CounterCurrents: Dakota Access Pipeline Construction To Proceed

Dear Friend,

United States Army Corps of Engineers filed documents with the US District Court in Washington, DC stating that it intends to grant an easement to Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) so that it can move forward with the completion of the Dakota Access pipeline. It also notified the Senate of its filings, stating that construction is expected to begin today. Only a court injunction can now officially block the construction.

Three commentators, Thomas Riggins, Andrea Bauer, Jon Kofas almost concur, although through different routes that Trumpism is the result of the crisis in the neoliberal capitalist world order and the huge income disparity. 

Birth Centenary of Tarimela Nagi Reddy (1917-1976), legendary  Communist Revolutionary, is currently being observed in various    programmes  at different places. As a tribute we republish an extract of Nagi Reddy's writing on class and caste. His critique is as relevant now as it was almost 50 years ago. 

And also more stories from around the world. 

If you don't mind, and if you think the content of this news letter is critical for the dignified living and survival of humanity and other species on earth, please forward it to your friends and spread the word. It's time for humanity to come together as one family! You can subscribe to our news letter here 
http://www.countercurrents.org/news-letter/. 

In Solidarity

Binu Mathew
Editor
www.countercurrents.org




Dakota Access Pipeline Construction To Proceed
by Shelley Connor 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/08/dakota-access-pipeline-construction-to-proceed/

On Tuesday, the United States Army Corps of Engineers filed documents with the US District Court in Washington, DC stating that it intends to grant an easement to Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) so that it can move forward with the completion of the Dakota Access pipeline. It also notified the Senate of its filings, stating that construction is expected to begin today. Only a court injunction can now officially block the construction.






Trumpism And The Working Class
by Thomas Riggins 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/08/trumpism-and-the-working-class/

Trumpism is not a uniquely American phenomena. It is the local variant of an ultra-right anti-establishment ideology that has a worldwide manifestation. The Trump victory is a modern day exemplification of the weakness of both the working class and the ruling establishment in the face of deteriorating conditions of world capitalism which can only maintain its profitability through military spending and environmentally destructive industrial practices that threaten the continuing existence of civilization as we know it. When capitalism is squeezed fascism and human destruction drip out as naturally as orange juice from an orange







Where We Are And How We Got Here
by Andrea Bauer

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/08/where-we-are-and-how-we-got-here/

As the political pillars on which the social compact is built begin to crumble, as rights are denied and reversed and power becomes ever more centralized, people respond with growing distrust of government and protest. The ruling class then redoubles its attacks on civil liberties while relying more heavily on state violence to quash dissent and pursue its aims at home and abroad. However, no matter to what degree protest is legislated, restricted, and hamstrung, the sharpening of irreconcilable antagonisms means one additional thing: social explosion is inevitable. 







American Police-State Militarism And Gun Violence
by Jon Kofas 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/08/american-police-state-militarism-and-gun-violence/

Contrary to the Hegelian assumption that civilization progresses in a linear mode, the contradictions of capitalism between the promise of prosperity for all, on the one hand, and the reality of perpetual capital concentration, on the other, undermines bourgeois democracy and leads toward a more militaristic-police state. The nexus of structural and behavioral violence has not been lost even on apologists of the status quo who question the degree of the militarized police in America. No one should be surprised with the US adopting police-state solutions with behavioral violence at home, considering it mirrors its military-solution approaches to political problems abroad.







Israel’s Settlers Clear Path To Annexation With New Land Law
by Jonathan Cook 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/08/israels-settlers-clear-path-to-annexation-with-new-land-law/

The Israeli parliament passed the legalisation law on Monday night – a piece of legislation every bit as suspect as its title suggests. The law widens the powers of Israeli officials to seize the final fragments of Palestinian land in the West Bank that were supposed to be off-limits.






Remembering T. Nagi Reddy
by MK Adithya 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/08/remembering-t-nagi-reddy/

Birth Centenary of Tarimela Nagi Reddy (1917-1976), legendary    Communist Revolutionary, is currently being observed in various  programmes  at different places. As a tribute we republish an extract of Nagi Reddy's writing on class and caste. His critique is as relevant now as it was almost 50 years ago. 







Digital India: Budget Fails To Address The ‘Sinful Blade Tax’
by Prof Ranjit Goswami 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/08/digital-india-budget-fails-to-address-the-sinful-blade-tax/

The Union Budget for the financial year 2017-18, presented on 1st February 2017 by India’s Finance Minister, again failed to provide what was necessary and essential, for a digital India roadmap – that of giving India’s telcos their due infrastructure status with financial benefits – as has been enjoyed by India’s power sector for long. More importantly, it failed to address the ‘sinful blade tax’, that’s being continued. In the end, it is the consumers, poor and rich who pay that near 30% taxed levied on telecom players. Arun Jaitley, to deliver the campaign of Prime Minister Modi, could have been a little more generous here – assuming ‘digital India’ is not being used as merely another cheap political slogan of this government.






Conflict Zones And Encounters: Book Review Of Blood On My Hands
by T Navin 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/08/conflict-zones-and-encounters-book-review-of-blood-on-my-hands/

Large sections of middle class either tend not to accept the reality of ‘fake or staged encounters’ or consider that excesses by armed forces are for tackling terrorism or for the integrity of the nation. The book titled ‘Blood on my Hands: Confessions of Staged Encounters’ by Kishalay Bhattarcharjee based on first hand observations through reporting on encounters and discussions with insiders from the armed forces, shows how these are often ‘fake or staged encounters’. Not only so but it also shows how they are also quite organized and a reward system is attached to the same. Hence there is an incentivising for the commitment of excesses.






How Complicit Are We All In Stalking? : Lessons From The Present
by Sabarish Suresh 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/08/how-complicit-are-we-all-in-stalking-lessons-from-the-present/

We all might concur that stalking in India is an annoyingly rampant issue. However, we must also concur that we will not be engaging with the issue entirely without engaging with the culture that furnishes a celebration, even appreciation, of stalking and voyeuristic behaviour. Two issues that have come to the light in the recent past further gives support to this point.





Curing Parkinson’s Will Take More Than Hope
by Fred Hyde 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/08/curing-parkinsons-will-take-more-than-hope/

We should join with health activists and other movements to demand taxing the rich and redirecting billions from the military to medical research, socialized health care, education, housing, public employment, social services, environmental clean-up and other pressing priorities. Our best hope for curing Parkinson’s is to work together to reorder society for human needs, not profit. Since the election of Trump, this fight is more needed than ever.