Subject : MONOTHEISM & THE BATTLE OF IDEOLOGIES IN THE
MATERIAL REALITY OF MONOPOLY CAPITALISM.
21 October 2017
Grenoble, France
Dear Colleagues and Friends of CEIMSA,
Donald Trump is a showman and with Netanyahu they
are performing “the best vaudeville routine on earth,” interpreting a
postmodern version of King Lear in
collaboration with Sancho Panza (and with
Fundamentalist Christian V-P Michael Richard Pence as The Wizard of OZ, standing behind a curtain, waiting in the wings with
his hands on the control levers). This “smoke and mirrors” show is bound to end
badly for them, as well as for the rest of us.
Zion's Christian soldiers - part 1
with Bob Simon on “60 Minutes”
(2002)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsJ-dDPiTbk
The ideological battles ahead and the power
struggles to come seem to be the necessary path toward any possible recovery of
our humanity and fulfillment of its potential against the psychotic episodes of
capital accumulation that have retarded our development for too long, and at
many levels.
In the 15 items below we
inspect some of the ideas which have emerged from the changing economic
relationships in this period of crisis capitalism, bristling with class
struggles.
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.
Mel
White: Evangelicals Are Doing 'Terrible Damage' to America
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/mel-white-evangelicals-terrible-damage-america/
==========
b.
Who profits from the opioid crisis? Meet the
secretive Sackler family
making billions from OxyContin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQzLxnUOFMg
+
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7z5TLZVzBo&feature=youtu.be
+
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ex-dea-agent-opioid-crisis-fueled-by-drug-industry-and-congress/
This week, President Donald Trump’s
nominee for drug czar, Republican Congressmember Tom
Marino, had to withdraw from consideration after a Washington Post ”60 Minutes”
investigation found he led a drug industry-backed effort to pass a law that
weakened the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s ability to crack down on
addictive opioids. Meanwhile, calls are growing to
look at the major pharmaceutical companies that have fueled the opioid crisis. A new investigation by Esquire magazine
reveals how the secretive Sackler family, owners of
the company that invented OxyContin, downplayed the
risks of addiction and exploited doctors’ confusion over the drug’s strength.
We speak with Christopher Glazek, the Esquire
reporter behind the story.
==========
c.
The Deep State's Bogus
'Iranian Threat'
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/48016.htm
by David Stockman
Yesterday we
identified a permanent fiscal crisis as one of the quadruple witching forces
arising in October 2017 which will shatter the global financial bubble.
Today the Donald is on the cusp of making the crisis dramatically worse by
decertifying the Iranian nuke deal, thereby reinforcing another false
narrative that enables the $1 trillion Warfare State to continue bleeding
the nation's fiscal solvency.
==========
d.
Is
Trump’s “Friend” Kissinger Steering Him
From
Calm To Storm?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/48017.htm
by Whitney Webb
Henry Kissinger, seemingly returned from oblivion, has been in the ear of “old
friend” Trump since mid-primary season, just after Trump declared himself open
to negotiation with North Korea. Since that moment, Trump’s stance and rhetoric
have veered inexorably toward war.
President Donald
Trump met with
top defense officials Tuesday morning — including Secretary of
Defense James Mattis and the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Chair General Joseph Dunford — in the White House
Situation Room, to discuss potential options for responding to any North Korean
“aggression” as well as how to prevent North Korea from threatening the United
States with nuclear weapons. The meeting, which was later confirmed by the
State Department and a White House press release, came a day after Mattis instructed
the U.S. Army to stand ready if North Korea diplomacy fails,
and less than a week after Trump’s cryptic “calm
before the storm” comments about a previous meeting with top
military commanders. Some have
noted that the decision to have the meeting in the Situation
Room, sometimes called the War Room, was significant, as it is often used to
hold secure meetings regarding disasters, military conflicts, and other major
crises both domestic and global.
==========
e.
Is it Just a Matter
of Time? The Lessons Learned From Nixon About When
Presidents Unravel
https://www.alternet.org/right-wing/lessons-we-learned-nixon-about-when-presidents-unravel
Nixon schemed and spewed
dangerous vitriol behind closed doors, Trump is doing the same in full view of
the public.
==========
f.
How
Gore, Kerry and Clinton Put Trump in Office
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/gore-kerry-clinton-put-trump-white-house/
==========
g.
How Netanyahu Pulls Trump’s Strings
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/48027.htm
It turns out that Hillary Clinton was partly correct: President
Trump is a “puppet,” but his puppet master isn’t Russian President Putin but
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, reports Robert Parry.
==========
h.
US and Israel Show
UNESCO their Anti-Palestinian Bias
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:20222:US-and-Israel-Show-UNESCO-their-Anti-Palestinian-Bias
The U.S. and Israel are pulling
out of UNESCO over what they call an 'anti-Israel bias,' but the move may
actually underscore their bias towards basic Palestinian rights. Meanwhile,
Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas have reached a new unity deal
==========
i.
The Unraveling of American/Russian Relations
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/48025
by Paul Craig Roberts
Dear Readers: I
agree that the official Las Vegas story seems to be unraveling. A public mass
shooting should be transparent, not opaque. I think we explored the story long
enough to discover that without knowing the facts, we cannot arrive at an
explanation with confidence.
It is time to
move on to another unraveling—that of US/Russian relations. This unraveling is
far more serious as it threatens life on earth. I have warned of the
consequences of Washington threatening Russia’s security by breaking agreement
after agreement, by placing missile bases on Russia’s borders, by orchestrating
anti-Russian coups in former Soviet provinces, and by a continuing volley of
false accusations against Russia. There is no act more reckless and
irresponsible than to make one nuclear power fear nuclear attack from another.
==========
j.
Iran President
Hassan Rouhani On Trump's
Decision
Not To Certify Nuclear Deal
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/48023.htm
Iranian
President Hassan Rouhani says US President Donald
Trump’s speech against the Islamic Republic was nothing more than insults and
delirious talk.
“Mr. Trump’s
remarks on Iran…contained nothing but expletives and a pile of delusional
allegations against the Iranian nation,” Rouhani said
in a televised speech on Friday moments after Trump delivered a
speech outlining US strategy on the Islamic Republic.
==========
k.
How the Nazis Used Racist U.S. Jim
Crow Laws as Model for the Making of Nazi Race Law
https://www.alternet.org/human-rights/hitlers-american-model-united-states-and-making-nazi-race-law
Bill Moyers in conversation
with author James Whitman about his new book that uncovers how the Nazis used
Jim Crow laws
as the model for their own race laws.
==========
l.
Does
the Western Left Have an African Problem?
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/42275-does-the-western-left-have-an-african-problem
by Devyn
Springer
A young boy
looks on from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as smoke rises from an
ongoing attack, allegedly carried out by the Seleka
Militia on the village of Mobaye in Central African
Republic on September 21, 2017, in Mobayi-Mbongo.
(Photo: JOHN WESSELS / AFP / Getty Images)
Most Western leftists who
espouse anti-imperialist, antiwar, anti-colonial politics agree that there can
be no hierarchies of oppression, but that rhetoric does not hold up when it
comes to African countries, their revolutionaries and self-determination
struggles. In fact, African countries and their politics are almost never
discussed in leftist circles except to make points about imperialism or China.
==========
m.
From: "PM Press"
<craig@pmpress.org>
Sent: Friday, 20 October, 2017 6:03:38 PM
Subject: For a Libertarian Communism
For a Libertarian
Communism
______________
Daniel Guérin
Edited by David Berry
Translated by Mitchell Abidor
==========
n.
Only
Nonviolent Resistance Will Destroy Corporate State
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/nonviolent-resistance-will-destroy-corporate-state/
==========
o.
From: Jim O'Brien
Sent: Friday, 20 October, 2017
Subject: Notes 10/20/17: Links to recent articles of interest; Call
for Papers for conference on antiwar opposition in the military
http://lists.historiansforpeace.org/listinfo.cgi/h-pad-historiansforpeace.org
To members and friends
of Historians for Peace and Democracy (H-PAD),
In addition to our
occasional set of links to recent articles relevant to H-PAD's concerns, this
mailing includes a call for papers sent by David Cortright
for a May 22-24 historical conference on antiwar opposition in the
military, sponsored by the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at
the University of Notre Dame.
Links to Recent Articles
of Interest
“No, US
Didn’t ‘Stand By' Indonesian Genocide – It Actively Participated”
By Jim Naureckas, FAIR [Fairness and Accuracy in
Reporting], posted October 18
“The Cuban
Missile Crisis at 55: U.S. Planned for Military Occupation of Cuba”
Documents edited
by William Burr and Peter Kornbluh, National
Security Archives, posted October 16
“Nixon, Trump, and the Strange
Career of the Madman Theory”
By Jeff
Kimball, History News Network, posted October 15
The author is a
professor emeritus of history at Miami University.
“Documenting
U.S. Role in Democracy’s Fall and Dictator’s Rise in
Chile”
By Pascale Bonnefoy, New York Times, posted
October 14
“The Myth of
the Spitting Antiwar Protester”
By Jerry Lembcke, New York Times, posted
October 13
The author is an
emeritus professor at Holy Cross and author of The Spitting Image among other books on
the Vietnam War.
“Trump Is
Signaling an Unprecedented Right Turn on Foreign Policy”
By John Feffer, Foreign Policy in Focus, posted October 11
“The Pentagon Has Its
Commemoration of the Vietnam War. So Do Former Anti – Vietnam War Activists”
By Jeremy Kuzmarov and Roger Peace, History News Network,
posted October 8
Jeremy Kuzmarov teaches history at the University of Tulsa; Roger
Peace is an independent scholar who coordinates the foreign-policy history
website http://peacehistory-usfp.org.
“Should Limiting North Korea’s
Nuclear Ambitions Be the Responsibility of the U.S. Government?”
By Lawrence S. Wittner, History News Network, posted October 8,
2017
The author is a
professor of history emeritus at SUNY Albany.
“Autopilot Wars:Sixteen Years But Who’s
Counting?”
By Andrew J. Bacevich, TomDispatch.com, posted October 5.
The author is a professor
emeritus of history and international relations at Boston University.
“What Ken Burns and Lynn Novick Want Us to Believe Is that Americans Were Innocents
in Vietnam”
By Ron Briley, History News Network, posted October 1
The author is the senior
book editor of the History News Network.
Thanks to an anonymous
reader for suggesting some of the articles included in the above list.
Suggestions can be sent to jimobrien48@gmail.com.
Call for Papers
“Voices of Conscience” Conference on Antiwar Opposition in the
Military
This is a call for
papers and participation in the conference “Voices of Conscience,” which will
take place at the University of Notre Dame’s Kroc
Institute for International Peace Studies May 22-24, 2018.
Scholars and students
are encouraged to submit proposals for papers to present at the conference and
for consideration in a published volume. Graduate
students, PhD candidates and post-docs are particularly
encouraged to apply. The conference will be of interest to students of history,
social change, peace studies, security studies, social movement analysis, the
Vietnam and Iraq wars, and class, race and gender studies. Scholars selected to
present at the conference will receive a stipend and travel costs for
participation in the conference.
“Voices of
Conscience” will draw attention to the newly created digital archive of
‘underground’ antiwar newspapers published by and for active duty GIs during
the Vietnam War, the GI Press Project. The conference will feature panels on
the following topics:
· Historical
perspectives and new research findings on the extent and impact of antiwar
opposition within the military during the Vietnam War,
· Assessments of the
extent and impact of antiwar opposition within the military during the Iraq and
Afghanistan wars,
· Issues or
class, race and gender in military resistance movements,
· The role of VVAW, IVAW and other veterans’ and military support
organizations in building opposition to war, and
· Lessons from the
history of resistance within the military for antiwar strategy now and in the
future.
The purposes of the
conference and planned volume are to encourage greater understanding and
scholarship on resistance within the military and provide
encouragement and support for young scholars to study this topic. A short
bibliography of published works on antiwar resistance in the military is
provided below.
Scholars and students
interested in applying should submit a one-page letter of application, a CV and
a 150-word proposal/abstract of the proposed paper and research topic. The deadline
for submission of proposals is December 15, 2017. Stipends and travel support
will be available to approved applicants. Send proposals to:
David Cortright, dcortrig@nd.edu
“Antiwar Opposition in the Military”
Short Bibliography
Christian Appy, Working-Class War: American Combat Soldiers
and Vietnam (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press,
1993)
David Cortright, Soldiers in Revolt: GI Resistance during
the Vietnam War (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 1975, 2005).
Andrew E. Hunt, The Turning: A History of Vietnam Veterans Against
the War (New York University Press, 1999).
Jonathan Hutto, Anti-War Soldier: How to Dissent Within the Ranks of the Military (New York: Nation
Books, 2008).
Lisa Leitz, Fighting for Peace: Veterans and Military
Families in the Anti-Iraq War Movement (University of Minnesota Press,
2014).
James Lewes, Protest
and Survive: Underground GI Newspapers during the Vietnam War (Westport,
CT: Praeger Press, 2003).
Nan Levinson, The
New Antiwar Soldiers and the Movement They Built (New Brunswick, NJ:
Rutgers University Press, 2014).
Camilo Meija, Road from Ar Ramadi (New York: The New Press, 2007).
Richard Moser, The New Winter Soldiers: G.I. and Veteran Dissent
during the Vietnam Era (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press,
1996).
John Darrell
Sherwood, Black Sailor, White Navy: Racial
Unrest in the Fleet During the Vietnam War Era (New York: New York
University Press, 2007).