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
  • 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 [...]

  • Red State Hypocrites: Inhofe and Coburn

    Red State Hypocrites: Inhofe and Coburn

    Salon [1] / By Joan Walsh [2] Just a week ago, Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe suggested that President Obama might be impeached over the Benghazi non-scandal. Now, Inhofe must watch as Obama declares Inhofe’s state a disaster area and promises Oklahomans “all the resources they need at their disposal.” Did you like this? Share it:

  • The Shame of the Fourth Estate

    The Shame of the Fourth Estate

    From our archives: articles you should have read when they first appeared but missed.  The mainstream media’s long-time kid-glove treatment of Andrew Breitbart led directly to the unjustified ouster of Shirley Sherrod. By Charles Kaiser  [Originally: July 26, 2010 ] This piece was first published by the Hillman Foundation. Let me make this utterly clear: What you [...]

  • Michel Chossudovsky: Time for a counterpropaganda front

    Michel Chossudovsky: Time for a counterpropaganda front

    Editor’s Note: The Western left, and the American left in particular, have been scandalously myopic and inadequate in organizing against the corporate media.  The goal from the start should have been to neutralize the effects of the corporate media, since without that the great battles to win over the American majorities would be impossible.  This [...]

  • What the Syrian Constitution says about Assad and the Rebels

    What the Syrian Constitution says about Assad and the Rebels

    By Stephen Gowans, What’s Left The idea that the uprising against the Syrian government is inspired by a grassroots movement thirsting for a pluralist, democratic state is a fiction. The opposition’s chief elements are Islamists who seek to establish a Sunni-dominated Islamic state in place of a Syrian government they revile for being secular and [...]

  • ARCHIVES: The U.S. Left and Media Politics

    ARCHIVES: The U.S. Left and Media Politics

    Articles of compelling importance you should have read but missed the first time around.  Robert W. McChesney, Monthly Review, a fraternal organization ••• American democracy is in deep trouble. Cynicism and distrust of the political system, fueled at least in part by imposed ignorance, have grown steadily in recent years. There are several reasons for [...]

  • The Unseen Lies: Journalism As Propaganda

    The Unseen Lies: Journalism As Propaganda

    JOHN PILGER: One of my favorite stories about the Cold War concerns a group of Russian journalists who were touring the United States. On the final day of their visit, they were asked by the host for their impressions. “I have to tell you,” said the spokesman, “that we were astonished to find after reading [...]

  • Dissent or Terror: New Report Details How Counter Terrorism Apparatus Was Used to Monitor Occupy Movement Nationwide

    Dissent or Terror: New Report Details How Counter Terrorism Apparatus Was Used to Monitor Occupy Movement Nationwide

    MADISON, WI — DBA Press and the Center for Media and Democracy today released the results of a year-long investigation: “Dissent or Terror: How the Nation’s Counter Terrorism Apparatus, In Partnership With Corporate America, Turned on Occupy Wall Street.”The report, a distillation of thousands of pages of records obtained from counter terrorism/law enforcement agencies, details [...]

Guest Editorial: TKO by the Technocrats

 ACTIVISTS & HEROES, AMERICAN STUDIES, ANTI-CORPORATISM, ANTIWAR, BATTLE OF COMMUNICATIONS, CAPITALISM & SOCIALISM, CLIMATE CHANGE, CORPORATE OWNED PARTIES, CULTURE & CRITICISM  Comments Off
Nov 082012
 
Who Will Stand Up to Obama Now?
by JEFFREY ST. CLAIR, Editor in Chief, Counterpunch

Barack Obama is a technocrat and he just won a technocratic victory. His reelection campaign, lacking any kind of arching philosophy or defense of his own disturbing tenure as president, became a bland exercise in political calculus, targeting individual precincts, swing counties and fractionated demographic sectors.

Obama’s victory, at the cost of $2 billion, is about as thrilling as completing a game of Sudoku. Obama was propelled to his slender popular vote win by those that the Republicans almost ritually abused: women, blacks, gays and Hispanics. Ironically, these are people that the Obama administration has also ruthlessly strafed for four years. But Obama smiled as he cut the lower-classes adrift in the midsts of a cratering economy, while Romney expressed only contempt for them. Continue reading »

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Chinese Communist Party congress: An oligarchic gathering

 ANNOTATED NEWS, ANTI-CORPORATISM, BATTLE OF COMMUNICATIONS, CAPITALISM & SOCIALISM, CHINA, CLASS STRUGGLE  Comments Off
Nov 082012
 

By John Chan, wsws.org


Liang Wengen (Chinese: 梁稳根; pinyin: Liáng Wěngēn) is mainland China’s richest man (worth $11 billion), and is tapped to join the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. The coup against socialism engineered by the “capitalist roaders” a generation ago is now almost complete. But Chinese society is again harboring much turbulence.

The 18th Chinese Communist Party (CCP) congress, which opens today in Beijing, underscores the vast gulf that has widened between the rich and poor in China over the past decade since the last leadership transition, to President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao. Continue reading »

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Obama’s victory: the hypocrisy machine begins to pay off (for the rich)

 ANTI-CORPORATISM, ANTIWAR, ASSHOLES, BASTARDS & CRIMINALS, BATTLE OF COMMUNICATIONS, BLACK OPS & FALSE FLAGS, CORPORATE OWNED PARTIES, COUPS & CIVIL WAR, SYRIA, THE PENTAGON-MEDIA COMPLEX  1 Response »
Nov 082012
 

After election, Obama moves to slash social spending
By Andre Damon, wsws.org

In the wake of Barack Obama’s victory in the 2012 US presidential election, Democratic-party officials have proclaimed their intent to collaborate with Republicans to slash billions of dollars in social spending.

In his victory speech, Obama made clear his priorities in the aftermath of the election, saying that “in the coming weeks and months, I am looking forward to reaching out and working with leaders of both parties to meet the challenges we can only solve together. Reducing our deficit. Reforming our tax code. Fixing our immigration system…” Continue reading »

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Freedom Rider: The Hurricane and the Failed State

 AMERICAN STUDIES, BATTLE OF COMMUNICATIONS, BLACK AMERICA, CAPITALISM & SOCIALISM, CORPORATE CRIMES, CORPORATE OWNED PARTIES  Comments Off
Nov 082012
 

by Black Agenda Report editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley

Hurricanes and other “acts of God” provide a dramatic stage for some of the ugliest – or most endearing – acts of man. “If there is any silver lining to this awful event it is showing the limits of politics and the need for grass roots organizing to meet public needs.”

“Occupy Sandy had no money yet managed to provide food, clothing and medical care to the hardest hit neighborhoods.”

So-called advanced nations are never so advanced that they can stand up to the forces of nature. New York and New Jersey are just the latest examples of seemingly safe and “developed” places which were laid low by a change in the weather. Then again, things outside of human control can expose what was already present but kept hidden. Hurricane Sandy showed us that our society is in reality, not advanced at all. Continue reading »

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Your Brain on Obama: Waiting for the Man

 AMERICAN STUDIES, ANNOTATED NEWS, BATTLE OF COMMUNICATIONS, CLASS STRUGGLE, CORPORATE OWNED PARTIES  Comments Off
Nov 082012
 

More relevant reminder than ever—

Waiting for the Man
Your Brain on Obama
by RANDY SHIELDS, Counterpunch.org

This is your brain on Obama:

Smoking Obama increases apathy and reduces empathy, regardless of race, creed or color. Now blacks, as well as whites, don’t care in the least how many dark-skinned people America kills throughout the world. Before the Obama epidemic, the entire American working class had no class consciousness, but now it’s most historically progressive element (blacks) has no race consciousness either. (Blacks, like all factions of the Democrats, only have symbol consciousness — tangible improvements are never required.) For American capitalism, that Obama is some good shit. Continue reading »

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Doing Us Proud: Black America Has Lost Its Moral Compass

 AMERICAN STUDIES, ANNOTATED NEWS, ANTI-CORPORATISM, BLACK AMERICA, CITIZEN TOOLS, CLASS STRUGGLE, CORPORATE OWNED PARTIES, THE COLOR LINE  Comments Off
Nov 082012
 

by Black Agenda Report managing editor Bruce A. Dixon


When a Bush, a McCain, or a Romney condones corporate crimes against the rest of us, lies to us, tortures and imprisons at will and murders civilians at a whim, it’s a moral disaster. When a black Democrat does it, it’s nothing personal, just business. And we are soooo proud. What’s wrong with us? Continue reading »

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