The False Promises of “School Choice”

Click here to access article by Barbara Miner from Common Dreams.

I've noticed recently a big wave of "school choice" propaganda being broadcast over the boob-tube here in the State of Washington sponsored by people such as Bill Gates who, I think, wants to replace teachers with computers and software. There is a referendum on the state ballot to liberalize regulations on charter schools to make it easier to privatize a public school. Not being very well informed on this issue, I thought I'd look to others such as this author who has the following biography:

Barbara Miner has been a reporter, writer, and editor for almost forty years, writing for publications ranging from the New York Times to the Milwaukee Journal. The former managing editor of Rethinking Schools, she has co-edited numerous books on education, including Selling out Our Schools: Vouchers, Markets, and the Future of Public Education.

See also this, this, and this.

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Res Communes – the rise of citizen-led, fair-market, alternatives to capitalism

Click here to access article by Jules Peck from Flourishing Enterprise. 

The important aspect about this article is that it illustrates that people are beginning to look for alternatives to the soul-sapping, life and planet destroying, system of capitalism.

There is reason to be optimistic. Growth long since has failed to deliver increases in life satisfaction. We need not fear the end of growth and a new post-capitalist economics. Its an exciting time to be alive – truly revolutionary things are afoot.

Nobel Peace Prize: Joke of the Century

Click here to access article by Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey from Pravda (Russia).

It is fitting that the institution set up by "The merchant of Death", famous for his career as a major manufacturer of armaments, famous for inventing cordite, whose main contribution to the world was dynamite, bestows upon the European Union the Nobel Peace Prize for its contribution to "peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights".

The Nobel Peace Prize tops all Orwellian parodies. (See also Stephen Lendman's take on the Prize.)

In Praise of Anarchy, Part II

Click here to access article by Dmitry Orlov from his blog ClubOrlov. 

Orlov provides a very thought provoking essay on anarchism by arguing in the tradition of Kropotkin that spontaneous cooperation (anarchy) is seen throughout nature which enables life forms to cope with different environments and threats, whereas hierarchy leads inevitably to collapse.

...when most people say “Darwinian” it turns out that they actually mean to say “Hobbesian.” Kropotkin pointed out that the term “survival of the fittest” has been misinterpreted to mean that animals compete against other animals of their own species, whereas that just happens to be the shortest path to extinction. This misinterpretation of facts directly observable from nature has led to the faulty Hobbsian justification of the economic appetite as something natural and evolved, and therefore inevitable, giving rise to the conjectured laws of the marketplace, which in turn favor nonempathic, exclusionary, brutal, possessive individualists. The result has been to enshrine mental illness—primitive, pathological, degenerate narcissism—as the ultimate evolutionary adaptation and the basis of the laws of economics. Thus, an entire edifice of economic theory has been erected atop a foundation of delusion borne of a misunderstanding of the patterns present in nature.

Preview of New Film on the History of Anarchism

Click here to access where I sourced this 26:49m video: posted by Katherine Acosta from her blog UnDisciplined PhD. 

France loots Africa, liquidates dissidents

Click here to access article by Finian Cunningham from PressTV (Iran). 

The author tells the real story of the French One Percent's plunder of Africa including details of how they have done it, and continue to do it.

UK owner of Guatemalan energy firm urged to act after protest deaths

Click here to access article by Dawn Paley in Totonicapán and Jonathan Watts from The Guardian. 

Because I am on several human rights email lists, I receive hundreds of such reports about corporate crimes against indigenous people each year. They all involve corporations based in USA, Canada, and Europe. Most reports I receive relate to incidents in Central America, but this goes on in Africa as well--probably on a much larger scale. Few such incidents ever make it into mainstream news media. Thus, citizens of the US led Empire remain mostly, and blissfully, unaware of these crimes.

Stemming the Tides of Protest

Click here to access article by William T. Hathaway from The Greanville Post. 

The friendly mask that capitalism wore in the USA and Europe has been stripped away, revealing the predatory beast beneath. We are beginning (just beginning) to get the same treatment as workers in the client states. This process is not generated by the greed of a few individuals, nor can it be reversed by social democratic reforms and regulations. This process is inexorable because it’s the essence of capitalism. It’s the nature of the beast to devour.

Very well expressed! It's clear that bourgeois liberals are running out of convincing excuses and remedies for a system that serves only their own class. For American working people, having had their minds thoroughly indoctrinated with the virtues of capitalism most stridently since WWII, the awakening is only now beginning to take shape. However, as life for them continues its downward trajectory, they will wake up at an accelerating rate. Then we will see the gloves come off of the American capitalist class (the One Percenters) to reveal the hidden fist of fascism that will attempt to not only "stem the tides of protest", but to crush them. 

If my assessment is correct, I expect to see voter participation in the upcoming US demonstration elections lower than ever before.

3 People Now in Jail for Refusing to Talk About Other Anarchists

Click here to access article by Will Potter from Green Is the New Red. 

Anarchists are experiencing police oppression more than any other segment of our population. They are essentially already living in a police state, a state that we will all live in eventually if we continue to sit idly by while the One Percent continues its policies of austerity, wars, debt servitude, and police state methods.

Anarchists are being targeted because they thoroughly reject one pillar of capitalist class rule--hierarchy which makes possible the control of many by a few. In the recent past they targeted mostly socialists because they rejected another pillar supporting capitalist class rule--private ownership and control of the economy. This class rule of the One Percent requires both legs to stand on; and whenever any group threatens either of these legs, they bring down the full wrath of our class masters regardless of constitutional violations.

This piece describes three heroes who refuse to provide information on other anarchists to a ruling class institution called a "grand jury". (See also this.)

Grand juries have historically been used against radical social movements as a tool to intimidate and to gather information. When activists enter a grand jury proceeding, they check their rights at the door. They are asked about what they believe, what their friends believe, who they associate with, what kinds of activism they support. If they choose to assert their First Amendment and Fifth Amendment rights by refusing to speak about their political beliefs and political associations, they can be imprisoned.

The Myths of Zionism

Click here to access article by Yazan Al-Saadi from Muftah. 

The author digs up little known facts, backed by many useful links, to smash Zionist myths used to establish a European colonial project in the oil rich Middle East, a "Fort Israel" that serves the Empire.

QE3 – Pay Attention If You Are in the Real Estate Market

Click here to access article by Catherine Austin Fitts from Solari. 

Regardless of whether you are in the real estate market or not, this article really zeros in on the implications of the recent QE3 policy by the Fed to deal with fraudulent mortgages still carried on the accounting books of the banks. 

...the way the Fed has engineered the Slow Burn to date is to continually offset monetary inflation with labor deflation. It is worth contemplating how much labor deflation will be required to offset QE3 and how sufficient additional labor deflation might be engineered. Ben Bernanke was quite clever to tie QE3 to unemployment. The problem has become the solution, which is the basis for QE-Infinity.

She has some very useful short videos and explanations adjacent to this article which should be viewed and read to further understand the issues involved.

Can a no-growth future and capitalism be compatible?

Click here to access article by Pete Dolack from his blog Systemic Disorder. 

He builds an argument that in a finite world, endless growth is impossible. Thus, he concludes his essay with a question:

If stagnation is the “new normal” of capitalism, then deprivation, pain and worsening inequality is all that it can offer, save for the occasional temporary uptick — a never-ending race to the bottom. Is such a system really the best humanity can do?

Quietly, the IMF confesses that austerity does not work

Click here to access article by Pete Dolack from his blog Systemic Disorder. 

So why do central bankers, financiers and multi-national financial institutions still preach austerity? Ideology, surely, plus arrogance and a lack of ability to admit the wisdom of financial elites is wrong. Nonetheless, at bottom such people are carrying out their class interests.

Decline, Decay, Denial, Delusion & Despair

Click here to access article by JimQ from Washington's Blog. 

This is quite an extended rant, but it is a well informed and articulated rant about what a system has done to a nation. Unfortunately, the author can't quite go that extra step to connect the growing American dystopia to a system--capitalism. 

What he and some other sensitive souls are witnessing here in the "land of the free, and the home of the brave" is the end game of capitalism in which a few "own" everything--just like in the game of Monopoly. He appears to mock those who look at this problem in system terms: only "narrow minded ideologues" do that. I think what he fails to understand is that he, too, has been subject to indoctrination by the oligarchs and their agents to avoid any questioning of the system. The author ends up blaming everyone, and this seems to me to be a far too easy way to deal with the problem.

Narrow minded ideologues want a simple answer to a complex interaction of generational, cultural, economic, political, and criminal factors that have conspired to put the country into a predicament that, at this point, will inevitably lead to economic collapse. The truth is the American people have learned to love their servitude. They have willfully chosen ignorance over truth. They’ve chosen to believe what their keepers have instructed them. They’ve chosen to trust the storylines generated by the corporate media rather than think critically and question everything. They’ve chosen obesity and sickness over health. They’ve chosen debt financed faux wealth over savings based real wealth. They’ve chosen safety and security over liberty. They’ve chosen dependency over self-reliance. These choices were aided, abetted and promoted by the Alphas through their ability to manipulate and control the unthinking masses.

But, his conclusion suggests that he does understand that society is ordered a certain way, and that it is possible, even necessary, to change it.

There will be a revolution in this country whether you like it or not. The existing social order will dissolve during the next fifteen years. What replaces it is up to us.

Empire and revolution - Syria and the critics of the anti-war movement

Click here to access article by John Rees from CounterFire (UK). 

The author provides the most astute analysis of the current Syrian conflict and the subject of revolution in general that I have read for some time. 

He then takes issue with some leftists who are supportive of the anti-Syrian forces because of a simplistic view that they all represent a more democratic alternative to the Assad regime. Rees clearly sees that Western agents are attempting to use some of the anti-Assad forces in Syria to engineer another Libyan-type regime change. Thus, our correct political position must be to oppose this. 

West using terror to plunder oil resources of Nigeria

Click here to access article by Finian Cunningham from PressTV (Iran). 

The headline really should be posed as a question. The author does provide considerable evidence and arguments that suggest a deliberate Empire strategy to destabilize and divide Nigeria, but it is not conclusive. We see many familiar elements from other countries that experienced destabilization and NATO intervention: inter-religious and sectarian violence, terrorism, groups suddenly appearing well equipped with modern weapons, evidence of NATO or Western military/political secret operations, oil resources and other strong Western geopolitical interests.

The Ordeal of Disobedience

Click here to access article by Mat Little from New Compass.

This is a sequel to an article published in July, "The Lure of Obedience, which I reviewed at that time. If I had only this article to interpret, I would be confused as to Little's conclusions:

Milgram’s famous experiment demonstrated the immense power of institutions, their ability to produce acts which bore no relation to the desires of the perpetrators. But this power can be turned around. Society can be organised differently. A non-obedient society, one that doesn’t degenerate into chaos, is possible. Power cannot be abolished but it can be changed.

Most importantly, if the power of institutions is not democratised, they will continue to dominate human society with baleful consequences. An attitude of vigilance and scepticism is not sufficient. Economically and ecologically, the capitalist society we inhabit requires conscious, democratic transformation. To leave it, institutionally, to its own devices is to invite disaster. [my emphasis]

After reading both articles, it appears to me that he is assuming that there is no alternative to societies organized by a capitalist system. However, he insists that we must "democratise" them--by which he means that we must build into the existing society more democratic participation in decisions. 

Of course, given his assumption, one can only arrive at his conclusion--except that his conclusion is in contradiction with a class structured society that one finds under capitalism. Any class structured society is by definition one where there is a ruling class that dominates other classes for self-serving purposes. The most cost-effective way that ruling classes have developed to control their disadvantaged sub-classes is by using a system of hierarchy. Such systems are enforced by rewards and punishments, and citizens are socialized throughout their lives to believe in the virtues of obedience. Thus, only the most independent, or least socialized, citizens are able to resist conformance to authority in such societies. The only way that capitalist societies can exist without hierarchy is through the implementation of a costly police state.

Unearthing the IFC's links to mining abuses

Click here to access article from Bretton Woods Project. 

This article provides details on the role that international finance played in the recent platinum mine massacre of striking workers in South Africa by police (enforcers hired by the One Percent). In this case it was the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a private-public sector arm of the World Bank. Whenever you see this sort of arrangement, you can be sure that the private sector benefits at the expense of public revenues in one form or another: subsidies, tax exemptions, government grants, etc. But, of course, these arrangements are always advertised as benefiting the public. From IFC's website we see this same justification expressed as follows:

Our work in more than a 100 developing countries allows companies and financial institutions in emerging markets to create jobs, generate tax revenues, improve corporate governance and environmental performance, and contribute to their local communities.

IFC’s vision is that people should have the opportunity to escape poverty and improve their lives.

From their website we also learn that Jin-Yong Cai, a Chinese citizen, is the head of this organization. From Wikipedia we learn once again, that where big money and power are involved, we also find the fingerprints of Goldman-Sachs.

Jin-Yong Cai to serve as the new Executive Vice President and CEO of the IFC. Cai is a Chinese citizen who formerly served as a managing director for Goldman Sachs and has over 20 years of financial sector experience.

From IFC's website we are told that their participating member nations engage in a collaborative decision-making process:

Established in 1956, IFC is owned by 184 member countries, a group that collectively determines our policies. Our work in more than a 100 developing countries allows companies and financial institutions in emerging markets to create jobs, generate tax revenues, improve corporate governance and environmental performance, and contribute to their local communities.

From Wikipedia, we learn that they are governed according to the capitalist version of "collective" decision-making:

The IFC is owned by its 182 member governments which pay in capital, vote on matters of policy, and approve all of its investing activities. Each member country is a shareholder of the IFC, and the percentage of each member's ownership share is determined by the amount of capital it pays into the IFC. As of 2011, the United States is the IFC's single largest shareholder with a share of 24%. Japan holds a share of 6%, while each of Germany, France, and the United Kingdom hold 5%. The IFC's share capital amounted to approximately $2.4 billion as of 30 June 2011, of which 51% is controlled by the seven largest member governments of the OECD.

With the One Percents in control of all the governments of the dominant capitalist countries, we can see how public money finances the global projects of private corporations which, in turn, benefits the Empire's One Percents.

Mining Conflicts and The Politics of Post-Nationalization Bolivia

Click here to access article by Dylan Harris from Upside Down World.

In line with the trend of nationalization in Bolivia, President Evo Morales recently ousted a Swiss multi-national corporation from the valuable Colquiri mine located near La Paz.  The most lucrative part of the mine is said to have nearly 5 billion mineral deposits. Morales divided control for the mine between the two camps, which are now at the heart of the conflict.

The author is at a loss to explain this conflict. Strewn throughout the article are words like complicated and complex. This situation illustrates that worker cooperatives are not the final answer to social conflict, as many on the left believe. Yugoslavia was organized this way and they had numerous inter-cooperative conflicts. Such arrangements tend to reproduce the values and psychology of private ownership among workers in cooperatives and ultimately pits workers against each other. 

I think this conflict illustrates two problems. One, the difficulties of introducing collective ownership in one area of a capitalist world. Profit-seeking capitalists are willing to pay premium prices for diminishing raw materials that seduce cooperatives, even entire state administrations as in Bolivia, into meeting their requests. Second, a society needs to create political institutions that will insure that worker produced wealth is shared justly and equitably among all members of society.

How class tunnel vision hurts social movements

Click here to access article by George Lakey from Waging Nonviolence.

The author essentially argues that lower social classes have been indoctrinated by the ruling class in their self-serving ideology of individualism to disable any kind of vision that includes collaborating and organizing across social classes. 

I see only two alternatives for us in what Warren Buffett describes as a class war: either we become strategically sharper, or we become aware of how much our class conditioning makes us duller, and then develop work-arounds.

How Occupy birthed a rhizome

Click here to access article by Joan Donovan from Waging Nonviolence. 

The author reviews the significance of the one year old Occupy movement, and sees the birth of the "rhizome" concept which many believe can challenge the One Percent's capitalist rule. She sees some roots in the key influences of the Situationists that led up to the May '68 protests in France.

Recalling the hundreds of direct actions that sprouted across the globe in the last year under the banner of #Occupy, I am struck most by the fluidity of information passed between radicals in Tunisia, Egypt, Spain, Greece, the United States, Canada and more that led to international solidarity against austerity. Like the pioneers of 1968, the Occupiers of 2011 could not understand the importance or scope of their actions, but they were generating thousands of terabytes of footage, accounts, pictures and more so that no potentially revolutionary moment went to waste. But what kind of revolution were the occupiers of 2011 participating in, if any at all? Looking at the networks and technologies developed from the camps helps us begin to think about what their legacy might be and about the revolutions that might be already underway.

From Kermit to Coal, Book Reveals How World's Top Brands Greenwash The Public

Click here to access article by Graham Readfearn from DeSmogBlog (Canada). 

Okay, I know you won't be surprised by this, but the fact is that many people tend to believe what they see on the idiot box. Guy Pearse, an Australian researcher and author of a recent book,  ...

...spent close to four years immersing himself in some 3000 TV commercials and viewing about 4000 print and web adverts, all of which make claims of climate friendliness....

After checking the brands' actual contribution to climate change (or their lack of transparency) in more than 700 company reports, Pearse finds in Greenwash: Big Brands and Carbon Scams that the green revolution is being either grossly overblown or faked.

The Make-Believe Crisis in Iran

Click here to access article by Patrick Foy from CounterPunch. 

This author, unfortunately, watches the boob tube. However, unlike many Americans, he watches it with a very critical eye. He was astonished by what he viewed on a recent McLaughlin Group program.

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Obama Can Keep the Change?

Click here to access article by P. Sainath from CounterPunch. 

For those of you who watched the latest performance of "American democracy" (Obama-Romney debate) put on by the One Percent to citizens who want to believe in fairy tales about how they are governed, I offer this piece as an antidote to any sickening aftereffects. It is a surefire cure. But, if that doesn't work, try this.

Point of no return in Europe

Click here to access article by Gerry Gold from A World to Win. 

The author essentially argues that the crisis in most of Europe--and it is spreading--has passed a tipping point:

Humanity stands at the threshold of an evolutionary leap in social organisation. Either we cross it, building a not-for profit economy and society based upon co-operation and collective stewardship of the world’s resources, or we will become capitalism's victims.

Education Profiteering; Wall Street's Next Big Thing?

Click here to access article by Jeff Faux from Huffington Post.

The end of the Chicago teachers' strike was but a temporary regional truce in the civil war that plagues the nation's public schools. There is no end in sight, in part because -- as often happens in wartime -- the conflict is increasingly being driven by profiteers.

The familiar media narrative tells us that this is a fight over how to improve our schools.

After demolishing the myths about charter schools, which is another one of those public-private partnership scams, the author explains what is driving the campaign to privatize schools (read this). After finishing with the mortgage scam, they see another golden profit opportunity -- harvesting your kids. (For example, read this) But, to make big bucks they need to get rid of teachers.

More Than Skin Deep

Click here to access article by David Glenn Cox from OpEdNews. 

The author provides some concrete examples to illustrate how banksters and corporate officers are continuing their creative ways of milking the wealth produced by working people, but nowadays it is with the direct collusion of the government. 

The bank forecloses on a family and throws them out into the
street and your government goes into a partnership deal and guarantees a
profit to the bank.

If you closely examine this author's statement, you will find that it contains one major error, an error which is a deception commonly used by One Percent propagandists. It is not "your government"! In spite of their periodic election charades designed to dupe you into thinking that you have a real choice, it is the government of, by, and for the One Percent. Thus, how could one expect it to function any differently than it has?

It is very useful to know the meaning of his reference to the film Soylent Green. I don't think I ever saw the film, although I am familiar with its general theme. This time I was particularly impressed with the fact that it was released in 1973. 

Once again, this fact is another piece of evidence which proves that forty years ago many people were clearly aware of where society was heading due to the exhaustion of resources, particularly easily accessed fossil fuels, and over-population. What most of these people didn't understand at that time is that capitalism requires constant growth. What they also didn't understand is that the system skews the distribution of wealth to a small minority with the vast majority living in poverty. The latter are forced to have large families as a way to insure their survival into old age. For many, large families are their social security. Thus, such developments that the film foresaw are inevitable as long as we are plagued with this system.

Hegemony and Propaganda: The Importance of Trivialisation in Cementing Social Control

Click here to access article by Colin Todhunter from Global Research. 

What better way to control a population than through inducing apathy and banality and encouraging the trivialization of causes, ideas or the plights of certain folk?

The author provides numerous illustrations of these methods so often used by the One Percent to dull the wits of the 99 Percent. It's much more cost effective to control a population this way than using police state methods, but they have the latter ready to use just in case the usual methods fail.

Another important way, which the author does not touch on, is the use of simplified enemies--commies, terrorists, evil-doers, evil empires, etc.--that must be defended against and used to justify all sorts of violations of civil rights and crimes against humanity: 

Dumbing down of the 99 Percent is a deliberate strategy of the One Percent's political operatives. Thus, we see public school teachers under fire, larger class sizes, privatization of education, higher tuition fees to exclude people from obtaining a higher education (see this).  

The road to inequality is paved with low-paying jobs (2 charts)

Click here to access article by David Ruccio from Real-World Economics Review Blog.

This economist has assembled information in the form of charts regarding changes in jobs and wages that compares the period of recession defined as 1st quarter of 2008 to 1st quarter of 2010 with that of "recovery" defined as 1st quarter of 2010 to 1st quarter of 2012. As you may have already guessed, it illustrates the inevitable outcome of the dynamics of capitalism: the One Percent are getting richer while the 99 Percent are getting poorer. Another end result of capitalist dynamics is the ever increasing use of fossil fuels which is destroying our ecosystem.

Of course, these continuing trends will inevitably lead to destruction of the capitalist system (revolution) possibly leading to another, more socially just organization of society, or it will lead to a totally fascist state, and it will lead eventually to a planet that cannot support human life (read some of the latest, depressing thoughts on this subject). What outcomes would you like to see? Okay, get active and contribute, in any way you can, toward building a just, sustainable society.

General Electric Makes Billions Off The Backs Of Taxpayers

Click here to access article by Susie Madrak from Crooks and Liars. 

After reading this you may gain a new appreciation for the creativity of capitalists to use their system to milk the wealth created by workers all over the world.

Madrid on the Brink

Click here to access the source of this posting by Diane Sweet from occuworld. 

In contrast to Quebec, because the Spanish protests are more directed at capitalist institutions, we see the full force of fascist capitalism being applied against activists. 

The Anti-Empire Report #109

Click here to access report by William Blum. 

The author's reports, because of the way they are formatted, are not easily used by my blog. Because he covers several topics in the same report and I am normally interested in re-posting only one, I am forced to copy and republish the entire topic. This time I am only posting a link to the whole report as a way to introduce those of you who are not yet familiar with his writings. I want to encourage you to subscribe to his reports as I have.

I receive his reports approximately once a month and I always find them so refreshing. It's like after wading through a pool of excrement, taking a shower to wash off. Or, like spending time in an insane asylum talking to the inmates, and being freed to associate with sane human beings. 

The whole purpose of my blog is to encourage people to connect with observers who post articles on the internet and have a good understanding of the critical issues facing humanity today. It is not to encourage more people to follow my blog so that I can earn more money from ads (I don't run any ads). I am retired and have the time to search the internet for perceptive, independent, and reliable sources of information and analysis. Many of you do not. 

I welcome suggestions of other such sources or articles (both should include links) that I may have overlooked. Obviously, they should be appropriate for this type of blog and its general perspective. (Contact me at goatmeal36@yahoo.com) If I use your suggestions, please let me know if you want to be credited for the link (either "anonymous" or name and/or location, e.g. Ron from Bellingham, WA; Ed Kumba from Nairobi, Kenya; anonymous from London, England; anonymous; or New York).

Social Movements Making an Impact in Quebec

Click here to access article by Yves Engler from Dissident Voice.

For those in Québec, recent gains should inspire further mobilizations. For those outside, the PQ’s reforms are a reminder that determined grassroots movements can create a political climate in which governments place environmental concerns and social rights over the interests of corporations and the wealthy.

Ruling class political operatives respond to mass movements in two ways: they either use more force to discourage dissent or they provide some accommodation to the demands of the dissident movement in order to defuse opposition, and especially opposition that is likely to turn against the system of capitalism. 

Neoliberal and austerity policies are not going away because capitalism in Canada is much like most other capitalist countries: their ruling class is exploiting the opportunities of globalized operations and the military incursions that support them. In fact, capitalists are themselves globalized. They don't think about national boundaries which are eliminated for them. Well policed boundaries are only to control the movement of working people.

Bankers And Their Dirty Tricks

Click here to access article by Mike Whitney from CounterPunch. 

...Mr. Bernanke’s trickle down monetary theories aren’t really working at all. Instead of the savings being passed along to homeowners in the form of lower rates, the banks are juicing profits by taking a bigger share for themselves. Who could have known?

The author explains how the banksters are back again with their old tried and true formulas for making money without contributing anything of value for the 99 Percent.

US increases support for Syrian opposition as Aleppo burns

Click here to access article by Niall Green from World Socialist Web Site.

The author provides the real story hidden behind the recent Clinton announcement about more US aid to the Empire's terrorists.

Direct US aid only makes up a fraction of the total support granted by Washington to the Syrian opposition. The Obama administration, through the operations of the CIA inside Turkey, oversees the supply of financial and military support from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey to various anti-Assad militants.

A BREAKING NEWS: Another False Flag Will ISRAEL BLOW UP Something and FALSELY BLAME It on IRAN AGAIN

Click here to access article from nsnbc.

The author(s) has dug up a lot of evidence to suggest that Israel and agents within the US government may be preparing for a false flag operation to justify an attack on Iran.

National Pentagon Radio (NPR) Watch

Click here to access article by John V. Walsh from Dissident Voice. 

I have on numerous occasions become enraged by the flagrant propaganda style of "news" reporting on NPR. I have seen NPR grow from a few radio stations to stations situated all over the radio dial. Corresponding with its growth has been its ever more biased coverage of information in the world. I see it now as a primary propaganda tool of the Empire's One Percent. It functions very much like Radio Free Europe and Voice of America did (the VOA still does) to counter left wing influences in various parts of the world during the Cold War. It is essentially the One Percent's Ministry of Truth.

Human rights and humanitarian imperialism in Syria

Click here to access article by Ajamu Baraka from Pambazuka News. 

Although the website is based in South Africa, the writer is an African American human rights defender. Thus, it is interesting to read his views on the Empire's use of "human rights" increasingly to justify intervention in other countries. Because I am entertaining a guest today, I have only had time to scan this article; but I think it presents an interesting point of view.

Syria is just the latest in a long line of international crimes perpetrated by Western powers. But what makes the crimes in Syria, as those in Libya, even more offensive, is the cynical use of human rights to advance the diabolical interests of Western imperialism.

Climate Change Kills 400,000 a Year, New Report Reveals

Click here to access article from The Daily Beast.

What is new about the Climate Vulnerability Monitor report is its calculation of 400,000 annual deaths from climate change. That is a significant increase over previous estimates. The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the gold standard for climate science, said in its Fourth Assessment Report in 2007 that climate change caused 150,000 extra deaths a year.

9 Frightening Things About America's Biggest Police Force

Click here to access article by Tana Ganeva and Laura Gottesdiener from AlterNet.

The "9 frightening things" about New York City's police force is that it adds up to fascism. The total picture describes the use of force to protect Wall Street (capitalism) from any interference and to promote its operations.

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Iran and the Bomb, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Facts

Click here to access article by Christian Stork from WhoWhatWhy. 

This piece provides an excellent antidote to the pervasive propaganda put out by the One Percent's media regarding Iran's nuclear program.

Given how easily the American public and media were manipulated into believing that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, this moment should give us some pause. The disastrous effects of that $3 Trillion Dollar War are still being felt across the world. For those not interested in seeing a much-bloodier, costlier sequel, I offer this introductory course in intellectual self-defense. The only way to rebuff and dismantle propaganda is to be aware of the truth on which it claims to comment.

Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran

Click here to access article by Vijay Prashad from CounterPunch.

This perceptive author writes about the political aspects of the development of nuclear weapons in the Middle East and beyond to show how it has been shaped by the Empire's power interests.

China: Friend of Corporate America, Enemy of the U.S. Government

Click here to access article by Michael Payne from OpEdNews. 

The author describes the contradictory nature of China and US relations. Of course, with both countries based on class structured societies, the real contradiction that the author misses is between the interests of the Chinese and American ruling classes. Because this liberal author doesn't use a class analysis, his title suggests that he thinks the US government and corporations have separate interests. They are essentially the same, it is just that the US government is the agency that the US ruling class use, to a large extent, in the form of military power to serve their collective corporate interests.

Both ruling classes benefit by exploiting the Chinese working class. But, while the US economy is being hollowed out due to the loss of US worker skills, US industrial infrastructure, and loss of national earnings (balance of payments), China's industrial sector is strengthened along with their workers' skills. 

Also, China uses their surplus dollars to repatriate them back to the US by buying US government treasury bills, bonds, etc. This, of course, puts the US taxpayer ever deeper in debt to the Chinese government, while US corporations prosper. The arrangement has encouraged the US capitalist class to become completely addicted to short-term profits while providing them with the use of overwhelming military power to have their way in the world. Meanwhile, they have ignored the deteriorating effect this has on the US economy. The author correctly points out that this strategy is ultimately untenable. The Chinese ruling class appear to be smarter by placing their bets on their strengthening economy.

As long as we have societies directed by ruling classes, we will have national rivalries for dominance as we have seen in the devastating world wars of the 20th century and the never ending local proxy wars that we are still witnessing today. Peace will never be achieved until humanity can build societies without ruling classes. The questions that the author poses toward the end of the article indicates that he fails to understand this. He merely wants the US ruling class to win this rivalry.

New Justice Department Documents Show Huge Increase in Warrantless Electronic Surveillance

Click here to access article by Naomi Gilens from American Civil Liberties Union. 

Justice Department documents released today by the ACLU reveal that federal law enforcement agencies are increasingly monitoring Americans’ electronic communications, and doing so without warrants, sufficient oversight, or meaningful accountability.

Why QE Won't Create Inflation Quite as Expected

Click here to access article by Charles Hugh Smith from his blog Of Two Minds. 

The Fed can create money but if it doesn't end up as household income it is "dead money."

From time to time there have been reports in the media announcing "quantitative easing" by the Fed. Many observers see this as essentially printing money. This writer sheds some light on the effects of this central bank issuing money by looking at where the money actually circulates.

Dollar Hegemony in the Empire of the Damned

Click here to access article by Colin Todhunter from GlobalResearch. 

Many commentators and economists wonder if the US is able to turn its ailing economy around. The reality is that it is bankrupt. However, as long as the dollar remains the world currency, the US can continue to pay its bills by simply printing more money. But once the world no longer accepts the dollar as world reserve currency, the US will no longer be able to continue to pay its way or to fund its wars by relying on what would then be a relatively valueless paper currency.

The author writes about the implications of this trend, some of which are very ominous.

Iran vs Israel: What The Media Wants You To Forget

Click here to access article from WhatReallyHappened via OccuWorld.

This piece provides a well documented exposition of how Empire media dramatically treats the issue of nuclear weapons differently with regard to Israel and Iran.

The corporate media have been given their orders to throw the focus back on to Iran.
Here is a recap of what they are trying to make you forget.

The formation of cooperatives doesn’t by itself eliminate competition

Click here to access article by Pete Dolack from Systemic Disorder. 

I have often been struck by a belief I often encounter that presumes that we need only convert business enterprises into cooperatives and capitalist competition will cease. 

NYU–Stanford Report Documents U.S. Government’s False Narrative on Drone Strikes

Click here to access article by Brett Kaufman from American Civil Liberties Union. 

Both today’s report and our lawsuit make clear that the gap between what the government wants to tell the public about drones and what independent academics, journalists, and researchers have documented has now become a chasm.

'Democracy kidnapped!' Madrid police fire rubber bullets as thousands surround Spanish Congress

Click here to access article, photos, and videos from RT. 

Violent clashes between the people and the enforcers of the One Percent are once again occurring in Europe.

RT provides us with a video and report of such recent street battles in Greece.

Police in Athens have clashed with protesters during a nationwide strike in protest at a new round of austerity cuts introduced in return for vital EU-IMF loans.

The protesters threw firebombs, smashed windows and set fire to garbage on the sidelines of the demonstration on Wednesday near luxury hotels on the capital's central Syntagma square.

The police fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse a group of around 200 protesters. 

A Crucible of Political Disenchantment: "Dismiss Whatever Insults Your Own Soul"

Click here to access article by Phil Rockstroh from Uncommon Thought Journal. 

Should we survive this ongoing nightmare of living in a society governed by monsters, I'm sure that future generations will regard Phil Rockstroh as the greatest American writer of our current period. He will be regarded as someone who captured the essence of coping with life in a not-very-sane society, and someone who offered sound suggestions on how to live in a society run by monsters in order to preserve one's humanity and to avoid becoming a monster, too.

By a refusal to grieve, by lapsing into a host of manic evasions, one risks becoming a monster -- a being devoid of empathy that, in an attempt to avoid experiencing suffering, will wound, demean, and exploit the things of the world.

In collective terms, we know this state as the agendas of empire. Conversely, to embrace one's humanity, one must accept being shattered by grief, yet restored by love, simultaneously. Being in unashamed possession of a heart, both broken and whole, serves to mitigate the compulsion to act in the manner of a monster.

Quadrillion Dollar Derivatives Market 20 Times Global GDP

Click here to access transcript of interview conducted by Paul Jay of Real News Network with Marcus Stanley who is the  Policy Director of Americans for Financial Reform.

In this interview Stanley explains the bizarre extent to which casino capitalism has reached. Nowadays capitalists can make huge bets with "derivatives" that can, and often do, create huge disasters for ordinary people. His agency is trying to put this derivative, dangerous genie back into its bottle, or at least "regulate" it. That will never happen. The genie itself must be destroyed and replaced by the genie of a common humanity liberating itself from any class system.

Welcome to Saigonistan

Click here to access article by Pepe Escobar from Al Jazeera.

The author sees many parallels between the current situation in Afghanistan and the US flight from Vietnam nearly four decades ago. After trashing yet another country, the Empire will find it much more difficult to get out than it was to get in. What we now see is...

...the end of a massive PR campaign - sold to Western public opinion - that even boasted its own Dari slogan; shohna ba shohna ("shoulder by shoulder"), as in "good" Westerners side by side with Afghans fighting the "evil" Taliban.

Moreover, what this implies is there's no soft exit strategy for the US and NATO. Sooner rather than later - in this case December 2014 - a Saigon moment looms in the Hindu Kush. [my link]

US Ignite: The Future of the Internet is Government Controlled

Click here to access article by Susanne Posel from Occupy Corporatism. 

Whenever I see or hear the words "public-private partnership", alarm bells go off in my head. This is how the latest initiative coming from the executive branch is being packaged and sold along with extravagant claims of improved broadband service. The author expresses her skepticism:

...do not let the corporate-funded dog-and-pony show fool you. As the US government begins plans to take-over, re-shape and sell back to you through corporate relationships, a new version of the internet, we should all we wary.

Sascha Segan of PCMag is very doubtful. He writes:

The broadband crisis in the U.S. is about slow, expensive connections in the "last mile" to people's homes, not about backbone capacity and 3D medical imaging. The government could do something about that, but it won't.

Craig Settles of Fighting the Next Good Fight is openly critical:

Will the government require the organizations that lease the land to build open access networks? Let’s cut to the chase. Broadband in the U.S. sucks in large part because we have little or no competition to the dominant telco or cableco at the local level. If this Executive Order lacks an open access requirement, incumbents can just roll into cheap deals courtesy of the Feds and then freeze out any meaningful competition.  Think it won’t happen? Then you haven’t been paying attention.

Tipping the Balance of Power

Click here to access article by Tony Cartalucci from Land Destroyer. 

Of course, what the author is referring to when he uses the word "democracy" is the capitalist fake version of democracy that they hide behind to serve their interests (the One Percent) while pretending to serve the public interest. This fake version of democracy is widely known throughout the world as "bourgeois democracy".

The author clearly understands who really rules behind their elaborate facades of "democracy" and elections and spells them out in this and other articles on his website. In this article he also offers his ideas on what can be done to begin to inject real democracy into our society.

It becomes obvious that to rebalance this equation in our favor, we must stop paying our time, money, and attention to the corporate-financier elite's corporations, institutions, and organizations. It also quickly becomes obvious that in order to stop paying into these concentrated, centralized conglomerations of power, wealth and influence, we must devise decentralized, local alternatives.

Egypt's turmoil is a distraction from IMF economic agenda

Click here to access article by Nick Dearden from The Guardian. 

Empire operatives like to use to their advantage sensational controversies like the recent anti-American protests across the Middle East and North Africa. "Never let a crisis go to waste" is the mantra of Empire operatives so well articulated by former Obama Chief of Staff and Zionist Rahm Emanuel. While protests are making the headlines, the IMF in collusion with Egyptian leaders are arranging more loans partly to pay off debts with which Mubarak stuck the Egyptian people, but also to promote privatization projects under the guise of "public-private partnerships". 

The latter is another one of those favorite terms that Empire operatives love to use to hide their social crimes (others include "reform" and "structural adjustment"). Like the term "Federal Reserve" it hides the reality of private control behind a thin veneer of government participation using friendly, and often bribed, agents within targeted governments.  

The storming of the US embassy in Cairo has diverted attention once again from the real issues facing Egypt. It couldn't have come at a better time for those who want to convince the Egyptian people to accept an International Monetary Fund loan, and extend former president Hosni Mubarak's liberalisation of the economy.

US to Delist & Arm American-Killing Terror Cult

Click here to access article by Tony Cartalucci from Land Destroyer.

Many articles on this issue on other sites emphasize that cash was used to bribe Congress. This is the political liberal's way of staying safely within permissible limits of criticism within the Empire. "It's corrupt Congress people who are at fault." This, of course, justifies giving more power to the executive branch as has been occurring, most dramatically since 9/11. However, it could be very enlightening if we could uncover where all that money to bribe Congress was coming from. I can't believe that the MEK is that rich.

In contrast to liberal coverage, this independent observer accurately reports that the use of terrorist groups has been a common practice by US political operatives who have a long history of sponsoring terrorist groups to further the interests of the Empire. In this case, the MEK will be helpful in the undeclared war against Iran.

Melting ice in the Arctic unleashes race for profits

Click here to access article by Ernst Wolff from World Socialist Web Site. 

While the melting of the Arctic ice cap is worrying to scientists, environmentalists, and other concerned citizens, corporate executives and bankers see it as a great opportunity to satisfy their addiction to profits.

While these troubling statements tend to frighten most people, international investors are already rubbing their hands. The largest ice melt in the recent history of mankind means gaining access to a part of the world that was previously closed to them.

Wall Street Rolling Back Another Key Piece of Financial Reform

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

This excellent independent reporter reveals how the banking establishment went to work on the recently passed Dodd-Frank bill designed to curb the kinds of duplicitous banking scams that greatly contributed to the economic collapse, a calamity that mostly affected the 99 Percent. Such scams were used on public entities over much of the world to place citizens into perpetual debt to bankers. The Dodd-Frank bill was designed mostly as a public relations gimmick to calm the 99 Percent, for it was already full of exemptions and loopholes. 

But, part of it interfered with the old banking scams, and bankers who constitute a key part of the One Percent went to work on modifying it so that they can continue to play their old, lucrative games at public expense. Safe to say, you will not hear anything about this in their mainstream media which seem devoted almost entirely with the exciting (sarcasm) Obama-Romney political race to see who serves the One Percent next.

Bernanke And Draghi Are Not Trying To Save Our Economies

Click here to access article by Raúl Ilargi Meijer from The Automatic Earth. 

This is a well articulated rant, but the appreciation and understanding of it requires a knowledge of central banks and the way they create money. Unfortunately, most of the 99 Percent lack this understanding.

Regarding "Draghi's bond buying scheme and Ben Bernanke's QE3", he writes:

The question then becomes: is it worth it? The answer to that is a resounding YES if you're a banker or a stock investor or an incumbent politician (Bernanke announced QE3 a comfortable 7 weeks before the US presidential elections). The answer is an equally resounding, if not outright debilitating, NO if you're not part of that small world where politics and money meet and live in relative splendor. Those who are not invited to that party will be called upon to foot the bill, without having anything to show for it.

Poetic Justice Finds US Enablers of Terror

Click here to access article by Nile Bowie from International Movement for a Just World (based in Malaysia)  

Like many perceptive others this author considers the assassination of the US ambassador in Libya as a blowback incident. Even more important is that he uses prime US ruling class sources to reveal that ruling class operatives are consciously using Al Qaeda factions for their own purposes. After using Al Qaeda as a key component of its widely ballyhooed "war on terror" propaganda campaigns, their current hypocritical use of Al Qaeda recalls a statement attributed to President Roosevelt in 1939:

Though the Somozas were generally regarded as ruthless dictators, the United States continued to support them as a non-communist stronghold in Nicaragua. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) supposedly remarked in 1939 that "Somoza may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch."

When it comes to foreign policy, this principle expressed so elegantly by Roosevelt has continued to be used by foreign policy operatives of the Empire in pursuit of their mad quest to gain control over resources and markets throughout the world. This is the fundamental principle that guides all capitalist political policies and actions.

Former US Ambassador Outlines Post-Election Interventions against Venezuela

Click here to access article by Lee Brown posted on Upside Down World via Venezuela Solidarity Campaign.

The significance of this report regarding efforts to subvert the Venezuelan government following their upcoming elections is that it is published in a prominent US ruling class journal, Council on Foreign Relations, and authored by a former US ambassador to that country. This illustrates once again that subverting governments all over the world to serve the interests of the Empire and its One Percents is an ongoing operation.

In an extraordinary paper released last week, former US Ambassador to Venezuela, Patrick Duddy, outlined a range of military, financial and diplomatic measures that the US should be prepared to take against the Chavez government after the coming elections on October 7th.

In the paper, published by the Council on Foreign Relations, Duddy’s recommendations include that in the event of “an outbreak of violence and/or interruption of democracy” the US should use various means to “to communicate to the Venezuelan military leadership that they are obliged to uphold their constitution, respect human rights, and protect their country's democratic tradition” and “organize a coalition of partners to limit an illegitimate Venezuelan administration's access to government assets held abroad as well as to the international financial system.”

Over 150 Organizations to Call for Ban on Hydraulic Fracturing Through the Global Frackdown

Click here to access article from Food and Water Watch. 

The article reports on the growing worldwide opposition to hydraulic fracturing.

"...the good news is that communities all over the world aren’t buying what the oil and gas industry is selling: more extreme energy fueling more extreme weather. They’re organizing inspiring actions all over the world to turn up the heat on the fossil fuel industry and its bought-and-paid-for political cronies.”

An increasingly controversial form of energy extraction, fracking involves blasting millions of gallons of water mixed with carcinogenic chemicals underground to release natural gas and oil from tight rock formations. Drilling and fracking has been linked to water contamination and climate change, and the process has been responsible for industrializing rural areas, destroying property values and undermining local economies.

A Lukewarm Victory: The End of the Chicago Teachers’ Strike

Click here to access article by Matt Reichel from CounterPunch.

Since the end of the teacher's strike in Chicago (Sept. 18), which many have seen as a pivotal event in the war on public education perpetrated by the One Percent, I have been trying to assess the results by surveying a number of online articles. All sides have claimed victory, but it is clear that one's evaluation is based on one's standard of success. This article is one of the more balanced assessments in terms of the interests of the 99 Percent. 

However, I thought it useful to offer a sampling of various points of view. Probably the most informative with a broader perspective is this. As could be predicted, the worst piece from a mainstream media source, which represents the One Percent, was this from Fox News. The most positive assessment from a left source was this. The most negative from a left source was this.

Seven Left Myths about Capitalism

Click here to access article by G.B. Taylor from the Institute for Social Ecology. 

This author provides a much needed critique of what passes for leftist views in the US. Maybe it's all an issue of semantics over what constitutes the "left". The whole political spectrum has shifted to the right in the US since the end of WWII. However, I think his criticisms are directed too much at Occupier activists many of whom are not, and have never identified themselves, as the "left". They are simply large numbers of people who have been severely threatened by the recent collapse of the economy. The old, real left was decimated and nearly totally destroyed, and many of their followers contaminated by limiting liberal views. He only touches on this in a few sentences:

Many historical factors sustain today’s fuzzy thinking about capitalism. One is the legacy of the Cold War: the collapse of “actually existing socialism” and resulting “End of History” consensus only strengthened a hysterical anticommunism that made talking about capitalism, let alone socialism or communism, almost impossible in the United States. Systematic repression from McCarthyism to COINTELPRO also contributed to the rise of a left which largely neglected political economy for 40 years, while more robust critiques and history of capitalism languished in ever-dwindling sectarian Marxist circles.

As I see it, after the McCarthy period, the US ruling class focused on destroying their "communist" rival, any government under their influence, and attaining world dominance under a capitalist system. They relied heavily on building a huge military machine and engaging in both direct and indirect wars against any governments who impeded their ambitions. This gradually took a toll on US workers in the form of a slow, steady decline in their wages and living standards. Then with the neo-liberal regime takeover of government in the 1980s, the US ruling class went global in their capitalist operations. They no longer needed American workers --there were so many in the 3rd world and developing countries that were much easier to exploit. To pacify and/or distract US workers from this development, One Percent propagandists have continued to refine and use more subtle methods to increase their control over all forms of indoctrination and by providing numerous forms of entertainment and consumer gadgets.  

This history, I think, accounts for the degeneration of the US left which in the 1930s represented real threats to the system. So, it is not surprising to me to find current activist critiques as weak, confused, and misdirected as they are. Most of the current, remaining capitalist critics are liberals whose critiques are as he has described in his insightful article. It will take time and experience for many people to recover a more fundamental, radical view of capitalist societies and what is needed to establish a new system to serve the needs of the 99 Percent. Taylor's criticisms of existing activist views contributes to this process of radicalization.

Pacific FTAs advance amid Sino-Japanese tensions

Click here to access article by Bill Weinberg from World War 4 Report. 

This acute observer of world political events offers some interesting views on the ominous current events in the Far East. The title of his blog indicates that he understands that politics in our post-WWII capitalist era is really warfare by another means (compare with Clausewitz aphorism), and he interprets recent events in this area accordingly. However, as he points out, there are two competing tendencies: toward conflict over resources in the East China Sea and toward cooperation in the form of neoliberal policy agreements. Then there is the love-hate relationship between US corporations who love cheap Chinese labor, but worry about the growing power of China as a threat to the Empire's world dominance.

It's all very complicated, and who knows how it will play out. One thing is sure: if we as working people continue to allow ruling classes to manipulate us to serve their interests and dictate our history as we have in the past, then we can expect devastating wars, economic and social disasters, police state rule, and ecosystem destruction to be our future.

WikiLeaks: America’s Shia Tools in Lebanon

Click here to access article by Sabah Ayoub from Al Akhbar. 

Wikileaks scores again! This time it is through intercepted cables between the embassy in Lebanon and Washington; cables which illustrate how the ongoing use of bribes and other rewards are used to undermine political processes in targeted countries via NGO financing to serve the interests of the Empire. 

...as the leaked cables demonstrate, even the US diplomats were surprised by the enthusiasm, courage and initiative shown by some informers. From 2006 to 2010, these individuals and others provided the US embassy with detailed information and analyses on every arcane issue the embassy had inquired about – and sometimes even without it asking.

This select series of cables highlight the US plan and identifies some of the Lebanese Shia proxies used to implement it, including politicians, civil society activists and clerics. 

(There are still many ways to donate money to Wikileaks to support their efforts and Julian Assange and Bradley Manning in their legal battles.) 

 

Undercover cops secretly use smartphones, face recognition to spy on crowds

Click here to access article by Darlene Storm from ComputerWorld. 

This article illustrates that the One Percent's enforcers are continuing to refine their police state methods by the using uncover agents to fill databases with activist facial photos. The databases can then be used to track activists with sophisticated facial recognition software.

Craving for More and More Wealth. Refusing Capitalism

Click here to access article by Colin Todhunter from Global Research. 

In this succinct article the author demonstrates that he clearly understands the system that is destroying our lives and the planet. For example:

Capitalism does not want a well-informed, educated populace that is aware of its disfranchisement, exploitation and manipulation. It does not require disenchantment and revolutionary murmurs, but acquiescence and passivity from a population that is distracted by infotainment and the advertising industry and its products and looks to its leaders to save it from their fears and confusions.

Global economic inequality: the billionaires vs. the penniless

Click here to access article by Deniz Kellecioglu from Real-World Economics Review Blog. 

In contrast to the ongoing devastation to the lives of the 99 Percent, the One Percent is richer than ever. But, that is inevitable under the system of capitalism which is controlled by them for their benefit. The liberal author carefully avoids mentioning the system; but, to his credit, he points briefly to a very subversive idea:

Surely an inclusive, participatory and democratically functioning economy is the ideal alternative. The real challenge is, in my opinion, how to get there (the transition), especially considering the necessary process of empowerment and disempowerment.

Demolishing Palestine

Click here to access article by Michelle Woodward from Jadaliyya. 

This might be more poignantly entitled, "Demolishing Palestine--One Palestinian Home at a Time". The article captures this ongoing tragedy and human rights crime against Palestinians better than any article I've seen for some time. It was to stop these crimes that Rachel Corrie, a Washington state neighbor of mine, lost her life to an Israeli bulldozer while protesting.

180+ arrests on Occupy Wall St. anniversary — in pictures

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

The author posts more photos of the deterioration of dissent in the US. Is it possible now that the One Percent control all mainstream media versions and images of "freedom and democracy" in their New World Order, public displays of dissent will no longer be tolerated? Could it be that even the most peaceful displays of dissent is now verboten and any who engage in it will be subject to arrest? 

From this site and others (see this and this) we learn that the enforcers of the One Percent are employing a new method to intimidate protesters:

The NYPD learned from last year that kettling and mass-arresting 700 people on the Brooklyn Bridge only adds fuel to the populist fire of the movement. They've now resorted to random snatch-and-grab tactics, meant to disrupt group solidarity, stir up confusion and fear, and minimize media exposure. And given that thousands of Occupiers from across the country are in New York this weekend to celebrate the movement's 1-year anniversary, the snatch-and-grabs of September 15th, mainly targeted at journalists and originators of chants, are meant to do little other than intimidate the group and discourage others from marching on the 17th. [my emphasis]

In contrast to Amerika, people in many parts of Europe are still allowed to protest by the authorities. In Portugal we see dissenters turning out in massive numbers.

#StrikeDebt: Occupy morphs into debt resistance movement

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

On Monday, Occupy Wall Street celebrated its first birthday. As thousands descended upon Lower Manhattan and poured back into Zuccotti Park, home to the protest camp of last year, an interesting buzz has been doing the rounds in the media and blogosphere on where the movement currently stands — and where it might be headed in the future. Predictably, those on the right claim that Occupy is dead, while those on the left maintain that it’s only barely begun.

It’s all a familiar ideological gainsaying that will ultimately do very little to change the predicament in which we find ourselves. Whether Occupy is dead or not, the goal should be neither the revival nor the survival of the movement in its old form — the point is to perpetually keep evolving, devising new forms of action to adapt to a rapidly changing environment. Interestingly, this is precisely what appears to have happened over the summer. [my emphasis]

Are You An Anarchist? The Answer May Surprise You!

Click here to access article by David Graeber from The Anarchist Library. 

Take Graeber's test to find out if you are an (shudder!) anarchist! You may not want to take the test; because if you, indeed, are an anarchist, you must be prepared to be excommunicated by much of American society that has been taught that anarchists are right up there on the list of America's enemies along with Muslims, terrorists, rapists, and child molesters.

South East China Sea; A Perfect Crisis for the International Crisis Group

Click here to access article by Christopher Black, James Henry Fetzer, Alex Mezyaev, and Christof Lehmann from nsnbc.

This lengthy article provides a major and important political analysis of the US/NATO Empire, its radically regressive policies, methods, and intentions all of which are leading the world down the path of barbarism. The authors provide some suggestions about how nations can counter and reverse this catastrophic path.

The title is meant to be ironic in that it refers to a group sponsored by George Soros called the "International Crisis Group".

With respect to the  territorial dispute about areas in the South China Sea, between the Philippines and China, a recent report by the European, Soros Funded, International Crisis Group, ICG, is revealing US/NATO´s strategy. While the ICG is overtly claiming to be working on crisis resolution, the report has in fact to be understood as an analysis of, how the crisis can be managed to secure the best possible outcome for the modo-colonial and globalist powers.

Hungary Throws Out Monsanto AND The IMF

Click here to access article by Raúl Ilargi Meijer from The Automatic Earth.

What the satisfying title leaves out is that the IMF, which is a prime force for neoliberalism, is bringing its weapons of mass financial destruction to bear on Hungary.

The IMF and EU, like the tandem team of Monsanto and Washington before them, act like schoolyard bullies. It's become their standard MO, and it usually works. Portraits of Orbán [Hungary's Prime Minister] as a fool, a reckless idiot and a dangerous populist, on par with that of Hugo Chavez or newly found international enemy Rafael Correa, are much easier to find than those links to Wikileaks Monsanto cables. It would be good to see Orbán continue to stand up to the IMF bullies, but he may not have that choice. They can simply financially bleed him dry, like they have so many other countries and their leaders. It's a time tested model.    

Hollywood stirs Middle East plot

Click here to access article by Christof Lehmann from Asia Times Online.

In this article the author raises a question to which he offers an answer.

The low budget movie that by ridiculing Islam triggered violent protests throughout the Middle East and the storming of US embassies raises the question of whether the explosive reactions to such insults are really caused by a few Mohammed cartoons, as in 2006, and cheap movies, which very few in the West had even heard of before the protests they apparently create.

Climate Armageddon: How the World's Weather Could Quickly Run Amok

Click here to access article by Fred Guterl from Scientific American. 

This article is adapted from Guterl's recently published book, Why the Human Race May Cause Its Own Extinction and How We Can Stop It. Because recent evidence is causing many scientists to re-examine their timelines of climate change, he looks at nine potential tipping points that could each radically alter our planet's ecosystem and force much more catastrophic effects within the next 300 years. Then, if they all happen at once and reinforce each other, it could be much sooner. Fred Guterl is an award winning journalist and executive editor of Scientific American.

Climate scientists think a perfect storm of climate "flips" could cause massive upheavals in a matter of years.

Kevin Kumashiro on Chicago teachers' strike

Click here to access brief article and audio player to hear this professor talk (from 9:25m to 19:00m on the player) about the real issues related to the current Chicago teachers strike, how they are being framed by major media in conformance with leading neo-liberal advocates of both political parties, that these views on education are based on ideology and not on research, and how the framing of educational issues is being carefully limited to narrow, commonsensical constructs to distract from the larger issues of poverty, racism, class size, and widely varying school resources. 

Sinister September: Zionist Anti-Islam Plot Simmering

Click here to access article by Ismail Salami from The Palestine Chronicle.

More than the recent film, the author writes about all the current and recent efforts of anti-Islamists and Zionists to defame Islam which mainstream media mostly ignores. He paints a much larger, more serious picture that suggests an international campaign.

...western mainstream media try to deceive public opinion and interpret the making of the film in the light of freedom of speech. Hurting the sentiments of over one billion Muslims across the world does not fit in the definition of freedom of speech. In fact, it is an affront not only to all the Muslims but also to believers of all faiths and religions.