After NATO Summit, U.S. To Intensify Military Drive Into Asia by Rick Rozoff

by Rick Rozoff
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Stop NATO
Stop NATO-Opposition to global militarism
November 17, 2010

Barack Obama, the latest rotating imperator of the first global empire, will arrive in Lisbon on November 19 to receive the plaudits of 27 North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies and secure their continued fealty on issues ranging from the war in Afghanistan to a continental interceptor missile system, the continued deployment of American tactical nuclear weapons in Europe, participation in the Pentagon’s cyber warfare plans and expanded military missions in the planet’s south and east.

Perfunctory discussions of minor details notwithstanding, strictly pro forma to maintain the myth of NATO being a “military alliance of democratic states in Europe and North America,” the banners and pennants of 26 European nations, Canada and dozens of other countries contributing troops for the Afghan mission will be lowered in the presence of the leader of the world imperium.

Obama Leads War On Working Class by Bruce Gagnon + Is Obama a Socialist?

by Bruce Gagnon
featured writer
Dandelion Salad
Organizing Notes
Nov. 17, 2010

The more I think about Obama’s deficit reduction commission the madder I get. I was talking with one person the other day about the proposal to raise the retirement age to 69 and the guy said it was fine because we are all living longer than ever.

What he didn’t say, and likely didn’t know, is that there is a class analysis to this increase in life span in America. It is the wealthy and the white-collar workers who are living longer. People who sit behind desks, paper pushers and money changers with good health care policies, are the ones who grow older. But working class people – construction workers, janitors, factory workers, maids, cooks, truck drivers, farmers and farm workers die younger. Their bodies wear out from a lifetime of hard work and a 69 year old retirement age is a death sentence for them.

Noam Chomsky: Liberal-conservative divide no more than an illusion

Noam Chomsky. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/

Note: replaced video

TheRealNews | November 17, 2010

Noam Chomsky: Liberal-conservative divide no more than an illusion amongst ordinary Americans

transcript

[…]

CHOMSKY: I think there’s very little truth to it. What’s happened over the past roughly 35 years is that both parties have drifted to the right. I don’t think the terms liberal and conservative mean much. In fact, if you take a look at the—there’s quite serious inquiry into the actual attitudes of people who call themselves conservatives. So the group of people who say, I’m in favor of small government, cutting back taxes; put aside the social issues, they’re different; well, it turns out most of them have more or less social democratic attitudes. You know, they think there should be more money spent on health, more on education, more on assistance to the poor, but not welfare. Reagan succeeded in blackening the term welfare with his tales about, you know, black women in limousines that are coming to the welfare offices and so on. So no welfare, but assistance to the poor. No foreign aid, but then when people are asked how much should we be giving, they typically say considerably more than we actually are. And what you basically have among the so-called conservatives in the population is what we call liberal attitudes on issue after issue. Take, say, the health-care reform that Obama passed, which is the real fighting issue. Well, a majority of the population’s opposed to the health-care reform. If you take a look at the reasons, a substantial number are opposed because it didn’t go far enough, and on particular matters that Obama gave away, like, say, a public option. There’s pretty strong support for allowing the pharmaceutical corporations to get away with murder, because the government’s not allowed to negotiate prices with them—overwhelming opposition.

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