Philip French: Behind the Candelabra ARTS & FILM, BLITZ REVIEWS, Cinema & Culture, CITIZENS' MEDIA, CULTURE & CRITICISM, LGBT No Responses » Jun 192013 A brilliant performance by Michael Douglas illuminates an affectionate and funny portrait of the flamboyant entertainer By Philip French / The Observer (UK), Saturday 8 June 2013 Michael Douglas as Liberace in Behind the Candelabra: ‘sheer brilliance’. Photograph: HBO/Everett Collection http://youtu.be/4gxpYz4YBSI Liberace was a fabulously rich, self-created midwesterner, the child of humble immigrant parents known for his extravagant lifestyle and vulgar tastes, as well as his worship of the American dream and the mystery in which he was wrapped. He was in effect a gay Jay Gatsby. His life was not, however, tragic, that is until his death of an Aids-related illness at 67, and he can be considered a success in that he achieved the acclaim and celebrity he had always dreamed of, and he died believing that he had taken the secret of his homosexuality to the grave. Continue reading » Did you like this? Share it:
“Democracy Unchained”–Blueprint for a Revitalized Occupy ABOMINATIONS, American "Way of Life", AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM, American Parties, AMERICAN PARTY DUOPOLY, AMERICAN STUDIES, ANTI-CORPORATISM, ANTI-NEOLIBERALISM, ANTIWAR, BOUGHT POLITICIANS & PHONIES, CITIZEN TOOLS, CLASS ANALYSIS, CORPORATE CRIMINALITY, CORPORATE MENTALITY, CORPORATE OWNED PARTIES, Liberaloids & Radical Centrists, PLUTOCRATIC POWER, TACTICS & STRATEGIES No Responses » Jun 162013 By Patrick Walker, OpedNews Perhaps my most important–and ambitious article to date proposes a new but logical reincarnation of the OWS movement, Democracy Unchained, that aims to make Occupy’s ideal of a society for everyone, not just the 1%, a political reality. Just as Occupy focused its criticisms on the 1% and corporatocracy, Democracy Unchained attacks the corrupt Democrat-Republican duopoly that maintains corporatocracy. D.U.’s strategy’s included. It’s September 17, 2013 in New York City’s Zuccotti Park. The park is crowded (and mottled) with the same diverse, mixed-age, chanting, sign-carrying crew who launched the Occupy Wall Street movement exactly two years earlier. Is this simply an anniversary, a nostalgic commemoration of that once-vibrant movement? Or is this something new and different? Let’s listen more closely to what they’re chanting. “Hey, hey, ho, ho. Corrupt duopoly’s gotta go.” “Repulsives are red, Degenerates blue. Since neither one serves us, we’ve joined D.U.” Continue reading » Did you like this? Share it:
Edward Snowden: Profile in Courage ACTIVISTS & HEROES, AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM, AMERICAN PARTY DUOPOLY, ANTI-CORPORATISM, ANTI-NEOLIBERALISM, ANTIWAR, BOUGHT POLITICIANS & PHONIES, CORPORATE CRIMINALITY, CORPORATE OWNED PARTIES, FALSE DEMOCRACY, GOVERNMENT CRIMES, US Foreign Policy, WAR CRIMES & CRIMINALS No Responses » Jun 102013 Whistleblowing in the Name of the Constitution by CHRISTOPHER H. PYLE Edward Snowden may go down inhistory as one of this nation’s most important whistleblowers. He is certainly one of the bravest. The 29-year-old former technical assistant to the CIA and employee of a defense intelligence contractor has admitted to disclosing top secret documents about the National Security Agency’s massive violation of the privacy of law-abiding citizens. Continue reading » Did you like this? Share it:
Turkish protests grow as Erdogan calls counter-demonstrations ABOMINATIONS, AMERICAN PARTY DUOPOLY, ANNOTATED NEWS, ANTI-CORPORATISM, ANTI-NEOLIBERALISM, ANTIWAR, CORPORATE CRIMINALITY, CORPORATE OWNED PARTIES, EU.Turkey, GLOBAL NEOLIBERALISM, GOVERNMENT CRIMES, GREAT HYPOCRISY, US Foreign Policy, US Military, WAR CRIMES & CRIMINALS 1 Response » Jun 102013 By Alex Lantier, wsws.org Protests against the Islamist government of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan grew over the weekend, as Erdogan called counter-demonstrations by his supporters next weekend and warned that his ability to tolerate the protests “has a limit.” Continue reading » Did you like this? Share it:
Noam Chomsky: Are We on the Verge of Total Self-Destruction? American "Way of Life", AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM, AMERICAN PARTY DUOPOLY, AMERICAN STUDIES, ANTI-CORPORATISM, ANTI-NEOLIBERALISM, ANTIWAR, ASIA AFFAIRS, BOUGHT POLITICIANS & PHONIES, CORPORATE OWNED PARTIES, CULTURE & CRITICISM, GOVERNMENT CRIMES, GREAT HYPOCRISY, HISTORY, THE PENTAGON-MEDIA COMPLEX, US Foreign Policy, US Military, WAR CRIMES & CRIMINALS 1 Response » Jun 082013 TomDispatch [1] / By Noam Chomsky [2] To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.com here [3]. What is the future likely to bring? A reasonable stance might be to try to look at the human species from the outside. So imagine that you’re an extraterrestrial observer who is trying to figure out what’s happening here or, for that matter, imagine you’re an historian 100 years from now — assuming there are any historians 100 years from now, which is not obvious — and you’re looking back at what’s happening today. You’d see something quite remarkable. Continue reading » Did you like this? Share it:
US threatens Iran, Hezbollah for backing Syria AMERICAN STUDIES, GOVERNMENT CRIMES, GREAT HYPOCRISY, IMPERIALISM, INDECENT SLIMEBALLS, PUTRID CORPOMEDIA, RUSSIA, SYRIA, THE PENTAGON-MEDIA COMPLEX, US Foreign Policy, WAR CRIMES & CRIMINALS No Responses » Jun 072013 By Chris Marsden, wsws.org Syrian army soldiers hail the recent victory over Western-backed mercenaries in Qusayr. The White House issued its most threatening statement yet yesterday, denouncing Iran and the Lebanese Shia movement Hezbollah as “partners in tyranny” for their support of the Assad regime in Syria. This week, Syrian government forces claimed victory in the battle for the strategic town of Qusayr, near the Lebanese border, after weeks of fighting beginning May 19. Qusayr lies along a land corridor linking Damascus and the Mediterranean coastal area that is home to Assad’s Alawite sect and is, at the same time, key to maintaining opposition supply lines to Lebanon. Continue reading » Did you like this? Share it:
Unusual news: Drone operator, haunted by conscience, comes out of the cold ABOMINATIONS, AMERICAN STUDIES, ANNOTATED NEWS, ANTI-CORPORATISM, ANTIWAR, BATTLE OF COMMUNICATIONS, BLACK OPS & FALSE FLAGS, BOUGHT POLITICIANS & PHONIES, CORPORATE MENTALITY, CORPORATE OWNED PARTIES, CORPORATE TELEVISION, US Foreign Policy, US Military, WAR CRIMES & CRIMINALS No Responses » Jun 062013 Former drone operator says he’s haunted by his part in more than 1,600 deaths Although he’ll probably never be able to wipe clean his feeling of guilt for participating in a vast criminal program, it is highly commendable that, however belatedly, Brandon Bryant’s conscience finally forced him to come out of the shadows. In a sense, like Bradley Manning’s enormous contribution, his revelations shed light on the horrors of what our military and intel agencies are up to in the name of “national security.” Former drone operator Brandon Bryant tells NBC’s Richard Engel that he felt like he became a “heartless” “sociopath” under the drone program. By Richard Engel, Chief Foreign Correspondent, NBC News A former Air Force drone operator who says he participated in missions that killed more than 1,600 people remembers watching one of the first victims bleed to death. Brandon Bryant says he was sitting in a chair at a Nevada Air Force base operating the camera when his team fired two missiles from their drone at three men walking down a road halfway around the world in Afghanistan. The missiles hit all three targets, and Bryant says he could see the aftermath on his computer screen – including thermal images of a growing puddle of hot blood. Continue reading » Did you like this? Share it:
Syria and the Sham of Humanitarian Intervention AMERICAN PARTY DUOPOLY, BATTLE OF COMMUNICATIONS, BOUGHT POLITICIANS & PHONIES, CORPORATE CRIMINALITY, CORPORATE OWNED PARTIES, GOVERNMENT CRIMES, GREAT HYPOCRISY, IMPERIAL APOLOGISTS & COLLABOS, Liberaloids & Radical Centrists, PROPAGANDA, ROTTEN ESTABLISHMENT, THE PENTAGON-MEDIA COMPLEX 1 Response » Jun 052013 The Normalization of War by AJAMU BARAKA Assad: Washington would like him to end up as Gaddafi or worse, at the hand of US proxies. I continue to be amazed with the ease with which the dividing line is blurred between what is real and what is fiction in the reporting on Syria by the Western media. The press in the U.S. continues to dutifully report on the “objective diplomacy” by the Obama administration to broker a “peaceful” resolution to the conflict in Syria. However, those stories of noble and innocent efforts to avert the catastrophic human suffering that has eventually engulfed Syria has sanitized the bloody complicity of U.S. policy. Diplomacy, for the U.S., has meant calling for regime change from the outset and then encouraging Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Israel, their client states in the region, to arm, train and provide political support for a military campaign with the objective of effectively dismembering the Syria State. Continue reading » Did you like this? Share it:
OpEds: Our Troops do NOT Protect Our Freedom and We Should Stop Thanking Them for Doing So ACTIVISTS & HEROES, ANNOTATED NEWS, US Foreign Policy, US Military No Responses » Jun 012013 From our archives: Articles you should have read the first time around but didn’t. Originally posted August 13, 2011. Our Troops do NOT Protect Our Freedom and We Should Stop Thanking Them for Doing So JESSE RICHARD, TVLies.org Let’s make one thing crystal clear, no member of the US military contributes in any way whatsoever to protecting the freedoms of the American people. As a matter of fact, they are more likely to turn their weapons on you than they are to defend your Constitutional rights. Continue reading » Did you like this? Share it:
Has anything changed? Report on Mexican ‘Dirty War’ Details Abuse by Military ABOMINATIONS, AMERICAN STUDIES, ANTI-NEOLIBERALISM, ANTIWAR, ARCHIVES, BOUGHT POLITICIANS & PHONIES, CAPITALISM & SOCIALISM, CLASS STRUGGLE, CONSERVATIVES & REACTION, CORPORATE OWNED PARTIES, IMPERIAL APOLOGISTS & COLLABOS, IMPERIALISM, LatinAm-BRAZIL, LatinAm-CHILE, LatinAm-COLOMBIA, LatinAm-MEXICO, US Foreign Policy, WAR CRIMES & CRIMINALS 1 Response » May 262013 PREFATORY NOTE—Hemispheric issues Mexico: «So far from God, So Close to the United States» —Epigram credited to Porfirio Díaz, Mexican dictator (1830-1915). As is the case in many parts of the world where poverty is widespread and institutionalized, a terrible status quo enforced by the government’s police and armed forces, representing the national and international bourgeoisie (the capitalist class), and normally assisted and bolstered in its repressive savagery by the United States, eventually sparks rebellions. These “insurgent” movements, sometimes led by socialists or communists and just as often simply by people driven to the limit of their endurance, are routinely pushed back by ”counterinsurgency” campaigns that often qualify as genocidal. The main object of such campaigns is to keep a profoundly unjust order going at any cost. It’s a damn shame but many of our highly trained special forces are engaged in this criminal task around the globe. Such men apparently never figured out what fighting for “the American Way” means in the global context. Equally bad, aside from these “in country” instructors and fighters, we also train foreign murderers and torturers in our own military establishments, to date the most notorious being the School of the Americas. (1) Continue reading » Did you like this? Share it:
