December 7, 2013

The Suicide Path

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/peter-g-cohen/53029/the-suicide-path

A call to awaken our nation to the suicidal course we are following, and offer some suggestions on reviving our democracy

The Suicide Path
by Peter G. Cohen | December 6, 2013 - 10:20am

My concern is not for a political theory or system, nor for one belief or another. My concern is for the survival of humanity and as many of the living species in the world as possible. We humans have been given an unbelievably diverse, beautiful and fruitful natural world, which we have squandered for immediate gain and shallow ends. We have trashed the Garden of Eden - like teenagers on a beer-laced picnic, trampling this and that, and leaving our waste behind.

The result is that human waste is now poisoning the natural environment, which is so overwhelmed that it can no longer absorb our waste or replace our consumption. We have destroyed the balance of nature. By burning the forests and fossil fuels, we have changed the atmosphere. As the temperature climbs, it intensifies heat waves, fires, storms and floods. If we do not change, these effects will increase until human life and the nature that sustains it is lost -- forever.

We, who have conquered every corner of the Earth and touched the moon, cannot believe what is happening before our eyes. As temperatures rise, storms intensify, hurricanes, tornadoes and typhoons rip apart our homes and wash away our people. Yet, we still do not have a world plan to reduce our greenhouse gasses and we continue to waste valuable time arguing with the global community. We are still facilitating the blasting, drilling and fracking, the piping and shipping of more, and ever more of the toxic greenhouse fuels. We are on a path to suicide.

If we continue with business as usual, most of the Earth will be uninhabitable in decades. Hot and dry or washed away, our fields will no longer produce enough food and our few remaining trees will not provide enough oxygen for normal breathing. Yet our elected representatives continue their partisan bickering over the appointment of judges and filibuster rules.

December 7, 2013

Holiday Jeer: Google’s Pay-to-Fleece Game

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/tina-dupuy/53034/holiday-jeer-google-s-pay-to-fleece-game

Holiday Jeer: Google’s Pay-to-Fleece Game
by Tina Dupuy | December 6, 2013 - 10:52am

A hundred years ago the business tycoon Samuel Insull consolidated smaller utility companies to form the behemoth (albeit public charity-sounding), Commonwealth Edison. Because of the infrastructure needed to provide energy to an increasingly power-hunger public, Insull and others argued that Commonwealth Edison was a natural monopoly; inherently one company had to dominate the market. This battle cry enabled a mere 10 utility systems to control three-quarters of the nation’s electricity business by the time FDR was in the White House, subjecting consumers to higher rates with absolutely no competition save candles.

A series of New Deal regulations changed this, leading to decades of fair pricing to the consumer. (Until they were deregulated in the 1980s and 1990s, which is another column for another time.)

Google is a perfect example of a natural monopoly. Now every time that gets said, it inevitably gets countered by mentioning Google’s relatively small share of the smartphone market or their limited reach with their Chrome browser. I’m not talking about their other services in the slightest. I’m talking solely about their search engine. Google, which is now a verb, accounts for roughly 70 percent of the world’s searches. To put this into perspective, U.S. Steel held 67 percent of the market when it was subjected to an antitrust case in 1911.

On Google’s “Facts about Google and Competition” they state: “On the Internet, competition is one click away. Users aren’t locked in to using Google search, and the cost of switching to a different search engine is zero.” Yes. However the only asset of a search engine is its accuracy. The way their “mathematically-derived opinion” i.e., the way search engines figure out what we want is by an algorithm of user data. Meaning: you want the search engine the greatest amount of people use. So it lends itself to being a monopoly by virtue of its success.

December 7, 2013

Military Madness, The TPP and The Empire

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Military-Madness-The-TPP-by-Timothy-Gatto-Empire_Madness_Military-Commissions-Act-Of-2006_Military-Failure-131207-536.html



Military Madness, The TPP and The Empire
OpEdNews Op Eds 12/7/2013 at 04:07:59
By Timothy Gatto

~snip~

One thing I find disturbing is this "Wounded Warrior Program". Why do we have celebrities asking American taxpayers to send $19.00 a month to this project that is providing assistance to Veterans to recover from physical and psychological wounds? Why are these celebrities asking us to pay at all? I'm not complaining about to helping them, but the fact is, they should already be receiving help. The government sent these people into harm's way and it should be the government that supplies care for their wounds. What I find outrageous is that these Veterans have to ask for anything! If the government can't or won't provide for the people they have asked to sacrifice for the nation, they should never again put them in harm's way!

First of all, one of the reasons why our Veterans are once again heroes is because there are very few people in the United States with any "skin in the game", so to speak. In the years during the Vietnam War, almost everyone had or knew, someone participating. Sons were being drafted and everyone had a lottery number dancing around in their heads. Everyone couldn't just soil their boxers like Ted Nugent ...and get a deferment. Dick Cheney had hemorrhoids, but everyone didn't get so lucky. There were only so many potential Army Dads and Moms with a Senate or Congressional seat. It was cold in Canada and Sweden, and to be there without a guaranteed income could make for some mighty cold winters.

Today, some of the same people that protested the "imperialism" that America practiced in Vietnam now have "I support our troops" bumper stickers. It is quite possible that the person that threw that beer can at me outside of Seattle is now thanking veterans "for their service". Do I sound bitter? You're damn right I am! I'm also disgusted and revolted. Where are all of the people that "couldn't live with the war on their conscience" during Vietnam? I could go on, but I won't. I've already said enough. The people I'm talking about know who they are and if they don't... if amnesia has fully engulfed them, no amount of shame will reach them anyway.

Still, after watching history unfold in my lifetime, and my knowledge of the military, I have come to some conclusions about how we as a nation could rectify some of the harm that American Presidents, Congress critters and foreign policy "experts" as well as some military people have wrought. Maybe rectify is the wrong word. Maybe I should use the word "prevent".

December 7, 2013

IAEA suggests Fukushima consider "controlled discharge" of toxic water into ocean

http://www.opednews.com/articles/IAEA-suggests-Fukushima-co-by-RT-TV-Fukushima_Iaea_Ocean-Pollution_Toxic-Waste-131205-678.html



Mission members of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), led by Juan Carlos Lentijo, inspecting a spent fuel pool at the crippled Tokyo Electric Power CO. (TEPCO) Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in the town of Okyma in Fukushima prefecture

IAEA suggests Fukushima consider "controlled discharge" of toxic water into ocean
General News 12/5/2013 at 23:20:28
By RT TV

The UN nuclear watchdog has advised the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to consider dumping toxic water into the ocean after lowering the level of radioactive materials to below the legal limit.

"Regarding the growing amounts of contaminated water at the site, TEPCO should... examine all options for its further management, including the possibility of resuming controlled discharges (into the sea) in compliance with authorized limits," the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a statement.

"To pursue this option, TEPCO should prepare appropriate safety and environmental impact assessments."

The IAEA advice reflects the bind Tokyo Electric Power Co has found itself in as it attempts to manage the risks between holding greater quantities of contaminated water in storage tanks versus dumping partially decontaminated water into the ocean. Local residents and commercial fishing interests have strongly resisted efforts to drain the water into the sea.

December 7, 2013

Real Journalism v. Big Brother

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Real-Journalism-v-Big-Bro-by-Norman-Solomon-Counterinsurgency_Journalism_Political_Surveillance-131205-822.html



Real Journalism v. Big Brother
OpEdNews Op Eds 12/5/2013 at 22:29:18
By Norman Solomon

Every new revelation about the global reach of the National Security Agency underscores that the extremism of the surveillance state has reached gargantuan proportions. The Washington Post just reported that the NSA "is gathering nearly 5 billion records a day on the whereabouts of cellphones around the world."

~snip~

Real journalism is "subversive" of deception that can't stand the light of day. This is a huge problem for the Obama administration and the many surveillance-state flunkies of both parties in Congress. What they want is fake journalism, deferring to government storylines and respectful of authority even when it is illegitimate.

In motion now, on both sides of the Atlantic, are top-down efforts to quash real journalism when and how it matters most. In the two English-speaking countries that have done the most preaching to the world about "Western values" like freedom of the press, the governments led by U.S. President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron are overseeing assaults on real journalism.

They're striving to further normalize fake journalism -- largely confined to stenographic services for corporate power, war industries and surveillance agencies. A parallel goal is to harass, intimidate and destroy real journalism. The quest is to maximize the un informed consent of the governed.

December 7, 2013

American Heart Association Protects Industry Not Patients By Barbara Roberts, MD, and Martha Rosenbe

http://www.opednews.com/articles/American-Heart-Association-by-Martha-Rosenberg-Cholesterol_Drug-Companies-Marketing_Drugs_HEART-131206-947.html

American Heart Association Protects Industry Not Patients By Barbara Roberts, MD, and Martha Rosenberg
General News 12/6/2013 at 08:33:16
By Martha Rosenberg

The American Heart Association (AHA) and the American College of Cardiology (ACC) recently released new cardiovascular disease prevention guidelines. They are an egregious example of much that is wrong with medicine today.

The guidelines propose a vast expansion of the use of statins in healthy people, recommending them for about 44 percent of men and 22 percent of healthy women between the ages of 40 and 75. According to calculations by John Abramson, lecturer at Harvard Medical School, 13,598,000 healthy people for whom statins were not recommended based on the 2001 guidelines now fall into the category of being advised to take moderate or high intensity statin therapy.



The American Heart Association (AHA) is a nonprofit organization with a mission to "build healthier lives free of cardiovascular disease and stroke." Yet in its 2011-2012 financial statement, the AHA noted $521 million in donations from non-government and non-membership sources and many well-known large drug companies, including those who make and market statins, contribute amounts in the $1 million range.

Even as many in the medical community suspected the guidelines were a ploy to help the AHA's drug partners sell statins, it was revealed that the guideline's online calculator to determine cardiac disease risk over predicts risk by an astonishing 75 to 150 percent. But the guideline writers are standing firmly behind their faulty calculator.

December 7, 2013

Central African Republic: French Intervention Risky for Hollande

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/french-intervention-in-central-african-republic-risky-for-hollande-a-937595.html



The Central African Republic is on the verge of collapse, as religious warfare threatens to devolve into genocide. Now French President François Hollande is sending 1,200 troops to end the violence -- but France runs the risk of becoming embroiled in complicated power struggles.

Central African Republic: French Intervention Risky for Hollande
By Stefan Simons
December 06, 2013 – 04:27 PM

While chaos and violence reigned in the Central African Republic's capital of Bangui on Friday, some 5,000 kilometers away in Paris, French President François Hollande held a pompous Élysée Summit for Peace and Security in Africa. Before hosting the VIP group of heads of state and government, Hollande had announced he was sending troops to the Central African Republic -- the continent's "strategic buffer," where 1,200 French soldiers are now tasked with putting a stop to the killings, in cooperation with an international UN aid mission.

"France supports this operation. We have a responsibility to assist and show our solidarity," Hollande declared. He can count of the financial support of the European Union and the United States -- and on the restraint of those in power in Bangui: In the wake of recent massacres, before the United Nations Security Council approved the intervention, Prime Minister Nicolas Tiangaye had expressly asked for military assistance.

And it is urgently needed. After months of fighting, the Central African Republic is on the verge of collapse. Less than a year after a diverse group of regime opponents and demobilized military men under the name Séléka (Coalition) installed current President Michel Djotodia in Bangui, the country is dissolving into murderous conflicts and the government has lost control.

The predominantly Muslim Séléka alliance gave rise to marauding groups of soldiers who terrorized the north with rapes and murders, setting off a humanitarian crisis. According to the UN, more than 400,000 people have fled. Then armed militias formed to oppose the mostly Islamic and widely feared gangs, but according to reports by human rights organizations, the mostly Christian Anti-Balaka groups have behaved just as mercilessly. A religiously motivated civil war is brewing, and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius speaks of a "state on the edge of genocide."

December 7, 2013

Climate Summit Trap: Capitalism's March toward Global Collapse

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/warsaw-climate-conference-shows-capitalism-root-of-climate-failure-a-937453.html



The Warsaw conference demonstrated that the "climate summit" model is broken and, more importantly, that capitalism itself is driving us to the brink. Protests are not the solution -- it's time to fight the system using its own weapons.

Climate Summit Trap: Capitalism's March toward Global Collapse
An Essay by Harald Welzer
December 06, 2013 – 05:37 PM

~snip~

When the United Nations Climate Change Conference wrapped up in Warsaw the weekend before last, it did, despite what most observers and disappointed NGO representatives believe, yield a result. It just wasn't officially announced: the termination of the at-least symbolic general agreement that urgent action must be taken to counter global warming. In other words, climate change has been definitively removed from the global policy agenda.

The intense concern over climate change triggered by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports in 2007 and widely popularized by Al Gore's movie, "An Inconvenient Truth" -- a concern that led even Angela Merkel to make an appearance in the Arctic as the "climate chancellor," decked out in a red all-weather jacket -- actually dissipated a while ago, but no one wanted to say so out loud.

The United States' lack of interest in an international treaty is dressed up by its argument that gas extracted by fracking is more climate-friendly than coal, while in Japan, the Fukushima disaster and resulting phase-out of nuclear power has provided those responsible with an excellent argument for why the country now needs to burn more coal in order to stay economically competitive. Hannelore Kraft, governor of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, feels much the same way about her own state. And Australia, Canada, Poland and Russia have never really grasped why global warming should stop anyone from burning everything the oil rigs, mines and pipelines have to offer in the first place.

To put it another way: The primacy of economics has prevailed. It no longer seems to matter how we're supposed to get through the rest of this century if the world grows warmer by three, four or five degrees Celsius. National economies require an ever-growing dose of energy if their business models are to continue functioning, and, in the face of this logic, all scientific objections to the contrary are just as powerless as the climate protest movements, which are, in any case, marginal.

December 7, 2013

Interview with Jeremy Scahill Questions “War on Terror”

http://www.juancole.com/2013/12/interview-scahill-questions.html



Interview with Jeremy Scahill Questions “War on Terror”
By Juan Cole | Dec. 7, 2013

~snip~

AMY GOODMAN: —saying they’re reforming or changing drone policy, than the six months before?

JEREMY SCAHILL: Right. I mean, this—it’s a lot of smoke and mirrors. I mean, you know, the drone czar, or the assassination czar, John Brennan, who now is the head of the CIA, you know, he worked very hard to create something called the “disposition matrix,” which basically is a program that’s going to be used to determine who should be assassinated, who should we try to abduct, who should we try to render, who should we—which terror suspects should we leave it up to local authorities in Yemen or Pakistan to try to deal with. And basically what Obama and his team have done in his second administration is to create an infrastructure for whoever happens to come into office next, whether they’re a Democrat or Republican, and they have ensured that this policy of pre-emptive war—that’s really what we’re talking about here. It’s—these are pre-emptive, pre-crime strikes, where the idea that we should even view terrorism as a law enforcement activity or terrorism as a crime is completely thrown away by the constitutional lawyer president. And so, what I think one of the major legacies of Obama is going to be on this front is that he has tried to put a stamp of legitimacy on what most countries around the world would claim—you know, plainly view as a global assassination program run by the empire, run by the most powerful nation on Earth.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I wanted to ask you about the situation in Afghanistan and the most recent drone strikes there, the impact on the continuing controversy over the status of forces agreement, what’s going to—how the United States will stay in Afghanistan.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Right. I mean, well, as you know, I mean, the U.S. has propped up corrupt warlords, narcotraffickers, gangsters, for the past 12 years in Afghanistan. And, you know, the Taliban still control a large swath of territory, and they will, in perpetuity. And I think—I mean, the question I think a lot of military families in the U.S. and in NATO countries have to ask is sort of what—what was the purpose of the past, you know, 12 years? I think a lot of nations understand the initial incursion into Afghanistan, under the argument that you’re going to dismantle the al-Qaeda network that was responsible for 9/11. But what do you tell the families of—you know, of soldiers that are going to be killed in the year leading up to the so-called withdrawal? I think what we’re going to see in Afghanistan is an asymmetric war that’s going to continue on, where the United States continues to have special operations teams, there’s going to be a very large CIA paramilitary presence, and I think that they’re going to try to present the veneer that it’s an Afghanization of the occupation, but in reality the U.S. strike forces will not be far away.

December 7, 2013

Crystal Night Must not be Repeated versus other European Minorities

http://www.juancole.com/2013/12/repeated-european-minorities.html


Crystal Night Must not be Repeated versus other European Minorities
By Anne-Ruth Wertheim
Dec. 7, 2013

We never want to allow one part of the population to be attacked again because another part of the population has started thinking that there is something wrong with them.

The violence that took place on Crystal Night did not happen by chance, it broke out after people’s minds had been primed for many years. The time had come in which the delusion that Jews were the cause of all society’s ills had been planted in the minds of enough people.

Today you can see something similar happening once again in Europe. The mechanism is identical. Racist prejudices about certain groups are brought into circulation, preferably about groups, which are recognizable, by their appearance one way or another. Many of the prejudices are suspiciously similar to what was said about the Jews, in particular allegations which put fear into people: that they have a scary religion, are unreliable and dangerous, want to take our jobs, are criminals and want to take over the world.

Fear is often the ultimate incentive to kill. Nevertheless, a far too large number of bystanders nowadays believe – many of them well-meaning people – that it won’t go that far. They insist that the people should be allowed to express all those negative qualifications, in the interests of freedom of speech. They are not aware that the spread of hate and fear always takes place surreptitiously. Hate and fear nestle bit-by-bit in the minds of people on the quiet and once this has been done, it is difficult to remove them.