The Weekly Watch

A Judgemental Case or...
A Mental Case Judge?

Have no doubt, the courts are being stacked with corporate elitists...not just in the US but around the world. There's no better illustration than the ongoing saga in Brazil. First while the Olympics were in Brazil the courts illegally oust Dilma as President and install Temer who failed to be elected several times. This summer past-President Lula is leading the polls, so he's sent to prison on trumped up charges...not given his constitutional rights. In Poland they are removing 27 judges from their Supreme Court. Around the world courts have been complicit with coups. Honduras comes to mind.

justice_0.png

Let's start with the absurdity of of Brasil's court system...in video or text
https://therealnews.com/stories/the-near-release-of-brazils-lula

MARK WEISBROT: I think the U.S. has contributed in so many ways it would take an hour at least to summarize just some of this history. But I think the U.S. has been involved in, in most of these countries in various ways. Obviously in Venezuela they’ve been involved since the coup in 2002, and they tried to overthrow the government and tried to help people topple the government on several occasions there. In Brazil they supported the coup against Dilma, the parliamentary coup. So they didn’t do that strongly, but they sent enough signals, for example, I’ve mentioned this before on this show, right as the House was voting to impeach Dilma without actually presenting a crime that she committed, the head of the Foreign Relations Committee from the Senate came and met with the number three official from the U.S. State Department, Tom Shannon. And then of course in August of that year, the Secretary of State John Kerry went down there and had a press conference with the Acting Foreign Minister Jose Serra. And they, of course, talked about how great relations with the U.S. were going to be before Dilma was actually removed from office. So these were ways of endorsing the coup.

And of course, the Department of Justice contributed to , the FBI, the Department of Justice contributed to the investigation that was instrumental in imprisoning Lula. Now, what they did in that investigation we don’t know exactly, but we do know enough about it to know that it wasn’t a neutral investigation. That is, the investigation did end up decapitating the Workers’ Party for now, first helping get rid of Dilma, but more importantly, or more substantially, in terms of its contribution, they they helped put Lula in prison and prevent him from running for office.

https://therealnews.com/stories/us-interventions-in-latin-america-contin...

We forget Honduras and our support of a coup under democraps
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6mi2WaImVI (3 min) and now recognition of a flawed election by the rethuglicans https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRahX06hA0E (2.5 min)
https://therealnews.com/stories/honduras-the-never-ending-coup (video or test)
It is a never ending coup against any country daring to try to help their people rather than the corporations.

The Union of South American Nations – UNASUR – was an ambitious project to integrate South America not just on economic terms, but also on political and social terms, but the rightward drift in Latin America is leading to its dissolution, with the unfortunate help of Ecuador’s government, where its headquarters are, says former foreign minister Guillaume Long (video or text)
https://therealnews.com/stories/rightward-shift-in-latin-america-spellin...

Venezuela and Iran policies seem similar...focused on regime change.
The Trump administration imposed sanctions on both Iran and on Venezuela, which are both aimed at regime change, but in the case of Iran media and other countries are resisting them, while in Venezuela’s case they are not being questioned,
https://therealnews.com/stories/us-sanctions-on-iran-and-venezuela-illeg...

not so blind.png

The Courts around the world provide legitimacy to the the oiligarchs. Justice has an eye out for them.

In Poland there are direct protests about the court

Mass protests have been taking place in front of the Supreme Court in Warsaw, Poland. The former president, Lech Walesa, who is known for his leadership in the Solidarity Party that led to the liberation of Poland from the Soviet Union in the ’80s, and then for abandoning the labor struggles of working class in favor of neoliberalism, is a part of these protests, and is calling for civil disobedience.

https://therealnews.com/stories/polish-government-purges-judiciary-to-en...

If all goes as PiS leaders have planned, about 40 percent of the country’s judges will be forced out of office. They will be replaced by people loyal to the government and subject to dismissal at any time. PiS couched its takeover in the form of an order lowering judges’ retirement age. Every judge over age 65 will now be dismissed except for those who are approved for continued service by the current regime. This amounts to a political takeover of the independent Polish judiciary.
https://www.econotimes.com/Polands-judicial-purge-another-step-toward-au...

jdz180702c-420x292.jpg

Here's a one minute cartoon about the Trump court.
https://www.truthdig.com/cartoons/the-supreme-court-gets-trumpier-video/

Trump's nominee, Kavanaugh has ruled in favor of the US government in cases he has heard which gave him the opportunity to expand its war powers.
https://preview.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/07/14/kava-j14.html

Kavanaugh’s appellate court decisions and public comments suggest that he will accelerate the trend toward a political system dominated by wealthy elites — often operating in the shadows, without any form of disclosure.
https://theintercept.com/2018/07/12/brett-kavanaugh-supreme-court-donor-...

Looks like red state dims will cave and this elitist war monger will become a supreme court justice...
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/07/14/swing-vote-senators-signal-po...
...despite Feinstein and the Faux resistance
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/14/kavanaugh-supreme-court-dianne...
I guess she has to do something progressive...Dianne Feinstein lost the California Democratic Party’s endorsement in a stunning vote Saturday night at the party’s executive board meeting in Oakland. https://theintercept.com/2018/07/15/kevin-de-leon-stuns-dianne-feinstein...

Speaking of the dims...Obama and his officials are living large
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/obama-officials-are-living-large-in-tr...

The US and Canada have quite different approaches to court appointments
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7ZohlgqT1g (9 min)

jdz180629c-850x574.jpg

Definition of trumpery
a : worthless nonsense
b : trivial or useless articles : junk

The other big story this week has been Trumps visit to Europe...
With Trump, it is always about money, and he wants more from NATO countries
https://southafricatoday.net/world-news/europe/its-all-about-money-analy...
William Hartung and Aaron Mate discuss the story (video or text)
https://therealnews.com/stories/trumps-real-nato-agenda-more-money-for-war

NATO to keep on keeping on in the Afghan forever war....
http://www.thekabultimes.gov.af/2018/07/14/nato-allies-continued-coopera...

And now an ad provided by the forever war machine (2.5 min)

Trump is consistently inconsistent. On day one of the summit he threatened to pull the US out of NATO over the diminutive defense expenditure of other alliance members. On day two he stated that the United States’ commitment to the alliance remains “very strong".
http://econintersect.com/pages/contributors/contributor.php?post=2018071...

As usual Trump doesn't let facts interfere with his rhetoric
TRUMP: “I didn’t criticize the prime minister.” - news conference Friday with British Prime Minister Theresa May.
THE FACTS: He criticized her.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/jul/14/ap-fact-check-trumps-eu...
https://www.opb.org/news/article/npr-fact-check-trumps-claims-on-nato-sp...

The meeting with Putin may be focused on Iran (or perhaps Trump's Moscow hotel he wants to build). Days after Netanyahu’s visit to Moscow, Trump will meet with Putin in Helsinki. But despite talk of a “grand bargain” that enlists Russia in helping the US-Israel-Saudi-UAE front against Iran, don’t expect it to happen, says professor and syndicated columnist Rami Khouri (video or text)
https://therealnews.com/stories/can-trump-israel-and-gulf-allies-get-put...

One thing is for sure, the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia are fomenting a war with Iran. (video or text) https://therealnews.com/stories/new-u-s-sanctions-fuel-protests-and-econ...

The best way to understand Russia is to get to know some Russians. Paul Jay has begun a series of conversations with Aleksandr Buzgalin. He is a Professor of Political Economy at Moscow State University. He is also editor of the independent democratic left magazine Alternatives, and is a coordinator of the Russian social movement Alternatives, author of more then 20 books and hundreds of articles, translated into English, German and many other languages. (video or text)
https://therealnews.com/series/reality-asserts-itself-alexander-buzgalin

An anonymous member analyses the indictment of the 12 Russian intelligence officers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XmHlP5gB2g (10 min)

Ad-Man-1000-420x501.jpg

All three branches of the US government are broken, and there seems little hope for reformation. We are a failed state. All I can offer is a walk in the woods (or nature for those in a different ecosystem) to keep us sane. http://www.yesmagazine.org/happiness/if-meditation-is-not-your-thing-try...

By way of a conclusion let me leave you with this 16 minute speech by Chris Hedges. I hope you find it meaningful and hopeful.

I look forward to your stories, comments, and ideas below.

Share
up
0 users have voted.

Comments

The Aspie Corner's picture

up
0 users have voted.

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.

Lookout's picture

@The Aspie Corner

US capitalists sold equipment to Germany in WWII.

up
0 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

divineorder's picture

Enjoyed Hedges inspiring speech. Maybe I missed it but the youtube description does not show the historical info such as date, location, event context of the speech. It is well worth listening to nonetheless.

up
0 users have voted.

A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

Lookout's picture

@divineorder

...but is obviously older, at the Lincoln Memorial in DC from the looks of it. Sorry I don't know more about it. Thanks for coming by.

up
0 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

divineorder's picture

@Lookout @Lookout I looked up his wiki. Interesting guy.

up
0 users have voted.

A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

Lookout's picture

@divineorder

New York Times Reporter, Chris Hedges was Booed off the Stage and had his Microphone Cut Twice as he Delivered a Graduation Speech on War and Empire at Rockford College in Illinois.

“As I looked out on the crowd, I was witnessing things I had witnessed in the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina or in squares in Belgrade… it breaks my heart when I see it in my country.”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3494.htm

up
0 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

lotlizard's picture

@Lookout  
It’s that kind of mob reaction on the part of students and faculty to an anti-war speaker.

The prevailing culture at that college probably pats itself on the back about how tolerant of dissent and supporting of diversity they are.

up
0 users have voted.
mimi's picture

@Lookout @Lookout
just to say when Hedges gave that speech - it was Memorial Day 2017.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkzxWzdRhVI]

The Peace Report

Am 04.06.2017 veröffentlicht

Abonnieren 2773
Chris Hedges speaking at the antiwar rally at the Lincoln Memorial organized by Veterans For Peace (VFP) on Memorial Day Weekend 2017. Hedges is an advisory board member of VFP.

up
0 users have voted.
divineorder's picture

@mimi

up
0 users have voted.

A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

Lookout's picture

@mimi

Hope you're doing well. Seems T-rumps visit has the people in Germany shaking their heads.

up
0 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

divineorder's picture

I usually drop a few why nots onto her posts on what a good Pres he was but did not.

Maybe I'll go back and put in the link you included.

What a sorry sorry degenerate excuse for a human being he is.

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/obama-officials-are-living-large-in-tr...

Since departing the White House in January 2017, Barack Obama has kept a conspicuously low profile, surfacing briefly to condemn the Trump administration’s violation of the Iran nuclear deal and offer a few, inadequate words about its child separation policy. During that time, he has grown fabulously wealthy, inking a $65 million book contract and a Netflix television deal and delivering speeches to Wall Street firms for several hundred thousand dollars a pop.

up
0 users have voted.

A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

That's some heavy shit Hedges putting down. Think about it. Empathy or lack of. Lines drawn.

Just wow

up
0 users have voted.

@QMS

and walks the walk.

gotta respect the man.

up
0 users have voted.

@irishking terms of political evolution need to be spoken and understood

up
0 users have voted.
Lookout's picture

@QMS @irishking

That was the best clip I saw this week and I wanted to feature it in hopes it would draw more ears and minds. Glad to see folks enjoying it.

up
0 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

detroitmechworks's picture

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZUYg4AXSpc]

Sorry, but when it comes to actual RESISTANCE, nobody does it like the Poles.

Still writing, still feeling good, and I hope to soon be returning to CNU, just as soon as I get an idea where to go with it. (I know folks like the cults, so maybe a discussion of one of the major ones that we've gathered from fragmentary evidence would be interesting. The most popular seem to be the Maggot Cult and the Witherians...)

And my newest poem is up in Community Content.

up
0 users have voted.

I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

Lookout's picture

@detroitmechworks

I've been enjoying the Logos series. It's caused me to re-read those ancient stories, myths, and characters as you are going along. It's been hard to keep up with you. Make hay while the sun shines. All the best.

up
0 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

detroitmechworks's picture

@Lookout All thanks to Phil Smith in my 5th grade class who introduced us to mythology around the world. Most kids gave it up pretty early, but I never stopped enjoying the Greek myths in particular. Rick Riordan's bowdlerized version in particular gives me the hives.

But such is the fate of all characters in the public domain. Riordan in particular strikes me as a guy who really wanted to tell a "Son of Aquaman" story, but couldn't get the rights.

I'm aiming a little higher, I hope.

up
0 users have voted.

I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

the 2 main teachers unions

here is the head of AFT on Bernie

up
0 users have voted.

In the J20 Trials, the Feds Said They Went After “Bad Protesters.” That Just Means Another Crackdown on Dissent.

You may recall that the feds, the prosecutors, faked the videos. Some data nerds found out. The charges were dropped on the J20 and now they are suing the justice dept, or someone

up
0 users have voted.
Lookout's picture

@DonMidwest

That's the trick I used with my kids to mimic the mantle...of course it isn't hot like the mantle but it has similarities -
something like this...
http://chucklumio.com/Plate%20tectonics%20Simulating%20Plasticity%20of%2...

Thankfully the inauguration protesters entrapped by deep state provocateurs escaped our injustice system. Sadly Standing Rock water protectors have not. https://theintercept.com/2018/07/13/standing-rock-red-fawn-fallis-senten...

The teacher unions are way behind grassroot teacher leaders...always have been. Where the people lead, leaders will follow....as the saying goes.

I worked with VISTA for a while as a kid, but my FBI file comes from hanging out with new dealer socialists and civil rights activists who were already being watched. Ed Snowden convinces me there is nothing we can do about it. So I advocate for walks in the woods or park or backyard, and speaking truth to power.

good to "see" you this Sunday. All the best. Still have some Latour reading on my list.

up
0 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

there was a 3 month full field FBI investigation

i grew up in a leftist, activist family and spent 2 years at Berkeley 1965-67 and marched, signed petitions but did not join organizations

i was a trouble maker in training and I have a severe problem with language so the 7 hour per day in audio lingual Spanish didn't work, and I was kicked out

that is not important, but I wonder how big the FBI file is on me. I downloaded info to find out, but have never done it.

here is the case of a woman under surveillance for many, many years in Romania and the author was able to see the file that the security forces in Poland collected on him

Nobody, I think, remains quite the same after reading their file. The first and best-known account of the experience in English is Timothy Garton Ash’s The File (1997), and near the end of that wise and sensitive book, he tells himself: ‘My new principle of As If is … try to live in this free country as if the Stasi were always watching you … can you live so you would not be embarrassed’ by reading your file? After reading my Polish file a few years ago, I would add: ‘From now on, can you live as if you were even for a moment unnoticed, out of sight, out of earshot, and truly alone?’

Katherine Verdery was a young, high-spirited American when she arrived in Romania in 1973, a Stanford postgraduate intending to research an anthropology thesis on Romanian village life. She came as a bit of a leftie, 1968 vintage, inclined to mock the superstitious anti-communism current in the United States. She came with bounding American optimism about ‘people’: if you were transparent and honest and friendly, said what you thought and trusted your new friends, then nothing could go badly wrong. In Ceauşescu’s Romania? Poor Kathy!

She was to work in that country, on and off, for 15 years. Over that time she learned a Romanian so fluent that she was often taken for a local and acquired wonderfully intimate knowledge of the way rural communities in her part of Romania were structured. Through sometimes heartbreaking experience, and through very hard work, she slowly learned to love and understand this extraordinary nation. She also learned, not least through reading her own Securitate file afterwards, new and unexpected ways to understand herself.

Verdery was fortunate. And yet this story suggests that the Securitate came to find her almost too interesting to arrest or expel. Her file, when she was allowed to read it, was almost three thousand pages long. Compiling it, counting not only the watchers on foot or in cars but the transcribers of telephone calls and microphone recordings, the electronic technicians, the recruiters of local informers, the case assessors and their staff, gave work to literally hundreds of men (and a few women) over many years. Verdery reckons that there were probably almost half a million informers in Romania, while the Securitate itself numbered some fifteen thousand. For comparison, the Stasi – in a smaller country – had 93,000 full employees and 178,000 registered informers.

Don’t imagine you’re smarter

up
0 users have voted.
mimi's picture

and conclude that your dog may indeed be your best friend. At least he only barks and wags his tail and his affection is independent from what you said, with whom you shared your bed or who was your mental comrade and fellow activist friend.

That article disgust me more than I want to allow it to myself, ie. disgust me of what to think about the character of humans.

Only consolation is that she gave so many People a well Paid Job over the years. Men have to eat. As Long as they don't eat my dog …

Verdery was fortunate. And yet this story suggests that the Securitate came to find her almost too interesting to arrest or expel. Her file, when she was allowed to read it, was almost three thousand pages long. Compiling it, counting not only the watchers on foot or in cars but the transcribers of telephone calls and microphone recordings, the electronic technicians, the recruiters of local informers, the case assessors and their staff, gave work to literally hundreds of men (and a few women) over many years. Verdery reckons that there were probably almost half a million informers in Romania, while the Securitate itself numbered some fifteen thousand. For comparison, the Stasi – in a smaller country – had 93,000 full employees and 178,000 registered informers.

Thanks for posting the article.

up
0 users have voted.
mimi's picture

@mimi
[video:https://youtu.be/TP5gjrh-3Ew]

turbo-charged neo-liberalism - Christian Right - Alt Right - Domionism - Federalist Society - seeped into workings of power - christianized fascis - ethics-free Administration -

they pull you into the backrooms, they sever you from your families, they brook many people down, Christrian Right is more dangerous than the Alt Right -

Strains of deep cruelty within the Christian Right.

up
0 users have voted.
divineorder's picture

@mimi

up
0 users have voted.

A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

mimi's picture

@divineorder
Thank you for the link. Right now it is too much for me to read slowly through it. I hope I will later. Sometimes I wished authors would summarize in the beginning of their essays explaining what it is all about.

Greetings from a wannabe grandma, who is frustrated that those kids These days do not want to get kids. Not that I do not understand why… but heh … ok I will read that article and let you know when I am done with it.

I need to grow some apple trees in Addition to other trees for heating supplies. At least then I have something I can offer someone to get seduced and laid. …

Boy I am too tired. Have a good day and thank you for the link to that Video.

up
0 users have voted.
Lookout's picture

@mimi

religion based on hate.

Your reference to apples down thread made me think of all the mythology around that fruit...

DMW logos series is based on the Greek myth...
The Greek goddess of discord, Eris, became disgruntled after she was excluded from the wedding of Peleus and Thetis. In retaliation, she tossed a golden apple inscribed Kallisti ('For the most beautiful one'), into the wedding party. Three goddesses claimed the apple: Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. Paris of Troy was appointed to select the recipient. After being bribed by both Hera and Athena, Aphrodite tempted him with the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen of Sparta. He awarded the apple to Aphrodite, thus indirectly causing the Trojan War.

The Norse myth is also interesting...
In Norse mythology, the goddess Iðunn was the appointed keeper of golden apples that kept the Æsir young (or immortal) forever. Iðunn was abducted by Þjazi the giant, who used Loki to lure Iðunn and her apples out of Ásgarðr. The Æsir began to age without Iðunn's apples, so they coerced Loki into rescuing her. After borrowing Freyja's falcon skin, Loki liberated Iðunn from Þjazi by transforming her into a nut for the flight back. Þjazi gave chase in the form of an eagle, whereupon reaching Ásgarðr he was set aflame by a bonfire lit by the Æsir. With the return of Iðunn's apples, the Æsir regained their lost youth. Apple trees were the symbol of rebirth and beauty; the apple tree was sacred in Norse mythology.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_(symbolism)

Religion (as with apples) can be seen in many ways. Growing fruit trees is perhaps more productive than the religion and myths about them?

Wishing you the best!

up
0 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”