Only two posts (includes one mega-post) that I especially recommend today: Saturday, February 8, 2020 [edited version]

I am including only two online posts because the first one contains nine separate posts and three short videos regarding corporations. The latter have become a subject of some worry among leading social democratic critics who have expressed concern about the capitalist system. These commentators are all supportive of capitalism as a system; but much like Eric Zuesse who revealed his own concern with the statement "That’s not what capitalism was supposed to be.", they obsessively continue trying to reform the system. (I re-posted the article from Washington's Blog on Jan. 9, 2020 after discovering that it differed slightly because the quote did not appear in the original post on Strategic Culture Foundation.)

I have been on Transnational Institute's email list for a number of years, and I have never seen anything in their articles that indicated advocacy of a system other than capitalism. But they expressed concern about the new neoliberal phenomenon of transnational corporations based on evidence that the latter were wrecking havoc particularly on third world countries. I have learned much about these corporations from their reports, but I never had the feeling that they were suggesting another system might be better. They always seemed motivated by the necessity of reforming the system. As followers of my weblog know, I consistently held the view that the replacement of capitalism by radical socialism was a necessity for our survival. I long ago decided that capitalism created all sorts of fundamental problems and that the built-in evolution of the system led inevitably to fascism.

Late last year it became evident to me that the climate crisis had proceeded to such an extent that our human species, and most others, would become extinct because of capitalism's destruction of habitat that the Earth's planet needed to sustain most life forms. Because of this and because I am sick of reading about corporations, I didn't read all the articles. So, I recommend them to you as a last desperate attempt by capitalist apologists to bring about a reform of their system.

• The State of Power 2020: the Corporation. This post contains nine videos and three short video about corporations. The post has been issued by the Transnational Institute. 

• Who Can NOW Say America Hasn’t Become a Mega-Corporate Dictatorship? by Eric Zuesse from Strategic Culture Foundation. (Note: I would like to pose a question for Zuesse as an answer to his question in the title of this article: How is it that capitalism in the USA turned out this way? Didn't you affirm back in September of 2019 "That’s not what capitalism was supposed to be."? The same question can be posed about Nazi Germany, the British Empire, and a host of other capitalist countries. So, why would capitalism not turn out any different in the USA? Isn't it obvious that the system breeds inequality, exploitation, wars, etc? And, I am not referring only to the appearance of transnational corporations in the neoliberal phase that capitalism has entered in the leading capitalist nations!)

Posts that I especially recommend today: Friday, February 7, 2020

• The Psychology of Existential Risk: Moral Judgments about Human Extinction by Stefan Schubert from Practical Ethics (Oxford University). (Note: He addresses the subject of nuclear war, but, of course, much of this applies to the climate crisis.)

• Corporations as private sovereign powers: the case of Total by Alain Deneault from CADTM (Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt). (Note: The author focuses on the "French" energy corporation as an example of a transnational corporation.) He concludes his essay with this statement about his examination of the example of a transnational corporation, Total:

We need to treat Total not just as a large energy corporation, but rather as a private, multi- and transnational, private, sovereign power that serves the interests [profits] of a highly diversified shareholder base and intervenes [power] in innumerable political, cultural, social, financial, industrial and academic issues. [my insertions]

• World Conquest: The United States’ Global Military Crusade (1945- ) by Eric Waddell from Global Research (based in Canada).

• Biological Weapons: A Useful and Timely Factual Overview (Part I) by Larry Romanoff from Global Research. 

• Bats, Gene Editing and Bioweapons: Recent DARPA Experiments Raise Concerns Amid Coronavirus Outbreak by Whitney Webb from The Last American Vagabond. 

• Election Politics: From Chaos to an Emerging Political Consciousness? by Renee Parsons from Global Research. 

• Liberté, égalité… créativité? RT looks at France’s most inventive forms of protest (videos) from RT. 

• German TV Exposes the Lies That Entrapped Julian Assange by Ray McGovern from Consortium News. 

• The Syrian Russian Turksih Idlib Stand-Of – Erdogan’s Last Stand? by Ghassan Kadi from A bird's eye view of the Vineyard. 

Posts that I especially recommend today: Thursday, February 6, 2020

• Extinction Dialogues: I Agree, Except for the Part About Earth as a Ball of Ice from Guy McPherson's weblog Nature Bats Last. 

• This is NOT natural from Open Mind.

• Rosa Luxemburg and debt as an imperialist instrument by Eric Toussaint from CADTM (Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt). (Note: Toussaint quotes extensively from the writings of Luxemburg to explain how Western capitalist bankers use loans to control and oppress other countries.)

• Was the 1945 Yalta Conference a Mirage? by Michael Jabara Carley from Strategic Culture Foundation. (Note: Carley in this essay correctly argues that the Yalta Conference was a mirage because the Western capitalist powers have always been in a "cold war" (hostile relationship) with the Soviets except for a brief period during WWII. But he doesn't explain this as being a contest between ruling classes in Western capitalist nations vs the Soviet Union which did not allow capitalists. Although a very honest historian (very much like Eric Zuesse), he does not have a class or system analysis of WWII, the history of which has been re-written by mainstream Western historians (see his article entitled "History as Propaganda: Why the USSR Did Not ‘Win’ World War II"). It is essential to have a class or system analysis in order to thoroughly understand geopolitics, but one must first have a truthful history of WWII which historian Carley has.)

• Would Turkey choose US or Russia, given a choice? from the Rick Sanchez program on RT. Sanchez interviews former Pentagon official Michael Maloof about the recent "kerfuffle" between Turkey's Erdogan and Russia's Putin. (Note: Erdogan seems to be playing both sides for Turkey's or Erdogan's benefit. Also read an article entitled "Difficult ally or Eurasian enemy? Turkey in the eyes of American think tanks" from United World, and independent weblog which is based in Turkey.) 

• US Policy Vs. Iran: Apex Desperation by Tony Cartalucci from New Eastern Outlook.

Posts that I especially recommend today: Wednesday, February 5, 2020

• Surrendering at the edge of human extinction (w/ Dr. Guy McPherson) (via YouTube).

• Global Warming, Overpopulation and Social Inequality: Three Legs of Climate Crisis Monster by Gilbert Mercier from News Junkie Post.

(Note on yesterday's Iowa primary elections and online posts: As followers of my weblog know, I don't see elections in any capitalist country as legitimate. By definition a capitalist nation is controlled by the capitalist class, and they forbid any party or candidate that advocates public ownership of many significant economic enterprises. I believe a quote attributed to Emma Goldman who said "If voting could change anything, they would make it illegal." 

Here in the USA they have two political parties which are both controlled by the capitalist ruling class. The Democratic Party's handling of the primary election in Iowa is another sign that here in the USA, the center of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire, the capitalist ruling class is starting to use rather overt methods to contrive the results of elections. 

One candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, has advocated very mild social democratic reforms to the existing system, but they cannot tolerate even that. So, the ruling class increasing has resorted to various methods to rig elections. Their recent attempt in Iowa has all the characteristics of rigging, and has furnished much material for comedy. The last two posts reflect that.

• DNC launches Shadow App to screw Bernie again in Iowa caucus (Video) by Alex Christoforou from The Duran (based in Cyprus). 

• DNC Completely Loses Public Trust In Its Primary Process On Very First Day by Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog. 

• The Circus Comes to Iowa by Kurt Nimmo from Global Research (based in Canada).

• DNC Takes Over Counting Remaining Iowa Votes from The Jimmy Dore Show. (Note: This is one of four shows he has done on this subject--so far.)

Posts that I especially recommend today: Tuesday, February 4, 2020

I apologize for the lateness of this post. It is a result of computer problems I experienced yesterday and a dental problem I experienced this morning.

• The Apocalypse Will Not Be Televised by "xraymike79" from Collapse of Industrial Civilization.

• Doomsday Clocks and Apple Watches by John Eskow from CounterPunch. (Note: This article discusses the more imminent of threats to the human species--global nuclear war implemented by the capitalist ruling classes that direct the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire.)

• Australia Is Still Burning. Will The Media Stay With The Story? from Covering Climate Now. 

• World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency by Ripple et al from BioScience.

• Plastic Meets the Road and Capitalism’s Role in Climate Change by Paul Haeder from Dissident Voice. (Note: He reports about the views of a recent visitor-speaker, Pat DeLaquil, an energy policy expert, in Newport, Oregon. I know Newport and Waldport, where Haeder lives, very well; so I was particularly interested in the recognition by DeLaquil of capitalism's role in environmental degradation. But we differ: Pat DeLaquil apparently believes that there is still time for a capitalist economy which can turn from its degradation. I do not: even if capitalism could re-position itself to safeguard the environment (with which I totally disagree)--it is too late.

• A Cold War lesson for the climate change era: Why we need a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty by Tzeporah Berman, Peter Newell, and Matthew Stilwell from Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. 

• The United States of America’s Doll House: A Vast Tapestry of Lies and Illusions by Edward Curtin from his weblog Behind the Curtain. (Note: To my recollection, he never mentions capitalism as the source of our major difficulties. Thus, I assume he is a social democrat and agrees with Eric Zuesse who wrote "That’s not what capitalism was supposed to be.") 

• Big Banks Admit True Fear Is Socialism from Lee Camp's Redacted Tonight show on RT (via YouTube).  

• In honour of Syrian Arab Army and allies REAL war on terror by Vanessa Beeley from Patreon.

• Pro-Israel Buttigieg backer Seth Klarman is top funder of group behind Iowa’s disastrous voting app by Max Blumenthal from The Grayzone.

• Putin Prepares To Release Iowa Caucus Results by Bernhard from his weblog Moon of Alabama. (Note: This German blogger reacts with sarcasm to US elections. We must be the laughingstock of much of the world outside of the US.)

Posts that I especially recommend today: Sunday, February 2, 2020

• Greta Is Our MLK. That’s Not Necessarily a Good Thing by Lorenzo Raymond from Diversity of Tactics. (Note: This article has illuminated an issue that has vexed me since the days of Martin Luther King. Thus, I am giving this article special recognition by posting it first. Also, it was re-posted on today's Wrong Kind of Green that has run many of Cory Morningstar's articles that exposed who the backers were of Greta--the capitalist ruling classes.)

• I Will Hold You in My Arms a Day After the War: The Fifth Newsletter (2020). By Vijay Prashad from Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. 

• Unitedly we fight against debt and all other oppressions! from CADTM (Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt). (Note: This article, and the following one, lends support for my view that advanced capitalism in our era is mainly directed by the interests of major transnational financial capitalists located in the Neo-fascist US/Anglo/Zionist Empire.)

• Empires Feed on Africa and Congo's Treasure from Abby Martin's Empire Files (via YouTube). "With the Congo being arguably the biggest prize for imperialist powers, Abby Martin is joined by Kambale Musavuli, spokesperson for Friends of the Congo, to look at Empire's role in their history and current catastrophe."

• Catastrophe is upon us – the grim view from Southern Africa by Rehad Desai from Global Ecosocialist Network.

• US deploys “usable” nuclear weapon amid continuing war threats against Iran by Bill Van Auken from World Socialist Web Site.  

• How Iran decided to bomb US bases and how Trump avoided an all-out war by Elijah J. Magnier from his weblog.

• The Primary Mechanism Of Your Oppression Is Not Hidden At All by Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog. 

• The Talented Mr. Epstein by Paul Brian from The American Conservative.

A.K. 47 - 47 Selections from the Works of Alexandra Kollontai

Click here to access the podcasts by Kristen R. Ghodsee who is a professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. 

She reads her selection of 47 writings of Alexandra Kollontai (occasionally interspersing explanatory comments), a Russian revolutionary author nearly a century ago. In these writings Kollontai, among other subjects, explains how even our emotional lives and social relations have been determined by societies with ruling classes (especially Episodes 8-15) after humans settled in agricultural communities. Kollontai writing nearly a hundred years ago even extrapolates into the future what these will look like in a classless socialist society. (Note: I encountered a few technical problems in this series.)

Unfortunately the Soviet Union, under constant attacks (invasions and trade embargoes) by the Western capitalist nations, soon came under the authoritarian control of Stalin after Lenin died from wounds in an assassination attempt in 1918. The socialist revolution degenerated under the rule of this dictator who surrounded himself with supporting bureaucrats which eventually became a self-serving ruling class. However, under Stalin's rule women were still better off than their Western counterparts as Ghodsee explains in another article entitled No Scrubs.

Also unfortunately, we as a species, and most others, are destined to become extinct due to the trashing of our environment by capitalist nations before a socialist society can even be realized.

Posts that I especially recommend today: Friday, January 31, 2020

Blogger's Note: Because the bigger, more imminent threat (more than the pollution of carbon) to the human species is a global nuclear war, I am forced to post many articles related to world geo-political events in what I think is now the start of the disintegration of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire. We live in a very dangerous world.

• Human Extinction Now Imminent and Inevitable? by Robert J. Burrowes from Wall Street International Magazine.

• Britain leaves the European Union: Against nationalism, For the United Socialist States of Europe! from World Socialist Web Site.

• Brexit and the world: The risks and opportunities for non-European countries from United World (independent analysts based in Turkey).

• Did the US just concede defeat in China tech war? by David P. Goldman from Asia Times. 

• Globalization – A sneaky overview by Naresh Jotwani from A bird's eye view of the Vineyard.

• U.S in the Middle-East: Preparing for Disaster by "The Saker" (Andrei Raevsky) from The Unz Review. 

• Why we need a socialist solution to climate change by John Molyneux from Global Ecosocialist Network. (I now think it is too late for this.)

• The Merchants of Death by "FD" from The Internationalists. 

• Rewriting History of World War II Is Ominous Warning from the editors of Strategic Culture Foundation. (The victors always re-write history.)

• Nobody Sets Out To Become A War Propagandist. It Just Sort Of Happens. By Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog. 

• American Dream meets the Chinese Dream: A Nightmare on Fuyao Avenue by Dyjbas from Internationalist Communist Tendency.

• FBI probes use of Israeli firm's spyware in personal and government hacks from The New Arab. 

• Trump Is A Symptom Of A Larger Problem from The Jimmy Dore Show (via YouTube).

• Saudi, UAE trying to partition Iraq – fmr Pentagon official from RTAmerica. "The US has stopped all weapon deliveries to Iraq over security concerns, according to an Air Force spokesman. Former Pentagon official Michael Maloof weighs in."

• Erdoğan’s Outburst Against Russia Reveals Frustration by "InfoBrics" from The Duran (based in Cyprus).

Posts that I especially recommend today: Thursday, January 30, 2020

• State of the climate: How the world warmed in 2019 by Zeke Hausfather from Carbon Brief.

• Corporate Control and the Climate Meltdown from Scientists Warning (via YouTube).

• Extinction Foretold, Extinction Ignored by Guy McPherson from his weblog Nature Bats Last. 

• Hovering in Cyberspace by Edward Curtin from his weblog Behind the Curtin.

• US Announces Three New Bases in Iraq After Iraqis Demand Full Withdrawal by Alan Macleod from Mint Press News.

Posts that I especially recommend today: Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Note: Today I have been overwhelmed with articles that appear essential reading. I must eliminate some posts. This problem may be expected, and more, as the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire is threatened by disintegration.

• How Government and Media Are Prepping America for a Failed 2020 Election by Whitney Webb from Mint Press News. (I regard this as a post of the month!)

•  Moksha by Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog.

• Israel's hard-right and US Evangelicals unite for the heist of the century by Antony Loewenstein from TRT World (independent source based in Turkey).

• U.S. Demands Iraq Either Join U.S. War Against Iran or Be Destroyed by Eric Zuesse ("That’s not what capitalism was supposed to be.") from A bird's eye view of the Vineyard. 

• The FBI Has Been Lying About Seth Rich by Craig Murray (British) from his weblog. (Note: So what else is new? See my post from 2016.)

• The Nasty Secret Behind Aramco, ISIS and Trump in Syria by Gordon Duff from New Eastern Outlook. 

• “Shit-Life Syndrome,” Trump Voters, and Clueless Dems by Bruce E. Levine from CounterPunch. (Note: This is an archetypal example of liberal views that are frequently posted on CounterPunch. Notice the condescending view of most poor people in the USA: "shit-life syndrome". They are poor people who are surviving victims of a capitalist ruling class "education" and easily influenced by sophisticated, constant Deep State propaganda.)

• Anti-Cash-Alliance Suffers Setback in Their Home-Town New York by Norbert Häring (German) from his weblog Money and more.

These are two posts for people who have advanced knowledge of the Middle East:

• Muqtada al-Sadr, US occupation & the Iraqi Resistance from Middle East Observer. 

• Analysis of the Iranian missile strikes on Ayn Al Asad Airbase by Haider from A bird's eye view of the Vineyard.

Posts that I especially recommend today: Tuesday, January 28, 2020

• Underreported Arctic Methane Release by Stuart Scott from Scientists Warning.

• Central Bankers Go Green… Why? by Matthew Ehret from Strategic Culture Foundation.

• Climate journalism and fossil fuel ads: an unholy marriage? by Dawn Stover from Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. 

• Hundreds of Thousands Protest in Iraq to Demand Ouster of US Troops from Financial Tribune (Iran).

• Calling a Coup a Coup: The State Department Ignores the Law, Again by Brett Heinz from Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR). (Because laws are passed means nothing to our evolved Neo-fascist ruling class.)

Posts that I especially recommend today: Monday, January 27, 2020

• A Defense of Climate Tragedy, or What the Scientists Got Wrong about “The Uninhabitable Earth” by Genevieve Guenther from Medium.

• Poll finds strong majority support for declaring a climate emergency by David Spratt from Renew Economy.

• Dead President Walking by USA's foremost political satirist CJ Hopkins from his weblog Consent Factory, Inc.

• The Soleimani assassination: the operation that broke the taboo by Yakup Asian from United World (an indepedent website based in Turkey.)

Posts that I especially recommend today: Saturday, January 25, 2020

• The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells from New York magazine.

• 2020 starts with the plain prospect of rising heat by Tim Radford from Climate News Central.

• Against Pacifism from The internationalists. 

• Iran is ready to attack again: Will the US forces withdraw from Iraq? by Elijah J Magnier from his weblog. 

• Aftermath: The Iran War After The Soleimani Assassination by Jim Kavanagh from The Polemicist.

• Houthis Anticipate US Assassination Attempts by Ahmed Abdulkareem from Internationalist 360°.

Posts that I especially recommend today: Friday, January 24, 2020

  

• History’s Largest Mining Operation Is About to Begin by Wil S. Hylton from The Atlantic.

• Warning: Climate change will bring major new health risks for kids by Kathleen E. Bachynski from Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

• Paris climate goals may be beyond reach by Alex Kirby from Climate News Network (Note: this is a rather conservative website on the climate crisis.)

• Press Release—IT IS NOW 100 SECONDS TO MIDNIGHT by Gayle Spinazze from Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. 

• The Long History of Elite Rule: What Will It Take To End It? by Chuck Churchill from CounterPunch.

• World’s Super Rich Meet in Davos to Discuss the Climate Change Problem they Created by Alan Macleod from Mint Press News. 

• The Troubling Decline of International Law by Craig Murray (British) from his weblog. (Note: Capitalists have long bragged about their nations' fake democracies which include the rule of law. The trouble is that this class has always made the laws, organized their court systems, appointed the judges, etc. Now it seems that this rule of law is too burdensome for the ruling classes. They now opt for outright violence or the threat of violence--fascism.)

• WikiLeaks Editor: US Is Saying First Amendment Doesn’t Apply To Foreigners In Assange Case by Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog.

Posts that I especially recommend today: Thursday, January 23, 2020

• World accumulation & Planetary life, or, why capitalism will not survive until the ‘last tree is cut’ by Jason W. Moore from Radical Political Economy.

• Lack of action on climate change leads to warmest decade ever recorded by James Cogan from World Socialist Web Site.

• Busting Cold War propaganda: What China is really like from The Grayzone.

Red Lines host Anya Parampil speaks with Danny Haiphong, a contributing editor at the Black Agenda Report, about his recent, eye-opening two-week-long trip to China.

• Immediate US withdrawal due to its violation of the agreement and Iraq sovereignty by Elijah J Magnier from his weblog. (Note: The assassination of an Iranian official visiting Iraq has led to the exposure of  the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire as an occupying force in Iraq. This combined with the US occupying oil fields in Syria and ignoring international laws has made much of the rest of the world to see the US and its Empire as outlaws (fascists.)

• The prosecution of Glenn Greenwald and the global war on free speech by James Cogan from World Socialist Web Site.

Posts that I especially recommend today: Wednesday, January 22, 2020

• The Case for Ecological Reparations: A Conversation with Jason W. Moore by Stepha Velednitsky from Edge Effects. 

• Wahrheit Macht Frei… Truth Sets You Free by Finian Cunningham from Strategic Culture Foundation.

• Washington Desperation Drives Nuclear Proliferation by Ulson Gunnar from New Eastern Outlook.  

• How a Hidden Parliamentary Session Revealed Trump’s True Motives in Iraq by Whitney Webb from Mint Press News.

• We Work, They Scam: The Art of the Con in Terminal-Stage Capitalism by William Hawes from Dissident Voice.

• Can your boss now access your private medical data? "NRS correspondent Michele Greenstein talks to Rick Sanchez about Big Tech getting between your doctor and you."

• Greta Thunberg | Averting a Climate Apocalypse | Davos 2020. "'I've been told telling people about the climate crisis is a very dangerous thing to do' Greta Thunberg speaks at Davos 2020." (Note: This is like if she were talking to a group of hardcore alcoholics that they should stop drinking.)

• Progressives Frustrated With Bernie’s Capitulation Strategy, from The Jimmy Dore Show. (Note: Memory challenged and frustrated Bernie cultists are getting angry. Sorry to have posted this video, but I couldn't help wondering about the sanity of my fellow Americans.)

Orwell’s 1984 is a paranoid piece of anti-communist propaganda [a critical review]

Click here to access article by Rainer Shea, a re-post of the article on his own website earlier in the month, and posted on The Greanville Post.

This is a contemporary expression of an old Stalinist view on George Orwell re-regurgitated by Shea, a young blogger in northern California. Yes, like Patrice Greanville, editor and founder of The Greanville Post, I too have been impressed with his knowledge of history. 

However, I soon became aware of his immaturity. He is like a typical 19-year-old blogger who views history as led by stereotypically good guys and bad guys, not as human beings with strengths and weaknesses, and people who make errors. He can say nothing bad about Stalinists (and often defends them--see here and here) and criticizes as "bad guys" like George Orwell who, at the risk of his life and health, went and fought against openly fascists and on the side of the democratically elected Spanish Republic in 1936 in a civil war that proved to be a dress rehearsal for WWII. Shea's citing as supporting documentation, a clearly Stalinist website (The Stalin Society), in this article is suggestive evidence that he has been coached by someone who has an old-fashioned pro-Stalinist view of the Soviet Union.

My readings regarding the Soviet Union, the anti-Bolshevik crusade led by British imperialist Winston Churchill and other capitalist cold warriors has led me to the following view on George Orwell. Orwell was influenced by his experience primarily in the Spanish Civil War as detailed by his book Homage to Catalonia. In this war he fought against the fascist forces of Germany and Italy who came to the rescue of the democratically elected Spanish Republic against the right-wing opposition. Meanwhile, the leading capitalist nations of USA, Britain, and France cynically stood by in neutrality and pretend isolationism. 

Stalin's behavior was informed by his superficial commitment to communist ideology and most of all by his authoritarian desire to maintain power which was reinforced by a nationalist view of the Soviet Union. Briefly put, this orientation led him to a visceral hatred to anyone challenging his authority and his support for the protection of the Soviet Union. Thus purges characterized his rule. When he saw the growing support by Western capitalist countries for Hitler's aggression, he supported the popular front as a first means of preventing the threat of Germany's invasion of his country. (A few years later he signed a non-aggression treaty with Germany as a means to provide time to enable the buildup of Soviet forces.) This support of Stalin's popular front policy occurred while Orwell was fighting in Spain, and led to the Soviet Union withdrawing support for the forces defending the Spanish Republic. 

However, Stalin not only withdrew support of Russian forces, but actively fought against those defending the Republic that they had previously supported. Orwell understandably could not tolerate this betrayal and especially their use of specious, self-serving propaganda to justify this betrayal. This is described graphically in his book Homage to Catalonia, and it left a deep impression upon him. Hence, his book Nineteen Eighty-Four published in 1949, and which is widely viewed by capitalist agents as an exclusive attack on the Soviet Union. But what is less popular is a view that all self-serving ruling classes can, and do, use such propaganda techniques. Orwell saw the British ruling class use such techniques to support the cynical war effort to preserve their Empire, and he merely extrapolated their advanced use in the future. Stalin and his supporters merely used these techniques to rationalize his rule and his supporters in the self-serving bureaucratic ruling class using the Communist ideology that Lenin and Trotsky had created. The reality of Stalinist rule clashed severely with this ideology.

Stalin to this day is widely popular in Russia among people who saw him as successfully defending their country. These people ascribe too much to his leadership and not enough to themselves, or rather, their ancestors who fought for their country against the fascist invaders who wanted to make them slaves of the Third Reich. Most of the captured Soviet fighters ended up as slaves put to work in Nazi weapons factories and were worked literally to death. (In 1957-58 I served in a medical unit of the US Army while stationed in Germany. A sergeant in my unit visited a cemetery associated with Bergen-Belsen prison camp, and to his surprise he didn't find many Jewish names, but mostly Russian names on graves of people who died in the concentration camp.)

The author of this article, Shea, has resurrected an old, tired debate among communists and communist-minded historians: the Trotskyists versus Stalinists. I come down on the side of Trotskyists and Leninists who foresaw that the communist revolutionary movement could not succeed in such a backward country as Russia. Rather they saw a need for revolutions in more advanced countries, especially Germany, as necessary to advance what would become an international workers movement to take power for themselves and support their interests. This did not happen largely because the nascent German ruling class of capitalists in 1919 foresaw the dangers of this movement and assassinated both Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, leaders of the Communist Revolutionary party in Germany, and ruthlessly put down the socialist movement existing in Germany after WWI.

Thus, the history of the human species reveals that this species could not overcome their DNA to protect and advance their own small groups. This defect had served their species for nearly 200,000 years which was characterized by families and clans and ruling classes instead of workers of all countries. When capitalist ruling classes arose based on the private ownership of economic property, they became obsessed with wealth and power through their exploitation both workers, who created marvelous economic benefits, and nature. These ruling classes in their ignorance and arrogance could not adapt to nature and its web of life, and like all other such species, have doomed their human species to extinction.

Posts that I especially recommend today: Tuesday, January 21, 2020

• How did climate change get so controversial? by John Cook from Skeptical Science.

• The Capitalocene and Planetary Justice by Jason W. Moore from Titanic Lifeboat Academy.

• How To Be A Mentally Sovereign Human by Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog.

Posts that I especially recommend today: Monday, January 20, 2020

• NASA, NOAA Analyses Reveal 2019 Second Warmest Year on Record from NASA.

• Australia's heat and bushfires are signs of fundamental shifts in its climate by Peter Sinclair from Yale Climate Connections. 

• Climate change “spin” as Davos gathering confronts mounting environmental and economic crisis by Nick Beams from World Socialist Web Site.

• Why 'Corporate Social Responsibility Is a Hoax by Álvaro de Regil Castilla from Climate & Capitalism. (Note: The headline offers old news, but the author goes on to argue that "Subsequently, I gradually realized that an even larger hoax is our belief that we live in democratic societies."

• Trump’s Latest Plan for Iran: Regime Disruption by Eli Lake from Bloomberg. (Note: What is significant about his argument is that some top geopolitical analysts are supporting his argument. See this and this.)

• Yes Minister Fan Fiction by Craig Murray from his weblog (British). (He satirizes British politicians regarding Britain's treatment (use of social identity politics) of Julian Assange. Murray may explain why British activists did, and are doing, so little to protest and rescue Assange.)

Posts that I especially recommend today: Sunday, January 19, 2020

• Global Warming and the Future of Investing by Eric Zuesse from The Duran (based in Cyprus). Author of the foolish statement "That’s not what capitalism was supposed to be." ends his report with a rather favorable statement about BlackRock:

As regards the letter to “CEOs,” it’s telling them to transition as fast as is reasonably possible out of fossil-fuel investments and into renewable-fuel ones, in order to become less vulnerable to the shock, when it does hit. This makes good sense: keeping the clients comfortable, while telling the CEOs: “Make major moves on this ASAP!”

If you think for a moment that capitalist ruling classes are serious about global warming, "I have a bridge to sell you" (def).

• Australia’s Fires Give Us a Glimpse of What’s Coming by Jeff Sparrow from Jacobin.

• In neoliberalism’s end, a new world’s beginning an editorial from New Frame (based in South Africa). (Note: These folks still have hope.)

• How Khalifa Haftar’s secret ties with Israel fuel chaos in Libya from TRT World (based in Turkey).

• Secret Wars, Forgotten Betrayals, Global Tyranny. Who Is Really in Charge of the U.S. Military? by Cynthia Chung from Strategic Culture Foundation (independent. international, and based in Russia).

• Ayn Rand with Prof. Lisa Duggan from Chris Hedges' show "On Contact" from RT via YouTube. 

On the show this week, Chris Hedges, discusses the outsized influence of the writer, Ayn Rand, on America’s business and financial elite with New York University professor and author, Lisa Duggan.

 Duggan’s new book is entitled “Mean Girl: Ayn Rand and the Culture of Greed.” 

• How America Became Capitalist - book review by Dominic Alexander from Counterfire (Britain).

• MAJOR: 16 U.S soldiers killed in Iranian strikes on al-Asad base in Iraq by Joaquin Flores from Fort Russ News (apparently based in Belgrade, Serbia).