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 May 11, 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 Who Profit From Austerity! Under Austerity, All of the World Will Eventually Be Pauperized, Humbled, and Desecrated Like Greece and Puerto Rico!
Image of the Day:
Kleptocracy
Quote of the Day:
Both the policy of ‘lessor evil ’ and the declared ‘‘partnership with the boss’ polices of the United States Trade Union Bureaucracy, and their counterparts in the Civil Rights Movement, the Women’s Movement , etc., have led to the recent quick economic decline of working people, and small businesses, in this country. Being ‘partnership with the boss’ means: * That they cannot campaign for the taxation of the rich, but rather they support the ‘lessor evil’ Democratic Party, which has either proposed/voted for every ‘tax reform’, since Kennedy, to reduce the taxes of the rich at an expense of tax increases for the working class and small businesses — a ‘Robin Hood in Reverse’ Program, which has brought forth the largest transfer of the national wealth in American/World history, from a majority of the population to a small percentage of the country’s wealthiest families. *To bail out the rich and hope for a few pennies to trickle down to the working class, the oppressed minorities and the poor. This happens in the context with an all out attack upon the social gains that were won by the working class Trade Union struggles in the 30s and 40s and the civil rights movement of the 60s. *That you cannot opposed the US wars and war spending abroad, to bring the money home to put people to work. — Roland Sheppard
Video of the Day:
South Korea Voters Oust Conservatives, Usher in Dialogue with North Author and journalist Suki Kim says South Korea’s election of Moon Jae-in, ending a decade of conservative government, is a rejection of neoliberal policies at home and of U.S.-fueled tensions with the North.
U.S.:
The Korea Crisis: Beyond the Smoke and Mirrors Some outsiders to Asia are painting a skewed scenario of the current Korea tensions that casts China as co-villain (with the US), if not chief villain. This represents a serious misleading of what’s going on in Northeast Asia. The real, core story here is not Donald Trump’s attention-grabbing aircraft carrier diplomacy, which is a headline-hogging sideshow that is not designed to result in war. The main story is the steadily worsening relationship between China and North Korea, which accelerated with Kim Jong Un’s rise to power five years ago and reached boiling point recently. Washington, of course, knows this and senses an opportunity to push through a decisive change in the geopolitical landscape of Northeast Asia. Trump is naturally trying to exploit it to maximum (US) advantage. by Thomas Hon Wing Polin
US Hegemony on Korean Peninsula Challenged North Korea today is not the North Korea of 1994 when President Bill Clinton seriously considered a preemptive strike against the Yongbyon nuclear reactor. Back then North Korea did not possess any nuclear weapons. by Leo Chang
“Corruption, Plain and Simple”: Kushner Visa Scandal Snowballs While the White House hides behind more alternative facts, the outrage has seemingly multiplied by Lauren McCauley
Black Liberation/Civil Rights: 
Freedom Rider: Democratic Party Death Spiral The Democrats are locked in a fatal contradiction: they cannot serve the people and their rich paymasters, too. The people want higher wages, affordable education and the right to healthcare. Instead, the Democrats “engage in wishful thinking that the same tired nostrums would work one more time.” The Democrats only run for office so they can “make deals on behalf of the corporate interests which feed them.” by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
Diana Johnstone: Financial Elite Created France’s New President, Emmanuel Macron Three out of four of the top vote-getters in the first round of French elections ran against the economic policies of the European Union. Yet the French and U.S. corporate media claim the election was all about race and “fascism.” Emmanuel Macron is “the whole globalizing elite’s own special candidate” – and bad news for the working class. An interview by Ann Garrison 
Haiti Activists Seek to Block Clinton Commencement Speech Protesters demanded that Medgar Evers College cancel Hillary Clinton’s scheduled commencement address at the mostly Black Brooklyn institution, next month. The Clintons are a criminal family, said Dahoud Andre, of Komokoda, the Committee to Mobilize Against Dictatorship in Haiti. If Medgar Evers College honors the former secretary of state, it will be condoning “the crimes of the Clinton family, and Hillary Clinton, personally, against the people of Haiti and against Black youth, who she called ‘animals’ and ‘thugs’ who should be ‘brought to heel,’” said Andre. A Black Agenda Radio Commentary by Nellie Bailey
“Facts Don’t Matter” to U.S. Corporate Media When the Trump administration claimed that Syria launched a chemical attack on civilians, in April, Dr. Theodore Postol conducted an investigation that debunked the official U.S. version of events. Postol is professor emeritus of science, technology and national security issues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. However, the corporate media ignore Postol’s findings. “The facts don’t seem to matter at all to anybody,” he said. “It looks to me like a complete collapse of any kind of journalistic standards within the mainstream press.” A Black America Radio Commentary by Nellie Bailey
War, Militarism and No Mainstream Opposition: Different Administration, Same Story If asked, most Americans will say they want peace. But they consistently vote for the two parties of war. “Imperial privilege” allows “the U.S. public to ‘shrug off’ the consequences of U.S. wars. They will destroy whole societies while ostensibly rescuing a few “beautiful babies” — preferably white ones. We must build a new politics around the provable principle that killing other people is dangerous to one’s own moral and physical health. by BAR editor and columnist Ajamu Baraka
Bernie Sanders: Loyal Democrat, Stalwart for Empire Bernie Sanders will never break with the Democratic Party and its finance capitalist masters. Progressives have no choice but “to take the genuine demands for a living wage, socialized healthcare, and free higher public education out of the two-party duopoly and into the streets.” Sanders is also totally useless in the fight to save the planet from nuclear conflagration; he “has made his peace with war.” by Danny Haiphong 
Mumia Remembers MOVE, Back in the Day The nation’s best known political prisoner, Mumia Abu Jamal, marked the 45th anniversary of the MOVE organization with recollections of when MOVE members were undergound in Rochester, New York. There, they “lived a life of peace that was unthinkable in Philadelphia,” because “they lived out of the eye of a merciless media,” he said. “Absent the ‘zone of negativity by the media, people met MOVE as people, and loved them.” In contrast, police and media hostility to MOVE in the City of Brotherly Love led to life sentences for nine MOVE members in 1978, and the bombing of the MOVE residence in 1985, killing eleven members, including five children. A Black Agenda Radio Commentary by Nellie Bailey
An Opening to Challenge Mumia Abu-Jamal’s Conviction Thirty-five yeas after his conviction in the death of a Philadelphia policeman, Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation’s best known political prisoner, may have a shot at overturning the verdict, A judge has begun a process that could throw out the results of the original trial. “Supporters of Abu-Jamal are calling Judge Tucker’s discovery order a rare victory in a lengthy string of appeals.” by Linn Washington and Dave Lindorff
Review: Black Subjugation in America On a recent visit to Ho Chi Minh City’s (Vietnam) War Remnants Museum I was reminded Americans have never come to grips with our invasion and war on Vietnam. They have also never come to grips with our own history, specifically how Europeans stole this land from Native Peoples and then built this country on the backs of of African slaves, while institutionalizing white supremacy. by Kim Scipes
Zuma and the Real Story of the Capture of the ANC and the State The continuity of corporate capture, of corruption, of the arrogance of state and executive power, of the demobilization of the grassroots, is crucial to understanding what Zuma has done and will continue to do. And this rot did not start with the rise of Zuma to the throne. It is deeply rooted in the politics of the ruling ANC party post-apartheid. by Dale T. McKinley
Black Agenda Radio for Week of May 8, 2017
Major Courtroom Victory Against “Wealth-Based Human Caging”: In a sweeping order, a judge has ruled that the bail system in Harris County, Texas, including the city of Houston, is unconstitutional. Because of the decision, “we are on the road to eradicating the notion of wealth-base human caging,” said Alec Karakatsanis, executive director of the Washington-based Civil Rights Corps. The ruling affects defendants charged with low level offenses. “On any given night in this country there are about 450,000 human beings who are sitting in a cage because they can’t come up with a particular amount of money that’s been required for their release,” said Karakatsanis.
Haiti Activists Seek to Block Clinton Commencement Speech: Protesters demanded that Medgar Evers College cancel Hillary Clinton’s scheduled commencement address at the mostly Black Brooklyn institution, next month. The Clintons are a criminal family, said Dahoud Andre, of Komokoda, the Committee to Mobilize Against Dictatorship in Haiti. If Medgar Evers College honors the former secretary of state, it will be condoning “the crimes of the Clinton family, and Hillary Clinton, personally, against the people of Haiti and against Black youth, who she called ‘animals’ and ‘thugs’ who should be ‘brought to heel,’” said Andre.
“Facts Don’t Matter” to U.S. Corporate Media: When the Trump administration claimed that Syria launched a chemical attack on civilians, in April, Dr. Theodore Postol conducted an investigation that debunked the official U.S. version of events. Postol is professor emeritus of science, technology and national security issues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. However, the corporate media ignore Postol’s findings. “The facts don’t seem to matter at all to anybody,” he said. “It looks to me like a complete collapse of any kind of journalistic standards within the mainstream press.”
Mumia Remembers MOVE, Back in the Day: The nation’s best known political prisoner, Mumia Abu Jamal, marked the 45th anniversary of the MOVE organization with recollections of when MOVE members were undergound in Rochester, New York. There, they “lived a life of peace that was unthinkable in Philadelphia,” because “they lived out of the eye of a merciless media,” he said. “Absent the ‘zone of negativity by the media, people met MOVE as people, and loved them.” In contrast, police and media hostility to MOVE in the City of Brotherly Love led to life sentences for nine MOVE members in 1978, and the bombing of the MOVE residence in 1985, killing eleven members, including five children.
NYC Mayor is No Progressive, Says Challenger Gangi: Bill de Blasio has not earned the label “progressive,” said Robert Gangi, the former director of the Police Reform Organizing Project who has thrown his hat in the mayoral race. De Blasio has not “addressed the social, racial and economic inequities that do such great damage to large populations that live in our city,” said Gangi. “He supports ‘broken windows policing,’ which is blatantly racist policing.”
Free Mothers Day in The Bronx: Juanita Young, whose son was killed by New York City cops, is one of the organizers of a Free Mothers Day event at Hostos College, in The Bronx, this Saturday. “You’ve got people’s sons who’ve been murdered through gun violence; you’ve got young men locked up for these police raids,” said Young, whose group is called The Motherhood. “What is going on, that the system feels that our loved ones’ lives have no value?”
World: