The Corporate Enclosure of Seeds Intensifies

Click here to access article by David Bollier from his blog David Bollier: news and perspectives on the commons.

The title makes reference to the classic event of enclosure in Britain starting in the 16th century (see this) and the subject of a classic work by Karl Polanyi entitled The Great Transformation. It had profound effects on working people in Britain, and continues to be employed today by capitalist agents in their quest to "own" everything everywhere that might be of value to anyone (see this).

In this article we see the same principle pursued by global corporations to "own" seeds.

In a sign of how far the forces of enclosure have come, the US Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Monday that re-using seeds that are patented, knowingly or not, amounts to an act of piracy.  Of course, re-using seeds has been the tradition in agriculture for millennia, just as re-using songs and text is an essential element of culture.

No matter.  The masters of "intellectual property" hold the whip hand, and they don't want us to re-use and share seeds as the natural course of things. If you think that a farmer ought to be able to use the seeds from one crop in the next season, you are entertaining  illegal ideas.

Pioneers of Ecological Humanism

Click here to access article by Janet Biehl from New Compass (Norway).

Biehl, in her review of a new book by Brian Morris entitled Pioneers of Ecological Humanism, makes reference to profound views by recent thinkers who have been forgotten. I believe this happened because such views had to be "disappeared" from all media controlled by the One Percent. This demonstrates the power of mainstream media and educational institutions to control how and what we think.

Several thinkers whose names have since faded from memory were, back then, innovators in formulating the ecological critique of industrial capitalism that we take for granted today. Among them were Lewis Mumford (1895-1990), René Dubos (1901-82) and Murray Bookchin (1921-2006).

They have, Brian Morris argues, been forgotten too quickly. At a time when we are still struggling—intellectually, politically, and ethically—to grasp the reality of climate change, to face its implications, and to prevent it from getting worse (and in some cases even acknowledge its existence), the work of these three philosophers contains wisdom that is stimulating and germane. In Pioneers of Ecological Humanism, Morris has taken on task of demonstrating their intellectual stature and reaffirming their continued relevance.

Is Malaysia Teetering on the Edge of an Islamist Knife?

Click here to access article by Nile Bowie from Global Research. 

This writer provides further support to the article in Land Destroyer which is in opposition to a corresponding one in Open Democracy as I reported in this posting. Also, see this.

Why Europe can’t just “fix” youth unemployment

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

This European writer, while noticing a sudden concern among European political leaders agents regarding youth unemployment, explains why their formulation of this problem is self-serving and simply wrong. He has a hunch what this concern is really about.

This article is an introduction to some proposed answers to what he regards as the key problem and question:

How could Europe’s downtrodden youth ever possibly conceive of shaking the global financial order? It is to this impossible question that I will turn in my next post. 

It Wasn’t Conservatives That Were Being Investigated by the IRS; It Was the Koch Brothers’ Front Groups

Click here to access article by Pam Martens from Wall Street on Parade. 

...the Koch brothers must be laughing all the way to the bank.

While mainstream US media plays up the persecution of the Tea Party theme, we have here an alternative report on what the real story is. I suspect that the widespread reporting of this manufactured scandal provides a useful distraction from the real scandal of government spying on the private communications of journalists.

Israel’s Act of War Against Syria—Madness or Cold Calculation?

Click here to access article by  F. William Engdahl from Voltaire.

This sharp-eyed global-political analyst brings together various pieces in the jigsaw puzzle of the Syrian crisis to form a coherent picture of recent events.

US Prepares to Overthrow Malaysian Government

Click here to access article from Alternative Thai News Network. 

The street protests conducted by Bersih have all the hallmarks of US-backed "color revolutions," and this recent attempt to overturn election results that do not favor an overt US-proxy, foreshadows the same destructive, divisive, violent, and regressive unrest that has plagued Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, and Syria after US-engineered uprisings have left each in turn destabilized, failed states overrun by extremists, dictators, and traitors many times worse than the governments activists sought to overthrow.

I think that the headline should be stated as a question, however the article provides substantial evidence in the affirmative.

Collective Punishment Advocates Cry Foul Over Stephen Hawking’s Support of BDS

Click here to access article by Murtaza Hussain from Muftah. 

The decision last week by British physicist Stephen Hawking to abide by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel has predictably touched off a major controversy. While he has attracted many supporters, Hawking has also received a large degree of vitriol from certain pro-Israel quarters.

Could Hawking be (shudder!) an anti-Semite, too? (sarcasm) 

Meanwhile, back at the Israeli ranch we find institutionalized racism reported in this article.

The Project to Expose Power Structures

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

Because I have an extreme dislike for commercials--no doubt, from being daily bombarded by them--I have intentionally omitted any from my blog. This may be the closest I've come to featuring one, but in this pitch no one is getting rich and powerful from supporting the work of Marshall. 

See the world through a different lens [with] Andrew Gavin Marshall

On the other hand, we might think about ourselves all getting a bit more powerful by reading his well-documented and well-reasoned material. (Some examples: this, this, and this.) This brilliant scholar, in contrast to media directors hired by the One Percent, has dedicated his life to unraveling the truth that they hide behind many layers of deception. He, no doubt, could earn a very comfortable income working in some academic institution writing obscure intellectual articles that served the interests of the One Percent. His dedication serves us by empowering us with knowledge about the real world so that we can create effective tools to re-arrange the organization of existing societies to serve OUR needs, not theirs.

SUPPORT THE WORK OF ANDREW GAVIN MARSHALL!

Papelitos: An Economic Parable For Our Times

Click here to access article posted by Don Quijones from Raging Bull-Shit.

This parable has much to teach people about the complex betting schemes used by the One Percent at the capitalist casino to enrich themselves while creating havoc in our lives. For obvious reasons, such simple explanations are missing in mainstream media and other organs of indoctrination.

Part children’s fable, part economic parable, Papelitos was written by Hernán Casciari, one of the rising stars of Argentinean literature, with the help of his eight-year old daughter Nina. It is a tale about how a small, idyllic village succumbs to the destructive influence of financial speculation, triggering asset bubbles and ultimately wealth destruction for most of its inhabitants.

Secret U.S. Trawl of AP Calls Decried by Press Groups

Click here to access article by Jim Snyder from Bloomberg News.  

Even this prime Wall Street media source is concerned about this late-breaking revelation of US government surveillance of the personal communications of AP journalists. It appears that the full-spectrum surveillance structures that have been set up in recent years is now being applied on journalists. The end effect, of course, will be to intimidate journalists, especially independent journalists, their sources, and whistle-blowers. Welcome to the Orwellian world of "thought police".

Media groups and government watchdogs said the U.S. Justice Department interfered with press freedom when it secretly collected telephone records from Associated Press reporters and editors over a two-month period last year.

Eric Draitser provides us with the more chilling implications of this incident in the last part of this 3:32m video from RT.

The criminalization of political dissent in America

Click here to access article by Tom Carter from World Socialist Web Site.

Two essential factors are driving the trampling of democratic rights and the shift towards authoritarian rule. The first is the massive growth of social inequality, which in turn is driven by the historic crisis of the world capitalist system. While it robs the population in order to pile up ever greater and more obscene levels of private wealth, the financial aristocracy is terrified of the emergence of social opposition. Not from a position of strength, but out of extreme fear and vulnerability, the billionaires look to police state repression as a means to preserve their status, power and wealth.

Second, just as democracy is incompatible with such levels of social inequality, it is incompatible with imperialist war. The US military and intelligence agencies have for twelve years been wading in blood in a drive to plunder the world's strategic resources. The dead, wounded and displaced number in the millions.

Russia's Plan For The BRICS To Dismantle The Dollar System

Click here to access article by Valentin Mândrăşescu posted on Testosterone Pit. 

The status of the US dollar as the world reserve currency gives the US a number of advantages over other countries. The world’s most important commodities are priced and traded in dollars, even if most of these commodities are not produced in the US. The fact that the world’s financial system is based on the dollar allows the Federal Reserve to export inflation to other countries, while the Federal Government runs a huge deficit with impunity.

This article provides a perfect segue to my yesterday's commentary in relation to Marshall's excellent study entitled "Large Corporations Seek U.S.–European 'Free Trade Agreement' to Further Global Dominance".

Large Corporations Seek U.S.–European 'Free Trade Agreement' to Further Global Dominance

Click here to access article by Andrew Gavin Marshall from AlterNet.

This study represents a major contribution to the understanding of the current operations, goals, rhetoric, power structure, and organizations of Western capitalist elites. You will learn about all the groups through which they are pushing their policies, and you will learn the names of major individual and corporate players. 

There is so much here.  This piece should not be read as some sort of quick-written opinion piece. It is a rigorous piece of research backed by solid documentation. It is alarming. And, it is a call to action. It probably should be printed out and studied, but then you lose access to the links which are also valuable. 

If you have been following important news over the years, you have encountered so many capitalist organizations representing advocacy groups, policy formulating groups, think tanks, business associations, international trades groups, G-7, G-8, G-20, etc. The list is endless. In this study you will also learn about new ones that have recently been established to promote a major push for a trans-Atlantic trade agreement called the "Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership" (TTIP). You see, capitalists are always advancing their individual power and wealth interests by combining with others against others for dominance in the dog-eat-dog world of capitalism. Thus, one can regard all the above organizations as efforts at networking to establish alliances. 

A major one that is now emerging is this TTIP which, in addition to TPP, is not only a method to meet the threat posed by the ascendancy of the BRIC countries (especially China and Russia), but over what remains of any domestic "democratic" institutions that get in the way of capitalist interests.

If you think about it, it is a totally logical development following their frequent use of NATO and its application of force to extend Empire interests. An economic integration of Europe (including members of the old English Empire: Canada, Australia, and India) with the United States under neoliberal principles, directed by and serving Western capitalist elites, is the perfect complement to NATO.  

Corporations are undertaking unprecedented drives for the accumulation of profit and power, promoting agendas and projects which re-shape the world in their image, treating governments as toys, the environment as an enemy, and impoverishing populations around the world. We are witnessing a transnational social engineering project, driven by large corporations, aimed at facilitating economic, financial, political and social consolidation into their hands.

Welcome to the era of Cosmopolitical Corporate Consolidation and Colonization.

More Than Skin Deep

Click here to access article by David Glenn Cox from OpEd News.

Although everything in his article points to a class war, the author only speculates that "perhaps" there is a "civil war".

Perhaps then, the civil war has already begun.... Our lives become
changed and mutated by these experiences. A child born into wealth lives
in a far different life, a life filled with opportunities. While a
child born into this existence without wealth, is offered a life in the
new American, post industrial poverty, decorated with a continuous
subtle fear and a blankness of opportunity.

These are not the children of one America, but of two peoples.

What I felt was especially valuable in the article is his description of how the Federal Reserve's policy of "quantitative easing", or expanding the money supply, is actually functioning.

WaPo Fudges Libyan Protests

Click here to access article by Bernhard from his blog Moon of Alabama.

The author is peeved that this prominent US newspaper tries to obscure the fact that our ruling class has produced another failed state in which chaos reigns. He is right. Our Empire agents know full well that so shortly after liberating Libya from Ghadaffi for "humanitarian" reasons and producing a failed state as a result would upset ordinary Americans too much. They might not support another "humanitarian" adventure these agents are preparing for Syria.

The Washington Post lauded the intervention in Libya. The demise of Gaddhafi threw the country into deep chaos. The Washington Post is now working to instigate a like intervention in Syria. To be able to do so it has to hide the chaos in Libya. 

And, then Bernhard continues by reporting on the real chaos carefully omitted by this US "newspaper of record".

New report: no austerity for EU military spending

Click here to access article by the ROAR Collective from Reflections on a Revolution.

High levels of military spending played a key role in the unfolding European sovereign debt crisis — and continue to undermine efforts to resolve it.

From all that I have read, it appears that the US spends even more on military items than all Europeans combined to insure the Empire's control over the world's markets and resources. And you can be dead-certain that no sequester cuts will occur for direct military weapons and supplies to continue and expand this control. Pentagon spending is so obscured--deliberately so--by "black budgets" that nobody knows what they really spend. David Vine has long made efforts to ascertain how much they spend, and this is what he concluded:

Wanting to figure out the real costs of garrisoning the planet myself, for more than three years, as part of a global investigation of bases abroad, I’ve talked to budget experts, current and former Pentagon officials, and base budget officers. Many politely suggested that this was a fool’s errand given the number of bases involved, the complexity of distinguishing overseas from domestic spending, the secrecy of Pentagon budgets, and the “frequently fictional” nature of Pentagon figures. (The Department of Defense remains the only federal agency unable to pass a financial audit.)

You can be sure that the ruling capitalist class will not in any way be inconvenienced by such cuts: witness the quick exemption on cuts to air traffic control which was inconveniencing their travel. And likewise for Israel-firsters who are currently making efforts to exempt our generous "welfare" package to Israel (see this and this).

Thus, this is how ruling class operatives will protect their "good cop" Obama: he will be spared any embarrassment from a compromise with the "bad cop" Republicans over the issue of automatic budget cuts. Meanwhile, they can continue with their Empire business as usual.

US prepares war with Syria as pro-US opposition loses ground

Click here to access article by Thomas Gaist from World Socialist Web Site.

In contrast to the headline, the content of this article shows that the Empire is proceeding along a two-track path--threatening stepped up direct attacks and negotiating some sort of deal with Russia (and possibly China). Meanwhile the Syrian nation is being destroyed and its people suffering widespread miseries. But no price is too high for Empire agents in order to extend their control over the planet.

The ramping up of US military operations against Syria is accompanied by diplomatic efforts to bring about a post-Assad government on terms favorable to US imperialism. Secretary of State John Kerry has sought an agreement with Russia, which would pave the way for a power-sharing arrangement. 

Getting Crushed by the European Gravy Train

Click here to access article by Don Quijones from Raging Bull-Shit. 

This article from a British author describes somewhat different political arrangements in Europe compared to what we find in the US to diminish the influence of ordinary people over important political matters. 

In the US we find direct subversion of the superficial "democratic" institutions through the tight control of the election machinery and funding of candidates. In Europe they have established supra-national bodies rationalized by the need for European unity and consolidation in a continent historically wracked by inter-nation conflicts in a patchwork of nations. However, these bodies are unelected and are heavily influenced by close ties with powerful actors in the ruling capitalist class. 

One key element is shared by both divisions of the NATO Empire: both have banking cartels in control of the issuance of money. In the US it is the Federal Reserve and in Europe it is the European Central Bank. In the US control of important decisions regarding the spending of US government revenues has been largely under the control of the Treasury Department which is almost always staffed by key actors from major banking institutions. In Europe this function appears to be managed by the European Stability Mechanism, and again we find key actors from major banking institutions. All political bodies are subject to influence from well-financed corporate lobbies.

The end result in both divisions of the Empire are the same: both arrangements preserve the appearance of democratic control of decisions while maintaining real control in the hands of the capitalist class. In both sections of the Empire important decisions are made in secrecy behind closed doors and serve the interests of their class.

For more details on European political-economic arrangements, I highly recommend viewing the following 1:25:21m film. (As of this writing I've been able to watch the first 20 minutes.) The film reports on the determined efforts of the narrator, an environmental activist, and his associates to uncover the realities of who really makes the important decisions in Europe.

The Radical Center and Armed Revolution

Click here to access article by Rob Urie from CounterPunch.

Although I think that his overly complex sentences and writing errors get in the way, he makes some very good observations about political conditions in the US. Using a recent polling report which upset the ruling class (a "center" consisting of both liberals and conservatives), the author points out the many contradictions infecting their policies which provides opportunities for the left to exploit. My favorite is this:

...gun control advocates only look at the civilian side of the issue. Coincident in recent decades with increasing concentration of political-economic power has been the militarization of the police; the massive build out of incarceration and prisons as capitalist enterprises, the erosion of legal protections from illegitimate state and commercial power, the growth of intrusive surveillance technologies and a shift to formal race and class-based strategies of police repression. On the one hand gun control advocates argue [that] the fear of growing state power is lunatic paranoia while on the other there is no apparent interest on their part in disarming the increasingly militarized state against who the claims of outsized power are being made.

Fearlessness Grows From the Grass Roots: US Protest Movement against the Banksters

Click here to access article by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers from Global Research. 

As more people see that the government represents Wall Street and concentrated wealth, instead of them; that the government continues to give the banksters who crashed the economy a break while cutting access to basic necessities, that the government continues to put big energy profits ahead of protecting the planet – more people are becoming fearless.

Neo-fascists and police attack students in Naples (video)

Click here to access article and 3:09m video posted on Struggles in Italy. 

...almost all [mainstream media] sources unanimously introduce the video with the same caption, reporting a police intervention in order to divide two clashing group of protesters and presenting the incident as a scuffle between students and workers.

Yet the footage tells a different story: a group of protesters attacked the students’ rally unprovoked, with the complicity and support of the police, who charged and chased the students without identifying those responsible for the violence.

This strategy of promoting fascist thugs against left opposition continues to be a favorite weapon of the European ruling classes. So far, I haven't seen this employed much in the US in the current economic crisis. Probably because of the prominent influence of Israel-firsters in US institutions, US political operatives focus much more on playing up the "terrorist" theme and fear of Muslims by manufacturing terrorist incidents using Muslim characters. (See this, this, this, this, and this.)

The Greek workers who took inspiration from Argentina

Click here to access article by the ROAR Collective from Reflections on a Revolution. 

The story began in May 2011, when the parent company Philkeram-Johnson stopped paying wages to its subsidiary Viomichaniki Metalleutiki (Vio.Me) located in Thessaloniki, Greece, in the midst of the devastating economic and social crisis that has been facing the country for the past three years. After the failure of negotiations to collect unpaid wages, the workers occupied the factory, and only a short time later, its owners abandoned it.

Heat-Trapping Gas Passes Milestone, Raising Fears

Click here to access article by Justin Gillis from The New York Times. (Note: free registration required.)

The level of the most important heat-trapping gas in the atmosphere, carbon dioxide, has passed a long-feared milestone, scientists reported Friday, reaching a concentration not seen on the earth for millions of years.

Scientific instruments showed that the gas had reached an average daily level above 400 parts per million....

While directors in the ruling One Percent class have long denied and then created doubts about this issue, now we finally find coverage in corporate mainstream media that, yes indeed, greenhouse gases are reaching dangerous levels...but, according to them, no one knows the impacts this will have!

Now while scientists expect CO2 levels to continue to go up, they're not entirely sure what that means for humans or where on the planet the impact will be felt the most.

The real dilemma is that the system of capitalism requires growth, which means burning relatively cheap fossil fuels. So, what are we to conclude? The One Percent are stupid? No. The real answer is that they are completely and hopelessly addicted to the wealth, and even more, to the power that their system of capitalism delivers to them. It's essentially a dog-eat-dog system where so many of the rewards of power and wealth go to the top dog. Hence, the tendency that we have witnessed: the growing concentration of wealth and power in fewer hands throughout capitalist history.

The system is also well known in its history for producing booms and busts which mostly results in disasters for working people. This stirs up opposition among working people which threatens the system. Capitalist ruling classes have a variety of ways to cope with this opposition: support fascist or police-state regimes to ruthless crack down on worker opposition (Nazi Germany, Spain, Italy, Japan, etc.); go to war to distract working people from any revolutionary thoughts, to defeat national competitors, to create economy activity through production for war, to create demand after their wars from all the destruction of assets; promote social welfare policies to reduce such pressures (FDR social policies in the 1930s), make attempts to promote another economic bubble to create economic activity; control the media to keep workers from understanding economic issues and distract them with mindless spectacles and entertainment (for the latest example, see this); exercise close supervision over their education so that they remain ignorant of the causes of the many economic crises and remain committed to capitalism; various gimmicks such as "quantitative easing" (increasing the supply of money which always ends up in the hands of the rich) and, worst of all, austerity policies (cutting and/or selling off of public services and social supports); etc.

The fact that in the current economic collapse austerity policies have been emphasized demonstrates the confidence (or arrogance?) of the current international capitalist class has of maintaining their rule despite worker opposition. Are they deluded or realistic? Are they so high from the drugs of concentrated power, wealth, and weapons that they can't see the threats of climate destabilization and resource exhaustian looming ahead?

A Comparison of two reports on the outcome of recent elections in Malaysia

by Ron Horn.

I was confronted this morning by two reports on the same subject, but with widely different interpretations. I am referring to these reports:

• US "Pivot" Toward Asia Trips in Malaysia by Tony Cartalucci from his blog Land Destroyer
• Malaysia after the Election: a paradigm shift? by Giovanni Navarria from openDemocracy

The subject was, as my title indicates, the recent elections in Malaysia. My knowledge of that country's political affairs is minimal--so, who to believe? To answer this, I had to engage in a quick critical examination of both reports. 

First, let me cite two summaries of the two general views regarding the elections. 

Cartalucci:

Despite the US mobilizing the summation of its media power and pouring millions of dollars into the opposition party, including the creation and perpetuation of fake-NGOs such as Bersih and the Merdeka Center, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak sailed to a comfortable victory in this year's general elections. The cheap veneer has begun peeling away from America's "democracy promotion" racket, leaving its proxies exposed and frantic, and America's hegemonic ambitions across Asia in serious question. 

Navarria:

For decades elections in the country have been nothing but a smoke screen for a regime that has designed its election laws to look and feel democratic, while, at its very core, remaining authoritarian. The National Front coalition has won every general election since 1957 thanks to, among others things, favorable constitutional reform, corruption, abuse of power, media control, electoral fraud and strong influence on the electoral commission and the electoral districts boundaries. Yet despite the National Front clout on Malaysian politics, in the last two elections the opposition has succeeded in narrowing the gap to unprecedented levels. 

Whereas Cartalucci celebrates the defeat of parties backed by Empire funders, Navarria celebrates the fact that these latter parties have gained support in the election.

Cartalucci's report provides abundant evidence of Empire funding behind important players in the election. For example, he cites a reference to the Empire's prime election weapon, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), and its website that clearly reports on the latter's support for Merdeka Center for Opinion Research which both authors use to bolster their views. 

A reference that Navarria uses to support his view is a source from Reporters Without Borders. Thus, I decided to find out more about them by doing a quick examination on Wikipedia. By looking at the section entitled "Criticisms of RWB", I learned that this organization had a number of ties with right-wing organizations and it has been viewed favorably by well-known Empire agents such as Otto Reich.

While Navarria describes the present Malaysian government as "authoritarian" and the opposition parties as "the foundation of Malaysia’s new democratic future", Cartalucci doesn't offer any evaluation of the existing government, instead he focuses only on US electoral manipulations and the economic and political interests behind these efforts. 

Election outcomes are important for Empire propagandists because they serve to reinforce the phony belief that the Empire supports "democracy" as well as providing opportunities to add additional regimes that can serve Empire economic and hegemonic interests. The report by Navarria posted on openDemocracy clearly supports this latter type of an agenda in Malaysia. 

The report posted on openDemocracy also makes me suspicious about this website in general. It may be another gatekeeping website designed to serve the Empire by steering progressive type readers to views that are compatible with Empire economic and hegemonic interests.  

Robin Williams On Junkie Bankers

Click here if you wish to access the source of this video posting on Raging Bull-Shit. 

The brave new world of work: where employees are treated as criminals

Click here to access article by Anthony Elliott from The Conversation (Australia). 

We have seen this new world of work expressed accurately as a "race to the bottom" for workers. The bottom as recently appeared in Bangladesh where over 1000 (and counting) low wage workers died in a building that did not meet required building standards and was ignored by officials --after all, workers are disposable in this brave new world of work. 

This bottom of working conditions that enriches major international corporations does not go without its effects on working conditions in the technologically advanced countries. Workers in these countries are fully aware that their jobs may be subject to off-shoring; and now with high unemployment rates nearly everywhere, they cling tenuously and anxiously to their own jobs where their performance is closely monitored. The author describes the increasing introduction of electronic monitoring methods.

Coup d’Etat to Trade Seen in Billionaire Toxic Lead Fight

Click here to access article by Andrew Martin from Bloomberg News. 

Here we see the early signs of the brave new world of neoliberalism that capitalist ruling classes are preparing for us. It's surprising that this prime capitalist media corporation allows such a headline, which accurately recognizes the likely outcome of a legal dispute in Peru, as a "coup d'etat".

“It’s like a quiet, slow-moving coup d’état,” said Lori Wallach, director of the Global Trade Watch division of Public Citizen, a nonprofit that opposes many aspects of trade pacts. Investors and corporations are “using this regime to have another front at trying to limit the governance authority of nation states.” 

New Compass Meeting about Participatory Democracy at the World Social Forum

Click here to access article from New Compass (based in Norway). (Note: the introductory article contains links to both an audio and a written transcript of the WSF meeting. The transcript is accessed as a Microsoft Word document.)

One important point about participatory democracy is to make sure that the institutions really empower the citizens. Often “participatory democracy” is just a political move made by the local authorities to attract votes, a communication move that only serves to legitimate decisions that already have been taken by the authorities. To ensure real participation and decision making power to citizens, the cooperative has created the Intervention Charter. Local authorities committing to the charter are put in front of the people and held to account. The idea is that it is the people who are the experts. But implementing such a practice encounters several difficulties: the fear of the local authorities to be directly confronted by their citizens, and the difficulty of convincing both citizens and experts that ordinary citizens know what is good for their community. Low participation of citizens can also be a problem sometimes. It is not easy to mobilize people to participate nowadays. [My emphasis]

I see a danger in this presentation of participatory democracy. One must never forget that capitalist ruling classes will never voluntarily relinquish control over important decisions. The fact that they permit local experiments such as depicted in this presentation does not in any way refute this point. You see, under globalized capitalism, local decisions matter very little to capitalist ruling classes. Most tax money is spent by national governments that are controlled by these ruling classes, and local communities have lost most of the important decisions. Consider how corporations can elicit all kinds of subsidies and favors from local communities so that corporations will set up operations in their communities. This lack of power over important decisions is clearly the reason why there is "low participation of citizens...."

However, I believe that such participation is desirable in that it offers a training experience for people to prepare them for self-government.

Female 'Purity' Is Bullshit

Click here to access article by Lindy West from Jezebel.

The author looks at the issue of the tendency for women to be reduced to sexual objects in a society that is infected with notions of sinfulness associated with sex. Hence, there are "good girls" and "bad girls", Madonnas or whores. This issue in general is, as illustrated by this article, usually dealt with as an issue of men versus women, with the female author arguing that men are evil-doers. As with many other issues, I think that a class-based analysis of the topic sheds much more light. See if you agree with my reasoning.

I think that both cultural phenomena, sexuality as sin and the sexual objectification of women, are fostered by the class structure of capitalism, a system that empowers one small group, "owners" of productive property, over all other people. Because of their privileges of "ownership" that has evolved over time, such people have the power to decide on how much net wealth that is created in productive enterprises go to a class known as workers versus how much they, the "owners", keep for themselves. This fundamental division of humanity has created a pattern that is repeated throughout all institutions in society because "owners" who by the advantageous nature of this division have assumed a leading role in governing societies, that is, they constitute a ruling class of people.

Regarding the sexuality as sin issue, libertinism has often been practiced, and even celebrated, among ruling classes throughout history. You will never find a reference in history to a worker or peasant "libertine". Hence, unrestrained sexual practices have always been the privilege of ruling classes for obvious reasons. Ruling classes want workers and peasants to devote their entire lives to producing things that ruling classes want and they want to accumulate most of the wealth generated by this production.

The other issue, the sexual objectification of women and its corollary, the Madonna or whore syndrome, can also be seen as serving the ruling class. First of all, the Madonna or whore phenomenon applies only to working class women, never to ruling class women. You will find that the latter's prolific practice of sexuality is romanticized throughout most of literature, for example, George Sand. Although you will never see this observed in popular versions of historical dramas about aristocratic life such as is frequently shown over PBS TV, but it was a common practice of aristocrats to regard peasant women, and probably men also, as completely available to provide them with sexual favors (see this and this).

Then there is the fundamental tendency found in capitalist societies to reduce everything to a commodity, and that applies to working class women as "whores" who offer their bodies for sale in the sexual market.

What we frequently see nowadays reflected in "feminist" literature and writings is a ruling class framing of the sexual objectification issue as one of men abusing women. This is precisely the tone of this article. Such framing serves the divide and rule strategy very well. To divide working people on this issue provides a very good distraction from thinking about how the capitalist ruling class continues to thoroughly rob working people of their homes, jobs, pensions, and life savings.

Looking at these issues from a class-based perspective does not for an instant justify any exploitative behavior regardless of who is the agent and who is the victim. I am merely pointing out how the issues are usually dealt with in capitalist society. The framing of these issues are used against working people to serve ruling class interests. 

The real focus should be on the socialization of these attitudes in our current society. The fact is that both sexes are indoctrinated in the same ideas and participate in the indoctrination of succeeding generations in these attitudes. It is not a question of sex, it has more to do with gender indoctrination, that is, how we are indoctrinated and socialized to behave in certain ways. The only real difference between the sexes in terms of behavior is that we act on our socialization according to our sexual identity.

The Reverse Revolving Door: How Corporate Insiders Are Rewarded Upon Leaving Firms for Congress

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

Disclosures reveal that corporations and lobbying firms award six-figure bonuses to staff who leave to take powerful positions on Capitol Hill.

Here we see a liberal media outlet report on this practice as if it were a sensational discovery. What is really significant about this report is the framing of the report as a sensational discovery. Reporting it this way furnishes more evidence of the overwhelming power of corporate media and ruling class control of education to shape the views of most Americans to believe that it is even possible for government institutions to function in some kind of independent way in a class-structured society. 

What we see here is "government as usual" under capitalist so-called "democracy". I never cease to be surprised that there are so few Americans aware of the fact that the government is essentially a branch of American capitalism and its sole function is to pretend to be some sort of legitimate democratic institution.

Global corporations and the Bangladesh building collapse

Click here to access article by Peter Symonds from World Socialist Web Site. 

Two weeks after the Rana Plaza building collapse, global retail giants that source their garments in Bangladesh such as Walmart, Primark, Benetton and others are engaged in a cynical public relations exercise to distance themselves from the tragedy and preserve their image and their profits.
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As of yesterday, the official death toll had reached 705, with hundreds more injured, making the collapse the worst industrial disaster in country’s history and one of the worst ever in the world.

This latest tragedy joins the huge line of similar tragedies that are an integral part of a system that seeks to reduce costs to a minimum regardless of the consequences to workers and their families. After all, as expressed so well by Margaret Thatcher, "there is no such thing as society, only individuals (capitalists) and their families." In this brave new neoliberal world, workers everywhere in the world are expendable and profits are everything.

In bed with Bibi

Click here to access article by Gilad Atzmon from Intrepid Report. 

We call on people of the world to pressure the Syrian regime to end its oppression of and war on the Syrian people.

I was shocked by the names Atzmon cited who signed on to such a statement and immediately looked for documented evidence for this charge. It didn't take long. The author put it front and center in the article. So, why haven't I seen any similar views from the names he cited published in any source up to now? Have they been too embarrassed to express them? 

There are times when one must face a situation where both parties in a conflict are engaging in despicable acts, but in this conflict these "progressives" by default are supporting the most dangerous force in the world today: the Empire and its Zionist allies who are engaging in the most heinous acts in their attempt to destroy another nation.

Post navigation ← Older posts Greece’s depression is IMF’s idea of ‘progress’ May8

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

Austerity programs are designed with ideology in mind, not with economics based on the real world. One clue to this is that “structural re-adjustment” programs invariably demand sell-offs of public assets — holding fire sales of state enterprises means private capital can scoop them up at very low prices, and profit nicely from doing so at public expense.

The neoliberal concept is that people exist to serve markets rather than markets existing to serve people.

Why is Corporate America fanning the flames of violence in Chicago?

Click here to access article by  Bob Simpson from Zcommunications.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel is in full control of the public schools and enthusiastically represents corporate interests.  CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett of the Chicago Public Schools(CPS), answers directly to Rahm.

CPS currently is proposing 61 school actions involving a total of 133 schools. Students from schools that are closed must go to what CPS calls “welcoming schools”, whence the figure of 133 affected schools. Most of these proposed school actions would take place in working class neighborhoods of color, many of them predominantly African-American. Some of these school actions could have deadly consequences.

He goes on in the article to explain the "deadly consequences", and points to some answers to the question posed in the headline.

After referring to the establishment crackdown on the Black Panthers who were making successful efforts at organizing multiracial communities in Chicago in the 1970s, he suggests that their current efforts are designed to serve corporate interests and to sow disorganization among the poor. In other words, a renewed class war.

And Then There Was One: The Last Empire?

Click here to access article by Tom Engelhardt from his blog TomDispatch. 

The title refers to the Anglo-American Empire enforced ultimately by NATO that has been imposed on the rest of the world. I refuse to quibble over some of his observations (for example, he suggests that the Soviet Union was an Empire) because his overall thesis is right on target.

The present capitalist model (the only one available) for a rising power, whether China, India, or Brazil, is also a model for planetary decline, possibly of a precipitous nature. 

Why You're in Deep Trouble If You Can't Afford a Lawyer

Click here to access article by Hannah Levintova, Jaeah Lee, and Brett Brownell from Mother Jones. 

Back in 1963 at the height of liberal (in the American political sense) influence the One Percent's Supreme Court was a bit embarrassed by the obvious fact that civil rights, like everything else, were essentially for sale under capitalist rule in the US. So our ruling class set about establishing a cover for this embarrassment with the provision of a "public defender". 

The article exposes what lies below this fig leaf: the obscenity of class based justice. Predictably, the editors of this liberal publication frame the issue as one that can be solved within the system. Thus, you can ignore their naive solutions, instead focus on the reality of injustice under the public defender arrangement.

Building The Commons: 2013 Forum

Click here to access posting by davana from Making Worlds: a commons coalition.

The significance of this post is to illustrate that the Occupy Movement has not disappeared, but is undergoing a period of consolidation, reflection, and rebirth. Here we visit people in New York City who are involved in the work of building a commons. They are people from a variety of activist and ideological backgrounds: Transition Towns activists, community organizers, Occupy Wall Street activists, Hurricane Sandy relief workers, academic intellectuals on the left, etc. 

I think one of the core commonalities that all of them share is a sense that people must re-assume responsibility for their own lives simply because their capitalist masters have little-to-no regard for them. It is a new consciousness that our society is manipulated by people who have separated themselves from communities and who have agendas at odds with the needs of communities. These activists know that they are faced with a massive project that includes new ways of thinking and relating to each other, in short, the construction of a new consciousness and culture. It is no place for individuals who have been thoroughly indoctrinated in the capitalist belief that the solutions to all problems can be obtained immediately by shopping and accumulating the stuff they want to sell you, or even a liberal's belief that participating in protest demonstrations can, by themselves, fundamentally change anything.

Anyway, I invite you to explore this website (for example, links like this and this) to understand where the commons/Occupy movement is today: it is a place where people are beginning to lay the foundations for a new society by asking important questions such as:

• How are people in NYC creating common spaces?
• How can commoning efforts support and strengthen each other?
• How do communities identify with and participate in the process of commoning?
• How can commoning be a form of resistance to neoliberal privatization?
• How can we construct a commons-inspired "Occupy theory" of collective action?

The Robot Revolution

Click here to access article by Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin from News Beacon Ireland. 

Will we have more leisure time? That is predicated on the idea of a social fund created by society to pay for education, health, transport etc. But where will that money come from? The beneficiaries of robot production (which will no doubt be private) will be the owners and shareholders of robot producing companies and factories supplying robots to universities, hospitals, libraries etc. not society as a whole.

This may seem fantastical now during this transition phase of development but already relatively undeveloped robots are being used as tour guides and remote doctors. As more privatisation puts more people at the mercy of the profit motive, exposure to replacement by robot is only limited by the current capabilities of contemporary science.

Oh, I'm sure we will have much more leisure time. We are already experiencing much more leisure time while being jobless, although I don't think we can enjoy it much while being forced out of our homes and into lines at a local food bank.

The marvelous development of technology, which is a legacy of so many generations of humanity and a product of human ingenuity, has under capitalism been secured by a few for their benefit. Under their system of capitalism, they own this technology and the sophisticated tools it has produced; and they have been, and will continue, to use it against us.

The author does us a great service in pointing out the contradictions that many millions across the globe are increasing being confronted with, however his conclusion seems rather lame to me.

Only stronger ties building on the common interest between the unemployed and employed can possibly resist this coming workplace crisis. 

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew Holds a Closed Door Meeting With Jamie Dimon and Hedge Fund Titans

Click here to access article by Pam Martens from Wall Street on Parade.

For obvious reasons it is very difficult to discern the real power centers in the One Percent ruling class, however one cannot be far off base to mark the Council on Foreign Relations as one of the primary nerve centers in the brain of the Empire's ruling class. I think you will find that this article reinforces that impression. The people gathering at this secret meeting are some of the primary directors of this class.

Americans have suffered for the past five years the economic nightmare that grew out of backroom deals, Wall Street and Washington’s revolving doors and crony capitalism. Lew continues the abhorrent tradition of drawing a dark curtain around the government’s interactions with Wall Street. 

The Syria-Iran red line show

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

This eminently Bushist Obama "red line" business, applied to Syria, Iran or both, is becoming a tad ridiculous.

Click here if you wish to access the source or the transcript of this interview with Escobar in which he provides an astute assessment of the latest Empire engineered disaster in the Mid-East. From RT.

U.N. has testimony that Syrian rebels used sarin gas: investigator

Click here to access article from Reuters via Chicago Tribune.

Strange, how this piece of news failed to make it into any mainstream sources that I viewed this morning. Well, our masters who manage the media certainly wouldn't want an independent source to conflict with the propaganda they have been spewing out for the past two weeks--it might spoil the false flag operation.

"Our investigators have been in neighboring countries interviewing victims, doctors and field hospitals and, according to their report of last week which I have seen, there are strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof of the use of sarin gas, from the way the victims were treated," Del Ponte said in an interview with Swiss-Italian television.

"This was use on the part of the opposition, the rebels, not by the government authorities," she added, speaking in Italian.

Climate Crisis Will Bring Drought In Temperate Areas, Fnds NASA

Click here to access article from CounterCurrents.

A recent NASA study indicates what other scientists have been saying for some time: we can expect our future climate to be characterized by extreme weather events, more extreme drouths, more extreme rain storms, more wildfires, etc, resulting in more disasters for populations.

"These results in many ways are the worst of all possible worlds," said Peter Gleick, a climatologist and water expert who is president of the Pacific Institute, an Oakland research organization. "Wet areas will get wetter and dry areas will get drier."

Questioning Labor Imperialism in Egypt: A Critique of the Solidarity Centre’s “Justice for All” Report

Click here to access article by Michael Barker from One Struggle. (a "best post")

In this rather lengthy, but very scholarly report, Barker illustrates in his examination of NGO operations in Egypt the Empire's use of intellectual workers employed in NGOs fronting as labor, pro-democracy, and human rights organizations to co-opt and otherwise undermine any real movements that might challenge the Empire's engine of capitalism. The article abstract spells out the significance of this examination:

People power is the dynamic driver of social history, with history merely being the documented response of elite power-brokers to popular demands for justice. Recognizing the latent power and desire of normal people to overthrow their oppressive rulers, more far sighted elites have long recognized the need to channel such unrealized power into non-revolutionary political alternatives: a process which entails their intervening at the grassroots level of civil society to ensure that such threats never coalesce into a force powerful enough to upset the capitalist status quo. In this way, US elites have created what many authors have amorphously referred to as a non-profit industrial complex, which forms a “natural corollary” to the prison industrial complex. Overseas, such technologies of repression play a central role in sustaining imperial domination; and while their role is largely ignored by most writers (even radical ones), their importance has nevertheless been thoroughly documented.

Of course, in this age of globalization the ruling class's use of the "non-profit industrial complex" in foreign countries applies equally well to domestic operations. The genius of the Anglo-American Empire has been its refinement of methods to manage the perceptions of people. To accomplish this, Empire agents have recruited large numbers of intellectuals in this service by offering them numerous and generous monetary inducements. With this careful examination of such operations in Egypt, Barker does us a great service by exposing how they function. 

U.S. Financed Independent Polls Are Not Independent

Click here to access article by Bernhard from his blog Moon of Alabama. 

A favorite ploy used by agents of the Empire to manipulate elections is spotted by this keen observer being implemented in Malaysia.

Such tight independent polls usually carry the smell of U.S. interference.

A tight independent poll will show the U.S. favorite candidate may win. When the election then goes against the U.S. favorite the tight independent poll will be used to claim election fraud and to instigate riots to then somehow wrestle the U.S. favorite into power.

We have seen this scheme in various color revolutions in eastern Europe, in Thailand and recently also in Venezuela. 

Kennedy, the Lobby and the Bomb

Click here to access article by Laurent Guyénot from Voltaire. 

This piece offers an excellent review of US relations with Israel since the latter's founding. You will learn about Kennedy's attempts to curb Israeli influence over our government; following his assassination, Israel's successful efforts to influence the US government; Israeli espionage activities in the US; and their use of a false flag attacks--most notably on a US ship with the collaboration of the Johnson administration in an attempt to bring US into war against Egypt. (For more information on the latter, see this, this, and this.)

Welcome to the Age of Murder.Gov: The Game of Drones

Click here to access article by Jeffrey St. Clair from CounterPunch.

In a chilling 16-page dossier known simply as the White Paper, one of Obama’s statutory brains at the Justice Department cites the 1969 secret bombing of Cambodia as a legal rationale justifying drone strikes, deep inside nations, against which the United States is not officially at war.

This is another illustration of how a ruling class can use its power over any legal institutions in society to justify what its government does. Thus, contrary to the author's view, to informed and politically aware citizens there is nothing "startling" about this disclosure. It's long past time that people on the left grew up!

Facebook Bans Ad Criticising Mark Zuckerberg’s Pro-KXL Stance

Click here to access article by Andy Rowell from The Price of Oil. 

Judging by his optimistic conclusion, the author clearly doesn't understand the power of money in the system of capitalism. He doesn't understand why the capitalist class could insert sections in constitutions promising "freedom of speech" and other such freedoms, and proclaim that they were running a "democracy" when this power of money could easily determine which speech is read or heard, or any other such freedom could be exercised.

The Power of Local

Click here to access 7:50m video commentary by Catherine Austin Fitts for her Solari Report.

Fitts is a former Assistant Secretary of Housing under the Bush (Jr) administration, presently an investment banker, and investment adviser with Solari Investment Services. She exemplifies an old-fashioned conservative who fervently believes in the capitalist system, from which she secures her fortune; but at the same time she recognizes that the system is destroying our society. She maintains her belief system by criticizing the way it functions even though she hints at the conclusion of this video that such criticism is futile. 

She uses the metaphor of a body to explain her understanding of the economy. However, what she seems to miss in this metaphor is that the system of capitalism functions like any parasite, once it destroys one molecule or one body, it simply moves on to feed off another until it also dies. If you think about it, this functioning of capitalism was clearly expressed by Margaret Thatcher when she declared "there is no such thing as society [body]. There are individual men and women, and there are families [capitalists]."

Are all telephone calls recorded and accessible to the US government?

Click here to access article by Glenn Greenwald from The Guardian.

The real capabilities and behavior of the US surveillance state are almost entirely unknown to the American public because, like most things of significance done by the US government, it operates behind an impenetrable wall of secrecy. But a seemingly spontaneous admission this week by a former FBI counterterrorism agent provides a rather startling acknowledgment of just how vast and invasive these surveillance activities are.

New Study Examines Media Coverage of Iranian Nuclear Program

Click here to access article by Nima Shirazi from Muftah.

Drawing direct parallels to the irresponsible, inadequate, inaccurate and dangerously ideological media malpractice during the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the CISSM report concludes that press coverage on the Iranian nuclear program has been – and continues to be – similarly distorted and dishonest, confusing, and contradictory.

What is really surprising about this study is that it was allowed to be published at all even in an obscure journal. 

The author misses the real significance of the study which is that there is no longer any kind of independent media of any scale in the US. The concentration of the media into a few hands wedded to the military-financial-industrial complex essentially means that major media have become merely a public relations department of the Pentagon.

Mad Science: The Nuclear Power Experiment

Click here to access article by Elaine Graham-Leigh from CounterFire (Britain).

What was the wet-dream of the nuclear industry advocates in the 1950s has resurfaced in this century as environmentalism. In reality this new effort is fundamentally driven by the needs of capitalists for cheap energy to keep their system's machinery going regardless of the health risks to the public. It is a recognition that the remaining fossil fuels are likely to become prohibitively expense. 

Nuclear power stations were supposed to produce electricity which was ‘too cheap to meter’, as Lewis Strauss, chair of the Atomic Energy Commission pronounced in 1954, as part of a vision of a futuristic ‘age of peace’, in which people would also ‘travel effortlessly over the seas and under them and through the air with a minimum of danger and with great speeds’ (p.15). The reality however did not live up to the science fiction: building and operating nuclear reactors turned out to take much longer, cost much more, and be more risky than had originally been anticipated.

Besides being dangerous, nuclear power is prohibitively expensive, but corporate advocates in their mad search of profits have managed to outsource most of the risk and expense to the 99 Percent.

U.S. Government and NATO Worked with Bin Laden and His Top Lieutenant 3 Months AFTER 9/11

Click here to access article from Washington's Blog. 

There is a lot of important information in this posting which includes a major 48:10m video interview with Sibel Edmonds, a former FBI translator and whistle-blower; a 25:17m video excerpt on the James Corbett show also featuring Edmonds; and the article by the blogger to summarize the highlights of the two interviews. Edmonds is a very courageous and knowledgeable observer, who has inside knowledge she gained as an FBI translator, of political events in her native region, Turkey, and nearby areas. 

She describes Operation Gladio, a CIA operation which was used in various European countries where strong working class movements existed following WWII in order to secure pro-capitalist governments. However, she explains that this model, which uses terrorism as a main tool, has become a primary weapon of Empire policy ever since and describes how it has been used in various countries. She also describes how fanatic Muslim sects have been recruited, trained, and supplied to carry out many of these project in the Middle East. She shows how the terrorist label have shifted over time on various groups depending on the political interests of the Empire. Finally, and probably of most interest currently, she explains how the Boston bombing incident fits so neatly into this geopolitical operation, and likely has implications for forthcoming US policies in relation to Syria and Iran.

I haven't had time as of this writing to listen to much of the excerpt of her interview on the James Corbett show, but it appears that she goes on to describe how Bin Laden and the whole Al Qaeda network fits into this Gladio type model.

Boston Marathon Bombings: the Emergency Declaration as a State of Exception

Click here to access article by Philippe Theophanidis from Aphelis. 

The author, who as a highly trained specialist in images (iconography), is quite concerned about legal aspects of the growing police state in the US after viewing numerous pictures submitted by civilians of events related to the Boston bombing. 

The author, of course, is a product of the US educational system which indoctrinates people to believe that our society is governed by laws that are processed through a legitimate system of government. As such the author exhibits a very naive point of view and is threatened by the images he viewed. The article essentially attempts to reconcile the images he viewed with his indoctrination. 

If one somehow has escaped this indoctrination which has been carefully crafted by a capitalist ruling class to provide cover and legitimacy for their rule, one can see and understand the realities of what happens to such a society when, for whatever reason, this class feels it necessary to dispense with the cover and reveals the hidden, brutal fist of fascism. We've seen this before in Spain, Italy, Germany, and Japan in the 1920s and 1930s, and in many other areas of the world since.

The Truthseeker: Boston Bombing - What You Aren't Told

Click here to access article from RT via YouTube.

After weeks of watching mainstream TV coverage of "news" related to the Boston bombing incident, I have arrived at a worrying conclusion: we have entered a new phase in the development of a police state. Watching TV news coverage is precisely like what you would have if the "news" was being broadcast from the Pentagon or the Office of Homeland Security, or any other such government enforcement agency. 

There is never any mention of inconsistencies or discrepancies in the official version of what happened, and it appears that corporate TV directors are attempting to elaborate and support any official versions. This 11:24m video offers a plausible real scenario to what actually occurred, and an antidote to the non-stop propaganda-like coverage that is pouring into the living rooms of Americans across the US. 

Austerity or Keynesianism: Can’t we do better than this?

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

The author examines the phenomenon of center-left and center-right governments in Europe trying to deal with their economic problems. The right, of course, is dedicated in its service to the rich ruling class, but what is puzzling is that the left merely tries to tinker with the system in the hopes of making capitalism functional once again. Referring to the latter, he writes:

These political formations are trapped by their fervent wishes to stabilize an unstable capitalist system.

They wish to discover the magic reforms that will make it all work again. They do have criticisms, even if they are afraid of saying them too loud, but are hamstrung by their belief in the capitalist system, which means, today, a belief in neoliberalism and austerity, no matter what nice speeches they may make.

World Bank Whistle-blower. Confidence in the Dollar as an International Currency Is Waning. The End of Bretton Woods ?

Click here to access article by Karen Hudes from nsnbc.  

In my hurried preparations for a long-planned outing today, I do have the time to study this thoroughly. But, I believe this report suggests some critically important political features of American capitalism that are rarely reported in mainstream media. The constant refusal by executives of the leading financial institutions to cooperate with Congressional in their attempts to obtain information about banking operations. 

Later in the article I noted that the latter was explained with the author, who worked as an attorney for the World Bank, alleged that the concentrated media is owned and controlled by the same people who own and control the major banking institutions. They accomplish this by a common feature of our major economic institutions: through interlocking directorships.

Anyway, having ascertained its importance to our understanding of where real power lies in our society and the world, I leave it to you to fully examine her report. 

Among the Thugs

Click here to access article by Vijay Prashad from CounterPunch. 

Prashad reports on the background of the fellow who built the garment factory in Bangladesh that recently collapsed killing around 400 people, and how all associated parties have scrambled to disown him. It seems that sociopathic persons everywhere find lucrative opportunities to exploit workers to serve the profit interests of capitalists, but when things go wrong they, like old clothes,  are easily discarded .

The day before the collapse of the building...Rana was informed about cracks in the walls. Three thousand two hundred people worked in five factories in this building. “The building has minor damages,” he told the press. “Nothing serious.” Local inspectors, an anaemic bunch in the face of such institutionalised thuggery, had warned that something terrible might happen. Such people are not taken seriously in neo-liberal times. They are the ones who warn of calamities and are said to misjudge the dynamic of history. When the “accident” occurs, as it did the next day, it is these soothsayers who are ignored in the flurry of reportage that wants to suggest that this could not have been foretold, or of establishment voices that would like to point to this Rana as the main culprit and not the system of which he is essentially a minor pillar.

What the CIA’s cash has bought for Afghanistan

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

This reminds me of reports several years ago about pallets of US dollars being shipped into Iraq, although in that case the money seemed to just disappear. This appears to be the method of choice for agents of the Empire to recruit and keep local puppets in loyal service to the Empire. The puppet this time is Karzai whose country now leads the world in opium production. The Empire's enemy in Afghanistan, the Taliban, had successfully outlawed its production before we invaded that country. The "War on Drugs" is like the "War on Terror"--a public relations gimmick to justify more expenditures for weapons, wars, police forces, and surveillance on citizens.

As the revelations about suitcases stuffed with American dollars make clear, the US has invested heavily in “human capital to lead the country’s institutions” and without a doubt has created an “enabling environment” for a collection of CIA stooges, warlords, drug traffickers and murderers to pillage Afghanistan and terrorize its people, while filling their bank accounts with money from Washington.

Guantánamo Prisoner's Memoirs Offer Rare First-Person Account of Torture

Click here to access the introduction by Noa Yachot from American Civil Liberties Union regarding the memoirs of a Guantánamo prisoner published in a series on Slate.

This piece provides a very good background on the prisoner who wrote the memoir and other information about the series. At the time of this writing, I have only read some of it and I find it tough reading. However, it is a necessary read for all Americans to see what the enforcers employed by the One Percent are doing to other human beings in our name and paid for by our tax dollars.

I really must have acted like a child all day long before the guards pried me from the population block later that day. You don’t know how terrorizing it is for a human being to be threatened with torture. One becomes literally a child. An Arabic proverb says, “Waiting on torture is worse than torture itself.” I can only confirm this proverb.

The escort team showed up at my cell: “You got to move.”

Corn on the Border - NAFTA & Food in Mexico

Click here to access article by Dawn Paley from Watershed Sentinel (Canada).

The Canadian author, who is living in Mexico, reports on the deleterious effects of NAFTA and neoliberalism in general on Mexican life, especially on their diets, their health, and their work.

May Day 2013: Fragile Economies, Aggressive Bosses and Struggling Workers

Click here to access article by Ingo Schmidt from The Bullet (Canada).

The fact that workers all over the world are paying the price for the capitalist crisis clearly indicates that unions and the working classes are still on the defensive. The discontent with neoliberalism, and capitalism more generally, however, is spreading. Resistance continues to pop up in new, unexpected locations almost weekly. Alternatives to austerity are in high demand and, indeed, alternatives to capitalism in any number of forms are gaining attention. And workers, increasing numbers of them unemployed and with precarious livelihoods, are willing to fight for them. 

Our American Pravda

Click here to access article by Ron Unz from The American Conservative. 

I think the value of this article lies in its illustration of an old-fashioned conservative who was a dedicated anti-Soviet ideologue and now is someone who has discovered some truths about the political nature of the US.

Old fashioned conservatives usually had a moderate respect for truth and decency, but they were even more influenced by their dedication to the capitalist system that brought them so many rewards in terms of wealth and power. Well, it seems that their power has been eclipsed by the new capitalists who operate currently under the banner of neoliberalism (literally "new capitalism" because liberalism, the original ideology of capitalism, is often used as a synonym for capitalism), and are logically referred to as neo-conservatives. The latter are a breed married to Israel-firsters that have ensconced themselves in the center of all our major institutions to influence our foreign policies in the direction of imperial domination over the rest of the world. This domination is led by their major international credit institutions, IMF and the World Bank, aided by the imposition of the US dollar in world trade, and enforced by the violent arm of NATO should all else fail.

This development has had some positive results for old-fashioned conservatives, because having lost most of their influence, many of them like this author are now able to be more objective about some of the realities of media coverage and the electoral system. It seems that in this post-Cold War era he is no longer blinded by hysterical anti-Soviet propaganda, and thus is able to see more clearly how today's ruling class functions.

Carbon Dioxide Emissions Reach Highest Point In Three Million Years

Click here to access article from CounterCurrents.

As global carbon dioxide, emissions teetered on the threshold of 400 parts per million (PPM) for the first time in three million years, delegates from countries all over the world yesterday started another round of talks on how to tackle climate change.

The unfortunate fact is that nothing will prevent a continuing increase of this climate-heating gas as long as we are plagued with the system of capitalism. Fossil fuels drives the system's engine which spews out carbon dioxide. We cannot prevent climate catastrophes unless we change the system, and meetings without this on the agenda are totally futile.

A post-history strip tease

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

The title refers to the stripping of any sense of citizenship in the New World Order.

In all these cases whatever happens to social life - suspension, dissolution, balkanization, implosion, a state of emergency - what happens to normal citizens is that citizenship (bios) evaporates. But ruling elites - political, economic, financial - don't care about citizenship. They're only interested in passive consumers. 

Escobar demonstrates in this piece that he is not only the world's premier journalist, but also a highly educated profound thinker. If you are like me, you will find yourself scrambling for an (online) dictionary and googling strange authors to find out what they've written. In other words, you will have your mind stretched to follow along with his attempt to make sense out of our current world. 

After taking us on an intellectual tour through a tunnel of neoliberal horrors, he ends this deep essay ironically where he began in his satire of Burt Bacharach's famous pop song.

How cozy it would be to summon the retro-spirit of Burt Bacharach to define our geopolitical future and start singing, "What the world needs now / is love, sweet love". 

Maybe that is all we have left to fall back on in our struggle for survival.

Within The National (In)Security State: Fear as a Constant Companion

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

If Escobar's article didn't get you thinking, this one might do the trick by jabbing your mind with insights like this:

The events that followed in the wake of the bombs set off at the Boston Marathon have served as an object lesson in how the police state/militarist madness of authoritarian excess becomes normalized.

Under the tedium, angst, and ennui of corporate state rule, people get high on the adrenal rush induced by the mass media feedback loop. Also, there is the illusion of breaking the spell of alienation and becoming part of a larger order.

Occupy Wall Street to Remind America This Wednesday: Democracy Is Not a Spectator Sport

Click here to access article by Pam Martens from Wall Street on Parade.

May Day as a day of celebrating workers and expressing opposition to the One Percent who "own" our economy, an arrangement that makes wage slaves out of us, is a prime example of their suppression of our history for ideological reasons. They managed to suppress it here in the US by substituting the first Monday in September as Labor Day in which some union bosses and Democratic party leaders gave us smarmy speeches and parades to help us forget the massacres, low pay, and dangerous and poor working conditions. Nowadays, it has largely degenerated into just another meaningless day for shopping.

In was on May 1st, 1886 when workers in Chicago nearly shut the city down with a general strike to promote an 8 hour working day. During the mass protests in support of the strike a bomb was thrown by some mysterious person causing one death and numerous wounded. With very little evidence the authorities immediately arrested labor activists, mostly anarchists, for this crime. Seven were sentenced to death, six were hanged and one committed suicide before hanging.

Does this remind you of other strange incidents that have been used to target groups that the ruling class doesn't like? To promote aggression against these groups, or other such nefarious self-serving reasons? Or even to start wars?

Why Can Corporate Interests Trump Sovereign Rights? [Part 2 of 2]

Click here if you wish to access the source and transcript of this 12:19m video on The Real News Network.

This was for me a very revealing exposé of the recent development of neoliberal extra-national bodies having jurisdiction over disputes between sovereign countries and corporations. They are international trade panels that are privately run, meet in private, and operated by people who have allegiances to capitalist enterprises who make decisions on these disputes. However, I don't really think that their private nature matters much. Witness the powerful private influence over our government presently and the whole electoral system.

The guest on this interview is Chakravarthi Raghavan, an  international trade and investment expert, who explains that the history of this development is rooted in old-fashioned colonialism. I have strongly suspected that what we saw happening in old-fashioned colonialism in earlier periods used against less developed countries is now being applied to all countries. We of the 99 Percent are all on the way to be colonial subjects of major international financial and industrial corporations regardless of where we live! Raghavan confirms this suspicion.



You can access the first segment of the interview here.

Saying Privacy Is 'Off the Table,' NYC Police Commissioner Demands More Surveillance Cameras

Click here to access article by J.D. Tuccille from Reason. 

From the Department of Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste comes word that New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly thinks that now is a great time to install even more surveillance cameras hither and yon around the Big Apple.

Syria: This Intervention Threat Is Not Credible

Click here to access article by Bernhard from his blog Moon of Alabama.

The author provides an interesting take on the Syrian crisis. However, he doesn't deal with what appears to be the latest US propaganda preparations (allegations of the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government) for another Libyan style attack on Syria. What could be the motive for such a declaration if they weren't intending to go ahead with an attack--a temporary incentive for their mercenaries in Syria to keep fighting? In any case, let us hope he is right.