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The very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world. Lies will pass into history.
— George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair, 1903-1950)

Since the US-UK project on Syria is back, invoking Syria’s President as Hitler – as previously, Slobodan Milosevic, Saddam Hussein, and Colonel Gaddafi in earlier “Crusades” – it is instructive to note how the ludicrous claims mirror the strategy of Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s  Reich Minister of Propaganda.

Goebbel’s was a master of Hitler’s instruction in Mein Kampf.

If you are going to tell a lie, tell a big one and if you tell if often enough, people will begin to …

(Full article …)

First thoughts on the electoral victory of the ruling oligarchy.

Appalling victory

From a social revolutionary point of view, Merkel’s sweeping electoral success is abominable. It follows, however, a political-cultural pattern of the German middle classes whose culture dominates the broad masses and therefore also the electorate. It was all about to continue the alleged German Wirtschaftswunder (economic miracle) contrasting with the catastrophe the south is suffering of. The middle classes seek stability and want to avoid taking risk for the weaker eurozone states. But ultimately they do accept measures to prevent the euro crisis from erupting again. Further haircuts for Greece …

We support the UN veto, except when used against something we want. That seems to be Ottawa’s position towards the ability of the five permanent members of the Security Council to veto resolutions.

Recently Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Foreign Minister John Baird criticized the possibility of Russia vetoing a UN resolution authorizing military action in Syria. In an article titled “Putin shouldn’t have veto on world security” the National Post quoted Harper saying, “we are simply not prepared to accept the idea that there is a Russian veto over all of our actions.” For his part, Baird mocked the idea …

Why do disaster movies always show the culminating disastrous event happening in slow motion? Two reasons, I would say: first because otherwise the fictional cataclysm happens too quickly for cognitive processing, so there’s no real impact on the audience’s psyche. If a conventional disaster movie fails to generate rank emotion, then it has failed in its narrative function. (And that’s important chiefly because it makes its basic function – making a buck – a lot more difficult to accomplish.)

But there’s also a less opportunistic process at work: This is how life-threatening disasters can actually feel to those who experience them: …

How many people can look back on their lives and say they have done something significant for the betterment of society? Oftentimes selfless and noble actions of individuals go unrecognized. There are always those who act quietly behind the scenes at crucial turning points in history. Such a person is Sarah Harrison.

After Edward Snowden came forward as the source behind the release of the NSA classified documents and the Obama Administration’s aggressive international manhunt began, Harrison, a 31 year old British native emerged on the world stage as the mysterious woman who accompanied this high profile whistleblower in his quest …

It’s an old joke, but it bears repeating: An Oxford professor meets a former student on the street. He asks what he’s been up to lately. The student tells him he’s working on a doctoral thesis about the survival of the class system in the United States. The professor expresses surprise. “I didn’t think there was a class system in the United States,” he says. “Nobody does,” the student replies. “That’s how it survives.”

The widening chasm between the middle-class and the rich, coupled with the on-going, systematic assault on organized labor, isn’t simply the result of bad luck. …

Once again Conservative ideology has trumped what’s right.

Prominent Toronto filmmaker/professor John Greyson and London, Ontario, physician/professor Tarek Loubani have been locked up in an Egyptian jail for nearly 40 days. After a prosecutor recently extended their detention by 15 days, these two courageous individuals launched a hunger strike demanding their release or to at least be allowed two hours a day in the fenced-in prison yard.

Some 140,000 people, including filmmakers Ben Affleck, Danny Glover, and Atom Egoyan, have called on Egypt’s military rulers to release the two men. Despite this outpouring of support, the Conservatives have done as little to …

Athol Fugard, the South African playwright, on a recent visit to America, noted that the great – as yet unwritten – dramatic American epic would be one that dealt with the conflict of black people within the context of our history. Most of us would agree with that, and probably most novelists, dramatists and film makers would endorse the idea; in fact, the TV series Roots may have been a pretty good start.

Alternately, the cataclysmic clash between North and South would be a likely candidate, moving beyond Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation, …

In a recent article on Counterpunch, Rob Urie defended the traditional Marxist analysis of US policy in the Middle East. He argues that support for Israel is driven primarily by economic interest, not the Jewish lobby.

He starts by paying tribute to the idea that Western societies are uniquely racist. He says that the “Western narrative” claims there is an “Arab character”, and that this is “antique racist blather”. He gives no definition of these terms. Further, he establishes his credentials as part of the dominant current in the American left by claiming that “over a million people in Iraq …

There are three prominent issues in the news in which the far left and hard core Tea Party activists on the Right agree on policy, but for usually very different reasons: Common Core Standards, ‘Obamacare’, and Syria. Only the far left and the far right are speaking out against major policy issues whereas either mainstream America, or the political establishment in DC, take the supportive side.

The Common Core Standards are an attempt to bring ‘rigor’ (as in rigor mortis) and high standards to our public educational system to make our school children ready for the 21st Century global market. Not …

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is the nation’s second largest civilian employer after WalMart. Although successfully self-funded throughout its long history, it is currently struggling to stay afloat. This is not, as sometimes asserted, because it has been made obsolete by the Internet. In fact, the post office has gotten more business from Internet orders than it has lost to electronic email. What has pushed the USPS into insolvency is an oppressive 2006 congressional mandate that it pre-fund health care for its workers 75 years into the future. No other entity, public or private, has the burden of funding multiple …

Let’s call this adjunct worker looking for work, Chip. You know him or her – chip off the old block. He or she is looking for work, err, well, it’s a calling, teaching, and no one ever said you should get paid for a calling. A passion? “You pay, dude, like a hobby. Remote control planes, my thing, and, well, teaching is your thing . . . your calling. So pay, dude? Give us a break — no one said life was fair.”  He or she is past 40, could be mid-fifties, or even closer to hip replacement or amputation …

The blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip by the Israeli occupation in addition of the closure of the Rafah Crossing and the tunnels by Egyptian Authorities have affected negatively the life of the Gazans in many aspects as follows:

Health Sector:

– Due to fuel shortage, several medical operations and services had stopped since the Ministry of Health needs more than 250,000 liters of fuel monthly to operate generators at the hospitals and other medical facilities. Also there is severe shortage of medicine and medical disposables entered to the Gaza Strip from Egypt.
– The amount of stored medicine has decreased to 30%. …

Statement:

Thank you for reaching out to me in regards to statements made by Dale Gavlak ((Statement by Dale Gavlak on the Mint Press Article “Syrians in Ghouta Claim Saudi-Supplied Rebels behind Chemical Attack“:

Mint Press News incorrectly used my byline for an article it published on August 29, 2013 alleging chemical weapons usage by Syrian rebels. Despite my repeated requests, made directly and through legal counsel, they have not been willing to issue a retraction stating that I was not the author. Yahya Ababneh is the sole reporter and author of the Mint Press News piece. To date, …

The year was 2001. George W. Bush was president. The party for the rich that was the 1990s was nearing its end but nobody wanted to acknowledge it. War was on the horizon and all hell was about to break loose. The Twin Towers fell in September of that year and we were told that our world was forever changed. Thomas Pynchon’s latest novel is called Bleeding Edge and it’s about the internet, black ops, and the last (dare we hope the final) stage of capitalism. The city is a part of the story, but the real …