The Campaign to Blame Putin for Everything

Click here to access article by Justin Raimondo from AntiWar.com.

I would go further than Raimondo does because I've never seen corporate media this bad over my adult lifespan of 60 years, and just when I think it has reached rock-bottom, it gets worse.

What we are seeing in this election season is a propaganda campaign the likes of which we haven’t experienced since the run up to the Iraq war. We are being buried in a veritable shit-storm of lies on a daily basis. Except that, this time, the target isn’t some third-rate Third World despot like Saddam Hussein, nor it is really Donald Trump, whose electoral prospects were never that great to begin with. Trump is just collateral damage – the real quarry is Vladimir Putin.

In concert with a bevy of exiled Russian oligarchs and Western “investors” who plundered Yeltsin-era Russia and were cut off from their orgy of lucrative looting by Putin, the historically Russophobic Clintons and their newfound neoconservative allies dream of regime change in Russia. The vast oil and mineral wealth to be found in Russia’s central Asian provinces and “near abroad,” is a tempting target for those who habitually combine profiteering with politics. The Clintons and their crony capitalist corporate benefactors are drooling at the prospect of looting a prostrate Russia, and Putin stands in their way. Therefore, he must go – and if they have to risk World War III in order to accomplish their goal, well then so be it.

The “Movement for Black Lives” unveils Platform courtesy of $100 million from parasitic capitalist organizations

Click here to access article by Aaron O'Neal from The Burning Spear.

Once again we see capitalist agents trying to control an organization by funding them. O'Neal argues that capitalists are already trying to control various African-American protest movements, most especially the Black Lives Matter (BLM) organization. In contrast to BLM, he favors Black is Back which has a long history of advocating Black power and Black community control over police forces.

Ironically, 50 years ago it was Stokely Carmichael who popularized the phrase "Black Power." This has widely been seen as the split that catapulted our movement from the opportunist demands of the Civil Rights Movement to the black power era that that swept the African community with such ferocity.

This movement was militarily defeated by the U.S. government with the killing of MLK 2 years later, Fred Hampton and destruction of our organizations through counterinsurgent attacks like the Black Panther Party.

Private funding sources were part and parcel [of] counterinsurgent attacks on our movement in the 1960s that lead to the defeat of our movement. We cannot relieve the mistakes of the past.

Humanity at Risk

Click here to access article by Stephen Lendman from The Greanville Post.

Referring to Einstein's warning back in 1946: "The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking, and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.", he writes:

Neocons in Washington represent the greatest threat to life on earth. If war against Russia or China is launched with nuclear weapons, Einstein’s dark prediction could become reality.

They’ll be no turning back. Extinction may follow or conditions so devastating for survivors they’ll wish they were dead – anything to end their unbearable suffering.

Valuing Education?

Click here to access article by economist Peter Radford from Real-World Economics Review Blog. 

Radford sifts through another article for solid numbers on the support of education in the last few decades to reveal that in spite of political campaign rhetoric the US, with a few exceptions, is declining in its support of education.

Corporate welfare

Click here if you wish to access the cartoon by Max Gustafson directly from his website. 

Mike Whitney on YouTube commenting on corporate media in relation to Brzezinski's change of views

This is a followup post of my post on August 25th of Whitney's article in CounterPunch.

Whitney devotes the first 3:23m of the 4:38m video to point out the total lack of reporting by corporate media of Brzezinski's startling change of views in regard to Russia. Following this is a film clip from a scene from the 1980s in which Brzezinski exhorts the Mujaheddin, the Empire's first Muslim terrorist army, to overthrow the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan which was supported militarily by the USSR (similar to Syria today).

What Syria's Kurds "Think" They are Fighting For Versus Reality

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

The use of Kurds by Western interests is a modern-day example of classical imperial divide and rule in motion. What the Kurds "think" they are fighting for is absolutely irrelevant versus what in reality they are being armed, organized, and used for by Western interests.

Unhealthy healthcare: double squeeze

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

While middle-income households are spending 25 percent more on health care, their real incomes actually fell 6.5 percent between 2007 and 2014, from $57,357 to $53,657.

Clearly, American workers are increasingly being squeezed by their employers at both ends—while they’re at work (since they’re working less and less time for themselves and more for their employers) and while they’re away from work (since they’ve been forced to assume a larger and larger share of the costs of their healthcare)

The GOP's Stealth War Against Voters

Click here to access article by Greg Palast from Rolling Stone.

Elections have always been held up as a primary feature of "democracy". However, our ruling capitalist class have learned over the years how to subvert that process of democracy. In this article Palast seems to focus narrowly on the GOP, and I question why.

It is no accident of history that our ruling capitalist class first restricted the vote to white property owning males. You see, our reverently referred to "Founding Fathers" (they have been deified) did this intentionally because they feared the rest of the population. At that time they discovered that mixing people into large voting areas tended to dilute any real democratic pressures from below. (Remember that roads were poor and the means of communication was limited.) It has been taught to us, along with a lot of other garbage, that the system of checks and balances that is a part of the design of our government was to protect against autocrats from coming to power. The truth is that the new American ruling class led by Hamilton and the banker Morris had a terrible fear of citizens and designed the new government to protect them from the "unwashed masses". (Read Unruly Americans by Woody Holton and An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States by Charles Beard.) 

Since then we have witnessed the extension of voting rights to most of the rest of the population, but this was only allowed because over time the capitalist class tightened their grip on the media and education to instill ideas that were favorable to their rule. They also used a variety of other tricks to subvert any meaningful democracy by their control over what political parties were allowed to participate, gerrymandering districts, poll taxes, and now with the purging of voter rolls. 

(If all else failed, they never hesitated to hire private hooligans (for example, the Pinkertons), or us the FBI, the National Guard (for example, the Kent State massacre) to insure that their interests and policies are protected. Nowadays they are using aggressive local police forces trained in crowd control by the Israelis.)

Judging by the extremely slanted coverage of the current presidential campaigns by corporate media, it is clear that the deep state wants Hillary Clinton as the figurehead president. Donald Trump is too much of a maverick who likely cannot be bought or intimidated to follow their orders. They will insure that Hillary is elected and that neoliberal and neoconservative interests are well represented in Congress.  

So the way that Palast frames this article, he seems to be promoting the idea that only Trump and the GOP are seeking to subvert the elections. This is only a shameful step away from promoting the idea that Hillary Clinton should be elected.

15 Years Later: On the Physics of High-Rise Building Collapses

Click here to access a free article by Steven Jones, Robert Korol, Anthony Szamboti, and Ted Walter published in a European science journal, Europhysics News. (You will need to access this article by clicking on the PDF format on the right side of the website post.)

In only six pages, which are filled with diagrams and pictures, the scientists summarize their investigation with this statement.

Conclusion

It bears repeating that fires have never caused the total collapse of a steel-framed high-rise before or since 9/11. Did we witness an unprecedented event three separate
times on September 11, 2001? The NIST [U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology] reports, which attempted to support that unlikely conclusion, fail to persuade a growing number of architects, engineers, and scientists. Instead, the evidence points overwhelmingly to the conclusion that all three buildings were destroyed by controlled demolition. Given the far-reaching implications, it is morally imperative that this hypothesis be the subject of a truly scientific and impartial investigation by responsible authorities.

This scientific examination of the 9/11 fairy tale, that our masters used to explain the tragedy, offers an excellent illustration of the power of our capitalist ruling class. They can even intimidate NIST, the nation's premiere scientific institution, to go along with their fairy tales. However a growing number of our scientists, engineers, and architects are beginning to challenge it on scientific grounds. The ruling class, although on the defensive, so far are not going after these people because they are counting on you to know longer care about 9/11. After all, they got what they wanted: an aggressive foreign policy that reserves the right to invade any country without Congressional approval, never-ending wars, the framework of a police state embodied in the Patriot Acts, and a dumbed-down and passive citizenry.

Big Pharma as capitalist enterprise

from Mad magazine.

Eva Bartlett Challenges the Corrupt Western Media’s Vision of Syria [followed by a genuine revolutionary idea]

Click here if you wish to access this 15:16m RT produced video interview with the Canadian activist, Eva Bartlett, directly from her website In Gaza. In the interview she reports on her observations while recently visiting Syria. Also from her website we learn that she is a...

Canadian activist/freelance journalist. I've lived cumulative ~3 years in Gaza, spent time in Lebanon and visited Syria 4 times since April 2014. Anti-zionist, anti-imperialist, pro-justice.

This article written by an independent observer on the ground in Syria got me thinking. It seems to me that many people are rather desperately looking for some progressive alternative to politics as is usually practiced in our nation and Canada. A new media organization with revolutionary potential could very well inspire and motivate these people. The next great idea that could satisfy this demand could be a radically organized independent media organization. It seems to me that many disaffected people in our two countries are ready to support such a venture. 

This could be accomplished by people setting up their own media organization supported with low cost subscriptions that are gathered from millions of Americans and Canadians who want reports from independent on-the-ground observers of events instead of propaganda pieces from corporate media that justify Empire policies and actions. It seems to me that this project could be initiated by staff from the many alternative media websites coming together to pool their resources and technical abilities in support of a new North American independent media organization instead of using a Russian media network as this interview does.

The makeup of this new media organization would incorporate a new radical revolutionary perspective that would be oriented around a bottom-up authority structure. It seems to me that local groups of subscribers could be formed across the US and Canada, and they in turn would elect representatives that would have the authority to hire and fire staff. The organization could make considerable use of the internet to mediate decisions instead of face-to-face meetings. 

Organizers would no doubt experience terrific opposition from corporate media and the ruling class, but this could be used to further raise the political consciousness of the brainwashed American and Canadian people.

Facing the Violence Organized by the Capitalist State

Click here to access article from The Spark. 

...to safeguard everything the capitalists have stolen from the population, government officials have beefed up the entire repressive state apparatus.

The police violence in Milwaukee is not an accident. It is just one arm of the violence imposed by the capitalist social and economic system on the entire working class, especially its most oppressed layers.

The same kinds of attacks that are taking place in Milwaukee are happening all across the country. But in Milwaukee, just as in Ferguson and Baltimore, people opposed themselves to the state apparatus that protects the capitalists’ profits.

The Happiness Industry by William Davies review – why capitalism has turned us into narcissists

Click here to access this book review by Terry Eagleton from The Guardian. 

In our own time, the concept of happiness has moved from the private sphere to the public one. As William Davies reports in this fascinating study, a growing number of corporations employ chief happiness officers, while Google has a “jolly good fellow” to keep the company’s spirits up. Maybe the Bank of England should consider hiring a jester. Specialist happiness consultants advise those who have been forcibly displaced from their homes on how to move on emotionally. Two years ago, British Airways trialled a “happiness blanket”, which turns from red to blue as the passenger becomes more relaxed so that your level of contentment is visible to the flight attendants. A new drug, Wellbutrin, promises to alleviate major depressive symptoms occurring after the loss of a loved one.

Life Itself Is Being Patented, Privatized and Re-engineered

Click here to access article by Mark Karlin from Truthout.

Karlin interviews Ashley Dawson, author of Extinction: A Radical History, about the ideas contained in his book. Dawson sees capitalism as the driving force behind the extinction of so many species.

Today’s mass extinction crisis is one of the clearest indications we have of the fundamental irrationality and destructiveness of the capitalist system.

Class struggle is our starting point

Click here to access article by Stephanie McMillan from her website.

...we must grasp that class struggle is not merely economic, and that its unfolding is not mechanically pre-determined, but must be a deliberate, comprehensive struggle against total social domination, involving the economic, political, and ideological fields. In other words, what is contested is not simply ownership and control and use of the means of production and the distribution of its output, but also political power, as well as the prevailing ideas with which we approach and interpret reality. These are intertwined and inseparable.

US “International Court” Ruling on China Falls Short

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

While the US is sure to resort to an array of punitive measures against the Philippines, as well as the rest of Southeast Asia for failing to enable its "primacy in Asia," one thing is certain. An "international tribunal" the entire world fails to recognize is no longer "international." The irrelevance of the US-backed tribunal is a harbinger of what's to come for the "international order" itself that the US poses as head of.

Hillary Clinton Is Spreading Islamist Extremism, Hillary’s Saudi Sponsors Support Terrorism

Click here to access article by Andre Vltchek from Global Research (Canada).

...the West embarked on a brutal, Machiavellian path: it decided to destroy socialist Islam – that (historically) moderate, compassionate and progressive religion. It smashed once secular Egypt; it overthrew the government in socialist Iran and then in near-Communist Indonesia, implanting in all these places horrifically degenerate and fully outdated religious concepts. It used extremists to destroy healthy patriotism and socialism. Like the Brits in the 19th Century..., the West embraced Wahhabi teaching, because it was able to guarantee full obedience, dictatorial (pro-Western) governance and oppressive feudalism.

Black August event wins support for Black Power 96.3 FM Radio

Click here to access article from Burning Spear News.

I offer this as an excellent example of a grassroots community coming together to organize their own media. Americans of African ancestry have organized their own radio station in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Our biggest goal was to raise $1000 in donations and pledges for Black Power 96 Radio during the Black August celebration.

Our team has an undying faith in the people, not only was our goal of $1000 met, but we nearly doubled the amount with $1800 raised! This was accomplished with the generous contributions from the attendees in the room, as well as the viewers online who watched live from theburningspear.com.

The community really responded to our message. They understood that having our own voice––our own radio station––is a critical form of resistance and part of the struggle to win self-determination.

The success of our Black August event clearly illustrates the power of the black community.

Capitalist ruling classes certainly know the importance of propaganda. They've invested billions in it throughout the world to infect people with their ideology and to dumb down people so that they will serve capitalist interests, not their own. 

Trump vs. Hillary: A Summation

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

In this article Roberts reflects the dilemma faced by most Americans in the upcoming election in November. Although he exhibits a great deal of confusion over what to do, he ultimately follows the old proverb: "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". He also ends up blaming the American people for allowing this to happen.

My position on this question is, as I have stated many times, that only a revolutionary movement can counter the increasing rightward trend toward fascism and possibly prevent a nuclear war. Because I always try to face the reality such as the facts that there is no viable revolutionary movement in the US and that voting is irrelevant, I am not very hopeful


Suppose Trump were elected as Roberts prefers. This would only be a minor hindrance in the rightward political trajectory. Trump would be assassinated and replaced with a more compliant figurehead president. Suppose the scenario that I described in a recent post was realized: that the deep state would suspend the election, or refuse to accept the outcome of the election, and appoint an executive to occupy the White House--nothing would change. Or suppose that Hillary was elected, as I think is the most likely outcome: the deep state would directly proceed with its imperialist and neoliberal policies abroad and privatization policies here at home. Possibly the best we can hope for is that the directors of the deep state would finally lose their nerve after suffering many defeats in their efforts to counter the growing power of their combined opposition represented by Russia, China, and other countries, and decide to pursue a policy of peaceful coexistence.

The only real, solid hope I see for this country and the world is that a revolutionary movement could develop in the aftermath of the election in time to make a difference. This is a slim hope. 

The Russia-Iran Strategic Game-Changer

Click here to access article by Pepe Escobar from Strategic Culture Foundation.

The Brazilian journalist and geopolitical analyst lays out an argument that an evolving coalition consisting of Russia, Syria, Iran, Iraq, China plus Hezbollah represent a "game-changer" in US Empire's plans for world domination.

I think he is right, but I worry how the hidden directors of the Empire will see this evolving threat to their plans. If they continue to receive setbacks to their imperial ambitions, will they in desperation respond with an all-out nuclear war against their rising opponents? Stay tuned, or better yet, stay active and informed so that you can be a positive influence for peace and social justice in the perilous days ahead.

Israeli think tank: Don’t destroy ISIS; it’s a “useful tool” against Iran, Hezbollah, Syria

Click here to access article by Ben Norton from Salon. 

I normally post the original article that other posts focus their attention on, but in this case Norton has a lot more information about the Israeli author and I have only one minor problem with his post.

The minor problem is his use of "fascist" twice to describe ISIS. In this context he uses the word only as a kind of curse word. I think words matter, and fascism should not be emptied of its meaning as a capitalist regime that rules using police state methods.

Otherwise Norton correctly sees that the conflicted views of the Israeli professor regarding the terrorist organization of ISIS as representing accurately the views of the Zionist regime in Israel, and by extension, the views of most Zionists here in the US. The professor's tortuous reasoning used to justify the existence of this terrorist organization is followed by this argument: if it is good for Israeli hegemony in the region, it is good.

...stability is not a value in and of itself. It is desirable only if it serves our interests. The defeat of IS would encourage Iranian hegemony in the region, buttress Russia’s role, and prolong Assad’s tyranny.

The Broken Chessboard: Brzezinski Gives up on Empire

Click here to access article by Mike Whitney from CounterPunch. (Amended on Aug. 30)

While Zbigniew Brzezinski’s article in The American Interest titled “Towards a Global Realignment” [because this can no longer be accessed at The American Interest website--access it here] has largely been ignored by the media, it shows that powerful members of the policymaking establishment no longer believe that Washington will prevail in its quest to extent US hegemony across the Middle East and Asia. Brzezinski, who was the main proponent of this idea and who drew up the blueprint for imperial expansion in his 1997 book The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives, has done an about-face and called for a dramatic revising of the strategy.

Even though Whitney backed his interpretation of Brzezinski’s new political orientation, I was so mystified by the dramatic change that I decided to read his article (which unfortunately I didn't post back in April when it was published). 

The inferences I draw from reading his article are slightly different than Whitney's who takes a rather superficial view of US politics. Although Whitney sees Brzezinski as influential, he attributes agency to official office holders like Obama and H. Clinton. In contrast I see a deep state (see this and this) that functions as decision makers behind the officials. The latter only serve to carry out orders of the deep state. In the past Brzezinski with his extreme hostility toward Russia has clearly served as a major actor in this deep state. However unless we see parallel changes in the conduct of current US foreign policies, one can only conclude that he is no longer a major influence in deep state circles. Thus far I have seen no changes. 

This could be an indication that the Zionist faction, aka "neocons", are now in command of the deep state. Thus one should look at the continuing conduct of US foreign affairs and the support placed on this conduct by corporate media to decide who controls the deep state and place much less importance on the political campaign statements made by H. Clinton.

Otherwise Brzezinski’s article shows considerable insight about changes in the global power struggle for dominance.  His Polish aristocratic background is illustrated in the article with his global power chessboard perspective and the importance he places on maintaining global order. Ruling class people always think that in the absence of their rule social chaos would ensue. 

The article also demonstrates an unusual (for him) awareness of the crimes committed by powerful nations against colonial peoples, and an awareness of the imminent problem of climate destabilization and the need for united action against its effects. Absolutely amazing!

Hats Off To Mother Jones [and privatization of public services]

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

The first part relates to the headline by applauding the Mother Jones' investigation of privatized prisons which, if you read the link to their report, you will find quite disturbing. But then he puts this in the context of a more general trend of privatization promoted by the compulsively wealth seeking ruling class. 

Being a retired person trying to live on Social Security benefits, I was especially drawn to his remarks about this subject. 

Republicans intend to privatize Medicare and Social Security. The road to Medicare privatization is the small percentage of medical billings that Medicare pays. Medical care providers are beginning to find that it is unprofitable to provide care to Medicare patients. When doctors cease to provide care under Medicare, the massive payroll tax revenues will be diverted into the hands of “more efficient” private providers.

The road to Social Security privatization is the “reform” of the consumer price index, which under-measures inflation in order to deny Social Security recipients cost-of-living-adjustments. The continuing decline in the real value of Social Security benefits will result in large-scale economic distress. This distress will be used to discredit the Social Security system and to privatize it.

I can personally attest to the validity of the above statement. My cost of just my living quarters in a one bedroom apartment has increased over the past 10 years by 75.2% while my Social Security benefits have only increased 18.2% for the same period. And I have been unable to find a private practice doctor who will take me on as a patient once they learn that I don't have additional private insurance.

Unhealthy healthcare

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

Given the high costs of U.S. healthcare, insurance is obviously the way most Americans are able to gain some kind of access to the health system.

According to the latest (January–March 2015) National Health Interview Survey (pdf), about two-thirds of Americans below the age of 65 rely on private health insurance. The rest either don’t have health insurance coverage (10.7 percent) or have some kind of public health plan (24.2 percent).

The problem is, even without the latest proposed mega-mergers, the U.S. private health- insurance industry is already highly concentrated.

The Bogus ‘Humanitarian’ War on Serbia

Click here to access article by John Pilger from ConsortiumNews.

The lies of the Empire will inevitably be revealed, but often only many years later. And then when we finally learn the true story of their crimes, corporate media provides very little coverage. Slowly the deceptions about 9/11 are being reported in alternative media while corporate media totally ignores such reports. 

Pilger provides an accurate history of the dissolution of Yugoslavia by the Empire which became a model strategy used to destabilize other countries. 

This was the model for Washington’s subsequent invasions of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and, by stealth, Syria. All qualify as “paramount crimes” under the Nuremberg standard; all depended on media propaganda. [my emphasis]

Aleppo prepares for a major battle and the Kurds in Syria are attracting everybody’s animosity.

Click here to access article by Elijah J. Magnier from his blog.

I believe that this journalist, who I remember is a Kuwaiti journalist, offers what I believe is a most accurate portrayal of a very confusing war situation in Syria. US corporate media takes advantage of this confusion by adding more confusing reports to cover for US's balkanization strategy by attempting to create "safe zones" in Syria to weaken the Syrian government. One major component of this strategy is their support of Syrian Kurds with air support and ground military advisors. Magnier also gives an updated report on the Syrian situation following the recent deterioration of relations between Turkey and the US. 

Numerous articles started appearing in alternative websites--and I have posted some of them (here, here, here, and here)--which saw the Syrian Kurds as very progressive, frequently comparing their struggles with the republican left during the Spanish Civil War and portraying the region as a bastion of women's rights. Earlier this year I began to form a more accurate picture of what was really going on. 

Such groups present ideal opportunities for US Empire strategists to support (or cynically use) them because their aspirations fit well with the Empire's strategy of balkanization of independent countries. So when the struggles of these groups in the latter countries no longer align with the hegemonic goals of the Empire, they will inevitably be betrayed.

So I think there is a lesson to be learned from this and the many cases of NGOs/non-profit organizations that have been funded by the rich ruling class or indirectly from the US government: never take money or other support from such sources under any circumstances.

The new form of climate destabilization denial

by cartoonist Patrick Bagley.

Since Hurricane Sandy in 2012 attacked the central region of the US Empire, corporate media's denial of climate destabilization has taken another form: pretending that the extreme weather we are experiencing is completely normal.

Propaganda for Syrian ‘Regime Change’ [best article of the month]

Click here to access article by Rick Sterling from ConsortiumNews. 

This is a perfect antidote to all the poison being spewed by corporate media in support of further escalation of the US military campaign in Syria. He has supplied an abundance of links to solid independent sources that put the lie to Western propaganda. If you give a damn about war and peace and about honest information, then you must pass this piece on to those of your friends and neighbors whose minds are not totally brainwashed by corporate media.

For London, propaganda is an art

Click here to access article by Thierry Meyssan from VoltaireNet (France). 

Just as in all wars, the war against Syria has triggered an avalanche of propaganda. And the use of children is always a winning strategy.

Confronting the Violence of the State

Click here to access article an editorial from The Spark. 

During two nights in mid-August, on Milwaukee’s north side, angry crowds pelted the police with rocks and bottles, smashed police cars, while several businesses were engulfed in flame.

As usual, the police, the politicians, the media, and the supposed experts called this “a riot.” They decried the so-called “senseless violence.”

Yet, their police are armed to the teeth. And when police unleash their violence on a regular basis, these same authorities, politicians and news media don’t condemn it. They don’t decry the “senseless violence” of the police. No, they justify it!

And that’s exactly what happened after the Milwaukee police shot and killed 23-year-old Sylville K. Smith during a routine traffic stop.

Autonomous Co-ops, Planning, and the State: Some Considerations for Cuba's Economic Transition

Click here to access article by Al Campbell from Grassroots Economic Organizing. 

I don't like the way this article is written, but it is important, especially for Cubans, to discuss what kind of society they want. I will offer only some brief problems I had with the article.

First of all, there was no introduction to identify the writer. Then there were indications that this was a talk, but where and when was never specified. It was only later that I learned he was a professor at a US university. Also it seemed to me that the content was poorly organized. Basically, I think that he tries to do too much by weaving in abstract remarks about what socialism is with specific problems that coops can pose for a society.

I'm reasonably sure that many such discussions are going on in Cuba; but living in the US, I have no access to this knowledge. It would be very interesting to learn what is currently going on there.

Will fascism come to America in November? A conspiracy theory to consider

by Ron Horn for this blog. (Amended at 3 PM 8-22 and 10 AM 8-23 Seattle time.)

It occurred to me recently that political conditions are very conducive for a fascist coup to take direct control of the government. I put it his way because I am certain that a deep state exists that indirectly controls the government behind a democratic facade of the official government. The deep state (see this and this) are made up of hidden actors connected to major banks and industrial corporations. This deep state arose from bourgeois democracy and its power became especially concentrated after WWII with the growth of secret agencies. They clearly demonstrated their power with the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, his brother Bobbie, and Martin Luther King a few years later.

So what is fascism? This is probably the most abused and obscured word in the English language, and that's for good reasons: to provide cover for capitalist rule at its ugliest. It is capitalist rule via a police state. So if you understand fascism as capitalist class rule plus a police state, then you know what fascism is. It's really that simple. 

Now consider the fact that elections are becoming a huge expense for our capitalist ruling class; consider that the most hideous crime so far in the 21st century was the 9/11 event and that a substantial portion of the citizenry do not believe the official story and suspect some kind of

government involvement (see this, this, this, and this), and that there are many organizations putting tremendous pressure on government authorities to re-investigate the event; and that both candidates for president are disliked by the majority of Americans: Hillary Clinton for her email scandal and connections with the Benghazi debacle, and of course Trump for his outlandish buffoonery and racism.

I ask you: what is a capitalist ruling class to do under such conditions? Well, one very convenient answer would be a coup to install a "benevolent" dictator to solve the problem. Of course, this would be covered by corporate media as only a temporary measure and one that was necessary under the circumstances. They would convince most Americans that it was a blessing given that both candidates were not suitable for this office. We probably wouldn't notice any change for a while, but eventually most of the official apparatus of representative government and civil liberties would disappear and we would find ourselves living in a total police state.

Please understand that I am not predicting this outcome, but it is something to mull over in our minds--as if we didn't have enough to worry about already!

How We Know ISIS was 'MADE IN THE USA

Click here to access article by Roger Stone from LewRockwell.com.

The sources he cites have been reported before, but he puts them all together in one article. And, of course, you must know that as puppets of the ruling class, Obama and H. Clinton were only following orders from the ruling class directorate to create ISIS, and as such were not responsible as the author alleges.

Arctic Death Rattle

Click here to access article by Robert Hunziker from CounterPunch.

As of August 17th U.S. Naval Research Lab measurements of Arctic sea ice over a 30-day period “shows that the multi-year sea ice has now virtually disappeared,” Storms over Arctic Ocean, Arctic News, August 19, 2016. This means the Arctic has lost its infrastructure. It’s gone.

The 21st Century Doesn't Need a New Deal -- It Needs a New Economic Model

Click here to access article by C.J. Polychroniou from TruthOut.

For those of us who decided long ago the question of whether reform of the capitalism or the construction of a new system was needed to solve the many crises of capitalism, this article may seem sophomoric. Still, that is where many on the left in the US are today in their political thinking. The author in this article attempts to move these people from a reformist position to a radical position.

The Obamacare Death Spiral

Click here to access article from The Polemicist.

He addresses the reasons why major insurers such as United Health, Aetna, and Humana are dropping out of the Affordable Care Act. It appears that they are not making enough money.

...the insurance companies and the business press focus on what was always the real measure of Obamacare’s success: whether it can provide sufficient profitability. The defection of large insurers means that Obamacare is failing in this, always its prime, objective, and, as Sally C. Pipes puts it, for CNBC: the "death spiral" has arrived. It is not—It was never going to be!—the objections of liberal or conservative critics, but the objections, and ultimately the withdrawal, of its founding business partners, that would put an end to Obamacare. The point of this program is to allow the private health insurance companies to make more profits. If they don’t, it fails, in its own real capitalistic (as opposed to its ostensible humanitarian) terms. That day has come. 

Rock-solid carbon storage hopes rise

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

Because capitalist ruling class humans cannot lessen their use of relatively cheap fossil fuels while pursuing their drugs of profits and power, they are desperately looking for magical solutions. Could this "rock-solid carbon storage" qualify as one?

...since carbon dioxide emissions from the cities and power station chimneys of the planet are driving global warming, sea level rise and potentially catastrophic climate change, humans must either drastically reduce fossil fuel use or find ways of capturing carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion.

And since international action so far − despite firm promises and declared intentions – looks like falling short of the reductions required, scientists keep checking the other possible options.

Arctic faces ‘boom’ in shipping as ice melts

Click here to access article by Bryan Comer and Naya Olmer from Climate Home.

...while Arctic shipping may bring economic benefits to both local communities, in the form of increased trade and tourism revenue, and to the global economy, through the ability to ship goods via shorter routes, the environmental risks are undeniable.

Another post on the same topic might interest you. It's entitled "As The World Burns, The Rich Cruise In Luxury Through A Melting Arctic" from Huffington Post.

Student financing for higher education in the US

by cartoonist Dave Granlund.

Cooperatives in Socialist Construction: Commoners and Cooperators Key to Cuba's 21st Century Socialism

Click here to access article by Cliff DuRand from Grassroots Economic Organizing.

As Cuba re-establishes relations with the North American giant capitalist society, it is also undergoing social experiments to create a socialist society that is sustainable in the present century. Because the two are incompatible, Cubans must be on their guard to protect what they love about living in a socialist society no matter how imperfect it presently is. I wish them luck because they are going to need it with the North American giant doing everything it can to transform it back into a gambling casino and brothel for rich North Americans to play in.

Whereas capitalism focuses on the benefits to individual families, socialism attempts to create a social consciousness based on a commitment to society as a whole. Thus I believe the following reasoning is not valid logically, nor empirically on the basis of the Yugoslavian experience.

...commoners must identify themselves as a community sharing the common resource and thus feel a commitment to its proper governance, i.e. for the common good.  This is the foundation of a democratic governance of the commons. 

These are precisely the conditions that obtain in a worker cooperative.

To construct a society using cooperatives competing according to market principles will only result in people merely identifying with their cooperatives, not with society as a whole. This is the crucial dilemma, that is, to get ordinary people to "...identify themselves as a community sharing the common resource and thus feel a commitment to its proper governance, i.e. for the common good". As I see it, only by solving this problem is there any hope that humans can survive. 

There cannot be groups of people who have significantly more power than others because this is a condition fertile for exploitation of the powerful over the powerless. Kinship ties have predominated among humans since they settled into agricultural communities and capitalism has even weakened these ties by its emphasis on the nuclear family and their "ownership" of a society's economy. As a result we have families like the Rockefellers and Bill Gates running the world to promote their interests while the great mass of humans experience poverty, ill health, ignorance, and shortened life spans.

Still, I recommend this article because it encourages discussions about these important issues.

9/11 Free Fall 8/18/16: Ted Walter and Tony Szamboti Address Latter's Letter to Prof. Bažant

Click here if you wish to access this interview directly from YouTube--produced by AE911Truth. 

There are a number of organizations that challenge the official story (as in fairy-tale) about what happened on 9/11/2001 in New York City (see this for a list of them) that approach the controversy from different points of view. AE911Truth is an organization of around 1500 architects, structural and civil engineers who have examined the official account and have found that it is simply not credible.

In this 58:13m interview from their Free Fall podcast, the program host interviews two such professionals about two upcoming events their organization is planning for the 15th anniversary of this tragic and mysterious event: the distribution of a booklet to 35,000 structural and civil engineers challenging the official 9/11 story from a physics point of view, and discussion of the upcoming Justice in Focus symposium in New York City to study issues about how to proceed with legal actions. The first topic is introduced by discussing an open letter to Zdeněk Bažant who provided a scientific explanation in support of the official story, but AE911Truth experienced a futile attempt to publish an article in an engineering journal in which they took issue with his explanation.

Six maps that will make you rethink the world

Click here to access article which features an interview by Ana Swanson of The Washington Post with Parag Khanna, a globalist.

The life thus far for Khanna illustrates how those who serve the ruling directorate of the US Empire can move anywhere in the world that pleases them while ordinary people face all kinds of barriers to their movement. But not to worry--he promises that, along with many other good things, this will change in the future.

I am posting this article from one of the two chief media sources of the Empire because it features how the capitalist directorate of the Empire thinks and, more importantly, want us to think about the future. By reading it you will learn that they expect explosive growth in population to be concentrated in mega-cities throughout the world and that we will live in a world that is "four degrees Celsius above the 1990 baseline"!

He then goes on to reveal what splendid opportunities this will present for commerce and investment banks, and of course, jobs. What he doesn't tell you is what disasters lie ahead given these conditions. Of course, he has sold his soul to the people who have rewarded him with so many opportunities: the capitalist ruling class of the Empire.

From Stable to Star – The Making of North American “Climate Heroes”

Click here to access article by Cory Morningstar from Wrong Kind of Green.

In this lengthy article Morningstar reveals how the capitalist directorate has extended their control over the "green" movement. This is an illustration of how they make sure that every important institution and movement in society serves--or at least doesn't threaten--their interests of profits and power. 

Many activists will be fully indoctrinated long before they have a chance to fully develop their own thought processes, ideologies and identities. The Green Corps Field School for Environmental Organizing” is where non-profits send their recruits to groom them for “a career in environmental organizing”.  Launched in 1992 by U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), which is funded in part by the Tides Foundation, Alumni/alumna includes Bill McKibben (350), Phil Radford (Greenpeace), Lisa Archer (Friends of the Earth, an NGO which has been represented on the Ceres Board of Directors since inception) and even Ceres senior associates such as Eleanor Fort. Green Corps is explicitly for “college seniors and recent graduates.” Seasoned activists need not apply. It is of interest to note that the aforementioned founder of Power Shift, and Green Corps Alumni, Phil Radforth, serves as a board member of Green Corps. 

Bush Administration Official: Saudi Ties to 9/11 Hidden to Protect Iraq War Narrative

Click here to access article by Brian P. McGlinchey from 28Pages.org.

I believe that it was the unceasing pressure from this organization and others allied to it that finally forced the ruling class directorate to release the heavily redacted 28 missing pages of the report issued by the 9/11 Commission. The author quotes extensively from statements of Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, Chief of Staff to retired General Colin Powell whose testimony to the UN was full of phony statements connecting Iraq with weapons of mass destruction.

As they prepared that pivotal address, Wilkerson says he and Powell were under constant pressure to include claims that al Qaeda was linked to the Iraqi government.

“You couldn’t kill it. We tried. We put a stake in that ten times, and it kept raising its head. The vice president would not turn it loose,” says Wilkerson. “That’s part of why they tortured people to try to and get more information on the connections between al Qaeda and Baghdad. It’s part of why they shifted their interrogation focus away from another attack on the United States to connections between al Qaeda and Baghdad—and anything that reinforced that, anything that made their case for war more ‘legitimate’ and more acceptable to the American people, they wanted.”

America’s Journalistic Hypocrites

Click here to access article by Robert Parry from ConsortiumNews. 

Reading this piece is a tedious exercise in naiveté. So why am I posting it? --you might very well ask.

My answer is that what Parry is writing about is the "journalism" that is produced by US corporations otherwise known as mainstream media. I put journalism in quotes to imply that corporate media do not engage in real journalism. It is propaganda that is produced by corporations to serve the interests of the ruling capitalist class who own corporate media. Thus their stories are inconsistent and deceptive simply because they need to deceive us so that we cooperate with their policies of exploitation and war-making.

Over the past few decades, the U.S. mainstream media has failed the American people in a historic fashion by spinning false or misleading narratives on virtually every important global issue, continuing to this day to guide the nation into destructive and unnecessary conflicts.

 So, what else could one expect? And, it is not just the "past few decades" that this has been going on--this has been the case since ruling classes have existed. But it is only since the 1920s that the science of propaganda has become so sophisticated.

Well, you see, the problem is not only corporate media, but a tiny class of people who control every institution of our society and insure that these institutions conform to their needs. But this is the rub: most ordinary people are so brainwashed by their ruling class controllers that they have little accurate understanding of this basic reality. 

Our masters learned long ago that if a lie is repeated often enough, people will believe it. Nowadays these lies are not only repeated endlessly, but they come from every institution of society. This reality is, of course, vigorously suppressed by our controllers who make absolutely certain that the majority of Americans are never infected with this awareness-virus. Parry represents a small minority who know they are being lied to, but can't figure it out because he (and they) has been inoculated against ever understanding the basic reality of class rule. Hence his myopic historical perspective sees the cause of this in only the past few decades, and he views it as solely due to the influence of neoconservatives who have entered the government. Unfortunately, this article is an illustration of what too often passes for a dissident view in alternative websites.

If Parry had been truly educated and exposed to real US history by reading books like those in my recommended reading list (see the section of my blog: "Some Books to Liberate Your Mind"), he would easily understand why US policies are defended so inconsistently and deceptively by corporate media. But the vast majority of Americans don't read books, and the few they read are usually endorsed by corporate media. Their education in US public schools rarely expose them to such books or material.

Inciting Wars the American Way

Click here to access article by Todd E. Pierce from Antiwar.com. 

...think tanks are constantly engaged in the sort of activities which the Defense Department identifies as “Information War” when conducted by foreign countries that are designated by the U.S. as an enemy at any given moment.

Information warfare uses disinformation and propaganda to condition a population to hate a foreign nation or population with the intent to foment a war, which is the routine “business” of the best known U.S. think tanks.

Rat Race

by an anonymous cartoonist from Manchester, UK. 

America’s Illegal Wars of Conquest. Terrorist Embedded Propagandists, Demonizing the Target Countries

Click here to access article by Mark Taliano from Global Research. 

The propaganda lies, the false flags,  the terrorist-embedded NGOs , and the use of terrorist proxies to criminally destroy one country after another, is not only empowering terrorism world-wide, but it is also leading us to engineered conflict with nuclear-armed countries, in particular,  Russia.

NED, the Legal Window of the CIA

Click here to access article by Thierry Meyssan from VoltaireNet.

This morning I debated whether to post this article or not. It has the usual awkwardness characteristic of translations that his articles have shown in the past--perhaps less so--but what is really confounding his analysis is a lack of a significant class analysis of the issues. I think that this weakness is characteristic of so many other political analysts especially in the West, and it is testimony to the success of capitalist ideological indoctrination that has gone to great lengths to suppress any kind of class analysis for obvious reasons. The theoretical understanding of the development of societies particularly during the past 1000 years has been considerably advanced by Karl Marx and many others, but you wouldn't know it by reading the analyses of most Western social theorists, especially those whose articles are published in mainstream and even much of alternative media. 

In this article one must go to great lengths to separate the wheat of factual information about the use of ideological weapons represented by the NGOs of the US Empire from the explanatory chaff that he attempts of offer. I will leave it to you to do this. I will only contribute to this effort by claiming that you can dismiss his selective history of the US as a significant causal factor.

New Era of Global Collective Psychosis

Click here to access article by Gilbert Mercier from News Junkie Post. 

I think that this was written to those of us who see we humans hurtling unthinkingly to our doom. As such it is a very somber piece that largely expresses the feelings of us who are aware of the current disturbing zeitgeist created by the "Empire of Chaos" that appears to be carrying us, along with the Empire's tiny capitalist class, to the end-time of humans. Their overwhelming command of wealth has given them overwhelming power to control events and thus control our minds. It seems that their daily dose of terror delivered to us via corporate TV networks has left us humans acting much like immobilized deer staring at the headlights of an oncoming vehicle. 

The media brainwasher/propagandists have powerful bullhorns and are always hard at work to keep their vast audience either uninformed, anxious, and feeling powerless or entertained. The news cycle has to spin so fast that critical thinking is never an option.

But wait, there's more! (You see, even people like myself have been infected with the memes of capitalist culture.) I think Mercier is also shouting in our collective ears to wake up, to act, and to save ourselves!

The CFR is “the most powerful private organization in the United States…“ [a best post]

Click here if you wish to access the introduction of an interview with historian Laurence Shoup who was interviewed by Lar Schall's and posted on his website that I've reproduced below.

I regard Shoup as the best informed person on what I regard as a key part of the "deep state" which really exercises control behind the official organs of government. I don't usually post interviews of this length, but knowledge about the real centers of power of the US-led Empire is vital for everyone to know about.

Liberal Antiwar Activism is the Problem

Click here to access article by Vincent Emanuele from CounterPunch. 

My god, I love this guy's writing! I love hearing such a sane, youthful mind trying to figure out what is happening among those who identify as activists. I found it quite disturbing, but revealing. I don't know if the biblical notion that "ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free"--something that I learned in Sunday school many years ago--is true or not, but I've since learned that without the truth, nothing good is possible. It appears to me that  Emanuele has written the truth about a major part of the current state of activism in the US.

I think that identity politics has been a vitally important issue for young people to solve because I well remember some of our own weaknesses as we engaged in anti-Vietnam War activities on a major university campus. I particularly remember that the male leadership, of which I was a part, ignoring the participation of women in our movement. And we didn't make any effort to reach out to other than European Americans. (Gay people really didn't exist as legitimate people! And bisexual people simply weren't recognized.) Since then considerable progress has been made to rid activism of this divide and conquer strategy that has been used so effectively against working people throughout US history. It is no longer the major problem dividing and conquering us, and certainly not one that deserves primary focus by any activist group. Racist, feminist, and sexual orientation and identity issues must be seen as issues of equality that cannot be solved under capitalism simply because there can be no equality under a system that privileges one tiny class of people over the rest of societies, and in class structured societies that place production for profit as its central focus (read this article entitled "On the 'woman question'".)

Emanuele explains to us that agents of the capitalist class are doing their best, either consciously or unconsciously, to deter young activists from focusing on the Empire's crimes against people abroad (read this for a current illustration) and their crimes against working people domestically by funding and encouraging activist groups to be preoccupied with the these identity issues. This preoccupation has got to stop, and Emanuele's article represents an important contribution in this effort. 

The only way this is going to stop is by working people supporting their own media by pooling together millions of small contributions. Activist organizations simply must examine their sources of funding and not take one dime whose ultimate source is the ruling capitalist class.

Promises of taxes and jobs in US elections

by cartoonist David Horsey. 

Campaigners for political office in US elections always make these promises. Targeting Trump is simply a strategy used by the directors of the ruling capitalist class to insure that their favored candidate, Hillary Clinton, gets elected. Both candidates are abominable. 

Rethinking The Cold War and the new one

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

Roberts never ceases to amaze me. This former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration can pack more profound truths in one article than I have ever seen done by any another informed political observer. Most profound and disturbing of all is his observation that a nuclear war is much more likely now than in the earlier Cold War--and I think he is right. 

His only failing is that he argues that a "handful" of individuals--instead of an entire economic system--are responsible for the crimes of the Empire. It is the system that serves a capitalist class with so much wealth and power that is the driving force behind their aggressive policies and actions.

‘Politically Correct’ Rio Olympics Amid Anti-Russia Cold War Hysteria

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

The Rio Olympics have...been turned into an anti-Russian morality play whose purpose is a base politicized objective.

The heavy-handed suppression of legitimate Brazilian protests against an unconstitutional would-be imposter-president – in the name of "keeping politics out of sports" – is absurdly conducted amidst an international spectacle of subverting the very same Olympic games into a Russia-bashing event.

Like bread and circuses of ancient Rome, we are expected to believe that the "great and good" are nobly entertaining the masses with sporting fun – with an event that has been thoroughly contaminated by toxic politics.

Rockefeller, Ford Foundations Behind World Social Forum (WSF). The Corporate Funding of Social Activism

Click here to access article by Michel Chossudovsky from Global Research.

The author has "outed" the World Social Forum. This is an excellent example of one primary method that the ruling class uses to control dissent: co-optation.

While  there have been many important accomplishments of the WSF, largely as a result of the commitment of grassroots activists, the core leadership of WSF  –rather than effectively confronting the New World Order elites– serves (often unwittingly) their corporate interests. In this process, co-optation has been achieved through the corporate funding of the WSF.

Revolution: there is no formula

Click here to access article by Stephanie McMillan from her website.

Capitalism, even in deep crisis, will never cease struggling to adapt and grow. It will not collapse or dismantle itself, until it destroys the planet and everyone on it. So it falls on us to destroy it. In destroying capitalism, we construct something new. Revolution is the total transformation of the way everything is produced, the social relations of domination that go along with it, and the ways of thinking that keep us trapped.

Cooperatives becoming bigger part of Cuba’s reforms

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

The Cuban government and the Cuban people are trying to find a path forward to make socialist principles work while facing the overwhelming power of their nearby capitalist neighbor. Many people in Cuba and elsewhere see cooperatives as a means to a better life both economically and politically. Other people in Cuba see threats that cooperatives operating in a market environment pose for socialist egalitarian, participatory principles. And as I recall, such threats posed problems in the former Yugoslavia. Anyway, Dolack explores these important issues by examining what is happening in Cuba.

It is my view that as long as capitalism exists in any advanced country, socialist experiments will have very difficult struggles even surviving much less defeating their arch enemies among capitalist countries. Capitalism in any advanced form means, and has always meant, the exploitation of workers by a tiny class of capitalists. Only a worldwide revolution against the capitalist system can create conditions for a decent, sustainable human existence.

What CIA Director Michael Hayden told President-Elect Barack Obama

Click here to access article from World Socialist Web Site.

This article furnishes more examples of evidence that, together with mountains of other evidence, prove the existence of a deep state that really controls US government policies behind a facade of an official government.

Exposing US-Funded "NGOs"

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

The author(s) illustrate how an NGO supported by US funding has penetrated Myanmar's Ministry of Information via training of their staff. Then details are provided about another US-funded NGO media organization in nearby Thailand that is involved in political affairs and is in close contact with the US Embassy.

There are a number of foreign NGOs that provide non-political services to aid their host countries, but the US has been increasingly using them to subvert host countries to align with US foreign policy interests. This, of course, means aligning them with the neoliberal and hegemonic interests of the US-led Empire's capitalist class.

Host countries need to learn some basic lessons about NGOs:

To put it simply, any organisation or institution serves only the interests of those who support it. An NGO supported by local donations and volunteers serves its local community. A foreign-funded organisation posing as an NGO serves foreign interests.

And simpler still, an organisation funded by a foreign government cannot possibly be characterised as "nongovernmental." Even at face value, this notion strains credibility. 

A Rush to Judgment on Russian Doping

Click here to access article by Rick Sterling from ConsortiumNews. 

Sterling reveals bias by key witnesses, lack of public disclosure of email evidence, and no independent corroboration of the opening of the test bottles by Russian authorities. With the banning of so many Russian athletes and accusations of Russian government illegal support for doping happening along with so many other Western propaganda attacks against Russia makes these allegations highly suspicious. 

So, let us meet Richard McClaren as he answered questions posed to him by RT, the Russian counterpart to PBS. (I've had considerable difficulty in sustaining access to RT. Don't know if the US is blocking this website or if there is some other problem. Anyway the link is here.)

Is the Oil Industry Dying?

Click here to access article by Richard Heinberg from Pacific Standard.

I've been waiting quite a while to hear from one of the peak oil theorists to respond to the current oil glut and low prices. This article is an excellent response.

Money is effectively a marker for energy, and we can borrow and spend money now on costly energy with the promise that we will pay for it later (hence the massive build-up of debt in the oil industry). But if cheaper-to-produce energy and higher prices don’t emerge soon, those debts will eventually become transparently un-repayable. Hence what is inherently an energy crisis can appear to most observers to be a debt crisis.

The problem of eroding energy profitability is hard to deal with partly because the decline is happening so fast. If we had a couple of decades to prepare for falling thermodynamic efficiency, there are things we could do to soften the blow. That’s what the peak oil discussion was all about: It was an effort to warn society ahead of time. Once the dynamic of declining energy profitability really gets rolling, adaptation becomes much more difficult.

Russia’s Weakness Is Its Economic Policy — Paul Craig Roberts and Michael Hudson

Click here to access an article written by two well informed people on economic issues.

My only criticism of their views is that I don't think that the post Soviet Union's rulers were naive. On the contrary, they were sociopaths who were excited about all the opportunities that the collapse of the bureaucratic socialist regime provided them. In the confusion of the collapse they went to work to enrich themselves by selling off at bargain prices most of the publicly owned industries to themselves, their friends, and institutions regardless of who these individuals and institutions were and whose interests they ultimately served. (Read Sale of the Century by Chrystia Freeland.) 

And it seems clear from the observations of these two distinguished authors that the same sociopaths still hold key positions in the Russian government and are acting against Russian interests. President Putin, on the other hand, is a nationalist who has awakened to the threat that the Empire's neoliberal weapon poses for the independence of Russia. It was only when his independence-oriented government took over that Russia became an enemy to the Empire. Of course, this is true of any government that tries to pursue policies of independence separate from those of the hegemonic US-led Empire.

Apparently, Russia’s neoliberals are insensitive to the threat that Washington and its European vassals pose to the Russian state. On the basis of lies Washington has imposed economic sanctions on Russia. This political demonization is as fictitious as is the neoliberal economic propaganda.  On the basis of such lies, Washington is building up military forces and missile bases on Russia’s borders and in Russian waters.  Washington seeks to overthrow former Russian or Soviet provinces and install regimes hostile to Russia, as in Ukraine and Georgia.  Russia is continually demonized by Washington and NATO.  Washington even politicized the Olympic games and prevented the participation of many Russian athletes.

How climate change will sink China’s manufacturing heartland

Click here to access article by David Spratt and Shane White from Climate Code Red (Australia).

The authors argue that conservative biases regarding the effects of climate change are glaring in studies done by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and in the Chinese government policies of development both existing and planned. Thus the authors conclude:

It seems astounding that the Chinese government could oversee such a disaster-in-waiting as the rapid industrialisation of the Pearl River Delta. The PRD [key industrial zone] megacity looks like planned insanity. Developments are going ahead without any systematic reference to climate change impacts.

Will the PRD, when it is inundated too often, simply be abandoned after government policy has overseen the inward migration of up to 120 million people to the area by mid-century?

Perhaps then it will be said that China’s manufacturing heartland was sunk by a catastrophic failure of government planning and the failure to integrate known climate change impacts into economic and climate policy. 

Toward Democratic Eco-socialism as the Next World System

Click here to access article by Hans A. Baer from The New System Project.

In this somewhat lengthy essay, Baer, an anthropologist, argues for the necessity of an eco-socialist future. As such I believe it mixes a lot of reformist ideas, organizations, and personalities with more historical socialist writers to produce an academic and luke-warm version of a call for revolution. It is light on revolutionary strategies and rather heavy on future ideas about how we should live sustainably in a new system. 

For me the essay is more typical of an academic's call for revolution in that such calls are in the abstract while being very light on the immediate political strategies and tactics necessary to overthrow the existing system of capitalism. I think this is because of the upper-middle class nature of an academic. He/she is well rewarded within the capitalist supervised academic subsystem while requiring some ideological compromises to survive. As long as they confine themselves to abstract criticisms of capitalism while promoting idealistic ideas, they tend to be safe and secure in their careers. 

Perhaps I'm being a little unfair. You, as an independent thinking person, will have to decide for yourself.

WATCH: Julian Assange Suggests Murdered DNC Staffer Seth Rich, Was Source for WikiLeaks

Click here to access article by Matt Agorist from The Free Thought Project. 

While Clinton’s control over the mainstream press keeps these ominous details from the public, the suspicious deaths are undeniable. What they show us is that is indeed dangerous to portray Clinton in a negative light.

Canadian police “manufactured” terror plot to ensnare couple

Click here to access article by Roger Jordan from World Socialist Web Site. 

Here is another illustration of police enticement and entrapment that was exposed just over the border with Washington state in Vancouver, British Columbia.

In a damning judgment, British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Catherine Bruce ruled Friday that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) broke the law and “manufactured” a terrorism plot as part of a months-long entrapment operation that ended in a Vancouver-area couple being arrested and ultimately sentenced to life in prison.

John Nuttall and Amanda Korody were arrested July 1, 2013 and accused of planting bombs on the grounds of the British Columbia legislature in Victoria.

But Justice Bruce found that the couple would never have taken any action had it not been for the active encouragement and coercion of undercover RCMP officers.

U.S. Health Care from a Global Perspective

Click here to access article by David Squires and Chloe Anderson from The Commonwealth Fund. 

Americans appear to be greater consumers of medical technology, including diagnostic imaging and pharmaceuticals.

The U.S. stood out as a top consumer of sophisticated diagnostic imaging technology. Americans had the highest per capita rates of MRI, computed tomography (CT), and positron emission tomography (PET) exams among the countries where data were available. The U.S. and Japan were among the countries with the highest number of these imaging machines.

In addition, Americans were top consumers of prescription drugs. Based on findings from the 2013 Commonwealth Fund International Surveys, adults in the U.S. and New Zealand on average take more prescription drugs (2.2 per adult) than adults in other countries.

'Spooked': How the CIA manipulates the media and hoodwinks Hollywood [Book review]

Click here to access this critical review by John Booth from Spinwatch.

Schou’s book is a good taster on an important subject. It deserves to sharpen appetites for more analysis of those who routinely mislead citizens who pay taxes and fork out for movies, newspapers, radio and TV.

(The review refers to "CND and the women at Greenham Common"--see this post for more information.)

Also for an interesting interview with the book's author, Nicholas Schou, I recommend a post which features the following 33:07m video (and transcript) of Schou discussing his book with Kevin Gosztola of Shadowproof. 

Democrats’ Tactic of Accusing Critics of Kremlin Allegiance Has Long, Ugly History in U.S.

Click here to access article by Glenn Greenwald from The Intercept.

A frequent weapon for Democrats in the 2016 election is to publicly malign those they regard as critics and adversaries as Russia sympathizers, Putin stooges, or outright agents of the Kremlin. To put it mildly, this is not a new tactic in U.S. political discourse, and it’s worth placing it in historical context. That’s particularly true given how many people have now been targeted with this attack.

"I Ran the CIA" Man Piles on Trump

Click here to access article by Philip Giraldi from The Unz Review.

This former CIA agent reports about the endorsement of Hillary Clinton by the former CIA Acting Director Michael Morell, and many details about his career.

Michael Morell is, in fact, a product of Washington groupthink and a major beneficiary of Establishment politics, the very tradition that Hillary Clinton represents. Many readers have no doubt seen his serious, somewhat intense gaze as a television expert on terrorism. His career trajectory depends on there being major threats to the United States and this requires him to be constantly searching for enemies. Morell has covered for Hillary in the past, most notably over Benghazi where he altered the talking points of his Congressional testimony to make CIA’s assessment closer to Clinton’s version of events. That he has attached himself to the Hillary Clinton campaign should surprise no one.

Science, Socialism and the Anthropocene

Click here to access a 41:33m audio recording of a talk by Ian Angus, an ecosocialist Canadian activist, from Climate & Capitalism.

Climate & Capitalism editor Ian Angus, recorded live at the Socialism 2016 conference, in Chicago, July 2, 2016

Scientific study reveals conspiracy theorists the most sane of all

Click here to access article by J. D. Heyes from Natural News.

'The research showed that people who favored the official account of 9/11 were generally more hostile'

From personal experience with leaving comments critical of conventional views expressed in mainstream internet sites, I have often experienced extremely hostile ridicule. It seems to me that people who do not question authorities are people who have abandoned any effort to think for themselves. They are like children who never grow up and come to a mature understanding that no one person's views of reality are correct all the time. Thus their egos are especially vulnerable to people who question conventional views, and as a result they lash out at those who question. This can be true for people on the political left--although usually for different reasons--as well as people on the right. For such people the only option is to select which authorities to believe. Too often their choice is someone or source that exudes power and wealth.

We are all socialized to believe authority figures. This naturally occurs given the long years of childhood dependency on parents, but it is strongly reinforced by ruling classes in all institutions simply because of the basic illegitimacy of their self-serving rule. Their continued rule depends to a considerable extent on their subjects' willingness to believe the authorities that they have appointed to every institution.

Class Dismissed: Identity Politics to the Front of the Line

Click here to access article by Alan Nasser from CounterPunch. 

Since an anemic recovery with rising unemployment was no obstacle to electoral success, the Democrats are convinced that need not address economic issues nor direct attention to the business interests which finance them. They need only address what they take to be their decisive constituencies. Enter identity politics as the predominant way of political thinking. 

What has taken the place of class issues are so-called “social issues.” Identity politics is foregrounded among “liberal” elites. We find a perfect illustration of the explicit and unabashed use of identity politics to misdirect attention from economic and class issues in a Hillary Clinton campaign speech at a February rally in Henderson Nevada.

I agree with this analysis of the Democratic Party and their current strategy. And, yes the present situation of this party being totally out of step with the realities of their traditional constituents offers an excellent opportunity for an organized effort "to induce people to a new way of thinking about politics". However over the many years of my life I have learned not to underestimate the influence of corporate media to manage the minds of the vast majority of my fellow Americans. In his hopeful conclusion Nasser asks:

Who would have imagined five years ago that it was remotely possible that socialism would become a feature of daily discourse?

But has socialism really "become a feature of daily discourse?" I think not. This socialism is only the old New Deal/Great Society repackaged with a radical sounding name that capitalist media has been so successful in smearing in the past. The fact that a liberal politician such as Bernie Sanders has been able, along with the collusion of corporate media, to redefine what socialism is all about (public ownership and control of the economy) is another indication of the power of the liberal wing of the ruling capitalist class to manage the political thinking of the majority of Americans. 

For me a promising organized effort will only occur when thinking Americans seriously get behind an alternative media to fight the corrosive effects of corporate media. In addition they will have to give up the notion that our capitalist masters will ever allow genuine socialist candidates to run in their elections. My fellow Americans must be prepared to go all the way to a revolutionary change by keeping their eyes on the real prize--public ownership and control of the economy, a most vital component of any society that pretends to be egalitarian.