Recommended daily allowance of insanity, under-reported news and uncensored opinion dismantling the propaganda matrix.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Trained for Pain: Get your Torture Degree from School of Americas
Chavez, Trotsky, And Permanent Revolution
Uneven and combined development affects not only the shape and pace of advance of the means of production of a society, but also the class structure. In the Russian case it meant a small and weak domestic capitalist class, heavily penetrated by external financiers, a colossal and repressive bureaucracy, and a freshly formed and small, but potentially powerful, urban working class.
This posed a problem for the country’s socialist movement, which was divided between its Bolshevik and Menshevik factions. For the Mensheviks, the coming revolution would be bourgeois in character. Therefore it would be made by the “democratic bourgeoisie”. Workers might assist as part of a democratic coalition of forces, but could at best act as a kind of ginger group assuring certain rights for workers in the ensuing democratic regime.13 The Bolsheviks, led by Lenin, recognised the need for a militant struggle by workers. In their formulation there would be a “revolutionary-democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry” which would drive the revolution through. The proletariat would, according to this rather vague scenario, limit itself to the tasks appropriate to a bourgeois revolution.14 This formulation persisted until 1917, when, in the course of the revolution, Lenin won the Bolshevik Party (which Trotsky had by then joined) to a perspective remarkably similar to that of permanent revolution.15
As capitalism is an international system, connected both through imperialism and the world market, crises provoking revolutionary situations were likely to be regional or global in scale. The other dimension to the “permanence” of the Russian Revolution was, therefore, that revolutions would have to follow in major European countries. The revolutionary wave that followed 1917 was confirmation of the viability of Trotsky’s theory; the ultimate defeat of this wave, which paved the way for Stalinist counterrevolution, was, in a negative sense, also a confirmation.
The Handbook of Human Ownership - A Manual for New Tax Farmers
If you are reading this, it means that you have ascended to the highest levels of government, so it's really, really important that you don't do or say anything stupid, and screw things up for the rest of us.
The first thing to remember is that you are a figurehead, about as relevant to the direction of the state as a hood ornament is to the direction of a car -- but you are a very important distraction, the "smiling face" of the fist of power. So hold your nose, kiss the babies, and just think how good you would look on a stamp.
Now, before we go into your media responsibilities, you must understand the true history of political power, so you don't accidentally act on the naive idealism you are required to project to the general public.
The reality of political power is very simple: bad farmers own crops and livestock -- good farmers own human beings...
Korea: Citizens’ tax revolution
The TRP has said that rather than being a political party, it would operate as a permanent organization like the U.S. organization MoveOn working to uphold citizen rights and set an agenda. The participants are passionate in their desire to effect financial reforms and realize tax justice. We look forward to seeing TRP set deep roots and serving as a catalyst for change in the framework of national finances.
Taxes are the fundamental reason that the Lee Myung-bak administration’s “Fair Society” campaign pledge rings hollow. The tax burden on high-income earners has dropped sharply due to tax cuts for the wealthy, and passing down property without taxes has persisted as people have evaded lax law enforcement. Low-income earners in need of assistance are driven into critical circumstances as budget monies become poured into construction projects and development, and even fiscal soundness is deteriorating.
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Every Day In Palestine
The Fountainhead of Satanism
A leading radio host called LaVey “brilliant” and quotations from the The Satanic Bible can be glimpsed on placards at political rallies. More recently, a respected theologian dared to criticize the founder of the Church of Satan in the pages of a religious and cultural journal and was roundly criticized by dozens of fellow Christians.
Surprisingly little concern, much less outrage, has erupted over this phenomenon. Shouldn’t we be appalled by the ascendancy of this evangelist of anti-Christian philosophy? Shouldn’t we all—especially we Christians—be mobilizing to counter the malevolent force of this man on our culture and politics?
As you’ve probably guessed by this point, I’m not really talking about LaVey but about his mentor, Ayn Rand. The ascendency of LaVey and his embrace by “conservative” leaders would indeed cause paroxysms of indignation. Yet, while the two figures’ philosophies are nearly identical, Rand appears to have received a pass. Why is that?
UK in Afghanistan-Double Standards
It is also presented how liberal papers in the West have drawn a bleak picture of Chavez. However, the man has been very effective to improve the situation in Venezuela. Indeed, he has removed poverty from the country very severely[sic].
Syntagma, Butler and the Power of the Performative
ART LIFE, THE FUTURISM REVOLUTION PROMO
52 minutes - full HD. The first Futurist documentary on Futurism.
Israeli navy attacks intl. monitoring vessel in Gaza
Press TV's Ashraf Shannon reports from Gaza.
Will British News of the World scandal really expose underlying corruption?-The Agenda
The topic of this edition of the show is the News of the World phone hacking scandal.
The News of the World phone hacking scandal has taking the world by storm. The actions of a few investigative journalists have brought into question the lack of ethics in the mainstream media. The government's action or lack of action has been called into question.
Art Is Either Plagiarism Or Revolution
What’s the Likelihood of the Singularity? Part Two: Uploading the Brain
This is the second part of my look at Charlie Stross’ three arguments against the Singularity. You can read part one here and part three here.
The second aspect of the Singularity that Stross takes a look at in his anti-Singularity arguments is the prospect of uploading the brain into a computer,which is a popular means in speculative fiction for a type of immortality. For three excellent fictional examples, see Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse, John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War, or Richard K. Morgan’s Altered Carbon. For a very bad one, see the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “The Schizoid Man.” In essence, though, the idea is that your memories, personality and “soul” if you will can be uploaded into a computer, then transferred to a robot body, a cloned body, a simulated environment, or whatever.
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Freemason arrest sanctioned
The ‘yes’ vote became possible after the committee members from the Northern League, which usually supports the People of Freedom, chose to abstain.
Mr Papa is believed to be a key figure in an illegal Masonic lodge. The cell is known as P-4.
Predicting future actions from human brain activity
From Kurzweil:
In yet another Minority Report scenario, researchers at The University of Western Ontario from The Centre for Brain and Mind can now determine the action a person was planning — moments before that action is actually executed.
Human subjects had their brain activity scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while they performed one of three hand movements: grasping the top of an object, grasping the bottom of the object, or simply reaching out and touching the object.
“Being able to predict a human’s desired movements using brain signals takes us one step closer to using those signals to control prosthetic limbs in movement-impaired patient populations, like those who suffer from spinal cord injuries or locked-in syndrome,” said Jason Gallivan.
Ref.: J. C. Culham, Decoding Action Intentions from Preparatory Brain Activity in Human Parieto-Frontal Networks,Journal of Neuroscience, 2011; 31 (26): 9599 [DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0080-11.2011]
Protesters gather outside Bohemian Grove
About 45 people showed up Wednesday near the entrance to the Bohemian Grove in Monte Rio, marking the first protest against the summer encampment of the wealthy and powerful Bohemians.
The Great Global Debt Depression: It's All Greek To Me
In late June of 2011, the Greek government passed another round of austerity measures, ostensibly aimed at getting Greece “back on track” to economic progress, but in reality, implementing a systematic program of ‘social genocide’ in the name of servicing an endless and illegitimate debt to foreign banks. Right on cue, protests and riots broke out in Athens against the draconian measures, and the state moved in to do what states do best: oppress the people with riot police, tear gas and bashing batons, leaving roughly 300 people injured.
Is Greece simply a case of a country full of lazy people who spent beyond their means and are now paying for their own decadence? Or, is there something much larger at stake – and at play – here? Greece is, in fact, a microcosm of the global economy: mired in excessive debt, economically ruined, increasingly politically repressive and socially explosive. This report takes a look at the case of the Greek debt crisis specifically, and places it within a wider global context. The conclusion is clear: what happens in Greece will happen here.
This report examines the Greek crisis, as well as the larger global economic crisis, including the origins of the housing bubble, the bailouts, the banks, and the major actors and institutions which will come to dominate the stage over the next decade in what will play out as ‘The Great Global Debt Depression.’