America's Looming Farm Crisis: It Is All About the Benjamins

The Average U.S. Farm Is $1,300,000 In Debt, And Now The Worst Farming Crisis In Modern History Is Upon Us

by Michael Snyder - Endoftheamericandream.com 

via Popular Resistance

August 16, 2019

We haven’t seen anything like this since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Leading up to this year, farm incomes had been trending lower for most of the past decade, and meanwhile farm debt levels have been absolutely exploding. So U.S. farmers were desperate for a really good year, but instead 2019 has been a total disaster.

As I have been carefully documenting, due to endless rain and catastrophic flooding millions of acres of prime farmland didn’t get planted at all this year, and the yields on tens of millions of other acres are expected to be way, way below normal. As a result, we are facing the worst farming crisis in modern American history, and this comes at a time when U.S. farms are drowning in more debt than ever before.

In fact, the latest numbers we have show the average U.S. farm is 1.3 million dollars in debt…

Big Media Blackout on Brazilian Resistance

Media Blackout on Brazil’s Anti-Bolsonaro Protests: Why are New York Times and Guardian downplaying resistance to Brazil’s far-right president?

by Brian Mier - FAIR

August 17, 2019

Hundreds of thousands of Brazilians took to the streets of 211 cities on August 13 to protest far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s austerity cuts and privatization plans for the public university system.

August 13 protest against Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro in Belo Horizonte, one of 211 cities where demonstrations took place
(photo: Dowglas Silva).

It was the third in series of national education strikes, dubbed “the Education Tsunamis,” organized by national students unions together with teachers unions affiliated with the Central Ùnica de Trabalhadores (Unified Workers Central/CUT)—the second-largest labor union confederation in the Americas.

The Friends of Jeffrey: Epstein Did Not Act Alone

Epstein May Be Just One Part of an Intricate Network of Sex and Power

by TRNN

August 15, 2019

Jeffrey Epstein is at the top of every news cycle, and dominates our digital social media world. His trafficking of young girls, children to satisfy his and the sexual preferences of so many of the rich and powerful, are at the center of all this, as are his connections to that dark world of the unseemly side of the interaction between government, business, and the intelligence world allegedly.

Using sex as blackmail is nothing new. It goes back to the early mob, the CIA, and seems to connect the dots to Epstein. That was the story we’re going tell today written by our guest, who wrote this for Mint Press in the three-part series called “The Jeffrey Epstein Scandal: Too Big to Fail.”

Journalist Whitney Webb's series looks at the sordid history tying together mobsters, oligarchs, and government intelligence agencies in a web of blackmail, exploitation, and profit.

UN Fails to Censure India's Military Cordon of Kashmir

UN Security Council discusses Kashmir, China urges India and Pakistan to ease tensions

by Nimisha Jaiswal - IRIN

16 August 2019 

The Security Council considered the volatile situation surrounding Kashmir on Friday, addressing the issue in a meeting focused solely on the dispute, within the UN body dedicated to resolving matters of international peace and security, for the first time since 1965.

Although the meeting took place behind closed doors in New York, the Chinese Ambassador, Zhang Jun, spoke to reporters outside the chamber following deliberations, urging both India and Pakistan to “refrain from taking any unilateral action which might further aggravate” what was an already “tense and very dangerous” situation.

The Indian-administered part of the majority-Muslim region, known as Jammu and Kashmir had its special status within the constitution revoked by the Indian Government on 5 August, placing it under tighter central control. Pakistan has argued that the move violates international law.

       UN head, Guterres "concerned".

The UN has long maintained an institutional presence in the contested area, which both countries claim in its entirety, with the areas under separate administration, divided by a so-called Line of Control. The UN Military Observer Group in Indian and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) observes and reports on any ceasefire violations.

In a statement issued on 8 August, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said he had been following the situation in Jammu and Kashmir “with concern”, making an appeal for “maximum restraint”.

“The position of the United Nations on this region is governed by the Charter...and applicable Security Council resolutions”, said the statement. 

“The Secretary-General also recalls the 1972 Agreement on bilateral relations between India and Pakistan also known as the Simla Agreement, which states that the final status of Jammu and Kashmir is to be settled by peaceful means”, in accordance with the UN Charter.

L'Affaire Epstein: Ten Lines We're Meant to Swallow

Ten Things We are Asked to Believe about Jeffrey Epstein’s Death

by Gary Leupp - Dissident Voice

August 15th, 2019

We are asked to believe the following basic “facts” about the pedophile [Strictly speaking, pedophilia is sex with prepubescent children, generally before age 13 — DV Editor] philanthropist’s death, some more credible than others:

1. On August 23, Jeffrey Epstein attempted suicide in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. (But it was reported at the time that Epstein may have been attacked by a fellow inmate in jail, and the matter was not well covered in the press.) The coroner handling Epstein’s autopsy notes that this attempt has “never been definitively explained.”

2. Epstein was consequently placed on suicide watch, subject to intensified monitoring.

3. On August 29, he was for some reason removed from that suicide watch, although still subject to monitoring every half hour; and the rules called for him to have a cell-mate. Pundits have suggested that he protested the increased intrusiveness and asked to be removed, but I have seen no evidence of this.

4. At some point–the day before by one report–for some reason the cell-mate was removed, in violation of the rules. One report says he was released from jail.

5. On the night of August 10, Epstein hung himself with a sheet attached to the upper bunk of a bunk bed, by leaning forward on his knees. (He was not supposed to have shred-able material in his cell.) The autopsy shows two broken bones in his neck consistent with strangulation–but more common in homicidal strangulation than those self-performed.

6. The corporate press suggests that Epstein wanted to kill himself. (But he had been spending a lot of time with his lawyers possibly discussing how to minimize his likely sentence by spilling the beans on his friends. He had been avoiding contact with other prisoners, possibly fearing attack; see point 1 above.)

7. Epstein was able to commit suicide while not one but two different guards were sleeping on the job, during an interval currently reported as three hours, and then tried to cover up by falsifying the record. A colossal failure, especially when combined with the lack of cell-mate and availability of material that could be used in a suicide. But surely not willful or planned; it was due to under-staffing, under-funding, too much overtime, prison workers sleeping in their cars, recruitment of unqualified prison guards…

8. The Justice Department is responding to Epstein’s death responsibly. The warden of the MCC has been “reassigned” within the Bureau of Prisons and two unidentified guards have been placed on administrative leave, following Attorney General William Barr’s expression of displeasure at Epstein’s death.

9. The truth will be revealed by the FBI investigation. (But what a peculiar irony that the Justice Department that controls the FBI is headed by Barr, whose own father Donald Barr hired Epstein for his first job, teaching at a Manhattan high school where he got a reputation for paying inordinate attention to his girl students in the 1970s. And recall that Barr became a member of the law firm in Florida that arranged Epstein’s 2007 plea-bargain.)

10. To think that the demise of Epstein is anything other than what the MCC has reported, and echoed by the mainstream press–as a suicide–is to engage in wild-eyed “conspiracy theory.” 

Killing the Messenger: The Slow Motion Execution of Julian Assange

Killing Julian Assange Slowly

by Stephen Lendman - stephenlendman.org 

August 13, 2019

Since April 11 when unlawfully dragged from Ecuador’s London embassy to captivity, Assange has languished under draconian conditions in a UK dungeon at the behest of the Trump regime, wanting him tried in the US for the “crime” of truth-telling journalism. More on this below.

Dark forces in the US, other Western states, Israel, and most everywhere else greatly fear widespread public knowledge of their wrongdoing against ordinary people to benefit privileged ones. They want it kept out of the mainstream, notably not on television and in print publications with widespread readership.

If the fourth estate gave news consumers a daily diet of what’s vital to know about domestic and geopolitical issues, another world would be possible — plowshares replacing swords, social justice over neoliberal harshness, equity and justice for all, nations fit and safe to live in for all their citizens and residents.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, "A Shopkeeper from Tamil Nadu", John Helmer, Janine Bandcroft August 15, 2019

This Week on GR

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

August 15, 2019

Last week the Indian government officially abrogated the agreement the founders of the modern state signed guaranteeing Kashmiris the right to form an independent nation. With the stroke of a pen, prime minister Narendra Modi repealed Article 370, a provision of the Indian constitution granting special autonomous status to what was the northern state of Jammu & Kashmir, including the Ladakh region.

370 was specifically created to entice the majority Muslim region into the India fold during the partition of 1947.

Worse though than Modi's unilateral declaration, something provoking condemnation throughout the region and beyond, are measures employed by the Indian government; the locking down and cutting off of Kashmir from the rest of the World.

Listen. Hear.

Modi's draconian actions from the perspective of India's Kashmiri diaspora in the first half.

[Update Kashmir blockade video: August 28, 2019 - https://www.facebook.com/101508457875732/posts/120858849274026/?sfnsn=scwspmo]

And; Summer is for leisurely idylls; supposed to be spent languidly lolling among the shade trees considering the great eternal, while enjoying the corporeal fruits life has to offer. It is certainly not meant for that basest of all human pursuits, politics. But these are strange and unnatural days. As Helius arcs his golden chariot across the azure waters of the Greek islands, far below schemes are afoot, evil machinations whose bitter fulfillment may soon see Europe, from the Mediterranean cradle of its democratic tradition to the nethermost tips of its social liberal northern expanse, revisited by the refugee crisis, as per 2016.

John Helmer is a journalist, former academic, government policy advisor, author, broadcaster and principal behind the news website, Dances with Bears. Some of John’s book titles include: ‘The Deadly Simple Mechanics of Society’, ‘Drugs and Minority Oppression’, (with Claudia Wright) ‘The Jackal’s Wedding – American Power, Arab Revolt’, ‘Grand Strategy for Small Countries, Case Studies in Transforming Weakness into Power,’ and his latest is the political memoir, ‘The Man Who Knows Too Much About Russia’.

He's also a former adivsor to Greek prime minister, Andreas Papandreou and his recent article, ‘Turkey's War in the West - Cyprus is Now Surrounded by Drill-Ships and Warships; Cannon Ready to Fire at Europe - 150,000 People per Month' spotlights Europe's next crisis in the making.

John Helmer and Turkey's all stick no carrot Mediterranean gambit 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 with the Left Coast Events Bulletin of some of the good things to be gotten up to in and around our town in the coming week.

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.uvic.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/

First Tear in a Fragile Fabric: 'Indianising' Kashmir

Indianising Kashmir, at Gunpoint in India 

by Aijaz Zaka Syed  - Counter Currents

August 10, 2019

“Maine aisa Hindustan kabhi nahin dekha!”

In six words, Farooq Abdullah may have captured the trauma and acute sense of betrayal of his people. The three-time chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir broke down like a child during a media interaction at his Srinagar residence.

The National Conference leader and son of the late Sheikh Abdullah, the Lion of Kashmir, has every reason to feel betrayed. After all, three generations of the Abdullahs have spent their lives batting for India.

Indeed, if it had not been for the leadership of Sheikh Abdullah, Kashmir in all likelihood would have been part of Pakistan in its entirety.

WIRED: Putting the Whiz in the Military's Bang

Wired’s Gee-Whiz High-Tech Militarism

by Julianne Tveten - FAIR

August 7, 2019

A deluge of major Western publications stated last month that the US destroyed an Iranian drone in the Strait of Hormuz between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman (e.g., New York Times, 7/18/19; NPR, 7/19/19; NBC News, 7/18/19). Citing unproven reports from Donald Trump and the US Department of Defense, the outlets stated that the drone came within 1,000 yards of a US Navy warship, after ignoring “multiple calls to stand down.”

Iran denied the accusations, providing a time-stamped video meant to demonstrate that the drone remained airborne “before and even after the time Americans claim” (BBC, 7/19/19). The US, meanwhile, provided a dubious series of photos, with no indication of when they were taken or their relationship to each other.

Wired article (7/22/19) celebrates “the
first-ever ‘kill’ by a US directed-energy weapon.”

Most of the aforementioned media noted Iran’s denial. Wired’s take, however—entitled “The Marines’ New Drone-Killer Aces Its First Real World Test” (7/22/19)—ignored Iran’s response entirely. Instead, Wired accepted the US’s warmongering narrative fully, even cheerleading the military for its engineering prowess.

Dead Men Can Still Tell Tales: A Spy Story at the Heart of the Epstein Scandal

Mega Group, Maxwells and Mossad: The Spy Story at the Heart of the Jeffrey Epstein Scandal

by Whitney Webb - MintPress News

Part III

August 07th, 2019

The picture painted by the evidence is not a direct Epstein tie to a single intelligence agency but a web linking key members of the Mega Group, politicians, and officials in both the U.S. and Israel, and an organized-crime network with deep business and intelligence ties in both nations.

  

As billionaire pedophile and alleged sex-trafficker, Jeffrey Epstein sits in prison, reports have continued to surface about his reported links to intelligence, his financial ties to several companies and “charitable” foundations, and his friendships with the rich and powerful as well as top politicians.

While Part I and Part II of this series, “The Jeffrey Epstein Scandal: Too Big to Fail,” have focused on the widespread nature of sexual blackmail operations in recent American history and their ties to the heights of American political power and the U.S. intelligence community, one key aspect of Epstein’s own sex-trafficking and blackmail operation that warrants examination is Epstein’s ties to Israeli intelligence and his ties to the “informal” pro-Israel philanthropist faction known as “the Mega Group.”

From Occupation to Colonization: India's Next Steps in Kashmir

Will India’s Occupation of Kashmir Become Colonization?

by TRNN

August 9, 2019

Prof. Junaid Ahmad says India’s revocation of Kashmir’s autonomous status not only increases tensions between India and Pakistan, but is designed to lead into a situation where India encourages colonial settlement in the region and eventual annexation, along the lines of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land

Tensions between India and Pakistan are rising to dangerously high levels once again, because of India’s decision to revoke Kashmir’s political autonomy. On Monday, the Indian government under the Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi revoked Article 370 of India’s Constitution. That article had provided a degree of autonomy for Kashmir, which is India’s only Muslim-majority region ever since Pakistan split from India in 1948.

Junaid Ahmad is the Director of the Center for Global Dialogue and Professor of Middle Eastern Politics at the University of Lahore, Pakistan. He is also the Secretary General of the International Movement for a Just World, which is based in Kuala Lumpur.

Someone Who "Looked Like Jeffrey Epstein" Committed "Suicide" in Manhattan's Correctional Center

Jeffrey Epstein Dies Of “Suicide”

by Caitlin Johnstone - Rogue Journalist

August 10, 2019

Disappointing everyone yet surprising no one, accused sex trafficker and alleged billionaire Jeffrey Epstein has “committed” “suicide”.

Details are muddled and conflicting, with CNN reporting that Epstein “was taken from New York’s Metropolitan Correctional Center at 3:30 a.m. Saturday in cardiac arrest and died at an area hospital” and the New York Times reporting that “Mr. Epstein hung himself and his body was found this morning at roughly 7:30.”

Some reports claim that Epstein has been on suicide watch due to a prior alleged suicide attempt three weeks ago when he was found unconscious with bruising on his neck, others deny it.

If he wasn’t it’s weird because he obviously should have been, and if he was it’s weird because it failed.

Listening to Syria: Talking with SAA General Hassan Hassan

A Syrian Leader Tells His Country’s Story: An Interview with SAA General Hassan Hassan 

by Eva Bartlett - Mint Press News

August 5, 2019

Eva Bartlett sits down for an exclusive interview with the head of the Syrian Arab Army’s Political Administration, General Hassan Hassan.

For years, international headlines spotlighting Syria have claimed that the Syrian government, army, and its allies were guilty of a variety of atrocities. Yet as time has passed, many of the accusations levied at government and its allies have been shown to have been either falsified, staged (as in the case of allegations of chemical attacks in eastern Ghouta), or actually committed by the myriad terrorist groups operating in the country.

For their part, Syrian leadership has maintained from the start that the demonstrations in their country were not peaceful, from 2011 and on.

Media in the West and the Gulf vilified Syria’s leadership, featuring story after story of government-imposed violence while ignoring or whitewashing the violence of the burgeoning armed groups flooding into Syria.

"Right" Victims Only Invoked in Syria

‘Wrong victims’ of Syria war left voiceless by mainstream media, condemn West for their suffering

by Vanessa Beeley - The Wall Will Fall

24th July 2019

First published at RT.

Now that the Syrian Arab Army and allies have swept much of Syria clean of the terrorist groups introduced into the country by the US interventionist alliance, the civilian trauma is surfacing and is being processed.


Jean Ibrahim was 9 years old when
western-backed terrorist groups targeted
his school with mortars in 2014.
Photo: Vanessa Beeley

In 2005, playwright Harold Pinter’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech sent shock waves around the ruling establishment.

During the speech, Pinter described the US strategy of “low intensity” conflict:

“Low intensity conflict means that thousands of people die but slower than if you dropped a bomb on them in one fell swoop. It means that you infect the heart of the country, that you establish a malignant growth and watch the gangrene bloom.”

Hiroshima Remembered: Monsters Then & Now

Warmongering Neocon ‘Free Beacon’ Glorifies Hiroshima Bombing

by Caitlin Johnstone - Rogue Journalist

August 6, 2019

American Values, an excellent Twitter account which publishes daily information about US atrocities, has just posted a thread for the anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, and I think everyone should have a look at it today.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Mark Benson, Vanessa Beeley, Janine Bandcroft August 8, 2019

This Week on GR

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

August 8th, 2019

More than a remote "somewhere, sometime" occurrence, climate change is happening now and it's happening here. While the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports the global mean temperature for June, and likely July too, as the hottest ever recorded, here in BC we're experiencing a drying trend that threatens to wither the rainforest.

Our various levels of government are aware of these trends and have made declarations of concern about a "global climate crisis", but they seem lacking where the proclamation rubber meets the policy road.

Mark Benson holds a masters degree in bio-industry from Tokyo University of Agriculture, and owns and operates an ecological construction company on Pender Island.

Listen. Hear.

Mark's also a Pender resident whose dismay at the CRD's decision to drain Gardom Pond spurred him to organize the 'Save Razor Point's Water' action group.

Mark Benson in the first half.

And; the undaunted certitude with which the "international community" seizes the moral high ground before rendering to ruin nations around the world is perceived with weary dismissal in those places unencumbered by western media. "How on Earth," the people over there ask, "can they still believe the lies?" And well we might ask too.

Vanessa Beeley is an independent journalist who has covered the Western wars against Palestine, Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Yemen for the better part of the last decade. The Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism finalist is a recipient of the Serena Shim Award for Uncompromising Integrity in Journalism, and her articles appear at many of the most trusted internet news sites; including Mint Press News, where her recent piece, 'Faux Humanitarian: Irwin Cotler, the White Helmets, and the Whitewashing of an Appalling Agenda' serves as excoriation of both the crimes and towering hypocrisy of our times. (And, there's a Canadian connection!)

Vanessa Beeley and the fault in our humanitarian stars 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 with the Left Coast Events Bulletin of some of the good things to be gotten up to in and around our town in the coming week.

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.uvic.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/

'National Petroleum Radio': Needing No Cue to Toe Washington's Regime Change Line on Venezuela

NPR Shreds Ethics Handbook to Normalize Regime Change in Venezuela

by Lucas Koerner -  FAIR

August 5, 2019

Today, NPR needs no state coercion to toe Washington’s regime change line on Venezuela. 

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on NPR.org (8/25/17).

The Reagan administration in 1982 coerced National Public Radio (NPR) to cover more favorably the US terrorist war then being waged against Nicaragua.

As Greg Grandin writes, Otto Reich, head of the administration’s Orwellian propaganda outfit known as the Office of Public Diplomacy, informed the public network that his office had contracted “a special consultant service [to listen] to all NPR programs” on Central America. Dependent on state funding, NPR promptly buckled under pressure, reassigning reporters viewed as “too easy on the Sandinistas,” and hiring conservative pundit Linda Chavez to provide “balance.”

DNC WikiLeaks Suit Gets Bum's Rush, Exposing Party's Bare-faced Fabrications

US Federal Court Exposes Democratic Party Conspiracy Against Assange And WikiLeaks

by Eric London - WSWS.org 

August 3, 2019  

In a ruling published late Tuesday, Judge John Koeltl of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York delivered a devastating blow to the US-led conspiracy against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

In his ruling, Judge Koeltl, a Bill Clinton nominee and former assistant special prosecutor for the Watergate Special Prosecution Force, dismissed “with prejudice” a civil lawsuit filed in April 2018 by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) alleging WikiLeaks was civilly liable for conspiring with the Russian government to steal DNC emails and data and leak them to the public.

Jennifer Robinson, a leading lawyer for Assange, and other WikiLeaks attorneys welcomed the ruling as “an important win for free speech.”

CRD Moving On Gardom Pond: Locals Fight to Save North Pender Lake

CRD Plays Russian Roulette with Local Aquifer by Draining Lake

by Save Razor Point's Water Action Group 

August 3, 2019

Amidst Unprecedented Era of Drought, and Global Climate Change Crisis, CRD Chooses to Drain Precious Freshwater Lake Rather than Pay to Repair Dam.

Gardom Pond is freshwater impoverished North Pender's fourth largest lake but the CRD is amidst a project to drain it, rather than pay to repair the 40 year old earthen dam that augments the natural topography.

The lake is considered by several hydrologists, intimately familiar with the area, to be critical to the recharge of North Pender's largest aquifer, which lies directly beneath the fractured sandstone base of Gardom Pond.

Yet the CRD, having NO STUDIES in hand, claims that they do not believe wells will be affected by the draining of 82% of the lake.

[UPDATED BELOW]

Listen to Mark Benson talk to Gorilla Radio here.

 

FaceBook - https://www.facebook.com/SaveRazorPointsWater/

Website - https://savegardompond.weebly.com

Save Razor Point's Photo Gallery Page - https://savegardompond.weebly.com/gallery.html

Back to the No Future: Killing the INF Nuclear Treaty

US Withdrawal from INF Treaty Creates Greater Nuclear Instability

by TRNN

August 2, 2019

Sec. of State Mike Pompeo announced that the US is unilaterally withdrawing from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which could have been re-negotiated if the US had acknowledged its own responsibility for the treaty's problems

Friday, August 2nd marks the day that the United States officially withdraws from the Intermediate-
Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, also known as the INF Treaty, in effect since 1987 when US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed it. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo justified the US withdrawal from the treaty, tweeting Friday, “On February 2nd, 2019 the US gave Russia six months to return to compliance with the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. Russia refused, so the treaty ends today. The US will not remain party to a treaty when others violate it. Russia bears sole responsibility.”

Geoff Wilson is a Policy Analyst at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation where he hosts the “Nukes of Hazard” podcast.