The John James Newsletter 118
14 May 2016
I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me
Dudley Field Malone
I’d rather be pessimistic and doing something than being pessimistic and not doing anything at all
Justin Marshall
Russia helped liberate Palmyra, fully cleared it of mines and unexploded ordinance, and, finally sent her best musicians to present a concert in the ancient theatre to render homage to those who were tortured and murdered by Daesh
The Saker
The Killer Seas Begin
If we continue burning fossil fuels, we will turn the world’s oceans into a mass extinction engine. The global injustice by wealthy individuals like the Koch Brothers, Rupert Murdoch and Warren Buffet are the real monsters of the climate crisis. Without any accountability they have done everything they can to ensure that we, the people of an ailing Earth, have less and less power to get out of this worsening nightmare. We are in the most important struggle for survival that the human race has ever undertaken
DO READ THIS TO THE END
The dumping of billions of tons of toxic carbon is turning the oceans blood-red and is unleashing the mass extinction machine that contributed to four of the five great die offs in Earth’s deep history. Off the southern coast of Chile a massive algae bloom (red tide) spread over a region where sea surface temperatures were ranging between 1 and 3 C hotter than normal.
Coral structures are being completely dismembered from acidification, as in this section of the Florida Reef
Great Barrier Reef: devastating images tell story of coral colonies’ destruction
Images taken from around Lizard Island reveal the rapid death of coral across thousands of kilometres of the reef. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/12/great-barrier-reef-devastating-images-tell-story-of-coral-colonies-destruction
28% of US bees wiped out this winter
One in three bites of food we eat is directly or indirectly pollinated by bees. If we want to produce apples, cucumbers, almonds, blueberries and lots of other types of food, we need a functioning pollination system.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/11/bee-colony-deaths-environmental-problems
Polling Shows Sanders, Not Clinton, Most Formidable Against Trump
As forces in both major parties have begun to mobilize against a Trump presidency, a new national poll out Tuesday reveals the most surefire way to derail the GOP frontrunner: Nominate Bernie Sanders.
Israel close to signing gas agreement with Turkey
Turkey wants to consume half of the quantity of gas in the Leviathan gas reservoir, starting in 2020. In the second stage, gas may be transported from Turkey to Europe through a pipeline.
http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-israel-close-to-signing-gas-agreement-with-turkey-1001122833
Terrorists Have Drones thanks to the US
86 countries have drones, 19 of them armed. Now ISIS wants them too. Is it too late to stop the unmanned arms race?
Fear This Man
To spies, David Vincenzetti is a salesman. To tyrants, he is a savior. How the Italian mogul built a hacking empire. The editor and co-founder of Mamfakinch, a pro-democracy website created in Morocco during the Arab Spring, Almiraat was one of his country’s most outspoken dissidents and someone accustomed to cryptic emails
http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/04/26/fear-this-man-cyber-warfare-hacking-team-david-vincenzetti/
Once, most Jews viewed Israel as the anti-Semite’s best friend
The symbiotic relationship between Zionism and anti-Semitism Recognising the racial roots might allow us to understand modern Israel better, and why it is incapable of extending a hand of peace to the Palestinians.
http://www.redressonline.com/2016/05/once-most-jews-viewed-israel-as-the-anti-semites-best-friend/
The 4th Largest Economy In The World Just Generated 90% Of The Power It Needs From Renewables
That’s a big deal. On May 8th, at 11 a.m. local time, the total output of German solar, wind, hydropower, and biomass reached 55 gigawatts (GW), just short of the 58 GW consumed on Sunday morning.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/05/09/3776629/germany-renewable-generation/
Monsanto Takeover? Corporate Control of Food Supply Continues
Mergers like Bayer’s rumoured takeover of Monsanto would make it even harder for farmers, consumers and communities to build a vibrant, sustainable food system.
Spiralling global temperatures
The animation presents global temperature change 1850-2016. The pace is immediately obvious, especially recently.
http://www.climate-lab-book.ac.uk/files/2016/05/spiral_optimized.gif
Sea ice may be largely gone by September.
And massive temperature anomalies across the Arctic just above the stores of methane clathrates and affecting the great ice sheets of Greenland. Over the past year temperature anomalies over the Arctic have been higher than any other part of the world. Arctic sea ice is collapsing and even higher temperatures are forecast next week.
http://arctic-news.blogspot.com.au/2016/05/arctic-sea-ice-gone-by-september-2016.html
Noam Chomsky, Who Rules the World
Masters of Mankind (Full text, Part 1). The “vile maxim” to which the “masters of mankind” are dedicated: “All for ourselves and nothing for other people” — a doctrine known otherwise as bitter and incessant class war.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176137/tomgram%3A_noam_chomsky%2C_the_challenges_of_2016/#more
and Part 2 The Costs of Violence
http://lobelog.com/the-costs-of-violence/#more-34183
The New Normal: Cold War 2.0
Hybrid War – from “responsibility to protect” to color revolutions, from currency attacks to stock market manipulations.
http://sputniknews.com/columnists/20160506/1039193968/nato-cold-war-escobar.html
Why Middle Eastern Leaders Are Talking to Putin, Not Obama
Russia’s less dominant militarily but more willing to act, and that has changed the dynamics in the region.The Russians are seen as willing to use power to affect the balance of power in the region, and the US is not.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/05/putin-obama-middle-east-leaders-213867
The Panama Papers – Secrets of the Super Rich
How the rich and powerful exploit the system. The money trail includes $12 Trillion Looted from Developing Countries. Authoritarian regimes account for over $11 trillion of this.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44612.htm
Di Natale positions the Greens as a formidable election force
The Greens are now well and truly part of the political furniture, with a presence at all levels in Australia politics for more than 30 years. The party has 11 federal MPs, as well as an additional 23 MPs in most Australian parliaments.
Carbon taxes, emissions trading and electricity prices
The Australian elections: Making sense of the scare campaigns
Japan now has more electric car charge points than petrol stations
Japan is speeding ahead of the rest of the world, blissfully free of the range anxiety that afflicts plug-in drivers elsewhere.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/10/japan-electric-car-charge-points-petrol-stations
Bakken wells and ethane emissions
The gas at issue is ethane, a hydrocarbon that ranks third behind carbon dioxide and methane as a driver of the global warming.
Saudi officials were supporting 9/11 hijackers,
First serious public split revealed among commissioners over the release of the secret ‘28 pages’ that detail Saudi ties to 2001 terrorist attacks. The 2004 final report was largely an exoneration of Saudi Arabia, which was home to 15 of the 19 hijackers.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/may/12/911-commission-saudi-arabia-hijackers?CMP=twt_gu
Memories of Jack Lang and Gough Whitlam? Read John Perkins on being an Economic Hitman
Dilma Rousseff Calls for Mobilizations to Overturn Coup
Social movement leaders have pledged to remain in a state of permanent mobilisation. Widespread protests are expected on Thursday. In 2015 it was reported that US intelligence agency involvement in the parliamentary coup. An article in Pravda explains that over the past few years, the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) have become a significant geopolitical threat to the interests of the US and creating a new world reserve currency. Venezuelan journalist Jose Vicente Rangel alleged US intelligence agencies have sent 500 agents to Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador and Cuba, with the sole purpose of destabilising their governments.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44639.htm
Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff: Impeachment is a coup
“When an elected president is suspended because of a crime she hasn’t committed, it is not impeachment but a coup”.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/05/brazil-dilma-rousseff-impeachment-coup-160512142444759.html
US activating missiles in Europe despite Russia warning
Moscow accuses Washington of trying to neutralize its nuclear arsenal and buy enough time to make a first strike on Russia.
http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2016/05/11/465080/NATO-US-Missile-Europe-Bell
Turkey begins operation in Syria to establish buffer zone
Ankara is seeking to establish a safe zone in the 98-kilometer stretch in northern Syria, ostensibly to shelter Syrian refugees
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2016/05/11/465017/Turkey-Syria-military-operation-Jarablus-Kilis-Daesh
Air pollution kills more people than AIDS and malaria combined
About 3.5 million deaths a year are caused by indoor air pollution while another 3.3 million are caused by outdoor air pollu
Canadian teen William Gadoury’s discovery of Mayan city
Gadoury claims to have found that the location of Mayan cities correlated to the position of stars in the civilisation’s galaxies.
The world’s oldest axe shows the cut and thrust of academia
https://theconversation.com/the-worlds-oldest-axe-shows-the-cut-and-thrust-of-academia-59228
US gov’t sent $2bn in military gear to cops since ’06
More than 7,000 military trucks and hundreds of mine-resistant armored vehicles have been given to police, along with over 400 helicopters and 56 airplanes.
https://www.rt.com/usa/342686-usa-police-military-weapons-gear/
The Militarization Of America’s Police
Despite Obama’s pledge to demilitarize the police 2014 and 2015 were peak years for shipments of surplus military gear to local police departments across America.
Call on Russia to help create the world’s largest marine sanctuary!
Hunters have already massacred thousands of endangered whales in Antarctica’s Ross Sea, now massive industrial fishing fleets want to devastate the area. But if 24 countries agree, this pristine ocean can become the world’s biggest marine protected area. 23 are finally on board, 1 isn’t — yet.
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/protect_the_ross_sea_gl_reblast_loc/?bxKWefb&v=76117&cl=9980198101