By targeting journalists, as well as the individuals leaking the damning information, the Australian government is directly following the lead of the Trump administration’s charging of Assange, a journalist and publisher, with 17 counts under the US Espionage Act, for which he faces life imprisonment and possibly the death penalty.
Saturday, June 8, 2019
The global war on journalism
Click here to access article by Mike Head from World Socialist Web Site.
The Trust Project: Big Media and Silicon Valley’s Weaponized Algorithms Silence Dissent
Click here to access article by Whitney Webb from MintPress News. (This post was by Caren, an activist from Titanic Lifeboat Academy. She kindly offered to write the introduction for me when my computer was not functioning yesterday. As you can see, it is much better than I could have done.)
Whitney Webb's exhaustive examination of intelligence agencies' infiltrating and dominating capitalist mainstream "news" is the latest effort to expose this symbiosis. From Carl Bernstein's 1977 Rolling Stone cover story, to Der Spiegel journalist Udo Ulfkotte's 2017 book which has been fully censored in the West, to William Arkin's ("Top Secret America") year-end email which Glenn Greenwald recapped January 3, 2019 in The Intercept, to the entire career and martyrdom of Julian Assange, valiant attempts have been made to alert a sleeping public to the fact that money/power will protect itself by controlling news, what passes for "truth" and "reality," and the behavior of the people who consume both. Webb's article focuses on their latest weapon designed to make thinking easier by doing it for you: a refined, Orwellian-titled Prop-or-Not upgrade called The Trust Project.
Whitney Webb's exhaustive examination of intelligence agencies' infiltrating and dominating capitalist mainstream "news" is the latest effort to expose this symbiosis. From Carl Bernstein's 1977 Rolling Stone cover story, to Der Spiegel journalist Udo Ulfkotte's 2017 book which has been fully censored in the West, to William Arkin's ("Top Secret America") year-end email which Glenn Greenwald recapped January 3, 2019 in The Intercept, to the entire career and martyrdom of Julian Assange, valiant attempts have been made to alert a sleeping public to the fact that money/power will protect itself by controlling news, what passes for "truth" and "reality," and the behavior of the people who consume both. Webb's article focuses on their latest weapon designed to make thinking easier by doing it for you: a refined, Orwellian-titled Prop-or-Not upgrade called The Trust Project.
Friday, June 7, 2019
Superbugs in the Anthropocene: A Profit-Driven Plague
Click here to access article by Ian Angus from Monthly Review.
The subject of superbugs is not new, but this author explains why such antibiotic-resistant bugs have appeared.
The subject of superbugs is not new, but this author explains why such antibiotic-resistant bugs have appeared.
Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) is a global health crisis driven by a pharmaceutical and health care system that puts profit before people. In addition to devastating climate change, the Anthropocene may be defined by epidemics that medicine cannot cure.But this was not inevitable. As Angus further explains:
Those who hailed the first antibiotics as miracle drugs were not wrong. What those chemicals could have been was a way to work with nature, to use natural processes to overcome diseases that had plagued us for thousands of years. Used with appropriate humility and careful stewardship, in conjunction with a global drive to eradicate the conditions that cause infectious diseases, penicillin and its successors could have been boons to humanity for centuries. But that would have required a radically different economy and society.With ruling capitalist classes' obsession to obtain profits instead of human welfare, such a result was inevitable along with all the other assaults on our habitat that has produced the threats of climate destabilization, environmental pollution, and species extinctions.
Capitalism always operates in the short term and its defenders always insist that new technology will solve any problems that might arise. For several decades, antibiotics seemed to confirm that superstition—for every drug that stopped working, new ones were discovered. But that did not last. The early discoveries were low-hanging fruit and searching the higher branches has been hard and largely unsuccessful.
Mainstream economists like to claim that the market solves all—if there is a need, customer demand will produce solutions. But today, when bacteria have found ways to resist every available antibiotic, most pharmaceutical companies have abandoned the search for others. Not because new antibiotics would not be profitable, but because they would not be profitable enough. Big Pharma makes double-digit profits from drugs it sells for thousands of dollars a dose to patients who must take them frequently for many years. Antibiotics just do not fit that business model.
Wednesday, June 5, 2019
Video: “Plutocracy V: Subterranean Fire”. Capitalism and the Historical Trampling of the Working Class
Click here to access this article by Kim Petersen and a nearly two hour film that portrays accurately the true history of workers in the USA. (This post has been forwarded to me by an alert activist.)
This history has been expunged from history classes in public schools and probably most private schools. If you want to recover what our capitalist masters have censored from our worker history, you simply must view this film.
This history has been expunged from history classes in public schools and probably most private schools. If you want to recover what our capitalist masters have censored from our worker history, you simply must view this film.
Articles recommended for Wednesday, June 5, 2019
- Unstable polar glaciers lose ice ever faster by Tim Radford from Climate News Network.
- [Small investor] Americans Should Be Gravely Concerned with this Wall Street Court Case by Pam Martens and Russ Martens from their blog Wall Street on Parade.
- Media Gloats About Censoring Opinions of 37% of Americans by Ted Rall from The Unz Review.
- More Police Raids As War On Journalism Escalates Worldwide by Australian Caitlin Johnstone from her blog.
- Rachel Maddow's Full Meltdown Over Julian Assange! featuring satiric comedian Lee Camp on RT (via YouTube) ridiculing America's favorite mainstream pundit, Rachel Maddow.
Tuesday, June 4, 2019
Dr. McPherson explains AME at Open Secrets Book Store, San Rafael, CA April 23, 2019
Listen via YouTube his nearly 82 minute address and some questions that he responds to:
The ecosocialist path to 1.5°C sustainability
Click here to access article by Richard Smith from Real-World Economics Review Blog. (I wrote up an extensive commentary on this article, but lost it somehow. This is the reason for this rather late post.)
Here is the latest article by Smith who has co-founded System Change not Climate Change and whose work entitled "Capitalism and the Destruction of Life on Earth: Six Theses on Saving the Humans" forms one the basic foundations for my blog (the other is Power and Powerlessness by Susan Rosenthal).
Because Dr. Richard Smith is a specialist in the physical sciences and having been educated at an American university, he is limited in his understanding of what it takes to overthrow a well-entrenched social-economic system and the ruling class that benefits from it. If after reading his article, you still believe that the ruling capitalist class will accept his proposals, I have a bridge to sell you (def.).
I am convinced that our ruling masters have been so addicted to their system which has delivered to them so much power and wealth that they are completely unfit to accept such proposals and act on them. The dire environmental threats we are now facing were well-known to them in the 1970s, and since then our masters have only promised to do something much like an alcoholic who promises to quit drinking (alcoholic beverages). It was clear to many activists in the 1970s that only a revolution could save humans; and I held out hope that the events in the 1960s and 70s (the numerous assassinations, the Anti-Vietnam War Movement, Civil Rights Movement, etc) would enable a revolutionary movement to form and grow. Obviously this did not happen.
Then I began a blog 10 years ago posting articles that I imagined might alarm people sufficiently to create a revolutionary movement. That did not happen. All we have now are the Extinction Rebellion and the Green New Deal movements; and as revealed by Cory Morningstar in her excellent series entitled "The Manufacturing of Greta Thunberg", these movements are led by capitalists or their agents to insure that the rising chorus of environmental concern does not interfere with "business as usual", and hopefully will provide even greater opportunities for more products, such as electric cars, in order to reap ever greater profits and power.
As I have recently quoted Karl Rove, a prime influential in the Bush Jr. administration, it reveals the secret to the capitalist success to maintain their rule in spite of the fact that it can only end in the extinction as humans and many other species:
Here is the latest article by Smith who has co-founded System Change not Climate Change and whose work entitled "Capitalism and the Destruction of Life on Earth: Six Theses on Saving the Humans" forms one the basic foundations for my blog (the other is Power and Powerlessness by Susan Rosenthal).
Because Dr. Richard Smith is a specialist in the physical sciences and having been educated at an American university, he is limited in his understanding of what it takes to overthrow a well-entrenched social-economic system and the ruling class that benefits from it. If after reading his article, you still believe that the ruling capitalist class will accept his proposals, I have a bridge to sell you (def.).
I am convinced that our ruling masters have been so addicted to their system which has delivered to them so much power and wealth that they are completely unfit to accept such proposals and act on them. The dire environmental threats we are now facing were well-known to them in the 1970s, and since then our masters have only promised to do something much like an alcoholic who promises to quit drinking (alcoholic beverages). It was clear to many activists in the 1970s that only a revolution could save humans; and I held out hope that the events in the 1960s and 70s (the numerous assassinations, the Anti-Vietnam War Movement, Civil Rights Movement, etc) would enable a revolutionary movement to form and grow. Obviously this did not happen.
Then I began a blog 10 years ago posting articles that I imagined might alarm people sufficiently to create a revolutionary movement. That did not happen. All we have now are the Extinction Rebellion and the Green New Deal movements; and as revealed by Cory Morningstar in her excellent series entitled "The Manufacturing of Greta Thunberg", these movements are led by capitalists or their agents to insure that the rising chorus of environmental concern does not interfere with "business as usual", and hopefully will provide even greater opportunities for more products, such as electric cars, in order to reap ever greater profits and power.
As I have recently quoted Karl Rove, a prime influential in the Bush Jr. administration, it reveals the secret to the capitalist success to maintain their rule in spite of the fact that it can only end in the extinction as humans and many other species:
We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.Rove means by this quote that the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire has created an updated version of fascism that includes the ubiquitous control of all significant ideological institutions by infiltrating agents in all media corporations, academia, and even Hollywood to create our understanding of the world--a comprehensive false consciousness. Now most people are led around like dumb sheep into the chutes of nuclear war annihilation or into the nightmare of climate destabilization. Honestly, when I look at all the facts, they won! But, as we shall soon see, it is a Pyrrhic victory.
Monday, June 3, 2019
The Dismemberment Of Yugoslavia 20 Years On
Click here to access article by R. S. Ahthion (he is clearly British) from Medium.
Little did the American people, who were busy amusing themselves with distractions, know that this well-doused in self-serving propaganda campaign to justify the attack on Yugoslavia in 1999 by using NATO's air force, would be the start of much more aggressive campaigns in other countries and to secure their control of the energy-rich Middle East. (But first our masters had to arrange for the 9/11 project to be accomplished to put ordinary Americans in a fighting mood.) He continues on to reveal the hypocrisies and lies of the justifying propaganda campaign.
Later Ahthion argues that "market socialism" and Yugoslavia's ties to the neoliberal institutions like the IMF and World Bank weakened and prepared the way for this nation's destruction by the Empire's army, NATO. (He refers to the Empire using the bland phrase "western nations".) He also argues that after the Soviet Union disintegrated, the directorate of the capitalist Empire ("western nations") arrogantly began more aggressive campaigns to rule the world. They no longer needed Yugoslavia to counter the Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia's brand of socialism had to be destroyed. And, as they say, the rest is history.
Little did the American people, who were busy amusing themselves with distractions, know that this well-doused in self-serving propaganda campaign to justify the attack on Yugoslavia in 1999 by using NATO's air force, would be the start of much more aggressive campaigns in other countries and to secure their control of the energy-rich Middle East. (But first our masters had to arrange for the 9/11 project to be accomplished to put ordinary Americans in a fighting mood.) He continues on to reveal the hypocrisies and lies of the justifying propaganda campaign.
Later Ahthion argues that "market socialism" and Yugoslavia's ties to the neoliberal institutions like the IMF and World Bank weakened and prepared the way for this nation's destruction by the Empire's army, NATO. (He refers to the Empire using the bland phrase "western nations".) He also argues that after the Soviet Union disintegrated, the directorate of the capitalist Empire ("western nations") arrogantly began more aggressive campaigns to rule the world. They no longer needed Yugoslavia to counter the Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia's brand of socialism had to be destroyed. And, as they say, the rest is history.
US-Iran: Inverted Reality, Real War
Click here to access article by Tony Cartalucci from New Eastern Outlook.
In an article packed with important links that support his thesis that the USA is engaging in actions that will lead to a real war while serving up propaganda that is loaded with lies. Well, as a well-acknowledged imperialist advisor to Bush, Jr., Karl Rove, once admitted that the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire was in the propaganda business of creating realities while pursing the domination of the world:
In an article packed with important links that support his thesis that the USA is engaging in actions that will lead to a real war while serving up propaganda that is loaded with lies. Well, as a well-acknowledged imperialist advisor to Bush, Jr., Karl Rove, once admitted that the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire was in the propaganda business of creating realities while pursing the domination of the world:
We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors...and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.In other, more succinct words, as a dominant actor in the capitalist world, and their ubiquitous control of nearly all media, our imperial masters will create realities that powerless critics can only study and react to.
Sunday, June 2, 2019
The Unrelenting State
Click here to access article by Craig Murray (British) from his blog.
I have been led to believe that the Empire's tenable and increasing tenuous position is expressing itself in the controllers of this Empire to increase their desperate attempts via their disinformation agents to crush those who, like Assange, have broken through their fabricated "realities" and published accounts online that totally deconstructed their "realities".
Signs of Assange's decreasing health while in the custody of the British government may be a perfect example of the desperation that is driving governments of the Empire to use extreme measures. Murray appears convinced that this is the case with Assange.
I have been led to believe that the Empire's tenable and increasing tenuous position is expressing itself in the controllers of this Empire to increase their desperate attempts via their disinformation agents to crush those who, like Assange, have broken through their fabricated "realities" and published accounts online that totally deconstructed their "realities".
Signs of Assange's decreasing health while in the custody of the British government may be a perfect example of the desperation that is driving governments of the Empire to use extreme measures. Murray appears convinced that this is the case with Assange.
I confess to feeling an amount of personal relief after his arrest that at least he would now get proper medical treatment. However there now seems to be no intention to provide that and indeed since he has been in Belmarsh his health problems have accelerated. I witnessed enough of the British state’s complicity in torture to know that this may be more than just the consequence of unintended neglect. That the most lucid man I know is now not capable of having a rational conversation is extremely alarming.
Saturday, June 1, 2019
Brainwashing in Action: Pence Hails Virtue of ‘Certain War’
Click here to access article by Finian Cunningham from Strategic Culture Foundation.
In an address to West Point military graduates, US Vice President Mike Pence told them they will one day fight for America. “It’s a virtual certainty,” said Pence who was swelling with pride as he spoke, rather than lamenting.Cunningham goes on to expose Empire propaganda for what it is: a deceptive and deceitful cover for the outright fascist commitment to the use of force to attain ever greater power and profits.
Well, at least, he is being candid.
France's Yellow Vests, State Violence and The Way Forward
Click here to access an 1:37:01 interview with "three-time French Presidential candidate, Jacques Cheminade, President of the French party Solidarité et Progrès", conducted by Dr. Kirk Meighoo (Trinidad and Tobago). (Updated at 1:10 PM CT)
I am posting this as a way of acquanting you with another independent thinker, Dr. Meighoo, whose interview with "The Sake" I posted today. But, in addition, I think the views of Jacques Cheminade, as well as Dr. Meighoo, are also insightful regarding the ongoing Yellow Vests protests and general issues facing most ordinary people today. On the subject of global warming and some other subjects, I obviously don't agree with the two.
I am posting this as a way of acquanting you with another independent thinker, Dr. Meighoo, whose interview with "The Sake" I posted today. But, in addition, I think the views of Jacques Cheminade, as well as Dr. Meighoo, are also insightful regarding the ongoing Yellow Vests protests and general issues facing most ordinary people today. On the subject of global warming and some other subjects, I obviously don't agree with the two.
Kirk Meighoo interviews the Saker on The “Russia Question” and the “New Cold War”
Click here if you wish to access the interview directly from "The Saker's" blog, A bird's eye view of the Vineyard. The interview is conducted by Kirk Meighoo (of Trinidad and Tobago and you can access his blog here), an admirer of Andrei Raevsky ("The Saker"). Meighoo succeeds in eliciting the fundamental views and background that has shaped the uniquely independent views and geopolitical analysis that Raevsky has expressed on various major issues over the past decade. I particularly want to draw attention to details provided by Raevsky at roughly 2:40m, 19:05m, and 41:20m.
Let me be clear that I always don't agree with his views, but I respect him as an independent thinker. I find it strange that he clings to the culture and religion of Orthodox Christianity.
I found it to be well worth my time and effort to listen to the entire 1:06:39 interview.
Let me be clear that I always don't agree with his views, but I respect him as an independent thinker. I find it strange that he clings to the culture and religion of Orthodox Christianity.
I found it to be well worth my time and effort to listen to the entire 1:06:39 interview.
Friday, May 31, 2019
Articles recommended for Friday, May 31, 2019
- “The X Agenda”: what does XR actually stand for? from Winter Oak (Britain).
- Assange hospitalized, ‘dagger in journalist hearts’ a 5:56m video featuring George Galloway, MP, commenting on the recent news of the persecution of Assange. Produced by RT via YouTube.
The attorney of WikiLeaks founder and journalist Julian Assange’s has revealed that he was too ill to appear in a video chat for his extradition hearing. Assange has spent the past seven weeks at Belmarsh prison, where his health has continued to deteriorate. The WikiLeaks founder faces extradition to the US over “espionage” charges dating back to 2010. Former UK MP George Galloway joins In Question to break this all down.
Aren't the wildfires early this year? I was wondering why the skies out my window in southern Minnesota were gray when the day was supposed to be sunny. But having turned on a TM weather station, I learned that the residents in the area were warned to stay inside because of the polluted air.
UN Says Assange Tortured: Join Us Live Online at 4pm
Click here to access article from Consortium News.
Julian Assange is in Belmarsh Prison hospital after his Swedish lawyer said he was too ill to carry on a conversation. Join us live for a discussion of the latest.
The 32nd webcast vigil for Julian Assange can be seen here starting on Friday at 4 pm US Eastern time [3 PM CT, 2 PM MT, and 1 PM PT], 9 PM in London, 10 pm in Europe, and 6 am Saturday in Australia for a three-hour online discussion with hosts Elizabeth Vos and Joe Lauria. [my link insertion]
Washington’s Silent Weapon for Not-so-quiet Wars. “A World Full of Dollars”, A 2019 Global Economic Crisis
Click here to access article, a re-post from November of 2018, by F. William Engdahl from Global Research.
It's clear that capitalist ruling classes who control the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire don't want a shooting war that would destroy much of their assets, but choose to defend their Empire's domination of the world by waging economic war using their control of the world's primary currency, the US dollar.
I think the directors of this capitalist Empire are desperately trying to find some way to maintain their control over the world and this is another way. But, will it work? And, what will be the consequences for ordinary people of the world who always suffer when capitalists inevitably resort to war as a means to secure their domination?
Engdahl doesn't report this, but instead places emphasis on the economies of Eurasia if the Empire wins:
One true prophet of our failure dates back to the 1960s and 70s--Phil Ochs. Examine his statements that often made it into his songs about our future. He is said to have committed suicide, but informed people dispute that. Could his death be another illustration, among many, of Sen. Chuck Schumer's warning that those who cross the CIA, the Empire's secret organization has many ways to punish them?
It's clear that capitalist ruling classes who control the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire don't want a shooting war that would destroy much of their assets, but choose to defend their Empire's domination of the world by waging economic war using their control of the world's primary currency, the US dollar.
I think the directors of this capitalist Empire are desperately trying to find some way to maintain their control over the world and this is another way. But, will it work? And, what will be the consequences for ordinary people of the world who always suffer when capitalists inevitably resort to war as a means to secure their domination?
Engdahl doesn't report this, but instead places emphasis on the economies of Eurasia if the Empire wins:
If Washington succeeds on November 4 in cutting all Iran oil exports, world (dollar) oil prices could soar above 100 dollars, adding dramatically to the developing world dollar shortage. This is war by other means. The Fed dollar strategy is acting now as a “silent weapon” for not so quiet wars. If it continues it could deal a serious setback to the growing independence of Eurasian countries around the China New Silk Road and the Russia-China-Iran alternative to the dollar system. The role of the dollar as lead global reserve currency and the ability of the Federal Reserve to control it, is a weapon of massive destruction and a strategic pillar of American superpower control. Are the nations of Eurasia or even the ECB [European Central Bank] ready to deal effectively? [my insertion]I seriously doubt that the Empire will win this war of desperation. But what is not in doubt in my mind is that we humans are doomed anyway through the machinations of our capitalist masters and our failure to take power away from them. That means to deprive them of the ownership and control of our economy and most of the world's economies.
One true prophet of our failure dates back to the 1960s and 70s--Phil Ochs. Examine his statements that often made it into his songs about our future. He is said to have committed suicide, but informed people dispute that. Could his death be another illustration, among many, of Sen. Chuck Schumer's warning that those who cross the CIA, the Empire's secret organization has many ways to punish them?
Global Poverty: How the Rich Eat the Poor and the World...[and] The Big Lies
Click here to access article by Prof. John McMurtry re-posted on Global Research (based in Canada).
It isn't often that we find modern day oracles whose perceptions reveal the truth about our existence. Maybe McMurtry was one who three years ago saw what few people saw: rich capitalists eating the poor and the world (the environment). But apparently he hasn't given up because I notice in his bio at the end of the article that he sees a cure in his most recent book entitled The Cancer Stage of Capitalism: From Crisis to Cure. I, on the other hand, am convinced that "The Big Lies" (of the agents of capitalism) won, and now it is too late to prevent our and many life forms from going the way of the Dodo bird.
We learn from Wikipedia that "It is estimated that more than 99% of all species that ever existed on Earth, amounting to over five billion species, are extinct." Why should anyone believe that human species are exempt from a similar fate (excepting those whose religion in spite of science place a special exemption on humans)? The well-trained, indoctrinated, and well paid media apologists employed by our drugged-out capitalist masters are actively trying to convince us that this threat lies in the distant future and that our masters will come up with all kinds of technological fixes to prevent this from happening. Do you believe this "Big Lie" too?
It isn't often that we find modern day oracles whose perceptions reveal the truth about our existence. Maybe McMurtry was one who three years ago saw what few people saw: rich capitalists eating the poor and the world (the environment). But apparently he hasn't given up because I notice in his bio at the end of the article that he sees a cure in his most recent book entitled The Cancer Stage of Capitalism: From Crisis to Cure. I, on the other hand, am convinced that "The Big Lies" (of the agents of capitalism) won, and now it is too late to prevent our and many life forms from going the way of the Dodo bird.
We learn from Wikipedia that "It is estimated that more than 99% of all species that ever existed on Earth, amounting to over five billion species, are extinct." Why should anyone believe that human species are exempt from a similar fate (excepting those whose religion in spite of science place a special exemption on humans)? The well-trained, indoctrinated, and well paid media apologists employed by our drugged-out capitalist masters are actively trying to convince us that this threat lies in the distant future and that our masters will come up with all kinds of technological fixes to prevent this from happening. Do you believe this "Big Lie" too?
Escaping extinction through paradigm shift
Click here to access article by Nafeez Ahmed from his blog Insurge Intelligence.
This British commentator senses that something is wrong with "the system", but only names it one time in this essay, and then identifies this system with all kinds of qualifiers: it's "contemporary neoliberal capitalism-as-we-know-it". So, one can infer that capitalism is not the problem per se (def.), but it is that we have strayed from the wonderful system our "Founding Fathers" left for us.
Maybe I am being too cynical, but I can't help it. These soft critics of capitalism were "educated", or rather trained by the system and amply rewarded; and now that it is too late, they sound the alarm and say that we need to escape "extinction through a paradigm shift", a cleaned-up intellectualization of the messy concept of revolution. I expect we will see a lot more of this type of hand-wringing in the very challenging days ahead.
This British commentator senses that something is wrong with "the system", but only names it one time in this essay, and then identifies this system with all kinds of qualifiers: it's "contemporary neoliberal capitalism-as-we-know-it". So, one can infer that capitalism is not the problem per se (def.), but it is that we have strayed from the wonderful system our "Founding Fathers" left for us.
Maybe I am being too cynical, but I can't help it. These soft critics of capitalism were "educated", or rather trained by the system and amply rewarded; and now that it is too late, they sound the alarm and say that we need to escape "extinction through a paradigm shift", a cleaned-up intellectualization of the messy concept of revolution. I expect we will see a lot more of this type of hand-wringing in the very challenging days ahead.
Thursday, May 30, 2019
Articles recommended for Thursday, May 30, 2019.
- Climate Capitalists -- this is actually a collection of relevant articles posted on Winter Oak, a British based website.
- Amid grave concerns for his health, Assange transferred to Belmarsh Prison medical wing by Oscar Grenfell from World Socialist Web Site.
- Mecca summits: Saudi Arabia is using holy sites to score political goals by Madawi al-Rasheed from Middle East Eye.
- China’s Media Wars: Not Your Average David Anymore by Grete Mautner from New Eastern Outlook.
- How Google creates your reality -- from the News with Rick Sanchez on RT via YouTube.
- The Impact of the European Parliament Election on Iran’s Foreign Policy by Mani Mehrabi from United World (based in Turkey).
Wednesday, May 29, 2019
Between the Devil and the Green New Deal
Click here to access article by Jasper Bernes, the Managing Editor of Commune, from Commune.
The author provides us with a comprehensive analysis of the Green New Deal (GND) proposed by reformers, and its potential for solving the climate crisis that is presently threatening to destroy humans and many other species. He shows convincingly, in my opinion, that the GND is a vague illusory promise to not only solve the climate crisis, but to provide universal health care, and full employment. Thus, it sounds like a campaign promise that promises everything to everyone. Further, he claims that saving capitalism and saving humans is a lie. Here are the main passages that exhibit his reasoning:
The latter explains that in addition to spewing greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide, into our atmosphere, we have also spewed other substances that act as dimmer of solar radiation that is heating up our planet Earth. So if we had the technological means to stop the heating of our planet through geoengineering, which we don't, we could easily accelerate the global warming crisis. This is a synopsis of this paradox. But I should let the biologist and generalist (of the physical sciences) Guy McPherson explain this paradox in his own words:
Civilization has a broad concept has at its core meaning a desire to understand our human existence. To suggest that we could have saved ourselves by remaining ignorant and scrounging around looking for plants that we can dig up and animals to kill in order to eat and survive is completely absurd.
The author provides us with a comprehensive analysis of the Green New Deal (GND) proposed by reformers, and its potential for solving the climate crisis that is presently threatening to destroy humans and many other species. He shows convincingly, in my opinion, that the GND is a vague illusory promise to not only solve the climate crisis, but to provide universal health care, and full employment. Thus, it sounds like a campaign promise that promises everything to everyone. Further, he claims that saving capitalism and saving humans is a lie. Here are the main passages that exhibit his reasoning:
To replace current US energy consumption with renewables, you’d need to devote at least 25–50 percent of the US landmass to solar, wind, and biofuels, according to the estimates made by Vaclav Smil, the grand doyen of energy studies. Is there room for that and expanding human habitation? For that and pasture for a massive meat and dairy industry? For that and the forest we’d need to take carbon out of the air? Not if capitalism keeps doing the thing which it can’t not keep doing—grow. The law of capitalism is the law of more—more energy, more stuff, more materials. It introduces efficiencies only to more effectively despoil the planet. There is no solution to the climate crisis which leaves capitalism’s compulsions to growth intact. And this is what the Green New Deal, a term coined by that oily neoliberal, Thomas Friedman, doesn’t address. It thinks you can keep capitalism, keep growth, but remove the deleterious consequences. The death villages are here to tell you that you can’t. No roses will bloom on that bush.
It’s easy to get lost in the weeds here and lose sight of the essential. In each of these scenarios, on each of these sad, warming planets, the Green New Deal fails because capitalism. Because, in capitalism, a small class of owners and managers, in competition with itself, finds itself forced to make a set of narrow decisions about where to invest and in what, establishing prices, wages, and other fundamental determinants of the economy. Even if these owners wanted to spare us the drowned cities and billion migrants of 2070, they could not. They would be undersold and bankrupted by others. Their hands are tied, their choices constrained, by the fact that they must sell at the prevailing rate or perish. It is the class as a whole that decides, not its individual members. This is why the sentences of Marxists (and Marx) so often treat capital as agent rather than object. The will towards relentless growth, and with it increasing energy use, is not chosen, it is compelled, a requirement of profitability where profitability is a requirement of existence.To those who believe that the GND can serve as a "transitional program", he writes:
If you build a party and other institutions around the idea of solving climate change within capitalism, do not be surprised when some large fraction of that party resists your attempt to convert it into a revolutionary organ. The history of socialist and communist parties is reason for caution. Even after the leaders of the Second International betrayed its members by sending them to slaughter each other in the First World War, and even after a huge fraction split to form revolutionary organizations in the wake of the Russian Revolution, many continued to support it, out of habit and because it had built a thick network of cultural and social structures to which they were bound by a million and one ties. Beware that, in pursuit of the transitional program, you do not build up the forces of your future enemy.He then reaches this rational conclusion:
We cannot keep things the same and change everything. We need a revolution, a break with capital and its killing compulsions, though what that looks like in the twenty-first century is very much an open question. A revolution that had as its aim the flourishing of all human life would certainly mean immediate decarbonization, a rapid decrease in energy use for those in the industrialized global north, no more cement, very little steel, almost no air travel, walkable human settlements, passive heating and cooling, a total transformation of agriculture, and a diminishment of animal pasture by an order of magnitude at least. All of this is possible, but not if we continue to shovel one half of all the wealth produced on the planet into the maw of capital, not if we continue to sacrifice some fraction of each generation by sending them into the pits, not if we continue to allow those whose only aim is profit to decide how we live.But what if revolution were possible to overturn the capitalist rule and restore ordinary humans to exercise control over their planet, and these people became instantly highly informed instead of dumbed-down as to the threat of global warming? Well, as McPherson argues, we would still have, what has become known as, McPherson's Paradox to deal with.
For now, a revolution is not on the horizon. We’re stuck between the devil and the green new deal and I can hardly blame anyone for committing themselves to the hope at hand rather than ambient despair. Perhaps work on legislative reforms will mean the difference between the unthinkable and the merely unbearable. But let’s not lie to each other.
The latter explains that in addition to spewing greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide, into our atmosphere, we have also spewed other substances that act as dimmer of solar radiation that is heating up our planet Earth. So if we had the technological means to stop the heating of our planet through geoengineering, which we don't, we could easily accelerate the global warming crisis. This is a synopsis of this paradox. But I should let the biologist and generalist (of the physical sciences) Guy McPherson explain this paradox in his own words:
The only problem I have with McPherson's analysis is his targeting "civilization" as the culprit that has led humans to this critical point. McPherson's has been trained in the physical sciences, but his weaknesses in the liberal arts is evident. He doesn't know of the history comprising the last 10,000 years of one ruling class after another dominating the rest of their societies, and likewise the efforts of ordinary people both successful and unsuccessful at eliminating one ruling class after another. However, revolutionary efforts at eliminating the rule of capitalists has apparently been too much for ordinary humans to accomplish. The latest and most dominant transnational ruling class, the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire, has used the advancements of knowledge to avert any further revolution. But in their obsessive concern to amass profits and power, they have destroyed the habitat that supports human life and that of many other species.
Civilization has a broad concept has at its core meaning a desire to understand our human existence. To suggest that we could have saved ourselves by remaining ignorant and scrounging around looking for plants that we can dig up and animals to kill in order to eat and survive is completely absurd.
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