AMERICAN STUDIES

FRANK SCOTT—A couple of trillion in government spending is proposed now when tens of trillions are needed but will never be found under the market forces of private profit normalcy. The goal must be a radical restructuring of the political economic value system that treats earth, air, water and human beings as commodities to be bought, sold and rented in pursuit of enormous private profit for an ever shrinking number as hundreds of millions diversely sink lower in class status under the burden of bearing the staggering public loss of dollars, humanity and nature itself.  

President Joe Biden’s administration this week announced a new round of harsh sanctions against Russia, including the expulsion of 10 diplomats from American soil, and measures that undermine Moscow’s ability to raise international monetary funds from the issuance of sovereign bonds. At least symbolically, the latest U.S. moves mark a more offensive ramping up of economic warfare. This is in the context of growing military tensions over Ukraine. The justifications for the new American assault, which the Kremlin decried as illegal and to which it will retaliate, are the usual tenuous claims by Washington: alleged Russian interference in elections, cyber-hacking, and “malign foreign conduct” with regard to the Ukraine.

Somewhat incongruously, Biden said he does not want to “escalate” hostilities with Russia. He referred to a phone conversation he initiated earlier this week with President Vladimir Putin, in which Biden invited his Russian counterpart to a face-to-face meeting to discuss a range of concerning matters. It remains to be seen if Moscow will take up Biden’s proposal for a one-on-one summit.

But, again patently, there is back-to-front logic going on here which is contemptible. The American side presumes to wield provocative and damaging sanctions against Russia’s vital interests, and yet the U.S. president asserts that the measures are “proportionate” and not aimed at “escalating” animosities.

PATRICE GREANVILLE—Videos to make you think and take notice. Consider that ANY of these videos yield more useful information on the current state of the world, and our immediate reality, than reams of NYTimes pages, or hundreds of hours (or more) of programming by NPR, MSNBC, CNN, or the main networks. Also think what will happen when Jimmy Dore’s channel is cancelled by Google (YouTube), because, rest assured that as we write these lines, the knives are out for Jimmy and his brand of impious political commentary. Too dangerous for a system that now regards total narrative control as an existential necessity. 

FW ENGDAHL—On April 2 the Swedish Space Agency, announced that the program, the Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment (SCoPEx), funded by Bill Gates, has “divided the scientific community” and will therefore not be carried out.SCoPEx was a scheme funded for several years by personal funds from Gates to test the feasibility of dimming the sun via manmade geoengineering.

The plan is to drop sulphate aerosolor calcium carbonate dust into the atmosphere from high altitude balloons in a madcap scheme to try blocking the sun and thereby “prevent “ global warming. The Swedish agency decided to cancel the experiment because of a major opposition from not only the scientific and environmentalist community, but also indigenous Swedish Saame or Laplander people who are reindeer herdsmen and feared the particles could cause severe or unknown environmental pollution to their herds. Notably, the Saami Council warned that the Gates experiment “essentially attempts to mimic volcanic eruptions by continuously spewing the sky with sun-dimming particles.”

As this historical account proves, we have meddled shamelessly in practically every nation’s internal affairs for generations across the globe: from Guatemala, Iran, Indonesia, Bolivia, Venezuela, Brazil, Chile and many other “lesser nations”, to Russia, Australia, and even Italy and Canada. No one is immune from Washington’s sordid maneuvers.