Christmas versus Xmas: A Political Reading by James Petras

Dandelion Salad

by James Petras
Global Research
Dec. 28, 2013

Introduction

The transformation of Christmas from a story about a migrant working-class family fleeing state persecution, in the search for a safe haven and receiving support and solidarity to the biggest capitalist commercial bonanza of the year – has far-reaching political consequences.

Taking Christ out of Christmas

The fundamental ‘change’, engineered by the capitalist class in pursuit of profits, was to take the ‘Christ Story’ out of Christmas and to convert the weeks before and after into a consumer orgy.

The Man From the North: Send Me Your Blessings, Oh Angels of People! by Rivera Sun

The Essays of The Man From the North by Rivera Sun
Writer, Dandelion Salad
December 29, 2013

Image by Jonathan D. Blundell via Flickr

The Man From the North is a fictional writer in Rivera Sun’s novel, The Dandelion Insurrection. The novel takes place in the near future, in “a time that looms around the corner of today”, when a rising police state controlled by the corporate-political elite have plunged the nation into the grip of a hidden dictatorship.

Israel: Gas, Oil and Trouble in the Levant, by Felicity Arbuthnot

by Felicity Arbuthnot
Writer, Dandelion Salad
London, England
December 28, 2013

Israel is set to become a major exporter of gas and some oil, if all goes to plan. The giant Leviathan natural gas field, in the eastern Mediterranean, discovered in December 2010, is widely described as “off the coast of Israel.”

At the time the gas field was:

“…the most prominent field ever found in the sub-explored area of the Levantine Basin, which covers about 83,000 square kilometres of the eastern Mediterranean region.” (i)

Mothers in White Demand Justice for Slain Teenager Andy Lopez by Shepherd Bliss

Image by Daniel Arauz via Flickr

by Shepherd Bliss
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Santa Rosa, California
December 28, 2013

Christmas Eve is when many families gather to celebrate and exchange gifts. But what would you do when a beloved child of your immediate or extended family had been killed two months before?

This Christmas Eve a committee of the Justice Coalition for Andy Lopez met to plan a peaceful, dignified action to support the family whose 13-year-old son Andy Lopez was killed October 22 in Santa Rosa by Sonoma County sheriff’s deputy Erick Gelhaus. They demand a halt to cops killing innocent children and then not being indicted and punished.

Julian Assange: Surveillance is New Strategic Weapon Owned by Single Power + Mediastan: WikiLeaks ‘Road Movie’

Image by Vertigogen via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

RT on Dec 29, 2013

RT discusses WikiLeaks’ road movie ‘Mediastan’ with a special panel of guests, including film creator Julian Assange, journalist and director Johannes Wahlstrom, and Enayat Najafizada – a young Afghan journalist and one of the heroes of the movie.

Our guests raise many questions about the film, including Snowden’s revelations, Glenn Greenwald’s role in the story, and the NSA’s global surveillance program.