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 [...]

  • Should the US bomb Syria?

    Should the US bomb Syria?

    By Stephen Gowans, What’s Left There is no compelling evidence that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons against the rebel forces which seek its overthrow, and for purely military reasons, it’s highly unlikely that they have been used. Simply put, the Syrian army can kill more rebels with missiles, tanks and heavy artillery, even [...]

  • 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 [...]

  • CBS media turd Scott Pelley pontificates about US journalism

    CBS media turd Scott Pelley pontificates about US journalism

    The Problem With Journalism? Scott Pelley Blames the Internet By Peter Hart, FAIR When big-time reporters decide to try their hands at media criticism, the results are usually disappointing–but they can also be quite revealing.  So when a video of CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley started to making the rounds, the headlines associated with it piqued my interest. Over [...]

The FAIR Report: Iran—This Is What Propaganda Looks Like

 ACTIVISTS & HEROES, ANNOTATED NEWS, ANTIWAR, MEDIA SCUM, PUTRID CORPOMEDIA  Comments Off
Feb 032012
 

by Peter Hart, FAIR


Presidents of Venezuela and Iran meet: Mortal threat to peace, no doubt.

Alarmist corporate media coverage of the “threat” from Iran is everywhere, thanks to a Senate appearance yesterday by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.

But Clapper said very little in his remarks that would justify the propagandistic coverage we’re seeing.  His main point was that Iran could launch attacks if it felt threatened. It is hard to see how this is particularly surprising. Clapper pointed to the alleged Iranian plot to kill the Saudi ambassador in Washington D.C. as evidence that Iran seems more eager to assert itself, perhaps even inside the United States. But there were many people who raised serious questions about that rather implausible scenario (which involved hiring a Mexican drug gang to carry out the assassination). Continue reading »

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 Posted by at 10:33 pm

Blum’s Anti-Empire Report | Threats to Iran; Bush Still in the White House (Feb. 3.12)

 ANNOTATED NEWS, ASSHOLES, BASTARDS & CRIMINALS, GOVERNMENT CRIMES  Comments Off
Feb 032012
 

The Anti-Empire Report—

The Lord High Almighty Pooh-Bah of threats. The Grand Ayatollah of nuclear menace.

by William Blum
www.killinghope.org

As we all know only too well, the United States and Israel would hate to see Iran possessing nuclear weapons. Being “the only nuclear power in the Middle East” is a great card for Israel to have in its hand. But — in the real, non-propaganda world — is USrael actually fearful of an attack from a nuclear-armed Iran? In case you’ve forgotten …

In 2007, in a closed discussion, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said that in her opinion “Iranian nuclear weapons do not pose an existential threat to Israel.” She “also criticized the exaggerated use that [Israeli] Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is making of the issue of the Iranian bomb, claiming that he is attempting to rally the public around him by playing on its most basic fears.” 1 Continue reading »

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 Posted by at 10:21 pm

Political Therapy

 ACTIVISTS & HEROES, ANNOTATED NEWS  1 Response »
Feb 032012
 

Are We Happy Yet?

The art of mass disassociation.

By Franco Bifo Berardi | Adbusters

What if society can no longer resist the destructive effects of unbounded capitalism? What if society can no longer resist the devastating power of financial accumulation?

We have to disentangle autonomy from resistance. And if we want to do that, we have to disentangle desire from energy. The prevailing focus of modern capitalism has been energy: the ability to produce, to compete, to dominate. A sort of energolatria, a cult of energy, has dominated the cultural sense of the West from Faust to the Futurists. The ever growing availability of energy has been its dogma. Now we know that energy isn’t boundless. In the social psyche of the West, energy is fading. I think we should reframe the concept and practice of autonomy from this point of view. The social body is unable to reaffirm its rights against the wild assertiveness of capital because the pursuit of rights can never be dissociated from the exercise of force. Continue reading »

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Mind Control Theories and Techniques used by Mass Media

 KULTURKAMPF, PROPAGANDA, PUTRID CORPOMEDIA, VIRTUAL UNIVERSITY  Comments Off
Feb 032012
 

By itizen | Originally published April 28th, 2010 | Category: Vigilant Reports 

Image source deesillustration.com

Mass media is the most powerful tool used by the ruling class to manipulate the masses. It shapes and molds opinions and attitudes and defines what is normal and acceptable. This article looks at the workings of mass media through the theories of its major thinkers, its power structure and the techniques it uses, in order to understand its true role in society.

Most of the articles on this site discuss occult symbolism found in objects of popular culture. From these articles arise many legitimate questions relating to the purpose of those symbols and the motivations of those who place them there, but it is impossible for me to provide satisfactory answers to these questions without mentioning many other concepts and facts. I’ve therefore decided to write this article to supply the theoretical and methodological background of the analyzes presented on this site as well as introducing the main scholars of the field of mass communications. Some people read my articles and think I’m saying “Lady Gaga wants to control our minds”. That is not the case. She is simply a small part of the huge system that is the mass media. Continue reading »

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 Posted by at 7:35 pm

Is the ruling class too strong to defeat?

 ACTIVISTS & HEROES, ANNOTATED NEWS, TACTICS & STRATEGIES  Comments Off
Feb 032012
 

No. 1 in our Tactics & Strategies discussion series—

How can a revolution succeed when our rulers have well-armed and well-manned militaries at their command?

COLUMN: PAUL D’AMATO [1]
 

January 20, 2012

THOSE WHO rule will not give up their power peacefully.

Try to disrupt one of their events–like meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund–and our rulers are willing to mobilize thousands of cops, shut down half a city and attack with clubs, tear gas and pepper spray.

Imagine what they might do in a revolution–if millions of workers attempted to seize control of the factories, mines, hospitals and schools and run them democratically.

Perhaps that’s why socialists are often confronted with the question, isn’t the state all-powerful?  

LEFT: Poster produced during the Portuguese Revolution of 1975 (“carnation Revolution”), which saw a great deal of fraternizing between the insurgent military and the civilian population.  Continue reading »

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 Posted by at 6:57 pm

Joost Van Steenis: “Occupy is a Movement, not an organisation!”

 ACTIVISTS & HEROES, ANNOTATED NEWS, ROTTEN CULTURE, TACTICS & STRATEGIES  Comments Off
Feb 032012
 

TACTICS & STRATEGIES—
#2 In our tactical discussion series— the editors of TGP have reservations about some of the author’s positions and statements (i.e., he says movements have no leaders, but that’s not quite true) but we think it is a good departure point to keep up the work of sorting pout what kind of animal OWS should be for maximum effectiveness. —Eds

“Occupy is a Movement, not an organisation.”
       What do YOU think? 

By Joost Van Steenis

A Movement is a vague concept, based on great ideas and narrow goals that unite all 99%. The Squatters Movement (getting houses for homeless people) and the Anti-Nuclear Movement (removing nuclear plants from the country) had limited goals inside the existing society. They had some successes but there was no pressure on the 1%. More fundamental are Resistance Movements in Wars with one goal, removing the enemy that occupies the country. Occupy is a step further, it is revolutionary because it wants to change the power structure in the country. It aims to take the power away from the greedy rich, the 1%.

Basic ideas are: “Occupy the Financial Centres” and “We are the 99%”. Logically there must be a 1% that is different. That is the target, the only target that can unite all 99%.  Continue reading »

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 Posted by at 6:20 pm
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