This Is What Conspiracy Really Looks Like

Click here to access article by Lincoln Stoller posted on OpEd News. 

Once in a while individuals are able to escape their cultural conditioning (also known as "brainwashing") that has trained them to believe that the political facade that surrounds their daily life is real. The braver ones, such as this author, wander behind this facade to find a totally different reality, and try to make some sense of it.

He concludes his essay with this statement:

This is the nature of our system which has private corporations buying influence in systems that are supposed to be democratic. This cannot be changed by singling out specific groups or erecting single-issue fire walls. This is not the result of a few rotten apples. It is the fungus of international corporate capitalism operating in the "fruit salad" of selectively democratic republics.

Although this is a good start, I don't think that he quite grasps the reality of today's governance issues. I don't pretend to have a monopoly of understanding of this reality, but I feel that I have had more time to explore it. 

As I see it, ruling classes which have existed for the last ten to fifteen thousand years--less than 2% of human history--have always erected phony systems of belief to justify their existence, their privileges, and wealth. The latest class rulers, the capitalist class, several hundred years ago first saw great opportunities to accumulate wealth and power under a system of private ownership of socially produced wealth that could be possible if existing property was not limited by the rule of the landed aristocracy. 

So, they had to usurp power from the latter class, and to do this they had to enlist the support of ordinary working people who they needed to fight in their armies. They appealed to them with all sorts of radical ideas about democracy, such as those espoused sincerely by Thomas Paine and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Once this was accomplished, first in the American Revolution followed closely by the French Revolution, the new capitalist class were stuck with all these notions of liberty, justice, and democracy. Thus, they had to erect political institutions that appeared to embody these ideas. Thomas Paine was henceforth ignored and died in obscurity. Fortunately, Rousseau escaped this fate by dying a natural death just before the French Revolution. 

To prevent any real liberty from happening, our benevolent (sarcasm) Founding Fathers (they have been deified) carefully limited the vote to only owners of large properties, and found that mixing people into large voting areas tended to dilute any real democratic pressures from below. (Remember that roads were poor and the means of communication was limited.) It has been taught to us, along with a lot of other garbage, that the system of checks and balances that is a part of the design of our government was to protect against autocrats from coming to power. The truth is, the new American ruling class led by Hamilton and the banker Morris had a terrible fear of citizens and designed the new government to protect them from the "unwashed masses". (Read Unruly Americans by Woody Holton and An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States by Charles Beard.) 

Since then we have witnessed the extension of voting rights to most of the rest of the population, but this was only allowed because the new ruling class had a tight grip on the media, education, and control over what political parties were allowed to participate. They never had the slightest hesitation to hire private hooligans (for example, the Pinkertons), the FBI, aggressive police forces, or even the National Guard (for example, the Kent State massacre) to insure that their interests and policies were protected.

What is now placed on the shoulders of mostly young people throughout the world is the necessity of finally fulfilling the democratic dreams of working people to emancipate themselves from class rule. This is a huge task to ask of any generation, but nothing less will insure the survival of the human race. Should they succeed, they will surely become history's greatest heroes.

Occupy Homes lauds a radical new phase for the movement

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

...this Tuesday activists all over the United States will be taking the struggle indoors: to the homes of poor families who are under threat of being evicted by large and powerful Wall Street banks. The move from occupying public space to reclaiming private property marks a radical escalation of civil disobedience, striking the capitalist system right at its institutional heart.

Outside of New York City or San Francisco Bay Area, I am not sure that other Occupier activists are ready for this stage of activism--but, we shall see. It has to start sometime and somewhere in the US. On the other hand, we could just "throw in the towel", and pledge allegiance to the Empire and its global financial ruling class. 

I am proud to report that Occupiers here in the Seattle area seem to be ready for this phase of the revolution. Read this piece entitled, "Occupied Warehouse on Capitol Hill!". 

Let us be clear: this is only the beginning, a hint of what might come. If we are arrested, if we are removed from this building with guns in our faces and our hands bound behind our backs, it is neither unexpected nor a sign of failure. It is instead a sign that we constitute a real threat to capitalism and to the very concept of private property. There is no other option left but to recognize which side we are on. We say this not as martyrs, but as those who have chosen to live.

From Occupation to “Occupy”: The Israelification of American Domestic Security

Click here to access article by Max Blumenthal from al-Akhbar. 

There is not only collaboration among police/security agencies within the US as reported here: this article exposes the collaboration of the Empire's militarized polices across the globe, particularly influenced by the Israeli model.

The Israelification of America’s security apparatus, recently unleashed in full force against the Occupy Wall Street Movement, has taken place at every level of law enforcement, and in areas that have yet to be exposed. The phenomenon has been documented in bits and pieces, through occasional news reports that typically highlight Israel’s national security prowess without examining the problematic nature of working with a country accused of grave human rights abuses. But it has never been the subject of a national discussion. And collaboration between American and Israeli cops is just the tip of the iceberg.

Coal study names top 20 'climate killer' banks

Click here to access article by Fiona Harvey from The Guardian. 

After destroying the economy the financial elites, who form a core part of our ruling class, are now busy destroying our climate to satisfy their addiction to profits.

However, Africans and concerned people from all over the world are still fighting back. Read this piece entitled, "Thousands to Protest at COP 17 in Durban: Demanding Action to Save the Planet."

Feinstein Amendment Punts Issue of Indefinite Detention of Americans to Courts

Click here to access article David Dayen from FireDogLake.

Can Americans be indefinitely detained by the military on suspicion of terrorism if arrested on American soil? Thursday evening the Senate added a compromise amendment to the defense spending bill that states: Maybe.

It seems that the corporate sponsored US Senators just won't give up on an attempt to impose a police state on the US. They must be getting worried about a domestic insurrection. Meanwhile, mainstream media omits this coverage and encourages people to just go Christmas shopping (with their credit cards).

See also this piece from Wired entitled, "Senate Wants the Military to Lock You Up Without Trial".

See also yesterday's assessment of this bill by Glenn Greenwald who has a background in constitutional law. He rightfully says that the government is already doing what this bill proposes. Still, it is another nail in our civil rights coffin.

NAFTA - the Neo-Liberal Destruction of Mexican Culture & Anarchist Responses from Zapatistas to Drug Cartels

Click here to access article by John Kelley posted on OpEd News.

This article provides a good history of the Mexican people's struggle against the privatizing of their lands, and the more recent devastating effects of NAFTA on both US and Mexican workers--a good illustration of how neoliberalism plays off one nation's workers against another for the enrichment of corporations and their owners and ending in the exploitation of workers and the destruction of their lives.

Occupy Wall Street: The Enthusiasm Gap

Click here to access article by Bob Burnett from OpEd News. 

The latest polls indicate that approximately 75 percent of Americans agree with the goals of Occupy Wall Street.  Nonetheless, only 29 percent consider themselves supporters of OWS.  What accounts for this enthusiasm gap?

I also greatly worry about this. I think that my fellow Americans have been subject to so many years of indoctrination that filters down from the ruling class into every institution--schools, mainstream media particularly the "boob tube" (TV), corporate employers, non-profit administrators, churches, etc, that they will be very slow to respond to ruling class imposed crises. People have been taught to believe that it is far better to defer to authority than to think critically, that bad things happen to you when you start to question. "Better to go along to get along."

The shadow war in Syria

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

It's fair to argue that masses of Syrians want something other than the Assad regime - but certainly not some variant of humanitarian bombing, not to mention civil war. They saw NATO's legacy in Libya - virtually the whole infrastructure of the country destroyed, cities bombed to dust, tens of thousands of dead and wounded, al-Qaeda-linked fanatics wielding power in Tripoli, widespread ethnic hatred. They don't want a brand new massacre. But NATOGCC does. 

Student Protests Spread Throughout Region [Latin America]

Click here to access article by Pamela Sepúlveda from The Indypendent. 

In support of Chile’s ongoing student protests, and voicing their own demands, thousands of people took to the streets in more than a dozen cities in Latin America Thursday demanding quality public education.

Thawing permafrost vents gases to worsen warming

Click here to access article by Seth Borenstein of AP posted in Yahoo News.

Massive amounts of greenhouse gases trapped below thawing permafrost will likely seep into the air over the next several decades, accelerating and amplifying global warming, scientists warn.

The future of growing old in America

Click here to access article by James Ridgeway from The Guardian. 

The ruling One Percent have absolutely no shame in going after the most vulnerable people in our society--the poor, the disabled, and the elderly--in order to pursue their wars and protect their profits.

It's hard to argue that social security benefits are too generous, or that retirees enjoy extravagant lifestyles. The average social security benefit currently stands at just over $1,100 a month. As the Center for Economic and Policy Research's Dean Baker notes, "More than 75% of benefits go to individuals with non-social security income of less than $20,000 a year and more than 90% of benefits go to individuals with non-social security income of less than $40,000 a year."

Fed bailing out the Euro

Click here to access article from Russia Today. 

Markets are rallying, traders are full of optimism and the Euro is up. The only loser is the dollar: the good old buck has weakened compared to other currencies. The reason? An announcement from the Fed, the European Central Bank, the Bank of Canada, the Bank of Japan, the Bank of England and Swiss National Bank reveals that they are going to provide troubled European banks with massive amounts of cash – cheaper and faster than ever before. Obviously, the lion’s share of assets will be provided by the US Federal Reserve.

For more details and a deeper analysis of the latest European bank bailout by the Fed, read this piece by Naomi Prins, formerly of Goldman Sachs, in which she states:

...we...know from the US bailouts in phase one of the global meltdown, that providing ‘liquidity' or ‘greasing the wheels of ‘ banks in times of ‘emergency’ does absolute nothing for the Main Street Economy. Not in the US. And not in Europe. It also doesn’t fix anything, it just funds bad trades with impunity.

Well, should we be surprised? The Empire's ruling class is there to serve the one percent, and that is what they are doing. The solution, broadly speaking, is to remove the one percent from power and create classless societies designed to serve the needs of everyone. Until that happens, we will continue to see the 99% serving the needs of the one percent (in this case, covering their bad bets), more extremes of wealth and poverty, more wars, and more environmental degradation.

Here, in a nutshell, is the way I understand this whole bailout phenomenon. The controlling center of capitalism are the financial elites in the US, Europe, and Japan under the leadership of US bankers. Their top controlling institution is the Federal Reserve which creates money backed largely by the power of the US and NATO military, and their Arab oil cronies . The financial elites have no problem creating money to bailout members of their class who made bad bets on mortgage securities and all kinds of derivative bets, but they have an almost obsessive fear of that money circulating among the general population. You see, if that money circulates widely, money cheapens, prices rise, inflation results and the value of the bonds that mostly elites buy are devalued.

Britain's Massive Anti-Austerity Strike: Could It Happen Here?

Click here to access article by Richard Eskow from Huffington Post.

This event was almost totally ignored in US media--it might give workers the wrong ideas!

Millions of employees mounted Great Britain's first General Strike in many years today after the government threatened to impose more cuts in retirement benefits and pay for public workers.

It was a smash success. As many as two million strikers proved that the public's patience with the unjust fiscal regime known as 'austerity economics' has its limits. It highlighted the important role unions can and must play in the fight for a more just and stable economy.

Dardari: The Trojan Horse of Neoliberal Syria

Click here to access article by Ghadi Francis from Al-Akhbar.

This piece provides an interesting thesis that Abdallah Dardari, the former Syrian Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, functioned as a neo-liberal Trojan Horse. But when the usual destructive effects of neoliberalism occurred in Syria, he wisely "hopped into a lifeboat and paddled safely to the UN." He is now a part of the opposition. 

With the wrecked economy, (in my opinion) NATO imperialists see another splendid opportunity to move another chess piece in place to put Iran into checkmate. 

Global rebellion: The coming chaos?

Click here to access article by William I. Robinson from Al Jazeera. 

I am not posting this piece because I think it provides precise insights on our current social-economic and war disasters, but because it is broadly accurate and requires urgent action by the 99%. It is a liberal interpretation of crucial world events produced by an academic who consciously or unconsciously provides a more bland analysis of world events in order to keep his job or to enhance his career prospects. For example, he uses concepts like "social reproduction" to cover over unpleasant realities that you and I face--loss of pensions, loss of homes, huge debts, loss of jobs, standing in line at food banks, etc. 

And there are many other parts of his analysis that I would interpret quite differently. However, I really don't have the time or interest to do so. What is important is his main conclusion with which I agree:

Global elites are confused, reactive, and sinking into the quagmire of their own making. It is noteworthy that those struggling around the world have been shown a strong sense of solidarity and are in communications across whole continents. ...As global elites regroup and assess the new conjuncture and the threat of mass global revolution, they will - and have already begun to - organise coordinated mass repression, new wars and interventions, and mechanisms and projects of co-optation in their efforts to restore hegemony.

Occupy Wall Street's anarchist roots

Click here to access article by David Graeber from Al Jazeera.

"How are you going to get anywhere if you refuse to create a leadership structure or make a practical list of demands? And what's with all this anarchist nonsense - the consensus, the sparkly fingers? Don't you realise all this radical language is going to alienate people? You're never going to be able to reach regular, mainstream Americans with this sort of thing!"

The author provides some excellent answers to people who are confused about the Occupy movement and its practices. He does this by reviewing anarchist movements throughout history and their struggles with all class ruled societies, and by offering insights on what anarchism really is: a radical form of democracy which all governing classes of hierarchical systems loath. 

It is clear to me that the re-birth of this model of social organization offers the last best hope for humanity to survive in any form other than barbarism--indeed, to survive at all in the face of planetary destruction by profit-addicted capitalist ruling classes.


(Note: It appears to me that there is one minor typo in the following sentence: "Perhaps this is not surprising: We are facing conditions that rival those of the 1930s, the main difference being that the media seems stubbornly willing [unwilling] to acknowledge it.")

The Power of Occupy Wall Street Is Not Just What They're Doing, But How They're Doing It

Click here to access article by Sarah Jaffe from AlterNet. 

The people who seem unable to comprehend horizontalism are mostly those who come from hierarchical institutions themselves. (There isn't a more hierarchically structured media organization than the New York Times, for instance, which also sits at the top of the hierarchy of mainstream media as the “paper of record.”) But horizontalism has proved appealing to the Occupy protesters, I think, because those same hierarchical institutions, from Congress to churches to universities, and obviously, corporations have utterly failed most Americans.

She provides a very good discussion of the contribution of direct democracy (horizontalism) that the Occupy movement is practicing.

UK public sector stages national one-day walkout

Click here to access article from World Socialist Web Site.

More than two million workers across the public sector in the UK are taking part in today’s Day of Action against the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition’s attack on their pensions. For the first time since the government took office 18 months ago, working people have the opportunity to show their opposition to its policies, and they are doing so in their hundreds of thousands.

This major UK event is being given scant coverage here in the US--for obvious reasons.

Ruth Marcus reveals another journalistic value

Click here to access article by Glenn Greenwald from Salon. 

This piece is about prominent journalists who espouse values of US mainstream journalism--it's all about "respect for authority". If you want a career with corporate media, it would be useful to adopt these values. 

Every hierarchical social system, other than totalitarian systems of governance, realizes the importance of indoctrinating its subjects in the values of deference to authority. The latter system is much more efficient in bringing about compliance with the policies of ruling classes than the former which require a  huge, expensive security apparatus (police, surveillance of citizens, prisons, etc) to enforce compliance. It seems that our ruling class is playing it safe by promoting both.

Senators Demand the Military Lock Up of American Citizens in a “Battlefield” They Define as Being Right Outside Your Window

Click here to access article from American Civil Liberties Union.

The Senate is going to vote on whether Congress will give this president—and every future president — the power to order the military to pick up and imprison without charge or trial civilians anywhere in the world. 

I have been expecting a desperate reaction from the ruling capitalist class who fear the Occupy movement and the threat it poses to their legitimacy. The one percent are a frightened and cowardly people who fear the 99%. We have seen brutal police attacks on protestors in Oakland and Davis, California, and other cities; now there is a move on in corporate sponsored Congress to make it lawful to employ US army troops against its own citizens! WE MUST FIGHT BACK! Use the form provided in the article to contact your corporate sponsored Senator to tell them, "hell no!" (in so many words). 

Unknown Snipers and Western backed "Regime Change"

Click here to access article by Gearóid Ó Colmáin from Global Research. 

I've been noticing reports of unknown snipers in Syria and recall Mahdi Nazemroaya, a Canadian journalist, who reported about snipers while trapped in a hotel in Tripoli in August.  (See first video regarding a video phone interview with Nazemroaya in article that I posted on August 22nd at segments 0:55 - 1:18 and 4:55 - 6:55m.) I began to wonder if this was a standard destabilization tactic used against targeted countries. This article provides considerable evidence that it is.

The US has a criminal record of training and sponsoring terrorists through its School of the Americas in the US state of Georgia. Graduate from these schools have gone on to promote death squads in many countries in Latin America and other places.

The use of mercenaries, death squads and snipers by Western intelligence agencies is well documented.  No rational government attempting to stay in power would resort to unknown snipers to intimidate its opponents. Shooting at innocent protestors would be counterproductive in the face of unmitigated pressure from Western governments determined to install a client regime in Damascus. Shooting of unarmed protestors is only acceptable in dictatorships that enjoy the unconditional support of Western governments such as Bahrain, Honduras or Colombia.

Media Lies Used to Provide a Pretext for Another "Humanitarian War": Protest in Syria: Who Counts the Dead?

Click here to access article by Julie Lévesque from Global Research.

The "Syrian uprising" seems to be a copy and paste of the "protest movement" in Libya, which was conducive to a NATO invasion and regime change. The mainstream press has once again one principal source of information – the opposition groups. The media neglects military casualties and fails to report that armed gunmen, 17,000 according to a report from the International Institute for Strategic Studies, are among the protesters. A non-elected body, the SNC, ironically is upheld as a democratic movement and is offered "credibility" as well as extensive mainstream media coverage.

The author provides a lot evidence and arguments that there is a massive disinformation campaign going against the Syrian government to prepare the way for another NATO "humanitarian mission". I don't wish to imply that there is no legitimate opposition against the current ruling administration, but it appears to me that it is being grossly exaggerated and exploited by Western political operatives.

Rich nations 'give up' on new climate treaty until 2020

Click here to access article by Fiona Harvey from The Guardian. 

Postponing an operational agreement until 2020 would be fatal to hopes of avoiding catastrophic climate change, according to scientists, economists and green campaigners.

We are now witnessing the growth imperative of capitalism colliding with the ecological limits of our planet. Because capitalist ruling classes are so addicted to their profits, they are hopelessly unable to avert the disasters that are in the future for all of us. Because we share the same planet, we simply cannot idly stand by and let them have their way. Apparently the issues related to social-economic justice were not sufficient for people to rise up and demand changes in the past; but with the dire threats to our planetary home on the horizon, surely humanity will no longer tolerate such a destructive system.

The warnings of climate disaster are now occurring almost everywhere. Here in the Northwest of the United States we see oyster die-offs due to ocean acidification, in Texas severe droughts, earlier this year we saw flash flooding in eastern US, and this same pattern is occurring all over the Earth. 

Meanwhile, ruling capitalist classes do their best to keep their citizens ignorant of the evidence which makes the necessary connections between extreme weather, accelerated climate change, and fossil fuel consumption. For example, the latest refusal of TV broadcasters in Britain, US and other countries to televise a final segment of a series of programs apparently because the program made those connections. 

Witness now how the ruling elites are once again "stonewalling" the issue in the UN climate talks in Durban, South Africa.

The reality is that to stave off the Venus Syndrome – indeed, to maintain temperature rise to 2°C – the better part of known reserves of fossil fuels must remain untouched in the ground. But to the contrary, while the UN stalls and governments stonewall, corporations and the World Bank continue to invest wildly in expanding the fossil-fuel frontier through deep-sea drilling and exploitation of shale gas and tar sands, scraping the bottom of the oil barrel and locking us into a path of high emissions and a toxic future. Venus, here we come. 

Feminism, Finance and the Future of #Occupy - An interview with Silvia Federici

Click here to access article from Infoshop News. 

This piece presents an interview with a feminist of long experience who offers her insights on the important contributions of the still-active feminist movement on the current Occupy movement and the latter movement's struggle with the capitalist ruling class of the one percent. 

...in the present economic context, is it [is] impossible to take on Wall Street’s ‘crimes’ without confronting the entire economic system at the basis of its abuses. As with any other movements, there are different strands within the Occupations. Some participants may be satisfied with just obtaining a more regulated banking system, or a return to Keynesianism. But the economic crisis is bringing to light, in a dramatic way, the fact that the capitalist class has nothing to offer to the majority of the population except more misery, more destruction of the environment, and more war. 

Linda Katehi and the neoliberal reform of Greek Higher Education

Click here to access article by Panagiotis Sotiris from Greek Left Review. 

The recent publicity of police brutality against UC Davis students prompted this author to report on efforts by UC Davis Chancellor Katehi and other capitalist agents to "reform" Greek education to fit with neo-liberal values. 

...the main ruling body in every Greek University is going to be a ‘Directing Board’ comprised by academics but also external members and representatives of the world of business. This board is going to be responsible for all major policy decisions, including the selection of potential Rectors and Deans. Student and academic participation is drastically limited. Many university departments face closure in what is described as a process of ‘reorganization’ of Higher Education, but also in the name of budget cuts and austerity policies. Faculty promotion and tenure is going to become more difficult.

Lies and truths about Syria

Click here to access article Thierry Meyssan from Voltaire.

According to this French journalist, there is a massive media campaign underway in the West to justify aggressive actions toward Syria coinciding with an active project of destabilization of that country.

And this article from al-Akhbar (Lebanon). 

In a show of public support for the regime, tens of thousands of Syrians took to the streets on Monday to protest Arab sanctions on Damascus.

Pro-regime protests were held in the cities of Damascus, Aleppo, Hasaka, Deir Ezzor, Raqqa, Sweida, and Tartus.

With Western media cranked up to support another invasion after NATO's victory in Libya--this time in Syria--it is important that we obtain alternative sources of information.  

Cairo’s Liberation by Innovation

Click here to access article by Mohammed Shoair  al-Akhbar (Lebanon). 

From onions, to milk, to shoe polish bombs, protesters in Cairo are coming up with new ways to counter the regime’s new weapons of stifling dissent.

The Egyptian revolution carries on with an unparalleled creative spirit. A rebellious and vibrant imagination is pushing up against a stultifying and authoritarian military regime. 

Dangerous Times

by Ron Horn.

As I scan various opinion and news articles this morning, I am left with a very uneasy feeling that the world is heading for major conflict, not in the distant future, but in the near future: within a year. I hope I am wrong. But, consider the following facts and analyses to see if you are able to arrive at a different point of view: 

• There are widespread, angry people in the MENA countries. Currently we are seeing the US trained and equipped Egyptian military being confronted by widespread public opposition to their rule. NATO has been attempting to exploit the unrest throughout the region, under the covering propaganda of humanitarian missions, seeing this as an opportunity to strengthen its hold on more neutral governments in the region. NATO leaders are celebrating their recent triumph in Libya and planning to secure new military bases in that country. Now they are once again beating the war drums against Iran over their alleged threat of nuclear weapons.  (See this, this and this for more details on what appears to be an overall NATO strategy.) Now NATO may be in danger of losing one of its key stooges in Asia over their latest attack on Pakistani troops.
• There is considerable evidence that the strife going on in Syria is being exploited by Western secret agencies by supplying opposition forces with weapons from nearby Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon. Although Western media usually attributes them to Syrian government sources, there are reports of mysterious sniper attacks on civilians which is creating chaos in the country. 
• There are nearly worldwide Occupy protests, and those in Western countries are creating problems for police agencies and are attempting to turn public opinion against the ruling one percent.
• There are widespread banking problems, sovereign debt issues, and austerity measures causing major civilian crises across Western countries.

Wouldn't a major conflagration be seen as a way for Western ruling classes to divert attention and energy away from their dissidents and onto what they would see as more constructive pursuits--people supporting more wars which are always waged in defense of security and freedoms and for humanitarian purposes? And war is always good for the military-industrial complex and the one percent who live off their profits.


God, I hope I'm wrong!

Our University: On Police Violence at CUNY

Click here to access article by Anthony Alessandrini from Jadaliyya. 

Over the past few months, around the world, we have seen how tyrants, no longer able to hide behind the empty rhetoric of “democracy” that includes neither enfranchisement nor representation, have fallen back on their only other option: brute violence. We are seeing precisely the same thing on our university campuses. University officials have become accustomed to the privilege of remaining unaccountable...and simply being able to ignore the demands of students, teachers, and workers.

Targeting of Christian Syrians and Black Libyans: The "Clash of Civilizations" is on the march

Click here to access article by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya from Voltaire.

This Canadian sociologist and independent journalist has assembled a complex, but compelling view of the grand strategy that informs the Empire's policies in the MENA region.

What is unfolding amongst the Arab peoples is naturally a mixed package. Insurgency is part of this package as is opportunism. Where there is revolution, there is always counter-revolution too.

Clearly the Empire is influenced by the principle which states, "never let a crisis go to waste".

Obama: Trilateral Commission Endgame

Click here to access article by Patrick Wood from Voltaire. 

The global banks and corporations are running circles around the nation state, including the United States. They have no regard for due process, Congress, or the will of the people.

Along with trade and all other economic activities, governance has surreptitiously become globalized and concentrated in the hands of the 1% from all over the capitalist world. Still, these new governing bodies believe that it is in their interest to maintain the fictions of democratically and independently governed nations.  

The fact of this new global governance is precisely why real change can only come from working people across the globe coordinating with each other to emancipate themselves. This does not mean centralized organizations like the capitalist globalists have, but coordination among organizations that are organized from the bottom up.

The shocking truth about the crackdown on Occupy

Click here to access article by  Naomi Wolf from The Guardian.

As the puzzle pieces fit together, they began to show coordination against OWS at the highest national levels.

Black Friday: Occupy Protests Discourage Shopping On One Of Retail's Biggest Days

Click here to access article by Beth Duff-Brown and Juliet Williams from Huffington Post. 

In San Francisco, a few dozen people in tony and touristy Union Square used signs to spread an anti-consumerism message. One, 9-year-old Jacob Hamilton, held a sign that read, "What is in your bag that's more important than my education?"

I doubt that the San Francisco Bay Area is representative of the US as a whole, but we can dream, can't we?

Vaccine Conspiracy: The CDC Caught Lying Again

Click here to access article by Gary Null, Jeremy Stillman, and Nancy Ashley from Progressive Radio Network. 

In a news release last Tuesday, CoMeD [Coalition for Mercury-free Drugs] exposed a cover-up by authorities at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and vaccine researchers who deliberately omitted critical data from a 2003 article on mercury and autism that was carried out in Denmark.

At Durban, the big emitters will no doubt fail us again on climate change

Click here to access article by John Vidal from The Guardian.

Before Copenhagen we were told the world would stop at nothing to get an equitable, fair agreement. Then, we were told, a deal could be done in a week. After Copenhagen, it was so important for the future of humanity that we could expect a deal within the year. That then morphed to two or three years, and now ministers and senior diplomats are playing down expectations even further by suggesting it may take another four years of talks to come up with a plan that could, possibly, come into effect in 2020.

Black Friday Antidote: George Carlin on Advertising and Consumerism

This 9:44m video was posted today by Naked Capitalism. For foreign visitors let me explain than today is promoted as Black Friday by corporate media to start people shopping for the Christmas season. As Yves Smith expresses it, "Americans roll from a holiday [Thanksgiving] that has come to be about overeating to a day where merchants hope to seduce customers into an orgy of overspending." Meanwhile, Occupy Wall Street activists are declaring it, "Buy Nothing Day!"

What next for revolution's second wave?

Click here to access article by Amira Howeidy from Al-Ahram.

The more the police have attacked and killed protesters, the stronger the urge to resist. Thousands have poured into Tahrir since Sunday as the death toll increased. Many people interviewed by the Weekly say they decided to join the protests after seeing graphic film footage of corpses piled by the side of the square and others being dragged by policemen and left on heaps of garbage.

Journalists and women are treated worse in Egypt by their police forces than here in the US:



A doctor treating injured protestors is one of the latest victims of US trained and equipped military satraps in Egypt using gas, no doubt, supplied by the US.

"Death to Al Sa`ud" Chants by Thousands in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province: A Game Changer?

Click here to access article from Jadaliyya.

Protests in this predominantly Shi`i region evolved after  Sunday's shooting. Thousands swarmed the streets calling for the "Death to Al Sa`ud" (i.e., death to the Saudi royal family).

Even people in armed-to-the-teeth Saudi Arabia are fighting back against their US satrap. No amount of repression can keep people down indefinitely. Ruling classes that exist only through the use of force have much to fear. Human beings are very adaptable, but there are limits, and these limits are being tested in many parts of the world today.  People throughout history have expressed this basic component of human nature in various ways:

Give me liberty, or give me death!
Patrick Henry - March 23, 1775, at St. John's Church in Richmond, Virginia (Virginia Convention)

There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious—makes you so sick at heart—that you can't take part. You can't even passively take part. And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all.
Mario Savio - December 2, 1964, University of California, Berkeley, California.

And then I got to Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers? Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.
Martin Luther King - April 3, 1968, Mason Temple, Memphis, Tennessee.

To Be or Not to Be – Reform or Revolution – Fear or Love?

Click here to access article by Carol Brouillet from Progressive Radio Network. 

The idea of revolutionary change is generally terrifying to most people, at least to people who have an adequate income, shelter, food, clothing, and family and simply want to enjoy the pleasures of life. Under current conditions, however, a large majority of people are threatened with the loss of their livelihoods, lands, homes, pensions, health, and living standards. Their very survival demands a radical change in our financial system.

The privatization of our money is not the only thing that needs to be radically changed by being socialized to serve the public interest. Our whole economy needs to be radically changed. Our economies must be socialized to serve the public interest. People all over the world are reaching their limits of tolerance of private interests controlling public interests. They are facing down the brutality of the enforcers of private interests--the heavily armed police and armies who commit all kinds of crimes against humanity.

Reporter Greg Palast Exposes How U.S. “Vulture” Funds Make Millions By Exploiting African Nations

Click here to access 13:25m video from Democracy Now which includes a transcript.

View video interview to get an example of how vulture capitalists feed off the misery of 3rd world countries.

The Obama Predicament-and the Final Option! “To attack or not to attack Iran?” That is the question!

Click here to access article by Rev Richard Skaff from Global Research.

The author provides a cynical, but insightful, evaluation of Obama's job performance and what he needs to do to earn a second term as CEO of America Inc.

Every American president sets the stage for the next one, in order to continue the work in progress that has been set for him by the global corporate elite. Mr. Obama has been a faithful serf to his money masters, and he played his cards carefully and correctly, therefore, he will deserve a second term. 

How Online Learning Companies Bought America's Schools

Click here to access article by Lee Fang from The Nation.

Following the current capitalist principle to never let a crisis go to waste such as in this period of severe austerity, people and organizations such as David Koch, Jeb Bush, ALEC, Rupert Murdoch, and numerous investors and corporations see a great opportunity to profit in online education while, at the same time, launching a war against public education and teachers.

...by combining the financial firepower of their corporate clients with the seeming legitimacy of privatization-minded school-reform think tanks and foundations ...policies designed to boost the bottom lines of education-technology companies are cast as mere attempts to improve education through technological enhancements, prompting little public debate or opposition.

...It’s big business, and getting bigger....

And, so far there is very little research that justifies online education. In any case, any and all educational techniques must never be controlled by the ruling class. To be sure, they indirectly control education now, but this project would put education directly under their control and directly link education to private profits.
 

Frank Miller and the rise of cryptofascist Hollywood

Click here to access article by by Rick Moody from The Guardian. 

...Frank Miller has done Occupy Wall Street a service by reminding us that our allegedly democratic political system, which increases inequality and decreases class mobility, which is mostly interested in keeping the disenfranchised where they are, requires a mindless, propagandistic (or "cryptofascist") storytelling medium to distract its citizenry.

I've often been aghast at the apparent popularity of this Hollywood trash. Fortunately, the 99 percent are beginning to wake up.

Shale Gas Emerges as a Burning Issue

Click here to access article by Peter Custers from Inter Press Service. 

The author brings us up to date on the issue of fossil fuel developments as capitalist interests continue their suicidal project of profit über alles. Unfortunately, we live on the same planet as they do; otherwise I would say, "go for it"!

...the example of the fracking of shale gas retells the story of deregulation which has been so characteristic for the U.S.’s and the world’s financial sector in the era of neo-liberalism. In both cases, the profit interests of corporation and of a narrow section of company executives have been put wide above the welfare of the world’s population.

Liberating the Impossible

Click here to access article by Yotam Marom from The Organization for a Free Society.

Very inspirational! 

We need alternative institutions that fight, and fighting institutions that express an alternative. And we need them all to have real, long-lasting effects.

We need institutions truly capable of meeting peoples’ needs – we need health clinics and social workers, democratic schools and worker cooperatives, neighborhood assemblies and reclaimed homes. We need them on a large scale, and we need to defend them from the attacks of the status quo. We need to take space not symbolically, but for keeps.

Worker Cooperatives Reduce "Hard-Core" Unemployment [Argentina]

Click here to access article by Marcela Valente from Inter Press Service. 

Not exactly current as most of my articles are, but very important. An issue that is often overlooked when discussing the outsourcing of American jobs are the loss of skills this practice, after many years, has on American workers. To prevent this and to sustain workers and their families, we simply must establish our own work sites to produce goods and services needed in our communities. This can be successful if and when communities begin to view corporate produced goods and services as not in their best interests, and be willing to pay higher prices for cooperative products at least in the short run. The Occupy movement along with the obvious decline in the standard of living for ordinary people is rapidly creating this climate of opinion. 

See also this article entitled, "Millions Stand to Benefit from Farmers' Co-ops", regarding farming and food co-ops.

BUY NOTHING DAY / #OCCUPYXMAS

Click here to access article from Adbusters. 

You’ve been sleeping on the streets for two months pleading peacefully for a new spirit in economics. And just as your camps are raided, your eyes pepper sprayed and your head’s knocked in, another group of people are preparing to camp-out.

Do you think this other group will be harassed by police? After all, under capitalism shopping trumps free speech and freedom of assembly.

Black Friday is probably the most important day in the US for the one percent who depend upon profits from their mostly outsourced factories to sustain their profits--the sole interest of capitalist ruling classes the world over.

Van Jones and Democratic Party Operatives: You Do Not Represent the Occupy Movement

Click here to access article by Kevin Zeese from OpEd News. 

The author writes about how the Democratic Party operatives are preparing to co-opt the OWS movement to support their candidates in next year's elections. But, can they be co-opted?

At Occupy Washington, DC, we recognize that putting our time, energy and resources into elections will not produce the change we want to see. What we need to do right now is build a dynamic movement supported by independent media that stands in stark contrast to both corporate-bought-and-paid-for parties.

Egyptian military using 'more dangerous' teargas on Tahrir Square protesters

Click here to access article from The Guardian.

The pepper gas spraying of peacefully assembled students on the University of California campus in Davis has received widespread publicity--even on mainstream media. What is less known is that this weapon performs a critical role in the Empire's arsenal to enforce its will upon those outside of the global elite. This and other articles linked here, here, and here provides convincing evidence of that.

And look what corporate representatives in Congress are currently considering--rolling back torture prevention measures they previously passed! They must be getting desperate. 

The NEW COMMON SENSE

Click here to access article by VoiceOfReason from Pastebin. (Or if you can bear computer-generated language, you can listen to the text here. The link from the Pastebin webpage is an abbreviated version, for the full version it seems that you will need to download it to something like a Word document, which I have done.)

This is an up-to-date version of Thomas Paine's Common Sense inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement. A must read.

A Declaration of INTERDEPENDENCE, born of necessity, from and for the collective conscience of the "99%" to and for the oligarchic "1%" of the United States of America.

The Camp is the World: Connecting the Occupy Movements and The Spanish May 15th Movement

Click here to access article by Luis Moreno-Caballud and Marina Sitrin from The New Significance.

The authors identify the key elements of the Occupy movement which as a model can be used to expand the movement by inserting it into all spaces in society. 

...what this could continue to look like in the US is that there are assemblies on street corners, in neighborhoods, in workplaces and universities, working concretely together with neighbors and workmates, as well as then relating together in assemblies of assemblies or spokes councils in parks, plazas and squares, sharing the experiences from the more local spaces. All the while continuing to occupy space and territory, but seeing the territory as what happens together, with one another, in multiple places, and then coming together to share in another geographic place. This could take places on the level of neighborhood to neighborhood – to the level of city to city, all networked in horizontal assemblies.

From Occupy Wall Street to Occupy Your Street

Click here to access article by Paul Rogat Loeb from On the Commons. 

In an effort to move the Occupy movement further, there are a lot of discussions going on all over the US. This author provides some that are, no doubt, being seriously considered. But, I am bothered by what I detect as a gatekeeper function that seems to inform his discussion. He seems intent upon containing the options of OWS within ruling class political processes which he sees as realistic.

If the Occupiers stay contained in their familiar enclaves, or steer people away from electoral participation, they risk helping those at the top prevail even more.

That’s a real possibility given the blanket dismissal of voting by far too many of the Occupy participants I’ve spoken with, or at least of voting within the two party system.

He then continues on with the usual threats of the greater evil being elected--hence we should be engaged in the electoral process which, of course, has been designed by the ruling class and vote for the lesser evil.

But, perhaps he redeems himself when he concludes with the following paragraph:

Like participants in previous movements for justice, the Occupiers need to avoid the false choices between protest and organizing, community building and electoral involvement, surrealist theater and the grunt work of change. The criticisms they raise go beyond any single election, Congressional bill, or policy shift. They need to keep raising them, but in ways that keep spiraling out. If they can trigger enough conversations in communities as yet untouched by their voices, they have a chance to prevail. But they have to recognize that the powerful public presence they’ve created is just a beginning.

I would feel better if he had developed this theme further, because any participation in ruling class institutions is at best a holding action to provide more time to organize real power from below. There is room for all kinds of discussion about real change, but I do not think it is "realistic" to close off radical changes, because that is what it is going to take to create real change in our lives.

Labor Must Choose Between Occupy and the Democrats

Click here to access article by Shamus Cooke from Workers Action. 

If labor plans on building a strong movement with Occupy — and they had better — then these suicidal pro-Democratic Party policies must end. Labor cannot earn credibility within the Occupy Movement and then completely change course to campaign for Obama, in effect throwing all credibility in the garbage.

No Cops, No Bosses

Click here to access article from UCDavis Bicycle Barricade.

It's quite amazing and inspiring for an old-time activist like myself to see the current fire of revolutionary consciousness spreading all across the US by courageous young activists. So, let us pay a visit to the campus at UC Davis in Davis, California.

 

The [university] administration, as a managerial class for whom the ideal university is a massive corporation in imperialist partnership with other massive corporations and banks, will never accede to our demands for self-management, greater student and community participation in university governance, and better working conditions. The administration at UC Davis and every other UC campus has proven that, when faced with these demands, they will unleash violence in our learning spaces.

We demand the abolition of the administration and the transfer of all their functions to workers, students, and faculty.

Prof. Johan Galtung Supports the Leaderless 99%/Occupy Movement Worldwide

Posted by Transcend Media Service. 

Some very wise words from Professor Galtung:



It appears that the professor is speaking at the Brookings Institution, a major center of ruling class power at the heart of the Empire where the real decisions are made. (I hope you don't think that real political/economic decisions are made in Congress, the Supreme Court, or by the President!)

The Egyptian masses rise up again to complete their revolution!

Click here to access article by  José Antonio Gutiérrez D. from Anarkismo.net.

At this very minute, there is street fighting in all of the major cities of Egypt, particularly in Cairo, Port Said, Alexandria and Suez. In Southern Egypt there are numerous demonstrations, and clashes with the repressive apparatus of the SCAF have also been reported. Police stations have been attacked and barricades have been built on most important roads and streets.

Exposed: US Press "Freedom"

Click here to access article by Pepe Escobar. 

This perceptive writer once again exposes the reality behind one of a number of myths broadcast by the propaganda machines of the Empire: freedom of the press in the US. 

So this is how the much-lauded "freedom of the press" myth in the US actually works. If you perform the job of an actual journalist, telling truth to power, forget about attending press conferences at the White House, Pentagon or State Department. You won't even be admitted in the building.

Standoff sets in at Egypt's Tahrir Square

Click here to access article by Malika Bilal from Al Jazeera. 

Sunday's violence followed a day of clashes in downtown Cairo and other major cities, with thousands of rock-throwing protesters demanding that the ruling military announce a date to hand over power to an elected government. At least two people were killed and hundreds wounded across the country on Saturday.

"People here are not thinking about elections they are thinking about their revolution and how to finish it."
 

Occupy Oakland Calls for TOTAL WEST COAST PORT SHUTDOWN ON 12/12

Click here to access article from Occupy Oakland. 

We call on each West Coast occupation to organize a mass mobilization to shut down its local port.  Our eyes are on the continued union-busting and attacks on organized labor, in particular the rupture of Longshoremen jurisdiction in Longview Washington by the EGT.   Already, Occupy Los Angeles has passed a resolution to carry out a port action on the Port Of Los Angeles on December 12th, to shut down SSA terminals, which are owned by Goldman Sachs.

The article doesn't mention any consultation with the International Longshoreman's union.

Here on the West coast of the US there are so many actions going on by the Occupy movements in the various cities--this is only one planned event. See also Occupy Seattle, Occupy Portland, Occupy Los Angeles.

Financial secrecy: We really are in it together

Click here to access article by Charles Abugre from Pambazuka News (Africa). 

The author provides a good, succinct explanation of how financial deregulation and banking secrecy, the latter involved in what is known as the "shadow banking system", often has disastrous effects on the lives of ordinary people.

Buckle up – Credit Crunch 2

Click here to access article by David Malone from Golem XIV.

There is a crisis and it is in Europe , but the ‘contagion’ is not at all what our cretinous media and brain rotted politicians are telling us it is. The contagion the markets are worried about is bank contagion. Nations’ borrowing woes are the radioactive material, but the banks built the bomb.

The author explains how another credit crisis is brewing in Europe over sovereign debts that is very much the same type of scam that was involved in sub-prime mortgage securities. And, guess who the banksters again are insisting should pay for their reckless gambling?

What price the new democracy? Goldman Sachs conquers Europe

Click here to access article by Stephen Foley from The Independent.

This is the most remarkable thing of all: a giant leap forward for, or perhaps even the successful culmination of, the Goldman Sachs Project.

It seems that the banking interests, especially Goldman Sachs, are overtly taking control of Europe. See also my recent posting entitled, "The Great Putsch: welcome to post-democratic Europe".

First Five Thousand Years of Debt

Click here to access article P2P Foundation. 

This lengthy article features information on a recently published book entitled, First Five Thousand Years of Debt, by David Graeber, an anthropologist and anarchist. Although I haven't had time to read all of the article, I have read some of the three interviews that Graeber had about his book with various people, and found them to be useful in elucidating Graeber's new findings about the historical origins of money and debt.

...the very principle of exchange emerged largely as an effect of violence—that the real origins of money are to be found in crime and recompense, war and slavery, honor, debt, and redemption. That, in turn, opens the way to starting...an actual history of the last five thousand years of debt and credit....

Here’s what attempted co-option of OWS looks like

Click here to access article by Glenn Greenwald from Salon.

Having SEIU officials — fresh off endorsing the Obama re-election campaign — shape, fund, dictate and decree an anti-GOP, pro-Obama march is about as antithetical as one can imagine to what the Occupy movement has been.

I was shocked to see Mary Kay Henry of SEIU make her pro-Obama statements the other day on TV (see this video and interview on MSNBC. Surely the American people are not so politically naive as to fall for this brazen attempt at using the Occupy movement to support a ruling class puppet. Because it is hard for me to believe this mainstream union official is completely out of touch with reality, I am left with the only other alternative: she is making a colossal blunder by making such an obvious attempt to function as a political operative of the ruling class. Surely, this will backfire on her to the discredit of all such union officials.

Breaking the Silence

Click here to access article by Michael Pooler from Red Pepper (UK).

Humans are by nature peace loving, cooperative, and desire to produce goods and services for the well-being of their families and communities. Thus, in order to prepare its young people to serve as enforcers of a system of oppression and exploitation, a ruling class must carefully eliminate such impluses and cultivate fear of others through comprehensive campaigns of indoctrination in the family, in education, and the media. This article illustrates how such indoctrination functions in Israel to brutalize their young people who, in turn, brutalize and dehumanize Palestinians.

Through an organization called Breaking the Silence, former Israeli soldiers are attempting to recover their humanity by speaking out about their experiences.

Full of tales of abductions, humiliation within homes and the beating of children perpetrated by soldiers, the testimonies make for shocking and at times harrowing reading. In doing so they uncompromisingly reveal the day-to-day of life under occupation for Palestinians - subject to measures justified under the banner of 'security' - from the unusual perspective of those meting the treatment.

Food Policy, Economists, and the Hazards of Assuming a Can Opener

Click here to access article by Anna Lappé from Civil Eats. 

The author challenges the capitalist assumptions that serve to justify industrial agriculture.

The arguments are based in flawed assumptions, obfuscated by fancy charts, big words, and complex calculations.

Neo-Paramilitary Gangs Ratchet Up Their Threat to Colombian Civil Society and the Long Term Survival of Civic Rectitude in the Public Arena

Click here to access article by Denise Fonseca and Candiss Shumate from Council on Hemispheric Affairs.

This article brings us up-to-date on affairs in Columbia. It seems that nothing has changed since Uribe's administration (see this, this, and this for details). The Empire's satrap in South America continues to use paramilitaries to terrorize any opposition to the military clique trained and indoctrinated in the US.

Likewise, contrary to earlier reports in 2008 after a Colombian army raid on a FARC camp, this article reports that FARC seems to be alive and well.

Occupy London takes over empty UBS bank – live

Click here to access article from The Guardian.

The British Occupy movement demonstrates more creative militancy by entering a new phase of struggle--occupying capitalist property.

Occupy London demonstrators have opened up a new front in their campaign against the banking industry and the government's response to the financial crisis by taking over a complex of buildings owned by a subsidiary of UBS bank just north of the City of London.

 

Tens of thousands protest in Egypt

Click here to access article from Al Jazeera.

The demonstration, dubbed as the "Friday of One Demand," was called in response to a document of "supraconstitutional" principles floated by the government which declares the military the guardian of "constitutional legitimacy", suggesting the armed forces could have the final word on major policies even after a civilian parliament and president are elected.

The first phase of revolution in Egypt happened when the people ousted Mubarak, but now the second phase begins with the conflict against the Empire's satrap in Egypt, the military council. This contest will be much more difficult to pull off; but Egyptians, like most other people in the world, have no other choice but to fight to stop further descent into fascism and barbarism. People everywhere must continue to join the Occupy movement if we are to reclaim control of our lives and that of future generations. 

We are now in a critical period of this struggle. The Empire is both attempting to take advantage of the chaos and trying to divert attention away from the struggle. I am referring to the increasing vitriolic propaganda attacks on Iran and Syria, and the further extension of military bases in Africa, Australia, and Asia. FireDogLake has also noticed this--read their brief article entitled, "Trainers, Marines, Troops Everywhere; More US Deployments Around the Globe".

Warsaw protester launches drone to spy on police

Click here to access article by David Edwards from The Raw Story. 

I never cease to be excited and inspired by the creativity of activists throughout the world. Check this out.

The Rush for Oil in West Africa – The New Wild West?

Click here to access article by Meena Bhandari from Inter Press Service. 

...the history of oil in Africa has so far been a tumultuous one. A recent EU report found that the negative impacts of the oil industry in sub-Saharan Africa were a major concern, for the health and livelihoods of local communities.

It also stressed the need for better accountability, transparency and governance, and came hot on the heels of the United Nations findings highlighting the impact of oil spills in the Niger Delta.

The Niger Delta is said to be one of the most polluted sites in the world with oil spills over the last 50 years, having a devastating impact on human and wild life. A clean up is estimated to take 30 years at a cost of around one billion dollars, according to the U.N.

As more discoveries of oil occur in Africa, many worry about whether such discoveries are a blessing or a curse given the history of oil on this continent. Perhaps there is some connection between these discoveries and the new US military mission in the heart of Africa. See especially this article entitled, "Scramble for Africa", for much more background on the involvement of Western countries and China in the continent.

Obama moves to legalize cluster munitions

Click here to access article by Scott Martin from World Socialist Web Site.

Although the US is not a member, the Obama Administration is now leading an effort to invalidate what modest effect the CCM treaty has had. It has proposed a treaty, as part of the CCW, which would allow the use of all cluster munitions made after 1980 for twelve years after the treaty comes into force. This covers practically all the stockpiles of cluster munitions, as weapons older than 1980 are past their service life anyway. Moreover, all recent usage of the weapons has been with models made after 1980.

Meanwhile, the US military-industrial complex is constantly developing more weapons with which to impose its domination over the world. See this for the latest weapon.

We Power

Click here to access article by Julie Ristau & Alexa Bradley from On the Commons.

Through our experience with numerous community projects, we’ve come to see how deeply contemporary society is immersed in the market mentality. So long as market fundamentalism remains the lens through which most Americans see the world, it will be very difficult for people to envision a commons-based society, let alone work to revive actual commons that are under threat in their communities.

This realization led us to examine how people’s social, political, and even personal consciousness is conditioned by their belief in the market as the only efficient system to organize society, and to look for points of entry for introducing commons-based ideas to the wider public.

The authors suggest that a revolution in consciousness is mandatory if we, the people, are going to survive the attacks on our families, communities, and society. People are beginning to see the necessity of recovering the values of the commons which sustained humanity for more than 98% of its historical existence.

David Leonhardt’s fairytale of austerity

Click here to access article by Jim O’Reilly from his blog, Comments on Global Political Economy.

The author deconstructs an opinion piece about the economy published in the NY Times and reveals what many in the OWS movement are now understanding: the one percent are hoarding and denying the fruits of technological wealth created by working people to working people--unless or until they can derive sufficient profit from it.

The earth is a great casino for the owners, nothing more, and human society will be allowed to fall to the dark ages if the species becomes no longer profitable.

The Struggle for Syria

Click here to access article by Joseph Massad from Al Jazeera. (Joseph Massad is Associate Professor of Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History at Columbia University in New York.)

Those who see the Syrian popular struggle for democracy as having already been hijacked by these imperial and pro-imperial forces inside and outside Syria understand that a continuation of the revolt will only bring about one outcome, and it is not a democratic one....

This assessment of current Syrian events makes so much sense given everything else we know about US foreign policies in the region--both overt and covert. Apparently the US-friendly Oman ruling family's sponsorship of this media source has not yet limited the opinion pieces that they allow to be published.

Occupy and Anarchism’s Gift of Democracy

Click here to access article by David Graeber from The Guardian.

...we have to understand that there's always been an enormous gap between what those ruling America mean by "democracy", and what that word means to almost anyone else. According to the official version, of course, "democracy" is a system created by the founding fathers, based on checks and balances between president, Congress and judiciary. In fact, nowhere in the Declaration of Independence or Constitution does it say anything about the US being a "democracy". Most defined democracy as collective self-governance by popular assemblies, and as such, they were dead set against it, arguing it would be prejudicial against the interests of minorities (the particular minority that was had in mind here being the rich). 

So true! The new capitalist class of North America were profoundly fearful of the town meetings and other popular assemblies. They countered such democratic tendencies by establishing huge voting districts or even state-wide candidates for the election of representatives. Given that roads were poor and the means of communication were rather primitive, it was difficult for ordinary people who might have the right to vote, such as small farm landholders, to organize any effective political action. (Nowadays, ruling class control of all major media insures their continued rule.) This new ruling class found that such an arrangement encouraged voter apathy since only the wealthy were known by most of the people in these huge districts. Some people of the ruling class even went so far as to claim that this was America's single greatest contribution to political theory.

Originally the gathering of the young nation's ruling class in 1787 was publicized as intended only to reform or revise the Articles of Confederation which was the constitution of the 13 colonies. Instead, this new landed and commercial aristocracy decided on a revolutionary course of their own design by crafting a whole new Constitution which centralized control over the nation under their supervision. Only by tacking on the Bill of Rights and the use of political chicanery, could they get the state assemblies to ratify it. 

Contrary to official doctrine, the designers of the Constitution intentionally structured the government into three branches (a so-called system of "checks and balances") not to impede the development of authoritarian rule, but to serve as a bulwark against democratic influences from below. (One of the best single sources for further study on this subject that I know of is historian Woody Holton's book entitled, Unruly Americans.)

Politburo uber alles

Click here to access article by Pepe Escobar from OpEd News. 

The eurozone is now in fact run by an eight-member politburo. What a sterling job. This Gang of Eight is accountable to no one, except mythical Zeus with his trademark thunderbolts. In the liquid modernity era, Zeus goes by the name of the God of the Market. The only thing that matters to the Gang of Eight is what financial markets -- run by the God -- want; mere mortals, as in European voters, are at best a nuisance.

Ergo, eurozone national governments are totally meaningless. The shots are called by a troika formed by the European Central Bank (ECB), the European Commission (EC) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). All of them gloriously unelected.

Could it be that the capitalist "politburos" really want to balkanize Europe--the better to control it? The author uses his typical sardonic writing style to suggest not only that capitalists are dropping the usual pretenses of "democratic" processes by openly using politburo-like panels to impose their interests, but may have decided to break up the European Union into something more manageable.

Occupy Wall Street: police violence reveals a corrupt system

Click here to access article by Penny Laurie from The Guardian. 

Better-off Occupy Wall Street protesters are learning something about the relationship between citizen and state

The Great Putsch: welcome to post-democratic Europe

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

With the removal of European leaders elected in ruling class managed elections, it has become even clearer what "democracy" is to the ruling elites: merely a facade for them to hide behind. When the facade no longer serves their purposes, they ignore it and show the reality of capitalist class rule.

Having pushed through “technocratic” regime change in Greece and Italy, the EU is paving the way for the diktak of an unaccountable clique of bankers.

Paul Feldman in his article entitled, Goldman Sachs adds Italy and Greece to its portfolio, reports
that the newly appointed puppets on stage are connected with Goldman Sachs--hence, he makes the argument that the puppeteers who are directing the stage play from behind the curtain in Europe are Goldman Sachs.  

He concludes his essay with some hopeful comments:

As the present political system is ossified, alienated and generally in someone else’s pockets, then it follows that entirely new forms of democracy are needed. The assemblies that have been a feature of 2011’s uprisings are an experiment in democracy that actually works.

Democracy here is not an add-on, to obscure some other power relations, but a conscious effort to do things better. The general assemblies have the potential to go further than the spaces they currently occupy. People’s Assemblies can become not just the voice but also the power of the silenced, disenfranchised 99%.

They could reach out to neighbourhoods and communities and offer new forms of representation, participation and direct democracy. A network of assemblies could begin to draw up strategies and plans for a democratic alternative to the power and rule of the market capitalist economy.

Syria In Western Strategy For Global Military Supremacy

Click here to access article by Rick Rozoff from Stop NATO. 

I find the author's writing style--his use of lengthy, complex sentences--rather difficult to read, but in this piece he provides considerable evidence of NATO's penetration into the MENA region. While he offers no specific evidence, he provides a lot of circumstantial evidence to suggest that NATO is now targeting Syria as their next victim and addition to the Empire.

If indeed Syria becomes the next Libya and a new Yemeni regime is installed under the control of the Gulf Cooperation Council, then the only nations remaining in the vast stretch of territory known as the Broader or Greater Middle East, from Mauritania on the Atlantic coast to Kazakhstan on the Chinese and Russian borders, not tied to NATO through multinational and bilateral partnerships will be Lebanon (see above), Eritrea, Iran and Sudan.

Egypt to IMF: ‘Topple their debts’

Click here to access article by Eric Walberg from Committee for the Abolition of Third World Debt.

...the loans propped up the economy as it was being gutted under an IMF-supervised privatisation programme from 1990 on, allowing foreign companies and Mubarak cronies to pocket hundreds of millions of dollars and spirit them abroad. Meanwhile, what investment that trickled down from the loans went to financing prestige infrastructure projects like the Cairo airport expansion, which was riddled with corruption and serves only the Egyptian elite. Virtually all the loans from this period should be considered liable for writing off.

Egypt is only one illustration of how international banksters have placed citizens of entire countries into debt slavery.

The limits of objectivity: Qatari rulers reassert control over Aljazeera

Click here to access article by A.E. Souaiaia from OpEd News.

This article essentially announces what many others have sensed during the past several months--Al Jazeera has ceased to exist as an independent Arabic news source.

This morning I was surprised to find a video on their site entitled, "The US and the new Middle East: The Gulf" with a descriptive sentence following it that reads "Fault Lines travels to Bahrain and asks why the US backs democracy in one Arab country, but not another." Hence, I was intrigued to find out what kind of spin they put on this subject. I wondered if the reporter didn't spin it well enough because the video doesn't function on my computer.

Lying to Eat

Click here to access article from American Civil Liberties Union.

Dishonesty, in its various incarnations, is not an admirable trait. But in moments of desperation, a lie can seem like the only option. Anita McLemore, a Mississippi mother of two, faced one of those unfortunate moments when filling out her application for food stamps — and now she’ll pay the price, by spending three years of her life behind bars in federal prison.

Mic Check: Now We Are the People!

Click here to access article by Gary Corseri from Dissident Voice. 

In this piece Corseri, my favorite wordsmith, captures the very essence of the Occupy Wall Street movement that has spread across the US and Canada. Little did the New York City enforcers of the ruling class know, when they took the sound equipment away from the Occupiers at Liberty Park, that the latter would create an even more powerful sound system.

This is how it begins:

When in the course of human events
WHEN IN THE COURSE OF HUMAN EVENTS

It becomes necessary for one people
IT BECOMES NECESSARY FOR ONE PEOPLE

To dissolve the political bands…
TO DISSOLVE THE POLITICAL BANDS…

"Free Trade" & Corporate Power [53:00m audio interview]

Click here to access audio interview from KPFA radio in Berkeley, California. (Note: there is one five minute interruption at 32:00m to report on a U. of California student protest march to Bank of America.)

Using the World Trade Organization (WTO) as a vehicle, global capitalist elites began a campaign several decades ago to establish multinational "free trade" agreements. To counter this, the Anti-globalization Movement engaged in many protests at WTO meetings across the world, one of the most notable was here in nearby Seattle in 1999. As a consequence of so much global opposition, capitalist elites began to use another strategy-- bi-lateral "free trade" agreements. As Professor Martin Hart-Landsberg explains in this interview, these agreements are accomplishing the same purposes--undermining the ability of governments to impose any control over capitalist practices and weakening workers rights. 

Using the recent bi-lateral agreement with South Korea approved by Congress as an example, Hart-Landsberg provides a very clear understanding of what such agreements actually contain. He explains how economists try to rationalize these agreements under the theory of Comparative Advantage to hide the reality of a stealth attack on workers and their governments to control out-of-control global capitalist elites.

Showdown at the Occupy Wall Street OK Corral

Click here to access article by Robert Oak from The Economic Populist. 

This provides very good coverage, including videos, of recent OWS scenes, mostly focusing on Portland, Oregon. 

In addition, I highly recommend more detailed coverage of the Portland events in this article by Ben Schreiner from Dissident Voice.

...although ultimately cleared out of their encampments, Occupy Portland demonstrated its continuing relevance as a vibrant and powerful movement.  For if nothing else, the battle Saturday night and early Sunday morning confirmed that the movement has strong support within the city and is more than capable of mobilizing sizable masses to stymie police action.  Beyond question then, Occupy Portland will continue to be a force in the national Occupy movement.

For more general coverage of OWS events across the US, I suggest you read this piece by David Walsh of the World Socialist Web Site.

City governments and police across the US have stepped up their attacks on Occupy movement encampments. Using a variety of pretexts—ordinances against sleeping in city parks, alleged health and sanitation violations, unrelated crimes, etc.—the authorities are attempting to criminalize the protests.