Daily review 26/03/2021

18 comments on “Daily review 26/03/2021 ”

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1. Morrissey 1

   26 March 2021 at 5:40 pm

   Bellingcaught out, yet again.

   This secret state troll organization has less credibility now than ever before….

   https://thegrayzone.com/2021/03/24/author-bellingcat-opcw-whistleblower/
   • Stuart Munro 1.1

     26 March 2021 at 10:39 pm

     Oh yes – do remind us why the OPCW was in Syria in the first place – to supervise the destruction of Russian supplied chemical weapons.

     Your dodgy Russian sources can only dream of reaching Bellingcat's record of faithfully exposing state chicanery.

     They have never forgiven Bellingcat for catching them out over MH17, and their unrelenting stream of disinformatzia will by slow attrition persuade a handful of the dimmer bulbs – but no-one serious.
2. Morrissey 2

   27 March 2021 at 8:13 am

   Your dodgy Russian sources…

   ??? Aaron Maté is Canadian. The GrayZone comes out of New York.

   In your credulity and paranoia, you're almost as funny as Rachel Maddow….
   • Stuart Munro 2.1

     27 March 2021 at 8:19 am

     Your credulity and constant boosting of Putin's propaganda does you no credit. His is a murderous and unenlightened regime that no-one with any progressive intentions can support for a moment.
3. Morrissey 3

   27 March 2021 at 8:22 am

   You're funny to a point. But willy nilly accusation of everybody as a Russian agent just makes you look sad.

   Russia Russia Russia Putin Putin Putin Russia. Russia. Putin. Keep saying that every day, like you’re doing at the moment, and you might end up with a job at MSNBC.
   • Stuart Munro 3.1

     27 March 2021 at 8:41 am

     You should take a long hard look in the mirror, Morrissey – it's not I that, day in, day out, posts the third rate disinformatsia of a kleptocratic regime.

     If you were not a menkurt servant of that regime you'd be capable of reflecting on whether Russian geopolitical ambitions in Syria were in any way better than the American ones. But you are not so sophisticated.
4. Morrissey 4

   27 March 2021 at 9:28 am

   "… it's not I that, day in, day out, posts the third rate disinformatsia of a kleptocratic regime."

   And neither am I. And neither are those American and Canadian journalists, and neither are the OPCW whistleblowers who have so thoroughly exposed and debunked the British state's disinformation operation fronted by Mr Higgins.
   • Stuart Munro 4.1

     27 March 2021 at 2:02 pm

     Yes you are. And the OPCW is basically untouched by the allegations of a couple of former staffers. They have a job to do, and polishing the turd of Russian allegations is not it.

     Higgins has put quite a bit of truth out there – and that is why Russia seethes with hatred for him. He showed them up and caught them out, time and again. Guess you're an enemy of truth too.

     Why is that Morrisey? Whence comes all this passion to make the world safe for kleptocracy?
     • Morrissey 4.1.1

       28 March 2021 at 11:15 am

       Yes you are.

       Doubling down on your original absurd allegation makes it no less absurd.

       Higgins has put quite a bit of truth out there…

       So do all propagandists. Even the Nazis put "quite a lot of truth out there." The problem with Higgins, as with all state propagandists, is the untruths he puts out there. That's what journalists like those Canadians and Americans who you claim, sans evidence, are agents of "disinformatzia", and those OPCW whistleblowers who you contemptuously dismiss as “former staffers”, have exposed.
       • Stuart Munro 4.1.1.1

         28 March 2021 at 11:29 am

         Perhaps I should clarify it then, for readers less sold-out than yourself, Morrissey.

         Higgins caught Putin's FSB with their pants down, He exploded every shred of bullshit they could come up with over MH17 and proved conclusively than it was a Russian BUK that shot down MH17. He even got the names of the crew that operated it, though he didn't publish them.

         This is why the Russian propaganda crew hates them – and it is why you, as an unpaid extension of that apparatus, hate him too. The truth must not be allowed out it seems – only Kremlin approved truths may circulate.

         You put no truth out there – you have nothing but innuendo and you never had. The Russian propaganda apparatus has learned not to deal in assertions of fact – hard-working data journalists like Higgins can debunk them, or dig out the real identities of folk like the novichok poisoners.

         Uncritical lackeys of Putin's kleptocracy like yourself will never question that of course, but as a source of factual material, you are not fit to kiss Higgins's boots. And whatever pretentions you have to progressive values should make you too ashamed to circulate Putin's propaganda here or anywhere else.
5. greywarshark 5

   28 March 2021 at 10:28 am

   Murderous and unenlightened regime – Russia and whom else? And when it comes to murder there are many ways 'to kill a cat'. Some regimes kill with weapons, some poison, some just remove so much of what life needs that people die, many having lost the will to live. No regime can completely trust another, and constantly move to show aggression often with defence as a reason or excuse. The pressures are exacerbated by the constant competition for resources leading to the degradation of the growing earth by digging into it for minerals to make weapons of war, efficiency and tyranny.

   So grand, all-embracing statements about how bad Russia is, well we are all involved in that miasma – all our hands are a bit dirty no matter how often and carefully we wash them. One of the murderers of King Duncan Lady Macbeth, says in Macbeth:

   What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account? —Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him. (rubbing her hands) Come out, damned spot! Out, I command you!

   Macbeth Summary. Three witches tell the Scottish general Macbeth that he will be King of Scotland. Encouraged by his wife, Macbeth kills the king, becomes the new king, and kills more people out of paranoia. Civil war erupts to overthrow Macbeth, resulting in more death. https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/explore-shakespeare/shakespedia/shakespeares-plays/macbeth/

   Shakespeare knew his human psyche in its various manifestations. And after reading the above many men will be pointing away from themselves to women, no doubt.
   • RedLogix 5.1

     28 March 2021 at 10:32 am

     Isn't Shakespeare cancelled?
   • Drowsy M. Kram 5.2

     28 March 2021 at 10:46 am

     The pressures are exacerbated by the constant competition for resources leading to the degradation of the growing earth by digging into it for minerals to make weapons of war, efficiency and tyranny.

     It’s past time to challenge the idea that ecocide is an unavoidable ‘cost’ of modernity.

     Global Recycling Day: We need to think resource, not waste
     Society has consumed more resources in the last 50 years than in the rest of history and, of the 78 million tons of plastic packaging produced every year, only 2% of plastic packaging gets recycled in a “closed loop”. This behavior is not sustainable.

     The ongoing battle with plastic waste
     Currently, the world is not efficiently handling this resource. Only 14% of the world’s plastic waste is captured for recycling, meaning the majority of our packaging is going to landfill, being incinerated or being lost into the environment. According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 32% of plastic packaging ends up polluting our land and oceans as litter.

     Only 2% is being kept within the closed loop. That means 98% of plastic packaging currently is being lost outside of the circular economy, a truly staggering amount.

     This stems from the tradition of a linear model of ‘make, take, dispose’ when it comes to plastic packaging. Every year, more than 1.4 trillion plastic beverage containers are sold. That’s one million bottles every minute, and a figure that’s expected to grow by 20 percent by 2021.
     • RedLogix 5.2.1

       28 March 2021 at 10:57 am

       It doesn't matter whether we use resources slowly or quickly – until we can get to highly closed loop systems – the outcome will be the same.

       I think we're agreed that we cannot go backward on technology, that has it's own set of unacceptable consequences and doesn't solve the problem. And I firmly agree with your underlying case that the current status quo isn't sustainable either.

       That really only leaves us with the option of continuing to develop the trajectory we have been on for a very long time now – reduced dependence on nature and a decoupling of the human world from the natural one in order that both might thrive.
       • Sabine 5.2.1.1

         28 March 2021 at 11:56 am

         Mostly harmless again comes to mind.

         https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mostly_Harmless
       • Drowsy M. Kram 5.2.1.2

         28 March 2021 at 12:00 pm

         It doesn't matter whether we use resources slowly or quickly – until we can get to highly closed loop systems – the outcome will be the same.

         Unless 'we' change our ways the outcome will indeed be the same. Using resources quickly is the easiest way to 'sustain' modernity for just a little longer. That is the most likely path for civilisation, imho, and personally (selfishly) it suits me fine.

         In facing the fact that "the relationship between humans the (the rest of) nature is failing", 'we' could either commit to trying to save, and even strengthen the relationship, or we could give up on it as toxic and unsustainable (which it is, if ‘we’ won’t/can’t change.)

         It’s Time for a New Concept of Development Adapted to the Anthropocene
         For too long, we have pursued an economic model of development based on unsustainable production and consumption, heedless of the impact on the natural world in which we are inextricably embedded. The bill is now coming due. The COVID-19 pandemic, which began as a zoonotic disease, is only the latest example of the pressures we are placing on the planet. Unless we abandon our destructive ways and embrace a new ethic of environmental stewardship, we will endanger the integrity of the biosphere upon which human civilization ultimately depends.

         This iteration of human civilisation is, like all others, dependent on the natural world, and is exhausting/overshooting/polluting that world at an unprecedented rate. Imho, life is an entanglement, the ecomodernist manifesto notwithstanding.

         Life as entanglement
         Scholars such as Timothy Morton and Bruno Latour remind us that viewing the natural world as separated from humans is not only ethically problematic but empirically false. Microorganisms in our gut aid digestion, while others compose part of our skin. Pollinators such as bees and wasps help produce the food we eat, while photosynthetic organisms such as trees and phytoplankton provide the oxygen that we need in order to live, in turn taking up the carbon dioxide we expel.

         In the Anthropocene, we are seeing more and more how the fates of humanity and nature are intertwined. Governments and corporations have developed such control over the natural systems they exploit that they are destabilising the fundamental chemistry of the global climate system. As a result, inhospitable heat, rising seas, and increasingly frequent and extreme weather events will render millions of humans and animals refugees.

         Anthropocene: The Age of Humans
         The Anthropocene also allows us to reexamine the relationship between humans and the rest of the natural world. There has been a long-standing narrative of humanity and nature being separate; some believe that we should be the caretakers or stewards of the natural world, while others urge us to leave the environment alone and let nature run its course. But human activity is intrinsically linked to nature, and is part of it. From the land we live on to the resources we use to the trash we throw away, everything we do is tied into and impacts our surroundings. The concept of the Anthropocene underlines this fact by defining the environment based on the interactive effects of our influence. The only question now becomes how we can shape our activities so our impact on the environment is intentional and leads to meaningful outcomes.
   • Stuart Munro 5.3

     28 March 2021 at 11:43 am

     These things are matters of degree. Russia routinely slaughters journalists, and opposition MPs or opposition leaders – most first world nations are somewhat more scrupulous. They also kill foreign fishermen with some frequency. Without even the figleaf of pretention to modern values once afforded by communism, there is every reason to disparage this kind of state, and the leaders who create that culture.

     No-one has any trouble condemning the murderous or expansionist ambitions of Saudi, for example, but they lack the kind of sophisticated propaganda arm that has seduced the likes of Morrisey.
     • Sabine 5.3.1

       28 March 2021 at 11:58 am

       There is a difference to public hangings, stonings, beheadings and the simple no fuss disappearing of people in Russia.

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