The Weekly Watch
Global Warming to be Nullified by Nuclear Winter
P. F. Slone
Violence flarin', bullets loadin',
You're old enough to kill but not for votin',
You don't believe in war, but what's that gun you're totin',
And even the Jordan river has bodies floatin',
But you tell me over and over and over again my friend,
Ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction.
Don't you understand, what I'm trying to say?
And can't you feel the fears I'm feeling today?
If the button is pushed, there's no running away,
There'll be no one to save with the world in a grave,
Take a look around you, boy, it's bound to scare you, boy,
And you tell me over and over and over again my friend,
Ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction.
Yeah, my blood's so mad, feels like coagulatin',
I'm sittin' here, just contemplatin',
I can't twist the truth, it knows no regulation,
Handful of Senators don't pass legislation,
And marches alone can't bring integration,
When human respect is disintegratin',
This whole crazy world is just too frustratin',
And you tell me over and over and over again my friend,
Ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction.
Think of all the hate there is in Red China!
Then take a look around to Selma, Alabama!
Ah, you may leave here, for four days in space,
But when your return, it's the same old place,
The poundin' of the drums, the pride and disgrace,
You can bury your dead, but don't leave a trace,
Hate your next door neighbor, but don't forget to say grace,
And you tell me over and over and over and over again my friend,
You don't believe we're on the eve of destruction.
“Tiny Hands” must be planning his White house garden because he keeps shoveling out loads of bullshit. (Like how he was overcome to learn children were killed in Syria.) He was thrilled when Bannon, in his new found free time, suggested getting a few hoes. Poor ole Donnie also misunderstood the description of Sisi as a dictator and thought his visit was to help dig taters (he loves him some freedom fries). We may as well laugh because it was another week of rapid fire disasters that places the planet and the US on the eve of destruction.
Let's start with our knee jerk response in Syria this week...
First a little background. A couple of weeks ago on Chris Hedges show, historian Stephen Kinzer spoke about the development of the US as a global imperialistic empire. (25 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA4KbyWZAxg
There was great debate in the late 1800's about engaging in foreign war at all. We had decimated our indigenous people already and we were casting about looking for a new way to fulfill our Manifest Destiny. Then in nearby Puerto Rico, our ship the Maine exploded. The Spanish–American War began in April 1898, two months after the sinking. Advocates of the war used the rallying cry, "Remember the Maine! To hell with Spain! The coal used in the Maine was bituminous coal, which is known for releasing firedamp, a gas that is prone to spontaneous explosions. In all probability, the explosion of Maine was caused by an internal coal fire which ignited the magazines. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Maine_(ACR-1)
The Maine, much like the Gulf of Tonkin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Tonkin_incident and Saddam's WMDs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction , incorrectly drew the US into unjustified and immoral wars, and smacks of similarity with the current situation in Syria. In the last round of the red line and poison gas, Seymour Hersh reported that the sarin gas attack on a Damascus suburb on August 21, 2013 was actually carried out by Syrian “rebel” forces acting at the behest of Turkey, for the purpose of providing a pretext for a US attack on Syria. https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/04/07/syri-a07.html
History does rhyme, and the stupidity of war remains a constant. Dr King's speech from 50 years ago still rings true today. April 4, 1967 - Beyond Vietnam: A Time To Break Silence
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Qf6x9_MLD0 (54 min)
Transcript - http://www.crmvet.org/info/mlk_viet.pdf
8 minutes in he says...
"A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor -- both black and white -- through the poverty program. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. Then came the buildup in Vietnam, and I watched this program broken and eviscerated, as if it were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war, and I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube."
(This speech a few months later is also powerful – The Three Evils of Society
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8d-IYSM-08 (45 min)
Transcript - https://www.scribd.com/doc/134362247/Martin-Luther-King-Jr-The-Three-Evi... ) Dr. King's legacy is discussed by Rev. Grayland Scott Hagler (7 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NR-zViZfhk
Chris Hedges accurately describes the Pandora's box of war, an endless struggle.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_pandoras_box_of_war_20170407
For a general review of the conflict
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/05/syria-civil-war-explained-16050508...
Democracy Now speaks with several Syrians and antiwar activists.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF2AvTTTPZE (15 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrwJDmNw7DA (20 min)
Phyllis Bennis had good comments in these interviews, and had a thoughtful article this week too. http://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/04/06/trump-syria-and-chemical-we...
She was also interviewed by the Real News. (23 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwTAYnruUwM
Yazan al-Saadi, a Syrian-Canadian had some great comments in the second clip too.
Mnar Muhawesh, editor in chief of MintPress News, joins RT America's Anya Parampil to discuss inconsistencies in the US official narrative regarding this week's atrocity (9 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXGNZFynrG0
Jimmy Dore had a couple of good clips about Syria. I think he must have heard the previous interview.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HMyPy94blk (12 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnSAB4qeDug (19 min)
Russia was notified before the bombing
https://theintercept.com/2017/04/07/trump-surrenders-element-surprise-wa...
Was the Syrian strike legal?
https://theintercept.com/2017/04/07/legal-experts-question-whether-trump...
Former Chief of Staff to Colin Powell, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, tells Paul Jay that the Syrian Government may not be responsible for the chemical attack and that Trump's response was a violation of international law (18 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah14yOHWrGY
Mattis warned against a Syrian Strike back in 2013
https://theintercept.com/2017/04/07/donald-trumps-own-defense-secretary-...
All the outrage about gas, yet we refuse to look in the mirror. We are also spreading poison because our bombs, bullets, or missiles are made with depleted, un-depleted, or slightly enriched uranium. https://washingtonspectator.org/radiation-war-zones-koeppel/
Noam Chomsky was on Democracy Now! , and he spoke on a variety of topics (including Syria). I thought it was a great wide ranging interview. The entire interview (1.1 hours)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT4MO9uQxgc
By Topic:
on US interference and Russia (6.5 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3SxLegl2AA
on government sach role in T-rump's administration (7 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwZYsNTqe98
Fascism could happen here (8 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFuMqJI6-Z4
on health insurance (5 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7l15n8QR0o
T-rumps attack on working people (5 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PloZcO8Tfj8
on immigration and scapegoating (3 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kki35ePhEuU
on Iran (4 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLNHF_iKl8g
on Israel (7 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDeKeERFGSY
on the destruction of the movements of the sixties (8 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KenC5zBZRV4
on Syria (3 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fu_5nzvPWao
on Latin America (4 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maHgtLp21Iw
You can read the transcript here:
https://www.democracynow.org/2017/4/4/full_interview_noam_chomsky_on_dem...
Other disasters...
The Koch brothers have purchased most positions of government.
https://theintercept.com/2017/04/04/koch-trump-wh/
A day after it triggered the so-called "nuclear option," the U.S. Senate on Friday voted to confirm President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch.
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/04/07/gift-billionaires-and-corpor...
...but there was some good news -
Bannon isn't on the security council (and rumor has it he was going to quit all together, but his overlord handlers the Mercers talked him down).
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/steve_bannon_removed_from_na...
Meanwhile misled by the Media
Chris Hedges, host of “On Contact,” joins RT America’s Anya Parampil to discuss the US media’s selective use of facts to further their agenda. (6 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4kIO-GGg28
Independent journalist Rania Khalek discusses the near-uniform media and political support for President Trump's bombing a Syrian military airfield, the need for an independent investigation into the Idlid chemical attack, and why she thinks the U.S. strike may benefit ISIS and Al Qaeda. (12 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdLiN2QMocc
Glenn Greenwald lays out the problems as the lame stream media praises more bombing.
https://theintercept.com/2017/04/07/the-spoils-of-war-trump-lavished-wit...
Several outlets were disgusted with the media praising T-rump for bombing
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/04/07/disgust-corporate-media-and-...
Glenn Greenwald calls out the media again for its coverage of Sisi's visit...the U.S. has been supporting, funding, and arming the Sisi tyranny for years under the Obama administration.
https://theintercept.com/2017/04/03/white-house-meeting-with-egypts-tyra...
T-rump signs off on the sale of your browsing history
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/04/04/trump-quietly-inks-deal-sell...
The practice and implications of digital technology and surveillance (6.5 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4HuSNRg5og
Lee Camp discusses the recently withdrawn Pepsi ad (10 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVEwXpqFuLk
Jimmy Dore had Josh Fox on his show in a wide ranging conversation from the pitiful democraps to pipelines to the lame stream media. He also spoke about his upcoming cooperative film project about Standing Rock http://awakethefilm.org/ (3 min trailer)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0o-b7W33lZs (26 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ7Dmg_FpgI (18 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to-dnlRsUUU (10 min)
Another film is about to debut suggesting we can have a positive future. TOMORROW is not just a film, it is the beginning of a movement seeking to encourage local communities around the world to change the way they live for the sake of our planet. (2 min trailer)
https://www.tomorrow-documentary.com/
Jimmy explains Youtube is defunding progressive news (6 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alAz8Ie-EcA
Economy
According to Bill Black, the investigation into leaking of inside information shows how banks and the Federal Reserve are riddled with conflicts of interest (11 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWK-7FfxorY
You can get away with insider trading if you're on the Fed.
https://theintercept.com/2017/04/07/a-federal-reserve-bank-ignored-insid...
Will the trumpateers bring back Glass-Steagall? gjohnsit had an interesting piece suggesting they might. However, every time I have hope the administration will do something good I've been disappointed. https://caucus99percent.com/content/are-republicans-about-reinstate-glas...
Leo Gerard, international president of United Steelworkers, joins “News with Ed” to discuss the US relationship to China, international business, markets, deindustrialization, and the international labor movement (5 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oWNt7uuo0k
Schools
Chris Hedges discusses how to salvage the American education system with Nikhil Goyal, author of "Schools on Trial: How Freedom and Creativity Can Fix Our Educational Malpractice". (29 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4DocEU2aTc
Author, activist and Seattle Public School teacher Jesse Hagopian says teachers, parents and students remain united to defend public schools and take on Trump’s privatization agenda (11 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKm6c7XPMRA
Lee Camp talks with author and school custodian about his unique view of schools (15 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlK6Q1kzpUc
Education Sec. DeVos encourages parents to leave public schools. What types of schools would she prefer parents choose instead? Based on her itinerary, the possibilities are truly frightening.
http://educationopportunitynetwork.org/the-schools-betsy-devos-wants-par...
Bernie introduces free college tuition plan
https://www.thenation.com/article/bernie-sanders-just-introduced-his-fre...
Aggregate student loan balances were $1.3 trillion at the end of last year, up 170 percent from 2006.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-fed-dudley-idUSKBN1751RY
Foreign affairs
Discussion with Orville Schell about this weeks meeting between Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at Trump’s Florida resort Mar-a-Lago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7pTTJD-1WY (15 min)
Sharif Abdel Kouddous speaks about the White House meeting between Donald Trump and Egyptian President General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. (9 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cc-j8QgXv1Q
Walls in the modern world (1.5 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQNgUXc5B1U
Interesting conversation. Tariq Ali talks to George Kerevan, MP for East Lothian, and member of the Scottish National Party, about the call for a second Scottish Referendum as a direct result of Brexit and the future of the EU (30 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL_WBHIxdh8
The referendum vote in Turkey is this week, 55.3 million people who are eligible to vote can go to the polls on April 16. More than 300,000 Turkish citizens have already voted in Germany.
http://www.worldbulletin.net/europe/187301/robust-turnout-abroad-in-turk...
The referendum would give Erdogan more power.
https://fruitsandvotes.wordpress.com/2017/04/07/turkey-referendum-latin-...
The Environment
Lee Camp discusses geoengineering to halt global warming (11 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUOhyOSfPDs
We won't be helping the planet in the near future. (3 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX_FKhXOfiY
House science chair doesn't believe in science (5.5 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cB6ugsGR_0
All 5 bright planets appear in the April night sky: Mercury and Mars at dusk, Jupiter all night long, Saturn from midnight until dawn and Venus before sunrise. Here's how to find them.
http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/visible-planets-tonight-mars-ju...
A Cryptogram is a simple substitution cipher puzzle in which each particular letter of the alphabet is replaced by a different letter consistently throughout the puzzle. That is, if "A" is replaced by "B", then "A" is replaced by "B" throughout the puzzle. Cryptogram puzzles can be found in many newspapers.
Here's this week's Cryptoquote (quote concludes with the author's name –hint B=M)
QCD BDVUK WN GDNDUKD VAVZUKQ NWYDZAU GVUADY CZKQWYZTVJJR CVED FDTWBD QCD ZUKQYSBDUQK WN QRYVUUR VQ CWBD.
XVBDK BVGZKWUDid anyone solve last weeks puzzle? The solution was:
If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you're misinformed.
Mark Twain
Music...
Joan Baez has a new viral song about T-rump called “Nasty Man” (3.5 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHQ7N9lEl_E
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/04/06/joan-baez-goes-viral-nasty-m...
This weeks film...
The Battle of Algiers (with English subtitles) 1966
The film is applauded for its commentary on Guerilla Warfare and was banned in France for five years until its re-release in 1974. The Battle of Algiers reconstructs the events that occurred in the capital city of French Algeria between November 1954 and December 1957, during the Algerian War of Independence. The narrative begins with the organization of revolutionary cells in the Casbah. Then partisan warfare between Muslims and Pied-Noir in which both sides exchange acts of increasing violence leads to the introduction of French army paratroopers to hunt the National Liberation Front (FLN). The paratroopers are depicted as winning the battle by neutralizing the whole of the FLN leadership through either assassination or capture. However, the film ends with a coda depicting nationalist demonstrations and riots, suggesting that although France won the Battle of Algiers, it lost the Algerian War. (2 hours)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_N2wyq7fCE
Well it was another busy week...escalating the war in Syria, ramming through a right wing supreme court justice, visits from Egypt and China. I wonder how T-rump will hold up. Every President seems to age quickly. Let's hope his term passes quickly.
I hope you'll add some interesting stories and analysis in the comments below.
Comments
Syrian pipelines
Many of you are aware of RFK's theory that the Syrian proxy war is really all about pipelines
http://www.ecowatch.com/syria-another-pipeline-war-1882180532.html
Someone posted several supporting documents in a comment thread that I lost track of. Do any of you have supporting information?
Thanks -
Lookout
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Excellent links and a lot of work, thank you for that
Some links I got from you
I appreciate all your work here, and learn from your insights and links...and sometimes copy them over to the weekly.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
@Lookout
Wow, I hadn't seen that, and it certainly fills in a more detailed overview of pattern in helping to make some sense out of the development of all of this insanity - thanks so much for posting it!
Nothing like pathological and mindless greed and hunger for totalitarian global power to make a disastrous mess out of what could otherwise have been a lovely global civilization and planet... I suppose some hope lies in the gross incompetence so prominently displayed by these destructive and lunatic fools, although the rate at which they're destroying the possibility of the survival of life on the planet in the very near future indicates that they're now trying a cover-up via the extinction of all witnesses and anyone living to read a potential historical record in a to-be-cancelled future.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
Good morning, Lookout,
Thanks for the round-up. I need to go back and watch several of the videos. I was fortunate enough to hear Chomsky and Bennis on Democracy Now, but it doesn't hurt to watch again.
I've had my own horrific news this week. My niece (61) was murdered last Saturday night. The fellow was caught, I'm waiting on more details. The cops say random act by a meth-head, I called the SO, myself. You never think murder will be on your doorstep and here it is on mine. I didn't find out about it until Wednesday (read it in the newspaper and flipped out) because he crushed her cell phone and they had hell finding family (finally called her brother in northern CA). She lived on a ranch in the Hondo Valley for 30 years with nothing happening and now this. Tragic. My brother and his wife (mid-80's) are so demented the kids don't want to tell them. I was adopted, so I'm in my 60's and we grew up more like cousins. Anyway, that's my round-up for the week.
Well, have as beautiful a Sunday as possible, folks!
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
So sorry
What terrible news. Here's wishing you and your family peace and solace! RIP
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
I'm sorry for your loss.
I hope she didn't suffer.
Life is strong. I'm weak, but Life is strong.
@Raggedy Ann
I'm wordless, but my heart goes out to you... speech is so inadequate at such times...
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
Get out of the Middle East
Finally a voice of sanity. Jeffrey Sachs has a rational argument about the ME.
http://www.alternet.org/world/us-military-should-get-out-middle-east
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Morning Lookout
Great as usual.
Thanks for the Chomsky interview breakdown. I'll listen to whatever Noam says and it's nice to do it in chunks.
I want a Pony!
Hi Arrow
Noam was insightful as usual.
Although looser, I also enjoyed Jimmy's interview with Josh Fox. I had forgotten he served on the platform committee. He had some interesting ideas in a wide ranging somewhat disjointed conversation.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Thanks, Lookout
Lotta links to go thru. But it mellows the cabin fever.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Glad you dropped by
Hope you find something of interest.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Thanks for all the work Outlook
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
thanks
I sure appreciate your efforts to promote the site and perspective here at c99!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
oh boy, that's a lot to read, I hope I finish it til Tuesday ...
Can't say often enough how much I appreciate those collections. And the poetry...
What would the Trumpists do without Russia...
U.S. officials say Russian inaction enabled Syria chemical attack
Of course.
Korea crisis deepens as the US dispatches the Carl Vinson strike group to the region
Yack, you read it, I can't keep my eyes on the text.
https://www.euronews.com/
I jokingly suggested...
We're on the eve of destruction. I hope I'm not prophetic. Bullying Korea is a bad idea. Noam reminded me this week that diplomacy worked with the Koreans ... bullying has not.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
@mimi
Yup, sending a definite message to much of the rest of the missile/nuke-possessing world: group together and at all cost obliterate (North) America before the US PTB take down everyone else, as they so clearly intend to do. Either way, life on the planet is toast because of the megalomania of these psychopaths - what do they have to lose?
If these loons had let the living world have US President Bernie and a saner US policy, we wouldn't be looking at going out with either a nuclear bang or a more drawn-out agonized whimper this quickly... of course, these were also the Parasites That Be-permitted US electoral choices, so I suppose they're prepared, or at any rate imagine that they are.
Edited for a missed punctuation mark.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
Joan Baez & "Nasty Man"
Enjoyed Joan Baez's song "Nasty Man." Baez hasn't written a song for 25 years, but the Trump administration changed that. She can be a hard hitter, too. I'm hoping for something equivalent to the 60's revolution since both parties are held in low esteem. A girl can dream, anyway.
I was lucky to see her
A year or so ago in B'ham. She was supporting Bernie and was playing with an old friend Dirk Powell http://dirkpowell.org/ among others.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Getting dark here, just collected dog from the dog yard,
along with two boots and two dog toys and a dead phone. Having an anxiety attack, nothing here like Xanax to make me not care. I feel encompassed by a leg cast, two of them have destroyed a set of sheets on my bed. Having spent 1/3 of day sleeping, I hope my breathing practices can lull me back. Unlikely, and the book I am reading is becoming seriously depressing.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
Hey RL
be careful. I hope you have a land line in addition to your dead phone. We're like the chickens. It is dark here also so off to bed soon. All the best...
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
@riverlover
Hang in there, riverlover - it's got to get better from here!
And thank FSM that you at least have the companionship of your dog and people who care only a key-tap away, even if many of us are physically far distant. Emotional support does help, at least somewhat.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
It's Chinatown
What a pile of shit non news. Sorry, I just can't get riled up about the news that is not news. It's all just a scam. A horrific scam that kills people globally for nothing. Wow how did politics ever get to the point where all the news is filtered through the lens of absolute bs. Go ahead get all riled up but please people remember it's fabricated and god knows whats going down. Whatever it is it's the monkeys paw. Why is this site so fixated on the fake news and wallowing in the past creepy politics that led us here? Why not focus on how to get us out of this madness. Why feed it?
Don't worry Shaz
Last weeks issue explained we're going extinct in a couple of decades anyway...don't let the news bother you.
I try to promote more reliable sources and avoid the lame stream fake news.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”