Playing Nice?

Click here to access article by Andrew McLemore from the Fort Worth Weekly [Texas].

The headline refers to FBI's aggressive questioning of environmental activists to make sure they were "playing nice". 

The FBI has labeled ecoterrorism as the top domestic terror threat since at least 2005. That puts “highly destructive ecoterrorists” above “hate-filled white supremacists,” “violence-prone anti-government extremists,” and “radical separatist groups” — descriptions from a 2009 FBI press release on the agency’s website.

The political operatives of US capitalists are indoctrinating their enforcers to believe that environmentalists are mostly "terrorists"--today's version of the old bogyman, "commies". Clearly, as many people realize that there are severe threats to the environment by the increasing use of fossil fuels and other hazardous practices, they are becoming activists who protest against these activities. However, since capitalism cannot survive without growth from the use of relatively cheap fossil fuels, such activists are a real threat to the system. Hence, the aggressive use of FBI agents to intimidate protestors.

Study Links Massive Oyster Die-offs in Northwest to Ocean Acidification

Click here to access article from Center for Biological Diversity.

Each day the oceans absorb 22 million tons of carbon dioxide pollution from cars and industry, setting off an unprecedented chemical reaction that, since the Industrial Revolution, has made the world’s oceans 30 percent more acidic.

This is just the latest and one more piece of evidence that humans are creating positive feedback loops that likely will accelerate global warming in the decades ahead leading to more extreme weather events. (See also this and this.) 

The ocean is the major carbon sink and there is a lot of evidence that it is unable to absorb as much carbon from the atmosphere as in earlier decades; we continue to burn more fossil fuels which results in more acidic oceans and further lessens its ability as a carbon sink which leaves more carbon in our atmosphere which promotes more global warming causing more extreme weather events and rising oceans, and all sorts of disasters that I don't even want to think about.

If we fail to replace the system of capitalism and its growth imperative with a sustainable system, we humans will surely perish from the Earth along with many other species.

System of Death: Uprooting the Iraqi State

Click here to access article by Serene Assir from Al Akhbar. 

The article shows how the Empire intentionally went about destroying the Iraqi nation. It seems to me that this is a human rights and war crime of the highest order. 

...men and women with qualifications including doctors, teachers, scientists, journalists, university professors, artists, and engineers were among the first victims of a system that seems to have been created in order to destroy Iraq’s institutions. They were the people with the qualifications and capacity to help rebuild a post-war country. Without them, no nation would survive.

Why would anyone commit such crimes? Surely, the control of oil wouldn't justify this level of violence. Given that Zionist inspired neoconservatives were hugely involved in the war against Iraq, the most plausible explanation is that these acts were performed to eliminate any future threat to the state of Israel.

Debts that can’t be paid, won’t be

Click here to access article by Michael Hudson from his blog. 

This liberal academic, without ever mentioning the system that created it, captures the current major contradiction in today's capitalist world : vast armies of people, employed and unemployed, in impossible debt bondage to the capitalist class. It appears that he is unable to imagine any other kind of economy, much less on what needs to be done to change to another economy. On the other hand, he may just fear the wrath of the One Percent and repercussions to his career if he strayed too far from acceptable discourse. He hints at this with these statements:

...as economies have been financialized, creditors have gained political power – and also the power to disable realistic academic discussion of the debt problem. What they fear most of all are thoughts of how to avoid today’s arrangements that have given them a free lunch at the rest of the economy’s expense.

This class, through its successful oppression of working people, has been able to thwart all efforts by workers to increase their share of the wealth which they create through mental and physical labor. In order to keep their capitalist economies going, the One Percent's ruling classes have increasingly provided credit to working people to buy the things they produce. Another major contributing factor are privately owned central banks who are authorized to issue a nation's money as debt owed by governments and, it turn, their taxpayers, mostly working people. The end result is what we have now: a world of debtors and a tiny world of creditors who demand that debts be paid. 

We are just beginning to see how the directors of this dysfunctional system are coping with diminishing resources, particularly energy sources, with which to feed their addiction to growth: reckless mining and drilling activities that pollute the environment and wars for resources in order to keep feeding their addiction to power and profits. We are also witnessing how these ruling classes are dealing with global warming--they're not! They can't, given the existing system.

Global Collapse: MIT researchers predict the end of the world as we know it

Click here to access article by Nikola Solic, Reuters via RT. 

After reading this rather brief article on MIT's report, one ought to notice a glaring omission: there is no mention of the system that is driving most of the world's economy into "global collapse". Even the word "capitalism" is avoided in polite company in the US (they much prefer "market economy"), but one must never connect this economic system with disaster in a finite world even though no one disputes the fact that capitalism requires growth to exist.

What's goin' on at the Turkish-Syrian border?

Click here to access article by Pepe Escobar from Asia Times Online. 

He uses three sources for his description of Turkish border activity in support of the Free Syrian Army: two videos and a report produced by the Saban Center at Brookings Institute, a major think tank for political operatives of the One Percent.

I found the first video to be of rather poor quality and confusing, but the 2nd one from RT was much better and clarified what he described in the article.

The third source is a Saban Center document describing the policy alternatives of the US government in relation to Syria. I read it, and it's all about regime change. Mearsheimer and Walt described the Saban Center in their book entitled The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy as follows:

It is hard to imagine that a research institute funded by Saban and directed by Indyk is going to be anything but pro-Israel. To be sure, the Saban Centre occasionally hosts Arab scholars and exhibits some diversity of opinion. Saban Center fellows – like Indyk himself – often endorse the idea of a two-state settlement between Israel and the Palestinians. But Saban Center publications never question US support for Israel and rarely, if ever, offer significant criticism of key Israeli policies. Moreover, individuals who stray from the Center’s line do not remain for long, as former NSC official Flynt Leverett’s brief tenure there illustrates.

This is another illustration of the powerful influence Zionist figures ("Israeli firsters") have over US foreign policy.

The “NGOs” that spooked Egypt

Click here to access article by Steve Weissman and Frank Browning from Salon. 

After learning of the Egyptian government's allegations of US sponsored NGOs meddling in their political affairs, I was very curious to learn more. I knew that US political operatives were extremely concerned about the Egyptian popular uprising a year ago as hinted at in several reports I reviewed (see this and this). 

When the uprising broke, Frank Wisner Jr. was immediately dispatched to Egypt to get the situation under US control. Wisner Jr. is the son of the number two CIA man in the early days of the CIA, Frank Wisner Sr., and I have little doubt that he, Wisner Jr., is a major political operative in today's inner circle of political operatives--the people who really run things for the ruling One Percent, often referred to as the National Security State.

This article really doesn't shed much light on what the NGOs in Egypt were up to, but the authors do provide a very good historical outline of the use of false front NGOs in the past to further Empire objectives and were likely used in the same manner last year in Egypt. For more historical information on this subject of covert NGO and other CIA activities, I highly recommend that you read The Mighty Wurlitzer by H. Wilford, and The Fish is Red by Hinckle and Turner. 

Although Wilford provides a rather good historical review of many nefarious activities of the CIA, he erroneously implies that all such activities ceased in the 1970s following investigations by the Church and Pike Congressional committees which revealed widespread use of illegal covert operations in both foreign countries and within US society: media, academia, foundations, government agencies, non-profit organizations, spying on citizens, etc.

Our Men in Iran?

Click here to access article by Seymour M. Hersh from The New Yorker. 

This journalist supplies evidence that the US government has been training and supplying a group operating in Iran which its own State Department lists as a terrorist group. This appears to be an update of an article he wrote in 2008 when President G. Bush was in office regarding the same subject. 

Once again we see that a change in presidents doesn't make the slightest difference in changes to policies. That is simply because there exists a more or less permanent secret government within the US, often referred to as the National Security State that really runs the government. Presidents, if not completely aligned with the NSS such as both Bush presidents (some might well argue that Bush Jr really didn't function in an active executive capacity being too stupid to be taken seriously by the inner power circle), have been relegated to the role of public relations officers. (Read The Secret Team by retired Col. L. Fletcher Prouty,) President Kennedy was the last truly independent executive. He greatly feared this powerful inner circle--and you know what happened to him. (Read JFK and the Unspeakable by James Douglass for the details.)

Obviously, terrorism is bad only when it is directed against the Empire. Maybe the political operatives of the Empire are only following in the tradition of Franklin Roosevelt who once said, "They may be sons of bitches, but they are our sons of bitches".

The M.E.K.’s ties with Western intelligence deepened after the fall of the Iraqi regime in 2003, and JSOC began operating inside Iran in an effort to substantiate the Bush Administration’s fears that Iran was building the bomb at one or more secret underground locations. Funds were covertly passed to a number of dissident organizations, for intelligence collection and, ultimately, for anti-regime terrorist activities. Directly, or indirectly, the M.E.K. ended up with resources like arms and intelligence. Some American-supported covert operations continue in Iran today, according to past and present intelligence officials and military consultants.

Voting is still the least of our struggles

Click here to access article by Michael McGehee from his blog, Truth Addict. 

I would never discourage anyone from voting, but people need to be aware that it is the least effective means of political influence that ordinary citizens can exert. And, the ruling One Percent wants to keep it that way. They want to keep you thinking that by voting you have performed some really significant democratic act. McGehee explains why this is deluded thinking, and offers some brief remarks on what real, effective democratic action would look like.

As each election comes many of us foolishly believe that this time voting will matter. But it's a lot like a sign I saw in a bar: "Free Beer Tomorrow."

NYT Op-Ed Gets Central Africa Right

Click here to access article by Michael McGehee from his blog, Truth Addict. 

This blogger finds a rare gem hidden in the NY Times, the famous "newspaper of record" for the
Empire. 

The thing about the New York Times is that it is much like a broken clock: it can get it right at least twice a day. Though with the volume the "paper of record" puts out everyday it would be an interesting experiment to see which is more accurate. When it comes to challenging power, I would bet on the broken clock.

The dirty picture of neoliberalism: India’s New Economic Policy

Click here to access article by Raju J. Das from Links. [Raju J. Das is associate professor at the departments of geography and development studies, York University, Toronto, Canada. Das is on the editorial board of Science & Society and the editorial advisory board of Dialectical Anthropology.] 

The author describes how neoliberalism under the New Economic Policy (NEP) is currently being applied in India and its devastating social effects. 

The NEP is not merely economic. This is because it must ensure political and ideological conditions for capital accumulation. The political refers to state repression and judicial coercion.... The ideological refers to the promotion of market fetishism in all spheres of everyday life, including in our consciousness. Associated with market fetishism is the idea of getting rich quickly by any means and of the market as the dominant method of helping the poor....

And when these methods prove to be insufficient, the ruling capitalist class, as usual, takes their gloves off to reveal the hidden fist of fascist repression and violence.

The capitalist class has also directly engaged in struggle from above by undermining the power of workers striking against capital. Capital has done this by hiring goons to hurt striking workers, resorting to the bribing of union leaders and locking employees out. In many recent years, person days lost to lockouts are five times the number lost due to strikes. The courts also have ruled against the democratic right to strike.

An Arab War-Crimes Court for Syria?

Click here to access article by Eugene Schulman from NYTimes eXaminer. 

US is an equal opportunity employer--women can be war criminals, too.

Let us be honest, it was the U.S. and its NATO allies that instigated this revolution in Syria, just as they did in Libya. For all the authoritarianism of his regime, Assad is also defending his country from foreign backed insurrection.

Creating community: Lessons from Occupy

Click here to access article by Shepherd Bliss from Transition Voice. 

This piece provides a very candid look at some of the initial strains within the Occupy movement. This is not at all surprising to me given the many years of disinformation and capitalist indoctrination which has produced generations of people with a false consciousness based on materialist values and extreme individualism. The first stage in any type of recovery is to recognize the problem, and they are doing this and more: they are making a concerted effort to overcome these problems.

Clearly, as one would expect, there are real racial, age, gender, and class related differences among activists that can cause problems and conflicts. And, we can expect that the political operatives of the One Percent, in addition to censoring the movement in mainstream media, will do everything they can to exploit these differences.

Occupy has just begun. Whether it’s able to deal effectively with the substantial external threats and internal obstacles is yet to be determined. It will depend partly on the capacity for self-reflection and compassionate listening, as well as the success of channeling anger and frustration into powerful, constructive action.

Triggering permafrost meltdown is closer than we think

Click here to access article from Climate Code Red. 

• Current levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide are probably sufficient to trigger large-scale permafrost carbon feedbacks and global warming that human effort would be unable to contain.
• The time to slash emissions was a long time ago but now is still much, much better than later, which may, as new studies suggests, simply become too late.

How the US uses sexual humiliation as a political tool to control the masses

Click here to access article by  Naomi Wolf from OpEd News. (My commentary updated as of 4-10-12 at 5:30 pm Seattle time.)

As the author puts it, the horror show of a growing police state continues in Washington.

In a five-four ruling this week, the supreme court decided that anyone can be strip-searched upon arrest for any offense, however minor, at any time. This horror show ruling joins two recent horror show laws: the NDAA, which lets anyone be arrested forever at any time, and HR 347, the "trespass bill," which gives you a 10-year sentence for protesting anywhere near someone with secret service protection.

The One Percent's favorite puppet regime, the Obama administration, and their stacked court system, continue their relentless attack on any remaining civil liberties that get in their way of total domination. One might considered this strategy as a domestic version of the military's "full spectrum dominance" concept. 

They are also aggressively going after any government employee who has the audacity to relay information to the public about what crimes and shady practices they have witnessed while on government duty.

Bill Van Auken from World Socialist Web Site writes in his article entitled "Obama Justice Department indicts ex-CIA agent for exposing torture":

In all of these cases, the World War I-era Espionage Act is being used to punish not spying on behalf of a foreign government, but exposing the US government's own crimes to the American people. The utter lawlessness of US foreign policy goes hand-in-hand with the collapse of democracy at home.

These cases make clear that it is the American working people whom the government views as its most dangerous enemy. It is determined to keep them in the dark as it systematically erects the framework for a police-state dictatorship.

Also, I read this morning about another government employee who is currently under attack for his book about his observations in Iraq while serving there as a Foreign Service Officer. He writes in his article entitled "Left Behind" (you will need to scroll down to the article):

I find myself a member of a new club I don’t even remember applying for: The Whistleblowers. I’ve now met with several of the whistleblowers I’ve written about with admiration: Tom Drake, Mo Davis, John Kiriakou, and Robert MacLean, among others.

Sibel Edmonds lost her government career as an FBI translator in Turkey, but is fighting back with her website and recently published book entitled Classified Woman. The blurb for the book states:

In this startling new memoir, Sibel Edmonds—the most classified woman in U.S. history—takes us on a surreal journey that begins with the secretive FBI and down the dark halls of a feckless Congress to a stonewalling judiciary and finally, to the national security whistleblowers movement she spearheaded. Having lived under Middle East dictatorships, Edmonds knows firsthand what can happen when government is allowed to operate in secret. Hers is a sobering perspective that combines painful experience with a rallying cry for the public’s right to know and to hold the lawbreakers accountable. With U.S. citizens increasingly stripped of their rights in a calibrated media blackout, Edmonds’ story is a wake-up call for all Americans who, willingly or unwillingly, traded liberty for illusive security in the wake of 9/11.

You may well wonder: why aren't the people in the US revolting, or at least, protesting. Well, some are, but far too many are not. You see, it isn't real to them. Most of them still limit their access to information from mainstream media which is full of trivia, celebrities, feel-good stores, misinformation, outright deceptions, and sensationalized crime reports. Important news coverage that serves the 99 Percent is simply omitted. I am approaching 76 years of age, and I have never seen such carefully managed mainstream news coverage designed solely to serve the interests of the governing One Percent: keep the 99% ignorant, distracted, misinformed, and afraid of each other.

Defend Günter Grass!

Click here to access article by Ulrich Rippert from World Socialist Web Site.

In today's Orwellian world to speak the truth is no longer permissible. Nobel literature prizewinner Günter Grass is the latest to discover this. He is receiving widespread criticism for stating two obvious, basic truths about Israel and its current regime.

• Israel has developed numerous nuclear weapons and the capability of using them.
• The current Israeli government has been advocating and preparing an attack on Iran.  

There can be no doubt that the war preparations against Iran by the Israeli government are in an advanced stage. In late January, the New York Times ran a lengthy article entitled, “Will Israel attack Iran?” The article confirms that Israeli preparations for military strikes against Iran are proceeding with great speed and intensity. The author—Ronen Bergman, a political analyst with the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth—concluded: “Having spoken with several senior Israeli leaders and the heads of military and intelligence agencies, I am of the opinion that Israel will strike against Iran in 2012.”

To Undo the Folded Lie: Resisting Palliatives in an Age of Oligarchic Excess and Anthropocene Age Devastation

Click here to access article by Phil Rockstroh from Dissident Voice.

This highly skilled wordsmith uses some unusual metaphors and concepts which had me going to Answer.com and re-reading parts until I fully understood their profound messages. It was worth it. The author has some words of advice for those of us that are totally aware of living in the midst of societal disintegration caused by the death throes of capitalism--it is a time of peril and promise. He concludes the essay with this positive advice:

...construct within yourself an authentic inner structure, as outwardly you do your part to help imagine and to create new political and cultural models. In short, act as if the inevitable collapse has already occurred.

The Age of Limits: Conversations on the Collapse of The Global Industrial Model

This is a reproduction of a brief article introducing a conference in May on this subject. I am reproducing it because it has no permalink.

The original “Limits to Growth Report” (1972 Meadows et al) did not include a time line for the global growth scenarios it examined. With the addition of statistical data for the following 40 years it is now possible “to fit to the curve” and make rough predictions based on observed resource production and consumption patterns, overlaid upon continued population growth. 

For 50 years serious thinkers have questioned the assumptions of our global industrial culture and its prospects over the longer term. In recent decades they have succeeded in bringing at least some of the core science into popular discussion, notably petroleum depletion and especially climate change. Through these years proposals have been made outlining the governmental policies that would be necessary to begin “solving” these problems. Sadly, we can now see through the course of events, or rather non-events, that the window of opportunity is closing, if not already closed. We are now confronted not by a problem, but by a predicament; one which has no solution, but only adaptations and mitigation's.
 

Does the U.S. Really Have More Oil than Saudi Arabia?

Click here to access article by Robert Rapier from The Oil Drum.

The issue that the author raises in this article is the semantic problem with the term "shale oil". He describes several types of shale oil that require very different amounts of water and energy to process, and insists that they should be referred to by different names. Regardless of the semantic issue, what is really important is that pronouncements about US having more oil than Saudi Arabia are grossly misleading.

How the Young Are Indoctrinated to Obey

Click here to access article by Noam Chomsky from AlterNet. 

Chomsky reviews the history of publicly funded education to illustrate how support, or lack of, is influenced by the needs of the ruling class of the One Percent. His review reinforces my belief that the recent attacks on state support of education, along with other neoconservative policies, is the One Percent's revenge on the 99 Percent for their opposition to the Vietnam War and the fact that widespread protests were based in college campuses.

Forty years ago there was deep concern that the population was breaking free of apathy and obedience. Since then, many measures have been taken to restore discipline.

Recovered Economic History: “Everyone but an idiot knows that the lower classes must be kept poor, or they will never be industrious”

Click here to access article by Yasha Levine from The Exiled.

The author found some juicy quotes by the founding fathers of capitalism in a book entitled The Invention of Capitalism by an economic historian named Michael Perelmen. Nowadays, such rude remarks are carefully screened by public relations officers who manage the consent of the people.

Post-democracy: Press TV banned in Germany

Click here to access article from Voltaire Network.

The "democratic" republics of the Empire seem to have no difficulty in imposing Orwellian censorship to keep their subjects from being influenced with controversial news reporting not approved by the Ministry of Truth. 

Crises of Capitalism [11:11m video]

Video by David Harvey from RSA via You Tube. (I normally post current material, but his video from 2010 was just too good to pass over.

 

Pentagon Produces Satellite Photos of 1994 Rwanda Genocide

Click here to access article by Keith Harmon Snow from his website. (modified on 4-8-2012)

Because there are so few independent journalists who cover African affairs, the events in this area provide great potential to be mis-reported and manipulated by Empire interests. This journalist has done so much to uncover the real facts behind the misinformation supplied by the Empire's mainstream media. 

The only problem I have with his writings is that he tries to accomplish too much in any one article. Thus, he tends to go into enormous detail that gets in the way of key insights and themes. To get his information across to internet users, it would be far better if he wrote separate articles on various subtopics and with summary reports that included links to them. 

What I got from this article is that Western mainstream media has grossly distorted actual events in Rwanda, especially the events surrounding the Rwanda massacre in 1994. Snow's reporting shows that in reality it was a civil war with atrocities on both sides. But, given their favorite principle, "never let a crisis go to waste", political operatives of the Empire stepped into the fray--if they didn't actually instigate it--and backed a US trained military leader to serve their interests.

Contrary to popular propaganda, the sound bite claiming that the RPF [Rwandan Patriotic Front headed by Kagame, formerly the Rwandan Patriotic Army] 'stopped the genocide against Tutsis' in Rwanda is a gross mischaracterization of the nature of genocide versus civil war in Rwanda. It is also a sound bite that deflects attention from the RPF role in mass atrocities in Rwanda and Congo. The Kagame regime is able to get away with anything it wants--arrest and torture opponents, persecute refugees everywhere, plunder minerals from Congo --because President Paul Kagame has provided the Pentagon its biggest, centralized base for the Pentagon's U.S. Africa Command, AFRICOM.  

Jobs Act 2012 a Recipe for Fraud

Click here to access article and script from The Real News.

Paul Jay of The Real News interviews Professor Bill Black, who is clearly no anti-capitalist, as he explains the JOBS Act which is really about weakening existing regulations and providing more opportunities for the One Percent to engage in more fraudulent business practices that have already created so much havoc with the economy.

This bill was diabolically packaged  in an acronym for "Jumpstart Our Business Startups" Act in order to fool ordinary Americans into believing that their government and Obama really are concerned about promoting jobs. And, of course, the One Percent's mainstream media coverage of the bill is compliantly playing along with this ruse by supplying superficial and mostly postive reports of the passage of the bill and Obama's signing. Most TV coverage I've seen just portrays Obama's celebratory remarks as he signs the bill. (See this from CNN.) A survey of other media outlets reveals mostly very positive reports with occasionally very brief mention of some some concerns about the bill. See this, this, and this.

Mineral resources are behind U.S. interest in Africa

Click here to access article by Nile Bowie from End the Lie. 

This outstanding article prompted by recent events in Africa, especially in the resource rich central Africa, frames the events within a context of rivalry between China and the Empire for control of, and access to, the valuable resources found in this area. The author provides solid references to support his analysis. 

No doubt the recent notorious film entitled "Kony 2012" was a carefully crafted part of this overall Empire strategy to gain public support for the official introduction of military forces into central Africa.

#Occupied: Reports From the Front Lines

Click here to access article by Jennifer Sacks and SIUKittyPie from The Occupied Wall Street Journal. 

This provides a current survey of Occupy movement activities that the One Percent's mainstream media has stopped covering. Contained in the article are numerous links for you to learn more about specific actions of activists and suppression activities of the One Percent's enforcers. For example:

#The National Lawyers Guild, along with several other groups, is releasing documents that they say show that the Department of Homeland Security had a strong hand in the coordinated crackdown on Occupy groups nationwide.

Media Black-Out of King Assassination Anniversary War Promotion Media's Future Prosecution

Click here to access article by Jay Janson from OpEd News. 

With time running out, I was only able to scan this; however it appears to offer a lot of information regarding his assassination on April 4, 1968 by agents working for the government in order to shut him up. An excellent book on this subject is An Act of State by William Pepper. 

Remember: the ruling class always writes our history to reflect their interests. We must constantly be on guard to salvage our history for future generations.

Greece: Pensioner commits suicide on Athens Syntagma Square, the 2nd suicide within 14 hours

Click here to access article from Eagainst. 

Capitalism claims another desperate victim in Greece, but most Greeks are able and willing to fight back. 

...demonstrations are called all over the country and the slogan “We won’t let Capitalism kill us” is being raised everywhere.

Welcome to the New Third World of Energy, the U.S.

Click here to access article by Michael Klare at TomDispatch. (You may wish to scroll down to the article and skip the introduction.) 

The author warns us that US oil industry has big plans to exploit shale oil and gas within the US and will use their considerable influence and money to defeat any opposition. Given that the capitalist imperative for growth requires ever increasing amounts of energy and the ruling class addiction to the system which provides them with so much power and profit, it certainly looks like we are in for a herculean battle that will severely test the mettle of North American activists who insist that we maintain a sustainable environment and healthy ecosystem. It seems to me that this is shaping up to be an epic war for our future that could have wide ranging consequences: from revolutionary advances to nightmarish dystopias.

My only problem with his article is that he seems to suggest that Obama could be our ally in this war with statements like this:

To achieve these objectives, the API, which claims to represent more than 490 oil and natural gas companies, has launched a multimillion-dollar campaign to sway the 2012 elections, dubbed “Vote 4 Energy.” While describing itself as nonpartisan, the API-financed campaign seeks to discredit and marginalize any candidate, including President Obama, who opposes even the mildest version of its drill-anywhere agenda.

In his article he has made reference to an excellent New York Times article, but seems to overlook their factual statement which suggests otherwise:

More recently, with gasoline prices rising and another election looming, Mr. Obama has struck a different chord. He has opened new federal lands and waters to drilling, trumpeted increases in oil and gas production and de-emphasized the challenges of climate change. On Thursday, he said he supported expedited construction of the southern portion of the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada.

His apparent opposition to the whole Keystone pipeline will rapidly evaporate after the elections. Then, of course, there are all the other promises he made during the 2008 campaign and ignored after being elected. And, because he has served the ruling class of the One Percent so well during his first term, they will undoubtedly make sure he wins a second term.

Under Obama, the assault on the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has continued with the firing of staff who objected to the favorable treatment of corporations and who reported violations of agency policies. In the following 2:23m video from Real News Network about a protest in front of the EPA, we see evidence of the war that is forming between environmentalists and the new push from Big Oil to fully exploit shale oil and gas within the US.

The Entrepreneur’s Story

Click here to access article by Daniel Borgström from Dissident Voice. 

We all need some humor in our lives, and today this piece gave me quite a chuckle. 

'Celebration Capitalism' and the Real Cost of the Olympics

Click here to access article by Jules Boykoff from Common Dreams.

Regarding the upcoming London Olympics the author illustrates the principle that a ruling class and the system from which it derives its power puts its stamp on every significant institution in that society. He also shows how the One Percent not only benefits from their disasters, but also from their celebrations.

...while disaster capitalism eviscerates the state, celebration capitalism manipulates state actors as partners, pushing economics rooted in so-called public-private partnerships. All too often these public-private partnerships are lopsided: the public pays and the private profits. In a bait and switch that's swaddled in bonhomie, the public takes the risks and private groups scoop up the rewards. 

Ten Myths About Capitalism

Click here to access article by Lubov Lulko from Global Research. 

Overall (I have some problem with the phrasing of #10) I think this is a very good list of the key myths in which citizens are indoctrinated so that they will unquestioningly function to serve the needs of the One Percent ruling class (capitalist class). It is one of the purposes of my blog to run articles that illustrate how false these beliefs are.

As a ruling class, the One Percent has control over all subsystems in society and thus is able to propagate these myths throughout all institutions. This is a very effective indoctrination arrangement because it means total immersion in these beliefs throughout every facet of the lives of ordinary people. To be sure, the ruling capitalist class could use, and has used (e.g. Nazi Germany and fascist Italy), police state methods to enforce compliant behavior, but indoctrination programs are so much more cost effective. 

With never-ending wars and the recent economic collapse of the economy, such beliefs are increasingly being questioned by ordinary citizens, some even are engaging in protests that are threatening to the One Percenters and their system of capitalism. Hence, we have seen the growth of prisons, deterioration of our civil rights, fear campaigns about Muslim terrorists and immigrants, police state methods used to crush protests, surveillance of our private communications by government agencies in collaboration with corporations, etc.

Hired Guns on Astroturf: How to Buy and Sell School Reform

Click here to access article by Joanne Barkan from Dissent.

This fairly lengthy piece offers a study in how the One Percent's money is corrupting any local control of educational policies. This has in great measure been facilitated by the Supreme Court's 2010 ruling that eliminated corporate contributions to political candidates. It also offers a broader illustration of how capitalist ruling classes function behind the facade of "democratic" practices to serve their class interests while fooling the 99 Percent into thinking that public policies are democratically determined.

Cell Phone Location Tracking Public Records Request

Click here to access article from American Civil Liberties Union.

In August 2011, 35 ACLU affiliates filed over 380 public records requests with state and local law enforcement agencies to ask about their policies, procedures and practices for tracking cell phones.

What we have learned is disturbing. While virtually all of the over 200 police departments that responded to our request said they track cell phones, only a tiny minority reported consistently obtaining a warrant and demonstrating probable cause to do so.

I noticed two facts here. First, nearly a half of all police agencies contacted did not respond to ACLU's inquiry. They obviously and correctly feel that they don't have to respond to public inquiries. They are perfectly aware of who they are working for--the One Percent and not the 99 Percent who, according to official mythology, they are supposedly working for.

Second, I noticed that the article contains evidence to suggest that police and cell phone corporations, which are owned by the One Percent, are working in parallel to create this new surveillance state of affairs.

Cell phone companies have worsened the lack of transparency by law enforcement by hiding how long they store location data. Cell phone companies store customers' location data for a very long time. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Sprint keeps location tracking records for 18-24 months, and AT&T holds onto them "since July 2008," suggesting they are stored indefinitely. Yet none of the major cell phone providers disclose to their customers the length of time they keep their customers' cell tracking data. Mobile carriers owe it to their customers to be more forthright about what they are doing with our data.

Colorado farms planning for dry spell losing auction bids for water to fracking projects

Click here to access article by Bruce Finley from Denver Post. 

The author points to a local problem that is likely to show up in other areas of the US. Securing energy resources will likely compete in other drouth stricken areas with growing food. I think we can expect to see rising prices for food.

Arctic sea ice may have passed crucial tipping point

Click here to access article by Fred Pearce from New Scientist. 

In contrast to the headline, recent research strongly indicates that Arctic ice has passed the tipping point. It appears to me that we will be seeing similar headlines in the decades ahead as the Earth's ecology is increasingly impacted by human use of fossil fuels and other unsustainable practices. However, you will be assured by the One Percent's media that we must continue on this path in order to create more jobs. There is no alternative. (Sarcasm)

Political Imaginaries in Saudi Arabia: Revolutionaries without A Revolution

Click here to access article by Rosie Bsheer from Jadaliyya. 

Here is a report on a subject which is totally suppressed in US mainstream media--anti-regime protests and activities in Saudi Arabia. I was particularly drawn to this statement:

US-trained and armed security forces have been dispatched more thoroughly throughout the country to thwart any potential signs of public gatherings or protests.

Clearly it is to the US security forces that oppressive regimes look to for training to suppress any popular opposition. Likewise, I am sure that US security forces have learned much from Israeli security agencies in their suppression of Palestinians. 

However, in the US the enforcers of the One Percent are curbed to some extent by what is left of Constitutional legal defenses and media reporting. Hence, during the past decades we have witnessed ongoing attacks on these institutions with the result that they offer diminished protection on our ability to oppose the ruling class of the One Percent. It seems clear to me that we must counter this development by organizing our own forms of security and our own media.

John Stoehr: The myth of freedom in the land of the free [Part 1 of 2]

Click here to access article by John Stoehr from Al Jazeera.

The author addresses the current militarization of local police forces to suppress any opposition to the rule of the One Percent. Thus, there is no longer a need for the current ruling class to call in the Army or the National Guard to suppress dissent.

...the harder they [Occupier protestors] pushed, the harder they were pushed back - with violence. Protesters met with police wearing body armour, face shields, helmets and batons; police legally undermined Americans' right to assemble freely with "non-lethal" weaponry like tear gas, rubber bullets and sonic grenades. There was no need for the president to call in the army. An army, as Mayor Bloomberg quipped, was already there. 

John Stoehr: Selling war from 1917 to 2012 [Part 2 of 2]

Click here to access article by John Stoehr from Al Jazeera.

Concluding his two part essay, the author continues with historical illustrations of ruling class management of protest using propaganda--and when that fails--the application of violence against protestors. In addition to militarizing local police forces, the present ruling class has developed elaborate systems of surveillance to track protestors.

The US government has spent about $635bn over the past decade militarising local law enforcement. That...includes "tanks and drones, robot bomb detectors, grenade launchers, Tasers, and most of all, interlinked video surveillance cameras and information databases".

Beneath the Pavement – The Historical Struggle of the Commons

Click here to access article by Robin Banks from Portland (Oregon) Occupier. 

The author writes about the historical struggle over the control of physical space especially since the rise of the capitalist class who are always interested in using space to increase their profits. Nowadays, they want to control public spaces to suppress protest. But, resistance activists are learning and growing, and they are becoming aware of new kinds of "spaces" that could cause the downfall of capitalism.

The threat to the system is two fold. By actively participating in reshaping the commons, those engaged in resistance have opened up space, both in thought and action, that encourages others to do the same, challenging people’s roles as spectators, and helping to develop their capacity to become actors in the public sphere and the social struggle. The more serious threat is the fear of disruption, the break to the monotonous routine that is vital to the functioning of the machine. 

Man whose WMD lies led to 100,000 deaths confesses all

Click here to access article by Jonathan Owen from The Independent (UK).

"Curveball", the Iraqi defector who fabricated claims about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, smiles as he confirms how he made the whole thing up. It was a confidence trick that changed the course of history, with Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi's lies used to justify the Iraq war.

It often takes a decade or more to find the truth about all the lies that have been used by the political operatives of the One Percent to justify their wars and their crimes against humanity. The gullibility of ordinary people to ruling class propaganda is an ongoing problem for any revolutionary movement. I think it is rooted in the long period of childhood dependency that humans require to mature. Added to this fact is the use of the period by ruling classes to indoctrinate children, most effectively in educational institutions, with their beliefs and values, and above all, respect for authority. This prepares ordinary people for an adulthood in which they too often believe what authorities tell them about reality.

“Strong” Links of Manmade Heat, Rainfall Extremes: Study

Click here to access article by Andrew Freedman from Climate Central. 

Following on the heels of the March heat wave, which was one of the most remarkable extreme weather events on record in the U.S., are two new scientific papers that discuss the relationship between extreme weather events and global climate change.

The Massacre of the Afghan 17 and the Obama Cover-Up

Click here to access article by James Petras from Canadian Dimension. 

...Obama [regime] has developed his entire new counter-insurgency strategy centred on the easy entry and bloody exits of US Special Forces targeting over 75 countries. The Special Forces figure prominently in Obama’s military preparations for Syria and Iran, which have been developed at the behest of his Zionist overlords.

In the final analysis, the entire imperial military apparatus of the Obama regime, while formidable on paper, depends on the ‘Special Operations’ formations. As such, they are the centrepiece of the new imperial warfare, developed as a response to the demands for reduced ground forces, budgetary constraints and growing domestic discontent. Their actions are designed to leave no witnesses and no embarrassments. They may be the butchers of children, women and unarmed civilians but they are the White House’s butchers.

Obama with his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, in Hawaii in 1979 during his high school graduation.


Obama, having been essentially raised by his white banker grandmother who enrolled him in an exclusive private school in Hawaii, was socialized in the values and norms of the One Percent--use of any means necessary to serve their interests of power and profit and the system which delivers these. With his black skin and fine rhetorical skills, he has served the One Percent well by confusing ordinary people into thinking that he really did represent "change". But, that is the same old formula used by most ruling classes since they began about 10,000 years ago: deceive your subjects into believing that you are serving their needs.

See also this Australian news video which features interviews with Afghans at the scene of the massacre:

Trayvon Martin and Structural Racism

Paul Jay interviews Glen Ford on this recent tragedy and the continuing racist nature of American society. The One Percent ruling class, like all ruling classes, fosters conflict between ordinary Americans in order to distract attention away from themselves, their destructive policies and actions. Because of so many protests regarding the Martin murder now going on across the US, it appears to me that this "divide and rule" strategy is not going to work very well this time. (Note: in the interview reference is made to "Stand-your-ground law".) 

 

An excellent source for the latest information on this murder, I recommend that you follow an article link in Mother Jones that is being continuously updated.

US persecutes Manning in bid to smash WikiLeaks

Click here to access article by Ash Pemberton from Green Left (Australia). 

The world's 99 Percent are waking up to the fact that the Empire is not only at war with the 99 Percent in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Libya, etc, it is at war with the 99 Percent everywhere in the world. Heroes like Manning, Assange, and all the whistle-blowers who reveal the nefarious secrets of the Empire's war criminals and profiteers are being celebrated all across the globe. We must support our heroes. 

At the same time as US authorities are pushing ahead with their prosecution of Manning, the alleged whistleblower has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Icelandic parliamentarians.

Who Is Corporate Philanthropy for? Arundhati Roy Says It’s Not Who You Think

Click here to access article by Rick Cohen from Nonprofit Quarterly. 

The author offers a brief synopsis of an excellent longer article entitled, "Capitalism: A Ghost Story", by Arundhati Roy in which, while focusing on India, she provides a critique of capitalism and a thorough look at how philanthropic organizations provide another means for capitalists to control societies (with the added benefit of tax exemptions). 

For example, she writes about the “rules of the Gush-Up Gospel" which means “the more you have, the more you can have.”

“As Gush-Up concentrates wealth on to the tip of a shining pin on which our billionaires pirouette, tidal waves of money crash through the institutions of democracy—the courts, Parliament as well as the media, seriously compromising their ability to function in the ways they are meant to. The noisier the carnival around elections, the less sure we are that democracy really exists.”

The Drug War Inside

Click here to access article by Jason Flores-Williams from The Brooklyn Rail. 

This piece offers a personal perspective and a powerful, searing indictment of the so-called War on Drugs. 

American citizens are being beaten down and oppressed every day in every corner of this country because every soul incarcerated means cash money to law enforcement. And more important, the war is a constant reminder that the United States government can jail your body and try to own your soul.

We Are All Luddites: Fighting Post-Modern Enclosure

Click here to access article by David Rosen from CounterPunch. 

The author accomplishes so much in this excellent essay. Among other contributions, he offers a broad historical perspective of the past 500 years which has seen the rise of a new class of people who claim "ownership" rights over technology and its applications. This has produced a dialectic between the social versus the private in societal development which is reflected in the history that has played out in various working class opposition movements over the past 500 years until the present day. He begins this story by telling the true history of the Luddites which he salvaged from the distorted history propagated by capitalist academics.

Those with power stamp a certain definition on historical reality, shaping popular consciousness and the meaning of the very words we use.  Such is the privilege of power.

Five Challengers of the Neoliberal Jackboot

Click here to access article by Vijay Prashad from CounterPunch.

The US Empire is increasingly feeling the presence of the "five challengers" or the BRIC countries who are flexing their economic muscles. Because these countries are ruled by capitalist classes, I doubt that there is anything progressive about this except that they act as a counter-force to the aggressive Empire that is on a rampage across much of the globe.

One thing that was brought to my attention in the article is how the Empire has organized non-UN economic organizations to pursue their neo-liberal policies just like they have used NATO to pursue military operations that the UN would not endorse. The political operatives of the Empire are willing to use the UN when they can control it; but when it poses obstacles for them, they ignore it and use alternative organizations such as NATO and "coalitions of the willing".

General strike marks another step forward for indignados

Click here to access article by Jerome Roos from Reflections on a Revolution. 

The author reports on Spain's general strike that occurred yesterday. He sees positive trends in the development of people's resistance to neoliberal governance through the application of a broad range of tactics. As expected, the ruling elite's media try to frame any property destruction as violence while ignoring the real violence perpetrated by their enforcers and collaborators against the activists. 

Roos anticipates the development of a radically new consciousness among the people:

As each day passes, breaking with the current regime and establishing an alternative are less the ideological desires of revolutionaries and more an issue of necessity for the average person in light of the dire circumstances they face daily. Those who wish to work will have to do it through cooperatives. Those who wish to learn will have to organize their own alternative universities. Those who wish to inform themselves will have to look to the alternative media. And those who wish to have cultural goods will have to share them. This is the politics of the common that we saw in action in our streets today, and which we will see in the alternative institutions of tomorrow.

As inspirational as this article is, it lacks sufficient details of the event. To make up for this lack, I refer you to a report from World Socialist Web Site.

The Rise And Fears Of The New Elite

Click here to access article by Kenneth Rapoza from Forbes.

The floating city of Stratus, populated by social elites on the fictional planet of Ardana in the Star Trek episode "The Cloud Minders". Today's elites are most concerned about political and social unrest impacting their wealth. 









After reading the article, I think it is easy to see how the magic of capitalism makes it so convenient for the One Percent to keep grabbing more wealth without doing anything of social value: they don't cook meals, tend crying children, empty bedpans, work on an assembly line, or even function as bosses. All they need do is hire brokers to advise and invest their wealth. I really didn't get the feeling that they are very worried about the 99 Percent interfering very significantly with their wonderful lifestyle--did you? What is more interesting is how the author sees the growth of a trans-national capitalist elite.

If you are wondering: what on Earth do these people do with their time? Jamie Johnson's fine films, Born Rich and The One Percent will give you some idea.

Occupy May Day: Not Your Usual General Strike

Click here to access article by Jeremy Brecher from Infoshop News.

May Day has been an international labor holiday for more than a century. But for millennia it has been a day for the celebration of nature. This May Day can be an opportunity to draw the two together to represent the common global interest in creating work for all reconstructing the global economy to protect rather than destroy the Earth.

On The Nature Of Self-Defeating Convictions

Click here to access article by Phil Rockstroh from Dissident Voice. 

The author expresses his profound frustration about a friend's descent into right-wing attitudes and views. I share his feelings because there are teabaggers in my own family. Some days, it seems like I'm surrounded by such people. 

Sure, start a dialog with even the most obtuse teabagger sort…attempt to convince him that the views he clutches are self-defeating…try to disabuse him of his calcified bigotry — but don’t be optimistic about the outcome of your efforts. Trouble is depressingly large numbers of people have invested a great amount of time, energy and identity in the maintenance of their reality-defiant attitudes…There is just too much fragile self-esteem, bulwarked by brittle pride, at stake.

Mainstream media self-censorship

Click here to access the transcript to this 4:37m video from Russia Today.



 

Student Photographer's Arrest: Snapshot of Systemic Abuse

Click here to access article by Linn Washington from OpEd News. (More material added on 3-31-2012)

There is widespread evidence of reactionary measures being taken by the enforcers of the One Percent against even the reporting and documenting by journalists or ordinary citizens of police brutality and other illegal activities. 

Police harassing citizens lawfully documenting police activities taking place in public is a "widespread and continuing" problem according to the ACLU.

"The right of citizens to record the police is a critical check and balance," an ACLU analyst noted during a September 2011 speech where he referenced six incidents in five cities of police arresting citizen photographers during just the spring of last year.

Yes, police attacking civilians for lawfully photographing public spaces, police routinely employing unlawful excessive force and prosecutors too frequently turning a blind eye to such police misconduct are all nationwide problems.

Also, see this audio report and transcript of a photojournalist from Santa Cruz, California, who is being charges with several felonies for simply covering a protest event in that city. See this regarding widespread arrests of journalists in New York during recent protests.

Why are Workers Striking Across Spain and Portugal?

Sourced from Real News Network (transcript available there), an interview with Francisco Louca who is a Professor of Economics at Lisbon's Higher Institute of Economics and Management". He provides some excellent insights on how the neo-liberal strategy is currently attacking Europe's social democracy in order to reduce labor costs to the benefit of the One Percent's ruling classes.





Europe's workers are fighting back. Read about the general strike going on today in Spain in this article.

On the origins of green liberalism

Click here to access article by Ted Steinberg from Climate and Capitalism. 

This website has resurrected this article from behind a paywall in Radical History Review of 2010 that allows us to review the activities of the fashionable green environmental movement that served to distract activists from efforts to look at the capitalist system that is currently driving us toward environmental disasters. Because we now see very little coverage of this movement in mainstream media, it appears that it has reached a dead end. In recent years we witnessed attempts to deny climate change, but this, too, seems to have run its course. I wonder what is next.

The countercultural emphasis on individual responsibility mirrored the newly emerging neoliberal agenda with its vision of democracy rooted in an appeal to personal freedom, disingenuous as it may have been. Green liberalism, in other words, was shaped by changes in the larger political culture.

Are We Coming to the End of the Growth Era?

Click here to access article: a review of a Richard Heinberg's new book by this title posted in Canadian Dimension.

This is an excellent review in that it balances the insights offered by Heinberg regarding the hazards that lie ahead if our ruling classes try to continue with growth as usual with his optimistic view that capitalism can adapt to a no growth economy. The best that Heinberg can offer are moral imperatives for people of all classes to organize for a no growth economy. The reviewer, Cy Gonick, is critical of this view.

Afghan War Just Needs a Better Sales Pitch

Click here to access article by Peter Hart from Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting. 

The author's survey of opinion indoctrinators among the One Percent's mainstream media blames Obama for the poor public support of the war in Afghanistan. It appears they are getting desperate. After this longest war, which still continues, in US history, the political operatives of the One Percent refuse to admit that they are pursuing a war that their own citizens reject. Hence, it's all a matter of misunderstanding.

Barack Obama Prepares for War Footing

Click here to access article by Edwin Black from The Huffington Post. 

This article tries to address the significance of Obama's recent signing of the National Defense Resources Preparedness Executive Order. In the past such orders have been issued when war was imminent, but this one specifies that it can be executed in peacetime. This author suggests that it was formulated to deal with a crisis with Iran. Nowadays it seems they don't need an authorization from Congress to start a war. 

The timing of the Order -- with little fanfare -- could not be explained. Opinions among the very first bloggers on the purpose of the unexpected Executive Order run the gamut from the confused to the absurd. None focus on the obvious sudden need for such a pronouncement: oil and its potential for imminent interruption.

Pentagon says it has no records of bin Laden's death; CIA hasn't answered open records request

Click here to access article by Richard Lardner of Associated Press via Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Citing the law [Freedom of Information Act], The Associated Press asked for files about the raid in more than 20 separate requests, mostly submitted the day after bin Laden's death. The Pentagon told the AP this month it could not locate any photographs or video taken during the raid or showing bin Laden's body. It also said it could not find any images of bin Laden's body on the Navy aircraft carrier where the al-Qaida leader's body was taken.

Just like the 9/11 tragedy, the doubts about this event just keep piling up. And similar to inconsistencies of the official story about 9/11, we find the government of the One Percent hiding its information about the celebrated bin Laden event. I'm sure it's all a part of the project of managing the consent of the 99 Percent to conform to the interests of the One Percent, but it forces me to wonder what the motive was for this event--to enhance Obama's political stature?

R2P: Imperial Conquest by Another Name

A 16:17m video from Global Research TV featuring an interview with Pepe Escobar on how the Empire has misused and corrupted the humanitarian Responsibility to Protect doctrine to serve the interests of the Empire's One Percent. To be sure, all ruling classes will always use some nice sounding pretext to justify the use of violence to protect their interests, but the Empire is now making the most hypocritical use of this doctrine to expand their control over the MENA region.

As the world recovers from one humanitarian peace bombing in Libya, and braces for another possible intervention in Syria, many are now asking how it is that the so-called liberal left have become cheerleaders for the very wars of aggression they once pretended to deride. As long-time investigate reporter Pepe Escobar explains, an obscure international doctrine called Responsibility To Protect or R2P has been the main tool for shaping this new paradigm for the continuation of NATO's imperial power grabs around the world.

NSA building massive surveillance facility, 'everybody with communication is a target'

Click here to access article by James Bamford  from Wired. 

It's clear that the political operatives of the One Percent are afraid of US citizens. It is also clear that we are seeing what has been hidden from us over the past several decades: the growth of a state within the US that ignores the official legal structure in order to serve the narrow interests of the One Percent. This inner state depends on total surveillance, police brutality and the threat of violence or incarceration to intimidate citizens into submission to its dictates. This is the 21st century's version of fascism.

Rather than Bibles, prophets, and worshippers, this temple will be filled with servers, computer intelligence experts, and armed guards. And instead of listening for words flowing down from heaven, these newcomers will be secretly capturing, storing, and analyzing vast quantities of words and images hurtling through the world’s telecommunications networks. In the little town of Bluffdale, Big Love and Big Brother have become uneasy neighbors.

Meanwhile, the liberal American Civil Liberties Union seems incredibly naive when they run reports like this: "FBI FOIA Docs Show Use of "Mosque Outreach" for Illegal Intel Gathering".

Global Warming Close to Becoming Irreversible

Click here to access article by Nina Chestney of Reuters via Scientific American. 

As emissions grow, scientists say the world is close to reaching thresholds beyond which the effects on the global climate will be irreversible, such as the melting of polar ice sheets and loss of rainforests.

Spread Reckoning: U.S. Suburbs Face Twin Perils of Climate Change and Peak Oil [Excerpt]

Click here to access article by Maggie Koerth-Baker from Scientific American. 

This excellent article is an excerpt from a book by this name and author. It explores the impacts that the "twin perils of climate change and peak oil" can be expected to have on US citizens in the decades ahead. There is really nothing new here except that it is being published in a very respectable mainstream science publication that should get better circulation in other mainstream media outlets than is usually the case. However, it was inevitable that the ruling One Percent would have to "fess up" to these twin perils eventually; and now with fuel prices climbing and extreme weather happening, it seems that denial is no longer possible. 

The positives of this excerpt is that it is written in a very understandable style by using practical, concrete illustrations that anyone could understand. It tries not to be alarmist, but still gets the facts across. 

There are lots of reasons to care about energy, and lots of reasons to want to change the way we make and use energy in this country. For me, though, it boils down to a concern about climate change and about energy diversity. Those are the big reasons I think we need to seriously alter the way we make and use energy. Why do I think that? In a nutshell: that's what the majority of scientific studies tell me. When many different, unconnected scientists come to the same conclusions, after decades' worth of research, I listen. You should, too.

But while trying not to be alarmist, I think the author errors a bit on the side of optimism. By claiming that peak oil is 30 years off is, I think, a bit disingenuous and doesn't even correspond well with the information provided. It's clear to me that peak oil is 30 years off IF the economy can afford very expensive oil while handling all the economic devastation caused by extreme weather events--to say nothing about the money that will be needed to invest in new sustainable fuel alternatives and infrastructures, and to say nothing about the expense of funding never ending wars to gain control of sources of fossil fuels.

What is glaringly ignored is the fact that capitalism requires growth (the 800 pound gorilla in the room) and ignoring this fact will prevent any real solutions as it has since the 1970s when we first had good data about this dilemma. By continuing to ignore this root cause, we will be driven to extinction. We of the 99 Percent have a choice: continue to tolerate a system that feeds the addictions of the One Percent to power and profit or choose life by changing the system!

Top .01%, Top 1%, Bottom 99%

Article by David Ruccio from Real-World Economics Review Blog. (This is the complete article.)

For the arithmetically challenged, that’s a total of 93 percent of the growth in income in 2010 that went to the top 1 percent of taxpayers.
What these numbers indicate is that the wages and salaries of the bottom 99 percent barely changed but the surplus those same workers created during 2010 (a) increased, (b) was mostly captured by the top 1 percent, and (c) was sheltered from taxes.
In other words, the tiny minority at the top made out like bandits in 2010.

Special Prosecutor in Martin Case Sends Red Flags Sky High

Click here to access article by Earl Ofari Hutchinson from OpEd News.

This looks at the shocking background of the special prosecutor who will be seeking justice in the Trayvon Martin case.

It would be hard to find a special prosecutor in a racially charged murder case that sends red flags flying sky higher than Florida's Fourth Judicial District's Angela "tough on Crime" Corey.

Already I've been seeing reports on mainstream media alleging that the killer Zimmerman, who weighs in at 250 lbs, was defending himself, like this report from a Orlando, Florida newspaper:

With a single punch, Trayvon Martin decked the Neighborhood Watch volunteer who eventually shot and killed the unarmed 17-year-old, then Trayvon climbed on top of George Zimmerman and slammed his head into the sidewalk several times, leaving him bloody and battered, authorities have revealed to the Orlando Sentinel.

It appears that right-wing Americans are becoming mentally unstable with all the recent hate crimes resulting in murder such as this killing of an Iraqi woman near San Diego, California.

“A week ago they left a letter saying this is our country not yours you terrorist, and so my mom ignored that thinking it was just kids playing a prank,” Alawadi’s daughter, Fatima Al Himidi said. “But the day they hit her, they left another note again, and it said the same thing.”

The New Jim Crow How the War on Drugs Gave Birth to a Permanent American Undercaste

Click here to access article by Michelle Alexander from TomDispatch. (You will need to scroll down to the article following Engelhardt's introduction.)

In the words of H.R. Haldeman, President Richard Nixon’s White House Chief of Staff: “[T]he whole problem is really the blacks. The key is to devise a system that recognizes this while not appearing to.” 

In my opinion, the impetus for this war on African-Americans, officially known as "War on Drugs", was the reaction of the One Percent's enforcers to black nationalism in the US after groups such as the Black Panthers in the late 1960s and early 1970s struck fear in the souls of the One Percent's thoroughly racist security services. 

If you have some doubts about my description of their security services being racist, please read the stories of two white women who were intimately involved with black nationalists: actress Jean Seberg (Played Out by David Richards) and Seattle area psychiatrist Stuart Jeanne Bramhall (The Most Revolutionary Act). The former allegedly committed suicide and the latter nearly did before she escaped to New Zealand where she is now living and working. Also read The Echo from Dealey Plaza by Abraham Bolden who was a black ex-Secret Service agent who was critical of the poor practices of the Secret Service in protecting JF Kennedy. For more background on CIA's drug running, Read Kill the Messenger by Nick Schou who wrote of journalist Gary Webb's attempt to uncover the CIA's importation of drugs in the 1980s and 90s. Gary Webb's journalism career was ruined and he later died from an alleged suicide.

We wear the hood but "hood" remains unchanged

Click here to access article by Sylvester Brown, Jr. from OpEd News.

The author is worried about instant, shallow activism that may substitute for long range strategic thinking that is necessary to really change the neighborhood and the world.

This old school journalist...is...leery of social media. Like the youth who drive it, there's a flighty, faddish feel to viral jornalism. It's a bittersweet sphere where tweets, pings and postings dictate the relevance of information. Its news in a hurry for hurried people conditioned to sound bites and under 500-word summaries. Social media can instantaneously motivate millions to action but that figurative moment also allows people to superficially adopt a cause or respond to a crisis without really understanding or addressing root causes or the bigger realities of societal issues.

U.S. heat 'unprecedented,' 7,000 records set or tied

Click here to access article by Deborah Zabarenko from Reuters.

"This heat wave is essentially unprecedented," said Heidi Cullen of the nonprofit science and communication organization Climate Central. "It's hard to grasp how massive and significant this is."

See also this dramatic graphic display from NASA of global warming over the past 131 years:

 

Originally sourced from Climate Central whose site appended these notes:

Since we launched this video in late January, more than 125,000 people have watched it as it has bounced around the digital globe. The video, which comes to us from our friends at NASA, is an amazing 26-second animation depicting how temperatures around the globe have warmed since 1880. That year is what scientists call the beginning of the “modern record.” You’ll note an acceleration of those temperatures in the late 1970s as greenhouse gas emissions from energy production increased worldwide and clean air laws reduced emissions of pollutants that had a cooling effect on the climate, and thus were masking some of the global warming signal. The data comes from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, which monitors global surface temperatures. As NASA notes, “in this animation, reds indicate temperatures higher than the average during a baseline period of 1951-1980, while blues indicate lower temperatures than the baseline average.” 

Occupy’s Disrupt Dirty Power Earth Month

Click here to access article by Shepherd Bliss from Dissident Voice. 

From New York to St. Louis to Los Angeles, Occupy Wall Street (OWS) buzzes with the awakening of spring activities throughout the United States. One of its many pending actions is to join forces with the environmental movement to launch Earth Month on March 24.

Secret Service Failures on 9/11: A Call for Transparency

Click here to access article by Kevin Ryan, a guest post at Washington's Blog. The author is a...

...former Site Manager for Environmental Health Laboratories, a division of Underwriters Laboratories (UL). Mr. Ryan, a Chemist and laboratory manager, was fired by UL in 2004 for publicly questioning the report being drafted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) on their World Trade Center investigation. In the intervening period, Ryan has completed additional research while his original questions, which have become increasingly important over time, remain unanswered by UL or NIST. 

The author points out more discrepancies and anomalies between known facts and the official story by focusing on the Secret Service's lack of concern about protecting either the President or the Vice-President after knowing that air attacks had been launched. (Note: as you read the article, you may want to refer to a timeline of the 9/11 events.) 

The same author also wrote a report in December that was published in Foreign Policy Journal entitled, "Questions on Two Flights Out of Andrews AFB on 9/11", with similar discrepancies.

Trouble on the Iran-Pakistan Pipeline Front

Click here to access article by Jen Alic from Oil Price. 

Although this site serves the fossil fuel industry, it appears to me that their coverage of issues is quite objective and informed. This article lays out the various national ruling class interests being affected by this oil pipeline and suggests that this issue will likely have major impacts on political affairs in this vital Eurasian area.
 

 
The article does not provide a map, but here is one I found. Iran is on the far left hand side.