CounterCurrents: There’s No Business Like The Arms Business, Undermining Bernie Sanders: The DNC Campaign, WikiLeaks And Russia

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In Solidarity
Binu Mathew
Editor
www.countercurrents.org

There’s No Business Like The Arms Business
by William D Hartung 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/07/26/theres-no-business-like-the-arms-business/

According to the latest figures available from the Congressional Research Service, the United States was credited with more than half the value of all global arms transfer agreements in 2014, the most recent year for which full statistics are available. At 14%, the world’s second largest supplier, Russia, lagged far behind.  Washington’s “leadership” in this field has never truly been challenged.  The U.S. share has fluctuated between one-third and one-half of the global market for the past two decades, peaking at an almost monopolistic 70% of all weapons sold in 2011.

Lessons From The Failed Coup In Turkey
  by Ugo Bardi 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/07/26/lessons-from-the-failed-coup-in-turkey/

Overall, what we are seeing is all part of the behavior of complex systems, something that we still don’t understand completely. We know that these systems are thermodynamical dissipative structures that evolve and change in order to maximize the dissipation rate. This is a phenomenon that goes on along an irregular path, sometimes taking the shape of the “Seneca Cliff“, an abrupt and uncontrollable decline that often marks the end of those stupendous structures that we call “empires.” Will we ever be able to overcome these cycles of boom and bust? So far, we haven’t.

US Adopts New Strategy For South China Sea After ASEAN Meet  
by Dr Vivek Kumar Srivastava 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/07/26/us-adopts-new-strategy-for-south-china-sea-after-asean-meet/

For USA the major foreign policy challenge after the problem of terrorism is South China Sea where China has become quite assertive with open show of the intimidation to the neighbourng states and the world community at large particularly after The Hague Tribunal decision.


Undermining Bernie Sanders: The DNC Campaign, WikiLeaks And Russia
by Dr Binoy Kampmark

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/07/26/undermining-bernie-sanders-the-dnc-campaign-wikileaks-and-russia/

WikiLeaks has again provided another list of items as part of its new series of releases on Hillary Clinton (the so-called “Hillary Leaks series”).  The retort from the Clinton campaign team is that the source of the release did not necessarily come from a bleeding heart in the Democratic camp, some questioning spirit who had fallen on hard times and wished for a Sanders salvation. In all likelihood, suggested Robby Mook, Clinton’s campaign manager, Moscow played a role.


Cryptography As Democratic Weapon Against Demagoguery
by Nozomi Hayase 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/07/26/cryptography-as-democratic-weapon-against-demagoguery/

Cryptography can become our non-violent democratic weapon. It can be used as a shield for our collective dissent against institutional hierarchies. Elections have become a distraction to pull the wool over our eyes. Now networks of ordinary people, empowered by a deep obligation to one another, can fight against this two-horned beast that would have us all descend into a dystopia. Only a democracy freely claimed by all people can defeat the rise of demagoguery.


Overly Simple Energy-Economy Models Give Misleading Answers
by Gail Tverberg 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/07/26/overly-simple-energy-economy-models-give-misleading-answers/

Does it make a difference if our models of energy and the economy are overly simple? I would argue that it depends on what we plan to use the models for. If all we want to do is determine approximately how many years in the future energy supplies will turn down, then a simple model is perfectly sufficient. But if we want to determine how we might change the current economy to make it hold up better against the forces it is facing, we need a more complex model that explains the economy’s real problems as we reach limits. We need a model that tells the correct shape of the curve, as well as the approximate timing.  

Who Are The Real Pariahs This Election?
by Mateo Pimentel 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/07/26/who-are-the-real-pariahs-this-election/

In truth, it is the leftists in this country – people who have either passed as liberals, or been tolerated by the liberal camp for the last eight years – that have been fated to be the political black sheep of 2016.

Open Letter To Major Gaurav Arya (Veteran)
by Radha Surya 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/07/26/open-letter-to-major-gaurav-arya-veteran/

I felt impelled to write this letter after reading your open letter to slain Kashmiri leader Burhan Wani and your subsequent Facebook post on the same topic.  I have also seen the Buck Stops Here show in which you appeared on the panel along with General Malik, Rising Kashmir editor Shujaat Bukhari, Supreme Court lawyer Shabnam Lone and others.  I will say at the outset that my perception of the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen Commander Burhan Wani is radically opposed to yours.  I am writing because I am hoping that you and others who share your views will be at least open-minded enough to give a hearing to an opposing view

Residents of Dharavi Beth Island Resist Corporate Sponsored Development Plan
by Jennifer Coutinho 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/07/26/residents-of-dharavi-beth-island-resist-corporate-sponsored-development-plan/

On 24th July 2016, the Dharavi Beth (island) comprising villages of Gorai, Manori, Uttan, Pali, Chowk, Dongri, and Tarodi on the outskirts of Mumbai came to a halt. Over ten thousand fisherfolk, farmers, the Catholic clergy i.e. priests and nuns, hotel owners, ferry and rickshaw drivers, shopkeepers just about everyone had gathered at a public meeting and rasta roko to protest the recent Government move to declare the island as a Recreation and Tourism Development Zone (RTDZ) under the aegis of the MMRDA (Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority).

Young Kerala Writer Attacked For Writing About “Padachon” (Creator)

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/07/26/young-kerala-writer-attacked-for-writing-about-padachon/

Four men assaulted a young Muslim writer in Kerala on Sunday night for allegedly insulting God in the title of his new collection of short stories. P Jimshar, 26, whose collection of short stories — “Padachonte Chithra pradarshanam” (The Painting Exhibition by the Creator) — is slated for release on August 5. In Malayalam, the word Padachon means (Creator), a colloquial term generally used by Muslim community.


Book On Kandhamal ‘A Wake-Up Call For The Nation’
by Cynthia Stephen 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/07/26/book-on-kandhamal-a-wake-up-call-for-the-nation/

Investigative book ‘Who killed Swami Laxmanananda?’ authored by senior  journalist Anto Akkara, came in for wide acclaim at its release in Bangalore on July 23 with eminent jurist and former Advocate-General of Karnataka Ravivarma Kumar describing it as a ‘wake up call for the nation