We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore LappĂ©, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Bush and Clinton Counter-Terrorism Czar Alleges Massive 9/11 Cover Up (amended commentary)

Click here to access 12:53m video and article from Washington's Blog.
Clarke theorizes that top CIA brass tried to recruit the hijackers and turn them to our side, but were unsuccessful. And - when they realized had failed - they covered up their tracks so that the FBI would not investigate their illegal CIA activities , “malfeasance and misfeasance”, on U.S. soil.
This may, or may not, be merely innocent speculation on Clarke's part, but his statements provide a convenient explanation for the coverups. 

As usual when the political operatives of the ruling class are determined to hide their crimes, it will be many years before the facts are uncovered. There is already a lot that is available (see this, this, this and this), but kept completely out of any mainstream media. Most liberals are afraid to even discuss the issue of a 9/11 coverup and conspiracy because of negative repercussions to their careers, especially those in academia who are the most knowledgeable.

Although I have not followed recent findings regarding the 9/11 event very closely, I have read a lot of earlier evidence provided by a wide range of alternative sources. Because of this information plus an extensive knowledge of the history of the CIA, FBI, and right-wing political operatives, I have a speculation of my own. But first, a little historical background because I don't believe that 9/11 was mostly a result of foreign actors, or a coverup of illegal domestic CIA operations, or unrelated to political developments in the US.

I think that there is a lot of evidence that a secret government has grown inside the government like a cancer since the failed right-wing coup plot in 1935 to remove FD Roosevelt from the Presidency (1) and take over the government. The coup was hushed up and the public never learned what happened. There were hearings behind closed doors by a select few members of Congress, but nothing came of it. 

After this failure the right-wing ensconced themselves mostly in the media, the FBI, and the military, but otherwise kept a low profile until WWII was concluded. They then passed the National Security Act of 1947 to set up the CIA under the naive, but well-meaning President Harry Truman. They also launched a powerful campaign to purge all pro-labor activists from unions and left wing academics from educational institutions, and attacked leftists in Hollywood (McCarthyism) and others. 

The purge in Hollywood provided an opportunity for Zionist influence in Hollywood that bore first fruit with the production of "Exodus", a major propaganda film promoting Zionist interests. This was followed by hundreds of similar films and what has been described as a holocaust industry to promote support for Israel. American money and military aid poured into Israel and Zionists infiltrated all important areas of the media and government. Fortress Israel has served in a similar fashion to forts established in the 19th century in western parts of the US to suppress hostile Native American uprisings, only in this case, to impose a hegemony over the oil-rich Middle East.

The CIA's early cadre were almost totally made up of Wall Street people, mostly corporate lawyers. Their mission was that of right-wing capitalists: to rid the world of communist,socialist, and non-market oriented influences--only they were determined to do this secretly using the CIA (2 &3) to burrow into the hidden recesses of the government while extending their influence in the media and Hollywood. Pursuing a foreign affairs policy of "roll-back", they launched the Korean War, and used covert military forces to overturn many other unfriendly governments (unfriendly to corporate interests), followed by the Vietnam War, and the rest is history (see this). There is considerable evidence that the CIA was heavily involved in the assassination of John Kennedy.

The next pivotal event was the right-wing's engineering of Reagan's campaign to get him elected to the Presidency. Further attacks on unions followed, and the right-wing surfaced as neo-conservatives to take control of government officially.

After the collapse in 1989 of the Soviet Union there was a general sigh of relief among the American people and they looked forward to an era of peace, demilitarization, and prosperity. By this time the ultra-right, not being satisfied with the collapse of their main foe, in their arrogance were intent on spreading US hegemony using the Orwellian term "Pax Americana" over the entire world. But first, they had to do something about the peace loving American populace. This concern was expressed in numerous neo-conservative documents: especially in the 2000 neo-con document, "Rebuilding America's Defenses"(4), also in the Rumsfeld Commission Report which stated:
History is replete with instances in which warning signs were ignored and change resisted until an external, “improbable” event forced resistant bureaucracies to take action. The question is whether the U.S. will be wise enough to act responsibly and soon enough to reduce U.S. space vulnerability. Or whether, as in the past, a disabling attack against the country and its people—-a “Space Pearl Harbor”—-will be the only event able to galvanize the nation and cause the U.S. Government to act.(5)
I believe that well before the 9/11 event the CIA became aware of an Arab militant group intent upon a terrorist project in the US. They monitored their movements closely and at some point realized that they could facilitate their activities and bring about a Peal Harbor event to "galvanize the nation" in support of their imperial project.

Clarke's explanation that the CIA was covering up its relations with the terrorist group because it was illegal for the CIA to be involved in domestic activities is patently ridiculous. Although there were some early jealousies and rivalries during J. Edgar Hoover's administration of the FBI in their relations with the CIA, the two agencies have since cooperated fully. And, the CIA is often involved in domestic actions. They are an entirely unaccountable, clandestine agency and do what they want regardless of the law.

Once you become knowledgeable about the content in these various sources, you can draw a straight line from 1935 to 2000 and then easily arrive at this sort of explanation for 9/11. Had that tragedy not happened, the American people would never have supported the many years of war and occupations since then. 

Notes
1. The Plot to Seize the White House by Jules Archer
2. The Secret Team by Col. L. Fletcher Prouty (1972)  
3. Bill Moyer's 1987 PBS program entitled, "The Secret Government: the Constitution in Crisis"
4. Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources for a New Century--A Report of The Project for the New American Century September 2000.
5. Quoted here from Rumsfeld Commission Report.

Friday, August 12, 2011

Swarmwise: What Is A Swarm?

Click here to access article from Falkvinge on Infopolicy (Sweden). 
...it is a scaffolding set up by a few individuals that enable tens of thousands of people to cooperate on a common goal in their life. These tens of thousands are usually vastly diverse and come from all walks of life, but share one common goal. The scaffolding set up by one or a few individuals allow these thousands of people to form a Swarm around it and start changing the world together.
There are some very interesting ideas in this and other articles at this and other sites which suggests to me that an entirely new subculture is forming as a result of the possibilities provided by the internet and the Web. This new technology is bringing people together in large numbers from all over the world without restrictions to share information and to solve problems. This phenomenon is not only challenging capitalist ideas of "owning" intellectual property, but is threatening to undermine the entire capitalist system which allows small segments of our populations to rule over the rest of us.

Syria's Torment

Click here to access article from the editors of Jadaliyya. 

New political dynamics are taking hold in the Middle East and the insurrection in Syria can only be understood through a new perception of these dynamics. The old political formulas are no longer relevant.
...the season of Arab revolt, including its Syrian phase, marks the end of an era. It is surely not authoritarianism per se that is disappearing in the Arab world, considering the Saudi quashing of the Bahraini rebellion, for example, or the worrisome signs coming from Egypt under the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces there. But no longer is mass social mobilization against injustice absent from the regional stage. No longer can the will of the people be so blithely ignored. There will be no more hereditary transfers of presidential power in republics, and the notion of uncontested executive authority has been shaken to its core. 

Why do banks make so much money?

From RoarMag.

This brief 2:52m video provides a concise way of understanding why banking, particularly central banking, is held by private interests, by people who are firmly lodged in the ruling capitalist class. Because their control over the issuance of money is so rewarding to them in terms of power and wealth, they will not give up this control easily. But, it is a necessary first step in wresting control of money away from them to understand this phenomenon.  

A second step is to understand that the same people own and control our economy. This arrangement, too, must be removed from their "ownership" and control. Social enterprises (all corporations are social enterprises) must be owned and controlled by society for the benefit of all. The days of autocrats, elites, privileged segments of the population exploiting the rest of society are coming to an end. We must be prepared for this end and a new future by designing social structures to insure that societies serve the needs of everyone.  (See the alternative systems listed on this blog at the top right for ideas.)

Our way of life is the problem

Click here to access article by Mickey Z from Infoshop News.
The precarious state of things on Planet Earth is not some preordained theology or an unstoppable force of nature. We’re in this mess thanks to human decisions. If different decisions had been made in the past, different outcomes would’ve likely occurred.

If different decisions are made and different actions are taken—starting right now—perhaps different outcomes can still transpire.

I say we find out…


Thursday, August 11, 2011

Anonymous Anarchism: The Yang of Globalization

Click here to access article by John Kelley from OpEd News. 

Anarchism is probably the worst threat to capitalists, and they have spared no effort in trying to distort its ideas and crush it in order to keep its ideas and history from the minds of working people. Although I've read a lot of literature on the left, I am no expert on anarchism. However, this article appears to provide excellent insights on contemporary and historical examples of anarchist thought and actions.
Anarchists believe that men should not rule or be ruled but form voluntary cooperative relationships to accomplish what they cannot do for themselves, bottom up democracy. Membership in any collective is voluntary and fluid. The three corruptions of power as far as Anarchists are concerned are the power of the state, the power of the church, and the power of capital. They refuse to recognize the authority of all three.
To learn more about the Anonymous group he refers to in his article, check this and this out.

The Pentagon's Fake Jihadists

Click here to access article by Tom Engelhardt from his blog, Tom Dispatch.

What about the effect of Pentagon's Jihadi versions on unbalanced people like Anders Behring Breivik and Jared Lee Loughner
Don't think deterrence here, think blowback. 
The motivation behind this program is quite likely to encourage terrorist attacks (blowbacks) on the US to justify more invasions and domestic police state methods--resulting in benefits to the military-industrial complex that serves as the enforcer for the Empire.
 

“Jobless Need Not Apply”

Click here to access article by Kathy McMahon from her blog, Peak Oil Blues.






The title refers to "what’s increasingly being posted on Monster.com" which lists employer "help wanted" ads.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Obama The Pretend Populist: Says He's Fighting For Jobs ... But His Policies Only INCREASE Unemployment

Click here to access article from Washington's Blog. 

This excellent blogger assembles a lot of material to clearly illustrate how the US government has absolutely no interest in creating jobs, no matter how much they keep saying that they want to promote jobs. Their policies are concentrating even more wealth into the hands of those who, while hiding behind a "democratic" facade, rule over us.

Obama was essentially hired by the political operatives of the ruling class because he could be packaged and sold as a "minority" candidate who would support populist type policies. It worked! Once again, most Americans were played for fools.

The first signs of an economic collapse appeared in the Fall of 2007 with the loan default rates soaring in Europe. Many economists could foresee the collapse unfolding in the near future elsewhere. The political operatives of the ruling class clearly saw the need for a smooth talking populist type of candidate to carry them through the impending crisis. Thus, they recruited Obama who seemed to fit the role perfectly. And, he has. 

The political operatives of the ruling class gave Obama his script and he has been talking about jobs ever since. While Obama was talking jobs, the Fed, which is owned and controlled by the ruling class, instead of creating jobs by funding badly needed infra-structure projects, had other plans in mind. They used their money machine to create money (debts for us) to bail out their banks (along with AIG, a mortgage insurance company) who found themselves stuck with a lot of the packaged mortgages that they had been peddling like snake oil all over the world.

Detroit area workers, retired people speak out on social spending cuts

Posted on WSWS by Andre Damon.

In this video, workers and retired people respond to the $2.4 trillion in spending cuts passed by Congress and the Obama administration earlier this month, in the context of rising social inequality and widespread unemployment.


Union Workers Stand Up to Extreme Demands from Verizon

Click here to access article by Kenneth Quinnell from Crooks and Liars.
More than 40,000 workers -- members of the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers -- went on strike this week after Verizon refused to even begin to bargain fairly with the workers. The workers on strike include "telephone field technicians, call center workers and cable installers from Massachusetts to Virginia."


American workers are increasingly standing up to the big corporations and saying, "no more".

Writer to BBC interviewer: ‘Stop accusing me of being a rioter’

This 4:25m video from article by Dylan Stableford from Yahoo News.
The British media has fielded plenty of criticism over its coverage of the U.K. riots--in part, for siding with police in their clashes with London youth, and for not telling the latter's side of the story.
See how the BBC interviewer has difficulty managing the interview with Darcus Howe, a 68-year-old West Indian writer and broadcaster. When she doesn't get the responses her bosses want, she resorts to cutting him off and then trying to lead listeners to believe that he is a rioter. 

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Thanks to Terry Everton.



Notes on the non-violence of the 15-M movement

Click here to access article by JĂ©rĂ´me E. Roos from Roar Mag. 

This essay, which I recommend more than the video, provides one of the best arguments for non-violent confrontations with authorities that I have seen. We have much to learn from our brothers and sisters in Spain, Greece, Egypt, etc.
The choice for nonviolence is not a choice to shun conflict, but rather to put this conflict in our own terms, choosing the scenarios and setting the pace.

...Violence makes us predictable: it reinforces the positions and roles (police repressor / protester victim). Calling a police officer a “hijo de puta” confirms the situation and the division of roles. Everyone knows who he is, what his identity is and what to feel towards the other. Surely this is not something very serious, but it isn’t really subversive either. Instead, the gestures that we have often seen at 15-M demonstrations compel the police positively, with forms of irony or empathic communication, to dislodge the situation: embarrassed, uncomfortable and restless, they interrupt the “automatisms”, challenge the clichĂ©s, ask questions, short-circuit the predictable, so that everyone knows he has to think, act and feel.

Panic on the streets of London

Click here to access article by Laurie Penny from her blog, Penny Red. Laurie is the author of a recently published book entitled, Meat Market: Female Flesh Under Capitalism.

Absolutely excellent reporting from this blogger who is on the scene in north London witnessing the disintegration of her community.
The violence on the streets is being dismissed as ‘pure criminality,’ as the work of a ‘violent minority’, as ‘opportunism.’ This is madly insufficient. It is no way to talk about viral civil unrest. Angry young people with nothing to do and little to lose are turning on their own communities, and they cannot be stopped, and they know it. Tonight, in one of the greatest cities in the world, society is ripping itself apart.

Nickel and Dimed (2011 Version)

Click here to access article by Barbara Ehrenreich from TomDispatch. Excerpted from Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, 10th Anniversary Edition

As more Americans fall out of the middle class, they must cope not only with poverty but with a system that treats them like criminals.
In what has become a familiar pattern, the government defunds services that might help the poor while ramping up law enforcement.  Shut down public housing, then make it a crime to be homeless. Generate no public-sector jobs, then penalize people for falling into debt. The experience of the poor, and especially poor people of color, comes to resemble that of a rat in a cage scrambling to avoid erratically administered electric shocks. And if you should try to escape this nightmare reality into a brief, drug-induced high, it’s “gotcha” all over again, because that of course is illegal too.

Applying swarm theory to networked union organising

Click here to access article by Walton Pantland from Cyber Unions.
...rather than having strict hierarchical structures, we could have networks of activists connected to each other and to nodes – campaigns. This creates a dense ecosystem of interlocking social movements and practical solidarity.

Swarm theory takes the rhizome structure even further, by proposing explicit organising techniques to mobilise people through these networks.
Much creative thought here about organizing our forces to stop the Empire and construct real democracy, healthy communities, and high functioning human beings.

Monday, August 8, 2011

The ugly face of austerity? Massive riots in Tottenham

Click here to access article by JĂ©rĂ´me E. Roos from Roar Mag. 

Class war is now raging in north London. Meanwhile, US mainstream media is almost totally focused on the stock market collapse. While I write this post, I am watching CNN's Wolf Blitzer giving an extensive interview with billionaire Donald Trump. Trump blames it all on China! As the Empire's Wall Street casino is burning, the ruling class spokespeople are shaking in their boots. 

And, even Israelis protested in massive numbers over the weekend! Read "Historic protest in Israel: over 300,000 demand social justice".

Chris Hedges: Why I Will Be There [3:36m video]

Click here to access video from Transcend Media Service. 

At least one American is fully aware that it is urgent for us all to stand up and say "no" to corporate control of our society. We must join the brave Greeks, Icelanders, Spaniards, Portuguese, British, Egyptians, etc. and say "no more"--we have had enough of your rule, your wars, your austerity, your destruction of our planet! 

As they say on some TV commercials, "But wait, there's more!" Chris Hedges is not the only one. Check out this article and this website.

The Markets. The Markets. Who Are These "Markets" We Are So Beholden To?

Click here to access article by Peter Kellow from OpEd News. 

Have you ever wondered about this god called "The Market" that our masters of the Empire worship so much? You can't blame them for worshiping this god because it has brought them so much wealth and power. On the other hand, this god has brought so much misery, death, and destruction to the vast majority of us. Hence, to fight this god, we must gain some understanding of it. This article helps to demystify the concept along with hedge funds, and money creation.
...the word "markets" refers to some indefinable, ineffable force to which we know we must just bow down. We don't need to question what they are and should not do so. We certainly should never put their authority in doubt, or terrible things might happen.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

David Gregory's Social Security Nonsense: Misinforming viewers about deficit's causes--and public's solutions

Click here to access article from Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting.

This article explained a lot for me about the attacks on Social Security and Medicare programs. As I have written previously, these programs were set up as separately funded programs based on equal contributions from workers and employers, and they have been running huge surpluses for many years. It is only now or in the near future that they will be running annual deficits. So why all the concern?? My interpretation was that these funds have been "stolen" by the Treasury Department to help fund US wars, and now the wealthy ruling class doesn't want to increase taxes to pay back these "stolen" funds. And why weren't these funds invested instead? Well, this article explains it all for me.

The funds from these programs were invested--in US Treasury bills and bonds--just like the Chinese have done with all their surplus money. But, do you notice that there is no one advocating in Congress or mainstream media for the US to default on Chinese debts?? The author cuts through all the crap coming from mainstream media and political operatives with this statement:
When the government pays back these loans [from the Social Security/Medicare Trust Funds] --as it must, unless it borrowed trillions of dollars from working Americans under false pretenses--those payments will contribute to the deficit. But it makes no sense to think of the government paying back loans as Social Security contributing to the deficit. The government of China buys large amounts of Treasury bonds, and the U.S. government regularly pays this money back; if China uses some of this money to build highways, does that mean that Chinese highways are contributing to the U.S. deficit?
They, the US ruling class, simply want to default on their debt obligations to US workers!! Because they don't want to pay extra taxes to do this in addition to funding all their wars! So, maybe I wasn't so far off in my explanation. Maybe they did sell us their debt under false pretenses. Maybe they never intended to pay us back! We were conned by a mafia-like ruling class! Maybe they "stole" our savings from us!  And, now they are lying to us by framing the federal deficit problem as a Social Security and Medicare problem!

My only issue with the article is that it encourages people to think that they can solve this issue by writing to media figures such as NBC's David Gregory complaining about his coverage. He is only the very tiny tip of the self-serving ruling class iceberg that is planning to sink us all. 

Afghanistan is Broke, US Drowning in Debt – So What About a War Ceiling?

Click here to access article by Michele Lin from Economy Watch. 

Even journalists from business sources are beginning to state the obvious.

Double Standards on the Left

Click here to access article by Sveinung Legard from New Compass. 

I am not so much interested with his criticism of the "left" in Norway as I am about his interesting discussion about participatory democracy.
Democracy is first and foremost a question of power. If the members of a society collectively can make the substantive decisions governing the means of production and other social conditions in society – and if all the members of that society have equal opportunities to participate in those decision-making processes – we can talk about a direct or participatory democracy. If we cannot, it is not a direct or participatory democracy.

Bahrain Raids Offices of Doctors Without Borders (video)

Click here to access article by Kristina C from Care 2 Make a Difference.

Another posting to break US media's blackout of news regarding the popular insurrection in Bahrain. 

Yes, I know, there is one link in the article to the NY Times regarding the raid on the offices of this international humanitarian medical aid organization, but this is only because international people were involved and the information would leak out anyway.

No, I didn't watch the video. There is only so much brutality and injustice that I can stomach