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 February 21, 2017
Image of the Day:
Freedom of the Press 
Quotes of the Day:
The Mendacity of Donald Trump and His Gang: “The other (sometimes attributed to Disraeli), identifies three species of mendacity, each worse than the one before – lies, damned lies, and statistics.” — Stephan Jay Gould
Videos of the Day:
The original FEMA camps in 1942 150,000 immigrants and citizens imprisoned — No charges, no trial, no due process: George Takei on the Japanese internment camps during WWII
Pope Francis Calls for Broad Front Against Tyranny and Savage Capitalism Matthew Fox and Paul Jay discuss the Pope’s message to social movements and comparing the European far right and the rise of Trump to Hitler
The Lies Donald Trump Told in His First Month As President
U.S.:
As Construction Near Standing Rock Restarts, Pipeline Fights Flare Across the U.S. Under orders from president Donald Trump, the Army Corps of Engineers on February 7 approved a final easement allowing Energy Transfer Partners to drill under the Missouri River near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota. Construction has restarted, and lawyers for the company say it could take as little as 30 days for oil to flow through the Dakota Access pipeline. By Alleen Brown
How to Run a Rogue Government Twitter Account With an Anonymous Email Address and a Burner Phone One of the first things Donald Trump did when he took office was temporarily gag several federal agencies, forbidding them from tweeting. In response, self-described government workers created a wave of rogue Twitter accounts that share real facts (not to be confused with “alternative facts,” otherwise known as “lies”) about climate change and science. As a rule, the people running these accounts chose to remain anonymous, fearing retaliation — but, depending on how they created and use their accounts, they are not necessarily anonymous to Twitter itself, or to anyone Twitter shares data with. By Micah Lee 
New York Times Openly Promotes Formal Apartheid Regime By Israel That the New York Times demonstrates a systematic editorial bias in favor of Israeli state power and against Palestinian rights is old news. Whether it is reporting on the Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) movement, the deadly Gaza flotilla raid, cease fire violations between the IDF and Hamas, or any other aspect of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, the New York Times reliably acts as a mouthpiece for propagating Israeli hasbara (propaganda). Aside from its “objective” reporting, this editorial bias also manifests itself in the narratives that make their way into the Opinion section. On Feb. 14, the paper allowed a spokesperson for the illegal settlers in the occupied territories to openly advocate violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the establishment an apartheid state in Mandatory Palestine. by Matt Peppe
Environment:
Donald Trump overturns law preventing companies dumping coal mining debris in streams and riversPresident dismisses regulation as ‘a job-killing rule’ by signing Resolution 38, nullifying stream protection legislation
Ongoing Big Energy Crisis:
Fukushima: a Lurking Global Catastrophe? Year over year, ever since 2011, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear meltdown grows worse and worse, an ugly testimonial to the inherent danger of generating electricity via nuclear fission, which produces isotopes, some of the most deadly poisonous elements on the face of the planet. by Robert Hunziker
Black Liberation/ Civil Rights:
James Baldwin and the Meaning of Whiteness Raoul Peck’s “I Am Not Your Negro” is one of the finest documentaries I have ever seen — I would have stayed in the theater in New York to see the film again if the next showing had not been sold out. The newly released film powerfully illustrates, through James Baldwin’s prophetic work, that the insanity now gripping the United States is an inevitable consequence of white Americans’ steadfast failure to confront where they came from, who they are and the lies and myths they use to mask past and present crimes. Baldwin’s only equal as a 20th century essayist is George Orwell. If you have not read Baldwin you probably do not fully understand America. Especially now. By Chris Hedges
February is Black History Month:
The Day the Music Died — Malcolm X’s Assassination By Roland Sheppard On April 30, 2010, I received an email from John Judge, the Director of the Coalition on Political Assassinations, referring to an April 22, 2010 article titled For The First Time in History, The Face of William Bradley; Shotgun Assassin of Malcolm X-El Hajj Malik El Shabazz, In a Public Safety Campaign Commerial for Mayor Cory Booker!, by Abdur-Rahman Muhammad. In that article is the picture shown below of William Bradley, who is the man that I had seen in the Audubon Ballroom and in the photos that the police just shown to me, while I was being interrogated by the Harlem police. And whom I saw coming out of the men’s room walking by me, past the desks of the secretarial pool, and who then went to his office inside the police station, as I was going to the men’s room! As I wrote in my original 2009 essay: “At that point I knew that he and the government either killed Malcolm X or were part of the assassination plot.”
“When I looked up, I saw Malcolm X standing up and glaring down at one of his assassins. At that point, from the corner of my eye, nearby to my left, I saw a flash from a gun as I watched Malcolm X fall down and back about ten feet.”
“It was the saddest day of my life.”
On the afternoon of Feb. 21, 1965, I went to the Audubon Ballroom to hear Malcolm X speak. I also went to sell the newspaper, The Militant, a radical newspaper that printed the truth about Malcolm X, published his speeches and publicly defended him.
When I got to the ballroom, things were radically different — there were no cops. Normally, Malcolm’s meetings in Harlem were crawling with cops. As I was selling papers, Malcolm X approached the Audubon Ballroom. I offered to sell him the latest issue, but he told me, “Not today, Roland. I am alone and in a hurry.”
A while later as I entered the meeting room, again I did not see any cops. I went in to sit down where I normally sat along with the rest of the press in the front and the left side of the room. On the way to my seat, Gene Roberts, who later surfaced as a police agent member of the Black Panther Party, told me that I could not seat at my regular place, but that on that day I had to sit in the front row on the right side of the hall, facing the stage.
As I sat down, I glanced over to where I normally sat and saw a large Black man with a navy blue-gray trench coat. When the meeting started, all was quiet as the crowd listened to Benjamin X introducing Malcolm X.
When Malcolm approached the podium, he gave the normal Muslim greeting for peace. At that point a disturbance occurred in the room. Two men were standing about halfway back in the room and to the right of Malcolm on stage. One was shouting, “Get your hand out of my pocket!”
Malcolm was trying to calm things down, when the men – one later identified as Talmadge Hayer — started running down the aisle shouting and firing a pistol at Malcolm and ran out the exit doors by the stage, to the right of Malcolm X.
“I saw a flash from a gun as I watched Malcolm X fall down and back about ten feet.”
Suddenly I heard gunshots fired from all over the place, and I instinctively hit the floor. When I looked up, I saw Malcolm X standing up and glaring down at one of his assassins. At that point, from the corner of my eye, nearby to my left, I saw a flash from a gun as I watched Malcolm X fall down and back about 10 feet.
In that instant, as Malcolm died before my eyes, I suddenly realized how big he was and I realized that he was a giant in stature and in the world. This vision of Malcolm X, being assassinated, has haunted me till this day.
The fatal blast, which I later found out to be from a shotgun, came from the area where I had seen the large Black man with a navy blue-gray trench coat! When I left the hall, Malcolm’s bodyguards told me that they had caught two of the assassins, one who was shot — Talmadge Hayer — and one whom the police took away.
A few weeks later, when I was questioned in the Harlem police station, I was shown a series of photos of people whom I recognized as members of the Nation of Islam or Malcolm’s organization. I also saw a picture of the large Black man with a navy blue-gray trench coat that I had seen at the Audubon Ballroom.
I was thinking of how to respond to the cops and how to say that I did not recognize the photos of Malcolm’s friends and supporters and the members of the Nation of Islam. I then told the cops that I had to go to the rest room.
When I got to the men’s room door, I saw the same large Black man coming out of the men’s room that I had seen in the Audubon Ballroom and in the photos that had just been shown to me. Then he walked by me, past the desks of the secretarial pool, and went to his office inside the police station!
“At that point I knew that he and the government either killed Malcolm X or were part of the assassination plot.”
At that point I knew that he and the government either killed Malcolm X or were part of the assassination plot. I became very nervous thinking about what I was going to say to the cops when I got back and how I was going to get out of the station alive.
I then came up with, “I cannot recognize anyone, for all Black people look the same.” The cops nodded in agreement and we were allowed to leave the police station.
Malcolm X was one of my heroes. He was the most honest mass leader that I have ever known or seen. He was a great orator and his speeches seemed like a conversation between himself and the audience.
His speeches were like music to my ears and have inspired me for the rest of my life in the fight for social justice. He was so human in his orations. I still remember him when made the “Harlem Hate Gang Scare” speech at the Militant Labor Forum on May 29, 1964, and other speeches in which he chuckled a “heh heh” when he was about to make a special comment.
At that forum, he said: “It’s impossible for a chicken to produce a duck egg … The system of this country cannot produce freedom for an Afro-American. It is impossible for this system, this economic system, this political system, this social system, this system period. It is impossible for it, as it now stands, to produce freedom right now for the Black man in this country — it is impossible. And if ever a chicken did produce a duck egg, (heh heh) I’m certain you would say it was certainly a revolutionary chicken (heh heh).”
Both he and Martin Luther King had come to similar positions about capitalism and the Vietnam War at the time of their death. That is why this government assassinated them. No one has followed in their footsteps.
From the point of view of this government, the world leader in political assassinations, the two assassinations worked. For to this day, no mass leader has had the courage to pick up where they left off. They were able to silence the art, science and truth of these two great orators. To me, Feb. 21 is “the day the music died.” It was the saddest day of my life. Read More (For an in depth explanation of the government’s assassinations of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, read my article: Why the Government The Assassinated Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.)
Health, Science, Education, and Welfare: 
