Psywar

Psywar from S DN on Vimeo.

The real battlefield is the mind

From Metanoia Films

Metanoia: From the Greek - to perceive, to think, the result of perceiving or observing - metanoia means "a change of mind".

In Theology, metanoia is used to refer to the change of mind which is brought about in repentance.

The prefix "meta-" carries with it other variants that are consistent with the Eastern Greek philosophical mindset, "Meta-" is additionally used to imply "beyond" and "outside of." E.g., metamorphosis as a beyond-change; and, metaphysics as outside the limits of physics.

The Greek term for repentance, metanoia, denotes a change of mind, a reorientation, a fundamental transformation of outlook, of an individual's vision of the world and of her/himself, and a new way of loving others and the Universe. In the words of a second-century text, The Shepherd of Hermas, it implies "great understanding," discernment.

In Carl Jung's psychology, metanoia indicates a spontaneous attempt of the psyche to heal itself of unbearable conflict by melting down and then being reborn in a more adaptive form.

The 'Capitalist' Commons as Plan B to Save the System From Fundamentalist Neoliberalism?

Michel Bauwens, The P2P Foundation

In an extensive essay, George Caffentzis thinks we must be weary of commons that are conceived as saving the system of capital from fundamentalist neoliberalism, and believes we must learn to distinguish between 'capitalist commons' and 'anti-capitalist commons'. The essay examines the Zapatistas, Live8 and the Hobohemia Commons of the 30′s as case studies helping us distinguish one from the other.

* Source: The Future of 'The Commons': Neoliberalism's 'Plan B' or the Original Disaccumulation of Capital? George Caffentzis

Excerpted from George Caffentzis:

Part 1: The Capitalist Commons:

"Ostrom's reliance on social capital (the commonism in capitalism) to explain commons behaviour is part of a tendency among capitalist intellectuals that developed as a complement to neoliberalism.

The apparent triumph of neoliberalism with its aim to totalise the reign of capital has created its own reaction, that is, the conviction that there is a necessary 'commons' to capitalism itself. Thus the notion of 'social capital' and the importance of 'community' and 'trust' have been brought to the fore at the very moment of the so-called triumph of the market.28 In fact, this led to a re-recognition of a social ur-level before contract and 'the market' that structures them (which had been discussed for the first time by David Hume in Scotland during the eighteenth century) and is a sine qua non of capitalist accumulation.

These friends of capitalism revealed that neoliberalism was capitalism's own worst enemy, especially when not controlled by the threat of an alternative. For capitalism can reach, both theoretically and practically, what I call the 'Midas Limit' (when all transactions are based on pure utility maximising without any concern for the poorly sanctioned rules of fair exchange, and hence are surfeited with fraud and deception, or in other words, individualism gone wild). Such a generalised condition threatens the system's own survival as illustrated by the periodic crises produced by a generalised 'lack of trust' from the days of the burst of the South Sea Bubble when the system reached one of the first Midas limits. Some have speculated that this limit was again reached in the so-called 'dot.com' era of the late 1990s when Enron and Tyco executives (among thousands of others) were largely looking to the value of their own stock portfolios rather than the long-term health of the corporations they were running. There is little doubt that an even more dangerous Midas limit was reached once more in the 'subprime' mortgage crisis of 2007 that has led to the freezing of credit and a worldwide recession in 2009. This era has given what might be thought to be oxymoronic creatures, capitalist moralists or business ethicists, a new burst of employment in lamenting the 'state of the world' and drawing up new rules to generate trust in the executors of capital's will.

~ more... ~

Cynthia Mckinney Reveals 5,000 Executed Post Katrina

Cynthia McKinney tells CR 10 about 5,000 mostly men executed in N.O. post Katrina.

Ajit Pyati on News Media and the War Against Terror

A talk given by Ajit Pyati at a Faculty of Information and Media Studies (FIMS) panel held Oct. 24, 2007 (University of Western Ontario). In it, Pyati addresses the post-9/11 war on terror in a U.S. library science context. He focuses his remarks on how the war has influenced American library services, government information policy and "the freedom to read." Also, Pyati discusses how information needs to be conceptualized in relation to its role on culture.

An Interstate Bicycling System

By Winona Bateman, Yes! Magazine

"People across America who value bicycling should have a voice when it comes to transportation planning. This is the end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of non-motorized."

When U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood made this announcement at the National Bike Summit last March, he became an instant superstar with bicycling advocates who work hard to create and maintain cycling routes as part of their local, state, and regional transportation networks.

In July, Secretary LaHood took it a step further—embracing the creation of a U.S. Bicycle Route System (USBRS), a project that will connect many of the existing (and envisioned) bicycle routes around the country into an official, national network of cycling routes, linked coast-to-coast across state lines.

LaHood wrote, "The U.S. Bicycle Route System is not just a bunch of bike paths; we're talking about a transportation system. It will facilitate travel between communities and to historic and cultural landmarks. It will give people living in more rural areas a way to travel into a nearby urban area by bicycle. Urban and suburban residents will have better access to rural recreation areas. And—like our interstate highway system—it will facilitate long-distance travel by bicycle, whether across one's state or across the country."

If implemented as planned, the U.S. Bicycle Route System will become the largest official cycling network on the planet, encompassing more than 50,000 miles of routes.

~ more... ~

Will WikiLeaks Unravel the American “Secret Government”?

The U.S. Department of State is working overtime sending messages to ally capitals warning the impending release of classified documents by WikiLeaks could harm relations in what is seen as a pre-emptive move of unprecedented scale to neutralize the impact of the unveiling of embarrassing and compromising details about the inner workings of the government apparatus.

After making shattering revelations about the U.S. policy -- and its practice -- in Iraq and Afghanistan, WikiLeaks seems to be targeting this time the core of the U.S. government machinery, especially the subterranean diplomatic channels it employs while cutting deals and enforcing compliance in world capitals.

This knowledge has set off a diplomatic counter-offensive of never-before-seen proportion. The U.S. embassies in allied capitals have been forewarned of the release of documents which could potentially destabilize friendly relations.

The State Department, in an advance fire-fighting mode, has said the consequences of the WikiLeaks bombshell to American interests could be severe as the whistleblower website could reveal instances of allies breaking ranks secretly to pursue policies harmful to each other and squarely contradicting publicly stated stances.

"Without getting into specifics, typical cables describe summaries of meetings, analysis of events in other countries and records of confidential conversations with officials of other governments and with members of civil society. ... They are classified for a very good reason. They contain sensitive information and reveal sources of information that impact our national interests and those of other countries," State Department spokesman P.J.Crowley said.

Researchers have often pointed out the stark contrast between nation states' declared policies -- and the means to achieve them -- and what actually transpires on the ground. The inner workings, the dark secrets and shady deals never see the light of day until they may be declassified years later, severely undermining democratic values of truth and transparency.

Now WikiLeaks is out to run a knife through a mountain of classified documents revealing how the proverbial 'secret government' works its way through cluttered diplomatic channels. And that certainly could be embarrassing to lots of people in many capitals, more so in Washington.

The Pentagon has already warned the U.S. Senate and House Armed Services Committees that the leaks will "touch on an enormous range of very sensitive foreign policy issues." "We anticipate that the release could negatively impact U.S. foreign relations," Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs Elizabeth King said in an e-mail to the defense committees.

~ more... ~

US Corporations Shatter Profit Records

US corporations took in $1.659 trillion in the third quarter, breaking records going back 60 years, according to a Commerce Department report released Tuesday. It was the seventh consecutive quarter of profit growth at "some of the fastest rates in history" according to the New York Times.

If any more proof were needed, the third quarter profit record exposes the lie promoted by Democrats and Republicans alike that only the "free market" and private businesses can reverse the nation's 9.6 percent unemployment rate. The corporations and banks are sitting on a cash hoard in the trillions of dollars. This money is not being used to hire workers, but to line the pockets of the executives and top shareholders.

The profit bonanza that lasted from July through September eclipsed the old record of $1.655 trillion established in the third quarter of 2006—just as the money-mad speculation of the financial elite was hurtling the US and world economy toward the precipice of its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

The resulting financial crisis, which erupted in the autumn of 2008, threatened a total collapse of the global financial system. In response, the governments of the world, led by the US, used the disaster to hand over tens of trillions in public wealth to the very finance houses that triggered the crisis. This process continues, as demonstrated by the International Monetary Fund/European Union-dictated rescue of the Irish banks this week.

The enormous profit realized by US corporations in the third quarter are only the latest indication that the Bush-Obama bailout of the financial and corporate elite has achieved its desired aim of protecting the personal fortunes of the rich:

*Annual bonuses rose by 11 percent for executives at the 450 largest US corporations last fiscal year, according to a recent survey published by the Wall Street Journal. Overall, median compensation—including salaries, bonuses, stocks, options and other incentives—rose by three percent to $7.3 million in 2009. Shareholder returns increased by 29 percent.

*An October survey by the Wall Street Journal found that employees at 35 of the biggest banks, investment banks, hedge funds, money management firms, and securities exchanges will be paid a record $144 billion in 2010.

*According to Forbes magazine, the net worth of the 400 richest Americans increased by 8 percent in 2010, to $1.37 trillion, more than the GDP of India, population 1.2 billion.

~ more... ~

Assessing Leon Trotsky Seventy Years After His Assassination

Report given at the annual convention of the Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies
by David North

...The last 20 years have witnessed an anti-intellectual counter-revolution in the field of Soviet studies in general and, in particular, the study of Leon Trotsky. The initial cause of this reaction is not difficult to identify. The dissolution of the Soviet Union had a demoralizing effect on broad sections of the liberal intelligentsia in the United States and Western Europe. Whatever their individual political convictions, all the historians who did serious work on the Russian Revolution were motivated by the belief that October 1917 represented a major turning point in world history. Its origins, the event itself, its aftermath, and those who played an important role in this historical drama demanded conscientious study. The collapse of 1991 seemed to invalidate that fundamental belief. The era of bourgeois triumphalism and its house intellectual, Francis Fukuyama, had arrived, courtesy of the RAND Corporation. The October Revolution, it was now proclaimed, was not only a political crime. It was a mistake, and a pointless one at that!

The very idea that the October Revolution posed even the possibility of a historically viable alternative to capitalism had been massively refuted.

This argument had a substantial impact on the academic community, whose confidence in human progress had already been undermined, even before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, not only by the blather of the Reagan years but also by the subjectivism and irrationalism of the Frankfurt School and Post-Modernism. However, the effort to deny the substance and legitimacy of October 1917 rested from the start on very shaky historical and intellectual foundations. After all, the Soviet state, which arose out of the revolution, had survived not merely for 71 days, as in the case of the Paris Commune, but for 73 years. In the course of its existence, the Soviet Union had undergone an extraordinary industrial transformation, defeated Nazi Germany in war, vastly raised the living standards and cultural level of its people, recorded remarkable achievements in science, and exercised immense global influence. Moreover, the claim that the outcome of December 1991 was the inexorable product of October 1917 required that historians either belittle or ignore alternatives to the course of Soviet development under Stalin and his successors—alternatives that were not only imagined, but which were actually programmatically formulated and fought for. One particularly cynical example of this approach is to be found in the writings of British historian Eric Hobsbawm, a long-time member of the Stalinist British Communist Party, who justified Stalin's regime as "the only game in town."

Ironically, the claim by anti-Marxists that the final outcome of Soviet history followed inevitably from the 1917 Revolution—that the political and economic policies that were pursued from the early days of War Communism and the NEP through to collectivization, the Liberman reforms and Gorbachev's Perestroika represented the sole conceivable path of development—mirrored the arguments of the Stalinist regime, which sought to cloak its errors by depicting bureaucratic arbitrariness as an expression of "historical necessity." This perversion of a genuinely materialist and dialectical conception of Marxist determinism by Stalin was capably exposed by Professor Day in 1990 in his perceptive refutation of the "Blackmail of the Single Alternative."[1] Day's essay was written on the very eve of the definitive failure of Gorbachev's Perestroika, the Stalinist bureaucracy's dissolution of the USSR, and the restoration of capitalism. ...

~ more... ~

Italian Student Protesters Occupy Leaning Tower of Pisa

Italian students protesting at education reforms have targeted two top tourist attractions, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Colosseum.

Tourists were evacuated as some protesters hung out a banner from the top tier of the medieval tower while hundreds more stood by on the ground.

In Rome, students jumped over turnstiles to protest briefly inside the ancient amphitheatre.

The Italian parliament is due to vote on the reforms on Tuesday.

Students and academics are outraged over cuts of around 9bn euros (£8bn, $12bn) and the proposed loss of 130,000 jobs in the education system, AFP news agency reports.

In Pisa, about 2,000 students marched through the city, forming a human chain around the tower to prevent tourists from entering, the Italian news agency Ansa reports.

The tower was closed to the public with the students still inside, an AFP photographer said.

Some of the protesters at the Colosseum climbed up the face of the ancient ruin to hang a banner reading "No Cuts, No Profit!".

~ more... ~

CIA Brain Experiments Pursued in Veterans’ Suit

By Jeff Stein, Washington Post

The CIA is notorious for its Cold War-era experiments with LSD and other chemicals on unwitting citizens and soldiers. Details have emerged in books and articles beginning more than 30 years ago.

But if military veterans have their way in a California law suit, the spy agency's quest to turn humans into robot-like assassins via electrodes planted in their brains will get far more exposure than the drugs the CIA tested on subjects ranging from soldiers to unwitting bar patrons and the clients of prostitutes.

It's not just science fiction -- or the imaginings of the mentally ill.

In 1961, a top CIA scientist reported in an internal memo that "the feasibility of remote control of activities in several species of animals has been demonstrated…Special investigations and evaluations will be conducted toward the application of selected elements of these techniques to man," according to "The CIA and the Search for the Manchurian Candidate," a 1979 book by former State Department intelligence officer John Marks.

"[T]his cold-blooded project," Marks wrote, "was designed … for the delivery of chemical and biological agents or for 'executive action-type operations,' according to a document. 'Executive action' was the CIA's euphemism for assassination."

The CIA pursued such experiments because it was convinced the Soviets were doing the same.

Victims have sought justice for years, in vain. Now, almost 40 years later, a federal magistrate has ordered the CIA to produce records and witnesses about the LSD and other experiments "allegedly conducted on thousands of soldiers from 1950 through 1975," according to news accounts.

U.S. Magistrate Judge John Larsen's Nov. 17 order exempted the agency from having to testify about electrode tests on humans, but Gordon P. Erspamer, lead attorney for the veterans, says "we are pursuing this as well."

"There is no question that these experiments were done," Erspamer said by e-mail Tuesday, "but defendants say that they used private researchers and test subjects drawn from prisons, hospitals and nursing homes as subjects, not active duty military [personnel]. CIA said it had no one knowledgeable on this topic."

Erspamer, senior counsel in the San Francisco office of Morrison & Foerster, said "several" CIA witnesses "are…still alive," naming some that have been publicly identified, but opting to keep secret others before he calls them.

~ more... ~

Günter Wallraff's Deviant Brand of Journalism

From Günter Wallraff film Black on White exposes casual racism in Germany

German politicians have been urging foreign residents to integrate more deeply into society — and so Kwami Ogonno, a Somali, decided to do his bit.

He tried to rent an apartment, join the local allotment community, stay the night at a campsite and apply for a hunter's licence — a fair introduction to mainstream German society. But at every juncture he was blocked, and often rudely rejected.

Kwami Ogonno is, in fact, Günter Wallraff — one of Germany's top investigative reporters — and he has now made a film, Black on White, and written a book about his expeditions into the country's racially prejudiced undergrowth.

Blacked-up and wearing an implausible Afro-style wig, Mr Wallraff's first point was quickly apparent: that the Germans are so unaccustomed to seeing black faces in everyday life that they cannot distinguish his not-very-convincing caricature from the real thing. The result is, if anything, more revealing than Sacha Baron Cohen's fictional character Borat — supposedly a Kazakh reporter — who exposed bigotry in the US.

One of Kwami's first destinations was a guard-dog training centre in Cologne. Kwami explained that he would like to train his dog to defend him from skinheads, but the owner of the centre took one look at the pseudo-Somali — whose skin colouring involved two hours of spraying — before blurting out: "Sorry, no places left on the course." When Kwami persisted, the owner cited an absurdly high sign-up fee of ¤250 (£226). A voice could be heard off-camera saying: "And those rates are about to go up!"

Kwami gave up, but Mr Wallraff's secret camera team remained in place long enough to film a white German trying to enrol shortly afterwards — and being accepted immediately, and charged the usual fee of ¤60. ...


From Gunter Wallraff uncovers racism in Germany; thru a White Mans' Eyes

You Know It's bad when a whiteman goes undercover and then says it's bad. check out this clip, where he is applying for a flat.

Apparently he wanted to get the real "flava of bavaria" uncut. in this clip we see him getting sprayed up and then on a bus with some rather unhappy soccer fans; who are not down with his steelo.

this is more representative of what I've personally seen in germany when attending sporting events and you are the sole darker face.  many other darker people have remarked to me over the years that they did not enjoy their trips to germany.

in the 90′s quite a few of my african american business associates remarked to me that they had experienced the same cold and differientiating treatment; because they were darker skinned. one was a senior account rep for amex who basically rejected the treatment and shut down a major account for purchases;  due to their lack of sensitivity to minority contractors and associates. he cancelled their ghost card on the spot. bamm.

Clearly they just didn't realize that He Wasn't The One..

yeah, been there did that. never again..

FYI – Schwarzer translates to Black. It's  Arnold Schwarzenegger. so you know his name means Arnold Black well you got it,,

Germans are not into coloring outside the lines. no sirree bob


From Günter Wallraff says 9/11 the work of Covert Ops

Question:

Bin Laden ist also nicht der Drahtzieher?
(Bin Laden is therefore NOT the mastermind?)

WALLRAFF:

Hinter den Anschlägen steckt ein Plan, mit eiskaltem Kalkül und einer Langzeitstrategie.
(the attacks went according to a plan of cold reasoning and long-term-strategy)

Und man muss davor warnen, dass unsere Politiker in diese Falle tappen,
(and one has to warn of our politicians stepping into this trap)

damit nicht eine Neuaufteilung der Welt im Sinne dieser Terroristen geschieht ...
(so that a new, terrorist-designed division of the world is prevented)

QUESTION:

... die Sie im arabischen Raum sehen.
(which you see inside te arabic realm)

WALLRAFF:

Ja. Ich sehe die Aktion aber nicht auf einen Einzelnen konzentriert.
(Yes. I see this act not concentrated on the idividual.)

Es ist die Handschrift von Geheimdienst-Experten.
(It is the hand-writing of intelligence-experts)

Aus welchem Land oder Ländern dies genau beaufragt wurde,
wird sich vielleicht nie exakt beweisen lassen.
(From which country or countries this was commanded
may never be exactly provable)


Wallraff came to prominence thanks to his striking research methods. This style of research is based on what the reporter experiences personally after inveigling himself into the heart of the subject under investigation. Wallraff would construct a fictional identity so that he was not recognisable as a journalist. In this way, he created books which denounce what he considers to be social injustices and which try to provide readers with new insights into the way in which society works.

Life and work

Wallraff first took up this kind of investigative journalism in 1969 when he published 13 unerwünschte Reportagen ("13 undesired reports") in which he described what he experienced when acting the parts of an alcoholic, a tramp, and a worker in a chemicals factory.

He traveled to Greece in May 1974 at the time of the Ioannides dictorship. While in Syntagma Square, he protested against human right violations. He was arrested and tortured by the police, as he did not carry, on purpose, any papers on him that could identify him as a foreigner. After his identity was revealed, Wallraff was convicted and sentenced to 14 months in jail. He was released in August, after the end of the dictatorship. ...

A Recipe for Fascism

Chris Hedges writes for Truthout:

The failure to question the utopian assumptions of globalization has left us in an intellectual vacuum. Regulations, which we have dismantled, were the bulwarks that prevented unobstructed brutality and pillaging by the powerful and protected democracy. It was a heavily regulated economy, as well as labor unions and robust liberal institutions, which made the American working class the envy of the industrialized world. And it was the loss of those unions, along with a failure to protect our manufacturing, which transformed this working class into a permanent underclass clinging to part-time or poorly paid jobs without protection or benefits.

The "inevitability" of globalization has permitted huge pockets of the country to be abandoned economically. It has left tens of millions of Americans in economic ruin. Private charity is now supposed to feed and house the newly minted poor, a job that once, the old liberal class argued, belonged to the government. As John Ralston Saul in "The Collapse of Globalization" points out, "the role of charity should be to fill the cracks of society, the imaginative edges, to go where the public good hasn't yet focused or can't. Dealing with poverty is the basic responsibility of the state." But the state no longer has the interest or the resources to protect us. And the next target slated for elimination is Social Security.

That human society has an ethical foundation that must be maintained by citizens and the state is an anathema to utopian ideologues of all shades. They always demand that we sacrifice human beings for a distant goal. The propagandists of globalization—from Lawrence Summers to Francis Fukuyama to Thomas Friedman—do for globalization and the free market what Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky did for Marxism. They sell us a dream. These elite interpreters of globalism are the vanguard, the elect, the prophets, who alone grasp a great absolute truth and have the right to impose this truth on a captive people no matter what the cost. Human suffering is dismissed as the price to be paid for the coming paradise. The response of these propagandists to the death rattles around them is to continue to speak in globalization's empty rhetoric and use state resources to service a dead system. They lack the vision to offer any alternative. They can function only as systems managers. They will hollow out the state to sustain a casino capitalism that is doomed to fail. And what they offer as a solution is as irrational as the visions of a Christian America harbored by many within the tea party.

We are ruled by huge corporate monopolies that replicate the political and economic power, on a vastly expanded scale, of the old trading companies of the 17th and 18th centuries. Wal-Mart's gross annual revenues of $250 billion are greater than those of most small nation-states. The political theater funded by the corporate state is composed of hypocritical and impotent liberals, the traditional moneyed elite, and a disenfranchised and angry underclass that is being encouraged to lash out at the bankrupt liberal institutions and the government that once protected them. The tea party rabble, to placate their anger, will also be encouraged by their puppet masters to attack helpless minorities, from immigrants to Muslims to homosexuals. All these political courtiers, however, serve the interests of the corporate state and the utopian ideology of globalism. Our social and political ethic can be summed up in the mantra let the market decide. Greed is good.

~ more... ~