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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Articles I recommend for Friday, August 30, 2019

• Making a Killing From Killing by Paul Atwood from CounterPunch.

• The Bizarre Action in U.S. Treasuries Is Linked to the U.S. National Debt and the Repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act by Pam Martens and Russ Martens from their weblog Wall Street on Parade.

• The Justice Department Has Had the Epstein Case Since July 2006 – It’s Time to Arrest Accomplices by Pam Martens and Russ Martens from their weblog Wall Street on Parade. 

• Another Syrian Victory – and West’s Telling Silence by an editor of the Strategic Culture Foundation.

• Give Me Suggestions On How To Level Up My Fight by Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog.

Articles recommended for Thursday, August 29, 2019

• A Concise Overview by Guy McPherson posted on my sister weblog Titanic Lifeboat Academy. 

• Why Netanyahu Dares to Hit Iran’s Backyard in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon: “Israel” Accepts Hezbollah’s Challenge by Elijah J. Magnier posted on Mideast Discourse.

• Pentagon warns Israel on Iraq by Jason Ditz from Defend Democracy Press.

• Hezbollah Will Respond to Israel: But when? How? And at what cost? by Elijah J. Magnier from his weblog.

How the Alliance of Intelligence & Organized Crime Gave Rise to Jeffrey Epstein

Click here to access to a nearly one hour interview conducted by Bonnie Faulkner of Guns & Butter with Whitney Webb who has established credibility because of her investigative research published online by Mint Press News and other websites.

We get to hear the voice of Webb via Faulkner's program and learn so much about the complex web of criminal links among the capitalist ruling class. After listening to Webb, you will find it hard to argue that her information is an exaggeration that capitalism has evolved into organized crime in the USA and its associated empire, the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire.

Articles recommended for Wednesday, August 28, 2019

• No Country for Old Protest Marchers by John R. Hall from Dissident Voice.

• Talk is cheap by David Ruccio from Real-World Economics Review Blog.

• Climate denial is reported more than science by Tim Radford from Climate News Network.

“There Are Reasons for Optimism” – Chomsky on Brazil, Fascism, US Politics

Click here to access post in Defend Democracy Press in which John Nichols, mostly known as an editor at The Nation, interviews Noam Chomsky.

Because I have expressed my views in articles I have posted in the past, both positive (see this and this) and negative (see this, this, and this), regarding Noam Chomsky's role on the political left in US politics, I won't add much to the critique in this post except to argue that his legacy's influence as a left gatekeeper lives on in the thinking of John Nichols and apparently in the people at Defend Democracy Press. 

Chomsky's early life apparently had an indelible effect on his understanding of fascism. It appears that he doesn't recognize the upgraded version of fascism as fascism, but this is acceptable only if one takes a superficial of the concept. The central theme of fascism is control (of others, domination). The earlier version focused mainly on physical methods of intimidation and arbitrary authoritarian legal procedures that was typical of the Nazi's Third Reich. In contrast, the upgraded version relies heavily, but not exclusively, on methods of pervasive mind control, that is, through the use of comprehensive indoctrination, propaganda, fake news, false flags, etc, by agents of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire. The difference is largely one of methods.

One of Chomsky's remarks in the interview elicited my close attention: his answer to the question "Was it clear to you that a greater war [WWII] was coming?" His mention of the "State Department" as one of the sites where discussions were commonly talked about regarding the coming war particularly drew my attention. While recently reading As He Saw It by Elliott Roosevelt (1946), he quoted his father's disparaging remarks about the State Department that suggested he didn't trust them based on his experience with members of this government department. This evoked a rather vague memory that I've gathered a number of years ago from readings that referred to the State Department as being militantly right-wing.

I have argued elsewhere in this blog that a largely secret resurgence of fascist-sympathetic capitalists came "out of the woodwork" (def.) following the article "American Century" published by Henry Luce of Time magazine in February, 1941. I have a hunch that they mostly ensconced themselves in this government department. The famous CIA director, Allen Dulles, was one of them. [If anyone reading this blog has sources which reveal any information about this, please let me know via email (goatmeal36@yahoo.com)]. I've also read some remarks in Bruce Cumings' The Origins of the Korean War (2 volumes) which stated that various figures in the State Department actively supported containment and rollback policies against Soviet Union and its satellites shortly after WWII. 

Articles recommended for Tuesday, August 27, 2019

• Lies of the Victors by Jason Hirthler from Dissident Voice.

• What Will It Take To Declare A Climate Emergency? by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers from Dissident Voice.

• Capitalists contra workers by Shimshon Bichler and Jonathan Nitzan from Real-World Economics Review Blog.

• How To Make Sense Of Foreign Protests, Conflicts And Uprisings by Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog.

• Ecosystems and ecological breakdown submitted by UK Youth Climate Coalition from Ecologist (Britain).

Articles recommended for Monday, August 26, 2019

• Hong Kong Crisis: Made in America by Tony Cartalucci from New Eastern Outlook.

• We Are Not Fooled by the Hong Kong Protests by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers from .Popular Resistance

• Brazil, the Amazon, and Global Warming: It ain’t quite what the media tell you by Dean Baker from Real-World Economics Review Blog.

• Bolsonaro’s legal bonfire fuels Amazon inferno by Jan Rocha from Climate News Network. 

• Would The End Of The Dollar Era Threaten American Hegemony? from Fort Russ News.

• Secrets WWII Documents Finally Declassified (Video) from Fort Russ News.

• The Great Switch: The Geo-Politics of Looming Recession by Alastair Crooke from Strategic Culture Foundation.

The Hitler-Stalin Pact of August 23, 1939: Myth and Reality

Click here to access article by Jacques R. Pauwells from CounterPunch.  (commentary updated at 12:08 CT)

Although born in Belgium, he emigrated to Canada in 1976 where he earned a doctorate degree in political science, taught as a professor at several universities in Canada, and has written numerous books mostly in European languages. I presume he is now retired. Because the name is only vaguely familiar to me, I did a search for more information on this author. Here is what I found. A translation of the Wikipedia entry on him (via DeepL translation) is as follows:

Jacques R. Pauwels (born in 1946 in Ghent) is a Belgian-Canadian historian, political scientist and essayist. He has authored a large number of books and articles analyzing modern history from a Marxist-Leninist perspective.

Born in Flemish Belgium, Jacques Pauwels studied history at Ghent University between 1965 and 1969, which he completed with a degree thesis entitled Werkstakingen in België, 1830-1880 (litt. Grèves ouvrières en Belgique, 1830-1880). After graduation, he emigrated to Canada and in 1976 defended a thesis at York University in Ontario on the theme of (female) students at Nazi German universities. He completed his training with a master's and doctoral degrees in political science at the University of Toronto. He has taught at various Ontario universities, including the Universities of Toronto, Waterloo and Guelph. He is also active as a tour operator and guide in a family business, Pauwels Travel Bureau, in Brantford, Ontario.

Jacques Pauwels, who has resided in Canada since 1969, is the author of several dozen books and articles in both English and his mother tongue, Dutch. Several of his books have been translated, particularly into French, German, Italian and Spanish.

And from an Amazon books search I found this one entry. 

Because Pauwels did not furnish any references to support his assertions and because of the lack of information regarding this author by CounterPunch, I had to waste precious time researching who this guy was and his qualifications (initially I thought this was only a review of historian Michael Jabara Carley's book). Clearly the post was about his very informed views about WWII and specifically the title of the article: The Hitler-Stalin Pact of August 23, 1939: Myth and Reality. 

Like many academics both in Western countries, Pauwels was aware of this true history that contradicted the many mythical histories that we ordinary people have been subject to in Western countries. These mythical histories were propagated through all institutions: press media, radio, TV, schools and universities, online media, and Hollywood films. But our ruling class discouraged academics and others telling what they knew by impeding their careers.  This was done overtly during the McCarthy period beginning with the House Unamerican Activities Committee (HUAC) attacks on Hollywood producters. Then they went on to attack academics, writers, and others. Many lost their jobs or succumbed to this pressure by keeping their mouths shut. Public school teachers had to swear loyalty oaths.

I notice that Pauwels' books were originally published since 2005 and in foreign languages, and only one has been later published in English. The answer to why this is so and Counterpunch's scant coverage of his qualifications is part of the general cover-up on the true history of WWII by the ruling capitalist classes. The latter were so sympathetic to the Nazi regime to the extent that they initially very likely collaborated with the Nazi's and their plans to invade the Soviet Union. It was only after the phony war when Nazi Germany turned their weapons against Britain that the allies formed to prevent the German Empire's threat to the British Empire. 

In contrast to Counterpunch's careless posting of Pauwels' article, Global Research based in Canada, has posted numerous articles written by him.

Probably because I became aware as a young adult that authorities in my life had frequently lied to me about so many important subjects, I have since read many books by authors who knew first-hand about WWII. I can attest to the accuracy of nearly all statements made by Pauwels in this article. I say "nearly all" because some of the details he revealed, like Polish politics at the time, I have not covered in my readings.

Our masters in the current capitalist ruling class have gone on to give a completely fake reports of nearly every event that might impact their rule (even contrived false-flag events). This has resulted confusion, doubts, and ignorance in ordinary Americans about so many important contemporary issues.

Articles recommended for Saturday, August 24, 2019

• From “Spook Air” to the “Lolita Express”: The Genesis and Evolution of the Jeffrey Epstein-Bill Clinton Relationship by Whitney Webb from Mint Press News.

• Long Before Epstein: Sex Traffickers & Spy Agencies by Elizabeth Voss from Consortium News.

• Twitter relying on US/European gov-funded regime-change groups to crack down on foreign states by Ben Norton from The Grayzone. 

Ruling class magazine censors all articles covering the Epstein scandals

By Ron Horn

While reading Whitney Webb's excellent article this morning, the thought occurred to me that I should look at the coverage of the Epstein scandals by Vanity Fair, the monthly magazine that the rich ruling class like to read because their coverage is largely devoted to flattering them, their culture, and the latest gossip among members of their class. 

Recall that I commented on the use of censorship to identify the coverage of events that our ruling capitalist class wants us to know (whether engineered or not). Also, in my post of Brenner's article he was astounded by the coverage provided by media corporations of the Epstein scandals:

Why have the howls of outrage not echoed through the media? Why has the trumpet’s call to action been silent?  Why haven’t the halls of Congress resounded with denunciation and the demands for justice.[?]

Then I read Elizabeth Voss's article. Ultimately these memories and Voss's article led me inexorably to examining Vanity Fair's coverage of this scandal. I looked first in their August online issue and then on their September issue which has just come out. Nada! (def.#4) It appears that because Epstein had so many friends in the ruling class that they chose not to embarrass them by (not) covering this major scandal. 

Articles recommended for Friday, August 23, 2019

• How To Bury A Story – #PropagandaWatch by James Corbett from his weblog.

• Trump’s bid for Greenland and the imperialist redivision of the world by Bill Van Auken from World Socialist Web Site.

• Oliver Kamm Launches Evidence Free Attack on Real Journalist, Academic and Politician. By Alison Banville from BSNews (Britain).

• Israel & Epstein: George Galloway’s eyewitness account from Rick Sanchez's program on RTAmerica via YouTube.

• Jeffrey Epstein’s cell mate reveals new details – report from RTAmerica via YouTube.

• Dressing the part: Hollywood costumes for journalists by Steven Sahiounie from Mideast Discourse. 
• Amazon: Protests Around the World Against Bolsonaro's Inaction from Telesur.

The Missing Howls of Denunciation Over Major Sex Trafficking

Click here to access article by Michael Brenner from Consortium News.

Brenner is confused by the differential treatment in the Epstein affair, and has no answer for his own questions: 

Why have the howls of outrage not echoed through the media? Why has the trumpet’s call to action been silent?  Why haven’t the halls of Congress resounded with denunciation and the demands for justice.[?]

Well, let me offer a answer. Those of you who have been following my blog already know the answer, so my answer will be for all the others. 

My answer will provide a key answer to most of the world's problems, and the Epstein story, and the way it is being handled, will provide an excellent illustration of the primacy of social-economic class.

The factor of social-economic class determines so much of our existence, and accounts for so many problems we are faced with. That is precisely why ordinary people, after grasping the real nature of their problems, have gone on to organize revolutions against their ruling classes. And, this is the fundamental reason why academics, promoted by the ruling class, have frequently aided in the suppression of this factor.

The French Revolution and the Russian Revolution are prime examples. Both were ultimately contaminated within and destroyed from without. In the former case, the revolution was directed against the aristocracy and monarchy. The French Revolution contained the embryonic capitalist class of people who, with their superior education and skills, eventually dominated the revolution and took control of it. This class were also aided by Germany, who invaded France during the Revolution. In the case of the Russian Revolution, the new socialist revolutionaries were hampered by the necessity of relying upon educated/trained people, who had largely aristocratic and bourgeois class affiliations, in government positions. But a major factor in the ultimate deterioration of their Revolution was the constant opposition by the existing capitalist nations, including military invasions. This resulted in a deformed ruling class of bureaucrats, and eventually led to the collapse of the socialist experiment in the Soviet Union. To sum up, history during the past roughly 10,000 years has been overwhelmingly determined by class struggles. This view is the contribution of Marxists whose teachings have been thoroughly suppressed contemporary capitalist societies for obvious reasons.  

This Epstein event furnishes us with a prime example of this phenomenon. Benner's exposes the startling inconsistency of treatment in this crime which involved members of the ruling class. The legitimate issue of inequality regarding certain segments (women, gender identity, etc.) of contemporary societies have been used by the ruling capitalist class primarily as distractions from the recent gross crimes committed by the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire. Because Epstein served the ruling class by furnishing them with overt and virtual sex slaves, such crimes have been ignored in past; and if they succeed with the Epstein event, they will quash any substantive punishment for those members of the ruling class who participated in these crimes. 

Articles recommended for Thursday, August 22, 2019

• A GI Rebellion: When Soldiers Said No to War by Steve Early from CounterPunch. (After WWII our ruling class masters accelerated the use of academics to re-write our history. This post represents an attempt to restore one segment of our history.)

• US Ambassador Grenell’s Threat to Germany Has Backfired, Driving Germany Closer to Russia from 21st Century Wire. 

• Climate denial is reported more than science by Tim Radford from Climate News Network.

• Anti-China Cult Gets U.S. Government Money - Runs Large Pro-Trump Ad Campaign by Bernhard (German) from his weblog Moon of Alabama . 

• Suddenly West is Failing to Overthrow “Regimes” by Andre Vltchek from New Eastern Outlook.

• US Now Admits it is Funding "Occupy Central" by Tony Cartalucci from Land Destroyer Report. (Notice the date of this post.)

• How Tehran fits into Russia-China strategy by Pepe Escobar from Asia Times.

House Niggers Mutiny

Click here to access article by Israel Shamir from The Unz Review.

Shamir uses the insightful concept invented by Malcolm X (Google which "owns" YouTube has removed a better video) to explain how and why ordinary people often identify with their oppressors. It's because it pays well in terms of wages, careers, perks, etc. I don't for a minute refuse to acknowledge that there are legitimate reasons that motivate some of the Hong Kong protesters (as the WSWS website has done); but if they think that aligning themselves with the powerful Hong Kong billionaires will ultimately be good for them, they are severely deluded. There are always legitimate reasons for some members of the working class to join these protests, and subversive agents of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire always cynically use such reasons to recruit people to participate in protests. 

Nowadays, one of the ways to identify such cynical actions by our masters is to notice which events their media corporations cover. When they provided so much coverage of the "color revolutions" in Egypt, Ukraine, and the rest, they did this because the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire's subversive organizations, like their CIA and NGOs, wanted to destabilize such countries and install more favorable regimes in terms of the geopolitical interests of the capitalist Empire. Hence there has been no coverage in major media (that I've seen) about the 40 weeks of ongoing protests in France against the austerity measures of that government, but there has been extensive coverage of the Hong Kong protests for obvious reasons. 

Articles recommended for Wednesday, August 21, 2019 (updated)

• Crushing Freedom in Saint Jean du Gard from Winter Oak.

• Sick of being a Guinea Pig by Ron Forthofer from Dissident Voice.

• NPR Mocks Cancer Survivor in Drumbeat of Syria Propaganda by Rick Sterling from Dissident Voice.

• Brexit – or Not? Masters of Manipulating Public Opinion by Peter Koenig from New Eastern Outlook.

• The Oligarchy’s Plans For Our Future Keep Getting Dumber by Caitlin Johnstone (Australian) from her weblog.

• 40 rebuttals to the media’s smears of Julian Assange – by someone who was actually there by Fidel Narváez from The Grayzone.

• Al-Golani’s defiance of Turkey leads to Syrian government control of Khan Sheikhoun by Elijah J. Magnier from weblog.

Recommended articles for Tuesday, August 20, 2019 (updated)

• Offering Choice but Delivering Tyranny: The Corporate Capture of Agriculture by Colin Todhunter from Global Research.

• Hong Kong: Flashpoint of Class Struggle in China from United World (based in Turkey).

• Behind a made-for-TV Hong Kong protest narrative, Washington is backing nativism and mob violence by Dan Cohen from The Grayzone.

• Turkey gives up on the idea of a Caliphate for the second time by Thierry Meyssan from his weblog Voltaire Network.

• CEO compensation is up 1,000% from what it used to be. Worker pay? Not so much. By  Aarthi Swaminathan from Yahoo Finance.

Articles recommended for Monday, August 19, 2019

• Condescension and Climate Change: Australia and the Failure of the Pacific Islands Forum by Binoy Kampmark from Dissident Voice.

• Extreme Heat: How it Kills and Who from Radio Ecoshock posted on Titanic Lifeboat Academy.

• Video: ‘Hands – The True Story of a Mother & Her Son’ posted and remarks by Benny Wills on 21st Century Wire.

• Economics and ideology by Lars Syll from Real-World Economics Review Blog.

• All along the watchtower: The follies of history by Pepe Escobar from Asia Times.

• The Ultimate Conspiracy Revealed by Caitlin Johnstone from her blog.

• Hong Kong in the Crosshairs of Global Power and Ideological Struggles by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers from Popular Resistance.

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.

At 4°C of warming, would a billion people survive? What scientists say.

Click here to access article by David Spratt from his weblog Climate Code Red (Australia).

Read the article, but I especially want to direct you attention to the video included in the article showing an interview with Roger Hallam, the co-founder of Extinction Rebellion that is so active in Britain, conducted by a talking head of the BBC, a major media corporation, that hires this person to suppress the messages of such people as Hallam simply because their messages might interfere with capitalist operations. You will automatically see that the talking head performs his assignment well by constantly asking red-baiting questions and interrupting Hallam who tries to answer them. 

The questions of BBC's talking head--it doesn't matter what is name is because there are thousands of working people who are willing to sell their soul and their children's future by taking his place in order to enjoy a decent salary and perks--are filled with all kinds of capitalist ruling class sorts of language in order to impose a false meaning on reality: "democracy" as the nature of our governance and leading questions which might provoke answers that will discredit Hallam in the eyes of people who have been thoroughly indoctrinated (inoculated) against any kind of ideas that might threaten capitalism. 

As an employee (wage slave of the ruling class) the talking head is directed to do this in defense of the ruling class's exclusive rights of ownership of economic property (capitalism) versus the survival needs of the powerless wage slaves. It is clear that our masters in the ruling class are so thoroughly addicted to power and wealth, which act like powerful drugs, that they must suppress such voices as Hallam in the ruling class's fake version of democracy (bourgeois democracy).