CounterCurrents: In Memory Of Martin Luther King— What If?, Militarism's Hostages, BP Data Suggests We Are Reaching Peak Energy Demand, Is BDS Replacing Iran As Israel's Blackmail Card?

Dear Friend,

If you think the content of this news letter is critical for the dignified living and survival of humanity and other species on earth, please forward it to your friends and spread the word. It's time for humanity to come together as one family! You can subscribe to our news letter here http://www.countercurrents.org/subscribe.htm. You can also follow us on twitter, http://twitter.com/countercurrents and on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/countercurrents

In Solidarity
Binu Mathew
Editor
www.countercurrents.org


UN Report Details Israeli War Crimes In Gaza 
By Jean Shaoul

http://www.countercurrents.org/shaoul240615.htm

The report into Israel’s war on Gaza last summer by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) found that both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes during Israel’s war on Gaza last summer. But while some newspaper headlines may give the impression of equal blame, the UNHRC’s commission of inquiry nevertheless highlighted the disproportionate nature of the killings—2,251 Palestinians of whom 1,462 were civilians were killed and 11,231 injured, compared to just 67 Israeli soldiers along with 6 civilians killed and 1,600 injured


Is BDS Replacing Iran As Israel's Blackmail Card? 
By Alan Hart

http://www.countercurrents.org/hart240615.htm

My own view is that the BDS movement as it currently is should now give priority to putting its act together to press the governments of the major powers to put Israel on notice that it will be isolated and sanctioned by the whole world if it does not end its defiance of international law and denial of justice for the Palestinians


Thoughts On Pope Francis’ Laudato Si 
By Herman Daly

http://www.countercurrents.org/daly240615.htm

The encyclical calls out the opponents and forces them to defend themselves. To give them the benefit of the doubt, they may really think that Francis is rendering to God what actually belongs to Caesar’s oligarchy. But neither Caesar, nor the market, nor technology created us, or the earth that sustains us. Thanks to Francis for making that very clear when so many are denying it, either explicitly or implicitly


BP Data Suggests We Are Reaching Peak Energy Demand 
By Gail Tverberg

http://www.countercurrents.org/tverberg240615.htm

Some people talk about peak energy (or oil) supply. They expect high prices and more demand than supply. Other people talk about energy demand hitting a peak many years from now, perhaps when most of us have electric cars. Neither of these views is correct. The real situation is that we right now seem to be reaching peak energy demand through low commodity prices. I see evidence of this in the historical energy data recently updated by BP (BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2015)


The Die Is Cast - To Survive We Must Be Friends 
By Lionel Anet

http://www.countercurrents.org/anet240615.htm

What’s needed is for the power behind the political leaders to imagine their future and their children’s future. We must help them see that, furthermore, it’s possible to do it before it’s too late; also, it may be possible to start on that track very soon. We need to follow up on the Encyclical “Laudatum Si' ” by Pope Francis, and the Lancet Health and climate change: policy responses to protect public health. We only have a narrow window of opportunity to change humanity’s direction, how narrow that opportunity is can only be found out after it’s too late


Militarism's Hostages 
By John Scales Avery

http://www.countercurrents.org/avery240615.htm

Do our “Defense Departments” really defend us? Absolutely not! Their very title is a lie. The military-industrial complex sells itself by claiming to defend civilians. It justifies vast and crippling budgets by this claim; but it is a fraud. For the military-industrial complex, the only goal is money and power. Civilians like ourselves are just hostages. We are expendable. We are pawns in the power game, the money game


The B Vocabulary: The Western Left And Its Sterile ‘Field of Ideas’ 
By Ramzy Baroud

http://www.countercurrents.org/baroud240615.htm

Over the year, I realized that the term ‘left’ is not exclusive to a political ideology, but a mode of thinking championed mostly by self-tailored ‘leftist’ western intellectuals. I grew to dislike it with intensity. But that has not always been the case


In Memory Of Martin Luther King— What If? 
By A D Hemming and Bati Ahmed

http://www.countercurrents.org/hemming240615.htm

To knock down any attacks on patriotism Dr King could have exposed this deal with the Nazi devil at Ft Hunt had this information been available at the time. The facts on the Nazi spy network of Rienhard Gehlen get through to the most brutal truths about the fraud of the Cold War and all that came from it including Vietnam


Comforting A Baby Is Violent 
By Robert J. Burrowes

http://www.countercurrents.org/burrowes240615.htm

If you want a powerful adult, do not frighten a baby or child out of expressing their feelings


Suggestions To Muslim Personal Law Board 
By Mike Ghouse

http://www.countercurrents.org/ghouse240615.htm

While applauding the position taken by the All India Muslims Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), we hereby acknowledge a few key points about the politics of International Yoga Day and pleased to make a few suggestions. It is a delicate issue, and I pray that Muslims will follow the principles set in motion by Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and commit to mitigating the conflicts and nurturing goodwill for the common good of the society


Sri Lanka: Sub-Inspector And His Assistant Convicted, 
Sentenced To Death For Murder
By Asian Human Rights Commission

http://www.countercurrents.org/ahrc240615.htm

On 23 June 2015, the Negombo High Court judge M.Z. Razeen found Sub Inspector Suresh Gunaratne and one of his assistants guilty of murdering Gerald Mervin Perera in November 2004. The two policemen have been sentenced to death. Another case of torture is pending against the same Sub Inspector and several other police officers who were attached to Wattala Police Station in 2002 for torturing and seriously injuring the victim, Gerald Mervin Perera. Gerald suffered a kidney failure because of the torture he suffered in custody in 2002