CounterCurrents: Donald Trump And The ISIS Factor, How To Break The Power Of Money, US Military Prepares New Offensives In Syria And Iraq,

Dear Friend,

Bad days for Iraqis and Syrians again. US imperialist forces are preparing for another offensive in Iraq and Syria. The Project For The New American Century (PNAC) is slowly unfolding before us. How long before we rose up and resisted? Perhaps the doom genes may be coded in the PNAC DNA itself! The limits to growth will bring down imperialist expansion too! We commoners should be ready with alternatives when the shit hits the roof. That's why CC is always searching for alternatives. To paraphrase Arundhati Roy, " A Rainbow of Alternatives"! David Korten, the author of "When Corporations Rule The World" comes up with an article to break the power of money. He ends the essay with a hopeful note ,

"We who work for peace, justice, and sustainability have the ultimate advantage. Truth is on our side. And the deepest truths, those on which our common future depends, live in the human heart. Let us each speak the truth in our own heart so that others may recognize and speak the truth in theirs. Together we will change the human story."

We are publishing the fascinating  Jefferson Lecture for the National Endowment for the Humanities by Wendell Berry. Going through his personal experiences Berry shows us how agro industry,industrial civilisation  and capitalism disconnected us from our ecosystems, our imagination to be controlled by a few oligarchs.    He also ends his speech in a hopeful note,

".....truth, nature, imagination, affection, love, hope, beauty, joy. Those words are hard to keep still within definitions; they make the dictionary hum like a beehive. But in such words, in their resonance within their histories and in their associations with one another, we find our indispensable humanity, without which we are lost and in danger."

Ah yes, the usual request note,

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/news-letter/. 

In Solidarity

Binu Mathew
Editor
www.countercurrents.org




The Tragedy Of The Anticommons
  by Michael Heller 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/13/the-tragedy-of-the-anticommons/

This essay introduces the tragedy of the anticommons. What’s that? Let’s start with something familiar: a commons. When too many people share a single resource, we tend to overuse it – we may overfish the oceans and pollute the air. This wasteful overuse is a tragedy of the unmanaged commons. How do we solve such a tragedy?




“It All Turns On Affection” by Wendell Berry 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/13/4869/

Wendell Berry’s Jefferson Lecture for the National Endowment for the Humanities, which was delivered in 2012.




The Open Source School Redefines Education in Italy
  by Alessia Clusini 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/13/the-open-source-school-redefines-education-in-italy/

Threading elements of the great educational experiments of Bauhaus and Roycroft Community models together with Pierre Levy’s modern definition of “collective intelligence,” La Scuola Open Source (The Open Source School) embodies the principles of the sharing movement. Its success hinges on cooperative work, co-design, shared skills, and an open source culture. The school’s 13 co-founders believe in the power of people’s collaborative qualities. Their unusual constitution is testimony to this.




The Discrete Charm Of Economic Growth
by Kevin Carson 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/13/the-discrete-charm-of-economic-growth/

Revie of Robert Balthazar's "The Discrete Charm of Economic Growth. Part I: The Bilinguals"; Part II: "The Making of an Overriding Collective Preference"(2016).




How To Break The Power Of Money
  by David Korten 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/13/how-to-break-the-power-of-money/

We are living beings born of and nurtured by a living Earth. Life exists—can exist—only in living communities that self-organize to create the conditions essential to life’s existence. Money is just a number, an accounting chit we accept in exchange for things of real value because we have been conditioned to do so almost from birth.




US Military Prepares New Offensives In Syria And Iraq
  by Peter Symonds

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/13/us-military-prepares-new-offensives-in-syria-and-iraq/

Even as tensions are rising with Russia in Eastern Europe and China in Asia, the United States has launched a new war in Libya and is preparing a major military escalation in the Middle East, nominally directed against Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). In an interview yesterday with USA Today, Air Force Lieutenant General Jeffrey Harrigan confirmed that the US-led coalition is planning coordinated offensives against two ISIS-held cities—Mosul in northern Iraq and Raqqa in Syria.




Donald Trump And The ISIS Factor
  by Dr Binoy Kampmark 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/13/donald-trump-and-the-isis-factor/

Ever straddling that fine line between the absurd and the puncturing revelation, Donald J. Trump’s “ISIS” remarks about the Obama administration and the Democrat presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, were vintage.  “[Obama] was the founder of ISIS absolutely, the way he removed our troops. … I call them [Obama and Hillary Clinton] co-founders.” In a political environment where sarcasm is set aside in favour of serious management and public relations choreography, stage managed with careful insertions for media effect, Trump has other ideas. These may be contemptuous of the archive of history, avoiding evidence like the plague, but every so often, he makes a point that stings.




How Obama Administration Encouraged The Rise Of Islamic State?
by Nauman Sadiq 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/13/how-obama-administrationencouraged-the-rise-of-islamic-state/

Although, I admit that Donald Trump’s recent remarks that Obama Administration willfullycreated the Islamic State were a bit facile, but it is an irrefutable fact that Obama Administration’s policy of nurturing the Syrian militants against the Assad regime from August 2011 to August 2014 created the ideal circumstances which led to the creation of not just Islamic State but myriads of other Syrian militant groups which are just as fanatical and bloodthirsty as Islamic State.




Uncle “Sham” Says “Dance”…. And The Band Plays On….
by Gary Corseri 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/13/uncle-sham-says-dance-and-the-band-plays-on/

Those political, Republicratic “Conventions” clarified nothing and–despite the glitter, sparkle, balloons and flags, the pledges of allegiance, hands over the Constitution &/or one’s heart, the pretty words and gruff challenges—they succeeded in confounding and bewildering.





Narendra Modi, The Machiavellian Prince Of India
  by Sukumaran C V 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/13/narendra-modi-the-machiavellian-prince-of-india/

We have a Prime Minister who said that this government is for the Dalits, and the same Prime Minsiter says nothing when Dalits are publicly flogged by the gau rakshaks. Everybody knows on whose side he stands, but with his rhetoric he tries to convince the civilised world that he criticises the vigilantism that targets the Dalits.





Irom Sharmila Gets Solidarity From Kerala

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/13/irom-sharmila-gets-solidarity-from-kerala/

In solidarity with Irom Sharmila’s novel method of struggle against the draconian law of AFSPA, Solidarity Youth Movement held programs in different parts of Kerala. Programs were held in front of the Secretariat at Trivandrum and the Fort Kochi Beach at Ernakulam.





The Bourgeoisie And The Bourgeois Democratic Revolution
Compiled by MK Adithya 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/13/the-bourgeoisie-and-the-bourgeois-democratic-revolution/

An extract from chapter one of 1NDIA MORTGAGED by Tarimela Nagi Reddy ,pages 2-8, 1971. It narrates how transfer of  power took place and it was not real independence.




Demand For Dismissal Of Lt. Governor Kiran Bedi And Apologies For Insulting The Tribal Community

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/13/demand-for-dismissal-of-lt-governor-kiran-bedi-and-apologies-for-insulting-the-tribal-community/

Kiran Bedi, Ex IAS officer, an active member of a political party and Puducherry Lt Governor, has insulted and condemned de-notified tribes by tweeting on 2ndAugust:    ”Ex-criminal tribes are known to be very cruel. They are hardcore professionals in committing crimes. Rarely caught and/or convicted”.