Comments on: China, Olympics, & Propaganda; Democracy or Economy; Destroying a 5,000-Year-Old Civilization

By: georgy kats

georgy kats — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 20:40:21 +0000

Gary’s comment above is right on. Bill Blum’s wit needs to be collected in a new book so the rest of us can laugh–and learn. I will quote him as often as possible: Slavery is the legal fiction that a person is property and corporate personhood is the legal fiction that property is a person.

By: John Wilkinson

John Wilkinson — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 00:15:13 +0000

So, because a crime of aggression happened two centuries ago, all is forgotten and those people (in Tibet) can forget about their identity, right? Because China claims this as own territory, that makes it so, and the idigenous people have no say in this. Same as in Kosovo. If the US is for it, you are against it, even if it runs against your own published principles (you know, like non-aggression, self-determination, not meddling into other cultures, not imposing your will on others, against military conquests, etc.). Yes, the US is hypocritical (extremely), but so are you (all of you “progressives”), claiming to be on the side of right, but actually are on any side that sells books, articles and opinions in the “progressive” circles.

By: Gary Corseri

Gary Corseri — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 06:03:47 +0000

There’s more truth in 1 Anti-Empire Report by William Blum than in a thousand mainstream media rags.

Blum’s style is changing. His work is always carefully researched; but in this particular gem with many facets, he puts on a philosophic air, musing aloud and scattering new and burnished definitions like diamonds. This one, for example: “Capitalism is the theory that the worst people, acting from their worst motives, will somehow produce the most good.” And this: “Slavery is the legal fiction that a person is property and corporate personhood is the legal fiction that property is a person.” Ambrose Bierce and George Bernard Shaw would have endorsed his rapid-fire epigramatic approach. We can all applaud this new literary vigor in Blum’s pen (or keyboard hands): “The myth and mystique of “choice” persuades us to endorse the privatization of almost every sphere of activity.”

It’s time for Blum to collect his “Reports” of the last three or four years between the covers of a new book. (Too much time has passed since the publication of ROGUE STATE and FREEING THE WORLD TO DEATH. Time to shake up the world again, Bill.) No one has chronicled our Empire’s violent decadence better than Blum, and it would be stunning to see just how much more rotten this reeking nightmare has become under George W. Cheney’s second watch!

By: DavidG.

DavidG. — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:52:02 +0000

Capitalism has almost destroyed Western Civilization! Why should China escape its malignant cancer!

Sadly, most humans don’t have the intellect and/or the interest to examine what our world is really about and what needs to be done to save it.

My blog, like Dissident Voice, seeks answers but who’s listening, who’s doing anything, who cares?

By: HR

HR — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:37:40 +0000

USans have tended over the last 40 years to reject candidates having their best interests at heart. How else to explain Nixon, Regan, etc. Candidates who share the concerns of common folks, are discarded like so much trash, as shown most recently by the (second) rejection of Kucinich, and likely rejection this go ’round of McKinney and Nader. And, I would wager that most folks don’t have a clue to how much experience their mechanic really has, as they simply take their car to the dealership, or to some franchise outfit for service and repair, or just drive it until it stops running.

By: Giorgio

Giorgio — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:18:50 +0000

…..and the glaringly obvious solution is:

Help the impeccable Ron Paul continue to extend his grassroots support in the next few years and become US President in 2012. Meantime let the other freaks, preferably McCain, win in 2008 and thus continue to dig their own graves in Iraq…..

By: onecansay

onecansay — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 21:28:43 +0000

And i am. Matters not. Americans have a two party system, yet there is always a third party involved. That is what your constitution is. A document by the third party!

By: Don Hawkins

Don Hawkins — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 21:07:04 +0000

Summary.
Humanity today, collectively, must face the uncomfortable fact that industrial civilization itself
has become the principal driver of global climate. If we stay our present course, using fossil
fuels to feed a growing appetite for energy-intensive life styles, we will soon leave the climate of
the Holocene, the world of human history. The eventual response to doubling pre-industrial
atmospheric CO2 likely would be a nearly ice-free planet.
Humanity’s task of moderating human-caused global climate change is urgent. Ocean and
ice sheet inertias provide a buffer delaying full response by centuries, but there is a danger that
human-made forcings could drive the climate system beyond tipping points such that change
proceeds out of our control. The time available to reduce the human-made forcing is uncertain,
because models of the global system and critical components such as ice sheets are inadequate.
However, climate response time is surely less than the atmospheric lifetime of the human-caused
perturbation of CO2. Thus remaining fossil fuel reserves should not be exploited without a plan
for retrieval and disposal of resulting atmospheric CO2.
Paleoclimate evidence and ongoing global changes imply that today’s CO2, about 385 ppm,
is already too high to maintain the climate to which humanity, wildlife, and the rest of the
biosphere are adapted. Realization that we must reduce the current CO2 amount has a bright
side: effects that had begun to seem inevitable, including impacts of ocean acidification, loss of
fresh water supplies, and shifting of climatic zones, may be averted by the necessity of finding an
energy course beyond fossil fuels sooner than would otherwise have occurred.
We suggest an initial objective of reducing atmospheric CO2 to 350 ppm, with the target to
be adjusted as scientific understanding and empirical evidence of climate effects accumulate.
Limited opportunities for reduction of non-CO2 human-caused forcings are important to pursue
but do not alter the initial 350 ppm CO2 target. This target must be pursued on a timescale of
decades, as paleoclimate and ongoing changes, and the ocean response time, suggest that it
would be foolhardy to allow CO2 to stay in the dangerous zone for centuries.
A practical global strategy almost surely requires a rising global price on CO2 emissions and
phase-out of coal use except for cases where the CO2 is captured and sequestered. The carbon
price should eliminate use of unconventional fossil fuels, unless, as is unlikely, the CO2 can be
captured. A reward system for improved agricultural and forestry practices that sequester carbon
could remove the current CO2 overshoot. With simultaneous policies to reduce non-CO2
greenhouse gases, it appears still feasible to avert catastrophic climate change.
Present policies, with continued construction of coal-fired power plants without CO2 capture,
suggest that decision-makers do not appreciate the gravity of the situation. We must begin to
move now toward the era beyond fossil fuels. Continued growth of greenhouse gas emissions,
for just another decade, practically eliminates the possibility of near-term return of atmospheric
composition beneath the tipping level for catastrophic effects.
The most difficult task, phase-out over the next 20-25 years of coal use that does not capture
CO2, is herculean, yet feasible when compared with the efforts that went into World War II. The
stakes, for all life on the planet, surpass those of any previous crisis. The greatest danger is
continued ignorance and denial, which could make tragic consequences unavoidable. James Hansen and many more

Surpass those of any previous crisis. Suggest that decision-makers do not appreciate the gravity of the situation and why is that? Could it be that they are to busy pulling the wool over your eyes to blind you from the truth. No, decision- makers would never do that. I know Lloyd I went a little off subject.

By: Don Hawkins

Don Hawkins — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 20:38:13 +0000

Morpheus: The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work… when you go to church… when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.
Neo: What truth?
Morpheus: That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Into a prison that you cannot taste or see or touch. A prison for your mind.

Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment, but you humans do not.
And so it goes…..

By: hp

hp — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 16:22:55 +0000

Michael Kenny,
Spot on.

By: Max Shields

Max Shields — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 15:28:28 +0000

T.S. Eliot famously observed: “Humankind can not bear very much reality.”

And so it goes….
Max

By: Don Hawkins

Don Hawkins — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 13:54:22 +0000

There is an article two down from this one called economic cycles and political trends in the United States(part one). I guess Mr. Tremblay is going to talk in April at the Marco Island Yacht Club. I may have some stuff he can use. Mr. Tremblay I read your stuff and like the weather now day’s these constants you use could be a little outdated. In your speech at the yacht club here is a few new ideas and if you use these your next jig could be in front of the Capital, out front of the Capital on the lawn. You could start your speech at the yacht club with,” Hello people how is everybody today? Most of you sitting in this room are the chosen one’s. Now don’t be modest you know you are and for good reason. Many of you have been wise in your decisions. The business that many of you are in have sent the manufacturing of your products offshore to China and India cheap labor, brilliant. Never mind that in China most of the rivers are so polluted the water should not be put on the fields for crops and the products that come back this way have heavy metal and a few other compounds that probably shouldn’t be there. Always remember these products are for the mass’s and we all here know who they are. Never mind about that little inflation problem in China as we in this room have lot’s of dollars. Many of you probably sold mortgages to the mass’s good move as now you get money from the government, brilliant. We are at peak oil it’s Ok as we can get another 5 million a day in a few years and tar sands and more drilling like in the North because the ice is melting due to climate change caused by the burning of fossil fuels and in some circles to get that oil and gas from the North is called insanity it’s Ok we are chosen one’s remember that. Now Mr. Tremblay at this point in your speech stop talking for about a minute then in the sound system have laughter start soft laughter. Let it play for a minute or so then say, can you here that it is the laughter of the God’s. Then have a younger person in the audience stand up and yell as loud as they can, The End. Come on it would be great. Then of course go out front as the people are leaving to shake there hands as they are saying, who is that man. I am never going to another one of these again. The nerve of that man. Did he seem to be drunk.” Yes Mr. Tremblay I will be waiting for part two with great compound interest.

By: D.R. Munro

D.R. Munro — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 13:51:34 +0000

That video of the protest outside of the UN is pretty disturbing.

I wonder, their Brownshirts must have been at the cleaners that day?

We all know how violent Buddhists are, in fact, they aren’t white . . . so I think they are terrorists.

By: Michael Kenny

Michael Kenny — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 13:21:12 +0000

I wouldn’t set too much store in the talk from various European leaders about boycotts of the Olympics. Talk is cheap and words never hurt anyone. Equally, the “European street”, the “little people”, if you will, will not accept such a boycott. They want their sport and woe betide any politician who tries to interfere with it. Moreover, the sporting federations are private bodies and I don’t see how they can be prevented from going to any country they want. Indeed, any attempt to prevent them travelling would probably be contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights. Add to that the fact that China is a major trading partner and that as the US collapses, nobody sees any reason to do what the US wants. The Chinese leaders know that very well and they are wise enough to know that the European leaders have to make various noises, but that no action will follow.

Thus, Europe’s teams will be there and the European TV networks will broadcast the games more or less wall to wall. The whole thing will turn into yet another US defeat and further annoy Europeans.