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The Politics of Language and the Language of Political Regression
James Petras
Capitalism and its defenders maintain dominance through the ‘material resources’ at their command, especially the state apparatus, and their productive, financial and commercial enterprises, as well as through the manipulation of popular consciousness via ideologues, journalists, academics and publicists who fabricate the arguments and the language to frame the issues of the day.
Today material conditions for the vast majority of working people have sharply deteriorated as the capitalist class shifts the entire burden of the crisis and the recovery of their profits onto the backs of wage and salaried classes. One of the striking aspects of this sustained and on-going roll-back of living standards is the absence of a major social upheaval so far. Greece and Spain, with over 50% unemployment among its 16-24 year olds and nearly 25% general unemployment, have experienced a dozen general strikes and numerous multi-million person national protests; but these have failed to produce any real change in regime or policies. The mass firings and painful salary, wage, pension and social services cuts continue. In other countries, like Italy, France and England, protests and discontent find expression in the electoral arena, with incumbents voted out and replaced by the traditional opposition. Yet throughout the social turmoil and profound socio-economic erosion of living and working conditions, the dominant ideology informing the movements, trade unions and political opposition is reformist: Issuing calls to defend existing social benefits, increase public spending and investments and expand the role of the state where private sector activity has failed to invest or employ. In other words, the left proposes to conserve a past when capitalism was harnessed to the welfare state.
Get Ready to Shake, Rattle and Glow -- The Worst is Yet to Come at Japan’s Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant
By Vincent L. Guarisco
It's been over a year since the most powerful 9.0 earthquake in Japan's history struck and a monstrous tsunami reached an astonishing height of 133 feet, severely damaging the Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. I published my first article about this disaster back in July, 2011. Since that fateful day on Friday, March 11, 2011, every second of every day, millions of unsuspecting people continue to be exposed to harmful amounts of radiation from three reactor meltdowns. This includes a host of fission products: Iodine, cesium, strontium, plutonium and uranium. Even as I type this essay, mass exposure is ongoing on multiple continents and, as a direct result, many healthy souls will get sick and die premature deaths. However, the worst may be forthcoming ...
Is the Occupy Movement Justified?
By Timothy V. Gatto
We all know that the economy is a mess. The public's perception of how bad the economy really is, and what is in store for us in the future, varies from one individual to another. One continuous perception that is reported on is that during the great depression, the majority view was that things would get better, that manufacturing jobs would come back, and that better times were ahead. These viewpoints are not held, according to different polls, by the American public today.
Americans have seen our manufacturing sector shipped overseas mainly to take advantage of cheap labor and also because of more liberal oversight of government regulations. Working conditions are not regulated as much, unions are either non-existent or ineffective, and the cost of doing business is much lower overseas. It is really not too difficult to see why our manufacturing base has been outsourced.
Guantanamo: Obama's Ongoing Hypocrisy in Cuba
Larry Pinkney
“For him, the oratory of the politicians who sent him off to war - the language of freedom, democracy, and justice - is now seen as the ultimate hypocrisy. A mute, thinking torso on a hospital bed, he finds a way to communicate with a kindly nurse, and when a visiting delegation of military brass comes by to pin a medal on his body, he taps out a message. He says: Take me into the workplaces, into the schools, show me to the little children and to the college students, let them see what war is like.” -Howard Zinn
“Liberty is the right of every man to be honest, to think and to speak without hypocrisy.” -Jose Marti
One of the most gruesome and yet fascinating aspects of the United States government and its current corporate double-talking figure-head, Barack Obama, is the astounding hypocrisy of polices and practices towards everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people in this nation and throughout the world. The relatively small island nation of Cuba immediately comes to mind in this regard.
Humanity's Chances Dimmed When Many Progressives Love Slave-jobs and Cheap Gasoline
by Jan Lundberg
With toxic consumerist habits and our propensity to overwork and condone society's violence, we qualify as the most inferior of species. At 7 billion, our huge numbers appear as some great success. But as we suffer from overpopulation and its many symptoms, we are not superior or very intelligent after all. Our kind of smarts is ultimately counterproductive and lethal -- to ourselves and fellow species. True, no species can even approach humans' ingenuity. But we can't do what most other species do (and they do it peacefully).
The essential problem with the dominant culture is probably that modern humans don't see themselves as equal with other species. So we "develop" (destroy) their habitat, we change the climate, and we cannot seem to halt the process to save ourselves and our fellow species. Most people might agree with this, although not to the point of really changing their behavior.
Syria and Iran in Focus
by Stephen Lendman
America's longstanding agenda targets both countries. Israel wants regional rivals removed. Washington wants independent regimes replaced by pro-Western puppet ones.
All options are considered, including war. For months, saber rattling targeted Tehran. Multiple rounds of sanctions were imposed. Stiffer ones are considered. More on Iran below.
For 15 months, Syria's been wracked by Western-generated violence. No end of conflict appears likely. Constitutional reform and democratic elections don't matter. Neither does majority pro-Assad support.
The Big Fix: documentary exposes BP, U.S. Gov't on Gulf disaster/Interview: the Tickells, filmmakers
by Jan Lundberg, oil industry analyst and eco-activist
One of the world's biggest environmental crimes has been more or less forgotten. This is part of our collective guilt as the world's ecosystem continues its accelerated collapse. But the new documentary film The Big Fix takes a detailed, daring look at what happened in the Gulf of Mexico with BP's Macondo offshore oil drilling rig. The story and facts that emerge are more than disturbing.
The movie is soon getting its major national release in theaters and on Netflix. Viewers will be made to recall the unsettling images of oil slicks, fouled fowl, suddenly unemployed fisher folk, and empty assurances by BP and the Feds.
The partially U.S.-owned British oil company has its origins in geopolitical skullduggery in Iran, explained in the film's narration and images. The history makes more convincing the subsequent telling of of the corporation's and the U.S. government's going to great pains to lie that all was being done that could be done to minimize the blowout's damage and to clean up the mess.
Israel's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Weapons
by Stephen Lendman
Israel's long known open secret is its formidable nuclear arsenal. Less is known about its chemical and biological weapons (CBW) capability. More on that below.
In 1986, Dimona nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu revealed documents showing what many long suspected. Israel had been secretly developing, producing and stockpiling nuclear weapons for years.
Experts called his information genuine. They revealed sophisticated technology able to amass a formidable nuclear arsenal. Today it's more potent than ever.
In his 1991 book titled "The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and America Foreign Policy," Seymour Hersh discussed its strategy to launch massive nuclear counterattacks in response to serious enough threats.
In his 1997 book titled "Open Secrets: Israeli Nuclear and Foreign Policies," Israel Shahak said Israel won't hesitate using nuclear or other weapons to advance its "hegemony over the entire Middle East."
Rebekah Brooks, Witness for the Prosecution
By Michael Collins
Criminal charges against Rupert Murdoch insider and favorite Rebekah Brooks may be a prelude to looming charges arising out of Brooaks' testimony before the Leveson Inquiry last week.
Crown Prosecution Services charged Brooks, her husband, and four others with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice on Tuesday May 15. The alleged conspiracy took place between July 6 and July 19, 2011.
Brooks and the co-conspirators concealed and removed materials sought by police in their investigation of phone hacking by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation subsidiary, News International, according to prosecutors. Brooks resigned as chief executive officer of the subsidiary on July 15, 2011. (Image: SnowViolent)
Brooks' current legal troubles should not obscure the significance of her testimony before the Leveson Inquiry last week. During her several hours on the witness stand, she was confronted with an explosive email that, if true, implicates Conservative Party Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt in a conspiracy to pervert the British regulatory process in favor of News Corporation's bid to acquire the ten-million-subscriber pay TV company BSkyB. News Corp owns 39% of the company. It sought the remaining 61%.
The prisoners' struggle is far from over
By Khalid Amayreh
The Egyptian-brokered deal between the apartheid terrorist state of Israel and hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners languishing in the Zionist Bastilles is certainly not the best deal one would hope for. But it was probably the best deal the powerless prisoners could reach under current circumstances.
We know the struggle is not between two equal parties as the Zionists possess nearly all the cards while the helpless prisoners have only their lives to sacrifice in the hope of forcing a callous, cruel and criminal enemy to treat them with a semblance of humanity.
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