Posts that I especially recommend for Wednesday, April 28, 2021

• mRNA vaccines: Pros and cons by Dennis Etler from CGTN, (Note: I post this from a credible source in the interest of balanced reporting.) My reaction: "It seems that many people are highly skeptical of this and other new technologies." People are skeptical because they have been lied to consistently about important events. And, when the ruling class puts so much fear, uses fake statistics (from PCR tests, bribe hospitals, pressure doctors to claim patients died for Covid-19, etc.), and with billionaires behind the promotion of mRNA vaccines, there are sound reasons to be suspicious.

• A Letter to a Friend Who Recently Had Gene Therapy from New BraveWorld.

• Do Vaccines Make Us Healthier? by Children's Health Defense Team from their The Defender weblog. (Note: This article consists of a 14:31m video review of medical research.)
  

• How the Media Helped Democrats Spin the Pandemic by Arthur Tarley from Current Affairs.

• UK Hiring COVID Marshals to Patrol Streets Until 2023 Despite Lockdown Restrictions Supposedly Ending in June by Paul Joseph Watson from Summit News, a British media company.
  

• Vienna Shadow Play Hangs over Iran Nuke Deal by Pepe Escobar from Global Research. (Note: The "JCPOA" refers to this concise explanation.)
  

Iranian missile technology as top strategic deterrence. Now that’s the shadowplay that turns Vienna into a sideshow.

• The CIA Has Been Taking Over for Decades — Even Former Presidents Tried to Warn Us by Lee Camp from Scheerpost. (Note: For more background, read my commentary to a previous post,)

• World police: Washington seeks to imprison foreign businesspeople for violating illegal US sanctions by Stansfield Smith from The Grayzone. (Note: Smith goes explains in detail all the effects that the Empire's capitalists can impose on individuals and citizens through the use of sanctions on the targeted countries.)
  

• When Did the “Cold War” End? Part III by Vladimir Acosta from Internationalist 360°. (Note: Because our institutions will rarely tell the truth, I always like to inform people of a true history. This article reports on the period from the fall of the Soviet Union, and is an accurate piece of history as you will ever find.)

• US Role Behind the Defeat of Ecuador’s Leftist Presidential Candidate by Roger Harris from Mint Press News. My short commentary follows: 

There is much to be learned about this story that Harris doesn't mention. It is the story of the human species whose failure to adapt to the web of life on our quite exceptional planet will cause our species, along with many others, to become extinct within decades. Sadly, it is much too late to do anything to prevent this from happening.

 

It is also a story of capitalism, a system that promotes the accumulation of wealth within families who use all manner of sociopathic weapons to accumulate their wealth: violence, bribes, deception, etc. And with wealth comes power and control. In the latter stages of capitalism that we are in now, we find wealth/power consolidated in very few hands, and, like their ancestors, capitalists will do everything they can to enhance their wealth/power: the use of mainly deception, bribes, and their control over careers. But these weapons don't assure success for capitalists in every situation. Then they, like their ancestors, can rely on the use of outright violence that stems from their overwhelming control over military and police. Have noticed that government spending on the military has gone up substantially every year? 

• The CIA’s Chinese Walls by Craig Murray, an independent blogger from Scotland, from his weblog.

• The Global Deep State: A New World Order Brought to You by COVID-19 by John W. Whitehead and Nisha Whitehead from their weblog The Rutherford Institute. (Note: I prefer the more accurate term: the "Empire's transnational capitalist Deep State" rather than the "Global Deep State". It's not global without Russia and China.
  

• China and Africa: the Black Alliance for Peace’s AFRICOM Watch Bulletin by Danny Haiphong from Black Agenda Report.
  

• HI-SEAS Mars/Moon Habitat: Scientists Don Spacesuits to Explore Hawaiian Lava Tubes As if They Were on Mars by European Geosciences Union from SciTechDaily. My reaction: I wonder if you know that most space travel research, which is very expensive, is supported by ruling classes of capitalists who want to escape Earth when it becomes inhabitable due to their rule. This is entirely the reason for this article inclusion--therefore, don't read it. Just thought you should know.
  

• Biden’s Climate Plan: It’s Too Late for Gradualism by Howie Hawkins from CounterPunch. 

• Pollution Report: Oceans are ‘at the precipice of disaster’ from Climate & Capitalism.

• More Than a Third of Antarctic Ice Shelf Area at Risk of Collapse As Planet Warms from SciTechDaily. 

• Science Update: Human Population Growth features Prof. (retired) Guy McPherson, an independent scientist who has focused on the climate crisis, from his YouTube channel in a 6:06m YouTube video. My reaction: Notice he says roughly at 02:36m "too many rich people like those from the United States and Japan and western Europe and the so-called First World--that's what brought us to the brink. That's what brings us this mess that we're in right now." Aren't all these countries a part of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire that practice thoroughly a capitalist system? And he wrongly includes under the heading "rich people" all the people in these countries. I forgive him because he is a biologist--not a social scientist nor much less, a socialist social scientist.
  

Posts that I especially recommend for Sunday, April 18, 2021

• Open Letter to a Friend Who “Tested Positive”…and Should Have Known Better by Jerry Bernini from Off-Guardian. 

• Are Conversations About COVID Vaccines Fracturing Your Family? Here’s What You Need to Know. By Children's Health Defense Team from their website.   

• On Contact: Securing Democracy with Glenn Greenwald featuring Chris Hodges interviewing Greenwald on Hodges' YouTube channel (25:32m). 

• Uganda Dictatorship: Imperialism’s Pearl of Africa featuring Abbie Martin speaking in a 16 minute YouTube video from her weblog Media Roots about the history of Uganda that continues today under the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire.

• A School for Spooks: The London University Department Churning Out NATO Spies by Alan Macleod from Mint Press News.
  

A prestigious university located in the heart of London, King’s College has, in its own words, “a number of contracts and agreements with various departments within government, including the Cabinet Office, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and the Ministry of Defence.” Some of those contracts are up to 10 years long. The university has so far refused to elaborate on the agreements, telling investigative news outlet Declassified UK that doing so could undermine U.K. security services.

• Three China reads: 3, Global reach by Philip Roddis, an independent British blogger, from his personal weblog Steel City Scribblings. 
  

• So Who Wants a Hot War? by Pepe Escobar from Strategic Culture Foundation.

• US President Joe Biden’s Shameful Push for War with China and Russia by John Stanton from Dissident Voice.
  

• Ukraine Plays with Fire as NATO Moves Dangerously Close to Russia’s Border by Denis Lukyanov from Internationalist 360°.

• Why Xinjiang is Emerging as the Epicenter of the U.S. Cold War on China by Vijay Prashad and Jie Xiong from Internationalist 360°.

• How to Keep Poor Countries Poor — The Absurdity of Comparative Advantage by Rod Driver from his weblog Elephants in the Room. My reaction: The article describes how the capitalist system works on an international scale.
  

• How the Rich Keep Workers Poor — Outsourcing and Sweatshops by Rod Driver from his weblog Elephants in the Room. My reaction: Notice that he only makes unidentified references to "a system". He is another author who regards capitalism as another reality like the sun, moon, and stars instead of man-made. Therefore his recommended "solutions" are merely reforms and absolutely ineffective.

• Military Bases Housing Migrant Children Plagued by Serial Sexual Abuse Claims by Whitney Webb from her weblog Unlimited Hangout. 

• Six Months to Prevent a Hostile Takeover of Food Systems, and 25 Years to Transform Them by Nick Jacobs from Common Dreams.

... the keys of the food system are already being handed over to data platforms, e-commerce giants, and private equity firms. This could mean dismantling the diversified food webs that sustain 70% of the world's population and provide environmental resilience. It could mean putting the food security of billions of people at the mercy of high-risk AI-controlled farming systems and opaque supply corridors.

And yet, there is nothing inevitable about this dystopian future. 

 

I think that as long as we tolerate capitalism and its goal to maximize only profits, a dystopian future is guaranteed. I am not only referencing the ultimate extinction that we will inevitably experience, but I am arguing that in the time we have left if we do not reject capitalism and replace it with socialism (a system of governance that publicly owns and controls the economy for the benefit of all people) that a near-term dystopian future is guaranteed.

• Fukushima Daiichi Radioactive Dumping and the Summer Olympics in Japan In Question by Vladimir Odintsov from New Eastern Outlook.
  
   
  ... according to Kyodo, which recently conducted a social survey of residents about the holding of the Olympics in Tokyo, most Japanese residents oppose its holding in 2021. 39% of the Japanese surveyed were in favor of canceling the Games, and about 33% were in favor of postponing the Olympics. Only 24.5% of Japanese residents are positive about the fact that thousands of athletes from all over the world will come to the Japanese capital in the summer of 2021. [I supplied this link.]

  
  

  In these conditions, the new Japanese government, balancing on the mood of the population of its country, has been looking for an opportunity for several months to find an objective reason for canceling the Olympic Games and report it “without losing face.” Finally, as reported by the British The Times, citing responsible sources, the Japanese government is still tacitly inclined to the decision to cancel the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo “because of the Covid-19 pandemic”, intending, nevertheless, to claim the right to hosting the 2032 Games.

Posts that I especially recommend for Thursday, March 18, 2021

• 💥Vaccine Passports and Medical Martial Law by Jesse Smith from his weblog Truth Unmuted. This is a best post.

• Our Digital Gulag on The Last American Vagabond posted on Corbett's website (if you haven't already, listen to the same discussion on this "best post" a few days ago from The Last American Vagabond's website.)
  

• Money Is Made Up And We Can Change The Rules Whenever We Want by Caitlin Johnston, an independent Australian blogger, from her website. 

• Britain’s Secret Political Police by Asa Winstanley from Internationalist 360°. 

• Journalists, Illustrating How They Operate, Yesterday Spread a Significant Lie All Over Twitter by Glenn Greenwald from his weblog in Substack. My commentary follows: 

Although Greenwald lambasts the journalist profession with a "holier than thou" tone, he only lamely examines the reasons why most of the profession has been corrupted. It is the corruption of this profession that is the root of so much ignorance among ordinary Americans about what their ruling class and its government are doing. 

 

The corruption of government is another subject that needs exploring by brave (suicidal) people, and a few are doing this. Many members of the legal profession, of which Greenwald is a member, collude in government with liars in the secret services, corporation execs, and the whole fascist Deep State. Maybe he should stick to his own profession with his lofty principles. It is the story that needs to be reported, but a relatively few people are doing it, and mostly in alternative media. These few courageous people are constantly faced with innumerable difficulties such as begging for funding from the public, lack of resources to do their job, constantly labeled by mainstream journalists as engaging in "conspiracy theories", and under constant attack by ruling class censors posing as "fact-checkers", etc.

 

The major problem is the overwhelming power of the capitalist leviathan that has grown to the fascist monster that it is during the past several hundred years. Oh, it was cute as an infant and few people saw that it had the potential to become the bête noire that it is today. Nowadays, it is in control of an empire, all institutions therein, control of nearly all jobs and careers, and in control of resources, wealth, and power that could only be dreamed about by earlier ruling classes.

• AOC Theatrically Gaslights Working People Over Stimulus Bill featuring Jimmy Dore (with Ron Placone) via his YouTube channel (18:32m) showing how a "progressive" member of the workingman's Democratic Party gaslights the general public.

• House Hearing Provides a Message to Robinhood Traders: Retail Investors Lose Consistently When They Actively Trade their Own Account by Pam & Russ Martens from their weblog Wall Street on Parade. 

• For Leviathan, it’s so cold in Alaska by Pepe Escobar from "The Saker" weblog. (Note: Escobar, a Brazilian journalist, brings his great geopolitical expertise to focus on two meetings between two top antagonists--the super-aggressive US/Anglo/Zionist Empire versus those nations (Russia-China-Iran alliance) which insist on a multipolar world. You will need to know what he means when he references "the Quad"; also here are the lyrics to Caroline Says II.)
  

• DISCUSS: President Magufuli dead at 61 from Off-Guardian. My reaction: This is what invariably happens to those leaders who oppose the Empire's policies and actions. The leaders don't even have to be from a foreign country. The assassination of the Kennedy brothers demonstrates this.
  

• ‘Independent’ report claiming Uyghur genocide brought to you by sham university, neocon ideologues lobbying to ‘punish’ China by Ajit Singh from The Grayzone. 

• British policy in Syria is a vindictive campaign to crush Syrian/Russian relations by Vanessa Beeley from her weblog The Wall Will Fall. My reaction: Britain is, of course, part of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire, and as such this policy applies to all of the Empire.

• Self-Reinforcing Feedback Loop #2, Climate-Change Summary by Prof. (retired) Guy McPherson from his YouTube channel (2:43m).
  

Posts that I especially recommend for Sunday, February 21, 2021

• Covid Karma: U.S. Lockdown Kings Gavin Newsom and Andrew Cuomo Suffer Political Fallout by Robert Bridge from Strategic Culture Foundation.

• “We Don’t Debate with Anti-Vaxxers Whether They’re Right Or Wrong”, Says BBC by Dr. Vernon Coleman (23:48) from EarthNewspaper.

• Musings From Dystopia, a 29:40m video featuring Dave Cullen from his channel Computing Forever on Bitchute. My commentary follows: 

I object to his and other dissidents' statements impugning the climate crisis that we already in. The climate crisis is real and the ruling capitalist classes know it, but they themselves are guilty of causing it. Furthermore, they have chosen the wrong solution--depopulation of "useless eaters", that is, people who don't contribute to the profits of corporations. 

 

And, he is wrong about associating the coronavirus strategies used by capitalist governments with socialism/communism. Cullen's views have been shaped by schools in capitalist Ireland. He mentions billionaires and the rich, but he doesn't associate this with anything--it's just a fact of life like the air we breathe, not a system that capitalists have created to serve their needs of wealth and power. Again, like a good anarchist, he targets the "state" as being the villain. The Irish capitalists will love him for this. But I agree with the rest of his observations regarding the governments' solutions.

• Is there a remedy for the PCR disease? (Part 1) by T.P. Wilkinson from Dissident Voice. (This article features an important 48:49m video in which "Dr Füllmich, a German attorney, explains why the evidence to date warrants not only charges of fraud (not negligence) and crimes against humanity".)
  

• Killing Revolution in Bahrain, U.S.-UK Plotted Regime Change in Libya, Syria by Finian Cunningham from Strategic Culture Foundation.

• Haiti's Century of US Coups, Invasions & Puppets featuring Abby Martin providing a brief history of this tormented nation from her channel on YouTube in an 8:47m video.

Amidst mass protests against their US-backed dictator, Abby Martin covers how the American Empire has determined the destiny of the Haitian people for generations. 

• Reuters, BBC, and Bellingcat participated in covert UK Foreign Office-funded programs to “weaken Russia,” leaked docs reveal by Max Blumenthal from The Grayzone. 
  

• On Not Being a Princess by Craig Murray, an independent blogger from Scotland.

• The Urge to Dominate by Nathan J. Robinson from Current Affairs. (Personal note: I remember in the late 1980s I went to a San Francisco store that advertised as having 10,000 games. I wanted to purchase a cooperative game, but I discovered they had none. I think this experience illustrates the power of a ruling class to shape all institutions in society, even games. Unlike the author, I think cooperative games can be fun, but it teaches values and methods of cooperation not competition which is incompatible with the underlying capitalist system or any other authoritarian and class-based system.
  

• UN Head Decries 'Senseless and Suicidal' Destruction of Nature as New Report Urges Systemic Solutions by Brett Wilkins from Common Dreams. My reaction: Yes, a system solution is most urgent, that is, a change from capitalism to something that is compatible with Earth's ecosystem.
  

Posts that I especially recommend today: Friday, December 4, 2020

•  Stealing Mineral Wealth for Corporate Interests: U.S. Bankrolled Mass Murder of Millions in Central Africa by Jeremy Kuzmarov from Internationalist 360°. (Note: I can only recommend this article as outstanding after perusing nearly 50 articles. Although this article is based on a single book, it has a ring of authenticity to it. I was around was around when President Lumumba of the Congo was assassinated in 1961, and knew about the CIA backing of this murder through more obscure publications on the left. Yes, the ruling class was censoring information that they didn't want people to know way back in 1961.)

Posts that I especially recommend today: Wednesday, July 15, 2020

• COVID-19 Corruption: Wealthy and Well Connected Get Rich while People Suffer by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers from Dissident Voice.

• Warnings Grow: “We Are in a Massive Economic Downturn” by Pam and Russ Martins from their weblog Wall Street on Parade.

• The Media's Jihad against Sweden's No-Lockdown Policy Ignores Key Facts by Ryan McMaken from Mises Institute. (My reaction: And, the Swedes didn't destroy much of the economy that sustained "deplorables" working people.)

• Rockefeller Foundation keeps working on their autocratic Lock Step scenario by Norbert Häring (German economist) from his weblog Money and more.

• America, You’ve Been Blacklisted: McCarthyism Refashioned for a New Age by John W. Whitehead from his weblog The Rutherford Institute.

• USA: Warrior Cops by Morgan Artyukhina from Internationalist 360°.

• The Great American Firewall: On the Question of Censorship by Danny Haiphong from Black Agenda Report. (One proviso (def.): Freedom of speech is upheld if a person is not considered influential. I can get by with calling for revolution, pointing to a Deep State, criticizing imperial policies, etc. because I am not a major influencer. I write on a Google weblog to express such ideas, but I have received very little harassment except for one incident briefly described here. That way they can have their cake (can proclaim that there is freedom of speech) and eat their cake too--threatening with the loss of their careers anyone who is a major figure from espousing subversive views in any media.) 

• The Gates Foundation’s “Green Revolution” in Africa: Agribusiness Wins, Small Scale Farmers Lose by Ann Garrison from Black Agenda Report. (Note: This article offers an example of the secret of capitalism. Obviously, Bill Gates does not need billions of dollars to live on, but he has acquired this huge amount in order to influence (power) major events. Power is the psychological drug that drives capitalists to do what they do.)

• The Future for China by Eric Zuesse from A bird's eye view of the Vineyard. My commentary follows:

Zuesse is a social democrat who loves FDR as an example of a US ruling class that held such promise. He has forgotten or overlooked the history before FDR came on the scene. Zuesse loved the capitalism as was practiced during FDR's administrations while ignoring the earlier history of the numerous massacres by private armies and public militias of union organizers, 12 hour days that workers were forced to work, the cheap child labor employed by capitalists to build their fortunes, the imperialist history of the US from 1898 onwards, the seizure of the control of our money by private banking interests (the Fed), the constant cycle of recessions or depressions since the second half of the 19th century, the history of slavery, Native American massacres, etc.

FDR inherited his wealth from an investor in the opium trade (also see yesterday's post "Protecting the American Opium Trade") who engaged in the drug trade that was forced on China. Old wealth shaped his personality to a large extent much as old wealth shaped John Kennedy and his progrssive politics. FDR and Kennedy had some sympathies for ordinary people and their problems. Both of them were never anti-capitalists--they grew up in families and friends who were steeped in old wealth. These two were the exceptions to a ruling class that has aggressively pursued power, and used power derived from their concentrated wealth to create their own Empire after WWII. John Kennedy was assassinated, and FDR was subjected to an attempted removal from office. Much more typical since WWII is the rise of the neo-fascist element in the ruling class who set the ambitious goal of constructing their own empire.

• In Commune: The Panal 2021 by Katrina Kozarek from Internationalist 360°. My reaction follows:

It appears that the commune structure first articulated by Hugo Chavez and implemented by millions of ordinary folks in Venezuela evolved into a powerful force that today has saved Venezuela from the imperialist ravages of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire. Together with the people of China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Syria, etc. they are standing up to the Empire and surviving. Eventually this combination of forces can defeat the Empire. It will most likely be too late to save humans, but such people will serve to redeem their species marred by the hideous stain left by self-serving ruling classes during the last several thousand years.

As I recently explained in a major post why US activists cannot succeed in overcoming this ruling class:

The fundamental reason why US activists and revolutionary movements have not been effective, nor in the future will they be, is that they have been subject to a long and comprehensive process of capitalist propaganda and indoctrination. As a result, working people along with fake leaders are ignorant of American history and of the heinous effects of US actions on the rest of the world. They have been divided into mutually distrustful and hostile camps, brainwashed, obedient, distracted by vacuous entertainment, and unhealthy due to capitalist propaganda that would only allow them to be mere spectators in sports, and from a poor diet of cheap"fast foods" prepared for them by giant corporations. There is no reason to expect such people to lead or form an effective revolutionary movement. What we will see at most are pseudo movements and fake leaders who promise solutions to our many problems. We will probably need to look beyond the people of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire to see genuine leaders and revolutionary movements.

• The Deep State Expanding Military Ops in Northeastern Syria by Drago Bosnic from FRN (based in Serbia).  (My reaction: Remember that Trump wanted to withdraw troops from northern Syria? He could not. That is because US military serves the Deep State, the US ruling class, much like local police forces. The financiers and corporate executives in the Deep State have always made sure that the instruments of violence and coercion always obeyed them--not office holders in our fake democracy.)

Posts that I especially recommend today: Tuesday, March 17, 2020

• Climate Push Loses Momentum as World Fights Coronavirus by Laura Millan Lombrana from Bloomberg Green. 

• Hidden Danger of Ecological Collapse by Robert Hunziker from Defend Democracy Press.

• Is the Global Pandemic a Product of the Elite’s Malthusian Agenda and U.S. Biowarfare? by Max Parry from The Unz Review.

• Bats, Gene Editing and Bioweapons: Recent DARPA Experiments Raise Concerns Amid Coronavirus Outbreak by Whitney Webb from The Last American Vagabond.

• New evidence suggests coronavirus may have originated in the US from United World (based in Turkey).

• Nine Thoughts On COVID-19 And What’s Coming by Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog. 

• Coronavirus: Doctors advise. The government does not listen by Gabriel Levy from his weblog People and Nature.

• What China’s coronavirus response can teach the rest of the world by David Cyranoski from Nature. 

• Addendum to My ‘Economic Recovery Program’ by Jack Rasmus from his weblog.

• Liberalism: the two-faced tyranny of wealth from Organic Radicals. 

• Arizona Election Official Bizarrely Announces Poll Closings by Jimmy Dore (of The Jimmy Dore Show via YouTube).

• The Exit Polls Are Not Adding Up by Lee Camp (of Redacted Tonight via YouTube).

• Six Feet Apart but Still Together: The Sanders vs. Biden Debate by Ezra Brain from Left Voice.

• Trillion Dollar Nuke ‘Upgrade’ – Not An Arms Race? by Ron Paul and Daniel McAdams from Antiwar. 

• Mozambique : Credit Suisse is liable for the $2 bn secret debt by Joseph Hanlon from CADTM (Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt).

Posts that I especially recommend today: Tuesday, February 18, 2020

• Video: BlackRock CEO warns of increasing climate risks to investors by Peter Sinclair from Yale Climate Connections.

(Note: BlackRock, the largest investment managing company for the transnational capitalist ruling class, is supposedly going "green". But BlackRock is also the "biggest driver of climate chaos you've never heard of." Although it is too late to be concerned about the environment, maybe it's a good thing that capitalists are starting to wake up. But it isn't. As Mark Kramer admitted "The problem is, investors don’t read sustainability reports.", and I think that this was probably an announcement that was written by their public relations department. Also read this and this.)

• Hearing a silent spring by "jeppe" from PatternWhichConnects.

• UK airports must shut to reach 2050 climate target by Paul Brown from Climate News Network. 

• ‘Burned At The Stake’ – The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Demolishes The Fake Claims Targeting Julian Assange by David Edwards from Media Lens. 

• The Destruction of Libya: Posturing Predators; Lethal Lies by Robert Snefjella from Countercurrents. 

• Syria - Aleppo Is Fully Liberated But The War Will Continue by Bernhard from Moon of Alabama.  (Note: If you read the comments section, you will need to know what "HTS" means.) 

Posts that I especially recommend today: Sunday, February 2, 2020

• Greta Is Our MLK. That’s Not Necessarily a Good Thing by Lorenzo Raymond from Diversity of Tactics. (Note: This article has illuminated an issue that has vexed me since the days of Martin Luther King. Thus, I am giving this article special recognition by posting it first. Also, it was re-posted on today's Wrong Kind of Green that has run many of Cory Morningstar's articles that exposed who the backers were of Greta--the capitalist ruling classes.)

• I Will Hold You in My Arms a Day After the War: The Fifth Newsletter (2020). By Vijay Prashad from Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. 

• Unitedly we fight against debt and all other oppressions! from CADTM (Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt). (Note: This article, and the following one, lends support for my view that advanced capitalism in our era is mainly directed by the interests of major transnational financial capitalists located in the Neo-fascist US/Anglo/Zionist Empire.)

• Empires Feed on Africa and Congo's Treasure from Abby Martin's Empire Files (via YouTube). "With the Congo being arguably the biggest prize for imperialist powers, Abby Martin is joined by Kambale Musavuli, spokesperson for Friends of the Congo, to look at Empire's role in their history and current catastrophe."

• Catastrophe is upon us – the grim view from Southern Africa by Rehad Desai from Global Ecosocialist Network.

• US deploys “usable” nuclear weapon amid continuing war threats against Iran by Bill Van Auken from World Socialist Web Site.  

• How Iran decided to bomb US bases and how Trump avoided an all-out war by Elijah J. Magnier from his weblog.

• The Primary Mechanism Of Your Oppression Is Not Hidden At All by Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog. 

• The Talented Mr. Epstein by Paul Brian from The American Conservative.

Posts that I especially recommend today: Sunday, January 19, 2020

• Global Warming and the Future of Investing by Eric Zuesse from The Duran (based in Cyprus). Author of the foolish statement "That’s not what capitalism was supposed to be." ends his report with a rather favorable statement about BlackRock:

As regards the letter to “CEOs,” it’s telling them to transition as fast as is reasonably possible out of fossil-fuel investments and into renewable-fuel ones, in order to become less vulnerable to the shock, when it does hit. This makes good sense: keeping the clients comfortable, while telling the CEOs: “Make major moves on this ASAP!”

If you think for a moment that capitalist ruling classes are serious about global warming, "I have a bridge to sell you" (def).

• Australia’s Fires Give Us a Glimpse of What’s Coming by Jeff Sparrow from Jacobin.

• In neoliberalism’s end, a new world’s beginning an editorial from New Frame (based in South Africa). (Note: These folks still have hope.)

• How Khalifa Haftar’s secret ties with Israel fuel chaos in Libya from TRT World (based in Turkey).

• Secret Wars, Forgotten Betrayals, Global Tyranny. Who Is Really in Charge of the U.S. Military? by Cynthia Chung from Strategic Culture Foundation (independent. international, and based in Russia).

• Ayn Rand with Prof. Lisa Duggan from Chris Hedges' show "On Contact" from RT via YouTube. 

On the show this week, Chris Hedges, discusses the outsized influence of the writer, Ayn Rand, on America’s business and financial elite with New York University professor and author, Lisa Duggan.

 Duggan’s new book is entitled “Mean Girl: Ayn Rand and the Culture of Greed.” 

• How America Became Capitalist - book review by Dominic Alexander from Counterfire (Britain).

• MAJOR: 16 U.S soldiers killed in Iranian strikes on al-Asad base in Iraq by Joaquin Flores from Fort Russ News (apparently based in Belgrade, Serbia).

Posts that I especially recommend today: Tueday, January 14, 2020

• Iraq is the Next battleground by Elijah J Magnier from his weblog.

• The Long Planned U.S. Assassinations In Iraq Will Increase Its Political Chaos by Bernhard (based in Germany) from his weblog Moon of Alabama.

• How long will you stay complicit? A Question for UK, Canada, France, and Germany by Tom Winter from Fort Russ News. 

• Dylan Howard on Epstein's rich and powerful friends from RT America via YouTube.

• Military campaign pushes forward – Erdogan’s imperial ambitions threaten Libya (this is a followup news item posted yesterday) from Fort Russ News. 

• How the chicken nugget became the true symbol of our era by Raj Patel and Jason W Moore from The Guardian.

Posts that I especially recommend today: Monday, January 13, 2020

• Breakfeast with Blackrock & Co. translated and posted on German economist Norbert Häring's weblog. (Note: there is every reason to believe that some members of the major asset management giants are also members of the highly secretive Deep State, the directors of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire.)

Jens Berger, editor of the popular progressive German Website "NachDenkSeiten", has just published an eye-opening book on the power of the three asset management giants BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street (in German). I have been allowed to publish the first chapter as an appetizer, which translates as "Breakfeast with BlackRock & Co." 

• The former Head of Turkey’s Military Intelligence: a turning point for the Middle East by Elif İlhamoğlu from United World (independent website based in Turkey).

• The Tenuous Deployment of US Troops in Iraq by Abdul Rahman from Internationalist 360°. 

• Heads of Libya's warring sides in Russia for talks from Al Jazeera (based in Qatar). 

• Understanding France’s General Strike in the Context of the Yellow Vests and Global Class Warfare from Radical Education Department. 

• USA: Overview of Auto Workers' Strike by Internationalist Workers’ Group and posted on Libcom. 

• Under US pressure, social media companies censor critical content and suspend Venezuelan, Iranian, and Syrian accounts by Ben Norton from The Grayzone.

• World War III by CJ Hopkins, master political satirist, from his website Consent Factory. (Note: Caitlin Johnstone's effort in her latest article is entering the competition.) 

• Unearthing the Capitalocene: Towards a Reparations Ecology by Jason W. Moore and
  Raj Patel from Roar. (Note: We learn from sociologists from their article written in 2017 that the climate crisis is caused by capitalism. But all evidence by the majority of climate scientists suggests that this was written before the extinction of our human and most other species became inevitable.)

Articles recommended to keep you informed for Wednesday, April 24, 2019

• Julian Assange was denied access to lawyers, visitors in Britain’s Belmarsh prison by Oscar Grenfell from World Socialist Web Site.

• Can Saudi Arabia Still Sway The Oil Market? by Tsvetana Paraskova from OilPrice.com. 

• Ukraine 2019 Election- Ukraine Rejects Maidan Bandera and Revolution by George Eliason from A bird's eye view of the Vineyard.

• Men with French passports crossing from Libya are linked to Haftar: Tunisian source from Middle East Eye.

Articles and videos recommended for Tuesday, February 5, 2019

• Chris Hedges: Russia Hysteria is ‘Journalistic Demagoguery’ from RT via YouTube.

• Chris Hedges discusses NYT support for US-led coups from RT via YouTube.

• U.S. Military Says It Has a “Light Footprint” in Africa. These Documents Show a Vast Network of Bases. by Nick Turse from Intercept. 

• Robert F. Kennedy Jr Explains How Big Pharma Completely Owns Congress by Arjun Walia from Collective Evolution.

Recommended articles for Wednesday, December 12, 2018

• Deciphering Economic Warfare Code: The Sub-Saharan Africa Front by Phil Butler from New Eastern Outlook.

• Twitter enforcing Israeli military censorship by Ali Abunimah from The Electronic Intifada.

• Subhankar Banerjee, The Vanishing by Subhankar Banerjee from TomDispatch. (You may want to skip Tom Engelhardt's introduction by scrolling down to the article.) 

Note that this website is "A project of the Nation Institute", and as such expresses a liberal point of view regarding the issue of species annihilation by ignoring the effects of capitalism on the environment and other species. The system is regarded by this liberal website, as in all liberal websites, as a fixture of reality, much like the sun. Note also that this post downplays the importance of the issue by entitling the article the way it does. Other websites have re-posted this article (see this, this, and this) with different titles that emphasize the importance of the issue. Although the author recognizes that species extinction is related to the threat of global warming, he rather vaguely suggests only in the last paragraph that it might also threaten humans, and refuses to recognize that global warming is caused by the man-made capitalist system.

Secret U.S. Wars Endanger Africa

Click here to access article by Bernhard from his blog Moon of Alabama. 

Unfortunately, there are few independent reporters who can enlighten us as to what the US Empire is really doing Africa. This German blogger and super-sleuth digs up much material about the US's mysterious actions in Africa. As elsewhere in world, these operations are mostly secret; and if reported on, are loaded with self-serving propaganda issued by the Empire's ruling class that wants to secure from Africa all the riches they have.  

Recommended articles for 12/1/2017

• To keep informed about the most important neoliberal strategy, the Investor-State Dispute Settlement clause (inserted in every corporate-state contract), to undermine democratic rights of people to defend themselves against corporate predatory behavior, I recommend reading the latest ISDS Newsletter and subscribing to it. If you need a refresher article about this subject, I recommend reading an article entitled "Frequently asked questions about ISDS" from the same source, ISDS Platform. You might also read past articles I've posted about the ISDS clause by simply typing "ISDS" in one of my search engines. 

You may have noticed the same thing is happening here in the USA with major corporations like Microsoft insisting if you want to use their operating system, you must accept a settlement in any dispute with Microsoft by a private arbitration tribunal.

• How Sudan President’s Russia visit signals strategy alteration? The article gives another indication of how the geopolitical relations are changing in the Middle East as a result of the US Empire's failure to change the Syrian government into a vassal state. This trend is the nightmare of all capitalist directors of the Empire, and the nightmare is apparently causing them fits as suggested by their rather hysterical reactions ("Russiagate", sanctions against Russians and Russian government, etc). 

• Progress Report on the US-Russian War by "The Saker" (Please know that I don't agree with everything he writes in this or most other articles of his, but I do agree with most of his observations.)

• Huge Human Inequality Study Hints Revolution is in Store for U.S. (Thanks to Christopher in northwest Oregon for alerting me to this fine article.)

Washington's Long War Against Syria

Click here to access article by Stephen Gowans from What's Left. 

Gowans delivers a talk below on Middle Eastern political developments in the past 30 or 40 years with particular emphasis on the subject of his recently published book by the above title. He was invited by the Hands Off Syria Coalition to give a speech in July at the Solidarity Center in New York City. He has been described as a Canadian writer and activist, but now he can lay claim to be an author. He writes, I believe, mostly for What's Left but his articles have been re-posted frequently on many other websites. It is my opinion that he is one of the world's foremost political analysts. 

Gowans begins his approximately 48 minute talk at 12:25m into this video after brief words by other members of the Coalition. He concludes the talk by quoting from another Canadian, Norman Bethune, who served as a medical officer during the Spanish Civil War and the Sino-Japanese War with Mao's armies and said: "...such an organization of society, that permits these enemies of society to exist, must be abolished." Of course, he was referring to a capitalist organization of society. Gowans declares that the theme of his new book is the same.

I Have Zero Sympathy for Jemele Hill

Click here to access article by Teodrose Fikre founder of the Ghion Journal. 

If you are not already familiar with Teodrose Fikre, I would like to introduce a blogger who I believe offers a very unique perspective on the current oppressive state of affairs in the hope that he can contribute to our understanding of reality and better enable us to change it into something which can benefit us all. I was recently exposed to this author by watching him on RT's Redacted Tonight show where he was interviewed by Lee Camp.

In this article (that includes videos) he begins with illustrations of co-opted African-American media celebrities in order to introduce his views of racial and related issues which range from the mundane (like immediate issues that we all face while trying to survive in capitalist America) to the profound (racism).

Let me say from the outset that I do not know Jemele Hill outside of seeing her on TV. She could be a great human being and she deserves my respect for succeeding in a business that has always been dominated by male figures. As a sport analyst, she does a great job of presenting her audience with facts and figures in ways that Grantland Rice [would be] proud....

The reason I say this is two fold. The primary reason is the fact that Jemele chose to present the ills of the world through a partisan prism and in the process, either willfully or ignorantly, is actively perpetuating this system of “us versus them” mentality that is the root of our problem as a society. She is doing the same thing that the rest of the jackals in the Corporate State Media are doing; by appending all the excesses of this repressive ideology of capitalism and institutionalized nepotism on Trump, she gives cover to the invisible hands of malice that is bleeding all of us. 

More Mideast Madness as Trump Prepares to March

Click here to access article by Eric Margolis from his blog. 

This is one of the most accurate general reports of the confusing wars engaged in by Empire forces that I have seen for several weeks.

We are now moving rapidly into stage II of Levantine Madness as the US boosts its intervention in the war-torn Mideast.

Five thousand US troops are back in Iraq to bolster the shattered nation’s puppet regime that is propped up by American bayonets. New Iraqi military formations have been formed, totally equipped with modern US M1 Abrams tanks, Humvees, and fleets of trucks. More US forces are on the way.

These US-financed Iraqi units are euphemistically called ‘anti-terrorism forces’ and are supervised by US officers.

For a more detailed report of the chess-like game being played by the Syrian Army, Turkish forces, Russian forces, US forces, and the Syrian Kurds, I recommend this piece entitled "Turkey Risks Isolation as it Approaches Manjib" by Salman Rafi Sheikh. You will learn that all of these players have separate interests. How all these "players" manage this complicated game is a mystery to me.

And if you can stand any more confusing analysis of this chess game, I recommend Martin Berger's take on the situation. He differs a bit from Sheikh in that he sees that the US is essentially trying to cut Russia out of the game. My head hurts!