All Systems Go: No Disfunction in Profitable Afghan Enterprise

by Chris Floyd from his blog, Empire Burlesque. Re the recent killing of civilians in Afghanistan.

But nothing is going wrong. When you read of children lying in a broken heap, their lifeblood draining away into dark, coagulated pools -- that means the system is functioning properly. That's what the system does. That is what it is there to do: to kill, destroy and dominate. That's why we have installed the system in Afghanistan.

Foreign Lobbying Influence Tracker

Accessed by way of ProPublica. This appears to be a very useful resource for gathering information about foreign lobbyists in relation to US legislators. The link below "Watch the ForeignLobbying.org screencast" illustrates how to use it.

Hamas man's Dubai death was a Mossad-style execution

from Haaretz. Mossad is Israel's terrorist organization whose primary assignment is to assassinate people seen as enemies of Israel by the Zionist ruling class. The uproar in much of the world's media over this incident seems to be more related to the theft of passports issued by various countries rather than to the assassinations.

The Real Reason for Sanctions Against Iran: America's Quest for Global Miliitary Dominance

from Global Research. For many of you who follow this website, the points made in this article may seem rather obvious.

Wall Street’s War against Main Street America

by Michael Hudson from Global Research.

[The financial crisis] is caused by replacing progressive taxation with regressive taxes, and above all by untaxing finance and real estate. Take the case of California, where tears are being shed over the dismantling of the once elite University of California California’s real estate costs are just as high with its property taxes froze, but the rising rental value of land has been paid to the banks – forcing the state to slash its fiscal budget or else raise taxes on labor and consumers. system. Since American independence, education has been financed by the property tax. But Proposition 13 has “freed” property from taxation – so that its rental value can be borrowed against and turned into interest payments to banks.

It would be very helpful to me and others who are not economists or financial types if the professor would explain or expand on the last sentence. Too often academic types who understand the details of how the system works, write about it in terms that mostly only other academics can understand. Otherwise a very good article.

What is clear to me is that the "owning" class plays their capitalist game by rules that they have largely created; and as in the game of Monopoly where one person ends up owning everything, in the real world the game results in a relatively few people "owning" everything.

How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America

from The Atlantic. This is a fairly lengthy and comprehensive look at the current unemployment problems and future anticipated problems that unemployment will cause for working people in US society. This magazine is directed toward the liberal wing of the ruling capitalist class, and therefore it will honestly look at social problems as it does here--and that is why I recommend the article. 

"The Great Recession may be over, but this era of high joblessness is probably just beginning. Before it ends, it will likely change the life course and character of a generation of young adults. It will leave an indelible imprint on many blue-collar men. It could cripple marriage as an institution in many communities. It may already be plunging many inner cities into a despair not seen for decades. Ultimately, it is likely to warp our politics, our culture, and the character of our society for years to come." 

The picture the article paints is clearly one of social devastation for working people. Coming from a liberal slant it provides only safe expert views on the problem, and never calls into question the system itself which is at the root of the problem. Thus by implication it is warning its ruling class audience that this is a potentially explosive problem and may threaten them. Hence the author concludes with the need to ameliorate the problem by liberal employment and unemployment benefit programs.

The Art of Corporate Mind Control (5:00m video and script)

from ICH.  Protests the effects of television to shape our thoughts and control our behavior.

Capitalism cut adrift, Pt 1

by William Bowles from Strategic Culture Foundation. 

There’s no doubt about it, three decades of unregulated ‘free market’ financialized capitalism in the UK has proved to be a total disaster, but not in the ‘classical marxist’ sense of a struggle between capital and labour being played out in the streets or in our (non-existent) factories let alone in our decrepid and corruption political institutions. Instead, ‘neo-liberalism’ has failed not only on an economic level but more importantly it’s been a cultural and ideological failure, hence all the talk about regaining the ‘trust’ of the populace and lots of hot air about ‘consultations’ and ‘town hall meetings’ and of course, the inevitable patriotic jingoism about our ‘glorious’ imperial past. 

Food for thought (and cars)

Energy Transitions and the Next "Paradigmatic Image of the World"

 by David Murphy from The Oil Drum. I am always amazed at the ability of educated people to engage in circumlocution when discussing economics.  This writer offers some astute observations about the development and demise of economic systems without ever mentioning the word "capitalism" or "capitalists". Instead he uses terms like "industrialization", "neoclassical macroeconomic theory", and "Classical Economists". It demonstrates the power and effectiveness of many decades of capitalist propaganda and indoctrination to divert attention away from a system which is increasingly being seen as dysfunctional.

A new economic model is needed--one that focuses on human welfare as being separate from income, and one that focuses on the resiliency of society rather than the growth of society over the long term.

"Economic Terrorism": The Consequences are Poverty and Mass Unemployment

from Global Research. The author provides a documented survey of all the ruling class attacks on working people of all  working classes in the US.

U.S.: Telecom Lobby Tests Pledge of Transparency

from IPS news service. 

Despite President Barack Obama's pledge in his State of the Union address last month to "require lobbyists to disclose each contact they make on behalf of a client with my administration or Congress," the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) says the Obama administration has been "fighting hard to stop the release of the names of these representatives."

What Do Empires Do?

by Michael Parenti, original source in Common Dreams, but more readable here at ICH. 

"Empire" seems nowadays to mean simply dominion and control. Empire---for most of these late-coming critics--- is concerned almost exclusively with power and prestige.  What is usually missing from the public discourse is the process of empire and its politico-economic content.  In other words, while we hear a lot about empire, we hear very little about imperialism.  

As Defense Budget Soars, Security Firms Reap Huge Profits, Go Offshore to Avoid Taxes

by Tom Burghardt from Dissident Voice.

While the overall budget deficit will balloon to a staggering $1.6 trillion in 2011, the result of massive tax cuts for the rich, declining revenues, a by-product of capitalism’s economic meltdown, imperial adventures abroad and general corporate malfeasance (the old tax-dodge grift), the administration plans to cut $250 billion over three years from non-military “discretionary spending” on domestic social programs.

Leading Austrian Economist: Some Conspiracy Theories Are True

from Washington's Blog. Another excellent article from this blog about conspiracies and their self-interested deniers.

Fear Inc.

by Tom Engelhardt from Tomdispatch.  A very good analysis of the use of fear to manipulate the American public.

The fear of terrorism has, by now, been institutionalized in our society -- quite literally so -- even if the thing we’re afraid of has, on the scale of human problems, something of the will o’ the wisp about it.

Arctic climate changing faster than expected

from Reuters news service. 

The research project involved more than 370 scientists from 27 countries who collectively spent 15 months, starting in June 2007, aboard a research vessel above the Arctic Circle. It marked the first time a ship has stayed mobile in Canada's high Arctic for an entire winter.

Ethics, Epistemology and “Dirty Rotten Strategies”

from Health After Oil. This is a review of a book by this name authored by Ian Mitroff and Abraham Silvers. Their take on the subject seems a bit too intellectualized for my taste.

These errors are endemic because –despite all remonstrance to the contrary- Americans are not consistently socialized, educated and rewarded to value thinking in terms of systems and complexity.

Of course they're not socialized this way (the authors of the next article are an example)--they would be a danger to the interests of the ruling class if they were. However insights like the following suggest that the authors have a good understanding of their subject:

…modern capitalism has a number of the critical characteristics associated with sociopathology, for example, the commission of unethical acts intentionally designed to hoodwink the public; the glorification of unethical behavior, such as unrestrained greed; and little or no guilt associated with deceptive and unethical behavior.

Climate Catastrophe: Surviving the 21st Century

from Common Dreams. This article is a good example of how many people in the US simply don't understand social-economic systems and changing those systems. The authors, who otherwise provide a lot good information about the sources and symptoms of environmental destruction, their recommended solutions are completely reformist and do not support the following introductory statements in their article:

Climate Stabilization Requires a Cultural and Political Revolution

There is still hope if we are willing to confront the hydra-headed monsters that block our path, and move ahead with a decisive plan of action. The inspirational message we need to deliver is that we're not just talking about drastically reducing fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution, but rebuilding society, creating in effect a New Woman and a New Man for the 21st Century.

What we are witnessing are the early stages of a mass grassroots consciousness-raising and taking back of power from out-of-control corporations, banks, corporate-controlled media, and politicians. This cultural and political revolution will empower us to to carry out a deep and profound retrofitting of industry, government, education, health care, housing, neighborhoods, transportation, food and farming systems, as well as our diets and lifestyles.

Viral collapse

from Nature Bats Last. 

According to economists, the beauty of globalization [the current version of capitalism] is worldwide access to materials and cheap (or free) labor to bring the materials to powerful countries. We provide garbage, pollution, and low wages — or, in the “best” cases we enslave workers — and we obtain materials and finished goods. This is the rising economic tide that floats all boats.

Time out

 

Americans stock up to be ready for end of the world

from The Guardian. I wonder how people in this "preppers" movement compare to people in the transition movement. Seems like the preppers are more individualistic, reflecting a prominent characteristic of an advanced capitalist society.

Unlike the 1990s survivalists, preppers come from all backgrounds and live all over America. They are just as likely to be found in a suburb or downtown loft as a remote ranch in the mountains. Prepping networks, which have sprung up all over the country in the past few years, provide advice on how to prepare food reserves, how to grow crops in your garden, how to hunt and how to defend yourself. There are prepping books, online shops, radio shows, countless blogs, prepping courses and prepping conferences.

EU biofuels significantly harming food production in developing countries

from The Guardian. 

EU companies have taken millions of acres of land out of food production in Africa, central America and Asia to grow biofuels for transport, according to development campaigners. The consequences of European biofuel targets, said the report by ActionAid, could be up to 100 million more hungry people, increased food prices and landlessness.

The Media Response to the Growing Influence of the 9/11 Truth Movement

by Elizabeth Woodworth from Global Research. 

Eight countries – Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Russia – have allowed their publicly-owned broadcasting stations to air the full spectrum of evidence challenging the truth of the official account of 9/11.

This more open approach taken in the international media – I could also have included the Japanese media – might be a sign that worldwide public and corporate media organizations are positioning themselves, and preparing their audiences, for a possible revelation of the truth of the claim that forces within the US government were complicit in the attacks – a revelation that would call into question the publicly given rationale for the military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

New World Order Hollywood "Feel Good" Initiative

by Danny Schechter from Global Research. Capitalism tends to spoil everything the system lays its hands on. This article illustrates this with a charitable event for a people who have suffered so much.

There is nothing controversial or angry about the new We Are The World, and that may be one off its problems because syrupy high profile celebrity events are now co-opted corporate-embraced commodities in our commercial culture. They are almost an expected Made in the USA genre, slick and all too often self-congratulatory commercials for compassion. They are effusively praised by the powers that be who pat all the high-profile artists on their heads, and then, in the end, ignore their passion. They also become one-shot stories and marketing vehicles.

Resistance Casts Pall over 2010 Olympic Festivities

from IPS news service. I think that the Games should be about a celebration of athletic excellence by bringing together the world's best athletes. To some extent it is. But this celebration, IMO, is often contaminated by nationalism that is manipulated by a mostly globalized capitalist class that exploits patriotism to accumulate even more wealth. While the wealthier celebrants play and the athletes perform and the contractors and corporations count their money, many people are suffering even more due to the economic collapse.

A recent tally by the Vancouver Sun estimated that at least eight billion dollars will be spent on the Games, and there are an estimated 15,000 homeless people in British Columbia. According to a report released by University of British Columbia researchers last December, the number of homeless in Vancouver more than doubled in the years leading up to the Games.

Accordingly, the slogan "homes not games," was found on many placards, and was a popular chant both before and during the march.

America Disconnected

by William K. Wolfrum from TPM.

The disconnect never fails to amaze me. Death on a personal level is a heart-wrenching, life-altering affair. The recovery is a long process, filled with grief. Losing a loved one stays with you until you finally join them. But being part of the machine that gives others the same grief on a spectacular level has little to no effect.

An Israeli-inspired scandal to undermine Palestinians

by Uri Avnery from Redress. This is about the latest attempts of the Israeli ruling class to not only undermine Palestinians, but to "manage the consent" of the Israeli people.

The Dominant Critique: Empty Politics of Many Progressives

 by Jan Lundberg from Culture Change.

In addition to greater employment -- resulting in harmful economic growth -- there are many issues that liberal/left/progressive journalists and activists address, and rightly so. But overall the Dominant Critique does not question or reject the system or foresee its collapse.

Unemployment Insurance Tracker

from ProPublica. "Is Your State's Unemployment System in Danger? See how your state ranks when it comes to its unemployment system."

Snow storms and climate change

Sidelining Cap and Trade’s Green Critics

from Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. 

The sweeping bill to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions that moved through Congress over the last year received relatively scant media attention, taking a distant back seat to the healthcare reform bill and its attendant public uproar. And, much like the healthcare debate (Extra!, 10/09), coverage of climate-change legislation ended up obscuring the issues as much as it explained them, viewing a Democratic compromise bill through the lens of right-wing and corporate criticism, while marginalizing progressive critics who said the legislation was insufficient to the task at hand.

Contrasting viewpoints on copyright (16:05m video)

from P2P. It mostly argues for the Creative Commons Share Alike license for artistic works featuring one artist who encountered numerous difficulties producing her works while coping with copyrights owned by corporations.

Winter Olympics athletes blame hosts for death of Nodar Kumaritashvili

 from The Guardian.

...in the run-up to these games, the hosts – or at least the Canadian Olympic Committee – seemed to have mislaid their manners. "Own the podium," it implored its athletes in an initiative aimed at ensuring the host nation finishes at the top of the medals table at these games. Money has been poured into training, while a hard-edged approach has been adopted in dealing with other teams, most noticeably in granting them only limited access to facilities such as the sliding track.

Climate scientists have long been targets for sceptics

from The Guardian. 

Attacks designed to force researchers to resign or get fired is nothing new - the denialist industry has been at it for years

Think-tanks take oil money and use it to fund climate deniers

from The Independent. 

Free-market, anti-climate change think-tanks such as the Atlas Economic Research Foundation in the US and the International Policy Network in the UK have received grants totalling hundreds of thousands of pounds from the multinational energy company ExxonMobil. Both organisations have funded international seminars pulling together climate change deniers from across the globe.

Economic Trouble? Join the Club

from Yes! website. 

"In the midst of the meltdown, people throughout the U.S. were joining with their neighbors to weather the economic crisis. Last winter, more than 50 Common Security Clubs formed in communities around the country: a mini-movement of people coming together in religious congregations, community centers, and union halls to help each other understand and cope with the the collapsing economy. The clubs soon moved past the goal of simply weathering the crisis and began to work toward reforms—both nationally and in their communities—that would prevent a repeat of the devastation."

I hope that such groups can move beyond trying to reform the system to designing a sustainable, people oriented system.

                                    

Religious faith in government accusations

by Glenn Greenwald from Salon. 

It's hard to imagine any mindset more impervious to reason and evidence than this, or any thought-process more blatantly tautological and self-negating.  And yet, on a bipartisan basis, our entire system of Government, its core safeguard of checks and balances, and basic due process are being rapidly dismantled, all justified by this warped, faith-based reasoning.

Vancouver Winter Olympics: A festival of corporate greed

posted on the International Journal of Socialist Renewal website.

The two-week Olympic spectacle will leave in its wake a legacy of financial debt, deepening impoverishment, violations of civil and social rights, and a significant reinforcement of the tools and weapons of the national security state. What’s more, five weeks before the games’ opening came news of yet another Olympic spending boondoggle in the making – Intrawest Corporation, the owner of the Whistler ski resort where most of the games’ downhill events will take place, located 100 kilometres north of Vancouver, is in financial default and may require hundreds of millions of dollars of emergency bailout.

Yemen: USA are fighting against democracy, not against Al-Qaeda

from Voltaire website. An interview with Mohamed Hassan who

...is a specialist in geopolitics and the Arab world. Born in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), he participated in the student movements of the 1974 socialist revolution in his country. He studied political science in Egypt before specializing in public administration in Brussels. A diplomat for his country of birth during the 1990s, he has worked in Washington, Beijing and Brussels. Co-author of Iraq under the occupation (EPO, 2003), he has also participated in producing works on Arab nationalism and the Islamic movements, and on Flemish nationalism. He is one of the greatest contemporary experts on the Arab and Muslim world.

World Economic Forum that we can only dream of

from Yes! website. This is the altered website of the World Economic Forums website created by the pranksters called "The Yes Men". They inserted a "-" in the real website address and altered the speeches of the leading figures at the WEC. Check out the speeches on this altered website.

That Which Cannot Not be Spoken: Why Do Terrorists Keeping Picking on the United States?

by William Blum from Counterpunch. Re the "underware bomber":

Is that not odd? That an individual would try to take the lives of hundreds of people, including his own, primarily to "provoke an overreaction", or to "sow fear"? Was there not any kind of deep-seated grievance or resentment with anything or anyone American being expressed? No perceived wrong he wished to make right? Nothing he sought to obtain revenge for? Why is the United States the most common target of terrorists?

Baseball industry's generosity toward Haiti (click on cartoon to enlarge)

Working week should be 21 hours, says New Economic Foundation

from The Guardian. The people in this foundation appear to be completely out of touch with the imperatives of a capitalist system where labor is merely a cost of doing business to enhance the capitalist's wealth. With a people centered and planet sustainable system we could have a 21 hour work week. There is no question that this work schedule results in greater productivity, but it also results in higher employee costs in the form of payroll taxes which this state agency apparently didn't measure. Private employers are not stupid. The real issue is--do we want a system that serves the needs of everyone or just the few who "own" the economy?

Infrastructure: Priorities and painful decisions

from Peak Oil Hausfrau blog.

The crumbling of this legacy of infrastructure is one of the many day-to-day living problems that we face over the next fifty to a hundred years. Unlike our natural systems, which can regenerate themselves (if not destroyed completely), and which are self-perpetuating and self-healing, our built infrastructure requires regular maintenance and investment. Maintenance depends on a base of knowledgeable personnel with access to information about the systems, affordable materials and energy, factories that produce needed parts, and regular investment to fix what's broken or decaying.

Our other addiction: the tricky geopolitics of nitrogen fertilizer

by Tom Philpott from Grist. 

So where does our nitrogen come from? Given our food system’s reliance on synthetic nitrogen, that’s another way of asking: Where does our food come from?

The situation is not only morally dubious; it could be literally unsustainable.

"In America you can say anything you want — as long as it doesn't have any effect." - Paul Goodman

by William Blum from his blog, Killing Hope

 ...it's more insidious than a conspiracy, it's what's built into the system,

[Medical] Insurers enjoy record-breaking profits as they cut 2.7 million people from their rolls

from Fire Dog Lake. 

The numbers may be shocking, but they shouldn’t be surprising. This is how the industry makes money, by charging people more and cutting the unprofitable people from their rolls. In fact, the one company who’s profit margin went down slightly this year – Aetna – was also the only company to add more customers to its rolls in 2009.

But the industry will go to any length to "justify" their profits and their policies of dropping their sick or expensive customers.

The Lobbying-Media Complex

from The Nation. 

...what viewers weren't told was that since 2005, Ridge has pocketed $530,659 in executive compensation for serving on the board of Exelon, the nation's largest nuclear power company. As of March 2009, he also held an estimated $248,299 in Exelon stock, according to SEC filings.

Honduras: The making of a death squad “democracy”

from World Socialist Web Site.

With the restoration of diplomatic relations and the resumption of aid and credits from the world’s major governments and financial institutions, Honduras is being welcomed back into the fold of “democratic” nations, even as the organizers of last year’s coup remain at their posts and death squad murders continue.

Refuse to Pay Government Debt Incurred for Unlawful and Oppressive Purposes ... It Is the Personal Debt of Those Who Ordered It to Be Incurred

from Washington's Blog. He makes a good legal case for this by citing legal precedents.

There are No Conspiracies Because Daddy Will Always Protect Us

from Washington's Blog. 

...many Americans have tended to naively believe that our leaders are selfless folks. They forget, of course, that the Founding Fathers loudly warned against relying on the charitable intentions of leaders, expressly set up a government based on the rule of law instead of the rule of men, and warned that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance in holding the feet of the powerful to the fire.

Welcome to boarded-up Britain: One in eight shops now stand empty as recession hits high streets Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1250214/One-shops-stand-recession-hits-Britains-high-streets.html#ixzz0fLOjMWLw

from Mail Online.

Schwarzman Says Kowtow to Banks or They Will Strangle the Economy

from Naked Capitalism blog. This article written by an honest and moral financial blogger who has a career in the US finance industry provides us with an insider look at banksters. Of course, she believes that the beast of capitalism can still be tamed.

The last thing the public should do now is turn down the heat on bankers. We have just been through the greatest looting of the public purse in history. We cannot relent until we understand how it happened and have put new rules in place to prevent its recurrence. People like Schwarzman need to understand that the populace is increasingly understanding that what has been depicted up as reform is mere industry serving pablum. Even if Schwarzman is incapable of seeing it, continued pressure will lead some of his colleagues to recognize that they need to embrace change or else wind up in the dustbin of history.

How Agri-Food Corporations Make the World Hungry

from Food Freedom.  

The root cause of this insecurity is the food system itself, which is controlled by a handful of global monopolies. In fact, the crisis comes at a time of record global profits for the world's agri-food corporations. Archer Daniel Midland, Cargill, Monsanto, General Foods, and Wal-Mart all posted profit increases in 2008 of 20% to 86%. For Mosaic, a fertilizer subsidy of Cargill, profits increased by a stunning 1200%.

The latest hope and change (click on cartoon to enlarge)

Student detained at Philadelphia airport sues FBI, TSA, police

from First Amendment Center. This incident suggests that the agents of our growing police state are becoming rather hysterical.  Unlike most people as illustrated below, this guy is no sheep and is fighting back.

Big Food will do everything to stop you talking about this

from Ecologist. An interview with filmmaker Robert Kenner whose "documentary, Food Inc, has shocked audiences across the US with its stark portrayal of industrial agriculture."

Europe's Five "Undeclared Nuclear Weapons States"

from Global Research. With all the mass media organs of the capitalist class focused on Iran, I thought it desirable to provide a little wider perspective. 

Tales of the riverbank

from Red Pepper. 

The transition to a sustainable economy requires that we lock horns with the beasts that stalk the corporate jungle, if only to replace their world of testosterone and risk with one of stability and mutuality, argues green economist Molly Scott Cato. So what can we propose as our vision for the banking system?

Agricultural Commodities in Light of Peak Oil

from Seeking Alpha, a website of influential stock analysts. "Seeking Alpha was named the Most Informative Website by Kiplinger's MagazineForbes' 'Best of the Web' Award."

 (click on illustration to enlarge it)

Iceland aims to become haven for investigative journalism

article and 10:00m video from The Guardian. People of Iceland going on the offensive against the legal restrictions on investigative journalists imposed on them by capitalist ruling classes all over the world.

Ridicule of Conspiracy Theories Focuses On Diffusing Criticism of the Powerful

from Washington's Blog. I couldn't agree more with this post. Like shit, conspiracies happen!

India Defies Monsanto, Says No to GMO Crops

from Naked Capitalism.

We’ve followed the story of the slow but increasing and badly needed pushback against Monsanto’s predatory business practices, which force farmers to buy Monsanto seed annually, rather than re-use it. Worse, Monsanto seed has been genetically engineered so as to require the use of Monsanto herbicides and fertilizers.

The Obama disarmament paradox

from Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. 

Article Highlights

• The latest federal budget request includes a large increase in spending for nuclear weapons.
• Such an increase contradicts President Obama's speech in Prague last April, during which he seemed to signal a commitment to significant nuclear disarmament.
• Now it's a question of whether Congress will reject the Obama budget request--a strategy it used to keep President George W. Bush from pursuing new nuclear weapon programs.

All out for the March 20th March on Washington!

People from all over the country are organizing to converge on Washington, D.C., to demand the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all U.S. and NATO forces from Afghanistan and Iraq.

Printable version Climate 'Tipping Points' May Arrive Without Warning, Says Top Forecaster

from University of California, Davis. 

"Many scientists are looking for the warning signs that herald sudden changes in natural systems, in hopes of forestalling those changes, or improving our preparations for them," said UC Davis theoretical ecologist Alan Hastings. "Our new study found, unfortunately, that regime shifts with potentially large consequences can happen without warning — systems can ‘tip’ precipitously.

Vancouver Olympics: Public anger over security measures and free speech limits

from World Socialist Web Site. The article's report illustrates how local capitalists use athletics (Olympics) and patriotism to profit from while public services are cut back, and civil liberties are undermined. In spite of their media efforts to promote the Olympics, many Canadians see through the hype.

Time out (click on cartoon to enlarge)

Chile: Stop Treating Community Broadcasters as Criminals, Say Activists

from IPS news service. The CIA-Kissinger-International Telephone & Telegraph engineered coup in 1973 turned back the democratically elected government of socialist oriented Allende in order to restore full capitalist control under the Pinochet dictatorship. Now we see that the capitalist ruling class does not tolerate local control over media. This is in sharp contrast to the numerous community organized radio stations in Venezuela that are promoted by the Bolivarian administration of Hugo Chavez. I personally visited several of them. Control of the media by capitalist classes is always a top priority in every country under their rule.

Haiti: The politics of rebuilding (23:24m video)

Avi Lewis of Al Jazeera turns his discerning eye upon the continuing neo-liberal (the current practices of capitalism) political and economic forces shaping the reconstruction of Haiti.

McCain Campaign Advisors Help Yanukovych Win Ukraine Election

from Toward Freedom. The article reveals how US election engineering experts have been active in influencing elections in Ukraine, but with mixed results. Use of such experts is a part of the soft power arsenal of The Empire.

"And although Western commentators have traditionally been fond of casting Ukrainian politics in very simple terms – ‘pro-Western’ vs. ‘pro-Russian’ – the real test of Ukrainian democracy lies in whether or not the people who are set to run this country are going to start acting pro-Ukrainian," said Natalia Antonova [who] is the editor of GlobalComment.com.

Disappearing options

from the Daily Climate. 

A new study quantifies for the first time what happens to long-term policy options [to prevent climate catastrophes] if mid-term emissions targets are not met.

European capitalism's weak link?

from Socialist Worker. An analysis of the growing conflicts between labor and capital in Greece.

Politicians and the media blame the crisis on the supposedly generous Greek welfare state, which, they claim, must be slashed to bring the budget under control. In fact, the situation is the direct result of the neoliberal policies that were followed by the social democratic governments of the 1990s, and even more so by the right-wing government of Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis, as the leader of the New Democracy (ND) party between 2004 and 2009.

The Release of the Industry Taskforce Report on Peak Oil and Energy Security

 from The Oil Drum: Europe. Report shows that the North Sea Oil is drying up and the implications for the British economy.

The UK, because it is now a net and rising importer of oil, gas and coal, is becoming increasingly exposed to competition for supplies from other energy importers.

The Carp of Truth: Jack Straw, Colin Powell and the Smoking Guns of War Crime

by Chris Floyd from his blog, Empire Burlesque. Floyd's final take on Britain's "Chilcot Inquiry" into the origins of the invasion of Iraq

O that the universe was not cold and indifferent, with no avenging furies to drive these bloodstained, sanctimonious wretches into soul-rending storms of madness and remorse. But there is not even an earthly venue where the scurrying servitors of power can receive even a modicum of justice. All we have are a few locked-down, buttoned-up, quasi-secret panels of worthies here and there now and then, to cause, at most, a moment or two of embarrassment before the servitors walk free to line their pockets and heap themselves with honors. Their only punishment, I suppose, must be to be what they are: the stunted, deadened husks of a full humanity that they have lost and will never recover. 

Wishing it don’t make it so

 by George Miller from Le Monde Diplomatique, English edition. The author discusses Barbara Ehrenreich's latest book, Brightsided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking has Undermined America

All this may seem like no more than harmless self-deluded nonsense, but implicit political assumptions underlie the positive thinking creed. If your thoughts determine your fortunes, then it follows that those who find themselves in poverty are simply not trying hard enough. Positive people get jobs. Negative people get fired. In the words of one motivational speaker, “Negative People SUCK!” Positive thinking is an expression of the most strident individualism and wants no truck with the common good or collective endeavour. If bad things happen to you, too bad – it’s your own fault.

Black sites in the empire of bases

by Nick Turse from Asia Times Online. He lists several hundred bases in Afghanistan alone in addition to the official 710 world wide. Many bases are "black", i.e., unknown to people in the US outside of the Pentagon. The immense cost of those in Iraq and Afghanistan suggest that they intend to be a permanent presence for US/NATO forces.

The Plunder, Pillage and Destruction of the American Tax Base

by James Woolley from The Economic Populist. Quite a lengthy (6600 words) but comprehensive report on all the ways that the US ruling class has shifted the costs of The Empire from capitalists to working people. A good reference source on the subject to keep in your virtual library.

Scientists Request Meeting with American Farm Bureau President to Discuss Group’s ‘Inaccurate’ Stance on Climate Change

from Union of Concerned Scientists. The UCS confronts the lobby for agri-business over the latter's stand on climate change.

Rahm, His Critics, and the American People

from The Huffington Post. 

As you can see this liberal blog sees the failure of the Obama administration as being merely because of the "Rahm administration"--in other words, the staff around Obama are screwing up. These people are merely campaign experts and don't know how to govern in a way to carry out Obama's "pro-people policies." But then the author apologizes for them by writing, "most of them are just trying to be realistic, not malicious: they would prefer to stand up for the American people, but industry and Wall Street, who poured massive amounts of money into Obama's campaign, are simply more powerful and must be appeased."

...in ruling out those kinds of pro-people policies, the [Rahm] administration deactivated the American people. The massive grassroots organization that propelled Obama to victory seemed to evaporate into thin air in the months after the election. For the campaigners, separated by a both intellectual and bureaucratic walls from the policy, it was as though someone somewhere had flipped a switch that turned off the American people.

Liberals like this, in my opinion, are more dangerous than the Neo-Cons because they pose as well meaning, but knowingly serve to obscure the political realities of a ruling class power in a capitalist society that must maintain the illusions of a democratic system. Rahm and company, Obama also, knowingly serve the interests of the "owners" of the economy. They are serving The Empire very well by continuing the same policies as Bush, Jr., but creating the appearance that they are hamstrung by Wall Street, and Rahm and company who are "separated by...both intellectual and bureaucratic walls."

Time out

Wall Street owners angry with their purchase

by Glenn Greenwald from Salon. This author is about as far out on the left spectrum that the US ruling class will allow to be in the more established media. He often reports accurately on the political games that they play, but his treatment of the subject is merely cynical. He rarely goes beyond looking at these games as political theater, not as subterfuges that the capitalist system must engage in to maintain their fake democracy.

184 Communes Currently in Formation in Venezuela

from Upside Down World. 

A spokesperson for the Communal Council Colinas de la Dignidad (hills of dignity), Morelbis Aguiar, explained that a commune, which is made up of several communal councils, is local, community self-government, “where we, the people, we are the ones who decide what our community wants and what the improvements are that we want to work on in our area.”

De-Industrializing the City

from World Changing. 

Burning petroleum to drive pistons and turn wheels to move a big chunk of metal around the city is what you do when you haven't yet figured out how to make the normal needs of daily life readily findable and accessible: it's conquering space through BTUs, rather than data and design.

Chemical Warfare in the Cornfields as the EPA Reconsiders the Controversial Herbicide, Atrazine

 from Politics of the Plate.

University of California, Berkeley. Prof. Hayes [who] worked as a consultant for Syngenta stated:

 “People are starting to realize that it’s not just a frog issue and that it’s not just my data. I can stack up thirty, forty, one hundred papers showing adverse effects of atrazine. We’re looking at sexual problems and cancer problems in rats, and fish, and alligators, and now there is new data coming out about birth defects in humans. All these different effects are showing up independently.”

Beyond Green Capitalism

from Counterpunch. A book review on the book entitled, Sick Planet, by Stan Cox.

The author concludes that one cannot conceive- much less build- an ecological society without there being a broad consensus that the current economic system, founded on never ending growth, cannot be part of a new society. We must understand that all economic growth is destructive and that therefore we cannot have both capitalism and a habitable planet, says Cox. He goes on to warn that if we do not achieve such an understanding, any proposal or solution to the ecological crisis will be a pretentious and futile exercise, with a high entertainment value but with absolutely no usefulness in the real world.

Walkable Neighborhoods Key to Stable Real Estate Says New NRDC Report

from World Changing.

Looking at data from more than 40,000 mortgages throughout Chicago, San Francisco and Jacksonville, Fla., the researchers behind the Location Efficiency and Mortgage Default report found that the rate of mortgage foreclosure actually decreased in neighborhoods that were more compact, walkable and connected to public transportation....

The Democrats are Coming After Social Security

from Counterpunch.

How can politicians destroy these cherished social programs in the face of such popular resistance? By trickery, of course.   And this is exactly what Obama has proposed with his “bi-partisan deficit-reduction commission.”  This idea puts Democrats and Republicans together to create a plan to destroy social programs. This way both parties share the blame, so that no one is to blame.

How Agri-Food Corporations Make the World Hungry

from Toward Freedom.

While more than 1 billion people in poor countries aren't sure where their next meal is coming from, many chronically food-insecure countries are selling their land, as Raphael Grojnowski reports in the same issue of Food First News. Sudan, Ethiopia, and Cambodia, for example, have already sold nearly 40 million hectares of their best agricultural land to foreign investors, mainly from the Middle East, China, and South Korea. This is a classic imperialist land grab that, like those familiar from the past, leads to a steady deterioration of the condition of human beings, not to mention degradation of the environment.

DIY Life: Urban Homesteaders at Kitchen Table Talks

from Civil Eats. 

At the most recent Kitchen Table Talks in San Francisco close to 100 City dwellers came out in the pouring rain to hear stories from local urban homesteaders, who shared their experiences and insights on ways to become more self-sufficient.

‘Climategate’ Overshadows Copenhagen: Media regress to the bad old days of false balance

from Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. The article illustrates the bias of corporate media toward the issue of climate change and its effects.

Delusions of Finance: Where We are Headed

by Gail Tverberg from The Oil Drum. I suggest you not go to her link to her 2008 presentation, but stick with the article. I do recommend that you read the comments following the article.

Film Review: ‘Food Inc.’

from Transition Culture. 

No-one ever assumed that industrial farming was going to be pretty, but few realise how ugly it has become. As Eric Schlosser says in the film, “the food industry doesn’t want you to know the truth about what you’re eating, because if you knew you might know (sic) [not] want to eat it”.

Inside Cuba's dance factory

from The Guardian. Strange how the article fails to explain why "behind this apparent success story lies a harsher reality. Cuba has been stranded in a political, economic and cultural limbo for decades, imposing stifling constraints on its artists." Cuba is widely admired throughout the world for standing up to its belligerent neighbor while maintaining its independence.

Descent Into Barbarism: The US and NATO Wage War on the World

by Finian Cunningham from Global Research.

...the point is that the economic system is now objectively shown to be moribound. And it is impossible for so-called mainstream politicians to think of any other way of doing business. They are ideologically blind. Recall former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s arrogant assertion: “There is no alternative”. Likewise, US President Barack Obama insists on throwing billions more dollars at the banks and financiers on Wall Street. But that won’t kickstart an economy in which millions of workers are without jobs and homes or who are on crumby wages and up to their necks in debt. The profit system has hit an historic dead-end and this gridlock is a result of deep trends to do with the decline in capitalism as a mode of social production (falling wages and profits and the concomitant explosion in financial speculation and debts).

Canada: Foundation for "Political Warfare" Takes Cue from U.S. Strategy

from IPS news agency. 

Although I could not find any explanation in the article as to why Harper tabled this parliamentary bill, it is clear that they are still working on getting it passed. If Tony Blair was Bush's poodle, then Harper can be seen as US's Chihuahua--he yaps a lot but few people pay any attention. The only reason he was elected was because of the widespread corruption in the Liberal party in the past decade. In Canada as in the US, the capitalist governing class does not permit much in the way of choices. 

This article illustrates how closely Harper's administration works to support US foreign policy by this effort to establish an agency modeled after the US National Endowment for Democracy. NED is a propaganda organ of the US which collaborates closely with the CIA and used in US's arsenal of soft power to destabilize countries deemed by the US governing class as inimical to their interests. Here is a recent example of NED's work.

The US Fiscal Deficit: Scare Stories vs. Reality (9:58m video)

from The Real News Network. 

Wars sending U.S. into ruin

by Eric Margolis from the Toronto Sun. A good summary of how debt is being used to fund war.