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https://youtu.be/4FTFB9GDfls
IMPORTANT: PLEASE WATCH! The root of the problem is the corporatist oligarchy. Not many paid attention under Obama, but his policies are just being transparently applied under Trump.
SIRATYST (Stuff I Read and Thought You Should Too) -- “To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace.” (Calgacus, as quoted by Tacitus, Agricola 30-31)"
Sunday, January 29, 2017
Tuesday, January 24, 2017
"Trump's Inaugural Speech Calls for American Jihad"--@therealnews
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https://youtu.be/YJKmwQ9NAE4
GOOD DISCUSSION OF THE GEOPOLITICS OF TRUMP'S ECONOMIC PLANS. AT MIN. 17, A DISCUSSION OF THE EFFECT OF OIL ON TRUMP AND HIS BACKERS AND THEIR PLANS TO SQUEEZE THE LAST DROP OF MONEY OUT OF THEIR OIL HOLDINGS.
https://youtu.be/YJKmwQ9NAE4
GOOD DISCUSSION OF THE GEOPOLITICS OF TRUMP'S ECONOMIC PLANS. AT MIN. 17, A DISCUSSION OF THE EFFECT OF OIL ON TRUMP AND HIS BACKERS AND THEIR PLANS TO SQUEEZE THE LAST DROP OF MONEY OUT OF THEIR OIL HOLDINGS.
Monday, January 23, 2017
Saturday, January 21, 2017
Just Dumping Trump Is Not Enough; We Need to Dump Capitalism
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The system needs changing, not just the CEO of the plutocracy every 4 years. While Trump deserves every honest criticism that can be leveled at him, are the Democrats really any better? Some examples:
Are Democrats the Party of Peace?
In 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. called the United States government "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today."* Last year, our Nobel Peace Prize winning president authorized the dropping of 26,000 bombs (though the U.S. is not technically at war) and has also bragged about being “really good at killing people” with drones.] http://www.progressive.org/news/2013/11/185325/obama-brags-hes-really-good-killing-people
Are Democrats the Friend of the Working People?
“...In March 2009 [after economic meltdown], Obama met with Wall Street leaders. He proclaimed: I stand between you and the pitchforks. I am on your side and I will protect you.** … And not one Wall Street criminal executive went to jail…’” Cornel West in Paul Street’s “Farewell Obummer, Hello Golden Showers”]
Are Democrats Against Racism?
The Dept of Justice has refused to prosecute police in 96% of civil rights cases from 1995 to 2015 (bi-partisan but not changed by Dems) http://thefreethoughtproject.com/cops-civil-rights-prosecutions/#Fy8e7Bvz0T93WAm0.99 Obama has become the Deporter-in-Chief, deporting 414,481 people in fiscal year 2014 alone, some of whom died as a result. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/12/obama-immigration-deportations-central-america
Are Democrats Environmentalists?
As Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton traveled all over the world promoting fracking. “As of July 2014, Oil Change International estimates United States fossil fuel subsidies at $37.5 billion annually, including $21 billion in production and exploration subsidies.” http://priceofoil.org/fossil-fuel-subsidies/ More Dem environmental fails found here: “Stop Groveling! How to Thwart Trump and Save the World” by Carol Dansereau
Do Democrats Support Women’s Rights?
Have they stopped the Hyde Amendment from being renewed every year since 1976? It limits access of poor women to federal funds for abortions and thus stops them from controlling their own reproduction, a basic human right. http://billmoyers.com/content/five-facts-you-should-know-about-the-hyde-amendment/
Are Democrats Really Alarmed About Billionaire Trump?
“...[in 2009] Obama spoke to some of his rich friends at an event called The Wall Street Journal CEO Council. ‘When you go to other countries, the political divisions are so much more stark and wider. Here in America, the difference between Democrats and Republicans – we’re fighting inside the 40-yard lines… I’m talking about lowering the corporate tax rate. My health care reform is based on the private marketplace.’” http://billmoyers.com/story/takes-ruling-class-village-staff-white-house/ **[all emphasis added]
All this fake “Dem-ocracy” brought us Trump. As socialists, we want to build an independent movement based on real democratic control of our lives and resources. Are you interested? https://standupseattle2.blogspot.com/
*”Mocking, Marching, Stopping the Hate and Dumping Trump Are Not Enough” Bruce Dixon
Kill Capitalism before it Kills Us StandUpSeattle.Org
Thursday, January 19, 2017
"Obama’s Bombing Legacy"--Nicholas J.S. Davies
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Original document: http://www.mintpressnews.com/obamas-bombing-legacy/224220/
EXCERPT:
The targets of these covert and proxy wars are not just guerrilla fighters or “terrorists” but also the “infrastructure” or “civilian support mechanism” that supports guerrillas with food and supplies, and the entire shadow government and civil society in areas that resist domination.
Original document: http://www.mintpressnews.com/obamas-bombing-legacy/224220/
EXCERPT:
The targets of these covert and proxy wars are not just guerrilla fighters or “terrorists” but also the “infrastructure” or “civilian support mechanism” that supports guerrillas with food and supplies, and the entire shadow government and civil society in areas that resist domination.
As a U.S. officer in Iraq explained to Newsweek in 2005, “The Sunni population is paying no price for the support it is giving the terrorists. From their point of view, it is cost-free. We have to change that equation.”
In previous decades, the victims of similar operations in Central America included the grandfather of a young lady I met in Cotzal in Guatemala – he was beheaded by an Army death squad for giving food to the Guerrilla Army of the Poor. The Catholic Church has now named Father Stanley Rother from Oklahoma, who was killed by a Guatemalan Army death squad in Santiago Atitlan in 1981, as a martyr and candidate for sainthood.
BLOODY IRAQ
In Iraq, the targets of such operations have included hundreds of academics and other professionals and community leaders. Just last week, U.S. air strikes targeted and killed three senior professors and their families in their homes at Mosul University. The victims included Dr. Mohamad Tybee Al-Layla (Ph.D. Texas), the highly respected former Dean of the College of Engineering.
In 2004, after the assassination of Dr. Abdul-Latif Ali Al-Mayah in Baghdad, a senior police officer explained who killed him and why to British journalist Stephen Grey: “Dr. Abdul-Latif was becoming more and more popular because he spoke for people on the street here. … You can look no further than the Governing Council. They are politicians that are backed by the Americans and who arrived to Iraq from exile with a list of their enemies. I’ve seen these lists. They are killing people one by one.”
As Obama’s murderous proxy wars in Iraq and Syria have spun further out of control, U.S. special operations forces and U.S.-trained death squads on the ground have increasingly been backed up by U.S. and allied air forces. Four years ago, as Obama was inaugurated for a second term, I wrote that the U.S. and its allies dropped 20,000 bombs and missiles in his first term. In his second term, they have dropped four times that number, bringing the total for Obama’s presidency to over 100,000 bombs and missiles striking seven countries, surpassing the 70,000 unleashed on five countries by George W. Bush.
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| WHY I SAY IT IS NOT ENOUGH TO DUMP TRUMP! |
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
Obama Vs Trump - Is Personality More Important Than Principle? Russell Brand The Trews (E390)
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https://youtu.be/s8gXiy1z7mM
I got mad at Russell when he was mucking about in the elections in Britain awhile back. But I think he's got this about right. For the 99%, it may be hard to tell the difference between January 20 and January 21.
https://youtu.be/s8gXiy1z7mM
I got mad at Russell when he was mucking about in the elections in Britain awhile back. But I think he's got this about right. For the 99%, it may be hard to tell the difference between January 20 and January 21.
OBAMA DENIES CLEMENCY FOR LEONARD PELTIER. Coward Obama.
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Brothers, sisters, friends and supporters:
Our hearts are heavy today. President Obama has denied Leonard’s application for a commutation. His name appears on the January 18 list of commutations denied by Obama as issued by the Office of the Pardon Attorney. Leonard's attorney Martin Garbus was also notified. (Pardon Attorney's Letter)
Today, in an email, Leonard said, "If I should not [receive clemency] then after we are locked in for the day I will have a good cry and then pick myself up and get myself ready for another round of battles until I cannot fight [any] more. So, don’t worry. I can handle anything after over 40 years.”
It’s hard to bear such a blow, though. And make no mistake -- Leonard has been hit hardest of all. But let’s not mourn so very long. Instead, let’s move ever forward. Channel your grief and anger in a positive way. Remember that Leonard still needs our help. He needs quality health care and a transfer to a medium security facility, among other things. We’ll always work towards freedom for Leonard, but these actions may help to make his life more bearable until freedom is won.
Now, we urge you to write to Leonard and help to keep his spirits up. Tell him you won’t give up, that you’ll walk the rest of the way with him. Send cards and letters to:
Leonard Peltier #89637-132
USP Coleman I
PO Box 1033
Coleman, FL 33521
USP Coleman I
PO Box 1033
Coleman, FL 33521
Thank you for your hard work and determination. Blessings to all of you.
Please stay tuned.
In solidarity,
International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
Tuesday, January 17, 2017
Monday, January 16, 2017
Saturday, January 14, 2017
"Ethics Fiasco: Trump, Divestment and the Perversion of Executive Politics" -- Anthony DiMaggio
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WHOLE ARTICLE:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/01/13/ethics-fiasco-trump-divestment-and-the-perversion-of-executive-politics/
EXCERPT (emphasis mine):
WHOLE ARTICLE:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/01/13/ethics-fiasco-trump-divestment-and-the-perversion-of-executive-politics/
EXCERPT (emphasis mine):
Contrary to [Sen. Charles] Schumer’s divestment narrative, it’s important to identify how the entire political sy (emphasis stem has been captured by wealthy interests. It may be the case that corporate lobbyists fail most of the time in securing benefits from Congress. But when changes to the law do occur, wealthy Americans and business lobbies are much more likely to get what they want than the average American or citizen’s groups. Why is this so? Political scientist Nicholas Carnes provides a simple explanation in White Collar Government: The Hidden Role of Class in Economic Policymaking. Carnes empirically documents how more affluent political officials are consistently more likely to support pro-business, conservative economic policies, as compared to (the few) working-class Americans who have historically served in Congress. The point here is simple: beyond the concern with campaign donations, government itself is captured by plutocratic actors who now run Congress directly. Government is not “controlled” by corporate America. Government is corporate America. Most members of Congress are millionaires, and their numbers have grown significantly in recent decades. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the median net worth of U.S. lawmakers reached $1 million in 2013, 18 times that of the average household.
The Schumer position on corruption in politics misses a key point. Most officials are socialized to embrace elitist, upper-class values, because they are part of the upper class. The famous sociologist G. William Domhoff spent years documenting how being socialized through elitist social, economic, and interpersonal networks allows for the perpetuation of the American upper class. Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci was right to focus on how the hegemonic power of socialization drives the indoctrination process. Socialization in favor of elite interests is absolutely vital to perpetuating plutocracy.
The Marxian position that economics determines consciousness, while seemingly crude, does explain how elite values perpetuate themselves. When coupled with elitist forms of socialization, one’s economic class (in this case being affluent) works to reinforce elitist ideologies that seek to enhance corporate power over politics. This hegemonic process isn’t recognized, however, in simplistic discussions of campaign donations “buying” officials, or for that matter by those naively claiming that divesting one’s financial assets guarantees they will act as honest brokers of policy change.
In a rare admission of how deep the rabbit hole really goes, the New York Times reports the insight of Sierra Club director Lena Moffitt, who speaks derisively of the notion that divestment will cure the Trump administration of their elitist policies. Taking aim at Rex Tillerson, Trump’s State Department nominee, Moffitt explained: “It is impossible for this man to remove his career, and frankly his personality, from the oil and gas industry. He has been knee deep in this industry for more than four decades.” Such is the way of things when political institutions are captured by business elites.
Correcting the perversions endemic in American politics requires more than disclosure and divestment from Trump and his nominees. Even “getting money out of politics” is unlikely to cure the problem of business dominance of government. Rather, Americans must take the initiative and purge the political system of the bi-partisan, wealthy officialdom who currently dominate Congress, the courts, and the White House. This project will require tremendous effort and a decades-long fight to roll back capture of government.
John Dewey was right say that “politics is the shadow cast on society by big business.” To fight the plutocracy requires a cultural, economic, and political revolution in the way people think about politics. Government must be transformed from an upper-class outfit into one dominated by the working class. The only way to do this is to remove the rot, from root to branch.
Thursday, January 12, 2017
#LongLiveAlAraqeeb #LongLivePalestine
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Israeli occupation forces destroyed Al Araqeeb village in occupied Naqab for the 108th time #Ethniccleansing #Palestine
Wednesday, January 11, 2017
As the Democrats Press for War, the Left Must Demand Peace and Social Transformation -- Glen Ford @BlkAgendaReport
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ORIGINAL AT: http://www.blackagendareport.com/left_must_demand_peace_transformation
by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
The Democrats are whipping up war hysteria and “cynically seeking to harness people’s well-founded fears of Trump’s domestic policies in order to sabotage the possibility of a relaxation of international tensions.” Some folks have taken the bait. “Leftists that think they can exploit the split between the Trump troglodytes (fascists) and the Obama/Clinton/Old Line GOP War Party (fascists) will ultimately wind up caught in a pincer between the two.”
As the Democrats Press for War, the Left Must Demand Peace and Social Transformation
by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
“The Left’s job is to oppose the warmongers, not band with them.”
As is ordained by law, at the end of the week much of President Obama’s legacy will become Donald Trump’s powers, including the power to detain Americans indefinitely (forever) without trial or charge [3], an authority the First Black President secured from Congress in 2011. Obama’s wars become Trump’s wars, which, if Trump follows Obama’s example -- and if he succumbs to the furious pressures of leading Democrats, old line Republicans and an openly aggressive and “politicized” national security establishment -- will be expanded and multiplied. The most imminent threats to human survival under a Trump presidency flow, not from the billionaire’s own belligerent instincts and unpredictability, but from the momentum of Obama’s policies of ever-escalating confrontation with Russia and China -- his deliberate “pivots” towards brinksmanship on all the geopolitical fronts of Empire.
“U.S. policy is to militarily intimidate the world into submission -- a gangster’s game.”
It is the Democrats that have whipped up war hysteria and a new McCarthyism, attacking Trump from the Right to force him to keep Obama’s imperial “surge” moving forward. With western economic power fading fast, U.S. policy is to militarily intimidate the world into submission -- a gangster’s game. For the Lords of Capital and their national security servants, Obama’s greatest achievement was to put the U.S. back on the offensive after George Bush’s defeat and humiliation in Iraq. From their perspective, Obama has already “Made America Great Again” with his “humanitarian” military intervention doctrine, trampling every principle of international law, including the sovereignty of nations, in Libya and Syria. Trump’s talk of “deal-making” with Russia and China threatens to slow the imperial offensive.
The ruling class realignment that congealed in the Clinton campaign’s Big Tent sees any relaxation of U.S. military pressures against Beijing and Moscow as a prelude to imperial collapse. For them, de-escalation is an existential threat. They don’t give a damn about the damage Donald Trump intends to inflict on what remains of the U.S. social safety net -- and neither did Obama, who came into office scheming to forge a Grand Austerity Bargain [4] with the Republicans. And, if his preventive detention bill were not enough, Obama’s support for creation of a “Ministry of Truth” -- officially, a joint governmental commission to police the media for “foreign disinformation and manipulation [5]” -- screams out to high heaven that protection of civil liberties is not part of their agenda, either. Internet publications like Black Agenda Report, cited by the Washington Post as “fake news” and “minions” of Russia, will be punished for deviance from imperial “exceptionalism” and aggressive war policies.
“Trump’s talk of ‘deal-making’ with Russia and China threatens to slow the imperial offensive.”
This is all about war. The Democrats, massed corporate media and the fully mobilized legions of spooks and disinformation specialists are cynically seeking to harness people’s well-founded fears of Trump’s domestic policies in order to sabotage the possibility of a relaxation of international tensions. Leftists that think they can exploit the split between the Trump troglodytes (fascists) and the Obama/Clinton/Old Line GOP War Party (fascists) will ultimately wind up caught in a pincer between the two.
The ruling class is, indeed, in an acute political crisis, to match its larger, systemic crisis. The duopoly system that has served the rich so well for most of the history of the Republic has come undone, split at the seams, endangering the corporate-imposed national “consensus” on empire and war. The War Party, deploying every disinformation trick in the book, foments anti-Russian hysteria to create a mass base for its imperial agenda. They point fingers at phantom “minions” of Moscow in order to make leftists into political foot soldiers of the Pentagon, Langley and the military industrial complex. MoveOn.org moves to their beat, as does the entire Congressional Black Caucus, including Barbara Lee [6] (D-CA), the nation’s most left-leaning congressperson. Fine; they are duty-bound to go down with the Bad Ship Hillary. But the social movement activists that allow themselves to be swept up in the Democrats’ offensive-from-the-Right against Trump are the biggest dupes of all.
“They point fingers at phantom ‘minions’ of Moscow in order to make leftists into political foot soldiers of the Pentagon, Langley and the military industrial complex.”
The Democrats are incapable of agitating for anything more than defense of Barack Obama’s “legacy” -- chiefly, his doomed Affordable Care Act, which was already disintegrating from its own contradictions and whose final demise will create an acute crisis that cries out for single payer health insurance, the outcome Obamacare was designed to forestall. The Left should be making that demand right now, rather than helping Democrats join with Republicans to patch together an even worse private-based system, down the road.
The precariat economy that is emerging from Obama’s post-Meltdown restructuring, in which 94 percent [7] of the new “jobs” are so contingent, inadequate and insecure they can hardly be called jobs at all, demands a National Minimum Income – a potentially transformative leap that the Left should be loudly championing, right now.
Five years after Occupy Wall Street, the Left should finally call for the nationalization -- not fragmentation -- of the big banks, and creation of a public development bank to rebuild the national infrastructure without going into debt to private capital. Anybody that doubts masses of people will join in this demand doesn’t know their fellow Americans and their deep hatred for Wall Street banks.
“The social movement activists that allow themselves to be swept up in the Democrats’ offensive-from-the-Right against Trump are the biggest dupes of all.”
Ferguson set the new Black movement on a course of confrontation with the Mass Black Incarceration State, in all its manifestations. Obama’s legacy -- and that of the Black misleadership class that has collaborated with mass Black incarceration for two generations – is to intensify intelligence gathering in Black communities, while dispersing Black population concentrations through gentrification. Trump or no Trump, there is no avoiding the logic of the movement’s central grassroots demand: Black community control of the police. Non-Blacks on the Left must support that demand.
There is no such thing as a genuine Left that supports imperialism, but there are plenty of fakers that do, including phony socialists. How sad -- and maddening, at the same time -- that a Donald Trump can speak of “cutting down” on “regime change,” while purported leftists rally to Obama’s “humanitarian” military interventionism, the lip-stick on the imperial pig. The Democrats want war so badly, they are fouling their bourgeois institutional nest and bearing down hard from the Right to prevent any let-up in tensions with Russia and China. The Left’s job is to oppose the warmongers, not to band with them.
There is no mystery to what the moment demands. What’s needed is Left movements for social transformation, not a farcical, Democrat-led anti-Trump pseudo-movement, whose real agenda is war.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com [8].
Monday, January 09, 2017
Former FBI Agent Asks Obama to Free Native American Activist Leonard Peltier #FreeLeonardPeltier [CALL WHITE HOUSE EVERY DAY!]
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MEDIA ADVISORY
January 09, 2017
Contact: Peter Clark, Co-Director, International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, (505) 217-3612 or contact@whoisleonardpeltier.info
January 09, 2017
Contact: Peter Clark, Co-Director, International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, (505) 217-3612 or contact@whoisleonardpeltier.info
Former FBI agent asks Obama to free Native American activist Leonard Peltier
In a letter dated January 3, former agent and charter member of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Agents Association (FBIAA) John C. “Jack” Ryan wrote to President Obama to request a grant of clemency to Native American activist Leonard Peltier. Leonard Peltier should receive clemency, Ryan said, “…in the interest of the system of justice for which my two fellow agents died, and in the interest of reconciliation and compassion.”
In 1977, Peltier was sentenced to two consecutive life terms for the shooting deaths of FBI agents Jack Coler and Ron Williams on the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota.
“… the circumstances surrounding the case in combination with the passage of 4 decades of time served support [Peltier’s] request to live his final years at home… When Agents Coler and Williams lost their lives it was a devastating loss to us agents. Emotion ruled the decision-making process and likely clouded the judgment of the massive team of whom were driven to hold someone responsible for our loss,” Ryan wrote. “If the government could do it all over again, it would respond differently. Through today’s lens, Leonard Peltier was not treated fairly and did not get a fair trial.”
In 2000, Congressman Don Edwards (also a former agent) stated: “The FBI continues to deny its improper conduct on Pine Ridge during the 1970s and in the trial of Leonard Peltier. The FBI used Mr. Peltier as a scapegoat and they continue to do so today. At every step of the way, FBI agents and leadership have opposed any admission of wrongdoing by the government, and they have sought to misrepresent and politicize the meaning of clemency for Leonard Peltier. The killing of FBI agents at Pine Ridge was reprehensible, but the government now admits that it cannot prove that Mr. Peltier killed the agents.”
Edwards’ words ring true today. Last week, the FBIAA succeeded in pressuring American University to remove a statue of Peltier that was exhibited there, and when former U.S. Attorney James Reynolds’ letter to the President to request that he grant clemency to Peltier was publicized, some sought to discredit Reynolds stating that he falsely claimed involvement with the Peltier case.
“The FBI's perpetual demonization of Leonard Peltier is an effort to poison public opinion and avoid self-reflection. Mr. Peltier's clemency petition is not a referendum on federal law enforcement; it presents a moral imperative which President Obama can address,” said Peltier attorney Cynthia Dunne, herself a former federal prosecutor. “By reckoning with the past and moving forward in the best interests of justice, reconciliation and compassion, we can become a stronger nation. It is time to free Leonard Peltier.”
Currently imprisoned in a maximum-security facility in Coleman, Florida, Peltier is far away from his reservation in North Dakota. Maintaining strong family ties has been difficult. He has never even met some of his grandchildren or great-grandchildren. In December, Peltier’s younger son passed away while in Washington, DC, advocating for his father’s release. Prison authorities refused to allow Peltier to attend his son’s funeral.
At 72 years, Peltier suffers from serious medical problems that impair his ability to walk, see, and conduct normal life activities. He suffers from severe diabetes, hypertension and a heart condition, and has been diagnosed with an abdominal aortic aneurysm. Recently, he was told he needs prostate surgery.
Imprisoned for 41 years, Peltier has long been eligible for release, but federal authorities have yielded to the objections of the FBI in denying Peltier’s applications for parole—most recently in 2009 when he was told he will not receive another full parole hearing until 2024 when, if he survives, he will have reached nearly the age of 80 years. Peltier says he’s eligible for mandatory release, but the government has failed to apply its 30 -year rule (after 30 years served, all sentences are to be aggregated and the prisoner released) or consider the good-time credit he has earned (20 years, to date).
Peltier's release from prison now depends on a grant of clemency by President Obama who leaves office on January 20.
Sunday, January 08, 2017
Friday, January 06, 2017
Thursday, January 05, 2017
Sunday, January 01, 2017
"Aleppo, Mosul, and the US Strategy of Permanent War" - Sabah Alnasseri & Sharmini Peries on The Real News
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https://youtu.be/i-nWn41pfNM
This video explains what the U.S. has been doing in the Middle East. It is 20 minutes and is well worth watching. PERMANENT WAR--it works for the U.S. gov't (just not the rest of us).
https://youtu.be/i-nWn41pfNM
This video explains what the U.S. has been doing in the Middle East. It is 20 minutes and is well worth watching. PERMANENT WAR--it works for the U.S. gov't (just not the rest of us).
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