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 [...]

Damascus terror bombing: Made in the USA

 ANTIWAR, PUTRID CORPOMEDIA, SYRIA, US Foreign Policy  Comments Off
May 132012
 

Bill Van Auken, WSWS.ORG
Thank you, WSWS.ORG
There’s simply no limit to the criminal hypocrisy of the American government.

Syria's Assad: The imperialist noose keeps tightening and he may end up like Gaddafi.

 “Our policy is to try to accelerate the arrival of that tipping point” at which the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad is toppled, Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman explained last March to the US Senate’s foreign relations committee.

Thursday saw the latest incarnation of this policy. The devastating car bombs that slaughtered 55 people and left nearly 400 more wounded in Damascus mark a new stage in the criminal imperialist campaign for regime change in Syria. 

Having hijacked the protest movement that began in Syria in March of last year in the bid to turn it into a vehicle for installing a client regime in Damascus, Washington went on to back the formation of the “Friends of Syria”, modeled upon a similar international formation used to prepare the war on Libya. 

It declared the Syrian National Council, a collection of Islamist politicians from the Muslim Brotherhood and aging exile assets of various Western intelligence agencies to be the “legitimate representative” of the Syrian people and backed the formation of the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA) to carry out armed attacks on Syrian security forces. Continue reading »

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JP Morgan Chase hit by $2 billion derivatives loss

 CAPITALISM & SOCIALISM, CITIZEN TOOLS, CLASS STRUGGLE  Comments Off
May 132012
 

By Patrick Martin, WSWS.ORG
Thank you, WSWS.ORG

Dimon: Poster boy for the global predator class. Vociferous enemy of regulation, and a Democrat.

Speculation by a derivatives trader in London has produced a $2 billion trading loss for the US financial services giant JP Morgan Chase, the bank acknowledged late Thursday. The loss is one of the largest since the financial collapse of 2008, when two major Wall Street institutions, Bear Stearns and then Lehman Brothers, went bankrupt, the latter collapse triggering a global financial panic. Continue reading »

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Obama backs gay marriage

 ANNOTATED NEWS, Obama, Policies & Politicians  Comments Off
May 132012
 

By Joseph Kishore, WSWS.ORG
Thank you, WSWS.OR

Obama’s announcement Wednesday that he supports same-sex marriage has been quickly elevated by the American liberal establishment and the media into a watershed moment in his presidency.

The president announced on ABC News that, “for me personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married,” adding that his position on the issue had “evolved” over the course of his presidency. Continue reading »

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Waging Total War on Islam

 ANTIWAR, BATTLE OF COMMUNICATIONS, GOVERNMENT CRIMES, GREAT HYPOCRISY, IMPERIALISM  Comments Off
May 132012
 

by Stephen Lendman

A multitude of images exploit the young male "macho" instinct to prove himself in combat. Most recruits have absolutely no understanding of the real mainsprings of US foreign policy, and then they're further indoctrinated to look at the enemy as subhuman—a standard procedure in all militaries at war. (Credit: milpictures.com)

When asked why he robbed banks, Willie Sutton said that’s where the money is. Washington targets the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia because it’s where most proved oil and gas reserves are.

Waging war require enemies. Pretexts create them. Muslims are demonized as threats. They’re portrayed as culturally inferior, dirty, lecherous, untrustworthy, religiously fanatical, and violent. Slanderous media commentaries suggest gun-totting terrorists threatening US interests. Continue reading »

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 Posted by at 1:35 pm

Capitalists and Other Psychopaths

 BATTLE OF COMMUNICATIONS, CAPITALISM & SOCIALISM, CLASS STRUGGLE  Comments Off
May 132012
 

By WILLIAM DERESIEWICZ
Opinion—The New York Times
Suggested by Gloria Stevenson

What’s come over the New York Times?  All, of a sudden—maybe to deflect critics who have long claimed the Grey Lady is a stealthy manipulator of news in support of a bankrupt status quo (a notion we endorse) the Times has been publishing more essays that expand a bit its normal coverage of issues and opinion. We hope it will go on, although we hardly expect the Times to become an organ for the 99%. In any case, the antisocial nature of the corporation is embedded in its dynamic, often codified into convenient law. As for the rich, the Bible itself was warning us about their true nature thousands of years ago: not only are they “not like us” as Fitzgerald warned, but for the most part they’re simply not terribly nice. —Eds.
———

THERE is an ongoing debate in this country about the rich: who they are, what their social role may be, whether they are good or bad. Well, consider the following. A recent study found that 10 percent of people who work on Wall Street are “clinical psychopaths,” exhibiting a lack of interest in and empathy for others and an “unparalleled capacity for lying, fabrication, and manipulation.” (The proportion at large is 1 percent.) Another study concluded that the rich are more likely to lie, cheat and break the law. Continue reading »

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 Posted by at 11:44 am

Fabricating Lies to Wage War on Iran

 CENTRAL ASIA, IMPERIALISM, IRAN  Comments Off
May 132012
 

by Stephen Lendman


Chinese poster denouncing US imperialism’s encirclement. In recent years the US elites are again seeking a confrontation with China.  American imperialism has no frontiers, it is a global problem. 

Turning Iran into a reliable pro-Western puppet state is a long-sought US goal. All options are considered, including war.

Tactics include calling Iran a threat to world peace, falsely accusing Tehran of terrorist attacks, and fabricating lies about an alleged nuclear weapons program despite no corroborating evidence whatever. Continue reading »

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 Posted by at 11:21 am