Michael Hudson’s New Book: Wall Street Parasites Have Devoured Their Hosts — Your Retirement Plan and the U.S. Economy

Click here to access a book review by Pam Martens from Wall Street on Parade.

In his new book, “Killing the Host,” Hudson hones an exquisitely gripping journey from Wall Street’s original role as capital allocator to its present-day parasitism that has replaced U.S. capitalism as an entrenched, politically-enforced economic model across America.

This book is a must-read for anyone hoping to escape the most corrupt era in American history with a shirt still on his parasite-riddled back.

What Martens and Hudson and other such critics fail to understand and are concerned about is that we live in a system called capitalism which inevitably results in the accumulation of wealth by a tiny group of capitalists amid billions of poor, and such a system cannot sustain societies or their economies. It's not because of "greed" or parasites--it is endemic to the system of capitalism. It is only now when middle class people (people with retirement plans) are being adversely affected that liberal critics are alarmed. 

Obama hails “entrepreneurial” transformation of New Orleans

Click here to access article from The Greanville Post.

In a well-deserved attack on the appearance of Obama in New Orleans to celebrate the 10th anniversary of New Orleans' recovery from Hurricane Katrina, the authors write:

Obama’s remarks paid little heed to the solemnity of the occasion, the worst natural disaster in American history, with more than 1,800 killed in five states, and one of the country’s iconic cities, a historical center of both culture and commerce, virtually destroyed.

Instead, Obama used the occasion to celebrate, in an unseemly, even grotesque fashion, the supposed successes of the capitalist system, both in America as a whole, and in New Orleans in particular.

“Saving America?” No, Donald Trump Is a Clinton Operative

Click here to access article by Melissa Dykes from The Daily Sheeple.

Quite a number of people have speculated that the Donald Trump candidacy for president in the Republican party is all a part of setup to clear the path of any Republican candidate that could derail the shadow government's long planned installation of Hillary Clinton for the Executive Office. Of course, this is an example of a conspiracy theory. So, should we just dismiss it with the pejorative statement that it is just a "conspiracy theory" like we are urged to do by those in our ruling class that attempt to hide their conspiracies? There are good theories and bad theories depending on the evidence and arguments assembled to support it. I think that Dykes assembles both in support of this conspiracy. Read the article and see what you think.

...if anyone ever had half a chance in Hell of changing anything in this country, rest assured The Powers That Shouldn’t Be would not let that person anywhere near the Oval Office. The last time this country had a president that tried to change things, that person got his brains blown out in front of the entire country.

But here’s what actually going on.

The only problem I have with her analysis is a problem that I have with many American critical observers: they use euphemisms like "aristocracy" or "powers that be" in place of a meaningful identification like the "ruling capitalist class". This practice serves to hide the reality of class rule which helps to maintain the fake democracy indoctrination of this ruling class.

Forget China, Here’s What’s Really Frightening U.S. Stock Investors

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

These two indefatigable investigative journalists who specialize on Wall Street issues point to two problems that are contributing to the economy's current doldrums: corporations buying back their own stock with near zero rate loans (under the Fed's "quantitative easing" policies) and a recurrence of "dodgy practices" that brought down the economy in 2007-2008. 

Native Americans and US Scorched Earth Continuum

Click here to access article by Finian Cunningham from LIBYA 360°.

This independent Irish journalist provides an historical perspective on mainstream media reports of an accidental toxic spill of waste water from a disused gold mine in Colorado. Could this have been a deliberate ploy to take over more land that appears to have valuable minerals?

Earlier this month, on August 5, a huge toxic spill of waste water from a disused gold mine in Colorado made international headlines when it flowed into several major rivers. Less publicised is that the contaminated waterways are vital for irrigation and drinking water in the Four Corners territory, upon which the Navajo people depend for their livelihoods.

Considering the history of the ruling capitalist class in America in taking by various means the lands from Native Americans, this contention seems plausible.

The historical precedent is also strongly indicative of a nefarious purpose. The history of Washington’s dealings with Native American nations is one of treachery, chicanery and genocide on the altar of capitalist exploitation orchestrated from corporate-controlled politicians sitting in Washington.

This summary statement hides such 19th century crimes as deliberately distributing blankets that were inflected with smallpox and other diseases to Native Americans in order to kill them.

Nowadays, according to the almost daily reports I receive, US, Canadian, and British mining corporations backed by their governments are engaged in many acts of genocide against native peoples in Central America for the same purposes.

Pentagon Needs More Money To Counter Chinese Submarine Threat

Click here to access article by Billmon from Moon of Alabama. (satire)

This is an example of the military orientation of our ruling class who with the aid of defense contractors, empire builders, and Zionist agents have adopted general policies that look more and more like what we witnessed in fascist countries and fascist circles in Allied countries that led to WWII.

Stock winners and wage losers

Click here if you wish to directly access the cartoon by Dan Wasserman from the Boston Globe. 

Notice: Wind Storm -- power outage

Because of the strong wind storm that occurred yesterday over the Seattle region, electric power was knocked out just minutes before I was to publish (upload) my article. I will publish at this time (7:00 AM, Sunday) and will publish Sunday's articles later today by noon.

Europe in Free Fall

Click here to access article by "The Saker" from The Unz Review.

The author offers a view from a European perspective and the European failure to cope effectively with many of their problems.

The sad reality is simple: the EU is a US colony, run by US puppets who are simply unable to stand up for basic and obvious European interests.

Up until the late 1980s, there used to be some more or less “real” opposition “Left” parties in Europe. In fact, Italy and France the Communists almost came to power. But as soon as the Soviet system collapsed, all the European opposition parties either vanished or were rapidly co-opted by the system. And, just as in the US, former Trotskysts became Neocons almost overnight. As a result, Europe lost the little opposition it had to the Anglo-Zionist Empire and became a “politically pacified” land. What the French call “la pensée unique” or the “single thought” has now triumphed, at least if one judges by the corporate media.

Black-out on tobacco's access to EU trade talks an eerie indication of TTIP threat

Click here to access article from Corporate Europe Observatory.

This European corporate watchdog have discovered that not only are the TTIP negotiations (the neoliberal trade agreement affecting Europe and the US) done in secret (held with corporate representatives, but hidden from the public), but documents related to these negotiations are heavily redacted from public representatives that are allowed access to the documents.

Looting Made Easy: the $2 Trillion Buyback Binge

Click here to access article by Mike Whitney from CounterPunch.

Whitney fills us in on a story missing from mainstream media: what the recent plunge in stock prices really mean for the pensions of retired people and those looking forward to retirement.The practice of gambling with pension funds is only another illustration of the predatory nature of capitalist class rule that hides behind a pseudo-democratic facade.

Corporations are taking the retirement savings of elderly public employees and using them to inflate their stock prices so wealthy CEOs and their shareholders can enrich themselves at the expense of their companies. And it’s all completely legal. Under current financial regulations, corporate bosses are free to repurchase their own company’s shares, push stock prices into the stratosphere, skim off a generous bonuses for themselves in the form of executive compensation, and leave their companies drowning in red ink.

Even worse, a sizable portion of the money devoted to stock buybacks is coming from  “massively underfunded public pension” funds that retired workers depend on for their survival.

Big Easy to Big Empty: The Untold Story of the Drowning of New Orleans

Click here to access this introduction to a free (but asking for donations) 25 minute video made by independent investigative journalist Greg Palast.

The film is an antidote to all the corporate produced coverage of the Katrina disaster that happened 10 years ago. Corporate executives hired by the ruling capitalist class don't want you to know the gross corruption and racism of their government. Instead, they want you to be inspired as well as misinformed by all the recovery that has occurred since the disaster. I also noticed that the recovery they are celebrating in ruling class media (NBC-TV, CBS-TV, ABC-TV, NPR, PBS) all reference work done not by the government, but by non-profit enterprises organized by ordinary people. 

And, of course, they exaggerate the amount of recovery work that has been done, but worst of all, they omit coverage of the government's poor construction of the levees (which was well known by engineers), the government's lack of post-Katrina recovery operations, and the destruction of an entire community, many of whom still remained scattered all over the country. This film tells a significant part of the real story missing from mainstream media: an unnecessary disaster laced with racism and capitalist exploitation.

China Rails Linking Eurasia

Click here to access article by F. William Engdahl from New Eastern Outlook. 

This American geopolitical analyst, who has lived in Germany for decades and has recently made several trips to China, gives us a report on the high-tech development of rail technology which appears to be the backbone for what many analysts have labeled as a grand "New Silk Road project" linking Asia with Europe. The Empire directors consider this as a direct challenge to their control of world, and thus it presents a dangerous threat of moving beyond a new cold war into a nuclear conflagration.

What is most impressive to me in my many visits to China over the past years is the extraordinary sense of doing things, of their countless building projects, something we in the West long ago had forgotten about in our post-industrial fantasy world. This drive to change their physical surroundings is emerging with impressive scale around President Xi Jinping’s highest-priority, the so-called One Belt, One Road Eurasian high-speed rail project.

China today has the world’s longest High-Speed Railway network with over 16,000 km (9,900 mi) of track as of December 2014, more than the rest of the world’s high speed rail tracks combined. China’s high speed rail system also includes the world’s longest line, the 2,298 km (1,428 mi) Beijing–Guangzhou High-Speed Railway. In short, China knows what it is doing in railways more than pretty much anybody and they are acting on that knowledge.

This development may also herald a new phase in China's development from a low cost factory for world into an export driven high-tech economy.

The image of millions of Chinese sweating away in low-paid textile labor for cheap exports is rapidly passing as the government’s current five-year plan aims to make China an exporter of high-net-value-added industrial and technology products. Rails are at the center of that strategy.

What is remarkable is that many Western economic analysts blame their recent hysteria-driven market collapse on China's economic slump.  Reliable independent journalist and geopolitical analysts like Pepe Escobar sees China's recent economic decline and market drop as only a temporary correction to an overheated Chinese market while also revealing the unstable nature of the West's economies that are based on neoliberal policies.

Migrant crisis in Europe: Who caused it?

Click here to access article by the editor from Workers World.

The corporate media’s coverage omits the back story. Why? Because this story exposes the role of imperialism and the major imperialist countries. 

Assemblies for Democracy: A Theoretical Framework

Click here to access article by Richard Gunn, R.C. Smith and Adrian Wilding from Assemblies for Democracy (Britain).

In their actions against the Greeks, capitalist leaders in the Eurozone have inadvertently taught many activists all over the world that even the largely fake version of capitalist "democracy" doesn't matter when it conflicts with the interests of international capitalists. It was a wake-up call to all those activists who thought that working within the existing system could bring ameliorative relief from neoliberal austerity policies. This has invigorated many activists to study more radical solutions to the rule of international capitalists in this new neoliberal stage of capitalism. This article is an illustration of this kind of effort.

General elections are top-down events: attention focuses on political parties and their leaders. Personalities and success or failure move centre-stage. Policies get a mention, but are assessed like moves in a game of chess. Can this top-down perspective be reversed? Can a form of politics be found which retains a grassroots or ‘bottom-up’ emphasis?

In these notes, we attempt to do two things. We explain why, in our view, this question is important. And we explore challenges that a grassroots politics must face.

The Zapatistas on Elections and a Look Toward the Capitalist Hydra

Click here to access article by Zapatistas from Upside Down World. 

From reading this piece by the Zapatistas, it is clear that the rest of the world's activists have much to learn about participating in capitalist elections, self-governing, and bottom-up political structures from these people in Chiapas, Mexico.

Referring to naive leftist activists and reformers in their area, they say this:

You can see that they don’t realize that that if they get rid of the bad parts of capitalism, then it won’t be capitalism. And I’m going to tell you why: because capitalism is the exploitation of man by man, of the many by the few. Even if they include women, it’s the same. ....

But there are more than the two ways that they describe (the armed path and the electoral path) to get into government. They forget that the government can also be bought (or they’ve already forgotten how Peña Nieto got there?) And not only that, but perhaps they’ve also forgotten that it’s possible to rule without being in government.

If these people say that it’s only possible with weapons or with elections, the only thing that they’re actually saying is that they don’t know their history, that they haven’t studied well, that they have no imagination, and that they have no shame.

It would be enough for them to see just a little of what happens below. But their necks are already cramped from looking up so much.

That is why we, the Zapatistas, don’t get tired of saying organize yourselves, let’s organize ourselves, each person where they are, let’s struggle to organize ourselves, let’s work to organize ourselves, let’s begin by thinking about how to start to organize and let’s gather together in order to unite our organizations for a world where the people command and the government obeys.

Cracks in Correísmo?

Click here to access article by Alejandra Santillana Ortíz & Jeffrey R. Webber from Jacobin. 

Political observers on the left especially have portrayed much of South American politics has moving in an independent, leftward course from controlling influences of the US. In recent years there have been some disturbing signs that the countries leading this progressive movement (Ecuador, Bolivia, and Venezuela) have stalled and actually have moved in a rightward direction toward emphasis on extractive industries, export crops, and other compromises with international and domestic capitalist interests. 

The authors of this piece appear to have captured the complexities of politics in these countries with special focus on Ecuador. This is in sharp contrast to the views expressed by some left political observers such as the view expressed by the peripatetic political observer Andre Vltchek who visited Ecuador earlier this summer and came away with a right-wing backed by Empire subversion scenario. The authors of this article refute this simple "color revolution" perspective. Referring to an opposition march that was held earlier this month, the authors of this article write:

The accusation by the government that this march is trying to overthrow Correa is pure alarmism. Sections of the Right are probably thinking about this. The Left understands that what they need to do in this moment is to position themselves, to recover the political initiative.

The government is receiving ideological support from international organizations like Intellectuals in Defense of Humanity, including prominent Latin American left figures such as Marta Harnecker and Atilio Borón. The idea they have is to come out consistently in favor of progressive Latin American government because of the threat of imperialism. And it’s true that there is external financing directed to the domestic Ecuadorian right. I don’t doubt this whatsoever.

But it’s myopic to believe that the dynamics of Ecuador are determined by this financing, and that popular social organizations in this country are merely puppets of some external force, without their own capacities to enter into political struggles.

I think there is still important work to be done in terms of unveiling what kind of government Correa represents.

Smoke and Mirrors

Click here if you wish to access the transcript of this interview with Michael Hudson conducted by the Real News Network and posted on Hudson's website.

So the problem is in the real economy, not the financial economy. But Lawrence Summers and the Federal Reserve all of a sudden say look, we don’t care about the real economy. We care about the stock market. And what you’ve seen in the last few years, two years I’d say, of the stock run-up, is something unique. For the first time the central banks of America, even Switzerland and Europe, are talking about the role of the central bank is to inflate asset prices. Well, the traditional reason for central banks that they gave is to stop inflation. And yet now they’re trying to inflate the stock market. The Federal Reserve has been trying to push up the stock market purely by financial engineering, by making this low interest rate and quantitative easing.

Hudson made the startling claim that Summers and the Fed don't care about the real economy (or the society in which it is embedded) and that they just want to make easy money gambling at their casinos.  But wait...haven't we been told by all kinds of authority figures in schools, media, entertainment--actually everywhere--that when capitalists make money, we all benefit? Could it be that all these honorable, upright people were stupid or even lying? (sarcasm)

You may also be interested in a longer interview with Hudson on the Democracy Now! show in which he made similar comments about the recent Wall Street stock slump and touched on other subjects such as China's economy and political candidates running in US elections. Hudson in the last paragraph suggests that capitalists (he refers to them as financiers) control our government, that elections don't matter. Shocking! (sarcasm)

...you have Wall Street people basically running politics, whether they’re the actual politicians—Obama didn’t work on Wall Street, but he worked with the real estate families. No matter who the president is, they’re going to appoint Treasury heads and Fed, Federal Reserve, heads from Wall Street. Wall Street has a veto power on all the major Cabinet positions, and so, essentially, the economy is being run by the financial sector for the financial sector. That’s the problem with politics in America today. 

Iraq War General Ray Odierno Cashing In With New Job at JPMorgan Chase

Click here to access article by Murtaza Hussain from The Intercept. 

Here we see the latest example of how integrated the military-industrial-financial complex is at the nerve center of the Empire. This US war criminal, instead of facing a war crimes trial, is being rewarded with an important job with a leading financial institution. Never mind that his actions created millions of Iraqi refugees and many deaths in the illegal invasion of Iraq. This is a continuing lesson to other generals: follow the diktats of the capitalist class directorate and you will be rewarded regardless if they consist of war crimes.

Odierno rose to become U.S. Army chief of staff in 2011, and in that role was a consistent public critic of plans by the Obama administration to draw down troop levels from their post-9/11 peaks. He has also been a steadfast defender of the original decision to invade Iraq, stating earlier this year that Saddam “was moving toward terrorism and I believe if he continued to have problems, we don’t know what he might have done in terms of being part of the problem with terrorism.”

Odierno is far from being the only top military official to retire and take on a high-level position with a private sector firm.

Meanwhile, "back at the ranch" where mostly ordinary citizens hang out, a few liberals who serve the capitalist class are getting upset that we are losing all our civil liberties which they thought were guaranteed by that piece of paper called the Constitution. Such people, like John Whitehead, are alarmed about the fascist direction in which the country is heading. In the following quote his use of "we" seems very ambiguous. Is he shaming ordinary people by declaring that "we" are at fault for this, or is he shaming the ruling class that he has served so faithfully?

...not only are we developing a new citizenry incapable of thinking for themselves, we’re also instilling in them a complete and utter reliance on the government and its corporate partners to do everything for them—tell them what to eat, what to wear, how to think, what to believe, how long to sleep, who to vote for, whom to associate with, and on and on.

In this way, we have created a welfare state, a nanny state, a police state, a surveillance state, an electronic concentration camp—call it what you will, the meaning is the same: in our quest for less personal responsibility, a greater sense of security, and no burdensome obligations to each other or to future generations, we have created a society in which we have no true freedom.

Or maybe he wants to divert our attention away from the class nature of our society by suggesting that we all live in an egalitarian society in which we all participate equally in creating the conditions of our society. 

Visual of Global Military Expenditures

Click here to access article by Robert Barsocchini from his blog Empire Slayer.

Global Military Expenditures

I believe that the huge US military establishment is also a major factor propping up the value of the dollar, in addition to the US's Mafia-like arrangement with Saudi Arabia and vassals to sell their oil only in US dollars in return for US protection. After all, if you were a major capitalist or head of an oil producing medieval kingdom with billions to guard, where else would you want to store your loot  than with the biggest capitalist bully in the world in the forms of US government and other securities?

US vs China: US-Backed Mobs Seek to Overthrow Malaysian Government

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

This very astute geopolitical American analyst who is based in Bankok, Thailand has uncovered evidence that the US is trying to do another regime change in Malaysia in addition to neighboring Thailand.

Malaysia's Bersih movement is yet another example of so-called American "soft power" in action. The use of US-organized and funded street mobs to carry out political destabilization and regime change has likewise transpired in similar fashion in Thailand through the use of US-backed Thaksin Shinawatra and his "red shirt" street mobs, and in Myanmar with Aung San Suu Kyi and her legions of anti-Rohingya, violent "saffron monks."

The goal is to string together a united front across all of Asia with which to encircle and contain China's rise.

Central Banks Have Become A Corrupting Force

Click here to access article by Paul Craig Roberts and Dave Kranzler from Roberts' website.

Although the article is not dramatically revealing of new information, the co-author, Roberts, is so highly qualified to write on this issue that I am posting it. The authors' central argument illustrates how the ruling capitalist class, especially with their ownership/control of the US central bank, the Federal Reserve, can get around any legal restrictions in order to support their failure-prone system and keep it going. 

An American dystopia

Click here if you wish to access the post directly from Moon of Alabama. 

The battle for your hearts and minds in Fallujah

Click here to access article by Ross Caputi from Insurge Intelligence.

This author has a personal relationship to the subject he's writing about judging by the bio that is offered.

Ross Caputi is an anti-war activist and Iraq War veteran. He served as a US Marine from 2004 to 2006, including during the Sirst Siege of Fallujah in November 2004. He became openly critical of the military and was discharged in 2006.

Ross holds an MA in Linguistics and is on the Board of Directors of the Islah Reparations Project. He is the director of the documentary film, Fear Not the Path of Truth: a veteran’s journey after Fallujah, and has written for The Guardian, Truthout, and Middle East Eye, among others.

He introduces his subject by reporting on the current bombing of Fallujah, Iraq by both US and Iraqi air forces, and how this is being reported in US media. The rest of the article is devoted to explaining how information is presented to the American public by the military section of the Empire's capitalist class in order to manage their perceptions. By focusing on the current bombing of Fallujah and how this is being reported in mainstream media, Caputi contributes to the understanding of the highly developed techniques used on us to obtain our consent, or at least neutralize our opposition, to the Empire's criminal acts of war. Thus, this analysis might fall generally under the subject of management of consent/dissent that the classic book Manufacturing Consent by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky brought to the attention of activists in the late 1980s. 

And I notice this morning that others are following up on their work. I'm referring to a collaborative work entitled Managing Democracy Managing Dissent (2013) published by Corporate Watch a London based cooperative which is devoted to journalism, research and publishing. I especially like their book's introductory announcement which offers a broader perspective on these information management techniques that Caputi writes about and which contribute to the pervasive indoctrination efforts by the capitalist class in education, media, entertainment to manage what we think about their fake version of "democracy" .

Democracy was once considered a dangerous new idea and a threat to ruling elites. It brought to mind fearful images of oppressed masses demanding social and political equality. Fast forward to today and democracy is a key method by which the inequality and injustices of capitalism are legitimated and popular consent engineered. Despite the fact that capitalism can tolerate neither equal access to decision-making or truly open dissent, and in fact prioritises profit-making above all social or environmental concerns, we are nonetheless persuaded to believe that capitalism is, or at least can be, democratic. Now a new book – published by Corporate Watch – uncovers how this contradiction is sustained, and the anti-democratic rule of capitalism protected.

The volume includes examinations of the inherent contradiction between genuine democracy and corporate capitalism, the use of corporate media, the entertainment industry, and celebrity activists as propaganda vehicles, the attempts to co-opt and neutralise NGOs and social movements, the demonisation and repression of unco-opted dissent, and the imperialist agendas behind so-called 'democracy promotion' interventions.

The capitalist transformation of rural China: Evidence from “Agrarian Change in Contemporary China”

Click here to access article from Chuǎng. 

Because I have posted articles by Jeff Brown who is an American living in China and whose articles are very favorable toward the Chinese government and their control of capitalist operations (for example, see this), I am also looking for other perspectives on what is happening in China. While trying to discern where the authors were coming from I learned from the "About" section that the authors could be contacted at chuangcn@riseup.net. Riseup.net is an anarchist collective based in Seattle, but has participating members elsewhere. So, this suggests that the article takes an anarchist perspective. I've only had time to superficially scan the summaries of articles he writes about from the Journal of Agrarian Change which appears to be an international academic journal devoted to agricultural issues (see this and this).  

Despite so much attention being spent on the woes of the Chinese stock market and currency wars, in other fields the Chinese state continues its liberalizing reforms. Over the last few years the state has pushed forward with its attempt to scale-up and capitalize agriculture, and Li Keqiang recently argued for the need to “industrialize agriculture.”1 This has led to a debate concerning the character of rural social and production relations. Some continue to claim China is not a capitalist social formation, and rural China and its land system are taken as major pieces of evidence. But this stance can no longer be maintained. Chinese agriculture is undergoing a rapid transformation as it is subsumed by capitalism. In order to understand rural China and contemporary peasant conflicts, therefore, we need to focus our attention on the processes of agrarian change and class differentiation that capitalism brings to the rural sphere.

A recent special issue of the Journal of Agrarian Change (volume 15, issue 3, July 2015) makes this clear. The issue deals with “agrarian change” in China since the late 1970s and especially focuses on the increasing capitalist transformation of agriculture and rural society over the past decade. The eight articles offer new insights into the changing terrain of social and environmental antagonisms in China today, which have implications for how we conceive of anti-capitalist intervention there and elsewhere. Below we summarize points of interest from each article. In the forthcoming first issue of the Chuang journal, we elaborate on points raised here and relate them to other debates to draw out their political implications.

As 2015 smashes temperature records, it's hotter than you think

Click here to access article by David Spratt from Climate Code Red (based in Australia).

We in the Northwest of the United States are experiencing record temperatures, a lack of rainfall, and numerous wildfires. I've been breathing smoky air during the last few days as the smoke from the wildfires in eastern Washington state drifts to the west over the Cascade mountains. Nearby fisheries which have already been harmed by the warm temperatures are causing unusual effects on sea life. Severe restrictions have been placed on harvesting of sea life, an important industry in Puget Sound. Of course, this not the only place that this is happening--it's a global phenomenon.

Yes, it is a strong El Nino period, and it may drop back for a short while, but 2016 could be just as hot and we may be entering a new phase of accelerated warming.

I agree. I think that we are only witnessing the first stage of a runaway climate. I'm no climate scientist, but I have been following scientific reports on climate change--rather than corporate media reports--and I sense that climate feedback loops are now in operation. For example, the widespread wildfires are sending huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere which contributes to the carbon blanket in our upper atmosphere which, in turn, is elevating our planet's temperatures creating optimal conditions for more wildfires. Another example: the thawing of the grounds in Siberia and North America releases methane which adds an even stronger greenhouse gas to the blanket which contributes to the acceleration of global warming.

I also think that the puny efforts that our masters in the capitalist One Percent are making can only slightly delay one disaster after another due to accelerated climate destabilization.

The Age of Imperial Wars

Click here to access article by James Petras from Information Clearing House. 

Like the wildfires appearing everywhere in eastern Washington state and Oregon, this retired professor provides a survey of mini-wars and chaos spreading throughout the globe. Meanwhile, the politicos in the US ruling class directorate and their cronies are threatening more in the future.

War is everywhere and expanding:  No continent or region, big or small, is free from the contagion of war.

Imperial wars have spawn local wars . . . igniting mass flights in a never-ending cycle.  There are no real diplomatic success stories!  There are no enduring, viable peace accords!

The Guardian Gets it Wrong on Latin America Again

Click here to access article posted by J.C. from TeleSur.

J.C. exposes the false reporting by a major British media company well known for its left-wing capitalist (aka "liberal") orientation. I have generally followed events in Ecuador and have known about these demonstrations, some of which are peaceful, some genuinely opposing the policies of exploitation of Ecuador's oil and mining resources, and some are based in the right-wing that are opposed to any of Ecuador's public expenditures and taxes on the rich policies. But recently there was a violent protest by an environmental group such as depicted in this video which reminds one of what occurred in Ukraine before their government was overturned in a right-wing coup. (See also this, this, and this.)

As the narrator in the video asked, can you imagine such a protest in the US? The police would simply respond with more violence up to, and including shooting the demonstrators like they did to unarmed, non-violent student protesters during the Vietnam War.

Could it be that a US regime-change project targeting Ecuador is in operation? Well, they certainly have motives to get rid of President Correa's administration because of his refusal to follow orders from Washington, his many criticisms of US policies, and his protection of Julian Assange in their London embassy.

Plunge Protection Teams of the World, Unite!

Click here to access article by Charles Hugh Smith from his blog Of Two Minds. 

Central bankers are watching Marx's dictum "all that is solid melts into air" play out in global stock markets with a terror informed by the scalding memories of 2008's global financial meltdown.

This reads like a tongue-in-cheek spoof, but actually I think that this is what capitalist leaders have been doing for several years to keep their profit and power machine going. When all the steps listed by Smith fail, I fear that they will opt for a nuclear conflagration in order to destroy capital so they can re-create it as they did with WWII. This might go under "doing whatever it takes" category. Gotta keep the profit machine going! Otherwise it's the end of the world for capitalists!

Book Review: The Modern Mercenary

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

In recent decades the capitalist dominated world has evolved from a nation-based phenomenon into a global phenomenon that has seen boundaries completely eliminated (for capitalists). This development has been accompanied by chaos as mini-wars and destabilized societies have appeared in many places. As a result millions of refugees are fleeing the chaos and violence to live in safer countries which, in turn, is  creating a backlash from citizens of those safer countries.

The capitalist propensity to "own" everything has also gone global in the form of private armies, spy services, security services, etc., all in support of the application of violence to promote their interests of power and profits. These new privatized agencies of violence have stealthily eroded what we were familiar with: state monopoly of violence and the embryonic development of international laws and norms governing the use of violence. As the state also morphs into an essentially privatized entity, governments often contract out their applications of violence to these agencies especially if they are illegal and secret such as false flag operations. Or if the operation is not secret, the government can directly hire and train combat units consisting of mostly foreign mercenaries as they have done, and will continue to do, under the Division 30 project for attacks against Syria. Fitts offers a brief review of a new book that deals with this new, mostly unrecognized phenomenon.

Another Way to Mask Super Rich Donors

Click here to access article by Zachary Mider from Bloomberg.

I often find myself in awe of the creativity of our masters in the capitalist class. I'm referring to the endless ways they have devised to place bets on Wall Street, where the world's two largest stock exchanges are located, and the many other places that these casinos are located throughout the world. Also what comes to mind are the imaginative ways they have to get around any restrictions or requirements posed by campaign finance laws, weak as they are, to purchase and promote influence anonymously with their favorite political prostitutes. This article provides some insights on one very ingenious way they do this by using companies that are legally chartered as "limited liability companies" (LLC).

When the Supreme Court ruled in 2010 to end a ban on corporate spending to influence elections, detractors envisioned an era when huge companies like Wal-Mart Stores or ExxonMobil would dominate politics in pursuit of profits. The reality is proving far different. Most business donations are coming from little-known LLCs whose founders and officers often don’t have to be disclosed anywhere. In a few cases, it’s so difficult to identify the source that the donations might as well be anonymous.

In the market for a private island? Take a look at some of the most stunning and remote properties out there

Click here to access article by Zahra Mulroy from the Mirror (Britain).

I'm sure some of my readers have hundreds of millions stashed away in some off-shore bank that they don't know what to do with. Well, there is one solution that can also give you privacy, insulate you from the maddening crowds, and give you complete security from the hordes of crazy activists who want to take your toys away: buy your own developed island. And, come to think of it, check out the Greek government which may be having a fire sale on their islands. 

But what if you can't find one in a location that you want? Well, there is a solution for that too. Check out this post entitled "World's first portable islands will let super-rich create eco-friendly getaways anywhere on Earth".

Labour’s Corbyn: British Establishment in Destroy Mode

Click here to access article by Finian Cunningham from Strategic Culture Foundation.

I have been following rather superficially the news from British left media sources, primarily CounterFire, about the popular rise of Jeremy Corbyn who earlier this year announced that he was running for the leadership position in the Labor Party. This would set him up as a candidate for Prime Minister in Britain's next election scheduled in 2020, but which could happen sooner should there be a parliamentary vote of no confidence.  

I have been very skeptical about Corbyn for mainly two reasons: 1) I find it hard to believe that the Labor Party which elected Tony Blair could seriously allow a genuine left opposition leader who advocate policies such as Corbyn's to rise in their leadership. I have been feeling that he was very much like Sen. Bernie Sanders, a pseudo-socialist and genuine Zionist candidate who is running for president in the US Democratic Party primary elections in order to collect and gather discouraged/disillusioned people back into the fold of Democratic party supporters. 2) Even though Corbyn has received support from British left-wing media sources like CounterFire, British left-wingers have a history of diluting radical opposition with compromised reform politicos who at best tend to delay any substantial change in governing policies, and at worst betray their supporters and pursue the most pro-establishment policies. I agree with many who have observed that if capitalist elections could change anything of significance, they would be illegal.

Already the British media campaign to discredit Corbyn is well underway. The slander and vilification being fired at the 66-year-old politician is going to get even more vicious over the next month. And if he wins, as the polls suggest, we can expect a full-on media war to destroy him over the next five years towards Britain’s 2020 general election.

What this reveals, starkly, is just how undemocratic Britain is. Any politician who steps outside the establishment is liable for destruction by the ruling forces.  

If by some miracle Corbyn is genuine and becomes Prime Minister, or even the probability of becoming Prime Minister, I think he would likely be assassinated.

The Myth of Chinese Capitalism

Click here to access article by Jeff Brown from The Greanville Post. (Note: One can also listen to this article as he/she reads it in a podcast. I did both.)

As I listened to Brown and followed along by reading the article, I was not impressed with about the first half of his presentation which kept claiming that China was a socialist and communist country while arguing that China had far outperformed US and Western capitalist countries, and then quoted a large section of China's constitution and statements made by China's first post-Mao leader Deng Xiaoping as supporting documents. While listening to his delivery I was a bit put off by a delivery that seemed loaded with sarcasm toward an audience that already agreed with him.

However, I did find worthwhile substance about two-thirds of the way through the article which argued, and backed up by data, that China's economy is thoroughly under the control of the Communist Party and its state organs.

Because of the fact that we in the West have received so much disinformation about China and that authentic sources are very difficult to obtain, I think that this alternative source is well worth following, but one should do so with some critical reservations.

Puerto Rico: a US debt colony hounded by hedge funds

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

After noting the similarities of debt problems between Greece and Puerto Rico, Roos points out the selective treatment of creditors when Puerto Ricans were faced with default.

But for all these obvious similarities, there is one puzzling difference: while Puerto Rico was allowed to default on its debts without drawing much ire – or interest – from the US government, Greece has not been able to do the same. Why was Puerto Rico allowed to default while Greece was not? The answer is simple: first follow the rules, then follow the money – and you will see.

Thus, if you are a creditor in the US One Percent, you will be paid in this default arrangement, but many thousands of small Puerto Rican creditors consisting of ordinary savers via their credit unions were conveniently sacrificed. Otherwise, the ultimate effects on Puerto Rican society as a whole remain the same as in Greece: public expenditures for health, education, and welfare are being slashed to pay off these One Percent creditors.

The Latest Science on Global Warming

Click here to access article by Eric Zuesse posted on Washington's Blog.

Because of the prejudiced coverage of the global warming issue that’s common in much of the press, I have decided to present highlights from one of the most comprehensive articles that’s now being considered by one of the world’s top scientific journals on the topic: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. This is the latest scientific knowledge on the subject.

America’s Imperial Footprint in Africa

Click here to access a 25:24m interview with Eric Draitser originating from WBAI, a listener sponsored radio station in New York.

In this interview Draitser provides an excellent overview primarily of US military involvement in Africa to check China's influence in the continent. Maybe not so coincidentally with this involvement there has been a rise in terrorist activity resulting in chaos and destabilization of existing governments. He also contrasts China's infrastructure investment programs with loans from US based investment agencies that often result in unpayable sovereign debts.

FBI Had 12-Page File On George Carlin Because He Made Jokes About Government

Click here to access article by John Vibes from AntiMedia.

Long after the anti-war activists from the Vietnam War dispersed to all corners of the US--some went to living off the land individually or in communes while others tried to reintegrate themselves into mainstream society--George Carlin was using humor and satire to try to educate American especially in the 1980s and 90s as to the realities that lay behind the facade of American "democracy". He wasn't kidding nor "joking" even though he used humor as a medium--he was serious and smart. And that is why the US capitalist ruling class were sufficiently worried about him to watch him closely. 

It was clear to me then that they need not worry because the overwhelming majority of my fellow Americans, once the Vietnam War was concluded, placed themselves back into the harnesses of the capitalist system in their attempt to achieve the American Dream. Of course, it was always only a dream that was used to lure Americans tired of the war back into conventional life. 

Using their ubiquitous propaganda machinery of corporate media to soothe Americans, they soon slashed government expenditures that benefited the public, attacked and weakened labor unions, supported vast military programs, and prepared for a much more aggressive foreign policy by integrating rabid Zionists into the ruling directorate--people like Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Robert Kagan and his wife, Victoria Nuland, who is now Asst. Secretary of State and widely credited with masterminding the overthrow of the previous Ukrainian government.

Unfortunately with the passing of Carlin in 2008, there seems to be no one to replace him and his ability to remove the fog of propaganda in front of American eyes to see clearly the realities of a ruthless ruling class who are drunk on power and profits and recklessly driving us toward climate destabilization and/or a nuclear war.

Bangkok Blast: Who Has Ax To Grind With Thailand?

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

It is clear that Thailand has been in the process of gradually escaping out from under American hegemony for years, with the recent ousting of Thaksin Shinawatra and his regime, along with strengthening ties with China creating an almost palpable desperation for American hegemony in Asia.

This Bangkok based geopolitical analyst extraordinaire weaves together considerable evidence of a long standing and consistent US Empire strategy to contain China as an effort to answer the question about who might have the necessary motive to instigate the terrorist bomb explosion in Bangkok.

Saving the Planet [a must read]

Click here to access article by Dr Asad Zaman from The Express Tribune (Pakistan).

This article and the one linked to in the article entitled "When the End of Human Civilization Is Your Day Job", which I will post following this post, are two of the most significant articles I that I have run on my website in quite some time. Read the article to see how Zaman leads to this conclusion:

...the radical changes required to save the planet is a radical transformation of the economic system. We must go back to pre-modern models of social responsibility, where individual goals are subordinated to social concerns. A key priority has to be a reduction in standards of living to levels which are feasible with life on the planet. Instead of growth, we need to pursue de-growth. Interestingly, happiness research shows that simple ways of living produce more happiness at lower cost than our currently targeted ever-increasing standards of luxury. Currently, our lives are devoted to huge amounts of over-production and over-consumption of useless or wasteful goods. This producing and consuming leaves no time for pursuing more precious aspects of living, such as achieving excellence in different dimensions such as spiritual, moral or physical. We are too busy to cultivate friendships, and to give time to our loved ones. Agreements cannot be reached on environmental protocols because every group wants to consume more at the expense of others. To save the planet, it will be necessary to join hands in a collective effort, which puts social concerns ahead of private individual ones. Little wonder that climatologists are in despair.

I would go further and write that to save the planet "it will be necessary to join hands in a collective effort" to overthrow the rule of capitalists and their soul and climate destroying system of capitalism.

When the End of Human Civilization Is Your Day Job [a must read]

Click here to access article by John H. Richardson from Esquire. 

I am disturbed that I didn't pick this up sooner because I like to post current articles (within one month). I was alerted to it by the lead article in today's selection of articles entitled "Saving the planet". I seem to be having greater difficulties in finding articles from scientific sources that seriously challenge more conventional views which have drifted somewhat from their earlier denial characteristics to one of downplaying the threats to civilization and humanity. I believe that this article goes a long way to explaining my difficulties, but more importantly, why scientists are continuing to have difficulties influencing public opinion. 

However, in my opinion, it doesn't go far enough to explicitly name the source of their opposition and their interests in managing information that might cast doubts about their system and its threats to human life. Of course I am referring to the system of capitalism that serves the addictive needs (power and profit) of only one tiny segment of humans, but is having a major and destructive impact on all human life (and many other species).

The incident was small, but Jason Box doesn't want to talk about it. He's been skittish about the media since it happened. This was last summer, as he was reading the cheery blog posts transmitted by the chief scientist on the Swedish icebreaker Oden, which was exploring the Arctic for an international expedition led by Stockholm University. "Our first observations of elevated methane levels, about ten times higher than in background seawater, were documented . . . we discovered over 100 new methane seep sites.... The weather Gods are still on our side as we steam through a now ice-free Laptev Sea...."

As a leading climatologist who spent many years studying the Arctic at the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center at Ohio State, Box knew that this breezy scientific detachment described one of the nightmare long-shot climate scenarios: a feedback loop where warming seas release methane that causes warming that releases more methane that causes more warming, on and on until the planet is incompatible with human life. And he knew there were similar methane releases occurring in the area. On impulse, he sent out a tweet.

Read about the tweet and how it changed scientist Jason Box's life forever. Also, be sure to listen to the interview by Mark Warren of Esquire with journalist Mark Richardson who has followed climate issues for a long time. 

Europe shouldn’t worry about migrants. It should worry about creeping fascism

Click here to access article by Laurie Penny from the New Statesman. (Note: UKIP referred to in the article is a right-wing party in Britain.)

Penny and her friend on returning to Britain are shocked by the way British corporate media are treating people fleeing for their lives from wars and destitution brought about by Britain's participation in the Empire's neoliberal and imperial policies. This is an old divide and conquer strategy which she describes very well. The British and European capitalist ruling classes are apparently succeeding in frightening their subjects with the consequence that most ordinary people see migrants as a threat instead of the neo-imperial and fascistic policies of their ruling classes whose policies have created the problem along with a number of others. Chalk up another victory for ruling classes in class-structured societies!

The behaviour of the British and wider European elite towards migrants is not simple inhumanity. It is strategic inhumanity. It is weaponised inhumanity designed to convince populations fracturing under hammer-blows of austerity and economic chaos that the enemy is out there, that there is an “us” that must be protected from “them”.

.... Human decency, however, has been factored out of the equation – on purpose. Britain and the rest of Europe have deliberately been whipped up into a state of panic over migration, and when people are panicking, they don’t really listen to reason.

The U.S.-Russia “phony war”: How Washington warmongers could bring us from stalemate to catastrophe

Click here to access article by Patrick L. Smith from Salon. 

I share nearly all of the views that Smith expresses in this perceptive article. His worried suspicions about a phony war being a prelude to catastrophe is especially worrisome to me as I see more and more indications that Empire directors are preparing for war. Just this morning I came across this view expressed by the head of the Donetsk People's Republic. 

My most positive interpretation of these numerous preparations for war directly or indirectly against Russia is that they are designed as a means to provoke Russia into an expensive arms race which could weaken that country as the policy did in the 1980s under the Reagan administration. The worst interpretation is that our masters have decided to do another rerun of WWII in which they hope the Russian menace will be eliminated along with a resurrection of a failing domestic economy. Perhaps most worrisome of all is that there is domestic component of the ruling class made up of militarists, weapons contractors, and Zionists who are aggressively trying to get their hands on the steering wheel of foreign policy.

Also, Smith's other observations about NGOs operating in Russia and the MH-17 issues are very perceptive and on the mark.

On America, part 2: Of myths and markets

Click here to access article by "Chilli Sauce" from libcom.

If there's one thing politicians of all stripes seem to agree on it's the market. Textbooks tell us how a free market economy is “dynamic” and “competitive”. Markets themselves are often used as a byword for “democracy”, yet very little effort is made to explain how markets even function, much less how they function for us.

Yet, when we look at the struggles most of us face on a regular basis – finding a steady job with good pay, decent affordable housing, reasonably priced childcare – it should be pretty obvious that markets don't work in our interests as working people.

Remembering the Marikana massacre on the third anniversary

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

The experience of South Africa, which the Marikana massacre highlights, offers another lesson: the vital requirement of any pretense to democracy is that the people must control their economy and the currency that flows like blood through a body. The people of South Africa, or at least the indigenous leadership, did not understand that or easily succumbed to the material rewards of holding government offices. Most Americans still do not understand this lesson despite a long history of worker massacres.

Why We Cannot Speak of Economic Injustice Alone, or, Why Race Matters

Click here to access article by Bill Fletcher Jr. from TeleSur. 

It seems to me that Fletcher starts his argument with a false premise: viewing capitalism as the problem requires that we ignore racism. As such it is a "straw man" argument. Oh, I'm sure someone at sometime or other has downplayed racist issues as divisive; but to characterize all politically aware people, or even a majority of activists, as arguing that we should ignore racism is ridiculous. 

Capitalism by its nature divides people into classes with conflicting interests. And ruling classes have always attempted to create divisions within the ranks of their opposition which in capitalism is among workers. Thus, race has been one of the major divisive wedges they have used. Religion is another which we see used in the Middle East. Racism has been so long used in the US that it is a major issue which divides Americans. It has functioned much like a virus which affects everyone deeply--all races and colors. 

Because it has so profoundly worked to corrupt our consciousness, we must fight it. But at the same time, we must be aware of how the ruling capitalist class uses it to divide us. Racism, as an issue, is now much better than it was in past generations, but the ruling class are desperate and they are once again trying to use it to divide workers. That, I think, accounts for the recent murders of African-Americans by European-American cops. They want to stir up Black activists, then their media will do its job to create fear among White people. Our desperate ruling class is pulling out all the levers of fear (contrived terrorism, immigrants are going to take our jobs, now racism) to immobilize and divide Americans. That is why we must deal with it in our ranks. Thus, we must not see it as something within our human nature that is defective and that we should feel guilty about. We must never lose sight of those who are using it to divide us and crush us. It is an integral part of a strategy to protect the ruling class and the system that delivers to them their golden eggs of power and wealth!

How & Why U.S. Media Do Propaganda Against Russia

Click here to access article by Eric Zuesse from Strategic Culture Foundation.

I have a problem with this essay which has caused me much hesitation about posting it because it otherwise reports on the many lies about the US "aristocracy" and their media. Of course, for those who follow independent news sources and are politically aware, such exposures of lies have been exposed previously by many independent source. So, really, how much is really new here? How does this contribute to our understanding of political reality?

Well it does gather a lot of past information to answer the question posed in the headline. By doing so, it may raise the consciousness of some people, who have been asleep for decades, that US policy has been designed to make Russia into a prey for US corporations to plunder and profit from. However, the problem for me is it fundamental premise which is carefully and subtly slipped in at the very beginning of this article: capitalism should be considered totally separate from fascism, capitalism is good if it is regulated and prevented from blatantly stealing public enterprises. 

Overtly conservative, nationalistic, ‘news’ media wouldn’t be able to sell to anyone who isn’t already on-board with privatizations of government assets as being a fundamental “free market” principle (i.e, equating fascism — the actual originator of privatizations — with constituting ‘capitalism,’ confusing the two systems as being one-and-the-same). So: not only the fascist media are anti-Putin, but media that pretend not to be are also.

The link in this above quote takes us to an introduction to another article by Zuesse written by a liberal (left-wing capitalist) blogger who argues what I believe illustrates a position of most pseudo critics of capitalism: 

Here’s the key: If these resources had always been in the private sector, that would be fine … that would be free market capitalism.

But if they were purchased on the people’s dime with our blood, tears, sweat and taxpayer funds – and then sold to the big boys for pennies on the dollar – that’s not capitalism … that’s looting. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what the Nazis, Italian fascists, and modern American “leaders” are doing.

Hence, they see capitalism as a good system, but our present leaders are straying from that into the bad system of fascism in which capitalist enterprises are unregulated and are permitted to steal public assets. I see this theme being argued by many critics of US policies such as Naomi Klein, Chris Hedges, and numerous others we encounter on the World Wide Web. 

Another cue that often suggests such a pseudo-critical position are the frequent use of the term "aristocracy", a term that accurately refers to the ruling class in feudalism, to refer to the ruling class in capitalism which, of course, are capitalists. "Aristocracy" for most Americans has connotations associated with opulence, splendor, people elegantly dressed and dancing to a Strauss waltz. Thus, the word has much nicer connotations than the term "ruling class", and even more so than a word like "capitalist". Such terms like the latter could easily lead us into thinking about issues of class, class interests, class conflicts, and even Marxist critical views of capitalism!

Could these critics be well-meaning even though politically retarded? Could they be doing the work of "gatekeepers" for our capitalist ruling class? As Lenin said many years ago, "The best way to control the opposition is to lead it ourselves." Either way they obscure the political realities of today's world and thus prevent real solutions. 

Fascist governments differ from capitalist governments in only one way: they take their "democratic" gloves off to reveal a vicious brass-knuckled fist. To explain my position regarding such terms and these frequent pseudo-arguments that fascism is somehow a corruption of capitalism, rather than repeat myself, I am going to refer you to commentaries I wrote in previous posts (see this, this, this, and this).

Alternatives to Capitalism: Greece, Grassroots (Participatory) Movements and the Question of “How?”

Click here to access article by R.C. Smith from Heathwood Institute and Press.

How is it that a large portion of the general European and North American populous still believe in democracy’s modern form is difficult to understand. The fact is that capitalism is inherently opposed to democratic social relations. This basic reality has reared its head once again, this time through what Henry Giroux labelled as Financial Authoritarianism. In other words: “The episode in Greece foreshadows a new kind of financial authoritarianism. Elections are now worthless since the financial institutions now control the economies of nation states. That is what this Greek debacle is all about. It is really a hard line message that the financial elite will not tolerate any left party arguing for social and economic investments against austerity.”

But the focus of this essay is not critique. The focus, instead, is a much more difficult course of reflection on how autonomous movements and leftist government policy might begin to subvert the current political and economic system from within, for the benefit of a fundamental transition out of capitalism.

Emigration and war: Capitalist media suppress the obvious

Click here to access article by Deirdre Griswold from Workers World. 

...the reports in the capitalist media about the tragic flood of emigrants from Africa and the Middle East avoid even mentioning the wars that laid the basis for it — even when on the same page or in the same television news program other reports tell of the drone strikes, the training and deployment of troops in the area under Western command and so on.

Can this be mere coincidence? That defies credibility. The reporters know the score. But the editors rule — and linking this unfolding tragedy of historic proportions to what their imperialist buddies have done to the region is verboten.

How capitalists view children

Created by Gary Huck.

Non-Profits and the Pacification of the Black Lives Matter Movement

Click here to access article by Brendan McQuade from CounterPunch. 

For the past year, much attention has focused on the most dramatic responses to the Black Lives Matter movement: the militarized police and smoke grenades, states of emergency and curfews, government surveillance and fears of infiltration. While these forms of repression should not be discounted, they should be properly understood. Heavy-handed responses polarize the struggle. The middle ground disappears and both sides radicalize. For those seeking to maintain the status quo, this is not the best outcome.

It’s much better to co-opt moderates and divide the opposition.

The Death of Satire

Click here to access article by Ted Gioia from The Daily Beast.

On Saturdays I had adopted a practice of featuring satire to lighten the weekend for most hard-working people, but I've found that I had to spend hours looking for something that really subverted conventional themes purveyed through corporate media by our masters in the ruling class. It's the same way this morning--I'm wasting my time.

I experienced the 1960s and 1970s when Mort Sahl, San Francisco Mime Troupe, and Tom Lehrer, The Smother's Brothers TV show, and in the 1980s George Carlin among others attacked the political establishment. There is no one of their caliber today. The masters of what we have become, a New Empire Order (to paraphrase), have so frightened Americans with their almost weekly CIA false-flag terrorist events and FBI instigated terrorists that we no longer can ridicule and laugh at our rulers.

Cowboy Bernie's Roundup of Political Strays

By Bob R. posted on CounterPunch for their Weekend Edition of August 14-16, 2015.

 

“Lone Wolf” Terror and the PsyWar on American Public Opinion

Click here to access article by James Tracy from his blog Memory Hole.

The corporate media chieftains and their subordinate producers and editors overseeing the modern consciousness industry thus have free reign to manipulate the thoughts, fears, even the dreams of the populace, thereby shaping the psychic basis for what is deemed desirable public policy. They choose specific stories and gauge the extent of their exposure to craft national public opinion and dismiss others not upholding certain agendas, such as race-based social tension and gun control. As the observations below suggest, Time Warner’s CNN is a central agent in bolstering such perspectives.

There have been so many false flag operations perpetrated by our masters for more obvious reasons that I have ignored some that exhibited less obvious reasons. However, after reading this careful analysis of differential coverage of mass-murder events in recent years, I think Tracy has opened many questions about the agendas of our masters' corporate media.

How can one explain such disparate coverage? It may be attributable to the random nature of editorial decision-making at major news outlets. A more critical analysis, however, suggests a coordinated effort to maneuver public opinion behind the “war on terror” and continued public acceptance of America’s police state.

It appears that all coverage provided via TV is carefully managed to instill in the minds of Americans the political interests of our masters and to insure that ordinary American support their interests. Consider another illustration of this regarding a completely different issue--China's recent devaluation of their currency by 2%. Pepe Escobar's take on this in an article entitled "What the Latest Currency 'War' is All About" clarifies for us what our masters' TV coverage of this event really is--another attack by our ruling capitalist class on China and to encourage ordinary Americans to see China as an enemy. Even traditional conservative Americans like Ron Paul are seeing this as a ruse.

Hiding in plain sight: the history of the War on Drugs

Click here to access article by Paul Bermanzohn posted on Reflections on a Revolution.

I've seen evidence this morning that people are moving from the ideological position of reforming capitalism and class rule to one that recognizes the imperative of revolution, the complete end of class rule under a capitalist system (for another example, see this). This new consciousness is illustrated in this edited transcript of a speech in which the author recognizes the need to recover our history as a first step toward a revolutionary consciousness. In his speech, especially the unedited transcript from his website, Bermanzohn provides a sketch of the highlights of the history of the 1960s which our masters are trying so hard to erase.

Part of developing a new revolutionary movement is reclaiming our history. The masters keep us enslaved by blinding us to our collective strength. The story of the ‘60’s uprisings is one rich in power and agency, the reason the rulers want to erase the ‘60’s altogether.

To build an effective revolutionary consciousness, activists must establish networks of support and organizations which have as their purpose the recovery of this history. Also, simultaneously with this effort, activists must collaborate in support of a network of communications about what is currently happening in today's world. Such a network must find a means of supporting people who have reporting skills as well as a revolutionary consciousness. As I daily review many articles written by devoted activists, I see them almost begging for financial support in order to continue their work. We simply must support them in any way we can. 

Yes, "Black Lives Matter!" But, then, all lives matter in a revolutionary movement regardless of where one lives on this planet or one's skin color. The old revolutionary slogan, "Workers of the World Unite, you have nothing to lose but your chains" can now be updated to "Save the Humans!" This is the stark reality that we are all facing: survival in today's world which is threatened by never-ending wars, immigrants fleeing from their wars, a likely future nuclear conflagration between gangs of capitalists, and a climate that is under the imminent threat of destabilization caused by capitalism's growth imperative in a finite planet. 

Underground Desert Aquifers Could Hold Missing Carbon

Click here to access article by Andrea Thompson from Climate Central. 

Scientists are beginning to look for the huge amounts of missing carbon created by capitalism's dependence on fossil fuels that don't end up in our atmosphere and creating havoc with our climate.

Here’s what we know: Carbon dioxide is building up in the atmosphere as the result of manmade emissions, trapping more and more heat and warming the planet. Here’s what we’re still working on: Of the excess CO2 that doesn’t stick around in the atmosphere — about 60 percent of it — exactly how much gets pulled into various so-called carbon sinks, such as the world’s oceans and forests, and where exactly the main sinks are located.

The Social Cost of Capitalism

Click here to access article by Paul Craig Roberts from Information Clearing House. 

I keep being astounded by what comes from the pen of this former official in Reagan's Department of the Treasury. He even attacks "regulated capitalism"! In this piece he takes issue with both the right-wing libertarians and progressives in the US. He correctly calls them "romanticists".

Our romanticists need to learn how less valuable lands are traded for more valuable public lands in order to transfer wealth from the public to private hands. They need to learn that allowing ranchers to utilize public lands results in habitat destruction and the destruction of stream banks and aquatic life. They need to understand that the heads of the federal protective agencies themselves are timber, mining, and ranching operatives who work for private companies and not for the public. Americans of all persuasions need to understand that just as senators and representatives are bought and paid for by the military/security complex, Wall Street, and the Israel Lobby, they are owned also by mining, timber and ranching interests.

US’s Saudi Oil Deal from Win-Win to Mega-Loose (sic)

Click here to access article by F. William Engdahl from New Eastern Outlook. (Note: I realize that "loose", as he used the word, seems to be rapidly entering the English language through frequent (mis-)usage, but I resist. The correct hyphenated word should have been "Mega-Lose". See conventional definitions of "lose" and "loose".)

Are Saudi leaders becoming mavericks while deviating from the grand strategies of the Empire? Engdahl finds evidence to suggest the affirmative.

Who would’ve thought it would come to this? Certainly not the Obama Administration, and their brilliant geo-political think-tank neo-conservative strategists. John Kerry’s brilliant “win-win” proposal of last September during his September 11 Jeddah meeting with ailing Saudi King Abdullah was simple: Do a rerun of the highly successful State Department-Saudi deal in 1986 when Washington persuaded the Saudis to flood the world market at a time of over-supply in order to collapse oil prices worldwide, a kind of “oil shock in reverse.” In 1986 was successful in helping to break the back of a faltering Soviet Union highly dependent on dollar oil export revenues for maintaining its grip on power.

So, though it was not made public, Kerry and Abdullah agreed on September 11, 2014 that the Saudis would use their oil muscle to bring Putin’s Russia to their knees today.

It seemed brilliant at the time no doubt.

US gets the war it has always wanted…begins bombing Assad forces U

Click here to access article by "alexrpt" editor of Red Pill Times. 

This article condenses information provided by RT (with extensive quotes from an RT report) to arrive at what he/she sees as the main purpose behind the US backed strategy to destabilize Syria. The argument is very convincing regarding the real motivations which are covered over by a massive propaganda effort directed toward Americans via corporate media. 

This latest US war is so simple. Remove Assad in order to remove Russia’s gas supplies to Europe. Once Assad is gone the US can put its very own, home grown dictator to oversee the construction of a Qatar gas pipeline to Europe.

Syria is all about the US’s fixation with destroying Russia…fixation, obsession really.

What is really complicated for Empire directors is mediating the various motives of the many participating actors so that this managed chaos can accomplish their objective. It's no wonder that some US generals are confused about the strategy.