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 [...]

  • 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 [...]

  • Dr. Noam Chomsky breaks the set on war, imperialism and propaganda

    RT’s Abby Martin interviews Noam Chomsky on current issues stemming from pseudo-democratic governance in the United States. On this episode of Breaking the Set, Abby Martin talks to philosopher, linguist, professor, political critic and author of over 100 books Dr. Noam Chomsky about the Boston bombings, US terror inflicted abroad, drones, Obama’s rebranding of Bush [...]

The Houla Massacre

 ANNOTATED NEWS, GOVERNMENT CRIMES, GREAT HYPOCRISY, IMPERIALISM  Comments Off
May 302012
 

 By Stephen Gowans, What’s Left

People watch the mass burial on May 26 of more than 100 victims of the massacre in Houla (AFP/Shaam News Network/File) No one knows for certain who the murderers were.

Syrian government forces may or may not have been responsible for the killing of 108 civilians at Houla. Witness accounts point to militias that may have been acting independently of the Syrian government. One account describes the killings as avenging a rebel sectarian attack on an Alawite village. All the same, no witness account has been independently verified. The events are, in the words of a UN monitor, “murky”. Continue reading »

Did you like this? Share it:
 Posted by at 9:38 pm

The Imperialists and the Jihadis: The Evil Alliance Against Syria

 ANNOTATED NEWS, ASSHOLES, BASTARDS & CRIMINALS, BATTLE OF COMMUNICATIONS, HUMBUG CENTRAL, IMPERIALISM  Comments Off
May 302012
 

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
 

Americans are now programmed to lust for Syrian blood, just as they lusted for Libyan blood, Iraqi blood, Afghan blood – whatever the demonized blood-of-the-day. It is easy for such voracious consumers of gore to project bloodlust on others, even when, as with the Syrian regime, there is no motive for the crime. “It makes absolutely no sense for the Syrian regime to allow the slitting of children’s throats while United Nations observers are stationed throughout the country.” The modus operandi and motive for the crime point to al Qaida and other jihadis – and their various U.S., European and rich Arab backers. Continue reading »

Did you like this? Share it:
 Posted by at 7:31 pm

British Court Clears Way for Extradition of WikiLeaks Founder

 ACTIVISTS & HEROES, American "Way of Life", ANTIWAR, IMPERIALISM, THE PENTAGON-MEDIA COMPLEX, US Foreign Policy  Comments Off
May 302012
 
By RAVI SOMAIYA and 

Assange: By judicial harassment, technical blockages, banking boycotts, diplomatic coercion, intimidating supporters, and extra-legal procedures, the Empire has substantively weakened Wikileaks' ability to conduct business. But now they need to set an example.

LONDON — Britain’s highest court ruled on Wednesday that the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, should be deported to Sweden to face allegations of sexual abuse there, the culmination of an 18-month legal battle.

By a 5-2 vote, the Supreme Court denied Mr. Assange’s appeal. The decision took less than five minutes to be read by Nicholas Phillips, the 74-year-old president of the court, in one of the most important decisions in his three years in the position and just months before his retirement. All seven judges were present. Continue reading »

Did you like this? Share it:
 Posted by at 2:22 pm