US Driven By Nazi War Machine by Finian Cunningham

by Finian Cunningham
Writer, Dandelion Salad
East Africa
Crossposted from PressTV
May 11, 2013

The annual VE Day – victory in Europe – celebrations held this month see, as usual, Western governments indulging in self-glory and moral superiority for their supposed defeat of German fascism. However, the official history books do not tell of the secret pact that Western governments and Washington in particular formed with the remnants of the Nazi war machine.

Boston Marathon, This Thing Called Terrorism, and The United States by William Blum

by William Blum
Writer, Dandelion Salad
www.killinghope.org
May 4, 2013

Image by World Can’t Wait via Flickr

Boston Marathon, this thing called terrorism, and the United States

What is it that makes young men, reasonably well educated, in good health and nice looking, with long lives ahead of them, use powerful explosives to murder complete strangers because of political beliefs?

I’m speaking about American military personnel of course, on the ground, in the air, or directing drones from an office in Nevada.

The Haymarket Riot: “It is a Subterranean Fire” by Elizabeth Schulte (repost)

Dandelion Salad

Repost

Image by chicagogeek via Flickr

by Elizabeth Schulte
SocialistWorker.org
April 29, 2011

ON MAY 1, 1886–125 years ago this month–hundreds of thousands of workers were taking the streets of cities around the U.S. to demand an eight-hour day.

The epicenter of this great labor struggle was Chicago, where the eight-hour movement inspired defiant protests and strikes–and inspired fear and repression from bosses and their loyal servants in law enforcement.

Michael Parenti: Make-Believe Media

with Michael Parenti
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Michael Parenti Blog
www.michaelparenti.org
May 1, 2013

Image by PropagandaTimes via Flickr

SmellsLikePodcast on Apr 30, 2013

Dr. Michael Parenti is an internationally-renowned lecturer and author, most recently of ‘The Face of Imperialism’. In this interview, he discusses the use of entertainment media as propaganda, and the relationship between government agencies and the production of such content. Later on in the talk, Dr. Parenti also provides his take on the media’s coverage of the Obama Administration’s escalating use of drones, and the recent death of Margaret Thatcher.

Rick Rozoff: NATO Has Become Global Expeditionary Force

by Rick Rozoff
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Stop NATO
April 25, 2013

Image by Jos van Zetten via Flickr

RT

NATO buys the loyalty of sovereign states and in return demands fighting forces that have been engaged on three continents in the last decade, Rick Rozoff, from STOP NATO has told RT.

RT: The terror threat around the world seems to only be growing. Is this the time countries should be relying on NATO?

Dance on Thatcher’s Grave, but Remember, There Has Been a Coup in Britain by John Pilger

Dandelion Salad

by John Pilger
http://johnpilger.com
25 April 2013

Image by gnatlou93 via Flickr

In the wake of Thatcher’s departure, I remember her victims. Patrick Warby’s daughter, Marie, was one of them. Marie, aged five, suffered from a bowel deformity and needed a special diet. Without it, the pain was excruciating. Her father was a Durham miner and had used all his savings. It was winter 1985, the Great Strike was almost a year old and the family was destitute. Although her eligibility was not disputed, Marie was denied help by the Department of Social Security. Later, I obtained records of the case that showed Marie had been turned down because her father was “affected by a Trade dispute”.

Pennsylvania: You Are Fracked by Walter Brasch

Image by Marcellus Protest via Flickr

by Walter Brasch
Writer, Dandelion Salad
www.walterbrasch.com
April 22, 2013

The history of energy exploration, mining, and delivery is best understood in a range from benevolent exploitation to worker and public oppression. A company comes into an area, leases or buys land in rural and agricultural areas for mineral rights, increases employment, usually during a depressed economy, strips the land of its resources, creates health problems for its workers and those in the immediate area, and then leaves.

Social Security Belongs To The Workers by Kathy Durkin

Dandelion Salad

Image by Fifth World Art via Flickr

by Kathy Durkin
Workers World
April 20, 2013

What will happen to our Social Security benefits? This question is being asked by the program’s 56 million recipients in response to the Obama administration’s proposal to cut the annual cost-of-living raise for all who receive these monthly checks, as part of his 2014 budget.

Great Political Movies You May Have Overlooked by Rocket Kirchner

Image by timsackton via Flickr

by Rocket Kirchner
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Rocket Kirchner (blog)
Rocket Kirchner (youtube channel)
April 15, 2013

1. Metropolis. Fritz Lang’s 1927 German Expressionistic futuristic masterpiece. The Commies loved it. The Nazis loved it. Both the religious and secularists loved it. One wild ride into the politico-socio matrix.

Thatcher Gets Funeral Fit For A Dictator by Finian Cunningham + Thatcher’s Coffin Booed At Her Funeral

by Finian Cunningham
Writer, Dandelion Salad
East Africa
Crossposted from PressTV
April 17, 2013

Image by The PIX-JOCKEY (photo manipulation) via Flickr

The funeral for former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher takes place today in London with full military honors. Not since Sir Winston Churchill, the famous Second World War leader, has the British state bestowed such an honor on a deceased prime minister.

British monarch Queen Elizabeth II will attend the funeral service at St Paul’s Cathedral for Thatcher, who died last week at the age of 87. The last time the head of the British state attended such an occasion was nearly 60 years ago, in 1965, for the funeral of Churchill. On that occasion, the British public was largely supportive of the farewell ceremony, as Winston Churchill was seen as the redoubtable leader of a national unity government during a period of great crisis.

The Propaganda System That Has Helped Create a Permanent Overclass Is Over a Century in the Making by Andrew Gavin Marshall

by Andrew Gavin Marshall
Writer, Dandelion Salad
http://andrewgavinmarshall.com
Originally posted at AlterNet
April 14, 2013

Image by Saint Iscariot via Flickr

Pulling back the curtain on how intent the wealthiest Americans have been on establishing a propaganda tool to subvert democracy.

Where there is the possibility of democracy, there is the inevitability of elite insecurity. All through its history, democracy has been under a sustained attack by elite interests, political, economic, and cultural. There is a simple reason for this: democracy – as in true democracy – places power with people. In such circumstances, the few who hold power become threatened. With technological changes in modern history, with literacy and education, mass communication, organization and activism, elites have had to react to the changing nature of society – locally and globally.

Failed Privatizations — The Thatcher Legacy by Michael Hudson

Image by The PIX-JOCKEY (photo manipulation) via Flickr

by Michael Hudson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
michael-hudson.com
April 8, 2013

This is from my book on privatization, written some 15 years ago, never published.

As in Chile, privatization in Britain was a victory for Chicago monetarism. This time it was implemented democratically. In fact, voters endorsed Margaret Thatcher’s selloff of public industries so strongly that by 1991, when she was replaced as prime minister by her own party’s John Major, only 35 percent of Britain’s voters supported the Labour Party – half the proportion registered in 1945. The Conservatives sold off public monopolies, used the proceeds to cut taxes, and put the privatized firms on a profit-making basis.

Requiem for a Dominatrix by Michael Parenti

Image by Tim F Bklyn via Flickr

by Michael Parenti
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Michael Parenti Blog
www.michaelparenti.org
April 13, 2013

On April 8, 2013, the western world lost a grand dame, an iconic figure, a woman admired by millions while dismissed by others as just another lady in a bouffant hairdo. She came from a modest social background yet she made her way to the top, a woman who could perform winningly in what is arguably the most competitive arena of life. I am, of course, speaking of Annette Funicello, singer and Hollywood actress.

Margaret Thatcher’s Criminal Legacy by Finian Cunningham

Image by The PIX-JOCKEY (photo manipulation) via Flickr

by Finian Cunningham
Writer, Dandelion Salad
East Africa
Crossposted from PressTV
April 9, 2013

Hours after the death of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, the history books are being re-written and the beatification of the Iron Lady is well underway.

Current British premier David Cameron praised Lady Thatcher for having “saved Britain” and for making the has-been colonial power “great again”.

Tributes poured forth from French and German leaders, Francoise Hollande and Angela Merkel, while US President Barack Obama said America had lost a “special friend”.

Mrs. Thatcher’s Mean Legacy by Michael Hudson and Jeffrey Sommers + Thatcher Gave More Power to Finance

by Michael Hudson and Jeffrey Sommers
Writer, Dandelion Salad
michael-hudson.com
April 8, 2013

Image by chrisjohnbeckett via Flickr

We typically honor the convention to refrain from to speak ill of the recently departed. But Margaret Thatcher probably would not object to an epitaph focusing on how her political legacy was to achieve her professed aim of “irreversibly” dismantling Britain’s public sector. Attacking central planning by government, she shifted it into much more centralized financial hands – the City of London, unopposed by any economic back bench of financial regulation and “free” of meaningful anti-monopoly price regulation.