CounterCurrents: Can The Climate Survive Electoral Democracy? May Be. Can It Survive Capitalism? No, Instead Of ‘Draining The Swamp’, Trump Is Feeding The Alligators

Dear Friend,

Donald Trump plans to dismantle America’s already weak climate policy, potentially dooming not only this country but the entire world to runaway greenhouse warming. The day after Election Day 2016, star climate scientist Michael Mann was already saying he feared that it was “game over” for the Earth’s climate.

Kathy Kelly tells the story of a friendship that defies war.

Also many stories from around the world on a variety of topics. 


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In Solidarity

Binu Mathew
Editor
www.countercurrents.org




Can The Climate Survive Electoral Democracy? May Be. Can It Survive Capitalism? No.
by Stan Cox 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/22/can-the-climate-survive-electoral-democracy-may-be-can-it-survive-capitalism-no/

Donald Trump plans to dismantle America’s already weak climate policy, potentially dooming not only this country but the entire world to runaway greenhouse warming. The day after Election Day 2016, star climate scientist Michael Mann was already saying he feared that it was “game over” for the Earth’s climate.





Friendship in Defiance of War
by Kathy Kelly 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/22/friendship-in-defiance-of-war/

When I last visited with Gabe and Theresa, they shook their heads in silent sorrow, contemplating the ruinous debacle of endless war. Nevertheless, they and their friend Mazen have discovered ways, in Istanbul, to assist young refugees seeking continued education.  When walls arise that would seem to seal the tragedy of war in concrete boundaries, Gabe and Therese find ways to cross the borders. Never Can I Write of Damascus invites us to do the same.







Two States or One State?
  by John Chuckman 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/22/two-states-or-one-state/

THE STARK REALITY IS THAT BOTH SOLUTIONS ARE IMPOSSIBLE UNLESS IMPOSED FROM OUTSIDE, AND JUST WHERE DO WE SEE ANY PROSPECT FOR THAT?






Trump Has Reminded Palestinians That It Was Always About One State
by Jonathan Cook 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/22/trump-has-reminded-palestinians-that-it-was-always-about-one-state/

For more than 15 years, the Middle East “peace process” initiated by the Oslo accords has been on life support. Last week, United States president Donald Trump pulled the plug, whether he understood it or not.







PUDR Condemns The Hooliganism of ABVP And Police Inaction at Ramjas College of Delhi University
by Peoples Union for Democratic Rights 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/22/pudr-condemns-the-hooliganism-of-abvp-and-police-inaction-at-ramjas-college-of-delhi-university/

In the most appalling display of hooliganism in the name of nationalism, the members of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) took to violence in the premises of Delhi University over the last two days. The complete impunity that they enjoyed was evident in the fact that despite heavy police presence in campus on both days, the goons were allowed to go on a rampage physically assaulting teachers, students and media reporters, and till now no FIR has been registered against them.







From Rights To Repentance: Norma McCorvey and Roe v Wade
by Dr Binoy Kampmark 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/22/from-rights-to-repentance-norma-mccorvey-and-roe-v-wade/

The late Norma McCorvey changed US legal and political history as the plaintiff “Jane Roe” in the 1973 US Supreme Court decision Roe v Wade. The case has become the shorthand for bodily autonomy, dignity, shield of an expansive idea on privacy.  The due process clause, so the judgment went, contained “a concept of personal liberty” while “the penumbras of the Bill of Rights” retained in its awe-inspiring mystery “a right of personal privacy, or a guarantee of certain areas or zones of privacy.”







Instead Of ‘Draining The Swamp’, Trump Is Feeding The Alligators
by Eric Zuesse 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/22/instead-of-draining-the-swamp-trump-is-feeding-the-alligators/


Donald Trump’s campaign statements that “NATO is obsolete” and that Russia and the U.S. “are not bound to be adversaries” were merely part of the candidate’s pitch to ‘anti-war’ voters, in a field of Presidential contenders who were ignoring them; but now that Trump is President, he is fully in line with the desires of America’s military-industrial complex, the owners of Lockheed Martin and other companies whose profits are heavily dependent upon selling nuclear missiles and other strategic weapons (in addition to the traditional weapons that those companies also want NATO member-nations to buy).








An Ordinary Woman’s Struggle – Personal And Against The Mighty Indian State For The Family’s Honour
  by Dr P S Sahni 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/22/an-ordinary-womans-struggle-personal-and-against-the-mighty-indian-state-for-the-familys-honour/

Just minutes before her death Manjit had finished her day’s prayers. Mother nature assured that her exit from the world was instantaneous without the travails of going through a long drawn trail of chronic care and management in hospital and at home – a wish which most people aspire for but few are lucky enough to get it fulfilled. Days before her death she was looking forward to her 80th birthday on the eve of Christmas towards the year end hoping that justice would eventually not elude the family anymore. Her Colonel son’s honour and dignity had to be restored.






Miya hum bhi Hindustani Musalman hain
by Ajmal Khan A T 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/22/miya-hum-bhi-hindustani-musalman-hain/

Miya main kaisa Musalman hain?
I am that Musalman who is being asked
again and again
again and again
if i am from Pakistan
when I say
My name is Ajmal






I Was Six When The Russians Came
by Maya Evans 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/22/i-was-six-when-the-russians-came/

When I was six life was good; I didn’t know anything outside my mother and father’s world. In the village where I lived it was possible to see the mud houses from far away. The Baba Mountains stretched forever into the distance. In spring everything was lush green, the water flowed from the mountains feeding the stream in front of our house, all the time you could hear water flowing. People worked hard on the land every day in the mountains herding sheep and goats or working in the shops at the Bazaar. Women made bread in tandoors. Life in the village of Topi was hard but people were happy.






An Economy of Meaning – or Bust
by John Boik 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/22/an-economy-of-meaning-or-bust/

Cities, big and small, are the legs upon which all national systems rest. Already cities and their communities are hubs for innovation. With some further encouragement and support, and the right tools and programs, they could become more resilient and robust, and bigger heroes in the coming great transition.






Occupational Health And Food Production: Does Climate Change Play A Role?
by Julie Potyraj 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/22/occupational-health-and-food-production-does-climate-change-play-a-role/

There is a wealth of evidence linking climate change to food security. Rising global temperatures have been shown to have a direct impact on agriculture—especially in developing countries with less capacity to adapt. While such factors have been clearly established, less visible components of food security have not been as thoroughly explored. That’s why MPH@GW, the online MPH program from The George Washington University, recently published “Hazard Zone: The Impact of Climate Change on Occupational Health.” Here, we’ll examine the interconnectedness between climate change, the health of rural agricultural workers and food production.






India: Crack down on civil rights? Facebook Crusade Against Police Atrocity Lands Boy In Jail
by Shamim Zakaria

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/22/india-crack-down-on-civil-rights-facebook-crusade-against-police-atrocity-lands-boy-in-jail/

At a time when streaming real time feeds through Facebook is setting new trends in mass communication; using the same for exposing police highhandedness resulted in incarceration for an Indian youth hailing from the northeastern state of Assam.






Gujarat Violence And Struggle For Justice
by T Navin  

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/22/gujarat-violence-and-struggle-for-justice/

While the damage has been done through Gujarat violence, the task however remains that for delivering justice to victims of Gujarat violence. The book titled ‘Foot Soldier of the Constitution – A Memoir’ by Teesta Setalvad represents her struggle for justice for the victims of Gujarat 2002 violence. Born in a family where subsequent generations undertook legal practice and worked in judicial institutions and growing up in a liberal environment, she imbibed the values as thrust upon by the Constitution. Though she chose a different path of journalism, technical acumen to legal aspects was natural to her.