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.

Posts that I especially recommend today: Friday, January 31, 2020

Blogger's Note: Because the bigger, more imminent threat (more than the pollution of carbon) to the human species is a global nuclear war, I am forced to post many articles related to world geo-political events in what I think is now the start of the disintegration of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire. We live in a very dangerous world.

• Human Extinction Now Imminent and Inevitable? by Robert J. Burrowes from Wall Street International Magazine.

• Britain leaves the European Union: Against nationalism, For the United Socialist States of Europe! from World Socialist Web Site.

• Brexit and the world: The risks and opportunities for non-European countries from United World (independent analysts based in Turkey).

• Did the US just concede defeat in China tech war? by David P. Goldman from Asia Times. 

• Globalization – A sneaky overview by Naresh Jotwani from A bird's eye view of the Vineyard.

• U.S in the Middle-East: Preparing for Disaster by "The Saker" (Andrei Raevsky) from The Unz Review. 

• Why we need a socialist solution to climate change by John Molyneux from Global Ecosocialist Network. (I now think it is too late for this.)

• The Merchants of Death by "FD" from The Internationalists. 

• Rewriting History of World War II Is Ominous Warning from the editors of Strategic Culture Foundation. (The victors always re-write history.)

• Nobody Sets Out To Become A War Propagandist. It Just Sort Of Happens. By Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog. 

• American Dream meets the Chinese Dream: A Nightmare on Fuyao Avenue by Dyjbas from Internationalist Communist Tendency.

• FBI probes use of Israeli firm's spyware in personal and government hacks from The New Arab. 

• Trump Is A Symptom Of A Larger Problem from The Jimmy Dore Show (via YouTube).

• Saudi, UAE trying to partition Iraq – fmr Pentagon official from RTAmerica. "The US has stopped all weapon deliveries to Iraq over security concerns, according to an Air Force spokesman. Former Pentagon official Michael Maloof weighs in."

• Erdoğan’s Outburst Against Russia Reveals Frustration by "InfoBrics" from The Duran (based in Cyprus).