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.