The Very Normal Face of North Korea—the “Inscrutable Kingdom”

Click here to access article by Andre Vltchek from The Greanville Post.

Vltchek's article and photos provide an excellent antidote to all the hate-filled propaganda one gets in corporate media. The article follows the introduction by Patrice Greanville, the editor of The Greanville Post.

What I found was an impressive country. Under embargo, under constant threat of war and annihilation, yet proud, self-reliant, hard working but also fun loving.

People of this country can sing and dance, they can enjoy free time, but also produce rockets and automobiles, even communication tablets. I saw a lot of love and tenderness between the parents and their children, as well as between spouses. I saw cities being built for the people, not against them, as they are in turbo capitalist or feudal countries like Indonesia or Philippines.

Pentagon preparing for mass civil breakdown

Click here to access article by Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed from The Guardian.

Social science is being militarised to develop 'operational tools' to target peaceful activists and protest movements

The Global Corporatocracy Is Just A Pen Stroke Away From Completion

Click here to access article by Don Quijones from his blog Raging Bull-Shit. The author is a British ex-pat who has lived in Spain for a number of years. I suspect the name is a pseudonym.

Right now, the representatives of many of these firms are engaged in late-stage negotiations with the U.S. and European political leaders that would make it financially calamitous for a nation-state to take any actions against the interest of corporations. If passed — and at this rate, it almost certainly will be — it will be the biggest bilateral trade deal in the history of mankind.

Let’s Talk About the American Deep State

Click here if you wish to access the transcript of a recent 58:43m audio recording of an interview with Peter Dale Scott. He is interviewed by the German financial journalist Lars Schall.

LS: Are Wall Street interests at the very heart of the deep state?

PDS: ...CIA is as powerful as it is because of its connections to Wall Street and – it used to be almost the same thing – its connections to big oil, because the big oil companies used to be based in New York and they were put together by, and they operated as a cartel that was defended successfully by Sullivan & Cromwell, which was a Wall Street law firm that — not accidentally — John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles were senior members of.

Yes, the Wall Street is important; it was then, it is historically easy to show, in the 1950s and I do in my book. It is harder to show in the present but there are many indications I think … One thing is, the deep state, we should mention, is going more and more multinational as the corporations go multinational. Exxon is a multinational firm and there are some US firms, notably Blackwater, which is this kind of private army that turns up in various places. Germany I'm seeing, I believe in Germany your press has said that Blackwater or a subsidiary of Blackwater is operating in the Ukraine.

LS: Yes, that is true. 

PDS: What we call an American corporation has now technically its headquarters in Qatar, in the Persian Gulf. 

The U.S.-Created Child Migrant Crisis

Click here to access article by Hector Luis Alamo, Jr. from Latino Rebels.

...now that child migrants from Honduras and other Central American countries have begun appearing on America’s doorstep, the formerly negligible crises in the region has suddenly been upgraded to an “urgent humanitarian situation” by President Barack Obama.

The writer lists some of the US promoted crimes against the people of Central America, but seems to be blaming the American people for their lack of interest until it impacts them. Well, there is plenty of blame to go around, and we ordinary Americans share some of it. 

But the most blame must be put on the doorsteps on ruling class media which does not report the crimes that US and Canada corporations, paramilitary armies, and US puppet governments commit against Central American populations. You see, it's bad for business, for the business of these corporations is to get access to the silver, gold, and other minerals that lie beneath their lands. I know generally what is going there because I receive almost daily reports of atrocities committed against these people, all of which goes unreported here. 

America’s New Apartheid: Segregation by Incarceration

Click here to access article by independent journalist Garry Leech from his blog.

Leech provides solid arguments to support his thesis about what the "War on Drugs" really accomplished: a new method of apartheid to circumvent the many legal decisions trying to remove racist segregation practices. It was another way to roll back many of the gains made by the Civil Rights Movement. In my opinion, it was especially aimed at militant African-Americans who provoked an almost visceral reaction of hatred and fear among many in the US ruling class. And, the "War on Drugs" had a side benefit of expanding local police forces.

Many people associate the mass imprisonment of a population with authoritarian regimes. Consequently, many Americans are surprised when they learn that the United States incarcerates more of its own citizens than any other nation. With 2.3 million prisoners, the “land of the free” has more people in prison than China, which has a population four times the size of the United States. A hugely disproportionate percentage of those incarcerated are African-Americans as Washington’s war on drugs constitutes the latest incarnation of racist policies that have existed since the country’s founding.

The single non-reformist reform that can end capitalism within months, not decades

Click here to access article by Jehu from The Real Movement.

...having a job and and adequate income is by no means the aim of our struggle. An employed and/or well compensated slave remains a slave — a mere object of economic forces over which she has no control and which no organization can give her control. Social emancipation means more than a guaranteed job or income — in the end it has to mean emancipation from wage labor itself.

And this is where both the guaranteed job or the guaranteed basic income fails miserably: no one can explain how we go from a society of wage slaves subordinated to capital to a society of self-directed individuals. As reforms, however attractive they appear, a basic income or jobs guarantee are dead end reformism.

Is there a path that avoids this reformist cul-de-sac?

A Bonehead Ruling

Click here to access article from Class War in America. 

The title refers to a recent judge's decision in Los Angeles declaring that teacher tenure was interfering with firing teachers and thus harming student's civil rights to a good education. The author argues that it is largely under-funding that is preventing children from receiving a good education. And, more importantly, he deals with larger issues adversely affecting the quality of education: the unequal funding of public schools resulting from a property tax method, the drive to privatize schools, and other issues.

Warming of the Arctic Fueling Extreme Weather

Click here to access article from Arctic News.

The article contains an abundance of great graphs and videos that visually explain what humans are doing to cause extreme weather events, melt arctic ice, increase global warming, and pollute Earth's atmosphere that is needed to sustain human and other life forms. The material presented is based on data from highly reputable scientific sources such as NOAA, NASA, Purdue University, among others. Here is one video that is referenced in the report:

The rise of ISIS in Iraq is a neocon’s dream

Click here to access article by Nafeez Ahmed from Al Arabiya.

Following the bulk of western reporting on the Iraq crisis, you’d think the self-styled ‘Islamic State of Iraq and Syria’ (ISIS) popped out of nowhere, took the West completely by surprise, and is now rampaging across the Middle East like some random weather event.

The reality is far more complex, and less palatable. ISIS’ meteoric rise is a predictable consequence of a longstanding U.S.-led geostrategy in the Middle East that has seen tyrants and terrorists as mere tools to expedite access to regional oil and gas resources.

ISIS Fiasco: It’s Really an Attack on Iran

Click here to access article by Mike Whitney from The 4th Media.

The whole fable about 1,500 jihadis scaring the pants off 30,000 Iraqi security guards to the point where they threw away their rifles, changed their clothes and headed for the hills, is just not believable. I don’t know what happened in Mosul, but, I’ll tell you one thing, it wasn’t that. That story just doesn’t pass the smell test.

Whitney convincingly argues that there is much to be suspicious about in corporate media's reporting on the sudden success of ISIS in their invasion of Iraq. His examination of the evidence leads to a far more plausible scenario. 

Has the Dept. of Homeland Security Become America’s Standing Army?

Click here to access article by John W. Whitehead from The Rutherford Institute.

If the United States is a police state, then the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is its national police force, with all the brutality, ineptitude and corruption such a role implies. In fact, although the DHS’ governmental bureaucracy may at times appear to be inept and bungling, it is ruthlessly efficient when it comes to building what the Founders feared most—a standing army on American soil.

Everywhere is War

Click here to access article by Andy Piascik from CounterPunch.

The Empire's capitalist directorate seem to be preparing to launch numerous wars to extend their control over vital resources and to counter any resistance from independent nations with their own capitalist gangs such as Russia and China. Capitalist gangs, like all gangs, rely on their ability to control territories through the use of force or an intimidating threat of force. As activists in service to save humanity from this folly, we must be aware of what is happening in order to effectively organize counter measures. Piascik in this article warns us about the current efforts of the directorate to glorify war so that they can once again enlist our support for their nefarious causes.

Summer approaches and the stench of war is all around. Or, as the great Bob Marley put it, Everywhere is War. Start with the commemorations over a five-week span of Memorial Day, Flag Day and Independence Day, all presented varyingly as celebrations of our war dead, symbols of our greatness, the freedoms we love so dearly and seek to export to every corner of the world and, perhaps most important, the unquestioned rightness of our cause.

In reality, the celebrations are of imperialist war, with the talk about the hallowed dead just so much cover for the murderous nature of US foreign policy.

World's First Fleet of Riot Control Drones Ordered by Secret South African Company

Click here to access article by Max Ocean from Common Dreams.

Of course, it had to be only a matter of time before capitalist ruling classes realized the usefulness of drone technology to control their own populations. Desert Wolf, a South African company, appears to be leading the way. However, I'm sure they are not alone in developing these population control vehicles. It's just that this company is the first we learn about in this article. Technology that could be advancing the health, welfare, and happiness of humanity will be used by the ownership class to control humanity to promote their interests--more power and wealth. Welcome to the brave new world of 21st century high technology under the ownership and control of a tiny minority!

The drones, originally unveiled by their maker Desert Wolf at a trade show near Johannesburg last month, sell for nearly $50,000 apiece and are equipped with four "high-capacity paint ball barrels" that can each shoot a total of up to 80 paint, pepper, or plastic balls per second, with a full capacity of 4,000 balls. In addition to a generic on-board high-definition camera, it has a thermal camera for use at night, as well as “bright strobe lights, blinding Lasers and on-board speakers” that can be used to warn crowds, according to the company’s website.

The Fall of Iraq - What You're Not Being Told

Click here to access article and 13:17m video from SCG News.

This kind of political analysis is about as good as it gets. The associated transcript provides excellent documentation to back up the narrator's analysis. Because all the documentation has previously been reported on my website, I don't even need to look into his links to know that they are all authentic.

After viewing the above video and/or reading the transcript, I invite you to view the current video presentation below by Dick Cheney and his daughter to see how this ruling class warlord has changed his views since 1994. I have little doubt that such views reflect the current imperialist views of at least the right-wing of the ruling class directorate. 

World War II: The Unknown War

Click here to access article by Paul Craig Roberts from World News Trust.

This article should be more aptly named something like "The Lies About WWII Are Preparing Us for WWIII".

As a former member of the Reagan cabinet as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration, Robert's prolific articles on the current operations of the Empire appear to be an effort at redemption from his earlier key role as an active member of the Empire's directorate. Of course, he never goes so far as to link Empire policies with the underlying system of capitalism, but nevertheless his voice has contributed much by revealing the evils that the Empire directorate have perpetuated in the past, and appear to be planning more for the future.

In the first part of this article he reports on the extensive efforts of the US propaganda machinery to re-write the history of WWII, which after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan resulted in the virtual disappearance of the only accurate film series of that war entitled "The Unknown War". The series still exists on YouTube which appears to consist of five segments. Then Roberts makes a much more general and profound observation.

Propaganda has always been with us. The difference is that in the 21st century Americans have nothing but propaganda. Nothing else at all. Just lies. Lies are the American experience. The actual world as it exists is foreign to most Americans.

Following this revelation Roberts seems to argue that the Empire's propaganda machinery is now on steroids and preparing us for WWIII. The directorate seem perfectly willing to sacrifice the interests of ordinary Europeans to destroy or intimidate Russia. Apparently Assistant Secretary of State Nuland's remark about "fuck the EU", while planning the overthrow of the elected government of Ukraine in an intercepted phone conversation, reflects the general attitude of the directorate. Of course, the same applies to ordinary Americans. The Empire's One Percent have interests that are global, and thus they have a corresponding global perspective. 

The downward spiral of Chris Hedges

Click here to access article by Chris Burnett from San Francisco Bay Area Indymedia.

Has anyone been following the Chris Hedges plagiarism accusations? For what its worth, my reading is that he appears guilty as charged, and now the feeding frenzy of liberal-to-NeoCon-to-corporatists will jump in on the beat down. Now, before you react, I know some of you will be saying, 'who cares, we always kinda knew that guy was an asshole!" Ok, true, but this case is illustrative of how the system attacks it's critics.

I regard Hedges as an "asshole" because he has tried to have it both ways: a well-paid journalist for a ruling class newspaper, the NY Times, and a halfway critic of the system governed by the ruling class. This apostle of nonviolence was always disturbed by activists who fought back against the brutality of the police and broke a few windows, but was always restrained about criticisms of the police. Then when he attacked anarchists as the "cancer of Occupy", I totally lost patience with him.

...because Hedges loved Occupy Wall St, he couldn't intellectually comprehend that it was anarchist theory and practice that made it successful, so when some minor property destruction happened in Oakland, he proceeded on his version of a Jihad to call anarchists, and the BB tactic, the "Cancer of Occupy", relying on some obscure blog posts which only exposed his incomprehension even more. Totally clueless. Hubris uber alles. He did a hell of a lot of damage with that hit piece, taking a small rift to national public attention, even when he got his facts completely wrong! Total asshole move from someone not even involved in the movement.

However, to get to the substance of the article, the attack on Hedges came from an article published in the New Republic (which I haven't read at the time of this posting.) And here is Burnett's take on the attack in the New Republic.

...Hedges brought this on himself, and it only hurts movements that try to expose corrupt state and corporate power. If Hedges chose to acknowledge some of the "mistakes", and admit he fucked up, some kind of redemption might be possible, but he didn't choose to do that. Instead, he held "strong" and is trying unsuccessfully to weasel his way out of ANY responsibility for his actions. That's a total dick move. 

Take a look at the side by side examples that Christopher Ketcham illustrates in his article, especially the Hemingway quotes, which I read as irrefutable evidence of plagiarism. The Naomi Klein, Matt Katz and Neil Postman rip offs are pretty damning. But the most damning is the careful substitutions of pronouns and prepositions in paragraphs that were clearly lifted. You don't use a fine-tuned cutting tool by accident. 

Washington Relaunches its Iraq Partition Project

Click here to access article by Thierry Meyssan from VoltaireNet.

"How a better Middle East would look" [to the Empire]

The sudden collapse of the Iraqi state is presented by the international press as a result of the attack of the terrorist group ISIL. But who can believe that a powerful state, armed and organized by Washington, could collapse in less than a week in the wake of a jihadist group formally independent of any state? Besides, who can believe that those who support ISIL in Syria sincerely condemn its actions in Iraq? Thierry Meyssan reveals what’s in the cards.

Citigroup’s Dark Pools: Here’s Why the Public Doesn’t Trust Wall Street

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

These two financial investigative journalists make a valiant effort to explain to educated Americans all the tricks that global banks, other such financial institutions, and their collaborators in regulatory agencies play to keep their global casino functioning to serve the interests of a tiny Western-based capitalist class. In this piece they focus on Citigroup.

Most Americans, and, sadly, members of Congress, believe that Citigroup is the parent of all those branch banks holding FDIC-insured deposits across America and bearing that angelic red halo over the word “Citi.” But Citigroup is far more than that.

Corporate tax dodging another capitalist innovation

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

Competition takes many forms in capitalism. Financial engineering by corporations to avoid paying taxes is one aspect of this competition — under the rigors of market competition, evading responsibility is an innovation to be emulated.

The magnitude of tax evasion on the part of multi-national corporations through one channel — the shifting of profits to countries and territories with low or nonexistent taxes — was quantified earlier this month by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund and Citizens for Tax Justice. Their study, “Offshore Shell Games 2014,” reports that the 500 largest U.S.-based multi-national corporations have squirreled away almost US$2 trillion in profits that lie untouched. [my emphasis]

The plot to use Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to steal billions from the taxpayer

Click here to access article by Matthew Yglesias from Vox.

Ever since Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac went bust necessitating a federal takeover and about $190 billion in bailout money to cover their debts, plans have abounded about how to best fix the mortgage finance system in the United States. There are plans from the left and plans from the right and many many plans from the center.

And then there is a plan from four hedge fund managers — Bill Ackman, Bruce Berkowitz, John Paulson, and Richard Perry — who think the right solution is for the government to hand them tens of billions of dollars for no good reason at all. It's a plan so shocking that the fact that it's even receiving any consideration at all is a testament to the extent to which our republic is becoming a corrupt oligarchy. 

The Vultures Are Circling Argentina Once Again

Click here to access article by Don Quijones, a British expat living in Spain, from his blog Raging Bull-Shit.

The games that these vulture funds play is rarely explained in mainstream media so that ordinary people can understand them. That is because there is a lot of money to be made in these scams played by major capitalist players who have considerable influence within the ruling capitalist class.  As key players in the ruling class they essentially own the government which, of course, includes the court system. 

This author in a brief space provides a very good start on understanding the issue as it currently applies to Argentina. And, I have since found three other articles that add more clarity to the subject: "How the US Supreme Court brought Argentina to the brink of financial crisis" from Vox, "After Supreme Court loss, 'vulture funds' circling Argentina's billions" from Al Jazeera, and "U.S. Supreme Court “Validates” Vulture Fund Activities" from Inter Press Service.

To really understand these scams, you must, once again, return to John Perkins' classic work on the subject, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (2005). He has also subsequently written other books on the subject which I haven't read.

The Truth About US Troops "Sent to Iraq"

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

Cartalucci not only reveals the duplicitous nature of Empire operatives regarding the recent announcement about sending troops to Iraq, but argues that the same diabolical application of propaganda has been used in many other past operations comprising the "Arab Spring" events. 

Unthinkable Thoughts in the Debate About ISIS in Iraq

Click here to access article by Ross Caputi from Common Dreams.

This veteran of US occupying forces in Iraq and now anti-war activist provides his unique perspective on recent events in Iraq.

Ross Caputi, 29, is a US veteran of the occupation of Iraq. He took part in the second battle of Fallujah in November 2004. That experience led him to become an anti-war activist. Today he is on the Board of Directors of ISLAH and he directed and produced the documentary film Fear Not the Path of Truth.

Referring to recent coverage in US mainstream media, he writes: 

...[the] range of ideas and perspectives is fascinating, and it says much about American war culture, but mostly for the ideas and perspectives that are omitted from this debate. Entirely absent is the perspective of Iraqis and the issues that are important to them: accountability, independence, and resistance. Moreover, the real complexities of this issue have been lost in a number of the Western media’s favorite binaries: terrorism vs. counterterrorism, good vs. evil, and insurgency vs. stability. 

If we dare to take Iraqi voices seriously and think outside of the dominant framework presented to us by the mainstream media, a very different picture of the violence in Iraq emerges and a whole new range of options open up for achieving peace and justice. 

Iraq: three kinds of blowback and the threat of war stoked by western meddling

Click here to access article by John Rees from Stop the War Coalition (Britain).

The current crisis in Iraq is a direct consequence not only of the war of 2003 and the occupation that followed it but of Western foreign policy in Syria and the longer timescale of intervention in the Middle East.

Rees's analysis covers the long history of capitalist ruling classes trying to control the Middle East because of its vast oil and gas resources, but he seems to suggest that many of their policies had unintended consequences or "blowbacks". While many of the events as a consequence of their "meddling" may be, and have been, unanticipated, I argue that their overall effect is, and was, intentional: to keep Arabs and the Iranians killing each other and generally destabilizing all these governments so that they never pose a threat to Western capitalists who want to exploit their resources.

On big politics, Western media spews propaganda - war correspondent John Pilger

Click here if you wish to access the source of this video interview (and transcript) with John Pilger who offers his views on a variety of current issues on RT. Pilger is one of the world's foremost independent journalists.



Because I spend so much time surveying and accessing sources of reliable information on the web regarding major world issues, I particularly liked his response to one of the interviewer's questions: "Do you think we’re getting reliable information from the conflict zone in Ukraine?"

Pilger: No, it's impossible to get an informed cover of pretty well anywhere [in] the world, unless you navigate your way through, these days, through the internet. If you don't navigate, and you sit in front of your television set, then you're likely to be given propaganda. It's always been that way - it's probably now more intense, but we do have alternatives now. We do have the internet, but as I say, it requires that research. Otherwise, we sit in front of the TV, or we pick up a newspaper, and we're not so much informed as when we're monitoring it or deconstructing it - that's what I do as a journalist. We live in an age of intense propaganda.

However, I keep wondering when our masters will succeed in interfering with internet access as they are now trying to do by allowing corporations to buy faster access which means slower access by independent websites. I predict that you will see more complaints, indirectly engineered or not, about the slow access of many streaming video services like Netflix; and then this issue will be used to justify corporations buying faster online speeds. The legal foundation for this has already be prepared by the courts as reported in the Huffington Post article: "last month's federal appeals court ruling...struck down Federal Communication Commission rules known as net neutrality."  

Do We Want Corporations To Decide Who Should Teach Our Children?

Click here to access article by educator Ira Rabois from his blog. 

Rabois has taught at several schools that used to be known as "alternative schools" before corporate "reformers" got into the act to convert education into streamlined factories designed to serve corporate needs. This new corporate vision of education promotes schools under private control using public tax money. Essentially it is the privatization of public education without using private money. To disguise their aims, they cleverly use words like "alternative" and "reform", and thus introduce confusion as to what education should be about.

Although Rabois initially direct his essay toward developments in higher education, he offers insights on what a democratic, child-centered education ought to be like and how this differs from what the corporate-driven versions are offering.

If you have the time and interest, I highly recommend listening to a recent 55 minute interview at KPFA radio station in Berkeley, California in which Rabois elaborates his views on education in contrast to what the corporate version is trying to spread in the US.

Critical thinking, democracy, and student-centered learning -- these themes are the basis of alternative education. Ira Rabois reflects on his own experience teaching philosophy and english at a public alternative school in upstate New York, and why developing inner motivation for learning is preferable to relying on grades and external discipline. He also discusses the attacks that all public education, including alternative schooling, face today.  

World Powers Keeping Firm Grip on Nuclear Weapons Arsenals: Report

Click here to access article by Sarah Lazare from Common Dreams.

A new report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute shows clearly that in spite of the promises made under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons agreed to in 1968 and extended in 1995, nations officially possessing nuclear weapons are generally modernizing their inventories and some are expanding their stockpiles. 

Obama [US Ruling Class] responds to Iraq debacle with military escalation

Click here to access article by Patrick Martin from World Socialist Web Site.

The one consistent element in US foreign policy is ruthless plunder in the interests of the American ruling class, combined with a total lack of accountability. No one has been held responsible in the White House, which has directed one war after another; the military brass, which has carried the wars out; Congress, which has sanctioned them; or the media, which has promoted them.

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.

...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.

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.

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: 

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.

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".

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.

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.

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.

“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.)

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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)

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.

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.

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:

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.

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.

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.

“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.

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. 

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. 

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.

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) 

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:

 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.

...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.

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.

...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.

...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.

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.

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.

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.

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“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