemes are coming undone and major cuts to vital social programs are beginning to be implemented, the American public is going to get a harsh wake up call. With cuts to Social Security on the way, and Obama’s recent comments saying that he cannot guarantee that Social Security checks will go out if the debt ceiling doesn’t get raised, it’s time to take a closer look at why politicians are pushing to cut this vital program. The Social Security Trust Fund should currently have $2.5 trillion in surplus. So how is it that these checks could stop being issued if the debt ceiling isn’t raised? Economics professor Dr. Allen Smith, author of The Looting of Social Security: How The Government is Draining America’s Retirement Account, has been reporting on the theft of Social Security funds for years. As he sums it up: “The government’s $2.5 trillion debt to Social Security is the real reason that so many politicians want to cut benefits. They are trying to find a way to avoid having to repay the looted money…. Given the fact that much of the surplus revenue from the 1983 payroll tax hike ended up in the pockets of the super rich in the form of income tax cuts, I propose a special tax on this group of taxpayers to recoup the missing Social Security money. The government used revenue from the Social Security payroll tax hike to fund tax cuts for the rich because that was where the money was. I think the government should recover the ‘embezzled’ money by taxing the rich.” — How Your Social Security Money Was Stolen – Where Did The $2.5 Trillion Surplus Go?
Ecosystem boundary retreat due to human-induced pressure is a generally observed phenomenon. However, studies that document thresholds beyond which internal resistance mechanisms are overwhelmed are uncommon. Following the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill, field studies from a few sites suggested that oiling of salt marshes could lead to a biogeomorphic feedback where plant death resulted in increased marsh erosion. We tested for spatial generality of and thresholds in this effect across 103 salt marsh sites spanning ~430 kilometers of shoreline in coastal Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi, using data collected as part of the natural resource damage assessment (NRDA). Our analyses revealed a threshold for oil impacts on marsh edge erosion, with higher erosion rates occurring for ~1–2 years after the spill at sites with the highest amounts of plant stem oiling (90–100%). These results provide compelling evidence showing large-scale ecosystem loss following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. More broadly, these findings provide rare empirical evidence identifying a geomorphologic threshold in the resistance of an ecosystem to increasing intensity of human-induced disturbance. — Thresholds in marsh resilience to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill
Video of the Day:
Triumph of the Drone King — “We kill without indictment, without trial”
U.S
The Millennials Know That They A Getting Fracked By Capitalism: A majority of millennials now reject capitalism, poll shows In an apparent rejection of the basic principles of the U.S. economy, a new poll shows that most young people do not support capitalism. The Harvard University survey, which polled young adults between ages 18 and 29, found that 51 percent of respondents do not support capitalism. Just 42 percent said they support it. It isn’t clear that the young people in the poll would prefer some alternative system, though. Just 33 percent said they supported socialism. The survey had a margin of error of 2.4 percentage points.
How Your Social Security Money Was Stolen – Where Did The $2.5 Trillion Surplus Go? How Republicans, Democrats and the Mega-Wealthy Stole Your Social Security Money ntroduction by David DeGraw, Reports by Dr. Allen Smith
UN Condemns US Drone Strike in Afghanistan That Killed 15 Civilians ‘I saw dead and wounded bodies everywhere,’ said Raghon Shinwari, one of the wounded, from hospital bed in Jalalabad city by Deirdre Fulton 
President Obama: ‘Patron’ of the Israeli Occupation: President Barack Obama has agreed to give Israel a record $38 billion in military aid over the next 10 years, cementing his legacy as the strongest financial supporter of Israel ever to occupy the White House. Obama, whom Israeli journalist Gideon Levy calls “the patron of the occupation,” increased the amount of money the U.S. provides Israel each year from $3.1 to $3.8 billion.Although the corporate media portray the relationship between Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as chilly, Obama put his money where his heart apparently is with the unprecedented allocation of military assistance to Israel. By Marjorie Cohn 
EPA Plans to Allow Unlimited Dumping of Fracking Wastewater in the Gulf of Mexico Environmentalists are warning the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that its draft plan to continue allowing oil and gas companies to dump unlimited amounts of fracking chemicals and wastewater directly into the Gulf of Mexico is in violation of federal law.
Environment:
Toxic Algae Blooms Set Historic Records From Coast to Coast Toxic algal blooms aren’t just a problem in Florida. They’ve popped up in more than 20 states, with ongoing blooms choking waterways and aquatic life from California to the Chesapeake Bay.
Ongoing Big Energy Crisis:
Radiation From Fukushima Meltdown Has Affected The Entire Pacific Ocean And Getting Worse The nuclear disaster has contaminated the world’s largest ocean in only five years and it’s still leaking 300 tons of radiation every day. What was the most dangerous nuclear disaster in world history? Most people would say the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine, but they’d be wrong. In 2011, an earthquake, believed to be an aftershock of the 2010 earthquake in Chile, created a tsunami that caused a meltdown at the TEPCO nuclear power plant in Fukushima, Japan. Three nuclear reactors melted down and what happened next was the largest release of radiation into the water in the history of the world. Over the next three months, radioactive chemicals, some in even greater quantities than Chernobyl, leaked into the Pacific Ocean. However, the numbers may actually be much higher as Japanese official estimates have been proven by several scientists to be flawed in recent years. 
Oil Company Lied About Safety of DAPL – Report Exposes Thousands of Spills in Last 6 Years Alone Construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) has demonstrated to the world how U.S. oil interests and government co-conspirators will let nothing stand in their way to reap billions from the continued exploitation of fossil fuels. 
The Deepwater Horizon spill may have caused ‘irreversible’ damage to Gulf Coast marshes The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill has been called one of the worst environmental disasters in American history — and more than six years later, scientists are still investigating how much damage it actually caused. Now, a new study suggests the spill may have permanently marred one of the Gulf shore’s most important ecosystems. The study, published Tuesday in the journal Scientific Reports, finds the oil spill caused widespread erosion in the salt marshes along the coasts of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi. And the researchers say there’s a chance these marshes might never completely grow back. By Chelsea Harvey 
Pro-Fracking Law Ruled Unconstitutional by Pennsylvania Supreme Court The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ruled that the state’s controversial Act 13 is unconstitutional, calling it a special law that benefits the shale gas industry. The massive Marcellus Shale formation, which underlies a large area of Western Pennsylvania, provides more than 36 percent of the shale gas produced in the U.S. 
Black Liberation/ Civil Rights:
Georgia Students Protest After Teacher Called BLM ‘Terrorists’ Students also say they’re harassed for boycotting the pledge of allegiance à la San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. When a white teacher at Sandy Springs High School in suburban Atlanta told a student that the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement is a terrorist organization and confiscated his BLM shirt, students responded quickly with a show of solidarity, organizing a sit-in protest Friday.
Labor:
Economy:
Shadow Government Statistics Charts:
Real GNP
Alternate Inflation Charts
The Contagion Deutsche Bank Is Spreading Is All About Derivatives One day after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen failed to reassure the House Financial Services Committee that too-big-to-fail banks no longer pose a threat to the U.S. financial system, the stock market settled the debate. Germany’s largest bank had a dizzy spell and Wall Street banks swooned under a collective anxiety attack. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens 
World:
Civil war erupts in Spanish Socialist Party by Jorge Martín
Health, Science, Education, and Welfare: