Author: Geoff Ebbs

  • Global protests bemoan the destruction of Aleppo

    Global protests bemoan the destruction of Aleppo

    Evacuation buses leave the ruins of Aleppo - SANA
    Evacuation buses leave the ruins of Aleppo – SANA

    Brisbane residents appalled by the slaughter in Aleppo last week joined global protests against the involvement of our governments in supporting and prolonging the civil war in Syria. The ongoing annihilation of the people of Aleppo by the Syrian Government in an attempt to wipe out the rebel strongholds in the city was the catalyst for the protests. The situation is clouded by complex alliances between the oil interests of the US, Russia and Turkey, the Shia alliance run by Iranian general Qasem Soleimani supporting Bashira Al-Assad and the Saudi backed militias funded and supported by the USA.

    http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/

    http://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/hizb-uttahrir-organises-rally-in-sydneys-west-to-protest-bloodshed-in-aleppo/news-story/3f61abe0bbc950c1249cbd6e9594bda0

    https://sputniknews.com/columnists/201612201048802488-aleppo-protests/

    http://english.khamenei.ir/news/4463/Liberation-of-Aleppo-represents-US-s-most-serious-setback-in

  • Mass arrests of Papuans follow genocide protests

    Mass arrests of Papuans follow genocide protests

    Independence protestors in Wamena West Papua
    Independence protestors in Wamena West Papua

    The Indonesian Government last week arrested more than 500 Papuans following mass protests across the nation opposing fifty fifth anniversary of Indonesian rule on Monday 19th December. Over half a million people are known to have been killed by the Indonesian government in those 55 years and thousands of activists remain in prison and enforced labour camps. Last week’s rallies called for full membership for West Papua of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), an international lobby group working on behalf of the island nations of the Pacific against colonial imperialism.

    Image from Free West Papua

    https://www.freewestpapua.org/2016/12/19/media-alert-over-528-people-arrested-for-calling-for-west-papuas-full-msg-membership-and-rejecting-indonesias-invasion/

    https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/the-west-papuan-nightmare-australias-inconvenient-truth,8105

    https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/west-papua-more-500-arrested-marching-independence

  • The John James Newsletter 151

    The John James Newsletter 151

    To subscribe or unsubscribe email John James
    Anyone who has surplus funds should be holding gold and silver because the dollar should be priced as toilet paper. The Fed’s massive increase in supply of money is not matched by goods and services. We don’t have hyperinflation because most of that money went into financial assets and bid up stock and real estate prices. If the world turns on the dollar, the Fed is not able to sustain it. Gold and silver have always been money – Craig Roberts
    What is it we are trying to sustain? A living planet, or industrial civilization? Because we can’t have both – Kim Hill
    The world’s total nuclear arsenal 15,375 enough to destroy all advanced life several time by accident or design – http://www.ploughshares.org/world-nuclear-stockpile-report
    Climate Change and the Coming ‘Humanitarian Crisis of Epic Proportions’
    Military and national security experts are sounding the alarm about tens of millions of climate refugees. Without radical action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, “we will grieve over the avoidable human tragedy, Climate change could lead to a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions. We’re already seeing migration of large numbers of people around the world because of food scarcity, water insecurity, and extreme weather, and this is set to become the new normal.
    Farmers believe in climate change, so why don’t the politicans
    Nine in 10 of the farmers surveyed being concerned about damage to the climate.  They are experiencing rapid change on their land, and in regional weather patterns. Two-thirds of those surveyed had observed changes in rainfall patterns during their lifetime, and almost one in two reported more frequent or intense droughts; rain events or flooding; or heatwaves.
    Scientists have long feared this ‘feedback’ to the climate system. Now they say it’s happening
    By the year 2050, the planet could see 55 billion tons of carbon (which converts to 200 billion tons of carbon dioxide, were it all to be in this form) released from soils. It has taken us 200 years to release this amount from industrialisation.
    Climate change escalating so fast it is ‘beyond point of no return’

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/donald-trump-climate-change-policy-global-warming-expert-thomas-crowther-a7450236.html

    Trump could face the ‘biggest trial of the century’ — over climate change
    The case, brought by 21 youths aged 9 to 20, claims that the federal government isn’t doing enough to address the problem of climate change to protect their planet’s future — and that, they charge, is a violation of their constitutional rights on the most basic level. the planet is on the docket, it would be hard to imagine a more consequential trial, because the fossil fuel policies of the entire United States of America are going to confront the climate science put forth by the world’s best scientists. And never before has that happened. By declining to dismiss the lawsuit, the court was indicating that the plaintiffs do indeed have a right to sue the government over their constitutional right to a healthy environment in the context of the climate change threat — something that has never been done before.
    Adani’s solar shift puts Carmichael in the shade
    Adani is central to a profound energy transition in India, which is on track to achieve a national 40% renewable energy target by 2030, equivalent to 350GW, or around seven times Australia’s total electricity sector.
    Future temperatures could exceed livable limits
    The researchers calculated that humans and most mammals, which have internal body temperatures near 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, will experience a potentially lethal level of heat stress at wet-bulb temperature above 95 degrees sustained for six hours or more,
    Does the US have, at the present time, a Middle East policy?
    Not really, unless haphazardly responding to disorder in hopes of preventing things from getting worse still qualifies as a policy. Sadly, US efforts to “fix” the region have served only to make matters worse. Even more sadly, members of the policy world refuse to acknowledge that fundamental fact. So we just blunder on. There is no evidence — none, zero, zilch — that the continued US military assertiveness in that region will lead to a positive outcome. There is an abundance of evidence pointing in precisely the opposite direction.
    How climate change is affecting the wine we drink
    “We are working with shorter time frames. Once upon a time a vintage would have taken 100 days but we do the bulk of it within 60 days,”
    and
    Italian banks tumble as investors eye contagion risk
    Shares in Italy’s beleaguered banks tumbled by up to 6% as investors took fright at the decisive ‘no’ vote in the country’s constitutional referendum. With prime minister Matteo Renzi (pictured)  promising to resign after securing just 40% of votes for his plans to streamline Italy’s electoral system, the country is set for a period of further political uncertainty that will hamper the banks’ efforts to recapitalise.
    ‘I rigged parliament votes for President Poroshenko’ – fugitive Ukrainian MP
    The president of Ukraine is personally involved in large-scale corruption, alleges a fugitive MP who claims to have rigged votes in the parliament by bribing fellow lawmakers with bags-full of cash on behalf of Petro Poroshenko. The money used to buy votes had been embezzled from the state coffers and even includes funds provided to Ukraine by the International Money Fund,
    ACT aims for zero carbon transport sector, with launch of EV plan
    Having led the country on renewable energy policy and ambition, the ACT is shifting its focus to its transport sector, the decarbonisation of which it says will be crucial to achieving the Territory’s goal of net zero emissions by 2050.
    Life On Earth Is Dying
    The human onslaught to destroy life on Earth is unprecedented in Earth’s history. Planet Earth is now experiencing its sixth mass extinction event and Homo sapiens sapiens is the cause. Moreover, this mass extinction event is accelerating and is so comprehensive in its impact that the piecemeal measures being taken by the United Nations, international agencies and governments constitute a tokenism that is breathtaking in the extreme.
    For 2016, Atmospheric CO2 Concentrations are Rising at the Fastest Rate Ever Seen
    “The Middle Miocene Climate Optimum was ushered in by CO2 levels jumping abruptly from around 400ppm to 500 ppm, with global temperatures warming by about 4°C  and sea levels rising about 40m as the Antarctic ice sheet declined substantially and suddenly. “
    Palynomorphs reveal a sudden remarkably warm Antarctica during the middle Miocene
    Laughs, cries and deception: birds’ emotional lives are just as complicated as ours
    Reason, thinking and making judgements were stubbornly thought to be outside the capacity of animals. For a long time it was not believed that animals were even capable of feeling pain, let alone complex emotions. We now know that is far from the truth.
    On Top Of Demonetisation India Scraps Wheat Import Duties
    The aim is to replace current structures with a system of chemical-intensive, industrial-scale agriculture suited to the needs of Western agribusiness, food processing and retail concerns. This is to be facilitated by the World Bank’s ‘Enabling the Business of Agriculture’ strategy, which entails opening up markets to Western agribusiness and their fertilisers, pesticides, weedicides and patented seeds. What we are seeing is the further commercialisation of rural India designed to entrench the forces of capitalist agriculture under US leadership and its transnational agribusiness corporations.
    West Antarctic Ice Shelf Could Collapse Within 100 Years = 3m slr.
    Looking at satellite images taken before the 2015 fracture, the scientists discovered that the rift spread upward for two years before breaking through the ice surface. The iceberg was then set adrift over 12 days in late July and early August 2015. “This kind of rifting behavior provides another mechanism for rapid retreat of these glaciers, adding to the probability that we may see significant collapse of West Antarctica in our lifetimes. The really troubling thing is that there are many of these valleys further up-glacier,” Howat said. “If they are actually sites of weakness that are prone to rifting, we could potentially see more accelerated ice loss in Antarctica.”

    Arctic and Antarctic sea ice reaches record lows after section the size of India melts

    and

    President Duterte – Fighting for his Life & his Country 
    “I support Duterte! Now children get free education and ‘medical missions’ provide basic medical care. We also receive allowances, and the government provides jobs. We are still lacking electricity, but at least the municipality is providing free drinking water.” The number of people killed in this country is actually decreasing. Before, under Aquino, those murdered were mainly poor farmers, indigenous people, and urban poor; people fighting for their basic human rights. Under Gloria Arroyo, the foreign mining companies were even given permission to kill protesters. All this is over now.
    Rendered Uninhabitable by Heat
    Heatwaves so hot that it’s impossible to perform any activity outdoors without threat of injury or worse. Raging dust storms that make the very air unbreathable. Massive droughts that wreck agricultural productivity and biodiversity altogether. Sections of Africa and the Middle East are currently getting a taste of these new, dangerous climate conditions. But their frequency could increase by five fold or more over the next 30-40 years is threatening government collapse, and the forced dislocation of millions.
    Climate Emergency Declaration Petition*
    Call on the Australian Parliament to declare a climate emergency and initiate a massive society-wide climate action mobilisation.
  • US to flood Syria with anti-aircraft guns

    US to flood Syria with anti-aircraft guns

    The US is flooding Syria with weapons that end up in the hands of ISIS
    The US is flooding Syria with weapons that end up in the hands of ISIS

    The US Senate last week voted to supply terrorist militias in the Middle East with anti-aircraft missiles, causing widespread concern among allies, enemies and moderate Middle-Eastern governments.

    The resolution is part of a $US619 billion plan for military action in the Middle East before Trump comes to power. The plan continues the strategy of opposing the emerging alliance between Turkey, Russia, Syria, Iraq and Iran while also claiming to be fighting a war on terror.

    The US is propping up an increasingly unpopular regime in Saudi Arabia as part of this plan. Alliances between moderate Sunni Muslim nations and the Saudi people are weakening the Saudi family hold on absolute power that has enabled them to fund terrorists while selling oil to the West.

    ISIS has so many US weapons that it has been selling them on facebook.

    http://edition.cnn.com/2015/12/08/politics/amnesty-international-isis-weapons-u-s-/

    http://thefreethoughtproject.com/cia-weapons-syrian-jihadis-isis-selling-facebook/

    Saudi Arabia’s Glass: Half Empty or Half Full?

    The people of Saudi Arabia have long accepted the bargain imposed by the founding king, Abdul Aziz al-Saud, in which they are disenfranchised but acquiesce in political powerlessness as the state provides them with security and a comfortable life. Now they are being asked to do more for themselves while the government does less, regardless of the price of oil.

    http://lobelog.com/saudi-arabias-glass-half-empty-or-half-full/#more-36978

     

    Congress Votes To Give Jihadists Anti-aircraft Missiles 

    The Senate passed a bill that puts every American who travels by plane at risk.  It is among the stupidest pieces of legislation ever written – to provide shoulder-launched ground-to-air missiles to lunatic jihadists who will undoubtedly use them to take down American or Israeli jetliners. The argument that these Islamic militants are fully vetted is complete nonsense as both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have repeatedly shown. Rebel groups “have entered into battlefield alliances with the affiliate of al Qaida in Syria formerly known as al Nusra to render the phrase ‘moderate rebels’ meaningless.”

    http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46036.htm

  • Monbiot hardens views on Corporate Feudalism

    Monbiot hardens views on Corporate Feudalism

    Gangs of America outlines the deliberate undermining of legislatures by corporations

    Gangs of America outlines
    the deliberate undermining
    of legislatures by corporations

    Guardian columnist George Monbiot hardened his view on Corporate Feudalism on December 6th, writing that under the onslaught of the placeless, transnational capital McDonald’s exemplifies, democracy as a living system withers and dies.

    Monbiot joins the ranks of Ted Nace, Noam Chomsky and other thinkers who have recognised that corporate subversion of the democratic process is at the heart of our modern malaise.

    Where as most commentators study events of the last decade or so in an attempt to identify the source of citizen dissatisfaction with democracy, Ted Nace, points to the deliberate campaigns waged by Corporations in the nineteenth century to harness the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution to grant themselves power to cross state boundaries without approval of state governments. As a result of this campaign the railway barons were born creating the financial institutions of the twentieth century and the underpinnings of the unsustainable financial system that drains the pockets of ordinary citizens and the state that should represent them.

    None of this is news to socialists who have followed Marx’ analysis of capitalism over roughly the same period. Ironically, the mantra of neoliberalism, that capital should be free, is the very concept at the heart of the nineteenth century critiques of capital, Marx included.

    French economist Thomas Picketty became the rock star of his industry with his book Capital,  that irrefutably proved that wealth trickles upwards and the gap between rich and poor increases in the absence of intervention by governments.

    An analysis of Picketty’s book and rise to fame is available from The Economist.

    Monbiot’s piece can be found at the Guardian where he writes weekly.

    Other articles on Corporate Feudalism from The Cage, The Generator and Monbiot are available at TheGenerator.News

  • Tyre recycling finally cracks fuel market

    Tyre recycling finally cracks fuel market

    53 million tyres are thrown out in Australia every year
    53 million tyres are thrown out in Australia every year

    The 53 million tyres thrown away in Australia each year may become a valuable source of energy thanks to a company that has developed a commercially viable process for producing diesel oil from the rubber.

    The process reduces the tyres to oil, steel, carbon black and methane gas. 100% of the material from the tyre can be resold.

    Over a billion tyres a year are disposed of globally, most are illegally dumped on the edge of cities or deposited in land fill where they take 30,000 years to break down.

    Current recycling programs mechanically reduce the tyre to create rubber particles used as playground and road surfaces.

    The new process reduces the need for fossil fuel extraction and creates a fuel with a high energy rating, less nitrous dioxide and lower particle emissions.

    Start-up company breathes new life into old tyres

    A biofuel from old rubber tyres that can run turbo-charged diesel engines while reducing emissions by 30 per cent.’We have zero waste from the tyre’

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-28/new-life-for-old-tyres-as-biofuel/8064350

    Every year the world produces over 1 billion used tyres. Only a small portion of these tyres are recycled. In Australia only 5% of used tyres go through a recycling process. 13% are dumped illegally, and the remaining 57% of tyres go to landfill. This is by far the worst option environmentally. Without sunlight a tyre takes up to 30,000 years to degrade.

    http://www.ecoreps.com.au/tyrerecycling.html