The central lessons that must be drawn from the bitter experiences of Corbyn’s period in office and the coup mounted against him is that Labour cannot be reformed.
Corbyn is only the latest in a long line of “lefts”—including his mentor Tony Benn—who serve the political role of concealing the real character of the Labour Party.
Labour was, from its birth, dedicated to the defence of capitalism against the threat posed by the working class.
Tuesday, July 19, 2016
What the coup against Jeremy Corbyn reveals about the Labour Party
Click here to access article by Chris Marsden from World Socialist Web Site.
FRIENDLY FASCISM by Bertram Gross: a belated book review and a re-visit
A book review solely by Caren Black, a guest writer for Surviving Capitalism.
I first read Friendly Fascism during, ironically, 1984. Shortly after reading it, I visited Gross at his home to talk about the book and learn how more might be done than what he offers in his final chapter, “What Can You Do?” Thirty-two years later I remember little of our actual conversation, only that I’m sure I took it to heart, adding politics to my voracious reading and study habits. My most lasting impression of the afternoon is the generosity shown by both him and his wife with their time, thoughts and tea.
Warnings of and comparisons with fascism have become increasingly common over the past decade since books like Naomi Wolf’s The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot (2007) listing ten steps toward a closed, fascist society, and documentaries like Aaron Russo’s 2006 film America: Freedom to Fascism. Internet articles frequently use the term to describe current conditions, and I have often referred to and recommended Gross’ book. The time had come to reread.
I found Gross’ words even more relevant today than in the mid-‘80’s, since they are no longer a translucent warning but a substantive description of the world in which we live. Fascism as Gross describes it is now in full, Huxley-esque bloom.
Oh, but it can’t be that bad; surely that’s an exaggeration meant to emphasize dangerous trends!
No.
We’re so used to keeping vigilant against 1984 (which was required high school reading for many my age) that we’ve ignored Huxley (which was not. Make a note.) What we now have, in the US at least, is 1984 in the user-friendly packaging of Brave New World: Voila! Gross’ Friendly Fascism.
“It is easier to repress well-justified fears than to control the dangers giving rise to them”[1] and since the owners[2] know this, they have furnished us the privilege of paying them for aids to repress our fears and zombify our brains – like the longest workweek and least job security in the West, chronic environmental and food illnesses, TV, addictive and manipulative websites (like the fake book and games), drugs, shopping, dumb phones with “apps” for everything unimportant, tweets, twitters and other sound nibbles conveying far less information that the avian languages they’re meant to resemble, and the ability to instantaneously share photos of our navels with the entire world.
As his point of departure, Gross gives us a history of classic Fascism – “capitalism in full nudity”[6] – before discussing the corporate society, the establishment, capitalism, and the coming rise of globalism – all cooperating in the germination of a friendlier fascism. From a distance of three decades characterized by exponential change, some of this groundwork is dated or less than exciting; on the other hand, concepts like globalism – i.e. US-led transnationalism superseding individual nations – are spot-on, while much of the rest remains absolutely engaging.
Take, for example, this quote from Daniel R. Fusfeld[7]
Or, this comment by Kenneth Boulding[8]
In chapter 3, Gross’ primer on the true purpose behind “philanthropy” would win Cory Morningstar’s approval. Personally, this time I particularly appreciated his occasional sardonic comments, especially when directed against capitalists or capitalism:
“Only by wrapping himself and all his agents in the trappings of constitutionality could the President succeed in subverting the spirit of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights”[10] seemed to foreshadow the Black professor of constitutional law who would suavely assuage the fears of liberals, who saw him as one of their own, while he put paid to his predecessor’s decried decimation of those same “goddamned piece[s] of paper”. Also predictive of Obama-like figure(s): “Multi-ethnic co-optation can also be taken for granted. Particularly conspicuous roles would undoubtedly be assigned…[and here he quotes Samuel Yette, The Choice, 1971) “to provide color credibility where such credibility was crucial to selling an otherwise invalid product”[11].
Terrorism, environmental destruction, military overkill, methods of surveillance and control (including the legalization of drugs like marijuana so those being controlled can self-harm at will), language distortion through cultural myths and the jargons of overspecialization, and mass culture – he nails them all while demonstrating their use in siphoning power from the masses to the owners, usually with complete cooperation from the losers.
In his concluding chapters, Gross discusses probabilities: It will happen; it couldn’t happen; or, the trend toward it is irreversible. He compares the US of the 1980s with a future US under friendly fascism, illustrating differences with charts[12]. Once again, a mere three decades have transformed these chapters from a caveat to a chilling description of the world outside our windows. Check. Check. Check. I ticked off the items on his lists. I populated the margins of pages where he described opportunities for resistance with a single, repeated word, “gone”. The insidiousness of the slow motion checkmate is breathtaking, even to those of us quite used to exposing our brains to ugly truths. Bargaining at this late stage? Forget it, because “a little fascism is like a little pregnancy.”[13]
This is where the full weight of “Friendly” becomes apparent. As Huxley wrote[14]:
He does, however, assuage my one jaded doubt: His warnings were definitely intended for those who would act against the monster. No doubt he was quite aware that the owners needed no blueprint. Gross encourages resistance of all kinds from everyone. He also cautions that “[a]ny protest or resistance is better than narcissistic ‘retreat to personal satisfaction’[16]. Noting that the elephant in our room is enormous, with a thick, impenetrable skin, he cites an African proverb: “a single ant will drive an elephant mad…if it crawls into the elephant’s trunk….Any part of the modern establishment has many more vulnerable apertures than an elephant.”[17] He advises us to unlearn the myths the system taught us, join with others who are truly resisting, and to keep fighting.
It is essential to learn from mistakes and false starts, and to begin again in an endless struggle to make things better rather than sit idly by, waiting until they become worse.[18]
I intend to.
NOTES:
[1] Gross reinforces his text with charts and lists throughout the book.
[2] P. 335
[3] Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, HarperPerennial, NY, 1946, p.244
[4] “The tendency in a closed system is toward equilibrium: to return to center, to remain the same (Capra 1996, 56-61)….The value of a closed system lies in the tendency to remain the same….Ludwig von Bertalanffy wrote in General System Theory (1968) that there are “open systems,” which operate in a state far from equilibrium “characterized by continual flow and change” (Capra 1996, 48). Living systems…are open systems.” Black, Get Over It!, Heinemann, Portsmouth NH, 2004
[5] P. 379
[6] Ibid
[7] P. 386
[8] P. 30
[9] “The Rise of the Corporate State in America,” Journal of Economic Issues, March, 1972. I appreciated Gross’ thorough references.
[10] The Meaning of the Twentieth Century, Harper and Row, NY, 1964
[11] P. 47
[12] P. 190
[13] P. 326
[14] P. 2
[15] For the duration of this review I will refer to those with power (TPTB) using Carlin’s apt and accurate term. I refuse them the dignity of capitalizing it, and I absolutely refute the usual sycophantic “elite”, which means (according to Webster) “resembling the finest, best, most distinguished, most powerful”. Fuck ‘em.
[16] Note: This is also the term Michael Parenti uses.
[17] P. 3
[18] Ibid
I first read Friendly Fascism during, ironically, 1984. Shortly after reading it, I visited Gross at his home to talk about the book and learn how more might be done than what he offers in his final chapter, “What Can You Do?” Thirty-two years later I remember little of our actual conversation, only that I’m sure I took it to heart, adding politics to my voracious reading and study habits. My most lasting impression of the afternoon is the generosity shown by both him and his wife with their time, thoughts and tea.
Warnings of and comparisons with fascism have become increasingly common over the past decade since books like Naomi Wolf’s The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot (2007) listing ten steps toward a closed, fascist society, and documentaries like Aaron Russo’s 2006 film America: Freedom to Fascism. Internet articles frequently use the term to describe current conditions, and I have often referred to and recommended Gross’ book. The time had come to reread.
I found Gross’ words even more relevant today than in the mid-‘80’s, since they are no longer a translucent warning but a substantive description of the world in which we live. Fascism as Gross describes it is now in full, Huxley-esque bloom.
Oh, but it can’t be that bad; surely that’s an exaggeration meant to emphasize dangerous trends!
No.
We’re so used to keeping vigilant against 1984 (which was required high school reading for many my age) that we’ve ignored Huxley (which was not. Make a note.) What we now have, in the US at least, is 1984 in the user-friendly packaging of Brave New World: Voila! Gross’ Friendly Fascism.
“It is easier to repress well-justified fears than to control the dangers giving rise to them”[1] and since the owners[2] know this, they have furnished us the privilege of paying them for aids to repress our fears and zombify our brains – like the longest workweek and least job security in the West, chronic environmental and food illnesses, TV, addictive and manipulative websites (like the fake book and games), drugs, shopping, dumb phones with “apps” for everything unimportant, tweets, twitters and other sound nibbles conveying far less information that the avian languages they’re meant to resemble, and the ability to instantaneously share photos of our navels with the entire world.
Anyone looking for black shirts, mass parties, or men on horseback will miss the telltale clues of creeping[3] fascism….the new fascism will be colored by national and cultural heritage, ethnic and religious composition, formal political structure, and geopolitical environment….supermodern and multi-ethnic - - as American as Madison Avenue, executive luncheons, credit cards, and apple pie….fascism with a smile…”[4]Gross added, “What scares me most is its subtle appeal.”[5]
As his point of departure, Gross gives us a history of classic Fascism – “capitalism in full nudity”[6] – before discussing the corporate society, the establishment, capitalism, and the coming rise of globalism – all cooperating in the germination of a friendlier fascism. From a distance of three decades characterized by exponential change, some of this groundwork is dated or less than exciting; on the other hand, concepts like globalism – i.e. US-led transnationalism superseding individual nations – are spot-on, while much of the rest remains absolutely engaging.
Take, for example, this quote from Daniel R. Fusfeld[7]
As long as the economic system provides an acceptable degree of security, growing material wealth and opportunity for further increase for the next generation, the average American does not ask who is running things or what goals are being pursued.which illustrates the milieu designed to preoccupy most people while the net was being woven around them.
Or, this comment by Kenneth Boulding[8]
With the coming of science and technology, it is fair to say that we can get ten dollars out of nature for every dollar that we can squeeze out of man.which sets the stage for the environmental devastation we see – well, some of us see – today.
In chapter 3, Gross’ primer on the true purpose behind “philanthropy” would win Cory Morningstar’s approval. Personally, this time I particularly appreciated his occasional sardonic comments, especially when directed against capitalists or capitalism:
Capitalists have never needed theorists to explain the connection between money and power. It has taken theorists at least a century, to develop the pretense that they are separate.[9]A gifted generalist, Gross earned degrees in English, English Literature, and Philosophy, served with Truman’s Council of Economic Advisors, authored the Employment Act of 1946, served as Economic Advisor to the prime minister of Israel and lectured at Hebrew University, Syracuse University, and Harvard Business School. A Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, president of the Society for General Systems Research, Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Urban Affairs at Hunter College and the CUNY Graduate Center, so broad was his expertise, so intimate his knowledge of the workings of power, that the jaded senior I have become began to question, during this second reading, whether he intended the book as a warning to intellectuals or a blueprint for those in power.
“Only by wrapping himself and all his agents in the trappings of constitutionality could the President succeed in subverting the spirit of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights”[10] seemed to foreshadow the Black professor of constitutional law who would suavely assuage the fears of liberals, who saw him as one of their own, while he put paid to his predecessor’s decried decimation of those same “goddamned piece[s] of paper”. Also predictive of Obama-like figure(s): “Multi-ethnic co-optation can also be taken for granted. Particularly conspicuous roles would undoubtedly be assigned…[and here he quotes Samuel Yette, The Choice, 1971) “to provide color credibility where such credibility was crucial to selling an otherwise invalid product”[11].
Terrorism, environmental destruction, military overkill, methods of surveillance and control (including the legalization of drugs like marijuana so those being controlled can self-harm at will), language distortion through cultural myths and the jargons of overspecialization, and mass culture – he nails them all while demonstrating their use in siphoning power from the masses to the owners, usually with complete cooperation from the losers.
In his concluding chapters, Gross discusses probabilities: It will happen; it couldn’t happen; or, the trend toward it is irreversible. He compares the US of the 1980s with a future US under friendly fascism, illustrating differences with charts[12]. Once again, a mere three decades have transformed these chapters from a caveat to a chilling description of the world outside our windows. Check. Check. Check. I ticked off the items on his lists. I populated the margins of pages where he described opportunities for resistance with a single, repeated word, “gone”. The insidiousness of the slow motion checkmate is breathtaking, even to those of us quite used to exposing our brains to ugly truths. Bargaining at this late stage? Forget it, because “a little fascism is like a little pregnancy.”[13]
This is where the full weight of “Friendly” becomes apparent. As Huxley wrote[14]:
[Y]ou’re so conditioned that you can’t help doing what you ought to do. And what you ought to do is on the whole so pleasant, so many of the natural impulses are allowed free play, that there really aren’t any temptations to resist.In this re-reading, I found his final chapter, “What Can You Do?” discouraging for two reasons. First, notwithstanding his work in systems theory (which I had not yet studied when I spoke with him), he did not recognize our culture as a closed system[15]. Second, because so much of what he offers in this chapter is no longer possible.
He does, however, assuage my one jaded doubt: His warnings were definitely intended for those who would act against the monster. No doubt he was quite aware that the owners needed no blueprint. Gross encourages resistance of all kinds from everyone. He also cautions that “[a]ny protest or resistance is better than narcissistic ‘retreat to personal satisfaction’[16]. Noting that the elephant in our room is enormous, with a thick, impenetrable skin, he cites an African proverb: “a single ant will drive an elephant mad…if it crawls into the elephant’s trunk….Any part of the modern establishment has many more vulnerable apertures than an elephant.”[17] He advises us to unlearn the myths the system taught us, join with others who are truly resisting, and to keep fighting.
It is essential to learn from mistakes and false starts, and to begin again in an endless struggle to make things better rather than sit idly by, waiting until they become worse.[18]
I intend to.
NOTES:
[1] Gross reinforces his text with charts and lists throughout the book.
[2] P. 335
[3] Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, HarperPerennial, NY, 1946, p.244
[4] “The tendency in a closed system is toward equilibrium: to return to center, to remain the same (Capra 1996, 56-61)….The value of a closed system lies in the tendency to remain the same….Ludwig von Bertalanffy wrote in General System Theory (1968) that there are “open systems,” which operate in a state far from equilibrium “characterized by continual flow and change” (Capra 1996, 48). Living systems…are open systems.” Black, Get Over It!, Heinemann, Portsmouth NH, 2004
[5] P. 379
[6] Ibid
[7] P. 386
[8] P. 30
[9] “The Rise of the Corporate State in America,” Journal of Economic Issues, March, 1972. I appreciated Gross’ thorough references.
[10] The Meaning of the Twentieth Century, Harper and Row, NY, 1964
[11] P. 47
[12] P. 190
[13] P. 326
[14] P. 2
[15] For the duration of this review I will refer to those with power (TPTB) using Carlin’s apt and accurate term. I refuse them the dignity of capitalizing it, and I absolutely refute the usual sycophantic “elite”, which means (according to Webster) “resembling the finest, best, most distinguished, most powerful”. Fuck ‘em.
[16] Note: This is also the term Michael Parenti uses.
[17] P. 3
[18] Ibid
Monday, July 18, 2016
US-NATO Border Confrontation with Russia Risks Nuclear War and Loss of European Partners
Click here if you wish to access this 11:38m interview with Michael Hudson (with transcript) directly from Real News Network.
Why has NATO chosen Russia as its enemy instead of ISIS?
Click here to access article by Bryan MacDonald from RT.
As an Irishman myself, I’ve always been baffled by why so many members of the British and continental European elite see NATO as a good thing. After all, where’s the glory in being dictated to by an external power whose interests are often at marked variance with your own?
Like right this moment, when it’s plainly obvious the biggest threat to Western Europe is Islamic fundamentalism and the fallout from a destabilized Middle East. But the US remains somewhat impervious to these issues, which it largely helped to ferment, and instead continues to be, bizarrely, focused on Russia.
New trade deals legalise corporate theft, make farmers’ seeds illegal
Click here to access article from GRAIN.
This topic has often been discussed and condemned before, but this report goes into much greater up-to-date details that the issue deserves.
This topic has often been discussed and condemned before, but this report goes into much greater up-to-date details that the issue deserves.
The patenting of life has been hotly contested for decades. For farmers, it makes seeds and livestock more expensive and takes away their right to freely reproduce them. It also reduces life and culture to a commodity that corporations can own and control. While the WTO agreement allowed countries to exclude plants and animals other than microorganisms from their patent laws, it required that they provide some form of intellectual property protection over plant varieties—the seeds that farmers sow—without specifying how to do that. According to industry representatives who helped draft the text, the US corporations got 95 per cent of what they wanted from TRIPS.
FTAs negotiated outside the WTO go even further and help US and European corporations get what they weren’t able to achieve under TRIPS.
Oaxaca: The Discourse of Fear, Rumors and Lies
Click here to access article by Griselda Sánchez from It's Going Down (Mexico).
A propaganda campaign was waged throughout the country – and not just in Oaxaca – in order to create a consensus and justify a new police raid, again appealing to the basic emotions of fear, desire and hatred. Using language about a humanitarian crisis, caused by alleged food shortages in Oaxaca, newspaper stands were filled with headlines such as: “Shortages increase and threaten to increase prices,” “The CNTE’s blockades leave Oaxaca without rice, milk, bread,” “The Mexican Army and Social Development Ministry conduct airlifts to Oaxaca to supply corn.” Aside from being a blatant lie, at no time was there concern regarding food access for Oaxacans, but rather a defense of the transit of merchandise.
Revolutionary-minded people here in the US and elsewhere may want to pay attention to what is happening in the area around Oaxaca, Mexico (you won't see scenes like this broadcast on American corporate media). Although corporate media is used constantly to dis-inform and distract people, in revolutionary times it serves the ruling class even more aggressively to control people. Once again we seen the urgency of independent media to serve the people.
Revolutionary-minded people here in the US and elsewhere may want to pay attention to what is happening in the area around Oaxaca, Mexico (you won't see scenes like this broadcast on American corporate media). Although corporate media is used constantly to dis-inform and distract people, in revolutionary times it serves the ruling class even more aggressively to control people. Once again we seen the urgency of independent media to serve the people.
The Developer Behind Latest Augmented Reality Craze
Click here to access article by Tony Cartalucci from Land Destroyer Report.
The author warns people, especially youth, that the people behind such software games like Pokemon Go may not have the people's interests in mind. Quite the contrary.
The author warns people, especially youth, that the people behind such software games like Pokemon Go may not have the people's interests in mind. Quite the contrary.
A company with a questionable pedigree, sporting the next step in technology already used to destabilize and destroy countries, has wrapped its latest creation in decidedly disarming cartoon characters.With the ruling Empire class touting its use of full-spectrum dominance to subdue their enemies, you might consider that we, as critical thinking and informed adults, might also be their enemy. Mind manipulation and control as psychological weapons are an integral part of this spectrum.
Banker Cronyism Hits EU Ship Rocked by Brexit Torpedo
Click here to access article by Finian Cunningham from Strategic Culture Foundation.
Cunningham follows up on an item first reported by the unbalanced evolution of homo sapiens website with a more elaborate commentary which it fully deserves.
Cunningham follows up on an item first reported by the unbalanced evolution of homo sapiens website with a more elaborate commentary which it fully deserves.
It couldn’t come at a worst time. Just as the European Union is reeling from the historic setback of Britain voting to leave the 28-member bloc, then comes the scandal of a former top commissioner taking a plum job at a Wall Street bank – to advise on the fallout from the Brexit.
If ever the grubby "revolving door" relationship between the EU bureaucratic elite and big business needed an illustration, it is the news of Jose Manuel Barroso taking up a post with the US investment giant Goldman Sachs.
Sunday, July 17, 2016
Allying with political Islam: The United States’ tactical alliances with Al Qaeda and its associates in Syria
Click here to access article by Stephen Gowans from What's Left.
Cartalucci makes essentially the same argument in a piece entitled "Syria's "Moderate Rebels" are not Moderate, not Rebels".
The US priority in Syria is Arab nationalist-elimination, and not the elimination of Islamist terrorists, who remain useful to Washington in clearing away the last of the Arab nationalist state obstacles to total US hegemony over the Arab world.Not only does Gowans describe the US-led Empire's double role of supporting terrorist armies in Syria while pretending to fight terrorism, but he reminds us that the US support of terrorism in Syria fits well with its own historical use of terrorism when it is "defined as the deliberate politically motivated infliction of harm on non-combatants". Terrorism seems to be okay to the Empire's many apologists when it is done in support of the Empire's hegemony.
Cartalucci makes essentially the same argument in a piece entitled "Syria's "Moderate Rebels" are not Moderate, not Rebels".
...Al Qaeda has from the beginning, and still does, represent the vast majority of those fighting Damascus and its allies in Syria. Regardless of superficial labels used mainly by the Western media to delineate specific groups, it is clear, even through official statements by both the wider militant movement and specific groups like Jaish al-Islam itself, that they fight beside and under Al Qaeda's banner.
The Long-Hidden Saudi-9/11 Trail
Click here to access article by Kristen Breitweiser from ConsortiumNews.
The 9/11 widow makes this opening statement following the reading of the previously censored congressional 9/11 report:
The 9/11 widow makes this opening statement following the reading of the previously censored congressional 9/11 report:
First and foremost, here is what you need to know when you hear any member of our government say the newly released 29-page chapter from the congressional 9/11 report contains no smoking gun — THEY ARE LYING.I hurriedly read the report this morning and my impression was that it contained many weasel-words like "may have", "suggests", and "speculate", and that Saudi officials refused to cooperate in investigations conducted by US intelligence services. This in spite of the fact that the report contained page after page of evidence linking the Saudi government with the hijackers. It looked to me like that the US intelligence services were attempting to hide not only Saudi involvement in 9/11, but their own and other top US figures.
Our government’s relationship to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is no different than an addict’s relationship to heroin. Much like a heroin addict who will lie, cheat and steal to feed his vice, certain members of our government will lie, cheat and steal to continue their dysfunctional and deadly relationship with the KSA — a relationship that is rotting this nation and its leaders from the inside out.
Saturday, July 16, 2016
Mush for Brains?
Click here to access article by Moti Nissani from Veterans Today.
Nissani argues that many people, including the US-led Empire's most prominent enemies in Russia and China, underestimate the cleverness that the "controllers", the invisible government consisting of major bankers and top owners of corporations, are using in their mad efforts to extend their control over all the world. They may be crazy by risking a nuclear war (and destroying habitat) but they are not stupid as currently expressed by so many naive political observers. In addition to their plethora of powerful weapons, and Machiavellian strategies and tactics to destabilize and break up countries, they use the stealth weapons of finance and control of central banks which are probably even more effective in extending their control. Nissani's observations about the latter weapon as used on Russia is most revealing.
I firmly believe, and have argued many times, that these empire builders are under the influence of the most powerful drug of all--power. This drug works much like a metastasized cancer that is inherent in the advanced stage of transnational capitalism. (Only working people have opposed its more benign form when it was functioning mostly within nations and the latter's colonies.) By underestimating their drugged state of minds and their insane actions that threaten a nuclear war and havoc everywhere, their main opponents of Russia, China, and revolutionaries are failing to take the goals of these "evil geniuses" seriously, and thus failing to apply effective counter-measures. This essay is a passionate call to sane people everywhere to stand up to this juggernaut of invisible empire builders and evil, sick geniuses.
Nissani argues that many people, including the US-led Empire's most prominent enemies in Russia and China, underestimate the cleverness that the "controllers", the invisible government consisting of major bankers and top owners of corporations, are using in their mad efforts to extend their control over all the world. They may be crazy by risking a nuclear war (and destroying habitat) but they are not stupid as currently expressed by so many naive political observers. In addition to their plethora of powerful weapons, and Machiavellian strategies and tactics to destabilize and break up countries, they use the stealth weapons of finance and control of central banks which are probably even more effective in extending their control. Nissani's observations about the latter weapon as used on Russia is most revealing.
I firmly believe, and have argued many times, that these empire builders are under the influence of the most powerful drug of all--power. This drug works much like a metastasized cancer that is inherent in the advanced stage of transnational capitalism. (Only working people have opposed its more benign form when it was functioning mostly within nations and the latter's colonies.) By underestimating their drugged state of minds and their insane actions that threaten a nuclear war and havoc everywhere, their main opponents of Russia, China, and revolutionaries are failing to take the goals of these "evil geniuses" seriously, and thus failing to apply effective counter-measures. This essay is a passionate call to sane people everywhere to stand up to this juggernaut of invisible empire builders and evil, sick geniuses.
The U.S. supremacy in the age of high finance: expansion and crisis
Click here to access article by Maria Alejandra Madi from the World Economics Association Pedagogy Blog.
In the post-war boom era of 1945 to 1971, the U.S. surplus was at the center of the global economic order. Throughout the Bretton Woods period, the United States recycled part of its surplus via foreign direct investment – mainly in Western Europe and also in Japan. Within the system of international economic flows, the U.S. exported goods to the rest of the world and also finance these purchases. Besides, the United States created demand for the exports of foreign countries, primarily Germany and Japan.And she continues on to explain how the system changed and its consequences.
After the 1970s, this system of international economic flows changed.
...the maintenance of the U.S. supremacy requires global permanent unbalances. Consequently, the current global surplus recycling mechanism could not stabilize the world economy.
As the fundamental structural flaws in the global economy have not been addressed since the 2008 financial crisis, there are serious concerns that a new global economic crisis of unprecedented magnitude could still happen.
Background of Turkish Coups in a Nutshell
Click here to access article from Katehon. (Note: there are some typo or translation errors in this article.)
This piece I believe offers the best assessment at this early date of the attempted military coup in Turkey. As such it is necessarily speculative, but it is based on some very intelligent observations from excellent sources such as Sybil Edmonds who is of Turkish descent.
Then there is the timing of this coup:
This piece I believe offers the best assessment at this early date of the attempted military coup in Turkey. As such it is necessarily speculative, but it is based on some very intelligent observations from excellent sources such as Sybil Edmonds who is of Turkish descent.
As pointed out by former FBI employee Sybil Edmonds, Gülen schools are a well-disguised rear asset of the CIA and are used for operations in the different regions of the world.I've always believed that the US has protected and supported the Gülen organization in order to act as a check on Turkish governments.
Then there is the timing of this coup:
The pro-American coupitwas made at precisely the moment when Erdogan apologized to Putin and expressed a strong willingness to make adjustments in Turkey's foreign policy by beginning to change its position on the Syrian issue.
Friday, July 15, 2016
The Real Reason Why Bernie Sanders Endorsed Hillary Clinton
Click here to access the 8:00m video and other material posted by Danny F. Quest from We Are Change.
In this video Luke Rudkowski talks about the breaking news of Bernie Sanders endorsing Hillary Clinton just now in New Hampshire. This latest news is making Bernie Sanders supporters furious as they feel tricked and lied to by Bernie.
Electoral politics is not a gateway drug
Click here to access article by Scott Jay from libcom.
Sanders has signed up many people to register as Democrats, he has built up a ground campaign of enthusiastic young people that he will deliver to the Democratic establishment so long as they make trivial changes to the party platform, and he has signed up literally millions of people on an email list that the establishment is now salivating over.
This last point ought to give pause (though it won’t) to every left-wing and radical activist who volunteered for the campaign. That is, every time some volunteer went out doorknocking or sent out a mailer or invited people to a Facebook page or convinced somebody to make a $27 donation, and every time that led to them giving their contact information to the Sanders campaign, they were helping to create a mass contact list that will prove valuable for getting out the vote and appealing for donations for Hillary Clinton. Many self-proclaimed radicals and revolutionaries helped build the infrastructure of the Democratic Party.
Obama Prioritizes War in Europe Over War on People of Color
Click here to access article by Eric Draitser from Stop Imperialism.
...the same military-industrial complex is driving both US imperialism and state-sponsored police murders. While US military trains Poles and Latvians and Lithuanians and Georgians to kill Russians, so too do security firms in Israel and the US train police officers to act as occupiers and kill citizens in America. In effect, the belligerent foreign policy of Washington has been brought home. Perhaps it could be more accurately said that war and occupation have always been the status quo in communities of color, that the killings and violence are only being highlighted today because they have been brought to the attention of White America.
The lack of respect for peace and human life is evident both on the streets of Ferguson, Baltimore, and Baton Rouge, just as it is on display with US saber-rattling in Eastern Europe.
Is Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Legislation a Hoax?
Click here to access article by Pam and Russ Martens from Wall Street on Parade.
In their introduction the Martens attempt to put a gloss of bi-partisanship over the hoax of this bill, but fail to provide any linked documentation. Their conclusion puts the lie to any bi-partisanship involved in the evolution of this bill. Aside from their introduction the rest of the article provides an excellent exposé of how the bill is being used to fool the American people into believing that it significantly places restrictions on the too-big-to-fail banks.
In their introduction the Martens attempt to put a gloss of bi-partisanship over the hoax of this bill, but fail to provide any linked documentation. Their conclusion puts the lie to any bi-partisanship involved in the evolution of this bill. Aside from their introduction the rest of the article provides an excellent exposé of how the bill is being used to fool the American people into believing that it significantly places restrictions on the too-big-to-fail banks.
The legislation promised to rein in derivatives – it didn’t. It promised to end the future need for taxpayer bailouts of too-big-to-fail banks. It didn’t. It promised to institute the Volcker Rule to prevent banks from gambling with insured deposits. It didn’t. It promised to reform the practices of the ratings agencies that played a pivotal role in the 2008 collapse. It didn’t.
New Neocon Documentary Series: A Very Heavy Agenda
Click here to access article from Media Roots.
The third and final conclusion of this series entitled "A Very Heavy Agenda", which provides details on the latest iteration of neoconservatives (Zionist conservatives), is now available for viewing. See the trailer below.
The third and final conclusion of this series entitled "A Very Heavy Agenda", which provides details on the latest iteration of neoconservatives (Zionist conservatives), is now available for viewing. See the trailer below.
While stage managing the American empire has undoubtedly proved to be a more difficult task now than in the bipolar world of the cold war era, it is not for lack of greed or hubris that the Kagans and others continue to sell their vision. Did they create these ideas because they truly believe in America’s right to be the dominant force in the world? Or, do these ideas help sell weapons and control resources like oil and rare minerals? .... When you take stock of the mindset of people who not only have access to the nexuses of power, but who trade in forming and widely disseminating arguments that justify bringing America closer to a potential nuclear confrontation with Russia, it shows something more plainly Machiavellian at work, with an aim ultimately much more sinister than simply spin.
It's getting worse: Barroso has been hired by ... guess who
Click here to access article from the unbalanced evolution of homo sapiens.
Europeans are learning about the revolving door practice that our masters in the US capitalist class use so effectively to protect their interests.
Europeans are learning about the revolving door practice that our masters in the US capitalist class use so effectively to protect their interests.
Thursday, July 14, 2016
Frantz Fanon, Philosopher of the Barricades
Click here if you wish to access a partial transcript of this talk by Peter Hudis from communists in situ.
The title of this post is also the title of a new book by Hudis about the insights of Franz Fanon that are very relevant today especially here in the US where racism is raising its ugly head once again. Fanon (1925 –1961) was born in Martinique in the Caribbean and became a psychiatrist, philosopher, and revolutionary writer. He wrote most profoundly about the psychological effects of racism on the victims of racism and how it develops out of exploitation to become such a tenacious problem for all people to overcome. (The same holds for sexism also.)
(A side-note: In recent years I have become aware of my own racism that is not only directed toward African-Americans but also people of Japanese descent. The racism takes the form of a visceral reaction and, of course, I would never consciously act on such feelings. The Japanese reaction is a product of my brainwashing at the hands of the US ruling class in the early years of my life during WWII. They needed us to hate Japanese so that young Americans would go to war and kill them in order to eliminate the Japanese capitalist class as a rival for domination and exploitation of Asian resources and markets. I was constantly subjected to despicable yellow caricatures of "Japs" that to this day brings out a visceral reaction whenever I see people of Japanese descent.)
As a Marxist Fanon was often critical of traditional Marxists because they ignored racism as an independent factor which had to be dealt with by revolutionaries, and that racism would not simply vanish when a socialist revolution was accomplished. Hudis writes about Fanon:
The title of this post is also the title of a new book by Hudis about the insights of Franz Fanon that are very relevant today especially here in the US where racism is raising its ugly head once again. Fanon (1925 –1961) was born in Martinique in the Caribbean and became a psychiatrist, philosopher, and revolutionary writer. He wrote most profoundly about the psychological effects of racism on the victims of racism and how it develops out of exploitation to become such a tenacious problem for all people to overcome. (The same holds for sexism also.)
(A side-note: In recent years I have become aware of my own racism that is not only directed toward African-Americans but also people of Japanese descent. The racism takes the form of a visceral reaction and, of course, I would never consciously act on such feelings. The Japanese reaction is a product of my brainwashing at the hands of the US ruling class in the early years of my life during WWII. They needed us to hate Japanese so that young Americans would go to war and kill them in order to eliminate the Japanese capitalist class as a rival for domination and exploitation of Asian resources and markets. I was constantly subjected to despicable yellow caricatures of "Japs" that to this day brings out a visceral reaction whenever I see people of Japanese descent.)
As a Marxist Fanon was often critical of traditional Marxists because they ignored racism as an independent factor which had to be dealt with by revolutionaries, and that racism would not simply vanish when a socialist revolution was accomplished. Hudis writes about Fanon:
His dire warning of what happens when the struggle against racism and colonialism loses sight of the ultimate goal of transforming human relations remains as important today as when it was written. Indeed, in some respects it has become more important, in light of the many unfinished and aborted revolutions that we have experienced over the past 50 years.
True, Fanon may not provide us with a golden key to resolve the questions of our time, and he surely would never have pretended otherwise. What a reexamination of his thought can achieve, however, is for us to come to a better understanding of the complex inter-relation between race and class as we try to work out how today’s struggles against racism, sexism and class society can lead to a new humanism.
NATO Dominance and Italian submission
Click here to access article by Eliseo Bertolasi from Katehon.
I am convinced that the European Union is a prison. This is a consolidation of financial interests, but not the union of the people. This consolidation will not be long. Brexit – is a good example for us. Soon other countries will think of doing the same. Perhaps, this is the beginning of disintegration of the European Union.Although I don't agree with several observations made by this author, I think this piece represents another indication that Europeans are waking up to the fact that they are a colony of the US-led Empire. The are ruled, like we ordinary Americans are, by a transnational class comprised of American, British empire, and European capitalists. We are all subjected colonial people.
Soaking the Public: The Insurance Industry and Captive Government
Click here to access article by Gary Brumback from Uncommon Thought Journal.
The insurance industry as a whole forces us to provide cash to capitalists so that they can at the Wall Street casino.
My motivation to write this article was heightened by my longstanding conceptual and experiential distaste for the industry. Conceptually, it is like a large casino that bets I am a low risk to it and will nevertheless extort me while I, on the contrary, am betting heavily and acting like I am a high risk to it. Experientially, I am a low risk policy holder (no claims ever), but I pay high risk premiums for auto and homeowners’ insurance policies. My premiums are always rising. My auto insurance company makes me share the costs of large claims (sometimes overloaded with law suits) from other policy holders....The author focuses our attention on one major capitalist industry to provide us with details on how this one sector simultaneously exploits us and corrupts government. The only criticism I have of the article is that it should have provided links, such as to Glen Greenwald and the "article in the U.S. Constitution that forbids forcing individuals to enter into contracts against their will...."
The insurance industry as a whole forces us to provide cash to capitalists so that they can at the Wall Street casino.
A warmonger, a racist and a colonial apologist…
Click here to access article from Crimes of Britain.
The author introduces us to the new Prime Minister of Britain, and the headline says it all. It's clear that she will be a perfect fit for head of one the components of the US-led Empire.
The author introduces us to the new Prime Minister of Britain, and the headline says it all. It's clear that she will be a perfect fit for head of one the components of the US-led Empire.
On the 13th July 2016 David Cameron stepped down as leader of Britain. Theresa May is now Prime Minister. She voted for the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq in 2003, for the deployment of more British troops to Afghanistan in 2010, the destruction of Libya in 2011 which created a safe haven for death squads in the region and most recently for RAF airstrikes on Syria. She has reshuffled the British cabinet, appointing well known racist bigot Boris Johnson as ‘Foreign Secretary’ and denier of colonial crimes Liam Fox as ‘Secretary of State for International Trade’.
Wednesday, July 13, 2016
We Have Met the Alien and He Is Us
Click here to access article by William Astore from TomDispatch. (Note: the article is prefaced by a commentary by Tom Engelhardt. You may want to skip this by scrolling down to Astore's article.
According to the website William Astore is a retired lieutenant colonel (USAF).... "He has taught at the Air Force Academy and the Naval Postgraduate School, and now teaches History at the Pennsylvania College of Technology."
This is a confession of how a US military officer broke through the shackles of brainwashing (see definition #2 here) that he received mostly effectively through futuristic science fiction films to see who the real bad guys are. His story also offers, in my opinion, another excellent illustration of the weakest link in the Empire's rule: the ordinary people they depend on to sustain their drive to dominate everyone on our planet with so many disastrous effects. Any genuine revolutionary movement must engage in efforts to convince people, especially in the critical area of law enforcement, of the unjust and immoral realities of ruling class governance.
Yes, there really is brainwashing, but not the fictional kind that our masters alleged was used by the Chinese and North Koreans (see definition #1 here) to explain away what our masters claimed were false testimonies of veterans who confessed about the US use of biological warfare (BW) against the North Koreans and Chinese during the Korean War. Of course the use of BW was a major war crime, and no doubt it has been dubbed the "forgotten war" because of this war crime not to mention all the other nefarious reasons for the US interference in another country's civil war. (Officially the UN fought this war, but at that time the UN was under the complete control of the US.) Our ruling masters made a massive effort to cover up their war crime by utilizing every medium of indoctrination at their disposal--corporate media, books and movies about "brainwashing", authority figures such as professors, threats to returning veterans who knew that we used BW, etc.
Fortunately after more than 50 years of this coverup of a major war crime, you can now learn the convincing truth by reading Dave Chaddock's This Must Be The Place in which he assembles a massive amount of information to conclusively prove that we, or rather, the US government did precisely that and lied about it.
Similarly Astore's story is another testimony of how people can break through their own brainwashing to realize who the really bad guys are--they have been us, as in "US of A".
According to the website William Astore is a retired lieutenant colonel (USAF).... "He has taught at the Air Force Academy and the Naval Postgraduate School, and now teaches History at the Pennsylvania College of Technology."
This is a confession of how a US military officer broke through the shackles of brainwashing (see definition #2 here) that he received mostly effectively through futuristic science fiction films to see who the real bad guys are. His story also offers, in my opinion, another excellent illustration of the weakest link in the Empire's rule: the ordinary people they depend on to sustain their drive to dominate everyone on our planet with so many disastrous effects. Any genuine revolutionary movement must engage in efforts to convince people, especially in the critical area of law enforcement, of the unjust and immoral realities of ruling class governance.
Yes, there really is brainwashing, but not the fictional kind that our masters alleged was used by the Chinese and North Koreans (see definition #1 here) to explain away what our masters claimed were false testimonies of veterans who confessed about the US use of biological warfare (BW) against the North Koreans and Chinese during the Korean War. Of course the use of BW was a major war crime, and no doubt it has been dubbed the "forgotten war" because of this war crime not to mention all the other nefarious reasons for the US interference in another country's civil war. (Officially the UN fought this war, but at that time the UN was under the complete control of the US.) Our ruling masters made a massive effort to cover up their war crime by utilizing every medium of indoctrination at their disposal--corporate media, books and movies about "brainwashing", authority figures such as professors, threats to returning veterans who knew that we used BW, etc.
Fortunately after more than 50 years of this coverup of a major war crime, you can now learn the convincing truth by reading Dave Chaddock's This Must Be The Place in which he assembles a massive amount of information to conclusively prove that we, or rather, the US government did precisely that and lied about it.
Similarly Astore's story is another testimony of how people can break through their own brainwashing to realize who the really bad guys are--they have been us, as in "US of A".
The twilight of NATO
Click here to access article by Thierry Meyssan from VoltaireNet (France).
In this much better than average translation, Meyssan offers a very accurate brief history and current assessment of NATO, the US Empire's army.
Addressing the governing powers of Europe, Meyssan writes:
In this much better than average translation, Meyssan offers a very accurate brief history and current assessment of NATO, the US Empire's army.
Addressing the governing powers of Europe, Meyssan writes:
Despite an abundant historical literature, the Western powers have still not understood that NATO was originally created by their governing classes for use against them, and that today, it is being used by the United States against their elites. The case is a little different for the Baltic states and Poland, which entered into the Alliance only recently, and are still at the stage of elitist fear of the Communists.
Micah Johnson is the making of America’s own racist creation
Click here to access article by Shaun King from New York Daily News.
King explains how the shooting of police in Dallas was already baked by the recipe of America's history of racist exploitation.
Making a cake is easy... as long as you follow the recipe and instructions. Messing it all up and creating a disgusting, inedible mess is just as easy — particularly if you get distracted or fail to take your time with everything.
Somehow, the United States of America wants to have all of the ingredients for murder and mayhem, cook it at 500 degrees for a few years, and be shocked when what comes out on the other end isn't sweet peace and colorful rainbows. That's not how recipes work.
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| Iconic moment in Baton Rouge. Photo by Jonathan Bachman. |
Making a cake is easy... as long as you follow the recipe and instructions. Messing it all up and creating a disgusting, inedible mess is just as easy — particularly if you get distracted or fail to take your time with everything.
Somehow, the United States of America wants to have all of the ingredients for murder and mayhem, cook it at 500 degrees for a few years, and be shocked when what comes out on the other end isn't sweet peace and colorful rainbows. That's not how recipes work.
Democratic platform deal sets stage for Sanders’ endorsement of Clinton
Click here to access article by Jerry White from World Socialist Web Site.
Sheepdog Sanders has performed his job well for the sheep farmer known as the ruling capitalist class. He has herded many dissident-sheep into the farmer's corral known as the Democratic Party. The dissidents are now being fed with a "progressive" platform to allay their fears, and are faced with the agonizing choice of going down the Democratic Party's chute to be slaughtered or leaping over a small fence and going down the Republican Party's chute to be slaughtered. White in this article clarifies the significance of the platform.
Sheepdog Sanders has performed his job well for the sheep farmer known as the ruling capitalist class. He has herded many dissident-sheep into the farmer's corral known as the Democratic Party. The dissidents are now being fed with a "progressive" platform to allay their fears, and are faced with the agonizing choice of going down the Democratic Party's chute to be slaughtered or leaping over a small fence and going down the Republican Party's chute to be slaughtered. White in this article clarifies the significance of the platform.
...the Clinton-controlled Democratic Party platform committee agreed to a number of amendments to the party’s 2016 platform proposed by the Sanders camp. The 35-page document, which will be finalized and ratified at the Democratic Party national convention in Philadelphia later this month, is nonbinding and of zero significance in terms of the policies of the next president.
It has been decades since the official platforms adopted by the two parties of American big business, the Democrats and Republicans, were seen by the parties themselves or the political and media establishment as a whole as anything more than window dressing. This year, however, Sanders has sought to portray the document and the convention itself as having great political import. He is doing so in furtherance of his effort to divert the popular disgust with the political system and desire for an anticapitalist alternative that was reflected in the broad support for his campaign....
The war in Iraq was not a blunder or a mistake. It was a crime
Click here to access article by Owen Jones from The Guardian.
The British have been engaging in numerous discussions about the Chilcott Inquiry that was an official investigation into the Iraq War that started on November 24, 2009 and concluded on February 2, 2011, but the results were kept under wraps until just recently when they were published on July 6th. There has been much consternation expressed over the widespread lying that occurred both during the run-up to the war and its aftermath. But it appears that there is an attempt by the British ruling class to lay the blame entirely on the useful idiot Tony Blair who was (Labor Party!) prime minister during this time. There are plenty of war criminals on both sides of the Atlantic that need to be brought to trial, but won't be. At least the British are recognizing that they were lied to, something that many Americans will probably not experience publicly for many years.
The British have been engaging in numerous discussions about the Chilcott Inquiry that was an official investigation into the Iraq War that started on November 24, 2009 and concluded on February 2, 2011, but the results were kept under wraps until just recently when they were published on July 6th. There has been much consternation expressed over the widespread lying that occurred both during the run-up to the war and its aftermath. But it appears that there is an attempt by the British ruling class to lay the blame entirely on the useful idiot Tony Blair who was (Labor Party!) prime minister during this time. There are plenty of war criminals on both sides of the Atlantic that need to be brought to trial, but won't be. At least the British are recognizing that they were lied to, something that many Americans will probably not experience publicly for many years.
Tuesday, July 12, 2016
Elite divisions?
Click here to access article by David Ruccio from Occasional Links & Commentary.
Ruccio, in addressing his fellow economists, describes the narrow limits within which "elites", also known as the US ruling capitalist class, as well as their subset of mainstream economists, discuss their policies. Because they are a ruling class, their organs of information, media, education, and even entertainment also reflect this kind of permissible discussion not only about economic issues, but about all issues that impinge upon their pursuits of wealth and power.
Ruccio, in addressing his fellow economists, describes the narrow limits within which "elites", also known as the US ruling capitalist class, as well as their subset of mainstream economists, discuss their policies. Because they are a ruling class, their organs of information, media, education, and even entertainment also reflect this kind of permissible discussion not only about economic issues, but about all issues that impinge upon their pursuits of wealth and power.
Mainstream economists use different theories and promote different policies within those narrow limits. What they exclude are theories and policies that fall outside those limits—and thus, in their view, don’t deserve a hearing.Their expertise ends when it comes to theories that focus on such things as the inherent instability of capitalism or the role of class in determining the value of goods and services and the distribution of income. And they exclude policies that either change the fundamental rules of capitalism or look beyond capitalism, to alternative ways of organizing economic and social life.
Life after Wartime
Click here to access article by Christy Rodgers from Dissident Voice.
What a powerful writer! Rodgers expresses, like no other I have found, what it is really like to be a veteran of US wars and having a hard time fitting back into civilian life.
After reading this, I recommend another entitled "What If?" which gives you the experience of a long life in prison: "Today I got my release papers from the Castle. Twenty years I served behind its ...."
What a powerful writer! Rodgers expresses, like no other I have found, what it is really like to be a veteran of US wars and having a hard time fitting back into civilian life.
After reading this, I recommend another entitled "What If?" which gives you the experience of a long life in prison: "Today I got my release papers from the Castle. Twenty years I served behind its ...."
Gold’s hidden climate footprint
Click here to access article by Paul Brown from Climate News Network.
The collapse of the Soviet Union left Bulgaria [and adjacent regions] achieving in the 1990s what the rest of the world is working hard to manage in the 2020s, a reduction in its carbon dioxide emissions of more than 45%.
But while a lot of inefficient mines and smelting plants have closed, the rump of the minerals industry survived. It is now expanding again, destroying pristine forests and wildlife and raising questions about Europe’s policy of transporting ore across the globe for smelting and refining.
Vast quantities of raw material are transported by ship, but the emissions caused are not counted because shipping is not covered by the Paris Agreement of last December.
Monday, July 11, 2016
A Revolutionary's Toolkit
Click here to access article by Moti Nissani from his website.
(Note: Because this extremely complex article has been substantially revised quite recently, it will fit into my posting requirements that articles should be written and/or posted on some website within the last 30 days.)
***************
Because I have been convinced that the capitalist system needed to be overthrown ever since the days of the Vietnam War, I was expecting something much more practical regarding methods which would overthrow the system. The only feature which qualified for this was his reference to an historical "Al-Sabbah". Nissani writes:
This article as a whole appears to be a summing up of many articles that Nissani has written over the last several years. But instead of a "revolutionary toolkit" what I found was much more like what the sub-headline described--"What I've learned in a lifetime about humanity's needless predicament, its causes, and cures". It might also be thought of as providing some very good recommendations for preparing for a revolution. But I argue that it provides very little substance as a "toolkit" for revolution.
Also this summing-up article reflects a lot of conceptual confusion. Nissani's previous articles focused on three pillars: bribery, assassinations, and co-optation. In this article we are confronted with 14 pillars that support the ruling regime--whatever that is: "bankers"? "controllers", a "criminal syndicate"? Then under the sub-heading "Revolutionary Strategies" the content refers partly what is needed before we embark on any revolution, or dispensing with reformist measures that have been used in the past. But then Nissani suggests a "surgical reform strategy" which is still a reformist strategy, and which purportedly and vaguely strikes at the root. What the root is, is not clear. The best I could find was in the sentence "Eradicating the scourge of private money from American politics." So, I guess this means passing a law that forbids large money contributions to political campaigns of candidates.
What is striking to me is that nowhere is any system identified although the term is used frequently--mostly a reference is made to a "political system". I think that Nissani is himself a victim of "Belief Perseverance" which he has identified as a hindrance in understanding human problems. The ruling capitalist class has so long and so effectively forbidden the identification of the system as capitalism in any negative sense that most people simply cannot think in terms of this system which imposes a class structure based on a ruling capitalist class's control over what is an essential core of society--its economy.
What I would like to do with the short time I have left this morning is to leave readers with a better and more constructive view of a revolutionary toolkit by providing three videos produced by StormCloudsGathering website.
(Note: Because this extremely complex article has been substantially revised quite recently, it will fit into my posting requirements that articles should be written and/or posted on some website within the last 30 days.)
***************
Because I have been convinced that the capitalist system needed to be overthrown ever since the days of the Vietnam War, I was expecting something much more practical regarding methods which would overthrow the system. The only feature which qualified for this was his reference to an historical "Al-Sabbah". Nissani writes:
Up to now, we have shown that rulers and powerful cliques often safeguard their position by killing their opponents. We still need to show that assassinations can likewise be productively employed by the weaker party in any given conflict. Hassan Al-Sabbah and his successors provide one fascinating example of this form of asymmetrical warfare.Essentially this method means adopting the oppressor's methods that are used against us, to use against them: bullying, blackmailing, and killing influential opponents. (See the nine ingredients advocating in overthrowing an oppressive ruler contained in this post regarding Al-Sabbah--towards the bottom.)
This article as a whole appears to be a summing up of many articles that Nissani has written over the last several years. But instead of a "revolutionary toolkit" what I found was much more like what the sub-headline described--"What I've learned in a lifetime about humanity's needless predicament, its causes, and cures". It might also be thought of as providing some very good recommendations for preparing for a revolution. But I argue that it provides very little substance as a "toolkit" for revolution.
Also this summing-up article reflects a lot of conceptual confusion. Nissani's previous articles focused on three pillars: bribery, assassinations, and co-optation. In this article we are confronted with 14 pillars that support the ruling regime--whatever that is: "bankers"? "controllers", a "criminal syndicate"? Then under the sub-heading "Revolutionary Strategies" the content refers partly what is needed before we embark on any revolution, or dispensing with reformist measures that have been used in the past. But then Nissani suggests a "surgical reform strategy" which is still a reformist strategy, and which purportedly and vaguely strikes at the root. What the root is, is not clear. The best I could find was in the sentence "Eradicating the scourge of private money from American politics." So, I guess this means passing a law that forbids large money contributions to political campaigns of candidates.
What is striking to me is that nowhere is any system identified although the term is used frequently--mostly a reference is made to a "political system". I think that Nissani is himself a victim of "Belief Perseverance" which he has identified as a hindrance in understanding human problems. The ruling capitalist class has so long and so effectively forbidden the identification of the system as capitalism in any negative sense that most people simply cannot think in terms of this system which imposes a class structure based on a ruling capitalist class's control over what is an essential core of society--its economy.
What I would like to do with the short time I have left this morning is to leave readers with a better and more constructive view of a revolutionary toolkit by providing three videos produced by StormCloudsGathering website.
Sunday, July 10, 2016
The Co-Option Pillar of American “Democracy”
Click here to access article by Moti Nissani from Veterans Today.
The article begins with the lyrics and YouTube video of a popular activist song by Phil Ochs, a genuine radical during the Vietnam War. This is followed by a list of the previous articles about the pillars that support the ruling capitalist class. Then Nissani gets into the meat of the essay with the section entitled "Benefits of Leading, Infiltrating, or Co-opting the Opposition". (Although the title indicates this is part 1, I don't see that it has been followed up by a part 2.)
What follows is essential reading for any serious activist to understand. I learned these lessons about co-option over many years, but Nissani gives us this knowledge in one essay. I see this pillar as probably the more powerful than the previous two discussed in this series (see here and here) because it functions so skillfully below the consciousness of most activists. This pillar allows the ruling class (Nissani refers to them as "bankers" because they are so numerous at the top of the ruling class) to very capably manage dissent. The co-option pillar supplements all the ideological organs of capitalism in that those who escape capitalist indoctrination are herded into what appears to be activist publications or organizations which are often managed by well-meaning people who fool themselves into thinking they are uninfluenced by taking money from agents of the ruling class. As a result much of seemingly progressive activism or media is defused and limited, and thus is no threat to capitalist rule.
It is when all of these pillars fail to contain activists that they will bring out the mailed fist of fascism or a police state to crush dissent. They didn't hesitate to do this in the 19th century when the new ruling capitalist class used private armies as well as their government armies to thoroughly crush organized worker opposition. Farmer resistance during the Populist Movement was more easily managed by capitalist political operatives which co-opted resistance leaders and diverted activists toward dead-end projects like silver coinage.
Today our ruling masters are once again prepared to do this with their creation of militarized police forces, 24/7 surveillance of citizens, stacked courts with ultra-conservatives, Patriot Acts etc that lay a veneer of legality to their police state methods, unaccountable secret agencies, and the armed forces if all else fails. However they depend on ordinary people to staff all these agencies of control, and frequently there are people like Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning, and William Binney who rebel. This is their weakest link in the chain of control, and it is this link that we must work hard to break.
But first we must attack their control of pseudo-activist organizations and pseudo-activist media, and to do this we must be able to identify them--Nissani helps us with that task in this article. Simultaneously we must financially and otherwise support genuine alternative media who bring us information that we vitally need to act intelligently for our interests in creating equality, social justice, and sustainability.
The article begins with the lyrics and YouTube video of a popular activist song by Phil Ochs, a genuine radical during the Vietnam War. This is followed by a list of the previous articles about the pillars that support the ruling capitalist class. Then Nissani gets into the meat of the essay with the section entitled "Benefits of Leading, Infiltrating, or Co-opting the Opposition". (Although the title indicates this is part 1, I don't see that it has been followed up by a part 2.)
What follows is essential reading for any serious activist to understand. I learned these lessons about co-option over many years, but Nissani gives us this knowledge in one essay. I see this pillar as probably the more powerful than the previous two discussed in this series (see here and here) because it functions so skillfully below the consciousness of most activists. This pillar allows the ruling class (Nissani refers to them as "bankers" because they are so numerous at the top of the ruling class) to very capably manage dissent. The co-option pillar supplements all the ideological organs of capitalism in that those who escape capitalist indoctrination are herded into what appears to be activist publications or organizations which are often managed by well-meaning people who fool themselves into thinking they are uninfluenced by taking money from agents of the ruling class. As a result much of seemingly progressive activism or media is defused and limited, and thus is no threat to capitalist rule.
It is when all of these pillars fail to contain activists that they will bring out the mailed fist of fascism or a police state to crush dissent. They didn't hesitate to do this in the 19th century when the new ruling capitalist class used private armies as well as their government armies to thoroughly crush organized worker opposition. Farmer resistance during the Populist Movement was more easily managed by capitalist political operatives which co-opted resistance leaders and diverted activists toward dead-end projects like silver coinage.
Today our ruling masters are once again prepared to do this with their creation of militarized police forces, 24/7 surveillance of citizens, stacked courts with ultra-conservatives, Patriot Acts etc that lay a veneer of legality to their police state methods, unaccountable secret agencies, and the armed forces if all else fails. However they depend on ordinary people to staff all these agencies of control, and frequently there are people like Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning, and William Binney who rebel. This is their weakest link in the chain of control, and it is this link that we must work hard to break.
But first we must attack their control of pseudo-activist organizations and pseudo-activist media, and to do this we must be able to identify them--Nissani helps us with that task in this article. Simultaneously we must financially and otherwise support genuine alternative media who bring us information that we vitally need to act intelligently for our interests in creating equality, social justice, and sustainability.
Why Dallas Happened
Click here to access article by Paul Craig Roberts from Strategic Culture Foundation.
Roberts asks some very important questions and tries to understand this violent police behavior and the assault on the police as witnessed in Dallas. He comes fairly close (for a conservative) in the final paragraphs.
For those who understand that we live in a class structured society in which one self-serving class rules to the disadvantage of the other classes, the explanation is becoming obvious. The police as well as all official agencies of violent coercion exist ultimately to secure the interests of the über-class. This latter class is the capitalist class whose control over the world and its own nation is being threatened in countless ways, they are feeling increasing insecure and prone to violent solutions, and instilling fear in the population tends to increase the latter's support for more police actions and restrictions on civil rights.
Clearly they must be recruiting people who have a proclivity to violence and racism, training them to use force whenever it suits them, and assuring them that they can do this with complete impunity. There is evidence, some of which Roberts supplies, to support the second hypothesis, and the record over many years clearly shows that police rarely receive any punishment for murdering people. Actually they are rewarded with a paid vacation (paid "administrative leave").
Roberts asks some very important questions and tries to understand this violent police behavior and the assault on the police as witnessed in Dallas. He comes fairly close (for a conservative) in the final paragraphs.
For those who understand that we live in a class structured society in which one self-serving class rules to the disadvantage of the other classes, the explanation is becoming obvious. The police as well as all official agencies of violent coercion exist ultimately to secure the interests of the über-class. This latter class is the capitalist class whose control over the world and its own nation is being threatened in countless ways, they are feeling increasing insecure and prone to violent solutions, and instilling fear in the population tends to increase the latter's support for more police actions and restrictions on civil rights.
Clearly they must be recruiting people who have a proclivity to violence and racism, training them to use force whenever it suits them, and assuring them that they can do this with complete impunity. There is evidence, some of which Roberts supplies, to support the second hypothesis, and the record over many years clearly shows that police rarely receive any punishment for murdering people. Actually they are rewarded with a paid vacation (paid "administrative leave").
The Policing Crisis Is Result Of ‘Class Project’ Against Workers And Poor Minorities
Click here to access article by Kevin Gosztola from ShadowProof.
Gosztola leads a discussion with other activists in this 56:54m audio interview (with a "partial" transcript). I have not yet listened to all of it, but it appears to offer a very interesting discussion about a very topical issue.
Gosztola leads a discussion with other activists in this 56:54m audio interview (with a "partial" transcript). I have not yet listened to all of it, but it appears to offer a very interesting discussion about a very topical issue.
The Warsaw Summit and NATO’s Reckless Bluff
Click here to access article by Alexander Mercouris from The Duran.
NATO’s decision to deploy four battalions of troops on a supposedly rotating basis to Poland and the Baltic States is the worst sort of decision. However we need to stay calm. It does not mean war is coming.You might also be interested in reading this article entitled "Europe’s NATO Ambivalence" by an ex-CIA official Graham E. Fuller.
Climate scientists are under attack from frivolous lawsuits
Click here to access article by Lauren Kurtz from The Guardian.
Today’s climate scientists have a lot more to worry about than peer review. Organizations with perverse financial incentives harass scientists with lawsuit after lawsuit, obstructing research and seeking to embarrass them with disclosures of private information.
Saturday, July 9, 2016
The Human Experiment is Probably Coming to an End
Click here to access article by Moti Nissani from Dissident Voice.
(Note: This week I am radically departing from my usual rule of posting articles that are limited to the past 30 days. I have recently discovered to my deep chagrin that I have been missing many excellent articles by Moti Nissani due in large part to my own failings, some misunderstandings, and because no one drew my attention to them. I am making up for this now by posting what I regard as the best articles of his in chronological order starting in 2010, one for each day everyday of this week, and maybe beyond until I catch up.
By giving Nissani this special consideration, I do not wish to imply that I agree with every single one of his views. Nobody has a monopoly on truth. We are like the blind men and the elephant fable who must collaborate to unravel the many mysteries of our existence. This is in sharp contrast to immature people who always look to leaders or "people in the know" for guidance on what to believe and how to behave. All of us must become our own seekers of truth if there is to be any hope of our continued existence as humans.)
This retired professor of biology with a rich background in the humanities looks at all the possible threats to humans, assesses probabilities, and adds them up to see what the future looks like for humans. It doesn't look good.
But what if we could replace the dominant class-based social-economic system in the world known as capitalism with one that could rationally coexist in harmony with the biosphere? I think this would greatly increase our chances of survival for many centuries. I see this as the major and crucial challenge facing humanity today.
Some scientists say that it is already too late to save the biosphere and human extinction is imminent (20-30 years); but I argue that even if we as individuals accept this as true, we as a species must strive to do better than what we have done so far. This means in the time remaining we will demonstrate that our human natures simply will not accept an economic system that guarantees the rule of a class of people and their culture whose character is defined by "greed, shortsightedness, and colossal stupidity". We are better than that.
(Note: This week I am radically departing from my usual rule of posting articles that are limited to the past 30 days. I have recently discovered to my deep chagrin that I have been missing many excellent articles by Moti Nissani due in large part to my own failings, some misunderstandings, and because no one drew my attention to them. I am making up for this now by posting what I regard as the best articles of his in chronological order starting in 2010, one for each day everyday of this week, and maybe beyond until I catch up.
By giving Nissani this special consideration, I do not wish to imply that I agree with every single one of his views. Nobody has a monopoly on truth. We are like the blind men and the elephant fable who must collaborate to unravel the many mysteries of our existence. This is in sharp contrast to immature people who always look to leaders or "people in the know" for guidance on what to believe and how to behave. All of us must become our own seekers of truth if there is to be any hope of our continued existence as humans.)
This retired professor of biology with a rich background in the humanities looks at all the possible threats to humans, assesses probabilities, and adds them up to see what the future looks like for humans. It doesn't look good.
But what if we could replace the dominant class-based social-economic system in the world known as capitalism with one that could rationally coexist in harmony with the biosphere? I think this would greatly increase our chances of survival for many centuries. I see this as the major and crucial challenge facing humanity today.
Some scientists say that it is already too late to save the biosphere and human extinction is imminent (20-30 years); but I argue that even if we as individuals accept this as true, we as a species must strive to do better than what we have done so far. This means in the time remaining we will demonstrate that our human natures simply will not accept an economic system that guarantees the rule of a class of people and their culture whose character is defined by "greed, shortsightedness, and colossal stupidity". We are better than that.
NATO Paranoia Versus Eurasia Integration
Click here to access article by Pepe Escobar from Sputnik.
...the real “threat” to NATO members is not Russia, but what pertains to a taboo debate in Europe; the blowback for Washington’s direct and indirect Middle East blunders — from Shock and Awe to “leading from behind” to weaponizing “moderate rebels”, classic Empire of Chaos moves that contributed to a massive refugee crisis.
NATO loses countenance
Click here to access article by F. William Engdahl from Katehon.
Referring to the US Empire and its control of Europe, Engdahl writes:
Referring to the US Empire and its control of Europe, Engdahl writes:
...power is being lost – just look at Brexit. The EU is slowly going to dissolve one state after the other. All the measures had been taken to hold the union together but it’s not working. NATO just added chaos instead of offering stability. Now there is a very strong opposition in the EU countries to all kinds of Washington’s provocations against Russia. The foreign minister of Germany indicated this quite openly.
Friday, July 8, 2016
Pillars of American “Democracy": Sunshine Bribery
Click here to access article by Moti Nissani from Veterans Today.
The influence of money is so obvious in today's world, but people have become so habituated to this fact that it seems like there is no alternative. Besides that, many people residing in dominant countries like the US also share to some extent in the booty that is plundered from weaker countries by our capitalist masters. Nissani explains how our masters use the second main pillar to fund many secondary pillars that insures their rule.
The influence of money is so obvious in today's world, but people have become so habituated to this fact that it seems like there is no alternative. Besides that, many people residing in dominant countries like the US also share to some extent in the booty that is plundered from weaker countries by our capitalist masters. Nissani explains how our masters use the second main pillar to fund many secondary pillars that insures their rule.
Obviously, when it comes to sunshine bribery, what is lacking is not awareness but outrage. A good part of this circus is out in the open, and yet we seem unmoved. Perhaps, the bankers have dulled our moral faculties by corrupting language. Perhaps they have done so by exposing us to endless violence while watching TV or movies, serving in the armed forces, passing the time in prison, or interacting with police. Perhaps the bankers have used the educational system and mass media to stifle our curiosity, kill our imagination, trivialize our lives and aspirations, surround us with endless distractions, and diminish our capacity to think for ourselves.
The revolution will not be subsidized or absurd failure of the left (an interview with Cory Morningstar)
Click here to access article featuring an interview with Morningstar by a representative of a French website. (The text is translated from French with some errors, but unfortunately the graphics are not. I translated the second and fifth one: 2) "The climate is haywire..." 5) "Remember, to be radical is simply to grasp the root of a problem. And the root is us."
Morningstar expresses her opinions of the failure of the "left" in the US and Canada to pose any serious threat to capitalist rule. She mainly targets the influence of well funded non-profit organizations (NPIC: non-profit industrial complex, NGOs when in foreign countries) which she has worked so hard to expose in the past decade.
Morningstar expresses her opinions of the failure of the "left" in the US and Canada to pose any serious threat to capitalist rule. She mainly targets the influence of well funded non-profit organizations (NPIC: non-profit industrial complex, NGOs when in foreign countries) which she has worked so hard to expose in the past decade.
...if “the left” could fully understand that they are continually being reabsorbed back into the very systems they claim to oppose, we could be militant against such manipulation. By fully embracing both discipline and critical thinking, we could stop this from happening over and over again. But western society has taught us the opposite. It celebrates the opposite. Don’t think critically. Don’t learn your history. Believe in the 10-second sound bites delivered to you from the corporate superpowers echoed through the NPIC/media chambers. But when I started writing the ugly truths about the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who form the NPIC, I discovered people believe in these institutions. The belief is powerful – akin to the belief in man’s white, blue-eyed male god.
Thursday, July 7, 2016
Pillars of American “Democracy:” Cloak-and-Dagger Smoking Gun Evidence
Click here to access article by Moti Nissani from Veterans Today.
(Note: This week I am radically departing from my usual rule of posting articles that are limited to the past 30 days. I have recently discovered to my deep chagrin that I have been missing many excellent articles by Moti Nissani due in large part to my own failings, some misunderstandings, and because no one drew my attention to them. I am making up for this now by posting what I regard as the best articles of his in chronological order starting in 2010, one for each day everyday of this week, and maybe beyond until I catch up.
By giving Nissani this special consideration, I do not wish to imply that I agree with every single one of his views. Nobody has a monopoly on truth. We are like the blind men and the elephant fable who must collaborate to unravel the many mysteries of our existence. This is in sharp contrast to immature people who always look to leaders or "people in the know" for guidance on what to believe and how to behave. All of us must become our own seekers of truth if there is to be any hope of our continued existence as humans.)
In this article Nissani like any good lawyer continues and concludes his argument that one of the primary "pillars" that the ruling class (mostly major bankers) use to sustain their power are assassinations or other dire consequences ("cloak-and-dagger"). Like a trained scientist that he is, Nissani demonstrates based on statistical evidence that this theory meets scientific standards of credibility. If his allegation is true, and he makes a very convincing case, one can easily see that the ruling class is very similar to any mafia type of organization or an organized crime syndicate.
(Note: This week I am radically departing from my usual rule of posting articles that are limited to the past 30 days. I have recently discovered to my deep chagrin that I have been missing many excellent articles by Moti Nissani due in large part to my own failings, some misunderstandings, and because no one drew my attention to them. I am making up for this now by posting what I regard as the best articles of his in chronological order starting in 2010, one for each day everyday of this week, and maybe beyond until I catch up.
By giving Nissani this special consideration, I do not wish to imply that I agree with every single one of his views. Nobody has a monopoly on truth. We are like the blind men and the elephant fable who must collaborate to unravel the many mysteries of our existence. This is in sharp contrast to immature people who always look to leaders or "people in the know" for guidance on what to believe and how to behave. All of us must become our own seekers of truth if there is to be any hope of our continued existence as humans.)
In this article Nissani like any good lawyer continues and concludes his argument that one of the primary "pillars" that the ruling class (mostly major bankers) use to sustain their power are assassinations or other dire consequences ("cloak-and-dagger"). Like a trained scientist that he is, Nissani demonstrates based on statistical evidence that this theory meets scientific standards of credibility. If his allegation is true, and he makes a very convincing case, one can easily see that the ruling class is very similar to any mafia type of organization or an organized crime syndicate.
Wednesday, July 6, 2016
Pillars of American “Democracy:” Cloak and Dagger Case Studies
Click here to access article by Moti Nissani from Veterans Today.
(Note: This week I am radically departing from my usual rule of posting articles that are limited to the past 30 days. I have recently discovered to my deep chagrin that I have been missing many excellent articles by Moti Nissani due in large part to my own failings, some misunderstandings, and because no one drew my attention to them. I am making up for this now by posting what I regard as the best articles of his in chronological order starting in 2010, one for each day everyday of this week, and maybe beyond until I catch up.
By giving Nissani this special consideration, I do not wish to imply that I agree with every single one of his views. Nobody has a monopoly on truth. We are like the blind men and the elephant fable who must collaborate to unravel the many mysteries of our existence. This is in sharp contrast to immature people who always look to leaders or "people in the know" for guidance on what to believe and how to behave. All of us must become our own seekers of truth if there is to be any hope of our continued existence as humans.)
Nissani makes a case against the top layer of capitalists in the banking sector that ...
(Note: This week I am radically departing from my usual rule of posting articles that are limited to the past 30 days. I have recently discovered to my deep chagrin that I have been missing many excellent articles by Moti Nissani due in large part to my own failings, some misunderstandings, and because no one drew my attention to them. I am making up for this now by posting what I regard as the best articles of his in chronological order starting in 2010, one for each day everyday of this week, and maybe beyond until I catch up.
By giving Nissani this special consideration, I do not wish to imply that I agree with every single one of his views. Nobody has a monopoly on truth. We are like the blind men and the elephant fable who must collaborate to unravel the many mysteries of our existence. This is in sharp contrast to immature people who always look to leaders or "people in the know" for guidance on what to believe and how to behave. All of us must become our own seekers of truth if there is to be any hope of our continued existence as humans.)
Nissani makes a case against the top layer of capitalists in the banking sector that ...
the top oligarchs resort to character—or literal—assassinations. They humiliate, malign, intimidate, smear, harass, impoverish, frame, incarcerate, poison, or blow the brains off anyone, anywhere on earth, who threatens their control. This pattern has an obvious corollary: When friends of the people suffer or die prematurely, the first suspects are the bankers.This reminds me of many articles written by Pam and Russ Martens at their Wall Street On Parade website who have questioned many deaths of people in the banking sector. Read this article entitled "Zurich Insurance Death: Reminder of Rash of Finance Deaths in 2013-15" which has links to many others of theirs on this subject.
Tuesday, July 5, 2016
Pillars of American “Democracy”: Introduction
Click here to access article by Moti Nissani from Veterans Today.
Nissani like many others appears to limit his analyses of the threats to real democracy by targeting major bankers and the major financial institutions where they reside. This is where we differ a bit. I target the system of private ownership of the economy known as capitalism whereas he targets bankers.
I regard bankers as the top of the heap of the capitalist class. They like their industrial corporate counterparts have enjoyed the benefits of the ownership of production of commodities and their sale for profit which is a central feature of capitalism. As is commonly known, capitalism tends to convert everything into a commodity so that capitalists can secure profits from them. Money has also been transformed into a commodity by the system. Major bankers who own the Federal Reserve are very much like industrial corporations except that they have monopoly ownership of the production of money and they secure their profits from their rental fees (interest) on the money they lend mostly to industrial corporations and other banks. Banks outside of the Federal Reserve derive their profits from the method of fractional reserve loans by charging interest on money they lend out but mostly don't have.
(Note: I tried and failed to reach a link to a most valuable source of explanation about money at the Wizards of Money site, but it doesn't appear on my computer. You can reach the audio portion of these broadcasts here, but not the transcripts--my old ears have difficulty hearing any spoken English other than with a standard American accent. I have just received an email from the administrator of the website indicating that they are having temporary problems. Another option is this website which contains many links about money.)
Anyway, in this introduction to a series of articles he broadly outlines how any pretense of a genuine democracy in the US has been subverted by bankers.
Nissani like many others appears to limit his analyses of the threats to real democracy by targeting major bankers and the major financial institutions where they reside. This is where we differ a bit. I target the system of private ownership of the economy known as capitalism whereas he targets bankers.
I regard bankers as the top of the heap of the capitalist class. They like their industrial corporate counterparts have enjoyed the benefits of the ownership of production of commodities and their sale for profit which is a central feature of capitalism. As is commonly known, capitalism tends to convert everything into a commodity so that capitalists can secure profits from them. Money has also been transformed into a commodity by the system. Major bankers who own the Federal Reserve are very much like industrial corporations except that they have monopoly ownership of the production of money and they secure their profits from their rental fees (interest) on the money they lend mostly to industrial corporations and other banks. Banks outside of the Federal Reserve derive their profits from the method of fractional reserve loans by charging interest on money they lend out but mostly don't have.
(Note: I tried and failed to reach a link to a most valuable source of explanation about money at the Wizards of Money site, but it doesn't appear on my computer. You can reach the audio portion of these broadcasts here, but not the transcripts--my old ears have difficulty hearing any spoken English other than with a standard American accent. I have just received an email from the administrator of the website indicating that they are having temporary problems. Another option is this website which contains many links about money.)
Anyway, in this introduction to a series of articles he broadly outlines how any pretense of a genuine democracy in the US has been subverted by bankers.
Given the fact that, over the last 35 years, every single political decision in America served the bankers’ interests and harmed the interests of the American people, how did the bankers manage to steadily increase their power and wealth at the expense of the vast majority?
Monday, July 4, 2016
Confessions of a Conspiracy Theorist
Click here to access article by Moti Nissani from Dissident Voice.
(Note: This week I am radically departing from my usual rule of posting articles that are limited to the past 30 days. I have recently discovered to my deep chagrin that I have been missing many excellent articles by Moti Nissani due in large part to my own failings, some misunderstandings, and because no one drew my attention to them. I am making up for this now by posting what I regard as the best articles of his in chronological order starting in 2010, one for each day everyday of this week, and maybe beyond until I catch up.
By giving Nissani this special consideration, I do not wish to imply that I agree with every single one of his views. Nobody has a monopoly on truth. We are like the blind men and the elephant fable who must collaborate to unravel the many mysteries of our existence. This is in sharp contrast to immature people who always look to leaders or "people in the know" for guidance on what to believe and how to behave. All of us must become our own seekers of truth if there is to be any hope of our continued existence as humans.)
(Note: This week I am radically departing from my usual rule of posting articles that are limited to the past 30 days. I have recently discovered to my deep chagrin that I have been missing many excellent articles by Moti Nissani due in large part to my own failings, some misunderstandings, and because no one drew my attention to them. I am making up for this now by posting what I regard as the best articles of his in chronological order starting in 2010, one for each day everyday of this week, and maybe beyond until I catch up.
By giving Nissani this special consideration, I do not wish to imply that I agree with every single one of his views. Nobody has a monopoly on truth. We are like the blind men and the elephant fable who must collaborate to unravel the many mysteries of our existence. This is in sharp contrast to immature people who always look to leaders or "people in the know" for guidance on what to believe and how to behave. All of us must become our own seekers of truth if there is to be any hope of our continued existence as humans.)
One does not know whether to laugh or cry when one is mocked for being a “conspiracy theorist,” even in cases where there is overwhelming evidence of a secret, sinister, plotting by a powerful cabal. Conspiracy is a constant, recurrent, feature of human behavior, as common in history as bankers are on Wall Street. Sometimes we conspire for the general good and sometimes against it, but conspire we do.
Sunday, July 3, 2016
On Canada Day, What Does Humanity Have To Look Forward To? Not What Canada Represents
Click here to access article by Stephen Gowans from his blog What's Left.
The devastating world wars of the 20th century largely settled the issue of competing centers of capitalist ruling classes. Previously there was a true multipolar capitalist world which nowadays we find so many "progressives" wanting to re-establish. The British Empire joined the powerful US capitalists to defeat the German affiliated nations of the capitalist world. Only the Soviet Union remained after WWII, and the Cold War and their own contradictions soon put an end to them. But what has arisen to compete with the US-led Empire are Russia and China whose mixed economies have mixed ruling classes who refuse to bow to the dictates of the Empire, and as a consequence are constantly hounded by the dogs of the Empire. But I digress.
What I really wanted to express is that all the nations of today's Empire are ruled by a tiny transnational class whose representatives come from all countries under the domination of the Empire's army of NATO. The behavior of this class has always been influenced by the drugs that they are addicted to: profit and power. Hence their foreign policies are imperialistic and their domestic policies exploitative, and all this has been hidden under a thick blanket of ideology.
In order to secure their workers allegiance to their rule, their agendas, and to fight in their wars, capitalists have always had to construct an elaborate ideological structure that appealed to workers in addition to supplying key leaders of the working class with a little of their imperialist plunder. This is what is celebrated most effusively on national holidays. Of course these ideologies are overwhelming filled with deceptions, and in this piece Gowans exposes the fakery of Canadian and British nationalistic ideology by revealing the true histories of their imperialist crimes.
Today is Canada Day, an annual fete in Canada to honour the birth of the country. In Ottawa, the capital, Canadians dress in the red and white of their country’s flag, set baseball caps with CANADA emblazoned across the front atop their heads, clutch mini Canadian flags in their hands, and make their way to the annual Parliament Hill spectacle, which features massive flags, marching soldiers, and Canadian war planes roaring overhead....I regard Gowans as one of the leading thinkers in today's US-led Empire. In this essay he reflects on the traditional orgy of patriotic displays that are celebrated on Canada Day (July 1) that we in the US are so familiar with on July 4th. He examines the many contradictions between the celebrated ideological themes on their nationalistic holiday and the disturbing realities of his country's history and that of Great Britain, the mother country. It's clear that these contradictions are the same for the US because the same transnational capitalist class rules in the US.
The devastating world wars of the 20th century largely settled the issue of competing centers of capitalist ruling classes. Previously there was a true multipolar capitalist world which nowadays we find so many "progressives" wanting to re-establish. The British Empire joined the powerful US capitalists to defeat the German affiliated nations of the capitalist world. Only the Soviet Union remained after WWII, and the Cold War and their own contradictions soon put an end to them. But what has arisen to compete with the US-led Empire are Russia and China whose mixed economies have mixed ruling classes who refuse to bow to the dictates of the Empire, and as a consequence are constantly hounded by the dogs of the Empire. But I digress.
What I really wanted to express is that all the nations of today's Empire are ruled by a tiny transnational class whose representatives come from all countries under the domination of the Empire's army of NATO. The behavior of this class has always been influenced by the drugs that they are addicted to: profit and power. Hence their foreign policies are imperialistic and their domestic policies exploitative, and all this has been hidden under a thick blanket of ideology.
In order to secure their workers allegiance to their rule, their agendas, and to fight in their wars, capitalists have always had to construct an elaborate ideological structure that appealed to workers in addition to supplying key leaders of the working class with a little of their imperialist plunder. This is what is celebrated most effusively on national holidays. Of course these ideologies are overwhelming filled with deceptions, and in this piece Gowans exposes the fakery of Canadian and British nationalistic ideology by revealing the true histories of their imperialist crimes.
New “CIA Officer Whistleblowing” Video Reeks Of Disinfo
Click here to access article by Brandon Turbeville from Activist Post.
The video that Turbeville analyses as disinformation reeks of very sophisticated Madison Avenue advertising technology directed at wavering activists to buy into the Empire's wars in the Middle East.
The video that Turbeville analyses as disinformation reeks of very sophisticated Madison Avenue advertising technology directed at wavering activists to buy into the Empire's wars in the Middle East.
Making quite the circuit on the Internet landscape is a new video purporting to show a former CIA agent speaking out against the manner in which the “war on terror” is prosecuted and portrayed to the American public. The video (see below) has been shared and discussed thousands of times particularly within the alternative media community as evidence that the “war on terror” is one big snowball of bad decisions and blowback.
The video, is a short clip of an interview conducted by AJ+ with Amaryllis Fox, a former CIA Clandestine Services Officer, who makes a number of claims during the three-minute clip that range from the reasonable to the absurd. While many alternative media outlets have hailed Fox’s video as “brave” and Fox herself as a whistleblower, it would be wise to analyze her statements for what they are as opposed to praising them simply because they are being presented as “anti-establishment.”
Saturday, July 2, 2016
After the leave vote: we can beat back racism and austerity
Click here to access article by Joseph Choonara from Socialist Review (Britain).
In my opinion this is by far the best analysis of the recent Brexit vote. See what you think.
Referring to the European Union, Choonara writes:
In my opinion this is by far the best analysis of the recent Brexit vote. See what you think.
Referring to the European Union, Choonara writes:
A neoliberal organisation, which has again and again acted in the interests of European capital, grinding the Greek people under the heel of austerity, supporting Francois Hollande’s assault on French workers and seeking to implement the TTIP free trade agreement with the US, with contemptuous disregard for any opposition, has suffered its greatest blow to date.And later, referring to issues that the capitalist ruling classes have always used to divide us, he writes:
Yet the mood of many on the left in Britain is despondent. For them, the referendum is seen as an outpouring of nationalism and racism directed against migrants from the EU.
It is a gross oversimplification to reduce this to a vote over racism.
Socialists have always recognised that workers can hold in their heads contradictory combinations of ideas, some based on solidarity and common struggle, other uncritically absorbed from society and reflecting the market ideology that sees us as isolated individuals destined to compete for jobs and resources. This is an unstable combination that can, in times during which mainstream politics and ideology are disrupted, explode to the right or to the left.
Our challenge is to combine struggles against racism with struggles against the wider attacks on the working class.
Mainstream economics and the public
Click here to access article by David Ruccio from Real-World Economics Review Blog.
The economics profession under capitalist rule has suffered and American economist Ruccio lists many of there failures. The problem, of course, which Ruccio only alludes to, is one that Humpty Dumpty recognized long ago through the words of Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking Glass.
The economics profession under capitalist rule has suffered and American economist Ruccio lists many of there failures. The problem, of course, which Ruccio only alludes to, is one that Humpty Dumpty recognized long ago through the words of Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking Glass.
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that’s all.”Because capitalists eventually took control of most advanced countries, they refused to adopt Marxist oriented economics because it undermined all capitalist class propaganda. As Ismael Hossein-Zadeh argues in an essay entitled "Marx on Financial Bubbles: Much Keener Insights Than Contemporary Economists", Marx could explain current economic events much better than most contemporary economists.
Friday, July 1, 2016
Puerto Rico 'Rescue' Bill to Reinforce Colonial Relationship with US
Click here if you wish to access a 12:09m interview (and transcript) conducted by Gregory Wilpert with activist Julio Lopez directly from Real News Network.
If you haven't followed this issue very well, I recommend that you read this, this, and this for further background information which you should have to understand the present situation. For a history of Puerto Rico view this 28:43m video interview entitled "Puerto Rico: 500 Years of Colonial Bondage & Resistance" conducted by Abby Martin with two professors of Latin American studies, Luis Barrios and Danny Shaw.
If you haven't followed this issue very well, I recommend that you read this, this, and this for further background information which you should have to understand the present situation. For a history of Puerto Rico view this 28:43m video interview entitled "Puerto Rico: 500 Years of Colonial Bondage & Resistance" conducted by Abby Martin with two professors of Latin American studies, Luis Barrios and Danny Shaw.
New U.S. "Offer" To Cooperate With Russia in Syria Is Deceptive Nonsense
Click here to access article by Bernhard from Moon of Alabama.
The author explains the contradictions and deceptions of US policy in Syria in order to pretend to be attacking terrorist armies while supporting the latter armies to destroy Syria. Of course US war mongers fool nobody but the passive American public, but that is sufficient for them to continue trying to destabilize the Syrian government.
The author explains the contradictions and deceptions of US policy in Syria in order to pretend to be attacking terrorist armies while supporting the latter armies to destroy Syria. Of course US war mongers fool nobody but the passive American public, but that is sufficient for them to continue trying to destabilize the Syrian government.
Rising Tide of ‘Politically Acceptable’ Killings Spells Danger for Environmentalists Worldwide
Click here to access article by Nika Knight from Uncommon Thought Journal.
“Across the world, collusion between state and corporate interests shield many of those responsible for the killings. In cases that are well documented we found 16 were related to paramilitary groups, 13 to the army, 11 to the police and 11 to private security—strongly implying state or company links to the killings. There was little evidence that the authorities either fully investigated the crimes, or took actions to bring the perpetrators to account.”Read also this Greenpeace report entitled "Brazil: the most dangerous country for environmental activists in 2015".
Pro-GMO Spin Masquerading as Science Courtesy of “Shameful White Men of Privilege”
Click here to access article by Colin Todhunter from East by Northwest.
See also this report entitled "107 Nobel Laureate Attack on Greenpeace Traced Back to Biotech PR Operators" posted on Independent Science News.
Unlike their predecessors, early 21st century missionaries do not come armed with bibles. They come as members of a scientific priesthood, spouting slick PR and are supported by the likes of Bill Gates, taxpayer ‘aid’ and the global agritech cartel and rely on the leverage of international institutions like the World Bank, IMF and WTO.Well, what can you expect when the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Barack Obama?
More than 100 Nobel laureates have put their names to a letter urging Greenpeace to end its opposition to genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
See also this report entitled "107 Nobel Laureate Attack on Greenpeace Traced Back to Biotech PR Operators" posted on Independent Science News.
Thursday, June 30, 2016
A Very Heavy Agenda Part 3: Maintaining the World Order - Out Now
Click here to access article from 911 Blogger.
The Empire's capitalist project has been referred to by various names such as Bush's (Sr) New World Order or the Neocon's Project for a New American Century. It's clear to me that the right-wings fascists of the former merged with the Zionist faction of the latter to accomplish their Empire's dominance of the world. Unfortunately many of us were asleep and tending to our individualistic goals like every good aspiring mini-capitalist should while they were creating this world. Now that it has arrived, how do you likeyour their new world?
Well, the people at 911 Blogger, A Very Heavy Agenda, and Vimeo don't seem too comfortable with it. If you are not, why not support their efforts and get informed at the same time?
The Empire's capitalist project has been referred to by various names such as Bush's (Sr) New World Order or the Neocon's Project for a New American Century. It's clear to me that the right-wings fascists of the former merged with the Zionist faction of the latter to accomplish their Empire's dominance of the world. Unfortunately many of us were asleep and tending to our individualistic goals like every good aspiring mini-capitalist should while they were creating this world. Now that it has arrived, how do you like
Well, the people at 911 Blogger, A Very Heavy Agenda, and Vimeo don't seem too comfortable with it. If you are not, why not support their efforts and get informed at the same time?
#Brexit confirms: the neoliberal center cannot hold
Click here to access article by Jerome Roos from ROAR.
An even more extreme illustration of political immaturity is shown by Dave Lindorff's take on Bernie Sander's prospects in his article "What is Bernie Up To?". He naively believes that winning a capitalist election would solve the many faceted dilemmas that we find ourselves in.
A display of political ignorance is one recently illustrated by Noam Chomsky. Jeffrey St. Clair amply criticizes this in an article entitled "Noam Chomsky, John Halle and a Confederacy of Lampreys: a Note on Lesser Evil Voting".
While Brexit clearly hands victory to the bigots of UKIP and the Tory right, a victory for remain would simply have perpetuated the anti-democratic neoliberal masochism that produced the motivation for people to align themselves with these bigots in the first place. In this light, we have to stop seeing the rabid nationalism of the far-right and the neoliberal cosmopolitanism of the pro-EU camp as polar opposites — in reality, the former is the logical outgrowth of the latter; its deformed Siamese twin in flesh and blood. The only thing the pro-EU camp was able to offer British voters was a continuation of the structural conditions that led to Brexit, combined with fanatical fear-mongering over the consequences of that outcome.I agree with his analysis of the consequences of this British vote to leave the European Union (if it actually does), but I disagree that a positive outcome rests of one man's shoulder: Jeremy Corbin. I don't like individualism and I never will. We are all in this together, and together is the only possibility for our salvation: even if salvation in the end only means a modicum of self-respect as fully politically conscious humans.
Ultimately, the British vote to leave the EU, whether it eventually materializes or not (and there is no guarantee that it will), is symptomatic of a much deeper and much more debilitating crisis....
An even more extreme illustration of political immaturity is shown by Dave Lindorff's take on Bernie Sander's prospects in his article "What is Bernie Up To?". He naively believes that winning a capitalist election would solve the many faceted dilemmas that we find ourselves in.
A display of political ignorance is one recently illustrated by Noam Chomsky. Jeffrey St. Clair amply criticizes this in an article entitled "Noam Chomsky, John Halle and a Confederacy of Lampreys: a Note on Lesser Evil Voting".
Financial Conflicts at National Academy Advisory Panel on the Future of GMO Regulation
Click here to access article by Jonathan Latham from Independent Science News.
... at least six of the 13 committee members chosen have financial conflicts of interests with the biotech industry, four of which are not publicly disclosed. Several other committee members have backgrounds advocating biotechnology development, including a representative of Dow AgroSciences and Richard Johnson of Global Helix LLC. Johnson, according to their report of 2014-2015, is also head of the United States Council for International Business committee on biotechnology.That is precisely the way it is among all institutions. The church of capitalism has placed their agents in every important organization to insure that it functions in complete loyalty to Wall Street, the Vatican of the capitalist Empire.
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