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“If a man has an apartment stacked to the ceiling with newspapers we call him crazy. If a woman has a trailer house full of cats we call her nuts. But when people pathologically hoard so much cash that they impoverish the entire nation, we put them on the cover of Fortune magazine and pretend that they are role models.”
-– B. Lester
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 | The News: Free speech for feminists only, please |
 From: Abram Spritzler
I posted a leaflet recently, today in fact, that went like this. Boy, did I get some comments about it...
Men's Rights
Are
Human Rights.
Across the world, governments - not the people -
are making laws that discriminate against men and boys.
Men and women are being pitted against each other in order to weaken us all as part of a divide and rule strategy being carried out by Big Money and the governments that Big Money bought.
*************
To hear about what is going on,
as well as let YOUR voice be heard,
contact Abe at mhrmboston@gmail.com
Wouldn't you know it, one was defaced and a couple torn down. The one that was defaced had two comments on it, with different pens, though possibly the same group, of course. One went like this: ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Thursday, April 11 @ 21:23:30 EDT (169 reads)
(Read More... | 7644 bytes more | Comments? | The News | Score: 0)
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| Business/Economy: How Deregulation Has Resurrected American Economic Insecurity |
By Dr. Paul Craig Roberts
We might not be in a Great Depression, but economic insecurity has nevertheless returned to America.
John N. Gray, a distinguished intellect and retired professor of intellectual history at the London School of Economics, disagrees with the view that “the end of history” has placed humanity on a course of ethical and economic progress. History, Gray believes, is not progressing to a higher stage. Instead, humanity is repeating the same follies and is destined to endure the same disasters. It is the Enclosures, the Repeal of the Corn Laws, and the Poor Law Act of 1834 all over again.
The problem is humans themselves. They are not questioning beings. “Human beings use the power of scientific knowledge to assert and defend the values and goals they already have.” Instead of ethics and politics having advanced with the growth of knowledge, we are experiencing today state terror and murder on unprecedented scale as Washington kills people with drones and invasions in seven countries and threatens others. The US claims to be the democratic “light unto the world,” the “indispensable nation,” but it has resurrected in violation of its own law and international law the torture dungeons of the unaccountable governments of medieval Europe.
Few people see the disconnect between the propaganda about the goodness of America and the evil that its government practices. Torture was banned. Its practice was made the act of a war criminal government. But the Bush and Obama regimes have resurrected torture as a defense of the state against citizens who reveal its crimes and against those who resist its aggression. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Monday, March 11 @ 19:56:57 EDT (186 reads)
(Read More... | 11805 bytes more | Comments? | Business/Economy | Score: 0)
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| Politics: Big Can Be Beautiful |
Smart government is better than small government.
By Donald Kaul
I have a question: If this is the greatest country in the world, why do we keep acting so dumb?
I suppose the sequestration of the federal budget isn’t as dumb as deliberately going over the fiscal cliff, but it’s plenty dumb. Just as the economy was showing signs of climbing out of the hole it’s been in for four years, along come the Republicans to stomp on its fingers.
The best you can say is that it won’t be as quick a demise as a trip over the cliff — it’s more like waterboarding. Some people will hardly notice it at first — the exceptions being the poor, the young, the sick, and furloughed government workers — but it will eventually send unemployment back up and tax revenue down.
And, curiously enough, it will do virtually nothing to address our long-term budget deficit. And that’s what all of this brouhaha is supposed to be about. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Wednesday, March 06 @ 19:47:31 EST (156 reads)
(Read More... | 4717 bytes more | Comments? | Politics | Score: 0)
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| Politics: The Anti-Empire Report #113 Feburary 2013 |
By William Blum
American Foreign Policy – Have our war lovers learned anything?
Over the past four decades, of all the reasons people over a certain age have given for their becoming radicalized against US foreign policy, the Vietnam War has easily been the one most often cited. And I myself am the best example of this that you could find. I sometimes think that if the war lovers who run the United States had known of this in advance they might have had serious second thoughts about starting that great historical folly and war crime.
At other times, however, I have the thought that our dear war lovers have had 40 years to take this lesson to heart, and during this time what did they do? They did Salvador and Nicaragua, and Angola and Grenada. They did Panama and Yugoslavia, and Afghanistan and Iraq. And in 2012 American President Barack Obama saw fit to declare that the Vietnam War was “one of the most extraordinary stories of bravery and integrity in the annals of military history”. [1]
So, have they learned nothing? When it comes to following international law, is the United States like a failed state? The Somalia of international law? Well, if they were perfectly frank, the war lovers would insist that the purpose of all these interventions, and many others like them, was to keep the atheists out of power – the non-believers in America’s god-given right to rule the world – or to at least make life as difficult as possible for them. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Saturday, February 09 @ 21:35:49 EST (232 reads)
(Read More... | 14090 bytes more | Comments? | Politics | Score: 0)
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| Politics: The Anti-Empire Report - January 2013 |
by William Blum
Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?
"France no longer recognizes its children," lamented Guillaume Roquette in an editorial in the Figaro weekly magazine in Paris. "How can the country of Victor Hugo, secularism and family reunions produce jihadists capable of attacking a kosher grocery store?" [1]
I ask: How can the country of Henry David Thoreau, separation of church and state, and family Thanksgiving dinners produce American super-nationalists capable of firing missiles into Muslim family reunions in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia?
Does America recognize its children? Indeed, it honors them. Constantly.
A French state prosecutor stated that "A network of French Islamists behind a grenade attack on a kosher market outside Paris last month also planned to join jihadists fighting in Syria." [2]
We can add these worthies to the many other jihadists coming from all over to fight in Syria for regime change, waving al-Qaeda flags ("There is no god but God"), carrying out suicide attacks, exploding car bombs, and singling out Christians for extermination (for not supporting the overthrow of the secular Syrian government.) These folks are not the first ones you would think of as allies in a struggle for the proverbial freedom and democracy. Yet America's children are on the same side, with the same goal of overthrowing Syrian president Bashir Assad.
So how do America's leaders explain and justify this? ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Tuesday, January 08 @ 18:41:14 EST (264 reads)
(Read More... | 14976 bytes more | Comments? | Politics | Score: 0)
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| Truth To Power: Children Dying |
From: Norman Emmons
To the Editor,
Listening to the President speaking sadly about the 20 children killed at Newtown Conn. has made his usual hypocrisy dreadful beyond belief.As horrifying as the Newtown mass murder of small children is, how come Obama's heart does not grieve for the children around the world whose deaths, he, as Commander in Chief of the United States, has been responsible for, in numbers far exceeding the number 20.
Bombs. bullets, missiles, depleted uranium, starvation due to sanctions, lack of medical care, contaminated water,land mines, cluster bombs, white phosphorus and now, drones, to name only some of the ways the US kills children every day...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Thursday, December 27 @ 19:37:43 EST (138 reads)
(Read More... | 1442 bytes more | Comments? | Truth To Power | Score: 0)
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| War News: Our Endless State of War |
As long as it's fought by other people on someone else's soil, Americans can live with perpetual conflict.
By William A. Collins
When will wartime
Ever end?
Always seems
Around the bend.
Combat's different today than when your grandfather earned his medals. Armies no longer advance and retreat along battle lines. Tanks no longer maneuver. Fleets don't engage. We're past all that.
The United States already dominates most parts of the world that don't belong to other major nations. Domination, however, doesn't mean we're in full control. And many citizens of those places insist on misbehaving.
This misbehavior takes various forms: shooting at our soldiers, burning our property, attacking our surrogates, and other hostile acts. Washington responds to these disturbances with our troops, drones, mercenaries, and Special Forces. And we keep building still more military bases, because having 1,000 of them overseas is apparently not enough. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Monday, November 26 @ 19:52:45 EST (229 reads)
(Read More... | 5305 bytes more | Comments? | War News | Score: 0)
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| Truth To Power: An Open Letter to President Obama …from Michael Moore |
Monday, November 19th, 2012
Dear President Obama:
Good luck on your journeys overseas this week, and congratulations on decisively winning your second term as our president! The first time you won four years ago, most of us couldn't contain our joy and found ourselves literally in tears over your victory.
This time, it was more like breathing a huge sigh of relief. But, like the smooth guy you are, you scored the highest percentage of the vote of any Democrat since Lyndon Johnson, and you racked up the most votes for a Democratic president in the history of the United States (the only one to receive more votes than you was ... you, in '08!). You are the first Democrat to get more than 50% of the vote twice in a row since Franklin D. Roosevelt.
This was truly another historic election and I would like to take a few minutes of your time to respectfully ask that your second term not resemble your first term.
It's not that you didn't get anything done. You got A LOT done. But there are some very huge issues that have been left unresolved and, dammit, we need you to get some fight in you. Wall Street and the uber-rich have been conducting a bloody class war for over 30 years and it's about time they were stopped.
I know it is not in your nature to be aggressive or confrontational. But, please, Barack – DO NOT listen to the pundits who are telling you to make the "grand compromise" or move to the "center" (FYI – you're already there). Your fellow citizens have spoken and we have rejected the crazed ideology of this Republican Party and we insist that you forcefully proceed in bringing about profound change that will improve the lives of the 99%. We're done hoping. We want real change. And, if we can't get it in the second term of a great and good man like you, then really – what's the use? Why are we even bothering? Yes, we're that discouraged and disenchanted. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Monday, November 19 @ 17:01:13 EST (239 reads)
(Read More... | 9749 bytes more | Comments? | Truth To Power | Score: 5)
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| Holidays: Veterans' Day Mourning |
"...My community service has been doing the duty that the courts shrink from - calling attention to war crimes and trying to stop war crimes..." Elliott Adams.
From: Rosemarie Jackowski
It is Veterans' Day again. Some will celebrate. Some will march in parades. Some will rally around the flag. Some will go shopping. Some will mourn. I am among the mourners.
I mourn the execution of Pvt Eddie Slovik - the gentle soldier who was too gentle to kill. He refused to fight. On January 31, 1945, the US executed him before a firing squad. He was the only soldier executed during WW2.
There are some other veterans who have earned our respect. Pfc Bradley Manning is a hero. He has not been convicted of any crime. His contribution to humanity will go down in history along with Thoreau and so many others. Through his imprisonment, Manning has exposed the dark side of the US Justice system. How long should any prisoner be held without trial? That is the question that Manning has exposed for all the world to see. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Sunday, November 11 @ 11:07:09 EST (220 reads)
(Read More... | 6993 bytes more | 1 comment | Holidays | Score: 0)
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| Politics: Letter to a Non-Voter ... |
From: Michael Moore
To my friend who is not voting on Tuesday:
I get it – and I don't blame you. You're fed up and you could care less whether Tweedledee or Tweedledumber wins on Tuesday – because on Wednesday, your life will be the same, unchanged, regardless who is president. Your mortgage will still be underwater. You will still owe $50,000 on your student loan. Your son will still be in Afghanistan. Your daughter will still be working two jobs to make ends meet. And gas will still be at $4.
Four years ago you gave in and voted – and you voted for Obama. You wanted to believe he would go after the Wall Street crooks who crashed the economy – but instead the banks that were "too big to fail" four years ago are now even bigger and more dangerous. You thought there'd be universal health care – but the new law only went so far (with most of it not taking effect until 2014). You were tired of war and homeland security measures that violated our civil liberties – but we're still in Afghanistan, we're sending in drones to Pakistan and basic constitutional rights to privacy and a fair trial have been ignored. And you thought you'd have a middle-class, good-paying job like your dad had – but you didn't know that Goldman Sachs was Obama's #1 private campaign donor in 2008, and well, he was beholden to corporate America in more ways we cared to think about.
So, I get it why you've had it with all these politicians and elections. In the end, it doesn't really seem to be our country any more. It's run by those who can buy the most politicians to do their bidding. Our schools are made a low priority and women are still having to fight for just the basic human rights we thought they already had. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Monday, November 05 @ 06:53:46 EST (249 reads)
(Read More... | 4278 bytes more | Comments? | Politics | Score: 0)
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| Politics: The Conscience of a Voter |
by Rosemarie Jackowski
When Fascism came, it was not brought by uniformed troops.
It was not imposed at the point of a gun.
Fascism came because citizens were too distracted to pay attention.
Voters were too misinformed to cast intelligent ballots.
And the mass of people failed to recognize the inherent danger in the censoring of speech and the banning of books.
The moral implications of voting are too important to ignore. It is a matter of life and death - correction, it is a matter of life and murder. The hand that controls the lever in the voting booth can be just as dangerous as the hand which controls a gun - even more so. A person with a gun in a movie theater can kill a limited number. The voter has the power to kill thousands - simply by voting for the wrong candidate. Pulling the lever in the voting booth has even greater moral implications than pulling the trigger of a gun.
The big issue is uninformed voting, and that old myth: "It doesn't matter who you vote for. Just vote". Nothing could be further from the truth. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Monday, September 10 @ 17:42:25 EDT (240 reads)
(Read More... | 10208 bytes more | Comments? | Politics | Score: 0)
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| Occupy: Occupy Wall Street Paved the Way |
When will the really huge crowds come out to the streets?
By William A. Collins
Super-rich
Don't hear our woes;
They attend,
To cars and clothes.
The Occupy movement seems somewhat subdued these days. That's largely because the 1 percent is ready for them. Consider how Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel prepared for the May NATO conference in the Windy City, which drew countless Occupy protesters: He outfitted his troops with new laws, new military equipment, and new surveillance gear — and authorized them to make old-fashioned trumped-up arrests.
And while Occupy Wall Street and other branches of this new movement have brought attention to our nation's rampant inequality, where do you go next to address the concentration of extreme wealth in the hands of too few individuals? It's shattered both our economy and our democracy. But there's no congressional committee in charge of that. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Tuesday, August 14 @ 19:37:50 EDT (231 reads)
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| Politics: More on ‘Vanity of Perfectionism’ |
By Robert Parry
My recent article, “The Vanity of Perfectionism,” has stirred up some anger, in part, because of my choice of the word “vanity” to describe some behavior that I have witnessed on the American Left in people who sit out presidential elections or cast ballots for third-party candidates who have no chance of winning.
So, let me explain what I was driving at. The central point of the article was that Americans, especially on the Left, need to get realistic about elections and stop using them as opportunities to express disappointment, anger or even personal morality. Through elections, Americans are the only ones who can select our national leaders, albeit in a limited fashion.
The rest of the world’s people have no say in who’s going to run the most powerful nation on earth. Only we can, at least to the extent permitted in the age of Citizens United. The main thing we can still do is stop the more dangerous major-party candidate from gaining control of the executive powers of the United States, including the commander-in-chief authority and the nuclear codes, not small things. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Saturday, August 04 @ 18:40:58 EDT (180 reads)
(Read More... | 8012 bytes more | Comments? | Politics | Score: 0)
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| Science News: Tomato Tampering |
Scientists have figured out a way to genetically engineer the flavor back into industrial tomatoes that taste no better than their shipping cartons.
By Jim Hightower
Some people are too smart for their own good.
Food geneticists, for example. These technicians have the smarts to tinker with the inner workings of Momma Nature's own good foods — but not the smarts to leave well enough alone.
During the past half-century, their productive tinkering devolved into outright tampering with our food, mostly to serve big agribusiness corporations that wanted nature's design altered in ways that would fatten their bottom lines. Never mind that the products created by these smart people were no good. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Monday, July 23 @ 20:28:16 EDT (808 reads)
(Read More... | 2884 bytes more | Comments? | Science News | Score: 0)
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| Business/Economy: Economic Rapture Might Be around the Corner |
If the deficit disappears, our economic nightmare might finally come to an end.
By Salvatore Babones
It's January 25, 2001, the first week of the Bush presidency and more than half a year before the September 11 attacks. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan testifies before the Senate Budget Committee, asserting:
"If current policies remain in place, the total unified surplus will reach $800 billion in fiscal year 2011. The emerging key fiscal policy need is to address the implications of maintaining surpluses."
As the poet William Wordsworth put it, "Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive!"
The 2011 fiscal year ended with a $1.3-trillion deficit. How did America go from a state of "burgeoning federal surpluses" (in Greenspan's words in 2001) to "extraordinary financial crisis" (the way he put it in 2010) in just one decade? Two words suffice: tax cuts. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Monday, July 16 @ 19:42:54 EDT (954 reads)
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| Old Articles | |
| Friday, April 27 | | · | This Economy Stinks Worse than You Think |
| Wednesday, April 25 | | · | William Shakespeare and the New World Order: |
| Tuesday, April 17 | | · | The Poor as Collateral Damage |
| Monday, April 16 | | · | Thinking of the Letters, the Years |
| Friday, April 06 | | · | The Anti-Empire Report, April 2012 |
| Thursday, March 29 | | · | Nature of Self-Defeating Convictions |
| Wednesday, March 14 | | · | War, Occupation, and Massacre |
| Thursday, February 23 | | · | Why Teaching People to Think for Themselves Is Repugnant |
| Wednesday, February 08 | | · | Is America A Police State? |
| Thursday, February 02 | | · | Humanize or Euthanize |
| Wednesday, December 21 | | · | We Should Buy More White Flags |
| Friday, December 16 | | · | The Way To Occupy A Bank Is To Own One |
| Tuesday, December 06 | | · | Fundraising Addiction and the Private-Money Corruption Machine |
| Monday, November 28 | | · | A Main Street Jobs Agenda |
| Friday, November 18 | | · | Luck Matters |
| Monday, November 14 | | · | Occupy Bashing...Were You There? |
| Friday, November 11 | | · | On Second Thought |
| Thursday, November 10 | | · | Open Letter to the Occupy Movement |
| Friday, October 21 | | · | Some Unsolicited Advice to the Democratic Party: |
| Monday, October 17 | | · | What I've Learned Occupying Wall Street and DC |
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