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 April 5, 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!
Image of the Day:
War Threatens Our Environment
Quotes of the Day:
Martin Luther King Quote
At the time of their assassinations, both Martin Luther King and Malcolm X were embarking on a course in opposition to the capitalist system. It is clear from reading and listening to their final speeches that they had both evolved to similar conclusions as to capitalism’s role in the maintenance of racism. That is why they were neutralized — Why the Government Assassinated Malcolm X And Martin Luther King Jr.
Pepper went a step beyond saying government agencies were responsible for the assassination. To whom in turn were those murderous agencies responsible? Not so much to government officials per se, Pepper asserted, as to the economic powerholders they represented who stood in the even deeper shadows behind the FBI, Army Intelligence, and their affiliates in covert action. By 1968, Pepper told the jury, ‘And today it is much worse in my view’ — ‘the decision-making processes in the United States were the representatives, the footsoldiers of the very economic interests that were going to suffer as a result of these times of changes [being actived by King].’ To say that U.S. government agencies killed Martin Luther King on the verge of the Poor People’s Campaign is a way into the deeper truth that the economic powers that be (which dictate the policies of those agencies) killed him. In the Memphis prelude to the Washington campaign, King posed a threat to those powers of a nonviolent revolutionary force. Just how determined they were to stop him before he reached Washington was revealed in the trial by the size and complexity of the plot to kill him.—Jim Douglass, The Martin Luther King Conspiracy Exposed in Memphis
No serious person could say we have overcome racism, or dealt with the extreme materialism and economic injustice and unsustainability of our “thing-oriented society.” However, the pervasive equating of patriotism with support for war, charges of being soft on communism, terrorism or defense, and cynical, coercive “support the troops” displays (when the best way to support them would be to stop our incessant wars) seemingly prevent any serious examination of U.S. militarism. How many Americans know the U.S. has been at war for all but a relatively few years (fewer than 20) of our history since 1776? Or that the U.S. has more than 900 foreign military bases? (China has one and is about to build a second, near ours in Djibouti.) Or that we maintain nearly 7,000 nuclear warheads — all tens, hundreds or even thousands of times more destructive than the Hiroshima bomb that killed 140,000 people? Or that the U.S. conducted more than 1,000 nuclear “test” explosions, and under President Obama, recently embarked on a 30-year, at least $1 trillion scheme to upgrade our entire nuclear weapons arsenal (unsurprisingly, every other nuclear state is now doing the same, sparking a new arms race)? Or that the U.S. military is the biggest consumer of fossil fuels on the planet?
Ignorance or denial about these facts is dangerous, to our society falling behind in nearly every indicator of social and environmental health as we continue to invest in the war machine, and to the people on the receiving end of our bombs. How many countries are we bombing right now? — Martin and Daughtry column: Fifty years on
Videos of the Day:
Beyond Vietnam: A Time To Break Silence Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. made the comment that the U.S. government [was/is] “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today”. This was in context to a speech delivered on April 4, 1967 at Riverside Church in New York City – exactly one year before his untimely death.
Terror Attack in St Petersburg May be Blowback for Russian Military Actions Russia no longer has a southern buffer-zone, it is exposed to ISIS says Col. Larry Wilkerson
U.S.:
Self-Censored Questions by Career Questioners I’ve always been intrigued by the major questions not asked by reporters at press conferences, not asked by legislators at public hearings or even the questions citizens at town meetings don’t ask public officials. It’s not that they do not know about or could not easily become informed enough about a given issue and ask substantive questions. It’s just that so many taboos are packed into these questioners’ ideological mindset, career goals or concern with what other people over them might think. Maybe it is a culturally-rooted fear of challenging entrenched power brokers. By Ralph Nader
Black Liberation/Civil Rights
50 Years Ago MLK Condemned the U.S. as the ‘Greatest Purveyor of Violence in the World’ (Video) On April 4, 1967, in an historic speech at Riverside Church in New York City, the civil rights leader denounced the Vietnam War and called for a global peace movement.
Martin and Daughtry column: Fifty years on: MLK’s giant triplets still plague us, including militarism Fifty years ago today, a year to the day before he was murdered, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called us to overcome the giant triplets plaguing our society — racism, militarism, and extreme materialism — in his “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence” address at Riverside Church in Manhattan. In his speech, King decried our descent into a “thing-oriented society.” One wonders what he would think of our current, thing-oriented president. By Kevin Martin and Herbert Daughtry
Black Agenda Radio for Week of April 3, 2017
U.S. Elite Suffering from “Putin Derangement Syndrome”: The current anti-Russian hysteria is rooted in “turmoil in the upper ranks of the U.S. elite about Moscow and the declining position of U.S. imperialism, given the rise of China,” said Dr. Gerald Horne, professor of history and African American Studies at the University if Houston. The mania can also be viewed as “chickens coming home to roost” for the real subversions, invasions and regime policies carried out by the U.S. around the world, said Horne, who characterized the Russia-phobia as “Putin derangement syndrome.”
Greens Say Dems Stole Philly Special Election: The Green Party of Pennsylvania is going to federal court, charging the Democrats with blatant fraud in a special election for a state legislative seat in the Kensington section of Philadelphia. Green candidate Cheri Honkala, a veteran activist from the neighborhood — the poorest in the state – said last week’s vote was a “nightmare,” with fistfights breaking out in front of voting booths, people snuck in back doors” to the polls, and wholesale violations of law. Plus, “the main source of the literature they were passing out at the polls said I was a Republican,” said the lifelong radical.
A Platform for Black Self-Determination in St. Petersburg: Twenty year-old Eritha Akile Cainion is running for a city council seat in St. Petersburg, Florida, on a platform rooted in the National Political Agenda for Self Determination, a document promulgated by the Black Is Back Coalition, last year. “Public safety is contingent upon social justice, economic development and Black community control of the police,” said Cainion. Police should act “as servants of the people,” with the community empowered to “hire, fire, train and discipline them.” The Black Is Back Coalition will hold a national Black Electoral Politics School in St. Petersburg, April 7 and 8, to help train a new generation of political activist/candidates.
Denounce and Shame Black Sell-Out Politicians: When 120 of his constituents were swept up in a police raid on a public housing project, Bronx, New York, city councilman Andy King collaborated with the cops, causing the families of those arrested on RICO charges to “feel betrayed,” said Shannon Jones, co-founder of Why Accountability. That’s why Jones and others decided to disrupt a speech Councilman King attempted to deliver at the Schomburg Center for Research on Black Culture, in Harlem. “If it was not for community activist groups such as the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee, Cop Watch Patrol Unit, and Take Back the Bronx,” Jones told Black Agenda Radio produce Kyle Fraser, “these families would have absolutely no support.” Listen
Economy: 
