Posts that I especially recommend for Sunday, May 30, 2021

• The ‘New Normal’ Lexicon by Ian Jenkins from Off-Guardian.

• Is Ivermectin the new Penicillin? by Dr. Justus R. Hope, MD fro The Desert Review. (Note: This post from an unnamed activist source (according to his wishes) writes the following:  

Vermectin, an anti-parasitic drug placed the same radioactive category as Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) for the treatment of COVID-19, has reemerged as a promising treatment in the battle to extinguish the pandemic. 

 

New York Times best-selling author Michael Capuzzo has called it the "drug that cracked Covid," writing that there are “hundreds of thousands, actually millions, of people around the world, from Uttar Pradesh in India to Peru to Brazil, who are living and not dying.”

 

Doctors in India are big fans.  

• Coronavirus Fact-Check #11: Is Sars-Cov-2 a bioweapon? from Off-Guardian. My reaction: I certainly take issue with their conclusions:

Maybe the virus was grown in a lab, maybe it just jumped from bats to people. Since all evidence suggests it’s not very dangerous, it doesn’t really matter.

The debate sure does make a good distraction though. 

 

Does it matter that many after the age of 70 died from it if it was designed and used as a bioweapon for whatever purpose? What about all the severe restrictions on people's civil rights that were dictated by various governments of the world based on the declaration of WHO that the threat constituted a pandemic and the virtual diktats by the CDC or similar agencies throughout governments of the world? What about the censorship that was imposed on many other relevant medical specialists who differed about various aspects of the declared pandemic?

• The Bogus January 6 Commission Poses a Real Threat to Freedom by James Bovard from Mises Institute. (Note: Mises Institute is a nationalist capitalist website/weblog which features old-fashioned capitalists who no longer control the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire. The latter is controlled by "neoliberals" or transnational capitalists.)
  

• ‘Stop the Monopoly Madness’: Biden Urged to Block Amazon’s $8.5 Billion Purchase of MGM by Jake Johnson from Children's Health Defense.
  

• Obama's Labor Secretary Joins Union Busters featuring Jimmy Dore of the Jimmy Dore Show (via his YouTube channel).

• Once a US Soldier, Always Wounded, Always Losing! by Paul Haeder from Dissident Voice.

... we can either prepare for the ultimate disaster that disaster capitalism gives us, or, put our heads back in that sand ....

• The Conscious Resistance Network Presents: The Pyramid of Power Ep. 4 – The Hollywood-Military-Intelligence-Complex by Derrick Broze from Activist Post.  My brief commentary follows: 

I remember one of the first acts formally announcing a Cold War against the Soviet Union after the conclusion of WWII (1st article) was Winston Churchill's speech in Fulton, Missouri (with Pres. Harry Truman on the stage) in 1946 declaring that an "iron curtain has descended" across Europe. This was a shock to the American people because we had been allied in WWII with the Soviet Union against the Axis powers. 

 

 

This was followed a year later with the Un-American Activities Committee investigations of Hollywood playwrights, directors, and actors that weren't sufficiently anti-communist enough to suit the interests of the capitalist ruling class. This constituted a major purge of all left-wing influential people associated with the Hollywood film industry in order to stifle any kind of dissent and further propagandize people into smearing any kind of socialism. Churchill's visceral hatred of the Russian Revolution and his role beginning with the capitalist intervention in the Russian Civil War made him an exceptionally qualified person (in the eyes of the ruling capitalist class) to announce this new effort against the Soviet Union. 

• Biden Cynically Politicizes Lab-Leak Theory to Bash China by Finian Cunningham from Strategic Culture Foundation. 

• The politics of the Wuhan lab leak hypothesis by Stephen Gowans from his weblog What's Left. Gowans concludes his article with this statement:

If Biden were genuinely interested in learning how to prevent a future pandemic he would be exploring how to prevent zoonotic spillovers, both in nature, and in the lab. On the other hand, if he’s interested in tarring the reputation of a country he has labelled a competitor, as his predecessor was, he is proceeding along the right path. Unfortunately, that path has nothing to do with protecting humanity from future pandemics.

• Loophole lets soya farmers tear down the Amazon by Andrew Wasley , Alexandra Heal , André Campos, and Daniel Camargos from The Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
  

• Methane and the mass extinction of species by Andrew Glikson from Arctic News. 

• The Net Zero Mirage by Robert Hunziker from Dissident Voice.
  

• Ask an Ecologist Anything -- Saturday, May 29, 2021 featuring Prof. (retired) Guy McPherson, an independent scientist who has focused on the climate crisis, from his YouTube channel. (Note: This has been removed from YouTube by the administrators of this platform. Apparently he said something which they, in their scientific wisdom, do not like.)
  

Posts that I especially recommend for Wednesday, April 21, 2021

• Covid’s IFR just keeps DROPPING by Kit Knightly from Off-Guardian.
  

• The Lockdown Paradigm Is Collapsing by Jeffrey A. Tucker from American Institute for Economic Research.
  

• Simple Ways to Keep Your Immune System Strong by Dr. Vernon Coleman, a Brit, from his weblog. (Note: This article includes a video of his talk and transcript.)
  

• How Stalin Canceled 'Hamlet' in the Soviet Union—and What It Can Teach Us about Cancel Culture by Jon Miltimore from Foundation for Economic Education. My reaction: Ruling class experts of propaganda has turned so many liberals (dreamy reformist capitalists) into intolerant "virtuous" bigots who obsessively want to divert attention away from the growing inequality among the world's poor. This is based on the religion of absolute god-like authority figures who know what's best for us--American-style capitalism and away from any consideration of socialist ideas. Thus they, or the authoritative talking-heads you see on TV, read scripts that wrap themselves in virtue and censor all ideas that don't fit with the American goose of capitalism, a goose which continues to lay so many golden eggs for billionaires.

• There is No Substitute for the Rank and File: Thoughts on Amazon Unionization by Tatiana Cozzarelli from Left Voice. 

• A Trader’s Federal Lawsuit Against JPMorgan Chase Offers a Window into the Crime Culture at the Five Felony-Count Bank by Pam & Russ Martens from their weblog Wall Street on Parade.

• You reap what you sow by Natalie Bennett from Ecologist (a British weblog).

That we live on a hugely degraded, biologically impoverished planet, in which natural ecosystems are battered, abused, barely clinging on, is now emerging into public consciousness. But the corresponding rise of the superweed, and increasing vulnerability of our crop species, has yet to so register.

• The deafening sound of silence in the West (Open Thread #15) by "The Saker" (Andrei Raevsky) from his weblog.
  

• Russia Increases Its Defense, While U.S. Backs Down From Provoking WWIII by Eric Zuesse from Strategic Culture Foundation.

• Why Cryptocurrency Is A Giant Fraud by Nathan J. Robinson from Current Affairs.

• The US Withdrawal From Afghanistan May Just Lead To Privatized War by Robert Inlakesh from The Last American Vagabond. 

• Gates Unhinged: Dystopian Vision for Agrifood Must Not Succeed by Colin Todhunter from Dissident Voice. 

• The Doomsday Glacier Lives up to its Billing by Robert Hunziker from Dissident Voice.
  

• Rapid Loss of Habitat for Homo sapiens by Prof. (retired) Guy McPherson, an independent scientist who has focused on the climate crisis, from Academia. (Note: You will need to download this brief paper, and I recommend Acrobat Reader. But notice the installer wants you to select a list of additional software. Decide for yourself if you want them.)

• 💥In our hurry to conquer nature and death, we have made a new religion of science by Jonathan Cook from his weblog. This is a best post.
  

Were we not so technology obsessed, were we not so greedy, were we not so terrified of insecurity and death, if we did not see our bodies and minds as separate, and humans as separate from everything else, we might pause to ponder whether our approach is not a little misguided.

Science and technology can be wonderful things. They can advance our knowledge of ourselves and the world we inhabit. But they need to be conducted with a sense of humility we increasingly seem incapable of. We are not conquerors of our bodies, or the planet, or the universe – and if we imagine we are, we will soon find out that the battle we are waging is one we can never hope to win.

Posts that I especially recommend for Monday, April 19, 2021

• EU not to renew AstraZeneca, J&J Covid-19 vaccine contracts on expiry from Business Standard. 

• Another day, another dollar | Pfizer defends price for its COVID vaccine from RT's channel on YouTube (3:18m)

• If Johnson & Johnson Coronavirus Vaccine Shots Are Halted Because of Blood Clots, Why Have Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech Shots Not Also Been Halted? by Adam Dick from Ron Paul Institute.
  

• Pathogens in One Lesson, Courtesy of Sunetra Gupta by Jeffrey A. Tucker from American Institute for Economic Research. (Note: This is essentially a book review of Gupta's book entitled Pandemics: Our Fears and the Facts.)

• Gates Unhinged: Dystopian Vision for the Future of Food by Colin Todhunter (a Brit) from Off-Guardian. 

• The truth about doublespeak: Is it lying or just being persuasive? by researchers at the University of Waterloo from Phys Org.
  

• Cold War Liberalism and the Labor Movement: The Epic Fail by Richard Moser from CounterPunch. 

• Wall Street’s Mega Bank CEOs To Be Hauled Before Congress in May; Nobody Will Say Why by Pam & Russ Martens from their weblog Wall Street on Parade. Note: The Martens soon dash hopes that anything substantial will come of the hearings.

If past is prologue, which we pray it is not, the hearings will use such a buckshot approach to questioning the witnesses that there will be no meaningful takeaway to the public from the hearings.

 

Later they go on to argue:

 

While each of these issues are critical to the national debate, dumping them all into one hearing where the Congressional questioner together with the witness get just a combined five minutes does a disservice to the seriousness of each issue. In fact, this approach has served to hold back change on Wall Street as news reporters simply grab the single most titillating detail from each hearing and put that in a headline. 

 

I argue that the purpose of the hearings will be to give the appearance that Congresspeople are protecting the people from the shenanigans of the major financial institutions. The bank CEOs are closer to the ruling capitalist class (if not a part of it) than the Congresspeople who are treated as mere employees of the ruling class. 

• How the US Enforces Exploitative Economic Policies: The IMF and the World Bank by Rod Driver from his weblog Elephants in the Room.

• Biden Approves DAPL! Betrays Native Americans Again featuring Jimmy Dore citing various mainstream reports regarding that the wealthy who contribute far more than the poor and Justin Jackson offering his comments on Dore's YouTube channel (9:08m).
  

• Deliberate Attempts to Downplay the Science: Karl Grossman Interviews Dr. Devra Davis  in a 29 minute YouTube video from Environmental Health Trust.
  

• Western US States Prepare For 1st-Ever Water Shortage Declaration; Hoover Dam Hydroelectric Generation At Risk by Tyler Durden from his weblog ZeroHedge.

• Opium poppy production in Afghanistan from Global Research. (Note: This article is posted on Esri a company that is devoted to "A geographic information system (GIS) is a framework for gathering, managing, and analyzing data." However, because there is no date or an author on this post which originated from Esri, I have decided to post it from Global Research as an exception to my usual policy to post articles from their original websites.
  

Posts that I especially recommend today: Sunday, November 22, 2020

• Portuguese Court Rules PCR Tests “Unreliable” & Quarantines “Unlawful” from Off-Guardian.
  

• An Education in Viruses and Public Health, from Michael Yeadon, Former VP of Pfizer featuring Yeadon in a 32:49m video speaking about covid-19 illness from American Institute for Economic Research.
  

• GLENN GREENWALD on The Media Elite! on The Jimmy Dore Show. (Note: Greenwald answers piercing questions from Dore about his quarrel with the Intercept, and the pressures put on journalists who try to do honest reports.)

• GLENN GREENWALD Calls Out AOC's Fake Progressiveness posted on The Jimmy Dore Show. This is a best post. (Note: "AOC" stands for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. In this fascinating teleconferencing discussion (38:42m), Dore begins asking Greenwald some probing questions about censorship in the broadcasts owned by most media corporations, and Greenwald offers some fascinating and sophisticated insights not only about censorship, but other political subjects in plain everyday language that ordinary people use and understand.)
  

• False Flags and the Dawn of Bioterrorism featuring James Corbett explaining what is meant about the expression "false flag attack", the use of terrorism and recent forms of bio-terrorism as a false flag attacks. Posted on his weblog The Corbett Report. (Note: The US was criticized for using bio-terrorism, which was thoroughly covered up, in the Korean War. Read This Must Be the Place by Dave Chaddock.)
  

• Anthrax To COVID: The Ongoing Anthrax Deception That Created The BioSecurity State & COVID-19 featuring Ryan Cristián of The Last American Vagabond conducting a 52:13m interview with "David Meiswinkle, President Executive Director of Lawyer’s Committee For 9/11 Inquiry, here to discuss the current status of their ongoing uphill battle to gain some semblance of government accountability and transparency in regard to 9/11 and the subsequent (and clearly interconnected) anthrax false flag." (Note: Meiswinkle mentions "Daschle"--this is Sen. Tom Daschle from South Dakota who was reticent about passing the Patriot Act.   
  

• Predictive Programming? Israeli Publishers Have Been Writing About a COVID-Like Pandemic for Years by Raul Diego from Mint Press News (based in Minneapolis). A best post. My reaction: I'm especially impressed with his analysis of the psychological preparations for the public to accept a new pandemic and the restrictions imposed upon them. If the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire's Deep State were not responsible for this pandemic, they certainly were prepared to bring it off successfully.

• New York Times Job Listing Shows How Western Propaganda Operates by Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog. This is a best post because she highlights capitalist propaganda as a kind of religion for some people (sociopaths) who want to advance their careers and, by the way, to insure the comforts of their families. (Recall here Margaret Thatcher's statement that there is no such thing as society, there are only families.) Beliefs that support families are the cornerstone of capitalism in contrast to working class loyalties. These sociopaths don't question what they write. It is all to curry favor from their bosses in order to advance their careers and the comforts of their families. This is true of most upper-middle-class people, and some middle class people, who have adopted the sociopathic religion of capitalism.

• The Fight Against Cop “Unions”: An International Debate Nathaniel Flakin from Left Voice.
  

• CEO's GRILLED over Whistleblower Evidence of De-platforming Collusion Between Big Tech featuring an 8:47 video with Ben Swann of ISE pointing to a US Senate hearing which questioned, under oath, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, hedging his answers to questions from Sen. Hawley from Missouri about collusion with other "platforms", specifically Google and Twitter, regarding censorship.

• Dominion Part of Council That Disputed Election Integrity Concerns in DHS Statement by Jeff Carlson from The Epoch Times. 

• Lord Malloch Brown Revealed: The British Hand Behind the Coup Shows Its Scales Again by Matthew Ehret from Strategic Culture Foundation.
  

• Unspeakable Memories: The Day John Kennedy Died by Edward Curtin from his weblog Behind the Curtain. (Note: Global Research is currently posting several articles on the JFK assassination.) My reaction follows: 

My memory was very much the same as Curtin's emotional experiences. But there were differences. One major difference is that I was already a genuine socialist (by this I mean that people should own and control the economy to distinguish from social democrats like Bernie Sanders who only supposedly believe in a strong welfare state but with private ownership of the economy), and as such I found it completely understandable that the growing fascist Deep State could not tolerate a peace-loving president. I concluded that this incident was a sign of worse things to come, and was a least intellectually prepared for them. I, too, was enrolled in sociology course; but when this happened in addition to other experiences, I decided to abandon plans for an academic career in political sociology because I knew that academia was already filled with professors who, in order to protect their careers, had already sold out to the capitalist ruling class.

• G20: the debt solution by Michael Roberts from CADTM (Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt). (Note: This article would be better entitled "Capitalist Nations Cannot Agree on the Global Debt Problem".)
  

• MAJOR: Beijing Warns ‘Five Eyes’ Could be Poked Blind if China’s Sovereignty, Security Harmed by Drago Bosnic from FRN (Fort Russ News--based in Serbia).
  

• iLaw's US-Funded Charter Proposal REJECTED featuring a 2:30m video presentation by Brian Berletic ("Tony Cartalucci") from his weblog Land Destroyer Report summarizing the Thai government's rejection of the rewriting of Thailand's constitution to permit US funded parties to participate in Thailand's government.

• Sick Britain’s Orwellian Dystopia by Finian Cunningham from Sputnik (based in Russia).

• The China Moment by Peter Koenig from New Eastern Outlook.
  

• RCEP Set to Supercharge the New Silk Roads by Pepe Escobar from Asia Times via The Unz Review. 

Posts that I especially recommend and a commentary for today:Saturday, April 25, 2020

• The Deadliest Pandemic by Paul Edwards from CounterPunch.

• Part 1: How the Chinese Authorities and the World Health Organization Handled the Coronavirus by Vijay Prashad from Independent Media Institute. (My reaction: The report (with documentation) clashes with the endless narratives transmitted by corporate media and US officials that blame Chinese officials for the delay in alerting the rest of the world about the pandemic. So, who do you believe? I believe Prashad, not only because of his honest character, but because of the contents of this well-documented report.) 

• World Food Programme warns: COVID-19 pandemic will cause “famines of biblical proportions” by Jean Shaoul from Defend Democracy Press.

• Russia warns US about biological weapons concern by Joaquin Flores from FRN (Fort Russ News). (Note: This international treaty (1972) which banned biological weapons corresponds to Francis Boyle's attempts to ban the US government's production of biological weapons in 1990. But if you believe that the US government functions according to laws or agreements, I have a bridge to sell you (def.). But if you don't agree with the last statement, you are in good company (def.) with American Indians.) 

• As US passes 50,000 deaths, workers strike against back-to-work campaign by Shannon Jones and Andre Damon from World Socialist Web Site. (Note: I'm posting this only in order to respond to it.)

My commentary: I've noticed that the this website's editors have consistently advocated for worker's safely in response to the threat of the current pandemic. And, I've also noticed their lack of concern about the government's refusal to offer any significant support for millions of non-essential workers. WSWS seems in agreement with the ruling class's obvious view that corresponds to a condescending quote (1789) attributed to Queen Marie Antoinette "let them eat cake", which referred to the French ruling class's utter lack of concern for the millions of French who where facing famine.

It seems to me that the huge numbers of "non-essential" workers and the owner's of small businesses are facing simular threats to their survival: loss of homes (due to evictions and inability to maintain mortgage payments), can't afford medical care, instability of families (divorces and spouse problems) in addition to feeding their families. These workers may be non-essential to the capitalist ruling class, but their jobs are essential to them. Perhaps this attitude is related to the ruling class's solution to the climate crisis--depopulation. But I remain astounded by WSWS's stance on this issue.

One cannot blame these workers if they insist on returning to their jobs, but the small business owners do not have this option. However, many workers are employed by small business owners. Perhaps it is time to consider other options. (Also, be sure to see the next post.)

• Many Strikes Are Coming Before Nov. Election & After. w/Jane McAlevey from The Jimmy Dore Show (via YouTube). (Note: McAlevey, a labor organizer, continues talking about how to organize workers.)

• Capitalism Can’t Be Repaired – Coronavirus Shows Its Huge Weaknesses by Richard D. Wolff from Brave New Europe. 

• Would We Have Already Had a COVID-19 Vaccine Under Socialism? by Vanessa A. Bee  from In These Times.

Posts that I especially recommend today: Monday, January 13, 2020

• Breakfeast with Blackrock & Co. translated and posted on German economist Norbert Häring's weblog. (Note: there is every reason to believe that some members of the major asset management giants are also members of the highly secretive Deep State, the directors of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire.)

Jens Berger, editor of the popular progressive German Website "NachDenkSeiten", has just published an eye-opening book on the power of the three asset management giants BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street (in German). I have been allowed to publish the first chapter as an appetizer, which translates as "Breakfeast with BlackRock & Co." 

• The former Head of Turkey’s Military Intelligence: a turning point for the Middle East by Elif İlhamoğlu from United World (independent website based in Turkey).

• The Tenuous Deployment of US Troops in Iraq by Abdul Rahman from Internationalist 360°. 

• Heads of Libya's warring sides in Russia for talks from Al Jazeera (based in Qatar). 

• Understanding France’s General Strike in the Context of the Yellow Vests and Global Class Warfare from Radical Education Department. 

• USA: Overview of Auto Workers' Strike by Internationalist Workers’ Group and posted on Libcom. 

• Under US pressure, social media companies censor critical content and suspend Venezuelan, Iranian, and Syrian accounts by Ben Norton from The Grayzone.

• World War III by CJ Hopkins, master political satirist, from his website Consent Factory. (Note: Caitlin Johnstone's effort in her latest article is entering the competition.) 

• Unearthing the Capitalocene: Towards a Reparations Ecology by Jason W. Moore and
  Raj Patel from Roar. (Note: We learn from sociologists from their article written in 2017 that the climate crisis is caused by capitalism. But all evidence by the majority of climate scientists suggests that this was written before the extinction of our human and most other species became inevitable.)

See if you have the stomach to read today's articles: Friday, January 10, 2020

• The Deeper Story Behind the Assassination of Soleimani by Federico Pieraccini from Strategic Culture Foundation.

• A New Middle East “made in Iran” is about to be born by Elijah J Magnier from his weblog.

• The Democrats pass Pelosi’s phony antiwar resolution by Patrick Martin from World Socialist Web Site. 

• “Trump Didn’t Get the Message!” Iran’s Military, Iraqi Militia Pledge More Retaliation! from A bird's eye view of the Vineyard.

• Iran’s Hero has Fallen, and Now the World is an Even More Dangerous Place by Andre Vltchek from New Eastern Outlook. 

• Why Trump's Iran Conflict Cannot Be Stopped Or Unwound from The Jimmy Dore Show.

• Iran’s IRGC Aerospace Chief on US casualties/damages/future retaliation steps posted on Middle East Observer. 

• VIDEO – American Soldiers Heard in Tape of Iran’s Retaliation by Joaquin Flores from Fort Russ News.

• Strikes Paralyze France for Fifth Consecutive Week from Fort Russ News.

• ‘Deathly silent’: Ecologist describes Australian wildfires’ devastating aftermath by Dyani Lewis from Nature. 

• As the World Burns, the Powerful Go on Holiday by Kenn Orphan from CounterPunch.

• Ice-free Arctic Ocean allowed ancient carbon leaks by Tim Radford from Climate News Network.

Articles recommended for Wednesday, June 19, 2019

• Arctic Permafrost Melting 70 Years Sooner Than Expected, Study Finds by Jan Wesner Childs from The Weather Channel.

• Greenland Was 40 Degrees Hotter Than Normal This Week, And Things Are Getting Intense from the Washington Post via Science Alert.

• Very heavy rain bouts are on the way by Tim Radford from Climate News Network. 

• Corporate News Pushes Iran War For Trump from The Jimmy Dore Show via YouTube. 

• Teachers’ Strikes: A New Class Politics Emerging by Eric Blanc from The Bullet (Canada).

• Report: US Planning “Massive” Airstrike On An Iranian Facility by Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog.

On Labor Day, Where’s Labor? How Did American Workers Lose Their Power?

Click here to access article by Jon Jeter from Mint Press News. 

The author argues that the dramatic decline in union membership in the post-WWII period has been facilitated by union bureaucrats in cooperation with the capitalist ruling class's racist divide-and-conquer strategy. However there are many other factors involved in the deteriorating number of workers in unions. 

Henry Luce, speaking for the ruling class, announced that the US could seek its own empire after WWII. The US ruling class understood that the war would likely destroy most of the industrial countries. And sure enough, the US fascist capitalists came out of their isolationist woodwork where they were hiding and joined in the plunder of war profits by manufacturing weapons for the numerous belligerents. 

After the war they insured that labor unions were cleansed of radical organizers (the McCarthy period) and passed laws that suppressed the labor movement. Their propaganda machines in Hollywood, corporate media (even in comic books), and in public schools began to crank out themes of the Red (Communist) menace and the need to build up their armed forces. Then there was the Korean War which our masters saw as an opportunity to stop the Red menace and the growing appeal that the Koreans had for their own independence and social justice values. According to William Engdahl in A Century of War, as early as 1958 American capitalists began to take advantage of lower labor costs in Europe and other foreign countries because of their obsession with profits and power and their absence of any concern about the aging industrial infrastructure in the home country

Then there was the Vietnam War in which the military-industrial establishment earned billions of dollars manufacturing war materials that could have been spent to upgrade the domestic economic infrastructure and spent on other social needs like health, education, and welfare for ordinary Americans. 

I myself have argued that our own "educated" upper-middle-class workers were seduced by many rewards provided by the ruling class to aid and abet their imperialist agenda abroad and the suppression domestically of other working people below them. Last, but not least, there has been the takeover of government by the Zionist-inspired neoconservatives who engineered the 9/11 false-flag tragedy and re-energized ordinary Americans for more wars they had planned in the Middle East. 

There are other attempts to explain this phenomenon like in the current book reviewed by Guy Miller entitled On New Terrain: how capital reshaped the battleground of class war by Kim Moody.

Recommended articles for Monday, July 30, 2018

• Iran-US Escalation and the Strait of Hormuz factor by Salman Rafi Sheikh from New Eastern Outlook. I've noticed this morning about four or five other articles which suggest or clearly predict the likely attack on Iran by the US Empire (see this, this, this, and this).

• Workers in US face growing class battles by Jerry White from World Socialist Web Site.

• Extreme global weather is 'the face of climate change' says leading scientist by Damian Carrington from The Guardian.

Recommended articles for Saturday, 4/14/2018

 Articles on the overnight attack on Syria by the US Empire:  (Note: added the post from Roberts at noon Seattle time.)

• Syria - Manipulated Videos Fail To Launch World War III - Updated by Bernhard from Moon of Alabama.

• "People Are Dancing In The Streets": Syria, Russia, Iran Shrug Off "More Limited Than Feared" Airstrikes by Tyler Durden from ZeroHedge. 

• The new US concept of a “perfect” mission: 32 out of 103 by "The Saker" from A bird's eye view of the Vineyard.

• Trump Attacks Syria With Chemical Experts on the Way by Joe Lauria from ConsortiumNews. 

• US and imperialist allies launch strikes against Syria by editors of World Socialist Web Site.

• Are We Over the US/UK Fomented Crisis In Syria? by Paul Craig Roberts. (Credit must go to an activist for this post.) 

The US ambassador to Russia said that the US strikes were coordinated with Russia to avoid a great power confrontation.

Other subjects:

• Anger grows over union effort to sabotage Oklahoma teachers strike by Jerry White from World Socialist Web Site.

• I Love the Smell of Imperial Meltdown in the Morning by Aidan O'Brien from CounterPunch.

Oklahoma teachers strike as workers’ upsurge spreads in US

Click here to access article by Tom Hall from World Socialist Web Site.

Due to personal issues I have been rather remiss on reporting the wave of strikes across America by teachers. This website has been covering it well.

The mainstream media has portrayed the growing strike wave among teachers as a “red state rebellion” against Republican-led austerity measures. However, the situation in Oklahoma, West Virginia and elsewhere is by no means unique to Southern states with Republican governors and Republican majorities in the state legislature. Last month, teachers in Jersey City, New Jersey went on strike, and teachers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania voted for strike action. In 2015, teachers in Detroit staged sickouts in opposition to atrocious conditions in their schools.

The disastrous situation facing public schools and educators is the result of a national and international ruling-class policy of slashing social spending to pay for surging military budgets and bolster the profits of the banks and corporations.

You may also be interested to listen to a 23:36 minute interview (the first part of Henwood's program) with Jennifer Berkshire, a journalist who has closely reported on the wave of strikes and the strategy of the "right" (her word) to destroy public education. The interview was conducted on March 22nd by Doug Henwood of KPFA, a listener sponsored radio station in Berkeley, California.

Notice particularly that these two people are thoroughly indoctrinated in the conventional view of two political parties that compete for votes in "democratic" elections. The ruling capitalist class control both parties in the style of good cop/bad cop (Democratic Party/Republican Party) to fool most Americans into believing that they live in a democracy. Although they both acknowledge that the Democratic Party is doing nothing to back the teachers, they both seem surprised. Yet, they continue to impose this political construct on the issue throughout the interview. This delusion affects most Americans and is a major barrier to further progress against the ever increasing fascist direction that the ruling class is heading.

Of particular interest to me was the accurate observation by both people that there was an effort to destroy communities across America because they represent the last grass-roots resistance to "the right-wing", as they saw it.

Henwood: This is an interesting point. Schools in a lot of communities are sort of gathering points, a real institution that keeps communities together. The right doesn't really like that, does it.

Berkshire: No, not at all. That's why it's an interesting thing to pay attention to. Because the extent that you have real resistance among the Republicans to these ideas .... These schools are community groups and people understand that blowing them up would mean the end of these communities.

Henwood: And post offices, too. They like to talk about communities, but they want to destroy any institution that keeps them together.

Berkshire: Those are the last two institutions that we feel entitled to as Americans ... and they're hell bent on going after them. That's why I think it's a missed opportunity for Democrats. 

Christopher's recommended articles for 3/20/2018

• Teachers in Jersey City begin strike as demands for walkouts expand across the US from World Socialist Web Site. Good current example of how the unions serve the ruling class.

• Growing Apart: A Political History of American Inequality by Colin Gordon from Inequality.

General Strike Brings Argentina to a Halt

Click here to access article from Left Voice (Argentina).

Argentine workers are not sitting idle in the face of the Argentine ruling class's repressive policies.

The largest labor unions in Argentina called a general strike today, April 6, against President Macri’s economic policies. Workers around the country are protesting against the high inflation rates, austerity measures, layoffs and subcontracting. The transportation workers have completely stopped working, as have airline workers, canceling hundreds of flights in and out of Argentina. Schools are also closed, and this general strike comes after weeks of teacher mobilizations and strikes in Buenos Aires.

The streets of Buenos Aires are completely empty due to the impact of the strike. “It’s like the movie ‘I am Legend’. You feel like you are alone in a big city,” says Buenos Aires resident Gloria Grinberg.

It's class war in Argentina, and the ruling capitalist class is fighting back. Read all about it in this piece entitled "Argentina's Macri Mulls Purchase of New Riot Control Weapons to Crack Down on Protests", from TeleSur.

Labor Leaders Stump For Trump As White House Prepares Attack On Workers

Click here to access article by Eric Draitser from Mind Press News.

The sight of leaders of a number of major trade unions praising President Donald Trump after their meeting with him on Jan. 23 is perhaps the perfect illustration of everything wrong with the labor movement. More importantly, it demonstrates just how hollow President Trump’s rhetoric about defending workers and putting people “back to work” truly is.

For while Trump talks about investing in infrastructure and rebuilding America, ostensibly with the goal of improving the lives of workers, his administration is planning a full-scale offensive on workers and their standards of living. Fluent in doublespeak, Trump is able to posture as a friend of workers while in fact being a ruthless predator bent on the further evisceration of the working class. In that sense he’s not much different than other politicians. 

A Short History of Liberal Myths and Anti-Labor Politics

Click here to access article by Sam Mitrani and Chad Pearson from CounterPunch.

Although I agree with much of this article, I also have serious criticisms. The article provides rich material for political consciousness raising--and to be sure, Americans need their consciousness raised from the low level where it presently resides. This latter observation is not a criticism of ordinary Americans so much as it is evidence of the ruling class's deliberate attempt to dumb down Americans and fill their heads with false dreams and a fake history that censors most of the realities of the history of class war.

For the positive parts of the article I like much of the real history that the authors present: the necessity of worker organizing to form a strong opposition to the ruling capitalist class. I also like the authors' exposé of the insidious role of liberals and social democrats to manage this opposition on behalf of capitalist interests.

This last category is extremely important to raise the political consciousness of ordinary Americans who have been fooled and manipulated countless times by liberals and social democrats who really serve the interests of capital. This is precisely the people whom Eric London wrote about in his article entitled "Wealth distribution in the United States and the politics of the pseudo-left". (See this post and my commentary because I'm not going to repeat myself.) 

This phenomenon of co-optation is a major weapon that the ruling capitalist class has used so effectively throughout history to manage opposition by workers. That is precisely why worker organizations must develop bottom-up authority structures in their organizations to counter this weapon. But workers must have a certain level of political consciousness, an understanding of their interests, and real understanding of labor history to function effectively in a bottom-up authority system. This presents a chicken-egg type of dilemma to which I don't have a good answer. Most ordinary Americans have been thoroughly indoctrinated to follow authority figures and conditioned to distrust each other; and likewise to look to powerful leaders, people who pretend to be in-the-know, or saviors for their salvation.

Now for my negative criticisms. The authors brief outline of history was faulty in the immediate post WWII period by labeling it as a labor "golden age". They didn't mention the backlash against labor unions that occurred during that period: the Taft-Hartley Act and the purging of radical labor leaders from unions during the McCarthy period. (For a good worker history of this period, see this.) To be sure workers enjoyed increases in wages and other gains, but this was solely due to the fact that US industry was completely intact whereas most industry in other advanced economies were destroyed because of the war. (The authors vaguely alluded to this reality.)

But the most damning criticism I've saved for last. The article was laced throughout by the theme of a "balance of forces" or "balance of power". This really represented their political view of labor and goal of organized labor in relation to the ruling capitalist class. Their unstated thesis is that labor should only strive to gain a powerful position and have their own political party to counter capitalist power so that they can insure that workers' interests are served. In their own words:

That is why the working-class needs its own political organization, one that puts its interests first. We need a political party that is not limited to elections, but recognizes that the mobilization of the working-class is the only thing that can change the balance of forces in our favor. Such a party would demand, at minimum, that no company making a profit should be allowed to lay off employees, and that if there is not enough work, any remaining work must be divided with no loss in pay. It would demand that corporate subsidies and tax breaks be banned, and that the wealthy and the corporations be taxed to pay for schools and services. We realize this is far from an original proposal, but the working-class has not had a political party representing its interests since Eugene Debs’s day.

Yes, indeed, it is "far from an original proposal"! The only new idea they advanced is that the Democratic Party does not serve workers' interests. But that's new?! This article is so typical of articles posted in CounterPunch. They pretend to be left-wing, but in fact they are thoroughly pro-capitalist in a mild sort of way...much like liberals and social democrats.

Keeping the Student Strike Alive

Click here to access article by Alain Savard from Jacobin. 

The Quebec student movement centered in Montreal had very impressive victories in 2012 against the provincial government which was intent on raising tuition and outlawing student demonstrations. This article attempts to analyze why and how they succeeded in contrast to other campuses in the rest of Canada and the US. 

It appears to me that the basic ingredients are one-day strikes, general student assemblies which are limited in size, maintaining an activist core, and the hiring of more permanent key staff funded by student fees. You might glean other elements that contribute to their success. He concludes his article with this statement:

As the impact of the Great Recession drags on, the time is ripe for student unions across Canada, and the United States to take a page from the Quebec students’ playbook and take back their campuses.

Notes on the movement against the loi du travail, by a waitress (May 2016)

Click here to access article from libcom.

If you were to only follow corporate news while living in the US, you would be completely unaware of the ongoing since late March of the growing protests and labor strikes that have been occurring across France precipitated by an attempt at passing a new labor bill that will further weaken workers' rights. Those of us who refuse to be deceived and ignorant about what is going on in the rest of the world need to read this piece by a waitress who gives her perspective on what is happening there up until May 26.

The oil strikes and blockades, which are now being reported more in the international press, have been ongoing since Thursday 19th, and with increasing strength. On Thursday we heard it was not possible to get cash or oil in Rennes, since the ATMs were smashed during the manifestation, and the refineries were on strike. This is an explicit case in which the actions of casseurs support the actions of a strike. Every day there has been news of another refinery blocked, a new one evicted. They are often reoccupied. Road blockades are too many to count. 

It’s Difficult to Say Exactly What, But Something is Happening A Social Movement Awakens in France

Click here to access article by Anouk Colombani from The Brooklyn Rail. 

I've been aware of these protests known as "Nuit debout" (translated as "Up All Night", "Standing Night", and "Rise up at night") for some time, but I've recently become aware that it is spreading all over France, reaching nearby countries, and has even turned up in Montreal. 

What sparked it was apparently a law proposed to attack labor laws protecting workers, morphed into protests against the whole austerity fabric of capitalist rule under the latest phase of neoliberalism, and incorporated issues and methods of the more recent protest movements such as the Indignados and Occupy movements. As North American activists we need to know what is going on with these spreading protests. This article is the best I have seen to capture the origins and evolution of the movement. (I also recommend reading the recent Wikipedia entry about Nuit debout.)

Scattered, messy, refusing leaders and celebrities, the movement is sustained by the masses of people who make it. The diverse and often new forms it takes are signs that people are searching for new kinds of political organization. In the space of a month and a half, we have participated in the birth of new kinds of struggle but also in raising hundreds of issues for the broader public to consider, such as the vegan issue, the return of radical feminism, radical ecology, and horizontal democracy. This protest movement didn’t come from nowhere. If it refuses to take on a partisan label, it is clearly the product of protest movements and marginal practices that have been going on for the last twenty years. It also signals a political rebirth in many working-class neighborhoods. ....

Large crowds provoke fear [among the ruling class]; as a result repression shows its face when people come together. Since the week of March 16, the police have not hesitated to intervene with tear gas, beatings, and arrests.

The New Right’s Origins in the Labor Battles of the 1930s

Click here to access a 44 minute interview with UC Davis historian Kathryn Olmstead conducted by Sasha Lilley on the program Against the Grain broadcast by KPFA, a listener sponsored radio station in Berkeley, California. The interview begins at 6:30m after a news report.

What are the origins of modern conservatism?  The failed Goldwater campaign?  Or the Cold War era discontent of midwestern small capitalists?  Historian Kathryn Olmstead argues that it should be located even earlier, in the intense and massive labor unrest that took place in the fields of California in the 1930s.  The response by growers and other elites pioneered methods that have become familiar today, from deploying populist rhetoric in the interests of big business to funding ostensibly grassroots organizations.

Unless a student can get access to honest historians like Olmstead, one must acquire accurate historical knowledge about workers from sources like this post and books. Otherwise I advise students to use educational institutions, which are always controlled by ideological capitalists, for skills training only.