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, April 15, 2021

• From RussiaGate to UkraineGate: Route to Apocalypse by Oliver Boyd-Barrett from Mint Press News. 

Within three months of the ascendancy of Joseph Biden to the presidency of the United States, the world teeters on the edge of nuclear war, whether by design or accident, as Russia reports that the U.S. is placing considerable pressure on Ukraine to attack the independent republics of the Donbass for which Russia provides logistical support. The U.S. European Command has raised its alert status to the highest level and warned of a “potential imminent crisis.” 

• Western Media Eager to See Ukraine Use US-Supplied Weapons Against Russia by Dave DeCamp from Anti-War.
  

• CNN’s Blatant Disinformation About Russia-Ukraine Activity by Michael Averko from Strategic Culture Foundation. 

• The latest US moves against Russia (OPEN THREAD #11) UPDATED!!! by "the Saker" (Andrei Raevsky) from his weblog.
  

• Putin’s Ukrainian Judo by Dmitry Orlov from "The Saker" weblog. (Note: I hesitate to use Wikipedia regarding Orlov anymore since I gradually observed their corruption by other operatives (2nd article and commentary). My reaction: I think Orlov's assessment is quite accurate, and I miss his clear voice and acute judgement since he put his articles behind a paywall. However, I don't always agree with his commentaries that he is always rather too willing to share with the public. He often expresses opinions without supporting documentation. In this article he demonstrates a startling amount information regarding both Ukraine, Europe, and Putin. I thank an activist who sent me this article.

• It’s The Media’s Job To Normalize War: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix by Australian independent blogger Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog.

• China’s Deep Dark Secrets featuring Lee Camp reporting articles on horrendous human rights practices by China's government, but he "discovers" they are all about the USA (for comedic effect) in his (4:08m) YouTube channel. 

• Financial fiction part two: the new ones (SPACs, NFTs, cryptocurrencies) by Michael Roberts, a British Marxist economist from his weblog.
  

• Biden Declares Afghan War To End On 9/11 -- For Reals! featuring Jimmy Dore (from his YouTube channel) doing his comedic commentary regarding our fake democracy and Aaron Maté (The Grayzone) commenting on the announcement by Pres. Biden that the US will withdraw troops from Afghanistan.
  

• Australia’s Self-Inflicted Economic Woes Continue by Joseph Thomas from New Eastern Outlook. My reaction: Of course Australia is very much a part of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire, The same applies to Europe and NATO, but European capitalists are looking at all the profits they are missing from playing along with the Empire, and may decide to no longer go along with Empire directives. Then it's game over for the Empire, and the directors of the Empire know it.

• Indian monsoons becoming more chaotic from Climate & Capitalism.

• Washington could not be happier with Ecuador’s new president by Paul Antonopoulos from Brics.
  

• Self-Reinforcing Feedback Loop #6, Climate-Change Summary featuring Prof. (retired) Guy McPherson reading a summary of scientific reports via his YouTube channel.

• Climate change : The daily consequences we're choosing to ignore. This video features Dave Borlace from his channel, Just Have a Think, in a 13:56m YouTube video, commenting on recent reports from Lancet, the British renowned medical journal.

• Waves of anger | Japan's neighbors decry plan to dump Fukushima water into sea a 3:09m video from RT's channel on YouTube.
  

Posts that I especially recommend for Friday, March 12, 2021

• Another Epidemiologist Calls Out Facebook “Fact-Checkers” & Calls It A “Scam” by Arjun Walia from Collective Evolution.

• Debunking Virology With Dr. Thomas Cowan, Dr. Andrew Kaufman and Dr. Stefano Scoglio featuring Derrick Broze who listens to the explanations of three specialists about isolation of viruses versus the fairly recent practice of virologist's claim that they claim the isolation of SARS-COV-2 virus which result in Covid-19 illness. This is a 41:26m video discussion posted from EarthNewspaper's channel of Bitchute. (Note: This explanation is not that the disease of Covid-19 doesn't exist, but the development of vaccines to prevent the disease is not valid from a scientific perspective.)
  

• Vaccine Secrets from Children's Health Defense. (Note: A cartoonist's conspiracy theories factual reporting on vaccines in the USA. But these facts are secrets that Big Pharma, their sponsored Congress, government bureaucrats, media corporations, and capitalist-funded "fact-checkers" don't want you to know. Such facts are documented on this website.)

• 'Who cares?' | NY House speaker launches impeachment probe into Cuomo from RT. My reaction: This will never be reported by media corporations.
  

• Brace Yourselves For The Most Dramatic Shift In The Standard Of Living In All Of U.S. History by Michael Snyder from Activist Post.
  

• Mainstream Journalism Doesn’t Exist: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix by Caitlin Johnstone, an Australian, from her weblog.

• Journalists Start Demanding Substack Censor its Writers: to Bar Critiques of Journalists by Glenn Greenwald from his weblog on Substack. (Note: This is a late posting at around 3:24 PM CT today.) Referring to these journalists working for mostly media corporations, he writes:
  

The reason these little hall monitors do not consider this to be “real reporting” is because they do not care about — except when they venerate — real power centers like security state agencies (CIA/FBI/NSA/DHS) or the Pentagon, Wall Street hedge funds, Silicon Valley monopolies, repressive regimes. They think “reporting” means writing what those agencies and power centers tell them to say, or ruining the reputations of people for saying bad words on 4Chan and expressing prohibited thoughts with Facebook memes and Clubhouse chats. That is all they recognize as journalism; everything else is “harassment” because real reporting makes the lives of elites and people who wield real influence more difficult ....

• Popular Twitter Account Exposed As Shill Paid To Smear Progressives featuring Jimmy Dore on his YouTube channel (23:07m) reporting on his discovery of a person getting paid to get on Twitter to spread propaganda.
  

• Massive Secret UK Propaganda Campaign in Former Soviet Republics Seeds Contempt by Raul Diego from Mint Press News.

Such granular levels of information could only be dreamed of by Allen Dulles and the CIA’s disinformation efforts behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. But, today, our digitally-integrated world allows for such dystopian dreams to become a reality. At the same time, it makes exposing these operations that much easier.

• 💥Bernays and Propaganda – Propaganda Continues Unabated – Part 5 by Larry Romanoff from "The Saker" blog. This is a best post.

• Fukushima Meltdowns Turn Ten, Still Getting Worse by William Boardman from Dissident Voice. Boardman's conclusion is the following:

Nuclear power has always been a corrupt enterprise, but in Japan now that corruption is coming back to hold its perpetrators accountable. On February 19, the Tokyo High Court ordered the government and TEPCO to pay damages of $2.63 million to 43 people who were forced to evacuate from their homes by the Fukushima disaster. The presiding judge called the government’s regulatory inaction “extremely unreasonable.” There are as many as 30 more such suits pending in Japanese courts.

• Maine Farm Girl & Kansas Grain Farmer Talk Climate on The Train by Rivera Sun from CounterPunch.
  

Posts that I especially recommend today: Wednesday, November 18, 2020

• The Global Capitalist Cage and the Corona Crisis: “Solutions” by Those Who Have Created “The Problems” by Hiroyuki Hamada from Global Research. (Note: I don't know how I missed this article in October, but I claim it as a "best post" currently. He offers profound insights that can awaken people to the profound influence that a ruling class, particularly the current capitalist ruling class, has upon people's thinking and perceptions of reality. It is rather lengthy, but very much worth your attention.)

• Cost of Lockdowns: A Preliminary Report from American Institute for Economic Research. 

• Inside the longest lockdown in the world: Poverty and inadequate healthcare in South America makes shutting down society unworkable by Luke Taylor from Unherd (based in Britain). My reaction: This is precisely why the Empire's ruling class with their covid pandemic project targeted these nations, other poor countries, and poor people in general as a method to deal with the climate crisis.
  

• I Am Greta isn’t about climate change. It’s about the elusiveness of sanity in an insane world by Jonathan Cook from his weblog.

In the mid-1950s, his book The Sane Society [by Erich Fromm] suggested that insanity referred not simply to the failure by specific individuals to adapt to the society they lived in. Rather, society itself could become so pathological, so detached from a normative way of life, that it induced a deep-seated alienation and a form of collective insanity among its members. In modern western societies, where automation and mass consumption betray basic human needs, insanity might not be an aberration but the norm. [my insertion]

• How to Spot a Propaganda Trial Balloon – #PropagandaWatch featuring Canadian James Corbett from his website The Corbett Report. (Note: He offers his insights on propaganda using mostly the recent psy-op in Nova Scotia by the Canadian military.)

• “All Speech Is Not Equal”: Biden Taps Anti-Free Speech Figure For Transition Lead On Media Agency by Jonathan Turley from his weblog.

• Why the military establishment backed Biden by Chloe Rafferty from Red Flag (based in Seattle). (My reaction: I disagree with only her last statements "And Joe Biden is the commander-in-chief. He is now the most dangerous man in the world." He shows early signs of dementia, and his usefulness to the ruling class has expired. He is only a virtual puppet of the ruling class, but then there is Kamala Harris to takeover.)
  

• UN Announces Biometric Digital ID Wallet featuring Spiro Skouras from his channel on YouTube warning about what's coming under the Great Reset project. My reaction: Apparently the control freaks of the transnational (neoliberal) capitalist ruling class of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire have decided to use their control of the United Nations to implement their plans of the Great Reset. If they succeed, we will be really in "deep shit" (def.).
  

• Our House: Why China’s New South Asian Trade Deal is Making Washington Sweat by Raul Diego from Mint Press News. (My reaction: No wonder that the Empire's transnational capitalist ruling class has been so focused on destabilizing China's Uyghur province, Hong Kong, Thailand, etc.) 

• To Be A Rich And Famous Journalist: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix by Caitlin Johnstone (Australia) from her weblog. 

• The “Dominion” of Election Fraud?…Exposing the Dominion Voting Machines. By Brett Redmayne-Titley from The Unz Review. (My reaction: What happened to the Diebold voting machines that were used in the 2000 election to elect George Bush, Jr. which was essential for the ruling class to pull off the 9/11 project? For answers, see this and this.)

• Computer Science Prof & Edward Snowden Explain How Easily Voting Machines Can Be Hacked by Arjun Walia from Collective Evolution.
  

• Lord Malloch Brown Revealed: The British Hand Behind the Coup Shows Its Scales Again by Matthew Ehret from Strategic Culture Foundation.
  

• 2020 -TOKYO’s Strange 3rd Wave Lockdown: A Walk-through, AGAIN posted by "Felix Rex" on his YouTube channel. (Note: Think of this as an opportunity to travel to Japan and being led through Tokyo's red light district by "Felix Rex" as a tour guide. Note that he is very careful not to offend YouTube administrators by voicing some of his opinions. One question I have, that I would to put to him, is why he selects this area of Tokyo.) My reaction: I notice from his comments at the end that he is also posting his videos on Bitchute, an alternative to YouTube, which doesn't censor videos. It might be worth a visit to his Bitchute videos. One such recent video I recommend is one entitled "Social Rot of VICTIMHOOD & Microaggression Culture".  

• The Return of Syrian Refugees, A Priority to Whom? by Vladimir Platov from New Eastern Outlook. (Note: This website is based in Russia, but features some international writers. I don't encourage a Russia-gate perspective because I think it is necessary to hear opinions from the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire's adversaries.)
  

• Demand That the UN Command Stop Infringing on Korea’s Sovereignty by Simone Chun from CounterPunch. (My reaction: This article furnishes evidence that the Empire largely controls the United Nations Organization. Based on extensive gathered through my long life, I think the capitalist directors of the Empire have accomplished this feat, and most others, via deception and bribes.)
  

• The Climate Threat From Arctic Methane Releases by Manuel García, Jr. from CounterPunch.

Posts that I especially recommend today: Thursday, November 5, 2020

• Trump Was Never the Real Problem by Kenn Orphan from CounterPunch. My commentary follows: 

Although I can agree with his statements about Trump, he never identifies the "Real Problem" that is the neo-fascism of the transnational capitalist class. In fact, he seems to believe, like many current "leftists", that they are something different than the old-fashioned fascists. This is totally false. 

As I have explained in a previous essay, the transnational capitalists are the latest version of advanced capitalist rule which absorbed much of the classic fascism exhibited by the German Nazis in the 1930s and early 1940s. US capitalists merely joined with the British capitalists and what was left of the British Empire and the largely destroyed nations of Europe after WWII to construct a new empire. The new empire's ruling class consolidated their control over much of Europe with Operation Gladio and infiltration of media corporations. In 1967 they added the fascist international Jewry, at the time were mostly European capitalists, which the British had set up to control the oil-rich Middle East from Arab nationalists. The new empire can be legitimately named as US/Anglo/Zionist Empire. 

The current "Great Reset" that the Empire's ruling class and the UN's corrupted agency WHO (World Health Organization) have imposed on the world is mainly designed to get rid of "useless eaters" that I've seen used frequently in describing various aspects of their plan. This expression has a history mostly hidden in the classic fascist past (see this and this). The project is mainly designed to reduce populations, and it is the Empire's plan to cope with the climate crisis which they know is real. If the "Great Reset" contributes to their profits and power, so much the better.

• The Pleasures of Deception by Fernando Buen Abad from Internationalist 360°.

• The American Herald Tribune is no more along with 26 other domains. This was reported in an article from Anti-War entitled DOJ Seizes 27 Domains, Claims They are Controlled by Iran by Dave DeCamp. (I've been wondering why I haven't been able to access their website for several days.) My commentary follows:

This is one more piece of evidence that we are living in a fascist nation that fears the truth. Because the Empire's ruling class censored these websites, they no longer hide behind the fiction that they are "platforms" like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube which maintain an ongoing project of censorship and are loaded with propaganda serving the Empire's ruling class of capitalists. 

I expect that my domain will also disappear one day, but they will go after the big ones first. Notice that this latest censorship news is not reported by media corporations. That's because the ruling capitalist class approves. They only cover events, distorted coverage at best, because they want you to believe in their interpretations. Such censorship events are not covered because they want you to believe the much ballyhooed propaganda that America enjoys a free press (media).

• Angelina Jolie’s MI6 Interview Shows Just How Connected Hollywood Is To the Deep State by Alan Macleod from Mint Press News.

• The COVID-19 RT-PCR Test: How to Mislead All Humanity. Using a “Test” To Lock Down Society by Dr. Pascal Sacré from Global Research. 

• “New Normal”on Social Distancing and the Facemask: Neglectful Caring and Compassionate Tyranny by John C. A. Manley from Global Research.

• COVID testing: We've been duped by A. Castellitto from American Thinker.

• Brainwashing the Masses: 6 Companies Own Almost ALL of the Media in the U.S. – Using Medical “Doctors” to Sell Their Message from Health Impact News. 
  

• Europe's COVID-19 Spending Spree Unmasked from OCCRP (Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project).

• The Election: How Did This Happen?! featuring Jimmy Dore reviewing the election in a 5:27m video (via YouTube) presentation.

• The Four Layers of Reality featuring Lee Camp (via his YouTube channel) commenting on US elections before the current election.
  

• Fukushima, the Nuclear Pandemic Spreads by Manlio Dinucci from Global Research.  

Posts that I especially recommend today: Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2020

• Does fighting climate change require postponing the fight for system change? by John Molyneux from Climate & Capitalism. (Note: a best post.) My commentary follows:
  

Long time followers of my website know that I have resigned to the position that the climate crisis is now irreversible. But I and all other animals and species will fight to the death to survive. And, that is what I am doing by continuing this website. 

Guy McPherson, a retired scientist who also believes that the crisis is irreversible, continues living with the notion that "only love remains" by which he means living in the present and deepening the connection with other people in our lives. That is the solution that he and others of the upper-middle-class can have that is not available to those of the working class. The latter face homelessness, despair of loss of loved ones and friends, extreme discomfort, and likely death. 

• CNN Proclaims National Panic Day as Rally of 500,000 (!) Bikers in South Dakota Linked to a Whooping 22 Additional Test Positives by Harmeet Kaur from Anti-Empire. (Note: They reproduce a CNN article to lampoon it.)
  

• Has the post-Covid future already been decided? by Simon Marcus from Spiked (Britain). (My reaction: The answer is "yes" because the Davos crowd is the transnational capitalist ruling class of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire. They are the "deciders".)

• People Who Are in Denial About Coronavirus by Eric Zuesse from Strategic Culture Foundation. My commentary follows:
  

Zuesse in this essay reveals his basic support for our class structured society by affirming his commitment to the way the ruling class that is imposing its draconian policies on entire nations. He does this by describing the opposition to be laissez faire or libertarian and the government policies as "socialistic" or "(legally enforced governmental policies)". Then he goes on to cite statistics that have been challenged by skeptics of ruling class policies. Zuesse has no idea what socialism is because he has been trained ("educated") to believe the social-welfare policies in past capitalist societies (like under FDR's administration) were "socialistic". 

The current "pandemic" is beneficial in the sense that it forces people of varying nominal political views to finally affirm their basic commitment to authoritarianism or genuine democracy. The latter position needs some elucidation in this era of authoritarianism or fascism (its capitalist version).  

Democracy, that is, genuine democracy, means that all people have been given access to positions of authority. Authoritarianism means that only some of the people will be "sufficiently knowledgeable" to determine the policies that will be imposed on others. Democracy means that all people will have equal access to education, health, work, and other institutions to support their well-being. Such equal access is counter to the capitalist system which facilitates the concentration of wealth and, therefore, power. The basis of capitalist societies is private ownership of the economy, and is obviously forbidden in socialist societies. Thus, capitalism inevitably results in class structured societies that are riven with class conflicts. History has demonstrated in capitalist societies ownership, and therefore, control of economic property are in the hands of a ruling class which inevitably results in greater and greater concentration of wealth, therefore power, in fewer and fewer hands. This inevitably leads to fascism, that is, government controlled by a tiny ruling class who impose greater and greater authoritarian methods to impose their control over the rest of societies.

The great mass of people have societal values which help to insure policies of equal access to education and free, independent media to inform people. Contrast this with rule by the self-serving capitalist class, the owners of economic property. Their values are constrained by what is good for their families or extended families. (Recall Margaret Thatcher's comment on this.)  

All ruling classes have historically justified their privileged position by self-serving justifications: they are wiser and more educated, therefore they are entitled to rule over the rest of the populations. It is also frequently observed that they justify all of their policies by claiming to be a "democracy". Censorship and propaganda are frequently used to prevent the rest of the population knowing what they are really doing.  

This is all obvious to genuine socialists; but to many supporters of class rule, it is not obvious. They try hard to disguise their political views. In the case of Zuesse and many others, they pretend to be critical of existing society; but "when push comes to shove" (def.), they support capitalist rule and will engage in all sorts of fake arguments to justify their views. 

(Edited for clarity at 3:35 PM CT)   

• LEE CAMP: We Gawk at Nonsense Political Theater While the Real Enemies Go Unnoticed from Consortium News. (My reaction: If you believe government authorities of the ruling class give serious priority to your health and well-being, I have a couple of fine bridges to sell you.)
  

• Only Sociopaths Reject the New Normal! – #PropagandaWatch by Canadian James Corbett from his website.
  

• The Fatal Attraction of Techo-Fascism by Mark Petrakis from Off-Guardian. (Note: This is another best post.)
  

• Reminder: The US Empire Tortures Journalists And Whistleblowers by Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog.

• US govt-funded Coda Story smears American journalists who undermine new Cold War propaganda by Ben Norton from  The Grayzone.
  

• How Come It Was Japan That Was Defeated in WWII, but Korea That Was Partitioned by the Victors? by Chung Byung-ho from Anti-Empire. (Note: This is an interesting and novel take on the history of Japan's surrender.)
  

Articles I recommend for today: Tuesday, September 17, 2019

• Brexit Reveals Corbyn to be the True Moderate by Jonathan Cook from Consortium News.

• On the ground, feeling the pulse of Protest Hong Kong by Pepe Escobar from Asia Times.

• Empires Are A Secret Until They Start Falling by Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese from Popular Resistance.

• Fukushima’s Radioactive Water Crisis by Robert Hunziker from Dissident Voice.

Recommended articles for 11/5/2017

• Saudi Arabia - This 'Night Of The Long Knives' Is A Panic-Fueled Move by Bernhard from Moon of Alabama.

• Forced recession as a tool of social war against the 99% by Ramin Mazaheri from A bird's eye view of the Vineyard.  Note: I found this article very challenging. I think it is because of its conversational style and the author's casual references to many economic topics which I am unfamiliar. 

At this point I ran out of time and energy to look for more interesting articles.

North Korea: The really serious options on the table

Click here to access article by Pepe Escobar from Asia Times Online.

Escobar sees important changes both within, and between relations, in the following countries: China, Japan, the two Koreas, and the US that might bring about some major political change in the year or two ahead.

Understanding America’s Many Wars

Click here to access article by Murray Polner from Uncommon Thought Journal. (Edited for much needed clarity at 8:15 PM Seattle time.)

I've spent too much time this morning trying to access information about the author to the detriment of this commentary/essay. Polner is the book editor of History News Network and has written several books and articles featured in many center-liberal publications. The best I could find on his bio is from Book Depository:

Murray Polner has had a rich and varied career as a teacher, college professor, writer and editor. He is the author of When Can I Come Home. His writings have also appeared in the New York Times, Newsday, the Washington Post, Commonweal, The Nation, Village Voice and the Boston Globe. He lives in Great Neck, New York. Murray Polner is an editor and the author of No Victory Parades: The Return of the Vietnam Veteran and has written for The New York Times,The Nation, Commonweal, The Washington Monthly, and many other publications.

I want to use this article/book review which Polner writes about so favorably as an illustration of how a mainstream American intellectual writes about political subjects such as US wars thereby serves as a useful propagandist for the US-led Empire. Now that the Japanese government is a useful ally/puppet of the Empire, we Americans must forgive and forget that we were once adversaries.

In his favorable review of a book by James Bradley’s entitled The China Mirage he uses circumlocutions and abstractions to hide the nature of the rivalries the capitalist nations engaged in during WWII, and as a result he obscures and distorts the realities of these wars. He ends up arguing that our war with Japan was a mistake because "we" (at that time) simply didn't understand Japan's economic needs. In other words, the war was all about national interests and "we" didn't understand Japan's national interests and instead mistakenly aligned our policies with China. Balderdash!

It is Bradley’s contention that Americans have misunderstood and misjudged China, wedded as they were to the fantasy that China was yearning to be Christianized, Westernized and Americanized while ignoring that it had and has its own national interests. This was never more obvious than after 1931, when the Japanese –eager to control China as part of its sphere of interest– invaded Manchuria, which the U.S. promptly denounced as an act of aggression. For both nations the great prize was China. After that, Japan and U.S. were on the road to war.

By referring to the competing capitalist national gang rivalries behind the abstractions of nations (China, Japan, US), he, like many ruling class propagandists, hides the real nature of the devastating wars in the 20th century.

Let me present a concise alternative view of history that focuses more specifically on competition among capitalist ruling classes to control access to markets and resources all over the world to satisfy their interests of profits and power.

In spite of the external military operations of other capitalist countries and internal threats posed by poverty, hunger, chaos, and epidemic diseases, the success of the Soviet revolution in 1917 posed an ongoing threat of a system that directly challenged private ownership of the economy that existed in all the other technologically advanced countries. Should the Soviet experiment succeed, all capitalist ruling classes were threatened by the alternative example of public ownership. Thus capitalist ruling classes, having failed to re-install a capitalist regime in the Soviet Union, waited to see if the new Soviet government simply collapsed under the weight of so many initial threats.

During the 1930s when Western nations were severely plagued by the Great Depression, the Soviet Union was making rapid economic strides and enjoying full employment. Obviously this was of great concern to Western capitalist ruling classes and they began a project to support right-wing fascist parties in Europe which ultimately brought the Nazi Party to power in Germany and the fascists in Italy. Because the "democratic" (the US, Britain, France, etc) nations stood by in neutrality, they allowed Germany and Italy to attach the left elected Spanish government during the Spanish Civil War. Only the Soviet Union and volunteers from the non-fascist Western countries came to the aid of the Spanish government, and the Soviet leaders lost interest in doing so because they themselves felt threatened.

During this period American and other European ruling capitalist classes were split in their attitudes and policies toward the fascist countries. On the one hand, they saw the latter as a bulwark against organized labor unions and leftists, but on the other, especially as the latter grew in power, they feared that they might present a threat to the economic interests of capitalists in what became known as the core allied nations (which initially excluded the Soviet Union). Also the more fascist oriented capitalists in the allied nations saw the splendid potential of the German Nazi government to expand eastward (Hitler had described this plan in Mein Kampf as Lebensraum). 

Similarly Japan's ruling capitalist class had their own imperialist concept of Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. What most Americans are unaware of is that the US ruling class had their own concept, the Grand Area (this area was extended after WWII and became known as the "free world"). The Allies patiently let Germany expand and grow their empire on the European continent and move east toward the Soviet Union. However Germany unexpectedly invaded Poland, with which Britain had a defense treaty, instead of going from Czechoslovakia on to the Soviet Union. Thus began a phony war after which the Nazi government attacked Britain and continued to move east and invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941. Because the Netherlands, Belgium, and France had been easily overrun by German forces, the Allied ruling classes expected that Germany would easily defeat the Soviet forces. But whereas the defeat of the Allied countries was mainly due to their ruling classes being split in their orientation to the fascist nations, the Soviet government was united in their opposition to fascism. As a result the German forces encountered great difficulty after only a month into their invasion. 

Although I cannot yet prove it, I am convinced by much circumstantial evidence that leading US ruling class figures at this time saw that Germany was not going to succeed in conquering the USSR and therefore Germany was now a threat to the British Empire and the US. They and their British associates began formulating plans in the late summer of 1941 to prepare for war with the Axis powers. They saw the necessity of securing what they referred to as the Grand Area, which included the Western Hemisphere plus southeast Asia, in order to win the war against the Axis powers. Of course, this put them on a collision course with Japan's ruling class who vitally needed the resources in that area and oil from the US. The US government soon embargoed oil exports to Japan in order to force Japan along together their ally Germany into a war with the Anglo-American combination.

Capitalist ruling classes are very much like street gangs in that they compete over territories which provide them with opportunities of profit and power. Thus the Anglo-American capitalist combination were not going to permit the capitalist ruling classes in Germany and/or Japan to dominate the world and threaten their access to raw materials and markets. The British capitalists persuaded US capitalists to join them in opposition to the German Reich, and this combination went on to win WWII with the result that they have dominated the world ever since. (Israel was added in 1967 after the nation and the international Zionist Jewry became obvious as a useful addition to the existing Empire.) However, the governments of Russia, China, Iran and other countries are now starting to challenge their dominance, and we can expect more major wars to follow--unless we organize an effective opposition against the profit and power addicted ruling class!

Into The Zone: A look at the billion dollar cleanup following the Fukushima disaster

Click here if you wish to access this 27:47m video produced by Journeyman Pictures directly from YouTube.

Mark Willacy [of Australian Broadcasting Corporation] travels to radiation-poisoned Fukushima as few residents return home after evacuation lift. He uncovers startling new evidence of the dangers that still lurk there, and the near insurmountable task of cleaning it up.

Five years after the nuclear meltdown, the Fukushima countryside remains full of radiation and virtually empty of people. As levels spike on the radiation meter at Fukishima a guide from the plant operator TEPCO warns Willacy: "they don’t want to go any further”. “In the beginning I felt lonely", says Naoto Matsumura, described as Japan’s most contaminated person. "But now I’m used to it”. The task of neutralising hundreds of tonnes of melted nuclear fuel turns out to be far greater than previously thought, and may never be fully remedied. Naoto Kan, Japan’s Prime Minister at the time of the crisis and an anti-nuclear convert, believes that "the accident took us to the brink of destruction". 

Former Japanese Ambassador calls on IOC to cancel 2020 Olympics over Fukushima Risks

Click here to access article from nsnbc. 

The former Japanese Ambassador to Switzerland, Mitshei Murata, has called on the President of the International Olympic Committee to move the 2020 Olympics from Tokyo or to cancel the games over the situation at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. 

The US’ “Asia Pivot” is in Doldrums

Click here to access article by Salman Rafi Sheikh from New Eastern Outlook.

Sheikh argues that not only is the "pivot" not working, but sees evidence that suggests a reverse pivot away from the US Empire is underway and impacting US strategies.

...it is quite an evident fact that China is playing a long game, and it is scoring points slowly but steadily while the US struggles to carry out its much-advertised “pivot.” With US attention currently occupied by Iraq, Syria and now Yemen, developments in Asia that clamor for closer attention from the US once again seem to be getting drowned out by the din from the Middle East. However, it is also a fact that the US-Iran rapprochement is kind of a US response to Chinese assertiveness in East Asia.

The Havoc and Fantasy of ‘Full Spectrum Dominance’

Click here to access article by Karel van Wolferen from his blog. 

The protracted overthrow in the course of 2010 of the first cabinet formed by the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) does not at first glance resemble what happened in Kiev on January 22nd 2014 – when Victoria Nuland & Co triggered, aided, and abetted an anti–Russian coup d’état. No snipers were involved. No deaths. No civil war against Japanese citizens who had supported a reformist program. It was a gentle overthrow. But an overthrow it was even so.

While our attention has been focused elsewhere on events generated by the imperialist Empire, we may have overlooked similar, but less dramatic events, in Japan. With such a history of violence and subversion, Wolferen warns a European audience about the perils of following the lead of the Empire and sitting...

...idly by while [a] generation of politicians at the top responds to the seduction of a power that once represented the good guys, and was the main architect of the post-World War II relatively peaceful and relatively stable world order. It is seductive for Europeans to sit back and allow that power to continue taking the lead. Shared values, and all that sort of thing. How can one argue against such a perspective on planetary political reality today?

Think again.

humanERROR

Click here if you wish to access the original posting of this 19:47m video at the Testosterone Pit.

There are people all over the world who refuse to believe the reassuring messages regarding nuclear energy. An increasing supply of energy is vitally needed to appease the voracious appetite of industries run for the profit of the global One Percent, and to sustain as long as possible a system that serves the deadly addictions to wealth and power that has turned the global One Percent into hard core addicts. One such person is a Japanese youth who passionately appeals to people's common sense about the hazards of nuclear energy. He is valiantly fighting for a future for his and succeeding generations.

An awesome, amazing, and powerful appeal (with lyrical English text) to the people of Japan to open their eyes and minds. It slams the nuclear industry, the mainstream media, government bureaucrats, and politicians of all stripes.

China ADIZ: You Furnish the Hysterics, We’ll Furnish the Heightened Tensions

Click here to access article by the blogger at China Matters. 

...Western outlets have unanimously spun the Chinese ADIZ as some reckless stunt to challenge Japan over the Senkaku airspace.

My profound thanks to this blogger and others who have shed light on the latest lies broadcast over the Empire's megaphones. See, for example, this US report.

TEPCO risks all at Fukushima

Click here to access article by Victor Kotsev from Asia Times Online.

On Monday [11/18/2013], by far the most dangerous nuclear operation attempted in human history was set to begin in the crippled Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Japan, the removal of more than 1,300 spent fuel rods and some 200 unused rods from a reservoir on top of Unit 4.

Given the ongoing nuclear disasters at Fukushima, it is a wonder that nations still want nuclear power. But then, given the fact that the climate is now obviously destabilizing due to the use of fossil fuels, some form of energy is required that doesn't contribute to global warming. Besides, the voracious appetite of capitalist economic engines require ever greater amounts of energy to produce products and services to provide profits demanded by the ruling global capitalist class. Thus, nuclear energy is the only alternative source that can provide the amount of energy required to feed the capitalist monster.

This begs a question: why should the rest of humanity, the vast majority, allow this tiny class to wreck havoc on their planet?

Ten Years of Fukushima Radiation Crossing the Pacific Ocean

Click here to access article by Jim Lee from CV News. 

TEPCO’s claims are not to be trusted.  Their lies are well documented, and their numbers are speculation. TEPCO does not know the following:

•     Which nuclear materials are in the water and in what amounts (strontium, tritium, plutonium, cesium)

•     The rate of water leaving the plant

•     The level of radioactivity of the water.

Without these variables, scientists model “best guess” scenarios which may be misleading to government leaders who make decisions based on their estimates.  What we do know is that massive amounts of radioactive material are making their way across the Pacific ocean, and that the greatest threat to life worldwide comes from bioaccumulation (also known as biomagnification).

(Read also this piece entitled " Robert Stone must film Fukushima now" from War Is a Crime, and/or this piece entitled "Fukushima Brings New Agenda For Renewables" from Dissident Voice.)

Nuclear Engineer: Japan's PM "Lying to the Japanese People" About Safety of Fukushima

Click here to access the 7:01m video and transcript of interview with nuclear engineer Arnie Gunderson.

So, they are lying. But, how could one expect otherwise from a capitalist ruling class? The same thing would be happening here--wait a second--maybe it is already happening here! So far I have been unable to find websites that are publishing any scientific research on the potential hazards to us in the US related to radioactive hazards from Fukushima. Tepco specialists have been unable to control the ongoing leakage of highly active radioactive material into the ocean, and winds are carrying radioactive material to our shores as shown graphically in this YouTube video, however the source is not indicated:



The interviewer asks Gunderson this important question:

...why do you think there hasn't been more worldwide reaction to the disaster in Japan? I mean, in terms of nuclear power, we've seen Germany has decided to phase out its nuclear power by 2022, but we really haven't heard about this elsewhere.

His answer was that advanced countries are addicted to nuclear power. I find his answer ridiculous. It is like claiming that heroin users are addicted to needles. The capitalist ruling classes are simply protecting their system which requires growth in a world where fossil fuels are increasingly hard to extract economically. They are addicted alright, but their addiction is to the wealth and power that the capitalist system provides them. They will do anything to protect this system--that is the addiction, and we must take that addiction away from them.

The REAL Reason America Used Nuclear Weapons Against Japan

Click here to access article from Washington's Blog.

This article provides an excellent summary of evidence to support arguments that the justifications given to the US public for the use of the A-bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were lies, and the real reason--demonstration to Soviet Union of awesome power in the hands of the US and preventing the Soviets from getting any rewards in the post-war Pacific war settlement. 

Truman was a poorly educated, naive former haberdashery owner who, I believe, was put into office because he was seen as a "useful idiot" to serve the real masters of the US who were well connected to Wall Street. What remains to be discovered are the names of these "masters". They were the same ones who built the foundations of our National Security State under the first CIA director, and Wall Street lawyer, Allen W. Dulles.