Bulletin
N°
844
Theorem
film by Pier Paolo Pasolini
https://123movie.cx/movie/teorema-3oll2y3/watching.html
(several clicks might be necessary to access this film, which is mostly a visual experience)
&
https://archive.org/details/1967Teorema
Theorem
- Definition:
a
general proposition not self-evident but proved by a chain of reasoning; a
truth established by means of accepted truths.
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xiaccs
Subject
:
You must go to Yemen to Learn
the Truth.
US Leaders Aid and Abet War Crimes in Yemen - by Marjorie Cohn.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50113.htm
(Published August 24, 2018)
Yemen: The Triumph of Barbarism - by Cesar Chelala.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/04/22/yemen-the-triumph-of-barbarism/
(Published April 22, 2018)
V-E Day 2019
Grenoble,
France
Dear
Colleagues and Friends of CEIMSA,
In
Chapter 3 of Marcuse’s book, “Five Lectures,” he discusses the “obsolescence of the Freudian
concept of man” with a surprising twist of meaning, which opens up a new critical
dimension of contemporary society and its effect on the individual. He begins
this lecture by acknowledging the historical nature of Freudian analysis.
Some of the basic assumptions of Freudian
theory both in their orthodox as well as revisionist development have become
obsolescent to the degree to which their object, namely the “individual” as the
embodiment of id, ego, and superego has become obsolescent in the social
reality. The evolution of contemporary society has replaced the Freudian model
by a social atom whose mental structure no longer exhibits the qualities
attributed by Freud to the psychoanalytic object. Psychoanalysis, in its various
schools, has continued and spread over large sectors of society, but with the
change in its object, the gap between theory and therapy has been widened.
Therapy is faced with a situation in which it seems to help the Establishment
rather than the individual. The truth of psychoanalysis is thereby not
invalidated; on the contrary, the obsolescence of its object reveals the extent
to which progress has been in reality regression. Psychoanalysis thus sheds new
light on the politics of advanced industrial society.
This essay outlines the contributions of
psychoanalysis to political thought by trying to show the social and political
content in the basic psychoanalytic concepts themselves. The psychoanalytic
categories do not have to be “related” to social and political conditions –
they are themselves social and political categories. Psychoanalysis could
become an effective social and political instrument, positive as well as
negative, in an administrative as well as critical function, because Freud had
discovered the mechanisms of social and political control in the depth
dimension of instinctual drives and satisfactions.
It has often been said that Freud’s theory
depended, for much of its validity, on the existence of Viennese middle-class
society in the decades preceding the Fascist era –
from the turn of the century to the inter-war period. There is a kernel of
truth in this facile correlation, but its geographical and historical limits
are false. At the time of its maturity, Freud’s theory comprehended the past
rather than the present – a vanishing rather than a prevalent image of man, a
disappearing form of human existence. Freud describes a dynamic mental
structure: the life-and-death struggle between antagonistic forces - id, ego and superego, pleasure
principle and reality principle, Eros and Thanatos.
This struggle is fought out entirely in and by the individual, in and by this body and mind; the analyst acts as the spokesman
(silent spokesman!) of reason –in the last analysis of the individual’s own
reason. He only activates, articulates what is in the patient, his
mental faculties and capabilities. “The id shall become ego”: here is the
rationalist, rational program of psychoanalysis – conquest of the unconscious
and its “impossible” drives and objectives. It is by virtue and power of his
own reason that the individual abandons the uncompromising claims of the
pleasure principle and submits to the dictate of the reality principle, that he
learns to maintain the precarious balance between Eros and Thanatos
– that he learns to eke out a living in a society (Freud say “civilization”)
which is increasingly incapable of making him happy, that is to say, of
satisfying his instinctual drives.(pp.44-45)
Elsewhere,
Marcuse has coined useful terms, such as “repressive tolerance,” and in a
question-and-answer session following one of the lectures in this series
dealing with the concepts of freedom and progress in Freud’s thoughts, he
invents the term, “totalitarian democracy” (p.73), by which he means a mental
operation where “repression itself is repressed: society has enlarged, not
individual freedom, but its control over the individual. And this growth of
social control is achieved, not by terror but by the more or less beneficial
productivity and efficiency of the apparatus.” The individual, as seen by
Freud, no longer exists in late capitalist societies; according to Marcuse,
“those who live in advanced industrial societies no longer develop the
autonomy, rationality, and conscience that Freud considered the prerequisite of
a healthy person.” He insists that the very concept of “progress,” under these
conditions, must be challenged if authentic freedom is to be rescued from
totalitarian forces which are ravaging us in this era of imperialist expansion.
We have here a highly advanced stage of
civilization where society subordinates the individuals to its requirements by
extending liberty and equality – or, where the reality principle operates
through enlarged but controlled desublimation.
In this new historical form of the reality principle, progress may operate as
vehicle of repression. The better and bigger satisfaction is very real, and
yet, in Freudian terms, it is repressive inasmuch as it diminishes in the
individual psyche the sources of the pleasure principle and of freedom: the
instinctual – and intellectual – resistance against the reality principle. The
intellectual resistance too is weakened at its roots: administered satisfaction
extends to the realm of higher culture, of the sublimated needs and objectives.
One of the essential mechanisms of advanced society is the mass diffusion of
art, literature, music, philosophy; they become part of the technical equipment
of the daily household and of the daily work world. In this process, they
undergo a decisive transformation; they are losing the qualitative difference,
namely the essential dissociation from the established reality principle which
was the grounds of their liberating function. Now the images and ideas by
virtue of which art, literature, and philosophy once indicted and transcended
the given reality are integrated into the society, and the power of the reality
principle is greatly extended. These tendencies alone would corroborate Freud’s
hypothesis that repression increases as industrial society advances and extends
its material and cultural benefits to a larger part of the underlying
population. The beneficiaries are inextricably tied to the multiplying agencies
which produce and distribute the benefits while constantly enlarging the giant
apparatus required for the defense of these agencies within and outside the
national frontiers; the people turn into the objects of administration. µas
long as peace is maintained, it is a benevolent administration indeed. But the
enlarged satisfaction includes and increases the satisfaction of
aggressive impulses, and the concentrated mobilization of aggressive energy
affects the political process, domestic as well as foreign.
The danger signs are there. The relationship
between government and the governed, between the administration and its
subjects is changing significantly –without a visible change in the
well-functioning, democratic institutions.-(pp.57-58)
Marcuse
concludes this discussion by endorsing the individual’s claim to what has been
lost in the development of the social repression that has accompanied modern
industrialization. “Psychoanalysis draws its strength from its obsolescence : for its insistence on individual needs and
individual potentialities which have become outdated in the social and
political development.”
That
which is obsolete is not, by this token, false. If the advancing industrial
society and its politics have invalidated the Freudian model of the individual
and his relation to society, if they have undermined the power of the ego to
dissociate itself from the others, to become and remain a self, then the
Freudian concepts invoke not only a past left behind but also a future to be
recaptured. In his uncompromising denunciation of what a repressive society
does to man, in his prediction that, with the progress of civilization, the
guilt will grow and death and destruction will ever more effectively threaten
the life instincts, Freud has pronounced an indictment which has since been
corroborated: by the gas chambers and labor camps, by the torture methods
practiced in colonial wars and “police actions,” by man’s skill and readiness
to prepare for a “life” underground. It is not the fault of psychoanalysis it
is without power to stem this development. Nor can it buttress its strength by
taking in such fads a Zen Buddhism, existentialism, etc. The truth of
psychoanalysis lies in its loyalty to its most provocative hypotheses.(pp.60-61)
The
19 + items below will inform readers of the one-dimensional response to
the suicidal tactics of late capitalism which pushes the envelope of private profits
toward the very edge of our existence. This preparedness for collective self-sacrifice
is captured by a famous London Guardian Newspaper
political cartoonist. (Click on Steve Bell
beginning @ 16:25 into the RT news program link. And not to be distracted, please
see, also : Photos
from Yemen.)
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.
Clinton
Foundation and ISIS were funded from the same source
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51522.htm
by John Pilger
and Julian Assange
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange stated that
Hillary Clinton’s Clinton Foundation and the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS,
formerly ISIL/ISIS) are funded from the same sources.
He was speaking about the organisation’s
latest release of Clinton emails, during an interview on the John Pilger Special show that is to be exclusively broadcast by
RT, courtesy of Dartmouth Films. The interview took place in the Ecuadorian
Embassy in London where Assange has been residing
since August 2012. The footage was released on Thursday.
+
by Patrick Cockburn
Independent - October 14, 2016
There is a bizarre discontinuity between what the
Obama administration knew about the jihadis and
what they would say in public
+
Evidence of
Intent by the President to Support Wahabbism
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51525.htm
by Phil
Butler
In a recent tweet by US presidential hopeful
Tulsi Gabbard, the Army
colonel and congresswoman called President Donald Trump out on America’s
controversial support of Saudi Arabia. The candidate’s record and her recent
gestures are at the center of what will be a pivotal American presidency. The
2020 elections are right around the corner and my countrymen need to know the
real score. Here’s the latest on Donald Trump’s questionable intentions.
Gabbard is bringing to the forefront suspicions that the
Trump/Pence team is hiding the fact that it is the Saudis who are a fundamental
cause of the recent attacks on Christians/Christian churches in Sri Lanka and
elsewhere. In another Tweet, the Hawaii representative railed at Trump for
doing business with a regime many consider one of the instruments of Middle
East chaos. Gabbard tweeted directly to POTUS:
“Hey
@realdonaldtrump: being Saudi Arabia’s bitch is not
‘America First.”
This came on the heels of President Trump
announcing his administration would take no actions against Saudi Arabia’s
rulers regarding the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Trump sided with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman,
who allegedly ordered the killing. The CIA reported to various news outlets that it had
concluded the Saudi Prince did, in fact, order the killing.
President Trump made a statement saying, “It
could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of this tragic event —
maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!” In the same statement, Trump outlined how
the US needed Saudi support to help fight terrorism and to help keep oil prices
low. Right after this chain of events, oil prices plummeted. Here is the
President’s Tweet to the American people:
“Oil prices
getting lower. Great! Like a big Tax Cut for America and the World. Enjoy! $54, was just $82. Thank you to Saudi Arabia, but let’s go
lower!”
Now, unless you are a fanatical right-wing
extremist Trump supporter, another American president kissing the Saudi
leadership’s behind should be an easy vision for you. Tulsi
Gabbard made the call for us all. I have no doubt
that Rep. Gabbard is focusing on the real Achilles
heel of Trump and the deep state on the other side of the political aisle. If you’ll allow me to explain.
+
Bombshell: Professor Stuns MSNBC Panel On Syria
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O2TRzA2ezk
with Jeffrey Sachs
===========
b.
The Occupation of the American Mind
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51561.htm
Must Watch
(1h25min)
Posted May 06, 2019
"This
is a film that demands to be seen! It shows, with devastating precession, how
effective propaganda can hide crimes that are epic in scale and have
catastrophic consequences" - Ken Loach, Filmmaker & Activist
Despite
receiving an overwhelmingly positive response from those who have actually seen
it, The
Occupation of the American Mind has been repeatedly attacked and
misrepresented by right-wing pressure groups and outright ignored by virtually
all mainstream media outlets and North American film festivals.
+
The Gaza
Ghetto uprising
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51558.htm
by Gideon Levy
The cruelty and temerity of the people in Gaza once more
reached new heights Saturday: dozens of rockets on Israel before the week of
its Independence Day, just after its Holocaust Remembrance Day, and worst of
all, two weeks before its Eurovision. How dare you Gaza, how dare you.
Israel still hasn’t recovered from the Holocaust, is preening
itself for its Independence Day, the musicians are starting to arrive at
Ben-Gurion Airport, and you’re firing Qassam rockets.
How will we be able to celebrate? News reports give the impression that Israel
is under siege; Gaza is
threatening to destroy it. Twitter has already suggested “Eva’s Story on the
Gaza Border” – a play on the social media campaign about the Holocaust.
Pundits explain that it’s all because of Hamas’ greed.
Ramadan is beginning and “they’re under crazy pressure for cash.” Or, “It’s all
because of the weak security policy that has gotten the terror groups used to
Israel; we only strike buildings.”
And so they shoot, those villains. Hamas wants
money, Israel’s too soft on them, they are terror, we are peace; they were born
to kill. On Friday the army killed four protesters by the Gaza border fence,
but who’s counting. In Israel a teenage boy tripped while running for a
shelter. “When a lack of policy and continuity yields to blackmail,” a voice of
wisdom mumbled, and nobody could figure out what he was proposing. Benny Gantz, the alternative. This is what we have an
opposition for.
===========
c.
From: "Mark Crispin
Miller" <markcrispinmiller@gmail.com>
To: "newsfromunderground"
<newsfromunderground@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, May 5, 2019 2:50:01 AM
Subject: [MCM] What happened just today in Gaza. (Can you stand to look?
In any case, PLEASE help.)
Here is the latest
report from my friend Amal Arafa,
a nurse in Gaza, working
with a team that has been
struggling to contend with the atrocious consequences
of Israel's daily
slaughter of the Palestinians there—an ongoing massacre that
"our
free press" does not report.
Please donate what you
can to help them.
MCM
From Amal
Arafa:
The Israeli occupation
forces, shelling more than 200 places, including houses and residential
towers, launched a fierce
attack on the Gaza Strip this morning, killing five people, including a
mother and her child.
These are the people
killed:
Imad Muhammad Nasir, 22
Khaled Mohammed Abu Qiaq, 25
Saleh Abu Arar,
37
Saba Mahmoud
Abu Arar, 18 months old
Abdullah Abu Arar, unborn
We are doing all we can
to help the injured. We cannot do it without you.
Please donate through
this link:
https://gogetfunding.com/please-stand-with-us-we-need-you-4/
Amal
+
Israel
Again Bombs Gaza - But Is It "In Response"?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51550.htm
by Moon Of
Alabama
Since Friday noon a fire exchange between
besieged Palestinians in the Gaza strip and Israel escalated into heavy bombing
and missile fire.
The reporting thereof in U.S. media again proves
that these are unable to fairly cover on the conflict.
Jeff Bezos' blog
headlines:
More than 200 rockets fired
into Israel from Gaza; Israel responds, killing 3
The first graph:
Militants in Gaza fired more than 250 rockets
into southern Israel on Saturday, and Israel responded with
airstrikes and artillery fire, ending weeks of relative calm and threatening
efforts to forge a long-term truce.
Most readers do not read further than the
headline and maybe the first paragraph. Their impression will understandably be
that "militants in Gaza" started the fight and that the Zionists
"responded". But that is far from the truth.
One has to read down to the fifteenth paragraph
to learn that those 'facts' are probably false:
The Israeli military reported on Friday that two
soldiers were lightly wounded in a shooting incident along its border with
Gaza. In response, Israel struck sites belonging to the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades,
Hamas’s military wing, killing two fighters.
Also on
Friday, two Palestinian protesters were killed taking part in ongoing weekly
demonstrations at the border fence with Israel, the Palestinian Health Ministry
said.
Note the sequencing. The exchange is again
described as a "response" by Israel. The two murdered demonstrators,
who were unarmed and posed no threat to Israel, are mentioned as an aside.
But is was their murder, by Israeli snipers, that actually started
the escalating violence:
+
Ilhan Omar's tweet on Israel-Gaza violence
sparks condemnation from Republicans
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ilhan-omar-tweet-israel-gaza-condemnation-republicans
===========
d.
Economist Jeffrey Sachs: U.S. Sanctions Have
Devastated Venezuela & Killed Over 40,000 Since 2017
https://www.democracynow.org/2019/5/1/economist_jeffrey_sachs_us_sanctions_have
+
ZERO
PERCENT OF US CORPORATE MEDIA COMMENTATORS OPPOSE REGIME CHANGE IN VENEZUELA
Published: May 1, 2019
https://www.blacklistednews.com/article/72400/zero-percent-of-us-corporate-media-commentators-oppose-regime-change-in.html
Source: fair.org
+
US
Corporate Media Are All-In On Venezuela Regime Change
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51544.htm
by Brett Wilkins
As is all too often the case when the United States sets its
sights on its next target for war or regime change, the corporate mainstream
media – which supposedly exists to speak truth to power – is once again
marching in lockstep with the government as it beats the drums of war, this
time against Venezuela.
The media watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting
(FAIR) has just released
a survey of US opinion journalism on the Venezuela crisis which found that
in the three-month period between January 15 and April 15, not a single voice
in what it called the "elite corporate media" opposed regime change
or supported Venezuela’s democratically elected government. FAIR analyzed
coverage in the New York Times,
Washington Post, PBS NewsHour and the Sunday morning talk shows on ABC, CBS and
NBC. Of the 76 articles, opinion pieces and TV commentator segments focusing on
Venezuela, 54, or 72 percent, explicitly supported removing President Nicolás Maduro from power. Only
11 pieces took no position on the matter.
The Times
published 22 pro-regime change commentaries, three ambiguous ones and only five
that took no position. The nation’s paper of record published a January 30,
2019 opinion
piece by coup leader Juan Guaidó calling on the
entire world to stand behind his effort to usurp the Venezuelan presidency. The
Post also ran 22 pieces
supporting Maduro’s ouster and only four that were
neutral. Not to be outdone by its main competitor, the Jeff Bezos-owned
paper also ran an opinion
article by Guaidó in which he had the temerity to
call Maduro "a usurper." Even the normally
measured PBS NewsHour got in on the act, featuring a lengthy
interview with Guaidó in which he called the
possibility of violent confrontation "worth it" and dismissed the
possibility of negotiating with Maduro.
===========
e.
Behold the
breathtaking weakness of the Empire!
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51527.htm
by The Saker
The Empire has suffered painful defeats in Afghanistan and
Iraq, but one has to admit that these are “tough” countries to crack. The
Empire also appears to have lost control of Libya, but that is another complex
country which is very hard to control. We also saw all the pathetic
huffing and puffing with the DPRK. But, let’s be honest, the USA never
stood a chance to bully the DPRK into submission, nevermind
invading or regime-changing it. Syria was much weaker, but here Russia,
Iran and Hezbollah did a world class job of repelling all the AngloZionist attacks, political and military.
Besides, I for one will never blame Trump for not listening to Bolton
and not triggering WWIII over Syria (yet?)
But Venezuela?!
No Hezbollah or Iran backing Maduro
there. And Venezuela is way too far away from Russia to allow her to do
what she did in Syria. In fact, Venezuela is in the proverbial “backyard”
of the USA and is surrounded by hostile puppet regimes. And yet, tonight,
it appears that the US puppet Guaidó has failed in
his coup attempt.
Moon of Alabama did a great job covering the events of the
day, so I will refer you to the excellent article “Venezuela
– Random Guyaidó’s New Coup Attempt Turns Out to Be A
Dangerous Joke“. I fully concur that today’s coup was both a joke and
very dangerous.
Russian readers can also check out this article by Vzgliad which also gives a lot of interesting details,
including the fact that Guaidó launched his coup from
the Colombian Embassy in Caracas (see here
for a machine translation).
But the thing which amazes me most tonight is the truly
breathtakingly pathetic weakness of the clowns who launched this latest failed
operation: Pompeo and Mr
MAGA. Check them out . . .
+
Trump's Foreign Policy | Full Debate | George
Galloway, Mark Leonard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcyfVLMWqFI
+
Chomsky BRILLIANTLY Dissects Trump, Democrats & RussiaGate
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llzoItQgLOQ
+
Barr Hearings on Mueller Report Display the Threat to
Democracy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ub71K8Ops8
Attorney
and activist Kamau Franklin dissects the questioning
of Attorney General Barr on his handling of the Mueller report
+
Glen
Greenwald reams media for Collusion coverage
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51545.htm
Watch
Tucker Carlson,
It’s been a bewildering couple of months for Bill Barr. Barr first served as
attorney general in the George HW Bush administration. That was 1991.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had just turned two years
old at the time. That’s how long ago it was. Then, this February, by process of
elimination, Barr became attorney general again. The Mueller investigation was
nearly over when he got the job.
Barr
probably didn’t expect to become a major figure in the Russia story. He had
nothing to do with it. As far as we know, Barr never met with secret agents in
Prague. He never texted Vladimir Putin on his blackberry.
He never managed a Macedonian content farm. If Barr betrayed his country for a
sack or rubles and a case of vodka, nobody has ever proved it. But it doesn’t
matter. The Russia story cannot die. CNN, The
Washington Post, and the Democratic Party have too much invested in it.
The fact
it’s been proved a hoax is irrelevant to them. Bill Barr is a handy way to keep
the Russia in the news. Watch today’s talking point in action. Somewhere in the
basement of the DNC, some a messaging consultant has decided that “credibility”
is the most effective line of attack:
Greenwald Reacts to "Rage"
against AG Barr after Senate Hearing
+
Orwellian
Cloud Hovers Over Russia-gate
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51543.htm
by Ray
McGovern
Ray McGovern calls out
the void of evidence at the heart of the Senate hearing with Attorney General
Barr on Wednesday.
George Orwell would have
been in stitches Wednesday watching Attorney General William Barr and members
of the Senate Judiciary Committee spar on Russia-gate. The hearing had
the hallmarks of the intentionally or naively blind leading the blind with political
shamelessness.
From time to time the discussion turned to the
absence of a legal “predicate” to investigate President Donald Trump for
colluding with Russia. That is, of course, important; and we can expect
to hear a lot more about that in coming months.
More important: what remains unacknowledged is
the absence of an evidence-based major premise that should have been in place
to anchor the rhetoric and accusations about Russia-gate over the past three
years. With a lack of evidence sufficient to support a major premise, any
syllogism falls of its own weight.
The major premise that Russia hacked into the
Democratic National Committee and gave WikiLeaks highly embarrassing emails cannot bear close
scrutiny. Yes, former CIA Director John Brennan has told Congress he does not
“do evidence.” In the same odd vein, Brennan’s former FBI counterpart
James Comey chose not to “do evidence” when he failed
to seize and inspect the DNC computers that a contractor-of-ill-repute working
for the DNC claimed were hacked by Russia.
Call us old fashioned, but we Veteran
Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) still “do evidence” — and, in the
case at hand, forensic investigation. For those who “can handle the
truth,” the two former NSA technical directors in VIPS can readily explain how
the DNC emails were not hacked — by Russia or anyone else — but rather were
copied and leaked by someone with physical access to the DNC computers.
We first reported hard forensic
evidence to support that judgment in a July 2017 memorandum for the president.
Substantial evidence that has accumulated since then strengthens our confidence
in that and in related conclusions. Our conclusions are not based on
squishy “assessments,” but rather on empirical, forensic investigations —
evidence based on fundamental principles of science and the scientific method.
Bizarre, Medieval . . . .
===========
f.
Noam Chomsky on Venezuela
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAHCbzzRFo8&feature=youtu.be
In
this clip from his March 2019 interview on PRIMO NUTMEG #169, acclaimed scholar
and "Manufacturing Consent" author Noam Chomsky discusses the ongoing
power struggle in Venezuela. Chomsky gives his thoughts on how the crisis
arose, humanitarian aid, sanctions, and whether we can categorize the Hugo
Chavez and Nicolas Maduro regimes as
"socialist."
+
Leaked:
USA’s Feb 2018 Plan for Coup in Venezuela
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51548.htm
by Eric Zuesse
A detailed plan from “UNITED STATES SOUTHERN COMMAND” dated
“23 FEBRUARY 2018” was issued with the title “PLAN TO OVERTHROW THE VENEZUELAN
DICTATORSHIP ‘MASTERSTROKE’” and is here presented complete.
This document was personally signed by Admiral Kurt W. Tidd, who was the
Commander (the chief), at SOUTHCOM, and he was thus the top U.S. military official
handling Venezuela. But this was far more than just a military plan. It was
comprehensive — directing military, diplomatic, and propaganda, policies —
regarding the Trump Administration’s planned “Overthrow” of Venezuela’s
Government. His plan has since guided the Administration’s entire operation,
including “the capacities of the psychological war,” regarding Venezuela.
It instructed SOUTHCOM:
Encouraging popular dissatisfaction by increasing scarcity
and rise in price of the foodstuffs, medicines and other essential goods for
the inhabitants. Making more harrowing and painful the scarcities of the main basic
merchandises.” …
intensifying the undercapitalization of the country, the leaking out of
foreign currency and the deterioration of its monetary base, bringing about the
application of new inflationary measures.” …
Fully obstruct imports, and at the same time discouraging potential
foreign investors in order to make the situation more critical for the
population.” …
compelling him to fall into mistakes that generate greater distrust and
rejection domestically” …
To besiege him, to ridicule him and to pose him as symbol of
awkwardness and incompetence. To expose him as a puppet of Cuba.” …
Appealing to domestic allies as well as other people inserted from
abroad in the national scenario in order to generate protests, riots and insecurity,
plunders, thefts, assaults and highjacking of vessels
as well as other means of transportation, with the intention of deserting this
country in crisis through all borderlands and other possible ways, jeopardizing
in such a way the National Security of neighboring frontier nations. Causing
victims and holding the Government responsible for them. Magnifying, in front
of the world, the humanitarian crisis in which the country has been submitted
to.”
Structuring a plan to get the profuse desertion of the most qualified
professionals from the country, in order ‘to leave it with no professionals at
all’, which will aggravate even more the internal situation and along these
lines putting the blame on of Government.”
the presence of combat units from the United States of America and the
other named countries, under the command of a Joint General Staff led by the
USA.”
It was posted online at the Voltairenet site, and was first copied to a web archive on 14 May 2018. So, it has been online since at
least that date. However, because the photo in it of the document wasn’t made
available via software which includes the individual symbols, but presented
only the full visual image of the paper document, it still hasn’t yet gone
viral on the Web.
+
Venezuela -
Guaidó Got Snookered
White House
Starts Beating War Drums
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51531.htm
by Moon Of Alabama
Yesterday's failed
coup attempt in Venezuela significantly hurt the Trump administration's
international standing. It delegitimized its Venezuelan clients Juan Guaidó and Leopoldo López. After recognizing that their original 'regime
change' plan failed (again) the White House starts to beat the war drums.
That wasn't
the plan:
The Trump administration, which has backed Mr. Guaidó since he first challenged Mr. Maduro’s
authority more than three months ago, clearly thought the day would unfold differently.
There is no official explanation why the Trump administration
believed that the comical coup attempt by Juan Guaidó
and his master Leopolo López
would work.
There are signs though that the government of President
Nicolas Maduro set a trap. Several people in the top
echelon of the Venezuelan government gave false promises that they would join
the U.S. proxy side. They snookered Guaidó into
launching his coup to let him fail.
+
From: "Ariel, CODEPINK, DC" <info@codepink.org>
Sent: Saturday, May 4, 2019
Subject: I was arrested for sharing bread.
|
|
|
Dear
Francis , As
part of the Embassy Protection Collective, I've been staying inside the
Venezuelan Embassy in Washington D.C. to protect it from takeover by Trump's
coup collaborators. On Thursday, I came out to replenish food supplies, but
was arrested as I tried to get the bread, salad greens, and other food
back inside. Right-wing pro-Guaidó/Trump
supporters blocked the doors. Rather than helping me get food to people
legally inside the embassy, the police arrested me. I am charged with
"throwing missiles." I am not kidding. Let
me be clear why we are inside the Venezuela Embassy. We are there to protect
it from a takeover by an unelected group of Guaidó
supporters, a takeover that would dangerously escalate the conflict. If
the opposition takes over the DC Embassy, the Venezuelan government will
probably take over the US Embassy. The US could consider this an act of war
and use it as an excuse to invade. We can’t allow that to happen. That’s why,
despite intense harassment and even a cut-off of our food supplies by
right-wing thugs, our peaceful presence INSIDE the Embassy continues. Meanwhile,
inside Venezuela, Guaidó’s continued call for a
military uprising threatens to plunge the country into a bloody coup that
could lead to decades of war. And US economic sanctions are leading to more
misery. There needs to be mediation, like the Mexican government and the
Vatican are calling for. We need your help to stop this coup attempt. Contact your representatives in Congress now. Tell
them to speak out against a coup and US military intervention. Tell them to
prohibit an unconstitutional military intervention in Venezuela. The aggressive abuse we are facing at the DC Embassy everyday
now, including physical assaults against Medea, Tighe and myself, are a microcosm of the violence being perpetrated by Guaidó followers and a warning of how devastating it will
be if Donald Trump, John Bolton, and Elliot Abrams are successful in orchestrating
their coup. It's more important than ever that we stop them. We've
seen this before–in Chile, Haiti, Iraq, Afghanistan, Honduras, Libya, and
Syria–and we know the process: impose sanctions to devastate the economy,
provide financing and weapons to the opposition, sabotage peace processes,
exploit human needs, name a “leader,” and install a government that will
serve U.S. interests. It never turns about well for the people. A
U.S.-backed coup in Venezuela would only serve the interests of the U.S. and
Venezuelan elite who stand to profit by taking over a country with the
largest oil reserves in the world. We must prevent unnecessary bloodshed and
suffering in Venezuela. Contact your representatives in Congress now. Tell
them to vote to prevent a U.S.-backed coup in Venezuela! Towards peace and diplomacy, P.S.
Click here to view all of the press
coverage of our recent actions at the Embassy |
|
|
+
At
the Venezuelan embassy, where @SecretService has
sanctioned a right-wing riot.
I’m going to ask some officers why they won’t protect the embassy right now!
https://www.pscp.tv/w/1DXGyNnzNVWJM
(4min)
with Max Blumenthal
===========
g.
From: Mark Crispin Miller
Sent: Wednesday, May 1, 2019
Subject: [MCM] Israeli
rabbis at military prep school caught on video praising Hitler.
This shocking story really isn't all
that shocking in the larger context of the history of Zionism,
whose leading German champions at one point met with Adolf
Eichmann to negotiate a selective
exodus of Jews to Palestine. As recounted in Lenni
Brenner's Zionism in in the Age of the Dictators,
the two parties quite admired each other, sharing the same
racialist ideology (each side claiming to
represent "the Chosen People") as well as a ferocious
anti-communism.
This is, to say the least, ironic,
since the Zionists did nothing to avert the Holocaust, which those
hated Communists were trying to prevent; and having thus done
zilch to keep that genocide from
happening, once the world saw what had happened in the camps, and
were appropriately
horrified, the Zionists exploited that reaction, and the widespread
sense of guilt, to push for the
foundation of the Jewish state.
So what this story tells us
is that the racist ideology of Zionism (political Zionism, as opposed to
to the old ideal of spiritual Zionism) is as durable—and
lethal—as the Nazi ideology resurgent
now in Europe and Ukraine (whose prior, neo-Nazi government had
Israel's unquestioning
support).
And will the New York Times, now
franticly atoning for the Nazi-style cartoon that one of its
millennial employees ignorantly posted on the paper's website,
tell its readers about this
far more alarming sign of Hitler-friendliness among the rabbis
teaching (teaching what?)
in Israel's settlements?
Don't bet on it; and don't let anybody
any longer get away with calling anti-Zionism
"anti-semitism."
MCM
https://mondoweiss.net/2019/04/israeli-military-praising/
(Another lesson in psychological
warfare?)
Israeli rabbis at military prep school are caught on video
praising Hitler
by Jonathan Ofir,
April 30, 2019
Yesterday, Israeli Channel 13 aired video recordings by
rabbi educators at the state-sponsored military prep-academy Bnei David in the West Bank settlement of Eli. The rabbis hail Hitler’s Nazi racist ideology as “100% correct”,
only criticizing it for not being applied to the right people – that is, the
Jews should be the master-race, and non-Jews the ‘untermenschen’.
The statements are jaw-droppers. The full coverage with
subtitles can be seen in a video
prepared by journalist David Sheen.
These educators send young men to the army, and have been
advocating these ideas for years. They have close ties to lawmakers,
specifically to Rabbi Rafi Peretz,
now head of the Union of Right Wing Parties, the notorious merger with the Kahanist party Jewish Power, who is now the leading
candidate for Minister of Education. The academy is also tied to a Yeshiva, to
which many students come after their military service.
Slavery should return.
It starts out with Rabbi Eliezer Kashtiel, who bemoans that slavery has been abolished:
Abolishing legal slavery has created deficiencies. No one is
responsible for that property. With God’s help it will return. The goyim
(non-Jews) will want to be our slaves. Being a slave of the Jews is the best.
They must be slaves, they want to be slaves. Instead of just wandering the
streets, being foolish and harming each other, now he’s a slave, now his life
is beginning to come into order.
The ‘goyim’ in this context is to be understood as
Palestinians.
He says it’s because they have “genetic problems”, and
posits that they want to be under occupation:
There are around us people with genetic problems. Ask any
average Arab where he wants to be. He wants to be under occupation. Why?
Because they have genetic problems, they don’t know how to run a country, they
don’t know how to do anything – look at the state of them.
Yes, we are racists.
“Of course there is racism”, Kashtiel
continues.
Are we unaware that there are different races? Is it a
secret? Is it untrue? What can you do? It’s true. Yes, we are racists, we
believe in racism.
Kashtiel suggests that because Jews are a
superior race, they can “help” the inferior ones:
Correct, there are races in the world,
nations have genetic characteristics, so we [the Jews] must consider how to
help them. Racial differences are real, and that’s precisely a reason to offer
help.
A student asks the rabbi: “Who put you to decide who is
who?”
Kashtiel:
I can see that my accomplishments are much more impressive
than his.
The Holocaust is humanism and
pluralism.
Another rabbi, Giora Radler, says that the Holocaust is not what you think, it’s not about killing Jews. It is humanism and
pluralism that is killing us for real:
The Holocaust for real is not about the killing of Jews –
that’s not the Holocaust. All of these excuses claiming that it was based on
ideology or that it was systematic, this is ridiculous.
Because it was based on ideology, to a certain extent, makes it more moral than
if people murdered people for no reason. Humanism, all the secular culture
about us believing in the human, that’s the Holocaust. The Holocaust, for real,
is being pluralist, believing in “I believe in the human”. That’s what’s called
a Holocaust. The Lord (blessed be his name) is already shouting for many years
that the [Jewish] exile is over, but people don’t listen to him, and that is
their disease, a disease which needs to be cured by the Holocaust.
In other words, the Holocaust was there to teach Jews a
lesson – drop pluralism, isolate yourself in the
Jewish State and let go of the diaspora “illness”.
These remarks were made in a lesson titled “relating to the
Holocaust”.
The Nazi logic
was right.
Radler:
The Nazi logic was right unto themselves.
Hitler says that a certain group in society is the seed of all calamity for all humanity, that because of it all of mankind
will go to oblivion, that they harm humanity, and therefore must be
exterminated.
Radler asks a student: “Does this ideology sound illogical to you?
Very bad?”
Student answers: “It doesn’t sound moral.”
Radler: “Was Moses as bad as Hitler?”
Student: “No.”
Radler:
Why not? There is one thing in the world that is truly
evil and that is to be a hypocrite. Does it make a difference to you if they
killed you now with a knife the way they did to Agag
[the Amalekite king whom the prophet Samuel ‘hacked
in pieces’] or if they kill you in a gas chamber?
Hitler was right, “100% correct” . .
. .
Click on the link for the rest: https://mondoweiss.net/2019/04/israeli-military-praising/
+
Mass. Judge Refuses to Halt Pro-Palestinian Event at
UMass Featuring Roger Waters & Linda Sarsour
https://www.democracynow.org/2019/5/3/mass_judge_refuses_to_halt_pro
+
Roger Waters on Palestine:
“You Have to Stand Up for People’s Human Rights
All Over the World”
https://www.democracynow.org/2019/5/3/roger_waters_on_palestine_you_have
+
Gaza
killings spike ahead of Eurovision
https://electronicintifada.net/
===========
h.
From: "The National Security Archive" <nsarchiv@gwu.edu>
Sent: Thursday, May 2, 2019
Subject: JFK vs. Israel's Bomb 1963.
THE NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE is an independent
non-governmental research institute and library located at The George
Washington University in Washington, D.C. The Archive collects and publishes
declassified documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA). A tax-exempt public charity, the Archive receives no U.S. government
funding; its budget is supported by publication royalties and donations from
foundations and individuals. PRIVACY NOTICE The National Security Archive does
not and will never share the names or e-mail addresses of its subscribers
with any other organization. Once a year, we will write you and ask for your
financial support. We may also ask you for your ideas for Freedom of
Information requests, documentation projects, or other issues that the
Archive should take on. We would welcome your input, and any information you
care to share with us about your special interests. But we do not sell or
rent any information about subscribers to any other party. |
||||||||||||
===========
i.
VIPS:
Extradition of Julian Assange Threatens Us All
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51535.htm
by Veteran
Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
(May 1, 2019)
by Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
Retaliation against Julian Assange
over the past decade plus replicates a pattern of ruthless political
retaliation against whistleblowers, in particular those who reveal truths
hidden by illegal
secrecy, VIPS says.
MEMORANDUM FOR: The governments and people of the
United Kingdom and the United States
FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)
SUBJECT: Extradition of Julian Assange
Threatens Us All
On April 11, London police forcibly
removed WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange from the embassy of Ecuador after that country’s
president, Lenin Moreno, abruptly revoked his predecessor’s grant
of asylum. The United States government immediately requested Assange’s extradition for prosecution under a charge of
“conspiracy to commit computer intrusion” under the Computer Fraud and Abuse
Act (CFAA).
Former U.S. Government officials promptly appeared in popular media offering
soothing assurances that Assange’s arrest threatens
neither constitutional
rights nor the practice of journalism,
and major newspapers like The New York Times and The Washington Post fell
into line.
Not So Fast
Others found reason for concern in the
details of the indictment. Carie DeCel,
a staff attorney for the Knight
First Amendment Institute, noted that the indictment goes beyond simply
stating the computer intrusion charge and “includes many
more allegations that reach more broadly into typical journalistic
practices, including communication with a source, encouraging a source to share
information, and protecting a source.”
In an analysis of the
indictment’s implications, the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) observed
that it includes an allegation that “Assange and
Manning took measures to conceal Manning as the source of the
disclosure…including by removing usernames from the disclosed information and
deleting chat logs between Assange and Manning,” and
that they “used a special folder on a cloud drop box of WikiLeaks to transmit classified
records.”
+
JULIAN ASSANGE WORLD EXCLUSIVE:
Secrets from inside the embassy | 60 Minutes Australia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDDJza3J2I4
(April 28, 2019)
There’s
no middle ground when it comes to what the world thinks of Julian Assange. He’s either loved or loathed. Just over a
fortnight ago, the Australian founder of WikiLeaks
made more headlines when police dragged him, not so much kicking, but
definitely screaming, out of the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he’d been
holed up for seven years. Watching the shock eviction was Assange’s
father, John Shipton, who fears his son will be sent
to the United States, locked up and never released. In a 60 MINUTES world
exclusive, Shipton tells Tara Brown he wants everyone
to know the real Julian Assange is not some careless
villain computer hacker, but a hero of free speech.
+
Disproportionate
Sentences: Julian Assange, Bail, and Extradition
by
Binoy Kampmark
Should journalism ever have a deity
worth His, Her or Its salt, looking down upon the recent proceedings against
Julian Assange will provide endless choking fits of
confusion and dismay. The prosecution continues in the twisted logic that
engaging a source to disclose something secret while also protecting anonymity
is somehow unnatural in the world of journalism. Most prosecutions in
this regard tend to be ignorant of history and its various contortions; theirs
is to simply fulfil the brief of a vengeful employer,
in the now, in the falsely clear present. If their reasoning could be
extended, the likes of those in press land would spend far more time in prisons
than out of them.
The savagery being meted out to Assange is evident by receiving the maximum sentence for
skipping bail. Fifty weeks may not seem like much in the scheme of
things, but when you consider relative punishments, it smacks of a certain
state vindictiveness. What the decision also ignores is the entire
context of Assange’s escape to the Ecuadorean embassy
in 2012. Since then, Britain has abandoned that beastly instrument known as the
European Arrest Warrant, the Swedish allegations against him for sexual assault
have been withdrawn and he, importantly, was found to be living in conditions of arbitrary detention
by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.
The refusal to take the decision of
the UN Working Group seriously has been a hallmark of British justice, one
skewed in favour of handing out to Assange the worst treatment it can find. In 2016, the
body, chaired by Seong-Phil Hong, found that “various
forms of deprivation of liberty to which Julian Assange
has been subjected to constitute a form of arbitrary
detention.” The Working Group further maintained “that the arbitrary
detention of Mr. Assange should be brought to an end,
that his physical integrity and freedom of movement be respected, and that he
should be entitled to an enforceable right to compensation.”
The UK Government, for its part,
decided to rebuff the decision. “The original conclusions of the UN
Working Group are inaccurate,” came a scoffing
statement, “and should be reviewed.” Foreign Office minister Hugo Swire insisted at the time that the working group had erred
for not being “in possession of the full facts.” Assange
had remained in the embassy purely on his own volition, a fantastic form of
reasoning that denied the broader context of US efforts to seek his scalp, and
the prospect of extradition should he have been sent to Sweden. On this
issue, WikiLeaks and Assange
have proven to be right, but critics remain deaf and dumb to the record.
The same Working Group also expressed bafflement at the stiff sentence, noting that
the Swedish allegations had been withdrawn, meaning
that the original bail terms be negated as a result. The entire treatment
“appears to contravene the principles of necessity and proportionality
envisaged by human rights standards.” It was also “further concerned that
Mr. Assange has been detained since 11 April 2019 in Belmarsh prison, a high-security prison, as if he were
convicted for a serious criminal offence.”
Kristinn
Hrafnsson, who currently holds the reins as
editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, told gathered press
members that Assange had been confined for periods of
23 hours a day at Belmarsh. The publisher was,
effectively, keeping company with the less savoury
while facing the damnable conditions of solitary confinement.
Only a day after the rough
determination, Assange faced an extradition hearing
in which the UK legal system, pressured by US lawyers and officials, will again
have a chance to display its ignominious streak. The hearing, lasting a
few minutes, took place via video link in Westminster Magistrates Court.
“I do not wish,” Assange
told the court, “to surrender myself for extradition for doing journalism that
has won many, many awards and protected many people.” (Perhaps Assange might have eased off on his accolades, but history
has its callings.)
Assange’s
legal team is clear: focus the issue on publishing, thereby bringing the work
of their client within the ambit of free speech and traditional
journalism. As his lawyer Jennifer Robinson has explained, to accept the validity of the US charge would
result in a “massive chill on investigative journalism.” Assange’s involvement with Chelsea Manning was “about a
journalist and a publisher who had conversations with a source about accessing
material, encouraged that source to provide material and spoke to that source
about how to protect their identity.”
+
“Julian Assange
and Wikileaks have never told me a lie”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7GprAU1U_c&feature=youtu.be
with
George Galloway
+
Wikileaks Editor-Julian Assange in
De-Facto SOLITARY CONFINEMENT!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHvQI4PHSH4&feature=youtu.be
On
this episode of Going Underground, we speak to Wikileaks
Ambassador Joseph Farrell and former Ecuadorean Embassy Consul Rafael Narvaez
on the sentencing of Julian Assange to 50 weeks in
prison, the possible extradition of Assange to the
United States, his condition and treatment in prison. Next we speak to
legendary political cartoonist Steve Bell who discusses his recent artwork
depicting Brexit, Netanyahu, Corbyn
and others. He also discusses whether he is censored and takes us inside the
mind of a political cartoonist
===========
j.
Florida lawmakers approve
arming teachers
with guns in classrooms
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51530.htm
by Deutsche Welle
Florida teachers will be able to carry guns
in classrooms after undergoing police-style training and a psychiatric
evaluation. Opponents say fewer guns should be on schools and the policy is
prone to deadly accidents.
Florida lawmakers passed legislation on Wednesday allowing more teachers
to carry guns in the classroom. It is the latest response to last year's deadly
shooting at a Parkland high school.
The bill enables teachers in school districts
that wish to participate in the voluntary "guardian" program to carry
a weapon in the classroom after passing a 144-hour training program and
undergoing a psychiatric evaluation.
Ahead of passage of the new legislation,
school employees in 40 of Florida's 67 counties had already enrolled in, or
stated they planned to take, the police-style training course, a spokesman for
the Speaker of the House said
===========
k.
.
The OKC Bombing: What Happened And
Why It Still Matters
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCCccCj_r1Y
Today
James Corbett and Chris Emery of Free Mind Films join Ricky Varandas
on The Ripple Effect podcast to discuss the 1995
Oklahoma City bombing and why it still matters.
===========
l.
From: "Jim O'Brien via H-PAD"
<h-pad@lists.historiansforpeace.org>
Sent: Wednesday, May 1, 2019
Subject: [H-PAD] H-PAD Notes 5/1/19: Links to recent articles of
interest
Links to Recent Articles of Interest
"A World Safe for Capital: How Neoliberalism Shaped the International System"
By Stephen Wertheim, Foreign
Affairs, May-June issue
The author is a visiting assistant
professor of history at Columbia University.
"Beware Anew the Military-Industrial Complex: Remembering
Eisenhower's Warning"
By Gregory D. Foster, History
News Network, posted April 28
The author is a Vietnam War veteran
who teaches at the National Defense University's Eisenhower School. This is a
trenchant critique of US policies from a surprising source.
"Breaking the Grip of U.S. Militarism: The Story of Vieques"
By Lawrence S. Wittner, History News Network, posted April 28
On Puerto Ricans' long but
ultimately successful struggle to stop the Navy's use of the island of Vieques for bombing practice. The author is a professor emeritus of history at SUNY
Albany.
"America Isn't as Powerful as It
Thinks It Is"
By Stephen M. Walt, Foreign
Policy, posted April 26
The author teaches international
relations at Harvard University.
"Preventing 'Another Rwanda' Is
No Reason to Deploy US Forces All Over the World"
By Stephen Kinzer,
Boston Globe, posted April 26
The author is a longtime reporter
and analyst of U.S. foreign policy.
"The Path to War with Iran Is
Paved with Sanctions"
By Joseph Cirincione
and Mary Kaszynski, LobeLog,
posted April 23
This article traces moves by the
Trump administration against Iran and draws parallels with the preparations
for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
"Why Did We Fight the Iraq
War?"
By Andrew J. Bacevich,
New York Times, posted April 19
The author is a professor emeritus
of history and international relations at Boston University. This is a review
essay on Leap of Faith by Michael J. Mazarr.
"Decriminalizing the Drug War? Calculating the Damage
from a Century of Prohibition"
By Alfred W. McCoy, TomDispatch.com,
posted April 9
The author teaches history at the
University of Wisconsin. His most recent book is In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline
of U.S. Global Power.
By Adam Harris, The
Atlantic, posted April 8
And eloquent and heartbreaking
account of the life and death of historian Thea
Hunter, who died in December 2018 at age 62.
"Is This the End of the American
Century?"
By Adam Tooze,
London Review of Books, posted April 4
The author teaches history at
Columbia University.
Thanks for Rusti
Eisenberg, Van Gosse, and an anonymous reader for suggesting articles that are
included in the above list. Suggestions can be sent to jimobrien48@gmail.com.
===========
m.
Anti-Capitalist Chronicles: The Significance of China
in the Global Economy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQk5zd4Y1A0
with David Harvey
+
"What China Will Be Like As A Great Power" : Martin Jacques Keynote (32nd Annual Camden
Conference)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBjvklYLShM
Martin
Jacques delivered the keynote address at the 32nd Annual Camden Conference in
Camden, Maine, US on February 22, 2019. The talk was titled “What China Will Be Like as a Great Power”.
===========
n.
Interview
with Gore Vidal for "The Great Depression"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E76ArLbSABA
(Published on Dec 23,
2013)
===========
o.
What
Past Civil Wars Tell Us About the Future of Syria
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/05/03/what-past-civil-wars-tell-us-about-the-future-of-syria/
by
Robert
Fisk
When
Syrian government soldiers first recaptured the small village of Deir Hafar from Isis in 2017, they found the black-painted
but hurriedly abandoned Islamic “court” strewn with piles of documents.
These hundreds of pages contained terrible proof of how the Syrian civilians
there had behaved under at least three years of Isis occupation.
I arrived in the village along with the Syrian army after
Russian aircraft had bombed Isis out of the streets – the Islamists were still
firing shells as they retreated, killing a senior Syrian commander – and
reached the local sharia court building, a concrete
blockhouse beside three equally black-painted but iron crucifixion bars on a
platform above the road.
But
the papers on the floor of the court were the real story of Deir
Hafar.
The
judges had been Egyptian and their jurisdiction stretched all the way back to
the then Isis “capital” of Syria in the town of Raqqa.
The
documents revealed that the people of the village had used Islamist
“justice” to betray their neighbours – in one
case to name family cousins as potential spies, in another to accuse a young
man of secretly meeting his girlfriend when he was supposed to attend evening
prayers. Other neighbours accused each other of
theft. A man supposedly collecting money for an
electrical generator had pocketed the cash for himself. One potential agent –
possibly for the Syrian government – was handed on for “justice” by the
“Revolutionary Islamic Police Court”.
The
prosecution witnesses, the defendants, sometimes their “Islamist” guards
were precisely named in these archives.
And
it came as no surprise when, an hour after I had come across these hundreds of
documents on the floor of the “court”, a large group of grimly smiling citizens
from 27 villages around Deir Hafar
arrived in the main highway through the village, dressed in long, grubby brown
robes, to seek out the Syrian army’s officers. They brought with them a joint
petition signed by their mukhtars and village leaders
seeking “reconciliation” with the Syrian government. The soldiers were not
interested. They accepted the petition indifferently and briskly told the
sorrowful men, heads bowed in submission, to get in touch with the authorities
in Aleppo and Damascus if they wished to seek forgiveness.
Both
sides understood the reality. When your home is occupied by another army – when
your village is occupied by a rival force – you must collaborate in order to
survive. Or, at the least, cooperate. Because the moment of
occupation becomes the moment of collaboration.
===========
p.
The
Billionaires Behind the Far-Right
Photograph Source: DonkeyHotey
– CC BY 2.0
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/05/03/the-billionaires-behind-the-far-right/
by
T.J.
Coles
Billionaires
and working people have one thing in common: they hate the government. But they
hate the government for different reasons. For working people, government is too
right-wing on some issues: it allows transnational capital to undermine
jobs and wages. On other issues, many working people see government as too
left-wing, allowing what they see (incorrectly)
as excessive
immigration. Billionaires hate government because government is sometimes
forced to respond to grassroots pressure, which can mean introducing financial
regulation, unionization, and other profit-harming policies.
In
the absence of staging outright fascist coups, elements of the ruling class
engineer social unrest to compel government to support policies that are
against the interests of working people.
BILLONAIRES
FUNDING A BILLIONAIRE PRESIDENT
Today,
a handful of billionaires fund far-right, anti-Islamic, anti-immigrant, and/or
ultra-nationalist political figures, movements, and alternative media personalities. Their aim is to push mainstream
politics further to the right, as mainstream politicians fear losing voters to
the new extreme parties. But how can elites get working people to support
policies that are against their own interests? The answer is to divert them
from the real causes of their misery—austerity, privatization, economic
deregulation, and disinvestment, i.e., the very policies supported by
billionaires—and, instead, play on their anger over immigrants and Islam.
In
the US, concerns have been raised about President Trump’s affiliations
with far-right hate groups and the political support
he receives from those groups. Robert Mercer is a billionaire
hedge fund manager and CEO of Renaissance Technologies. A Trump donor, Mercer
worked with Trump’s short-lived strategist, Steve Bannon,
to make Breitbart News a
platform
for the so-called alternative right, or “alt-right.” The term alt-right was coined by
Richard Spencer, a white supremacist and Trump-supporter who is himself funded
by the multimillionaire, William Regnery II, via the
National Policy Institute. Regnery has published a
series of anti-Islamic, anti-left books by, among others David Horowtiz, director of the eponymous Freedom Center. Having
helped to get Trump elected, Mercer then dissociated
himself from Bannon, Breitbart,
and the alt-right. Job done.
Another
Bannon-Mercer venture was Cambridge Analytica, a company set up in the UK as a subsidiary of
SCL, a group known for its involvement in elections abroad, including its
providing of consultancy
services for Iraq’s first “democratic” elections while the nation was still
under illegal US-British occupation. Cambridge Analytica
supported
the Leave campaign in the run-up to Britain’s 2016 referendum on whether or not
to remain in the European Union. Indeed, the pro-Brexit
faction of the Conservative Party consists of billionaire hedge funders and
asset managers who want to leave the EU to avoid its financial regulations.
They include:
Crispin Odey, Michael Hintze,
and Peter Hargreaves. Another pro-Brexiter hedge
funder is Arron Banks. It is alleged that, as Home
Secretary, Britain’s PM Theresa May personally intervened
to prevent a police investigation into Banks’s
alleged financing of the Leave.EU campaign, which used Cambridge Analytica to market anti-EU, anti-immigrant messages to
social media users.
BREXIT
& THE BILLIONAIRES . . . .
+
Emmanuel Macron approval ratings at just 26
percent after Yellow Vest
===========
q.
EU foreign
affairs chief slams US ‘full activation’
of
Cuba embargo law, vows counter steps
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51536.htm
by RT
Full implementation of US embargo law on Cuba is illegal
under international law, the EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini said as she promised retaliatory measures amidst
yet another row between Brussels and Washington.
The “full activation” of US embargo legislation against Cuba is “contrary to
international law” and goes against the previous US-EU agreements, Mogherini said on Thursday, promising to apply “all
appropriate measures” to defend European interests.
On May 2, the Trump administration did not renew the
decades-old suspension of the Title III of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, also
known as Libertad Act, which regulates the embargo on foreign trade with Cuba.
The provision allows US citizens to sue foreign companies profiting from
properties which Cuba confiscated or nationalized after the 1959 revolution.
EU officials fear that this will hit European firms. Last
month, Mogherini and EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom reportedly penned a letter to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in which they warned that the EU may launch a WTO
case against Washington should its actions damage European trade.
+
How Carl Schmitt Took Over the White House
https://consortiumnews.com/2019/05/06/us-executive-power-and-the-state-of-exception/
by Dan Steinbock
As the controversial German jurist Carl Schmitt saw it in the interwar
Third Reich, legal order ultimately rests upon the decisions of the sovereign,
who alone can meet the needs of an “exceptional” time, transcending the law so
that order can then be reestablished. “Sovereign is he who decides on the
exception,” he wrote. “All law
is situational law.”
In post-Weimar Germany,
such ideas contributed to the eclipse of liberal democracy. Following Sept. 11,
2001, similar arguments renewed neoconservative interest in Schmitt and the
“state of exception.” In this world the status quo is in a permanent state of
exception, as enemies — “adversaries, others and strangers” — will unite “us”
against “them.”
In this view, the U.S.
response to 9/11 was not unusual because liberal wars are “exceptional.”
Rather, it was a manifestation of ever-more violent types of war within the
very attempt to fight wars that would end “war” as such.
(Pauljoffe,
CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons)
Collapse
of 2 World Trade Center seen from Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Similarly,
it is politically expedient to legitimize a trade war and other political
battles in the name of “national security,” which allows the sovereign to
redefine a new order on the basis of a state of exception. Subsequently, a new
national security strategy redefines “friends” as “enemies” and “us” as victims
who are thus justified to seek justice from our “adversaries” — “them.”
The
logic of the state of exception leaves open the question how the White House
could establish such a trade war as a sovereign, when such trade wars have
not been supported by most of President Donald Trump’s constituencies and have
been opposed by much of the Congress and by most Americans.
Unitary Executive Theory .
. .
===========
r.
China and Russia: Whoopin' Uncle
Sam at His Own Game
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51547.htm
by Mike Whitney
Your Geopolitical Quiz for the Day:
Two countries are embroiled in a ferocious rivalry. One
country’s meteoric growth has put it on a path to become the world’s biggest
economic superpower while the other country appears to be slipping into
irreversible decline. Which country will lead the world into the future?
Country A builds factories and
plants, it employees zillions of people who manufacture things, it launches
massive infrastructure programs, paves millions of miles of highways and roads,
opens new sea lanes, vastly expands its high-speed rail network, and pumps
profits back into productive operations that turbo-charge its economy and
bolster its stature among the nations of the world.
Country B has the finest military in the world, it has more
than 800 bases scattered across the planet, and spends more on weapons systems
and war-making than all the other nations combined. Country B has gutted its
industrial core, hollowed out its factory base, allowed its vital infrastructure
to crumble, outsourced millions of jobs, off-shored thousands of businesses,
plunged the center of the country into permanent recession, delivered control
of its economy to the Central Bank, and recycled 96 percent of its corporate
and financial profits into a stock buyback scam that sucks critical capital out
of the economy and into the pockets of corrupt Wall Street plutocrats whose
voracious greed is pushing the world towards another catastrophic meltdown.
Which of these two countries is going to lead the world into
the future? Which of these two countries offers a path to security and
prosperity that doesn’t involve black sites, extraordinary rendition,
extrajudicial assassinations, color-coded revolutions, waterboarding,
strategic disinformation, false-flag provocations, regime change and perennial
war?
China’s Belt and Road Initiative: A
Tectonic Shift in the Geopolitical Balance of Power
Over the weekend, more than 5,000 delegates from across the
world met in Beijing for The Second Belt and Road Forum
For International Cooperation. The conference provided an opportunity for
public and private investors to learn more about Xi Jinping’s
“signature infrastructure project” that is reshaping trade relations across
Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa. According to journalist Pepe Escobar, “The BRI is now supported by no less than 126
states and territories, plus a host of international organizations” and will
involve “six major connectivity corridors spanning Eurasia.” The massive
development project is “one of the largest infrastructure and investment
projects in history, ….including 65% of the world’s
population and 40% of the global gross domestic product as of 2017.”
(Wikipedia) The improvements to road, rail and sea routes will vastly increase
connectivity, lower shipping costs, boost productivity, and enhance widespread
prosperity. The BRI is China’s attempt to replace the crumbling post-WW2
“liberal” order with a system that respects the rights of sovereign nations,
rejects unilateralism, and relies on market-based principles to effect a more
equitable distribution of wealth. The Belt and Road Initiative is China’s
blueprint for a New World Order. It is the face of 21st century capitalism.
The prestigious event in Beijing was barely covered by the western
media which sees the project as a looming threat to US plans to pivot to Asia
and become the dominant player in the most prosperous and populous region in
the world. Growing international support for the Chinese roadmap suggests that
Washington’s hegemonic ambitions are likely to be short-circuited by an
aggressive development agenda that eclipses anything the US is currently doing
or plans to do in the foreseeable future.
===========
s.
Assange to Extradition Court: ‘I Won’t Surrender to the US
for Doing Journalism’
(May
2, 2019)
by Joe Lauria
Special to Consortium News
The WikiLeaks
founder appeared via video link in Westminster Magistrates Court for the first
hearing in what could be a lengthy process in the US request for extradition.
Julian Assange had his first day in
court on Thursday in his fight against extradition to the United States in an
historic press freedom case that could have a profound impact on the future of
journalism.
Dressed in jeans, a dark jacket and a T-shirt, Assange
appeared on a video screen inside a cramped courtroom in Westminster
Magistrates Court in London. “I won’t surrender to the U.S. for doing
journalism that has won many awards and protected lives,” Assange
told the court, according to a tweet
from a USA Today correspondent.
Assange was arrested on April 11 after Ecuador lifted his political
asylum at its embassy in London where Assange had
lived since June 2012. On that day the U.S. unsealed an indictment against the
publisher for conspiring with WikiLeaks’
source Chelsea Manning to crack a password needed to hide Manning’s identity.
Protecting a source is a routine part of investigative journalism.
Watch the replay of a Special Extradition Vigil for Assange webcast Thursday on Consortium News.
+
Assange or Khashoggi:
Whither Journalistic Standards?
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/05/02/assange-or-khashoggi-whither-journalistic-standards/
by
Barbara
Nimri Aziz
During
the media frenzy, diplomatic flurry and widespread speculations around a
hitherto marginal Saudi journalist’s apparently grizzly demise in Istanbul’s
Saudi consulate last October, my thoughts stayed with the deathly silence that
had fallen around Wikileaks’ founder and director.
Information
about Julian Assange had become increasingly sparse
and obscured. After six years under virtual house arrest in Ecuador’s London embassy,
his fate was more precarious every day. Seeking temporary asylum with Ecuador
was apparently a serious miscalculation by Assange
and his lawyers.
By
2017, Assange’s astute observations on a range of
policy issues were few and far between, his opinion on international matters
sought or quoted, became less tantalizing too. (The most recent post is
dated January, 2019.)
Did
international media and free press advocates who once celebrated Assange, utilized his revelations and heaped awards on Wikileaks, collectively agreed to abandon their erstwhile
hero? And why the turnaround? (It’s not easy to
explain although one observer suggests former associates actually conspired to
depose him.)
Increased
silence from within Assange’s refuge presaged his
recent ‘capture’. Then, when he suddenly appeared, subdued by dozens of guards,
how shamelessly international media rushed to cheer his arrest. They seemed to
delight in highlighting scant, salacious
details of his condition at the time of his arrest. Reprehensible.
Dismaying. Will those gloating journalists care what
his captors do to Assange in detention?
This
for the man whose political analyses and Wikileaks revelations
had been daily headlines not long ago. This for a journalist
and publisher who introduced a profound strategy to expose a government’s
sinister diplomatic schemes, excesses and crimes documented by their own
internal reports. This for an organization gathering
evidence of government wrongdoing at a critical time, starting in 2006 when
U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were being reevaluated by a sobering public.
Rumors of military crimes, cover-ups, torture, black-site prisons, etc. had
gradually, although belatedly, gained credibility and, following the Abu Graib Prison revelations, Wikileaks
provided irrefutable evidence of how U.S.A. and its allies conducted their
wars. (How useless normal checks are was demonstrated by Chelsea Manning’s
thwarted attempts to report questionable practices within the U.S. military
structure.)
Also,
Assange launched Wikileaks soon after
we recognized the potential of new digital technology. This was a tool with the
capacity to store and transfer massive quantities of data; hard copy was
redundant and security systems for digital data, including those of
intelligence agencies, were untested.
Julian
Assange was no ordinary, lone, computer geek hacking
commercial operators.
He had a clear political agenda. He emerged as the unmatched pioneer sleuth for
our new digital age, building Wikileaks as a free
public platform for distributing huge quantities of data, material supposedly
only accessible to authorized personnel. In its audacity Wikileaks
even published a CIA manual on its (own) hacking methods! The undeniable
content of the Iraq and Afghanistan War Logs and diplomatic files know as CableGate clearly demonstrates how the U.S. spies on
governments, including allies.
Wikileaks set a new standard for
investigative journalism. It took an exceptional mind to create the Wikileaks platform but also to assess and manage massive
amounts of data gathered and uploaded to it. (I myself never searched through
those files, but my perusal of the 2015 book, The Wikileaks Files (with an introduction by Assange) offers a hint of the treasure the original files
represent. (They will doubtless be drawn on by historians and policy analysts
for decades.)
===========
t.
Sokal 2.0: Hoaxing Cultural Studies
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/05/01/sokal-2-0-hoaxing-cultural-studies/
by
Binoy Kampmark
In
the 1990s, NYU physicist Alan D. Sokal did the groves
of academy a sterling service that should have earned him plaudits etched in
gold. It began with the meaningless yet teasing “Transgressing the
Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Theory,” published
in Social
Text.
It is a ribbing article that still reads with appropriate cheek today: a velvet
gloved challenge to the claims of science to a higher objectivity. (The
clue here should have always been the insertion of Quantum Theory into the
discomforting embrace of hermeneutics.)
There
were a few teasing gems that should have alerted reviewers to Sokal’s play, given the author’s physics pedigree. “The
Einsteintinian constant is not a constant, is not a
centre. It is the very concept of variability – it is, finally, the
concept of the game. In other words, it is not the concept of something –
of a centre staring from which an observer could master the field – but the
very concept of the game.” These were, fittingly, not Sokal’s
words but those of Jacques Derrida, master of deconstruction and sceptic of all matters objective.
In Lingua Franca,
a journal whose editors’ eyewash was evidently a touch stronger, Sokal explained
his Social Text foray
with grim satisfaction. The article opened with the ominous observation
of Larry Laudan’s Science
and Relativism (1990):
“The displacement of the idea that facts and evidence matter by the idea that
everything boils down to subjective interests and perspectives is – second only
to American political campaigns – the most prominent and pernicious
manifestation of anti-intellectualism in our time.” The article published
in Social Texthad
been “liberally salted with nonsense”. It had been accepted by the
editors because “it sounded good” and “flattered the editors’ ideological
preconceptions.”
He
was subsequently accompanied by fellow stone thrower Jean Bricmont,
and, as co-conspirators, Intellectual
Impostures, also titled as
Fashionable
Nonsense,
became more than the barbarian at the gates for the poststructuralist, and
postmodernist fraternity. The integrity of science, and the value of factual
verification, was being reclaimed. Postmodernism, according to Richard
Dawkins, had been disrobed.