Daily News Digest October 13, 2016

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Daily News Digest October 13, 2016

Image of the Day:

Lessor EvilismimageofthedayQuotes of the Day:

 Stereotypes are absorbed from popular literature, folklore, and misinformation. For instance, many children (and adults) incorrectly believe that fierce native warriors were universally fond of scalping early white settlers and soldiers. In fact, when it came to the bizarre practice of scalping, Europeans were the ones who encouraged and carried out much of the scalping that went on in the history of white/native relations in America. Scalping had been known in Europe, according to accounts, as far back as ancient Greece (“the cradle of Western Civilization”). More often, though, the European manner of execution involved beheading.  Enemies captured in battle – or people accused of political crimes – might have their heads chopped off by victorious warriors or civil authorities. Judicial systems hired executioners, and “Off with their heads!”  became an infamous method of capital punishment. In some places and times in European history, leaders in power offered to pay “bounties” (cash payments) to put down popular uprisings. In Ireland, for instance, the occupying English once paid bounties for the heads of their enemies brought to them. It was a way for those in power to get other people to do their dirty, bloody work for them. Europeans brought this cruel custom of paying for killings to the American frontier. Here they were willing to pay for just the scalp, instead of the whole head. The first documented instance in the American colonies of paying bounties for native scalps is credited to Governor Kieft of New Netherlands.  By 1703, the Massachusetts Bay Colony was offering $60 for each native scalp. And in 1756, Pennsylvania Governor Morris, in his Declaration of War against the Lenni Lenape (Delaware) people, offered “130 Pieces of Eight [a  type of coin], for the Scalp of Every Male Indian > Enemy, above the Age of > Twelve Years, ” and “50 Pieces of Eight for the Scalp of Every Indian Woman, produced as evidence of their being killed.”  Massachusetts by that time was offering a bounty of 40 pounds (again, a unit of currency) for a male Indian scalp, and 20 pounds for scalps of females or of children under 12 years old. — Scalping: Fact & Fantasy

Videos of the Day:

Leon Trotsky’s last book: Stalin

The Empire Files: Fighting at Standing Rock with AIM Founder Dennis Banks

U.S. Weapon Sales Enable Saudi Arabia’s Atrocities in Yemen

U.S.

‘Hate Crime’: Video Shows Truck Plowing Into Indigenous Rights Rally ‘The truck drove into the crowd while revving its engine before plowing through our people’ by Nika KnighthatecrimeReport: Every 25 Seconds, Cops Arrest Someone for Drug Possession By Alice Sperireport25secondsRussian Throws Down the Gauntlet: Fly at Your Own Risk During the Reagan administration, I was one of the CIA analysts assigned to present to White House officials the President’s Daily Brief, which summed up the CIA’s views on the pressing national security issues of the day. If I were still in that job – and assuming CIA analysts are still able to speak truth to power — I am afraid that I would be delivering alarming news about the potential of a U.S.-Russian military clash. by Ray McGovern

Delusions of Worthy Wars Fifteen years ago, on October 19th 2001, Donald Rumsfeld addressed B-2 bomber crews at Whiteman AFB in Missouri, as they prepared to fly halfway across the world to wreak misdirected vengeance on the people of Afghanistan and begin the longest war in U.S. history.  Rumsfeld told the bomber crews, “We have two choices. Either we change the way we live, or we must change the way they live.  We choose the latter.  And you are the ones who will help achieve that goal.” By Nicolas Daviesdelusions Environment:

The ice core studies demonstrate that during the last global warming, the earth’s climate warmed gradually and then abruptly increased by The approximately ice core studies demonstrate, that during the last global warming rose rose twenty degrees fahrenheit to end the ice age 12,500 years ago The ancient carbon dioxide levels that provoked these abrupt changes, while significant, were far lower than the rising concentrations in today’s atmosphere. Until these discoveries, global warming had been described as a gradual event (4 degrees Fahrenheit over the past 60 years) that will reach dangerous levels around the year 2050 or 2100. This new evidence demonstrates that the present gradual warming could develop into an abrupt change. An increase of this magnitude (20 degrees Fahrenheit) would flood most cities and industrial centers in the world as the ice caps melt into the sea raising the sea level. According to the U.S. Geological Survey3, if all of the ice caps melted, it is estimated that sea level could rise more than 80 meters or 262 feet. The potential catastrophic results of global warming and the threat to humanity’s future should become an immediate concern. — Whither Humanity? The Environmental Crisis of Capitalism

Scientists Warn of Perilous Climate Shift Within Decades, Not Centuries By Justin. Gillis scientistswarnOngoing Big Energy Crisis:

Water Protectors Shut Down Five Tar Sands Pipelines in US Simultaneously Early this morning, five water protectors successfully shut down five pipelines across the northern United States that were delivering tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada. The action was in support of the call for International Days of Prayer and Action for Standing Rock.waterprotectorsBlack Liberation/ Civil Rights:

“Do Not Resist”: The Police Militarization Documentary Everyone Should See By Ryan Devereaux

donotresist Soft Porn Tape Trumps Wikileaks Truths: Hillary’s “Private” Lies Prevail It pays to have friends in corporate media. NBC spared Hillary Clinton potentially catastrophic damage by releasing an old Donald Trump sex-talk tape at “precisely the right moment to suck the air out” of new Wikileaks documents that “reveal her as a methodical, cynical liar who wants to cut Social Security and send millions more jobs overseas.” Hillary and Big Media – the solidarity of the 1% — now join in sliming Wikileaks as Russian agents. A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Fordbarglen Freedom Rider: Anti-Trump Hypocrisy By immensely helpful coincidence, Donald Trump’s 11-year-old sexist rant tape surfaced on the same day that Wikileaks revealed Hillary Clinton’s support for hemispheric “free trade” and cuts in Social Security. But Trump’s campaign may be doomed, while Clinton rides high in the polls. The Donald is “a better foil for the Democratic party than any other Republican could possibly be.” Both sides of the duopoly connive to fill Hillary’s big tent. by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley barmargaret  Ruling Class Food Fights: Trump vs. Bushes It would be nice if the old adage, “What goes around, comes around” applied to the larger world of gross inequality and race and class oppression. However, the ruling classes do have the resources to exact pay-back within their ranks. Donald Trump may now “rue the day” that he insulted the Bush family. By BAR editor and columnist, Dr. Marsha Adebayobarmarsha Left-Wing Paralysis and the Decay of Lesser Evil Politics The New Slave Revolt Severe state repression and a near-total press blackout make it impossible to determine how many prisoners are continuing the national work strike that began on September 9th. The core demand is an end to prison slavery: the forced low-or-no-wage employment extracted from inmates. “Once we take our labor back,” said an organizer, “prisons will again become places for correction and rehabilitation rather than centers of corporate profit.” by Chris Hedgesbarhedges Watch Your Back: How Chicago Cops Enforce Their Code of Silence The conventional wisdom is that Chicago’s Blue Code Silence operates at the lower ranks, on the cop-to-cop level, and has now been exposed to the public glare.  But the weight of evidence from key cases shows that corruption reaches to the highest levels of police department “bosses,” who are in turn protected by the city administration. The Code of Silence is a curtain hiding a culture of criminality. by Jamie KalvenbarjamieWill U.S. Troops Become the Ethiopian Government’s Thugs? Ethiopia’s authoritarian regime, dominated by elites of the Tigrayan ethnic group, faces growing protest by the Oromo and Amhara people, who together make up the majority of the population. Even the U.S. admits that the regime is a serious violator of human rights, yet the U.S. is Ethiopia’s main military ally. Given the glaring contradictions, it is fair to ask: “Will U.S. troops be called into Ethiopia to do battle with civilian protesters?” by Mark P. Fancherbarmark Eritrea; The African Cuba Eritrea and Cuba have a great deal in common. Both are relatively small countries attempting to build socialism in the crosshairs of imperialist embargoes, sanctions and constant military threats. In both nations, the basic means of production “belong to the people, through their governments,” and “education and medical care are accessible, universal and paid for by the state.” by Thomas C. MountainbarthomasThe Secret Struggle Against Apartheid In the 1960s, a group of leftists risked everything to revive the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. These international activists who embraced a working-class radicalism that was internationalist, cosmopolitan, anti-imperialist, and anti-capitalist — and most important, steadfastly opposed to legalized racial oppression in South Africa. A book review by Peter Cole barpeter Labor: 

Economy:

Free Trade Meets Populism at the IMF by Frederick B. Millsfreetrade World:

Western imperialism conveniently turns blind eye on events in Yemen As western media overflows with damning images of the atrocities carried out in Syria’s Aleppo, the humanitarian disaster in Yemen is being more or less quietly brushed under the carpet. The reason? The west is elbow deep in the Yemeni tragedy. by Hamid Alizadehyemen Health, Science, Education, and Welfare: