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
Mar 242012
 

by Stephen Lendman

In 1959, Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz liberated Cuba from imperial America, police state rule, and mafia bosses who turned the nation into a casino and brothel.

Cubans may want change, but won’t tolerate recolonization under puppets serving Washington’s interests.

On August 13, Fidel turns 86. After leading Cuba for decades, surviving hundreds of US attempts to kill him, a punishing embargo, and numerous other hostile acts, illness forced him to step down in December 2008.

It didn’t slow his determination to speak and write vital truths, especially on issues of war and peace. Continue reading »

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 Posted by at 10:38 pm
Mar 242012
 

By Rob Kall

 Incredibly bizarre, bad taste “citizens” make up the elite of the world of Hunger Games.

The theater was filled with teenagers, but to me, Hunger Games is more than a hot movie. It’s a media phenomenon, fueled by sales of over 26 million copies of the first three books in the series. I was not to be disappointed. First, though I tried, the Imax version of the show was sold out. So I had to see the old fashioned 2-D version. It was still worth it

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The movie is very long, two hours and 22 minutes. But it is also riveting and  moves fast.

Most important, it has lessons to tell, and since its main audience is teenagers, and young adults, I’m glad to say it’s a message that tells some important truths. Unlike the Twilight series, another cinematic trilogy that teens have thronged to, this movie is attracting the approval of people on the left and the right. 
 
From my perspective, even the messages that the right approves are good ones. 
 
For the left, Hunger Games portrays an unjustice system where 24 12-18 year olds a year are forced to fight to the death. They can volunteer or they are drafted, two from each of twelve districts. The main protagonist Katniss Everdeen  volunteers to rescue her 12 year old sister, who’s been drafted.  Continue reading »
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 Posted by at 8:08 pm
Mar 242012
 

By Joost van Steenis


Marat—L’ami du peuple: He really meant it. And that’s why the royalists engineered his death.

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Jean-Paul Marat (1743-1793), one of the leaders in the French Revolution, was murdered while taking a bath. He was already in poor health because for two years he had been kept on the run by anti-revolutionary forces and had to live in very bad surroundings.

“Revolution is a natural right of The People”, he said and in March 1789 he proclaimed the violent Revolution. “Violence by The People is legitimate, it remains always far inferior to the sum of all injustices by the despots over the centuries”.

He propagated that the “Revolution will be a kind of guerrilla in which we can attack the enemy in all places where the army cannot be used. This means that we can deprive the enemy of all his advantages”.  He edited the “L’ Ami du Peuple” , the “People’s Friend” a famous journal in the name of the sans-culottes, the people without trousers, the core of the street-fighting French Revolutionaries. He trusted the masses because his basic idea was “to let the masses participate, the only people who really cheer freedom”. Continue reading »

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 Posted by at 7:54 pm
Mar 242012
 

From our friends at Pambazuka News—
Thank you, Pambazuka

By Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja


Given the importance of DRC as a land of considerable natural wealth, the major powers prefer leaders with no national constituency who are easy to manipulate like Joseph Kabila to those like Etienne Tshisekedi who are unapologetically nationalist.

In his excellent contribution to this blog on 15 February 2012, Joshua Marks writes that: “It is difficult to make sense of the reaction of many Western governments and international actors to the disastrous elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on November 28, 2011.” Continue reading »

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 Posted by at 5:45 pm