The Weekly Watch
Prisoners, Hostages, Tradewars,
and Weapons of Mass Distraction
and Weapons of Mass Distraction
Another week speeds by as spring (or fall in the really deep south) unfolds. This week it strikes me how easily we are distracted from understanding our world and situation. Some things seem so obvious. The oligarchs no longer make a secret of their domination. Just a glance at Brazil should make us aware (not to mention Venezuela nor Honduras....or even our own territory of Puerto Rico). The rush to create Russia as an enemy is obscenely obvious as diplomats are expelled across the globe without a shred of evidence. Truthsayers are silenced... Assange blocked from the internet in the embassy and Snowden is exiled to Russia. But like emerging seeds teachers are rising up across our country, students are speaking out, and movements are growing. It is time to escape the bonds of commercial corporate media and help people understand our common condition.
Brazil seems a potent story. The corruption was obvious as they ousted Dilma (essentially during the Olympics) without a reasonable cause. If elections don't work for the oligarchs, they stack the court and bring down duly elected politicians. Now Lula, past president and union leader who helped most Brazilians improve their lives, is the leading candidate for the next presidential election. He's been convicted without evidence...as was Dilma. Will he run for president from prison (like Debs)?
Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research and president of Just Foreign Policy, who argues “the investigation is political, and that everything [Judge Moro is] trying to do is political, including the latest order that Lula surrender today.” (video or text).
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/4/6/brazils_popular_ex_president_lula_...
The Supreme Court's 5-6 ruling, which requires presidential front-runner Lula da Silva to begin serving his 12-year sentence immediately, is "one more in a series of blows against Brazilian democracy," says Brazil Wire's Brian Mier. (13 min or text) http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&I...
Lula heads to jail (40 sec)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbb-Biq5JXA
2 min message from Lula....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6BYPwO3ZhQ
As I said a potent story worth some thought.
Lula's saga brought to mind the inane story of the Russian diplomat expulsion. There continues to be sanctions but still no evidence. Jimmy Dore describes the situation. (12 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu_78K4XbjA
Linda Wood posted an interesting piece on the story...
https://off-guardian.org/2018/04/07/the-rapidly-evolving-skripal-story-e...
Too bad we don't have Israel, Israel, Israel instead of Russia , Russia, Russia because it is obvious they control US actions and policy much more than Russia. Let's start with Larry Wilkerson....
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:21489:US-Blocks-UN-Investigation-into-Is...
A documentary film narrated by legendary musician and activist Roger Waters of Pink Floyd fame trains a harsh light on Israel's decades-long propaganda war in the U.S. (1.5 hours)
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&I...
Abby Martin explains how politicians are purchased.
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:21507:Empire-Files%3A-How-Lobbyists-Weap...
...and how the left is divided....
https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/04/06/two-dogmas-of-liberals-nowadays/
The division can be seen in this interview....
The whistleblower and transgender activist Chelsea Manning discusses Senator Ben Cardin, fighting Nazis without resorting to police, and making mistakes like going to an alt-right party
(26 min or text)
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:21517:Chelsea-Manning-On-Nazis%2C-the-Su...
The main story missing from corporate news is climate and fossil fuels. The climate crisis holds little interest for the Trump and Russia-obsessed corporate media. The fact that the world stands at the eve of ecological self-destruction, with the Trump White House in the lead, elicits barely a whisper in the commercial news media. Unlike Stormy Daniels....
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/russia-madness-on-the-eve-of-destructi...
The new strategy is to make protest of pipelines illegal. Bill Quigley is a law professor at Loyola University New Orleans and a longtime civil and human rights lawyer. He is working with a number of environmental groups in Louisiana.
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&I...
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&I...
Notes from the Bayou Bridge pipeline (owned by Energy Transfer Partners) protest.....
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/saving-whats-left-of-paradise/
The endless wars.....
Syria
Eva Bartlett with Lee Camp does a great job dispelling myths about Syria. (15 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfSrk2HfRN8
Marking a new phase in the Syrian War, Turkey is taking over cities in northern Syria, and children in occupied Afrin are being brainwashed with pro-Erdogan propaganda....Turkish-Kurdish journalist Ali Ornek (16 min or text) http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&I...
Max Keiser on today's economy and stock market falls (15 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnbHxzY4g14
Richard Wolff explains why we have increasing inequality
https://www.rdwolff.com/wall_street_bankers_worsening_inequality
Powerful …. MLK 50 years later....(43 min or text)... The words still ring true...
Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one's own bosom and in the surrounding world.
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:21505:MLK-Documentary%3A-%27When-Silence...
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/4/4/mlks_fight_against_racism_militari...
Glenn Ford shares his view...
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/imperialist-america-50-years-after-mlk...
...as does Jimmy Dore (17 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogfctc3wx-M
Current effort to create a poor peoples campaign
https://poorpeoplescampaign.org/
Teachers...are sure creating a stir and it gives me great hope we might awake.
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/new-teacher-activism-signals-a-revolt-...
Jimmy Dore weighs in(20 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzKx0i4jitc
It has been a beautiful spring week here in NE Alabama. The dogwoods are putting on a show. This week it struck me how media avoids obvious important stories. Julian is still kept silent and illegally confined. Honduras is still dealing with a corrupt election that left the real winner out of office (with the approval of the US). Venezuela continues to deal with our onslaught of sanctions. Droning and our illegal occupation in Syria continue unabated. Israel pulls our string and calls the shots....and not a word of these stories and so many more in corporate media. That's one reason I appreciate you and this community. Keep speaking truth to power.
I look forward to your additional stories, comments, and thoughts.....
Comments
Good Sunday morning, Lookout ~~
It’s been a while since I checked in. I’ve been reading but life has been busy for me and my little family.
I look forward to going back and checking out the articles. It takes me most of the day. Thanks, as always, for the work you do to bring this to us. I’m not sure what I’d do without c99p and all essayists bringing truth to us.
We are badly in need of moisture in NM. But, there is none in sight for the next 10 days, and there was none in the previous 10 days. Sigh. We’re just getting spring winds that almost knock you down. Sigh.
Oh, well, such is life!
Have a beautiful day, everyone!
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
nice to "see" you
Sounds like you had a nice visit with your family. I hope you get rain soon. It is dry out your way...
They now have a solar powered dew machine...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/04/13/thi...
Perhaps they will become more common? I plan to add another cistern tank down by the garden in the next year or so. We currently have 2000 gallons or rain stored. Mighty difficult to garden without water.
all the best!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Thanks for the visual
of our sorry state of no rain, lol. We are planning to put in more water storage tanks, too. We've depleted all we've gotten and are now hauling water to sustain our garlic. We've got 1,000 plants trying to make it. They'll survive. We hope to put in a new well this year, also, which requires a minimum $15,000 investment. It will be worth it.
Take care!
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Hey Lookout, thanks for the framing and all the links.
Your Eva Bartlett/Lee Camp interview led me to several good Bartlett vids. Here she is Feb 2018 telling more truth about Syria -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD05gHICMKU
JVolvo2
she does a great job covering Syria
Venessa Beeley is also good...
http://21stcenturywire.com/author/21vbeeley/
http://21stcenturywire.com/2016/09/23/exclusive-the-real-syria-civil-def...
Glad you came by...
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Good morning Lookout
There is hope in that the teachers have finally had
enough, Palestinians also and the children, most
importantly the children, I have hope that they spread
their wings albeit against a strong headwind(corporations
MIC/SV/WS/DC) as Hedges touch's on with a few short video's.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-07/chris-hedges-us-citizens-are-l...
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
There are hopeful signs
It is the corporate media which I think stifles protest the most. T-rump's fake news mantra (ironic from such a liar) may be helping more people ignore the propaganda. We can hope!
PS thanks for the Hedges interview link....
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Thank you, lookout, for those many thought-provoking nuggets.
Happy Sunday.
my pleasure
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
First you cut the compensation, and then
you lower the qualifications to match.
Gov. Snyder signs bill to change teaching requirements to alleviate teacher shortage
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
onward down the spiral...
If they would let teachers lead their communities to design better schools instead of morons at the state capital dictating local school structure and procedure we would all see benefits.
We are slaves to the past and organize our schools accordingly. People want schools to be like their school used to be. What a mistake. We would unite communities around the local schools if we were wise...but you live in MI and I live in AL.
In turn of the century 1900 Gary Indiana they experimented with an interesting model...
trying to develop workers who were scholars and scholars that could work.
https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JSTE/v48n1/pdf/kaluf.pdf
The experiments with charters revolve on how to turn a profit, not how to teach children and build community.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
The teachers will capitulate the second they get crumbs.
There. I said it. The United States as a whole doesn't have the balls to break free from the capitalist system and any talk of doing so scares the shit out of them. I'd like to be hopeful, but the cynic in me knows better. The moment the Porky Dems take any measure of control this McResistance shit will stop and business will continue on as usual. To expect otherwise would be naive.
Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.
Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.
the OK teachers were given a crumb...
...but are still striking. Social change occurs at glacial speed. All we can do is our part. The struggle is constant...ask Sisyphus.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
And in capitalist economies, change doesn't happen at all.
And Change™ only occurs when the capitalists give the okay, usually because it won't interfere with their racket.
Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.
Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.
no doubt we live in a corporate oligarchy
...but it seems to me the system will come down...perhaps when the dollar collapses? It is a failed system that will not be able to persist. Of course we'll probably just trade oligarchs.
All the best...
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Movie find...
I have been looking for this film which I remembered from my youth. There it was free for the watching on youtube...for awhile at least.
A thousand clowns (1965)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Thousand_Clowns
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGeq3aMQpbU (2 hrs)
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Thank you Lookout, as always.
I always enjoy Hedges and agree mass civil disobedience is our best path against our oligarchy.
Remember when Kos Himself banned the use of the word "oligarchy"? I suppose the ban has been lifted so Russian oligarchs recently sanctioned can be discussed.
Let's chant: Whos' oligarch? OUR Oligarch!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
We are tribal in nature
that's why it's OUR oligarch. Read something this week about the correlation of sports, tribalism, and aggression...can't remember where though. Hard to escape our nature.
Good to "see" you.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
perhaps we should call fake news by it's real name
propaganda
truth is considered foreign influence, world peace is a threat to national security
good line!
and accurate.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
US-China trade war a boon to Iran's pistachio exports
Thanks for The Weekly Watch, it is great. IranNews illustrates Trump's backward bazooka method.
US-China trade war a boon to Iran's pistachio exports
Woo, can't wait for the blow back. But wait there's more, mix up trade and politics why not, who doesn't.
PressTV: Iran warns of 'special surprise' if nuclear deal ditched
Oh boy, can't wait. I think maybe NK already transferred their deathly nuke tech to Iran, and Trump is gonna "take it in the shorts" from multiple negotiating positions soon. Hope he doesn't go ballistic losing his shit.
nuts
...too late
I continue to see the prez as the greed of capitalism incarnate.
Have a good one and thanks for the links!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”