Saturday, January 30, 2010
Take Back Your Education
by John Taylor Gatto from Yes! website. Not a recent article, but recently posted on their website.
The revolving doors of business and government
from In Defense of Marxism website based in Britain. British socialists certainly have no illusions about how power is exercised in their capitalist country.
'Capitalism is evil … you have to eliminate it'
from The Guardian website.
[referring to an FDR speech that was never broadcast] It is hard to imagine any circumstances in which Obama could put forward such an agenda, I suggest. Moore disagrees.It is clear from this and other comments that Moore has made that he, along with most Americans, simply does not understand how a class system of power, especially the capitalist system, functions. Obama was carefully vetted for this job which is essentially a public relations position representing major sections of the ruling class, the ownership class. Their system of capitalism is what gives them so much power, profit, and privilege. If Obama somehow had a change of heart and wanted to pursue actions that were not in the interest of this sponsoring class, he would be removed--one way or another. I am astounded that Moore and so many others simply just don't get it.
"He could make that speech."
And survive politically?
"He has told people he's going to operate these four years not with an eye on getting re-elected but on getting things done. I have been very happy for the last year. We came out of eight dark years and his election was – what's the word? – the relief I felt that night, I've been filled with hope since then. Now my patience is running a bit thin. He hasn't taken the reins and said: I'm in charge here, this is what we're doing. Do it. I can understand he's afraid but he's gotta do it."
The Audacity of Populism
from the Wall Street Journal website. The ruling class certainly does not suffer from any illusions about Obama as is clear from this article carried in their favorite newspaper. Why is Michael Moore and many other liberals so naive?
Allies okay road map out of Afghanistan
from The Star website in Toronto. The Canadian paper is treating the NATO-Afgan war's end as if it were a done deal--more so than any other source I've seen. Maybe they're right and moves are well underway to set up a client state like has happened to Iraq. Clearly the war is very unpopular in all the NATO countries. I just find it hard to believe that the Afgan people would ever tolerate such an arrangement. Of course, the Western powers need a face-saving excuse to leave, and maybe the Afgans will provide them with one. After most of the NATO forces leave, they can then put an end to this puppet government.
To gasps from the gallery, Blair said we should be proud of the war
from The Independent. Britain's number one war criminal defends his actions.
Zelaya leaves Honduras for exile
from Al Jazeera website. A sad ending to another attempt by a Latin American country to assert its independence from The Empire.
China retaliates over US arms sales to Taiwan
From The Guardian website. Arms sales are the biggest US export. How do the Chinese authorities expect the US to buy their products--by borrowing more money from them? (sarcasm)
Friday, January 29, 2010
Haiti's Classquake
from Upside Down World website. Sorry that I missed this excellent article from last week. It gives the neo-liberal context missing from mainstream media's coverage on Haiti.
World War As Class War
by James Heartfield from Mute magazine's website. This is a must-read account of the terrible effects, aside from military casualties, of war on working people while the capitalist classes prosper. This working class history of WWII is a necessary antidote to all the indoctrination that working people have received in the governing class's educational institutions.
Our Addiction to Disaster Porn
by David Sarota from creators.com website. Of course, he is writing about the US ruling class's take on disasters and its avoidance of any historical context to hide the crimes of The Empire.
The kidnapping of Haiti
by John Pilger from his blog.
In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger describes the "swift and crude" appropriation of earthquake-ravaged Haiti by the militarised Obama administration. With George W. Bush attending to the "relief effort" and Bill Clinton the UN's man, The Comedians, Graham Greene's dark novel about exploted Haiti comes to mind.
[US] Terror comes at night in Afghanistan
from Asia Times website. Read how the US is "winning the hearts and minds" of the Afghan people.
Obama Hypocrisy Watch: Obama Rips Lobbyists, Then Gives Them Private Briefings
by Yves Smith at her Naked Capitalism blog.
Radical Inequality Is Literally Killing Us
from Alter Net website. I notice that the article fails to mention any adverse affects of inequality on the health of the governing class. I very much doubt that it does. In any case, the governing class can't see beyond their noses of power, profit, and privilege to care much about anything else.
Swiss halt deal with U.S. that IDs Americans with secret UBS bank accounts
from the Washington Post. I can hear the sighs of relief across the US among the ruling class at this bit of news. Actually I doubt that many were very worried.
Police and Protestors
from Resurgence website based in Britain. The article looks at the tactics of intimidation used by the ruling class's legal system and their enforcers--the police; and Plane Stupid's counter tactics.
Over the last six months, Plane Stupid has been targeted by a campaign of police intimidation and intrusion. Some of us have been approached to inform on the rest of the group; others have been arrested for perfectly lawful protest, including one elderly protester who was interrogated and held in a cell overnight for writing ‘you fly, we die’ in the snow. Add this to the picture of routine violence and harassment handed out to Climate Campers at the G20 and elsewhere – and the “intelligence led” pre-emptive arrest for conspiracy of 114 activists in Nottinghamshire – and it is clear that the emerging climate action movement has been singled out by the police for some very special treatment. The question is, why?
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