MICHAEL PARENTI needs little introduction to (genuine) left audiences. Via scores of excellent books (Democracy for the Few, Inventing Reality, etc.), numerous brilliant lectures here and abroad, and the lifetime example of a revolutionary intellectual, he has given people seriously committed to social change rich tools with which to wage their struggles. The featured lecture, The Assassination of Julius Caesar, delves deeply into the politics of the age of Caesar, and delivers a badly needed rectification in connection with his role and eventual place in history. The true story of Julius Caesar’s character and the policies that led to his murder are as absorbing as they are relevant to the struggles of our own time. The talk is based on his book, The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People’s History of Ancient Rome.
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by Stephen Lendman
Compared to a rogue’s gallery of Republican aspirants, supporters claim Paul looks good by comparison. Look again and think carefully about America in his hands.
True enough, he wants the Federal Reserve abolished. He calls it “dishonest, immoral, unconstitutional,” and America’s “great(est) threat to….security and prosperity.”
“Out-of-control (and) secretive, (it) pumps money into the economy whenever it chooses and makes secret deals with Wall Street executives, foreign central banks, and other politically-connected insiders without any significant oversight from Congress.” Read more…
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Editor’s Note:
When it comes to the scoundrels sinking the post office bit by bit, the postman doesn’t have to call twice…or ever. The cry that the USPS is “unsound” fiscally is as false as the arguments that the social security fund is in need of urgent (read: privatization) repair. Both are shameless lies. —PG
By Stephen Lendman
At a time of open-checkbook military spending, multiple imperial wars, Wall Street bailouts, handouts to other corporate favorites, transferring unprecedented wealth to America’s rich, and preserving their tax cuts and other benefits for more, austerity is impoverishing millions, destroying their futures, and wrecking America’s Postal Service (USPS).
The 1970 Postal Reorganization Act (PRA) made the Postal Service self-sustaining. It was exempted from the general budget, funding laws, and executive branch control. It’s run as an independent federal agency on its own.
During the 1970s and 1980s, by administrative decision, it was at times included and excluded from executive budgetary consideration, depending on whether surpluses or deficits occurred. Read more…
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ANNOTATED
Chris Hedges on Christopher Hitchens (radio interview)
Christopher Hitchens is remembered here by Chris Hedges (above), who faced off against Hitchens in his writing and public debate about U.S. foreign policy and Hitchens’ brand of atheism. Chris Hedges is the author of books including “The World As It Is”, “Death of The Liberal Class”, “Empire of Illusion”, and “I Don’t Believe In Atheists.” (Intro courtesy by CBC). Read more…
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Dave Lindorff
Ron Paul’s positions are not all to be dismissed out of hand, and many promise far more honesty and democratic government (not to mention an anti-imperialist stance) than any of his opponents’ platforms (which are execrable, of course). But his libertarianism is a huge obstacle to his acceptance as a well-rounded political solution to the myriad problem facing the American republic. As the author says, “Libertarianism is at its core an ugly anti-social philosophy of selfishness carried to the extreme. It is the antithesis of all that has been good in human social evolution — the creation of philosophies of caring and of societies in which suffering and want are addressed and, where possible, ameliorated.”
Ron Paul says he’d end the wars, end the drug “war” and “war” on terror, and respect the Bill of Rights. Who else would do that?
It’s fascinating to watch the long knives coming out for Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul, now that according to some mainstream polls he has become the front-running candidate in the Jan. 3 GOP caucus race in Iowa, and perhaps also in the first primary campaign in New Hampshire.
Remember, we’re talking about a guy who has been in Congress on and off for 12 terms, dating back to 1976. His views have been pretty consistent, and because he has run for president several times, also pretty well known. A practicing physician who claims to have helped in the births of over 4000 babies in his career, the 76-year-old Paul is a free-market advocate, an abortion opponent, an uncompromising defender of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, an opponent of government regulation, the Federal Reserve and the IRS, and of big government in general–especially big federal government. Read more…
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Year-end selects from our archives
Texas Congressman Joe Barton & his retinue. What would the “little Eichmanns” of BP and other corporations do without the enabling rendered by such revolting political prostitutes?
By Chris Hedges [Originally Posted on May 16, 2010]
Cultures that do not recognize that human life and the natural world have a sacred dimension, an intrinsic value beyond monetary value, cannibalize themselves until they die. They ruthlessly exploit the natural world and the members of their society in the name of progress until exhaustion or collapse, blind to the fury of their own self-destruction. The oil pouring into the Gulf of Mexico, estimated to be perhaps as much as 100,000 barrels a day, is part of our foolish death march. It is one more blow delivered by the corporate state, the trade of life for gold. But this time collapse, when it comes, will not be confined to the geography of a decayed civilization. It will be global. Read more…
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