Corporate Parasites And Economic Plunder: We Need A Genuine Green Revolution

Click here to access article by Colin Todhunter from his blog East by Northwest (Britain).

Over the past few centuries, Western countries embarked on a road to material affluence at the expense of the environment and other peoples across the globe who were subjugated, killed or left to live in poverty. And while offering more of the same and selling unfettered capitalism to the rest of the world, Washington as the now dominant imperial power is doing all it can to destroy any rivals, not least Russia and China. It alone thinks it should be the sole beneficiary in a resource-depleting race towards a barren-wasteland finish.

Solidarity instead of hierarchy as “common sense”

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

Dolack offers a review of Michael Lebowitz's latest book entitled The Socialist Imperative: From Gotha to Now. The "Gotha" in the title refers to Marx's critique of a particular working class party based in Gotha, Germany in 1875. This critique was the last great contribution that Marx made to socialist and communist ideology.

Lebowitz's views of socialism has also been strongly influenced by ideological and organizational developments in Venezuela since Hugo Chavez's reign as president. From my observations based on a visit to Venezuela in late 2005 and subsequent readings, I think that these developments were more ideological than successful, really-existing socialist forms. From my readings by knowledgeable people and direct observations, I think that the socialist organizations were used more to serve the political purposes of the Chavez government than the bottom-up, theoretical orientation. This truncated form of socialist practice was no doubt due to the delicate control that Chavistas had over a state in which a large and powerful segment of capitalists existed and backed by the US Empire.

Lebowitz concludes his review with this summary statement:

No blueprints are offered in the book; properly so as pre-conceived conceptions are useless. It would have been useful to have had more concrete examples in a book that is sometimes a little too abstract, but it does provide a thorough grounding in why the salvation of humanity and Earth itself rests on a transition to a rational, democratic system, one based on human need and not the profits of a privileged few. The form of that system will be different from 20th century systems that called themselves “socialist” and necessarily vastly different from any form of capitalism. We have a world to win, a goal for which Michael Lebowitz has given us an inspirational guide.

The tragedy of the commons, the Pope, and the system

Click here to access article by Michael A. Lebowitz from The Georgia Straight (a weekly publication from Vancouver, Canada. The name relates to the Strait of Georgia, a body of water between Vancouver Island and Canada's mainland.)

Lebowitz disposes of the capitalist notion that there is an inherent tragedy of the commons that only privatization can solve as well as the Pope's moral call for a more balanced form of capitalism instead of the runaway, destructive neoliberal form that is on a collision course with the Earth and social justice. Lebowitz suggests that the system of capitalism is now in a stage of "terminal illness" that will, if we let it, destroy the Earth's human habitat and cause extreme human degradation.

In anticipation of the November 30th start of Cop 21 meetings in France, on November 29 people all over the world will be voicing their cry of anguish over this destruction of the Earth's climate commons. But, he asks: "will it make a difference?". His answer is negative simply because the system of capitalism is obsessed with driving this destruction. But demonstrate we must...for another reason:

The root of the problem, simply, is that human beings and nature are means for capital rather than ends in themselves; accordingly, capital tends to destroy both original sources of wealth in its drive to expand. "Apres moi le deluge" is its message. But we can prevent the deluge by sending a different message—not a message to governments but a message to ourselves by demonstrating that we are many and that we are strong enough to care for our common home.

ISIS-Turkey Links

Click here to access article by David L. Phillips from Huffington Post. 

Is Turkey collaborating with the Islamic State (ISIS)? Allegations range from military cooperation and weapons transfers to logistical support, financial assistance, and the provision of medical services. It is also alleged that Turkey turned a blind eye to ISIS attacks against Kobani. 

The author then continues in the research article to link to considerable evidence that answers a resounding "yes" to the above question. This solid piece of research together with numerous others (all you need to do is enter "ISIS" into one of my search boxes) adds up to an overwhelming conclusion that the US Empire and its vassal states have been mounting years of lie-filled propaganda barrages to justify their overthrow of the legitimate government of Syria. 

Also, see the latest evidence of Israeli terrorist contribution to the destabilization of Syria provided by American geopolitical analyst F. William Engdahl based in Germany entitled "Israeli Colonel Caught with IS Pants Down" from New Eastern Outlook.

Russian Warplane Down: NATO’s Act of War

Click here to access article by Tony Cartalucci from New Eastern Outlook.

In recent weeks with Russian air support, Syrian troops have retaken large swaths of territory from ISIS, Al Qaeda, and other terrorist fighters. The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) has even begun approaching the Euphrates River east of Aleppo, which would effectively cut off ISIS from its supply lines leading out of Turkish territory.

From there, Syrian troops would move north, into the very “safe zone” the US and its Turkish partners have long-sought but have so far failed to establish within Syria’s borders. This “safe zone” includes a region of northern Syrian stretching from Jarabulus near the west bank of the Euphrates to Afrin and Ad Dana approximately 90-100 kilometers west.

Once Syrian troops retake this territory, the prospect of the West ever making an incursion into Syria, holding territory, or compromising Syria’s territorial integrity would be lost forever. Western ambitions toward regime change in Damascus would be indefinitely suspended.

The endgame is at hand, and only the most desperate measures can hope to prevent Russia and Syria from finally securing Syria’s borders. Turkey’s provocation is just such a measure.

And for Russian President Vladimir Putin's immediate response, see this.

Mr Putin ended his speech by suggesting Turkey wanted Nato “to serve” ISIS. He earlier described the Turks as “accomplices of terrorists”.

“Instead of contacting us, Turkey went to its partners in Nato to discuss this incident. As if it was us who downed a Turkish plane, and not vice versa. What? They want to make NATO serve ISIS?” 

And that, of course, is what Turkey has been doing all along.

Obama to Hollande: Stay the course against Russia

Click here to access article by Michael Crowley from Politico. 

U.S. officials fear Putin is hoping more aggressive action against ISIL in Syria will forestall an extension of economic sanctions over Crimea. 

This raises a question in my mind: could the Turkish downing of the Russian jet have been coordinated with the US to ratchet up the tension in the Middle East to prevent further warming of relations between Russia and France, and maybe the rest of Europe?

Turkey attacks Russia: a wake up call, or is the western intelligentsia too far gone?

Click here to access article from OffGuardian.

This marks the first time since the start of the Cold War that nuclear-armed NATO has committed an act of war against another nuclear-armed state. It’s a well-known and well-rehearsed scenario for a possible global conflagration.

Many of us have been warning about such an eventuality for some time – since at least the moment the US and its tame puppies in Europe went full Strangelove and began openly backing what amounted to a NATO takeover of Ukraine and Crimea. Now it’s come to pass. And if this isn’t the trigger for Armageddon, the next such flashpoint might be. And there will be more – and more and more – until the non-crazies find the spine to step in and put an end to the madness.

Companies Continue to Profit by Playing Dumb

Click here to access article by David Macaray from CounterPunch.

The author reveals the games that liberals play to cover for predatory corporations on the make for profits.

By now, everybody knows the drill. An American or European company (typically a manufacturing or food-processing enterprise, but increasingly expanding to include IT operations) sets up shop in a stable Latin American or Asian country in order to take advantage of ridiculously low wages and weak or near non-existent environmental laws. It’s beats the hell out of what they face back home.

How Governments Terrorize the Public

Click here to access article by James Corbett from The International Forecaster.

The strategy is remarkably simple. Provoke an attack, stage an attack, allow an attack to happen or simply capitalize on a spontaneous attack. Use the public's own outrage to push through draconian new legislation, all the while pretending to be the savior.

Corbett opens his essay by featuring an extended 10:45m interview (I previously posted a much shorter version) with Irish journalist Gearoid O Colmain.

Refugees as Weapons in a Propaganda War

Click here to access article by Eric Draitser from New Eastern Outlook.

In the wake of the horrific terror attacks in Paris, world attention will once again be focused on the issue of refugees entering Europe. While much of the spotlight has been rightly pointed at Syrian refugees fleeing the western-sponsored war against the Syrian government, it must be remembered that the refugees come from a variety of countries, each of which has its own particular circumstances, with many of them having been victims of US-NATO aggression in one form or another. Syria, Afghanistan and Libya have of course been targeted by so-called ‘humanitarian wars’ and fake ‘revolutions’ which have left the countries fractured, divided, and unable to function; these countries have been transformed into failed states thanks to US-NATO policy.

What often gets lost in the discussion of refugees however is the fact that a significant proportion of those seeking sanctuary in Europe and the US are from the Horn of Africa....

Progress and its discontents [the anti-progress of neoliberalism]

Click here to access article by Susan George of the Transnational Institute.

George is the president of the Transnational Institute, which is based in Brussels, and, in my opinion, one of the leading progressive thinkers in today's world. This article is a transcript of a talk she delivered at the London School of Economics where she, among others, was invited to express her views on the theme of "Progress and its Discontents". She quickly narrowed the focus of her contribution to focus on the rather relatively recent anti-progressive phenomenon of neoliberalism. 

Thus, after she begins her talk with "Good evening to all.", you can skip down to the 14th paragraph of this rather lengthy article to where she writes "Right now I’m personally hoping...". She then launches into an examination of the anti-progressive ideology of neoliberalism which made its first appearance after the Vietnam War, and has since crippled the lives of the vast majority of humans while accelerating the destabilization of the climate. 

Since 2007, the European Commission has based its research priorities on the KBBE, which is a hybrid of the OECD’s bioeconomy project and the EU’s Knowledge-Based Economy and links knowledge with technological innovation. The KBBE can be understood as a new political-economic strategy, and plays a role in shaping policies, institutional practices and societal changes with the aim of creating ‘sustainable capital’ [also known as "sustainable capitalism", an oxymoron]. Simply put, the EU’s KBBE agenda presents technological advancement as the equivalent of societal progress and improved life quality. However, the KBBE does not address the long-term consequences of constantly striving towards new, ‘more efficient’ technologies and the development of projects that promote the commodification of nature.

The KBBE perspective equates ‘renewable’ with ‘sustainable.’ With this viewpoint, anything that can be regrown is considered to have an infinite supply, and technology that can manipulate organisms should therefore be used to create these renewable products. In short, this requires the commodification of nature. The goal becomes ‘sustainable capital’....
 

Ultimate Weapon in Existential Struggle: Using the TPP for Hostile Takeover of Mexican Agriculture

Click here to access article by "Don Quijones" from Wolf Street.

For a company that is long accustomed to getting its way in just about every jurisdiction on planet Earth, the constant obstructionism of the Mexican justice system is beginning to wear thin for Monsanto. But the company and its rivals still have one ace up their sleeves, a weapon that has the potential to obliterate Mexico’s judicial resistance in one fell swoop: the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the world’s biggest trade agreement that was recently signed by the governments of 12 Pacific-rim nations, including Mexico.

The Occupation of the American Mind: Israel's Public Relations War in the U.S.

Click here to access an introduction to this film produced by the Media Education Foundation posted on Transnational Institute.

So far as I know, the film's premiere was yesterday in Amsterdam. But you may be on the outlook for it at a nearby campus; or if you are connected to a university, you might be able to have it shown on campus. If you were unable to jet to Amsterdam yesterday, this 4:46m trailer might whet your appetite and motivate you to have it shown in your community.



Fortunately you can view other excellent films on this subject made by the author. I recommend this and this.

MIT States That Half of All Children May be Autistic by 2025 due to Monsanto

Click here to access article by Janet Phelan from New Eastern Outlook.

I rather vaguely remember an incident when I was working with adults with disabilities back around 1968 that brought to my attention an obscure disease called autism. Even though my job entailed only working with adults, I decided to investigate a child who had been diagnosed with this disease by actually interviewing the parent and observing the child's behavior. Now 47 years later this disease along with many others is quite common.

The rate of autism has skyrocketed from roughly one in every two thousand in the 1970’s to the current rate of one in every sixty eight. Alzheimer’s has become almost universal in the elderly.

One would think that a concerted effort would be made by researchers to uncover the causes of such dramatic increases in many diseases. However, in a capitalist society profits rule über alles. Hence very little research has been done, and what little solid research that has been done has been met with overwhelming resistance mostly from industry funded researchers.

The food and chemical giant [Monsanto] has constructed a webpage with links to scientific studies pronouncing the safety of glyphosate.

Other science writers have also taken up the Monsanto banner, scoffing at the scientific studies that prompted Seneff to make her claims. “They made it up!” pronounced Huffpost science writer Tamar Haspel, in an article thin on analysis but heavy on declarative prose.

Russia Debates Unorthodox Orthodox Financial Alternative

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

One must overlook the fact that Engdahl is a gold fetishist who occasionally makes some glaring typo errors to see that this article reports on some interesting economic arrangements that are developing in Russia to cope with aggressive Empire economic sanctions.

Russia is in a fascinating process of rethinking every aspect of her national economic survival because of the reality of the western attacks. It could produce a very healthy transformation away from the deadly defects of the Anglo-American free-market banking model.

El Niños in a Warming Planet

Click here to access article from Climate Nexus. 

El Niño and La Niña events are an occurrence of varying temperatures in the ocean off Peru and extending to the west in the Pacific Ocean. These cyclical events are closely associated with observed weather patterns and global warming in general. (Read this if you need further clarification.)

The article examines the trend in recent decades for these events to become more extreme and bringing associated extreme weather to parts of the world.

The various factors that scientists watch to forecast the near-term future of these events, including Kelvin waves and westerly wind bursts, suggest that ­the current El Niño will grow stronger. The model estimates th­at have most closely tracked the progress of this El Niño suggest that it will become the strongest on record when measured against the traditional three-month yardstick.

While this El Niño is unprecedented, it is not wholly unexpected. For several years now the oceans have been swallowing and drawing down much of the heat that has been accumulating in the atmosphere, including the extra heat trapped in the atmosphere by the growing blanket of carbon pollution. That heat is now reemerging.

Predicting how El Niños evolve in a warming planet is extremely challenging. The factors involved are far from well understood. However, the most recent model projections tell us that we may expect extreme El Niños (and La Niñas) to happen more frequently. Records tend to be broken when natural variation runs in the same direction as climate change, and this El Niño is moving along on a record-breaking path.

NATO is harbouring the Islamic State

Click here to access article by Nafeez Ahmed from Insurge Intelligence.

Nevermind that under Erdogan, Turkey is the leading sponsor of the barbaric ‘Islamic State.’

We must not ask unpatriotic questions about Western foreign policy, or NATO for that matter.

We must not wonder about the pointless spectacle of airstrikes and Stazi-like police powers, given our shameless affair with Erdogan’s terror-regime, which funds and arms our very own enemy.

We must not question the motives of our elected leaders, who despite sitting on this information for years, still lie to us, flagrantly, even now, before the blood of 129 French citizens has even dried, pretending that they intend to “destroy” a band of psychopathic murdering scum, armed and funded from within the heart of NATO.
No, no, no. Life goes on. Business-as-usual must continue. Citizens must keep faith in the wisdom of The Security State.

I only have one problem with this essay: it repeats what is often alleged on many liberal websites/blogs:

Assad’s brutality and illegitimacy is beyond question — but until he had demonstrated his unwillingness to break with Russia and Iran, especially over their proposed pipeline project, US policy toward Assad had been ambivalent.

"Assad’s brutality and illegitimacy" is always "beyond question". Really? I've never seen any credible evidence furnished after this statement. The same allegation could be said with more confidence about any Western leader.

The Saudi Connection to Terror

Click here to access article by Daniel Lazare from ConsortiumNews.

How does ISIS pay for its operations? This is the key question as the war against the terror organization advances to a new level in the wake of the Paris atrocities. But the mainstream’s approved answer is part of the problem.

Using linked documents from mainstream corporate media, Lazare pokes holes in the Empire's explanations about ISIS. Most of these documents have been posted on this website previously. 

Notice one item about the funding of ISIS used by the author which he accessed from mainstream media has already been proven false. Bernhard from Moon of Alabama exposed this lie yesterday after viewing the video and finding Cyrillic characters on the targeting screen. 

I have found no video of U.S. hits on Islamic State oil tanker assemblies.

The U.S. PBS NewsHour did not find any either.

In their TV report yesterday about Islamic State financing and the claimed U.S. hits on oil trucks they used the videos Russia provided without revealing the source. You can see the Russian videos played within an interview with a U.S. military spokesperson at 2:22 min.

The Russian video was used by PBS, a government sponsored, tax-funded TV station, to propagate another lie to the American people that their government was seriously fighting ISIS. The government claim about destroying 116 oil tankers was picked up by all mainstream media.

I think that such mainstream media reports illustrate a profound insight about how the Empire's ruling classes are maintaining all the claimss about a "war on terror" and other assorted fictions. All they need to do is to fool most Americans all the time. So, does it really matter that a small minority of people like Bernhard and us who follow more credible online media see through their lies? I may be deluded, but I hope and pray that it matters. It is the only reason why I do this blog every day of the year for four to five hours.

“More Paris Puzzles”

Click here to access article by Paul Craig Roberts from OffGuardian. 

Dr Paul Craig Roberts questions the official narrative.

His questions along with many other of his questions about alleged terrorist events leads him to this conclusion:

Terrorism has been unleashed in the Western World, and it is the terrorism of Western governments against Western peoples.

Verging on Plutocracy? Getting Real About the Unelected Dictatorship

Click here to access article by Paul Street from CounterPunch. 

Street explains to all those duped left-liberals (cartoonist Ted Rall calls them "idiots") who are supporting Bernie Sanders that his role is to herd the many disaffected left-liberal sheep back into the Democratic Party corral so that they can later be forced into the slaughterhouse of capitalist ruling class elections.

“Black Lives Matter” Groups Hoping for a Big Payday

Click here to access article by Glen Ford from Black Agenda Report.

Ford explains how "Black Lives Matter" and associated groups are being induced into playing within the Democratic Party's play pen.

This week, the billionaires that fund the Democratic Party and its satellite organizations will decide which of the “Black Lives Matter” groups will get paid to lead the Black “movement.” The #BlackLivesMatter network and Campaign Zero are eminently qualified for funding, having “already been accorded the status and privileges of constituent Democratic Party organizations.” Who else will make the corporate cut?

The Paris Attacks and the White Lives Matter Movement

Click here to access article by Ajamu Baraka from CounterPunch.

What the author doesn't mention in this otherwise brilliant essay is the concomitant rise of capitalism, a system created by early capitalists in search of riches which, in turn, gave them enormous power over the rest of humanity. They became so addicted to riches and power that they had no inhibitions about committing crimes against the rest of humanity who stood in their way, and they continue with this obsessive pursuit of wealth and power today--probably more than ever. This ruling class has, like all ruling classes, its own propagandists which Baraka erroneously refers to as a "class of intellectuals"--they are only a sub-class of the ruling capitalist class.

Eurocentric academicians, still a hegemonic force in the West, don’t historicize the “great” humanitarian theories of Europe and critically juxtapose the rise of those theories with the concrete practices of European powers. Those practices involved the systematic slaughter of millions of Indigenous people throughout the America’s and the African slave trade that made Europe fat and rich and allowed for the creation of a class of intellectuals freed-up from the struggle to earn a living and able to engage in the higher contemplations of life.

However, Eurocentric liberalism was never just confined to the academy. It became the hegemonic ideological force that embedded itself in the culture and collective consciousness of the Western project and with it the de-valuation of non-European life and culture. In other words, the white supremacist ideology and world-view, normalized and thus unrecognized by most, has become a form of psychopathology. 

The Rise of the Military Based Empire. Washington, “Military Workshop” of the World

Click here to access article by James Petras from Global Research.

This article is worthwhile reading because it offers a review and assessment of US imperialist policies and actions mostly beginning after the 9/11 tragedy. However, as an explanatory piece it is very inadequate. Of course Zionists have played a major role in shaping US policies to favor Israeli interests, but the retired sociology professor fails with his theory of competing factions to really explain anything. 

His theory demands an explanation of the appearance of "competing factions" which he doesn't provide. He also doesn't provide a single link to documentation. I guess the professor regards himself as an omniscient authority which all of us must defer to. To explain any single imperialist policy and/or action, he simply posits a faction. I counted numerous:

• Washington policy elite
• Zionist faction
• Washington militarists
•    In the Far East, the Navy and Air Force predominate.
•    In the Far East, the Navy and Air Force predominate.
•    In the Middle East and South Asia, the military (Army and Air Force) factions share power with the Zionist faction. Fundamentally the Zionist dictate policy on Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine and the militarists follow. Both factions overlapped in creating the debacle in Libya.
• traditional militarist wing of Washington’s elite
• Zionist faction among US militarist policymakers
• traditional business faction
• oil and business elite

He concludes with this statement which raises more questions:

[Zionists] push the US into wars for Israel, and once having destroyed “the enemy country” they leave a vacuum to be filled by chaos.  The American public provides the gold and blood for these misadventures and reaps nothing but domestic deterioration and greater international strife.

Surely he is not suggesting that if the US ruling class had reaped solid gains from their many imperialist adventures that the wars would have been justified. What he really explains is the powerful influence of domestic and Israeli Zionists on US foreign policies. But how did these Zionists attain such influence among the US capitalist ruling class? I think it is because they have served this class so well in terms of profit and power over the years, however I don't have the time develop that argument. Petras should be doing that.

Québec fights back against austerity

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

We are supposed to accept austerity as being as natural as ocean tides. Or be demoralized by the power of the forces that continually press down on working people around the world. But there is an ongoing, organized fightback going on — in Québec.

A series of rolling strikes by public-sector employees and students throughout 2015 appear to be headed toward a provincial general strike in December. Haven’t heard of this? That is not because it is francophone workers and students are who are driving these actions but because there has been a near total blackout of this news in the North American corporate media.

Coverage of Russian Plane Bombing Shows What a Difference an Enemy Makes

Click here to access article by Jim Naureckas from Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting.

When the victims of terror come from an official enemy state, it’s clear that different media rules apply.

West Leverages Paris Attacks for Syria Endgame

Click here to access article by Tony Cartalucci from New Eastern Outlook.

The terrorist attacks carried out in the heart of the French capital, either coincidentally or intentionally, have served as the perfect point of leverage for the West on the very eve of the so-called “Vienna talks” regarding Syria. [my link]

With its serendipitously strengthened hand and with France taking a more prominent role, the West is attempting to reassert not only its narrative, but its agenda regarding the ongoing conflict in Syria, an agenda that has – as of late – been derailed by Russia’s military intervention and recent gains made on the battlefield by Syrian military forces.

Cartlucci argues with solid evidence that the Empire is using the latest terrorist attack in Paris to continue the pursuit of its agenda to destabilize Syria as it has done for Libya (and Iraq), and to go on from there to destabilize other countries in the region--otherwise known as the "seven country strategy". 

Putin's 'Strategic Blunder' In Syria May Be A Boon For Investors

Click here to access article by Kenneth Rapoza from Forbes.

The capitalist devotion to profits above all else is illustrated in this piece posted on a major capitalist website. With a profit opportunity looking very promising, this blogger departs from the usual ruling class anti-Russian line to promote Russian stocks where he sees investors could make a "killing". It seems that the Russian entrance into the Syrian situation has been well received in Europe where talk is growing about ending Russian sanctions.

While January is likely too early to see the end of Russian sanctions, which began last year due to Moscow’s involvement in supporting separatists in east Ukraine, odds are high that Russia could see discussion on the rollback on sanctions soon. “Markets will discount that well before hand,” Signorelli says.

The Market Vectors Russia (RSX) exchange traded fund closed 3.9% higher on Monday as investors weigh this sentiment shift. In fact, Russian equities beat out the S&P 500, the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, and oil futures, all higher today.
 

The Physicians For Human Rights "Report" on "Aleppo" Is A Scam

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

The author catches the NY Times, the "newspaper of record", sloppily using a propaganda piece to smear the Syrian government in support of the Empire's anti-Syrian policies.

TPP Fine Print: Biotech Seed Companies Win Again

Click here to access article by Ben Lilliston from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.

Big concerns about the deal’s impact on public health, workers, the environment and the legal rights of corporations are already being raised. A close look at the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) chapter shows how just a few lines in TPP can turn into a big win for an industry—in this case, the biotech seed industry.

After examining the details of the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) section of the TPP proposed agreement, Lilliston reaches this conclusion:

The TPP’s IPR chapter provides a glimpse into what this new mega free trade deal is all about. The chapter’s requirement that countries grant patent protection for multinational biotech seed companies has little to do with trade and nothing to do with respecting farmers’ innovations, their livelihoods or countries’ food security. It is about asserting, in a very raw way, corporate power over sovereign nations and the farmers who live there. 

TTIP: capitalism on steroids

Click here to access article by Mathilde Dahl from Revolutionary Socialism in the 21st Century (rs21) [Britain].  

Dahl contributes some new information about the proposed TTIP agreement and what is being done in Europe to oppose it.

It is clear that TTIP is not about trade – it’s about giving multinational corporations more power and it poses a massive threat to our democracy [sic].

But there is good news – the campaign against TTIP is growing and TTIP has become the most toxic acronym in Europe.

Who’s in Control? Obama or the generals?

Click here to access article by Finian Cunningham from RT. 

What we may be seeing in US policy is competing agendas. The diplomatic track appears to be favored by the White House and State Department as a more efficacious way of achieving regime change against the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad. But the Pentagon, and specifically the CIA, has its own militarist schemes, even if that means providing weapons to terror groups with much greater fire power and risking a proxy war with Russia.

The upshot is that US foreign policy is dangerously all over the place because of competing power players within Washington. The disturbing conclusion is that the American president and his State Department are simply not in control. It’s like watching a driver of an articulated truck whose grip on the wheel has no steering.

A deep, darker state within the official state is by no means a new concept to describe American government and its foreign policy. More than 50 years ago, President John F. Kennedy was so perplexed by CIA covert operations undermining him on Cuba and Vietnam that he declared he would “smash it into a thousand pieces.” That intention probably caused Kennedy his life at the hands of the deep state and its military-industrial complex.

Because of its deep cover, it is very difficult to unravel the details of this fascist "deep state". However here is my general interpretation based on 60 years as an activist and a student of political events related to US policies. 

Since end of WWII the fascist "deep state" has gradually taken control of the US behind a facade of "democratic" governance which is the formal mechanisms of government. (They clearly demonstrated their ascendancy with the Kennedy assassination and with several others that followed.) The latter provides essentially the public relations cover for the fascist deep state. Their actions are what is reported in corporate media, while the hidden capitalist deep state is in actual control of policies and actions which are all decided in secret. Beyond this framework things get a lot more speculative as to the details, especially how policies are mediated within the deep state. But what is clear is that government officials under this arrangement are subservient to the deep state apparatus. Cunningham points out the contrast between the policies of what he views as a bifurcated government, but in reality there is no bifurcation. There is only a public relations facade covering over a fascist deep state. Furthermore, I do not believe that the deep state is controlled by generals, although there may be some among the directorate of the deep state. The overwhelming majority are from major financial institutions and Wall Street in general.

But, make no mistake by believing that the deep state relies completely on their facade to control the American populace. It's just that they have had so much success with manipulating, deceiving, distracting, dumbing-down, and confusing Americans with their control of all institutions (media, education, and entertainment) that they do not see any reason to dispense with this facade. They decided long ago not to rely completely on it by constructing an elaborate police state apparatus (militarized police forces that function with impunity) complete with laws that, should they decide to fully implement them, will legally support such an overt fascist state. 

Washington Refines Its False Flag Operations

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

Washington and its French vassal have refined how they conduct their false flag operations. With the Charlie Hebdo operation, they knew to immediately set the story in stone in order to avoid any questions from the print and TV media and in order to use the set story to take the place of an investigation. 

Russian Airliner brought down by Bomb: FSB Chief Bortnikov

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

The Russian Kogalmavia (Metrojet) Airbus 321 on Flight KGL9268 that crashed in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula on October 31 was blown up by a homemade explosive device, said the Chief of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Alexander Bortnikov. 

Some Questions for Obama and His Gang

Click here to access article by Christopher Black from New Eastern Outlook. (Addendum added at 5 PM Seattle time.)

...the plan is always the same, and never changes, to dominate, to control or to destroy.

Many think they are lucky if they can just stay out of your way but we know better. We know that no one is safe from your criminality and depravity.

This Canadian international human rights lawyer sees a pattern of the use of terrorists both in general to further Empire goals of world hegemony, and in particular to justify the Empire's army, NATO, to take control of the war in Syria.

You and your fellow conspirators plan to amplify this propaganda to hysterical levels to generate overwhelming fear in your domestic populations in order to justify a large scale war against Syria where your proxy forces are being defeated by the combined arms of Russian air power and the fighting spirit and skills of the Syrian Arab Army. This has been achieved with the attack in Paris. The sudden flow of refugees into Europe is being used for the same purpose.

No doubt we can expect similar attacks in other NATO capitals. It does not matter to you if you use the misery of millions fleeing war and poverty to justify your plans for war or Russian children returning from happy days on the beach, or people enjoying a concert or football match in Paris. All deaths are the same to you. And so, when we ask who murdered those children, who murdered those Parisians, are you surprised if we turn our heads your way?

The only criticism I have with this view is that Obama has relatively little to do with these crimes--he is being used by the "deep state" (see this, this, and this) like many of the terrorists. That does not excuse Obama because he knows far more about the deep state that do ordinary terrorists. But it illustrates how one who has been deeply immersed in ruling class capitalist culture and socialized accordingly can participate in such crimes against humanity.

Gearoid O Colmain: 'ISIS is a creation of the United States'

The following 2:14m video from RT features a commentary by Colmain, of the latest Paris terrorist incident. By perusing various websites, I learned that Colmain was born in Ireland, is now based in France where he is known as a political analyst and columnist for various media outlets.

Colmain has no doubts that US Empire agents are ultimately behind the recent terrorist incident and briefly explains why.

The ‘Black Friday’ Horror in Paris: It May Have Been a Staged, False-Flag Operation…

Click here to access article from The Burning Blogger of Bedlam.

Already people are noticing mysterious commonalities among terrorist events and some anomalies connected with the latest terrorist event in Paris that defy common sense. This blogger from London is one of the first to identify some of these and to raise important questions as to the reality of this event.

How Saudi & Gulf Money Fuels Terrorism

Click here to access article by Daniel Lazare from Mint Press News. 

With the death toll in the Paris terror attacks still rising, French President Hollande is condemning an “act of war” by the Islamic State, but the underlying reality is that France’s rich friends in the Persian Gulf are key accomplices in the mayhem.

Putin Names And Shames Obama Into Bombing IS Oil Smugglers

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

The U.S. claims it wants to hit the Islamic State but in one year of bombing it never really touched one of its biggest sources of income. Hundreds of oil tanker trucks are waiting every day at IS distribution points to smuggle oil to Turkey and elsewhere. Only one such distribution point was ever bombed and that attack was  by the Iraqi air force.

Now the Russian President Putin played some "name and shame" at the G-20 meeting in Turkey and, lo and behold, the problem gets solved.

Kerry’s counterproductive Syria strategy (with addendum)

Click here to access article by Michael E. O'Hanlon from Brookings.

I have read a number of credible articles providing evidence that the recent terrorist incident in Paris was aided and abetted by sociopathic Empire agents--but, for what purpose? I thought I'd consult an Empire source for an explanation. This posted article offers what appears to be a reasonable and more cool-headed approach, with "humanitarianism" thrown in, to deal with terrorism. Note especially these two paragraphs:

I have written elsewhere, and in the blog post below, about my own recommendations for how to ramp up our role in both Syria and Iraq, in alliance with indigenous forces, NATO allies, and Middle East partners as well. That ramped-up involvement should include more U.S., NATO, and Gulf Cooperation Council special forces on the ground in both countries, to conduct raids and better orchestrate aerial attacks, but especially to accelerate training of Syrian moderate fighters and the Iraqi army (and to facilitate provision of humanitarian relief in places within Syria as well). It should include creative use of no-fly zones to hasten creation of conditions for a confederal settlement in Syria--targeting not airplanes in the air, but Syrian (not Russian) airfields and aircraft on the ground that have previously ignored our demands to stop bombing innocent Syrian populations. [my emphasis]

Most of all, for this weekend, it should lead John Kerry and Barack Obama, in their foreign travels, not to pursue the failed logic of the current Syria peace talks but to explore a confederal model and seek buy-in from as many key players and allies as possible. Our military strategy needs to begin with a solid and realistic political framework. In Syria in particular, we lack that at present.

This appears to be the Empire's answer to the recent Russian involvement and their attacks on terrorist armies operating in Syria. This also lends support to Cartalucci's (and others) understanding of the Paris attack and the Empire's motivation to aid their terrorist armies operating in Syria in an attempt to rescue them from Russian attacks.

Here we see Patrick Henningsen, blogger at 21st Century Wire, who essentially expresses the same view in this 12:58m video interview from RT. 

  

What Preceded The Islamic State Attacks In France - Some Links (Updated)

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

Although the author provides links to the history preceding this latest terrorist incident in Paris, he focuses mostly on France's contribution to ISIS. The French capitalist directors are really only a subsection of the US-led Empire that is trying to sow chaos and destabilization in the Middle East and North Africa in order to establish more Empire friendly regimes who will take orders from Empire directors. 

Also we must keep in mind the high level of sophistication that characterized this event and many past events related to ISIS. To be sure, there are a considerable number of desperate people in the Middle East who have participated in these terrorist events, but this blogger has always found credible evidence of false-flag characteristics which suggests that Empire directors are simply using, training, and equipping these desperate people for their own nefarious ends.  

Declining Pax Americana

Click here to access the latest 28:16m CrossTalk program from RT. (Note: the discussion in this particular program starts of with the panelist's comments about Defense Sec. Carter's recent aggressive statements about Russia and China. You may want to listen to a 2:58m extract from Carter's speech or read this report of his speech before listening to the discussion.)

The U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter recently made a speech that was as direct as it was blunt. Emerging global powers such as Russia and China are a threat to the Washington-centric world and need to be challenged. Well now…who is upping the ante? CrossTalking with Pepe Escobar, Patrick Henningsen, and Daniel Wagner.

Attack in France = State Sponsored Terror, But Which State?

Click here to access article by Tony Cartalucci from New Eastern Outlook.

The first and most important question in examining any great crime is “cui bono?” or to whose benefit? Attacking Paris, and in particular a football match full of nationalists already increasingly violent and hysterical seems to only benefit a government seeking further justification to wage wider war abroad – a war it is currently losing and a war it currently lacks wide public support to continue fighting. It now, all so conveniently, has the support it was looking for.

And you might be interested in this post from Cartalucci coming in after my publishing deadline entitled "CONFIRMED: French Government Knew Extremists BEFORE Attack" from Land Destroyer Report. 

Questions for Operation Gladio, German Intelligence Amidst Paris Carnage

Click here to access article from Stateless Homesteading.

Less than 24 hours after these horrific events, it’s certainly too early to draw any substantive conclusions as to what truly occurred in Paris last night, aside from tragic loss of human life; it is, however, the opportune time to pose questions.

And the events leading up to and surrounding the havoc in Paris assuredly warrant our curiosity.

Saudi Arabia’s Syrian adventures may soon be over [updated at 2 PM]

Click here to access article by Salman Rafi from Asia Times Online. 

[Salman Rafi Sheikh is a freelance journalist and research analyst of international relations and Pakistan affairs. His area of interest is South and West Asian politics, the foreign policies of major powers, and Pakistani politics.]

From the article:

Reports of Saudi king’s possible visit to Russia indicate that Saudi Arabia’s adventurism in Syria is coming to a close.

According to the Russian presidential press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, the visit of Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud to Russia is being worked out and agreed through diplomatic channels.

This shows Riyadh is ready to reach a ‘compromised solution’ on the Syrian crisis – a solution that may not be what the US seems to be attempting to achieve through its renewed engagement in Syria and Iraq and its (possible) policy of balkanization of Syria into different “safe zones.” 

The possibility as argued by Rafi seems very realistic. This medieval kingdom and their associates are, and have been, a major anchor of US Empire policies. The reverberations of such a Saudi pivot to Russia would result in far more consequences than Saudi "Syrian adventures". Can you imagine how such a possibility is causing Empire directors to suffer collective apoplexy?

Note (a late post): You may be also may be interested in this post by F. William Engdahl entitled "Saudi Russo Rapprochement Back on Track" from New Eastern Outlook.

If We Don't Change the Way Money Is Created and Distributed, Rising Inequality Will Trigger Social Disorder

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

Because this writer is a true believer of the TINA principle, he can not see that the privatization of money, like most everything else of value, is an integral part of capitalism. However, he does see at least some of the adverse consequences that this private control of money causes.

One devastating consequence for workers especially is that they are the ones who suffer most when the bankers, central and otherwise, issue credit for production of goods and services beyond which consumers can afford to buy. That is precisely why we have experienced so many economic booms and busts. 

But this is a relentless tendency of capitalist enterprise: obsessive investment in profit-producing goods and services--not to satisfy needed goods and services. That is why the industry of advertising is so critically required for this system to function: to inculcate the desire for goods and services beyond those that are needed. 

An added bonus that the system of capitalism provides is the overwhelming political power given to those who "own" and control the most wealth. The latter inevitably tend to form a ruling class. I argue "tend" because it is not clear to me if this principle applies "inevitably" to the Russia and China whose governments have only adopted the system recently, and appear to be trying to control their capitalists in the service of the state, as they see it.

Socialist revolution: Not a new idea

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

Griswold, a longtime activist with the Workers World Party, offers an alternative view of the history of socialist revolutions and the prospects of a successful revolution in this century. 

Global warming drains the water of life

Click here to access article by Tim Radford from Climate News Network. 

New research warns that rising temperatures are reducing the mountain snow on which billions of people in lowland areas depend for their water supply.

We have certainly seen the effects of snow pack depletion in the Seattle region. Last year most ski areas were closed for the entire season.

Now that we can see the TPP text, we know why it’s been secret

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

Dolack provides samples of the TPP original text to illustrate why this clever fascistic proposal was made secret and how the neoliberal trade pact would further decimate what passes for "democracy" in capitalist countries.

The TPP, if enacted, promises a race to the bottom: An acceleration of jobs to the countries with the lowest wages, the right of multi-national corporations to veto any law or regulation their executives do not like, the end of your right to know what is in your food, higher prices for medicines, and the subordination of Internet privacy to corporate interests. There is a reason it has been negotiated in secret, with only corporate executives and industry lobbyists consulted and allowed to see the text as it took shape.

Corporations, increasingly in the form of financial as well as industrial corporations, are the engines of capitalism. They generate the profits and create the power which enables our masters to determine all important decisions made in our respective capitalist countries. 

I don't use fascism or its derivative words carelessly. The essence of fascism is corporate rule. The historical fact that fascism was first demonstrated in Germany, Italy, and Japan using authoritarian methods does not change the central character of fascism. These capitalist nations of the 1930s used violence or the threat of violence to accomplish their aims. This updated form of fascism is merely trying to use the fake apparatus of capitalist "democracy" to accomplish the same aims for the advanced capitalist countries in the 21st century--global domination.

The added component of secrecy was essential in order to keep what they were doing out of the public spotlight. But secrecy was never really a novel component. Capitalist ruling classes have always used secrecy, along with deception, as a component of their rule. Important decisions have always been make behind closed doors whether in Congress, the Executive, the Judiciary: and in recent times especially in capitalist "think tanks" such as the Council on Foreign Relations and the Brookings Institution.

You might also be interested in economist Dean Baker's contribution to understanding TTP by reading his article entitled "The TPP's Children's Table: Labor Rights and Currency" from TruthOut.

Did Russia just “gently” threaten the USA?

Click here to access article from A bird's eye view of the Vineyard. 

The heating up of US - Russian relations as most recently manifested in Syria may be heading for a nuclear conflagration as suggested by "The Saker" in this article. Putin and the Russian government appear to have exhausted all their patience with the increasing aggressiveness demonstrated by the directors of the Empire. It appears to me and experts of Russian matters like "The Saker" (and others) that Russia has drawn a red line beyond which the Empire dare not tread. So it appears that our survival depends of the good sense of the directors--which is very suspect.

The sad thing is that US analysts all fully understand that but they have no say in a fantastically corrupt Pentagon.  The real purpose of the US program is not to protect anybody against a non-existing Russian threat, but to dole out billions of dollars to US corporations and their shareholders.  And if in the process the US destabilizes the entire planet and threatens the Russians – then “to hell with ‘em Russikes!  We are the indispensable nation and f**k the rest of the planet!”

Meanwhile, back at the headquarters of the Empire's ranch, the US, most people appear to be completely passive and distracted by consuming the Empire's latest gadgets and entertainment. Perhaps ignorance is bliss. Or maybe not!

Big-Pharma's Latest, Most Sickening Crime Against Humanity

Click here to access article by Tony Cartalucci from LocalOrg. 

By dangling life-changing cures over people's heads for cartoonish figures of "1 million dollars," pharmaceutical corporations prove when they see sick, desperate, dying people, all they see is dollar signs...

Netanyahu Ups the US Ante

Click here to access article by retired Col. Ann Wright from ConsortiumNews.

President Barack Obama, having met with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu on Nov. 9 at the White House, is considering Israel’s request for a 50 percent increase of nearly $1.5 billion in U.S. military funding, which would bring the U.S. donation – used for killing Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza – to $4.5 billion a year.

As it stands now, more that half of the U.S. foreign military aid for 2016 goes to Israel. As in all things, Israel gets special treatment by the U.S. allowing Israel to spend 25 percent of its U.S. gift to pay itself for buying weapons from its own weapons industry.

Military Capitalism

Click here to access article by Maximilian Forte from Zero Anthropology.

The author explains how many civilian sectors and the military establishment in recent decades have been integrated with implications for US foreign policies.

Since the creation of the Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) in 1985 under the Reagan administration, the State Department has been involved in “security cooperation” with US “private sector interests worldwide”. Since 1985, universities, churches, and NGOs have been added to the State Department’s list of security partners. This arrangement is directly the result of demands placed on the state by US corporations: “The increase in terrorism over the last 30 years and the continuing threat against U.S. interests overseas has forced many American companies to seek advice and assistance from the U.S. Government, particularly the State Department”.

Higher Education: Capitalism At Its Most Despicable

Click here to access article by Paul Buchheit from Common Dreams. 

Rating capitalist despicability is a daunting task with Big Pharma and High Finance in the running, but Higher Ed's betrayal of a century-old trust with young Americans vaults it toward the top of the list. 

Controlling Consciousness

Click here to access article from Public Good Project.

This article offers a highly condensed, but accurate, view of how our capitalist masters are able to use mind control techniques known as "public relations" to create a mass consciousness that supports their rule.

Who Granted the GMO Evangelists the Monopoly on Compassion?

Click here to access article by Colin Todhunter from CounterPunch. 

Todhunter has been communicating and arguing with some of the loudest defenders of corporate-GMO industrial scale farming methods. He has discovered that they, instead of looking at sound evidence and using rational arguments, resort to scurrilous attacks and/or wrap themselves in "humanitarian" righteousness. If the latter sounds familiar to you, it is because it has been a frequent excuse used by US Empire directors to justify their numerous invasions, subversions, false-flag operations, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

Whenever a governing elite, or sociopathic individual, pursues its/his own interests at the expense or harm to others, such people resort to the shrillest attacks on anyone impeding their efforts and/or attempt to wrap themselves in righteousness. Capitalists do this, and have always done this, throughout their 400 year history simply because the operation of their system is designed to serve their selfish interests at the expense of the vast majority of humans.  

In contrast to these sociopathic defenders, Todhunter fills his articles with links to solid evidence and uses rational arguments to attack a system of farming that is displacing people from their land, causing widespread poverty and inequality, and ruining the health of people who consume the food produced by this form of industrialized farming.

Ten lies we're told to justify the slaughter of 20 million in the First World War

Click here to access article by Dominic Alexander from CounterFire [Britain].

This is in remembrance of Veterans Day which was formerly Armistice Day commemorating the end of WWI. It is still Remembrance Day to the Brits, Canadians, etc.

Dominic Alexander debunks ten myths used by politicians and historians to rebrand World War 1 in the centenary of its outbreak.

Graph of the day illustrates countries should sacrifice ‘growth’ during COP21, the Paris climate summit

Click here to access article by Rolf Schuttenhelm from bits of science.

It illustrates one clear message to world leaders just before the Paris climate summit: The effective global climate policy that we need – cannot come without ‘economic sacrifice’. To breach the emissions trend – we need to reconsider the importance of growth to our collective well-being. And you, world leaders, have just three weeks left to think about that – think hard, and make the right decisions.

Emissions need to go DOWN – globally, immediately.

The problem is that capitalism must have growth. So class, what's the solution?

Syria: why the West meddling into a 3000 years old realm has failed

Click here to access article by Judith Bello from blog The Destructed Globe. (Note: This post consists of her introduction about, and her experience with, the panel of which she was a member. It is well worth reading. Her presentation as a panel member follows the introduction.)

This is an excellent illustration of an ordinary, although well educated, person who is working now on behalf of truth and peace in the Middle East, and is blogging and speaking about this experience. This article is a transcript of a presentation she recently delivered at a New York state college where she was invited on a panel to express her views about current Syrian matters along with two professors from that school. She has been a frequent traveler to Iran and is a member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation and Code Pink.

Note how her presentation differed from the two professors who have been subject to  indoctrination and discipline throughout their academic careers.

Intimacy Against Alienation

Click here to access a 55 minute interview with Mitch Mansour provided by KPFA, a listener sponsored radio station in Berkeley, California. Mansour is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology at the U. of Oregon. His doctoral dissertation focused on this topic.

Is a romantic partner a replacement for the community that people used to rely on to meet their material and emotional needs? Mitch Monsour thinks so; he points to the competitive and individualistic nature of our society, the way economic rationality gets enacted in the romantic arena, and the structural obstacles to real intimacy.

Human beings are quintessentially social animals, and historically humans have received physical and emotional supports from a wide variety of sources within a community. Mansour argues, and provides evidence for, a phenomenon seen in US society of increasing isolation, both physical and psychological, with the result that romantic love is seen as the solution to isolation. This imposes an impossible burden on one's partner to provide the social supports that characterized earlier social relations. 

Capitalist influences has also shaped this relationship by encouraging consumption by these partnerships and individualistic competition in general. The commodification of everything under capitalism interferes with supportive values even within the partnership. This influences how people enter the partnership "marketplace" with pronounced focus on how much a prospective partner person can provide a person in terms of wealth and status. People tend to be interested in what they can get out of a relationship which interferes with real intimacy. Thus, most relationships fail.

MSM and the Bear

Click here to access article by Michael Jabara Carley from Strategic Culture Foundation.

Mostly with cartoons from mainstream media, Carley illustrates the Empire's use of their powerful propaganda organs to disseminate themes that serve their interests of global domination. President Putin of Russia, like anyone that pursues an independent course of action, has long since become a target for Empire attacks and ridicule. 

Because Empire media has enjoyed so many years of success in distorting reality for ordinary Americans by hiding ruling class war crimes behind "humanitarian" causes, by supporting whatever stories emanating from government officials, whether named or not, they continue to do what they do best--the manufacturing of consent to Empire policies and actions. 

American fascists (if you are not sure what fascism is, see my commentaries here, here, here, and here) have long recognized the value of managing the minds of ordinary Americans instead of resorting to the brutal use of force of classic fascism. This orientation probably dates from WWI when American ruling class directors saw the necessity of preparing ordinary Americans to enter the European war because they feared that their allies, Britain and France, to whom they had lent so much money, might very well lose the war. They launched a massive propaganda campaign that used the grossest forms of negative propaganda portraying Germans as sadistic animals on the prowl to devour all good people. The success of this propaganda to turn American minds around from being against participation into support for US entry into the war was beyond their wildest dreams. This lesson has stayed with them ever since.

In the 1930s when all capitalist ruling classes were split down the middle on the issue of supporting German fascism, American fascists used a cover of isolationism to impede all efforts to come to the aid of all nations trying to defend themselves from fascist invasions. (There were genuine anti-war people (among opinion leaders), but the serious ones made up no more than 10% of isolationists.) The ruling capitalist class once again used their mainstream media to turn people, but this time it was against war or any effort to prevent Nazis from having their way. They used the media to portray the spread of fascism across Europe as only a problem for Europe, and later Asia. Many ordinary Americans swallowed their lies whole.

The first fascist victum was Spain that had elected a left-wing republican government in 1931. All major liberal capitalist nations remained neutral while German and Italian fascist regimes starting in 1936 tore the country to pieces and installed the fascist Franco regime. Because of the split in the European capitalist countries, Nazi Germany easily overran one country after another. Only when when the Nazis posed a threat to the British Empire did American fascists (aka "isolationists") give their grudging support for US aid to Britain. But it took the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, a military base in Hawaii, to bring the US into the war against fascism.

While recently reading the letters of FDR, I learned of the strong opposition in American mainstream media to aiding any of the Allies of WWII. FDR remarked on this frequently. He saw from 85-90% of mainstream media fitting into this virulent "isolationist" opposition. In addition this extremely popular president was opposed by the same crowd on nearly all of his New Deal programs which provided some relief to poverty stricken ordinary Americans during the Great Depression. He was so stymied from getting his views out that he had to resort to using radio, known as Fireside Chats, to communicate directly to Americans.

The US capitalist class's use of media, education, and entertainment to shape consent to their policies and actions is grossly misunderstood and underestimated. I believe that it is absolutely imperative that a dedicated effort must be made to establish alternative media as a major part of a strategy to take power away from this class and establish a true rule of, by, and for the people.

Former Japanese Ambassador calls on IOC to cancel 2020 Olympics over Fukushima Risks

Click here to access article from nsnbc. 

The former Japanese Ambassador to Switzerland, Mitshei Murata, has called on the President of the International Olympic Committee to move the 2020 Olympics from Tokyo or to cancel the games over the situation at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. 

Saudi Arabia is at a Dangerous Crossroads

Click here to access article by Viktor Mikhin from New Eastern Outlook.

I don't normally run articles in which speculate too much about world politics--the online world is full of them. However I am running this article because it is not only posted on a reputable website (although with an emphasis on issues important to Russia), but because I have read numerous other reports that support the facts presented in the article. Regardless of what we think of this medieval kingdom, it does play a very important role in major conflicts and geopolitical issues. Thus, it is important that we stay informed as much as we can about the kingdom's politics.

...many members of the Saudi Royal Family are concerned about the situation which has come about after the new King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud came to power. According to the Egyptian newspaper, the Egyptian Gazette, the changes that have occurred in the Kingdom’s foreign and domestic policy in less than 9 months of King Salman’s reign have cause a growing number of problems in both the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and abroad. Dissatisfaction among the Saudis has risen to a new level.

All of this is reflected in a letter that members of the Royal Family received from one of the younger princes. [my link]

See also this article by Pepe Escobar entitled "What’s the Big Deal Between Russia and the Saudis?".

The Indonesian Massacre: What Did the US Know?

Click here to access article by Margaret Scott from The New York Review of Books.

This is a second posting of the 50 year anniversary of the Indonesian Massacre that was engineered in large part by the CIA. (See my first post which includes more linked resources here.) It is one of history's most notorious crimes against humanity. Thus, no one who knows about it want to talk about it simply because they are related to the perpetrators of this crime. However, many people especially in Indonesia, less so here in the US, want to know about it, and are asking questions. Even the CIA was pressured to release their classified documents, which of course were heavily redacted.

Since the late 1990s, however, there have been growing efforts to recover that history. In 1998, Indonesians rose up against Suharto, whose military dictatorship had lasted thirty-two years. This movement, known as reformasi, and Suharto’s fall, brought new scrutiny to the events of 1965. Many Indonesians rebelled against the taboo of talking about the mass killings, which they began investigating through journalism, books, and films. In recent years, local organizations have also sought to locate the mass graves and assist the survivors. These efforts have been aided by US records. In 2001, despite the efforts of the CIA to prevent it, the US released Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968, a State Department volume that included long-secret government documents from that period. It describes how US officials pushed for the annihilation of the PKI, providing covert assistance and urging the Indonesian army to complete the job.

Being published in a liberal source, Scott sticks to the Empire policy of describing Empire targets, even when they are extremely popular as was Sukarno, in unflattering terms:

At the time, Indonesia was led by the leftist, romantic revolutionary-turned-autocrat Sukarno, and also had the third largest Communist Party in the world, the PKI, with some 3 million members.

Federal Budget plans billions for war, cuts to services

Click here to access article by Peter Gilbert from Workers World. 

Although this article was posted on November 5, it apparently written before October 29. To bring you up-to-date, the law was passed by Congress and signed into law since then. Otherwise this article provides a summary of the main features of the budget that just passed and signed into law. 

The basic deal increases the federal budget by $80 billion for the next two years, $50 billion in the first year and $30 billion in the second year. About half of the increase is earmarked only for the Pentagon, the remainder for unspecified “discretionary spending.” Those increases come at the cost of massive cuts to Medicare and Social Security payments to workers with disabilities (SSDI). The deal also includes additional funding of $32 billion dollars in the “Overseas Contingency Operations Fund” (OCO), to fund the ongoing U.S. imperialist aggression against Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The little understood dymanic of capitalism

by cartoonist Dan Wasserman.

Military spectacle and American sport

Click here to access article by Eric London from World Socialist Web Site.

The report, titled “Tackling Paid Patriotism,” shows that the Pentagon paid sports teams across the country millions of dollars for allowing the military-intelligence agencies to carry out hundreds of displays of pro-war, pro-military propaganda.

Defending Socialism: Foner and Sanders v. Eugene Debs

Click here to access article by Paul Street from CounterPunch.

Although I found it a bit of a challenge to wade through Street's awkward writing, he does manage to excoriate a left "socialist" politician and one of many academic "leftists" who, in order to please their ruling class masters and thus advance their careers, are attempting to redefine socialism and use it as bait to lure back--since it's election time once again--the politically alienated and disaffected populace into the capitalist funded and organized Democratic Party .

Environmental crises and liberal solutions

by cartoonist Stephanie McMillan.

The myth of US democracy

Click here to access article by Asad Zaman from The Express Tribune.

This is another expression of middle class opposition to the declining prospects of this shrinking class as capitalist ownership over more sophisticated technologies reduce their need for middle class managers, highly skilled technicians, and assorted other professionals. A few members of this class are now expressing their outrage about this trend as an attack on democracy which they always posit as existing previously when substantial numbers of their class were required by capitalists. 

Members of this class have also played a critical role in indoctrinating workers from the cradle to the grave that the latter were living in a democratic system, a system best expressed in the Declaration of Independence as "government of the people, by the people, and for the people". This extravagant promise was delivered to early European farmers and workers on the North American continent when the rising capitalist class here wanted to have the "freedom" to acquire riches and power like their European counterparts instead of assuming a more subordinate role of colonialists who supplied European countries with raw materials. Of course, no such "democratic" government ever existed before or since the American Revolution in the US or any other government since the rise of civilization. 

Still it is the dream of the billions of ordinary people across the globe, and this is precisely why our middle class indoctrinators keep referencing this dream whenever they want to disguise the reality of class rule. But how the times have changed! The prospects of this middle class who have been loyally serving the One Percent are now clearly diminishing.

So, read the article because these middle class ideologists do correctly point out the growing concentration of wealth and power. But just keep in mind that when they talk about "democracy", they do so from a very self-serving perspective on history.

US in Syria: Stopping the "Arsonist-Firefighter"

Click here to access article by Tony Cartalucci from New Eastern Outlook.

Once again Cartalucci uses major Empire sources to unravel the many conspiracies our masters are hatching to provide for themselves more power and wealth throughout the world. In this piece the author focuses on the latest region that our hegemons are targeting to destabilize and absorb into their plans--Syria. 

The problem for Empire hegemons is that major powers are standing in their way: Russia and Iran directly, China indirectly. This area could very well become a pivotal contest between these nations, and the Empire directors know this very well. Thus they will employ all of their strategies and tactics to defeat the inference of their plans for Syria coming from Russia, Iran, and China. Cartalucci in this article cites these strategies and tactics which he has obtained directly from Empire sources.

...Washington Post... reveal[s] the true intentions of the US and its "boots on the ground" in Syria. While they claim they seek to "fight ISIS," the truth is far more sinister. Under the pretext of fighting ISIS, these US forces, backing militants armed, trained, and funded by the US and its regional allies, will take and hold territory, effectively fulfilling US policy papers that have long-expressed the desire to "deconstruct" Syria as a secondary means of destroying it as a functioning nation-state if direct regime change was unachievable.

The Washington Post states specifically:

Defeating the Islamic State in Syria, under Obama’s strategy, rests on enabling   local Syrian forces not only to beat back Islamic State fighters but to hold freed territory until a new central government, established in Damascus, can take over.

Since there is already an established central government in Damascus, it is safe to assume these regions carved out by US-backed militants will never be relinquished until Damascus falls. If successful, it will mean the Balkanization of Syria, and its cessation as a unified nation.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that this could readily escalate into a nuclear holocaust. I think the outcome depends in large part on the activists within the Empire can muster to oppose the Empire directors and the degree to which the latter are hopelessly addicted to power.

Secret TPP Text Unveiled: It’s Worse Than We Thought....

Click here to access article by Nick Florko and Valerie Holdford from Public Citizen.

Secret TPP Text Unveiled: It’s Worse Than We Thought, With Limits on Food Safety and Controversial Investor-State System Expanded, Rollback of Bush-Era Medicine Access and Environmental Terms

Because I didn't see anywhere in the article a link to the actual document, I finally accessed a government document which pretended to be the real thing, only it appeared like a sales pitch. I believe the actual document is around 6000 pages, so I think we will have to depend on scholars and lawyers like these authors to find out its actual contents, and the sections that really matter.

Failing the planet: UN climate talks from Kyoto to Paris

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

In the run-up to the UN Climate talks in Paris this December, it is clear that substantial, immediate cuts to global greenhouse gas emissions are needed if we are to keep global warming to less than 2C and avoid the most catastrophic climate effects. While the science is clear, the likelihood of such decisive action by the assembled governments is rather less so.

She goes on in detail to describe the failed results of each of these conferences, but she ends with this ambiguous conclusion:

One conclusion to be drawn from all this is that we cannot rely on our governments to come to a deal that will actually achieve the necessary reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, but then we have already learnt that lesson from summits from Copenhagen on. This does not mean however that the talks are unimportant. What is often lost in the technical discussion and diplomatic wrangling around the climate summits is that climate change is not a technical problem, but a political one.

There is nothing in her article to indicate that a change in the economic system is imperative, or that it is the system of capitalism that make climate destabilization inevitable. So her final solution is for large demonstrations to convince our masters that they must enact political solutions within the system of capitalism. She, too, appears to be a liberal believer in the capitalist mantra that there is no alternative.

We’re the ‘Weeds’ for Monsanto Roundup Weed Killer

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

Engdahl cites a number of convincing reasons why we should be paranoid about the motivations of our masters.

What the scientists discovered should set alarm bells ringing around the world. Have you heard even so much as a jingle bell so far?

Is Charlie Hebdo a Western Hate-Machine?

Click here to access article by Ahmed Rajeev (Bangladesh) from Oriental Review. 

[Charlie Hebdo] is a Western tool to promote psychopathic hatred among different racial and cultural groups in the name of “freedom of expression” to serve geopolitical purposes of their masters. 

Left: Daesh: Russia’s aviation intensifies its bombardments. Right: The dangers of low-cost Russia. I should have taken Air Cocaine.