John James Newsletter Number 116
Give me control of a nation’s money, and I care not who makes its laws.
Mayer Rothschild
All creatures are required by nature to make constant effort. Effort is a fundamental requirement for survival. Yet we try to make life uniformly easy, so our ability to survive is compromised
Hilary James
Make your words soft and sweet – you never know when you have to eat them
Prince Bandar bin Sultan
Controlling social interaction = the end of free thought = the political aim of FaceBook
Just imagine these tools being used for political repression rather then for commercial profit!
The company is slowly removing the reasons for leaving its site – whether it’s to book a taxi, watch video content, make phone calls, pay for things or read news articles. And the Facebook experience is sanitised, shielding users from the big bad internet with strict rules about what content it deems appropriate. Facebook already uses artificial intelligence to personalise your newsfeed, identify you in photos and translate your posts. The company has built technology that can recognise objects – even different dog breeds – in photos and videos.
Washington Launches Its Attack Against BRICS
Having removed the reformist President of Argentina, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Washington is now disposing of the reformist President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff. It is no different from “Iranian nukes,” Saddam Hussein’s “weapons of mass destruction,” Assad’s “use of chemical weapons,” or in Rousseff’s case merely insinuations.
Confessions of a Panama hitman
Today two and a half billion people live below the poverty level, on less than $2 a day, seven out of 10 people live in countries where inequality is greater than it was 30 years ago, less than 5% of the world’s population lives in the United States but consumes about 25% of the world’s resources, and less than 1% of those 5% dictate U.S. policies, as well as those of most other countries. There is no way to describe this system other than as a total failure. Some economists refer to it as a Death Economy because it is based on debt, fear, militarization, and the extraction of the resources that support it – on consuming itself into extinction.
http://johnperkins.org/latest-news/confessions-of-a-panama-papers-hit-man
Experimental Solar-Powered Plane Completes Journey Across The Pacific
“By attempting the first solar flight around the world, pushing back the boundaries of the possible, going into the unknown, and taking on a project deemed impossible by industry experts, Bertrand Piccard and [alternating pilot] André Borschberg want to support concrete actions for sustainability and show that the world can be run on clean technologies.”
Battery-Free Computer Sucks Power Out Of Thin Air
A quarter-sized computer could change everything from wearables to architecture.
http://www.fastcodesign.com/3059141/this-battery-free-computer-sucks-power-out-of-thin-air
Rooftop solar on every Australian household “no issue at all” for grid
Australia could install solar PV on every suitable residential rooftop in the country without causing any problems for the running of the national grid Australia would introduce legislation like that recently adopted by San Francisco, where all new-build houses are now required to have a PV system installed.
http://reneweconomy.com.au/2016/74077
China debt levels reach record high
The IMF drew attention to the rising debt problems. It estimated that more than 15 percent of total commercial lending in China was “potentially at risk,” meaning that banks faced a loss of 4.9 trillion renminbi, an amount equivalent to 7 percent of GDP. Others estimate that the stock of non-performing loans may be even higher.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/04/26/chin-a26.html
Support for the TTIP has fallen sharply in Germany and the US
Many Germans fear the deal will lower standards for products, consumer protection and the labor market.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-usa-trade-idUSKCN0XI0AT
RSPO Orders Palm Oil Company To Stop Work In Shipibo Territory In The Peruvian Amazon
The order was issued after the community filed a formal complaint for the destruction of over 5000 hectares of their ancestral forest lands. It cites the devastating impacts on the rivers and forest ecology on which their subsistence livelihood depends, the destruction of community dwellings and the restrictions on community members who wish to access the forest.
http://www.countercurrents.org/fpp260416.htm
We Already Know 2016 Will Be the Warmest Year on Record—and It’s Only April
March was the 11th consecutive month of a new record warm global monthly temperature, the longest streak since NOAA records began in 1880
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/04/20/record_temperatures_again_in_march.html
Paris Agreement Pledges Must Be Strengthened to Limit Warming to 2°C
How half our brain keeps watch when we sleep in unfamiliar places
Like some animals, the interhemispheric brain asymmetry that happens on the first night in humans might act as a security guard to protect them from danger.
https://theconversation.com/how-half-our-brain-keeps-watch-when-we-sleep-in-unfamiliar-places-57975
Fear and Loathing in the Arabian Nights
Washington has been threatening Riyadh to freeze Saudi assets all across the spectrum if the House of Saud does not “cooperate” in the oil price war against Russia.
http://sputniknews.com/columnists/20160420/1038343321/us-saudi-arabia-petrodollar.html
Defending Democracy To the Last Drop of Oil
The Sauds are furious that Obama has refused to attack Iran, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Syria’s Assad regime. They are also angry as hornets that the US may allow relatives of 9/11 victims to sue the Saudi royal family.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44519.htm
Hoover-Era American Plan For War Against Britain and Canada Uncovered
Its aim was to dismember the British empire on the grounds of “competition and interference with American foreign trade. It was envisaged that British, Australian, New Zealand and Indian forces would quickly overwhelm American bases in the Philippines and Guam. Out of concern that British forces might take the American-run Panama Canal, Plan Red called for a U.S. naval and air assault against British possessions in the Caribbean, including the seizure of Jamaica, the Bahamas and Bermuda.
http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v12/v12p121_HNAC.html
World War III Has Begun
If Russia and China do not disengage from the Western system and exile their neoliberal economists, they will have to go to war in order to defend their sovereignty.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44531.htm
The Rising Capitalists are changing North Korea
It could take decades, but country may well be at an important juncture in its history, one that might catalyse the slow erosion of repressive rule and a brighter future for its people.
https://newmatilda.com/2016/04/22/the-rising-capitalists-changing-north-korea/
EU dropped climate policies after BP threat of oil industry ‘exodus’
Oil giant warned industry would pull out of EU if laws to cut pollution and speed clean energy take up were passed, letter obtained by the Guardian reveals. This document paints a disturbing picture of the degree to which global corporations subvert the democratic process, influence the commission and threaten the vital transition to a cleaner, greener Europe.
How US covered up Saudi role in 9/11
the kingdom’s involvement was deliberately covered up at the highest levels of our government. And the coverup goes beyond locking up 28 pages of the Saudi report in a vault in the US Capitol basement. Investigations were throttled. Co-conspirators were let off the hook.
http://nypost.com/2016/04/17/how-us-covered-up-saudi-role-in-911/
US Out to Rob Latin America of Its Huge Natural Resources
The Bolivian president accused Washington of trying to rip off and humiliate South American countries under the guise of the war on drugs.
To See the Real Story in Brazil, Look at Who Is Being Installed as President — and Finance Chiefs
Look at who is going to take over Brazil’s economy and finances once Dilma’s election victory is nullified. Two weeks ago, Reuters reported that Temer’s leading choice to run the central bank is the chair of Goldman Sachs in Brazil, Paulo Leme. Today, Reuters reported that “Murilo Portugal, the head of Brazil’s most powerful banking industry lobby” — and a long-time IMF official — “has emerged as a strong candidate to become finance minister if Temer takes power.” Temer also vowed that he would embrace austerity for Brazil’s already-suffering population: He “intends to downsize the government” and “slash spending.”