The greatest moral failing of the liberal Christian church was its refusal, justified in the name of tolerance and dialogue, to denounce the followers of the Christian right as heretics. By tolerating the intolerant it ceded religious legitimacy to an array of con artists, charlatans and demagogues and their cultish supporters. It stood by as the core Gospel message—concern for the poor and the oppressed—was perverted into a magical world where God and Jesus showered believers with material wealth and power. The white race, especially in the United States, became God’s chosen agent. Imperialism and war became divine instruments for purging the world of infidels and barbarians, evil itself. Capitalism, because God blessed the righteous with wealth and power and condemned the immoral to poverty and suffering, became shorn of its inherent cruelty and exploitation. The iconography and symbols of American nationalism became intertwined with the iconography and symbols of the Christian faith. The mega-pastors, narcissists who rule despotic, cult-like fiefdoms, make millions of dollars by using this heretical belief system to prey on the mounting despair and desperation of their congregations, victims of neoliberalism and deindustrialization. These believers find in Donald Trump a reflection of themselves, a champion of the unfettered greed, cult of masculinity, lust for violence, white supremacy, bigotry, American chauvinism, religious intolerance, anger, racism and conspiracy theories that define the central beliefs of the Christian right. When I wrote “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America” I was deadly serious about the term “fascists.”
::: Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth:::
Dec 30, 2019
Onward, Christian Fascists by Chris Hedges
The greatest moral failing of the liberal Christian church was its refusal, justified in the name of tolerance and dialogue, to denounce the followers of the Christian right as heretics. By tolerating the intolerant it ceded religious legitimacy to an array of con artists, charlatans and demagogues and their cultish supporters. It stood by as the core Gospel message—concern for the poor and the oppressed—was perverted into a magical world where God and Jesus showered believers with material wealth and power. The white race, especially in the United States, became God’s chosen agent. Imperialism and war became divine instruments for purging the world of infidels and barbarians, evil itself. Capitalism, because God blessed the righteous with wealth and power and condemned the immoral to poverty and suffering, became shorn of its inherent cruelty and exploitation. The iconography and symbols of American nationalism became intertwined with the iconography and symbols of the Christian faith. The mega-pastors, narcissists who rule despotic, cult-like fiefdoms, make millions of dollars by using this heretical belief system to prey on the mounting despair and desperation of their congregations, victims of neoliberalism and deindustrialization. These believers find in Donald Trump a reflection of themselves, a champion of the unfettered greed, cult of masculinity, lust for violence, white supremacy, bigotry, American chauvinism, religious intolerance, anger, racism and conspiracy theories that define the central beliefs of the Christian right. When I wrote “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America” I was deadly serious about the term “fascists.”
How The Trumps Brought Death And Destruction To Coney Island
The Trumps once forced 900 mostly Black families living in Coney Island out of their homes — this short clip shows how the family used taxpayer money to decimate a New York neighborhood. The apple does not fall too far from the tree.......
Musings
Words kill as surely as bullets, says Adama Dieng, the United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide. Bringing a historical perspective to current trends, he examines the roots of the problem and offers potential solutions that focus on the world’s youth. Mr. Dieng was central to the development of the United Nations Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech, which contains ideas on how to address the root causes and drivers of hate speech and how to reduce its impact on societies.
Dec 29, 2019
Shadow Network: Media, Money, and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right
.
We are living in a very dark, twisted time. You can call it dystopic. Studying the many strands of how we came to this particular juncture in history is depressing work, but we all must be about tapping into the many scholarly works that's out here now lest we fall victim to the unremitting bullshit parading as fact in this wilderness called America.
The religious right and Koch network are primary engines of disinformation & they are God-awful! This book focuses on another organization that doesn't get much attention for people looking into villains on the right. The Council for National Policy is a think tank and kind of clearinghouse organization that brings together the money, the players of the religious right, and the activists and tries to push a dominionist vision and far-right economic agenda. These folks are evil & they're itching for a Civil War to make America White Again. Let's not kid ourselves.
Arm yourselves with knowledge, good people & let's organize & take it to the streets!!
A Neuroscientist Explains Why Christian Evangelicals Are Hardwired to Believe Donald Trump’s Lies by Bobby Azarian
Source: Flipboard
President Donald Trump lies so often that it is no longer shocking when it happens, no matter how blatant or absurd the falsehood may be. Not only does Trump regularly exaggerate the truth, he frequently denies facts that can be observed directly from video or audio tapes. This has led some professionals to diagnose his lying as compulsive or pathological, and many psychologists have pointed out that he is constantly gaslighting his base—a term that refers to a strategic attempt to get others to question their direct experience of reality.
Poet's Nook: "Love is Our Foundation and Our Destiny" by unknown
The most powerful, most needed,
and most essential teaching is always Love.
Love is our foundation and our destiny.
and most essential teaching is always Love.
Love is our foundation and our destiny.
Dec 26, 2019
Dec 24, 2019
Is This Goodbye to the American Republic? by Paul Street
Source: Truthdig
You don’t have to be a leftist or a liberal to worry that the demented fascist oligarch Donald Trump might try to negate the United States republic’s electoral process and term limits. Consider the following statement from the distinguished conservative scholar and American Enterprise Institute fellow Norm Ornstein last week...
Continue
Dec 23, 2019
Dec 21, 2019
Musings
Hello darkness, my old friend
I’ve come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
I’ve come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence
In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
‘Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
Narrow streets of cobblestone
‘Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence
And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dare
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dare
Disturb the sound of silence
“Fools” said I, “You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you”
But my words like silent raindrops fell
And echoed
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you”
But my words like silent raindrops fell
And echoed
In the wells of silence
And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said, “The words of the prophets
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said, “The words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls”
And tenement halls”
And whisper’d in the sounds of silence
Dec 19, 2019
Dec 17, 2019
Ralph Nader on Impeachment: Democrats Should Go After Trump’s Full Corruption, Not Just Ukraine
/ /
Donald Trump is set to become the third president to be impeached when the Democrat-controlled House votes Wednesday on two charges related to his attempts to pressure Ukraine to investigate his political rival Joe Biden. The vote will send the charges to the Republican-controlled Senate, which will then hold a trial on whether to remove Trump from office. Witnesses who could be called to testify include former national security adviser John Bolton and acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney. Early Monday (12/16/19), the House Judiciary Committee released its full report on Trump’s impeachment that is nearly 700 pages and explains in four parts the committee’s justification for recommending two articles of impeachment against Trump: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
A new Fox News poll says 54% of Americans want Trump impeached, and 50% want him impeached and removed. We speak with Ralph Nader, longtime consumer advocate, corporate critic and former presidential candidate, who says the articles of impeachment against Trump are “far too narrow and perilous.” Congress has “come forward with a very narrow hand … for the most impeachable president of all time,” he says.
Dec 15, 2019
Economic Inequality Has Gone Bananas by Josh Hoxie
Duct Taped Banana for $120,000 at Art Exhibit |
Three collectors recently took home some unconventional offerings from Art Basel, a famous art show held annually in Miami Beach. Each artwork consisted of a banana duct-taped to a wall. Two sold for $120,000, one for $150,000.
The Right's Shadow Network
Writer Anne Nelson explores the power and influence of the Council for National Policy over US politics and the modern conservative movement - a network of right wing donors, media owners and strategists radicalizing fundamentalist Christian voters with misinformation campaigns to hold political power and throttle remaining democratic controls over the government.
Anne Nelson is author of Shadow Network: Media, Money, and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right
Musings
“Military men are just dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.”
This
is what the plutocracy that Kissinger serves really thinks of the
military. All that praise and worshipping on the media is just a thick
curtain of hypocrisy to maintain morale among the deceived imperial
troopers.
Reality Avoidance by Morris Berman
"It’s quite amazing how the news is endlessly about race, or gender, or an election that is over a year away. Filler, is what I call it. Very little of this has anything to do with reality, which the Mainstream Media and the American people avoid like the plague. What then is real?
1. The empire is in decline; every day, life here gets a little bit worse; all our institutions are corrupt to varying degrees; and there is no turning this situation around.
2. A crucial factor in this decline and irreversibility is the low level of intelligence of the American people. Americans are not only dumb; they are positively antagonistic toward the life of the mind.
3 .Relations of power and money determine practically everything. The 3 wealthiest Americans own as much as the bottom 50% of the population, and this tendency will get worse over time.
4. The value system of the country, and its citizens, is fundamentally wrong-headed. It amounts to little more than hustling, selfishness, narcissism, and a blatant disregard for anyone but oneself. There is a kind of cruelty, or violence, deep in the American soul; many foreign observers and writers have commented on this. Americans are bitter, depressed, and angry, and the country offers very little by way of community or empathy.
5. Along with this is the support of meaningless wars and imperial adventures on the part of most of the population. That we drone-murder unarmed civilians on a weekly basis is barely on the radar screen of the American mind. In essence, the nation has evolved into a genocidal war machine run by a plutocracy and cheered on by mindless millions.
Most Americans hide from these depressing, even horrific, realities by what passes for ‘the news’, but also by means of alcohol, opioids, TV, cellfones, suicide, prescription drugs, workaholism, and spectator sports, to name but a few. This stuffing of the Void is probably our primary activity. In a word, we are eating ourselves alive, and only a tiny fraction of the population, recognizes this."
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Dr. Morris Berman is well known as an innovative cultural historian and social critic. He has taught at a number of universities in Europe and North America.
His website: http://morrisberman.blogspot.com/
His website: http://morrisberman.blogspot.com/
Franz Boas, His Students and the Scientific Truth of Human Unity
Charles is author of "Gods of the Upper Air: How a Circle of Renegade Anthropologists Reinvented Race, Sex, and Gender in the Twentieth Century"
Dec 8, 2019
Dec 6, 2019
Cornel West: There is 'a neo-fascist in the White House'
American philosopher and activist Dr. Cornel West says the era of Donald Trump is distinctive because of the escalation of white supremacy, he describes Trump's presidency as neo-fascist.
"You have white supremacist perceptions, sensibilities and practices coming from above in a neo-fascist moment with a neo-fascist in the White House," West says.
West also believes Trump himself is racist, "if Donald Trump is not a racist," West says, "then I don't know what a racist is."
"He's a narcissist, he's a racist, he's a xenophobe, he's patriarchal, he's homophobic … he's a sign and symptom of a spiritually decadent culture that allows someone like him to have that kind of power."
West says the US has always been white supremacist, just like it has always been male supremacist, and capitalist, but says this neo-fascist moment is distinctive.
"And this is why I think so many people are depressed, especially on the left and in liberal circles, because they think that somehow this is so new that it might be impossible to overcome."
West says the only way to get through this "neo-fascist moment" is through tremendous struggle and solidarity based on a commitment to poor and working people.
"We have to have real, real examples of integrity, honesty, decency, courage and hope," West says.
Dec 2, 2019
Greed as a Mental-Health Disorder by Peter Michaelson
During a recent discussion of narcissism on the TV program “The View,” Rosie O’Donnell was told that the condition is “a mental disorder in which people have an inflated sense of self and their own importance and a deep need for admiration.” She replied, “That’s every celebrity I know, including me!”
That’s great candor from an entertaining lady. We might practice candor, too, by expanding our understanding of mental disorders to include the problem of greed. Both narcissism and greed produce personal and national self-sabotage.
The New 'Black Codes' by Chris Hedges
Source: Truthdig
The police forces in impoverished urban communities, equipped with military-grade weapons and empowered to harass and kill largely at will, along with mass incarceration, are the principal tools for the social control of the poor. There is little pretense of justice and even less of protection and safety. The corporate state and our oligarchic rulers fear a backlash from those they abandoned in deindustrialized enclaves across the country, what Malcolm X called our “internal colonies.” The daily brutality and terror keep the poor, especially poor people of color, in bondage. On average, more than 1,100 people, or one every eight hours, almost all unarmed, are killed every year by police in the United States. These killings are not accidents. They are not the results of a failed system. The system works exactly as it is designed to work. And until the system of corporate power is destroyed, nothing will change for the poor, or the rest of Americans.
The police forces in impoverished urban communities, equipped with military-grade weapons and empowered to harass and kill largely at will, along with mass incarceration, are the principal tools for the social control of the poor. There is little pretense of justice and even less of protection and safety. The corporate state and our oligarchic rulers fear a backlash from those they abandoned in deindustrialized enclaves across the country, what Malcolm X called our “internal colonies.” The daily brutality and terror keep the poor, especially poor people of color, in bondage. On average, more than 1,100 people, or one every eight hours, almost all unarmed, are killed every year by police in the United States. These killings are not accidents. They are not the results of a failed system. The system works exactly as it is designed to work. And until the system of corporate power is destroyed, nothing will change for the poor, or the rest of Americans.
The Evolution of Reality (Why the World is Not How We See It) by Chris Fields
The idea that we have evolved to see reality ‘as it is’ is commonplace. While it might seem irresponsible, in this age of ‘fake news’ and ubiquitous political and commercial propaganda, to argue that we are not evolved to see reality as it is, I believe it’s worth doing, not least for what it reveals about our notions of ‘reality’ and ‘evolution’.
Dec 1, 2019
The Impunity Doctrine: The Meek Shall be Buried Beneath the Earth by Jennifer Matsui
Source: CounterPunch
The ruling class are feeling the heat. By feeling the heat, I mean they are disproportionately perturbed by toothless condemnation of their tax-avoiding wealth accumulation by presidential hopefuls looking to shore up “progressive” support during the primaries. Never mind that this highly scripted spectacle is underwritten by Wall Street, and its executive producers are the military/tech/industrial complex, the plutocracy will no longer countenance ANY ruptures or least resistance to the neoliberal dragnet it has cast over the earth. Thus they have decided that impunity – as opposed to stealth avoidance of being detected at their crime scenes – is the only way to fortify the “borderless”, garrisoned, surveillance state against the huddled masses. The lucky few experience this heavily stratified, toxic biosphere as their own private pleasure dome, while the luckless majority, with their heads barely above water, are slowly being boiled alive.
The ruling class are feeling the heat. By feeling the heat, I mean they are disproportionately perturbed by toothless condemnation of their tax-avoiding wealth accumulation by presidential hopefuls looking to shore up “progressive” support during the primaries. Never mind that this highly scripted spectacle is underwritten by Wall Street, and its executive producers are the military/tech/industrial complex, the plutocracy will no longer countenance ANY ruptures or least resistance to the neoliberal dragnet it has cast over the earth. Thus they have decided that impunity – as opposed to stealth avoidance of being detected at their crime scenes – is the only way to fortify the “borderless”, garrisoned, surveillance state against the huddled masses. The lucky few experience this heavily stratified, toxic biosphere as their own private pleasure dome, while the luckless majority, with their heads barely above water, are slowly being boiled alive.
Neoliberalism Emptied the World: On Free Markets, Traditional Morality and Nothing Else
Theorist Wendy Brown examines the anti-democratic logic at the heart of neoliberalism - after a 40-year ruling class project to empty society of all forces but the free market and traditional morality, a libertarian ethno-nationalism regime maintains uses crumbling traditional heirarchies to maintain discipline over a fractured population.
Wendy Brown is author of "In the Ruins of Neoliberalism: The Rise of Antidemocratic Politics in the West"
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Technocapitalism: Bitcoin, Mars, and Dystopia w/Loretta Napoleoni
We are living through an incipient technological revolution. AI, blockchain, cryptocurrencies, commercial space travel, and other i...
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Source: Common Dreams Two dogs walking. One of them says to the other: “I bark and I bark, but I never feel like ...