Daily News Digest Archives
During This Economic Crisis, Capitalism’s Three Point Political Program: 1. Austerity, 2. Scapegoating Blacks, Minorities, and ‘Illegal Immigrants’ for Unemployment, and 3. The Iron Heel.
Daily News Digest March 27, 2017
Democracy?: 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!
Images of the Day:
Trump the Destroyer
Capitalism’s global political crisis 
Quotes of the Day:
The “Republican Don’t Care Act” has gone down, and it won’t be back any time soon. That’s a victory. But even if what we have now is better than what we were going to get from the Republicans, that doesn’t mean that it’s good. I’m tired of hearing that Medicare for All isn’t realistic. What’s not realistic is expecting that anything less than a single-payer system will provide the American people with the health care that they need and deserve. — Thomas Bias (I prefer that the 1% pay for socialized medicine! R.S.)
The banality of such attacks by now, their dreary regularity, should in no way be allowed to minimize their impact on multicultural societies and cities, where millions of people of all faiths and none live cheek by jowl and have done for decades. The risk that the fabric of those societies may be ruptured, if not in time ripped apart, is a pressing one, and every effort must be made by politicians, religious leaders, the media, and all people of goodwill to ensure that it does not happen. Sadly, we have now come to accept that these attacks are a matter of when not if, despite the security measures and efforts expended by police and intelligence services to prevent them before they occur. And by now predictably, whenever such attacks erupt, political leaders and establishment voices rally round with the same tired platitudes praising the bravery of the police and other emergency services, assuring the public that ‘we’ will not be defeated by terrorism, that the motives involved in such deranged attacks are either the fact they hate our freedoms, the fact that we live in open societies, and that we cannot and must never allow them to turn against one another. So-called security experts are rolled out across the media to dissect and analyse the nature of the threat posed by this menace. Flags are flown at half-mast and a minute of silence is observed. And of course, as is now customary, people will superimpose the flag of the country where the attack takes place, in this case the UK, on their Twitter or Facebook profiles as a gesture of collective defiance and national solidarity. In other words, these by now ritual attacks are met with the same ritual response before the media and everybody else moves on, having learned absolutely nothing — or at least nothing that is worth learning. — London and the Dreary Ritual of Terrorist Attacks
On 15 March 2017 the United Nations’ Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) published a report on Israeli practices and policies toward the Palestinians. Using international law as its comparative criterion, the report came to a “definitive conclusion” that “Israel is guilty of Apartheid practices.” The term Apartheid was not used in the report merely in a “pejorative” way. It was used as a descriptor of fact based on the evidence and the accepted legal meaning of the term. Such was the immediate uproar from the United States and Israel that U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, in a moment of moral failure, ordered the report’s withdrawal. The head of ESCWA, the Jordanian diplomat Rima Khalaf, decided that she could not, in good conscience, do so and so tendered her resigation. — Moral Failure at the UN
Dozens of California communities have experienced recent rates of childhood lead poisoning that surpass those of Flint, Michigan, with one Fresno locale showing rates nearly three times higher, blood testing data obtained by Reuters shows. The data shows how lead poisoning affects even a state known for its environmental advocacy, with high rates of childhood exposure found in a swath of the Bay Area and downtown Los Angeles. And the figures show that, despite national strides in eliminating lead-based products, hazards remain in areas far from the Rust Belt or East Coast regions filled with old housing and legacy industry. In one central Fresno zip code, 13.6 percent of blood tests on children under six years old came back high for lead. That compares to 5 percent across the city of Flint during its recent water contamination crisis. In all, Reuters found at least 29 Golden State neighborhoods where children had elevated lead tests at rates at least as high as in Flint. — Reuters Exclusive: Lead poisoning afflicts neighborhoods across California
Videos of the Day:
Capitalism’s global political crisis
Richard Wolff: Capitalism’s Crisis Deepens
18 Million U.S. Citizens Exposed to Lead-Contaminated Water Systems Trump’s cuts to the EPA will make it nearly impossible for the agency to track down violations of lead standards and enforce public health protections, says Erik D. Olson of the Natural Resources Defense Council
Were Haitian Police Behind Assassination Attempt on Aristide? Jeb Sprague-Silgado says the firing on the former president’s motorcade took place in the context of mass voter disenfranchisement and an attempt to rearrange the country politically away from left forces
A short clip from ‘Everything Is A Rich Man’s Trick’ that will either blow your mind. The Nazi War Machine was actually an American business. and for the Rockefellers, DuPonts, Harimans, Walkers, and Bushes in particular, it was a highly lucrative business
U.S.:
Re: The U.S. Perpetual Wars For Profit Since World War II: Laura Gray’s cartoon from the front page of The Militant August 18, 1945, under the banner headline: “There Is No Peace,” The Only Victor:
WikiLeaks: US Supports Both Sides In Wars For Profit The long arm of the United States military-industrial complex is arming and training both sides of the increasingly brutal Yemen conflict, according to WikiLeaks’ latest release.
While the world focused on London, 230 Iraqis may have died in air strikes in Mosul: Air strikes on Isis-held Mosul ‘leave 230 civilians dead’, reports local media US Central Command says it is researching reports of extensive loss of civilian life in third such alleged incident in recent weeks by Bethan McKernan
Is a Billionaire-Funded Coup to Rewrite the Constitution on the Verge of Happening? The Wisconsin GOP is calling for a constitutional convention. They need just five more states to make it happen. By Jacob Sugarman
Report: 47 CIA Hard Drives and 600 Million Pages of Info Among Whistleblower Contents Alarming reports have surfaced alleging that a leak containing information from 47 hard drives and 600 million pages has been passed along to US officials. The leak is said to indicate systemic criminal spying on 156 judges and even the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. In addition to this, as many as four other whistleblowers may have come forward or are in the process of coming forward, and more are expected to follow suit. The additional leaks could potentially contain information involving human trafficking, drug running, and organ harvesting. Yesterday’s leak to House Intel Committee Chair Nunes, which is the latest leak we know of, pertains to systemic spying of a criminal nature. 
Slaughtered Arabs Don’t Count by Bruce Mastron
Trump is Obama’s Legacy: Will this Break up the Democratic Party? by Michael Hudson 
Roaming Charges: Nothing Was Delivered by Jeffrey St. Clair
Latest WikiLeak Dump Shows CIA Hacking iPhones Since 2008 Outlet says it is likely that CIA “infected” Apple’s supply chain, including by “interdicting mail orders” by Lauren McCauley
Black Liberation/Civil Rights:
Environment:
A Louisiana Town Plagued by Pollution Shows Why the EPA (Cuts to the Energy Protection Agency) Will Be Measured in Illnesses and Deaths When the Environmental Protection Agency informed people in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana, last July that the local neoprene plant was emitting a chemical that gave them the highest risk of cancer from air pollution in the country, the information was received not just with horror and sadness but also with a certain sense of validation. By Sharon Lerner
Another Example of Capitalism’s Decline and Decay: Childhood lead poisoning in 29 California neighborhoods found to rival levels in Flint More than two dozen communities in California have experienced recent rates of childhood lead poisoning rivaling or exceeding those in Flint, Michigan, according to data collected by Reuters and detailed in a report published Wednesday.
Ongoing Big Energy Crisis:
Global Coal in Freefall, Tar Sands Development Drying Up by Joshua Frank
Energy News:
Black Liberation/Civil Rights:
The 1% Emperors of the NFL Blacklist Colin Kapernick From Their Gladiator Arenas: NFL owners fear Kaepernick Hope people are paying attention to what’s been going on with NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick and the ostracizing that is happening to him via NFL owners. We are bearing witness to owners going all out to send a message that they hope will resonate not just with fellow NFL owners but to other CEOs who oversee increasingly “woke” people who are standing up and speaking out. Seems like not a day has gone by that we have not read or heard a news story about some owner stating publicly how disgusted they are with Kaepernick for sitting down or taking a knee during the National Anthem. By Davey D 
Labor:
Economy:
World Bank Declares Itself Above the Law The World Bank has for decades left a trail of human misery. Destruction of the environment, massive human rights abuses and mass displacement have been ignored in the name of “development” that works to intensify neoliberal inequality. In response to legal attempts to hold it to account, the World Bank has declared itself above the law. by Pete Dolack
Paul Krugman Exposes the Biggest Con Artist in American Politics This Side of Donald Trump The New York Times columnist had Paul Ryan pegged from the start. Back in 2010, he even devoted a column to him aptly titled, “The Flimflam Man.” By Jacob Sugarman
World:
Canada: five years after the 2012 Maple Spring – The lessons for today Five years have passed since the heroic struggle of the students during the “maple spring.” This magnificent movement shook the Canadian province of Quebec to the core and ended with the defeat of the Liberal Party and the cancelling of the tuition increase. However, five years later, austerity continues at a steady pace and the Liberals seem to be comfortably seated in power. The fifth anniversary of the maple spring is an occasion for us to revisit those historic events and to highlight the lessons of this fantastic movement. By Joel Bergman
Health, Science, Education, and Welfare:
Reason and Justice Address Realities . . . Consider the immense public attention to health insurance and health care and the recent struggles over Obamacare and now Ryancare. Conspicuously absent from the dialogues that pundits, politicians and reporters carry on is that the third leading cause of death in the U.S. is “medical error.” According to a Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine report last May, over 250,000 people lose their lives yearly in U.S. hospitals from “diagnostic errors, medical mistakes and the absence of safety nets” to stop hospital-induced infections, incompetent personnel, dangerous mixes of prescribed drugs and more. Yet in the debate surrounding the health care industry, this huge annual human casualty toll is unmentioned and, for many, intentionally “off the table.” by Ralph Nader
US pentagon building aerial view at sunset