The Weekly Watch
Franklin Pierce Adams
"This war is a terrible thing," he said,
"With its countless numbers of needless dead;
A futile warfare it seems to me,
Fought for no principle I can see.
Alas, that thousands of hearts should bleed
For naught but a tyrant's boundless greed!"
Said the wholesale grocer, in righteous mood,
As he went to adulterate salable food.
Spake as follows the merchant king:
"Isn't this war a disgusting thing?
Heartless, cruel, and useless, too;
It doesn't seem that it can be true.
Think of the misery, want and fear!
We ought to be grateful we've no war here.
"Six a week"--to a girl--"That's flat!
I can get a thousand to work for that."
Seems the corporate coup is complete and the oligarchs make no pretense of hiding in the background. The camps at Standing Rock were invaded and closed down this week. The corporation in chief and his billionaire cabinet are ready to increase war and weaponry while cutting funding for schools, the environment, labor protection, and at the same time cutting taxes for the very corporations they represent. We have made war our primary export, and the press sits silent refusing to report the absurdity of the current wars and the wasted money, lives, and resources we have squandered in search of corporate profit.
I think George Carlin got it right in this rant about war (8 min)
Carlin's description certainly explains why “tiny hands” wants to increase military spending (and his personal profit as well as that of the other oligarchs in his administration).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiPVzYL0fY8 (12 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plNBawRPf_Q (4 min)
The increase alone is roughly the size of the entire annual military budget of the United Kingdom, the fifth-largest spending country, and it’s more than 80 percent of Russia’s 2015 military budget.
https://theintercept.com/2017/02/27/trumps-proposed-increase-in-u-s-defe...
Larry Wilkerson tells Paul Jay that a massive increase in military spending is a disastrous policy, intended to serve the commercial interest of the military industrial complex. (10.5 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXnZH2PB_AA
U.S. has been at war for 223 years out of 240 years, its military has committed mass atrocities across the world and yet in his weekly address, Trump justified a staggering $54 billion increase in military spending by suggesting we are a force for peace (1 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxlUwGXWt6o
Did you know that the Trump administration almost went to war with Iran at the start of February? I didn't...
https://theintercept.com/2017/03/01/trumps-moderate-defense-secretary-ha...
NATO is itching for a confrontation with Russia. Conflicts in Latvia (10 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsrEpHIbwqA
US support for the Saudi-led invasion in Yemen has escalated to include US airstrikes on Al-Qaeda, says CODEPINK’s Medea Benjamin (10 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtgVpsL0jRs
Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii held press-conference to bring attention to her bill 'Stop Arming Terrorists Act', so we don't fund both sides of the war (6 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRVe64eOCqA
It's not just the middle east. We foment problems in our hemisphere too. Tariq Ali interviews Professor Greg Grandin on the current situation in Latin America. (30 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFOMbV69ru4
I've got the computer connected to the stereo. So typically I'll put on talking heads and putter around as I listen. So it was frustrating and proved to me Oliver Stone's movie "Ukraine on Fire" being hidden... the only one I could find was subtitled. If you doubt we created the current problem in the Ukraine watch it (1.5 hr)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqVB3qY3Qwo
Of course, that's because … All wars are for profit (28 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD3xftAQUfQ
John Pilger explains how war creates profit, pain, and misery. (21 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYCH1Ylncxc
And it is the US that is reaping the greatest profit. We're number one!
...at $40bn the US market share of weapons sales amounted to about half of all arms agreements in 2015 ...the dubious honor of record arms sales certainly goes to the Obama administration. Defence One recently estimated that the outgoing administration brokered more arms deals than any administration since the second world war.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/26/global-weapons-trade-sales...
Richard Wolff explains... the real problem is capitalism (3 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnqDtOBLvNo
The T-rumpidy trump parade in the joint session was well orchestrated with lots of standing applause on cue. Perhaps the rethugs are worried about all the people standing up, so they rolled out this circus to prove “hair pumpkinfuerher” is presidential...cause that's what all the media is saying...he was sooooo presidential.
Glenn Greenwald nails it (as usual) explaining the war propaganda in T-rump's address to congress. Media commentators predictably gushed that this was the moment Trump became “presidential.” It was, as intended, an obviously powerful TV moment.
https://theintercept.com/2017/03/01/trumps-use-of-navy-seals-wife-highli...
Trump honors widow but made no reference to the 25 civilians killed in the raid, nor the criticisms leveled by Owens’s father, who has questioned why the raid was approved. (4 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUeiPIObp7s
Ralph Naders take on t-rumps joint session presentation (20 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECECWTW6VTw
Bernie's response (14 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eK-5ivYb3o
Stephen Cobert's comedic take (12 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hezHSFSwa08
T-rump did call for something specific that Republicans desperately want and that is completely feasible: brutal cuts to Medicaid.
https://theintercept.com/2017/03/01/the-only-concrete-takeaway-from-trum...
The oligarchs are in control
A newly-released list of T-rump's National Economic Council — headed by former Goldman Sachs President Gary Cohn - have made a complete mockery of his promise to “drain the swamp.”
https://theintercept.com/2017/02/28/donald-trumps-economic-policy-team-i...
Case in point...billionaire investor Carl Icahn has used his position as Donald Trump’s deregulatory czar to strong-arm the ethanol lobby into agreeing to save one of Icahn’s companies $200 million.
https://theintercept.com/2017/03/02/crony-capitalism-at-work-trump-advis...
Economist James Henry says the Senate failed to seriously investigate the networks of Trump's new billionaire cabinet member New Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross Tied to Russian Oligarchs, Money-Laundering Bank (11 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMhzkvWuXEM
We speak to James Henry about his latest piece, "Wilbur Ross Comes to D.C. With an Unexamined History of Russian Connections." (19 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0MWrNnjXHo
Spies...
Coats’s wife Marsha and professional sports came up more frequently than CIA black sites and NSA surveillance powers during the Director of National Intelligence confirmation hearing with the Senate intelligence committee Tuesday.
https://theintercept.com/2017/03/01/in-confirmation-lovefest-senators-te...
Mike Papantonio talks to former CIA officer, John Kiriakou, about the continuing feud between the Trump Administration and the intelligence community. (8 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9-Iy_OdiiU
Schools
With billionaire Betsy DeVos as U.S. Secretary of Education, it is likely that some sort of school voucher plan that allows parents to withdraw their children from public schools and send them to private schools at taxpayer expense will be a significant feature of a new federal education policy.
http://progressive.org/public-school-shakedown/a-growing-body-of-evidenc...
Let's take money from public schools for religious ones
http://educationopportunitynetwork.org/trumps-school-choice-plan-religio...
Sessions and the Russians...
Will a special prosecutor be appointed to investigate the Russia connection?
https://theintercept.com/2017/03/02/sessionss-recusal-gives-senators-pow...
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has recused himself from any investigation into last year’s presidential campaign, following reports he met with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. (19 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoYLdBWC6GM
US Attorney General Jeff Sessions denies any wrongdoing in meeting with the Russian ambassador, saying the two brief encounters had nothing to do with Trump's presidential campaign (4 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhdEpXqVK9k
What about T-rump and Russia? The guardian's spin (5 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YvZXgiyngg
Great article by Glenn Greenwald on various aspects of the Russia story
https://theintercept.com/2017/02/28/the-new-yorkers-big-cover-story-reve...
If you want to lament the loss of the democratic party, Jimmy Dore shreds them this week
https://www.youtube.com/user/TYTComedy
"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country."
-- Teddy Roosevelt
Economics
Heiner Flassbeck tells Paul Jay that unspent and uninvested wealth held by the elites is a bigger drag on employment than free trade with Mexico (15 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxBvbLq5MEg
Michael Hudson, author of the newly released 'J is for Junk Economics,' says the media and academia use well-crafted euphemisms to conceal how the economy really works (in 5 parts)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD-EivBIvJE (9 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBQt8EbNALA (10 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOk208Rvms8 (11 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQmrg8cIjdQ (12.5 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdv9EvWxkdc (12 min)
A couple of songs -
We won't be terrorized (5 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuSWrVa2fNo
Last Man Standing (3 min)
http://www.thebluegrasssituation.com/read/last-man-standing-standing-roc...
Vice News view of the outcome
https://news.vice.com/story/inside-the-last-days-of-the-standing-rock-pr...
The history of the Mexican border...Early on, the United States Border Patrol focused its resources and its discretionary power upon policing one singular population: unauthorized Mexican immigrants. And that’s really been a consistent practice since 1924.
https://theintercept.com/2017/02/26/the-long-history-of-deportation-scar...
It's not criminals they are targeting for deportation
https://theintercept.com/2017/03/01/trump-wants-you-to-think-all-the-imm...
As President Trump vows to deport "bad hombres," we look at the shocking case of an asylum seeker from El Salvador who is being detained as she battles a brain tumor (13 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJr54quc__g
Deportation makes money for private prisons and other corporations. In 2014, ICE awarded Palantir, the $20 billion data-mining firm founded by billionaire Trump advisor Peter Thiel, a $41 million contract to build and maintain ICM.
https://theintercept.com/2017/03/02/palantir-provides-the-engine-for-don...
The security and surveillance industries will be the main beneficiaries of the administration's policies that target vulnerable populations, says professor Kim Wilson (11 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HXswev0J2Y
Has the triumph in America of a fascist-tinged authoritarian regime over liberal democracy already happened? http://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/02/28/who-says-it-cant-happen-here
One of Johnson’s constituents has received a cease-and-desist letter from the senator’s office, demanding that he stop calling the senator and stop trying to meet with his staff.
https://theintercept.com/2017/03/02/wisconsin-republican-senator-sends-c...
Just declare protesters as terrorists
https://theintercept.com/2017/03/02/homeland-security-sees-anger-at-trum...
Excellent discussion ...Chris Hedges talks with activist and attorney, Kevin Zeese about successful strategies for resistance in the age of Trump (26 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DXS0FfxSZs
Also good...For the first time in modern history, a fringe wing of Christian extremists have obtained the highest seats of power in the US government—from Mike Pence to Betsy DeVos. Abby Martin and Chris Hedges discuss the situation (25 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TP5gjrh-3Ew
Hip hop artist with “Fake News”. Even if you are not a hip-hop fan, you should listen to the track just to hear Narcy name check Donald Trump’s senior adviser Steve Bannon in auto-tune.
https://theintercept.com/2017/03/01/exclusive-premiere-hip-hop-artist-na...
Jon Stewart shows up on the Cobert show to call out the media...believe me! (10.5 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmdFne7LnuA
Jimmy Dore examines Chris Hayes interview with Susan Sarandon and Josh Fox. The lame stream media exposed. (20 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9-Sgz9g-HA
A range of cultural and environmental figures including Noam Chomsky, David Attenborough and Mark Ruffalo respond to the threat of climate change and to the deniers. (6 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tKS1alqiiU
In 1991, Shell produced a documentary on global warming called Climate of Concern. (3 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTmS0exb7r8
Environmental health pioneer Gary Cohen says increased rates of asthma, infectious disease, and water contamination are about the hazard faced as warming grows. (18 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtV4pjhl72g
Several of the men charged with the murder of environmentalist Berta Cáceres were Honduran military intelligence specialists that received training from the United States. (4 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjqGnnNalsA
New details have emerged on the Trump administration’s plans to dramatically reduce the power of the Environmental Protection Agency (12.5 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9E59QSZArE
Research shows regulations cause virtually no layoffs, says Environmental Integrity Project’s Tom Pelton, but better watch your water quality. (12 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGNO2M8G6iI
I don't know quite how to summarize the week. I guess I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. Perhaps you can help in the comments below? Please share your stories and analysis from the week.
Comments
SNL skit ..Sessions as Gump
Attorney General Jeff Sessions (Kate McKinnon) chats with strangers (Octavia Spencer, Leslie Jones, Kyle Mooney, Aidy Bryant, Beck Bennett) at a bus stop. (6 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZM3jvlvgVw
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Republicans in Congress are playing fast and furious
with undo bills: EPA, Medicaid, public education funding minus vouchers for #schoolexit to private or religious schools. Trump's tweet meltdown continues. A larger percentage of taxpayer dollar$ will be paying for near-weekly family jaunts to Mara Lago. It's hard work Presidenting! (Obama would have said 'Presidentin').
It IS overwhelming,murky waters about what is significant and what is fake or idle threat, false flag or noise. Oh, Michigan bails on Flint, can't afford to fix the health problem the State created. FU Flint residents, shower in water bottles. Or close your mouth while showering or something.
Sunny but a cold start, low at my house was 6F, but it may approach 32 today, 50 tomorrow. Roller coaster continues. My surgery tomorrow was canceled, see PCP Tuesday for unknown reasons other than clearance for anesthesia. That was why I was flagged. SO no repair of "broken foot" which was actually separation of three metatarsal bones and ligament sprain which cannot repair until metatarsals are nudged back together. I may have to limp around another 2 weeks before surgery now. 6 weeks with a broken foot. And then another 6 weeks or more with some type of cast stabilization. Beyond irritated. Happy Sunday!
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
Ooh...sorry about your foot
The crappy medical system fails again. Up into the 60's again today here in the corner of Alabama.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
@riverlover
OMG, I'm so sorry to hear about the set-back in your healing with this extra two-week wait for it to even start! I know that 'discouraging' doesn't even begin to cover it, especially considering the pain, disability and other issues you're continually suffering as a result, but do at least know that others care out here, even if we don't always physically post our support.
Hang in there!
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
Morning. The thing is,
Trump said all this on the campaign trail. He said he would greatly increase military spending and he said he would go after Iran. He also said he would expand the fake war OF terror. Those three things told me the show would go on, that the only fundamental change regarding U.S. imperialism would be tactics. A big part of that is all three of those issues are based on lies and false narratives. A lot of people didn't seem to see this coming.
It's like people being surprised Trump isn't "draining the swamp". We had two things to go on, Trump's own words (lies) and his character. To me it was always obvious what we'd get, a liar and a conman.
This week, nothing changed for me with all this political bullshit in D.C. The rich still run the show and I'm still a Serf. Looking at the big picture is helpful I think when the details become overwhelming.
I'll disagree to this extent:
Serfs, in return for labor on the manor's fields, mines, forests, etc were entitled to a plot of land; material to build a house and have it for the serf's use; justice from the Lord; a certain degree of aid in harsh times; and use of lands said to be commons.
In today's hyper-capitalist society, there is justice only for the Wealthers; and no right to shelter or a job that keeps body and soul together. With all the religious holidays, I think European serfs had more days off also.
"Man, I wish I led the good life; I wish I were a serf."
Cheers!
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
Ya, the good old days as Serfs.
Thanks. I am glad you took it as intended, a joke with
a bit of truth behind it.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
Somebody else who knows their history :-D
People sling around terms like "feudalism" and "serfdom" with no real knowledge of what the words historically meant and how the systems actually worked. And almost always, they confuse life in the Middle Ages with life under the Authoritarian nation-states of the ~17th-18th centuries (time period variable from one country to another).
Incidentally, the word "holiday" derives from "holy day", a day on which working could not be required of anyone (and there was usually general merriment and feasting). This goes back at least to the Roman Republic, and probably further.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
Thanks, I am flattered.
One of the sources I have had for serfdom comes from the 19th century Russian authors that I like. I believe serfdom existed there until 1861 or 1862 with the after effects lasting at least until the time of Chekhov and some details of life are found in these writings. Sportman's Sketches by Turgenev is a source and Chekhov was so unflinching about describing the peasantry, which came after the serfs were no longer bound to the estates, that Tolstoy used his considerable influence to have some of the former's work suppressed.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
There is more about serfdom
in the early spring, if/when food supplies ran out, manor house people went hungry along with everyone else. What I find interesting is that often when someone was brought to trial for misdeeds (such as watering the beer they were selling), there would be a fine, say a pence or two. And then the record says "forgiven because she is poor". I read that over and over in a book of compiled papers from the 11th, 12th,13th century.
So back then, the authorities had more of a conscience than now, in our supposed enlightened age.
I had not heard of that - Many thanks.
I don't think I've run across court documents gathered from that early period - fascinating.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
I wish I had the title and author
of that book. I'm going to try to find it again. The authors did a lot of research. All the papers are from villages. There were many wills. When I read the book, I did not realize how much of it would stay in, and on my mind.
It has been a long steady march...
toward the total corporate coup. I never doubted the disaster of tiny hands. He may have accelerated the pace but the direction has been the same for a long time. Serfdom is our fate...
Best clip of the week IMO was Hedge's On Contact... although it is 25 min or so
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DXS0FfxSZs
In another good one, he and Abby discuss the religious right on her show "Empire Files" (25 min too)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TP5gjrh-3Ew
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
I'll try to watch that. Not quite on the same page as Zeese
when it comes to what to do about the mess we're in. He's more into making demands from the oligarchs through the political system whereas I'm more for crushing the oligarchs by changing the political system.
Zeese runs the Popular Resistance blog.
I agreed with Zeese on the need for a platform
Instead of just protesting t-rump we have to have a positive vision of what we are working toward. (Although I haven't been to his site where they lay out their vision.)
And I'm in agreement with you that politics has failed...it is owned lock stock and barrel by the oligarchs....look at the dems...they're a barely walking disaster. There is no seat at the table.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Neo-Serfdom
which is distinguishable from chattel slavery only in that it is supposedly "voluntary". If you want to have some idea how ghastly it can get, look up this book: http://rissa-kerguelen.com/ (Any of the many used-book retailers may be able to get you a copy.)
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
Thanks...
I give that a look. I appreciate the tip.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
One example being unpaid internships
My daughter is now doing clinical time towards her NP, all unpaid. Over 2 years this amounts to hundreds of hours for free. For the Physician she follows, for the University she pays them tuition to work for free for someone else, kind of a double negative. She also has a FT job as an RN.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
Thanks so much for Michael
Thanks so much for Michael Hudson! I love this guy!
(Eat your heart out, Robert Reich!)
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.