Latest articles
Greenland is Worse Than Ever, Much Worse
Rain, Greenland Summit Station (Getty Image)
A new study finds Greenland’s ice sheet thinning much further into the ice sheet core than previously thought, 100 miles inland. ((S. Khan, et al, “Extensive Inland Thinning and Speed-Up of North-East Greenland Stream”, Nature, November 9, 2022.))
The implications are extremely concerning and far-reaching especially for sea level rise. It is a significant development that will prompt climate scientists to recalculate global warming’s impact.
In that regard, some facts are worth repeating. Here’s one that cannot be told often enough because of the gravity of …
Reimagining Food, Farming and Humanity: Ecomodernism’s Dystopia
Ecomodernists offer no solutions to contemporary problems other than technical innovation and further integration into private markets which are structured systematically by centralized state power in favour of the wealthy…
Chris Smaje “Ecomodernism: a Response to my Critics”, Originally published September 10, 2015 by Small Farm Future
In 2017, the then Monsanto Chief Technology Officer Robb Fraley argued that his company made a mistake in not reaching out to the public about genetically modified organisms (GMOs) when they first appeared on the market in the 1990s. He felt consumers had been unduly swayed by an anti-GMO movement and the …
Remember the Vaccine Scandal in Maryland?
(Of course you don't)
Let’s imagine a hypothetical scenario.
What if there was a time when the general population was being relentlessly coerced into taking a particular drug? How would you know what to do? Where would you turn for the necessary context? Surely you wouldn’t just take the shot without doing your homework… right? That would be irrational. And you wouldn’t blame others for being hesitant… right? That would be even more irrational. Logically, you’d look up a relatively recent, similar scenario to see what you …
The Polish Missile Narrative
Wars tend to bury facts. What comes out of them is often a furiously untidy mix of accounts that, when considered later, constitute wisps of fantasy and presumption. Rarely accepted in the heat of battle is the concept of mistake: that a weapon was wrongly discharged or errantly hit an unintended target; a deployment that went awry; or that the general was drunk when an order was given. Wars invite ludicrous tall tales and lies with sprinting legs.
In the Ukraine War, where accurate information has almost ceased to be relevant (unless you believe the sludge from any one side), the …
“No More American Thanksgivings” and Other Essays
A review of Glen Ford's book The Black Agenda
Of the traditional US holidays, Thanksgiving was by far my favorite. I can do without the excessive commercialization of Xmas with its cheesy music that broadcasts for weeks on end. Cancel the forced festiveness of New Year’s and the sloppy drunks it generates; ditto for the militarism of July 4th. So, what’s not good about coming together with friends and family and sharing a home cooked feast?
I don’t want to ruin the party, but before you carve up the turkey, read the opening essay in Glen Ford’s The Black Agenda. …
The Road to Totalitarianism (Revisited)
Photo: W. Rospondek, Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp
It feels like it’s finally over, doesn’t it, the whole “apocalyptic pandemic” thing? I mean, really, really over this time. Not like all those other times when you thought it was over, but it wasn’t over, and was like the end of those Alien movies, where it seems like Ripley has finally escaped, but the alien is hiding out in the shuttle, or the escape pod, or Ripley’s intestinal tract.
But this time doesn’t feel like that. This time it feels like it’s really, really …
Spoiler Alert
“‘The cat is out of the bag’ Christine Anderson.”
Christine Anderson, a German member of the European Parliament, revealed Pfizer’s confession: “It was a gigantic lie what they [Pfizer] told us that these vaccines would prevent you from catching this virus or would prevent transmission. Well, none of that was true as it turns out, and based on that lie, all of the mandates, all of the lockdowns, all of the non-pharmaceutical measures of wearing masks, staying at home — all of that was based on that gigantic …
Privacy Woes: Google’s “Location History” Settlement
It all speaks to scale: the attorney generals of 40 states within the US clubbing together to charge Google for misleading users. On this occasion, the conduct focused on making users assume they had turned off the location tracking function on their accounts even as the company continued harvesting data about them.
The $391.5 billion settlement was spearheaded by Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum and Nebraska Attorney General Doug Petersen. “For years Google has prioritized profit over their users’ privacy,” stated Rosenblum. “They have been crafty and deceptive. Consumers thought they had turned off their location tracking features on Google, …
Tiny Killers
“Professors have said the technology is already available to create the killing machines which could be used by terrorist groups or governments.”
Biden and Burns in Double Act to Split Putin and Xi
Biden and Burns’ clunky double act is likely to not impress anyone in Beijing and Moscow.
U.S. President Joe Biden apparently sought to lower tensions with China this week when he promised Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping that Washington was “not seeking a new Cold War” with Beijing.
The two leaders met on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Indonesia. It was their first face-to-face meeting since Biden took office in January 2021. While Biden was all smiles for a handshake photo-op, Xi looked noticeably reserved, like a guy who was bracing himself as one about to hear loads of bullshit.
After more than three hours of private discussions, the Americans and Western media subsequently tried to …
Another Disruption of Anti-Palestinian Event, Another Punch
On Sunday Bill Sloan and I interrupted a Technion Canada fundraiser to challenge its support of the Israeli military and the role of government-subsidized charities in promoting Israeli apartheid.
After entering the room, I declared “Technion Canada supports the Israeli military and the Israeli military’s war crimes. Technion Canada has projects that support the Israeli military. Free Palestine.”
In response a 65-ish man in a suit hustled across the room to punch me in the head. Sloan and many in the audience witnessed the assault. The man’s aggression can be viewed on my video of the incident. This came a week …
Dan Kovalik Interview
An Objective Look at U.S. Foreign Policy
Dan Kovalik is the author of critically-acclaimed No More War: How the West Violates International Law by Using ‘Humanitarian’ Intervention to Advance Economic and Strategic Interests, The Plot to Scapegoat Russia, The Plot to Attack Iran, The Plot to Control the World, and The Plot to Overthrow Venezuela, and many other thought-provoking and highly informative books. He is a dedicated peace activist, and has been a labor and human rights lawyer since graduating from Columbia Law School in 1993. He has represented plaintiffs in ATS …
Saudi Blood Money, Golf and Adelaide
Peter Malinauskas, the South Australian Premier, has been the latest convert to the LIV Golf circuit, showing little to no awareness about where the lion’s share of funding is coming from. When confronted with that, he paddles away the prospect of being compromised. With LIV Golf Adelaide, scheduled for April 21-23 next year, he has made an undeniable statement on priorities.
The press release from the premier’s office claimed that the rights to host the LIV Golf event had been “hotly contested” (governments across the world are gagging for it – queue up and wait your turn). It would take …
Millions Suffer as Junk Food Industry Rakes in Profit
Increased consumption of ultraprocessed foods (UPFs) was associated with more than 10% of all-cause premature, preventable deaths in Brazil in 2019. That is the finding of a new peer-reviewed study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
The findings are significant not only for Brazil but also for high income countries such as the U S, Canada, the UK, and Australia, where UPFs account for more than half of total calorific intake.
Brazilians consume far less of these products than countries with high incomes. This means the estimated impact would be even higher in richer nations.
UPFs are ready-to-eat-or-heat industrial formulations made with ingredients …
“Congressional Amendment Opens Floodgates for War Profiteers and a Major Ground War on Russia”
Senators Inhofe and Reed from the Senate Armed Services Committee Photo credit: AP
If the powerful leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senators Jack Reed (D) and Jim Inhofe (R), have their way, Congress will soon invoke wartime emergency powers to build up even greater stockpiles of Pentagon weapons. The amendment is supposedly designed to facilitate replenishing the weapons the United States has sent to Ukraine, but a look at the wish list contemplated in this amendment reveals a different story.
Reed and Inhofe’s idea is …
GEOFOR Interview with Peter Koenig
US Midterm Elections Analysis
GEOFOR: How do you see the outcome of the elections: is this a victory for the Republicans or a failure for the Democrats?
Peter Koenig: So far, to the surprise of most people, there are no clear results yet of the US Midterm Elections. The Republicans have won the House of representatives, where they already had a majority before, but the Senate is not decided yet. In three States, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada, the ballots are still being counted, or they will head for a run-off on 6 December 2022.
The results are too close to call a winner. There will be …
Corruption among Public Health Officials during the Pandemic?
“… Public Health administrators [are] being obscenely compensated for their efforts in purportedly fighting Covid.” See “Public Health Officials Cash in on Covid”
For Lula’s Victory to Matter: A Proposal for a Unified Palestinian Foreign Policy
Palestinians and their supporters are justified in celebrating the election victory of the leftist presidential candidate, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, in Brazil’s runoff elections on October 30. But Lula’s victory is incomplete and could ultimately prove ineffectual if not followed by a concrete and centralized Palestinian strategy.
Lula has proven, throughout the years, to be a genuine friend of Palestine and Arab countries.
For example, in 2010, as a president, he spoke of his dream of seeing “an independent and free Palestine” during a visit to the occupied West Bank. He also refused to visit the grave of Theodor …
clowns to left of me, jokers to the right
Through a series of events, a friend of mine who is VERY awake recently ended up having dinner in a mainstream restaurant that featured dozens of massive televisions. When she told me about it, I reflected on how all gyms today are like this, too.
Here’s my local Planet Fitness:
This line of thought drove home a point that I feel is critical:
You might be woke. You might be MAGA.
But most Americans now live eerily similar, highly programmed lives.
When they actually leave their homes, …
Amazon Rainforest Crisis Report at COP27
Rain Forest Trust (Photo Credit)
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) issued a new Living Amazon Report, 2022 at COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. The eye-opening report defines a horror story of human destruction of the world’s largest rainforest. There’s no other way to look at it.
Commercialization of the Amazon Rainforest is rampant in a pattern of ignorance amidst reckless abandon with a level of stupidity that’s nearly beyond comprehension, as the iconic nature reserve has been pushed to the edge of ruin. It is hard to believe that pure ignorance …
“On The Highway To Climate Hell”: The Climate Crisis, Activism And Broken Politics
Last month, the United Nation’s environment agency issued arguably its starkest warning yet about the climate crisis. The failure by governments around the world to cut carbon emissions means there is ‘no credible pathway to 1.5C in place’. Limiting the rise of global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels was the international agreement at COP21, the UN Climate Summit in Paris in 2015.
Inger Andersen, the executive director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), said:
‘We had our chance to make incremental changes, but that …
Could Government Be Evil?
“All governments lie.”
? I.F. Stone
The Secret Wars of the US Imperium
To get to where they are, imperial powers will deceive, dissimulate and distort. The US imperium, that most awesome of devilish powers, has tentacled itself across the globe, often unbeknownst to its own citizens.
In a report released by the New York University School of Law’s Brennan Center of Justice titled Secret War: How the US Uses Partnerships and Proxy Forces to Wage War Under the Radar, there is little to shock, though much to be concerned about. The author of the report contends that the list of countries supplied by the Pentagon on US military partnerships is a savagely …
Fourth Reich Biden
Or Here Comes the Darkness?
Well, the reviews are pretty much in on President Joe “Malarkey’s” crazy stunning speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia on September 1, and they are quite breathless with descriptors like: “Authoritarian, fascist, creepy, Satanic, dystopian, occult, Orwellian, and ‘What the Fuck?'” One wonders: was the band playing “Hail to the Chief” or “Hail Satan,” instead?
Indeed, it seems as if Team Biden had summoned up the ghost of Leni Reifenstahl to design the lurid look of the performance, with a technocratic shade of hell-fire Red being the dominant tone back-lighting Biden, a curious color choice for Team Blue. One wonders how …
From Pagan Animism to Alienation
How Monotheism and Capitalism Create Disenchantment
Orientation: the politics of the sacred
The word “pagan” is one of those words that has been worked over by monotheists and secular rulers so that it has many meanings, mostly negative. This has been the case except for the past fifty years when Neopaganism has made a comeback, thanks mostly to the women’s movement. In his book Being Pagan, Rhyd Wildermuth writes that:
Being pagan means being of the land, rural villager, rustic. In modern terms, being a peasant or being a country bumpkin as opposed to the city (39) …
Rhyd …
Jumping to Inference or Conclusion?
Inference: a conclusion reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning. Or is that jumping to a conclusion?
November 11: The Command of the Donkeys Continues
It’s a grotesque, ceremonial observance, marked by a degree of unpardonable acceptance. The First World War, which killed millions, extirpated classes in Europe, and destroyed monarchies, established a mawkish ritual that serves to continue, rather than prevent war. The more one grieves for the slaughtered and the brain frozen folly, the more one hopes for the next round of bloodletting, criminal stupidity.
No surprise, then, that the occasion of commemorations are now filled with the anticipation for another war waged by the enfeebled of thought. There is the horrendous bloody unfolding of the Ukraine conflict, but other powers would also like …
Interview with Peter Kuznick
An Objective Look at U.S. Foreign Policy
Peter Kuznick is currently Professor of History and Director of the Nuclear Studies Institute at American University. His acclaim and popularity are certainly deserved. In addition to his contributions in academic circles, he is in constant demand as a policy analyst and commentator across the globe. He is author of Beyond the Laboratory: Scientists As Political Activists in 1930s America, and many other important volumes. Peter is best known by the general public for his highly controversial, landmark documentary created with director Oliver Stone, The Untold History of the United States, which has been …
When you “support the troops,” here’s what you’re really endorsing
The U.S. military has launched 469 foreign interventions since 1798, including 251 since the end of the first cold war in 1991, according to official Congressional Research Service data.
Please take 16 minutes to watch this:
As MLK once said: “The greatest purveyor of violence in the world: My own government, I cannot be silent.”
(thank you to Joe from Maine for the military interventions link)