The John James Newsletter 141
8 October 2016
We can deal with the future only if we understand the past
John James
The legacy of those four years (WW II) is that they legitimised contempt for individual life. You see the results in purges, pogroms, holocausts, in the tens of millions of European corpses that the century has added to the ten million dead of the first war
Sebastian Faulks
The only thing that keeps the coal-based electricity cheap is the industry’s ability to shift the hidden costs to the environment and health onto society
Richard Heinberg
The Paris Agreement Won’t Solve Climate Change – James Hansen
“Global temperatures are already at the level of the Eemian (130,000 to 115,000 years ago), when sea level was 6-9 meters higher than today. Considering the additional warming ‘in the pipeline,’ due to delayed response of the climate system and the impossibility of instantly replacing fossil fuels, additional temperature rise and further sea level rise is inevitable.”
http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/07/4-reasons-the-paris-agreement-wont-solve-climate-change/
Why the India-Pakistan War Over Water Is So Dangerous
As New Delhi and Islamabad trade nuclear threats and deadly attacks, a brewing war over shared water resources threatens to turn up the violence.
How to Stop Kashmir from Spiraling into All-Out War
Kashmir has again become the venue for a confrontation between India and Pakistan. Seeking to restore order, the authorities in Kashmir instituted curfews, shut down newspapers, internet and cellphone services.
http://lobelog.com/how-to-stop-kashmir-from-spiraling-into-all-out-war/#more-36071
We’re capable of infinite memory
Where in the brain is it stored, and what parts help retrieve it? The brain is key to our existence, but there’s a long way to go before neuroscience can truly capture its staggering capacity.
One more country to be sold off to big business
Greece approves plan to transfer state utilities to new asset fund
State assets, including water and electricity utilities, are to be transferred to a new asset fund created by international creditors. The plans have sparked demonstrations and public sector strikes across the country.
http://www.dw.com/en/greece-approves-plan-to-transfer-state-utilities-to-new-asset-fund/a-35909222
The “Major and Deadly” Wars to Come
Army report pictures the near future (2020-2025) as a horrifying dystopia, characterized by spiraling inequality, economic insecurity and perpetual war. “Today’s world of haves and have-nots will be greatly magnified, with those fortunate enough to have employment and access to stunning technology living in stark contrast to the hundreds of millions struggling to survive in disrupted environments. This world will be marked by the breakdown of order, widespread violent extremism and aggressive large states driven by unpredicted and unpredictable events, including the possibility of a nuclear exchange. Noting that urban operations will increasingly dominate land warfare, the Atlantic Council predicts that armies will operate in densely packed metropolitan areas where civilian populations are a part of the battlefield.”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article45611.htm
For full report
http://issuu.com/atlanticcouncil/docs/future_of_the_army_0920_rw/49?e=23027907/38977470
How the US Armed-up Syrian Jihadists
“The Syria covert action program is [CIA Director John] Brennan’s baby …Brennan was the one who breathed life into the Syrian Task Force … John Brennan loved that regime-change bullshit”. In gist, Murphy tells the story of US Special Forces under one Presidential authority, arming Syrian anti-ISIS forces, whilst the CIA, obsessed with overthrowing President Assad, and operating under a separate Presidential authority, conducts a separate and parallel program to arm anti-Assad insurgents.
https://consortiumnews.com/2016/09/29/how-the-us-armed-up-syrian-jihadists/
Climate Council Fights Back
Three years on (can you believe it!) the Climate Council is the largest single media voice on climate change in Australia. We achieve more coverage than the next four organisations combined. Our information and commentary has appeared in the media over 20,000 times, reaching a staggering 280 million people – equivalent to buying over $57 million in paid ads.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzHAZf1oDzg
Hungary Refugee Vote, 95% Reject Quotas
Nearly 95% of all ballots cast in Sunday’s referendum rejected quotas set by the European Union requiring Hungary to accept a minimum number of refugees. But only 45% of registered voters turned out, and electoral rules require 50% turnout. The vote was reminiscent of the UK decision in June to exit the European Union,
TTP & TTIP: Map Shows How Trade Deals Would Enable ‘Polluter Power-Grab’
The environmental organization plotted out the coast-to-coast potential threats on a new interactive map. It captures over 400 fossil fuel projects, and “for the first time … gives people a chance to see if toxic trade is in their own backyard. How do the deals enable such a power grab? By way of a corporate-friendly provision included in many trade deals.”
Australia on the outer again as Paris climate treaty comes into force
Australia will find itself again on the outer in global climate change efforts, excluded from key decision-making processes because it is one of a minority of major polluters that has yet to ratify the Paris climate accord.
South Australian storms – blaming the solution
A one-in-50 year weather event hit South Australia on Wednesday 28th September, with severe thunderstorms and damaging winds exceeding 90 km/h. Hail the size of golf balls struck the state with 80,000 lightning strikes reported. The severe storm resulted in catastrophic damage to power infrastructure, with more than 22 transmission towers taken out.
http://www.climatecouncil.org.au/blaming-the-solution
WikiLeaks, 10 Years Of Pushing The Boundaries Of Free Speech
WikiLeaks came into existence. How it changed free speech! How it motivated more truth tellers to come forward ! Let there be more WikiLeaks, more transparency in governance.
Google’s Jigsaw: Undermining Alternative Media
In this premier episode of The Geopolitical Report we examine Google’s Jigsaw, an emerging technology that will be used to counter ideas considered “extremist” by the global elite. Initially beta tested on radical Islamists, Google and its partners plan to leverage the technology to marginalize and ultimately eliminate opposition to the establishment.
http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2016/10/02/googles-jigsaw-undermining-alternative-media/
Yahoo ‘secretly monitored emails on behalf of the US government’
Company complied with a classified directive, scanning hundreds of millions of Yahoo Mail accounts at the behest of NSA or FBI,Yahoo last year secretly built a custom software program to search all of its customers’ incoming emails for specific information at the request of US intelligence officials,
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/oct/04/yahoo-secret-email-program-nsa-fbi
Abnormal Fall Arctic Warmth
It’s fall. The Arctic is trying to cool down, but what would typically be a steady decline into frigid temperatures is being held back by the increasingly strong hand of human-forced climate change.
http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/meant80n.uk.php
Chile to Spend $1 Billion to Battle Pollution in Santiago
An effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60% from over 13,000 polluting sources with restrictions on vehicles and firewood. Dubbed “Santiago Breathes,” the campaign will begin in May 2017 and commits $US1 billion over the next 10 years, with the funding coming from both public and private sources.
This is ugly
Ethiopia Stampede Kills at Least 100 as Oromo Protest Dispersed
Oromia Region security forces used tear gas and rubber bullets to stop protesters who were chanting anti-government slogans and throwing projectiles at a stage where leaders were trying to speak. Most of the deaths occurred as people fell into ditches while fleeing armored vehicles and special forces on pick-up trucks that were sent to disperse the crowd.
Pentagon Paid $540mn For Fake ‘Al Qaeda’ Videos
The Pentagon paid a UK PR firm half a billion dollars to create fake terrorist videos in Iraq in a secret propaganda campaign exposed by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
https://www.rt.com/usa/361385-pentagon-pr-firm-terrorist-videos/
Why Everything You Hear About Aleppo Is Wrong
What’s really going on in Aleppo? Are Assad and Putin exterminating the population for sport? Is it a war against US-backed “moderates”? That is what the mainstream media would have us believe. We speak with Vanessa Beeley, a journalist who just returned from Aleppo for the real story.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article45605.htm
Addicted to oil: US gasoline consumption is higher than ever
August was the biggest month ever for US gasoline consumption. Americans used a staggering 9.7 million barrels per day. That’s more than a gallon per day for every man, woman and child.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/addicted-to-oil-us-gasoli_b_12202030
Renault says new Zoe has longest range of any mainstream electric car
“We are breaking psychological barriers with the range of 300km range in suburban environments is a real threshold in the mind of the people,”
The Deepwater Horizon spill may have caused ‘irreversible’ damage to Gulf Coast marshes
The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill has been called one of the worst environmental disasters in American history — and more than six years later, scientists are still investigating how much damage it actually caused. The spill may have permanently marred one of the Gulf shore’s most important ecosystems.
The curious case of San Francisco’s leaning tower: ‘There is nothing like this’
The 58-story structure – the tallest residential building in San Francisco and, according to developers, the tallest reinforced concrete structure in the western US – has sunk 16 inches since its completion in 2008, and has tilted at least two inches toward the north-west.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/oct/06/san-francisco-leaning-millennium-tower-investigation