Daily News Digest Archives
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!
Daily News Digest January 25, 2017
Image of the Day:
Basic Facts the Media Ignores/Distorts
Quote of the Day:
While it may be true that the Dems want to take this movement into their Party, the demonstrations on Saturday went way beyond their expectations and their control. It is unprecedented that you can have perhaps a million in D.C. at the same time that you have hundreds of thousands in many other cities around the country. There were over 600 registered demonstration around the world and many more that were not registered. The signs were mostly hand-written, not the printed placards that the unions or NGO’s produce. There was a genuine anger and willingness to fight on the streets of D.C., where I was on Saturday. While there were some pro-Hillary buttons, there were not very many. Mostly what was in the streets were signs and chants for immigrant rights, women’s rights, support for Muslims and other slogans against the Trump agenda. There will be a very big fight in the coming months because this demonstration represents a real anger and willingness to fight on the part of the mostly young crowd. While the fight will be against the Trump agenda, it will also be a fight with the Democratic Party for leadership. The movement will either be one into the Democratic Party, the graveyard of movements, or it will be independent and be able to become a real struggle for change. Both Capitalist Parties have been weakened during this election but the left is almost non-existent and extremely sectarian, one group will not work with the other. We will need unity, if there is any chance of taking the tremendous power that we witnessed during this weekend in an independent direction. — Joe Lombardo
Video of the Day
Russell Brand: Trump May Be Terrible, but Neoliberal Global Dominance Flourished Under Obama (Video)
US:
For Trump’s Rich Appointees, Death May Be Certain But Taxes Aren’t Republicans succeed in repealing the estate tax, Rex Tillerson, Gary Cohn, Wilbur Ross, Jared Kushner, Steve Mnuchin, Betsy DeVos and their heirs may be able to defer capital gains taxes forever. By Allan Sloan and Cezary Podkul
Trump’s Infrastructure Scam (Video) Our country is in dire need of massive investments in infrastructure, but what Donald Trump is proposing is nothing more than a huge tax giveaway for the rich. By Robert Reich
14 Senate Democrats Fall in Line Behind Trump CIA Pick Who Left Door Open to Torture Fourteen Senate Democrats joined all but one Senate Republican in confirming Rep. Mike Pompeo as the new CIA director on Monday evening, failing a crucial first test of whether Democrats would present a united front to defend human rights and civil liberties in the Trump era. By Zaid Jilani and Alex Emmons 
Environment:
Running Out of Time: 60 Percent of Primates Sliding Toward Extinction According to a new study, 60 percent of primates — including drills and gibbons, lemurs and tarsiers, bush babies and spider monkeys — face the threat of extinction. Even those not in immediate danger of dying out are at risk, as the numbers of three-quarters of all primate species are trending downward. By John C. Cannon
Monsanto, EPA Seek to Keep Talks Secret on Glyphosate Cancer Review Monsanto Co. and officials within the Environmental Protection Agency are fighting legal efforts aimed at exploring Monsanto’s influence over regulatory assessments of the key chemical in the company’s Roundup herbicide, new federal court filings show. The revelations are contained in a series of filings made within the last few days in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California as part of litigation brought by more than 50 people suing Monsanto. The plaintiffs claim they or their loved ones developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) after exposure to Roundup herbicide, and that Monsanto has spent decades covering up cancer risks linked to the chemical. By Carey Gillam
Ongoing Big Energy Crisis:
Black Liberation/ Civil Rights:
Black Agenda Radio for Week of January 23, 2017
Irrationality Reigns: After All the Lies, Some Folks Still Believe the CIA. Ajamu Baraka, the Green Party’s vice 2016 presidential candidate, said he is appalled at the spectacle of “progressives” and even self-styled radicals “parroting the Democratic line that the Russians are a threat” to U.S. democracy. This new McCarthyism is “a strange diversion” and “a demonstration of the irrationality of politics in the U.S,” said Baraka, who is also an editor and columnist for Black Agenda Report. It represents “the complete abandonment of critical thought, embracing the State and propping up the intelligence agencies as authoritative sources even after the years of deception, disinformation, and psychological operations that we know is the modus operandi of the CIA. It is absolutely bizarre.” Blacks Should Stop ‘Hitch-Hiking’ with the Democrats Black people made political alliances “with whoever came along — like a hitchhiker,” said Omali Yeshitela, chairman of the Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations. “When you catch a ride as a hitchhiker, you’ve got to go wherever the driver is going. That’s what being with the Democratic Party was about, and we are determined that that mess is over.” The Black is Back Coalition makes alliances based on the principles of Black self-determination and opposition to imperialism — which is why it has held together since the first year of the Obama administration. “Trump is president because of the crisis in the imperialist system,” said Yeshitela.
Poor People’s Campaign Tackles MLK’s Unfinished Work: The scourge of poverty has increased since the Poor People’s Campaign of 1968 was interrupted by the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said Willie Baptist, a veteran of the welfare and homeless movements, and now an organizer of the 21st century version of the campaign. “Poverty has gotten worse, with huge sections of the middle strata being rendered homeless and a good section of the poor rendered superfluous,” said Baptist, now based in New York City at the Union Theological Seminary’s Kairos Center. Changes in technology are “not just saving labor, it’s actually eliminating labor,” he said. “The world’s productive capacity totally outweighs its purchasing capacity. As a result, you have poverty in the midst of plenty.” Afro-Colombian Leader Beheaded: Rightwing paramilitaries are suspected in the murder of Emilsen Manyoma, a leader of a network of Black and indigenous community organizations. “Her assassination was a response to the work she was doing, defending the rights of Black people,” said Charo Mina-Rojas, an Afro-Colombian political activist who reports that over 200 Black and indigenous leaders were killed last year, despite a peace agreement between the government and FARC guerillas. Blacks and natives in Ms. Manyoma’s region are under pressure from coca producers and illegal mine operators and their gunmen.
Where Did All the Black and Latino Teachers Go?: Back in 2002, 27.2 percent of the teachers hired by the New York City public schools were Black or Latino. By 2012, the proportion had shrunk to 11.6 percent. What happened? “When you look at what’s been going on for the past 15 years, you see a picture that requires people to point to the real causes of the disappearances, and to change those policies,” said Sean Ahern, a political activist who teaches juvenile prisoners at the giant Rikers Island jail. Ahern blames the drop in minority teachers on “mayoral control” of the schools, “high stakes testing, school closings, charter school push-ins” — essentially, the whole program of so-called “reform” that was pushed by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg and championed by the Obama administration.
Black Agenda Radio on the Progressive Radio Network is hosted by Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey. A new edition of the program airs every Monday at 11:00am ET on PRN. Length: one hour.
Health, Science, Education, and Welfare: