ALASTAIR CROOKE—What the precision strike has done is to shatter the ‘vessel’ of the US posing as somehow ‘guardian’ of the Gulf, and guarantor of the crude oil lifeblood feeding into the veins of a fragile world economy. This to say, it was a precision strike aimed at the prevailing paradigm – and it scored a direct hit.
JEFF COHEN—Since naked service to corporate elites and “trickle-down” promises don’t sell anymore to an insecure middle class, right-wing leaders like Trump (and Europeans being cultivated by Steve Bannon) are now “populist” and “anti-elites” – openly tapping into racism while scapegoating immigrants for society’s problems…
JOHN SPRITZLER— Yes, a revolution to remove the plutocracy from power and create an egalitarian society without oppression will involve some violence, inevitably. But if a revolution is ever going to succeed in the United States it will be because a huge revolutionary movement develops and it gains the support of a critical mass of members of the military, so that when ordered to attack the movement those soldiers refuse and use their weapons to defend the movement from those who would attack it violently. This is what happened in the February, 1917 revolution in Russia that led to the Czar abdicating. A similar thing happened in Iran, which is why the Shah, even though he thought he had the largest military force in the region, had to flee the country. A revolution most certainly does not mean half the population shooting the other half.
CAITLIN JOHNSTONE—“The arrest and espionage charges against Assange was just the beginning, as many in the media, even those who hate Assange, feared,” tweeted Consortium News editor-in-chief Joe Lauria in response to the News Corp raid. “The home of a mainstream Australian journalist was raided Wed. morning by police because of a story she worked on.”
“Shameful news from Australia as the police raid journalists’ offices and homes,” tweeted legendary Australian journalist John Pilger. “One warrant allows them to ‘add, copy, delete or alter’ computer files at the ABC. The assault on Julian Assange was a clear warning to all of us: it was only the beginning.”
“I am 64-years-old, I was at the demonstration of May 1st 2019 with my 45-year-old son, his father, and some friends. We waited quietly near the Vavin subway for the departure of the procession in order to join it when we saw in the distance the fumes of tear gas and the movements of crowds.
Wanting to seek shelter, we went away as far as we could and suddenly a violent police charge pushed the crowd and we found ourselves stuck in the middle of a cloud of tear gas, the canisters flying all over.
My son went to an open shop, a tobacconist, where a few people had taken refuge, thus removing us from the trap of the crowd and passing behind the cordon of police officers who were in full charge and pushed the protesters…”