by ancient patriot

The Capitalists are Not Providing Services

You can't get around some simple facts - unless you're a capitalist. The citizens factually need to provide for themselves through taxation. Our state officials are obligated to distribute products and "services" equitably throughout society, and especially encourage individual moral growth. The citizens more or less get the products and services previously paid for through taxes and there are no conflicts of interest. Social welfare is maintained and the people are satisfied. This standard political system is probably as old as time. Unfortunately, power is customarily abused in this world. Today, our capitalists' tax laws have all but extinguished the common sense of these noble political practices - and created monsters, living at the expense of all others.

History repeats itself… it is later than it seems.

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by Stephen Lendman

On October 2, 2009, Legal Times writer Jeff Jeffrey headlined, "Lanny Davis Leaves Orrick for McDermott Will & Emery," saying:

Former Clinton White House special counsel "left Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe to join McDermott Will & Emery's regulatory and government strategies practice." At Orrick, he "led a rather unusual practice that included litigation....related media strategies, (and) advis(ing) clients on crisis management."

In fact, he then and now he lobbies for despots and predatory corporate clients.

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by Stephen Lendman

Numerous previous articles explained Israel's hardline anti-democratic agenda, several accessed through the following links:

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/10/israeli-knessets-anti-democratic-agenda.html

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/11/lurching-toward-gomorrah-growing.html

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/12/israels-sham-democracy.html

Now the latest. On January 5, Israel's Knesset, by a 47 - 16 vote, approved forming a parliamentary committee to investigate leftist Israeli organizations. Among them, B'Tselem issuing a same day press release headlined, "B'Tselem proud of its activities and completely transparent. The Knesset's decision is what harms Israel's international status," adding:

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By Angola 3 News

In 1993, the maximum security Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio was the site of an historic prisoner rebellion, where more than 400 prisoners seized and controlled a major area of the prison for eleven days. Nine prisoners alleged to have been informants and one hostage correctional officer named Robert Vallandingham, were murdered. Following a negotiated surrender, five key figures in the rebellion were tried and sentenced to death. Known since as the Lucasville Five, they are Namir Abdul Mateen (James Were), Siddique Abdullah Hasan (Carlos Sanders), Bomani Hando Shakur (Keith Lamar), George Skatzes and Jason Robb.

The Lucasville Five are now back in the news with an announcement last week that four of the five will be participating in a simultaneous “rolling hunger strike,” beginning today, January 3. They are using the hunger strike to protest their convictions (having always maintained their innocence) as well as their living situation, which is more restrictive than for most prisoners on Ohio’s death row. The statement issued by the Lucasville Uprising Freedom Network explains that “the hunger strike will proceed in an organized manner, with one prisoner, probably Bomani Shakur starting on Jan.3. The hunger strike becomes official after he has refused 9 meals. Therefore the plan is that 3 days later, Siddiquie Abdullah Hasan will start his hunger strike and 3 days later, Jason Robb will follow. Namir Mateen has a great willingness to participate and plans to take part to the extent that his diabetes will allow.”

Staughton Lynd is the author of the 2004 book, Lucasville: The Untold Story of a Prison Uprising, which asserts that the Lucasville Five are innocent men, who were framed by the State of Ohio. In a review of Lucasville, the news website, Solidarity, concludes that “Lynd presents sufficient evidence and argumentation to cast more than reasonable doubt on the convictions of the Lucasville Five.” The book’s “immediate agenda is to mobilize public opinion to achieve amnesty for the Lucasville Five. In the 1970s, the governor of New York was compelled to grant amnesty to the Attica rebels based upon revelations of state malfeasance. Lynd contends the Lucasville Five’s death sentences should be wiped clean on the same grounds.”

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By Mickey Z.

For a while in 2001-2, I worked the night shift at a midtown Manhattan corporate gym (cue the shame and self-loathing) at which I met several interesting characters.

One evening, for example, I was wearing a Yankees t-shirt with the name "Justice" emblazoned on the back (for former Yank David Justice), when a woman named Mary—perhaps in her late 60s—asked me if I were a Yankee fan. I told her I was...but my real reason for wearing the shirt was all about the word "justice." She smiled and declared that justice was a "noble idea."

This was shortly after 9/11, so I braced myself for the inevitable "we need to show those towel heads some justice." Instead, Mary told me—albeit in a very low voice—she was going to Washington soon to march against the impending invasion of Iraq.

After this confession, Mary looked genuinely nervous. Had she gone too far in the alleged land of the free? I just smiled and said in my best underground resistance voice: "Don't worry, I'm with you."

Mary and I proceeded to talk in depth each time she'd come to workout. The company eventually phased out the gym and let me go but just before so, I saw Mary and complimented her on how hard she was training.

She leaned close to me and whispered: "When the revolution comes, I'll be ready."

Which brings me to a good question for 2011: Are you ready for the revolution?

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Larry Pinkney

“Never be deceived that the rich will allow you to vote away their wealth.” -Lucy Parsons

“If those in charge of our society - politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television - can dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power. They will not need soldiers patrolling the streets. We will control ourselves.” -Howard Zinn

Have we allowed ourselves to become psychological androids - putty and/or expendable cannon fodder - in the hands of the corporate / military elite of this nation and its subservient corporate-stream media?

The word android is defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as “a mobile robot usually with a human form.” Yet, beyond the mere physical aspect of what an android is - is the all powerful psychological component - on the part of who is actually in “control” of the android. When humans cease to be in control of their own ideas and creative processes we are in essence relegated to psychological androids. As the late political organizer Steve Biko noted: “The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.”

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by Jan Lundberg

Please join me in greeting the fall of the U.S. Empire, a healthy way to begin this new year. It is a positive sentiment among some thoughtful Americans. Their ungiddy feeling flows from observation of world developments and the state of the U.S. political system and economy. The timetable is fuzzy, but trends are clear. It's not pretty, but there is a thin silver lining.

These days are for many of us the winter of our discontent. Weird and dangerous weather on the rise, persistent fossil-fuel dominance, never-ending wars, unraveling of the social fabric, looming shortages of food and water, and lack of money for basic needs aren't just some unpatriotic ravings of those who want to put America down. Rather, the growing uncertainty of our survival, individually and for our families, has everyone's skull in a vice tightened by unseen or unknown hands. Those hands are actually of our own making: our dominant culture has been building up to a colossal, spectacular, global failure.

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Jeff Gates

Since 1913, debt has been the only way that we in the U.S. have known to create money. Choking on debt yet short on money, Americans are reeling from too much monetary theory and too little commonsense.

Those who sold us the theory also ensured recurring recessions. Each debt-induced cycle features rich-get-richer booms followed by debilitating busts. We designed our way into this mess. We can design our way out.

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by Stephen Lendman

An earlier article compared the 1950s to today, saying:

It was a different time, good and bad. Elected in 1952, Eisenhower was still president. Unemployment was low. Anyone wanting work found it. Most years the economy grew during a post-WW II expansion. Inflation was low. The average new car cost $1,500, a typical home under $10,000. College was affordable. Harvard's 1952 full year tuition was $600. Four years later it was $1,000 - for a full, two-semester year. During the period, anyone could attend evenings at $5 a course and get a Harvard degree for about $175, astonishing but true.

America was unchallenged economically, its manufacturing base offering high paying/good benefits jobs. Union representation was high. Southern and northern US cities were segregated. They still are, all 1960s civil rights gains lost plus most good jobs and benefits. Alaska and Hawaii additions grew America to 50 states.

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By Khalid Amayreh

Egyptians protesting sale of gas to Israel

Some Israeli officials have voiced surprise at revelations published by Wikileaks showing that the Egyptian military continues to view the apartheid Israeli regime as the primary strategic threat facing Egypt.

This is despite the passage of more than 30 years since the signing of the Camp David peace treaty between the two states in 1979.

According to the revelations, American diplomats have been frustrated as the Egyptian army continued to retain the erstwhile military doctrine which viewed Israel as the enemy.

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