Monday, October 31, 2016
RSN: Bill McKibben | Why Dakota Is the New Keystone
Sure, I'll make a donation!
FOCUS: Bill McKibben | Why Dakota Is the New Keystone
Bill McKibben, The New York Times
McKibben writes: "The Native Americans who have spent the last months in peaceful protest against an oil pipeline along the banks of the Missouri are standing up for tribal rights. They're also standing up for clean water, environmental justice and a working climate. And it's time that everyone else joined in."
READ MORE
Bill McKibben, The New York Times
McKibben writes: "The Native Americans who have spent the last months in peaceful protest against an oil pipeline along the banks of the Missouri are standing up for tribal rights. They're also standing up for clean water, environmental justice and a working climate. And it's time that everyone else joined in."
READ MORE
Contribute to RSN
CounterCurrents: The Danger Of War From A Declining Hegemon, What Are We to Think?, Climate (In)justice: Significance of COP 22
Dear Friend,
Skirmishes at the border of the two nuclear armed neighbours in South Asia, India and Pakistan, raises the heart beat of the peace loving citizens of the region and the whole world. Today a 54 year old woman was killed by Pakistan's shelling in Poonch district of Jammu & Kashmir. In another cross border shelling in Rajouri district of J & K an army Jawan was killed. Yesterday, an Indian soldier was killed and his body mutilated by militants. Nationalist sentiments are being whipped up in both nations. In India the far right BJP government and its followers are boycotting artists from Pakistan. They even went so far as to boycott Chinese products for China's stand on Kashmir. Meanwhile Kashmir remains shut for 115 days.
Eight alleged members of the outlawed Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) were killed in an alleged encounter by Madhya Pradesh police today. Many have raised eye brows about the government version. The facts are only emerging. In any case, 'encounter killings' are a routine affair in India. Because of its rampant spread in all parts of India, Supreme Court of India has issued strict guidlines to be followed in the case of encounter killings, including independent enquiry about the encounter.
Yes, USA is in decline, except may be in its military might. That's why Donald Trump vows to 'make America great again'. Two great scholars warns that the whole world must be worried about this 'declining hegemon'. Dr Chandra Muzaffar from Malaysia, and Professor Richard Falk from USA has almost the same warning. Watch out! Falk further says that the coming US presidential election will have a huge bearing on the fate of the rest of the world.
We know we are on the thershhold of looming global disaster of enormous proportion. Climate Change. The up coming Marrakech COP 22 meeting will have huge bearing on the fate of the planet and the future generations writes Zeenat Masoodi .
Twitter is in decline and the #WeAreTwitter movement it seems is losing steam. Romi Mahajan says if only all the twitter users contributed $ 10 it will not fail. He writes, " So yeah I’m a bit frustrated at the Twitter stuff and at our collective inability to change our digital commons for the better." Twitter is not exactly a digital commons now. But we the people have the chance to convert it to a true people's social media based on the principles of the Commons.
And also more stories from around the world.
If you don't mind, and 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 Danger Of War From A Declining Hegemon
by Dr Chandra Muzaffar
http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/31/the-danger-of-war-from-a-declining-hegemon/
Is a war in the making — a third world war? There are at least two flash points, one more dangerous than the other. In Eastern Ukraine, Russian backed rebels will not surrender to the US supported regime in Kiev because they see US control over Ukraine as part of a much larger agenda to expand NATO power to the very borders of Russia. This has been happening for some years now.
What Are We to Think?
by Richard Falk
http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/31/what-are-we-to-think/
The United States does pose a special threat of its own world wide, and is not only menacing its own future. It controls the dominant arsenal of nuclear weapons, it maintains a network of bases spread around the world, militarizes oceans and space, sends its predator drones and special ops kill squads to find prey wherever on the planet it perceives threats. This militarized and unaccountable global security system is reinforced by preeminent diplomatic and economic leverage, and emboldened by a self-serving ideology of ‘American exceptionalism,’ What happens in the United States is of great, often decisive, importance to the wellbeing of the many countries, especially in the global South, that lack both voice or exit capabilities (Hirschman), and thus find themselves captive of history’s first, and possibly, last ‘global state.’
Climate (In)justice: Significance of COP 22
by Zeenat Masoodi
http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/31/climate-injustice-significance-of-cop-22/
The Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is one of the first international instruments to include the term ‘climate justice’. While the notion of justice has been explored in several contexts – purely legal, economic, and social –, the visible effects of climate change, most notably in the form of extreme weather events, have led to linking of climate change with human rights.
Controversy Over WikiLeaks Podesta Emails Opens A Debate For Future Journalism
by Nozomi Hayase
http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/31/controversy-over-wikileaks-podesta-emails-opens-a-debate-for-future-journalism/
Despite massive attacks and threats coming from the Washington halls of power and its European allies, the organization remains relevant than ever. From creating sparks for uprisings in the Arab World to disrupting the scripted corporate sponsored charade of the current U.S. presidential election, WikiLeaks stays strong.
US Allies Saudi Arabia And Qatar Fund And Equip ISIS, It’s Not An Election Issue
by Jay Janson
http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/31/us-allies-saudi-arabia-and-qatar-fund-and-equip-isis-its-not-an-election-issue/
Wikileaks’ released emails prove Hillary knew US close allies Saudi Arabia and Qatar were funding/equipping ISIS while Americans were also being murdered by ISIS, show her pretending Saudis and others were not from the beginning part of US conspiracy to create a fanatical Islamic state in order to destroy Syria and the Shiite government in Iraq. Why this is NOT AN ELECTION ISSUE
Bernie Sanders And Water Under The Bridge
by James Rothenberg
http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/31/bernie-sanders-and-water-under-the-bridge/
What presently interests me is a thought experiment: What would have happened if Sanders had said yes to Jill Stein’s offer of heading the Green Party ticket? She did offer this, and since this is only a thought experiment, let’s further suppose that Ms. Stein would have been willing to step away from the second spot in favor of Elizabeth Warren.
Human Potential: The Case of Peter Kropotkin
by Milan Djurasovic
http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/31/human-potential-the-case-of-peter-kropotkin/
Kropotkin wished to build a society whose institutions would stimulate the best instincts of human nature. His examinations of nature lead him to the conclusion that a society constructed in an anarchist communist manner is the best imitation of the most robust animal species. But this was not to be a contrived society that had to be held together through artificial means. Kropotkin was convinced that the human nature longed for it, and that it was best suited for this particular social order.
Me And Twitter: A Hate And Love Story
by Romi Mahajan
http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/31/me-and-twitter-a-hate-and-love-story/
While tech companies have their own pathologies and greed, so it seems do users. And the irony is that in being so myopic, we’ve helped create an insanely hard to navigate web that often hurts more than it helps. So yeah I’m a bit frustrated at the Twitter stuff and at our collective inability to change our digital commons for the better.
Is Gandhi Still Relevant?
by Colin Todhunter
http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/31/is-gandhi-still-relevant/
Mention Gandhi in certain circles and the response might be one of cynicism: his ideas are outdated and irrelevant in today’s world. Such a response could not be further from the truth. Gandhi could see the future impact of large-scale industrialization in terms of the devastation of the environment, the destruction of ecology and the unsustainable plunder of natural resources.
Human Rights Group Alarmed At Extra-Judicial Killings Of MQM Workers’ By Para-Military Force In Pakistan
by Abdus Sattar Ghazali
http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/31/human-rights-group-alarmed-at-extra-judicial-killings-of-mqm-workers-by-para-military-force-in-pakistan/
Human right groups are alarmed at the spate of deaths of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) workers in the custody of para-military force in Karachi. The MQM has called these brutal deaths as extra-judicial killings.
What Does Kerala’s 60th Birthday Mean To Women?
by Kandathil Sebastian
http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/31/what-does-keralas-60th-birthday-mean-to-women/
For the women of Kerala, the 60th birthday of the state opens more avenues for change, growth and freedom. They will show the way for independence and change to ordinary women from other Indian states andfor women from other developing countries too.
Nationalism Through Boycott Of Chinese Products: A Matter Of Convenience
by T Navin
http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/31/nationalism-through-boycott-of-chinese-products-a-matter-of-convenience/
The usage of the word nationalism in the name of boycotting Chinese products is a matter of convenience. Why not boycott all the junk products produced abroad in any country which keep getting advertised on TV through teleshopping. The call for boycotting Chinese products is just another means of creating jingoism through pointing an external enemy and building xenophobia around the same.
Poor Women Furrowing Male Bastions
by Moin Qazi
http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/31/poor-women-furrowing-male-bastions/
Over the years several strategies have been used to empower women .One of them relies on community groups whose members can be trained and equipped to use their collective strength and wisdom to tackle their problems.
O.B.Cs And Social Discrimination In India
by Tata Sivaih
http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/31/o-b-cs-and-social-discrimination-in-india/
The present culture is controlled by beneficiaries of the system. But the changed culture of absolute equality must ever remain in the hands of the victims of the present system. It is a must to avoid sabotage and subversion.
Dalits-Adivasis And The Land Rights
by SR Darapuri
http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/31/dalits-adivasis-and-the-land-rights/
Real empowerment of Dalits and Adivasis is possible only through strict implemntation of land refoms and giving land to them. Adivasis should be given land titles by proper implementaion of Forest Rights Act. It requires a strong political will which is totally lacking at present. It is certain that no government is going to do it willingly unless Dalits and Adivasis launch a strong agitation for land allotment
RSN: No, Trump, the FBI Letter About Clinton's Emails Is Not 'Bigger Than Watergate', The Protests at Standing Rock Are Necessary. What Happened at Malheur Was Nonsense.
Sure, I'll make a donation!
Steve Weissman | Will Clinton Be the Anti-Obama on Syria?
Steve Weissman, Reader Supported News
Weissman writes: "Don't be surprised to see Obama, Clinton, or even a President Trump once again embrace the Israeli option, possibly - as the Washington Post put it, 'to push the conflict toward a stalemate and force various factions to negotiate Syria's future after Assad.'"
READ MORE
Steve Weissman, Reader Supported News
Weissman writes: "Don't be surprised to see Obama, Clinton, or even a President Trump once again embrace the Israeli option, possibly - as the Washington Post put it, 'to push the conflict toward a stalemate and force various factions to negotiate Syria's future after Assad.'"
READ MORE
No, Trump, the FBI Letter About Clinton's Emails Is Not 'Bigger Than Watergate'
Bryce Covert, ThinkProgress
Covert writes: "Comey's letter said nothing about reopening the case, as it had never been officially closed. Instead, emails are being reviewed to determine whether they are relevant to the investigation."
READ MORE
Bryce Covert, ThinkProgress
Covert writes: "Comey's letter said nothing about reopening the case, as it had never been officially closed. Instead, emails are being reviewed to determine whether they are relevant to the investigation."
READ MORE
The Protests at Standing Rock Are Necessary. What Happened at Malheur Was Nonsense.
Aaron Bady, The Los Angeles Times
Bady writes: "The rancher-militia occupation last January at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon, and the ongoing Native American occupation of the site of a proposed oil pipeline near Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in the Dakotas make for interesting comparisons."
READ MORE
Aaron Bady, The Los Angeles Times
Bady writes: "The rancher-militia occupation last January at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon, and the ongoing Native American occupation of the site of a proposed oil pipeline near Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in the Dakotas make for interesting comparisons."
READ MORE
Why Did AT&T and Time Warner Unveil Merger Mid-Election? Panic, Perhaps
Suzanne McGee, Guardian UK
McGee writes: "The dealmakers behind the proposed mega-merger of AT&T and Time Warner have accomplished the impossible: uniting Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders in their condemnation of the deal."
READ MORE
Suzanne McGee, Guardian UK
McGee writes: "The dealmakers behind the proposed mega-merger of AT&T and Time Warner have accomplished the impossible: uniting Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders in their condemnation of the deal."
READ MORE
The Life and Death of Brandi Bledsoe, the 23rd Trans Woman Killed in 2016
teleSUR
Excerpt: "On October 8, a five-year-old riding his bicycle found Brandi's body in the driveway of an East Cleveland home, clad only in her underwear, her hands and feet wrapped curiously in white, plastic bags. She'd been shot in the chest."
READ MORE
teleSUR
Excerpt: "On October 8, a five-year-old riding his bicycle found Brandi's body in the driveway of an East Cleveland home, clad only in her underwear, her hands and feet wrapped curiously in white, plastic bags. She'd been shot in the chest."
READ MORE
2 Women Unite to Take 'Honor' Out of Killing in Pakistan
Kathy Gannon, Associated Press
Gannon writes: "The law in Pakistan decrees that relatives of a murder victim can forgive the killer; they can even take money in exchange for the killer's freedom. Human rights groups argued that in the case of 'honor' killing, this granted immunity to killers, because both victim and perpetrator are usually family members."
READ MORE
Kathy Gannon, Associated Press
Gannon writes: "The law in Pakistan decrees that relatives of a murder victim can forgive the killer; they can even take money in exchange for the killer's freedom. Human rights groups argued that in the case of 'honor' killing, this granted immunity to killers, because both victim and perpetrator are usually family members."
READ MORE
Ireland Takes Major Step Towards Nationwide Fracking Ban
Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch
Chow writes: "A bill banning hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in the Republic of Ireland was voted through the Dáil Éireann (the country's House of Representatives, so to speak) on Thursday."
READ MORE
Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch
Chow writes: "A bill banning hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in the Republic of Ireland was voted through the Dáil Éireann (the country's House of Representatives, so to speak) on Thursday."
READ MORE
Contribute to RSN
The man who studies the spread of ignorance, Lock Him Up” Trump Faces Possible Jail for Insurance Fraud, et al
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160105-the-man-who-studies-the-spread-of-ignorance?ocid=ww.social.link.facebook
How do people or companies with vested interests spread ignorance and obfuscate knowledge? Georgina Kenyon finds there is a term which defines this phenomenon.
In 1979, a secret memo from the tobacco industry was revealed to the public. Called the Smoking and Health Proposal, and written a decade earlier by the Brown & Williamson tobacco company, it revealed many of the tactics employed by big tobacco to counter “anti-cigarette forces”.
In one of the paper’s most revealing sections, it looks at how to market cigarettes to the mass public: “Doubt is our product since it is the best means of competing with the ‘body of fact’ that exists in the mind of the general public. It is also the means of establishing a controversy.”
This revelation piqued the interest of Robert Proctor, a science historian from Stanford University, who started delving into the practices of tobacco firms and how they had spread confusion about whether smoking caused cancer.
Proctor had found that the cigarette industry did not want consumers to know the harms of its product, and it spent billions obscuring the facts of the health effects of smoking. This search led him to create a word for the study of deliberate propagation of ignorance: agnotology.
t comes from agnosis, the neoclassical Greek word for ignorance or ‘not knowing’, and ontology, the branch of metaphysics which deals with the nature of being. Agnotology is the study of wilful acts to spread confusion and deceit, usually to sell a product or win favour.
“I was exploring how powerful industries could promote ignorance to sell their wares. Ignorance is power… and agnotology is about the deliberate creation of ignorance.
“In looking into agnotology, I discovered the secret world of classified science, and thought historians should be giving this more attention.”
The 1969 memo and the tactics used by the tobacco industry became the perfect example of agnotology, Proctor says. “Ignorance is not just the not-yet-known, it’s also a political ploy, a deliberate creation by powerful agents who want you ‘not to know’.”
To help him in his search, Proctor enlisted the help of UC Berkeley linguist Iain Boal, and together they came up with the term – the neologism was coined in 1995, although much of Proctor’s analysis of the phenomenon had occurred in the previous decades.
Balancing act
Agnotology is as important today as it was back when Proctor studied the tobacco industry’s obfuscation of facts about cancer and smoking. For example, politically motivated doubt was sown over US President Barack Obama’s nationality for many months by opponents until he revealed his birth certificate in 2011. In another case, some political commentators in Australia attempted to stoke panic by likening the country’s credit rating to that of Greece, despite readily available public information from ratings agencies showing the two economies are very different.
Proctor explains that ignorance can often be propagated under the guise of balanced debate. For example, the common idea that there will always be two opposing views does not always result in a rational conclusion. This was behind how tobacco firms used science to make their products look harmless, and is used today by climate change deniers to argue against the scientific evidence.
“This ‘balance routine’ has allowed the cigarette men, or climate deniers today, to claim that there are two sides to every story, that ‘experts disagree’ – creating a false picture of the truth, hence ignorance.”
For example, says Proctor, many of the studies linking carcinogens in tobacco were conducted in mice initially, and the tobacco industry responded by saying that studies into mice did not mean that people were at risk, despite adverse health outcomes in many smokers.
A new era of ignorance
“We live in a world of radical ignorance, and the marvel is that any kind of truth cuts through the noise,” says Proctor. Even though knowledge is ‘accessible’, it does not mean it is accessed, he warns.
“Although for most things this is trivial – like, for example, the boiling point of mercury – but for bigger questions of political and philosophical import, the knowledge people have often comes from faith or tradition, or propaganda, more than anywhere else.”
Proctor found that ignorance spreads when firstly, many people do not understand a concept or fact and secondly, when special interest groups – like a commercial firm or a political group – then work hard to create confusion about an issue. In the case of ignorance about tobacco and climate change, a scientifically illiterate society will probably be more susceptible to the tactics used by those wishing to confuse and cloud the truth.
Consider climate change as an example. “The fight is not just over the existence of climate change, it’s over whether God has created the Earth for us to exploit, whether government has the right to regulate industry, whether environmentalists should be empowered, and so on. It’s not just about the facts, it’s about what is imagined to flow from and into such facts,” says Proctor.
Making up our own minds
Another academic studying ignorance is David Dunning, from Cornell University. Dunning warns that the internet is helping propagate ignorance – it is a place where everyone has a chance to be their own expert, he says, which makes them prey for powerful interests wishing to deliberately spread ignorance.
"While some smart people will profit from all the information now just a click away, many will be misled into a false sense of expertise. My worry is not that we are losing the ability to make up our own minds, but that it’s becoming too easy to do so. We should consult with others much more than we imagine. Other people may be imperfect as well, but often their opinions go a long way toward correcting our own imperfections, as our own imperfect expertise helps to correct their errors,” warns Dunning.
Dunning and Proctor also warn that the willful spread of ignorance is rampant throughout the US presidential primaries on both sides of the political spectrum.
“Donald Trump is the obvious current example in the US, suggesting easy solutions to followers that are either unworkable or unconstitutional,” says Dunning.
So while agnotology may have had its origins in the heyday of the tobacco industry, today the need for both a word and the study of human ignorance is as strong as ever.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Los Angeles Times confirms FBI Director is lying: latest emails “were not to or from” Hillary Clinton
http://www.dailynewsbin.com/news/fbi-directors-fraud-exposed-as-latest-emails-were-not-to-or-from-hillary-clinton/26440/
Does anyone remember Dick Cheney saying that Iraqi oil would pay for the cost of the U.S. invasion of Iraq?
Anyone?
"Less than three weeks after Mar-a-Lago allegedly sustained $17 million in damages, the entire Trump family converged on the club to attend Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding there. Photos from the event show the estate in good repair. Tim Frank, Palm Beach’s planning administrator in 2005, told the AP that his office would have noticed $17 million in construction on the landmark property. “If there were $17 million dollars of damage, we sure as hell would have known about that,”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
