Who Will Be Figurehead Of This Doomed Empire?

So the October surprise turned out to be major newspapers failing to endorse the current administration's candidate, albeit for different reasons.

Most significant: the Los Angeles Times, a paper long in the grip of the Zionist lobby -- which is huge and particularly powerful in southern California (see UCLA and USC actions against student protesters for evidence) -- declined due to the influence of the 31 year old daughter of its new owner. Nika Soon-Shiong explained:

As a citizen of a country openly financing genocide, and as a family that experienced South African apartheid, the endorsement was an opportunity to repudiate justifications for the widespread targeting of journalists and ongoing war on children.

The Gannett newspaper chain, largest in the U.S. and including flagship publication USA Today, also will not endorse a candidate this year, giving no real reason other than a vague assurance that the decision was made a year ago. Washington Post owner, oligarch Jeff Bezos, published an op-ed explaining that in a close election some see as a referendum on the U.S.-Israel genocide, he is hedging his bets.

Glenn Greenwald commented:

To say that liberal elites were enraged by this news and have gotten into a spiraling meltdown of hysteria and betrayal is to understate the case. Some of these journalists and editors actually resigned in protest, including one of the longest-time and most influential neocons, Robert Kagan, who resigned today from The Washington Post. 

Kagan is the husband of Victoria Nuland, architect of the destruction of Ukraine. Perfect guy to have on your editorial board to pump up the jam for that particular disastrous imperial war.

Is it any wonder that a Gallup poll this month found corporate media have sunk even lower in the public's esteem than Congress?

The part that gets overlooked deliberately by nearly all corporate media: the U.S.-Israel empire is foundering, and a popularity contest for figurehead of the sinking ship is largely irrelevant.

We are nearing the end times. As British journalist Jonathan Cook observed:

Every empire falls. Its collapse becomes inevitable once its rulers lose all sense of how absurd and abhorrent they have become.

Along these lines, here's some of what I've been reading this week that's worth considering.

For starters, I think these two articles belong together:

"Trump's Madison Square Garden event turns into a rally with crude and racist insults" (Associated Press, October 27)

"Collapsing Empire: China and Russia checkmate US Military" (Kit Klarenberg's substack Global Delinquents, October 29)

Here, I got a kick out of Aussie blogger Caitlin Johnstone riffing on the poor quality of our candidates in these declining days of empire:

Iranian cleric Shahab Moradi after the US assassinated Iran’s immensely popular general Qassem Soleimani in 2020 complained that Iran can’t even really retaliate for the assassination because the US doesn’t have any real heroes of its own. 

“Think about it. Are we supposed to take out Spider-Man and SpongeBob?”

But we're laughing through our tears as the dying beast destroys many lives on its way down to perdition.

A useful analysis of this election is from Chris Hedges:

The choice this election is between Corporate and Oligarchic Power

There is a civil war within capitalism. Kamala Harris is the face of corporate power. Donald Trump is the mascot of the oligarchs. Either way, we lose.

This answers the oft asked question, if both corporate parties answer to the same donors and pursue the same genocidal policies while competing to be the most pro-Israel, what's a voter to do? Something like 40% of eligible voters declined to participate last time around.

Hedges, who has already voted for pro-Palestine Greens Stein and Ware, as I will do on Tuesday: 

Corporate power needs stability and a technocratic government. Oligarchic power thrives on chaos and, as Steve Bannon says, the “deconstruction of the administrative state.” Neither are democratic. They have each bought up the political class, the academy and the press. 

Both are forms of exploitation that impoverish and disempower the public. Both funnel money upwards into the hands of the billionaire class. 

Both dismantle regulations, destroy labor unions, gut government services in the name of austerity, privatize every aspect of American society, from utilities to schools, perpetuate permanent wars, including the genocide in Gaza, and neuter a media that should, if it was not controlled by corporations and the rich, investigate their pillage and corruption. 

Both forms of capitalism disembowel the country, but they do it with different tools and have different goals.

If you're in Maine, consider complaining to the Portland Press Herald which today published two articles on the election, including one focused on what's driving college students' votes, without once mentioning the genocide in Gaza. Journalistic malpractice is what I call it. Democratic Party aligned media want you to believe their party will protect abortion rights (they haven't and won't) and the environment (don't make me laugh), and that these are the issues that brought tens of thousands of young people out into the streets over the past year.

Then meet us at the No Votes for Genocide rally in Monument Square today, Saturday November 2, at 3pm. It's part of a national mobilization ahead of the election. 

Then, see NAILA AND THE UPRISING at 7pm at nearby Space gallery (reserve your free tickets here). Co-presented by the Maine Palestine Film Collective, the Maine Coalition for Palestine, and Multitude Films. Trailer available here on YouTube. 

The U.S.-Israel war on Palestinians didn't start on October 7, 2023 and it won't end on November 5, 2024. But it will end someday, and people in the U.S. cannot escape forever the consequences of imperial bullying around the globe.

Things Your Corporate Government & Its Media Don't Want You To Know

What, no Labor Day post? You all know that Labor Day was created by the U.S. in order to delegitimize the longstanding international day of worker solidarity, May 1. Right? If you didn't know that, join the crowd. Your access to true facts and reliable information has been constrained since the day you were born. And it's getting worse at warp speed as genocide in Gaza kicks off what is undoubtedly the early stage of a third world war.

Ten things your corporate government and its media do not want you to know:

https://x.com/muhammadshehad2/status/1830159889714315753

1) Hundreds of thousands turned out in demonstrations against the Israeli government's genocide in Gaza taking place amid a general strike that a labor court just ruled must end today, accepting the government's argument that is is "politically motivated." The trigger: six hostages found newly dead by Israeli soldiers, deaths that many in Israel blame on their own government.

https://open.substack.com/pub/husseini/p/israel-wanted-disease-and-genocide

2) Polio vaccinations for Gaza are an elaborate public relations ruse aimed at repairing Israel's reputation in the world, but they are medically unsound due to the oral vaccine being used and the underlying health conditions of Palestinian children.

https://thecradle.co/articles/israeli-troops-expel-palestinians-in-jenin-as-bloody-west-bank-assault-enters-sixth-day

3) Israel has expanded its genocidal attacks to include residences, refugee camps, and schools in the occupied West Bank this week, meeting with fierce resistance.

4) Journalists arrested or harassed by Western governments now include Scott Ritter, Richard Medhurst, and Sarah Wilkinson. Wilkinson was arrested and had her devices confiscated by 16 goons in black balaclavas who accused her of terrorism for two retweets she posted, according to her daughter. And the Cradle reported August 30 on a related arrest:

Richard Barnard, the cofounder of pro-Palestinian activist group, Palestine Action, was charged under the Terrorism Act by UK police on 29 August. Barnard is being accused of “expressing an opinion that is supportive of a proscribed organization contrary to section 12 of the Terrorism Act 2000.” 

VP Kamala Harris shared in an interview with CNN that she favors censorship on the Facebook and Twitter platforms. Meanwhile, Telegram founder Pavel Durov was arrested in France for refusing to allow governments to remove encryption on that popular news-sharing platform. TikTok came under attack in the U.S. earlier this year when Congress ordered it to sell out to Western ownership or be banned.

5) Green Party candidate Dr. Jill Stein with VP Dr. Butch Ware are polling equal to the Democratic candidates among Muslim voters.

6) The Green Party has ballot access for Stein-Ware in 41 states, making it eligible to earn 500+ electoral college votes (260 are needed to win in November). Newsweek magazine published a deliberately false map about this, then revised it under pressure, but the revision is still far from correct.

7) Ukraine continues losing ground as Russia took out much of the country's electricity infrastructure this week. This is retaliation for Ukraine striking civilian targets inside Russia and in the face of Russia's willing to negotiate a ceasefire. Another consequence of NATO/Ukraine escalation is that Russia is reviewing its nuclear weapons use policies.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C_Y6BOxPDtX/

8) Israeli genocide profiteer Elbit Systems has shut down a facility in Cambridge, Massachusetts due to relentless pressure from pro Palestine activists. 

9) Columbia University protesters who occupied and renamed Hind Hall last spring have had their charges dropped because they masked up and also covered many surveillance cameras, leading a judge to say it was impossible to use the CCTV footage to identify individuals. Colleges are mostly back and arrests are already occurring as students pick up where they left off vigorously opposing their universities' complicity in Israel's genocide.

10) Many of the U.S. Navy's vessels are currently deployed to support the blockade of Gaza. Meanwhile, the Navy is considering sidelining 17 support vessels due to a lack of personnel to operate the ships.

Need better sources of information for yourself? Check out the ones I've linked to in this post. And share good ones you know about in the comments!

Peace Delegation Will Attempt To Enter BIW Warship "Christening' Ceremony" Oct 31 #mepolitics

Protest sign in South Korea where a world heritage soft coral reef on Jeju Island was entombed in concrete to make a port for Aegis destroyers built by war profiteer General Dynamics at their Bath Iron Works shipyard.

Representatives from state and national peace groups will attempt to enter the scheduled BIW "Christening" ceremony of a new Aegis destroyer on Saturday, October 31. The group intends to deliver a letter addressed to Maine’s elected officials who will be present at the event to give their ‘blessings’ to another expensive and destabilizing warship launch.

 

Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein will be among speakers at the protest rally outside BIW on the corner of Washington and Hinckley Streets from 9am to noon.  

At the end of the event, organizers will send a delegation from the rally to attempt to enter the shipyard in order to deliver an “Open Letter to Maine Elected Officials” who will be speaking at the launch. The letter reads:

 

On this day another Navy Aegis destroyer is being "Christened" at Bath Iron Works and many of Maine’s elected officials will be present to give their official blessings.  These very expensive warships are outfitted with offensive cruise missiles and so-called "missile defense" interceptors that in fact are key elements in Pentagon first-strike attack planning.  The Aegis warship program is not about defending our nation but in fact these ships are being used to provocatively encircle the coasts of China and Russia.

Under the former Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty with Russia these "missile defense" interceptors were outlawed because they were highly destabilizing to world peace – they gave one side a clear advantage and an incentive to attack first.  In 2002 Washington unilaterally pulled out of the ABM Treaty which has only resulted in a new arms race.

Today many of our elected officials will talk about the jobs that come from building warships at BIW.  What they won’t say is that the Navy ship building budget is unsustainable and that very soon the nation will hit the economic wall as aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines, and destroyers are all over budget.  In fact studies done by the University of Massachusetts-Amherst Economics Department have long shown that military spending is the worst way to create jobs – military production is capital intensive.  That means we get fewer jobs building weapons for endless war than any other job creation program.  The studies also reveal that if commuter rail systems were built at BIW we’d nearly double the jobs – something every politicians should be demanding.

We do have a serious problem today and that is to immediately deal with climate change and the growing acidification of the Gulf of Maine.  Increasing, due to warming oceans, the lobsters and other fish are moving further north to colder temperatures.  That means Maine’s fishing industry will be hit hard.  If Maine is to survive economically we need a crash program to reduce our carbon footprint on the planet.  Building rail systems, solar, wind turbines and tidal power systems would create more jobs and help us deal with the coming reality of climate change.

It is morally wrong for the US to think it can control the world.  The idea that the US is an ‘exceptional’ nation, better than the rest of the world, must give way to a humility where we see our place in the world as one nation among many.  We don’t have a right to control and dominate the world on behalf of corporate interests.

We call on all of Maine’s elected officials to find the courage to stand up and represent the future generation’s desire for life on our Mother Earth.  Our children and grandchildren cannot survive by us building more destroyers for endless war.  We need a future that is sustainable, practical and peaceful.  We don’t believe that Christ, the Prince of Peace, would come here and give his blessing to more war and violence.

The October 31 peace rally at BIW comes a week after the conclusion of the 16-day Maine Walk for Peace: Pentagon’s Impact on the Oceans that began in Ellsworth and followed U.S. Hwy 1 South to Portsmouth.  

During the walk community suppers were held each night and people were invited to come to BIW to protest the "Christening" of the Navy destroyer on October 31.  

Thousands directly witnessed the walking protest that called for an end to the militarization of the oceans.  The public was overwhelmingly supportive of the walk, which also demanded the conversion of the weapons industry to sustainable production so that we can deal with our real problem – climate change.

The October 31 rally is sponsored by: Midcoast PeaceWorks; Smilin’ Trees Disarmament Farm; CODEPINK Maine; and the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space.