Posts that I especially recommend today: Thursday, January 23, 2020

• World accumulation & Planetary life, or, why capitalism will not survive until the ‘last tree is cut’ by Jason W. Moore from Radical Political Economy.

• Lack of action on climate change leads to warmest decade ever recorded by James Cogan from World Socialist Web Site.

• Busting Cold War propaganda: What China is really like from The Grayzone.

Red Lines host Anya Parampil speaks with Danny Haiphong, a contributing editor at the Black Agenda Report, about his recent, eye-opening two-week-long trip to China.

• Immediate US withdrawal due to its violation of the agreement and Iraq sovereignty by Elijah J Magnier from his weblog. (Note: The assassination of an Iranian official visiting Iraq has led to the exposure of  the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire as an occupying force in Iraq. This combined with the US occupying oil fields in Syria and ignoring international laws has made much of the rest of the world to see the US and its Empire as outlaws (fascists.)

• The prosecution of Glenn Greenwald and the global war on free speech by James Cogan from World Socialist Web Site.

Articles I especially recommend on Saturday, August 31, 2019 [Updated with a post from Deep City)

• Bahamas, Florida in path of 'dangerous' Hurricane Dorian by Leila Macor from Phys.org.

• Hurricane Dorian: What the Presidential Candidates—and All of Us—Need to Know by Kristy Dahl from Union of Concerned Scientists.

• The DNC rejects a climate change debate and puts virtual caucusing in doubt by  Anya van Wagtendonk from Vox.

• Political Climate by Raul Diego from his weblog Deep City. (Note: this is an exception to my usual rule that posts must be within one month.)

• Saving The Amazon’s Only Worth $20 Million — But Amazon, Inc is “Worth” $1 Trillion. What The? by Umair Haque posted on The Greanville Post.

• Syrian 'Rebels' Feel Left Behind - Burn 'Traitor' Erdogan's Picture by Bernhard from his weblog Moon of Alabama (Germany).

Articles recommended for Sunday, June 23, 2019 -- updated at 4:50 PM CT

(Thanks to activist for sending me this update.) 

• As We Face Armageddon the Western World Is Leaderless by Paul Craig Roberts posted on The Unz Review.

• Iran and Trump on the edge of the abyss by Elijah J Magnier from his blog.

• Training in the Tactical Method of Revolutionary Resistance by Esther Yáñez Illescas from Internationalist 360°. 

• Malaysian PM Mahathir says Russia being made a scapegoat for downing of flight MH17 from CNA (based in Singapore). 

• The Exceptionally American Historical Amnesia Behind Pompeo’s Claim of ’40 Years of Unprovoked Iranian Aggression’ by Brett Wilkins from AntiWar. 

• The West’s Losing Battle for Hong Kong by Joseph Thomas from New Eastern Outlook.

• Brazilgate is Turning into Russiagate 2.0 by Pepe Escobar from Consortium News.

• The Balkans and Their Consequences by Aleksandar Pavic from Strategic Culture Foundation.

• Bolton Is In Israel Conferring With Netanyahu How To Provoke US Attack On Iran by Paul Craig Roberts from his blog.

Bolsonaro: A monster engineered by our media

Click here to access article by Jonathan Cook from his blog.

I like this post better than yesterday's post by Pepe Escobar, the independent Brazilian journalist. Although both are honest reporters and both have been influenced by capitalist propaganda like we have been all their/our lives, Cook has made more progress to break free of this mind-hobbling brainwashing and attain more insight on political issues. The only problem I have with Cook is that he refuses to name the system that delivers the wealth (and power) to "plutocrats" (capitalists). I strenuously object to statements like this when Cook refers to "plutocrats":

They prefer the social divisions fueled by neo-fascists like Bolsonaro, divisions that protect their wealth and privilege, over the unifying message of a socialist who wants to curtail class privilege, the real basis of the elite’s power.

Socialism means to me that we end the system of capitalism which delivers so much power via wealth to ruling classes. Likewise, I insist that class structured societies must totally disappear, not "to curtail class privilege". Why should some people have more power and privileges than others--except for individuals on a temporary basis and with the consent of people?

The fundamental problem is not about the accumulation of wealth, because wealth is power and that is what our ruling class desires most of all. Their next concern is the preservation of the system of capitalism which has delivered to them so much of their wealth which, in turn, provides them with overwhelming power. What's the use of gaining more wealth after one gathers around $1 million dollars a year? Few of them could spend all that money in a year if they had to. I could not. Most of the "plutocrats" acquire more than a billion (that is a 1000 million) dollars every year, and a few considerably more.

Welcome to the Jungle

Click here to access article by Pepe Escobar, the well traveled independent Brazilian journalist, posted on Corsortium News.  

Although I've seen a number of article bemoaning the election of a fascist as president of Brazil, I've not posted any articles until this one by a journalist who I admire so much.

It’s darkness at the break of (tropical) high noon.

Jean Baudrillard once defined Brazil as “the chlorophyll of our planet”. And yet a land vastly associated worldwide with the soft power of creative joie de vivre has elected a fascist for president.

He goes on to present data that suggest the election was rigged and other methods used such as social media, fake reports in media, and threats--most of which are very familiar to us in the USA--to explain the outcome.

Recommended articles for Tuesday, October 9, 2018

• IPCC says 1.5° will be bad and 2.0° will be far worse, calls for radical change NOW by Ian Angus from Climate & Capitalism. 

• Mainstream Journos Pissed As Saudi Clown Prince Nabs One Of Their Own by Bernhard from Moon of Alabama. Also, on the same subject: US-Saudi Relations Enter Unchartered Waters by Melkulangara BBhadrakumar from Strategic Culture Foundation.

• Future of Western Democracy Being Played Out in Brazil by Pepe Escobar from Consortium News. (Note: a much better title would be "Future of Western Fascism Being Played Out in Brazil.)

Pension funds fuel land grabs in Brazil

Click here if you wish to access article directly from Grain.

Around the world, farmers are losing their lands, often violently, to large companies and speculators who see farmland as a lucrative investment. But what are the complex mechanisms behind these processes? Could your pension fund be contributing to land grabbing in places like Brazil?

This animated video shows how a global farmland fund, managed by US financial giant TIAA-CREF, used a complex company structure to avoid restrictions on foreign investment in farmland in Brazil. It then acquired lands from a Brazilian businessman who has used violence and fraud to grab large areas of farmland from small farmers and indigenous peoples in the Brazilian states of Maranhão and Piauí. This video is intended to pressure pension funds to publicly disclose the names and locations of the farmlands they have acquired across the world and to stop speculating on farmland.

Struggles over land and resources are intensifying in Brazil, where 150 environmental activists have been murdered since 2012, many of whom were fighting to protect the lands of small farming communities. It is important for us to expose the actors and mechanisms behind this violence and say STOP to farmland speculation and land grabbing.

The looting of Brazil begins ... after Greece and Libya

Click here to access article and 0:59m video from the unbalanced evolution of homo sapiens.

Brazil's coup govt has announced a huge privatization agenda with plans to auction off 32 major infrastructure projects.

Inside the stormy revelations concerning the coup against Brazil's suspended president Dilma Rousseff, the neoliberal "Taliban" rush to complete their mission, abolishing any pretexts. 

Don’t Feed the Snakes

Click here to access article by Rejane Carolina Hoeveler from Jacobin. 

This examines some lessons that can be learned from the right-wing takeover of the left government in Brazil. 

Once again we see in South America, as we've seen elsewhere, that there can be no compromises with the capitalist class. Reformers (liberals) within left parties can easily be bribed with offices and power to make such compromises with the snakes of capitalism. But slowly the latter will grow into large snakes that will devour those who thought they could tame them. Only devoutly revolutionary parties that are held to their goal of building a new social structure by bottom-up power arrangements within their movement can succeed in starving the snakes of capitalism.

‘Politically Correct’ Rio Olympics Amid Anti-Russia Cold War Hysteria

Click here to access article by Finian Cunningham from Strategic Culture Foundation.

The Rio Olympics have...been turned into an anti-Russian morality play whose purpose is a base politicized objective.

The heavy-handed suppression of legitimate Brazilian protests against an unconstitutional would-be imposter-president – in the name of "keeping politics out of sports" – is absurdly conducted amidst an international spectacle of subverting the very same Olympic games into a Russia-bashing event.

Like bread and circuses of ancient Rome, we are expected to believe that the "great and good" are nobly entertaining the masses with sporting fun – with an event that has been thoroughly contaminated by toxic politics.

Rising Tide of ‘Politically Acceptable’ Killings Spells Danger for Environmentalists Worldwide

Click here to access article by Nika Knight from Uncommon Thought Journal. 

“Across the world, collusion between state and corporate interests shield many of those responsible for the killings. In cases that are well documented we found 16 were related to paramilitary groups, 13 to the army, 11 to the police and 11 to private security—strongly implying state or company links to the killings. There was little evidence that the authorities either fully investigated the crimes, or took actions to bring the perpetrators to account.”

Read also this Greenpeace report entitled "Brazil: the most dangerous country for environmental activists in 2015".

Kill List: Smashing the 'B' in BRICS

Click here to access article by Pepe Escobar from Sputnik International.

So every coup is now literally allowed in South America; indirect attacks to the Brazilian currency, the real; bribing local comprador elites with the backing of the global financial system; a concerted attempt at the implosion, simultaneously, of the top three economies: Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela. SOUTHCOM went so far as to produce a report on “Venezuela Freedom” earlier this year, signed by commander Kurt Tidd, which proposes a “strategy of tension”, complete with “encirclement” and “suffocation” techniques and allowing to mix street action with a “calculated” use of armed violence. Echoes of Chile 1973 do apply.  

South America is now arguably the prime geopolitical space where Exceptionalistan is laying the bases to restore its unrivalled hegemony — as part of a multi-dimensional, geo-finance war against the BRICS bent on perpetuating the unipolar world.

It appears that this excellent Brazilian journalist is losing his faith in a "multipolar" capitalist world as he witnesses the attacks on Brazil's mild form of social democracy. What is happening in Brazil and many other nations of South America is a perfect illustration of the truth that there can be no compromises with capitalism, most especially the virulent advanced form of capitalism, known as neoliberalism, that is driving the aggressive policies of the US-led Empire. 

Capitalist ruling classes throughout South America have been thoroughly integrated with the Empire's and together they are dedicated to the Empire's neoliberal plan to rule the entire world. The lesson that Escobar and many other progressives have yet to learn is that there can be no permanent compromises made with capitalist ruling classes. The latter must have their private ownership of economies taken away from them and put into the hands of the people. Only then can humans have a socially just world free from wars. 

I fear that we may have already run out of time to free the world of the capitalist cancer that is now destroying its host planet Earth. But since we don't know this for certain, let us proceed with the most promising solution--revolution! Actually, I would work for a revolution anyway to punish those who caused our extinction along with so many other species.

WikiLeaks: Brazil’s Acting President Michel Temer Is US Diplomatic Informant

Click here to access article by Kit O'Connell from Mint Press News. 

Brazil’s new acting president is a known U.S. informant who has provided Washington with insider information about the Brazilian government on multiple occasions.

Michel Temer’s ties to the U.S. government, as revealed by WikiLeaks’ Public Library of U.S. Diplomacy, add to the growing body of evidence that the parliamentary impeachment of Brazil’s democratically-elected president, Dilma Rousseff, was supported by allies in Washington.

The author (and others) base their argument that the current acting president of Brazil, Michel Temer, is an informant for the US, the author on two Wikileaks reports (others on other reports such as this) which were sent to the National Security Council and the US Southern Command. Also in the cables mention was made by Temer that he had met with "CG" which mean consul general and "poloff" which means political official. Both presumably refer to US local officials with "poloff" likely being a CIA officer.  

The Empire of Chaos Strikes Back

Click here to access article by Pepe Escobar from Strategic Culture Foundation.

The Brazilian journalist extraordinaire frames the impeachment proceedings in Brazil as part of a larger effort by the Empire to attack the evolving BRICS and the threat they pose for Empire hegemony.

Cold War 2.0 is essentially about Russia and China – but Brazil is also a key player. Edward Snowden revealed how NSA spying was centered on Petrobras, whose proprietary technology was responsible for the largest oil discovery of the young 21st century; the pre-salt deposits. US Big Oil is excluded from its exploitation. That’s anathema; and that requires deployment of Hybrid War techniques inbuilt in Full Spectrum Dominance.

Brazilian comprador elites have been gleefully playing the game.

The Empire has been actively seeking alliances with ruling capitalist classes among all Latin American countries, and it has been largely successful to the point that many of these classes actively cooperate with Empire directors against their own citizens. In other words, the ruling classes throughout most of Latin America are much more loyal to the Empire's ruling class than they are to their own nation. This is simply because they know that the precarious foundations of their power rests largely on the support of Empire elites. Actually this is true with the Empire's relations with most of the world's ruling capitalist classes, but I think that this phenomenon is more advanced in most Latin American countries.

Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff: Not a Coup but Payback for Systemic Corruption

Click here to access article by Dady Chery and Gilbert Mercier from News Junkie Post. 

These authors provide a very different view from other alternative observers such as Pepe Escobar on the current efforts in Brazil to remove Rousseff and the Workers' Party from power.

After 14 years of Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT, or Workers’ Party), the Brazilian public has grown profoundly disappointed with a government that has failed, not only to keep its promise to clean up Brazil’s systemic corruption but also to avoid becoming tainted by this corruption. Inequality, social injustice, and racism are practically unchanged. Although Rousseff was elected with the expectation that the criminals of Brazil’s military dictatorship would be brought to justice, she promoted what she called a “national reconciliation” instead of their pursuit. Under both Dilma Rousseff and her predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil expanded its police and military to unprecedented levels in peacetime and became an active handmaiden to US imperialism in the occupation of countries like Haiti. It took Lula and Dilma’s fake socialism to invade Haiti, not Brazil’s military dictatorship.

Ms. Rousseff’s legal troubles should rather be viewed as a sign that Brazil’s justice system is sufficiently well to take down the country’s top bankers, industrialists, and elected officials.

I am more persuaded by their arguments than that of other alternative observers who only see these efforts from the perspective of an effort of US in collaboration with a Brazilian right-wing to move the Brazilian government more to the right. It is not that I disagree with the views of the alternative observers, it is just that I believe their framing of these political events is far too limited. On the other hand, I don't entirely agree with the authors that the current political events in Brazil are only driven by the Brazilian people who are rejecting the Rousseff government.

I believe that the recent political gains by the right-wing oligarchs in Argentina, Venezuela, and Brazil are the result of very compromised leftist movements in those countries. (The same applies to Bolivia and the Morales government.) Each of them has tried to move in a limited left direction by offering some redistribution of their nation's wealth with various social programs. Although such left gains have been helpful to working people, they are only barely tolerated for temporary periods by the combined US ruling class in alliance with the local oligarchs. Such governments are always vulnerable to the subversive reaction of the right-wing forces, consequently their "shelf life" is quite limited.

The alternative observers could argue that this was the only realistic possibility given the severe oppressive reaction that would be generated by the US Empire if these governments had tried to pursue a more significant path against their capitalist ruling classes. There is a lot of merit to this argument because indeed the history of Latin America is filled with numerous examples of US interference in countries that try to deviate too much in favor of working classes. But the recent histories of these countries that have tried mild reforms leads one inevitably to the conclusion that only a vigorous revolutionary effort can be ultimately successful in the complete and lasting liberation of working people.

BRICS Under Attack: Western Banks, Governments Launch Full-Spectrum Assault On Russia (Part I)

Click here to access article by Eric Draitser from Mint Press. 

The U.S.-NATO Empire, with its centers of power in Washington, on Wall Street, and in the city of London, is on the offensive against the BRICS countries. This assault takes many forms, each tailored to its specific target.

The ongoing soft coup in Brazil has recently entered a new stage with the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff of the left-wing Workers’ Party. Simultaneously, the destabilization of the ANC-led government in South Africa continues as political forces align to remove President Jacob Zuma. These two situations illustrate clearly the very potent forms of subversion via Western-funded political formations and movements being employed against Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, the bloc of emerging economies also known as BRICS. 

The real reason Dilma Rousseff’s enemies want her impeached

Click here to access article by David Miranda from The Guardian. 

The country’s elite class and their media organs have failed, over and over, in their efforts to defeat the party at the ballot box. But plutocrats are not known for gently accepting defeat, nor for playing by the rules. What they have been unable to achieve democratically, they are now attempting to achieve anti-democratically: by having a bizarre mix of politicians – evangelical extremists, far-right supporters of a return to military rule, non-ideological backroom operatives – simply remove her from office.

Indeed, those leading the campaign for her impeachment and who are in line to take over – most notably the house speaker Eduardo Cunha – are far more implicated in scandals of personal corruption than she is.

Politics in Latin America have always reflected real class power conflicts without much of the gloss of rights, justice, and due process that is superficially imposed on the conflicts in the leading Euro-American nations. Thus, like any real war, the ethics of these contests for political domination in Latin America tend to be that of real war: to the victor go the spoils. This has been true even under "progressive" regimes of Argentina and Venezuela. Consequently Latin Americans are much less deceived by the absence of morality under class rule, whereas in the leading Western nations the immorality of extreme inequality is glossed over by a huge propaganda apparatus. But another consequence is that these more "progressive" governments are also infested with corruption which doubtlessly is encouraged by the US Empire to bring down those governments.

The solution, of course, is the elimination of the organization of societies around classes. This would require a revolutionary movement whose objective would be elimination of the basis of inequality of power in today's societies--capitalism. This system gives property rights to a tiny minority to "own" the fruits of labor in economies which are almost entirely devoted to the profit interests of this minority at the expense of the benefits to the vast majority. But revolutions would make Latin American nations a definite target for the wrath of the Empire which would find, or create, some excuse to overthrow them.

Hybrid War Hyenas Tear Brazil Apart

Click here to access article by Pepe Escobar from RT.

This world traveling, outstanding journalist is at home in Brazil and discovering that the Empire is trying to do what they have accomplished in many parts of the world: overturning a popular government to serve neoliberal interests. They have recent successes in South America with the Macri regime installed in Argentina and the weakening of Venezuelan popular government with the right-wing wins in their parliamentary election. 

He argues that the impeachment effort, the first step of which was approved by the lower house of the Brazilian congress, has the ultimate objective of targeting the former very popular President Lula da Silva.

It’s impossible to understand what happened at the Circus Maximus this Sunday without knowing there’s a gaggle of Brazilian political parties that are seriously threatened by the non-stop overspill of the Car Wash corruption investigation. To ensure their survival, Car Wash must be “suspended”; and it will, under the bogus “national unity” proposed by lowly Brutus Temer [the vice-president who would take over for President Rousseff during the impeachment hearings should they be approved].

But first, Car Wash must produce a high-profile scalp. And that has to be Lula in jail – compared to which the crucifixion of Rousseff is an Aesop fable. Corporate media, led by the noxious Globo empire, would hail it as the ultimate victory, and nobody would care about Car Wash’s enforced retirement.      

The 54 million-plus who voted for Rousseff’s reelection in 2014 voted wrong. The overall “project” is a government without vote and without people; a Brazilian-style parliamentary system, without bothering with pesky “elections” and crucially, including very “generous” campaign financing flexibility not bound to incriminate powerful companies/corporations.

You might also be interested in an article in TeleSur on the same subject.

What does the Brazilian crisis teach us?

Click here to access article by Olmedo Beluche from Workers World. 

This Panamanian sociologist and political activist gives us what appears to be the real scoop on what is happening in Brazil with the right-wing attacks on the Rousseff government and the PT party. I think it is an excellent illustration of the vulnerability of left-wing governments to opposition organized by ruling capitalist classes. This is also happening in Venezuela and Argentina.

I agree with the author's conclusion:

The Latin American experience in general and the Brazilian in particular show that the only way to save progressive political processes from the attacks of the right wing and imperialism is not by trying to negotiate and give in to their demands, but by convening popular mobilization and taking more radical socialist measures.

(You might also be interested in what is happening to counter the right-wing resurgence in other countries of South America covered in this piece entitled "Latin America Briefs".)

BRICS Under Attack: Soft Coup in Brazil, US Proxies Move Against ANC in South Africa

Click here if you wish to access the introduction and video discussion directly from YouTube.

My preference for posts is not audio presentations but posted writings in which links can be provided to evidence to back up major points of more independent observers and analysts. However audio transmission is becoming more popular with people on the go who use various small computer devices to listen to such productions. As I've argued before, no one is infallible in interpreting information and observations, but there are some who consistently support the values of social justice and can be relied upon to make their best efforts to present accurate factual evidence and well-balanced analysis. One such person, I believe, is Eric Draitser.

Eric Draitser of http://StopImperialism.org appears on CPR Sunday with broadcaster Don DeBar to discuss the Empire's moves to undermine BRICS. Draitser provides detailed analysis of the individuals and groups behind the protest movement in Brazil, noting that powerful right wing, neoliberal forces are bankrolling the movement to remove the democratically elected left wing government of Dilma Rousseff and the Workers' Party. He also discusses the nature of the protests in South Africa and the powerful players co-opting the movement in the interests of the Empire. Finally, the conversation touches on potential outcomes of this clear offensive by Wall Street and the US establishment, and potential counter-measures by BRICS nations. All this and more in this wide-ranging discussion.

If you do not have time to listen to the entire 55 minute discussion, I especially recommend the first 32 minutes when he discusses what is happening in Brazil and South Africa in particular and the BRICS countries in general. Then for some of his comments that contrast US neoliberal policies with that of China's "win-win" investment policies, I recommend listening from 43:00m to 47:15m.