Global

At a time when the president wants to reopen the economy — but not the borders! — it’s time to grab ahold of the moment and start groping in our minds beyond what’s politically possible and start envisioning serious social change.

Life is fervid chaos right now for those who are on the front lines of the pandemic, from hospital workers to grocery store clerks, not to mention those who are sick and dying — and those who are helpless and vulnerable, such as immigrants and prisoners — but for most people life has slowed down to a matter of staring out the window . . . or into the future.

Many of the life-shattering issues people are facing right now are manmade, and often result from an allegiance to the worst of who we are. How can this change? This is certainly the time to begin asking this question — and I mean globally, not just nationally.

Whatever our political differences, vast numbers of Democrats and others agree that it’s imperative to defeat Donald Trump. But with scarcely five months to go before the voting starts, Joe Biden is not helping to assemble a broad tactical alliance. Instead, he’s ignoring the wisdom that Jesse Jackson offered at the Democratic National Convention in 1988: “It takes two wings to fly.”

Right now, Biden is idling in the cockpit of a political aircraft with one wing.

As chair of the Democratic National Committee at a time when the party’s presumptive nominee for president seems likely to crash and burn, you should be openly working to fix the problem rather than merely proclaiming that Biden is a great candidate.

BANGKOK, Thailand -- More Americans have died from COVID-19 than were
killed during 16 years of the Vietnam War, a grim milestone coinciding
with Hanoi officially reporting zero deaths from the coronavirus.

"Fighting the epidemic is like fighting against the enemy," the
Communist Party of Vietnam declared.

As of April 29, at least 58,365 Americans have died from the virus,
according to Johns Hopkins University, CNN reported.

At least 58,220 Americans were killed in the region-wide Vietnam War,
starting with two American advisors in 1959 and ending in 1975 when
U.S. forces retreated in defeat.

For both nations' COVID-19 tolls to be proportionately equal,
America's 58,365 deaths among its 329 million population would be
matched if 17,166 died among Vietnam's 97 million citizens.

Vietnam recorded zero coronavirus deaths as of April 28, the
government's National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and
Control said. Another 270 cases proved positive.

Vietnam's real toll could be higher, but may still be among the
healthiest rates in the world.

1] Here are links to a number of important developments about “COVID” that are intentionally never mentioned on the mainstream media, all members of which are turning out to be propaganda mouthpieces for whomever or whatever entities have gotten together an decided what narrative is to be the accepted one. https://blogs.mercola.com/sites/vitalvotes/default.aspx?cid_source=dnl&cid_medium=email&cid_content=art3ReadMore&cid=20200426Z1&et_cid=DM521257&et_rid=859224961

World BEYOND War, April 26, 2020

David Swanson was to speak at a conference in Florence, Italy, on April 25, 2020. The conference became a video instead. Below is the video and text of Swanson’s portion. As soon as we receive the video or text of the whole, in Italian or English, we will post it at worldbeyondwar.org. The video aired on April 25 on PandoraTV and on ByoBlu. Details on the full conference are here.

Sadly, Giulietto Chiesa, director of Pandora TV, died a few hours after attending this conference on live-streaming. Giulietto’s last public participation was his presenting the portion of the conference that concerned Julian Assange and his father John Shipton’s interview.

Swanson’s remarks follow.

SHAME on these filmmakers for making a film like this, full of misinformation and disinformation, to intentionally depress audiences, and make them think there are no alternatives.

I am an award-winning documentary filmmaker making films on environmental issues and renewable energy for over 40 years, and from making these films became a leading activist in Nova Scotia on environmental issues, and also a renewable energy developer and advocate.  

Let me make it absolutely clear that the new documentary, Planet of the Humans, by Jeff Gibbs — with executive producer Michael Moore, is inaccurate, misleading and designed to depress you into doing nothing.

Wind power and solar energy produce huge amounts of clean energy.  Look up the environmental footprint of a modern wind turbine, or modern solar panel, and you will find that the embodied energy and emissions are offset within a year.

Maybe you are out of work. Maybe you are like me, and have worked online for some time. Regardless of your situation, chances you are at least somewhat more homebound than you used to be. This month’s foray into nerdery dips into the realm of history. There are plenty of literary genres that could classify as “geeky,” and I very well may delve into a list of suggested scifi novels for our future months of quarantine. But for now, let’s stick with history. 

I seriously love history. I started college as a history major, but I dropped it for sociology so that I could find a better job after college (HA HA HA HA … but, follow your bliss). I have read many history books, and I do teach a history class professionally, so I guess my recommendations in this regard might count for something. Each of the following books was chosen because I feel they have something to share for people in our quite strange moment in history.  

(Of course, you shouldn’t be going to book stores right now. Each of these books is available online as an eBook.)

“A Peoples History of the United States” by Howard Zinn