The Law of Diminishing Returns (Part 1 of 4)

Click here if you wish to access article from its original source at Post Carbon Institute.

Is modern society hitting our defining moment, the point of diminishing returns?

In this brand new short video released today, Richard Heinberg explores how — in our economy, the environment, and energy production — we may well be. When previous societies have hit similar limits, they often doubled-down by attempting ever more complex interventions to keep things going, before finally collapsing. Will this be our fate too? And is there an alternative?

This video is the first in a four-part series by Richard Heinberg and Post Carbon Institute. The themes covered in these videos are much more thoroughly explored in Heinberg’s latest book, Afterburn: Society Beyond Fossil Fuels.

 

Heinberg knows what we need to do to avoid extinction, but can we do it under the system of capitalism? With reference to declining net energy returns and environmental limits, he says in the interview:

If we plan for that sort of future, we can optimize the transition and the outcome. If we don't, we could end up as just one more failed civilization....

Judging from my reading of his past essays, I think we can safely assume that he thinks this is possible. We should find out in later parts of this series.

Clearly I think not--and such a notion is dangerous to our survival! Such a notion is what is precisely keeping us from doing anything constructive to head of this disaster.

ISIS, CIA, Saudi & Israel Connections

Click here to access the 48:39m video featuring a recent interview with Wayne Madsen via YouTube.

I've run out of time to listen to the entire interview, but I am posting this anyway because I have considerable confidence in Madsen's integrity and his observations about political events.

ISIS, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the connections between the CIA and Israel with the so-called enemies of America are exposed in an uncensored interview with Wayne Madsen. The former NSA worker, turned whistleblower and muckraker discusses the kabal of conspiracy that includes the Saudis, key figures in the US government, and stretches from the Bilderbergs to Rhodes Scholars in a web of influence that has spun country after country into turmoil. Are ISIS fighters just misguided and gullible proxy mercenaries for the Saudis? Was 9/11 another black op in a long line that has been the norm since WWII with the British government? Learn of the far reaching conspiracy in this Buzzsaw, hosted by Sean Stone.

I am posting the YouTube website because it offers much detail about the interview under the "show more" section.

Making Sense of Boston

Click here to access article by JP Sottile from WhoWhatWhy.

I’m a logical person. I do most things in life because they make sense. I have also been in a few extreme situations. For example, I was across the street from the Pentagon on 9/11, in the Hart Senate Building on the day anthrax was discovered there, in the White House during a bomb threat, and in New Orleans right after Hurricane Katrina passed through.

In all of those cases, I observed people acting rationally. They generally did what you would expect a reasonable person to do. We all looked out for our own safety and listened to people who sounded as though they knew what they were doing. Nobody I saw did anything that I would classify as dumb or reckless. In short, everybody’s behavior made sense and was appropriate to the situation.

Why am I telling you this? Because to me the actions of the Tsarnaev brothers did not make sense.

Like so much of the official story that I've read (enter "Boston Bombing" in search engine on this website), I share Sottile's skepticism about the video evidence presented at the trial because it does not seem reasonable or is not valid evidence.

Poll: Americans Starting to Worry About Climate Change Now That It Affects Their Lawns

Click here to access article by Andy Borowitz from The New Yorker. (fake news satire)

Lawns like this are causing increasing concerns among Americans according to new poll.

AIIB, BRICS Development Bank and an Emerging World

Click here to access article by F. William Engdahl from New Eastern Outlook. 

As promised I continue to post articles which show promise of explaining the dramatic trend that is now appearing: major alternative international funding organizations spearheaded by China. This is a fourth in this series which includes (in chronological order) this, this, and this.

I regard the control of money as a major component of the US Empire's hegemony over the rest of the world, and any threat to its control of it will be met by the most aggressive actions. These alternative organizations (Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and New Development Bank both centered in China) will follow much more legitimate rules than the US dominated IMF, World Bank, and the Asia Development Bank. Perhaps this explains the highly aggressive actions of the Empire targeting Iran, Syria, Ukraine, Venezuela, Russia, and China. What continues to astonish me is that Britain, France, Germany, Israel, Australia, and Japan (apparently) have joined the AAIB. I'm still looking for some reasonable explanation for this.

Washington is holding on like a pit bull to the old bylaws in which the US retains a blocking veto share of votes. The US Congress refuses to pass the IMF reforms and to break the impasse. This is a major way forced China and the other fast-growing BRICS states to look outside the IMF and World Bank and build an entirely new architecture. The AIIB today is emerging rapidly as a centerpiece in this emerging new global architecture.

Rather than trying to influence the new AIIB from within, Washington has chosen a tactic that has delivered it a huge and humiliating geopolitical defeat, and which will likely exclude US corporations from lucrative construction bids.

US foreign policy under Obama, as it was under George W. Bush, is being run by a gaggle of neo-conservative ideologues who seem incapable of flexible response. For them anything China does is “bad” and must be opposed with all US might.

China for those Washington people is the emerging global challenger to US military power, so Obama imposes an “Asia Pivot” military strategy to encircle and anger Beijing. China’s economic and financial influence threatens the dollar system so that too must be opposed. The BRICS threatens to become independent of Washington control as vassal states....

The problem for Washington is that none of this is working as it used to.

See also an article entitled "AIIB: Guess Who’s Got Back in Business?" from the same website.

Post-Election Violence: Wall Street Plots to Destroy Nigeria

Click here to access article by US activist Caleb Maupin posted on New Eastern Outlook.

Usually activities in Africa are poorly covered by US media, and the recent violence following the Nigerian elections is no exception. Mainstream media has covered the violence, which it likes to do, but no accurate political context is ever provided. Maupin in this article provides a lot of insights as to why the violence is occurring.

One of the primary reasons for the rapid expansion of production in Nigeria is its increasingly friendly relationship with the People’s Republic of China. Chinese political figures, including former president Hu Jintao, have visited Nigeria. Chinese investment in the domestic Nigerian economy is higher than ever.

For years the Nigerian state has been battling a group of religious extremists who call themselves “Boko Haram.” While until recently, US officials like Hillary Clinton have worked to keep Boko Haram off of the official list of foreign terrorist organizations, China has been supplying Nigeria with weapons to fight Boko Haram. In addition to selling Nigeria arms, the Chinese government officially presented the Nigerian navy with a battleship as a “gift.” China has acted as a champion of Nigeria, pushing for it to have a greater role in international affairs at the United Nations.

The Nigerian state, despite still working closely with western bankers, has been purchasing a great deal of Chinese weapons.

Maupin continues on to describe the close ties of the terrorist organization known as Boko Haram with Al Qaeda and the funders of both, Saudi Arabia. Sound familiar? 

See also this UN report appealing for donations to help the estimated 192,000 refugees in neighboring countries who fled the violence in Nigeria.

Seeds of Doubt

Click here to access article by Stephanie Santiago and Elliot D. Cohen from Project Censored.

Despite nearly 400,000 petition signatures from concerned citizen, health professionals and farmers, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) approved a new generation of genetically engineered corn and soybeans, created by the biotech company Dow Agrosciences, that will tolerate the use of a new weed killer also engineered by Dow Agrosciences called Enlist Duo, which contains two known herbicides: 2, 4-D a component of the toxic Agent Orange herbicide used during the Vietnam War and glyphosate aka Roundup by Monsanto.

Thawing Permafrost Will ‘Seep, Not Explode’ CO2

Click here to access article by Michael D. Lemonick from Climate Central. 

Highlighted in this article are the recent research findings published in the journal Nature (behind a paywall) about the amount of methane that will be released into the atmosphere as one of the effects of rising temperatures especially in land areas in the northern latitudes. I think the headline for this article tends to underplay the significance of the findings.

The Arctic holds more than a trillion tons of carbon, locked in the frozen soil known as permafrost. That’s more than twice as much carbon as there is in the atmosphere itself, according to a 2013 report from the National Academy of Sciences. And as the climate warms under its growing blanket of human-generated greenhouse gases, thawing permafrost could release some of that carbon into the atmosphere.

That could amplify the effect of global warming by boosting CO2 levels higher than they would otherwise be in a so-called feedback loop and making the consequence of warming, including rising seas, more intense and prolonged heat waves and droughts and distorted weather patterns even more severe. They could also lead to more thawing of permafrost and the release of even more CO2, starting the cycle again.

How much carbon will be released, however, and how much extra warming is likely to result, has been a matter of dispute in recent years. Some researchers have argued that that the effects will be horrific, while others say they’ll be significant but less dramatic. And now, a new report in Nature — the most comprehensive study ever done on the permafrost feedback loop, has come down firmly in the “significant” camp.

A rogue reporter takes on the masters of the universe

Click here to access article by Matt Kennard from Reflections on a Revolution. (a must read)

Kennard in this excerpt from his book The Racket: A Rogue Reporter vs. the Masters of the Universe essentially tells his political coming-of-age experience while working at his first professional job for the Financial Times. His "political coming-of-age experience" differs from most people who are trained to maintain the childish notion of following the dictates of authorities instead of seeing the world as it is. He learned what I have often argued: domination, or power over others, is probably the most addictive of all drugs.  

Whereas he simply identifies the authorities as "racketeers", I see them as functioning directly or indirectly as capitalist authorities to support their interests of wealth and power. By succumbing to power exercised by capitalist authorities, one will receive numerous rewards: a well remunerated career, many friends, and beautiful women (or handsome men) drawn to you.

I started working as a reporter at the Financial Times soon after the financial crisis began and at the height of the so-called “War on Terror”. I was a young, ambitious reporter assigned to one of the world’s most respected broadsheets, ready to speak the truth. I learnt soon enough that this was not the place to do it.

Fortunately, he did not succumb to this powerful drug and has insisted on living his life with his eyes wide open. He tells the story of his political coming-of-age in this excerpt.

US Wages Geopolitical Warfare against Russia in Central Asia and Caucasus

Click here to access article by Steven MacMillan from New Eastern Outlook.

It appears from the evidence collected by MacMillan that Empire operatives are implementing the same subversive strategies in Eurasia and the Caucasus as they successfully applied in Ukraine. But, there appear to be problems.
 
This complex strategy involves destabilising countries in Russia’s sphere of influence which creates numerous security problems for Moscow simultaneously, stretching the Kremlin’s ability to stabilise the chaos that has been deliberately contrived. Coupled with the attempt to build strategic partnerships with states close to Russia’s borders, this geopolitical strategy is a potent one that threatens the survival of the current Russian regime and is the logical next step in the West’s war against Moscow. After staging a colour revolution on Russia’s Western frontier in Ukraine which severely weakened relations between Moscow and Kiev, the West is aiming at replicating this model in numerous Eurasian countries including in Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan.

Syria: Al Qaeda Seeks “Consultations” to Rule Newly Seized City

Click here to access article by Tony Cartalucci from New Eastern Outlook. 

While the Empire and its Medieval gulf allies sponsor terrorist armies, Western media managers have a huge problem in trying to spin their reports to conform with their other propaganda about NATO and the Arab collaborators being concerned about humanitarian issues and the brutal dictatorship of Syria's Assad. Cartalucci sees in such actions a strategy of destabilization that the Empire used successfully in Libya.

What is forming before the world’s collective eyes is an attempt to sell the concept of an Al Qaeda-led opposition government, based in Idlib, behind which NATO and its Persian Gulf allies will place their support.

Western Moral Bankruptcy and the New “Eastern” Hope

Click here to access article by Christopher Black from New Eastern Outlook.

There is much I like about this article, but also some parts that I disagree with. I have a profound respect for Black and have in the past posted several very excellent articles by him (see this, this, and this).  

In this piece Black joins such astute political observers as Pepe Escobar, William Engdahl, Tony Cartalucci, and Mike Whitney who regard Russia and China (and other BRICS countries) as representing a positive force in the world by creating a "multipolar world". I don't see, as yet, much hope with the "New 'Eastern' Hope". Russia and China have strong capitalist economies, and capitalists are always prone to imperialism, social injustice, and environmental destruction.  I just don't see the evidence to justify this optimism. To be sure, they are not at the stage of advanced capitalism characterized by imperialism, but that is only a matter of time.

...in the east, in China, in Russia, in Latin America, a new energy has shone its light on human possibilities, on sharing, cooperation, love of mankind instead of hatred, peaceful cooperation instead of conflict and death. We in the west need now to look to the east, to the south, to our own past, to find the strength and the will to regenerate ourselves, to save ourselves, and the planet we live on, from those in our midst who would reduce us to slavery and hopelessness.

And, Black completely ignores the failures of the revolutions in Russia and China.

Otherwise, I think there is much truth in his other observations such as the perspectives of young people in the 1960s versus today.

U.S. Propaganda 101: Illegally Invade Countries, Fund the Media, Call it “Independent”

Click here to access article by Canadian journalist Julie Lévesque from Global Research.

Lévesque does a thorough job of disclosing information about the Empire's extensive efforts to manipulate public opinion in Europe and the US. This development of managing the minds of citizens has been the genius of the US Empire builders. Its refinement has succeeded in brainwashing most Americans into the very naive belief that their media simply reports what is happening in the world. Most have no idea how their thinking has been so completely engineered by the sophisticated development of capitalist propaganda. Its recent application regarding Ukraine and the supposed threat that Russia poses has turned reality on its head.

In this piece Lévesque goes on to reveal considerable evidence of US propaganda inserting itself into European media with funding through various Empire connected NGOs: U.S. Agency for International Development; Department of State/Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor; Open Society (George Soros); National Endowment for Democracy; Freedom House; and many others all in close collaboration with the CIA. 

US Agribusiness, GMOs And The Plundering Of The Planet

Click here to access article by Colin Todhunter from East by Northwest.

Trans-national corporate farms

Small family/peasant farms produce most of the world’s food. They form the bedrock of global food production. Yet they are being squeezed onto less than a quarter of the planet's farmland. The world is fast losing farms and farmers through the concentration of land into the hands of rich and powerful land speculators and agribusiness corporations.

By definition, peasant agriculture prioritises food production for local and national markets as well as for farmers’ own families. Big agritech corporations on the other hand take over scarce fertile land and prioritise commodities or export crops for profit and foreign markets that tend to cater for the needs of the urban affluent. This process displaces farmers from their land and brings about food insecurity, poverty and hunger. 

Trans-Pacific Partnership says if a corporation claims its true, it must be true

Click here to access article by Pete Dolack from Systemic Disorder. 

Dolack scores again with more stuff that he has dug up from Wikileaks and other sources.

However the following concluding paragraphs bothers me because it contain some very false, or at the very least, misleading statements:

Where ever you are, voicing your opposition to the TPP to your elected officials, and joining a local or national group in opposition, is critical. The U.S. government is pushing the hardest, and attempting to insert the most draconian rules, to cement the control of U.S.-based multi-national corporations over the world’s resources and markets, and the other governments are willing to throw overboard what sovereignty remains to them so that their multi-national corporations get a slice of the pie.

Allowing the TPP to pass means nothing less than an end to democracy and a world where corporate power and money becomes more dominant than ever, where corporate profits are elevated above all other human concerns, codified in law.

First of all, "voicing" your opposition will do very little unless you also inclose a check for at least $10,000 along with your message. The sad reality is that the US government is essentially "owned" by rich capitalists because they finance it. Any semblance to democracy was lost in the 19th century.

We lost most real elements of "democracy" from the very beginning of our nation's creation by early capitalists like Alexander Hamilton, merchant and war profiteer Robert Morris, and land speculator George Washington. The final triumph of this ruling class was really marked by two main events in the late 19th century: first, the many massacres of workers trying to organize for reasonable working hours, benefits, safety standards, and making child labor illegal; and second, by the crushing of the Populist Movement spearheaded by farmers in the Midwest who were merely looking for ways to prevent predatory lending practices and the theft of their farms by bankers and merchants. (By far the best source of information about the Populist Movement is Democratic Promise by Lawrence Goodwyn.) 



Thus, by the late 19th century, the capitalist class, popularly known as robber barons, had accomplished their takeover of the government. They soon established control over the money supply in 1913 by stealthily creating the Fed. Since then, the history of the United States of America has been mainly the history of the consolidation of power of a ruling class composed of financial and industrial capitalists, and the subsequent development of their Empire that we see today marked by many wars, a huge military establishment and 1000 foreign military bases abroad, militarized police forces at home, and tight ruling class control over all ideological and information services.

Now we see capitalists going global, doing what they did within their nations and attempting now to do it to the entire world. However, we are faced with another growing menace to our survival. There is another capitalist gang forming to challenge the US Empire consisting of the BRICS nations led by Russia and Cbina. Both sides have nuclear weapons. 

Countering The Lies Of The Mainstream Media

Click here to access article by Colin Todhunter from East by Northwest.  (A very important article)

The control of the dissemination of information by corporate media is one of the most powerful methods that the ruling capitalist class uses to shape society in its interest of profit and power. Other means are indoctrination in their schools and more subtly in their entertainment industries. Hence the importance of alternative, independent media (mostly the internet, but also books) by people who have an allegiance to truth and not to ruling class interests.

Although Todhunter in this excellent, well-documented article makes reference to mainstream media in Britain where he has lived most of his life, of course the same observations apply to media in the US--maybe even more so.

...that’s the role of the [mainstream corporate] media: to help reinforce and reproduce the material conditions of a divisive social system on a daily basis. It’s called having a compliant, toothless media. It’s what the corporate media itself calls part of ‘liberal democracy’. And in this type of 'liberal democracy', it is people like Edward Snowden or Julian Assange who expose the wrongdoings of the political-corporate elites that are hounded.

Forgotten History: The Rise and Fall of the Russian Oligarchs

Click here if you wish to the original posting by Don Quijones from Raging Bullshit. (Commentary was updated at 5:15pm Seattle time.)

Several years ago I was very curious about what had actually happened in Russia following the fall of the Soviet Union. At the time this was happening in the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was little in Western media reporting on what was happening there, and what there was, was so skewed by pro-capitalist bias that I dismissed it. Several years ago I began seeing that there were more reliable reports coming out, but mostly in books. I selected one such book entitled Sale of the Century (2000) by Canadian journalist Chrystia Freeland. The book revealed how some well-positioned, sociopathic bureaucrats and privatization ideologues in the Soviet government saw the great opportunities that existed in the chaos following the fall, and by hook and by crook speedily took advantage of them with some Western help mostly in the form of advice and financing. But most of the money needed to pull off their takeover of state property was simply taken from the government and its banks.

But my knowledge of what has happened since then has been very sketchy. I have viewed only the first 30 minutes of the first video which reviews what happened after the fall of the Soviet Union. Because it dovetails nicely with what I learned from Freeland's book, I was very impressed and became confident of its quality. Hence I am recommending it and very much looking forward to the second video which suggests that there has been a significant "fall of the Russian oligarchs". I knew that some had fallen, but don't know what really has changed. Hopefully, the second video will shed some light on this. I don't normally post material without having read or viewed it, but due to a shortage of time and having viewed a substantial portion of the first video, I feel confident in posting both videos.





(5:15pm Seattle time) From watching the second film, it appears to me that Putin's regime up to 2005 had only gotten rid of the worst thieves of Russia's wealth and that much of this wealth has been restored to the Russian government. I noticed at the end of this film that the production date was 2005. Thus, there is a lot of history that is still needed in the years since then. What I would like to know is if further significant changes in the power structure of the country have occurred since 2005, and what they are.

I think the reason for the poor coverage by US media of these Russian events is precisely because what the Russian oligarchs did in Russia in less than 10 years excelled what the US oligarchs have accomplished in America very gradually over more than 200 years. However, the US oligarchs got away with it. The successful triumph of American capitalists is essentially reflected in the old boiling frogs metaphor.

New FBI Tactic Hints at Big DC Cover-up of Saudi 9/11 Funding

Click here to access article by Russ Baker from WhoWhatWhy. 

In the latest indication of a rolling government cover-up of the September 11, 2001, attacks, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is disowning an explosive internal report that suggests high-level Saudi involvement. And Washington seems only too happy to accept this latest peculiar FBI apologia.

....  In this bizarre development, the Bureau claims that an internal FBI document indirectly tying the alleged Al Qaeda hijackers to a prominent Saudi prince was fabricated.

Then you might also be interested in another case of government backtracking on evidence by reading "What’s Not Being Revealed in the Tsarnaev Courtroom" by James Henry and Lara Turner posted on WhoWhatWhy. 

According to Knapp’s [FBI agent] Thursday testimony, the bombs were relatively simple devices. Although he didn’t say it directly, he implied that anyone with an Internet connection could have pulled off the Boston bombing.

But that assertion contradicts the opinion of numerous experts, and of investigators directly connected to this case.

California drought: agribusiness, fracking untouched by water rationing

Click here to access article by Evan Blake from Ecologist. 

California has responded to the drought by rationing water, with $500 fines for domestic 'water wasters', writes Evan Blake. But agribusiness and water-intensive industries like fracking remain untouched by the restrictions, even though they consume over 90% of the state's water.

Five Years On, the WikiLeaks 'Collateral Murder' Video Matters More than Ever

Click here to access article by Christian Christensen from Common Dreams.

This American professor currently working at a Swedish university provides us with a deeper meaning of this sordid historical event: both the Empire's interest in silencing dissent as well as heroic citizens' efforts to expose the Empire's crimes. 

Monsanto’s “Discredit Bureau” Really Does Exist [UPDATE]

Click here to access article by Stephanie Hampton from Daily Kos.

Recently, I attended a talk by Monsanto’s Dr. William “Bill” Moar ....  Most notably, he also spoke about Monsanto’s efforts to educate citizens about the scientific certainty of the safety of their genetically engineered products. The audience was mostly agricultural students many of whom were perhaps hoping for the only well-paid internships and jobs in their field.

One student asked what Monsanto was doing to counter the “bad science” around their work. Dr. Moar, perhaps forgetting that this was a public event, then revealed that Monsanto indeed had “an entire department” (waving his arm for emphasis) dedicated to “debunking” science which disagreed with theirs. As far as I know this is the first time that a Monsanto functionary has publically admitted that they have such an entity which brings their immense political and financial weight to bear on scientists who dare to publish against them. The Discredit Bureau will not be found on their official website.

US-Israel Wage War on Iran in Syria

Click here to access article by Tony Cartalucci posted on Land Destroyer Report.  (Warning: this article contains much evidence to support a conclusion which you might find very upsetting.)

In this article Cartalucci examines several past Brookings documents and Seymour Hersh's articles in light of subsequent events to see a rather perfect match to reveal the Empire's strategy to not only control the Middle East but as a integral part of a global imperialist policy involving Russia and China. This was apparently written just before the tentative agreement with Iran reported on the 3rd of April, however I don't think that really weakens his very alarming argument--it may actually strengthen it.

The ongoing conflict in Syria has always been a proxy conflict aimed at  Iran, as well as nearby Russia, and more distant China. As far back as 2007, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersh warned in his 9-page New Yorker report "The Redirection: Is the Administration’s new policy benefitting our enemies in the war on terrorism?," that a region-wide sectarian war was being engineered by the US, Saudi Arabia, and Israel - all of whom were working in concert even in 2007, to build the foundation of a sectarian militant army.

He also warns us that the recent "fall-out" between the US and Israel is pure fakery designed to accomplish deniability:

...Brookings details explicitly how the US will wage war on Iran, through Israel, in order to maintain plausible deniability. 

He concludes his alarming argument with this statement:

This is precisely the political charade implied by the Brookings Institution in their 2009 report as being necessary before any so-called "unilateral" action by Israel could be taken. In reality there is no row, simply a need for establishing plausible deniability ahead of an egregious act of unwarranted, unjust military aggression.

Such theatrics are but one troubling sign that aggression toward Iran is still very much in the cards, that current negotiations are but a smokescreen for preparations to strike Iran anyway regardless of what concession it is willing to make, and that such aggression may take place once the US and its regional partners believe Syria has been reduced to its weakest state possible - if outright regime change is seen as impossible.

Those Who Want To Build, Those Who Want To Fight: The World Social Forum with a North African Twist

Click here to access article by Cihan Tugal from Jadaliyya.  (Highly recommended)

Tugal reports on his experience and observations of the recent World Social Forum held in Tunisia in March. Rarely have I seen all the nuances and realities of political views and activities expressed so clearly as in this report by a Turkish sociology professor at UC Berkeley. His report therefore constructs a lesson in revolutionary change and many of the real problems which this entails in our era.

...in a world where a small percent of the global population controls an immense part of the whole world’s wealth, any effort that will put their privileges in question risks being marginalized, repressed, or incorporated. Building alternatives to the world they have built needs to go hand in hand with efforts to redistribute their wealth. I cannot imagine that happening without a fight. And I cannot imagine the big fish leaving us alone if we don’t spread out the wealth they have monopolized.

The limits of both negotiation and building small-scale alternatives, in short, are much starker in the era of globalization. Statism is an easy, but misleading, response to these limits.

He then goes on to dismiss statism, a revolutionary relic of the 20th century, by stating:

We have seen in the past that statism can be as oppressive and inegalitarian as capitalism. Why put all our eggs in one basket again?

Police State Preparation? Homeland Security Stockpiling “Less Lethal Specialty Munitions”

Click here to access article by Mac Slavo from The AntiMedia.

...a new Homeland Security purchase order listed on FedBizOpps  also raises an eyebrow or two, given the heated and divided political and social climate at hand. Just look at what happened in Ferguson… 

Judge Approves Laughably Bad, Collusive Class Action Settlement

Click here to access article from Electronic Privacy Information Center.

This is another prime illustration of how institutional justice functions in a capitalist system. 

Free Trade, Corporate Plunder and the War on Working People

Click here to access article by Colin Todhunter from CounterPunch. 

Todhunter looks at the results of neoliberalism in his home country of Britain and in India, where he has lived for many years, and finds the results devastating for working people, but a boon for corporations and the rich.

This proposed trade agreement (and others like it being negotiated across the world) is based on a firm belief in ‘the market’ (a euphemism for subsidies for the rich, cronyism, rigged markets and cartels) and the intense dislike of state intervention and state provision of goods and services. The ‘free market’ doctrine that underpins this belief attempts to convince people that nations can prosper by having austerity imposed on them and by embracing neo-liberalism and ‘free’ trade. This is a smokescreen that the financial-corporate elites hide behind while continuing to enrich themselves and secure taxpayer handouts, whether in the form of bank bailouts or other huge amounts of corporate dole.

In much of the West, the actual reality of neo-liberalism and the market is stagnating or declining wages in real terms, high levels of personal debt and a permanent underclass, while the rich and their corporations to rake in record profits and salt away wealth in tax havens.

Donbass: ‘The war has not started yet’

Click here to access article by Pepe Escobar from RT.

It sometimes seems like this Brazilian independent journalist is everywhere at the same time. In this piece we find him in the People’s Republic of Donetsk talking to various military figures in this breakaway area of Ukraine to find out what is going on and what we can expect in the near future. It appears that more war is inevitable--only the timing remains in dispute: in a few weeks or in May or June.

Serbian fighter Dejan “Deki” Beric – a hero of the People’s Republic army, already decorated with 10 medals - fully shares the assessment of the Cossack commanders: “The real war has not started yet.”

There are 20 Serbs – all with extensive battle experience - fighting alongside the Donbass brigades. “Deki” has just returned from a secret hardcore recon mission, infiltrating enemy territory just to conclude they are bringing in fresh soldiers, bringing new technicians, and are awash with new weapons. Minsk 2 is about to the shredded to pieces.

Victoria Nuland Kagan, chief engineer of the Kiev fascist coup, seems to agree with this assessment:

Less than two weeks ago Ukrainian Prime Minister “Yats”, cherished pal of the American Queen of Nulandistan Victoria “F**k the EU”, made no mistake war is inevitable: “Our goal is to regain control of Donetsk and Lugansk.” Of course such a wide-ranging threat is possible only when you’re sure of total support from the IMF and NATO – financial and military arms from the US government. Not to mention Capitol Hill.

Meanwhile, the US is helping train the Kiev government's army and arms appear to be the next step.

On Hitler's Birthday, U.S. Will Begin Training Ukraine's Far-right National Guard

Click here to access article by Adam Johnson from AlterNet. 

On Tuesday, The Associated Press reported The United States plans to send soldiers to Ukraine later this month to train the country’s national guard, which includes groups expressly espousing support for far-right and Nazi ideology.

Ukraine's Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said in a Facebook post on Sunday that the units to be trained include the Azov Battalion, a volunteer force that has attracted criticism for its far-right sentiments including brandishing an emblem widely used in Nazi Germany.

Obama and Latin America: Same Old, Same Old

Click here to access article by Murray Polner from Uncommon Thought Journal.

Of course Obama is the "same old, same old". Did you really think that our masters in the One Percent would allow us to vote for real change? No, they packaged Obama as a change candidate much like they package some new creme that will remove all your aging wrinkles. Our masters also benefited from his having black skin and nappy hair so that they could project another fake image of America as being non-racist. I doubt that Obama has any moral principles except that of a bank executive like his grandmother who mostly raised him in Hawaii and made sure that he was educated indoctrinated in elite private schools.  

In early March President Obama sent an inexplicable and entirely unexpected letter to Congress declaring Venezuela, that mighty military behemoth, "an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States." Deliberately avoiding our imperial past, his letter emulated every previous U.S. president whose policies have caused so much suffering in South and Central America.

A nanny for your dog: the new must-have of the super-rich

Click here to access article by Joe Shute from The Telegraph. (satire)

This is another contribution to my occasional practice on Saturdays to run articles about lifestyles of the rich ruling classes also known as the One Percent (actually .01 of the 1%, or one out of every 10,000 of us) who, under the rules of capitalism, essentially "own" the economy in which we work--in effect, we all work for them to support their lifestyle. 

I hope that by doing this that we don't lose touch with their world and their concerns--you know, to promote better understanding. It is important that we become better acquainted so that we can serve them better and make it easier for them to carry out the daily burden of making important decisions, decisions which affect whether we go off to war in foreign lands to kill their enemies, if we have jobs, if we live in a home or under a bridge, if we can afford their health care services, education, etc.

Unfortunately, for some reason they tend to hide their lives from the rest of us behind walls of secrecy, literal walls of guarded gated communities, private clubs, esoteric publications, by traveling with private jets, etc. We should not let that deter us. 

In this piece we learn of a new job opportunity that could offer a career and hope for many of us in the 99 Percent who are unemployed. Yes, a career as a nanny for rich people's dogs. Okay, so this isn't your dream job, but it will put food on table. So, check it out.

...the new “must have” for the super-rich. We’re not talking casual staff employed to take the little darlings for brisk strolls through Kensington Palace Gardens, but people like Ms Verschuren who are recruited to actually live with the dog 24-hours a day, feeding, washing, grooming and even sharing a room.

Peace with Iran Could Limit Ability to Bomb It, Warns McCain

Click here to access article by Andy Borowitz from The New Yorker. (parody)

“President Obama is hailing this framework as something that could enhance the prospects for peace in the Middle East,” McCain told reporters at the United States Senate. “For those of us who have looked forward to bombing Iran for some time now, that would be a doomsday scenario.”

“The Iranians know well and good that if they abandon their nuclear program exactly the way we’ve asked them to, we can kiss bombing them goodbye,” he said, shaking his head ruefully. “It’s a damn shame.”

The deal with Iran – a major sign of the Empire’s weakness

Click here to access article from A bird's eye view of the Vineyard.

This article refers to a tentative deal as very recently reported from Reuters.

So a deal was apparently reached in Lausanne.  It is not quite final, and there might be zig-zags, but it looks likely that a deal will be reached between Iran and the AngloZionist Empire.  Except for, in this case, the Anglos appear to be distinctly happier than the Zionists.  So, what is going on here?

See also Bernhard's (Moon of Alabama) take on the deal entitled "Thoughts On That Maybe-Deal About Iran's Nuclear Achievements"

The destructive legacy of Arab liberals

Click here to access article by Joseph Massad from The Electronic Intifada.

Joseph Massad is professor of modern Arab politics and intellectual history at Columbia University in New York. He is the author most recently of Islam in Liberalism (University of Chicago Press, 2015).

I think that this article offers considerable insights on a much overlooked weapon in the arsenal of US-Zionist imperialism which has been applied to Arab nations. I'm referring to ideological warfare using Saudi money and Western psychological expertise to recruit and promote Arab liberals to further the agendas of the US Empire and Israel. I think that this strategy applied to the paranoid Medieval rulers of Saudi Arabia and its allies by focusing on the threat of other Islamic threats to their rule, particularly by targeting Shias and thus implementing a "divide and conquer" strategy. 

Intellectuals from across the Arab world joined the effort, abandoning old leftist, communist, Nasserist and Islamist positions and adopted the much, much more profitable pro-US and pro-Israel liberal line politically, and the neoliberal economic order being globalized. By the dawn of the new century, the Saudis and the Americans issued new orders to their media and agents to spread an unprecedented sectarian campaign against Shiites inside and outside the Arab world.

The Anti-Empire Report #138

Click here to access the report by William Blum from his website.

Blum challenges our memories and intellect to think about the various "cold wars" in which our nation has been a leading protagonist, the US's frequent use of deadly sanctions against nations who refuse its diktats, and the failure of US higher education to produce enlightened citizens. Included in this report is a reference to an excellent 8:50m film called Imperial Decay posted on YouTube:

It’s Time to Get Serious About Systemic Solutions to Systemic Problems

Click here to access article by Gar Alperovitz and James Gustave Speth from Huffington Post.

It is time to begin a real conversation -- locally, nationally and at all levels -- about what a genuine alternative beyond corporate capitalism and state socialism would look like, and how we would build it. Not too long ago, it was easy to dismiss any talk about "changing the system" as frivolous or impractical, a luxury or a distraction. What we are seeing today is that increasing numbers of people understand that this task has become absolutely necessary. What's become frivolous and distracting is continuing to assume that business as usual is still an option. 

Kiev Commits Energy Hari Kiri

Click here to access article by F. William Engdahl from New Eastern Outlook.

This astute geopolitical analyst examines the effects of the Empire's IMF conditions are having on Ukraine. They appear to be not only devastating for Ukraine's economy, but dangerous: Chernobyl type events could easily occur. But then, these are typical neoliberal policies of the IMF.

Like the Sicilian Mafia, the IMF gives a kind of “protection.” Its loans have strings, called the Washington Consensus or IMF conditionalities. They never vary. That’s because the US Treasury in fact controls IMF policy. The conditions are invariably that a country getting “loans” must open its economy, privatize state assets, slash health and education and public jobs and balance the state budget, something the USA has failed to do for decades. Foreign multinationals are then free to rape what is left. It’s a modern version of “outsourced imperialism” made to look technocratic and politically neutral. It isn’t.

Praying for storms: a review of 'Method and Madness'

Click here to access this review of a book entitled Method and Madness by Norman Finkelstein by reviewer Kit Klarenberg and posted in CounterFire (Britain).

Since its creation in 1948, the state of Israel has depended on a constant flow of opponents to which ultimate responsibility for its own reprehensible activities can be apportioned. Externally, neighbours Turkey, Egypt, Libya, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq have all at some point in time served as public enemy numero uno for the Israeli state, in some cases more than once. Now, however, these adversaries have been neutralised, placated or reduced to smouldering rubble through infighting, civil war and Western intervention. With no obvious regional threats left, the Israeli government has been reduced to manufacturing non-existent ones.

The Atlanta “cheating” case and the crisis of public education in the US

Click here to access article by Jerry White from World Socialist Web Site. 

The Fulton County prosecutor argued that charging educators under the state’s Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, which is ordinarily reserved for organized crime cases, was warranted because the educators personally benefited from changing the answers on the tests through bonuses and promotions. They face 20 years or more in prison.

In fact, an investigation by the Georgia governor’s office in 2009 found that a “culture of fear, intimidation and retaliation infested the district,” led by then-Superintendent Beverly Hall, with teachers facing humiliation, demotion and firing if they did not meet student achievement targets.

In Yemen the “Axis of kindness” shows the true face of the Empire and proves Lenin right

Click here to access article from A bird's eye view of the Vineyard.

I will say that again and again, this is yet another example of how the AngloZionist Empire is finally showing its true face: not the gentle face of human rights, democracy, international law and progress, but the ugly, brutal and stupid face of ignorant violence, support for the scum of the planet (Nazis, Zionists and Wahabis) and imperialism.  The period of “capitalism with a human face” is now clearly over and we are now living exactly what Lenin had predicted: imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism (and no, I am neither a Leninist nor a Marxist but, in the words of Malcolm X, “I am for truth, no matter who tells it”).

Revolutionary Yemen Faces Wall Street-Saudi Attack

Click here to access article by Caleb Maupin from New Eastern Outlook (Russia).

I can't vouch for the credibility of this entire report (especially in relation to "Who are 'the Houthis'?" section.), but it has a ring of authenticity to it and provides a lot of new information I haven't seen anywhere else. Part of the problem I have with it is that there is no documentation. Thus, we have to rely on the credibility of the reporter. However, much of what he reports has been corroborated by other sources that I consider very credible.

Mr. Anarchist, we need to have a chat about colonialism

Click here to access article by Petar Stanchev by Reflections on a Revolution.

Although I don't regard such anarchists as a significant problem due their relatively small numbers, but I think that this discussion is important because it distinguishes two ways for seeking revolutionary truth. Rather than attacking such sectarian anarchists and exhibiting a colonial attitude as Stanchev does, I think it more useful to see their criticism of the Rojava and the Zapatista revolutionary struggles as patriarchal or hierarchical modes of thought: a vanguard kind of thinking in which revolutionary thought is essentially the province of designated experts. This type of thinking dominated revolutionary movements of the 20th century.  

I thoroughly agree with Stavchev when he writes about the new path to revolutionary truth:

Without any doubt, these structures of democratic self-governance are under development, with many issues still to be addressed and plenty to learn. However, they do reaffirm the basic principle that true liberation can only be lived and applied here and now through the self-organization of the people. 

China Targets Dollar, Washington Has Conniptions

Click here to access article by Wolf Richter from Wolf Street. (Updated commentary, 8:30 AM Seattle time.)


As promised, I am posting everything I can find from independent sources regarding the controversy over the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Because I am mystified by such close collaborators of the US Empire such as Britain, Israel, Germany, Australia, etc, I am running this series in an effort to try to understand it. I still question the significance of this trend which many of these articles are implying or arguing.

The Pro-GMO Lobby In Retreat

Click here to access article by Colin Todhunter from East by Northwest. 

It has been such a tough period for the pro-GMO lobby that it’s difficult to know where to begin. But let us start by looking at two pieces of recent research that strike at the very heart of the pro-GMO argument, namely: 

1) GM crops are needed to feed the world.

2) The GMO agritech industry is based on sound science and reasoned argument.

Todhunter then follows this up with considerable documented evidence to refute both arguments.

With so much profit at stake, we, the public, are being fed pro-industry propaganda to counter the evidence, and scientists are being subject to pressure to distort their findings. This is much like the long history of health concerns about asbestos and cigarettes and industry efforts to counter these concerns. (Read Merchants of Doubt by Oreskes and Conway for this history.)

An Essay on Collectivist Economics

Click here to access article by Bruno Lima Rocha from Conjuncture.

About the author: 

Bruno Lima Rocha has a PhD and MSc in political science, is a professor and researcher in geopolitics-strategic studies and international political economy. Bruno teaches at 2 universities located in the Brazilian southern state.

The essay suffers a little from an awkward translation, but I don't think you will have much difficulty in understanding it. I think it represents an excellent preliminary work as a part of a vital project that needs to be expanded if we humans are to overcome the ravages of capitalism and create a world that is sustainable, socially just, and peaceful.

This essay is the beginning of an attempt to develop a left libertarian approach toward an economic model, specifically to a model which is compatible with the political formations of Democratic Confederalism, also referred to as Libertarian Municipalism. At this stage the goal is the development of a working set of tools of analysis, and foster learning among the Libertarian Left. To this end I submit this relatively simple text to provide accessible notions for those struggling to build a society based on Democratic Confederalism.

.... We start with the analysis of some [eight] premises that may provide direction and parameters to the discussion.

Destroying the Greek economy in order to save it

Click here to access article by Mark Weisbrot from Al Jazeera. 

Weisbrot gathers evidence to argue that the Empire's primary capitalist institutions in Europe, the Troika, is pursuing a strategy of a "shock-and-awe assault on the Greek economy" to destroy the Syriza government and destroy all opposition to the Empire's capitalist rule.

...blackmail is actually an understatement of what the ECB and its European partners are doing to Greece. It has become increasingly clear that they are trying to harm the Greek economy in order to increase pressure on the new Greek government to agree to their demands.

The first sign that this was the European authorities’ strategy came on February 4 — just 10 days after the Syriza government was elected — when the European Central bank cut off the main source of financing for Greek banks. This move was clearly made in bad faith, since there was no bureaucratic or other reason to do this; it was more than three weeks before the deadline for the decision. Predictably, the cut off spurred a huge outflow of capital from the Greek banking system, destabilizing the economy and sending financial markets plummeting. More intimidation followed, including a slightly veiled threat that Emergency Liquidity Assistance – Greece’s last credit lifeline from the ECB – could also be cut. The European authorities appeared to be hoping that a “shock and awe” assault on the Greek economy would force the new government to immediately capitulate.
It didn’t work out that way. 

Why Iran Distrusts the US in Nuke Talks

Click here to access article by Ray McGovern from ConsortiumNews. 

The Iranians may be a bit paranoid but, as the saying goes, this does not mean some folks are not out to get them. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his knee-jerk followers in Washington clearly are out to get them – and they know it.

Nowhere is this clearer than in the surreal set of negotiations in Switzerland premised not on evidence, but rather on an assumption of Iran’s putative “ambition” to become a nuclear weapons state – like Israel, which maintains a secret and sophisticated nuclear weapons arsenal estimated at about 200 weapons. The supposed threat is that Iran might build one.

Israel and the U.S. know from their intelligence services that Iran has no active nuclear weapons program, but they are not about to let truth get in the way of their concerted effort to marginalize Iran. And so they fantasize before the world about an Iranian nuclear weapons program that must be stopped at all costs – including war.

Antarctica’s Record High Temp Bodes Ill for Ice

Click here to access article by Andrea Thompson from Climate Central.

Scientists are worried that if these sudden warming events become more common or more intense, they could put the already threatened ice of the peninsula in an even more precarious situation, with serious implications for global sea level rise.

A "Schultz faction" undermines negotiations with Greece

Click here to access article from the unbalanced evolution of homo sapiens.

It appears to me that this is a translation of an article published in the Greek language. 

For Americans to understand this article, we need to understand the use of language among Europeans. Those on the left of capitalist ideologues have historically tried to co-opt anti-capitalists by using the world "socialist" in the names of their parties. (Remember how even the capitalist funded Nazi party was actually named "National Socialist German Workers' Party"?) Many of these phoney anti-capitalist parties are known as "social democrats" among political scientists. The headline refers to Martin Schultz, a German politician who is a prominent social democrat and has a history of belonging to these phoney "socialist" parties. Such people are being used by European capitalists to bring the Greek debt crisis back under the control of European capitalists.

A potential success of the Leftist government under Alexis Tsipras is considered a threat against the power of the Social democrats in Europe, therefore a threat against the current political status [of capitalist rule].

Islamic State is the cancer of modern capitalism

Click here to access article by Nafeez Ahmed from Middle East Eye. 

This independent, crowd-funded journalist covers a lot of ground while gathering documented evidence to support his argument that IS (or ISIS) is the cancer of modern capitalism.

The continual input of vast quantities of money to Islamist extremist networks, hundreds of billions of dollars worth of material resources that no one has yet been able to quantify in its totality - coordinated by the same nexus of Western and Muslim governments - has over the last half century had a deeply destabilising impact. IS is the surreal, post-modern culmination of this sordid history.

The West’s anti-IS coalition in the Muslim world consists of repressive regimes whose domestic policies have widened inequalities, crushed legitimate dissent, tortured peaceful political activists, and stoked deep-seated resentments. They are the same allies that have, and are continuing to fund IS, with the knowledge of Western intelligence agencies.

Honduras’ Unfolding Socioeconomic Nightmare

Click here to access article by Grecia Gonzales (student) and Faculty Evaluator, James F. Tracym both from Florida Atlantic University posted on Project Censored. 

For many years I've received almost daily email reports from Rights Action, a human rights organization, providing horrendous details of peasants being driven from their lands by paramilitaries, union leaders murdered, and protestors beaten or murdered. Most of these incidents have the fingerprints of North American mining interests all over them. Such reports never make it into corporate media. US and Canadian ruling classes have abused this country probably more than any country on the earth--and that's saying a lot! Thus, I would call Honduras an "ongoing socioeconomic nightmare".

Stratfor’s Mr. Freeman [Friedman] describes the real goals of the US Empire

Click here if you wish to access the YouTube posting of this 12:52m video on A bird's eye view of the Vineyard.  

This video offers an excellent illustration of how these ruling class think tanks are used to hash out ruling class policies. You will notice that in his remarks, George Friedman talks very candidly about geopolitical issues facing the Empire--yes, he uses that word. Such talks for obvious reasons are never reported on by major media.

Friedman is the founder of Stratfor, a private intelligence agency, that has hired many people (for example, see this) from government security agencies and advises many in the government about geopolitical issues. He is particularly well connected to the military-industrial complex.

Yemen and Syria - Two Different Rebellions, Two Different Stories, Same Belligerent West

Click here to access article by Brandon Turbeville from Activist Post.

It is the unbelievable arrogance of a ruling class to claim to [two] contradicting ideologies and justifications for the same act in front of an entire nation without fear of exposing their true agenda. Unfortunately, in 2015, it is more confidence than arrogance since there is undoubtedly empirical evidence of success, since the American people have fallen for virtually every excuse given for military conflict since the first World War. Indeed, the general public is now fully capable of lapping up any excuse for war fed to them by the ruling class and equally capable of forgetting that justification as rapidly as they are required to in favor of another.

After a lifetime of observing lies by various US authorities, I am still completely befuddled as to why my fellow Americans still believe, or at least, passively go along with whatever the authorities say about their invasions, assassinations, and false-flag events. But I can understand why our masters in the capitalist ruling class tell such outrageous lies--they know with perfect confidence that they can get away with it. However, this cannot continue indefinitely. A time will come when we Americans will suffer terrible consequences for our gullibility and passivity.

For an in-depth geopolitical analysis of the conflict centered in Yemen, I recommend an article by a very credible, and independent Canadian journalist, Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, who specializes in matters of the Middle East. 

Paranoia Reigns in Congress Over an International Financial Cabal

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

The Martens have discovered three theories that strive to explain the machinations of key capitalist institutions that appear to be undermining any Congressional attempts to control Wall Street operations.

‘Epic Fail’: Feminism and Ecological Crises

Click here to access article by Robert Jensen from CounterPunch.

Much nutritious food for thought here in this piece. He sees in the truth about pornography (although there is considerable overlap, I differentiate erotica from pornography) some greater truths about the oncoming failure of humans. It's the playing out of the human drama in very self-centered ways which began some 10,000 years ago and currently reflected in, and supported by, the economic system of capitalism. This way of living is fundamentally in conflict with the social nature of humans that has sustained the species for 95-98% of its existence.

In lectures I used to give on the subject, I would sometimes suggest that "pornography is what the end of the world looks like," not to suggest that pornography was going to lead to the destruction of the world, of course. Rather, I was suggesting that contemporary pornography deadens consumers' capacity for empathy for and solidarity with others--the things that make decent human society possible. When these aspects of our humanity are overwhelmed by a self-centered, emotionally detached pleasure-seeking, social justice is impossible to imagine. Equally impossible to imagine is ecological sustainability; if that same self-centered, emotionally detached pleasure-seeking leads to support for an unsustainable extractivist economy, our collective ability to emphasize with other living things or act in solidarity with life atrophies.

If these capacities are lost, human societies will become increasingly inhuman, and the planet will not indefinitely sustain those societies.

The Social Costs Of Capitalism Are Destroying Earth’s Ability To Support Life — Paul Craig Roberts

Click here to access article by Paul Craig Roberts from his blog, Institute for Political Economy.

Roberts discusses the implications of a new book entitled Unprecedented: Can Civilization Survive The CO2 Crisis? by David Ray Griffin. Roberts regards the book as "a carefully researched document".

Griffin makes the point that the external cost imposed on the climate by fossil-fuel use is the source of the life-threatening crisis that humanity confronts. Capitalists make money by exploiting labor and by externalizing the costs of the wastes produced by the productive process by imposing the wastes on the environment. It is the short-term time horizon of production organized by selfish private interests focused on quarterly profits that is destroying the livability of the earth.

Almost every economist on earth will rise up in opposition to that true statement, because they are brainwashed in the neoliberal ideology that masquerades as economic science, but in fact is nothing but an apology for capitalist exploitation of labor and the earth.

Media Contributing to ‘Hope Gap’ on Climate Change

Click here to access article by John Upton from Climate Central.

...the team of researchers also examined the ways the stories about the IPCC’s findings were framed. They found a preponderance of them emphasized scientific consensus and scientific disputes. They also found that many focused on disasters, invoking fear that research by O’Neill and others have concluded can bring attention to climate change but fail to engage audiences. Very few IPCC stories were found to have been framed in terms of opportunities, health effects, ethical considerations, or the economics of global warming — frames that O’Neill said have been shown to be more engaging for audiences.

Could it be that our capitalist media managers deliberately framed coverage of climate destabilization issues as unsolvable in order to create a sense of hopelessness and turn people away from such coverage? After all, if they were to cover opinions about the economics of global warming, this might lead people into a dangerous territory of ideas which pose questions for the system of capitalism which are dangerous for the capitalist ruling class. I think that it's becoming clear even to managers of media that there is no solution within capitalism to the crisis of climate destabilization.

West vs. RT?

Click here if you wish to access this 28:06 RT program called CrossTalk.

In this program broadcast on March 27th host Peter Lavelle interviews Anthony Salvia, former appointee of President Reagan to the State Department; Martin McCauley, specialist of international affairs at the U. of London; and Don DeBar, antiwar activist and host of a daily radio program. Lavelle asks his guests why this popular program in the US is receiving so much criticism from official spokespeople.

Media wars have entered new territory: Secretary of State John Kerry, EU officials and the NATO military alliance all have singled out this television station, RT, as some kind of security threat. Since when is holding and broadcasting a different opinion or narrative a threat to global media freedom?

Conflict in Yemen: Who is Getting the Upper Hand?

Click here to access article by Valery Kulikov from New Eastern Outlook (Russia).

Kulikov asks what appears to be a rather trivial question, but the author's answer reveals the hidden actors behind most of the wars occurring in the Middle East. 

Incidentally, Kulikov appears to be on the EU's sanctions on Russians list. I wonder what motivated them to place this name and any of the names on the list. Are they "terrorists"? Have they engaged in illegal activities? Have they in their actions threatened the European Union? It's strange, is it not, that we always hear about reports of sanctions against Russian individuals, but it's always expressed as individuals associated with Russian President Putin? It seems that the sanctions are purely politically motivated.

US General Recommends ''Shielding'' Terrorists In Syria

Click here to access article by Brandon Turbeville from Activist Post. 

In what should come as no surprise to anyone who has followed the Syrian crisis, the top US commander in the Middle East, General Lloyd Austin, has apparently recommended that the US military “shield” the new death squad terrorists being trained by the United States who are soon to be deployed across the country.

Gen. Austin told Congress on Thursday that he was currently waiting on the White House's response to his recommendation.

The US has been supporting terrorists in Syria since the beginning of the crisis in late 2010 by a variety of means, most notably military, political, and financial. However, the US recently announced that it is going to openly train several thousand jihadist fighters to be deployed against the Syrian government. 

Surely, they must be good terrorists and not the evil-doers who fight against the US and its Medieval allies. (sarcasm)

Four years of Syrian resistance to imperialist takeover

Click here to access article by Sara Flounders and Lamont Lilly from Workers World.

A delegation from the International Action Center headed by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark traveled to Syria in late February to present a different message.

Visits to hospitals, centers for displaced families and meetings with religious leaders, community organizations and government officials conveyed the IAC’s determination to resist the orchestrated efforts of U.S. imperialism acting through its proxies in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan and Israel.

In addition to former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, the delegation included:

...Cynthia McKinney, former six-term member of the U.S Congress; [co-author of the report] Lamont Lilly, of the youth organization FIST – Fight Imperialism, Stand Together; Eva Bartlett, from the Syrian Solidarity Movement; and [co-author of the report] Sara Flounders, IAC [International Action Center] co-director. 

Eva Bartlett also authored a lengthier report entitled "excerpts from US delegation visit to Syria, Feb 2015" posted in In Gaza.

(Note: According to Paul Craig Roberts, McKinney is a former Congresswoman because of opposition by the powerful Israeli lobby.)

Ukraine: why the West is to blame for the crisis

Click here to access a review of a book entitled Frontline Ukraine: Crisis in the Borderlands by Richard Sakwa posted in CounterFire (Britain).

We all know about of the fog of war, but the current coverage and commentary on the crisis in Ukraine arguably takes wartime disinformation to new levels. Richard Sakwa's new book is a rare and precious exception. It is clear and measured and carefully researched and it shows that the story we are told in the West about events inside Ukraine is deeply flawed. More generally, it exposes the idea that Russia is the aggressor and the West the protector of Ukraine's democratic will as a travesty of the truth. In short, Sakwa's analysis is diametrically opposed to what passes for an explanation of the Ukraine crisis in the mainstream.

Damage Limitation Time For Monsanto: Time To Wheel Out Patrick Moore Again... Or Maybe Not!

Click here to access article by Colin Todhunter from East by Northwest. 

This is an excellent followup report on his posting on the 24th of March, and the headline refers to that hilarious interview with Patrick Moore, an advocate of GM golden rice. 

Unsurprisingly, Monsanto has wasted no time in trying to rubbish the WHO findings. The work of cancer specialists from 11 countries was speedily dismissed by Monsanto. In a press release, the company argued the findings are based on ‘junk’ science and cherry picking and are agenda driven.

Philip Miller, Monsanto's vice-president of global regulatory affairs, said:

    "We don't know how IARC could reach a conclusion that is such a dramatic departure from the conclusion reached by all regulatory agencies around the globe."

Miller implies that regulatory agencies used objective reason supported by credible science when sanctioning glyphosate. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Also, you might be interested in a post from Ecologist in August of 2014 entitled "Cancer deaths double in Argentina's GMO agribusiness areas".

New York: Conspicuous Construction

Click here to access article by Martin Filler from The New York Review of Books.

This is another contribution to my occasional practice on Saturdays to run articles about lifestyles of the rich ruling classes also known as the One Percent (actually .01 of the 1%, or one out of every 10,000 of us) who, under the rules of capitalism, essentially "own" the economy in which we work--in effect, we all work for them to support their lifestyle. I hope that by doing this that we don't lose touch with their world and their concerns--you know, to promote better understanding. It is important that we become better acquainted so that we can serve them better and make it easier for them to carry out the daily burden of making important decisions, decisions which affect whether we go off to war in foreign lands to kill their enemies, if we have jobs, if we live in a home or under a bridge, if we can afford their health care services, education, etc.

Unfortunately, for some reason they tend to hide their lives from the rest of us behind walls of secrecy, literal walls of guarded gated communities, private clubs, esoteric publications, by traveling with private jets, etc. We should not let that deter us. 

I've often wondered how the rich, who are constantly getting richer, spend all the money they have. I think it would be a challenge for me to spend more than a million dollars a year. I imagine I could exceed this by buying my own jet, buying homes in various parts of the globe, buying a super-yacht, and hiring all kinds of people to attend to my every need (including dressing myself). But then how does a billionaire (a thousand million dollars) spend all their money? That I can't comprehend.

In this piece Martin Filler focuses mostly on how the world's super-rich are buying up luxury condos worth $5 million dollars or more in high-rises towering above Central Park and other areas in New York City. It seems that in contrast to the construction of esthetic high rises built for new the American rich of the first half of the 20th century, these rich from all corners of the world simply want to park their money in a secure place and away from the clutches of the world's poor. What place could be more secure than in the capitol of the capitalist world?

Today, more New York real estate than ever is held by absentee owners, and in at least five large Manhattan condominiums most units are not primary residences. Although many such pieds-à-terre are doubtless used by Americans, they are most attractive to foreign nationals eager to secure a foothold in the US in the event of trouble in their homelands. International capital flight has thus been the decisive impetus in this booming sector of the New York property market, as people from all over the world seek a politically stable and financially secure haven for themselves and their assets.

However, we learn from this source that the US's favorite Arab oil monarchs in Middle East are not only buying property in New York, they are apparently buying expensive homes for their many wives all over the world.

Yemen Beware as it Threatens US-backed Order

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

I think that this Irish journalist, who has lived in the Middle East for a number of years and specialized in reporting on issues there, offers one of the best assessments of what is currently going on in Yemen.

The crisis in Yemen is the latest manifestation of the old order desperately trying to cling on to a dwindling power base. That old order has been backed by the United States and its allies among the Persian Gulf Arab dictatorships as a bulwark against a popular uprising that could lead to democratisation in the poorest Middle Eastern country. If such an outcome were to succeed, the repercussions for the autocratic Gulf monarchies would be deeply destabilising. Saudi Arabia, which shares a southern border with Yemen, is the primary concern for this spreading "instability".  

Information War Between Russia and the West Intensifies

Click here to access article by Steven MacMillan from New Eastern Outlook.

MacMillan provides many interesting details about this propaganda war launched by the US and its European vassals, and the efforts of Russian authorities to defend themselves. Because I have been following the efforts of US operatives to subvert Ukraine from authentic and independent sources from the beginning while, at the same time, viewing US corporate media coverage, I am decidedly taking this point of view. 

Corporations vs. communities: a tale of two meetings

Click here to access article by Morten Thaysen from New Internationalist Blog. 

This week the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and USAID hosted a meeting in London with big agribusinesses to discuss strategies to increase corporate control over seeds in Africa. The location of the meeting was secret. So was the agenda. Attendance was strictly invite-only and nobody who even came close to representing African small farmers was invited.

Meanwhile, farmers and food sovereignty activists met at the World Social Forum in Tunis to discuss their solutions to the problems of our food system. These two meetings represent not just two different types of meeting – a closed, secretive meeting of the powerful versus an open, democratic meeting of grassroots activists – but also two radically different paths for the future of our food. One is based on corporate control and would generate vast profits for a small elite; the second is centred on sustainable, democratic, local food production. 

TTIP Why the Rest of the World should Beware

Click here to access article from the Transnational Institute. (The Transnational Institute was originally founded by the Washington DC-based Institute for Policy Studies.)

This article contains an outline of specific topics from which their PDF document provides more details based on the investigations about the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) treaty by the research staff of the Transnational Institute.

The [TTIP] is a comprehensive free trade and investment treaty currently being negotiated – practically in secret – between the European Union (EU) and the United States of America (US). It could have massive implications for people and the environment on both sides of the Atlantic.

The stakes couldn't be higher, and not only for Europeans and Americans, but also for the rest of the world, which would be affected in many different ways by this agreement between these two superpowers of trade.

Their findings in the PDF document clearly suggest that this treaty benefits mostly the multinational corporation based in the US, Canada, and Europe; and many of its proposed provisions provisions are in conflict with other legal documents of the European Union.  

Also, this is the first time that I've seen it viewed as a geopolitical strategy to confront a growing multipolar world. If this is correct, then it is another weapon designed to prevent the growing influence of Russia, China and the other BRICS countries.

...the objectives of TTIP go well beyond the intentions to solidify the Anglo-Saxon neoliberal model. It is first of all a geopolitical strategy to confront the emergence of a multipolar world. This is why the former Secretary of State of the United States Hillary Clinton has described TTIP as an “economic NATO”.

See also what Wikileaks has uncovered about the other infamous neoliberal trade proposal--the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal at this post entitled "TPP vs. Democracy: Leaked Draft of Secretive Trade Deal Spells Out Plan for Corporate Power Grab"--from Raging Bull-Shit.

Who is behind Human Rights Watch?

Click here to access article by Paul Treanor from Uncommon Thought Journal.

This Dutch political philosopher and economist dissects Human Right Watch organization to see that it often serves as an instrument of US imperialism.

HRW itself is an almost exclusively US-American organisation. Its version of human rights is in the Anglo-American tradition. It too is 'mono-ethical'--recognising no legitimate ethical values outside its own. Attitudes to redistribution of wealth illustrate the limited nature of human rights ethics. In the Anglo-American human-rights tradition, seizure and redistribution of the property of the rich is unethical. The human-rights tradition recognises no inherent value in equality itself, and does not recognise many other ethical values. The human-rights tradition is not, and can never be, a substitute for a general morality.

...it is important to note that human rights can serve a geopolitical purpose, which is unrelated to their moral content. It is not possible to show that 'human rights' exist, and most moral philosophers would not even try. It might not be a very important issue in ethics anyway - but it is important in politics and geopolitics. And that's what Human Rights Watch is about--not about ethics.