DICTATORSHIP

It is bittersweet to be right about my prediction that the occupation of Haiti by Brazil would destroy its democracy. The real power behind the far-right congressman and former army captain, Jair Bolsonaro, who will take office on January 1, 2019 as Brazil’s president, is his mentor, the retired General Augusto Heleno Ribeiro Pereira. Mr. Ribeiro Pereira will likely become the most powerful man in Brazil and the next defense minister.

There is only one sword for one ruler to make one law for the whole kingdom. Why is this? For most of recorded history, this was just presumed to be the right way. Do you ever stop and ask why? There is nothing about social organization that requires this to be true. Instead of handing out swords, the lady of the lake should have become a merchant and sold stuff that people clearly needed more than a ruler, such as groceries, medicine, or cash advances.

The fifth season of House of Cards appears more ready than ever to fulfill the promise of its thrilling first (and still best) season as a story about an unstoppable D.C. power couple who regard the government and their subjects – err, citizens – as their very own.

(ANTIMEDIA) Turkey — Turkey’s President Erdogan is firing back against those accusing him of trying to become a dictator. From a Reuters report on Monday:
“A defiant Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan denounced the West’s ‘crusader mentality’ Monday after European monitors criticized a referendum to grant him sweeping new powers, won with a narrow victory laying bare the nation’s divisions.”

The atrocities in Syria, including chemical weapons attacks, are indeed a major humanitarian concern. But politicians who claim to know how to help Syrians, by launching large-scale military operations, with our soldier’s life at risk and our taxpayers’ money at stake, are seriously confused in their reasoning and dangerous for the region and all actors involved.

There are many names you can give the present nature of rule in Egypt. You can call it a dictatorship, a despotism, a tyranny, a garrison state, unlimited rule, or even a reign of terror carried on by thugs in suits. All of these would be relatively accurate.

by Dr. Lawrence Davidson

In Chapter Two of State and Revolution Lenin discusses the lessons of the European revolutionary movement of 1848-51. There are three sections to this chapter. The first section is entitled:
1. The Eve of the Revolution
Lenin points out that the first “mature” works of the Marxist world view were created on the “eve” of the 1848 upheaval — namely Marx’s 1847 work The Poverty of Philosophy, and Marx and Engel’s joint work The Communist Manifesto. Every educated person has read the latter work but the former may not be so well known.

 
James Petras
 
Introduction

The United States Has Been a Major Sponsor of the Egyptian Dictatorship