Bulletin N° 867

 

 

IMPORTANT NOTE: Due to an Internet malfuction, all links below are placed between brackets [____] but are sometimes not visible until they are clicked.

 

 

"Queen Victoria's Empire: Engines of Change"

Part 1/16

click here : [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZE5kFXyQFo ]

(3h39min)

 

At the time of Queen Victoria's birth in 1819, England was an agrarian society. Within a few short decades, this small island nation would be transformed into an industrial superpower, with an empire spanning the globe. Queen Victoria's Empire is both the story of this remarkable time, and an engaging portrait of a Queen who ruled over a one-fifth of the world's population. It is the story of the influential figures that would shape a distinctively British imperialism: Gladstone, Disraeli, Livingstone, Rhodes, and Prince Albert, Victoria's husband. Whether driven by profit, passion, or noble ideals, these figures would fuel an expansion unequaled in history, forever changing Britain and the lands it controlled. Personal accounts, lush reenactments, and evocative cinematography from former outposts of the Empire, including India and Africa, recount the dramatic clash of personalities and cultures that would drive Victoria's remarkable 64-year reign.

 

 

 

Subject : The Capitalist Conspiracy, Part 4: The “Thin Edge” of Neoliberalism Wedges itself into Society at Different Points, to the Benefit of the Ruling Class and their “Power Elite”.

 

 

 

November 25, 2019

Grenoble, France

 

Dear Colleagues and Friends of CEIMSA,

 

You’ve probably heard the tale of the English farmer who was fascinated by scientific experiments. He wanted to gradually change the eating habits of his horse so that the horse would eventually require no food at all. Each day, he reduce the diet of this animal, until one morning he gave his horse only one straw to eat. That evening the horse died.

 

Such are the crimes committed by neoliberalism in the name of economic science.

 

***

 

Recently I was talking with a well-informed friend, comparing our sources of information for understanding world events, when he suddenly blurted out in a most ad hominem fashion: “Well, if capitalism must exploit, plunder and fatally harm people somewhere in the world, at any given time (by periodically displacing the misery it inflicts on populations in order to produce maximum profits for the capitalist investors), I would rather that it be done to you than to me. And, I suppose, we both would prefer that it be done to people somewhere on the other side of the world, out of our view, than to us.”

 

I accused my fine friend of simply stating what every billionaire knows. “But it’s irrelevant," I continued, “since we have no control over it.”

 

“That’s what you think!” he replied.

 

The conversation quickly degenerated into a discussion reminiscent of my sophomore year of high school, when we would argue about the existence of God. It was obvious that my friend felt he was among the select, brought here to benefit from the abundance while others went without. These were his ends that he used to justify any means necessary to acquire his comfort and his privilege.

 

The ideology of neoliberalism has penetrated deep into society, dividing all sorts of groups, including friends and family.

 

***

 

The conundrum my old friend raised was not unlike the chilling paradox identified by the famous German-Italian sociologist [ Robert Michels] (1876-1936)], in his classic study, [ Political Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy ] (1911), which contains a description of the [ "iron law of oligarchy,” ] a theory that political parties, including those considered socialist, cannot be democratic because they quickly transform themselves into bureaucratic oligarchies.

 

To escape this paradox – namely, that we accomplish one thing while believing we are working for its opposite – Marxists over the years have sought to demonstrate that the ruling ideas in any given period of history are no more than the ideas of the ruling class at that moment in time and place.

 

We have entered an era in late capitalist development when capitalist accumulation is consolidated into the hands of the few, as never before in history. This concentration of power has reached an international level, and there should be no mistake that the ruling classes of  all nations are out to benefit from this consolidation of power. In short, the plutocrats of North and South America are internationalists, as are the oligarchs of Europe, Russia, China, India and Iran. In all cases, the satellite nations work for the rich; they hold the cards that win the game. The rest is theater, and we are the actors and sometimes gladiators, recruited for their amusements and profits. There is only one War – and there always has been – namely Class War. It takes many forms, but today national sovereignty is the enemy of all oligarchs.

 

In recent ceimsa bulletins ( see Bulletin N°s 863-866 @ [ http://www.ceimsa.org/archives/ ]), we have looked at several radical books guided by elitist-idealist theory and sometimes influenced by the conservative writer, [G. Edward Griffin] (b.1931), author of the best-selling book [The Creature of Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve ](first published by the John Birch Society in 1994), and often by the liberal professor of history at George Washington University, [Carroll Quigley](1910-1977), whose major writings include [Tragedy and Hope] (1966), and [The Anglo-American Establishment](1981). These radical works seem to be informed not by anthropological theories, nor by sociological theories (as is Marxist thought); insteadm these writers seem to be beholden to demographic theories (specifically that of Thomas Malthus, 1766-1834).

 

 

 

We now will look at the writing of the American drummer from Portland, Oregon; the former internet-based entrepreneur and freelance composer, [Joseph Plummer], who recently has contributed to this idealist tradition of viewing the corporate capitalist system as an instrument of social control rather than as an economic relationship constructed to provide society with goods and services and at the same time secure the means to produce private profits for the owners of capital. Looking beyond the private profit motive, the author of [Tragedy & Hope 101: The Illusion of Justice, Freedom and Democracy] (2016) offers a critical assessment of  the late Georgetown University Professor Carroll Quigley’s  extensive study of the  “NETWORK” of elites which, he argues, has historically conspired, since the era of Queen Victoria, to conquer "all the inhabitable portions of world" and to establish its political control over this Anglophone Empire . 

 

This book begins with a short introduction written by [G. Edward Griffin], in which he alerts the reader:

 

     Be forewarned. The journey you are about to begin is not for the fainthearted. If you are comfortable with the illusions that currently pass for political reality, this book is not for you, because, once you discover how the deceivers perform their magic, the comfort of ignorance is no longer possible. Once the bell is rung it cannot be unrung.(p.viii)

 

Plummer succeeded in writing a concise and easily readable book of 200 pages, covering a vast and complex subject, which extends back to Cecil Rhodes and the Boer Wars, more than one hundred years ago. This book is well organized, constituting an introduction, nine chapters and a conclusion, all containing helpful headings and subheadings. The author could not have made his research more accessible to the public if he had read the manuscript to us out loud. 

 

In the first chapter, “Democracy,” the author introduces Carroll Quigley and the difficulties he encountered after publishing T&H in 1966. Despite his high credentials, Quigley recounts:

 

The original edition published by Macmillan in 1966 sold about 8800 copies and sales were picking up in 1968 when they ‘ran out of stock,’ as they told me (but in 1974, when I went after them with a lawyer, they told me that they had destroyed the plates in 1968). They lied to me for six years, telling me that they would re-print when they got 2000 orders, which could never happen because they told anyone who asked that it was out of print and would not be reprinted. They denied this until I sent then Xerox copies of such replies to libraries, at which they told me it was a clerk’s error. In other words they lied to me but prevented me from regaining the publication rights by doing so. [Rights revert back to the copyright holder if the book is out of print, but not if the book is simply out of stock.] . . . Powerful influences in this country want me, or at least my work, suppressed.(pp.2-3)

 

Plummer then introduces a short section discussing The Institute of Pacific Relations (IPR):

 

Quigley provided many examples of Network infiltration and manipulation.  . . . Because the IPR provided priceless insight into the deceptive nature and true power of the Network, we’ll briefly cover it here. . . .(p.6)

According to the final report of the US Senate investigation of the IPR,

 

 The IPR was a vehicle used by the Communists to orient American far eastern policies toward Communist objectives.(p.6)

 

He goes on to quote Cleon Skousen, author of [The Naked Capitalist] (1972):

 

As I see it, the great contribution which Dr. Carroll Quigley unintentionally made by writing Tragedy and Hope was to help the ordinary American realize the utter contempt which the network leaders have for ordinary people. Human begins are treated en masse as helpless puppets on an international chess board where giants of economic  and political power subject them to wars, revolutions, civil strife, confiscation, subversion, indoctrination, manipulation and deception.(p.14)

 

In a subsection entitled, “An Introduction to Realpolitik,” Plummer writes:

 

Henry Kissinger personifies the essence of the Network mind-set. In his book, Diplomacy, he introduces his readers to the amoral concepts of raison d’état . . . and Realpolitik. The basis of both concepts, Kissinger explains, is that individual men can be judged negatively on moral grounds, but governments cannot. When it comes to government action, the only suitable judgment is based on whether or not the government achieves its ends. Throughout his book, Kissinger praised those who are wise enough to govern by these concepts and practically mocks those who object on so-called “moral” grounds.(p.15)


In praise of Cardinal de Richelieu (a seventeenth-century French statesman), Kissinger wrote:

 

 

Though privately religious, [Richelieu] viewed his duties as minister in entirely secular terms. Salvation might be his personal objective, but to Richelieu the statesman, it was irrelevant. ‘Man is immortal , his salvation is hereafter,’ he once said. ‘The state has no immortality, its salvation is now or never. In other words, states do not receive credit in any world for doing what is right; they are only rewarded for being strong enough to do what is necessary.(pp.15-16)

 


In another section of this book, Plummer comments on “the nature of secret coercive power”:

 

 

     There is a very logical reason why coercive power prefers secrecy and deception: if the goal is to exploit and dominate others (without suffering the natural consequences of doing so), then transparency and honesty are not an option. As such, the basic template of coercive power (often hidden, always deceptive and exercised in the name of something other than itself) is common throughout history. If ‘the name of God’ is beyond reproach, then intelligent rulers will exercise their power in the name of God. If invoking the name of democracy, or the state, or the emperor will empower them, they will act in the name of any of these. This is the unchanging characteristic of those who effectively rule the masses: they will say and do anything to establish a system that serves their interests.

 

    Stated another way: morality will never stop an individual or group that’s willing to lie, steal, intimidate, imprison, torture, or kill in pursuit of their aims.  (p.26)

 

 


In a section entitled, “Building the Network,” the author cites Quigley’s explanation of Cecil Rhodes’s obsession with the creation of the “Network”:

 

     Rhodes feverishly exploited the diamond and goldfields of South Africa, rose to be Prime Minister of the Cape Colony (1890-1896), contributed money to political parties, controlled parliamentary seats both in England and in South Africa, and sought to win a strip of British territory across Africa from the Cape of Good Hope to Egypt.(pp.32-33)  

 


Plummer insists that it is not surprising that Rhodes felt no moral conflict over his imperial duties and methods. “He viewed himself superior to those he intended to subjugate.” Rhodes expressed this prejudice in his last will and testament:

 

I contend that we are the finest race in the world and that the more of the world we inhabit the better it is for the human race. Just fancy those parts that are at present inhabited by the most despicable specimens of human beings what an alteration there would be if they were brought under Anglo-Saxon influence.(p.33)

 

Chapter 4 of Plummer’s book is entitled “Money: The Unlimited Instrument.” Here the author discusses Quigley’s description of how money has been combined to be used as an instrument of control by a group that employs ‘financial capitalism’ to monopolize business and control governments. As experts in ‘financial manipulation’, these men ‘aspire to establish dynasties of international bankers’ and, according to Quigley, they succeeded at a level that rivaled the political dynasties of past centuries. Centered in London, with offshoots in New York and Paris, the power of this group is described as overwhelming in significance and ‘occult’ in nature. By 1850* they could access the immense monetary power of ‘the Stock Exchange, the Bank of England, and the London money market.’ But this was just the beginning,

 

In time, they brought into their financial network . . . commercial banks and savings banks, as well as insurance companies, to form all of these into a single financial system on an international scale which manipulated the quantity and flow of money.

 

Just to clarify: these men did not own the money that citizens placed in commercial and savings banks. They did not own the money that citizens paid into retirement funds, insurance funds, or trust funds. However, as already mentioned, they didn’t need to own the money. All they needed was the power to control it, and that they had. As long as an institution within their’ ‘financial network’ held the funds, they could direct those funds toward increasing their power. They, alone, determined how and where that enormous, international pool of money would be invested. (p.69-70)

___

*NOTE: It’s worth noting that this period of ‘financial capitalism’ clearly predated the Rhodes-created network that Quigley describes in both The Anglo-American Establishment and Tragedy and Hope. As such, it’s reasonable to suggest that the real roots of the Rhodes network (and the real power) existed long before Cecil Rhodes entered the picture. However, since this book focuses on the proven conspiracy (identified and exposed by Quigley), a detailed account of what existed before Rhodes will have to be told elsewhere.(p.69)

 

The “proven conspiracy” that is the subject of Quigley’s study involves laying the groundwork for new investment opportunities before the  First World War. Plummer explains:

 

     In chapter 3, we covered President Taft’s undoing: he refused to support the Network’s plan to create a central bank in the United States. And since the Network couldn’t fully ‘dominate the political system’ of the United States without control of its ‘credit and money supply,’ Taft was toppled and Wilson was installed. Shortly after taking office, Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act into law, and the central bank was born.

 

     However, this isn’t the full story of how the Federal Reserve System came to be. Just as citizens were misled into believing that they chose Wilson in the 1912 election, they were also misled into believing the Federal Reserve Act was written to protect them from predatory international bankers. The sad truth is, predatory international bankers secretly wrote the legislation themselves and used government to turn their wishes into law.

 

     This is a piece of the puzzle that Quigley seems to have missed. He acknowledges that Network titans like Rockefeller and Morgan had enough power to cause a financial panic whenever they chose. He admits that they used their power to their own advantage, wrecking ‘individual corporations, at the expense of the holders of common stocks.’ He even admits that J. P. Morgan precipitated the ‘panic of 1907.’ But the fact that heir power could have been used to both take out competition and incite pubic demands for ‘monetary reform’ (reform that would be directed by the Network itself) is not covered. It’s a glaring omission.

 

     In short, the Network needed a central bank to ‘dominate the political system’ of the United States, but it needed another crisis to finally sell the scheme. With that perspective in mind, the panic of 1907 looks very different. First J. P. Morgan causes the panic (which, to this day, is rarely mentioned), then he and Rockefeller halt the panic (for which, to this day, they’re still portrayed as saviors), and out of the suffering and chaos, ‘public demands’ for legislative intervention finally reach critical mass. ‘The government’ then forms a monetary commission to investigate and solve the problem (headed by none other than Network insider and US senator, Nelson Aldrich), and the commission decided that a central bank is needed to solve the nations’ woes. From there, it was simply a matter of writing the legislation and handing it off to the ‘right’ politicians.(p.78-79)

 

The political culture within the United States was such at the turn of the twentieth century that the general public was skeptical of banks and downright hostile to the motivations of bankers. This process of handing their ‘reform bill’ to ‘the right politician’ in Congress met a snag. Frank A. Vanderlip, president of National City Bank of New York (now Citybank) – the most powerful bank in New York at the time – years later explained what happened in a Saturday Evening Post article, published in 1935, “From Farm Boy to Financier”:

 

There was an occasion near the close of 1910, when I was as secretive – indeed as furtive – as any conspirator . . . . I do not feel it is any exaggeration to speak of our secret expedition in Jekyll Island as the occasion of the actual conception or what eventually became the Federal Reserve System. . . .  Discovery, we knew, simply must not happen, or else all our time and efforts would be wasted. If it were to be exposed publically that our particular group had got together and written a banking bill, that bill would have no chance whatever of passage by Congress. . . although the Aldrich Federal Reserve plan was defeated when it bore the name of Aldrich, nevertheless its essential points were all contained in the plan that finally was adopted.(cited on p.81)

 

The political machinations were not yet finished however, and another deceitful act had to be performed in the public theater.

 

     With its legislation successfully written, Taft ousted, and Wilson in the White House, it would seem that the Network could rest easy. However, there was one more swindle needed to guarantee passage of the Federal Reserve Act. To help garner public support, the very same people who helped author the legislation on Jekyll Island began speaking out publically against it.(p.83)

 

Plummer goes on to cite a passage from G. Edward Griffin’s book, The Creature from Jekyll Island, to unravel this tissue of deceit produced by the secret “Network” of bankers:

 

As the Federal Reserve Act moved closer to its birth . . . both Aldrich and Vanderlip threw themselves into a great public display of opposition. No opportunity was overlooked to make a statement to the press – or anyone else of public prominence – expressing their eternal animosity to this monstrous legislation. . . . Since Aldrich was recognized as associated with Morgan interests and Vanderlip was President of Rockefeller’s national City Bank, the public was skillfully led to believe that the [big bankers were] mortally afraid of the proposed Federal Reserve Act. The Nation [magazine] was the only prominent publication to point out that every one of the horrors described by Aldrich and Vanderlip could have been equally ascribed to the Aldrich Bill as well. But this lone voice was easily drowned by the great cacophony of deception and propaganda.(cited on p.83)

 

After an interesting discussion on the “suspension” of the gold standard after the outbreak of the WW I, which guaranteed unlimited access to money in order to finance the War, Plummer concludes chapter 8 of his work, with a commentary on the political power that accompanied the consolidation of central banking before the War.

 

If ‘monopoly capitalism’ is all powerful because it can self-finance, manipulate the price of goods within its market, and use its inflated monopolistic profits to wield monetary influence, then there are no words to sufficiently describe the power of ‘financial capitalism.’

 

 

·        Not only can financial capitalist manipulate the price of goods in a particular market, they can manipulate the price of goods in any market. (Real estate, food, energy, stocks, bonds, education. . .anything that has a price will be affected by those who manipulate the quantity and flow of money.)

 

·        Not only do financial capitalists enjoy the influence of monopolistic profits, they enjoy (the influence of having monopolized the creation of money itself. Stated another way: when a ‘monopoly capitalist’ accumulates his first billion dollars, it’s only because others have borrowed that billion dollars into existence from the Network’s banking system.(p.89)

 

By way of conclusion of this chapter on “Money: The Unlimited Instrument”, Plummer is critical of Quigley, who, he believes, was unable to break completely from the Network’s dogma.

 

     If Quigley truly understood the Network’s banking system, he would have never fallen for the lie, undoubtedly perpetuated by the Network itself, that banking power peaked in the 1930s. The exact opposite is true. It wasn’t until the 1930s that international bankers began chipping away at the limitations of gold and inching the world ever closer to a purely debt-based standard.

 

     As powerful as the Network’s position was under the gold standard, it has increased immeasurably under their 100-percent debt-based standard.(pp.89-90)

 

 

 

Two problems present themselves with the idealist school of history: one is methodological, where we see writers “cherry-picking” supportive statements from prominent capitalist interests to demonstrate their power to produce change to their advantage. This is a violation of the first principle of Marxist investigation: “We do not judge a person by who he says he is, but rather by what he actually does”.

 

“Just as one does not judge an individual by what he thinks about himself, so one cannot judge such a period of transformation by its consciousness, but, on the contrary, this consciousness must be explained from the contradictions of material life, from the conflict existing between the social forces of production and the relations of production. No social order is ever destroyed before all the productive forces for which it is sufficient have been developed, and new superior relations of production never replace older ones before the material conditions for their existence have matured within the framework of the old society.” (from Economic Manuscripts).

 

 

The second problem is ideological, containing a subtext which seems to advocate that individuals try to pick themselves up by their own shoe strings. Here again we turn to Marx : “Philosophers have in various ways interpreted the world; the point is to change it.” (from Thesis on Feuerbach)

 

 

The 20 + items below contain articles and essays which will serve to challenge us to dig beyond the headline of the corporate media and seek to understand deep seismic changes that are happening in society beneath the surface of our everyday life. The features of these changes are not always what they appear to be, and the authors of the works below offer critical insights into the complexity of the changes we are encountering, into  how and why the public is so often misguided by faux amis (“false friends”) and “useful idiots”.  



Sincerely,

Francis Feeley

---

Professeur honoraire de l'Université Grenoble-Alpes

Ancien Directeur des Researches Université de Paris-Nanterre

Director of The Center for the Advanced Study of American Institutions and Social Movements

(CEIMSA-in-Exile)

http://www.ceimsa.org/

The University of California-San Diego

 

 

a.

 

What does this tell us about our culture?
U.S. has wasted $6.4 trillion on wars since 2001, study says

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/no-money-for-schools-war.JPG

click here : [ http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52587.htm ]

 

The post-9/11 wars have expanded to more than 80 countries

 

American taxpayers have spent $6.4 trillion on post-9/11 wars and military action in the Middle East and Asia, according to a new study.

The report comes as the Trump administration works to withdraw the U.S. military presence from war-torn Syria.

The post-9/11 wars will continue to rise as the U.S. pays the on-going costs of veterans’ care and for interest on borrowing to pay for the wars,”

In March, the Pentagon estimated that the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria have cost each taxpayer $7,623 through fiscal 2018.

 +

click here : [ The Costs of the War On Terror ]

 

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/cant-feed-poor.JPG

(11:18)

 

The amount of money spent on these wars cannot fully convey their sheer wastefulness. Wars are always expensive, and they usually end up being much more expensive than anyone anticipates at the beginning, but when those wars are unnecessary and useless it makes the exorbitant cost that much more sickening. The money and resources expended on almost twenty years of failed wars could have been put to any number of more productive uses. Instead, that vast sum has been poured down the drain. As it is, the U.S. has little or nothing to show for the massive malinvestment that it has made in fighting these wars. These wars have not made the U.S. more secure, they have created more enemies than they destroyed, and they have set fires in their respective regions that will take years to burn out. As staggering as the $6.4 trillion figure is, it doesn’t capture how ruinous these wars have been. The U.S. will continue to pay for these wars long after they are over in more ways than one.

A full reckoning of the costs of our wars has to include the millions killed, displaced, and the wreckage of multiple countries. These are the truly senseless losses that could have been avoided. The report [ details these costs ] as well:

+

Impeach the Government: Rogue Agencies Have Been Abusing Their Powers for Decades

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/us-gov.JPG

click here : [ http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52574.htm ]

by John W. Whitehead

 

How a nation of sheep gives rise to a government of wolves.

 

“When a man unprincipled in private life[,]

desperate in his fortune, bold in his temper . . .

despotic in his ordinary demeanour

— known to have scoffed in private at the

principles of liberty — when such a man is seen to

mount the hobby horse of popularity — to join in

the cry of danger to liberty — to take every opportunity

of embarrassing the General Government & bringing

it under suspicion — to flatter and fall in with

all the non sense of the zealots of the day

—[ It may justly be suspected that his object is to throw things into confusion that he may ‘ride the storm and direct the whirlwind.’”]—Alexander Hamilton

 

 

By all means, let’s talk about impeachment.

To allow the President or any rogue government agency or individual to disregard the rule of law whenever, wherever and however it chooses and operate “above the law” is exactly how a nation of sheep gives rise to a government of wolves.

To be clear: this is not about Donald Trump. Or at least it shouldn’t be just about Trump.

This is a condemnation of every government toady at every point along the political spectrum—right, left and center—who has conspired to expand the federal government’s powers at the expense of the citizenry.

For too long now, the American people have played politics with their principles and turned a blind eye to all manner of wrongdoing when it was politically expedient, allowing Congress, the White House and the Judiciary to wreak havoc with their freedoms and act in violation of the rule of law.

“We the people” are paying the price for it now.

We are paying the price every day that we allow the government to continue to wage its war on the American People, a war that is being fought on many fronts: with bullets and tasers, with surveillance cameras and license readers, with intimidation and propaganda, with court rulings and legislation, with the collusion of every bureaucrat who dances to the tune of corporate handouts while on the government’s payroll, and most effectively of all, with the complicity of the American people, who continue to allow themselves to be easily manipulated by their politics, distracted by their pastimes, and acclimated to a world in which government corruption is the norm.

Don’t keep falling for the Deep State’s ploys.

This entire impeachment process is a manufactured political circus—a shell game—aimed at distracting the public from the devious treachery of the American police state, which continues to lock down the nation and strip the citizenry of every last vestige of constitutional safeguards that have historically served as a bulwark against tyranny.

Has President Trump overstepped his authority and abused his powers?

Without a doubt.

Then again, so did Presidents Obama, Bush, Clinton, and almost every president before them.

+

Why Aren’t Americans Rising Up Like We Are Seeing Across the Planet?

click here : [ http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52561.htm ]

by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies

 

The waves of protests breaking out in country after country around the world beg the question: Why aren’t Americans rising up in peaceful protest like our neighbors? We live at the very heart of this neoliberal system that is force-feeding the systemic injustice and inequality of 19th-century laissez-faire capitalism to the people of the 21st century. So we are subject to many of the same abuses that have fueled mass protest movements in other countries, including high rents, stagnant wages, cradle-to-grave debt, ever-rising economic inequality, privatized health care, a shredded social safety net, abysmal public transportation, systemic political corruption and endless war.

 

We also have a corrupt, racist billionaire as president, who Congress may soon impeach, but where are the masses outside the White House, banging pots and pans to drive Trump out? Why aren’t people crashing the offices of their congresspeople, demanding that they represent the people or resign? If none of these conditions has so far provoked a new American revolution, what will it take to trigger one?

 

In the 1960s and 1970s, the senseless Vietnam War provoked a serious, well-organized antiwar movement. But today the U.S.’s endless wars just rage on in the background of our lives, as the U.S. and its allies kill and mutilate men, women and children in distant countries, day after day, year after year. Our history has also witnessed inspiring mass movements for civil rights, women’s rights and gay rights, but these movements are much tamer today.

 

The Occupy Movement in 2011 came closest to challenging the entire neoliberal system. It awakened a new generation to the reality of government of, by, and for the corrupt 1 percent, and built a powerful basis for solidarity among the marginalized 99 percent. But Occupy lost momentum because it failed to transition from a rallying point and a decentralized, democratic forum to a cohesive movement that could impact the existing power structure.

 

The climate movement is starting to mobilize a new generation, and groups like School Strike for the Climate and Extinction Rebellion take direct aim at this destructive economic system that prioritizes corporate growth and profits over the very survival of life on Earth. But while climate protests have shut down parts of London and other cities around the world, the scale of climate protests in the U.S. does not yet match the urgency of the crisis.

 

So why is the American public so passive?

+

Recession ahead: Hedge fund billionaires sound alarm

click here : [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM_nXu_eFjA&feature=youtu.be ]

 

Consumer and corporate debt are both at an all-time high and owners of the largest hedge funds are sounding the alarm about markets the world over. “Boom Bust” host Christy Ai joins Rick Sanchez to discuss the volatility in the economy and why we should be very worried. Thousands of teachers are striking in Indiana, forcing the closure of schools across the state. “On Contact” host Chris Hedges discusses the state of the US labor movement. He argues that unions have been the only vehicle for improving the lives of US workers and that striking is their most successful tactic. Investigative journalist Ben Swann discusses Prince Andrew's "horrific" BBC interview about the accusations against him by Epstein victim Virginia Roberts Giuffre. Comedian Anders Lee of "Redacted Tonight" discusses the increased police presence on NYC subways. RT America's Natasha Sweatte reports new research into the treatment of alcoholism. Plus, RT America's Steve Christakos joins for "Jock Talk."

+

Noam Chomsky: Democratic Party Centrism

Risks Handing Election to Trump

President Trump walks on to the stage to speak at the Economic Club of New York on November 12, 2019, in New York City.

click here : [ https://truthout.org/articles/noam-chomsky-democratic-party-centrism-risks-handing-election-to-trump/ ]

interview with Noam Chomsky

 

===========


b.

Sacred right to suck up to power’: Pilger blasts ‘cruel’ media coverage of Julian Assange

‘Sacred right to suck up to power’: Pilger blasts ‘cruel’ media coverage of Julian Assange

John Pilger blasted The Guardian while launching a book about Julian Assange, FILE PHOTO. © REUTERS/Neil Hall

click here : [ https://www.rt.com/news/474181-pilger-blasts-guardian-assange-coverage/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Email ]

+

 

[ NEWS FROM UNDERGROUND ]

[ Media blackout on Assange, and how to help him (and write to him) ]

From Elizabeth Woodworth:


Not reported by ANY corporate media was the October 2 London protest to protect Julian Assange, led by Pink Floyd’s [ world famous co-founder, Roger Waters ] and award-winning journalist John Pilger, in front of Britain’s Home Office.  About 1,000 people attended.

Roger Waters, one of the top UK performers of all time (“Dark Side of the Moon”), described the media blackout last Monday on RT: [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=8&v=RRgE3w6F0wQ ]

 

This is incredible, given that Assange was interviewed in 2010 by Sir David Frost (the only person to have interviewed all US presidents and UK prime ministers for many decades) on [ Al Jazeera ]

 

There are no charges against Assange.  At [ the Westminster magistrate’s extradition hearing six days ago ] John Pilger was present and reported that Assange could barely speak or think.  Assange was not permitted to see his defence documents while in this “court”. John’s description is utterly appalling.

 

The truth about Julian’s character was recently reported by the Ecuadorian diplomat at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, who was with Julian for six years: [https://jacobinmag.com/2019/10/julian-assange-fidel-narvaez-ecuador-moreno ]

 

The media is now entirely complicit as the UK bows to US dominance, while turning its back on its own laws in an atrocious violation of human rights. Julian needs a network of people to co-ordinate a grass-roots movement to press for his freedom — but most people as of 2019 have never heard of Assange, thanks to the presstitute media.  Paul Craig Roberts has just mounted a petition on his website:  

[ https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2019/10/27/85082/ ]

 

Until something major gets organized, it is possible to write to Julian with encouragement.  His prisoner number must be included on the envelop or the letter will not be delivered in Belmarsh maximum security prison, where he is not permitted to speak to other prisoners. 

 

Here is what is recommended for writing to him: Apparently, because he gets a lot of mail, it should be a short letter, telling him anything you have done, or want to do, to try to help him. 

Mr. Julian Assange
Prisoner # A9379AY
HMP Belmarsh
Western Way
London SE28 0EB UK

Best to all,

Elizabeth Woodworth

Victoria, Canada

 

+

Arbuthnot Out as Assange’s Judge, Says WikiLeaks Lawyer Jen Robinson

click here : [ https://consortiumnews.com/2019/11/16/arbuthnot-out-as-assanges-judge-says-wikileaks-lawyer-jen-robinson/ ]

+

 

From: Al Burke [mailto:editor@nnn.se]
Sent: Friday, November 15, 2019 12:30 PM
Subject: U.N. expert: Sweden collaborating in a “a concerted effort to silence Assange”

 

 

U.N.’s special rapporteur on torture and other serious crimes repeats:
    
Sweden guilty of collaborating in “a concerted effort to
isolate, demonize, harass and, ultimately, to silence Julian Assange”.



For the second time in less than half a year, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on torture etc. has accused Sweden of serious crimes against the human rights of Julian Assange.

The first time was on 23 May, when rapporteur Nils Melzer wrote to the four governments, among them Sweden, which for nearly a decade have collaborated in plaguing and persecuting Assange. The Swedish government responded with a brief letter consisting largely of untruths, evasions and glaring omissions.  

Nils Melzer therefore wrote a follow-up letter to the government to convey “additional observations and clarifications, and to reiterate or further detail my queries”. That letter was sent on 12 September and, in accordance with U.N. praxis, made public after 60 days

The follow-up letter includes Melzer’s conclusion that “the manner in which the preliminary investigation against Mr. Assange has been conducted by the Swedish prosecution appears to have contributed significantly, if not decisively, to various patterns of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment which Mr. Assange has been exposed to since 2010”.

Among other things, “the Swedish prosecution appears to do everything to maintain the unqualified ’rape suspect’ narrative it has been disseminating, while at the same time avoiding to expose the evidentiary merits of this narrative to transparency and independent public scrutiny”.

For these and other reasons, rapporteur Melzer concludes that “acts or omissions of the Swedish authorities defeat the presumption that the preliminary criminal investigation against Mr. Assange has been, and currently is being, conducted in good faith and in compliance with the fundamental principles of due process and of justice”.

There “appears to have been a deliberate, sustained and concerted effort by the United States, Sweden, the United Kingdom and, more recently, Ecuador, with a view to isolating, demonizing, harassing and, ultimately, silencing Mr. Assange.”

Why?  “I am gravely concerned that Mr. Assange is being prosecuted and abused for having published evidence for serious misconduct of State officials, including international crimes involving torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, whereas the incriminated officials themselves are being granted impunity in flagrant violation of the most basic principles of justice, human dignity and the rule of law.”

That and much more is documented in a detailed bill of particulars, including sections on:

           • Proactive manipulation of evidence

           • Disregard for exculpatory evidence

           • Disregard for requirements of necessity and proportionality

           • Pervasive procedural procrastination

           • Arbitrary detention and torture.
    
The government responded on 11 November with a brief note which referred the U.N.’s rapporteur to the above-noted disgraceful reply to his first letter: “The Government has no further observation to make”.
 
    

Nils Melzer’s follow-up letter is available in PDF format at
        
click here : [ https://julian-assange.se/docs/MelzerSweden-2.pdf ]
  
  
Related Reading
   
From Hammarskjöld to Assange
[ https://www.julian-assange.se/english/torture.htm ]
   
Sweden & Assange
[ http://www.nnn.se/nordic/assange.htm ]
   
FAQ:  U.N. Special Rapporteurs
[ https://www.aclu.org/other/faqs-united-nations-special-rapporteurs ]
   
OHCHR profile of Nils Melzer
[ https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Torture/SRTorture/Pages/NilsMelzer.aspx ]
   
Media vs. Melzer: Censorship by Omission
[ https://www.julian-assange.se/docs/melzer-media.pdf ]
  
Nils Melzers correspondence with USA concerning Julian Assange
[ https://julian-assange.se/docs/Melzer-USA.pdf ]

 


_________________________

       

Al Burke

E-mail: [editor@nnn.se ]

Internet: [ http://www.nnn.se ]

Tel. +46/(0)8 - 731 9200

 

+

“Mealy-mouthed bunch of bulls**t”: Waters decries hypocrisy of Swedish prosecutors, says no evidence Assange EVER injured anybody

click here : [ https://www.rt.com/news/473923-roger-waters-assange-sweden/ ]

with Roger Waters

+

U.N. Rapporteur: Julian Assange Has Faced Psychological Torture; He Should Not Be Extradited to U.S.

click here : [ https://www.democracynow.org/2019/11/22/nils_melzer_julian_assange ]

+

Doctors Petition UK Home Secretary Over Julian Assange

click here : [ https://consortiumnews.com/2019/11/23/doctors-petition-uk-home-secretary-over-julian-assange/ ]

+

“In Defense of Julian Assange”: Why WikiLeaks Founder’s Case Threatens Press Freedom

click here : [ https://www.democracynow.org/2019/11/22/julian_assange_tariq_ali_margaret_kunstler ]

 

===========

c.

Netanyahu Kills Palestinians to Keep Opposition

From Forming Government

[ https://therealnews.com/stories/netanyahu-kills-palestinians-keep-opposition-forming-government ]

with Marc Steiner and Jeff Halper

+

 

From: GAZA PALESTINE [mailto:anahona366@gmail.com]

Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Subject: I need you to support humanity ... the harsh conditions we face in the Gaza Strip ... you are the one who can support us out of this ordeal...

 

Don't stop our work I beg you.

 

These days we are exposed to very harsh situations in our work, which we have been doing for about a year and 10 months.

 

Our job is to help the wounded in the Gaza Strip.

 

Since the beginning of the Great Return marches east of the Gaza Strip.

These marches are peaceful marches to demand the lifting of the unjust siege on the Gaza Strip for almost 14 years, but these peaceful marches did not like the Israeli Zionist army, where he began to kill demonstrators and injured them very difficult. 60,000 people, more than 10,000 injured, are in a difficult and bad condition and need daily care.

 

We started our journey and our mission to treat these wounded in the field under severe danger and heavy shooting and we were exposed to many difficult situations and injuries as well as killing where the Israeli occupation forces killed more than 10 nurses working in the east of the Gaza Strip and wounded more than 100 nurses, including 5 of my team and I also was injured more than once with minor injuries.

 

Without your presence with us and the presence of Professor Mark, who began to help us and a group of his friends and there are also many friends such as Simeon and Garth and Dorothy and David and Peugeot Holm and Sarah and Tim and Ryan and many of the names that stood next to us. And talk about my humble group.

 

These days, we are under great pressure and maybe stop work. The work has become increasingly difficult these days because of the lack of support and the difficult economic conditions of the people inside the Gaza Strip who were supporting us from within the Gaza Strip.

 

We need emergency assistance and the necessary assistance from you to stand with us to get equipment to help us for months to come so that we never stop this work and until we help the wounded inside the Gaza Strip.

 

I want to say that we are very sorry for everyone who bothered him because of this mail, but our work is very difficult requires me to send this mail.

I wish you our support to get gauze, iodine, medicine, some antibiotics and some other tools to help the injured. Thank you.

 

Nurses in Gaza Strip

 

 

You can support us at the following link

 

click here : [ https://gogetfunding.com/do-not-support-muslims-do-not-support-the-palestinians-only-support-humanity/ ]

 

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+

From: Moshé Machover [mailto:ananmoshik@icloud.com]
Sent: Sunday, November 24, 2019 12:56 PM
To: M Machover
Subject: Fwd: Newsletter de l’AURDIP du 24 novembre 2019

Begin forwarded message:

From: AURDIP [ <contact@aurdip.fr> ]
Subject: Newsletter de l’AURDIP du 24 novembre 2019
Date: 24November2019 at 00:10:54 GMT
To: [ moshe.machover@kcl.ac.uk ]

Cet email ne s’affiche pas correctement ? [ Voir cette Infolettre dans votre navigateur. ]

 

 AURDIP

Newsletter de l’AURDIP du 24 novembre 2019
Cher ami(e),
Le 3 décembre le Parlement votera sur un projet de résolution, dit résolution Maillard, "visant à lutter contre l’antisémitisme". L’antisémitisme est justement réprimé par les lois actuelles, comme toutes les autres formes de racisme, mais la nouveauté de ce texte apparaît dès l’exposé des motifs, où il est dit "ce masque de l’antisémitisme nous le connaissons, c’est bien souvent l’antisionisme", et "critiquer l’existence d’un état juif revient donc à exprimer une haine à l’égard de l’ensemble de la communauté juive".
Ainsi, si je dis qu’Israël est un état colonial, je serais antisémite ? Si je critique le fait qu’Israël refuse à ses citoyens non-juifs les même droits qu’à ses citoyens juifs, j’exprimerais ma haine à l’égard de l’ensemble de la communauté juive, tous ceux qui luttent avec moi pour les droits des Palestiniens, tous ceux que je fréquente dans la communauté mathématique, dont mes élèves, tous ceux qui faisaient partie de ma famille élargie, dont un fusillé par les Allemands qui repose au Mont Valérien ?
Cette assimilation, que beaucoup récusent, de l’antisionisme à l’antisémitisme et d’Israël à la communauté juive, n’a pour but que de protéger Israël de toute critique et de rendre encore plus difficile la tâche de ceux qui rapportent ce qu’ils voient sur le terrain et essaient de mobiliser l’opinion publique pour faire cesser ce qu’il faut qualifier de crimes de guerre. Après tant d’autres, le [ 
dernier rapport de l’ONU ] sur la situation dans les territoires palestiniens est éloquent à ce sujet.
Bien entendu, nous ne cesserons pas pour autant de dénoncer ces crimes, ne serait-ce que parce qu’ils créent l’impression que tout est permis contre certaines catégories de personnes, et cette impression se propage dans notre propre pays, où les Français dont la religion n’est pas la bonne, ou dont la peau n’a pas la bonne couleur, ou qui n’ont pas la chance d’être "de souche" sont traités de manière discriminatoire. Mais le vote de la résolution Maillard va nous compliquer la vie. C’est pourquoi nous vous demandons d’agir : écrivez à votre député(e) pour lui demander de ne pas la voter. Avant le 3 décembre !
Ivar Ekeland
Vice-président de l’AURDIP
PS. Nous vous signalons [ 
l’argumentaire de la Plateforme pour la Palestine ]
-Retrouvez le nom et les coordonnées de votre député ici ] (liste par département).
- Exemple de message :
Madame, Monsieur la/le député(e) :
Le 3 décembre le Parlement votera sur un projet de résolution, dite résolution Maillard, « visant à lutter contre l’antisémitisme ». L’antisémitisme est justement réprimé par les lois actuelles, comme touts les autres formes de racisme, mais ce texte vise à assimiler antisémitisme et antisionisme et n’a pour but que de protéger Israël de toute critique et de rendre encore plus difficile la tâche de ceux qui rapportent ce qu’ils voient sur le terrain et essaient de mobiliser l’opinion publique pour faire cesser ce qu’il faut qualifier de crimes de guerre.
Je vous demande donc instamment, Madame/Monsieur la/le député(e) de ma circonscription, de ne pas vous associer à cette résolution et de voter contre, au nom de la justice.

https://www.aurdip.org/IMG/nl/122/c14ba47ad5b41f185e63b8fc3802e2f6.jpg?1574552374#fixedDes universitaires, dont George Smith, Lauréat du prix Nobel, et Noam Chomsky, demandent la libération d’Ubai Aboudi, un des dirigeants de la société civile palestinienne, citoyen des États-Unis et prisonnier de conscience, de la détention militaire israélienne
23 novembre |[ 
Scientists for Palestine |Traduction CG pour l’AURDIP |Actualités version en ]
NEW YORK—Ubai Aboudi, citoyen des Etats-Unis et directeur du Centre Bisan pour la recherche et le développement, a été enlevé brutalement par 12 soldats de l’occupation militaire israélienne, à 3h du matin le 13 novembre 2019, devant sa femme et ses enfants. 
Lors de son audition devant un tribunal militaire israélien, M. Aboudi a été remis sous détention militaire israélienne pour 4 mois supplémentaires, bien qu’aucune charge n’ait été formulée contre lui. Selon le système israélien de détention (...)
lire en ligne « Des universitaires, dont George Smith, Lauréat du prix Nobel, et Noam Chomsky, demandent la libération d’Ubai Aboudi, un des dirigeants de la société civile palestinienne, citoyen des États-Unis et prisonnier de conscience, de la détention militaire israélienne »

https://www.aurdip.org/IMG/nl/122/ab02b482172a140532ec7c8f9d4b48e6.jpg?1574552374#fixedMISE A JOUR : L’université de Birzeit continue de perdre son corps professoral international puisque Israël persiste dans sa politique discriminatoire
21 novembre | 
Birzeit University |Traduction J.Ch. pour l’AURDIP |Actualités version en
Les restrictions accrues sur le droit de l’université de Birzeit à embaucher et à conserver des professeurs internationaux sont maintenues pour l’année universitaire 2019-2020. Israël a fait grimper ce que l’on peut interpréter comme une politique dont le but ultime est l’élimination de toute présence de professeurs internationaux dans les universités palestiniennes. 
Nos 14.800 étudiants sont rentrés en classe le 4 septembre alors que manquait un tiers de leurs professeurs internationaux, les autorités (...)
lire en ligne « MISE A JOUR : L’université de Birzeit continue de perdre son corps professoral international puisque Israël persiste dans sa politique discriminatoire »

https://www.aurdip.org/IMG/nl/122/bd6451b1221604e36f95ddda2627edf3.jpg?1574552374#fixedÉtiquetage des produits des colonies israéliennes : un coût plus politique qu’économique
20 novembre | 
Sans titre |Éric Pichet |Tribunes
À Luxembourg, le 12 novembre 2019, la Cour de justice de l’Union européenne (CJUE), saisie par le Conseil d’État français, a validé la législation européenne imposant un étiquetage spécifique des produits des colonies israéliennes implantées dans les territoires occupés par Israël. 
Après des années de tergiversations, la Commission européenne avait en effet adopté en 2015 une « communication interprétative » invitant les États membres de l’Union européenne à prévoir dans leur législation un étiquetage (...)
lire en ligne « Étiquetage des produits des colonies israéliennes : un coût plus politique qu’économique »

https://www.aurdip.org/IMG/nl/122/5ca4787c35d15ec8957157c651f6f6c1.jpg?1574552374#fixedQue dire à des enfants qui ont perdu des camarades de classe lors d’une frappe israélienne ? : Gaza sous le choc de la mort d’une famille
18 novembre | Jack Khoury pour 
Haaretz |Traduction BP pour l’AURDIP |Actualités version en
Une parente des enfants décédés a déclaré lors de sa visite à leur école où leurs camarades de classe leur rendaient hommage : « Pourquoi devraient-ils se soucier de ce que l’armée a admis les avoir frappés par erreur ? ».
lire en ligne « Que dire à des enfants qui ont perdu des camarades de classe lors d’une frappe israélienne ? : Gaza sous le choc de la mort d’une famille »

© AURDIP — 2019

+

Le 22/11/2019, à 21:45, Moshé Machover a écrit :

cid:367911D9-7FFF-4662-A6A0-4B268C061B86

Giyora Neumann: J’ai Dit Non à L’armée Israélienne

click here : [ https://matzpen.org/english/2009-12-31/giyora-neumann-jai-dit-non-a-larmee/ ]

by Ehud Eingil

+

Finally the USA Supports the One State Solution

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/israel-one-vote-one-state.JPG

click here : [ http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52582.htm ]

by Gilad Atzmon

 

At present, the land is ruled over by a racist, tribal and discriminatory ideology through an apparatus that calls itself ‘The Jewish State’.

 

===========

 

d.

How Western Media Bias Allows Israel to Getaway with Murder in Gaza

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/murder-in-gaza.JPG

click here : [ http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52572.htm ]

by Ramzy Baroud

 

An Israeli attack on Gaza was imminent, and not because of any provocations by Palestinian groups in the besieged, impoverished Gaza Strip. The Israeli military escalation was[ foreseeable ] because it factors neatly in Israel’s contentious political scene. The war was not a question of “if”, but “when”.

 

The answer came on November 12, when the Israeli military launched a major strike against Gaza, killing an Islamic Jihad Commander,[ Bahaa

 Abu al-Ata, along with his wife Asma. ]

 

More strikes followed, targeting what the Israeli military described as Islamic Jihad installations. However, the identities of the victims, along with damning social media footage, pictures, and eyewitness accounts indicate that civilians and civilian infrastructure were bombed and destroyed as well.

As of November 14, when a truce was announced, 32 Palestinians have been killed and over 80 wounded in the Israeli aggression.

+

UN report on Israeli settlements speaks the truth – but the world refuses to listen
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/palestine-map.jpg

click here : [ http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52573.htm ]
by Robert Fisk

 

Hamas is not spared criticism: the Islamist militia in charge of Gaza stands accused of ‘beatings, arbitrary arrest and detentions, and torture and ill treatment’ of hundreds of Palestinian protesters. But the opposition to Lynk is not down to his even-handedness

He’s a very tall man with bright eyes and a broad smile, and he holds out a great paw when he greets you. But Michael Lynk is no gentle giant.

He may teach human rights law at the Western University in London, Ontario, but as the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, he has to endure the fury of Israel and its acolytes abroad – not least in his native Canada – and, two years ago, even the enmity of his own country’s foreign minister.

In his latest UN report, he reminds readers that the creation of Israel’s “civilian settlements” in occupied territory is a breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention and a “war crime” under the Rome Statute. So you can see why the 67-year old Lynk, a labour lawyer by training, has been having a tough time since his appointment to the voluntary, unpaid UN post three years ago.

+

Trump’s New Policy on Israeli Settlements Is Illegal and Self-Serving

click here : [ https://truthout.org/articles/trumps-new-policy-on-israeli-settlements-is-illegal-and-self-serving/ ]

by Marjorie Cohn

 

===========

 

e.

Chapter 3: Israeli Settlements and International Law

View of an Israeli checkpoint, seen from the road between Ramallah and Hebron, 14 September, 2017. © Amnesty International

click here : [ https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2019/01/chapter-3-israeli-settlements-and-international-law/ ]

 

·         Israel and Occupied Palestinian Territories

·         War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity

The situation in the OPT is primarily governed by two international legal regimes: international humanitarian law (including the rules of the law of occupation) and international human rights law. International criminal law is also relevant as some serious violations may constitute war crimes.

+

U.S. Contravenes International law


Jewish settlements not illegal, Pompeo announces in historic US policy shift

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/illegal-settlements-x.JPG

The Trump administration announced on Monday that it does not view Israeli settlements in the West Bank as illegal.
click here :
[ http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52563.htm
]

 

by ICH and Agencies

 


US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman said that the announcement Monday could actually advance peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
The US policy, Pompeo said, was “based on the unique facts, history and circumstances presented by the establishment of civilian settlements in the West Bank.”

 The move is likely to be welcomed by right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and anger the Palestinians, as well as other countries seeking to resolve the Middle East conflict.

+

Retired CIA analyst explains Israel's destructive role in US policies

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/benjamins.JPG
click here : [ http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52579.htm
]

by Ray McGovern

 

Ray McGovern served as a CIA analyst for 27 years, from the administration of John F. Kennedy to that of George H. W. Bush. Ray’s duties included chairing National Intelligence Estimates and preparing the President’s Daily Brief, which he briefed one-on-one to President Ronald Reagan’s five most senior national security advisers from 1981 to 1985. He received the Intelligence Commendation Medal at his retirement.

+

If Americans Knew

 click here : [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXLRhe7EQV3rg-bdK0cr1zw ]

 

“If Americans Knew about the numerous human rights violations and other treacherous behavior carried out by the state of Israel, they might feel differently about the overwhelming financial and military support given to them by our government.”

 

===========

 

f.

US and Israel were lone votes against UN resolutions opposing space arms race, nuclear Middle East, Cuba embargo

click here : [ https://thegrayzone.com/2019/11/08/us-israel-un-resolutions-space-arms-race-nuclear/ ]

by Ben Norton

 

Important breakthroughs have arrived at the United Nations seeking to prevent an arms race in outer space and create a nuclear weapons-free Middle East. There are just two main obstacles: the United States and Israel.

While Washington and corporate media outlets portray China and Russia as aggressive warmongering rogue states, their votes at the UN show which nations are actually expanding dangerous militarism into new frontiers.

China and Russia joined dozens of other countries in sponsoring resolutions at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) that sought to prevent armed conflict in space. Most of the international community supported these historic peace measures. The only consistent outliers were the US and Israel.

+

“ON JEFFREY EPSTEIN: REVISITED”

click here : [ https://youtu.be/d8XakrokKRw ]

with George Galloway

+

Prince Andrew: The Epstein scandal has become a 'major disruption' - BBC Newsnight

click here : [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFMngPfGnOU ]

with KirstyWark

+

Prince Andrew BBC meltdown.Why did Royal Family let this interview take place?

click here : [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWskH7r8jrw&feature=youtu.be ]

with Alex Christoforou and Alexander Mercouris

 

===========

 

g.

Putin Dismantles American NATO "Protection" Racket

click here :

[ http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52610.htm ]


Putin: The United States will have to take some steps to change the quality of its relations with its European allies even in NATO. It is no longer enough to say: “We are protecting you, so pay us.” - "It's simply nonsense, bull*hit."

 

===========

 

h.

click here : [ Historians For Peace]

From: Jim O'Brien via H-PAD

Sent: Monday, November 18, 2019

Subject: [H-PAD] H-PAD Notes 11/18/19: Yemen war; links to recent articles of interest

 

Congressional Bulletin

This feature of some H-PAD mailings indicates some Congressional initiatives on issues of concern to participants in H-PAD, along with recommended actions.

Congressional Alert on Yemen!!

While impeachment is blanketing other issues, many crucial items are pending. Negotiations between House and Senate leadership are underway on the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The House bill includes an amendment that would end US support to, and participation in, the Saudi-led coalition's military operations in Yemen. The Senate version of the NDAA did not include this prohibition. Now that the bill is in conference, it is vitally important that the Democratic leadership in the Senate support this House amendment.

Whether or not Minority Leader Charles Schumer is your Senator, please call his office and urge him to support this amendment. We suggest that you use this number, which has been provided by the Friends Committee on National Legislation: 1-833-786-7927. This will provide you with additional information and maintain a count of calls to Sen. Schumer's office.

H-PAD legislative coordinators:

Carolyn Rusti Eisenberg

Prasannan Parthasarathi

 

 

Links to Recent Articles of Interest/

click here : ["The Whistleblowers of the My Lai Massacre" ]

By Howard Jones, History News Network, posted November 17

The author is an emeritus professor of history at the University of Alabama and author of My Lai: Vietnam, 1968 and the Descent into Darkness (Oxford U. Press, 1917, paperback 1919).

 

click here : [ "The President and the Blob" ]

By Andrew J. Bacevich and Rajan Menon, Boston Review, posted November 11

A trenchant critique both of President Trump's Syria decisions and of longtime bipartisan policies that have led to repeated disastrous involvements in the Middle East. The authors are, respectively, an emeritus professor of history and international relations at Boston University and a professor of political science at City College of New York.

 

click here : [ "When 'High Body Count' Was an American War Policy" ]

By Nick Turse, The American Conservative, posted November 11

On the mass killings of Vietnamese civilians aimed at giving the US leverage in the peace talks starting in late 1968.


click here :
[ "Why We Must Reclaim 'Armistice Day'" ]

By Danny Sjursen, The American Conservative, posted November 11

"The original spirit was 'Never again.' Now in an era of forever war, we celebrate vets with a mere 'thank you.'" The author is a retired US Army major who formerly taught history at West Polint.


click here :
[ "The Berlin Wall Fell and the U.S. Learned the Wrong Lessons. It Got Us Donald Trump" ]

By Andrew Bacevich, CommonDreams.com, posted November 8

The author, a retired colonel in the US Army and professor emeritus of history and international relations at Boston University, is president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.


click here :
[ "The Massacre That Spawned the Alt-Right" ]

By Shaun Assael and Peter Keating, Politico, posted November 3

On the organized murder of five anti-Klan activists in Greensboro, NC forty years ago (Nov. 3, 1979) by Ku Klux Klan and Nazi party members.


click here :
[ "How Richard Nixon Captured White Rage - and Laid the Groundwork for Donald Trump" ]

By Scott Laderman, Washington Post, posted November 3

The author teaches history at the University of Minnesota, Duluth.


click here :
[ "William Loren Katz: Teacher, Author, Editor and Activist (1927-2019)" ]

By Alan Singer, History News Network, posted October 31

A tribute to the author of more than forty popularly written US history books, who died October 25 at age 92. Alan Singer is a historian and chair of Hofstra University's Department of Teaching, Learning and Technology.


click here :
[ "Killing Your Own Frankenstein Is Not Heroic" ]

By Jeremy Kuzmarov, Oklahoma Observer, posted October 30

On the US raid that killed ISIS leader Abu Kakr al-Baghdadi. The author teaches history at Tulsa Community College.


click here : [ "The Ukraine Whistleblower and the Rise of Partisan Whistleblowing" ]

By Hannah Gurman and Kaiten Mistry, Foreign Policy in Focus, posted October 17

The authors teach at New York University and the University of East Anglia, respectively. They are co-editors of the forthcoming Whistleblowing Nation: The History of National Security Disclosures and the Cult of State Secrecy.

 

Thanks for Rusti Eisenberg and an anonymous reader for suggesting articles included in the above list. Suggestions can be sent to jimobrien48@gmail.com.

+

[ News From Underground]

From: newsfromunderground@googlegroups.com On Behalf Of Mark Crispin Miller
Sent: Thursday, November 14, 2019
Subject: [MCM] Ukraine for dummies: An invaluable corrective to the lunacy of Adam Schiff, the New York Times, and all other such CIA tools

 

 

COLUMNFOREIGN POLICYINTERNATIONALRUSSIAUKRAINE

Ukraine For Dummies

 [ https://consortiumnews.com/2019/11/14/ray-mcgovern-ukraine-for-dummies/ ]

by Ray McGovern

November 14, 2019 •

 

There was no excuse for Congress’ ignorance of Ukraine. Here is a guide to help.

By RayMcGovern
Special to Consortium News

https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/raymcgovern_face0-150x150.jpgAt Wednesday’s debut of the impeachment hearings there was one issue upon which both sides of the aisle seemed to agree, and it was a comic-book caricature of reality.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff led off the proceedings with this: “In 2014, Russia invaded a United States ally, Ukraine, to reverse that nation’s embrace of the West, and to fulfill Vladimir Putin’s desire to rebuild a Russian empire…” [emphasis added—with astonishment—by MCM]

 

Five years ago, when Ukraine first came into the news, those Americans who thought Ukraine was an island in the Pacific can perhaps be forgiven. That members of the House Intelligence Committee don’t know — or pretend not to know — more accurate information about Ukraine is a scandal, and a consequential one.

As Professor Stephen Cohen has warned, if the impeachment process does not deal in objective fact, already high tensions with Russia are likely to become even more dangerous.

So here is a kind of primer for those who might be interested in some Ukraine history:

·         Late 1700s: Catherine the Great consolidated her rule; established Russia’s first and only warm-water naval base in Crimea.

·         In 1919, after the Bolshevik Revolution, Moscow defeated resistance in Ukraine and the country becomes one of 15 Republics of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Nikita_Khrushchev_1959-392x400.jpg

Khrushchev: Gave Ukraine away. (Wikipedia)

·         In 1954, after Stalin’s death the year before, Nikita Khrushchev, a Ukrainian, assumed power. Pandering to Ukrainian supporters, he unilaterally decreed that henceforth Crimea would be part of the Ukrainian SSR, not the Russian SSR. Since all 15 Republics of the USSR were under tight rule from Moscow, the switch was a distinction without much of a difference — until later, when the USSR fell apart..

·         Nov. 1989: Berlin wall down.

·         Dec. 2-3, 1989: President George H. W. Bush invites Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to summit talks in Malta; reassures him “the U.S. will not take advantage” of Soviet troubles in Eastern Europe. Bush had already been pushing the idea of a Europe whole and free, from Portugal to Vladivostok.

To view this discussion on the web visit [ https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/newsfromunderground/CAGxB6W9D7T-QmizGPjyQeH9-7GCBy7qknXwoDFB6L%3D4bhAnvKw%40mail.gmail.com. ]

+

From: newsfromunderground@googlegroups.com On Behalf Of Mark Crispin Miller
Sent: Thursday, November 14, 2019
Subject: [MCM] On the desperate charade by the House Democrats

 

A very good takedown of the wild "pantomime" by the the House Democrats, struggling to revisit "Russia-gate" via "Ukrainegate," while covering up the vast corruption of their party's (putative) front-runner, and the players promoting both of those preposterous conspiracy theories.

 

While I recommend this piecafflicted "our free press" across the board, both corporate and left/liberal. Casting what's e highly, though, I also have to note that Lawrence's grim 

concluding observation is a symptom of the weird historical amnesia that has long now happening as a CIA-driven coup, Lawrence makes this fearful chickens-coming-home-to-roost suggestion: "Maybe it was fated that what America has been doing abroad the whole of the post-war era would eventually come home."

 

No doubt it was; but to argue that it's only happening now betrays a staggering ignorance—or repression—of the by-now-indisputable fact that "it" happened over half a century ago, in broad daylight, when the CIA and other state agencies pulled off a very gruesome and transparent coup in Dallas, thereby predetermining the outcome of the 1964 election, and then proceeded to ensure the outcome of the 1968 election by the same bloody means, in Los Angeles; and those two fateful murders aren't the only ones from way back then (and since) that (ought to) call to mind "what America ha[d] been doing abroad since World War II,."What all such murders tell us is that our democracy was shattered long ago—andcannot be restored unless we finally face up to that history, so we can change it.

 

MCM

 

CAMPAIGN 2020COLUMNINTELLIGENCEPOLITICSTRUMP ADMINISTRATIONU.S.UKRAINE

 

The Impeachment Pantomime

[ https://consortiumnews.com/tag/patrick-lawrence/ ]

 

 

November 12, 2019 • [ 22 Comments ]

by Patrick Lawrence

The political theatrics that begin Wednesday raise several questions. For starters, will Joe Biden be investigated for mounting evidence of corruption? And why is the  corporate media turning the CIA “whistleblower” into a phantom in plain sight? 

By [ PatrickLawrence ]
Special to Consortium News

 

Now that “Russiagate” has failed and [ Ukrainegate ] neatly takes its place, many questions arise. Will the Democratic Party, this time in open collusion with the intelligence apparatus, succeed in its second attempt to depose President Donald Trump in what might fairly be called a bloodless coup? Whatever the outcome of the thus-far-farcical impeachment probe, which is [ to be conducted publicly ] as of Wednesday, did the president use his office to pressure Ukraine in behalf of his own personal and political interests? Did Trump, in his fateful telephone conversation last July 25 with Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, put U.S. national security at risk, as is alleged?

 

All good questions. Here is another: Will Joe Biden, at present the leading contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, get away with what is almost certain to prove his gross corruption and gross abuse of office when he carried the Ukraine portfolio while serving as vice president under Barack Obama?

 

Corollary line of inquiry: Will the corporate media, The New York Times in the lead, get away with self-censoring what is now irrefutable evidence of the impeachment probe’s various frauds and corruptions? Ditto in the Biden case: Can the Times and the media that faithfully follow its lead continue to disregard accumulating circumstantial evidence of Biden’s guilt as he appears to have acted in the interest of his son Hunter while the latter sat on the board of one of Ukraine’s largest privately held natural gas producers?  

 

https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Screen-Shot-2019-11-11-at-3.11.09-PM.png

Still from C-SPAN video of House of Representatives debate on Sept. 25, 2019. (Wikimedia Commons)

Innuendo & Interference 

It is not difficult to imagine that Trump presented Zelensky with his famous quid pro quo when they spoke last summer: Open an investigation into Biden père et fils and I will release $391 million in military aid and invite you to the White House. Trump seems to be no stranger to abuses of power of this sort. But the impeachment probe has swiftly run up against the same problem that sank the good ship Russiagate: It has produced no evidence. Innuendo and inference, yes. Various syllogisms, yes. But no evidence. 

 

There is none in the transcript of the telephone exchange. Zelensky has flatly stated that there was no quid pro quo. The witnesses so far called to testify have had little to offer other than their personal opinions, even if Capitol Hill Democrats pretend these testimonies are prima facie damning. And the witnesses are to one or another degree of questionable motives: To a one, they appear to be Russophobes who favor military aid to Ukraine; to a one they are turf-conscious careerists who think they set U.S. foreign policy and resent the president for intruding upon them. It is increasingly evident that Trump’s true offense is proposing to renovate a foreign policy framework that has been more or less untouched for 75 years (and is in dire need of renovation). 

 

Ten days ago [ Real Clear Investigations suggested ] hat the “whistleblower” whose “complaint” last August set the impeachment probe in motion was in all likelihood a CIA agent named Eric Ciaramella. And who is Eric Ciaramella? It turns out he is a young but seasoned Democratic Party apparatchik conducting his spookery on American soil.

 

Ciaramella has previously worked with Joe Biden during the latter’s days as veep; with Susan Rice, Obama’s recklessly hawkish national security adviser; with John Brennan, a key architect of the Russiagate edifice; as well as with Alexandra Chalupa, a Ukrainian-born Democratic National Committee official charged during the 2016 campaign season with digging up dirt on none other than candidate Donald Trump.

 

For good measure, Paul Sperry’s perspicacious reporting in Real Clear Investigations reveals that Ciaramella conferred with the staff of Rep. Adam Schiff, the House Democrat leading the impeachment process, a month prior to filing his “complaint” to the CIA’s inspector general.

 

This information comes after Schiff stated on the record that the staff of the House Intelligence Committee, which he heads, had no contact with the whistleblower. Schiff has since acknowledged the Ciaramella connection.   

 

Phantom in Plain Sight

No wonder no one in Washington will name this phantom in plain sight. The impeachment probe starts to take on a certain reek. It starts to look as if contempt for Trump takes precedence over democratic process — a dangerous priority. Sperry quotes Fred Fleitz, a former National Security Council official, thus: “Everyone knows who he is. CNN knows. The Washington Post knows. The New York Times knows. Congress knows. The White house knows…. They’re hiding him because of his political bias.”

 

Here we come to another question. If everyone knows the whistleblower’s identity, why have the corporate media declined to name him? There can be but one answer to this question: If Ciaramella’s identity were publicized and his professional record exposed, the Ukrainegate narrative would instantly collapse into a second-rate vaudeville act — farce by any other name, although “hoax” might do, even if Trump has made the term his own. 

 

There is another half to this burlesque. While Schiff and his House colleagues chicken-scratch for something, anything that may justify a formal impeachment, a clear, documented record emerges of Joe Biden’s official interventions in Ukraine in behalf of Burisma Holdings, the gas company that named Hunter Biden to its board in March 2014 — a month, it is worth noting, after the U.S.–cultivated coup in Kiev.

 

There is no thought of scrutinizing Biden’s activities by way of an official inquiry. In its way, this, too, reflects upon the pantomime of the impeachment probe. Are there sufficient grounds to open an investigation? Emphatically there are. Two reports published last week make this plain by any reasonable measure. 

 

 

+

Ukrainian Indictment Claims $7.4 Billion Obama-Linked Laundering,

Puts Biden Group Take At $16.5 Million

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/biden-cash.JPG

[ http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52585.htm ]

by  Tyler Durden

 

“Biden was receiving payment for his services, with money raised through criminal means and money laundering.”

 

===========

 

i.

Vladimir Putin: “US Do

llar Will Collapse Soon”

[ http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52560.htm ]

by Tyler Durden

+

“Capitalism will eat democracy -- unless we speak up”

[ https://youtu.be/GB4s5b9NL3I]

with Yania Varoufakis

+

Visualizing $69 Trillion of World Debt in One Infographic

[ https://www.visualcapitalist.com/69-trillion-of-world-debt-in-one-infographic/ ]

+

From: RichardWolff [ mailto:rdwolff@att.net ]
Sent: Thursday, November 14, 2019 4:32 PM
Subject: Part Two: Foreword to Benjamin Mays Autobiography

 

 

Thought this might amuse you.

-rw

Capitalism Is a Blessing

 


Text Box:

[ https://www.intelligencesquaredus.org/debates/capitalism-blessing

Richard D. Wolff

 

[ rdwolff.com  |  democracyatwork.info ]


On Thursday, November 14, 2019, 10:25:47 AM EST, Justice Initiative <hmcgray@earthlink.net> wrote:

Written by Dr. Vernon Burton

http://r20.rs6.net/on.jsp?a=1109359583686&r=3&c=5c137c40-a707-11e7-afe2-d4ae528ec60a&d=1133516546589&ch=5c3ab350-a707-11e7-afe2-d4ae528ec60a&ca=02588d09-691c-408e-bac1-4556d7f9d25d&o=https://imgssl.constantcontact.com/ui/images1/s.gif

 JUSTICE INITIATIVE

Note: The previous Justice Initiative postings provided, for one, information about Dr. Vernon Burton, who was asked by Dr. Benjamin E. Mays to write the foreword to his book 'Born to Rebel: An Autobiography.'  This was then followed by 'Part One' of the foreword with other segments of the comprehensive foreword by Dr. Burton to follow.

Links to previous postings:

Southern historian Dr. Vernon Burton

Foreword to Benjamin Mays Autobiography: Part One 

Below, please find 'Part Two' of the foreword to Benjamin Mays' autobiography.

Heather Gray

November 14, 2019

Justice Initiative

(Link to article)

Part Two:

F O R E W O R D 

to Benjamin E. Mays 'Born to Rebel' 

by Vernon Burton

https://files.constantcontact.com/6c1ebfa4201/31cefe9d-fd38-4601-ab5e-ce505aa38ed5.jpg

 

Benjamin E. Mays (middle, back row) poses with a 1919 debate team at Bates College. (Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library) A talented debater, Mays won an oratory award for reciting "Imaginary Speech of John Adams," by Daniel Webster, a speech that emphasizes the divinity of the American push for independence. (Bates)

 

With his special perspective and insight, Mays had some advice that is still relevant for today's young African Americans: "If I were you, I would count for something and no man would push me around because my skin is black or his eyes are blue. I would stand for something. I would count." On another occasion he said: "If I, and people like myself, can make it with every kind of stumbling block in our way, they ought to be able to make it when everything is open to them. They have plenty to gripe about, but not much in comparison. If they don't make it, may God have mercy on their souls. I'm not saying that everything is all right; we have much further to go. But we have come along long way, baby, from where we were."

Dr. Mays, a careful student of history, asked before he died in 1984 that this foreword explain exactly "where we were," that it outline some of the discriminatory history of his native state. Mays grew up in a white-dominated world that kept black people "in their place." All his life he felt cheated by the lack of opportunities for schooling and the constant reminders of his second-class citizenship. To understand Mays, one must realize the different perspectives of African Americans and whites on the history of South Carolina. I. A. Newby, in Black Carolinians, explained: "To white Carolinians from Calhoun to Strom Thurmond 'states rights' and 'local self-government' were rallying cries against tyranny and synonymous for individual liberty and local democracy. To blacks they were code words for white authoritarianism, the very existence of which depended upon denying liberty and local democracy to blacks... Tillmanism is the nearest thing to a genuine mass movement in the history of white Carolina, and whites in the state paid homage to it for over a generation. To students of black history and racial equality its most striking features are the extent to which it expressed the desire of white Carolinians to dominate blacks and the fact that much of its unity and force derived from its antiblack racial policies."

Newby elaborated: "The central fact in the history of black Carolina has been the racism of white Carolina. Black Carolinians have been black folk in a society dominated by whites. Race was the criterion used to identify them, define their role, restrict their advancement, thwart their hope, limit their horizons. Their society isolated them as a racial group, educated (or failed to educate) them as a racial group, exploited them as a racial group."

From slavery to the more institutional racism of the present day, scholars have found that South Carolina politics has chiefly revolved around the issue of the status of African American people, and ever present in antebellum South Carolina was the dread of a black revolt. Fearful that political conflict would somehow undermine slavery, South Carolina had a less democratic form of government than any state in the union. Candidates for the legislature were required to own property. White citizens could not vote directly for

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Governor Benjamin F. Perry

president, governor, or United States senator, and African Americans could not vote at all. South Carolina was the hotbed of nullification, "fire-eaters," and secession. Even after

In response to the notorious black codes and to the terrorism accompanying the first year of em the Civil War and the national government molded South Carolina politics, the fear of black insurgency continued to dictate. Reconstruction, and in its wake "Redemption," set the state for Mays's Life. The first South Carolina constitutional convention of Reconstruction, held in 1865, opposed extending the franchise to African Americans. "This is a white man's government," Governor Benjamin F. Perry asserted, "and intended for white men only." The South Carolina legislature also introduced a "Black Code," which imposed on African Americans a condition as close to slavery as was possible after emancipation.ancipation, Congress enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1866. Under military supervision South Carolina convened its second constitutional convention of Reconstruction in November 1867 (and into 1868). Well over half the people of the state were African American, and thus more than half the delegates, 76 out of 124, were African American. The new constitution gave the right to vote to every male resident of South Carolina twenty-one years of age or older "without distinction of race, color, or former condition."

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Attributed to J. G. Gibbes, 

Radical Members of the So. Ca. [South Carolina] Legislature, no date [ca. 1868?]. 

Albumen photograph. GA 2009.01025 and GA 2009.01024 (Princeton)

SEE THE NOTE BELOW ABOUT THIS PHOTO

  

If Reconstruction could have succeeded anywhere, it was in South Carolina. African Americans formed a majority of the population, and Reconstruction lasted longer than in most southern states. The democratically elected legislature instituted public education from primary level to college for the first time in the states, and this education was open to former slaves. African Americans served in nearly every office at county and state levels except for the governorship; African Americans won half the seats of the lower house of the General Assembly and held a majority in the House for six years (longer than in any state at any time in American history), although never a majority in the Senate; and more land was distributed to former slaves then in any other state. During the years 1868-77, eight African Americans were elected to Congress and two became lieutenant governor. African Americans served on the South Carolina Supreme Court and as secretary of state, adjutant general, secretary of the treasury, Speaker of the House, and president protem of the state Senate. African Americans were state representatives, sheriffs, probate judges, magistrates, postmasters, and school commissioners. All this occurred, however, because federal troops were enforcing federal laws.

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First Black Member of Congress

From left: Senator Hiram Revels of Mississippi, and Representatives Benjamin Turner of Alabama, Robert DeLarge of South Carolina, Josiah Walls of Florida, Jefferson Long of Georgia, and Joseph Rainey and Robert B. Elliot of South Carolina  CURRIER AND IVES, 1872

White Carolinians have created myths of the horrors of "black" Reconstruction, when barbaric, ignorant, inferior African Americans despoiled and prostrated a noble state. Until the 1960s white historians also severely criticized South Carolina's predominantly black Reconstruction governments for mismanagement and corruption, but most now view Reconstruction as a tragedy because, in spite of the tremendous pain and suffering of the Civil War and Reconstruction, African Americans still did not achieve equality, dignity, or the right to participate in the government under which they lived. Charges of graft among Reconstruction politicians are now considered in the perspective of the widespread tolerance of avarice and peculation that produced the Democratic Tweed Ring in New York City and the massive corruption of the white "redeemers" during the "Gilded Age" that followed Reconstruction. Reconstruction South Carolina experimented briefly with idealism in the form of interracial democracy and responsive government, but most whites preferred racial discrimination, low taxes, and few government services.

 

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Martin Witherspoon Gary

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active at least as early as the 1868 election, violently opposed Black enfranchisement, and systematic terror reached a new intensity during the critical 18Because white South Carolinians were never willing to share citizenship, let alone political power, with African Americans, violence accompanied Reconstruction. The Ku Klux Klan, 76 election. Even with federal troops in the state, Martin Witherspoon Gary coordinated a campaign of terror to return the state to the orthodox conservative white leadership that had governed South Carolina before the Civil War. Massacres throughout the state reflected the principles expressed in the twelfth and sixteenth points of Gary's "Edgefield Plan": "Every Democrat must feel honor bound to control the vote of at least one negro. By intimidation, purchase, keeping him away as each individual may determine, how he may best accomplish it....Never threaten a man individually-if he deserves to be threatened the necessities of the time requite that he should die." Cold-blooded executions were common. As Benjamin Tillman later explained: "The struggle in which we were engaged meant more than life or death. It involved everything we held dear, Anglo-Saxon civilization included."

"Redemption" put the moderate Democrat Wade Hampton in office. Moderation in this case meant that he preferred fraud and intimidation to meticulously planned multiple murders of African Americans. In 1878 Martin Witherspoon Gary explained: "We regard the issues between the white and colored people of the State, and of the entire South, as an antagonism of race, not difference of political party....White supremacy is essential to our survival as a people." Gary proposed the African Americans be excluded from the political process by barring them from the Democratic Party primary. Thus, the white primary was used informally after 1878 to resolve disagreements so that whites could present a united front in the general election. Because the Democratic primary was open only to whites from 1878 until 1944, it was the real election in most races. African Americans were effectively disenfranchised for the next sixty-five years.

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Edward McCrady, Jr.

In 1882 the South Carolina legislature passed the Registration and Eight-Box Law, developed by the moderate Hamptonite aristocratic historian Edward McCrady, Jr. By requiring that those who applied for voter registration take a literacy test, which included large loopholes for white Democrats, the law gave plentiful opportunities for administrative discrimination and provided an adequate "legal" substitute for intimidation and stuffed ballot boxes as a means of diluting the black vote. By 1884 African American registration in South Carolina has fallen to half the 1880 level because of the provision for separate ballot boxes for eight office, the requirement that registrants sign their names. To prevent whites from being disenfranchised by these same rules, exceptions to the laws were made for those who were already on the registration rolls in 1857 and for those whom registrars recommended. The reapportionment that accompanied the Eight-Box aw of 1882 also created one of the most famous gerrymanders in the history of the United States to pack African Americans into a single district so that other districts would be majority white, one congressional district ran half the length of the state, split six counties, and extended into the Atlantic Ocean. In a state that was 60 percent black, Republicans could seriously contest only one of seven seats. For some whites this was still too much.

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"Pitchfork Ben" Tillman.

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In 1890 "Pitchfork Ben" Tillman won the governorship over an independent who courted the few remaining African American votes. Tillman declared, "The whites have absolute control of the government, we intend at any hazard to retain it." Before Tillman's election, local governing bodies were elected by popular vote, and in counties with substantial black majorities, African Americans achieved control of government as long as federal officials supervised voter registration and elections. In his second term as governor, Tillman spearheaded the abolishment of elected local governments and provided for county officials to be appointed by the governor upon recommendation of the county's state senator and representatives. This law made it impossible to elect blacks as local officials even where African Americans were the overwhelming majority.

 

In 1895 the state adopted Tillman's plan to disenfranchise African American citizens permanently. First the legislature passed a re-registration act that was carefully administered in a racially discriminatory manner to prevent blacks from defeating a call for a constitutional convention. The distinguished historian David Duncan Wallace, who attended the 1895 disenfranchisement convention, recorded that "elimination of the negro from politics as effectively as this could be accomplished by constitutional enactment was the one object for which the convention was called." The temporary chairman of the constitutional convention charged the delegates to write laws to preserve "Anglo-Saxon supremacy." The 1895 constitution kept African Americans from having any real influence in the electoral process by establishing a literacy (or property) test, a poll tax, and an understanding clause.

 

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James F. Byrnes

African Americans challenged both the literacy test and the poll tax that southern states enacted after Reconstruction, but the Supreme Court upheld both disenfranchising tactics. In 1920 Congressman James F. Byrnes, who eventually became a U.S. Senator, Supreme Court justice, and secretary of state, as well as governor of South Carolina, cautioned: "It is certain that if there was a fair registration they (African Americans) would have a slight majority in our state. We cannot idly brush the facts aside. Unfortunate though it may be, our consideration of every question must include the consideration of this race question." The effect of disenfranchising legislation was profound: only three thousand blacks, or 0.8 percent of voting-age African Americans in South Carolina, were registered to vote in 1940.

 

A major theme of political scientist V.O. Key, Jr., was that in the South the center of power as well as of extreme racism in the first half of the twentieth century lay in the "Black Belt" - counties with a black majority. During much of the period, South Carolina as a whole had a larger percentage of African Americans than any state in the South. Although blacks were socioeconomically disadvantaged and effectively kept out of the political process, the number of African Americans in the state aroused concern among those who could vote, and blacks became scapegoats in a political environment that invited shallow demagoguery. From "Pitchfork Ben" Tillman and Cole Blease through Ellison D. "Cotton Ed" Smith, South Carolina demagogues rode the race issue to political prominence.

____

ABOUT RADICAL MEMBERS OF THE SOUTH CAROLINA LEGISLATURE

(Princeton)

https://files.constantcontact.com/6c1ebfa4201/10a078de-7017-43b8-a3b0-421fd7e2f3de.jpgGraphic Arts has two copies of this photograph of the 1868 South Carolina legislature, one slightly larger, 16 x 13 cm and one with a caption 7.5 x 5.5 cm. 

The composite image documents the implementation of the Reconstruction Act of 1867, which redesigned the governing bodies of the southern states after the American Civil War. Not only did African Americans have the right to vote, but also serve within the government. When South Carolina rejoined the Union in 1868, they had the first state legislature with a black majority.

Created to frighten the white population, this image was widely distributed in many sizes and formats. One of our copies includes the text: These are the photographs of 63 members of the reconstructed South Carolina Legislature, 50 of whom are negroes or mulattoes and 13 white. 22 read and write (8 grammatically), the remainder (41) make their mark with the aid of an amanuensis. Nineteen (19) are tax-payers to an aggregate amount of $146.10, the rest (44) pay no taxes, and the body levies on the white people of the State for $4,000.00.

These images were found in a scrapbook of engravings, with a note saying they "apparently belonged to Mrs. J.V. Stromeyer, 164 E. 94th St. N.Y. ... probably put together in the 1870's." The album was given to the library by Mrs. John N. Reynolds in 1943.

 

https://imgssl.constantcontact.com/letters/images/sys/S.gif

https://imgssl.constantcontact.com/letters/images/sys/S.gif

 

===========

 

j.

From: Anne de Sybel
Sent: Monday, November 11, 2019 11:56 AM
Subject: "Mon parrain, Black Panther" notre nouvelle création

 

Un destin hors du commun 💥

 

https://x1zqz.mjt.lu/img/x1zqz/b/5y520/vhrq7.jpeg

 

31 juillet 1972, aéroport de Detroit : le vol 841 pour Miami est détourné par 5 membres des Black Panther. Parmi eux se trouve George Brown, dont le destin mêle jusqu'alors pauvreté, emprisonnements et injustices.

Découvrez "Mon parrain, Black Panther", une Création Sybel qui mêle histoire familiale et lutte politique.

 

Bonne écoute sur Sybel 🎧
Anne

 

Merci de l'intérêt que vous nous portez

 

+

From: DE MONTLIBERT Christian (SAGE) [ mailto:demontli@unistra.fr ]
Sent: Wednesday, November 13, 2019
Subject: publication:

Résistances au néolibéralisme

Je suis heureux de vous annoncer la sortie de mon dernier livre  <Résistances au néolibéralisme> aux éditions du Croquant. J'ai essayé , là, de replacer les différentes études de manifestations  (grèves , défilés, occupations de locaux...) que j'avais menées durant ma "carrière de sociologue" dans leur contexte historique  de défaisance de l'Etat social et d'avancée du neéolibéralisme  (des années 70 aux années 2010): désindustrialisation  qui casse "la classe ouvrière", financiarisation qui, en faisant la part belle au capital économique, engendre un chômage de masse, managérialisation qui vise l'intériorisation par chacun chacune des manières de voir,  de faire et de sentir propres à l'individualisme concurrentiel.

 

Amicalement Christian de Montlibert

 

===========

 

k.

From: Richard Greeman [mailto:rgreeman@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2019 7:48 PM
Subject: Yellow Vests Year I.

French Yellow Vests Celebrate First Birthday, Converge With Planned Labor Strikes

[ https://www.laprogressive.com/yellow-vests-birthday/ ]

by Richard Greeman

 

Montpellier, France, Nov. 18, 2019

 +

From: Richard Greeman [mailto:rgreeman@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, November 15, 2019 2:57 PM
Subject: Bulletins de Moscou: Répression

 

Here is the lede on my eyewitness report on the Yellow Vests’ First Anniversary Party, which is planned for this WE and will include both partying in the middle of traffice circles and carrying out blocades at strategic points all over France. I will send the report at the beginning of next week after participating (to the extent that my octogenerian caracass may permit) in the festivities.

 

To do so, I need a favor from you. Could you send me ASAP a paper or card or somesuch that I can use as ID if I get arrested. Since my resident status here is at this moment being processed with the usual bureaucratic lenteur, I use my US passport as ID and would like some sort of press creds to explain my presence on the scene and perhaps make them hesitate to arrest me.

 

The government is definitely cracking down and wants the YV to disappear. In MPL last SATURDAY the copies drove 500 peaceful demonstrators (average age 57) into a trap, surrounded them and gassed them and roughed them up and took and photographed their papers and confiscated their stuff. Fortunately, thanks to showing up late at the main square (La Comédie), nothing happened to me. But since I could smell gas I moved away. But a few minutes later, the cops attacked everyone in the square including tourists and shoppers!  Mayhem as you can see in attached video. 

 

Also check out the Birthday video.

 

Let me hear from you as soon as possible. Having fun,

 

Richard

 

Blue terror Nov 9  I was there video etc

[https://www.lamuledupape.com/2019/11/10/acte-52-des-gilets-jaunes-a-montpellier-la-liberte-de-manifester-souillee-par-le-maintien-de-lordre/ ]

 

[ https://www.facebook.com/sousmarinsjaunes/videos/565102817627651/?v=565102817627651 ]

 

 

This weekend the Yellow Vests of France are celebrating their first anniversary, a full year of resistance, as France enters a social crisis provoked by Macron’s accelerated neo-liberal attacks on public services, wages, social equality, the environment, and now retirement benefits – the last straw in the shreading of France’s historical French social contract.

 

On Nov. 1-3 the self-organized movement held its fourth nation-wide Assembly of Assemblies here in Montpellier. This AofA’s brought together 500 Yellow Vests delegated by over 200 local groups from all over, and it ended with near-unanimous appeals for international solidarity with popular risings from Algeria to Chile and for convergence with the nationwide, unlimited labor strikes that are scheduled to begin on Dec. 5. It is hoped that this combined movement will develop into a general strike to shut down the country, force Macron to rescind his counter-reforms, and open the way for greater participatory democracy, social equality and environmental justice – the Yellow Vest agenda. [Personal disclosure: I was one of three delegates from Montpellier’s Convergence34 group.]

 

Contrary to the impression given by the media here, the Yellow Vests of France have not “gone away.” Au contraire this weekend we will be celebrating our first anniversary: fifty two weeks of spontaneous, self-organized demonstrations, blockages and protests. A full year of keeping Macron’s neo-liberal government off balance by publicly protesting its rampant privatizations and cuts in social services, a year of holding open the door of public protest against the government’s supposedly “inevitable” counter-reforms, following the Spring 2018 defeat of the French unions’ feeble attempts to slow the Macron steam-roller through months of piddling partial strikes and one-day national mobilizations that only demoralized the working class.

 

Despite unprecedented government repression and negative (or no) coverage in the media, this leaderless social movement, which began “out of no-where” on Nov. 17, 2018, has stubbornly persisted for a year. Initially supported by over three quarters of the population, the Yellow Vests have endured month after month of slanted media coverage, which focussed on symbolic Black Block vandalism against symbols of capitalism (“mob violence”), ignored massive police brutality directed at peaceful, middle-aged demonstrators, and caricatured us as anti-Semites and fascists. Naturally our popularity has declined and our numbers have diminished. Would you put on a yellow vest and demonstrate every Saturday with the near-certainty of being tear-gassed, if not maimed by a flash-ball or arrested and sentenced to a humungous fine and prison-term?

 

 Liberté pour Azat Miftakhov!

 

Le syndicat “Solidarité universitaire”(adhéré à la Confédération du Travail de Russie, KTR) soutient la campagne pour la mise en liberté du jeune doctorant Azat Miftakhov persécuté par les raisons politiques.

 

Azat Miftakhov est mathématicien de 26 ans et militant anarchiste. Après les études brillantes à l’école et à l’université, il a commencé à préparer son doctorat à la faculté de mathématique et de mécanique de l’Université Lomonossov de Moscou. Il devrait soutenir sa thèse de doctorat cette automne, mais son activité a été interrompu par l’arrestation et la mise en prison.

 

Azat a été arrêté par “les forces de l’ordre” le 1 février 2019. Pendant deux jours il a été retenu de force dans la banlieue est de Moscou et torturé (les traces de torture sur son corps ont été officiellement enregistrées). L’enquête lui avait imputé d’abord la fabrication d’une bombe, mais Azat a tout nié malgré les tortures. La police a dû le libérer, mais tout de suite l’a arrêté de nouveau, cette fois pour suspicion de briser la fenêtre du local du parti dirigeant “La Russie Unie”, un an auparavant. Il a été inculpé d’abord du vandalisme, mais puis l’enquête a requalifié l’inculpation en hooliganisme – sciemment, pour maintenir Azat en prison. Il nie sa culpabilité bien que la police fait pression sur sa sœur de 16 ans et ses parents.

 

Nous vous invitons de diffuser largement l’information sur cette affaire, d’écrire les letters de protestation aux autorites russes, l’organiser les piquets de grève, de faire ls campagne de solidarité avec Azat. En Russie les droits de l’homme sont violés et c’est un cas frappant de cette violation, ensemble nous sommes en mesure de nous faire entendre et de les défendre.

+

Emmanuel Macron furious after new wave of yellow vest protests descended into chaos

[ https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1206535/Emmanuel-Macron-news-yellow-vest-protest-France-police-arrests-latest ]

by Romina McGuinness

 

===========

 

l.

Bolivia coup led by Christian fascist paramilitary leader and millionaire – with foreign support

[ https://thegrayzone.com/2019/11/11/bolivia-coup-fascist-foreign-support-fernando-camacho/ ]

by Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton

 

Bolivian coup leader Luis Fernando Camacho is a far-right multi-millionaire who arose from fascist movements in the Santa Cruz region, where the US has encouraged separatism. He has courted support from Colombia, Brazil, and the Venezuelan opposition.

https://www.codepink.org/r/o?e=f5a27f3701435157eb7bffed15fec1da&utm_source=codepink&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=boliva_national_2http://email.nationbuilder.com/wf/open?upn=Wy3vPGL3E8forwHZaEwsJJKeyxnBgAy-2BWGXso69ByFc2U4nmZhnJlrZpV1t58v4NkscrO4nf-2BRSyHrHdvKielcpmg0upEy-2FTJACLy7rzc9NW6KM7k5QEWrYjzcxo3HM24S6Z8601vQPKqZ6WQIwPy3WfQgSf8yDu6buNmHvsEWzIQGk-2BGLh9YEVCWdiBC1SQdedgtn9aD2-2BeHklgjnX7nYYcYKHZkUNsm43lVz-2FpKZKhPEdK24YH0RUAxThb6L2KLwzp-2BIAKzO4gDytEB8Xz4mY7Doxa-2BBsdjiOxiMVVxek2C-2FDWRXJbgwLvj0uCfXAUWSJilDKqnZ-2F-2B2jRBt8Hs0MyYSYU5CnrAifmZiMg-2B2OK2BJtDgdZ9BZgX7ktoa3AtBhA7nBKLWaB-2BkEmSx1rw4w-3D-3D+

From: Medea Benjamin, CODEPINK [ mailto:info@codepink.org ]
Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2019
Subject: I’m in Bolivia. Why isn’t the U.N?

CODEPINK.ORGhttps://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/codepink/mailings/4029/attachments/original/Bolivia_Action2.jpg?1574181533

Dear francis,

For the past week, I have been in Bolivia. I came at the request of local activists who are panicked about the situation in their country, afraid that things are spiraling out of control. They are engaging in peaceful protests to reverse the coup that happened November 10th, but the protests have been met with tear gas and even live ammunition. 

Unfortunately, mainstream media and even some progressive outlets are refusing to recognize that what happened a week ago was a coup and are not covering the coup regime’s racism and violence. Already, 24 protesters have been killed and nearly 600 have been wounded; hundreds more have been rounded up on jails, where the conditions are abysmal. People are appalled at t how racist and hateful the coup regime is. To draw more attention to this conflict we have launched a petition urgently asking the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, to come here. Will you add your name?

On the same day that I arrived in Bolivia, Bachelet spoke out. "I am really concerned that the situation in Bolivia could spin out of control," she said, while also voicing concern about the widespread arrests taking place. "This situation is not going to be resolved by force and repression," she said. "All sectors have the right to make their voice heard — this is the basis for democracy." But if Bachelet really wants to be helpful, if she really wants to see the situation resolved and the people protected, why isn’t she here on the ground with me? Tell Bachelet to join me immediately. She should witness the situation with her own eyes.

I am on the streets alongside thousands of Bolivians — despite the coup regime’s violence — demanding the resignations of the coup regime and insisting on a return to democracy. However, the coup regime appears determined to hang onto power for as long as it can. 

Coup leader and self-appointed interim president of Bolivia, Jeanine Añez, appointed a whole new cabinet and already begun changing Bolivia’s foreign policy, despite having no such mandate. The coup regime’s interim Interior Minister issued a decree exempting the country’s police and military from criminal charges that would otherwise arise as a result of their treatment of the protesters. It is terribly scary, but I am proud to be among the crowds of indigenous people marching for their country. 

A month ago, Bolivia was a stable country with a growing economy and decreasing poverty and inequality. Now, chaos and violence have gripped the country, as racism and religious discrimination are rearing their ugly heads. The indigenous Wiphala flag has been ripped off government buildings and uniforms, while the coup regime brags about the supremacy of Christianity and the Bible over the Pachamama (the Andean goddess representing mother earth) and calls sacred indigenous traditions “satanic.” 

The people of Bolivia need the international community to come here to witness--and stop--the repression and slide to a police state. Please join me in telling  U.N. Human Rights Chief Michelle Bachelet to join me here on the ground in Bolivia.

[ In solidarity with the Bolivian people, ]
Medea, and the entire CODEPINK Team

P.S. CODEPINK has drafted a press release, written an article, held a webinar, made a video and started a petition describing why the events in Bolivia should be called a coup. Please check these materials out and listen to me live on CODEPINK radio on Thursday, November 21 at 11 am EST and for a CODEPINK Facebook Live webinar on Wednesday, November 20 at 12 pm EST. I have also been livestreaming everyday.

https://www.codepink.org/r/o?e=f5a27f3701435157eb7bffed15fec1da&utm_source=codepink&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=boliva_national_2http://email.nationbuilder.com/wf/open?upn=Wy3vPGL3E8forwHZaEwsJJKeyxnBgAy-2BWGXso69ByFc2U4nmZhnJlrZpV1t58v4NkscrO4nf-2BRSyHrHdvKielcpmg0upEy-2FTJACLy7rzc9NW6KM7k5QEWrYjzcxo3HM24S6Z8601vQPKqZ6WQIwPy3WfQgSf8yDu6buNmHvsEWzIQGk-2BGLh9YEVCWdiBC1SQdedgtn9aD2-2BeHklgjnX7nYYcYKHZkUNsm43lVz-2FpKZKhPEdK24YH0RUAxThb6L2KLwzp-2BIAKzO4gDytEB8Xz4mY7Doxa-2BBsdjiOxiMVVxek2C-2FDWRXJbgwLvj0uCfXAUWSJilDKqnZ-2F-2B2jRBt8Hs0MyYSYU5CnrAifmZiMg-2B2OK2BJtDgdZ9BZgX7ktoa3AtBhA7nBKLWaB-2BkEmSx1rw4w-3D-3D+

“On the Bolivia Coup Against Evo Morales: US is Unhappy With Democracy in Latin America!”

[ https://youtu.be/COhKjGqi8sQ ]

with Greg Palast

https://www.codepink.org/r/o?e=f5a27f3701435157eb7bffed15fec1da&utm_source=codepink&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=boliva_national_2http://email.nationbuilder.com/wf/open?upn=Wy3vPGL3E8forwHZaEwsJJKeyxnBgAy-2BWGXso69ByFc2U4nmZhnJlrZpV1t58v4NkscrO4nf-2BRSyHrHdvKielcpmg0upEy-2FTJACLy7rzc9NW6KM7k5QEWrYjzcxo3HM24S6Z8601vQPKqZ6WQIwPy3WfQgSf8yDu6buNmHvsEWzIQGk-2BGLh9YEVCWdiBC1SQdedgtn9aD2-2BeHklgjnX7nYYcYKHZkUNsm43lVz-2FpKZKhPEdK24YH0RUAxThb6L2KLwzp-2BIAKzO4gDytEB8Xz4mY7Doxa-2BBsdjiOxiMVVxek2C-2FDWRXJbgwLvj0uCfXAUWSJilDKqnZ-2F-2B2jRBt8Hs0MyYSYU5CnrAifmZiMg-2B2OK2BJtDgdZ9BZgX7ktoa3AtBhA7nBKLWaB-2BkEmSx1rw4w-3D-3D+

‘Stop the massacre!’ Evo Morales appeals to Bolivian military as 5 killed in crackdown by ‘interim’ government

‘Stop the massacre!’ Evo Morales appeals to Bolivian military as 5 killed in crackdown by ‘interim’ government (GRAPHIC)

[ https://www.rt.com/news/473594-morales-massacre-coup-protesters/ ]

 

Bolivia’s ousted leader Evo Morales pleaded with his country’s military to stop firing on unarmed demonstrators protesting the coup-imposed interim leadership, after several activists were killed in clashes with security forces.

“We ask the armed forces and the Bolivian Police to stop the massacre,” Morales said in a tweet late on Friday. “The uniform of the institutions of the Homeland cannot be stained with the blood of our people.”

 http://email.nationbuilder.com/wf/open?upn=Wy3vPGL3E8forwHZaEwsJJKeyxnBgAy-2BWGXso69ByFc2U4nmZhnJlrZpV1t58v4NkscrO4nf-2BRSyHrHdvKielcpmg0upEy-2FTJACLy7rzc9NW6KM7k5QEWrYjzcxo3HM24S6Z8601vQPKqZ6WQIwPy3WfQgSf8yDu6buNmHvsEWzIQGk-2BGLh9YEVCWdiBC1SQdedgtn9aD2-2BeHklgjnX7nYYcYKHZkUNsm43lVz-2FpKZKhPEdK24YH0RUAxThb6L2KLwzp-2BIAKzO4gDytEB8Xz4mY7Doxa-2BBsdjiOxiMVVxek2C-2FDWRXJbgwLvj0uCfXAUWSJilDKqnZ-2F-2B2jRBt8Hs0MyYSYU5CnrAifmZiMg-2B2OK2BJtDgdZ9BZgX7ktoa3AtBhA7nBKLWaB-2BkEmSx1rw4w-3D-3D+

Bolivia’s New Self-Declared “Interim President” Believes Indians Are

 

“Satanic”, Shouldn’t Be Allowed in Cities

 

https://checkpointasia.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/images-1-4.jpg

[ https://www.checkpointasia.net/bolivias-new-self-declared-interim-president-believes-indians-are-satanic-shouldnt-be-allowed-in-cities/ ]

by Marko Marjanović

 http://email.nationbuilder.com/wf/open?upn=Wy3vPGL3E8forwHZaEwsJJKeyxnBgAy-2BWGXso69ByFc2U4nmZhnJlrZpV1t58v4NkscrO4nf-2BRSyHrHdvKielcpmg0upEy-2FTJACLy7rzc9NW6KM7k5QEWrYjzcxo3HM24S6Z8601vQPKqZ6WQIwPy3WfQgSf8yDu6buNmHvsEWzIQGk-2BGLh9YEVCWdiBC1SQdedgtn9aD2-2BeHklgjnX7nYYcYKHZkUNsm43lVz-2FpKZKhPEdK24YH0RUAxThb6L2KLwzp-2BIAKzO4gDytEB8Xz4mY7Doxa-2BBsdjiOxiMVVxek2C-2FDWRXJbgwLvj0uCfXAUWSJilDKqnZ-2F-2B2jRBt8Hs0MyYSYU5CnrAifmZiMg-2B2OK2BJtDgdZ9BZgX7ktoa3AtBhA7nBKLWaB-2BkEmSx1rw4w-3D-3D+

It’s About Overturning Democracy In Bolivia–It’s A Coup d’Etation Salad

[ https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2019/11/18/greg-palast-its-about-overturning-democracy-in-bolivia-its-a-coup-detat/ ]

with Greg Palast

 

+
As Bullets Rain Down on Protesters, Bolivia’s Armed Forces
Are Granted Full Immunity

[ https://www.leftvoice.org/as-bullets-rain-down-on-protesters-bolivias-armed-forces-are-granted-full-immunity ]

 

===========

 

m.

Sujet : - Lendemain douloureux - APPEL à la solidarité - Quatrième film

- par Yanis YOULOUNTAS

Date : Mon, 18 Nov 2019


 

Lendemain du 17 novembre 2019 à Athènes : un goût de sang dans la bouche

par Yannis Youlountas

Voir :

[ http://blogyy.net/2019/11/18/lendemain-du-17-novembre-2019-a-athenes-un-gout-de-sang-dans-la-bouche/ ]

 

------------------------------------------------

"Nous n’avons pas peur des ruines"

APPEL POUR EXARCHEIA ET POUR SOUTENIR LE QUATRIÈME FILM (AUTOMNE 2019)

Voir tous les détails du Nouveau point sur l'appel :

[ http://lamouretlarevolution.net/spip.php?rubrique15 ]

 

L’appel continue. Merci de votre aide, quelle que soit la façon.

Merci à toutes et tous, quel que soit le montant. Et merci également à

celles et ceux qui n’ont pas pu nous aider mais qui ont partagé l’info.

 

Le plus urgent est d’arriver à assurer un solide fond d’urgence pour

Exarcheia et de parvenir à financer, au moins la moitié, le film "Nous

n’avons pas peurdes ruines" (car nous ne sommes pas en mesure

d’emprunter des sommes importantes).

 

Rappelons que toutes les marges de "Nous n’avons pas peur des ruines"

seront ensuite reversées à des lieux et collectifs solidaires autogérés

en Grèce, comme pour les films précédents.

 

--------------------------------

POUR SOUTENIR EXARCHEIA ET LA PRÉPARATION DU 4ÈME FILM :

Si vous voulez soutenir nos actions à Exarcheia et/ou la préparation du

4ème film, "Nous n’avons pas peur des ruines", trois possibilités

s’offrent à vous :

1) PAR VIREMENT

IBAN de ANEPOS : FR46 2004 1010 1610 8545 7L03 730

BIC : PSSTFRPPTOU

Merci de mentionner en objet du virement : Appel Exarcheia et/ou 4e film

 

2) PAR PAYPAL

[ https://www.paypal.com/donate/?token=bs8Pte56bw9ffSXgtOKz30tqiijwnrqs8LvyEYk3rW_5wXfl7XPDztU2FKyLEqkomCFKe0&country.x=FR&locale.x=FR ]

 

3) PAR CHÈQUE

Ordre : ANEPOS (uniquement). N’ajoutez rien sur l’ordre, mais mentionnez

au dos du chèque ou en pièce jointe :

"Appel Exarcheia et/ou 4e film"

 

À envoyer à :

ANEPOS

Action Solidarité Grèce

BP 10 - 81540 SORÈZE - FRANCE

Vous pouvez aussi ajouter des messages de soutien qui seront transmis au

collectif de votre choix ou à l’assemblée principale des collectifs du

quartier.

 

===========

 

n.

Iran's protests: All you need to know in 600 words

[ https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/11/iran-protests-600-words-191118060831036.html ]

+

Ghosts of Mossadegh: The Iran Cables, U.S. Empire, and the Arc of History

https://theintercept.imgix.net/wp-uploads/sites/1/2019/11/episode-108-1574225150.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&q=90&fit=crop&w=1440&h=720

Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddegh rides on the shoulders of cheering crowds in Tehran's Majlis Square, outside the parliament building, after reiterating his oil nationalization views to his supporters on Sept. 27, 1951. Photo illustration: Elise Swain/The Intercept; photo: AP

 

[ https://theintercept.com/2019/11/20/ghosts-of-mossadegh-the-iran-cables-u-s-empire-and-the-arc-of-history/ ]

+

The bloodbath in Baghdad

[ http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52583.htm ]

by Bill Van Auken

+

Israeli attack on Damascus kills 2 civilians as Syrian air defenses

destroyed most missiles

[ http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52581.htm ]

by SANA

+

Iran: Over 100 Feared Dead in Protest Crackdown as Authorities

Impose Internet Blackout

[ https://www.democracynow.org/2019/11/20/iran_fuel_price_protests_internet_shutdown ]

with Negar Mortazavi, Iranian-American journalist and diplomatic correspondent for The Independent (U.K.) based in Washington, D.C.

+

US dirty hands behind violent protests in Iran?

[ http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52588.htm ]

by Stephen Lendman

 

All sovereign independent countries not subservient to US interests are on its target list for regime change — by preemptive wars, color revolutions, old-fashioned coups, targeted assassinations, economic terrorism, and/or other hostile actions.

Color revolutions are a US specialty. So-called spontaneous uprisings are well-planned in advance by the CIA, the undemocratic National Endowment for Democracy, and other US agencies.

A color revolution was first used to oust Serbia’s Slobodan Milosevic in 2000. Opposition elements were recruited and trained by the US for what played out.

Toppling Milosevic was the prototype for similar actions to follow in numerous countries — succeeding in Georgia, twice in Ukraine, and against other targeted governments, failing elsewhere, notably in Iran.

Violent street protests erupted after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s 2009 reelection, CIA dirty hands all over them. The so-called “green movement” failed, an effort to return Iran to US client state status.

Iranian authorities accused the US, UK, and Western media of fomenting unrest. Since the country’s 1979 revolution, ending a generation of US-installed fascist tyranny, the Islamic Republic has been a prime US target for regime change.

January 2018 protests in Tehran and elsewhere in Iran followed a similar pattern. Carefully planned and staged, there was nothing spontaneous about them.

Armed insurgents were responsible for about 20 deaths, numerous injuries and disruptive violence, President Hassan Rouhani saying at the time:

“The enemies of the Islamic Republic of Iran are angry with the glory, success, and the progress of the Iranian nation, and they have vowed to get the regional troubles into Iran, but, sure, the people and officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran will respond to them.”

Russia’s Foreign Ministry slammed what went on, saying: “External interference destabilizing the situation (in Iran) is unacceptable.”

Events were similar to late 2013, early 2014 Euromaidan violent protests in Kiev. The Obama regime’s coup involved snipers, killing, and injuring hundreds of civilians and police, firing on them with automatic weapons from Kiev’s Philharmonic Hall.

US-installed fascist tyranny in Europe’s heartland replaced Ukraine’s democracy, the country used as a dagger aimed at Russia’s heartland.

CIA color revolutions involve paramilitaries and/or other anti-government elements, including insurgents from other countries.

Tactics include orchestrated mass protests, shootings, Molotov cocktail bombings, arson, and other vandalism against state facilities, barricades of burning tires and/or rubbish, blocking roads, and other hostile actions.

 

===========

 

o.

The Hugely Important OPCW Scandal Keeps Unfolding.

Here’s Why No One’s Talking About It.

[ http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52570.htm ]

&

https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/the-hugely-important-opcw-scandal-keeps-unfolding-heres-why-no-one-s-talking-about-it-3632903f22a2

by Caitlin Johnstone

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is now hemorrhaging evidence that the US and its allies deceived the world once again about yet another military intervention, which should be a front-page story all over the world. Yet if you looked at American news media headlines you’d think the only thing that matters right now is indulging the childish fantasy that Donald Trump might somehow magically be removed from office via supermajority consensus in a majority-Republican Senate.

CounterPunch has published [ an actual bombshell of a report ] by journalist Jonathan Steele containing many revelations about the OPCW scandal which were previously unknown to the public. Steele is an [ award-winning reporter ] who worked as a senior foreign correspondent for The Guardian back before that outlet was [ purged of all critical thinkers on western imperialism ]; he [ first waded into the OPCW controversy last month ] with a statement made on the BBC revealing the existence of a second whistleblower on the organisation’s investigation into an alleged chemical weapons attack in Douma, Syria.

If you haven’t been following this story you can [ click here for a timeline of events ] to fully appreciate the significance of these new revelations about the Douma incident, but just to quickly recap, in April of last year reports surfaced that dozens of civilians had been killed in that city by chemical weapons used by the Syrian government under President Bashar al-Assad. This immediately drew skepticism from people who’ve been paying attention to the narrative manipulation campaign against Syria, since Assad had already won the battle for Douma and had no strategic reason to employ banned weapons there knowing that there would be a military strike in retaliation from western powers. True to form, a few days later the US, France and the UK launched airstrikes on the Syrian government.

 

===========

 

p.

From: S. K. [mailto:srebrenica.historical.project@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2019
Subject: Srebrenica Historical Project: Real-time official silence about Srebrenica "genocide"

unnamed.jpg

Postbus 90471,

2509LL

Den Haag, The Netherlands

+381 64 403 3612  (Serbia)

E-mail: srebrenica.historical.project@gmail.com

 

__________________________

Contemporaneous US Government consultations were strangely silent on Srebrenica genocide

[ http://srebrenica-project.org ]

 

===========

 

q.

Activist Scott Warren, Facing Federal Charges for Aiding Migrants, Says He Won’t Be Deterred

[ https://www.democracynow.org/2019/8/19/no_more_deaths_scott_warren ]

+

Arizona activist who gave migrants humanitarian aid

acquitted in second trial

[ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/20/arizona-activist-migrants-trial-scott-warren ]

+

 

CAPITOL POLICE ATTEMPTED TO ARREST CODE PINK

 

ACTIVIST MEDEA BENJAMIN FOR ALLEGEDLY

 

‘ASSAULTING’ CONGRESSWOMAN DEBBIE WASSERMAN

 

SCHULTZ

 

https://shadowproof.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Screen-Shot-2019-11-13-at-6.47.15-PM-750x485.png

[ https://shadowproof.com/2019/11/13/without-proof-dc-police-attempted-to-arrest-code-pink-activist-medea-benjamin-for-allegedly-assaulting-congresswoman-debbie-wasserman-schultz/ ]

 

===========

 

r.

From: newsfromunderground@googlegroups.com On Behalf Of Mark Crispin Miller
Sent: Wednesday, November 13, 2019
Subject: [MCM] News from Underground now marked as a "deceptive site"

 

The crackdown continues.

MCM

 

Posted on Facebook by Maggie Zhou:

The censors are using all the strong arming tactics to prevent truthful news from spreading. When you try to visit the excellent website by professor Mark Crispin Miller ("News From Underground") with cutting edge news and brief commentaries, you have to jump through the hoop first by ignoring the warning message "Deceptive site ahead"! ... You can sign up for his email newsletter to be up-to-date.

 

===========

 

s.

Fights & arrests as 1000+ antifa-like protesters swarm Ann Coulter event at UC Berkeley (VIDEOS)

Fights & arrests as 1000+ antifa-like protesters swarm Ann Coulter event at UC Berkeley (VIDEOS)

[ https://www.rt.com/usa/474019-coulter-protest-surrounded-antifa-speech/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Email ]

 

===========

 

t.

[ News From Underground ]

From: newsfromunderground@googlegroups.com On Behalf Of Mark Crispin Miller
Sent: Friday, November 22, 2019
Subject: [MCM] Why we "forget" what happened on this day in 1963—and do so at our peril

... because it's still happening. 

MCM

 

Unspeakable Memories: The Day John Kennedy Died

[https://www.globalresearch.ca/day-john-kennedy-died/5695615 ]

 

By Edward Curtin

Global Research, November 22, 2019

Region: USA

Theme: HistoryIntelligenceMedia Disinformation

 

https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Kennedy_brothers-400x312.jpg

 

There is a vast literature on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, who died on a November 22nd Friday like this in 1963.  I have contributed my small share to such writing in an effort to tell the truth, honor him, and emphasize its profound importance in understanding the history of the last fifty-six years, but more importantly, what is happening in the U.S.A. today. In other words, to understand it in its most gut-wrenching reality: that the American national security state will obliterate any president that dares to buck its imperial war-making machine. It is a lesson not lost on all presidents since Kennedy.

 

Unless one is a government disinformation agent or is unaware of the enormous documentary evidence, one knows that it was the CIA that carried out JFK’s murder. Confirmation of this fact keeps arriving in easily accessible forms for anyone interested in the truth.  A case in point is James DiEugenio’s recent posting at his website, KennedysandKing, of James Wilcott’s affidavit and interrogation by the House Select Committee on Assassinations, declassified by the Assassinations Record Review Board in 1998.  In that document, Wilcott, who worked in the finance department for the CIA and was not questioned by the Warren Commission, discusses how he unwittingly paid Lee Harvey Oswald, the government’s alleged assassin, through a cryptonym and how it was widely known and celebrated at his CIA station in Tokyo that the CIA killed Kennedy and Oswald worked for the Agency, although he did not shoot JFK. I highly recommend reading the document.

 

I do not here want to go into any further analysis or debate about the case.  I think the evidence is overwhelming that the President was murdered by the national security state. Why he was murdered, and the implications for today, are what concern me. And how and why we remember and forget public events whose consequences become unbearable to contemplate, and the fatal repercussions of that refusal.  In what I consider the best book ever written on the subject, JFK and the Unspeakable:Why He Died and Why It Matters (2009), James W. Douglass explains this in detail, including the James Wilcott story.

 

Realizing what I am about to say might be presumptuous and of no interest to anyone but myself, I will nevertheless try to describe my emotional reactions to learning of John Kennedy’s murder so long ago and how that reverberated down through my life. I hope  my experiences might help explain why so many people today can’t face the consequences of the tragic history that began that day and have continued to the present, among which are not just the other assassinations of the 1960s but the lies about the attacks of September 11, 2001 and the subsequent endless and murderous “war on terror” with its mind-numbing propaganda and the recent anti-Russia phobia and the blatant celebration of the so-called “deep-state’s” open efforts to overthrow another president, albeit a very different one.