In 2008 many Liberals felt like we had the potential for a presidential candidate that could ‘take back’ the GOP from it’s deceitful leadership . Ron Paul – whatever you think of his politics – was a legitimate grassroots phenomenon on an incredible scale. We thought – even after Palin – that whatever happened, those Classical Liberal values had flexed their muscles. We thought that the party HAD to start catering to our wants.

The word you’re looking for is “co-opted.” A grassroots movement that gets legitimized by mainstream leadership, and then moves in a totally different direction. When you get frustrated with Brand Obama, think of us poor Classical Liberals on the other side of the political spectrum. Think about how we have to watch Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Sarah Palin make a mockery of our ideals. These people take our words and remove their meaning, applying their own brand of insanity to them.

Wait for it. It’s just beginning. Pretty soon you’ll feel a lack of identification with the words “leftist” and the popular use of “liberal,” because those words now mean “Obama-ist”. “Anti-war” now means “supporter of Obama’s ‘withdrawal’”, “health reformer” now means “supporter of Obama’s health bill.”

I sympathize. I really do. All the words I used to use to self-identify now mean “nutball,” “idiot,” and – worst of all – “Glenn Beck fan.” And I can’t do anything about it, except hunt political nomenclature from 150 years ago and use that to self-identify instead. Fucking sucks.

Our society is deeply divided along class and race lines. Those who are privileged hold it against those who are not. The changes will come only with realignment of priorities – when the white working class rejects privilege as illusory and joins with their natural allies, blacks and Hispanics to force a better deal. There will be no advances in quality of life for the bulk of the American people, never mind socialism – until the racial barriers are actively dismantled.

Very true and extremely accurate B99. We see this split among the most “progressive” forces. And if they are divided along race and class, building trust and solidarity will be extremely difficult to achieve.

Hervé Kempf’s recipe for the success of climate change negotiations: “Proclaim that we must redistribute wealth and put a ceiling on income by establishing a maximum allowable income.”
Nice summer, countryside, seaside, love affairs, all is going well? Heat wave, full airplanes, highway traffic jams. The summer routine. Factories have closed? Hmm. We got a good rest. And … now everyone is back.
For ecology, the comeback takes the form of a countdown: In less than 100 days the Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change will open. A historical, magical, civilizational, vital rendezvous (prepare yourself for grandiloquence). Cohorts of diplomats are going to converge on Denmark in December, and, no doubt, a plethora of activists, militants, citizens – they’re expecting 100,000 people!

The goal of the hubbub: to develop the treaty that will succeed the Kyoto Protocol in order to organize the international struggle against climate change. At stake: Will the industrialized countries commit to drastically reducing their greenhouse gas emissions in exchange for emerging countries’ commitment to limit their own? Report card: The negotiation is blocked. Barack Obama, tangled up in his health care reform, is unlikely to get his proposed climate law voted on before December. Suddenly, US diplomats are putting on the brakes. China and India respond: As long as you don’t budge, we’re not budging.

Will this logjam be broken? We’ll see. But basically, the key is not to be found in the great powers’ game. Or rather, the geostrategic reading has no meaning if it neglects the division of social forces in the wealthy countries. Thus is the lock that must be opened situated at the heart of the operation of contemporary capitalism. Of course, you’ve heard people talk about the bonus issue. Of what is it the symptom? Of the fact that the richest people obstinately refuse to question their privileges.

Now, if we seriously want to battle climate change, it’s necessary that all of society put itself to the task. Whether we like it or not, that means a reduction in material consumption. But it’s impossible for the middle classes to agree to move towards sobriety as long as the ruling classes don’t agree to seriously reduce their lifestyle.

Breaking with decades of the culture of consumption is already very difficult; it becomes unbearable if the transformation is not equitably shared. Consequently, preventing climate change presupposes a profound reconsideration of the social system. Precisely that against which the United States oligarchy is uniting – by blocking health care reform before trying to derail the climate law – but also Europe’s, as the whole bonus comedy illustrates. The result: a weak diplomatic position and the stalemate of the climate negotiation.

You want to succeed in Copenhagen? Proclaim that we must redistribute wealth and put a ceiling on income by establishing a maximum allowable income.

Pilger is never polyannaish. He knows history–and adduces the historical record here–,he knows the vagaries of the human heart and mind. He understands the power of myth and modern propaganda– built on the theories of Bernays and others–to seduce, confuse, enrapture, terrify and conquer. He also knows the yin and yang of human history and he makes a cogent cri de coeur here to all men and women of conscience, yearning for justice–a cogent case to keep the faith, prepare for the long struggle, honor those comrades who have advanced the cause before us by persevering with knowledge, cunning and wisdom.

Muchas gracias, Sr. Pilger!

All gone! And all that killings/maimings/burnings in vain and in infinity of time, ephemeral in duration.

The question arises, Will US succeed? Yes, i think US can succeed now because world plutos are not waging wars against one another but against poor people and peoples.

Possibly only russia and china stand in the way. And neither china nor russia can expect any help from the christo-islamo-talmudic world.
In fact, the two ‘evil’ empires may encounter open emnity and warfare from most ‘pious’ people.
So much for piety! tnx

In this New World Order the children of Israel will furnish all the leaders without encountering opposition. The Governments of the different peoples forming the world republic will fall without difficulty into the hands of the Jews. It will then be possible for the Jewish rulers to abolish private property and everywhere to make use of the resources of the state. Thus will the promise of the Talmud be fulfilled, in which is said that when the Messianic time is come, the Jews will have all the property of the whole world in their hands.”

— Baruch Levy, Letter to Karl Marx, ‘La Revue de Paris’, p.574, June 1, 1928

I have an excellent idea. . . I shall induce anti-Semites to liquidate Jewish wealth. . .

The anti-Semites will assist us thereby in that they will strengthen the persecution and oppression of Jews.

The anti-Semites shall be our best friends”

— Theodor Herzl, Founder of Zionism in 1897

But, if a Jew is the person doing the exposing, they resort to other tactics.

First, they ignore the charges, hoping the information will not be given widespread distribution.

If the information starts reaching too many people, they ridicule the information and the persons giving the information.

If that doesn’t work, their next step is character assassination. If the author or speaker hasn’t been involved in sufficient scandal they are adept at fabricating scandal against the person or persons.

If none of these are effective, they are known to resort to physical attacks.

But, NEVER do they try to prove the information wrong.

Jack Bernstein, (assassinated by MOSSAD)

In varying degrees, the American people have been beneficiaries of Empire, much as the British people and other empire citizens have been.

As the American war machine kills, as it has done relentlessly for decades, there is little disgruntlement about it. This has been a perplexing society. Given to a marketed creation of ME, with some history of community, but an even stronger inclination toward individualism. The latter has played into the national narrative and used by the corporate and elite propaganda machine to sustain war, and concentration of wealth.

Today, the USA is mounting war in 3 countries as Mr. Pilger rightly acknowledges. Not a peep from anyone. Is that because Obama quieted the masses? Because the Democrats are in and so they are silent for purely partisan reasons, and only make noise about war when it is the other Party? Certainly.

But the greatest noise at this time is health care. And that is an utter fiasco. There is no authentic universal health care that will come out of this Washington. Nor should there be. A belief in the fundamental right of health care for all, is tied inextricably to the war machine that daily destroys the lives of thousands, and over time many millions. Why should Americans expect OR have a peaceful life of cradle to grave care when they, indirectly, deprive others of such?

Tell me Mr. Pilger, please.

In fact, such a war machine, and the complicitness of its citizenry of all colors and classes, ensures that such peace, that such a fundamental human right will never happen so long as the nation continues to murder and maime children, innocent adults and babies.

I seem to remember that a third “bird” was the Greenies (green party members/ activists/ environmentalists for those outside Oz)….who were somehow at fault for not allowing more bush to be destroyed in previous years