Monthly Archives: June 2016

INTERVIEW: “Noam Chomsky on the Breakdown of American Society and a World in Transition” / Truthout / C.J. Polychroniou ☮

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Noam Chomsky

The US is facing uncertain times. While it remains the only global superpower, it is no longer able to influence events and outcomes to its liking, at least not for the most part. Frustration and worry about the risk of upcoming disasters seem to far outweigh US voters’ hopes for a more rational and just world order. Meanwhile, Noam Chomsky argues, the rise and popularity of Donald Trump is occurring due to the fact that US society is breaking down.

In this exclusive interview with Truthout, Noam Chomsky addresses contemporary developments in both the United States and around the world and challenges prevailing views about class warfare, neoliberalism as the outcome of economic laws, the role of the US as a global power, the status of emerging economies and the power of the Israel Lobby.

CJ Polychroniou: Noam, you have said that the rise of Donald Trump is largely due to the breakdown of American society. What exactly do you mean by this?

Noam Chomsky: The state-corporate programs of the past 35 or so years have had devastating effects on the majority of the population, with stagnation, decline and sharply enhanced inequality being the most direct outcomes. This has created fear and has left people feeling isolated, helpless, victims of powerful forces they can neither understand or influence. The breakdown is not caused by economic laws. They are policies, a kind of class war initiated by the rich and powerful against the working population and the poor. This is what defines the neoliberalism period, not only in the US but in Europe and elsewhere. Trump is appealing to those who sense and experience the breakdown of American society — to deep feelings of anger, fear, frustration, hopelessness, probably among sectors of the population that are seeing an increase in mortality, something unheard of apart from war.

Continue interview . . .

POLITICAL COMMENTARY: “Woman Breastfeeding in Target Attacked” / The Young Turks / Ana Kasparian, John Iadarola, and Ben Mankiewicz ☮

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A woman breastfeeding at a Target, was accosted by a man who was offended by her actions. He called her a ‘whore’ and later stormed off.

“Jessie Maher was enjoying a casual trip to Target on Monday when she paused to feed her child. That’s when a complete stranger started to berate her for breastfeeding in public, according to a post she uploaded to Facebook.

“Before the video started rolling he looked at me and said (very angrily), ‘can’t you do that somewhere else? … That’s fucking disgusting … You are nasty,'” Maher, who lives in Canton, Connecticut, wrote. “I responded with, ‘I am feeding my baby, and I have the right to do it here … walk the fuck away … leave me the fuck alone.'”

JOURNALISTIC OBJECTIVITY: “Anderson Cooper Confronts Attorney General on Anti-Gay Record” / The Young Turks / John Iadarola, Ben Mankiewicz, and Michael Shure ☮

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“On Tuesday, CNN’s Anderson Cooper called Bondi out for her hypocrisy, grilling her about the contradiction between her recent statements and her anti-LGBT rhetoric in defending the state’s marriage ban, when she had claimed in an official court brief that recognizing other state’s same-sex marriages would “impose significant public harm” on Florida. Cooper asked, in light of that work, “Do you really think you’re a champion of the gay community?”

Bondi responded that her defense of the state constitution “had nothing to do” with not liking gay people. “My lawyer argued a case defending what the Supreme Court allowed the voters to put in our state constitution,” she explained, adding that “those words have never come out of my mouth.”

Cooper observed that, had Florida’s marriage inequality amendment not been struck down, “there would be no spouses [and] boyfriends and girlfriends of the dead would not be able to get information and would not be able, probably even to visit in this hospital.” “Isn’t there a sick irony that you, for years, were fighting that very idea?” he asked her.”