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

The major sea change in media discussions of Obama and civil liberties
The controversies over the IRS and especially the AP phone records appear to have long-lasting effects By Glenn Greenwald, guardian.co.uk Barack Obama Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images Due to the controversies over the IRS and (especially) the DOJ’s attack on AP’s news gathering process, media outlets have suddenly decided that President Obama has a very poor record [...]
Argentina’s General Videla and the “war on terror”
By Bill Van Auken, wsws.org Gen. Jorge Rafael Videla died May 17 at the age of 87 as the result of injuries suffered from a fall in a prison shower. He was remembered as the head of a savage military dictatorship that between 1976 and 1983 murdered and “disappeared” some 30,000 Argentine workers, socialist militants, [...]
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 [...]
PBS Killed Wisconsin Uprising Documentary “Citizen Koch” To Appease Koch Brothers
By Brendan Fischer, PRWatch | Report “Citizen Koch,” a documentary about money in politics focused on the Wisconsin uprising, was shunned by PBS for fear of offending billionaire industrialist David Koch, who has given $23 million to public television, according to Jane Mayer of the New Yorker. The dispute highlights the increasing role of private money in “public” television and raises [...]
Why Obama Will Walk Away Unscathed by the Current Political Scandals
by Pascal Robert, Black Agenda Report Don’t worry about Barack Obama. He’s far too useful to the rulers of America to be derailed by scandal, or even a combination of scandals. “Obama’s neoliberal government giveaways to private corporations and mercenary foreign policy already make him too valuable to the guardians of American empire to have [...]
Obama’s War on Free Expression
by Stephen Lendman It’s the most fundamental right. Without it all others are endangered. Obama’s waging war to destroy it. He’s done so throughout his tenure. He targeted AP. He did so unjustifiably. A previous article discussed it. Did you like this? Share it:
The Jesuit Pope – Who is Francis and who he pretends to be
Written by Esquerda Marxista editorial board Wednesday, 15 May 2013 The election of Pope Francis marks a turn in the prolonged crisis of the Catholic Church. It is important for revolutionaries to understand the reasons for the ongoing struggle within the Church. Far from moving to the left, Francis is trying to entrench the Church in [...]
Apple CEO defends multi-billion-dollar tax dodge
By Andre Damon, wsws.org Apple CEO Tim Cook used his appearance Tuesday at a hearing of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations—called to investigate Apple’s evasion of billions of dollars in taxes—to call for a sharp reduction in the corporate tax rate. The senators on the committee, Democratic and Republican alike, agreed with Cook [...]

Pennsylvania politics continues to override humane actions

ACTIVISTS & HEROES, ANIMAL DEFENDERS, ANIMAL MARTYRDOM, ASSHOLES, BASTARDS & CRIMINALS Comments Off

Jun 042012

by Walter Brasch
A national animal welfare organization has filed an ethics complaint against a Pennsylvania district attorney.

[Courtesy HSUS]
Not even Texas, notorious for its callousness toward animals, stoops as low as Pennsylvania.

SHARK (Showing Animals Respect and Kindness) charges Bucks County DA David Heckler with conflict-of-interest, favoritism, and failure to fulfill his professional responsibilities. The ethics complaint was filed with the Disciplinary Board of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

SHARK, an Illinois-based charity, has been more active in Pennsylvania following a $1 million donation by Bob Barker to stop pigeon shoots. Pennsylvania is the only state that has open and regularly occurring pigeon shoots. Continue reading »

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Class or crass: India’s middle class

CAPITALISM & SOCIALISM, INDIA, INTERNATIONAL Comments Off

Jun 042012

by Rakhee Ghelani

One of the biggest culture shocks I am now experiencing relates to what is considered to be “class” or behaviour that represents economic and social status. It isn’t something I saw much of when I was backpacking, but now that I am settled into a rather middle class life in Mumbai, I am really struggling with what appears to be considered appropriate behaviour amongst the middle class here compared to what I have grown up with in Australia. Continue reading »

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The Student Movement: Radical Priorities

ACTIVISTS & HEROES, ANNOTATED NEWS, CLASS STRUGGLE, OWS Comments Off

Jun 042012

By Matthew Brett
Socialist Project • E-Bulletin No. 619
April 19, 2012

The student movement in Quebec is an incredibly important development, with implications that reach well beyond provincial borders. The movement emerged in response to a 75 per cent increase in tuition fees to be implemented over the next five years, but it has quickly evolved into something far more significant. “People are starting to realize that the real problem behind the rising tuition fees and the commodification of education is something related to a socioeconomic system that is behind it all,” said Frank Lévesque-Nicol, a spokesperson for a protest that was held on February 2, 2012. The student movement has rekindled the political imagination to a degree not seen since the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. This is the most troubling and dynamic period in recent Quebec history, and the possibility that this energy will foster fundamental social change is very real. Continue reading »

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Ritt Goldstein reports: The new face of Sweden may not be so pretty

ACTIVISTS & HEROES, TRUE JOURNALISM 6 Responses »

Jun 042012

Living in Sweden, a place where injustice

may be just the new way of life
by Ritt Goldstein
Thank you, Ritt.

Ritt Goldstein

UPDATE: In a further comment upon the changing nature of Sweden, the latest polls show the far-right Sweden Democrats (SD) as now the country’s third largest party, their popularity gaining an added 30% in the most recent poll. That makes an increase of 40% during April/May, and 30% for May/June … http://www.thelocal.se/41236/20120604/. Welcome to the 1930s.

FALUN, Sweden—If Julian Assange enters Sweden, he won’t be coming to the country many people think of. In 2010, an article from The Guardian was titled “The new Swedish xenophobia,” its Swedish author forecasting xenophobia would “gain new strength, new strongholds, new legitimacy.” And it has.

On just 25 April, the Swedish Parliament held a seminar on discrimination in this nation’s justice system. It appears as troubled as some of Sweden’s citizens. Continue reading »

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TACTICS: On Lenin and the Occupy movement

ACTIVISTS & HEROES, OWS, TACTICS & STRATEGIES 1 Response »

Jun 042012

	The B u l l e t NOTE: The Greanville Post editors wish to present this analysis-which we find optimistic—as a platform for further discussion on the issue of tactics and theory concerning Occupy, a phenomenon still very much in flux, and which contains tendencies that may defeat it from within.
	Socialist Project • E-Bulletin No. 616 April 13, 2012

Lenin and Occupy

Pham Binh

Many socialists have cheered Lars Lih’s demolition of the textbook interpretation of Lenin’s work in Lenin Rediscovered (2008) without examining how many of our own preconceptions on the subject are now part of the same pile of rubble. The fact that Occupy has functioned in practice like the much-sought-after but never replicated vanguard party that Lenin helped create in early 20th century Russia has also escaped much of the Marxist and socialist lefts. Continue reading »

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Wisconsin’s Recall Election

ACTIVISTS & HEROES, ANNOTATED NEWS, CAPITALISM & SOCIALISM, CLASS STRUGGLE Comments Off

Jun 042012

by Stephen Lendman

Mayor Tom Barrett (D). Don't expect too much from this politician. In fact, prepare yourself to be deeply disappointed.

Winter 2011 witnessed an epic worker rights battle. Wisconsin public workers challenged Republican Governor Scott Walker.

He won round one. Workers get another chance. On June 5, they’ll choose between him and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. Neither offers much choice. More on that below. Lieutenant governor and four senate seats are also up for grabs.

On June 1, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel headlined “Barrett, Walker bring out political stars,” saying:

Barrett lured Bill Clinton. Republican party spokesman Ben Sparks asked why him and not Obama. Walker countered with South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, “a rising star of the Republican Party.” Continue reading »

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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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