Category: Uncategorized

“Death to Wikileaks”: the battle for truth

The recent Guardian article penned by  Luke Harding – of famed ‘the Russians are invading Ukraine with  a convoy of (mythical)  tanks”  and other anti-Russian hysteria,  and  co-author Dan Collyns,  alleges that  Paul  Manafort, U.S.  convicted felon and former Republican  campaign  chief for Donald Trump’s election campaign, met  and conspired with  Julian  Assange of Wikileaks  to  ensure Hilary  Clinton was not elected President.

The authors of the Guardian story, Dan Collyns and Luke Harding, were in Ecuador recently with Equadorian , Fernando Villavicencio, who ‘assisted’  with this story  and who they had previously worked  with on  other  evidence -free  stories. Villavicencio ( Fernando Villavicencio, oil exsindicalista refugee in the US)  has fabricated claims about people visiting Assange in the past. In May he claimed Farage visited Assange on 28 April  2009, a month after Ecuador initiated its 8 month-long isolation of Assange, banning phone calls, all visits and  internet. Assange’s isolation at  the Embassy coincided  with the  defeat of Ecuadorean president  Rafael  Correa to  U.S.  supporter Lenin Moreno. The Guardian article states ; based on  the allegations from  Villavicencio,  that Manafort entered the Equadorian  Embassy  in London  where Assange is currently in  refuge,  and spoke   to  Assange, on  several occasions.  But as  Craig Murray  notes ,  the Equadorian Embassy  security files,  let alone the London Police records,   strangely show no  evidence of such  meetings.  Embassy employees who were there during that entire time period  also say they never saw Manafort or heard of his visit.

Assange and Wikileaks; and also  separately,  Paul Manafort, are  now proposing legal  action  against  the Guardian.  Wikileaks is raising money here for their legal  appeal. In likely response to these legal  threats, the Guardian has now edited its original  story  to  soften  the tone  of the allegations.  See the edits here  at   https://www.newssniffer.co.uk/articles/1706143/diff/0/1. If both libel  actions are successful  against  the Guardian;  its capacity to   survive financially are questionable -as will be its reputation as a reputable news-source.  Why  then would the Guardian  take such  a risk? It is to be noted that  legal  libel proceeding costs in  the U.K.  can be up to  140  times the costs of similar proceedings in  Europe ( ironically this is a Guardian link) .

Wikileaks’ crime is not only that it did the unpardonable;  it published leaked   information that  accurately and truthfully described war  crimes committed by  both  the U.K. , the US and  other Western states,  but more importantly  Wikileaks also  has put into  question the very  lucrative financial  dealings of the City of London  and also the Maltese government.    Without these illegal   financial dealings,  (primarily via Russian ‘oligarchs’ who  have  fled Russia), it is possible  that  the City of London   and much of the British  economy,  could collapse.

These murky financial  dealings  intermesh  with   much of the  terrorist activities carried out by  Western (particularly U.S.) intelligence agencies  to  ensure  their corporate sponsors  retain  their supplies of cash regardless of the  impacts on  lives  and the local environment. South  American  right wing governments and  their military/intelligence agencies have played a key  role in  these activities –  hence the arrival  of the very  dubious Fernando Villavicencio and his timely allegations of  collusion between  Trump,  Assange and the Russians.

Jimmy Llama notes  many  convoluted links to  neo’liberal’  thinktanks,  shady  corporates and   U.S.   and other individuals    such  as Bill  Browder,  famed for instigating  the U.S. Magnitsky Act ( Russia  has now accused Browder of Magnitsky’s murder) and a key player in  the Russiagate allegations.

These allegations are one of many determined concerted media  efforts to  ensure that once  Assange is  no  longer under the protection of the Ecuadorian  London  Embassy,  there will  be limited public backlash   against  those governments responsible for his subsequent  deportation to  the U.S.  –  his show-trial and likely disappearance..

That  process is after all ,  standard practice  already by  the United States and others;  make allegations against  someone you don’t like or need ,  inform  the necessary  Western authorities,   and a  drone   can  eliminate any unnecessary  evidence forthwith.

Julian Assange and Wikileaks have indeed played a very dangerous game-  unmasking the  extremely brutal  and vicious  international  game of exploitation and greed by  those  in  positions of power  in  the name of “democracy and freedom”…

Links

 

https://theintercept.com/2018/11/27/it-is-possible-paul-manafort-visited-julian-assange-if-true-there-should-be-ample-video-and-other-evidence-showing-this/

Assange Never Met Manafort. Luke Harding and the Guardian Publish Still More Blatant MI6 Lies

https://www.latimes.com/ct-julian-assange-russian-visa-20180917-story.html

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/27/manafort-held-secret-talks-with-assange-in-ecuadorian-embassy

https://www.couragefound.org/2018/11/the-guardian-publishes-fabricated-claims-of-paul-manafort-visiting-assange/

https://www.gofundme.com/wikileaks-suing-the-guardian-over-manafort-story

https://archive.fo/9w6Zv

The Fate of Julian Assange: Chris Hedges Interviews Consortium News Editor-in-Chief Joe Lauria

A Written Guide to the Guardian’s Smear Campaign Against Assange

The Truth About Fernando Villavicencio, the Guardian’s Source for Their Anti-Assange Campaign

Russiagate Part One: The Story That Everyone Missed

Russiagate Part Two: Malta

https://nationalinterest.org/feature/what-really-killed-sergei-magnitsky-16612

https://wikileaks.org/Statement-Julian-Assange.html

https://justice4assange.com/

Misreporting Manafort: A Case Study in Journalistic Malpractice

https://www.telesurenglish.net/opinion/Why-No-Outrage-Over-Ecuadors-Illegal-Constituent-Assembly-20181130-0016.html

The Death of Democracy

On the 7th  October 2018, Jair Bolsonaro, former paratrooper  captain  in the Brazilian  Army and publicly  evowed supporter of  military  dictatorship,  torture and murder,  was elected President of Brazil.

Bolsonaro,  a supposed Christian, and  hater of gays,  communists, leftists,  minorities (who  form  a majority of Brazil’s population) ,  environmentalists, and any one else who  disagrees with his puerile view of the world, vows to  create a Brazil  where ‘Brazil (is) Above Everything, God Above Everyone’. 

As Pepe Escobar notes; The record reveals Bolsonaro as a racist, misogynist, homophobic, weaponizing thug, favoring a white, patriarchal, hierarchical, hetero-normative and “homogenous” Brazil; an absurdity in a deeply unequal society still ravaged by the effects of slavery and where the majority of the population is mixed race.

Bolsonaro  demonstrably has very  limited intelligence and  psychopathic instincts, and yet  a majority of voters enthusiastically supported his election as president. How could that be? Fearful of  urban violence ,  political  and systemic corruption and economic failure,  they voted for a man  who, despite all  the evidence to  the contrary in his  career history,  promised economic stability and growth ,  safety and an  end to  corruption. Blaming the lack of those things on  the reds and all  who  opposed  him, seemed to  make perfect  sense to  a population  flooded with media messaging that  seemed to  confirm  those views.

America’s “New Scientist’  has recently  stated the sad truth  that  “Antagonism isn’t absolutely good or bad. Daniel Nettle speculated that all personality traits evolved to have trade-offs, and that’s why variation exists in personality. From an evolutionary perspective, agreeableness has both benefits (attention to mental states of others; harmonious interpersonal relationships, valued coalitional partnerships) as well as costs (subject to social cheating and exploitation; failure to maximize selfish advantage). Nevertheless, because of the existence of such wide variation in this trait, highly antagonistic leaders can arouse and influence wide swaths of people who score high in this trait through their rhetoric and messaging”.

The irony seems lost on his supporters that  Bolsonaro  as a true fascist  ( a supporter of extremist violence and corporate profit above all  things ),  is so  deeply imbedded in  military  corruption and has such an  extraordinarily  narrow fundamentalist view of the world that  Brazil could well  be headed for a nightmare world…

And yet,  as FAIR notes, the Western  financial  and conservative media  is  waxing enthusiastically about his election as a a great step  forward for the free market; and as Pepe Escobar notes,  a nail  in  the coffin of the independent BRICS global financial  market structure.

Bolsonaro’s supreme lack  of intellectual  capacity will  give him  the capacity  to  destroy – once and for all – the lifeblood of this planet ;  the Amazonian rainforests that  are truly the lungs of this earth,  and whose  indigenous guardians he has pledged to  destroy .

As the Guarani said recently: “If indigenous peoples become extinct and dead, the lives of all are threatened, for we are the guardians of nature. Without forest, without water, without rivers, there is no life, there is no way for any Brazilian to survive. We resisted 518 years ago, we fight in victory and defeat, our land is our mother. As long as the sun still shines, and while there is still fresh air under the shade of a tree, while there is still a river to bathe in, we will fight.”

Links

Financial Press Cheers Election of Fascist in Brazil

https://consortiumnews.com/2018/10/29/welcome-to-the-jungle/

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/25/brazil-could-be-dragged-back-into-dictatorship-cultural-figures-warn

https://www.telesurenglish.net/multimedia/Brazils-Social-Movements-Rally-Against-Bolsonaro-20181031-0016.html

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/31/jair-bolsonaro-brazil-indigenous-tribes-mining-logging

https://jacobinmag.com/2018/10/jair-bolsonaro-quotes-brazil-election

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/brazil-president-bolsonaro-destroy-the-amazon-2018-10?r=US&IR=T

The Strange Case of Sr. Bolsonaro

Jair Bolsonaro- (or “The Legend’, as his supporters like to call  him)  -an ex  Brazilian Army Captain, is flying high in  the polls for the Brazilian Presidential  elections in  October.

He appears to be extending his lead over his major left-wing rival , who  replaced the  imprisoned ex President Lula on  the ballot list. Senator Bolsonaro  stands, he says,  for  economic stability and an end to  the corruption that  characterised the left wing governments of Lula and Rousseff, and their right wing successors  led by  President Temer.

The Brazilian  and international  media tend  to  describe Bolsonaro as a ‘firebrand’,  ‘misogynist’  or a  ‘far-right’  politician-  adjectives which do  nothing to  describe the brutal  reality of this pathetic little man.  Bolsonaro  has consistently informed the media and his supporters  that   he  is in  favour of mass-murder ( 30,000  deaths will  not be enough he says) ,  torture and  terrorising those political  opponents.-  a return to  the ‘good old days’  of the U.S.  supported Brazilian  military  dictatorships (1964-1985)  which  tortured and murdered  the left,  the poor ,  and the indigenous populations of Brazil, and enabled vast  tracts of Brazil  rainforests to be forever destroyed – all in  the name of  ‘economic stability’; ( which in reality means big business  giving  little ‘favours’  to  the military in  exchange for their  brutal  support).

Bolsonaro’s stream  of vicious and violent narratives are even, in the Latin American  press described as simply ‘outrageous”, rather than the obscene ravings of an  extremely damaged human  being. Bolsonaro in reality  exhibits all  the incoherent rage and ignorance of one who has been  systematically brutalised himself.

His tirades of threats and abuse  against  the left,   Brazilian LGBTIQ communities,  the poor,  the native American  populations,  Chinese business and  environmental  agencies,  are classical  examples of one who  has spent his entire life in  fear of that  which he cannot understand. His short  incoherent streams of angry  invective   characterise one who  has been brain  damaged;  whose only known response to  these perceived threats is to  lash  out with  brutality and anger.

In  a world where the remnants of the Brazilian rainforests-  the ‘lungs’  of our world;  may be the one thing which  sustains life on  this planet  for a little while longer, we now have the very  real potential  for this  supremely damaged man  to lead our world faster and deeper into  disaster.

In  a world where the wisdom  of the indigenous populations of South  America  may be the one thing that can lead us back  from  the brink of   global environmental  catastrophe;  we find Bolsonaro- the ultimate  symbol of the folly of mankind.

Postscript

Read the fascinating account of Bolsonaro’s triumphant first  round lead in the Brazilian presidential  elections here and the role of the ultra-rightests in  world politics.

A very  detailed account of the rise of Jair Bolsonaro, and the fate of the major Brazilian political  parties over the past few decades here

Links

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/02/brazilian-shares-surge-as-far-right-presidential-candidate-erases-deficit-in-second-round-poll.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jair_Bolsonaro

https://www.dw.com/en/brazils-jair-bolsonaro-says-hell-accept-election-result-provided-he-wins/a-45684836

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/30/huge-protests-in-brazil-as-far-right-presidential-hopeful-jair-bolsonaro-returns-home

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/19/jair-bolsonaro-brazil-presidential-candidate-trump-parallels

http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/wtf/is-this-the-worlds-most-repulsive-politician/news-story/926a4a59cf6132f770dfdbd46f610e97

https://www.telesurtv.net/english/pages/Especiales/Brazil_Decides_2018/index.html

https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Chomsky-Other-Intellectuals-Issue-Manifesto-Warning-Against-Brazils-Fascist-Candidate-20181003-0005.html?

Future of Western Democracy Being Played Out in Brazil

https://www.lrb.co.uk/v41/n03/perry-anderson/bolsonaros-brazil?

Western Hypocrisy & Genocide in Yemen

The  staggering level  of silence in  the Western media about the  genocide being committed by  Saudi Arabia and United Arab  Emirates in Yemen,  with  the full and active  military  support and coordination of the U.S.  and U.K.  militaries and arms manufacturers,  continues.

When  the situation is  briefly described in the mainstream  media,  we are told-  as though it is a plausible  reason for genocide –  that the Houthis are “Iran-backed”. How exactly Iranian  weapons are being supplied across the Straits of Hormuz through  heavily blockaded Yemen ports  and ships being searched by  armed NATO vessels in  the Gulf;  is not quite explained. Nor is it clarified that in  fact  the Houthi  rebel  faction is in  fact a Sunni  sect ,  not the Iranian Shi-ite sect of Mohammedism. (Note other internet information describes the Houthi sect as a  Zaidi Shi-ite ‘non-twelver’ sect,  and thus also  dissimilar to  Iranian Shi-ite beliefs). However a  key distinguishing feature of  Houthi beliefs, is their rejection of the  extremist Wahhabist Sunni  doctrines espoused by the Saudi  Arabia dictatorship.

So,  while the US  and UK air commands coordinate and provide in flight fueling for  the Saudi  bombing runs  against largely civilian targets,  which has  resulted in likely up  to 10,000  deaths. As Mahamad Bazzi  noted in  the Guardian on 11th  June 2018,  The war has killed at least 10,000 Yemenis ( U.N. estimate from January 2017) and left more than 22 million people –three-quarters of Yemen’s population – in need of humanitarian aid. 

What is demonstrated in  bloody clarity,  is the U.S.  and U.K ; supposed paragons of democracy  and freedom, behaving without morals , ethics, human decency or basic human compassion for Yemenese lives,  solely in the interests of money. Cash for armaments,  cash for supporting the corrupt  dictatorship  in  Saudi  Arabia and access to  Saudi  oil ; and cash  from  Israeli sympathisers  to  ensure their brutal  occupation  and theft  of Palestinian land  is able to continue indefinitely.  Any action  that  apparently reduces the  power and influence  of Israel’s great  nemesis, Iran,  is something to  be supported!

Links

https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2018/06/29/over-18-million-die-starvation-yemen-2018/

https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/under-secretary-general-humanitarian-affairs-and-emergency-relief-coordinator-mark-6

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/saudi-coalition-to-blame-for-most-child-casualties-in-yemen-un-report/

https://www.juancole.com/2018/06/aggression-slaughter-conflict.html

http://www.stopwar.org.uk/index.php/news-comment/3069-the-uk-are-not-bystanders-in-the-war-on-yemen-they-are-active-participants

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/11/14/the_u_s_has_helped_saudi_arabia_bomb_yemen_for_almost_three_years_congress.html

Houthi Drone Targets Saudi Coalition Military HQ

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-map-of-israeli-settlements-that-shocked-barack-obama

The Houthis and War in Yemen

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-map-of-israeli-settlements-that-shocked-barack-obama

 

No flies in Syria

The recent cruise missile attack  by  the U.S.  and its allies the U.K.  and France ( former colonial exploiters  in  the region) raises some interesting dilemmas for Western  military planners .

If we are to believe the Russian military  assessment of the strike, 71 of the of 103 cruise missiles  were brought down  by  Syrian  air defence systems,  particular via the Russian made Pantsir surface-to-air missile  systems.

While the United States and its two allies have claimed that  the missile  attack  was in  response to  their espoused  view that there had been  a gas attack  by  the Assad military in Douma against  the  civilians trapped there, the evidence seems to  suggest  that  this attack was aimed at  eliminating the air support threat  from  the Syrian  Air Force for the jihadists those 3  Western governments have been extensively supporting since the start  of the war to  overthrow the Assad regime.

Having failed in  their bid to  convince the United Nations of a ‘no-fly’ zone in  Syria  on  multiple occasions ( ie elimination of Syrian  government aircraft from the skies above rebel-held territory) ; the use of a chemical  weapons attack  as a pretext  for bombing airfields  has become the next  best  option. Using  The American   government  ( and Muslim Brotherhood)  funded Syrian American Medical  Society (SAMS),  and the largely British intelligence funded and managed White Helmets to  produce videos purporting to  show a chemical  weapons attack  in  Douma, Western media has been united in  showing moral  outrage at  ‘animal Assad’s” killing of his own people, and baying for more attacks on the Syrian military.

The apparent logic given  by  Western media and politicians  for ‘animal Assad”  to  drop  barrel  bombs filed with   toxic chemicals on  the people of   Douma was to demonstrate that there was no  hope for the rebels there and they  should surrender. According to  this logic, it was worth  the risk of a repeat of the previous cruise missile attacks  ordered by  President Trump  last  year  for the Assad regime to drop a few barrels of toxic chemicals on  Douma  to  dislodge the few remaining  “rebels’  there who  were already negotiating an  exit  with the Syrian government from the enclave . One assumes those politicians and the Western media think  their publics are very  very  stupid….Unfortunately for Western intelligence, the overrunning of the last  of the rebel enclaves in Ghouta  and their departure in  buses to  Idlib came far sooner than they expected,  allowing the Syrians and Russians and journalists like the respected British Robert Fisk, to enter the area where the supposed gas attack  had occurred and interview civilians and medics there .

One finds it strange that  neither Western media nor their governments have bayed for large cruise missile attacks on the Al  Qaeda affiliate Al Nusra,  or ISIS, or any  of the other  head-choppers supported by  Gulf and Western states. And that in  fact there have been no  reported cruise missile attacks by  Western countries on ISIS throughout this entire war. How could this be  one wonders?

The chemical  weapons scam is largely similar to  the earlier and still  ongoing farce  in  the Western media about Assad’s “barrel bombs”. “Barrel  bombs’  are nothing but impromptu explosives packed in   drums  and  dropped from government helicopters and  fixed wing aircraft. They  are in  fact, unguided ordinance, which the majority  of the  aerial  weapons  at play  in Syria by  the United States and its allies,  as well as the Russians and the Syrian government, are. But  we are somehow expected to  believe that  packing  munitions into  oil  drums and dropping them  on  targets creates   far worse  dangers,  chaos, injury  and death   than those caused by  other unguided munitions. But again  the ‘barrel  bomb’  farce is one more attempt by  the Western  media and politicians to  remove the threat  to their tunnel  based jihadists from  aerial  warfare of any kind. If the Syrian airforce can be removed and then  the Russian airforce, then  ISIS and the other Al  Qaeda affiliates and salafists out to  exterminate all  Christians , Allawites, Shi-ites and other non  fundamentalist  Sunni sects in Syria, will  have a much free-er hand on the ground.

Despite American  denials, it would appear that in  fact  the  vast majority of the cruise missiles were therefore  aimed at  Syrian  airfields, rather than the alleged chemical  weapons storage and production facilities ( which had been vetted by  the OPCW as ‘clean’  just  last  October 2017). The Syrian and Russians had in  fact deployed most of their more effective anti-missile stations around those airfields; and if they  are to believed,   destroyed the vast  majority of the incoming missiles at  those airfields. There is some speculation that  Russian  electromagnetic interference jamming   systems may have played a part in  the incoming missiles’ lack  of effectiveness,  but that  cant be confirmed as yet.

It would appear  that  the Americans ,French  and British  are relying on  their NATO fellow members of the OPCW to  influence  the public statements of the OPCW in  regards to the alleged Douma gas attack , whilst acknowledging that the inspectors themselves will  draw their own conclusions which  they  can not publicly release as OPCW staff ( but will  likely leak  to  the public or Wikileaks if they  do  not coincide with the political narrative) .  Note that  the most recent media release by  the OPCW on  their survey  of the Dhouma site in Syria states that  “On arrival at Site 1, a large crowd gathered and the advice provided by the UNDSS was that the reconnaissance team should withdraw. At Site 2, the team came under small arms fire and an explosive was detonated. The reconnaissance team returned to Damascus. “

Very clearly, the battle to partition Syria by  the West and its Gulf allies using jihadists is far from over.

But -as in  previous unilateral totally illegal strikes  ( ie not approved by  the U.N. Security Council) by  Western governments on  states that do   not comply with the Western political  and economic agenda , this latest missile attack  provides ample rationale  to  China, as the upcoming dominant global  power,  that  missile   strikes on  countries who  do  not acquiesce to its political  and economic agenda, are a completely legitimate response, in  the future.

It  may not be too  long before China’s aircraft  carrier armada are patrolling the seas off  the United States, the U.K and France..

 

Postscript

A more detailed assessment of the cruise missile numbers and targets from  Joe Quinn at  sott.net

https://www.sott.net/article/382908-About-Those-Nice-New-Smart-Missiles-And-The-Chemical-Weapons-Sites-in-Syria

Links

https://russianmilitaryanalysis.wordpress.com/2017/04/10/u-s-cruise-missile-strikes-in-syria-brief-analysis/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrel_bomb

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/syria-chemical-attack-gas-douma-robert-fisk-ghouta-damascus-a8307726.html

http://eng.mil.ru/en/news_page/country/more.htm?id=12171300@egNews

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/04/syria-pentagon-hides-attack-failure-70-cruise-missiles-shot-down-.html#more

https://www.opcw.org/

Robert Fisk’s Douma Report Rips Away Excuses for Air Strike on Syria

America First – R.I.P.

The Essential Alternative to Animal Slaughter

“Freezing works” (ie slaughter house ) in New Zealand; from Teara.govt.nz

A recent front page article in  my local New Zealand newspaper disparaging   the future on  non meat based proteins, prompted  me to  respond.

In  2016 New Zealand mercilessly slaughtered 28,387,595 lambs,  adult sheep,  calves,  adult steers and cows,  pigs,  and goats; with young lambs totalling over  18 million of those deaths. Two of the major “meat companies’  in  New Zealand respectively  had an income from  those deaths of  just over $10 million  and $17 million. Animals  are indoctrinated to  become used to being shifted from  pasture to  pasture with  dogs and men on  farm  bikes;  and then , when  the  killing season  starts, are herded into  tightly packed   fenced areas and  forced onto   truck  and trailer units  for the long tortuous drive to  the ‘meatworks’.

Teara.govt.nz notes that  ‘in 2009 there were about 80 meat-processing plants in New Zealand, employing about 26,500 people and exporting to about 150 countries.’

A recent article in  the New York Times noted a research study  where sheep  were able to  distinguish  between the faces of different humans;-  hardly a surprise to most of us who  have emotional  connections to  our pets, but obviously so  to the scientists. (https://nypost.com/2017/11/08/sheep-learn-to-recognize-emma-watsons-face )
What it therefore correspondingly tells us  is that  those millions of  sheep   and other animals  we kill for fun  and profit every year  in New Zealand  who  are  transported to  the killing fields of the abattoirs around New Zealand and then  savagely killed and cut up; are very well  aware of the  pure terror they  and their  fellow beings  have to  endure before they die and are consumed for pleasure by  humans..

There is  undeniable scientific evidence that  humankind’s reliance on meat  production has  contributed significantly to the  vast loss of species habitat  across the world ( and particularly so in New Zealand ) ,which will  if not checked in  the near future, along with its impact  on  climate change,  lead to  the destruction of all  life on this planet.

The other ‘unfortunate truth’  is that  there is irrefutable evidence that  every  new element of human ‘progress’  results in  the destruction of more and more species on this planet-  species which  which  humans are in direct  connection for our mutual  survivability.

Look  around,  almost every  aspect of what  we call  ‘progress’  is  our relentless transfer of the living and vibrant to  the inanimate-  the concrete, the tar,   the electronics, the cut down  trees…….we are inexorably deadening the planet  with our ‘progress”.

In addition recent studies of insect  populations  in Europe reveal  rapid declines in  flying insects likely due to  monoculture, deforestation and  insecticides. Without insects,  we all  die ;  rapidly

Consequently we have no  choice as a species than  to give up  killing our fellow species for protein and profit   and begin  to  live a more sustainable and humane  life-  and we have to make that change very  soon!

Links

The Nonhuman Rights Project https://www.nonhumanrights.org/

Dance of the Macabre

We are now treated to the spectacle of President Trump  dancing a sword dance with  Saudi  princes after signing  a multi  billion dollar arms deal  with  the Saudi  regime..
We  have indisputable evidence that  the Saudis and Qataris are not only funding training and even  providing  jihadist manpower to  terrorists in  the Middle East  ( including both  Al Qaeda and ISIS), but that  the Saudi  regime is also  the sole source of the Wahhabist  ideology  that drives foolish young men to commit terrorist crimes,  both in the West  and as  jihadist  mercenaries in  the Middle East.
We know also  that  Britain  (remember Lawrence of Arabia) and now the United States, have continued to  prop  up  this brutal  sectarian and misogynist regime on the Arabian  peninsula for the past 100  years,  because it serves their interest  to do  so. Interests that include  oil of course and the sale of superfluous  armaments , but also  the capacity to combat  those states in  the Middle East  who  do  not bow down  to  Western interests;  eg Iraq, Libya, Syria,  and the ultimate prize,  Iran.
Thus, as academic Christopher Davidson  meticulously records in  his 2016 book, “The Shadow Wars”; ongoing U.K.  and U.S.  support for the Saudi regime and its terrorist activities is very  much in  their interests.
For how much longer will  this macabre dance continue?

Gaia and the Joys of Collective Psychosis

In Ukraine we see good Ukraine citizens believing that  ‘slant-eyed’  Russians ( perhaps Mongols from  the 12th century?)  have invaded their peaceful country, and along with a tiny number of Ukrainian traitors, have managed to  fend off the advances of the peace-loving Kiev government army  and  neo-nazi Right Sektor militias to return Eastern Ukraine to the fold. We need no  evidence-  we simply know that this is the case.

In Syria, every  good Sunni  knows that  it was Assad’s government that created ISIS;  where else could it have come from? -in order   that  evil  Shi-ite Persians and Lebanese  Hezbollah  could invade their country.  Clearly Sunni Saudi Arabia and their Wahabbist   crazies had nothing to do  with it!

In America every  good Democrat  knows that  it was only because of Russian intervention and ‘hacking’  that  Donald Trump  won  the election. How else could he have won?

And in the U.K. and in Poland the Russians are coming,  if they  are not already here! Russia’s aging  long range bombers and their sole smoking  aircraft  carrier are ready  at any moment to bring apocalyptic doom to  those good democratic shores..

I  am once again  reminded of my great great  grandfather’s time here in sleepy New Zealand, when  in  the 1890s, a  Russian Empire rust-bucket of a warship  managed to creep  this far south in  the Pacific to  to cause chaos and concern amongst us gentle white folks.  Vast  sums were raised to buy ( from British  armament factories) long range   guns to  install  on every  headland to  forestall  the imminent threat of a Russian  invasion. The Russo-Japanese brief  naval  and land army  altercation of 1904 was to  quickly prove how much  of a threat those Russian  warships  and armed forces actually were..

So-  those are  a few tangible examples of collective pyschosis –  how we as humans can so  easily be swayed into  believing an alternative reality-  because everyone else is believing it too.

However –  much much bigger than  those relatively small  events,  is humankind’s current conviction (since at  least the ‘industrial  revolution’) that  destroying all  of the  living things on this planet is ‘progress’ .  And, decade after decade, each  one of the remaining indigenous cultures have been sucked into  this ‘word-view’  that  we  humans must   produce things  to  make us humans happy and  ‘progress somewhere’ . Every one of the material things that  we produce  comes at  the expense of another living thing…

The evidence is very much out there-  and has been increasingly obvious over the past fifty years,  that  we as humans are  incrementally, and  at an ever faster pace ,  destroying the capacity of this planet to provide a sustainable habitat to not only ourselves, but  to  all of earth’s living things. But  we are still  ‘locked in’  to  ‘progress’  –  destroying  life for another bauble that will inevitably  self-destruct in  a few  months or years…

Perhaps, just perhaps, if we had had a slow motion time-lapse video which had showed   the world’s life steadily being steadily and rapidly drained away over the past 2000  years –  year upon year  –  then just maybe we might have done something about it.  Instead, we talk  about it;  we pretend that our machines of ‘progress’  can  redress the problems,  when the reality is that only other life, other species, can  reverse the  apocalypse-  if we have time.

And  that  – as we  all  know-  is not going to happen. Because human ‘progress’ its believed,   is going to  save us with more technology, more  ‘progress’  (and  more destruction of living things)…

A mammoth global  campaign to  plant and grow trees everywhere –  to revert  all  our feedstock lands to  forest, to plant trees on  every  available inch  of land  that is not absolutely necessary  to provide  humans with  a meagre  vegetable diet;  might permit this planet to  survive as a living entity….but the odds look  very very slim….Trees not only once almost  entirely covered the landmass of our little planet,  they provided a home for a huge biodiversity of other plants  insects and animals that  kept our planet viable  flexible  and   adaptable to  climactic and other  planetary  changes. That capacity to  adapt through  species diversification  is now being squeezed from  this planet.

Lovelock had it right the first time.  Our planet is  indeed a  single living entity –  Gaia -composed of  millions of different living  interlocking entities-  much  the same way as the human organism functions.

We are killing her…

Links

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_hypothesis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Japanese_War

https://ourworldindata.org/forest-cover/#very-long-term-perspective-on-deforestation-in-specific-regions

Triumphant

There have been  way  too  many commentaries on  the  ‘unexpected’  succession  of Donald Trump  to the White House.

Trump coat of arms Source By Ernstvongriffe - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=53057525
Trump coat of arms: Source By Ernstvongriffe – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=53057525

However  notwithstanding all  those commentaries ,  I will  endeavour to add my own  little spin  on  those events.

Donald Trump’s win  was  ‘unexpected’  for two reasons: 1) the media said it was not going to happen  and 2) the polls said it was not going to happen.  And indeed, Hillary  Clinton  did win more votes in  the  total national  count of the 54% who  decide to  vote, but lost out at  the electoral  college state level.  Both  Trump  and Clinton were voted for by  approximately 27% of the total possible electorate.  But the poll  margins expected, at  the very least,  a 4% margin  for Clinton. Was it because  those responding to the pollsters hid their true intent ; maybe too  ashamed to  say  they  were intending to  vote for someone the media portrayed as a bigot, sexist and buffoon, but who   responded to their anxieties about the future? Or was it that the low voter turnout  dramatically skewed the potential for any accurate recording  of those who  in the end decided to  vote?-  I would suspect  more the latter.

The role  of the media in this campaign has been  astonishing to an outsider.  Not one US mainstream  news agency  supported Trump through his campaign. Even in little old New Zealand the bias  in  reporting pro  Clinton and against  Trump was extraordinarily obvious. One of the more obvious signs of this bias was the  mass media taking up the Clinton   campaign’s farcical claims  that Trump  was in  bed with Putin, the Russians were trying to   fix the election and Wikileaks was an  arm of the Russian secret  police.  Where was the analysis of these absurd allegations ? Did this obvious bias  result in  a backlash  from voters as has been claimed in  some media reports? -I would very much  doubt it-  American citizenry  have been taught to  believe whatever the media says is the truth-why  doubt them now?- however absurd the claim  is.

However I do  think  one outcome of the media Trump-bashing frenzy  has been to instill a high level of fear and anxiety in those parts of the American  population who  see themselves as marginalized: the gay communities, Hispanics to some degree, many  blacks,  as well  as all those who  are fighting for more rights and freedoms  within  the American state system. Are those fears justified?-we shall  have to wait  and see whether Donald puts his  money  where his mouth is! As one reporter noted recently-  ‘all  American presidential  elections are like this; say anything you like  in  the run-up  to the vote, but once elected become a sober and careful  politician’. With  Donald Trump,  that may not necessarily be the case. All indications are that Donald Trump  has an ego  of unbelievable proportions, is not used to taking advice from singular or  multiple sources , is  in fact  both  sexist and racist and likes to make executive decisions at the minutist level.  Will  that make his decisions worse?-  probably not, given the calibre of recent presidential policy  decision -making.  Will  it make those decisions more unpredictable?- most certainly yes. We are in  for uncertain times in  the world.

We are also  in  for a world driven  entirely by  greed:  well, more obviously so at  least. In the past, that greed has been  hidden by  more subtle statements; ‘bringing democracy’,   ‘removing human rights abuses’, ‘responsibility to  protect’,  regime change’,  ‘efficiency’, ‘progress’  etc etc . The removal of environmental  controls for instance, will  simply make evident  what  was already  in  place; a total  unwillingness by  the American  state to  countenance a reduction  in  the consumption of fossil  fuels and the degradation of the environment if it meant profits for the big companies were going to  be reduced.  “Growth’  is what  drives money into  the pockets of the politicians. The environmental   Paris Accord is a political  farce, and every politician knows it.

The other  factor driving unpredictability in  Trump’s decision-making  is that he doesn’t need to be bought by  the highest  bidder;-unlike Hillary and the Clinton Foundation.   As a billionaire, Trump has sufficient  money  that  no-one can influence him   through bribery  and corruption, should he choose not to  go there.  The traditional  methodology for policy   decision-making in  Washington  has now been  removed for four years-  a very  scary  thought to  those who  have been buying privilege and influence in Washington for so many many years!   And particularly scary for those in  the military  and arms industries and certain  foreign states, who  have relied on  extensive lobbying and financial  ‘incentives’  to  ensure ongoing wars wherever they  meet  their interests.

Finally , the role of media and  politicians  in fostering the  post-election anxiety   and street  demonstrations needs to be explored. The casual  statements by  both  Hillary  Clinton and Obama that  Trump needs to ‘be given  a chance”  has the hidden  and not so  subtle or veiled implication  that, once Trump  makes his first  wrong move as President,  then  we can  go  after him  with whatever it takes to  remove him.

The  violent demonstrations on  the streets in   the U. S. as a result of the  presidential  election are unprecedented, and may be a sign of  further clashes between the so-called ‘liberals’  in  the pro-Clinton  camp,  and the bigots and racists  and ‘fearful  white folks’  who  made up  a significant proportion of the pro-Trump vote.

We live in  ‘interesting times’, as the Chinese curse has it….

 

The Earth is NOT Our Playground

For the past two  hundred years since the British  Industrial  Revolution and the rise of consumerism, the Western  World and now the Eastern  and Third Worlds, have adopted a mantra that  says;  ‘we can  do  anyhing we like to  this world- destroy  other species, the natural  environment as much  as we want  in  our pursuit of profit and  things to  consume’.

A few humans are now coming to the realisation that  this mantra is rapidly and progressively destroying this planet- that  we, and the billions of other species on this planet , are doomed  very  soon, to  annihilation, unless we rapidly reverse this hedonistic view of  life.

In my little ‘green  and clean’  country   of New Zealand alone, we mercilessly kill many many millions of other animals we ‘farm’ each year. Each  of those animals, (as every  pet owner well  knows) , just  like us;  has thoughts, feelings and intense fear as they  approach  their deaths by  humans who must  construct  careful  thought patterns to  ensure they  are not unduly themselves destroyed by  the  pain  and psychopathic cruelty they  are inflicting on  each  animal they  encounter for killing. There are harrowing stories in  the links below of animals coming to  their murderers for  comfort  and reassurance before the moments of their deaths.toadstillinthegrass

There are stories too  of the  enormous psychological damage inflicted on  those butcherers by  their  killings  day  after day. And yet incredibly,  we see educated  ‘authorities’  extolling  diets which  endorse and enthuse over those killings. The  so-called ‘paleo’ diet-  where supposedly our prehistoric ancestors somehow had enough time and energy  to  go  on killing sprees and consume vast  amounts of meat. One has to  wonder which    killing corporation is sponsoring such  a diet?

In reality, we  in our early years, like our  fellow  primates, did kill   a few other animals, but predominantly ate  what   came to us in our  travels,  fruit, grains,  roots in  the ground and some times a lucky kill  of another animal.

We are  not ‘predestined’  to be killers in our genes- despite the animal killing industries best  protestations;  we are essentially omniverous animals- and we can  choose not to inflict  cruelty and death  on our fellow species.

But the killing industry is just  a small  part of what  we humans  are blindly doing to  destroy our planet. It is all  part of a vast  and intensely ignorant ‘understanding’,  that  we as humans,  are superior beings who  consequently have the right  to  do  what  we like on this planet.

Nothing could be further from the truth!. We are in  no way  superior beings- we have unique talents,  as many species do, but they  in no  way  equate to  ‘superiority’- whatever  that might mean.

Even humans should be able to recognise that self-definition of superority using those traits  that  that species excels in,  has rather a large flawed element of self-fulfillment. The inherent stupidity of such  an  argument should be visible to  any human;- sadly , it is not.

This self-fulfilling prejudice means that  humans can,  without a qualm, destroy  countless  individual  and total  fellow-species for any reason  the human brain  can come up  with.   Thus we can  pave over the living and breathing earth, create cancerous  concrete growths we call  cities on top  of  the natural  world, destroy billions of acres of forest to   maintain  monocrops  endlessly and increasingly sprayed with poisons -or ‘genetically engineered’  to  self-destruct  and destroy those species relying on them in the process. We can pave the planet  with increasing  labyrinths of tar  we call  roads  or ‘essential  services’, we can  desperately retrieve  more  and more of the stored earth-bound energy   on this planet  to keep  our so-called ‘civilisation’  running;  but, all  for what?

Global  warming is but one small  symptom of this incredible stupidity. Oh yes, certainly one that  will  kill  millions of humans and many billions more of our fellow species, but nothing in  comparison  with  our ongoing hell-bent ride to  destroy the planet we live on with  every   avail able tool  we have  created  since the Industrial  Revolution.

Do  we really hate ourselves this much?

Links

http://www.rollingstone.com/feature/belly-beast-meat-factory-farms-animal-activists

http://www.texasobserver.org/ptsd-in-the-slaughterhouse/

http://werewolf.co.nz/2016/02/killing-for-a-living/

https://verdict.justia.com/2014/05/21/dilemma-humane-execution-humane-slaughter

https://www.rebelpress.org.nz/files/cleangreencrueltyfree.pdf