We have armed governments all over the world to allow them to maintain control of a country or a region. Our natural friend, Israel, is one example where we have done this and may have even been complicit in providing them six tons of enriched uranium from our stores on the east coast. In the 1930s we made a deal with the Saudi Royal Family to protect them for oil.
Many other deals and wars helped us control Latin America which fell apart with the election of a populist to the President of Venezuela. Only Columbia is our client base easily identified by our bases there now. We are trying to gain control such as flooding Venezuela with counterfeit currency if some reports are correct. Our coup there failed by former CIA agents and our Navy. Next time they will quickly kill the leader as we did with our other coups such as Allende in Chile which Kissinger directed.
Panama was invaded to take control of the Panama Canal by ousting a former friend who went his own way. Saddam Hussein is another example by nationalizing their oil.
President Jimmy Carter, who became President with the money from the Trilateral Commission, whose members include the USA, Japan, and European leaders. Similar things happened with the election of President Obama where the powerful gave him both money and advice who had more liberal domestic leanings than desirable. The assumption was that since both were inexperienced with foreign affairs, control over them would be easier.
The second powerful tool is propaganda in advertising and news. Headlines in news reports are designed to shape our thinking as well as the editorial controlled first few paragraphs on the front page especially. Crucial, sometimes contrary information, can be obtained near the end of articles or deleted completely. No matter the political inclinations of the reporters and even senior staff, veering to far will get them fired or demoted. The same situation exists in the best colleges and universities. A liberal education is now a misnomer.
President Obama got the message in the Supreme Court ideological and profitable decision for Mrs. Justice Thomas and Justice Scalia, Justice Roberts, Justice Alito, and Justice Kennedy. They are all extremely conservative including Kennedy and far right religious. Unfortunately corporations have the purse needed to win elections. Catholicism would be greatly improved by eliminating the Vatican and allowing the Priests to truly practice Christianity instead of trying to repress their flock. Ideology trumps thinking for ourselves such as the Christian Right.
Jim Kawakami, Feb 18, 2011, http://jimboguy.blogspot.com
*** Subversive Thoughts ***
"It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power." -- David Brin
“Nonviolence is the constant awareness of the dignity and the humanity of oneself and others; it seeks truth and justice; it renounces violence both in method and in attitude; it is a courageous acceptance of active love and goodwill as the instrument with which to overcome evil and transform both oneself and to others. It is the willingness to undergo suffering rather than inflict it. It excludes retaliation and flight.” -- Wally Nelson
*** Gene Sharp: The Most Influential American Thinker on Non-Violent Struggle You’ve Never Heard Of ***
While the rolling revolution in the Middle East continues with Bahrain, Yemen, and Libya, buoyed by the success of Egypt and Tunisia, one unassuming American figure is emerging as providing the inspiration for a range of tactics used by Arab organizers. His name is Gene Sharp, he lives in Boston, and you’ve probably never heard of him. Considered “the godfather of the nonviolent resistance,” Gene Sharp has spent decades studying with the care and methods of a scientist, major and minor revolutions and uprisings the world over.
In his 1973 magnum opus, The Politics of Non-Violent Action, Sharp explored in great detail, the principles that help non-violent resistance work, especially in the overthrowing of dictatorships by organized populations. The 900 page book also lists nearly 200 methods of non-violent action culled from his studies. Since then Sharp has authored a number of books and booklets with titles like “From Dictatorship to Democracy,” and “There are Realistic Alternatives,” which have been translated into dozens of languages and used worldwide.
His latest book is the 600 page work “Waging Non-Violent Struggle.” Gene Sharp spent 30 years as a political scientist at Harvard University’s Center for International Affairs. He remains dedicated to the study of peace and nonviolent struggle through the efforts of The Albert Einstein Institution, a nonprofit group he created in 1983.
However, over the years his work has garnered criticism from various factions, even on the left. A few years ago the Albert Einstein Institution was accused of being a U.S. government sponsored organization to overthrow foreign regimes.
Stephen Zunes, a Professor of Politics at the University of San Francisco and frequent Uprising guest wrote a lengthy refutation of these charges in 2008. Most recently Arab American commentator Asad Abu Khalil commented on Gene Sharp’s rising stature by accusing Americans of looking for a “Lawrence of Arabia” figure to take credit away from Egyptian protesters. Still, many reports now suggest that Gene Sharp’s work inspired, not the cause of revolution, but the tactics used by organizers in Egypt and elsewhere. Gene Sharp was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2009.
GUEST: Gene Sharp, founder of the Albert Einstein Institution, author of many books including The Politics of Non-Violent Action and Waging Non-Violent Struggle.
Find out more at www.aeinstein.org.
Listen to this segment:http://www.archive.org/download/dailydigest_021711/2011_02_17_sharp.mp3
*** How Post-Revolution Tunisia and Egypt Are Unfolding ***
Hosni Mubarak’s unexpected departure after 30 years in power shocked the world and left protesters in Egypt jubilant. As events unfolded right as we went live on air last Friday, we heard the chants of hundreds of thousands of Egyptians in Tahrir Square, “We are Free, Egypt is Free.”
The Supreme Military Council under Field Marshal Mohammed Tantawi took charge of the country and has been busy issuing communiques to the public. Having met two key demands of the protesters: to suspend the constitution and dissolve the Parliament, the Army has the tentative and temporary trust of the people.
Wael Ghonim, the Google Executive and one of the more prominent young Egyptians involved in the protests met yesterday with members of the military council and is satisfied with their announcement that there will be a referendum on a revised constitution in two months and elections in six months.
Meanwhile the army has been busy clearing the central grounds of protest: Tahrir Square in Cairo, sometimes forcing out protesters who want to remain. The labor strikes that began late in the 18-day uprising have continued and are now gaining momentum but the Egyptian military has criticized them.
What unfolds in the next few months is just as important as what has been achieved in the past three weeks. The revolution in Tunisia that resulted in the overthrowing of President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali on January 14th may provide some direction. But post-revolution Tunisia has revealed the difficult task of rebuilding a democracy, with its security last week disintegrating into a state of chaos. ...
GUESTS: Nubar Hovsepian, teaches political science at Chapman University, his latest article is called “The Arab Pro-Democracy Movement: Struggles to Redefine Citizenship” published in the new journal Jadaliyya, Radia Daoussi, president of the Vineeta Foundation
Listen to this segment:http://www.archive.org/download/DailyDigest02142011/2011_02_14_egypttunisia.mp3
*** Iranians and Algerians Catch the Revolution Bug ***
Within hours of Mubarak’s resignation on Friday, Medhi Karroubi, one of Iran’s most prominent opposition leaders and clerics, was placed under house-arrest for trying to organize a protest on Monday. The government has not officially banned the demonstration, but Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has threatened to brutally crush any rallies.
Two of Karroubi’s allies, Taghi Rahmani and Mir Hossein Mousavi, have also been arrested in anticipation of today’s protest. President Ahmadinejad’s regime experienced its strongest, Egypt-like popular challenge in 2009 when the country’s largely young population rose up under the banner of the “Green Revolution.” ...
GUESTS: Reese Erlich, author of “The Iran Agenda: The Real Story of U.S. Policy and the Middle East Crisis” and “Conversations with Terrorists: Middle East Leaders on Politics, Violence, and Empire,” David Porter professor emeritus of political science at SUNY/Empire State College, just wrote the piece “The Triumph of Leaderless Revolutions”
Find out more about Reese Erlich at www.reeseerlich.com. Read David Porter’s article here:http://counterpunch.org/porter02112011.html
Listen to this segment: http://www.archive.org/download/DailyDigest02142011/2011_02_14_iranalgeria.mp3
Sound bites on television is designed to invoke emotions necessary to retain information whether we agree with what is said. For example, if we watch FOX News exclusively, we will start thinking like they want us to think. That is why it is important to absorb contrary information to help us to keep thinking instead of absorbing something like amoebas. Jim
ReplyDeleteThe level of ignorance by Americans who are too busy or not interested in understanding what is happening to Americans have elected too many Right Wing Republicans as governors. They base their decision to vote for someone by listening to prepared speeches full of lies. Unfortunately politicians are very good in lying and distorting the facts.
ReplyDeleteAs Orwell's 1984 says governments control us by keeping us entertained and only the elites are propagandized regarding ideology. Now that has expanded to all Americans with the introduction of television which gives powerful visual signals to boost our emotional responses to help win elections and the money to repeat it thousands of times over the airways. If Hitler had our modern capability, he would have ruled the world by dividing Americans regarding the war.
Sound bites on television is designed to invoke emotions necessary to retain information whether we agree with what is said. For example, if we watch FOX News exclusively, we will start thinking like they want us to think. That is why it is important to absorb contrary information to help us to keep thinking instead of absorbing something like amoebas.
What is now happening in Madison, Wisconsin has been described by Naomi Klein is a seminal book on what the Republicans are trying to do. The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism describes widely after economic disasters. The anti-democratic forces in Britain, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Katrina, Arizona, and many other states are using the shock of a disaster to make changes normally rejected by the electorate. Fear trumps our ability to think. In New Orleans they fired all the teachers, destroyed perfectly good public housing, did not help the poor areas to recover, and brought in corporate exploiters of the disaster.
The current strategy developed in the conservative billionaire and corporate Think Tanks such as the Heritage Foundation are trying to destroy the unions in governments, weaken teacher's unions and other unions.
The neutral Pew Research Polls show 45% dislike of Unions and 47% dislike of big business. State unions 49% like and 37% dislike. http://people-press.org/report/705/
ReplyDeletePropaganda has worked well even though as union wages go up so does the nonunion workers!