Daily News Digest Archives

Daily News Digest April 7, 2016

Inside the Panama Papers: Massive leak shows just how extensive corruption is worldwide, implicating politicians, human traffickers and drug dealers: One of the biggest leaks in history exposes how global elites and their relatives hide money in offshore tax havens by Ben Norton

Images of the Day:

Sack cartoon: The ‘Panama Papers’Steve Bell on David Cameron and the Panama PapersQuotes of the Day:

This is actually not the first time Mossack Fonseca has been exposed. Investigative journalist Ken Silverstein released a report in December 2014 detailing how the law firm works with oligarchs, money launderers and dictators. A year and a half later, however, the release of a gargantuan cache of the company’s records show just how far this network of corruption spreads around the globe. The release of the Panama Papers comes mere days after the revelation of another scandal involving the shadowy company Unaoil. An explosive investigation found that the Monaco-based company exploits the widespread corruption in the Global South, charging multinational corporations multi-million dollar fees and then bribing government officials in oil-rich countries in order to get good deals for these companies. In the process, the little-known firm fuels inequality and helps destabilize natural resource-rich conflict areas in these countries, some of which are also implicated in the Panama Papers scandal. Both leaks shine further light on the international schemes of economic and political elites. — Inside the Panama Papers: Massive leak shows just how extensive corruption is worldwide, implicating politicians, human traffickers and drug dealers

It’s hard to know where to start in tallying up the explosive revelations in the Panama Papers, an analysis of leaked documents from global law firm Mossack Fonseca revealed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). Yes, we’ve known for a while now that the shadow financial system was growing. But it’s another thing to take in 11.5 million documents showing the way in which Mossack Fonseca was working with big name financial groups like UBS, HSBC, Société Générale, and many others to help elites from the Communist Party leadership of China, to soccer star Lionel Messi, to global financiers hide cash in offshore havens around the world. It’s just the tip of a much bigger iceberg. “The size of the leak is unprecedented, but the tricks Mossack Fonseca has allegedly used for its clients are neither new nor surprising. Anonymous shell companies and the failure of governments to require lawyers, corporate service companies, or banks to collect beneficial ownership information on clients leave the door wide open for dirty money to flow around the globe virtually unhindered,” says Heather Lowe, the Director of Government Affairs for Global Financial Integrity, a Washington DC-based consultancy. — Time Magazine, The Panama Papers Could Lead to Capitalism’s Great Crisis

It is interesting but not at all mysterious that there are no Americans named in the Mossack Fonseca documents. The reason is simple. U.S. law so clearly favors the rich that they have no need to go offshore to form shell corporations. They can do so legally in Wyoming, Delaware or Nevada. Rich people everywhere know it too. No need to go to Panama or Switzerland. The U.S. is now the best tax haven on the planet. Hopefully the corporate media will decide to cover that story too. — Freedom Rider: The Panama Papers Problem

Video the Day:

In Shock to Wall Street & Washington, Puerto Rico Moves to Suspend Payments on $72B Public Debt

U.S.:

Class-Action Suit Targets System That Added a Baby to Terrorist Watchlist By Ryan Devereaux Environment:

A ‘hothouse’ Planet Earth is about to enter uncharted waters By Stewart Smith

Fossil fuel use must fall twice as fast as thought to contain global warming — study By Tim Radford

Ongoing/Big Energy Disasters!:

Energy News:

06:30 PM EST on April 4th, 2016 | Scientists: “Unprecedentedly huge mortality events” happening along US West Coast — “Die-offs… are ongoing and severe!… Really a big story” — We had diversity, we had organisms in the water… then all of a sudden we saw nothing, it was really striking (VIDEO)

Black Liberation/Civil Rights:

Freedom Rider: The Panama Papers Problem by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret KimberleyA Few Black Caucus Members Have Some Questions About Israel A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen FordPetition to Fire Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy for Gross Negligence in the Flint Water Crisis by BAR editor and columnist Dr. Marsha Coleman-AdebayoThe 2016 Elections Reflect General Crisis of Imperialism by Danny HaiphongMy Wise Country Cousin on Mule Dung at the Apollo by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat TurnerThey Call Me MISTER Picasso! by Dan De Leon Katrina, Climate Justice and Fish Dinners: Social Justice Lawyer Colette Pichon Battle By Bill QuigleyWestern Sahara: Another Misinformed Imperial Analysis by Dr. Fikrejesus AmahazionMillions Starve as Ethiopia Rejects Eritrean Ports by Thomas Mountain Labor:

Economy:

The British steel crisis and the anarchy of capitalism  By Rob Sewell

World:

The Panama Papers and the corruption of capitalism by Roberto Sarti and Ben Gliniecki

Health, Education and Welfare:

Daily News Digest Archives

Daily News Digest April 6, 2016

Images of the Day: 

‘A Little Hope’1% Robber Barons Impoverish the Nation

 Quote of the Day:

In the article’s spotlight image, Obama appears in a warm navy blue suit, his hair now sprinkled with white, his eyes creased, his smile kindly and patient, his thin hands interlaced in a laconic gesture of calm. He is perched on the edge of dark wooden stool in front of an earth-toned wall. Everything about the image implores us to sink within the hushed and stormless aura of this Nobel Prize honoree. We are thus soothed into quiescence. This is propaganda at its most proficient. It is hard for a reader to object to. After all, the atmosphere is serene, the intellectual discourse is engaging, and the intimate portrait flatters one’s curiosity about power. That other stuff, the war and the fear and the dismemberment and the fire, feels so far away. In fact, you can’t even hear the screams. — Doctrine of Denial: the Atlantic Does Obama

 Video the Day:

Syrian Ceasefire in Tatters as al-Qaida and Allies Attack in South Aleppo

 U.S.:

‘One Person, One Vote’ Supporters Better Keep the Bubbly on Ice By Bill Blum The President’s Blank Check for War by Andrew BacevichDoctrine of Denial: the Atlantic Does Obama by Jason HirthlerUS Clocks Up $33 Billion Arms Sales in Eleven Months From Wars in Middle East: “In addition, the U.S. government and industry also delivered 4,500 precision-guided munitions to the GCC countries in 2015, including 1,500 taken directly from U.S. military stocks – a significant action given our military’s own needs.” By MintPress News Desk Environment:

Report: Health Impacts from Climate Change a ‘New Kind of Threat’ (with No Easy Cure) by Nadia PrupisBusiness-as-Usual Emissions Could Deliver $24 Trillion Hit to Global Economy: London School of Economics finds that under a worst-case scenario losses could reach as high as $24.2 trillion by Lauren McCauleyThe unprecedented coral bleaching disaster at the Great Barrier Reef, explained: The unprecedented coral bleaching disaster at the Great Barrier Reef, explained By Brad Plumer

Ongoing/Big Energy Disasters!:

Keystone Leaking – ‘Smart’ PIGS Fail Again: There’s yet another leak on the Keystone Pipeline – it was discovered by a “passerby” – not TransCanada itself.  That doesn’t surprise us at all, if you’ve read my report on PIGS, you’d know why. By Greg Palast

Black Liberation/Civil Rights:

Environmental Racism: Choking to Death in Detroit: Flint Isn’t Michigan’s Only Disaster By Zoë SchlangerBlack Agenda Radio for Week of April 4, 2016

• Carolina Youths Demand Black Community Control of Police

• Cornel West Blasts Neoliberalism, Jesse Jackson Redefines “Socialism”

• Flint Water was Poisoned on Purpose

• Listen to Black Agenda Radio, Read more
  

Labor:

Economy:

World:

Russia Tells UN Security Council That Turkey Is ‘Main Supplier’ of Weapons to ISIS, Media Yawns: Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said in a letter to the UN Security Council that Turkey is the main supplier of weapons to ISIS — but the media doesn’t seem impressed By Paul KaiserHealth, Education and Welfare:

FDA Change to the ‘Abortion Pill’ Overrated by Jess GuhThe Priorities of the U.S.Diane Ravitch: Why all parents should opt their kids out of high-stakes standardized tests

 

 

Daily News Digest Archives

Daily News Digest April 5, 2016

Images of the Day:Marin Luther King’s NightmareLife Magazine: The Tiny Victims of Desert Storm —  Has Our Country Abandoned Them? (1995)

Quotes of the Day:

In the aftermath of the Charleston, South Carolina terrorism against churchgoers at a historical black church, many African Americans have decided that the they cannot rely on the police for protection. — More African-Americans Than Ever Support Carrying Legal Guns For Self-Defense

Did the U.S. government have to pay 100 cents on the dollar when AIG was unable to pay what it owed. Absolutely not. It could have negotiated prudently on behalf of the taxpayer. Instead, it doled out at least $93.2 billion as payment in full to banks and hedge funds, of which Citadel received at least $200 million. We say, at least, because all U.S. taxpayers are allowed to know in this matter by their government is what happened during that brief window of September 18 to December 12, 2008. — Citadel’s Ken Griffin: Poster Child for Americans’ Anger in this Election

Videos the Day:

Brussels Attack Bombing HOAX Western Backed ISIS EXPOSED (Redsilverj)

From Dessert Storm till today, the victims of the war in Iraq due to nuclear warfare/depleted urainium!: Ten Years Later, U.S. Has Left Iraq With Mass Displacement & Epidemic of Birth Defects, Cancers

U.S.:

Obama says he’s working towards a nuclear-free world. — That’s a lie By Trevor Timm

A Key Similarity Between Snowden Leak and Panama Papers: Scandal is What’s Been Legalized By Glenn GreenwaldThe Panama Papers: ‘Biggest Leak in History’ Exposes Global Web of Corruption

Environment:

Agriculture on the Brink  By Dahr Jamail Ongoing/Big Energy Disasters!:

Black Liberation/Civil Rights:

More African-Americans Than Ever Support Carrying Legal Guns For Self-DefenseKatrina, Climate Justice and Fish Dinners: Social Justice Lawyer Colette Pichon Battle by Bill Quigley

Labor:

Economy:

Citadel’s Ken Griffin: Poster Child for Americans’ Anger in this Election By Pam Martens and Russ Martens

World:

The Globalization of Bad Food and Poor Health by Colin Todhunter : Panama Papers reveal Ian Cameron hired Bahamas residents, including a part-time bishop, to keep offshore company exempt By Juliette Garside Execution of Palestinian Exposes Israel’s Military Culture by Jonathan Cook

A Nuclear Armageddon in the Making in South Asia By Dilip HiroDestroy Greece: ΙΜF and Europe Disagree on the Method! by Julian Assange

Health, Education and Welfare:

 

 

Daily News Digest Archives

Daily News Digest April 4, 2016

Why the Government The Assassinated Malcolm X And Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King and Dr. Benjamin Spock at the head of the Anti-Vietnam War March fromCentral Park to the United Nations Building  New York City, April 15,1967Images of the Day:

Economic Justice

Quotes of the Day:

. . . Pepper went a step beyond saying government agencies were responsible for the assassination. To whom in turn were those murderous agencies responsible? Not so much to government officials per se, Pepper asserted, as to the economic powerholders they represented who stood in the even deeper shadows behind the FBI, Army Intelligence, and their affiliates in covert action. By 1968, Pepper told the jury, “And today it is much worse in my view” – “the decision-making processes in the United States were the representatives, the footsoldiers of the very economic interests that were going to suffer as a result of these times of changes [being actived by King]. To say that U.S. government agencies killed Martin Luther King on the verge of the Poor People’s Campaign is a way into the deeper truth that the economic powers that be (which dictate the policies of those agencies) killed him. In the Memphis prelude to the Washington campaign, King posed a threat to those powers of a nonviolent revolutionary force. Just how determined they were to stop him before he reached Washington was revealed in the trial by the size and complexity of the plot to kill him. . . . — James Douglass, The Martin Luther King Conspiracy Exposed in Memphis

There is abundant evidence of a major high level conspiracy in the assassination of my husband, Martin Luther King, Jr.. And the civil court’s unanimous verdict has validated our belief. I wholeheartedly applaud the verdict of the jury and I feel that justice has been well served in their deliberations. This verdict is not only a great victory for my family, but also a great victory for America. It is a great victory for truth itself. It is important to know that this was a SWIFT verdict, delivered after about an hour of jury deliberation. The jury was clearly convinced by the extensive evidence that was presented during the trial that, in addition to Mr. Jowers, the conspiracy of the Mafia, local, state and federal government agencies, were deeply involved in the assassination of my husband. The jury also affirmed overwhelming evidence that identified someone else, not James Earl Ray, as the shooter, and that Mr. Ray was set up to take the blame.  . . . — Coretta Scott King

Videos the Day:

Who Killed Martin Luther King? By Michel Parbot

Rally and March for Chicago Teachers UnionU.S.:

The Lies of Neoliberal Economics (or How America Became a Nation of Sharecroppers) by Michael Hudson – Chris Hedges

For Israel’s Sake The Israel Lobby Must Be Held To Account By Paul Craig Roberts

Environment:

Homeless People In Atlanta Plant Organic Garden, Provide Food For Shelter Residents: The residents have already raised small crops of lettuces, collards, kale, chard and carrots.Ongoing/Big Energy Disasters!:

From Fukushima to Brussels: Why Nuclear Power Isn’t Worth the Risks by Emily Schwartz Greco

‘Bold Action Can’t Wait’: Summit Must Focus Efforts on Eliminating World’s Nukes By Andrea GermanosEnergyNews:


01:13 PM EST on March 29th, 2016 |


Black Liberation/Civil Rights:

MartinLuther King Jr. Speech: The Other America

Cuba Issues The Final Word on Assata Shakur’s Return to US: No!Labor:

Economy:

Shadow Government StatisticsCould an economic collapse be in our near future? by Systemic DisorderObama Video: President Has His Facts Seriously Wrong on Financial Reform  By Pam Martens and Russ MartensWorld:

Human Landscapes: Turkey’s Secret Trials of Journalists by Tariq Ali

The Ultimate Trial of Israeli Society by Yoav LitvinFrontline: East Jerusalem by Jennifer Loewenstein

Brazil: Unity in defence of workers’ rights and conquests! Class independence and struggle! by Esquerda Marxista (IMT Brazil)Egypt: The bloody hands of a weak regime by Peter Cork

Health, Education and Welfare:

Report Shows Breaking the Law ‘Just a Cost of Doing Business for Big Pharma’: “It’s time to stop letting the U.S. government play PhRMA’s fool.”by Deirdre Fulton, staff writer

 

Daily News Digest Archives

Daily News Digest April 1, 2016

Since World War II ‘the war to end all wars’ there have been perpetual wars for perpetual peace, this Laura Cray political cartoon is from the from page editorial, of the August 18, 1945 Issue of The Militant Newspaper, with the Banner Headline:  There Is No Peace Could Still Be Published Today!

Images of the Day:

Quotes of the Day:

“Since the Clinton era, charter school investments get automatic tax credits that allow investors to double their money in as little as 7 years…” Celebrities they say, are people who are famous for being well known, while entrepreneurs, in popular lore, are those with a talent for detecting opportunities to get paid, in much the same way crocodiles and sharks smell blood in distant waters. So the celebrity entrepreneur is all about finding ways to leverage that celebrity to get paid. In this neoliberal age of privatization, the surest way for the well-connected to get paid is to bribe public officials to help you convert public assets into your private property. Look at entrepreneur Ervin “Magic” Johnson, who gave Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel a perfectly legal $250,000 campaign donation and received an $80 million contract to replace the formerly unionized janitors in Chicago Public Schools. That’s entrepreneurship. Now principals in some of those schools are buying mops and brooms out of their own pockets to keep the filth at bay. — Bruce Dixon, Just What We Need: More Black Celebrity Charter School Crooks… I Mean ‘Entrepreneurs’

Videos the Day:

Wireless sabotage of cars

U.S.:

Fools Fighting Terror with Terror by John LaforgeThe Foreign Policy Establishment Strikes Back at Obama by Melvin Goodman

The CIA and the Pentagon Are Shooting at Each Other By William Rivers PittEnvironment:

Ongoing/Big Energy Disasters!:

With Quakes, Toxic Water, and Emissions, ‘No Surprise’ Support for Fracking on Decline: Obama and presidential candidates should ‘catch up with the will of the people,’ as majority of Americans now opposed by With Quakes, Toxic Water, and Emissions, ‘No Surprise’ Support for Fracking on Decline by Lauren McCauleyGovernor Malloy, Singin’ in the Methane: Capitalism vs. Planet by Dan Fischer

EnergyNews:

01:13 PM EST on March 29th, 2016 |

Black Liberation/Civil Rights:

Trump Way to the Left of Clinton on Foreign Policy – In Fact, He’s Damn Near Anti-Empire http://www.blackagendareport.com/trump_anti-empire by BAR executive editor Glen Ford Just What We Need: More Black Celebrity Charter School Crooks… I Mean ‘Entrepreneurs’ A Black Agenda Radio Commentary by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

Labor:

Chicago Teachers Union seeks furlough trade for April 1 walkout: Chicago Teachers Union members and others rally Feb. 4, 2016, with a march through Chicago’s Loop. By Brian Cassella

Economy:

Obama Video: President Has His Facts Seriously Wrong on Financial Reform By Pam Martens and Russ MartensWorld:

Health, Education and Welfare:

 Daily News Digest March 31, 2016

Images of the Day:

Why?

Quotes of the Day:

This latest terrorist outrage for which ISIS claimed responsibility exhibits the new face of 21st century warfare for which there are no front lines, no path to military victory, and acute civilian vulnerability. As such, it represents a radical challenge to our traditional understanding of warfare, and unless responses are shaped by these realities, it could drive Western democracies step by step into an enthused political embrace and revived actuality of fascist politics. — Reflections on the Brussels Attacks

Videos the Day:

Banks are about to get worse — Introducing the world of bail ins: Banks to cover next round of losses with your cash

U.S.:

Reflections on the Brussels Attacks by Richard FalkIn Coal Blood: Feds Seek Maximum Sentence for Don Blankenship: The former Massey Energy CEO was convicted of violating the nation’s coal mine health and safety laws in connection with the April 2010 explosion at Massey’s Upper Big Branch mine that killed 29 miners. by Russell Mokhiber Environment:

Arctic sea ice extent breaks record low for winter: A record expanse of Arctic sea never froze over this winter and remained open water as a season of freakishly high temperatures produced deep – and likely irreversible – changes on the far north. By Suzanne Goldenberg

Ongoing/Big Energy Disasters!:

Deafening Atlantic oil prospecting to go ahead despite threat to marine life: The Obama administration is to allow surveying of the seabed using seismic airguns that have been likened to a ‘grenade blast’ for whales and other creatures By Oliver Milman

EnergyNews:

01:13 PM EST on March 29th, 2016 | “Mind Blowing”: Die-off in Pacific far worse than anything ever seen before — Expert: Alarm over what’s happening in ocean — Deaths puzzling gov’t scientists, “I’ve never heard of such a thing anywhere in world” — Reports: Beaches full of bodies… Countless carcasses — Official: We want to know if it’s related to Fukushima (VIDEO)

Black Liberation/Civil Rights:

Freedom Rider: Hillary Clinton is No Worse than Barack Obama by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley Black Brooklyn DA’s Leniency for Killer Cop Shows the “Whole System is Guilty as Hell” A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford Investigation into Flint: Children in the Crosshairs by BAR editor and columnist Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo Hillary Clinton: Predictably Zionist by Danny Haiphong Class Struggle and National Liberation in the Movement for Black Lives by Benjamin Woods The Racist Dawn of Capitalism: Unearthing the Economy of Bondage by Peter James Hudson

 A World War has Begun. Break the Silence by John Pilger Obama in Cuba: How “Political Prisoners” Made the Media Headlines by Arnold AugustFidel’s Letter to “Brother Obama” by Fidel Castro RuzAmerica, We Have a Problem: Homelessness is Out of Control by Cynthia McKinney Labor:

Is This Class Warfare? by Mike Whitney

Economy:

GAO Has Been Telling Congress that Financial Regulation Is in Disarray for 20 Years By Pam Martens and Russ Martens

World:

International Injustice: the Conviction of Radovan Karadzic by Diana Johnstone

Health, Education and Welfare:

Images of the Day:

When I think of Belgium I think of how King Leopold used it as his personal rubber production slave plantation and killed 10 million people. I think of how they killed Patrice Lumumba (man in the photo) when he fought for true independence. — Margaret Kimberley Liberals

Quote of the Day:

Right now, massive numbers of fish and sea creatures are dying in the Pacific Ocean. In addition, independent tests have shown that significant levels of cesium-137. Divers were out in Puget Sound waters Saturday to see if they can help solve a mystery. Scientists are trying to figure out what’s causing one species of starfish to die in parts of Puget Sound and the waters off of Canada. Something Is Killing Life All Over The Pacific Ocean

Video of the Day:

The false flag attack against Cuba — A serious plan hatched by the Pentagon

U.S.:

On pardons, Obama could go down as one of the most merciless presidents in historyCriminal Bankers Control US Government Push War — Paul Craig Roberts By Greg HunterEnvironment:

 UN Begins Negotiations on Treaty to Protect Marine Resources By Thalif Deen The World Is Not Converting to Renewable Energy Fast Enough to Save It By Tim Radford Something Is Killing Life All Over The Pacific Ocean by Michael Snyder

Ongoing/Big Energy Disasters!:

 Black Liberation/Civil Rights:

Why the EPA Must Clean Up Environmental Racism and Toxic Injustice By Gerald L. Durley and Marc A. YaggiBlack Agenda Radio for Week of March 28, 2016

Listen to Black Agenda Radio for Week of March 28, 2016

Colonial Chickens Come Home to Roost in the West

No Slavery Remembrance Day at the White House

Newark City Council Approves Police Review Board

Labor:

Why I am walking out with the CTU on April 1

Economy:

The global debt reckoning – Total global debt at $230 trillion. Total world debt over 300 percent annual GDP. There is no escape from a reckoning with debt markets. New $25 Million Fraud on Wall Street Is Making Some Rich Guys Nervous By Pam Martens and Russ Martens

World:

Irish Unification Remains the Issue: Easter Rebels Vindicated by New Report by Dan Glazebrook

Growing International Movement Seeks to Place Arms Embargo on Saudi Arabia

Health, Education and Welfare:

US Doctor Group Demands Price Controls for Out-of-Control Drug Industry by Nadia Prupis

Daily News Digest Archive

Image of the Day:

Capitalist Life

Quotes of the Day:

Obama made a speech in which he uses the most sweetened words to express: “It is time, now, to forget the past, leave the past behind, let us look to the future together, a future of hope. And it won’t be easy, there will be challenges and we must give it time; but my stay here gives me more hope in what we can do together as friends, as family, as neighbors, together.” I suppose all of us were at risk of a heart attack upon hearing these words from the President of the United States. After a ruthless blockade that has lasted almost 60 years, and what about those who have died in the mercenary attacks on Cuban ships and ports, an airliner full of passengers blown up in midair, mercenary invasions, multiple acts of violence and coercion? Nobody should be under the illusion that the people of this dignified and selfless country will renounce the glory, the rights, or the spiritual wealth they have gained with the development of education, science and culture. I also warn that we are capable of producing the food and material riches we need with the efforts and intelligence of our people. We do not need the empire to give us anything. Our efforts will be legal and peaceful, as this is our commitment to peace and fraternity among all human beings who live on this planet. — Fidel Castro, Brother Obama: We don’t need the empire to give us anything. Our efforts will be legal and peaceful, because our commitment is to peace and fraternity among all human beings who live on this planet.

Videos the Day:

The system is clearly not working — The crisis of dog-eat-dog style capitalism: But in the US, it’s total “radio silence” on this subject

Bernadette McAliskey on the centenary of the Easter Rising

U.S.:

US ground troops are back in Iraq as Iraqi division hides in the mountains: Isis killed and injured US Marines whom the Pentagon said were not in Iraq as they defended a front line base abandoned by Iraqi troops By Patrick Cockburn50 Years Ago I was On this Demonstration: New York’s Fifth Avenue on March 26, 1966, demonstration against the US intervention in Vietnam. AP The Trillion Dollar Question the Media Have Neglected to Ask Presidential Candidates: The American people will be footing the bill — but, by and large, they haven’t heard much about our country’s planned trillion-dollar nuclear weapons upgrade. By Lawrence WittnerCIA Photographed Detainees Naked and Bound Before Extraditing Them for Torture: ‘Stripping suspects, taking humiliating photographs of them, sending them around the world into the hands of torturers: these sound like the actions of a crazed dictatorship’by Nika Knight

Does The United States Still Exist? By  Paul Craig Roberts

Chopping the Bill of Rights http://www.mitchellteachers.org/USHistory/Constitution/BillofRightsLesson.html

Subsidized to the End: Not Even Corporate Welfare Can Save Big Coal By Ben Jervey

Environment:

Climate Disruption in Overdrive: Submerged Cities and Melting That “Feeds on Itself” By Dahr Jamail Ongoing/Big Energy Disasters!:

Happy Anniversary! Three Mile Island Disaster – March 28,1979

Nuclear Power Plants: Pre-Deployed WMDs by Karl Grossman

 Black Liberation/Civil Rights:

 Labor:

 Economy:

World:

Fidel Castro: Cuba Needs No Gifts from United States

Protests in Yemen against Saudi-led coalition on air strikes anniversary Isis may have lost the battle of Palmyra, but it’s not lost the war: The successful advance of the army marks an important moment for Assad, but it will be difficult for to them to gain much ground further east  Patrick CockburnPakistan: When terrorism becomes a strategic asset! by Adam Pal

Health, Education and Welfare:

State of Education

 

Daily News Digest March 28, 2016

Images of the Day:

Whom Will You Choose — the Fox or the Wolf?

I Stand With The Teachers!Quotes of the Day:

Sawant was an opening speaker at a 20,000 plus Sanders rally. While it’s great that a socialist gets to speak in front of that large a crowd, I ask — at what price? As long as working people are subordinated to the Democratic party, real social change (social revolution) won’t happen. Sawant’s group, by creating illusions in Bernie’s so-called political revolution, are acting as fleas on the capitalist sheepdog candidate. From professed revolutionaries to reformists in a matter of months. Disappointing. — John T. Kaye

. . .For all that is done and said. We know their dream; enough To know they dreamed and are dead; And what if excess of love Bewildered them till they died? I write it out in a verse — MacDonagh and MacBride And Connolly and Pearse Now and in time to be, Wherever green is worn, Are changed, changed utterly: A terrible beauty is born. —William Butler Yeats

Videos the Day:

Audio: Post Obama Struggle For Public Education Shifts To The States

The Anarchist Kid “I dislike all forms of government”

U.S.:

Somethings Never Change Except Now the Wars are Endless! Highlighting Western Victims While Ignoring Victims of Western Violence By Glenn GreenwaldImperial Math: Counting the Dead by Thomas S. Harrington Brussels Attack Looks Like Another False Flag. Here’s Why Is the Latest “ISIS Attack” Another False Flag? By Paul Craig Roberts

Brussels: Just the Latest Failure of the ‘War on Terror’ by Paul Gottinger

Environment:

How the World’s Biggest Polluters are Two Trade Deals Away from Steamrolling Climate Protections:”45 of the 50 private corporations historically responsible for the most climate-disrupting emissions” would be emboldened to challenge climate protections by Andrea Germanos

Ongoing/Big Energy Disasters!:

TEPCO says 5.3 tons of tainted water leaked at nuclear plant World’s richest oil family is dumping oil because of climate By Stuart Smith Black Liberation/Civil Rights:Good News, Bad News as Post-Obama Fight For Public Education Goes Local A Black Agenda Radio Commentary by BAR managing editor Bruce A. DixonThe Democratic Road to Black Ruin by BAR executive editor Glen Ford Labor:

Chicago Teachers Union Overwhelmingly Votes To Strike April 1 By Joe Ward

Economy:

 The Great Ponzi Scheme of the Global Economy by Michael Hudson and  Chris HedgesThe Entire Economy Is a Ponzi Scheme. The Global Financial System is Insolvent

World:

UN passes resolution to ‘blacklist’ companies linked to Israeli settlements By i24newsHuman Rights

Come on Down for the RisingEaster 1916: Who Were Connolly and Pearce? by John Wight

The War on Democracy in Latin America: Interview with John Pilger by Edu Montesanti EU-Turkey refugee deal of shame by Jorge Martín Pakistan: Pakistan International Airlines – the struggle continues by Rob Sewell

Health, Education and Welfare:

Image of the Day:

Quotes of the Day:

Yet again we saw this morning the ruthless killing of innocent people as they went about their daily lives. Marxists condemn such acts of terror, in the same way that they condemn the killing of thousands of people in Syria and other war-torn countries. The point is: what can be done to put an end to this barbarism? — Bomb attacks in Brussels – what will they lead to?

In contrast, Obama’s only took three hours to arrive on Air Force One. Those three hours may well turn out to be the most important in the island’s history since the Cuban Revolution of 1959, ending the country’s isolation and allowing its people to hope that the economic privations of the past will not be part of their future. The survival of a revolution that has achieved so much in spite of those privations will depend on the worth the current generation of Cubans attaches to the bonds of human solidarity that previous generations have struggled to preserve. — John Wight, Obama and Cuba: End of a Revolution?

. . . President Obama knew it was impolitic to play his hypocritical human rights game while in the presence of Cuban President Raul Castro, in Havana, this week. So Obama had one of his kiss-up White House reporters do the sneak attack for him. CNN’s Jim Acosta, the son of a Cuban exile, asked President Castro why his country kept political prisoners. Castro replied, “What political prisoners?” and asked Acosta to provide a list of such people. It was an awkward moment – not diplomatic at all – but Obama was clearly enjoying it. And, well he might, because neither Jim Acosta nor any of the other corporate mouthpieces in the White House press corps would dare, or even think, to ask a U.S. president about the plight of American political prisoners. . . . — Raul Castro Should Ask Obama: What About U.S. Political Prisoners?

Videos the Day:

Audio: Raul Castro Should Ask Obama: What About U.S. Political Prisoners?

The Issues Threatening Everyday Planetary Life by Helen Caldicott

Blueprint for Global Control: How the UN operated Agenda 21 will accomplish this, Under the guide of sustainable development

Obama:”I Am Really Good At Killing People” – YouTube

U.S.:

A World War has Begun: Break the Silence by John Pilger

‘Killer’ Obama Strikes Again!: Massive US airstrike in Yemen kills ‘dozens’ of people, Pentagon says

We Are Number #1!: President Obama’s Lesser-Known Legacy: “Arms Dealer in Chief”

Former Nixon Aide: Drug War’s True Aim to “Disrupt” Black Communities: ‘By getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities.’ By Nadia Prupis

Environment:

Fossil fuel use must fall twice as fast as thought to contain global warming – study: Available carbon budget is half as big as thought if global warming is to be kept within 2C limit agreed internationally as being the point of no return, researchers say. Climate News Network reports

 

Los Angeles water agency trying to purchase Delta islands By Matthias Gafni

Ongoing/Big Energy Disasters!:As Obama Sells Pollution at Superdome, Protesters Demand: ‘No New Leases!’

EnergyNews:

10:04 AM EST on March 23rd, 2016 | Cemetery full of dead babies missing brains next to US nuclear site — Funeral Director: Almost all infants we have died the same way… “that’s pretty much all I see on death certificates” — Few miles from “most contaminated place in hemisphere” — “One of largest documented anencephaly clusters in US history” (VIDEO)

12:13 PM EST on March 22nd, 2016 | “BREAKING: Belgian nuclear power plants evacuated” after terror attacks — Multiple reactor sites cleared “amid heightened fears of another attack” — Military and armed police on scene — Capitol on lockdown after dozens killed — “Dismembered bodies everywhere… It’s like the apocalypse” (VIDEO)

Black Liberation/Civil Rights:

Freedom Rider: Democrats and the SCOTUS Scam by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley

Raul Castro Should Ask Obama: What About U.S. Political Prisoners? A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford

EPA Officials Didn’t “Want to go Out on a Limb” for the People of Flint by BAR editor and columnist Dr. Marsha Coleman-AdebayoBlack Study, Black Struggle by Robin D.G. Kelley

Letter from Brazil: Before There Was Liberation Theology There Was Candomblé  by Julian ColConfessions of a Neo-Caucasian by Mark P. FancherWhat if Most Trump Supporters Were People of Color or Muslims? by Solomon Comissiong

Labor:

Economy:

Can You Figure Out What This Chart Means? by Mike Whitney

World:

Bomb attacks in Brussels – what will they lead to? By Fred Weston

Health, Education and Welfare:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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My name is Roland Sheppard, I am a retired Business Representative of Painters Local #4 in San Francisco. I have been a life long social activist and socialist. Prior to my being elected as a union official in 1994, I worked for 31 years as a house painter. My web page stands for equality of all people, These essays are written from my ground floor view as a participant in the Antiwar movement, the Black Liberation Movement, the Women’s Movement and the struggle for workers democracy and freedom for all humanity. For Socialism!

These are my essays from my perch on the Painter’s Ladder. I was in the words of Robert Tressell, a Ragged Trousered Philanthropist, a phrase that Tressell used, in his book, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist, to explain the exploitation of workers, under capitalism, who willingly sell their labor and donate the surplus value, which their labor produces, to the boss. (Hear A Lecture About The Ragged Troussard Philanthropist)

I have led a unique life. I am one, of the few people remaining, who was at the Audubon Ballroom when Malcolm X was assassinated.

House painting was my vocation, but working for a better world has been my lifelong avocation. I became especially interested in the environment when I was diagnosed with cancer due to my work environment as a painter.

I learned how to write essays, when I first got a computer, in 1998.  Using the Internet and my word processor, I was able to put together all the medical legal arguments on my breakthrough workers’ compensation case in California, proving that my work environment, as a painter, had caused my cancer. During the course of the five-year struggle, I won a $300,000 settlement of my court case and, incidentally, I learned how to write.

In my retirement, I am writing about my life experiences as a socialist, as a participant in the Black Liberation Movement, the Union Movement, and almost all social movements. My ‘blog’ is based upon my involvement in the struggle for workers democracy and freedom for all humanity. It is my hope that these essays, which I regularly update, when I discover more facts, will help future generations of Freedom Fighters.

Yours for freedom,

Roland Sheppard info@rolandsheppard.com