Henry Giroux on the Militarization of Public Pedagogy

Click here to access the transcript of the interview posted in CounterPunch.

Seth Kershner, who is a reference and instruction librarian at Northwestern Connecticut Community College, has a very interesting interview with educator Henry Giroux. In the interview Giroux expands on the concept of pedagogy to include all of mass culture which, of course, serves the ruling class. He brings a hopeful message of resistance and is optimistic about the possibilities of radical resistance coming from today's youth.

...young people are recognizing that they’re not going to find their voice in the Democratic Party or in the existing labor unions.  What they really need to fight for are new mass and collective organizations that can call the entirety of society into question and mobilize so as to develop the policies and institutions that make a new and radically democratic society possible.

What Really Happened at Westgate

Click here to access article by Andre Vltchek from CounterPunch.

For years and decades now, the West has been destabilizing Somalia. Kenya and Ethiopia, two staunch allies of the West in the region, are playing a deadly game, incessantly. Thousands of civilians have already died.

Kenya is one of the closest allies of the West in Africa, with both US and UK military bases all over the nation, and with Israeli intelligence personnel on the Swahili coast and elsewhere.

That brutal invasion [by Kenya into Somalia] is not discussed, of course: in the Kenyan media and in the international press, the war and the attack on the shopping mall are carefully separated, disconnected.

I have only had time to scan this lengthy article by Horace Campbell, a very knowledgeable observer of African affairs, posted in Pambazuka, but it appears that he provides many more details of the background of this tragic event involving Western oil companies and Kenya's invasion of Somalia.

News Release: Concern as IPCC Bangs the Drum for Geoengineering

Click here to access article from ETC Group. 

It's clear to me that capitalist directors refuse to give up on their system which rewards their tiny numbers with so much wealth and power. They are so addicted to this hideous system that is destroying an ecosystem capable of sustaining human and many other life forms that they cannot imagine any alternative. Hence, they are grasping at their last straw of geo-engineering. 

This solution was inserted in the final paragraph of the Summary for Policymakers (IPCC report):

"It’s the paragraph that should never have been," explained Neth Daño, ETC Group's Asia Director." The explicit purpose of Working Group I is to report on the latest climate science, not to discuss response measures. The report doesn't discuss solar power or electric cars; it doesn't discuss public transport, carbon markets or any other actual or potential policy response to the climate crisis, so why have the authors chosen to devote the  concluding paragraph to this highly speculative and dangerous technofix?”

Well, I think the answer is obvious. Solar power, electric cars, public transportation, and other significant measures would require a very expensive conversion of the existing infrastructures and dramatic cutbacks of fossil fuels in capitalist countries that would severely impact profits in the next few decades. It would also require economies to be on a war footing that would necessitate extensive government planning, controls, and direction. It's so much easier for capitalist directors to continue with business as usual and simply adding a geo-engineering fix which many scientists regard as a fantasy at best, and a dangerous gamble at worst.

The IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report

Click here to access article from Climate News Network.

A note from the Climate News Network editors: we have prepared this very abbreviated version of the first installment of the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) to serve as an objective guide to some of the headline issues it covers. It is in no sense an evaluation of what the Summary says: the wording is that of the IPCC authors themselves, except for a few cases where we have added headings. .... In the following days and weeks we will be reporting in more detail on some of their findings.

Recovery hype: American capitalism's weapon of mass distraction

Click here to access article by Richard Wolff from The Guardian. 

Referring to government officials and mainstream media that has been celebrating the theme of economic "recovery", he writes:

Here is the "recovery" that they see. The top 1% of income-earners in the US took 19% of the national income in 2012, the largest share since 1928. That 1% also saw their average income rise by 31.4% from the current crisis's low point in 2009, through 2012. The top 1% certainly enjoyed a recovery.

And then proceeds to set the record straight by providing a lot more real information about how the "recovery" has affected us by starting with this fact:

In total contrast, income for the other 99% rose by an average of 0.4% during the same period.

Looting the Pension Funds

Click here to access article by Matt Taibbi from Rolling Stone.

In the final months of 2011.... Led by its newly elected treasurer, Gina Raimondo – an ostentatiously ambitious 42-year-old Rhodes scholar and former venture capitalist – the state declared war on public pensions, ramming through an ingenious new law slashing benefits of state employees with a speed and ferocity seldom before seen by any local government.

....

The dynamic young Rhodes scholar was allowing her state to be used as a test case for the rest of the country, at the behest of powerful out-of-state financiers with dreams of pushing pension reform down the throats of taxpayers and public workers from coast to coast. One of her key supporters was billionaire former Enron executive John Arnold – a dickishly ubiquitous young right-wing kingmaker with clear designs on becoming the next generation's Koch brothers, and who for years had been funding a nationwide campaign to slash benefits for public workers.

Is climate change already dangerous ( Part 5 of 5): Climate safety and an unavoidably radical future

Click here to access article by David Spratt from Climate Code Red.  (Commentary updated at 5:37 Seattle time.)

This five part series of articles reports on the latest scientific findings, including the just released UN report, regarding climate change. While the five part series goes into considerable detail about scientific findings, it is interesting to contrast this with mainstream TV media reports. In this series the author provides findings such as this:

The World Bank and PriceWaterhouseCoopers have recently published reports which complement a wide range of scientific research which concludes that the world is presently heading for 4ºC or more of warming this century, and as soon as 2060. Reuters correspondent Michael Rose (2012) quotes IEA Chief Economist, Fatih Birol as saying that emission trends are “perfectly in line with a temperature increase of 6°C, which would have devastating consequences for the planet”.

Anderson says there is a widespread view amongst scientists that “a 4°C future is incompatible with an organised global community, is likely to be beyond ‘adaptation’, is devastating to the majority of eco-systems and has a high probability of not being stable”.

Let us now look at what amount of air time and the quality of reporting on the latest UN report by the leading TV networks which shape the opinions of most Americans.

CBS TV provides this 2:25m report in which the program segment focuses on the temporary halt of air temperature increases since 1998. Scott Pelley frames the report with this very skeptical introduction: 

Anyone expecting it [the UN report] to show steadily rising air temps would be in for a surprise.

CBS reporter Mark Phillips then prefaces his report with this cynical statement:

Another inconvenient truth has emerged on the way to the apocalypse. The UN report on climate change is expected to blame man-made greenhouse gases more that ever for global warming. But there's a problem: global atmosphere hasn't been warming lately. .... Since 1998 atmosphere temperatures have not gone up. ....

He then introduces a scientist who explains that the extra heat has gone into the ocean, and ocean temperatures have been steadily rising. Apparently all is well because the ocean is not a part of the globe (sarcasm). 

Then the CBS reporter, in an introduction to another person identified as "head of a climate change think-tank", refers back to the temporary halt in the rise of global air temperatures by saying that climate change skeptics are now given "more ammunition" to doubt global warming. CBS then allows the scientist about a total of four seconds to respond to the reporters question: "does this [the findings] remove the urgency [to reduce carbon emissions]? Yes, he replies, and goes on to state that the current goals of carbon reduction are unrealistic, and the world should now be focusing on building more flood barriers!

It seems reasonable to believe that this "expert" made his statement about unrealistic goals because of the existing track record of various countries since the Kyoto Accords which promised efforts to reduce carbon emissions and failed to deliver. This is not surprising given the fact that capitalism requires growth. What is not surprising is that nearly everyone ignores the 800 pound gorilla in the room--the capitalist system. In other words, there is no alternative to the capitalist system--so get used to it and learn to cope with the consequences.

NBC's 1:01m report provides more accurate, but even briefer coverage:



I am unable to determine if Fox News broadcast any report, but their website does provide this article which emphasized that scientists were unable to explain the lull in the rise of air temperatures ("surface temperatures") since 1998, and inserted other comments that suggested doubts about global warming.

Update: I saw really good coverage lasting close 2:24 minutes on ABC's evening news broadcast. 

Generally speaking, US mainstream TV media directors, if they report any information at all, continue to manage information about global warming to mass audiences by downplaying its effects and questioning its validity.

Dangerous Addiction to Secrecy

Click here to access article by Robert Parry from Consortium News.

Parry assembles several dramatic examples of governments hiding the truth from the people and often making up stories in place of the truth. However, he demonstrates a naiveté that infects the political understanding of so many people when he makes statements such as this:

The secrecy addiction among major world powers is deeply corrosive to democracy and makes a mockery of popular rule.

Whenever you have class-structured societies, you obviously have ruling classes. Under capitalism the basis of this arrangement is the principle of private ownership of the economy. "Democracy" in the form of carefully managed elections is only a public relations cover for their class rule based on this arrangement. 

The fact that ruling class players do not share information they have in their disputes with other ruling classes demonstrates that their respective subordinate classes are inconsequential. Why is it so difficult to understand this fact and stop looking at political events and international rivalries through the lens of ruling class propaganda framed as "democracy"!

It's long past time for progressives to grow up! We will have no peace or social justice or a sustainable ecological system until we, the people, get rid of class structured societies and create societies where there is genuine, inclusive rule by all the people. To accomplish this, we must remove all arrangements which favor any set of people over the rest of society.

Rouhani surfs the new WAVE

Click here to access article by Pepe Escobar from Asia Times Online.

As stated by Escobar, there is only one alternative to more wars in the Middle East-- maybe even a major one:

The key points of the road map ahead are clear. Total clarification of details regarding Iran's rightful peaceful nuclear program should proceed with dismantling of sanctions. Washington's nasty financial blockade of Iran's oil sales is not working; no one, from China to India and beyond, will stop buying Iranian energy because the US says so. And Iran should also be reinstated in the global bank exchange mechanism.

Will the directors of the Empire come to their senses or will we have more wars? I am not optimistic.

Russia Opposed to NATO States` Attempt to Repeat Libya Scenario and Blackmail

Click here to access article by Christof Lehmann from nsnbc. 

Russian Diplomats stress that Russia opposes NATO States`Attempt to repeat a Libya Scenario in Syria. Russia has [claimed] that the USA has gone so far as to attempt to Blackmail Russia into voting in favor of a Security Council resolution that would leave a loophole for a repetition of the Libyan disaster in Syria.

50,000 march on Golden Dawn headquarters in Athens

Click here to access article by Jerome Roos from Reflections on a Revolution.

Once again we see a ruling capitalist class resorting to the use of thugs to protect their system.

...official investigations by the Financial Crimes Unit show that Golden Dawn is actually being funded by a group of wealthy businessmen, ship-owners and priests....

See also this coverage from Eagainst of the anti-fascist mass demonstrations all across Greece which includes many photos and one video.

Pakistani National TV Reveals Obama's Claim To Have Killed Osama Bin Laden Is 'An American Hoax'

Click here to access article by Paul Craig Roberts from World News Trust.

The Pakistani TV interview displays so much authenticity which is in such sharp contrast to the US government's story. Roberts does an excellent job of framing the posting with all the lies that the government has been telling us over the years.

The Obama regime’s story of the murder of bin Laden is nonsensical. The fact that the regime would tell such a preposterous story indicates that Washington regards the American and international public as gullible morons, people lacking any ability to discern the truth of what they are officially told.

Is there a crisis of credibility in the human sciences?

Click here to access article by Bert Olivier from Mail & Guardian Online (South Africa).

"Although thirty years ago it was common to find challenges to the capitalist exploitation of the environment emanating from social scientists who were then on the environmentalist fringe, today the main thrust of environmental social science has shifted to ecological modernization – a managerial approach that sees sustainable technology, sustainable consumption, and market-based solutions (indeed “sustainable capitalism”) as providing the answers …

“Thus as natural scientists have become more concerned about the detrimental effects of the economic system on the environment, and correspondingly radicalized, asking more and more root questions, social scientists have increasingly turned to the existing economic system as the answer.”

The author provides an excellent answer as to why this is.

Obama's 'independent' NSA review board staffed with administration insiders

Click here to access article from RT.

President Barack Obama said in August that an independent panel will review the United States’ surveillance capabilities in the wake of damaging NSA leaks. One month later, though, that group’s game plan is being called into question.

This is always the strategy of choice in dealing with potentially damaging issues facing the directors of the ruling class--they appoint an "independent commission" to investigate. Such commissions are used to fulfill some pre-determined goal. This is done by stacking them with the right people and/or limiting their budget, time to work, ability to work, and authority. We saw this with the Warren Commission and the 9/11 Commission, and now this commission.

New 'anti-Brotherhood, anti-military' front launched to 'achieve revolution goals'

Click here to access article from Ahram Online.

Def. Sec. Hagel in Cairo to give orders to satrap, Apr 2013

A new front, dubbed "Revolution Path Front" aimed at providing an alternative to the current "polarisation" between the military and Muslim Brotherhood has been launched on Tuesday in a press conference attended by tens of leading political figures, activists and groups.

Apparently the Egyptian revolution has still not been killed by the Empire's satrap Al Sisi.

 

Time to Leave Wonderland: Facing Reality and Imagining New Possibilities

Click here to access article by Kali Ma from The Hampton Institute. 

The contribution of this author lies with her arguments for the necessity of critical thinking so that we can face reality and imagine new ways of living. The glaring weakness is that she can only identify the problem as being the "hierarchical system".  This is especially discouraging coming from a website that bills itself as "A Working Class Think Tank".

If you read the literature from or about the Populist Movement of the late 19th century (e.g. Democratic Promise by Lawrence Goodwyn), early 20th century literature related to socialism and anarchism (Eugene Debs, Upton Sinclair, etc), the history and literature of the 1930s activists, you would view this article as rather naive politically. The power of the indoctrination agencies which she elaborates on is also illustrated by her total inability to identify the system which drives these agencies--capitalism. Hierarchy, like indoctrination, is only another method used by the capitalist ruling class to maintain control of working people and of society.

It has become clear to me that WWII and its aftermath which featured ruling class attacks on radicals and labor unions was incredibly successful in wiping out this heritage of critical political thought in the US.

Rise of the Petro Yuan: End of US Dollar

Click here to access article by Dan Collins from The 4th Media.

The author makes a decisive point about the diminishing power of the US dollar and the rise of Chinese currency. This is especially being driven by the increasing erosion of trade in petro-dollars. Also, Chinese capitalism has been using its cheaper exports based on cheap labor to dominate world production, while US capitalists have increasingly relied on military and subversive forces and financial instruments--which have destabilized the economy of many countries--to attain short-term profits. In other words, Chinese capitalists are outsmarting US Empire capitalists.

This, of course, is not good news in spite of what you might read from those who see a multi-polar world as beneficial. This is so because this new multi-polar world is still a capitalist world where rivalry can easily breakout into major military conflicts. And with the billion or so Chinese buying more cars, refrigerators, etc., we can only expect the acceleration of global climate destabilization.

Monsanto & Seed Patent Laws

Click here to access a 4:24m video on the John Stewart's The Daily Show.

Notice at one point in the dialog the farmer expresses a fundamental insight: "Monsanto patenting our plants is a theft of our genetic heritage."

I've always wondered why most people cannot see that our economy is also a social heritage and as such cannot be owned by private individuals or "corporate persons"?

Myths About the Syrian “Revolution”

Click here to access article by As'ad AbuKhalil from Al Akhbar. 

The author is to be commended for acknowledging his mistakes in interpreting the early stages of the Empire's Syrian destabilization project. It is absolutely mandatory that he and others will now learn from this experience to identify the process early on to prevent such social catastrophes in the future. 

Israeli's Mossad and other Western agencies specialize in such subversive activities to destabilize countries, and it is imperative for people-powered and peace loving activists all over the world to quickly identify these activities and organize to oppose such actions. 

How many national disasters does it take for people to wake up and learn what is happening!

What We Could Do with a Postal Savings Bank: Infrastructure that Doesn’t Cost Taxpayers a Dime

Click here to access article by Ellen Brown from Web of Debt.

While I thoroughly agree with this proposal as a theoretical step in the right direction, I disagree with its proponents that it is a realistic step in itself. Private banking institutions, and that especially includes central banks that are disguised as quasi-public institutions, are at the very center of global capitalism. Public banking operations do exist in various places, but they play a very limited role in their national economies. Banksters are the very heart and soul of capitalism, and therefore they will never allow a public bank to play a major role in the economy, and it is extremely unlikely that the aggressive US capitalists will allow such a proposal to make any headway through their government. 

Realistically, pursuing this project could be beneficial if it is seen as a tactic in an overall strategy to generate anti-capitalist propaganda and thereby to undermine the legitimacy of the system. Thus, pursuing the establishment of such a bank and/or in any way undermining the power of the Federal Reserve could be effective if sufficient numbers of people recognize the need for an alternative to private control of our money supply. While this battle is raging, people might become aware of the benefits of putting our entire economy under public control. On the other hand, it might only serve as another distraction using up energy needed to attack the system more directly.

It's past time for progressives to grow up!