March 26, 2011

Documentary: The History of American Corporatocacy

How every populist movement in the USA's history has been co-opted and perverted by Wall Street.





... And how we can prevent it from happening again.



Sub-headed “Barack Obama and the failure of capitalist democracy”, this film explores the historical role of the Democratic Party as the “graveyard of social movements”, the massive influence of corporate finance in elections, the absurd disparities of wealth in the United States, the continuity and escalation of neocon policies under Obama, the insufficiency of mere voting as a path to reform, and differing conceptions of democracy itself.

"Lifting the Veil is the long overdue film that powerfully, definitively, and finally exposes the deadly 21st century hypocrisy of U.S. internal and external policies, even as it imbues the viewer with a sense of urgency and an actualized hope to bring about real systemic change while there is yet time for humanity and this planet. See this film!"
-Larry Pinkney
Editorial Board Member & Columnist
The Black Commentator

Original Source: http://blip.tv/file/4911311

Original interview footage derives from Noam Chomsky, Michael Parenti, Michael Albert, John Stauber (PR Watch), Sharon Smith (Historian), William I. Robinson (Editor, Critical Globalization Studies), Morris Berman (Author, Dark Ages America), and famed black panther Larry Pinkney.

Non-original interviews/lectures include Michael Hudson, Paul Craig Roberts, Ted Rall, Richard Wolff, Glen Ford, Lewis Black, Glenn Greenwald, George Carlin, Gerald Cliente, Chris Hedges, John Pilger, Bernie Sanders, Sheldon Wollin and Martin Luther King.

“Lifting the Veil is a major contribution to political documentary. ; It teaches everyone from the uninitiated to the most sophisticated the true nature of the American government... It covers the issues clearly and succinctly, from the opening narrative through to its stirring conclusion.”
-Ralph Poynter
lynne stewart defense committee
new abolitionist movement

"The best political film I've seen to date. A must watch if you want to understand who and what Obama is about, as well as this hypocrisy they call democracy."
Kiilu Nyasha Independent Journalist and former member of the Black Panther Party

"Noble is brilliantly pioneering the new film-making -- incisive analysis, compelling sound and footage, fearless and independent reporting, and the aggregation of the best information out there into powerful, educational and free online feature films – all on a shoestring budget. His films educate and inform while building the movements needed for real change at the grassroots. Noble's films are dedicated to democracy; they fan the flames of non-violent, people-powered revolution." -John Stauber, Founder, PR Watch

13 comments:

  1. Yes.

    But, excepting a few egregious punts, President Obama has done many of these things, and tried most of the rest. The incredible 4-year campaign to deter his re-election at any cost to the U.S. is what has kept the rest from happening, not his will.

    The 1-sided nature of your offense against Barack Obama pretty much leads to nothing more than a President Palin or Bachmann.

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  2. "Republicans have historically been in the pockets of big business" (I'm not sure that's verbatim) How much "historically " are we speaking? Because just back a little over 100 years ago, that most certainly wasn't true. Or was Teddy Roosevelt in the pockets of big business?

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  3. @TiradeFaction I guess that depends on how far back your traditions run...

    In all seriousness though, Teddy Roosevelt also fought against a two-party, entrenched, corrupt, corporatocracy. The Democrats were corrupt beyond belief, serving big business, and the lower-class mafia. The Republicans served big business, and the upper-class mafia. Teddy Roosevelt just happened to be a Republican.

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  4. That's interesting, do you have more information (or sources) on how the parties worked in that era? I'm not contesting what you're saying, I'm just curious to learn more.

    I don't think Teddy was the only progressive Repub out there. After all, he won their primaries, so that does indicate significant support within the Republican party prior to h is ascending of the presidency, and there was "Fighting" Bob Lafayette (though he did eventually leave the Repubs to found his own Progressive Party, like Teddy)

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  5. Teddy was certainly not the only progressive Republican, and the Progressive Movement DID start in the GOP.

    I happen to be in the middle of the last book in the biographic triology by Edmund Morris on Theodore Roosevelt. The series gives lots of insight into how both parties operated at the time, based on news paper accounts, journals, letters, and other personal accounts. History seems to be repeating itsself. We got lazy.

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  6. In response to the two above,
    First, the argument is against both D & R's, it's using examples of Obama's presidency as a means to show that both sides are bought. Also, while it may just be due to his calm manner, he hasn't presented himself as one who tries hard(As in, fighting for those promises).

    Secondly, if you think about it, when speaking historically, the republican party has only been around for 150 years or so. Going back OVER 100 years is a substantial length of time to prove that point. And as I recall, Teddy(one of my favorite presidents) left the Republican party to form the Bull Moose party, due to him not liking what the Republican party had become(it began to transform with McKinley).

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  7. @Punk

    Thanks for that, I'm going to go check it out. I wonder why the Progressive movement chose the GOP as an incubator, rather than say the Democrats, or a third party(ies).

    @MagicJohnson

    It's true Theddy left to join the Progressive Party of America. However, he didn't actually found it, but he did coin the nickname for it during his 1912 presidential run, and after he lost, he unfortunately bolted from the party, and endorsed the Repub in the next presidential election, and shortly thereafter, that particular progressive party collapsed (not to be confused with Fighting Bob's progressive party, which had a fair bit of a longer lifespan)

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  8. Fighting Bob was also a Republican to start with.

    The Republican party was the party that freed the slaves, and led the charge for reconstruction of the south, and reparations for slavery. Seems alien today.

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  9. @Punk

    Yes, I pointed out Bob was a Republican in an earlier comment :)

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  10. More to the point-- I dont' think that Progressives picked the GOP as an incubator. There were progressives in the GOP, and they fought against the GOP to make the GOP progressive. Later there were progressive Dems and Progressive Republicans, and both parties were split into factions.

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  11. Yeah it was interesting that from around the 30s to the very early 70s, there were some variation in ideology between the Dems and Repubs. There were both conservative and progressive Dems active in the party, and likewise with the Repubs. It wasn't until the older members finally died that the ideologies were entrenched , with both eventually selling out to big business and becoming essentially conjoined twins.

    Possibly one of the failures was there were no third party "exit threats" for such non compromised individuals in each party, so they couldn't erect any meaningful opposition to what was going on in their parties. Just a thought.

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  12. hey Asher... thanks for putting this up, i think i have watched it 6 times in the past 3 days. sometimes just as background for other things but i have watched it closely twice. i also want to say thanks for sticking with it, and sticking with me when we were younger. even as block headed as i was you didn't hedge away or alienate, you tried. and that has made all the difference. i am guessing you like Billy Bragg - your efforts remind me a lot of the song I Keep Faith. thanks for all you do.

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  13. Jarrod, thank you. That was a touching and humbling response.

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