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 [...]

  • Connecticut May Let Students Opt Out of Dissection

    Connecticut May Let Students Opt Out of Dissection

    by Alicia Graef Connecticut students who have a conscientious objection to dissection may soon have the right to opt out if lawmakers pass An Act Concerning Dissection Choice. Students have come forward to express their discomfort and objections to learning about the study of life by wasting the lives of innocent animals. Some are met with [...]

  • Russia Catches CIA Spy Red-Handed

    Russia Catches CIA Spy Red-Handed

    by Stephen Lendman America never permitted the bipolar rivalry to die down, and now given its taste for world domination it is wantonly creating new flashpoints for lethal confrontation. The upshot may be another arms race and a world that much closer to WW3. CIA agents operate most everywhere. They don’t promote friendly relations. They’re [...]

  • America Honors Its Worst

    America Honors Its Worst

    by Stephen Lendman Presidential Medals of Freedom are awarded annually. They mock what they claim to represent. Many go to deplorable recipients.  Previous dishonorees include GHW Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Robert Gates, Henry Kissinger, Tony Blair, Shimon Peres, Margaret Thatcher, Alvaro Uribe, Colin Powell, Madeleine Albright, and Alan Greenspan among others. Did you like [...]

  • Disconnect: Soaring Markets/Troubled Economies

    Disconnect: Soaring Markets/Troubled Economies

    by Stephen Lendman Capitalism has succeeded in capturing governments around the world. Forget everything you learned about markets, economics and finance. Perhaps Newton, Galileo, Copernicus, Darwin, Freud, Einstein, and other noted figures were wrong.  Central banks run today’s world. Major ones matter most. Money printing madness controls everything. Love doesn’t make the world go round. [...]

  • Can America Come to Terms with Boston Bombing Suspect's Stated Motives?

    Can America Come to Terms with Boston Bombing Suspect’s Stated Motives?

    Consortium News [1] / By Ray McGovern [2] Quick, somebody tell CIA Director John Brennan about the handwriting on the inside wall of the boat in which Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was hiding before Boston-area police riddled it and him with bullets. Tell Brennan that Tsarnaev’s note is in plain English and that it needs neither translation nor interpretation in solving the [...]

  • 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 [...]

As seen by the establishment: Oakland, the Last Refuge of Radical America

 ANNOTATED NEWS, CAPITALISM & SOCIALISM, CITIZEN TOOLS, CLASS STRUGGLE, CULTURE & CRITICISM, OWS, PROPAGANDA  Comments Off
Aug 042012
 

Oakland, the Last Refuge of Radical America
The New York Times
By JONATHAN MAHLER

Editor’s Note: We often take pleasure in presenting for close examination by our readers important topics as covered by the mainstream media or prominent rightwing voices. There’s much to be gained by studying the manner in which pro-capitalism/imperialism  propaganda and opinion is formulated. We are engaged, among other things, in a battle of communications, and we must win it.  Studying the way certain ideas are sold to the masses is  essential to the finetuning of our own political outreach. We invite comment by those who feel qualified to analyze the way this piece is handled.—PG

The Anti-Capitalist Brigade started gathering early on May Day at Oakland’s Snow Park. There was free coffee, oatmeal, doughnuts, fliers with the day’s agenda and plenty of pot. A “street medic” — “I just finished a wilderness first-aid course,” he told me when I asked about his training — tended to his first case of the day, a man in his 20s whose leg had been beaten to a purple hue with a metal rod in an overnight fight in the park. Nearby, an organizer reminded protesters to take down the toll-free number for the National Lawyers Guild: “This is important. Do not put it in your cellphones, because if you get arrested, the cops will take those away. Write it on your bodies. In indelible ink. There are Sharpies on the table.” Continue reading »

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The London Olympics and the social crisis

 ANNOTATED NEWS, BATTLE OF COMMUNICATIONS, BETTER HUMANITY, CAPITALISM & SOCIALISM, CELEBRITIES, CORPORATE CRIMES  Comments Off
Aug 042012
 

Chris Marsden. WSWS.ORG

The amazing Gabrielle Douglas: within hours of her victory she was already being besieged by corporate sponsors.

The Olympic Games bring together the finest sportsmen and sportswomen in the world. No one who follows the various events can fail to be moved by the spectacular displays of athleticism and physical prowess of the competitors. The apparently superhuman character of their achievements is in reality proof of the contrary—the tremendous potentialities of the human race.

Major sporting matches, however, are inevitably coloured by broader economic, social and political factors, and none more so than this, the premier global event. There has never been a “golden age” of the Olympics and there is no justification for doe-eyed complaints about the betrayal of the Olympics’ “ideals” and “spirit” at this late stage. Continue reading »

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Afghan war crimes report suppressed

 Afghanistan.Pakistan, ANNOTATED NEWS, BATTLE OF COMMUNICATIONS, CITIZEN TOOLS, CORPORATE CRIMES, GOVERNMENT CRIMES, GREAT HYPOCRISY, IMPERIALISM  Comments Off
Aug 042012
 

By Peter Symonds

The attempted suppression of an Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) report on atrocities and war crimes committed by Afghan governments and warlords from 1978 to 2001 is devastating exposure of the US puppet regime in Kabul.

The AIHRC, an organisation set up by the Kabul regime itself, has documented the criminal record of the warlords who run the regime and the powers that backed them, above all the United States.

The 800-page report, entitled “Conflict Mapping in Afghanistan Since 1978,” was prepared over a six-year period from 2005 by a team of 40 researchers working with international legal and forensic experts. It found evidence of 180 mass graves, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, rape, and the destruction of towns and villages. Commissioner Ahmad Nader Nadery reported that the report tallied a million killed—not all through war crimes—and another 1.3 million disabled. Continue reading »

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Syrian General Manaf Tlass: Neither Here Nor There

 ANNOTATED NEWS, GREAT HYPOCRISY, IMPERIALISM, INDECENT SLIMEBALLS, INTERNATIONAL, SYRIA, The Middle East, THE PENTAGON-MEDIA COMPLEX  Comments Off
Aug 042012
 

As Syria descends into Western-induced chaos…

By Sharmine Narwani -english al-akhbar.com
Originally: Sun, 2012-07-08 23:47-

President Assad (l) sitting next to Gen. Tlass.

The departure of Brigadier General Manaf Tlass from Syria continues to make headlines around the world. But amidst the fanfare, the question of whether this latest development has lasting significance is not at all clear. There are several points to consider:

First, gaining the “defection” of important members of the Sunni community and senior commanders of the Syrian Army has been a central goal of the external opposition and their foreign backers since the onset of protests in 2011. This is the Assad-must-go-no-matter-what crowd, and splitting key pro-regime communities (major cities, secular Sunnis, business elite, government officials, armed forces and minority groups) has been their only strategy to provoke regime change, outside of foreign military assistance. Continue reading »

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Buying What’s Left of Democracy

 Uncategorized  Comments Off
Aug 042012
 

Under the cloak of “free speech,” rich Americans — especially on the Right — are buying what’s left of U.S. “democracy” and doing much of it in secret, insisting their sponsorship of TV attack ads be hidden. Some of their handmaidens even boast about their impending victories, note Bill Moyers and Michael Winship.

By Bill Moyers and Michael Winship

Sheldon Adelson, Las Vegas magnate, and est. $24 billion worth of political muscle. He is open about his involvement in politics (as opposed to the Koch brothers, who hide their filthy manipulations) and conditions his donations to unconditional support for Israel. Adelson and his ilk are the poster boys for American political corruption, but it takes whorish politicians to do the tango.

In all the hullabaloo over the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on health care, another of its rulings quickly fell off the public radar. Before deciding the fate of the Affordable Care Act, the Court announced it would not reconsiderCitizens United, the odious 5-4 decision two years ago that opened our elections to unlimited contributions. Continue reading »

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Mad Dog Leaders Threaten Humanity

 ANNOTATED NEWS, ANTIWAR, ASSHOLES, BASTARDS & CRIMINALS, BATTLE OF COMMUNICATIONS, CORPORATE OWNED PARTIES, COUPS & CIVIL WAR, GOVERNMENT CRIMES  Comments Off
Aug 042012
 

By Stephen Lendman

How can the world still tolerate leaders like these? The problem is the media. And behind the media, corporate power.

A common thread defines Obama and Netanyahu. Their agenda threatens humanity. Both head modern-day Spartas.

Israel is very much involved in Washington’s war on Syria. At issue is destroying another independent state, murdering thousands, planning more wars, and threatening the entire region and beyond.  Iran is next in line. Saber rattling combines with war by other means. It includes sanctions, subversion, instability, cyberwar, targeted assassinations, other disruptive actions, and relentless scoundrel media vilification and fearmongering.

On August 3, Haaretz headlined “King Bibi in trouble.” Poll numbers show a 60% disapproval rating. It’s not for institutionalized militarism and belligerence. It’s about new budget cuts hardening neoliberal harshness.  Most Israelis are fed up with what harms their well-being. Their narrow definition omits likely blowback from regional wars and more planned. Conflict rages cross border in Syria. If attacked, Hezbollah can respond in kind. Continue reading »

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