Stuart Jeanne Bramhall's Blog: The Most Revolutionary Act , page 1140
October 12, 2017
Moscow Wants Washington to Explain Why Militants Operate Near US Forces in Syria
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Russia wants to know why ISIS militants allowed to operate openly in US-controlled territory.
© AP Photo/ Arab 24 network
The Russian Defence Ministry has raised the issue of some 300 Daesh terrorists on pickup trucks infiltrating a US-controlled zone in Syria’s al-Tanf region.
The Russian Defence Ministry has urged “the US side to explain its selective blindness regarding militants” operating near US forces in Syria.
The ministry’s spokesman said the 300 Daesh militants had tried to block a strategically important road linking Damascus and Deir ez-Zor, which is used for delivering humanitarian aid to civilians and supplies for the Syrian Army.
Aid for Militants: US to Be Responsible for Sabotage of Peace Process in Syria
Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said that the truce in the southern de-escalation zone in Syria could be undermined after the relocation of 600 militants and two convoys with medical aid into the area.
© AP PHOTO/ MILITANT PHOTO
Russian Aerospace Forces Ready to Prevent Daesh Attacks From Areas Controlled by US in Syria
“Considering such significant reinforcements in terms of manpower, medicine and food, with tacit US…
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The Myths of Capitalism
In The Myths of Capitalism, Michael Parenti explodes the most prevalent myths the ruling elite perpetuates regarding capitalism. Examples include
Capitalism produces prosperity – in truth capitalism produces prosperity for a handful of people and poverty for nearly everyone else. Parenti gives numerous examples of this.
The poor are responsible for their own poverty and are always looking for handouts – in reality, poverty occurs when the ruling elite privatize resources and public services to increase profits. Wherever capitalism is introduced, poverty follows.
Privately run businesses are always more efficient than those that are publicly run – Parenti gives number examples (including the post office, Medicare and Social Security) of government-run operations that have far less bureaucracy and far lower administrative costs than their private counterparts.
Capitalism fosters democracy – Parenti demonstrates quite ably how the exact opposite is true. A well educated working class that resists exploitation by exercising their democratic rights is an enormous threat to private profit. The US ruling elite fully supported the Bush/Obama suspension of basic civil liberties, the routine surveillance of the citizenry and the introduction of torture.
Most of the presentation focuses on the corporate crime and corruption and routine economic instability inherent in a capitalist economic system. Under modern industrial capitalism the only way to keep the economy from collapsing is to undertake a permanent state of perpetual war.
October 11, 2017
Prosecutor Files Involuntary Manslaughter Charge Against Chief Medical Officer In Flint Water Crisis
The special prosecutor investigating the Flint water crisis filed an involuntary manslaughter charge against Michigan’s top medical official.
Source: Prosecutor Files Involuntary Manslaughter Charge Against Chief Medical Officer In Flint Water Crisis
Monsanto’s Glyphosate Found In Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream
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Recent European study finds Roundup in 13 out of 14 tubs of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream.
If you?re a fan of the classic Ben & Jerry?s ice cream line, you?re in for a treat. A survey conducted by the Health Research Institute (HRI) laboratories found traces of glyphosate in 13 out of the 14 tubs of Ben & Jerry?s ice cream sampled in the UK, France, Germany, and the Netherlands.
Even if you?re unfamiliar with glyphosate, odds are that you?ve probably consumed it before. Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Monsanto?s herbicide RoundUp, and it?s sprayed on not only GM crops, but many regular crops as well.
It?s not uncommon to find traces of glyphosate on non-organic foods now, which is a huge issue due to the risks it poses to both the environment and human health. RoundUp threatens the wildlife living around the crops and their surrounding environment, and the herbicide has helped Monsanto monopolize the North American farming industry, threatening local farmers? livelihoods.
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US-led coalition destroys everything in Syria except for ISIS says Syria Foreign Minister
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The US-led coalition has been violating Syrian sovereignty by operating without Syrian government permission. They are also repeatedly bombing civilian targets while making no headway in defeating ISIS.
A picture taken on September 5, 2017 shows smoke billowing out following a US-led coalition airstrike in the western al-Daraiya neighborhood of the embattled northern Syrian city of Raqqah
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem says the US-led coalition purportedly fighting the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group is trying to destroy the Arab country and prolong the armed conflict there.
Muallem stated that Damascus would demand the dissolution of the military contingent, stressing that thousands of Syrian women and children had been killed by coalition airstrikes in the troubled northern province of Raqqah and the eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr.
The top Syrian diplomat further noted that the Pentagon was using the coalition to cover up its destruction campaign in Syria.
He added that the US-backed militiamen from the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are fighting Syrian army forces to gain control over the oil-rich areas of the country.
Damascus would not allow any external force to violate its sovereignty, Muallem pointed out.
The SDF forces “are now…
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October 10, 2017
The Battle of Newbury Bypass: How Organizing and Persistence Pay Off
Tales of Resistance: the Battle of Newbury Bypass
Directed by Jamie Lowe (2016)
This inspirational video is about the massive British resistance movement that arose in the 1990s to oppose the frenetic highway building spree of Margaret Thatcher and her successor John Majors. It culminated in the Battle of the Newbury Bypass, which destroyed nine miles of pristine old growth forest to build and extension to the M3. The stand-off between tree sitters and police lasted three months. The protestors were eventually evicted and the highway built – but at immense cost to the government. By the time the protest ended, public opposition to the highway expansion scheme was so strong the government had to end it.
The documentary depicts quite elegantly the advanced technical expertise required to carry off a massive tree sitting campaign, as well as the powerful sense of community that evolved between the protestors who assembled from across the country. Surprisingly the hardest aspect of this type of direct action is boredom, ie the long wait for the police to take action.
The footage of the police and security personnel brutally removing protestors from hundreds of trees is ugly enough. The scenes of majestic hundreds of years old oaks and evergreens being felled are heart wrenching.
The BBC
October 8, 2017
Co-housing: One Solution to the Housing Crisis
Big Cities Cooperative Housing
KCET (2016)
Big Cities Cooperative Housing is a short documentary about co-housing experiments in Seoul South Korea and Lyons France.
In Seoul, where 70% of the population live in high rise apartment buildings, three families have pooled resources to buy a three story house. In addition to communal cooking and social space, each family has private living space. There is also a communal vegetable garden.
The “vertical village in Lyon was first build in 2005 by a group of families seeking a non-materialistic lifestyle – who found themselves priced out of the property market. The first housing cooperative in France, it’s been the inspiration for many similar co-housing projects in Europe and Quebec, as well as French legal framework to recognize cooperative ownership.
In France, removal of residential property from the speculation-ridden real estate market has been an important benefit of co-housing.
The video can be viewed for free at Big Cities Cooperative Housing
October 7, 2017
The Myth of Internet Security
Web Warriors
National Geographic (2008)
Film Review
Web Warriors is a documentary about the vulnerability of major computer-controlled power, communication, transport and military grids to attacks by hackers, viruses and worms that have the potential to bring regional and national economies to a standstill.
The goal of the film is to confront viewers with the stark reality that the Internet was never designed to be secure. The World Wide Web was never designed to be an engine of commerce or to safeguard bank and other financial data. At present, it’s still virtually impossible to design a 100% secure computer network.
The video opens by exploring the likelihood that the August 24 blackout that shut down the eastern US and Canada for two days in August 2003 was most likely caused by a computer worm attack, rather than a “programming error,” as claimed by company officials.
It goes own to identify other Fortune 500 companies shut down at various times by hackers, including Yahoo, Ebay, Dell, CNN, Amazon, Amtrak and Air Canada. Most companies try to cover up incidents of cybercrime so as not to alarm their shareholders or customer base.
Microsoft’s monopoly on the operating systems used in commercial computer networks (ie they all use Windows) significantly increases their vulnerability to hacking, viruses and worms.*
*This was seen recently in the critical infrastructure in countries all over the world shut down by the May 2017 WannaCry Ransomware attack. See WannaCry Ransomware Everything You Need to Know
October 6, 2017
HOW THE UNITED STATES CRIPPLED HAITI’S DOMESTIC RICE INDUSTRY
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How the US systematically destroyed Haiti’s rice farmers by forcing cheap rice imports on the Haitian economy.
Haiti’s hunger crisis is no accident – it is the direct result of US economic policies imposed on rural Haiti beginning in the 1980s. The story of how the US undermined Haiti’s domestic rice industry explains why a nation of farmers can no longer feed itself.
by Leslie Mullin
We are all living under a system so corrupt that to ask for a plate of rice and beans every day for every man, woman and child is to preach revolution – Jean Bertrand Aristide, Dignity 1990.
The basic right to eat is at the very heart of Haiti’s struggle for democracy. Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the radical voice of Haiti’s poor, aptly characterized slavery when he wrote, “The role of slaves was to harvest coconuts, and the role of colonists was to eat the coconuts.” (1) To Aristide, those who have food and those who don’t marks the vast chasm…
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Elon Musk: We’re Willing to Rebuild Puerto Rico Grid with Solar, Batteries
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Puerto Rica currently imports and burns oil to generate electricity – an extremely expensive and inefficient system costing many residents $250 or more per month.
Climate Denial Crock of the Week
Elon Musk is offering to solve Puerto Rico’s energy crisis — for the long haul.
Millions of Puerto Ricans are living in the dark at home after Hurricane Maria pummeled the island, knocking out its already fragile electric grid. Two weeks later, only 9% of residents have electricity, according to Puerto Rican government figures.
Musk, the CEO of electric-car maker Tesla (TSLA), suggested his company’s solar power unitcould be a long-term solution.
“The Tesla team has done this for many smaller islands around the world, but there is no scalability limit, so it can be done for Puerto Rico,” Musk tweeted Thursday morning, adding that the decision is up to Puerto Rican government officials.
They didn’t take long to respond.
@elonMusk Let's talk. Do you want to show the world the power and scalability of your #TeslaTechnologies? PR could be that flagship project. https://t.co/McnHKwisqc
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