Month: April 2019

By COURTENAY BARNETT

The arrest of Julian Assange is of special interest to me for three distinct reasons:-

1. Along with my legal colleague, Lloyd Rodney ( activist like his famous cousin, Dr. Walter Rodney),  I was arrested under British jurisdiction for publicly petitioning against incompetence and corruption within the judicial system. ( See: Footnote i)  ).
2. When my daughter was approaching her senior year in high school, the school had a practice of inviting parents to address the seniors to explain what the parent’s  job, profession, vocation or career entailed and to give a talk on any subject of choice. My choice was the history of the First Amendment under the US Constitution and its origins dating back to the Glorious Revolution and the Bill of Rights 1688.
3. As defence Attorney and a human rights activist I am acutely aware of the importance of legal protection for the right to speak via the media, both print and electronic, to bring public attention to matters of administrative, governmental and other official wrongdoings.

So, I have followed Mr. Assange’s WikiLeaks endeavours and his challenges, pending trial and tribulations for years.

Before I turn to the meat of the matter in this article, namely, what I term the Phase 111 stage of Assange’s ordeal – his arrest in London, I would have found it ironic, if not amusing, to note the somersaults of President Trump in his reactions to the WikiLeaks publications. But he is, the one and only, President Donald Trump ( if I have not come to understand him so well – I would otherwise be taking his every utterance – totally seriously). First, when candidate Trump, he simply adored WikiLeaks. It is noteworthy that the Department of Justice under the Obama administration thought it unwise to prosecute Assange, for reason of likely First Amendment infringements ( more anon on that legal aspect). Next, under the Trump administration there is an indictment and in London, the arrest of Julian Assange, on Thursday, the 11th  day of April, 2019:  Trump: “I know nothing about WikiLeaks”. Now, for clarity’s sake, it helps to outline the phases that Assange might, or probably most likely shall pass through in the main:-

Phase 1 – Accusations of rape against him by two Swedish women ( maybe to be revived).

Phase 11 – His departure from Sweden to London and his long political asylum from 2012 in the Ecuadorian Embassy ended as of the 11th day of April, 2019

Phase 111 – His arrest and arraignment within the British justice system.

Phase 1V – Extradition proceedings to a final decision under British justice.

Phase V   – An anticipated pre-determined extradition to the United States of America; and

Phase VI  – A further anticipated overloading of the existing US indictment and a long prison sentence.

N.B. see: conclusion for specific explanation of this Phase V1 legal aspect.

It is Phase 111 that our attention is here directed to.

Phase 111

The arrest and the arraignment can be viewed under two discrete headings:-

Arrest: Already considered in relation to the breach of the UK Bail Act ( see:

https://blog.effectivelearning.net/julian-assange-revisited/ ).

Arraignment: This is where in relation to the US indictment the charge is put to Mr. Assange in the dock, for his to plea “Guilty” or “Not Guilty”. Then, the proceedings shall grind on, there having been a “Not Guilty” plea.

The indictment and the Judge, Michael Snow, hearing the plea, are worthy of special comment.

District Judge Michael Snow: Assange had said nothing during his brief hearing of 15 minute and then the “Not guilty” plea and then the impartial Judge says – “His assertion that he has not had a fair hearing is laughable. And his behaviour is that of a narcissist who cannot get beyond his own selfish interests.”

N.B. Need I say more as regards impartiality?

The indictment: It can be read in its entirety here (https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/press-release/file/1153481/download).

The US Government has laid one count in the indictment amounting to a charge for computer hacking to obtain classified information.

The indictment states that Chelsea Manning ( assumed then Bradley Manning) worked along with Assange ( ‘conspired’ to convey the true criminal allegation of the US Government against Assange) to hack into US government computers.

So, contrary to US law, Assange is facing one count of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion.

The co-conspirator, Manning, was sentenced in the US and imprisoned, but had his/her prison sentence commuted by President Obama. Presently, Manning is back in prison, for reason of refusing to testify about and/or against WikiLeaks and Julian Assange.

Do I believe that if extradited the US Government will add more charges? Answer provided in the Conclusion below.

Discussion

Above is stated the facts anticipated to unfold within the existing legal framework and/or frameworks of justice systems, at Phase 111,  if Assange is to be extradited to face US justice.

Now, my concerns which I wish to share.

Compromise and/or intimidation of freedom of expression/speech and of the press: This specifies my greatest fear and concern, not just for WikiLeaks and Julian Assange, but for newspapers, writers, journalists, editors, activists, authors, online and hard copy publishers all the way across the board and right down to street corner activists across the world. The Assange case has the quite serious and real potential of sending a resoundingly bad message across the world – depending on what the UK Court’s decision ultimately is. “Bad message” admittedly from my perspective and mind-set; “good message” if state wrongdoing is deemed more important to be protected, such as war crimes ( see: this video    

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rXPrfnU3G0 ) over truth telling to citizens. 

Paragraph 9 of the indictment is stating that it was Manning who hacked into the computer. The charge to be proved is related to these considerations:-

1. What evidence is there of direct assistance by Assange ( i.e. beyond mere encouragement and/or stated intent – the actus rea of Assange)?
2. Is it that a ‘long-reach’ US statute, where Assange did nothing directly in the US ( i.e. within and directly under its jurisdiction) – but, as alleged, by an extension from Manning  – is that how a cohate crime is to be established?
3. So Manning through Assange, accessed the Linux operating system, which cracked the password and Manning accessed and Assange published. Is that the publication/journalistic crime?

Question: How were the ‘Pentagon Papers’ obtained ( legally or illegally) to be published as a public service to expose the governmental wrongdoings under the Nixon administration?

Question: Is what is termed ‘national-defense’ in the US more or less important than ensuring that the Government itself is not in breach of the law? For, if there was no breach of the law governing us all under the ‘Rule of Law’, then there would be no embarrassment and/or need to be overly concerned – correct? To be fair, maybe spies names are discovered by such exposure, but that is not the actual gravamen of the Assange case as alleged – is it? It is fundamentally that US war-crimes and torture of Guantanamo Bay detainees, were fully exposed for the world to see. That seems to be Assange’s greatest ‘crime’ for which he, with the full force of the US government against him – shall pay for – correct?

Paragraph 16 of the indictment reads:-

PURPOSE AND OBJECT OF THE CONSPIRACY

“16. The primary purpose of the conspiracy was to facilitate Manning’s acquisition and transmission of classified information related to the national defense of the United States so that WikiLeaks could publicly disseminate the information on its website.”

Cf. For the sake of historical record, do recall, “The Pentagon Papers, officially titled United States-Vietnam Relations, 1945-1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense, were first released on the front page of the New York Times in 1971. These papers were released by Daniel Ellsberg, an American activist and former U.S. military analyst.”

I am old enough to recall the foregoing events. I can safely say that the publication of the Pentagon Papers had a monumental impact on the views of the American people based upon the words of their Government, which  had lied to them. Further, having especial regard for the fact that, from President Truman all the way to Nixon, administration after administration had lied to the American people about the depth of the US involvement in the Vietnam War; so national shock waves rebounded.

The New York Times had started publication of the papers and then the Nixon administration obtained an injunction. The Court however ruled ultimately in the case of New York Times. Co. v. United States that the Times was free to publish.

By comparison – is Assange really doing much more than that  ( by reference to the US case of the Pentagon Papers – simply – exposing and stating the truth in a  similar way –  albeit – electronically and via  more effectively updated form)?

Legal question

At paragraph 25 of the indictment, it is confirmed that Assange said to Manning about the cracking of the code, “no luck so far”.

I don’t get it; did Assange assist Manning in a conclusive and choate manner to hack into the US Government’s computer ( based on how the indictment is framed)?

Or, is this a charge for an ‘inchoate crime’?

So, I ask the questions above because since the single charge relates to Assange trying to assist and ending up unsuccessful in his effort – is this analogous  to ‘attempted murder’ ( e.g. he, Assange,  ‘attempted computer intrusion’)?

Conclusion

The legal turf upon which the Assange case will be fought in England, is the area separating the solicitation of matters of journalistic interest – versus – commission of a crime by way of obtaining ‘official secrets’ ( as termed under British law)/ ‘national security’ classified information under US law.

In the US, if Assange is extradited, the legal contest shall be framed as First Amendment rights – versus -privacy.

In response to the obtaining of secret government information, the courts in England and the US have generally lent on the side of ‘public interest’ and the public’s right to know over strict privacy.

In this case the US Government is trying to delineate between maintaining and ostensibly upholding the journalistic right to investigate and know and make public – versus – not being seen to be curtailing and/or infringing upon that First Amendment right; hence the indictment’s embrace of ‘conspiracy’ to again prise and delineate to say that Assange overstepped the legal line by encouraging Manning. A thin line indeed – yet to be determined under the law of Britain, which if there is a finding for extradition will unavoidably impinge upon the traditional areas of press freedom, inclusive of, but not limited to, the areas of sourcing, identity protection and  secrecy of investigative communications.

So far as the evidence goes, there is an FBI’s Officer’s supporting affidavit:-  https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5911143-Julian-Assange-Affidavit-December-2017.html

From that evidence it appears that the US Government does not actually know whether or not Assange was successful in cracking the code , where the Officer states:-

“Investigators have not recovered a response by Manning to Assange’s question, and there is no other evidence as to what Assange did, if anything, with respect to the password,” FBI agent Megan Brown said.

So, without more concrete evidence, the case at present appears, in technical legal terms, to be one of reliance upon Assange’s offer to assist Manning as the constituent part of  the ‘conspiracy’  to get to illegality under the US Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. So the wheel turns back to the Manning trial in the US for reliance on the same evidence that initially  convicted Manning.

On the question of additional charges being laid by the US, this can be noted.  Additional charges may be added before Assange’s extradition is sought. Once extradition is effected, under treaty and by reference to the ‘rule of specialty’ then the U.S. cannot change the charge at a later date. So, if the US is to abide by the rules, then upon extradition, Assange could only be tried for the charge for which he is extradited.

The Labour shadow Foreign Secretary, M.P. Diane Abbott, had this to say on the matter, “Julian Assange is not being pursued to protect U.S. national security; he’s being pursued because he has exposed wrongdoing by U.S. administrations and their military forces.”

The Assange case is already of global importance, not least because, there already has been a favourable legal ruling by the:-

 ‘INTER­AMERICAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS REQUEST FOR AN ADVISORY OPINION SUBMITTED BY THE REPUBLIC OF ECUADOR’

Concerning “the institution of asylum in its different forms and to the legality of its recognition as a human right of every individual in accordance with the principle of equality and non­discrimination.”

Which, at the very least makes the legal opinion persuasive and informative to other international courts such as the European Court of Human Rights, of which the domestic court in England would have to be cognizant.

Put in reverse, if a US journalist  – or, even, US based journalist ( Khashoggi immediately comes  to mind) – were to report on the wrongdoings and illegalities within a foreign country, is it to be argued before a US court, upon an application from the foreign country that for so doing, the US journalist must be extradited to the offending foreign country? Stated at its simplest, this is the kind of ‘Alice in legal wonderland’ world that the Trump Administration’s extradition application for Assange is taking the US and the world into.

The British Court may choose to act as a vassal state subservient to the interests of US foreign policy. Whatever is the perceived choice of the British Judges ( based on the example of District Judge, Michael Snow, to date) there nevertheless remains  a real chance for credibility, rationality, integrity and most of all honesty, decency and independence to prevail and shine in a case such as this. There is, to my legal mind, but one core question to be answered:-

” Is it a crime to expose crimes already committed?”

That is the question.

The British Court shall in due time inform of precisely what is the extraditable offence and how so in point of existing law and under established journalistic practice.

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Footnote  i) :  It should be noted, by reference to the issues at hand, that the UK has dropped eleven places from 29/180 in 2013 to 40/180 in 2018 in ‘Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index’; it is now ranked  in between Trinidad and Tobago and Burkina Faso.

The racist roots of UK colonial legal provisions were directed against myself and Attorney Lloyd Rodney to arrest us for having lawfully published a public Petition about the justice system’s injustices; so we were both charged for ‘scandalising’ the court;  an archaic and obsolete legal provision of which it was said in 1899:-

” Committals for contempt of Court by scandalising the Court itself have become obsolete in this country. Courts are contented to leave to public opinion attacks or comments derogatory or scandalous to them.”

Case: McLeod v. St. Aubyn [1899] Appeal Cases page 549 at page 561. Per. Lord Morris.

Question: So, why was I arrested; and- why was Rodney imprisoned?

Answer: And here comes the express administrative racism in answer, that was directed against the contemptnor in 1899 as it was a century later used against Rodney and myself:

” But, it must be considered that in small colonies, consisting principally of coloured populations, the enforcement in proper cases of committal for contempt of Court for attacks on the Court may be absolutely necessary to preserve in such a community the dignity of and respect for the Court.” Per. Lord Morris.

Question: So Rodney is imprisoned for speaking truthfully; Assange finds himself speaking truthfully – and so – by parity of reasoning, in his ( Assange’s community of investigative journalists) – it becomes “absolutely necessary to preserve in such a community the dignity of and respect for the Court.” ( i.e. substitute there for the word “Court” the word “Country” – and place before the word “community” – “global community” – and the same sentiments and words thus expressed – echo through the ages  – and do they not become – colonialism and Empire on the march? :-

” … absolutely necessary to preserve in such a global community the dignity of and respect for the Country.”

Conclusion: If the UK Courts continue to act as a supplicant to US  foreign policy – the pride and vanity of both nations ( shamelessly  of the UK Court(s) if that were to be the result) shall presage really bad times for both countries and the world.

(The above referenced events in a UN affiliated report were published in an article entitled “Gadflys in the Turks and Caicos Islands – Lawyers Harassed,” by Laurie Wiseberg, published in theHuman Rights Tribune,Vol 5, Nos. 1-2, April 1998. Unfortunately theHuman Rights Tribunehas been discontinued for lack of funding, not leaving behind a web address; however, the author will furnish as documentation a PDF photocopy of the article (IMG_20190417_0001.pdf)via email upon request at his email address at [email protected]. )

Footnote ii) : In consequence of the events reported internationally about the imprisonment of Attorney Lloyd Rodney, I sued on his behalf in two distinct actions, one for the shackling to his hospital bed, at a time after Amnesty International had directed that the British Government release him unconditionally; then I sued for the unlawful arrest. The first case was won and to avoid the further embarrassment, Her Majesty’s Government did ensure that Rodney received in full over US$200,000 compensation.

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* COURTENAY BARNETT is a graduate of London University. His areas of study were economics, political science and international law. He has been a practising lawyer for over thirty years, has been arrested for defending his views, has been subjected to death threats, and has argued public interest and human rights cases. He lives and works in the Caribbean.

By COURTENAY BARNETT

There is at core here a moral issue – going  well beyond the questions of the  legalities involved.

At the juncture of three and a half years of being a ‘political asylum’ refugee in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, a United Nations panel decided that Julian Assange had been subjected to  “arbitrary detention” by the Governments of Sweden and the UK. The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) adopted Opinion No. 54/2015, on 4 December 2015. Next, Assange’s lawyers called for Sweden’s extradition request forthwith to  be abandoned. The extradition request was withdrawn by Sweden.

If the West ( and on this issue – I narrow to the US and UK) are defenders of human rights, I then focus on these three (3) questions:-

1. Is it that ‘freedom of expression’ ( speech) is one of the significant cornerstones of Western democracy?
2. Is it a fact, that all decent human sentiment in the world, was outraged at the idea that a Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, working for the ‘Washington Post’ could have literally been ‘chopped up’ in the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Turkey?
3. If it is an outrage to have a journalist ‘chopped up’ for reason of his dissident voice against corrupt and dishonest government actions of Saudi Arabia; why then is it not an equivalent outrage for the ‘locking up’ of a journalist, (Editor in Chief of Wikileaks, Julian Assange), for his comparable exposure of misconduct, murder and corruption of Western Governments? (Again, I focus on the chief defenders in the world of the human right of freedom of expression – the UK and US).
   
   
   
   I believe thatI am correct in saying that the American Declaration of Independence declares and acknowledges a right to revolt against tyranny.
   
   
   
   If the laws were all to have been upheld during the slave days of the British Empire in the Caribbean, then no Maroons ( i.e. the slaves who revolted and left the plantationsfor freedom in the mountains ) would have existed; had they simply obeyed the law, they would have submitted to oppression – wouldn’t they?
   
   
   
   What about an interestingcomparison of the ‘whistleblowing’ former UK Ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray? Murray had complained and repeatedly reported to his government that the leader of Uzbekistan, Islam Abduganiyevich Karimov,was torturing dissidents and literally putting some in ‘hot water’ ( i.e. slow boiling them to death in a cauldron). Murray complained that there waswidespread kidnapping, torture, rape by the police, murder and extensive financial corruption and added to that – religious persecution and further to that – censorship and other human rights abuses ( but only to mention, but a few, only just a few, human rights violations of which the UK Government via its Ambassador had been madefully aware of).The UK Government told Murray to shut up. He continued to complain and protest and then he exposed the truth to the world. The UK dismissed him from his Ambassadorial post and inflicted some nineteen (19) charges against him. He won all, but one (1). He had to have broken Britain’s Official Secrets Act, to have spoken truth to power and all other eighteen (18) were dismissed.Had he been a good little boy and shut up about substantial human rights wrongdoing in Uzbekistan then the world’s eyes would not have been opened up; consciences would not been moved; right would not have had its voice heard over wrong.
   
   
   
   So, we get to the legal issues concerning Julian Assange, and mainly:-
   
   
   
   1. State Secrecy; and
   
   
   
   2. Bail Act ( under UK law).
   
   
   
   State Secrecy versus legitimate criticism:Much wrongdoing by agents of the state would never come to light if journalists did not unlawfully leak confidential ‘classified information’.
   
   
   
   Does the press, Editors and investigative journalists across the world, not report on Governmental corruption and wrongdoing everyday? Do those journalists get prosecuted? Chopped up as did Khashoggi or locked up as Assange – yes?
   
   
   
   What a legal farce when the U.K. Supreme Court ruled 5-2 in favor of recognising Sweden’s arrest warrant concerning allegations of rape made against Assange. To facilitate Sweden’s ordinal extradition request, Their Lordships made an interpretation of the term “Judicial authority” by reference to the 2003 European Extradition Act. But, the law too is that extradition orders are not granted for politically motivated reasons. The Swedish legal system could have moved to interview Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy, but they let their statute of limitations run out. At the time, albeit not a Swedish lawyer, I read the evidence and then mockingly wrote a piece entitled: “Captain Cocksman in blonde land” – see; commentary of mine below:-
   
   
   
   https://svagerpolitik.se/0001422/wanted-julian-assange/
   
   
   
   The ruse is revealed and Sweden ( based on available evidence; want thereof, to be more accurate ) withdraws the extradition request. But, now that the original consideration related to the Swedish authorities investigation of allegations ofrapeis not active, then is it still that Assange in the UK remains a “Wanted man”? The plot thickens.
   
   
   
   Bail Act:Clare Montgomery is thename of the UKlawyer, who prosecutes on Assange’s case, hadbefore been paid by the UK Government to defend against the extradition of then Chilean leader, General Pinochet. It gets worse – for the costs of each proceeding was/has been paid for from the UK public purse; the British tax-payers. Add to this the costs of laying siege to the Ecuadorian embassy in London. It does not stop there with the Assange case, for again the UK public purse had to bear the costs, paid to the Swedish Government, related to the Swedish prosecution’s costs. Corruption – or – corruption in the extreme?
   
   
   
   Just read what the Guardian newspaper in England reported:-
   
   
   
   “The former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was immune from prosecution outside his homeland because the crimes and human rights abuses he is alleged to have committed fell under the category of “acts of government”, the House of Lords heard… Clare Montgomery QC told the panel of seven law lords that as a head of state he was entitled to “absolute immunity”, even if the charges at the centre of the allegations included torture. “States and the organs of state, including heads of state and former heads of state, are entitled to absolute immunity from criminal proceedings in the national courts of other countries,” she said.” ( i.e. the same lawyer the UK Government found suitable to defend a man who was complicit in murder, rape and torture and have him released: now is again found to make a case against a man who has not murdered, not raped not tortured – but has spoken the truth for the world to read through his news organisation – WikiLeaks.)
   
   
   
   But, more to the point, is it true, or is it untrue, that the press in the UK and US also publishesclassified materials; are the Editors and/or investigative journalists then hounded and/or prosecuted in the same manner that Assange has been?
   
   
   
   From 2012 Assange, with a grant of political asylum by Ecuador, has been living at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
   
   
   
   Fast forward to the specific UKBail Act violation.
   
   
   
   Assange was busy obtaining political asylum at the time and could not be in the Ecuadorian Embassy while at the same time surrender to UK authorities; and so thereby not be breaching his bail. “Failure to surrender” in those circumstances, on the bail aspect, is a minor offence. At least the UK Government and the police knewhis place ofpermanent residence, which he has not vacated for quite a few years now. The law in England, if I know it at this time, I think for such violation is a prison term of three months and/or a level 5 fine ( is that about approximately £5000?). But wait – didn’t Assange spend 10 days in Wandsworth Prison in 2010 and 550 days at the home of a supporter while on bail, which could be deducted from any custodial sentence?I suspect that 30 x 3 = 90 days as the maximum sentence. Or, do Courts in the UK no longer consider the real and evident and obvious and just and practical considerations of the case? Or, does the UK justice system now want to take it another way and contend that there is “contempt of court”?
   
   
   
   Cf. Craig Murray did what he did; but, could not so have done without breaching the Official Secrets Act. Was he morally right – or – merelylegally wrong?
   
   
   
   The US might presently have sealed indictments and might be awaiting for the appropriate time to request Assange’s extradition to the US from the UK. Ms. Montgomery, no doubt knows that the Bail Act violation, might merely be a stepping stone for arresting Mr. Assange and then facilitating the UK being ‘President Trump’s poodle’ in an extradition application.
   
   
   
   Up and down the UK in courts and across the British Commonwealth in courts each day, and in the US too, persons fail to show up for their hearing date. Magistrates or Judges will weigh the circumstances and many such Magistrates or Judges re-list in the criminal justice system for another hearing date – or – depending on the circumstances,issue a Bench Warrant. The operative factor is ” the circumstances” explaining the absence:-
   
   
   
   In the Pinochet case there was the equivalent of the man is seriously ill Mi Lord ( or – in the US – Your Honour ( Honor))and needs to be released on humanitarian grounds – or tomorrow he will be undergoing surgery – was the kind of approach taken with General Pinochet; or
   
   The man is seriously under pressure and the US wants him for telling the world the truth by way of factually exposing the nature of large-scale political wrongdoing ( e.g. diplomatic cable on the Chagos Islands etc.) – See:https://blog.effectivelearning.net/sermon-call-of-the-wild-and-the-rule-of-law/
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   So, here we are:-
   
   
   
   The CIA director, Mike Pompeo, simply does not like the truth coming out and being exposed globally – so WikiLeaks is termed by him, “a non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia.”
   
   
   
   As best I understand the situation; if the US proceeds with an application to the UKfor extradition, then it would be the UK Extradition Act of 2003 which would be the applicable law. The traditional approach under international law is one of therebeing decisions to be made by the judicial authorities alone and no political considerations are to be involved.
   
   
   
   This all comes down to the real question:-
   
   
   
   “Which countries have falsely claimed superior human rights and moral authority on the world stage?”
   
   
   
   Pinochet had been released for return to Chile by the UK, for reasons of illness; what of Julian Assange’s condition ( both mental and physical after almost seven (7) years of confinement)? Pinochet was a known mass murderer and torturer; what charge to date has emerged publicly that Assange ever is alleged to have committed a serious criminal act? Surely, Sweden dropped their allegations.
   
   
   
   It seems to me, a lawyer, that the following can safely be concludedof the UK’s justice system:-
   
   
   
   Pinochet:the charges of murder, rape, genocide and other significant abuses under both domestic and international law, go unpunished.
   
   
   
   Julian Assange:Presently charged for?
   
   
   
   Page 5 of the UK Select Home AffairsCommittee has this to say on the UK-US Extradition Treaty 2003:-
   
   
   
   “Concern about the operation of the current extradition arrangements between the USA and the UK should not be allowed to obscure the fundamental point that it is firmly in our national interest to have effective, fair and balanced extradition arrangements with the United States and our other international partners. Criminals must not be allowed to evade British justice by fleeing the country; nor should the UK become a safe haven for those who have committed crimes in other territories.”
   
   
   
   I seriously suspect that if one simply substituted the words ‘Saudi Arabia’ everywhere there is reference to ‘UK’ – then as in the recent case of journalist, Jamal Khashoggi – the UK must likewise designate Julian Assange a criminal journalist for purposes of extradition to the US. It shall be truly of jurisprudential importance under extradition law, within the context of international law, to read what the UK authorities next do and how any decision is reasoned by the judicial authorities.
   
   
   
   What next?
   
   
   
   Yeah – lock him up indefinitely ( like Chelsea Manning) for telling the truth -indeed – not one word ever published by Wikileaks has been contented to be a falsehood.
   
   
   
   
   
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   * COURTENAY BARNETT is a graduate of London University. His areas of study were economics, political science and international law. He has been a practising lawyer for over thirty years, has been arrested for defending his views, has been subjected to death threats, and has argued public interest and human rights cases. He lives and works in the Caribbean.

 

Effective Learning Publications, 32 East Main Street, Statesboro, Georgia, USA, March 29, 2019

 

OR SO IT SEEMS TO ME RIGHT NOW

By Richard John Stapleton, PhD, CTA, Editor & Publisher

Our truth supply system may be the biggest problem we have. How do you know if you know something?  How do you know if something is relevant?  How do you know what’s the probability of something existing, doing something, causing something, on a scale of zero to one (0 – 1), zero probability being there is no chance something is true; one probability being something is certainly true; .5 probability being there is a fifty-fifty chance; all other points between zero and one being all the chances, odds, probabilities, etc. something is true.

Precise arithmetic and deductive logic are almost useless making most major decisions about economic, social, and political states of affairs.  Excellent knowers dealing with economic, social, psychological, and political states of affairs know more precisely what the probabilities of things are than poor knowers; and excellent knowers know more somethings exist or don’t exist than poor knowers; but they know very little for sure.

Good probability estimating ability, that is guessing about the truth of something, is more valuable than ability to precisely add, subtract, multiply, and divide when making decisions about economic and political affairs, except when billing and paying for things, and figuring income taxes, when not being able to do math exactly can get you in trouble.

Those who can assign the best probabilities to things, that is guess and make the best estimates about things being real and relevant, and what they cause, generally win biggest in economic affairs, which explains how inexact seeming nincompoops like Donald Trump may have much more money than most people.  If you inherit enough money and if you hire smart people to help you look out for it you might wind up a billionaire even if you never learned your multiplication tables.  I’ll bet Trump has done almost no arithmetic for himself throughout his life, with the probability of that proposition being true being at least .8 in my estimation.

Excellent knowers are better than poor knowers at figuring out what is fake and what is real, a skill useful when running for president of the US.  Did Trump win in 2016 because he knew more than all his opponents in the presidential race?  Or did it happen by accident? 

Ludwig Wittgenstein, considered by some to have been the best philosopher, or knower about knowing, of all time, in one of his propositions, in his magnum opus, Prototractatus, said, “Everything that happens happens by accident.”

It seems to me what he was saying here is that nobody knows what all the causes of things are, which does not mean there are no probabilities or chains of causation:  it just means there are so many causes and probabilities of events in economic and political affairs that no one can keep track of or predict all of them with certainty, so you might as well say everything that happens happens by accident.

On the other hand, if everything that happens is caused by something, regardless of whether anyone knows what all the causes are, and all caused things includes all human feelings, thoughts, decisions, and behaviors, then free will does not exist, and everything that happens is not only accidental but inevitable.

Another of Wittgenstein’s famous propositions was, “The case is all there is,” which means humans can only know about cases they construct for themselves.  According to Wittgenstein, good knowers have better “pictures” in their minds than poor knowers about what is really going on in states of affairs.

What is the probability global warming and climate change will seriously disrupt human economic and political affairs within twenty years?  Fifty years?  Etc.  Nobody knows for sure, but some people know much more about the probabilities of various states happening than others, based on the pictures they carry around in their heads regarding what is really going on.

If you should happen to be interested in learning more about philosophical problems in economic and political affairs, and would like more detail about the relevance of Wittgenstein and other philosophers, such as Emmanuel Kant, David Hume, Bertrand Russell, Karl Popper, A.L. Goldman, Kurt Baier, and John Rawls, in states of affairs, read my book, Business Voyages: Mental Maps, Scripts, Schemata, and Tools for Discovering and Co-Constructing Your Own Business Worlds.

I still think the Internet is disseminating more truth to ordinary humans than was heretofore disseminated to ordinary humans during pre-Internet days, helping them develop better pictures in their minds about what is really going on; but there is a lot of chaff (fake crap) among the wheat (truth) disseminated on the Internet, way more chaff than wheat in my opinion; but it seems to me it would be a serious mistake to abolish the Internet or create a new class of gatekeepers, aka editors, to accept or reject what ordinary humans want to say on the Internet.  It’s better to know what ordinary humans think about economic and political affairs than not know it, however distorted it might be, in my opinion.  It’s true they said what they said, however distorted or irrelevant what they said might be.  Only by putting all forms of truth on the table is there any hope, it seems to me, of modifying false and harmful pictures in the minds of humans so as to create consensual pictures that will cause states of affairs to happen that will lead to a sustainable Spaceship Earth. 

One can build a case things are getting crazier on the Internet, including Facebook.  Presumed adults are posting more and more off the wall things on it, it seems to me, crazy stuff any grade school student should know is absurd nonsense.  Most posts depicting Trump and his voters make them look dumb as doorknobs, which surely is not the case.  Trump and his voters are just having naughty fun, exercising their legal right to display the power of their Rebel Child ego states, telling Be Perfect-driven Adapted Child/Critical Parent prudes with more education and money than they have to go screw themselves, with raised middle fingers. 

Our cellphone system is now contaminated with robot scam calls having zero respect for truth, automatically and promiscuously dialed to lists containing millions of telephone numbers.  These electronic vandals and jackals use pre-recorded happy, chirpy, up-beat robot Child/Rescuer voices, preying on would-be suckers/Victims who are promiscuously dialed without conscience as many as eight or ten times per day each in their homes and businesses, rampantly and wantonly disturbing the lives of humans, reducing their enjoyment of life and inflicting frustration and time and money losses, as they reduce the productivity that might have occurred had they not made their calls. 

There is apparently at present no way to stop this menace.  The human operators of these automatic telephone systems inject absolute nonsense and frustration into the lives of fellow humans and they get away with it Scot free, since apparently there are no governmental agencies that can or will control their unethical anti-social behavior.  Is it impossible to establish this sort of regulation?  If not why is it governments do not get on with the job?   

The Mueller investigation is nauseating.  After two or so years what do we really know?  Almost nothing.  And what did the report cost taxpayers?  Two million dollars?  Mueller produced a three hundred page report and turned it over to Barr, the current attorney general, Trump’s latest attempt to install another paper-pushing lackey who will do what he wants him to do in the Attorney General’s office.  So far Barr seems to be doing his job well in Trump’s eyes, not exactly saying the report exonerated Trump, and not saying it did not either, merely saying it proves there was no collusion with the Russians, which a lot of us already knew.  Barr says he will release the report to the public later.

Trust me, he seems to say.  What a crock. 

The Muller investigators supposedly had access to classified documents they read during the course of their proceedings.  As I understand it Trump at any time could have declared those documents to be unclassified to exonerate himself.  Why didn’t he do that if he was innocent?  Seems to me his not doing this proved he was guilty of something in the report he wanted to hide.  I have said all along based on what I had seen in Mainstream Media and on the Internet that Trump did not collude with officials of the Russian government to hack Hillary’s servers to get dirt to help Trump get elected.  Did he collude with some Russian citizens?  You bet.  He did this selling condos and apartments in New York City to Russian oligarchs, helping them launder dirty money, and trying to get another Trump Tower built in Moscow, the biggest ego trip of his entire ethically challenged venal (and possibly criminal) career. 

So here we are now with the Mueller report supposedly finished and we still know little or nothing as a matter of fact about what they studied and discussed.  The problem now is whether one human being, Barr, will allow the report to be released, and how much stuff in it will be redacted.  Boy, talk about a doublespeak Orwellian word.  Redact.  Sounds like they intend to do precise technical surgery on the report, when in plain English they are just deleting or cutting crap out of the report, stuff they want to keep secret to protect the guilty, even if the report is supposedly “released” to the public.  It’s pathetic.  Like living in an insane asylum.

How to correct such a truth problem is super problematic.  It’s not just a matter of corruption and dishonesty in government but problems with news media suppressing real news for political reasons attempting to curry favor with ordinary people and the deep state to maximize their readership, views, subscriptions, and advertising revenues.   

It seems posts on the Internet keep getting more off the wall but censuring the Internet is not the answer in my opinion.  I recommend that the Internet remain as free as possible with everyone having a chance to speak their minds with posts no matter how poorly informed or corrupt they might be.  While purposely lying is categorically wrong as a moral and ethical principle, it’s better to let liars lie on the Internet than censure them because of the freedom it would destroy, reducing the total amount of truth available for people to see and hear.  On the other hand, it’s far better to be honestly wrong than to be dishonestly wrong.   

For sure there are some excellent Internet journals and writers that rarely if ever flinch telling the real truth as they see it, Counterpunch, Truth-out, Intrepid Report, RollingStone, ZeroHedge, Noam Chomsky, Paul Street, John Chuckman, Patrick Cockburn, Wayne Madsen, Chris Hedges, Douglas Valentine, Paul Craig Roberts, Matt Taibbi, Henry Giroux, Tyler Durden, Ellen Brown, William John Cox, Courtenay Barnett, to name a few.

Yet it seems to me the Earthian truth system is generally corrupt, and always has been, with everyone mainly saying what will enhance and preserve their vested interests, whether individuals or institutions, whether corporations, governments, militaries, religions, schools, or universities.  Of course there are many standards for not lying built into various levels of these institutions, but the main thing for them is to tell the public things that will maximize their own security, budgets, or profits, preserving their status quo gravy trains as best they can.

The US military is one of the biggest gravy trains out there.  How can you cut military expenses during peacetime?  There appears to be no way.  The biggest problem the US military-industrial-corporate-intelligence establishment has right now is finding or creating and defining enemies sufficiently plausible and threatening to give them justification for their receiving almost one trillion cash dollars of taxpayer money and Federal Reserve funny money per year from the US federal government. 

One easy and inexpensive military thing to do I recommend is getting back in as many nuclear non-proliferation treaties as possible and not manufacturing any more nuclear weapons.  The same goes for nuclear power plants in my opinion.

Unfortunately, human migration problems around Spaceship Earth have increased in recent decades because of the US’s overt military destruction of regimes and governments in the Middle East and North Africa and its covert clandestine destabilizing and destruction of Latin American regimes and governments, often replacing socialist governments with right-wing dictators and fascist regimes who terrorize their own people, causing them to flee, causing them to flood European countries and the US, or at least try to.  Whether Trump’s wall or anything else can keep them out of the US remains to be seen.

So far Trump seems to be having little or no real success in this regard. About one hundred thousand illegal immigrants entered the US in the last month.  If this continues, annualized this will be over one million in one year, way up from what happened under Obama.  Thousands are still coming through the porous US southern border every day, as if to spite Trump, as if caused by Trump’s Rebel Child ego state fantasies, rhetoric, and tweets about walls and other inhumane cures for the immigration problem, their way of using their own Rebel Child ego states to tell Trump to go screw himself, with raised middle fingers.

In recent days, again using his impetuous Rebel/Free Child ego states, Trump told the Mexican government if they did not stop the immigrants from reaching the US border he would just “shut down” the entire border.   

Using contrived Critical Parent ego state imagery, Trump sometimes creates poses for cameras as if mimicking Mussolini, clenching his jaw, jutting his chin up and out, squinting his eyes as if looking at something in the distance, as if he were a wise and benevolent visionary.  Apparently he covets the respect fascist and communist dictators for life such as Hitler and Kim Jong Un were and are shown by their subordinated enslaved populations. 

Trump has recently recognized an illegal unelected white fascist coup leader in Venezuela as a lawful leader of the country, thereby subverting and undermining democracy in Venezuela. If the upper class fascist pretender does take over, massive migrations of lower class indigenous and mixed race people from Venezuela will ensue, far exceeding what is happening now, many of them most likely winding up in the US, to a large extent caused by Trump’s bombastic Free Child rhetoric and the almost mute ulterior sanctions US bureaucratic paper-pushers in the State Department, CIA, and elsewhere have imposed on Venezuela, to gain control of its oil supply and to keep its white upper class in power.

Who were the prime allowers of unauthorized immigrants into the US?  Clinton, and Bush II. According to the Pew Research Center unauthorized immigrants into the US increased from 3.5 million in 1990 to 8.6 million in 2000, the Clinton years, and from 8.6 to 12.2 million during 2001 to 2007, the Bush II years, and then declined to 10.7 million in 2016, the Obama years. There are now ten to eleven million unauthorized immigrants living in the US. 

At the same time, conditions have become so agitated and uncertain in some so-called developed not-yet-collapsed countries that some fairly well off humans born there would like to migrate to other countries to escape local conditions in their countries which they perceive to be more onerous and oppressive than those in other countries, to escape high taxes and social unrest (in some cases caused by having to live cheek by jowl with recent immigrants who will not assimilate), feeling and thinking the grass might be greener in several places on the other side of the fence in other rich developed countries. 

In coming decades if dire predictions about climate change come true, such as the polar icecaps melting and raising the saltwater level around Earth several feet, many millions of people, of all socio-economic classes, maybe over a billion, living on coastal plains will be dislocated, creating migrations larger than heretofore experienced or imagined on Earth.  Nobody knows where all these people will go.

The US has recently experienced one of the worst environmental disasters in recent history with the flooding of the Midwest caused by a winter cyclone that flooded three or four states, inundating farms and killing millions of farm animals, destroying millions of bushels of stored grain, which will cause farmers not to plant new crops on time this year, which is likely to cause serious shortages of food and higher food prices in the US.  If this is not climate change caused by global warming what is?  I had never heard of a winter cyclone such as this happening on a landmass such as the US Midwest.

Most likely the winter cyclone flooding will cause new human out-migration from the region.

To solve the Earthian environmental problem a case can be made that the status levels of agricultural lifestyles should be higher than those of bankers sitting in offices atop skyscrapers in New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, Berlin, Hong Kong, Moscow, Brasilia, Santiago, Buenos Aires, Lima, Mexico City, Riyadh, Tel Aviv, or Ottawa, or generals sitting in the US Pentagon and in equivalent command posts in other countries, or top leaders sitting in the US White House and in equivalent houses in other countries.

Some writers have mentioned that some oligarchs are now building themselves underground bunkers that will enable them to survive a nuclear holocaust.  Some people have fantasized about migrating to and colonizing other planets before what they call “the event” happens, analogous to what Europeans did in the Americas, which, it seems to me, is a ridiculous pipedream.

I included and quoted original research data I acquired by questionnaires as well as published academic secondary research and literature in my study of migration in my doctoral dissertation.  The management science idea I explained in “The Evolution of Spaceship Earth, Inc.” for ultimately solving the Earthian migration problem, published in 2015, happened to me in 1969 when I was writing my dissertation, and is affixed to the dissertation in an appendix.

You can download a free copy of my dissertation, titled “An Analysis of Rural Manpower Migration Patterns in the South Plains Region of Texas” from Texas Tech University.

It will do little good to play AIN’T IT AWFUL, a psychological Game identified and labeled by transactional analysts to stroke humans for being stoic Victims of obsolete economic, religious, and political systems manipulated and exploited by rapacious sociopathic Persecutor oligarchs and leaders and their corrupt bought and paid for lackey politicians for selfish gain, however true that might be in reality. 

On the other hand, it will do no good for Earthians to stick their heads in the sand to passively pretend everything is just hunky-dory and swell, with everything coming up roses for everyone, living in small imaginary Candide-like best of all possible worlds, playing a psychological Game labeled GREENHOUSE by transactional analysts, in which players are rewarded with plastic strokes for making nonsensical positive comments about themselves and their environments.

Regardless of the causes of the Earthian plight, it seems to me individual humans should assume responsibility and take action for conserving energy as best they can in their daily lives to reduce greenhouse gases; but especially they should help select politicians who will create economic and political policies and actions to help correct environmental and social problems on a mass scale.  

In the last seven months I have tried to set up a De-Gaming Democracy group as explained in my article, “De-Gaming and Saving Democracy,”      here in Statesboro where I live, hoping to engage citizens of various persuasions, whether they be red, blue, green, or any other color, in discussions of relevant economic and political problems and opportunities to develop consensual realistic approaches to the environmental problems we face, in what I call the Ogeechee Economic Forum meeting the third Saturday of each month, with little success.  It appears most people are not interested in, or are afraid of, transacting in a Game-free Adult way in public dealing with economic and political problems and opportunities.  Hopefully interest in this forum will pick up this year, 2019.  It seems to me humans all around Spaceship Earth should get busy right now in Game-free groups developing consensual answers to problems threatening their existence

For the first time in March we had enough participants in the Ogeechee Economic Forum to use a Classroom De-Gamer™ to randomly select the leader of the day to start the discussion by presenting a relevant problem or opportunity, alternatives, and a recommendation.  Game-free discussions are those in which the psychological Game roles of Persecutor, Rescuer, and Victim have been banished or suppressed in a group in such a way as to cause the cathecting of Adult, Free Child, and Nurturing Parent ego states in participants, thereby producing liberty, equality, and fraternity in the group.  

As soon as the De-Gamer arrow stopped spinning in the March forum we got down to business discussing the US federal debt as a percentage of GDP, Gross Domestic Product, the total estimated value of goods and services produced in a country in one year, counting as production not only real goods such as the necessities of life, food, clothing, and shelter, but also rentier service revenues generated by banks and others.  A relevant consensual perspective developed that while the US federal debt is indeed horrendous, a little over one hundred percent of GDP, the worst such ratio among major countries in the Western World, it’s not as bad as Japan’s, at about two hundred percent of their GDP; and therefore if Japan can continue to function with such a debt to GDP ratio, maybe the US can too, giving us more time, maybe ten years, before an economic collapse occurs, assuming significant changes are not made in the way the US economic system works, however corrupt and dysfunctional it may be at present.

For more information regarding the use of Transactional Analysis to create better democratic processes and to learn more about the profound effects created by human ego states read my book Born to Learn:  A Transactional Analysis of Human Learning.

For more information on how to co-construct better organizations and economic systems read free my book   Business Voyages:  Mental Maps, Scripts, Schemata, and Tools for Co-Constructing Your Own Business Worlds .

See my article “The Evolution of Spaceship Earth, Inc,” for some management science ideas on how Earthians might eventually co-construct an economic and political system that is viable and satisfying for everyone.   

 

SOURCES:

April 1, 2019

A good April Fool’s joke.

“The State of NASA’s Budget as Pence Seeks New Moon Landing,” by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-03-31/state-nasas-budget-pence-seeks-new-moon-landing?fbclid=IwAR0kKxm0yUcgQjxbjVShLJwwHfyfHT59sDbUDGd-JQGEl3CmvLA5smSkTzw.

April 1

Sounds about right to me.

“Tomgram: Danny Sjursen, On Leaving the U.S. Army” by Danny Sjursen, TOMDISPATCH, http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176545/tomgram%3A_danny_sjursen%2C_on_leaving_the_u.s._army/

April 1

The stuff never went away after the tsunami in 2011, you know that.

“Radioactive Fukishima Particles Found in Alaska’s Bering Strait,” by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-04-01/radioactive-fukushima-particles-found-alaskas-bering-strait?fbclid=IwAR1w55dYxm_FzatOGM5CRgCHKHassx6kOycHhygqeE9zvZSwZAiW6MEcLak.

April 1

Oh really.

“Morgan Stanley Sees 70% Chance of Downturn ‘As Early as Next Month’,” by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-04-01/morgan-stanley-sees-70-chance-downturn-early-next-month?fbclid=IwAR1UWvkyfm2p_qexFZURXd1ATrqTbaeT5C2cFfc7TrD_Ulw6GuvJ_0FtcJA.

April 1

For sure, say this aint so joe.

“Biblical Anxieties” by Howard Kunstler, JAMES HOWARD KUNSTLER, http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/biblical-anxieties/.

April 1

Yep, whom do you believe?

“Leaked Mueller Report Proves Barr Lied; Collusion Theorists Vindicated,” Caitlin Johnstone, MEDIUM.COM, https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/leaked-mueller-report-proves-barr-lied-collusion-theorists-vindicated-2a9f52fda492?fbclid=IwAR3yutcQEG2IoPQZOwcLk6Jx0oTWuQO40HEjthmIA2Vt2JJQKPEFXJIWP9c.

April 1

Never heard of anything like this before.

“Midwest Apocalypse: Satellite Data Show ‘At Least 1 Million Acres of US Farmland’ Devastated by Floods,” Michael Snyder, THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/midwest-apocalypse-according-to-satellite-data-at-least-1-million-acres-of-u-s-farmland-have-been-devastated-by-floods.

March 30

So it seems.

“The Democrats Are Self-Destructing,” by Paul Craig Roberts, INSTITUTE FOR POLITICAL ECONOMY, https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2019/03/28/the-democrats-are-self-destructing/.

March 30

FYI

“8 Cases That Prove The FBI & CIA Were Out of Control Long Before Russiagate,” by Jon Miltimore and Carey Wedler, FOUNDATION FOR ECONOMIC EDUCATION, https://fee.org/articles/8-historic-cases-that-show-the-fbi-and-cia-were-out-of-control-long-before-russiagate/.

March 30

Say it aint so joe.

“Boston Dynamics’ New Warehouse Robot Threatens Millions Of Jobs,” by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-03-29/boston-dynamics-new-warehouse-robot-threatens-millions-jobs?fbclid=IwAR2bP1jIF8smvlDx2E8OIF7FQuk6p-nnGOzZ8H7cspVy4Gcv4JphtgIjieY.

March 29

Could not agree more. The real job of teaching and research is getting to the real truth of the matter irrespective of sex, race, gender, age, ideology, religion, and national citizenship, figuring out which teachers and professors have produced the most truth and learning, and which students have learned the most truth, and grading and rewarding equivalently. Read my articles “Games Educators Play,” “Teacher Evaluations,” and “De-Gaming and Saving Democracy” posted at the top of this page.

“More University Corruption,” by Walter E. Williams, TOWNHALL, https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2019/03/27/more-university-corruption-n2543687.   

March 29

Let’s hope this is not right.

“The Two Americas Have Grown Much Fiercer,” by Peggy Noonan, WALL STREET JOURNAL OPINION, https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-two-americas-have-grown-much-fiercer-11553816463?fbclid=IwAR1SbAuuO-L2MPcZBmxkVmsv5C2_3TpRzixbSwdYz8qSSvEQYOjAjDAcTXI.

March 29

Pathetic.

“Border Patrol begins releasing migrant families on the streets of Yuma,” by Rafael Carranza, Arizona Republic, ACENTRAL.COM, https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/immigration/2019/03/28/border-patrol-begins-releasing-migrants-yuma/3301641002/?fbclid=IwAR0gheOEzrcaRF3ImfzlMERsXlBUT8RR-CADTim-nK0B3e0wtElFoSxS2QI.

March 28

A great website.

“Climate change is a security threat.  We must act now,” by Sheikh Hasina, WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM, https://www.weforum.org/?fbclid=IwAR2lFW9TuyWWv1O1o8O-JkLn_UkMA3jwUSn77A4-scGxCLCdhQFuOwC9v0E.

March 28

So it seems.

“Republicans Are Working to Undermine Direct Democracy,” by Miranda Yaver, MEDIUM, https://medium.com/s/story/republicans-are-working-to-undermine-direct-democracy-adc3b3227063?fbclid=IwAR26_quqCZxWqDdtid-nhHQ9yWhYHIsZWeewwMgbtzRe5XNHpvDdyTt1JYA.

March 28

Right on brother.

What a crock of you know what. How could anyone remember or know who were the good guys and bad guys in this assortment of facts, allegations, and reported so-called findings? Comey is one of the more interesting characters. He was not against Hillary he said, but why did he bring up the matter of her email server? Before he left the scene. Now here he is giving speeches about the whole thing. Talking about whether obstruction of justice is a crime, and such, saying he only wanted to know what the true facts were. About who or what? Trump or Hillary? After millions of dollars spent on this report what do we know of relevance that we did not already know? Not much. As I have pointed out for some time on the Internet and elsewhere based on evidence available in mainstream media and on the Interent Trump did not commit conspiracy with Russian government officials to get elected. Big deal. But he conspired with Russian capitalist oligarchs to make more personal money for himself and his family. Selling apartments and condos and laundering money in NYC. Trying to build another Trump tower in Moscow. but there was no credible evidence in MSM or on the Internet I saw indicating he tried to bribe Russian officals to help get him elected. But Wikileaks got its hands on damaging information about Hillary from somewhere that hurt her election chances. If the info did not come from Russian officials and hackers conspired by Trump then from whom or where did it come? Alleged conspirators on the Internet have said the info came from Seth Rich, a DNC employee who allegedly downloaded to Wikileaks information damaging to Hillary’s election chances he downloaded from DNC servers, using a memory stick, who was shot and killed walking home alone at night in his Washington neighborhood, whose killer or killers have never been found. What if anything does the Mueller report have to say about that?

“Taibbi: Forget the Memo – Can We Worry About the Banks,” by Matt Taibbi, ROLLINGSTONE, https://medium.com/rollingstone/taibbi-forget-the-memo-can-we-worry-about-the-banks-172e65c3dbc2?fbclid=IwAR1LGfec8TuKolqkGoRqoN6r6ozqFbA49VTtm_0Fc_OdigxAkE_oPq4OtY8.

March 28

As a former professor of management I can tell you there is a lot of truth in this article.

“Corporate Bullshit,” by Thomas Klikauer, COUNTER PUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/03/26/corporate-bullshit/?fbclid=IwAR3tOpg9lxEZOvSxfc6SKa-xtdU7PewuT4NRgrxglIyPsv5V3uDxeedvigE.

March 26

Here is an excellent article by Courtenay Barnett, a distinguished practising international lawyer and social activist, also an Effective Learning Report correspondent living in the Turks and Caicos Islands near Jamaica, in the Caribbean, educating humans on how the rule of law works and does not work internationally.

“The Golan Heights – Venezuela – And The Rule of Law,” by Courtenay Barnett, EFFECTIVE LEARNING REPORT, https://blog.effectivelearning.net/the-golan-heights-venezuela-and-the-rule-of-law/?fbclid=IwAR1H3ZXFVPyCSMZko4ulEsSDxZ5jm9iSmYheM4bhvvVkhbESgd_cGTnXxY0

March 26

Apparently this article is correct.  Good news if it is.

“Truth v. fiction in Venezuela,” by Stephen Lendman, INTREPID REPORT, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/26665.

March 26

Agree.  Well said.  This article is a good economic history lesson since 1980.

“The Poisonous History of Neo-Classical Economics,” by James C. Kennedy, COUNTER PUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/03/26/the-poisonous-history-of-neo-classical-economics/?fbclid=IwAR2bpLyT5HXMDsKsURarGOk6twfy06q4iV50MhpUu-64wvce-RV4_5_FuxQ.

March 26

A must read for anyone wanting to learn about the history of teaching in the US.

“New Challenges Bring New Militancy to Teacher Strikes,” by Barbara G. Ellis, TRUTH OUT, https://truthout.org/articles/new-challenges-bring-new-militancy-to-teacher-strikes/?utm_source=sharebuttons&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=mashshare&fbclid=IwAR0A1927ptC0NK0nuCId-xpvZJAHD0L1Mm9tGwTHatv5E4CKXIAHB3OyJlE.

March 24

Here is the latest update of my latest article.

“Learning to Look Out for Everyone, Not Just Number 1,” by Richard John Stapleton, EFFECTIVE LEARNING REPORT, https://blog.effectivelearning.net/learning-to-look-out-for-everyone-not-just-number-1/?fbclid=IwAR1C9zW9j-CrQb6bZLFca0tn8ttpWlQ6Ef6N0vooqn3aMsI-0nSFXaI2-lQ.

March 24

Here is the elite trying to cut off the best hope for us commoners.

“Goodbye to the Internet:  Interference by governments is already here,” by Philip M. Giraldi, INTREPID REPORT, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/26655.

March 24

“Monetary policy takes center stage:  MMT, QE or public banks,” by Ellen Brown, INTREPID REPORT, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/26658.

March 24

“Getting into” a good school is one thing; paying for it is another.

“College Scams and the Ills of Capitalist-Driven Education,” by Julian Vigo, COUNTER PUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/03/22/college-scams-and-the-ills-of-capitalist-driven-education/?fbclid=IwAR0D8WjO51kajhOFumsX8MNKthD4WsLlUnmvtLxYyHGG_7xD_A6YnBOpygI.

March 23

Basically agree with this.

“How American Economics Failed,” by Umair Haque, MEDIUM, https://eand.co/how-american-economics-failed-a762dadb61ad?fbclid=IwAR1bGiqQg7vO9I_qCBaxzZ5kPW_Kx0ofqjla9KIu5ycDaOH_PD4VLtokci8.

March 23

Maybe there’s hope for all of us.

“5 Common Mistakes Smart People Make,” by Darius Foroux, MEDIUM, https://medium.com/darius-foroux/are-you-making-these-common-mistakes-that-smart-people-make-116d059cd5a1?fbclid=IwAR3W1ZMq9DFVZu97PnRLxw5XWAm3qHhmxDF_SDRqn0nr7DrofCTWHmfExcc.

March 22

“Post truth” or “pre truth” it does seem we are now in a space of “no truth” where Trump and his ilk can create truth out of thin air, as if creating money at the Federal Reserve, by simply saying something is true.

“The Ghost of Fascism in the Post-Truth Era,” by Henry Giroux, COUNTER PUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/03/22/the-ghost-of-fascism-in-the-post-truth-era/?fbclid=IwAR0vzeSStrt2s0nq6I8Oc9q_WMTkmkoMxcdQxRKPvSZVmHhYRCkMMx4Ya3U.

March 21

Sounds very bad.

“Catastrophic Flooding In The Midwest Could Last ‘For Months’, And That Is Going To Mean A Dramatic Drop in U.S. Food Production,” by Michael Snyder, END OF THE AMERICAN DREAM, http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/catastrophic-flooding-in-the-midwest-could-last-for-months-and-that-is-going-to-mean-a-dramatic-drop-in-u-s-food-production?fbclid=IwAR15tiJm4SsmgnEqEl9T3qx0Ll8xPOBFe288LkefP7IpREXz7BkqJr3LkLE.

March 21

Alarming.

“The Expanding Global Footprint of U.S. Special Operations,” by Brian Kaiman, Daniel Deiss, and Edwin Watson, SOUTH FRONT, https://southfront.org/expanding-global-footprint-of-us-special-operations/?fbclid=IwAR3FooA1pmSZQKAGhL2DsV0Qh_aNrErcZeguP6SFm1OFyzmm4aT-NiVIj-4.

March 21

Basically agree with this guy and here I am seventy-eight.

“Why I Hope to Die at 75,” by Ezekiel J. Emanuel, THE ATLANTIC, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/10/why-i-hope-to-die-at-75/379329/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share&fbclid=IwAR3xH-viZKwd0UoU–qL_3z3Qecn9RCisQEZN7QrS0X0g42bEVLWlV9TLko.

March 21

Say it aint so joe.

“Trump’s CIA now unbound and back to its traditional hijinks,” by Wayne Madsen, INTREPID REPORT, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/26632.

March 21

Not a good idea.

“Social media companies ‘struggle’ to help censors keep us in the dark,” by Thomas L. Knapp, INTREPID REPORT, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/26646.

March 21

Sounds about right to me.

“America’s Senior Generals Find No Exits From Endless War,” by William Astore, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/03/21/americas-senior-generals-find-no-exits-from-endless-war/?fbclid=IwAR1MlRW8Jl8EbQU5nwK7QHdNBoZNPcQmUv_od0qMrn1gLUZssIgeYKHK_pQ.

March 21

Oh really.

“The Wall Street Bailouts, Bernie and the Washington Post,” by Dean Baker, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/03/21/the-wall-street-bailouts-bernie-and-the-washington-post/?fbclid=IwAR2YFZEDhb2gsbi4R5PNw8Q7ynDq9C2Pyn4DbnuZlOKmPtGMOv18_I6yeW4.

March 21

Yikes.  Is this the real reality of “Hamilton”?

“Broadway’s ‘Hamilton’ and the Willing Suspension of Reality-Based Moral Consciousness,” by Elizabeth Keyes, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/03/21/broadways-hamilton-and-the-willing-suspension-of-reality-based-moral-consciousness/?fbclid=IwAR3uM-nnkJ6Wgv4GGdh7DnEtTPkK6TUbtwWeXM3ohPp6_rXv1RKzhmWVhPo.

March 21

If you want to read some government gobbledegook read this.

“America’s Venezuela Strategy:  Coup by Sheer Narrative Control,” by Caitlin Johnstone, MEDIUM, https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/americas-venezuela-strategy-coup-by-sheer-narrative-control-fc8ee1f01e23?fbclid=IwAR0Z23w8jAfLYmg0-65Gj-HVyf0PjYLkJtDDG-4pOxZxTKNSDKpEraAbRao.

March 21

Unfortunately relevant.

“Censorship Tightens As Governments Lose Control – Gold, Goats, ‘n Guns,” by Tom Luongo, GOLD, GOATS, ‘N GUNS, https://tomluongo.me/2019/03/20/censorship-government-control-christchurch/?fbclid=IwAR1tUjqVcEreEW9SDZXbstIDkokqj3wcS1ymOJfezh-MAtaW5nqMAYWo2Tg.

March 20

How significant is this?

“‘Fed Returns To The Punchbowl’:  The Biggest Surprises in Today’s Fed Decision,” by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-03-20/fed-returns-punchbowl-biggest-surprises-todays-fed-decision?fbclid=IwAR3EBIt_XuQJiIYmhkV0TP0RKyjjhg-WQmrjRv1FMeEgv2vECiYnYRGztrs.

March 20

Been hearing more and more about this.

“How to Blow $700 Billion,” by Matt Taibbi, ROLLINGSTONE, https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-03-20/fed-returns-punchbowl-biggest-surprises-todays-fed-decision?fbclid=IwAR3EBIt_XuQJiIYmhkV0TP0RKyjjhg-WQmrjRv1FMeEgv2vECiYnYRGztrs.

March 20

Releasing large numbers of migrants?  What does this mean?  If you can make sense out of this power to you.

“Border Patrol says detention centers are full – and starts releasing migrants,” by Molly Hennessy-Fiske and Molly O’Toole, THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT, https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-03-20/fed-returns-punchbowl-biggest-surprises-todays-fed-decision?fbclid=IwAR3EBIt_XuQJiIYmhkV0TP0RKyjjhg-WQmrjRv1FMeEgv2vECiYnYRGztrs.

March 20

Yuk

“Weather Patterns Go Crazy:  Nebraska Flooding Has Broken 17 Records and Farmers Are Being Absolutely Devastated,” by Michael Snyder, THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE, http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/weather-patterns-go-crazy-nebraska-flooding-has-broken-17-records-and-farmers-are-being-absolutely-devastated?fbclid=IwAR1kFW57b1pypi_wLDJPF_zezViLXMNy61ZPUw9Vfi4sR8uo4SyFJqn–P8.

March 20

More truth telling.

“Empire of Absurdity:  Recycled Neocons, Recycled Enemies,” by Major Danny Sjursen, USA (ret.), ANTIWAR.COM, https://original.antiwar.com/danny_sjursen/2019/03/18/empire-of-absurdity-recycled-neocons-recycled-enemies/?fbclid=IwAR1GLdpSDPB4G3OXL38tjH4baK0Q12jaqol-IKpZzTSGZjYtdXKJHjQ1-x8.

March 20

Remember “The Troubles” in Ireland?  Here they go again.

“The Brutal Legacy of Bloody Sunday is a Powerful Warning to Those Hoping to Save Brexit,”  by Patrick Cockburn, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/03/19/the-brutal-legacy-of-bloody-sunday-is-a-powerful-warning-to-those-hoping-to-save-brexit/?fbclid=IwAR21WLz1Vx3XEBv_bY7ozDhN4p7JTVQ4spZ6gQkta8YhvGgUUL46RlySWII.

March 19

Scary stuff here. More tell it like it is no nonsense pull no punches straight writing by possibly the bravest writer alive, Paul Street.

“Socialism Curiously Trumps Fascism in U.S. Political Threat Reporting,” by Paul Street, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/03/19/socialism-curiously-trumps-fascism-in-u-s-political-threat-reporting/?fbclid=IwAR0b4_Iz-s0y2HJrU2hGaJDKL3MEpO9q9QmWgENLfF9FhawqOQXSWYUIlTk.

March 18

Sad indeed.

“Mr MAGA and the end of Western Civilization,” by The Saker, THE SAKER OF THE VINEYARD, http://thesaker.is/mr-maga-and-the-end-of-western-civilization/?fbclid=IwAR3a1yve1WJzr6ZcuhoukjDzl3Z6WL2N7saq-nIfWuSC3gtxZAnkZPf9Ayo.

March 18

Say it aint so joe

“How Fukushima nukes kill our climate, our planet, ourselves,” by Harvey Wasserman, INTREPID REPORT, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/26587.

March 18

Say it aint so joe.

“The Pentagon’s Bottomless Money Pit,” by Matt Taibbi, ROLLINGSTONE, https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/pentagon-budget-mystery-807276/?fbclid=IwAR1VmrTgXJvjlI82x29RqIhSS2t7REFWi1XTqfCLzYZBYe-mZfrGKeQjI5A.

March 17

Republicans pictured in this article are having naughty fun operating out of their Rebel Child ego states telling Adapted Child/Critical Parent prudes who have more education and money than they have to go screw themselves, with their raised middle fingers.

“Republicans Have Nothing To Offer Except Hate and Fear,” HOUSE OF PUBLIC DISCOURSE, https://houseofpublicdiscourse.blogspot.com/2019/03/republicans-have-nothing-to-offer.html?spref=fb&fbclid=IwAR210tVuEXw4OTFzY9amwV_IwZ5vVJoR2TNLJXRwyyQm7wF110jkCvjZI98.

March 17

In case you haven’t heard, the UK is going down the tube pretty much in lockstep with the US.

“Theresa May’s plan to scrap free school lunches will hit 900,000 poor families,” by Greg Wilford, THE INDEPENDENT, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/theresa-may-conservatives-free-school-lunches-cuts-poverty-a7747066.html?fbclid=IwAR1jgLLM3rasxYtEYvNEjIBFYDJgcnqZi2AFHyPttr6awOcTaBHspB9TvoE.

March 17

It amazes me how Trump can get anything he says or imagines published word for word to be heard and read by millions. Power talks. I worked thirty five years as an academic attempting to publish ideas and conclusions supported by facts, evidence, and reasoning in contextual research journals, with average success, ideas and conclusions rarely heard of by anyone save a few journal editors and reviewers who read what i wrote. But this “stable genius” can get any nitwit thing he wants published word for word to be read by millions just by blurting it out anywhere. Talk about absurdity and injustice. For whatever it’s worth unemployment is not at a 44 year low. At least twenty percent of all US citizens who would like to have a decent job are not in the work force. They are not working. Here it is one more time folks, for those of you on whom it has not yet soaked in: The US govt only counts as unemployed citizens who are actively looking for a job, not counting those who have given up on finding one, and it includes as employed millions with only one or two jobs who cannot make a living with their so-called jobs, often called “gig” jobs.

“Trump:  Seeing ‘Unemployment at 44 Year Low’ On Drudge Report Made Me ‘Very proud’,” by Tim Hains, REAL CLEAR POLITICS, https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/06/15/trump_seeing_unemployment_at_44_year_low_on_drudge_report_made_me_very_proud.html?fbclid=IwAR1-lh0G_5UL5mHS4y1a7SnPTtwgwEkXfNsAxBCBq3MIneh2uRuWnyVof6s.

March 17

Tough choice alright, thanks to our stable genius “tariff man” in the White House.

“Tariffs force tough choices in Louisiana as farmers leave soybeans in fields to rot,” by Jodi Gralnick, CNBC, https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/06/15/trump_seeing_unemployment_at_44_year_low_on_drudge_report_made_me_very_proud.html?fbclid=IwAR1-lh0G_5UL5mHS4y1a7SnPTtwgwEkXfNsAxBCBq3MIneh2uRuWnyVof6s.

March 17

Intelligent well written article, asserting the increase in white supremacy terrorism is a function of dire consequences of capitalism and now global warming with the white terrorists attempting to scapegoat racial and cultural groups.

“Christchurch, the White Victim Complex and Savage Capitalism,” by Nathaniel St. Clair, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/03/15/christchurch-the-white-victim-complex-and-savage-capitalism/?fbclid=IwAR1GVTIJoTi9DcLYv0ZQ3SWWc6FyhZQUif5BGerewLjfLUSRVRRPN3mlfqo.

March 17

Agree.

“We Need a New Declaration of Rights for Black Americans,” by Taru Taylor, TROUTHOUT, https://truthout.org/articles/we-need-a-new-declaration-of-rights-for-black-americans/?utm_source=sharebuttons&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=mashshare&fbclid=IwAR0U4evtY_Ua5e-v1hBthFYGdMCyQix7Ny6tAgfmtkC0bTK88_qo88VOvh0.

March 17

Very sad.

“Facing Wrongful Detention and Threats, Afro-Colombian Women Call for Justice,” by J. M. Kirby, TROUGHOUT, https://truthout.org/articles/facing-wrongful-detention-and-threats-afro-colombian-women-call-for-justice/?utm_source=sharebuttons&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=mashshare&fbclid=IwAR24OFtGErCyn8gtLLxT-HGEbbIu4HaeLsbI0ghg1-OE12hXYzyYxBs0pro.

March 16

Unbelievable racism like this still exists.

“In Venezeula, White Supremacy Is a Key Driver of the Coup,” by Greg Palast, TRUTHOUT, https://truthout.org/articles/in-venezuela-white-supremacy-is-a-key-driver-of-the-coup/.

March 16

Say it aint so joe

“The Rapid Decline of the Natural World Is A Crisis Even Bigger Than Climate Change” by John Vidal, HUFFPOST US, https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/nature-destruction-climate-change-world-biodiversity_n_5c49e78ce4b06ba6d3bb2d44?ncid=other_facebook_eucluwzme5k&utm_campaign=share_facebook&fbclid=IwAR2b4LCMv4pyRKRQ4NLh8XaRclRCqHqOe3tqOb-umSp0XWd-WuxRSGD7i4A

March 15

Yuk

“Rethink Activism in the Face of Catastrophic Biological Collapse,” by Dahr Jarmail and Barbara Cecil, TRUTHOUT, https://truthout.org/articles/climate-collapse-is-on-the-horizon-we-must-act-anyway/?utm_source=sharebuttons&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=mashshare&fbclid=IwAR0uvW1xfXPfd1iOwK_2X44HTFOTpWlW8yTAOy0IcvHcJ3hEAYm1WZB6mVA.

March 14

Told you so.

“Tariff Man Has Become Deficit Man,” by Paul Krugman, THE NEW YORK TIMES, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/07/opinion/trump-deficit.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&fbclid=IwAR15q_2Y8ME9_WGDGxUyFMBsP4uxqEQKnUdFRChygFkehog9K-aBo8bFiFIh

March 14

So it seems.

“The Global Economy is a Time Bomb Waiting to Explode,” by Marshall Auerback, TRUTHDIG, https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-global-economy-is-a-time-bomb-waiting-to-explode/.

March 12

So it seems.

“Trump:  The warlord of economic savagery,” by Wayne Madsen, INTREPID REPORT, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/26507.

March 12

So it seems.

“Pressitutes turn blind eye to US report on Venezuela,” by Paul Craig Roberts, INTREPID REPORT, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/26512?fbclid=IwAR3OqzZ5dgE1y6x7kSWVEyaMFIu1QITD3cNJOcJsvdoOrwTj3DixDf6DVqs.

March 12

One of the worst.

“The conflict of our time:  U.S. imperialism vs the rule of law,” by Nicholas J S Davies, INTREPID REPORT, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/26516?fbclid=IwAR0QLPv3_yohasgkrBdRy7XXZBYayPVc5GUA3Xv9GPFjf-3qaf1cOktO-LQ.

March 12

Why should Iran have to be an enemy of the US, undermined, and goaded into a fight, if not to create a credible enemy for the US deep state to justify its cost to US taxpayers?

“In May 2018, President Trump’s unilaterally withdrew from the Iran nuclear agreement, followed by an imposition of draconian sanctions that not only prohibit U.S. companies from doing business in Iran, but threaten all foreign companies and international banks that trade with Iran. The sanctions also severely limit Iran’s ability to sell its major sou…”

“How US Sanctions are Hurting Iran:  A Firsthand Report,” by Medea Benjamin, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/03/12/how-us-sanctions-are-hurting-iran-a-firsthand-report/?fbclid=IwAR1x8TUww-W4YOVy5RzjMm0l_yFN7YA3JG4dHN7mzbriTRFC6t90J2puLl4.

March 12

A relevant fact.

“We’re Living in the Warmest Decade Since Record-Keeping Began,” by Dahr Jamail, TRUTHOUT, https://truthout.org/articles/were-living-in-the-warmest-decade-since-record-keeping-began/?utm_source=sharebuttons&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=mashshare&fbclid=IwAR0fstfMn9ZOuTshD8ASDtcJy_LvSBKJb7VchiMGX0VxBTfwHouzGkj0gOY.

March 9

Interesting perspective.

“It’s not Capitalism We Have to Save–It’s Everything Else,”  by Umair Haque, MEDIUM, https://eand.co/its-not-capitalism-we-have-to-save-it-s-everything-else-7bd2b76a2b94?fbclid=IwAR1ubbOmnZw3SiwYFdfImD6XEfNeagMl3P238MS4r19109LS0-Mj4x1AxWA.

March 9

It’s possible all the global warming evidence produced to date does not prove with one hundred percent certainty that global warming has been caused by the human species burning fossil fuel.

But it seems to me anyone should know using common sense that global warming is not a hoax and scam concocted by government scientists to get recognition and funding to control human minds, as this article asserts.

Anyone who can read should have read by now numerous articles written by reputable ethical people, scientists and non-scientists, asserting there is serious evidence of human caused global warming, based on honest reasoning about observable facts and evidence, such as the melting of the polar ice caps, temperature recordings of the last decade, and measurements of increases of carbon dioxide in Spaceship Earth’s atmosphere, evidence not mentioned in this article, since it includes no facts and evidence.

I agree it’s possible that dire predictions about global warming facts and evidence might be wrong. I sincerely hope they are, since, if they are not, it’s possible the human species may become extinct in less than fifty years, joining in a cosmic happy hunting ground the millions of other Earthian species that became extinct.

But it’s insane to say ethical scientists and others wrote and published what they wrote about global warming trying to create a hoax and a scam to control the minds of humans.

The opinions of this article include assertions by Patrick Moore, supposedly a co-founder and former president of Greenpeace, the noted environmental protection organization, taken from a SiriusXM Breitbart News Tonight interview he had with Breitbart so-called news’s talking heads Rebecca Mansour and Joel Pollak. According to reader comments about the ZeroHedge Internet article, attached below the article, Moore is now a paid lobbyist for corporations having short run vested interests that will be harmed by humans taking governmental action to reduce global warming.

Hopefully there is some probability the most dire predicted consequences of global warming will not come true, even if humans take no governmental action to reduce carbon emissions, however foolish such a bet would be given the probabilities of possible consequences.

But it seems to me that to assert with certainty that global warming is a hoax and scam requires serious greed, venality, and lying, or stupidity.

Having never heard of Breitbart News before, it seems to me this interview is a shameless example of fake news propaganda attempting to control minds. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.

Hopefully my comment here will not generate more listeners for Moore or Breitbart to control.

“Global Warming A ‘Hoax And Scam’ Pushed by Greedy Government Scientists:  Greenpeace Co-Founder,” by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-03-08/global-warming-hoax-and-scam-pushed-greedy-government-scientists-greenpeace-co?fbclid=IwAR1rf9oMbW4LeK-PBocfur5-guLCXQu0hMCoSSLW_8Y9LIZu5ity59_zCXs.

March 9

Not an insignificant problem.

“The Propaganda Multiplier:  How Western Media Report On Geopolitics,”OFF GUARDIAN, https://off-guardian.org/2019/03/08/the-propaganda-multiplier/.

March 8

A long and truthful article by John Chuckman, one of the best and bravest writers alive.

“Reflections on Putin as a leader and on the world situation in which he works,” INTREPID REPORT, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/26499?fbclid=IwAR1W7pRTfV79TAxW2cIOTsQVPzZ_wp2X_wowkZm8BfcHDz9FdDUri5p_ZhQ.

March 8

Well said.

“The Blindness of Empire,” by Kenn Orphan, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/03/08/the-blindness-of-empire/?fbclid=IwAR06WOvTRFj1aNNj4aGtxb_tuhsv9pZvfSmYaXZBBBWnWwHtWppS5jfdPe8.

March 8

Another relevant article by a relevant writer, Paul Street.

“As the World Burns:  Hurtling Towards an Unlivable Planet,” by Paul Street, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/03/08/as-the-world-burns-hurtling-towards-an-unlivable-planet/?fbclid=IwAR16MmNEpyslqeQGeTn2oaYRVJwBslX06l1R2PGGC01MpTmLwgTcAk1tEso.

March 7.

A chilling article, but a must watch and listen to one.

“Abby Martin makes and urgent plees to help prevent war on Venezuels,” video by Abby Martin, INTREPID REPORT, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/26491?fbclid=IwAR0fPBV8FBJWs9t_J_zOcbOw5WOsekEfKKRh1wuCYnxgpmK0XQBuW7o3t7I.

March 7

A good history of Spaceship Earth since 1600 or so.

“Big Capital, the Working Class, and US Imperialism:  A Brief Look at Recent History,” by Chuck Churchill, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/03/07/big-capital-the-working-class-and-us-imperialism-a-brief-look-at-recent-history/?fbclid=IwAR2gwPXe3vaqpri1TXcRF41zC2HehEHYVIlMJdwZPw_c3LLMubvv1duBGkQ.

March 7

Go Pramila Jayapal.

“New Medicare for All Bill Will Dramatically Revanp Health Care,” by Amy Goodman, Juan Gonzales, and Pramila Jayapal, TRUTHOUT, https://truthout.org/video/new-medicare-for-all-bill-will-dramatically-revamp-health-care/?utm_source=sharebuttons&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=mashshare&fbclid=IwAR2eifOJGStYs56I6JOiqORGMz4VrpveKxtGn6kY141wWPvDXJVOCcq4SmE.

March 7

Sounds good to me for the short run for Europe, but the long run should entail a similar system all around Spaceship Earth. Written by a great leader and economist, Yanis Varoufakis, the prime minister of Greece during the recent showdown with the EU and Germany.

“Let’s Change Europe From the Ground Up,” by Yanis Varoufakis, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/03/06/lets-change-europe-from-the-ground-up/?fbclid=IwAR0ZjOQbZmkQWbhkglcxpL8HrhALny8Glt3WDFSgZviIV9LhDk9XpEQqCkI.

March 7

Excellent article with good definitions of Zionism and antisemitism, clearly pointing out that to be anti-Zionist is not necessarily to be antisemitic.

“The UK Labour Party’s ‘Antisemitism Crisis’ and the Likud Supporters in Its Leadership,” by Kenneth Surin, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/03/06/the-uk-labour-partys-antisemitism-crisis-and-the-likud-supporters-in-its-leadership/?fbclid=IwAR24QGat11m8JK-YPb6qyEWZdj9q2tjYGPeMtwQuy8aeRLRWrecOiT_YlRk.

March 6

Best explanation of what is going on in Haiti I have seen.

“Why Has Haiti Risen Up Once Again?” by Ashley Smith, TRUTHOUT, https://truthout.org/articles/why-has-haiti-risen-up-once-again/?utm_source=sharebuttons&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=mashshare&fbclid=IwAR3rqZCZnp3qev6-1HuH5kJNZnzFzHWQcRhI_5ydBBJQsw3AwnaJMDRDxTw.

March 4

Here’s another excellent article by Courtenay Barnett on how international law works or does not work.

“Sermon:  Call of the Wild – And The Rule of Law,” by Courtenay Barnett, EFFECTIVE LEARNING REPORT, https://blog.effectivelearning.net/sermon-call-of-the-wild-and-the-rule-of-law/?fbclid=IwAR0ZNW3iFnbaLxyKvVkBK84pDLrY6lPXeVR2fOYUuOGlQQVgvZExl3fOnF4.

 

TO RESPOND:

As usual this month’s THE EARTHIAN links and cites as SOURCES recent articles written and published by clear deep-thinking hard-hitting independent writers in various countries in various fearless Internet journals around Spaceship Earth on ecological, economic, social, political, religious, and military affairs.  I generally agree with these writers about what is most relevant about Spaceship Earth states of affairs, but each of them brought up facts, analyses, conclusions, ideas, or perspectives that were new to me when I read them during the last thirty days or so, thereby teaching me something, which is why I included them in this issue of THE EARTHIAN.  

It’s not easy, impossible some say, to separate relevant from irrelevant focal points to comprehend cases, while being inundated with new noise and facts of states of affairs generated daily around Spaceship Earth, posted on the Internet, to see what’s really going on.

If you have ideas on how to democratically discuss in Game-free ways economic and political problems and opportunities in something like the Ogeechee Economic Forum go to my RESPONSES  page and let us know about them.

I have no desire to sell subscriptions or solicit donations for THE EARTHIAN, but I would like to sell more books.  If you feel you’ve gained value from THE EARTHIAN and would like to reciprocate go to our Effective Learning Publications page and purchase one or more copies of my books. 

Best wishes, RJS