The Weekly Watch

Insanity to the nth Degree

Summer arrived this week bringing more heat with both the weather and arrogant American aggression. We refuse to learn, and so march ever quicker toward our own extinction. In part, I refer to global heating and the US refusal to even admit it is a problem...as we continue to market "Freedom" gas and crisscross our nation with poisonous pipelines. Even worse, we promote coups and war in Central and South America, the middle East, the Ukraine, and all around the world. All promoted by the corporate greed of fossil fuel, finance, arms manufacture, and all our covert mafia like secret agencies. The facade of democracy peeled away long ago. We are trapped in a corporate oligarchy...victims of a run away profit motive which over rides all sensible approaches toward a peaceful, productive planet which treats people with respect, equality, and justice.

Phil Ochs reminds us this isn't a new approach in the US.

Irate about Iran...

The war the US is intent on creating with Iran illustrates what I mean by arrogant American aggression. I find it so ironic that T-rump calls Iran the greatest terrorist nation on Earth. He needs to look in the mirror. Who is it that has several wars going around the world? Not Iran. Who was flying drones to identify targets to bomb? Not Iran. Who has bases set up all along the borders of other countries (including Russia)? Not Iran nor Russia. This scam is even more blatant than the WMD they lied about to create the illegal Iraq invasion. I'm not alone in my outrage.

Jimmy does a good job explaining how they manufacture consent for more war...
Raytheon corporate board member is the expert CBS news interviews.

Speaking of Raytheon, Its Merger Is the Definition of Crony Capitalism
Trump opposes the merger of these two arms manufacturers, which would create the world's largest such corporation, but why? Bill Black gives us the interesting answer and explores why these mergers are dangerous and on the rise (16 min video only)
https://therealnews.com/stories/united-technologies-raytheon-merger-is-t...

...and another analysis of media's Iran coverage by Jimmy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgQzb4ErYWQ (18 min)

Here's Noam discussing the idea of manufacturing consent as well as election meddling...
https://fair.org/home/still-manufacturing-consent-an-interview-with-noam...

Hazardous-Material-420x485.jpg

More analysis by Mohammad Marandi, professor of English literature and Orientalism at the University of Tehran. He was part of the nuclear deal negotiations in 2015. Here in New York, we’re joined by Ervand Abrahamian. He is a retired professor of history at City University of New York. He’s the author of several books, including The Coup: 1953, the CIA, and the Roots of Modern U.S.-Iranian Relations. (video or text)
https://www.democracynow.org/2019/6/21/trump_cancels_iran_strikes_after_...

...this whole saga, began with the U.S. leaving the nuclear deal, and then, subsequently, Trump imposing economic warfare against Iranians, something which he said specifically—also said that these were brutal sanctions. So the escalation began on the American side.

Chris Hedges takes a more staid and logical approach in his discussion with Medea Benjamin about a month ago. Excellent background which covers how we're being manipulated by Saudi Arabia and Israel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW-SjxsGHOI (28 min)

The Nation's new National Correspondent Jeet Heer sees the mix of warhawks Bolton and Pompeo, complicit Republicans, meek Democrats, and an erratic president as volatile and dangerous (video or text)
https://therealnews.com/stories/trump-may-stumble-into-war-with-iran-ove...

Vijay Prashad challenges the media reality that Iran attacked the oil tankers, calling for a real investigation to uncover the truth...(video or text)
https://therealnews.com/stories/where-are-the-skeptics-as-the-drums-roll...

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Larry Wilkerson helped promote the Iraq WMD lie. Now he's awake...(video or text)
The Trump administration's approach to Iran, from the sanctions to the recent propaganda surrounding the tanker attack which many doubt Iran even committed, will do “as much damage to the transatlantic relationship” as the Bush administration did during the invasion of Iraq, Wilkerson explained.

“Were we to somehow go ahead and make war on Iran, either by a massive bombing campaign, or that followed by an invasion or whatever, I think you could look at the transatlantic link as being severed,” Wilkerson said. “So that's how serious the situation we warped ourselves into now with Germany, France, England, and so forth. I don't even see England going along with this.”
https://therealnews.com/stories/wilkerson-us-further-isolates-itself-fro...

Meanwhile T-rump can't stick to the storyline...
Trump said Saturday to reporters, “They’re not going to have a nuclear weapon. We’re not going to have Iran have a nuclear weapon. When they agree to that, they’re going to have a wealthy country. They’re going to be so happy, and I’m going to be their best friend. I hope that happens.” Trump can’t get the conservative script right to save his life. https://www.truthdig.com/articles/trump-cant-stay-on-script-about-iran-t...

Don't forget the cyberattacks!
Officials say U.S. military cyber forces earlier this week launched a retaliatory cyber strike against Iranian computer systems amid escalating tensions between the two countries. Three U.S. officials tell The Associated Press that the operation on Thursday evening disabled Iranian computer systems that controlled Iran’s rocket and missile launchers.
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/after-drone-shootdown-u-s-struck-irani...

Now remind me, who are the terrorists?

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At least there is a little push back...

With seven Republican Senators joining all Democrats, the Senate voted to nix an $8 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia and UAE, because of the war in Yemen. But the battle to stop US involvement is far from over, says Hassan el -Tayyab
https://therealnews.com/stories/senate-deals-blow-to-us-saudi-uae-arms-deal

There has been hopeful news out of both Venezuela and Brazil also.

More than 40 organizations from around the United States are demanding their Congress put an end to U.S. intervention in Venezuela saying that, in particular, the illegal and “extensive economic sanctions, imposed unilaterally by the Trump government since August 2017, have caused great hardship and loss of life” in the South American country.
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/US-Orgs-to-Congress-End-Trumps-Crusa...

The US economic sanctions have severely affected Venezuela's ability to import life-saving medicines. Some communities, however, are responding by creating their own solidarity pharmacies. Michael Fox reports. (5 min no text yet)
https://therealnews.com/stories/venezuelan-community-builds-solidarity-p...

An opposition-oriented website uncovered a $125,000 corruption scandal involving associates of Venezuelan opposition leader and self-declared president Juan Guaidó. Independent journalist Dan Cohen tracked down the details of this story (video or text)
https://therealnews.com/stories/venezuelan-opposition-scrambles-in-wake-...

Brazil
The Intercept has revealed the way Lula was set up. Now the people are hitting the streets...
In what has become the largest mobilization against Brazil's right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro, millions of Brazilians joined in the general strike, shutting down schools, banks, and public transportation. They are demanding a halt of the pension reform and the release of imprisoned ex-president Lula da Silva (video or text)
https://therealnews.com/stories/millions-of-brazilians-join-general-stri...

New revelations from The Intercept's examination of a leaked data archive of Brazil's corruption prosecutions shows how former President Cardoso was spared because prosecutors needed his support. (video or text)
https://therealnews.com/stories/brazils-prosecutors-buried-corruption-ca...

Things are going less well in Honduras...
Honduras: An Unholy Trinity of Oligarchy, Repression and Extractivism
In the Aguan River valley, land defenders struggle to protect their water from a mining project controlled by the wealthy Facussé family. (15 min video only)
https://therealnews.com/stories/honduras-an-unholy-trinity-of-oligarchy-...

Human rights experts from Canada, the U.K. and the U.S. were forced to flee a protest against the radically neoliberal policies of Juan Orlando Hernandez. Dimitri Lascaris reports from Honduras (video or text 2 parts)
https://therealnews.com/stories/honduran-security-forces-tear-gas-intern...
https://therealnews.com/stories/human-rights-lawyer-condemns-canadas-sup...


How do you perpetuate all the lies? Imprison truth tellers!

James Goodale, former general counsel of The New York Times talks about Julian's situation. In 1971, he urged the paper to publish the Pentagon Papers, which had been leaked by whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg.
https://www.democracynow.org/2019/6/18/pentagon_papers_lawyer_julian_ass...

Chris Hedges discusses the US extradition request for Julian Assange with WikiLeaks editor in chief, Kristinn Hrafnsson. (27 min)


Climate collapse...

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The great irony of our aggression and warmongering is that it is mostly about controlling fossil fuel extraction and processing....the burning of which is propelling us toward our own extinction.

In her Jacobin article 'Socialism or Extinction,' TRNN's climate bureau producer Dharna Noor boils down the UN's IPBES report to help us see what could lie ahead and how it is related to our economic system...(video or text)

I of course do not disagree that capitalism is the problem, but I also don’t think that it’s true that, you know, until we abolish the profit motive, we can’t make any real changes. I do think that it’s important to fight for reforms that could come long before we get to anything like socialism. For instance, we don’t need to dismantle capitalism to change what kinds of crops get subsidized. We could easily, I think I said in the article, feed a billion more people or even billions more people if we just started prioritizing growing food for people instead of food that gets fed to livestock, which is far less efficient in terms of land use and its footprint in terms of energy. We could, kind of, you know, we could subsidize things like oats instead of corn, which is less energy-intensive to grow. So there are things that we could do, I think, in a reformist sense in the meantime, but I think it is important to, sort of, keep the end goal in mind and to see that the thing driving this is really the motive to grow our profits above everything else, above taking care of the planet and people’s health.

https://therealnews.com/stories/capitalism-extinction

A new study concludes U.S. oil and natural gas site emissions have risen in the past decade, but at lower levels than measured before. Big Oil has jumped for joy, but methane emissions still up over 150% over pre-industrial levels (video or text)
https://therealnews.com/stories/methane-emissions-down-but-still-causing...
https://therealnews.com/stories/capitalism-extinction

Gas leaks maybe increasing at lower rates, but not the methane released as the arctic melts. Permafrost at outposts in the Canadian Arctic is thawing 70 years earlier than predicted, an expedition has discovered, in the latest sign that the global climate crisis is accelerating even faster than scientists had feared.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jun/18/arctic-permafrost-ca...
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/06/19/canary-coal-mine-experts-wa...

An ice free arctic is in the cards...sooner rather than later.
“I have to hurry up or my science will become archaeology,” the 34-year-old jokes. “There will still be sea ice during the winter, but in the summer it will probably disappear. It won’t be the death of the Arctic, but will be the end of the Arctic as we know it.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jun/07/oceans-demise-the-en...

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Is a war with Iran inevitable? Many think so. All I can do is to hope not. I'll get back to writing homesteading next week. I want to sing the praises of blueberries. Although I enjoy our place and activities, sometimes the world intrudes and demands we pay attention. This was one of those weeks for me. The stupidity of a war with Iran boggles the mind...but over and over again my friends...

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Lookout's picture

Lindsey (go to war) Graham suggests Israel will start the war and we will join in to support our asshole buddies...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhpGXbVzUHs (21 min)

...but on the positive side, T-rump is bored with Venezeula...good for them!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yDr5CJF7Vw (7 min)

What a world...just like the ice caps...(2 min)
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aopdD9Cu-So]

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

The Aspie Corner's picture

1. Mass, long-term strikes and mass, long-term civil disobedience by workers worldwide.

2. Mass resistance from enlisted servicemen and women and veterans to prevent another farce in Iran and to end our worldwide military occupation. Replace our military with a proletarian guard that will defend workers here and assist in paying back any debt owed to those our ruling class has robbed blind over the last century and a half.

3. Dissolution and mass public execution of the global capitalist class and the government and military officials complicit in their crimes against humanity. Anyone who believes these SOBs deserve anything less is brain dead.

4. Education of workers in participation and consciousness in a worker based society. Every man and woman will be given the chance to participate.

5. Establishment of Workers' Councils both in the United States and worldwide that will meet the needs and wants of workers and make sure no capitalist has any power ever again. We've seen what happens when we give these fuckers an inch. We should give them none.

6. Nationalization and Dissolution of all current industries, beginning with the financial, insurance, pharmaceutical, hospital and real estate industries. The workers should decide how these are run Other industries such as the service and technology areas should be run by the workers as well. After all, no one understands the day to day operations better than the workers themselves. Any profits made will go to benefit the workers and society as a whole, as it should be.

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

Lookout's picture

@The Aspie Corner

how does it happen? Not to be a downer, but I just don't see the sheeple rising up...I wish we would, but just don't see it in the cards. Some of the young folks around the world are hitting the streets, but not so much in the US.

The kids are calling for a global strike Sept. 20...
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/23/greta-thunberg-you...

We're a day late and a dollar short I'm afraid.

Hope your summer is going well, and you are able to enjoy your break from school!

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Granma's picture

Is this: I was talking with my neighbor about recent news events. She said she didn't care. She told me that as long as she and her close family are ok, she does not care about anything else. I have a feeling that way too many in US share that attitude. And I haven't a clue how to change that.

We are all in this together. The foolish billionaires with their emergency hideaways don't get it. They don't understand that with the chaos they have created, there is no such thing as a safe place. The only safety possible is when all are taken care of, IMO.

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Lookout's picture

@Granma

...it is all about me. I might could understand better if it wasn't our country perpetrating most of the world's wars and conflicts. Of course most US citizens don't even bother to vote, much less pay attention to our actions around the world. That's one reason I enjoy our c99 community. At least people are here to try to understand what is going on around the world and across our nation. If only there were constant ads telling Americans, "We all do better when everyone is doing well." I sometimes imagine using propaganda and artificial intelligence for the good of the world rather than the growth of profit. At least I can still dream...

Thanks for your efforts in that regard, and thanks for coming by to say hi.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Jen's picture

@Lookout people don't vote, doesn't mean they aren't paying attention. Likewise, just because people vote doesn't mean they are paying attention.

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Is it great yet?

Lookout's picture

@Jen

Many aware people feel voting is useless

This young fellow does a good job explaining election fraud in the US. (15 min)
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdG6oyjV2Qk]

My point is most US citizens are unaware of our actions around the world and don't even know who their senators and representatives are....nor do they really care. Some I understand are up against it just trying to make ends meet, deal with their kids, jobs, lives, and so on.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Dawn's Meta's picture

@Lookout everyone. They are pretty good at getting messaging going here.

They do have a problem with Banlieus/suburbs/ghettos of immigrants which even trains are on separate levels and stations so the rest of us don't mix. Inferior buildings and trains compared to what the rest of us use.

There are only 60,000 Romas here in a nation of 66 million. They have a very hard time with attitudes on both sides. But there needs to be a better effort at integration, common humaness, and work to provide services. It's in all our best interests. The problems when discussed make it sound like a major group, when it's a small segment of people here.

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A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.

Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.

Lookout's picture

@Dawn's Meta

US militarized, privatized police have really changed the landscape of the peace movement of by youth in the US. Although there was violence then as well (remember Kent State).
The 32nd week of protests...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGAWxUvJqTY (3 min)

Power to the people!

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mimi's picture

@Granma
I observe daily in Germany as well.

I was talking with my neighbor about recent news events. She said she didn't care. She told me that as long as she and her close family are ok, she does not care about anything else. I have a feeling that way too many in US share that attitude.

Must be part of the human genes. You start caring only, if it hits you in the face and in your backyard. And if you happen to realize the problems around you, you start talking, but you still don't walk. May be it has something to do with Newton's 1. law of inertia:

The law of inertia found by GALILEO GALILEI (1564-1642) reads:
A body remains at rest or in uniform rectilinear motion as long as the sum of the forces acting on it is zero.

ISAAC NEWTON (1643-1727) formulated this law in clear form in the context of his Newtonian mechanics. It is therefore also referred to as 1st Newton's law.

/s
Nothing for ungood.

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Lookout's picture

@mimi

The over riding theme people experience is the nature of capitalist gain...more for me...the one with the most toys wins...ad after ad telling them what they want...and on and on.

Empathy, caring, and love must be cultured by being modeled. I come back again and again to my theme that the best we can do is walk our path with as much kindness as we can muster.

Wishing you a lovely evening across the pond!

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smiley7's picture

what's happening on the war front and climate crisis with greed tying the two between the ears of congresscritters, lobbyists and propaganda artists on MSM and social media.

“Mr. President, as a survivor of war, I want to tell you: going to war does not make you strong. It makes you weak,” Omar wrote in a series of tweets. “Sending teenagers to die, or return with lifelong wounds seen and unseen, does not make you a bigger person. It makes you smaller. Risking a regional or even global armed conflict does not strengthen our country. It weakens us.”
...
“I have seen firsthand the effects of war. Even in the best of cases, it never has the outcome you expect,” Omar wrote. “War is death, displacement, and terror. War is hell.”
...
Omar also urged the American people to take action by speaking out against war and contacting their elected representatives.
...
“Let all our leaders know that a war with Iran would be a catastrophe,” she said.

h/t magimamma

Think i forgot to share how much i also enjoyed the canning and storing foods feature the other week, bookmarked it for later reference.

Enjoy blueberry pies; this seems appropriate:

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Lookout's picture

@smiley7

...cause she speaks truth to power. (5 min)

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdFmkW7Je5s]

Thanks for dropping by and the comment. Have a great day!

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Lookout's picture

....can be found at https://thegrayzone.com/

I forgot to collect from them this week. They also do good ME reporting.
Max Blumenthal, Ben Norton, Dan Cohen, Aaron Mate' and many more writers.
Worth checking out.

Here's a pretty good interview with Glenn Greenwald if you want to follow the rabbit hole of Brazil's recent series of coups...(video or text)
https://www.democracynow.org/2019/6/12/secret_files_show_how_brazils_elites

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mimi's picture

could understand why former East Germans, who bravely were capable to get rid of their Russian-supported communist oppressors, today seem to be more in tune with Russia than the former West Germans. May be they understood something about capitalist oligarchs the West Germans didn't? Or did they understand Russian oligarchs better than former West German social democrats?

My head feels like the ones of these Turkish Dervish whirlig dancers. All is shaken up in disorder.
Not that the video is religiously or politically correct. I just was too lazy to find a better one.
[video:https://youtu.be/ItUoWsmw8Cg]
Have a nice remainder of the Sunday, all. Smile

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Lookout's picture

@mimi

http://www.whirling-dervish.org/history.htm

It will make your head swirl. Not much really changes. Empires come and go, species evolve and go extinct, stars are born and die. Round and round....

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mhagle's picture

Seems like he nails it on the head. Very frightening. Posted it to Facebook.

[video:https://youtu.be/ejvTPVvj_IE]

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

magiamma's picture

@mhagle
well said, chilling, poignant. shaking head.

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Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook

Lookout's picture

@mhagle

...to speak truth to power. Thanks for the clip.

Hope your garden grows well!

This time of year brings to mind my buddy Lotus' song, "Go hoe hard your garden"
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ3cUgNvT_4]

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magiamma's picture

and everyone

Seems like there are a lot more articles out there about the link between capitalism and Global Heating. The Jacobin article calls it like it is. Also, today there was an article about the impact of cement in Bloomberg on their 'front page'. This after a whole series of articles in the Guardian about the same a few months ago. Seven percent, iiric, of global emissions are caused by the production of cement. Oddly heartwarming to see this information on a very mainstream site.

From the Jacobin:

The chief culprit of biodiversity loss is “changes in land and sea use.” Three-quarters of the world’s land and nearly three-quarters of the world’s freshwater resources are now devoted to crop or livestock production, says the IPBES. Industrial agriculture wreaks havoc on ecosystems in many ways. Plants and animals are displaced and killed to make room for farms; monocultural practices and pesticides disrupt soil microbes and endanger insects and plants; water is pumped in from lakes and rivers, disrupting aquatic life.

Agribusiness defends these practices in the name of eradicating world hunger.
...
Industrial livestock farming is the world’s biggest user of land resources. It produces vast quantities of manure — some 500 million tons from the US alone — that pollutes the air with chemicals like ammonia and hydrogen sulfide, and runs off into nearby waterways, contributing to algae blooms which can make drinking water toxic for animals and people

and this tidbit...

Contemporary global agribusiness is controlled by just four major agricultural biotechnology companies. To assert control over the global seed supply chain and ensure maximum yields, these companies strictly limit what can be planted by enforcing monocultural practices.

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Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook

Lookout's picture

@magiamma

...is an important focus. We could have neighborhood/community farms/gardens/orchards/food forests. We just have to want to make it happen. Sure would be nice if there was economic incentive to do so.

Keep on adoin', keep on a walkin'

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”