State Department Flak Reveals Key Pillar of Saudi Arabia's Dictatorship: U.S. Silence | Alternet

Lots of good little facts about Saudi Arabia and the US in this brief article written on the occasion of Trumps photo op and pledge of support in that country.  Trumps policy is bad but not different than Hillary, Democrats nor most administrations going back 38 years to the arming of the Taliban in Afghanistan.  Essentially we have been in league in the creation of armed Jihadist groups ever since. Aljazeera has created a US-Saudi relations: A timeline document for further reading.  Big time weapons sales that facilitate the Saudi's horrific and illegal war in Yeman not only arm the Saudis but supply the illicit back channel pipeline that feed all side of the conflict in the middle east. A Stockholm study in February shows once again the US is the top arms purveyor in the world. Yes I think silence if a rational policy when you are this guilty.  Watch the starkly obvious video clip embedded in the link below if you are unclear about how difficult it is for our state department to explain our relationship with Saudi Arabia.



State Department Flak Reveals Key Pillar of Saudi Arabia's Dictatorship: U.S. Silence | Alternet:

Author Jefferson Morley is a bad pundit that is sometime no so bad.


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What's the big deal on education

Michael Moore's video on Finland's schools
Thank you to Salley Denman sharing this

Trump: Totalitarian or Authoritarian?

This is an excellent article about mass movements of the type that is now led by Trump that disdain everything but "his tribe" and hate all other political parties, movements and people.  This article is an analysis of Kathleen Jone's writing (and others) and is deeply rooted in Hannah Arendt's work yet very up to date.

 President Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Louisville, Ky., March 20, 2017. Trump is facing two lawsuits stemming from a 2016 event in Louisville: one filed by a black woman who was pushed toward the exit, and another by the white nationalist who tried to remove her. (Al Drago/The New York Times)

Speaking of the 1930's European "masses"drawn to fascism:

 She quoted Arendt's comment that these masses "remained unequivocally hostile to all existing political bodies. [Their] general mood was far more rebellious and [their] leaders were far more adept at revolutionary rhetoric."
    Jones explained that although the goals of the masses were vague and subject to frequent change, they consistently identified a conspiracy of enemies -- foreigners, especially Jews -- who they viewed as having fractured the social fabric of "the nation," and embraced an ideology of "enlarged tribal consciousness" and a movement to achieve its inchoate goals.
    According to Arendt, a vaguely defined ideology and a loose movement was "quite enough in a time which preferred a key to history to political action, when men in the midst of communal disintegration and social atomization wanted to belong at any price [emphasis added]."

The concept of the democratic party reaching Trump voters in this context (usually by moving to the right) is thus an suicidal mission.  Stopping the outward expressions of fascism and hate at town halls, public squares, schools, police forces and the halls of government that feeds the hate lust that builds the movement  is however absolutely necessary.  Deep and broad efforts to build a movement that addresses the root causes of "communal disintegration and social atomization" and the attendant political and economic disenfranchisement should be our principle goal. Just days after the stabbing murder of two Portland men defending a Muslim woman on a train by a white supremist. The regional GOP chair came out with this incredible and dangerous example of doublespeak suggesting that his "tribe's" right to to free speech is the victim and may need the protection of security provided by right wing militias at future rallies. This is indeed frightening and illustrates how everything and everybody outside their movements box is the enemy.

We of course have been sliding toward authoritarianism for many years (my first thoughts of leaving this country before it became a police state began ironically in 1984 -- it's why I now live in the North Bay on the left coast.)  I do not think this is going to stop. I have little faith in the American left and less in media. The established political group think and the mainstream media's obsession with  disparaging Trump while providing a 24/7 stage does nothing but move it forward.

 If I were to predict -- rather a very ugly collapse is in store for us before this is over.  Cheer up life is wonderful despite this insanity and reading quality writing such as this journalism gives me hope.  Speak truth to power.

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/40743-trump-totalitarian-or-authoritarian

The US Is Waging a Massive Shadow War in Africa, Exclusive Documents Reveal

Nick Turse has succeeded in scaring the shit out of me.  Destabilization of the African continent is certain to accelerate as if it needed help.  This policy will insure war forevermore as if the mid east is not enough. This article include the full text of war plan.



FOCUS: The US Is Waging a Massive Shadow War in Africa, Exclusive Documents Reveal:

See You at the Barricades! Three Books That Revive the Memory of the Paris Commune

A little history for you.

"For socialists and communists of over a century, the Paris Commune was a defining event. From March 18 to May 28 in 1871, following the collapse of the French Republic and the Prussian siege of the capital, the Communards swore to defend Paris until they were overwhelmed by the French army itself. Karl Marx himself called the temporary self-government of the population the "dictatorship of the proletariat."
It will come as a surprise to many Irish enthusiasts, in the aftermath of the global centenary commemorations of the Easter Rising of 1916, that martyred socialist leader James Connolly carefully studied the urban warfare of the Paris Communards before launching the blow that unseated British confidence in their future rule of Ireland. For Connolly's generation, the temporary triumph and lessons of the Paris Commune of 1870 and 1871 were close in time and thought."

See You at the Barricades! Three Books That Revive the Memory of the Paris Commune:



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Why is Trump rewarding Saudi war crimes with more weapons? | TheHill

Maybe it's Trump maybe not so much. $110 billion in weapons sound like a very big deal and it is.  But, funny how there is always a back story left out for convenience.  Just last September Obama pledged 115 billion in weapons and then they bombed a funeral and things got difficult to justify.   So in the end he also denied them 40 million in weapon at that time (a drop in the bucket) and slowed down the weapons pipeline.  So Trump's offer isn't news.  It isn't even bigger.  It's really just a continuation of US policy.  But you can't see that context here can you?


Full article:  Why is Trump rewarding Saudi war crimes with more weapons? | TheHill:

It is hard for me to jump on this bandwagon that suggest that Trump is sending the wrong message. I believe that the Saudis together with the US are two poles of an evil empire and should be shunned by the international community and perhaps bank accounts frozen and all that....it is that bad.  The US has been complicit the whole way of course and will never give up this relationship.  If Saudi funding of the attack on the World Trade Center didn't do it, go figure what the hell could.

Trump’s Ongoing Assault on the ‘Administrative State’

Read this with more than a grain of salt.  The article is true enough but only at one level -- the defense of the administrative state as necessary to protect people in general and government employees specifically in this article and to deliver service to the public.  Trump and Republicans in general have no interest in people as other than profit centers to pillage including your grandmother's bank account.  They call  it the Nanny State This social structure might actually be obnoxious if it were really true.  But, the truth is there are two administrative states just as there are two sets of laws -- one for people and one for for the rich including big business and the bigger and more powerful the business the more rules to protect them and benefits that accrue.

I offer the following side bar to help readers understand this public discourse over the James Corney firing within a broad, holistic and progressive framework:

Approach with caution when asked to defend and support the administrative state in the name of an agency such as the EPA or the FBI. See Richard Heinberg's article "Goodbye Administrative State, Hello Community Resilience" for a very good discussion of why a titanic shift in law and administration of energy and finance for starters, is absolutely needed.  I would add education, housing and health care to this mix. 

Trump’s Ongoing Assault on the ‘Administrative State’ | Alternet:

Your Addiction to Social Media Is No Accident - VICE

"Today, most of us reach for Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter with one vague thought in mind: Maybe someone liked my stuff. And it's this craving for validation, experienced by billions around the globe, that's currently pushing platform engagement in ways that in 2009 were unimaginable. But more than that, it's driving profits to levels that were previously impossible.
"The attention economy" is a relatively new term. It describes the supply and demand of a person's attention, which is the commodity traded on the internet. The business model is simple: The more attention a platform can pull, the more effective its advertising space becomes, allowing it to charge advertisers more."

 

Your Addiction to Social Media Is No Accident - VICE: 

Who’s Exploiting Whom?

This article provides a great context for the discussion of reparations as we see the rise of the proposition on the right that it is the victims -- immigrants from the exploited countries that "Owe" the western countries because they steal jobs and commit crimes.

"Not only does Trump claim that developing nations are taking advantage of the United States, but he has also asked for “reparations,” of various sorts. Largely phrasing his requests as repayments of historical debts, Trump has argued that Mexico should pay for a border wall and briefly claimed that South Korea (no longer a developing nation, to be sure) must pay for a new missile defense system the United States already promised to install.
But, surprisingly, many leading intellectuals from the very countries Trump has singled out wouldn’t necessarily disagree with him about how zero-sum interactions have shaped world history. Rather, they would contend that he is simply wrong about who’s exploiting whom. According to their logic, Western nations like the United States and the United Kingdom have historically enriched themselves on exploitative zero-sum transactions and thus now is not the time for them to retrench; it’s time for the West to repent—and, possibly, repay."

It's an audacious, big, bold and  brilliant lie and it looks like it's working.  This article from New America reviews  "Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India"  Another book of note in the article is "Sweet Talk: Paternalism and Collective Action in North-South Trade Relations" by J.P Singh.  These both seem very worth study.

Original article here -- Who’s Exploiting Whom?:



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France's Presidential Election Has Re-Ignited an Identity Crisis

A very tepid article but points to the obvious -- The reality is that Macron is simply a stepping stone to Le Pen. The following statement from the article will prove to be impossible to accomplish as his supporters by definition voted "against" Le Pen

"Macron now must do the hard work of satisfying his base ... while reaching out to Le Pen’s supporters throughout the country"

Sound like something the Democratic party will try to do to pull Trump supporters.. all so we will not have a progressive in office.

France's Presidential Election Has Re-Ignited an Identity Crisis:



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In the Wake of the Comey Firing, Don't Forget the Violence of the FBI Itself

Finally a reasonable response to this FBI smoke and mirrors business.  Yeah like we should run to the defense of our friends at the Agency!  It is true however that the FBI has been best friend to the Neo Liberal government that has run rough shod over this country for so many years -- my entire adult like.  The Democratic establishment and the press are the ones that are now  crying foul in our name The FBI is our governments secret police (one of more than a few now.) They are more than likely singularly responsible for why we have never been able to get a decent Progressive government. In this way they facilitated the Democratic party's move to right without any possibility of punishment by the people.



In the Wake of the Comey Firing, Don't Forget the Violence of the FBI Itself:

Breaking news 6-8-17 -- Comey's back and in testimony reported in the Washington Post "Former FBI director James B. Comey on Thursday essentially laid out an obstruction of justice case against President Trump" Wow that's sweet! Obstruction is certainly one of the FBI's talents so he ought to know.

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SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER

A little more history for you.  This is from the original American Friends study done post WWII SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER:  It contains 7 small chapters.

American Friend Service Commitee logo

Also their site offers a deeper understanding of opportunities to be involved in the sancuary movement from the originators of the very idea. Peace be with you friend.