alanjjohnstone
Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
The efficacy of a drug being promoted by rightwing figures worldwide for treating Covid-19 is in serious doubt after a major study suggesting the treatment is effective against the virus was withdrawn due to “ethical concerns”.
‘the introduction section of the paper appeared to have been almost entirely plagiarised. It appeared that the authors had run entire paragraphs from press releases and websites about ivermectin and Covid-19 through a thesaurus to change key words.’
The first of many more to come?
Australia, one of the world’s biggest fossil fuel exporters, has strongly criticised the European Union’s proposal to enact a carbon border tax.
Australia has argued that such a tariff would be “protectionist” and could breach trade rules.
“Russiagate” re-surfaces
Trump is an “impulsive, mentally unstable and unbalanced individual who suffers from an inferiority complex”…It is acutely necessary to use all possible force to facilitate his election to the post of US president…This would help bring about Russia’s favoured “theoretical political scenario”. A Trump win “will definitely lead to the destabilisation of the US’s sociopolitical system” and see hidden discontent burst into the open, it predicts.
EU proposes its climate change policies
Greenpeace derided them as “a fireworks display over a rubbish dump”.
“Celebrating these policies is like a high-jumper claiming a medal for running in under the bar,” Greenpeace EU director Jorgo Riss said.
Greta Thunberg said that unless the EU “tears up” its proposals, “the world will not stand a chance of staying below 1.5C of global heating”.
Campaigners are also worried about “accounting tricks”, such as the freedom for EU member states to use offsets – buying emissions reduction credits from a better performing country – rather than do the hard work at home.
Greens are also alarmed by what they see as a failure to close a big loophole.
Critics argue it is risking a backlash from low and middle-income earners who depend on cars, in a potential repeat of the confrontation between the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the gilets jaunes (yellow vests) protesters over fuel taxes. The commission proposals could add an extra €429 to average household energy bills, and €373 increase in driving costs.
But more importantly, business is not happy
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-57833807
Corporate lobby BusinessEurope denounced the plan, saying it “risks destabilising the investment outlook” for sectors such as steel, cement, aluminium, fertilisers and electric power “enormously”.
Willie Walsh, head of the International Air Transport Association, said: “We don’t need persuading, or punitive measures like taxes to motivate change.”
https://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2021/07/feeding-profit-systemi.html
The industrial food production impacts
The Amazon rainforest is now emitting more carbon dioxide than it is able to absorb, scientists have confirmed.
The giant forest had previously been a carbon sink, absorbing the emissions driving the climate crisis, but is now causing its acceleration, researchers said.
The emissions amount to a billion tonnes of carbon dioxide a year
Taliban are reported to have raised their flag above a key border post between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and claim it is now under their control. Pakistani officials confirmed the Taliban had taken the post. The Taliban took the border crossing with no resistance.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-57818221
I think perhaps we will witness a repeat of the Fall of Saigon, although perhaps the footage will lack the sight of NVA tanks and will be a bit more drawn out as towns and cities surrender to the Taliban
Canada’s Green Party in-fighting
More Attacks on Palestine Solidarity from Green Party Leadership
“when we specifically single out Israelis, I worry about the buzzwords and subtext and code language, which is anti-Semitic.”
The progressive left defends the Cuban crackdown
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/07/13/hidden-hand-us-blockade-sparks-cuba-protests
“U.S. media have paid little attention to the counter protesters, who have gone out into the streets to express their support for the government and Cuban Revolution.”
Biden’s administration has so far approved fossil fuel drilling permits on public and tribal lands at a faster rate than Obama and Trump, his two immediate predecessors, a new Associated Press analysis has found.
“We’re not only subsidizing the climate and ecological crisis,” climate activist Greta Thunberg tweeted in response to the new reporting, “we’re speeding it up.”
“China poses the greatest long-term challenge to the United States and strengthening deterrence against China will require DoD to work in concert with other instruments of national power,” the Pentagon’s 2022 Defense Budget Overview asserts. “A combat-credible Joint Force will underpin a whole-of-nation approach to competition and ensure the Nation leads from a position of strength.”
Funds to be spent on the procurement of advanced ships, planes, and missiles intended for a potential all-out, “high-intensity” war with China and deemed essential for a future high-tech arms race with China.
A 2026 scenario described
Australia’s media complicity in promoting the lab-leak theory
Prof Dominic Dwyer, who was part of the World Health Organization investigation in January says the Australian media had been caught up by political concerns instead of science.
Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s Americas director, said at least 140 Cubans were believed to have been detained.
“The idea is to punish those who dare to challenge the government … and send a message” that no further protests would be tolerated, said Guevara-Rosas
Rallies had taken place in at least 48 separate locations, including Havana.
Reporters Without Borders named the Cuban president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, as one of the “press freedom predators” of 2021, alongside Nicaragua’s authoritarian leader, Daniel Ortega, and Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, and called Cuba “Latin America’s worst media freedom violator”.
Personally, I am still unsure if this is purely a pandemic phenomenon or something more fundamental and radical.
Matt, another article referring to the Suffragette Ju-Jitsu training and their violence in general
