Never Trust an Oligarch (Audio)

Click here to access a 15 minute audio discussion with Glen Ford and Dr Carl Rhodes from Black Agenda Report. 

Super-rich people’s “charitable” contributions “haven’t done anything to halt inequality,” said Dr Carl Rhodes, of the University of Technology, in Sydney, Australia. “If anything, it justifies the political system that produced the inequality in the first place,” said Rhodes.

These participants seem to agree with Andre Vltchek by referring to the celebrity status of our billionaires.

How Come the World is Suffering from Stockholm Syndrome

Click here to access article by Andre Vltchek from New Eastern Outlook.

His argument that most of the world's suffering, exploited, oppressed, poverty-stricken people love the images of the West is a very sad insight on humans. It seems that there is nothing like "success" and "winning" that attracts the admiration of others even when this success comes about using the cruelest and the most criminal of means. Of course, the "Stockholm syndrome" doesn't infect everyone, but it is little consolation to discover that it infects many, if not most, people. Perhaps this is another reason not to grieve over the coming extinction of humans.

It may sound incredible, but it is true: in countries that have been damaged, even totally robbed and destroyed by the West, many people are still enamored with Europe and North America.

For years, I have been observing this ‘phenomena’, even in the most plundered, devastated war zones and slums. Often I was shocked, other times thoroughly desperate. I did not know how to respond, how to react, how to describe what I have been observing.

Melting polar ice sheets will alter weather

Click here to access article by Tim Radford from Climate News Network. 

The system of capitalism requires, among other things, fossil fuels both to provide wealth for capitalists and the overwhelming power it gives them to control most of the world. Unless we can rid ourselves of this cancer before the destabilization of our climate and the destruction of human habitat sets in, we will be among those species who have disappeared from the Earth. Many scientists and others (including myself) believe that it is already too late. Nevertheless where any doubt exists, we must continue on with the struggle to rid ourselves of a system that is incompatible with a stable biosphere that can sustain humans and other related species.

In this article Radford reports on the increasing use of fossil fuels and the effects of increasing temperatures:

The latest revision of evidence from the melting ice sheets in two hemispheres – and there is plenty of evidence that melting is happening at ever greater rates – is based on two studies of what could happen to the world’s greatest reservoirs of frozen freshwater if nations pursue current policies, fossil fuel combustion continues to increase, and global average temperatures creep up to unprecedented levels.

Petrodollar Warfare: The Common Thread Linking Venezuela and Iran

Click here to access article by Kei Pritsker and Cale Holmes from Internationalist 360°.

The U.S. is able to dictate these econo-warfare policies through its disproportionate control of the world financial system. Iran has been sounding warnings about this strategy for some time and has been a vocal advocate of creating a new global financial system that will bypass U.S. control of the existing global financial system. Iran, though, is not the only country interested in such an arrangement. Russia, China, and Venezuela have all found themselves facing arbitrary economic penalties levied by the U.S. and have also taken steps to wean the world off the dollar and use alternative currencies to conduct business, a global trend that could seriously impact U.S. dominance over the world economy. But in order to understand where “King Dollar” is going, we have to understand where it came from.

Few Americans understand that their living standards, such as they are, are dependent upon the dominance of US petrodollars throughout the world. Should the petrodollar system collapse, the transnational capitalist Empire collapses. The Empire's collusion with the medieval government of Saudi Arabia and its satellites has made this possible, and the article explains much of this historical background.

Last night on the BBC, something so special happened that Brexit became insignificant

Click here if you wish to directly access the article by James Wright from his blog The Canary (Britain).  (Actually there is a British team behind The Canary.)

For about 40 minutes the show consisted of panellists and audience members squabbling endlessly about Brexit. Until host Fiona Bruce asked Olumide, an African and Scottish person, about the Liam Neeson debate. In response, Olumide spoke so thoughtfully about racism and capitalism that Brexit became insignificant:

The elephant in the room is the transatlantic slave trade and colonialism, which nobody ever wants to talk about – despite the fact that it’s one of the most significant and horrifying points in history… Whereby you had… for 400 years people living in indentured slavery… When those people who were given freedom or civil rights in the ’60s… it’s very very recent history.

This Scottish woman of African descent tells one major part of the reality of capitalism in the following video (the other parts are exploitation of wage workers and the environment):

Proof Ilhan Omar Controversy Is Phony Outrage

Click here if you wish to access the following video directly from The Jimmy Dore website.

Jimmy Dore sheds much light on the real story relating to Zionist corrupted political figures that influences so much of our government actions. As one such figure argued (to paraphrase his quote from another website), it's perfectly legal for lobbying groups to contribute to the campaigns of government representatives. Of course, that is the real problem with a "bourgeois democracy" or capitalist version of democracy, which is a fake version of real democracy.

 

Reshaping the Middle East: why the West should stop its Interventions (1)

Click here to access article by Elijah J Magnier from his blog. (Is this part 1 of a series?)

This independent Kuwaiti-born political analyst in the Middle East sums up his observations regarding the ongoing attempt by the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire to restructure the most of the Middle East to serve their imperial interests. Instead their interventions have caused a number of unexpected events, and he provides the details.

Because of his astute observations in the past, his analysis of events have increasingly drawn attention of serious geopolitical analysts.

Recommended articles for Thursday, February 14, 2019

• Capitalism’s Ownership of Global Warming by Robert Hunziker from CounterPunch.

• Why Must Ilhan Omar Apologize for Telling the Truth? by Brett Wilkins from AntiWar. Another post entitled Ilhan Omar Smacks Down Elliott Abrams In Front Of Everybody, which shows the newly elected Congresswoman from Minnesota asking questions that the Abrams refuses to answer, may furnish the answer. No Ziocon tolerates being accountable to Congress; and when they are called to testify, they often lie to Congress.

• US Air Freight Company that Smuggled Weapons Into Venezuela Linked to CIA “Black Site” Renditions by Whitney Webb from Mint Press News.

• Iran looks East amid US trials and tribulations by Pepe Escobar from Asia Times.

• Love in times of Israeli apartheid by Yara Hawari from Al Jazeera.

Germany Pulls Rank on Macron and American Energy Blackmail

Click here to access article by Finian Cunningham from Strategic Culture Foundation.

Why France’s Macron, at the last minute, attempted to undermine the project by placing stiffer regulations is a curious question. Those extra regulations if they had been imposed would have potentially made the Russian gas supply more expensive. As it turns out, the project will now go-ahead without onerous restrictions.

I don't think Macron, who is an ex-Rothschild banker and a major figure in the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire, attempt to put Nord Stream 2 pipeline under the control of EU rules instead of the Russia-backed Nord Stream 2 pipeline supported by Berlin is at all "curious". Keeping Germany and Russia apart is a major US strategy (see this, this, and this).

Russiagate Is Finished

Click here to access article by Bernhard from his blog Moon of Alabama. (I thank an activist for alerting me to this article.)

Contrary to what this author argues, I believe that the pressure on Trump in the form of "Russia-gate" accomplished much for the Deep State, the invisible, behind-the-scenes directorate of the USA. Probably chief among these accomplishments are that they have forced Trump to install many "ziocons" (neoliberals) in his administration which are pursuing much more aggressive foreign policies. 

I don't think that the conspiracy attacks on Trump have "run out of steam" as Bernhard argues. After all, they never depended on evidence. It was sufficient to repeat the charges 24/7 on their media corporations to get many of the American people convinced. Only now with the Trump administration's move against the government of Venezuela do we see them backing off of the Russia-gate ploy as C.J. Hopkins noticed yesterday.

Making Globalism Great Again

Click here to access article by C.J. Hopkins from OffGuardian.

This master satirist takes aim at the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire and their media corporations to reveal so many insights about this hegemon imposing their life-sapping sanctions, invasions, false-flag operations and other subversive actions on those countries who try to maintain some independence--and especially if they have natural resources that the Empire's corporations want. 

Maybe Trump is not such a buffoon after all. He has not built his real estate empire by playing nice. Trump is very much influenced by power because he is addicted to power; and he knows that if he is to survive in office, he must respect the powerful Deep State and its imperial objectives. 

Scanning the recent Trump-related news, I couldn’t help but notice a significant decline in the number of references to Weimar, Germany, Adolf Hitler, and “the brink of fascism” that America has supposedly been teetering on since Hillary Clinton lost the election.

I googled around pretty well, I think, but I couldn’t find a single editorial warning that Trump is about to summarily cancel the US Constitution, dissolve Congress, and proclaim himself Führer. Nor did I see any mention of Auschwitz, or any other Nazi stuff … which is weird, considering that the Hitler hysteria has been a standard feature of the official narrative we’ve been subjected to for the last two years.

So how did Trump finally get the liberal corporate media to stop calling him a fascist? He did that by acting like a fascist (i.e., like a “normal” president). Which is to say he did the bidding of the deep state goons and corporate mandarins that manage the global capitalist empire … the smiley, happy, democracy-spreading, post-fascist version of fascism we live under.

How To Tell If Someone Is Controlled Opposition

Click here to access article by Caitlin Johnstone from her blog.

This Australian independent analyst of social/political issues seemingly treats a major issue of activists who pretend to serve social values but are actually working at the direction of powerful figures in subversive organizations of capitalist ruling classes to counter any opposition from ordinary people. Such subversive organizations are always active in controlling any significant organization that opposes capitalist interests of power and profit. The Deep State, or the board of directors of capitalist ruling classes, have many decades of experience in doing this. They have also used such strategies, often referred to in recent decades as "color revolutions", using NGOs to overthrow entire governments such as in Ukraine and have been trying to do so for many years in Venezuela. I have posted many articles which provides the details of such efforts all over the world in order to reveal their insidious methods. 

Any effective revolutionary effort must deal with such subversive adversaries if they are going to succeed. I know from first-hand experience in anti-war organizations during the Vietnam War that such agents will always be present to disrupt, sow chaos, and render such movements ineffective.

Johnstone really doesn't offer insights on "how to tell if someone is controlled opposition". Instead she offers reasons why she posts articles using such sources if they offer anything constructive. She writes:

So since I know that infiltration and manipulation happens, but I don’t find other people’s whisperings about “controlled opposition” useful, how do I figure out who’s trustworthy and who isn’t? How do I figure out who it’s safe to cite in my work and who to avoid? How do I separate the fool’s gold from the genuine article? The shit from the Shinola?

Here is my answer: I don’t.

I spend no mental energy whatsoever concerning myself with who may or may not be a secret pro-establishment influencer, and for good reason. There’s no way to know for sure if an individual is secretly scheming to sheep dog the populace into support for the status quo, and as long as government agencies remain opaque and unaccountable there will never be a way to know who might be secretly working for them. What I can know is (A) what I’ve learned about the world, (B) the ways the political/media class is lying about what I know about the world, and (C) when someone says something which highlights those lies. I therefore pay attention solely to the message, and no attention to what may or may not be the hidden underlying agenda of the messenger.

I, too, will post articles by sources which shed light on the nefarious activities of the ruling classes (Eric Zuesse is one example) that I have fundamental differences with, but to a point. When such figures demonstrate that their actions don't match with their words, I ignore them. One such figure is Bernie Sanders. But there is one thing to be a "useful idiot" and another thing to be a subversive agent. Sanders I believe is the former, but a figure like Sibel Edmonds I believe is an example of the latter.

Although I never saw Edmonds as an anti-capitalist, I posted many articles from her websites on Boiling Frogs Post and later on Newsbud because she offered many revealing articles about the subversive activities of the CIA in Europe following WWII (Operation Gladio). However, after reading a post last year by James Corbett, a former associate of hers, in which he severely criticized her attack on independent journalists like Vanessa Beeley and Eva Bartlett, I was convinced that she was a subversive FBI agent who had been ordered by her handlers to discredit these independent journalists. Corbett writes in the preceding post:

To launch her career as a fake dissident blogger, I think that her handlers promoted her as a whistle-blower victim of the FBI. I, myself, contributed to her website when it was "Boiling Frogs Post" after it ran a series on the Gladio operations following WWII. The series accurately revealed all the efforts by the CIA to crush unions and leftists in general and promote right-wing governments in Europe. This effort was designed to attract leftists and dissidents to the website while others, especially young people, didn't especially care much about what they considered as ancient history. 

I also think that the timing of this [her] attack was not accidental. I think that it was in preparation for the launching of another false-flag event (and who knows what else?) that we have just witnessed and spread by the Empire's media corporations as a chemical attack on Syrians by their own President Assad. Hence, I think that Edmond's handlers ordered her to engage in this attack on the two journalists (and probably helped her produce the video) as a way to influence all her followers to go along with this theme. I have little doubt in my mind that both Boiling Frogs Post and Newsbud are fake websites that were set up by the secret services to lure in leftists and dissidents and to gradually steer them away from opposition to the Empire's policies and actions. ....

Any organization that strives to be an agent of radical change must develop guidelines to determine who among them are acting as agents for the ruling class because the latter will always attempt to disrupt their activities should they become significant. Otherwise the agents will cause much paranoia and chaos to render the organization ineffective (as they did to the Black Panthers in the 1970s). I also think that a significant organization must use similar tactics against their enemy by infiltrating ruling class organizations. After all, revolutionary people must eventually recognize that they are engaged in a serious war against the ruling class.

Racism And The Fight Over Venezuela

Click here to access article by Bernhard from his blog Moon of Alabama. (My commentary was edited for greater clarity at 9:17 AM CT, at 4:08 PM on 2/11/2019, and finally at 1:37 AM on 2/20.)

The author argues the racist aspect of the ruling class in Venezuela. I myself observed this on my two week visit to Venezuela in late 2005. 

In the USA the ruling capitalist class will always use any readily apparent difference to manipulate people and to bolster their rule in their carefully controlled elections. It usually works. In the 21st century they have found social identity politics to be of much use in getting people elected to top posts in the government to serve their interests. It is not the case that our masters do not like discrimination on the basis of a social identity, it is because they have found it a useful strategy to get their candidates elected. 

If one is outwardly identified as a member of a traditionally oppressed group and who actively collaborates with, and supports the policies of the capitalist ruling class, chances are that such a person may be considered to run for a government office. Hence their past support for such figures as Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Sara Palin, and their early support for candidates currently being considered to be candidates to run in the 2020 elections. 

The Democratic Party managed to elect a record number of women to Congress in the 2018 election. And, it is likely that the Republican Party will run a woman in the forthcoming 2020 elections as a candidate for president. And a double social identity with the traditionally oppressed such as a woman who is a member of a racial minority, for example, an African-American woman, would be ideal. On the other hand, women like Tulsi Gabbard, US Representative from Hawaii, will not be selected because she doesn't support the Empire's imperialist policies.

Bernhard explains why the US ruling class has selected Juan Guaidó, virtually unknown by the people of Venezuela, to be recognized as President.