CounterCurrents: Who are the deplorables?, Police Blast #NoDAPL Activists With Water Cannons in Sub-Freezing Temps, What Hath Trump Wrought?

Dear Friend,

No let up in the demonetisation crisis in India. It has started to affect big businesses too. There is a good news to report today. Finally, good sense dawned on the government and allowed farmers to buy seeds for the new farming season with the old notes. That's indeed a big relief. 

Asantosh Kumar gives a fictionised, yet truthful account of what's really happening in many banks across India. A good read indeed. 

As the rupee crisis unfolds, skirmishes are happening on the border between India and Pakistan. Today, three Indian soldiers were killed one of the bodies mutilated. There were reports of casualties on the Pakistan side in the past few days. Hope you know what rulers do, in times of political crisis to divert attention? Time for concern. 

Law enforcement unleashed percussion grenades, rubber bullets, tear gas, and water cannons in sub-freezing temperatures on peaceful water protectors battling the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota late Sunday. Now with Trump to assume power, the plight of DAPL protesters look grimmer. Time for global solidarity. 

Trump presidency is a reality. No point in calling some section of society "deplorables". One and only Chris Hedges comes out with a great column which is must read for everybody. He headlines the article "We Are All Deplorables" and concludes the article saying, "our enemy is not the white working poor any more than it is African-Americans, undocumented workers, Muslims, Latinos or members of the GBLT community. The oligarchs and corporations, many of them proponents of political correctness, are our enemy. If we shed our self-righteousness and hubris, if we speak to the pain and suffering of the working poor, we will unmask the toxins of bigotry and racism. We will turn the rage of an abandoned working class, no matter what its members’ color, race or religious creed, against those who deserve it." 

William T. Hathaway, Jack A Smith, Matt Peppe and Dr Ludwig Watzal give different perspectives on the same question. 

Also more stories from around the world. 

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In Solidarity

Binu Mathew
Editor
www.countercurrents.org





Happiness In The “Demonetized Nation”
by Asantosh Kumar 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/11/22/happiness-in-the-demonetized-nation/

This is a fictitious retelling of a real life event. The arguments presented through various characters have taken place in real life only the circumstances & places have been changed.






Police Blast #NoDAPL Activists With Water Cannons in Sub-Freezing Temps
by Nika Knight 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/11/22/police-blast-nodapl-activists-with-water-cannons-in-sub-freezing-temps/

Law enforcement unleashed percussion grenades, rubber bullets, tear gas, and water cannons in sub-freezing temperatures on peaceful water protectors battling the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota late Sunday.






We Are All Deplorables
by Chris Hedges 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/11/22/we-are-all-deplorables/

Our enemy is not the white working poor any more than it is African-Americans, undocumented workers, Muslims, Latinos or members of the GBLT community. The oligarchs and corporations, many of them proponents of political correctness, are our enemy. If we shed our self-righteousness and hubris, if we speak to the pain and suffering of the working poor, we will unmask the toxins of bigotry and racism. We will turn the rage of an abandoned working class, no matter what its members’ color, race or religious creed, against those who deserve it.





Fight Back or Go Under
by William T. Hathaway 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/11/22/fight-back-or-go-under/

But what’s the alternative? Increasingly degraded lives. If we start fighting now, we’ll discover a glory in that battle, even in our losses because they teach us and make us stronger. Rebelling is invigorating. It’s an authentic life, not the superficial pleasantries of a lackey life.





What Hath Trump Wrought?
by Jack A Smith 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/11/22/what-hath-trump-wrought/

The UN Climate Change Conference in Morocco that ended Nov. 18 was shaken by the election but remained determined to move forward. Trump won’t find it easy to attain his goal. Many big U.S. corporations have awakened to the danger of climate change and are challenging his intentions.






Disrespecting the American Imperial Presidency
by Matt Peppe 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/11/22/disrespecting-the-american-imperial-presidency/

American presidents long ago became the equivalent of elected monarchs, beyond the democratic control of the those they purportedly serve. The occupant of the office is able to substitute his own judgments and whims for a universally applicable set of laws and limits on the exercise of power. It is what Dolores Vek describes as “actually existing fascism.” Both parties have contributed to it, the media has normalized it, and the public has accepted its creation and continued existence without rebelling against it. It’s time to stop treating the presidency itself with respect and start actively delegitimizing it.






Mark Zuckerberg, Don’t Get Hoodwinked By Media And Politicians
by Dr Ludwig Watzal 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/11/22/mark-zuckerberg-dont-get-hoodwinked-by-media-and-politicians/

Dear Mr. Zuckerberg, take courage, and do not interfere with ordinary folks speaking their minds despite the pressure and intimidation by the political and media class.





Restoring The Kingdom Of Hawaii versus Fake Hawaiian Statehood Day
by Professor Francis A Boyle 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/11/22/restoring-the-kingdom-of-hawaii-versus-fake-hawaiian-statehood-day/

Edited Transcripts of speeches Professor Francis A. Boyle gave in Hawaii August 20 and August 21, 2016





Bodies As Propaganda: The US-Australia Refugee Agreement
by Dr Binoy Kampmark

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/11/22/bodies-as-propaganda-the-us-australia-refugee-agreement/

Canberra stands responsible for paying the very smugglers it supposedly abhors, breaching the core refugee law provisions of non-penalisation, non-discrimination and non-refoulement. But the US-Australia arrangement is another facet of a ghastly, even archaic policy that seeks to prevent and deny the nature of the world’s global movements.





Attacks On Minorities In Bangladesh: Not  Communal But Fascistic By Nature
by Taj Hashmi    

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/11/22/attacks-on-minorities-in-bangladesh-not-communal-but-fascistic-by-nature/

Recently, Muslim mob attacks on Hindu houses and temples in Nasirnagar (Brahmanbaria) and elsewhere in Goplaganj, Chittagong, and Sunamganj districts in Bangladesh have drawn wide media attention, within and outside the country. I can’t agree more with Daily Star’s editorial (Nov 2) that Government inaction would only embolden the bigots; and that: “any mix of politics and faith cannot work a democracy…. Whoever plays with fire should know that fire would ultimately play him.”





The Idea Of Interlinking Rivers: Cupidity or Stupidity?
by S G Vombatkere 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/11/22/the-idea-of-interlinking-rivers-cupidity-or-stupidity/

Government of India needs to scrap the ILR project permanently, and look to intra-basin watershed management. The Central and State governments need to enforce water conservation by a combination of suitable, region-specific, tried and tested methods, and review agricultural and industrial water-use policy with an eye towards mitigating the certain effects of increased water-stress due to climate change.