7 June 2019 — Caitlin Johnstone
Hi everyone! I’ve never featured a guest blog before, but when I saw this excellent article by Elizabeth Lea Vos I immediately asked her for permission to republish it on my platform. For months I’ve seen supporters of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks stressing out about the question, “What can I do?” Vos has put together the most thorough answer to that question that I have seen thus far, and everyone should read and be aware of it. Enjoy! ~ CJ
6 June 2019 — New Eastern Outlook
Year after year, month after month, I see two sides of the world; two extremes which are getting more and more disconnected:
I see great cities like Homs in Syria, reduced to horrifying ruins. I see Kabul and Jalalabad in Afghanistan, fragmented by enormous concrete walls intended to protect NATO occupation armies and their local puppets. I see monstrous environmental devastation in places such as Indonesian Borneo, Peruvian gold mining towns, or the by now almost uninhabitable atoll island-nations of Oceania: Tuvalu, Kiribati or Marshall Islands.
6 June 2019 — Global Research
The U.S. military attacked three Syrian oil tankers, destroying all and killing four of their drivers. The tankers were carrying Syrian oil, pumped from Syrian oil wells, and driving on Syrian territory. The U.S. justified the attack and murders while enforcing the U.S. sanctions against Syria, which prohibit the purchase or importation of any oil. The oil was pumped from Syrian oil wells under the occupation of the U.S. ally in Syria and then sold to the Syrian government, for the needs of the civilians in the regions under Syrian control.
4 June 2019 — Mint Press
The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), a self-described “human rights” NGO (non-governmental organization), has been circulating a June 1 press release ostensibly urging the return of democracy to Venezuela.
6 June 2019 — RT
Historian Peter Kuznick joins Paul Jay to discuss the role of Ford, GM, and other industrialists in rearming Germany and supporting Hitler’s rise to power (inc. transcript)
On June 6, 1944, Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy, France, opening a second front against German fascism. The largest contingents of fighters were British, American, and Canadian. This battle has been depicted in movies and books as the decisive turning point of World War II, a ferocious struggle against a superior enemy. But as The Real News Network’s Paul Jay and author Peter Kuznick discuss, D-Day was also the moment where the United States’ opposition to communism could no longer outweigh its tacit acceptance of Nazism, and the U.S. industrialists who helped rearm Germany after World War I could no longer profit from Hitler’s Germany.
7 June 2019 — The New Dark Age
There may be some duplication due to cross-posting and may be updated throughout the day
US belief that China wants military bases in Arctic ‘totally baseless’ – Beijing’s envoy to Moscow
https://www.rt.com/news/461302-china-russia-sophie-co-ambassador/
Putin: Moscow, Beijing agree on building several more Russia-designed nuclear power units
http://tass.com/economy/1062602
5 June 2019 — Global Research
By Eric Toussaint and Wilder Pérez Varona
Wilder Pérez Varona (WPV): My first question to you is about the issue of bureaucracy.
Before 1917 the issue of the socialist transition is one thing. The 1848 Revolution, the Paris Commune (which is a crucial episode, but of a momentary nature) were always limited to matters of theory, principles, projections (we know that Marx and Engels were reluctant to be very detailed about these projections). The Revolution of 1917 placed this problem of transition in another way, on to a different level; a level that involved essentially practical elements. One of them involved the issue of bureaucracy, which gradually appeared throughout the 1920s. On the issue of bureaucracy as it was being developed in those circumstances, how do you define the function of bureaucracy by according it an autonomous role of such a relevant actor at the level of the class triad: the working class / peasantry and the bourgeoisie? Why this important place? I would also like you to say something on the distinctness of “class”. You are cautious to talk about the bureaucracy as a class; however, other authors do.
6 June 2019 — Moon of Alabama
Each D-Day anniversary the same question comes up. Who defeated Germany and its allies? The answer is, without any doubt, the Soviet Union.
5 June 2019 — Climate & Capitalism
Book Review
A compelling first-hand study shows that fishing is a deadly occupation because capitalism forces workers to take terrible risks in order to survive. Penny McCall Howard
ENVIRONMENT, LABOUR AND CAPITALISM AT SEA
‘Working the ground’ in Scotland
Manchester University Press, 2018
reviewed by Martin Empson
Working at sea in the fishing industry is 115 times more dangerous than the UK average. It’s a startling statistic, that is usually explained by the idea that the sea is “dangerous.” Penny McCall Howard’s important book is a detailed examination of why this explanation is incorrect .
6 June 2019 — RT
Slavoj Zizek is a cultural philosopher. He’s a senior researcher at the Institute for Sociology and Philosophy at the University of Ljubljana and Global Distinguished Professor of German at New York University.
After last week’s European Parliament elections has everything changed or has absolutely nothing changed?
There were some spectacular details, such as the crushing defeat of both main parties in the United Kingdom. However, these should not blind us to the basic fact that nothing really big and surprising happened. Yes, the populist new right did make progress, but it remains far from a prevailing trend.
5 June 2019 — Global Research
The European Union voted last month but not one of its 21st century war crimes and war criminals were a topic of conversation. The real possibility of a nuclear war between the EU and Russia wasn’t an issue either. The great European economic crime – bank bailouts and austerity – was brushed aside too. Instead the talk was about an abstract parliament of an even more abstract Europe. Like children in a playground, the 400 million EU voters are oblivious to the world around them. And so they voted in favor of the status quo.
4 June 2019 — The Saker
by Ollie Richardson for The Saker Blog
Over the past five years my work in the information space has been consciously aimed at explaining why the Russian military does and doesn’t do certain things, whether it be in relation to Ukraine, Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Venezuela, etc, and why demanding that Putin bombs everything in sight is exactly what the CIA wants so-called “pro-Russians” to say. Yet I haven’t exhausted (maybe I never will exhaust it?) this topic because it is so vast and, ultimately, complex. And it is because of this seemingly insurmountable complexity that questions like “Why doesn’t Russia liberate all of Ukraine”, “Why doesn’t Russia save Donetsk and Lugansk in the same way it saved Crimea?”, “Why doesn’t Russia boot America out of Syria?”, etc are asked on social media.
The New Dark Age 