.................RATIONAL THINKING.................. مرا جهل در کامِ دیو میبَرَد.............از آن دوستی میکنم با خِرَد
January 21, 2022
American Secretary of State Antony Blinken is shuttling across Europe this week vowing that Washington “desperately wants peace not war” with Russia. This touchy-feely sentiment comes amid reports of additional American and British weapons supplies heading to the NATO-backed Kiev regime.
Jan. 20, 2022
Patrick Healy and
How do independent voters feel about President Biden and America after his first year in office? Let’s put it this way: His weak approval ratings might go up if he pulled a Trump and just declared that America was moving on from the pandemic and he was going all in against inflation and high gas prices. Never mind about voting rights or avoiding another Jan. 6. It’s the economy, Joe.
So it seemed listening to a new Times Opinion focus group with 14 independent voters, who are far more worried about their finances than about Covid’s impact, as the transcript of the conversation below shows. Asked what they held Mr. Biden responsible for and what they would tell him if they had the chance, the independents emphasized energy prices, the economy and the importance of being a moderate, as well as a desire to avoid Covid mandates and lockdowns. The virus might not be done with America, but several of these independents are done with the virus.
In June a statistic floated across my desk that startled me. In 2020, the number of miles Americans drove fell 13 percent because of the pandemic, but the number of traffic deaths rose 7 percent.
I couldn’t figure it out. Why would Americans be driving so much more recklessly during the pandemic? But then in the first half of 2021, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, motor vehicle deaths were up 18.4 percent even over 2020. Contributing factors, according to the agency, included driving under the influence, speeding and failure to wear a seatbelt.
Why are so many Americans driving irresponsibly?
The US has become a country of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich and we remain in the throes of a struggle to overcome decades of political corruption and social neglect.
Almost a year after Joe Biden's narrow election victory over Donald Trump, the United States remains on a knife-edge. Many political outcomes are possible. These range from the gradual economic and political reform that Biden is seeking to the subversion of elections and constitutional rule that Trump attempted last January—and that he and the Republican Party are still intent on pursuing.
It's not easy to diagnose exactly what ails America at its core so deeply that it incited the Trump movement. Is it the ceaseless culture wars that divide America by race, religion, and ideology? Is it the increase in inequality of wealth and power to unprecedented levels? Is it America's diminishing global power, with the rise of China and the repeated disasters of US-led wars of choice leading to national agony, frustration, and confusion?
January 2, 2022
By 2025, American democracy could collapse, causing extreme domestic political instability, including widespread civil violence. By 2030, if not sooner, the country could be governed by a right-wing dictatorship.
We mustn’t dismiss these possibilities just because they seem ludicrous or too horrible to imagine. In 2014, the suggestion that Donald Trump would become president would also have struck nearly everyone as absurd. But today we live in a world where the absurd regularly becomes real and the horrible commonplace.
Leading American academics are now actively addressing the prospect of a fatal weakening of U.S. democracy.
Discover Magazine: January/ February 2022
Asteroid strikes, supernova blasts and other calamities that could take out humanity
Life is resilient
The first living things on Earth appeared as far back as 4 billion years ago, according to some scientists. Throughout Earth’s history, it’s seen all manner of cataclysms. These disparate doomsdays have killed countless like-forms. And at times, those mass extinctions have even eliminated most species on Earth.
Yet life has always rebounded. New species emerge. The cycle repeats.
So, what would it take to kill off
life in full? Here are just a few possible doomsday events that could
permanently extinguish all life on Earth- and the last one is likely
unavoidable.
Iran has launched a satellite carrier rocket bearing three research devices into space, according to state media, as difficult negotiations over its tattered nuclear deal with world powers continue in Vienna.
The reports on Thursday did not say when the launch was conducted, nor what devices the carrier brought with it. It was unclear whether any of the objects entered orbit around the Earth.
Previous launches have drawn rebukes from the United States, which unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear deal in May 2018 and reimposed sanctions against Iran.
"America" is an American history book by Victor Kiernan first published in 1978. The book analyzes how this country was formed and how it became one of the greatest empires of the twentieth century. An epilogue is added to the 2015 edition by John Trumpbour that updates events between these two dates.
Negotiations over restoring the nuclear agreement with Iran aren’t quite moribund, but the Biden administration has begun to sound a bit like its predecessor in muttering threats of military action. War with Iran would be a catastrophe, much worse than with Iraq. And sending in bombers would only delay, not halt, construction of nuclear weapons, if that became Tehran’s objective.
NY Times: The Year in Pictures 2021 - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
Visions of a Volatile World
By Meaghan Looram, Director of Photography
The year 2021 opened with the promise of vaccines, and the belief that we would all return to “normal” after the tumultuous year of the pandemic. But the year instead took off with an insurrection in the U.S. Capitol, and saw a summer of carefree gatherings derailed by a fast-spreading virus. Governments fell, democracies were challenged, and climate-related destruction was unleashed, all while the casualties of the pandemic continued to amass. The vaccine saved some lives, but human passions, hopes and fears did their usual work to create a year that was anything but calm, and is ending with the prospect of a new variant upending plans once again.
DISCOVER Magazine, Nov/Dec 2021
از مجله دیسکاور- نوامبر و دسامبر ۲۰۲۱
کسانی که در جولای سال ۱۸۸۸ در آن سالن جمع شده بودند نمیدانستند که چه اتفاقی در شُرُف وقوع بود. ولی همینکه سگ ۱۵۰ کیلویی را دیدند دلواپس شدند. برقکار، هرولد براون، در یک سالن در نیوفاندلند این سگ را در یک قفس حبس کرده بود. ابتدا او آغاز به خواندن مقالهای کرد که در آن توضیح میداد که برق فشار قوی بسیار پر قدرتتر از برق فشار ضعیف بود. پس از اتمام این توضیحات، پنبهای را خیس کرد و آنرا با سیم لخت به پای راست جلو و پای چپ عقب سگ وصل کرد. نفس در سینه تماشاچیان حبس شده بود، چون میدانستند که اتفاق بدی رخ خواهد داد، بخصوص که سیمهای برق به یک ژنراتور وصل بودند. پس از پایان این کار، براون کلید ژنراتور را زد.ا
The environmental destruction in our future will be so profound that anything less than the emergence of a new form of global governance—one capable of protecting the planet and the human rights of all its inhabitants—will mean that wars over water, land, and people are likely to erupt across the planet amid climate chaos.
When the leaders of more than 100 nations gathered in Glasgow for the U.N. climate conference last week, there was much discussion about the disastrous effect of climate change on the global environment. There was, however, little awareness of its likely political impact on the current world order that made such an international gathering possible.
This four-letter word is almost everyone's favorite. It has many different meanings, especially when it is attached to other words. The most popular and favorite meaning of “free” is receiving something with no obligation and without compensating anything in return. Mariam-Webster has 18 definitions for this word, and when it is added to other words as a prefix or suffix, there is a huge number of options with positive connotations, the most famous one being “freedom”, which has a slew of meanings on its own.
With COP26 in Overtime, Draft Deal Denounced as 'Clear Betrayal by Rich Nations'
"Instead of funding for loss and damage, what we have is yet another greenwash that will ensure genocide by extreme weather events in developing countries."
November 01, 2021
So warned Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte in his address to the UN General Assembly on September 22, 2020. He was referring to the consequences for East Asia of a conflict between the US and China.Fast forward to October 2, 2021, about one year later, and the first patch of grass has been stomped on by the U.S. elephant, trudging stealthily about, far from home in the South China Sea. On that day the nuclear-powered attack submarine, the USS Connecticut, suffered serious damage in an undersea incident which the US Navy ascribed to a collision with an undersea object.
By Philip Giraldi: 10/28/2021
Some might recall candidate Joe Biden’s pledge to work to rejoin the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) which was a multilateral agreement intended to limit Iran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon. The JCPOA was signed by President Barack Obama in 2015, when Biden was Vice President, and was considered one of the only foreign policy successes of his eight years in office. Other signatories to it were Britain, China, Germany, France, and Russia and it was endorsed by the United Nations. The agreement included unannounced inspections of Iranian nuclear facilities by the IAEA and, by all accounts, it was working and was a non-proliferation success story. In return for its cooperation Iran was to receive its considerable assets frozen in banks in the United States and was also to be relieved of the sanctions that had been placed on it by Washington and other governments.
یکی از واژههایی که در قرآن بسیار استفاده شده "خَسران" است. این کلمهٔ عربی به پارسی ضرر یا زیان معنی شده است، که البته با توجه به جملههایی که این واژه در آنها مورد استفاده قرار گرفتهاند، معادل پارسی "از دست دادن" و یا "از کف رفتن" شاید ترجمه بهتری باشند. زیان دیدگان به اشخاصی اطلاق شده که به دلیل عدم اجرای قوانین اسلامی به بهشت نخواهند رفت. جالب اینجاست که با مقایسه قرآن با انجیل و تورات، دقیقا همین مفاهیم و به همان دفعات در آن کتب نیز یافت میشوند. ا
بنابراین، برای هر انسانی تلاش برای ورود به بهشت ضروری به نظر میرسد. نتیجه آنکه چنانچه گفته شده و ما همه شنیدهایم، این دنیا دار مکافات است، و هر آینه تلاش هر انسانی باید بدین معطوف شود که فرامین دینی را، که هزار و چهارصد، دو هزار، پنج هزار، و شاید قدیمتر به ما ابلاغ شده اند، به نحو احسنت انجام دهیم. دلیل اینکه ما هم اکنون در بهشت زندگی نمیکنیم، و باید قوانین مذهبی را که چنانکه گفته شد، به ما در طول قرون و اعصار توسط اشخاصی که خود چون ما تولد یافتهاند، ولی ادعا کردهاند که با نیروئی که این جهان را آفریده در ارتباط هستند اجرا کنیم، گویا به اکثر اذهان خطور نمیکند. قوانینی که هیچ جنبه علمی نداشته، و در بسیاری جهات با علم در تضاد هستند، و از نظر اجتماعی نیز با دنیای امروز همخوانی ندارند. کسانی را که با چنین اصول ابلهانهای مخالفت میکنند، یا این قوانین بدوی را مورد پرسش قرار میدهند، همواره و در هر مذهبی نابود کردهاند. یعنی مذاهب شما را به دلیل عدم علاقهٔ شما به باور کردنِ دنیای دیگر، از تنها دنیای شناخته شده و قابل زندگی، که چه از نظر عقلی و چه از نظر علمی یگانه دنیائی است که با اطمینان میتوان آنرا ادعا کرد، محروم میسازند. ا
By: Philip Giraldi: September 17, 2021
The twentieth anniversary of 9/11 last Saturday has raised many of the usual issues about what actually happened on that day. Were hijacked airliners actually crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon or was the damage in New York City attributable to explosives or even some kind of nuclear device? These are fundamental questions and the so-called “Truthers” who raise them have been inspired by their reading of the 585 page 9/11 Report, which is most charitably described as incomplete, though many would reasonably call it a government cover-up.
I have long believed that unless one actually sees or experiences something first hand the description of any event is no better than hearsay. The closest I came to “seeing” 9/11 was the panicked evacuation of a CIA office building, where I was working at the time. Another related bit of 9/11 narrative also came from two close friends who were driving into work at the Pentagon when they each independently observed what appeared to be a large plane passing over their cars and striking the building. I consider the sources credible but was it an airplane or a missile? And I was not there to see it with my own eyes, so I am reluctant to claim that my friends actually saw something that in retrospect might have been misconstrued.
میگویند خروج نظامی آمریکا از افغانستان و برگشت طالبان به این کشور، ویتنام دیگری برای آمریکا بود. در ویتنام، دولت آمریکا برای پشتیبانی از حکومت دست نشانده خود در آن کشور به جنگ با نیروهای چریکی پرداخت، و در این جنگ بازنده شد و از ویتنام فرار کرد. این تنها دخالت نظامی آمریکا در کشورهای دست نشانده نبود. بارها دولتهای آمریکا به کشورهای دیگر از نظر سیاسی، فرهنگی، و نظامی حمله کردهاند. به عنوان نمونه در کوبا، عمان، یمن، و بسیاری کشورهای دیگر، بطور مستقیم، تنها با کمک تسلیحاتی، و یا توسط گماشتگان خود در منطقه (مانند کشتار چریکهای عمان توسط نیروهای ایرانی و انگلیسی) برای راندن نیروهای چپ تلاش کرده است و در اکثر آنها پیروز بوده است. تفاوت افغانستان در این است که این دولت قبل از حمله آمریکا در این کشور حکومت میکرد، و با تجاوز آمریکا آنها بیرون رنده شدند، ولی باز توانستند که باز گردند. تفاوت مهمتر آنکه خود آمریکا چنین رژیمی را پایه گذاری کرد، تا حکومت وابسته به شوروی ساقط شود، که البته در این مورد هم پیروز بود.
9/17/2021- Richard D. Wolff
Democracy exists if and when a community organises its self-governance around the full participation, on an equal basis, of all the members of the community. Its other, autocracy, exists when a community organizes (or allows) its governance by an individual or subgroup of that community, a ruler. Universal suffrage is clearly a step toward at least formal democracy because voters elect leaders. How real this formal democracy is depends on the inclusivity of the population voting and the concrete reality of voters’ equal influence on the election’s outcome.
