Overlooking the Obvious With Naomi Klein

Click here to access article by Craig Collins from CounterPunch.

Collins exposes a gaping hole in Klein's emphasis on using the impending climate crisis as a battering ram against capitalism. (I have strong doubts about what she sees as capitalism--see my critique.) By implication, Collin's argument is that there is a flaw in human nature that will militate against the slow-developing climate crisis in favor of the immediate gratification of artificially boosting more economy activity under the existing capitalist system. Meanwhile, he sees that the system and its governors, the ruling capitalist class, will become by necessity ever more predatory and oppressive.

Will the public be receptive to calls for curbing carbon emissions to save the climate if burning cheaper hydrocarbons seems like the fastest way to kick start growth, no matter how temporary?

Under this likely scenario, the climate movement could collapse faster than the economy.  A depression-induced reduction in GHGs [greenhouse gases] would be a great thing for the climate, but it would suck for the climate movement because people will see little reason to concern themselves with cutting carbon emissions.  In the midst of depression and falling carbon emissions, people and governments will be far more worried about economic recovery. 

Collins calls for progressive activists to establish community-based institutions to help them ward off the worst effects of destabilizing and recurrent capitalist crises, and more importantly, to earn credibility. In addition to his excellent examples, I see a grass-roots controlled, independent media as a necessary component of such a progressive movement leading to the overthrow of the capitalist system. He concludes his argument with this statement:

If the Left cannot build a movement strong enough and flexible enough to resist the ecological, economic, and military emergencies of declining industrial civilization and begin generating hopeful alternatives it will quickly lose momentum to those who profit from disaster.

Ebola, Capitalism and the Idea of Society

Click here to access article by Rob Urie from CounterPunch. (You will need to scroll down to the article.)

Urie reaches the following conclusion with his excellent exposition of private versus public interest:

Outside of the implausibility of Western ‘profits’ capitalism is the antithesis of the public interest and must be gotten rid of. Health care profiteers have taken the public interest and put it into their own pockets. And for-profit health care is a plague every day for the people who don’t get health care because they can’t afford it.

However, it almost appears that he doesn't understand our brave new world of advanced capitalism in which the people who rule over us haven't the slightest interest in the "public interest". After all, one of their leading officials, Margaret Thatcher, who in a rare moment of lucidity expressed the capitalist point of view very succinctly and honestly:

...there is no such thing as society [public interest]. There are individual men and women, and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first. It's our duty [as capitalists] to look after ourselves....

Of course, in their drugged state of minds induced by the opiates of power and wealth, they forget that they are dependent on societies for their existence. Thus, they are essentially feeding, engorging themselves on societies like parasites; and like parasites that are out of control, they will ultimately destroy societies, themselves, and the planet (for human habitation)--unless, of course, we destroy the system that delivers their opiates. So, what are we waiting for???

The World’s Richest Man Tries to Defend Income Inequality

Click here to access article by Dean Baker from CounterPunch. (You will need to scroll down to the article.)

This popular liberal economist takes aim at the ultra-rich, as exemplified by Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft. He reveals how they "gamed" the capitalist system to become rich, that is, "by hook or by crook". However, by resisting the epiphany that capitalist rule inevitably produces people like Bill Gates and a ruling class whose power extends throughout every institution--most of all, to the government and it judicial system--he essentially defends the system that has created the monster that we, the vast majority, are oppressed by today. He does this by inducing in us the inference that we can tinker with the system to make it perform right.

Playing The Star-Spangled Banner with a Gun

This is an example of how today's real American spends his/her leisure time. God bless America! (satire)

The Anti-Empire Report #133

Click here to access the current report from William Blum posted on The Anti-Empire Report.

If you haven't already subscribed to his reports, I advise you to do so. 

This report contain three articles. The first, entitled "The Islamist State" looks askance at all the chaos created by the Empire and the many lies they are telling about it.

The groundwork for this awful mess of political and religious horrors sweeping through the Middle East was laid – laid deeply – by the United States during 35 years (1979-2014) of overthrowing the secular governments of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria. (Adding to the mess in the same period we should not forget the US endlessly bombing Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen.) You cannot destroy modern, relatively developed and educated societies, ripping apart the social, political, economic and legal fabric, torturing thousands, killing millions, and expect civilization and human decency to survive.

Particularly crucial in this groundwork was the US decision to essentially throw 400,000 Iraqis with military training, including a full officer corps, out onto the streets of its cities, jobless. It was a formula for creating an insurgency.

The second entitled "The Berlin Wall – Another Cold War Myth" exposes the real history of the Cold Wars years in the context of the Empire's propaganda about the Berlin Wall. I highly recommend that you read an article referenced in Blum's report entitled "Humpty-Dumpty and the Fall of Berlin's Wall" authored by a McCarthy-era American political refugee who fled to East Germany in the 1950s and has lived there ever since--Victor Grossman.

The third article entitled "Al Franken, the liberal’s darling" features an accurate exposé of another liberal supported by fake progressives. Empire directors like to have a sprinkling of such people in their government to preserve some semblance of diversity in their "representative" government and to support their myths about "democracy".

Richest one percent controls nearly half of global wealth

Click here to access article by Andre Damon from World Socialist Web Site.

In the aftermath of the 2008 crash, state treasuries all around the world were looted to bail out the financial system, while central banks printed money to prop up the values of financial assets held primarily by the rich. Meanwhile, social services were slashed to pay for these bailouts, even as companies used mass unemployment to drive down their employees’ wages. The result has been an unprecedented increase in social inequality.

This process was spearheaded by the Obama administration [directors of the US capitalist class and sold to us by the entire ruling class media including their faithful employee and Chief of Public Relations, Barack Obama]....

The Saudi oil war against Russia, Iran and the US

Click here to access article by Pepe Escobar from RT. 

Escobar enters the discussion among geopolitical experts as to what geopolitical strategies are behind the current complex and bizarre Middle East events, and the world at large. (For other participants in this discussion, see my Tuesday's posting "Oil Price War Throws the Fed into Crisis Mode".) 

Escobar is one of the advocates of a "multi-polar world", and as such he sees the growing power of mostly the BRIC countries as progress toward a better world. As I see it, it is only progress toward a far more dangerous world, a world in which various capitalist gangs armed with nuclear weapons fight it out for world domination as they did in the first half of the 20th century. I have little confidence that these ruling classes will forever fore-go the use of such weapons.

The House of Saud is applying a highly predatory pricing strategy, which boils down to reducing market share of its competitors, in the middle- to long-term. At least in theory, this could make life miserable for a lot of players – from the US (energy development, fracking and deepwater drilling become unprofitable) to producers of heavy, sour crude such as Iran and Venezuela. Yet the key target, make no mistake, is Russia.

A strategy that simultaneously hurts Iran, Iraq, Venezuela, Ecuador and Russia cannot escape the temptation of being regarded as an “Empire of Chaos” power play, as in Washington cutting a deal with Riyadh. A deal would imply bombing ISIS/ISIL/Daesh leader Caliph Ibrahim is just a prelude to bombing Bashar al-Assad’s forces; in exchange, the Saudis squeeze oil prices to hurt the enemies of the “Empire of Chaos.”

Bearing Witness

Click here to access article by Kenn Orphan and re-posted on Collapse of Industrial Civilization.

Because the following introduction by xraymike79 to this article is so powerful, I am departing from my usual practice of posting articles from their original websites. 

Championing the rapacious conversion of the Earth into dead commodities and its peoples into soulless consumers, the adherents of capitalism have succeeded in entrenching their ideology into the minds of the vast populations as the only viable economic system and way of life. Mesmerized by the electronic gadgetry of the digital age and singing the praises of the “free market”, atomized citizens blissfully hack away at the tree of life that supports them. The bio-destructive power of capitalist industrial civilization stamps out the poetry of nature, silencing entire ecosystems. This essay by Kenn Orphan describes the mindless march towards self-destruction and the redemption that comes by bearing witness to it.

The Lone Gladio distills the complexity of the “Deep State” down to its most basic properties

Click here to access this book review by Mark Mondale posted on the Boiling Frogs Post.

The Lone Gladio’s ability to distill the complexity of the “Deep State” down to its most basic properties is arguably the novel’s greatest achievement. Through a vast array of pieced together narratives, with characters spread out within a wide labyrinth of hidden networks and locations––from Turkey to Vietnam; Washington to Azerbaijan––a comprehensive vision of this veiled reality is meticulously constructed.

The book’s title is also much more than just an obscure allusion to Operation Gladio, the codename for NATO’s secret “stay-behind” army units originally utilized in Western Europe as protection against Soviet invasion after World War II. ...The Lone Gladio pulls readers into a new world still reeling from the contrail left behind by the former pro-active Cold War operation currently in its second phase of revision: Operation Gladio B. 

The (Socialist) Malala Yousafzai the US Media Doesn’t Quote

Click here to access article by Ben Norton from CounterPunch. (You will need to scroll down to the article.)

Norton exposes the contrast between the full stated views of the Nobel Prize winner and the "re-constituted" version crafted by Empire media directors in order that we are not tempted with "wrong" ideas about the system and the Empire's policies. Nowadays Empire media directors must be working overtime to re-construct the news to fit their class interests.

As much as it accentuates Malala’s thoughts on education and nonviolence, nonetheless, what the US corporate media never mentions is the side of Malala it doesn’t like, the side of Malala that doesn’t serve but rather challenges Western imperialist interests, the side of Malala that overtly opposes not just US drone strikes but capitalism itself.

”Engines of Domination”, An Argument For Anarchism, Out This October 17

Click here to access article from Revolution News!

In this preview of a film based on Mark Corske’s book Engines of Domination, we are offered an anarchist's perspective on what is wrong in today's world. Although I take issue with some of the statements in the article which make inconsistent use of concepts and arguments, I believe that this anarchist view has much to offer.

”Engines of Domination" offers a theory of political power as a tool for making tools of human beings — an engine that converts human energy into authority and privilege for the rulers. Invented in the Bronze Age, brilliantly refined for six thousand years, today the engine has caused a human emergency that threatens to destroy our world. This documentary makes a powerful argument that there is only one way to save the future. Armed central authority must be abolished, giving way to a world of peaceful voluntary communities — in other words, an argument for anarchism.

The economic arrangement imposed on the masses of workers is a miserable failure for the simple reason that it destroys people.

Both capitalism and the state, in any form, are incompatible with the individual freedom of the working class and peasantry....

Geopoliticians discuss the Russian response to America's 'declaration of war'

Click here to access the introduction to the video from The Vineyard of the Saker.

This blogger from Florida who must be of Russian origin has posted a rather rough translation of a popular Russian TV show which features several political affairs specialists discussing the economic war that has been declared on Russia by the US Empire. If this is at all representative of Russian thinking, we may be witnessing a radical re-direction in Russian societal affairs precipitated by the aggressive actions of the Empire. The feelings presented in the program clearly indicate a disappointment with their embrace of the American Way of Life, and clearly see a need for substantial changes to be made.



If you don't have time to listen to the 42 minute video, scan some of what I considered the most important comments of the various speakers:

8:07 Their [the US] economic system has run out of steam It is mathematically impossible for them to settle their debts. Therefore it is necessary for them to destroy every other economic system so that their miserable system when set against the others resembles manna from heaven.

They must destroy any alternative system. In that sense their action are thought out.


10:38 One speaker following concluded that the US merely wants to seek "economic advantage" by destroying other economies.


10:27 Starting from about 1989, we have been completely re-oriented to the West. We looked at them as at our future paradise. We expected that once we have done all that they demand, we'd dance for them and they would finally hug and kiss us and we would merge in ecstasy.


17:08 This is a war to exterminate, in view of the future, so that Russia does not become yet another power center. What shall we do in this situation?


17:55 If we want the US to reckon with us, we must hit them where it hurts the most: their wallet.


23:40 This, by the way, is also a weak spot of our west-forward orientation in 90s. We alone created that worldview in which people don't want to work, because they day-dream about swimming pools with half-naked chicks under the palms.... [essentially the Russians dissolved companies that could not compete in the world market]


28:02 [Referring to the post-Soviet economy as having gone as far as it could and is now a brake, he says:] That is why we need to change our economic order.


28:52 Firstly, we must invest in the state on our own. Secondly, the technology is set up by science. It is necessary to provide the scientists with appropriate labs and salaries, so that they could work. .... It is necessary for us that the society is fully engaged in decision-making. We need to that the moral [work ethic] ... resurrected. Not prostitutes popping out on TV, but real eager beavers, engineers, doctors, teachers should be reckoned role models.


31:10 [Referring to the need to work with mostly the BRIC countries to produce the best products:] We must do it in cooperation with others. Russia needs to put forward an attractive idea for the world which should not be an idea of the American dream.


39:15 In a few words, what are the Americans proposing? Our president has said this very well: Americans don't want allies, they want vassals.


39:33 There is no other alternative today. If we build a system, which will offer all of those exact things but only without calamity, we will begin to put a crack in this monolithic western world.


40:27 We have to return to strategic planning....


41:32 For the country to change once and for all for the better, such that it transitions away from the destructive 90s, catches the winds of the roaring 2000s, and exits towards new, ambitious frontiers, while not forgetting to tell the people about this, because without the people, we can build nothing. 

Hidden Agenda Behind Free Trade Deals: “Everyone but China”

Click here to access article by Don Quijones from Wolf Street.

The author cuts through all the crap about the neoliberal "free trade" agreements by focusing on their essential meaning and real objective. Their meaning:

As the first general secretary of the World Trade Organization, Renato Ruggiero, said in 1996, “We are no longer writing the rules of interaction among separate national economies. We are writing the constitution of a single global economy”.

That constitution of which Ruggiero speaks, and with which our leaders seek to supplant our respective national constitutions, protects the exclusive rights of only one type of citizen – the multinational corporation. And the economy it enshrines into law is an economy in which increasingly the rest of us have little or no place.

Their objective:

...to secure Western [corporate] domination of the global economy and geopolitical landscape for the foreseeable future.

Iraqi Doctors Call Depleted Uranium Use "Genocide"

Click here to access article by Dahr Jamail from TruthOut.

This veteran independent journalist who covered one of the many recent war crimes committed by Empire directors--the invasion of Iraq--now focuses our limited attention span on one of the long lasting effects of nuclear material used in US munitions during that war. It isn't pretty. This is another indictment of "American exceptionalism" in which the US ruling class has now wrapped itself after constructing an Empire among the ruins left over from WWII when nations were so vulnerable.

Contamination from depleted uranium (DU) munitions is causing sharp rises in congenital birth defects, cancer cases and other illnesses throughout much of Iraq, according to numerous Iraqi doctors.

Iraqi doctors and prominent scientists believe that DU contamination is also connected to the emergence of diseases that were not previously seen in Iraq....

Oil Price War Throws the Fed into Crisis Mode

Click here to access article by Pam Martens and Russ Martens from Wall Street on Parade.

So many mysterious things are happening that portend various disasters for the world's Ninety-Nine Percent that it is hard sometimes to understand what is going on in the larger picture. Where others see a the dumping of cheap Saudi oil in the market as evidence of Saudi collusion with Empire directors to undermine the Russians, or as Saudi efforts to undermine US fossil fuel independence, the Martens see this as simply evidence of the growing threat of worldwide deflation.

A key component that has allowed both the Fed and Congress to keep from taking strong measures to address a looming deflation has been the price of crude oil. Because oil impacts everything from transportation costs that inflate the price of food and other products to the cost of an airline ticket or heating a home, the high price of this commodity has, to a degree, masked the growing deflation threat.

Now the mask has been removed. Oil prices are in freefall and an oil price war has broken out among OPEC members, raising the specter of 1986 when oil prices fell by 50 percent in just an eight month span.

Iran also plays in this scenario. Read my other post in today's offering.

I certainly don't have the answer, but I tend toward the first explanation. In any event, the world scene looks more dangerous than ever for us in the Ninety-Nine Percent.

Storm Warning in Iran

Click here to access article by Thierry Meyssan from VoltaireNet. 

Because Meyssan appears to have close connections (friend of former President Almadenjad) to people in Iran, I think one should pay attention to some of his rather startling observations, described in this report, about what he thinks is happening in Iran which could have profound effects globally. (His use of "Atlanticist" camp, etc. equals my term "US Empire".)

Meanwhile Pepe Escobar has just returned from Tehran and has a different take on what is happening in relations between the Empire, Iran, and Russia. Read his article "What's the deal between Iran and the US?" from RT.

Kobanê refugee girl: “ISIS destroyed my dreams”

Click here to access article by Iskender Doğu from Reflections on a Revolution.

The author provides a very intimate, eye-witness report on the happenings with the Kurds in Kobanê. 

September Was Warmest on Record, NASA Data Shows

Click here to access article by Andrea Thompson Climate Central.  

Yea! We broke another record! It's amazing what humans led by our masters in the capitalist class can accomplish (sarcasm)!

Like August before it, September 2014 was the warmest September on record, according to newly updated NASA data. The warm month makes it even more likely that 2014 will become the warmest year on record.

Udo Ulfkotte Blows the Whistle on Himself

Click here to access the 13:20m video interview and transcript posted by Rowan Wolf from Cyrano's Journal.. [a must see video] (Note on 11/28/2016: this post that was previously linked to on Uncommon Thought Journal.)

This German journalist makes quite a startling confession of guilt about having served the propaganda needs of the Empire! But what is of most importance is that he goes into the details of how journalists are corrupted by agents of the Empire. (He has also written a book about his experiences in journalism in a book entitled Bought Journalists.) This is a whistleblower exposé of the corruption of the media that I have long been waiting for!

Well I've been a journalist for about 25 years. And I was educated to lie, to betray, and not to tell the truth to the public. But seeing right now within the last months how, how far um, how the German and American media tries to bring war to the people in Europe, to bring war to Russia, this is a point of no return, and I stand, I'm going to stand up and say um "It is not right what I have done in the past." Ah, to manipulate people to make propaganda against Russia. And it is not right what my colleagues do, and have done in the past, because they are bribed to betray the people - not only in Germany but all over Europe.

Geoengineering Investigation Demanded by Shasta County Residents

Click here if you wish to access the original posting and longer video posted by Dane Wigington from GeoEngineering Watch. (Contrary to what is stated in the article, I think that the 57:39m video in the article must be an un-condensed video presentation of the hearing.)

Shasta County is located in northern California. It is a very scenic, mountainous region where I have enjoyed a number of backpacking and skiing outings. As is reported in the video, scientists have discovered highly elevated levels of aluminum-oxide micro particles in water, snow, and other samples in their environment; and how this is having adverse effects on health and habitat in the area. Other people have noticed unusual chem-trails in the skies. Thus, there is considerable evidence that government agencies are secretly making desperate attempts at geoengineering the climate to reduce the threat of climate destabilization due to the excessive burning of fossil fuels on which capitalism depends.

On July 15th, 2014, citizens from Northern California rallied to create the largest attendance ever at the Shasta County Supervisors chambers (400+, chairman Les Baugh confirmed this attendance record at the start of the meeting). The primary purpose of this meeting was to present information that proves there is a very dire heavy metal contamination and UV radiation issue across the Shasta County region (and the world). A list of 10 experts presented data to the board to confirm the legitimacy of the concerns being addressed. At the end of the presentation, the board voted unanimously to investigate the heavy metal contamination and passed resolutions accordingly. The video below documents the events of this landmark day in the fight to expose the crime of global geoengineering, all experts are identified with labels in the video. [The following is a 15:23m condensed version of the video posted in the article.] 

 

Obama’s New Oil Wars

Click here to access article by Michael T. Klare from TomDispatch. (You will need to scroll down to the article which follows Englehardt's introduction.)

Klare puts the spotlight on the latest weapon of choice that is being wielded by the Empire against its main recalcitrant opponents such as Russia and Iran--oil. The current (and temporary) abundance of oil from shale fracking within the US has apparently inspired the recent aggressive moves against Russia. Klare provides many of the details of this new offensive, and the risks that it entails, risks that as usual will mostly impact the lives of the world's Ninety-Nine percent. So, once again, fasten your seat-belts everybody! The top dog in the global capitalist world is on a rampage to punish the lessor dogs in the dog-eat-dog world we are forced to share with them.

As with any application of force, however, use of the oil weapon entails substantial risk. For one thing, despite the rise in domestic crude production, the U.S. will remain dependent on oil imports for the foreseeable future and so could still suffer if other countries were to deny it exports. More significant is the possibility that this new version of the oil wars Washington has been fighting since the 1990s could someday result in a genuine contraction in global supplies, driving prices skyward and so threatening the health of the U.S. economy. And who’s to say that, seeing Washington’s growing reliance on aggressive oil tactics to impose its sway, other countries won’t find their own innovative ways to wield the oil weapon to their advantage and to Washington’s ultimate detriment? 

U.S. Opposing China’s Answer to World Bank

Click here to access article by Jame Perlez from The NY Times.

For almost a year, China has been pitching an idea to its neighbors in Asia: a big, internationally funded bank that would offer quick financing for badly needed transportation, telecommunications and energy projects in underdeveloped countries across the region.

So, why in the world should US officials be opposed to giving money to such projects by the new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank? Well, this ruling class newspaper thankfully supplies us with some legitimate reasons (sarcasm).

The United States Treasury Department has criticized the bank as a deliberate effort to undercut the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, international financial institutions established after World War II that are dominated by the United States and Japan....

And:

Washington also sees the bank as a political tool for China to pull countries in Southeast Asia closer to its orbit, a soft-power play that promises economic benefits....

And:

A senior Obama administration official said the Treasury Department had concluded that the new bank would fail to meet environmental standards, procurement requirements and other safeguards adopted by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, including protections intended to prevent the forced removal of vulnerable populations from their lands.

So, let us leave these self-justifying propaganda statements from Empire spokesmen and focus on the real reasons. The control of money is a prime weapon that the Empire uses to extract wealth and power from the rest of the world and insuring its domination of the world. Thus we have privately owned "central banks" who control the creation of money, how that money is spent, and for whom it benefits. We have their "charitable" institutions funding NGOs and non-profits to insure that they at least do no threaten their rule, and ideally will aid in their subversion of other governments. Then they have their so-called "development banks" of the IMF, World Bank, etc. which serve Western capitalist's interests. Mathias Broeckers in his thoroughly documented book Conspiracies, Conspiracy Theories, and the Secrets of 9/11 writes:

Do you know what the World Bank does? Or the IMF ....? Both institutions claim they fight poverty and support the economies of developing countries with long-term financing. They do nothing of the kind. They use financing to get these countries under their control--and they support any government that will deliver, however corrupt, dictatorial or incompetent it may be.

So, how do these organizations actually function? After presenting considerable evidence and illustrations, Broeckers summarizes how their control works and, by implication, for what purposes:

Step 1: Tie the granting of credits by the IMF and World Bank to maximum "privatization" of public property, bribe the responsible official and bring the key industries under control.

Step 2: Order budget cuts, austerity measures, dismantling of the social system as "consolidation measures" in order to keep up debt payments. A drastic drop in GNP, popular uprisings and capital flight are all part of it.

Step 3: When the economy is extensively destroyed and the country is no longer able to supply its own needs, take down all tariff barriers to foreign products and demand horrific prices and interest rates for all necessities of life, such as medicine.

Step 4: Install a militarized corporate government, which will run the business of the "colony" forthwith for profit and nip any eventual slave rebellions in the bud.

(For an excellent illustration of this process that played out in Argentina in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, read this.) 
 
Hence, it's clear that Empire directors do not want other institutions competing with them or interfering in this global scam.

Why Progressive Organizations Don't Advocate Egalitarian Revolution

Click here to access article by John Spritzler from New Democracy World.

If egalitarian revolution (meaning remove the rich from power, have real not fake democracy with no rich and no poor) is such a good and appropriate goal (as I and many other people believe it is) then how come there are virtually no progressive organizations advocating it explicitly? Is it that all the people who are fighting for a $15 minimum wage, or against unjust wars, or against local injustices such as gentrification don't WANT an egalitarian revolution? Or is there a different explanation?

There is indeed a different explanation.

This examination of ruling class funding of all sorts of cultural, political, social, religious, communications, assorted do-gooder non-profit organizations, and even other charities in the US and foreign countries is probably one of the best articles that I've posted on my website since I began doing this five years ago. What I found especially fascinating is that there is a whole web of funding organizations who fund other funding organizations all of which serve to laundry money of the rich ruling class to limit any efforts to stir up opposition to their rule and to their beloved system of capitalism. In this article he examines one major channel of funding--Tides. From their website we read about their proclaimed mission:

Tides actively promotes change toward a healthy society, one which is founded on principles of social justice, broadly shared economic opportunity, a robust democratic process, and sustainable environmental practices. Tides believes healthy societies rely fundamentally on respect for human rights, the vitality of communities, and a celebration of diversity.

Sounds wonderful, doesn't it? However as Spritzler argues in the article, funding of such non-profits or NGOs insures that these organizations will never cross any red-lines of their funders in the ruling One Percent. This web of ruling class sponsored "progressive" organizations is a profoundly insidious and effective method of maintaining their class rule and protecting a system which provides them with overwhelming wealth and power in today's world. 

So, when you have any interest in connecting with an organization claiming to be progressive, look at the list of grantees to see if that organization is handicapped from promoting real progressive change. To be sure, some are doing good work, but activists must always approach such organizations with their eyes wide open. 

This Way Out

Click here to access article by darbikrash from Collapse of Industrial Civilization. 

There are many criticisms against Capitalism, but not much in the way of concrete alternatives. I’ve just finished reading Professor Peter Hudis’ book “The Alternative to Capitalism”, and while he does not offer much specificity in the way of concrete alternatives, he does offer a useful and provocative analysis of Marx’s theories pertaining to what might come next. The book is unique in that it distills down and interprets thousands of pages of Marx’s writing into a handful of useful conclusions that illustrate what Marx envisioned in a post Capitalist society.

Below is a recent podcast in which Professor Hudis is interviewed, and this gives a quick overview of the concepts and conclusions of his vision of a post Capitalist society.