American Progressives join the War Party, by James Carden
"Some leftist commentators can barely conceal their enthusiasm for American involvement in the Ukraine war."
Greenwald: Biden Wanted $33B More For Ukraine. Congress Quickly Raised it to $40B. Who Benefits?
"Whatever else is true, the claim with which we are bombarded by the corporate press — the two parties agree on nothing; they are constantly at each other's throats; they have radically different views of the world — is patently untrue, at least when it comes time for the U.S. to join in new wars. Typically, what we see in such situations is what we are seeing now: the establishment wings of both parties are in complete lockstep unity, always breathlessly supporting the new proposed U.S. role in any new war, eager to empty the coffers of the U.S. Treasury and transfer it to the weapons industry while their constituents suffer."
Janine Jackson interviews Chris Lehmann: ‘The Race Crisis and the Democracy Crisis Are Inseparable’
"Our media, the mainstream media industrial complex, is sleepwalking through this moment, in part because they have institutional investment in treating politics as a game. It is not a game. This is not a drill. This is an all-hands-on-deck moment for anyone who cares about the democratic future of this country."
Ellen Brown: A Monetary Reset Where the Rich Don’t Own Everything
"Today a new sort of reset is setting off alarm bells, one that goes far beyond restoring the stability of the currency. The “Great Reset” being driven forward by the World Economic Forum would lock the world into a form of technocratic feudalism."
Noam Chomsky on the Russia-Ukraine War, The Media, Propaganda, Orwell, Newspeak and Language
We talk about Orwell, Animal Farm, Newspeak and the ministry of information. How Orwell's writings are still relevant for today. Chomsky's book Manufacturing Consent is accurate to this day. We briefly discuss the propaganda model and how the media is used in order to manufacture public consent for wars.
We are Fighting the Wrong War, by Susu Jeffrey
Take water, for example. Every life form on Earth requires H2O, animal or vegetable. We can make more people, more money, more weapons, but we can’t make more water.
Chris Hedges: The Age of Self-Delusion
The war in Ukraine is intimately linked to the real existential crisis we face – the climate crisis. The latest UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report warns that greenhouse gas emissions must peak by 2025, and be nearly halved this decade, to thwart global catastrophe….Triggered by war in Ukraine, soaring energy prices have pushed the US and other countries to call on domestic oil producers to increase fossil fuel extraction and exacerbate the climate crisis. Oil and gas lobbyists are demanding the Biden administration lift prohibitions on offshore drilling and on federal lands.
The Poor People’s Campaign Pushes War Propaganda, by David Swanson
"This noble effort to put ending poverty on the same high plane with prolonging and escalating war, risking nuclear apocalypse, and destroying any chance of global cooperation on climate or homelessness or disease or hunger rings false."
American Militarism, A Persistent Malady: Putin Changed the Subject, by Andrew Bacevich
"Between theory and practice — between the aspirations expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, on the one hand, and the pervasive presence of what King labeled the “giant triplets” of racism, materialism, and militarism on the other — there still looms, even in our own day, a massive gap. [King's Riverside Vietnam] speech address eloquently reflected on that gap, which, with the passage of time, has not appreciably narrowed."
Divesting from the Taxes that Fund War: “War Tax Resisters” Protest with Their Money
The proposed federal budget for fiscal year 2023 continues to take our country in the wrong direction. This massive proposed budget would continue to keep military spending at 37% of the current federal spending with $1.7 trillion being dedicated to past and present military expenses.
War Industry Resisters Network: Week of Action! April 17th to 24th
Clearly, there are no winners in the terrible war in Ukraine — except one: U.S. and British military contractors who will carry their increased profits all the way to the bank. Big Campaign contributions. 700 lobbyists. Militaristic think tanks. Government advisory boards. Hiring 1700 former Pentagon officials and stacking the government with their own people. These military contractors have numerous ways to determine Pentagon budgets, shape our foreign policy, create war fever, and pick our friends and enemies.
Sanders Announces Budget Committee Hearing on Corporate Greed and Profiteering
The hearing comes as high prices are squeezing working-class Americans, while corporate profits rise. As inflation rose by 7 percent in 2021, corporate profits increased by 25 percent to reach nearly $3 trillion – a record high. CEOs and shareholders are benefiting heavily from these profits; last year, S&P 500 firms spent more than $900 billion.