We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Empire Blowback: The Islamic state now eating the former Iraq

Click here to access article by Jack Balkwill and Kevin Zeese from Popular Resistance.
The American people are now being subjected to a pro-war propaganda campaign that is quickly drawing the nation back into a war in Iraq. President Obama has become the fourth successive president to bomb Iraq. It is evident that control of Iraq has been a top priority of US foreign policy and now ISIS is the excuse for a new stage of attack. This article seeks to put the propaganda in perspective.
The authors provide an antidote to the latest Empire propaganda regarding the chaos in Iraq and nearby areas by drawing on many facts largely reported in alternative media. Because the Empire has so saturated the minds of Americans with propaganda using their ubiquitous media, people in alternative media must spend an overwhelming amount of time and energy doing the work of salvaging truth from so many lies and distortions; so much so in fact that I think they have less time and energy for simply reporting the straight truth about contemporary news and issues. Unfortunately, this work is necessary, and will remain so, until most Americans become thoroughly mistrustful of the One Percent's media and government. 

Americans, along with many other people in the world, will increasingly be forced to decide their own answer to the historical question: which side are you on?--the global One Percents or the global Ninety-Nine Percent.