News & Opinion
caitlinjohnstone.com/2020/06/09/the-democratic-party-exists-to-co-opt-and-kill-authentic-change-m...
The Democratic Party Exists To Co-Opt And Kill Authentic Change Movements
ESTRAGON: Well, shall we go? VLADIMIR: Yes, let’s go. [They do not move.] Curtain. So ends both acts of the Samuel Beckett play Waiting for Godot. One of the two main characters suggests leav…
“We Surrender Nothing and No One”: Our Playbook for Solidarity Amid Fascist Terror
Kelly Hayes talks with grassroots strategist Ejeris Dixon about courage and solidarity in a time of rebellion.
Noam Chomsky: Threat of Trump Galvanizing a Militia to Stay in Power Cannot be Ruled Out
Trump’s guiding maxim is the one articulated by Franco’s general in 1936: “Down with intelligence! Viva death!”
Police Violence Protesters Were Hit With More Police Violence in US Capitol
A massive crowd gathered outside the White House on Saturday joining national protests against George Floyd's murder.
Trump’s COVID-19 Disinformation Campaign Is a Preview of the 2020 Elections
As president, Trump has immense power to manipulate the media and public discourse in his favor while raising money.
COVID Deaths in US Approach 100,000 as Trump Administration Misleads Public
We must not let this become another body count like all the others this nation has grown far too accustomed to ignoring.
Big Oil Takes $1.9 Billion in CARES Act Tax Breaks Intended for Small Businesses
Coronavirus relief legislation has virtually rescued climate-killing industries.33 Minute Show - funny but serious
youtu.be/O_TSeHQnrHM
~290~ How Trump Will Win Reelection & Media Won't Cover Worker Protests
Watch Lee's newest Stand-Up Comedy Special for free here – LeeCampAmerican.com Donald Trump will probably win reelection because of voter suppression...May 7, 2020
Henry A. Giroux: It Is Impossible to Be Radical Without Being Optimistic in the Pandemic Age - 50 Min. Video
bit.ly/2SLxyEt
Henry A. Giroux: It Is Impossible to Be Radical Without Being Optimistic in the Pandemic Age
Henry A. Giroux examines the COVID-19 crisis as part of a more comprehensive crisis of politics and morality.
Republicans Oppose Mail-In Voting Because They're Scared of Losing
Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Susan Collins, and others are desperately fighting for their political lives.Global CO₂ rise and warming rates have reached a large factor to an order of magnitude higher than those of the past geological and mass extinction events, with major implications for the shift in climate zones and the nature and speed of current extreme weather events. Given the abrupt change in state of the atmosphere-ocean-cryosphere-land system, accelerating since the mid-20ᵗʰ century, the terms climate change and global warming no longer reflect the nature of the climate extremes consequent on this shift. Further to NASA’s reported mean land-ocean temperature rise to +1.18°C for March 2020, relative to the 1951-1980 baseline, large parts of the continents, including Siberia, central Asia, Canada, parts of west Africa, eastern South America and Australia are warming toward mean temperatures of +2°C and higher. The rate exceeds that of the Last Glacial Termination (LGT) (21–8 kyr), the Paleocene-Eocene hyperthermal event (PETM) (55.9 Ma) and the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary (K-T) (64.98 Ma) impact event. A principal question arises regarding the relationships between the warming rate and the nature and progression of the current migration climate zones toward the poles, including changes in the atmosphere and ocean current systems. Significant transient cooling pauses, or stadials, are projected as a consequence of the flow of cold ice melt water from Greenland and Antarctica into the oceans.
bit.ly/3c10e3N
The Fatal Road To 4 Degrees Celsius
Blog edited by Sam Carana, with news on climate change and warming in the Arctic due to snow and ice loss and methane releases from the seafloor.
Essential Workers Across the US Went on Strike Friday
Workers around the United States report back on the coordinated strikes that took place on May Day.
Corporations Don’t Need Another Bailout — Schools Do
Existing inequities in our schools will get a lot worse after the pandemic, unless Congress acts now.
Chomsky: COVID-19 Has Exposed the US Under Trump as a “Failed State”
Chomsky analyzes Trump’s backing of “anti-lockdown” protests, attacks on the postal service and U.S. structural flaws.The president of the United States went fully off the rails on live television yesterday like your shouty right-wing uncle at the Thanksgiving table … times a thousand zillion infinities. Even for Donald Trump, who has set the bar for presidential behavior so low that worms use it as a guardrail, this was a rare and terrifying performance.
Trump has been hijacking the daily coronavirus briefings to strut, preen, lie, attack and generally indulge himself in being the gibberish fountain he is at his infamous nonsense rallies. It is cathartic for him, I assume, to bellow falsehoods and receive gusts of cheering adulation in response, so — now that his in-person rallies are on hold — he’s made that behavior the centerpiece of daily briefings regarding a pandemic that has killed nearly 24,000 of his citizens.
On Monday, Trump took it up (or down) several dozen notches by playing a video made at taxpayer expense showing that he is always right and everyone else is always wrong, so there. Specifically, the video was a hatchet job on history, meant to show that Trump’s lethally incompetent response to the pandemic was in fact a brilliant series of chess moves that only terrible Democrats and the “fake news” disagree with.
bit.ly/3bprKaE
Trump Says His "Authority Is Total." In Response, Governors Are Rebelling.
Do not listen to the president.
www.paulcraigroberts.org/2020/04/14/the-controversy-over-who-is-responsible-for-coronavirus-is-he...
The Controversy Over Who Is Responsible for Coronavirus Is Heating Up - PaulCraigRoberts.org
The Controversy Over Who Is Responsible for Coronavirus Is Heating Up Paul Craig Roberts Let’s hope the Neoconservatives and American presstitutes don’tSo as of right now it’s Trump versus Biden. An incompetent plutocrat president selling himself as an anti-establishment people’s champion while simultaneously advancing garden variety Republican sociopathy, versus a warmongering authoritarian who is too demented to string a coherent sentence together and who is looking more and more credibly to be a rapist.
Needless to say, this is absolute bullshit.
How did we get here? How did we get to the point where the electoral contest to run the most powerful government on the planet is between a racist demented right-wing authoritarian warmongering rapist and another racist demented right-wing authoritarian warmongering rapist? How in the hell did this bullshit happen?
bit.ly/34CJQUj
This Absolute Bullshit Would Not Be Possible Without Propaganda
So as of right now it’s Trump versus Biden. An incompetent plutocrat president selling himself as an anti-establishment people’s champion while simultaneously advancing garden variety R…Fertilizers are contaminating and warming the planet. Regulators haven’t acted on decades-old warnings.
bit.ly/3emxvYV
Farming's growing problem – Center for Public Integrity
Fertilizers are contaminating and warming the planet. Regulators haven’t acted on decades-old warnings.
Abrupt Ecosystem Collapse - CounterPunch.org
A new study in Nature (April 2020) casts a disturbing light on the prospects of abrupt ecosystem collapse. The report analyzes the probabilities of collapsing ecosystems en masse, and not simply the loss of individual species. (Source: Trisos, C.H. et al, The Projected Timing of Abrupt Ecological Di...
Is Putin Laying a Petroleum Trap for Trump? - Global Research
The G20 met in virtual session on April 10, ostensibly to address the crippling one-two punch brought on by the economic impact of coronavirus and the simultaneous collapse of the price of oil resulting from Russia and Saudi Arabia flooding an already depressed market. In the end, the world’s lead...
Fake Coronavirus Data, Fear Campaign. Spread of the COVID-19 Infection - Global Research
Do not let yourself be misled by the fear campaign, pointing to a Worldwide coronavirus calamity with repeated "predictions" that hundreds of thousands of people are going to die. According to the WHO, the death rate pertaining to Seasonal Influenza globally is between 6 to 12 times higher than COVI...
29 Minutes Video
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHriRHIW1Ts
~286~ The Shock Doctrine Is Here, Joe Biden Disaster, Let’s Fight Back
Watch Lee's newest Stand-Up Comedy Special for free here – LeeCampAmerican.com Naomi Klein released “The Shock Doctrine” in 2007. In it she looked ba...The impacts of a hotter world are no longer off in the future — they have already arrived. As the planet grows warmer, the effects of heat stress on organisms trying to survive outside the temperature envelope they evolved in is becoming increasingly evident. From insects to coral reefs to biodiversity across entire ecosystems, researchers are chronicling the serious impacts of heat stress as temperatures break records. And several leading scientists believe we are underestimating the impacts, even as the heat ramps up.
e360.yale.edu/features/with-temperatures-rising-can-animals-survive-the-heat-stress
With Temperatures Rising, Can Animals Survive the Heat Stress?
A growing number of studies show that warming temperatures are increasing mortality in creatures ranging from birds in the Mojave Desert, to mammals in Australia, to bumblebees in North America. Researchers warn that heat stress could become a major factor in future extinctions.climate.nasa.gov/news/2954/nasa-flights-detect-millions-of-arctic-methane-hotspots/
NASA Flights Detect Millions of Arctic Methane Hotspots – Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet
Knowing where emissions are happening and what's causing them brings us a step closer to being able to forecast the region's impact on global climate.climate.nasa.gov/news/2961/new-3d-view-of-methane-tracks-sources-and-movement-around-the-globe/
“As authoritarianism spreads, as emergency laws proliferate, as we sacrifice our rights, we also sacrifice our capability to arrest the slide into a less liberal and less free world,” NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden said in a recent interview. “Do you truly believe that when the first wave, this second wave, the 16th wave of the coronavirus is a long-forgotten memory, that these capabilities will not be kept? That these datasets will not be kept? No matter how it is being used, what is being built is the architecture of oppression.”
“Apple Inc. and Google unveiled a rare partnership to add technology to their smartphone platforms that will alert users if they have come into contact with a person with Covid-19,” reads a new report from Bloomberg. “People must opt in to the system, but it has the potential to monitor about a third of the world’s population.”
“World Health Organization executive director Dr. Michael Ryan said surveillance is part of what’s required for life to return to normal in a world without a vaccine. However, civil liberties experts warn that the public has little recourse to challenge these digital exercises of power once the immediate threat has passed,” reads a recent VentureBeat article titled “After coronavirus, AI could be central to our new normal“. bit.ly/3eiAqBw
He is not wrong!
"Snowden Warns Governments Are Using Coronavirus to Build 'the Architecture of Oppression'"https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bvge5q/snowden-warns-governments-are-using-coronavirus-to-build-the-architecture-of-oppression …
Snowden Warns Governments Are Using Coronavirus to Build 'the Architecture of Oppression'
VICE co-founder Shane Smith interviews famed whistleblower Edward Snowden in "Shelter in Place," a new series on VICE TV.
“White House senior adviser Jared Kushner’s task force has reached out to a range of health technology companies about creating a national coronavirus surveillance system to give the government a near real-time view of where patients are seeking treatment and for what, and whether hospitals can accommodate them, according to four people with knowledge of the discussions,” reads a recent article by Politico, adding, “But the prospect of compiling a national database of potentially sensitive health information has prompted concerns about its impact on civil liberties well after the coronavirus threat recedes, with some critics comparing it to the Patriot Act enacted after the 9/11 attacks.”
“Mass surveillance methods could save lives around the world, permitting authorities to track and curb the spread of the novel coronavirus with speed and accuracy not possible during prior pandemics,” The Intercept‘s Sam Biddle wrote last week, adding, “There’s a glaring problem: We’ve heard all this before. After the September 11 attacks, Americans were told that greater monitoring and data sharing would allow the state to stop terrorism before it started, leading Congress to grant unprecedented surveillance powers that often failed to preempt much of anything. The persistence and expansion of this spying in the nearly two decades since, and the abuses exposed by Snowden and others, remind us that emergency powers can outlive their emergencies.”
As we discussed recently, it’s an established fact that power structures will seize upon opportunities to roll out oppressive authoritarian agendas under the pretense of protecting ordinary people, when in reality they’d been working on advancing those agendas since long before the crisis being offered as the reason for them. It happened with 9/11, and we may be certain that it is happening now.
The reason for this is simple: the powerful are afraid of the public. They always have been. For as long as there has been government power, there has been the fear that the people will realize the power of their numbers and overthrow the government that is in power. And understandably so; it has happened many times throughout history.
bit.ly/3eiAqBw
25 Minutes with Max Igan - bit.ly/39JXB4n
28 Minutes Video Show | bit.ly/2ReMmdL
Act Out! [241] - The Refugee Industry & Australia’s Still Burning - Coal
Caged for seeking freedom – migrants and refugees in the land of the free. Next, zooming out on the global refugee industry – because yes, that too – is a booming business. Finally, global droughts, and the fires of human folly; coal scare tactics leading Australia's climate policy and how gra...28 Minute Video Show - On the show this week, Chris Hedges talks to constitutional scholar Bruce Fein about the death of our US Constitution. Ralph Nader, with constitutional scholars Louis Fisher and Bruce Fein, wrote to the speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, on November 22 urging her to focus on 12 Articles of Impeachment President Donald Trump had allegedly violated during his administration. Among them: flouting the emoluments clause, expanding presidential wars, and spending billions of dollars on projects not appropriated by the US Congress.
bit.ly/2R7KgMT
On Contact: Death of the US Constitution
On the show this week, Chris Hedges talks to constitutional scholar Bruce Fein about the death of our US Constitution
The SOB in the White House and the ones before him have committed all sorts of impeachable violations that they have never been prosecuted for. The top level of the federal government is essentially run by criminals!
I couldn't know this for sure but all the right things are happening for leading up to that. I do know that it would be a simple matter of spreading a cultured influenza virus from anywhere in the world then come in and play the hero while you milk taxpayers' money into the hands of all your rich friends.... and their friends. All the while planning to take authority over the country to combat the "threats." Divide and conquer the American population while further eroding their rights and weakening them financially by leaching the wealth upwards.... as usual. Move a large part of the public into a dependency on the government for the basic needs of life through financial supports.. Encourage nationalism. Demonize the Muslims and the Mexicans as our common economic foe and burden.
"Certianly the right mix for a facsist regime to try and take the ultimate power over the people of this country.
bit.ly/3aMeY5V
Trump Is Preparing the Ground for a Totalitarian Dictatorship
We can beat his lies if we get angry and stay angry.earthsky.org/earth/earlier-human-civilization-silurian-hypothesis
Was another civilization on Earth before humans? | EarthSky.org
How do we know earlier industrial civilizations on Earth didn't rise and fall long before humans appeared? That's the question posed in a new scientific thought experiment.www.technologyreview.com/s/610886/if-we-werent-the-first-industrial-civilization-on-earth-would-w...
If we weren’t the first industrial civilization on Earth, would we ever know?
Fossils and objects are unlikely to survive more than a few million years. Searching for chemical traces of industrialization offers an intriguing alternative.26 Minute Show - Jimmy Dore: 'You're only as healthy as the least insured person around you'
bit.ly/2Rd5o4b
Jimmy Dore: 'You're only as healthy as the least insured person around you'
Jimmy Dore fills in for Jesse Ventura Jimmy and Brigida Santos discuss updates from the World Health Organization about the global coronavirus outbreak
Right-Wing Austerity Set New Orleans Up to Be a Coronavirus Disaster Zone
Louisiana law bans cities like New Orleans from raising the minimum wage and requiring paid sick leave for workers.30 Minute News Show with Gov. Jesse Ventura
Jesse Ventura and Brigida Santos share tips for staying healthy in a pandemic from health professionals and reveal why the World Economic Fund says the global economy is officially in a recession. Professor Richard Wolff talks about the economic fallout from the Covid-19 outbreak.
bit.ly/34bs5ej
Jesse Ventura sounds off on economic fallout from coronavirus outbreak
Jesse Ventura and Brigida Santos share tips for staying healthy in a pandemic from health professionals and reveal why the World Economic Fund says the global economy is officially in a recession
30 Minute Show with Chris Hedges
bit.ly/3bSFzhY
[198] Chris Hedges On The Elections & The Economy (plus Jordan Chariton)
Watch Lee's newest Stand-Up Comedy Special for free here - www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOncSVhQBjs Lee sits down with two journalists on VIP today. Chris...30 Minute News Show ~286~ The Shock Doctrine Is Here, Joe Biden Disaster, Let’s Fight Back
"Pollution is okay now. The EPA has suspended its rules on pollution for the foreseeable future."
The president is taking away the land belonging to an indian tribe because some of his friends don't like the Indians' plan to build a Casino.
"The parasites at the top are making renewed efforts to turn public school into for profit business..." ...which means paying much more for less combined with their ability to program children into good little, ignorant, worker bees.
60% of the population now sees that the government is designed to serve the rich. Human rights are threatened more than ever.
More on the pandemic......
bit.ly/2RbPS8Q
~286~ The Shock Doctrine Is Here, Joe Biden Disaster, Let’s Fight Back
Watch Lee's newest Stand-Up Comedy Special for free here – LeeCampAmerican.com Naomi Klein released “The Shock Doctrine” in 2007. In it she looked ba...Ten million Americans declare unemployment in two weeks and all your government does is give you a $1,200 “advance” on your tax return while bailing out corporations with the largest wealth transfer ever, and some of you are still shrieking about Russia and China. Pathetic fucking tools.
Your rights are evaporating, your government has failed to provide the bare minimum social safety nets during a very manageable pandemic, your nation’s billionaire class has been growing wealthier and wealthier while most of you would struggle to pay a $1000 emergency bill, but sure, China is your real enemy.
~
Many Americans being plunged into debt and destitution. Many young Americans about to start contemplating joining the military. Many Pentagon officials factoring this in to their future calculations. Poverty has long served as a makeshift draft in the dangerous, dying US empire.
Not that it should surprise any American that this crisis has only wound up benefiting massive corporations, debt slave owners, government agencies and the US war machine. These are the real US government, after all.
caitlinjohnstone.com/2020/04/03/someones-screwing-you-and-it-aint-china-notes-from-the-edge-of-th...
Someone’s Screwing You, And It Ain’t China: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix
Ten million Americans declare unemployment in two weeks and all your government does is give you a $1,200 “advance” on your tax return while bailing out corporations with the largest we…
US Drone Assassinations Continue Despite German Effort to Restrict Them
A court ruling that would have restricted U.S. drone operations using a German air base is stuck in the appeals process.
Federal Judge Orders Chelsea Manning's Release From Jail
During her time in jail, Manning accumulated $256,000 in fines.
Trump Announces Plan to Refuse Congressional Oversight of Corporate Bailout
The president intends to give Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin free reign over the $500 billion bailout fund.Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. A person falls ill. They go to the emergency room, maybe even to the operating room. Unbeknownst to them, they get care from someone who is outside of their insurance network. Weeks later, they receive a bill for tens of thousands of dollars.
Over the past decade, these stories of “surprise” medical bills have become more common. A recent study from Stanford University showed that 43 percent of emergency room visits in 2016 resulted in unexpected bills that were not covered by insurance, up from 32 percent in 2010. Now, in the midst of a global pandemic, the practice is poised to inflict even more pain.
bit.ly/33SnkGD
Why COVID-19 Could Trigger a Surprise Billing Crisis
Third-party companies that bill for out-of-network care stand to profit from the pandemic, at the expense of the ill.
New York Nurses Are Living a Heartbreaking Nightmare
Some nurses are saying, “Well, most of us are going to get it and some of us are going to die. That’s the way it is.”
Trump and His Allies Have Decided to Preserve Capitalism at Any Cost
Do not listen to the president.arctic-news.blogspot.com/2020/03/methane-earthquake-and-sudden-stratospheric-warming.html
Methane, Earthquake and Sudden Stratospheric Warming
Blog edited by Sam Carana, with news on climate change and warming in the Arctic due to snow and ice loss and methane releases from the seafloor.Video Shows
www.rt.com/shows/the-world-according-to-jesse/
19.25 Minutes Video | Max Igan
www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-ZqtCTrMoU&t=198s
truthout.org/articles/beyond-the-economic-chaos-of-coronavirus-is-a-global-war-economy/
Beyond the Economic Chaos of Coronavirus Is a Global War Economy
In the face of excessive capital accumulation, war and repression have become profit centers for the capitalist class.www.truthdig.com/articles/inside-the-pro-trump-facebook-group-where-first-responders-call-coronav...
Inside the Pro-Trump Facebook Group Where First Responders Call Coronavirus a Hoax
In a 27,000-member private Facebook group for first responders who support President Donald Trump, firefighters and paramedics have posted thousands of comwww.truthdig.com/articles/why-america-cant-respond-to-the-current-crisis/
Why America Can't Respond to the Current Crisis
Dr. Anthony S Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and just about the only official in the Trump administration truhe climate movement has started gaining momentum, and the oil and gas industry is getting scared. Fossil fuel companies have been ramping up their ad buying, placing loads of ads on social media, in magazines, and even at the global climate summits. Meanwhile, in Australia, a recent report found that the fossil fuel industry doubled its political donations over the past four years.
These examples of increasing desperation from oil and gas companies are actually a hopeful sign in that they reflect the rising power of the climate movement, which has been gathering wins across the country.
bit.ly/2VPXS2j
The Climate Movement Has Gained Unprecedented Momentum Since 2018
More voters are prioritizing the climate crisis and holding politicians responsible for their ties to oil and gas.That's who he represents. Most of the actual voters just believe all the lies and bullshit and vote for him. He leads a destructive force that strips away the wealth and power from the public and makes the rich richer at your expense.
bit.ly/38id9vy
Trump's Real Base Is the Ruling Class
He might appeal to the white proletariat and talk tough on trade, but the only constituency to whom this president answers is the 1%.
I Hope We Are Witnessing the Last Gasp of the Ruling Class, Says Cornel West
Today, about a third of the delegates needed to secure the Democratic presidential nomination are at stake.Well.... you know.... it's the money. We've got to get that money right first.
bit.ly/2Iaao4K
Patents Are Slowing the Development of a Coronavirus Vaccine
As researchers compete to develop a vaccine, we have no guarantee it will be affordable if it is patented.
U.S., Taliban Sign Deal Aimed at Ending 18-Year Afghanistan War
The agreement could see the withdrawal of all American and allied forces in the next 14 months — but it could also easily unravel.Aristotle, Niccolò Machiavelli, Alexis de Tocqueville, Adam Smith and Karl Marx grounded their philosophies in the understanding that there is a natural antagonism between the rich and the rest of us. The interests of the rich are not our interests. The truths of the rich are not our truths. The lives of the rich are not our lives. Great wealth not only breeds contempt for those who do not have it but it empowers oligarchs to pay armies of lawyers, publicists, politicians, judges, academics and journalists to censure and control public debate and stifle dissent. Neoliberalism, deindustrialization, the destruction of labor unions, slashing and even eliminating the taxes of the rich and corporations, free trade, globalization, the surveillance state, endless war and austerity — the ideologies or tools used by the oligarchs to further their own interests — are presented to the public as natural law, the mechanisms for social and economic progress, even as the oligarchs dynamite the foundations of a liberal democracy and exacerbate a climate crisis that threatens to extinguish human life.
bit.ly/2IaxqZp
Class: The Little Word the Elites Want You to Forget
Our oligarchic rulers are determined to ban all discussion of class warfare, which is why they are trying to block the nomination of Sanders.
1 Minute | 17 Seconds Video Cartoon.
bit.ly/32CiJaQ
This Is All So Very Normal (Video)
Through the magic of inexperience and cult-like fealty, the president’s purge of intelligence continues with his appointment of Richard Grenell.
Teachers Demonstrate How to Save America’s Public Services
Educators in St. Paul, Minnesota, may walk off the job in March in an effort to shift the politics over what the public funds.In the Arctic, vast amounts of carbon are stored in soils that are now still largely frozen. As temperatures continue to rise and soils thaw, much of this carbon will be converted by microbes into carbon dioxide or methane, adding further greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.
In addition, vast amounts of methane are stored in sediments under the Arctic Ocean seafloor, in the form of methane hydrates and free gas. As temperatures rise, these sediments can get destabilized, resulting in eruptions of huge amounts of methane from the seafloor. Due to the abrupt character of such releases and the fact that many seas in the Arctic Ocean are shallow, much of the methane will then enter the atmosphere without getting broken down in the water.
What makes the situation so dangerous is that huge eruptions from the seafloor of the Arctic Ocean can happen at any time. We can just count ourselves lucky that it hasn't happened as yet. As temperatures continue to rise, the risk that this will happen keeps growing.
arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/extinction.html
Trump & US Gov. vs. Hitler and Fascism -- 28 Minutes Video Program - ||| Chris Hedges talks to Professor Benjamin Hett about the collapse of democracy in Germany’s Weimar Republic and its descent into fascism – and which features of the collapse may be applicable to the democratic experiment in America. Hett is professor of history at Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York; his new book is ‘The Death of Democracy: Hitler’s Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic’.
bit.ly/385ULGd
On Contact: Collapse of Weimar Germany with Benjamin Hett
Chris Hedges talks to Professor Benjamin Hett about the collapse of democracy in Germany’s Weimar Republic and its descent into fascism – and which features of the collapse may be applicable to the democratic experiment in America
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2020
Arctic Ocean February 2020
On February 20, 2020, 09Z, surface temperature anomalies reached both ends of the scale over North America, while the Arctic was 3.7°C or 6.7°F warmer than in 1979-2000. On that day, the average 2 m temperature anomaly for the Arctic was 3.5°C or 6.3°F.
These high temperature anomalies at 2 meters in the left panel go hand in hand with the wind patterns at 250 hPa (jet stream) as shown in the center panel and the wind patterns at 10 meters shown in the right panel. Closer to sea level, circular winds around low pressure areas bring warm air into the Arctic, from Russia and from the Pacific Ocean.
Above image shows winds at 250 hPa (jet stream) with speeds as high as 317 km/h or 197 mph (green circle) in the left panel, while the right panel shows circular winds at 850 hPa reaching speeds as high as 176 km/h or 109 mph (green circle).
These wind patterns have caused much warm air to enter the Arctic, while relatively little cold air has moved out of the Arctic. Furthermore, stronger winds cool the sea surface. As a result, Arctic sea ice extent on February 24, 2020, was 14.1 million km², slightly more than the 2010s average of 14 million km².
Arctic sea ice, however, is very thin. Stronger winds can also accelerate the speed at which ever warmer water is flowing into the Arctic Ocean from the Atlantic Ocean and from the Pacific Ocean, as discussed in a previous post. The overall result is that sea ice volume is at a record low for the time of the year.
This is further illustrated by the sea ice thickness (in meters) comparison below between February 28, 2015 and February 28, 2020, i.e. forecasts for February 28, run on February 27.
Rise in greenhouse gas levels is accelerating
Temperatures are rising at ever faster speed as the rise in greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere is accelerating. As illustrated by the image below, the daily average CO₂ level at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, was 416.08 ppm on February 10, 2020, higher than it has been for millions of years. Since the annual peak is typically reached in May, even higher levels can be expected soon.
From the way emissions are rising now, it looks like we could soon reach even higher CO₂e forcing than during the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) mass extinction event, some 55.5 million years ago, as discussed in a previous post. Very worrying also is the recent rise in methane levels recorded at Barrow, Alaska, as illustrated by the image below.
The buffer is gone
As the sea ice is getting thinner, there is little or no buffer left to consume the influx of ever warmer and salty water from the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean. As illustrated by the image below, there is a tipping point at 1°C above the 20th century average, i.e. there are indications that a rise of 1°C will result in most of the sea ice underneath the surface to disappear.
[ from earlier post ]
As long as there is sea ice in the water, this sea ice will keep absorbing heat as it melts, so the temperature will not rise at the sea surface. But there is ever less sea ice volume left to absorb ocean heat, and the amount of energy absorbed by melting ice is as much as it takes to heat an equivalent mass of water from zero to 80°C.
Meanwhile, temperatures keep rising globally and more than 90% of global warming is going into oceans.
As the temperature of the oceans keeps rising, the danger increases that heat will reach the seafloor of the Arctic Ocean and will destabilize hydrates contained in sediments at the seafloor, resulting in huge releases of methane.
Are humans functionally extinct?
For more background as to when temperatures
could cross 2°C, see also this discussion on trends
Species can be regarded to be ‘functionally extinct’ when their numbers have declined below levels needed for them to reproduce healthy offspring. This can occur due to causes such as loss of habitat and disappearance of other species that they depend on.
Species can also be declared to be ‘functionally extinct’ when they are threatened to be wiped out by a catastrophe that appears to be both imminent and inescapable, which would cause their numbers to dwindle below a critical threshold required for survival of the species.
Rising temperatures now threaten most, if not all, species to go extinct in a matter of years. In 2020, the global temperature rise could cross the critical guardrail of 2°C above preindustrial that politicians at the Paris Agreement promised would not be crossed. In fact, they pledged to take efforts to avoid a 1.5°C rise. Their failure to do so constitutes a de facto declaration that humans are now functionally extinct and that the looming temperature rise will drive most, if not all species on Earth into extinction.
See also the 2015 post: WARNING -
Planetary Omnicide between 2023 and 2031
Dire Situation
The situation is dire, in many respects. Current laws punish people for the most trivial things, while leaving the largest crime one can imagine unpunished: planetary omnicide!
In the video below, Guy McPherson warns that a rapid decline in industrial activity could result in an abrupt rise in temperature of 1°C, as much of the aerosol masking effect falls away.
youtu.be/vn4PoLOmCME
'Victory for Farmers' as Jury Awards Grower $265 Million in Damages From Drift of Monsanto's Dicamba
"This verdict is just the tip of the iceberg."
Trump's SOTU Speech Bristled With Fascist Politics
Authoritarian societies protect the powerful, not the poor or vulnerable, and Trump made that very clear.27 Minutes Video Program: bit.ly/38nClRW
The deep rot of American journalism w/Matt Taibbi
Chris Hedges discusses the deep rot that infects American journalism with reporter Matt Taibbi Follow us on Facebook: Facebook
28 Minutes Video Program: bit.ly/39dOw3U
On Contact: Poisoned drinking water with Seth Siegel
On the show this week, Chris Hedges talks to author Seth Siegel about his new book Troubled Water: What’s Wrong with What We Drink
Refineries Are Spewing Cancer-Causing Benzene as Trump Slashes Enforcement
New federal rules require the worst offenders to clean up their acts, but enforcement has tumbled under Trump.
Don't Let Corporate Media or DNC Fool You -- Sanders Scored a Big Win in Iowa
In fourth place, presumptive front-runner Biden failed to meet the 15 percent viability threshold in much of the state.
CRISIS-O-RAMA
All of a sudden, events are looking a bit fluxy out there, as though the world is shuddering through some spooky ch-ch-ch-changes, like a monster waiting to be born, with strange convergences of ecology, politics and economy, and there’s only so much you can do to prepare, really. Criticality is in the air!
The horses are out of the barn on the Wuhan Coronavirus. Air travel was curtailed too late in the game — and still only partially — with asymptomatic-but-infectious human carriers winging to every corner of the world and probably contaminating airports all along the way. There’s plenty of thought and counter-thought on what exactly is going on behind the scenes in China. The ruling party has knocked itself out demonstrating its earnestness in the crisis, performing great feats like the construction of a one-thousand-bed hospital in ten days, shutting down the lunar new year festivities (like cancelling Christmas here), and locking down a hundred million citizens in quarantine. Pretty impressive.
But there’s also a theory that the Coronavirus affords a cover for cascading failures in China’s corrupt and shifty banking system. The country had already stepped across some frontiers in demographics, energy consumption, and industrial growth that were shoving it toward contraction for the first time in two generations. Coronavirus has shut down a lot of production in big things like cars and big-little things like cell phones, and supply lines are shutting down to world markets. This amounts to the first big test of the integrated global economy, as well as the world’s debt-saturated business model.
When a lot of parties and counterparties can’t pay each other because their revenue flows are cut off, the securities, currencies, equities, and other abstract representations of wealth go south. The US and Europe are no better positioned for a crisis in their banking arrangements, and confidence is starting to crack. Both economic mega-regions have relied on central banking hocus-pocus to prop up stock markets and maintain the illusion that the logic of bonds still applies. The first thing to go moneywise in a contracting financial system is the magic of compound interest.
The US Federal Reserve has been massively gaming the Repo markets — overnight lending that uses bonds as collateral — since September, raising suspicions that more than one of its “primary dealer” banks are insolvent. Juicing them with “liquidity” is like painting over sheetrock infested with black mold. Looks good for a week or so, and then you’re in intensive care. Nobody knows yet what the effect of Britain’s escape from the EU will do to the Union’s remainers, but Europe’s bonded debt arrangements are even dodgier than America’s, since there is absolutely no EU central control of each member’s fiscal affairs. Anyway, the meta-trend now is the devolution of governance from giant-and-central to smaller-and-local, so the real question is how much disorder and damage do these nations endure as that happens. It’s been manifesting vividly in France for a year in the yellow vest protests.
Here in the USA, the knock-on effects of converging crises begin to look like a game of four-dimensional eight-ball. The oil markets are getting slammed around the $51 hashmark, making it more difficult for the shale oil producers to meet their onerous debt repayments (in an industry that just doesn’t make a profit). Lower gasoline prices may seem like a boon for US motorists, but it comes at the expense of bankrupting more oil companies and punishing lenders like pension funds that invested in shale securities in the desperate search for “yield.” Shale never was a rational business model despite its fabulous production surge in a very short span of years. Don’t be surprised if there’s an attempt to nationalize it, which will induce new problems of capital allocation and sheer incompetence in a world where central planning of anything is more and more a bad bet.
Looming and converging multiple crises are also behind the gross disorder in US politics, though the connections may not be so discernably visible. President Trump foolishly took credit for financial markets that he had correctly described as being “one big, fat, ugly bubble,” back in the febrile days of the last election. Now it threatens to leave him holding a big fat ugly bag of trouble. That booby trap is surely more hazardous to his reelection chances than the frenetic efforts of pissants like Adam Schiff running Wile E. Coyote ambuscades in the DC Swamp. Mr. Trump spent three years working, jawboning, and bluffing over global trade arrangements that are now suddenly falling apart. How much of that will turn out to be a temporary effect of the Coronavirus, nobody knows. Or maybe it’s an inflection point in the workings of our over-hyper-complexified human ecosystem.
These shifting quandaries leave the Democratic Party between that ol’ rock and a hard place. All of their bad faith ploys against Mr. Trump have failed so far. I speak to supposedly educated people every day upon whom the failure of the Mueller Investigation, the fiasco of impeachment, and the revelations of IG Michael Horowitz have made no impression at all. The Golden Golem of Greatness is still Putin’s Puppet to them. It’s a wonder of the age that they can’t cut their losses. And now Bernie Sanders suddenly looks poised to win the Iowa caucus and inflame the not-quite-so-socialist factions of the party, who appear to be ratcheting up some Wile E. Coyote traps against him. If that works, it’ll blow the party apart, 1860 style, into rump factions. But if Bernie somehow perseveres and gets the nomination… and the Potemkin financial markets tank… and Coronavirus turns out to be a very big deal for upsetting global trade… then, America may get its first zealous socialist president.
Yes, history repeats and rhymes and all that, but I don’t see Bernie replicating the triumphs of Franklin D. Roosevelt in Great Depression 2.0. Rather, by attempting to overlay command-and-control policies on a zeitgeist that wants to take us smaller and local, Bernie Sanders will only be bucking reality. The net effect of Bernie Sanders in the White House will be to finish off the economy… and imagine where that will take us.
James Howard Kunstler | kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/
e360.yale.edu/features/polar-warning-even-antarctica-coldest-region-is-starting-to-melt
Polar Warning: Even Antarctica’s Coldest Region Is Starting to Melt
East Antarctica is the coldest spot on earth, long thought to be untouched by warming. But now the glaciers and ice shelves in this frigid region are showing signs of melting, a development that portends dramatic rises in sea levels this century and beyond.A recent Northern voyage on a Norwegian research vessel highlighted how soaring carbon dioxide levels and the resulting acidification of the oceans present an especially grave threat to the Arctic’s cold seas and the rich marine life that they harbor.
bit.ly/36VMIeq
Why Rising Acidification Poses a Special Peril for Warming Arctic Waters
A recent Northern voyage on a Norwegian research vessel highlighted how soaring carbon dioxide levels and the resulting acidification of the oceans present an especially grave threat to the Arctic’s cold seas and the rich marine life that they harbor.Some of the most alarming science surrounding climate change is the discovery that it may not happen incrementally — as a steadily rising line on a graph — but in a series of lurches as various “tipping points” are passed. And now comes a new concern: These tipping points can form a cascade, with each one triggering others, creating an irreversible shift to a hotter world. A new study suggests that changes to ocean circulation could be the driver of such a cascade.
bit.ly/2trriIt
As Climate Change Worsens, A Cascade of Tipping Points Looms
New research warns that the earth may be approaching key tipping points, including the runaway loss of ice sheets, that could fundamentally disrupt the global climate system. A growing concern is a change in ocean circulation, which could alter climate patterns in a profound way.A world awash in plastic will soon see even more, as a host of new petrochemical plants — their ethane feedstock supplied by the fracking boom — come online. Major oil companies, facing the prospect of reduced demand for their fuels, are ramping up their plastics output.
e360.yale.edu/features/the-plastics-pipeline-a-surge-of-new-production-is-on-the-way
The Plastics Pipeline: A Surge of New Production Is on the Way
A world awash in plastic will soon see even more, as a host of new petrochemical plants — their ethane feedstock supplied by the fracking boom — come online. Major oil companies, facing the prospect of reduced demand for their fuels, are ramping up their plastics output.With thousands of species on the move as the climate changes, a growing number of scientists say that the dichotomy between native and alien species has become an outdated concept and that efforts must be made to help migrating species adapt to their new habitats.
e360.yale.edu/features/native-species-or-invasive-the-distinction-blurs-as-the-world-warms
Native Species or Invasive? The Distinction Blurs as the World Warms
With thousands of species on the move as the climate changes, a growing number of scientists say that the dichotomy between native and alien species has become an outdated concept and that efforts must be made to help migrating species adapt to their new habitats.The frozen layer of soil that has underlain the Arctic tundra for millennia is now starting to thaw. This thawing, which could release vast amounts of greenhouse gases, is already changing the Arctic landscape by causing landslides, draining lakes, and altering vegetation.
e360.yale.edu/features/how-melting-permafrost-is-beginning-to-transform-the-arctic
How Thawing Permafrost Is Beginning to Transform the Arctic
The frozen layer of soil that has underlain the Arctic tundra for millennia is now starting to thaw. This thawing, which could release vast amounts of greenhouse gases, is already changing the Arctic landscape by causing landslides, draining lakes, and altering vegetation.The U.S. approach to buying out properties vulnerable to flooding is rife with uncertainty and delays. Now, as climate change drives more extreme coastal storms and precipitation events, the system must undergo a drastic overhaul or risk stranding millions in flood-prone homes.
e360.yale.edu/features/as-climate-risks-worsen-u.s.-flood-buyouts-fail-to-meet-the-need
As Climate Risks Worsen, U.S. Flood Buyouts Fail to Meet the Need
The U.S. approach to buying out properties vulnerable to flooding is rife with uncertainty and delays. Now, as climate change drives more extreme coastal storms and precipitation events, the system must undergo a drastic overhaul or risk stranding millions in flood-prone homes.Using satellite data, scientists are documenting the inexorable melting of South America’s glaciers and ice fields, with Andean glaciers thinning by nearly three feet a year since 2000. The loss of ice poses a threat to water supplies and agriculture from Bolivia to Chile.
bit.ly/2OqqQkX
Andes Meltdown: New Insights Into Rapidly Retreating Glaciers
Using satellite data, scientists are documenting the inexorable melting of South America’s glaciers and ice fields, with Andean glaciers thinning by nearly three feet a year since 2000. The loss of ice poses a threat to water supplies and agriculture from Bolivia to Chile.caitlinjohnstone.com/2019/12/22/why-everything-is-fucked/
The Primary Mechanism Of Your Oppression Is Not Hidden At All
I write a lot about government secrecy and the importance of whistleblowers, leakers and leak publishers, and for good reason: governments which can hide their wicked deeds from public accountabili…It fears us but that fear weakens as we grow more divided and complacent.
bit.ly/3b8Au5C
The Establishment Doesn’t Fear Trump, And It Doesn’t Fear Bernie. It Fears You.
During the George W Bush administration it was popular in conspiracy circles to speculate that events might be orchestrated which would allow the Bush family to complete a coup against the US Const…They (Israel) hold on to those people (Palestinians) so they can slowly murder and torture them to death. More than 2 million people being held captive by Israel. They murder them with impunity and very casually. They have poisoned their crops to kill them.
The world should not allow such a thing.
bit.ly/3934cHf