Category Globalization/Empire
Tomgram: William Astore, “Hi, I’m Uncle Sam and I’m a War-oholic”
Astore: When you define something as war, it dictates the use of the military (or militarized police forces, prisons, and other forms of coercion) as the primary instruments of policy. Violence becomes the means of decision, total victory the goal. Anyone who suggests otherwise is labeled a dreamer, an appeaser, or even a traitor.
John Pilger: Free Julian Assange
Pilger: The Assange case amplifies many truths, and one is the growing, global totalitarianism of Washington, regardless of who is elected president.
▶ Mark Fiore: Obama Trades Transparency
Fiore: After a little smack-down by the Senate, the Most Transparent Administration Ever is still trying to push through the Trans-Pacific Partnership in the Most Transparent Way Possible.
Two by Chris Hedges: Our Mania for Hope Is a Curse and The Pathology of the Rich White Family
Hedges: The pathology of the rich white family is the most dangerous pathology in America.
The yearning for positivism that pervades our corporate culture ignores human nature and human history. But to challenge it, to state the obvious fact that things are getting worse, and may soon get much worse, is to be tossed out of the circle of magical thinking that defines American and much of Western culture. The left is as infected with this mania for hope as the right. It is a mania that obscures reality even as global capitalism disintegrates and the ecosystem unravels, potentially dooming us all.
Mary Beaudoin: U.S. Weapons across the High Seas to the Lost Continent of Eurasia
Beaudoin: The U.S. could provide leadership in world nuclear disarmament. It could also stop acting as arms exporter par excellence; a recent Stockholm International Peace Research Institute report revealed that the U.S. has been leading the world in exports to other regions of the world.
Lee Fang, The Intercept: Many of the NSA’S Loudest Defenders Have Financial Ties to NSA Contractors
Fang: Drawing largely from these disclosures,The Intercept has identified several former government and military officials whose voices have shaped the public discourse around government spying and surveillance issues but whose financial ties to NSA contractors have received little attention. These pundits have played a key role in the public debate as the White House and the agency itself have struggled to defend the most controversial spying programs revealed by Snowden’s documents.
Alfred W. McCoy: The Real American Exceptionalism
From the article: According to documents whistleblower Edward Snowden leaked to the Washington Post, the U.S. spent $500 billion on its intelligence agencies in the dozen years after the 9/11 attacks, including annual appropriations in 2012 of $11 billion for the National Security Agency (NSA) and $15 billion for the CIA. If we add the $790 billion expended on the Department of Homeland Security to that $500 billion for overseas intelligence, then Washington had spent nearly $1.3 trillion to build a secret state-within-the-state of absolutely unprecedented size and power.
▶ March 2, 2015 Democracy Now! with Noam Chomsky: ISIS, Iraq, Iran, Netanyahu, Israel
Noam Chomsky on How the Iraq War Birthed ISIS & Why U.S. Policy Undermines the Fight Against It Noam Chomsky: Opposing Iran Nuclear Deal, Israel’s Goal Isn’t Survival — It’s Regional Dominance Subscribe or “Follow” us on RiseUpTimes.org. Rise Up Times is also on Facebook! Check the Rise Up Times page for posts from this blog and more! “Like” our page […]
Evergreene Digest: Our National Security State: A Self-Perpetuating Machine for American Insecurity
Welcome to the new world of American insecurity and to the nightmarish inheritance we are preparing for our children and grandchildren. Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch Tuesday, January 06, 2015 | As 2015 begins, let’s take a trip down memory lane. Imagine that it’s January 1963. For the last three years, the United States has unsuccessfully faced […]
Ellen Dannin: Privateers Make a Water Grab
Facing increasing opposition abroad, over the past several decades, global water privatizers like Veolia and Suez have begun to see U.S. cities as expansion markets. These corporations have aggressively interfered in the democratic governance of water and have sought to trap cities in unfavorable privatization contracts. By Ellen Dannin, Portside | News Analysis Truthout.org November […]
▶ Leonard Cohen’s “Anthem,” Perla Batalla & Julie Christensen
Uploaded on Mar 3, 2008 Performed at the Leonard Cohen Event 2004, Knitting Factory, NYC, June 11. Band – Paul Ostermayer, Bob Metzger, Karen Hammack, Debra Dobkin, David Batteau, Chris Jisi Subscribe or “Follow” us on RiseUpTimes.org. Rise Up Times is also on Facebook! Check the Rise Up Times page for posts from this blog and more! “Like” […]
Don’t Claim to Support the Troops If You Agree With Obama Sending 3,100 Soldiers to Iraq
If fighting terror means perpetual war, then we’ve already lost and our soldiers will ultimately be the ones who pay the greatest price. President Obama, and 40% of the American people, are making a terrible mistake by focusing more upon beheading videos than the psychological, emotional, and physical toll that Iraq has inflicted upon our […]
Dahr Jamail: As Casualties Mount, Scientists Say Global Warming Has Been “Hugely Underestimated”
A major study recently published in New Scientist found that “scientists may have hugely underestimated the extent of global warming because temperature readings from southern hemisphere seas were inaccurate,” and said that ACD is “worse than we thought” because it is happening “faster than we realized.” Editor’s Note: With climate-change denier Republicans taking over the […]
Evergreene Digest: Overthrowing Other People’s Governments
The Master List of U.S. “Regime Changes” “The Terrorists R Us” Gary Kohls’ Submission Notes on Overthrowing Other People’s Governments Subscribe or “Follow” us on RiseUpTimes.org. Rise Up Times is also on Facebook! Check the Rise Up Times page for posts from this blog and more! “Like” our page today. Rise Up Times is also on Pinterest, Google+ and Tumblr. Find us […]
Mary Beaudoin: Women and the Environmental Cost of War
We need to harness the real power of women everywhere and demand an end to these insane wars that are destroying humanity and the planet … Mary Beaudoin: Speech at “We Know Who is Responsible” contingent of “People’s Climate Convergence March” September 21, 2014 These wonderful women spoke for Honduran rights. Some of the most […]
Washington Admits, ‘War On Terror’ Is Designed To Be Permanent State of War
Senior officials with the Obama administration recently told the United States Senate that the War on Terror, including the renewed invasion of Iraq, premised on fighting the so-called Islamic State of ISIS, will continue for “at least” another decade or two, in their words. CounterCurrentNews.com September 22, 2014 Assistant Defense Secretary Michael Sheehan testified before […]
Glenn Greenwald: The U.S. Government’s Secret Plans to Spy for American Corporations
In a graphic describing an “illustrative example,” the report heralds “technology acquisition by all means.” Some of the planning relates to foreign superiority in surveillance technology, but other parts are explicitly concerned with using cyber-espionage to bolster the competitive advantage of U.S. corporations. BY GLENN GREENWALD TheIntercept September 5, 2014 Throughout the last year, the […]
Henry A. Giroux: Beyond the Spectacle of Neoliberal Misery and Violence in the Age of Terrorism
The quest to merely survive is now legitimated through spectacles of violence that misdirect moral and political outrage into entertainment and the abyss of a moral coma.
Instead of responding to crises with the desire to correct a wrong and reimagine a different future, all that appears to be left in American culture is the desire to merely survive in the face of endless representations of state and non-state violence.
Evergreene Digest: Why Washington’s War on Terror Failed
Washington is escaping the blame for the rise of ISIS by putting it all on the Iraqi government when, in fact, the U.S. actually created a situation where ISIS can survive and even flourish. How to Ensure a Thriving Caliphate The Rise of ISIS The Engineered Destruction and Political Fragmentation of Iraq Patrick Cockburn, TomDispatch […]
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