Where the elites like to socialize and hang out, Part 2 of 2

by Ron Horn.

This is the conclusion of our visits to "gentlemen's clubs" where the elite of the Empire like to hang out. If you haven't read Part 1, please do so as it provides an explanation as to why we even bother we these people.

Originally I planned to visit a number of such places, but I find that most of their websites, if they exist at all, and unlike the friendly Home House club in London, offer very limited information. The one we are "visiting" today, the Alibi Club in Washington, DC fits this description.

The Alibi Club is both very exclusive and secretive, and they don't have a website to visit. They limit their numbers to 50.  What really drew my attention from perusing the Wikipedia website was the list of former and existing members. The list reads like a Who's Who of the Empire, that is, past and present members who have worked so hard to establish the current Anglo-American Empire after their defeat of the German Empire, the Third Reich, in WWII.












This online article entitled "My Alibi? They Wouldn't Answer Answer Man" is the best information I could find about this club. It appears to be a compilation of pictures and articles from several sources. Here is the response a journalist received when he dared to inquire at their door:

Answer Man paid a visit to the Alibi Club on Friday. He walked up the metal steps and, finding the outer door open, ascended to a small vestibule and confronted a locked green door. What, he wondered, was behind the green door?

Answer Man buzzed the intercom, introduced himself and said: "I wondered if I could talk to someone about the Alibi Club."

"Sorry, no," came the answer.  

Recession, Depression or Jobless Recovery? Long-Term Unemployment under “Neoliberal Capitalism”

Click here to access article by Alan Nasser from Global Research.

I regard this as a very important article to understand the unemployment trends that from a long-term perspective are appearing at an accelerating rate in capitalist economies: a growing and permanent high levels of unemployment creating a large class of human beings who are increasingly regarded by the ruling classes as dispensable. The implications of this for our future is mind-boggling. 

...the “jobs are not coming back”, there will be workers, lots of workers, whose only recourse will be long-term unemployment or low-skill, low-pay work. There you have it – neoliberal austerity for the masses. That’s the long-run prospect.

Although very important, and I regard it as a "must-read", the article could have been enhanced with graphs illustrating his main points, and generally edited for repetitive arguments.

The Surprising Connection Between Food and Fracking

Click here to access article by Tom Philpott from Mother Jones.

It seems to me that this very interesting examination of the use of synthetic nitrogen should have been more aptly entitled "The troubling consequences of Big Ag's use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers". Here is one troubling consequence:

If Big Ag becomes hooked on cheap fracked gas to meet its fertilizer needs, then the fossil fuel industry will have gained a powerful ally in its effort to steamroll regulation and fight back opposition to fracking projects.

The evidence and arguments he provides confirms that Big Ag is, indeed, "hooked on cheap fracked gas". However, what is much worse are the consequences for climate destabilization and soil degradation. And, the latter depend on the relationship of the use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers with soil degradation. This, it turn, depends to a great extent on supporting documentation that is only provided by links. People who hastily read online reports such as this may simply skip over these links, and conclude that his thesis is only rather interesting rather than disturbing.

The most insightful and substantive link supporting the relationship was the one posted on The Grist in 2010 by the same author entitled "New research: synthetic nitrogen destroys soil carbon, undermines soil health". If you do not have the time to read this, I offer the following quotes from the article which explains this relationship.

...nitrogen fertilizer stimulates soil microbes, which feast on organic matter.

....

As organic matter dissipates, soil’s ability to store organic nitrogen declines. A large amount of nitrogen then leaches away, fouling ground water in the form of nitrates, and entering the atmosphere as nitrous oxide (N2O), a greenhouse gas with some 300 times the heat-trapping power of carbon dioxide. In turn, with its ability to store organic nitrogen compromised, only one thing can help heavily fertilized farmland keep cranking out monster yields: more additions of synthetic N.

....

...the loss of organic matter depleted the soil’s ability to store nitrogen. The practice of year-after-year fertilization [pushes soils] onto the chemical treadmill: unable to efficiently store nitrogen, they became reliant on the next fix.

....

The loss of organic matter has other ill effects, the researchers say. Injured soil becomes prone to compaction, which makes it vulnerable to runoff and erosion and limits the growth of stabilizing plant roots. Worse yet, soil has a harder time holding water, making it ever more reliant on irrigation. As water becomes scarcer, this consequence of widespread synthetic N use will become more and more challenging.

Mali and AFRICOM’s Africa Agenda: Target China

Click here to access article by F. William Engdahl from Boiling Frogs.

As always, this astute geo-political analyst provides a comprehensive and powerful antidote to cure us of mainstream media's poisonous coverage of the latest Empire adventure in Mali which he amusingly describes as follows:

We are being told repeatedly in recent months that something supposedly calling itself Al Qaeda—the organization officially charged by the US Government as responsible for pulverizing three towers of the World Trade Center and blowing a gaping hole in the side of the Pentagon on September 11, 2001—has regrouped

According to the popular media account and statements of various NATO member country government officials, the original group of the late Osama bin Laden, holed up we are supposed to believe somewhere in the caves of Tora Bora in Afghanistan, has apparently adopted a modern business model and is handing out Al Qaeda official franchises in a style something like a ‘McDonalds of Terrorism,’ from Al Qaeda in Iraq to Libyan Islamic Fighting Group in Libya and now Al-Qaeda-in-the Islamic-Maghreb.

Guess what? Many of the key actors in this contrived war were educated or trained in the US, and others put in place by French political agents. Once again, we see Empire operatives destabilizing a small country and creating choas, but a carefully managed chaos ultimately designed to serve Empire interests. Engdahl describes this type of operation:

The method is sometimes referred to as “Gang/Counter-Gang.” The essence is that the orchestrating intelligence agency or military occupying force, whether the British Army in Kenya or the CIA in Afghanistan, de facto controls the actions of both sides in an internal conflict, creating small civil wars or gang wars to the aim of dividing the overall legitimate movement and creating the pretext for outside military force in what the US now has deceptively renamed as “Peace-Keeping Operations” or PKO.

Following this, Engdahl writes about the Empire's general plan to counter the successful strategies of the Chinese government in their efforts to gain influence in Africa and access to African resources.

Under capitalism the world always tends to be seen by capitalist actors as functioning according to the Law of the Jungle. In advanced capitalism this tendency degenerates into an almost exclusive reliance on the use of force to maintain dominance. 

Congressional Research Service Finds Evidence of Massive Tax Avoidance by U.S. Corporations Using Tax Havens

Click here to access article from Citizens for Tax Justice.\

A new report from the non-partisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) finds that U.S. corporations report a huge share of their profits as officially earned in small, low-tax countries where they have very little investment and workforce while reporting a much smaller percentage of their profits in larger, industrial countries where they actually have massive investments and workforces. The report confirms that U.S. corporations are artificially inflating the proportion of their global profits that are generated in small, low-tax countries — in other words, shifting their profits to tax havens.

You can be sure that this report will never be referred to in the One Percent's media.

Timothy Geithner saved Wall Street, not the economy

Click here to access article by Dean Baker from Real-World Economics Review. 

 For me the article suggests a very different conclusion than is reached in this paragraph:

...the economy has already lost more than $7 trillion in output ($20,000 per person) compared with what the Congressional Budget Office projected in January of 2008. We will probably lose at least another $4 trillion before the economy gets back to anything resembling full employment. And, millions of people have seen their lives turned upside down by their inability to get jobs, being thrown out of their homes, or their parents’ inability to get a job. And this is all because of the folks in Washington’s inability to manage the economy. [my emphasis]

The ruling class, which usually installs its own members as Treasury Secretary as in the example of Geithner, manages the economy very well for the economy of their class. Banksters have done exceptionally well since the crash of the general economy.

Locked in the Ivory Tower: Why JSTOR Imprisons Academic Research

Click here to access article by Laura McKenna from The Atlantic.

As has often been observed, under the system of capitalism everything, including knowledge, tends to become a commodity from which capitalists derive their profits, with major capitalists benefiting from added influence over governments. This author while writing for this capitalist media source only alludes to this characteristic. The headline suggests that JSTOR is the bad guy. However, the substance of the article points the finger at publishers.

The publisher is key, because he needs money to print and distribute the journal for its tiny community of readers. To make that money, the publisher sells the rights to an academic search engine company, like JSTOR. For the publisher, this venture is highly profitable because, unlike traditional publishing, the publisher does not have to pay the writer or editor. It only has to cover the costs of typesetting, printing, and distribution.

There has recently been a slight improvement in this situation. This article from Tadween Publishing reports:

After years of restricted access, JSTOR announced on January 9 that it will make the archives of more than 1,200 journals available to the public for free, giving those who sign up for an account with JSTOR the ability to read up to three articles every two weeks. 

Welcome to the Network of Global Corporate Control - Part 1 of 3

Click here to access article by Andrew Gavin Marshall from Occupy.com.

The author provides us with more information about the international cartels that rule our world. Once again, we see an inner core of the most powerful consisting of major financial institutions.

The top 50 companies on the list of the “super-entity” included (as of 2007): Barclays Plc (1), Capital Group Companies Inc (2), FMR Corporation (3), AXA (4), State Street Corporation (5), JP Morgan Chase & Co. (6), UBS AG (9), Merrill Lynch & Co Inc (10), Deutsche Bank (12), Credit Suisse Group (14), Bank of New York Mellon Corp (16), Goldman Sachs Group (18), Morgan Stanley (21), Société Générale (24), Bank of America Corporation (25), Lloyds TSB Group (26), Lehman Brothers Holdings (34), Sun Life Financial (35), ING Groep (41), BNP Paribas (46), and several others.

In December of 2011, Roger Altman, the former Deputy Secretary of the Treasury under the Clinton administration, wrote an article for the Financial Times in which he explained that financial markets were “acting like a global supra-government,” ....

Egypt: Revolutionaries Are Not Born. They Are Made.

Click here to access article by Sara Salem from Muftah.

In the face of what looks to be a losing battle, thousands of Egyptians take to the streets on a daily basis, facing tear gas, arrests, and live ammunition. They know they may lose their lives. They know their families and friends will not rest until they return. But they also know that the revolution isn’t over, and that the thousands who died did not lose their lives for yet another Western-backed Egyptian dictatorship.

The author provides an excellent description of a revolutionary. Meet Ahmed Harara, an Egyptian revolutionary. 

To End Extreme Poverty, End Extreme Wealth

Click here to access article by Sam Pizzigati from Inequality.

...in these days of deep global economic uncertainty, the power suits that frequent Davos have lost their mojo — and even feel pressured to address the global economic inequality they’ve so long tried to sweep under the rug.

Pressured! Really? The concerns expressed by liberals regarding the unequal distribution of wealth is met by a yawn from various members of the Davos class.

Corporate power: exposing the global 1%

Click here to access article posted by ROAR Collective.

ROAR authors have posted the graphics from the Transnational Institute's (TNI) online article that is based on their publication "State of Power 2013" without including TNI's political analysis with which I was not particularly impressed. So, I suggest that you stick with this posting. The graphics included here are the most important to get a quick visual glimpse of our global masters, i.e., the global One Percent, also known as the Davos class, the ruling elite, etc.

The basis for this class is the "ownership" of huge global private enterprises that are concentrated in the hands of a tiny global elite, and interconnected through overlapping boards of directors. I have frequently used the metaphor of an onion to describe the global elite, and the charts illustrate this by showing that the financial institutions and fossil fuel industries are at the most powerful inner core of global capitalist rule.

Escobar: Shadow wars & no interventions - US plan for MidEast & Asia

6:39m video from RT.

Escobar offers some very interesting observations about Empire interventions in the Middle East and North Africa. It's about blow-back, shadow wars, and spreading chaos; and unfortunately, there appears to be more to come.



I have been watching RT programs in the early morning for several months now. I highly recommend it as a TV source of information about the world beyond Russia. Being based in Russia, I would take news about Russia with a grain of salt. 

For fairly obvious reasons, news agency coverage of news in foreign lands are often much more reliable than news agency coverage of the agency's home country. I discovered this when spending extensive time in Canada and watching their TV news coverage, political analysis, and commentaries of US events. It was much more critical and covered subjects which would not be covered in US based media. I also, to my surprise, discovered in my travels to other countries that even in the foreign editions of Time and Newsweek magazines that coverage was much better than the domestic editions. Can you imagine Escobar ever appearing on US TV network programming?

Thus, I highly recommend, if you do not already watch RT TV, that you try to locate it in your area's TV cable listings, and watch it regularly.

In Egypt, anarchists carry the revolution forward

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

Now that the Muslim Brotherhood has effectively halted the revolution’s “long march through the institutions”, and now that opposition parties have amply demonstrated their woeful inability to pose a credible counterweight to the forces of fundamentalism, many young Egyptians have simply lost their faith in the ability of representative institutions to realize the revolution’s demands for bread, freedom and social justice. In this era of shattered illusions, many of these young revolutionaries find that anarchism – with its radical emphasis on direct democracy, horizontal self-organization and mutual aid – provides the only hopeful alternative to further tyranny.

This is another excellent posting from Roos. His analysis is well supported by links to very interesting sources.  The video entitled "The Rise of the 'Golden Dawn" in Greece" did not work on my computer, so I clicked on the video's "YouTube" insignia to watch it directly on YouTube. I highly recommend this 12:54m video to give you a flavor for what life is like when the One Percent ruling class becomes desperate by employing fascist hoodlums to terrorize people.

The Financialization of Food and the Profitability of Poverty

Click here to access article by Andrew Gavin Marshall from his blog.

As stated in his preface to the article, this is an excerpt from a book he is currently working on. It reads like a book in that it contains well-developed themes with excellent documentation, and there were times when I thought about printing it out to read it. There are some typographical errors which are usually easily surmounted.

I have only one criticism and that relates to the opening paragraph:

When it comes to environmental issues, the primary focus is placed upon the issue of climate change, and while this is indeed an important issue, it could be said that this focus almost misses the forest for the trees. Climatic change is here to stay, it is an inevitability, and it is a requirement for humanity to begin the process of adaptation. However, climate change is not “the problem,” it is a symptom of the problems associated with the environment.

I think he is much too dismissive of what many see as the situation we are now facing--"runaway climate change" bringing numerous catastrophic consequences for our future, so serious that many are doubting that the human race can survive them. For example, Britain’s Prof. Kevin Anderson predicted that global warming will likely wipe out 90% of the world’s population by 2060. I think that conceptualizing climatic change as a symptom tends to trivialize it and puts it in the background when it needs to be in the foreground. And, most definitely it is not something we should see as an annoyance like an increase of mosquitoes that we will just have to adapt to. Of course, it is an effect of the operation of capitalism; therefore, revolution is not merely desirable, but an absolute necessity.

The rest of the piece patiently develops the following important thesis:

Instead of acknowledging global markets as inherently and structurally (not to mention ideologically) immoral and wrong, we talk about “reforming” and “regulating” these markets as if minor changes would rectify the fundamental problems. The truth – as hard as it may be for many to accept – is that global markets are fundamentally wrong and immoral.

However, this also is understating the problem with "global markets", a polite term for capitalism--the system is leading us to extinction!

Together We Build Egypt

Click here to access article by Thalia Beaty from Muftah.

This is a brief article that makes a big point about the Egypt of today.

Two years ago, on Police Day, a national holiday, citizens rose up to say, “No more.” They will continue to do so until a new government is formed that can safeguard Egypt’s many natural resources and unleash the human potential so evident in its people.

On this anniversary of the "days of rage" that ignited across Egypt two years ago, I think it is fitting that we look at what is happening today in that troubled country. Below are three additional articles that I recommend. 

I recommend this piece entitled "Egypt’s Cultural Revolution Is Here" from Muftah by Sarah Zakzouk, a London-based academic publisher, who on her recent visit to Egypt was very impressed by what she saw as a cultural as well as a political revolution.

Second, this piece from Jadaliyya by their editors entitled "Another Year of Rage".

Finally, this piece from World Socialist Web Site entitled "Mursi declares state of emergency as protests escalate in Egypt" gives the latest update on the current scene.

Who’s Faking It? Pentagon “Cyber-Warriors” Planting “False Information on Facebook”

Click here to access article by Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich from Global Research (Canada).

On November 22, 2012, the Los Angeles Times published an alarming piece of news entitled “Cyber Corps program trains spies for the digital age”. The “cyber-warriors” who are headed for organizations such as the CIA, NSC, FBI, the Pentagon and so on, are trained to stalk, “rifle through trash, sneak a tracking device on cars and plant false information on Facebook [emphasis added]. They also are taught to write computer viruses, hack digital networks, crack passwords, plant listening devices and mine data from broken cellphones and flash drives.”

Because the misuse of information is such a powerful weapon in the Empire's arsenal, and recognizing the increasing sophistication of communication technology, it is more important than ever to examine all electronic communications with a critical eye.

The Great Dismal: "What we speak becomes the house we live in."

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

Because his writing is loaded with metaphors and obscure references, I always find his writing challenging. However, I always come away with gems of insight poignantly expressed. I was especially moved by this paragraph: 

...the fate of the earth's biosphere and its capacity to sustain human life is being subjected to an unfolding, desperate campaign -- craven as it is noxious -- in its intentions, scope, and side affects, by the elite of an arrogant order to maintain their grip on privilege and power. By propaganda and coercion, they proceed, with cult-like conviction, on a course of catastrophic folly involving a race to secure and exploit the remaining resources of our ecologically taxed planet (the only planet available to us). If their agendas remain unchecked, the biosphere will be rendered unviable to our species.

Syria: Subversion Stalls while Government Succeeds with Reconciliation and Reforms

Click here to access article by Christof Lehmann from nsnbc. 

I haven't had enough experience with him to ascertain how reliable he is as a source of information, however what he argues seems to correspond well with other information provided by independent sources.

The Syrian strategy of inclusiveness and amnesty on one hand, while combating terrorism and armed subversion on the other, continues to pay peace dividends. The question now is, how long time will it take and how many people have to be murdered and maimed on both sides, before international diplomacy begins constructive negotiations about the core issues that caused the crisis.

Tahrir and the undying spirit of revolt

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

The future of humanity is at stake. This is the time to fight. If there is any message the revolutionaries at Tahrir have to tell us, therefore, it is this: burn your books, buy a gas mask, and learn to dance with fire. The forces of the counter-revolution are formidable — supported as they are by military might, Islamic mythology and the seemingly inexhaustible resources of the United States — but the flames of popular outrage will not be doused until the demands of the revolution are met. Bread. Freedom. Social Justice. There is no time to waste. Two years down the line, Tahrir — with its undying spirit of revolt — still leads the way.

This is a wonderful recognition of the vibrant revolutionary spirit alive, well, and fighting against overwhelming forces in the streets of Cairo and Alexandria. This is the human spirit that is conscious that this is a war to the end. Time is running out. Egyptians as today's revolutionary vanguard insist on justice and are prepared to fight until the bitter end simply because they are fully conscious of their humanity whose nature cannot accept the indignity of conditions similar to slavery, or even worse--being regarded as disposable human beings because capitalist economies have no use for them. They may not win, but they can never surrender to expedience, safety, and comforts that too many in the West are willing to accept.

The ideologues and subversive agents of the Empire have long sold their souls for a bit of power and wealth, and they cannot understand this deep affirmation of human nature because they have lost theirs at Wall Street and at the alter of superior weaponry.

Revolution at the armchair: on books and barricades

Click here to access article by Matan Kaminer and response from Jerome Roos from Reflections on a Revolution.  

Matan Kaminer criticizes ROAR founder Jerome Roos for some of the conclusions he draws in his latest piece on the Egyptian revolution, relating especially to the importance of Marxist theory in the revolutionary process.

Currency Wars – their Imperial aspect

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

The blogger brings up an issue about currency that, I think, few people understand. Issuing currency leaks out across borders and can have very deleterious effects on ordinary people in other lands--food and energy inflation, and wars. With the US dollar as the dominate world's currency, and with the controllers of this currency issuing ever greater quantities trying to prop up banks, what has been largely missing from political analysis are the links between this and all such deleterious effects on the world's 99 Percents.

Malone introduces his thesis with this scathing attack on the world's One Percents:

G20 meeting have become even more farcical and resemble ever more uncannily the gatherings of powdered, wig-wearing elites, so far removed from the people they rule over that they simply can not imagine why the commoners don’t just work harder, earn less and consume more like the plan says. Let them eat cake has become let them borrow. Why won’t the ungrateful wretches understand that there are no free hand-outs – at least not for them. Money can only be handed to those who know how to use it profitably, not waste it on pointless things like health services and pensions. The common people must realize they have brought this upon themselves and must now accept their medicine and work longer for less so they can get back to shopping, consuming and above all borrowing.

Nature’s Capital is the Limiting Resource

Click here to access article by Paul Craig Roberts from CounterPunch.

Heilein's fantasy, which is about humans migrating to other planets after destroying this one, is just that--pure fantasy. Capitalist ideologists like to think of everything as disposable, but they are deluding themselves if they think they can just drop the Earth into a garbage can and move on.

Roberts writes:

... unregulated capitalism is one of the greatest forces of destruction of peoples, animal and plant life, and the Earth’s ecology. The book shows that for short-term profit, capitalists are willing to destroy irreplaceable resources. Future profitability is not important to them.

This also implies another delusion--that capitalism can be regulated for the interest of all and the survival of all. It's like asking a drunken alcoholic to behave himself/herself. Capitalism delivers the drugs and power to a few who are so addicted that they are uncontrollable. Unfortunately, they are also very powerful! It is only by the elimination of the source of their drugs that humanity can survive.

Where the elites like to socialize and hang out, Part 1 of ?

by Ron Horn. 

Two weeks ago I hinted that I may be running a series of articles on our neighbors, so to speak, among the top layers of the One Percent. This has been difficult because they, for some reason, are very secretive or else very shy. They seem to like publicity, but only within their exclusive circles. We should not let that deter us from examining their lives to promote much greater understanding and empathy. It is important that we become more acquainted because they impact our lives so dramatically.  They decide our fates, whether our nations go to war and where, and whether our economies are in a boom or bust part of their capitalist economy. 

Because One Percenters usually do not work (unless they want to) they have a lot of leisure time. A major focus of their leisure activities is devoted to games of wealth and power. They love to gamble on Wall Street especially with the new types of "derivative" betting methods. Such gambling often bring our economies crashing to a halt resulting in the chaos we see today in our lives. But, such chaos doesn't bother them one bit. Whether they win or lose, their lives are usually not affected.  Likewise, in their games of power we see contests over resources, regime-change operations, and many wars both big and small. In the end, these activities are all games to them, mere pastimes with which to amuse themselves.

Yet, they still have time for other activities such as socializing. I've discovered that they like to hang out together at various exclusive clubs. One of their favorite social venues are "gentlemen's clubs" which have origins that go back a long way into class conscious imperial British society.

Wikipedia has traced the origins and evolution of today's clubs very well. From Britain they have now spread along with the Anglo-American Empire to many areas of the world where the Empire rules. It is today's clubs that interest me and that is what this posting, and maybe future postings, is all about. 

Of course, not everyone can just join up--that wouldn't give it its exclusive and status character. You and I would never be admitted. From Wikipedia we learn that...

From the 1970s onwards some single-sex clubs opened to both sexes as guests and as members, partly to maintain membership levels.

Serious social networking takes place in these clubs as members meet and befriend high ranking and very powerful individuals who are also members.

.... Some top clubs still maintain distinctions which are often undefined and rarely explained to those who do not satisfy their membership requirements. After reaching the top of a long waiting list, there is a possibility of being blackballed. In these circumstances, the proposer of such a person may be expected to resign, as he failed to withdraw his undesirable candidate. More often, the member who proposes an unsuitable candidate will be "spoken to" at a much earlier stage than this, and he will withdraw his candidate to avoid embarrassment for all concerned.

So without further adieu, let's pay a virtual visit to one of these clubs to learn more about this part of their lives. Today's visit will be at Home House in London. I will "introduce" you to the team who manage the place, and then I will leave you on your own to proceed from there through the various links provided.

What Would a Trillion-dollar Coin Mean?

Click here to access article by Stephen Zarlenga from Huffington Post.

What the trillion dollar coin has to offer is illuminating our constitutional money power, and Congress's malfeasance in allowing banks to create the national money supply as interest bearing debt. This can be important in helping people understand that the monetary power belongs with the United States government to promote the general welfare, not with the caprice of private bankers acting to promote their own corrupt interests.

This author knows of what he writes. He has done a lot of research on the subject of money and its issuance, and is the author of an excellent book entitled The Lost Science of Money.

Mali: Disregarded Lessons in ‘Humanitarian’ Intervention

Click here to access article by Jeremy R. Hammond from Foreign Policy Journal. 

I believe that the author gets the facts regarding Mali correctly, but fails to draw the proper conclusions. I don't think that Empire agents under the guise of "humanitarian intervention" disregard lessons; I think they are deliberately sowing chaos in Africa to justify intervening there and establishing permanent military bases, all, of course, directed toward the ultimate goal of exploiting African resources. They are not stupid.

Western powers are engaged in yet another military intervention, this time in Mali, a country whose troubles are in no small part a consequence of the U.S./NATO war on Libya to overthrow the regime of Muammar Gaddafi. And yet policymakers and political commentators are proving as disciplined as ever in disregarding the obvious lessons.

Is a united and effective climate movement possible?

Click here to access article by Trent Hawkins from Climate & Capitalism.

...we are faced with an unanswerable riddle. How to steer the boat away from the iceberg, when the captain and crew are convinced there is no iceberg, and the passengers are too busy enjoying themselves. How does a small group, aware of the problem, organize a mutiny in time?

Bugger The Bankers THE OFFICIAL VIDEO

Click here if you wish to access the source posting of the splendid 3:50m video posted by "old fart" at Dogma and Geopolitics.

Altogether now folks, let us join with the Brits in singing "bugger the bankers and politicians..." C'mon people, I can't hear you here in Bellingham, Washington. Louder!

Davos Still Pushes Failed Global Vision

Click here to access 10:15m video featuring an interview with Professor William Kurt Black who is an American lawyer, academic, author, and a former bank regulator. He is currently in Davos, Switzerland observing the World Economic Forum where banking and other corporate elites are meeting to discuss future policies. Black reports:

...I researched what in God's name the World Economic Forum actually does. And it has two primary products. One is this global competitiveness index, and the second is a global risk report. And I discovered that this competitiveness index is really a glorified expanded version of the Washington consensus. 

How Big Soda Co-Opted the NAACP and Hispanic Federation

Click here to access article by Nancy F. Huehnergarth from Huffington Post. 

The author cites two examples of how corporation philanthropy co-opts groups that might be potential adversaries and transforms them into political allies serving their corporate interests.

If you want a prime example of how Big Soda successfully uses its "philanthropy" (e.g., deep-pockets) to silence potential critics, look at the embarrassing mess in which the storied NAACP and the Hispanic Federation now find themselves embroiled.

Fossil Fuel Intransigence and Idle No More

Click here to access article by Bill Henderson from Brave New World.

By analogy, given the mounting scientific evidence of the dangers of second-hand smoke, especially for children, governments everywhere introduce laws banning smoking indoors and in public areas. But when it comes to climate change and agreements to control emissions the smokers just continue to smoke at home, in the car with the kids, around the dinner table; Dad, my Prime Minister Harper in Canada, blowing smoke rings of tarsands expansion into the rapt faces of the innocent kids.

Unfortunately, this Canadian author doesn't see the 500 pound guerrilla in the room which is driving humanity and many other species into their annihilation--the One Percent's addiction to power and wealth delivered to them by their beloved system of capitalism. This is a far bigger obstacle to change than powerful fossil fuel industries.

Davos: The Syria War Continuum and the Tripartite Energy War

Click here to access article by Christof Lehmann from nsnbc. (Note: this German writer's use of "stall mate" obviously means stalemate.)

The representatives of the world's One Percents are currently meeting at the annual World Economic Forum held at their favorite hangout, a ski resort in Davos, Switzerland. Lehmann's article provides background on one of the most contentious issues that will be dealt with at the forum--the fight over pipelines that will deliver gas from the huge PARS gas fields located in the Persian gulf between Qatar and Iran with Syria as a major transit point. 

The pipeline issue is seen by many political observers as a key issue driving the present Syrian war and threatens a future war with Iran. (For more background, see this excellent article by Pepe Escobar.) The pipeline issue, in turn, affects the value of the US dollar which has been imposed on much of the world by the US Empire. 

The energy security stall mate after the Russia – EU Summit in Bruxelles in December 2012 continues in Davos. Russian – European relations with regard to energy security have suffered considerably since the onset of the war in Syria. With the United States, using its political leverage to drive a wedge in between Russia and Europe, and with the cause of the Syria war still not being discussed openly and constructively, both Russia, Europe and the US-Dollar may be heading toward a deep freeze.

Although Russia since 1991 has returned to the capitalist world camp, that doesn't mean the end of conflicts among leading nations. The capitalist system always spawns numerous conflicts among One Percent elites for dominance with devastating results for the 99 Percents of the world. Need I remind you of the two world wars where German and Anglo-American One Percents competed for world dominance? The last, WWII, resulted in 65 million lives lost and probably five times that many with permanent disabilities. The present rivalries for world dominance include the One Percent ruling classes from the US Empire (NATO countries), China, and Russia.

Lance Armstrong and the world of professional sports

Click here to access article by David Walsh from World Socialist Web Site.

A ruling class puts it stamp of culture on the entire society: its values, behaviors, beliefs, etc. This is well illustrated by the example of Lance Armstrong and his ignoble history in sports. Of course, not everyone succumbs to such sociopathic behaviors seen everyday among leading figures in the ruling class, but those with latent sociopathic inclinations such as Armstrong are easily seduced by the rewards of fame and fortune to engage in such despicable behavior.

...the cycling champion’s ruthless outlook did not come out of the blue. Armstrong matured in the Reagan-Bush-Clinton years, when the “free market,” selfishness and greed were worshipped at every turn by the entire media and political establishment. “Force works,” declared the Wall Street Journal following the war on Iraq in 1990-91, and the notion that bullying and violence were the solution to each and every problem was communicated through the political system, popular culture and the sports industry.

One doesn’t want to exaggerate, but Armstrong, in his intimidation tactics, relentless, almost provocative, lying, and his apparent belief he could get away with anything, seems to have borrowed more than a little from official America’s relations with the rest of the globe over the past two decades.

A Leader’s Lexicon for the 21st Century

Click here to access article by Lesley Docksey from Dissident Voice.

Actually, I think that this lexicon could be very useful as tool to decode Empire propaganda for the more naive ordinary citizens among us, propaganda that is used daily to deceive and manipulate us into supporting their war crimes. This is the 21st century's version of Newspeak in which agents of the Empire have been trained to use when speaking to the 99 Percent through corporate media.

Idle No More: This Is About the Future

Click here to access article by Cathy Gerrior from Halifax Media Co-op. 

(This article is provided by ordinary Canadians who insist upon taking back media to serve the 99 Percent. To do this they have organized a network of media co-ops across their country. This is radical activism at its best.

In this time of destruction of the Earth's ecosystem, we Euro-Americans and others have much to learn from indigenous people who have had an intimate connection with the Earth and all living creatures.

Speakers and performers at Montréal's Idle No More protest

We are a proud people who know through many centuries of teachings that the Earth is our Mother, the Sky is our Father, the Moon is our Grandmother, and the Sun is our Grandfather. We know that all life, from the smallest grains of sand to the Eagles that fly high above us, to those that dwell under the earth as well as in the rivers and oceans, they are our Sisters and Brothers. We know that we are neither more, nor less important than they. And we know that it has always been, and always will be our responsibility to be caretakers of this land and its many life sources.

Seeing bias but supporting the architect of bias: We have a long way yet to go

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

In this essay the author looks at racism as suggested by the title: it is the structure or organization of society that fosters racism. Racism is just another way to divide workers from each other because the One Percents know that together workers present a formidable foe. In North America racism has been used as a prominent feature of class war because of the early history of European invasions on indigenous lands on this continent followed by the tremendous need for workers to transform the natural wealth that existed into commodities, and then into monetary wealth appropriated by the new capitalist class. 

Thus, African-Americans played a huge role in the economic development of North America, and likewise in US political developments by their crucial role in the Civil War: the Lincoln administration was forced to emancipate and recruit African-Americans to fight against the slave-holding southern aristocracy in order to prevent the country from being split in two.

Introduction to the Sociopathic Society

Click here if you wish to access source of this 5:07m video by Andrew Gavin Marshall from his blog.

Marshall provides a progress report on the book that he is currently working on and hints about a future project. We, the people, simply must support intellectual activists who have dedicated their lives to exposing the nefarious actions of the One Percent and provide information in order to construct just, peaceful societies that can exist without destroying the planet that we all share.

Noam Chomsky: From the Strategic Mind to the Radical Politics of Imagination

Click here to access article (Sorry, I didn't include the specific link. You can find the article here.) by Nozomi Hayase from Brave New World. 

I highly recommend this piece for people who have been tormented by issues related to voting in elections which are sponsored and managed by the One Percent, and/or for those who have been influenced or bothered by the voting recommendations by such notable figures on the left such as Chomsky. The author, in his very well-balanced critique of Chomsky and other left intellectuals, criticizes their political advice as informed by "a creed of objectivity". She explains:

The creed of objectivity creates an artificial separation between mind and heart. It trains researchers to consider themselves impartial and objective, as not affecting the outcome. Researchers trained in this identity as ‘neutral observers’ are divorced in their thinking from passion, morality and most of all the actions of their own will. This prevailing creed has helped to encourage citizens to feel passive, powerless or indifferent. With the absence of passionate citizens, democracy gets hollowed out to become a merely a game played by the rich and powerful. From climate change to militarism, extractive monetary policy to increasing poverty, reality gets abstracted and reduced to policies that serve only brutal commercial interests. 

I tend to see those who exhibit this "creed of objectivity" as compromising their political beliefs because of their own class interests. It is a way of rationalizing actions that do not appear to be consistent with their political views. While intellectuals in academia can provide important contributions to political analysis of issues, their own careers in institutions of higher learning can be severely threatened if they stray too far, especially if they act on their beliefs in ways that threaten the ruling class.

Also, regarding the issue of voting, I see no problem with employing "strategic thinking" by voting for candidates who may slow the inevitable attacks on working people's interests; however, one should never take voting in itself as a serious political act. I think that strategic voting may be justified on the basis of buying more time for progressive forces to get their act together so that they can organize effective political resistance.

War on terror forever

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

And the winner of the Oscar for Best Sequel of 2013 goes to... The Global War on Terror (GWOT), a Pentagon production. Abandon all hope those who thought the whole thing was over with the cinematographic snuffing out of "Geronimo", aka Osama bin Laden, further reduced to a fleeting cameo in the torture-enabling flick Zero Dark Thirty. 

Welcome to the next sequel of the never-ending war on terror as described with much sarcasm by Escobar. He delights in pointing out the abundance of hypocrisy, deceptions, and delusions of the Empire builders. Well, isn't it better to laugh than to cry over the latest war crimes of the Empire? Actually, I do both. It seems that humor provides a "spoonful of sugar", and makes the reporting and reading of war crimes easier to swallow.

Coming Clean Beyond the Fiscal Cliff.

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

This is a very complicated piece that is important because of the scarce information that the author provides about the inner workings of our government. She is highly qualified in that she served as an officer in an earlier elite investment bank (Dillon Read & Co.) and in a number of important federal government offices. She knows whereof she writes. 

The article is complicated in its structure which is introduced by an allegory that represents the mind-numbing reality that she goes into in more detail in her 22 Challenges. Several of the "Challenges" sections provide links to other articles which contain links, etc., mostly to articles she has written in the past about issues related to this theme of a government in financial disarray. Thus, a few times I found myself lost in the labyrinth of links. 

Some parts seem rather rough like a first draft, but other parts provide some real gems of insights as to the chaotic state of our their (the One Percent's) government's financial affairs. It is a story of secret black budgets, missing inventories, illegal operations, pilfered Social Security funds, outrageous accounting practices, etc. 

If you thought the accounting practices of Enron and Worldcom were bad, you may need to take an anti-depressant pill to handle this article. It is a mind-boggling story of the fleecing of America to enrich the One Percent and to build their world Empire, and the ruins of a nation in which we now live.

I recommend especially the first six "challenges" and the other sections related to economic matters which she is very qualified to write about.

Martin Luther King on America’s Wars Abroad & Their Impact on Civil Rights At Home

Click here to access article from Muftah.

For me, the thing I most admire about Martin Luther King on this legal holiday commemorating his birthday is how this giant of man continued to grow as a leader connecting one issue with another to finally see the whole picture of rule by a wealth-and-war obsessed ruling class. He grew from attacking racism that denied African-American workers opportunities, to understand that racism was used to divide workers in order to exploit them and that all American workers were exploited by this class; and then his final insight that the ruling elite used wars against workers all over the world. This was the last straw for the ruling class. They had to kill him. 

Of course, he knew that he was threatening them and that they probably would kill him, but his life was dedicated to speaking the truth in the face of lies, to social justice in the face of exploitation, and to liberation in the face of oppressive power. His life illustrated the finest characteristics of human nature in contrast to Obama who is someone who has sold his soul to power for the hollow rewards of short-term fame and fortune. During our time, we desperately need the courage of Martin Luther King to continue the fight against our class enemy, and we need his dedication to the establishment of just, sustainable societies.

Goldman Sachs cashes in, world on brink of food crisis

The brief video report from RT is posted here to introduce an article following the video that provides an excellent understanding of futures commodity markets, their history, and the deregulation of them which has led to the crises as depicted in the video.



I encourage you to gain a deeper understanding of this issue by reading this report entitled "How Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and Other Financial Institutions Are speculating With Food at the Expense of the Poorest from Foodwatch (Germany).

Is Mali The Real Target?

Click here to access article by Bernhard, an American blogger who blogs at Moon of Alabama.

Although it is clear that the Empire is doing all it can to establish beachheads in Africa, France may have slightly different motives for their current overt military actions. This blogger looks at the prized resources of Algeria and the history of this former French colony for clues. It appears that Algerian authorities are not cooperating in these imperial adventures.

...there are indeed some signs that outer forces, mostly the U.S. and the French, have - sometimes competing - designs for the wider area of which the rather rich Algeria is a part. 

In Greece, the criminals live in other Villas

Click here to access article by Leonidas Oikonomakis from Reflections on a Revolution. 

Claiming to fight lawlessness and chaos, the Greek state is cracking down on one of the last bulwarks against fascism: the anarchist squats of Athens.

The author notes that many people see the squats as...

 “free spaces”, “temporary autonomous zones”, “cracks in capitalism”, where a different way of life can be practiced and experimented with — a non-capitalistic and non-hierarchical space, in which direct democracy and social solidarity thrive, proving that another world is possible. 

That is precisely why the proto-fascist Greek state is attacking them. They are an example of a way of organizing life than is totally antithetical to a capitalist organization of society where hierarchy, exclusive rights to economic property, and selfishness reigns. They are a major threat to the self-serving, parasitic One Percent, and therefore must be crushed.

Manufacturing Terrorists

Click here to access article which is a review by Michael German from Reason.com of a book entitled The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI's Manufactured War on Terrorism, by Trevor Aaronson. (Michael German is a former FBI agent who currently works for the American Civil Liberties Union.)

Imagine a country in which the government pays convicted con artists and criminals to scour minority religious communities for disgruntled, financially desperate, or mentally ill patsies who can be talked into joining fake terror plots, even if only for money. Imagine that the country's government then busts its patsies with great fanfare to justify ever-increasing authority and ever-increasing funding. According to journalist Trevor Aaronson's The Terror Factory, this isn't the premise for a Kafka novel; it's reality in the post-9/11 United States.

The Trillion Dollar Coin: Joke or Game-changer?

Click here to access article by Ellen Brown from her blog Web of Debt. (My commentary modified at 7:00pm PST.)

Brown frequently shows real insight on money issues, as she does in this excellent article: but she functions within a capitalist world where critics of the system can be impaled on the sword of unemployment if they stray too far. This piece sheds a lot of light on the issuance of money and the interests that control the issuance, but it doesn't stray too far in that it accepts the prevailing ideology that we live in some sort of valid representative government. She demonstrates this by her timid or naive concluding comment regarding the Fed's rejection of the trillion dollar coin proposal. What I have a problem with is her implication that we can work through our "elected representatives" to bring about change.

In flatly rejecting the Treasury’s legal tender, the Fed as representative of the banks is asserting itself as outranking the elected representatives of the people.  If the Fed won’t acknowledge the coins created by the government, perhaps the government needs to charter a publicly-owned bank that will.

We have a chance today to end the charade of big money gridlock politics, as well as the reign of the big banks. We have the power to choose prosperity over austerity. But to do it, we must first restore the power to create money to the people.

Within the article she quotes from an excellent source, Triumphant Plutocracy, whose author, Richard F. Pettigrew, served in various public offices including in Congress as a Senator and Representative for 50 years from about 1870 to 1920. He tried, along with many others who one never encounters in public education, to tell the truth about government. (Our masters in the One Percent have carefully purged certain parts of our history.) Therefore, given the above naive statements of Brown, I wonder if she read the rest of the book. Here are excerpts from Pettigrew's introduction written in 1921:

The American people should know the truth about American public life. They have been lied to so much and hoodwinked so often that it would seem only fair for them to have at least one straight-from-the-shoulder statement concerning this government "of the people, by the people and for the people," about whose inner working the people know almost nothing.

....

I witnessed the momentous changes and participated in them. While they were occurring I saw something else that filled me with dread. I saw the government of the United States enter into a struggle with the trusts, the railroads and the banks, and I watched while the business forces won the contest. I saw the forms of republican government decay through disuse, and I saw them betrayed by the very men who were sworn to preserve and uphold them. I saw the empire of business, with its innumerable ramifications, grow up around and above the structure of government. I watched the power over public affairs shift from the weakened structure of republican political machinery to the vigorous new business empire. .... After the authority over public affairs had been transferred to the men of business, I saw the machinery of business pass from the hands of individuals into the hands of corporations--artificial persons--created in the imagination of lawyers, and given efficacy by the sanction of the courts and of the law. When I turned to the reading of American history, I discovered that these things had been going on from the beginnings of our government, that they had grown up with it, and were an essential part of its structure. [my emphasis]

What a few people, who understand the grand money scheme hidden behind the banking consortium that named itself the Federal Reserve, do not understand is that this privatization of money issuance is an integral part of a broader privatization scheme to own all the fruits of working people and to transform all of nature into commodities. It's called capitalism, and nothing short of a revolution will change things. This is a simple fact that too few progressives are willing to face. We must stop pretending that street protests, candlelight marches, voting, and petition signing will change anything.

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 1964

The Great Austerity Swindle!

Click here to access article by Joe Firestone from New Economic Perspectives. [My commentary modified at 7pm PST.]

If I understand this "coin seigniorage" proposal, and I think I do, this is a perfectly valid and legal way to eliminate government debt owed to the private banking consortium known as "the Fed", which was authorized by a 1913 law to issue US money as debt (with interest charged). What I am unsure of is the use of this method to restore the Social Security and Medicare funds, which have been used to cover lowered taxes on the rich and government expenses including military invasions, without causing other problems.

There are other methods of eliminating the debt to the Fed, chief among them recognizes that our government is the supreme law of the land and can simply abolish the debt, and justifying this action because the debt is obviously illegitimate, having been created via money that was created "out of thin air". And, of course, we must abolish the Fed, and have the US Treasury issue interest-free money. It should be a government function to authorize sufficient quantities of money as a medium of value required for the exchange of goods and services that are produced or created by working people. Real goods and services that contribute to the well-being of a people constitute real wealth, not gold, silver, or any other metal that has been made into a fetish by those who can own and/or control it. 

The unfortunate reality is that the government is overwhelmingly controlled by banking interests, and they are not about to pass any laws against their interests. They now have the nation in debt to them forever, and this is exactly where they want to be. Only an organized, informed citizenry can make real changes.

Still, it's good to propose and argue for such schemes, except that they are needlessly complicated and written in a style that only a relatively few people can understand. The concept of money has been so mystified--deliberately so--by the banking interests. As a result ordinary people find it difficult to understand issues related to money and debts, and they are easily deceived.

The best online source I've found to gain a better understanding is this one, organized as a series of lessons designed by someone by the pseudonym of "Smithy". Smithy has degrees in mathematics and economics, and she works as a consultant calculating investment risk for financial institutions. For this reason, she can't reveal her real name. One needs to be aware that accurate knowledge about the money scam is difficult to obtain simply because it is so profitable for bankers who control it. They have ways of punishing people who reveal too many of their secrets.

Stewart vs Krugman and the Religion of Austerity

Click here if you wish to access original source from The Real News and the transcript of this interview with Prof. Bill Black.

Black proposes two alternative explanations for Pres. Obama's interactions with Tea Party Republicans who advocate harsh cutbacks to social spending. Forget the first one about damaging the Republican party by holding out. That is pure nonsense in the guise of common sense which conforms to the conventional view of two-party adversaries propagated over mainstream media. Both parties represent, and are funded by, the same interests. Obviously, they sometimes have different strategies to serve those interests. But, it is clearly the second explanation that Black offers: "he [Obama] wants the excuse to give in." 

He begins by pointing out that Obama has been preparing the groundwork by already offering concessions. Then Black explores the sources of proposed austerity policies in the Peterson Institute, and in turn, their earlier origins in the Washington Consensus of the late 1980s. However, for some reason he never mentions that Obama appointed billionaire Pete Peterson in 2010 to head the Deficit Commission to come up with policies to solve the problem of government deficits. This, of course, laid the groundwork for all the subsequent fake arguments about cutting social spending  between his administration and the Tea Party Republicans, actions that were designed to lead into some "grand bargain" involving controversial cuts to social programs that he would be supposedly forced into. The "grand bargain" would provide him with the "excuse to give in".

Anyway, what is clear is that the Washington Consensus that originally forced devastating austerity and privatization policies onto many countries in Latin America has, under globalized capitalism, come home to roost on American soil.

The Genetic Argument: Understanding That Social Advancement is our Collective Responsibility

Click here to access article by Chris Renzo posted on News Beacon Ireland.

American neuroscientist, Dr. Robert Sapolsky, states that there is a widespread and dangerous notion that has taken root in our dominant scientific understanding of human behavior. The notion is that we believe human behavior is genetically determined. This deterministic view of life suggests life is rooted in biology and genetics, that we are our genes, and that genes cannot be changed. This notion is used to support the view that human nature is governed by an innate self-interest, a trait we developed through evolution.

You may be wondering what this has to do with the scourge of capitalism that is the focus of my blog. Some of you may have looked at the last sentence as a hint--because, of course, this view of human nature directly supports the capitalist world-view and justifies all sorts of sociopathic crimes against the rest of humanity. This is correct, but I'd like to attack this "dangerous notion" that Renzo refers to from another direction.

The view of human nature as composed of genetic predispositions toward certain behaviors which are modulated by social experience is supported by overwhelming evidence. Yet, in spite of this, capitalist ideologues continue to revert to a more mechanistic view based entirely on genetics. It seems that this phenomenon keeps coming back. Recall its prominence among fascist regimes in the 1930s and in the quasi-fascism of 1920-1930 America? Such a view prevents any notions that the way societies are organized can have deleterious effects on human development; and thus, discourages any examination of evidence that a capitalist organized society contributes to all sorts of human behavioral disorders.

If you use a class-based analysis to class-structured societies dating from their first appearance in agrarian societies until the present time (which represents about two percent of human history), you will understand that a ruling class will always impose self-justifying views on the rest of society including its scientists.

Government Pushes Propaganda Through Video Games

Click here to access article from Washington's Blog.

At last I find people endorsing a view I've had for the last 25 years--the ruling class often use video games as another ideological tool to indoctrinate children. Their emphasis on, not just competition, but brutal competition where kids are encouraged to engage in life and death struggles against "evil doers" conveniently mirrors propaganda imposed on their adult populations. I never cease to be amazed at the brilliance of the ruling class's indoctrination agents to come up with such clever methods of controlling and manipulating the 99 Percent.

“By the late 1990s,” says Nick Turse, an American journalist, historian and author of The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives, “the [US] army was pouring tens of millions of dollars into a centre at the University of Southern California – the Institute of Creative Technologies – specifically to build partnerships with the gaming industry and Hollywood.” 

The Idle No More Movement for Dummies

Click here to access article by Gyasi Ross from Indian Country. 

First and foremost, the Idle No More Movement is about protecting the Earth for all people from the carnivorous and capitalistic spirit that wants to exploit and extract every last bit of resources from the land. Therefore, anybody who cares about this Earth should be interested in the Idle No More Movement.
....

These mobilized Native people wanted to ensure that children two, three and twelve generations from now would have clean water. The children who will benefit from the Native mobilization are not just Native children—it’s for all children. Lakes and rivers tend to be either clean or dirty for Native and non-Native children alike.

It’s not a Native thing or a white thing, it’s an Indigenous worldview thing. It’s a “protect the Earth” thing. 

NATO funding, arming, & simultaneously fighting Al Qaeda from Mali to Syria.

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

The author provides information to indicate that the Empire's warlords are spreading chaos by a variety of methods, especially the use of known terrorist organizations, from one country to another in the Middle East and North Africa. Today, in Africa it's Mali, tomorrow it appears that Algeria is the next target. Hence, it might be worth taking a look at what is happening in Algeria by also reading "For Algerians, a Divide on France in Mali" posted on Al-Akhbar.

...thanks to NATO, that is exactly what Libya has become – a Western sponsored sanctuary for Al-Qaeda. ...illustrating a pattern of using clearly terroristic organizations, even those listed as so by the US State Department, to carry out US foreign policy.

Everything We Know So Far About Drone Strikes

Click here to access article by Cora Currier from ProPublica. 

This is a very comprehensive report which includes links to other documents and reports, and provides up-to-date information on the use of drones to kill suspected militants that Empire warlords don't like.

I found this most disturbing:

Just last week, a federal judge ruled that the government did not have to release a secret legal memo making the case for the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen. The judge also ruled the government did not have to respond to other requests seeking more information about targeted killing in general.  (In making the ruling, the judge acknowledged a “Catch-22,” saying that the government claimed “as perfectly lawful certain actions that seem on their face incompatible with our Constitution and laws while keeping the reasons for their conclusion a secret.”)

Revealed: America’s Arms Sales To Bahrain Amid Bloody Crackdown

Click here to access article by Justin Elliott from ProPublica. 

ProPublica has obtained documents under the Freedom of Information Act to reveal the following:

Despite Bahrain’s bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, the U.S. has continued to provide weapons and maintenance to the small Mideast nation.

Defense Department documents released to ProPublica give the fullest picture yet of the arms sales: The list includes ammunition, combat vehicle parts, communications equipment, Blackhawk helicopters, and an unidentified missile system.

The rotten foundations of US policy in the Middle East

Click here to access article by Bill Van Auken from World Socialist Web Site.

The author provides a graphic description of brutal exploitation of workers in Arab states protected by, and allied with, the Empire in the Middle East.

There are some 15 million of these workers in the Gulf States. They account for over half of the workforce and the overwhelming majority of workers in the private sector. It is they who have built the high-rise towers, luxury palaces and highways of Manama, Dubai and Riyadh, paid for with the oil earnings of the parasitic ruling dynasties.

The high cost of new and improved

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

We have often heard the expression "planned obsolescence" used in critiques of capitalism. Faced with his own computer dilemma, this writer provides us with much more information regarding this practice which generates tremendous waste in order to improve next quarter's financial statements of corporations. Of course, they disguise this practice behind the euphemism of "new and improved". 

The greatest offensive against European social rights since the Second World War

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

The author explains how European capitalists are benefiting from the current crisis there which, of course, they created with their reckless gambling. (Of course, given the globalized nature of capitalism it is clear that all capitalists with investments in Europe are benefiting.) After securing the safety of their banks with government bailouts and other schemes, they are now benefiting from the misery of most working populations. Economic crises that are devastating for workers provide many opportunities for these owners of economies to reap big profits and steal more properties from the public sector.

...one of the lessons they have learned from the absorption of East Germany at the beginning of the 1990’s is that important wage disparities between employees can be greatly exploited to the advantage of employers. The massive East German privatisations, the attacks against the job security of ex-GDR workers, along with an augmentation of German public debt due to the costs of this absorption (which have been used as the pretexts for austerity programmes) have permitted the employers to greatly erode the situation of East as well as West German workers. The present German leaders see the eurozone crisis, and the brutal conditions imposed on the Greek people, as an opportunity to push further and to reproduce at the European level, the gains they have made at home.

 He also explains the difference between relative and absolute surplus-value and how capitalists gain from each method of appropriation of worker-created wealth.

After several decades of neoliberal offensives, increases in absolute surplus-value have become, once again, a major element in the extraction of surplus-value and add to the relative surplus-value. The employers, using crisis based campaigns are now gaining on both surplus values, thus showing the magnitude of the current offensive.

The Economics of Insurgency Thoughts on Idle No More & Critical Infrastructure

Click here to access article by Shiri Pasternak from The Media Co-op (Canada).

Pasternak reports on the threats posed my the Idle No More movement in Canada to the Canadian economy as seen by their ruling class as revealed in their media and released classified government reports.

News reports are ablaze with reports of looming Indigenous blockades and economic disruption. As the Idle No More movement explodes into a new territory of political action, it bears to amplify the incredible economic leverage of First Nations today, and how frightened the government and industry are of their capacity to wield it.

This Canadian media co-op appears to be an excellent source of coverage of news and analysis for the 99 Percent in Canada in general, and coverage regarding the Idle No More movement in particular. They may offer an inspirational model for a peoples' centered media to overcome the information blockade imposed on all 99 Percent populations everywhere in the world.

Aaron Swartz, Canary in a Coal Mine for the Information Cartel

Click here to access article by Nozomi Hayase from Dissident Voice.

An American Hero

On Jan 11, 2013, a bright light burned out. Aaron Swartz was not only a prodigy. He was a genius with technical skills and articulated political thoughts. But more importantly, he was a thoroughly good person. Many who were touched by his life noted that he was always so willing to help people. “What can I do? I can build it. I can solve it. I can make it possible”. All of his work was based on that simple yet extraordinary generous heart.





This "canary", one of the finest examples of American youth, died while fighting against a core value of US capitalist society--property rights. Aaron was one of the key leaders of the victory over internet censorship which would have given the government the right to shut down sites that infringed on information commodities.

The open internet has been embraced by nearly two generations of youth who have seen the incredible potential of the internet to connect people with each other, with ideas, with knowledge, all of which could vastly enrich their lives. Also, maybe because of their youth they were not fully indoctrinated in capitalist values and concepts, especially the core concept of private property which is the foundation of capitalism. And, the more private property the better to feed the appetites of wolf-like, predatory creatures called capitalists who created a system that would transform everything into a commodities to be bought, owned, and sold for profits. Even money became a commodity which they (the privately owned "Federal Reserve") lend to the larger society--with interest, of course.

The system was created by, and for, this tiny minority who could see its potential to force the rest of mankind to work for them. Their system was never designed to serve society, but only a small segment, their segment, who "owned" the implements of production and thus "owned" everything that was produced. 

The defeat, so far, of these censorship bills represents a rare grassroots victory won in the halls of Congress owned and controlled by the ruling capitalist class. Obviously, he became their target along with class warriors like Bradley Manning who dared to challenge this class's right to commit war crimes with impunity. We, the people, simply must carry on their fight and support such dissidents against the backlash of an angry, vindictive ruling class.

Come Home, America!

Click here to access poem by one of my favorite writers, Gary Corseri, posted on Dissident Voice.

Are we heading to an economic crash in the next few years?

Click here if you wish to access source of this 9:21m video from an interview with Michael Hudson on the Thom Hartmann Program broadcast via RT TV. (Note: there is a brief interruption in the middle of the broadcast, but quickly resumes.)

It would be helpful in understanding Hudson's comments, to understand the difference between defined benefit and defined contribution pension programs. As I recall, this shift began in the 1990s until now whereby most pension plans are of the latter type. As one would expect, this shift has been enormously popular with the One Percent who live largely off of their ownership of corporations and speculative investments. Not only does this allow hedge fund agents and corporate executives to engage in more risky endeavors, but it also has the advantage of encouraging more of the 99% to identify with corporate interests.

For more information on pensions and their reckless use by hedge funds, I highly recommend perusing the Pension Pulse website where the Canadian blogger has specialized in following this issue. Although this offers a Canadian perspective, most of his analyses applies to the US. Specifically, I recommend this and this.

Unfortunately, Hudson's liberal recommendations for change consist of only reforms to the existing system which is doing what it is logically set up to do--to provide the One Percent with short-term profits and power. Over the past 300 years this system has so abundantly rewarded them that they are now hopelessly addicted to it. It is up to us to dismantle it and replace it with a sustainable system that serves everybody. We must do this or else...we will perish from the Earth.

 

Interview: Indigenous Occupy

Click here if you wish to access article and and source of 4:59m RT video interview with Andrew Gavin Marshall from his blog. 

The article offers more background on the Idle No More fightback that originated among Canadian aboriginals and includes some excerpts from the interview and a few additional comments. 

“Bill C-45 is not just about a budget, it is a direct attack on First Nations lands and on the bodies of water we all share from across this country,”

The indigenous populations across North American have always had to fight back whenever the dominant European ruling class saw that their lands contained valuable resources. Thus, they have always been shunted off onto reservation lands where elites saw little of value. With new technologies come opportunities for corporate exploitation of resources in many of these lands, and Prime Minister Harper's promotion of Bill C-45 is just the latest assault. They are fighting back to not only preserve their habitat; but being much more conscious of the ongoing devastating assaults on nature by corporations obsessed with short-term profits, they feel that they must take the lead in a last stand to protect all of our homelands on planet Earth.

This is happening everywhere in the world: most aggressively in Central and South America, and Africa. See this, this, and this.