We have received copies from WordPress.com of Court Orders granted to Turkey to order them to ban this blog thefreeonline in Turkey and for internet users ”originating on Turkey”and also around 50 more blogs for posts against fascism, racism and patriarchy by the ‘elected dictator’ Erdogan and in favour or Democratic Confederalism. ( see list below, includes Latuff Cartoons, Desert Peace, Uprooted Palestinians, etc).thefreeonline is a modest blog which promotes a utopian novel called The Free and posts relevant news, etc, in this case about the inspiring bottom up democratic revolution in Rojava, which has been brutally repressed in Turkey itself and now in Afrin with the Turkish invasion.You can’t read thefreeonline anymore in Turkey (except with a Vpn or Tor) , or if you’re a person ”originating in Turkey” (we’re not sure how that works, but the order seems to aim at blogs translating or sharing news…
A new study in the Lancet finds our global population may never reach 10 billion.
A population slowdown will pose challenges, but it could also give us a better chance of avoiding ecological collapse.
Population slowdown is not a reason for concern, but rather for celebration. Thank birth control and women’s education.
While watching 2020 unfold has been like watching someone set themself on fire with a bucket of bacon grease and a firecracker, one morning I stumbled on something that made me smile, and then jump for joy: A new study found that the global human population might peak at just under 10 billion people in the 2060s before tapering off to 8.8 billion by 2100.
What miracle could achieve such a slowdown in human reproduction after a…
Field workers with Palo Alto Vineyard Management prepare to harvest Syrah grapes on Oct. 25, 2017, in Kenwood, Calif. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
As wildfire smoke billowed into the wine-producing region of Sonoma County, California, workers continued harvesting grapes, day and night. Even in evacuation zones, where the safety threat from flames was severe enough for officials to ask residents to leave the area, the county agriculture commissioner invited workers to continue laboring in the fields, doling out evacuation-area access passes to dozens of agricultural producers.
With undocumented immigrants — many of them workers from Latin American Indigenous communities — already economically drained after surviving months of the pandemic with virtually no government support, workers were in no position to decline an offer for work.
For the workers, their hands were forced by a combination of circumstances as toxic as the ash that falls over the region’s famous vineyards: the economic drive to keep the wine industry going; the lack of resources for non-Spanish-speaking workers; a near-total dearth of economic support; the economic stresses of the coronavirus pandemic; and a climate of fear around immigration enforcement that prevents the workers from asking for help…..
Wild weather this year shows growing impact of climate change, scientists say ‘Event attribution science’ assesses how big a role climate change plays in extreme weather events
The planet is showing signs it’s in peril. In recent weeks, the world has seen ferocious wildfires in the U.S. West, torrential rains in Africa, weirdly warm temperatures on the surface of tropical oceans, and record heat waves from California to the Siberian Arctic.
This spate of wild weather is consistent with climate change, scientists say, and the world can expect even more extreme weather and higher risks from natural disasters as global emissions of greenhouse gases continue.
That’s about $400 each for every woman, man and child in the USA. The US already has enough deployed nuclear bombs to annihilate the planet dozens of times over, many on submarines that make a surprise attack impossible.
A new US policy is to reject all international treaties and make smaller nuclear weapons to be ‘used alongside conventional forces’.. an obvious new danger. Chinese nuclear forces are tiny in comparison, but enough to destroy the US in retaliation.
Air Force awards Northrop Grumman $13.3 billion contract for new nuclear missiles, Market Watch Sept. 8, 2020 By Associated Press Critics call project wasteful, but Esper says nuclear arsenal ”needs to be modernized”
WASHINGTON — The Air Force on Tuesday awarded a $13.3 billion contract for engineering and development work on a replacement for the Minuteman 3 missile, which has operated continuously for half a century as a key part of the nuclear force.
Critics call the replacement project wasteful and dangerous. Democrat Joe Biden has not said whether he would, if elected in November, support the project, known officially as the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent. The project has bipartisan support in Congress.
Right-wing social media accounts and the Tory tabloids recently went into apoplexy in response to a contrived controversy surrounding the playing of the openly racist anthems of Land of Hope and Glory and Rule Britannia at the BBC Proms.
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Decades of constant blasting by media propaganda have convinced the white majority that immigrants are stealing away their scant privileges, even as the ruling class loot the country, and that all would be well if the Empire returned. But its not just Britain, almost every State is now ruled and mostly owned by far right oligarchies, the 1%, who sometimes let us choose between their brainwashed stooges.
For as long as I can remember, English politicians have stoked fears about the swarms of immigrants bringing Britain to breaking point or castigated spongers and work-shy benefit cheats, while all the while promoting a myth of Albion, purveyor of the rule of law and democracy.
These tendencies have only sharpened during Brexit, where Little Englanders trumpet this scepter’d isle, Land of Hope and Glory ‘mother of the free… wider still and wider shall thy bounds be set. God, who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet’.
All the while the same reactionaries demonize immigrants and Johnny foreigner, belittle and sneer at calls for racial and gender equality and smear those who seek to create a just society as terrorist sympathizers and anti-Semites.
There is no introspection of self-awareness to any of this. If they could overcome the cognitive dissonance, these modern-day jingoists would cringe in shame at an Empire built on oppression. Cruel Britannia ruled the waves through peddling dope and prosecuting gory murder against anyone who dared challenge perfidious Albion.
Nevertheless, the procession of shameless propaganda to placate the herd, hardly represents a recent phenomenon. Anyone who reads Irishman, Robert Noonan’s The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, a novel over a century old, will be struck by eery echoes in the Daily Obscurer or Daily Chloroform of our contemporary tabloids’ mendacious assault on the poor, hollow jingoism and xenophobic bigotry.
We share this post as a tiny response to the multi billion dollar US anti-China HATE CAMPAIGN now going viral around the world.
Hi, I’m Rachel! I’m 27 years old and I’m an American who has been living in China for 5 years. To celebrate my 5 year China-versary, I wanted to reflect on the past few years and some of my favorite memories and important moments that have happened here in China. During my time here I’ve: […]
thefreeonline is a modest blog which promotes a utopian novel called The Free and posts relevant news, etc, in this case about the inspiring bottom up democratic revolution in Rojava, which has been brutally repressed in Turkey itself and now in Afrin with the Turkish invasion.
You can’t read thefreeonline anymore in Turkey (except with a Vpn or Tor) , or if you’re a person ”originating in Turkey” (we’re not sure how that works, but the order seems to aim at blogs translating or sharing news…
