The Greanville Post —Vol. VII- 2013

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

Why America May Be the Last Empire

ABOMINATIONS, AMERICAN STUDIES, ANTI-CORPORATISM, CAPITALISM & SOCIALISM, CORPORATE MENTALITY, CORPORATE OWNED PARTIES, DECADENCE, ENVIRONMENTAL STRUGGLES, IMPERIALISM, PUTRID CORPOMEDIA, SAVING THE PLANET, SOVIET UNION, THE PENTAGON-MEDIA COMPLEX, US Foreign Policy, WAR CRIMES & CRIMINALS 1 Response »

May 172013

TomDispatch [1] / By Tom Engelhardt [2]

To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.com here [3].

It stretched from the Caspian to the Baltic Sea, from the middle of Europe to the Kurile Islands in the Pacific, from Siberia to Central Asia. Its nuclear arsenal held 45,000 warheads [4], and its military had five million [5] troops under arms. There had been nothing like it in Eurasia since the Mongols conquered China, took parts of Central Asia and the Iranian plateau, and rode into the Middle East, looting Baghdad. Yet when the Soviet Union collapsed in December 1991, by far the poorer, weaker imperial power disappeared. Continue reading »

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Fortune’s Fools: Individual Calling At The Cusp Of Ecological Catastrophe

AMERICAN STUDIES, CORPORATE CRIMINALITY, CORPORATE MENTALITY, CORPORATE OWNED PARTIES, CULTURE & CRITICISM, DECADENCE, GOVERNMENT CRIMES, ROTTEN CULTURE, SAVING THE PLANET Comments Off

Mar 222013

by Phil Rockstroh

“Are you weighted down by feelings of powerlessness…nettled by feelings of helpless rage? Good. Your feelings are appropriate to the tone and tenor of the times…”

“Sometimes you have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself.” — Miles Davis

As a general rule, musicians, artists, and writers, as well as those possessed of an ardor for self-awareness and a commitment to political activism have been advised to avoid a habitual retreat to comfort zones…to take note of the criteria that causes one’s pulse to quicken, brings flop sweat to the brow, causes sphincters to seize up, and delivers mortification to the mind. In order to quicken imagination and avoid banality, it is imperative to explore the fears that cause one to awaken in the darkest of night to stare bug-eyed at the ceiling until dawn; to embrace discomfort; to shun crackpot complacency; to wander through the teeming polis of the psyche, and, in so doing, to not only stray and mingle among the outcasts, demimonde and mad, but proceed to the locked-down wards of the region’s lunatic asylum, and make an exhausting inquest into the nature of the hopeless cases that have been hidden from public view. Continue reading »

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Unmasking re-emergent proto-fascist populism in Italy

ABOMINATIONS, ASSHOLES, BASTARDS & CRIMINALS, BATTLE OF COMMUNICATIONS, CAPITALISM & SOCIALISM, CLASS STRUGGLE, CONSERVATIVES & REACTION, CORPORATE CRIMINALITY, DECADENCE, EU.Italy, FASCISM, FINANCE CAPITAL, GREAT HYPOCRISY, PLUTOCRATIC POWER 2 Responses »

Mar 222013

The political significance of Beppe Grillo’s Five-Star Movement

The success of Beppe Grillo’s Five Star Movement in the recent Italian election is a development requiring attentive examination.

By Marc Wells and Peter Schwarz. wsws.org

The MoVimento 5 Stelle (M5S), founded in 2009, won a quarter of the popular vote in its first ever participation in a federal election and is the biggest single party in the House of Representatives.

Beppe Grillo—former comedian, now supposedly a new tribune of the people. Is he a rightwing populist with sinister overtones, or a Huey Long type with genuine feelings for the masses? His program leaves few doubts as to his true allegiance. —Eds

Layers of the working and middle classes voted for M5S to express their opposition to austerity measures imposed by the European Union (EU) and the government of Prime Minister Mario Monti. However, Grillo’s program stands in stark contrast with the class interests of those who fell victim to his populist appeals. They will soon confront the reality of his reactionary, right-wing program.

To understand Grillo’s rise, one must take account of two things: the deep crisis of Italian and European capitalism and the complete bankruptcy of the traditional “left” parties. Continue reading »

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Fr. Marcial Maciel, poster boy for the bankruptcy of the Catholic church

AMERICAN STUDIES, ANTI-COMMUNISM, ASSHOLES, BASTARDS & CRIMINALS, BATTLE OF COMMUNICATIONS, CLASS COLLABORATION, CONSERVATIVES & REACTION, CORPORATE MENTALITY, DECADENCE, FASCISM, GREAT HYPOCRISY, INDECENT SLIMEBALLS, MEDIA CRITICISM, PLUTOCRATIC POWER, RELIGIOSITY & SUPERSTITION, Uncategorized 2 Responses »

Feb 172013

Editors’ Note: Shameless inveterate pedophile and protector of pedophiles, morphine abuser, bigamist, abject reactionary and proud operative for the CIA, a notorious prude and a past master of intramural intrigue for personal advancement, Marcial Maciel (left) reunited in one person just about everything that is disgusting in a human being. And yet this individual thrived within the confines of the Catholic bureaucracy. His crimes were well known to the Vatican—including Joseph Ratzinger, and most of today’s top cardinals— but he died in bed, undisturbed by any legal or internal punitive action beyond a belated reprimand and orders of “forced retirement” and only when the Church could hold its silence no more. Why this article now? For one thing because we abhor all organized religions, regarding them as brakes not aids in the moral and intellectual development of humanity. Second, because practically all organized faiths have acted in history for the most part as pillars of the social status quo, no matter how heinous. From slavery to fascism, no established religion has fought significantly or taken the lead against such evils. Third, because a recent documentary by HBO, Alex Gibney’s Maxima Mea Culpa, is likely to reignite the debate among Catholics about the shameful, policies adopted by the Church for centuries (first cases came to light in the 4th century AD) in order to cover up rampant pedophilia in its ranks. To this day, despite numerous revelations, the church’s record is one of denial, obfuscation, and omertà.

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Noam Chomsky: America, Moral Degenerate

AMERICAN STUDIES, ANNOTATED NEWS, CORPORATE CRIMINALITY, CORPORATE OWNED PARTIES, CULTURE & CRITICISM, DECADENCE, EU.Ireland, GOVERNMENT CRIMES, IMPERIALISM Comments Off

Dec 152012

Of all the European nations complicit in the renditions program, Ireland was the only one that saw a wave of protests at its airports. Here socialist youths demonstrate at Belfast International Airport.

Noam Chomsky and Eric Bailey of Torture Magazine (Human Rights Asia) discuss America’s human rights record under President Obama, and the military intervention policies that have seen increased use during the Arab Spring.

Eric Bailey: The last four years have seen significant changes in American federal policy in regards to human rights. One of the few examples of cooperation between the Democratic and Republican parties over the last four years has been the passing of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2012. This bill has given the United States military the power to arrest American citizens, indefinitely, without charge, trial, or any other form of due process of law and the Obama administration has and continues to fight a legal battle in federal court to prevent that law from being declared unconstitutional. Obama authorized the assassination of three American citizens, including Anwar al-Awlaki and his 16-year-old son, admittedly all members of Al Qaeda — all without judicial review. Continue reading »

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FILM ANNALS—Hanna: idiotic, degenerate cinema

ARTS & FILM, ASSHOLES, BASTARDS & CRIMINALS, CULTURE & CRITICISM, DECADENCE Comments Off

Sep 252012

•••

Hanna is a 2011 European-American action thriller film that contains prominent fairy tale elements, directed by Joe Wright. The film stars Saoirse Ronan as the title character, and Eric Bana and Cate Blanchett. The film was released in North America on April 8, 2011 and in Europe on May 5, 2011.

The Editor says: As the most appalling decadence envelops the capitalist world, many of its movies reflect the putrefaction. Actioners of course excel at this. And this is one of them. All noise and ludicrous stunts calibrated to wow juvenile audiences, and using the cheap gimmick of a nubile sociopathic killer, this extended bore partially glorifies or cynically decries the deeds of US intel agencies, while serving as devious recruiting posters for precisely these entities.

BY HIRAM LEE, WSWS.ORG
In a cabin in the Arctic, Erik (Eric Bana), a rogue CIA agent, trains his young daughter, Hanna (Saoirse Ronan), to be an assassin. The two have lived like recluses all of Hanna’s life, in hiding from the CIA. The young girl appears never to have experienced the world.

Hanna is being trained to kill Marissa Wiegler (Cate Blanchett), another agent with whom Eric shares a dark history. Once Hanna’s training is complete, she flips a switch on a transmitter which alerts the CIA to her presence. Erik flees before the authorities arrive, with plans to rendezvous with his daughter again in Germany. Hanna allows herself to be taken into custody. The bulk of the film follows her escape and subsequent journey to reunite with her father in Berlin, fighting off mercenaries hired by the CIA along the way. Continue reading »

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Older Entries

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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