The Best Links On The Net: 4-28-2020 by Jenova Project
A collection of the best links gathered around the net on a wide variety of engaging substances. I hope you all enjoy! All links are found up on The People's Party Of Planet Earth on Facebook for discussion. Feel free to join in, and submit your own articles for discussion as well:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/thepeoplespartyofplanetearth/
All links are collected by theProphet, founder of The Infidel Netwerk, and songwriter performer behind Jenova Project & M-Fap. Keep up to date with his latest happening on his official Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/thetruejenovaproject/
Economics & Sociology
Bernie Supporting Young Millenials And The Looming Economic Crisis: Prospects For Change by Dissident Voice
Commentary: Millennials, all 75+ million of them, in the US really had a shitty end of the stick before being some of the lowest-paid individuals with some of the highest costs of living to be seen in generations. Now with the crisis devastating much of the gig and service economy, they were relying on (and encouraged to do so), and with little safety net from before, Millenials could become one of the biggest faces of civil disorder/unrest.
Capitalism Can’t Be Repaired, Coronavirus Shows Its Huge Weaknesses by Counterpunch
Commentary: Could a massive shift from the private to the public work sector be exactly what is needed in response to this virus? Especially when the private work sector can't provide the jobs the economy needs.
Essential Protections for Essential Workers by Project Syndicate
Commentary: In a country where many of the guarantees that have protected other countries' vulnerable populations during this hard time are simply absent, it makes sense that this COVID crisis devastating communities. From lack of proper healthcare to lack of financial options to protect oneself or potentially even survive in the coming months, this crisis is showing not only how crisis-prone the country is, but how desperate much of the population was prior to the crisis already. Fixing these systemic issues is the only way to guarantee many people a living dignity, and soften the blow of the crisis in future invertible pandemics.
Restaurants Across the US Turn Parking Lots Into Drive-In Movie Theaters and Find Huge Success by The Mind Unleashed
Commentary: Looks like makeshift drive-in's may have some potential save the restaurant & movie industries! I always loved drive-ins so this is a win for me!
Lockdown Therapy For Capitalism by Off-Guardian
Link: https://off-guardian.org/2020/04/27/lockdown-therapy-for-capitalism/
Commentary: Critical discussions on how to protect our freedoms and most vulnerable always end up with the elites and policymakers being "concerned" and "looking into things" while raking up huge benefit to themselves through subsidies, grants, bailouts, or Draconian government measures which give more power to those already in power and less opportunity for those who don't have some to get some. Yes, the push towards a fourth technical online revolution out of this has a lot of promise, but only if it's held in the hands of the people with their well being and intentions considered. If we usher in a new digital era with only profiteering in mind, then the current pyramid-like top-down economic structure will just persist, with even more devastating effects as "real-world" jobs become irreplaceable. This whole article can really be summarized into this one potent statement: "A society that can’t sustain artists is a society that kills minds to care, understand, empathize and share. A society that enforces its imperatives with fear instead of trust in humanity deprives a healthy mechanism to guide itself."
"Pedophile Hunter" Catches Child Predator, Cops Show Up, Arrest Him, Let Predator Go by The Free Thought Project
Link: https://thefreethoughtproject.com/underage-sexual-predator-hunter-arrested/
Commentary: I understand the need to discourage vigilantism, but this man wasn't being violent. You think the police would care enough about children to actually do something about this. It's sad that there are probably laws that prevent them from doing so. It's almost like the law systems protect child abuse rings through excessive arbitrary bureaucracy.
Population and Economics: What Comes After COVID-19? by SciTechDaily
Link: https://scitechdaily.com/population-and-economics-what-comes-after-covid-19/
Commentary: The short term environmental impact of all this seems to be positive, but Russian scientists predict this won't stay the case and sadly I think I agree. Environmental regulations will be shooed away in the face of trying to restart the economy. And oil ain't dead folks. It may not be the money-making industry it used to, but that doesn't stop the fact that tons of our products and energy is still made from it or runs off of it.
Record Inequality, COVID-19, and the Crisis of the Have-Nots by Counterpunch
Link: https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/04/27/record-inequality-covid-19-and-the-crisis-of-the-have-nots/
Commentary: Sad that it takes a crisis for people to realize just how bad inequality has been dragging down the West. Better late then never they say... I guess unless the powers that be are just using this as a chance to enforce more of the draconian dictatorship they have in mind... which is probably the case... but oh well...
One Man's Radical Plan To Solve Wealth Inequality by Wired
Link: https://www.wired.com/story/one-mans-radical-plan-to-solve-wealth-inequality/
Commentary: Sorry but not sorry, extreme times take extreme solutions. Nobody needs more than a billion anyways. Wouldn't we rather sacrifice billionaires for the future of this planet? I know I would...
There’s Another Even Deadlier Pandemic Right Now: it’s called Stupidity by Dissident Voice
Commentary: Sadly it is our own willingness to let every form of corruption and malpractice exist for the sake of profit and faux efficiency that has led us to almost every crisis we have faced, the COVID-19 being no exception. If we actually followed the advice of our medical and technical professionals and closed the corruption loopholes and safety hazards we were already warned about then a lot of the things that are being exaggerated to crisis level by this virus wouldn't be as tragically impactful.
Enviroment
“Global Diversity Curves Are Misleading” – Ocean Biodiversity Has Not Increased Substantially for Hundreds of Millions of Years by SciTechDaily
Commentary: An interesting find that biodiversity generally doesn't massively increase except for during key points. You get an explosion of biodiversity and then it maintains. It gives me both hope and fear for the future. It shows just how much damage we are doing then, cause if there's been basically a massively biodiverse system for millions of years then we come around with the Industrial revolution and everything goes into a free fall spiral of death... not good. HOWEVER, on the flip side, it shows new and fresh biodiversity can come out of the environmental crisis. Let's just hope we don't tip the scales of the planet so far that we make the redevelopment of biodiversity difficult or impossible, which is what I think a major concern is because most major crisis that happened in the past were events while humans are more like a continuous ever-increasing force.
Meet the conservative answer to the Green New Deal by Grist
Link: https://grist.org/politics/meet-the-conservative-answer-to-the-green-new-deal/
Commentary: The realist and idealist in my are highly conflicted by this. As the article mentions there is an increased likelihood to get bi-partisan support on a bill like this, which would get the climate action ball moving way quicker which could in further years and administrations be more easily strengthened. HOWEVER, it also is a way to little way to late sort of bill when we have a crisis coming.
Sweden Shuts Down Its Last Coal Plant Two Years Early by EcoWatch
Link: https://www.ecowatch.com/sweden-last-coal-plant-closes-2645853366.html
Commentary: We needed some good news! Let's hope the focus to renewables continues in years ahead and doesn't get forgotten during an economic renewal post-crisis.
The Moralistic Mauvaise Foi of “Planet of the Humans” by Dissident Voice
Link: https://dissidentvoice.org/2020/04/the-moralistic-mauvaise-foi-of-planet-of-the-humans/
Commentary: Being critical of environmental organization corruption or gullibility important, and I even commend the recent Michael Moore produced environmental focused documentary for that, but the sensationalized over focus and heavy-handed conclusion are not in line with reality and may do more harm to the movement than good.
The Solutions to the Climate Crisis No One is Talking About by Common Dreams
Link: https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/04/25/solutions-climate-crisis-no-one-talking-about
Commentary: I never understood why Americans were so scared of a Green New Deal. It's like they literally don't read or look into anything they actually fear (oh yeah they don't). It literally provides more jobs and security for everybody then the current trajectory does. There's far more automation to be had in established industries (like oil) where the process and routines are so well established and developed you can get advanced machines to replace humans. With the Green New Deal not only are you saving your environment and economy, but you're also providing lots more jobs setting up the infrastructure and developing newer and better technologies as the industry is still so young and fresh.
The world is on lockdown. So where are all the carbon emissions coming from? by Grist
Commentary: Personal blame politics with the environment really are exposed with this pandemic. People aren't traveling yes we're still skyrocketing emissions. Why? Because our power systems, in general, need to be transitioned to Green alternatives. Our transportation is only a chunk of the pie when this issue is concerned.
Unique B.C. trout population suffers 93 per cent crash downstream of Teck’s Elk Valley coal mines by The Narwhal
Link: https://thenarwhal.ca/teck-resources-elk-valley-mines-bc-fish/
Commentary: Every time I see government or corporate environmental studies being done I always roll my eyes. Studies NEVER GET LISTENED TO unless they are being used in some sort of political fashion to manipulate economics or business opportunity. If business wants to continue on as normal, it usually does. This is really sad to see, but completely unsurprising. Like seriously, setting scientific recommendation that it shouldn't be more than 2 parts per billion selenium in the water, but then setting the actual regulatory guidelines to be like 155 is fucked beyond belief. Shows how out of touch policymakers are with the scientists they are supposedly contracting and listening to. Even more disturbing is how the Government when contacted about such issues always show their "concern" but then do nothing about it just like policymakers are showing concern for small business and people with mental health issues or physical disabilities, but then are doing very little to help them in the long term with the COVID crisis. But back to the selenium contamination. There was a task force set up due to concern about this in the 90s. This is 30 years later, DEAL WITH IT or we won't be having rivers with life in it much longer.
With Tourists Gone, Australian Scuba Tours Are Planting Coral on Great Barrier Reef Instead by The Mind Unleashed
Commentary: So glad that the tourist companies that keep a bunch of Australia's towns afloat are switching their efforts to Conservation. Talk about a good use of time and resources! But by God, I feel so bad for all off these communities that basically rely on tourism to keep economically sound. Yet another way in which this crisis gonna devastate communities.
Health
A Terrible Triage: How COVID-19 Speaks to Our Future by Canadian Dimension
Link: https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/a-terrible-triage-how-covid-19-speaks-to-our-future
Commentary: If we don't plan for our ever-increasingly elderly population, the crisis we currently face in our understaffed underfunded and usually terribly conditioned senior care homes is just gonna multiply to an even more unmanageable level.
BC Seniors’ Homes Problems Aren’t New. The Virus Showed They Could Be Deadly by The Tyee
Link: https://thetyee.ca/News/2020/04/27/BC-Seniors-Homes-Problems-Arent-New/
Commentary: Now we know the costs? Ha, we always knew the costs and we chose to ignore them because that's what we do to our elderly. We push them away and ignore them during their worst times of need. What's the point in having standards and regulations if they never get followed... It's not just the senior care industry, it's every industry there is serious profit to made. If they can skirt costs and/or responsibility for their errors they will do so, and it's up to us as a population to hold these places accountable. I think any senior care home facility that gets multiple failed inspections should be taken from their owners and nationalized...
Canada's for-profit model of long-term care has failed the elderly, says leading expert by CBC
Commentary: Honestly, I don't have much to say about this other than I 100% agree and have been saying this myself: Nationalize our long-term care for the safety of our elders. The profit model and healthcare don't mix as much efficiency is gathered at the expense of the health of the clients.
Dr. David Katz explains health risks of lengthy lockdowns and why COVID-19 turns chronic diseases into acute threats by The Georgia Straight
Commentary: I more or less agree. We can't just go willy nilly open everything up and be silly. We have to be cautious, continue to tech health precautions, maybe even do elements of social distancing. But health people should be the ones going back into society first and getting things restarted. We can't have extremes of all-out or no one out. Both will lead to large issues economically or health-wise, and our economics and health cross over a lot so either problem will seep back into the other if we let it.
New Dual-Action Coating Invented to Prevent Bacterial Cross-Contamination of Fresh Produce by SciTechDaily
Commentary: I never even considered the effects of cross-contamination of food on conveyor belts and other surfaces in the store that are shared. This sort of tech could really help deal with this hidden problem I didn't even consider!
New Poll Shows Nearly 90% Of Democrat Voters Support Medicare For All by Truthout
Commentary: How the current Presidential nominee for the Democratic Party hasn't openly called four Medicare for all, not only during these times in general, but during this specific crisis, is beyond me. Shows how out of touch he is with his base. How he got the nomination at all is beyond me... oh no it's not, it was rigged by the media and DNC establishment in collusion with Republicans who were running many of the States at the time of the primary.
The Only Thing We Have to Fear Is … Fearing Fear Itself by Wired
Link: https://www.wired.com/story/the-only-thing-we-have-to-fear-is-fearing-fear-itself/
Commentary: Fear and anxiety are our natural responses to environments/situations gone wrong. Ever think that the reason anxiety was prior to this crisis already at crisis levels (with record levels of people take anti-depressents every year to help control anxiety levels) possibly due to us having an internal response to our profoundly dysfunctional world? Interestingly enough though, it seems like this virus/crisis has brought out the most focused and contained level of anxiety in American so far with "A plurality of people... survey[ed] reported feeling nervous, anxious, and on edge only 'some or a little of the time' whereas just 19 percent said they felt these emotions 'most or all of the time.' "
True Coronovirus Death Toll Likely 60% Higher Than Officials Count, Study Finds by We Are Change
Commentary: Crazy to think that the death toll could be so much higher than currently estimated. It's interesting how some outlets will say things are being overreported, while others will claim underreported. I'd be interested to see if it's a combination of both.
What Are The Motives Behind The COVID-19 Hysteria? by Activist Post
Link: https://www.activistpost.com/2020/04/what-are-the-motives-behind-the-covid-19-hysteria.html
Commentary: It can be difficult to balance the need for panic and calm, security, and opportunity. It becomes even more confusing when the establishment is clearly lying about statistics to help create their own narrative which will then be used to prop up their own goals.
Politics & Military
Coronavirus stimulus spurs near-record first-quarter lobbying spending by Open Secrets
Link: https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2020/04/coronavirus-stimulus-spurs-lobbying/
Commentary: Lobbying (aka legal political bribing) shouldn't be allowed period, let alone to get more of the recovery stimulus during a crisis of unheard-of proportions.
“Full Measure” Interview with FCC Chair Ajit Pai: U.S. Not “Heavy Handed” When Regulating Telecoms by Activist Post
Commentary: When I heard Ajit Pai was gonna be the head of the FCC I was like "oh shit, there goes everything good about the internet and technological world". And I wasn't entirely wrong. From the destruction of net neutrality of the unsafe rollout of 5G, among many other things, this administration's FCC has been a shit show even worse than previous shit shows we've had. It's crazy how every time you think things can't get worse they do.
Koch-Funded Think Tanks Are Lobbying to Send Workers to Their Deaths by Truthout
Link: https://truthout.org/articles/koch-funded-think-tanks-are-lobbying-to-send-workers-to-their-deaths/
Commentary: Really no surprise here. The people who are responsible for their being no safety net want everyone go back into the dirt and grime. Right-wingers only care about profits, not their workers. Very short-sighted though as large scale death or incapacitation of workers will just cripple the economy from lack of people working to lack of people spending money.
National Guard Deployed At Nation's Food Banks To Ensure Stability During Unprecedented Times by Zero Hedge
Commentary: My biggest concern about this pandemic for me personally, as someone who deals with both income insecurity and a lot of dietary restrictions, was food crisis. Sadly, it already begins, and when the military comes out you know they are preparing for the worst.
New Anti-China Propaganda Uses Russiagate Playbook by Antiwar
Commentary: Interesting but predictable that the Russia-gate playbook is being used by the American intelligence and military establishment to justify the terrible situation they are in. Anything but blame themselves right?
Time To Get the Hell Out of Korea by Antiwar
Link: https://original.antiwar.com/doug-bandow/2020/04/26/time-to-get-the-hell-out-of-korea/
Commentary: You know, I never thought I'd agree with a military pullout of South Korea, but the way this article explains it actually makes sense. The cost to benefit is really not that great considering North Korea is a failed State and South Korea has full capabilities to take care of themselves. Maybe provide some counter missile support if the nuclear program in the North goes much farther, but stationing full-time bases seem unnecessary and costly.
Science & Tech
On Covid-19, a Respected Science Watchdog Raises Eyebrows by Undark
Link: https://undark.org/2020/04/24/john-ioannidis-covid-19-death-rate-critics/
Commentary: Could sloppy science be behind the Standford scientist who is downplaying the negative impacts of COVID-19?
Flying Cars Could Take Off Soon, If We Let the Military Help by Wired
Link: https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-flying-cars-could-take-off-soon-if-we-let-the-military-help/
Commentary: I'm not normally for pro-military stuff, but there's no doubt the amount that military has some of the best scientist, tech, and resources, so if you wanted to make the dream of a flying car a reality (Which would be hugely beneficial to both business and rescue services) getting their help in the final stages might not be the worst idea. It's not like they weren't gonna get access to the tech anyways, might as well get their mula to finish it.
Get out of the way: The 1st restartable solid rocket fuel could help reduce space junk by Space
Link: https://www.space.com/restartable-solid-rocket-fuel-space-junk.html
Commentary: It's crazy how many low earth orbit objects we have up there, and how many more are being put up. And none of them have this revolutionary tech. I really hope that all future ones get this safe and effective propulsion system that's been newly designed, and they begin to start a process of decommissioning old satellites, because if we lost access to low earth orbit for decades (like is a potential if there was a series of major collisions up there which could set off a domino effect making the whole area unusable until it's cleaned up, which we don't even have the tech for now) it would devastate our current technological infrastructure.
Harvard and Arizona law professors lay out the case for online “speech control” by Reclaim The Net
Link: https://reclaimthenet.org/law-professors-speech-control/
Commentary: China is not the way to go when looking how to control your online world, and listening to academic stiffs who are sucking up to a Draconian system they wish to be furtherly engrained is not good for everyone. If China was more open and honest with the world maybe we could have prepared for this pandemic, or hell even prevented it's spread. But by shutting out voices of truth they potentially made this issue x10 worse. Not to mention, online freedom is one of the things we in the West recognize the most as being something imperative for our continued elements of any freedom we have. We need to be able to voice what the MSM will not freely without fear of being contained. WE MUST NOT GO THE WAY OF CHINA!
Monitoring the public after coronavirus by Intrepid Report
Link: http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/29749
Commentary: Measures of extra surveillance and extra authority can often be extremely useful in times of crisis and panic, especially if you wanna maintain the integrity of the systems created. That being said, look at things like The Patriot act. Designed to help during the Bush Administrations War on Terror, but despite terrorist threats being increasingly less of a domestic issue the act is continually renewed and more often used against the American people then anything else. Laws to protect become laws to control, and that is what we need to oppose.
Narrative Managers Argue China Like Internet Censorship Is Needed by Caitlin Johnstone
Commentary: Another excellent article dissecting the terrifying The Atlantic article written by a Bush administration lawyer which praises China's heavy-handed techno tyranny. Not only is the fact that there is such a push for that level of censorship going on currently frightening to anyone who values liberty but how the article exposes the major technology companies' current efforts to already mass censor online content in collusion with governments is equally if far more concerning.
Precision Injection System Developed for Plants – Delivers Micronutrients, Hormones, or Genes by SciTechDaily
Commentary: Extremely promising research to help plants in a post-pesticide world where their effectiveness and our safety are in debate.
SpaceX's SN4 Starship prototype passes key pressure test by Space
Link: https://www.space.com/spacex-starship-sn4-prototype-pressure-test-success.html
Commentary: Looks like SpaceX has been making huge progress even despite losing out on some key government grants to Amazon's Blue Origin. Go Elon Go! If anyone can safely bring us to mars it's probably him. He certainly has the ambition, and he seems to keep finding the funding!
Superintelligent, Amoral, and Out of Control by Nautilus
Link: http://nautil.us/issue/84/outbreak/superintelligent-amoral-and-out-of-control
Commentary: Superintelligent AI are part of our future, there is no doubt about that. But making sure there is proper safeguards into their implementation is gonna be essential to our survival in the long term as these things surpass our abilities in almost every way.
Techno-Tyranny: How The US National Security State Is Using Coronavirus To Fufill An Orwellian Vision by The Last American Vagabond
Commentary: I can just see a bunch of military scientists and generals sitting around in a room once COVID-19 hit, scratching their beards full super-villain style with a white cat in their lap, someone pipes up "Soooo, we could have an appropriate response to this right? Or, now hear me out guys... we could let this turn to all shit and use it as an excuse to implement a series of draconian policies that will help us get a future tech advantage against China. What do you think about that idea". And everybody just starts high fiving, the champagne comes out, and the whole American population was screwed over with glee. All jokes aside, I don't entirely disagree with some of the military assessments that we need to get rid of systems that are functional, but could be substantially improved by AI, I just disagree with the methods they are going about achieving their goals.
YouTube and Twitter censor medical research center’s UV therapy after NY Times journalist probe by Reclaim The Net
Link: https://reclaimthenet.org/youtube-censors-uv-light-therapy-video/
Commentary: This is a HUGE problem with fact-checking and online censorship. These companies and fact-checkers often don't have the historical, sociological, technological, or scientific knowledge to make adequate decisions on what is true or not. It's easy to dismiss things that have been politicized incorrectly as being incorrect themselves, but that is not the case a lot of the time. Light-based medical therapies aren't hogwash and have been explored in a legitimate light (excuse the pun) in recent years with many great breakthroughs. Just because Donald Trump went on an incoherent rant about light-based therapies, doesn't mean they are all wrong, and censoring legitimate companies that have been doing potential breakthrough research into these things just for faux political reasons is fucked up. We need to have a third party regulatory organization fact-checking the fact-checkers and censors, and there needs to be some sort of appeal board that's a lot more public and fair so that it's not left up to the judgement of tech overlords who and what is true or not.