Global
The 2008 crisis of capitalism sparked and regenerated interest in alternatives to the capitalist system, which was on the verge of collapsing. This included revived interest in socialism, with one of the results being the propelling of an obscure leftwing academic into history’s headlights. With appearances on TV shows including Bill Moyers’ and Charlie Rose’s programs, “Economic Update” (heard in L.A. on KPFK) radio broadcasts and packed live speaking engagements, the financial disaster made Prof. Richard Wolff ready for his close up. “I’ve got to pinch myself; I’m having the time of my life,” a surprised Wolff said about suddenly being thrust into prime time.
A new live stage production inspired by the 1910 bombing of the Los Angeles Times and its building in Downtown L.A. has been mounted at the Beyond Baroque literary arts center in Venice. But instead of a conventional dramatization of the historic events and figures, with actors reciting dialogue from a script penned by a playwright, California Poets for Resistance (CPR) used a “docu-play” format and technique to bring the explosion that killed 21 LAT employees and wounded 100 others alive.
Ron DeSantis, Florida’s new governor, should be really proud of himself. He recently recalled that when he ran for governor “…[he] promised to be the most pro-Israel governor in America and that the first delegation [he] would lead would be to the state of Israel.” When he confirmed that he would be taking his entire cabinet with him as part of a 75-person delegation scheduled to leave for Israel on May 25th, he boasted that “Today I’m pleased to report that I’m keeping that promise. Our delegation will bring business, academic and political leaders to help strengthen the bond between Florida and Israel.” DeSantis has promised to hold a meeting of his Cabinet in the American Embassy in Jerusalem during his visit, the first time that such a meeting has ever been held by a state government on foreign soil. During the meeting he will ostentatiously sign a legislative bill “combating anti-Semitism.”
Observers of developments in the Middle East have long taken it as a given that the United States and Israel are seeking for an excuse to attack Iran. The recently terminated conference in Warsaw had that objective, which was clearly expressed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but it failed to rally European and Middle Eastern states to support the cause. On the contrary, there was strong sentiment coming from Europe in particular that normalizing relations with Iran within the context of the 2015 multi party nuclear agreement is the preferred way to go both to avoid a major war and to prevent nuclear weapons proliferation.
BREAKING OVERNIGHT
OIL TANKERS ATTACKED
SAUDI ARABIA CLAIMS SHIP HEADING TO US SABOTAGED
– ABC News on-screen headline, May 13, 2019
BREAKING OVERNIGHT
SAUDI OIL TANKERS ATTACKED
ENERGY MINISTER SAYS SHIPS WERE TARGETED IN “SABOTAGE ATTACK”
–CBS News on-screen headline, May 13, 2019
hese network stories are examples of fake news at its most dangerous, when it plays into the dishonest manipulations of an administration beating the drums for a war against Iran that has no reasonable basis. Not only do the networks and mainstream media generally fail to question the administration’s rush to war, they also fail to do basic journalism by independently confirming whether a particular story is true or not.
A new book called Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons by Kris Newby adds significantly to our understanding of Lyme disease, while oddly seeming to avoid mention of what we already knew.
One of the groups displaying is the Ohio LEGO Users Group (OhioLUG). They are Adult Fans of LEGO, referred to as "AFOLs", who build, play, and display creations built with LEGO bricks. There are currently over 300 LEGO Users Group for Adult Fans of LEGO around the world. In 2010, The LEGO Company estimated that there were around 40,000 AFOLs in the world. That number has dramatically increased with estimates from 200,000 to over 1,000,000. Famous AFOLs include David Beckham, Ed Sheeran, and Britney Spears who have all publicly talked about their affection for LEGO.
As the nuke power industry slumps toward oblivion, two huge reactors are shutting in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.
The shutdowns are a body blow to atomic energy. The soaring costs of the decayed US reactor fleet have forced them to beg gerrymandered state legislatures for huge bailouts.
Just two US reactors are still being built. Stuffed with $12 billion in interest-free federal loans, Georgia’s Vogtle is nearing a staggering $30 billion in cost. Years behind schedule, the lowest possible costs of whatever electricity the two reactors there might produce already far exceed wind and solar.
Virtually none of the 98 US reactors now operating can compete with wind, solar, or methane. All but one are more than twenty years old, with serious issues of obsolescence and decay; some are more than forty, operating far behind their original design life.
Four decrepit, money-losing, upstate New York State reactors still run because Governor Andrew Cuomo is handing them $7.6 billion in bailouts. This year’s price tag jumped more than $50 million, despite Cuomo’s promise it would drop. Safe energy/consumer groups are fighting him in court.
If Iran had spent the last few decades lying about and threatening the United States, and had attacked and built military bases in Canada and Mexico, and had imposed sanctions on the United States that were creating great suffering, and then a lying scheming war-crazed Iranian official announced that he believed the United States had put some missiles on some fishing boats in the Chesapeake Bay, would you believe that . . .
a) The United States was a dangerous rogue state threatening Iran with imminent destruction?
b) Whether or not to bomb U.S. cities really depended on exactly what kind of missiles were on those fishing boats?
c) The sanctions were clearly not severe enough?
or
d) All of the above?
Explaining, with easy-to-understand charts, why Autism Spectrum Disorders could soon reach an incidence of 50% among fully-vaccinated children in America (and some of the other half of the over-vaccinated children are at risk of developing the already escalating vaccine-induced disorders such as Autoimmune Disorders, Asthma, Allergies, the ASIA Syndrome, Macrophagic Myofasciitis and Type I Diabetes Mellitus.
The time-honored (by the vaccine industry, that is) metallic vaccine ingredients, aluminum and mercury (thimerosal), are both recognized as highly toxic substances when they are allowed to come in contact with human tissue. Among other toxicities, they are known to be poisonous to mitochondria and genetic material.