Bulletin N° 744
Subject : PROGRESS : « their » notion and our nation, using
win-win tactics in a sum-zero game.
March 26, 2017
Grenoble, France
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
a.
A Bloody and Painful Truth
(video with transcript)
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46695.htm
by Hassan Nasrallah
The Resistance Axis Triumphs, Israel Panics.
===========
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.
===========
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.
===========
d.
The West is Becoming
Irrelevant, The World is Laughing
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46734.htm
by Andre Vltchek
===========
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.
===========
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.
===========
h.
No One Needs Another Korean War
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46687.htm
by Eric Margolis
===========
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
===========
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
===========
k.
Sous la
Pression, l’ONU enterre le rapport accusant Israël d’apartheid
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
===========
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.
===========
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
===========
p.
Aldous
Huxley: The Ultimate Revolution
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24712.htm
===========
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
===========
r.
A Last Chance for Resistance
http://www.truthdig.com/report/page2/a_last_chance_for_resistance_20170319
by Chris
Hedges
===========
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
===========
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'
===========
u.
Russophobia –
Symptom of US Implosion
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46736.htm
by Finian Cunningham
===========
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