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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Planet Plastic by Tim Dickinson from Rolling Stone.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Climate Accountability from Union of Concerned Scientists.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Climate Disinformation from Union of Concerned Scientists.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posts that I especially recommend today: Wednesday, February 19, 2020

• ‘And Then – Nothing. Silence’: The Deadly Facade Of ‘Democracy’ by David Cromwell, editor, from Media Lens. 

• Arctic Ocean February 2020 from Arctic News. 

• Edge of Extinction: Bank for International Settlements Warns of Financial Crisis from Climate Change featuring Guy McPherson (via YouTube) commenting on an article about BIS that was posted on Desmogblog in January. 

• The CIA and the Media by Carl Bernstein from Internationalist 360°. 

(Note: This is a re-post of a 1977 article by Bernstein that made into Rolling Stone Magazine which represented a more militant, anti-establishment media organization that was gradually disappeared by the efforts of the same CIA and other media corporations. 

Those were the days when activists were really challenging the ruling class! They are beginning to appear again among those who have discouraged by their experiences in carefully managed elections (also see this). Back then even Congress tried to stand up to the secret, unaccountable spy services. Idaho's Sen. Frank Church vigorously defended the public's right to know and aggressively attacked several secret agencies during his years in office. Incidentally--or maybe not--he lost his next election and died conveniently a few years later at the age of 59.

The CIA went on to infiltrate media corporations in the USA and throughout the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire, and co-opt journalists like Alsop. With the 9/11 false flag operation the ruling capitalist class intimidated Congress so much that they caved in completely to the military-industrial complex. Meanwhile the ruling class persecutes real journalists like Julian Assange. This is where we are today.

• Trump Plans to Keep U.S. Troops Permanently in Iraq by Eric Zuess from A bird's eye view of the Vineyard.

• BIS Praises Indian Milestone Toward Totalitarianism as an Example for the World by Norbert Häring from his weblog Money and more. (Note: The Empire is apparently using India as a dry run for the introduction of the same intrusive methods to apply to citizens of the Empire.)

• International situation and Radical Alternatives by Eric Toussaint from CADTM (Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt).

• Revising the history of WWII by Lucas Leiroz from Brics. (Note: Revising history is increasingly necessary to serve the interests of the Neo-fascist US/Anglo/Zionist Empire.)

• The American Cowboy - Iranian Mullah Showdown: Countdown to World War Trump IV by Hall Gardner from Wall Street International Magazine.  (Although I don't agree with all of it, this article appears to offer an excellent political analysis of existing relations between the Empire and Iran.)

• Afghan Election Drama Threatens Trump's Deal With The Taliban by Bernhard from his weblog Moon of Alabama. 

Posts that I especially recommend today: Tuesday, February 18, 2020

• Video: BlackRock CEO warns of increasing climate risks to investors by Peter Sinclair from Yale Climate Connections.

(Note: BlackRock, the largest investment managing company for the transnational capitalist ruling class, is supposedly going "green". But BlackRock is also the "biggest driver of climate chaos you've never heard of." Although it is too late to be concerned about the environment, maybe it's a good thing that capitalists are starting to wake up. But it isn't. As Mark Kramer admitted "The problem is, investors don’t read sustainability reports.", and I think that this was probably an announcement that was written by their public relations department. Also read this and this.)

• Hearing a silent spring by "jeppe" from PatternWhichConnects.

• UK airports must shut to reach 2050 climate target by Paul Brown from Climate News Network. 

• ‘Burned At The Stake’ – The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Demolishes The Fake Claims Targeting Julian Assange by David Edwards from Media Lens. 

• The Destruction of Libya: Posturing Predators; Lethal Lies by Robert Snefjella from Countercurrents. 

• Syria - Aleppo Is Fully Liberated But The War Will Continue by Bernhard from Moon of Alabama.  (Note: If you read the comments section, you will need to know what "HTS" means.) 

Posts that I especially recommend today: Monday, February 17, 2020

• Edge of Extinction: Plants Going Extinct 350 Times Faster than Historical Norm by Guy McPherson from his weblog Nature Bats Last. (The 2:29m video.)

• Climate research struggles to find funding by Kieran Cooke from Climate News Network.

• A climate reality update at 2020 emergency summit by David Spratt from Climate Code Red (Australia). 

• Democrats Team Up With Trump to Maintain Disastrous Healthcare System by Mike Pappas from Left Voice.

• Sanders tells New York Times he would consider a preemptive strike against Iran or North Korea by Jacob Crosse and Barry Grey from World Socialist Web Site.

• US threatens Europe over Huawei at Munich Security Conference by Andre Damon from World Socialist Web Site.

• For Sama: The Truth About the Propaganda Film That Disappeared Terrorist Atrocities by Vanessa Beeley from BSNews.

Posts that I especially recommend today: Saturday, February 15, 2020

• Life without ice by Mark C. Urban from Science.

• Speeding sea level rise threatens nuclear plants by Paul Brown from Climate News Network.

• Leak Says U.S. Deal With The Taliban Will Allow For Permanent Troop Stay. But Is It True? by Bernhard from Moon of Alabama. 

• Propagandists Cry About Bernie’s Online Base Because It’s Effective, Not Because It’s Mean by Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog. (Note: I think she is "spot on" in identifying a skeptical trend especially among young people in the USA. I have a hunch that this is primarily due to the Deep State's (the directorate of the ruling capitalist class) ongoing attacks on Donald Trump and his administration for the lies they disseminate. Also, a part of this phenomenon is ruling class's increasing boldness about expressing lies. This is a result of lies they told in the past with a gullible public largely believing all of them (the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy, Martin L. King, the Iraq War, 9/11, the Bernie Sanders 2016 election campaign, etc.) Currently I see evidence of this in the growing popularity of satirical websites like Consent Factory, Inc., Jimmy Dore Comedy, RTAmerica which includes Redacted Tonight, Johnstone's website, and many other alternative news and analysis websites.)

Posts that I especially recommend today: Friday, February 14, 2020

• A Short History of Humanity’s Future by Manuel García, Jr. from CounterPunch.

• January 2020 Temperature Anomaly from Arctic News. (Note: In the second graph I choose the red line as representing reality.)

• A Few Minutes to Save the World featuring Stuart Scott from UPFSI (United Planet Faith & Science Initiative). (Note: This conventionally religious guy has not given up on saving the "world", that is, life-forms on our Earth planet. One must have a lot of religious faith to ignore scientific facts.)

Stuart Scott quit his day job in 2008 to serve humanity and life on Earth full time as a climate change and eco-social strategist. Here is one of his first speeches at the UN climate talks, one of the 'intercessional' rounds of negotiations between the annual COPs, or Conferences Of Parties. Everything he said is as urgently relevant today as it was back then. But the climate talks have continued as a disingenuous ritual of 'kicking the can down the road', until now we are experiencing a climate emergency of huge proportions.

• Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia Merger: Global Empire of Dystopia? by Gilbert Mercier from News Junkie Post.

• Revolutionary Medicine by Alan Macleod posted on Titanic Lifeboat Academy. 

• Did World War III actually start on 26 July 1945? by Eric Zuesse from The Duran. 

(Note: Zuesse, as a social democrat, must distort certain details of history in order to salvage his view "That’s not what capitalism was supposed to be." Thus a ruling class becomes an aristocracy, government become a "regime", and he places too much emphasis on individuals to explain his social democratic view of 20th century history that turned capitalism (in his view) from a hopeful enterprise to a disaster.

However, as a stickler for truth, he presents a much more realistic view of history than do thoroughly capitalist-indoctrinated historians who largely rewrite history to manage social consent for the ongoing disastrous actions of the US ruling class. 

The latter saw opportunities in 1941 to construct an empire out of the rubble that WWII left behind. Like any good capitalist, early on the ruling class saw this exciting opportunity and launched their initial attempts to defeat all opposition whether domestic or abroad. Their domestic opponents posed a more serious threat in 1945, and the latter were to weak to resist. So, they began their attacks on labor unions with the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 (also see this), and went on to weed out socialist-minded opponents in the film industry. This was only the beginning of an effort by the US capitalist ruling class to establish their own empire.

So, the simple answer to his question is a resounding "yes"! but not the individualist reasons he gives. The causes are systemic--capitalism.)

Posts that I especially recommend today: Thursday, February 13, 2020

• The Role of a Teacher by Guy McPherson from his weblog Nature Bats Last. 

• Climate goes extreme! by John Cook from Skeptical Science.

• Critique of Capitalism by Bengi Akbulut from Post-Capitalist Possibilities.

• Cap and Trade Is Supposed to Solve Climate Change, but Oil and Gas Company Emissions Are Up by Lisa Song from ProPublica.

• ‘Burned At The Stake’ – The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Demolishes The Fake Claims Targeting Julian Assange by David Edwards from Media Lens.

• Free All Political Prisoners –- Including Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning by Glen Ford from Black Agenda Report.

• US spied on governments for decades through secret ownership of Swiss encryption firm by Kevin Reed from World Socialist Web Site. 

• State-backed Alliance for Securing Democracy disinfo shop falsely smears The Grayzone as ‘state-backed’ by Alex Rubinstein from The Grayzone.

• Facebook Censoring Reporting On Buttigieg Cheating from The Jimmy Dore Show.

• Crowd Chants “Wall Street Pete!” At Buttigieg In New Hampshire from The Jimmy Dore Show.

Posts that I especially recommend today: Wednesday, February 12, 2020

• Chris Matthews Fears Execution Under Bernie Presidency from The Jimmy Dore Show (via YouTube). (Note: A little humor to sweeten the bad news for you.)

• Guest post: The irreversible emissions of a permafrost ‘tipping point’ by Dr Christina Schädel from Carbon Brief.

• OK, Doomers! The Climate Generation Has Arrived by Sarah Jaquette Ray from Edge Effects. 

• IMF and World Bank complicit in ‘austerity as new normal’, despite availability of alternatives from Bretton Woods Project.

• Just Some Illustrations I’ve Done Lately by Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog. 

• Syria imposes the Astana deal by force, as Turkish-Russian tensions rise by Elijah J Magnier from his weblog. (Thank your god for this excellent journalist! We would never understand the Mid-East as well without his reports.)

• Scott Ritter explains Syria war WMD lies from the Rick Sanchez Show on RT.

• The Survival of the ILWU at Stake! by Jack Heyman from CounterPunch. 

This article, while focusing on the latest labor union's fight for survival, only touches on the carefully hidden class war that has been going in the USA since its founding by mostly land speculators and slaveholders like George Washington and their ruling class collaborators like Alexander Hamilton. But you, as a US citizen would know nothing about their history from US schools or coverage by media corporations. They even rewrite history to portray them reverently as "Founding Fathers". (Hamilton was celebrated recently in the Broadway play named "Hamilton".)

Posts that I especially recommend today: Tuesday, February 11, 2020

• Extinction Foretold, Extinction Ignored by Guy R. McPherson from CounterPunch.

• Explainer: Nine ‘tipping points’ that could be triggered by climate change by Robert McSweeney from Carbon Brief.

• Keep War, Environmental Degradation And Profit Out Of Space by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers from Popular Resistance.

• The indispensable nation and its nonexistent democracy! by Daniel Patrick Welch from PressTV (Iran). 

• Sanders asks for recanvass of 25 Iowa caucus precincts from RT/USA.

• Puppet Pete Says Revolution And The Status Quo Aren’t Mutually Exclusive by Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog (Australia).

• Syria - Turkey Invades Idleb But Its Bluff Will Be Called by Bernhard from his weblog Moon of Alabama.

Posts that I especially recommend today: Monday, February 10, 2020

• Bernie Sanders' Commie Kill Swarm by CJ Hopkins, in my opinion the top US satirist, from his weblog Consent Factory, Inc. (Note: I thought it would be best to start off with a little satire to get you smiling before I hit you with the hammer of depressing news and analysis.)

• Thanks to clouds, new climate simulations predict more warming than predecessors by Simon Levey from Imperial College London. (Note: Scientists appear to have found another vicious feedback loop that is driving global temperatures higher.)

• A stark climate warning from the green swan by Kieran Cooke from Climate News Network.

• Australia's wildfires: Is this the 'new normal'? by Peter Sinclair from Yale Climate Connections. 

• Extreme Temperature Diary- Thursday February 6th, 2020/ Main Topic: Early February Record Scoreboard Update and Climatological Review by Guy Walton, meteorologist, from his weblog.

• Critique of Capitalism by Dru Oja Jay from Post-Capitalist Possibilities. 

• Trump outlines massive cuts in Medicaid and Medicare in 2021 budget plan by Kevin Reed from World Socialist Web Site. (Note: This will make the Deep State and US Treasury happy, but it will be sad news to the disappearing left--social democrats like Eric Zuesse, Chris Hedges, etc. in US politics.)

Posts that I especially recommend today: Sunday, February 9, 2020

• Antarctica Is Hotter Than Ever by Amanda Arnold from The Cut, a part of Vox Media.

• Why stronger winds over the North Atlantic are so dangerous from Arctic News.

• How Thawing Permafrost Is Beginning to Transform the Arctic by Ed Struzik from Yale Environment 360. 

• Edge of Extinction: Amazon Tipping Point? with commentary by retired Guy McPherson (PhD in biology) from his weblog Nature Bats Last.

• Media darling Pete Buttigieg was in unit that worked with the CIA in Afghanistan by Alex Rubinstein from The Grayzone. (Note: Also Wikipedia has an entry on Buttigieg.)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• This is NOT natural from Open Mind.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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