It is a Conundrum

When the government is owned and controlled by corporate oligarchs (like some sort of feudal lord and master), how can politics offer a path to social and economic reclamation and restoration of the ecosystem? Add in the distortion of corporate media and it seems like checkmate.

Conundrum indeed...a problem without an answer within the status quo... pointing to the need to change the system entirely.

One example of the challenge we face is Julian Assange's dilemma. Here we have perhaps the most reliable journalist in the world about to be trucked off to a black site prison and tried in secret...with most of his fellow journalists cheering it on. We know he is guilty of telling dirty little secrets of the powerful...with the CIA Vault 7 leaks most irritating to TPTB. They arrested the whistleblower...

Schulte was arrested in August 2017 after allegedly leaking more than 8,000 CIA documents to WikiLeaks, which were published in March of that year. Initially, Schulte was not charged for anything related to that matter, but for child pornography. It wasn't until June of 2018 that a 13-count superseding indictment was issued against him, alleging theft of classified national defense information.

https://sputniknews.com/us/201811011069405779-CIA-Vault-7-New-Charges/
...and are torturing him like they will do to Julian if they get him.
https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/accused-vault-7-leaker-calls-himsel...

In the following discussion it was suggested that Julian would be tried in secret, all the Russiagate narrative said to be confirmed, and Julian locked up for life. All loose ends tied up with one arrest and secret trial.

The fate of Julian Assange is unclear. Washington is determined that he be sent to the U.S. to face criminal charges, most likely under the 1917 Espionage Act. The British government is more than happy to make this happen. Even the Ecuadorians are in on the act. What we are watching unfold in front of our eyes is the criminalization of journalism. CrossTalking with Joe Lauria, Patrick Henningsen, and Gareth Porter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ubLAtsqHEk (25 min)

If you missed last weeks conversation with Joe Lauria and Chris Hedges about Julian's situation, it is worth a listen too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hyZktgMp4Q (28 min)

Gareth Porter, an independent investigative journalist, historian and author, looks at the story. https://www.truthdig.com/articles/u-k-and-ecuador-conspire-to-deliver-ju...

Adding to the circus focused on Julian was The Guardian article about Assange and an alleged meeting with Paul Manafort. Jimmy and the crew explain everything that’s wrong with it… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGdl03jihe8 (26 min)

Glenn Greenwald explains that if Paul Manafort visited Julian Assange there should be ample video and other evidence showing this.
https://theintercept.com/2018/11/27/it-is-possible-paul-manafort-visited...

Then to throw gas on the fire, a CIA agent blames Russia for the Guardian's bs article
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6BzjfuQ_pM (3 min)

Meanwhile the $hill continues her Russiagate narrative. Jimmy and the gang take on the story. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8f3p0gZZlKU (10 min)

Jeremy Corbyn provides quite a contrast to the Clintons and US. Jimmy tells the story.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEj1M7PybZw (8 min)

More media manipulation...Toe the line or you will disappear!
Jim Hightower's article https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/12/01/free-free-press-wall-stree... was not published by Creators’s Syndicate after a decade of printing his work https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/11/30/banned-newspapers-criticiz...

Lose your job with CNN for suggesting Palestine has a right to exist
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/11/30/shameful-and-cowardly-cnn-f...
Cornel West explains the story
https://therealnews.com/stories/cornel-west-responds-to-cnn-firing-marc-...

They prefer you to watch the Trump News Network...
https://www.truthdig.com/cartoons/trump-news-network-video/ (1 min)

Ralph Nader and Chris Hedges discuss the mythology of US democracy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9OJZOMEjOU (25 min)
The constitution does not use the word corporation, company, nor political party, so why are we ruled by them?, asks Ralph.

... the actual governing is being done by miscreants who think, as the Gipper put it, that “government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem.” They also think, as Reagan did, that the way to deal with government is to disable it by impoverishing it, to “starve the beast.” Their miserliness has limits, however; it only applies to those parts of government that serve socially useful purposes. Abandoning all pretenses of fiscal conservatism, they think that the parts that keep the military-industrial complex in business or that keep all but the hyper-rich in line through the use or threat of force ought to get heaps of money thrown their way.

https://therealnews.com/trumpland-get-ready-for-the-storm-ahead

Richard Wolff takes on the idea that "Capital Hates the Government" (unless they need it).
(7 minutes into the clip)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyEm1baqVHU

Chris Hedges discusses David Harvey's idea that Neoliberalism generates little wealth. Rather, it redistributes it upward into the hands of the ruling elites. Harvey calls this “accumulation by dispossession.” https://www.truthdig.com/articles/neoliberalisms-dark-path-to-fascism/

From migrants on our border to the protests in Paris this week, the weapon of choice is tear gas. Chris and Dr. Anna Feigenbaum, author of Tear Gas: From the Battlefields of World War I to the Streets of Today, explains how the use of these chemical weapons are used to attack and terrorize an opponent by attacking the senses simultaneously, “producing both physical and psychological trauma.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGMyMSU8psA (26 min)

Endless war...

Both parties equally culpable. Consider the conversation between Obomber and lifelong hawk, James Baker, who served as secretary of state when the US waged war on Iraq for the first time....

In their discussion, both Obama and Baker lamented the decline in US imperial power across the globe. They agreed that the world cannot run smoothly without the United States as an international hegemon.

https://therealnews.com/columns/obama-tells-wall-street-to-thank-him-for...

...no matter how hard the U.S. military worked, or how many years it committed to building an Afghan army in its own image, and no matter how much air and logistical support that army received, the Afghan Security Forces cannot win. The sooner Washington accepts this truth over the more comforting lie, the fewer of our adulated American soldiers will have to die.

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/america-is-headed-for-military-defeat-...

In a historic vote that could "mark the beginning of the end of American complicity" in Saudi Arabia's mass atrocities in Yemen, the Senate on Wednesday voted to advance Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) Yemen War Powers resolution by an overwhelming margin of 63-37.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/11/28/historic-vote-senate-advanc...

Pushing for war with Russia

It’s Ukraine vs Russia again. A minor maritime incident on the Kerch Strait is said to be anything between a major international crisis to a cheap campaign trick as Ukraine enters an election cycle. Take your pick. But one thing is for sure: Russia is deemed aggressive by the west when defending its sovereignty. CrossTalking with Mary Dejevsky, Adriel Kasonta, and Michael Maloof.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGPiEfRgLgM (25 min)

National Security advisor John Bolton visited Brazil on Thursday, to find areas of agreement with Brazil’s recently elected far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro. Key targets include Venezuela and Cuba (video or text)
https://therealnews.com/stories/bolton-meets-far-right-president-elect-b...

David Harvey takes on the Brazilian election and the growing alliance between the neoliberals and right wing populism (30 min audio podcast)
https://www.democracyatwork.info/acc_the_brazilian_elections

Honduras and it's situation was discussed by Dana Frank, professor emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her new book is titled, “The Long Honduran Night: Resistance , Terror, and the United States in the Aftermath of the Coup.”
(video or text - 3 parts)
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/11/28/brother_of_honduran_president_is...
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/11/28/it_is_not_a_natural_disaster
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/11/28/honduras_as_berta_caceres_murder...

Battling for a Clean Ecosystem

The War Over Clean Water and Food - Lee Camp w/ Scott Edwards
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIEJTgKhhAI (1st 15 min)

The White House released an alarming climate change report on Black Friday, attempting to bury a 1,656-page government assessment that directly contradicts President Trump’s history of climate change denial.
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/11/26/trump_admin_tries_to_bury_1

BILL MCKIBBEN: This report is important and it follows on a string of other reports—a month ago, the report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, talking about what the future holds. None of it in a sense is new or surprising. We have been getting this warning for many years. What is finally happening, I think, is that the country is beginning to pay some attention. The Trump administration tried to bury this by putting it out on Black Friday but it didn’t work very well, in part because the report came right on the heels of the catastrophic fires in California.

https://www.democracynow.org/2018/11/26/bill_mckibben_new_report_reconfi...

Naomi Klein is pushing a green new deal.
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/naomi-klein-on-the-urgency-of-a-green-...

Max and Stacy take a look at US fracking and how it cost more to extract oil than it is worth on today's market. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqb1lao-Ub0 (26 min)

Perhaps legal actions are our hope???
Catherine Gauthier of ENvironnement JEUnesse says Justin Trudeau’s government has failed to take meaningful action on climate change...The class action complaint begins with these words: What is the purpose of a government if not to protect the lives and safety of its citizens? (video or text) https://therealnews.com/stories/massive-class-action-launched-against-ca...

These issues inequality and environmental justice are all tied together...
James Boyce of PERI discusses how inequalities in power encourage the creation of environmental damage. Inequality disempowers some communities while allowing the powerful to profit at the environment’s and everyone else’s expense (video or text)
https://therealnews.com/stories/how-inequality-increases-environmental-d...

This week at the Sander Institute meeting there was a call for a global effort to unite.

...we cannot simply go back to the failed status quo of the last few decades. Unfettered globalization promised peace and prosperity. But it delivered  financial crisis, needless war, and disastrous climate change, instead.
The  time  has  come  for  progressives to form a grassroots movement for global  justice:  to mobilize workers, women and  the disenfranchised all around the world  behind a shared vision of democracy, prosperity, sustainability, and solidarity.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/11/30/it-time-progressives-world-...

Bernie released a 10 point plan focused on domestic issues this week. Several scholars suggest he add a foreign policy piece...
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/11/28/open-letter-scholars-and-ac...

Are we able to change fast enough? We know time is of the essence. There are efforts. Extinction Rebellion and the Sunrise movement pushing for a green new deal. Are people more powerful than corporations? I don't know. However I do understand that the physical changes on our planet will overpower all people if we don't rise to the challenge. There are also promising developments like HVDC technology to export renewable energy from deserts! Nobel Prize laureate and Climate Change Advisor to the UN Secretary General of the UN and ex-Ambassador for Climate Change of the Republic of Korea, H.E. Rae Kwon Chung explains. (10 min) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmjzsFEFZrw

In the story of the Gordian knot Alexander uses his sword to cut through the knot and free up the historian....using an unexpected approach to deal with the conundrum of the knot. We must find our way out of the conundrum with a similar approach. Will we take to our streets like they have in Paris? In my corner of the world it isn't likely. I think we must aim for the pocketbook. Imagine a week without driving and gas purchases for example. A boycott Amazon and Wal-mart month or some similar actions to demand the unwinding of the oligarchy. The conundrum is we've become a nation accustomed to our comforts, addicted to our entertainment media, entrapped by debt, and paralyzed from acting by the despair of the task before us.

So I'm back to my broken record comment that at a minimum we can still act as individuals. Grow a garden, plant trees, minimize using fossil fuels and maximize your green energy footprint, preach peace at every opportunity, promote movements like extinction rebellion... I know it is a drop in the ocean, but all we can do is what we can do.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts and stories below. I hope you all have a nice Sunday free of conundrums!