The Greanville Post —Vol. VII- 2013

Something to think about—(put cursor over scroller to stop it)

We're engaged in a protracted mass communications battle, a contest of propagandas, Their object is to prop up the system's legitimacy; ours precisely the opposite. The core of a system's illegitimacy is nothing more nor less than its easily demonstrable Orwellian nature. If it claims to be a democracy it must be a plutocracy; if it proclaims to defend the safety of its population, it actively endangers it; if it struts around loudly shouting its allegiance to freedom and the rule of law, it is in actuality a cynical hidden dictatorship; If it brags about its "free press", then you know for sure that it is an abject, servile tool of the power elites. Of course the most infamous contradiction is that when this hypocritical scum kneel before the altar of peace they are actively engaged in making war. On and on. Always the opposite of what it claims. In America, especially, anyone awake can see that readily. But unfortunately the majority are still asleep.—Sean Lenihan •••The cowardice and duplicity of Congress, above all, the Democrats, and the subservience of the media, exhibited in their response to the exposure of the NSA spying programs, encourage the military and intelligence agencies to go even further in their drive toward dictatorship. Mark Udall, the Democratic senator presented as the most “outspoken” critic of the spying programs, began his interview Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” program by pledging his support to the “war on terror” and denouncing leaks of classified information.—Barry Grey••••From Athens to Paris to Brazil, there is growing realization that politics as usual just won’t cut it anymore. We will always lose if we play by their rules rather than invent new forms of struggle, new social movements, and new sensibilities. The defense of the earth requires immediate and decisive action: logging roads need to be blocked, driftnets need to be cut, and cages need to be emptied. But these are piecemeal and reactive measures, and in addition to these tactics, radical movements and alliances must be built that unites struggles on behalf of humanity, nonhuman animals, and the earth in a politics of total liberation. Resistance is the oxygen of the future. Live to resist, resist to live.—Steve Best••••For 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.

Keystone XL Activists Labeled Possible Eco-Terrorists
Green Scare Continues by STEVE HORN Documents recently obtained by Bold Nebraska [1] show that TransCanada – owner of the hotly-contested Keystone XL (KXL) [2] tar sands pipeline – has colluded with an FBI/DHS Fusion Center in Nebraska [3], labeling non-violent activists as possible candidates for “terrorism” charges and other serious criminal charges. Did you like this? Share it:
Spying, Control and Murder Under the Imperial Presidency
Surveillance and the Corporate State by ROB URIE With all of the fear mongering the subject has received in recent decades, Americans have in fact had remarkably little to fear directly from ‘terrorism.’ While actual attacks have been spectacular—they were designed to garner attention, they are both rare and far less dangerous than opportunistic politicians [...]
The Judicial Lynching of Bradley Manning
By Chris Hedges FORT MEADE, Md.—The military trial of Bradley Manning is a judicial lynching. The government has effectively muzzled the defense team. The Army private first class is not permitted to argue that he had a moral and legal obligation under international law to make public the war crimes he uncovered. The documents that [...]
Edward Snowden: Profile in Courage
Whistleblowing in the Name of the Constitution by CHRISTOPHER H. PYLE Edward Snowden may go down inhistory as one of this nation’s most important whistleblowers. He is certainly one of the bravest. The 29-year-old former technical assistant to the CIA and employee of a defense intelligence contractor has admitted to disclosing top secret documents about [...]
TURKEY: C’est Une Révolte, Pas (Encore) Une Revolution!
C’est Une Révolte, Pas (Encore) Une Revolution! (1) Sungur Savran On May Day 2013, the police poured tonnes of tear gas on tens of thousands of workers and youth in different quarters of Istanbul, Turkey in order to stop them from approaching Taksim Square. The government had decided that this square, the traditional venue for [...]
Six reasons why choosing Hong Kong is a brilliant move by Edward Snowden
By MsExpat, a journalist and essayist who lives in New York and Hong Kong and Fellow of The Mighty Corrente Building. Originally published at Corrente. I live in Hong Kong. And when the news broke that Snowden had decided to take refuge in my city, I was puzzled at first. But then, as I read [...]
Europe is getting restless: Obama’s Soft Totalitarianism
06/17/2013 People around the world were shocked to learn of the extent of US snooping. This anti-Obama poster comes from Hong Kong. Europe Must Protect Itself from America A Commentary by Jakob Augstein Is Barack Obama a friend? Revelations about his government’s vast spying program call that assumption into doubt. The European Union must protect [...]
Iran To Send 4,000 Troops To Aid President Assad
By Robert Fisk Source: The Independent Washington’s decision to arm Syria’s Sunni Muslim rebels has plunged America into the great Sunni-Shia conflict of the Islamic Middle East, entering a struggle that now dwarfs the Arab revolutions which overthrew dictatorships across the region. Did you like this? Share it:

OpEds: Resurrecting Insurrection

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Apr 082012

Resurrecting Insurrection

By William T. Hathaway
§

[The system's] liberals play on our hopes of seeing a decent society in our lifetime.

They claim to be open to substantive change, a mirage always glimmering four years away but never arriving. Their illusion of reform camouflages the fact that working people around the world are under attack and the conditions of their lives will continue to worsen until we all dismantle this colossus.”

Endless war … endless despair. America’s military juggernaut continues to roll, crushing multitudes of soft, breathing human beings, creating more counter-violence at every turn, lumbering toward annihilation. We finally elect a leader who pledges to bring peace, and he morphs before our incredulous eyes into a war president, shifting the fighting onto mercenaries and local soldiers and claiming that’s peace. We’re still killing thousands of people, manipulating other nations, modernizing our nuclear weapons, forcing our financial will around the world, and jailing dissenters at home. Fortress America continues to expand globally as prison, sweatshop, and fire base. After all our years trying to change this country, how could we end up with this? Continue reading »

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The Pain in Spain

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Apr 082012

by Stephen Lendman

Spanish prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero: Facing an impossible task. As a social democrat his function is first and foremost to defend the status quo while pretending to some mild populism.

Ireland, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, are Spain replicate Greece in slow motion, gain speed, and head toward a similar train wreck. France, the Netherlands, and other troubled EU economies follow close behind.

Austerity cuts exacerbate problems. Public rage expressed in strikes and street protests follow. Politicians pay no heed and plan more. At the same time, they allocate hundreds of billions in vital revenues for criminal bankers responsible for the crisis in America and across Europe.

No wonder John McMurtry calls predatory capitalism a “cancer system.” It gets “cumulatively worse the longer it is unrecognised.” Continue reading »

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The last days of the Lilliputians

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Apr 082012

By William T. Hathaway

The reformism pushed by the Democratic Party and the labor unions is reinforced by the corporate media and many pseudo-left organizations. They foster the idea that the system is basically good but just has some problems that need to be fixed. This is appealing because it’s easy. Instead of protracted struggle to replace the system, we just need to repair it…”

In Gulliver’s Travels the tiny Lilliputians attacked the much larger Gulliver while he was sleeping and tied him to the ground with thousands of threads. In a similar way, the ruling elite have tied the working class in bondage.

Small in number but great in power, the elite have designed myriad mechanisms of control to hold the much larger working class down and force it to work for them. These include institutions such as mainstream politics, media, schools, labor unions, police, courts, military, and the rigid gender roles of the patriarchal family. They also include emotionally laden concepts such as rugged individualism, a false image of socialism, and the very way we conceive of social class. Continue reading »

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Single Payer Doctor Carol Paris Packs It Up

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Apr 082012

Crossposted with Common Dreams

by Russell Mokhiber

Dr. Carol Paris is arrested for disorderly conduct outside of a U.S. Senate office building Tuesday, May 5, 2009 for speaking out at Sen. Max Baucus’ Congressional hearings on health care reform. (Photo/South Maryland News)

Dr. Carol Paris is a psychiatrist. She’s practiced for 13 years in southern Maryland. And she’s fought hard for a single payer system.

She’s even been arrested in Congress for speaking out for single payer. But now, she’s had enough. Continue reading »

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Why are the critics lauding Titanic?

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Apr 082012

Editor’s Note: The World Socialist Web Site recently reposted an article originally published on January 30, 1998. Given the climate of megamedia noise surrounding these productions these days this critique, by David Walsh, one of America’s finest movie reviewers, is damn worth a read.—PG

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By David Walsh, Art & Cinema critic, WSWS.ORG, a socialist organization

Titanic, the Hollywood blockbuster directed by James Cameron and originally released in December 1997, is set for theatrical re-release in 3-D on April 4, to mark the centenary of its namesake’s setting sail on April 10, 1912. The original film was a great success at the box office, and with a surprising number of critics as well. It went on undeservedly to win a number of Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.

Titanic was one of the first films reviewed by the WSWS, launched in early 1998, and our critique generated a considerable response from readers. We are reposting today our original review posted January 30, 1998, and a further comment that followed. Continue reading »

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Misconceptions about Gas Prices and the Presidency

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Apr 082012

NPR / Adam Davidson
(Item suggested by editorial associate B. Havlena)

With gas prices on the rise, the cost of fuel is set to become a defining issue of the presidential race. Bob speaks to NPR’s Plant Money reporter Adam Davidson about how the media haven’t done a good job correcting misconceptions about the president’s role in rising fuel costs and how the staggering price of gas doesn’t really change consumer behavior.

Click the link below.

otm040612b.mp3

NB: Mild as most NPR fare is, mainstream liberaloid stuff, it’s too much for reactionaries who continue to do everything in their power to neutralize “this voice for socialism.” Incidentally, as if to prove the point, Davidson, astute as his analysis is, especially in pointing out the media’s illiteracy in matters of economics, leaves out the most important caveat: that people needn’t accept “the economy” as it is; that it’s merely a human construct subject to change according to the political will of society. But that would imply a call for the questioning of capitalism itself and not just one of its many criminal aberrations.

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Letter from Europe: Strategies of Deception

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Apr 082012

Strategies of Deception

By William T. Hathaway
“The core problem is not distribution but ownership. If forced to, the 1% will accept higher taxation and regulation, as long as they maintain ownership.”

∞

LBJ’s regime marked the last highwater of American reformism. It also typified the Democratic party/liberal allegiance to imperialism. Lyndon Johnson, by the way, while a member of the same political class that has always served the US and world plutocracy, was a true domestic liberal in terms of policies. Barack Obama is not and never was, despite the wishful thinking of countless followers.—Eds
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To get a preview of Obama’s strategies for winning a second term, we just need to read the liberal press. They are giving lip-service praise to the current protests while trying to steer them in a direction that serves the Democratic Party. Seeking to restore the fading illusion that the Democrats work in the interests of the 99%, they imply that if Obama is given a second term, his true nature will emerge and he’ll crack down on the greed and corruption of the 1% and lead the country in a progressive direction. They conveniently ignore that he’s done the opposite during his three years in office. Continue reading »

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Obama Justice Department indicts ex-CIA agent for exposing torture

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Apr 082012

Bill Van Auken, WSWS.ORG, a socialist organization

John Kiriakou, persecuted by the duplicitous Obama administration for obeying a higher ethic. “More fundamentally, the prosecution of Kiriakou is part of a policy of state secrecy and repression that pervades the US government under Obama, who came into office promising “the most transparent administration in history.” This marks the sixth government whistleblower to be charged by the Obama administration under the Espionage Act, twice as many such prosecutions as have been brought by all preceding administrations combined.”

Thursday’s indictment of John Kiriakou for exposing CIA torture of detainees confirms yet again that the Obama administration is continuing and deepening the crimes carried out by the Bush White House. Kiriakou, a CIA agent for 14 years, is being prosecuted for speaking to two journalists about the waterboarding of Abu Zubaydah.

In December 2007, he appeared in an ABC News interview, becoming the first CIA official to confirm the use of waterboarding of so-called “enemy combatants” and to describe the practice as torture. It is now known that Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 times in the space of one month while being held in a series of CIA “black sites” from Thailand to Poland to Diego Garcia. Continue reading »

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Cenk: Ayn Rand is a sociopath, Glenn Beck a prostitute & Scalia regurgitates Fox News and Rush Limbaugh

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Apr 082012

Thomas Frank (above), author of “Pity the Billionaire” and columnist for “Harper’s Magazine,” talks to Cenk about Ayn Rand devotees — Tea Party acolytes who continue to represent themselves as the populist response to impending economic doom. One of the greatest impostures in current politics is the rise of “populist conservatism”, which, besides being an oxymoron, forms the ideological backbone of the “tea party”.

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Draconian Cybersecurity Bills

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Apr 082012

by Stephen Lendman

Bipartisan complicity’s involved in hyping cyber threats. At issue is promoting draconian cybersecurity legislation.

Obama supports congressional effects. Internet freedom’s at stake. So are other civil liberties.

On March 8, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) conducted a mock New York cyber attack. At issue was gaining support for pending Senate legislation.

White House spokesperson Caitlin Hayden called the stunt a way to give “senators….an appreciation for new legislative authorities that would help the U.S. government prevent and more quickly respond to cyber attacks.” Continue reading »

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Older Entries

Many topics to choose from

There’s violence and there’s violence

Revolutionary Violence vs Institutionalized Violence

"There were two 'Reigns of Terror,' if we could but remember and consider it; the one wrought murder in hot passions, the other in heartless cold blood; the one lasted mere months, the other had lasted a thousand years; the one inflicted death upon a thousand persons, the other upon a hundred million; but our shudders are all for the "horrors" of the minor Terror, the momentary Terror, so to speak; whereas, what is the horror of swift death by the axe compared with lifelong death from hunger, cold, insult, cruelty and heartbreak? A city cemetery could contain the coffins filled by that brief terror that we have all been so diligently taught to shiver at and mourn over; but all France could hardly contain the coffins filled by that older and real Terror - that unspeakable bitter and awful Terror which none of us has been taught to see in its vastness or pity as it deserves..." —Mark Twain, writing about the French Revolution.

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