How the Dems Will Betray 2020 & the Movement for a People's Party

Click here to access a 52:52m video interview conducted by Eleanor Goldfield with Nick Brana, former campaigner for Bernie Sanders posted on Occupy. 

Nick Brana, founder of the Movement for a People's Party joins us to lay out the Democratic party's playbook, based on what he's seen on the inside and built in response on the outside.

This interview, in which Goldfield contributes with comments of her own, illustrates the profound naivete by quite well informed activists in the USA today. In this interview Brana tells us what he has learned with the Sanders' campaign in 2016, but in spite of his sociology degree (or maybe because of it) he still exhibits his weaknesses in understanding what in takes to challenge the power of the ruling capitalist class. (What it takes is a revolutionary movement.) It's obvious that his only objective is to reform the capitalist political system of rule, which is based on their ownership and control of the economy, and try to wrest some token advantages for working people. 

I am posting this mostly for you to hear what he as learned about the anti-democratic practices of the two parties from his experience in the Sanders' campaign of 2016.

He goes on at length to describe what he as learned about the US election process by the Democratic Party (which he describes as applicable to both significant parties) which generally follows this summary (posted roughly at 18:53m). 

• Flood races with corporate cash

• Knock progressives off the ballot

• Feed opposition research to the media

• Force candidates to spend three-quarters of the budget on consultants and ads

• Recruit rich candidates and changing the rules to get party support

• Deny access to crucial voter data

• Endorse establishment Democrats

• Give hundreds of thousands to Republican candidates

• Block independents from voting in primaries

• Set party affiliation deadlines months before the primary

What I think is significant is his lack of followup on one remark by an attorney for the Democratic Party in which the latter stated that the "party as a private corporation has the right to pick whomever it wants" (as the Party's candidate). (8:40m) This fact, which is well hidden from the American people, is not even mentioned in the Wikipedia entry on the Democratic Party because it is obviously authored by a capitalist agent--instead it is full of capitalist ideological propaganda.

What we have is the advanced version of capitalist (fake) democracy, but Brana never mentions capitalism because it is a fixed reality for him. Instead he merely mentions that both parties are "rooted in Wall Street" (21:10m) And seconds later he says "you can't even distinguish the Democratic Party and the Republican Party from Wall Street it's an extension of Wall Street" (21:30m). 

Articles recommended for Thursday, June 13, 2019

• Today's Attacks On Ships In The Gulf Of Oman Are Not In Iran's Interest - Or Are They? (Updated) by Bernhard from his blog Moon of Alabama.

• Propaganda Is The Root Of All Our Problems by Caitlin Johnstone from her blog.

• US gears up for World War III with largest defense contract in history by Andre Damon from World Socialist Web Site. 

• ‘Mirthless Laugh’ - The Persecution And Torture Of Julian Assange from Media Lens.

• US Senators meet with Jewish leaders in semi-secret annual event by Alison Weir from If Americans Knew.

Report: Prepare for the Climatic Collapse of Civilization

Click here to access article by Wayne Madsen from Strategic Culture Foundation. 

Articles from credible sources (for example, from the climate scientist Paul Beckwith) are slowly creeping in the blogosphere about an article published recently by Live Science entitled “Existential climate-related security risk:A scenario approach” which sounds the alarm about the imminent dire effects of global warming. This article is another.

Two authoritative Australian experts, backed up by a retired admiral of the Royal Australian Navy, recently issued a dire report that warns of an impending collapse of civilization from human-caused climate change.

But as Beckwith remarked, "the vast majority of the public continues to be blissfully unaware of the clear and present dangers that we face." 

Most scientists are employed by governments and corporations and trained by institutions that are all under the control of capitalist ruling classes. Thus, they are very conservative about the implications of global warming, and it is rare to find a scientist that points to the system of capitalism and the ruling classes that benefit from it.  

Beyond Individual Solutions

Click here to access article by David Swanson from Rebel (Republic of Ireland).

While praising the rising concern about the planet's environmental health, or the ability to accept unlimited growth in a finite planet, he warns:

Consider, for example, the predominance of focus on the individual solutions to climate change. This is not an accidental occurrence. More and more is being publicised about the environment. Of this there is no doubt. But much of this coverage, and the discussion that takes place around it, is mediated and distorted by the way that capitalism frames debates about society.

The Hitlerization of Jeremy Corbyn (Among Others)

Click here to access article by master-satirist C. J. Hopkins from his weblog Consent Factory, Inc. 

Hopkins ridicules the latest attempts by those "consent factories", otherwise known as media corporations in the heart of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire to create some "realities" that serve to discredit various enemies of the directors of this capitalist Empire. Surely you remember the observation by Karl Rove, Bush Jr's advisor, about how our masters will create "realities" and we can only helplessly study them.

We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.

Well, those "realities" are becoming more and more absurd, so much so that they are feeding a banquet of material for Hopkins to ridicule.

The fact that this “reality” they have conjured up for us is completely psychotic makes it no less real. And it is only going to get more insane until the corporatocracy restores “normality.” So, go ahead, if you consider yourself “normal,” and try to force your mind to believe that Jews are no longer safe in Great Britain, or in Germany, or France, or the USA, and that Donald Trump is a Russian asset, and is also literally Adolf Hitler, and an anti-Semitic white supremacist who is conspiring with Israel and Saudi Arabia in their campaign to destroy Iran and Syria, which are allies of his Russian masters, as is Venezuela, which he is also menacing, and that Jeremy Corbyn’s secret plan is to turn the UK into Nazi Germany, with the support of Trump, who is trying to destroy him, and that the Yellow Vests are Russian-backed fascists, and that Julian Assange is a rapist spy who conspired with Russia to get Trump elected, which is why Trump wants to prosecute him, just as soon as he finishes wiping out the Jews, or protecting them from Jeremy Corbyn, or from Iran, or brainwashing Black Americans into reelecting him in 2020 with a handful of Russian Facebook ads.

Articles recommended for Wednesday, June 12, 2019

• Look to U.S. executive suites, not Beijing, for why production is moved by Pete Dolack from his blog Systemic Disorder.

• The Great Insect Dying: Vanishing act in Europe and North America by Jeremy Hance from Mongabay.

• In the Western Media Narrative, SAA-Targeted Underground Bunkers and Terrorist-Run Prisons Become “Hospitals” by Vanessa Beeley from Mint PressNews. 

• Cuban Doctors Provide Healthcare To Those In Need - The U.S. Wants To Stop Them by Bernhard from his blog Moon of Alabama.

Atmospheric carbon dioxide level hits all-time high

Click here if you wish to access article from Climate & Capitalism. 

Scientists have noticed that the concentration of only one greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, in our atmosphere is accelerating. This trend, of course, is contrary to the demands of Extinction Rebellion Movement and the Green New Deal, both of whom are under the control of capitalist agents. In spite of their vocal opposition, capitalist ruling classes, who are insanely addicted to the pursuit of profits and power, will insure that this trend continues. We shall soon see a dramatic acceleration of this trend as feedback loops kick in. This will result in the eviction of humans, along with many other species, from their home and mother--planet Earth.

The concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere increases every year, and the rate of increase is accelerating. The early years at Mauna Loa saw annual increases averaging about 0.7 ppm per year, increasing to about 1.6 ppm per year in the 1980s and 1.5 ppm per year in the 1990s. The growth rate rose to 2.2 ppm per year during the last decade. There is abundant and conclusive evidence that the acceleration is caused by increased emissions, Tans said.

How corporate forces are lobbying for a coup in Venezuela

Click here if you wish to access the video report by Thomas Hedges directly from The Grayzone.

This Grayzone post, which includes a transcript, by Hedges reveals the backgrounds of the leadership of this well-connected gang that took-over the Venezuelan Embassy on May 17 from the protestors who were given permission by the Venezuelan government to enter and protect their embassy.

 

Recommended articles for Monday, June 10, 2019

• As Developing Countries Reject Plastic Waste Exports, Wealthy Nations Seek Solutions by Yves Smith from her blog Naked Capitalism.

• Syria - Western Media Glorification Of Syrian Jihadist Is A Sign That The War Is Far From Its End by Bernhard from his blog Moon of Alabama (Germany).

• More Evidence US Armed Syria Terrorists as Trump Pleads Ceasefire by Finian Cunningham from Strategic Culture Foundation. 

• Syria and War Propaganda: Robert Stuart vs the BBC by Susan Dirgham and Rick Sterling from 21st Century Wire. 

• The Downing of Malaysian Airlines MH17: Mahathir Opens a “Ukraine Political Pandora’s Box” by F. William Engdahl from Global Research.

Trump Is Not Extricating Himself on Iran. He Is Being ‘Dug in’

Click here to access article by Alastair Crooke from Strategic Culture Foundation. 

This former employee of MI-6 (the British counterpart to the US's CIA) well honed geopolitical skills argues that Trump is "being 'dug-in'". He doesn't specify who is digging him into a war with Iran, but it's clear to me that the Deep State, a board of directors for the US ruling capitalist class, is doing the digging. If Crooke is correct, it's bad news for the world. 

He is essentially arguing that the Deep State has maneuvered Trump into a path that leads inexorably to war with Iran or Trump will have to settle for a humiliating defeat. Either way, the Deep State wins. I think that Crooke's argument is quite sound--what do you think?

Referring to all the confusing moves by the Trump administration, Crooke writes:

Is it all bluster? Will Trump go all the way with his threats and pressures – but ultimately pull out, just short of war? That seems to be the general consensus today; but Team Trump’s view of Iran seems based in so many misconceptions, layered on other misconceptions, and on intelligence that amounts to no more than Mossad’s assessment of Iranian future intentions.

The consensus on ‘no conflict’ unfortunately, may turn out to have been overly sanguine. This is not because Trump consciously desires war, but because the hawks surrounding him, particularly Bolton, are painting him into a corner – from which he must either back down, or double down, if Iran does not first capitulate.

And here is the point: the main Trump misconception may be that he does believe that Iran wants, and ultimately, ‘will seek a deal’. Really?

Israel’s Attack on The USS Liberty: An Act of War, A False Flag, A Gross Betrayal

Click here to access article by Craig McKee from Global Research.

Stephen Gowans' excellent new book entitled Israel: A beachhead in the Middle East reveals the context of the wider post WWII by the European nations and the USA to resist the efforts of the more independent Arab countries to possess and manage their own valuable oil and gas resources for the benefit of their countries instead of serving the British, American, and other European investors.

This Six-Day War was a crucial war that led to the decisive crushing of the influence of Gamal Nasser, President of Egypt, who became a hero to the Arabs who struggled to gain control of their oil from the colonial powers and the Americans. As such, the brief war also cemented the support by US capitalists in the emerging US Empire for Zionist Israel. 

As Gowans revealed in his heavily documented book:

In March 1967, tensions grew between Syria and Israel over their demilitarized zone separating the two states. The Soviets warned Nasser that Israel was preparing an attack on his ally. In April, the Jordanians and Saudis, taking their instruction from the CIA, accused Nasser of cowardice. He talked big, they said, but his inaction belied his words. He was nothing but a paper tiger. Their intention was to goad the Arab leader into attacking Israel, or lose face before his adoring Arab supporters if the didn't. 

Nasser built up his troops near the border between Israel and Egypt, and the Israelis went on the attack. The USS Liberty, equipped with power intelligence capabilities, was stationed near the battle-zone to monitor what was going. When the Israeli Army, equipped by the Western powers, launched their attack on nearby Arab countries and were decisive in their quick victory over the poorly equipped Arab nations like Egypt and Syria, the USS Liberty was a liability--they knew too much--and had to be destroyed by Israel. The directors of the emerging US Empire immediately recognized the value of Israel in helping to put down any resistance to their control of the valuable resources of the Middle East. And, as they say, the rest is history.

For an accurate description of the attempted sinking of the USS Liberty by the Israeli Air Force, I recommend my post from 2017 entitled Remembering the USS Liberty.

Washington’s “Tiananmen” Lies Begin to Fray

Click here to access article by Joseph Thomas from New Eastern Outlook. 

Thomas writes about the fake news and propaganda issued by Empire sources concerning what happened in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Thanks to the rise of independent media and to Wikileaks, both of which Empire agents are trying to shut down or censor, we are learning about reality which portrays the Empire's machinations to be the source of so many evils in the world.

He writes:

Washington and its allies across the Western World have been particularly eager in observing this year’s anniversary of their version of the 1989 Tiananmen protests.

It has become an opportunity to add political pressure atop economic pressure already being exerted on Beijing by Washington in its bid to encircle and contain China’s rise.

This pressure comes mainly through the Western media.

But the monopoly the US once enjoyed over the flow of global information is coming to an end. The more attention the US tries to draw to certain events, the more objective scrutiny others apply resulting in growing, irreversible damage to some of Washington’s most valuable propaganda narratives. 

Pompeo's Moment of Truth on Venezuela Recorded; Tell Us What's Really Happening!

Click here to access a post featuring a podcast entitled "The Critical Hour", a podcast by Wilmar Leon from Sputnik News. (Updated at 9:40 AM CT.)

I was impressed by the sophistication of the guests he had on his program to discuss three issues: the failure of the Empire to remove Maduro's administration from Venezuela (roughly from 0:00-25:30), the economic warfare imposed against China and threats of such recently directed against Mexico (roughly 25:30-44:00), and the aggressive campaign against journalists especially in Australia, but also in other places in the Empire (44:17-56:00). 

I believe that these segments illustrate my thesis that the bumbling Trump administration, although being pressed by the neoliberal directors of the Empire (aka "Deep State"), are reacting desperately and recklessly to recent setbacks by concocting uninformed counter-attacks in their quest to preserve the Empire's domination of the world. See if you agree.

I continue to be impressed by Russian news and analysis sources whether funded by the Russian government or function independently: Sputnik, RT, New Eastern Outlook, and Strategic Culture Foundation.

The global war on journalism

Click here to access article by Mike Head from World Socialist Web Site. 

By targeting journalists, as well as the individuals leaking the damning information, the Australian government is directly following the lead of the Trump administration’s charging of Assange, a journalist and publisher, with 17 counts under the US Espionage Act, for which he faces life imprisonment and possibly the death penalty.

The Trust Project: Big Media and Silicon Valley’s Weaponized Algorithms Silence Dissent

Click here to access article by Whitney Webb from MintPress News. (This post was by Caren, an activist from Titanic Lifeboat Academy. She kindly offered to write the introduction for me when my computer was not functioning yesterday.  As you can see, it is much better than I could have done.)

Whitney Webb's exhaustive examination of intelligence agencies' infiltrating and dominating capitalist mainstream "news" is the latest effort to expose this symbiosis. From Carl Bernstein's 1977 Rolling Stone cover story, to Der Spiegel journalist Udo Ulfkotte's 2017 book which has been fully censored in the West, to William Arkin's ("Top Secret America") year-end email which Glenn Greenwald recapped January 3, 2019 in The Intercept, to the entire career and martyrdom of Julian Assange, valiant attempts have been made to alert a sleeping public to the fact that money/power will protect itself by controlling news, what passes for "truth" and "reality," and the behavior of the people who consume both.  Webb's article focuses on their latest weapon designed to make thinking easier by doing it for you:  a refined, Orwellian-titled Prop-or-Not upgrade called The Trust Project.

Superbugs in the Anthropocene: A Profit-Driven Plague

Click here to access article by Ian Angus from Monthly Review.

The subject of superbugs is not new, but this author explains why such antibiotic-resistant bugs have appeared. 

Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) is a global health crisis driven by a pharmaceutical and health care system that puts profit before people. In addition to devastating climate change, the Anthropocene may be defined by epidemics that medicine cannot cure.

But this was not inevitable. As Angus further explains:

Those who hailed the first antibiotics as miracle drugs were not wrong. What those chemicals could have been was a way to work with nature, to use natural processes to overcome diseases that had plagued us for thousands of years. Used with appropriate humility and careful stewardship, in conjunction with a global drive to eradicate the conditions that cause infectious diseases, penicillin and its successors could have been boons to humanity for centuries. But that would have required a radically different economy and society.

With ruling capitalist classes' obsession to obtain profits instead of human welfare, such a result was inevitable along with all the other assaults on our habitat that has produced the threats of climate destabilization, environmental pollution, and species extinctions.

Capitalism always operates in the short term and its defenders always insist that new technology will solve any problems that might arise. For several decades, antibiotics seemed to confirm that superstition—for every drug that stopped working, new ones were discovered. But that did not last. The early discoveries were low-hanging fruit and searching the higher branches has been hard and largely unsuccessful.

Mainstream economists like to claim that the market solves all—if there is a need, customer demand will produce solutions. But today, when bacteria have found ways to resist every available antibiotic, most pharmaceutical companies have abandoned the search for others. Not because new antibiotics would not be profitable, but because they would not be profitable enough. Big Pharma makes double-digit profits from drugs it sells for thousands of dollars a dose to patients who must take them frequently for many years. Antibiotics just do not fit that business model.

Video: “Plutocracy V: Subterranean Fire”. Capitalism and the Historical Trampling of the Working Class

Click here to access this article by Kim Petersen and a nearly two hour film that portrays accurately the true history of workers in the USA. (This post has been forwarded to me by an alert activist.)

This history has been expunged from history classes in public schools and probably most private schools. If you want to recover what our capitalist masters have censored from our worker history, you simply must view this film.

Articles recommended for Wednesday, June 5, 2019

• Unstable polar glaciers lose ice ever faster by Tim Radford from Climate News Network.

• [Small investor] Americans Should Be Gravely Concerned with this Wall Street Court Case by Pam Martens and Russ Martens from their blog Wall Street on Parade.

• Media Gloats About Censoring Opinions of 37% of Americans by Ted Rall from The Unz Review.

• More Police Raids As War On Journalism Escalates Worldwide by Australian Caitlin Johnstone from her blog. 

• Rachel Maddow's Full Meltdown Over Julian Assange! featuring satiric comedian Lee Camp on RT (via YouTube) ridiculing America's favorite mainstream pundit, Rachel Maddow.

Dr. McPherson explains AME at Open Secrets Book Store, San Rafael, CA April 23, 2019

Listen via YouTube his nearly 82 minute address and some questions that he responds to:

The ecosocialist path to 1.5°C sustainability

Click here to access article by Richard Smith from Real-World Economics Review Blog. (I wrote up an extensive commentary on this article, but lost it somehow. This is the reason for this rather late post.)

Here is the latest article by Smith who has co-founded System Change not Climate Change and whose work entitled "Capitalism and the Destruction of Life on Earth: Six Theses on Saving the Humans" forms one the basic foundations for my blog (the other is Power and Powerlessness by Susan Rosenthal). 

Because Dr. Richard Smith is a specialist in the physical sciences and having been educated at an American university, he is limited in his understanding of what it takes to overthrow a well-entrenched social-economic system and the ruling class that benefits from it. If after reading his article, you still believe that the ruling capitalist class will accept his proposals, I have a bridge to sell you (def.). 

I am convinced that our ruling masters have been so addicted to their system which has delivered to them so much power and wealth that they are completely unfit to accept such proposals and act on them. The dire environmental threats we are now facing were well-known to them in the 1970s, and since then our masters have only promised to do something much like an alcoholic who promises to quit drinking (alcoholic beverages). It was clear to many activists in the 1970s that only a revolution could save humans; and I held out hope that the events in the 1960s and 70s (the numerous assassinations, the Anti-Vietnam War Movement, Civil Rights Movement, etc) would enable a revolutionary movement to form and grow. Obviously this did not happen. 

Then I began a blog 10 years ago posting articles that I imagined might alarm people sufficiently to create a revolutionary movement. That did not happen. All we have now are the Extinction Rebellion and the Green New Deal movements; and as revealed by Cory Morningstar in her excellent series entitled "The Manufacturing of Greta Thunberg", these movements are led by capitalists or their agents to insure that the rising chorus of environmental concern does not interfere with "business as usual", and hopefully will provide even greater opportunities for more products, such as electric cars, in order to reap ever greater profits and power.

As I have recently quoted Karl Rove, a prime influential in the Bush Jr. administration, it reveals the secret to the capitalist success to maintain their rule in spite of the fact that it can only end in the extinction as humans and many other species:

We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.

Rove means by this quote that the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire has created an updated version of fascism that includes the ubiquitous control of all significant ideological institutions by infiltrating agents in all media corporations, academia, and even Hollywood to create our understanding of the world--a comprehensive false consciousness. Now most people are led around like dumb sheep into the chutes of nuclear war annihilation or into the nightmare of climate destabilization. Honestly, when I look at all the facts, they won! But, as we shall soon see, it is a Pyrrhic victory.