Daily News Digest August 18, 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 August 18, 2017

Image of the Day:

The Flag of Treason Quotes of the Day:

Each year on the 19th of January there is renewed effort to canonize Robert E. Lee, the greatest confederate general. His personal comeliness, his aristocratic birth and his military prowess all call for the verdict of greatness and genius. But one thing–one terrible fact–militates against this and that is the inescapable truth that Robert E. Lee led a bloody war to perpetuate slavery. Copperheads like the New York Times may magisterially declare: “of course, he never fought for slavery.” Well, for what did he fight? State rights? Nonsense. The South cared only for State Rights as a weapon to defend slavery. If nationalism had been a stronger defense of the slave system than particularism, the South would have been as nationalistic in 1861 as it had been in 1812. — W.E.B. DuBois on Robert E. Lee

It is the punishment of the South that its Robert Lees and Jefferson Davises will always be tall, handsome and well-born. That their courage will be physical and not moral. That their leadership will be weak compliance with public opinion and never costly and unswerving revolt for justice and right. it is ridiculous to seek to excuse Robert Lee as the most formidable agency this nation ever raised to make 4 million human beings goods instead of men. Either he knew what slavery meant when he helped maim and murder thousands in its defense, or he did not. If he did not, he was a fool. If he did, Robert Lee was a traitor and a rebel—not indeed to his country, but to humanity and humanity’s God, — W.E.B. DuBois on Robert E. Lee

Videos of the Day:

Spies of Mississippi — “If you registered to vote, you were a public enemy” — Medgar Evers (1963)

Fighting Rahm Emanuel’s Privatization of Chicago’s Schools – RAI with LaRaviere (3/4) On Reality Asserts Itself with Paul Jay, the president of the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association, Troy LaRaviere, says there’s no evidence that giving corporations tax breaks or putting schools in competition with each other makes for better education; in fact, the evidence says the opposite

Intellectual Property Rights Protect Massive Profits of Corporations  We need to debate and revise the intellectual property rights regime, which is not only dysfunctional for us, but especially for developing countries, says Dean Baker, co-director of CEPR

 U.S.:

‘Embarrassing’ for US, Trump Defense of Neo-Nazi Rally Stuns People Worldwide “Outside the U.S., this is beyond the pale.” By Julia Conleyr Guardian: The president of the United States is now a neo-Nazi sympathizer By Richard Wolffe

Monuments to Treason Across the country in the wake of a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in support of a confederate statue slated for removal, cities have begun to wake up and take action to remove confederate statues and monuments within their own jurisdictions. On the night of August 15, the city of Baltimore removed all of its confederate statues. In Gainesville, Florida, a confederate monument outside a county government building wastaken down on August 14. On July 19, the Tampa Bay City Council in Florida voted to remove a Confederate monument off government property. The Jacksonville’s City Council has begun to call for all Confederate monuments in the city to be taken down. by Michael J. Sainato

Chaos in Charlottesville: No One Gave Peace a Chance, Including the Police by John W. Whitehead

Black Liberation/Civil Rights:

Trump and America’s Fascist Forefathers  “Fascism, including the Nazi variety, is not some strange European social disease.” Donald Trump was even more agitated and combative than usual at Tuesday’s press conference. How could he draw a line to separate the “neo-Nazis” and assorted “white supremacists” that had descended on Charlottesville, Virginia — one of whom used his car to crush the life out of a young woman — and the “very fine people” that favored keeping Robert E. Lee’s statue on its pedestal in (recently renamed) Emancipation Park? And, where would the racist-removal project end? by BAR executive editor Glen Ford Disinformation Terrorism Against Venezuela  “Any lie is valid as long as it achieves the goal of destabilizing the minds of the masses.” World elites dominate the main international media almost completely through an intricate network of associations that conceal the participation of transnational empires such as banks, weapons industries, energy industries, and financial and investment entities. By Armando B. GinésThe Racist Origins of Right to Work  “Reagan claimed that Bishop’s new airport was in fact meant to turn this tranquil island into ‘a Cuban-Soviet colony.’” In May 1801, Thomas Jefferson sent the Marines to Tripoli and Tunis to battle “Barbary pirates” who were menacing American merchants off the coast of North Africa, thereby launching the young United States’ first overseas military venture. Over the two centuries since, the list of foreign countries invaded by US forces has grown to include some 70 nations (not including the “first nations” on what became US territory itself). Some of these have become metonyms for their eras—Vietnam, Iraq. Most, though, dwell in Americans’ minds only as flickering features of news cycles from the past. One such is the small Caribbean nation of Grenada: an island that few Americans knew about before October 1983, when TV screens filled, for some days that fall, with images of paratroopers dropping between tropical palms. By Michael Pierce Review: The House on Coco Road — A New View of Grenada’s Revolution  “Reagan claimed that Bishop’s new airport was in fact meant to turn this tranquil island into ‘a Cuban-Soviet colony.’” In May 1801, Thomas Jefferson sent the Marines to Tripoli and Tunis to battle “Barbary pirates” who were menacing American merchants off the coast of North Africa, thereby launching the young United States’ first overseas military venture. Over the two centuries since, the list of foreign countries invaded by US forces has grown to include some 70 nations (not including the “first nations” on what became US territory itself). Some of these have become metonyms for their eras—Vietnam, Iraq. Most, though, dwell in Americans’ minds only as flickering features of news cycles from the past. One such is the small Caribbean nation of Grenada: an island that few Americans knew about before October 1983, when TV screens filled, for some days that fall, with images of paratroopers dropping between tropical palms. By Joshua Jelly-Schapiro Tanzania Goes Full Speed Ahead to Reclaim Africa’s Natural Wealth  Tanzania has taken a dramatic step towards nationalizing its natural resources. New legislation requires the government to ensure “that the national wealth and heritage are harnessed, preserved and applied for the common good.” By Mark P. Fancher Millions for Prisoners’ Human Rights March in DC  “IAmWeUbuntu and the other march organizers will bring supporters of the incarcerated from across the country together under the banner of abolitionism.” Prisoner rights advocates will converge for what aims to be the largest abolitionist demonstration in U.S. history, Saturday, August 19, in Washington D.C. The Millions for Prisoners’ Human Rights March is centered around the demand that the exceptions clause, which allows for slavery to continue in United States prisons, be removed from the Constitution’s 13th Amendment. by BAR producer Kyle Fraser Patriot Act  The white supremacist who drove his Dodge Challenger into a crowd of antiracist demonstrators in Charlottsville VA injuring 19 people and killing one probably thought he was a patriot. Worse still there are more where he came from. By Raymond Nat Turner , BAR poet-in-residence Environment:

 Ongoing Big Energy Crisis:

Labor:

Economy:The Stock Market Is Confident; Business Leaders, Not So Much As the stock market repeatedly set new highs this year, confidence in the President was eroding among the general public. That erosion of confidence now extends to dozens of the top corporate leaders in America. There is apparently a new social standard in America. When it was revealed in the final weeks of Trump’s Presidential bid that he had stated on video that he could sexually assault women (“grab ‘em by the p*ssy), it was not a serious impediment for the top executives of the largest corporations in America to continue to pander to Trump, take top posts in his administration and serve on his business advisory councils. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens

Capitalist Economies Create Waste — Not Social Value As early as the 1920s Stuart Chase identified four systematic sources of waste under capitalism: (1) the labor power used to produce “vicious or useless goods and services”; (2) labor power wasted due to unemployment; (3) the unplanned nature of production and distribution of goods leading to inefficiencies and overproduction; and (4) the senseless waste and overuse of natural resources. Addressing the term coined by nineteenth-century writer and social reformer John Ruskin, Chase wrote that what capitalism produces is not wealth, but “illth.”  By Chris Williams and Fred Magdoff World:

Gandhi: the myths behind the Mahatma  Mahatma Gandhi, the defining figure of the Indian nationalist campaign against British colonial rule in India, is known by most as an anti-imperialist, whose peaceful non-violent methods helped to overthrow British rule. This myth has been perpetuated by many. The truth however is that he betrayed as many as he inspired in the independence campaign, stood wholeheartedly with British imperialist interests, consolidated existing inequalities including caste, racial, and gender discrimination, and ultimately his role helped lead to the calamitous disaster of partition. By Ravi Mistry  Health, Science, Education, and Welfare: