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
  • Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby versus Prince Harry and his polo-playing American friends

    Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby versus Prince Harry and his polo-playing American friends

    By David Walsh, wsws.org “Prince Harry rounded off his hugely successful week-long tour of the U.S. today very much in his comfort zone – playing polo. … He was greeted by club founder Peter Brandt [sic] and his model wife, Stephanie Seymour. Brandt, 65, – whose wife is 44 – is an American industrialist and [...]

  • Disconnect: Soaring Markets/Troubled Economies

    Disconnect: Soaring Markets/Troubled Economies

    by Stephen Lendman Capitalism has succeeded in capturing governments around the world. Forget everything you learned about markets, economics and finance. Perhaps Newton, Galileo, Copernicus, Darwin, Freud, Einstein, and other noted figures were wrong.  Central banks run today’s world. Major ones matter most. Money printing madness controls everything. Love doesn’t make the world go round. [...]

  • Can America Come to Terms with Boston Bombing Suspect's Stated Motives?

    Can America Come to Terms with Boston Bombing Suspect’s Stated Motives?

    Consortium News [1] / By Ray McGovern [2] Quick, somebody tell CIA Director John Brennan about the handwriting on the inside wall of the boat in which Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was hiding before Boston-area police riddled it and him with bullets. Tell Brennan that Tsarnaev’s note is in plain English and that it needs neither translation nor interpretation in solving the [...]

  • A new film version of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby

    A new film version of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby

    By David Walsh, wsws.org Directed by Baz Luhrmann, co-written by Luhrmann and Craig Pearce, based on the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald “It’s not all rubbish,” cried Amory passionately. “This is the first time in my life I’ve argued Socialism. It’s the only panacea I know. I’m restless. My whole generation is restless. I’m sick [...]

  • Obama’s New Appointments Prove that He Will Continue to Lick Wall Street’s Boots In His Second Term

    Obama’s New Appointments Prove that He Will Continue to Lick Wall Street’s Boots In His Second Term

    by WashingtonsBlog Puts Fox In Charge of the Henhouse … Again The party line is that Obama’s new pick for SEC boss – Mary Jo White – will be tough on Wall Street. For example, the Wall Street Journal writes: Obama Taps Ex-Prosecutor Mary Jo White, Portending Increased Policing of Wall Street In reality, this is putting the [...]

  • Pole dancing for the faint-hearted

    Let the Real Housewives try this for a change. Did you like this? Share it:

  • IRS Scandal Headlines: More Than Meets the Eye

    IRS Scandal Headlines: More Than Meets the Eye

    by Stephen Lendman More than targeting political enemies is involved. More on than below. The practice is longstanding. Republican and Democrat administrations use the IRS abusively.  During the Coolidge administration, Republican Senator James Couzens investigated the IRS’ predecessor – the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).  Did you like this? Share it:

  • Putin v. Obama et al

    Putin v. Obama et al

    by Stephen Lendman On May 16, the Wall Street Journal headlined “Russia Raises Stakes in Syria,” saying: Russia “sent a dozen or more warships to patrol waters near its naval base in Syria, a buildup that US and European officials see as a newly aggressive stance meant partly to warn the West and Israel not to intervene [...]

Social Democracy and Social Progress

 ANNOTATED NEWS, CAPITALISM & SOCIALISM, EU.Britain, EU.FRANCE, EU.Greece, EU.Italy, EU.Spain  1 Response »
Jun 092011
 

By Steve McGiffen, Spectrezine

It’s clear people all over the world had just about enough of the kleptocracy’s lies and multiple crimes.

A recent poll conducted in the US, Britain, Germany and Sweden found that the vast majority of people in those countries do not believe that governments can stand up to vested interests, while sizeable minorities – almost three in ten in Britain – are sceptical of any possibility that governments can be effective in bringing about positive social change.

In the UK Blair completed the dismantling of Labour as an instrument of the working class, a process that had begun long before he came to power. His "lapdog" complicity with the Clinton and Bush regimes makes him not only a betrayer of public aspirations but a world class war criminal, as well.

EUROPEAN centre-left leaders gathered recently in Oslo to discuss their difficulties in winning power, as well as their inability to do anything with it once they’ve got it.

Patrick Diamond believes that recent local electoral success “cannot disguise the governing crisis which threatens Labour’s very survival as a party of power.” He should know. He was one of the author’s of the British Labour Party’s last election manifesto. This ‘crisis’ is not confined to Britain, however. Continue reading »

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Chávez Defends Colombia Policy, Insists on “Respect” for Venezuelan Sovereignty

 ANNOTATED NEWS, LatinAm-VENEZUELA  Comments Off
Jun 092011
 

How obtuse is this policy when applied robotically to left militants who resist Colombia’s murderous rightwing regimes in cahoots with imperialism?  Who the hell is advising Chavez?—Eds

“I lived up to my responsibility and we captured him … Those who now want to call me a traitor to the global Marxist-Leninist cause, well that’s fine.”—Hugo Chavez

Jun 3rd 2011, by Franklin Rosales - Venezuelanalysis.com
Editor’s Note: We have included as a bonus feature a strong critical commentary on Chavez’ foreign policy by a respected Venezuelan revolutionist, a member of UNETE, Roberto López Sanchez. Unfortunately, the material is in Spanish so you’ll have to use our translator utility to obtain a workable version in English. Just click on the TRANSLATE link above left.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez walking with Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos (archive).

Mérida, June 3rd, 2011 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – Yesterday Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez reiterated his assertions that all outlawed organizations based in neighboring Colombia “must respect” Venezuela’s territorial sovereignty.

Referring to right-wing paramilitary groups, drug trafficking cartels, and leftist guerrilla organizations involved in the decades-long conflict in Colombia, Chávez said that his government “can not permit the presence of any illegal armed groups in Venezuela.” Chávez’s comments came just days after Venezuelan authorities detained another suspected member of the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC), provoking new criticisms from the Venezuelan and international left. Continue reading »

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Venezuelan Governments Detains Suspected FARC Musician Julián Conrado

 ANNOTATED NEWS, LatinAm-VENEZUELA, US Foreign Policy  Comments Off
Jun 092011
 

Why is the Chavez government collaborating with the ultra-reactionary Colombian regimes and betraying FARC members? Is this a case of extreme “realpolitik” to avoid further encroachment by the imperial forces, through what is obviously appeasement, or just a very bad idea? If Pres. Chavez thinks that he can keep his class enemies at bay by handing over FARC personnel to their sworn enemies, he’s sadly mistaken.  In any case, Chavez’ foreign policy is clearly in need of finetuning as to side automatically with “the enemy of my enemy” may not make for an intelligent long-term course. And why not give such FARC militants the option of asylum in another nation instead of simply turning them over to Colombia?—Eds.

Jun 2nd 2011, by Franklin Rosales – Venezuelanalysis.com

Colombia’s Guillermo Enrique Torres (aka Julián Conrado, or “The Singer”), captured by Venezuelan authorities on 31 May 2011 (Photo: Archive).

Mérida, June 2nd 2011 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – On Tuesday Venezuelan authorities detained another suspected member of the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC), promising to extradite 57-year old Guillermo Enrique Torres (aka Julián Conrado, or “The Singer”) to neighboring Colombia in the coming days. In what has become a repeated occurrence in recent months, Venezuelan and Colombian authorities are said to have worked together to capture the suspected rebel.

Torres, a leftist singer-songwriter from Colombia, was first thought to have been killed during Colombia’s 2008 raid on a FARC encampment in Ecuador. DNA evidence later proved that the victim was not Torres but an Ecuadorian civilian. Continue reading »

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Letter from nurse on restructuring of Florida Medicaid system

 ANNOTATED NEWS, ASSHOLES, BASTARDS & CRIMINALS, Healthcare struggle, Olympian-class scumbags  Comments Off
Jun 092011
 

We reproduce below a letter received by our fellow progressive site, The World Socialist Web Site on the referenced issue. The letter is eloquent and self-explanatory so it requires no further introduction.—Eds

9 June 2011

Rick Scott, the "Medicaid/Medicare Bandit", creme de la creme in a crowded field of scumbag politicians, and poster boy for a rotten system.

AS AN ACTIVE Florida RN [Registered Nurse] with over 34 years experience in three states, I would like to add a comment or two regarding your May 17, 2011, article “Florida to restructure Medicaid to benefit insurance industry.”

I am currently working as a complex case manager for a Florida HMO [Health Maintenance Organization] Medicaid company. I feel it is important to add that the majority of the HMO Medicaid providers offer their patients substandard care. They are rapidly closing their panels to new Medicaid patients.  Is it because of the low reimbursement they receive, their lacking of medical expertise, or their just not really caring about the welfare of people, especially the poor? Continue reading »

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