Supreme Court Legalizes Influence Peddling: McDonnell v. United States by Rob Hager

Image by DonkeyHotey via Flickr

by Rob Hager
Writer, Dandelion Salad
July 3, 2016

The Supreme Court has mostly completed its decimation of any anti-corruption law that might have caused any more than the slightest inconvenience for the plutocracy’s political investments. Therefore the Court has now picked up its judicial supremacy ax to perform a similar demolition of laws that regulate the other side of the corruption equation. In a decision announced on June 27, timed as one of three final opinions of its 2015-16 term, the Court turned its attention to protecting the influence peddlers – who are installed by and otherwise benefit from the now freely flowing plutocratic investments – from prosecution for their delivery of the peddled policies.

Biosocial and Epigenetic Relativity of Human Nature: Relative to Political Economy, Technology, and Culture by Fazal Rahman, Ph.D.

Image by Pedro Ribeiro Simões via Flickr

by Fazal Rahman, Ph.D.
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Originally published on imperialismandthethirdworld, Sept. 7, 2015; written 1982
September 9, 2015, revised September 11, 2015

“It is a question of the Third World starting a new history of Man, a history which will have regard to the sometimes prodigious theses which Europe has put forward, but which will also not forget Europe’s crimes, of which the most horrible was committed in the heart of man, and consisted of the pathological tearing apart of his functions and the crumbling away of his unity.”
Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth, (Fanon, 1963, p. 315).

“We all live under the constant threat of our own annihilation. Only by the most outrageous violation of ourselves have we achieved our capacity to live in relative adjustment to a civilization apparently driven to its own destruction.”
R. D. Laing, The Politics of Experience/The Bird of Paradise (R.D. Laing, 1967)

“To Leave Error Unrefuted is to Encourage Intellectual Immorality”: A Critique by Fazal Rahman, Ph.D.

Image by Andra MIhali via Flickr

by Fazal Rahman, Ph.D.
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Originally published on imperialismandthethirdworld
August 18, 2015

[Note: this is the revised version]

Brief, partial, and necessary critical reviews of some of the stars of American Left: Michael Hardt, Antonio Negri, Richard Wolff, Stephen Resnick, Noam Chomsky, and Chris Hedges

“To leave error unrefuted is to encourage intellectual immorality.” — Karl Marx

“Dug up a mountain, looking for gold. Only found a mouse. Even that was dead.” — A proverb of South Asia.

“…Fuller of words and emptier.” — Holderlin

Capitalism Kills by William T. Hathaway

Image by Alan Levine via Flickr

by William T. Hathaway
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Germany
June 29, 2015

“The world can only be changed by people who don’t like it,” wrote Bertolt Brecht in explaining why radicals have a negative attitude about the society we live in. We don’t like the way things are. Sometimes our dislike can even become loathing.

Invest in Activism, Not Bernie Sanders by David Swanson + The Problem with Bernie Sanders by Ashley Smith

Image by DonkeyHotey via Flickr

by David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Let’s Try Democracy, April 30, 2015
May 5, 2015

Yes, Bernie Sanders would be a far superior president to Hillary Clinton.

That requires a bit of elaboration. Something I just scraped off my shoe would be a far superior president to Hillary Clinton, but Sanders would actually be good in a whole lot of ways. He has numerous imperfections, but the contrast with Clinton is like day to night.

Jump Out of the Pot! Capitalism Can’t Be Fixed From the Inside by William T. Hathaway

Image by DonkeyHotey via Flickr

by William T. Hathaway
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Germany
April 9, 2015

“I’m getting hot,” croaked the frog as he floated in a pot of water from which steam was beginning to rise.

“Me too,” croaked the other frog as she paddled listlessly. “This water used to be warm. Now it’s too hot.”

“Oh well…nothing we can do about it. Maybe it’ll get better.”

The Nature of Reality by Tristan A. Shaw

Image by Art4TheGlryOfGod by Sharon via Flickr

by Tristan A. Shaw
Writer, Dandelion Salad
British Columbia, Canada
December 28, 2014

I write these words for those interested in the esoteric domain of philosophy (real philosophy). Certain truths, in seeming contradiction, may be reconciled with a novelty of perspective – and so may this short piece help one’s struggle with the many difficulties which inexorably lay ahead.

Sucking Up to the Intel Agencies by Daniel N. White

by Daniel N. White
Guest Writer, Dandelion Salad
November 10, 2014

Image by Stephen D. Melkisethian via Flickr

UT’s Big Conference of the year just ended. Title of it was “Intelligence Reform and Counterterrorism after a Decade: Are We Smarter and Safer?”. UT drug in very high level outside talent—DNI Clapper made one of his rare flyover state appearances; same for the other DC attendees, most all of whom were #2’s at various 3-initial agencies in the intel world. Of late, UT is getting in bed with the intel folks in DC in a big way; exactly why this is happening is something that I’m too far down on the food chain to know, no need to know I guess for any ordinary citizen like me as to why the flagship university of the nation’s second most populous state wants to buddy up with the US intel empire. Nobody in the newsmedia in these parts is observant enough to see this happening or smart enough about the military-industrial complex to be concerned by this happening. Ultimately the reasons behind it have to revolve around money, money and access to power in the real center of power in Washington, DC, which is the Pentagon. That topic is of course one of those not officially discussed you know, so I will.

Rise Up America, Rise Up! by Mohammed Mesbahi

Image by Stephen Melkisethian via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

by Mohammed Mesbahi
Share the World’s Resources
October 30, 2014

A letter to an American activist

The time has come when America must rapidly transform its values through a more inclusive and spiritual vision, based upon a just sharing of the world’s resources. It is up to you, the youth of America, to lead the way by organising a non-stop demonstration in every state, until that nationwide wave of peaceful protest eventually catches on globally.

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The Geopolitics of World War III + Transcript + US War on ISIL: Barrel of Volatile Lies by Finian Cunningham

Image by Vertigogen via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

StormCloudsGathering on Sep 11, 2014

The real reason Russia and Syria are being targeted right now.

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Michael Parenti: As Kiev Tries to Terrorize Donetsk Into Submission, West Fears Russia’s “Big White Trucks”

with Michael Parenti
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Michael Parenti Blog
michaelparenti.org
August 28, 2014

by John Robles
RIA Novosti
August 28, 2014

The West is trying to turn the Russian humanitarian aid convoy “… into a duplicitous dangerous act because it would better fit with the kind of scenario that they have been putting forth about Russia being a predator or being the provocateur,” says renowned author Dr. Michael Parenti, a political scientist from Yale University, a historian, and a cultural critic, in an interview with Radio VR.

Noam Chomsky: Hideous. Sadistic. Vicious. Murderous. + Transcript

Dandelion Salad

Updated: Aug. 8, 2014 and Aug. 11, 2014; added Part 2

with Noam Chomsky

“A Hideous Atrocity”: Noam Chomsky on Israel’s Assault on Gaza & U.S. Support for the Occupation

Image by Shareef Sarhan/United Nations Photo via Flickr

democracynow on Aug 7, 2014

democracynow – Hideous. Sadistic. Vicious. Murderous. That is how Noam Chomsky describes Israel’s 29-day offensive in Gaza that killed nearly 1,900 people and left almost 10,000 people injured. Chomsky has written extensively about the Israel/Palestine conflict for decades. After Israel’s Operation Cast Lead in 2008-2009, Chomsky co-authored the book, “Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on Israel’s War Against the Palestinians” with Israeli scholar Ilan Pappé. His other books on the Israel/Palestine conflict include “Peace in the Middle East? Reflections on Justice and Nationhood” and “The Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel, and the Palestinians.” Chomsky is world-renowned political dissident, linguist and author, Institute Professor Emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he has taught for more than 50 years.

Passing the Buk by William Bowles

by William Bowles
Writer, Dandelion Salad
williambowles.info
July 22, 2014

Well, aside from a few comments I’ve posted on Moon of Alabama, I’ve spent most of the time reading (when I’ve not been compiling) just about everything I could on the subject of the downing of Malaysian Airlines #MH17 and I think it’s pretty obvious that the Russians have been fitted up for this horrendous crime by the Kiev authorities (and possibly others) and, it must be said, they did a pretty bad job of it! If it wasn’t for the craven and complicit corporate/state media in the West simply not reporting on the actual events of the 17 July as they have been revealed, the reality of the frame would be obvious to everyone.

Downed Airliner: Fake Audio Tape Shows US-Backed Hit to Frame Russia by Finian Cunningham

by Finian Cunningham
Writer, Dandelion Salad
East Africa
Crossposted from Strategic Culture Foundation
July 21, 2014

In a devastating twist to emerge over the weekend it now seems that the Malaysian civilian airliner downed over Ukraine was most probably brought down as a result of sabotage by the US-backed Kiev regime.

The purpose of this audacious act of mass murder – in which 298 lives were lost – was carried out with the intention of framing the Russian government. Washington, the chief sponsor of the Kiev regime, must have known about the plot, if not being fully complicit in it.

A War Crime In Progress by Jason Farbma

Image by Eoin O’Mahony via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

by Jason Farbma
socialistworker.org
July 14, 2014

ISRAEL’S RELENTLESS pounding of a trapped civilian population in Gaza entered a frightening new phase as its bombing campaign continued into its seventh day. On July 13, the Israeli military dropped leaflets warning the residents of northern Gaza that whoever stayed behind risked being caught in an intensifying barrage of air strikes, prompting a panicked exodus of tens of thousands from the area.