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by Stephen Lendman
In her book, "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism," Naomi Klein explores the myth of free market democracy, explaining how neoliberalism dominates the world with America its main exponent exploiting security threats, terror attacks, economic meltdowns, competing ideologies, tectonic political or economic shifts, and natural disasters to impose its will everywhere.
As a result, wars are waged, social services cut, public ones privatized, and freedom sacrificed when people are too distracted, cowed or in duress to object. Disaster capitalism is triumphant everywhere from post-Soviet Russia to post-apartheid South Africa, occupied Iraq and Afghanistan, Honduras before and after the US-instigated coup, post-tsunami Sri Lanka and Aceh, Indonesia, New Orleans post-Katrina, and now heading to Haiti full-throttle after its greatest ever catastrophe. The same scheme always repeats, exploiting people for profits, the prevailing neoliberal idea that "there is no alternative" so grab all you can.
By: Peter Chamberlin
The war for the future of the human race is more about truth –vs- lies, than it is about a physical contest between hostile adversaries. The strangest part of it all is that no one is seeking absolute vindication in this war of perceptions as either a liar or a “truth” teller. No one wants to pin down the other side for telling obvious lies. Why is that? Everybody has something to hide in the war on terror.
Dig too deeply, or expose the most dangerous lies strung together to tie-up the world in a state of permanent limited war, and the flimsy alliances and “coalitions of the willing” begin to fall apart. The utter hypocrisy of the entire “war on terror” brings to the front all the worst traits of mankind, in an endeavor that is the most stupendous fraud ever perpetuated upon the human race.
Mary Shaw
The failed attempt on Christmas Day to blow up a Northwest Airlines plane has some people calling for racial profiling. In fact, a recent USA Today/Gallup poll shows that an alarming majority of Americans support ethnic profiling. However, I contend that this is a misguided reaction that can actually be counterproductive. And the attempted Christmas bombing is no excuse for it.
First of all, what kind of profile are we supposed to be concerned about? After 9/11, people looked suspiciously at Middle-Eastern-looking individuals. But the would-be Christmas bomber was a black man from Nigeria. He and many other high-profile terror suspects have fallen short of the Middle-Eastern profile, as Bruce Schneier recently pointed out in a New York Times blog post:
By Vincent L. Guarisco
Henry Kissinger is on record calling us a bunch of "useless eaters." Is Monsanto a depopulation tool of his liking?
"When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall -- think of it, ALWAYS." ~~Mahatma Gandhi
I am a person with strong moral and ethical convictions and, as a proud parent who cares, I have read many child development books -- most of them have a couple of things in common -- they say it’s imperative to feed our kids a well-balanced diet and they strongly advise us to lovingly hug our children as often as we can. If this is true, then I’m no longer blurry about something. The mystery is revealed; Mr. Henry (kiss of death) Kissinger is a bad-ass example of "bad nutrition" and cruel "child neglect."
by Stephen Lendman
With all their woes, the last thing Haitians needed was the calamitous earthquake (the most severe in the region in over 200 years) that struck Port-au-Prince, surrounding areas, and other parts of the country on January 12 at about 5PM (2200 GMT), devastating the capital, possibly killing hundreds of thousands, injuring many more, and disrupting the lives of millions of people already overwhelmed by other crushing hardships.
An AP report said "journalists found the damage staggering even for a country long accustomed to tragedy and disaster." Many hundreds of thousands lost everything, including loved ones.
by Gilad Atzmon
The Israeli government doesn’t think twice before it orders a genocidal attack against civilians. Israeli military leaders do not think twice before they drop bombs on one of the most densely populated places on the planet. They also do not hesitate whether to use artillery shells against a UN refugee shelter. The Israeli people do not think twice before they approve en masse their army’s inhuman tactics. But for some bizarre reason, the Israelis are devastated to find out that the rest of humanity is coming to terms with their true nature. Once again it is a Turkish TV drama that exposes the Israelis for what they are. A murderous collective motivated by vengeance.
Allen L Roland
Helen Thomas ~ the Watchdog of Democracy asks why are we hated in the Muslim world ?
White House Press correspondent Helen Thomas asked the pertinent question as to the motive of terrorists which the Obama administration avoids answering ~ but the answer is obvious to the world. The so called War on terror is a War of terror and we are the principle perpetrators of this ongoing Middle East criminal action against Iraq, Afghanistan and now Pakistan:
Many are aware of America's refusal to discuss how America's preemptive illegal military actions and policies fuel terrorism throughout the Middle East and nowhere was that more evident than at a White House press conference last week with Janet Napolitano and Security advisor John Brennan. Senior White House correspondent Helen Thomas asked the prohibited " Why " question about the real motive of Terrorists, and kept asking as she received non-responses ~ until they all decided to ignore her. Here's the two minute video ~ http://ampedstatus.com/video.php
by Stephen Lendman
An October 2007 Haaretz editorial titled "Democracy or hypocrisy" contrasted the "occupying Land of Israel to the democratic Israel" in calling for a "debate about Israel's control over the lives of Palestinians deprived of civil rights," saying its democracy is flawed and not addressing it is hypocrisy.
Throughout history, regimes rhetorically embraced democracy as cover for more despotic policies, no different today throughout the world in countries like India, Pakistan, America and Israel practicing what Michael Parenti calls "democracy for the few," (the) "shadier sides of US political life (in which) proponents of the existing social order have tried to transform practically every deficiency into a strength."
I am lying on my couch, trying to read. I do that a lot these days. Trying to read. Trying to accept that this is a slow time for me, a season of healing from old wounds and more recent ones, some self-inflicted. Trying to find a place of peace in an ecology that has shunned peace.
Although the blank screen saver has darkened the computer behind me, I can still hear you within the infinite waves of Twitter ever changing the guard; ranting, cajoling, flirting, pushing out declarations of fleeting news and grim prognostication. Beyond, I listen to black tires sighing along shining black streets, in them hearing old girlfriends and lost verse, burned books and crushed revolutions.
In contrast to my wish for both solitude and new friends, I have descended to what amounts to a basement apartment - the sort that has a couple of iron-barred windows right onto the sidewalk. I peer at your rustling feet there, revealing myself to you only for the short bus ride to and trudge back from a cigarette trip to the store. Lock the door. I own pepper spray now. Perhaps I am healing; but I still feel broken. There is nothing for it but time and emotional Kevlar ...
Writing at CounterPunch, Bruce Levine asks, "Are Americans Too Broken for the Truth to Set Us Free?":
By Norm Lowry
“We are all born & someday we’ll all die…to some degree alone. What if our aloneness isn’t a tragedy? What if our aloneness is what allows us to speak the truth without being afraid? What if our aloneness is what allows us to adventure; to experience the world as a dynamic presence—as a changeable, interactive thing?” Rachel Corrie
My 2009 included investing just short of six months in the Lancaster PA (USA) County Prison; the result of a choice to speak out pointedly against the injustices fomented by my birth-country (USA) against the world's peoples, as well as her own. Having lived for most of my life, blind & deaf to the truth of such travesties, it was an honor to make such an investment. Though well aware that it would be impossible to atone for my past failures to engage against the grand lies, I am utterly committed to standing in the gap (for the balance of my life) by simply saying "NO" to all that is injustice...no matter the personal cost.
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