Image by Anne Ruthmann via Flickr
with Chris Hedges
truthdig on Jan 22, 2017
Truthdig correspondent Donald Kaufman met up with columnist Chris Hedges on Saturday at the Women’s March on Washington and discussed the significance of the event and the challenge of creating meaningful dialogue between supporters and opponents of President Trump. Drawing in part on his experience as a journalist covering resistance movements abroad, Hedges also commented more generally about the nature and birth of nonviolent revolutions and how they can sometimes begin with relatively little in the way of specific agendas.
Hedges made that last point as a response to Kaufman’s critique that the march could have had a more identified palpable goal.
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Inaugurate the Resistance!
Other Voices, Other Choices on Jan 23, 2017
Washington, D.C.; January 21, 2017
Panelists:
Chris Hedges, Jill Stein, Tim Canova, Kshama Sawant, Chase Iron Eyes, Bryan Koulouris
From the Organizers:
Trump’s pro-billionaire agenda and plans to wage war on the environment, deport three million immigrants, undermine public sector unions, and nominate a reactionary Supreme Court justice are not just idle threats. Yet the neoliberal leaders of the Democratic Party cannot stop Trump now, anymore than during the election. How can we build powerful mass movements capable of decisively defeating the right and providing a real alternative for ordinary working people, immigrants, LGBTQ people and youth? Can the Democratic Party be reformed, or does the left need to build independently?
This event is part of Occupy Inauguration’s weekend of resistance, sponsored by the Green Party, Socialist Alternative, Occupy Wall Street, Movement for the 99%, and the Stein/Baraka campaign
(Hedges begins at 6:26 minutes in)
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Lionel and Chris Hedges Review Trump’s Inaugural Speech on RT
Lionel Nation on Jan 23, 2017
Lionel joins Chris Hedges on RT for their review of President Trump’s inaugural speech and vision. As POTUS Donald Trump noted, “One of the key problems today is that politics is such a disgrace, good people don’t go into government.”
from the archives:
Chris Hedges and Glen Ford: Obama’s Legacy–The Smashing of the Left
Michael Hudson: Trump’s Infrastructure Plan, and The Idea of Proximity to Russia is All Fake
We Are Facing Dangers On All Sides
The Enemy is Not Trump, It is Ourselves by John Pilger
Deep Reservations About the “Anti-Trump” Movement by Caleb Maupin
Chris Hedges: Fascism vs Neoliberalism
Dandelion Salad 
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So hard to summon any enthusiasm over this theatrical tour de farce. I look forward to hearing the full proceedings of Other Voices Other Choices shortly.
It’s all been a bit too much like a grim replay of the 1930’s jingoistic Colonel Blimp cartoon character being reborn as ‘John Bull in Amurrca’ ~ that rotund Anglo-cliche, later appropriated by the notorious swindler cum patriot-publisher-propagandist, Horatio Bottomley during the “Great War.”
Here’s the true ghastliness of it: this C-in-C (or his recent predecessors for that matter,) is supposedly the democratically elected leader of the USA, ‘champion of the free world.’ The US President we have been told repeatedly, ad nauseam, is the single most powerful figure in the entire world….how ridiculous is this?
Our so-called ‘free world’ doesn’t elect the POTUS, nor endorse them; never mind their office representing the full complement of “United Nations.” It’s complete John Bull####. It’s almost as absurd as declaring the sole purpose of life, as the apotheosis of multinational incorporation. Of course a lot of people actually believe this, but that doesn’t make it a plausible hypothesis.
Unfortunately as Hedges suggests, the situation is really emblematic of a truly grave crisis. I am slightly hesitant to say this, but I think it really does signal the disintegration of the US Empire ~ actually forecast now for many years; so it probably is the very best thing that can happen. Because it is (ontologically) necessary, both biologically and biospherically.
If President Trump starts to ‘educate’ the world on how to live, the world is going to show him the door. He either has to learn how to listen ~ to intelligent people ~ or face extreme consequences. Either way, we face many challenges.
We are mutating as a species beyond the old retrograde tropes of power, and need to invest in a far richer perception of participatory galactic civilization; aspiring to an experiential consciousness of mature reality that will far exceed anything science fiction has yet prognosticated.
Great points, David.
Updated: Jan. 23, 2017, added two more Hedges’ videos.
That was the success of consumer advocate Ralph Nader : building broad based unity .
I agree. Nader has been writing and talking about that for decades now.