Posts that I especially recommend for Thursday, May 20, 2021

• Biohazards News Tracker: Best articles on SARS-CoV-2 origins, biolabs and gain of function research by Sainath Suryanarayanan from U.S. Right to Know. 

• Beijing, the Five Eyes or Something Else? Who’s to Blame for the COVID Pandemic? by Matthew Ehret from Strategic Culture Foundation.
  

• DIVIDE & RULE - The Plan of The 1% to Make You DISPOSABLE - Vandana Shiva

• Exclusive Interview: Fight To Stop Bill Gates Control of Global Seed Population featuring Ben Swann introducing his interview with Vandana Shiva in a 14:51m video from ISE.

• Microsoft vs Indian Farmers: Agri-Stacking the System by Colin Todhunter, a Brit who has live in India for a number of years, from Global Research.
  

• Gas Shortages and Simulations by Matt Nilsson from his weblog What About the Roads.

• Checkpoints on the Frontier of Desire by John Steppling from his weblog. (Note: This post is for those who have spent a lot of time in universities.)
  

• Why Did Facebook Censor Two Renowned Oxford Professors Sharing Information About Face Masks? by Arjun Walia from Collective Evolution.
  

• New Eastern Outlook: "Account was disabled or suspended by server administrator". I got this message this morning while trying to access this website. The ruling capitalist class is intent on narrowing the information and opinions you receive in order to better control you. They are afraid of you. They will do this as long as you remain quiet and remain "good Germans". 

A similar thing has happened to CGTN, China's major online news website. Although you can now access the website, you can't read any of the articles.

• James Corbett on the Human Extinction Event featuring Corbett reporting his views on the coming attacks on our present systems on the way to the Great Reset, the grandiose plan by transnational billionaire capitalists, in a 57-minute interview from his weblog The Corbett Report. My reaction: Did you notice that sometime in the interview, Corbett uses the verboten words "ruling class"?

• Note To Greenwald - The 'Russian' Pipeline Is A Germany Need by Bernhard, a German independent blogger from his weblog Moon of Alabama.
  

• Mexico’s President AMLO Accuses US State Department of “Promoting Coup-Plotters” by Derrick Broze from The Last American Vagabond.
  

• The US Is Complicit In Every Single Israeli Government War Crime by Robert Inlakesh from The Last American Vagabond.
  

• Antarctica is headed for a climate tipping point by 2060, with catastrophic melting if carbon emissions aren’t cut quickly by Julie Brigham-Grette and Andrea Dutton from The Conversation. My reaction: These two professors in the field of geoscience focus on the melting of the Antarctic glaciers, but other scientists tell us that the Arctic sea ice will disappear much sooner which is disastrous for us and other species.
  

Posts that I especially recommend for Thursday, February 25, 2021

• Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Takes ‘Anti-Vax’ Stance in Violation of His Own Platform's New Policy … ‘I Share Some Caution on this [Vaccine] Because We Just Don't Know the Long-Term Side Effects of Basically Modifying People's DNA and RNA’ from Project Veritas. (This post includes a video in which Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, in an internal corporate meeting on July 20, 2020 made these statements.)
  

• Worldwide Excess Mortality Rate In 2020 by Mark R. Elsis from EarthNewspaper.
  

• Google’s Eric Schmidt & The Artificial Intelligence Military-Industrial Complex by Derrick Broze from The Last American Vagabond. 

• US integrates Israel into CENTCOM by Vanessa Beeley, an independent British blogger, from her weblog The Wall Will Fall. (This is a review of an article announcing this by Yaakov Lappin.)
  

• The Pine-eyed Boy Escapes from the Belly of the Dark Night in the Fish’s Tale by Edward Curtin from Global Research. 

• Mexico to Ban Glyphosate, GM Corn: Presidential Decree Comes Despite Intense Pressure from Industry, U.S. Authorities by Timothy A. Wise from Inter Press Service.
  

• US Destroys Anti-fascist Forces, Stalin’s Failed Efforts to Align with West by Shane Quinn from Global Research. (Note: Not only does Quinn provides as excellent overview of the history of WWII, but he confirms my take (see my commentaries for this, this, and this) on WWII. Many historians employed by the Empire has since re-written the history of this war and censored alternative versions such as reported in this post.)
  

• How Did a Fateful CIA Coup—Executed 55 Years Ago this February 24—Doom Much of Sub-Saharan Africa? by Charles Quist-Adade, Ph.D. from CovertAction Magazine. (Note: I believe this post is an accurate history that was omitted from your daily reporting by media corporations. It was a single event in the longtime series of events since WWII to make the world "safe" for the hegemonic US/Anglo/Zionist Empire.)
  

Posts that I especially recommend today: Friday, February 19, 2021

• March 1st Reopen America by Bold Business Owners For Liberty (3:43) featuring a small business owner in Florida calling for the complete opening of US businesses on March 1st free of any Covid-19 restrictions.

• Catastrophe Capitalism Has Gone Intergalactic featuring Lee Camp in discussion with Andrews Lee, a correspondent on a privately owned "lunar colony" in 2062! (Note: This is satire about our future.)
  

• Politico’s Defense News, Brought to You by Northrop Grumman by Alan Macleod from Mint Press News. My reaction: The point is obvious, but that applies for capitalist funding of media in general.
  

How can media be relied upon to report honestly on these industries or hold them to account if that media is being directly funded by them? Should we really expect journalists to be breaking stories about pharmaceutical price gouging, the enormous power of Silicon Valley, or the devastation caused by fossil-fuel company pollution if those companies are essentially paying their wages?

Advertising works, not only on consumers, but on outlets as well.

• Russia holds the key to German sovereignty by Pepe Escobar from "The Saker" weblog.
  

• Emails Reveal US Officials Joined With Agrochemical Giant Bayer to Stop Mexico's Glyphosate Ban by Kenny Stancil from Common Dreams.
  

• Global Ice Melt: Much Faster Than Predicted by Evan Lim from State of the Planet.

• Millions will die if world fails on climate promises by Tim Radford from Climate News Network. My reaction: As long the international class of capitalists drive policies, we will not see them keep climate promises. Furthermore, the nations (especially their governments) that they reside in will not suffer any significant consequences for their failures, but the people who reside in them definitely will.
  

Pompeo's Moment of Truth on Venezuela Recorded; Tell Us What's Really Happening!

Click here to access a post featuring a podcast entitled "The Critical Hour", a podcast by Wilmar Leon from Sputnik News. (Updated at 9:40 AM CT.)

I was impressed by the sophistication of the guests he had on his program to discuss three issues: the failure of the Empire to remove Maduro's administration from Venezuela (roughly from 0:00-25:30), the economic warfare imposed against China and threats of such recently directed against Mexico (roughly 25:30-44:00), and the aggressive campaign against journalists especially in Australia, but also in other places in the Empire (44:17-56:00). 

I believe that these segments illustrate my thesis that the bumbling Trump administration, although being pressed by the neoliberal directors of the Empire (aka "Deep State"), are reacting desperately and recklessly to recent setbacks by concocting uninformed counter-attacks in their quest to preserve the Empire's domination of the world. See if you agree.

I continue to be impressed by Russian news and analysis sources whether funded by the Russian government or function independently: Sputnik, RT, New Eastern Outlook, and Strategic Culture Foundation.

War & Revolution2

The following video interview is with law professor (and columnist for left publications in Mexico) John Ackerman, and conducted by two members of the MexElects' website, an independent Mexican website which hopes to bring a left-wing perspective on the national elections scheduled for July 1st. These elections have been viewed by many progressives in both Mexico and the USA as heralding a new political direction, but many of Ackerman's comments challenge this notion.

My old ears could not decipher all of the rapidly delivered comments by Ackerman, but I learned much about Mexican politics, specifically, the details about how the ruling Mexican capitalist class manage their elections so that they never lose while pretending to be a "democracy". Such methods are familiar to politically aware observers here in the USA. 

In spite of the censorship and the election rigging, it appears that ordinary Mexicans are much more informed about what occurs in their country than Americans are regarding their own country. Could this be because the management of news, information, and entertainment is much more sophisticated here in the USA?

Letter From Mexico

Click here to access article from Insurgent Notes.

The 20% rise in gas prices in Mexico has resulted in widespread turmoil among the populace.

Editor’s Note [editor of Insurgent Notes]: We recently sent a couple of articles on Mexico from the Financial Times to our Mexico correspondent to check their accuracy. The following is his reply. 

Protests in Mexico Push Country to Brink of Revolution and Nobody’s Talking About It

Click here to access article by Nick Bernabe from Anti-Media. 

To be more specific, US corporate media are not covering it honestly.

Much like the U.S., the Mexican government is susceptible to corporate influence. It just so happens that the most influential corporate entities in Mexico are drug cartels — and it’s hard for the government to reign in entities that fund and infiltrate it. Similar to the phenomenon of “regulatory capture,” the Mexican government is at least partially funded and co-opted by drug cartels. This festering problem is an underlying factor in the current civil unrest in Mexico.

Insumisión: From Teachers’ Strike to People’s Rebellion

Click here to access article by Scott Campbell from It's Going Down. 

With all the terrorist incidents and other indications of social conflict happening, you may not have paid attention to what is happening across our border with Mexico. Campbell attempts to summarize what has been happening.

With the ongoing teachers’ strike that has morphed into a widespread rebellion, primarily in Oaxaca and Chiapas, we haven’t put together a more general roundup of resistance and repression in Mexico in some time. While that struggle is very much alive and well, the intensity with which it is unfolding has diminished some. This column will first take a look at the past three weeks of that conflict (if you need to get up to speed, check out this piece) and then cover some of the other recent events around the country.

Oaxaca: The Discourse of Fear, Rumors and Lies

Click here to access article by Griselda Sánchez from It's Going Down (Mexico).

 A propaganda campaign was waged throughout the country – and not just in Oaxaca – in order to create a consensus and justify a new police raid, again appealing to the basic emotions of fear, desire and hatred. Using language about a humanitarian crisis, caused by alleged food shortages in Oaxaca, newspaper stands were filled with headlines such as: “Shortages increase and threaten to increase prices,” “The CNTE’s blockades leave Oaxaca without rice, milk, bread,” “The Mexican Army and Social Development Ministry conduct airlifts to Oaxaca to supply corn.” Aside from being a blatant lie, at no time was there concern regarding food access for Oaxacans, but rather a defense of the transit of merchandise.

Revolutionary-minded people here in the US and elsewhere may want to pay attention to what is happening in the area around Oaxaca, Mexico (you won't see scenes like this broadcast on American corporate media). Although corporate media is used constantly to dis-inform and distract people, in revolutionary times it serves the ruling class even more aggressively to control people. Once again we seen the urgency of independent media to serve the people.

State Terrorism and Education, the New Speculative Sector in the Stock Market [Mexico]

Click here to access article by Renata Bessi and Santiago Navarro F. from El Enemigo Común.

Neoliberals from international banks are meeting stiff opposition in Mexico in their efforts to transform public education into commodities that can be bought and sold in capitalist markets. They have no qualms about murdering people to obtain their objectives.

The reasons why the Mexican government wants to impose the Educational Reform, even if it means killing people, as with the massacre in Nochixtlán by repressive state forces on June 19, are rooted in economic objectives guided by international financial organizations. The reform, proposed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), with the OECD-Mexico Agreement to Improve the Quality of Education in Schools of Mexico, aims to lay the groundwork to shift education from being a State responsibility to instead being resolved in the realm of the financial market.

Lois Weiner of New Politics introduces another report with this statement:

Another piece explains the complicity of the "official" pro-government teachers union, SNTE, in supporting the government reforms, against the will of thousands who have taken to the streets. The protests are being led by a reform movement, CNTE, within the official union.  An activist in the Chicago Teachers Union who has done work with CNTE has organized a fund-raising appeal.  Money will to directly to CNTE, which is fighting with unbelievable courage against reforms that are planned for the rest of the world. Yes, the US as well.

Ultimate Weapon in Existential Struggle: Using the TPP for Hostile Takeover of Mexican Agriculture

Click here to access article by "Don Quijones" from Wolf Street.

For a company that is long accustomed to getting its way in just about every jurisdiction on planet Earth, the constant obstructionism of the Mexican justice system is beginning to wear thin for Monsanto. But the company and its rivals still have one ace up their sleeves, a weapon that has the potential to obliterate Mexico’s judicial resistance in one fell swoop: the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the world’s biggest trade agreement that was recently signed by the governments of 12 Pacific-rim nations, including Mexico.

Zapatistas: Truth and Justice Will Never, Ever, Come from Above

Click here to access article by the Zapatistas from the region of Chiapas, Mexico.

We in the more "advanced" Western countries have much to learn from the Zapatistas--first, and foremost, are the insights contained in this article:

We as Zapatistas, women and men, did not trust those above before, nor do we now, nor will we ever, regardless of the color of their flag, regardless of their style of speech, regardless of their race. If one is above, it is because s/he is oppressing those below.

Those above have no trustworthy word, no honor, no shame, no dignity.
Truth and justice will never, ever, come from above.

We will have to construct them from below.

It's clear to me that many of us living in the "advanced" Western countries have, through many years of indoctrination and propaganda, come to accept as normal total obedience to, and trust in, the authorities who rule over us and control our lives. Their power is based on their private "ownership", under the rules of capitalism, of economies which in reality is a social legacy created by many generations of humans from the advent of human existence over 150,000 years ago. 

The Zapatistas on Elections and a Look Toward the Capitalist Hydra

Click here to access article by Zapatistas from Upside Down World. 

From reading this piece by the Zapatistas, it is clear that the rest of the world's activists have much to learn about participating in capitalist elections, self-governing, and bottom-up political structures from these people in Chiapas, Mexico.

Referring to naive leftist activists and reformers in their area, they say this:

You can see that they don’t realize that that if they get rid of the bad parts of capitalism, then it won’t be capitalism. And I’m going to tell you why: because capitalism is the exploitation of man by man, of the many by the few. Even if they include women, it’s the same. ....

But there are more than the two ways that they describe (the armed path and the electoral path) to get into government. They forget that the government can also be bought (or they’ve already forgotten how Peña Nieto got there?) And not only that, but perhaps they’ve also forgotten that it’s possible to rule without being in government.

If these people say that it’s only possible with weapons or with elections, the only thing that they’re actually saying is that they don’t know their history, that they haven’t studied well, that they have no imagination, and that they have no shame.

It would be enough for them to see just a little of what happens below. But their necks are already cramped from looking up so much.

That is why we, the Zapatistas, don’t get tired of saying organize yourselves, let’s organize ourselves, each person where they are, let’s struggle to organize ourselves, let’s work to organize ourselves, let’s begin by thinking about how to start to organize and let’s gather together in order to unite our organizations for a world where the people command and the government obeys.

The Struggle As The Women We Are: Communiques From The Zapatistas

Click here to access article by the Zapatistas from Upside Down World. 

The article provides an illustration of how the indigenous people in the Chiapas region of Mexico are empowering women as well as men, and constructing bottom-up authority and radical egalitarian political structures to defend their lands and people from the predations of capitalist agencies. In this region activists are fully conscious of the necessity of empowering all people so that the truth expressed in the slogan "the people united can never be defeated" can be fully realized. A "united people" requires that all, or most, people are educated in the realities of existing power structures as well as being empowered themselves within activist organizations.

Meanwhile, read in a Nation report how the people in Central America are fighting back against exploitation of their lands by US and Canadian corporations and interference in their political affairs by US agencies. Better yet, read a piece from Latin American in Movement entitled "7 Reasons to Scrap the $1 Billion Aid Package to Central America". This is another US "aid" bill which would actually worsen conditions for ordinary people in Central American countries while strengthening the existing dictatorships.

Is Mexico Ready For Life Without Its Sugar Daddy?

Click here to access article by Don Quijones from Wolf Street.

This ex-patriot British blogger, in addition to living in Spain, sometime resides in Mexico (with his wife of Mexican origins) and follows events in that country quite closely. In this article he alerts us to a very important development in Mexican affairs that will impact the nation for years to come. Of course, such an important neoliberal event is not reported in mainstream news, but you can read about from this independent observer.

As the world’s attention is transfixed by every new development in Chapo Guzman’s latest audacious prison break, something much more important – and potentially more dangerous – is happening in Mexico. Yesterday the country held its first auction of offshore oil leases, bringing to an end 77 long years of state control over energy.

UN: torture in Mexico occurs with 'impunity' at hands of security forces

Click here to access article by Jo Tuckman from The Guardian.

Torture and massacres and now beheadings seem to be the hallmark of the US's NAFTA partner to the south. If it is true that you can judge a person or entity by the company they keep (beheaders in Saudi Arabia, neo-Nazis in Ukraine, etc), we are in deep doo-doo.

Mexico’s Youth Under Siege

Click here to access article by Laura Carlsen from Americas Program.

Carlsen provides a brilliant understanding of the current crisis in Mexico involving the murder and disappearance of 70 young people by examining the class interests of multinational corporations and Empire strategies to promote these interests. She does this by examining the development and the significance of the "war on drugs" and its relationship to "free trade" policies.

First of all, this meant a strategy to counter the virulent anti-establishment activities of young people that appeared in the 1960s, but more recently to promote the interests of mainly US corporations looking to expand their access to the economies and resources of their neighbors to the south under so-called "free trade" policies. Carlsen pierces the veil of Empire propaganda to show how the "war on drugs" have had, and still have, multiple benefits for the One Percent of the US and their collaborators in countries to the south by promoting state violence against anyone who stands in the way of corporate exploitation. (For the latest examples of Mexican state violence used against protesting youth, read this.)

In the capitalist system, the existence of an underground economy has financial and political advantages. On one hand, the criminalization of drugs creates a situation of vulnerability and ongoing harassment of youth by the repressive forces of the state, and assures that many of them will spend time behind bars. In foreign policy, the drug war justifies U.S. intervention.

The amount of money flowing without transparency or control was a factor, according to economists, in saving the global financial system in the 2008 crisis by providing liquidity to banks and financing speculation at a high level. Transnational banks not only accept drug money, but promote new and more sophisticated ways to launder money and ensure that illegal cash flows into the “legitimate” financial system.

Access to dirty money provides a way to finance illegal political activities and even secret or prohibited wars. The best known example is the funding of the Nicaraguan Contras with drug sales in U.S. neighborhoods by the CIA.

The NAFTA Connection: The Role of “Free” Trade in Mexico’s Tragic Travails

Click here to access article by Don Quijones from Wolf Street.

The author explains how NAFTA, which has been a boon to corporate profits, has also been a major root cause of the massacre of 43 Mexican students that has so shocked the Mexican people.

We are often told that freer trade is a panacea for all our economic ills. Yet if that were the case, Mexico, which has signed more trade agreements than just about any other nation on the planet, would be one of the world’s richest, strongest performing economies. Instead it’s on the verge of a vertiginous descent into social chaos, endemic lawlessness, and failed statehood, while its economy – at the exclusive service of transnational corporations, home-grown oligarchs, corrupt politicians and drug lords – continues to splutter in the slow lane. 

Community Police in Guerrero’s Costa Chica Region to Celebrate 19 Years of a Better Way to Combat Crime and Corruption

Click here to access article by Greg Berger and Oscar Olivera from The Narco News Bulletin.

This rather lengthy report tells an inspiring story of how people in over a hundred communities in the violence ridden Mexican state of Guerrero have organized themselves and created their own parallel justice and policing services.

The Same Southern Mexican State Where 43 Students Were Disappeared Is also Home to a Grassroots Movement that Shows How People Can Police Themselves When the State Becomes Criminal

Ayotzinapa protests awaken Mexico from a nightmare

Click here to access article by Maggie Blanca and Jeremy Crowlesmith from Reflections on a Revolution.

The disappearance of the students has mobilized and brought together diverse local groups from all social strata and regions of Mexican society. Committees of support have been set up in the most remote corners of Mexico, the Zapatistas have held a silent march in Chiapas and famous Mexican actors have declared their solidarity. However, the heart of the movement is located in Iguala, in the Asamblea Nacional Popular (ANP) headed by the parents and schoolmates of the disappeared students.