Todd Lewis hosts a debate on anarchist strategy between Keith Preston and Brenton Lengel on Anarchist strategy. Brenton will defend a classic anarchist strategy and Keith his own homebrew Pan-Anarchism.
Author: Keith Preston
Historical emergence of climate change, gender equity, and anti-racism as State doctrines 1
An immensely important new paper by Canadian academic Denis Rancourt on how on how “left-wing” ideas have been co-opted by neoliberal capitalism and incorporated into the ruling class ideological superstructure.
The report is entitled “Geo-Economics and Geo-Politics Drive Successive Eras of Predatory Globalization and Social Engineering: Historical emergence of climate change, gender equity, and anti-racism as State doctrines.”
The Introduction / Abstract reads as follows:
The influence of geopolitical and global economic conditions on the fabric of domestic societies and on individual psychology is most frequently underestimated by civilian commentators, especially regarding Western “free and democratic” societies. The military, on the other hand, do not underestimate the importance of broad trade and economic factors on the very fabric of a society and on the psychology of its citizens, at least in targeted developing countries.
This article has two main goals.
The first is to demonstrate the large extent to which the global financial system determines national and regional reality in people’s lives and security, including in the USA itself and in the Western world in general, with an emphasis on the two main post-World-War-II transformations, which were initiated in 1971, following the cancellation of the Bretton Woods agreement, and in 1991, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
The second is to describe the on-going tectonic shift that followed the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union in broader terms than is usually envisioned, and how this driven and coordinated shift was chronologically accompanied by: a dramatic acceleration of trade and finance “globalization”, and an unprecedented campaign of social engineering of the Western uppermiddle-classes, aimed at facilitating USA and world-elite opportunistic exploitation of the new global circumstances, in turn leading to the present Gilets jaunes, Brexit, Trump… backlash. (In a sense, “the Russians did it.”)
The full report can be read at the link HERE.
Keith Preston: Turkey moving away from America’s sphere of influence Reply
Press TV. Listen here.
Turkey has been moving away from America’s sphere of influence and improving its relationship with Russia, which was underscored by Turkey’s purchase of the Russian S-400 missile defense system despite US threats not to do so, says a political analyst in Virginia.
“There’s been tensions between the United States and Turkey in recent years over a number of issues pertaining to US policy in the Middle East,” said Keith Preston, chief editor of AttacktheSystem.com.
“American foreign policy has become increasingly hostile towards Russia in the last few years and the Turks do appear to view that as not being in their interest, in part because of their relatively close geographical proximity to Russia,” Preston told Press TV on Thursday.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday vowed to go ahead with a deal to purchase Russian missiles despite Washington’s suspension of Turkey’s participation in a US jet program.
The US said on Monday it was halting all deliveries and joint work with Turkey on the F-35 fighter jet program if Ankara insisted on the deal.
Washington has suggested Turkey could opt for the US-produced Patriot missiles instead.
But Erdogan said although Ankara was keen to buy the US-produced missiles, “America was unfortunately not giving Patriots to us on the same terms” as Russia.
PressTV-Turkey ignores US threats over Russian S-400Turkey is ignoring threats by top US officials to buy Russia’s S-400 missile system.
The row over the F-35 and the S-400 is the latest in a series of diplomatic disputes between Ankara and Washington.
Tensions have been escalating between the two NATO allies over issues including US support for Kurdish groups in Syria that Ankara says are responsible for terror attacks inside Turkey.
Washington and its NATO allies have strived to prevent the sophisticated Russian-built anti-aircraft weapon system from collecting information about the US-made all-weather stealth multirole warplanes, technically known as the Lockheed Martin F-35 fighters, just as they are gaining a foothold in Europe.
Erdogan has also slammed American officials for rejecting his requests to hand over Fethullah Gulen, a powerful opposition figure living in the US, whom Ankara accuses of having masterminded a coup attempt in July 2016.
West Virginia Joins Growing Sound Money Movement Reply
By J.P. Cortez
Six Other States Now Weighing Their Own Bills to End Taxes on Gold & Silver
Before the ink could even dry on West Virginia Governor Jim Justice’s signature on a repeal of sales taxation on gold, silver, platinum, and palladium bullion and coins, legislators in Wisconsin and Maine introduced similar measures in their own states.
All told, 39 states have now reduced or eliminated sales taxes on the monetary metals, and Wisconsin, Maine, Kansas, Arkansas, Minnesota, and Tennessee are all actively considering bills of their own this month.
West Virginia’s Senate Bill 502 enjoyed tremendous popularity, passing through the State Senate unanimously before passing out of the House 90-9. Starting July 1, investors, savers, and small businesses in the state are no longer required to pay sales and use tax on the exchange of dollars for the monetary metals.
Earlier this week, Representative Justin Fecteau (R – Augusta) of Maine introduced LD 1446, a measure to repeal sales taxes on precious metals, saying, “Seven years since his 2012 run for President, the monetary policy lessons of Congressman Ron Paul still stick out to me. This bill is an important first step to restore sound money in Maine by refusing to tax the conversion from one legal tender to another.”
And Wisconsin State Representative Shea Sortwell (R – Two Rivers) today introduced his measure to end the taxation of money on the anniversary of President Franklin Roosevelt’s controversial gold ban 86 years ago.
“On April 5th, 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt made the disastrous decision to confiscate individuals’ private gold holdings through Executive Order 6102. American citizens were forced to turn in their gold under the threat of ten years in prison. Shortly after, the price was arbitrarily raised over 50%, a shocking theft of wealth from the American people,” said Sortwell.
“Wisconsinites ought to have the choice and freedom to use alternative currencies and money without being taxed for it — and this bill would put our precious metal sellers on an even playing field with our Midwest neighbors.”
Meanwhile, West Virginia Congressman Alex Mooney (R-WV) is doing
his own part to end federal income taxation of sound money.
Mooney’s Monetary Metals Tax Neutrality Act (H.R. 1089) would
“clarify that the sale or exchange of precious metals bullion and coins are not
to be included in capital gains, losses, or any other type of federal income
calculation.”
To be sure, the out-of-control spending and debt embraced by many politicians is directly undermining the value of the dollar and our savings, but momentum is building, particularly in the states, to restore sound money in America.
Why “Democratic Socialists” are Conservative 1
This is an important article. Given the growing popularity of “democratic socialism,” it’s important to point out what social democrats actually are, i.e. state-centric reactionaries. An authentic anarchist approach to political economy involves critiquing and opposing the ways in which the state has the effect of centralizing control over wealth, property, and resources, and developing alternatives that are independent of the state.
By Thomas L. Knapp
Garrison Center
A February Harris poll finds that 49.6% of Millennial and Generation Z Americans would “prefer living in a socialist country.”
US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), among other politicians, proclaim a message of “democratic socialism,” evoking an ideology last ascendant in the early 1900s when Eugene Debs and Norman Thomas moved the needle in US elections.
But the devil is, as always, in the details. The goals of today’s American “democratic socialism,” as laid out in Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal resolution, in Sanders’s “Stop BEZOS Act,” etc. look a lot more like Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s effort to “save capitalism” through welfare statism than like the proposals of socialism’s last rise to prominence.
The essence of socialism as laid out by Proudhon and Marx and promoted by the International Workers of the World, et al., came down to destroying the wage system and building a classless society based on worker ownership of the means of production.
Those earlier socialists would almost certainly have lauded gig economy workers as examples of what socialism sought. Today’s socialists disdain them.
Tulsi Gabbard Interview On TYT 9
This is pretty impressive. She nails it on Saudi Arabia.
Andrew Yang and the Post-Nationalist Future 1
By Robert Stark
Taki’s Mag
The internet underworld that famously boosted Trump in 2016 appears to be unified for the first time since. This time everyone from the meme-makers of 4chan, to the “America First” crowd, to explicit white nationalists is marching to the beat of a new, unlikely populist champion: Asian-American entrepreneur and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang. What does the phenomenon of the Trump-to-Yang supporter tell us? Beyond pointing out the obvious, that NEETS and gamers really want $1,000 a month, the youthful “Yanggang” may be the harbinger of a political paradigm shift to follow the demise of Trumpism, and the closing possibility of any recognizably American nationalism.
Kick the Puppy Episode 26 2
California man sentenced to 20 years in fatal “swatting”, calling the cops is always a bad idea, New Zealand democracy turns against itself, perceptions of risk, New Zealand gang leaders refuse to turn in guns, Hell’s Angels and street gangs vow to defend mosques in New Zealand, Kentucky governor signs bill outlawing sex between people and animals, lawmakers introduce bill to make Puerto Rico a state, man steals $122 from Facebook and Google by sending random bills, 1 in 4 young Americans didn’t have sex last year-record high, don’t blame the teenagers, Facebook to ban white nationalism and separatism, YouTube radicalization and the rabbit hole, apparently Beijing is the world’s food delivery empire, age checks to watch online porn in the UK, synthetic alcohol without the dangers?
His Name Was Ozzy and He Was Murdered by the Police 3
By Nicky Reid aka Comrade Hermit
His name was Osaze Osagie, but everyone who loved him just called him Ozzy and everyone who knew him seemed to love him. He had such a peaceful way with the world around him. I rarely saw him without that gentle smile on his face. You could tell he was not like ‘normal’ people and not just because he was far kinder than those bestowed with that loaded label. Like me, Ozzy was different, the ‘normal’ world calls it mental illness. I got to know him at my local psych rehab and quickly found myself enchanted by his easy going sense of humor and borderline Zen-like demeanor. He looked like a hybrid of Hannibal Buress and the Dalai Lama, which isn’t to say he didn’t have his bad days. When he did, it was well understood that he liked to be left alone, to sit quietly in another room until his calmer qualities overcame his demons. But even at his worst, Ozzy couldn’t harm a fly, he might hurt himself, but no one else.
Guaido losing popularity at home, despite US support Reply
Marzieh Hashemi: FBI raided my children’s homes in U.S. Reply
Anarcho-Communist VS Anarcho-Capitalist 1
Sean Matthew King hosts a discussion between Brent Lengel, an anarcho-communist, and Keith Knight, an anarcho-capitalist.
Keith Preston: US airstrikes in Somalia under spotlight Reply
Press TV. Listen here.
A prominent rights group says it has credible evidence that US drone strikes in Somalia are killing civilians.
Amnesty international says it carried out an extensive investigation. A team of researchers traveled to Somalia. There, they conducted forensics tests and interviews with more than 150 individuals. The group also analyzed corroborating evidence. This included satellite imagery, photos from the aftermath of airstrikes and munition fragments.
It’s official: Russiagate is this generation’s WMD 4
A good article from Matt Taibbi, though I don’t really agree that the Russiagate hoax is comparable to the WMD hoax (that Mueller was involved in perpetrating as well). The WMD hoax started a war that possibly killed over a million people, while Russiagate just makes the bulk of the media and political class look like idiots (which most people already know anyway).
By Matt Taibbi
Note to readers: in light of news that Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller’s investigation is complete, I’m releasing this chapter of Hate Inc. early, with a few new details added up top.
Nobody wants to hear this, but news that Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller is headed home without issuing new charges is a death-blow for the reputation of the American news media.
As has long been rumored, the former FBI chief’s independent probe will result in multiple indictments and convictions, but no “presidency-wrecking” conspiracy charges, or anything that would meet the layman’s definition of “collusion” with Russia.
With the caveat that even this news might somehow turn out to be botched, the key detail in the many stories about the end of the Mueller investigation was best expressed by the New York Times:
A senior Justice Department official said that Mr. Mueller would not recommend new indictments.
Attorney General William Barr sent a letter to congress summarizing Mueller’s conclusions. The money line quoted the Mueller report:
[T]he investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.
Over the weekend, the Times tried to soften the emotional blow for the millions of Americans trained in these years to place hopes for the overturn of the Trump presidency in Mueller. As with most press coverage, there was little pretense that the Mueller probe was supposed to be a neutral fact-finding mission, as apposed to religious allegory, with Mueller cast as the hero sent to slay the monster.
You Can’t Be Pro-Life and Pro-War 24
By Nicky Reid aka Comrade Hermit
Exile in Happy Valley
I’m a creature of sonic evolution, dearest motherfuckers. A hand grenade with Luna moth wings. It’s rather ironic for a diagnosed agoraphobic but the only thing that’s evolved more than my fluid gender identity is my equally fluid ideology. In thirty short years I’ve evolved from indentured Catholic to agnostic existentialist to Gnostic Christian witch, from juvenile anarcho-punk to Bolivarian Bolshevik tankie to panarcho-syndicalist gadfly. One thing that hasn’t changed throughout this intellectual metamorphosis however is a life long devotion to the sanctity of life.
Being a far-left pro-lifer has always seemed like a contradiction to most of my ilk but it has always made perfect sense to me. Egalitarianism in all its dimensions has always been about the stewardship of the weak in humanity by the strong. I actually believe that my early pro-life values are largely responsible for informing my radicalism rather than contradicting it. In a strange bid of karma, the Catholic Church may have accidentally created this church-burning commie-pinko by instilling those values in me at an impressionable age. I guess you could say I did a reverse Dorothy Day, from devout do-gooder to bomb-throwing heretic, sunrise, sunset.
This doesn’t mean that I’m on the same page with the pro-life movement at large, not by a long shot. I personally find your average pro-lifer to be a self-serving, single-minded, chauvinistic, pig-fucker with a severe penile Napoleon complex. As much as I despise the idea abortion, I’ve come to the hard conclusion that you can’t regulate someone else’s body without creating a berth for tyranny too wide for any self-respecting anarchist to tolerate. My approach to the issue has essentially become one of harm reduction. Combat abortion by making it irrelevant through the proliferation of affordable alternatives like the morning after pill. I feel that with this issue the bulk of the pro-life movement has revealed themselves to be puritanical hypocrites, more concerned with policing behavior than creating viable alternatives for desperate young women. As two thirds of a female and a feminist to boot, I find this hypocrisy to be particularly hard to swallow. You don’t have to be pro-choice to recognize that a rape victim doesn’t deserve to be polluted by a monster’s progeny, you just have to not be a dick. A tall order for too many of my fellow pro-lifers.
Keith Preston: US foreign policy is about making money for military firms 1
Press TV. Listen here.
The United States foreign policy has always served the interests of the military-industrial complex and that is why President Donald Trump is actively trying to increase the Pentagon’s budget while also pressing allies to spend more on defense, says an American analyst.
Keith Preston, director of Attackthesystem.com, made the remarks while discussing reports that Washington was drawing plans to require allies with American troops stationed in their countries to pay for the deployment.
Under White House direction, the Trump administration plans to ask Germany, Japan and eventually any other country hosting US troops pay the full price of American soldiers deployed on their soil, plus 50 percent or more for the privilege of hosting them.
“It is an interesting relationship because the United States on one hand pays the military bills and provides for the military defense of these countries in Asia and in Europe and also at the same time the Americans use this position… to maintain political hegemony,” Preston told Press TV on Sunday.
PressTV-Trump to seek $750 billion for Pentagon: OfficialPresident Trump will seek funds for the Pentagon and his promised border wall next week, an administration official says.
Washington’ pressure on Germany, the UK and France to follow Trump in abandoning the 2015 Iran nuclear deal was one of the examples of this trend, the analyst said.
The Trump administration’s plan to maintain several hundred troops in Syria despite a promise to evacuate the country was another hint at this behavior, according to Preston.
John Bolton, Trump’s national security adviser, said Sunday that the US was in talks with the UK and France to prolong foreign military presence in Syria in order to prevent what he called a possible presence of the Daesh terror group.
“So clearly this is a move by President Trump to simply generate revenue for the United States and for the US military budget,” he said. “Much of what the American politics is about is simply making money for the so-called military-industrial complex.”
He said while the US military budget was around $700 billion annually, the military industrial complex’s real revenue was difficult to calculate “because there is so man different channels of revenue.”
Keith Preston: Trump trying to reverse ‘pink tide’ in Latin America 2
Press TV. Listen here.
The administration of US President Donald Trump is backing pro-American politicians in Latin America as a strategy to regain US hegemony and reverse the so-called “pink tide” movement in the region, says a political analyst in Virginia.
“I think that the American foreign policy at present is to try to reverse that, to try to roll back what was called the pink tide,” said Keith Preston, chief editor of AttacktheSystem.com.
“This seems to be the general paradigm that’s evolving; that the Americans are trying to exercise hegemony over Latin America [and] reclaim influence that has been lost in recent decades,” Preston told Press TV on Friday.
Pink tide is a term used todescribe the rise pf populist movements in Latin America in the late 1990s that opposed American hegemony. The movement was led by the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, who was elected in 1998.
The shift also represented a move toward more progressive economic policies and coincided with the democratization of Latin America following decades of inequality.
PressTV-US ‘very strongly’ considering NATO membership for BrazilUS president Donald Trump says he is “very strongly” considering NATO membership for Brazil or some other formal alliance with the Latin American country.
Trump said on Tuesday he was strongly considering NATO membership for Brasilia as he met Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro at the White House, even though the South American nation doesn’t quality to join the Western military alliance.
Trump also said he supported Brazil’s efforts to join the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a club of the world’s advanced economies.
Bolsonaro, known as the “Trump of the Tropics”, ran an unabashedly pro-Trump, pro-American campaign last year, emulating Trump in tone and style. It seems to have paid off for Bolsonaro on his first official trip to Washington.
Bolsonaro is an avid admirer of Trump and his policies, particularly those with regard to opposing anti-imperialist governments in Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba.
In January, Bolsonaro also said that he is open to considering the establishment of a US military base in Brazil as a way to “counter Russian influence” in neighboring Venezuela.
Pelosi, Schumer: Attorney General must not give W.H. sneak preview of Mueller report Reply
Venezuela arrests Guaido chief of staff for ‘terrorism’ Reply
Solid Reasons Not to Vote 1
By Will Schnack
Even if we were to vote, where is the line drawn? We all know that Ralph Nader gave Bush the election, and we know that Bernie and the Greens and Libertarians did the same thing. So, what are we to do? Press that even the exposure of these people is a good thing? That they put pressure on the others to bend their policies a bit, to appeal to more people? Or are we just supposed to run into the pen that the sheepdog leads us into every time we realize that the sheepdog was never going to win in the first place? And if we’re voting for people who aren’t going to win, why aren’t we all just writing in our disparate but favorite candidates, and our friends and neighbors? Where is the line drawn with useless voting?
The working class often votes Right-wing, because some of the working class is composed of the small property-owner or the owner-operator and sole-proprietor of their business, or are working to get there. Others are white trailer trash who see affirmative action and other programs as privileges that they themselves don’t have but are being punished for. Some are just rural folks. There are tons of demographics among the working class, and not all of them white, that supported Donald Trump.
Keith Preston: Algeria president says to stay in power after term ends Reply
The Algerian president says he will stay in power beyond his term expiring next month, despite growing calls for him to step down. Abdelaziz Bouteflika issued a statement on Monday which confirmed his plan would see him stay in power beyond his tenure. He said he hopes the county will witness a new government and a harmonious transition. While Bouteflika gave no timetable for such transition, he said the shake-up of Algeria’s political, economic and social systems would start in the very near future. Algerians have been protesting for weeks against Bouteflika’s rule and his plan to run for another term. The ailing leader withdrew from his next presidential bid but scrapped the upcoming election. He also said that he would stay in office until a new constitution is adopted.
Keith Preston: Algerians suffering from unrest for decades Reply
Press TV. Watch here.
Political commentator, Keith Preston, believes Algeria’s ongoing crisis is rooted in decades of political, economic, and social unrest.
