CounterCurrents: How Corrupt America Is, The Doomsday Clock: Nuclear Weapons, Climate Change, And The Prospects For Survival, The Orlando shooting, Omar Mateen, Terrorism And Islamophobia

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In Solidarity
Binu Mathew
Editor
www.countercurrents.org

Another American Tragedy In Orlando
By Dr. Vivek Kumar Srivastava

http://www.countercurrents.org/srivastava130616.htm

Worst fears have come true for America and human civilization as about fifty people have been killed and fifty three are injured. The number is likely to increase as time passes by. Pulse nightclub, Orlando, Florida was attacked allegedly by Omar Mateen, from Port St Lucie, Florida, who has been named in media as lone gunman


The Orlando shooting, Omar Mateen, Terrorism And Islamophobia 
By Binu Mathew

http://www.countercurrents.org/mathew130616.htm

The Orlando shooting which left 50 dead and 53 injured is an American tragedy of momentous proportions. America with its gun culture and the dominant, vociferous and influential gun rights advocates, Orlando was a tragedy waiting to happen. Let’s mourn the victims. More than that let’s take it as a moment to make sure that no such tragedy happens in the future. Is that what’s happening right now? I doubt. The CNN headline screams “Orlando shooting: 50 killed, shooter pledged ISIS allegiance”. Within hours of the tragedy President Obama addresses the nation and says "We know enough to say this was an act of terror and act of hate"


Orlando Shooting Means Trump For President 
By Linh Dinh

http://www.countercurrents.org/dinh130616.htm

Waking up to news of the Orlando shooting, I thought of the possibility that a Muslim shooter would be identified, in which case a Trump presidency would be nearly guaranteed. As with 9/11, the 2015 Paris massacre and the San Bernardino shooting, Islamic terror is immediately fingered, with the purported killer already dead. What lightning fast police work, eh? With so many corpses to sort out, the name and origin of the perpetrator are immediately available. Omar Mateen is 29-years-old, of Afghan descent and is a registered Democrat to boot


The Doomsday Clock: Nuclear Weapons, Climate Change, And The Prospects For Survival 
By Noam Chomsky

http://www.countercurrents.org/chomsky130616.htm

In January 2015, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists advanced its famous Doomsday Clock to three minutes before midnight, a threat level that had not been reached for 30 years. The Bulletin’s statement explaining this advance toward catastrophe invoked the two major threats to survival: nuclear weapons and “unchecked climate change.” The call condemned world leaders, who “have failed to act with the speed or on the scale required to protect citizens from potential catastrophe,” endangering “every person on Earth [by] failing to perform their most important duty -- ensuring and preserving the health and vitality of human civilization.” Since then, there has been good reason to consider moving the hands even closer to doomsday


Genetically MODIfied Babies In Gujarat? 
By Shobha Aggarwal & Dr. P.S. Sahni

http://www.countercurrents.org/sahni130616.htm

Genetically modified babies in Gujarat? That’s a bombshell! There has been neither any national debate on the issue; nor any consultation with stake-holders; Parliament is being by-passed as no corresponding law on the subject has been enacted;the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is taken by surprise;so too, the Indian Medical Association of allopathic doctors. No scientific-ethical studies have been undertaken before going ahead with genetically modified babies. With just one country (U.K.) in the whole world having legislated on this issue in 2015, is India being projected as the second country to start genetic modification of babies. Is this part of Make in India policy? There is deathly silence of the so called national press on the issue; there are no op-ed articles or editorials in major national English language dailies


How Corrupt America Is
By Eric Zuesse

http://www.countercurrents.org/zuesse130616.htm

So: how corrupt is America? It’s become corrupt enough to threaten to take over the entire world. And, perhaps soon after the NATO Summit on 8-9 July, we’ll know whether or not the national aristocracies that are subordinate to the U.S. aristocracy, are, indeed, willing to join the American aristocracy’s willingness to use nuclear weapons to achieve the objective


The Politics of Boxing: Muhammad Ali And Ring Activism 
By Dr. Binoy Kampmark

http://www.countercurrents.org/kampmark130616.htm

Since the beginning of time, imperial powers have used physical, gladiatorial combat as spectacle, and distraction. Athletes sweating and bleeding before skilfully directed blows provided the twentieth century’s version of the Imperial Colosseum. The Rumble in the Jungle in October 1974 was as much a political triumph for its main backer, Zaire’s ruthless Mobutu Sese Seko, as it was for a triumphant Ali. The same theme was followed by the Thrilla in Manila in 1975. The Marcos dictatorship needed justifications and props to show that military rule against communists cut the mustard


Gutting The Scientific Establishment: Australia’s Business Model 
By Dr. Binoy Kampmark

http://www.countercurrents.org/kampmark130616A.htm

Australia’s scientific management (these comprise scientists who attempt to straddle the world of practice and business, and petty bureaucrats) have not taken kindly to the field of pure scientific endeavour. The Turnbull government has continued what the previous government did: savage the fund lines, turning off the taps. Australia’s core scientific institution risks becoming a rump, while other countries pour money into theirs with intoxicating enthusiasm


Photo-Voltaics Is Not An Energy Sink In Switzerland 
By Luis De Souza

http://www.countercurrents.org/desouz130616.htm

Energy Policy recently published a study conducted on the EROEI of Photo-Voltaics (PV) technologies installed in Switzerland. The end result is a remarkably low figure of 0.8:1, well below any EROEI assessments ever conducted on this energy technology. Such a figure naturally made the delight of those campaigning against renewable energy, who take at face value any hints of negative performance. However, from this study a number immediately stands out: average lifetime energy yield of 106 kWh/m2/a. As it turns out, a closer look at this single figure is enough to disprove the hypothesis of PV being an energy sink in Switzerland


Save Judith D’Souza: Open Letter To The President of Afghanistan 
By William Gomes

http://www.countercurrents.org/gomes130616.htm

I urge the authorities in Afghanistan to immediately take all necessary measures to locate human rights defender Judith D’Souza and to ensure his physical and psychological integrity and security. Carry out an immediate, thorough and impartial investigation into the abduction of Judith D’Souza, with a view to publishing the results and bringing those responsible to justice in accordance with international standards


Visioning Bahujan Rashtra Against Hindu Rashtra: BSS vs RSS 
By Lata Pratibha Madhukar

http://www.countercurrents.org/lata130616.htm

This is a monograph of an organization which is involved in reclaiming the Bahujan’s historical legacy of resistance and struggle for right to dignity for all Bahujans and creating knowledge, based on Buddha, Charvak, Kabeer, Basavanna, Phule-Ambedkar, Shahu and Periyar’s ideology. Predominantly it is talking about Bahujan Rashtra and countering the concept of Hindu Rashtra. The organization consistently following the agenda of Bahujan Rashtra, a struggle of BSS (Bahujan Sangharsh Samiti) against RSS


India’s New-Aligned Movement 
By Imran Khan

http://www.countercurrents.org/khan130606.htm

We are witness to the fact that unresolved conflicts, strategic lobbyism and ego of the Pakistan and India has only been profiting to arms market. NAM initiative taken by India was there for a reason, it was a very noble initiative. Instead of a policy shift India should resolve it’s disputes with neighbouring countries peacefully using dialogue. If peace, conflict resolution, prosperity and development are important priorities for India then it must be understood that Non Aligned Moment is relevant even today as much as it was some 60 years before. And on the other hand the new policy of alliance with certain nations can only be understood as “axing your own feet”


Kashmir: Four Killer Policies Of Identity Mutilation 
By Sheikh Javiad Ayub

http://www.countercurrents.org/ayub130616.htm

Kashmir’s peculiar identity has influenced its politics, both mainstream and separatists in past as well as in present. Identities are crucial for determining the future course of political process. Slogans like freedom, self rule and autonomy share one thing in common, all want to preserve the Kashmiri Identity. People feel alienated when governments try to mutilate their identities