America’s Election 2016: War, Globalization and “Fake Democracy”

Click here to access article by Abayomi Azikiwe from Global Research.

The author describes the efforts of the two capitalist parties in their recent conventions to engage in fakery to deceive the overwhelming majority of Americans into voting for one of their capitalist candidates and therefore voting against their real interests. He concludes by writing:

The only solution lies in the formation of a mass party of the working class and oppressed which speaks directly for and in the interests of the people. What we can expect from the Democrats and the Republicans is much of the same propaganda and broken promises. The future resides with the efforts of the exploited and the oppressed when they are organized, mobilized and deployed in their own name.

I agree with the last sentence, but not the first because such a party will never be allowed to participate in any capitalist controlled elections.

In another article by the same author, I particularly liked this very insightful observation about the parties that are allowed to participate in elections in the US and Britain:

Although the capitalist parties in Britain and the U.S. are facing internal rebellions from both the right and the social democratic left, these institutions appear to have outlasted their functionality as instruments for the social containment of the working class and the nationally oppressed. This is why even the semblance of bourgeois or parliamentary democracy are absent within the context of intra-party affairs. Trump can walk in and take over the Republican Party without ever having to hold public office. Clinton with her laundry list of indiscretions and racism towards African Americans and other oppressed peoples is being sold to the electorate as a defender of “diversity” and stability. 

The Mainstream Media Has a Plan to Stop ISIS — but There’s Just One Problem

Click here to access article by Darius Shahtahmasebi from AntiMedia. 

In this well-argued essay backed by solid documentation, the author sees the plan's problem as one of disinformation propagated by Western media: "...statements of this kind are the epitome of lazy, pro-corporate media nonsense." Hence the plan is nonsense, or another example of Empire propaganda to justify their efforts to sow destabilization and fragmentation of existing unfriendly states in the region.

Unapproved GM Wheat Contamination In Washington State

Click here to access article by Brandon Turbeville from Natural Blaze. 

Although this could theoretically be more of local interest, the article reports on what has happened in a variety of places across the US and Canada. (I am a resident of Washington state.)

The plants are a form of GM wheat that had been planted and researched in “limited field trials” in the Pacific Northwest between 1998 and 2001. In other words, at least 12 years after the trials were conducted. The GM wheat is popping up all across the country, interestingly enough, in increasing amounts. It has long been argued by critics of GMOs that introducing dangerous types of biotechnology would not only pose a risk to human health, but also provide the potential for a irreversible contamination of the natural environment.

Monsanto’s ticking time bombs now appear to be detonating more than two decades after Americans were told to stop being paranoid about the dangers of GMOs that “science” assured them did not exist. It is now time for Americans to realize that major corporations, “scientists,” and their government does not always have their best interest at heart.

When Americans fully realize that this capitalist ruling class never "have their best interests at heart" in relation to almost any issue, then they will be ready to transform their nation into one that serves all of the people--not merely one tiny class of owners.

Abby Martin interviews Rafael Correa, President of Ecuador

from the Empire Files/TeleSur via YouTube.

In this interview you will learn what developing countries have to deal with from highly developed, powerful countries like the US, their corporations, and the international tribunals that they control.

Published on Jul 29, 2016
Abby Martin sits down with the President of Ecuador to talk about different issues impacting the country and region. One of the more important questions Abby has for the president is finding out how he feels about devastating damage that oil giant Chevron caused in the Amazon rainforest. The president also talks about how tax havens are affecting developing economies and, how giving me the environment legal rights is important.

 
You might also be interested in reading this article entitled "Ecuador Foreign Minister: $3B in Tax Havens Could Fund Earthquake Reconstruction" from TeleSur.

Capitalist sponsored Olympics

by Brian McFadden

America's Self-Inflicted Defense [sic] Woes

Click here to access article by Ulson Gunnar from New Eastern Outlook.

Let me be absolutely clear as to why I am posting this article. It is an illustration of wordage used by the ruling capitalist class to confuse issues and mislead the public, but adopted by "alternative" writers and end up by diluting their anti-establishment themes. 

If the ruling class agents can't totally get you to think that the pursuit of murder and mayhem throughout the world in pursuit of wealth and power for a ruling class is good for ordinary people of the US, then at least they will settle for confusing the issues by introducing new definitions to words that formerly damned their rule. But if they don't succeed in doing that, they seem to be satisfied with emptying many such words of any meaning beyond merely vague buzz words that serve only to vent anger in ways that are harmless to our masters. First, let me proceed with such an analysis of this article, and then I will generalize to many others.

He uses the world "defense" throughout the article. It is a term used by our masters to re-define their imperialist adventures into one of defending the US. Of course, it is obvious that this is an example of "newspeak" which Orwell came to understand through his experience while fighting fascism in Spain and Britain. It is no coincidence that the term was adopted as in "Department of Defense" after WWII. This is precisely when the US capitalist class launched their drive to dominate the world and exclude any kind of workers state such as the Soviet Union and aspired to by many millions across the globe especially after the devastation of WWII.

Gunnar by using the term "defense" instead of imperialism serves to soften the issue by implying that the heavy investment in the F-35A was simply a gross mistake instead of arguing that under capitalism the drive for profits even trumps the drive for military superiority. He also obscures the issue of class interest by using a more abstract term of "America". To his credit he does slowly and rather timidly develop the argument that the pursuit of the F-35A weapon was pushed by business interests. But this argument could serve liberal arguments about the need to reform government by electing more Democrats who supposedly represent the broader interests of ordinary Americans instead of arguing that the very class nature of capitalist rule (especially in its advanced form that has infected the US capitalist class) is the root cause of wars and imperialism. 

Now on to other articles that serve to obscure and confuse ordinary people. The Bernie Sanders campaign was framed as promoting socialism. This was an effort to redefine a word that has been a dream for the past 150 years of many millions across the globe to bring their economies under public ownership and control. Instead his campaign clearly used the word as meaning a welfare state that promoted many programs for the poor, unemployed, and workers in general--but all within the system of capitalist rule.

Then there are the words "fascism" and "capitalism". Many who pose as radical writers on the left use these words as only buzz words to lamely refer to bad things instead of explaining to people what they mean precisely in the context of class rule and class interests. 

It is no accident that the term "fascism" has been given so many meanings by various writers. Once people understand that fascism is simply capitalism with the soft gloves of civil rights and legal processes (as practiced by capitalist authorities) removed, then they understand why capitalist nations opt into fascism whenever their tiny class rule is under threat. Hence the term has been reduced to a buzz word that only serves to vent emotion instead of creating understanding of political realities. The same applies to "capitalism" as currently used by many critics who merely pose as anti-establishment critics. The latter never explain that being opposed to capitalism means being opposed to the private ownership and control of an economy; and under advanced capitalism, this means ownership and control of the economy by a tiny class of people and leaving the vast majority up to their necks in debt (to the latter). Thus the sharp class conflicts that pervade most all important contemporary issues are obscured and confused. 

Given this (intentional) confusion of communication, it is no surprise to me that the political thinking in the US is so confused and rudimentary as exhibited by the Green Party in today's article by Pete Dolack. Taking to the streets as advocated by Dolack is not enough anymore. Only a well-organized revolution organized by the grass-roots will suffice to change things.

Who really won the legal battle between Philip Morris and Uruguay?

Click here to access article by Cecilia Olivet and Alberto Villareal from ISDS Platform.

The David-Goliath battle between Uruguay and Philip Morris is an iconic case because it so clearly illustrates the way corporations can use international investment treaties to attack regulations made in the public interest.

So does Big Tobacco’s defeat by Uruguay mean that the growing public opposition to these investment treaties is mistaken? The corporate arbitration lawyers that take up many of the cases – and their supportive political allies – are keen to say that it proves the system can work fairly.

The question however is for whom is the system working? In investment arbitration cases, states never win. States can never file lawsuits against investors, so the best-case scenario for them is if the tribunal dismisses the investor’s accusations.

The GMO Debate: One Student’s Experience of Pro-GMO Propaganda at Cornell University

Click here to access article by Robert Schooler from Independent Science News. 

Schooler tells of his experience as a serious student and the numerous difficulties he encountered while rationally trying to understand issues of climate change, food, and farming practices. He is not giving up, but I wish him luck because he will need tons of it.

We live in somewhat of a scientific dark age. Our universities have become extensions of corporate power, at the cost of our health, livelihoods, and ecology. This has to stop, yesterday. We cannot afford to spread lies to our undergraduate students. Cornell, please reconsider your ways. Until you do, I will be doing everything in my power to counter your industry GMO propaganda efforts with the facts.

The reality is that a capitalist organized society is one which ultimately in its advanced form imposes the logic of profitability in all institutions and over every other value--even the continued existence of humans.

How the West Extends its Control Over Journalism Worldwide

Click here to access article from The New Atlas (based in Bangkok, Thailand).

This offers a lot of food for thought. It's directly about the power of "Western" nations to impose their perspectives on the rest of the world; but by extension, given that we live in class structured nations, it is more about the management of minds or thoughts of subordinate populations by powerful/wealthy people. But the unknown author doesn't go to this extension, nor does he/she seem to see that we all live in class-structured societies. Instead, he reaches the conclusion that journalism (or the management of peoples' minds) should serve local governing/powerful people based in nations.

Then there is the psychological fact that humans are quite easily seduced by wealth and the power that accompanies wealth. And capitalism along with cheap fossil fuels has greatly promoted the concentration of tremendous wealth into a relatively few owners of capital. The seduction factor in human nature has led many humans to accept, and adapt to, all kinds of inequality; and in this historical era, to serve the interests of powerful capitalists. 

Unfortunately, power very much acts like a drug or aphrodisiac that drives people who have it to commit all kinds of crimes to gain more power. There is never enough power for people, especially those with sociopathic tendencies, who easily become addicted to it. This results in wars where competing powerful people seek to gain more power. And the effects of wars especially in this era of frightful mega-weapons is becoming unthinkable.

This thought process has long ago led me to my political position. The only solution, as I see it, is to construct societies governed by radical bottom-up authority structures in which ordinary people in small groups of about 8-12 deliberate issues in face-to-face situations. They delegate people, who can be quickly recalled, to represent their views at the next governing level, and so on. This arrangement would require that all people are educated to the best of their abilities and that societies should be much smaller than they are now. Whether this arrangement would be still possible anymore given the need to radically reduce our use of fossil fuels which makes possible so much leisure time to become educated is debatable.

Nine Reasons Why It Doesn’t Matter Who Is President [all related to 9/11]

Click here to access article by Kevin Ryan from Dig Within. (Updated on 9/17/2016)

If nearly 3,000 people can be murdered in a terrorist event and no one cares how it happened or who did it, then it does not matter who is president. Americans will not remain safe or free by pandering to superficial differences between oligarchs while ignoring real threats to freedom and social consciousness.

On 9/17/2016 Ryan recanted his argument about Stein with an article entitled "Jill Stein Proved Me Wrong".

Are Black Lives Terrorist Lives?

Click here to access article by Vedat Xhymshiti from Foreign Policy Journal.

This journalist-author with extensive experience in war-torn areas reports on an astounding piece of news:

A petition urging the US government to recognise Black Lives Matter as a terrorist organisation has now gathered more than 100,000 signatures, it means that the White House will consider the request and formally respond to the demands made.

His answer:

I’ve seen with my very own eyes the sheer bestiality of dictatorial regimes supported by overt and covert US funding – dictators who were massively involved in the systematic ending of innocent lives, for no better cause than their being in the wrong place at the right time – whilst racism within the US is steeped in much the same type of crimes against humanity; and therefore it is the Washington administration and the elite caste in control of the American alphabet agencies that ought to be considered for the latest bout of regime change that is currently sweeping the dawning decades of the twenty-first century; and it is these controllers and financiers that must be held to full account for their seemingly endless violence.

As a white skinned male I stand in full support of Black Lives Matter.  

White Workers Resisting Capitalism and White Supremacy: An Interview with RedNeck Revolt

Click here to access an interview with representatives of Redneck Revolt posted on The Hampton Institute.

What I especially like about this interview with the people of Redneck Revolt is that they offer explanations as to why working people should not let themselves be divided racially/ethnically by the ruling capitalist class in the US. Divide and rule has always been a major strategy used to quell opposition to the rule and exploitation of ruling classes, and there is currently an obvious attempt to do just that here in the US. The interview also provides numerous examples of working class struggles throughout US history that have been expunged from the history books that most working class children are exposed to. 

I have only one criticism of a view taken from one of the interviewees when he/she declared:

As Fascism is also inherently an anti-capitalist ideology, we have to understand that at this historical moment, when many are suffering under capitalism, and looking for better ways to live, that the working class, and particularly the white working class, is much more susceptible to reactionary and fascistic ideologies and influences.

The premise that fascism is an anti-capitalist ideology is completely false. Granted fascist organizations will sometimes use fake anti-capitalist rhetoric to attract militants, but in their actions they always serve the powerful capitalist class. They as sociopaths are easily drawn to, and corrupted by, the ruling class because they are rewarded in a variety of ways by ruling class agents. Fascism must be understood as capitalist rule without all the niceties of civil rights and legal processes that adorn and serve to hide their rule. Thus fascism is capitalist rule without the soft leather gloves of some rather anemic civil liberities to reveal the hidden fists of authoritarian class rule. But it is still the same class rule.

Climate scientists expected 'nothing like' this year's record-breaking global temperatures

Click here to access article by Ian Johnston from the Independent. 

The planet’s record-breaking temperatures every month of this year have taken scientists by surprise, according to a leading expert who said they had expected “nothing like” this level of global warming.

I've seen several reports this morning regarding the surprise of scientists at the accelerated world temperatures. I'm not sure which scientists they are referring to (they seem to be mostly meteorologists), but I am not at all surprised because of the scientific reports I've read and posted during the past five years. I also remember that many of these scientists were smeared in mainstream media, their emails hacked with damning attacks on some of their casual remarks, many subject to job harassment and lawsuits, while others were bribed by major corporations to downplay the threat of global warming.

I remember particularly scientists predicting that there will be positive feedback loops that would accelerate global warming. Here I am referring to the melting of the tundra in northern regions which in turn would release huge amounts of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. I am also referring to the melting of the ice in the Arctic which in turn would reduce the reflection of the sun's rays that would increase global warming. So, I'm mystified by the reports I've read this morning.

The 1 Percent’s Useful Idiots

Click here to access article by Chris Hedges from TruthDig.

The parade of useful idiots, the bankrupt liberal class that long ago sold its soul to corporate power, is now led by Sen. Bernie Sanders. His final capitulation, symbolized by his pathetic motion to suspend the roll call, giving Hillary Clinton the Democratic nomination by acclamation, is an abject betrayal of millions of his supporters and his call for a political revolution.

It's debatable whether Bernie Sanders fits the definition of useful idiot as accurately defined by Wikipedia: 

In political jargon, useful idiot is a term for people perceived as propagandists for a cause whose goals they are not fully aware of, and who are used cynically by the leaders of the cause.

Although one can't get in Sanders' head to really find out, it is really quite unbelievable, given his long career in government, that he didn't know how the game is played in the selection of fake leaders--also known as the election process--to act out their roles in government. You either play up to the real power centers in the invisible government peopled by major bankers, stockholders, and corporate CEOs, or you forget about having a political career. 

So I begin my commentary on this piece in a very skeptical mood. I've watched Chris Hedges too long to not be skeptical. He loves to sermonize. (He originally started training to become a preacher like his father.) He has enjoyed a high standard of living and arguably one might say that he has served as a "useful idiot" for the NY Times, the mouthpiece of the real but invisible government. I grew especially skeptical of his sincerity after he wrote the piece depicting anarchists battling police (the enforcers of the capitalist deep state) on the streets of Oakland as "The Cancer in Occupy [movement]". Apparently seeing people fighting back against what passes for law and order in the US was too much for Hedges' allegiance to the capitalist state. I came to think of him as a consummate poseur who liked to moralize, and got off on people seeing him as some kind of radical. 

So along comes this post which could have been written by a genuine revolutionary. Taken at face value, it is a very eloquent call to action against the capitalist state. But then I notice that he read this essay at the "Socialist [sic] Convergence" gathering in Philadelphia to commiserate over Sanders' defection and to salvage some valuable scrap out of their political wreckage. This occasion presented a perfect audience for him to demonstrate his well-honed oratorical skills loaded with radical sounding themes and to lend credence that the movement to elect Bernie Sanders had something to do with the radical sounding term "socialism" which their movement has redefined--to the comfort of the invisible "deep state", into that of social democracy.

Like Sanders I can't get inside Hedges' head to determine definitively whether he is a fake or not. But I have my doubts. (I tend to agree with Joseph Kishore in his article from World Socialist Web Site.) When Hedges talks explicitly in favor of public ownership and control of the economy, I will then recognize him as a genuine revolutionary. You, as always and as an independent thinking human being, will have to decide for yourself. 

Summarizing ‘The Missing 28 Pages’: Who Was Behind 9/11?

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

Zeusse digs a lot of evidence from the report of "the Missing 28 Pages" and from other sources, but carefully limits his speculation about who was behind it--it was the Bush and Saudi families.

So, the long-bonded-together Bush and Saud families both had their own private – not merely their official and governmental – information sources about the impending attacks. Whereas the Sauds were masterminding and financing the operation (and so necessarily knew ahead-of-time the details of it), the US President (the American Bush) simply refused to be officially informed about any of its details until the attacks had already occurred and the CIA and FBI would then be assigned to do a report explaining why they had failed to prevent it from occurring (which actually wasn’t within their power to prevent); they were just Bush’s hirees, to take the fall for him after the attacks.

The Saudis masterminded the operation? How does the evidence even suggest that? Then the above conclusion doesn't correspond well with an earlier statement that the operation was more inclusive:

My July 20th article reported US President George W Bush’s connection to these persons, and to the 9/11 attacks, and also US President Barack Obama’s covering up for his predecessor-in-office, and for the Saud family. Both of America’s political Parties are in on this, and are covering up about it; the operation is bipartisan.

Such an analysis is so stupidly superficial that I can't help but think that Zuesse is consciously engaging in damage control for the deep state.

Evolution of Capitalism, Escalation of Imperialism

Click here to access article by Ismael Hossein-Zadeh from CounterPunch. 

He offers as useful description of how capitalism has changed over time, its transition from a nationalist based phase with that of the rise of global capitalism. He sees basically four changes from previous versions which emphasizes the component of imperialism to reveal how this current form of imperialism differs from past versions.

As an almost after-thought he describes how the nature of the capitalist ruling class has changed from it base in nations to today's transnational nature. This, in my opinion, is what I regard as the most important qualitative change in capitalist rule which determines the very nature of imperialism. National boundaries to capitalists mean very little except to control the movement of workers. Otherwise they--most especially under the US-led Empire--see themselves as a transnational class with their own interests separate from workers' interests within various nations under their control. He accurately describes this phenomenon as follows:

Globalization of capitalism and (along with it) universalization of economic austerity, has led to an indisputable cross-border class alliance between global plutocracies. Representatives of transnational capital and their proxies in capitalist governments routinely meet to synchronize their cross-border business and financial policies—a major focus of which in recent years has been to implement global austerity measures and entrench neoliberal policies worldwide. These meetings include the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the World Bank and the IMF annual meetings, the Periodic G20 meetings, the Aspen Institutes Ideas Festival, The Bilderberg Group annual geopolitics forum, and the Herb Allen’s Sun Valley gathering of media moguls—to name only a handful of the many such international policy gatherings.

Today’s elites of global capitalism “are becoming a trans-global community of peers who have more in common with one another than with their countrymen back home,” writes Chrystia Freeland, Global Editor of Reuters, who travels with the elites to many parts of the world. “Whether they maintain primary residences in New York or Hong Kong, Moscow or Mumbai, today’s super-rich are increasingly a nation unto themselves,” she adds.

But then I was very disappointed at his recommended remedy which was contained in only one paragraph, and which he thought sounded radical. There was no mention of the elimination of the very basis of capitalism--the private ownership of the economy which creates the class structure, all the class conflict, and all the imperialism. However, how could one expect anything different from a retired academic who has enjoyed a lucrative career in the heart of the capitalist Empire? This is what passes for dissent in the Empire along with Bernie Sanders' "revolution".

The Power of “Nyet”

Click here to access article by Dmitry Orlov from Club Orlov.

The author entertains us with an amusing interpretation of how the Russian word makes the American ruling class directorate crazy.

The corrosive psychological effect of “nyet” on the American hegemonic psyche cannot be underestimated. If you are supposed to think and act like a hegemon, but only the thinking part still works, then the result is cognitive dissonance. If your job is to bully nations around, and the nations can no longer be bullied, then your job becomes a joke, and you turn into a mental patient. The resulting madness has recently produced quite an interesting symptom.... The truth is, they are sick, deranged non-diplomatic warmongers. Such is the power of this one simple Russian word that they have quite literally lost their minds.

Two articles written by highly educated scholars illustrates the power of capitalist ideology

by Ron Horn for this blog. (Some revisions to add clarity were made at 5 PM Seattle time.)

I perused two articles this morning that pushed my emotional buttons because they were written by highly educated people that reflects much of what passes as advanced intellectual thinking about two primary problems tormenting most of mankind today--1) wars, acts of violence, terrorism, etc and 2) the relatively imminent prospect of catastrophic climate destabilization (often benignly labeled as "climate change"). Related to number one was an article entitled "The Psychology of Ideology and Religion" by Robert J. Burrowes, and number two was illustrated by "The Guaranteed Ending?" by Guy McPherson.

What I will attempt to do this morning in the time remaining is to argue that both articles are illustrative of the incredible power that capitalist ideologues have. I don't have the time to speculate very much on how they exercise this power, but will concentrate on the fact that they are able to influence the minds of highly educated people so that their views are diverted away from any criticism of the capitalist system and by extension from any class-structured social system.

In the first article Burrowes essentially argues that adults are responsible for instilling fear in children that not only produces violence-prone behaviors when they reach adulthood, but also prevents them from developing any kind of critical judgement about their beliefs. Children are seen as innocent victims of adult behavior. Thus adults are evil-doers! That's it!

In the second article McPherson provides a concise summary of his concern about catastrophic climate destabilization. I don't dispute the facts supporting his concern that climate destabilization is going to result in the extinction of humans--indeed, I agree. What I see as a major flaw in his argument is that he attributes the cause of the profligate use of fossil fuels and other environmental disasters to industrial civilization or simply civilization. The core meaning of the word civilization is human knowledge about the world in which we live. McPherson argues that if we had not entered the civilization phase of our existence, we humans would be just fine. If we had remained stupid and only able to survive tenuously in rather primitive circumstances, we would be alright today.

Both of these highly educated people abort any reasonable effort to go beyond these rather superficial analyses to find real causes of the problems they are addressing. Both argue what looks like a more sophisticated version of the biblical "original sin", specifically the sin of disobedience by learning from the tree of knowledge.

Anthropological knowledge has revealed that although the difficulties seem to have paralleled the rise of civilizations, they more specifically had to do with the rise of class-based societies in which a ruling (or more powerful) class of people appropriated disproportionately more of the wealth of societies. Such classes originally were created through violence of the stronger over the weaker, but soon ideologies (including religions) rationalized and justified such class structured societies so that people soon passively accepted social injustice and inequality. This caused problems expressed in article number one. The second problems that McPherson addressed came later with the rise of industrialism in the class structured (capitalist) societies with the discoveries in technology related to cheap and abundant fossil fuels.

What I object to with both positions argued by these two highly educated people is their reluctance to go beyond what is essentially a position taken several thousand years ago--the concept of original sin--even though they dress up their arguments with more sophisticated terminology. I do not think this is an indication of a deficiency of intellect, but the influence of capitalist ideology which discourages in a variety of ways any examination of their system or of any class-based system. 

Knowledge seeking is a primary characteristic of human nature. Ruling classes want to have a monopoly of knowledge to preserve their power, therefore they want the classes of people they dominate to remain in ignorance. It is imperative that we of the subjugated classes should use the knowledge humans have gained over the last 2500 years or more to properly diagnose the major problems of violence and catastrophic climate destabilization that we see today. Such knowledge points directly at class-structured societies. 

Thus a solution according to our human natures lies in overthrowing our ruling classes and creating societies that insure equality. Yes, catastrophic climate destabilization will likely happen anyway along with the extinction of humans, but I and most others as politically aware human beings, with a human sense of justice, with a human sense of fairness, insist on pursuing this course anyway to the last gasp of our existence.

We love to talk of terror – but after the Munich shooting, this hypocritical catch-all term has finally caught us out

Click here to access article by Robert Fisk of the Independent (Britain).

It all comes down to the same thing in the end. If Muslims attack us, they are terrorists. If non-Muslims attack us, they are shooters. If Muslims attack other Muslims, they are attackers.

This outstanding, long-time journalist correctly identifies inconsistencies with Western reporting of violent incidents, but he never speculates as to why different groups of people receive different coverage from Western media. It seems obvious to me. 

There is a political agenda, likely inspired by Zionists in the US-led Empire, to separate Muslims from the rest of humanity as evil-doers, or targets of hate and fear in order to divert attention away from the real evil-doers who are promoting endless wars and exploitation on behalf of financial and corporate based ruling classes aligned with the Empire. 

Video: Hillary Clinton, A Threat to All Humanity. World War III is “On the Table”. Her Candidacy Must be Opposed

Click here to access this introduction and 13:58m video produced by James Corbett from Global Research.  

There is nothing like sensational headlines to grab people's attention, and many left writers are doing just that with Hillary Clinton's official candidacy for president by the Democratic Party.

I have argued for years that we in the USA (and most of the US-led Empire) are governed by an invisible government also referred to as a deep state, shadow government, and often more vaguely as "the powers that be". It appears that I and other deep state theorists have not had the slightest influence on many left political analysts whose articles are frequently posted on alternative websites. Still, I am in good company with people like Peter Dale Scott, Tony Cartalucci, Carroll Quigley, Stephen Gowans, and others. 

I would like to put this to the test of future events, but that will not prove anything because the present government led by Obama is already on a very aggressive foreign policy course that has a high probability of ending in a nuclear conflagration. Therefore nothing is going to change under the presidency of Hillary Clinton. How can anyone dispute the premise of my argument and still argue that Hillary will be even more dangerous! The directorate of the ruling capitalist class have been grooming her for a long time to become president. She will represent them in this grand facade naive people call "democracy" very much like Obama has done. You won't be able to tell the difference. Thus, I recommend that you ignore this video and many articles like it.

What Happened to the Pink Tide?

Click here to access article by Kyla Sankey from Jacobin. 

This review of left movements and governments in South America is long overdue, and Sankey makes a very good effort to meet this need in this analytical report. We should have many more to fully understand the deficiencies of these movements/governments and to determine what strategies revolutionaries must pursue in the future. 

The weakness of this analysis as I see it is that Sankey too often obliquely and abstractly alludes to what I think is the core problem with these pink governments: attempting to promote radical change within nations whose economies are overwhelmingly dominated by owners (capitalists) and these owners have strong ties with multi-national corporations and agents of the US-led Empire. I don't have a definitively practical remedy for this defect, but it is a problem that needs to be widely discussed among revolutionaries and left activists.

There is Nothing Great about War

Click here to access article by Kim Petersen from Dissident Voice. 

In this review of a new book entitled The Great Class War 1914-1918, you can ignore Petersen's gratuitous moralism about "great" as used as an adjective in reference to wars. Instead focus on the author's use of the word "great", connoting "major" as applied to class war. As such the book appears to offer an alternative and accurate way to view the history of this war as a class war instead of obscuring this reality by presenting it as various nations gloriously clashing for dominance that one gets in conventional histories. The book appears to offer an antidote to the usual brainwashing we experience while treading through capitalist ideological muck of conventional ideological institutions, especially education.

Pauwels presents the assassination of archduke Franz Ferdinand as a pretext for war. However, the war was launched by elitists1 who feared the hoi polloi eating into profits by forming unions and demanding higher wages, and demanding greater democracy. There was also competition among nation states to grab colonies and gain economic advantage. The elitists believed that a war would crush revolutionary zeal, aspirations for democracy, and replace socialism with nationalism.

Don't let Bayer overturn the ban on bee-killing pesticides

Click here to access article from Sum of Us.

Wow. Bayer, BASF and Syngenta are suing the European Commission to overturn a ban on the pesticides that are killing millions of bees around the world.

A huge public push won this landmark ban -- and we can't sit back and let Big Pesticide overturn it while the bees vanish.

Last summer, 37 million bees were discovered dead on a single Canadian farm. And unless we act now, the bees will keep dying. We have to show Bayer and Co. now that we won't tolerate them putting their profits ahead of our planet's health.

Why Oliver Stone’s new Snowden film almost never made it to theatres

Click here to access article from South China Morning Post (based in Hong Kong).

Oliver Stone thinks this near failure was due to self-censorship by major film studios. It only takes a few adverse consequences to infect many people and agencies with the mechanism of self-censorship. Obviously with Edward Snowden considered as an official enemy of the US state, any film that portrayed him in a positive light would be considered not in the national interest (read this as ruling capitalist class interest). This makes me wonder how many films are not made or not distributed because of self-censorship.

The film is scheduled to be released on September 16th.

Al Nusra Launches Rebranding Campaign to Depict Itself “Moderate Opposition” and Avoid Air Strikes

Click here to access article from South Front.

I wonder how many people are going to be fooled by the rebranding of the terrorist organization Jabhat Al Nusra to Jabhat Fateh Al Sham. This apparent ruse has resulted in a US agreement with Russia to ...

...share intelligence to coordinate air strikes against the Syrian Al Qaeda branch “Jabhat Al Nusra” and prohibit the Russian and Syrian air powers from attacking the so-called “moderate rebels.”

The answer seems obvious to me: the vast majority of Americans who unwittingly assume that corporate TV broadcasts news instead of propaganda to engineer their consent for Empire policies and actions.

Declassified 9/11 Report Portrays US-Saudis as Partners in Crime

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

Cartalucci attempts once again to get us to see another subject through his clear lens rather than through the distorted lens of capitalist ruling class media. This time he focuses his lens on a prominent subject increasingly in the news--terrorism. However as long as so many of us are locked into corporate media, I think that his efforts will be for nought. Let us pray that this isn't so.

In this article he addresses the publication of the previously censored 28 pages of the official government's 9/11 Commission report. It appears that our masters did this in spite of vigorous Saudi opposition as a way to deal with the many years of pressure from 9/11 activist organizations to reveal them.

The Western media has attempted to downplay the impact of the document's release, claiming that subsequent investigations found the "many" of the allegations in the document "without basis" - even as the US and Saudi Arabia today openly arm and fund terrorists in Syria.

Many mistakenly believe on one hand terrorism is simply an inevitable clash of civilizations between "Islam" and the West, while others maintain it is the predictable backlash to flawed or unjust Western foreign policy.

In reality, it is neither.

Guardian tries to silence Democrat leak scandal

Click here to access article by Jonathan Cook from his blog. 

I'm not sure exactly when this began, but I've been noticing the steady rise of propaganda style reports or the management of news coverage in mainstream media for quite some time, but it seems to have accelerated since 9/11. Back in the 1970s reports (see this, this, and this for starters) kept surfacing about the insidious use of media by the CIA from government investigations and from renegade journalists. From all appearances the problem seemed to have diminished, but what I really think happened was that our deep state (one analyst reveals a lot about the "Deep State" in spite of being motivated by damage control) of which the CIA forms a crucial part burrowed even deeper so that corporate media today functions as an arm of the deep state. 

For quite some time the deep state has been grooming Hillary Clinton to become president to take advantage of the identity political orientation of Americans which they have cultivated over many years to discourage any class-based orientation (see my 2013 commentary here). Thus during this election season their media went to work to insure that outcome. This article cites the most recent evidence of this phenomenon.

The pattern is unmistakable in both the UK and US – and I apologise for sounding like a stuck record. Liberal mainstream media prove over and over again their aversion to telling us the news straight. They conspire – I can think of no fairer word – with the political elites in Washington and London to spin and subvert stories damaging to their mutual interests, even when the facts are driving real events in an entirely different direction.

A perfect illustration is the story of the Democratic party’s leaked emails....

Israel’s Tightening But Weakening Grip

Click here to access article by Lawrence Davidson from ConsortiumNews.

Zionism’s range of influence is shrinking. One can see this progression worldwide. At a popular level the Israelis have lost control of the historical storyline of Israel-Palestine. They may teach their own citizens their version of the story, the one wherein the Jews have a divine and/or historical right to all of Palestine’s territory. But beyond their fellow Zionists and the loony Christian Right, no one else believes this story. Significantly, an increasing number of Jews no longer accept it either.

None of this means that the Zionists are not still influential. Yet their influence no longer has a broad popular base. It is now largely restricted to Western government circles.

Insumisión: From Teachers’ Strike to People’s Rebellion

Click here to access article by Scott Campbell from It's Going Down. 

With all the terrorist incidents and other indications of social conflict happening, you may not have paid attention to what is happening across our border with Mexico. Campbell attempts to summarize what has been happening.

With the ongoing teachers’ strike that has morphed into a widespread rebellion, primarily in Oaxaca and Chiapas, we haven’t put together a more general roundup of resistance and repression in Mexico in some time. While that struggle is very much alive and well, the intensity with which it is unfolding has diminished some. This column will first take a look at the past three weeks of that conflict (if you need to get up to speed, check out this piece) and then cover some of the other recent events around the country.

Trump as populist

by cartoonist Sean Delonas. 

In signal to military, Hillary Clinton picks Senator Tim Kaine as running mate

Click here to access article by Tom Hall from World Socialist Web Site.

In selecting Kaine, Clinton is making clear that she plans on running a right-wing, pro-war campaign targeted at winning over the military and sections of the Republican Party dissatisfied with Trump, and particularly with the Republican candidate’s attitude toward Russia. Clinton also wanted to repudiate any association with the issues of social inequality that motivated the widespread support for her main rival in the primaries, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

Kaine is among the most hawkish figures among Senate Democrats.

Sizzling Midwest Feels a Preview of a Hotter Future Climate

Click here to access article by Bob Berwyn from InsideClimate News.

Current temperatures in large parts of the Midwest have been rising steadily for more than 100 years, with accelerated warming in the past few decades. According to the 2014 National Climate Assessment, the average temperature in the region increased by more than 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit between 1900 and 2010. Between 1950 and 2010, the rate of increase doubled, and since 1980, the pace of warming is three times faster than between 1900 and 2010. 

Some other Wall Street consequences

by cartoonist Khalil Bendib.

Looking at China through a lens, clearly

Click here for a review by Moti Nissani of China Rising authored by Jeff Brown posted on The Greanville Post. (Note: the following commentary was revised at 3:30 PM Seattle time.)

I'm not so sure that one can look at "China through a lens, clearly" by reading Jeff Brown's book. Although unlike what I found as mostly extremely positive reports about China in his online articles (now found here), Nissani assures us that in this book Brown presents a reasonably balanced report on current Chinese society. But then Nissani ends up posing many more questions that I had hoped the book might answer.

I was initially very impressed with Brown's writings a few years ago which provided a much needed prospective on China from an American living and working in China (Nissani also lived in China for a brief period) to fill a large void missing in corporate media, and what little coverage they provided was mostly negative. Subsequently I noticed that his views expressed a decidedly and consistent pro-China bias. It was almost like he was trying to convince himself that he made the right choice by moving to China. In other words, there seemed to be no balance to his reporting on Chinese affairs. I suspect that this might be an over-reaction to years of anti-China propaganda that he was fed by US corporate media. For Americans who have little knowledge about Chinese society, this book might be a good entry point. 

For background material on contemporary China I recommend reading the Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping (vol. 3). Ever since 1978 when Deng Xiaoping took control of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), China has launched a broad policy in pursuit of economic development. To accomplish this they opened China to the outside world, particularly to Western capitalist countries, under a "one country, two systems" policy. This policy combines significant (but not exclusive) capitalist development of their economy which is under the control and direction of the CCP. This policy induced, or one might argue "seduced", Western corporations to transfer a lot of their operations to China by offering cheap labor and other inducements as a method to rapidly obtain the high technology of the West while improving China's economy, while for Western corporations the prospects of increased profits could not be ignored. Since then the CCP has pursued a peaceful strategy that attempts to use economic development as a method to deal with conflicts both internal to China and external in foreign relations. 

This general policy has succeeded beyond even the CCP's wildest dreams. However, the risk has always been that the capitalist pursuit of profit by any means would have a corrupting influence on China and the CCP. Although China is strongly supporting renewable energies and implementing changes to improve the environment, they appear to be promoting economic development as a major priority over sustainability. China's pursuit of nuclear power seems to be an illustration of this priority.

One major worrying effect of China's success as an economic powerhouse is that the US-led Empire's ruling class now see China as a threat to their domination of the world. This has resulted in the Empire's "pivot to Asia [China]" foreign policy which we currently see dangerously being played out in the conflicts about control over the South China Sea.

Rise in plunder of Earth’s natural resources

Click here to access article by Alex Kirby from Climate News Network. 

Like many of these climate related websites that are funded by wealthy charities featuring writers from corporate media or government media, there is no mention of the 800 pound capitalist gorilla in the room that is driving the plunder of the Earth's natural resources.

Capital and compensation

Click here to access article by economist David Ruccio from his blog Occasional Links & Commentary.

"Who are the capitalists?" the professor asks his students. I give the professor a "D" for his answer. Any definition has, of course, an element of arbitrariness to it, but this is especially true when dealing with amounts of income from capital, and even more-so when looking at compensation for boards of directors. I think I can do better. A capitalist is anyone whose income is substantially from the ownership of capital or property. 

What I think he describes, if we focus on major financial as well as industrial corporations, is a capitalist ruling class. The amounts they receive on these boards is usually quite inconsequential to their total income. Often it is pocket change to them. Still I believe the subject is well worth thinking about.

US capitalist democracy in action

I couldn't decipher the cartoonist who drew this, but it perfectly captures the essence of "democracy" as practiced in the US.

Wall Street’s Think Tank

Click here to access this review by Dominic Alexander of a book authored by Laurence H. Shoup from CounterFire (Britain).

In my opinion Shoup is a leading intellectual and writer on the left, and thus his dissection of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) as a primary think tank for the Empire should be read seriously. 

We learn from the book review and other sources that the origins of the CFR stems from the merger of Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), a major British think tank, with a group of intellectuals and diplomats connected with Wall Street in 1921. This bi-product of WWI created a close relationship between the ruling capitalist class of the British Empire with Wall Street capitalists of the US. (Carroll Quigley has written about this in his book The Anglo-American Establishment.) 

Much of the first half of the 20th century in which a multi-polar capitalist world existed, there emerged a contest for world dominance between Germany and Britain. Because Wall Street capitalists had in WWI bet heavily (in the form of loans) on Britain and France in this contest, they were soon able to get the US participation in the war to insure victory and the repayment of their loans (with interest). In WWII this rivalry, their earlier defeat, and bitter memories over the Versailles Treaty activated the deep resentment of the Nazis and provoked them into invading France, the Low Countries, and to launch an air attack on Britain (for less than 4 months) in spite of the fact that many Western capitalists had financially backed the German Nazi party as an instrument that would destroy the Soviet Union, a major heretic in an otherwise capitalist world. In was this same division among the allied capitalist countries that enabled the easy early German victories, and not the overwhelming power of the German military.

The British-American origins of this major "think tank" of the US-led Empire has forged an alliance among Anglo-American capitalists that plays a key role in policies and actions of the Empire that we see today. 

While the CFR has a long history, the focus of this book is its role in the formulation and propagation of neoliberalism as the dominant ideological prescription for governments globally since the 1970s. A highly prominent figure within the CFR, David Rockefeller, who was chairman between 1970 and 1985 (and the single largest financial contributor of the organisation’s entire history), was an early enthusiast for Friedrich von Hayek’s free market dogmas at the heart of neoliberal economics.

Politics is Fake and Staged

from the Corbett Report.

Only a psychopath could read someone else’s lies from their teleprompter with such feigned emotion. And only the flag-waving, dumbed down masses could believe them. Politicians are puppets, and your only questions should be: “Who is writing their speeches? And who is pulling their strings?”

In the Shadow of the Bomb: Conducting International Relations with the Threat of Mass Murder

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

Todhunter with his brilliant, penetrating mind refocuses his attention and ours from corporate contamination of food and the harm they are causing independent farmers to another aspect of capitalist rule--the ever present threat of their use of catastrophic weapons, especially nuclear weapons. He was prompted to write this essay by some remarks made by the new British prime minister, Theresa May, who said she wouldn't hesitate to use these weapons of mass destruction (presumably under certain conditions).

Politicians like May are reading from script devised by the elite interests. Members of this elite comprise the extremely wealthy of the world who set the globalisation and war agendas at the G8, G20,NATO,the World Bank, and the WTO. They are from the highest levels of finance capital and transnational corporations. This transnational capitalist class dictate global economic policies and decide on who lives and who dies and which wars are fought and inflicted on which people.

The mainstream narrative tends to depict these individuals as "wealth creators".

JFK Turned to Peace and Was Assassinated

Click here to access article by Paul Craig Roberts from his blog. 

Roberts provides and excellent review of Kennedy's opposition to the deep state that had been constructed after WWII to transfer control from the official capitalist government into an invisible government consisting of top capitalist figures in banking and corporations and using the new secret agencies to conduct activities that were illegal or that Americans would not support. Thus Kennedy, and others who stood in the way of this invisible government, had to be assassinated. However Roberts' focus is largely limited to the foreground of Kennedy's assassination and misses the greater significance of this new deep state: the emergence of neo-fascism to replace the capitalist version of democratic institutions of government. The latter became a facade while the former has taken control of all important decisions.

Is the Saudi 9/11 Story Part Of The Deception?

Click here to access article by Paul Craig Roberts from his blog.

As a former member of the Reagan administration Roberts knows how the US government works. In this article he knows that the CIA functions to hide secrets from Americans and from the rest of the government.  There are at least 15 other such government agencies, but I think that the CIA has played and is playing a key role in serving the ruling capitalist class in general, and the 9/11 project in particular. Given his knowledge about how these secret government agencies work, Roberts is very suspicious of the new revelations about the role the Saudi government played in the project.

The evidence of Saudi financing is what restores the credibility of the original story. Nothing changes in the story of the collapse of the three WTC buildings, the attack on the Pentagon, and the crashed airliner in Pennsylvania. American anger is now directed at the Saudis for financing the successful attacks.

To hype the Saudi story is to support the official story.

Gavin Long’s Last Words

Click here to access article by Margaret Kimberley from Black Agenda Report. 

The murders of Alton Sterling and Philando Castille were not unique. On average one black person is killed by police every day. But cameras were rolling and the sight of police lynch law twice in 48 hours was too much for millions of people to bear. So much so that revenge was not just contemplated but carried out. Micah Johnson and Gavin Long were named as suspects in shootings of police in Dallas and Baton Rouge. Both paid with their lives. If guilty, they were motivated to act on their anger and they changed everything about the movement to end police lynch law.

Johnson and Long were both black men who served in the military. Johnson was deployed in Afghanistan and Long in Iraq. Aside from the police version of their conversation with Johnson we know nothing about his thinking. But Long often expressed himself on social media. What he said is worthy of attention.

Note: "Convos" in the following video is Gavin Long. (I wonder how long the agents of our masters will permit this video to be shown via YouTube.)

“Boom Bust Boom” busted

Click here to access article by economist David Ruccio from his blog Occasional Links & Commentary.

Ruccio writes a critical review of Boom Bust Boom, Terry Jones and Theo Kocken’s Monty Pythonesque documentary about the crash of 2007-08.

...the film is just not very good. For starters, consider the fact that, after the worst crisis of capitalism since the first Great Depression, only once is capitalism itself even mentioned!

The filmmakers ultimately lay blame on human nature. 

But that's "par for the course" for many of today's critics of vital political and economic issues. By providing cover for, diversions and distractions from, the debacles of capitalism they reduce any threats to their careers and material well-being from agents of the ruling capitalist class. 

Thus anti-capitalist Marxists like John Bellamy Foster are shunted off to university ivory towers to expound about the intricacies of Marxist theory, while other more limited critics are given wide exposure on alternative media. Examples of the latter are Michael Hudson, whose focus is limited entirely to the evils of finance, and Eric Zuesse, whose liberal bias wants government to do more for the poor to prevent the gross inequality that we see today. Because Zuesse blames the "aristocracy" for this, one would think that we were living in the era of feudalism. More severe critics of the ruling capitalist class like retired Prof. Moti Nissani have been forced to avoid the wrath of our masters by escaping to other countries.

Top 10 Reasons Why It’s Just Fine for U.S. to Blow Up Children

Click here to access article by David Swanson from Washington's Blog. 

Sometimes when people are fed up with lies, hypocrisy, and phony propaganda, they resort to sarcasm. This is a good example.

Is it really necessary for me to explain to you why it’s acceptable, necessary, and admirable for the United States and its minor allies to be blowing up houses, families, men, women, and children in Syria?

This latest story of blowing up 85 civilians in their homes has some people confused and concerned. Let me help you out.

First Half of 2016 Blows Away Temp Records

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

The first half of 2016 has blown away temperature records, capped off by a record hot June, once again bumping up the odds that 2016 will be the hottest year on record globally, according to data released Tuesday.

The monthly numbers from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration puts the planet on track to surpass 2015 as the hottest on record.

Roots to Social Democracy/Capitalism, Socialism: The Failure of Social Democracy (Part 2 of 7) [A must read post]

Click here to access article by Ron Ridenour from Dissident Voice. (I am not posting Part 1 because I think it is largely subsumed in this post.)

This article offers the best, most accurate, most concise history of class conflict under capitalism in the 20th century that I have ever seen. Not that it's perfect because it leaves a lot of important details out such as Operation Gladio under the direction of the CIA which used terrorist methods against militant workers in Europe following WWII to insure that only capitalist parties would triumph. 

The fact that this sort of accurate history is so unusual is simply due to the triumph of capitalist classes, especially the dominant capitalist class in the US, following WWII. The emerging US capitalist class has tried, and largely succeeded, in re-writing the history of this post-WWII era and re-defining important political-economic concepts (socialism equals social democracy) to obscure the basic class conflict between ruling capitalist classes and workers to insure that capitalist interests prevailed. As a result we see the dominance of the US Empire in world affairs today and all the chaos, social problems, never-ending wars, and deterioration of the lives of ordinary people throughout the world.

It is clear to me and this history that social democracy has always been a temporary strategy by ruling capitalist classes to stave off working class interests in public ownership and control of economies.

...World War II was an economic boom for the USA [mostly for the capitalists]. Its weapons, oil, steel, auto, and construction industries grew manifold. Their surplus financed the Marshall Plan to rebuild the capitalist economies of Western Europe and prevent socialist-communist electoral victories. This policy succeeded, especially in Greece and Italy where a majority of workers were leftist.

Europe’s two largest political parties, the Social Democrats and the Christian Democrats, adopted and even extended welfare benefits enabled by the Marshall Plan. The “free market” has since largely replaced the state as the politically determining force, and the welfare model is no longer viewed as necessary.

Sibel Edmonds Dissects the Turkish Coup

Click here if you wish to access this interview by James Corbett directly from his website.

I don't know of anyone in the US with more knowledge of Turkish deep politics than Sibel Edmonds [her comments start at 5:45m] because of her Turkish origins and more especially because of her previous duties as a Turkish translator for the FBI before she became a whistleblower.

As we predicted last year, the deep state coup against Erdogan finally materialized last weekend…but it fizzled out almost as quickly as it arrived. So what are we to make of this would-be putsch? Did Erdogan allow it to happen in order to further cement his control on the rebound? Or was this merely a trial run for the real CIA/NATO/Gulenist coup yet to come? And what role do the Turkish people play in all of this? Joining us today to dissect the mayhem is Sibel Edmonds and Spiro Skouras of Newsbud.com. 

What the coup against Jeremy Corbyn reveals about the Labour Party

Click here to access article by Chris Marsden from World Socialist Web Site.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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:

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.

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.

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.