Latin American School of Medicine: A beacon of fraternity, solidarity and collectivity

Click here to access article by Nuria Barbosa León from Granma (Cuba). (Note: I'd like to thank Caren from northwestern Oregon for alerting me to this article.)

Cuban medicine is famous all over the world except here in the US where media corporations don't want you to know about it. Their research has led to new medicines, their Latin America School of Medicine has trained more than 28,500 doctors from 103 countries, and Cuban doctors have served in numerous countries which are lacking in health facilities. I know from my trip to Venezuela in December 2005 that the Venezuelan people very much appreciate the work they have done in their country.

The article mostly reports on the author's interviews with recent graduates of the school to hear from them about their experience at the school.

"It's Barack Obama Marries Dick Cheney" All In One Think Tank

Click here to access article by Tyler Durden from Zero Hedge. 

Durden covers several new events that suggest a movement is on (no doubt by agents of the Deep State) to curtail reports you are getting from various alternative websites. This includes a new "think tank" that's been organized to do just that--it's called the "Alliance for Securing Democracy". (Don't you just love the way they in their unique Orwellian style so frequently dress up their nefarious projects with the warm-fuzzy word "democracy"?)

...who specifically is behind the Alliance for Securing Democracy? For that we should turn to Col. Pat Lang's blog, Sic Semper Tyrannis, which artfully summarizes its origins. Pat Lang is a retired former high ranking Pentagon intelligence officer who oversaw all military intelligence for the Middle East, and was a presidential intelligence briefer under past presidents. ....

Who Has Your Back?

Click here to access report issued by Rainey Reitman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. 

Note on 10/24/2017: I very much regret posting this article. See my recent post entitled "Pew Survey Examines 'Future of Truth and Misinformation Online'" for an explanation.

While many technology companies continue to step up their privacy game by adopting best practices to protect sensitive customer information when the government demands user data, telecommunications companies are failing to prioritize user privacy when the government comes knocking. Even tech giants such as Apple, Facebook, and Google can do more to fully stand behind their users.

EFF's seventh annual “Who Has Your Back” report digs into the ways many technology companies are getting the message about user privacy in this era of unprecedented digital surveillance.

We evaluated the public policies at 26 companies and awarded stars in five categories, with nine companies earning a perfect five-star score this year: Adobe, Credo, Dropbox, Lyft, Pinterest, Sonic, Uber, Wickr, and Wordpress. Each has a track record of defending user privacy against government overreach and improved on their practices to meet the more stringent standards in this year's Who Has Your Back.

AT&T, Comcast, T-Mobile, and Verizon scored the lowest, each earning just one star. While they have adopted a number of industry best practices, like publishing transparency reports and requiring a warrant for content, they still need to commit to informing users before disclosing their data to the government and creating a public policy of requesting judicial review of all National Security Letters.

You can check details on each company and other information below the chart provided by the report.

Nuclear War: An Unrecognized Mass Extinction Event Waiting To Happen

Click here to access a speech given by Kenneth Starr to a Symposium: The Dynamics of Possible Nuclear Extinction held at The New York Academy of Medicine, 28 February - 1 March 2015.   

Yesterday I receive this link to Kenneth Starr's speech in an email from Dave Ratcliffe of ratical.org regarding the current dangers of a nuclear war which our masters seem to be preparing for. Although it violates my rule to post only current material (less than one month), I share Ratcliffe's and many others concerns about the lack of information in today's several generations regarding the devastating effects of a nuclear war. Starr reports that earlier generations knew full well about the effects of a nuclear, but according him this seems to have changed around 1980. 

I myself was not really aware of this change, but I think that this explains why so many people today are quite unconcerned about the bellicose anti-Russian statements and actions as well as NATO's military preparations for a war with Russia. I lived through the terrifying days around the Cuban Missile Crisis, and I am beginning to experience similar feelings today. I have been confounded by the apparent lack of concern today about a nuclear war and the absence of any significant anti-war movement. Hence I am posting this. 

(I have been seeing frequent references by today's pundits and commentators to the old TV program Star Wars which began after the film Star Wars was released in 1977. I keep wondering if this space opera about intergalactic wars as entertainment did not create this lack of concern.) 

In this post you can listen to Starr's address via YouTube (the first 19:36m) or read the script. (I found the audio rather deficient for my old ears.)

Colin Kaepernick dilemma: The NFL really is a plantation

Click here to access article by Mel Reeves from Rhymes Media Group.

Reeves explains the similarities of NFL's actions of today with the slave-plantation system of our history, and he also castigates today's racists and "Uncle Toms". The Civil War may have freed African-Americans from classic slavery, but otherwise for most of them conditions don't seem to have changed substantially. Now it seems the ruling capitalist class finds African-Americans not only as a source of cheap labor, but as a useful group to divide, control, and fool white workers.

The Colin Kaepernick situation reveals all you need to know about the US Big Business and its most popular non profit the National Football League. Kaepernick remains unsigned because he stood up against racism and police violence, both of which are important to the rich powerful in maintaining their hold on US society.

The NFL owners are hypocrites.

Western Think Tanks as an Actual Weapon of Mass Destruction

Click here to access article by Ollie Richardson from Oriental Review. 

The author explains how many US-led Empire "think tanks" (in contrast to primary "deep state" think tanks that decide major policies), in reality serve as propaganda organizations, and use well-funded lobbyists to spread propaganda (to upper middle class professionals and mid-level businessmen) to support ruling capitalist class interests. In Syria and other places this means spreading disinformation about the Empire's support for various terrorist groups with weapons and training. He particularly "outs" (def. #2) Charles Lister as one such lobbyist. 

...the only thing that has changed [since the Iraq war in 2003] is the signature under the calls for war. There are some recurring figures, of course, but in general a whole new pool was formed from the latest available “talent” concerning serving liberalism. One such “genius” is a Mr Charles Lister. He can be described as today’s equivalent of Judith Miller. They both first and foremost are lobbyists – the former for Israel, the latter for Qatar, they both were/are paid for their work (selling war), and they both have been exposed on more than one occasion for severely alarming incompetence.

Being Honest About Venezuela

Click here to access article by Mike Gonzalez from Defend Democracy Press. 

This piece represents the best assessment of the current political conditions in Venezuela that I have seen. Today we see numerous articles in corporate media which go to great lengths to smear the Bolivarian government of Venezuela with distorted information, but on the other side in small blogs we frequently find ideologically obsessed purists who gloss over the sins of the Venezuelan government and characterize any criticisms as simply capitalist propaganda. As political activists and revolutionaries we simply must give up the juvenile habit of seeing various groups as either "good guys" or "bad guys" that our ruling class likes to do.

Based on my trip to Venezuela in December of 2005 when I witnessed the beginning indications of a self-serving bureaucracy, this view by Gonzalez has the pure ring of authenticity. I posted many articles back in 2010 reflecting this concern: for some examples, see this, this, and especially this.

Because "Mike Gonzalez" is a very common name, the following is an accurate description of the author that I borrowed from The London School of Economics and Political Science:

Gonzalez is one of Britain’s leading scholars in Latin American studies. He has written extensively on Latin American politics and culture, social movements, and revolutionary figures. He is author of volumes on Che Guevara and the Cuban Revolution, the Nicaraguan revolution, on the situation in Chile in the 1970s, and has recently written articles for the magazine Jacobin in which he analyses the current political turmoil in Venezuela.

Also, if you still have doubts about the author, listen to the following 12:10m talk that Gonzalez gave in 2014 (before the collapse in oil prices) regarding Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution since he took control at the end of 1998.



The Bolivarian Revolution is not over yet, but Gonzalez accurately reports most of what has gone wrong up till now. Hugo Chavez did create many coops and popular councils and educated many ordinary Venezuelans that radicalized many people, and these people may yet save and advance the revolution before it is taken back by the old oligarchy in collusion with the US.   

You might also be interested in an article by Peter Koenig entitled "Venezuela – The National Constituent Assembly is in Place – But the fight for Sovereignty isn’t Over" in which he describes the current situation in the country.

Fake News A US Media Speciality

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

The American media specializes in fake news. Indeed, since the Clinton regime the American media has produced nothing but fake news.

Roberts provides a survey of reports on corporate media and finds them riddled with lies to the extent that one could easily conclude that their media only serves a propaganda function to support the profit and power interests of the capitalist ruling class. Still, that makes no difference to many Americans who daily follow news reports in corporate media like they were a drug--actually they do act as a kind of hallucinogenic drug. "Just say no" to drugs by cutting the cord"! After that, do what you can to support reliable news on independent websites.

Has Seymour Hersh Debunked ‘Russia-gate’?

Click here to access article by Justin Raimondo from AntiWar.com. (Amended several times up to 5:33 PM Seattle time.)

For those of you who may still have doubts about the Deep State's war against Trump, this adds more fuel to the evidence-fire. The ruling class through their media have brainwashed many unsuspecting Americans into believing a classic "conspiracy theory" which they repeated over and over until it has lodged in their minds as a "fact":

The Democrats, the media, and the War Party contend that the Russians hacked into the DNC, and fooled John Podesta into handing the keys to his emails over to them: a full-fledged federal investigation, complete with a special counsel, is now busy trying to find evidence of the Trump campaign’s collusion with this nefarious plot.

Yes, Trump must have had Rich murdered because he knew too much, and "Putin's Russia" interfered with the election causing Hillary to lose! (sarcasm) This type of shit (excuse my language) fills corporate media reports instead of real news!

Trump approves new sanctions against Russia

Click here to access article by Bill Van Auken from World Socialist Web Site. 

While Trump indicated that he agreed with the imposition of sanctions against what he described in his signing statements as the “rogue regimes” in both North Korea and Iran—both of which Washington has openly targeted for regime change—his opposition was based largely on the legislation’s limiting of his power to waive existing sanctions imposed by the Obama administration against Russia.

The inclusion of this restraint was bound up with the unrelenting campaign waged by the Democratic Party and the corporate media, backed by powerful layers within the US military-intelligence apparatus, attacking Trump as the beneficiary of alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Underlying this campaign is opposition within the American ruling establishment to any letup in aggression against Russia, which is viewed as a principal obstacle to the US drive to defend its global dominance by militarily asserting its control over the Middle East, Eastern Europe and the entire Eurasian landmass.

Also see the implications of this bill on Europe in an article by Eric Zuesse entitled "America Declares Economic War Against Europe".

On the Beach 2017. “The War was Over… Was it Started by an Accident or Mistake. There was no Victor… “

Click here to access article by John Pilger from Global Research (based in Canada).

This noted anti-war Australian journalist uses two pieces of fiction to illustrate the terrible likely reality of a nuclear war with Russia and China. 

Referring to the brainwashing of the American public for the coming war with Russia and China, he writes:

Those who call themselves liberals or tendentiously “the left” are eager participants in this manipulation, and its brainwashing, which today revert to one name: Trump.

Trump is mad, a fascist, a dupe of Russia. He is also a gift for “liberal brains pickled in the formaldehyde of identity politics”, wrote Luciana Bohne memorably. The obsession with Trump the man — not Trump as a symptom and caricature of an enduring system – beckons great danger for all of us.

While they pursue their fossilised anti-Russia agendas, narcissistic media such as the Washington Post, the BBC and the Guardian suppress the essence of the most important political story of our time as they warmonger on a scale I cannot remember in my lifetime.

Neocons Leverage Trump-Hate for More Wars

Click here to access article by Robert Parry from ConsortiumNews. 

Although Parry accepts the official version of who was behind the 9/11 project, he does offer a substantial argument that the Neocons (a euphemism for "Ziocons") are a powerful force that is controlling coverage by corporate media which, in turn, is managing the minds and actions of what appears to be a majority of the American public using "Trump-hate" in order to pursue more wars on behalf of US's imperial and Zionist agendas.

A savvy Washington observer once told me that the political reality about the neoconservatives is that they alone couldn’t win you a single precinct in the United States. But both Republicans and Democrats still line up to gain neocon support or at least neocon acceptance.

Part of the reason for this paradox is the degree of dominance that the neoconservatives have established in the national news media – as op-ed writers and TV commentators – and the neocon ties to the Israel Lobby that is famous for showering contributions on favored politicians and on the opponents of those not favored.

The End of the "Wars on the Cheap" for the United States

Click here to access article by "The Saker" from The Unz Review.  (Edited for correction on 8/5/2017 at 3:40 PM)

I think he makes a good point that "wars on the cheap" are no longer available to the Empire's ruling capitalist class. He provides a very good description of "wars on the cheap" strategy, and develops a good argument that this strategy, which the Empire's directors have been using so successfully since Nicaragua and the Contras, is over. [Actually CIA support for the rebel Mujaheddin in Afghanistan (later to become Al Qaeda in Iraq) began a little over two years earlier under the Carter administration) He argues that people have learned how to combat the highly sophisticated weapons supplied by the Empire and its allies so that the economic and political costs of the Empire's use of this strategy is becoming prohibitive. And when other powerful nations assist targeted governments such as Russia is doing in Syria, this strategy is completely ineffective. 

What I believe the author doesn't emphasize enough is that the strategy is fundamentally ineffective because highly motivated "boots on the ground" are missing for nearly all of the foreign adventures contemplated by the Empire's directorate. To be sure, people are learning how to fight back against superior equipped forces. However, to me, this suggests that the 9/11 effect of motivating Americans and others to go on the offensive in foreign countries in expensive prolonged wars is coming to an end. Might this reality spur the ruling class directors to create another incident such as 9/11? Stay tuned (def. #2), or better yet, stay politically active and informed.

Internet Censorship Bill Would Spell Disaster for Speech and Innovation

Click here to access article, "a call to action" by Elliot Harmon posted on Electronic Frontier Foundation.

There’s a new bill in Congress that would threaten your right to free expression online. If that weren’t enough, it could also put small Internet businesses in danger of catastrophic litigation.

Don’t let its name fool you: the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA, S. 1693) wouldn’t help punish sex traffickers. ....

Make no mistake: sex trafficking is a real, horrible problem. This bill is not the way to address it. Lawmakers should think twice before passing a disastrous law and endangering free expression and innovation.

Our masters in the ruling capitalist class know the dangers that the internet provides to their their rule and their global imperial agendas. Thus they are using every device to deceive Americans into supporting legislation that can weaken mostly small alternative websites who expose their self-serving agendas of profit and power. It appears that this legislation is such a Trojan Horse. If we can't defend the internet, then all is lost.

How Mainstream US ‘News’ Media Pump Their Government’s Lies to Deceive the Public

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

Zuesse like many astute observers of reports from media corporations declares that their media "pump their government lies to deceive the public" which he backs up with substantial evidence. Media corporations has been doing this forever simply because their owners are of the same class that controls every institution of our nation--especially the government--since there were large corporations. What is striking about their reports in our current era is the brazenly obvious nature of these lies as exposed over the internet by independent journalists and analysts such as Zuesse. 

What I think Zuesse and others should be advocating is a well-funded independent media organization within the Empire. Of course, such an organization would be attacked by every weapon available to the ruling capitalist class, but this situation would furnish an excellent catalyst to start the process of exposing them, as the liars they are, to the American and Canadian public who, out of mostly habit, only read, listen, and view mainstream sources for their understanding of events in the world. 

As it is now, Zuesse and other independent journalists and analysts must frequently post their views in foreign owned media websites like Strategic Culture, New Eastern Outlook, and TeleSur because they can't get published in domestically owned websites of any size and resources simply because they don't exist. As the news media now exists, the vast majority of Americans are totally confused and distracted by media corporations; meanwhile the left talk to each other in their mostly isolated enclaves of alternative websites. This simply must change if humans are to have any chance of survival!

Pulitzer-Prize Winning Reporter: FBI Report Shows It Was Seth Rich – Not Russians – Who Gave DNC Emails to Wikileaks

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

I am only posting this article because it seems to be raging across the blogosphere, and then this morning I received an email from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) promising to push for what appears to be a left-liberal's wish list: 

...after passing a resolution first proposed by Christine Pelosi in February to prevent corporate donations to the DNC, we adopted a series of similar measures that freed us to champion the most popular, people-friendly, election-winning policies:
    *medicare for all;
   * strong unions;
   * tuition-free college;
   * non-interventionism;
    *reducing corporate influence;
    *the abolition of private prisons - another issue popular across the political    spectrum;
    *and also getting even more firmly behind renewable energy - which three quarters of Trump voters support, perhaps in part because of the huge number of jobs it creates.

I couldn't help but associate the controversy over the murder of Seth Rich, who was a DNC staffer, and this email which in my cynical mind seemed to provide an inspiring distraction for the brewing scandal in the online media. This controversy combined with the shoddy treatment that the Bernie Sanders delegates were given at the 2016 Democratic convention seems to account for this strange email. It's all a hoax to shepherd disillusioned working class Americans back into the fold of the Democratic Party.  

It's obvious that such measures could never be passed with the existing majority Republican Congress. During the Obama administrations, when they sometimes had majority Democratic representation in both houses of Congress, they could have passed such measures, but obviously didn't, and won't in the future. It never ceases to amaze me about the extent to which the ruling capitalist class will seek to manipulate ordinary Americans to support their nefarious agendas with fake news, false-flag operations, and campaign promises such as this.

Neocons Have Been Destroying Sovereign Nations for 20 Years

Click here to access article by Neil Clark from Defend Democracy Press. 

Clark notices a pattern to all the regime change projects that have been spearheaded by the US ruling class in Yugoslavia, Libya and the Syrian Arab Republic. But the model began with Nicaragua which I witnessed first hand. They used the proxy army called Contras who were based in neighboring Honduras to attack and destroy the clinics and schools set up by the Sandinista government in Nicaragua after they overthrew the Somoza dictatorship and favorite puppet of the US ruling class. 

When activists managed to get Congress to pass a law, called the Boland Amendment, forbidding the government from funding such activities, our imperialist ruling class went around the legislation to finance this project by selling arms to Iran and CIA assisted drug running. The drugs ended up in the African-American ghettos of the US. In the case of Nicaragua our masters were more worried about a good example of the Sandinista government that might inspire other Latin American countries to do likewise. Since then they have perfected this model in the countries that Clark identified.

America, the Pathological-Lying, Pyromaniac, Faux-Firefighter

Click here to access article by Edward Rhymes from Rhymes Media Group.

I want to introduce to you another online alternative website where you can find real news, information, and analysis that you will not find on corporate media outlets. If you are getting fed up with all the disinformation from the latter that is only designed to fool you and distract you, then you must find other sources of information that attempt to provide you with the real stories behind the issues. I recommend, as I did, to cut the cord to corporate media by cancelling your cable subscription and keeping internet service--preferably high speed. This will not only save you money, but it will help restore your sanity. 

However you must go a step further to find alternative, genuine sources of news, information, and analysis. I have not found them all and new ones are appearing everyday on the internet. Unfortunately most of the sources are operating on a shoe-string budget and begging for money from their followers, and I fervently hope that they will start co-operating and merging to create a more solid financial base so that they can hire excellent journalists and media technicians. 

What struck me this evening as I was surfing the many links related to Rhymes Media Group is their widespread connections to other media outlets such as TeleSur, PressTV, Blog Talk Radio, and others. They are demonstrating that they know how to cooperate and collaborate--a lost skill in the USA, a skill that I observed in my youth when visiting my uncle's farm in North Dakota. 

The farmers in the area especially at harvest time would bring their harvesting equipment together, mostly tractors, combines, and trucks, in order to harvest all their crops before bad weather set in. The summers in this area were short and the harvest period was short, and they needed to harvest when weather permitted. They solved this dilemma by combining resources. Dr. Edward Rhymes, a retired sociology professor, is doing precisely that using several forms of alternative media.

This piece is mostly a rant, but who doesn't need to rant and rave occasionally in the face of such insane actions that our ruling class directorate are imposing on the rest of world while lying to us about what they are doing. So, when he says "America" is doing this or that, which are likely war crimes, you must realize that he is referring to the directorate of the ruling capitalist class, also known as the "Deep State". They are the real government, and are located in "think tanks" such as the Council on Foreign Relations and their action-executors in the many secret (secret to us) agencies like the CIA, NSA, and 15 other such agencies; top Pentagon officials; and where they all meet, the National Security Council. The democratic facades in the forms of Congress, the judicial system, and even the presidency are mere puppets of this Deep State. Corporate-owned media likewise. 

In the last election the Deep State's choice for president, Hillary Clinton, was not elected; and they are furious with the maverick Donald Trump who is by nature a boss--not anyone's puppet. Hence the ongoing fictitious attacks on Trump. There is much to be critical of Trump, but the Deep State through their media corporations are trying to get rid of him on more substantial grounds by concocting fake stories that he is serving Putin and Russia.

Venezuela – The National Constituent Assembly is in Place – But the fight for Sovereignty isn’t Over

Click here to access article by Peter Koenig from The Saker. 

This article offers the best factual summary of events related to Sunday's (July 30) election of a Constituent Assembly in Venezuela that I have seen. The middle section of the article contains a lot of his views related to foreign governments and media and their positions on the process that is going on in Venezuela. 

I say process because it is only the first stage of a process (as I understand it) that will include two other stages: a drawing up of a new proposed constitution by the Constituent Assembly, and a referendum put to the citizens of Venezuela to approve or reject the proposed new constitution.

If you are one of the unfortunate ones who follow corporate news media, you will largely receive grossly distorted information. In addition to scenes of rioting and attacking the police, I've noticed so far that much of the coverage has recently been about the results of the illegal plebiscite held two weeks earlier on July 16th (Koenig indicates it was held on the 23rd) by the US backed opposition who are based mostly in the neighborhoods of the white, upper classes in Caracas (which I visited on a trip to Venezuela in December of 2005).

In an era characterized by fake news issued by Empire affiliated media corporations, authentic news and information has become a challenge. I can only recommend that you stop following such sources, and instead focus much more of your attention on reliable news sources. Of course I recommend the sources of the articles that I've posted and those which I have recommended on my website. One of the best ones would be an independent American media organization as I proposed in a series of articles entitled "A Revolutionary Model" (Part 1, Part 2a, Part 2b, and Part 3) that could very well ultimately lead to a revolution in the US and the establishment of a genuine democracy.

North Field gas keeps Qatar crisis stalemated: Fuel for Thought

Click here to access article by Tamsin Carlisle, Senior Editor of The Barrel website, a major petroleum industry source of online information. (Updated as of 8:25 PM Seattle time, also several minor clarifications up until 3 PM Seattle time on 8/1/2017.)

The article likely explains by implication why the news has dropped out of corporate media about the major conflict that has recently developed between the ruling classes (more like extended monarchical families in this area) in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Egypt on one side with Qatar and Turkey on the other side. It's obvious with major Western petroleum corporations so involved in highly profitable operations on both sides of this quarrel that Empire media corporations don't know how to integrate this development so that it corresponds well with all their other Empire interests and simplistic propaganda, that is, the "good guys" of the US Empire versus the "bad guys" of Russia and Putin.

However when I searched for articles specifically in major capitalist online publications like the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News, I did find recent extensive coverage of this conflict. The moral of this story is that the purpose of major media corporations is to target the general population and guide ordinary people to support the interests of the Empire's ruling capitalist classes--not to create an understanding of other major issues such as this which deals with inter-capitalist Western interests.

(Writers often use the names of capital cities to represent countries and ruling classes. If you don't know the region very well, here are maps (with pipelines) to guide you as to what the author refers to in the article.)

Your Money or Your Life: Capitalist Health Care

Click here to access article from The Spark.

The happenings in Congress regarding the new Republican plan to replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) associated with the Obama administration has dominated so much coverage by media corporations at the expense of every other subject. It was as if the ACA was so wonderful and was threatened by the Republican plan. This article puts the lie to this type of news coverage: both plans are all about profits to insurance companies, and neither plan serves the people.

America's Big Lie about Bioweapon Crimes in Korea--[interview with] Tom Powell

Click here to access the approximately one hour interview with Tom Powell by Jeff Brown. 

Tom Powell is the son of parents who lived in China during the Korean War and knows a lot about the controversies surrounding the subject. During the interview a lot of material was referenced to, and which I was familiar with from my readings. Much of this material was covered in a recent book by Dave Chaddock (2013) entitled This Must Be the Place in which he extensively covers the subject from both sides of the controversy and comes to the definite conclusion that the US did indeed use bacteriological weapons in Korea and adjacent areas of China. 

The Korean War  (1950-1953) has been actively and purposely censored and suppressed in American textbooks, classrooms and the media, for three reasons. First, the United States got its butt convincingly whipped by the communists – Korean, Chinese and Russian all. Second, America committed genocide, by bombing North Korea with ten times the firepower of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined, as well as 33,000 tons of napalm, for evil measure. There was literally not a building left standing north of the 38th parallel, while America exterminated 3,000,000 North Koreans, about 15% of the entire population. This war plan became the blueprint for continuing genocide in Vietnam, a decade later. Third, America committed the most heinous of crimes against humanity: the use of bioweapons against the North Koreans and Chinese.

Sylvia and John Powell were at the center of a legal and media firestorm, which lasted nearly a decade, 1953-1962, for reporting the horrific truth about America’s Korean War atrocities.

Thus it is very understandable that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) are so motivated to defend themselves from the US Empire by developing long range missiles.

Don’t be Fooled, the CIA was Only Half the Problem in Syria

Click here to access article by Steven MacMillan from New Eastern Outlook.

The author sees strong evidence that Trump is favoring the Pentagon in place of the CIA for its strategy to dismember northern Syria using Kurdish forces that they have been supporting for some time. This makes sense in that the CIA has been seen by Trump as an enemy of his administration and the source of negative leaks to corporate media. Also one must consider Trump's appointment of many military generals to his cabinet. Of course the US's pro-Kurdish strategy in Syria is diametrically opposed to Turkey's strong opposition to Kurdish power on its borders.

I think that this US strategy in Syria is likely due to Trump's ignorance of foreign affairs with the result that he is leaning on generals to formulate policies and strategies. Arguably generals are more concerned with battlefield victories rather than political considerations which may be the undoing of their strategy in Syria at the cost of the Syrian Kurds. With the latter's huge gamble on US support they are playing a high stakes game with, in my opinion, the odds very much against them. I see them as merely the current "useful idiots" of the Empire.

Undoubtedly, there are many good forces in the US military (as in any other large organization), and there is nothing wrong with having a military background. But equally, there is also many nefarious forces in the military, and the influence of military-industrial complex is pervasive, constantly agitating for more imperial wars.

With this context in mind, it is hardly surprising that Trump favours the Pentagon program over the CIA one, especially considering the power struggle taking place between the CIA and the military within the US. It should be highlighted that Trump has notcompletely halted all US programs to arm and train militias in Syria, he has merely shutdown one channel.

The Pentagon has been heavily involved in arming Kurdish forces in Syria, using them as a tool to attempt to Balkanize and fracture Syria into micro-states.

Has Washington Lost the Middle East After Qatar? [a must read]

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

Engdahl scores again with this revealing analysis at the recent developments in the Middle East and, further back, to the Empire's war by proxy in Syria, and still further back by the US ruling class's reliance on Saudi Arabia to control its neighbors to insure the oil-backing of the US dollar. It's all about imperialism US style which has relied heavily on economic means to dominate much of the world; but where that doesn't work, they have used a variety of other means to insure their dominance (most recently proxy terrorist armies). But this regimen of dominance, named back in 1941 by US capitalist ruling class propagandists as the "American Century", is showing marked signs of rapid disintegration which Engdahl explains so well to reach this conclusion:

It ain’t easy to be the world’s Sole Superpower today, not at all as it was, say, in the 1990’s. Not even psychopathic generals with nicknames like Mad Dog can scare others into falling back in line when Washington barks her orders. Back as recent as the 1990s it was, so to say, a piece of cake. Run a war in Yugoslavia, destabilize the Soviet Union after a long war in Afghanistan, loot the former Communist economies of all Eastern Europe. Worse still, the world seems not to appreciate Washington’s wars of destruction anymore. Now that’s real ingratitude after all that Washington has done for them in recent years…

Could it be that the American Century, viewed by future historians, will have its obituary written around the time in 2017 when Washington lost control of the “strategic prize” as Dick Cheney called the energy-rich Middle East?

PBS’ Anti-Russia Propaganda Series

Click here to access article by Rick Sterling from ConsortiumNews. 

The U.S.-government-supported Public Broadcasting System (PBS) recently ran a five-part series dubbed “Inside Putin’s Russia”. With a different theme each night, it purports to give a realistic look at Russia today. The image conveyed is of a Russia that is undemocratic with widespread state repression, violence and propaganda. Following are significant distortions and falsehoods in the five-part documentary.

The Empire's ruling class is using all of its organs of misinformation to smear Russia and Putin in a desperate attempt to portray Russia as the new devil incarnate (to prepare us for an attack on Russia?) and to cover for its recent failed imperialist policies in Iraq, Libya, and Ukraine. Such policies have created vast armies of immigrants currently overwhelming Europe, killed and maimed untold millions of people, and have nothing positive to show for it--not even fossil fuel pipelines under the Empire's control.

Sterling reports on all the propaganda themes that pervades the PBS TV series of programs, while, in addition, providing valuable links to documentation that put the lie to such propaganda. 

Is This The Way Capitalism Works or a Sign of Cultural Degeneration?

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

Roberts has a large following among liberals who, like old-fashioned conservatives such as Pat Buchanan, Ron Paul, and Roberts do not like today's government and its policies. However, they will go to the ends of the earth to deny that the latter has anything to do with capitalism. No, they always blame bureaucrats, neoliberalism, or as Roberts does in this article by suggesting that it might be due to "cultural degeneration". 

They loved the capitalism as was practiced before and during their youth while ignoring such facts as the imperialist history of the US from 1898 onwards, the numerous massacres by private armies and public militias of union organizers, the seizure of the control of our money by private banking interests, the constant cycle of recessions or depressions since the second half of the 19th century, etc. 

They loved capitalism throughout their careers and, through their services to the government, aided and abetted it by promoting low taxes on the rich and deregulation of corporate operations while being generously rewarded for their services. So, it may be understandable now that they will never criticize the system. Guilt? (Well, to be fair, Roberts with this headline may be starting to question the system.)

When you create a class system and endow a ruling class with special privileges, laws and practices that insure their prerogatives and protections--in the case of capitalism, those who already possess wealth--then you must accept the inevitable abuses of the system.

Washington Behind the Mirror

Click here to access article by Gordon Duff from New Eastern Outlook.

Duff attempts, and I believe largely succeeds, to bring us his assessment of the disturbing realities behind the mirror of fake corporate media reports. It seems that the crazies, the militarists, Christian fundamentalists (the Taliban and ISIS of America), Ziocons, and literally old Cold warriors are now at the helm of the nuclear weapons loaded, US-led Empire's ship of state. It might be a good time to re-view the 1964 film Dr. Strangelove.

Trump's political philosophy seems only guided by racism as revealed in his many vigorous attempts to roll-back any actions associated with the previous Obama administration (Affordable Care Act, Iran, Cuba). Otherwise he appears to be leaving policies regarding foreign affairs mostly to Pentagon generals except where his financial deals might be affected. It's no wonder that the atomic clock has been moved closer to midnight--the closest it has been since 1953 when...

Over the opposition of many nuclear scientists, the United States [the ruling class] decides to pursue the hydrogen bomb, a weapon far more powerful than any atomic bomb. In October 1952, the United States tests its first thermonuclear device, obliterating a Pacific Ocean islet in the process. Nine months later, the Soviets test an H-bomb of their own.

Except for his apparent racism, Trump's policies are understandable for someone of his limited experience: only as a real estate tycoon who has never held any elected public office and is ignorant of foreign affairs. But then, what choice did Americans really have in the last "democratic" election? Hillary, the mad-dog war monger, Clinton?

The Myth of the Kurdish YPG’s Moral Excellence

Click here to access article by Stephen Gowans from What's Left. (Some editing for clarity at 5:30 PM Seattle time on 7/26/2017)

The issue of the political idealism of the Syrian Kurds has been so confusing because a number of writers, who identify with the "left", have been inspired by the apparent political beliefs of this group. You only have to enter "Syrian Kurds" and/or "Rojava" in one of my search boxes to find many articles that extol the political virtues of this group as well as more recent articles that cast doubts on these Kurds. 

The Syrian conflict is a giant stew where many powers are involved and with very different objectives. I think that many left supporters are also confused. Even the Syrian Kurds appear to be divided on some issues. The General in command of US forces in Syria also seems confused, or at least worried, about their orientation: see this video from 54:15-55:54 in which Gen. Raymond Thomas is leery about their left-wing political orientation (the PKK are the Kurdish Workers Party mostly based in northern Iraq with which the Syrian Kurds are affiliated).  (By the way, in this presentation he also admits that the US involvement in Syria is in conflict with international law: 53:35-54:13.)

In this rather lengthy article Gowans impresses me as being very knowledgeable about the Syrian Kurds whereas others such as David Graeber and Marcel Cartier seemed to believe the people they talked to on their visits, and Pepe Escobar apparently believed what he read in left-wing media. I notice that Graeber is still promoting the Syrian Kurds on what appears to be based purely on ideology that impressed him while on a 10 day visit reportedly in April of 2015.

A number of other writers like Tony Cartalucci, Alison Banville, and Sarah Abed are at least critical of the Syrian Kurds mainly because they are serving the interests of the US to balkanize Syria. I personally place great emphasis on deeds not words, and the fact that they have allowed the US to establish eight military bases on territory under their control is very disturbing. As we have seen, the US will use any forces to support their objective to destabilize the government of Syria or, failing that, at least to dismember it. 

Today's post entitled "Vying with Kurds: Turkey Opens a New Front in Syria" confirms what others have argued that the Turks will not tolerate a separate Kurdish state adjacent to their country. The project to destabilize Syria was undertaken by US coalition of forces, Saudi Arabia and its satellites, originally Turkey (but they are changing), and Israel, and this project is now doomed. The Syrian Kurds need to realize that and act accordingly by seeking compatible relations with the Syrian government with a hope for some kind of confederation status. Hopefully it's not already too late.

Social Security: The 14th Amendment and “Odious Debt”

Click here to access article by Dr. Nayvin Gordon from Dissident Voice.

Section 4 [of the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution]

The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.

I take it that Gordon questions the legality under the Constitution for permitting this "borrowing" because it wasn't "authorized by law".

A frequent theme among Congressional people and corporate media pundits is that Social Security is running out of money and is in crisis. Well--no wonder--with the use of these funds to offset taxes to the rich and fund our never-ending wars!  

For decades the politicians have not only borrowed from Social Security to run the government, but 70% of the national debt has been borrowed from banks, financial institutions, corporations and rich individuals.  The politicians borrowed because instead of taxing the rich banks and corporations, they cut their taxes.  As a result, workers’ taxes and Social Security payments provide almost 90% of the federal government’s revenues.

I particularly want to direct your attention to his reference to the Princeton University study which you can find here. The study reveals that democracy is fake like much else in our capitalist-run nation.

A 2014 study by Princeton University came to the conclusion that the majority of the American public actually has little influence over the policies the government adopts. 

Monopoly was invented to demonstrate the evils of capitalism

Click here to access article by Kate Raworth from Aeon.

The game of Monopoly has long been a source of wonder for me even though I played it a lot in my high school years without any concerns. To me at that time, it was only a game that had no relevance to contemporary society. Having since become aware of social justice issues and having to deal with adult reality, I have often wondered why such a game became so popular.  

After all, it is the ultimate expression in game form of sociopathy. To the extent that the game reflects any kind of reality, it celebrates sociopathy by making the best sociopath the winner. Of course, this is no accident. The game is an integral part of the indoctrination of capitalist values along with all the other pro-capitalist propaganda that all people are subject to growing up in a capitalist-ruled society.

I previously looked cursorily into the history of the game, but (as I remember) it lightly passed over the original game as invented by Elizabeth Magie and its original design and intent before Parker Brothers company got control of it. The company purchased the patent (nearly everything is a commodity under capitalism) and changed the original design of the game to what it essentially is today. Raworth gives us this original history and explains Magie's intended educational purpose of the game as an exercise in understanding the socially immoral aspects of capitalism.

Incidentally, in the 1980s while I was living in San Francisco, I tried to provide an alternative to Monopoly for my family by shopping at a store that advertised as having 10,000 games. I explained to the salesperson that I wanted a game that promoted cooperation, and I was told that they didn't have any such game! Magie's intent had been completely eliminated from any kind of board games.

Sleeping Monster: The Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) and Its Expansive Definition of “Services”

Click here to access article by Lambert Strether and posted on Naked Capitalism. 

This is the best article I could find about a report entitled "Foul Play" authored by Legal scholar Jane Kelsey from New Zealand who was apparently commissioned by the UNI Global Union to report on ongoing secret meetings held by transnational corporations to promote versions of TISA in any free trade agreement.  I am posting this because I think that all social justice advocates should be aware of the continuing attempts by transnational corporations to eliminate any governmental regulations that protect workers and might interfere with the profits of transnational corporations. 

I read only the initial Summary of the report and the Introduction. (You might want to see links to the various sections of the report here--you will need to scroll down.)

A coup in the House of Saud? [updated commentary]

Click here to access article by Pepe Escobar from Asia Times. 

I wouldn't post this piece except that it was authored by one of the world's most knowledgeable journalists. He seems to suggest without qualification that the US had opposed the Saudi support and sponsorship of terrorist armies trying to overthrow the Syrian government. 

Nearly a month ago, as I’ve written elsewhere, a top Middle East source close to the House of Saud told me: “The CIA is very displeased with the firing of [former Crown Prince] Mohammad bin Nayef. Mohammad bin Salman is regarded as sponsoring terrorism. In April 2014 the entire royal families of the UAE and Saudi Arabia were to be ousted by the US over terrorism. A compromise was worked out that Nayef would take over running the kingdom to stop it.”

(Added at 9:50 AM Seattle time on 7/22/2017)

Although not anti-capitalist, I recommend "Bernhard's" website, Moon of Alabama including the comments section, for excellent speculations about all happenings behind the geopolitical scenes as portrayed by the lies of media corporations. See the article on Saudi Arabia posted on the website that is related to this article.

Controlling the Narrative on Syria

Click here to access article by Louis Allday from BSNews (Britain).

Although I didn't read all of it, this article appears to me to be an excellent antidote to Empire propaganda that is spread by media corporations.

In the current environment, to express even a mildly dissenting opinion, point out basic but unwelcome facts such as the presence of significant public support for the government in Syria, or highlight the frequently brutal acts of rebel groups, has seen many people ridiculed and attacked on social media. These attacks are rarely, if ever, reasoned critiques of opposing views; instead they frequently descend into personal, often hysterical, insults and baseless, vitriolic allegations. Generally, a set of core arguments are used to denounce those who question the dominant narrative.... The policing of acceptable opinion in this way has a simple and practical function: to foster a climate in which people feel too intimidated to speak out, thus allowing the dominant narrative to remain unquestioned so that, crucially, it can continue to be utilised to generate public support for further Western intervention in Syria. ....

...this is a strategy with a well-established precedent; the treatment given to many opponents of NATO’s assault on Libya in 2011 and the US/UK invasion of Iraq in 2003 are obvious recent examples. Unfortunately, it remains an effective means to stifle dissent and establish the acceptable parameters of mainstream debate. Its success has meant that those in favour of greater Western intervention in Syria have virtually monopolised the popular debate and control the narrative.

I have not been silent on the issue in the public domain, but frankly I too have occasionally found myself feeling intimidated.

The Dream to Destroy Iran-Nuke Accord

Click here to access article by Paul R. Pillar from ConsortiumNews. 

I'm mostly posting this article because I had an epiphany while reading it. Do you think that it is just a coincidence that Trump has an almost visceral opposition to policies associated with Obama's administration? (This also includes his partial reversal of the Cuba restrictions.) The thought occurred to me that this opposition was an indication of his almost instinctive racism and not a matter of political principles.

Necessity: The Mother of Invention Or The Mother of Strife? [a "best post"]

Click here to access article by Bernard Marszalek from Ztangi Press. (Amended for clarity at 10:18 AM and at 5:35 PM Seattle time.)

The author takes us on a mind-expanding tour from current research through history and archeology to uncover evidence that humans need security and peace in order to realize our collective powers (as social creatures) of creativity. (Is not "creativity" the ability or power to influence an outcome in a new way?) It is clear that our Western civilization that is anchored on the dynamic engine of capitalism is becoming increasingly dysfunctional regarding these needs. This is the inevitable end result of the overwhelming power of a tiny class of capitalists who are increasingly hoarding not only wealth but power to satisfy their addiction to the latter. The power to create must belong to all the people because it is embedded in their human nature, but for this class it has become an end in itself. Sadly they have brainwashed us into being their willing accomplices or (to stick with the addiction theme) their co-dependents.

Our jobs prevent us from being creators. Or to put this another way, the false scarcity that compels us to obediently perform our daily sacrifices to maintain our miserable survival veils the real, but unacknowledged scarcity of creation. ...our condition of enslavement frustrates our species-work – the creation of culture. It is as if we are the compliant, if not the eager, agents of our own demise as evolutionary beings.

Collective intelligence manifests on a material basis as everything from jewelry to gigantic public works like the reservoirs of the Indus cities.

His tour brings us to this apt conclusion: 

Given the reality of economic trends however, no matter how important it is to retrieve from the bosses every ounce of the value of labor that they are stealing, we need to confront the fact that jobs are not only increasingly precarious and stupid, they are disappearing. No effort to ignore this fact by focusing on immediate demands will make it disappear. There can be no effective political movement that does not meet changing reality with radicalism.

I have difficulty with the last sentence. To me, it should read something like this. "There can be no effective political movement that does not insure security and peace for its inhabitants, and to accomplish this we must radically change the way societies currently function."  

The Museum of Capitalism

Click here to access article by Bernard Marszalek from Dissident Voice. 

It seems appropriate...and much overdue, to put capitalism in a museum, if not a mausoleum. The old excuses for tolerating the mayhem and waste of capitalism have evaporated. It has been long past its shelf life. Stagnant wages for the employed and little promise of a solvent pension, piss-poor jobs replacing union ones, youth (and others) shackled by gig economy bondage, and intensifying socio-economic polarities describe a system, most obviously epitomized by zombie banks, on life support provided by taxpayer funds and diminished, and increasingly, stolen earnings. Austerity defines this situation. Add to these horrors a shallow and media manipulated politics, and, well, “No Future” has been the anthem of two generations and now we are going on three. 

He then goes on to give a vivid description of what is in this museum which is located in Oakland, California. I wish I still lived in the San Francisco Bay Area so that I could visit it.

REPORT: Armies of Cyber-Troops Manipulating Public Opinion

Click here to access a summary of a (linked) PDF report issued by the The Computational Propaganda Research Project at Oxford University and posted on TruePublica.org.uk.

The basic findings include:

• The earliest reports of organised social media manipulation emerged in 2010, and by 2017 there are details on such organisations in 28 countries, including the US and UK.

• Looking across the 28 countries, every authoritarian regime has social media campaigns targeting their own populations, while only a few of them target foreign publics. In contrast, almost every [capitalist] democracy in this sample has organised social media campaigns that target foreign publics, while political-party-supported campaigns target domestic voters.

• Authoritarian regimes are not the only or even the best at organised social media manipulation. The earliest reports of government involvement in nudging public opinion involve [capitalist] democracies, and new innovations in political communication technologies often come from political parties and arise during high-profile elections.

• Over time, the primary mode for organising cyber troops has gone from involving military units that experiment with manipulating public opinion over social media networks to strategic communication firms that take contracts from governments for social media campaigns. 

          [my insertions to add greater accuracy]

US Intel Undercuts Saudi Bloc to Resolve Gulf Crisis

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

A timely leak from US intelligence appears to have undermined the Saudi-led Arab axis in its damaging spat with Qatar. So damaging was the Gulf crisis to US strategic interests in the oil-rich region that American intelligence was obliged to weigh in and resolve the festering row. That US intervention seems now to have worked.

The US Empire, the CIA, and the NGOs: An interview with F. William Engdahl

Click here to access article by Ludwig Watzal from Dissident Voice. 

The Ancient Greeks knew: “Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.” No less a figure than the late Zbigniew Brzezinski and the CIA made use of this saying by recruiting the Muslim Brotherhood to fight a proxy war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, which led to the withdrawal of the Soviets from the Hindu Kush. Since then, the CIA used the mercenaries to fight more proxy wars in the Balkans, Chechnya, and Azerbaijan. Due to the wars of aggression against Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen the US and its vassal states created sectarian violence that led to civil wars. Right now, the CIA and the Muslim Brotherhood are present in the form of ISIS in Syria and Iraq.

No one has studied this triad more intensively than F. William Engdahl who is a renowned geopolitical analyst, risk consultant, author, and lecturer.

This is the insightful introduction by a German intellectual whose interview with Engdahl focuses on Engdahl's most recent book (in German only at this time) entitled Secret files NGOs (Geheimakte NGOs). 

In the interview Watzal poses a very insightful question when he asks Engdahl:

In the old days, the conquerors brought in its wake the missionaries. Today, the Western neo-colonial powers come with hundreds of NGOs who teach the indigenous population how Western democracy is supposed to function. Do you think the NGOs serve the interest of these people? ....

MSM Mourned Liberation of Aleppo, Now Celebrates Liberation of Mosul

Click here to access article by Neil Clark from Russia Insider. 

The Iraqi city of Mosul. The Syrian city of Aleppo. Both 'liberated' in recent months from radical jihadist terror groups. But while one anti-terrorist operation has been lauded in the West, the other was fiercely denounced.

The very different ways in which the respective 'liberations' were portrayed tells us much about the way war propaganda works in the so-called free world.

As Anti-Trump / Anti-Russia Campaign Fails - Yascha Mounk Feeds New Lies

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

Bernhard catches a lecturer at Harvard telling a gross lie about Russia and Putin, and finds that he is widely quoted in the Empire's media corporations. To me, this illustrates several important insights: that higher education in a class dominated social system is filled with both propaganda/indoctrination and useful intellectual skills honed by scientific principles and modes of critical thinking; how a higher education in such a system is no guarantee that graduates will be free of deceit; the tendency for elite ruling class educational institutions to hire people like Yascha Mounk; and the advanced and dangerous stage of desperation of the ruling class as evidenced by the wide dispersion of Mounk's lies and other lies about Russia/Putin in their media.


4:20 PM (Seattle time) amendment

Upon further reflection, I will state what I have argued over the past eight years that in a class ruled society every institution will be designed to serve the ruling class. Thus higher education will also conform to this principle, and the views of graduates from that system will nearly always reflect that bias. Those that don't swallow whole the values and perspectives of the ruling capitalist class will find it hard to find employment of any significance in any institution. 

Furthermore, the capitalist ruling class under the leadership of the American and Zionist capitalists has outgrown national boundaries and is now transnational having integrated capitalists of many nations that roughly correspond with the NATO countries plus Israel, Japan, and South Korea. That is why I often refer to this ruling transnational capitalist class as a US-led Empire.

‘Til debt do us part

Click here to access article by economist David Ruccio from Real-World Economics Review Blog. 

Using graphs he explains how capitalists extract profits from workers in two basic ways--wages and interest. It is also clear from his graphs that banksters' use of debt to extract wealth from workers was only briefly interrupted by the last collapse of the economy in 2008.

The cult of capitalism

by cartoonist Jen Sorensen from her website. 

A Future Beyond Capitalism, Or No Future At All

Click here to access article by Jason Hickel and Martin Kirk from Fast Company. 

In February, college sophomore Trevor Hill stood up during a televised town hall meeting in New York and posed a simple question to Nancy Pelosi, the leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives. He cited a study by Harvard University showing that 51% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 no longer support the system of capitalism....

And later:

It’s not only young voters who feel this way. A YouGov poll in 2015 found that 64% of Britons believe that capitalism is unfair, that it makes inequality worse. Even in the U.S., it’s as high as 55%. In Germany, a solid 77% are skeptical of capitalism. Meanwhile, a full three-quarters of people in major capitalist economies believe that big businesses are basically corrupt.

Why do people feel this way?

Mid-2017 US status: Trump joins War Criminals invading Syria, threatening Iran, pushing WW3.

Click here to access article with several videos posted by Carl Herman on Washington's Blog. (I thank Christopher in northwest Oregon for alerting me to this post.) (Also I added commentary at 10:20 PM Seattle time.)

Like many posts on this blog, one is overwhelmed with links to supporting documents. I have posted a lot of the material before, but I found some new solid information from different sources to reveal the endless lies told to us by our government leaders and pundits and newscasters employed by the ruling class's media corporations. 

Having stated that, I do not agree with every opinion expressed in this post. For example, Kevin O'Keefe argues in an otherwise excellent video talk that a military coup should happen. I can overlook that remark because of his military background. He otherwise speaks to the massive deceptions of our masters who really run this country whom he correctly identifies, and the Zionist influence which they have succumbed to simply because they and the Zionists share the same goal of global hegemony. However, the root cause is the system of capitalism which in its advanced stage reveals what this class-based system wants--total domination over the people and the Earth. Only when we end the system will we know peace and harmony with nature.

The world is getting more dangerous by the day, and our masters are facing increasing defeats of their nefarious agendas. They appear to be getting more unstable and may go to drastic measures to insure their dominance. Only an informed people has any hope of stopping them from resorting to extreme measures. If you are already familiar with this material, I suggest you send the post to people who remain dupes of our ruling class and their media.

Remembering the USS Liberty

Click here if you wish to access a 27:37m video from RT. Participants on the show feature Phillip Nelson author of Remember the Liberty, ex-marine and political analyst Ken O'Keefe, and Daniel McAdams of the Ron Paul Institute.

Once again I am presenting information that media corporations will not even touch indirectly. This is one of the most dramatic examples of our ruling class's effort to censor information that directly exposes criminal actions by our government officials in collusion with Zionist leaders in Israel. Even 50 years after the tragic and criminal event, the vast majority of Americans still do not know anything about it. Hopefully with this post a relatively few more Americans will have knowledge of it.

You can learn more about this war crime and treasonous behavior of our leaders in various books: the one I read entitled Assault on the Liberty by James Ennes, Remember the Liberty by Phillip Nelson (who is featured on the show), Operation Cyanide: How the Bombing of the USS Liberty Nearly Caused World War Three by Peter Hounam, and in dvd entitled USS Liberty Dead in the water directed by Christopher Mitchell. I notice that there are videos on YouTube that you can also access such as the BBC production entitled "USS Liberty: Dead In The Water". I have only read Ennes's book about the incident.

Welcome to Hell for Capitalists Who Wreck and Exploit

Click here to access article by Gilbert Mercier from The Greanville Post. 

This was obviously written on the eve of the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, but it is still worthy of our understanding of the increasing alienation of populations in the West toward their ruling capitalist class masters.

The zombified world public opinion watches dazed, confused and hypnotized by the merry-go-round of one crisis, real or manufactured, after another. The rule of thumb is now preferably several crises at once. Thus the brainwashing mission is accomplished, as most people lack the time or ability to focus on any specifics. It is about inducing fear, anxiety, paranoia, and hatred in a permanent kaleidoscope to create despair and a collective psychosis. When the global elite create chaos to manipulate people into submission, they should expect a backlash from the streets.

The Kurdish Connection: Israel, ISIS And U.S. Efforts To Destabilize Iran [part 2]

Click here to access article by Sarah Abed from Mint Press News.

Abed continues with part 2 to lay a convincing argument that the US Empire together with its partner Israel are using the Kurds to promote their policies to destabilize and breakup countries in the Middle East which are too independent of the joint interests of both the Empire and Israel. It doesn't matter who occupies the White House or Congress, the agenda of the Deep State (consisting basically of the major "think tanks" like the Council on Foreign Relations) which is the primary controlling organ of the US ruling capitalist and Zionist-infiltrated class, continues.

Washington and Tel Aviv’s geopolitical plans for dominating the Middle East can only be dismantled if the majority of citizens understand the intricate behind-the-scenes mechanisms that are driving their plan. Ultimately, their goal is not only to destabilize Iraq and Syria and divide them into statelets, but also to weaken Iran’s global presence – objectives that are being pursued with the help of the Kurds.

This series of reports by Abed illustrate the necessity for an independent US-based media organization (see my potentially revolutionary proposal--Part 1, Part 2a, Part 2b, Part 3) that is devoted to understanding conflicts that are often manipulated by powerful ruling class for their interests of profit and power and not the interests of basically peace loving humans.  As I stated in Part 2a:

Although there are more and more independent voices going online to tell us what is really happening in our dangerous world, they all with few exceptions are trying to do this with very limited budgets and unpaid volunteers. Given the dangerous times we live in, I think that it is urgent that we promote collaboration, cooperation, and a sharing of resources in order to establish a much more powerful and more effective American independent news service.

Democratic Party's role in health care

by Jimmy Dore of the Jimmy Dore Show. (Note: I've taken the liberty to change the title of this video clip to a more appropriate title--my apologies to Dore.) 

After enjoying this show which exposes the Democratic Party as another instrument of the ruling capitalist class, I'd like to focus your attention on the last statement Jimmy Dore said in this clip: "... that's why we need a revolution in this country, and I'm not kidding." Well, that's not the only reason, but it is a sufficient reason.

The Fatal Flaw in Washington’s New Energy Strategy

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

From the land of 10,000 lakes Minnesota to Germany where Engdahl has now settled--likely because his home country won't tolerate his criticisms--this geopolitical expert examines the US ruling capitalist class's current attempts to damage their traditional nemesis, Russia, one powerful country that stands in their way of global domination by weaning eastern European countries away from Russian energy and preventing another pipeline linking Russia with Europe. 

This energy war, that often materializes into hot destructive wars like Syria and Libya, is only one field of battle that includes other areas such as the rich natural gas resources lying between Qatar and Iran, and in the Caucasus. The race to exploit the last cost-effective sources of energy is the main weapon used by US-based transnational capitalist class against Russia. However these policies also threaten ongoing conflicts throughout the world, wreck havoc on any serious attempts to prevent environmental degradation and climate destabilization, and threaten a nuclear war conflagration. It must be emphasized that these imperialist actions against Russia and Iran are behind the many lies that media corporations contrive to justify such actions or their many attempts to divert your attention to other issues. Engdahl pierces through this veil of lies and directs our attention to the realities of the Empire's actions in the Baltic region.

What is developing are new major EU fault lines around the economic lifeline of energy, explicitly of natural gas energy. On the one side is the axis between especially Germany but also Austria, France and other EU states currently tied to major Russian gas supplies. Now emerges clearly the opposed axis of Poland allied with Washington. How this plays out in the next months and years will have major implications for war and peace not only in Europe.

Ten “Lies that Capitalists Tell Us”

Click here to access article by William Hawes and Jason Holland from Global Research.

While idiotic supporters of our two-party system wring their hands over the sensationalist nonsense reported by the mainstream media, we thought it might be worth touching on the most dangerous lie of all-time: capitalism. It’s an all-encompassing delusion, including: the myth of continual technological progress, the mendacious assumptions of endless economic growth, the lie that constant bombardments of media and consumer goods make us happy,  and the omissions of our involvement in the exploitation of the planet and the resources of distant, poorer nations, among other things.

We’ve taken the time to hash out some of the most pernicious mendacities we’ve come across in our (relatively) young lives, in the workplace, in our private lives, and in the media.

These are only the top ten of the most frequent lies they tell us. Capitalists, like all good sociopaths, have a tendency to lie about everything. The main problem is that most people believe their lies, at least, up until now. Now I'm not sure how many of these lies are believed. It may be that people are induced to be so afraid of everything that they don't have time, or forget, to disbelieve their lies.

Everything you need to know about net neutrality

Click here to access article by the staff at the Nation of Change. 

Cable companies want to get rid of net neutrality. Without it, sites like ours could be censored, slowed down, or forced to pay extra fees. We can stop them and keep the internet open, fast, and awesome if we all contact Congress and the FCC, but we only have a few days left.

I strongly suggest that if you want your representatives in Congress to take your contact seriously, you should pledge at least a contribution of $10,000 to them. Still if their offices are overwhelmed with messages opposing any threats to net neutrality, they might think twice about making any changes.

The West Is on Fire As Heat Records Fall

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

From Phoenix to Boise, high temperature records fell like dominoes over the weekend as an impressive heat wave engulfed the western U.S., helping to fuel several wildfires.

While heat waves are a regular part of summer weather, the steady warming of the planet means those heat waves are getting ever hotter, making record heat more and more likely.

And with heat comes wildfires.

The heat and accompanying dry conditions can also set the stage for wildfires, as was the case during this heat wave, which saw several wildfires ignited and grow across the region. 

The Larsen C Iceberg Finally Broke Away. Now There’s a Trillion-Ton Iceberg Adrift

Click here to access article by Brian Kahn from Climate Central. 

The inevitable moment of reckoning for the Larsen C ice shelf arrived. The growing rift that carved across one of the Antarctica Peninsula’s largest ice shelves reached its end, sending a 2,240-square mile iceberg spiraling into the sea. Welcome to the world, iceberg A68.

The massive slab of ice, equivalent to the size of Delaware and large enough to cover the U.S. in 4.6 inches of ice, will slowly melt over the coming years as it drifts away from Antarctica.

The health of the remaining ice shelf will serve as a bellwether for how climate change could interact with natural processes to reshape Antarctica’s vast stores of ice. The growing instability of the continent’s ice has major implications for coastal communities around the world as it melts and pushes sea levels higher.

Has the Environmental Movement Failed? A Conversation with Dr. David Suzuki

Click here to access the video interview (with transcript) with Dr. Suzuki from the Real News Network. (Note: I've had to temporarily (I hope) remove the post "Syrians Return Home as the Terrorists are Pushed Out" by Steven MacMillan because it was interfering with this post.)

I lived in the Vancouver, BC area for four years (2002-2006) where I was frequently exposed to Dr. Suzuki's comments on the necessity of changing our lifestyle to prevent the ongoing degradation of the environment. This is the most passionate I have ever seen him address the issue.

I wonder if the characteristic of human nature identified as the "need for immediate gratification" is the fatal flaw that will cause our extinction. Suzuki makes oblique reference to this issue in the interview. I still think if most people understood that capitalism is incompatible with an environment which can sustain human life that they would find a way to end capitalism. Capitalist ruling classes, who are thoroughly addicted to the system, do everything they can to prevent this realization by the vast majority of humans.

The Kurds: Washington’s Weapon Of Mass Destabilization In The Middle East [part 1]

Click here to access article by Sarah Abed from Mint Press News. 

This is the best, well-balanced account of Kurdish issues regarding separatism and independence that I've seen to date.

Kurds throughout the Middle East have vigorously pursued their goals through a multitude of groups. While some Kurds established legitimate political parties and organizations in efforts to promote Kurdish rights and freedom, others have waged armed struggles. Some, like the Turkish PKK, have employed guerrilla tactics and terror attacks that have targeted civilians, including their fellow Kurds.

The wide array of Kurdish political parties and groups reflects the internal divisions among Kurds, which often follow tribal, linguistic and national fault lines, in addition to political disagreements and rivalries. Tensions between the two dominant Iraqi Kurdish political parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) escalated to a civil war that killed more than 2,000 Kurds in the mid-1990s.

Political disunity stretches across borders as well, with Kurdish parties and organizations forming offshoots or forging alliances in neighboring countries. Today, disagreements over prospects for Kurdish autonomy in Syria or Iraqi Kurds’ relations with the Turkish government have fostered tensions that have pitted the Iraqi KDP and its Syrian sister organization, the KDP-S, against the PKK and its Syrian offshoot, the PYD. Still, adversarial Kurdish groups have worked together when it has been expedient. The threat posed by Daesh has led the KDP-affiliated Peshmerga to fight alongside Syrian PYD forces.

US Expands Military Footprint in Syria to EIGHT Bases, ‘Modifies’ Kobani Air Base

Click here to access article by Alison Banville from BSNews (Britain).

The fundamental flaw with US Coalitions is that they do not include the Syrian Arab Army, Russia and their allies who have been systematically fighting ISIS & NATO state extremists, since the start of the externally waged war against Syria. The US coalition is, in reality, an uninvited, hostile force, violating Syria’s territorial integrity, operating under the false pretext of combatting ISIS while many reports expose the collusion between US coalition command & forces and ISIS.

What I found particularly interesting was a mention that the Syrian Kurds were divided on the issue of Kurdish independence, but the fact that the US has established bases on their territory is substantial evidence that the leadership of the Syrian Kurds are in favor of separatism and independence from the Syrian government.