Caitlin Johnstone:  Julian Assange  “all our political theories are to some extent “bankrupt” in our current situation, because our institutions are so shrouded in secrecy that we can’t even know what’s really going on in the world.” … The nature of our institutions is hidden from us, and that includes not only our government institutions but the political, media, corporate and financial institutions which control so much of our society. … the nature of our world is being so aggressively obfuscated from our view keeps us from knowing exactly what needs to change, and keeps us from effecting change … Read here …

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Caitlin Johnstone:  It’s really heartbreaking to think about all the ways human potential is being starved and constricted by these ridiculous limitations we’ve placed on the way we operate as a collective. Resources being allocated based on how well they can turn a profit stymies technological innovation, because the most profitable model will always lose out to less profitable ones that are more beneficial to people and our environment. …  As long as human behavior remains driven by profit, ecocide will continue, because ecocide is profitable. … Read here …

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Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report:  Indictments, disruptions, arrests, defamation, incarceration and even assassination are the weapons used to discredit Black people who act in opposition to the system and who call for liberation. They will always be targets of state persecution and prosecution. … Those who struggle domestically and internationally against the political duopoly and their handiwork of domestic and international oppression will always be attacked by these forces, as will those who support them in any way … As the U.S. decline accelerates, so will this process of targeting Black people.  … Read here …

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Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report:  The Supreme Court has always been a political institution. Racism, political expediency, and outright corruption have always dictated its decisions. … There is political malfeasance, cynicism and political corruption but the court itself is little more than a place for billionaires to buy the justice they want, literally and figuratively. … There are no saviors in congress, the white house or in the Supreme Court. … The Supreme Court is clearly undeserving of the reverence with which it is treated. It exemplifies everything that is wrong with this country… Read here …

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Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report:  A mass attack of derision occurred when the facts about the Titan submersible were revealed. Laughter at the expense of an incompetent rich man is understandable but skirts the issue. The rich get many people killed and they do it by design. … The concentration of wealth grows more and more extreme and depends entirely upon exploiting millions of people and putting their lives at risk. … Poverty itself is the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S. … Read here …

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Margaret Kimberley:  A delegation of African leaders travelled to Ukraine and Russia to help broker peace. But the collective west insists on prolonging the conflict. … Not only is Ukraine a de facto U.S. colony which lives and dies by Washington’s whims, but it is also a deeply racist country. … Much of its population is still attached to Nazi ideology and the politics of World War II collaborator Stephan Bandera. … Nazi salutes, swastikas and other insignias are common there. … Read here …

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Margaret Kimberley: The recent indictments of former president Donald Trump are political acts intended to keep him from becoming president again. But the impact of dubious legal precedent should be of greater concern than helping the democrats achieve electoral victories that rarely benefit the people. … The crimes he committed on behalf of the U.S. are never called into question and like those of other presidents will never be punished. … It is ironic that Trump used the very problematic Espionage Act while he was president. It was a means of indicting Julian Assange and others … Read here …

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Margaret Kimberley (Black Agenda Report): Cop City is an effort to ensure that state violence will bring the most draconian methods to bear against Black people. State violence is also being used proactively, in an effort to end opposition to this creation of Atlanta’s white ruling class and their errand boys and girls who ostensibly control a fake mecca for Black people. … Read here …

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Caitlin Johnstone:  If you watch western news media with a critical eye you eventually notice how their reporting consistently aligns with the interests of the US-centralized empire, in almost the same way you’d expect them to if they were government-run propaganda outlets. …  what you find is a much larger, much less centralized network of factors which tips the scales of media coverage to the advantage of the US empire and the forces which benefit from it. … Some of it is indeed conspiratorial in nature and happens in secret, but most of it is essentially out in the open. … Read here …

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Margaret Kimberley:  Bruce Dixon coined the term “sheepdog” to describe the role that Bernie Sanders would play in the 2016 presidential campaign … herding activist energies and the disaffected left back into the Democratic fold  … to tie up activist energies and resources … till the summer of 2016 when the only remaining choice will be the usual lesser of two evils.” … Robert F. Kennedy Jr. takes positions that need to be heard. It is good that a presidential candidate opposes U.S. interventions around the world and pledges to end the censorship that the state and big tech carry out. … But … Read here ..

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Caitlin Johnstone:  The most common articles of propaganda — and by far the most consequential  …. the mundane messages, distortions and lies-by-omission that people are fed day in and day out to normalize the status quo … Another related method of manipulation is agenda-setting — the way the press shapes public thinking by emphasising some subjects and not others … the press “may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling its readers what to think about. … Read here …

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Margaret Kimberley:  Joe Biden is continuing the ignoble tradition of colluding with republicans while pretending to fight them. The latest debt limit drama is another betrayal of the people. … Biden then announced his willingness to cut $1 trillion from the federal budget. What is being cut? Not money for Ukraine … he would accept republican demands that medicaid and SNAP benefit recipients be required to work at least 20 hours per week … some 600,000 people would lose health coverage and 275,000 people would lose SNAP benefits every month … Read here …

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Caitlin Johnstone: The fact that our minds are being manipulated at mass scale throughout our civilization is the most significant thing happening in the world by far, but hardly anyone talks about it, because hardly anyone knows it’s happening. And a lot of power rides on keeping it that way. … Many people, maybe even most people, are to some extent aware that our entire civilization is bullshit. Relatively few are able to describe exactly how and why it’s bullshit … Read here …

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H. Patricia Hynes:  1870 Mother’s Day Proclamation : Arise then, women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts… Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have taught them of charity, mercy and patience… We women of one country will be too tender of those of another to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. … From the bosom of the devastated earth, a voice goes up with our own.  It says, ‘“Disarm, disarm!”’… Read here …

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Margaret Kimberley:  New York City’s mayor isn’t just a self-interested member of the Black political class. He is also singularly incompetent and lacking in the most basic political skills. After a Black man was publicly murdered on the subway, Adams saw no need to go through the motions of expressing appropriate concern … police killings happen with impunity, and as in the days of the slave patrol, every white person is deputized … Read here …

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