IPCC: Was the scary report too conservative?

Click here to access article by Scott Waldman from E&E News [Energy & Environment News]

The U.N. climate report released this week had some stunning revelations, claiming that the 2020s could be one of humanity's last chances to avert devastating impacts.

But some say its authors were being too cautious.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report states in plain language that averting a climate crisis will require a wholesale reinvention of the global economy. By 2040, the report predicts, there could be global food shortages, the inundation of coastal cities and a refugee crisis unlike the world has ever seen. [my emphasis]

A number of scientists contend that the report wasn't strong enough and that it downplayed the full extent of the real threat.

The reality is that ordinary people, who are brainwashed to believe only the "authorities", don't read these reports, and mostly believe what their capitalist masters tell them via corporate media (and all their other institutions). What I wrote in yesterday's commentary is another illustration of this childish mentality:

The sad fact is that so many of us naively believed what we were told by adults in elementary schools and Sunday schools, and by our parents who were also steeped in capitalist propaganda since they were born. Later we were subject to this same indoctrination in movies and TV. Now many people find it hard to believe otherwise, to believe their own eyes and ears as our masters crank up their propaganda to new heights of deception and engage in censorship of information that counters their self-serving propaganda. A major problem for activists and independent thinkers is that those who uncritically accept this indoctrination are well rewarded by career opportunities in our master's corporations, government, academia, etc.

Environmental sustainability and the capitalist system are incompatible, but this glaring fact does not worry ordinary people because of their childish belief in their masters who are thoroughly addicted to the power and wealth that their system delivers to them. Like most addicts they prefer to have their supply of drugs than rather than life, and they don't care if the rest of us go down with them and the human species become extinct. 

Beyond Democracy [the best post of the past 30 days]

Click here to access article by Eric Schechter from The Greanville Post. 

This senior editor of The Greanville Post tells it like it is for those deluded individuals who still believe so many myths spread by our masters throughout their institutions.

“We’re in danger of losing our democracy!” is a warning cry I hear often. A variant is that “we lost our democracy gradually over the last few decades.” They’re both wrong. The truth is that we never had a democracy; we’re in danger of losing our illusion of democracy.

It's not hard to understand why, and he does in very simple terms. The sad fact is that so many of us naively believed what we were told by adults in elementary schools and Sunday schools, and by our parents who were also steeped in capitalist propaganda since they were born. Later we were subject to this same indoctrination in movies and TV. Now many people find it hard to believe otherwise, to believe their own eyes and ears as our masters crank up their propaganda to new heights of deception and engage in censorship of information that counters their self-serving propaganda. A major problem for activists and independent thinkers is that those who uncritically accept this indoctrination are well rewarded by career opportunities in our master's corporations, government, academia, etc.

Facebook carries out massive purge of oppositional pages

Click here to access article by Andre Damon from World Socialist Web Site.

In alliance with the state, Facebook and other social media companies are deciding what organizations constitute “well-developed networks” seeking to “manipulate” public opinion. Of course, this applies not to the mass media, which are engaged in constant government propaganda, but to oppositional groups. [my emphasis]

Showtime in America: Idiots’ Delight: A Quasi Review

Click here to access article by Edward Curtin from his blog. 

Curtin can't get over his new discovery--that (nearly) everything is a lie in America. Judging by recent, and not so recent, events, I must agree with him. I keep wondering what the effects are from this "Showtime in America" on ordinary Americans.

... we are living in a time of unprecedented technological media mind manipulation difficult to penetrate. Harold Pinter called it “a tapestry of lies” in which facts don’t matter. What happened never happened; what never happened happened. It’s all about believability in the national media’s hypnotic show, whose purpose Russell Baker described 25 years ago as being to “provide a manageably small cast for a national sitcom, or soap opera, or docudrama, making it easy for media people to persuade themselves they are covering the news while mostly just entertaining us.”

The steady deteriorating relations between the USA and Saudi Arabia

by Ron Horn

I don't believe we should ignore the effects of the recent assassination of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Turkey. It may very well contribute significantly to the steady decline of relations between the US Empire and the feudal Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the peril of both.

The ruling capitalist class of the USA and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) have long colluded with each other to protect each others interests: first in 1945, when FDR wanted USA's access to the richest oil deposits in the world; and the second iteration happened around 1974 with Kissinger's secret agreement with the King to effectively use the kingdom's oil to back the threatened dollar that had recently gone off the gold standard. Tyler Durden in 2016 provided an excellent summary of this sordid, mafia-like history. 

I've viewed with curiosity some of the recent statements by Trump which were critical of the Kingdom. Being a crass businessman, Trump in his blunt style only voiced what other ruling class figures, steeped in the skills of diplomacy, thought and said privately but wouldn't say publicly. Still, Mohammad bin Salman, the effective ruler of KSA (until the aging king dies), likely took his blunt remarks as deep insults (as is his style), and retaliated by killing one of Saudi Arabia's journalist-critics.

Thus, you should read this, this, this, this, and this to become informed about this potential historic pivot in relations between the two countries. On the other hand, Bernhard, expert geopolitical analyst at the Moon of Alabama, thinks because the alliance is of such importance to both countries the news of the incident will quickly disappear from the media and the conflicts will be handled secretly.

Deals will be made and the case will be buried. If the deals are good enough, several dozen billions will be required, the U.S. might even allow Mohammad bin Salman to stay in his position.

But [the aging elder] King Salman, or some Saudi citizens, may well find that the various crazy endeavors MbS tends to launch - the war on Yemen, the Qatar blockade, the Khashoggi assassination - are becoming way too costly for the country. A simple unlucky home accident could solve that problem.

I'm not so sure. In any case, it is important that you know about this sordid history.

Coming September 2019: The Anatomy of a Great Deception — Part 2!

Click here to access article and video that was sent to me by Richard Gage, AIA
Founder & CEO, Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth.

Here is your opportunity to help fund a second film by Dave Hooper about the greatest false-flag event in history and help to expose it as that. There are no limits--and I mean no limits--that our masters will go to to defend the benefits of their ruling class positions and their attacks against anyone or nation that stands in their way of access to their drugs of power and profits. I'm referring to the ruling, transnational, capitalist classes of the US-led Empire. 

Some of their worst deceptions in addition to their crime of 9/11 include the creation of a democratic facades of their governments whose war policies are always presented as motivated by humanitarian concerns, their successful attempts to evade taxes (and raise ours) with the establishment of offshore tax havens, and finally their use (or misuse) of our money that is issued by their privately owned central banks. The list of their deceptions and crimes against the overwhelming majority of humanity are endless--9/11 is only one of them. But if the American people can be convinced of this greatest false-flag event, there is no telling where they will go to question all the lies, deceptions, and crimes of our masters.

The Democrats and “Socialism”

Click here to access article by Carl E. Boggs from CounterPunch. 

This unbrainwashed, politically sane author reveals current politics as it is: a well managed politics combining the redefinition of words, promoting a typical welfare and reformist facade, and the backing of women candidates and people of color as a method to capitalize on the fashionable identity politics of today (see this, this, this, and this).  

Because I once wrote to a congressman from my district back in 2008, I've gotten on all the Democratic Party lists and have been inundated with promotional ads by them. (Hopefully now that I have unsubscribed from all their lists, I won't be bothered anymore.) Once again, those hard-working, distracted and entertained to death, and deep-in-debt Americans will be led by professional sheepherders in the ruling class's other party into their corrals of political delusions and finally, after the elections, into the capitalist slaughter house.

Articles recommended for Wednesday, October 10, 2018

• Climate of Fear: Global Warming Alarmists Intimidate Dissenting Scientists into Silence by Prof. Richard Lindzen from Global Research re-posted today from an article run in 2007. Note that this article was originally run in the Wall Street Journal on April 12, 2006.

I almost thought that Michel Chossudovsky, founder and editor of Global Research, switched his opposition to the phenomenon of global warming until today when I noticed this post. He consistently ran such posts up until about 2012. Thus, I concluded erroneously that he had changed his mind given all the scientific evidence and just plain common sense regarding global warming and climate destabilization: the trends for extreme weather, melting of the glaciers, wildfires, and other global warming events. Unfortunately not.

• UN report warns of catastrophic consequences of climate change within 20 years by Bryan Dyne from World Socialist Web Site.

Recommended articles for Tuesday, October 9, 2018

• IPCC says 1.5° will be bad and 2.0° will be far worse, calls for radical change NOW by Ian Angus from Climate & Capitalism. 

• Mainstream Journos Pissed As Saudi Clown Prince Nabs One Of Their Own by Bernhard from Moon of Alabama. Also, on the same subject: US-Saudi Relations Enter Unchartered Waters by Melkulangara BBhadrakumar from Strategic Culture Foundation.

• Future of Western Democracy Being Played Out in Brazil by Pepe Escobar from Consortium News. (Note: a much better title would be "Future of Western Fascism Being Played Out in Brazil.)

International relations: the calm before the storm?

Click here to access article by Thierry Meyssan from his blog VoltaireNet. 

(The translator erred--once again--in translating the French "destitution". It has not the same meaning in English. Example from the original article in French: "Les partisans de l’ancien ordre international misent sur un changement de majorité au Congrès et une destitution rapide du président Trump." See this and this. )

The author's basic thesis that events in Syria and elsewhere are largely suspended due to the wait for the results of the US midterm elections held in early November. This had a special resonance with me because I sensed that we were in an extended period of calm in international relations. Meyssan may be right. The thought occurred to me after reading this article that the Deep State, which has been focused on getting rid of Trump since he took office, may be awaiting their plans to put more anti-Trump candidates (Democratic Party) into the US Congress in order to make the impeachment of Trump much more likely. 

In general I think that this author has a sound geopolitical grasp of events in this vital Mid-East area, and in particular I was impressed with his knowledge of US strategies that have been pursued in Syria. One new motivation of these policies, which I hadn't thought of, was the disruption of the Belt and Road Initiative of China.

The three years of war that followed [the Russian military assistance] had other objectives - on the one hand, to create a new state straddling Iraq and Syria within the framework of the Cebrowski strategy, and, on the other, to use Daesh to cut the Silk Road that Xi Jinping’s China were seeking to reactivate - thus maintaining continental domination over the "Western" part.

True Revolution

Click here to access article by Caitlin Johnstone from her blog. 

I like much of what she writes. Although a change in consciousness by most people is essential for a successful revolution, those who have changed their consciousness should be engaged in planning for a revolution.

This would require a level of wisdom and insight that the majority of human beings simply do not possess right now. Right now, most people are very easily manipulated into advancing establishment interests by plutocrat-controlled media, and until that changes there will never be an effective and beneficial revolution. For that to change, humanity is going to have to shed its ubiquitous habit of creating mental egoic patterns which make us susceptible to manipulation via fear, greed, and herd mentality.

The doesn’t mean that the existing systems of capitalism and government aren’t going to have to change; of course they’ll have to change. But they’re not going to change unless we find a way to wake up from the deeply conditioned egoic patterns which are the norm in the world we were born into. We’ll keep repeating and repeating the same old patterns in whatever way we’ve been conditioned to until we either go the way of the dinosaur or find a way to transcend our conditioning.

Who Doesn’t Love Identity Politics?

Click here to access article by master satirist CJ Hopkins from his blog Consent Factory, Inc.

After so many years of the Deep State's use of identity politics to create a distraction from their war on US workers and their adventures abroad, I still welcome this belated satire. Their current social identity of choice are women. They are trying to use women's (often justifiable) grievances to promote their interests. Perhaps this was the tactic used by the Deep State as part of their ongoing vendetta against Trump and his nominee (Kavanaugh) for the Supreme Court. The Deep State's other party, the Democratic Party, has lined up a number of women candidates for government offices in the next election (Heads we lose, and tails we lose.).

The ruling classes love identity politics because they keep the working classes focused on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and so on, and not on the fact that they (i.e., the working classes) are, essentially, glorified indentured servants, who will spend the majority of their sentient existences laboring to benefit a ruling elite that would gladly butcher their entire families and sell their livers to hepatitic Saudi princes if they could get away with it. Dividing the working classes up into sub-groups according to race, ethnicity, and so on, and then pitting these sub-groups against each other, is extremely important to the ruling classes, who are, let’s remember, a tiny minority of intelligent but physically vulnerable parasites controlling the lives of the vast majority of human beings on the planet Earth, primarily by keeping them ignorant and confused.

I have mixed feelings about this exploitation of the use of social identity politics, I still like latter because it eliminates the isolation that many of these groups felt in the past, and they can no longer be used as scapegoats or pitted against each other as they have in the past. Even attempts at targeting Muslims by the ruling class has fizzled out. 

I have other criticisms. Hopkins overdoes the satire by writing that racists and fascists love it. To be sure, the Deep State has given them permission, even encouraged them, to hold rallies and ostentatious displays of racism to better distract us. But, this too is waning. He seems to suggest that truth is entirely relative depending upon which lens we use. Yes, that is an unfortunate fact of the nature of humans, but that isn't entirely true. We can succeed in discerning truth if we are determined to eliminate most biases and develop critical thinking skills. I disagree with his statement that "... this system (i.e., capitalism, not the U.S.A), being globally hegemonic, has no external enemies ....". Capitalism is not entirely hegemonic, and to the extent that it isn't, it leaves room for other systems to be developed. The antagonists of the US-led Empire have mostly mixed economies even though many have a rather pronounced capitalist sector.

India's U-Turn Destroys Trump's Anti-Chinese 'Quad' Strategy

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

It seems that the US-led capitalist Empire is being besieged on every front: financially with skyrocketing government debt, obvious environmental threats, its rather desperate attempts to limit criticism of it s policies through censorship, and the backfiring efforts to wage economic warfare on key nations. The latter is what this article illustrates.

The new Indian deals with Russia, the statements from the Russia-India summit and the continued oil buying from Iran are huge defeats for the Trump administration's anti-China, anti-Russia and anti-Iran policies. Its global strategy to rescue the 'unilateral moment' for the U.S. has failed over India's recalcitrance.

It's not clear to me that this economic warfare strategy is entirely Trump's strategy. Economic warfare has along with military warfare (and military threats) have always been the main strategies (in addition to outright subversion) of the US Empire as it deals with its opponents. Trumps attempts are only more transparent. It seems that both of strategies are no longer functional in the capitalist Empire's pursuit of world dominance, and perhaps Chris Hedges is right that the Empire is now collapsing.

Articles that should not be missed on Sunday, October 7, 2018

• Washington vs Beijing: US Proxies Emerge Ahead of Thai Elections by Joseph Thomas from New Eastern Outlook.

• The new Silk route on rails by Nat South from A bird's eye view of the Vineyard. 

Although China-Europe rail freight may have a negative impact on air cargo, it will not significantly change for the foreseeable time the huge amounts of containers (TEUs) shifted by containerships. Some of sea-freight and a lot of airfreight might end on rail lines, depending on the location of the production of goods. Having said that, rail does offer a faster option than sea freight, an option that simply didn’t exist before 2010. Significantly, the rail option also usefully by-passes maritime chokepoints such as the Malacca Strait, Bab el Mandeb and the Suez Canal.

Articles recommended for Saturday, October 6, 2018

• Scientists Raise Alarm Over U.S. Bio-Weapon Programs by Bernhard from Moon of Alabama.

• Washington’s Quiet Proxy War Against Vietnam by Tony Cartalucci from New Eastern Outlook.

• New Silk Roads define brand China by Pepe Escobar from Asia Times.

• USMCA: New Economic Alliance Formed to Isolate China by Arkady Savitsky from Strategic Culture Foundation. 

• Julian Assange in Crisis for Fifth Unity4J Online Vigil; Consortium News to Broadcast it Live on Saturday from Consortium News.

Even In “Revolutionary Countries”, Mass Media Is Still In the Hands of The Right

Click here to access article by Andre Vltchek from New Eastern Outlook.

Vltchek, a world traveling journalist, explains why people in the "developing" countries, especially dramatically like Vietnam, are so easily co-opted by the US Empire. It's the worldwide nature of Western media corporations providing them exclusively with news and information that serves the capitalist ruling classes of the Empire. However, he sees progress in the advanced capitalist countries with the growth of alternative media. I disagree with this last view. 

There has been some progress made by alternative media up until the Spring of 2017 in the countries of the Empire. Since then we have witnessed a considerable push-back by our capitalist masters with very successful results. Many alternative websites (including this one) have seen a decline in numbers of viewers. Our masters in the ruling classes have been successfully using Facebook, Twitter, Google, and all the other social media outlets and search engines to quiet and censor dissenting voices (see this, this, this, this, this, and this).

Ron Ridenour’s ‘Pentagon on Alert: The Russian Peace Threat’

Click here to access a book review by Dave Lindorff from This Can't Be Happening!.

After the German Third Reich was defeated in WWII, the Anglo-American alliance of necessity with the Soviet Union was quickly dropped, and the old enmity toward any system that refused to allow capitalist exploitation fueled a revived vendetta against the Soviet Union. As the end of WWII neared, the leaders of the exhausted British Empire saw that their only hope was to integrate with the powerful USA. In this book Ridenour, the author of a new book, discloses some little known facts about this vendetta that was instigated by Winston Churchill, a dedicated arch-enemy of any nation that hoped to choose an independent path from the new capitalist US Empire.

As someone [Lindorff] who studied modern Russian history, I found myself nonetheless being continually surprised as I read The Russian Peace Threat, by shocking new facts about this enduring US hostility that I had clearly not been fully aware of. For example, at the end of Chapter 10, writing about the launching of the Cold War by then Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Harry Truman as World War II was ending, Ridenour describes how Churchill proposed a plan to the US called “Operation Unthinkable.” This criminal nightmare vision had the combined forces of the US, Britain and Canada, along with some 100,000 rearmed Nazi troops, attacking the presumably exhausted and over-extended Soviet Red Army then still battling remnants of the Wehrmacht in eastern Germany. 

Two experts ridicule the Empire's policies and actions in the Middle East and Afghanistan

By Ron Horn

I regard two similar articles by experts on the US Empire's wars in the Middle East and Afghanistan as important. I am referring "Iran and Hezbollah are ready to face any challenge: but are Israel and the US ready?" by Elijah J. Magnier, an independent Kuwaiti journalist (if my memory serves me correctly) and widely quoted source of information by other experts, and "Blowback From U.S. Policy in the Greater Middle East" (you may want to skip Tom Engelhardt's introduction by scrolling down to the article) by Major Danny Sjursen of West Point.

Both ridicule the declining influence of the US Empire and its "partners in crime" due to blowback of its imperialist policies and actions to control this region over the past nearly four decades. 

Elijah Magnier:

With every war or tough western policy to defeat this “axis” using Saudi Arabian money and western intelligence services in the Levant and Iraq, this “axis” becomes stronger and increases the number of its supporters. Can the western warmongers finally learn that such a policy is, in fact, drastically weakening the West in the Middle East? I doubt it. 

Major Danny Sjursen: 

Short-term thinking, expedience, and a lack of strategic caution (or direction) has led Washington to train, fund, and support group after group that, soon enough, turned its guns on American soldiers and civilians. It’s a long, sordid tale that stretches back decades -- and one that, unlike the individual instances of treachery that kill or maim American servicemen, receives next to no attention.

How Feedback Loops Are Driving Runaway Climate Change

Click here to access article by Dahr Jamail from TruthOut. 

Dahr Jamail explains "how the feedback loops are driving runaway climate change".

The simplest explanation for a positive climate feedback loop is this: The more something happens, the more it happens. One of the most well-known examples is the melting of sea ice in the Arctic during the summer, which is accelerating. As greater amounts of Arctic summer sea ice melt away, less sunlight is reflected back into space. Hence, more light is absorbed into the ocean, which warms it and causes more ice to melt, and on and on.

And the scientists' explanations? Read the article.

Lost in the Theatre of Data, Dada, and Emotional Manipulation

Click here to access article by Edward Curtin from his blog Behind the Curtain.

... I realized that this is how the finest propaganda works.  It splits people in two and works subtly.  Emotionally you are pulled one way, and intellectually another, if you are thinking at all. There are certain connections you are not supposed to make or verbalize, when to oppose the powerful sway of the media’s emotional appeals is considered a betrayal of your humanity and certain victims, such as a cute orphan or acceptable victims, even when that doesn’t follow logically.

But in the Magic Theatre that is American life, false choices are the essence of the show. Democrats vs. Republicans, Clinton vs. Bush, Bush vs. Obama, Obama vs. Trump, liberals vs. conservatives, and on and on endlessly.  It’s Dada, my friends, all theater.  The next election will change everything, right?  “The sun’ll come out/Tomorrow, So ya gotta hang on/‘Till tomorrow/ Come what may.”

Trump administration sees a 7-degree rise in global temperatures by 2100

Click here to access article by Juliet Eilperin, Brady Dennis, and Chris Mooney from The Washington Post. 

I can't help but view this post cynically as anti-Trump propaganda motivated solely by ruling class hostility to President Trump. How can one take this article seriously from a media corporation that has functioned as the main propaganda organ of the ruling capitalist class, and its past record of always supporting the government's inconsequential efforts to limit global warming. 

There has been a rather widespread belief among scientists and other informed people that it is now too late to reverse, and thereby prevent, catastrophic effects from the accumulated amount of carbon already spewed into our atmosphere. This article emphasizes the rather benign warnings of federal scientists. Due to obvious reasons to safeguard their own careers in government, these scientists have the most conservative views (see this and this) among scientists in general regarding the threats to humans posed by global warming . 

The Game

Click here to access a poem by Ghada Chehade from her website. 

For me this poem by a Palestinian Canadian expresses what many experience currently living in capitalist societies. We are trained to relate to things instead of each other. Our masters in the capitalist ruling classes are obsessed with things of wealth and power, and try to inculcate this same obsession in us to better exploit us.  

Consequently we devalue each other in preference to things; and being socialized in this culture, we often model their behavior by treating each other as things that we can use to accumulate more wealth and control of others. It's all a game in the sense that we feel our lives are being played out by some alien rules instead of living lives centered in our human experience and being creators of our own lives. Those who succumb completely to this experience lose their humanity and end up as sociopaths who inflict unfathomable harm on others. 

“Is This What We Destroy Lives For?” Iraq, Afghanistan Vets’ Guilt, Unanswered Questions Spike Suicide Rate

Click here to access article by Whitney Webb from Mint Press News. 

Baffled by the increase in the rate of suicides by young veterans, the experts seem to overlook the explanations of these veterans in their suicide notes.

For instance, the suicide note of Daniel Somers, an Iraq war veteran who took his own life at age 30, stated that his PTSD was largely the result of having been ordered to “participate in things” including “war crimes, crimes against humanity.” Somers noted that “though I did not participate willingly, and made what I thought was my best effort to stop these events, there are some things that a person simply cannot come back from.”

Indeed, some of the atrocities that have been conducted by U.S. troops in Iraq include orders to slaughter all “military age men” in a given area, torturing detainees, raping children, massacring groups of civilians, and sodomizing prisoners with broom sticks.

Whose Side is the CIA on?

Click here to access an interview with Douglas Valentine with an introduction by Kim Petersen posted on Dissident Voice. 

Valentine has contributed so much to reveal the criminal secrets of the CIA, and much of it can be accessed directly or indirectly in this article. It must be understood that the word "criminal" must be understood in the context of what ordinary people refer to as gross anti-social acts, but the concept doesn't apply to class structured nations in which a ruling class commit such crimes. A crime is always an official crime when it seriously offends the ruling class of any society. The CIA, like all government secret agencies, functions in complete secrecy to protect the interests of the ruling capitalist class (from domestic dissidents as well as foreign antagonists) who created them. Thus, they commit crimes (in the ordinary sense) with impunity.

I've always wondered how Valentine could get away with hoodwinking so many CIA officers into revealing such criminal activities. Valentine offers an explanation. He convinced CIA Director William E. Colby that he was on the side of the Empire because he had written a book about his father in WWII (The Hotel Tacloban), his conventional appearance, he was not seen as a journalist, didn't ask any direct questions regarding the dirty secrets of the CIA, and most importantly (in my view) because of the military chain of command in the CIA and because of the practice of compartmentalization (CIA agents were given only information that they needed to know to carry out their assignments).

Also I've always wondered how the CIA could have let him get away with reporting their dirty secrets without any reprisals (much less by losing his life). Because as Sen. Chuck Schumer stated, the CIA and other secret agencies that serve the ruling class "have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you". I've never read of any harm or threats that have come to Valentine. Of course, they have gone out of their way to insure that very few Americans have learned of his disclosures. 

Perhaps this is the major way that our masters control dissent and opposition in the USA: they prevent any information inimical to their interests from being picked up by the vast majority of Americans. Our masters have gained complete control over the spread of information. I offer my own experience as an example: I have written about a revolutionary strategy to overthrow the rule of the capitalist class, and I've suffered very few consequences except for one late night journey--no, doubt picked up through emails to my sister--when I was threatened with being run off the road, and was followed clear to my home. Because my website and comments have been read by a relatively few people, I don't represent any threat to them. And, I am retired thus that they cannot threaten my access to jobs. 

The answer to the question in the title, "Whose Side is the CIA On?", is simply "their side": that of the tiny ruling capitalist class that created them.

Bolivia - President Addresses General Debate, 73rd Session

Listen (below) to Evo Morales in his yesterday's speech to the UN General Assembly uploaded on YouTube (begin at 11:10m to skip his remarks about an issue with Chile) and compare it with the coverage given by US media corporations here, here, here, here, and here. Notice that these media corporations all frame his address as attacking Trump, not the criticism of capitalism and the consistent US Empire policies regarding human rights, huge military expenditures that only benefits corporations, the Empire's use of the IMF to put nations into debt, economic warfare against nations, and establishing military bases all over the globe. The only exception is Trump's withdrawing from the 2017 Paris Accords which were only an innocuous fig-leaf to hide the obscenity of capitalism's exploitation of nature.



Could it be that the media corporations' news coverage are politically controlled by some secret agency to insure that they cover the same event the same way in the interests of our masters variously described as "the powers that be" (god, I hate that vacuous expression!), "the ruling elite", the "aristocracy", or the more accurate "deep state"?

(I thank Caren, an activist, for alerting me to Morales' speech.)

Articles recommended for Wednesday, September 26, 2018

• The New York Times promotes the Democratic Socialists of America by Genevieve Leigh from World Socialist Web Site.

Is the ruling capitalist class promoting the Democratic Socialists of America party as the new sheepherder, replacing Bernie Sanders, to lead American sheep into one of their political corrals? The author's report suggests so.

The New York Times promotes the DSA because, far from posing a threat to the capitalist system, the DSA is a principal political instrument for the Democratic Party to block and divert a leftward movement of workers and young people. Those looking for genuine socialism, including workers and young people who have joined the DSA, should be advised that such a program will not come out of the pages of the bourgeois press.

• Why reform won’t work by Eric Schechter from The Greanville Post. 

This short and to-the-point essay is right on the mark about some fundamental insights: reform doesn't work when a system is basically flawed; we humans have forgotten that we took a wrong turn some 10,000 years ago in tolerating dominant and self-centered sociopaths; as a consequence we can't, or refuse to, see the way out of our psychological box.

• Trump delivers fascistic tirade at the United Nations by Bill Van Auken from World Socialist Web Site.

Being Julian Assange

Click here to access article by Suzie Dawson from Consortium News.

Dawson excoriates the attempts to discredit and ignore the valuable contributions that Julian Assange has made to protect whistleblowers and to reveal the truth about the Empire's foreign policies. And then she shames us and all who have turned their backs on Assange in his hour of desperate need. I didn't read all of this huge article, but it looks like a comprehensive defense of Assange and a ringing call for support of his liberty.

At the crux of the issue is a battle of authenticity versus falsehood, on a spectrum. With most of us sandwiched somewhere in between and WikiLeaks front and centre. Because WikiLeaks is the last available vestige of verifiable, unadulterated public truth.

That is why they are hated by those who fear the revelations WikiLeaks facilitates and why WikiLeaks’ public reputation is desecrated every day. It is why their every pillar of support is systematically undermined and why Julian Assange is being ever so slowly murdered in front of our eyes.

We, the people, are the last line of their defence. Part of protecting WikiLeaks – and ultimately ourselves – is to understand the relentless nature of the psyops employed against them; that the hardships inflicted upon them by the enemies of human progress are not just reputational or financial but physical; that for those waging this thankless war of truth on our behalf, this is a matter of life or death.

And that is why we must push back.

That is why we must tell the truth about them.

If Society Understood Sovereignty, It Would End Rape Culture, Imperialism, And Propaganda

Click here to access article by Caitlin Johnstone from her blog.

She makes an insightful connection between rape and imperialism.

I bring up rape culture from time to time not just because it’s an inherently toxic dynamic which destroys lives and has impacted me personally, but because I see it as inseparable from the constant transgressions of powerful people who seek to undermine the sovereignty of entire populations and nations. I truly believe that if our culture had a better understanding of what sovereignty is and how it works, everyone from serial rapists to imperialists to mass media propagandists would lose the societal framework in which they operate.

Power, when you get right down to it, is ultimately about control.

Arctic thaw imperils climate goals

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

Austrian researchers have bad news for those nations alarmed about climate change: the Arctic thaw means the chances that the world will exceed the global warming limit set by international agreement are high – and getting ever higher with every tiny shift in the planetary thermometer.

Warming in the Arctic is the fastest on the planet – and any warming will release ever more methane and other forms of stored carbon from the thawing permafrost.

The Suppression of Truth in the Land of Lies: An Oxymoron

Click here to access article by Edward Curtin from his blog. 

It seems like it's all deception, secrecy, and censorship living in the heart of the US Empire, and Curtin's article only adds to that view. 

This is an appropriate tongue-in-cheek cynical read about how Amazon goes out of its way to make it difficult for you to buy this explosive book entitled 9/11 Unmasked: An International Review Panel Investigation by David Ray Griffin and Elizabeth Woodworth. Looking at the website at this moment reveals that a paperback edition is "Temporarily out of stock". Anyway, Curtin encourages you to buy it directly from the publisher.

                                                                                          *********************

Also it may interest you to know about an ad for a book entitled How to Read Donald Duck by Ariel Dorfman and Armand Mattelart originally published in 1971 that satirically attacked US propaganda, and which met with censorship both in Chile and USA, is once again available. So, get it while you can! (Thanks go to an activist for alerting me to this.)

Recommended articles (that I read) for Tuesday, September 25, 2018

• Damascus Trade Fair and Festival of the Cross Mark the Return of Peace to Much of Syria by independent Canadian journalist Eva Bartlett who recently visited Syria. There is so much in this article--including videos and interviews--that demonstrates that something like peaceful conditions have returned to war-torn Syria that has been fighting off regime change by the US Empire and its allies (like Saudi Arabia, Israel, and earlier Turkey) for the past seven years. This was posted on Mint Press News, an independent media organization based in Minneapolis.

• Iran Maneuvers to “Contain the US” in Syria by Salman Rafi Sheikh from New Eastern Outlook.

I think the author is spot-on with his observation about Iran's exploiting the various factions of the Kurds as a weapon to undermine the US's use of the SDF (formerly the YPG, a Kurdish nationalist group that wanted their own territory inside Syria (and possibly joining the Iraqi Kurds). (By the way, the very name of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) was instigated by a US Commander Raymond “Tony” Thomas of US Special Forces in Syria--see his remarks beginning at 25:10m in his talk at the Aspen Institute in July of 2017.)

Apart from building pressure on the US through a coordinated effort of Russia and Turkey, Iran can do other things as well. Not only can it exploit divisions among the Kurds, but also incite anti-American sentiments in the SDF-controlled areas and thus increase pressure on the US forces to leave the region, thus building an effective deterrent to the US plans of opening new fronts, particularly through Israel, against Iran in the Middle East.

• Here comes the 30-year trade war by Pepe Escobar from Asia Times.

Will Fed Engineer Next Crash to Topple Trump?

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

I've been thinking about exactly the same question. 

Contrary to all the superstitious pundits who have expressed concerns about an imminent economic collapse based primarily on the 10th anniversary of the 2008 crisis, I've wondered whether the Deep State (top financiers primarily ensconced in the privately owned Fed along with some top corporate leaders and Zionists--no, it is not synonymous with the CIA, NSA, FBI, etc: these are merely secretive instruments of the Deep State) would go to the extent of engineering an economic collapse as a sure-fire way of getting rid of Trump in the 2020 presidential election if they don't succeed earlier. Because of the inherent instability of capitalism, and especially given the astronomical levels of debt engineered to keep the system going in the USA and its Empire, an economic crash will happen sooner or later. It would be very beneficial for our masters if they could blame it entirely on Trump.

While it is not at all clear that rising Fed interest rates will trigger a stock market crash in time for the November mid-term elections, the stage is clearly set for the Fed to put the US economy into a severe recession or depression by the time of the 2020 elections. That would finish the Trump presidency should the Powers That Be decide another option is more useful to their global power agenda.

“We won’t be able to call it a recession, it’s going to be worse than the Great Depression,” said Peter Schiff, fund manager who anticipated the 2007 sub-prime crash.

Ten years on, the crisis of global capitalism never really ended

Click here to access article by Jerome Roos from Roar.

Although 700 billion dollar bailout was necessary by our treasury in the immediate crisis, in the long term it hardly made a dent in this "recovery". Forbes magazine puts the final bill at $16.8 trillion. Because our masters always lie to cover up their crimes, who knows how much they have bilked us?

I especially like Roos's explanation about how the ruling class coped with the financial meltdown of 2008 by converting the enormous debts the accumulated into sovereign debt which the taxpayers of the Empire's countries are burdened with. "Quantitative easing" was also necessary by the privately owned central banks to delay the crisis which still threatens to unleash its effects.

... as the social and political consequences of the crisis began to make themselves felt, and the postwar international order seemed to tremble on its foundations, the world’s leading central banks – adamant to save the skin of private financiers and avoid a repeat of the 1930s – responded with an unprecedented monetary experiment. Not only did they drop interest rates to historic lows, but they also embarked on an aggressive program of “quantitative easing” (QE) that would see the four biggest central banks pump the equivalent of $15 trillion in new money into the global financial system.

Instead of boosting productive activity, however, it soon became clear that this excess liquidity had unleashed a fresh wave of speculative investment.

Articles recommended for Monday, September 24, 2018

• Russia Beefs Up Syria's Air Defenses - Tells "Hotheads" To Cool Down by Bernhard from Moon of Alabama.

• Israel Orders Palestinians to Leave Khan al-Ahmar by October 1 from Internationalist 360°.

US Vows to “Overthrow” Iran as Terrorists Target Iranians

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

In referring to the recent terrorist incident in Iran, the author reveals the hypocrisy regarding the Empire's references to terrorist groups: on the one hand they wage a "War on Terror", but on the other hand they have always supported violent organizations ranging from the Contras to mafia groups to ISIS if such criminal/terrorist groups serve their interests of profit and power.  

According to most authoritative sources, in response to his secretary of state who said "Somoza's a bastard", FDR (probably in the 1930s) said "Yes, but he's our bastard". This has been the actual operating policy to promote the interests of the US ruling capitalist class regardless if they are foreign terrorist groups or organized crime syndicates here in the USA. That is simply because they all have one thing in common: they are all sociopaths who believe in the use of violence as the ultimate means of securing their access to wealth and power. 

Iran’s most recent accusations that the West and their Persian Gulf allies are behind terrorist organizations attacking Iran are difficult to dispute when US politicians are consorting with literal terrorists in New York calling for an “uprising” as terrorist attacks unfold inside Iran – more so when US policy papers themselves admit their proxies of choice are undeniably terrorists and supporting them must be done either covertly, or after a thorough political whitewash.

A similar process of whitewashing listed terrorist organizations occurred regarding Al Qaeda-affiliate, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) used by the US and UK to overthrow the Libyan government in 2011, delisted as a foreign terrorist organization by the US State Department in 2015, before members of the terrorist front carried out a suicide bombing in Manchester, UK in 2017 killing 23 (including the bomber).

Kevin Barrett speaks about growing censorship at a KPFA rally

Listen to Barret cite the growing censorship all over America and now at the home of the free speech movement in Berkeley, California. (I did volunteer work at KPFA in the early 1990s.)

Facebook Allies With U.S. Regime-Change Orgs For 'Fact Checking' In Foreign Countries

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

In consequence of the alleged manipulation of new and opinions during the 2016 election, Congress threatened to regulate social media. It demanded testimony by the owners of social media companies - Facebook, Twitter and Google - about their plans to weed out so called "fake news" distributed through their systems. Instead of defending the freedom of individuals and organizations to publish opinions deviating from the mainstream, the companies promised to increase their censorship capabilities. To avoid to make judgments themselves, they decided to outsource these to 'independent' fact checking organizations. Anything those deem "fake news" will then be censored.

Facebook Inc just gave such powers to two well known U.S. government regime change operators. 

I applaud his concluding paragraph:

The best way to avoid such campaigns and censorship of so called social media is to avoid them entirely. One can still get an objective view of the world by looking for original news sources and by applying a skeptical view towards presented "facts". It on us to teach others how to do this. 

Film review: The Spider’s Web – Britain’s Second Empire [a "best post"]

Click here to access article by Joel Benjamin from OpenDemocracy. (Note on Friday: I watched this video last night and I was very impressed! It's a must-see for all activists.)

I'm short of time today and didn't view the film and only scanned the article-review. However, I am posting it because the article and the one hour 18 minute video (below) regarding the secretive City of London is being posted on other websites that I consider reliable. I will view the video this evening.

The Spider’s Web offers unique insight into the British Empire, both past and present, and its colonies and far flung outposts. This is a story which, if known at all, is often understood through a rose tinted view of what that British Empire actually represented. The Spider’s Web details how the former Empire was transformed after World War 2 into a new financial empire of offshore tax havens and secrecy jurisdictions.

Articles recommended for Thursday, September 20, 2018

• Russia reveals the MH17 ‘smoking gun’ by Pepe Escobar from Asia Times.

• US Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard Blasts America’s Support for Al-Qaeda in Syria, as Trump Threatens Further Military Action by Mohamed Elmaazi from Global Research.

• America: The garrison state by Andre Damon from World Socialist Web Site.

Guest Media Alert by John Pilger: 'Hold the front page. The reporters are missing'

Click here to access article by John Pilger, the unofficial dean of honest reporting, posted on Media Lens. 

Pilger describes the descent of journalism which corresponds in my view with the assent of the US-led transnational capitalist Empire after WWII. Now the imperialist Empire is not only using their media corporations and all institutions of Western societies to spread their propaganda, but is also starting down the road of outright censorship of alternative media that dares to challenge their propaganda. He concludes the article with this very insightful observation:

So much of the mainstream has descended to this level. Subjectivism is all; slogans and outrage are proof enough. What matters is the "perception".

When he was US commander in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus declared what he called "a war of perception... conducted continuously using the news media". What really mattered was not the facts but the way the story played in the United States. The undeclared enemy was, as always, an informed and critical public at home.

Nothing has changed. In the 1970s, I met Leni Riefenstahl, Hitler's film-maker, whose propaganda mesmerised the German public.

She told me the "messages" of her films were dependent not on "orders from above", but on the "submissive void" of an uninformed public.

"Did that include the liberal, educated bourgeoisie?" I asked.

"Everyone," she said. "Propaganda always wins, if you allow it."

Ecosocialism’s Greatest Challenge: The Color-Line and the Twenty-First Century Ecoleft

Click here to access article by Ted Franklin from System Change not Climate Change (SCNCC). 

After describing the recent 30,000 people march in San Francisco organized by It Takes Roots and the doubts about its effectiveness, the author asks "What does this all mean for the future of ecosocialism?" Then he lists the first of three major reasons:

First, it means we means we who belong to largely white ecosocialist groups have many allies with deep roots in communities of color who share our understanding that capitalism is incompatible with a decent future for life on our planet.

Recommended articles for Wednesday, September 19, 2018

• Emma Fiala on the Women's March on the Pentagon, an interview (for activists) with Fiala by James Corbett from his website. Of special interest is the planned demonstration in Washington DC in October as an alternative to the corporate media-supported Women's March of last year.

• Middle Eastern Take on the Turkish-American Face Off by Yuriy Zinin from New Eastern Outlook. He seems to have an informed and sincere understanding of the mysterious role that Turkey under President Erdogan is presently playing vis-à-vis USA and its European puppets.

• Two Major Middle East Projects Are Afoot & Gaining Mass; They May Collide Before Long by Alastair Crooke from Strategic Culture Foundation. 

I don't usually post articles like this that I see as highly speculative; however considering that it is written by Crooke, a former MI-6 agent and now independent geopolitical analyst, I offer it to those who want to follow closely geopolitical political events in the often obscure Middle East. He sees two strategies or projects backed by powerful Empire agents that could have major impacts on political events in the Middle East.

Presenting The Syria Deception: Al Qaeda Goes to Hollywood (VIDEO)

Click here to access article by Dan Cohen from Gray Zone.

This article and especially the video (reproduced below) illustrates how the US Empire uses its massive control over all their media institutions, which includes Hollywood as well as their media corporations, to concoct propaganda in support of its imperialist projects. There is no shortage of people who can be bribed or national governments allied to the Empire to participate in their propaganda campaigns. Click on the video to access it directly from YouTube and notice how YouTube, owned by Google corporation, discourages people from viewing the video. At least they don't have the nerve (yet) to completely censor the video as they have some other websites, videos, and even books.



It is the comprehensive coverage of this propaganda or its pervasive coverage throughout the institutions of media, entertainment, and even education that makes it so effective in convincing ordinary people of its validity. People who are constantly exposed to this insidious propaganda from such a variety of sources are rather easily convinced of its truthfulness.

Other recommended articles for Monday, September 17, 2018

• Global warming’s paper trail by Benjamin Franta from Japan Times.

• Silicon Valley’s corrupt nexus: War, censorship and inequality by Andre Damon from World Socialist Web Site. 

• Amazon’s worth $1 trillion, so why is it robbing taxpayers? by Jim Hightower from Intrepid Report.

Mindful Economics: [a] Review & analysis

Click here to access article and book review by Patrice Greanville from The Greanville Post. 

Although this article is formally entitled "Understanding Capitalism", it is really a very positive scholarly review of the book entitled Mindful Economics by Joel C. Magnuson in which, he argues, leads to a real understanding of capitalism. In his introduction to his review, Greanville goes at some length to show that economic theory as taught and interpreted in the USA has over time degenerated into a method to induce a widespread false consciousness in order to obscure how the economy really works for the benefit of a few at the expense and misery of the vast majority. 

As might be expected the instruments to mould opinion in a significant manner are jealously guarded by the ruling classes everywhere. In capitalist America, these tools are literally priced out of the reach of most common mortals. This is logical and consistent with the wealth and power distribution of such societies, where the savvier sectors of the plutocracy understand that the monopoly of opinion manipulation is vital to the survival of their system. Outright repression can certainly ensure a level of compliance, sometimes for a generation or two, but in the long run intimidation cannot guarantee political stability or legitimacy. Only covert mind control can deliver that. Thus by far the most efficient solution is when we are made to carry the chains and prisons right inside our heads. Policing our own actions while still believing in our total freedom is simply a diabolically effective formula to ensure perpetual bondage, but to make it fly the system requires the confluence of many critical factors, including the complicity of academia.

Articles I recommend for Sunday, September 16, 2018

• Erdogan, Putin to Meet Monday in Sochi as Turkey Moves More Weapons into Syria from 21st Century Wire.

• The Bluffer’s Guide to Bombing Syria by Peter Ford, former British Ambassador to Syria, posted on 21st Century Wire.

• Analyzing the business behind the controversial Nike Kaepernick ads by William Bayless from News Rep. 

• Elections, Power, & the DSA: The Failure of the Left in Power from It's Going Down.

Along with obsession over “ANTIFA,” the growth of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) in the wake of Bernie Sanders’ failed Presidential run has garnished mass attention in the press, been demonized by the Right, and also embraced by some sections of the liberal class as the new shepherds of the Democratic Party.

Meanwhile, the DSA has continued to explode in membership, hitting over 50,000 dues paying members in recent weeks. While some DSA backed politicians have become house hold names as the DNC aligned media smells blood in the water in the lead up to the midterms, DSA chapters have also become a fixture at protests and demonstrations, from fighting against the Alt-Right to supporting strikes.

But key questions remains, will the DSA be used, much as Bernie Sanders’ campaign was used, to activate key sections of millennials and the working poor, and prime them for elections? 

Why we’re blind to the system destroying us [a "best post"]

Click here to access article by Jonathan Cook, a British independent journalist, from his blog. 

This British journalist has been located in the Middle East where it is much easier to identify the obvious evidence of power influencing the way information is shaped by all the powerful owners of media corporations to promote the power and profits of our masters in the ruling capitalist class. He has been among the leaders that led the effort to warn about this encroachment on truth-telling by the powerful; and true to his insights, he has pursued, probably at great material sacrifice, a very independent career in journalism. There is much to be learned from his articles, and we need to support his independent journalism especially because it is disappearing due to the overwhelming presence of corporate media.

In this article he attempts to explain the blinding effects of corporate journalism which functions to prevent us from seeing the truth about important events (and many minor ones) in the world that impinge upon the power of capitalist elites. Although people can recognize abuses of power by individuals, they are prevented from seeing the abuses of power that are promoted by the neoliberal (advanced capitalist) system that sustains power and wealth for a very few who own the media (and nearly everything else of value).

Because the abuse of power by our fundamental system of capitalism is so pervasive and kept well-hidden, I urge readers to not only read this article, but to study it. And the same goes for two major links included in the article: the links to previous articles from Media Lens here (the latter is the same article which he posts in his own blog) and here, and other references in the latter articles.

Recommended online posts for Friday, September 14, 2018

• Ten Years After the Crash, We’ve Learned Nothing by Matt Taibbi from Rolling Stone.

Taibbi, like most reform critics of our capitalist society, complains (sheds crocodile tears) about the effects of the 2008 economic collapse on the poor. Of course, this is true about all the periodic crashes of the capitalist economy.

... everyone in the upper echelon of the finance community got Paid In Full in the bailout, even the exact people who screwed up the worst. But outside Manhattan? It was like Warren Buffet’s partner Charlie Munger sneered: People should just “suck it in and cope.”

The biggest victims in this miserable story turned out to be poor, nonwhite, and elderly.

He also writes:

The deal those bankers cooked up was to save the banks from capitalism.

Losers must be allowed to lose. It’s the first and most important regulatory mechanism in a market economy.

But by 2008, the banks had simply grown too big and interconnected to allow normal market processes to take place.

Notice that Taibbi, like other reformist critics, limits his criticism and suggests that we need only to make improvements on capitalism. He apparently doesn't understand that the system was designed to serve a sociopathic few at the expense of the many, and this phenomenon that he complains about is inevitable. Such critics deflect any basic criticisms of the system which are now becoming obvious: the system itself is the problem.

• Aftermath Of Disasters Reveal A Hidden Truth  This was a segment of last's night RT's Redacted Tonight program (carried on RT every Thursday evening and picked up on YouTube the next day--Fridays) that features comic Lee Camp and others. The "Hidden Truth"? Well, watch the segment and draw your own conclusions. (Tip: it has something to do with the behavior that's promoted under the system of capitalism.) 

Actually, I advise people who need relief from viewing, reading, or listening to mainstream corporate sources and opinions to view this program. It is a powerful antidote to the corporate issued poison which can produce so many kinds of delusional behavior in otherwise normal adults.

9/11 Legacy: Two Contending Fascisms

Click here to access article by Glen Ford, editor of Black Agenda Report. 

I thoroughly agree with this assessment of the 9/11 false-flag event which enabled our capitalist masters to accelerate imperialist adventures, the domestic suppression of dissent, and impose economic sacrifices--all characteristics of the final stage of capitalism which is fascism. Notice that the word "fascism" is not a meaningless smear word, but a very meaningful concept that sheds light on what is happening in the USA and much of its empire. 

Ford describes the two factions of fascist capitalists fighting it out in Washington.

Two contending, yet interrelated, forms of fascism are vying for supremacy in the U.S. Both fascisms are anchored in the leadership of their respective duopoly parties, which together monopolize the national political conversation. Thus, fascism is “mainstream” politics in the United States, as reflected in the daily diatribes between the warmongering, Russian stooge-hunting, neo-McCarthyite, corporate Democratic “Resistance” and the race-mongering, Dixiecrat-Republican, law and order-loving (but also white mob rule-friendly) troglodytes aligned with Donald Trump.

“Fascism is “mainstream” politics in the United States.”

These are not polar opposite fascisms, of course. Both are American exceptionalist — another term for imperialist — and both are thoroughly capitalist, tailored to the rule of the rich. The major difference between the two, is race.

Articles recommended on Thursday, September 13, 2018 as honest attempts to help you understand the global chaos, or cope with the chronic lies of our masters

• How Did the Saudi Government Participate in 9/11 and What’s Happening with JASTA? by Ammar al-Shami from Geopolitics Alert.

• As White House Coups Go, Wall Street Has Staged Plenty by Pam Martens and Russ Martens from their blog Wall Street on Parade.

• The Chorus Grows for the Fed to Buy Up Stocks in the Next Wall Street Crisis by Pam Martens and Russ Martens from their blog Wall Street on Parade.

• Making Quagmires in Syria Is a Step Towards ‘Regime-Change’ in DC by Alastair Crooke from Strategic Culture Foundation. 

• Problem, Reaction, Solution: US Bait Arrives in Idlib, ISIS Now in Position by Vanessa Beeley from 21st Century Wire. 

• Syria - Turkish Tantrum Delays Liberation Of Idleb by Bernhard from Moon of Alabama. 

• On the Censorship of Michael Hoffman's Books by Amazon by The Saker (Andrei Raevsky) from The Unz Review. Yes, Jeff Bezos has joined the censors now that he has a virtual monopoly in the sale of books!

• Putin-Nazi Paranoia by CJ Hopkins from his blog Consent Factory, Inc.  This satirical post is to help you psychologically to cope with the factional fighting among fascist capitalists.

Articles recommended for Wednesday, September 12, 2018

• 17 Years After 911, US Backs Al Qaeda in Syria by Finian Cunningham from Strategic Culture Foundation.

• Washington’s Long War on Syria Isn’t About to End by Stephen Gowans from his blog What's Left.

• YouTube Censors Multiple Accounts Reporting Truth on Idlib Campaign by Julia "Samar" Kassem from Geopolitics Alert.

• Behind the Anglo American War on Russia by F. William Engdahl from New Eastern Outlook.

• Elections and the Illusion of Political Control by Bob Urie from CounterPunch.

It is ironic, and perhaps wholly coincidental, that insurgent groups as diverse as Occupy Wall Street and the Black Panthers were shut down when they began demonstrating that they could build (small scale, ultimately utopian) alternative institutions. Elections are intended to change the cast of characters without challenging existing institutions.

Sorry Urie, but I don't consider this coincidental. Carefully managed elections have been established as a ruse by the ruling class to fool once again the American people into believing that they have they live in some kind of democracy. (This comment was added at 8:15 AM CT on Sept. 13.)

The Case Against Competition [a "best post"]

The following YouTube audio presentation is a speech that, I estimate, was delivered by Alfie Kohn sometime in the latter 1980s. I discovered it as a comment-response to Patrice Greanville's recent post entitled "Of militarism’s wedding to sports—not an accidental match" from his website. I was very surprised that I never encountered his views before--the likely reason is because our capitalist culture forbids such views.



The video made a very powerful connection to my life's experience, and in addition, Kohn's speech touches on a very profound issue of which few leftists are aware: the comprehensive influence that a ruling class has on every aspect of culture--ranging from institutions down to our very behaviors and thoughts. This has been a theme that I have been hammering at for the past nearly nine years that I've devoted to this website. Thus, the topic is very current and will remain so until revolutionaries become aware of this insight and act accordingly.

I don't think that even Alfie Kohn is aware of this comprehensive nature of class rule. In this speech he acknowledges that he doesn't thoroughly understand this overwhelming emphasis on competition and the conventional view of human nature throughout our culture, and he correctly asserts that more study is needed of this phenomenon. He has made a career out of talking to mostly educators about how they can create positive change by teaching cooperative values and encouraging cooperative modes of behavior in their classrooms. This, I am thoroughly convinced, is a mistaken notion. I think his career is an excellent illustration of this faulty notion: these competitive values and behaviors are worse than ever before, and wars and the assaults on the environment threaten our very existence as a human species! We can't change beliefs and behaviors without changing the fundamental structure of our societies!

Nothing less than a thoroughly democratic revolution can promote cooperative values and behavior. Yes, that means taking away the cornerstones of capitalism: the sanctity of ownership of social property (nearly all property beyond strictly private property), inheritance of wealth, etc, and replacing capitalist class rule with a thoroughly bottom-up and a comprehensive participatory governance of our societies. The only question remains is how this can be accomplished. This question must be answered--and soon before it's too late--by a people's revolutionary movement that prefigures in its very organization a participatory governing structure.

The US’s Choice: WWIII or Saving Face in Syria

Click here to access article by Tom Luongo from Strategic Culture Foundation. (I thank an activist for alerting me to this article.)

The author provides three very good reasons why our masters (Deep State) behind the puppet show of the US government will choose the "saving face in Syria" option. The Ziocon faction of the Deep State won't like it, but cooler heads concerned about US power and profits will prevail.

9/11 War Games

Click here to access article by James Corbett of The Corbett Report. (Slightly edited the first paragraph at 6:34 PM CT for greater clarity.

In this brilliant article Corbett furnishes us with an abundance of well-documented evidence that leads to the conclusion that numerous war games, false communications, and other distractions were intentionally planned and executed to disable any effective military response to the real hijacked and/or radio controlled planes. After the fact of 9/11 various government officials only offered more lies and coverups to conceal what really happened, and refuse to re-open an investigation as to what really happened on 9/11/2001.

The truth of what happened that morning would be remarkably easy to come to if those involved in the planning and execution of the day’s training events were to open the records and allow independent examination of the precise situations that were being trained that day, how those scenarios were arrived at, who planned them, who was in charge of them, what radar injects and false reports and live-fly simulations were taking place, how these exercise inputs were relayed to technicians and air traffic controllers, and what steps were taken at what times to allow those events to continue even as the attacks they were supposed to be simulating were actually happening in real life.

But we shouldn’t expect the guilty parties to indict themselves, and so it is no surprise at all that the official government investigation into 9/11 studiously avoided facing any of these issues head on.

Most of the carefully planned preparations for the 9/11 false-flag attack were performed by a top-down command structure of the military. Thus, a number of people simply followed the orders issued at the very top of this command who enjoyed virtually unlimited power, and who now enjoy even more power since 2001. This historical stunt illustrates fascism in action in the USA. It is no surprise to me that there is a vigorous coverup because it is clear to that a monstrous crime of such scale could only be carried out with the approval of a major section of the ruling capitalist class.

The Fakest Fake News: The U.S. Government’s 9/11 Conspiracy Theory – A Review of 9/11Unmasked: An International Review Panel Investigation by David Ray Griffin and Elizabeth Woodworth

Click here to access article by Edward Curtin from his blog. (Note: I added an additional review of the book from OffGuardian at 10:30 AM CT.)

On this 17th anniversary of history's top false-flag event in New York City, many writers and organizations are publishing or posting articles undermining the official story fed to us by the capitalist ruling class via their media corporations. In this article Curtin describes a major contribution in this effort to reveal the criminal deceit of our masters in the form of a book entitled 9/11 Unmasked: An International Review Panel Investigation.

The authors of this essential book, David Ray Griffin and Elizabeth Woodworth, and all their colleagues who have contributed to this volume, have long been at the front lines trying to wake people up to the real news about 9/11.  They have battled against three U.S. presidents, a vast propaganda machine “strangely” allied with well-known leftists, and a corporate mass media intent on serving deep-state interests, all of whom have used illogic, lies, and pseudo-science to conceal the terrible truth.  Yet despite the establishment’s disinformation and deceptions, very many people have come to suspect that the official story of the September 11, 2001 attacks is not true.

With the publication of 9/11Unmasked: An International Review Panel Investigation, they now have a brilliant source book to use to turn their suspicions into certitudes.

Also, you might be interested in an article entitled "9/11 In Context" by "Washington" who reviews much (not all) of the history of false-flag events used by various ruling classes in their rather desperate attempts to acquire wealth and to dominate others. 

                                                                          ****************
For another review of this book you might be interested in reading Piers Robinson's article entitled "9/11 Unmasked by David Ray Griffin and Elizabeth Woodworth: A Review" from OffGuardian. 

The Secret Lie That Started the Afghan War

Click here to access a free and excellent article by James Corbett from his website.

Corbett is running a series of reports on the Afghan war and 9/11, and this excellent, well-documented article (in my opinion) is the best of them all. (For the others, see this, this, this, and this.)

He introduces this outstanding article with this statement:

How did the war in Afghanistan start? And how did NATO become involved in this conflict? These details are never discussed because they have for nearly two decades been hidden behind a shroud of secrecy. But now, after nearly two decades of lies, the remarkable truth about the secret documents that helped launch the Afghan war can finally be revealed. This is the story of The Secret Lie That Started the Afghan War.

After he introduces well documented evidence, he reaches this compelling conclusion:

17 years of warfare and bloodshed. 17 years of attack and counter-attack. 17 years of tears and shattered lives. 17 years of lies. And all of it based on the foundational lie of 9/11, and this virtually unknown document.

But now the truth of this deception is in our hands. And it is only by exposing that deception that we can ever hope to derail the wars waged in its name, and stop the death and destruction it has wrought.

Security Alerts, Disabled Fire Alarms, and Unused Elevators: Suspicious Events at the World Trade Center Before 9/11

Click here to access an article by a Brit by the pseudonym of "Shoestring" reposted on Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth. 

Founded five years after the historic false-flag event of 9/11/01, this organization has been slowly gaining support by an increasing number (over 3000 as of this date) of architects and engineers bothered by the obvious contradictions of the report offered officially by the ruling class's government compared to the evidence. This article relates to only a few of the contradictions.

At least three notable anomalous events occurred at the World Trade Center in the weeks and months leading up to September 11, 2001, which may have related to the imminent terrorist attacks but could not have been caused by al-Qaeda, the group supposedly responsible for 9/11. 

Climate of Class Rule: Common(s)er Revolt or Common Ruin (another leftist dilletante argues that we need an "eco-socialist people’s revolution here on the planet itself."

Click here to access article by Paul Street from CounterPunch. (Thanks go to an activist for alerting me to this article.)

I've long followed the writings of such people as Noam Chomsky, Chris Hedges, Naomi Klein, etc. Actually the longest was Alexander Cochburn, the co-founder of this website. (I've been thinking that it is past time that I added Paul Street to this list.) This list consists of people of the highly "educated" upper-middle class who have, on the one hand, written articles critical of the capitalist ruling classes, and on the other hand, pursued careers which served these ruling capitalist classes. I see them as severely compromised by the many benefits that they have enjoyed in their careers. 

Some have hidden behind leftist rhetoric of resistance to capitalist rule much like CounterPunch or The Nation; some like Chris Hedges (author of The Cancer of Occupy) late in their careers found their duties and/or their masters so distasteful that they could no long pursue such careers. Some like Alexander Cockburn were compromised by the riches of their inheritances from former ruling classes. I consider all of them as leftist dilettantes who write and speak in leftist rhetoric but have always refused to seriously engaged themselves in revolutionary activities against the capitalist ruling classes. In this article, I think that Street unintentionally offers such an illustration by describing an incident involving Douglas Ruskoff, another highly educated person who occasionally was critical of the ruling class:

In an essay bearing the suitably appropriate title “Survival of the Richest,” the leading academic “media theorist” and “digital economics” professor, lecturer, and documentarian Douglas Rushkoff tells of an invitation he accepted last year to “a super-deluxe private resort to deliver a keynote speech to what I assumed would be a hundred or so investment bankers. It was,” Rushkoff writes. “by far the largest fee I had ever been offered for a talk — about half my annual professor’s salary — all to deliver some insight on the subject of ‘the future of technology.’”

Notice that Rushkoff had no difficulty accepting such a rewarding invitation; and even though he felt deceived to what the rich were requiring of him, he continued to offer his expertise in order to keep the generous fee.

I began to reflect on all these do-gooder, pretentious leftists and my experiences with them. I remembered how the sociology material we were given in the "higher educational" institution I attended in the early 1960s always portrayed the working class as inclined to authoritarianism (fascism) and motivated by short-term goals--hence, they were disparaged. Weren't Rushkoff's experience and that of most all of the other well-educated well-trained academics illustrations of people being motivated by short-term rewards? And I remember that when Bill Moyer asked Chris Hedges about an apparent contradiction in the latter's life (see segment from 41:20m to 43:30m in this interview), Hedges fumbled around to concoct a self-justifying explanation.

I've concluded that we should not take these compromised people seriously because in the end they will always be loyal to the ruling class that sustains them in a relatively luxurious lifestyle. Likewise, no serious revolutionary organization should ever let such people take leadership roles.