Tuesday, January 01, 2019

1 January - My Feedly! - 2 of 2

Sardonicky

I don't think Lake Superior University has come out with its annual list of overused Words of the Year yet, but I am placing my own bets on "chaos." Trump Chaos got 185 million results from a Google search on Christmas night. Ripped from the latest headlines: The Ghost of Trump Chaos Future -- New York Times. Trump Chaos Pervades Holiday Season -- The Hill. Michael Moore Says Trump Chaos Makes Hi
I wrote three New York Times comments this week: two of them to mark the deaths of a couple of long-time fellow commenters, and the third to critique yet another beating of a dead horse by dismal economics pundit Paul Krugman. To give Krugman credit, he boldly buried his fellow dishonest economists without mentioning even one of them by his or her actual name. How can I put this delicately? Krugm
Miserly person that I am, I somewhat recycling last year's Christmas gift to my fellow Sardonickists, with just a few Santa-like tweaks to the side of the nose to make this post seem new and shiny. I wrote previously , and at some length, that in the good old 19th century days of mass immigration, back when Lady Liberty's "give me your tired, your poor" mantra was actually taken literally, Christ
The New York Times and Washington Post and other corporate media outlets are all pushing new documents today pushing the same old Russiagate propaganda. The reports, contracted by a "bipartisan" Congress, seem subtly designed to both shame Black voters who failed to turn out for Hillary Clinton and thus unwittingly gave the 2016 election to Donald Trump, and to gaslight supporters of Bernie Sande
Get me rewrite, pronto! In their haste to anoint a replacement for Donald Trump, Democrats in exile are unintentionally acting a lot more transparent than their corporate donors might like. Take, for example, Obama State Department and White House alumna Jen Psaki, who now does P.R. for the oligarchic Carnegie Endowment for International Peace along with a regular gig as a CNN contributor. Lest y
Although 70 percent of Americans now favor Medicare For All, the Knowledge Class is warning us to hold our horses for at least another couple of decades, by which time many of the uninsured and underinsured will be prematurely and conveniently dead. If climate change doesn't get us, untreated disease and despair should do the job in the efficient manner so beloved of the neoliberal thought collec
A longer school day? Let’s get serious. Sent to the Providence Journal, Dec. 20, 2018. To the editor: It is inspiring to read that the Central Falls Superintendent is pushing to lengthen the school day 60 to 90 minutes, in order to increase test scores. But 60-90 minutes is not enough. Let’s get serious and consider an even longer day. A study published in the Journal of Irreproducible Results co
It's time for your office holiday party. Joy to the world. Too many folks come to me after the holidays and tell me their holiday bonus was a firing due to something they did at the party. Here's how to survive without getting fired. 1. Drinking : The number one way to get fired is to drink too much. Most of the office party firings I see are alcohol-related in some way. First of all, if you are
Congratulations to all you newly elected officials! Guess what? Most of your voters are also workers. And it's the workers who have felt left out by politicians lately, so it's time to do something to help workers in your state. Here are a few suggestions of pro-employee legislation you might want to take up in your state to help working people: State-run retirement plans for private sector : Some
I predicted that 2018 would not be a good year overall for employees, and I was right. Here's how my predictions turned out. Sexual harassment : I predicted that, despite all the brouhaha on #MeToo and sexual harassment, no new legislation would pass and that there would be backlash, and lots of it. There was no way I could predict Kavanaugh though. On the federal level, there was no new legislati
First Google had a bunch of employees walk out to protest sexual harassment arbitration, and it rescinded its arbitration policy. Now other companies are following as employees push back. Facebook, Microsoft, Uber, Square, Airbnb and eBay have all rescinded or said they will rescind their forced arbitration agreements for sexual harassment claims. It isn't just tech firms that are getting pressure
This is a guest post from Kate Neville , an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and School of the Environment at the University of Toronto, and Matthew Hoffmann , a Professor in the Department of Political Science and Co-Director of the Environmental Governance Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto . [1] Things are not good.
The United States is closing in on the 18 th anniversary of its first wartime death in Afghanistan, that of CIA operative Mike Spann, providing a melancholy opportunity to emphasize the role of grand strategy as a policymaking tool. To this end, I ask why the United States has done relatively poorly in so many of its so-called small wars, wars against much weaker adversaries. Its poor record is s
This is a guest post by Lahoma Thomas , a doctoral candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto. This piece on reflexivity and positionality emerged from a panel she organized at APSA 2016, titled: “Race in the Field: Understanding How Identity Frames Field Research”and has evolved as one of her primary research agendas. Follow her on Twitter at @LAHOMAthomas . Th
The United States is the safest country in the world. It has vast ocean moats to the east and west and weak friendly neighbors to the north and south. It has sufficient resources to shun global trade should it so choose. It is also the wealthiest and strongest country the world has ever seen. The heaviest foreign policy costs it has paid in the 20th and 21st centuries have come from self-inflicte
Dillon Tatum had an interesting post here last week, calling for a “radical” international relations. As Tatum notes, “radicalism intervenes in the political domain with the goal of fundamental transformation” and IR could function similarly. What would that look like? I think many would imagine a radical IR as radical in its approaches and methods. That is, scholars would critically examine bias
Progressives and liberals were quick to praise President George H.W. Bush when he passed away. Some of this was basic human decency. Some of this was honest admiration for a masterful foreign policy practitioner and a decent man. But some of it felt strategic, a way to point out all of Trump’s failings. Highlighting Bush’s virtues emphasized the issues with Trump and his Presidency. The fact that

The Earth and Man: Setting the Stage

I don't feel there is anything of scientific value (other than as illustration of scientific incompetence of the "experts", and mass delusion on the part of the public) in the ongoing political climate debates, but in the interest of informing the many who still do not understand the most basic underpinnings of the debate (or war), I have made the following response, on the American Thinker site,
I have submitted the following comment to the American Thinker site, in response to an article about the degeneration of Scientific American magazine into a kind of "church organ" of materialistic science and, now, the Insane Left brought to political correctness by Barack Obama. I am of course most mindful of the sorry state of science today, not the political dissolution: First there was Charle

The Ergosphere

Dear Dell Computer, We used to have a good relationship. I've purchased Dell laptops several times, as well as one well-loved monitor which met an ugly end in a moving accident. My main machine 2 computers ago was a Dell laptop on which I installed some flavor of Linux I've long since forgotten. It installed from an ISO I downloaded and ran like a dream for years until it experienced some

thwap's schoolyard

So there are two "progressive" video bloggers in the USA who I've been following. The first one I encountered is Sam Seder's " Majority Report " and the second one is Jimmy Dore's " The Jimmy Dore Show ." I've since discovered that Seder was originally the co-host of the show with Janeane Garofalo and that it ran on " Air America " and Dore began as part of an ensemble cast of a show on " The You

Vagabond Scholar

(The Best Posts of the Year, Chosen by the Bloggers Themselves) (A Jon Swift lolcat.) Welcome to the 2018 edition! I hope this year ends on a hopeful note. This tradition was started by the late Jon Swift/Al Weisel, who left behind some excellent satire, but was also a nice guy and a strong supporter of small blogs. As usual, I'll quote Lance Mannion, who nicely explains: Our late and much
What's to be done about American conservatives and the Republican Party? For decades, they've stood for plutocracy and bigotry, and using the latter to achieve the former. Almost none of their policies help Americans as a whole; instead, their policies benefit a select few, most often those who are already rich and powerful. Conservatives and Republicans serve their donors, not the majority of
Many signs indicate that 2019 will be a breakthrough year in the battle against the satan-worshiping Khazarian mafia. Not only have mass arrests begun, but the mass-murdering part of the pharmacidical/medical establishment is finally being taken out as well. Another obvious sign it is no longer business as usual comes from the fact that the U.S. military is being withdrawn from Syria, Afghanistan
Last week Cardinal George Pell was found guilty of sexually abusing children by an Australian court and was subsequently fired by Pope Francis because he was “elderly.” https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2018/12/12/cardinal-pell-top-advisor-pope-francis-found-guilty-historical-sexual-offenses This is huge news in the secret world of finance, because Pell was the person in charge of financial m
Many signs and confirmations from highly placed sources indicate that a reboot of Western civilization is being planned for 2019. The shutdown of the U.S. government over the holidays, for example, has nothing to do with building a wall, and everything to do with a financial reboot and upcoming military tribunals. However, what is coming is about much more than just rounding up the criminals who
Since the death of Nazi Fourth Reich Fuhrer George Bush Sr., the battle for control of the world’s financial system, and thus of the process of deciding humanity’s future, is now centering on control of the SWIFT international interbank electronic transfer system. A final battle is taking place between the 13 bloodlines which have traditionally controlled the planet, and the meritocratic Gnostic
In what future historians will look back on as a huge watershed event, the P2 Freemasons—worshipers of the Black Sun and creators of both fascism and communism—are suing for peace, White Dragon Society sources say. This, coming with the removal of the Rothschild family from control of central banks, means the world is about to enter uncharted historical waters. The P2 Freemasons are proposing tha
Greetings from Australia, Ben: Thank you so much for the narrative you provide us with on a weekly basis and for your direct involvement in the demise of “malevolents” by attempting to bring equality to those presently incarnated on this beautiful planet. The pictures below are of a naturally occurring phenomenon that usually occurs at the end of the dry season, when the atmosphere is all but dev
That's just horribly wrong. For the business boys. As for the children and the poor . . . . The horror! Steve, Gary: Couldn’t you just put a new tax on food stamps or check-cashing? You’re killin’ us. This could not possibly get worse, except if you hadn’t just engaged in the biggest transfer of wealth in the wrong direction in human history. Whaaaa, it can? Under the new tax law,

What Is Sustainable

[Note: This is the fifth sample from my rough draft of a far from finished new book, Wild Free & Happy. I don’t plan on reviewing more books for a while. My blog is home to reviews of 199 books, and you are very welcome to explore them. The Search field on the right side will find words in the full contents of all rants and reviews, if you are interested in specific authors, titles, or subjects.]
Wild Free and Happy Sample 04 [Note: This is the fourth sample from my rough draft of a far from finished new book, Wild Free & Happy. I don’t plan on reviewing more books for a while. My blog is home to reviews of 199 books, and you are very welcome to explore them. The Search field on the right side will find words in the full contents of all rants and reviews, if you are interested in specific

A Very Public Sociologist

The five most read over Yule were ... 1. The "Surrender" of Jacob Rees-Mogg 2. A General Election is a Necessity 3. The Illusions of David Miliband 4. Fall Out by Tim Shipman 5. Corbynism in 2018 We almost made it, we almost got through a whole month without writing about Labour factionalism. But as soon as the MPs broke up for their holidays a winterval of silly season shenanigans came rolling i
Going in to 2018, Corbynism was presented with a challenge it hadn't encountered before: the relative peace of continuity. The movement began with an event to mobilise around in the 2015 leadership contest, ditto with the the coup that failed in 2016, and last year we had the general election and its fall out. There was nothing scheduled on the horizon for 2018, nor was there likely to be a mobil
Mental illness is a social phenomenon. More people are open about the difficulties they live with, and those who don't suffer mental illness will know several people who do. And it's a growing problem. Having worked for five years at my current place, the number of students coming through the doors with mental health needs and requiring support plans of some description have gone up over time. In
Because it's Christmas and loads of people are off work, comrades hanging about social media today might have seen this tweet doing the rounds. It is a summary of this year's election results, lumping together by-elections from across the year and Labour's results from May's local elections . You can understand why folks would be keen to share it. Labour is put on 40.5% of the vote and is up 76 c
Another quarter of a year has gone, and as per recent tradition I am compelled to list the books I've read since last time . They are: Transpositions by Rosi Braidotti The Lost Revolution by Chris Harman Reckless Opportunists: Elites at the End of the Establishment by Aeron Davis I'm Not Scared by Niccolo Ammanti The Monk and the Hangman's Daughter by Ambrose Bierce The Attention Economy by Claud
As we turn the page on the year 2018, let's have a look back at the posts that commanded the most attention. And perhaps a few that need a little bit more love. 1. Suspend Labour Friends of Israel 2. The Bourgeois Politics of the People's Vote March 3. Toby Young and the Taming of Higher Education 4. A Terrible Stalinist Purge 5. Besmirching Labour's Name 6. Enemies to the Left 7. On the Campaign
We’ve just learned that New Horizons is intact and functional, with a ‘phone home’ message at about 1530 UTC that checked off subsystem by subsystem — all nominal — amidst snatches of applause at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. The solid state recorders (SSR) are full, with pointers indicating that flyby information is there for the sending, even as the spacecraft continues with out
We are entering the greatest era of discovery in human history, an age of exploration that the thousands of Kepler planets, both confirmed and candidate, only hint at. Today Ashley Baldwin looks at what lies ahead, in the form of several space-based observatories, including designs that can find and image Earth-class worlds in the habitable zones of their stars. A consultant psychiatrist at the 5
Despite the various governmental breakdowns attendant to the event, the New Horizons flyby of Ultima Thule is happening as scheduled, the laws of physics having their own inevitability. Fortunately, NASA TV and numerous social media outlets are operational despite the partial shutdown, and you’ll want to keep an eye on the schedule of televised events as well as the New Horizons website and the J
Voyager 2 has now gone interstellar, making it not only NASA’s single longest-running mission but one of only two spacecraft that have crossed over from the heliosphere to true interstellar space, what scientists call the Local Interstellar Medium (LISM). On that note, it’s interesting to put the Solar System in context. Depending on how you define the term, the Solar System takes in a great deal
I think of Apollo 8 in terms of transformation. As Al Jackson explains so well in the essay that follows, a lunar mission in December of 1968 seemed impossible for NASA and pushed technologies and procedures not yet tested into immediate action. But if Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders got Apollo back on its arbitrary and highly dangerous schedule, they did something as well for a college
The right kind of atmosphere may keep a planet habitable even if it crowds the inner region of the habitable zone. But atmospheric evolution involves many things, including the kind of geological activity our own planet has experienced, leading to sudden, deep extinctions. Centauri Dreams regular Alex Tolley today takes a look at a new paper that examines the terrestrial extinction of marine spec

Craig Murray

Writing about your personal demons for the public is seldom a good idea, and it is a particularly bad idea when you are starting at 3.40am as they are haunting you. We are spending Hogmanay in the beautiful city of Gdansk. It is my first time here for over twenty years, but the city has remarkable memories for me. In November 1994 I was newly arrived as First Secretary at the British Embassy in W
The British state can maintain its spies’ cover stories for centuries. Look up Eldred Pottinger, who for 180 years appears in scores of British history books – right up to and including William Dalrymple’s Return of the King – as a British officer who chanced to be passing Herat on holiday when it came under siege from a partly Russian-officered Persian army, and helped to organise the defences.
It is worth starting by noting that a high percentage of the Integrity Initiative archive has been authenticated. The scheme has been admitted by the FCO and defended as legitimate government activity. Individual items like the minutes of the meeting with David Leask are authenticated . Not one of the documents has so far been disproven, or even denied. Which tends to obscure some of the difficul
London’s Supreme Court, sitting in judgement on its Scottish colony, has ruled that parts of the Scottish Government’s UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Legal Continuity) (Scotland) Bill exceed the powers of the Scottish Parliament. The judgement is absolutely specific that the Scottish Bill breaches both the Scotland Act, the original devolution settlement, and the Tory/DUP government’s rec
I have only ever been able to discern two underlying motivations in Theresa May’s career; a love of office and a hatred of immigrants. It is possible to love office without loving power; loving power means you want to do something with it, whereas loving office is just for prestige and personal economic opportunity. I do not imagine May’s hatred of immigrants is driven by actual racism, easy thou
Even the neo-con warmongers’ house journal The Guardian, furious at Trump’s attempts to pull US troops out of Syria, in producing a map to illustrate its point, could only produce one single, uncertain, very short pen stroke to describe the minute strip of territory it claims ISIS still control on the Iraqi border. Of course, the Guardian produces the argument that continued US military presence
Happy New Year! So, now that it’s 2019, what’s Brian Jean up to? Maybe it’s just me, but he’s sure acting like a guy who’s thinking about being a political candidate again! You remember Brian Jean, don’t you? He used to be the leader of the Wildrose Party. Indeed, he was the guy who emerged out of the weeds around Fort McMurray after retiring as the region’s Member of Parliament in January 2014 t
Trying to come up with a list of the most important Alberta political news stories of 2018 is more challenging than one might imagine since the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion brouhaha sucked all the oxygen out of this place for most of the year. A court challenge was inevitable. So it was probably a bad bet by the Alberta NDP and the overconfident Liberals in Ottawa to put their money on const
With an investigation by the Alberta Elections Commissioner under way into allegations of irregularities in the United Conservative Party’s conduct of its nomination vote in the Highwood Constituency last fall, the winning candidate published a statement Friday admitting he was convicted and fined for failing to provide a breathalyzer sample 17 years ago. In the statement published on Facebook, R
“The UCP denies the allegations.” We should probably get used to reading this phrase. I suspect we’re going to be seeing it quite a lot in stories about Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party during the first half of 2019. It was included in an Edmonton Journal story yesterday about allegations that in the fall of 2017 Mr. Kenney’s successful UCP leadership campaign “deliberately hid” an in-kin
It was nice for Alberta’s New Democratic Party Government that the first thing the price of Alberta heavy crude did the morning after Premier Rachel Notley’s announcement her government would cap production of Alberta oil by 8.7 per cent for three months was to squirt upward. On Friday night, Western Canadian Select was trading at $21.93 US per barrel. By the end of the day yesterday, the Alberta
Recent political developments in France and Alberta, though quite different in tone, suggest carbon taxes may not be a viable way to address climate change – leastways not without reaching an unlikely consensus they must be imposed. You may not believe me yet, but you can count on it, politicians on the right, left and centre are all paying attention to the problems encountered by carbon taxes an
From Jenna Orkin Chris Matthews Predicts Trump Could Resign ‘In The Coming Weeks’ California Monarch Butterfly Population Down 86 Percent in One Year Moringa Tree Superheroes Elizabeth Warren Announces Plans For Presidential Run Government agency says letter advising furloughed employees to perform chores for landlords in lieu of paying rent was posted by accident Turkey's War On Christian Missio
From Jenna Orkin Brexit: Stage One In Europe’s Slow-Burn Energy Collapse Vertical Farms Mattis is out, and Blackwater is back: ‘We are coming’ The American Economy Is Rigged - Stiglitz California organizers cancel Women's March due to 'overwhelmingly white' participants Facing a grim New Year: Nearly 40 die from 9/11 illness in last four months Step Aside Russia: Beijing "Prepares To Meddle" In U
From Jenna Orkin New Studies Show Pundits Are Wrong About Russian Social-Media Involvement in US Politics - The Nation Trump has taken a hatchet to federal rules, but a number of industries are now pleading to be regulated An outgoing GOP Congressman wrote a farewell letter that said he thinks the Trump presidency could lead to a 'Hitler-like character' Egypt Goes Guns-a-Blazing: 40 Terrorists Ki
From Jenna Orkin Google’s Parent Has a Plan to Eliminate Mosquitoes Worldwide Desperate women fleeing Venezuela sell hair, breast milk, sex to get by Chinese Schools Make Pupils Wear Micro-Chipped Uniforms to Thwart Truancy Top Trump Official Calls Bankers, Will Convene ‘Plunge Protection Team’ China: A Dog Meets His Own Clone Indian Government to Intercept, Monitor, and Decrypt Citizens’ Compute
From Jenna Orkin Report Puts Michael Cohen in Prague and Trump-Russia Collusion on the Table Russia announces plans to set up its first ever military base in the Caribbean - the country's largest presence in the region since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 RUSSIA CALLS ISRAELI STRIKES IN SYRIA 'PROVOCATIVE ACTS' First China, Now Russia: Kremlin Considers Changing Constitution To Extend Putin Pre
From Jenna Orkin Mormonism Good For Body As Well As Soul? Soldiers are taking over Venezuela's oil industry, and the country with the world's biggest oil reserves is falling further behind Israel Preparing For Comprehensive War In Syria: Report Is China Getting Too Close To Israel? Breakthrough: Chinese Scientists Turn Copper Into 'Gold' Japan Suffered Biggest Natural Population Decline On Record

GlobaLove Think Tank

Hey I think I know I think I know but do I really understand because a lot of people have died for no reason other than tthe non thinking man like witches can you believe that hysteria and the Nazi nailed it killing the Jews so just beware when your taking in information that they do not have your code facial recognition is just a stealth way to steal your face
Take a look at the state of the world, we are all culpable.
* This is my article in BusinessWorld last December 18, 2018. A report in BusinessWorld yesterday, Dec. 17, said that the country’s foreign debt grew 5.6% to $76.4 billion as of end-September 2018. The Bureau of the Treasury data of the Philippines’ outstanding debt showed P7.167-trillion total as of October 2018, composed of P4.62-trillion domestic debt and P2.546-trillion external debt. These a
The Economic Freedom Network (EFN) South East Asia has officially been renamed and launched as ASEAN Prosperity Inititive (API) last December 11, 2018 at a half-day conference at Intercontinental Singapore Robertson Quay, organized by IDEAS (Malaysia). I was there. Below, IDEAS CEO Ali Salman giving the welcome message. Audience came from multilaterals, bilaterals, governments (Indonesia, Singapo
* This is my article in BusinessWorld on December 14, 2018. To have cheaper, stable energy sources, especially in electricity generation, there should be maximum competition and minimum taxation, distortion and government favoritism among players using different technologies and energy sources. So if an energy or environment tax should be imposed, it should apply to all energy technologies and so
This is my letter to MMDA last January when I was called during further investigation of my case, I forgot to post this earlier. See background, BWorld 174, MMDA towed my car even with my kids inside , December 31, 2017 BWorld 177, On MMDA car towing and impounding , January 07, 2018 -------------- January 30, 2018 MMDA Legal Department MMDA Compound, Guadalope, Makati City Sir, Related to the in
* This is my article in BusinessWorld last December 11, 2018. Singapore — Freedom means mobility and more mobility means more freedom. The modern symbols of mobility are comfortable and fast cars, buses, motorcycles, airplanes, fast crafts and roll-on/roll-off (RORO) ships. I am attending here the official launching of the ASEAN Prosperity Initiative (API) today at Intercontinental Singapore. API
A good analysis of the GreenPeace (GP) business model was made by five scientist-authors including GP co-founder Patrick Moore. They noted that "Although Greenpeace relies heavily on marketing, advertising, and free market principles, they promote socialist and anti-capitalist ideals in their messaging." They further observed, "Greenpeace is a very successful business. Their business model can be
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently came out as Jew Have Jews found a way to swell their numbers and their power? With 200 million people with Jewish roots, is a 'Latino-Jewish' USA in the works? by Brabantian (henrymakow.com) Israelis and Jewish leaders have begun a bold new approach embracing people of partial Jewish ancestry. And this has big political implications, given that half of the world'
(Left, the Hermit card from 2017 Economist Cover. Yellow vests say no to EU and TTIP fuel tax.) The Yellow Vest revolt may be genuine but French citizen Jean L raises some red flags. There is evidence the bankers initiated it as false opposition but may have lost control. by Jean L (henrymakow.com) Last week my grandson informed me of two curious facts about the current movement of the Yellow Jac
Vicomte Leon de Poncins (1897-1976) a traditional Catholic French intellectual, was the author of 30 books that exposed the Masonic Jewish (Illuminati) conspiracy which today holds mankind in its thrall. Most Jews (and Christians) are not aware that Judaism is defined by the Talmud & Cabala, not the Old Testament. They are unaware that Judaism is a satanic cult which uses them to politically and
If we don't create our own reality, society will do it for us. When I say, "it's all in your head," I do not mean that there is no objective reality. I mean that we largely determine our experience by virtue of the thoughts we entertain. Our minds have been hijacked, programmed by society and our personal demons. We want to feel good but are driving ourselves crazy instead. We feel helpless but f
US companies also violated the US boycott of Iran but their executives were not arrested. Neocon Jews are trying to embarrass Trump and exacerbate relations with China and Iran. Trump says he is willing to intervene if it helps secure a trade deal. Meanwhile China may have detained a second Canadian in retaliation for Canada's arrest of Huawei executive Ms Meng Wanzhou, who has been granted bail
( Left. Isidore Marie Auguste François Xavier Comte (1798-1857) Over 160 years ago, the Freemason August Comte wanted to perfect society by removing men from procreation. Disguised as "gender equality," women would be elevated to "goddess" status. This occult (satanist) plot has succeeded in destabilizing society because women are naturally hypergamous (seeking someone of higher status and power.
Incoming Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made waves in late November when she called for a Green New Deal (GND)—a plan to “transition” the U.S. economy to “become carbon neutral” over the course of 10 years. In a draft resolution , she proposes the formation of a Select Committee to develop a plan for massive public works programs, powered by a jobs guarantee and public banks, with the goa
The video shows a familiar West Bank scene. As a Palestinian flag in Nabi Saleh flutters in the wind on a spring day in 2017, two Palestinians with slingshots launch stones at Israeli soldiers. About a dozen others stand to the side, behind the ruins of a demolished house, calmly observing. Then, a young man wearing a white T-shirt and jeans, alone, is seen heading up a slight slope toward the ho
As House Democratic leaders prepare to reclaim power this January, they are clamping down on insurgent progressive initiatives like the Green New Deal, which could be sidelined in favor of a broader climate committee with limited powers. Despite pledges from at least 43 Democrats to support a Green New Deal select committee—including prominent representatives like Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and John
The Blue Wave that wiped out the Republican House majority brought a number of surprises in heavily GOP districts: Kendra Horn now holds a seat in deep-red Oklahoma, and Joe Cunningham pulled through in South Carolina. But even as Democrats seemed to win House races everywhere, many candidates upon whom progressive organizations staked big bets came up short. Randy Bryce (Wis.), Jess King (Pa.),
Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is refusing to meet with—or respond to—a group of her Yemeni-American constituents who are calling for an immediate end to the U.S.-Saudi War on Yemen. In recent months, however, Pelosi has found the time to speak at the conference of the right-wing Israeli-American Council and meet with the Saudi ambassador (one day after journalist Jamal Khashoggi went miss
When Temple University Professor Marc Lamont Hill hit the United Nations in late November to uplift the struggle for Palestinian human rights, he did so with an urgency Black radicals have brought for decades. Addressing the global body on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Hill rebuked the Israeli government’s brutal treatment of Palestinians, who live under an inte
Perhaps you've read that although individuals are being exhorted to "save the planet," corporations are the biggest polluters: Suzanne Goldenberg (2013, November 20) Just 90 companies caused two-thirds of man-made global warming emissions. The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/nov/20/90-companies-man-made-global-warming-emissions-climate-change Chevron, Exxon and BP among comp
I've mentioned that I believe the film Children of Men is most prescient in predicting the future. It imagines a dystopian world where vital fetuses have become an impossibility. In the 1950s, many scientists studying the biological effects of radiation anticipated a future where too many radiation-induced errors in the human genome would impede healthy human reproduction. Today, autism's de novo
Did you see the pictures of New York's blue skyline? Today I read in the WSJ an account of how that blue light was produced: Erin Ailworth (2018, Dec 28). Why Was the Light That Flooded New York City’s Sky So Blue?. The Wall Street Journal, https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-was-the-light-that-flooded-new-york-citys-sky-so-blue-11546023123?mod=hp_major_pos5 The eerie, neon-blue light that bathed th
I couldn't help but think of the effect of Fukushima Daiichi's continuous stream of contaminated radioactive water in the Kuroshio_Current when I read this article about a disjuncture between warming seas and cooler land temperatures in the Arctic region: Robert Lee Hotz (2018, December 22-23 Weekend edition). Warming seas send waves through U.S. fishing. The Wall Street Journal, A1, A10. Fisherm
From the Autism Research Institute newsletter I received in my email inbox today: "Last April, the Centers for Disease Control announced that autism affects 1 in 59 individuals under 21 living in the U.S. That's a 15% increase in prevalence from the previous rate of 1 in 68." Please see these posts for discussion of this increase: Sharp Increase in Autism Rate Among California Kin... - Majia's Bl
This month there have been several large (in excess of 7.0) earthquakes in Russia ( here ), in the South Pacific ( here ), and now in Indonesia an active volcano caused a tsunami that just killed in excess of 43 people and injured in excess of 584 ( here ). Is the ring of fire more active than usual? In May of 2018, a blogger at Accuweather responded NO to this question but I have to wonder wheth
David Leonhardt writes , in this morning's New York Times , that the number one story of the year has been climate change. It's been a year where the evidence of climate change has been everywhere: I’ll start with the alarming parts of the story. The past year is on pace to be the earth’s fourth warmest on record, and the five warmest years have all occurred since 2010. This warming is now starti
I'm one of those people who pay attention to what Nouriel Roubini writes. He predicted the 2008 meltdown long before it happened. And, these days, he's not happy with what he sees: Mr. Trump is now the Dr. Strangelove of financial markets. Like the paranoid madman in Stanley Kubrick’s classic film, he is flirting with mutually assured economic destruction. Now that markets see the danger, the ris
Every so often, my back rebels and I can't sit or stand at the computer for any length of time. I have recently experienced another such rebellion. But I am on the mend, and I will be back on a regular basis shortly. But I can't let this opportunity go by without sending every one my best wishes for these holidays. This is the time of year when we contemplate Peace On Earth and Good Will To All.
Donald Trump's buffoonery can leave you in despair. But Michelle Goldberg writes , in The New York Times , that there is reason to hope: The Democratic landslide in the midterms proved that the laws of political gravity haven’t been suspended; Trump’s incompetence, venality and boorishness had electoral consequences. Further, it was a year of justice and accountability for at least some of those
In Ontario, things get more Trumpian by the day. Martin Regg Cohn writes : Loyalty to the leader is paramount. Fidelity to law enforcement comes second. Sound familiar? Just ask our American friends, who have been wrestling with the spectre of obstruction of justice ever since Donald Trump won the presidency — and trampled on the FBI by firing its director, James Comey. Now, Ontarians are facing
Theresa May faces a non confidence vote today, Ian Birrell writes in The Guardian: It is hard not to conclude that the Tory hard right are intent on destroying their party and handing the country to Jeremy Corbyn as they move to depose Theresa May at this point in the corrosive Brexit process. Yes, she has made a series of dire mistakes, including triggering article 50 with no idea of how to achi
Sunday... Last Sunday of 2018, and time for my usual weekend rant.. First of course I do want to wish everyone a Happy New Year... And I do hope for the best for everyone in this coming year and warm wishes for their families.... From what I am seeing happen right now in terms of our collapsing economies, the year 2019 will most definitely be a tumultuous indeed... I am slowly but surely recoveri
I have been attacking Canada's present "migration" policies for years now... I have said and I stand firmly behind my statements that this nation does NOT need any of the sewer rats that have been presently flooding across our southern border from the United States, for the simple fact that that vast majority of those illegal "migrants" have NO future in Canada at all.. The majority can NOT possib
I have indeed been following the reports closely over these last few days concerning the claimed US "withdrawal" from their illegal positions within Syria, and yes the US is indeed pulling out their forces from some of their "bases" across northern Syria, as well from their illegal position around Al Tanf in southern Syria... But rest assured, this "withdrawal" is absolutely a movement to take tho
I am finally getting back to a sense of "normal"... My neck and upper back pains have been subsiding, gradually, and this short rest break has been good for my stress level...... I do want to thank those readers that have stuck by me as I recuperate... I figure I have enough energy this evening to fire off a few articles, and I want to start with a real good one from a fellow real truth seeker, Jo
I have been saying for years now that vaccines and vaccinations are NOT for the betterment of society... I have stated with article after article here at this blog that vaccines do NOT work, period, and are actually being used to fry the minds of people and destroy our next generation of youth... I have been under fire from some readers who have called me a "nut" and claiming that I "do not know w
( In case you are wondering, I am becoming at least as negative as John Kaminski about vaccines. I have to wonder how long that would be allowed reported in Google media. Perhaps it's fortuitous that the files are hosted in Russia ! There are lots of photo entries from Facebook groups posted recently to add to what has become volumes of notes on the topic. oldephartte.livejournal.com  Don't hesitate to use the cloud tag index ; obvious choices are vaccines, vaccination, immunization, etc. )
*First an important note: I am slowly recovering from what the heck has been torturing my neck and shoulder for these last few weeks... I have been trying to get some much needed rest and relaxation and doing everything possible to alleviate stress that may be the root cause of my neck and shoulder problems... I want to thank my readership for staying with me while I recover, and

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