Sochi: bringing Olympic spirit back to the Games

Click here to access article from Oriental Review.

I have never seen such obvious and outrageous anti-Russian bias of a sports event in my life as I've witnessed from viewing corporate TV media coverage of the Olympics in Sochi--not only NBC's--in the past few weeks. Because this bias is seen everywhere in corporate media, I've, once again, wondered how this actually happens. Does some centralized Directorate of Information issue statements to all media outlets to cover certain new items in a particular way? Or do prominent ruling class media such as the New York Times or the Washington Post set the framing of the coverage and all other major news outlets are expected to follow? Or might it be that all media executives have already been well indoctrinated by their various ruling class organizations of which they are members? Or some combination of the above?

It seems that all news items in the run-up to the Olympics have been wrapped in comments about gay oppression in Russia, the terrorist threat at the games, incomplete construction of Olympic facilities, and many other such negative items. I've been waiting for liberal commentators in this country to criticize such practice, but this morning I found little except for a handful: Bernhard's excellent piece entitled "NYT Selectively Quotes To Denigrate Russian Olympics", Lendman's piece, and a more oblique critique from The Greanville Post. 

Updated at 1 PM: So, what has this to do with capitalism? I think that capitalism is a highly competitive and predatory system in which capitalists, the owners of economic property, combine to compete for resources and cheap labor in the pursuit of profits and power. Russia and China, although now ruled by their own capitalist classes, refuse to take orders from the US led Empire, much like Germany's capitalitsts refused to submit to the leadership of the English Empire which resulted in WWI and then competed with the Anglo-American Empire which resulted in WWII. Thus, Russian and Chinese capitalists are now our ruling class's enemies, and our ruling class makes sure that we, the people in the US, feel that they are our enemies also. Then there are the smaller countries that have defied the US and have suffered in recent times the "outrageous slings and arrows" of US propaganda, subversive actions, and worse: Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, North Korea, Libya, and Syria.

Nuland’s F** the EU scandal proves illegal Ukraine Regime Change Plans

Click here to access article by Christof Lehmann from nsnbc international.

Lehmann gives his take on the leaked candid conversation between the Assistant Secretary of State and the Ambassador to Ukraine in which they discuss plans to interfere in the internal affairs of Ukraine.

The publication US State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland’s “F** the EU exclamation to US Ambassador to the Ukraine, Geoffrey Pratt, has caused several diplomatic scandals – none of them for the most important reason. 

How NAFTA Unleashed the Violence in Mexico

Click here to access article by Victor M. Quintana from Americas Program. 

The Mexican countryside is not the same twenty years after the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Rural Mexico is on fire, and not just because of the “bad guys”–the drug cartels and groups of hit men and thugs.

Progressive Kristallnacht Coming?

Click here to access article by Tom Perkins from The Wall Street Journal.

This is another contribution to my practice on Saturdays to run articles about our fellow citizens of the One Percent (actually .01 of the 1%, or one out of every 10,000 of us) hoping that by doing this that we don't lose touch with their world and their concerns--you know, to promote understanding. It is important that we become better acquainted so that we can serve them better and make it easier for them to carry out the daily burden of making important decisions, decisions which affect whether we go off to war in foreign lands to kill their enemies, if we have jobs, if we live in a home or under a bridge, if we can afford their health care services, education, etc.

Unfortunately, for some reason they tend to hide their lives from the rest of us behind walls of secrecy, literal walls of guarded gated communities, private clubs, esoteric publications, by traveling with private jets, etc. We should not let that deter us.

In this letter to The Wall Street Journal by billionaire Tom Perkins we learn that the rich are feeling persecuted. Some people would instantly dismiss such criticisms, but they are real to the rich. Think how you would feel if you were occasionally berated in the media for your extravagant homes, vacations, your lifestyle, the low tax rates you enjoy, even presents you give to your children. 

I'm sure they work hard to get all the wealth they have and they feel they should not be despised for being successful. They are firm believers in capitalism and the "trickle-down" theory of economics. I'm sure that they feel that they have played by the rules (even though they made them) and are successful. So, put your envy away and realize that the fabulously rich need love, too!

Climate Changes, Washington Freezes

Click here to access article by Dave Lindorff from WhoWhatWhy.

There are indications that our ruling class is accepting the reality of climate change, but they seem to be focusing on the wrong implications if the discussions at a recent conference are representative.

Organizer and panel moderator Heather Conley...acknowledged in an interview...the absence of any discussion at the event about what was causing the polar region to heat up so dramatically, or what might be done to slow the pace of melting, which is likely to render the Arctic Ocean ice-free in summer months as soon as 2016.

So what did they talk about?

The Embattled Climate Scientist Who Fought Back

Click here if you wish to access the transcript of this interview with scientist Michael Mann from Real News Network.

 On the one hand, you have the fossil fuel industry, or at least some fossil fuel interests who are going to fight tooth-and-nail against any regulations of carbon emissions. But you have the rest of the business community that increasingly sees that we need to do something about this problem.

 

What about apologizing to Ukraine, Mrs. Nuland? [A must-read/view]

Click here to access article from Oriental Review. (Note: if you are not informed about recent US involvement in Ukraine, to fully understand this article I recommend you read this, this, and this.)

This is a major exposé featuring an intercepted phone call between Assistant Secretary of State and the US Ambassador to Ukraine. I have no idea how this was intercepted or by whom, but I am convinced it is real. Here you get a rare, actual conversation of US officials who are conspiring to meddle in the affairs of another country.

Yesterday’s leak of the flagrant telephone talk between the US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and the US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey R. Pyatt has already hit the international media headlines. In short, it turned out that the US officials were coordinating their actions on how to install a puppet government in Ukraine.

Update 1 at 5:30 PM: I just watched ABC news coverage of this event. They covered it only by mentioning the "f--- the EU" phrase which was attributed only to a "well-known diplomat". However, they went on to frame this as Obama selling ambassadorships, many of whom were completely unqualified. They ended the coverage by admitting all presidents do this, but Obama did it more. Of course, the coverage totally misconstrued who said the forbidden "fuck" world--it was the Assistant Secretary of State not the Ambassador--and far worse, the total context was missing! This is news coverage American corporate style! See for yourself at this link.  

Update 2 at 6:40 PM: However, the newscast did mention that they covered this incident last night. Here is that coverage last night from 8:33-9:05 where she was clearly identified.  Here also the context was distorted: the conversation was merely referred to as a phone call in which "she was asked about including our allies in Europe in the conversation...." Then her recorded voice came on to say, "That would be great, I think, to have them help glue this thing, and to have the UN help glue this thing and, you know, ---k Europe." ABC followed this report by an ABC talking head who reported that she immediately apologized implying that the apology was for using the naughty word in relation to Europe, and went on to explain that it was a private conversation which likely was intercepted by the Russians and circled throughout Twitter. The talking head left it as just another spy story. Wink, wink, chuckle, chuckle.

Two key articles suggesting a radical turn of events in the Middle East

by Ron Horn.

I was astonished to read the two articles from Al Akhbar that I am citing here which seem to suggest major shifts in Middle East policies by the directors of the Empire and a key regional satrap, the Saudi Arabian monarchy. The more I have delved into the information addressed in the two articles, the more impressed I am that their analyses are accurate. 

I will leave to you and others to make interpretations about the long term implications of these recent developments. I will make only this brief comment: these developments suggest to me that the directors of the Empire want to bring stability to this chaotic region in order to focus more on the Far East and curbing China's power (Obama's "pivot to Asia").

The key news event which started all the speculation was a decree issued by the Saudi king, which occurred to the best of my knowledge, on February 3rd. Then the following two experts on Middle East matters have now provided their initial analyses of this event in Al Akbar. As you can see the first article, by ending with quotes from the second author, flows nicely into the second.

• "Saudi-US Relations: Between Tension and Profit" by Yazan al-Saadi.

• "By Royal Orders: Saudis Abandon Their Fighters" by Fouad al-Ibrahim

Insights into the Power of Corporations

Click here to access a transcript of a speech by Brid Brennan at the Public Eye Awards Press Conference, Davos, Switzerland January 23, 2014 (shortly before the meetings of the World Economic Forum) posted on Transnational Institute.

On 23 January, the Berne Declaration (BD) and Greenpeace Switzerland gave away the 2014 Public Eye Awards. The press conference, at which the winners were announced, turned into a lively debate about the downside of economic growth, the sheer unlimited power of multinational corporations and their lack of responsibility for people and the environment.

At the press conference, held at the Protestant Church Community Center in Davos, .... Brid Brennan from the Transnational Institute of Policy Studies...presented the institute’s new report “State of Corporate Power” which demonstrates just how powerful transnational corporations have become, and how much they continue to benefit from the ongoing economic and financial crisis.

(Incidentally, there were two Hall of Shame awards: the first was by popular vote awarded to Gazprom, the second was awarded by a panel of experts which gave it to Gap corporation.)

Isn't it strange that you didn't see this event reported in your local media? (sarcasm) Either the news wire services did not distribute a report of it, or media corporations refused to provide coverage.

Film of the Week: Memory of a Plunder

Click here to access an introduction to this film by Don Quijones posted on Raging Bull-Shit. (Note: I usually do not post material that I haven't read or watched, but this film looks very interesting.)

For a clearer understanding of the events leading up to the Argentinian collapse and the devastating impact they continue to have on the country’s economy and society, I recommend watching the following documentary. Filmed by Fernando Solanas, an Argentinian film maker who took six bullets in the leg for opposing the Menem government’s privatisation of Argentina’s public oil company, YPF, Memory of a Plunder is is one of the best audiovisual accounts of economic collapse ever made. 

2/9/14 Update:  I watched this film last night and experienced a horror show of neoliberalism and extreme individualism in Argentina which occurred from about 1985 on. It appeared that nearly every person (international and local banksters, politicians, bureaucrats, court justices, labor leaders, etc) who was in a position where they could steal the legacy of state owned properties did so regardless of the devastating consequences to their society. 

Now I know what former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher meant when she essentially said, "There is no such thing as society, only individuals and their families." If you want to see a live laboratory where the ideology of neoliberalism was fully applied, then this film provides an excellent documented record of its effects in one country.

Corporation polluters make ‘sustainable’ a dirty word

Click here to access article by Simon Butler from Climate & Capitalism. 

If you want evidence that the corporate rich are turning “sustainable” into a dirty word then consider the recent award won by Australian bank Westpac. At last month’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the bank was named the most sustainable company in the world.

However, if that isn't enough to prove his point, then there is this:

A list of the world’s 100 ‘most sustainable companies’ is packed with firms that profit from trashing the planet and are driving us toward climate disaster.

The ongoing clash between their beloved system of capitalism and a sustainable climate is posing severe problems for the global ruling classes. There is no end to the lies they tell themselves and us that they are working for a sustainable planet while trashing it.

The Cinema of Containerism

Click here to access article by Kim Nicolini from The Greanville Post. 

Nicolini in this article reviews two films in which containerization plays a key role. It is the first film, Captain Phillips, that interests me the most because it offers an illustration of the propaganda functions of the entertainment industry. 

The Hollywood film studio (Columbia Pictures) in this reportedly true story makes some mention of some realities related to containerization facing working people like high levels of unemployment, however such serious issues are very much in the background. Instead, it plays up the hero theme of the central character of Captain Phillips.

...the whole point of containerization is to move products of global capitalism in invisible form. Oceans are the delivery system for commodities made in countries too poor to fight for unions or a deserving living wage. Dolls, TVs, cell phones and sneakers are packed into anonymous orange and blue containers, loaded onto ships and then sent to the United States where consumers miraculously find these goods lining the shelves of Best Buy and Walmart.

Any film that is widely distributed in the United States must have large amounts of money behind it. First, it must have a large Hollywood corporation who have access to production facilities and talent, it must have corporate distributors to see to it that the film is played in corporate owned cinemas throughout the country. It requires corporate owned news media to give it good reviews so that it attracts large audiences. Many other rich sources of money must back the film's production such as insurance companies and investors.

As you can see, every element in this industry requires large concentrations of money which are controlled by private interests. The system of capitalism makes such concentrations possible, indeed, probable; and people with money love the system not only for the material rewards that money brings, but also the influence or power that accompanies the control and concentration of money. 

Hence, it follows naturally as night follows day that capitalist production of films would not want to look seriously at the huge problems of unemployment and de-industrialization in the US, the exploitation of cheap labor in foreign lands, and definitely not the system that promotes such activities and effects. What capitalists much prefer to do is to divert our attention to heroes which is a favorite theme throughout the entertainment industry.  Heroes overcome the obstacles in their lives and we are invited to do likewise, or to look to others for our salvation.

2013 was the second-hottest year without an El Niño since before 1850

Click here to access article by John Abraham and Dana Nuccitelli from The Guardian. 

Over the past decade, we've seen less warming at the surface and more warming in the oceans. This has been in large part due to a change in Pacific Ocean cycles. We're currently in a cycle that tends to produce more La Niña than El Niño events, which has resulted in the oceans accumulating more heat, leaving less energy than normal to warm the atmosphere. This in turn has led to the widespread myth that the slowed rate of increase of global surface temperatures means we no longer have to worry about global warming, or that its consequences won't be as bad as expected.

The article has several links to supporting evidence, for example, see this (Global warming continues and won't be stopped by wishful thinking) which also contain interesting links.

See also this and this.

However, such scientific evidence will not stop our global capitalist classes from using more carbon spewing fossil fuels. Now that Obama has gotten the expected approval of the Keystone pipeline from the ruling class's State Department, he will be expected to clear the way for construction. According to the news release in the Washington Post, the State Department's approval contained this key statement:

Approval or denial of any one crude oil transport project, including the proposed Project, remains unlikely to significantly impact the rate of extraction in the oil sands, or the continued demand for heavy crude oil at refineries in the United States.

As a Forbes columnist confirmed, the approval was based mostly on a narrow context: there was an assumption that the oil sands would be mined anyway--without a pipeline the oil will continue to be shipped by rail car. Thus, the environmental impact would likely be less with a pipeline than without. You can't really argue with that type of capitalist logic! Besides, it would create lots of jobs! (sarcasm)

US Senate votes to slash $8.7 billion in food assistance

Click here to access article by Andre Damon from Rebellious Independent News and Film (RINF).

With the support of the Obama administration, tens of billions of dollars are handed to the banks every month through the money-printing operations of the Federal Reserve. The annual cuts in food stamps, which will have such devastating consequences for the most vulnerable sections of the population, amount to only 0.04 percent of the total wealth of the richest 400 individuals in the country. 

The Workers' Scorecard on NAFTA

Click here to access article by David Bacon from TruthOut.

In 1986, a provision of the Immigration Reform and Control Act created a commission to investigate the causes of Mexican migration to the United States. .... The commission argued that opening the border to the flow of goods and capital (but not people) would, in the long run, produce jobs and rising income in Mexico, even if, in the short run, it led to some job loss and displacement.

....

During the debate, executives of companies belonging to USA-NAFTA, the agreement's corporate lobbyist, walked the halls of Congress wearing red, white and blue neckties. They made extravagant claims that US exports to Mexico would account for 100,000 jobs in the agreement's first year alone.

...a parallel labor side agreement would establish a mechanism for protecting workers' rights.

Twenty years later, workers have a scorecard. [NAFTA went into force on January 1, 1994.] 

Free public transit in Tallinn is a hit with riders but yields unexpected results

Click here to access article by Sulev Vedler from Citiscope. 

TALLINN, Estonia — Last January, Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia, did something that no other city its size had done before: It made all public transit in the city free for residents.

Political Corruption and Capitalism

Click here to access article by Richard D Wolff from TruthOut.

Corruption is endemic to the capitalist system and has not been successfully regulated away. Perhaps a system change is warranted?

Of course capitalist corruption is endemic in a government that pretends to be "democratic", that is, run by and for the people. Capitalism, by permitting one segment of the population to "own" the economy, gives capitalists enormous power over the rest of society--so much so that they constitute a ruling class. A ruling class is one, by definition, rules society. Thus, they must rule by corrupting government operations that pretend to serve the public. What is arguably even worse, is that they have thoroughly corrupted all the ideological centers of our society--education, media including the internet, and even entertainment. This ruling class essentially "own" the thoughts and opinions of the vast majority.

Wolff ends this essay with some interesting ideas about how a legitimate government serving all of the people could be organized.

"Safe Passage..., with a Big If: A Review of Paul Craig Roberts' The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism"

Click here to access a review by Gary Coseri of a new book by Roberts posted on Uncommon Thought Journal.

I hesitated posting this article because Roberts already gets too much exposure on the web. His rants can be accessed everywhere: rants about the abuses of capitalism and abuses of power. But his criticisms of capitalism are always carefully limited and that is precisely why he is everywhere on the web: he functions as an ideological gatekeeper to confine criticisms to superficial issues in relation to capitalism while carefully avoiding core issues about the system and completely preventing discussion of alternative systems. Hence, Corseri is dead wrong when he states:

You can't tie Roberts to one ideology. What's clear is his commitment to understanding the mess we've made of our world, and re-visioning, rebuilding it.

Robert's view are strictly of a liberal sort in that in his numerous rants he always comes back to the need for capitalism to be regulated. He wants to "re-vision" and "rebuild" capitalism. He never questions the basic concept of private ownership of an economy. Hence, the title of his book which makes clear his ideological position. This leads people down a political dead end simply because today's capitalists are much too powerful to accept any substantial regulation of their activities. And leading people down a dead end is very useful for the ruling class whether it is done consciously or not.

Turkey’s Real Corruption Scandal

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

The directors of the Empire occasionally have problems keeping their vassals in line and following orders. This has become apparent with some independent actions by members of Saudi Arabia's medieval gang called the Gulf Cooperation Council. The latter's actions in Egypt and Syria have not always been approved of by the Empire's directorate. However, Turkey's dictator Erdogan has been especially rebellious which Engdahl outlines in this essay, and the latter sees possible major geopolitical effects if he succeeds in his various foreign policy adventures.

Erdogan, a scrappy political infighter for all his eccentricities, has fought back and accused “foreign powers” of standing behind his now-arch enemy, former Imam Fethullah Gülen, considered by the US Embassy in Ankara to be the most powerful man in Turkey. What is unfolding across Turkey is far more interesting than your ordinary politician graft scandal.

One also finds many articles currently run in Turkish media regarding Gülen. See this and other articles regarding Gülen from the same website, and this.

American propaganda stokes the fire of Ukrainian disintegration

Click here to access article by Patrice Greanville from The Greanville Post.

The author describes the US ruling class's propaganda efforts, directed mostly against its own citizens, to promote the separation of Ukraine from Russia's orbit and to bring it under the control of their Empire.

This is just the latest chapter of empire building that the US capitalist class and their international cronies have been engaging in since WWII, after which the US, under the control of the capitalist class, was left as the most powerful nation on earth. There is no end to the appetite of these empire builders. Thus, we will see no end to the mini-wars (for a long list, see this), the carefully managed uprisings, the hiring of terrorist armies, the corruption of government leaders, all in the service of expanding the Empire (the Fourth Reich?). 

We will see no end of these events until we stop being deceived by the Empire's nefarious schemes and take away capitalist control of our society--because it should be, it must be, our society. We must declare our independence from them. We must stop working to fund their wars. We must stop believing their lies. We must stop joining their armies and going off to kill their enemies in foreign lands. We must stop their exploitation of, and their attack on, our biosphere--because if we fail to do so, all of humanity will perish. The only way we can accomplish all this is by taking away their system of exploitation--capitalism--that provides them with the wealth and power to ravage our lives and the planet.

From Egypt, Ukraine, the Turkish-Syrian Border, Cuba and Thailand: West Manufactures “Opposition Movements”

Click here to access article by Andre Vltchek from Transcend Media Service. 

Government buildings are being trashed, ransacked. It is happening in Kiev and Bangkok, and in both cities, the governments appear to be toothless, too scared to intervene.

What is going on? Are popularly elected administrations all over the world becoming irrelevant as the Western regime creates and then supports thuggish ‘opposition movements’ designed to destabilize any state that stands in the way of its desire to fully control the planet?

His answers to these questions which he attempts to do in the balance of the article seems to attribute this to evil-doers in the West. I regard this "evil-doer" concept of what's wrong with the world is an "infantile disorder" that we must get over. It prevents us from identifying the primary causes of our problems which are systemic, and identifying effective solutions. If the US and its capitalist allies in the rest of the NATO countries (the "West") suddenly disappeared, we would see basically the same dynamics happening which would then be under the control of Russian and Chinese capitalists.

No Matter How You Count Them, Fossil Fuel Subsidies Are As High As Ever

Click here to access article by Ben Jervey from DeSmogBlog.

After figuring in all the costs of fossil fuels, it becomes clear that carbon tax arrangements are largely designed to keep the public fooled into thinking that the ruling class, which lives off of the bonanza furnished by the fossil fuel industry, are doing something substantial to reduce the threat of climate change. 

How to Overthrow the Illuminati

Click here to access article by revolutionaries in Seattle and New York posted on the Black Orchid Collective website.

I have only had time to read about three quarters of this rather lengthy article, but I am very impressed with it. It examines the history of the Illuminati theory and related conspiracy theories and finds that they tend to reinforce acceptance of the status quo by diverting attention away from the real forms of oppression by offering simple explanations involving evil-doers of one sort or another. After refuting such theories, the authors examine the real forms of oppression caused by the system of capitalism which features the separation of workers from the fruits of their labor for the benefit of a capitalist class.

As long as these class relations of exploitation keep running, day after day, the bourgeoisie will keep gaining more wealth and power by using the alienated labor of the proletariat, and keep strengthening the system that keeps this relationship in place. To end this situation, we will have to do more than attack individual members of the bourgeoisie. We will have to attack the system of capitalist social relations as a whole. 

Blood on the Maidan

Click here to access article by Mark Hackard from The Soul of the East.

The US educated author is a highly trained specialist on Russian affairs and a political analyst who brings his expertise to offer an interpretation of the current unrest in Ukraine.

The story behind the scenes concerns a drive by the United States to short-circuit Russia’s resurgence where it truly matters: in Ukraine.

And we all thought that the Cold War was over. You see, it wasn't only the fact that the Soviet Union had a system that did not permit capitalist penetration, it was also independent of the Empire. The latter does not tolerate any country whose policies and actions are not informed by pro-Empire interests, that is, major capitalist interests located in NATO countries. Both Russia and China (specifically, the ruling capitalist classes of these countries) refuse to take orders from Washington and thus they are targeted by the Empire. And, of course, Iran is even more vigorously targeted because of their history of resistance to Western rule, their potential ability to acquire nuclear weapons, and they are a much smaller nation.

We saw the same dynamics played out in the 20th century when the Anglo-American capitalists and Axis capitalists fought for control of the world, and the effects were devastating mostly for working people who fought these wars. In this age of nuclear weapons major powers resist going directly to war because such wars are no longer seen as profitable opportunities. However, wars by other means are pursued, and that is what we have been seeing all across Eurasia, the Middle East, and Africa. The author explains how this kind of warfare is currently being played out in Ukraine.

See also "Ukraine: "West" Playing With Fire - Intentions?" from Moon of Alabama.

We often see independent actions taken by organized groups and leaders of other countries, and these too must be contained and controlled. Examples of these were movements involved in the Arab Spring uprising; and to a more limited extent with the Islamic fundamentalist terrorist groups that the Empire uses occasionally, the actions of Saudi Arabia and associated Arab countries and Turkey whose independent activities are currently causing minor problems for the Empire.

Sustainability and capitalism: Can we have it all?

Click here to access article by Gary Engler from New Commune-ist Manifesto (Canada).

He gives us many reasons why capitalism is totally incompatible with sustainability and also with equality.

How Markets Will be the End of Us

Click here to access article by Ali E. Erol from CounterPunch. (You will need to scroll down to the article.)

After referencing a lot of data regarding the increasing costs of global warming related to the use of fossil fuels, he writes:

The market, of course, does not care about human death or suffering unless it negatively affects demand or market activity. But, therein lies the good news! Looking at these numbers, it is safe to assume that within this century human suffering will be so severe that it will eventually motivate the market to take action against it.

But, the catch is...it will be too late.

Schools Tussle Over Proper Training for Butlers

Click here to access article by Frances Robinson from The Wall Street Journal.

This is another contribution to my practice on Saturdays to run articles about our fellow citizens of the One Percent (actually .01 of the 1%, or one out of every 10,000 of us) hoping that by doing this that we don't lose touch with their world and their concerns--you know, to promote understanding. It is important that we become better acquainted so that we can serve them better and make it easier for them to carry out the daily burden of making important decisions, decisions which affect whether we go off to war in foreign lands to kill their enemies, if we have jobs, if we live in a home or under a bridge, if we can afford their health care services, education, etc.

Unfortunately, for some reason they tend to hide their lives from the rest of us behind walls of secrecy, literal walls of guarded gated communities, private clubs, esoteric publications, by traveling with private jets, etc. We should not let that deter us. 

Today we learn from this article more about the growing career of butling that I first brought to your attention two weeks ago. Just as there are many more of us who have lost our jobs, in today's world there are more rich people and they are hiring butlers and servants (you see, it's true that "every cloud has a silver lining") to look after their every need just like the leading characters on their favor TV show, "Downton Abbey". 

I know that many of us unemployed people are fascinated by this new career opportunity; but before we leap into it, we should know that there are some issues involved. This article gives us some idea of what they are so that we can make an informed decision about pursuing this career. For example, some school directors recommend adoption of the latest tech-gadgets:

Mr. Vermeulen beseeches students to be of service in a 21st-century kind of way—ready with smartphone chargers and condoms, as well as shoeshine kits and hair pomade. 

But then another highly regarded director of a butling school disagrees:

Mr. Wennekes blanches at the thought. He isn't overly impressed by technology, and he definitely doesn't condone over familiarity.

Certain indignities bother him more than others. Mr. Wennekes recalls, for instance, one student who had been taught by another school to pull the toe of a sleeping principal if he wasn't awake in time for his breakfast tray.  

Problems of Eurozone, European Integration Stem From Deeply Unpopular Elite Economic, Social Policy

Click here to access article by Mark Weisbrot from Truthout.

In this piece we see another shallow attack on neoliberalist policies, this time in Europe due to the widespread effects of unemployment, the "rise of fascist parties and anti-immigrant activity [see this] in Europe or the threat of growing European disunity." The liberal critic refers to a discussion in an article published in Harper's Magazine when he argues...

...is missing something that is of central importance, which is implicit in some of James Galbraith's comments but not sufficiently spelled out. That is the neoliberal political project of the eurozone and its policy-makers, the deliberate attempt to remake Europe and move it as far as politically possible away from its prior social-democratic underpinnings.

Weisbrot's general take on this discussion is that neoliberal policies are simply a mistake or aberration which should be corrected to return Europe to its former condition.

...the same problems plague the world's other supra-national institutions, such as the IMF, World Bank and World Trade Organization. Until these institutions - like those of the eurozone - can be weaned from their neoliberal, anti-democratic agendas, the nation-state will indeed remain "the upper limit, not only of democracy but of political legitimacy."

Completely absent is any understanding of the tendencies of the capitalist ruling classes to constantly expand their opportunities for more profit and power regardless of the effects on populations under their control. Absent from his analysis is any understanding of post-WWII policies referred to as "social-democracy" which were designed by the capitalist ruling classes to head off the threat of more popular and radical ideas of worker control that were widespread in Europe immediately after the war.

Liberal critics serve an important function in maintaining capitalist rule. By writing such articles as this, they serve to distract people from capitalist's underlying antisocial addiction to profits and power that their system fosters and ultimately to reinforce the idea that "there is no alternative". 

An Idea Not Worth Spreading

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

The author points out how one TED speaker's observations that conflicted with a core belief of capitalists was censored from TED's website. This type of censorship, of course, is very common among all gatekeepers of ideas and observations throughout our capitalist society in order to insure a well indoctrinated population that willingly serves a ruling class.

However, the author also suggests a liberal take on things when he makes this statement:

...this situation is likely to deteriorate further as the unholy alliance between our national governments, supranational organizations (such as the IMF and EU), TBTF banks and their agents in the central banks continue to execute policies geared at obliterating what remains of the West’s middle classes.

It’s a crusade that is not only unspeakably destructive, but actually makes zero economics sense, for the simple reason that it’s the middle classes that keep the slow-beating heart of the consumer economy going.

Thus, he has exposed one capitalist myth only to affirm another: the middle classes are indispensable to the running of an economy. Then he follows this with what he believes is a supporting quote from the comic George Carlin. However, I believe that Carlin was consciously talking about a capitalist economy, whereas this author seems to believe that there is no alternative to a "consumer economy", usually referred to as a capitalist economy. 

As I was taught in my sociology classes, the middle class consists of managers, highly skilled professionals and technical people. These people are truly indispensable to running a capitalist society. But their relationship to capitalists, who constitute the ruling class, is very much like the African-American concept of one type of slave relationship with the master of the house or plantation that existed in our period of slavery. There was a "house nigger" which I think metaphorically describes the middle class, and then there were "field niggers" which describes the rest of us. This distinction was clearly explained by Malcolm X who began his essay with this:

There was two kind of slaves. There was the house negro and the field negro. The house negro, they lived in the house, with master. They dressed pretty good. They ate good, cause they ate his food, what he left. They lived in the attic or the basement, but still they lived near their master, and they loved their master, more than their master loved himself. 

When is the far-right acceptable to the West? When it's in Ukraine

Click here to access article by Neil Clark from RT's OpEdge.

The reality is that you can be as ultranationalist, as Neo-Nazi, as racist and as homophobic as you like – so long as you are opposing a government that the western elites want toppled. The extremism of Ukrainian far-right groups is therefore swept under the carpet, because such groups want Ukraine to sever its links with Russia. Yes, they’re fascists, homophobes and racists, but they’re “our kind” of fascists, homophobes and racists i.e. anti-Russian ones.

Although in my wanderings through the World Wide Web I encountered articles on Ukraine that made reference to the rise of the right-wing in that country, it really didn't register how far right the emerging Sovoda party is in Ukraine. After all, in my eyes most parties are right-wing because most are sponsored by capitalists. Clark in this article really prompted me to do a little more research, and I discovered he is absolutely correct in his observations. See this, this, this, and this. 

The Green Shock Doctrine

Click here to access the introduction to the series of PDF articles from the Global Justice Ecology Project.

There is a crucial and obvious need for a powerful global movement to tackle the climate crisis.  But this movement will not be based on reform. Capitalism and the markets have led us to the brink of the abyss.  They will not provide our parachute.  The system cannot be reformed.  It must be transformed. 

The latest report, Part II, argues:

Big Green NGOs are complicit in the advancement of the pro-corporate, market-obsessed, and profit-motivated Green Economy--including prominent organizations like the IUCN, CI, the Worldwide Fund for Nature, The Nature Conservancy, and Environmental Defense Fund.

Scientists condemn journal editor’s retraction of Séralini study on GM maize and Roundup

Click here to access article which is a press release issued by End Science Censorship. 

Here is a summary of the reported facts on which this press release is based:

• In September 2012 Prof Gilles-Eric Séralini and his team at the University of Caen, France, authored a study which found that rats fed the GM maize and/or low levels of Roundup in their diet suffered severe organ damage, particularly to the liver, kidneys and pituitary gland. Additional unexpected observations were higher rates of large tumours and mortality in most treatment groups. The study was published in Food and Chemical Toxicology (FCT), a science journal published by Elsevier headquartered in Amsterdam. 

• FCT’s editor, Dr A. Wallace Hayes, retracted the paper over a year after it was published. The decision came after a nontransparent, second review by a panel of unnamed persons of unknown professional competence and with undisclosed potential conflicts of interest.

• Just months before the retraction was announced, Dr Richard E. Goodman, a former Monsanto scientist, was appointed to a newly created editorial position in biotechnology at FCT. 

I think that this incident is only another illustration of a widespread phenomenon: whenever truth conflicts with the interests of capitalists, the latter will always win. This, of course, is true of every ruling class that ever existed. (Think about the early scientific discoveries of Galileo and how his findings were censored and he was persecuted by the Catholic church.) 

The major point I wish to make, and the whole point of my blog is: Why tolerate ruling classes? Given that the common practices of capitalists are to ravage the environment and workers in their mad pursuit of profits and power, and given the fact that these practices are not only threatening to contaminate the food we eat, but the very stability of our biosphere, why should we tolerate their existence? And, why should we tolerate the existence of any ruling class any longer?! Isn't it about time that humanity overcame this childish tendency to be ruled by tiny sections of their populations when it has become so dramatically clear that this tendency always harms the rest of us? Are we humans so biologically inadequate that we are unable to create a better organization of our societies? You know what happened to other species who couldn't adapt, don't you?

Anything but. . .

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

You have to give credit to mainstream economists: they’ll do anything to avoid talking about class.

Well, aren't we all middle-class? Of course, mainstream economists along with all ruling class directors avoid the obvious factor of class: this serves to hide the system's built-in exploitation of one segment, a tiny one, who feed off the labor of another, a huge one, which is expressed in this article as profits versus wages. They also want to hide the fact that in this system private "ownership" of the economy is a social construct which has created this tiny segment of "owners" and pits them against workers who are the vast majority. The charts in this article clearly confirm Warren Buffet's declaration about who is winning the class war.

Spine Language: The Activist Backbone

Click here to access article by Mickey Z. from World News Trust.

The author uses a metaphor as inspiration for us to make the right choices.

The spine symbolizes our strength, courage, being centered and uprightness. Problems with our spine indicate feelings of weakness and fear. We have lost our centeredness and emotional integrity and are feeling overburdened. 

Obama’s State of the Union address: An empty and reactionary charade

Click here to access article by Joseph Kishore from World Socialist Web Site.

The author provides the realities of our state of the union in contrast to the rhetorical version given by the ruling class's chief public relations officer.

US President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday was, perhaps even more than his previous addresses, a cynical and reactionary charade. Empty rhetoric was combined with a complete disconnect from the reality confronting millions of people and an assertion of executive power.

With Arctic freezer door open, frigid air drains into USA and Eurasia, with Arctic unusually mild

Click here to access article by David Spratt from Climate Code Red.

There is evidence connecting sea-ice loss to the more severe and extreme weather patterns in Europe and North America.... 

It seems to me that climate destabilization has only just begun. As it gets dramatically worse over the coming decades, capitalist class media directors will have their hands full trying to manage the widespread concern among their subject populations. 

However, many people still are not convinced. Recently someone asked me, "If global warming is real then why is it cold?". I really tried hard to be patient with this person and explained briefly that what we are seeing is destabilization of the climate while global average temperatures keep climbing. During my explanation I noticed her rolling her eyes rather contemptuously and I realized that she had been thoroughly indoctrinated by media sources which included Fox News.  What I'd like to do is send her a link to this Daily Show segment, but she might feel that I was ridiculing her--and I might be.

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,The Daily Show on Facebook

More evidence that capitalism never solves its crises

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

...how is it that we keep being told by world leaders that “this crisis is over”, and that, every time we are fed that same nonsensical story, some other crisis comes along in another part of the globe, making a mockery out of the official narrative and a fool out of its propagandists in the mainstream media and academia?

The author draws on the insights of David Harvey to understand the current burst of the bubble in the emerging markets as another illustration of how capitalists' mad pursuit of quick profits always results in economic chaos for workers.

The Last Days of the Lilliputians

Click here to access article by William T. Hathaway from Uncommon Thought Journal.

There are many words of wisdom in this article to help us in our struggle to free ourselves from the bondage that capitalist Lilliputians have put us in. As we learn how to untie ourselves, we must beware of their tactics to keep us bound.

They will try to divide us and make us fight one another. They will offer tempting reforms and compromises that will allow them to maintain ownership. They will bribe some of our opportunistic leaders with promises of token power if they cooperate. They will jail us. They will even kill some of us. But if we persist, holding to a militant rather than a reformist course, we will eventually free ourselves of them and build a system that emphasizes the humane in humanity. This is our time, an historic battle for liberation.

States, cities hand out billions in tax abatements

Click here to access article by Nancy Hanover from World Socialist Web Site. 

To some, it may come as a surprise that the bankrupt City of Detroit and the hard-hit State of Michigan are subsidizing the Big Three automakers, the pharmaceutical industry, energy companies and virtually every large Michigan business. But a massive giveaway—“corporate welfare,” both locally and nationally—is bankrupting municipalities everywhere as shown by reports from Demos (“The Detroit Bankrupcty”), the New York Times (“United States of Subsidies”) and Good Jobs First (“Megadeals”).

Although this corporate feeding at the public trough has been going on for some time, it appears that the practice has been accelerating in recent years. I recently saw this in my own back yard when Boeing corporation was awarded all kinds of tax write-offs, subsidies, and worker givebacks to keep production in the area and to prevent the undermining of the local economy. Workers and local populations are being threatened with the destruction of their economy if they don't bend to the will of corporate giants. This recalls the old Mafia practice of extorting "protection money" from merchants.

Mont Pelerin Society A Window Into Ideological Heart Of Kochtopus Climate Denial

Click here to access article by Graham Readfearn from DeSmogBlog.

It’s known as the Kochtopus – the extensive network of think tanks, institutes, university departments, political funding arms and “grassroots” activist groups funded by oil billionaires Charles and David Koch.

...Charles Koch is a long-standing member of the Mont Pelerin Society (MPS) – a global group of industrialists, academics and economists who share the “neoliberal” ideology of limiting government control.

.... From Argentina to Venezuela, the MPS directory shows almost 400 members in more than 50 countries. The Atlas Economic Research Foundation, a US-based global network of about 400 free market think tanks around the world, also has MPS members.

Readfearn does us a really good service to expose how two rich brothers through their money have reached into all areas of society and throughout the world to influence people's thinking to deny the impending climate crisis. As I have been arguing for years and I believe is obvious, capitalism and a stable climate that can support human life (and many other life forms) cannot coexist any longer. So, one of them has to go. The fact that so many capitalists choose climate denial in opposition to 95% of the world's scientists shows that they are addicted to this system. 

But now I want you to see this view of one single, but critically important issue where a few rich people have such powerful influence and apply their influence to every facet of our lives: what we think, how we think, how we relate to each other, how we behave in general, other major issues such as war and peace, our total culture. Isn't it crazy that we allow so few people to determine so much of our lives? This is precisely what happens in all class structured societies, but is most pronounced in contemporary capitalist society with all the sophisticated communication technology available to the ruling class. Isn't it about time we changed things? Especially now when faced with a climate crisis which will result in our extinction? 

Pete Seeger (1919-2014)

Click here to access introduction and recordings by Noel Morris 98.7WMFT (Chicago).

This posting is to commemorate a great American, a great human being, a folksinger and lifelong activist for social justice who continued to inspire me to create a better society the rest of my life. I watched him in performance and sang along with him whenever I could.  

See also this.

Like Your Hair’s On Fire

Click here to access article by James Howard Kunstler from World News Trust. 

The author sees lots of cultural metaphors surprisingly expressed in a TV series--and they ain't pretty. It's about a high school chemistry teacher who is faced with an expensive battle with lung cancer and turns to making methamphetamine to pay his medical bills.

He just has to come up with hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Which he does, simply by discarding his persona as an earnest schoolteacher and entering the ranks of illicit drugdom. Of course, the series is mostly concerned with the twists, turns, and torments of that transition, and the metaphors in that are also rich as to what America has lately become.

ISIS in Lebanon: Lebanese Army a Target

Click here to access article by Radwan Mortada posted on Al Akhbar.

In this ominous development forgive me if I see the invisible hands of the Saudi monarchy and Israeli Zionists behind this latest attempt to sow more chaos in the Middle East. 

Three prominent jihadi groups, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, al-Nusra Front in Lebanon, and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) have now declared war on Lebanon. The three groups timed their announcements to take place on the same day.  

Secondhand Daylight

Click here to access article by Darbikrash from Collapse of Industrial Civilization.

The author covers quite a bit of ground starting with protest songs from musicians in the 1970s, through a brief history of the rise of capitalism and the rationalizations of capitalist philosophers; but he/she really reaches his/her stride in the descriptions of worker alienation and then on to the disturbing realities facing workers today:

We see the security state girding its collective loins with surveillance capability and (domestic) military firepower. They know what is coming and it is not the Muslims. It is not the invading foreign hordes. It is the disenfranchised factory worker, the déclassé intellectuals, the retirees, and the unemployed who have stepped on one too many bodies to feed their families. The petite bourgeoisie who have one too many trinkets at the expense of their integrity. A rousing, rabid crowd of dangerous souls poisoned to their very cores by an alienating system of exploitation and commodity exchange that defiles and diminishes all those who participate, willing or unwillingly.

Our New Climate and Weather: Part II

Click here to access article by Paul Beckwith (B.Eng. Engineering Physics, M.Sc. Physics, presently working on Ph.D. in climatology) from SeeMoreRocks. 

The author sees evidence that suggests our climate is in the process of destabilization.

An enormous plug of cold Arctic air is descending southward across North America with temperature anomalies 20 degrees C below normal. .... Meanwhile, in turn, almost the entire Arctic region is seeing huge positive temperature anomalies that are 20 degrees C above normal (36 degrees F above normal).

The Palestinian Capitalists That Have Gone Too Far

Click here to access article by Tariq Dana from Al-Shabaka. 

I was astonished by the revelations of capitalist cronyism participated in by Palestinian capitalists with their counterparts in Israel and the US. This explains so much about political events and issues regarding Palestine and Israel: the giveaways in the Oslo Accords and why all the negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian government authorities are always brokered by the US. What I cannot yet figure out is how I missed such analyses up 'til now: has no one noticed what was going on there or have I failed in my search of articles?

The political and social influence of Palestinian crony capitalists and their ongoing economic normalization of Israel’s occupation should alarm all those concerned about the future of the Palestinian cause.  ...chasing after profits without regard to Palestinian fundamental rights and national aspirations.... Their mechanisms of social and political control, and their flagrant complicity in normalization projects are a structural obstacle to the anti-colonial struggle and undermine the Palestinian quest for justice.

It was particularly interesting to see the same ploys used to manage and exploit vulnerable Palestinians as are used elsewhere in the world by capitalists: NGOs and the promotion of debt for their government and individual Palestinians.

Ariel Sharon, Apartheid South Africa and mutual military interests

Click here to access article by Hennie Van Vuuren and Anine Kriegler from Daily Maverick (South Africa).

In reviewing the legacy of Ariel Sharon, few media sources have covered his important role in collaborating with the South African in military affairs to secure capitalist interests in Africa and with nuclear weapons programs. This article fills in the gaps. This collaboration clearly illustrates the common proverb which states, "birds of a feather flock together".

The military alliance between the two pariah states was largely covert, but, according to reams of correspondence between the respective defence ministries, unreservedly supportive and warm. Sharon played a key role in keeping it so, going further than most in publicly asserting South Africa’s urgent need for more and better weaponry. There was a clear sense of parallel between the struggles of the Apartheid and Israeli states, and although many Israelis were at pains to maintain their ideological distance, Sharon was not among them.

State of Power 2014: Exposing the Davos Class

Click here to access article by Nick Buxton posted on Reflections on a Revolution. 

Buxton provides a good introduction to a comprehensive report on the significance of the annual World Economic Forums at Davos, Switzerland, a ski resort. This is timely because the 2014 Forum is currently being held there.

The Transnational Institute is proud to launch its third annual ‘State of Power’ report as the World Economic Forum meets in Davos. This anthology exposes and  analyses the principal power-brokers, members of the “Davos class”, who have caused financial, economic, social and ecological crises worldwide. Unless we know which elites control our wealth and resources, understand how they influence political and social processes, and can identify the systems, structures and policies by which they maintain their power, TNI believes our hopes for advancing social and environmental justice are slim. Justice demands a recalibration of power and that requires us to better understand it.

Masters of War

Click here to access the 5:14 video with lyrics from Raging Bull-Shit.

This is for those among us who choose life rather than death, cooperation rather than domination, sharing rather than selfishness, and love rather than hate. We also acknowledge that there are weak people among us who choose the opposite because they are seduced by the immediate gratification of profit and power offered by the current reigning capitalist system. 

Inside the Obscene Lifestyles of the New Global Super-Rich

Click here to access article by Lynn Stuart Parramore from AlterNet. 

This is another contribution to my practice on Saturdays to run articles about our fellow citizens of the One Percent (actually .01 of the 1%, or one out of every 10,000 of us) hoping that by doing this that we don't lose touch with their world and their concerns--you know, to promote understanding. It is important that we become better acquainted so that we can serve them better and make it easier for them to carry out the daily burden of making important decisions, decisions which affect whether we go off to war in foreign lands to kill their enemies, if we have jobs, if we live in a home or under a bridge, if we can afford their health care services, education, etc.

Unfortunately, for some reason they tend to hide their lives from the rest of us behind walls of secrecy, literal walls of guarded gated communities, private clubs, esoteric publications, by traveling with private jets, etc. We should not let that deter us. 

In this piece we learn:

A new crop of global super-rich is pouring into the United States, changing the economic landscape from Manhattan to Los Angeles. They’re driving up the price of real estate, pushing out the middle class and going on buying binges that would make Gilded Age robber barons blush.

We also learn about a new TV program on the rich and their extravagant lifestyle. It seems that the rich want to rub their rich lifestyles in our faces, or maybe they hope that we want to vicariously enjoy their lives like our grandparents did during the 1930s when films about the rich were popular.

Turkish PM Erdogan: The Speedy Transformation of an Imperial Puppet [Part 2 of 2]

Click here to access article by Sibel Edmonds from Boiling Frogs Post. 

Edmonds continues in this piece to explain why Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan has gone from hero to villain in the US media as she described in her previous post. If you are familiar with US history you will soon learn that they are the same reasons as to why other foreign leaders such as dictators Manuel Noriega of Panama, Saddam Hussein of Iraq, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, and many others were taken down: they all violated certain commandments of the Empire. Erdogan appears to be headed in this direction also. She explains this in the article.

Tricks of the Trade: How Big Polluters Hide Climate Lobbying Behind Trade Groups

Click here to access article by Ben Jervey from DeSmogBlog.

What do large companies do when they want to lobby against climate change and carbon mitigation measures without looking publicly like they're pro-pollution?

Symptoms of Imperial Soldiers

Click here to access article by Mouwafak Chourbagui from CairoScene.

Are Egypt's "elite" blindly fighting for the imperialistic, capitalist system that actually enslaves them? Yes, says Mouwafak Chourbagui, and he should know - he is one of them, after all. Do you suffer from these symptoms, too?

Absolutely outstanding! This piece really impressed me, and then a secondary reaction left me with an even greater insight, indeed, a revelation that under globalization the whole world is ruled by a tiny class whose system imposes so much poverty, both material and psychological, on the rest of us. To accomplish this arrangement our capitalist rulers have constructed an entire culture which is deeply colonialist in the sense that they impose their values, lifestyles, classism, racism on the rest of us who, by and large, buy into this oppressive culture. 

But, this fellow does not. Although he could have easily gone along with this hegemonic culture and enjoy the many material benefits it offers, somehow he was prevented by some human spark of integrity and refused this easy path to riches by critically examining the fake, colonial mentalities, and the social injustice of this dominant culture.

Yes, I too, could identify with his feeling and insights here in the northwest of the United States of America whose ruling class constitutes the core of the global ruling capitalist class. Here, too, the vast majority are suffering from a lack of occupational opportunities, education, health and general welfare--and they, too, often subscribe to the same values and perspectives of their oppressors. Of course, they like their colonial counterparts in third world countries, don't see that they are being oppressed. That's the genius of colonial rule. Under the rule of globalized capitalism, often referred to as neoliberalism, a tiny First World and a huge Third World exists everywhere in the world.

Preparing Geneva-2

Click here to access article by Thierry Meyssan from VoltaireNet. 

If you have watched too much propaganda from corporate-sponsored media regarding Syrian events, you no doubt are totally confused about what has gone on there, the present negotiations starting today in Switzerland known as "Geneva 2", and the humanitarian crises in the nearby areas. Meyssan in this article adds much clarity to our understanding of these tragic events.

The last days of a war are always the deadliest. Routed armies avenge their defeat by committing futile atrocities, as we have seen in Adra where the tortures inflicted on loyalist workers have nothing to envy those committed during the fall of the Third Reich. But the situation is exacerbated by the collapse of what remains of the international anti-Syria coalition, each ex-partner trying to protect his interests at the expense of his former allies.

Politico’s Ben White Writes a Dubious Piece on Wall Street and Gets Slapped Down By Media Peers

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

This liberal Wall Street critic gives a piece posted in Politico a well-deserved trashing or thrashing. You might want to read the Politico article first--it is astonishing in its naiveté. 

Liberal critics like Marten perform a valuable service to anti-capitalists by occasionally revealing some of their dirtier secrets. Here is one jewel of a secret that she points to in her article:

White drops a clue in the article as to whom or what might be fueling this new-think. White says Hamilton Place Strategies, a D.C. consulting firm, is “working with banks on image repair.” The web site for Hamilton Place Strategies says it “brings experience and issue expertise to bear for managing media…” Should media be managed? It also says it “shapes the way people and policy makers think about issues and ideas. We bring decades of experience and relationships with leading thought leaders and journalists in Washington and around the world.” And, finally, it notes that it has monitoring techniques “to measure the effectiveness of a communications strategy.”

The problem with liberal critics like Martens is that they cling to the illusion of a kinder, gentler form of capitalism that has never existed or will ever exist. In spite of all the recent crimes against society, she soldiers on to joust the evil-doers on Wall Street. I admire her courage, but fault her for her illusory thinking.

Corporate Criminals, Billionaires Gather for World Economic Forum in Davos

Click here to access article by Andre Damon from Global Research. 

This piece informs us that global capitalist directors are holding another one of their annual celebrations (much like the Bohemian Grove and other such gatherings). This one is located in one of the favorite hangouts of the rich, Davos, a ski resort in Switzerland. 

While some members of their class are concerned about what they see as a major threat to their beloved system, the rest remain so completely committed to the system which gives them so much wealth and power that they ignore the warnings. This is another sure sign of an addiction (in addition to the threat of climate destabilization). With reference to these warnings, Damon writes:

No one at the conference, however, is proposing any social reforms to ameliorate the plight of the working class or redistribute wealth downwards from the top. On the contrary, the watchword is “structural reform,” a euphemism for stripping workers of all protections, dismantling what remains of the welfare state, and removing all environmental and health and safety rules that restrict corporate profit.

So, what are the significance of these meetings and why should we even bother reading about them? I think they serve the important function of promoting and consolidating a class consciousness, an identification with others who own and control for their own benefit much of the world's economy.

If You See Something, Say Something: Another Top Climatologist On The Necessity Of Speaking Out

Click here to access article by Joe Romm from ClimateProgress. 

All liberal critics who see the threat of climate destabilization can do in the face of so much scientific evidence is wring their hands at what they seem to see as some sort of weakness in human nature which accounts for the repeated suppression of this evidence and/or ignoring the evidence. Because such critics are also committed to the capitalist system, they are blinded to the fact that the existence of capitalism is totally incompatible with a stable climate.

The European periphery as a political laboratory

Click here to access article by Ricardo Campos from Reflections on a Revolution. 

The author looks at recent events in the periphery of Europe and sees it as a neoliberal laboratory for the transformation of European social democracy into a neoliberal economic and political region. 

European social democratic governments were established following WWII to counter the widespread radical ideas of militant labor groups. Such governments and the machinations of counter-revolutionary Gladio type projects did stabilize and secure Europe for capitalist domination and integration into NATO and the Empire. Now we are seeing the dismantling of these structures which have begun most aggressively in the periphery of Europe (Greece, Ireland, Portugal, etc.) and their replacement by the construction of neoliberal forms of economic and political rule. The author also looks at the implications for contesting this neoliberal project by revolutionary groups.

There are a few typographic errors in the text, for example: 

the transformation of political choices in technical imperatives crystallized in law;  

should read: "the transformation of political choices into technical imperatives crystallized in law;"

and a society that exists trough and for the market,

should read: "and a society that exists through and for the market,"

How Shrewd this Empire Be!

Click here to access article by Philip A. Farruggio from World News Trust.

The highly controlled mainstream news always does the bidding of our Military Industrial Empire… always!

As most folks should know, there is this constitutional caveat called sequestration that requires cuts in federal spending to help balance budgets. So, what does the war mongering cabal do? Well, read on....

The article also quotes some of the grossest Orwellian examples of Empire propaganda.

A tale of two reports: Jonathan Freedland in The Guardian

Click here to access article from the blogger at Interventions Watch.

This is another illustration of how corporate media function to support the interests of the One Percent's Empire by managing information and analysis. The blogger looks at the contradictions and inconsistencies from corporate media when reporting the same crimes:

• When reports are published alleging crimes by states who are our [the Empire's] Official Enemies, the background of the people who commissioned the report is irrelevant in judging its veracity and objectivity, and it should cause ‘global outrage’ against the accused and their international backers. 

• When (arguably more credible) reports are published alleging crimes by states who are our [the Empire's] Official Allies, the background of the people who commissioned the report is relevant in judging its veracity and objectivity, and we must question why this state, but not others, is being singled out.

The moral of this article and similar ones is...read/view corporate media reports critically! 

Boeing Deal: A Defeat for Us All

Click here to access article by Andy Piascik from CounterPunch.

In a move that strikes yet another blow to democracy and the living standards of working Americans, Boeing forced major givebacks on its 30,000 union employees in the state of Washington while simultaneously pulling off what may be the biggest welfare rip-off in the nation’s history. 

Drugs Displace Maize on Mexico’s Small Farms

Click here to access article by Emilio Godoy from Inter Press Service.

As the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) passes its 20-year milestone, Mexico is seeing the displacement of traditional crops like maize by marihuana and opium poppy as a result of falling prices for the country’s most important agricultural product.

Turkish PM Erdogan: The Speedy Transformation of an Imperial Puppet [Part 1 of 2]

Click here to access article by Sibel Edmonds from Boiling Frogs. 

Edmonds provides a brilliant exposé of how international political figures are "marketed" to American citizens using the Turkish Prime Minister as an example. This former whistleblower extraordinaire is very knowledgeable about Turkish affairs given her Turkish origins and her former work with the FBI as a Turkish translator. With considerable documentation she, like an astute lawyer, builds an airtight case to illustrate how our ruling class has used major media to shift from extremely positive coverage of Erdogan's rule to extremely negative as is evident today based on his actions in relation to Empire interests.

From this illustration we learn the larger lesson of how the ruling class, through their control of mainstream media, have converted the latter into propaganda organs to serve the interests of their class.

Because of the first-rate quality of the articles posted on this website, we all must support their work through subscriptions or donations.

85 people versus 3.5 billion people – the OXFAM report

Click here to access article posted by Edward Fullbrook from Real-World Economics Review Blog.

Fullbrook provides a brief summary of report from one of the quintessential liberal activist organizations. While citing the widely known trends in inequality throughout the world, OXFAM's report contains more of the same illusory recommendations that liberals are famous for.

Oxfam is calling on them [the world's capitalist leaders meeting in Davos] to pledge that they will:  

• Not dodge taxes in their own countries or in countries where they invest
  and operate,by using tax havens;

• Not use their economic wealth to seek political favors that undermine the democratic will of their fellow citizens;

• Make public all the investments in companies and trusts for which they are the ultimate beneficial owners;

•  Support progressive taxation on wealth and income;

• Challenge governments to use their tax revenue to provide universal health care, education and social protection for citizens;

• Demand a living wage in all the companies they own or control;

•  Challenge other economic elites to join them in these pledges.

Christie = Symptom. Two-party = Disease

Click here to access article by Mickey Z. from World News Trust. 

...America’s two-party system is like buying a ticket on a commercial airline. You can request a seat on the right side or you can request a seat on the left side of the plane. But it doesn’t matter because the same pilot controls both wings.

The author doesn't really spend much time on New Jersey Governor Christie, but instead he makes a valiant effort to disabuse many ordinary Americans of their belief in the carefully managed elections as an exercise in "democracy", especially liberals who election after election become enamored of some candidate who makes nice sounding promises to create a more decent, peaceful society. (I have frequently lived in college towns where many liberals hang out, and have witnessed this phenomenon throughout my long life.)  

I have become rather cynical about such an effort as this. In the past I kept thinking that people would "wise up" to this political scam after so many lies have been told, and after things keep getting worse. But no--I continue to see cars in my area with Obama bumper stickers plastered on them.

Final Solutions: Human nature, Capitalism, and Genocide

Click here to access this review (reviewer is Neil Faulkner) of a new book by the above title authored by Sabby Sagall posted on CounterFire (Britain).

Sabby Sagall, a former senior lecturer in sociology at the University of East London and a lifelong revolutionary activist, was prompted to write Final Solutions by the approaching sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp in 2005. He was persuaded to expand the remit to genocide in general, and the result, seven years in the writing, is a comprehensive survey of relevant Marxist and Freudian theories along with four excellent case-studies covering the Native American, Armenian, Nazi, and Rwandan Holocausts.

Green Capitalism: The God That Failed

Click here to access a review from TruthOut of a book by Richard Smith, a re-posting of an article from March 2011 that appeared in Real-World Economics Review and Climate and Capitalism which I re-posted on my website in May 2011, then again the next day after a complete reading with this commentary.

It is a hopeful sign when liberal media sources such as Truthout republish articles like this, even though belatedly.

The truth about Israel's secret nuclear arsenal

Click here to access article by Julian Borger from The Guardian. 

Israel has been stealing nuclear secrets and covertly making bombs since the 1950s. And western governments, including Britain and the US, turn a blind eye. But how can we expect Iran to curb its nuclear ambitions if the Israelis won't come clean?

This is the first major article, that I know of, in a significant Western news source for general public consumption to discuss the open secret of Israel's atomic weapons program--finally, after more than 50 years of hiding this fact as well as the Empire's non-compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty negotiated in 1968. Still, this does not deter the Empire's directorate from discriminatory policies against nations identified as their enemies--Democratic People's Republic of Korea and Iran--

For a more detailed report on the history of Israel's atomic weapons program, see this from Federation of American Scientists.

Remembering the Officially Deleted Dr. King

Click here to access article by Paul Street from CounterPunch. 

To commemorate Martin Luther King day (Monday), I am posting this piece which provides us with a much needed history lesson about another American hero whose significance in our lives has been eviscerated by ruling class media. Indeed, King's activities and words were so significant that they had to assassinate him (read An Act of State by William Pepper).

“The black revolution,” King wrote in a posthumously published 1969 essay titled “A Testament of Hope”...“is much more than a struggle for the rights of Negroes. It is forcing America to face all its interrelated flaws – racism, poverty, militarism, and materialism. It is exposing evils that are rooted deeply in the whole structure of our society. It reveals systemic rather than superficial flaws and suggests that radical reconstruction society of society itself is the real issue to be faced.”

John Ball Was Right!

Click here to access article by John Spritzler from New Democracy World.

The author draws insight and inspiration from English history in 1381.

The story of what happened as a result of the failure of the Peasant Rebellion of 1381 illustrates a lesson that bears on an important question we face today. What changes do we need to make to our society in order to prevent the re-emergence of what is clearly unacceptable...? Do we need merely to make some reforms that would reign in the excessive behavior of capitalists while continuing to accept the legitimacy of capitalism itself, with its competition and private ownership of productive land and mines and factories and offices, leading to winners and losers and rich and poor? Or do we need to make a fundamental egalitarian revolution...?