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 [...]

  • Argentinean Nightmare

    Argentinean Nightmare

    Patricio Pron’s “My Father’s Ghost is Climbing in the Rain” by CHARLES R. LARSON, Counterpunch Patricio Pron’s publishers refer to My Father’s Ghost Is Climbing in the Rain as an autobiographical novel.  More likely, the book is an autobiography with a few details altered to protect the innocent, although the innocent became victims long ago.  The book [...]

  • Stockholm Smolders

    Stockholm Smolders

    Xenophobia Rising in Sweden by S.C. HAHN—Stockholm. •••• Stockholm has been the scene of riots this week, to much of the world’s surprise, with the unrest flaring up in immigrant-dominated neighborhoods on the city’s periphery. The Stockholm media reports cars burning in at least fifteen suburbs, stone-throwing against police, firefighters and ambulance personnel, injured police [...]

  • Benghazi: Imperialist Outpost

    Benghazi: Imperialist Outpost

    Politicized-Militarized Diplomacy by NORMAN POLLACK I am not naïve.  Embassies have been centers of intrigue, propaganda disseminators, bases for political intervention in a nation’s internal affairs, intermediaries for the promotion of markets and investments, etc., practices not confined to those representing the US, and hardly confined to recent times.  That said, Benghazi (technically, a consulate), signifies, as [...]

  • OpEds—Capitalism: "Horror Without End"

    OpEds—Capitalism: “Horror Without End”

    by John Peterson, Socialist Appeal The stream of distressing news seems to flow endlessly: School shootings from Colorado to Connecticut. Factory collapses and explosions from Bangladesh to Texas. Terrorist attacks from Pakistan to Boston. Crumbling infrastructure from Mexico City to Minneapolis. Kidnappings and torture from Ciudad Juarez to Cleveland. War and civil war from Syria [...]

  • How Medea Benjamin got to heckle Obama

    How Medea Benjamin got to heckle Obama

    Speeches given in front of ‘vetted” sycophantic audiences, behind closed doors. A glorified photo-op perfectly apt for a manipulated democracy.  Did you like this? Share it:

  • Obama’s Orwellian rhetoric

    Obama’s Orwellian rhetoric, Congo war crimes, Jailed for silence, DOJ assault on Fox Source: RT.com On this episode of Breaking the Set, Abby Martin and political commentator Sam Sacks go over the Orwellian rhetoric in Obama’s latest foreign policy speech. Abby highlights a recent UN investigation bringing to light crimes against humanity committed by a [...]

Editorial: Don’t forget the BP assault on the Gulf

 ANNOTATED NEWS, CORPORATE CRIMES, GOVERNMENT CRIMES, SAVING THE PLANET  Comments Off
Dec 232011
 

Archives—
The note below was sent to our subscribers 3 May 2010 (about a month after the Deepwater rig explosion), as a comment on the Gulf oil spill catastrophe, an event whose political and ecological implications have scarcely been addressed, even if the media have moved on to other topics. Obviously I was pretty mad when I wrote these lines. I still am. Another disaster could happen tomorrow. One wonders what the response would be today with OWS on the march. Indeed, this is the type of outrage that created OWS.—Patrice Greanville
 

A word from the editor—

THERE ARE SIMPLY NO WORDS TO DESCRIBE MY FEELINGS OF ANGER AND FRUSTRATION IN CONNECTION WITH THE BP GULF COAST DISASTER. Appalled might come close. Outraged even closer. For this man-made calamity was long foretold, it was long announced, and any person of average education and intelligence could have acquired the facts about the situation and arrived at the obvious conclusions. And done something. But little was done, because lacking organizations to mobilize political action, lacking real representation, most Americans are essentially helpless in these situations.  Perennially blindsided by a system that automatically engenders such tragedies. So now we witness an event that marks a turning point in the degree of lethality triggered by human action on this helpless planet, the ultimate mother and home we and other creatures will ever have. Please do not confuse my words with what some enemies of environmental protection deride as “tree-hugging” sentimentality. Those are the simple facts, and they’re impeccably argued in Joel Kovel’s must-read THE ENEMY OF NATURE, an indispensable tool for anyone seeking answers to the ecological crisis and the path toward ecosocialism. Continue reading »
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 Posted by at 9:46 pm

Conning the public: People’s Capitalism

 ANNOTATED NEWS, POLITICAL ECONOMY, PROPAGANDA, PUTRID CORPOMEDIA, VIRTUAL UNIVERSITY  Comments Off
Dec 232011
 

FROM OUR ARCHIVES—
Systemic propaganda series
 

Editor’s Note: The material below was penned in 1982 and appeared in Cyrano’s Journal’s premiere issue (Fall 1982), as part of its first glossary of media and propaganda tricks whitewashing the face of capitalism. Cyrano’s Journal (CJ), was the first radical media & [western] propaganda review in the US.  Most “media reviews” at the time were published by establishment-supporting J-schools around the country indifferent to systemic political issues.  A regular cultural/political analysis of the media’s performance from a leftwing viewpoint was provided by Alex Cockburn.  From 1973 to 1983 he was a writer with The Village Voice, originating its longstanding “Press Clips” column. Later he was offered a regular column in The Nation called “Beat the Devil”.  His approach, however, remained one of exposing the grotesque falsifications of specific stories (something later done excellently by FAIR, Media Matters, Crooks & Liars, and others), than the compilation of methods and techniques of manipulation. In book and lecture form the great left pioneers of modern media criticism were Michael Parenti (Inventing Reality et al)—to whom I am deeply indebted—and, of course, Noam Chomsky and Ed Herman, who began to delve into press criticism as a result of their outspoken opposition to the perfidy and hypocrisy of US foreign policy, a long narrative of crimes and disinformation that the American media largely whitewashed, downplayed or omitted entirely. Lesser known but equally formidable critics and theoreticians such as Herbert I. Schiller (The Mind Managers), and certainly Alex Carey (Taking the Risk Out of Democracy) also made invaluable contributions. Now, with OWS rising, it’s important for new activists to see that the system they oppose has been deliberately lying and disinforming the public for a very long time, and that its manipulation resources remain as formidably pervasive as ever.  What’s more, none of these techniques of deception have been retired, and chances are that systemic propaganda will increase in virulence in the years ahead as challenges to the system’s legitimacy escalate. One final point: although the data quoted depicts a situation that existed almost three decades ago, the conclusions remain perfectly valid today, and if anything, given the pervasive criminality of the financial sector, more valid than ever. —PG Continue reading »

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 Posted by at 3:49 pm

Obama and Geithner: Government, Enron-Style

 ANNOTATED NEWS, FINANCE CAPITAL, INDECENT SLIMEBALLS, SCUMWATCH  Comments Off
Dec 232011
 

By Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone

21 December 11 

Strongly recommend this piece at the Huffington Post by Jeff Connaughton, a former aide to Senator Ted Kaufman. Jeff has long been one of the smartest guys on the Hill and is particularly strong on issues surrounding Wall Street and the regulatory system. In this piece, he takes apart the oft-stated mantra that what Wall Street firms did during and after the crisis was maybe unethical, but not illegal. He takes particular aim at Barack Obama, who tossed that line out on 60 Minutes in what I thought was one of the real low moments of his presidency. Here’s Jeff’s take:

Speaking in Kansas on December 6, [Obama] said, “Too often, we’ve seen Wall Street firms violating major anti-fraud laws because the penalties are too weak and there’s no price for being a repeat offender.” Just five days later on 60 Minutes, he said, “Some of the least ethical behavior on Wall Street wasn’t illegal.” Which is it? Have there been no prosecutions because Wall Street acted legally (albeit unethically)? Or did Wall Street repeatedly violate major anti-fraud laws (and should thus find itself in the dock)? Continue reading »

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 Posted by at 2:17 pm

The lamentations of the rich

 ANNOTATED NEWS, CONSERVATIVES & REACTION, DECADENCE, FINANCE CAPITAL  Comments Off
Dec 232011
 

By Alex Lantier and David North

In the era of the explosive development of American capitalism, which began in the aftermath of the Civil War, the great fortunes accumulated by the “robber barons” were associated with a massive growth in the industrial and social infrastructure of the United States. Rockefeller, Carnegie, Morgan and others were rapacious and ruthless; but they could at least claim that there was some progressive social purpose connected to their pursuit of private wealth. 

Steven Schwarzman, just $4.7 Billion net worth

Recent months have seen the eruption of popular anger throughout the United States at the staggering levels of social inequality, with the Occupy Wall Street protests gathering broad popular sympathy and support.

This development, unforeseen and unscripted by the media, has left Wall Street’s “masters of the universe” wallowing not only in money, but also in self-pity. What have they done, complain these tender-hearted architects of hedge funds, collateralized debt obligations and countless other forms of financial swindling, to merit such popular disdain? The Financial Times web site reported in an article posted Wednesday that the rich are “indignant,” resentful of the “class war” rhetoric that is being heard in public protests. Continue reading »

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 Posted by at 1:59 pm

The few, the proud, the very rich

 ANNOTATED NEWS, POLITICAL ECONOMY  Comments Off
Dec 232011
 

By Sylvia Allegretto, The Berkeley Blog
[With select ions from original comment thread ]
 

Much of the current political and popular discourse has focused on inequalities that exist in the U.S. In particular the Occupy movement has brought the huge disparities in wealth to the forefront. There are a few questions floating around about wealth. First, how skewed is the distribution? Second, it is true that the rich have gotten much richer over time? —a statement I often heard my Grandma make. Continue reading »

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 Posted by at 1:16 pm

What If Occupiers Armed Themselves?

 ACTIVISTS & HEROES, ANNOTATED NEWS, GOVERNMENT CRIMES, PUTRID CORPOMEDIA  Comments Off
Dec 232011
 

They Don’t Shoot Rightwingers, Do They?

by BRIAN J. FOLEY


Tea Party crowd: countless layers of imbecility and confusion.

You’ve probably noticed that our government and corporate-owned media treat the Occupy Movement differently from the Tea Party.

Think back to how some Tea Partiers brought guns to their protests, where some protesters even suggested killing President Obama.  They weren’t pepper-sprayed.  They weren’t bashed in the head, and they weren’t even told to take their guns home.

I’m glad police didn’t stomp on the Tea Party. Even ill-informed, inane, racist protests should be permitted. The problem is that the First Amendment prohibits the government from choosing which protests it allows. Unfortunately, the government doesn’t seem to understand that. Continue reading »

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 Posted by at 12:56 pm
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