alanjjohnstone
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An interesting read.
In addition, the choice to domesticate animals as a source of food has exposed us to additional zoonotic diseases. If we needed another reason to become vegetarians—or stop eating species that are genetically similar to humans—it might be to reduce our vulnerability to zoonotic diseases.”
😛
This could easily be posted on that other topic thread why meat-eating will be a transformed custom.
I’m daily faced by Asian superstitious beliefs but they are not too far distant from UK trust in winning the lottery and the process that they pick their lucky numbers.
Another useful article on the psychology of conspiracy
https://www.dw.com/en/latest-conspiracy-theories-repeat-old-stories/a-53603358
“The Age of Enlightenment introduced this mechanical view of all things being related to cause and effect, and this led to conspiracy theories,” Butter told DW about the modern incarnation of these plots. “It was assumed that there was a deliberate intention behind every action.”
The so-called Soros conspiracy
https://apnews.com/f01f3c405985f4e3477e4e4ac27986e5
Experts who study conspiracy theories say the new claims about Soros are a way to delegitimize the protests and the actual reasons behind them. Some see anti-Semitism, or a new spin on the age-old hoax that a shadowy cabal of rich men — whether it’s the Illuminati, the Rothschilds, the Rockefellers, Bill Gates or Soros — is manipulating world events.
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-53104730
Columbia University professor economist Jeffrey Sachs said the deepening cold war between the US and China will be a bigger worry for the world than coronavirus.
“The US is a force for division, not for cooperation,”
US slave reparations?
Around the time the United States formally abolished slavery in 1865, African Americans owned 0.5% of the United States’ wealth. Today they own under 3%, even though around 13% of the population is defined by the U.S. census as “black or African American.” This isn’t an accident of history – it’s a result of government policies and institutional bias.
Slavery lasted for nearly 250 years – almost equivalent to the time from the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 until today. University of Connecticut Professor Thomas Craemer estimates the present value of unpaid wages for just the 89 years after independence to be nearly $20 trillion using a 3% interest rate. Use a 6% rate, and that reparations bill rises to almost $7 quadrillion. That is around 50 times global GDP.
An 1865 order set aside land for black households, the promise of “forty acres and a mule.” A Roosevelt Institute report by Duke University Professor William Darity and writer Kirsten Mullen estimates that at least 40 million acres should have been allocated. If the value grew at a 6% compound interest rate, it would today be worth over $3 trillion – more than the market capitalizations of Amazon.com and Apple combined.
Lost land and wages are only the beginning. Add compensation for racist segregation laws, mass incarceration, employment discrimination and exclusions in government programs.
Households that identify as black or African American have roughly $800,000 less in mean net wealth than their white counterparts. Apply that to the population, and the wealth gap comes to over $13 trillion.
And if African-Americans have a claim what about the many African nations who suffered?
We saw with the Holocaust the reparations went mostly to the Israeli state. The Roma were neglected for many decades since they had no formal representation.
Apart from a few token billions given to certain institutions and government programs, i see little success in the campaign.
Hard-liner Tzipi Hotovely, Israel’s settlements minister, has been namedas ambassador to the UK.
She has described herself as “a religious rightwinger” and rejects Palestinian claims to any part of the West Bank, Gaza or East Jerusalem. In a speech in 2015, she said Israel had tried too hard to appease the world. “This land is ours. All of it is ours. We did not come here to apologise for that.”
800 British Jews have signed a petition posted online by the anti-occupation campaign group Na’amod highlighting Hotovely’s “appalling record of racist and inflammatory behaviour” and calling on the UK government to reject her nomination as ambassador. The appointment of envoys requires the approval of the host country. A counter-petition supporting Hotovely attracted 240 signatures.
<p class=”css-h6rhrn”>A spokesperson for Na’amod said: “There is clearly growing unrest in our community about Israel’s blatant disregard for human rights, and people increasingly realise that it is time to take a stand.”</p>
<p class=”css-h6rhrn”>Laura Janner-Klausner, the senior rabbi to Reform Judaism, also criticised Hotovely’s record. “Her political views on Palestinians, annexation and religious pluralism clash with our core values,” she said.</p>
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/20/outrage-as-hardliner-tzipi-hotovely-is-chosen-as-next-israeli-ambassador-to-ukHotovely launched an outspoken attack on the Board of Deputies over its support for a Palestinian state in its 2019 Jewish Manifesto. She accused the Board of failing to consult “Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, our ambassador, any other political authority” ahead of the manifesto’s release.
In 2017 her talk at Princeton University was cancelled following a petition by a student group called the Alliance of Jewish Progressives.
Capitalism co-opts race
Multinational companies in recent years have snapped up products aimed at Black consumers and marketed those brands as authentically Black…Black spending power in the United States is expected to rise to $1.5 trillion by 2021, from about $1.3 trillion last year,
An interesting article on the lesser of two evils comparing Chomsky and Greenwald.
Chomsky believes that it is so imperative that Trump be defeated that he will vote for Biden. “the future of humanity is at stake, this is a unique moment.”
Greenwald argues that when you pledge your unconditional support to politicians, you have no leverage: “They have no reason to do anything but ignore you with contempt because you’ve put yourself in a subservient position . . . where you say, ‘I don’t care how much you trample on my values, I’m still going to vote for you.’ Why would anybody listen to a group of people who say that?” Politicians are not going to make concessions to people who have already pledged, at the end of the day, to vote for them anyway. This strategy, for Greenwald, guarantees your impotence. Politicians are going to give concession to people who they believe they still must win over.
Once again Wolff mixes some pertinent points with nonsense such as calling for the return of FDR’s New Deal.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/06/19/how-workers-can-win-the-class-war-being-waged-against-them/
The Bank of England, holds 1.7 billion euros ($1.9bn) of disputed Venezuelan gold bars. Maduro says they belong to his administration’s central bank. Guaido, who the British government recognises as Venezuela’s rightful leader, says the bars are his to control.
Next week, a British commercial court will begin deciding whose claim is just, after the Venezuelan central bank (BCV) sued the Bank of England to gain access. A decision is not expected until August or September
Whether its health, the environment or animal welfare, scientific evidence is that meat-free diets are best. Eating plants is simply a far more efficient use of the planet’s stretched resources than feeding the plants to animals and then eating them. The global livestock herd and the grain it consumes takes up 83% of global farmland, but produces just 18% of food calories. The evidence is clear that consuming less meat and more plants is good for both our health and the planet’s The fact that some plant crops have problems is not a reason to eat meat instead. If you want to eat healthily and sustainably, you don’t have to stop eating meat and dairy altogether. The planetary health diet allows for a beef burger, some fish and an egg each week, and a glass of milk or some cheese each day.
18 meat-eating claims debunked
Just watched a You Tube documentary on WWI where the first black regiment sent to the front, the 369th, nicknamed the Harlem Hellfighters, did not fight in American units but were seconded to the French and fought in French uniform alongside the French under the French flag and they would received French medals, not American, to maintain segregation.
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-53102585
The Bank of England and the Church of England have both apologised for the role that some of their senior figures played in the slave trade.
Former Bank of England governors and directors profited from slavery, as did a bishop and dozens of other clergymen.
The Bank said it would ensure that images of former governors who were involved in the slave trade are not displayed in its buildings.
The Church described its history as a “source of shame”.
“Slavery and exploitation have no place in society,” a Church spokeswoman said.
[Didn’t the church go on a walk of contrition already a few years back]
Wage slavery persists and exploitation remains and who is sorry
