Bulletin
N° 831
"The Trump Prophecy"
http://putlocker.tl/watch/bxqpo3Ov-the-trump-prophecy.html
Subject
: Millenarianism vs. Class Struggle.
22 January 2019
Grenoble,
France
Dear
Colleagues and Friends of CEIMSA,
Many
years ago, my high school history teacher in a small town in the southwest
told her class: you can communicate most ideas with 10˘-words, and occasionally you
might need a 25˘-cent word, but if you really want to impress certain people you should use
a $2-word now and then, or perhaps a foreign word, like from Latin. Where I grew up, it was considered in poor taste to try to impress
people with words sans ideas –
it was a cheap magician’s trick to create an illusion of superiority - rather
than real understanding. Such practice would often put an end to the conversation.
In
the 19th-century populist tradition, communication skills were deemed to be of higher value
than an arsenal of weaponized vocabulary, which was
the exclusive culture of a hierarchy of “ladder climbers,” those would-be managers who sought to gain
power over people around them by use of words.
Words
are symbols, like clothing and automobiles, and the meaning is always open to
interpretation. In final analysis, the power of the symbol is produced by
the interpreters themselves, and when a conventional interpretation is no
longer found to be in the interest of people, they quite naturally modify
their interpretation. This change executed by society can happen over a period of decades or even centuries;
but it can also take place in a matter of weeks, days, or only hours. Bob Dylan expressed this
transitory truth in his famous 1964 song, The Times They are A-Changin’.
Another example comes to mind: Last spring I was invited to give a series of lectures at Minsk State University, where I had taught as a Fulbright Professor in the early 1990s. The atmosphere on campus had changed considerably (from socialist realism to capitalist realism), and I had the occasion to speak about the Cold War and the economic interests on both sides that fueled it for nearly half a century. Students were mildly surprised that I did not conformed to the innocucous ideology of contemporary anti-communism, and hoping to bring me around to the post-cold-war norm, they began to ridicule the dominant symbol of the old regime: The ubiquitous Hammer and Sickle of the Soviet Union flag. I took the opportunity to deconstruct this communist symbol and place it in its historic context. At the turn of the century, I reminded the class, these two instruments of essential labor represented the two social classes that stood united in solidarity to challenge the political hegemony of their masters - the class of industrial capitalists and the large land owning class - who for all practical purposes owned them. What later became a cliché and a fetish for many people had, in fact, at one time successfully symbolized the revolutionary vision of emancipation from bondage. This original meaning has been all but lost today, and the symbol stands as a caricture of a failed past, with pathological implications. Many of the former Soviet Union cadre were well positioned to become rich capitalist owners, and cultural hegemony shifted in favor of contemporary oligarchs. What, I then asked the students, do you think is a fitting symbol of your generation of ordinary Russians today, in the spring of 2018? The class grew silent; then a young woman raised her hand: "I think our symbol is the i-phone. It represents who we are." Unfortunately, the class ended at that point, and we had no possibility to discuss this insight further . . . .
The
22 + items below will provide reads with descriptions and analyses of
events which are likely to affect our lives in the near future. The famous German
philosopher Hegel is reported to have once said: the "bible" for the philosopher is the daily newspaper. Even this German
Idealist understood that without social context words have no meaning, and
with inadequate knowledge of current events the meanings of words are
necessarily distorted. The popular mass movements which are now developing around
the world will increasingly challenge corporate capitalist interests - both its tactics and its objectives. The
tried and proven capitalist ruse of displacing crises to another part of the
world is now revealed. It has run its course, and the only method now available for capitalists
to continue their expropriation of “respectable” profits through
exploitation of the masses appears to be rapport de force.
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
a.
From: Mark Crispin Miller
Sent: Saturday, 19
January, 2019
Subject: [MCM] "Conspiracy theory" could become a criminal
offense in California
As Sen.
Richard Pan is a (notorious) Big Pharma tool, the
immediate purpose of this law would be to shut down all debate about
particular vaccines as well as vaccination overall, by making it a crime
to doubt the state's assurances that all vaccines are 100%
safe, necessary and effective.
However,
Pan's law would make criminals not just of those who dare to question
California's vaccination program, but of all those who dare question any
of the state's "official stories," by posting contrary information,
which the state reflexively defines as "false."
So let's
keep a close eye on SB1424.
(Mario Savio must be spinning in his grave.)
MCM
_______
Senator
Richard Pan is pushing a bill that would make it a "crime"
for
anyone to question vaccines
https://www.newstarget.com/2018-05-18-senator-richard-pushing-bill-crime-question-vaccines.html
by Tracey Watson
Fake News. The term that didn’t even exist five years ago has now become
everybody’s favorite way to suppress free speech. The latest person to jump on the
censorship bandwagon is California’s Senator Richard Pan, the very
same politician who has already done untold damage by mandating vaccinations
for all Californian schoolchildren with his infamous SB277 bill of 2015.
As reported by Natural Health 365, Senator Pan has
proposed a new bill entitled “SB1424 Internet: social media: false information:
strategic plan,” which would make it a crime to raise questions about any
“official story” put forth by the government. That, of course, would include
the official vaccine story, namely that all vaccines are good, safe and side
effect free, and that a healthy nation is a vaccinated nation. (Related: The dirty history of Big Pharma’s scientific censorship, oppression and destruction
of human knowledge.)
Why SB1424 is dangerous
Natural Health 365 explained how this bill would threaten free speech and the
right to question the official vaccine narrative:
Any person operating an Internet site in California would be
obligated to develop a strategic plan to verify any news stories shared on the
site. The plan must also have measures to mitigate the spread of false information
by using fact-checkers to verify the stories and provide outreach to social
media users. A “fake news” warning must be placed on any news story that
contains false information.
The bill, if it passes, will require agencies of the California
government to develop numerous laws for its enforcement, including penalties
for so-called “speech criminals.”
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If, for example, someone in the independent media published a
story about the dangers of vaccines and their toxic ingredients, that person
would have to include a warning that the content was fake (since it deviates
from the “official” story), or risk penalties for being a speech criminal. (Related: Find out what they’re hiding from you at Censorship.news.)
Censorship disguised as a form of
“protection”
And just who would get to decide what is right and wrong, true
and false? Where will these official “fact checkers” come from, and which way
will their viewpoints be slanted? After all, we are all biased for or against
things based on our own life experiences. (Related: Mainstream media fails to expose
government censorship of news.)
Breitbart News noted:
It is not clear who would appoint the “fact-checkers.”
Currently, Facebook uses fact-checkers
approved by the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), an
organization run by the Poynter Institute, which in
turn is funded, in part, by George Soros’s Open Society Foundation and
other liberal organizations.
It would be easy for government agencies to eliminate all
sources of opinion that deviate from the official narrative by first targeting
the largest organizations and news outlets that routinely express
non-mainstream opinions, and slowly working their way down to the smaller
organizations and finally to any individual who dares to express a contrary
opinion.
Slowly but surely, censorship is being presented as a wholesome
way to control the facts that we are all exposed to – a way to protect us from
fake news and the spread of misinformation. It is important to recognize,
however, that we have the right to hear both sides of every story and form our
own conclusions.
Government interference like that which would surely arise from
the implementation of proposed bill SB1424 strips us of the right to assess the
validity of information for ourselves – a right which each one of us
should cherish.
Read Vaccines.news
for more coverage of the dangers of vaccines.And visit ThoughtPolice.news for news about
restrictions on the freedom to think.
+
How The NSA Tracks
You: Former NSA Technical Director
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50932.htm
(a MUST watch)
William "Bill" Binney, former NSA technical director on how NSA track you.
From the SHA2017 conference in Netherlands.
“I am very honored and proud to present you Bill Binney
on the stage and he will be telling us the perspective from the inside of the
NSA because he was the Technical Director of the NSA for many years and worked
in the intelligence services for more than thirty-seven years. He is a child of
the Cold War and worked throughout the Cold War decrypting and breaking cyphers from the adversaries of the US and back then he
used to call himself the ‘Technical Director of the World, in a sense.’ So please give it away for ‘How the NSA tracks you’ with Bill Binney…
+
Scheer & Hedges:
They Know Everything About You (1/7)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5y-ok3l27k&t=10s
Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges interviews Truthdig's editor in chief Robert Scheer
about his latest book "They Know Everything About You: How Data-Collecting
Corporations and Snooping Government Agencies Are Destroying Democracy"
+
House Bill Forces
Trump to Nominate “Anti-Semitism Envoy” Who Would Monitor Criticism of Israel
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50925.htm
by
Alison Weir
The position of
anti-Semitism envoy was created in 2004 over the objections of the State
Department, which said it wasn’t needed. It was urged by Israeli Minister for
Diaspora Affairs Natan Sharansky,
who had formulated a new definition of anti-Semitism that includes criticism of
Israel.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted 411-1 for a bill that would force President Trump to nominate an anti-Semitism envoy, a position that has been vacant since he took office. The definition of anti-Semitism the position uses includes certain criticisms of Israel.
The bipartisan bill upgrades the current position of Anti-Semitism Envoy to an ambassador rank, which requires the job to be filled within 90 days.
The law states that the Special Envoy shall “serve as the primary advisor to, and coordinate efforts across, the U.S. government relating to monitoring and combating anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic incitement in foreign countries.”
The bill, H.R.221- Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism Act, was sponsored by Rep. Christopher H. Smith [R-NJ-4] and has 87 co-sponsors. Smith’s largest campaign donor was NorPAC, a pro-Israel political action committee.
To become law the bill must next be passed by the Senate and then be signed by the president. If Trump vetoes it, Congress can override this through a two-thirds vote.
The position of anti-Semitism envoy was created in 2004 over the objections of the State Department, which said it wasn’t needed. It was urged by Israeli Minister for Diaspora Affairs Natan Sharansky, who had formulated a new definition of anti-Semitism that includes criticism of Israel.
Previous envoys before or after serving in the position worked for the Israel lobbying organization AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
The Times of Israel reports that the impetus for the current bill was “Trump’s failure to pick someone for that opening over the last two years, despite frequent calls from Jewish groups.”
The lawmaker who voted against the bill was Republican Justin Amash from Michigan, a civil libertarian who is Chairman of the House Liberty Caucus.
Israeli
Companies Sell Spy Tech They Perfected for Occupying Palestine
https://therealnews.com/stories/israeli-companies-sell-spy-tech-they-perfected-for-occupying-palestine
(January 20,
2019)
We speak to
Antony Lowenstein, author of an article on “Exporting the Technology of
Occupation.” He shows the growing connection between Israeli offensive cyber
companies and mass surveillance in the service of authoritarian governments
around the world
b.
Media &
paramedics among 30 wounded
at March of Return protest in Gaza
s
A photographer reacts from tear gas fired by Israeli troops @ Ibraheem Abu Mustafa / Reuters
https://www.rt.com/news/449148-great-march-return-gaza-medics/
At least 30 Palestinians have been
wounded by live Israeli fire at the Great March of Return protest in Gaza, the
Palestinian Ministry of Health reports, including two members of the media and
three paramedics.
Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Dr. Ashraf Al-Qudra reports Israeli
forces were “targeting three ambulances (2 for the Red Crescent and 1 for
medical relief).”
==========
c.
'Real journalists act as agents of
people, not power'
https://therealnews.com/series/the-left-case-against-the-eu
by John Pilger and Eresh Omar Jamal
John Pilger, as foreign correspondent, covered Bangladesh's
Liberation War. His front-page report 'Death of a Nation' alerted the world to
the life-and-death struggle of the Bengali people. He has been a war
correspondent, author and documentary filmmaker who has won British journalism's
highest award twice. For his documentary films, he has won an American
Television Academy Award, an Emmy, and a British Academy Award given by the
British Academy of Television Arts. He has received the United Nations
Association Peace Prize and Gold Medal. His 1979 documentary, Cambodia Year
Zero, is ranked by the British Film Institute as one of the 10 most important
documentaries of the 20th century. He is the author of numerous best-selling
books, including Heroes, A Secret Country, The New Rulers
of the World, and Hidden Agendas. In an exclusive (electronic) interview with Eresh Omar Jamal of The Daily
Star, Pilger talks about his coverage of Bangladesh's
Liberation War, the state of journalism today, and the current political shifts
happening in the West.
Watch Replay
of 13th Vigil for Assange
https://consortiumnews.com/2019/01/18/cn-to-broadcast-13th-vigil-for-assange-today-at-4-pm-est/
Watch Friday’s
broadcast here on Consortium News that discussed the latest news on WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
The WikiLeaks publisher continues to resist pressure
to leave the Ecuador Embassy and be sent to the U.S. for prosecution, even as
he has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and Donald Trump’s lawyer says
he should not be charged with any crime.
Julian Assange’s is an historic test-case for press freedom.
+
On Julian Assange and the Political Economy & future of Europe
https://zcomm.org/zvideo/on-julian-assange-and-the-political-economy-future-of-europe/
with Yanis Varoufakis
(video 18min)
Yanis Varoufakis is a professor of
Economic Theory at the University of Athens, former finance minister of Greece
and founder of the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025, (DiEM25). Varoufakis is also the author of several books on the
European debt crisis, the financial imbalance in the world and game theory.
In this exclusive interview with bestselling author, former finance minister of Greece and the co-founder of the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025, Yanis Varoufakis, we talk about the case of Julian Assange. Furthermore we examine, amongst other issues, the socio-economic transformations taking place within the core of the European Union and how much time is left until it disintegrates. Lastly Yanis explains why he is contesting from Germany in the 2019 European elections and what his vision is for the future.
==========
d.
Angela Davis
on Running from the FBI, Lessons from Prison
and How Aretha Franklin Got Her Free
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/12/24/angela_davis_on_running_from_the
+
'Mistreated in prison, family kept in the dark' – ex-colleague of
detained Iranian journalist to RT
https://www.rt.com/news/449164-iranian-journalist-abused-us-detention/
==========
e.
Placing the
USA on a collapse continuum with Dmitry Orlov
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50931.htm
by The Saker
The word ‘catastrophe’ has several meanings, but in its original
meaning in Greek the word means a “sudden downturn” (in Greek katastrophē
‘overturning, sudden turn,’ from kata- ‘down’ + strophē ‘turning’). As for the word “superpower” it
also has several possible definitions, but my preferred one is this one “Superpower is a term used to
describe a state with a dominant position, which is characterized by its
extensive ability to exert influence or project power on a global scale. This
is done through the combined-means of economic, military, technological and
cultural strength, as well as diplomatic and soft power influence.
Traditionally, superpowers are preeminent among the great powers” this one, “an extremely powerful nation,
especially one capable of influencing international events and the acts and
policies of less powerful nations” or this one “an international governing body
able to enforce its will upon the most powerful states“.
I have
mentioned the very visible decline of the US and its associated Empire in many
of my articles already, so I won’t repeat it here other than to say that the
“ability to exert influence and impose its will” is probably the best criteria
to measure the magnitude of the fall of the US since Trump came to power (the
process was already started by Dubya and Obama, but
it sure accelerated with The Donald). But I do want to use a metaphor to
revisit the concept of catastrophe.
If you place
an object in the middle of a table and then push it right to the edge, you will
exert some amount of energy we can call “E1”. Then, if the edge of the table is
smooth and you just push the object over the edge, you exercise a much smaller
amount of energy we can call “E2”. And, in most cases (if the table is big
enough), you will also find that E1 is much bigger than E2 yet E2, coming after
E1 took place, triggered a much more dramatic event: instead of smoothly
gliding over the table top, the object suddenly falls down and shatters. That
sudden fall can also be called a “catastrophe”. This is also something which
happens in history, take the example of the Soviet
Union.
+
Let's Expose
Congress Members for the Warhawks They Are
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/lets-expose-congress-for-the-warhawks-they-are/
by Major Danny Sjursen
As the nation
continued to reel from President Donald Trump’s shock decision last month to
remove all U.S. troops from Syria, news came Wednesday that an unknown number of U.S. soldiers were
among at least 15 killed in a bombing in northern Syria. Amid such continued
violence, one would think the president’s withdrawal would have ever more
urgency. And yet, just about everyone in Washington has attacked his decision
to pull out.
The reflexive
hatred for Trump that dominates the national conversation is bad for the U.S.,
especially when it comes to foreign policy. This is not to say that the
president isn’t a flawed figure; after all, I’ve spent the better part of two
years critiquing most of his policies. Still,
when the man demonstrates prudent judgment—as in his recent calls to pull U.S. troops out of Syria and Afghanistan—he should be
applauded. But that’s unlikely to happen in a divided America, as long as an interventionist,
bipartisan consensus runs the show in Washington.
Some call it
the deep state, others the swamp—but the terminology hardly matters at this
point. This forever-war crowd of
congressional members, media pundits, arms industry CEOs and semiretired
generals holds the reins on foreign policy in ways that are counter to the
war-exhaustion instincts of both Trump and the American public. And it has to
stop.
+
From: Mark Crispin Miller
Sent: Friday,
18 January, 2019
How many US
military bases are there, all around the world? We can't know (even though
we're paying for them)
by Nick Turse
Bases, Bases,
Everywhere …
Except in the
Pentagon’s Report
These
installations exist somewhere between light and shadow, writes Nick Turse. While acknowledged as foreign military outposts,
they are excluded from the official inventory.
Within hours of President Trump’s announcement of a
withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria, equipment at that base was already being
inventoried for removal. And just like that, arguably the most important
American garrison in Syria was (maybe) being struck from the Pentagon’s
books — except, as it happens, al-Tanf was never
actually on the Pentagon’s books. Opened in 2015 and, until recently,
home to hundreds of U.S. troops, it was one of the many military bases that
exist somewhere between light and shadow, an acknowledged foreign outpost that
somehow never actually made it onto the Pentagon’s official inventory of bases.
Officially, the Department of Defense maintains 4,775 “sites,” spread
across all 50 states, eight U.S. territories, and 45 foreign countries. A total
of 514 of these outposts are located overseas, according to the
Pentagon’s worldwide property portfolio. Just to
start down a long list, these include bases on the Indian Ocean island of Diego
Garcia, in Djibouti on the Horn of Africa, as well as in Peru and Portugal, the
United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom. But the most recent version of
that portfolio, issued in early 2018 and known as the Base Structure Report
(BSR), doesn’t include any mention of al-Tanf. Or, for that matter, any other base
in Syria. Or Iraq. Or
Afghanistan. Or Niger. Or
Tunisia. Or Cameroon. Or
Somalia. Or any number of locales where such military
outposts are known to exist and even, unlike in Syria, to be expanding.
According to David Vine, author of “Base Nation: How U.S. Military Bases Abroad Harm America and
the World,” there could be hundreds of similar
off-the-books bases around the world. “The missing sites are a reflection of
the lack of transparency involved in the system of what I still estimate to be
around 800 U.S. bases outside the 50 states and Washington, D.C., that have
been encircling the globe since World War II,” says Vine, who is also a
founding member of the recently established Overseas Base Realignment and Closure Coalition,
a group of military analysts from across the ideological spectrum who advocate
shrinking the U.S. military’s global “footprint.”
=======
f.
Richard Wolff: The Next Economic Crisis Is Coming
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/prof-wolff-the-next-economic-crisis-is-coming/
by
Lee Camp
Professor
Richard Wolff talks to host Lee Camp in this still image from "Redacted
Tonight: VIP." (RT America)
Every time I
sit down with economist Richard Wolff, he demonstrates why the field of
economics is so necessary in the cultural critique of our American empire. In
my recent interview with him, we discussed why the thriving economy touted by
President Donald Trump hasn’t translated into real gains for the majority of
Americans. We also went over what is hidden by the economic indicators that
allow the financial industry to celebrate while so many Americans are still
suffering.
Professor
Wolff talked with me on my show “Redacted Tonight: VIP” on RT America. Enjoy
this excerpt from the
interview.
+
The Left Case
Against the EU
https://therealnews.com/series/the-left-case-against-the-eu
==========
g.
Noam Chomsky full length
interview: Who rules the world now?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2lsEVlqts0&feature=youtu.be
Cathy Newman's full interview with Philosopher Noam Chomsky. From Trump
and Clinton, to climate change, Brexit and TPP,
America's foremost intellectuals presents his views on
who rules the world today. Subscribe for more: bit.ly/LtASif.
+
Human Beings
are Destroying Life on Earth but Deluding Ourselves
that We are Not
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50942.htm
by Robert Burrowes
It is easy to
identify the ongoing and endless violence being inflicted on life on Earth. This
ranges from the vast multiplicity of assaults inflicted on our children and the
biosphere to the endless wars and other military violence as well as the
grotesque exploitation of many peoples living in
Africa, Asia and Central/South America. But for a (very incomplete) list of 40
points see ‘Reflections
on 2018, Forecasting 2019’.
However,
despite the obvious fact that it is human beings who are inflicting all of this
violence, it is virtually impossible to get people to pay attention to this
simple and incontrovertible fact and to ask why, precisely, are human beings
behaving in such violent and destructive ways? And can we effectively address
this cause?
Of course, one
part of this problem is the existence of many competing ideas about what causes
violence. For example, some ideologies attribute the cause to a particular
structural manifestation of violence, such as patriarchy (which generates a
gendered system of violence and exploitation) or capitalism (which generates a
class system of violence and exploitation). However, none of these ideologies
explains why humans participate in structures of violence and exploitation in
the first place. Surely a person who was not violent and exploitative to begin
with would reject such violent and exploitative structures out of hand and work
to create nonviolent and egalitarian structures instead.
But most
people really just accept the elite-promulgated delusion that humans are innately
dysfunctional and violent and this must be contained and controlled by
socialization processes, laws, legal systems, police forces and prisons or, in
the international arena, by such measures as economic sanctions and military
violence. It is a rare individual who perceives the blatant dysfunctionality
and violence of socialization, laws, legal systems, police forces, prisons,
economic sanctions and military violence, and how these institutions and their
violence serve elite interests.
Hence, humans
are trapped in a cycle of attempting to address the vast range of
manifestations of violent human behaviour – the wars,
the climate catastrophe, destruction of the environment, the economic
exploitation of vast sectors of the human population (women, indigenous
peoples, working peoples…), the military dictatorships and occupations –
without knowing what, fundamentally, causes dysfunctional and violent human behaviours and draws many people to participate in (and
benefit from) violence in whatever form it takes.
Well I, for
one, find it boring to see the same manifestations of violence repeated
endlessly because we do not understand or address the fundamental cause (and so
even well-meaning efforts to address it in a variety of contexts are doomed to
fail). How about you?
Moreover, I
find it boring to listen to (or read about) people endlessly deluding
themselves about the violence; that is, deluding themselves that it isn’t
happening, ‘it was always like that’, ‘it isn’t as bad as it seems’, ‘nothing
can be done’, ‘there is another explanation’, that I am ‘doing enough already’,
and so on.
To illustrate
the above let me write some more frequent examples of people deluding
themselves about the cause. You may have heard delusions like these expressed
yourself; you may know some of the many others.
==========
h.
From: Mark Crispin Miller
Sent: Friday, 18 January, 2019
Here's what
Amazon will do if you don't let it into your computer
From an NFU
subscriber:
Mark,
I listened to
your interview with Leonard Lopate, and I have one small observation about
Amazon and your Forbidden Bookshelf. I haven't spent any of my own money
at Amazon in twenty years, ever since bullet-headed asshole Jeff Bezos laid off 1400 American workers in favoring of offshoring
their jobs and cashed
in $70 million in stock in the same week (this at a time when Amazon had never
shown a profit).
However, one
of my sisters insisted on sending me an Amazon gift card, and I figured it
would be easy money in Bezos' pockets if I didn't order something, and the best
use of it would be items from the Forbidden Bookshelf. So I purchased
several of the books in Kindle format, installed the PC version of Kindle,
since I don't have a stand-alone Kindle reader, and perused the books I
bought. Within seconds of opening the Kindle emulation program, the
computer's firewall sent a notice that Amazon's Kindle reader was trying to
access the internet. Reading the books doesn't require internet access,
so I blocked it.
Instantly,
the computer went nuts. Both the CPU and the hard drive went to 100%
activity and memory leakage started to climb. The CPU and hard drive
temps started to skyrocket, and I shut the system down. I came to the
conclusion that this was a deliberate program, probably related to someone's
skewed idea of digital rights management. (Amazon's Kindle policies have always
been hinky; I recall it coming out a while back that they have the ability to
reach in and delete purchased titles
from your device.) Beyond that, I think, Amazon just wanted free access
to my computer, and got very nasty when it was denied that access. I did
find a workaround, but it requires shutting down the computer, physically
disconnecting Ethernet from the router (I use a hard-wired system only), then
restarting without internet access. Apparently, the program then
recognizes there's no internet on the device and suspends the hijinks.
But, c'mon, bricking the computer or slowing it to a dead stop in order to
enforce a company's DRM policies is a bit beyond extreme.
I've noticed
similar encroachments on data with other Amazon subsidiaries. About four
months ago, I noticed that whenever I went to imdb.com,
now an Amazon subsidiary, there was data streaming continuously even after the
page was fully loaded. This went on as long as the page was up on the
browser. So now I mostly stay away from imdb.com,
and on the very rare occasions I visit that site, I close the page as quickly
as possible and immediately wipe all history and cookies, just to be safe.
I have a
hypothesis that large institutions, led for a long time by a single individual
in their formative years, take on the personality and character of those
leaders (think Stalin and the Politburo, Dulles at the CIA, Hoover at the
FBI). And Bezos is a greedy asshole, so what
does that make Amazon?
I wish people
understood that Amazon
is not only not their friend, it may end up being
their worst enemy.
_______
For
more News From Underground, visit http://markcrispinmiller.com
+
How a NeoCon-Backed
"Fact Checker" Plans to Wage War on Independent Media
https://blackagendareport.com/how-neocon-backed-fact-checker-plans-wage-war-independent-media
by Whitney Webb
+
Roaming
Charges: Sometimes an Establishment Hack
is Just What You Need
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/01/18/roaming-charges-sometimes-an-establishment-hack-is-just-what-you-need/
by Jeffrey St. Clair
==========
i.
The ‘Private Governments’ That
Subjugate U.S. Workers
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50929.htm
by Chris Hedges
Corporate
dictatorships—which strip employees of fundamental constitutional rights,
including free speech, and which increasingly rely on temp or contract
employees who receive no benefits and have no job security—rule the lives of
perhaps 80 percent of working Americans. These corporations, with little or no
oversight, surveil and monitor their workforces. They conduct random drug
testing, impose punishing quotas and targets, routinely engage in wage theft,
injure workers and then refuse to make compensation, and ignore reports of
sexual harassment, assault and rape. They use managerial harassment,
psychological manipulation—including the pseudo-science of positive
psychology—and intimidation to ensure obedience. They fire workers for
expressing leftist political opinions on social media or at public events
during their off-hours. They terminate those who file complaints or publicly
voice criticism about working conditions. They thwart attempts to organize
unions, callously dismiss older workers and impose “non-compete” contract
clauses, meaning that if workers leave they are unable to use their skills and
human capital to work for other employers in the same industry. Nearly half of
all technical professions now require workers to sign non-compete clauses, and
this practice has spread to low-wage jobs including those in hair salons and
restaurants.
The
lower the wages the more abusive the conditions. Workers in the food and hotel
industries, agriculture, construction, domestic service, call centers, the
garment industry, warehouses, retail sales, lawn service, prisons, and health
and elder care suffer the most. Walmart, for example, which employs nearly 1
percent of the U.S. labor force (1.4 million workers), prohibits casual
conversation, which it describes as “time theft.” The food industry giant Tyson
prevents its workers from taking toilet breaks, causing many to urinate on
themselves; as a result, some workers must wear diapers. The older, itinerant workers
that Amazon often employs are subjected to grueling 12-hour shifts in
which the company electronically monitors every action to make sure hourly
quotas are met. Some Amazon workers walk for miles on concrete floors each
shift and repeatedly get down on their hands and knees to perform their jobs.
They frequently suffer crippling injuries. The company makes injured employees,
whom it fires, sign releases saying the injuries are not work-related.
Two-thirds of workers in low-wage industries are victims of wage
theft, losing an amount estimated to be as high as $50 billion a year.
From 4 million to 14 million American workers, under threat of wage cuts, plant
shutdowns or dismissal, have been pressured by their employers to support
pro-corporate political candidates and causes.
+
Israeli
Companies Sell Spy Tech They Perfected for Occupying Palestine
https://therealnews.com/stories/israeli-companies-sell-spy-tech-they-perfected-for-occupying-palestine
(January 20,
2019)
We speak to
Antony Lowenstein, author of an article on “Exporting the Technology of
Occupation.” He shows the growing connection between Israeli offensive cyber
companies and mass surveillance in the service of authoritarian governments
around the world
==========
j.
Israel
Spraying Herbicides Inside Gaza Violates International Law
https://lobelog.com/israel-spraying-herbicides-inside-gaza-violates-international-law/
by
Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man
The
Israeli army is continuing to spray dangerous herbicides on agricultural fields
inside the Gaza Strip, three years since +972 Magazine first reported on the
practice. This week, three Palestinian and Israeli human rights groups sent a
letter to Israeli military officials demanding they immediately cease spraying
the dangerous chemicals into Gaza.
The
latest instance of spraying herbicides, using a reportedly carcinogenic
chemical, took place in early December. A variety of crops inside Gaza were
damaged as a result, according to the rights groups.
“The
farmers have sustained massive losses in the past as a result of spraying, and
been exposed to the health risks associated with the chemical agents used in
the spraying,” Al Mezan, Gisha, and Adalah wrote in their letter to Israeli
Defense Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, along with the country’s attorney general
and military advocate general.
“The
spraying is a highly destructive measure, infringing on fundamental human
rights and violating both Israeli and international law,” the rights groups
added in a joint statement Wednesday.
Israel
has for years maintained a unilateral “no-go
zone” inside the Gaza Strip, and regularly sends bulldozers and other
equipment across the fence to level land and destroy plants and trees in order
to maintain a clear line of sight. Since the start of 2015, the Israeli army
crossed the fence upwards of 207
times in such operations, an average of more than twice a week.
+
'Catastrophic
situation' imminent as Gaza's children hospitals nearly out of fuel
==========
k.
The Vice President’s Men
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50943.htm
by Seymour M. Hersh
When George H.W. Bush arrived in Washington as vice president in January
1981 he seemed little more than a sideshow to Ronald Reagan, the one-time
leading man who had been overwhelmingly elected to the greatest stage in the
world. Biography after inconclusive biography would be written about Reagan’s
two terms, as their authors tried to square the many gaps in his knowledge with
his seemingly acute political instincts and the ease with which he appeared to
handle the presidency. Bush was invariably written off as a cautious politician
who followed the lead of his glamorous boss – perhaps because he assumed that
his reward would be a clear shot at the presidency in 1988. He would be the
first former CIA director to make it to the top.
There was another view of Bush: the one held by the military men and
civilian professionals who worked for him on national security issues. Unlike
the president, he knew what was going on and how to get things done. For them,
Reagan was ‘a dimwit’ who didn’t get it, or even try to get it. A former senior
official of the Office of Management and Budget described the president to me
as ‘lazy, just lazy’. Reagan, the official explained, insisted on being
presented with a three-line summary of significant budget decisions, and the
OMB concluded that the easiest way to cope was to present him with three
figures – one very high, one very low and one in the middle, which Reagan
invariably signed off on. I was later told that the process was known inside
the White House as the ‘Goldilocks option’. He was also bored by complicated
intelligence estimates. Forever courteous and gracious, he would doodle during
national security briefings or simply not listen. It would have been natural to
turn instead to the director of the CIA, but this was William Casey, a former
businessman and Nixon aide who had been controversially appointed by Reagan as
the reward for managing his 1980 election campaign. As the intelligence
professionals working with the executive saw it, Casey was reckless,
uninformed, and said far too much to the press.
Bush was different: he got it. At his direction, a team of military
operatives was set up that bypassed the national security establishment –
including the CIA – and wasn’t answerable to congressional oversight. It was
led by Vice-Admiral Arthur Moreau, a brilliant navy officer who would be known
to those on the inside as ‘M’. He had most recently been involved, as deputy
chief of naval operations, in developing the US’s new maritime strategy, aimed
at restricting Soviet freedom of movement. In May 1983 he was promoted to
assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General John Vessey, and over the next couple of years he oversaw a
secret team – operating in part out of the office of Daniel Murphy, Bush’s
chief of staff – which quietly conducted at least 35 covert operations against
drug trafficking, terrorism and, most important, perceived Soviet expansionism in
more than twenty countries, including Peru, Honduras, Guatemala, Brazil,
Argentina, Libya, Senegal, Chad, Algeria, Tunisia, the Congo, Kenya, Egypt,
Yemen, Syria, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, Georgia
and Vietnam.
Moreau’s small,
off-the-record team, primarily made up of navy officers, was tasked with
foreign operations deemed necessary by the vice president. The group’s link to
Bush was indirect. There were two go-betweens, known for their closeness to the
vice president and their ability to keep secrets: Murphy, a retired admiral who
had served as Bush's deputy director at the CIA; and, to a lesser extent,
Donald Gregg, Bush’s national security adviser and another veteran of CIA
covert operations. Moreau’s team mostly worked out of a room near the National
Military Command Centre on the ground floor of the Pentagon. They could also
unobtrusively man a desk or two, when necessary, in a corner of Murphy’s
office, which was near Bush’s, in the Old Executive Office Building next to the
White House.
The
Reagan administration had been rattled by a wave of Soviet expansionism and
international aggression that had begun before the president took office. In
1979, even before their incursion into Afghanistan, the Soviets had taken over
the old airbase at Cam Ranh Bay in the former South Vietnam, which had been
extensively rebuilt and updated by the US during its losing war. It was a base
heavy with symbolism for the American and British navies – in December 1941,
three days after Pearl Harbor, Japanese dive bombers operating from Cam Ranh
sank two of Britain’s premier battleships – and the Soviet decision to expand
there was seen by some senior admirals as an alarming affront. And a
revolutionary increase in America’s capacity to intercept and decode Soviet
signal traffic in the year before Reagan came to power led to the discovery by
analysts at the National Security Agency of a ring of Soviet sleeper agents
inside the United States, many of them working in federal jobs with – the
Carter White House feared – access to national security data.
A
former military officer who worked closely with Moreau recalled the early
tensions that prompted Bush to increase the targeting of Soviet operations.
Moreau’s actions were aimed at limiting Soviet influence without provoking a
confrontation. ‘We saw the Russians sorting out their internal politics and
expanding economically,’ the officer recalled. ‘Its military had become much
more competent, with advances in technology, nuclear engineering and in space.
They were feeling good about their planned economy and believed that their
state control of education from cradle to grave was working, and it seemed as
if the Russians were expanding everywhere. We were in descent; our post-Vietnam
army was in shambles; morale was at rock bottom, and the American people had an
anti-militarist attitude. There was a sense of general weakness, and the
Russians were taking advantage of it. They had developed the MIRV’ – the
multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle, a missile carrying several
nuclear warheads – ‘and were putting ICBMs on wheels and hardening nuclear
silos. This was at the time when it became clear that the president was
drifting, and was not an effective leader.’
By
1983, it was plain to those who worked on national security for the White House
that Reagan wouldn't or couldn't engage with intelligence or
counterintelligence matters. Bush had emerged, by default and very much in
private, as the most important decision-maker in America's intelligence world.
‘He controlled the strings,’ the officer said. ‘We ran small, limited
operations that were discreet, with a military chain of command. These were not
long-term programmes. We thought we could redouble our efforts against the
Soviets and nobody would interfere. And do it in such a way that no one could
see what we were doing – or realise that there was a masterplan. For example,
the published stories about our Star Wars programme were replete with
misinformation and forced the Russians to expose their sleeper agents inside
the American government by ordering them to make a desperate attempt to find
out what the US was doing. But we could not risk exposure of the
administration’s role and take the chance of another McCarthy period. So there
were no prosecutions. We dried up and eliminated their access and left the
spies withering on the vine.’ Once identified, the Soviet sleepers who worked
inside the federal bureaucracy were gradually dismissed or moved to less important
jobs, in the hope that the low-key counterintelligence operation would mask the
improvements in the US’s capacity to read sensitive Soviet communications.
‘Nobody on the Joint Chiefs of Staff ever believed we were going to build Star
Wars,’ the officer said, ‘but if we could convince the Russians that we could
survive a first strike, we win the game.’ The aim of the game was to find a way
to change the nuclear status quo of Mutual Assured Destruction, or seem to do
so. ‘We wanted the Russians to believe that we had removed the M from MAD.’
In
the beginning, the officer told me, ‘there was a great fear that the Russians
were ten feet tall. What we found was total incompetence.’ Moreau’s team were
amazed to find how easy it was to reverse Soviet influence – often with little
more than generous offers of American dollars and American arms. Across the
Third World – in countries such as Chad, Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire – the offer
of advanced American electronics and communications equipment was also
invaluable. ‘The Russians simply were not liked abroad,’ the officer said.
‘They were boors with shoddy clothing and shoes made out of paper. Their
weapons were inoperative. It was a Potemkin village. But every time we found
total incompetence on the part of a Soviet mission, the American intelligence
community would assume that it was Soviet “deception”. The only problem was
that it was not deception. We came to realise that the American intelligence
community needed the threat from Russia to get their money. Those of us who
were running the operations were also amazed that the American press was so
incompetent. You could do this kind of stuff all over the world and nobody
would ask any questions.’
+
Who attacked
the US forces in Syria on 16 January 2019?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50943.htm
A suicide
bombing in the US-SDF held #Manbij killed has
killed at least 14 people including four American soldiers in the #USA-SDF held Manbij in
north #Syria. The #ISIS-affiliated website, Amaq,
claimed an attacker with an explosive vest had struck a foreign military patrol
in a suicide attack, but this footage indicates that the explosion happened
inside a restaurant called Qasr al Oumara in Manbij. Following the
details of the attack, we should pose this question: Who is the beneficiary of
this attack?
+
Blackwater Founder Says
US Troops In Syria Could Be Replaced By Private
Contractors
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-15/blackwater-founder-says-us-troops-syria-could-be-replaced-private-contractors
==========
l.
The brutal crackdown on the gilets jaunes
https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/01/15/the-brutal-crackdown-on-the-gilets-jaunes/
Protesters have lost limbs and eyes for daring to make their voices
heard.
+
Macron's debate put to test as 'yellow vests' stage 10th protest
https://www.thelocal.fr/20190119/macrons-debate-put-to-test-as-yellow-vests-stage-10th-protest
In Paris, several thousand people, many waving placards calling for
Macron to resign or condemning police violence, marched peacefully through the
Left Bank in freezing temperatures.
"Parisians, rise up!" they chanted, urging residents of the
capital to join the movement which has been led by rural and small-town France.
At the end of the march, clashes broke out around the Invalides war
museum, with police using tear gas and water cannon to disperse hooded
protesters who threw paving stones and bottles.
Demonstrations were also held in other major cities, with clashes
reported in the western city of Rennes and eastern city of Lyon.
The interior ministry estimated the number of protesters at 27,000 by the
early afternoon -- down from 32,0000 at the same time
a week ago -- with 7,000 in the capital.
Turnout was being closely watched for signs of possible fatigue in the
movement as it enters its third month and Macron's "great national
debate" gains momentum.
Some 80,000 police were deployed to keep the peace.
Last
week, an estimated a total of 80,000 people took part in protests that were
markedly less violent than several previous editions, which ended in clashes
with police, the torching of cars and shopfronts being smashed.
+
Special
documentary on France's 'gilets jaunes'
movement
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvenDA9I1z8&feature=youtu.be
(documentary video, 7 December 2018)
+
'No one is in
charge here': How yellow vest protests spread, and why Macron's struggling to
keep up
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/01/19/europe/macron-great-debate-intl/index.html
Analysis by
Jim Bittermann, CNN
(19 January
2019)
+
French police
under fire as 'yellow vests' casualty toll mounts
https://www.thelocal.fr/20190119/french-police-under-fire-as-yellow-vests-casualty-toll-mounts
+
Yellow Vests,
round 10: Thousands clash with police on streets of Paris
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gg0pYZQPstc
(19 January 2019)
==========
Blacks and Latinos Face Global South”
Conditions in US
https://blackagendareport.com/blacks-and-latinos-face-global-south-conditions-us
with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
Black and
Latino workers in the US are more favorable to unions because they “are most
like workers in the Global South,” where workers are
super-exploited, said Michael Yates, the labor educator and author.
“Hispanic came from the Global South as immigrants” and “Black people came from
the Global South as slaves whose very bodies were owned by capital,” said
Yates. His latest book is titled Can Workers Change the World?
+
Born
Disposable: Trump’s War on Youth
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/born-disposable-trumps-war-on-youth/
by Henry Giroux
We live in an
age in which the welfare of children is no longer a measure of the degree to
which a society lives up to its democratic ideals. In an age of growing
fascism, those in power no longer view children as the promise of a future but
as a threat to the present.
In
particular, poor Black and Brown children are being treated as what Teju Cole calls “unmournable bodies.”
Rather than being educated, many are being imprisoned; rather than living in
communities that are safe and clean, many are relegated to cities where the
water is poisoned and the police function as an occupying army.
In the age of
Trump, children of undocumented workers are stripped of their humanity, caged
in internment camps, sometimes sexually abused and subjected to the unethical
grammars of state violence. Sometimes they lose their lives, as did two
children from Guatemala who died while in custody of Customs and Border Protection:
seven-year old Jakelin Caal
and eight-year-old Felipe Gómez. In this way the dual
logic of disposability and pollution becomes the driving force of a machinery
of social death.
==========
n.
President
Trump’s Losing Strategy: Embracing Brazil
And
Confronting China
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50913.htm
by
James Petras
Introduction
The
US embraces a regime doomed to failure and threatens the world’s most dynamic
economy. President Trump has lauded Brazil’s newly elected President Jair
Bolsonaro and promises to promote close economic, political, social and
cultural ties. In contrast the Trump regime is committed to dismantling China’s
growth model, imposing harsh and pervasive sanctions, and promoting the
division and fragmentation of greater China.
Washington’s
choice of allies and enemies is based on a narrow conception of short-term
advantage and strategic losses.
In
this paper we will discuss the reasons why the US-Brazilian relation fits in
with Washington’s pursuit for global domination and why Washington fears the
dynamic growth and challenge of an independent and competitive China.
Brazil
in Search of a Patron
Brazil’s
President, Jair Bolsonaro from day one, has announced a program to reverse nearly
a century of state directed economic growth. He has announced the
privatizationof the entirepublic sector, including the strategic finance,
banking, minerals, infrastructure, transport, energy and manufacturing
activities. Moreover, the sellout has prioritized the centrality of
foreign multi-national corporations. Previous authoritarian civilian and
military regimes protected nationalized firms as part of tripartite alliances
which included foreign, state and domestic private enterprises.
==========
o.
Trump’s
Flailing will get More Desperate and More Dangerous
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/01/17/trumps-flailing-will-get-more-desperate-and-more-dangerous/
by Jesse Jackson
Since the striking victories of Democrats up and down the ballot in 2018, President Donald Trump has been flailing more and more wildly.
He’s
setting new records for the length of the government shutdown, watched his
defense secretary resign after suddenly announcing the withdrawal of troops
from Syria, forced his attorney general to resign, found it difficult to find a
permanent replacement for his departing chief of staff, and tweeted that he is
“all alone in the White House.”
Quietly,
the unrelenting
investigation of Robert Mueller becomes ever more ominous. Now the
new Democratic majority in the U.S. House of Representatives will probe the
corruption of this most corrupt administration, from Trump’s business dealings
to the corporate lobbyists who are running entire departments in the interests
of their once and future employers.
While
Trump issues insult after insult against opponents — Sen. Elizabeth Warren,
former Vice President Joe Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority
Leader Chuck Schumer — he reveals just how desperate he is.
Essentially,
Trump now has three choices. He can
stay in office and be impeached. The evidence of high crimes and
misdemeanors is building each day, from trampling election laws by payoffs to
keep his mistresses quiet to blatant self-enrichment that surely offends the
Constitution’s ban on emoluments, to open and secret efforts to obstruct
justice.
Democrats
will no doubt wait for special prosecutor Mueller to issue his report. They
will wait to see if Republicans, alarmed by their sinking poll numbers, begin
to separate themselves from Trump. Sen. Mitt Romney’s blast at Trump may be an
early warning of what’s likely to come.
Hearings
on the impeachment of the president are inevitable. Impeachment in the House is
likely. Whether the Republican-led Senate will protect the president remains to
be seen.
If
not impeached, Trump could stay in office and be disgraced. Disgrace appears
unavoidable. He lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by 3 million votes at
a time many Americans were desperate to change things.
Republicans
lost several key congressional races last fall. That’s when the economy was at
its best, and Trump’s foreign policy chaos hadn’t yet been felt. Two years from
now, if he chooses to run for re-election, Trump will try to pull the Electoral
College equivalent of an inside straight again, but he is most likely to be
routed, bringing down with him many of the Republican senators who have lacked
the backbone to stand up to him.
At
the same time, the investigations of his various business dealings, his tax
returns, his conflicts of interests will end in myriad lawsuits, if not
criminal charges. Once he is defeated, Trump will face not only unending
lawsuits for damages, but the real possibility of jail time for himself or his
family or both.
Alternatively,
Trump — the deal maker — could cut a deal to define his fate. After the Mueller
report is issued, as the congressional investigations accelerate, as various
criminal investigations begin, he could seek to negotiate his way out. Cut a
deal that would give him and his family immunity from criminal liability and
possibly civil liability in exchange for his resignation, sparing the nation
the agony of what will inevitably be an ugly, divisive fight over impeachment
and over criminal indictment after he is defeated.
Americans
tend to forgive and forget, once an offender resigns. President Gerald Ford
took a hit for pardoning President Richard Nixon, but Nixon survived and
regained some of his stature with books on foreign policy. Pelosi and Schumer
might take a hit for cutting a deal with Trump, but Trump could retain his
freedom and his celebrity, with a base surely willing to support him in the
wilderness.
It
has come to this: impeachment, disgrace or resignation. Trump, no doubt, will
rail against his fate. He’ll claim he could be vindicated in court or in
Congress or in the elections. His twittering will grow more frantic and more
venomous.
+
Mother
Watched Her Son Die in Police Custody, Now She Says the Town is Covering it up
https://therealnews.com/stories/a-mother-watched-her-son-die-in-police-custody-now-she-says-the-town-is-covering-it-up
Anton
Black died after he was tasered and placed in a chokehold just outside his
home, 4 months ago. Police have released little information to the family or
the community about why his encounter with a controversial officer they fought
to keep off the force ended with his death.
==========
p.
A
Tale of Self-Serving Black Journalists and the Corporate Duopoly
https://blackagendareport.com/tale-self-serving-black-journalists-and-corporate-duopoly
by
Glen Ford, BAR executive editor
Diversity
insulates the bosses from criticism by large elements of the oppressed classes,
while posing little or no threat to capital and the rule of rich white
men.
“NABJ
should forever be cursed and shunned as the most narrowly self-serving and
cowardly manifestation of Black collaborationist politics imaginable -- a house
of shame.”
The
National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) has joined the NAACP in
criticizing CBS News’ initial, 12-person
lineup of digital journalists assigned to cover the 2020 elections,
which includes five women, three Asian Americans, at least one Hispanic, but no
Blacks. “CBS News’ decision to not include Black reporters on their 2020
Election news team further proves the voting power and voices of Black America
continue to be undervalued,” said the NAACP. “As the voting bloc that will most
certainly determine the direction of this country in the upcoming election,”
said the press
release , “it is vital any and all media outlets have a diverse newsroom,
including individuals of color in decision making positions to speak to and
address the issues and concerns directly impacting the Black community.
Representation matters and the media needs our coverage on the issues to drive
the discussion.”
Sarah
Glover , president of the Black journalists group, said her organization
is “very disappointed” and “disturbed” at the CBS lineup. “It is unfortunate
that we are still having these discussions about diversity and inclusion,” said
Glover. “Ironically last year the 50th anniversary of the Kerner Commission
Report was a major topic and now in 2019 we’re still asking media
organizations.”
“The
NABJ acts as a kind of guild to safeguard Blacks with jobs in white, corporate
media, but abstains from struggles over the substance of reporting.”
Black
employment in newsrooms is a civil rights issue, like employment issues
anywhere, but it has been a very long time since the presence of Black and
brown reporters of any gender has made any detectable difference in the
politically monochromatic corporate world view transmitted by the so-called
“mainstream” electronic and print press in the United States. Since its
formation in the mid-Seventies, the National Association of Black Journalists
has been concerned almost solely with counting Black faces in newsroom chairs,
rather than the issues of power and politics that shape the actual journalistic
content churned out daily by the “news” industry. The NABJ acts as a kind of
guild to safeguard Blacks with jobs in white, corporate media, but abstains
from struggles over the substance of reporting -- with some rare exceptions in
cases of the most blatant racial stereotyping in media. The NABJ asks only that
Blacks be represented on
corporate payrolls, mastheads and credits. For the NABJ, “diversity” has no
political content beyond numerical representation in the workplace.
“The
NABJhas been concerned almost solely with counting Black faces in newsroom
chairs, rather than the issues of power and politics that shape the actual
journalistic content.”
Freedom
Rider: Kamala Harris Destroyed Black Lives
https://blackagendareport.com/freedom-rider-kamala-harris-destroyed-black-lives
by
Margaret Kimberley
Harris
has spent her career locking up Black and brown people. She should not be
allowed to shake hands, kiss babies or walk into black churches without being
taken to task.
“Kamala
Harris is no friend of black people.”
California
Senator Kamala Harris shows all the signs of announcing her candidacy for the
Democratic Party presidential nomination. She is giving speeches in the right
states, interviewing with the right talking heads, and recently published the
obligatory memoir. She has been on the Democratic funder’scasting couch for
nearly two years. Only the official announcement is missing.
But
Harris is highly problematic for black voters, perhaps more so than any other
candidate. She served as the district attorney of San Francisco and later as
attorney general of California. In both roles she did everything in her power
to support the mass
incarceration system and all of its foundations. That is what
prosecutors do after all, but most of them don’t try to run for president and
ask for black people’s votes.
Barack
Obama was smart enough to choose a career path free of such red flags. As a
community organizer,state legislator and United States senator he took a route
that black people were able to support. Unlike Harris he was not actively
involved in building the prison system, the institution that has done more
damage to black people than any other.
“She
did everything in her power to support the mass incarceration system and all of
its foundations.”
==========
q.
The
West Has Islam Dangerously Wrong
Author
and philosopher Sam Harris, who has advanced the idea that there’s something
uniquely dangerous about the Muslim religion.
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-west-has-islam-dangerously-wrong/
by
Robert Scheer
In
January of 2017, one week after he was sworn into office, President Donald
Trump signed an executive order prohibiting foreign nationals from seven
Muslim-majority countries from entering the country. Approximately 18 months
later, the United States Supreme Court voted, 5-4, to uphold a revised version
of Trump’s Muslim ban—a decision that Omar Jadwat of the ACLU’s Immigrants’
Rights Project has lambasted as
one of the worst in our nation’s history, on par with the Korematsu
v. United States decision during World War II.
If
nothing else, Trump’s political ascent has served as a potent reminder of
Islamophobia’s pervasiveness throughout 21st century American society. How then
do we dismantle these harmful stereotypes, which threaten Muslim communities
both at home and broad? For Juan Cole, author of the riveting new history
“Muhammad: Prophet of Peace Amid the Clash of Empires,” the answer would appear
to be a greater understanding of the religion’s founder and formation.
“One
of the features of the Qur’an, which I think is too little appreciated, is that
it’s a counterargument,” he tells Robert Scheer. “It’s an argument for
tolerance, at least of the monotheistic religions, of Christianity and Judaism.
… So I think it’s an extremely ecumenical book, the Qur’an, and the Prophet’s
preaching of it. And that is something that’s been lost, not only in Western
conceptions of the religion, but often among some believers as well.”
+
Over 100 security killed in Taliban attack on Afghan military training
center – reports — RT World News
https://www.rt.com/news/449335-afghanistan-taliban-attack-killed/?utm_source=browser&utm_medium=push_notifications&utm_campaign=push_notifications
+
From: Mark Crispin Miller
Sent: Thursday, 17
January, 2019
Subject: [MCM]
Iranian anchorwoman Marzieh Hashemi jailed in US on unspecified charges
MCM
Press
TV anchor Marzieh Hashemi jailed in US on unspecified charges
A
dispatch from PressTV, Iranian press service
Dateline:
Wed Jan 16, 2019
Press
TV anchor and journalist Marzieh Hashemi
Marzieh
Hashemi, a journalist and anchor working for Iran’s English-language Press TV
television news network, has been detained and imprisoned in the United States
for unspecified reasons.
American-born
Hashemi, most famous for anchoring news programs and presenting shows for Press
TV, was detained upon arrival at St. Louis Lambert International Airport in St.
Louis, Missouri, on Sunday, her family and friends said.
Press
TV has learned that she was transferred by the FBI to a detention facility in
Washington, DC. The US officials have so far refused to provide any reasons for
her apprehension either to her or her family.
Seyed Yasser Jebraily@YJebraily
The
US regime silenced #MarziehHashemi by kidnapping her, as the
Saudi regime silenced #JamalKhashogji by killing him. Different
ways for the same ends.#FreeMarziehHashemi
The
Associated Press (AP) said a call to the FBI rang unanswered early on
Wednesday morning. The bureau did not immediately respond to a written request
for comment, it added.
Hashemi,
born Melanie Franklin, had arrived in the US to visit her ill brother and other
family members. Her relatives were unable to contact her, and she was allowed
to contact her daughter only two days after her arrest.
PressTV-Press TV issues statement on anchor’s detention
in US
The Iranian television news network releases a statement
about the situation of its anchorwoman Marzieh Hashemi who is being held in a
US detention center.
Mistreatment
in US jail
Hashemi, who has been living in Iran
for years and is a Muslim convert, has told her daughter that she was
handcuffed and shackled and was being treated like a criminal.
The
journalist also said that she had her hijab forcibly removed, and was
photographed without her headscarf upon arrival at the prison.
Hashemi
has only been allowed to wear a T-shirt, and is currently using another one to
cover her head.
Furthermore,
she has been offered only pork as meal – which is forbidden under Islamic law –
and even denied bread and any other halal food after refusing to consume the
meat.
Hashemi
told her daughter that the only food she has had over the past two days has
been a packet of crackers.
Hashemi’s
family members and media activists have launched a social media campaign with
the hashtags #FreeMarziehHashemi and #Pray4MarziehHashemi in support of the
detained journalist.
+
Saudi:
MBS’ global campaign to silence critics exposed
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190116-saudi-mbs-global-campaign-to-silence-critics-exposed/
The
scope of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s attempt to silence critics
was exposed yesterday in a report by the New Yorker. Details of a global campaign – run
by the Saudi government – revealed that thousands of Saudis have faced threats
and intimidation for criticising the Crown Prince, despite not holding strong
political views.
According
to the report the Crown Prince, also known as MBS, has authorised the use of
blackmail, intimidation and forced repatriation of anyone found to be critical
of him or his policies, including roughly 90,000 Saudi students studying abroad
on government scholarship programmes.
While
the murder of journalist Jamal
Khashoggi exposed the brutality with which Riyadh goes after its
dissidents, victims cited in the report suggest that the Saudi government’s
campaign to clamp down on critics is far greater than previously anticipated.
Despite
his claim to be a reformer, the Crown Prince – who
has spent millions to polish his image – is accused of using the
country’s embassies and back channels, outside the gaze of the international
community, against his critics. These tactics are said to be not only used for
vocal and prominent dissidents like Khashoggi, but for thousands of Saudi
citizens; a claim which suggests that the Saudi government’s anti-dissent net
is cast far and wide across the globe.
According
to the report’s author, MBS has heeded no national boundaries in going after
his critics because of his “obsessive need to control his reputation”. This has
meant that Saudi citizens who possessed little or no political profile have
been targeted by the Crown Prince’s indiscriminate campaign.
The
number of people trying to flee his grasp has more than doubled following his
appointment as Crown Prince in 2015. The report said that Saudi asylum seekers
had increased from 575 cases to 1200 in 2017; not to mention that there is a
swelling number of Saudis who, like Khashoggi, opted for self-exile under
separate visa processes.
Critics
cited in the report – whose real identity was not revealed over fears for their
safety – said that a campaign of fear, blackmail and intimidation via social
media was used to lure them into the Saudi embassy in various countries. The
campaign typically saw family members and friends being threatened in Saudi
Arabia.
==========
r.
‘Brought to
Jesus’: the evangelical grip on the Trump administration
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50926.htm
by
Julian Borger
In setting out the Trump
administration’s Middle East policy, one of the first things Mike Pompeo made
clear to his audience in Cairo is that he had come to the region as “as an
evangelical Christian”.
In
his speech at the American University in Cairo, Pompeo said that in his state
department office: “I keep a Bible open on my desk to remind me of God and his
word, and the truth.”
The
secretary of state’s primary message in Cairo was that the US was ready once
more to embrace conservative Middle Eastern regimes, no matter how repressive,
if they made common cause against Iran.
His
second message was religious. In his visit to Egypt, he came across as much as
a preacher as a diplomat. He talked about “America’s innate goodness” and
marveled at a newly built cathedral as “a stunning testament to the Lord’s hand”.
The
desire to erase Barack Obama’s legacy, Donald Trump’s instinctive embrace of
autocrats, and the private interests of the Trump Organisation have all been
analysed as driving forces behind the administration’s foreign policy.
The
gravitational pull of white evangelicals has been less visible. But it could
have far-reaching policy consequences. Vice President Mike Pence and Pompeo
both cite evangelical theology as a powerful motivating force.
Just
as he did in Cairo, Pompeo called on the congregation of a Kansan megachurch
three years ago to join a fight of good against evil.
“We
will continue to fight these battles,” the then congressman said at the
Summit church in Wichita. “It is a never-ending struggle … until the
rapture. Be part of it. Be in the fight.”
For
Pompeo’s audience, the rapture invoked an apocalyptical Christian vision of the
future, a final battle between good and evil, and the second coming of Jesus
Christ, when the faithful will ascend to heaven and the rest will go to hell.
For
many US evangelical Christians, one of the key preconditions for such a moment
is the gathering of the world’s Jews in a greater Israel between the
Mediterranean and the Jordan River. It is a belief, known as premillenial
dispensationalism or Christian Zionism – and it has very real potential
consequences for US
foreign policy.
It
directly colours views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and indirectly,
attitudes towards Iran, broader Middle East geopolitics and the primacy of
protecting Christian minorities. In his Cairo visit, Pompeo heaped praise on
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, for building the new cathedral, but made no reference to
the 60,000
political prisoners the regime is thought to be holding, or its routine
use of torture.
Pompeo
is an evangelical Presbyterian, who says he was “brought to Jesus” by other
cadets at the West Point military academy in the 1980s.
“He
knows best how his faith interacts with his political beliefs and the duties he
undertakes as secretary of state,” said Stan van den Berg, senior pastor of
Pompeo’s church in Wichita in an email. “Suffice to say, he is a faithful man,
he has integrity, he has a compassionate heart, a humble disposition and a mind
for wisdom.”
As
Donald
Trump finds himself ever more dependent on them for his political
survival, the influence of Pence, Pompeo and the ultra-conservative white
Evangelicals who stand behind them is likely to grow.
“Many
of them relish the second coming because for them it means eternal life in
heaven,” Andrew Chesnut, professor of religious studies at Virginia Commonwealth
University said. “There is a palpable danger that people in high position who
subscribe to these beliefs will be readier to take us into a conflict that
brings on Armageddon.”
Chesnut
argues that Christian Zionism has become the “majority theology” among white US
Evangelicals, who represent about a quarter
of the adult population. In a
2015 poll, 73% of evangelical Christians said events in Israel are
prophesied in the Book of Revelation. Respondents were not asked specifically
whether their believed developments in Israel would actually bring forth the
apocalypse.
The
relationship between evangelicals and the president himself is complicated.
Trump
himself embodies the very opposite of a pious Christian ideal. Trump is not
churchgoer. He is profane, twice divorced, who has boasted of sexually
assaulting women. But white evangelicals have embraced him.
Eighty
per cent of white evangelicals voted for him in 2016, and his popularity
among them is remains in the 70s. While other white voters have flaked away in
the first two years of his presidency, white evangelicals have become his last
solid bastion.
Some
leading evangelicals see Trump as a latterday King Cyrus, the sixth-century BC
Persian emperor who liberated the Jews from Babylonian captivity.
+
Europe
on the Brink of Collapse?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50938.htm
by Peter Koenig
The
Empire’s European castle of vassals is crumbling. Right in front of our eyes.
But Nobody seems to see it. The European Union (EU), the conglomerate of
vassals – Trump calls them irrelevant, and he doesn’t care what they think
about him, they deserve to be collapsing. They, the ‘vassalic’ EU, a group of
28 countries, some 500 million people, with a combined economy of a projected
19 trillion US-dollar equivalent, about the same as the US, have submitted
themselves to the dictate of Washington in just about every important aspect of
life.
The
EU has accepted on orders by Washington to sanction Russia, Venezuela, Iran –
and a myriad of countries that have never done any harm to any of the 28 EU
member states. The EU has accepted the humiliation of military impositions by
NATO – threating Russia and China with ever more and ever more advancing
military basis towards Moscow and Beijing, to the point that Brussels’ foreign
policy is basically led by NATO.
It
was clear from the very get-go that the US sanctions regime imposed on Russia
and all the countries refusing to submit to the whims and rules of Washington,
directly and via the EU, was hurting the EU economically far more than Russia.
This is specifically true for some of the southern European countries, whose
economy depended more on trading with Russia and Eurasia than it did for other
EU countries.
The
‘sanctions’ disaster really hit the fan, when Trump unilaterally decided to
abrogate the “Nuclear Deal” with Iran and reimpose heavy sanctions on Iran and
on “everybody who would do business with Iran”. European hydrocarbon giants
started losing business. That’s when Brussels, led by Germany started mumbling
that they would not follow the US and – even – that they would back European
corporations, mainly hydrocarbon giants, sticking to their contractual
arrangements they had with Iran.
Too
late. European business had lost all confidence in Brussels EU Administration’s
feeble and generally untrustworthy words. Many breached their longstanding and,
after the Nuclear Deal, renewed contracts with Iran, out of fear of punishment
by Washington and lack of trust in Brussel’s protection. Case in point is the
French-British petrol giant, Total, which shifted its supply source from Iran
to Russia – no, not to the US, as was of course, Washington’s intent. The
damage is done. The vassals are committing slow suicide.
The
people have had it. More than half of the European population wants to get out
of the fangs from Brussels. But nobody asks them, nor listens to them – and
that in the so-called heartland of ‘democracy’ (sic). That’s why people are now
up in arms and protesting everywhere – in one way or another in Germany,
France, the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Hungary, Poland – the list is
almost endless. And it can be called generically the ‘Yellow Vests”, after the
new French revolution.
==========
s.
2018
was the ocean's hottest year. We'll feel it a long time.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/01/oceans-warming-faster-than-ever/
by Alejandra Borunda
The
ocean soaks up 93 percent of the heat of climate change. But that heat has a
big and long-lasting impact.
Earth’s
oceans are warmer now than at any point since humans started systematically
tracking their temperatures, according to research published on January 16 in Advances
in Atmospheric Sciences. The oceans have sopped up more than 90
percent of the heat trapped by human-emitted greenhouse gases, slowing the
warming of the atmosphere—but causing many other unwelcome changes to the
planet’s climate.
Even
a slightly warmer ocean can have dramatic impacts. Other new research shows
that warmer oceans make
waves stronger. Warmer waters fuel stronger storms, increasing the
damage that hurricanes
and tropical storms inflict. The added warmth hurts
coral habitats and stresses
fisheries. Around Antarctica, yet another
new study suggests, ice is melting about six times faster than it was in
the 1980s—an increase due in part to the warmer waters lapping at the
continent’s edge.
“The
oceans are the best thermometer we have for the planet,” says Zeke
Hausfather, an energy and climate scientist at the University of
California, Berkeley, who used the ocean heat data published today in an
analysis published last week in Science.
“We can really see global warming loud and clear in the ocean record.”
+
Ocean
Warming Continues To Break Every Record
https://www.forbes.com/sites/trevornace/2019/01/16/ocean-warming-continues-to-break-every-record/#634964b96d8f
by
Trevor Nace
Greenland's Melting Ice reaches a 'Tipping Point'
==========
t.
From: Sierra Club Insider [mailto:reply@emails.sierraclub.org]
Subject: Trump's Destructive Shutdown
|
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==========
u.
From: "Jacobin Roundup"
<publicity@jacobinmag.com>
Sent: Wednesday, 16
January, 2019
Subject: The
Democratic Party's civil war
|
==========
v.
From: Mark Crispin
Miller
Sent: Fri, 18 Jan 2019
Here's what
Amazon will do if you don't let it into your computer
From an NFU
subscriber:
Mark,
I listened to
your interview with Leonard Lopate, and I have one
small observation about Amazon and your Forbidden Bookshelf. I haven't spent any of my own money at Amazon
in twenty years, ever since bullet-headed asshole Jeff Bezos
laid off 1400 American workers in favoring of offshoring
their jobs and cashed in $70 million in stock in the same week (this at a time
when Amazon had never shown a profit).However, one of my sisters insisted on
sending me an Amazon gift card, and I figured it would be easy money in Bezos' pockets if I didn't order something, and the best
use of it would be items from the Forbidden Bookshelf. So I purchased several of the books in Kindle
format, installed the PC version of Kindle, since I don't have a stand-alone
Kindle reader, and perused the books I bought.
Within seconds of opening the Kindle emulation program, the computer's
firewall sent a notice that Amazon's Kindle reader was trying to access the
internet. Reading the books doesn't
require internet access, so I blocked it.
Instantly, the computer went nuts. Both the CPU and the hard drive went to 100% activity and memory leakage started to climb. The CPU and hard drive temps started to skyrocket, and I shut the system down. I came to the conclusion that this was a deliberate program, probably related to someone's skewed idea of digital rights management. (Amazon's Kindle policies have always been hinky; I recall it coming out a while back that they have the ability to reach in and delete purchased titles from your device.) Beyond that, I think, Amazon just wanted free access to my computer, and got very nasty when it was denied that access. I did find a workaround, but it requires shutting down the computer, physically disconnecting Ethernet from the router (I use a hard-wired system only), then restarting without internet access. Apparently, the program then recognizes there's no internet on the device and suspends the hijinks. But, c'mon, bricking the computer or slowing it to a dead stop in order to enforce a company's DRM policies is a bit beyond extreme.
I have a hypothesis that large institutions, led for a long time by a single individual in their formative years, take on the personality and character of those leaders (think Stalin and the Politburo, Dulles at the CIA, Hoover at the FBI). And Bezos is a greedy asshole, so what does that make Amazon?