Globalizing the Intifada ^Reply

By William T. Hathaway

The invaders have surrounded and attacked us, conquered here and there, and built their bases in our lands. So we attack the invaders where we can, determined to retake our lands and drive them out. We would prefer not to be warriors. We would rather raise our children in the ways of kindness. But for our children to have a future, we must now be warriors. So be it.

In Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan this war is most intense, but it is a international war, and people of every religion and race are under attack. The capitalist class is assaulting us worldwide, throttling our hopes of decent lives. We’re now all in the same boat, a global Mavi Marmara, so our resistance must be global. Our foe is not only the Zionists but the forces of Western imperialism of which they are a part. To survive, we must set aside our religious and political differences and form a united front. Shias, Sunnis, secularists, socialists and anarchists need to work together to defeat our common enemy. If we join in solidarity, we can win. Otherwise the imperialists will continue to divide and rule. More…

Is “Conspiracy Populism” the Way Beyond Left and Right? ⁴

Some reflection is needed on what the proper relationship should be between the pan-anarchist movement and the movement(s) commonly labeled as “conspiracy theorists,” “truthers,” and the like. Technically, the “anti-conspiracy” milieu is not a movement as much as it is a collection of ideas pertaining to a wide variety of themes regarding alleged nefarious plots by shadowy, secretive elites. These theories are highly varied and diverse in nature and include concerns related to such topics as the assassination of John F. Kennedy, UFO sightings, the alleged influence of Satanic cults in elite circles, alternative medicine, fluoride, the alleged death of Paul McCartney, Elvis sightings, the alleged murder of Princess Diana, FDR’s alleged foreknowledge of the Pearl Harbor attack, chemtrails, an endless array of supposed “false flags,” AIDS, climate change, peak oil, Zionist bankers, subliminal advertising, the alleged moon landing hoax, Area 51, and, of course, the alleged 9-11 cover up. There are many, many other such theories. More…

July 24, 2015

Geo-Mutualist Panarchism: A Synopsis ^Reply

by Keith Preston • Anarchism/Anti-State, Economics/Class Relations, Law/Justice

By William Schnack

Evolution of Consent

I propose a vision of society called “geo-mutualist panarchism.” This view is a combination of the mutualism of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, the classical liberalism of Henry George, and the panarchism of Paul Emile de Puydt, supplemented with libertarian and classical liberal theories of law and jurisprudence, and socialist approaches toward worker self-management and social involvement in decision-making. What would such a society look like?

In line with the panarchy of Paul Emile de Puydt, everyone would be able to choose to participate in whatever society it may be, governmental or anarchistic, without moving location, with the only limit to their success being economic viability. Democrats can subscribe to a democratic system of social management, Republicans to theirs, and the same of more radical communists or nationalists, and even of my beloved anarchists.

I support a treatise between these groups, with two balancing rules: the non-aggression principle and the principle of fair regard (as I propose in an essay of the same name on my site). Any disputes will be handled by interpretation of these principles by a jury chosen by lot, with proportional representation between all constituents.

July 24, 2015

Laughter Is Bourgeoiis: The Roots Of Political Correctness ^Reply

by Keith Preston • Political Correctness/Totalitarian Humanism

If you do not read any thing else that is posted on ATS this year, read this.

By Larry Gambone

Political Correctness was around for many years before the mass media caught on. It is definitely not an invention of the late 1980’s as many people seem to think. I recall hearing the term almost 25 years ago, used to describe the very sort of priggishness and authoritarianism encountered in the young woman who though it bourgeois to laugh. Political correctness was an insulting term to most of us. But early-format PC did harm the movement. There were certain things you would not dare to speak or write about. Our real opinions could only be aired among our closest friends, for if it came out that you thought Mao a mass murderer, the Black Panther Party a bunch of gangsters or that certain fringe ferminists were female fascists, you would find yourself attacked as ‘reactionary’, ‘racist’ and ‘sexist’. And there was no place in the leftist counter-culture for anyone having to live under the burden of those epithets.

July 23, 2015

Thoughts on Electoral Politics, Reform and Revolution ^Reply

by Keith Preston • Activism, Electoralism/Democratism, Secession, Strategy

These were some thoughts I originally posted during a social media discussion on the current Presidential candidates.

“I lean towards the view that U.S. Presidents are similar to corporate CEOs in the sense that, yes, they have their own objectives and interests, BUT their primary job is to serve as chief executive for the Power Elite (see C. Wright Mills and William Domhoff) just like a CEO is the front man for the Board of Directors and major shareholders. The President’s task is to implement whatever policies reflect the general consensus of Power Elite opinion. For instance, I think the major banksters poured money into getting Obama elected initially because the Republicans had become such an ineffective embarrassment. A president who defies Power Elite opinion to too great a degree will be severely undermined if not destroyed (see Salvador Allende). In other words, it doesn’t matter that much who the actual man is, he can’t really act outside the context of ruling class consensus in any particularly significant way.

The main difference between Democrats and Republicans is the ruling class factions they represent. The Repugnicans tend to represent the right-wing of the ruling class, e.g. old monied WASP elites and the Sunbelt insurgents that emerged following WW2 in the South and Southwest (Texas oil, for example) plus the neocons (right-wing of the Jewish elite, which is about 30% of the plutocracy). The Democraps tend to represent newer more high-tech industries (Silicon Valley and Hollywood, for example), elites among traditional minority groups, urban cosmopolitan technocrats, what Orwell called the “New Class,” etc.

I don’t think there’s any hope for a third party to actually win the presidency. Presidential elections are cost prohibitive to third parties. The media would vilify any competitive third party candidate and ballot access laws are highly restrictive as well. The exception might be a mega-billionaire who buys their way in like Ross Perot.

Trump is only worth about $4 billion. To run a credible, successful campaign, he’d need to spend $1 billion. I doubt he has that much liquidity, or that he’s be willing to spend it if he did. When Perot ran for Prez in ’92 it cost about $100 million to run a credible campaign. That’s increased about 10 tens since then, making a self-funded campaign cost prohibitive to everyone except Bill Gates, George Soros, or Warren Buffet. For Trump to be a successful candidate, he’d need real backers. Plus, the media would be overwhelmingly opposed to him, which he would have to spend extra to counter.

The main reason to prefer Democrats over the Republicans is that the neocons are not as deeply embedded in the Democratic apparatus, although that could change as many of them seem rather sympathetic to Hillary, and she’s not above doing their bidding. http://www.globalresearch.ca/hillary-clinton-if…/5460484

I think Webb, Sanders, and Chafee are all superior to Hillary, though it would be an uphill battle for any of them. The Republicans are a collection of freaks and sociopaths. Ironically, Trump is their best candidate because he’s the least in bed with the neocons as his comments about McCain and Krauthammer indicate.

The Holy Grail in this is to figure out how to break the power of the banks and the military-industrial complex. One way might be a Gorbachev-like situation where an reformist head of state sets a process in motion that inadvertently has the effect of unraveling the system. Another might be a Ba’athist or Chavez style coup by reform oriented military officers. Another might be secession by regions and localities similar to the secession by the Soviet republics towards the end of the USSR (or some combination of all of these).

If electoral politics is to be the answer, I think the way to do it would be for a populist mass revolutionary movement to work to obtain dominance in the majority of state and local governments, while bypassing the federal system, and then withdrawing from the federal system altogether, thereby engineering a Soviet-like collapse. From there the next step would be to initiate an Iceland-style crackdown on the banksters, and withdrawal of foreign troops to local military bases. For this to happen, the military would have to either come over to the side of the revolutionaries or merely dissolve by means of internal fracturing. Meanwhile, the System would fight tooth and nail to survive, of course, either by attempting a coup of their own, attempting to pacify or buy off the radicals with a carrot rather than a stick, or attempting to play off different groups against one another in a divide and conquer strategy. There would need to be some contingency plans for resisting all of this, and there would need to be a pre-existing alternative infrastructure in place to fill the power vacuum when the system collapsed. Needless to say, there is currently no movement or group in the US that would be capable of doing any of this.

I can just imagine Americans trying to pull off something comparable to what is presently going on in Rojava. What a basket case that would be. http://attackthesystem.com/2015/07/21/anarchy-lives-rojava/”

July 23, 2015

News Digest July 23, 2015 ^Reply

by Keith Preston • News Updates

Petition: Demand an Investigation of Sandra Bland’s Death by Lois Wilkins

How Many Sandra Blands Are Out There? by David A. Graham

An Open Letter to the Greek People by Kevin Carson

Rand Paul Endorses Military Action Against Iran by Daniel Larison

Is There a Full-Blown Global Depression? Zero Hedge

Mexican Army Attacks Indigenous Communities of Ostula by Erin Gallagher

Federal Charges for SWAT Pig Who Injured Toddler with Grenade by Jen Hayden

The School to Prison Pipeline of Poor Minority Kids by Emily Wilson

Man Facing Felony Murder Charge for Telling a Friend Where He Could Find Marijuana by Matt Agorist

Independent Media is Being Targeted at Recent Police Brutality Protests by Kelly W. Patterson

Obama Denies IRS Scandal Ever Happened, Jon Stewart Floored by Kyle Becker

Trump Threatens Third Party Run by Kevin Cirilli and Bob Cusack

Donald Trump: I Will Not Run Third Party by Jim Hoft

Bernie Sanders is a Russia-Bashing, Pro-Israel Militarist Tool by Caleb Maupin

I Gave Up Ayn Rand for Bernie Sanders by Edwin Lyngar

Organizing Territorial Defense in a Stateless Society by Kevin Carson

U.S. Support for Jim Crow Israel by Dan Sanchez

America’s Limited Space for Iran’s Stories by Lucy Steigerwald

Lessons from Obama’s War on Libya by Ivan Eland

Is the Military Option on Iran Off the Table? by Ray McGovern

Apparently, Medieval-Themed Video Games “Legitimize” “White Supremacy” by Katherine Timpf

The Shameful Liberal Exploitation of the Charleston Massacre by Heather MacDonald

ISIS Threatens to Use Drones to Attack Football Matches in Britain by Nick Gutteridge

Does the Bounty-Hunting Industry Need Reform by Katie Bo Williams

HUD’s “Disparate Impact” War on Suburban America by Michael Barone

The Man Who Lives on Airplanes by Majestic

The 20-Year-Old Activist Who Died Trying to Help Rebuild a City by Zeynep Bilginstoy, Jared Goyette

Homeless Woman Could Face Life Term for Picking Up LAPD Nightstick Los Angeles Times

Political Correctness is Bourgeoisie Communism

China’s Missing Human Rights Lawyers New York Times

How I Lost My Fear of Universal Healthcare by Vyckie Garrison

Pelosi Proposes Lowering the Voting Age to Sixteen by Nicholas Ballasy

Laos is Now the Number One Sex Tourism Destination by Laura Secorun Palet

“Grow Cannabis-We Won’t Arrest You,” Says UK Police Chief Russia Today

High School Student Proves Professor Wrong When He Denied “No Irish Need Apply” Signs Existed

Jihad: It’s Not What You Think It Is by Sydney Barakat

The Business of Renting a Fake Crowd by Dan Schneider

Islamic Protestors Burn LGBT Flag in Houston JewsNews

Swedish “Far Right” Plans Gay Pride Parade Through Muslim Areas: Leftists, Gays Protest by Jan S.

China Dumps Record Amount of U.S. Treasuries by Hang the Bankers

The Voracious Capitalism of Ho Chi Minh City by Thomas Fuller

It’s Worse Than Jerry Seinfield Says: PC is Killing Free Speech by Mick Hume

Satirical Onion Article Accidentally Predicts Actual News Headline by Carey Wedler

Why a McDonald’s Big Mac Could Cost You a Lot More Soon by Brian Sozzi

The Case for Keynesian Economics by C.J. Werleman and Seth Andrews

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July 21, 2015

Christian National Anarcho-Capitalists ²

by Keith Preston • Anarchism/Anti-State, Left and Right, Religion and Philosophy

I recently came across a group calling itself Christian National Anarcho-Capitalists. While this group doesn’t reflect my personal views or preferences, as a pan-anarchist I am for the proliferation of many anarchist societies based on the principle of free association, thereby enhancing genuine diversity, and “Christian National Anarcho-Capitalism” may well be one of these.

Christian National Ancaps was founded on these principles:

1. Christianity and anarcho-capitalism are compatible with one another.

2. Nationalism, which is different from nation-statism, is perfectly compatible with Christian anarcho-capitalism. It is not incompatible with the philosophy of freedom; in fact, a libertarian nationalism will be rich and varied, and it will be superior to the nation-statism that has plagued civilization for so many years.

3. All cultures are unique and diverse, and while many cultures are not “Christian” or “libertarian,” they do share aspects of God and the philosophy of liberty in their edifice. Therefore, we seek to promote the best and brightest of every culture, including the cultures of Western and Eastern civilization. Our advice is for each person to respect and intermarry within his “nationality,” as that is the recommended course and the best.

4. “Racial realism,” anti-feminism, and libertarian “patriarchalism” will be a big part of this group, and while these views are politically incorrect and not approved by the Establishment and the political elite, these views are compatible with libertarianism and, as a nationalist group, will be part of the whole

5. Nation-statism, the ideology that mixes nationalism with statism, originated not in true nationalism but in conquest and aggression. As the earlier liberal tradition recognized, and as modern libertarians do, the nation does not equal the state. True nationalism, however, is based from civilization rather than the state, from culture rather than coercion and from community rather than collectivization, from the people rather than the rulers.

6. Secession, the right to break away and become independent (or self-determination) is a central tenet of libertarian nationalism, and in many ways it is an essential tenet of libertarianism, period. Thus, the right of some persons to secede and form their own nation is respected and promoted; it not only is in line with libertarian principles, but it allows for each “nation” and “culture” to preserve their heritage without outside interference. Not only that, but individual self-determination is respected, and one can become a “nation” unto himself.

7. Nationalism is not social egalitarianism. In fact, one of its main opponents is cultural Marxism, which stresses opposition to the family, to capitalism, to traditional values and most importantly to the Bible and the Christian faith.

8. Most importantly, the purpose of Christian Ancap Nationalists is not to promote hatred or division among peoples but rather to foster the great values of faith in God, liberty, cultural conservatism, freedom of association, secession, anarcho-patriarchalism, peace, prosperity, cooperation, love, national pride and the multi-cultural association of different cultures.

The new name is: Christian National Ancaps. “Nationalism” often refers to collectivist statism, and it can get in the way of what we are trying to promote. So I believe the new title gets to the crux of what we want to promote.

[A]. note that we are not (or no longer) condemning the idea of intermarriage between people of two different races. We are not opposed to, say, a white man marrying a black woman or a black man marrying a white woman, if he so desires.

July 21, 2015

Christian Right, Progressive Left: Birds of a feather? ²

by Keith Preston • Political Correctness/Totalitarian Humanism, Religion and Philosophy

This post is a bit dated, and seems to have been written in the 1990s, but the comparison is certainly relevant in the present era.

Progressives and the Christian right are not normally thought to resemble each other. Certainly they don’t like each other. But since I’ve observed both at close quarters, have enjoyed both C.S. Lewis and Noam Chomsky, read Frank Peretti and Molly Ivins, meditated on Francis Schaeffer and Alison Bechdel, what strike me are the similarities.

I list some of the resemblances below. (You can find the differences yourself.) Perhaps each camp will recognize itself a little in the other. What they do with this alarming recognition is up to them.

Political correctness/ orthodoxy. Both are highly concerned with correct thinking. Of course only the leftists ever feel bad about this: “politically correct” evolved as a leftist joke. There’s always someone more to the left than you. But then, there’s always someone more fundamentalist than you.
Historicism. Both camps view of history as a drama where destiny is on their side. You can even see the same defense mechanisms at work: both good news and bad news are part of the plan– good news of course obviously confirms our impending victory; bad news confirms the dire predictions that are equally part of the ideological inheritance. And the derived tendency on both sides is to sit back and leave the struggle to others: if history is on your side, why exert yourself?
Schismaticism. Both camps have a tendency to divide into tiny factions, wasting their energy in fights over absurd points of doctrine. Both tend to admire the ideologically strict and to despise toleration and compromise.
As a corollary of this, both sides hate Clinton. (See also Puritanism.)
Both are given to conspiracy theories— a conviction that the Other Side is a monolithic unity dedicated to trampling goodness and decency. The idea that the Other Side is itself a fractious mass which defeats most of its own purposes, or that the course of the world is determined more by apathy and stupidity than by active evil, is completely alien to their mentality.
Both are convinced of pervasive media bias against them. Rightists babble about the “liberal media”; Christians complain about ‘secular humanism'; progressives are just as sure that the media are the mouthpiece of conservative moneyed interests. Neither side has any clue why its own shrill and narrow-minded magazines are not more popular.
Both have violent, separatist fringes (which the other side assumes are typical of the species). At the same time, paradoxically, if you want a pacifist, the two best places to look are in nooks and crannies of Christianity or the left.

More…

July 21, 2015

The ‘Liberal’ Police State: It’s Here, It’s Now ^Reply

by Keith Preston • Police State/Civil Liberties, Political Correctness/Totalitarian Humanism

By Justin Raimondo

Antiwar.Com

Wesley Clark, the retired general who almost started World War III with Russia, has a bright idea: why not set up internment camps for “radicalized” Americans in order to stanch the threat of domestic terrorism?

Yes, he actually said this, and, what’s more, MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts didn’t even raise a well-manicured eyebrow. The interview took place in the context of MSNBC’s reporting on the Chattanooga shooting, and Roberts asked him what could be done to prevent such incidents. Here is Clark’s answer:

“We have got to identify the people who are most likely to be radicalized. We’ve got to cut this off at the beginning. There are always a certain number of young people who are alienated. They don’t get a job, they lost a girlfriend, their family doesn’t feel happy here and we can watch the signs of that. And there are members of the community who can reach out to those people and bring them back in and encourage them to look at their blessings here.

“But I do think on a national policy level we need to look at what self-radicalization means because we are at war with this group of terrorists. They do have an ideology. In World War II if someone supported Nazi Germany at the expense of the United States, we didn’t say that was freedom of speech, we put him in a camp, they were prisoners of war.

“So, if these people are radicalized and they don’t support the United States and they are disloyal to the United States, as a matter of principle fine. It’s their right and it’s our right and obligation to segregate them from the normal community for the duration of the conflict. And I think we’re going to have to increasingly get tough on this, not only in the United States but our allied nations like Britain, Germany and France are going to have to look at their domestic law procedures.”

Gen. Clark isn’t a fascist, or a Fox News fire-breather: he’s a conventional liberal. He was a critic of the Iraq war, a favorite of the Daily Kos/Netroots Nation-types, and he once ran for President. Thankfully his campaign never did get off the ground.

July 21, 2015

Anarchists Killed By ISIS in Turkey ¹

by Keith Preston • Anarchism/Anti-State, Fourth Generation Warfare

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Alper Sapan: “I am a 19 year-old anarchist. I am against injustice, exploitation and tyranny of the state. I condemn people killing each others, violence and the state. I listen to the inner voice of my conscience for freedom and refuse to serve in the military for a warless, nationless and borderless world where no one could ever be a soldier, no one could ever kill each others. Before militarism kills us, we should kill militarism.”

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Evrim Deniz Erol was 19 years old.

11745690_1648962488653530_1166649527561991370_n Caner Delisu was a member of United Anarchist Attack (BAA)

July 21, 2015

News Digest July 21, 2015 ^Reply

by Keith Preston • News Updates

General Wesley Clark Calls for Sending Radical U.S. Citizens to “Internment Camps” CounterCurrents News

John Kerry “Disturbed” by Iranian Leader’s Criticism After Deal by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin Nouri

ISIS Transforming into a Functioning State That Uses Terror as a Tool by Tim Arango

Amherst Student Expelled for Rape Has Evidence He Innocent, But Amherst Won’t Hear It by Robby Soave

Mitsubishi Apologizes for Using U.S. POWs as Slaves During World War II Vice News

Looking for God, Former U.S. Helicopter Pilot Found Allah by Matthew Bell

Sandra Bland’s Death is Now a Murder Investigation by Sophia Bollag and Terri Langford

Neocon Douchebag Ben Shapiro Gets His Ass Kicked by Transgender Journalist? by Jordan Chariton

Donald Trump Takes a Double-Digit Lead Over the GOP Presidential Field by Neetzan Zimmerman

Releasing Drug Offenders Won’t End Mass Incarceration, But It’s a Start by Oliver Roeder

The U.S. has by far the highest incarceration rate in the world.

Why Progressives Are Fighting About Bernie Sanders and Race by Dara Lind

Why Libertarians Should Love Bernie by Edwin Lyngar

I Am an Inmate at the Prison That Obama Just Visited and This is My Hope by Kenneth Evans

Syrian Air Force Pounds ISIS at Palmyra by Leith Fadel

Cuban Flag Flies in Washington as Embassy Opens After 54 Years by Russia Today

How Long Will I Have to Convince Liberals That Palestinians Matter? by Amira Sakalla

American Pravda: When “Tokyo Rose” Ran for President by Ron Unz

Beyond Left and Right: Where Do We Get Our News? by Foster Gamble

An Expensive and Bankrupt “Criminal Justice System” by Truth Voice

O’Malley Booed After Saying “All Lives Matter” at Liberal Event by W. James Antle III

Cop Goes Undercover in Wheelchair to Catch Criminals, But the Plan Backfires in the Best Way by Matt Agorist

Scott Walker Campaigns Against Unions, Wages, and Weekends by John Nichols

Bernie Sanders Takes His Populism to the Red States and Draws a Huge Crowd by Zaid Jilani

In U.S. Prisons, Psychiatric Disability is Often Met by Brute Force by Kanya D’Almeida

World Cup for Rebel Republics to be Played in Abkhazia by Giorgi Lomsadze

The Man Who Kept a Diary of Every Shit He Took in 2014 by Paul Gallagher

ISIS Releases Its Most Sickening Video Yet by Sharona Schwartz

Shoot to Kill: The Creed of the SWAT Pigs by Timothy Harper

Boehner Endorses Sentencing Reform, Bill Clinton Apologizes for His Role in Mass Incarceration by Jacob Sullum

Good Cop Physically Stops Bad Cop from Abusing Handcuffed Man CounterCurrents News

Christian Fundamentalist Leader Calls for an End to Muslim Immigration Into the U.S. by Jonathan Merritt

Black Officer Helps White Supremacist Suffering from Intense Heat by Kaitlyn Schallhorn

U.S. Need to Be at War Never Stops by Tina Dupuy

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July 21, 2015

Anarchy Lives: Rojava ²

by Keith Preston • Anarchism/Anti-State, Fourth Generation Warfare

By Julia Tourianksi

Brave New World

There is place where sex, creed and ethnicity do not harbor division. A place where everyone is military trained so that having a police force becomes obsolete. A place where civilian females, instead of asking for permission, instead of waiting for outside help, have taken up arm against their aggressors, against those who intend to rape, enslave and murder them. This is a place that’s giving birth to its own freedom, in spite of the oppressive forces that surround it.This is a place of sincere revolution, and it’s been happening for years. And it’s happening now. This is Rojava.

Where is Rojava?

Rojava consists of three autonomous regions (Afrin, Jazira and Kobanî), on the border of Turkey and Syria.

What is Rojava?

Rojava is an active, historically unique socio-political experiment. It is a stateless direct democracy consisting of bottom-up self-governing structures. It is a feat of cooporative anarchism. It is a true alternative to the embraced nation state systems that do nothing but dominate and fail, mindlessly looping through history.

How Rojava Operates

Rojava is populated by about 2 million people. It has 22 ministries, each has 1 minister and 2 deputies, all three having to be from a different ethnic background, (Arab, Kurd & Syrian) and at least one of 3 has to be a woman.

Every street has their own democratic assembly. They try to resolve problems locally otherwise it gets delegated up if no resolution is found. Municipalities are autonomous and make their own decisions and control their own resources. It is the localities that make demands from the administration. The police and military answer to the localities.

You can own any kind of weapon (guns, rifles, rocket launchers, tanks). They have a police force (Asayaş) that anyone can join after 6 weeks of training. Their goal is to give every citizen training so that ultimately, they could eliminate the police. They also have the HPC (HezênParastina Cewherî/Individuality Protection Force), a network that anyone can claim to be a member of (like Anonymous). They are the counter-force against the security apparatus.

There is a huge emphasis on education; permaculture, history, languages (Kurdish, Arabic, French, English, Assyrian, Chechen) and philosophy are given a lot of weight. Rojava has hundreds of cooperatives (500 alone in the Jazira Canton) each consisting of 50-100 people. The majority are agriculture coops (mostly wheat).These cooperatives form a network which helps work out demand. Their goal is to eliminate the necessity for money by having cooperatives trade goods based on need, but they are not anti-money (I would love to see them encorporate bitcoin as it fits their decentralized model). The emphasis is on self-sufficiency & empowering all people.

No one is forced to be part of a cooperative, and some of the coops compete with each other. You can be an independent farmer and sell your goods as you like. People have private property and own businesses. You can buy and sell houses but you must go to the local courts to register the new deeds. You can own land but before you build something, you must go to the assembly for that street and make sure it’s ok with the people there. Basically you explain your project to your neighbors first. It’s all about mutual respect.

Oh, and there is absolutely no tax.

Defense

Rojava defends itself with DIY weaponry and anything they can get off the black market or scavenge from ISIS. It has diverse voluntary forces that consist of groups like the YPG, YPJ & PKK.

YPG- The People’s Protection Units

YPJ – Woman’s Protection Unit

PKK- People’s Defense Force

Other supportive forces include the “The Lions of Rojava” which consist of western volunteers

Rojava’s forces are currently the only boots on the ground fighting against ISIS. Hey are incredibly heroic. They recently conducted a successful rescue mission of over 20,000 Yezidi people, who were trapped and defenseless against ISIS in the Sinjar mountains.

This all sounds amazing, and it is, but Rojava is crippled. It receives zero direct help from the West, from NATO, or from neighboring countries who should be unifying in the fight against ISIS. Worst of all, NATO member Turkey has assisted in the crippling of Rojava through the denial of aid and the enforcement of trade embargoes.

More…

July 19, 2015

Obama’s Legacy: Permanent War and Liberal/Radical Accommodation? ^Reply

by Keith Preston • Anti-Imperialism/Foreign Policy

This is a few months old, but it is an absolute must read for those who have not previously seen this article. In the past, I have widely criticized many in the anarchist milieu for privileging their particular identity politics, favorite social issues, or preferred economic system over the wider struggle against the forces of State, Capital, and Empire. Likewise, many also privilege “anti-authoritarianism” over anti-imperialism as this article points out. Such a stance may have made sense when the principal opponents of Anglo-American-Zionist imperialism were totalitarian Marxist-Leninist regimes or hardline Islamic theocracies. But such a stance makes no sense when Russia, China, Cuba, Iran, and other anti-Western regimes have long since undergone a process of liberalization, and have reverted to the status of normal societies. At the present juncture, it is entirely reasonable to assume a stance that is pro-BRICS, pro-Resistance Block, and supportive of resistance nations in Latin America within the realm of international geopolitics.

My prediction is that virtually the entire spectrum of the present day conventional Left will eventually adopt a pro-American imperialist perspective (to the degree that they have not already done so) in the name of feminism, gay rights, secularism,”democracy,” “human rights” and anti-ant-Semitism. In a few decades, “conservatives” in the U.S. will look like today’s Obama-Clinton Democrats and “liberals” will resemble the “social justice warrior” academic leftist types. Meanwhile, what we are doing here at ATS is a prototype for a future radical left that moves beyond liberal moralizing and cultural politics.

By Ajamu Baraka

The announcement by the Obama administration that it will seek congressional authorization to expand the war on ISIS in Syria and possibly send more heavy weapons to its client government in Ukraine did not generate the kind of muscular opposition and sense of urgency that one would expect from the anti-interventionist liberals and significant sectors of what use to be the anti-imperialist and anti-war left. More…

July 19, 2015

Texas Separatists Pushing for 2016 Ballot Measure ^Reply

by Keith Preston • Activism, Secession, Strategy

Getting secessionist measures on state and local ballots would be an excellent activist strategy for adherents of the pan-secessionist tactical position of any ideological stripe.

KTRH Radio

The race for the presidency in 2016 is already heating up, but one group in the Lone Star State is hoping for a bigger battle on next year’s ballot. The Texas Nationalist Movement (TNM) is launching a tour of 21 cities across the state over the next month to build support for Texas independence. “This tour is in support of the new initiative we’ve launched to gather enough signatures on a petition so that we can force a referendum on Texas independence onto the Republican primary ballot in 2016,” says TNM President Daniel Miller.

The push for secession in Texas is nothing new, with various groups promoting it over the years and even longtime Congressman and former Presidential candidate Ron Paul speaking out on the subject earlier this year. Miller tells KTRH that the TNM has been around for more than a decade and is seeking to bring the movement to the mainstream. “To place this on a ballot so that people can go to the polls and vote for it, and express their will to the politicians and elected officials here in Texas,” he says.

Miller cites a Reuters survey from last year that showed support for secession nationwide is much higher than many thought. “The breakdowns were about 54% of Republicans, roughly 50% of independents and 35% of Democrats,” he says. “So we know that right now support for Texas independence is higher than it’s ever been, and it just continues to grow.”

As to the question of why should Texas break away from the union, Miller turns it around and asks why not. “Is it the skyrocketing debt, is it the lack of respect for sovereignty, is it the excessive regulations that come out of the federal government?,” he asks. “What exactly is it that’s attractive about staying?”

July 19, 2015

Social Justice Warriors Disrupt Earth First! Gathering ^Reply

by Keith Preston • Environment, Political Correctness/Totalitarian Humanism

By Deep Green Philly

AnarchistNews.Org

“Sometime during the middle of the rondy a rupture took place that led to much discussion as well as many emotional outbursts. It also led to a general malaise which in turn led to a mass exodus of about half the camp. It was sparked off by the usual suspects: identity politics, issues of cultural appropriation, and general feelings of discontent with demographics. I’m not going to go into detail about that situation because I’m sure others will be chiming in with their own perspectives on this situation. All I will say about it is that I’ve encountered this sort of thing before at other non-EF! gatherings. There has definitely emerged a certain group of people who take it upon themselves to disrupt what they see as white supremacist organizations. While I wish that they would take that shit to a Hillary Clinton rally or something, I can respect the spirit of it if not the specific tactics and general anti-social, juvenile and trollish behaviors of some of these people (one of whom almost got a fist to the face for trying to get up in mine). Radical communities are struggling enough as it is and don’t really need that sort of social justice warrior adventurism malarkey, but hey, this is the landscape we currently inhabit and what we must endure by having spaces that are open to everyone.”

In the days and weeks leading up to this year’s Earth First! rondy my thoughts were often preoccupied with the state of this world that is lurching from crisis to crisis and slipping deeper into chaos. In a time when our victories seem increasingly few and strictly symbolic, and as the machinery of industrial capitalism continues its assault on the earth and those who depend on it for survival, I was very much hoping for the rondy to be a place of reflection, strategizing, commiseration with like minds, and yes, escape from the mental stress of the city. To a certain degree I was not disappointed; there were a lot of great conversations, interesting workshops and time for reconnecting with nature. Yet, as is often the case, there’s no real escape from the intellectual and emotional quagmire of civilized life.

July 19, 2015

Keith Preston: US spying on states that challenge Western hegemony ¹

by Keith Preston • Anti-Imperialism/Foreign Policy • Tags: espionage surveillance

My statement to Press TV. Listen here: http://presstv.ir/Default/embed/420900

US intelligence agencies have been spying on states that pose a geopolitical challenge to Western hegemony, as well as allies, part of a decades-long policy dating back to the Cold War, a political analyst from Virginia says.

“Espionage conducted by the United States, whether it’s electronic surveillance or some other kind is nothing new,” said Keith Preston, chief editor and director of AttacktheSystem.com, a website dedicated to raising awareness against domestic and foreign US government policies.

“Ever since the end of World War ll since the late 1940s and the onset of the Cold War, the United States has conducted large-scale espionage operations all over the world against many, many different nations,” Preston told Press TV on Sunday.

“The United States has always had a habit of engaging in espionage, even when it comes to allied nations,” he added. “That’s been standard practice by the American intelligence services for well over half a century or longer.”

Preston made the comments as a new report shows that American intelligence agencies have been spying on Russian President Vladimir Putin for over the past twenty years.

The United States’ intelligence community started to show interest in Putin back in the 1990s when he was the deputy mayor of Saint Petersburg, according to a report published in the British daily The Times on Saturday

“Mr. Putin . . . was part and parcel of looting the state; and he was involved in it for years,” a former CIA station chief in Moscow, Richard Palmer, was quoted as saying in the report.

Palmer made the claims to a US congressional committee in 1999, the report added.

Preston said the new report about US spies tracking Putin “makes perfect sense” because “ever since the Soviet Union collapsed, the United States has been concerned about which direction will Russia go in.”

July 19, 2015

News Update July 19, 2015 ^Reply

by Keith Preston • News Updates

The Mysterious Death of Black Lives Matter Activist Sandra Bland in Jail Democracy Now!

St. Louis Police Shoot Man Who Was Talking About Revolution CounterCurrents News

John McCain and 200 Other War Mongers Banned from Entering Russia The AntiMedia

McCain: Did He Show the Right Stuff? by Zalin Grant

Innocent Man Free After Seven Years, Court Says He Can’t Sue the Cop TruthOut

Man Asks Police to Help Passed Out Girlfriend, Cop Rapes Her Instead CounterCurrents News

From First Arrest to a Life Sentence by Sari Horvitz

Academics and Police: Right-Wing Extremism Equal to Muslim Radicalization by Rachel Olding

Rich White Kid in BMW Hits Three Cars, Assaults Police, Manages to Not Get Shot by Cops CounterCurrents News

Libertarian Rand Paul Endorses Government Racial Profiling and Surveillance Program by Shikha Dalmia

Rick Santorum: Separation of Church and State a Communist Idea, Not an American One by Brian Tashman

Jesse Ventura is Thinking About Running for President as a Libertarian by J. Wilson

Texas Launches Gold-Backed Bank, Challenges Federal Reserve by Alex Newman

The Coming Gazafication of Europe by Eric Striker

Vandals Hit Two North Carolina Confederate Memorials by Sister Toldjah

Police Shoot Kill, Mentally Ill Native American Man, Family Demands Justice Truth Voice

Russia Says No to GMO Seeds, Demands Food That is Cleanest in the World Natural News

Why Anti-Authoritarians Are Diagnosed as Mentally Ill by Marcie Gainer

Hillary’s Lack of Concern for Reforming Wall Street by Robert Reich

She Was a Quiet Commercial Lawyer, Then China Turned Against Her by Anna Fifield

Japan Is Making a Stand Against Joining U.S. Aggression by Alex Cope

Canada Claims It Will Back Out of the TPP to Protect Its Sovereignty by Joe Wolverton

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July 18, 2015

Dave Chappelle’s Comeback Tour Takes Aim at “New Intolerance” ^Reply

by Keith Preston • Culture Wars/Current Controversies, Political Correctness/Totalitarian Humanism

Who better to fight the PC moralists than Dave Chappelle?

By Nick Gillespie

Reason

A decade ago that Dave Chappelle was the hottest comedian on the planet. His Comedy Central show created riffs and routines (“I’m Rick James, bitch“) that still haunt the ether like old radio transmissions bouncing back from outer space. His standup was raucous and rude and unbelievably funny. After quitting his show and his career at the very peak of his fame and occasional standup appearances (some of which got pretty nasty between him and his audience), Chappelle is back with a full tour in the U.S. and England (and still occasionally getting on the wrong side of the crowd).

It’s not just Chappelle who has changed over the past 10 years, of course. So has the culture, which has gotten noticeably touchier about all sorts of real and imagined slights. Spiked‘s Tom Slater has a review-essay about seeing Chappelle, who converted to Islam in the late 1990s, perform in London that’s well worth a read if you care about freedom of expression and what is accurately called “the new intolerance.”

A snippet:

His new set is peppered with jokes about him coming face-to-face with the new intolerance. There’s the lesbian couple whose kid is at the same ‘liberal-rich’ private school as his son – one of them laughing along at his jokes about whether or not they qualify for the father-son picnic, the other ‘too committed to her lesbianism’ to entertain them. And then there’s that trans joke, in which Dave, finding himself at a poncey gallery party, is stared down when he dares to ask ‘Is he okay?’ after a cross-dresser collapses in the corner. ‘I support anyone’s right to be who they want to be. My question is: to what extent do I have to participate in your self-image?’

Read the whole thing.

July 18, 2015

Robert Stark interviews Robert Lindsay about Personality Types ^Reply

by robertstark2014 • Uncategorized

Robert Stark interviews Robert Lindsay about Personality Types

Topics include:
Generalizations, the Bete Noir of the PC Crowd, Rule Our Lives
How races have different personality types
Is a Black Bastard Different from a White Bastard?
Idi Amin as a Worst Case Scenario for the Basic Black Personality Type
As Bad As an Asian Man Gets
Hitler’s personality type
The differences between sociopaths and psychopaths
People who view everything as about money, sex, status and power
Why It Is Not Possible to Groom or Molest a Teenage Girl
One Corporate Party with “Liberal” and “Conservative” Wings
How Robert Lindsay can relate to people like Ann Sterzinger and Rachel Haywire who don’t fit into to the stereotypical left wing or right wing mold
You Will Never Eat Bacon Again
Some Thoughts on a Majority-Gay Society
What Would Society Look Like If a Majority of Adults Were Gay?
Why Having a Fact Based View of Your Life and Future May Be a Very Bad Idea
Egotism Is Natural and Normal in Humans
Is It Ok for a Man to Complain?
Different Types of Loners: Pure Loners and “Frustrated Extroverts”

July 17, 2015

Donald Trump Leads a Failed Field ¹

by Keith Preston • Electoralism/Democratism

Why the Republicans are the party of failed ideologies fronted by joke candidates.

It appears that 2016 will be a Bush-Clinton election given that these are the two candidates that have the most financial backing.

By Daniel McCarthy

The American Conservative

Christopher Halloran / Shutterstock.com

How worried should Republicans—and everyone else—be about Donald Trump, the man who’s turning the party’s presidential contest into a circus rodeo? Not very. What his popularity blip reveals is just how weak the right has become.

Herman Cain was polling as high as 26 percent between October and November 2011. Trump has a long way to go to match last cycle’s comic-relief candidate. The occasionally bankrupt billionaire’s best number so far has been 17 percent. His polling average, even after weeks of hype, is about 10 percent. Bernie Sanders, by contrast, has been routinely polling around 15 percent against Hillary Clinton. Sanders is a more popular figure than Donald Trump, but he obviously isn’t as good for television ratings—he’s never had his own reality program—so Ten-Percent Trump is the guy who’s treated as a threat to America’s political establishment.

July 17, 2015

Rejecting the Iran Deal Would Be GOP Suicide ^Reply

by Keith Preston • Anti-Imperialism/Foreign Policy

By Pat Buchanan

The American Conservative

From first reactions, it appears that Hill Republicans will be near unanimous in voting a resolution of rejection of the Iran nuclear deal. They will then vote to override President Obama’s veto of their resolution. And if the GOP fails there, Gov. Scott Walker says his first act as president would be to kill the deal.

But before the party commits to abrogating the Iran deal in 2017, the GOP should consider whether it would be committing suicide in 2016.

For even if Congress votes to deny Obama authority to lift U.S. sanctions on Iran, the U.S. will vote to lift sanctions in the UN Security Council. And Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and China, all parties to the deal, will also lift sanctions.

A Congressional vote to kill the Iran deal would thus leave the U.S. isolated, its government humiliated, unable to comply with the pledges its own secretary of state negotiated. Would Americans cheer the GOP for leaving the United States with egg all over its face?

July 17, 2015

GOP Opposition to the Nuclear Deal ^Reply

by Keith Preston • Anti-Imperialism/Foreign Policy

Under no circumstances should the Republican Party ever be allowed to return to power in the United States.

By Daniel Larison

The American Conservative

Steve Rhodes / cc

Jacob Heilbrunn warns the GOP against rejecting the nuclear deal:

It would be a profound mistake for the GOP to conclude that it can profit politically by bashing the deal during the 2016 presidential campaign. It won’t. Instead, the party would seem a fortiori to be stuck in even more of a time warp.

Republicans in Congress are eager to make this mistake. Bob Corker’s reaction to the announcement of the nuclear deal was typical of the Republican responses:

“I begin with skepticism because two years ago we had a roguish country with a boot on its neck and we went from dismantling their [nuclear] program to managing their proliferation [bold mine-DL],” Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R., Tenn.) told reporters Tuesday.

July 17, 2015

Why Is Washington Addicted to War? ^Reply

by Keith Preston • Anti-Imperialism/Foreign Policy

By Scott McConnell

The American Conservative

Even as Obama was making peace with Iran, the U.S. moved into conflict with Russia on the side of neo-Nazis and Islamists.

Olivier Douliery/dpa/picture-alliance/Newscom

Most now assume that the defining foreign policy legacy of President Obama will be his Iran deal, which will seek to block Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon and open the doors to Iran’s reintegration into the world economy and regional politics. I believe Obama and good sense will prevail over the Israel caucus in Congress, and as a result of the deal Americans will fairly soon come to see Iran both as a market for American goods and ideas and as a valuable ally against ISIS, the Sunni jihadist group that controls much of Iraq and Syria. There will of course be much debate and possibly a major political donnybrook in the months to come, and unexpected twists are always possible.

But what a surprise it would be if the principal legacy for Obama were not the opening to Iran, even if it were to fulfill all positive expectations, but a deepening cold war, potentially even hot war, with Russia. Everyone in Washington knows that Obama and his top aides have devoted 10 times more attention to Iran than to Russia, assuming perhaps that the logic of geopolitics would keep American-Russian relations on relatively even keel. But events have a way of surprising. Oh bitter irony were we to have peace with Iran, war with Russia. It could happen.

July 16, 2015

News Update July 16, 2015 ^Reply

by Keith Preston • News Updates

New Podcast from the Libertarian Alliance: ATS Contributors Eric Field, Keir Martland and Keith Preston Discussion Early American History Listen here.

Every Person Killed by American Police During the Month of June by Lou Colagiovanni

Surveillance Video Shows Cops Murdered Native American Man and Lied About It Countercurrents News

Obama Issues a Defense of the Iran Nuclear Deal by Inae Oh

The Left is Turning Away from the European Union by Mustela Nivalis

$358,000 Raised for Bakery Fined $135,000 for Refusing to Bake Gay Wedding Cake by Barbara Boland

Two Cheers for the Iran Agreement by Sheldon Richman

25 Signs That the Global Elite’s Ship is About to Sink The Mind Unleashed

Tanisha Anderson Was Literally Praying as Cops Held Her Down and Killed Her Countercurrents News

GOP Contenders Embrace Criminal Justice Reform by Jonathan Easley

Poll Says U.S. Voters Ready for a Female President by Connor Gaffey

Cops Enter Home of Naked Woman, Arrest and Assault Her by Matt Agorist

Trump Leads GOP Field But Trails Hillary by a Huge Margin by Matt Wilstein