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“Fast Track” Violates the U.S. Constitution
This Is What Happens To Truth-Tellers in America
Isn't it about time you figured out what your country is doing to you and your grandchildren?
After all, it's only self defense.
The National Endowment for Democracy was established in 1983. The official purpose is to promote democracy abroad. The real purpose was to create dissension in Soviet Eastern Europe. Today the NED uses our tax money to overthrow governments not aligned with Washington.
The NED funds non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in countries targeted by Washington for political destabilization. These NGOs operate under such rubrics as “teaching democracy” and “human rights.” The NGOs develop cadres consisting of idealistic students and disgruntled politicians and set them against the existing government whose independence Washington wishes to curtail.
The idealistic students are simply dupes, and the disgruntled politicians simply desire power in office and will serve Washington in order to get it.
According to Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, Washington spent $5 billion in Ukraine grooming politicians and creating NGOs as Washington’s Fifth Columns. When Ukraine’s president Viktor Yanukovich refused to align Ukraine with Washington’s interests, Washington unleashed its Fifth Columns, and Yanukovich’s government was overthrown with violence. Despite Washington’s talk about democracy, the fact that Yanukovich’s government was democratically elected and a new election was only a few months away did not stop Washington from overthrowing Yanukovich.
Now the same fate seems in store for Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgystan, and Macedonia. Most Americans don’t know where these places are. Armenia and Azerbaijan are east of the Caspian Sea and are former provinces of the Soviet Union. Kyrgystan is a former Soviet province that borders China. Macedonia, birthplace of Alexander the Great, is a part of northern Greece, but in the 20th century portions of Macedonia became parts of Bulgaria, Serbia, and Albania before becoming a province in Yugoslavia. When Washington destroyed Yugoslavia, Macedonia became an independent republic of two million people. Macedonia is landlocked and surrounded by Greece on the south, Bulgaria on the east, Albania on the west, and by Serbia and Washington-created Kosovo on the north.
Why is Washington interested in controlling Macedonia?
The Macedonian government refused to participate in Washington’s sanctions against Russia and supports the Russian Turkish Stream natural gas pipeline that will deliver Russian natural gas to Europe via Turkey to the Greek border.
Greece is being looted by the European Union, the IMF, and the German and Dutch banks. Consequently, Greece is being pushed into Russia’s arms as Russian support is Greece’s only alternative to the crippling austerity that the EU is forcing upon the Greek people. Macedonia sits between Greece and Serbia, a country with no love lost for Washington and the EU as a result of Serbia’s dismemberment by Washington and NATO aggression. Washington fears the flow of Russian energy, over which Washington would have no control, into its European vassal states via Russian allies in Europe.
If Washington can grab Macedonia, Washington can stand between Greece and Serbia and perhaps persuade Greece to align with a Washington-supported natural gas pipeline that would supply Europe from Azerbaijan, thus reducing Russia’s influence in Europe.
. . . From an American perspective, as contrasted with Washington’s perspective, the question is whether the reckless pursuit of US hegemony is worth the risk of war with Russia and China. The neoconservatives, who have an iron grip on US foreign policy, believe that hegemony is worth any risk. But do Americans derive sufficient vicarious pleasure from a handful of neocons lording it over the world to accept the risk of nuclear war?
The naked aggression that Washington is displaying toward Russia should alarm not only the American people but also the entire world. War is in the making. War with Russia means war also with China. This is not a war that Washington and its vassals or human life can win.
Not bored yet with today's free geography/history lesson? Read the whole essay here.
And start to think seriously about what that 54% of the USA USA USA budget the Military-Industrial Complex owns is now buying.
Memorial Day commemorates soldiers killed in war. We are told that the war dead died for us and our freedom. US Marine General Smedley Butler challenged this view. He said that our soldiers died for the profits of the bankers, Wall Street, Standard Oil, and the United Fruit Company. Here is an excerpt from a speech that he gave in 1933:
War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.Most American soldiers died fighting foes who posed no threat to the United States. Our soldiers died for secret agendas of which they knew nothing. Capitalists hid their self-interests behind the flag, and our boys died for the One Percent’s bottom line.
I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we’ll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag.
I wouldn’t go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.
There isn’t a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its “finger men” to point out enemies, its “muscle men” to destroy enemies, its “brain men” to plan war preparations, and a “Big Boss” Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism.
It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty-three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country’s most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle-man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.
I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.
I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 (where have I heard that name before?). I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.
During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.
Jade Helm, an exercise that pits the US military against the US public, is scheduled to run July 15 through September 15. What is the secret agenda behind Jade Helm?
The Soviet Union was a partial check on capitalist looting in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. However, with the Soviet collapse capitalist looting intensified during the Clinton, Bush, and Obama regimes.
Neoliberal Globalization is now looting its own constituent parts and the planet itself. Americans, Greeks, Irish, British, Italians, Ukrainians, Iraqis, Libyans, Argentinians, the Spanish and Portuguese are being looted of their savings, pensions, social services, and job opportunities, and the planet is being turned into a wasteland by capitalists sucking the last penny out of the environment.
As Claudia von Werlhof writes, predatory capitalism is consuming the globe.
We need a memorial day to commemorate the victims of neoliberal globalization. All of us are its victims, and in the end the capitalists also.
And here's a Memorial Day messenger to remind us once again how lucky we are.
To have him around to remind us who and what the rich truly are.
ongressman Darrell Issa, America’s richest Congressman with a net worth of nearly $500 million, says the nation’s poor are actually doing very well. Issa told CNN that “our poor are… the envy of the world.”
. . . In reality, economic mobility in American is lower than in many developed countries. According to research by Miles Corak, there is less economic mobility in America than in Switzerland, Pakistan, Singapore, France, Spain, Japan, Germany, New Zealand, Sweden, Australia, Canada, Finland, Norway and Denmark.
Even in terms of raw dollars, America’s poor are far behind “compared with their counterparts in other affluent countries.” At the 10th percentile of income, for example, Canadians make 30 percent more and Norwegians makes 60 percent more.
According to a study by Luke Shaefer and Kathryn Edin, “millions of Americans live on less than $2 a day — a threshold commonly used to measure poverty in the developing world.”
Comments:
# 2015-05-10 11:03People like Issa are America's shame to the world. It doesn't go unnoticed abroad. It seems to go unnoticed in the U.S. where millions of people continue to vote these assclowns into power. It is astonishing that these GOPers, who "work" full time in screwing Americans, can be remotely competitive in public opinion.
# 2015-05-10 11:04
When these bag cakes talk about the poor as if they walk a day in their shoes, I wonder why WE ALLOW rich indifference to be at the helm of American governance. Not only does he get all the perks, free meals and vacations as a member of the One Percent Club, but as a card-carrying "socialist," he also enjoys the security of tax-paid health care employed by US.
Why should he get paid at all? He can live off his fat reserves better than a 1000 working-class neighborhoods across the nation!
There's nothing we can do about how rich he is, but there is something we can do about keeping him employed. As long as the constituents of the state he's a "public (ha!) servant" of keep him in on the dole, Marie Antoinette lives long and prospers.
No surprises left?
Not here.
Don’t Blame Islam: Al-Qaeda and ISIS are Products of US and Saudi Imperialism
"Jacobin" takes a “slightly” different view of the “threat” Kristol & Co. have turned into a full-on industrial complex. David Mizner traces the roots of al-Qaeda, ISIS and so-called “Lone Wolf” attackers back through decades of geopolitical games by the US and its Saudi partners. It began during the embryonic stages of the Cold War, took flight when the CIA gave birth to al-Qaeda and unleashed The Furies when the US destroyed Iraq.
Neil Young reminds us what the rich have planned for our health.
And how to fight it.
GOODBYE STARBUCKS!!!
I used to line up and get my latte everyday, but yesterday was my last one.
Starbucks has teamed up with Monsanto to sue Vermont, and stop accurate food labeling.
Tell Starbucks to withdraw support for the lawsuit -- we have a right to know what we put in our mouths.
Starbucks doesn't think you have the right to know what's in your coffee. So it's teamed up with Monsanto to sue the small U.S. state of Vermont to stop you from finding out.
Hiding behind the shadowy "Grocery Manufacturers Association," Starbucks is supporting a lawsuit that's aiming to block a landmark law that requires genetically-modified ingredients be labeled. Amazingly, it claims that the law is an assault on corporations' right to free speech.
Monsanto might not care what we think -- but as a public-facing company, Starbucks does. If we can generate enough attention, we can push Starbucks to withdraw its support for the lawsuit, and then pressure other companies to do the same.
Vermont is a small, entirely rural state with just 600,000 people. It's a classic David and Goliath fight between Vermont and Monsanto. Considering that Starbucks has been progressive on LGBT and labor issues in the past, it's disappointing that it is working with the biggest villain of them all, Monsanto.
There's much more at stake here than just whether GMO foods will be labeled in a single U.S. state. Vermont is the very first state in the U.S. to require labeling. Dozens of other states have said that they will follow this path -- in order to encourage this, we need to ensure that Vermont's law stands strong.
That's why Monsanto and its new allies are fighting so hard to kill GMO labeling in Vermont.
But whatever you think of GMOs, corporations should not be using massive lawsuits to overturn legitimate, democratic decisions with strong public backing.
SumOfUs is already fighting back -- they helped Vermont raise almost a quarter of a million dollars to defend themselves against Monsanto's bullying! Help them by going to SumOfUs and registering to donate or sign a petition. The next strategic step is to pressure and call out members of the Grocery Manufacturers Association, the shadowy body leading the lawsuit. Your backing can help.
Add your voice now. Tell Starbucks to stop supporting the lawsuit against Vermont.
Thanks for caring!
Neil Young
92-MEMBER ORCHESTRA & CHOIR RECORDS "WHO'S GONNA STAND UP?"
September 20, 2014
What started as a live Crazy Horse song and was introduced to thousands of audience members wearing organic cotton EARTH shirts this fall in Europe has now been recorded live on the old MGM Sound Stage, (Now SONY), in Hollywood. With over sixty of the music industry's finest musicians and a thirty-voice choir, this epic version resonates with a sound that has never been heard on a protest song before.
Neil Young and all of these ninety musicians and singers recorded the song live together with no overdubs. Arrangement is by Christopher Walden. Mix is by Al Schmitt, who is one of the great "eminences grises" of the American music world, the most decorated engineer/mixer in Grammy history, and the recording is produced by "The Volume Dealers."
Listen to it here.
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LINCVOLT PROVES YOU DON'T NEED THE TAR SANDS
June 13, 2013
Lincvolt is living proof. The big car has a lot to say. An 86% reduction in Greenhouse Gases per gallon of fossil fuel if you burn next-generation bio fuel instead of gasoline. That is the future. Cellulosic ethanol. Canada should be ashamed of the Alberta Tar Pits.
-- Neil Young.
"The tar sands have impacted First Nations so badly. I am 85 years old and us old people are having such a hard time today because this is not what we knew growing up. We used to drink the water straight from the streams and creeks, and now no one can do that. We don't know what is in the water now. I eat very little of the food I grew up on, moose, caribou, fish... it is all sick. We don't even eat the berries and medicines anymore because there is too much pollution in the air and the land. When I was growing up people just died of old age, now there are so many sicknesses that were never here before."
Don't believe the oil company propaganda you are subsidizing? Do something.
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NEIL YOUNG: WAGING HEAVY INNOVATION
By Henry Doss, Forbes, January 14, 2013
"I am succeeding because people are talking about how they would do it better."
- Neil Young, Waging Heavy Peace
Innovation is not for the faint of heart, nor for those who lack the capacity for joy. Leading an innovation culture means living inside of chaos, while maintaining a focus on cardinal points; operating within demanding goals and financial requirements while remaining open to diverse and contradictory points of view; sometimes "losing your way to find your way." Above all else, though, authentic leadership is about experiencing and celebrating the joy of innovation. And if you are looking for a good role model -- someone who best exemplifies all the traits of innovation leadership -- you need look no further than Neil Young.
There are countless books, monographs, studies, articles and blogs addressing the issues of leadership and innovation, and more coming every day. But Neil Young's recently released autobiography, Waging Heavy Peace, may serve as the best innovation case study out there. For those who study the "how" of innovation, and in particular the often mysterious challenge of leading innovation, Young's life story captures it all in one compelling read.
Throughout his long and storied career, Neil Young has been a virtual factory of songs, musical innovation, ideas, inventions and a near-constant stream of new product. Lest we miss the obvious, his life and work would fit the most stringent definition of a successful business: consistent revenue generation; consistent innovative product releases; nurturing of intellectual and human capital; a strong, well-maintained brand. And at the core of this lifetime of business success are two critical innovation principles consistently applied, day in and day out, in real time, in the real world.
First, and foremost, is Young's steady, constant leadership of his own innovation ecosystem. As with any authentic leader, his concern is not about himself, or what he creates, but with how his actions inspire, challenge and cause others to create. "I am succeeding because people are talking about how they would do it better." This quotation from Young's book captures the essence of innovation leadership better than any other business, professional or academic study of leadership. Simply stated, we cause innovation when we are more concerned about how others are "doing it better," than we are with ourselves. This is the confounding irony of leadership - that innovation requires both strong individual leadership and a powerful commitment to selflessness. Individual leaders are more successful -- and more innovative -- to the degree their focus is on the success of others before their own.
Second is the "virtual innovation ecosystem" that Young built around his music and restless inventing. Throughout his long (and future!) career, he instinctively nurtured the key elements of innovative ecosystems. His is a world of learning by doing, of enhancing and celebrating diversity and building an environment of trust. The components of innovative systems -- diversity, trust, iterative experimentation, rapid failure, and so on- are well-known and well-studied. These constitute the "whats" of innovation. Innovation leaders like Neil Young provide the "how" of innovation, the steady hand that supports diverse, inquisitive and adventurous communities through the messiness and chaos of innovation.
What Neil Young gives us in Waging Heavy Peace is a compelling story about leading innovative people, and nurturing the various components of innovative systems into the proper mix. Any organization would do well to study this narrative and learn from it. Selfless leadership, driven by a near-obsessive desire to create, will almost always lead to good things. And one of those things will be joy. Keep on rockin' in the free world.
(Henry Doss is a venture capitalist, student, musician and volunteer in higher education. His firm, T2VC, builds startups and the ecosystems that grow them. His university, UNC Charlotte, is a leading research institution with a small college feel. His band, Amygdala Hijack, makes sounds.) Tweet
NEIL YOUNG TEAMS WITH CAMPAIGN TO SAVE THE RAINFOREST
"This technology enables the forest to talk to the world," says Young
By Andy Greene, Rolling Stone, July 28, 2014
Just four months after fully funding his Pono Music campaign via KickStarter, Neil Young has turned his attention to an even more worthwhile cause: saving the rainforest. He's teamed up with Rainforest Connection to help them raise much-needed funds. "[This] is a technology that's a connection between the rainforest and you," says Young. "This technology enables the forest to talk to the world. When the forest is threatened, the forest can speak and you can hear it."
The central idea behind Rainforest Connection is as simple as it is brilliant: Old cellphones are retrofitted with a solar-powered energy source and placed in trees around the rainforest. When they pick up the sound of chainsaws, animals in distress or gunshots, they alert authorities in real time. "Current detection systems rely on satellites which show rainforest destruction days or weeks too late," says a note on the group's Kickstarter page. "Our system provides the world's first real-time logging/poaching detection system. We can pinpoint deforestation activity the moment it begins, while simultaneously streaming the data openly and immediately to anyone around the world."
Read more here.
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