Bulletin N° 952
“The Bridge on the
River Kwai”
1957
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x688u86
(2:41:29)
The Bridge on the
River Kwai is a 1957 epic war film directed by David
Lean and based on the 1952 novel written by French novelist Pierre Boulle, with the English translation
by Xan Fielding in 1954..This film uses the historical
setting of the construction of the Burma Railway in 1942-1943. The cast
includes Alec Guinness, William Holden, Jack Hawkins, and Sessue
Hayakawa. It was initially scripted by screenwriter Carl Foreman.
During
WW II, allied POWs in a Japanese internment camp are ordered to build a bridge
to accommodate the Burma-Siam railway. Their instinct is to sabotage the
bridge, but under the leadership of Colonel Nicholson they're persuaded the
bridge should be built to help morale, spirit. At first, the prisoners admire
Nicholson when he bravely endures torture rather than compromise his principles
for the benefit of Japanese Commandant Colonel Saito, but soon they realized it's a monument to Nicholson, himself, as well as a
form of collaboration with the enemy.
Most
war movies are either for or against their wars. "The Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957) is one of the few that focuses not on
larger rights and wrongs but on individuals. Like Robert Graves' World War I
memoir, Goodbye to All That, it shows men grimly
hanging onto military discipline and pride in their units as a way of clinging
to sanity. By the end of "Kwai" we are less
interested in who wins than in how individual characters will behave.
The
film is set in 1943, in a POW camp in Burma, along the route of a rail line the
Japanese were building between Malaysia and Rangoon. Shears is already in the camp;
we've seen him steal a cigarette lighter from a corpse to bribe his way into
the sick bay. He watches as a column of British prisoners, led by Nicholson,
marches into camp whistling "The Colonel Bogey March."
The
film's central relationship is between Saito and Nicholson, a professional
soldier approaching his 28th anniversary of army service ("I don't suppose
I've been at home more than 10 months in all that time"). The Japanese
colonel is not a military pro; he learned English while studying in London, he
tells Nicholson, and likes corned beef and Scotch whisky. But he is a rigidly
dutiful officer, and we see him weeping privately with humiliation because
Nicholson is a better bridge builder; he prepares for hara-kiri if the bridge
is not ready on time.
The
story is fictional but uses the construction of the Burma Railway, in
1942–1943, as its historical setting, and is partly based on Pierre Boulle's own life experience working in Malaysia rubber
plantations and later working for allied forces in Singapore and Indochina
during World War II. The novel deals with the plight of World War II British
prisoners of war forced by the Imperial Japanese Army to build a bridge for the
"Death Railway", so named because of the large number of prisoners
and conscripts who died during its construction. The novel won France's Prix
Sainte-Beuve in 1952.
Subject: Political Chaos
or Class Struggle? : The Revenge-Democrats’ Dilemma.
January 18, 2021
Grenoble, France
Dear Colleagues and Friends of CEIMSA,
Lessons from the Cold War are still useful for understanding US militarism and subsequent wars against the Sandinistas of Nicaragua, against drugs, against terrorism, against the pandemic, against conspiracy theories, etc., etc….
In 1947 Michigan's Senator Arthur Vandenberg advised the ill-equipped President Harry Truman on the
eve of the Cold War that the best way to convince the public to support cold
and hot wars was "scaring the hell
out of Americans."
A few months later, the Truman Doctrine allocated $400,000,000 in military aid
to fight Communism in Greece and Turkey. And in 1950, the NSC Policy Paper
Number 68, authored by Paul Nitze & co. advocated
tripling the US annual defense budget form $13 billion to $50 billion. Nitze stated the purpose of this increased tax burden on
the American public: ‘[NSC-68] advocated an immediate and large-scale build-up
in our military and general strength and that of our allies with the intention
of righting the power balance and in the hope that through means of other than
all-out war we could induce a change in the nature of the soviet system.’
“[T]he Soviet Union, unlike previous aspirance to hegemony, is animated by a new fanatic faith, antithetical to our own, and seeks to impose its absolute authority over the rest of the world. Conflict has, therefore, become endemic and is waged, on the part of the Soviet Union, by violent or non-violent methods in accordance with the dictates of expediency. With the development of increasingly terrifying weapons of mass destruction, every individual faces the ever-present possibility of annihilation should the conflict enter the phase of total war.”
The second chapter of Joel Kovel’s book, Overcoming Zionism (2007), is entitled “The Unnatural History of a Bad Idea.” In it he writes about ideological contradictions which served to promote the Zionist program.
At
first glance the Zionist movement seems the very antithesis of the dark tribalisms that haunt Jewish history. Zionists were,
manifestly, thoroughly modern ‘New Jews.’ Indeed, no antisemite
could surpass the loathing of some of them for the backwardness and
superstition of the Jewish masses. Yet Zionism’s dynamic was drawn from the
most tribal and particularlistic stratum of Judaism,
and its destiny became the restoration of tribalism in the guise of a modern,
highly militarized and aggressive state. In other words, both of the Covenant-al
paths open to Jewry, universalism and chauvinistic tribalism, were used by
Zionism, but toward markedly different ends: the former as a fig leaf for the
latter, which became the real driving force of the movement.
The reason for this is perfectly obvious. Jews may have thought
of themselves as a nation, but thought and reality are not the same. To be a
nation, a people has to have an organic realtion to a territory, and
this the Jews lacked. They had instead a fantasied relation to a mythic
territory, the Biblical Israel, which had to stand in for the real, habitable
territory until this was gained. And that has been the fatal flaw in Zionism,
both before and after the conquest, and why we call it, ungenerously but
truthfully, a bad idea.
The choice of Palestine as national home enabled the quest to proceed
along mythically defined lines, at the cost of situating the dream of Jewish
renewal in the very center of Islam. This was very foolish, and will one day
bring Israel down. But wherever the Zionists would have gone, they would have
encountered sever resistance. Habitable land has a way of being already
inhabited, and inhabitants have a way of being attached to place. It is just
one of those nagging features of human nature. A tremendous struggle would be
necessary therefore, if the Zionists were to dislodge these inhabitants and
only a tremendously concentrated desire could suffice to energize that
struggle. This concentration of desire would have to contend with three great
difficulties: the resistance of those who stood in the way and would have to be
dislodged; the exigencies of geopolitics; and one’s own inner being, which
would have to be retooled form the self-image of an ethical victim to that of a
ruthless conqueror.
All of these obstacles could be dealt with by signing onto Western
imperialism and capitalism. A great deal came the Zionist’s way as a result:
money, the imprimatur of Great Powers, and a full deck of moral excuses
reaching back to the Crusades, the mission civilisatrice, and the White Man’s
Burden – all these fell into the Zionist lap, with long-term consequences we
trace below. But what remained unique to Zionism was the way the imperial
mantle fit over the archaic tribalism.
Only an immensity of Jewish suffering could compensate for the moral
contradictions inherent to the drive for land. As a result a subtle but profound
shift took place with respect to the persecutions that the Jews had suffered.
The burden of antisemitism, which was the perceived stimulus to Zionism, became
integrated into it as an essential condition for it. Judaeophobia acquired an
ominous kind of necessity: rather than stimulating the drive to transform the
social conditions from which judaeophobia arose, antisemitic persecution was
drawn into service; it became a useful, and even necessary, wheel in the
machinery of Zionism.
Zionism might be called an artificial nationalism. The passions that
drove it were all too real, but the reality was that of a collective fantasy
animating a people who, as Jean-Christophe Attias has put it, ‘never defined
themselves simply as Jews: they were Jews from the country where they lived;
Jews of the particular language they spoke.’
. . .
This set into motion a vicious cycle. Those who were aroused to become
Zionists had to invent themselves for the task. Jewishness had to be place
front and center, and the path of self-invention gravitated to that moment when
the Jew arose, as this was expressed in the ancient texts of Covenant processed
by centuries of Halakhah. And here lies the
foundation of a bad idea: collective narrative is essential to nationalism, but
the narrative employed by Zionist nationalism did not ground itself on the
actual, collectively lived life of the Jewish people. It stemmed rather from
the mythos according to which Yahweh granted the Israelites exceptional status among
the nations. A redemptive, messianic desire arose, enormously powerful but also
blind and delusive, in which weakness as nation was nullified by greatness
conferred by God, and moral claims were accentuated even as an amoral path was entered.
The mythic power ‘established’ in the Zionist mind a regime of desire, which
overrode mere details such as the lack of a legitimate claim. All the
historiographical exertions by generations of Zionist apologists cannot confer
legitimacy on a project in which a variegated people held together by texts and
a common faith, and whose actual ethno-national genealogies had been formed all
over the map, suddenly decide after two thousand years that they have a real
claim on a part of the earth just because it is the center of their Biblical
identity. A two-thousand-year-old claim would be laughed out of any secular
court – all the more so for the Ashkenazi Jews who comprise the main body of
Zionists and have little discernible link to the ancient inhabitants of
Palestine.(pp.33-36)
Theodor Herzl (May 2, 1860 - July 3, 1904) was an Austro-Hungarian Jewish journalist and playwright who became the founder of modern political Zionism. Like so many Zionists after him, he conflated universal humanism with the particularity of tribalism, in an attempt to achieve legitimacy by “linking Zionism to the inexorable march of progress in his The Jewish State.”
We shall not revert to a lower stage but
rise to a higher one.
We shall not dwell in mud huts; we shall
build new, more beautiful,
and more modern houses, and possess them in
safety.(cited on p.46)
According to Kovel, Herzl conducted a slick public relations campaign to win support for his Zionist project at the same time he recorded tough-minded strategic concerns in his private diaries. In a memorable passage on the legal pretenses used by Zionists to acquire exclusive ownership of Palestinian land, Kovel writes:
It is well known that money does not grow on
trees. It is the abstracted value of past human labor, capable of being stored
and transferred from place to place. He who accumulates a significant stock of
funds, therefore, has at his disposal the collective power of past labor and
the power to control future labor. The more money, the mote does the self
become aggrandized, and the ‘others’ whose labor had been exploited become
reduced, their humanity dissolving into a thing-like Otherness. And the more
that money is used for the particular gain of one faction while others are seen
as being merely in the way, the more malevolent becomes the will whose power
money expands. In any case, there can scarcely be a worse error than to assume
that money is neutral and bears no charge of history.
Herzl certainly realized that the money he
was raising was far from neutral, though he prudently saved such reflections
for the privacy of his diary while reserving his public statements for lofty
rhetoric. Here is an entry form 1895:
‘We must expropriate gently the private
property of rthe state assigned to us. We shall try
to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment
for it in the transit countries, while denying it employment in our country.
The property owners will come over to our side. Both the process of
expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and
circumspectly. Let the owners of the immovable property believe that they are
cheating us, selling us things for more than they are worth. But we are not
going to sell them anything back.’
These musings were to become the nucleus of
the system by which the Palestinian economy was destroyed while all desirable
land was to be placed in perpetuity into Jewish hands, even as the Palestinians
were ‘spirited across the border,’ that is, ethnically cleansed. As for the
‘progress’ brought to all Palestine by this, one needs only to take a look at
its Occupied Territories.(pp.47-48)
Kovel goes on to describe another example of the ideological “fig leaf” use to conceal the real strategic calculations behind the Zionist program. In “The Arlosoroff Case.”
The Balfour Declaration of November 2, 1917,
recognizing the Jewish right to a ‘national home’ in Palestine, put the
imprimatur of Western empire on the Zionist project. And through the fog of its
diplomatic obfuscation one can also foresee the downfall of Arab/Muslim
Palestine.
. . .
Chaim Arlosoroff [February 23, 1899 - June 16,
1933] was an outstanding young leader of the Zionist movement in Israel. As
head of the political office of the Jewish Agency, he was a kind of Secretary
of State for the government-in-waiting. Arlosoroff was anti-Soviet,
anti-American, anti-materialist in general, and on the whole spiritual in his
approach to politics, yet with a capacity to take a hard look at difficult
realities. He was appointed to his high position because of his conciliatory
character and acceptability to the Arabs, whose fears he was able to allay. But
in mid 1932 he was coming to a troubling conclusion, which he haltingly
transmitted in a lengthy letter to Chaim Weizmann,
head of the World Zionist movement.(pp.53-54)
In this “strange and somewhat literary creation,” writes Kovel, Arlosoroff, a moderate Labor Party Zionist (as opposed to the extremist Revisionist Zionists headed by Vladimir Jabotinsky), sets forth four possible paths for Zionism, “of which only the last has any merit.”
1)
‘. . .
hold tight and do nothing, in the hope that something
good may turn up. This is a characteristically Jewish attitude . . . but it is
definitely not a Zionist attitude . . . which I have looked upon as a rebellion
against Jewish tradition’ and its fatalism.
2)
Give
up on Zionism, and recognize it to be objectively impossible as a political
goal.
3)
‘cling to fundamental Zionist principles but . . . contract
the geographic limits of their realization”; that is, settle for a smaller
Eretz Israel. This, too, is to be considered impossible, given geostrategic and
demographic factors (and the magical appeal of Eretz Israel, observed above.)
4)
Finally,
strike off on a new path, through ‘a transition period during which the Jewish
minority would exercise organized revolutionary rule.’ This requires that such
a minority would control ‘the state apparatus, the administration, and the
military . . . in order to eliminate the danger of domination by the non-Jewish
majority and suppress rebellion, against us ...’ This
radical, and even desperate path raises questions which Arlosoroff does not
intend to consider in the letter. But he needs to say that ‘I will never become
reconciled to the failure of Zionism before an attempt is made whose
seriousness corresponds to the seriousness of the struggle for the revival of
our national life and the sanctity of the mission entrusted to us by the Jewish
people.’(p.56)
Kovel concludes this discussion with the following observation: “This letter [written in 1932] calls three things to our attention – that political Zionism was
in grave crisis by the early 1930s; that the movement had become deeply factionalized between two groups: the labor Zionists who were in control of its
existing institutions, and Jabotinsky’s revisionist camp, so named because of impatience with the respectable, temporizing tactics of official Zionism; and
that Arlosoroff, one of the top leaders of Labor Zionism, was reluctantly reaching the same conclusions as his bitter enemies even as he continued to
denounce them.”
I do not know what became of
this remarkable document, but what
year after posting his letter to Weizmann, Arlosoroff returned to Palestine
over transferring German-Jewish assets to Palestine. The next day an
and the Labor Zionists for
‘The cowardice to which the Palestine Labor Party has stooped in selling itself for money to the biggest Jew-hater, [and which] has . . . no parallel in all Jewish history .K . . The Jewish people has always known how to deal with those who have sold the honor of their nation and the Torah, and it will know today also how to react to this shameful deed. . . .’
The evening following, June 16, 1933, Arlosoroff
was assassinated by
Although
no one was ever convicted of the crime, presumptive evidence
case roundly believed
by the Labor Zionist majority, thus further
decade, Labor and the
revisionists, while still externally antagonistic,
for this?(pp.57-58)
The 14 + items below reflect the ideological and material contradictions that drive our era. Many today find themselves ill prepared to cope with the hypocracy and deliberate deceptions that pass as cultural differences. Our formal positivist education has succeeded in concealing from us many of the systemic contradictions which logic alone cannot explain. If we find ourselves adrift in a turbulent space, it is because the propaganda is no longer sufficient to hide what has been the bedrock of our existence, the brutal exploitation and relentless alienation that has defined our lives for too long in this dog-eat-dog capitalist society.
Sincerely,
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
http://www.ceimsa.org
a.
|
From: National Security Archive [mailto:nsarchiv@gwu.edu]
Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2021
Subject: The Capitol Riot: Documents You Should Read (Part 1)
January 6, 2021 assault
on the Capitol now the subject of systematic National Security Archive Freedom
of Information Act campaign. First installment of new Document Sourcebook features
Pentagon timeline, State Department dissent, Homeland Security warning, FBI
alert, and first court indictment
|
+
America Has
Entered the Weimar Era: Walden Bello on How Neoliberalism
Fueled Trump & Violent Right
https://www.democracynow.org/2021/1/12/walden_bello_rising_right_wing_violence
with Amy Goodman
(video, 27:05)
+
Capitol Insurrection Caused by Capitalism Failure & Rapacious Donor
Class
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYd2HA-JHGo&feature=youtu.be
with Jimmy Dore
and Richard Wolff
(video, 37:38)
+
David
Harvey's Anti-Capitalist Chronicles - The U.S. Presidential Election on Stitcher
(audio, 30:19)
+
From: World Socialist Web Site [mailto:newsletters@wsws.org]
Sent: Tuesday, January 12, 2021 11:21 PM
To: francis feeley
Subject: Mobilize the working class against Trump’s conspiracy! Prepare
for a political general strike!
Armed protests are
being planned in all 50 state capitals, in addition to Washington DC, organized
by far-right groups.
|
+
“American Abyss”: Fascism Historian Tim Snyder
on Trump’s Coup Attempt, Impeachment & What’s Next
https://www.democracynow.org/2021/1/13/capitol_insurrection_historian_timothy_snyder
with Amy Goodman
(video, 26:03)
+
Interview 1611 – New World Next Week with James Evan Pilato
with James
Corbett
(25:14)
===========
b.
#ForceTheVote Pressuring Power & Strategizing
with Jimmy Dore
January 4,
2021
(57:48)
Force
The Vote! We demand that every progressive in Congress refuse to vote for Nancy
Pelosi for Speaker of the House until she publicly pledges to bring Medicare for
all to the floor of the House for a vote in January: https://forcethevote.org/
+
How Bernie & Squad Actually Support Corporate
State
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpa7GR-EyF0
with Jimmy Dore
and Chris Hedges
April 25,2020
(1:35:20)
+
Has The Tinder To IGNITE
Social Uprising
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olBU619Dlsc&feature=youtu.be
with Jimme Dore and Chris Hedges
January 14,
2021
(44:17)
===========
c.
“Bail him
now!”
with Roger Waters
(12:04)
+
Julian Assange Extradition BATTLE: Free Speech vs. UK/US!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4k_1vS8EJM&feature=youtu.be
with Jimmy Dore
(28:08)
+
UN torture
expert on Julian Assange's persecution and the lies
behind it
with Aaron Maté
(47:59)
+
Assange Extradition
Denial Indicts US Prison System But Imperils
Journalism
by Prof. Marjorie Cohn, January 06 2021
As
press freedom advocates celebrate that Assange has
escaped facing charges under the U.S. Espionage Act — charges that carry 175
years in prison — they are also lamenting Baraitser’s
acceptance of virtually all of the Trump administration’s attacks on investigative
journalism.
+
|
+
UN torture expert on Julian Assange's
persecution and the lies behind it
with
Aaron Maté
(8:39)
+
How the Left is being Manipulated into Colluding in
its own Character Assassination
by Jonathan Cook
Varoufakis describes here the way that leftwing
dissidents who challenge or disrupt western establishment narratives – whether
it be himself, Assange or Jeremy Corbyn
– end up not only being subjected to character assassination, as was always the
case, but nowadays find themselves being manipulated into colluding in
their own character assassination.
+
"They
don't want to extradite Assange. They want to kill
him.”
with Yanis Varoufakis
(26:05)
===========
d.
|
What to Expect in 2021: Madness, Mayhem,
Manipulation and More Tyranny by John W. Whitehead What should we expect in 2021? So far, it looks like this year is going to be plagued by more of the same brand of madness, mayhem, manipulation and tyranny that dominated 2020. +
|
In Diversity We Trust: Joe Biden’s Cabinet Choices
https://www.globalresearch.ca/in-diversity-we-trust-joe-bidens-cabinet-choices/5733685
by Dr. Binoy Kampmark
Such a vulgar politicisation of multiculturalism and identity also serves
another function. Not only is it meant to convince the multicultis
and identitarians that they are onto a good thing
with Biden; they can also scorn those voters who backed the soon-to-be-exiting
Donald Trump.
+
What
Will The Democratic Takeover Do To The Economy?
with
Ron Paul
(25:55)
+
We
Are at War
https://www.globalresearch.ca/we-are-at-war-2/5733672
by Peter Koenig
We, the common people, are at war against an ever more
authoritarian and tyrannical elitist Globalist system, reigned by a small group
of multi-billionaires, that planned already decades ago to take power over the
people, to control them.
+
Video: Israel and US Efforts in Large-scale Strikes on
Iranian Infrastructure in Syria
by South Front,
January 15 2021
(4:12)
The first two weeks of 2021 have, so far,
been marked by an incredible increase in Israeli activity in the skies over
Syria. The most intense strike took place on
January 13 morning hitting multiple Syrian and
Iranian-affiliated targets in the province of Deir Ezzor.
===========
e.
The GSK –
Pfizer Multibillion Dollar Global Vaccine Monopoly
https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-gsk-pfizer-multibillion-dollar-global-vaccine-monopoly/5733640
by Prof Michel Chossudovsky
It’s
Big Pharma, It’s Big Money.
It’s the multibillion dollar global vaccine market. In August 2019, five
months before the onslaught of the Covid-19 crisis, two of the
largest Worldwide Pharma conglomerates
decided to join hands in a strategic relationship which barely made
the headlines.
+
From: Cat McGuire [mailto:cat@catmcguire.com]
Sent: Saturday, January 16, 2021
Subject: Warning! Dangerous reactions to covid
vaccine
The
covid vaccine is a LIVE experiment on humanity. They want to make these vaccines
mandatory. More and more reports are
coming forth documenting injuries – and deaths! -- for
a virus with a 99% recovery rate.
Please send these videos far and wide.
Louisiana woman convulsing
after Pfizer experimental covid vaccine
African American nurse who
got Bell’s Balsy
Shawn Skelton explains what
the moderna covid injection
did to her as she convulses uncontrollably
On a tangential note, I was part of an
anti-covid vaccine protest Wednesday, January 13, in
front of Pfizer World Headquarters in NYC.
Here I am speaking at the Pfizer
protest
(too bad I got
cut off. . . )
+
COVID-19 and
Induced Insanity in the UK, the Global Lab Rat
https://www.globalresearch.ca/covid-19-induced-insanity-uk-global-lab-rat/5733347
by Dr. David Halpin
The
strategy has been to scare a large majority out of their remaining wits, and to
keep repeating the big lie – that Covid_19 (C19) is very infectious and likely
lethal. Every body set up to drive the policies, and
there are hundreds, has been corrupt.
+
10
Facts From the UK Government Pfizer Vaccine Guidance
that Promote “Vaccine Hesitancy”
by
Johnny Vedmore
+
Greece:
From A Covid Coup To A Covid Junta
https://www.globalresearch.ca/greece-from-a-covid-coup-to-a-covid-junta/5733691
by Evans Aggelissopoulos
The Covid
Coup of early March has metastasized into a full blown Covid
Junta as areas in Western Athens have had a full 24 hour curfew imposed on
them. Citizens have been quoted on MSM as stating this has nothing to do with a
virus but a full-blown attempt at a Junta.
==========
f.
From: Global Research Newsletter
[mailto:newsletter@globalresearch.ca]
Sent: Sunday, January 10, 2021 4:02 PM
To: francis.feeley@u-grenoble3.fr
Subject: 2020's
Most Popular Articles On GlobalResearch.ca
|
Twenty-two Global Research Articles With More Than 100,000 Page Views in 2020
|
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+
DARPA's Man
in Wuhan
https://unlimitedhangout.com/2020/07/investigative-reports/darpas-man-in-wuhan/
Michael
Callahan’s career began in USAID and in the bioweapons
labs of the former Soviet Union, advancing the agenda of the global bioweapons and pharmaceutical cartels. He would take what
he learned there to execute a massive expansion of DARPA’s biodefense
portfolio and today finds himself squarely in the center of the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.
==========
g.
GOP &
Democrats are on the same team - Jimmy Dore in conversation with Richard Wolff
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=585444775416251&id=156623362172
with Jimmy Dore
June 20, 2020
(2:20)
Freedom Cells and The Greater Reset – #SolutionsWatch
https://www.corbettreport.com/mp3/solutionswatch-bush.mp3
with James Corbett and John Bush
(audio, 21:38)
James talks
to John Bush, the host of Live Free Now with John Bush and an activist who founded the Freedom Cell Network to help
like-minded solutions-oriented freedom lovers meet, organize and collaborate.
Now, he is co-organizing The Greater Reset Activation conference which is due
to take place later this month. We talk to him about these different projects
and how people can get involved to start taking back power into their own
hands.
==========
h.
From: The Kairos Center
[mailto:info@kairoscenter.org]
Sent: Sunday, January 10, 2021
Subject: Statement from the Poor People’s Campaign on the Events of Jan. 6th
The Sickness Is The System! with Professor Richard Wol
with Jimmy Dore and Richard Wolff
October 11, 2020
(video, 38:31)
==========
i.
These Are the 5 People Who Died
in the Capitol Riot
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/11/us/who-died-in-capitol-building-attack.html
by Jack Healy
+
"A Terrified
President Throws His Riot Mob Under A Bus To Save His
Neck (And Get Back On Twitter)"
with Steven Colbert
(10:58)
+
The Deep State Isn’t a Partisan Issue
with Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and Rep. Thomas
Massie
(36:51)
+
The Capitol Hill Riot:
“Capitalism's Last Gasp?”
with RJ Eskow and Richard Wolff
(30:39)
==========
https://www.minds.com/CorbettReport/blog/the-year-ahead-part-1-currency-1195029745344360448
by James Corbett
+
China to
Overtake the US Sooner Than Expected
https://theglobalherald.com/news/keiser-report-china-to-overtake-the-us-sooner-than-expected-e1642/
with Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert
(video, 25:45)
+
The Essence of a
Capitalist Society
https://www.stitcher.com/show/david-harveys-anticapitalist-chronicles/episode/the-essence-of-a-capitalist-society-79130950
with David Harvey
(audio, 38:30)
+
Curing Capitalism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynbgMKclWWc
with Richard Wolff
June 2017
(1:25:33)
===========
k.
"US looks
ridiculous adding Cuba to terror list”
with George
Galloway and Scott Ritter
(10:47)
From: Medea
Benjamin, CODEPINK [mailto:info@codepink.org]
Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2021
Subject: Cuba sí, Trump no
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|
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Just days from leaving office (finally!), the Trump administration
lashed out at a target they have repeatedly hammered in four years: the Cuban
people. This time it was by adding Cuba to the list of state sponsors of
terror — a move that will take months to undo for the incoming
Biden administration.
It’s not a given that the Biden team will even address this, so we must
begin to pressure them now. Removing Cuba from this list is a process that
should begin on day one of the new administration.
Join us in urging President-elect Biden to reject the
characterization of Cuba as a state sponsor of terror!
The Trump
administration is acting in bad faith and attempting to end any sort of
reconciliation between the U.S. and Cuba before it can even begin. Cuba was
removed from this list in 2015 as part of President Obama’s rapprochement with
the island nation and it was widely acknowledged at the time that there was
no basis for its inclusion. Secretary Pompeo claims
that Cuba harbors Colombian guerillas, but that’s a wild mischaracterization
— Cuba actually hosted peace talks between the Colombian government and
guerillas. To read more about the Trump administration’s flimsy
justifications, check out this article written by Medea
and Leonardo.
Placing Cuba
on the list of state sponsors of terror will have immediate and harmful
impacts on the Cuban people. It caps off a four-year period of a “maximum
pressure” campaign that has affected travel, remittances, energy and
healthcare, among others. We know that this has little to do with Cuba and a
lot to do with politics, lobbies and campaign fundraising. We can’t let the
Trump administration get away with destroying the progress made in U.S. -
Cuba relations during the Obama administration.
Tell President-elect Biden that he must begin the
process to reverse this horrible decision on day one of his presidency!
We’ll present
this petition to the Biden transition team and update those who sign once we
get a response. CODEPINK has been working with ACERE (Alliance for Cuba
Engagement and Respect) and solidarity groups to ensure that the Biden
administration makes reconciliation with Cuba top priority. As always, we
remain committed to peace and full diplomatic relations between our
countries.
In peace, P.S. Have you signed the petition asking for Cuba’s medical personnel to
receive the Nobel Peace Prize? Click here to do so!
Also, our
CODEPINK store still has these amazing pink Guayabera shirts
made by a Cuban women's cooperative in stock. You can still
grab your own as an act of challenging the remaining restrictions on trade
with Cuba!
|
Placing Cuba, a
country whose doctors risk their lives around the world fighting Covid-19, on a
list of “terror sponsors” is as ludicrous as saying Trump loves peace. Tell the
Biden administration to remove Cuba from the list!
Cuba is Not a
Sponsor of Terror!
https://www.codepink.org/cuba-no-terror?utm_campaign=cuba_state_sponsor_terror&utm_medium=email&utm_source=codepink
The Trump
administration has placed Cuba on the state sponsors of terror list, in a move
being criticized as being a “mockery” and “hypocrisy.” Join us in asking
President-elect Biden to reverse this ASAP!
Just days from
leaving office (finally!), the Trump administration lashed out at a target they
have repeatedly hammered in four years: the Cuban people. This time it was by adding
Cuba to the list of state sponsors of terror — a move that will take
months to undo for the incoming Biden administration.
It’s not a given
that the Biden team will even address this, so we must begin to pressure them
now. Removing Cuba from this list is a process that should begin on day one
of the new administration.
We’ll present
this petition to the Biden transition team and update those who sign once we
get a response. CODEPINK has been working with ACERE (Alliance for Cuba
Engagement and Respect) and solidarity groups to ensure that the Biden
administration makes reconciliation with Cuba top priority. As always, we
remain committed to peace and full diplomatic relations between our countries.
In peace,
Medea, Teri, Michelle and
Leonardo
+
From: Danaka, CODEPINK [mailto:info@codepink.org]
Sent: Friday, January 15, 2021 3:04 PM
|
|
|
|
The Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced
he would be designating the Houthis in Yemen as
a terrorist organization. Pompeo accused the Houthi movement of destabilizing Yemen. This lack of
self-awareness is really on-brand for the Trump admin. Saudi Arabia and the
UAE, along with all of their allies (including the US), are the ones to blame
for Yemen being in the state it is currently in. Designating the Houthis as a terrorist organization is going to have horrible
humanitarian implications.
Aid has already been cut to Yemen in the wake of the COVID pandemic.
Being designated by the US as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) means
that many humanitarian groups will no longer be able to distribute the aid
that has been keeping many Yemenis alive. Yemen, more than ever now, needs
more aid, not less. Pompeo is aware that an FTO
designation will starve Yemenis, and he is still doing it. Sign
CODEPINK’s petition to incoming Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and President-elect Biden asking them to reverse
this disastrous decision.
80% of Yemen relies on humanitarian aid. Not only will a further
rollback of aid directly harm them, it will also block the path towards
peace. Pompeo and Trump have been dedicated to
uplifting the war crimes of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
of Saudi Arabia over the last four years. On January 25th, over 200
organizations around the world, including CODEPINK, are calling on people to
participate in the World Says No to War on Yemen Global Day of Action. Find
more information and RSVP here.
The FTO designation on the Houthis has to be
reversed as soon as possible. The sooner aid can get to people in
Yemen the better. The Biden administration has already said that they will
end US support for the war in Yemen, but we need to make sure this evil
decision is reversed too. Will
you sign our petition to Blinken and Biden to
reverse the designation of the Houthis as
terrorists?
We only have a few days left until Biden’s inauguration. It’s only
because of pressure from peacemakers like you that Biden has even made
promises of peace in Yemen. Thank you for helping us hold
the incoming Biden administration accountable to their words.
PS: CODEPINK is going Beyond the War in Yemen with our
new Yemen cultural series. Come learn about beautiful Yemeni architecture on
January 21st.
|
|
The Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo announced he would be designating
the Houthis in Yemen as a terrorist organization.
Pompeo accused the Houthi
movement of destabilizing Yemen. This lack of self-awareness is really on-brand
for the Trump admin. Saudi Arabia and the UAE, along with all of their allies
(including the US), are the ones to blame for Yemen being in the state it is
currently in. Designating the Houthis as a terrorist
organization is going to have horrible humanitarian implications.
Aid has already
been cut to Yemen in the wake of the COVID pandemic. Being
designated by the US as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) means that many
humanitarian groups will no longer be able to distribute the aid that has been
keeping many Yemenis alive. Yemen, more than ever now, needs more
aid, not less. Pompeo is aware that an FTO
designation will starve Yemenis, and he is still doing it. Sign
CODEPINK’s petition to incoming Secretary of State Anthony Blinken
and President-elect Biden asking them to reverse this disastrous
decision.
80% of Yemen relies on humanitarian aid. Not only will a further rollback
of aid directly harm them, it will also block the path towards peace. Pompeo and Trump have been dedicated to uplifting the war
crimes of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi
Arabia over the last four years. On January 25th, over 200 organizations
around the world, including CODEPINK, are calling on people to participate in
the World Says No to War on Yemen Global Day of Action. Find more information
and RSVP here.
The FTO designation on the Houthis has to be
reversed as soon as possible. The sooner aid can get to people in Yemen
the better. The Biden administration has already said that they will end US
support for the war in Yemen, but we need to make sure this evil decision is
reversed too. Will
you sign our petition to Blinken and Biden to reverse
the designation of the Houthis as terrorists?
We only have a few days left until Biden’s inauguration. It’s only because
of pressure from peacemakers like you that Biden has even made promises of
peace in Yemen. Thank you for helping us hold the
incoming Biden administration accountable to their words.
Toward peace,
Danaka, Ariel, Ann, Angela, Carley, Caty, Ciara,
Cody, Emily, Jodie, Kelsey, Leila, Leonardo, Maxine, Mary, Medea,
Nancy, Paki, and Teri.
PS: CODEPINK is going Beyond the War in Yemen with our
new Yemen cultural series. Come learn about beautiful Yemeni architecture on
January 21st. RSVP
here.
+
From: c.s.
Sent: Saturday, January 16, 2021
Subject: Solidarité avec Mohamed Bakri : A ne pas rater
"Jenin Jenin",
son film (à voir avant lundi)
Solidarité avec Mohammed Bakri
La justice israélienne interdit la diffusion de "Jenin, Jenin"
et saisit
les copies du documentaire réalisé en
2002 par l'acteur et cinéaste
palestinien Mohammed Bakri (Palestinien de 48,
citoyen israélien)
Les Rencontres cinématographiques "Palestine : Filmer C'est
Exister" -
PFC'E (Genève) diffusent "Jenin, Jenin" les 15, 16 et 17
janvier et
expriment leur pleine solidarité avec Mohammed
Bakri face à la censure
et condamnation honteuse qu’un tribunal
de l’État d’apartheid d’Israël a
prononcée contre lui, en tant que cinéaste,
artiste et citoyen luttant
pour la liberté et la justice.
-> Plus d’infos et visionnement du film "Jenin,
Jenin" (appel à
contribution inclus) :
https://palestine-fce.ch/ptite-info/solidarite-avec-le-realisateur-et-acteur-mohammed-bakri/
ATTENTION :
film visible du 15 au 17 janvier.
-> Voir l'article de
l'Orient le Jour d'après l'AFP :
https://www.lorientlejour.com/article/1247882/la
===========
l.
John le Carré (1931-2020) on the Iraq War, Corporate Power, the
Exploitation of Africa & More
with Amy Goodman
(43:49)
History of the Russian Revolution: Separating Truth
from Myth
https://www.globalresearch.ca/russian-revolution-separating-truth-myth/5734305
There is a
deceitful and ahistorical myth that frequently
resurfaces in right-wing circles seeking to discredit socialism with lies
about the Russian Revolution. No matter how many times it has been invalidated
as fabrication, the reactionary mythos endures. As might be expected, the
author is referring to the preposterous claim that American capitalists — or
“Wall Street bankers” — secretly financed one of the most epochal political
revolutions in world history which overthrew the Romanov dynasty and ended the
Russian Empire, leading to the establishment of the Soviet Union. One would be
hard pressed to find anyone on the political left who has not encountered this
mendacious propaganda which has a few variations depending on how far to the
right its adherent lands on the political spectrum, but it usually shares the
same core set of evidence-free claims.
Leaving aside
whether or not the absurd premise makes any sense politically, what can be
acknowledged is that at the heart of these false assertions are tiny elements
of truth that have been distorted and overstated to the point of deception. Any
research into this allegation inevitably leads one to its most popularly cited
source, Wall Street and the Bolshevik
Revolution by British-American conservative academic, Antony C. Sutton.
+
From: Marcy Winograd, CODEPINK
Congress [mailto:info@codepink.org]
Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2021
Subject: Jan 19: Join CODEPINK Congress to End the Yemen War
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|
|
On Tuesday, January 19, at 5 PM PT/8 PM ET, in anticipation of the January
25 World Says No to War on Yemen Global Day of Action, CODEPINK
Congress will feature two Yemen experts, Dr. Aisha Jumaan
and Hassan El-Tayyab. Guests will join Medea Benjamin, the co-founder of CODEPINK; Marcy Winograd, the coordinator of CODEPINK Congress; and Hanieh Jodat Barnes, the
president of Muslim Delegates and Allies.
RSVP
for the Zoom link and add to your Google calendar!
Dr. Aisha Jumaan is a Yemeni-American epidemiologist and president of the Yemen Relief
and Reconstruction Foundation. With firsthand knowledge of conditions on the
ground, she will talk about the dire consequences of the U.S. support for the
Saudi-UAE assault on Yemen.
Hassan El-Tayyab is the lead Middle East lobbyist for the Friends Committee on National
Legislation (FCNL). He played a major role in the successful passage of the
2019 War Powers Resolution to end US military aid to the Saudi-UAE
coalition’s war in Yemen, which was vetoed by President Trump. He is
continuing his work to ensure an end to US participation in the Yemen war
under the Biden administration.
Following our guests’ presentations and Q & A, we will host our
Capitol Hill Calling Party to urge our reps to support the removal of
Trump’s designation of the Houthis in Yemen as
terrorists. Such a designation would have serious humanitarian
repercussions.
Join us in making sure that Biden keeps his promise to stop US support
for the catastrophic war on Yemen. Contact marcy@codepink
with questions and RSVP
now!
At our last
event, The Nation’s John Nichols underscored the importance of
impeaching Trump to remind future presidents that they, too, may be held
accountable, whether it be for domestic insurrection
or war and occupation. Public Citizens’ Elizabeth Beavers urged us to
weigh in with our reps and President-Elect Biden ASAP to produce a new budget
that reduces military spending. You can watch the recording here! Plus, take
action now to reverse Pompeo's designation of the Houthis as terrorists!
Onward toward peace and justice, P.S. Join
us on January 25 for the World Says No to War on Yemen Global Day of Action. Guest speakers will include Cornel West, Jeremy Corbyn,
Danny Glover, Rep. Ro Khanna, and more! Also,
CODEPINK is hiring! Check out our four
open positions!
|
===========
m.
WHO (finally)
admits PCR tests create false positives Warnings concerning high CT value of
tests are months too late…so why are they appearing now? The potential
explanation is shockingly cynical.
https://off-guardian.org/2020/12/18/who-finally-admits-pcr-tests-create-false-positives/
by Kit Knightly
+
New World
Next Week
https://www.corbettreport.com/interview-1611-new-world-next-week-with-james-evan-pilato/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CorbettReportRSS+%28The+Corbett+Report%29
with James Corbett and James Evan Pilato
(25:14)
+
Be very
worried about Biden’s “domestic terrorism” bill
https://mailchi.mp/jacobinmag.com/m4a-550838?e=997d6d360e
by Luke Savage
Joe Biden
used to brag that he practically wrote the Patriot Act, the Bush-era law that
massively increased government surveillance powers. Now he’s hoping to pass a
further “domestic terrorism” law once in office. The danger is real that the
January 6 Capitol attack will be used as an excuse to severely curtail our
civil liberties.
===========
n.
From: Global Research Newsletter [mailto:newsletter@globalresearch.ca]
Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2021
To: francis.feeley@u-grenoble3.fr
Subject: The History of US and British Support to Mussolini’s Fascism
|
+
Sent: Friday,
January 15, 2021
Subject: AFPS se joint à l'appel à Manifester pour la
défense des libertés publiques samedi 16 janvier 2021
L'Association
France Palestine Solidarité (AFPS) est engagée dans l'action pour la défense
des libertés publiques et appelle à participer aux manifestations de ce samedi
16 janvier 2021.
Depuis plus
d'un an, le gouvernement s'est engagé dans un processus visant à restreindre
les libertés publiques au motif de renforcer la sécurité. Depuis l'horrible
assassinat de Samuel Paty, le 16 Octobre 2020, ce
processus s'est accéléré, se transformant en une attaque en règle contre les
libertés qui vise, en particulier, la liberté de s'exprimer et celle de
manifester. Ces attaques contre les libertés nous concernent directement
car elles viennent renforcer les attaques dont nous sommes déjà l'objet, à
travers, principalement, la poursuite de la criminalisation des critiques de la
politique d'Israël, et la volonté du gouvernement de continuer à poursuivre
l'appel au boycott, en dépit de la condamnation de la France par la CEDH.
La loi dite
de Sécurité Globale et les décrets qui l'accompagnent permettraient, en
particulier :
* L'utilisation de drones et de caméras
portables pour la surveillance des manifestations permettant la reconnaissance faciale des
manifestants et des passants;
* Le fichage massif et élargi des
militants, politiques, syndicaux, associatifs, de leur entourage avec recueil
d'informations sur leur santé, leurs habitudes de vie, leur activité en ligne, leurs
expressions religieuses...
A ce stade il
ne s'agit pas de dresser un tableau exhaustif de dispositions qui sont
loin d'être définitives et couvrent une grande diversité de
situations mais bien de prendre conscience de la nécessité pour l'AFPS de
s'impliquer dans les luttes et contestations diverses de dispositifs réellement
liberticides.
Après que le
Conseil National des 9 et 10 Janvier en ait délibéré, le Bureau National de
l'AFPS appelle les groupes locaux à rejoindre les coordinations locales qui
organisent la lutte et tous les adhérents et adhérentes de l'AFPS à participer
aux rassemblements et manifestations qui sont organisés ce samedi 16 janvier,
dans de nombreuses villes de France.
---
Association
France Palestine Solidarité (AFPS)
21 ter Rue
Voltaire 75011 Paris
Tél. : 01 43
72 15 79
Site http://www.france-palestine.org/,
Facebook
<https://www.facebook.com/AFPS-Association-France-Palestine-Solidarit%C3%A9-124250694261509/timeline/>
Twitter
<https://twitter.com/afpsofficiel>
==============================
Appel général
et flyer Aubenas en pièce jointes :
Tous et toutes
dans la rue les 16 et 30 janvier
contre toutes les lois liberticides !
Le gouvernement
développe un arsenal répressif et autoritaire qui remet en cause les
libertés fondamentales de
toutes et tous.
Face aux
licenciements, à la croissance des inégalités, à l’explosion de la pauvreté, le
gouvernement se donne les
outils pour surveiller, réprimer et essayer de contenir la
contestation et les luttes
sociales.
Un état d’urgence
Opérationnel
depuis le 23 mars 2020 et au moins
jusqu’au 16 février 2021,
l’état d’urgence sanitaire
confie à l’Exécutif des
pouvoirs exceptionnels. Le
gouvernement en profite pour
déroger au Code
du Travail, limiter
les garanties collectives et
s’attaquer aux droits
sociaux.
Après l’état
d’urgence sécuritaire, la France aura
été, depuis 2015,
gouvernée pendant près de
trois années sous un
régime d’exception qui altère
l’état de droit et met
en péril la démocratie.
Deux lois
La loi dite de «
sécurité globale » organise la
surveillance policière de la
population et s’attaque
à la liberté
d’informer. Elle s’appuie notamment
sur le nouveau «
schéma national du maintien de
l’ordre » du ministère de
l’Intérieur et renforce les
moyens policiers de
répression des manifestants.
Cette loi est à
l’opposé des principes républicains.
Avec la loi «
confortant les principes républicains
» présentée le 9 décembre, le
gouvernement se
drape des valeurs de la
République mais
stigmatise une partie de la
population et s’en
prend à la liberté
d’association.
Trois décrets
Sous couvert de
lutte antiterroriste, trois décrets,
parus le 4 décembre au
Journal officiel, autorisent
de ficher les
personnes en fonction de leurs
opinions, de leurs
activités politiques, de leurs
convictions philosophiques et
religieuses ou de
leur appartenance syndicale.
Un amendement
Au cours du débat
parlementaire sur la loi de
programmation pluriannuelle de
la recherche
(LPPR), la
majorité parlementaire a glissé un
article qui criminalise
les luttes sociales
étudiantes en créant un
délit de trouble au bon
ordre d’une université.
Même si le Conseil
Constitutionnel a censuré sur
la forme cet
amendement, c’est par la seule
mobilisation que nous pouvons
nous y opposer
sur le fond,
Un code
Le code de justice
pénale des mineur·es (CJPM),
présenté le 1er
décembre
à l’Assemblée nationale
entrera en vigueur le 31
mars 2021. Il va à
l’encontre de l’ordonnance
de 1945 qui priorise
l’éducation sur la
répression. Il aligne la justice des
jeunes sur celle des
majeurs pour privilégier le
contrôle et la probation.
Ces remises en
cause de nos droits et libertés
publiques individuelles et
collectives construisent
un avenir où
violences sociales, répression et
violences
étatiques seront facilitées.
La somme des lois
et décrets, non démocratiques
et liberticides, qui
nous tombent dessus, sous
couvert de sécurité et de
principes républicains
sont « en même temps »
les outils pour imposer la
régression sociale attendue
par les 1% les plus
riches (casse de
l'emploi, baisse des salaires,
destruction des protections
sociales…) et
renforcer la capacité de
réprimer tout mouvement
social à venir des 99%,
qu'il soit syndical, étudiant
ou citoyen.
Des centaines de
milliers de citoyennes et
citoyens ont déjà
manifesté pour réclamer
l’abandon du projet de loi
« sécurité globale »
dans tout le pays.
Dans un contexte
de montée du chômage et de la
précarité, de démantèlement
des services publics
et de remise en
cause des droits et garanties
collectives, l’intersyndicale
et les Gilets Jaunes
maintiennent toutes leurs
revendications,
notamment l’abandon
définitif de la réforme sur la
retraite par points et
celle de l’assurance
chômage.
Un état d’urgence,
deux lois, trois décrets, un amendement, un code… un inventaire à la Prévert ?
Non, un arsenal
répressif et autoritaire !
LA RÉPUBLIQUE EST
EN DANGER :
-La LIBERTÉ est
bafouée
-L’ÉGALITÉ est
niée
-La FRATERNITÉ est
malmenée
Plus que jamais faire reculer le gouvernement est une nécessité !
Et c’est possible !
MANIFESTATION :
- LE SAMEDI 16
JANVIER à 10H à l’AGORA PLACE DU
CHAMP DE MARS à AUBENAS
-LE SAMEDI 30
janvier à AUBENAS
Ensemble, exigeons
:
- Dès maintenant,
le retrait total des propositions de loi « sécurité globale » et
celle contre les séparatismes dite loi « confortant le respect des principes de
la République»
- La fin immédiate
des états d’urgence sanitaire et sécuritaire
- L’abrogation de
toutes les lois liberticides.
- Le retour aux
droits démocratiques, sociaux, syndicaux et aux libertés de circulation, de
rassemblement et de manifestation pour toutes et tous.
