Things to consider—

Since early 2011, Obama's been waging proxy war on Syria. Imported death squads masquerade as freedom fighters. The scheme's familiar. It repeats. It reflects US imperialism's dark side. In the 1980s, CIA-recruited mujahideen fighters battled Afghanistan's Soviet occupiers. Ronald Reagan called them "the moral equivalent of our founding fathers." He characterized Contra killers the same way. —Stephen LendmanFor over a century now US ambassadors have acted as fifth columns in the nations they are embedded in, their role chiefly to foster corporate and plutocratic power and coordinate machinations against any truly pro-democratic government.•••••"The dead end identity politics of SF Pride, which sells out a peace hero like Bradley Manning to curry favor with the American ruling class, is what I had in mind. The empire loves your tameness, irrelevance and cowardice, SF Pride. You don’t bother the American ruling class — a five foot two, 105 pound soldier does because he has a conscience and because he didn’t make comfort the guiding principle of his life...." —Randy Shields
  • Apple’s tax dodge: The case for public ownership

    Apple’s tax dodge: The case for public ownership

    Guest Editorials— By Andre Damon, wsws.org The US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a report Monday showing that electronics giant Apple Inc. uses offshore tax shelters to avoid taxes on the majority of its income and cheated the US government out of $9 billion in 2012 alone. That same day, a tornado leveled the town [...]

  • Rise Up or Die

    Rise Up or Die

     By Chris Hedges Joe Sacco and I spent two years reporting from the poorest pockets of the United States for our book “Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt.”We went into our nation’s impoverished “sacrifice zones”—the first areas forced to kneel before the dictates of the marketplace—to show what happens when unfettered corporate capitalism and ceaseless economic expansion [...]

  • Why Corporate Media Focuses on Benghazi Instead of Guatemalan Genocide

    Why Corporate Media Focuses on Benghazi Instead of Guatemalan Genocide

    AlterNet [1] / By Sean McElwee [2] Last week two important stories about U.S. foreign policy broke. First, the White House released some 100 pages of e-mails confirming a dastardly scandal: rather than call the Benghazi attack a “terrorist act,” President Obama, in a Nixonian power grab, called it an, “act of terror.” Did you like this? Share it:

  • Religious Barbarians

    Religious Barbarians

    From Tbilisi to Worchester by CHRISTOPHER BRAUCHLI (With report & VIDEO by PressTV, see addendum below) It was humanity at its best.  Showing compassion for the quick and the dead.  The quick made news in Tbilisi, Georgia.  The dead made news in Worcester, Massachusetts. Did you like this? Share it:

  • The Strange Trial of Ríos Montt

    The Strange Trial of Ríos Montt

    Despite Annulment, Genocide Trial a Breakthrough for Justice and Truth by LUZ MENDEZ The sentence of 80 years in prison against former de facto president Efraín Ríos Montt for genocide and crimes against humanity committed during Guatemala’s armed conflict, emitted on May 10, 2013, was annulled by the Constitutional Court ten days later. The court’s [...]

  • Russians pick best ruler of USSR and pre-Putin Russia

    Russians pick best ruler of USSR and pre-Putin Russia

    SOURCE: Pravda.ru Among all leaders of the Soviet Union and the pre-Putin Russia, Russians are most positive about Leonid Brezhnev. As many as 56 percent of respondents praised his work while 29 percent said that they shared a negative attitude to his persona. Did you like this? Share it:

  • Why Disinformation Works —

    Why Disinformation Works —

    By Paul Craig Roberts Have you ever wondered how the government’s misinformation gains traction?What I have noticed is that whenever a stunning episode occurs, such as 9/11 or the Boston Marathon bombing, most everyone whether on the right or left goes along with the government’s explanation, because they can hook their agenda to the government’s [...]

  • The Silent Death of the American Left

    The Silent Death of the American Left

    Generation Leftover by JEFFREY ST. CLAIR, Counterpunch Is there a Left in America today? There is, of course, a Left ideology, a Left of the mind, a Left of theory and critique. But is there a Left movement? Does the Left exist as an oppositional political, cultural or economic force? Is anyone intimidated or restrained [...]

Pro-Environment Groups Outmatched, Outspent in Battle Over Climate Change Legislation

 ANNOTATED NEWS, ASSHOLES, BASTARDS & CRIMINALS, ENVIRONMENTAL STRUGGLES  Comments Off
May 132011
 

By Evan Mackinder

Betrayed by corrupt and hypocritical politicians, whorish media, criminal oil companies, and inept enviros.

IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THEIR TIME.

With significant majorities in Congress, a president promising action and favorable public opinion all on their side, many environmentalists believed their political stars had properly — and finally — aligned.

Sensing the unique opportunity to address global warming on a national scale, environmental interest groups poured considerable capital into federal lobbying expenditures in an effort to topple their significantly more wealthy foes in the energy industry whose political standing appeared uncharacteristically wobbly. Continue reading »

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Hairy-Chested Liberals Exult: Big Question, Who Do We Kill Next?

 ANNOTATED NEWS, IMPERIALISM, LIBERAL BETRAYALS  Comments Off
May 132011
 

CounterPunch Diary

By ALEXANDER COCKBURN | May 13 – 15, 2011

NYT's Maureen Dowd: "Nothing to apologize" Still enjoying the afterglow from Osama's killing.

Pinko terror-symps and the “rule of law” gang  may cavil and whine at the lack of legal propriety in the execution of Osama , but it’s not cutting much ice with liberal America.  For long years what might be called the “progressive” segment of American voters have chafed at Republican gibes that their guy Obama is a wimp, all the more irritably because deep down many of them thought the charge had some merit.

But now the former professor of constitutional law is really and truly an American. He’s flashed his  long, long Cadillac of a birth certificate, not merely the unconvincing shorty going the rounds for years. Better still, he has cojones.  Bigger cojones than those of  George Bush, who said that the capture of Osama was of no interest to him. Obama  didn’t task the Navy SEALs: “if Osama shows no sign of resistance, it is your duty under Rules of Engagement to bring him home alive to face a fair trial.” No. He said “Make sure it’s Osama, then kill him.” Continue reading »

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True stories of bloggers who secretly feed on partisan cash

 ANNOTATED NEWS, CITIZEN TOOLS  Comments Off
May 132011
 

By Jonathan Strong – The Daily Caller

This is a repost

Katie Couric once described bloggers as journalists who gnaw at new information “like piranhas in a pool.” But increasingly, many bloggers are also secretly feeding on cash from political campaigns, in a form of partisan payola that erases the line between journalism and paid endorsement.

“It’s standard operating procedure” to pay bloggers for favorable coverage, says one Republican campaign operative. A GOP blogger-for-hire estimates that “at least half the bloggers that are out there” on the Republican side “are getting remuneration in some way beyond ad sales.” Continue reading »

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The PBS Mediocre News Corral: Lehrer Steps Down

 ANNOTATED NEWS, MEDIA SCUM  Comments Off
May 132011
 

FAIR Media Advisory
Will NewsHour do more to fulfill PBS mission?

This article is crossposted with http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=4287 }  5/13/11

Lehrer: He started believing his own press. Another disgraceful member of the nation's commentariat.

PBS NewsHour anchor Jim Lehrer announced on Thursday that he would step down as anchor of the nightly newscast early next month. Will the change lead to improvements at the program?

As FAIR has documented in several major studies, the NewsHour falls well short of fulfilling the mission that should guide public broadcasting: the promotion of ideas and viewpoints that are too often excluded from discussions in the commercial media. The founding mandate of public television is to “be a forum for debate and controversy” and to “help us see America whole, in all its diversity.” Continue reading »

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IRS Targets Donors to Politically Engaged Nonprofits

 ANNOTATED NEWS, Policies & Politicians  Comments Off
May 132011
 

By Zachary Newkirk on May 11, 2011

The Internal Revenue Service is beginning to enforce taxes on gifts to 501(c)(4) organizations, a move that could significantly affect the world of money in politics.

Various 501(c)(4) nonprofit groups such as the the American Action Network and Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies have poured millions of dollars into federal election campaigns, even though they are not, by law, supposed to have a primary purpose of engaging in political activity.

Donors to these groups are anonymous, and gifts to political groups are typically not taxable. But the IRS has begun taking a closer look at taxing these donors, according to Ben Smith of Politico. Continue reading »

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The social counterrevolution in America and the tasks of the working class

 ANNOTATED NEWS, CLASS STRUGGLE  Comments Off
May 132011
 

Editor’s Note: Although as independent leftists of many stripes we’re not members nor affiliated with the Socialist Equality Party (SEP), a political formation with roots in the Fourth International (a Trotskyst current), we often publish their analyses and certainly find many if not all of their viewpoints compelling and worthy of note. By the same token, when we take exception to one of their positions, we say so. Below, an analysis of the present crisis by the SEP’s National Secretary, which we think merits your attention.

JOSEPH KISHORE |  13 May 2011

Joseph Kishore

Two and a half years after the Wall Street collapse and multi-trillion dollar bail-out of corporate swindlers, the ruling class is carrying out a savage and unprecedented assault on the living standards and basic social rights of tens of millions of working class families in the United States. Against the backdrop of an intractable recession, with long term unemployment at its highest level since the 1930s, the political elite—Democrats and Republicans alike—are engaged in a bipartisan campaign to destroy crucial social programs upon which the working class depends.

What is unfolding in the United States is a social counter-revolution—the ruthless and systematic destruction of the fundamental gains and social rights won by the working class over a century of struggle. Continue reading »

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