Posts that I especially recommend today: Saturday, March 14, 2020

• NATO and COVID-19: a Parasitical Disease in Europe by Finian Cunningham from Strategic Culture Foundation.

The Defender-Europe 20 military exercise is obviously directed against Russia. So why is it patently inconsistent with the otherwise drastic measures such as limiting crowd sizes, closing schools, cancelling political and sporting events, limiting travel, etc. that many nations are taking to limit the spread of this new Coronavirus that originated in China? Don't misunderstand me--this is a real threat especially to elderly. Meanwhile, this viral attack and NATO countries severe reactions could be the catalyst that tips capitalist economies into collapse if recent adverse effects on capitalist economies continue.  I will await further information on this topic before I consider any suspicions of a 9/11 type of false-flag event to serve several fascist and imperalist interests of the Empire's Deep State, the trans-national finance capitalists whom we are all literally in debt to. (Also, see this --I restored the link to the Voltaire website after discovering that it ultimately went to Facebook. Hopefully it will remain.) Ruling capitalist classes are perfectly capable of gross crimes against humans such as this as they have demonstrated in the past. Whether or not they are capable of this crime, only future events and whistleblowers can reveal. (Update: I noticed this article on the following Monday that Germany is withdrawing their participation in the exercise.)

• US Intel Agencies Played Unsettling Role in Classified and “9/11-like” Coronavirus Response Plan by Whitney Webb from Mint Press News. 

• Toilet Paper Is the People’s Vaccine by Edward Curtin from his weblog Behind the Curtain. (Note: I had revised the formatting of my comment when I inadvertently erased my comment. I had a personal experience today with this startling phenomenon, followed by Curtin's article which proposed a theory to explain it. I was not convinced of his theory, but I don't have any other explanation for this irrational practice.)

• Fake News Alert: Washington Post hypes fake news on coronavirus ‘burial pits’ in Iran  by Erin Cunningham and Dalton Bennett of the Washington Post via PressTV (Iran). (Note: This "news" report was picked up by all sorts of mainstream media and minor US media outlets that function as repeaters of propaganda from mainstream media corporations.)

• Tulsi’s Emergency UBI Plan & More For Coronavirus. Tulsi Gabbard, who is now excluded from candidate debates by the Democratic Party, appears with Jimmy Dore (via a YouTube channel) to offer her recommendations to cope with the Coronavirus and the experience of Hawaiians who she represents in Congress.

• COVID-19 death rates not what they seem, 'misleading and naive' (full show) featuring Rick Sanchez from his show on RT. (Note: I can't recommend this enough for you to stay reasonably informed on most important topics of today.) 

With the last post I have run out of time and energy. Sorry, but I have tasks I need to do.

Posts that I especially recommend today: Friday, March 13, 2020

• Multi-agency report highlights increasing signs and impacts of climate change in atmosphere, land and oceans from World Meteorological Association. (Note: "National Meteorological and Hydrological Services, WMO Regional Climate Centres and dozens of scientific experts contributed to this report.")

• Habitat, Habitat, Habitat by Guy McPherson from his series Edge of Extinction (via YouTube).

• Four Reasons Civilization Won’t Decline: It Will Collapse by Craig Collins from CounterPunch. 

• COVID-19 Side Effects: Reality and Clarity by Kathleen Wallace from CounterPunch.

• US authorities in disarray and paralysis in face of Covid-19 emergency by Benjamin Mateus from World Socialist Web Site. 

• The Virus & the Working Class by Jack Rasmus from his weblog.

• News-Nugget About The Coronavirus Pandemic by Bernhard from his weblog Moon of Alabama. 

• Iraq condemns US airstrikes; says soldiers, police, civilians killed from PressTV (Iran).

• Why Is The U.S. Launching A New War On Iraq? by Bernhard from Moon of Alabama. 

• Judge Releases Manning After Suicide Attempt, Effectively Fines Her Supporters $256,000 by Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog.

• New OPCW whistleblower slams 'abhorrent mistreatment' of Douma investigators by Aaron Mate from The Grayzone. 

• SUNFED versus World Bank by Eric Toussaint from CADTM (Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt).

• Universities are forging ties with the FBI as US cracks down on foreign influence by Nidhi Subbaraman from Nature. 

• How Mohammed bin Salman's biggest gamble may cost him the throne by David Hearst from Middle East Eye.

Posts that I especially recommend today: Thursday, March 12, 2020

• The other global emergency: Coronavirus in the time of climate change from Covering Climate Now.

• White House told federal health agency to classify coronavirus deliberations - sources by Aram Roston and Marisa Taylor from Reuters.

• How black swans are shaping planet panic by Pepe Escobar from Asia Times.

• In a Europe Closed Down by the Coronavirus the EU Opens its Doors to the US Army. Could the Defender become the Invader of Europe? by Manlio Dinucci from Global Research.

• Fake News Starts in Washington: Perception Management and Influence Operations Manipulate Public Opinion by Philip Giraldi from Strategic Culture Foundation.

• Coronavirus Fearmongering Demonstrates U.S. Imperialism is a Drag on Humanity by Danny Haiphong from Internationalist 360°.

• Russia Rejects Turkey’s Proposal to Jointly Steal Syria’s Oil, Erdogan Threatens Turning to US Instead by Drago Bosnic from FRN (Fort Russ News).

• Chelsea Manning attempted suicide while in jail for refusing to testify against WikiLeaks – lawyers from RT-USA. 

• Saudi Women’s Rights Activists Pull Back Curtain on Crown Prince by Medea Benjamin and Ariel Gold from Consortium News.

Posts that I especially recommend today: Wednesday, March 11, 2020

• We Did Start the Fire: Climate Change & the Curse of Hope by John Halstead from Gods & Radicals Press. 

• Extinction Dialogues: Am I a Typical Academic? featuring Guy McPherson, this time from his website Nature Bats Last instead of via YouTube.

• Jacobin: From the “Dirty Break” to the Democratic Party by Nathaniel Flakin from Left Voice.

• News for March 10 with Rick Sanchez from RTAmerica. Note: Sanchez focuses on a range of very important topics that takes the full program (27:37). I highly recommend this news program to watch daily.

High levels of radiation in the area around Fukushima, Japan have been discovered at locations intended for the 2020 Summer Olympics. Is the international sporting event in danger? RT America’s Michele Greenstein explains the lasting impact of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Then Kevin Kamps, radioactive waste specialist at Beyond Nuclear, joins Rick Sanchez to share his expertise. RT America’s Alex Mihailovich reports on the economic downturn in the airline industry before former director of Government, Public and Family Affairs for the National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB) Jamie Finch shares his insights. Pulitzer-winning author and host of “On Contact” Chris Hedges joins Rick Sanchez to discuss the influence of lobbyists on establishment media in their coverage of politics and that donors, bankers and billionaires have on the US political process. Plus, RT America's Sayeh Tavangar reports on the role that fracking in the US played in fomenting the oil price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia.

• An Estimated 85,000 Turkish-Backed Terrorists are Fighting in Syria and Libya, While Thousands are in Terrorist Training Camps in Turkey by Drago Bosnic from FRN (Fort Russ News). (Note: Non-Empire journalists have reported that Turkey has been on the team (along with Saudi Arabia, Britain, and Israel) which was coordinated by the USA in order destroy the Syrian government beginning in 2011, and I have re-posted many of these reports. For example, read Washington’s Secret War on Syria. Also, see this from 1983!)

Posts that I especially recommend today: Monday, March 9, 2020

• Climate Catastrophe and Socialist Strategy by Diego Lotito from Left Voice.

• Extinction Dialogues: Adventures on the Troll Farm featuring Guy McPherson via YouTube. 

• Out Like a Lion by Caren Black from her website Titanic Lifeboat Academy.

• From Franklin to Epstein: The Cover-Up Continues. Bonnie Faulkner of Guns + Butter interviews Nick Bryant who "discusses his book, The Franklin Scandal: A Story of Powerbrokers, Child Abuse and Betrayal and Confessions of a D.C. Madam: The Politics of Sex, Lies and Blackmail that he co-wrote with Henry W. Vinson, which parallels the child trafficking networks partially exposed in the current Jeffrey Epstein scandal ...."

• Sugar and Spice and Everything Vice: the Empire’s Sin City of London by Cynthia Chung from Strategic Culture Foundation. (Note: I've had many posts on the City of London, and the best, as I recall, are this and this. But if you want to see all my posts (including commentaries), you might enter "City of London" on one of my search engines.)

• At least 20 princes detained in mass purge by Saudi crown prince by David Hearst from Middle East Eye. 

• Putin helps Erdogan climb down from the tree with a ceasefire agreement. By Elijah J Magnier from his weblog.

• Who was Udo Ulfkotte? Meet the Fake Journalist Whose Ghost Writer was the CIA by Enrico Vigna from FRN (Fort Russ News). 

Posts that I especially recommend today: Saturday, March 7, 2020

• Global Warming on a Rampage by Robert Hunziker from Dissident Voice.

• Mailbag Love: How Can You Help? from Guy McPherson's weblog Nature Bats Last.

• How I try to break climate silence by BaerbelW from Skeptical Science. (Note: This German scientist takes us through the many ways climate crisis deniers try to deceive us, and simultaneously promotes critical thinking. But alas, she only devotes two sentences to a claim that "There is also hope: We already have much of the technology we need to solve climate change. We 'just' have to deploy it at scale." And she follows these two sentences by saying "this clear for scientists". But this is not true. Many scientists remain in doubt that we can solve this problem, and some, like McPherson, have already decided that it is too late.)

• Greta Thunberg | Youth Strike 4 Climate | Bristol, UK featuring Greta from Extinction Rebellion (via YouTube). (Note: She rallies British children to protest the inaction by adults (in the ruling class) who "despite all the beautiful words and promises from elected officials" (and the people who employ them in the capitalist ruling class) about  preventing climate destabilization, but the latter will result in the destruction of the children's futures and they sense that.)

Satirical comedians discover that capitalist controlled elections are corrupt, but they don't connect them to elections held in capitalist nations or nations held by ruling classes of any kind. The result is cynicism. The following two posts illustrate that:

• Voter Suppression, Closed Polling Places, Rigged Media & More featuring Lee Camp and his how Redacted Tonight from RT (via YouTube).

• Establishment Hacks Deny Establishment Colluding Against Bernie featuring Jimmy Dore of The Jimmy Dore Show from RT (via YouTube). 

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• Joe Biden in 2020 Duplicates Hillary Clinton in 2016 by Eric Zuesse from Global Research. 

• Two Charts Explain Why Wall Street Banks Are Under So Much Selling Pressure by Pam Martens and Russ Martens from their weblog Wall Street on Parade. (They explain a lot more.)

• Putin saves Erdogan from himself by Pepe Escobar from Asia Times. 

• Donbass and Syria – A Perfect Storm Approaching? by Russell Bentley from FRN (Fort Russ News) (Note: Notice the background of the author, and he has a website.)

Posts that I especially recommend today: Friday, March 6, 2020

• Network news’s climate disappearing act—will 2020 be different? from Covering Climate Now.

• The Film Series Tackling Climate Change Despair by Jennimai Nguyen from The Cut, a subsection of New York Magazine. 

• Erdogan and Putin’s talks on Idlib: a brief analysis from United World (based in Turkey). 

• Inside the World Uyghur Congress: The US-backed right-wing regime change network seeking the 'fall of China' by Ajit Singh from The Grayzone.

Posts that I especially recommend today: Thursday, March 5, 2020

• The Automatic Earth composed by Steven Bryant from his website.

The Automatic Earth, for wind ensemble + electronics, addresses the ongoing climate catastrophe and evokes the psychological effect of the impending disruptive change to our entire way of living on the planet, even under a best-case scenario. Our way of life is unsustainable, therefore it will not continue. The piece weaves together two threads: the climate crisis, and the technological transformation of what it is to be human. The tandem acceleration of technological wonder and ecological catastrophe means, at best, a strange, unrecognizable future, likely within our own lifetimes. I do not know if we will survive as a species: if we continue as we are now, average world temperature will increase around 8ªC within eighty years, which would result in runaway warming and a Venus-like atmosphere that virtually no life on earth can withstand. If we do survive, it will be via monumental feats of geo-engineering and human re-engineering, surpassed only by an extraordinary change in our willingness to cooperate with each other. Humanity will be forever altered. This way of life will die. The question is whether or not we will die with it.

• ClearCut – The Wages of Dominion by John Riggs from Edge Effects. The title implies reference to the mythology of Judeo-Christian religions:

... God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

• Scott Morrison's duty is to protect the Australian people. There is no greater threat than climate disruption. By David Spratt and Ian Dunlop from Climate Code Red (based in Australia). (Note: Scott Morrison is Prime Minister of Australia.)

• Is the U.S. Fracking Boom Based on Fraud? by Justin Mikulka from Desmog.

• The Long History of Elite Rule: What Will It Take To End It? by Chuck Churchill from CounterPunch. (Note: My translation: "The Long History of Ruling Classes: ...")

• Stop Calling It A “Stutter” :  Here Are Dozens Of Examples Of Biden’s Dementia Symptoms by Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog. 

• Bernie Needs New Strategy For Biden His “Good Friend” featuring Jimmy Dore of The Jimmy Dore Show (via YouTube). (Note: Because Dore is once again (like in 2016) disillusioned by Bernie's (Sanders) namby-pamby (def.) campaign, he goes off on a rant against Sanders and his advisors for running such a campaign. Also, see this about another such comedian.)

• Putin-Erdogan meeting: a storm is expected over the “mother of all battles” in Idlib; Ayn al Arab is at stake by Elijah J Magnier from his weblog.

Posts that I especially recommend today: Wednesday, March 4, 2020

• A Green New Deal: Climate change is a collective problem and it demands collective action by David Lorimer from Wall Street International. (Note: I am posting this article as an example of the confused and misleading thinking of those that I would identify as "progressive liberals", those ideologically committed to capitalism but urging idealistic notions of modifying capitalism to save us from the climate crisis that threatens all life of Earth. What they mean by the "need for a system change" is "reviving and reinventing the public sphere, remembering how to plan, reining in corporations, re-localising production, ending the cult of shopping, and taxing the rich and filthy.", but not taking private ownership of the economy away from individuals and giving it to a government run by and for the people.)

• Climate strikers: Open letter to EU leaders on why their new climate law is ‘surrender’ from CarbonBrief. 

• Longtime Climate Science Foe David Schnare Uses "Scare Tactics" to Bash Transportation Climate Initiative for Koch-Tied Think Tank by Dana Drugmand from Desmog.

• Membership Income Triples for UK’s Main Climate Science Denial Campaign Group by Zak Derler from Desmog.

• Planet Plastic by Tim Dickinson from Rolling Stone.

• Why the American Ruling Class Fears Bernie Sanders by Eric Sommer from Global Research.

• Democratic Party leaders engineer Biden victory in most Super Tuesday states by Patrick Martin from World Socialist Web Site.

• Super Tuesday & The Irrevocable Split in the Democratic Party by Jack Rasmus from his weblog. (Note: He likely wrote this before Bloomberg dropped out and supported Biden.)

• Media Pundits Secretly Funded by Lobbying Firms! featuring Natalie McGill from a segment of the Redacted Tonight show on RT. "Viewers know that the mainstream media is paid to spit corporate propaganda. Natalie McGill delves into how they're encouraged to sell out to those interests." 

Posts that I especially recommend today: Tuesday, March 3, 2020

• Shell Is Looking Forward The fossil-fuel companies expect to profit from climate change. I went to a private planning meeting and took notes. By Malcolm Harris from New York Magazine.

• The Imperial Oil Files: New Collection Adds to Climate and Energy Research Archives On Science and Denial by Brendan DeMelle from Desmog.

• Keep It Simple and Question: Propaganda, Technology, and Coronavirus (COVID-19) by Edward Curtin from his weblog Behind the Curtain. 

• The Coronavirus and the Class Struggle by Ana Rivera from Left Voice.

• Democratic Party goes to war against Sanders by Patrick Martin from World Socialist Web Site.

• We’re Being Played by Shane Burley from Commune. (Note: Another article about fake news issued by media corporations.)

• Quick update on the Turkey vs Syria, Russia and Iran by "The Saker" (Andrei Raevsky) from his weblog A bird's eye view of the Vineyard.

• Syria - Another Short Note On The Recent Developments by Bernhard from his weblog Moon of Alabama.

• Turkey Lets Over 100,000 Refugees Cross the Border With the EU by Drago Bosnic from FRN (Fort Russ News).

• The US–Taliban Deal Is Not the Military Withdrawal It Should Be by Adam Wunische from Anti-Empire. (Note: Another example of Empire propaganda.)

Posts that I especially recommend today: Monday, March 2, 2020

• Coronavirus Effect on Global Warming and Global Warming Impact on Pandemic Risks by Canadian climate scientist Paul Beckwith from his weblog. (Note: There are four 15 minute videos in this post--the first video is essential. The last video is not recommended.)

• XR History 2018-2019 | Extinction Rebellion from Extinction Rebellion channel of YouTube. 

• Hunger threat as tropical fish seek cooler waters by Paul Brown from Climate News Network. 

• Action Against Fossil Fuel Extraction (at Big Ben, London) from the Extinction Rebellion channel of YouTube.

• Erdogan: Idlib is mine by Elijah J Magnier from his weblog. 

• Erdogan is weaponizing refugees and immigrants. Turkish secret services are sending thousands to Greece from Defend Democracy Press.

• The Armoured Glass Box is an Instrument of Torture by Craig Murray from his weblog.

Posts that I especially recommend today: Sunday, March 1, 2020

• Rising tides will leave no choice for US millions by Tim Radford from Climate News Network.

• Climate Accountability from Union of Concerned Scientists.

• Economy vs. Ecology featuring a 22:09m talk by environmentalist Stuart H. Scott at the 2014 COP-20 in Lima, Peru (via YouTube). (Note: Because he was educated in the USA, he often refers to capitalism as euphemisms like money economy and "neoclassical economics".)

• Across the World, Voters Are Losing Faith in Government by Eric Levitz from New York Magazine. 

• Humanity Is Making A Very Important Decision When It Comes To Assange by Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog.

• The Ruling Class Will Stop at Nothing by Kenn Orphan from his weblog.

Once again the Middle East is heating up with the threat of major wars. The following posts shed some light of this latest threat that could escalate into a global nuclear war catastrophe:

• War tensions mount in wake of strike on Turkish troops in Syria by Bill Van Auken from World Socialist Web Site.

• Large Turkish military convoy enters northwestern Syria, heads to front-line area: video from AMN.

• Russian Air Force launches wide-scale attack across Idlib to stop militant advance from AMN.

• Idlib: Deadly Turkish Strikes against the Syrian Army and Hezbollah from Resistance News.

• Escalation: US assumes naval attack posture, a commentary by George Ades from FRN (Fort Russ News). 

• The threat of a nuclear war between the US and Russia is now at its greatest since 1983 by Scott Ritter from Defend Democracy Press.

Posts that I especially recommend today: Friday, February 28, 2020

• Blast from the Past - James Hansen on David Letterman in 2009 from UPFSI, downloaded from YouTube by Stuart H. Scott, founder of Scientists Warning.org. 

Back in 2009, before the holiday season, Dr. James Hansen appeared on the Tonight Show with David Letterman.  I downloaded a file copy so I could show it offline.  Some time later the interview was purged from the channel.  Luckily I had saved that copy.  I posted it on my personal YouTube channel where it's gotten about 7k views over six years.
  
Well here goes, folks.  Everything he said then is just as true now.  We have made zero progress towards reducing our carbon emissions, and the Money Boys are still trying to figure out how to 'make a buck' off of the current climate emergency. 

• Coronavirus Update featuring Guy McPherson, retired Professor of Biology, from his YouTube channel Edge of Extinction. (Note: In this episode, McPherson offers a very startling prediction about global warming that is based on very questionable statistics (according to him). You should know of his past analyses about the effect of aerosols on global warming: see this, or if you are not technically challenged, see this.) 

• Different Crises: Coronavirus & Climate Change posted on Skeptical Science.

• Bernie Sanders and the Military Industrial Complex. Bernie 2.0 by Ann Garrison from Global Research. 

• Freedom Rider: Bernie Sanders' Foreign Policy Trap by Margaret Kimberley from Black Agenda Report.

• America’s Hundred Year War on Socialism by Deena Stryker from New Eastern Outlook. (Note: Although Stryker doesn't exactly address "America's Hundred Year War on Socialism", she offers sound observations about the current election scene in the USA.)

• Syrian journalist corrects the record on mainstream media’s absurd Idlib coverage featuring Anya Parampil on YouTube video and posted on The Grayzone.

• Syria - Deadly Bomb Strike Warns Turkey To End Its Escapades by Bernhard from his weblog Moon of Alabama. 

• NATO: From Covert Sponsor to Artillery for Terrorists in Syria by Finian Cunningham from Strategic Culture Foundation.

• Turkey Now Claims Syria’s Idlib Province as Turkish Territory by Eric Zuesse from The Duran.

• “Russian threat” and Russophobia are the only motive for uniting NATO by Edgars Palladis from The Duran. 

• Are Russia and Turkey on a collision course? by The Saker (Andrei Raevsky) from his weblog A bird's eye view of the Vineyard. 

• Last Updates on the Idlib: Are Turkey and Russia on the brink of war? by Elif İlhamoğlu from United World (based in Turkey).

• This Assange “Trial” Is A Self-Contradictory Kafkaesque Nightmare by Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog.

• ‘Religious operations’: How British propagandists used Islam to wage cultural Cold War by Ian Cobain from Middle East Eye.

After surveying nearly 50 credible websites, I cannot find any articles that I especially recommend today: Thursday, February 27, 2020

Posts that I especially recommend today: Wednesday, February 26, 2020

• When will the Amazon hit a tipping point? by Ignacio Amigo from Nature.

• Scientists Don't Know Why? by Guy McPherson from Edge of Extinction (via YouTube).

• Fossil-Fuel Subsidies Must End by Geoffrey Supran and others from Scientific American. (Note: Now that it is too late, banks and financiers are starting to worry.)

• Middle East dystopia? Peter Lavelle interviews geopolitical analyst Alastair Crooke about his observations about the Middle East. From RT (via YouTube).

• With Grenell Appointment, the Israel Lobby’s Foothold on US Intelligence Grows Even Stronger by Whitney Webb from Mint Press News. 

• Don’t Worry, Centrists. Bernie Isn’t Radical. By Ted Rall from CounterPunch. (But, what about (to the ruling capitalist class) the sacred cows of insurance companies and Big Pharma?)

• Debunking The Smear That Assange Recklessly Published Unredacted Documents by Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog.

• Your Man in the Public Gallery – Assange Hearing Day 2 by Craig Murray (British) from his weblog. (Note: "QC" means in Latin Queen's Counsel: a British lawyer of high rank.

• Vanderbilt oligarch heir Anderson Cooper worked at CIA in college by Ben Norton from The Grayzone.

• RAND's controversial report says more about the think tank than Turkey by Ali Cinar from TRT World (based in Turkey). (Note: "ab extra" means from the outside according to Wikipedia.)

Posts that I especially recommend today: Tuesday, February 25, 2020

• How we stay blind to the story of power by Jonathan Cook from his weblog. (Note: Edited for clarity at 7:50 AM CT on 2/27/2020.)

This rather lengthy piece addresses a very important subject: social-economic and ultimately coercive power. He starts off with a fundamental description of what it is, and ends up with a specific discussion of its presence in the current US election scene. I've long considered this power as a crucial problem that humans have not been able to overcome.

I think power is a fatal human flaw which will end in the extinction of human and many other species. Only in the roughly last 10,000 years have we seen the appearance of self-serving ruling classes. During this history we have seen, because of human cleverness, a vast increase in the number of humans. This period is nearly a "drop in the bucket" compared to the 200,000 years of the appearance of humans on our planet Earth. But during this micro period of "civilization" we've seen one system after another (capitalism is the latest) that created tiny ruling classes through the use of power.

Our evolution has been largely shaped by the last 190,000 years when we lived in tiny bands which became dispersed all over the planet. Human species has not had time to evolve the means to cope with the vast increases of their population in this current period that is required to counter the power of the current ruling classes. Thus, our weakness in confronting powerful ruling classes is our fatal flaw that will end in our extinction due to the ruling classes' destruction of our habitat.

• A third of plants and animals risk mass extinction by Tim Radford from Climate News Network.

• Oil and Gas Firms Reward Politicians When They Vote Against the Environment, Finds New Study by Dana Drugmand from Desmog. 

• How much would planting 1 trillion trees slow global warming? from Skeptical Science.

• New Deal for Nature: Paying the Emperor to Fence the Wind by Stephen Corry from CounterPunch.

• Why "They" Will Not Fix Anything by Guy McPerson (via YouTube).

• Bolivia: Anatomy of a CIA Coup by Hugo Turner from Internationalist 360°. (Note: What struck me about this essay is that the same methods have been used here in the USA with modifications in order to preserve the fiction of "democracy". But after Sanders is neutralized(def.#1) one way or another by the capitalist ruling class, I predict that even this well-worn fiction will be ultimately shattered and ordinary people of the USA will find themselves much like citizens of poorer countries. Then things could get really hot!)

• Padding Big Oil’s Profits from Taxpayers for Common Sense. (You will need PDF software to download this.)

• CIA & BND spy scandal shakes Switzerland neutrality (Video) by Alex Christoforou from The Duran. 

• Solidarity, motivation and struggle: The battle against coronavirus by Elif İlhamoğlu from United World (based in Turkey).

• Lecture: "A war of fake news, media misinformation, and propaganda on Syria" featuring truth-teller Eva Bartlett (via YouTube). 

Posts that I especially recommend today: Monday, February 24, 2020

• ‘Only you know if we did it’: Scientists write dire letter to the future about climate change by Joe Romm from ThinkProgress.

• Tracing Fossil Fuel Companies’ Contribution to Climate Change and Ocean Acidification from Union of Concerned Scientists.

• CIA Says Russia Is Boosting Bernie As Predicted! from The Jimmy Dore Show via YouTube. (Dore criticizes candidate Sanders for validating Russiagate.)

•  Sanders Has Become the Curse and the Hope of the Democratic Party by Juan Cruz Ferre from Left Voice. (Excellent analysis of various outcomes of Sen. Bernie Sanders in the forthcoming elections.)

• US ‘looking very carefully’ at silencing socialist news network Telesur by Steve Sweeney from Morning Star (Britain). (Another expected attempt at censorship by US government officials.)

Posts that I especially recommend today: Sunday, February 23, 2020

• Greenwashing. Is it still a thing? featuring Dave Borlace (British) from a YouTube channel Just Have a Think. 

• Climate Ought to Change Politics by Stephen Rainey from Practical Ethics (a University of Oxford weblog).

• How Bernie Sanders Will Destroy the Deep State if He Becomes President by Eric Zuesse from Dissident Voice.

I am posting this article to illustrate a social democrat's take on the current election process between two US capitalist parties. I believe Zuesse has entered the realm of psychosis in a desperate attempt to hold onto his social democratic beliefs. He like Joe Lauria defends Sanders's surrender to the propaganda of the Neo-fascist Deep State. They both fall short of what is needed to salvage some human dignity from the ravages that capitalist ruling classes have imposed on this planet. They are aware that these Empire ruling classes have perpetrated the most heinous lies and infiltrated all institutions (including labor unions) of our society to crush any resistance that appears. But they, too, have been so indoctrinated in individualism of capitalist culture that they cannot imagine other types of heroes.

The nation and the whole world needs heroes who have the guts to risk all, which includes their own lives, to save humans from an ignominious defeat at the hands of capitalist ruling classes before nature ends most all life on Earth. Social democratic individuals, and their individualistic credo, cannot believe that we humans are in a final struggle to go down with some dignity before the natural forces of our universe ends the unique experiment of life on planet Earth. They will ultimately save themselves and desert (def.#3) most species (including humans) to save themselves from any discomfort. We humans must, and will eventually have, other heroes to save us from ignominious defeat.

I think Defend Democracy Now in this comment in an introduction to a re-post of a Rolling Stone's article is absolutely correct: "Sanders makes his biggest mistake yet. He attacks Putin to appease US military-industrial complex (and Israel). He risks having Corbyn’s fate". Corbyn, a British candidate, was disappeared easily by British media corporations who used similar attacks against him, and Sanders responded similarly as Corbyn did.

• Intelligence Sources: All Candidates Are Russian Agents But Pete Buttigieg by Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog. (Note: A satire of the current political scene in the USA.)

Posts that I especially recommend today: Saturday, February 22, 2020

Because of my concern for your mental health in contemplating the imminent disappearance of our human species (and most others), I am beginning today's posts with humor and satire, followed by outstanding posts regarding the climate crisis and other subjects.)

• Subcomandante Bloomberg by America's premier satirist CJ Hopkins from his website Consent Factory, Inc.

• Mike Bloomberg Is A Russian Asset by Bernhard (Germany) from his weblog Moon of Alabama. (Note: This is a spoof on media corporations and their Russiagate type coverage.)

• West Antarctic Ice Sheet Melt Expected to Greatly Accelerate as Southern Ocean Warms by climate scientist Paul Beckwith from his weblog. 

• Public health scientists in the crosshairs by Lisa Wandschneider and others from Science.

• Exposé Shows Rise of Heartland Institute’s Climate Denial Efforts Overseas, Using Dark Money and a YouTuber by Sharon Kelly from Desmog.

• Making the 2020 elections a climate-emergency story from Covering Climate Now.

• Jeff Bezos’s $10 Billion Climate Pledge Is Actually Tiny by David Wallace-Wells from New York Magazine. 

The most optimistic assessment I know of suggests that decarbonizing the planet’s energy systems would cost, up front, $73 trillion dollars ....

• Edge of Extinction: Arctic Permafrost Thaw by Guy McPherson from Edge of Exinction (via YouTube).

• The Assange Hearing: A Reticent Request by Craig Murray (British) from his weblog.

• Assange’s Persecution Has Exposed Media Depravity The World Over by Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog.

Power is the ability to control what happens. Absolute power is controlling what people think about what happens. Humans are story-oriented creatures, so if you can control the stories that the humans are telling each other about what’s going on, you can control those humans.

• Las Vegas debate reveals deepening Democratic Party crisis by Patrick Martin from World Socialist Web Site.

• Apparent US Intel Meddling in US Election With ‘Report’ Russia is Aiding Sanders by Joe Lauria from Consortium News. 

• The Coronavirus’ effect on world politics and economy from United World (based in Turkey).

• No Weapon Left Behind: The American Hybrid War on China by Pepe Escobar from Strategic Culture Foundation. 

• As Usual, Western Media Grossly Distort Syria’s Conflict, an editorial from Strategic Culture Foundation. 

• Revealed: The British government’s covert propaganda campaign in Syria by Ian Cobain and Alice Ross from Middle East Eye. 

Posts that I especially recommend today: Thursday, February 20, 2020

• Methane emissions from fossil fuels ‘severely underestimated’ by Robert McSweeney from Carbon Brief.

• Climate Disinformation from Union of Concerned Scientists.

• Record Antarctic temperatures fuel sea level worry by Alex Kirby from Climate News Network.

• Just a Tiny Fraction of America’s Plastic Can Actually Be Recycled, Report Finds from Yale Environment 360.

• Report Attacks Industry Campaign to Fix Natural Gas’s Climate PR Problem by Dana Drugmand from Desmog.

• Is Iran ill-advised to finance its regional allies while under sanctions? by Elijah J. Magnier from his weblog. My commentary follows:

One likely wouldn't be able to understand the Middle East conflicts without this journalist. And one wouldn't likely understand this article without having following events closely in the Middle East for over 30 years. Capitalists of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire have viewed this region, which is rich in fossil fuels, as a strategic factor in their obsessive desire to rule the world. 

Ordinary Americans, coping with rising inflation, particularly health-related costs (see the next posted article), and tenuous employment do not have the time to understand even the details of this long history. They are focused on surviving. In this vacuum of understanding, Americans, and others throughout the Empire, have also been brainwashed on a massive scale by media corporations, Hollywood films, and schools to believe that their countries were fighting terrorism in the Middle East.

Americans have been the target of the transnational capitalist Empire as much as nations in the Middle East. Although they have been manipulated by home grown terrorism perpetrated by agents of the Empire, Americans and other ordinary people in the nations of the Empire have not suffered terrorism on a much larger scale--terrorist Jihadi armies. These were organized by agents of Empire and their allies,  and suffered by nations in the Middle East who have opposed the Empire. And, Americans don't understand the devastating effects of economic sanctions on the lives of ordinary people in the Middle East.

However, for those Americans, who have had the time and followed closely the events in the Middle East from more independent sources for the past many decades, this article is priceless toward their understanding of the current scene today in that unfortunate region.

• Sanders’ surge in the polls triggers new provocations by media, Democratic establishment by Barry Grey from World Socialist Web Site. 

There are growing concerns within the party apparatus and much of the corporate elite that wins for Sanders in Nevada and South Carolina could set him up for victories on Super Tuesday that would make his nomination unstoppable. The response of the corporate media and the party establishment has been twofold: to promote the candidacy of Bloomberg and launch new political provocations aimed at derailing the Sanders campaign.

• China’s Massive Coronavirus Study Covering 44,000 Cases Reveals the True Nature of the Virus by Drago Bosnic from FRN (Fort Russ News).

• Syria - Turkey's Bluff Is Called - Media Opposition Sources Run By British Intelligence by Bernhard from his weblog Moon of Alabama.