Stuart Jeanne Bramhall's Blog: The Most Revolutionary Act , page 1275
July 20, 2016
Untold History of the US – Bush and Obama Age of Terror
Part 10 of Oliver Stone’s Untold History of the United States covers the Bush II and Obama presidency.
The Bush II Presidency
Stone begins this section by reminding viewers that Al Gore won the 2000 election by 540,000 votes. He asserts Gore would also have won the electoral college if the Supreme Court hadn’t intervened and stopped the recount in Florida.
Under the heavy influence of Vice President Dick Cheney and other Project for a New American Century (PNAC) members, Bush immediately withdrew from the International Criminal Court treaty (which Clinton supported), the Nuclear Test Ban Treat, the Kyoto Accord and the Anti-ballistic Missile Treaty. He also suspended US-led talks for Korean unification and for peace in Israel-Palestine.
Following 9-11 (which Stone refers to as the new Pearl Harbor PNAC called for), Bush launched illegal wars of aggression against Afghanistan and Iraq. In addition to authorizing the illegal indefinite detention of “enemy combatants” at Guantanamo, he also authorized the use torture and significantly expanded the US of “extraordinary rendition”* by the CIA, a program started by Clinton.
During his two terms as president, Bush doubled the defense budget, forcing massive cuts in domestic spending – which Stone maintains destroyed the US economy.
Meanwhile he pushed the Patriot Act through Congress to suppress domestic dissent against these policies.
The Obama Presidency
Stone begins this segment by reminding us that Obama rejected public campaign financing in 2008. His opponent John McCain, in contrast, accept public financing. As a result, Obama received all the major donations from Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street banks. This enabled him to significantly outspend McCain.
Stone blasts Obama for campaigning as the anti-war, change candidate. Who immediately on receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, massively increased troop numbers in Afghanistan, as well as expanding the war on terror to Libya, Pakistan, Yemen, Syria, Somalia and the Philippines.
In addition to continuing NATO expansion to increase the likelihood of war with Russia, Obama significantly expanded the southern military command (SouthCom) to target democratic populism in South America (eg Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Brazil and Argentina). In 2008 he created AfriCom a sixth military command aimed at countering Chinese investment in Africa.
Obama has also significantly increased the likelihood of war with China by encircling them with new troop deployment and sophisticated nuclear weapons systems.
*Extraordinary rendition is the term used when the CIA kidnaps criminal or terrorist suspects in a foreign country and secretly (and illegal) transports them to a country known to engage in torture.
July 19, 2016
The Next Step for Organized Labor? People in Prison
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The Industrial Workers of the World is calling for a nationwide prison strike in September.
The Industrial Workers of the World is calling for a nationwide prison strike in September.
By Mike Elk
Inmates on the Gwinnett County, Georgia, work crew cut grass off Highway 124. (AP Photo / Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Johnny Crawford)
In the early 2000s, the small but militant Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) launched union drives at Starbucks and Jimmy John’s. At the time, many in the mainstream labor movement scratched their heads. Traditionally, labor groups believed that the high turnover of fast food workers would make them impossible to organize.
Nearly a decade later, fast food workers and the Fight for $15 are a central focus of the mainstream labor movement. And, given IWW’s ability to unionize workers who once seemed out of reach, many labor organizers now look to them as an incubator of new organizing strategies.
Now IWW faces one of the biggest challenges in its history: convincing…
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Climate Disruption: Is ExxonMobil victim of its own deception?
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“During their presentation before the U.S. Senate on July 11 and 12, nineteen Senators repudiated the ways America’s largest oil and gas multinational corporation and others in the fossil fuel industry “developed a sophisticated and deceitful campaign that funded think tanks and front groups, and paid public relations firms to deny, counter, and obfuscate peer-reviewed [climate science] research.”
ExxonMobil Web of Climate Science Denial
Photo Credit: DeSmogBlog
In spite of scientific consensus worldwide that we must transition to cleaner forms of energy and to keep fossil fuel reserves in the ground, ExxonMobil shows no sign of winding down its oil and gas explorations. In May 2015, they announced a significant oil discovery in the Stabroek (Guyana) block about 120 miles (193 kms) offshore. What elation for the newly-elected Guyana government! For a poor developing country, the prospect of oil riches seems a lifeline.
This month, the great news circulated across the fossil fuel industry. “The United States Geological Survey ranks Guyana-Suriname as the world’s second-most prospective, underexplored offshore basin, with an estimated 13.6 Bbbl of oil and 32 tcf of natural gas yet to be discovered,” declared the Offshore Magazine on July 7, 2016.
The article further stated that: “ExxonMobil is reportedly moving Liza [exploration well…
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Concern Over California Crops Irrigated with Oil and Gas Wastewater | EWG
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Would you eat foods irrigated with fracking wastewater (full of cancer causing toxins like benzene and other noxious petrochemicals)? Guess what, if you’re eating California produce you already are!
Would you eat food grown with wastewater from oil and gas drilling? You could be already: farms in California’s Central Valley, which produces 40 percent of the nation’s fruits and vegetables, are allowed to use oil and gas wastewater to irrigate crops.The State’s water quality agency insists that no studies have shown that irrigating food crops with oil and gas wastewater poses a threat to public health. No one should stop eating California produce, but the state has appointed an expert food safety panel to spend a year investigating numerous unanswered questions. The most crucial: whether any hazardous chemicals in the wastewater are taken up by the edible parts of the crops.
Source: Concern Over California Crops Irrigated with Oil and Gas Wastewater | EWG
Rhode Island Legalizes Hemp; Sets Foundation to Nullify Federal Prohibition
Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo has signed a bill legalizing the production and processing of industrial hemp for commercial purposes in the state, setting the foundation to nullify federal prohibition in practice.
A coalition of five Democrats introduced House Bill 8232 (H8232) on May 19. As introduced, the legislation would have only allowed state-licensed representatives of the Narragansett Indian Tribe to produce, possess, distribute, and commercially trade industrial hemp. In a rapid series of events, the bill was amended in the House Committee of Health Education and Welfare to apply to everybody.
On June 17, the House passed the amended bill 71-0. The Senate concurred the next day by a 26-7 margin. With Gov. Gina Raimondo’s signature, the law will go into effect Jan.1 2017.
Under the law, industrial hemp is now treated as an agricultural crop subject to regulation by the Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation. The legislation reads in part:
Hemp is an agricultural product which may be grown as a crop, produced, possessed, distributed, and commercially traded pursuant to the provisions of this chapter…The department shall adopt rules to provide for the implementation of this chapter, which shall include rules to require hemp to be tested during growth for THC levels and to require inspection of hemp during sowing, growing season, harvest, storage, and processing.
The law prohibits the Department of Business Regulation from adopting any rules that would prohibit a person or entity from growing or distributing hemp based on the legal status of hemp under federal law. Language in the bill acknowledges federal prohibition on hemp, but correctly asserts the state can legally dictate its own policy notwithstanding federal law.
“States are not required to enforce federal law or prosecute people for engaging in activities prohibited by federal law. Therefore, compliance with this chapter does not put the state of Rhode Island in violation of federal law.” . . .
Read more here: Rhode Island Legalizes Hemp; Sets Foundation to Nullify Federal Prohibition
Editor’s note: Hemp is one of the cheapest and most versatile materials in history and can be used for rope, fabrics, sails, paper, plastics, food, medical indications and many other purposes. The 1937 decision to ban it is one of the worst decisions Congress ever made.
Untold History of the US – Bush and Clinton Squandered Peace
Part 9 of Oliver Stones Untold History of the United States covers the Bush senior and Clinton presidency
Bush Senior Presidency
Stone begins by exploring the role of Bush’s father Prescott Bush and other Wall street figures in supporting the rise of Hitler and the Nazi war machine. The list of Wall Street corporations that supplied money, weapons, chemicals, tanks, aircraft and other material support to the Third Reich is a long one: Ford, IBM, GM, Hearst, Standard Oil, Dupont, Kodak, United Fruit, Westinghouse, Douglas Aircraft, ITT, GE, Singer, International Harvester, Union Bank, Chase Manhattan Bank, JP Morgan and the Bank of International Settlements.
Many of these companies demanded (and received) reparations when the Allies bombed their German factories.
Stone devotes much of this episode to the fall of totalitarian rule in Eastern Europe (1989-91), which he describes as the largest peaceful revolution in history. He also discusses the military coup by Boris Yeltsin that shut down parliamentary rule in the Russian federation and the role of Wall Street, the World Bank, IMF and a handful of Russian oligarchs in systematically stripping the Russian people of their industrial wealth. During this period, many Russians died of malnutrition and medically preventable illness. The live expectancy would drop from 67 to 57 for men and from 76 to 70 for women.
Bush senior, surrounded by anti-Soviet hawks (eg Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld who would go on to found Project for a New American Century) rebuffed all Gorbachev’s overtures for world peace. Stone maintains Gorbachev would never have been forced out of office if Bush had supported him.
The Clinton Presidency
Instead of delivering the promised “peace dividend” when the Cold War ended, Clinton initiated a new wave of defense spending and multiple military interventions overseas. Among them
He launched a war on Yugoslavia to gain access to Caspian Sea oil for US oil companies.
He authorized numerous bombing raids on Iraq, supposedly as enforcement of the no-fly zone in regions controlled by Kurds and Shiite rebels.
He began expanding NATO to former Eastern Bloc countries to enable US oil companies to build pipelines to transport Russian oil to Europe.
He ordered 75 cruise missiles (at $750,000 each) to be fired on a Sudanese pharmaceutical factory and Zawhar Kili Camp in Afghanistan to distract public attention from the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
Bush and Clinton: Squandered Peace – New World Order
July 18, 2016
Hillary Clinton may be impeached if elected – Washington Times ‹ Reader — WordPress.com — BLOGGING BAD: Gunny G
Source: Hillary Clinton may be impeached if elected – Washington Times ‹ Reader — WordPress.com
I wonder what odds the bookies are offering.
Chaos on Republican convention floor; Colorado, Iowa delegates walk out
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Is anyone surprised?
All hell has broken loose on the convention floor in this first session of the Republican National Convention, as the Republican chair refuses a request for a roll call vote on the Rules package. There appear to have been two separate voice votes to adopt the package, followed by a point of order request for a roll call vote: The presiding chair then says there is “insufficient support for the request for a recorded vote.”Nobody’s quite sure what’s going on, but the accusations are flying:
Source: Chaos on Republican convention floor; Colorado, Iowa delegates walk out
How Police Handle Violence In Countries Where Officers Don’t Carry Guns – Collective Evolution
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What a novel idea – training cops to manage violence without shooting and killing people. They do it in civilized countries.
In all the countries where police officers don’t cary guns, except Iceland, citizens don’t have access to guns either, which means police are rarely taken by surprise by a firearm. However, officers are typically trained to handle firearms when need be, and can respond to reports of a citizen with a gun by sending an armed police officer to confront them.Paul Hirschfield, an associate professor of sociology at Rutgers University, explains that U.S. police officers are trained for only 19 weeks on average, compared to, say Norway, where they have three years of training before they’re fully qualified.“If you only have 19 weeks of training, you’re going to spend those on the most essential things. Unfortunately, in the United States, it’s about what you need to defend yourself. How you’re going to avoid getting hurt,” explains Hirschfield. “If you have three years, you can also learn how to protect people, how…
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Untold History of the US: Rise of the New Right
Part 8 of Oliver Stone’s Untold History of the United States covers the Ford, Carter and Reagan presidencies.
The Ford Presidency
Gerard Ford, appointed to the vice presidency after corruption charges forced the resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew, assumed the presidency (with Nelson Rockefeller as vice president) when Nixon resigned in 1974. Ford’s most notable foreign policy was to end the détente* negotiations Nixon initiated with the Soviets to minimize the risk of nuclear war.
The Carter Presidency
Peanut farmer and former Georgia governor Jimmy Carter narrowly defeated Ford in 1976 on a platform that promised to end the arms race, reinstate détente negotiations and end US military intervention in third world countries.
According to Stone, Carter’s National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski (also Obama’s long time member) destroyed Carter’s presidency by forcing Carter (who had no foreign policy experience) to renege on his election promises. Under pressure from Brzezinski, Carter refused to return the Shah to Iran for trial following the 1978 Iranian revolution,** as well as restoring military aid to El Salvador’s right wing dictatorship in 1980 and secretly funding and training a jihadist Muslim insurgency to oppose the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
The Reagan Presidency
Like Carter, former California governor Ronald Reagan also had no foreign policy experience and allowed anti-communist CIA and Pentagon hawks to fill this vacuum. Under Reagan, CIA director William Casey stripped the CIA of any officials who resisted his policy of falsely blaming the Soviets for CIA-inspired terrorist activities. Casey also started the illegal Contra army that tried to overthrow Nicaragua’s democratically elected government, in addition to funding and training death squads in El Salvador and Guatemala to assassination union officials, intellectuals and human rights advocates. Casey and National Security Council member Oliver North also initiated the illegal arms deal with Iran that financed the Contras after Congress discontinued their funding.
In 1985 President Mikhail Gorbachev approached Reagan about negotiating a bilateral disarmament package that would phase out all nuclear weapons by 2000. Initially receptive, Reagan rejected Gorbachev’s condition that the US keep their Strategic Defense (Star Wars) Initiative in the lab. Reagan also refused Gorbachev’s proposal to participate in a joint peacekeeping force in Afghanistan following Soviet troop withdrawal.
Reagan left office in 1988 in disgrace over the Irangate scandal. He was also responsible for doubling the national debt, thanks to a massive increase in military expenditures coupled with sizeable tax cuts. In 1985, the US switched from being a creditor nation to being the biggest debtor nation.
*Détente is defined as the easing of hostility or strained relations between countries.
**This decision would cost Carter the 1980 presidential race when Iranian militants took 52 US Embassy employees hostage in 1979.
Part 8: Reagan, Gorbachev & Third World: Rise Of The Right
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