Bulletin N° 876
Wag the Dog
https://putlocker123.me/movies/2701-watch-wag-the-dog-1997
&
https://123putlocker.yt/watch/wag-the-dog-28921/?ep=108056
(1h 37min)
Wag
the Dog is a 1997 American political satire black comedy film produced and
directed by Barry Levinson and starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro. The screenplay, based on the book, American Hero, by Larry Beinhart, concerns a spin doctor and a Hollywood producer
who fabricate a war in Albania to distract voters from a presidential sex
scandal.
Subject
:
Casino Capitalism: While Sitting at the Russian Roulette Table.
January
15, 2020
Grenoble,
France
Dear
Colleagues and Friends of CEIMSA,
On
New Year’s Eve, I was talking to the young son of a friend of mine. I told him
the well-known story of the boy who cried wolf.
-
“You’ve
probably heard this story of the boy who cried wolf,” I began. “When the
villagers heard him yell, they all dropped what they were doing to run to the
rescue of the village, only to find that the boy had played a trick on them. He
did this many times until the villagers no longer believed him. When he cried
wolf the last time, the villagers continued to work. Nobody believed his
warning was true. When they came home that evening they found that the wolf had
devastated the village; this time the boy had told the truth, but no one
believed him.”
-
“They
must have been on the gold standard,” the kid replied.
-
“What
do you mean?” I asked.
-
“Well,”
he replied, “crises are profitable, today; even imaginary ones. Do you think
that that excrescence in the White House has anything better to do than to
threaten more wars, just to pump up the price of gold and enrich his cronies?”*
Later,
after the stroke of midnight, each of us made a wish for the Year 2020.
-
When
it was his turn, the young boy proclaimed: “I wish Trump would return to the
planet he came from.”
-
His
mother responded: “The farthest away from earth, I hope.”
-
His
father then stated his wish for the New Year: “And I hope the world will never
forget how capitalism has brought hell to earth for billions of people.”
____________
*(Note:
My friend’s son had been reading Thomas Picketty, “HISTORICAL
GOLD PRICES- 1833 to Present” and had developed new monetarist views of the
political economy.)
The
17 +
items below include articles and essays which bring attention
to the matrix in which we are now living. The complexity of our situation makes
it difficult to find the necessary leverage to capture control of the
institutions that govern our lives, removing them from the hands of that
alienated power elite who have been left to their own devices for too long. It’s
time to create a new political genus, informed participatory democracy, and learn to govern democratically from
within our institutions according to our perceived collective self-interests.
Francis Feeley
---
Professeur honoraire de l'Université
Grenoble-Alpes
Ancien Directeur de Researches
Université de Paris-Nanterre
Director of The Center for the Advanced Study
of American Institutions and Social Movements
(CEIMSA-in-Exile)
The University of California-San Diego
a.
UkraineGate - Inconvenient Facts
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52848.htm
Watch
Joe Biden, Friend or Foe of Corruption?
+
We ‘slaughtered’ Jeremy Corbyn,
says Israel lobbyist
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52840.htm
by Asa Winstanley
+
Iran, And Other
Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52841.htm
by Caitlin
Johnstone
===========
b.
Assange and Manning are Being Persecuted for Speaking Truth
to Power
https://www.blackagendareport.com/assange-and-manning-are-being-persecuted-speaking-truth-power
by Leonard
C. Goodman
The international witch-hunt of Julian Assange
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/01/14/pers-j14.html
by Eric London and Thomas Scripps
===========
c.
Top 10
Ways Trump’s Actions against Iran Hurt the US, the Mideast,
and the
World
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52838.htm
by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J S Davies
+
“America Exists Today to Make War”: Lawrence
Wilkerson on Endless War & American Empire
https://www.democracynow.org/2020/1/13/lawrence_wilkerson_american_empire_war
+
Lawrence
Wilkerson on Trump's Iran aggression: same neocon
lies, new target
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVWmmVhS0uc
+
Trump defends
killing of Soleimani regardless of ‘imminent’ threat,
says he had a ‘horrible past’
+
Merkel meeting Putin amid US-Iran
tension
(6 min)
+
Anti-Russia hysteria emerges after Iran
plane crash
(video, 9:46)
with George Galloway
===========
d.
Iran admits shooting down Ukrainian flight over
Tehran in 'unintentional' missile launch
https://www.rt.com/news/477993-tehran-admits-plane-shooting-down/
The Ukrainian
passenger jet that crashed after takeoff from Tehran was downed due to
"human error" after it flew too close to a military site and
triggered a missile launch amid a standoff with the US, the Iranian Army said.
The Army General
Staff stressed that the tragic mistake was made amid the flare-up of tensions
with Washington. The nation's air defenses were placed on alert and ready to
"respond to possible threats of the highest level," after US
President Donald Trump warned that the Pentagon would strike targets on Iranian
soil if US citizens or assets were attacked by Iran.
On Wednesday,
the Iranian Army fired a volley of ballistic missiles at two bases in Iraq that
house American troops. It was a retaliation in
response to a US drone strike, which killed top Iranian military chief Qassem Soleimani at Baghdad's
airport.
+
‘I
wish I was dead’: Senior IRGC commander accepts responsibility for downing
Ukrainian jet, says it was mistaken for missile
+
Iran Jet Disaster A Setup?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52846.htm
by Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich, Finian Cunningham
+
From: newsfromunderground@googlegroups.com
[mailto:newsfromunderground@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Mark Crispin
Miller
Sent: Tuesday, January 14, 2020 5:33 PM
To: newsfromunderground
Subject: [MCM] Some oddities about the
"human error" that caused the crash of that Ukrainian airliner
According
to Russian Experts: The US Bears “Partial Responsibility” for the “Human Error”
Which Caused the Ukrainian plane crash
Global Research, January 12, 2020
A Russian
military site Avia.pro has addressed the issue
of “human error” relating to the crash of Ukraine’s Boeing 737 [departing from
Tehran] on January 8, minutes after takeoff,
which resulted in the
death of 179 passengers and members of the crew.
Relying on
military experts, the report intimates that the incident bears a canny (point
by point) resemblance to the destruction of a Russian IL-20 in Latakia, Syria in September 2018.
Israeli fighters,
followed by Syrian missiles, used the Russian plane as a shield, even if it
meant its destruction and the death of 15 passengers.
The Russian
military website refers to an independent investigation that concluded the US
is “at least partial US responsibility” in the January 8 tragedy:
Putin Accuses Obama of Leaking Flight Details to Turkey
after Russia Releases Video of S-400 SAM Deployment in Syria
“According to
experts, the US military had deliberately changed the information on the
Ukrainian Boeing 737 flight, making it a real target for the Iranian air
defense systems.”
According to
data from Pentagon-related sources, several U.S. military planes were observed
in the sky in the vicinity of Iran’s airspace, just at the time of the Boeing’s
flight departure.
Anomalies were
observed on Iran’s radar system, probably due to a cyber attack.
The civilian
plane was therefore confused with a fighter plane heading directly for a
military target.
“Since the pilot
made a U-turn, it is very likely that the US cyber attack had also focused on
the navigation system of the Ukrainian Boeing. This is not the first time that
Americans have done this type of action, ” said
Avia.pro.
In addition, a
member of the Security and Defense Committee of the Russian Duma
accused the provocative US measures against Iran of having been the cause of
the Ukrainian plane crash.
Original
article Corriere PL
(Italian) Translation by Global Research
Iranian Flight Crash Facts Not Adding Up
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52851.htm
by Russell Bentley
===========
e.
The
Primordial Urge to Slay a Hero
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52835.htm
by Renee
Parsons
The
assassination of Major General Qaseem Soleimani, who was already a national hero in Iran, has now
achieved the stature of a world class martyr. Carrying a diplomatic passport on
his flight into Baghdad, Soleimani was also carrying
the Iranian response to a Saudi initiative for peace.
In contrast,
President Donald Trump has revealed more about his own inner angst than he ever
intended – or perhaps, being a non-introspective type, what has been revealed
may be more than he himself has ever acknowledged.
As events and
more of the back story unfold, Trump’s frequently problematic sense of reality
may be questioned in view of his astonishing suggestion that he is ‘ready to make a new nuclear deal with Iran, even as he ordered
additional sanctions against the country. Prior to Soleimani’s assassination, Trump threatened to kill Iraq Prime Minister Adil
Abdul Mahdi.
There is no
denying that the nature of the act is right out of the Israel playbook of quick
and dirty overkill and extermination of humanity as seen in Gaza and Jerusalem
on a daily basis.
During a
session of the Iraq legislature immediately after the assassination, Mahdi reported that the Americans had “ruined his country” and were now
unwilling to repair Iraq’s electric grid and other infrastructure needs. Mahdi did what any self respecting leader would do; he
signed a contract with Trump’s favorite trading partner to make the repairs.
China already had an international reputation for providing necessary community
infrastructure in Africa and elsewhere – wonder if they might visit Detroit and
solve their water quality crisis.
Trump has
vehemently opposed Iraq’s deal with China unless Mahdi
would guarantee that 50% of Iraq’s oil
revenue would go to the US. Mahdi refused and when he
refused to reject the contract, he said that Trump “threatened to unleash huge
demonstrations against me that would end my premiership”.
+
Israeli Intel
Helped the United States to Kill Soleimani, Report
Says
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52844.htm
by Haaretz
+
NY private school fires Jewish teacher for anti-Zionist statements
https://mondoweiss.net/2020/01/ny-private-school-fires-jewish-teacher-for-anti-zionist-statements/
by Philip Weiss
===========
f.
Unidentified Planes Hit Iraqi Militiamen in Syria, Killing 8 - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2020/01/10/world/middleeast/ap-ml-syria.html
by The Associated Press - Beirut
+
Eight killed
in strike attributed to Israel on Iranian-backed militia in Syria
https://www.haaretz.com/misc/article-print-page/.premium-eight-said-killed-in-strike-attributed-to-israel-on-iranian-backed-militia-in-syria-1.8379060
by Jack Khoury
The Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights confirms the attack, saying it targeted an
Iranian-backed militia
+
World War 3: Missile
strike kills eight pro-Iranian militia members on Syria border
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1226495/World-war-3-Iran-news-missile-strike-attack-Israel-US-Syria-border-Iraq
by Bill McLoughlin
+
The two-state
solution is dead, and now the scaffolding that held it up
is falling apart too
https://mondoweiss.net/2020/01/the-two-state-solution-is-dead-and-now-the-scaffolding-that-held-it-up-is-falling-apart-too/
by Adam Horowitz and Philip Weiss
+
"US-Iran
Relations: Past, Present and Future"
(25 min)
+
From: Mark Crispin Miller
Sent: Sunday, January 12, 2020
Subject: [MCM] On all those times when Soleimani was a US ally
"Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia."
(Correction to the below: Throughout the Iran/Iraq
war, the US backed both sides, not just Iraq.)
MCM
All the Times
the US allied with Gen. Soleimani against Common Enemies,
giving him Air Support at Tikrit
JUAN COLE01/11/2020
Tweet
Share2K
Reddit1
Email
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Since the US political establishment and
press has been demonizing Gen. Qasem Soleimani since he was rubbed out by Trump, it is perhaps
worth complicating the story– especially now that Trump is accusing him of
having targeted not one but four US embassies. Trump is a notorious and
compulsive liar, and there is no reason to think that charge is true. The prime
minister of Iraq says he invited Soleimani to Baghdad
for peace negotiations with Saudi Arabia and then Trump just
suddenly blew his guest away. Soleimani came openly
on a commercial flight and went through passport control with his diplomatic
passport. His arrival in Baghdad was not part of a covert operation to hit
Americans. Nor did Soleimani, as Wolf Blitzer
breathlessly reported on CNN kill “millions” (when? where?).
Nor was he a terrorist; terrorists are non-state actors. He was a general
in the Iranian military. Soleimani fought in the
Iran-Iraq War of 1980-88, which was a defensive war on Iran’s part, since Iraq
aggressively invaded under Saddam Hussein. The United States supported Saddam
to the hilt in his aggression. So you’d have to say that in the 1980s Soleimani was doing something heroic, whereas the Reagan
administration was doing something shameful. Reagan even ran interference for
Saddam at the UN when Iran brought a complaint about the Iraqi use of chemical
weapons.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Soleimani trained the Badr Corps, the Iraqi paramilitary of the Supreme Council
for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), which is now the Islamic Supreme
Council of Iraq.
When George W. Bush invaded Iraq in 2003, his viceroy, Paul Bremer,
appointed a Transitional Governing Council made up of Iraqis who were glad that
the US had overthrown Saddam Hussein. Bremer appointed Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim as a member of the council, who were sort of
his cabinet. Al-Hakim led SCIRI, of which Badr was
the military arm. Bush and Bremer were indirectly hand in glove with Soleimani’s main proxy in Iraq. When al-Hakim was killed by
a bombing on Aug. 29, 2003, Bremer appointed his brother Abdul Aziz al-Hakim as
a governing council member. Abdul Aziz had been the head of the Badr Corps, and was reporting back to Soleimani.
In Syria, Soleimani fought ISIL and al-Qaeda
linked groups, making him a de facto ally of the US, though his hard line
pro-Shiite policies also did alienate Sunni Syrians. But many Syrian opposition
groups had hooked up with al-Qaeda or ISIL well before 2015, when Soleimani began intervening directly in Syria at the
request of the government of Bashar al-Assad. Sunni
Syrians don’t forgive him for his role in the taking of, say, East Aleppo. But
it is also true that his forces helped defeat groups that praised al-Qaeda
leader Ayman al-Zawahiri
and even took orders from him.
Then there was Soleimani’s key role in helping
defeat ISIL in Iraq, where, again, he was a de facto and even tactical US ally
(see below).
Soleimani was a complicated man, a man of the
religious far right, an authoritarian. Although I think it is nonsense to speak
of him committing terrorism, he did commit war crimes. I am not sure he is
responsible for nearly as many deaths as George W. Bush, though. In this essay
I’m not defending Soleimani, I’m only trying to complicate the glib story being pushed
at us by the Trump administration, which can’t speak two sentences without
telling four lies. The best antidote to black and white authoritarian views of
the world is an attention to irony and ambiguity.
===========
g.
British ambassador arrested at Tehran demonstration
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/11/british-ambassador-arrested-at-demonstration-in-tehran-reports
&
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/uk-ambassador-iran-arrested-tehran-protest-rob-macaire-a9280116.html
Additional reporting by Reuters.
+
GEORGE GALLOWAY ON OUR MAN IN TEHRAN: "IMAGINE IF A IRANIAN/RUSSIAN DIPLOMAT DID THAT?"
(4:27)
+
Western intervention in Iran, Syria and Venezuala
with George Galloway
(7 min)
+
From: Mark Crispin Miller
Sent: Monday, January 13, 2020
Subject: [MCM] How Iran has (so far) foiled the US plan to bring Hong Kong to
Teheran (MUST-READ)
Via Eve Karene Bartlett:
Thread on Iran protests, very worth reading.
**"There are videos circulating of the protesters wearing body armour, acting in teams to draw in riot police, shining
lasers from tops of buildings, etc - in short, Maidan/Hong
Kong tactics."**
Ibn Riad - ابن رياض
@IbnRiad
https://twitter.com/IbnRiad/status/1216217400598761474
"A thread
regarding the anti-government protests that sprung up today in Iran, and the
failed imperial plot that they point towards.
So as we know,
Iran announced the Ukrainian airliner was accidentally shot down by an anti-air
unit. There are lots of open questions in this regard, which I leave to another
time.
My focus for now
is on the timing of this announcement.
On the day of
the Iranian announcement, small anti-government protests popped up, primarily
by university students (so often the empire's favourite
subjects), numbering at most in the hundreds.
One initial
thing to note is just how organised they seemed to
be. There are videos circulating of the protesters wearing body armour, acting in teams to draw in riot police, shining
lasers from tops of buildings, etc - in short, Maidan/Hong
Kong tactics.
This indicates,
of course, a high level of training and preparedness among these protesters.
This was not some spur-of-the-moment uprising, but rather an organised event, with elements trained with the usual CIA
textbook.
The highly
unusual personal presence of the British ambassador at the site also points to
this, and perhaps also to the degree of importance that these protests hold for
the regime-change camp.
But the most
interesting thing here is the slogans the protesters used.
There were some
dumb "Khamenei resign!" chants, clearly
from an auto-cue written by Americans with no idea how Spiritual Leadership
works - but the main tagline for these protests was:
"Death to Liars".
Now, this
doesn't make much sense to me.
For protests
that took place AFTER the government had just told the truth in the most honest
& candid way any government ever has, how does "Death to Liars"
figure? In no world does delaying the truth for a few days warrant such a
chant.
But there *is* a
context in which it would make much more sense. Given the clearly prepared and
artificial nature of these protests, it is incredibly easy to imagine what the
actual intention of this whole charade was.
Iran had been
set up in more ways than one. In addition to being somehow tricked into downing
the plane (may do a separate thread on this - many signs point to this, & I
find it quite convincing), it is likely that the US had evidence that would
expose Iran's responsibility.
The US had been
relying on Iran denying the allegations or at least withholding the truth for
longer, allowing it to come out with the evidence and "outing" Iran
as liars. (Either directly or via someone like
Trudeau, who seemed disappointed when Iran came out with the truth).
This would then
be swiftly followed by the prepared and coordinated student protests, which in
context of the planned scenario, would likely have drawn in much more support,
and would have had a far more detrimental effect on Iran's integrity both
domestically and abroad.
Perhaps this was
planned all along as an American "response" to Iran's, or at least as
an alternative to open war: trick Iran into downing the airliner, let them keep
the secret, then expose them and set trained anti-government dogs loose in the
streets, to be joined by masses.
It was a devious
and ruthlessly effective plan- or it would have been. Except Iran came out with
the truth only days after the event, and upset the entire plot.
Now, the student
protesters had slogans that no longer made sense ("Death to Liars")
and no support whatsoever from the actual population at large, who had
witnessed a great show of integrity from their government on the global stage.
This is the
first way in which Iran scuppered the plan. Indeed,
depending on how long ago this plan had been concocted, it might even be
reasonable to say that the millions upon millions of people that came out to
martyr Soleimani's funeral also dented the plan well
in advance.
The second (or
third) way in which this plan has been foiled comes from Fars News's report on
these protests. Some slow-witted western analysts have taken Fars reporting on
the story as a sign of division within Iranian ranks, and drew up wild fantasy
stories on that basis.
But the reality
is a lot different. This is what Fars News reported.
(Reuters):
"...the
demonstrators on the street also ripped up pictures of Qassem
Soleimani, the prominent commander of the Guard’s Quds Force who was killed in a U.S. drone strike.
The agency,
widely seen as close to the Guards, carried pictures of the gathering and a
torn banner of Soleimani. It said the protesters numbered
about 700 to 1,000 people."
Far from a sign
of division in political/military ranks, anyone with half a brain can
understand what this report is about. Considering the outpouring of emotion
over Soleimani's martyrdom, anyone hearing of people
ripping his posters down will quickly hate those people. A
lot.
Thus even if
there had been any potential left for normal Iranians to join these protests,
the moment it's revealed that they're ripping down Soleimani's
poster, people are 100% more likely to try and punch these protesters in the
head than they are to join them.
Thus, US plan
seems to have been:
1. Trick Iran
into downing airliner (will make the case for this tomorrow,
& still possible to follow narrative even if you believe no US hand in the
downing).
2. Presume Iran
will hold guilt secret.
3. Expose them,
incite large-scale protests
I
1. Maidan/HK-style coordinated actions of 'protesters'
2. unconvincing reasons for demonstration
3. the out of place slogans ("Death to
Liars") given the ne reality Iran imposed upon
the context
4. the presence of UK ambassador at the site
So, what could
have been a dangerous ploy, and the latest desperate attempt to get rid of the
"Iran problem" without going to war, was defeated in three stages:
1. Millions mourning Soleimani
2. Iran's clever quick admission of guilt
3. The isolation & exposition of 'protesters'
The final blow
to this plan could come tomorrow or in coming days, if pro-government rallies
form, insisting on further avenging Soleimani's blood
and insisting the focus not be shifted away from the crime that lead to his
martyrdom.
To me, at least,
this seems like a very feasible sequence of events, but is based on nothing but
my own analysis for the time being.
As usual, the
Americans are still trying to play chess with the Persians - and can win at
neither that nor war.
End
thread."
https://twitter.com/IbnRiad/status/1216217400598761474
+
Qatar to offer Iran $3 billion for Ukrainian plane victims
https://middle-east-online.com/en/qatar-offer-iran-3-billion-ukrainian-plane-victims
Qatari Emir
makes surprise visit to Tehran to offer compensation for 176 passengers killed
after plane is unintentionally shot down by Iranian missiles.
+
Who Profits
when Iran and America Fight?
+
U.S. Threatens Iraq
Iraq warned to keep US troops or risk financial
blow-WSJ
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52842.htm
by Al Jazeera
US warns Baghdad Iraq could lose access to critical US-based
bank account where oil revenues are held-WSJ.
+
U.S.
Mercenaries For Hire
Trump is 'selling troops' : Saudi Arabia has paid $1billion
to have U.S.
soldiers protect the kingdom
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52843.htm
by Ariel Zilber
+
The second
occupation of Iraq
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52839.htm
by Abdel Bari Atwan
If the US
refuses to withdraw its troops they will eventually be forced out as they were
in 2011
===========
h.
American Murder
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52834.htm
by Paul Edwards
Clausewitz said, “War is the continuation of politics by other means”, but
American Presidents have modified his apothegm. No one knows when it was first
judged--How to put it? Not legal, no; not moral, no, surely not. Conceiveable..?
Permissible..?--politically safe, for a nation to assassinate
a human being, a foreign enemy. There is no record of that meeting of
our government’s most powerful men--only such a group could plan so radical an
action--when one of them first dared to say, “Suppose we kill him?”
Those souls shocked and wounded by our latest murder, need to know that meeting
was not recent: didn’t happen under the Suppurating Pustule that infects the
White House today, nor the charming Grand Bullshitter
who preceded him, nor the aphasic buffoon before him. It was a century ago.
There’s no dating it to a particular hit but it was certainly held before our
deviously arranged murder of Sandino in Nicaragua in 1934.
For the last century the US government has made it its regular business to
execute, or to buy the execution of, men it deemed geopolitically damned. There
isn’t space here to review the long roster of America’s secret victims, nor any
need for that. The uninformed need to take their own
education in hand or continue mooing meekly down the chute toward who knows
what end? Perhaps even their own date with the stungun.
+
The Long
Planned U.S. Assassinations In Iraq Will Increase Its
Political Chaos
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52845.htm
by Moon Of
Alabama
===========
i.
From: Medea Benjamin, CODEPINK
[mailto:info@codepink.org]
Sent: Sunday, January 12, 2020
Subject: To the people of Iran…
|
|
|
Dear friends,
We join the
world in mourning the horrific loss of lives from downed flight 752, and we
hold Trump at least partially responsible for this accident since he provoked
the dangerous crisis that led up to the crash. Unfortunately, Trump's
manufactured crisis is far from over—he has announced even more brutal
sanctions against Iran, deepening the suffering of millions of ordinary
Iranians. We could be back at the brink of war at any moment.
Trump and
his war-loving cronies are continuing to escalate with hateful threats and
new forms of aggression. But, we have a plan: if we bring our call for
peace directly inside Iran, we can show their people that ordinary
Americans are not like Donald Trump, and that he does NOT represent us.
Rather than war, we want PEACE!
The bigger
we can make our call for peace through an open letter, the greater
our chance of showing Iranians that Americans don’t
stand with Trump. Add your name, and share it with EVERYONE. We will
publish it in Iran and blast it all over social media on January 25, the
International No War WIth Iran Day of Action.
Click to tell the people of Iran: Trump does not represent
us!
Dear people
of Iran,
We, the
American people, are horrified by the actions of our government to provoke a
war with you. From President Trump’s dangerous decision to pull out of
the Iran nuclear agreement, to the crippling sanctions his administration has
imposed, to the assassination of General Qasem Soleimani—President Trump and his administration have
pushed our two nations to the brink of war.
Unlike our
president, we do not want to provoke a war with your country—we want to live
in peace and harmony with the people of Iran. We pledge to do everything
in our power to stop the U.S. from carrying out further attacks on Iran and
to end the brutal sanctions which have already caused immense suffering to
millions of ordinary Iranian citizens.
Please
accept our hand in friendship. May the peacemakers prevail over those who sow
hatred and discord.
Sincerely, Last week
the House voted for and passed a war powers resolution stating that without
congressional approval, Trump cannot carry out a military strike on Iran. The
Senate will vote on a companion resolution soon, but even though this is a
necessary first step, it is far from enough. As Trump beats the drums of
war, our voices are crucially needed to show to the people of Iran—and
the world— our desires for peace!
While
Trump, Mike Pompeo, Brian Hook, and others are
demanding Iran “behave like a normal nation,” they are continuing to support
and sell arms to the terrorist country of Saudi Arabia, a country that has
created the largest humanitarian crisis on the planet in Yemen. What
hypocrisy!
If we come
together now, we can help make sure every Iranian citizen who hears Trump’s
hateful rhetoric will also hear from us too. Add your name to CODEPINK’s open
letter, and choose 10 friends to share it with. Let’s make our message of
peace impossible to ignore!
Click to add your name to the letter! Like we did
when our government dragged us into war with Iraq, we at CODEPINK will stand
up to the massive institutions that seek more wars for more profits. We will
not back down. We have humanity, justice and the majority of people all over
the world on our side. Join us in stopping the next war!
With hope
and determination,
|
|
===========
j.
Les
Mutins de Pangée
===========
k.
The Indian
general strike and the global fight against communalism and war
Workers shout
slogans during the general strike in Ahmadabad, India, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2020
[Credit: AP Photo/Ajit Solanki]
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/01/11/pers-j11.html
by Keith Jones
Tens of
millions of workers, youth and rural toilers participated in Wednesday’s
all-India one-day general strike. They did so to voice their anger and
opposition to the Narendra Modi-led
Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) government, its pro-investor, pro-market policies—austerity,
privatization, the promotion of “hire and fire” contract jobs, and massive
corporate tax cuts—and its relentless promotion of Hindu communal reaction.
Broad sections of the working class joined the strike. They included workers in India’s globally connected auto industry, coal miners, jute plantation workers, and bus, truck and rickshaw drivers; bank and power
workers, and much of the
extremely poorly paid, largely female workforce of the state-funded rural child
care network (Anganwadi Services).
Under
conditions where the Modi government and its Hindu
supremacist allies have been mounting one communal provocation after another,
whipping up bellicose nationalism with war threats against Pakistan, and
stoking all forms of reaction, the strike demonstrably united workers across
all communal, caste and ethno-linguistic divides.
The strike
underscored that when workers enter into struggle they do so as a class,
cutting across the racial, ethnic, gender, and sexual “identities” promoted by
the bourgeoisie and other privileged layers of the affluent upper-middle class.
The strikers
specifically demanded the repeal of the BJP’s anti-Muslim Citizenship Amendment
Act (CAA) and the rescinding of the government’s plan to force all of India’s
residents to “prove” their citizenship, which is transparently aimed at
intimidating and harassing India’s Muslim minority.
Mass protests
against the CAA have convulsed India since it was rushed through parliament
last month. Pushed onto its backfoot, with its
corporate media-cultivated image of invincibility shattered, the Modi regime has responded to the anti-CAA agitation with lethal
violence. Across large swathes of India, it has repeatedly imposed blanket bans
on all public gatherings of more than four people and suspensions of internet
service.
Last Sunday,
in an action clearly orchestrated by the BJP and its RSS allies, masked
vigilantes brutally attacked students at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University
while police stood down.
===========
l.
Reconciling
Dr. King’s 1968 dream and our 2020 nightmare
https://www.salon.com/2020/01/12/reconciling-dr-kings-1968-dream-and-our-2020-nightmare/
by Bob Hennelly
Debt
servitude, endless wars, and our economic turmoil was
all prophesied by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
This upcoming
Martin Luther King Jr. Day promises to be an especially sad one. As evinced by
the deteriorating social circumstances both at home and around the world, we
have done a poor job living up to his legacy.
And while we
still have Dr. King’s prophetic voice as a beacon, it feels like we somehow
went into reverse, deep into a dystopian wilderness since he died. By my
calculation, we are about as far from the clearing of his “promised land” as we
have been at any point in my 64 years.
===========
m.
From: David Segal, DemandProgress.org [mailto:info@demandprogress.org]
Sent: Saturday, January 11, 2020
Subject: Remembering Aaron
Today we remember
Aaron Swartz
|
n.
Tear gas vs. rocks: Anti-pension reform & Yellow Vests
protests
get heated in
France
(VIDEOS)
https://www.rt.com/news/478024-rallies-france-tear-gas/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Email
+
Macron Scraps
Proposal to Raise Retirement Age in France
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/11/world/europe/france-pension-protests.html
by Adam Nossiter
+
From: Richard Greeman
Sent: Tuesday, January 14, 2020
Subject: French General Strike
FRANCE AT THE
CROSSROADS
by Richard Greeman
(Montpellier,
France. Jan. 13)
The nationwide general strike in France, now entering its record seventh week, seems to be approaching its crisis point. Despite savage police repression, over a million people are in the streets protesting President Macron’s proposed neo-liberal “reform” of France’s retirement system, established at the end of World War II and considered one of the best in the world. At bottom, what is at stake is a whole vision of what kind of society people want to live in – one based on cold market calculation or one based on human solidarity – and neither side shows any sign of willingness to compromise.
Now or Never?
On one side, the Macron government has staked its legitimacy on pushing through this key “reform” intact as a matter of principle, however unpopular. On the other side stand the striking railroad and transit workers, who are bearing the brunt of this conflict and have already sacrificed thousands of Euros in lost pay since the strike began last Dec. 5. After six weeks, they cannot accept the prospect of returning to work empty-handed, and they have set their sights high: withdrawal of the whole government project.
This looks like a “now or never” situation. Moreover, it seems clear that the transport workers mean business. When the government (and the union leaders) proposed a “truce” in the transport strike during the sacred Christmas/New Year vacation period, the rank and file voted to continue the struggle, and their leaders were obliged to eat their words.
Nor are the transport workers isolated, despite the inconvenience to commuters and other travelers. They have been joined by emergency-room nurses and doctors (who have been on strike for months over lack of beds, personnel and materials), public school teachers (protesting undemocratic and incomprehensible “reforms” to the national curriculum), lawyers and judges (visible in their judicial robes), and the dancers at the Paris Opera (visible in their tutus) among the other professions joining the strike.
Strikers and “Yellow Vests” Together
Along side the strikers, and quite visible among them, the so-called Yellow Vests are a crucial element. For over a year, they have been setting a “bad example” of self-organized, largely leaderless, social protest which captured the public imagination and through direct action in the streets won some real concessions from Macron in December 2018. This victory impressed the rank-and-file of the French organized labor movement, which after three months of disciplined, but limited, stop-and-go strikes in the Spring of 2018, failed utterly to wring any concessions and went back to work poor and empty-handed while Macron pushed through a series of neo-liberal privatizations and cuts in unemployment compensation. [1]
Although their numbers diminished, the Yellow Vests continued their spontaneous protests throughout 2019 despite savage government repression, distorted media coverage stressing Black Block violence, and snubbing on the part of the union leadership; but their “bad example” was not lost on the union rank and file. Today’s general strike was originally sparked last September by a spontaneous walkout by Paris subway workers, who, contrary to custom, spontaneously shut down the system without asking permission from their leaders and management.
Meanwhile, the Yellow Vests, initially suspicious of the unions but isolated in their struggle with Macron, had begun to seek “convergence” with the French labor movement. Finally, at the Yellow Vest national “Assembly of Assemblies” last November, their delegates voted near-unanimously to join the “unlimited general strike” proposed for Dec. 5 by the unions. Reversing his previous standoffishness, Philippe Martinez, head of the CGT labor federation, immediately welcomed their participation.[2]
Government Provocation
Today’s intractable nationwide confrontation over retirement – a sacred cow, like Social Security in the U.S. – is best understood as a deliberate provocation on the part of Macron, both in its form and its substance. There was no urgent reason for pension reform, nor for abolishing the venerable system outright and hastily replacing it from above with an abstract neo-liberal plan based on “universality.” The pension program was not in debt, and the alleged need to replace the twenty-odd “special” retirement funds –negotiated over the years with the representatives of different trades and professions –with a single “point system” in the name of fairness, efficiency and rationality was only a smokescreen.
In fact, these “special funds” cover only about one percent of retirees – a million or so miners, railroad workers, transit workers, sailors, ballet dancers and such – who get to retire early because of the physically or mentally taxing nature of their specific labors. (Even if you include the four million public employees as “special,” the figure rises to under 25%). Moreover, Macron has himself recently violated this principle of “universality” by giving special exceptions to the police and army (whom he cannot afford to alienate) and the ballerinas of the Opera (whom no one can imagine toe-dancing at the age of sixty).
Behind this confusing smokescreen of “fairness to all” is an old con: equalize benefits by reducing them to the lowest common denominator. Indeed, according to independent calculations, under Macron’s point system the average pension would be reduced by about 30%. And since these “points” would be calculated over the total lifetime number of years worked before retirement, rather than on the current criterion of 75% of the worker’ best or final years, Macron’s point system would particularly penalize those whose careers were irregular – for example women who took off years for child-care. Yet the government brazenly claims that women will be “the big winners” in this so-called reform!
A Pig in a Poke
However, the biggest con embodied in this point system is that the actual cash value of each accumulated point would only be calculated at the time of retirement. The sum in Euros would then be determined by the government then in power on the basis of the economic situation at that moment (for example in 2037 when the plan goes into full effect). Thus, under the present system, every school-teacher, railroad worker and clerk can calculate how much s/he will received when s/he retires at 62 and plan accordingly (for example opting for early retirement). Macron’s point system would leave her in total darkness until it is too late. His system resembles a gambling casino where you buy 10 chips for a certain amount (say 10 Euros each), place your bets, and later take your winning chips to the cashier’s window only to discover that your chips are now worth only 5 Euros each. Surprise! The house wins!
Today, thanks to their existing pension system, French people live on the average five years longer than other Europeans. Moreover, according to the N.Y. Times: “In France the poverty rate among those older than 65 is less than 5 percent, largely because of the pension system, while in the United States it approaches 20 percent, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. In France, life expectancy is increasing, while in the United States it is diminishing in significant sectors of the population.” And although the pro-government French media have presented Macron’s confused and confusing reform in the best possible light, it is a hard sell. So why change it?
Not an Ordinary President
When Emmanuel Macron took power in 2017, he vowed he would not be “an ordinary president.” From the beginning he has openly proclaimed his iron determination to revolutionize French society in order to bring it into line with the neo-liberal Thatcher/Reagan revolution of the 1980’s, and his methods have been authoritarian. He has imposed his program of privatizations and counter-reforms from above, mainly by decree, deliberately circumventing negotiations with “intermediate bodies” like the parliament, the political parties, the local authorities and above all the labor unions, who have traditionally been the “social partners” (official designation) of government along with the employers’ associations (who are Macron’s main base of support).
Backed by the mainstream media (controlled by the government and three big corporations) Macron has been so far largely successful in steam-rolling through his neo-liberal program, openly designed to improve French “competitivity” (i.e. corporate profits) by lowering living standards (thus increasing inequality). If successful, his proposed “reform” of pensions would open the gates to his ultimate goal, the “reform” of France’s socialized healthcare system (Medicare for all), already on the road to privatization. In taking on the railroad workers, Macron is following the 1980’s tactic of Iron Lady Thatcher, who inflicted an historic defeat on the Britishworking class by provoking a prolonged miners strike that exhausted their resources.
Naturally, all these moves have been unpopular, but until now Macron, whose executive style has been characterized as “imperial,” has been successful in dividing and destabilizing his opposition – if necessary through massive use of police violence. This has been the fate of the spontaneous movement of Yellow Vests, who have been subjected to routine beatings and tear-gas attacks as well as hundreds of serious injuries (including blindings, torn-off hands and several deaths) – all with police impunity and media cover-ups. Now the government’s savage repressive methods – condemned by the U.N. and the European Union – are being applied to strikers and union demonstrators traditionally tolerated by the forces of order in France.
This repression may turn out to be like throwing oil on the flames of conflict. On January 9, at the end of the peaceful, legal, mass marches (estimated half-million demonstrators nationwide), members of the particularly brutal BAC (Anti-Criminal Brigade) in Paris, Rouen and Lille were ordered to break off sections of the marches, surround them, inundate them with teargas, and then charge in among them with truncheons and flash-ball launchers fired at close range, resulting in 124 injuries (25 of them serious), and 980 sickened by gas.
These brutal attacks, which focused particularly on journalists and females (nurses and teachers) were captured on shocking videos, viewed millions of times on YouTube, but pooh-poohed by government spokesmen.[3] Far from discouraging the strikers, this deliberate violence may only enrage them. And, what with the “bad example” of the Yellow Vests,” the labor leaders may not be able to reign them in.
The Center Cannot Hold
Why is Macron risking his prestige and his Presidency on this precarious face-off with the labor leadership, traditionally viewed as the compliant hand-maidens of the government on such occasions? Historians here recall that in 1936 Maurice Thorez, leader of Communist-affiliated CGT (General Confederation of Workers), brought the general strike and factory occupations to an end with the slogan “We must learn how to end a strike” and that at the Liberation of France in 1945 the same Thorez, fresh from Moscow, told the workers to “roll up your sleeves” and rebuild French capitalism before striking for socialism. Similarly in 1968, during the spontaneous student-worker uprising, the CGT negotiated a settlement with De Gaulle and literally dragged reluctant strikers back to work.
Not for nothing are today’s government-subsidized French unions officially designated as “social partners” (along with government and business), yet Macron, loyal to neo-liberal, Thatcherite doctrine, has consistently humiliated the CGT’s Martinez and the other union leaders and excluded them – along with the other “intermediary bodies – from the policy-making process.
Something’s Got to Give
France’s “not-an-ordinary-President” has from the beginning remained consistent with his vision of an imperial presidency. Although seen by many abroad as a “progressive,” Macron, like Trump, Putin, and other contemporary heads of state, adheres to the neo-liberal doctrine of “authoritarian democracy,” and he is apparently willing to stake his future, and the future of France, on subduing his popular opposition, particularly the unions, once and for all.
Thus, what is at stake today is not just a quarrel over pension rights, which would normally be negotiated and adjudicated through a political process including political parties, elected representatives, parliamentary coalitions and collective bargaining with labor, but a question of what kind of future society French people are going to live in: social-democratic or neo-liberal authoritarian. The seasoned Paris bureau chief of the NY Times Adam Nossiter put it simply in his revealing Jan. 9 article: “A fight between the rich and the poor amplified by 200 years of French history.”[4]
A technocrat and former Rothschild banker, Macron rose to power unexpectedly in 2017 when the traditional Left and Right parties fell apart during the first round of the Presidential Election, leaving him alone as the lesser of two evils candidate in a face-off with the proto-fascist National Front of LePen. Considered “the President of the rich” by most French people, Macron must remain inflexible because he has nothing behind him but the Bourse (Stock Exchange), the MEDEF (Manufacturers’ Association), and the police.
Second Thoughts
On the other hand, as the struggle enters its seventh week, it occurs to me that if this were true general strike, if all the organized workers had walked out on December 5, if the railroads, the subways, the buses, the schools and the hospitals – not to mention the refineries and the electrical generators – had been shut down, it would all have been over in a few days.
But this is not the U.S. where in Sept-Oct. 2019, 48,000 members of the United Auto Workers recently shut down 50 General Motors plants for more than six weeks, and where not a single worker, not a single delivery of parts, not a single finished car crossed the picket lines until the strike was settled.
In France, there are no “union shops” much less closed shops, few if any strike funds, and as many as five different union federations competing for representation in a given industry. Here picket lines, where they exist, are purely informational, and anywhere from 10% to 90% of the workers may show up on the job on any given day during a strike. Today, for example, seven out of ten TGV high-speed bullet-trains were running as many railroad workers returned to the job to pay their bills while planning to go back on strike and join the demonstrations later in the week. How long can this go on?
“When in irresistible force meets an immovable object, something’s got to give,” goes the old saying, and a show-down seems to be in the offing. With his arrogant intransigence over the retirement issue, Macron is apparently risking his presidency on one throw of the dice. Only time will tell. And Macron may be betting that time is on his side, waiting for the movement to slowly peter out so as to push through his reforms later in the Spring.
Update: French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe’s much ballyhooed Jan. 12 declaration of a “provisionary” withdrawal of his proposal to extend the “pivotal” age of retirement from 62 to 64 is yet another smokescreen designed to divide the opposition and further prolong the struggle, as suggested above.
Although denounced as such by the CGT and other striking unions, the government’s promise was immediately accepted by the openly class-collaborationist (“moderate”) CFDT union, to their mutual advantage. The CFDT will now be included in the negotiations over the financing of the proposed point system, which the CFDT, having collaborated with previous governments in earlier neo-liberal reforms, supports.
Philippe’s declaration is obviously an empty promise, as there are only two ways of increasing the retirement fund: either by extending the number of years paid in or by increasing the amount annual contributions, which are shared by labor and management. And although labor has signaled its willingness to raise its dues, the MEDEF (manufacturers’ association) has adamantly refused to pay its share, ruling out the obvious solution to this manufactured crisis. Even if the official “pivotal” retirement age is retained, if the value of their pensions is reduced, employees will be obliged to continue working past age 62 in order to live.
[1] For details on 2018 strikes, please see my http://divergences.be/spip.php?article3348
[2] Please see https://newpol.org/french-unions-yellow-vests-converge-launch-general-strike-today/ by Richard Greeman.
[3] https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/110120/le-prefet-lallement-libere-l-extreme-violence-policiere
[4] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/09/world/europe/france-strikes-pensions.html
+
‘Don’t look there, look here!’ UK media much more excited about Iran protests than those in neighboring France
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/478139-iran-france-protests-british-media/
===========
o.
"Max
Blumenthal on Venezuela and Dark Ops"
with RJ Eskow
(37 min)
+
The West Is Run by Barbarians
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52847.htm
by Peter Koenig
+
The
Apocalypse of Settler Colonialism
https://www.blackagendareport.com/apocalypse-settler-colonialism-0
by April Anson
===========
p.
A conversation
with Yanis Varoufakis on
post-capitalism
and the future of democracy
(2h 2min)
+
Robert Reich brilliantly explains why 'Millennials Don't Have Any Money'
https://www.good.is/former-clinton-advisor-gives-a-simple-explanation-of-why-millennials-dont-have-any-money
===========
q.
The Anti-War
Movement is Fired Up!
https://www.blackagendareport.com/anti-war-movement-fired
by Kevin Zeese and Margaret
Flowers
+
We Tentatively
Oppose War on Strictly Procedural Grounds
+
Sheep-Dogging
on Steroids: America’s New Democratic Party Anti-War Activists
https://www.globalresearch.ca/new-democratic-party-anti-war-activists/5700074
by Ajamu Baraka