Day: December 3, 2018

Black Agenda Report 3 December 2018: Activists Demand Sanders Oppose Militarism; Pro-Cop Chicago Councillors to Face Challenge; Judge to Rule on Mumia Appeal

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3 December 2018 — Black Agenda Report

Activists Demand Sanders Take Stand Against Militarism 

David Swanson, one of 100 activists and intellectuals that sent an open letter calling on Sen. Bernie Sanders to finally tackle the US war budget, said “It’s incoherent to have a public policy that ignores over 60 percent of federal discretionary spending” that goes to the military. “He is in the right place on ending the US war in Yemen,” said Swanson, publisher of the influential web site WarIsACrime.org, but otherwise talks “as if the military doesn’t exist.”
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In the Face of Extinction, We Have a Moral Obligation By Dahr Jamail

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3 November 2018 — Truthout

[Things have gotten so dire that even the famous naturalist Sir David Attenborough is now supporting acts of ‘civil disobedience’ (BBC TV News 3 December, 2018). When asked, whether he supported Extinction/Rebellion closing five London bridges across the Thames last month, he (reluctantly) supported them and ‘breaking the law’. The BBC online version of the same story, at the Climate Conference in Poland, failed to mention this fact. As you’ll see from this essay, it appears that Dahr “surrendered” and accepts the “inevitable” that faces us, extinction (his words). So, is it too late to reverse the process of global warming and the destruction of our biosphere? Are we on an unstoppable runaway train and if so, what’s the point of Dahr publishing this essay? Read on…WB]

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The blueprint for dismantling the NHS By Youssef El-Gingihy

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3 December 2018 — OurNHS

Nostalgia won’t save the NHS from the encroachment of market forces – only a broad-based mass movement can do that.

Since the first edition of How to Dismantle the NHS in 10 Easy Steps, we’ve had the junior doctors’ strike, the Conservative victory in the 2015 general election, the Corbyn phenomenon, the unexpected Brexit vote and the arguably even more unexpected loss of the Conservative majority in 2017.

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Father of Green Revolution in India Rejects GM Crops By Colin Todhunter

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3 December 2018 — Counter Currents

M.S. Swaminathan

Genetically modified (GM) cotton in India is a failure. India should reject GM mustard. And like the Green Revolution, GM agriculture poses risks and is unsustainable. Regulatory bodies are dogged by incompetency and conflicts of interest. GM crops should therefore be banned.

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COUNT BASIE Swingin’ the Blues, 1941 HOT big band swing jazz

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3 December 2018 — YouTube

COUNT BASIE Excerpts from the oddly titled “Dance of the Gremlins” (thanks to mfb25890 & mbdavis10025 for the song I.D.), and “Swingin’ the Blues”, c. 1941. This is some of the HOTTEST big band swing of the 40s! Don Byas on tenor, Harry “Sweets” Edison & then later Buck Clayton, trumpet, Jo Jones drums.

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Italy, the EU, and the Fall of the Roman Empire By Alastair Crooke

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3 December 2018 — Strategic Culture Foundation

The EU leadership is trying to contain a crisis that is emerging at increasing speed: this challenge comprises the rise of contumacious states (i.e. the UK, Poland, Hungary and Italy), or of defiant, historic ‘cultural blocs’ (i.e. Catalonia) – all of whom are explicitly disenchanted with the notion of some coerced convergence towards a uniform EU-administered ‘order’, with its austere monetary ‘disciplines’. They even dismiss the EU’s claim to be, somehow, a part of a greater civilizational order of moral values.

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Who profits from the incident in the Strait of Kertch? By Valentin Vasilescu

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3 December 2018 — Voltaire Network

Valentin Vasilescu, an expert on military affairs, comments on the role of the Israeli and US reconnaissance planes in the incident at Kertch. These facts have been confirmed by the Russian FSB (which the Russian Federation’s Coast-Guards depend on) and which has disclosed videos recorded during the interrogations of the captured Ukrainian marines and a document seized on board one of their ships.
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The Guardian/Politico Psyop Against WikiLeaks By Caitlin Johnstone

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4 December 2018 — Caitlin Johnstone

The Guardian/Politico Psyop Against WikiLeaks

For the first few hours after any new “bombshell” Russia-gate story comes out, my social media notifications always light up with poorly written posts by liberal establishment loyalists saying things like “HAHAHA @caitoz this proves you wrong now will you FINALLY stop denying Russian collusion???” Then, when people start actually analyzing that story and noting that it comes nowhere remotely close to proving that Donald Trump colluded with the Russian government to steal the 2016 election, those same people always forget to come back afterward and admit to me that they were wrong again.

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Photo essay: Australian students strike for climate action

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2 December 2018 — Climate & Capitalism

Save Our Future!

Thousands of Australian primary and high school students walked out of school on November 30 to demand real action on climate change. 

Protests took place in around 30 cities and regional towns, with Sydney and Melbourne drawing around 10,000 people each.

Here, courtesy of Green Left Weekly, is what some of the protests looked like.

Sydney 
Photos by  Zebedee Parkes

See the rest over at Climate & Capitalism

Tanzania Orders Destruction of Monsanto / Gates’ GM Trials Due to Illegal Use for Pro-GM Propaganda

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23 November 2018 — African Centre for Biodiversity

Tanzanian civil society organisations (CSOs) welcome the decision of the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Mathew Mtigumwe, to bring an immediate stop to all ongoing GM field trials taking place in the country. These are under the auspices of the Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) project which includes Monsanto, the Gates Foundation and national research centres. This decision has since been verified by the newly appointed Minister of Agriculture, Japheth Hasunga in latest media reports.

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Scientists Warn the UN of Capitalism’s Imminent Demise By Dr Nafeez Ahmed

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3 December 2018 — True Publica

Capitalism as we know it is over. So suggests a new report commissioned by a group of scientists appointed by the UN Secretary-General. The main reason? We’re transitioning rapidly to a radically different global economy, due to our increasingly unsustainable exploitation of the planet’s environmental resources.
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John Pilger discusses his “The Power of Documentary” film festival By Richard Phillips

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3 December 2018 — WSWS

“Well-paid journalists have become gormless cyphers of the propaganda of war”

Veteran investigative journalist, documentary filmmaker and author, John Pilger, is currently hosting a special film festival in Australia. Entitled The Power of the Documentary: Breaking the Silence, the festival is on at Riverside Theatres in the western-Sydney suburb of Parramatta and at the Museum of Contemporary Art at Circular Quay in central Sydney. It will run until December 9.

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The West Slips Down Another Step By Patrick Armstrong

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3 December 2018 — Strategic Culture Foundation

There is much on the Internet these days about documents allegedly hacked by Anonymous; these documents belong to the “Integrity Initiative” and describe a multi-country effort, funded by London and Washington, to counter “Russian propaganda” and “fake news”. Since the initial story broke, a good deal of confusion has been laid down: Wikileaks is doubtful, and Anonymous itself is being evasive. On the other hand, Integrity Initiative doesn’t entirely deny.

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Killing the Prospects for Arms Control: Selected Stories

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2 December 2018 — Global Research

US Lawmakers Introduce Bill to Kill Prospects for Arms Control

By Andrei Akulov

New START limits the US and Russia each to no more than 1,550 deployed strategic warheads and 700 deployed strategic delivery vehicles. Effective since 2011, the agreement covers a 10-year period until February 2021 with the possibility of a five-year extension. Read more…
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