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)"
Monday, November 30, 2020
Sunday, November 29, 2020
Saturday, November 28, 2020
Friday, November 27, 2020
Thursday, November 26, 2020
Framing Climate Change as a “National Security Priority” Isn’t A Clever Maneuver To Get People To Care - @adamjohnsonNYC
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EXCERPT:
Even if one views these predictions as too ... cynical, the initial questions remains, but can be rephrased as an appeal for clarity among climate progressives:
- Will the Sunrise Movement, Bill McKibben, and Eric Holthaus reject any policy that provides more net money and resources to ICE and Border patrol?
- Will the Sunrise Movement, Bill McKibben and Eric Holthaus reject any policy that provides more net monies to the Pentagon? I’d love to get an answer to these two questions — sincerely. The militarization of our climate response compels clarity on these issues before it’s too late.
Tuesday, November 24, 2020
Monday, November 23, 2020
The witch hunt against Corbyn--Miko Peled & Chris Williamson Interviewed by @Richimedhurst]
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The witch hunt against Corbyn:
[INCLUDES VIDEO: "Allegations of anti-Semitism, a damning report by the EHRC and ultimately suspension: how the British political establishment, mainstream media and Zionist lobby ran a targeted smear campaign against former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and the leftist wing of the party."
[INCLUDES VIDEO: "Allegations of anti-Semitism, a damning report by the EHRC and ultimately suspension: how the British political establishment, mainstream media and Zionist lobby ran a targeted smear campaign against former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and the leftist wing of the party."
Sunday, November 22, 2020
Flint scene - Fahrenheit 11/9 (2018) | Michael Moore--OBAMA CON MAN
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Flint scene - Fahrenheit 11/9 (2018) | Michael Moore
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvlcI2TmfdI
A History of Post-WWII U.S. Imperialism with Vijay Prashad - WORT 89.9 FM
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A History of Post-WWII U.S. Imperialism with Vijay Prashad - WORT 89.9 FM
Description from WORT Radio website:
“Since 1945, the U.S. has a history of imposing conflicts on other places,” says renowned Indian historian and journalist Vijay Prashad. “I don’t like terms like Vietnam War, Iraq War—these are very ideological ways of understanding history. No, these are U.S.-imposed wars on the Vietnamese and Iraqi people.”
For today’s show, Allen reflects on the history of post-WWII U.S. imperialism with Vijay Prashad and discusses his new book, Washington Bullets: A History of the CIA, Coups, and Assassinations.
Vijay Prashad is a historian, journalist, and commentator. He is the author or editor of many books, most recently Washington Bullets: A History of the CIA, Coups, and Assassinations (LeftWord Books, 2020). He currently serves as executive director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research and chief editor of LeftWord Books.
Saturday, November 21, 2020
Thursday, November 19, 2020
"Ideology and Race in American History", by Barbara Fields via Naked Capitalism
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"Ideology and Race in American History", by Barbara Fields
Excerpt:
“One of the more far-reaching is that that favorite question of American social scientists — whether race or class ‘variables’ better explain “American reality” — is a false one. Class and race are concepts of a different order; they do not occupy the same analytical space, and thus cannot constitute explanatory alternatives to each other. At its core, class refers to a material circumstance: the inequality of human beings from the standpoint of social power. Even the rather diffuse definitions of applied social science — occupation, income, status — reflect this circumstance, though dimly. The more rigorous Marxian definition involving social relations of production reflects it directly. Of course, the objective core of class is always mediated by ideology, which is the refraction of objective reality in human consciousness. No historical account of class is complete or satisfying that omits the ideological mediations…. Race, on the other hand, is a purely ideological notion. Once ideology is stripped away, nothing remains except an abstraction which, while meaningful to a statistician, could scarcely have inspired all the mischief that race has caused during its malevolent historical career. The material circumstance upon which the concept purports to rest — the biological inequality of human beings — is spurious: there is only one human species, and the most dramatic differences of appearance can be wiped out in one act of miscegenation. The very diversity and arbitrariness of the physical rules governing racial classification prove that the physical emblems which symbolize race are not the foundation upon which race arises as a category of social thought.”
Killing for optics’? Obama claims he ‘took no joy’ in drone strikes, but ordered them to avoid looking ‘soft on terrorism’
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https://www.rt.com/usa/507180-obama-drone-strikes-book-emanuel/
Former US President Barack Obama has sparked an anti-war
backlash after saying in his new memoir he “took no joy” in ordering
deadly drone strikes, reasoning that his administration “couldn't afford
to look soft on terrorism.”
The ex-president’s new book ‘A Promised Land’ sheds some light on the Obama administration’s controversial expansion of the US drone program, which was launched under his predecessor George W. Bush.
One of Obama’s original campaign promises was for US withdrawal from middle-eastern conflicts. However, that promise was not fulfilled during his eight years in office, and the Democrat is now often accused of having further escalated violence in the region through his policies in Libya, Syria, and elsewhere.
In excerpts from the memoir published by Business Insider, Obama claims that his first chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, was “obsessed” with the administration’s infamous terrorist “kill list.” Rahm had “spent enough time in Washington to know that his new, liberal president couldn't afford to look soft on terrorism,” Obama writes.
Despite his willingness to ramp up the drone program, Obama confessed he “took no joy in any of this” and that it did not make him feel “powerful.” However, he adds that the work was “necessary” and that it was his responsibility “to make sure our operations were as effective as possible.”
However,
the liberal political icon’s anti-war critics don’t typically argue
that the drone program was ineffective, rather that it was more often
than not imprecise, killing many civilians in the process. The ‘Drone
Papers’ leak in 2015 revealed that, at least during one period, 90
percent of US drone strike victims were“not the intended targets.”
Obama infamously joked about the supposedly joyless drone strikes during a well-remembered White House Correspondents’ Dinner in 2010. The then-president jokingly threatened boyband the Jonas Brothers with assassination should they make a move on one of his daughters. “Boys, don't get any ideas,” he said, “I have two words for you: predator drones.”
It did not take long for Obama’s critics to express their outrage over the new book excerpt. He was accused of being “Machiavellian” for signing off on drone strikes “for optics.” Others were appalled by the idea that he would kill “to look tough.”
“I'm sure [his comments] makes the families of innocent civilian casualties feel better,” another person wrote.
One person quipped that he had only “pretended to be into drone assassinations” so he would “have something to talk about with the generals.”
Also on rt.com 'They don't care who gets killed': Ex-drone pilot turned whistleblower to RT
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