Daily News Digest November 2, 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 The  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 November 2, 2017

Quotes of the Day:

The Clinton Emails:  Nobody has said that what Hilary Clinton has claimed that was reported on her leaked emails were false. Russiagate is just an example of power politics: Claim everything — Concede nothing and, when caught — Holler foul! — Roland Sheppard

Charles Beard labeled it “Second American Revolution,” claiming that “at bottom the so-called Civil War — was a social war, ending in the unquestioned establishment of a new power in the government, making vast changes — in the course of industrial development, and in the constitution inherited from the Fathers” (Beard and Beard 1927: 53). By the time of the Second World War, Louis Hacker could sum up Beard’s position by simply stating that the war’s “striking achievement was the triumph of industrial capitalism” (Hacker 1940: 373). The “Beard-Hacker Thesis” had become the most widely accepted interpretation of the economic impact of the Civil War. — The Economics of the Civil War

Amy Goodman: Disaster capitalism, what does that term mean to you? And do you think that’s happening here, using a crisis to accomplish something that couldn’t be accomplished otherwise? Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz: You know, I wish I had never been introduced to that term. Also the shock, shock treatment, right? Using the chaos to strip employees of their bargaining rights, rights that took 40, 50 years for the unions to be able to determine. That is something very important. And it just means taking advantage of people when they are in a life-or-death situation. It is the most—an absolute mistreatment of human rights. It means that the strongest really feed off the weakest, until everything that’s left is the carcass. And what we cannot understand is why, because that is so against the American spirit that we see. We have had in San Juan more than 500 volunteers in a span of four weeks, coming here, leaving their homes, taking their vacation—nurses, Teamsters, AFL-CIO, UFCW, LIUNA workers, just leaving their homes. I met a person from California that sold their Harley-Davidson—I mean, sold their Harley-Davidson to come to San Juan and help for two weeks. You have—you know, the United States has a big heart. You know what it is to help those in need. And then the central government, the federal government in the United States, seems to be just playing a totally different tune. This slowness, this turtle pace of just getting relief to people, life-and-death relief to people, it’s unthinkable. —  San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz on Trump, Shock Doctrine & “Disaster Capitalism” in Puerto Rico

Videos of the Day:

The ‘Perpetual’ Authorization for Use of Military Force is ‘Dangerous’ As Secretaries Tillerson and Mattis urge Congress to maintain the 2001 AUMF, it is important to remember that the AUMF has been used in 14 countries and 37 times over the past 16 years. Congress ought to reclaim its authority to declare war, explains Col. Larry Wilkerson

What Will Cutting ‘Quantitative Easing’ Mean for Europe? The European Central Bank (ECB) announced that it will reduce its cash injection program, known as quantitative easing, in half. Economist Heiner Flashback discusses the consequences this will have for Europe’s struggling economy

U.S.:

US nuclear arsenal to cost $1.2tn over next 30 years, independent CBO report finds The cost of the US nuclear arsenal over the next 30 years will be over $1.2tn, even before any new weapons ordered by the Trump administration, and is unlikely to be affordable without cuts elsewhere in the defence budget, according to a independent congressional report. The total price tag marks nearly a 25% increase from previous estimate, taking in the modernisation programme established under the Obama administration, which account for $400bn, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found. The costs would peak in the 2020s and the 2030s. By Julian Borger

Environment:

Global Ocean Circulation Appears To Be Collapsing Due To A Warming Planet Scientists have long known about the anomalous “warming hole” in the North Atlantic Ocean, an area immune to warming of Earth’s oceans. This cool zone in the North Atlantic Ocean appears to be associated with a slowdown in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), one of the key drivers in global ocean circulation. By Trevor Nace Transparent Solar Panels Could Harvest Energy From Windows And Eventually Replace Fossil Fuels A new generation of see-through solar cell technology could soon be used to harvest the massive energy potential of building and car windows, cell phones as well as other objects with a transparent surface. Scientists at Michigan State University detailed in a paper in the journal Nature Energy how highly transparent solar applications could “nearly meet U.S. electricity demand” and drastically reduce reliance upon fossil fuels. By Anthony CuthbertsonOngoing Big Energy Crisis:

Black Liberation/Civil Rights:

What comparing black NFL players to prisoners reveals An NFL executive likened protesting black players to ‘inmates’.  McNair’s words reflect a willful ignorance of the purpose behind players kneeling in the first place. It also brings to question, what exactly does the Texans owner regret? What he said, or that he was caught saying it? Affixing blackness to pathological criminality has troubling roots writes Ameer Hasan LogginsFreedom Rider: Putin, Trump and Manafort  “Anyone and anything connected to Russia gets the double standard treatment and is targeted for attack.” The American propaganda campaign being waged against the Russian Federation and its president Vladimir Putin has reached a stage of perverse perfection. It is virtually impossible to put forth a dissenting opinion that will be accepted or considered worthy of consideration. The Democrats are leading the charge to silence and censor and they are getting buy-in from people who otherwise consider themselves to be progressive. By Margaret Kimberley, BAR editor and senior columnist Burundi Exits the ICC: an interview with David Paul JacobsWe see no need to subject ourselves to persecution of African leaders and regime change goals on the continent.” Last year the African Union resisted Western pressure to intervene militarily in Burundi. On October 26, Burundi officially completed its withdrawal from the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC) without being indicted. The next day the Non-Aligned Movement of 120 member nations rejected the UN Commission of Inquiry’s report accusing Burundi of human rights crimes within its own borders. That’s quite a list of anti-imperial accomplishments for a tiny East African nation that’s always ranked among the 10 poorest in the world. By Ann Garrison, BAR contributor Huey Newton’s Lessons for World Revolution in Our Times “Huey used the framework of dialectical materialism, which gave him the understanding that all development is a struggle between contradictions.” First, to discuss the significance of Huey P. Newton and the theory of revolutionary intercommunalism in the same space as Mumia Abu-Jamal, Yvonne King, and Regina Jennings is more than the word honor can describe. A big thanks to the Black and Brown Coalition for putting this conference together. The foundations for this conference reminded me of what Huey P. Newton said at the Revolutionary People’s Convention in 1970, which was also held at Temple: By Danny Haiphong, BAR contributor The American War Machine Is Already on the Death March Across the African Continent  “Fleets of white Toyota trucks arrived in the desert to carry refugees and drugs to Europe and to bring weapons into central and western Africa.” On October 4th, U.S. military personnel were on their way back to their forward operating base in Niger. They had been on a reconnaissance mission to the village of Tongo Tongo, near Niger’s border with Mali. US Joint Chiefs Chairman General Joseph Dunford says that fifty ISIS fighters ambushed them. The soldiers did not call for air support for the first hour, said General Dunford, thinking perhaps that they could handle the attack. By the time the drones came along with French fighter aircraft, ISIS had disappeared. By Vijay PrashadMore US Troops in Latin America: Signs of an Invasion Foretold?  “The upcoming military exercise is just another piece in this growing pattern of militarization and regional threat.”The US army will increase its military presence in Latin America’s Amazonia. Under the “Amazon Log” Initiative, passed in 2017 by Michel Temer’s putschist government in Brazil, Operation “United America” will join the armies of the United States, Brazil, Peru and Colombia from November 6 to 13, 2017, in the tri-border city of Tabatinga. This exercise is a sign of a substantial increase in foreign militarization of the region. By Martín PastorAfro-Colombia Women Demand Rights and Demilitarization “The women, peace and security agenda, if implemented and financially resourced, can be the pathway to peace in my country and around the world.” This following statement was made by Ms. Charo Mina-Rojas , a member of the human rights team of the Black Communities’ Process, the Afro-Colombian Solidarity Network, the Black Alliance for Peace, and the Special High Level Body for Ethnic Peoples, on behalf of the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security at the United Nations Security Council Open Debate on “Women and peace and security.” The statement highlights the participation of ethnically diverse women in peace negotiations; ensuring the security of human rights defenders, civil society activists and Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities; and inclusive monitoring and implementation of peace processes. It was originally delivered in Spanish. By Charo Mina-RojasDoes the Western Left Have an African Problem?  “Few on the broader US left can name more than a handful of African revolutionaries.” In 1983, Audre Lorde wrote that, “among those of us who share the goals of liberation and a workable future for our children, there can be no hierarchies of oppression,” and that the act of placing oppressions on a scale of hierarchal importance is an oppressive act in itself. Of course, most on the left — particularly those in Western countries who espouse anti-imperialist, antiwar, anti-colonial politics — would agree with this in theory, but many seem to fall short of this analysis of anti-hierarchal political sentiment when it comes to the continent of Africa. There seems to be a deficit of caring — or rather, caring enough to self-educate, research and act — within the Western left on the current movements, histories and activism within African countries. By Devyn Springer African Americans, Apartheid and the Cold War  “Anticommunism provided a global language that could be used to silence anti-racist organizing.” In December 1954, a message from the actor, singer and activist Paul Robeson was read aloud at the annual conference of the African National Congress (ANC) in Durban. This eloquent letter asserted Robeson’s status as a citizen of the world, as well as his commitment to the struggle against apartheid. “I know that I am ever by your side, that I am deeply proud that you are my brothers and sisters and nephews and nieces—that I sprang from your forbears,” Robeson declared, before ending his statement with the following rallying cry: “We come from a mighty, courageous people, creators of great civilizations in the past, dreamers of new ways of life in our own time and in the future. We shall win our freedoms together. Our folk will have their place in the ranks of those shaping human destiny.” By Nicholas Grant Black Agenda Radio, Week of October 30, 2017

Let White Supremacy “Fucking Die”: Sociology professor Johnny Williams is sitting out this semester under an imposed leave of absence from Trinity College, in Hartford, Connecticut, after a rightwing organization whipped up a frenzy of protest against Williams’ Facebook comments against police killings of Black people. Williams signed his remarks “Let Them Fucking Die” — by which he meant letting “whiteness and white supremacy” die. A group called Campus Reform launched a “whistle-blowing campaign to their racist base,” prompting the college to temporarily put Prof. Williams on ice.
Huey P. Newton Conference at Temple University: The Black and Brown Coalition at Philadelphia’s Temple University held a day-long conference on the works of Black Panther Party co-founder Huey P. Newton. Divya Nair, of the Philadelphia Saturday Free School, said radicals must “explore what it means to create knowledge that is in service of the people, rather than profit.” Elias Gonzalez told the conference that Temple’s “African American Studies Department — and ‘Africology’ — is riddled with purveyors of white supremacy,” while the teachings of the Black Panther Party are heard “only in whispers.”
A Glimpse of Life Under Israeli Apartheid: Christie Love, the New York City DJ and political activist, reported to the group “Existence is Resistance” on her ten-day trip to Israeli-occupied Palestine. One of the most striking features of day-to-day life under occupation is that “there are checkpoints everywhere,” said Love. “It’s stop and frisk on steroids.”

Black Agenda Radio on the Progressive Radio Network is hosted by Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey. A new edition of the program airs every Monday at 11:am ET on PRN. Length: one hour.

Cooperation Jackson: Reclaiming Democracy and Building a Solidarity Economy in Mississippi and Beyond Kali Akuno and Ajamu Nangwaya discuss building a solidarity economy at Cooperation Jackson – from the project’s roots in the New Afrikan independence movement of the 1970s to the mayoral campaigns of Chokwe and Chokwe Antar Lumumba and the formation of Cooperation Jackson in 2013. Labor:

Economy:

World:

Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz Condemns “Indefensible” Whitefish Contract & Calls for PREPA Chief’s Firing Democracy Now! goes to Puerto Rico, where the FBI is investigating the $300 million contract between Puerto Rico’s electric power company and the tiny Montana-based company Whitefish, named for the hometown of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. “It truly is unnerving that people can just swindle, swindle an entire population when they are at their most vulnerable,” says San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz. We also speak with Vice Mayor Rafael Jaume about the Whitefish contract. Health, Science, Education, and Welfare: