...a timely new book...recounts the stories of ordinary citizens around the world as they decided to take matters into their own hands. ...the international scholar-activist duo provide us with a unique insight into the bowels of the ship, where a massive democratic mutiny is brewing — occasionally spilling over onto the deck to rearrange some of the chairs, but most of the time simply stirring below the surface, preparing the ground for a radical redistribution of power from below.
Monday, June 16, 2014
They Can’t Represent Us: a riveting defense of democracy
Click here to access a book review by Jerome Roos of the recently published book They Can't Represent US by Marina Sitrin and Dario Azzellini, posted on Reflections on a Revolution.
Edward Bernays - 'Propaganda' (1928)
Click here to access this introduction and links to a series of 13 podcasts, including transcripts, on the teachings and profound influence of Bernays whom many people regard as the founder of American propaganda and a major theorist behind the "manufacturing of consent". His ideas have resulted in a major tool that the US ruling class uses to dumb-down, entertain, dis-inform, and distract Americans from what our ruling masters really plan in secret meetings and execute as "humanitarian interventions" with our tax money and in our name.
Edward Bernays, born in Vienna in 1891 and famously the nephew of Sigmund Freud, was perhaps the pioneer in the field of Public Relations, and highly influential in providing the framework for modern advertising. His work aimed to convince people to want things that they didn’t need, and in the process, link their unconscious desires to the consumption of mass produced goods. This in turn, it was theorized, could be used to control the masses, as by keeping them distracted on frivolous happenings and relatively unimportant wants, they wouldn’t interfere with the activities of what he called ‘the important few’.
All the while, he was remarkably candid about his intent. In one of his first books, ‘Propaganda’ (1928), he coined the term ‘engineering of consent’ to describe his technique for controlling the masses. In this podcast series, Guy Evans examines just how influential these ideas were, and details the resulting impact in relation to public relations, advertising, celebrity culture, and democracy itself.
Capitalism is the enemy of mother earth
Click here if you wish to access the posting of this 6:50m video (Democracy Now!) on System Change Not Climate Change.
In this video excerpt we hear not only the voice of Bolivia's president Evo Morales, but also many voices of activists attending the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth.
In this video excerpt we hear not only the voice of Bolivia's president Evo Morales, but also many voices of activists attending the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth.
Sunday, June 15, 2014
On Recent Events in Mosul and Other Cities in Iraq: [A message from the] Federation of Workers’ Councils and Unions in Iraq
Click here to access article by Falah Alwan posted on Jadaliyya.
Referring to a commonly used strategy (divide and rule) of all imperialists throughout history, the author writes:
Referring to a commonly used strategy (divide and rule) of all imperialists throughout history, the author writes:
it is...true that Iraqis generally reject ISIS, whether in the central or southern regions of Iraq or in parts of the country that are no longer under government control: the so-called "Sunni" areas or the "Sunni Triangle", a term that intelligence services, particularly the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), devised as part of a plan to engineer sectarianism in Iraq. At the same time, Iraqis generally reject Maliki's regime and its policies, built as they are on an ethno-sectarian basis. This is especially the case in urban areas where sectarian discrimination is most concentrated, wherein the government treats ordinary people as political enemies. [my emphasis]In 2007 we finally learned about clear evidence of false-flag operations that had been carried out in 2005 by a special forces unit of the British army (SAS) obviously designed to stir up inter-sect hostilities:
Two SAS men in Arab clothes and head dress were arrested by Iraqi police at a checkpoint after refusing to stop and opening fire from their civilian car which was packed with explosives. They were arrested by Iraqi police and detained. This led to British tanks smashing down the prison wall where the SAS men were being held and releasing them, but not before incensed Iraqis attacked the British army with petrol bombs and stones. A British soldier was captured on film fleeing from his tank in flames from a petrol bomb and being pelted by rocks from the crowd, an image which symbolises maybe more than any other the British experience in Basra.See also this, this after the First Gulf War, and this, if you need further convincing.
Iraq's "World Of Hurt"
Click here to access article by Bernhard from his blog Moon of Alabama.
Read this and weep for the people of Iraq.
Read this and weep for the people of Iraq.
All sides will bleed and, thanks to the U.S. war of terror, all Iraqis will contine to be in a "world of hurt" for years to come.
India’s Heat Wave Is Unbearable
Click here to access article by Eric Holthaus from Slate.
On Wednesday, New Delhi enters day 10 of a blistering heat wave that’s broken at least one long-standing record, with part of the city peaking at 118 degrees Fahrenheit (47.8 degrees Celsius) on Sunday. During that stretch, the average high temperature at the airport in New Delhi has been 109.9 Fahrenheit (43.2 Celsius), with the average low an astonishing 84 Fahrenheit (28.9 Celsius). Days upon days with nighttime low temperatures above 80 Fahrenheit can be deadly, especially for those without a way to keep cool.I expect to be posting articles like this at an increasing rate over the next decade (should I last that long)--not that it will do any good. For every article posted like this, there will be ten thousand media pieces broadcast over ruling class media that will pretend that efforts are being made to deal with the developing catastrophe of climate destabilization. We will hear messages like this: "All will be well, just trust us, the authorities; meanwhile, go shopping for air conditioners."
Bashing Climate Deniers (Easy)... Adequate Climate Action (Hard)
Click here to access article by Jon Queally from Common Dreams.
This piece by Queally says a lot about how the US political system works, that is, if one looks below the surface of what is reported.
Here we see Obama, the CPRO (Chief Public Relations Officer) of the US ruling capitalist class, delivering a speech to a brighter than average American audience, graduating students at UC Irvine. To this audience, and other Americans concerned about climate destabilization, he must make a good pretense of being concerned about climate change by delivering a "a new and impassioned speech centered around climate change". The author rightly points out that his proposals fall far short of what scientists are insisting is needed.
It is unlikely that even these insufficient measures will be instituted, but the directors of this ruling class must make the pretense that their political system is trying to grapple with the problem if only those nasty Republicans would stop getting in the way.
By the way, if you need more convincing about who Obama really works for, then read this article entitled "Meeting Logs: Obama White House Quietly Coddling Big Oil on 'Bomb Trains' Regulations".
This piece by Queally says a lot about how the US political system works, that is, if one looks below the surface of what is reported.
Here we see Obama, the CPRO (Chief Public Relations Officer) of the US ruling capitalist class, delivering a speech to a brighter than average American audience, graduating students at UC Irvine. To this audience, and other Americans concerned about climate destabilization, he must make a good pretense of being concerned about climate change by delivering a "a new and impassioned speech centered around climate change". The author rightly points out that his proposals fall far short of what scientists are insisting is needed.
It is unlikely that even these insufficient measures will be instituted, but the directors of this ruling class must make the pretense that their political system is trying to grapple with the problem if only those nasty Republicans would stop getting in the way.
By the way, if you need more convincing about who Obama really works for, then read this article entitled "Meeting Logs: Obama White House Quietly Coddling Big Oil on 'Bomb Trains' Regulations".
A DeSmogBlog review of OIRA [Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs] meeting logs confirms that in recent weeks, OIRA has held at least ten meetings with officials from both industries on oil-by-rail regulations. On the flip side, it held no meetings with public interest groups.
Big trouble in the Antarctic has been brewing for a long time
Click here to access article by David Spratt from Climate Code Red (Australia).
In the first half of the article Spratt reviews recent evidence of the dramatic acceleration of the melting of glaciers in West Antarctica beyond what well-established scientists in service to capitalist ruling classes have foreseen. He rightly argues that this has been known and predicted for a number of years by scientists of a more independent mind or position.
Notice that I have inserted some concepts into his explanation that he does not mention. I justify this insertion because it is clearly implicit in all the reporting that has been published so far about Antarctica and the whole climate destabilization issue. You cannot separate the capitalist system, and the ruling classes that benefit from it, from the issue of climate destabilization and how established climate organizations have reported on it. Because if you took his arguments at only face value, you would have to conclude that he and other like minded people are so much smarter than those connected with more established scientific organizations. In fact, he seems to argue this by repeating in the second half of his article an extract of "what we said back in late 2007" to prove how much smarter he and his friends are.
It seems so crystal clear to me, and others who get little play in the media, that there is a fundamental contradiction between the system of capitalism and climate sustainability. Thus, the class of people who benefit from the system and who have overwhelming control of media (and all other important sectors of most societies) are compelled to downplay or deny this contradiction as long as possible. And scientists are under tremendous pressure to conform to such views or risk losing their careers.
Without knowing anything about Spratt, I strongly suspect that this type of pressure is also preventing him from explicitly recognizing this contradiction. What is desperately needed for any real change to come about is for courageous, reputable people to make this connection.
In the first half of the article Spratt reviews recent evidence of the dramatic acceleration of the melting of glaciers in West Antarctica beyond what well-established scientists in service to capitalist ruling classes have foreseen. He rightly argues that this has been known and predicted for a number of years by scientists of a more independent mind or position.
Notice that I have inserted some concepts into his explanation that he does not mention. I justify this insertion because it is clearly implicit in all the reporting that has been published so far about Antarctica and the whole climate destabilization issue. You cannot separate the capitalist system, and the ruling classes that benefit from it, from the issue of climate destabilization and how established climate organizations have reported on it. Because if you took his arguments at only face value, you would have to conclude that he and other like minded people are so much smarter than those connected with more established scientific organizations. In fact, he seems to argue this by repeating in the second half of his article an extract of "what we said back in late 2007" to prove how much smarter he and his friends are.
It seems so crystal clear to me, and others who get little play in the media, that there is a fundamental contradiction between the system of capitalism and climate sustainability. Thus, the class of people who benefit from the system and who have overwhelming control of media (and all other important sectors of most societies) are compelled to downplay or deny this contradiction as long as possible. And scientists are under tremendous pressure to conform to such views or risk losing their careers.
Without knowing anything about Spratt, I strongly suspect that this type of pressure is also preventing him from explicitly recognizing this contradiction. What is desperately needed for any real change to come about is for courageous, reputable people to make this connection.
Saturday, June 14, 2014
Capitalism’s Bullets in Latin America
Click here to access article by Benjamin Dangl from CounterPunch.
Capitalism, empire and 21st century colonialism come from afar and descend on their victims in Latin America. But these forces are also in the tear gas canisters that Brazil’s security forces use at the World Cup, in the state that extracts natural resources on indigenous territory, and in the free trade deals signed in blood.Dangl surveys the current scene in Latin America to reveal the not-so-hidden hand of capitalism and its agents wrecking havoc on the people and the environment.
Children given lifelong ban on talking about fracking
Click here to access article by Suzanne Goldenberg from The Guardian.
Goldenberg reports on a "legal" settlement of a lawsuit initiated by the Hallowich family against the Range Resources Corp, a leading oil and gas driller. Their lawsuit which was settled in the family's favor has raised fundamental questions about freedom of speech in this Pennsylvania community and beyond. What few Americans realize is that whenever Constitutional guarantees clash with capitalist interests, the former will always be ignored.
Goldenberg reports on a "legal" settlement of a lawsuit initiated by the Hallowich family against the Range Resources Corp, a leading oil and gas driller. Their lawsuit which was settled in the family's favor has raised fundamental questions about freedom of speech in this Pennsylvania community and beyond. What few Americans realize is that whenever Constitutional guarantees clash with capitalist interests, the former will always be ignored.
The sweeping gag order was imposed under a $750,000 settlement between the Hallowich family and Range Resources Corp, a leading oil and gas driller. It provoked outrage on Monday among environmental campaigners and free speech advocates.
How Bill Gates pulled off the swift Common Core revolution
Click here to access article by Lyndsey Layton from The Washington Post.
Layton's rather comprehensive report offers an illustration of how one plutocrat couple can have a major impact on the entire country. The Gates couple pushed their pet, unresearched educational theory onto most of the country using huge amounts of their own money. They even influenced the Obama administration to support it. Their theory, called Common Core, is a bonanza for educational software businesses, but the adherents claim that this is only incidental.
Layton's rather comprehensive report offers an illustration of how one plutocrat couple can have a major impact on the entire country. The Gates couple pushed their pet, unresearched educational theory onto most of the country using huge amounts of their own money. They even influenced the Obama administration to support it. Their theory, called Common Core, is a bonanza for educational software businesses, but the adherents claim that this is only incidental.
“You had dozens of states adopting before the standards even existed, with little or no discussion, coverage or controversy,” said Frederick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute, which has received $4 million from the Gates Foundation since 2007 to study education policy, including the Common Core. “People weren’t paying attention. We were in the middle of an economic meltdown and the health-care fight, and states saw a chance to have a crack at a couple of million bucks if they made some promises.”
The decision by the Gates Foundation to simultaneously pay for the standards and their promotion is a departure from the way philanthropies typically operate, said Sarah Reckhow, an expert in philanthropy and education policy at Michigan State University.
“Usually, there’s a pilot test — something is tried on a small scale, outside researchers see if it works, and then it’s promoted on a broader scale,” Reckhow said. “That didn’t happen with the Common Core. Instead, they aligned the research with the advocacy. . . . At the end of the day, it’s going to be the states and local districts that pay for this.”
NSA Whistleblower: Snowden Never Had Access to the JUICIEST Documents … Far More Damning
Click here to access article from George Washington's Blog.
NSA whistleblower Russel Tice was a key source in the 2005 New York Times report that blew the lid off the Bush administration’s use of warrantless wiretapping.
Tice told PBS and other media that the NSA is spying on – and blackmailing – top government officials and military officers, including Supreme Court Justices, highly-ranked generals, Colin Powell and other State Department personnel, and many other top officials....This blogger provides two videos and a lot of other valuable information about a lessor known NSA whistleblower who defied his bosses to reveal widespread agency spying on many high government officials.
War Gear Flows to Police Departments
Click here to access article by Matt Apuzzo from the NY Times (It appears that one can access this article without registration.)
I have little doubt that such police responses are coordinated nationwide, and are designed to intimidate people, thereby to discourage any overt opposition to government policies. The political operatives of the One Percent want to inculcate the idea into the minds of the 99 Percent that there is no alternative to their rule and policies, and they will not tolerate any significant opposition.
What may be of even more significance is how this major publication of the ruling One Percent publishes this material which could in the minds of many suggest a growing militarized police state. This NY Times reporter provides all kinds of explanations that this development has just sort of happened accidentally.
During the Obama administration, according to Pentagon data, police departments have received tens of thousands of machine guns; nearly 200,000 ammunition magazines; thousands of pieces of camouflage and night-vision equipment; and hundreds of silencers, armored cars and aircraft.
The equipment has been added to the armories of police departments that already look and act like military units. Police SWAT teams are now deployed tens of thousands of times each year, increasingly for routine jobs. Masked, heavily armed police officers in Louisiana raided a nightclub in 2006 as part of a liquor inspection. In Florida in 2010, officers in SWAT gear and with guns drawn carried out raids on barbershops that mostly led only to charges of “barbering without a license.”I recall well in the Fall of 2011 the shocked reaction by Occupy activists near where I live in Bellingham, WA, when local police showed up in full swat gear to clear their small protest encampment. Bellingham is a typical small college town whose students, if they have any political orientation at all, have a mostly benign liberal opposition to some government policies.
I have little doubt that such police responses are coordinated nationwide, and are designed to intimidate people, thereby to discourage any overt opposition to government policies. The political operatives of the One Percent want to inculcate the idea into the minds of the 99 Percent that there is no alternative to their rule and policies, and they will not tolerate any significant opposition.
What may be of even more significance is how this major publication of the ruling One Percent publishes this material which could in the minds of many suggest a growing militarized police state. This NY Times reporter provides all kinds of explanations that this development has just sort of happened accidentally.
The Pentagon program does not push equipment onto local departments. The pace of transfers depends on how much unneeded equipment the military has, and how much the police request. Equipment that goes unclaimed typically is destroyed. So police chiefs say their choice is often easy: Ask for free equipment that would otherwise be scrapped, or look for money in their budgets to prepare for an unlikely scenario. Most people understand, police officers say.Thus, I argue that the article was designed to allay well-founded fears about a growing police state among American citizens.
Good, bad, and ugly elections via White House suds 'n duds laundry operations
Click here to access article by Joseph K. Winter from The Spoof.
Ruling class media directors have had to work double time to insure that their subjects hold the right views about recent elections across the world. This writer explains how they do it: they use high quality detergents to remove inconvenient factual stains from many elections.
Ruling class media directors have had to work double time to insure that their subjects hold the right views about recent elections across the world. This writer explains how they do it: they use high quality detergents to remove inconvenient factual stains from many elections.
Friday, June 13, 2014
NATO’s Terror Hordes in Iraq a Pretext for Syria Invasion
Click here to access article by Tony Cartalucci from New Eastern Outlook.
Reading Western headlines, two fact-deficient narratives have begun gaining traction. The first is that this constitutes a “failure” of US policy in the Middle East, an alibi as to how the US and its NATO partners should in no way be seen as complicit in the current coordinated, massive, immensely funded and heavily armed terror blitzkrieg toward Baghdad. The second is how ISIS appears to have “sprung” from the sand dunes and date trees as a nearly professional military traveling in convoys of matching Toyota trucks without explanation.
In actuality, ISIS is the product of a joint NATO-GCC conspiracy stretching back as far as 2007 where US-Saudi policymakers sought to ignite a region-wide sectarian war to purge the Middle East of Iran’s arch of influence stretching from its borders, across Syria and Iraq, and as far west as Lebanon and the coast of the Mediterranean. ISIS has been harbored, trained, armed, and extensively funded by a coalition of NATO and Persian Gulf states....
Still in Bed
Click here to access article by Elliott Colla from Jadaliyya.
...it is not difficult to trace a circle of literary-minded assertions about the humanism of the US war in Iraq, emanating from the Department of Defense and NEA, as well as high-brow cultural and literary organizations, publishing houses and corporate media. It is not entirely an exaggeration to say that a military-literary complex has emerged in recent years.
....
Like embedded journalism, ... literary works depict the invasion and occupation of Iraq in a very particular and narrow way, that is, as an exclusively American event.
The Assault on Teachers Unions
Click here to access article by David Macaray from RINF.
Although I can understand the relentless anti-union crusade being waged by free market fundamentalists who wish to: (1) weaken the American labor movement, and (2) do away with the public school system (because there are hundreds of millions of dollars to be made by “privatizing” education), I am stunned by the public’s willingness to accept what is, on its face, a monumentally stupid argument.
War on Cornfield Pest Sparks Clash Over Insecticide
Click here to access article by Jack Kaskey from Bloomberg.
Pesticide use is surging among U.S. corn farmers who are worried that some insects have become resistant to genetically modified versions of the crop.When news like this gets reported by a major Wall Street publishing company, you know things are getting serious.
Food Lobby Colossus Sues Vermont over GMO 'Right to Know'
Click here to access article by Jon Queally from Common Dreams.
It appears that agri-business and food corporations are planning to warn other cash-strapped states not to pass such laws or else...or else they will face costly lawsuits from cash-rich corporations in courts whose judges were appointed to serve corporate interests.
It appears that agri-business and food corporations are planning to warn other cash-strapped states not to pass such laws or else...or else they will face costly lawsuits from cash-rich corporations in courts whose judges were appointed to serve corporate interests.
But Ronnie Cummins, executive director of the Organic Consumers Association, defended the Vermont law and said the industry lawsuit was simply an example of large corporate interests trying to intimidate other states who are now considering labeling laws of their own.
As Cummins told the Burlington Free Press: "Every U.S. citizen should be concerned when a multi-billion dollar corporate lobbying group sues in federal court to overturn a state's right to govern for the health and safety of its citizens."
Thursday, June 12, 2014
So You Want A Thatcherite Revolution? Free Trade, Corporate Plunder And The War On Working People
Click here to access article by Colin Todhunter from his blog East by Northwest.
This Britisher who resides in India looks at the recent election of a neoliberal Prime Minister as a part of the radical transformation of capitalism from a nation-based operation to a global operation. To accomplish this, our neoliberal masters must destroy any national restrictions on their activities while preserving borders only to contain and control working people. While the global capitalist elite are fully conscious of this project, the vast majority of the world's populations have little idea of what is going on. The latter are kept in ignorance through massive media campaigns of disinformation and distractions as the elites engage in secret negotiations. Meanwhile they are burdened with austerity policies, unemployment, and debt; and, when necessary, whipped into submission by military and police violence.
This Britisher who resides in India looks at the recent election of a neoliberal Prime Minister as a part of the radical transformation of capitalism from a nation-based operation to a global operation. To accomplish this, our neoliberal masters must destroy any national restrictions on their activities while preserving borders only to contain and control working people. While the global capitalist elite are fully conscious of this project, the vast majority of the world's populations have little idea of what is going on. The latter are kept in ignorance through massive media campaigns of disinformation and distractions as the elites engage in secret negotiations. Meanwhile they are burdened with austerity policies, unemployment, and debt; and, when necessary, whipped into submission by military and police violence.
The increasing global takeover of agriculture by powerful agribusiness, the selling off of industrial developments built with public money and strategic assets, such as energy sources, ports and airports, and secretive corporate-driven trade agreements represent a massive corporate heist of wealth and power across the world. Through their financial institutions and corporate entities, the world’s super rich regard ‘nations’ as population holding centres to be exploited whereby people are stripped of control of their livelihoods for personal gain. Whether it concerns rich oligarchs in the US or India’s billionaire business men, corporate profits and personal gain trump any notion of the ‘national interest’.
Teachers Sound Alarm over 'Anti-Public Education' Ruling
Click here to access article by Sarah Lazare from Common Dreams.
Lazare reports on a court decision in California that removes legal restrictions on firing teachers in public schools.
Lazare reports on a court decision in California that removes legal restrictions on firing teachers in public schools.
In a 16-page decision, Treu overturned key workplace safeguards and due process rights for teachers, including seniority, tenure, and other job protections. He backed the plaintiff's argument that laws protecting tenure and seniority are discriminatory because they keep, in his words, "grossly ineffective teachers" in classrooms that disproportionately serve "low-income and minority students."
Yet, Joshua Pechthalt, president of the California Federation of Teachers, declared in a statement, “Rather than provide resources or working to create positive environments for students and teachers, this suit asserts that taking away rights from teachers will somehow help students. This suit is not pro-student. It is fundamentally anti-public education, scapegoating teachers for problems originating in underfunding, poverty, and economic inequality.”And we learn who was behind the lawsuit which used students as a battering ram for those ruling class interests that want to streamline the training of students to better serve the needs of capitalist enterprises.
The lawsuit, Vergara v. State of California, was brought by nine public school students who were heavily backed by the organization Students Matter, which was founded by Silicon Valley millionaire David Welch.
Welch, whose organization is associated with prominent corporate education reformers, bankrolled a team of lawyers to represent the plaintiffs and worked with a corporate PR firm to garner public support for the challenge.
The Price of the World Cup
Click here if you wish to access the source posting of an excellent 29:00m video and brief introduction by Don Quijones on his blog Raging Bull-Shit. (A British blogger residing in Spain)
I wonder why Pepe Escobar, an outstanding, independent Brazilian journalist, has never reported on such realities found in his home country (I've never found any) as he has for many other parts of the world. I'm not suggesting hypocrisy on his part. Journalists all over the world are under tremendous political pressure to write material that does not threaten ruling classes, and many are killed that refuse to comply.
On the eve of the world’s biggest sporting circus, here’s Mikkel Keldof’s hard-hitting documentary The Price of the World Cup. The film offers a slice of the other reality in Brazil, the reality that neither FIFA nor the Brazilian authorities want global viewers — whether football fans or not — to see.
I wonder why Pepe Escobar, an outstanding, independent Brazilian journalist, has never reported on such realities found in his home country (I've never found any) as he has for many other parts of the world. I'm not suggesting hypocrisy on his part. Journalists all over the world are under tremendous political pressure to write material that does not threaten ruling classes, and many are killed that refuse to comply.
Open Road Media Announces Creation of Forbidden Bookshelf
Click here to access article by Jack from Open Road Integrated Media.
In the past many authors were forced to publish their own books or publish through very small, obscure, sometimes foreign publishing firms: authors such as Upton Sinclair, L. Fletcher Prouty, journalists like George Seldes, and military people like General Smedley Butler. Such authors will discover that after they've succeeded in getting the book published that they likely won't be reviewed anywhere in media of any size or significance, or if they are, the books will be smeared, and thus will remain largely unread. Then such books go out of print for lack of sales. Of course, such books rarely make it into educational institutions and libraries.
Open Road Media announced today Forbidden Bookshelf, a series of books curated by Professor Mark Crispin Miller of New York University. Forbidden Bookshelf titles fill in the blanks of America’s repressed history by resurrecting books that focused on issues and events that are too often left in the dark, including abortion, organized crime, the CIA, and financial inequality.From my experience I have seen a number of ways that books are censored in the US. Often printing companies refuse to print books they know will be seen as highly offensive to the core directors of our ruling class, or succumb to pressure from various authorities not to print a book.
In the past many authors were forced to publish their own books or publish through very small, obscure, sometimes foreign publishing firms: authors such as Upton Sinclair, L. Fletcher Prouty, journalists like George Seldes, and military people like General Smedley Butler. Such authors will discover that after they've succeeded in getting the book published that they likely won't be reviewed anywhere in media of any size or significance, or if they are, the books will be smeared, and thus will remain largely unread. Then such books go out of print for lack of sales. Of course, such books rarely make it into educational institutions and libraries.
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
Why Are Americans So Apathetic? (And what can be done about it?)
Click here if you wish to access the original posting of this video discussion on The Corbett Report.
The issue posed by the title has been bothering me lately. On Saturday, June 7th I wrote this as a part of a commentary in one post:
The issue posed by the title has been bothering me lately. On Saturday, June 7th I wrote this as a part of a commentary in one post:
Here in the US I sometimes feel that most of my fellow Americans are living in some kind of artificial, parallel universe of information and understanding. I find it hard to carry on a serious conversation with them about international affairs. What I usually get are regurgitated versions of sound-bytes propagated by corporate media that have little to do with reality, or turns reality on its head always in support of US Empire policies.So this morning when I saw these four figures associated with Boiling Frogs website discussing the topic, I was very interested. It's a lengthy one hour and 17 minute discussion about a very important question. Also, in the original post there are some very useful links to resources related to this topic.
I try to be understanding by considering that most Americans are struggling to survive, and often with the burdens of overwhelming debts. They don't have the time to find alternative, reliable sources of information. But, to my astonishment, when I try to help them find such sources, they react with very strong resistance. It's not an angry form of reaction because my approach is always very gentle. It appears that they looked at my suggested articles or websites, but then they always make excuses about not having time to really read the material. It's as if I were challenging their religious beliefs! (I think they experience what mental health professionals refer to as "cognitive dissonance".) Such is the power of the Empire's propaganda and their ubiquitous indoctrination agencies.
It's simple. If we can't change our economic system, our number's up
Click here to access article by George Monbiot from The Guardian.
The inescapable failure of a society built upon growth and its destruction of the Earth's living systems are the overwhelming facts of our existence. As a result, they are mentioned almost nowhere. They are the 21st century's great taboo, the subjects guaranteed to alienate your friends and neighbours. We live as if trapped inside a Sunday supplement: obsessed with fame, fashion and the three dreary staples of middle-class conversation: recipes, renovations and resorts. Anything but the topic that demands our attention.
Statements of the bleeding obvious, the outcomes of basic arithmetic, are treated as exotic and unpardonable distractions, while the impossible proposition by which we live is regarded as so sane and normal and unremarkable that it isn't worthy of mention. That's how you measure the depth of this problem: by our inability even to discuss it.While the headline indicates that the economic system is the problem, Monbiot only uses the word "capitalism" once, and the mention is in the form of a denial that capitalism is responsible!
It was neither capitalism nor communism that made possible the progress and pathologies (total war, the unprecedented concentration of global wealth, planetary destruction) of the modern age. It was coal, followed by oil and gas.Such twisted logic is an illustration of the difficulty journalists have in writing for leading left-wing capitalist media companies.
John Oliver: “Football is an Organized Religion and FIFA Is It’s Church”
Click here to access article by Don Quijones who posts on his blog Raging Bull-Shit a 13:13m video featuring a popular British comic who provides a humorous and satirical exposé of capitalist exploitation of soccer/football .
Wherever there is money to be made, capitalists will be there to make it. Having discovered the religious-like popularity among much of the world's population for this sport, they could not resist moving in to exploit it. Brazilian laws that stood in their way were easy targets for those who rule most of the world.
Wherever there is money to be made, capitalists will be there to make it. Having discovered the religious-like popularity among much of the world's population for this sport, they could not resist moving in to exploit it. Brazilian laws that stood in their way were easy targets for those who rule most of the world.
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
“The Future is Too Good to Waste on Lies”: Bowe Bergdahl’s Moral Odyssey
Click here to access article by William N. Grigg from Pro Libertate.
I spend a lot of time surveying articles from independent sources and, thus, avoid much of the crap put out in mainstream media. So, I am catching up a bit on the popular controversy generated by the deal the US government made with the people of Afghanistan, the Taliban, who are fighting the occupation of their country by the forces of the Empire. This controversy, unlike so much trivia that our corporations spew on the American people, is real. It has generated a lot of hateful responses, even death threats against the Bergdahl family in Idaho, by people who have been thoroughly indoctrinated by the Empire's propaganda machinery. It was encouraging for me to read this article from another Idahoan who has not succumbed to this propaganda.
I spend a lot of time surveying articles from independent sources and, thus, avoid much of the crap put out in mainstream media. So, I am catching up a bit on the popular controversy generated by the deal the US government made with the people of Afghanistan, the Taliban, who are fighting the occupation of their country by the forces of the Empire. This controversy, unlike so much trivia that our corporations spew on the American people, is real. It has generated a lot of hateful responses, even death threats against the Bergdahl family in Idaho, by people who have been thoroughly indoctrinated by the Empire's propaganda machinery. It was encouraging for me to read this article from another Idahoan who has not succumbed to this propaganda.
Trying to find their footing amid a gale-force outpouring of largely manufactured outrage, officials in Hailey, Idaho canceled their long-planned homecoming for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. They were understandably intimidated by the prospect of dealing with thousands of protesters who planned to besiege the tiny central Idaho town to demand the blood of a young man they now regard to be a deserter, and a father they consider a terrorist sympathizer.
To understand the kind of welcome the War Party has been preparing for Bowe and his family, it’s useful to consider the treatment given to the family of World War I-era conscientious objector John Witmer.Also, I recommend this posting from Common Dreams entitled "An Impossible Mission: Bob Bergdahl Explores the Darkening of the American Soul", particularly the 11:46m video on Bergdahl's father who has had to grapple with all the issues related to his son's five year captivity.
An African Holocaust - 20th Anniversary of Genocide Perpetrated by the 1 Percent
Click here to access article and an excellent 6:35m video by Anna May Simone (Director), award-winning journalists Keith Harmon Snow (Executive Producer) and Ann Garrison posted at Indiegogo (San Francisco, California).
The real story of the so-called Rwandan "massacre", which began in 1990, is finally getting out over the web thanks to the above people and Christopher Black, a Canadian lawyer who risked everything and won a hard fought legal battle that essentially refuted the myths propagated by Western media about the "massacre" at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Of course, this real story will never see the light of day in Western ruling class media.
The Rwandan "massacre" was manufactured by Western ruling class propagandists to hide US war crimes committed against Africans so that Western corporations could gain cheap access to their huge mineral resources, resources vital to the manufacture of the many hand-held electronic gadgets that we use everyday.
The real story of the so-called Rwandan "massacre", which began in 1990, is finally getting out over the web thanks to the above people and Christopher Black, a Canadian lawyer who risked everything and won a hard fought legal battle that essentially refuted the myths propagated by Western media about the "massacre" at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Of course, this real story will never see the light of day in Western ruling class media.
The Rwandan "massacre" was manufactured by Western ruling class propagandists to hide US war crimes committed against Africans so that Western corporations could gain cheap access to their huge mineral resources, resources vital to the manufacture of the many hand-held electronic gadgets that we use everyday.
Voice of Access: The People’s Foundation
Click here to access article by Andrew Gavin Marshall from his blog, and a reproduction of a print article in The Spanda Journal.
In the process of making a pitch for a new foundation, The People's Foundation, that is in the early stages of development, Marshall provides us with an excellent understanding of the role that major foundations such as the Rockefeller, Ford, and Carnegie Foundations play in our society and in much of the world. These foundations are sponsored by the highest levels of the capitalist elites who use their huge wealth resources in order to preserve the goose of capitalism which lays their golden eggs of power and wealth. The lengthy article reveals so many insights about this insidious form of control over our minds and imagination.
In the process of making a pitch for a new foundation, The People's Foundation, that is in the early stages of development, Marshall provides us with an excellent understanding of the role that major foundations such as the Rockefeller, Ford, and Carnegie Foundations play in our society and in much of the world. These foundations are sponsored by the highest levels of the capitalist elites who use their huge wealth resources in order to preserve the goose of capitalism which lays their golden eggs of power and wealth. The lengthy article reveals so many insights about this insidious form of control over our minds and imagination.
Changes in technology and communication were facilitating the spread of more information to more people than ever before, and the concept of ‘the public’ – and specifically, how to manipulate the public – moved to the forefront of elite intellectual discussion. It was an era that gave birth to the modern university, the advertising and public relations industries, the consumer society, and the modern philanthropic foundations.Unfortunately, the article never makes any explicit mention of what is informing every paragraph of the essay: the very system of capitalism which the above foundations are protecting and promoting. However, given the valuable insights with which Marshall always provides us, I am not leveling this as a major criticism--merely pointing it out. We all, at times, must make some compromises with the huge power of our ruling class, and one of the red lines that must not be crossed in their academic institutions is criticism of the system upon which this ruling class's power and wealth depends. Because Marshall is well connected with intellectuals who are mostly located in academic institutions, he, in making this pitch, probably did not want to provoke unnecessary opposition to his project at this early stage of development.
Monday, June 9, 2014
Counter-power as common power: beyond horizontalism
Click here to access article by "Not An Alternative", a collective based in Brooklyn NY, posted on Reflections on a Revolution.
Although I've only had time to read half of the article (before my noon deadline), it looks to be an exceptional critique of the Occupy Movement's creation of general assemblies in which movement organizers attempted to introduce a direct form of democracy. Following the critique is a 19:04m video in which Not An Alternative presented a report on the Media, Communication, Outreach panel at the Global Uprisings Conference in Amsterdam, (November 2013)
Although I've only had time to read half of the article (before my noon deadline), it looks to be an exceptional critique of the Occupy Movement's creation of general assemblies in which movement organizers attempted to introduce a direct form of democracy. Following the critique is a 19:04m video in which Not An Alternative presented a report on the Media, Communication, Outreach panel at the Global Uprisings Conference in Amsterdam, (November 2013)
US Capitalism on Heat again for War
Click here to access article by Finian Cunningham from Strategic Culture Foundation.
When capitalism is in crisis, war is always an imminent danger. History shows us this to be case. The two biggest conflagrations ever, the First and Second World Wars – claiming total deaths of around 80 million – were both presaged by economic collapses in the capitalist system.
This is what makes the present juncture in international relations so disturbing.Although I have a high regard for Cunningham's essays, what I don't like about many of them is the lack of links in the articles that document what he alleges. This is particularly true of this article in which he alleges that the Pentagon is building "model towns" as army training facilities based on some vague reference to Britain’s Daily Telegraph. He also stated that "Amnesty International has calculated that the number of vacant homes in the US is five times the number of homeless people." I was able to track down the latter reference here, but I unsuccessfully failed to find a supporting link at the Daily Telegraph regarding the much more sensational claim about the Pentagon's "model towns".
Omidyar and the Oligarch’s Code: Enabling Extremism, Monetizing Dissent
Click here to access article by Chris Floyd from his blog Empire Burlesque.
Referring to American billionaire Pierre Omidyar, Floyd writes:
Referring to American billionaire Pierre Omidyar, Floyd writes:
A key element in this monetization of human misery on the part of Omidyar and his cronies is the privatization of state services aimed at providing some measure of support, opportunity and social justice for ordinary people. In country after country, our neoliberal extremists are pushing policies to turn every aspect of human community into profitable enterprises under corporate control.
To do this, of course, one must also “monetize” democracy itself. Thus, as Ames and others have pointed out, Omidyar has also been active in “pro-democracy” NGOs and other organizations in foreign countries, working closely with Washington to bring down regimes considered insufficiently open to the strip-mining of national wealth and resources by Western elites. The aim, as in Ukraine, where Omidyar’s partnership with government was particularly active, is to replace the regimes with technocrats willing to stick the shock doctrine cattle prod to their own people.
European Central Bank cuts interest rate below zero
Click here to access article by Stefan Steinberg from World Socialist Web Site.
It appears that our global capitalist masters governing the Empire are relying mostly on one solution to the nearly worldwide economic collapse they have caused: create money and give it to themselves.
It appears that our global capitalist masters governing the Empire are relying mostly on one solution to the nearly worldwide economic collapse they have caused: create money and give it to themselves.
...with all the measures introduced by the world’s central banks since the crisis, the latest rate cuts by the ECB will do nothing to stimulate genuine economic growth. Instead, as was shown by the stock market rally Thursday, the ECB will only serve to fuel new speculative bubbles while further enriching the biggest banks and the millionaires and billionaires that control them.
Scientists vindicate 'Limits to Growth' – urge investment in 'circular economy'
Click here to access article by Nafeez Ahmed from The Guardian.
...recent scientific reviews confirm that the original report's projections in its 'base scenario' remain robust. In 2008, Australia's federal government scientific research agency CSIRO concluded that The Limits to Growth forecast of potential "global ecological and economic collapse coming up in the middle of the 21st Century" due to convergence of "peak oil, climate change, and food and water security", is "on-track." Actual current trends in these areas "resonate strongly with the overshoot and collapse displayed in the book's 'business-as-usual scenario.'"Ahmed is limited by employment in a capitalist news organization to express only vague hints at the real solution in order to disguise what he knows is really needed--revolution:
A fundamental reorganisation of the way societies produce, manage and consume resources could support a new high-technology civilisation, ... and with all that, very different types of social structures.
Sunday, June 8, 2014
The Con-Artist Wing of the Democratic Party
Click here to access article by Matt Stoller from Vice.
Stoller reviews a recently published book by Tim Geithner entitled Stress Test: Reflections on Financial Crises; and in his review compares many of Geithner's claims with known facts to find many direct lies, lies of omission, and misleading statements. This lengthy review offers a rich source of information on Geithner as an example of what I often refer to as an Empire director.
However, Stoller in his myopic upper-middle class viewpoint clearly misses the significance of Geithner's rapid rise to power and the crucial role that inner layers of power in the US Empire play in selecting their directors. Stoller can only frame Geithner as a "con-artist" for the Democratic party. Still, he offers so many facts that provide a much broader view of how power is exercised in the US and its empire to serve a tiny elite located in Wall Street and the most powerful financial institutions.
Stoller can't seem to tie the facts together to see that Geithner's career was not accidentally facilitated by having intimate connections to powerful figures such as Henry Kissinger and billionaire Pete Peterson. Also, it's clear that his father's connections, like Obama's, with the powerful Ford Foundation allowed him to be seen as a loyal and trusted member of the inner-most layers of the ruling capitalist class. If Stoller could have seen this larger view, there wouldn't have been any mystery as to the rise of Geithner to the most powerful positions.
Stoller reviews a recently published book by Tim Geithner entitled Stress Test: Reflections on Financial Crises; and in his review compares many of Geithner's claims with known facts to find many direct lies, lies of omission, and misleading statements. This lengthy review offers a rich source of information on Geithner as an example of what I often refer to as an Empire director.
However, Stoller in his myopic upper-middle class viewpoint clearly misses the significance of Geithner's rapid rise to power and the crucial role that inner layers of power in the US Empire play in selecting their directors. Stoller can only frame Geithner as a "con-artist" for the Democratic party. Still, he offers so many facts that provide a much broader view of how power is exercised in the US and its empire to serve a tiny elite located in Wall Street and the most powerful financial institutions.
Stoller can't seem to tie the facts together to see that Geithner's career was not accidentally facilitated by having intimate connections to powerful figures such as Henry Kissinger and billionaire Pete Peterson. Also, it's clear that his father's connections, like Obama's, with the powerful Ford Foundation allowed him to be seen as a loyal and trusted member of the inner-most layers of the ruling capitalist class. If Stoller could have seen this larger view, there wouldn't have been any mystery as to the rise of Geithner to the most powerful positions.
...there’s the mystery of how he managed to climb up the career ladder so quickly. He never really explains how this happens. He wasn’t a good student. He notes, as a grad student, that he mostly played pool. “During my orals, when one professor asked which economics journals I read, I replied that I had never read any. Seriously? Yes, seriously. But not long after we returned from our honeymoon in France, Henry Kissinger’s international consulting firm hired me as an Asia analyst; my dean at SAIS had recommended me to Brent Scowcroft, one of Kissinger’s partners.”
I’m sorry, but what? How does this just happen? And it goes on. One day, when Geithner was a junior Treasury civil servant, Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen just called him out of the blue to ask his advice on a matter about which he knew nothing. Why? He doesn’t say—he’s just puzzled. Later on, he advances in Treasury without any real credentials in a department where a law degree or economics PhD is essential. Even Alan Greenspan eventually expressed surprise; he had just assumed Geithner had a doctorate. Power just always seemed to flow to Geithner, and he never says why. He knows why, of course—he’s an exceptional political climber. He just doesn’t say who was grooming him, why he ended up where he ended up, and what he paid to get there. It’s clear he had ideas about how the world should work, but he pretends otherwise.
Sugar-Coated Subjugation: Lie Back And Swallow
Click here to access article by Colin Todhunter from East by Northwest.
By only watching foreign movies in which the characters mention American movie stars, I am occasionally reminded of the powerful influence that American movies have had on colonizing the minds of people over much of the world. Hollywood has not only been a source of entertainment for Americans, but has been a powerful instrument to infect the minds of people all over the world with American values of consumption founded on the commodification of everything. As such Hollywood has functioned like religious missionaries to indoctrinate people with the values of the colonial powers, the leading capitalist nations, to prepare them for the invasion of their homelands by corporations seeking to exploit their markets, their cheap labor, and their resources.
Britisher Todhunter describes the end process in India where he resides. The dominant culture of India now reflects the same culture as found in the US. Indians are rapidly accommodating themselves to the neoliberal agenda as recently manifested by the election of a neoliberal candidate for prime minister.
By only watching foreign movies in which the characters mention American movie stars, I am occasionally reminded of the powerful influence that American movies have had on colonizing the minds of people over much of the world. Hollywood has not only been a source of entertainment for Americans, but has been a powerful instrument to infect the minds of people all over the world with American values of consumption founded on the commodification of everything. As such Hollywood has functioned like religious missionaries to indoctrinate people with the values of the colonial powers, the leading capitalist nations, to prepare them for the invasion of their homelands by corporations seeking to exploit their markets, their cheap labor, and their resources.
Britisher Todhunter describes the end process in India where he resides. The dominant culture of India now reflects the same culture as found in the US. Indians are rapidly accommodating themselves to the neoliberal agenda as recently manifested by the election of a neoliberal candidate for prime minister.
...the underlying aim of celebrity product endorsement is to bind the public to a product and by implication to the company behind it and ultimately the ideology of the system, so-called economic neo-liberalism. Positive notions about ‘individual freedom’ (via consuming) and the market constituting the best method for supplying human needs are being constantly and implicitly reinforced. Today, this is what the celebrity is ultimately endorsing. This is what they are selling their souls for.
EU Gets Ready To Open Canadian Tar Sands Floodgate
Click here to access article by Sarah Lazare from Common Dreams.
As purveyors of the world's dirtiest form of fossil fuels, the directors of the capitalist Empire continue on their merry way to undermine the planet's ecosystem that supports human and other life forms. It is likely that this latest move will contribute to the US Empire's strategy to make Europe independent of Russian energy; and thus, attempt to weaken a nation that refuses to surrender its independence to the Empire.
This is only the latest inter-capitalist-gang effort to achieve dominance in the world. The 20th century saw world wars from which the Anglo-American Empire emerged victorious. We can only look forward to more wars and planetary destruction if we, the great majority, continue to remain passive spectators.
As purveyors of the world's dirtiest form of fossil fuels, the directors of the capitalist Empire continue on their merry way to undermine the planet's ecosystem that supports human and other life forms. It is likely that this latest move will contribute to the US Empire's strategy to make Europe independent of Russian energy; and thus, attempt to weaken a nation that refuses to surrender its independence to the Empire.
This is only the latest inter-capitalist-gang effort to achieve dominance in the world. The 20th century saw world wars from which the Anglo-American Empire emerged victorious. We can only look forward to more wars and planetary destruction if we, the great majority, continue to remain passive spectators.
Both the Financial Times and Reuters reported Thursday that the EU is likely to weaken the language of the not-yet-implemented plan by scrapping a requirement that bitumen—oil extracted from tar sands—be labeled as high-emissions diesel. The higher rating would have discouraged, but not prevented, imports.
Scientists: Tests prove fracking to blame for flaming Parker County wells [Texas]
Click here if you wish to access the transcript of video by Brett Shipp from WFAA TV station in Dallas.
From KHOU TV station in Texas view a dramatic 5:25m video showing flaming water from a well near a fracking operation.
From KHOU TV station in Texas view a dramatic 5:25m video showing flaming water from a well near a fracking operation.
For the past two years, News 8 has aired a series of stories of flames shooting from water wells in Parker County. Dangerous levels of methane gas somehow found its way into the water supply.
Lest we forget: Our present leaders can derive inspiration from other great American leaders.
The piece is entirely reproduced from a section extracted from the latest Anti-Empire Report by William Blum.
Thanks to audio recordings found in Nixon's White House office, we are privy to how our ruling class selected leaders really converse when considering actions which are, in actuality, the most extreme, unprecedented war crimes in history. There is no reason to believe that the existing US administration is any different.
Thanks to audio recordings found in Nixon's White House office, we are privy to how our ruling class selected leaders really converse when considering actions which are, in actuality, the most extreme, unprecedented war crimes in history. There is no reason to believe that the existing US administration is any different.
White House tape recordings, April 25, 1972
President Nixon: How many did we kill in Laos?
National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger: In the Laotian thing, we killed about ten, fifteen [thousand] …
Nixon: See, the attack in the North [Vietnam] that we have in mind … power plants, whatever’s left – POL [petroleum], the docks … And, I still think we ought to take the dikes out now. Will that drown people?
Kissinger: About two hundred thousand people.
Nixon: No, no, no … I’d rather use the nuclear bomb. Have you got that, Henry?
Kissinger: That, I think, would just be too much.
Nixon: The nuclear bomb, does that bother you? … I just want you to think big, Henry, for Christsakes.
May 2, 1972:
Nixon: America is not defeated. We must not lose in Vietnam. … The surgical operation theory is all right, but I want that place bombed to smithereens. If we draw the sword, we’re gonna bomb those bastards all over the place. Let it fly, let it fly.
–
“Every ten years or so, the United States needs to pick up some small crappy little country and throw it against the wall, just to show the world we mean business.” – Michael Ledeen, former Defense Department consultant and holder of the Freedom Chair at the American Enterprise Institute
Saturday, June 7, 2014
Beware of Kicking the Dragon and Bear!
Click here to access article by Andre Vltchek from CounterPunch.
This is quite a lengthy article, but a very important one. It, along with other articles I've perused and other experiences I've had recently, has impressed upon me the power of the Empire's propaganda not only to frame issues within the US, but worldwide in order to manufacture consent for Empire policies.
Here in the US I sometimes feel that most of my fellow Americans are living in some kind of artificial, parallel universe of information and understanding. I find it hard to carry on a serious conversation with them about international affairs. What I usually get are regurgitated versions of sound-bytes propagated by corporate media that have little to do with reality, or turns reality on its head always in support of US Empire policies.
I try to be understanding by considering that most Americans are struggling to survive, and often with the burdens of overwhelming debts. They don't have the time to find alternative, reliable sources of information. But, to my astonishment, when I try to help them find such sources, they react with very strong resistance. It's not an angry form of reaction because my approach is always very gentle. It appears that they looked at my suggested articles or websites, but then they always make excuses about not having time to really read the material. It's as if I were challenging their religious beliefs! (I think they experience what mental health professionals refer to as "cognitive dissonance".) Such is the power of the Empire's propaganda and their ubiquitous indoctrination agencies.
Vltchek, as an independent investigative journalist, has covered wars and conflicts in dozens of countries, and traveled widely throughout the world. He knows what is going on, and knows what is being reported by transnational media corporations is often times a totally false picture of reality. And, he is worried that the Empire's propaganda machinery is preparing people for major, catastrophic wars.
This is quite a lengthy article, but a very important one. It, along with other articles I've perused and other experiences I've had recently, has impressed upon me the power of the Empire's propaganda not only to frame issues within the US, but worldwide in order to manufacture consent for Empire policies.
Here in the US I sometimes feel that most of my fellow Americans are living in some kind of artificial, parallel universe of information and understanding. I find it hard to carry on a serious conversation with them about international affairs. What I usually get are regurgitated versions of sound-bytes propagated by corporate media that have little to do with reality, or turns reality on its head always in support of US Empire policies.
I try to be understanding by considering that most Americans are struggling to survive, and often with the burdens of overwhelming debts. They don't have the time to find alternative, reliable sources of information. But, to my astonishment, when I try to help them find such sources, they react with very strong resistance. It's not an angry form of reaction because my approach is always very gentle. It appears that they looked at my suggested articles or websites, but then they always make excuses about not having time to really read the material. It's as if I were challenging their religious beliefs! (I think they experience what mental health professionals refer to as "cognitive dissonance".) Such is the power of the Empire's propaganda and their ubiquitous indoctrination agencies.
Vltchek, as an independent investigative journalist, has covered wars and conflicts in dozens of countries, and traveled widely throughout the world. He knows what is going on, and knows what is being reported by transnational media corporations is often times a totally false picture of reality. And, he is worried that the Empire's propaganda machinery is preparing people for major, catastrophic wars.
The anti-Chinese and anti-Russian propaganda howl is reaching a deafening crescendo, especially in Asia. Western media outlets are in the highest gear, spreading propaganda through both their own outlets and through their local media affiliates in the client states, mostly owned by big business.
China and Russia are now vilified, openly insulted, and blamed for the escalation of tensions in the Asia-Pacific region, and for the military build up. The entire mighty Western propaganda machine is now at work, demonizing China, Russia and other independent countries.
It is because the West is obviously pushing this planet towards the war. Not to see it would require truly great discipline.
WW III: More Interclass Than International
Click here to access article by Ismael Hossein-Zadeh from CounterPunch.
The author begins his essay by describing the global nature of capitalism under the rule of the US Empire, and argues that there is a kind of WWIII in that international capitalists associated with the Empire constitute a new ruling class that is waging austerity wars against populations under their control.
The author begins his essay by describing the global nature of capitalism under the rule of the US Empire, and argues that there is a kind of WWIII in that international capitalists associated with the Empire constitute a new ruling class that is waging austerity wars against populations under their control.
WW III is already here; it has indeed been raging on for years: the unilateral, cross-border neoliberal war of austerity economics that is waged by the transnational class of financial oligarchy against the overwhelming majority of world citizens, the global 99%.In contrast to Andre Vltchek this author sees the aggressive policies pursued by the Empire as likely being limited to small wars and various subversive projects.
Globalization of capital and interdependence of world markets has reached a point where large scale military clashes of the magnitude of World Wars I & II could lead to financial catastrophe for all. Not surprisingly, the network of transnational financial elites, who often elect politicians and run governments from behind the scenes, seem to be averse to another wholesale international war that could paralyze worldwide financial markets.
Christopher Black Destroys the Myth of the Rwandan “Genocide”
Click here to access a one hour and 14 minute interview conducted by James Corbett with an international lawyer from Toronto who is not only familiar with what the real story is about the Rwandan "genocide" based on a successful legal case he won, but many other phony stories concocted by the Empire's propaganda machinery. I don't normally have the time to listen to such a lengthy address, and you may feel the same way. But, just listen to the first 6:15m of the interview to see if you can resist listening to much more. There are also four supporting documents at this post that are valuable.
Addendum, 6-8-2014:
I'm sure you wouldn't be surprised to learn that the books Black recommended in the very last part of the interview are difficult to get. One book he recommended is entitled Global Justice Or Global Revenge?: International Criminal Justice At The Crossroads by Hans Kochler. It was out of print at Amazon, but I found used copies available at their Canadian subsidiary called Abe Books.
Rwanda 1994: Colonialism dies hard, the English translation of Robin Philpot's book Ça ne s’est pas passĂ© comme ça Ă Kigali, appears to be available only online.
There is also this lengthy document posted online from a New Zealand website entitled "The Dallaire Genocide Fax" by Chris Black.
Addendum, 6-8-2014:
I'm sure you wouldn't be surprised to learn that the books Black recommended in the very last part of the interview are difficult to get. One book he recommended is entitled Global Justice Or Global Revenge?: International Criminal Justice At The Crossroads by Hans Kochler. It was out of print at Amazon, but I found used copies available at their Canadian subsidiary called Abe Books.
Rwanda 1994: Colonialism dies hard, the English translation of Robin Philpot's book Ça ne s’est pas passĂ© comme ça Ă Kigali, appears to be available only online.
There is also this lengthy document posted online from a New Zealand website entitled "The Dallaire Genocide Fax" by Chris Black.
Friday, June 6, 2014
Capitalism & Climate Change: The Growth Problem Part 1 of ?
Click here to access article by Alyssa Rohricht from blog Black Cat Revolution.
It is so encouraging to see so many others beginning to see the dramatic contradictions between capitalism and our planet's ability to sustain human and other life forms.
It is so encouraging to see so many others beginning to see the dramatic contradictions between capitalism and our planet's ability to sustain human and other life forms.
Many argue that market and techo-based approaches are the way to combat climate change. They push for carbon taxing and trading, geo-engineering, and renewable energy without considering the fact that the system itself is incompatible with sustainability. By its very nature, capitalism seeks only to grow and accumulate – an idea that is diametrically opposed to a sustainable existence.
In this series, I will examine how the capitalist system has brought us to climate disaster, and why it cannot get us out of it.
Thursday, June 5, 2014
Who the hell are the Henry Jackson Society?
Click here to access article by Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed from his blog The Cutting Edge.
I've sporadically encountered this right-wing, elite think tank in my journeys across the World Wide Web; and the material I encountered strongly suggested that they were among the top influentials in the ruling class. Having spent a lot of time in the Northwest of the US, I knew who Henry Jackson was (long time Senator from Washington state), and thus assumed that it was an American think tank--it's British. Actually, with this article written by a very astute author, it is now clear to me that the Society plays a key role in what historian Carroll Quigley has referred to as The Anglo-American Establishment (title of his very important book) which arose to dominant power after WWII and has become, what many refer to as, the US Empire, or simply the Empire (a 4th Reich?).
Also, the fact that this Society is British-based is a clear illustration of how the capitalist ruling class directorate of the Empire crossed national boundaries in the decades since WWII as described by Quigley. Subsequent to this development, they went on to thoroughly integrate the capitalists of many other countries into what is now familiar to most political analysts, a US-led Empire complete with its own army--NATO.
Senator Henry Jackson of Boeing's Washington state played a key role in bringing into the government important neoconservatives such as Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Elliot Abrams, Douglas Feith, Robert Kagan (and wife Victoria Nuland), Charles Horner, and James Woolsey .
I've sporadically encountered this right-wing, elite think tank in my journeys across the World Wide Web; and the material I encountered strongly suggested that they were among the top influentials in the ruling class. Having spent a lot of time in the Northwest of the US, I knew who Henry Jackson was (long time Senator from Washington state), and thus assumed that it was an American think tank--it's British. Actually, with this article written by a very astute author, it is now clear to me that the Society plays a key role in what historian Carroll Quigley has referred to as The Anglo-American Establishment (title of his very important book) which arose to dominant power after WWII and has become, what many refer to as, the US Empire, or simply the Empire (a 4th Reich?).
Also, the fact that this Society is British-based is a clear illustration of how the capitalist ruling class directorate of the Empire crossed national boundaries in the decades since WWII as described by Quigley. Subsequent to this development, they went on to thoroughly integrate the capitalists of many other countries into what is now familiar to most political analysts, a US-led Empire complete with its own army--NATO.
Senator Henry Jackson of Boeing's Washington state played a key role in bringing into the government important neoconservatives such as Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Elliot Abrams, Douglas Feith, Robert Kagan (and wife Victoria Nuland), Charles Horner, and James Woolsey .
...it is hugely important to understand [why] that HJS [Henry Jackson Society] and the interests it represents are so out of whack with not only what the vast majority of the public would agree with or desire, but even what most policymakers would want to see happening in the world.
The Great Climate Change Conspiracy
This 17:40m video was produced by Truthloader, a YouTube channel, a project of ITN Productions (Britain).
The video explores the conspiracy conducted by the fossil fuel industry and their collaboraters (for example, see this article) throughout the capitalist world to sow doubt about and/or deny the scientific evidence of the growing threat of climate destabilization which is likely to end in the extinction of humans.
The video explores the conspiracy conducted by the fossil fuel industry and their collaboraters (for example, see this article) throughout the capitalist world to sow doubt about and/or deny the scientific evidence of the growing threat of climate destabilization which is likely to end in the extinction of humans.
The US media and the release of POW Bowe Bergdahl
Click here to access article by Patrick Martin from World Socialist Web Site.
The American media is once again exhibiting its boundless capacity for dispensing propaganda and promoting the most backward and reactionary conceptions. Such is the campaign of vilification directed against Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, released May 31 in Afghanistan in a prisoner exchange with the Taliban.The depiction of Bergdahl by many mainstream media pundits illustrates a principle that the ruling capitalist class espouses: obedience to their authority is a virtue and those that exhibit it are celebrated as heroes, those that don't are castigated as traitors.
As far as the media apologists for imperialism are concerned, a soldier who is horrified by crimes against humanity and refuses to participate in them is a criminal, while those who obediently carry out atrocities are heroes. It should be recalled that the defense of “just carrying out orders” was flatly repudiated by the Nuremberg Tribunal into the crimes of the Nazis during World War II. Those who would revive it today are paving the way for even greater crimes.
'We Are Resetting the Net to Shut Off Mass Surveillance'
Click here to access article by Jon Queally from Common Dreams.
To mark the one year anniversary of the first reporting based on information revealed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden on June 5, 2013, privacy advocates, organizations, and technology companies all over the world on Thursday are participating in 'Reset The Net'—an online day of action in which participants pledge to take real steps to protect online freedoms and fight back against mass surveillance.Queally reports that many "websites, app developers, organizations, and individual internet [are promoting] what they call 'privacy packs' so that people everywhere can have better access to online privacy and encryption tools.
The New Age of Banana Republicanism
Click here to access article by Maria Camila Morales and apparently translated from Spanish by Don Quijones and posted on his website Raging Bull-Shit.
While many political observers have been celebrating the turn to the left and independent policies of many Latin American governments, Morales argues that these are lies when one looks below the surface. She hints that the hidden hand of the US Empire still operates to stifle any real change.
While many political observers have been celebrating the turn to the left and independent policies of many Latin American governments, Morales argues that these are lies when one looks below the surface. She hints that the hidden hand of the US Empire still operates to stifle any real change.
Most Latin American republics continue to be dominated by people who govern out of pure self-interest while paying lip service to the needs and well-being of the general public.
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
How long will Europeans accept austerity?
Click here to access article by Pete Dolack from his blog Systemic Disorder.
Although he can't answer the question posed in the title, Dolack provides a good summing up of the significance of the recent elections to the European Parliament. Given that people under capitalist rule have few choices to select from and that capitalist governments have little real independent power, he writes:
Although he can't answer the question posed in the title, Dolack provides a good summing up of the significance of the recent elections to the European Parliament. Given that people under capitalist rule have few choices to select from and that capitalist governments have little real independent power, he writes:
Europe is not ready to revolt. Or, possibly more accurately, given the 43 percent participation rate, Europeans simply see the European Parliament as irrelevant. Given the little power it has, and the anti-democratic structure of European Union institutions, many saw the election as simply as an opportunity to cast a protest vote.He concludes the article with this insight:
An intensified race to the bottom is all that is on offer by the governments and institutions of the world’s mature capitalist countries. There is no tweak of policy, nor exchange of one corporate party for another corporate party, that can solve the structural crisis of the global economic system.You might also want to take a look at Wayne Madsen's take on the election entitled "European Parliament’s New 'Neo-Nazi / Far Right' – Not so 'Nazi' and not so 'Far Right'" as a measure of political change among Europeans who voted. He essentially argues that many of these "far right" parties have been de-contaminated of much of their traditional far-right views and have been co-opted into supporting most pro-Empire policies.
Ukraine: New president escalates austerity, civil war; popular resistance deepens
Click here to access article by Roger Annis from Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal.
Annis gives us a very recent and comprehensive political update on the conditions and events in Ukraine.
Annis gives us a very recent and comprehensive political update on the conditions and events in Ukraine.
Contradictions and shortcomings in the political movement in the east should be expected in conditions where for decades, workers and ordinary citizens have been excluded from democracy and citizen engagement. The deadly civil war now being waged against the movement, with NATO’s firm backing, makes conditions enormously more difficult. Indeed, the goal of the military intervention is precisely to weaken and destroy any movement towards a grassroots and working-class revolution.
The desires of the population in Luhansk, Donetsk and elsewhere in eastern Ukraine are crystal clear—they cast ballots in large numbers on May 11 for political autonomy and social justice. All but the most hidebound of Western reporters in the region acknowledge that support for autonomy is widespread and is growing with each Kyiv regime attack.
Workers and environmentalists of the world, unite!
Click here to access article by Stefania Barca from Reflections on a Revolution.
By becoming aware of what has already been done by other people, past and present, with their struggles and movements, either in our own communities or elsewhere, we will immediately get a much clearer perception of the possibility of not just one but many other worlds.
Seeing those possibilities in their reality, with their dreams and their challenges, with their victories and their contradictions, will help us envision our own possibilities here and now and better organize our own struggles. This is the contribution that this article aims to give to all those who are struggling for self-liberation from the straitjacket of occupational blackmail.Her examination of the "possibilities in their reality" leads to this conclusion:
Breaking out of the multiple crises that afflict the world today — both in the domains of the economy and work as well as in the domain of ecology and public health — requires no lesser effort than completely abandoning the “treadmill of production”, including the politics, economics and ideology of unlimited growth. This requires an ecological revolution as theorized by Carolyn Merchant: a complete shift in the social organization of production, reproduction and consciousness.
Brazil: Workers Struggle Trumps Sports Spectacle
Click here to access article by James Petras from VoltaireNet.
For decades social critics have bemoaned the influence of sports and entertainment spectacles in ‘distracting’ workers from struggling for their class interests. According to these analysts, ‘class consciousness’ was replaced by ‘mass’ consciousness. They argued that atomized individuals, manipulated by the mass media, were converted into passive consumers who identified with millionaire sports heroes, soap opera protagonists and film celebrities.
The culmination of this ‘mystification’ —mass distraction— were the ‘world championships’ watched by billions around the world and sponsored and financed by billionaire corporations....
Today, Brazil is the living refutation of this line of cultural-political analysis. Brazilians have been described as ‘football crazy’. Its teams have won the most number of World Cups. Its players are coveted by the owners of the most important teams in Europe. Its fans are said to “live and die with football” . . . Or so we are told.
Yet it is in Brazil where the biggest protests in the history of the World Cup have taken place.More details on the events related to the World Cup in Brazil are supplied by an activist from India in an article entitled "A spectre on the World Cup".
[my emphasis]
Psychiatry Keeps Anti-Authoritarians Off Democracy Battlefields
Click here to access article by Bruce E. Levine, a clinical psychologist, from Z Communications.
A frequently used psychiatric diagnosis for rebellious young people is oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). This so-call “disorder” was created by a committee within the American Psychiatric Association and listed, in 1980, in the APA’s diagnostic manual, the then DSM-III. ODD’s symptoms include “often actively defies or refuses to comply with adult requests or rules” and “often argues with adults.” Since 1980, ODD has become an increasingly popular psychiatric diagnosis for young people, with an increasing number of those diagnosed being drugged for this “condition.”
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
If Stalin Equals “Communism, Bad,” Why Doesn’t’ “Hitler Equals Capitalism, Bad?”
Click here to access article by Steven Jonas from The Greanville Post.
Jonas exposes the inconsistent logic of US indoctrination agencies which have hammered into the heads of its citizens that communism/socialism has been thoroughly discredited by the Soviet experience. They continue to uphold capitalism, aka "free markets", as the only solution to bring about peace and prosperity in the world. Of course, such a view has been thoroughly discredited by history since WWII which has seen unending smaller wars, economic collapse, and climate destabilization. Nevertheless, the slick capitalist indoctrination agencies have largely succeeded in blurring this history.
Jonas exposes the inconsistent logic of US indoctrination agencies which have hammered into the heads of its citizens that communism/socialism has been thoroughly discredited by the Soviet experience. They continue to uphold capitalism, aka "free markets", as the only solution to bring about peace and prosperity in the world. Of course, such a view has been thoroughly discredited by history since WWII which has seen unending smaller wars, economic collapse, and climate destabilization. Nevertheless, the slick capitalist indoctrination agencies have largely succeeded in blurring this history.
...with the victory of the allies, including the Soviet Union, there was no reaction to fascism of the “look where capitalism leads [or can lead].” Rather the United States, unscathed physically by the war, moved immediately to re-secure capitalism in Western Europe. The Marshall Plan was designed specifically to restore Western Europe’s industrial base, especially that of Germany (the western part only, of course), which had been so heavily damaged during the war. No Marshall Plan aid for the Soviet Union, of course. On the contrary, announced by Winston Churchill’s famous “Iron Curtain” speech...the “75 Years War Against the Soviet Union” was resumed almost immediately.
Coup de Tete: A Radical Takeover of Your Head
Click here to access article by Kili Mitra from Kindle (India).
American-born Mitra is critical of Indians, even "socialist" Indians, who supported the widely celebrated victory of neoliberal candidate Narendra Modi for Prime Minister. He refers to the victory as a "coup" engineered by thought control experts employed by the global capitalist aristocracy. Doesn't it sound familiar?
American-born Mitra is critical of Indians, even "socialist" Indians, who supported the widely celebrated victory of neoliberal candidate Narendra Modi for Prime Minister. He refers to the victory as a "coup" engineered by thought control experts employed by the global capitalist aristocracy. Doesn't it sound familiar?
This ‘coup’ is the practice of hijacking the public debate – and really the background political culture – by controlling the framing of the issues, by defining all the terms, and by inventing agenda-fuelled labels, however false, to slap onto people and things; labels that get repeated over and over, without a hint of irony, on talk radio, TV, increasingly tabloidized ‘newspapers’, the internet …and any media outlet owned by Rupert Murdoch… until these become society’s default positions, so that they no longer have to be defended or explained. For example, ‘welfare’ is now practically a profanity in some circles; estate taxes are ‘death taxes’; affirmative action is ‘reverse discrimination’; tax cut is ‘tax relief’; and all kinds of oppressive and discriminatory policies are ‘traditional values.’
Return of the living (neo-con) dead
Click here to access article by Pepe Escobar from Asia Times Online.
Amid much hysteria, the notion has been widely peddled in the United States that President Obama's "new" foreign policy doctrine, announced last week at West Point, rejects neo-cons and neo-liberals and is, essentially, post-imperialist and a demonstration of realpolitik.
Not so fast. Although stepping back from the excesses of the Cheney regime - as in bombing whole nations into "democracy" - the "desire to lead" still crystallizes might is right.
Moreover, "exceptionalism" remains the norm.
Press Release: World Trade Center Bldg. 7’s Controlled Demolition: 9/11 Consensus Panel Releases New Evidence from Witness Testimonies and Architectural Drawings
Click here to access article by The 9/11 Consensus Panel from Consensus 9/11.
The 24-member 9/11 Consensus Panel – which includes physicists, chemists, engineers, commercial pilots, attorneys and lawyers – today announced three new studies confirming the controlled demolition of World Trade Center 7.
The studies scientifically refute the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) claim that, for the first time in history, fire caused the sudden and complete collapse of a large, fire-protected, steel-framed building on 9/11.The article provides more evidence that building 7 of the World Trade Center was fully rigged with demolition explosives, a condition that takes weeks to accomplish. Hence, this lends additional support to other abundant evidence that the other buildings likewise were set up for a controlled demolition.
Britain's Corporate Garden Of Eden
Click here to access article by Michael Barker from Swans Commentary.
...given Smit's desire for reform, this article will make some strategic suggestions for how he might best use the Eden Project's excellent corporate connections to address some of the most egregious problems caused by his capitalist colleagues.Don't be taken in by Barker's statement as to his purpose in writing this article. What he really does is expose the true nature of "green capitalism" as practiced in Britain to add grace to capitalism in the eyes of British liberals who may have some guilty concerns about the environment. He specifically takes aim at Tim Smit and the well-connected people of the "Eden Project".
Monday, June 2, 2014
Plutonomy and its 12-point manifesto
Click here to access article by Edward Fullbrook from Real-World Economics Review Blog. (Note: Fullbrook is being a bit coy by writing "This appeared on my screen last night.")
Capitalists, Technocrats & Fanatics: The Ascent of a New Power Bloc
Click here to access article by James Petras from Boiling Frogs Post.
Today capitalists everywhere confront great uncertainty, as markets crash and endemic corruption at the highest levels erode competitive markets. Throughout the world, large majorities of the labor force question, challenge and resist the massive transfers of public wealth to an ever reduced oligarchy. Electoral politics no longer define the context for political opposition.
Capitalism, neither in theory nor practice, advances through reason and prosperity. It relies on executive fiats, media manipulation and arbitrary police state intrusions. It increasingly relies on death squads dubbed “Special Forces” and a ‘reserve army’ of para-military fanatics.
The new power bloc is the merger of big business, the wealthy professional classes, upwardly mobile, elite trained technocrats and cadres of ethno-religious fanatics who mobilize the masses.
The Persian Gulf: Who is turning the region into a powder-keg?
Click here to access article by Viktor Mikhin from New Eastern Outlook.
The Empire's key anchor to power lies with its cozy association with the Medieval-like kingdoms of the oil-rich Middle East. Major components of this association consists of their commitment to sell oil only in US dollars in exchange for Empire protection (see this, and this) which insured the value of the US dollar, and their huge purchases of weapons from the US insures that their oil revenues get recycled back to the US's military-industrial complex.
The Empire's key anchor to power lies with its cozy association with the Medieval-like kingdoms of the oil-rich Middle East. Major components of this association consists of their commitment to sell oil only in US dollars in exchange for Empire protection (see this, and this) which insured the value of the US dollar, and their huge purchases of weapons from the US insures that their oil revenues get recycled back to the US's military-industrial complex.
...billions of dollars from Arab oil exports began to flow back in exchange for new American and Western-made weapons arsenals. According to rough estimates, in the next few years, the Arab Gulf countries will buy weapons worth over $ 120 billion. American arms dealers are again rubbing their hands together and counting the windfall from their bloody business.
Target China
Click here to access article by William Engdahl from White TV.
The New World Order (NWO) is the banksters (Rothschild, Rockefeller) plan to achieve world dictatorship. There are two main obstacles: Russia and China. The attacks on Syria with foreign mercenaries (the Syrian opposition is not violent) aim to cut Russia of from the gas supply for Europe. New pipelines are planned from Saudi Arabia and Qatar via Syria to Europe, making the Russian gas obsolete. The attack on Syria targets even China and Iran in the long run.Unfortunately, from my point of view, Engdahl, like several other geopolitical analysts, sees a hopeful future in a multi-polar capitalist world. Still, his insights of the global rivalry between the US Empire and the BRIC countries are very valuable.
F. William Engdahl has published a best seller in China: Target China. In the interview he gives an overview to that in China famous book.
The dangerous myths of ‘anti-extractivism’
Click here to access article by Federico Fuentes from Climate & Capitalism.
The narrow extractivism/anti-extractivism counter position has been used to foster divisions among social movements, weakening the unity needed for radical change to achieve radical change.
There is ample evidence to show that foreign governments and NGOs have been working to stoke, rather than resolve, tensions among the regions’ diverse social movements. Such forces are happy to promote “anti-extractivism” if it serves to bring down popular governments and roll back changes.This website has now produced two other views on this issue in a current article entitled "Two views of ‘extractivism’ and ‘buen vivir’".
Sunday, June 1, 2014
Bilderberg Elite Gather in Denmark to "Circle their Wagons"
Click here to access article by Wayne Madsen from Strategic Culture Foundation.
Madsen reports on the current meeting of the real directors of the capitalist Empire who control the strings of the "democratically" elected puppets in their official governments.
Madsen reports on the current meeting of the real directors of the capitalist Empire who control the strings of the "democratically" elected puppets in their official governments.
As usual with Bilderberg conclaves, the 2014 meeting in Copenhagen is cloaked in secrecy with a massive public and private security presence in place to deter protesters or inquisitive reporters. For example, journalists were cleared out of the Copenhagen Marriott Hotel, one of the venues for the Bilderberg meeting, by security staff. The journalists were later detained by Danish police for asking too many questions about the Bilderberg meeting.
The Exact Timing of Near-Term Human Extinction Is Academic
Click here to access article by xraymike79 from his blog Collapse of Industrial Civilization.
The author provides us with scientific evidence that our capitalist masters refuse to acknowledge because they are addicted to a system that supplies them with their drugs of wealth and power. In short, we humans are already in deep doo-doo; but if we continue to allow their system to function, we will be flushed down the toilet of extinction.
The author provides us with scientific evidence that our capitalist masters refuse to acknowledge because they are addicted to a system that supplies them with their drugs of wealth and power. In short, we humans are already in deep doo-doo; but if we continue to allow their system to function, we will be flushed down the toilet of extinction.
If all industrial activity stopped right now, we would already be committed to 2.65°C, a global average temperature rise of three times what we are currently experiencing. With all the drought, flooding, hurricanes, landslides, fires, and other manifestations of climate change that we are undergoing now, I shudder to think what the world will be like in 2050 and yet humans continue to burn coal and other fossil fuels at breakneck speed. According to the Climate Accountability Institute, half of all emissions have been produced in the past 25 years.
The Real Agenda of the Gates Foundation
Click here to access article by Jacob Levich from Aspects of India's Economy.
The article contains four separate, concise articles covering various aspects of philanthropic foundations and their use in furthering capitalist Empire interests.
The article contains four separate, concise articles covering various aspects of philanthropic foundations and their use in furthering capitalist Empire interests.
Charitable activities that undermine democracy and state sovereignty are immensely useful to the ruling class. Robust, effective social programs in developing countries are an impediment to the current imperial agenda of worldwide expropriation; healthy people, in control of their own destinies and invested in the social well-being of their communities, are better equipped to defend their claim to the wealth they possess and produce. Far better, from the point of view of the Good Club philanthrocapitalists, if the world’s poorest billions remain wholly dependent on a largesse that may be granted or withdrawn at pleasure.
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