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

OpEds: Fairness and Sustainability – Taking the FAS-Track

 AMERICAN STUDIES, ANNOTATED NEWS, KULTURKAMPF, PHILOSOPHY, POLITICAL ECONOMY  1 Response »
Jan 052013
 

by Diane Gee, Editor, The Wild Wild Left

consumistDiablo

“Why should we say no to socialism of the 20th century? Because socialism of the 20th century is purely a product of Western culture. It’s as if the West had two children: one greedy child that they named “Capitalism” and one generous child that they named “Socialism.” But neither of them questions the fact that development and progress are the essential goals of humanity. It doesn’t matter that the planet is burning.” ~ Santiago Arconada, Venezuela

Economics is not a thing.  It’s a contrived process, miles of convoluted intestinal tracts, twisting sinews, spasming to pass along fetid human flotsam and degraded resources with every value leached out along the way leaving nothing in its wake but the product it defecates.  We all know how lovely that is. Continue reading »

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Pure Transformation or Persistent Deterioration? What Next Wisconsin? America? The World?

 ACTIVISTS & HEROES, EDITORIALS, HEADLINERS, OpEds  1 Response »
Jun 092012
 

By Kristine Mattis

And as it was in the beginning, so shall it be in the end
That bullshit is bullshit, it just goes by different names …

Paul Weller (The Jam)

Scott Walker's triumph reflects not only the enduring power of money in US politics, but the confusion among voters in all parts of the nation, and a general disgust with Democratic party politics due to numerous betrayals.

We all know the old Albert Einstein adage that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. What does that say about Wisconsin? June 5th 2012 saw an exact rematch of the 2010 gubernatorial election between Republican Scott Walker and Democrat Tom Barrett – and the exact same result, the only difference being that Walker won by an even wider margin than before.

While pundits have been pontificating about the causes of such a seemingly absurd victory by Scott Walker after the enormous groundswell of citizens fighting for sixteen months against the governor and his Tea Party Republican administration, most of the discussion has been shallow and fraught with inaccuracies. Furthermore, mere speculation on the causes of the Walker win only point to the ease with which our society retreats back to often unfounded conventional wisdom. Walker outspending Barrett 7 to 1, an ignorant electorate hell bent on voting against their own interests, and poor “messaging” by the Democratic party/candidate may all have played a part in the crushing Walker win, but these observations only scratch the surface of the problems facing Wisconsin, the country, and the world and serve to fuel the media’s incessant focus on the horse race. This insistence on focusing on the superficial always serves, by design, to impede the discourse on substantive issues. Continue reading »

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Champagne & Disdain: Your Global Collapse = Our Profit!

 ANNOTATED NEWS, ASSHOLES, BASTARDS & CRIMINALS, CAPITALISM & SOCIALISM, FINANCE CAPITAL  Comments Off
Sep 272011
 

BY DIANE GEE

Socialism has never been tried full-scale, as Capitalism has. We have unfettered Capitalism Globally for 200 years, and NOWHERE, and I mean NOWHERE has this produced a population that is sound, healthy, informed and at Peace.”

I’m not gonna say it’s time to hoard up, board up, arm up and batten down.

They are. You see, according to a Trader speaking with the BBC yesterday, total collapse is coming within the year. And this, like totally rocks it out man, because, you know, like the Depression, they can make sooo much money off it dudes… cuz they know how to.

Its not like its just miss doom and gloom here, warning you for the last 4 years or so that this was coming anymore. No, not one of my apocalyptic fictions this time, nor screeds about how the rich don’t care about us useless eaters. In fact why bother telling you the sky is falling on everyone but a few demonic souls, or repeating rants about how Class Warfare is killing us? I used to feel like a prophet in the wilderness, speaking a secret code no one got but me and a few of my kindreds. We knew governments and votes were Kabuki. We yelled it from mountaintops, “Money talks, bullshit walks and they just bought your feet.”

The code isn’t so secret anymore. In fact, they aren’t just overt about it, they are brazen.

“The Governments don’t rule the World. Goldman-Sachs rule the World.”

There will be no recovery. You either have enough to invest in buying out the broke now, and invest in hedging your bets, insuring yourself against the inevitable losers.  

Continue reading »

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ARCHIVES: Solidarity Divided—A Welcome Return to Class Politics

 BOOK NOTES, CAPITALISM & SOCIALISM, CLASS STRUGGLE, HEADLINERS  Comments Off
Apr 062011
 

By Susan Rosenthal, M.D. | Reposted 2011-04-06
With select original commentary

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF A UNION?  How should unions respond to the oppression of Blacks, women, immigrants and gays? How should unions relate to the rest of the working class, the employer, and the State? Should existing unions be reformed, or is more fundamental change required?

In Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor and a New Path Toward Social Justice ¹ Bill Fletcher, Jr. and Fernando Gapasin insist that we need new answers to these questions if we hope to reverse “the crisis facing organized labor – indeed the crisis facing the entire US working class.” This crisis is marked by declining unionization, inter-union conflict, falling living standards, rising unemployment, growing poverty and deepening oppression. Continue reading »

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