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 Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Monday, December 12, 2016

Behind hacking allegations: Explosive conflict over US policy toward Russia

Click here to access article by Patrick Martin from World Socialist Web Site

So, what is going on? We can only speculate because so many important decisions in our country are made in the secretive Deep State where major capitalists mediate issues behind the scenes of public discourse. Considering that the CIA (the FBI is staying safely out of this fray) is a very important agency of the US ruling class and this kind of opposition is unprecedented since the days of John Kennedy's presidency (and we know what happened to him), I think it is a phenomenon that we should pay attention to in the months ahead. I've noticed that foreign media are certainly paying attention. Martin offers his thoughts:
These rapid-fire events, in which intelligence agencies feed the media and the media seeks to stampede public opinion, only underscore the manipulative character of the election process as a whole. The real issues being fought out within the ruling elite—over what tactics and methods to employ against its global rivals—were concealed from the population while a barrage of slanders and scandals was unleashed to provide political cover for a further shift to the right.
Martin also noticed that other issues are obviously unimportant to the ruling capitalist class:
While the campaign on Trump and Russia escalates, neither the Times nor the Democrats devote a fraction of that energy to condemning the cabinet of billionaire reactionaries and generals Trump is assembling or his plans to dismantle Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and public education and eliminate all restrictions on corporate pollution of the environment and all regulations on the banks and big business.
They are entirely focused on preventing any shift under Trump away from the offensive against Russia.