I Have a Dream, a Blurred Vision by Michael Parenti

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by Michael Parenti
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Originally published August 29, 2013
January 17, 2020

The 50th anniversary of the March on Washington—in which Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. made his famed “I Have a Dream” speech—has recently won renewed attention from various print and electronic media in the United States. But the more attention given to King’s extraordinary speech, the less we seem to know about King himself, the less aware we are about the serious challenges he was presenting, challenges that remain urgent and ignored to this very day.

Being Anti-Imperialist Means Supporting Proletarian Revolution + As Capitalism Collapses Into Fascism, Socialist Revolution Looms by Rainer Shea

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by Rainer Shea
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Rainer Shea: Anti-Imperialist Journalist, Jan. 13, 2019
January 16, 2020

Being anti-war does not equate to being anti-imperialist. Being anti-imperialist means supporting the only justifiable type of war, which is class war, while consistently opposing the wars that serve the capitalist class.

Why We Need Decolonization in 2020 by David Swanson

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by David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Let’s Try Democracy
January 14, 2020

South Korea cannot choose to make peace with North Korea without the consent of a foreign power that keeps thirty thousand troops in South Korea, makes South Korea pay much of the cost of housing them, commands the South Korean military in war, holds veto power at the United Nations, and is not accountable to the International Criminal Court or the International Court of Justice.

Chris Hedges: How Kindness Saved My Life

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Dandelion Salad

with Chris Hedges

Emir-Stein Center on Jan 6, 2020

Evil, even in the darkest moments, is impotent before the miracle of human kindness. This miracle defies prejudices and hatreds. It crosses cultures and religions. It lies at the core of faith. Take a brief journey through the eyes of American, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges to Jerusalem, Gaza, and Iraq, and discover the sacred bonds that make us human.

Abby Martin and Dan Kovalik: The Plot to Attack Iran: Myths, Oil and Revolution

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Dandelion Salad

with Abby Martin

Empire Files on Jan 11, 2020

Abby Martin sits down with Dan Kovalik, human rights attorney and author of the book The Plot to Attack Iran, to discuss the context to Trump’s recent attacks, the most common myths about the country, and the history of US plots.

Washington’s Consensus on Neofascist Coups in Latin America by Paul Street

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by Paul Street
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Official Website of Paul Street
January 10, 2020

However much they war on the domestic political front, Washington’s Democrats and Republicans are on the same page when it comes to the imperial war on democracy and social justice in Latin America.

Trump’s War with Iran will be a Final Blow to the American Empire by Rainer Shea + Chris Hedges: Iran Hit Obvious Targets to Avoid Spiral of War + Will Griffin: No Evidence Iran Killed Americans in Iraq

Image by Susan Melkisethian via Flickr

by Rainer Shea
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Rainer Shea: Anti-Imperialist Journalist, Jan. 6, 2019
January 9, 2020

When the imperialists carry out reckless actions like the recent assassination of a top Iranian military official, aren’t they at least partly conscious of the ways this endangers their power structure? Don’t they see that the more resources the American war machine consumes and the worse proletarian living conditions become as a result, the greater the likelihood becomes that a revolution will happen? Don’t they see the obvious and growing signs of the U.S. empire’s collapse? Don’t they see that the more the neoliberal order exacerbates climate change and destabilizes the economy, the more the bourgeois power structure comes under threat?

The Empire is Finished–It’s Just a Matter of Time by Bruce Gagnon + Postmortem Assassination of Iran’s General Soleimani by Finian Cunningham

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by Bruce Gagnon
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Organizing Notes, Jan. 6, 2020
January 7, 2020

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said yesterday, after the Iraqi government had asked the US to leave their country, pack up and close the US bases, “the United States is prepared to help the Iraqi people get what they deserve and continue our mission.” He went on to say that the Iraqi people want the US to keep their bases in Iraq.

The Iraq Embassy Revolt Portends to the Future of Class Struggle by Rainer Shea + Mike Prysner: No War on Iran! Troops Out of Iraq!

Image by Susan Melkisethian via Flickr

by Rainer Shea
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Rainer Shea: Anti-Imperialist Journalist, Jan. 4, 2019
January 6, 2020

In her 2017 book No Is Not Enough: Resisting Trump’s Shock Politics And Winning The World We Need, Naomi Klein wrote in reference to her experiences in post-invasion Iraq that:

“There have been times in my reporting from disaster zones when I have had the unsettling feeling that I was seeing not just a crisis in the here and now, but a glimpse of our collective future-a preview of where the road we are all on is headed unless we somehow grab the wheel and swerve.”

Chris Hedges: Rebellion Is The Only Way To Stop The Ruling Elites, interviewed by Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese

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Dandelion Salad

with Chris Hedges

by Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese
Clearing the FOG
Popular Resistance
Dec. 30, 2019

As 2019 comes to a close and we enter a new decade, we look back at the major events and issues that shaped the year with Chris Hedges. We discuss the rise of the Right, in part due to the weaknesses of the Left, what the Sanders campaign means for activism and achieving meaningful social change and whether or not the United States is ready for a massive uprising against neo-liberalism, as is happening around the world. The next decade will be a time when major crises such as the climate, wealth inequality and militarism are devastating. At some point, a spark will be lit in the US, but in the current environment, that is likely to result in greater movement to the right unless we prepare now to build power on the left.

America’s Lawless Arrogance Has Gone Too Far with the Assassination of Iran’s Top Military Commander, by Finian Cunningham + Why Did the U.S. Attack Iran? by Bruce Gagnon

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by Finian Cunningham
Writer, Dandelion Salad
East Africa
Crossposted from Sputnik, Jan. 3, 2020
January 4, 2020

America’s lawless arrogance has gone too far with the assassination of Iran’s top military commander. The deadly airstrike against General Qasem Soleimani was carried out on the order of President Donald Trump.

The Gehlen Org + The Powers of Love and War by Gaither Stewart

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by Gaither Stewart
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Rome, Italy
January 3, 2020

In February 2019 Germany opened a brand new intelligence complex in the city of Berlin. The new headquarters of the BND (Bundesnachrichtendienst or Federal Intelligence Service) occupies a huge space—by the way, much as STASI or State Security Service once did in East Berlin the former German Democratic Republic—and supposedly employs a total of over six thousand persons. The move from its former secret location in the Munich suburb of Pullach reflects both the centralization in Berlin of federal institutions that after World War Two were widely dispersed throughout Germany and importantly, European Union-NATO leader Germany’s efforts to get away from the nation’s Nazi past. The new BND location in Germany’s capital city seems also a giant step away from the former obsessive secrecy of its location in Munich, hidden away in that obscure suburb and operating under a cover name and, above all, until the late 1950s an affiliate of the CIA. The move to Berlin can be interpreted as the BND’s declaration of sovereignty.

Michael Hudson: The Beginning of the End of Super Imperialism in 2020?

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with Michael Hudson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
January 2, 2020

RT on Jan 2, 2020

Continuing with their New Year’s Eve celebrations, the Keiser Report is joined by Dr. Michael Hudson, author of Super Imperialism: The Origin and Fundamentals of US World Dominance. Will 2020 see further decline in that super imperialism about which he first wrote all those decades ago? They discuss this and then turn to the upcoming elections in the US and whether or not he believes the stock market numbers will aid Trump. Finally, the discussion takes in Hudson’s views on uprisings globally and whether they herald the end of the age of neoliberalism.

Happy New Year! Who Was The Radical MLK? by The Anti-Social Socialist

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Happy New Year!

“I imagine you already know that I am much more socialistic in my economic theory than capitalistic. And yet I am not so opposed to capitalism that I have failed to see its relative merits. It started out with a noble and high motive, viz, to block the trade monopolies of nobles, but like most human systems it fell victim to the very thing it was revolting against. So today capitalism has outlived its usefulness. It has brought about a system that takes necessities from the masses to give luxuries to the classes.” — Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter to Coretta Scott, 1952

The 2010s: America’s Self-Delusional Decade of Imperial Collapse by Rainer Shea

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by Rainer Shea
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Rainer Shea: Anti-Imperialist Journalist, Dec. 28, 2019
December 31, 2019

Ten years ago, Americans were beginning to confront the reality that their nation was irrevocably in decline. The economy had entered into a downward spiral, the country had been in a nine-years-long war, and democratic rights were disappearing. Given the history of collapsing empires, it’s unsurprising that all of these trends have continued since then. And the geopolitical and cultural dynamics that have developed throughout the 2010s aren’t surprising either.