LEE CAMP—The stimulus bill Congress asked us to accept would not solve any of the problems that working people are facing right now. In a Moment of Clarity segment Lee dissects (and exposes) the cynicism and lies behind the oligarchs shills latest slap in the face of working Americans.
Yearly Archives
2020
“The Ruling Elite Has Lost All Legitimacy” says Chris Hedges n this interview with Jimmy Dore, and we could not agree with him more. The putrid corpse of this system would be long in the ground, where it belongs, if it weren’t for the constant barrage of lies and distractions the ruling oligarchy deploys to keep Americans confused, divided, and angry at false enemies.
Important talk by Caleb Maupin: Bye Bye to Trump, an Awful President; Communism & Homophobia; Putting Things n Proper Perspective
7 minutes readCALEB MAUPIN—This chat also addresses some uncomfortable truths, the main being that as a serious and sincere activist for structural change you can’t be overly sensitive to social pressure, especially that dictated by cultural fads. Nor should you ever be willing to betray your moral values—morality understood in the broader political sense, not narrowly religious—for the sake of “popularity”. This implies some hard choices, notes Maupin. Standing up for what’s right and true is often a lonely experience. A life at times of isolation, unfair misunderstanding and even persecution beckons. Yet choices have to be made, and in a world of deliberate chaos with intentionally upended values, it’s crucial to remain clear about the relative urgency and overall importance of various cultural and class issues dividing (and confusing) the public.
CHRIS HEDGES—Razing the rainforest for cattle grazing and vast tracts of farmland devoted to growing monocrops to feed animals destined for human consumption are responsible for up to 91 percent of Amazon rainforest destruction since 1970. The loss of forests is one of the single biggest contributors to climate change. Animal agriculture is the leading cause of ocean dead zones. Oceans could be devoid of fish by 2048. Each minute, 7 million pounds of feces are produced by the animals raised for human food in the US alone. The continued destruction of natural habitat, coupled with the vast factory farms which use 80 percent of the antibiotics in the U.S. and incubate drug-resistant pathogens that spread to human populations, presage new forms of the Black Death.
The belief that we can maintain current levels of consumption, especially of animal products, capitalist expansion, imperial wars, a reliance on fossil fuels and abject subservience to unfettered corporate power, which has solidified the worst income inequality in human history, is not a form of hope but suicidal self-delusion.
The official story is Russia hacked into U.S. “government networks, including in the Treasury and Commerce Departments,” as David Sanger of The New York Times reported. But plenty of things are uncertain. First, Sanger wrote last Sunday that “hackers have had free rein for much of the year, though it is not clear how many email and other systems they chose to enter.”
The motive of the hack is uncertain, as well what damage may have been done.
“The motive for the attack on the agency and the Treasury Department remains elusive, two people familiar with the matter said,” Sanger reported. “One government official said it was too soon to tell how damaging the attacks were and how much material was lost.”
