CAITLIN JOHNSTONE—The American supremacist vision of unipolarity Krauthammer based his worldview upon has led to entire nations being collapsed under the false pretenses of spreading freedom and democracy, when in reality they were first and foremost geared at preserving that very unipolarity as a goal in and of itself. US-led wars of aggression are about power and dominance; believing that the most powerful empire in the history of civilization isn’t driven primarily by a hunger for power is like believing that Jeff Bezos is uninterested in money or Kim Kardashian is uninterested in fame. This insatiable power hunger is what Krauthammer dedicated his life’s work to feeding, no matter how many lives it cost.
READ ON
Reliving Terror
ROWAN WOLF—This is a policy deliberate in its cruelty to whip a “base” to hate these created “others” who it is claimed are coming to “infest” the United States. It is a deliberately cruel policy where the horror is being used to push through two other policy goals – to build an expensive and dangerous wall, and to recraft immigration into the United States to effectively ban the “brown” people from crossing into the United States.
READ ON
Slow Suicide and the Abandonment of the World
ED CURTIN—So yes, I do think most people are victims. No one chooses their parents, or to be born into poverty, or to be discriminated against for one’s race, etc. No one chooses to have their genuine experience poisoned from childhood. No one chooses to be born into a mad society. This is all true. Some are luckier than others. Suicides, fast and slow, are victims. But not just victims. This is not about blame, but understanding. For those who commit to lives of slow suicide, to the squelching of their true selves and their consciences in the face of a rapacious and murderous society, there is always the chance they can break with the norm and go sane. Redemption is always possible. But it primarily involves overcoming the fear of death, a fear that manifests itself in the extreme need to preserve one’s life, so-called social identity, and sense of self by embracing social conventions…
READ ON
Anti-Communist ‘Academia’ ALL LIES – Interview with Prof Grover Furr (Video)
From George Orwell to Robert Conquest to Solzenytsin, very few people have bothered to check the sources on which they base their sweeping anti-communist ‘conclusions’. Professor Grover Furr, a talented linguist and Historian, with an interest in the USSR, Stalin and the communist movement, has done just that, and it is his evaluation of ALL the sources and ALL the footnotes that allows him to reach an authoritative opinion on the true value of these ‘bibles of anti-communism. It turns out that the overwhelmingly reactionary Polish and Ukrainian sources are ALL biased, or outright fabrications.
READ ON
Internment Camps for Child Migrants
R S AHTHION—It is of course no surprise that the Americans’ response to a humanitarian crisis they created be the disgusting internment camps reminiscent of World war 2.
The thousands of people turning up at the borders of the United States are the refugees from capitalism and a violent foreign policy led by the leaders of the United States (Democrats or Republicans). Therefore that border is not worthy of respect.
READ ON
Exposure to mainstream media: the daily insult
P. GREANVILLE—Every single day, from cradle to grave, the American population is subjected to a nonstop barrage of lies, omissions of truths and outrageous distortions, with the sole purpose of maintaining the nation’s allegiance to the imperialist/capitalist status quo anchored in constant war and unstoppable inequality. The American system of disinformation, evolved over more than a century, fools just about everyone with its apparent diversity of sources. After all the US has literally thousands of “news” outlets, from radio stations to tv stations, newspapers and other channels, and people reckon that this enormous quantity of media must automatically guarantee a vigorous debate of the issues at hand and the presentation of all viewpoints. They could not be more wrong. This diversity is an illusion.
READ ON
THE AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM MYTH AND THE SELLING OF U.S. DOMINATION
GEOFFREY O’NEILL—Most Americans are unaware of the amount of human suffering the U.S. government has inflicted on others throughout the world, especially post 9/11. We are incessantly told it is our duty to support the troops and our leaders who invade, bomb or otherwise intervene in other nations. The motives offered might be to stop genocide, to take down a maniacal despot, or to spread democracy and American values. Our government purportedly acts with reluctance as well as with compassion, respect for others, and good intent. We are reminded that the troops keep us safe, all the while helping spread the American way of life to a needy world. Why? It is because we are “exceptional.”
READ ON
WAR & REVOLUTION2
An interview with Dr. John Ackerman – professor of law at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), columnist with La Jornada newspaper and Proceso Magazine, and a frequent contributor to international media such as The New York Times, Le Monde Diplomatique and Foreign Policy – regarding the myth of the transition to democracy in Mexico, the imminence of fraud in the upcoming presidential election, and the promise of a progressive government led by Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
READ ON
If the Chinese don’t believe in democracy, do they believe in meritocracy?
ROBIN DAVERMAN—To say that China is a democracy is over-simplification – because China always believed that “we will practice democracy among people who pick up trash, and we’ll be authoritarian among people who only want free popsicles.” From 5,000 years ago to today, every year, hundreds of millions of people face annual flooding of the major river systems, and they have to choose – do you stay home to protect your own property, or do you go work on the common dam which can be both dangerous and backbreaking. The guys who come for free popsicle or the guys who come to pick up the trash. Your own survival depends on it.
READ ON
Anyone Promoting Regime Change In Iran Is An Evil Piece Of Shit
CAITLIN JOHNSTONE—Neocons are always wrong about foreign policy. Always. There’s no reason to believe Trump spearheading a longstanding neocon agenda would work out any better than Bush or any other neocon.
READ ON
Anatomy of a False Consensus
JASON HIRTHLER—If freedom and democracy are the movie posters that sheathe the reality of imperialism, then the onscreen mise-en-scene is populated by stock characters that supply the illusion of debate, of democracy in action. What it really is, is the insular consensus of a hidebound elite. Their children aren’t being deployed, their jobs aren’t being offshored, their paychecks aren’t being garnished…
READ ON
How Iran got economically socialist, and then Islamic socialist
RAMIN MAZAHERI—The bonyads are not just in consumer goods but have been awarded parts of more sensitive economic sectors; the same goes for the Basij, another co-operative foundation. However, it’s the Revolutionary Guards who have been handed partial control of the big portfolios, sectors and projects upon which the country’s well•being depends: oil, telecommunications, large•scale development and construction. This was obviously all by plan (and not “market forces”), and all of these groups, their political backers and their employees have discouraged private competition because their ideology is that the state should control it — they prefer the bonyads (and Basji and the Revolutionary Guards) to Western capitalism (ands thus Western capitalists).
READ ON
Social Media Giants Choking Independent News Site Traffic to a Trickle
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License Parting shot—a word from the editors The Best Definition of Donald Trump We Have Found In his zeal to prove to his antagonists
READ ON