Now that we understand these economic realities [as presented to us by capitalist class "experts"], we can prepare—without rebellion, with calm acceptance and within the limits of our stagnant incomes—for our coming extinction. Onward with the coming macroeconomic ecocide. [satire]
Except, wait. Hold on. Maybe Ohanian [one of the "experts"] is full of petroligarchic crap. Maybe there’s still hope for the species after all.
He is, and there is [maybe]. [my insertions]
Nairobi, 13 March 2019 – Even if the world were to cut emissions in line with the Paris Agreement, winter temperatures in the Arctic would rise 3-5°C by 2050 and 5-9°C by 2080, devastating the region and unleashing sea level rises worldwide, finds a new report by UN Environment.More bad news that will be ignored or pushed to the back pages of corporate newspapers so that the implications of this latest news will not discourage anyone from getting into their vehicle to go shopping, flying across country, generally engaging in business as usual, or questioning the capitalist system that makes all these activities (and much more) essential to the functioning of the system. We wouldn't want to interfere with the tiny class of capitalists getting drug-fixes from their obsessive pursuit of profits and power, would we?
Meanwhile, rapidly thawing permafrost could even accelerate climate change further and derail efforts to meet the Paris Agreement’s long-term goal of limiting the rise in global temperature to 2°C, warns Global Linkages - A graphic look at the changing Arctic.
The French popular classes have proven that they possess enough accumulated social intelligence and political experience, on the one hand, to demolish the arguments of the Neoliberals and, on the other, to articulate their demands of radical control of the political system, long ago bought and controlled by the Financial Oligarchy.
The “hope and change” offered by former President Barack Obama was a “mirage”, according to Muslim congresswoman Ilhan Omar.
She made the comments during a recent interview with Politico. Politico contrasted Omar, a newly elected US Democratic Party representative from Minnesota, with Dean Phillips, a wealthy businessman. Minnesotans also recently elected Phillips to congress, whom Politico characterised as a centrist and pragmatist.
... get out those vintage plague doctor masks, lock your critical thinking up in your anti-anti-Semitism safe room, and pull up Schindler’s List on Netflix … oh, and don’t forget to scour the Internet for any criticism of the capitalist ruling classes, or the corporate media, or neoliberalism, or any other anti-Semitic tropes!
To be sure, there is, at this point, no concrete evidence that Washington has sabotaged Venezuela’s electrical grid, but it has the capability to do so, a record of using cyberattacks against countries slated for regime change, a motivation to throw Venezuela into crisis, and a game plan it has used repeatedly in other countries.
The US hand may be absent from this week’s power failures in Venezuela, but chances are it wasn’t.
The Empire's YouTube strikes again!
... US foreign policy mobilizes every available resource for regime change and for counterinsurgency. Among those resources, you will always find academics. The pen may not always be mightier than the sword, but behind every US-backed war on a foreign people there will be a body of scholarly work.
The academic laboratory of the Venezuelan coup has the highest academic pedigree of all—it’s housed at Harvard.
The reigning political and media “elite” is happy to keep capitalogenic global warming on the public margins until long past the last ecological tipping points are passed. They can be counted on them to fiddle and diddle through the species’ final, fossil-fueled flame-out. It is an existential necessity to create a new culture, media, and politics with the elementary natural and social intelligence required to properly prioritize the most pressing problems of our time.I am frequently guilty of doing the same thing in my commentaries, but in my saner moments I simply want to seek revenge on a tiny capitalist class that has caused our disappearance from the Earth. This is no ordinary crime.
Don’t you think something is fishy when the presstitutes orchestrate a fake news “humanitarian crisis” in Venezuela, but totally ignore the real humanitarian crises in Yemen and Gaza?
Don’t you think something is really very rotten when the expert, Alfred Mauricer de Zayas, sent by the UN to Venezuela to evaluate the situation finds no interest by any Western media or any Western government in his report?
Don’t you think it is a bit much for Washington to steal $21 billion of Venezuela’s money, impose sanctions in an effort to destabalize the country and to drive the Venezuelan government to its knees, blame Venezuelan socialism (essentially nationalization of the oil company) for bringing “starvation to the people,” and offer a measely $21 million in “humanitarian aid.”
What is being presented by Netflix is not history. It is not even an artistic fictionalization of history, in which certain liberties have been taken for legitimate dramatic purposes. Netflix’s series is a monstrously reactionary exercise in historical falsification. There is not a single scene that attempts to depict historical events with any discernable degree of accuracy. Most of the scenes are grotesque fabrications. Not a single character, least of all Leon Trotsky, bears any resemblance to the historical figure the series purports to represent.
To state the issue posed by this series as bluntly and precisely as possible: Netflix’s Trotsky is the most explicitly and unrelentingly anti-Semitic film that has ever been presented to an American and international television audience.
"I want to talk about ... political influence in this country that says it's OK for people to push for allegiance for a foreign country," Omar said during a Washington, DC event. "I want to ask why is it OK for me to talk about influence of the NRA, or fossil fuels industries, or big pharma, and not to talk about powerful lobbying that is influencing policy."You may also be interested in a post from Guns and Butter in which Bonnie Faulkner, the show's host, interviews Alison Weir for about one hour.
After the event, Jonathan Greenblatt, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said in a letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi that the comments were a "vile anti-Semitic slur". Some in the House, including Eliot Engel and Nita Lowey, publicly criticised Omar and demanded an apology.
We discuss Alison Weir’s extended essay, published as a pamphlet, “The International Campaign to Criminalize Criticism of Israel”; the traditional definition of anti-Semitism and the new “improved” 3-D definition of anti-Semitism; the history of the campaign to criminalize criticism of Israel; the many international and national organizations that have adopted and promote the new definition; policing the new anti-Semitism on college campuses; thought crime; AIPAC and ADL; the crack-down on pro-Palestinian political activity; the multiple hundreds of groups that lobby for Israel; current congressional legislation.
These events speak to the historically prevalent trend in the United States of police forces working hand-in-hand with the ultra-right. This is evident from the history of policing as an institution in this country, including their origins as slave catchers and union busters, the coordinated attacks on the Black liberation movement, and the continued over-policing of peaceful protests at Standing Rock and of the Black Lives Matter movement. The police do not exist to protect the people. The police exist to protect the interests of the ruling class and the capitalist system that keeps the majority of people marginalized and oppressed. To that end, they will continue to join forces with violent reactionary groups like PP [Patriot Prayer] who uphold the status quo through force and intimidation. Only by overturning the capitalist system can we hope to effectively and permanently end the threat posed to our communities by groups like PP and the police forces that enable and support them. [my emphasis and insertion]
It is one of the most important aspects of our media system – and yet hardly known to the public: most of the international news coverage in Western media is provided by only three global news agencies based in New York, London and Paris.The key role played by these agencies means that Western media often report on the same topics, even using the same wording. In addition, governments, military and intelligence services use these global news agencies as multipliers to spread their messages around the world.A study of the Syria war coverage by nine leading European newspapers clearly illustrates these issues: 78% of all articles were based in whole or in part on agency reports, yet 0% on investigative research. Moreover, 82% of all opinion pieces and interviews were in favor of the US and NATO intervention, while propaganda was attributed exclusively to the opposite side.
