Geoengineering The Sky is Not 'Normal'

Click here to access article by Rachel Smolker from Huffington Post.

This author who is a co-director of Biofuelwatch, a Britain based group whose mission is "to raise awareness of the negative impacts of industrial biofuels and bioenergy", was somehow invited to a conference at John Hopkins university behind close doors. Here is how she described the attendees at the meeting:

Nobody in attendance was a shade darker than a bowl of oatmeal, all were dressed in drab, illuminated by glowing computers, tablets and smartphones. Represented were staff from Johns Hopkins and American University, as well as the conservative American Enterprise Institute (Lee Lane), Bipartisan Policy Center, NASA (Mike McCracken), the renowned blogger, Joe Romm, and long time (but now retired) Friends of the Earth director, Brent Blackwelder. There were representatives from U.S. Climate Action Network, Greenpeace, Food and Water Watch and various others. Certainly more diverse than some meetings, but even I could not avoid the sensation of being sort of a token.

It appears to her and many others that capitalist leaders, especially those in the Empire, have given up on their campaign to discredit scientific evidence of global warming and have entered a new stage in which the main objective is to normalize the discussions about saving the planet by tinkering with the global ecosystem. Yes, these people in their desperate struggle to save capitalism, the goose that lays their golden eggs, are now preparing to run experiments on the planet's ecosystem in order to save it for more consumption of car-cars, cosmetics, and Coca-Cola; and they want to instill the idea in everyone that to embark on this megalomaniac project is perfectly normal. To induce cooperation, there will be prizes for many highly educated scientists.

What is clear is that climate geoengineering is opening new doors for many career seekers. From scientists with superman complexes, eager to be seen as doing "cutting edge" work with big important global consequence, to various environmental and other NGO careerists seeking grant support, status and a place at the table. 

U.S. “Bullying” TPP Negotiators Amid Failure to Agree

Click here to access article by Carey L. Biron from Inter Press Service.

“[T]he U.S. is exerting great pressure to close as many issues as possible … However the Chapters that were reviewed by the [chief negotiators] did not record much progress,” the memo, reportedly written within the past two weeks by one of the governments party to the TPP negotiations and published on Monday by WikiLeaks, stated. 

Chomsky: It Is All Working Quite Well for the Rich, Powerful

Click here to access the abridged interview that CJ Polychroniou and Anastasia Giamali had with Noam Chomsky posted on Truthout.

In a capitalist economy, if you lend me money and I can't pay you back, it's your problem: You cannot demand that my neighbors pay the debt. But since the rich and powerful protect themselves from market discipline, matters work differently when a big bank lends money to risky borrowers, hence at high interest and profit, and at some point they cannot pay. Then the "the credit community's enforcer" rides to the rescue, ensuring that the debt is paid, with liability transferred to the general public by structural adjustment programs, austerity and the like. 

How Wall Street Bankrupted Detroit

Click here if you wish to access the source of this interview with Richard Wolff originally from RT via YouTube. 

New Documents Show How Power Moved to Wall Street, Via the New York Fed

Click here to access article by Pam Martens from Wall Street on Parade. 

This pro-capitalist blogger is concerned about the concentration of power in the Federal Reserve in the New York branch which, in turn, is dominated by New York Banks. In other words, she criticizes this arrangement because it appears to represent in an undemocratic fashion only one section of capitalists. She seems to ignore the tendency for any form of power, based on institutional arrangements favoring certain sections of a society, to concentrate.

This reflects what members of the One Percent think about "democracy" and it is not unlike the views of the original founders of the US government, usually reverently referred to as the "Founding Fathers". The latter believed that only property holders were entitled to participate in elections and hold office. (Overtime this ruling class gradually allowed citizens, who had only their labor to rent in the capitalist labor market, to participate in elections and hold office only because the former had obtained so much control over the political system that produced candidates for office.) Today's ruling class believe that "democracy" means that capitalists make all major decisions. This is what One Percenters mean when they make numerous references to "democracy" in all their speeches and writings. 

This author is upset because only Wall Street bankers are allowed to participate in decision-making at the Fed regarding the money supply.

Global Power Project [part 2 of ?]: The Group of Thirty and Its Methods of Financial Governance

Click here to access article by Andrew Gavin Marshall from Occupy.com. 

In this series Marshall has identified a Group of Thirty which plans, implements, and coordinates the global capitalist project. In this article he provides translations of their official language in order to shed light on how top level global capitalists direct global practices in their pursuit of more wealth and power for themselves which result in more unemployment, debts, and poverty for us. 

It suddenly occurred to me this morning a question about the global makeup of the membership of this group, specifically how the individual membership corresponded to national membership in NATO. Thus, I had to refer back to a link from part 1. I found that there was only one member from each of the following non-NATO countries: China, Brazil, Argentina, Israel, and Singapore. There were two from Japan and Mexico. There was no member from Russia. It's clear to me that this is a top level group of capitalists who overwhelmingly represent the interests of capitalists in the Anglo-American Empire.

'Europe' in Ukraine: many things to lots of people

Click here to access article by Peter Storm from libcom. 

This anarchist blogger from the Netherlands adds his perspective and knowledge to sort through the complexities of the militant clashes between demonstrators and the authorities in Ukraine.

Ukraine and the Bigger Picture of US and European Assault on Russia’s Sphere of Influence

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

This Irish author and political analyst whose views on the current dispute in Ukraine regarding the country's economic integration with Europe versus integration with Russia might suggest to some people that the Cold War never really ended. Actually it did end.

The history of Western capital elites relationship with Russia began in the modern era with the Soviet revolution which created a country in which capital could not function. As such, it was an abomination, a dangerous heresy inflicted upon the earth which capitalist elites could not tolerate. They did everything they could to destroy the Soviet Union immediately after the revolution by invading the country with their armies. Having failed that, the Nazis looked like a promising project to rid this scourge from the earth. But the Nazis were defeated at Stalingrad. Then the budding Anglo-American Empire stepped in to help defeat the Third Reich which represented a threat to their dominance. With the advent of nuclear weapons, world wars became too dangerous for even capitalists to contemplate in their opposition to the Soviet Union. Hence, the Cold War and numerous indirect small wars by proxy.

With the collapse of the hierarchically organized Russian version of socialism (which served a bureaucratic class) in 1989, many thought that peace and disarmament would now reign in a glorious new era. Quite the opposite has happened. Why?

Capitalists always compete for dominance in the race to capture ever more markets, cheap labor, and access to resources. Russia and China refuse to subordinate their proud countries to the diktats of the Empire. Hence, we are in a new period of more insurrections and wars. We will see national disputes like what is happening in Ukraine, and new wars as we've seen and are seeing in the Middle East, Eurasia, and in many other parts of the globe. There will be no peace until capitalism is dismantled and replaced with classless, egalitarian societies. 

Given the destabilizing, predatory role played by the EU towards Russia’s neighbouring countries – aided and abetted by Washington – and given the steady encirclement by the NATO military alliance around Russia’s borders, one has to understand the recent turmoil in the Ukraine as part of a bigger geopolitical picture. That picture is a long historical process of Western-dominated capitalism trying to expand and subjugate new markets, and in particular to bring the vast hinterland of Russia within its orbit.

NSA Will Allow Citizens to Buy Back Personal Data

Click here to access article from The Daily Current, a website whose "...mission is to ridicule the timid ignorance which obstructs our progress, and promote intelligence - which presses forward."

A little dark humor to lighten your day.

"The most American thing you could do is purchase your data back from the NSA. With your help we can keep the country safe and secure, plus manage the debt," said President Obama at his weekly luncheon with major media outlets.

My Home is a Dystopia

Click here to access article by xraymike79 from his blog Collapse of Industrial Civilization.

from The Atlantic: current air pollution in China

In the geological blink of an eye — 20, 40, 60, or 80 years from now, ghostly ruins will be all that remains of the most technologically advanced civilization that once spanned the globe. I don’t believe there will appear any sort of Hail Mary invention to solve the gauntlet of problems facing mankind — peak fossil fuels, climate change, ocean acidification, keystone species extinction, water scarcity, peak antibiotics, chemical pollution, nuclear proliferation, overpopulation, capitalism, and the complexity trap.

The media, internet and free speech in the Arab world is under attack!

Click here to access article by Rana Sabbagh from Mediapart (France).

The latest annual conference organised by Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ) opens in Amman, Jordan, on December 6th, bringing together hundreds of media professionals and academics to debate the state of the Arab media. Here, ARIJ Executive Director Rana Sabbagh sounds the alarm over increasing attacks on free speech in the Arab world, “the one gain that protesters believed they had secured at the start of upheavals that erupted in much of the region in 2011”.

My own general view on the "Arab Spring" protests and insurrections is that in Egypt they were in part engineered by Western regime change operatives who merely wanted to create a more Western model of benign governing: a neoliberal oligarchy with a "democratic" facade, but that commands all sources of information and indoctrination to keep the masses in ignorance, and loyal to the regime. 

However, somewhere along the way, their allies in the Medieval kingdoms of the Gulf Cooperation Council would have none of it. They had their own ideas about government, and they are now imposing them everywhere they can in their area of influence. This, of course, complicates the rule of the Empire and has resulted recently in confusing twists and turns of Empire policies and actions. But, that is what happens when you crawl in bed with strange bedfellows.

The author ends the article with an extremely naïve question:

...why do the Arab media prefer to sit on the warm laps of the powerful instead of serving their society as the watchdogs they should be?

This can only happen when people are able to rid their societies of ruling classes.

Whose sarin?

Click here to access article by Seymour Hersh from London Review of Books.

"The more things change, the more they stay the same." This French aphorism is once again manifested in the Obama administration's position regarding the manipulation of intelligence in Syria. This recent incident, of course, follows most recently the pattern established under Bush Sr. to justify the attack on Iraq during the first Gulf War (1990-1991). But, of course, it follows the pattern of all imperialist regimes who feel the need to rally their populations behind their war crimes while pursuing their aims of plunder, conquest, and even world domination.

Hersh enjoys access to many former and current intelligence figures and others inside the governing establishment, and brings us up to date--this time not in the New Yorker, but in a British publication--on what he has learned about what happened to Obama administration's plans to attack Syria over the chemical weapons allegations.

... in recent interviews with intelligence and military officers and consultants past and present, I found intense concern, and on occasion anger, over what was repeatedly seen as the deliberate manipulation of intelligence.  

You might also be interested in the keen observations of Bernhard at his blog Moon of Alabama in relation to this important article.

A Tribute to One of History’s Unsung Heroes

Click here to access article by Don Quijones from Raging Bull-Shit.

...there are countless other people whose endeavors to make this world a better place are, for whatever reason, left by the wayside of collective human memory. This is the story of one of them, a man who until his death in 1995, at the ripe age of 102, went by the name of Gilberto Bosques Saldívar.

This blogger posts a biography of a man that should be an inspiration to all who refuse to submit to authorities--those willing, well paid agents of the ruling class who keep society functioning for the benefit of the ruling class.

The Debt Matrix: Consumption and Modern-Day Slavery

Click here to access article by Timothy Alexander Guzman from Silent Crow News.

In today’s world of unlimited credit, consumers become modern-day slaves to their creditors.  What is the difference between slavery in 18th century America with imported African slaves and the America of 2013?  There is no difference besides the physical abuse of the African slaves by their owners.

Actually, a good argument could be made for classic slavery as better than this modern form of debt slavery. When a person is the property of an owner, he/she will likely be taken care of to insure that he/she remains productive as a laborer for the owner's enterprise. Such a tendency would never enter the minds of a bank executive toward one of its debtors. 

Did Iran Have to Give Up So Much to Get So Little?

Click here to access article by Ismael Hossein-Zaheh from CounterPunch.

The underlying logic for the Iran nuclear negotiations was (and continues to be) altogether preposterous: on one side of the negotiating table sat major nuclear powers who are all in violation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), which requires them to have either dismantled or drastically reduced their nuclear arsenal; on the other side, an NPT–compliant country (Iran) that neither possesses nor pursues nuclear weapons—a fact that is testified to both by the U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies. Yet, in an ironically perverse way, the culprits have assumed the role of the police, the prosecutor and the judge, shamelessly persecuting and prosecuting the innocent for no other reason than trying to exercise its NPT-granted right to peaceful nuclear technology.

For a sane approach to nuclear weapons in the Middle East, I recommend this article from Al Akhbar entitled "Former Knesset Member: We Possess Nuclear and Chemical Weapons" to learn what a Knesset member reportedly said in an interview with an Israeli newspaper: "It is time to exit the nuclear closet, (putting an end to the ambiguity shrouding Israel's nuclear program.) ..."either nuclear [capabilities] for all or for none."

The Corporate Invasion

Click here to access article by Lori Wallach from CounterPunch.

It’s easy to see why the US negotiators are keen to keep the TTIP/TAFTA negotiations secret. They are in no hurry to explain the impact the agreement would have at every level of government: federal, state and local authorities would be obliged to revise their policies from top to bottom so as to satisfy the appetite of the private sector in those sectors over which it does not yet have complete control.

Freedom Ship: $10bn Floating City for World’s Super Rich

Click here to access article by David Gilbert from International Business Times.

Could this be the "next big thing" for our and other uber-classes to isolate themselves from the rabble (us)?  And, no it will not be used as a tax haven "since American citizens are taxed on their worldwide income." (ha ha)

GMOs, Science And Nonsense: Retracting Seralini's Study

Click here to access article by Colin Todd Hunter from Countercurrents.

The implications of this piece and others like it are profound: the contamination of scientific work by the private interests of global corporations. Since the Age of Enlightenment science and its rigorous methods for the testing of knowledge has raised humans out of the swamps of superstition and ignorance. Scientists struggled during centuries of persecution by religious authorities who served various ruling classes, and now it is faced with history's most formidable foe--global corporations and their transnational ruling class of capitalists. Hunter reports on many of the recent battles, most of which have been lost. 

An iPad on Every Desk: A Trojan Horse, Teachers Say

Click here to access article by Samantha Winslow from Labor Notes. 

Teachers in Los Angeles, according to this author, are very aware of the push to get rid of teachers and replace them with software and computer gadgets provided by industry giants like Microsoft. As one teacher put it:

...the district is rushing the technology in a frantic attempt to get Race to the Top federal funds, which Los Angeles missed out on in 2012 and 2013, and other education grants. Race to the Top money is tied to implementing technology and “Common Core” standards, which are developed into software with support from pro-corporate education reform interests like the Gates Foundation.

Nelson Mandela: A Dissenting Opinion

Click here to access article by Jonathan Cook from Countercurrents.

Yesterday I was hit by massive corporate media coverage of Nelson Mandela portraying him as a hero for the ages. Although I have been aware of international capital's approval of Mandela before, such coverage immediately set off alarm bells in my head. 

Memories flooded in about other mainstream institutional reactions to events that in hindsight revealed a major component of ruling class interest in the events and subsequent bias in their treatment: extensive media coverage of the Egyptian protests in early 2011 when US NGOs were discovered operating (little coverage since then of all the subsequent anti-regime protests), the massive promotion of the NY Time's version of The Pentagon Papers in bookstores (compared to a much superior book in Sen. Gravel's version), the massive promotion of Robert Fisk's book mis-titled as The Great War for Civilisation which reported in extensive detail the corruption and human rights abuses in various Arab countries, the steady and overwhelming barrage of Jewish victimization themes starting with the 1960 propaganda film "Exodus" and followed up in all media since then--to name just a few.

Thankfully, Cook's piece immediately alerts us to a similar treatment of the legacy of Nelson Mandel now occupying so much space in ruling class media. He provides a much more accurate picture in this brief summary of the historical contributions as well as the character weaknesses of this human being. Finally, Cook warns us of the dangers of being taken in by this type of propaganda:

For too long we have slumbered through the theft and pillage of our planet and the erosion of our democratic rights, preferring to wake only for the release of the next iPad or smart phone.

The very outpouring of grief from our leaders for Mandela’s loss helps to feed our slumber. Our willingness to suspend our anger this week, to listen respectfully to those watery-eyed leaders who forced Mandela to reform from a fighter into a notable, keeps us in our slumber. Next week there will be another reason not to struggle for our rights and our grandchildren’s rights to a decent life and a sustainable planet. There will always be a reason to worship at the feet of those who have no real power but are there to distract us from what truly matters.

If you need another antidote to mainstream coverage, I suggest you read a piece by Jerome Roos entitled "Nelson Mandela passes away — his struggle continues" in which he develops the following theme:

Today’s liberation movements are here to remind us that the only appropriate way to honor Nelson Mandela’s legacy is not to beatify the man but to take his struggle to its logical conclusion.

Still another even better antidote from The Daily Beast by Peter Beinart entitled "Don’t Sanitize Nelson Mandela: He’s Honored Now, But Was Hated Then" which reveals the history that our ruling masters would like to forget--or like you to forget.