Is Cuba Detente a Diversion to Protect Bush II & Co.?

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Friday December 19, 2014 · 8:37 AM PST

2014/12/19 · 08:37

Here are, in my opinion, the two most important words which may help explain the timing of the White House’s “new course” on Cuba: Torture Report. Yes, while the announcement was a very welcome, long overdue and not far reaching enough development, its timing is what makes me wonder most. It is likely no coincidence that Obama announced this historic policy correction within less than two weeks of the release of the US Senate report on CIA torture during its “global war on terror.”

politicjock

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Wednesday September 17, 2014 · 10:09 AM PDT

2014/09/17 · 10:09

As you may have heard, this Sunday will be the last day of summer.

You may also have heard that next week, on September 23, world leaders will be gathered in NYC for a landmark U.N. Climate Summit. "This summit represents yet another step towards the corporate takeover of the UN climate negotiations and the privatization of land, water, and air resources under the guise of a global climate compact. The climate crisis is a symptom of a deeper problem: an economy based on extraction and exploitation of resources and people. This economy benefits a few at the expense of communities and the planet."

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Will you attend?

5 votes Vote Now!

Will you attend?

Yes

1 vote

3 votes

Maybe

1 vote

We Are Ruled by Fear

politicjock

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Tuesday September 09, 2014 · 6:51 AM PDT

2014/09/09 · 06:51

Today a majority of the people in the US supports strikes in Iraq and Syria. After weeks of propaganda from all sides of the spectrum the bamboozled and frightened populace capitulated in its resolve to the demands of the deep state.

politicjock

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Thursday July 17, 2014 · 1:50 PM PDT

2014/07/17 · 13:50

As I looked at the map posted on Juan Cole's The Map: A Palestinian Nation Thwarted & Speaking Truth to Power I was reminded of the infamous 1996 statement by Netanyahu’s spokesperson David Bar-Illan; when asked if Israel was opposed to a Palestinian state he replied: "Semantics don’t matter. If Palestinian sovereignty is limited enough so that we feel safe, call it fried chicken." Indeed, as of 2000, the state of the occupied territories, particularly the West Bank, has started to resemble scattered pieces of flesh on the ground.

politicjock

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Tuesday July 01, 2014 · 1:27 PM PDT

2014/07/01 · 13:27

These days it is hard to wade across the morass of the virtual political world. There are radical activists, those who are trying to make a difference in the world for the better – whatever their flaws – and there are those who aggrandize themselves by trying to tear down such activists while posing as the pure "marginalized" left. One such poser is someone going by the internet name of @RancidTarzie. While also a blogger – The Rancid Honeytrap, hence the title of this post) – with 90K+ tweets under his belt he primarily trolls the tweetersphere attacking what he sees as the inconsistencies of various leftist figures: from Noam Chomsky, to Amy Goodman, to David Graeber, to Glenn Greenwald. The latter perhaps being Tarzie's favorite target as it would be difficult on any given day not to find a tweet by Tarzie attacking Glenn. In fact, the tenacity with which Tarzie stalks Greenwald is perhaps indicative of a certain level of homophobia on Tarzie's part (more on this later).

politicjock

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Thursday March 27, 2014 · 12:48 PM PDT

2014/03/27 · 12:48

What follows is the statement signed by more than 350 faculty members from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey in condemnation of the university's Board of Governors decision to invite former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as the 2014 commencement speaker.

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Should Rutgers rescind its invitation to Condoleezza Rice as its 2014 commencement speaker?

116 votes Vote Now!

Should Rutgers rescind its invitation to Condoleezza Rice as its 2014 commencement speaker?

Yes

89 votes

26 votes

The Problem With BDS

politicjock

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Monday March 17, 2014 · 7:21 AM PDT

2014/03/17 · 07:21

There appears to be a problem with the Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement currently called against the state of Israel: while on principle a good idea it also exposes itself to a charge of hypocrisy which could easily be construed by its opponents as antisemitism. The reasoning goes: why do people around the world are so adamant to ask for a boycott of Israel yet do not ask for a boycott of what Martin Luther King described as "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today," i.e. the United States? The crimes against humanity of the US government are far greater and pernicious than those of the state of Israel and yet they don't seem to arouse a similar response. Why not? Why Israel then? Because of apartheid in South Africa?

politicjock

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Monday July 01, 2013 · 7:35 AM PDT

2013/07/01 · 07:35

Like a despondent child after being caught doing something she wasn't supposed to do, former NSA chief Michael Hayden argued that the agency's spying on European Union officials, both in the US and Europe, should not be seen as a big deal because European governments are doing the same thing. In addition, Hayden stated that non-US citizens are not protected by the the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution and thus they can be spied on at will.

politicjock

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Tuesday November 20, 2012 · 11:17 AM PST

2012/11/20 · 11:17

[updated I, II & III below]

A communiqué posted on the OccupyWallStreet.org website titled Occupy Wall Street, Not Palestine: OWS Says No To War [now removed, click here for original post] appears deliberately aimed at drawing a moral equivalence between Hamas and the Israeli government. But, upon careful reading, it is not difficult to see how one of the many public faces of OWS is actually leaning, ever so slightly, on the side of the aggressor, the IDF. This is a very disturbing development for OWS given its supposed stance as a champion of oppressed people everywhere. Yet, when it comes to the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, OWS seems content to spread the blame of the Israeli assault onto its victims. This, in a way, shows a certain lack of coherent political vision within the Occupy movement which may also explain its apparent evanescence. In addition, this not-so-veiled exercise in political correctness by OccupyWallStreet.org is a sign of how far has American culture veered out of the global political mainstream vis a vis the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.

politicjock

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Thursday October 04, 2012 · 9:15 PM PDT

2012/10/04 · 21:15

Writer and activist Rebecca Solnit has recently penned an essay criticizing those on the left who have chosen not to support the re-election of Obama on moral grounds. What else can one expect from someone who, just recently, praised the pornographic violence of The Hunger Games – she found it "irresistible" – as some kind of radical anti-corporate message?

politicjock

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Wednesday February 29, 2012 · 10:21 AM PST

2012/02/29 · 10:21

This week I was not terribly surprised to learn that Elizabeth Warren, one of the darlings of the progressive left, has capitulated to the needs of Empire in her race for the US Senate. At the bottom of the National Security / Foreign Policy page of her campaign website it reads:

Iran is a significant threat to the United States and our allies. Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons, it is an active state sponsor of terrorism, and its leaders have consistently challenged Israel’s right to exist. Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons is unacceptable because a nuclear Iran would be a threat to the United States, our allies, the region, and the world. The United States must take the necessary steps to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. I support strong sanctions against Iran and believe that the United States must also continue to take a leadership role in pushing other countries to implement strong sanctions as well. Iran must not have an escape hatch.

politicjock

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Friday December 23, 2011 · 12:51 PM PST

2011/12/23 · 12:51

I have been participating in OWS with increased intensity over the course of the last two months. The defining moment for me was the illegal and brutal eviction on November, 15. One of the things that I liked about the Freedom Plaza encampment was the Think Tank discussion: people from all walks of life gathering together in a public space discussing openly about the inadequacies of capitalism.

Today's New York Times op-ed by Paul Krugman The Post-Truth Campaign reminded me of these discussions particularly in terms of certain ideological tenets that seem so engrained into our collective unconscious even in the face of the starkest of realities. In this regard, Krugman opens his essay by positing the following:

Suppose that President Obama were to say the following: “Mitt Romney believes that corporations are people, and he believes that only corporations and the wealthy should have any rights. He wants to reduce middle-class Americans to serfs, forced to accept whatever wages corporations choose to pay, no matter how low.”

Krugman goes on to say that such a statement would be universally condemned by almost everyone, including himself, and much of the essay is dedicated to creating a moral equivalence between the statement above and the continuous charges coming from Republicans about Obama being a redistributive socialist. He continues by wondering why the latter statements do not meet a condemnation similar to that which the former would receive if Obama, or anyone else for that matter, would dare uttering it.

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Is Cuba Detente a Diversion to Protect Bush II & Co.?

Be in NYC This Weekend

We Are Ruled by Fear

Are the Palestinians Israel's Native Americans?

The Rancid Hypocritical Honeytrap

Rutgers' Faculty Condemns Invitation of Condoleezza Rice As 2014 Commencement Speaker

The Problem With BDS

The Ignorant Hubris of US Officials

OWS's Misreading of Gandhi in Gaza

Rebecca Solnit: A Necrophile for Empire

Elizabeth Warren for Imperial Senate

Krugman and the Truth About the 1% That Can't Be Spoken