Bulletin N° 822



 

Subject : 

ARMISTICE DAY, 1918-2018


On this occqsion, we would like to share with readers the 1971 film production of the anti-war novel written in 1938, by American novelist and later blacklisted screenwriter,

Dalton Trumbo.

This film adaptation was written for the screen and directed by Trumbo himself.

Johnny Got His Gun
(v.o.)
https://gloria.tv/video/n6Puzqoo3Cro1U8Vxq2EiR6et

 

 

 

 

 

11 November 2018

Grenoble, France

 

 

Dear Colleagues and Friends of CEIMSA,

“The Great War,” later known as “The First World War” (1914-1918) was the result of imperialist competition for markets and resources. It represented four years of ritual slaughter at the altar of Capitalism, presided over by a class of international bankers and industrialists. Before it was over, more than 40 million people were killed or mutilated. In France, over 10% of the total population fell into this category. The ruling class made off like bandits in this period of “new investment opportunities” while ordinary people were exploited severely for their ignorance.

The anti-war movement produced heroic gestures and notable personal sacrifices, as the so-called “forces of order” guarded over the orchestration of this heinous fratricide at the cost of civil liberties. Higher profits were to be made by the international class of owners of capital on all sides, as the local exploitation of labor simply took on a quantitative shift while continuing to generate Surplus Value for the investors.

In all nations, workers were praised for their contributions to civilization. The price they paid was never successfully recognized as being connected to the private profits gained by the international class of owners; nor was the contribution they made to future investments in more wars, at still higher profits for the capitalist investors.

 

 

The 20 + items below speak to our present condition under the current regime of disinformation and surveillance in support of War Capitalism, which many of us recognize as the same war as Labor Exploitation, only at a different level.

 

 

Sincerely,

Francis Feeley

Professor emeritus of American Studies

University Grenoble-Alpes

Director of Research

University of Paris-Nanterre

Center for the Advanced Study of American Institutions and Social Movements

The University of California-San Diego

http://www.ceimsa.org/  

 

 

 

 

a.

Chris Hedges and Sheldon Wolin: Can Capitalism and Democracy Coexist?

(Full Version)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGc8DMHMyi8

 

Journalist Chris Hedges interviews political philosopher Sheldon Wolin, who says democracy requires continuous opposition and vigilance by the citizenry.

+

CIA's ‘Surveillance State’ Is Operating Against Us All

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50579.htm

by Sharyl Attkisson

 

Maybe you once thought the CIA wasn’t supposed to spy on Americans here in the United States.

That concept is so yesteryear.

Over time, the CIA upper echelon has secretly developed all kinds of policy statements and legal rationales to justify routine, widespread surveillance on U.S. soil of citizens who aren’t suspected of terrorism or being a spy.

The latest outrage is found in newly declassified documents from 2014. They reveal the CIA not only intercepted emails of U.S. citizens but they were emails of the most sensitive kind — written to Congress and involving whistleblowers reporting alleged wrongdoing within the Intelligence Community.

The disclosures, kept secret until now, are two letters of “congressional notification” from the Intelligence Community inspector general at the time, Charles McCullough. He stated that during “routine counterintelligence monitoring of government computer systems,” the CIA collected emails between congressional staff and the CIA’s head of whistleblowing and source protection.

+

Oceania Is at War with Fascism

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/war-criminals-2.JPG

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50584.htm

by C.J. Hopkins

 

If you’re a critic of global capitalism (sometimes referred to as “globalism”), I’ve got some good news and some bad news for you. The good news is, you’re not a “peddler of Russian propaganda” anymore. The bad news is, you’re an anti-Semite.

You’re probably also a domestic terrorist, or an “emboldener” of domestic terrorism, or at least some sort of terrorism-apologist. And not good old-fashioned Islamic terrorism like we used to get during the War on Terror, because that ended in the Summer of 2016, right around the time Trump won the nomination. No, the brand of terrorism you are probably emboldening by criticizing global capitalism is anti-Semitic, fascist terrorism … the most terroristic form of terrorism there is!

Up until recently, you might have just been going about your normal business, criticizing global capitalism, completely unaware of your anti-Semitic, white supremacist terrorist activities, but from now on there will be no denying them. Your hate thoughts are right there for everyone to read. Go back and check your Facebook posts and your Twitter feed. You’ll see what I mean. All those times when you impulsively lashed out against the global capitalist ruling classes, or globalism, or Obama, or Clinton, or the Wall Street banks, or, God help you, George Soros … well, you might as well have been tweeting blinking neon GIFs of dancing Swastikas or posting Adolf Hitler’s speeches with little throbbing hearts and smiley-face emoticons.

 

==========

 

b.

From: "Mark Crispin Miller" <markcrispinmiller@gmail.com>
To: newsfromunderground@googlegroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, 7 November, 2018 6:24:31 PM
Subject: [MCM] WOOPS! Here's the CORRECT link to my video on election theft....

http://markcrispinmiller.com

 

For those who've joined this list since last "Election" Day, I am re-sending out the link to

my short video about the "one-two punch" whereby They steal elections in the USA today:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxXKr2hKCz0

 (It was directed by John Kirby, and produced by Libby Handros.)

 

MCM

 

==========

 

c.

Black Agenda Report: News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

08 Nov 2018

 

Midterm Elections: Corporate Democrats

Versus the Monster They Empowered

Midterm Elections: Corporate Democrats Versus the Monster They Empowered

https://blackagendareport.com/midterm-elections-corporate-democrats-versus-monster-they-empowered

by Glen Ford

 

Midterm Elections: Corporate Democrats Versus the Monster They Empowered

Only transformational programs, like single payer health care, can erode the coherence of the White Supremacist Bloc, and at the same time galvanize the numeric majority of the nation.

“The midterms were a test of whether Donald Trump could continue to hold majorities of white Americans in thrall to his non-stop, red-meat racist political theater.”

Tuesday’s midterm elections put Democrats back in control of the U.S. House while strengthening the Republican hold on the Senate. The big picture is that, two years after Donald Trump replaced the GOP’s old arsenal of racial code words and dog whistles with blaring white supremacist bullhorns, majorities of U.S. whites are firmly committed to an openly white nationalist political program under the leadership of a billionaire huckster who speaks their vile language. Although the GOP remains a minority party -- Democrats outpolled them in House races by 7 to 9 percent – white supremacists remain the largest bloc in the U.S. political spectrum. The 2018 midterms were a test, not of insurgent left-leaning Democrats -- a disorganized and confused faction that was kept largely in check by the party’s corporate leadership -- but of whether Donald Trump could continue to hold majorities of white Americans in thrall to his non-stop, red-meat racist political theater.

“White supremacists remain the largest bloc in the U.S. political spectrum.”

He could, and did, confirming the potency of the overt white supremacist strategy, which has succeeded in proving both the intransigence and coherence of racist white majorities, even as most of the ruling class and its media mounted an unprecedented offensive to restore the previous corporate political consensus: austerity and war cloaked in a façade of “diversity.” Trump made “me feel like an American again,” said a white West Virginia hardware store worker quoted by the New York Times. The man felt restored in the belief that he still lives in a white man’s country.

 

==========

d.

Empire Files

7 November 2018

 

Abby Martin: The Democratic Party’s ‘Abysmal Failure’

Presenting a Platform

https://therealnews.com/stories/abby-martin-the-democratic-partys-abysmal-failure-presenting-a-platform

with Abby Martin

 

Being anti-Trump is not good enough for defeating Trump. The Democratic Party needs a clearer and more progressive platform if it hopes to halt the country’s rightward movement, says Empire Files’ Abby Martin on the TRNN midterm election panel

 

==========

 

e.

November 6, 2018

Don’t be Flattered, Fooled and Flummoxed in Todays’s Election

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/11/06/dont-be-flattered-fooled-and-flummoxed-in-todayss-election/

by Ralph Nader

 

Let’s face it. Most politicians use the mass media to obfuscate. Voters who don’t do their homework, who don’t study records of the politicians, and who can’t separate the words from the deeds will easily fall into traps laid by wily politicians.

In 2002, Connecticut Governor John Rowland was running for re-election against his Democratic opponent, William Curry. Again and again, the outspent Curry informed the media and the voters about the corruption inside and around the governor’s office. At the time, the governor’s close associates and ex-associates were under investigation by the U.S. attorney. But to the public, Rowland was all smiles, flooding the television stations with self-serving, manipulative images and slogans. He won handily in November. Within weeks, the U.S. attorney’s investigation intensified as they probed the charges Curry had raised about Rowland. Rowland’s approval rating dropped to record lows, and impeachment initiatives and demands for his resignation grew. He was prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned. Unfortunately, enough voters were flattered, fooled, and flummoxed to cost Bill Curry the race.

 

==========

 

f.

Trudeau Won’t Stop $12bn of Arms Sales to Saudi After Khashoggi’s Death Because Money Always Wins Over Murder
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50570.htm

by Robert Fisk


The Canadian prime minister may have condemned the actions of the Saudi regime, but his position over light-armoured vehicle sales to the kingdom tells us everything we need to know.

Almost 5,000 miles from the city in which his corpse was secretly buried – in one piece or in bits – by his Saudi killers, Jamal Khashoggi’s murder now rattles the scruples and the purse-strings of yet another country. For Canada, land of the free and liberal conscience – especially under Justin Trudeau – is suddenly confronted by the fruits of the bright young prime minister’s Conservative predecessors and a simple question of conscience for cash: should Trudeau tear up a 2014 military deal with Saudi Arabia worth $12bn?

When Ottawa decided to sell its spanking new light armoured vehicles (LAVs) to the Saudi kingdom, the Saudis already had a well-earned reputation for chopping off heads and supporting raving and well-armed Islamists. But Mohammed bin Salman had not yet ascended the crown princedom of this pious state. The Saudis had not yet invaded Yemen, chopped off the heads of its Shia leaders, imprisoned its own princes, kidnapped the Lebanese prime minister and dismembered Khashoggi.

So the Conservative Canadian government of Stephen Harper had no scruples about flogging off its LAVs – as these little armoured monsters are called – to Riyadh, specifically for the “transport and protection” of government officials.

 

==========

 

g.

Black Agenda Report: News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

20 Sep 2017

 

Donald Trump and the Fraudulent Democratic Party

Donald Trump and the Fraudulent Democratic Party

https://blackagendareport.com/donald-trump-and-fraudulent-democratic-party

by Solomon Comissiong

 

“The system has to be deconstructed to be reconstructed into something that is actually equitable and democratic.”

The United States’ political system is more duplicitous than it is flawed. What appears to be a flawed system, to the critically thinking mind, is really working as it is intended. It is only seen as an open and democratic system to those who failed to break away from countless years of systematic indoctrination. A great many Americans are oblivious to the fact that Democrats and Republicans are both corporate driven entities that are also thoroughly entrenched within the military industrial complex. Mass failure to recognize this makes much of the US populace culpable in the threat “their” country poses to world peace.

+

Chris Hedges: The Absurdity of American Empire

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_dkEgNGpzY

 

What happens when you force communities, families and entire ecosystems to kneel before the dictates of the marketplace? You get what Chris Hedges, co-author with Joe Sacco of Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, calls "sacrifice zones." From Appalachia to North Dakota to Camden, New Jersey, these zones, ravaged by the excesses of capitalism, prefigure our collective future.

 

==========

 

h.

Glen Ford on Chris Hedges On Contact: The Con of Diversity

https://blackagendareport.com/glen-ford-chris-hedges-contact-con-diversity

with Chris Hedges

 

Diversity is little more than black faces in high places, not the goal of radical transformation that puts power in the hands of ordinary people.

 

==========

 

i.

The Troika of Tyranny:

The Imperialist Project in Latin America and Its Epigones

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/11/07/the-troika-of-tyranny-the-imperialist-project-in-latin-america-and-its-epigones/

by Roger Harris

 

Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela are today threatened by US imperialism. The first salvo of the modern Age of Imperialism started back in 1898 when the US seized Cuba along with Puerto Rico and the Philippines in the Spanish-American War.

The Age of Imperialism, as Lenin observed, is characterized by the competition of the various imperial powers for dominance. That inter-imperialist rivalry led to World War I. Lenin called those putative socialists who supported their own national imperialist projects “social imperialists.” Social imperialism is a tendency that is socialist in name and imperialist in deed. Imperialism and its social imperialist minions are still with us today.

US Emerges as the World’s Hegemon

The United States emerged after World War II as the leading imperialist power. With the implosion of the Socialist Bloc around 1991, US hegemony became even more consolidated. Today the US is the undisputed world’s hegemon.

+

Fascism Has Arrived in Brazil – Jair Bolsonaro’s Presidency Will Be Worse Than You Think
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50578.htm

by Benjamin Fogel


The ex-army captain will do as he says. He will attempt to criminalise the Workers’ Party and will declare indigenous social movements as terrorist organisations. His victory marks a setback for civilisation

The world’s fourth largest democracy and the biggest economy in Latin America has elevated a man who promises to imprison or banish his political enemies and who has openly declared he will enact a historic cleansing of the left after taking office. Jair Bolsonaro is not a normal presidential candidate. He is openly hostile to democracy and will probably be the most extremist elected leader in the world. Bolsonaro is not the straight talking man of the people his supporters claim he is; instead he is the embodiment of the most hardline faction of the military dictatorship that ruled Brazil for 21 years. He claims fidelity to those like his hero Colonel Ustra who embraced torture, murder and rape, as necessary tools in the fight against communism.

 

==========

 

j.

TruthDig

24 January 2010

 

Democracy in America Is a Useful Fiction

https://www.truthdig.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Supreme_Court_Corporate_America_798.jpg

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/democracy-in-america-is-a-useful-fiction/

by Chris Hedges

 

Corporate forces, long before the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, carried out a coup d’état in slow motion. The coup is over. We lost. The ruling is one more judicial effort to streamline mechanisms for corporate control. It exposes the myth of a functioning democracy and the triumph of corporate power. But it does not significantly alter the political landscape. The corporate state is firmly cemented in place.

The fiction of democracy remains useful, not only for corporations, but for our bankrupt liberal class. If the fiction is seriously challenged, liberals will be forced to consider actual resistance, which will be neither pleasant nor easy. As long as a democratic facade exists, liberals can engage in an empty moral posturing that requires little sacrifice or commitment. They can be the self-appointed scolds of the Democratic Party, acting as if they are part of the debate and feel vindicated by their cries of protest.

Much of the outrage expressed about the court’s ruling is the outrage of those who prefer this choreographed charade. As long as the charade is played, they do not have to consider how to combat what the political philosopher Sheldon Wolin calls our system of “inverted totalitarianism.”

 

==========

 

k.

https://default.salsalabs.org/api/organization/0a6bfd99-cf1c-4d68-939f-04d41bd016f0/logo/data

 

“How Israel partisans buy U.S. elections”: An Israel lobby official, 

recorded by an undercover reporter, describes the guest list for a secret event.

https://iak.salsalabs.org/how-israel-partisans-buy-elections?wvpId=9623ec16-0340-11e6-ab9d-12c35146c141

 

 

+

Iconic Palestinian protester shot in Gaza – reports

https://www.rt.com/news/443156-iconic-gaza-palestinian-shot/

+

How lobbies buy elections, false online identities and campus deception,

stories from Gaza

https://iak.salsalabs.org/blogdigest11082018?wvpId=9623ec16-0340-11e6-ab9d-12c35146c141

 

 

==========

 

l.

The Psychology of Fascism

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50497.htm

by Robert J. Burrowes

 

The continuing rise of fascism around the world is drawing increasing attention particularly as it takes firmer grip within national societies long seen to have rejected it.

 

Some recent studies have reminded us of the characteristics of fascist movements and individuals, particularly as they manifest among politically active fascists. For example, in his recent book How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us And Them Professor Jason Stanley has identified ten characteristics shared by fascists which have been simply presented in the article ‘Prof Sees Fascism Creeping In U.S.’

These characteristics, readily evident in the USA, Europe, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Myanmar and elsewhere today, include belief in a mythic (false) past, propaganda to divert attention and blame from the true source of corruption, anti-intellectualism and a belief in the ‘common man’ while deriding ‘women and racial and sexual minorities who seek basic equality as in fact seeking political and cultural domination’, promotion of elite dogma at the expense of any competing ideas (such as those in relation to freedom and equality), portrayal of the elite and its agents as victims, reliance on delusion rather than fact to justify their pursuit of power, the use of law and order ‘not to punish actual criminals, but to criminalize “out groups” like racial, ethnic, religious and sexual minorities’ which is why we are now ‘seeing criminality being written into immigration status’, and identification of “out groups” as lazy while attacking welfare systems and labor organizers, and promoting the idea that elites and their agents are hard working while exploited groups are lazy and a drain on the state.

In an earlier article ‘Fascism Anyone?’, published in the Spring 2003 issue of Free Inquiry Magazine, Professor Laurence W. Britt identified fourteen shared threads that link fascists. These include powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism, disdain for the importance of human rights, identification of enemies/scapegoats (such as communists, socialists, liberals, ethnic and racial minorities, traditional national enemies, members of other religions, secularists, homosexuals and ‘terrorists’) as a unifying cause, obsession with national security and avid identification with the military, sexism, a controlled/compliant mass media that promotes the elite agenda, a manufactured perception that opposing the power elite is tantamount to an attack on religion, corporate power protected by the political elite while the power of labor is suppressed or eliminated, disdain for intellectuals and the arts, expanded police power and prison populations in response to an obsession with the crime and punishment of ordinary citizens (while elite crimes are protected by a compliant judiciary), rampant cronyism and corruption, and fraudulent elections defended by a judiciary beholden to the power elite.

+

Vital Ignored Truths in Milgram’s Obedience to Authority Studies

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/10/25/vital-ignored-truths-in-milgrams-obedience-to-authority-studies/

by Bruce E. Levine

 

Psychologist Stanley Milgram (1933–1984) was deeply affected by Nazi atrocities, so when his early 1960s research on Americans revealed an unexpectedly high rate of obedience to authority commanding subjects to commit cruel actions, this very much troubled him. Milgram’s studies revealed other truths—not as widely known—that are crucial to fighting authoritarianism.

One ignored finding is that many of Milgram’s subjects did express dissent but ultimately obeyed. Milgram very much wanted us to recognize that in authoritarian settings, dissent alone without disobedience is of no value in stopping abuse, as dissent is routinely ignored by authoritarians.

In the original Milgram study at Yale University, subjects were recruited for an experiment ostensibly investigating learning. The naïve subjects were the “teachers” and a confederate was the “learner,” and there was also an experimenter authority who ordered subject teachers to shock the learner for incorrect responses. In the most well-known variation of the experiment, 26 of 40 teacher subjects (65%) continued to shock the confederate learner to the highest level of 450 volts (which was labeled as “Danger: severe shock”) even as the confederate learner pounded the walls to protest and no longer answered after 315 volts. While 65% of subjects neverdisobeyed authority, even the other 35% (who ultimately disobeyed) did shock subjects at lower levels.

Vital but often ignored is that audio recordings of Milgram’s study reveal that many subjects did offer dissent but ultimately obeyed. Many subjects tried several different forms of verbal protest saying “I can’t do this anymore” or “I’m not going to do this anymore.” The experimenter authority responded to subjects’ objections with a series of orders/prods to ensure they continued (Prod 1: “Please continue”; Prod 2: “The experiment requires you to continue”; Prod 3: “It is absolutely essential that you continue”; and Prod 4: “You have no other choice, you must go on”). With these prods/orders, most subjects who had protested complied.

For critics of Milgram, these protests were attempts at disobedience, but for Milgram—and myself—these protests were dissent, not disobedience. And what’s crucial is that dissent without disobedience had no value for the victim.

 

==========

 

m.

Noam Chomsky on Finkelstein’s Gaza Book

http://normanfinkelstein.com/2018/10/03/noam-chomsky-on-finkelsteins-gaza-book/

 

To plumb the depths of human savagery is a formidable task, and not a pleasant one. The task is undertaken with rigorous argument and scrupulous scholarship in Norman Finkelstein’s monumental “inquest into Gaza’s martyrdom.” And with undisguised passion. As he writes, “this book rises to a crescendo of anger and indignation.” It is hard to see how anyone with a shred of humanity could react differently to the bitter record unraveled here.

There have been evocative, often shattering, accounts of the tragedy of Gaza. Some of the most infuriating are live testimony from the scene during the periodic escalations of the crimes: among them the reports by the remarkable Norwegian surgeon Mads Gilbert from the trauma wards of al-Shifa hospital and the painful daily reports by the courageous Palestinian journalist Mohammed Omer. There have also been studies by prestigious commissions of inquiry and by the major international human-rights groups, all mined in Finkelstein’s inquest. Understanding has also been enriched by work of fine journalists and scholars. But in its comprehensive sweep, deep probing and acute critical analysis, Finkelstein’s study stands alone.

Concluding his inquest, Finkelstein cites warnings by UNCTAD and other international monitors that Gaza could become literally uninhabitable by 2020 “due to ongoing de-development, eight years of economic blockade and three operations” from 2009 to 2014. The grim figures on the availability of potable water, energy and housing, on unemployment and dependence on humanitarian aid even for food, depict all too clearly the nature of the catastrophe as 2020 approaches.

+

Chomsky to i24NEWS: ‘Judeo-Nazi tendencies in Israel a product of occupation’

https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/188255-181108-chomsky-to-i24news-judeo-nazi-tendencies-in-israel-a-product-of-occupation

 

==========

 

n.

From: "IAK Blog" <contact@ifamericansknew.org>
Sent: Thursday, 1 November, 2018
Subject: Al Jazeera film on Israel lobby, children targeted, Palestinian universities...

 

Latest stories from the If Americans Knew blog. View this in your browser

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Featuring reports about the Israel lobby's activities from around the web, missing headlines from Palestine, and the latest If Americans Knew videos.

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Where do YOUR Congressional candidates stand on Palestine/Israel?
If Americans Knew has created Scoreboards for candidates running for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives in the 2018 midterm elections. See how your candidates stand on Palestine-Israel… Read the rest of this entry

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Israeli airstrike kills three children in Gaza
WAFA reports that three Palestinian children were killed in an Israeli airstrike bombing that targeted an area to the northeast of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip. Israeli soldiers reportedly opened fire toward the ambulances and prevented their access to the scene…. Read the rest of this entry

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Israel targets Gaza's children, say witnesses
Electronic Intifada reports that every Friday 11-year-old Nasir insisted that he accompany his two older sisters to the Great March of Return. Both women are medics; Nasir would carry their first aid bags. An Israeli sniper shot him in the head. Israeli forces have killed 1,600 Gazan children since 2000… "An Israeli soldier deliberately killed Faris," Zaqoul said. "The Israeli soldier said on a loudspeaker 'you, with the white T-shirt, I'll shoot you' – pointing at Faris…"  Read the rest of this entry

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Israeli forces kill 4 unarmed protesters in Gaza, 1 in West Bank
PNN reports that Israeli forces shot dead four more Palestinian fathers, sons, and brothers during unarmed protests at the Gaza-Israel border, and killed a Palestinian father of two in the West Bank. Israeli soldiers attacked journalists with teargas and banned them from covering events… Read the rest of this entry

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Israeli forces abduct Palestinians, strike Gaza, injure students, attack Coptic priests, etc
The last two days of news reports from the International Middle East Media Center… Read the rest of this entry

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Pro-Israel superstar may have worked as a secret agent on college campuses
The Forward reports that a hugely popular pro-Israel speaker and writer has been secretly working directly for the Israeli government. It appears that his actions may have violated U.S. espionage laws…  Read the rest of this entry

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Adelson-Funded IAC and Other Groups May Soon Rival AIPAC for Influence, Power
The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs details how casino magnate Sheldon Adelson uses his billions of dollars to advocate for Israel. Read the rest of this entry

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WATCH: Suppressed Al Jazeera film details the Israel lobby's 'covert war' to manipulate Americans
Ha'aretz obtained Al Jazeera's four-part documentary about the Israel lobby, censored following pressure by Jewish-American groups . It shows how Israel's Strategic Affairs Ministry works with pro-Israel U.S. officials and groups to manipulate Americans…  Read the rest of this entry

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Israel's assault on Palestinian universities is a threat to human rights and a tragedy for this generation of students
The UK Independent reports that Palestine has had to contend with Israel's systematic obstruction of education: from enforced closures, campus raids, and the oppression of individual students and teachers, including arbitrary arrests and detention without trial. Read the rest of this entry

 

     

IsraelPalestineNews.org IfAmericansKnew.org   
contact@ifamericansknew.org  •  202-631-060

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o.

Intercepted

7 November 2018

Chris Hedges on Elections, “Christian Fascists,” and the Rot Within the American System

https://theintercept.com/2018/11/07/chris-hedges-on-elections-christian-fascists-and-the-rot-within-the-american-system/

(audio, 1h20)

with Jeremy Scahill

 

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p.

Why a Neoliberal Society Can’t Survive

https://uziiw38pmyg1ai60732c4011-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/dropzone/2017/11/Screen-Shot-2017-09-07-at-4.53.09-PM.png

(Photo by Nathaniel St. Clair)

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/10/30/why-a-neoliberal-society-cant-survive/

by T.J. Coles

 

Humans are complicated creatures. We are both cooperative and sectarian. We tend to be cooperative within in-groups (e.g., a trade union) whilst competing against out-groups (e.g., a business confederation). But complex societies such as ours also force us to cooperate with out-groups – in neighbourhoods, at work, and so on. In social systems, natural selection favours cooperation. In addition, we are biased toward ethical behaviours, so cooperation and sharing are valued in human societies.

But what happens when we are forced into an economic system that makes us compete at every level? The logical outcome is societal decline or collapse.

NEOLIBERAL DOGMA IN THE 20TH CENTURY

In “The Individual in Society,” Ludwig von Mises, teacher of Friedrich Hayek (the granddaddy of modern neoliberalism), wrote that in a contractual society, the employer is at the mercy of the mob. But in a self-interested market economy, “[t]he coordination of the autonomous actions of all individuals is accomplished by the operation of the market.” So, in this fantasy-world, employers can fire workers and replace them with cheaper ones without incurring the social costs associated with contractual societies.

Particularly after the 1970s, this kind of thinking began to permeate the culture of “free market” planners in Ivy League economics courses.

Robert Simons of the Harvard Business School notes that economics is by far the dominant academic discipline in the United States today, and that many graduates take that acquired ideology of self-interest into the workplace of asset management, hedge funds, insurance, liquidity, and so on. Simons criticises what he calls “the unquestioning and universal acceptance by economists of self-interest—of shareholders, managers, and employees—as the conceptual foundation for business design and management.” Simons notes that workers are self-interested “tribes,” as are managers, in that they try to gain more benefits. “To remedy this potentially catastrophic situation” of worker rights, “market economists attempt to channel errant behaviors by using stimulus-response theory” in the form of anti-union legislation, cuts to social services, and the threat of outsourcing jobs. Market economists “have elevated self-interest to a normative ideal.”

 

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Roaming Charges: Chuck and Nancy’s House of Cards

https://uziiw38pmyg1ai60732c4011-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/dropzone/2018/11/24305804949_6e0d5e25b8_z.jpg

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/11/09/roaming-charges-nancys-house-of-cards/

by Jeffrey St. Clair

 

+ It seems like everybody got something out of the midterms, except one lonely man. Nancy Pelosi won. Mitch McConnell won. Trump got a split decision. But Chuck Schumer got creamed. Has the senator from Citibank resigned yet?

 

+ After Trump’s election and the announcement that Chuck Schumer would lead the Democratic Resistance©, I predicted that Schumer’s infamous “Plan B” (pandering to upper-middle class suburban voters and disaffected Republicans with college degrees at the expense of blue collar voters) would result in the Democrats losing 5 senate seats. I confess I was wrong.  They only lost four, unless, like me, you consider the retention of Robert Menendez and Joe Manchin as a result even worse than a loss.

 

+ One big takeaway from the midterms: It’s possible, perhaps even likely, that the next Democratic presidential candidate could win the popular vote by 10% and still lose in the electoral college. (Democrats have a 12.5-pt lead in the popular vote in all contested senate races and have lost 4 seats.)

 

+ Senate popular vote:

Democrats: 40,558,262 (55.4%)

Republicans: 31,490,026 votes (43.0%)

 

+ According to the normally reliable Cook Political Report, there were 46 GOP-held congressional seats in the House that were either favored for a Democratic win or considered a toss-up and another 49 GOP-held seats that leaned red but were still competitive. Of those 95 competitive seats, the Democrats only won 30. Can that result really be considered a success? In baseball, .315 would be a good batting average. But in politics shouldn’t you be hitting closer to .500 in a two-party system?

 

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Pologne 1968. Entretien avec Karol Modzelewski

https://www.contretemps.eu/wp-content/uploads/pologne-68.jpg

https://www.contretemps.eu/pologne-1968-karol-modzelewski/

 

Przemyslaw Wielgosz est rédacteur en chef de l’édition polonaise du Monde Diplomatique, et l’auteur de Opium globalizacji (« L’opium de la mondialisation »), éd. Wydawnictwo Akademickie Dialog, Warszawa 2004.

 

Przemyslaw Wielgosz :  Vous êtes considéré comme un des « pères spirituels » du mars 1968 polonais. La diffusion de la Lettre ouverte au Parti1, que vous aviez rédigée avec Jacek Kuron, a ouvert le cycle des événements qui ont culminé dans la révolte étudiante. Quels étaient les buts du mouvement étudiant polonais en mars 1968 ? Et quels furent les liens de ce mouvement avec les propositions de la Lettre ouverte ?

Karol Modzelewski : Les buts que nous nous fixions avec Jacek Kuron en écrivant la Lettre ouverte au Parti différaient de ceux des participants au mouvement étudiant en 1968. Il est vrai que nous avions été accusés d’avoir provoqué ces événements. Le Parquet nous accusait d’en avoir été les deux principaux instigateurs et nous avions été arrêtés dès le premier jour de la mobilisation. Nous étions tous les deux comme des leaders spirituels pour un groupe de jeunes relativement réduit qui a commencé à agir à l’Université de Varsovie. Mais ils furent presque tous arrêtés au cours des premiers jours du mouvement, nombre d’entre eux le premier jour. Dans cette situation les événements ont suivi leur propre voie. Leurs véritables auteurs, ce fut le collectif, l’ensemble des étudiants.

Le mouvement de mars a mobilisé de larges secteurs de l’intelligentsia universitaire, des intellectuels, les gens de la culture et aussi toute la génération de la jeunesse étudiante. Il était dirigé par des leaders apparus au cours des événements, par les comités successifs de délégués des départements des diverses écoles supérieures. Ces comités étaient emprisonnés l’un après l’autre, mais à leur place immédiatement de nouveaux comités étaient créés. Il me semble donc que ce que je pouvais avoir alors à l’esprit peut différer de ce qu’avaient alors à l’esprit tous ceux qui se sont révoltés.

 

Ils l’ont fait contre des choses très concrètes. Je le percevais d’ailleurs de la même manière et j’étais d’accord avec eux. Nous devons garder à l’esprit qu’il s’agissait d’une lutte en défense des acquis très concrets obtenus après octobre 19562.

 

Lors du recul qui a suivi octobre, dès le début des années 1960, beaucoup de ces acquis ont été repris, mais il a été possible d’en sauvegarder quelques- uns, des îlots de liberté. Cela concernait en particulier la liberté d’expression et de parole, dans la recherche scientifique et la didactique universitaire, qui ont été garantis dans la loi sur l’enseignement supérieur de 1958. C’était sans doute l’unique loi dans tout le bloc communiste qui garantissait l’autogestion dans l’enseignement supérieur, c’est-à-dire l’élection des recteurs par les professeurs, l’élection des doyens par le conseil du département, l’interdiction d’exclure les étudiants pour des raisons politiques sans une décision de la commission disciplinaire. Et cette dernière était un tribunal composé de travailleurs universitaires, agissant publiquement, avec des défenseurs choisis parmi les universitaires. Les autorités politiques ont voulu par deux fois exclure de l’enseignement Adam Michnik3 et ses collègues, et les deux fois la mobilisation de l’opinion universitaire est parvenue à l’empêcher.

 

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Has The U.S. Gone Insane?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/US-INSANE.JPG

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50583.htm

by Jeffrey Bowers

 

What does United States of America stand for nowadays if political division is at an all time high? Is it still the land of the free if America has the highest rate of incarceration in the world? Are we still the home of the brave if we refuse to stand up to injustice, because it would compromise our pocketbook? This disconnection from reality is the definition of psychosis. Pulitzer-prize winning journalist, best-selling author, and activist Chris Hedges, has made it his life’s work to highlight this inequity and combat the complacency of the consumerist culture. In a 2010 essay published on Adbusters, Hedges caught the eye of filmmaker Amanda Zackem, when he succinctly spelled out the problems with totalitarian capitalism and corporate power. Those ideas deeply resonated with Zackem and caused her to reach out to Hedges about bringing his essay into the cinematic realm in order to expose them to a larger audience. This week’s Staff Pick Premiere, “American Psychosis,” is the result of that process and their attempt to make people think more deeply about the world we’re living in.

“We live in an unbalanced, exploitation-based system and that’s not morally right or just. The issues of totalitarian capitalism and totalitarian corporate power need to be discussed more openly and honestly in our national dialogue,” says Zackem. “To be clear, totalitarian capitalism is not sustainable and should not be intertwined with our government. Most people don’t realize how their consumer choices negatively impact the world – environmentally, socially, culturally, politically, globally.” Without going deep into the trenches, the short documentary illuminates many of these issues. However, with its hard-lined perspective, “American Psychosis” serves as a vital entry point to critically observing, thinking, and acting on the imbalances one sees in society. “I learned long ago that you can’t change anybody unless they want to change themselves. With this in mind, my intention when making this film was to encourage people to begin to think critically about the world we live in as opposed to just going through our daily motions. Most of us aren’t even aware of the oppressive, inequitable systems we are a part of, or if we are, we choose not to look, or not to talk about it, because it is uncomfortable. I want people to question the world we live in, the systems we’ve set up. I want people to self-reflect and take personal responsibility for our current situation. Why do we allow it to continue? What are we afraid of? How can we co-create and help each other live and thrive as individuals and as a community?”

 

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Turkey’s President Says Recording of Khashoggi’s Killing Was Given to U.S.

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/11/11/world/11erdogan/merlin_146608206_14bb732f-d2c5-47ec-ad43-c04b3bba3cdf-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/10/world/middleeast/jamal-khashoggi-murder-turkey-recordings.html?emc=edit_th_181111&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=301006721111

by Mark Landler and David D. Kirkpatrick

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, shown on Saturday in Ankara, said Turkey had shared recordings linked to the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi with Saudi Arabia, the United States and other countries.CreditCreditBurhan Ozbilici/Associated Press