Bulletin N° 836
“Cool Hand Luke”
https://www6.putlockertv.to/watch/cool-hand-luke.02l9/ww8vyo
Subject
: A CEIMSA Retrospective on ‘The New
Authoritarianism' and 'Illegitimate Dependent Power Hierarchies'.
3 March 2019
Grenoble,
France
Dear
Colleagues and Friends of CEIMSA,
“Opinions
are like assholes,” a neighbor of mine once told me; “everybody’s got one.” I
was speaking about my opposition to US massacres in Vietnam, and he wasn’t
interested. He was a convinced individual, fending for himself
in shark-infested waters. I don’t know if he is still alive. His only real love
was for his dog, and that same evening he was grief-stricken because of his
loss. He had driven off in his pickup truck with the tailgate down and had forgotten
to secure his dog with the leash in the back of the truck. The terrified animal
soon tumbled out the back of the speeding truck onto the road; he was badly
injured, and Big Al, my neighbor, had to shoot him right then and there. It
left a hole in Al’s soul, he told me; he had killed his best friend.
As
the proverbial noose tightens around the neck of society, the concept of
“illegitimate dependent power hierarchies” appears once again in the limelight
of the capitalist drama. The centers of power in late capitalism include,
beyond any doubt, the financial industry,
the military/prison industry, the education industry, and the corporate media. Without these four
pillars of today’s political economy, power would be dispersed naturally into
the hands of informed citizens who are collectively concerned with public good
rather than the private accumulation of wealth.
Authoritarianism
continues to palpably increase in the daily relationships around us, and the
race to dumb down the general
population has begun before they recognize the need to organize and protect
themselves against the forces of monopoly capitalism and the hegemonic
militarized culture that is being imposed on us all. Some have called it
“oriental despotism,” but in fact it is home-grown tyranny put into effect
through coercion, fearful collaboration, and bad habits of mindless conformity that
have developed in the recent decades of late capitalism, where private wealth has grown to dominate the
public domain.
Meanwhile,
the development of Artificial
Intelligence and the algorithms
of incremental delusions have sped up this process of general stupefaction in
recent years, until we now stand on the cusp of real dystopia.
***
I
recently went through some of the CEIMSA Bulletins from past years and came across
several brief theoretical sketches introducing weekly topics that have appeared again and again, and have remained
in the headlines of our daily English-language social media news outlets. Below are several examples taken from past Bulletins that illustrate
the old French adage: “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose!”
A study of illegitimate dependent power hierarchies and the method to test
“legitimacy” was discussed in Anthony Wilden’s
book, The Rules Are No Game
(1987). [See also the discussions of “corporatism” and illegitimate dependent
power hierarchies @ http://ceimsa.org/ateliers2/a0/art0-22.html
and @ http://www.ceimsa.org/archives/bull-286.html,
“ON HIERARCHIES, DEPENDENT,
ILLEGITIMATE AND IMAGINARY” (20 January 2007) and @ http://www.ceimsa.org/archives/bull-399.html,
“ON LEARNING RHETORIC AND NEW CLICHÉS WHILE DYING TO KNOW THE TRUTH” (14
March 2009).]
We,
also, invite readers to visit CEIMSA Bulletin N° 300, “POWER PYRAMIDS AND THE PRIVATIZATION OF STRATEGIC THOUGHT” ( 1 May 2007) :
New analytical methods provided by contemporary
communication theory allow additional insights into how social hierarchies are
maintained. As opposed to natural
hierarchies, social
hierarchies are man-made. Sometimes they are entirely imaginary (as when "the tail wags the dog") and
sometimes they are real but illegitimate (as when production determines human needs), which
is a familiar reality in the system of monopoly capitalism, an economy which
relies increasingly on the use of violence, including artificial scarcities.
Often, however, social hierarchies exist in our daily lives as legitimate interdependent relationships which have come
together because of perceived mutual benefits. These latter hierarchies are
characterized by a fluidity and an openness that benefit from new information
flows which may dissolve relationships or inspire new political alliances,
according to felt needs. Legitimate
hierarchies require democratic-friendly environments which
generate diversity and which nurture a love for intellectual freedom and
discovery (in contrast to authoritarian environments which impose a
mind-numbing variety of choices from the top down, choices that make little or
no difference, and where the love of power over others and the thrill for
contests of domination/submission surpass most other feelings, including
intellectual curiosity and kindness.
Learning to decode behaviors in the social reality of which we are a part
is called social literacy, and it is
upon this skill that our survival and the survival of many other species
depend. But our education is largely occupied with teaching
us to ignore the violence of the illegitimate hierarchies around us and (as long as it is not
our ox that is being gored) to remain functionally illiterate, unable to read
the systemic meaning of violence, as a necessary support for illegitimate
hierarchies. The symbols from the reality around us are not decoded and
instead of examining the context of these expressions for important meanings,
we are educated to act in just the opposite direction, to interpret abstract
references to abstract references to abstract references . . . ad
nauseam, and to the total exclusion of any references to our immediate reality.
This existential vocation of identifying the significance of symbols
referring to symbols, referring to symbols . . . is like sitting in a
barbershop chair and looking at the series of reflections from mirrors facing
one another from opposite walls. But it is not only our hair that is being cut
while we are lost in this seemingly infinite regression . . . .
The simple Rule of Extinction
is
a handy test to determine if a dependent hierarchy is legitimate or not, but
first we must be able to identify the hierarchy. By imagining the removal of
one or more levels from a power pyramid, we should be able to logically
determine if the other levels are essential (i.e. legitimate). Thus in a natural dependent hierarchy of Sun -
Earth - Moon, if we remove the Sun do the other levels become extinct, and
so on and so forth . . . ? And likewise in a dependent social hierarchy of Boss/Man
or Woman - Worker/Husband/Father - Worker/Wife/Mother - Son or Daughter/Sibling,
if we remove the Boss/Man level of this dependent hierarchy do the lower levels
disappear, etc . . . ? Or, to take a third example, with the temporary dependent social hierarchy of Bus
Driver - Passenger, if we remove the Bus Driver, does the lower level still
have meaning, and vice versa . . .?
Being socially
illiterate is like looking at a book in a dark room, a book
written in an unfamiliar language, where we see only the vague features of
various letters from a foreign alphabet, letters strung together in what
appears to be an arbitrary series of signs, one after the other, without
pattern and ultimately without meaning. We cannot decode the symbols to
understand the significance of the sentences, the paragraphs, nor of the
text that is in front of our eyes, nor can we discover in this opaque
environment any meaning, not even an explanation for why we cannot
understand. When one is socially
illiterate, one sees each event in isolation from other
events. One cannot decode the significance of events and one cannot derive
meaning from an experience when it is abstracted from its real context. No
systemic understanding is possible, and we remain mystified.
We can identify an almost infinite number of illegitimate hierarchies in the daily
lives of Americans and each one is necessarily located in a matrix of violence. Below are four cases illustrating this
culture of violence and the structures it serves to reinforce.
[click here to read more. . . . ]
Also,
readers are invited to peruse the following CEIMSA Bulletin links below which
offer critical texts and the opportunity to separate “the wheat from the
chaff.”
1. On
the Financial Industry see recent essays from CEIMSA Bulletin N° 834,
February 12, 2019:
·
“The Federal Reserve Conspiracy,” 145 pp.
(1954) .
https://archive.org/details/pdfy-Yc5BED-gpTNRjLh6
by
Eustace Mullins
[Plus Eustace Mullins –
“Monopoly Men” @ 1/5= https://youtu.be/yjwm8SKnFjQ
; 2/5= https://youtu.be/nTwLFLHZ-Cc
; 3/5= https://youtu.be/YyebtfbYS5E
; 4/5= https://youtu.be/LBDiRMf34pw
; 5/5= https://youtu.be/OqbfFeQt9bA
.]
+
·
“The Creature From Jekyll Island,” 611 pp.
(1994) .
https://archive.org/details/pdfy--Pori1NL6fKm2SnY
by G.
Edward Griffin
[Plus The Creature From
Jekyll Island – video with G. Edward Griffin @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu_VqX6J93k&feature=youtu.be,
published on January 28, 2010.]
+
·
“A History of Central Banking and the
Enslavement of Mankind,” 226 pp. (2014) .
https://issuu.com/providier57108/docs/0992736536
by
Stephen Goodson
[Plus Fredrick Töben’s Review of Stephen Goodson’s book @ http://www.toben.biz/2014/10/a-history-of-central-banking-and-the-enslavement-of-mankind/
]
[Plus Mathew Johnson’s book
review @ https://www.sott.net/article/291745-Book-review-A-History-of-Central-Banking-and-the-Enslavement-of-Mankind
]
+
·
"The Secret of Oz and The Curse Of Central Banks," video, 1h 50min. (April 2013).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0OKQmgONhw
+
·
Deutsche Bank Crash- Germany Will Set Stage
For Global Financial Collapse Feb 2019
with
Richard Wolff
(audio,
35 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOm9egKrqqs
+
·
Goodbye to the Dollar
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/goodbye-to-the-dollar/
by
Chris Hedges
The
inept and corrupt presidency of Donald Trump has unwittingly triggered the
fatal blow to the American empire—the abandonment of the dollar as the world’s principal
reserve currency. Nations around the globe, especially in Europe, have lost
confidence in the United States to act rationally, much less lead, in issues of
international finance, trade, diplomacy and war. These nations are quietly
dismantling the seven-decade-old alliance with the United States and building
alternative systems of bilateral trade. This reconfiguring of the world’s
financial system will be fatal to the American empire, as the historian Alfred McCoy and the
economist Michael Hudson
have long pointed out. It will trigger an economic death spiral, including high
inflation, which will necessitate a massive military contraction overseas and
plunge the United States into a prolonged depression. Trump, rather than make America
great again, has turned out, unwittingly, to be the empire’s most aggressive
gravedigger.
+
·
WARNING TO MILLIONS
OF AMERICANS! The Great American Purge Coming in February
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2NNxyxc2Ao
audio, 30
min.
with
Richard Wolff
+
·
"2019 The American Collapse and
Bankruptcy Begins"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhQfu8hoyeA
audio, 60
min.
(Feb. 22)
+
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHYCPSVGtv0
audio, 37
min.
(Feb. 24)
+
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdbASOwjUmE
audio, 31
min.
(Feb. 18)
with
Paul Craig Roberts
2. On
the Military Industry see CEIMSA Bulletin N° 215,
November 26, 2005.
3. On
the Education Industry, see: CEIMSA Bulletin N° 236,
June 1, 2016 and CEIMSA
Bulletin N° 284, January 9, 2007
4. On
the Corporate Media see “PREDATORY CAPITALIM REPRODUCING PREDATORY
RELATIONSHIPS THROUGHOUT SOCIETY, AT EVERY LEVEL . . . .” @ http://www.ceimsa.org/archives/bull-786.htm
and “Corporate Censorship : ‘There is no royal
road to science, and only those who do not dread the fatiguing climb of its
steep paths have a chance of gaining its luminous summits’ @ http://www.ceimsa.org/archives/bull-668.htm.
And
for a general discussion of political power, see CEIMSA Bulletin N° 665, @ http://www.ceimsa.org/archives/bull-665.htm,
“Political Power and Submission to
the Beneficiaries of Imperialist Law and
Order,” (4 October 2015) including a brief discussion by the
late Harvard economist John Kenneth Galbraith, in his book, The Anatomy of
Power (1983).
The
17 + items below offer readers a sample of critical articles and essays
published over the past several days which invite analyses in the framework of
both class theory and elitist theory. As usual, the proof is
in the pudding . . . .
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.
Scientists' AI poll points to dystopian future,
less control & a high chance of mistakes
Over
80 percent believe there’s a medium to high chance of things going badly wrong
with Artificial Intelligence (AI) according to a poll of concerned scientists
conducted by Scientists for Global Responsibility, while 96 percent say AI
needs more regulation, and 82 percent thought that AI was most likely to create
a dystopian rather than a utopian future.
Media
release: 3 November 2018
A new briefing and survey, Artificial intelligence: how little has to go wrong?
Autonomous weapons, driverless cars and friendly spies in the home
(download
available) - explores a range of both obvious and
more subtle threats and raises stark warnings from across scientific
disciplines. It looks at questions such as, is artificial intelligence evolving
quicker than the regulation to manage it? And, are we sufficiently able to
imagine what major problems may emerge, and can AI even be effectively
regulated?
The briefing, published to coincide with the annual Responsible
Science conference in London on 3
November, 2018, organised by SGR, questions the
current introduction of AI in these terms:
+
The
Age of Tyrannical Surveillance: We’re Being Branded,
Bought
and Sold for Our Data
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51191.htm
by John W. Whitehead
“We
know where you are. We know where you’ve been. We can more or less know what
you’re thinking about… Your
digital identity will live forever... because there’s no delete button.”—Former
Google CEO Eric Schmidt
Uncle
Sam wants you.
Correction:
Big Brother
wants you.
To
be technically accurate, Big Brother—aided and abetted by his corporate
partners in crime—wants your data.
That’s
what we have been reduced to in the eyes of the government and Corporate
America: data bits and economic units to be bought, bartered and sold to the
highest bidder.
Those
highest bidders include America’s political class and the politicians aspiring
to get elected or re-elected. As the Los Angeles Times reports, “If you have been to a
political rally, a town hall, or just fit a demographic a campaign is after,
chances are good your
movements are being tracked with unnerving accuracy by data vendors on the
payroll of campaigns.”
Your
phones,
televisions and digital devices are selling you out to politicians
who want your vote.
Have
you shopped at Whole Foods? Tested out target practice at a gun range? Sipped
coffee at Starbucks while surfing the web? Visited an abortion clinic? Watched FOX News or MSNBC? Played Candy Crush on your phone?
Walked through a mall? Walked past a government building?
That’s
all it
takes for your data to be hoovered up,
sold and used to target you.
This
is the age of surveillance capitalism.
Incredibly,
once you’ve been identified and tracked, data brokers can travel back in time,
digitally speaking, to discover where you’ve been, who you’ve been with, what
you’ve been doing, and what you’ve been reading, viewing, buying, etc.
Once
you’ve been identified in this way, you can be tracked endlessly.
“Welcome
to the new frontier of campaign tech — a loosely regulated world in which
simply downloading a weather app or game, connecting to Wi-Fi at a coffee shop
or powering up a home router can allow a data broker to monitor your movements
with ease, then compile
the location information and sell it to a political candidate who can use it to
surround you with messages,” writes journalist Evan Halper.
No
one is spared.
+
Labour faces new
row over efforts to curb anti-Semitism
Top party officials disagreed with
recommendations to suspend members, emails reveal
Members
of Labour’s high command opposed recommendations to
suspend several party activists accused of antisemitism,
according to internal emails seen by the Observer.
The
correspondence, dating from March to May last year, covers a period immediately
after leader Jeremy Corbyn vowed to be a “militant
opponent of antisemitism” and to have “zero tolerance for antisemites”.
It
reveals that an official acting on behalf of general secretary Jennie Formby
opposed recommendations from the party’s investigations team to suspend several
members accused of antisemitic behaviour.
In another case, Andrew Murray, a Corbyn adviser,
argued for more lenient action to be taken against a member accused of
defending an antisemitic mural.
Tom
Watson, Labour deputy leader, last
night said it showed that processes for dealing with “racism and abuse had
failed”.
How
Labour has fought to gain control of the antisemitism issue
+
"George
Galloway takes on the media!!!”
Must watch!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRBvA9LAZoM&feature=youtu.be
Sky
presenter schooled by George Galloway on anti-Semitism.
+
Listen to Tucker Carlson Flip Out After Being Exposed
by Dutch Historian
===========
b.
How Wall Street Gave Us Trump
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSvcB55R8jM&feature=youtu.be
w/Michael Hudson
+
The
Words and Deeds of Social Imperialists
https://www.blackagendareport.com/words-and-deeds-social-imperialists-0
by Glen Ford
The
US left makes celebrities of self-styled “socialists” that have no solidarity
with real strugglers against imperialism in the world.
“Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez
make weak noises against military action while accepting the rationale of the
aggression.”
The
best evidence of the profound weakness of the “left” in the United States is
that it is necessary to credit Bernie Sanders with making “socialism” a benign
term in national political discourse. The price of socialism’s admission to
polite conversation here in the belly of the hegemonic capitalist beast is that
it must always be chaperoned by the word “democratic” so as to distinguish it
from supposedly “authoritarian” ideologies of the same name. The “democratic”
modifier works wonders, magically enlarging the historical “socialist” camp to
include President Franklin Roosevelt, a wealthy guy that never thought of
himself as a socialist but whose 1944 Economic
Bill of Rights is the verbatim source of Bernie Sanders’ brand of
socialism. At the same time, almost all the actual socialist movements and
governments in human history are demonized.
Under
this “democratic” form of socialism, the capitalist ruling class is never
overthrown, but nevertheless acquiesces to reforms that grant working people
basic economic and political rights. Seeing no necessity to overthrow the Lords
of Capital at home, the Sandernista socialists have
no principled objection to the military-political-economic structures of global
capitalism -- a system most people in the world call imperialism. But
American “democratic socialists” don’t like that word because it tends to upset
the U.S. ruling class. Moreover, Bernie’s brand of
“socialists” carry around much the same list of enemy nations as their
right-wing and “centrist” corporate comrades: Libya, Syria, and now Venezuela –
the “authoritarian” socialists.
===========
c.
The “Permanent War State” Aims to Plunder Venezuela
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkR9YWqfjsA&feature=youtu.be
with Paul Jay and Larry Wilkerson
Trump
promises “democracy and freedom” to Venezuela, delivered by Elliott Abrams who
brought you illegal wars, coups, and support for dictatorships; and Mike Pompeo and VP Pence, both with deep ties to the Koch
brothers who need Venezuelan heavy crude to feed their Texas refinery.
+
Bill Gates Depopulation Plans Caught On Camera
MONSANTO, FOOD RIOTS, EUGENICS
+
THE ART OF ANNIHILATION
http://www.theartofannihilation.com/category/articles-2019/
+
Sealed Testimony Reveals Extent of Sackler's
Complicity in Opioid Crisis
+
Opioid Crisis Engulfs Gaza as Poverty Soars
Blockade,
high unemployment and never-ending conflict with Israel have caused
'widespread' Tramadol abuse,
World
Health Organization says.
===========
d.
Freedom
Rider: Venezuela Reveals America’s Sickness
https://blackagendareport.com/freedom-rider-venezuela-reveals-americas-sickness
by Margaret Kimberley
The Democrats agree with Trump that Venezuelans have
no rights that need be respected by the United States.
“Like a pack of predators they have
lined up to assist in the kill.”
Does the United States have the right to decide who
governs Venezuela? The answer is a simple and resounding “No.” Those who
respond in any other fashion are followers of the discredited doctrine of
Manifest Destiny and are equally discredited themselves. Reactions to the
Donald Trump coup attempt are quite revealing and prove that this country is
indeed very, very sick. We can now see that most politicians are either cynical
cowards who will go along to get along, or are true believers in imperialism like
Trump and his presidential predecessors.
The regime change effort against Venezuela is
anything but new. It is the latest in a long line of crimes that have taken
place not only in the distant past but repeatedly in the 21stcentury. All have
been carried out with a variety of results, but it is significant that the lies
don’t change,corporate media
carry water for whomever sits in the oval office, and both Democrats and
Republicans assert rights that their government doesn’t have.
“This country is indeed very, very
sick.”
In 2003 the Bush administration insisted that Iraqi
president Saddam Hussein was a tyrant with an arsenal of chemical weapons to be
used against his own people and against us too. The U.S. invaded Iraq and
killed up to 1 million people but the dreaded weapons of mass destruction were
never found.
Those lies didn’t stop Barack Obama from using
similar arguments against Libya in 2011. This time Muammar Gaddafi was the
villain and we were told that he was planning a massacre. Obama’s
colluders included the human rights industrial complex, the corporate media,
and his fellow Democrats. The only massacre that took place in Libya was
carried out by U.S. jihadist proxies.
Flush with success after that war crime Obama moved
on to Syria. Once again there were tales of mass murder and this time the
partners in crime actually killed civilians and tried to finger Bashar al-Assad for the crime.
“Obama’s colluders in
Libya included the human rights industrial complex, the corporate media, and
his fellow Democrats.”
Anyone who repeats the Trump administration talking
points about starvation and tyranny in Venezuela is not to be trusted. The
rationales for promoting a war crime may vary. Florida senator Marco Rubio
intersperses his bible verse posts on twitter with threats to murder Venezuelan
president Nicolas Maduro. Rubio is a dyed in the wool
fascist and doesn’t shrink from proving it on a daily basis. Rubio is joined by
Democratic colleagues like Chris Murphy, who called Venezuelan president
Nicolas Maduro an evil man and who criticizes Trump
for style points only. He wants a more elegant intervention but he is no better
than his Republican colleague.
All of the criminals have joined in the attack. Like
a pack of predators they have lined up to assist in the kill. Democrats Bill
Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Diane Feinstein, Nancy Pelosi, and Dick Durbin have
all repeated Trump’s assertions. Hillary Clinton may give Trump side eye in
public, but she goes along because she agrees with him that Venezuelans have no
rights that need to be respected.
“Senator Marco Rubio threatens to murder
Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro.”
+
Beware
of gringos bearing gifts
Venezuela:
A Collective Victory for a Collective Future
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51157.htm
by Chris Gilbert
It
was George W. Bush who invented the term: misunderestimating.
And it’s what imperialism continually does with Venezuela.
I
recall an Aló Presidente
program in which Chávez was talking about the 2002
coup attempt. He said that the US thought it could easily replace him. “As
simply as this,” he said and demonstrated by moving a glass of water across the
table where he was seated.
Replacing
Chávez wasn’t easy at all, as everybody knows. Pedro
Carmona, the usurper, was quickly forgotten, whereas Chávez
lasted another decade, and his movement is still in
power today.
Something
very similar may have happened on Saturday, as Maduro
resisted a concerted international effort to bring him down.
What
makes it so hard to replace Chávez and now Maduro? Certainly it’s not merely a question of leadership,
since Maduro’s is middling at best. So, it must be
something else: some quality or substance that generally goes unperceived on the
political radar.
On
Saturday, the opposition thought they could incite the Venezuelan army to
rebel. They staged “desertions” to encourage the process. (I use the word
“staged” advisedly. In the videos of the three National Guardsmen who crossed
the bridge in Tachira and “surrendered
themselves" to Colombian immigration, you can hear them saying very
clearly “Somos nosotros!” ie. “It’s us!”.)
Trump
and Marco Rubio view this is an example that should inspire other soldiers to
rebel, but Venezuelans see it as something completely different. They view the
deserting soldiers as traitors, to say nothing of being simply ridiculous.
+
An
Ocean of Lies on Venezuela
Abby Martin & UN Rapporteur Alfred De Zayas Expose Coup
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii5MlQgGXyk
&
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXQ1ouwVzIE
+
Venezuela
set for more false flags…
US
puppet Guaido better watch his back
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51171.htm
by Finian
Cunningham
The
much-hyped “aid weekend” involving a US Trojan Horse
fell at the first hurdle. Venezuelan government forces averted the provocation
intended by US aid convoys from Colombia and Brazil.
However,
increasing frustration in Washington beckons more false flags.
Something
shocking is “needed”
in order to jolt world opinion into acquiescing to Washington’s criminal agenda
of “all options.”
In the fiendish mind of American imperialism, it is also prudent to consider “all options” as meaning more than military
aggression. The foulest moves.
The
torching of trucks purportedly ferrying US food and medicines across the border
from Colombia was patently a planned provocation. Credible video footage and
witnesses
attested to the arson being carried out by supporters of the
US-backed opposition figure Juan Guaido.
The
vehicles never even made it to the crossing point where Venezuelan national
guards were deployed.
Yet,
at the Lima Group summit held – no coincidence – in the Colombian capital,
Bogota on Monday, Guaido and US Vice President Mike
Pence brazenly spouted lies that the “sadistic” Venezuelan military under
President Nicolas Maduro had caused the destruction
of vital aid supplies intended for “suffering people.”
It
seems obvious the whole scenario of delivering US aid into Venezuela from
neighboring countries was really intended as a pretext for military
intervention by Washington. The government in Caracas had warned of such a
contingency in advance, as had Russia, which is allied to President Maduro’s administration. Moscow’s experience in Syria has
no doubt given a lot of valuable insights into the American playbook of using
false flags for justifying military aggression.
+
From: Monty Kroopkin
Subject: Re: Saturday, February
23, 2019 - ! Venezuela !
PRESS ADVISORY: RALLIES. HANDS OFF
VENEZUELA! NO WAR FOR OIL!
contact: Monty Kroopkin, IWW, (858)
373-7018, mkroopkin@juno.com
San Diegans are responding to the
new threat of war and to the Veterans For Peace call
for an international day of locally organized protests.
Two protest rallies are planned.
https://www.facebook.com/events/2194501577534513/
Friday at 4:30 PM – 6 PM
San Diego Federal Courthouse
333 W Broadway, San Diego, California 92101
https://www.facebook.com/events/307445583304057/
Saturday at 1 PM
County Administration Center
1600 Pacific Hwy, San Diego, California 92101
Background, see report by
journalist Greg Palast:
https://www.gregpalast.com/in-venezuela-white-supremacy-is-a-key-to-trump-coup/
+
War
On Venezuela Is Built On A Lie
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51152.htm
by John Pilger
February 22, 2019 - In this
analysis, John Pilger looks back over the Chavez
years in Venezuela, including his own travels with Hugo Chavez, and the current
US and European campaign to overthrow Nicolas Maduro
in a 'coup by media' and to return Latin America to the 19th and 20th
centuries.
Travelling with Hugo Chavez, I soon understood
the threat of Venezuela. At a farming co-operative in
Lara state, people waited patiently and with good humor in the heat. Jugs of
water and melon juice were passed around. A guitar was played; a woman,
Katarina, stood and sang with a husky contralto.
"What did her words say?" I asked.
"That we are proud," was the reply.
The applause for her merged with the arrival of
Chavez. Under one arm he carried a satchel bursting with
books. He wore his big red shirt and greeted people by name, stopping to
listen. What struck me was his capacity to listen.
But now he read. For almost two hours he read
into the microphone from the stack of books beside him: Orwell, Dickens,
Tolstoy, Zola, Hemingway, Chomsky, Neruda: a page
here, a line or two there. People clapped and whistled as he moved from author
to author.
Then farmers took the microphone and told him
what they knew, and what they needed; one ancient face, carved it seemed from a
nearby banyan, made a long, critical speech on the subject of irrigation;
Chavez took notes.
Wine is grown here, a dark Syrah type grape.
"John, John, come up here," said El Presidente,
having watched me fall asleep in the heat and the depths of Oliver Twist.
"He likes red wine," Chavez told the
cheering, whistling audience, and presented me with a bottle of "vino de la gente". My few
words in bad Spanish brought whistles and laughter.
Watching Chavez with la gente
made sense of a man who promised, on coming to power, that his every move would
be subject to the will of the people. In eight years, Chavez won eight
elections and referendums: a world record. He was electorally the most popular
head of state in the Western Hemisphere, probably in the world.
Every major chavista
reform was voted on, notably a new constitution of which 71 per cent of the
people approved each of the 396 articles that enshrined unheard of freedoms,
such as Article 123, which for the first time recognised
the human rights of mixed-race and black people, of whom Chavez was one.
+
The
Coup Has Failed & Now the U.S. Is Looking to Wage War:
Venezuelan
Foreign Minister Speaks Out
https://www.democracynow.org/2019/2/25/the_coup_has_failed_now_the
with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza
+
Pence
threatens
war in Venezuela at Colombia summit:
“There
is no turning back”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51167.htm
by Eric London
US
Vice President Mike Pence delivered a bellicose speech before representatives
of 14 Latin American countries at a meeting of the Lima Group in Bogotá,
Colombia, yesterday. The remarks were timed to coincide with the US-orchestrated
provocations at the Venezuelan border over the weekend, resulting in clashes
that left several people dead.
Pence
rehashed phrases plagiarized from speeches given by George W. Bush in the
run-up to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, combining them with denunciations
of socialism.
“There
is no turning back,” Pence said. “All options are on the table.”
“A
new day is coming in Latin America,” he continued. “In Venezuela and across the
Western hemisphere, socialism is dying and liberty, prosperity and democracy
are being reborn before our eyes.” Pence issued an ultimatum to the Venezuelan
military, threatening that if it did not overthrow Maduro,
“You will find no safe harbor, no easy exit, no way out. You will lose
everything.”
Pence
announced that the US would place added sanctions on officials in the
Venezuelan government and called on the right-wing governments of Latin America
to “transfer ownership of Venezuelan assets in your country” to the government
of US puppet Juan Guaidó.
In
other words, the US is conducting cross-hemispheric highway robbery.
In
his speech, Pence gave several justifications for intensifying US war threats
against Venezuela. Venezuela exploits indigenous tribes, damages the
environment through oil exploration and impoverishes its population, Pence
said.
These
claims would be laughable were it not for the seriousness of the threats. The
United States is the world’s worst offender in each of these departments.
Particularly
disgusting was Pence’s attack on Venezuela for refusing “shelter for those
displaced” immigrants along its border.
The
Washington Post
wrote that Pence “embraced a sobbing elderly man,” an immigrant waiting to
enter Venezuela. The Post
reporters, tears welling in their eyes, wrote that Pence “told the man in
English, ‘We are with you.’”
The
Post
report made no mention of the thousands of immigrants currently sleeping on the
streets in Mexican cities along the US-Mexico border after the US barred them
from entering the country to apply for asylum.
+
Trump’s
Democratic Opposition Endorses His Coup Attempt in Venezuela
by Alexander Rubinstein
Illustrating that the exception only proves the
rule, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard
stood virtually alone, tweeting: “The United States needs to stay out of
Venezuela. Let the Venezuelan people determine their future. We don’t want
other countries to choose our leaders — so we have to stop trying to choose
theirs.”
+
Maduro wins the first round
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51194.htm
by The Saker
The
standoff between Venezuela and the AngloZionist
Empire last week-end has clearly ended in what can only be called a total
defeat for Elliott Abrams. While we will never know what was initially
planned by the demented minds of the Neocons, what we
do know is that nothing critical happened: no invasion, not even any major
false flag operation. The most remarkable facet of the standoff is how
little effect all the AngloZionist propaganda has had
inside Venezuela. There were clashes, including some rather violent ones,
across the border, but nothing much happened in the rest of the country.
Furthermore, while a few senior officers and a few soldiers did commit treason
and joined forces with the enemy, the overwhelming majority of the Venezuelan
military remained faithful to the Constitution. Finally, it appears that Maduro and his ministers were successful in devising a
strategy combining roadblocks, a concert on the Venezuelan side, and the
minimal but effective use of riot police to keep the border closed. Most
remarkably, “unidentified snipers” did not appear to shoot at both sides (a
favorite tactic of the Empire to justify its interventions). I give the
credit for this to whatever Venezuelan (or allied) units were in charge of counter-sniper
operations along the border.
Outside
Venezuela this first confrontation has also been a defeat for the Empire.
Not only did most countries worldwide not recognize the AngloZionist
puppet, but the level of protest and opposition to what appeared to be the preparations
for a possible invasion (or, at least, a military operation of some kind) was
remarkably high, while the legacy corporate Ziomedia
did what it always does (that is whatever the Empire wants it to do), the
Internet and the blogosphere were overwhelmingly opposed to a direct US
intervention. This situation also created a great deal of internal
political tensions in various Latin American countries whose public opinion
remains strongly opposed to any form of US imperial control over Latin America.
In
this respect, the situation with Brazil is particularly interesting. While the
Brazilian government fully backed the US coup attempt, the Brazilian military
was most uncomfortable with this. My contacts in Brazil had correctly
predicted that the Brazilian military would refuse to attack Venezuela and,
eventually, the Brazilians even issued a
statement to that effect.
+
Rubio Posts Graphic Image of Gaddafi’s
Murder
in
Apparent Threat to Maduro
by Colin Kalmbacher
===========
e.
From: "ana hona" <anahona366@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, 24 February, 2019 4:54:20 AM
Subject: They killed one of our children and we need you not to leave us
and do not ignore us. I beg you this time
We need you and need you now
We are in a state of emergency now that the
child Yusuf Al-Dayya was killed when a bullet hit his chest
The Israeli occupation forces also wounded
hundreds of young demonstrators and women in the eastern Gaza Strip
We are completing our work and coming closer to
the year since we started our work with the beginning of the major return
marches
If we did not complete this limit and dream to
stay in this beautiful work and we need your continued support, especially in
these days because we are in a very emergency, we need your strong support and
stand beside us and beside the injured who need us and need you
Please do not ignore this mail because we need
your support
Thank you all
We are sorry because we always annoy you
You can donate via the following link and thank
you
===========
f.
The
CIA Then and Now: Old Wine in New Bottles
https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-cia-then-and-now-old-wine-in-new-bottles/5666818
by Ed Curtin
The Nazis had a name for their
propaganda and mind-control operations: Weltanschauungskrieg–
“world view warfare.” As good students, they had learned many tricks of
the trade from their American teachers, including Sigmund Freud’s nephew, Edward Bernays, who had honed his propagandistic skills
for the United States during World War I and had subsequently started the
public relations industry in New York City, an industry whose raison d’ȇtre from the start was to serve the interests of
the elites in manipulating the public mind.
In
1941, U.S. Intelligence translated Weltanschauungskrieg as “psychological warfare,” a
phrase that fails to grasp the full dimensions of the growing power and
penetration of U.S. propaganda, then and now. Of course, the American
propaganda apparatus was just then getting started on an enterprise that has
become the epitome of successful world view warfare programs, a colossal beast
whose tentacles have spread to every corner of the globe and whose fabrications
have nestled deep within the psyches of many hundreds of millions of Americans
and people around the world. And true to form in this circle game of
friends helping friends, this propaganda program was ably assisted after WW II
by all the Nazis secreted into the U.S. (“Operation Paperclip”) by Allen Dulles
and his henchmen in the OSS and then the CIA to make sure the U.S. had
operatives to carry on the Nazi legacy (see David Talbot’s The Devil’s
Chessboard: Allen Dulles, The CIA, and The Rise of America’s Secret Government, an extraordinary book that will
make your skin crawl with disgust).
This
went along quite smoothly until some people started to question the Warren
Commission’s JFK assassination story. The CIA then went on the offensive
in 1967 and put out the word to all its people in the agency and throughout the
media and academia to use the phrase “conspiracy theory” to ridicule these
skeptics, which they have done up until the present day. This secret document –
CIA Dispatch 1035-960–
was a propaganda success for many decades, marginalizing those researchers and
writers who were uncovering the truth about not just President Kennedy’s murder
by the national security state, but those of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and
Robert Kennedy. Today, the tide is turning on this score, as recently
more and more Americans are fed up with the lies and are demanding that the
truth be told. Even the Washington
Post is noting this, and it is a wave of opposition that will
only grow.
+
Former Israeli Defense
Minister Confirms Israeli Collaboration
With ISIS In Syria
by Richard Silverstein
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46929.htm
In the midst of complaining about the Islamist threat to Israel and the
world, Bibi Netanyahu conveniently forgets that his
own country enjoys a tacit alliance with ISIS in Syria. It is an alliance
of convenience to be sure and one that’s not boasted about by either party.
But
is not terribly different from one than Israel enjoys with its other Muslim
allies like Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States.
+
The Growing Anti-Semitism Scam
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51165.htm
by Philip Giraldi
“An
anti-Semite used to mean a man who hated Jews. Now it means a man who is hated
by Jews.”–
Joe Sobran
In his novel 1984 George Orwell invented the expression “newspeak” to
describe the ambiguous or deliberately misleading use of language to make
political propaganda and narrow the “thought options” of those who are on the
receiving end. In the context of today’s political discourse, or what passes
for the same, it would be interesting to know what George would think of the
saturation use of “anti-Semitism” as something like a tactical discussion
stopper, employed to end all dispute while also condemning those accused of the
crime as somehow outside the pale, monsters who are consigned forever to
derision and obscurity.
The Israelis and, to be sure, many diaspora Jews know exactly how the expression has been weaponized. Former Israeli Minister Shulamit
Aloni explained how it
is done “Anti-Semitic”…”its
a trick, we always use it.”
If one were to read the U.S. mainstream media,
reflective as it nearly always is of a certain institutional Jewish viewpoint,
one would think that there has been a dramatic increase in anti-Semitism worldwide, but that
claim is incorrect. What has been taking place is not hatred of Jews but rather
a confluence of two factors. First is the undeniable fact that Israel has been
behaving particularly badly, even by its admittedly low standards. Its
slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza has been unusually observable in spite of
media attempts to avoid mentioning it, plus its support of terrorists in Syria
and attacks on that country have also raised questions about the intentions of
the kleptocratic regime in Tel Aviv, which is
currently pushing for an attack on Iran. That all means that the perception of
Israel, which boasts that it is the exclusively Jewish state, inevitably raises
questions about the international Jewish community that provides much of its
support. But the shift in perception is driven by Israeli behavior, not by Jews
as an ethnicity or a religion.
+
Jared Kushner's Multibillion-Dollar Plot
to Give Saudis Nukes
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51161.htm
by Juan Cole
The
House of Representatives’ Committee on Oversight and Reform has issued a report on
a plot to make billions of dollars by selling Saudi Arabia sensitive American
nuclear technology that could allow the Kingdom to develop nuclear weapons. The
scheme required breaking US law, which forbids technology transfers that might
allow nuclear proliferation.
The
plot was pushed by a “company” formed for this express purpose called IP3
International, which doesn’t seem to have actually existed except as a sort of
shell for lobbying the Trump administration. IP3 was, according to the
committee, helmed by “General Keith Alexander, General Jack Keane, Mr. Bud
McFarlane, and Rear Admiral Michael Hewitt, as well as the chief executives of
six companies— Exelon Corporation, Toshiba America Energy Systems, Bechtel Corporation,
Centrus Energy Corporation, GE Energy Infra
structure, and Siemens USA—“ All “signed a letter to Deputy Crown Prince
Mohammed bin Salman. The letter presented ‘the Iron
Bridge Program as a 21st Century Marshall Plan for the Middle East.’”
Bud
McFarlane? That is Ronald Reagan’s National Security Advisor who was up to his
elbows selling arms to Khomeini in the Iran-Contra scandal, and thought up the
idea of sending Ayatollah Khomeini
a cake shaped like a key and a Bible (along with a few T.O.W.
anti-tank emplacements)! Like Elliot Abrams, he was pardoned by George H. W.
Bush, who seems to have created a factory for 21st century further scandals.
The
point man for the plot was General Mike Flynn, who called for Hillary Clinton
to be locked up at the Republican National Conference in late summer of 2016
and glommed on to Trump, becoming his first National Security Adviser. Flynn
had visited Saudi Arabia in connection with the IP3 plot to transfer nuclear
technology to that country that could help Riyadh make a bomb if the royal
family felt they needed to do so to remain safe (e.g. if Iran went in that
direction or if relations with nuclear-armed Israel tanked). The cover story
was that the US corporate front would just make 6 nuclear reactors for
electricity generation.
Derek
Harvey, the Senior Director for Middle East and North African Affairs at the
National Security Council in the first half of 2017, is alleged to have adopted
the IP3 plot as US policy, dubbing it the “Middle Eastern Marshall Plan.” Mr.
Harvey seems confused. The Marshall Plan was an aid program where the US gave
out hundreds of millions of dollars to poor societies after WW II to promote
prosperity and fight Communism. It wasn’t a money-making scheme whereby we
would sell nuclear weapons technology to an absolute monarchy that uses bone
saws on journalists in return for vastly enriching private individuals and a
handful of corporations.
Remember,
all these retired generals and CEOs and Republican bigwigs were calling for
Iran to be bombed back to the stone age on the pretext that it had a civilian
nuclear enrichment program that was potentially dual use and could maybe someday
perhaps lead to an Iranian Bomb (the Iranians never decided to go in that
direction and in 2015 mothballed 80% of their program). Apparently what the US
economic elite really minded was not so much possible Iranian proliferation but
that they would not get a few billion dollars as a payday for being the ones to
supply the technology.
IP3
was not in a position to do an end run around the Atomic Energy Act, the law
preventing an administration from handing over top nuclear secrets to another
country without congressional approval. But the National Security Council could
be a vehicle for secretly making such a deal.
The
Congressional report says that the IP3 plot was closed down at one point but
that NSC whistleblowers are afraid that some Trump administration personnel in
the NSC and elsewhere may still be working on the illegal technology transfer.
+
Israel
is playing a big role in India’s escalating conflict with Pakistan
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51184.htm
by
Robert Fisk
Signing
up to the ‘war on terror’ – especially ‘Islamist terror’ – may seem natural for
two states built on colonial partition whose security is threatened by Muslim neighbours
When I heard the
first news report, I assumed it was an Israeli air raid on Gaza.
Or Syria. Airstrikes on a
“terrorist camp” were the first words. A “command and control centre”
destroyed, many “terrorists” killed. The military was retaliating for a
“terrorist attack” on its troops, we were told.
An Islamist “jihadi” base had been eliminated. Then I heard the name Balakot
and realised that it was neither
in Gaza, nor in Syria – not even in Lebanon – but in Pakistan. Strange thing, that. How could anyone
mix up Israel and India?
Well, don’t
let the idea fade away. Two thousand five hundred miles separate the Israeli
ministry of defence in Tel Aviv from the Indian
ministry of defence in New Delhi, but there’s a
reason why the usual cliche-stricken agency
dispatches sound so similar.
For months,
Israel has been assiduously lining itself up alongside India’s nationalist BJP
government in an unspoken – and politically dangerous –
“anti-Islamist” coalition, an unofficial, unacknowledged alliance, while India
itself has now become the largest weapons market for the Israeli
arms trade.
Not by chance, therefore, has the Indian press just trumpeted the fact
that Israeli-made Rafael Spice-2000 “smart bombs” were used by the Indian air
force in its strike against Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) “terrorists” inside Pakistan.
Like many Israeli boasts of hitting similar targets, the Indian adventure
into Pakistan might owe more to the imagination than military success. The
“300-400 terrorists” supposedly eliminated by the Israeli-manufactured and
Israeli-supplied GPS-guided bombs may turn out to be little more than rocks and
trees.
===========
g.
From: Jim O'Brien
Sent: Fri, 22 Feb 2019
Subject: [H-PAD] H-PAD Notes 2/22/19: Links to recent articles of
interest
Links to Recent Articles of Interest
"America: 'Indispensable Nation' No More"
<https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/america-indispensable-nation-no-more/>
By Andrew J.
Bacevich, The American Conservative, posted
February 22 . The author is a professor emeritus of
history and international relations at Boston University.
"How
the Failure of Our Foreign Wars Fueled Nativist
Fanaticism"
<https://www.thenation.com/article/nativism-empire-blowback-trump/>
By Greg Grandin, The Nation, posted February 21. The author teaches history at New York University.
"Should
the U.S. Government Abide by the International Law It Has Created and Claims to
Uphold"
By Lawrence Wittner, CommonDreams.org, posted February 20. The author is a professor emeritus of history at SUNY
Albany. This article critiques US policy toward Venezuela.
"What
War Films Never Show You"
<https://otherwords.org/what-war-films-never-show-you/>
By Mike Ferner, OtherWords.org, posted February 20. "I
treated wounded GIs from Vietnam. I saw carnage that seldom makes its way into
harrowing war stories like ' They Shall Not Grow Old' [about World War
One]."
"Time
for Peace in Afghanistan and an End to the Lies"
<https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/02/15/time-for-peace-in-afghanistan-and-an-end-to-the-lies/>
"This
Is How AIPAC Really Works"
<https://www.thenation.com/article/aipac-omar-israel-congress-anti-semitism/>
By M. J.
Rosenberg, The Nation, posted February 14. The
author is a former staff member of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee
(AIPAC).
"After the Trade War, a Real War with China?"
<https://chasfreeman.net/after-the-trade-war-a-real-war-with-china/>
By Chas W.
Freeman, Jr., ChasFreeman.net, posted February 12. A lengthy, historically
informed analysis of the relative positions of China and the U.S. and their
interrelationship. The author is a longtime U.S. diplomat and official with the
State and Defense departments and is currently a senior fellow at Brown
University's Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs.
"What's
at Stake in Venezuela"
<https://www.lrb.co.uk/2019/02/08/greg-grandin/whats-at-stake-in-venezuela>
By Greg Grandin, London Review of Books, posted February 8. This article includes valuable historical background. The
author teaches history at New York University.
"How
the Neocons Captured Donald Trump"
By Brian D'Haeseleer, Washington Post, posted February 5. "The return of Elliott Abrams puts the movement back in the White
House."
The author
teaches history at Lyon College and has written a book on counterinsurgency in
El Salvador from 1979 to 1992.
"Don't
Let Democrats Become the Party of War"
By Trita Parsi and Stephen Wertheim, Foreign Policy, posted February 4. Trita
Parsi is the author of Losing an Enemy: Obama, Iran,
and the Triumph of Diplomacy and Stephen Wertheim is a visiting assistant
professor of history at Columbia University.
"Why
Elliott Abrams Is the Right Man for the Job in Venezuela"
By Teresa
Meade, History News Network, posted February 3 "Abrams is an apt choice
for the job, as his career stretches back through some of the most sordid
instances of US intervention and brutality." The author teaches history at
Union College.
"The
U.S. War in Afghanistan, 1999-2018"
By the
Council on Foreign Relations, posted [February 1. A useful, detailed timeline
going through January 2019.
_______
Thanks to Roger Peace, Rusti Eisenberg, and an anonyous reader for suggesting articles included in the above list. Suggestions can be sent to jimobrien48@gmail.com
===========
h.
The End of
the American Republic
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-end-of-the-american-republic/
by Jacob Bacharach
+
‘Embrace
democracy, Venezuela!’ Bolton threatens new sanctions,
Pompeo vows ‘action’
https://www.rt.com/usa/452277-bolton-pompeo-venezuela-democracy/
+
Everyone has
fallen for the lies about Venezuela (by Lee Camp)
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/452176-venezuela-resources-us-lies/
===========
i.
Pink Floyd's
Roger Waters Defends Julian Assange
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3w7Y65mo7I
+
The working class and the fight to
free Julian Assange
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/02/23/pers-f23.html
+
Tulsi Gabbard on WikiLeaks'
Julian Assange
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r96RWyhDPS0
+
Elizabeth Vos,
editor-in-chief of Disobedient Media, urges support for Free Assange demonstrations in Australia
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/02/23/voss-f23.html
+
Attend March
10 Solidarity Vigil in London for Julian Assange
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/02/25/vigi-f25.html
by Robert Stevens
The Socialist
Equality Party (UK) calls for maximum participation in the “Solidarity Vigil
for Julian Assange” outside the Ecuadorian embassy in
London on Sunday, March 10.
The Julian Assange Defence Committee has organised the vigil to complement the rally the same day in
Melbourne, Australia, called by the Socialist Equality Party (Australia). A
week earlier, Sunday, March 3, the SEP is holding a rally in Sydney to demand Assange’s freedom. Both rallies will be addressed by SEP
National Secretary James Cogan.
John Pilger, journalist, filmmaker and outspoken opponent of
militarism and injustice, will speak at the Sydney rally, along with well-known
academic and human rights advocate Professor Stuart Rees.
The Julian Assange Defence Committee has
maintained a regular vigil outside the embassy since 2012, when Assange was forced to take refuge after the British
judicial system trampled over his democratic rights in a series of perverse and
arbitrary rulings.
===========
j.
Secrets of
the '60s Counterculture
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/secrets-of-the-60s-counterculture/
by Robert Sheer
The Beat
movement, synonymous with now-household names such as Allen Ginsberg, Jack
Kerouac and Dennis Hopper, is what Tosh Berman, son of Beat artist Wallace
Berman, calls “a collection of misfits.” In his recent book, titled “Tosh: Growing Up
in Wallace Berman’s World,” Berman details what his childhood
was like surrounded by the rebel artists that shaped a generation.
“I was a kid running among … these, quote unquote, giants of culture of
that time,” Berman tells Truthdig Editor in Chief
Robert Scheer in the latest edition of “Scheer Intelligence.” “The fact is, through my eyes as a
child especially, it was really just a collection of misfits of sorts. All
artists, or poets and writers, who somehow did not fit into, at the time, the
mainstream America at the time.”
Throughout the engaging conversation, Scheer,
who once worked at City Lights, the
independent bookstore that published Berman’s book, reminisces with the writer
about this concept of misfits and how, despite often contradictory political
views, these artists came together with the determination not to “sell out” at
a time when they felt increasingly marginalized from American society in one
way or another. Ginsberg, for example, wrote about being openly gay during an
epoch in which being gay was considered a crime.
+
These 5
Censored Books Tell a History the Establishment Wants Hidden
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcHRaxN-u5U&feature=youtu.be
|
Dumbing down the broadcast news consumer
by Wayne
Madsen
|
+
Millennials demand the rich pay taxes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWK6ynyA4rE
Who should pay more to provide for
our society? Your viewpoint may have to do with your age, with millennials and the youth tending to favor more progressive
taxation. RT America’s Michele Greenstein joins Rick Sanchez to explain that
“the American Dream is dead” and to argue that wealth stagnation and falling
standards make such changing attitudes inevitable. Then economics and
co-founder of Democracy at Work Prof. Richard Wolff joins to share his
insights.
===========
k.
Economic
Update: Economics of Conflicted Mothers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4i5lNEba44&feature=youtu.be
with Richard Wolff
+
Bank of
England governor warns of Brexit financial crisis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjZB4xzBYII&feature=youtu.be
with George Galloway
+
Anonymous : Why The Dollar Will Collapse 100% very near ?
===========
l.
Extinction
Rebellion
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51162.htm
by Chris Hedges
There is one
desperate chance left to thwart the impending ecocide and
extinction of the human species. We must, in wave after wave, carry out
nonviolent acts of civil disobedience to shut down the capitals of the major
industrial countries, crippling commerce and transportation, until the ruling
elites are forced to publicly state the truth about climate catastrophe,
implement radical measures to halt carbon emissions by 2025 and empower an
independent citizens committee to oversee the termination of our 150-year binge
on fossil fuels. If we do not do this, we will face mass death.
The
British-based group Extinction Rebellion has
called for nonviolent acts of civil disobedience on April 15 in capitals around
the world to reverse our “one-way track to extinction.” I do not know if this
effort will succeed. But I do know it is the only mechanism left to force
action by the ruling elites, who, although global warming has been well
documented for at least three decades, have refused to carry out the measures
needed to protect the planet and the human race. These elites, for this reason
alone, are illegitimate. They must be replaced.
“It is our sacred duty to rebel in order to protect
our homes, our future, and the future of all life on Earth,” Extinction
Rebellion writes. This is not
hyperbolic. We have, as every major climate report states, very little time
left. Indeed, it may already be too late.
In Britain,
Extinction Rebellion has already demonstrated its clout, blocking roads,
occupying government departments and amassing 6,000 people to shut down five of
London’s bridges last Nov. 17. Scores of
arrests were made. But it was just the warm-up act. In April, the group hopes,
the final assault will begin.
If we do not
shake off our lethargy, our anomie, and resist, our misery, despondency and
feelings of helplessness will mount. We will become paralyzed. Resistance,
especially given the bleakness before us, is about more than winning. It is
about a life of meaning. It is about empowerment. It is a public declaration
that we will no longer live according to the dominant lie. It is a message to
the elites: YOU DO NOT OWN US. It is about defending our dignity, agency and
self-respect. The more we free ourselves from the bondage of fear to throw up
barriers along the forced march toward ecocide the more we will be enveloped by
a strange kind of euphoria, one I often felt as a war correspondent documenting
horrific suffering and atrocities to shame the killers. We obliterate despair
in our acts of defiance, even if our victories are Pyrrhic. We reach out to
those around us. Courage is contagious. It is the spark that ignites mass
revolt. And we should, even if we fail, at least choose how we will die.
Resistance is the only action left that will allow us to remain psychologically
whole. And it is the only action left that has any hope of halting the
wholesale extinction of the human race, not to mention most other species.
===========
m.
Canadian military in Haiti. Why?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51159.htm
by Yves Engler
Canadian
troops may have recently been deployed to Haiti, even though the government has
not asked Parliament or consulted the public for approval to send soldiers to
that country.
Last week the
Haiti Information Project photographed heavily-armed Canadian
troops patrolling the Port-au-Prince airport. According to a knowledgeable
source I emailed the photos to, they were probably special
forces. The individual in “uniform is (most likely) a member of the
Canadian Special Operations Regiment (CSOR) from Petawawa”,
wrote the person who asked not to be named. “The plainclothes individuals are
most likely members of JTF2. The uniformed individual could also be JTF2 but at
times both JTF2 and CSOR work together.” (CSOR is a sort of farm team for the
ultra-elite Joint Task Force 2.)
What was the
purpose of their mission? The Haiti Information Project reported that they may
have helped family members of President Jovenel Moïse’s unpopular government flee the country. HIP tweeted,
“troops & plainclothes from Canada providing security at Toussaint Louverture airport in Port-au-Prince today as cars from
Haiti’s National Palace also drop off PHTK govt
official’s family to leave the country today.”
Many Haitians
would no doubt want to be informed if their government authorized this breach
of sovereignty. And Canadians should be interested to know if Ottawa deployed
the troops without parliamentary or official Haitian government okay. As well
any form of Canadian military support for a highly unpopular foreign government
should be controversial.
Two days
after Canadian troops were spotted at the airport five heavily armed former US
soldiers were arrested. The next day the five Americans and two Serbian
colleagues flew to the US
where they will not face charges. One of them, former Navy SEAL Chris Osman,
posted on Instagram that he provided security “for people who are
directly connected to the current President” of Haiti. Presumably, the
mercenaries were hired to squelch the protests that have paralyzed urban life
in the country. Dozens of
antigovernment protesters and individuals living in
neighborhoods viewed as hostile to the government have been killed as calls for
the president to step down have grown in recent months.
===========
n.
Ford
production crippled by Mexican workers’ strike
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/02/27/mata-f27.html
by Jerry White
The strike by
tens of thousands of maquiladora
workers in Matamoros, Mexico, across the border from Brownsville, Texas, has
had a crippling effect on production at major auto assembly plants in the
United States and Canada, which are owned by Ford and other automakers.
After
concealing this fact for more than six weeks after the January 12 strike began,
the news media in the US is finally acknowledging the impact of the walkouts by
70,000 Mexican workers at foreign-based companies that supply steering wheels,
seat belts and other parts to the Detroit automakers.
This impact
on production was first reported by the World Socialist Web Site on January 19, based on reports from
workers at Ford’s Flat Rock assembly plant in suburban Detroit. Workers told
the WSWS that the company was temporarily suspending production due to a
shortage of steering wheels caused by the walkout in Mexico.
On Tuesday,
the Detroit Free Press, which
has very close ties both to the auto companies and the United Auto Workers
(UAW), wrote, “A labor strike in Mexico forced Ford Motor Co. to build Mustang
cars and Explorer SUVs with temporary steering wheels and hold thousands of the
vehicles in nearby parking lots awaiting parts, the Free Press has learned.
===========
o.
Trump
Sabotages North Korea Summit to Appease the Hawks
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51193.htm
by Mike Whitney
"The
evil that men do"...
“During
the Korean War, the US dropped more bombs on North Korea than it had dropped in
the entire Pacific theater during World War II. This carpet bombing, which
included 32,000 tons of napalm, often deliberately targeted civilian as well as
military targets, devastating the country far beyond what was necessary to win
the war. Whole cities were destroyed, with many thousands of innocent civilians
killed and many more left homeless and hungry…. Dean Rusk, a supporter of the
war and later secretary of state, said the United States bombed “everything
that moved in North Korea, every brick standing on top of another.” ..The
number of inhabitants of Pyongyang killed by bomb splinters, burnt alive and
suffocated by smoke is incalculable…” (“Americans have forgotten what we did to North
Korea“, Vox World)
The US-North
Korea Summit in Hanoi has ended in failure just as all previous attempts at
peace have ended in failure. This is by design. Washington has refused to
incrementally lift the sanctions on the DPRK because sanctions are Washington’s
way of prosecuting an economic war against an enemy who, for the last six and a
half decades, has been the target of US hostility. In case you hadn’t noticed,
US policy towards North Korea is regime change, the same as it is towards Iran,
Cuba, Russia, Venezuela and any other country that doesn’t accept Washington’s
moral superiority and divine right to rule the world. Economic strangulation
(sanctions) is just one way that Washington cracks down on the dissidents and
imposes its will with an iron fist. But don’t kid yourself, this isn’t about nuclear
weapons, in fact, the Trump administration hasn’t even bothered to assemble a
team of weapons inspectors to investigate probable nuclear sites. Why? Because
it isn’t about nuclear weapons, it’s about regime change, it’s about inflicting
maximum pain and suffering on the Korean people so they take up arms against
the government and violently depose Kim and his cabinet. That’s the goal.
That’s always been the goal. The blocking of heating oil, essential medicines
and vital food supplies are all being used to promote social unrest,
fratricidal warfare, and political anarchy. Sound familiar? It should,
Washington has it down to an art.
Kim Jong Un attended the summit in Hanoi hoping that Trump could be
persuaded to keep up his end of the bargain. He hoped that Trump would overrule
the warmongering political class and honor the agreement he made in Singapore
in June, 2018. Here’s a summary what took place at the first Summit:
“In June Kim
Jong-un met U.S. President Trump in Singapore. A “freeze for freeze” – the stop
of nuclear and missile testing in exchange for a stop of military maneuvers –
was agreed upon. A Joint Statement was signed with a list of future tasks in
similar chronological order as in the Panmunjeom
Declaration (numbering added):
President Trump
and Chairman Kim Jong Un conducted a comprehensive,
in-depth and sincere exchange of opinions on the issues related to
1. the establishment of new US-DPRK relations and
2. the building of a lasting and robust peace regime on the
Korean Peninsula. President Trump committed
3. to provide
security guarantees to the DPRK, and Chairman Kim Jong Un
[3b] reaffirmed his firm and unwavering commitment to complete denuclearization
of the Korean Peninsula.
+
Pyongyang
Talks – How Pompeo Put The
Cart Before The Horse
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/07/pyongyang-talks-how-pompeo-put-the-cart-before-the-horse.html
by Moon of Alabama
===========
p.
Update and
Correction
“Is Neoliberalism Killing Russia?”
by Paul Craig Roberts and Michael Hudson
I have
learned from Andrei Martyanov that southfront.org’s report misinterprets the Russian VCIOM poll. The poll asked who is
the most trusted politician in Russia. Putin was first according to 32.6% of
respondents , Shoigu with
15.6% of respondents, and Lavrov with 13.2% of
respondents. These
percentages are not approval ratings of the individuals. The
percentages represent the share of the respondents who chose them as the most
trusted politician.
If you add
these percentages, it shows that overall the three most trusted politicians
account for 61.4% of the respondants. As these three individuals are the
most visible members of the Russian government, obviously there is high
confidence in the government.
Although
Putin’s approval rating has been hurt by the “pension reform” and value added
tax, his approval rating has declined but is still high.
With this
correction, we have decided to leave the article up for now as the article is
about the damage done to Russia by neoliberal economics. Our title is “Is Neoliberalism
Killing Russia?” and not is “Putin’s Approval Rating Killing Russia?”
We might edit
the article and repost it in order to correct the southfront
misinterpretation of the poll.
Is Neoliberlism Killing Russia?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51190.htm
by Paul Craig
Roberts and Michael Hudson
Southfront.org reports that according to polls by VCIOM, a state pollster, the Russian public’s confidence in Putin, prime minister Dmitry Medvedev and the Russian cabinet has dramatically declined over the past year.
The decline
is related to domestic, not foreign, policy. Apparently, the public perceives recent Kremlin economic
policy as a continuation of the disastrous policies that Washington imposed on
Russia in the 1990s when Russia was loaded up with foreign debt while state
assets were privatized and plundered by oligarchs sponsored by the West who
“cashed out” by selling the assets to foreigners.
===========
q.
Marxist
Economic Theory Easily Explained
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT1JAzhywfA&feature=youtu.be
(video)
with Richard Wolff
+
How Central Banks Rigged The World/Facebook Privacy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23GJ4KDmqRk
(audio)
Ralph Nader with
Nomi Prins & Marc Rotenberg
Ralph talks to
former financial insider, Nomi Prins, about what
central banks are and how much power they have to shape our world. Plus,
president of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Marc Rotenberg, tells
us how Facebook uses our information for good or ill.