Meet the One Percent: Peter Phillips’ Giants: The Global Power Elite by Marc Eliot Stein

Image by Joaquín Martínez via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

Republished with permission from David Swanson at World Beyond War

by Marc Eliot Stein
World Beyond War, Aug. 25, 2018
August 26, 2018

Peter Phillips, professor of Political Sociology at Sonoma State University and media researcher for Project Censored and Media Freedom Foundation, presented a summary of his groundbreaking new book Giants: The Global Power Elite last week at Fordham University’s campus in Manhattan. This was an information-packed session that explained the unique purpose of this new book: exposing to public view the private workings of the influential investment partnerships, global councils, think tanks, consortiums and other non-governmental organizations that translate the agenda of the wealthy one-percent into policy plans and proposals that the most powerful governments in the world can act on.

The Same Old Know-it-all Neoliberal Obama by Paul Street

Image by DonkeyHotey via Flickr

by Paul Street
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Official Website of Paul Street
August 4, 2018

Until he was tapped as a shiny new national and global asset by the white American ruling-class and catapulted to rock star status in the summer of 2004, then Illinois state senator Barack Obama was not particularly popular in the Black Chicago South Side that he deceptively called “home.” Besides being an outsider from Honolulu and Harvard Law, he was an aloof and arrogant part-time law professor over at the conservative and heavily white University of Chicago, an institution long known for displacing and lording over Black South Side communities.

85 Billionaires and the Better Half by Michael Parenti

Image by Judite B via Flickr

by Michael Parenti
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Originally published February 18, 2014
July 30, 2018

The world’s 85 richest individuals possess as much wealth as the 3.5 billion souls who compose the poorer half of the world’s population, or so it was announced in a report by Oxfam International. The assertion sounds implausible to me. I think the 85 richest individuals, who together are worth many hundreds of billions of dollars, must have far more wealth than the poorest half of our global population.

MFTN: Poverty Will Kill More Of Us Than Terrorism

Image by Chris Piascik via Flickr

The Essays of The Man From the North by Rivera Sun
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Originally published March 13, 2017
July 27, 2018

Curse the war culture! It leaves us at a loss for words, bereft of metaphors to describe our situation. Our minds become blank slates, unable to recognize dangers at the door unless they carry assault weapons or drop bombs on our heads.

Eric Holt-Giménez: Do Foodies Need to Know About Capitalism?

Image by Dandelion Salad via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

A Foodie’s Guide to Capitalism

FoodFirstVideo on Nov 15, 2017

Do foodies need to know about capitalism? Eric Holt-Giménez of the Institute for Food and Development Policy (Food First) introduces his new book. Visit foodfirst.org/foodiesguide for more information.

Trump’s Sadist-in-Chief: Mick Mulvaney by Ralph Nader + Congress Finds Another Way To Punish Children

Image by Infinite Ache via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

by Ralph Nader
The Nader Page
June 28, 2018

Mr. Mulvaney’s title seems uninterestingly bureaucratic—director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). But as Trump’s chief hatchet man extraordinaire, Mugger Mick Mulvaney is easily one of the cruelest, most vicious presidential henchman in modern American history. From his powerful perch next door to the White House, he is carving a bloody trail against tens of millions of Americans who are poor, disabled, frail, and elderly. He has gone after defenseless children and injured or sick patients with little or no access to health care.

Why Are the Poor Patriotic? by David Swanson

Image by Elvert Barnes via Flickr

by David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Let’s Try Democracy, June 15, 2018
June 20, 2018

We should be very grateful to Francesco Duina for his new book, Broke and Patriotic: Why Poor Americans Love Their Country. He begins with the following dilemma. The poor in the United States are in many ways worse off than in other wealthy countries, but they are more patriotic than are the poor in those other countries and even more patriotic than are wealthier people in their own country. Their country is (among wealthy countries) tops in inequality, and bottoms in social support, and yet they overwhelmingly believe that the United States is “fundamentally better than other countries.” Why?

Abby Martin: The Neo-Liberal Plan To Bring Down Venezuela + Mike Prysner Debunks John Oliver’s Venezuela Episode

Screenshot by Dandelion Salad via Flickr
Watch the videos below

Dandelion Salad

with Abby Martin

Redacted Tonight on June 14, 2018

Lee Camp speaks with Abby Martin journalist and host of The Empire Files, who exposes the profit-driven bias of corporate media reporting on Venezuela.

Why Does The US Support Nigeria But Not Venezuela? A Socialist Perspective by The Anti-Social Socialist

Screenshot by Dandelion Salad via Flickr
Watch the video below

“We’ve detected activity, and we have captured some U.S. citizens in undercover activities, in hidden activities, espionage, trying to win over people in towns along the Venezuelan coast, trying to win over people in some neighborhoods. In Táchira, we captured a pilot of a U.S. plane of Latin origin with all sorts of documentation.” — Nicolás Maduro, Democracy Now! March 3, 2015

Inequality, Social Dysfunction and Misery by Graham Peebles

Image by duncan c via Flickr

by Graham Peebles
Writer, Dandelion Salad
London, England
June 10, 2018

Year on year the economic divisions and sub-divisions in the world deepen, the associated social ills increase: The rich, comfortable, and the very extremely rich keep getting richer, and the rest, well, whilst some may be raised up out of crippling poverty into relative poverty, the majority of people continue to live under a blanket of economic insecurity and largely remain where they are.

Socialism: Our Alternative To The Madness Of The Market by Eric Ruder

Image by dsleeter_2000 via Flickr

Dandelion Salad
Originally published Sept. 2, 2012

by Eric Ruder
SocialistWorker.org, August 30, 2012
June 3, 2018

THE WORLD economy is still suffering from the worst crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Around the world, the consequences have been devastating–jobs wiped out, exploitation intensified for those who remain employed, social services eliminated or privatized.

Memorial Day Myths by David Swanson

Image by Elvert Barnes via Flickr

by David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Let’s Try Democracy
May 30, 2018

“Memorial Day is a time to remember, appreciate, and honor the selfless patriots who gave the ultimate sacrifice in service to freedom. At a time when our country seems so divided, we must not forget that it is because of their service and sacrifice that we live in the most free and prosperous nation on Earth.” —Congressman Tom Garrett

Imperialism 101 by Michael Parenti + Crumbling US Empire

Image by Eric B. via Flickr

by Michael Parenti
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Originally published Sept. 23, 2010
May 24, 2018

Chapter 1 of Against Empire, 1995

Imperialism has been the most powerful force in world history over the last four or five centuries, carving up whole continents while oppressing indigenous peoples and obliterating entire civilizations. Yet, it is seldom accorded any serious attention by our academics, media commentators, and political leaders. When not ignored outright, the subject of imperialism has been sanitized, so that empires become “commonwealths,” and colonies become “territories” or “dominions” (or, as in the case of Puerto Rico, “commonwealths” too). Imperialist military interventions become matters of “national defense,” “national security,” and maintaining “stability” in one or another region. In this book I want to look at imperialism for what it really is.

The Injustice and Crime of Extreme Inequality by Graham Peebles

Image by Judite B via Flickr

by Graham Peebles
Writer, Dandelion Salad
London, England
May 13, 2018

Poverty is the greatest cause of death and illness globally; it strangles the lives of billions of people, denying the expression of innate potential, condemning men, women and children to live stunted uncreative lives of interminable suffering and drudgery.

Chris Hedges: Caged: Life From Inside and Outside the US Prison System

Image by Justin Norman via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

with Chris Hedges

RT America on May 12, 2018

In this 100th episode of “On Contact”, director Jerrell Henderson and playwright-actor Boris Franklin discuss their upcoming play “Caged,” which takes a look at life from inside and outside the US prison system.