Daily News Digest May 12, 2017

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 12, 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:

Journalism On Trial — Cartoon/LatuffQuotes of the Day:

In 2013, after Syria was falsely blamed for a chemical attack on civilians, Obama threatened to directly bomb Syrian forces. His lawyers were prepared to argue that an attack on Syria could be justified – like Bill Clinton’s bombing of Kosovo in 1999 – on vague grounds of eliminating a threat to peace. But of course, the greatest threat to peace is aggressive war, of which the United States was already — and chronically — guilty. In the end, Obama decided to ask Congress for authorization to bomb, and then changed his mind when the Russians offered to broker destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles. But, like all U.S. presidents, and with no grounds under international law, Obama insisted that Commanders-in-Chief have the right to bomb other countries to defend U.S. “national security” based on their own judgment — another legal nonsensicality. So, the legal mercenaries of United to Protect Democracy, veterans of Obama’s 2011 military offensive, have no problem with violating international law. Their beef with Trump appears to be that he did not provide sufficient legal rationale for his bombing Syria – which is different than actually obeying international law. Trump’s people issued what are described as “talking points” to explain his actions against Syria. But former White House lawyer Justin Florence, the group’s legal director, wrote that this is not enough: “The U.S. government must publicly articulate its legal theory in order to uphold the international legal framework we have relied on for so many years as a constraint on other states.”The UN Charter is clear on what constitutes aggression. Trump is an aggressor. So were Obama, and Bush (the UN Secretary General said so), and so was Clinton. Since the U.S. is a superpower and a permanent member of the UN Security Council, the UN will never authorize the international community to punish the U.S. for its crimes. But, that does not absolve the U.S. of criminality — and humanity’s collective memory and conscience will never forgive the United States for the crushing of nations and the death of millions. The Democratic Party hacks with law degrees at United to Protect Democracy are concerned, not about peace, but that U.S. presidents go through the motions of rationalizing their imperial crimes. Say something that sounds good, they urge. Convince the American public that it’s OK for the U.S. to claim life and death powers over the rest of humanity. —Criminal Nation: Obama and Trump Both Should Be Jailed for War Crimes

Videos of the Day:

German Soldier Busted Posing as Refugee to Stage False Flag Terror

The real story of Christopher Columbus: What was destroyed and how it was done — Glossed over in the school books

Trumpcare to Benefit the Wealthiest and Healthiest The poor and those with previous conditions will either lose insurance or pay far more with Trumpcare explains CEPR’s Dean Baker

The Massacre at the South Carolina Whites-Only Bowling Alley

U.S.:

Reporter Arrested for Asking Health Secretary Tom Price About Trumpcare “First time I’ve ever been arrested for asking a question. First time I’ve ever heard of someone getting arrested for asking a question” by Nika Knight The City and the War Machine: Crosshairs on People and Public Lands by Katie Fite The American War Machine: Never Has a Society Spent More for Less The American way of war is a budget-breaker. By William Hartung The American Way of War Is a Budget-Breaker When Donald Trump wanted to “do something” about the use of chemical weapons on civilians in Syria, he had the U.S. Navy lob 59 cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield (cost: $89 million). The strike was symbolic at best, as the Assad regime ran bombing missions from the same airfield the very next day, but it did underscore one thing: the immense costs of military action of just about any sort in our era. While $89 million is a rounding error in the Pentagon’s $600 billion budget, it represents real money for other agencies.  It’s more than twice the $38 million annual budget of the U.S. Institute of Peace and more than half the $149 million budget of the National Endowment of the Arts, both slated for elimination under Trump’s budget blueprint. If the strikes had somehow made u s— or anyone—safer, perhaps they would have been worth it, but they did not. By William D. Hartung

Black Liberation/Civil Rights:

Criminal Nation: Obama and Trump Both Should Be Jailed for War Crimes The corporate media feed us fake news and the lawyers provide us with fake legality. A group of former Obama White House lawyers — the same guys that defended the U.S. bombing of Libya, drone wars, and the “proxy” war against Syria — say Trump has not legally justified his attack on a Syrian airbase. The truth is, the U.S. has waged illegal wars with impunity for most of its existence. Obama’s former lawyers want only to whitewash the crimes. by BAR executive editor Glen Ford2 Poems – About How and Why Some Things Work. And Some Others Don’t  In two works of poetry this week, Turner offers cogent observations on two phenomena, one that pretty much works as intended, and another enterprise that despite the wishes of many consistently and predictably goes awry. By BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat TurnerThe New Gentrifiers: YIMBY’s: The “Alt-Right” Darlings of the Real Estate Industry The free-market-focused “Yes In My Back Yard” (YIMBY) movement uses a grassroots façade while teaming up with real estate developers to build more housing in regulated areas, without considering the consequences for the poor and middle class. In the process, it is also steamrolling traditional housing movements centered on the most vulnerable populations. In the wake of other “alt-right” successes, the real estate industry is learning the art of dressing down, community activist-style. Under YIMBYnomics, more luxury condos will be built and people like Stoppelman will become richer, as the less wealthy are forcibly removed under a so-called “pro-housing” banner. By Toshio Meronek and Andrew Szeto

Environment:

US Glacier national park losing its glaciers with just 26 of 150 left Warming climate makes it ‘inevitable’ that contiguous US will lose all of its glaciers within decades, according to scientists By Oliver MilmanOngoing Big Energy Crisis:

Getting Out of Our Coal Hole The truth of the matter is that climate regulations aren’t a “war on coal,” and no amount of presidential photo-ops will bring mining jobs back. A recent report from the Center for Global Energy clearly shows why. by Oscar Reyes

The ‘Told You So’ Everyone Was Dreading—First DAPL Spill Reported “We have always said it’s not if, but when, pipelines leak” by Deirdre Fulton U.S. blocks major pipeline after 18 leaks and a 2 million gallon spill of drilling mud The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has curtailed work on a natural-gas pipeline in Ohio after the owner, Energy Transfer Partners, reported 18 leaks and spilled more than 2 million gallons of drilling materials. The pipeline regulator blocked Energy Transfer Partners, which also built the controversial Dakota Access pipeline, from starting horizontal drilling in eight areas where drilling has not yet begun. In other areas, where the company has already begun horizontal drilling, the FERC said drilling could continue.Labor:

Economy:

There’s a Pile of Dirty Linen Behind Morgan Stanley’s Removal of Vanguard Funds  For as long as we have been observing Wall Street sleaze (three decades and counting) we have been reading about illegal sales contests and mutual fund abuses at Morgan Stanley and its 1997 merger partner, the retail brokerage firm Dean Witter. Given that history, when we read last week that Morgan Stanley was going to gut one of the all-time best families of mutual funds from its client offerings (Vanguard Funds), we felt our readers deserved a fuller understanding of the facts than they were getting from corporate media. By Pam Martens

World:

Rich List shows Tories are in the pockets of the parasites The annual analysis of the wealth of the richest 1,000 people in Britain by the Sunday Times has been completed once again. The results are shocking, but unsurprising.Their combined wealth has now reached £658 billion (a rise of 14% since the review last year), which makes it greater than the combined wealth of the poorest 40% of Britons. By Leon ScottYou can’t erase imperialism from Lebanon’s history – no matter how hard some people try The ‘Al Zaher’ house has an important place in Lebanon’s history, but its current proprietors have tried to stop portraits of some of its prolific political visitors being hung there By Robert Fisk For Whom the Puerto Rico Austerity Bells Call? — They Call for Humanity!: Puerto Rico’s debt crisis is a wake-up call. It could be crushed like Greece Puerto Rico’s future is not in the hands of its people, but in the hands of a group of non-elected technocrats, that as such are not accountable to Puerto Ricans By Martin Guzman Health, Science, Education, and Welfare:

 Doctors Name Monsanto’s Larvicide As Cause of Brazilian Microcephaly Outbreak A report from the Argentine doctors’ organisation, Physicians in the Crop-Sprayed Towns, challenges the theory that the Zika virus epidemic in Brazil is the cause of the increase in the birth defect microcephaly among newborns.