What in the World? Everything Under Heaven!

Everything Under Heaven

by #SocialismorExtinction 

March 6, 2020

Everything Under Heaven is a short documentary looking at the continued proliferation of antagonisms between global powers, the threat of global - even nuclear - war, and the crisis of imperialist capitalism. 

 

 

Building upon the analysis put forward in our 2018 documentary, History is Marching, and our 2019 short film, An Atlantic Tide, it covers the US-China trade war, the "phase one" US-China deal, Hong Kong, the politicisation of the coronavirus, conflicts between the EU imperialist bloc and the US, Brexit, the resurgence of a Turkish colonialism, the US dollar and oil, and the US' push toward drastic escalation in the Middle-East. 

Bad Influences: Surviving the Flu Media Hype

Momento Mori – Unpopular Thoughts on Corona Virus 

by Craig Murray

7 Mar, 2020 

I have always been very fond of this photo, for reasons which are perhaps obvious. We are left to right Celia, Stuart, Neil, Craig and throughout our childhood we really were that close and that happy. The reason that I post this now is that my mother always told me she was amazed how good we looked in the photo, because it was taken when we were all off school sick with Hong Kong flu.

The Hong Kong flu pandemic of 1968/9 was the last really serious flu pandemic to sweep the UK. They do seem extraordinarily regular – 1919, 1969 and 2020. Flu epidemics have much better punctuality than the trains (though I cheated a bit there and left out the 1958 “Asian flu”). Nowadays “Hong Kong flu” is known as H3N2. Estimates for deaths it caused worldwide vary from 1 to 4 million. In the UK it killed an estimated 80,000 people. 

Defining the Parameters of Acceptable Debate: How Networks Frame American Democracy

Debate Moderators Frame Questions to Define Acceptable Politics

by Julie Hollar - FAIR

February 29, 2020

With Super Tuesday around the corner, the Democratic presidential debates are coming to a close. The debates are ostensibly an exercise in democracy, a chance for voters to evaluate candidates’ positions in order to cast a better informed vote in the nominating contest.

Moderators at the February 25, 2020, debate, 

CBS’s Norah O’Donnell and Gayle King.

But a review of three of the most frequent topics of debate starkly demonstrates how media hosts use their platform less to inform voters in an evenhanded way than to define which positions—and candidates—are acceptable, and which are not.

NICARAGUA: THE APRIL CRISIS & BEYOND

NICARAGUA: THE APRIL CRISIS & BEYOND 

by Dan Kovalik

March 6, 2020

“Kovalik helps cut through the Orwellian lies and dissembling which make so-called ‘humanitarian intervention possible.” - Oliver Stone 

Daniel Kovalik is an American lawyer and Human Rights advocate who’s followed Nicaragua’s politics for the last 4 decades. 20 months after what was called the “April Crisis” he goes to Nicaragua to understand what really happened.

Memory War Resistance: Fighting to Remember with Julian Assange

WikiLeaks – Julian Assange / Speech at Cambridge Union [15.03.2011] video and Transcript

Posted by greekemmy

 

I did this transcript in April/May 2013. If you spot any errors or are able to spot the missing words please leave a comment and will endevour to correct/improve. 

Transcript below cut...

A Mad and Monarchical Trump Subverting American Democracy

American Fuhrer—Corrupt Rampage Against Americans 

by Ralph Nader - CounterPunch

March 3, 2020

Delusionary, dictatorial Donald Trump is drunk on power. Trump’s monarchical and lawless actions are a clear and present subversion of our Republic and its Constitution. As soon as the impeachment trial ended and Trump was acquitted by the Senate’s supine Republican courtiers (except for Senator Mitt Romney), vengeance flooded Trump’s fevered mind.

Ignoring warnings from his advisors, Trump is lashing out in all directions, unleashing torrents of foul-mouthed tweets. Note with alarm how this American Fuhrer is consolidating control and using his presidential power to smash all opposition. Remember that last July Trump declared “I have an Article II, where I have the right to do whatever I want as President.” He wasn’t kidding, America.

Air War: Assault on English Alt. Skripal News Site

CYBER SOLDIERS PENETRATE THE SKRIPAL CASE

by John Helmer - Dances with Bears

  @bears_with

 March 4, 2020

Cyber attacks have been launched in England to stop publication of new evidence in the Skripal case from being published this week on the second anniversary of the attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury, March 4, 2018.

The targets were The Blogmire produced by Rob Slane from Salisbury, and this website produced from Moscow. The Blogmire was disabled and inaccessible to readers between last Thursday and Saturday. Then on Monday evening this site was attacked. The evidence left behind by the attackers shows they come from the same source, using the same unusual method of attack and concealment.

Facts and Fictions on Wet'suwet'en Land Defense

Wet'suwet'en: Fact Check

by Pam Palmater

 

March 3, 2020

 

Wet'suwet'en Fact Check - In this video, we fact check some of the claims that have been made by government officials, law enforcement, as industry as well as some political pundits in the mainstream media about the Wet'suwet'en and Indigenous solidarity actions. 

 

As I have stated in my previous videos, I do not speak for the Wet'suwet'en Nation, as they have their own spokespeople. Also, any errors made in this video are my own and not that of the Wet'suwet'en peoples or Nation. Here are the links to the Unistoten and Gidimten websites where you can access their supporter tool kits and find out how you can help:  

http://unistoten.camp/ 

https://www.yintahaccess.com/ 

Please note that nothing in this video promotes violence on our Indigenous territories. 

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Mark Worthing, Sharon J. Riley, Janine Bandcroft March 5, 2020

This Week on GR

by C. L. Cook - Gorilla-Radio.com

March 5, 2020

It's been more than a year since the BC government granted a court injunction allowing Coastal GasLink continue its work, laying a pipeline from the province's interior to a planned gas processing plant to be built in Kitimat, unmolested.

The January 2019 interim injunction was extended in June, and on New Year's Eve day, Madam Justice Church ruled again, in Coastal GasLink Pipeline Ltd. v. Huson, for the company, denying Wet’suwet’en hereditary houses’ preeminence and empowering the RCMP to move in and arrest land defenders refusing to give way.

What happened next has played out on the lawn of the BC Legislature and across this country, Canada.

Listen. Hear.

Mark Worthing is an activist, naturalist and journalist currently working with Sierra Club BC. He’s a founding member of Tanker Free BC, and has worked with a variety of environmental groups on various campaigns, and led Sierra Club’s Flathead River Basin biodiversity study.

Mark Worthing in the first half.

And; if the Coastal GasLink Pipeline v. Wet’suwet’en hereditary houses’ imbroglio instructs on the complexity of big energy projects in BC, Teck Resources' abandonment of its massive Frontier mine in the Alberta Tar Sands amplifies the point, casting into doubt, (some contend) the viability of a Canadian oil industry.

Teck's announced decision to pull up its Frontier stakes has been picked up since by each side of the climate debate to serve their respective interests, and used as a policy bludgeon by both federal and provincial political operators.

Sharon J. Riley is an Alberta-based investigative journalist for The Narwhal, whose essays, interviews and long-form nonfiction feature too at Harper’s, The Tyee, and Maisonneuve among others sites. Her recent Narwhal article, '11 things you need to know about the oilsands as Teck abandons plans for Frontier mine' is a guide and "explainer" for those still confused.

Sharon J. Riley and what the Teck manoeuvre says about and means for the beleaguered Canadian energy sector in the second half.

And; Victoria-based activist and long-time Gorilla Radio contributor, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour to bring us up to speed with some of what's good going on in and around our town in the coming week. But first, Mark Worthing and Coastal GasLink, a project gone and going too far.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.ca.  He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/

Canada Blind-Eyes Israel's Atrocities: "Crimes Can't Exist if Palestine Doesn't"

Canada Joins ‘Friendly States’ in Opposing ICC War Crimes Investigation in Palestine

by Palestine Chronicle

February 26, 2020

The Canadian government has submitted a letter to the International Criminal Court (ICC), in which it declared support for the Israeli position, thus rejecting the ICC jurisdiction over cases of alleged war crimes committed by Israel in Palestine.

The Canadian Jewish News (CJN), which reported on the letter, said that Ottawa has communicated its position to the Court on February 14, although the content of the letter has not been made public until today.

Compromising Connections: Bloomberg, Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein

The Media’s Deafening Silence on Mike Bloomberg’s Ties to Epstein and Other Criminals

by Whitney Webb - MintPress News

February 28, 2020

After his late jump into the Democratic primary and, as critics argue, purchasing his way into the primary debates, former Mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg has received mixed coverage from corporate media, with many negative critiques of the current presidential contender’s history, conduct and connections.

Bloomberg pictured in 2013 with uncharged Epstein cohort, Maxwell (r)

Yet, despite efforts by other campaigns and more progressive-leaning media outlets to dampen Bloomberg’s chances at the nomination, one clear weakness of Bloomberg’s has thus far evaded meaningful media coverage: his ties to key players in the Epstein scandal, including Leslie Wexner, Ghislaine Maxwell and even Jeffrey Epstein himself.

Dancing Back from the Brink: Turkey/Russia Anxious to Avoid Escalation in Syria

War tensions mount in wake of strike on Turkish troops in Syria

by Bill Van Auken - WSWS

29 February 2020

Amid calls by world governments, the United Nations and the NATO alliance for a de-escalation of the spiraling tensions in Syria’s northern Idlib province, there is a mounting threat of an all-out military confrontation between Turkey and Russia triggering a potentially catastrophic world war.

In the wake of Thursday’s strike on a Turkish position that claimed the lives of some three dozen soldiers (according to one account the dead may number as many as 50) and retaliatory attacks against Syrian Arab Army units, the explanations given by Ankara and Moscow for the violence remain sharply at odds, as Turkey and Russia pursue diametrically opposed aims in Syria.