Fidel Castro and the Castration of U.S. Latin American Policy
by James McEnteer / November 27th, 2016
When Fidel Castro died in his sleep at 90 on November 25 in Havana, American news consumers might have been forgiven for thinking he was slain in battle.
“Today, the world marks the passing of a brutal dictator who oppressed his own people for nearly six decades,” said Donald Trump, according to CNN.
“Fidel Castro’s legacy is one of firing squads, theft, unimaginable suffering, poverty and the denial of fundamental human rights. While Cuba remains a totalitarian island, it is my hope that today marks a move away from the horrors endured for too long…” Trump promised to join with the Miami …
The “war on terror” has simultaneously been a war on truth. For fifteen years—from 9/11 to Saddam Hussein’s “weapons of mass destruction” and “al Qaeda connections,” “Iranian nukes,” “Assad’s use of chemical weapons,” endless lies about Gadaffi, “Russian invasion of Ukraine”—the governments of the so-called Western democracies have found it essential to align themselves firmly with lies in order to pursue their agendas. Now these Western governments are attempting to discredit the truthtellers who challenge their lies.
Russian news services are under attack from the EU and Western presstitutes as purveyors of “fake news.” Abiding by its Washington master’s orders, …
Men do not shape destiny. Destiny produces the man for the hour.
It did; destiny shaped them all, los Barbudos, and threw them right into the center of the whirlpool of world history. As they fought for the freedom of Cuba, of Latin America and the entire oppressed world, they actually managed to defy their own words: in the end they irreversibly shaped the fate of our Planet, of the entire humanity.
Fidel stood firmly at the forefront of the struggle, from the very outset to his …
The Ural Mountains run north to south roughly from the Arctic Ocean to what is now the border between Russia and Kazakhstan, about 400 miles north of the Caspian Sea. They separate Western (or European) Russia from Russian Siberia. So they don’t define national boundaries or separate cultures; they merely divide one country. They just happen to be a rather humble, 1600 miles long mountain range, with the highest mountain just 6000 feet high. These are no Himalayas, Rockies or Andes. They’re more like the Appalachians.
While Ottawa’s position towards Fidel Castro’s Cuba was far more progressive than our southern neighbour’s, the story is more complicated than liberals are likely to suggest in their commentary over Castro’s passing.
Canada did not play a central role in U.S. efforts to squash the social reforms and independence of the island nation. Rather than participate in hundreds of CIA assassination attempts on the life of Fidel, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau declared “Viva Castro” during an official trip to Cuba in 1976. But, there’s a little-known unsavory side to Canadian relations with Cuba.
If you tremble with indignation at every injustice, then you are a comrade of mine.
— Doctor Ernesto “Che” Guevara
And now Che’s closest comrade is dead. Rest in peace, Fidel. You were one of a small handful of national leaders for which I’ve ever had a shred of respect. You survived the bullets of Batista’s army. You survived the C.I.A.’s Bay of Pigs Invasion. You survived an estimated 638 assassination attempts, and took your last breath at the age of 90. You showed the world that it is possible for a tiny band of ill-equipped rag-tag rebels to overcome the scourge of neo-colonialism, imperialism, and all …
You embodied humanity’s struggle for a free, dignified life, a life free from exploitation, a life full of love and with flowering of humane living.
You are alive in our struggle. You are alive in humanity’s struggle against all forms of exploitation, against all forms of bondage, all forms of indignity.
Your stand made you friend and comrade of all struggling parts of humanity around the world. You wrote in April 15, …
Politics can be a deliciously self-defeating field. For the US-Australian alliance, one born out of desperate insecurity on the part of Canberra, a dramatic change in the White House was always going to cause a shudder. A Clinton presidency was presumed to be inevitable and, on taking place, a no-fuss affair, one which was to continue President Barack Obama’s “pivot” towards the Asia Pacific, and against China.
This has made a satrap Australia vulnerable to the grand political designs of the United States. Caught in the cross hairs of conflict, Canberra can do its little bit to disentangle itself from the …
Fake news is not news. It’s a time-tested strategy that dates perhaps to ancient Athens. Socrates’ rival sophists were considered by Plato to be intellectual charlatans, an early edition of media deceit and dissimulation. The problem was present in colonial America as well. Listen to what Thomas Jefferson said about it:
The most effectual engines for pacifying a nation are the public papers…A despotic government always keeps a kind of standing army of news-writers who, without any regard to truth or to what should be like truth, invent and put into the papers whatever might serve the ministers. This suffices with …
Liberals, progressives, and the left-wing (to the extent that one still exists) are aligning with the corrupt oligarchy against president-elect Trump and the American people.
They are busy at work trying to generate hysteria over Trump’s “authoritarian personality and followers.” In other words, the message is: here come the fascists.
Liberals and progressives wailed and whined about “an all white male cabinet,” only to be made fools by Trump’s appointment of a black male and two women, one a minority and one a Trump critic.
The oligarchs are organizing their liberal progressive front groups to disrupt Trump’s inauguration in an effort to continue …
Editor’s Note: Dr. Wilkinson delivered this paper about Haiti to a colloquium commemorating 40 years of study of African literature at the University of Porto.
*****
Permit me to begin by saying that I am new to African literary studies. My academic training has been in the fields of political science, comparative literature, women’s studies, sociology and pedagogy. I have taught politics and history both at secondary and tertiary levels. However, most of my work has been as a translator and independent scholar. My itinerant career took me to Brazil in 1986, to Berlin in 1989, and to South Africa …
It’s Cowboy Cops Cavalry against Peaceful Indigenous Peoples and their Anglo Supporters at Standing Rock
by Dave Lindorff / November 24th, 2016
The struggle at Standing Rock, North Dakota, between the Sioux people and their supporters and the oil corporations and banks trying to run a dangerous pipeline for filthy Bakkan crude oil through their sacred lands and underneath the Missouri River was cranked up to a new level of violence Sunday and in ensuing days as National Guard troops and the Morton County Sheriff’s Department, bolstered by volunteers from various other police departments conducted an all-night attack using maximum violence, including flash-bang concussion grenades, rubber bullets, mace, teargas and three water cannons — this at a time the temperature on the …
I had a grand opportunity on what Paul Edwards calls National Genocide Day. My family was assembled to take part in a turkey give-a-way to the local poor in Watsonville, California, and as a consequence I was able to spout out a lot of what I had just learned from Censored 2017, the annual yearbook from Project Censored. The downside was that I wound up plagiarizing much of their material, but the upside is that my presentation was recorded, which has enabled me to provide you with essential information for activists to tackle our greatest challenges …
The video that shows members of Syria’s White Helmets partaking in the popular ‘Mannequin Challenge’ with an injured man, was first posted online by the Revolutionary Forces of Syria Media Office (RFS), an anti-Assad media outlet. #MannequinChallenge was in the video’s title along with ‘edge of death.’
The video was not shared on the White Helmets’ social media pages and has since been removed from RFS social media.
Fear and trepidation are slowly building up, as US President-elect, Donald Trump, is fortifying his transitional team with people capable of bringing about a nightmare scenario, not only for Americans but for the rest of the world as well.
For Palestinians, however, the signs are even more ominous. From former New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani, to Republican leader Newt Gingrich, the Trump team is filling up with dishonorable men who have made careers out of pandering to Israeli interests and unabashedly discounting Palestinian rights.
While Gingrich had claimed in 2011 that Palestinians are an ‘invented‘ people, Giuliani, according to Jewish …
On November 24 the Swedish Institute of International Affairs hosts an event with the White Helmets.
On November 25, they are to be awarded the Right Livelihood Foundation’s 2016 Award.
But below you’ll find out who the White Helmets really are.
Why does the Swedish Institute of International Affairs and the Right Livelihood foundation risk their reputation, goodwill and integrity by supporting such a dubious front organisation for less noble goals?
And will media swallow it all with no investigative efforts and make fools of themselves?
I have long wondered what the animal kingdom – mammals, reptiles, birds, fish and insects – would want to tell us humans if we and the animals had a common language?
Well, in my new Fable – Animal Envy (Seven Stories Press)– a “Human Genius” invents a digital translation application whereby animals can speak with each other across species and also speak one way to humans so they learn to listen. The response by “subhumans” was so overwhelming that the Human Genius reserved 100 hours of global TV …
US officialdom and their media megaphones have systematically concocted narratives having less to do with political reality and more with their hallucinogenic world view. Pre-election and post-election reportage weaves a tapestry of fiction and fantasy.
We will discuss the most pernicious of these remarkable foibles and fables and their predictable failures.
The pundits, prestigious editorialists and ‘economists with gravitas’, have convinced themselves that the election of Donald Trump would ‘lead to the Collapse …
Did Donald Trump win the election because he is a racist and misogynist and so are the American people?
No. That’s BS from the Oligarchs’ well-paid whores in the media, “liberal progressive” activist groups, think tanks and universities.
Did Trump win because he stole the election?
More BS. The Oligarchs controlled the voting machines. They failed to steal the election, because the people outsmarted them and told the pollsters that they were voting for Hillary. This led to the presstitutes’ propaganda that Hillary was the certain winner, and the Oligarchs believed their own propaganda and didn’t believe it necessary to make certain of …
"Canada is back" to isolating itself from world opinion on Palestinian rights
by Yves Engler / November 22nd, 2016
How can you identify a Canadian Liberal? They talk to the left, but walk to the right.
Under Justin Trudeau “Canada is back” to isolating itself from world opinion on Palestinian rights.
On Monday Canada joined the US, Israel, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Federated States of Micronesia and Palau in opposing a UN Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee resolution in support of Palestinian self determination.
Two weeks ago Ottawa joined Israel, the US, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, and Palau in opposing motions titled “Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the occupied Syrian Golan” and …
Trump, the Class Struggle, and the (Somewhat Overstated) Specter of Fascism
by Gary Leupp / November 22nd, 2016
The polarization in the country following the Trump electoral victory is not what Karl Marx called the “class struggle.” But it reflects an underlying class struggle — what Marx called the “uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight” — which is a real thing, surely, in this country and globally. This struggle between capitalists and workers has never been totally eclipsed by struggles over anything else, including those involving “culture wars” and ethnic identity.
Forget that tired assumption that Trump can’t win without the women’s vote, and the African-American vote, and the Latino vote, and the GLBTQ vote. He can win, you …
With enough information, anyone can gain knowledge. With enough knowledge and persuasion, anyone can gain power. So, with so much information available to anyone with an internet connection, why did everyone become fixated on fear-mongering, paranoia and conspiracies? Despite people gaining the ability to publish their own thoughts to millions of readers online, they have become more and more convinced of their own powerlessness under tyranny.
Although it is no bad thing that the people are more interested in the inner workings of their governments now, excessive fear cannot do any favors for anyone. In fact, a cowed people are only …
President-elect Donald Trump’s appointees get nuttier and scarier by the second. Meet Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn – the new National Security Advisor. Unlike other positions in the new administration, such as Secretary of Defense or Secretary of State, Flynn will not be vetted by the US Senate.
Even with a Republican-controlled Congress Flynn probably would have been nixed by the Senate in January, 2017. Why?
First, he’s a hyper-rabid Islamaphobe. In his recent book, Flight of Fight: How We Can Win the War Against Islam, Flynn describes ISIS as “dead set on taking us over and drinking our blood.”
When the dust settled on the November 8 election, we learned that a completely unpredictable, egomaniacal, narcissistic buffoon would inherit the White House and the vast powers that go along with it. This deeply offended many people who see Donald Trump’s racist and misogynistic rhetoric as “unpresidential.” Liberal New York Times columnist Charles Blow summed up this view: “I respect the presidency; I do not respect this president-elect.” That the president-elect should not be respected is a given. But why should we respect the presidency?
The Imperial Presidency of the United States has evolved over the last century to the …
The presidency of Donald Trump is going to be a slap in the face of American workers that will wake us up to the reality of social class. Big T’s pedal-to-the-metal policies will show us clearly that we are one class, the ruling elite are another class, and our interests are diametrically opposed. Our declining standard of living is essential for maintaining their wealth, and they will do whatever is necessary to continue that. They will jail us, deport us, kill us, anything to crush resistance.
It all has a hurried sense to it. With the offshore detention system running into troubles, the Australian government has had to find ways to get rid of the human residents it has promised never to settle in the country. This highly dubious policy, far more than anything Donald Trump could ever wish for, entrenches a further wall of imperviousness to refugee claims from those travelling by boat to Australia.
Max Chalmers provides a neat survey of the quagmire of cruelty that has unfolded over the years.
Three years after the initiation of Operation Sovereign Borders, four years after Australia recommended …
Late in the day Tuesday November 15, Congress convened in special session. With normal rules suspended, they passed House Resolution 5732 the “Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act”. The resolution calls for intensifying already harsh sanctions on Syria, assessing implementation of No Fly Zone in Syria and escalating efforts to press criminal charges against Syrian officials. HR5732 claims to promote a negotiated settlement in Syria but, as analyzed by Friends Committee for National Legislation, imposes preconditions which would actually make that more difficult.
There was 40 minutes of “debate” with six representatives (Royce, Engel, Ros-Lehtinen, Kildee, Smith, …
A little over one week following the presidential election, The Washington Post carried this headline: “The North Pole is an Insane 36 Degrees Warmer Than Normal as Winter Descends,” d/d November 17th, 2016. That headline is not tomfoolery; it is an actual, real temperature reading.
According to NovaNext, PBS, November 18th, 2016:
As the Arctic settles into polar night, scientists are noticing that something has gone horribly wrong. Sea ice levels at the North Pole are at a record low- but even more startlingly, air temperatures are 36° F (20° C) higher than normal across the region.
Reality is serving up a changing-of-the-guard in America in no small order. The fourth estate et al is left punch-drunk following the political outcome of an election that was supposed to be ‘in the bag’. Media and the ‘celebrity’ interpretation of events failed to focus a vast numbers of disposed (deplorable) people on how to act. A billion dollars spent as voice-over failed to do the trick. An election that conveniently ignored America’s very deplorable foreign policy turned out to be a class event.
It now seems that jamboree and anti-jamboree is occurring simultaneously in post-election America and that navel-gazing hubris …
After a political deadlock that has lasted for over two years, the recent election of Michel Aoun as the new president of Lebanon on October 31st 2016 has generated more questions than answers. The dramatic consequences of the Syrian conflict make for a delicate balance in this small country, where the cultures of mountain and sea are intertwined. To understand what made this new governing alliance possible, and what is at stake in the coming months, we have interviewed Ghassan Saliba, president of the Information Centre for foreign workers of the CCOO trade union of Catalonia, who is also …
