Bulletin N° 744

 

 

 

Subject : PROGRESS : « their » notion and our nation, using win-win tactics in a sum-zero game.

 

 

March 26, 2017

Grenoble, France


The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood - Audiobook

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z30Dl_uU8Qs



Dear Colleagues and Friends of CEIMSA,

 

Recently, when Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman announced that a major financial supporter of the Trump Presidency had declared that the life of a cat was of more value than that of a poor person, I was not surprised. In the framework of social class struggle, the threat of annihilating the opposition has become a ruling class tactic to win total submission to their cause (which is, of course, to continue to accumulate maximum amounts of capital under their private ownership).

 

Their Grand Strategy, again, is to win public submission by inducing fear in the population, and, historically, tactics ranging from verbal abuse to genocide have been used to achieve this goal –including the threat to exterminate an entire ethnic group, a religion or a culture; to obliterate an inconvenient ideology or any other human manifestation that might be perceived as a possible impediment to the capitalist profit motive. By learning to live in fear, a population becomes effectively enslaved, and this enslavement can be very profitable to the owners of capital --for example, by creating low-wage jobs instead of introducing expensive technological innovations, or by maintaining labor reserve pools of under-employed people to draw from when the opportunity arises, or by recruiting mercenaries for foreign wars and for domestic police work, or by manufacturing consumer zombies who “shop ‘til they drop” for stuff they neither want nor need, but are ready to kill for . . . ; and the list goes on, of “human resources” engineered according to the specifications of the ruling-class whims of the moment.

The alleged Nazi-inspired burning of the Reichstag on February 27, 1933; the Röhm-Putsch, from June 30 to July 2, 1934; and the Kristallnacht carried out by paramilitary forces on the night of November 9-10, 1939, have become emblematic of the 21st Century. False Flag operations accompanied by terror can enslave the minds of people for a long, long time. This is a challenge which has historically been taken up by political representatives of capitalist interests who have repeatedly employed thugs to seize power from popular opposition; then liquidate them when these neophytes were found to be no longer useful to capitalist interests.

The mental construct of an illegitimate dependent power hierarchy --imposed on society-- has been challenged, again and again, by the practice of democracy. The latter originates with the material realities of our daily lives; while the former is a concept contrived in an ethereal atmosphere of privilege and rapport de force, which produces a general anxiety that effectively disempowers communities and alienates people from their rational interests and their intellectual resources.

 

San Diego community organizer Byron Morton shares with us information about cultural struggles against the defeatist visions of corporate dystopia in San Diego, California : An up-coming concert this summer, featuring the famous satirist songwriter, Roy Zimmerman :

Friday, July 21 @  8 pm  SAN DIEGO, CA

Roy Zimmerman: ReZist
Grassroots Oasis
3130 Moore St
San Diego CA

What can one person do about racism, gun violence, climate change, income inequality, bigotry, ignorance, war and greed?

“Write funny songs,” says Roy Zimmerman.

 

The 22 items below provide CEIMSA readers with more information about the struggle in which we are now engulfed; they offer additional perspectives which might help us to regain our orientation in this forest of entangled deceptions and “Big Lies”.

 

 

 

Sincerely,

Francis Feeley

 

Professor emeritus of American Studies

University Grenoble-Alpes

Director of Research

University of Paris-Nanterre

Center for the Advanced Study of American Institutions and Social Movements

The University of California-San Diego

http://www.ceimsa.org

 

 

 

a.

A Bloody and Painful Truth
(video with transcript)

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46695.htm

by Hassan Nasrallah

 

The Resistance Axis Triumphs, Israel Panics.


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b.

A Breach in the Anti-Putin Groupthink
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46716.htm

by Gilbert Doctorow


The mainstream U.S. media has virtually banned any commentary that doesn’t treat Russian President Putin as the devil, but a surprising breach in the groupthink has occurred in Foreign Affairs magazine, reports Gilbert Doctorow.


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c.

"War Torn" - U.S. Slaughter In Syria, Somalia And Yemen

 

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46681.htm

by Moon Of Alabama

 

This is an ongoing huge war crime and literally a genocide

 

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d.

 

The West is Becoming Irrelevant, The World is Laughing

 

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46734.htm

by Andre Vltchek

 

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e.

Jane Mayer on Robert Mercer & the Dark Money Behind Trump and Bannon

(see parts 1 – 3)

https://www.democracynow.org/2017/3/23/jane_mayer_on_robert_mercer_the

 

===========

 

f.

The Hardening of Society and the Rise of Cultures of Cruelty in Neo-Fascist USA

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46683.htm 
by Henry Giroux

 

Dark Times are truly upon us. There will be an acceleration of acts of violence under the Trump administration and the conditions for eliminating this new stage of state violence will mean not only understanding the roots of neo-fascism in the United States, but also eliminating the economic, political, and cultural forces that produced it.

 

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g.

Trump Is Filling Top Pentagon and Homeland Security Positions With 

Defense Contractors

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46713.htm

by Lee Fang

 

President Donald Trump has weaponized the revolving door by appointing defense contractors and their lobbyists to key government positions as he seeks to rapidly expand the military budget and homeland security programs.

Two Department of Homeland Security appointments Trump announced Tuesday morning are perfect examples.

 

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h.

No One Needs Another Korean War

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46687.htm

by Eric Margolis

 

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i.

Prospects, Hope and Strategies for the Future in Palestine

(October 24, 2016)

https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/prospects-hope-and-strategies-for-the-future-in-palestine/

by Norman Finkelstein and Tommaso Segantini

 
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j.

Support Palestine and oppose AIPAC in Washington DC, March 25-26! [Video]

https://israelpalestinenews.org/support-palestine-oppose-aipac-washington-dc-march-25-26-video/

from Alison Weir

 

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k.

Sous la Pression, l’ONU enterre le rapport accusant Israël d’apartheid

http://www.lemonde.fr/proche-orient/article/2017/03/17/sous-la-pression-l-onu-enterre-le-rapport-accusant-israel-d-apartheid_5096546_3218.html?xtor=RSS-3208

C’est la première fois dans l’histoire de l’ONU qu’un rapport publié en son nom accuse l’Etat hébreu d’apartheid. Le terme revient pourtant régulièrement, depuis une dizaine d’années, dans le débat sur la politique d’occupation israélienne.

===========

l.

Norman Finkelstein to Jewish Journalist in Denmark: “You are Spouting Israeli

Propaganda.”

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46693.htm

 

Norman Finkelstein once again makes mince meat of the Zionist propaganda machine and tells the Zionist journalist like how it is.

 

===========

 

m.

The UN report Israel does not want you to read

https://bdsmovement.net/news/un-report-israel-does-not-want-you-read?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+bdsmovement+%28Palestinian+BDS+National+Committee%29

 

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n.

The 'Birth Pangs' of a New Middle East, Remixed

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46692.htm

by Pepe Escobar

 

The Obama administration duly maintained a tradition that we could, light-heartedly, call The Sex Pistols School of Foreign Policy ("no future for you"). That's perfectly exemplified by unflappable Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova in just a few sentences.

 

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o.

(Satire)


Putin Prepares For Invasion of Europe With Massive Cuts to

 

Military Spending

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46686.htm

by Riley Waggama

 

Russia announces "deepest defense budget cuts since 1990s". Putin must be stopped before it's too late

 

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p.

Aldous Huxley: The Ultimate Revolution

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24712.htm

 

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q.

Is Trump Dangerous for Russia?

 

http://therealnews.com/t2/story:18716:Is-Trump-Dangerous-for-Russia%3F


The US and Russian right share a similar ideology, but it's one that sees each other as an excuse for military expansion and harmful internal economic policy, says professor Aleksandr Buzgalin

 

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r.

A Last Chance for Resistance

http://www.truthdig.com/report/page2/a_last_chance_for_resistance_20170319

by Chris Hedges

 

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s.

Ruth Conniff Discusses with David Zirin Indiana’s “Religious Freedom Restoration Act,” passed

 

under former Governor Mike Pence (2013-2017)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYbBJJGPZb8

 

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t.

Trump and The War Within the American Oligarchy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKSqZijIKS0

 

TRNN senior editor Paul Jay discusses how the Real News covers the Trump administration as well as the struggle between those who want to 'reign in the excesses of capitalism' and those who want to destroy the 'administrative state'

 

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u.

Russophobia – Symptom of US Implosion

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46736.htm

by Finian Cunningham

 

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v.

Attorney for "Frozen Trucker": Neil Gorsuch May Have Been Most Hostile Judge I've Ever Encountered

https://www.democracynow.org/2017/3/24/attorney_for_frozen_trucker_neil_gorsuch