America's Self-Inflicted Defense [sic] Woes

Click here to access article by Ulson Gunnar from New Eastern Outlook.

Let me be absolutely clear as to why I am posting this article. It is an illustration of wordage used by the ruling capitalist class to confuse issues and mislead the public, but adopted by "alternative" writers and end up by diluting their anti-establishment themes. 

If the ruling class agents can't totally get you to think that the pursuit of murder and mayhem throughout the world in pursuit of wealth and power for a ruling class is good for ordinary people of the US, then at least they will settle for confusing the issues by introducing new definitions to words that formerly damned their rule. But if they don't succeed in doing that, they seem to be satisfied with emptying many such words of any meaning beyond merely vague buzz words that serve only to vent anger in ways that are harmless to our masters. First, let me proceed with such an analysis of this article, and then I will generalize to many others.

He uses the world "defense" throughout the article. It is a term used by our masters to re-define their imperialist adventures into one of defending the US. Of course, it is obvious that this is an example of "newspeak" which Orwell came to understand through his experience while fighting fascism in Spain and Britain. It is no coincidence that the term was adopted as in "Department of Defense" after WWII. This is precisely when the US capitalist class launched their drive to dominate the world and exclude any kind of workers state such as the Soviet Union and aspired to by many millions across the globe especially after the devastation of WWII.

Gunnar by using the term "defense" instead of imperialism serves to soften the issue by implying that the heavy investment in the F-35A was simply a gross mistake instead of arguing that under capitalism the drive for profits even trumps the drive for military superiority. He also obscures the issue of class interest by using a more abstract term of "America". To his credit he does slowly and rather timidly develop the argument that the pursuit of the F-35A weapon was pushed by business interests. But this argument could serve liberal arguments about the need to reform government by electing more Democrats who supposedly represent the broader interests of ordinary Americans instead of arguing that the very class nature of capitalist rule (especially in its advanced form that has infected the US capitalist class) is the root cause of wars and imperialism. 

Now on to other articles that serve to obscure and confuse ordinary people. The Bernie Sanders campaign was framed as promoting socialism. This was an effort to redefine a word that has been a dream for the past 150 years of many millions across the globe to bring their economies under public ownership and control. Instead his campaign clearly used the word as meaning a welfare state that promoted many programs for the poor, unemployed, and workers in general--but all within the system of capitalist rule.

Then there are the words "fascism" and "capitalism". Many who pose as radical writers on the left use these words as only buzz words to lamely refer to bad things instead of explaining to people what they mean precisely in the context of class rule and class interests. 

It is no accident that the term "fascism" has been given so many meanings by various writers. Once people understand that fascism is simply capitalism with the soft gloves of civil rights and legal processes (as practiced by capitalist authorities) removed, then they understand why capitalist nations opt into fascism whenever their tiny class rule is under threat. Hence the term has been reduced to a buzz word that only serves to vent emotion instead of creating understanding of political realities. The same applies to "capitalism" as currently used by many critics who merely pose as anti-establishment critics. The latter never explain that being opposed to capitalism means being opposed to the private ownership and control of an economy; and under advanced capitalism, this means ownership and control of the economy by a tiny class of people and leaving the vast majority up to their necks in debt (to the latter). Thus the sharp class conflicts that pervade most all important contemporary issues are obscured and confused. 

Given this (intentional) confusion of communication, it is no surprise to me that the political thinking in the US is so confused and rudimentary as exhibited by the Green Party in today's article by Pete Dolack. Taking to the streets as advocated by Dolack is not enough anymore. Only a well-organized revolution organized by the grass-roots will suffice to change things.

The 1 Percent’s Useful Idiots

Click here to access article by Chris Hedges from TruthDig.

The parade of useful idiots, the bankrupt liberal class that long ago sold its soul to corporate power, is now led by Sen. Bernie Sanders. His final capitulation, symbolized by his pathetic motion to suspend the roll call, giving Hillary Clinton the Democratic nomination by acclamation, is an abject betrayal of millions of his supporters and his call for a political revolution.

It's debatable whether Bernie Sanders fits the definition of useful idiot as accurately defined by Wikipedia: 

In political jargon, useful idiot is a term for people perceived as propagandists for a cause whose goals they are not fully aware of, and who are used cynically by the leaders of the cause.

Although one can't get in Sanders' head to really find out, it is really quite unbelievable, given his long career in government, that he didn't know how the game is played in the selection of fake leaders--also known as the election process--to act out their roles in government. You either play up to the real power centers in the invisible government peopled by major bankers, stockholders, and corporate CEOs, or you forget about having a political career. 

So I begin my commentary on this piece in a very skeptical mood. I've watched Chris Hedges too long to not be skeptical. He loves to sermonize. (He originally started training to become a preacher like his father.) He has enjoyed a high standard of living and arguably one might say that he has served as a "useful idiot" for the NY Times, the mouthpiece of the real but invisible government. I grew especially skeptical of his sincerity after he wrote the piece depicting anarchists battling police (the enforcers of the capitalist deep state) on the streets of Oakland as "The Cancer in Occupy [movement]". Apparently seeing people fighting back against what passes for law and order in the US was too much for Hedges' allegiance to the capitalist state. I came to think of him as a consummate poseur who liked to moralize, and got off on people seeing him as some kind of radical. 

So along comes this post which could have been written by a genuine revolutionary. Taken at face value, it is a very eloquent call to action against the capitalist state. But then I notice that he read this essay at the "Socialist [sic] Convergence" gathering in Philadelphia to commiserate over Sanders' defection and to salvage some valuable scrap out of their political wreckage. This occasion presented a perfect audience for him to demonstrate his well-honed oratorical skills loaded with radical sounding themes and to lend credence that the movement to elect Bernie Sanders had something to do with the radical sounding term "socialism" which their movement has redefined--to the comfort of the invisible "deep state", into that of social democracy.

Like Sanders I can't get inside Hedges' head to determine definitively whether he is a fake or not. But I have my doubts. (I tend to agree with Joseph Kishore in his article from World Socialist Web Site.) When Hedges talks explicitly in favor of public ownership and control of the economy, I will then recognize him as a genuine revolutionary. You, as always and as an independent thinking human being, will have to decide for yourself. 

The Real Reason The US Is Bombing Iraq

Click here to access article by Brandon Turbeville from Activist Post. 

Turbeville reveals the underlying reality of the current US bombing of Iraq which exposes the deception of Obama's rhetoric regarding humanitarian concerns as just another public relations cover for war crimes. But, of course, that was why he was hired. He is very talented in delivering lies to the public. And as a extra bonus, his African-American appearance (although raised by a white banker grandmother and thoroughly indoctrinated in elite schools) provides an added layer of protection from critical liberals.

The fact is that al-Qaeda, IS, and the other related terrorist organizations function as the CIA’s Arab legion. They are used to weaken and overthrow governments as well as to act as a constant bogeyman for populations back home so that civil liberties and Constitutional rights will be sacrificed willingly for the perception of security.

When these proxy armies begin to endanger oil production or any other project of the world oligarchy, however, they are eliminated and the threat that they pose is neutralized.

The New Age of Banana Republicanism

Click here to access article by Maria Camila Morales and apparently translated from Spanish by Don Quijones and posted on his website Raging Bull-Shit. 

While many political observers have been celebrating the turn to the left and independent policies of many Latin American governments, Morales argues that these are lies when one looks below the surface. She hints that the hidden hand of the US Empire still operates to stifle any real change.

Most Latin American republics continue to be dominated by people who govern out of pure self-interest while paying lip service to the needs and well-being of the general public.

Obama’s State of the Union address: An empty and reactionary charade

Click here to access article by Joseph Kishore from World Socialist Web Site.

The author provides the realities of our state of the union in contrast to the rhetorical version given by the ruling class's chief public relations officer.

US President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday was, perhaps even more than his previous addresses, a cynical and reactionary charade. Empty rhetoric was combined with a complete disconnect from the reality confronting millions of people and an assertion of executive power.

From Bahrain to Ukraine: Hail the Western Salesmen of Subversion and Deception

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

This independent Irish journalist and writer reports on last week's Manama Dialogue conference sponsored by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), a British based "think tank", which is presented at their website as a meeting to discuss regional security issues. From his report alone we can see that it is more likely an Empire conference on imperial strategy to protect the Empire's geopolitical interests. 

It seems clear from the speech given by U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel that the Empire representative wanted to reassure GCC Arab and Israeli members that the US is committed to their security interests in spite of differences that have arisen recently over Syrian, Egyptian, and Iranian issues.

In this article the author points out the hypocrisy of the members' high-sounding rhetoric given the ongoing brutal repression of dissent in Bahrain, the location of their conference, and members support of many dictatorships and terrorist groups in the region.

What a cruel joke. Western governments do not support democracy in Bahrain – or anywhere else for that matter – because they make money from oil and arms sales by supporting dictatorships, and from crushing and subverting democracy. .... Despite their polished and preening rhetoric, Washington and London are nothing but the salesmen for subversion and deception.

Saudi Arabia, a major player in the region and in attendance at the meeting, can't even tolerate people who call for a constitutional monarchy.

That never-ending path to democracy

Click here to access article by Ursula Lindsey from The Arabist.

The writer notices that Empire-speak is in sharp contradiction with reality. The directors of the capitalist ruling class always like to frame everything they do--even war crimes--in terms of "democracy" and "freedom". This is true everywhere in the world where they see opportunities to serve their class interests--not merely in Egypt.

Empire-speak uses words that reflect the deepest yearnings of humanity: the desires to live in egalitarian societies where citizens are fully engaged in important decisions affecting their lives. However, our masters use words and images to fool people into supporting their sociopathic habits of domination and exploitation. Of course, most of this is addressed to the American people, and unfortunately many believe it. 

FreedumbAndDemocrazy

Click here to access article by Sharmine Narwani from Aletho News.

The author describes what the Empire's rhetorical use of "freedom and democracy" really means.

Freedom and democracy. How I have come to loathe this phrase. Two-lofty-words-and-a-conjunction bandied around by handmaidens of Empire: verbal grenades that can gut entire nations. When I hear “freedom and democracy” I instinctively look for cover....

India Press describes how Nepali Maoist leader went from revolution to bourgeois path

Click here to access article, a re-post of an article in The Hindu and commentary from Frontlines of Revolutionary Struggle. 

Prachanda makes it appear that the turnabout was a political version of a religious experience, but the "born-again bourgeois" actually prepared this reversal and capitulation and betrayal over many years.  Still, his sugary description of the lure is a near-textbook example of the peaceful road to integration into the bourgeois/feudal state machine and capitulation to India and China and the Western imperialist powers. -- Frontlines ed.

This piece provides an excellent contemporary illustration of how labels are still misused to lead people into subordination to a class system for the benefit of its leaders.

Get Rich or Lie Trying: Why ANC Millionaire Julius Malema posed as a Radical

Click here to access article by Tina Sizovuka and Lucien van der Walt from Infoshop News. 

This rather lengthy article provides an excellent illustration of how capitalist ruling classes are very creative in maintaining their system in order to provide themselves with so much power and wealth. Capitalist elites are always seeking alliances with others who can further these common goals. To maintain a system that provides such a distorted distribution of power and wealth requires numerous strategies such as divide and rule, control of a dis-informing media and other institutions of indoctrination, co-optation of opposition, tight control over political institutions to insure that the right people are elected or outright rigging of elections, and police state methods to suppress opposition.

After the colonization of South Africa by white Europeans, a white minority of capitalists established an overtly racist state. Because they constituted such a small minority of the population while ruling over the vast majority of black Africans and "coloreds", their rule in the 20th century was sustained by the most brutal police state methods. This became increasingly untenable. Thus, they decided to co-opt amenable black and colored Africans to join them on the fringes of the ruling class by installing them in government agencies where they could compete over government largess. (This process and key African leaders, for example Mandela, who went along with this strategy were widely celebrated in international capitalist media.)

Various factions arose among black "co-optees" to secure influence in the government and to obtain the benefits of government contracts. This article mostly tells the story of the rise and fall of one player, Joseph Malema, who often posed as a radical to gain popular support for his rise in the power structure.

Iranian Rhetoric and the History of the Cancer Analogy

Click here to access article by Nima Shirazi from his blog Wide Asleep in America. 

The author examines the use of rhetoric by Israeli and Iranian spokespeople, compares their respective usages in relation to reality, and provides an interesting review of the use of the cancer metaphor by various historical figures. This is a most perceptive analysis of how rhetoric can hide or reveal hideous truths.

Barack Obama finds out who really holds power

from Telegraph of the UK. The article provides a good analysis to whom the agents of the ruling class such as Obama and Gordon Brown must appeal in order to win elections. Also good explanation of social-economic class concepts. But the author causes some confusion with her statement, "who really holds power." What the author refers to is the class which both agents must appeal to in order to win elections. Both Obama and Brown know full well who their bosses are and whose interests they really serve. They're both between a rock and a hard place: having to serve their bosses (the capitalist class) while appearing to serve the "middle class".

Obama Out-triangulates Clinton and Channels Reagan

Or the platitudes that people use while posing as a progressive President.
A poem by Gary Corseri