The Politics of Imagined Opinion By Prof. James Tracy

11 March, 2013Global Research

Where do you locate yourself on the political spectrum? Are you liberal or conservative? On “the left”, “the right”, or perhaps you’re a bit of both (“moderate”). It is no secret that American mass culture often blunts the capacity for civic engagement and political awareness. Yet those who pursue an identity in acceptable political dialogue are less aware of how the parameters of American politics have been carefully crafted to elicit vicarious and seemingly meaningful participation for the politically inclined.

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The “Alternative Media” Challenges Officialdom’s Views By Colin Todhunter

22 February, 2013Global Research

news1

The mainstream media is under threat. And the threat is in the form of what is known as the ‘alternative media’. Decades ago, the ‘underground’ media took the form of pamphlets and booklets.

These days, it’s no longer ‘underground’ and you don’t need money to cover print and distribution costs. It’s very much alive and kicking above ground and is there for all to access on the net.

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The “Alternative Media” Challenges Officialdom’s Views By Colin Todhunter

22 February, 2013Global Research

news1

The mainstream media is under threat. And the threat is in the form of what is known as the ‘alternative media’. Decades ago, the ‘underground’ media took the form of pamphlets and booklets.

These days, it’s no longer ‘underground’ and you don’t need money to cover print and distribution costs. It’s very much alive and kicking above ground and is there for all to access on the net.

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Video: Neoliberalizing Nature and Privatizing the Air By Patrick Bond

7 January, 2013The Real News Network

 

Patrick Bond: In 2013 bankers will increase their efforts to make money out of the climate crisis and put a dollar value on everything

 

Bio

Patrick Bond is the Director of the Center for Civil Society and Professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. Bond is the author and editor of the recently released books, Politics of Climate Justice and Durban’s Climate Gamble. (inc. transcript) Continue reading

New World Order “Conspiracy Theories”: Diversions and Deceptions By Colin Todhunter

6 December, 2012Global Research

Part One on the Role Of New World Order Conspiracy Theories can be found here

Conspiracy theories just can’t fail, no matter how ludicrous they are. Try to falsify them as you may, the conspiracy theorist will just brush aside your evidence by asserting that you are part of the conspiracy against them and their theories. A paid shill in fact. Circular arguments and twisted logic are the order of the day.

The Role of Anti-Establishment “Conspiracy Theories” By Colin Todhunter

11 November, 2012 — Global Research

In recent years, populist explanations for world events have become common and often taken the form of anti-establishment conspiracy theories. The contradiction between how people believe the world should be, according to the mainstream propaganda pertaining to liberty and democracy, and how it is in this time of crisis leads people to search for easily digestible answers.

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Introduction to “Well, How Did We Get Here?”

3 October 2012 — Return of the Public

Where Are We Exactly?

The banks have ripped us off, screwed the economy, and taken tens of billions in the taxpayers’ name. They are not lending to the productive sector of the economy, they are still paying themselves huge bonuses, and there is barely a flicker of political protest. None of the three major parties are even thinking of doing anything serious to restrain or reform them. It’s not that the banks are too big to fail, to quote the title of one of the books about the events of 2007/8; they have already failed. Rather, they are perceived in this country to be too big to tackle. Continue reading

Gerald Celente: 'Revolutions on Wall Street' — RT

20 October 2011 — Gerald Celente: ‘Revolutions on Wall Street’ — RT

With Americans displaying anger with the country in alarming numbers — and protests a part of the Occupy Wall Street movement only getting bigger — are corporations really to blame for the country’s current economic condition?

Gerald Celente of the Trends Research Center says that it’s no surprise that Americans are angry with both politicians and the bigwigs in banks. ‘Wall Street is Washington; Washington is Wall Street,’ Celente told RT. ‘Who is the chief of staff of President Obama? Oh, that’s Bill Daley. Wasn’t he the VP of JP Morgan Chase?’ asked Celente.

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The Wolf Report: AWS

5 October 2011 — The Wolf Report: Nonconfidential analysis for the anti-investor

OAWS

There’s nothing like a banker to bring out the best in somebody, and there’s nothing like an enclave of bankers, a virtual village of bankers to bring out the best in everybody. That best, of course, is the gut-hatred of the pin-headed, bb hearted, pin-striped class of bankers, who in both head and heart encapsulate all that makes capitalism what it is today, what it was yesterday, and what it will be tomorrow—vicious, venal, and obsolete.

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Why Iceland Should Be in the News, But is Not By Deena Stryker

14 September 2011 — Daily Kos

An Italian radio program’s story about Iceland’s on-going revolution is a stunning example of how little our media tells us about the rest of the world. Americans may remember that at the start of the 2008 financial crisis, Iceland literally went bankrupt. The reasons were mentioned only in passing, and since then, this little-known member of the European Union fell back into oblivion.

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Sirte – the Apotheosis of “Liberal Intervention” By Craig Murray

26 August 2011 — Craig Murray

There is no cause to doubt that, for whatever reason, the support of the people of Sirte for Gadaffi is genuine. That this means they deserve to be pounded into submission is less obvious to me. The disconnect between the UN mandate to protect civilians while facilitating negotiation, and NATO’s actual actions as the anti-Gadaffi forces’ air force and special forces, is startling.

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Bilderberg And You By Global Research

13 June, 2011 — Global Research

This weekend the high-powered think tank, the Bilderberg Group, is meeting to discuss current events, form a consensus on the coordination of policies of the Western imperial  powers, and to attempt to influence and shape the world in a direction of their liking. The Bilderberg Group, founded in 1954, is a secretive organizations which holds meetings once per year, drawing together roughly 130 of the world’s elite: bankers (such as David Rockefeller), monarchs (such as Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands), central bankers, oil executives, industry leaders, media moguls, establishment academics, prime ministers, presidents and up-and-coming politicians, think tank leaders, the heads of foundations, military commanders and intelligence chiefs, and a host of other important figures.

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The Spanish Tahrir It’s the real democracy, stupid [by Universidad Nómada]

21 May 2011 — Quilombosphere

Puerta-del-Sol.jpg
Some 25,000 people crammed into the Puerta del Sol square in Madrid (AFP, Pedro Armestre)

‘On 15th May 2011, around 150,000 people took to the streets in 60 Spanish towns and cities to demand ‘Real Democracy Now’, marching under the slogan ‘We are not commodities in the hands of bankers and politicians’. The protest was organised through web-based social networks without the involvement of any major unions or political parties.

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Spanish state: indignation in revolt

21 May 2011 — Socialist Resistance

Finally the spirit of revolt has come back to the Spanish state, after to years of weak resistance against the crisis and the decision of the two main unions, CCOO and UGT, to sign a social deal last January which stopped the dynamics of mobilisation they had begun with the general strike of 29 September – meaning that was in the end simply a one day deviation from their usual partnership unionism.

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Welcome to the crony capitalist convention where New Labour got into bed with the bankers but we were the ones who got screwed

14 February 2009

The cry goes up, ‘wha’ happened?’ The former boss of HBOS, Sir James Crosby became head of the Financial Services Authority allegedly the ‘watchdog’ of the financial sector and then it emerges that Crosby was one of the architects of what Michael Hudson describes as:

“The commercial banks…us[ing] their credit-creating power not to expand the production of goods and services or raise living standards but simply to inflate prices for real estate (making fortunes for their brokerage, property appraisal and insurance affiliates), stocks and bonds (making more fortunes for their investment bank subsidiaries), fine arts (whose demand is now essentially for trophies, degrading the idea of art accordingly) and other assets already in place.” — ‘Bubble Economy 2.0: The Financial Recovery Plan from Hell’ By Michael Hudson’

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MEDIA LENS ALERT: ‘CREATIVE DESTRUCTION’ – THE MADNESS OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMY

MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media

February 5, 2008

Watching the corporate media report the ‘financial crisis’ is instructive. From the perspective of power, it is important that a steadying hand is applied to the tiller of news and commentary on the crisis, and the global economy itself.

And so columnist Martin Wolf took a ‘measured’ view in the Financial Times. There have been 100 “significant” banking crises in the past thirty years, he noted, making them almost routine. Authorities have had to intervene to “rescue” the US financial system from four crises over that period: the developing country debt and also the “savings and loan” crises of the 1980s; the commercial property crisis of the early 1990s; and now the subprime and credit crisis of 2007-08. As Wolf observed correctly of the banking sector: “No industry has a comparable talent for privatising gains and socialising losses.”

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