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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

  
  

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

Posts that I especially recommend today: Thursday, February 11, 2021

• Further Proof that U.S. & UK are One Empire, Not Two by Eric Zuesse from The Duran. Finally, he gets around to noticing after its origins in 1946.

• New NORAD Warfare Strategies and Canada’s Role in the Great Game Revisited by Matthew Ehret from Strategic Culture Foundation. My reaction: Although I don't agree with his main thesis that the British ruling class has taken the initiative and was the main actor behind the construction of what became the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire (it was a transnational capitalist project), this paragraph got my attention:
  

Anyone who has read Cynthia Chung’s Dr. Strangelove’s Spoonbenders will quickly realize why using AI to pick up algorithms that would normally be missed by human analysts, and generate hair-trigger decisions to counter threats from Eurasia creates a mountain of trouble for humanity, as glitches and mis-readings of Russian/Chinese intentions can easily escalate unstoppably into a nuclear retaliation by deductive/inductive machine thinking.

• Why is America getting a new $100 billion nuclear weapon? by Elisabeth Eaves from Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
  

• Empire Files: Afghanistan Mercenary Shocker + US Says Nuclear War “Very Real Possibility” featuring Abby Martin reporting via a 5:44m video on two topics from Media Roots.
  

• The Big Tech Exodus Has Begun — Join Us! (Updated) from Activist Post.
  

• New US Military Base in Northeast Syria Latest of Biden’s Warlike Moves by Alan Macleod from Mint Press News.

•  Interview 1618 – New World Next Week with James Evan Pilato featuring James Corbett and Pilato reporting and sarcastically commenting on the news. Posted on The Corbett Report in a 22:08m video with links to relevant documents. The topics they discuss: The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election [from Time Magazine]; Germany Hired Koch Institute And Other Scientists To Justify Unconstitutional Lockdowns; and Nevada Bill Would Allow Tech Companies to Create Governments.
  

• Lithium, Batteries and Climate Change by Jonathan Neale from Climate & Capitalism.
  

• U.S. State Department Admits Signs Point To C0VlD Created in Wuhan Lab featuring Ben Swann examining the latest evidence from the Wuhan lab. Posted on ISE.

• Coronavirus Scandal Breaking in Merkel’s Germany. False Positives and the Drosten PCR Test by F. William Engdahl from Global Research.

• ‘Unseen Enemy’: Coronavirus as an archetype of perception. By Ludovic Noble from Off-Guardian (based in Britain).
  

• The Fire Next Time by Rebecca Gordon from Tom Dispatch. (Note: You will need to scroll down to the article following Tom Engelhardt's introduction. I am posting this article only to criticize its weaknesses.) My commentary follows:

Although well-meaning, this is a post that exemplifies the blindness that has infected American "progressives" and (political) liberals (in the contemporary sense--def#5) since WWII. The tremendous war effort and reactionary historians succeeded to erase the memory of radicalism that appeared in the 1930s. Gordon also exemplifies a person who has been thoroughly brainwashed by the secret cabal that has taken over not only American education but every other institution in the USA. This aggressive capitalist ruling class now rules over an Empire built on the ashes of the war when the US first reigned supreme in its military and economy.

She is the perfect product of an "education" that forgot the rising tide of the appeal that truly radical parties had on ordinary Americans. Gone is the memory of general strikes that hit San Francisco, Minneapolis, and many other cities. Gone are the memories of this radical appeal when Soviet citizens enjoyed rising standards of living and no unemployment. Gone, too, is the memory of FDR's reply to the charge that he was promoting socialism. Gone are Upton Sinclair's and John Steinbeck's descriptions of life during the Great Depression. Gone are the reports of US capitalists' approval of fascist developments in Germany and Italy. So much has been erased from history that is taught in American schools; and what was not erased, has been revised by historians that serve the ruling class.

Gordon (and by inference, Tom Dispatch and CounterPunch who re-posted this article) supports the "correct political line" of the day by condemning Trump's faction of the capitalist ruling class, but not capitalism which has led the nation and world towards either, in the short-run, nuclear war, or, in the long-run, climate destabilization and extinction of nearly all life on our Earth. 

But, no worries, because our masters have a plan to avert climate destabilization. It's called the Great Reset. But carefully disguised in the plan is population reduction, and that reduction is ridding our working class of low-level workers, including small businessmen, who do not contribute to the wealth accumulation of today's corporations and many of their billionaire owners.

• Arranging The Middle East Narrative To Push The Agenda Forward from South Front.
  

• The Fight for Belarus: An Interview with Nadezhda Sablina by Kayla Pop from Internationalist 360°.

• Extinction Foretold, Extinction Ignored featuring Prof. (retired) Guy McPherson (via YouTube) summarizing the document he wrote by the same title.
  

NATO summit dominated by growing inter-state conflicts

Click here to access article by Alex Lantier from World Socialist Web Site.

Lantier summarizes what I believe are the signs to the collapse of the capitalist US/Anglo/Zionist Empire which rose from the ashes of the German Nazi version of this capitalist Empire. WWII was not fought to end fascism as the Empire's propagandists want you to believe, but the ultimate contest between a German-capitalist led and a British-capitalist led fascist capitalism. The Nazi Empire was originally funded and supported by Western capitalists of all countries, but as soon as they saw Nazis stalled at the gates of Moscow, the capital of a first socialist experiment, they immediately allied themselves with the preservation of the British Empire. The current fascist Empire (in "democratic" clothes) has been the final result of the devastating conflict of WWII. 

But this Empire is seeing its end days. To revise a weather folklore, I believe that the Empire will not go out like a lamb, but like a wounded lion which thrashes around to impress his fellow lions (capitalists) that he is still dominant among the creatures of the earth--think Bolivia and Venezuela after the Syrian debacle. The Fed is stuffing our failing banks with their "printed" money to stave of the massive debts that the Empire has created to impose its dominance on the rest of world. The signs are everywhere.

But let me not assure you that we residents of the Empire will not suffer "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune". The ensuing series of catastrophes will soon engulf us and end in the extinction of humans. In contrast to this inspiring video we are doomed as a species. We might have changed things back in 2012, but we surely can't while approaching 2020. The artillery of our oceans and skies are so locked and loaded with capitalist-produced carbon that our fate is already decided. 

We are entering a new "brave world" in which our capitalist masters may still be brought to justice--hopefully! For us, this can only be a bitter-sweet reward to see that this class of sociopathic people, who have destroyed ours and so many other species, and whose exploitation of the Earth and all of its working people has brought them so much temporary wealth and power, will finally share in our fate--extinction.

Articles I especially recommend for today: Thursday, September 19, 2019

• Don’t Smile for the Camera by Andrew P. Napolitano from Antiwar.

• Cutting air pollution would not cause ‘near-term spike’ in global warming by Robert McSweeney from CarbonBrief.  

• No One To Save Us But Ourselves by Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin from Rebel (Ireland).

• Trump’s Re-election? Did the Federal Reserve Already “Decide the 2020 US Election”? by F. William Engdahl from Global Research. 

• Houthi rebels overturned the chessboard by Pepe Escobar from Asia Times.

• China, Russia and Iran: Basis of the New Geopolitical Order by James ONeill from New Eastern Outlook. 

• Latin America and the US: The chains of indebtedness by Marco A. Gandásegui from Cuba-Network in Defense of Humanity.

Woodstock and the American counter-culture

Click here to access article by Philip Ferguson from Redline (New Zealand).  (updated to a limited extent)

I was astonished at the accuracy of the description of  the American counter-culture that grew out of the Beat culture of the 1950s and continued with the hippie culture throughout the 70s and a bit beyond. (I was near or in San Francisco for much of the hippie counter-culture scene.) I, who had been influenced by Marxist writers, often wondered about how this essentially cultural movement could be harnessed to challenge the existing class structure in the USA. As it turned out, the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements only radicalized some fringe movements like the Black Panthers and Weather Underground. 

It seems now, which I often suspected then, that the ruling capitalist class was sufficiently powerful to contain this counter-cultural rebellion within certain limits. Certainly the Anti-Vietnam War Movement was somewhat helpful in bringing the war to an end, but that is the extent that imperialist capitalist ruling class was thwarted in the USA. Most of the energy that fueled this movement was the draft which at that time required every young man to participate in the war, except for those with draft deferments. 

One must keep in mind that after WWII the very intact US economy was booming, and our ruling class shared its benefits, to a limited extent, with its worker wage-slaves. During the Vietnam War, in order to pacify US citizens, our masters sustained our economy with the Guns and Butter program. However, the Vietnam War nearly bankrupted the nation after our capitalist masters lost this costly effort to re-establish the US Empire's domination of southeast Asia. But under the growing US/Anglo/Zionist Empire and their neoliberal strategy, our masters survived and flourished, and went on to fill our atmosphere with carbon and commit many other crimes against humanity in their mad pursuit of profits and power.

Such a historical view influenced me recently to view the movement of human history as being primarily materialist in the philosophical sense (this was what Marx was trying to do). Over my lifetime I was primarily interested in determining the reality of our class system of capitalism in order to use it to attack the system and liberate a true democracy. But this was an idealist view of reality. Now using a materialist view of human events suggests that human extinction is the inevitable fate of humans. Because the operations of capitalist countries, mostly under the domination of the Empire, has so loaded the Earth's atmosphere with carbon that despite any efforts that humans might make in the future, I'm convinced this fate is now baked-in (def.). Fortunately, I won't be around to see most of the calamities that lie ahead.

Dynamic Systems, Ocean Acidification, and Tipping Points

Click here to access article by Paul Beckwith from his weblog Paul Beckwith, Climate System Scientist.

In this article Beckwith explains to ordinary people the complex nature of the Earth's oceans which are now, due to the vast increase of the burning of fossil fuels during this industrial era, rapidly acidifying at a rate that is unprecedented in the Earth's history dating back hundreds of millions of years ago. 

Posts recommended for Wednesday, July 3, 2019

• Countdown to “Full Spectrum Dominance” by T.J. Coles from CounterPunch.

• The Only Thing Worse Than The World Dying Would Be If It Died Unseen And Unappreciated by Caitlin Johnstone (Australian) from her weblog.

• Former British Parliamentarian George Galloway Speaks out on the Violent Criminalization of Julian Assange in an interview conducted by Dennis J. Bernstein and Randy Credico. This is a transcript of their broadcast from KPFA, a listener funded radio station in Berkeley, California via Covert Action Magazine. You can also listen to the interview directly from the station (nearly one hour).

• Corporations have 'hijacked justice' by Sam Cossar from Ecologist. 

• The global war on refugees by Will Morrow from World Socialist Web Site.

• Sea Ice Nitty-Gritty, Profoundly Disturbing European Heatwaves from the weblog of Paul Beckwith, Climate Scientist. (four 15:00m videos with his introductions related to the subject.)

Articles recommended for Friday, May 31, 2019

• “The X Agenda”: what does XR actually stand for? from Winter Oak (Britain).

• Assange hospitalized, ‘dagger in journalist hearts’ a 5:56m video featuring George Galloway, MP, commenting on the recent news of the persecution of Assange. Produced by RT via YouTube.

The attorney of WikiLeaks founder and journalist Julian Assange’s has revealed that he was too ill to appear in a video chat for his extradition hearing. Assange has spent the past seven weeks at Belmarsh prison, where his health has continued to deteriorate. The WikiLeaks founder faces extradition to the US over “espionage” charges dating back to 2010. Former UK MP George Galloway joins In Question to break this all down.

• Alberta, Canada Smoke Near Me: Air Quality Maps & Forecasts from Heavy. 

Aren't the wildfires early this year? I was wondering why the skies out my window in southern Minnesota were gray when the day was supposed to be sunny. But having turned on a TM weather station, I learned that the residents in the area were warned to stay inside because of the polluted air.

Fine dust and fossil capital in Korea

Click here to access article by John R. Eperjesi from Climate & Capitalism.

This professor living and working in Seoul, Republic of Korea (South Korea), has noticed rising levels of concern in South Korea as polluted air has been darkening skies over the country. He writes:

In Korea, China is often blamed for the pollution wreckage, a scapegoating one routinely hears from taxi drivers, random people on the subway, students, and even from some professors. The blaming of China has radiated throughout Korean society, amplified by opportunistic politicians and click-bait media headlines, resulting in a hysterical us vs. them opposition that views fine dust as an illegal immigrant, sneaking across borders and corrupting our clean air. This nationalist narrative has unleashed some disturbing online violence against China and Chinese people.

There is no doubt about the fact that a significant amount of air pollution originating in mainland China drifts across the Korean Peninsula. But here I want to offer an alternative ecocritical framework for thinking about the crisis of air pollution in South Korea in which fine dust is viewed as a product of fossil capital, defined by Andreas Malm as “an economy of self-sustaining growth predicated on growing consumption of fossil fuels, and therefore generating sustained growth in emissions of carbon dioxide.”[2]

Recommended articles for 2/13/2018

• View these YouTube videos below that portray north and south Korea cordial gatherings in relation to the Winter Olympics in south Korea, and see what is causing fits among the US ruling class that has been promoting conflict between the two sides ever since the actual ceasing of hostilities during the Korean War. This cold war attitude was expressed by Yahoo Corporation in this post, and because of such coverage most uncritically thinking Americans will continue to hate and fear north Korea.  (You may need to wait a little until the videos upload.)

 

• Focus on China: The East is green? by Martin Empson from Socialist Review (Britain). I am offering this post to balance so much of the uncritical coverage in the left websites.

• What U.S. News Reports on Syria’s War Hide by Eric Zuesse from Washington's Blog. Zuesse tells you the straight story regarding US history in Syria, and, in addition, explains how you can critically think about news coverage especially in corporate media.

Billionaires have lots of clout. There’s talk about “manufactured consent,” and this is the way it is “manufactured.” It is manufactured by incessant lying, not only by the Government, but by the press.

A good rule is to distrust everything you read, and to click onto at least a sampling  of its sources and examine them yourself to see whether they support the allegations that they allegedly support; and to evaluate whether those sources are themselves trustworthy — and to ignore any ‘news’ medium that doesn’t link to its sources (doesn’t conveniently let you check out its truth or falsehood), which includes especially TV, radio, and print media. 

Christopher's article recommendations for 2/1/2018

• Blackouts and Flashpoints in 2018 by James Petras from his website (PDF).

• Betting the Earth on a Game of Wrap-Cut-Smash by Stan Cox posted of The Greanville Post.

Today's recommended articles (11/2/2017)

Record surge in atmospheric CO2 seen in 2016 by Matt McGrath from BBC News. 

In Shocking, Viral Interview, Qatar Confesses Secrets Behind Syrian War by Tyler Durden

*How the DPRK riddle is freaking out the US establishment by Pepe Escobar posted in A bird's eye view of the Vineyard. 

This is an especially important article authored by one of world's top journalists. Escobar uses an unnamed source, but his stature among journalists is so high that he can get away with this. The article is also very challenging to understand for people, like myself, with a rather weak scientific background to interpret his statement regarding "electromagnetic pulse" (EMP) from a nuclear bomb. Also formatting poses problems because when one spells out a website address in an article, the rest of the line remains blank. Then there are concepts like Pilsudski’s Intermarium Plan against Russia with countering China by seeking to ally India, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea.

Other related articles that may be helpful in understanding this post:

North Korea Just Took the Nuclear Step Experts Have Dreaded

Regarding the Sudetenland metaphor

Tony Cartalucci-Land Destroyer talks about Baba Beijing on China Rising Radio Sinoland

In this post Jeff Brown of China Rising provides a broadcast of his reading of questions that he posed to Cartalucci as well as his answers. You will not hear Cartalucci because Brown simply reads his answers. He also provides a transcript of the conversation which I much prefer.

Tillerson: US to Build Additional De-Escalation Zones in Syria by Alex Gorka from Strategic Culture Foundation.

Gorka concludes his article with this statement:

If the US-backed coalition established the zones unilaterally to present other actors with a fait accompli, it would be the way to divide Syria contrary to what the UN-sponsored Geneva peace effort, as well as the Russia-Iran-Turkey-initiated Astana talks, has tried to achieve. If not, it should become part of international agenda. The US plan to build additional de-escalation zones was announced as a slam dunk during congressional hearings. The way it was done makes one think it’ll be a unilateral move taken to obstruct the Russia’s peace plan. The division of the country into zones controlled by opposing coalitions runs counter to the interests of Syrian people. This is a very worrisome development which can potentially hinder the prospects of stable peace in Syria.

Capitalists alarmed about capitalism by Rob Sewell from In Defense of Marxism.

Here is the link to the Financial Times' article that Sewell refers to. If you can't access the FT, a very similar post is this in the Independent.

Former FBI agent says tech companies must “silence” sources of “rebellion” by Andre Damon

Top legal and security officials for Facebook, Twitter and Google appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday, in a hearing targeting “Extremist Content and Russian Disinformation Online.”

Over the course of four hours, senators argued that “foreign infiltration” is the root of social opposition within the United States, in order to justify the censorship of oppositional viewpoints.

Neocons Push Dubious Paper To Allege Iran - Al-Qaeda Connection by Bernhard from Moon of Alabama.

The anti-Iran powers in the U.S. again try to smear Iran as allied with al-Qaeda. The accusations will be used to justify further hostilities against the country.

Suddenly an anonymous, and likely fake, document appears and is prominently launched into the public circulation. To provide plausibility for the publishing the new CIA director Mike Pompeo ordered his staff to release additional data allegedly found in Osama Bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad in Pakistan. 

Gold Oil Dollars Russia and China

Click here to access article by F. William Engdahl from New Eastern Outlook. 

I frequently post articles by Engdahl because I think he has a firm, but limited, grip on economic reality. I write "firm, but limited, grip" because he is a gold bug--the term I prefer is "gold fetishist". Apparently the terms apply to China and Russia. It is a fact that many, if not most people, have this fetish about gold, but it is likely the most polluting of mining industries. 

Gold has limited uses outside of gold fillings and replacement teeth (even these are being replaced by ceramics) and computers. It's not even used as money because it is so inconvenient--try buying groceries or gas with it. But countries still like to pollute the environment by digging it up and processing it with the worst polluting chemicals like mercury, and then store it forever in vaults (usually deep underground) to claim that their money is backed by the magic of gold.

Engdahl also doesn't see that the Empire's advanced capitalist system has anything to do with the irrational and suicidal policies that it is currently pursuing. 

The only factor keeping the dollar from total collapse is the US military and Washington’s deployment of deceptive NGOs around the world to facilitate plundering of the world economy.

However to his credit, he explains how this is affecting the policies of Russia, China, and other countries to develop their own economies.

Capitalism in the Web of Life: Ecology and the Accumulation of Capital

Click here to access a review by Elaine Graham-Leigh of a book by the above title posted on CounterFire (Britain). 

I totally agree with her concluding paragraph:

It is a fairly common belief within green thought that practising pre-figurative politics, living as far as possible as if capitalism did not exist, is a strategy for defeating the system; that it can be hollowed out from within by individuals and communities making some effort to withdraw themselves. It is a tempting belief (it would be much easier) but as numerous examples, from the Diggers to the communist village in Spain, demonstrate, capitalism can continue to exist even if there are groups of people within it who think they are escaping its clutches. The only way that we will see the end of capitalism, before its crisis of negative value sees the end of us, is if we overthrow it and for that, we need to organise. Moore’s often impressive analysis overcomes the common green allergy to talking about a revolution. It just needed to go a little further and embrace the revolutionary socialist organisation that any chance of a successful revolution will require.

If you didn't know, I have such a proposal for the overthrow of capitalism in the following series entitled "A revolutionary model": Part 1, Part 2a, Part 2b, and Part 3. The proposal uses a pre-figurative political structure in a radically new alternative media organization as a method to undermine the legitimacy of information from media corporations--the engines of capitalist rule.

Great Barrier Reef Reaches "Terminal Stage" as CO2 Levels Rise at Record Rate

Click here to access article by Dahr Jamail from TruthOut.

I remember in my teenage years back in the 1950s seeing scenes of the gorgeous underwater coral displays that must have been located at the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park just south of Miami. I remember the Christ statue that lay at the bottom of the sea in this Florida state park; and with that memory in mind, in the early 1990s I went on a guided tour conducted by the staff at the park. I had done a lot of skin diving (free diving), so I brought along fins, diving mask, and snorkel. My god, was I disappointed--really quite shocked to see the statue surrounded by the bleached out coral everywhere. So I readily understood Jamail's reaction during his visit to the Australian Great Barrier Reef.

Species, ecosystems, glaciers, sea ice and humans themselves continue to absorb and pay for this human experiment of industrialization gone horribly awry. Many are paying with their very existence.

Two months ago, I spent some time researching and writing in Australia. I visited the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), where I reveled in the majesty of intact towering coral structures flourishing with marine life. Yet I was also devastated during this visit -- again and again, I happened upon bleached out and silently dead areas of barren coral wasteland, which not long ago teemed with living beings. Roughly 20 percent of the coral on the outer reef were already bleached, and on their way towards death.

Bitter banter about pollution turns into anger, frustration

Click here to access article by Bai Tiantian from Global Times (China).

There are definite drawbacks to serving as a workshop for the capitalist world, and this is one of the most obvious. Of course, this was Deng Xiaoping's "win-win" strategy which began in 1978 (profits for Western corporations by using China's cheap labor in exchange for technology) to accelerate the building of China's economy. And it worked fabulously well. But there are downsides and extreme pollution is one of them. Others? Consumerist values and potential capitalist influence in China's ruling class.

Public opinion in China was choked with depression, fear and anger, as large swaths of the country remained shrouded in dangerously high levels of smog and the Beijing government prolonged its yellow alert till Saturday.

Wednesday was the fifth day since the environmental department issued an orange alert for smog in Beijing. Highways have been shut down, flights canceled, and construction work and some vehicles are restricted in order to ease pollution.

However, economic losses are meager compared with torrential waves of complaints by disgruntled city dwellers.

You might also be interested in reading this editorial entitled "Massive social reform needed to cure smog" from the same source.

The Man Made Apocalypse of Weapon Systems and Climate Change

Click here to access article by  Ruben Rosenberg Colorni from News Junkie Post.

Our oceans are on the brink of collapse. Decades of pollution, micro-plastic “islands”, and over-fishing have reduced marine stocks and ecosystem to a fraction of pre-industrial levels. Pacific Salmon is undergoing a veritable genocide conducted by humans, Tuna is being fished at rates thousands of times higher than their natural rate of replenishment, and large marine mammals are at their lowest-ever recorded levels. If this weren’t bad enough, imagine a hidden arsenal of millions of tonnes of toxic chemical weapons laying at the bottom of our oceans, waiting to leech into the waters. A veritable cesspool of poisonous sludge made of Mustard and Chlorine gases, arsenic, and a cocktail of other weapon-grade chemicals. The only thing is: you don’t have to imagine it, it’s actually here!

Must Watch Video. Standing Rock Is Justified in Blocking DAPL

Click here to access article and 14:35m video posted by Rowan Wolf from Uncommon Thought Journal. 

Please take 15 minutes to watch this interview with Enbridge whistleblower John Bolenbaugh. This man has worked laying pipe and cleaning up oil spills for Enbridge – the major company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). The Standing Rock, and all the tribes and allies standing with them, have good cause to be very concerned about their water supply in the face of the pipeline (and full right to protect sacred lands). First, this pipeline was originally supposed to run through Bismarck, ND, but was rerouted for concern about risk to Bismarck’s water supply (Bismarck Tribune, Aug 18, 2016).

Four Unicorn Riot Journalists Face Charges For Covering #NoDAPL

Click here to access article issued by the collective at Unicorn Riot. 

This article provides an example of a grass-roots, citizen organized media organization.  I have often argued that a nationwide network of such organizations is essential to insure the dissemination of accurate information within our nation which is inundated with largely pro-ruling class propaganda from corporate media. Also I believe that the very operation of such an independent media would threaten the rule of the capitalist class and thereby function as the most promising catalyst to organize an effective revolutionary organization throughout the United States.

As you can see in this article, the Unicorn Riot media collective, which is based in Minneapolis, is providing ongoing coverage of the struggle waged by indigenous populations and other concerned citizens against the Dakota Access Pipeline just south of Bismarck, North Dakota.

Since April 1st, 2016, Unicorn Riot has been covering the Sacred Stone Spirit Camp, and the subsequent #NoDAPL movement, to stop construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) underneath both the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers.

Over three hundred tribes have come together to say no to the Dakota Access Pipeline. We’ve lived in a camp alongside these nations, sharing their culture and traditions and standing united in what some have called the largest gathering of Native people since 1898.

Over the last month, various law enforcement agencies, private mercenary organizations, and other DAPL assets, have expanded their aerial surveillance, “information” checkpoints, and use of heavily armed riot police backed by MRAP‘s and Bearcat armored vehicles. Amidst the militarized crackdown on demonstrations against the pipeline, hundreds of people have been arrested, including four Unicorn Riot journalists.