Daily News Digest July 28, 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. 

Democracy?: As the Capitalist Robber Barons Steal from the 99% — Only the 1% Voted For Austerity — The 99% Should Decide On Austerity — Not Just Those  Who Profit From Austerity! Under Austerity, All of the World Will Eventually Be Pauperized, Humbled, and Desecrated Like Greece and Puerto Rico! 

Daily News Digest July 28, 2017 

Images of the Day: 

Pax Americana — Cop of the World ScaramucciQuotes of the Day: 

The department’s budget is awash in waste, as you might expect from the only major federal agency that has never passed an audit.  For example, last year a report by the Defense Business Board, a Pentagon advisory panel, found that the Department of Defense could save $125 billion over five years just by trimming excess bureaucracy.  And a new study by the Pentagon’s Inspector General indicates that the department has ignored hundreds of recommendations that could have saved it more than $33.6 billion. 10 Ways the Military Gobbles Up Your Tax Dollars to Pay for Multiple Wars

You wouldn’t know it, based on the endless cries for more money coming from the militarypoliticians, and the president, but these are the best of times for the Pentagon.  Spending on the Department of Defense alone is already well in excess of half a trillion dollars a year and counting.  Adjusted for inflation, that means it’s higher than at the height of President Ronald Reagan’s massive buildup of the 1980s and is now nearing the post-World War II funding peak.  And yet that’s barely half the story.  There are hundreds of billions of dollars in “defense” spending that aren’t even counted in the Pentagon budget.  .  . . That final annual tally of nearly $1.1 trillion to pay for past wars, fund current wars, and prepare for possible future conflicts is roughly double the already staggering $575 billion the Trump administration has proposed as the Pentagon’s regular budget for 2018.  Most taxpayers have no idea that more than a trillion dollars a year is going to what’s still called “defense,” but these days might equally be called national insecurity. So the next time you hear the president, the secretary of defense, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, or a hawkish lawmaker claim that the U.S. military is practically collapsing from a lack of funding, don’t believe it for a second. Donald Trump may finally have put plutocracy in the Oval Office, but a militarized version of it has long been ensconced in the Pentagon and the rest of the national security state. In government terms, make no mistake about it, the Pentagon & Co. are the 1 percent. —  10 Ways the Military Gobbles Up Your Tax Dollars to Pay for Multiple Wars 

The endless minimum wage debate has been a distraction. Our real political and economic choice is not whether to raise the minimum wage and risk some unemployment or to secure jobs by foregoing wage increases. Consider a parallel scenario: A mugger in an alley offers you the choice between suffering a stabbing or a beating so he can secure your wallet. Will you then agonize and debate over which offered option to choose? Rationality suggests otherwise. Why not refuse both and pursue a total alternative — an escape from the alley, an attempt to disarm the mugger, an appeal to the mugger’s conscience — that is far more in your interest than either option offered. So, it is with the minimum wage debate. It represents a kind of irrationality. Economists and others in solidarity with the laboring majority should be refusing further rounds of that debate. Instead, they should demand and pursue an economic system that provides both full employment and decent incomes, and support for those who cannot work. That is the only system that deserves our backing. — Beyond the Minimum Wage Debate: Let’s Move Toward a System That Works for All

Videos of the Day: 

Congress Unites on Russia Sanctions, But at What Cost? As the House overwhelmingly backs new sanctions on the Kremlin, Russian lawmakers vow a “painful” response and the European Commission mulls retaliation of its own  

Germany Bans Arms Shipments to Turkey The freeze sets an important precedent of linking arms exports to human rights, says TRNN’s Shir Hever   

Is Extreme Heat the New Normal? The Real News team spoke with first responders and science and medial experts in Arizona, where high temperatures have grounded planes and significantly increased health emergencies  

Empire Files: Silencing Palestine – Prison & Repression Israel’s occupation of the West Bank is an internationally-recognized human rights crime. Getting detailed facts about Israel’s imposition of Military Law in the West Bank, Abby Martin visits the the Ramallah offices of Addameer–the most prominent prisoners’ rights organizations in Palestine–for a shocking investigation into the use of Israeli jails and arbitrary laws as a weapon 

U.S.: 

Send in the Clown: Scaramucci Versus the Leakers In Italian  comic theater, Scaramouche is a clown, the boastful poltroon whose antics frequently bring him to grief. Presumably new White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci’s name is related  to that tradition. by Thomas Knapp 

Scaramucci Goes to War Over “Leak” That Turns Out To Be Public Document Amid reported infighting, communications director threatens to turn FBI on White House staff by Julia Conley 10 Ways the Military Gobbles Up Your Tax Dollars to Pay for Multiple Wars In government terms, make no mistake about it, the Pentagon & Co. are the 1 percent. By William HartungCome Fly the Unfriendly Skies When it comes to air travel, there are airlines, and then there’s United Airlines.  Many people know this from experiences hard earned at the hands of United, including yours truly. by Kenneth SurinACLU Objects After Capitol Hill Police Tell Journalists to Delete Protest Photos At least one journalist reported being forced to delete his photos of the scene by Julia Conley Black Liberation/Civil Rights:

Trump Faces Down the CIA and Co-Opts the Pentagon on Syria (for the time being) The crazed, racist, stupid, boorish man in the White House “this summer defied the War Party and its corporate media mouthpieces, negotiating a cease-fire with the Russians in several regions of Syria, and possibly ending the CIA’s not-so-covert role as Grandmaster of Islamic Jihad.” Which makes him less dangerous to the human species than Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. by BAR executive editor Glen FordEnvironment:

100,000 Pages of Chemical Industry Secrets Gathered Dust in an Oregon Barn for Decades — Until Now For decades, some of the dirtiest, darkest secrets of the chemical industry have been kept in Carol Van Strum’s barn. Creaky, damp, and prowled by the occasional black bear, the listing, 80-year-old structure in rural Oregon housed more than 100,000 pages of documents obtained through legal discovery in lawsuits against Dow, Monsanto, the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Forest Service, the Air Force, and pulp and paper companies, among others. As of today, those documents and others that have been collected by environmental activists will be publicly available through a project called the Poison Papers. Together, the library contains more than 200,000 pages of information and “lays out a 40-year history of deceit and collusion involving the chemical industry and the regulatory agencies that were supposed to be protecting human health and the environment,” said Peter von Stackelberg, a journalist who along with the Center for Media and Democracy and the Bioscience Resource Project helped put the collection online. By Sharon LernerOngoing Big Energy Crisis: 

Sunoco Ordered to Suspend Drilling on Mariner East 2 Pipeline After Spills, Damage Pennsylvania’s Environmental Hearing Board today Ordered to Suspend Drilling on Mariner East 2 Pipeline After Spills, Damage Pennsylvania’s Environmental Hearing Board today ordered Sunoco Pipeline LP to temporarily halt some types of work on a $2.5 billion pipeline project designed to carry 275,000 barrels a day of butane, propane, and other liquid fossil fuels from Ohio and West Virginia, across Pennsylvania, to the Atlantic coast.  On July 19, three environmental groups presented Judge Bernard Labuskes, Jr. with documentation showing that the project had caused dozens of drilling fluid spills and other accidents between April and mid-June. By Sharon Kelly Labor:

Beyond the Minimum Wage Debate: Let’s Move Toward a System That Works for All By Richard D. Wolff 

Economy: 

World: 

Egypt: A Tale of Two Islands  Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has ratified a deal to sell off the two Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir to Saudi Arabia. The two islands – particularly Tiran Island – had historically played a pivotal role in conflicts between Egypt and Israel. Tiran was occupied by Israel between 1967 and 1982, at which point it was returned to Egypt and has since hosted military bases of the Egyptian army and the Multinational Forces and Observers tasked with monitoring the adjacent sea passage. By Dejan Kukic Health, Science, Education, and Welfare:

Henry Giroux on a Politics of Cruelty Without Euphemisms In this wide-ranging interview with Mickey Huff, head of Project Censored, Henry Giroux addresses a number of issues that constitute various elements of US authoritarianism. He brings together a number of issues affected by the concentration of power and wealth, including the emergence of a culture of cruelty, hardness, corruption, militarism, racism and violence that has reached down into everyday life while compromising a number of public institutions, including higher education, the criminal legal system and health care.  By Mickey Huff