I just went to his rally here in Winston-Salem. Incredible energy and it built as the
rally went on; with students loving the local Black Panther party founder's comment "Trump
and Bloomberg are two cheeks on the same ass" as well as minimum wage and marijuana. As a
student at a relatively politically inactive college, it is great to be a part of other
schools and students fighting to give themselves a future we can confide in and he and Nina
Turner are great at providing incentive to vote. I hope he begins to tie Medicare for all to
COVID for it is the only sensible way to combat it and would leave everyone in the dust on
the issue.
"... I would suggest amending this to: Official D policy: "no candidate who intends to govern in the interest of the entirety of the citizenry should seek the nomination of this Party" ..."
I would suggest amending this to: Official D policy: "no candidate who intends to govern
in the interest of the entirety of the citizenry should seek the nomination of this
Party"
... attacks on Sanders may simply expose his opponents' own political desperation.
"Buchanan," Richard Nixon once instructed me after I went to work for him in 1966, "Whenever
you hear of a coalition forming up to 'Stop X,' be sure to put your money on X."
Why oh why would I waste my vote on these Democratic/Republican pseudo-fascists when I can
vote for the only candidate promising me a free pony !!...I present the next President of the
United States:
How's he going to pay for the ponies when most taxes will go to time traveling studies and
zombie apocalypse defense? But brushing your teeth certainly will appeal to the middle
class;)
I suspect his open-borders advocacy and Russia-bashing too are lies; these are lines of
defence against internal forces. It makes sense for him to take those positions while he
seeks the nomination. If he gets it, he can betray those positions. A serious politician has
to demonstrate a large capacity for betrayal. At the end of the day, he is a hardened
politician like the rest.
Darn Russians made people pay $1750 to $3200 to attend the debates last night and clap for
Bloomberg. The Russians also aired a long Bloomberg informercial and an anti-Medicare for All
commercial during the ad breaks - to divide us. Putin will stop at nothing.
In the brokered convention, The Body Double Pantsuit will get all of the bought and paid
for super delegates, and Big Mike will pop out of the giant cake on stage for an Oprah-like
orgy of identity politics madness. Little Mike is just buying his way into their cabinet.
If they manage to rig a win in November, half the country will wish they had the Wuhan
Flu.
"This discussion is frankly irrelevant. Trump is assured of re-selection because he's
appeased the only two constituencies that matter: the military industrial complex and the
zionist lobby. "
No you forgot the other constituencies that will vote for him. Namely the dumb ass stupid
rednecks , and the as stupid evangelist.
These 70+ year old politicians have a hard time telling a lie on a dime. That's why the
dems like the young ones like Buttigieg, Obama, McGreevey and their other gay candidates.
They are natural actors.
Yannis , 5 hours ago
Dude this circus is amazing
LOL123 , 5 hours ago
If Bloomberg bought 21 seats to get Pelosi in.... He's not a very good investor. He buys
damaged goods. 🔨Lol
venturen , 5 hours ago
He is buying people that DO WHAT HE SAYS. Smarter people want to think for
themselves.
It's easy: Nothing says more about the "party of the people" like $1,750 to $3,200
tickets.
Asked about the crowd's behavior in an interview following the
debate, Sanders said "to get a ticket to the debate, you had to be fairly wealthy."
The Bloomberg campaign denied that it stacked the
audience with paid supporters amid rampant social media speculation that the billionaire "
purchased " a portion of the
crowd to create the appearance of a strong performance following his poor showing in Las Vegas
last week.
Victory_Rossi , 2 minutes ago
Fairly wealthy? I refuse to believe that anyone would pay a couple of grand to go to a
******* debate.
Musum , 4 minutes ago
In America, $1750-$3200 per seat is democracy.
And oligarchs on Wall St. and industry is capitalism.
You don't have to go far to figure out why Sanders is popular. And voting doesn't
matter.
XXX , 15 minutes ago
If it was serious, there wouldn't be a "studio audience", ala Jerry Springer, just
reasoned arguments, courtesy and professionalism, all kept under tight control by an unbiased
moderator. But it's not serious. It's just political carnival time, clowns only.
XXX , 1
minute ago
Yes. True. It's a shitshow for sure.
XXX, 16
minutes ago
Disgusting hypocrisy. Most of the U.S. citizenry Rep&Dem don't even have that kind of
$ available for an emergency let alone some worthless, useless, meaningless debate for an
election that will never be happen regardless of whether 100% of the information is presented
that it did happen.
Washington
Post commentary and the rare attention of the mainstream in a moment underscoring how the
elites view their role in America's two-party system.
While he was touting his $100 million in donations to House Democrats, he essentially
bragged that he "bought" 21 congressional Democrats their seats in 2018 midterms .
Bloomberg came within a hair's breadth of saying he *bought* the Democratic majority in
the House and caught himself as it came out of his mouth pic.twitter.com/DG0keVMo2J
"Let's just go on the record, they talk about 40 Democrats," Bloomberg said, referring to
former Vice President Joe Biden.
"Twenty-one of those were people that I spent $100 million to help elect," he continued.
"All of the new Democrats that came in and put Nancy Pelosi in charge and gave the Congress
the ability to control this president, I bough-... I got them ."
Incredible. In the #DemDebate ,
billionaire Bloomberg boasted that he "bought" right-wing neoliberal Democrats like Nancy
Pelosi
Then after saying "bought," he quickly corrected himself and said "I bought, uh got them"
pic.twitter.com/2mcDgPPhIJ
"Wow!!! He's admitting he BOUGHT those seats! OMG!" -- Donald Trump Jr.
had also chimed in.
The billionaire founder of Bloomberg LP has faced deep criticism for leapfrogging other
Democratic primary contenders in the national polls, despite being a latecomer.
He's faced labels of being an "oligarch" and essentially muscling, or rather buying
, his way into debates based on his limitless campaign self-funding.
Comment__commentAvatar___xgVA3 talk-stream-comment-avatar talk-slot-comment-avatar"
data-slot-name="commentAvatar"> Angry Panda , 1 hour ago
An oligarch buying politicians? I am shocked just shocked.
Democratic megadonor Bernard Schwartz has started reaching out to party leaders to
encourage them to coalesce around a candidate for president in order to stop the surge of
Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Many people are speculating that this coronavirus malarky is all about the coming global
financial meltdown.
The way coronavirus is being mega fear hyped, along with unprecedented 'lock-downs' and
enforced quarantine for huge numbers of people, does seem to suggest that the psychopaths who
rule us know that when the global financial meltdown comes there'll be mega civil unrest, and
what better way to control this unrest than a Frankenstein bug?
Sanders: ideas
Warren: Sanders ideas, but I'd do it better.
hizzoner: Sanders is a Russian agent.
Butte: cliche, cliche, cliche
klobe: rhetoric, name drop, cliche, rhetroic, name drop a 3rd way SC pol.
"... He is making the USA a laughing stock, very threatening for sure, but he is a laughing stock and he perfectly sets up the scenario to ridicule his mongrel stupid president. ..."
On the big issue though I cant help seeing Pontious Pompeo as hurling himself about the globe
tilting at windmills. He is making the USA a laughing stock, very threatening for sure,
but he is a laughing stock and he perfectly sets up the scenario to ridicule his mongrel
stupid president.
uncle tungsten | Feb 11 2020 22:52 utc | 30
Isn't it a good method? This way, the vassals can comply with a smile.
Since Foxconn is getting into mask development, we're surprised Apple hasn't released plans
for an iMask, or scheming Elon Musk hasn't touted a Cybermask.
To sum up, we could all be wearing masks one day – if you think that's crazy just look
at what's happening across Asia. Mask wearing is coming to America – it's only a matter
of time.
Surprising lack on intelligence in intelligence community. But after Brennan and "ruptured"
Pompeo as CIA chiefs who would be surprised?" Or more correctly utter despise of ordinary
Americans: 'nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people' ~ H L
Mencken.
But seriously, if Putin does now have the power to decide US elections, he simply makes his
preferred choice one day before the election. There is no reason to open cards right now. You
could not make this up. What we have now is Government by Gossip and Innuendo with intelligence
crooks on the frontline of spreading the disinformation.
Notable quotes:
"... The PUTIN's aim is to sow distrust among the US population. The USA, a peaceful civilized society with apparently no internal conflicts maintains a similar peaceful empire for the benefit of all humanity. ..."
"... The impersonate evil of the PUTIN has of course every intention to destroy the present state of tranquility and therefore aims to destruct the undisputed peaceful leader of this empire by sowing internal conflict. ..."
"... The concept of democracy was invented by the Kremlin, to sow discord ..."
"... The concept of democracy was invented by the Kremlin, to sow discord ..."
Rather than impersonating Americans as they did in 2016, Russian operatives are working
to get Americans to repeat disinformation , the officials said. That strategy gets around
social media companies' rules that prohibit "inauthentic speech."
It is Bloomberg, working as a Russian operative, who pays the trolls that repeat
disinformation.
The temporary employees recruited by Bloomberg's camp are given the title "deputy field
organizer" and make $2,500 a month to promote his White House bid among their followers .
The employees can choose to use campaign-approved language in their posts.
Twitter said the practice violated its "Platform Manipulation and Spam Policy," which
was established in 2019 to respond to Russia's expansive troll network that was tapped in
2016 to meddle in the U.S. elections.
In that closed hearing for the House Intelligence Committee, lawmakers were also told
that Sanders had been informed about Russia's interference. The prospect of two rival
campaigns both receiving help from Moscow appears to reflect what intelligence
officials have previously described as Russia's broader interest in sowing division in
the United States and uncertainty about the validity of American elections.
Here are Bloomberg's behind the scene machinations which are sowing division and
uncertainty about the validity of American elections. This is exactly what Russia
wants.
Mike Bloomberg is privately lobbying Democratic Party officials and donors allied with
his moderate opponents to flip their allegiance to him -- and block Bernie Sanders --
in the event of a brokered national convention.
...
It's a presumptuous play for a candidate who hasn't yet won a delegate or even appeared
on a ballot. And it could also bring havoc to the convention , raising the prospect of
party insiders delivering the nomination to a billionaire over a progressive populist.
The PUTIN's aim is to sow distrust among the US population. The USA, a peaceful
civilized society with apparently no internal conflicts maintains a similar peaceful
empire for the benefit of all humanity.
The impersonate evil of the PUTIN has of course every intention to destroy the present
state of tranquility and therefore aims to destruct the undisputed peaceful leader of
this empire by sowing internal conflict.
This is why from Sanders to Warren to Gabbard to Bloomberg to Trump everyone is on the
PUTIN payroll or subconsciously exposed to some mind controlling rays he sends via
satellite to the USA.
The PUTIN is the invention by the Russian Federation after their successful evil
attempt to evade the good intentions of the EMPIRE to embrace Russia in its sphere of
peaceful tranquility.
"The prospect of two rival campaigns both receiving help from Moscow appears to
reflect what intelligence officials have previously described as Russia's broader interest
in sowing division in the United States and uncertainty about the validity of American
elections" WaPo, 2/21/20.
This level if clinical delusion is reminiscent of the Führer's last days in the
bunker.
I know, I know, it's a waste of time trying to ridicule the media when they're already
doing that to themselves. Satire is definitely dead when the Washington Post reports about
"two rival campaigns both receiving help from Moscow". WaPo's attempts to explain that the
purpose of this bizarre behavior is "sowing division" makes it look even more incredible.
/div> The concept of democracy was invented by the Kremlin, to sow
discord .
With the help of intelligence (or should we say semi-intelligence) agencies (with the second job as a shadow force that
navigates American people to the proper choice ) the best money can buy democracy always ends as a comedy.
Rather than impersonating Americans as they did in 2016, Russian operatives are working
to get Americans to repeat disinformation , the officials said. That strategy gets
around social media companies' rules that prohibit "inauthentic speech."
John Clark : "Reciprocity." That's a clever name for it. Revenge is a very, very, very
dangerous motivation.
Robert Ritter : Are you able to handle this operation or not? What I'm looking for here is a
simple yes or no.
John Clark : What you're looking for is a political mess.
Robert Ritter : Yes or no?
John Clark : Is that what they want? Because that's what this is.
Robert Ritter : They want what every first-term administration wants - a second term.
I used to think Bloomberg was smarter than what's been revealed recently. I'm truly shocked
at the ease with which he's publicly stated such ignorant, elitist opinions.
Notable quotes:
"... It would be so much easier if Bloomberg was russian... but he's a capitalist.. Oh well... ..."
Michael Bloomberg really did disparage farmers and metalworkers by saying that these are
just "processes" that can be taught to anyone and then stating that information technology
work requires a higher order of brainpower, implying that farmers and metalworkers are
inferior to information technology professionals. I heard it myself.
It would be so much easier if Bloomberg was russian... but he's a capitalist.. Oh
well...
If you fire 70% of the admirals and generals
you will increase the military capabilities of the US military by 40%.
They are incompetent hacks who are better on their knees in front of the MIC and Congress
then they are on any battlefield.
At least during WWII we had less of them and no one was hesitant to fire at least some of
them for incompetence. I say sum of them because many of the war hero generals needed to be
removed including Bradly, Eisenhower, Halsey, Nimitz, and even MacArthur.
But today, no one gets fired for anything.
Literally they have a special class of MBA's being generals and and strategic thinkers and
it has turned out to be a disaster for the military and the US.
An example by way of analogy is look at Boeing. How much better would Boeing be if they
fired all the MBA's and replaced them with engineers who loved air planes. Boeing would make a
lot less profit but its planes would be the best in the world.
We are saving the world from socialism and communism.
We are energy independent, with innate exceptionalism and #MAGA# will usher in a new era
of American prosperity.
Any and all accusations of USSA imperialism, are made by the "woke" and those jealous of
the greatest Capitalist system in the world.
The swamp is being drained as I speak, and therefore will continue with unwavering
support for my 5x draft dodging, Zionist supporting, multiple times bankrupt, keeper of
broken promises POTUS.
Smedley Butler's book is not worthy of reading once you have the seminal work known as
"The Art Of The Deal"
I am for Bloomberg. Why? Because the Russians have taken over the White House. Just ask
Hillary.
I errorously believed that billionaires, banksters, generals, rotten CEOs from
pharma, MIC, energy, lobbyists with cash, controlled the White House and Trump.
But somehow
the Russians pushed all of them out.
It is about time that AMERICAN billionaires, AMERICAN
banksters, AMERICAN generals, AMERICAN rotten CEOs from pharma, MIC, energy, and AMERICAN
lobbyists with cash, reassert and regain gosh darn control of the White House like in the
good ole patriotic days. Down with borsch!
It is especially galling to see how the Hollywood Community has embraced the era of red-baiting Joseph McCarthy as the new
standard for what is acceptable. There was a time that a few brave souls in Hollywood (I am thinking Lucille Ball, Kirk Douglas and
Gregory Peck), spoke out against the blacklisting of actors, writers and directors for their past political ties to the Soviet Union.
If you are a film buff (and I consider myself one) you should be familiar with these great movies that remind the viewer of the
horrors visited upon actors, writers and directors during the Hollywood Blacklist:
The Front -- a 1976 comedy-drama film set against the Hollywood blacklist in the 1950s. It was written by Walter Bernstein,
directed by Martin Ritt, and stars Woody Allen and Zero Mostel.
Good Night, and Good Luck -- a 2005 historical drama film directed by George Clooney, tells the story of Edward R.
Murrow fighting back against the hysterical red-baiting of Senator Joseph McCarthy.
Trumbo -- a 2015 American biographical drama film directed by Jay Roach that follows the life of Hollywood screenwriter
Dalton Trumbo, who was blacklisted but continued to write award winning movies in alias (e.g. Spartacus).
The "social" is "social media" is in contrast to "professional" or "business" or
"commercial" media, i.e. the MSM and other commercial media.
I understand "social media" literally in the Orwellian sense, it is "social" media just like
war is peace. The true meaning is "asocial media" which prevents real interaction, and under
complete control by big brother, you can become a non-person at any moment.
"... Schiff insisted that Trump must be removed now to "assure the integrity" of the 2020 election. He elaborated somewhat ambiguously that "The president's misconduct cannot be decided at the ballot box, for we cannot be assured that the vote will be fairly won." Schiff also unleashed one of the most time honored but completely lame excuses for going to war, claiming that military assistance to Ukraine that had been delayed by Trump was essential for U.S. national security. He said "As one witness put it during our impeachment inquiry, the United States aids Ukraine and her people so that we can fight Russia over there, and we don't have to fight Russia here." ..."
"... Schiff, a lawyer who has never had to put his life on the line for anything and whose son sports a MOSSAD t-shirt, is one of those sunshine soldiers who finds it quite acceptable if someone else does the dying. Journalist Max Blumenthal observed that "Liberals used to mock Bush supporters when they used this jingoistic line during the war on Iraq. Now they deploy it to justify an imperialist proxy war against a nuclear power." Aaron Mate at The Nation added that "For all the talk about Russia undermining faith in U.S. elections, how about Russiagaters like Schiff fear-mongering w/ hysterics like this? Let's assume Ukraine did what Trump wanted: announce a probe of Burisma. Would that delegitimize a 2020 U.S. election? This is a joke." ..."
"... On Wednesday, Schiff maintained that "Russia is not a threat to Eastern Europe alone. Ukraine has become the de facto proving ground for just the types of hybrid warfare that the twenty-first century will become defined by: cyberattacks, disinformation campaigns, efforts to undermine the legitimacy of state institutions, whether that is voting systems or financial markets. The Kremlin showed boldly in 2016 that with the malign skills it honed in Ukraine, they would not stay in Ukraine. Instead, Russia employed them here to attack our institutions, and they will do so again." Not surprisingly, if one substitutes the "United States" for "Russia" and "Kremlin" and changes "Ukraine" to Iran or Venezuela, the Schiff comment actually becomes much more credible. ..."
"... Donald Trump's erratic rule has certainly dismayed many of his former supporters, but the Democratic Party is offering nothing but another helping of George W. Bush/Barack Obama establishment war against the world. We Americans have had enough of that for the past nineteen years. Trump may indeed deserve to be removed based on his actions, but the argument that it is essential to do so because of Russia lurking is complete nonsense. Pretty scary that the apparent chief promoter of that point of view is someone who actually has power in the government, one Adam Schiff, head of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee. ..."
"... It is scary, but what else can Schiff say? They have no credible arguments against Trump, or for their own party. They are a bunch of lying scumbags that will kill, cheat, steal, mislead, carpet-bag and anything else unethical to achieve their sleazy goals. ..."
"... Since the US Sociopaths In Charge have totally Effed up the nation, and a significant portion of the world, they have to have SOMEBODY to blame. They certainly won't take the blame they deserve themselves. ..."
"... What the ZOG wants the ZOG gets ..."
"... It is appropriate to recall the words of Joseph Goebbels: "Give me the media, and I will make a herd of pigs from any nation," and pigs are easy to drive to the slaughterhouse. Only Russia can really resist such a situation in the world. Therefore, she is the enemy. ..."
"... The Centrist Democrats and Republicans want to paint the old school God and Country Conservatives Equality and Justice for the USA (Nationalist) into being Russian ..."
One of the more interesting aspects of the nauseating impeachment trial in the Senate was
the repeated vilification of Russia and its President Vladimir Putin.
To hate Russia has become dogma on both sides of the political aisle, in part because no
politician has really wanted to confront the lesson of the 2016 election, which was that most
Americans think that the federal government is basically incompetent and staffed by career
politicians like Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell who should return back home and get real jobs
.
Worse still, it is useless, and much like the one trick pony the only thing it can do is
steal money from the taxpayers and waste it on various types of self-gratification that only
politicians can appreciate. That means that the United States is engaged is fighting multiple
wars against make-believe enemies while the country's infrastructure rots and a host of
officially certified grievance groups control the public space.
It sure doesn't look like Kansas anymore.
The fact that opinion polls in Europe suggest that many Europeans would rather have Vladimir
Putin than their own hopelessly corrupt leaders is suggestive. One can buy a whole range of
favorable t-shirts featuring Vladimir Putin on Ebay , also suggesting that most Americans find
the official Russophobia narrative both mysterious and faintly amusing. They may not really be
into the expressed desire of the huddled masses in D.C. to go to war to bring true U.S. style
democracy to the un-enlightened.
One also must wonder if the Democrats are reading the tea leaves correctly. If they think
that a slogan like "Honest Joe Biden will keep us safe from Moscow" will be a winner in 2020
they might again be missing the bigger picture. Since the focus on Trump's decidedly erratic
behavior will inevitably die down after the impeachment trial is completed, the Democrats will
have to come up with something compelling if they really want to win the presidency and it sure
won't be the largely fictionalized Russian threat.
Nevertheless, someone should tell Congressman Adam Schiff, who chairs the House Intelligence
Committee, to shut up as he is becoming an international embarrassment. His "closing arguments"
speeches last week were respectively two-and-a-half hours and ninety minutes long and were
inevitably praised by the mainstream media as "magisterial," "powerful," and "impressive." The
Washington Post 's resident Zionist extremist Jennifer Rubin
labeled it "a grand slam" while legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin
called it "dazzling." Gail Collins of the New York Times dubbed it "a
great job" and added that Schiff is now "a rock star." Daily Beast enthused that
the remarks "will go down in history " and progressive activist Ryan Knight called it "a
closing statement for the ages." Hollywood was also on board with actress Debra Messing
tweeting "I am in tears. Thank you Chairman Schiff for fighting for our country."
Actually, a better adjective would have been "scary" and not merely due to its elaboration
of the alleged high crimes and misdemeanors committed by President Trump, much of which was
undeniably true even if not necessarily impeachable. It was scary because it was a warmongers speech, full of allusions to Russia, to Moscow's
"interference" in 2016, and to the
ridiculous proposition that if Trump were to be defeated in 2020 he might not concede and
Russia could even intervene militarily in the United States in support of its puppet.
Schiff insisted that Trump must be removed now to "assure the integrity" of the 2020
election. He elaborated somewhat ambiguously that "The president's misconduct cannot be decided
at the ballot box, for we cannot be assured that the vote will be fairly won." Schiff also unleashed one of the most time honored but completely lame excuses for
going to war, claiming that military assistance to Ukraine that had been delayed by Trump was
essential for U.S. national security. He said "As one witness put it during our impeachment
inquiry, the United States aids Ukraine and her people so that we can fight Russia over there,
and we don't have to fight Russia here."
Schiff, a lawyer who has never had to put his life on the line for anything and whose son
sports a MOSSAD t-shirt, is one of those sunshine soldiers who finds it quite acceptable if
someone else does the dying. Journalist Max Blumenthal observed that "Liberals used
to mock Bush supporters when they used this jingoistic line during the war on Iraq. Now they
deploy it to justify an imperialist proxy war against a nuclear power." Aaron Mate at The
Nation added that "For all the talk about
Russia undermining faith in U.S. elections, how about Russiagaters like Schiff fear-mongering
w/ hysterics like this? Let's assume Ukraine did what Trump wanted: announce a probe of
Burisma. Would that delegitimize a 2020 U.S. election? This is a joke."
Over
at Antiwar Daniel Lazare explains how the Wednesday speech was "a fear-mongering,
sword-rattling harangue that will not only raise tensions with Russia for no good reason, but
sends a chilling message to [Democratic Party] dissidents at home that if they deviate from
Russiagate orthodoxy by one iota, they'll be driven from the fold."
The orthodoxy that Lazare was writing about includes the established Nancy Pelosi/Chuck
Schumer narrative that Russia invaded "poor innocent Ukraine" in 2014, that it interfered in
the 2016 election to defeat Hillary Clinton, and that it is currently trying to smear Joe
Biden. One might add to that the growing consensus that Russia can and will interfere again in
2020 to help Trump. Absent from the narrative is the part how the U.S. intervened in Ukraine
first to remove its government and the fact that there is something very unsavory about Joe
Biden's son taking a high-paying sinecure board position from a notably corrupt Ukrainian
oligarch while his father was Vice President and allegedly directing U.S. assistance to a
Ukrainian anti-corruption effort.
On Wednesday,
Schiff maintained that "Russia is not a threat to Eastern Europe alone. Ukraine has become
the de facto proving ground for just the types of hybrid warfare that the twenty-first century
will become defined by: cyberattacks, disinformation campaigns, efforts to undermine the
legitimacy of state institutions, whether that is voting systems or financial markets. The
Kremlin showed boldly in 2016 that with the malign skills it honed in Ukraine, they would not
stay in Ukraine. Instead, Russia employed them here to attack our institutions, and they will
do so again." Not surprisingly, if one substitutes the "United States" for "Russia" and
"Kremlin" and changes "Ukraine" to Iran or Venezuela, the Schiff comment actually becomes much
more credible.
The compulsion on the part of the Democrats to bring down Trump to avoid having to deal with
their own failings has brought about a shift in their established foreign policy, placing the
neocons and their friends back in charge. For Schiff, who has enthusiastically supported every
failed American military effort since 9/11, today's Russia is the Soviet Union reborn, and
don't you forget it pardner! Newsweek is meanwhile reporting that the U.S. military is reading
the tea leaves and
is gearing up to fight the Russians. Per Schiff, Trump must be stopped as he is part of a
grand Russian conspiracy to overthrow everything the United States stands for. If the Kremlin
is not stopped now, it's first major step, per Schiff, will be to "remake the map of Europe by
dint of military force."
Donald Trump's erratic rule has certainly dismayed many of his former supporters, but the Democratic Party is offering
nothing but another helping of George W. Bush/Barack Obama establishment war against the world. We Americans have had enough of
that for the past nineteen years. Trump may indeed deserve to be removed based on his actions, but the argument that it is
essential to do so because of Russia lurking is complete nonsense. Pretty scary that the apparent chief promoter of that point
of view is someone who actually has power in the government, one Adam Schiff, head of the House of Representatives Intelligence
Committee.
If the USA doesn't have a bogey man to be afraid of, the USA might worry more and to
insist on fixing the problems within the Nation.
So many of our politicians are guilty of allowing un constitutional on going act like the
removal of Due Process of law for some people and the on going bailout of Global Markets with
the US Dollar. The Patriot act and FISA Courts should have been gone.
Agreed. He seems as about as close as a leader can get to genuinely liking his country and
people. It seems the ones here only give a **** about carbon, Central and South Americans,
and cutting off my kids genitalia.
It is scary, but what else can Schiff say? They have no credible arguments against Trump,
or for their own party. They are a bunch of lying scumbags that will kill, cheat, steal,
mislead, carpet-bag and anything else unethical to achieve their sleazy goals. When Trump
wins in a landslide in 2020, they will claim it's because the Russians 'fixed' the election,
and the Democratic party will break into pieces arguing about how they failed and what they
did wrong. See www.splittingpennies.com
Since the US Sociopaths In Charge have totally Effed up the nation, and a significant
portion of the world, they have to have SOMEBODY to blame. They certainly won't take the
blame they deserve themselves.
lots of words and no answer to the title question. Giraldi does not see the deep
ideological problems: Russia is not trying to diversify into a PoC country, they do not
worship gays and may be the only white people nation with sustaining birth rate. The US will
go to war there is no way to let this continue.
The smart ppl are doing a lousy job of informing the dumb ones about accepted policy like
"America Always Needs An Enemy". Smart ones understand that, and see the bigger game because
of it.
We fight the dumb ones who believe Russian boogeyman crap, instead of helping them
understand they are being misled on who the enemy really is. The dumb ones then fight back
and further entrench that brainwashing.
It is appropriate to recall the words of Joseph Goebbels: "Give me the media, and I will
make a herd of pigs from any nation," and pigs are easy to drive to the slaughterhouse. Only
Russia can really resist such a situation in the world. Therefore, she is the enemy.
The Centrist Democrats and Republicans want to paint the old school God and Country
Conservatives Equality and Justice for the USA (Nationalist) into being Russian. How dare we
expect enforcement of the Laws on the books against them. They want to be deemed Royalty with
all the Elitist Rights.
The old rally call about Russia was always Communist Russia but, they don't do that
anymore? Why ? They love their Communist China wage slaves. The Centrist love Communist labor
in the name of profits . Human rights be damned it's all about the Global Elitist to them
now.
Future historians, when conducting the messy autopsy on Clown Nation, will point to the
first week of February 2020 as the moment when the greatest experiment in popular democracy
entered into an inescapable death spiral. This implosion will probably puzzle many people
because, as the Commander-in-Chief Donald J. Trump reminded throughout his SOTU address,
times are good – indeed, as they so often are before an epic crash.
Don't know how you got all these lucrative primary election contracts for a
sub-standard app that a drunk college student computer science major could have designed
better. But there should be an investigation into that.
Just below the surface of the scorching U.S. economy, however, lies a bubbling
volcanic lake of political passions – personified by Nancy Pelosi's unhinged behavior
at the SOTU that was so outrageous it needs no further comment – will eventually blow
its lid, freeze-drying the nation in its treacherous tracks like a modern day Pompeii.
In the week that foretold of impending disaster, the establishment suffered two major
setbacks, first by failing to drive out the swamp killer, Donald Trump, and second by failing
to name, in transparent and time-honored fashion, the winner of the Iowa state caucus. These
tandem events are connected since there is no way the 'deep state' would have accepted two
major defeats at the same time. Thus it was forced to derail an enemy potentially more
dangerous to the Democratic Party than Donald Trump, and that is the 'democratic socialist'
Bernie Sanders.
Here is where America's democratic mask slipped, revealing the true nature of the beast.
As the results from the Iowa caucus were being tallied live, Mayor Pete Buttigieg enjoyed an
early lead. Eventually, however, the democratic socialist Bernie Sanders started to close the
gap before surging ahead of the pack. It was at this precise moment that the results fizzled
out, purportedly due to a bad app. Not until the next day were the results made public as
Buttigieg was declared the narrow victor, although the small-town mayor had been boasting
that he had won the contest before any results were posted. Now to many observers, it looked
as though the Democratic Party, sensing the winds of political change in the air, took their
ball and stormed home in the middle of the game. Sound familiar?
At this point, a person could either choose to buy the story that a new app for reporting
the results simply went kaput, or they could register as a 'conspiracy theorist' by arguing
that the dirty Democrats rigged the game when it became apparent that Sanders was heading for
victory. There are many reasons for supporting the latter theory, namely because the
Democrats had conspired against Sanders before, as WikiLeaks revealed in 2016 with the
release of some 20,000
Democratic National Committee emails.
The apps "failure": Des Moines Precinct 80:
Bernie's group had 101 people
Pete's group had 66 people
Bernie & Pete end up tied at 4 delegates following a coin toss.
And then there is the company behind the app, happily named Shadow Inc, which has a very
shadowy lineage indeed. First off, Buttigieg, who certainly profited politically from
Shadow's inconceivable incompetence, or expertise, depending on how you look at it, had
paid the company tens of thousands of dollars ahead of the Iowa caucus. Second, many of
the top executives at Shadow
worked in the past for Hillary Clinton's campaign, no small footnote considering that
particular campaign's notorious commitment to 'fair play.' Third,
efforts by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to "vet" the Shadow app were rejected
out of hand by the Iowa Democratic Party. Now with all of the talk over the past several
years about 'Russian meddling' in the U.S. elections, wouldn't allowing the DHS a peek at the
new technology seem like the smart thing to do? Maybe Iowans, like
so many other Democrats , never really believed the Russian "nothing burger" after
all.
My prediction - which is based on nothing, to be sure:
Neither Sanders nor Gabbard have any chance of getting the nomination, whatever the DNC
establishment and Democratic elites have to do to prevent it, as they did in 2016.
If either are nominated - or any other of the current crop of losers - the Democrats will
lose against Trump, despite Trump making all kinds of incredibly stupid statements during the
campaign. Because, let's face it, Trump will do stupid stuff all during the election race -
and his supporters will no doubt ignore them or praise him for them.
In other words, US "democracy" is a joke and a sham, and I don't expect to pay much
attention to the election as the end result will be the same for the rest of us.
The dog and pony show conducted by corporate news has adult political aspirants panting like sixth graders for teachers
attention. Demeaning to all involved.
Bloomberg is revealed as having said in public that all the disposable income of the poor
should be taxed away so that they will not have funds with which to do mischief like buying
fast food or sugary drinks.
Bloomberg described Sanders as a Communist who cannot be elected. In this he was
correct.
Bloomberg was described by Warren as a cold-hearted and insulting man who openly scorns
women, gays and minorities.
Mayor Pete mocked Klobuchar for her inability to remember the name of the president of
Mexico. She asked if he was calling her "stupid."
These six dwarves will probably persist in their quest for the brass ring all the way to the
convention. In the mayhem there, the "winner" will probably have to choose one of the "losers"
to be his VP running mate.
This story claims that it had five (5!) people criminally leaking alleged content from a
classified briefing. And why not, since no one gets prosecuted for these crimes. Still, we
have a serious problem with our supposedly professional "intelligence" and "oversight"
communities. https://t.co/zuAdwXpU2L
Until heads roll and hoaxers are sent to prison, the seditious Russian collusion hoaxers
will never stop. They will lie and leak and fabricate evidence, whatever it takes, to
prevent the American people from taking charge of their own government. https://t.co/wijJ07QKOO
In Part One of
this article I exposed the numerous false narratives being peddled to the masses, as this
Fourth Turning is entering the intense phase headed towards an unknown climax.
I've been expecting the next shoe to fall in this Fourth Turning for years, but the
financial elite have pulled the debt levers to keep the Ponzi scheme alive far longer than a
reasonable person would expect.
We are only six weeks into 2020 and it seems like a year's worth of major events have
already occurred.
The year started with the assassination of Qasem Soleimani in Iraq.
For the next week the world was awash in rhetoric about World War III and possible
revolution in Iran. Accusations of Trump using the Wag the Dog method to deflect the negative
press from the impeachment hearings were rampant among the half of the country that despises
Trump. Soleimani was lauded as a hero by the left and a terrorist by the right. Now, the
entire episode seems like ancient history, as more interesting squirrels have arisen for the
propaganda media to chase.
The entire month of January was occupied by the ongoing coup/impeachment against Donald
Trump. Schiff, Nadler and Pelosi doing their best impression of the three stooges, conducted
a laughable prosecution in the House, revealing this was nothing more than a desperate
attempt to avoid losing to Trump in a November landslide.
The predictable trial in the Senate resulted in an acquittal and Trump's popularity
soaring to all-time highs , as independents realized the Democrats misused the power of
impeachment for purely political purposes.
Trump's SOTU address infuriated Pelosi to such an extent it provoked her into acting like
a petulant child, tearing up the speech. Future campaign ads wrote themselves.
The DNC again has looked corrupt and incompetent with the disastrous Iowa caucus. The
party is again trying to cheat Sanders out of the nomination by pushing the CIA hand selected
empty suit – Buttigieg, a white gay Obama clone, mayor of a Podunk town in Indiana, who
talks incessantly without saying anything. The Democrats, who want to run your healthcare and
have government take control over our lives, lost credibility in the eyes of millions by
their inability to even count a few thousand votes in Iowa.
The left-wing pundits on MSNBC and CNN are exasperated with the populist admiration by
millennials of Bernie Sanders , an unapologetic socialist. Alzheimer Joe Biden's candidacy is
imploding and Pocahontas Warren is sending desperate smoke signals for her tribe to come to
the rescue. The Democratic party is a train wreck in progress.
The left-wing fake news outlets were shrill in the lead up to the 2nd Amendment rights
rally in Richmond to protest Governor "Blackface" Northam's blatant attempt to pass laws
which would result in the attempted confiscation of legally owned firearms of citizens of
Virginia. Talk of civil war swirled across social media. Northam called out the National
Guard. Antifa terrorists threatened to storm the protest.
The displeasure among the left-wing pundits on MSNBC and CNN that thousands of legally
armed citizens gathered peacefully to support their Constitutional rights without one
incidence of violence was palpable. The left wingers were praying for another
Charlottesville, where they could peddle more fake news about Nazis and white supremacists
being Trump's main supporters. Not only did the Richmond protestors act civilly, they
actually cleaned up after themselves. Total fail for the liberal elite.
After years of fear mongering by the establishment about Brexit, the UK left the EU on
January 31 with absolutely no negative consequences. A blizzard of lies falls from the sky,
manufactured by those in power, in order to maintain their power, control and immense wealth.
The economic catastrophe Brexit was supposed to create was used by the government
apparatchiks to flog and terrify the citizens of the UK. This is par for the course.
The Deep State functions under a cloud of lies, misinformation and false narratives,
capitalizing upon the gullibility, willful ignorance and folly of the masses. As this decade
has gotten underway, it seems the lies are flowing in greater volume, and the fear mongering by
governments, central bankers and the corporate media has reached unprecedented levels.
As if these myriad of events over the course of a few weeks weren't enough to keep the world
on edge, a potential Black Swan of immense proportions has arisen in China, threatening to
initiate a worldwide pandemic . After ten years of expecting something to be the catalyst for
the next leg down in this Fourth Turning, I've remained skeptical of every new doom and gloom
event that comes along, as all previous threats have been neutralized through monetary or
political means. But a pertinent quote near the end of Strauss and Howe's prophecy, certainly
seems to apply at this moment in history.
"History offers no guarantees. Obviously, things could go horribly wrong – the
possibilities ranging from a nuclear exchange to incurable plagues, from terrorist anarchy to
high-tech dictatorship. We should not assume that Providence will always exempt our nation
from the irreversible tragedies that have overtaken so many others: not just temporary
hardship, but debasement and total ruin. Losing in the next Fourth Turning could mean
something incomparably worse. It could mean a lasting defeat from which our national
innocence – perhaps even our nation – might never recover." – Strauss &
Howe – The Fourth Turning
I would say we are already experiencing terrorist anarchy in the Middle East and a virtual
high-tech dictatorship through the partnership between the Deep State and the titans of Silicon
Valley to surveil everything we say, email, tweet or think . Snowden and Assange have revealed
the truth about our military industrial surveillance state, but the masses are too distracted
by their iGadgets, Twitter likes, and Facebook fans to notice they live in a technological
prison, with the Deep State prison guards ready to stomp on their faces with a boot,
forever.
... ... ...
" History's howling storms can bring out the worst and best in people. The next Fourth
Turning can literally destroy us as a nation and people, leaving us cursed in histories of
those who endure and remember. Alternatively, it can ennoble our lives, elevate us as a
community, and inspire acts of consummate heroism–deeds that will grow into mythlike
legends recited by our heirs far into the future." – Strauss & Howe – The
Fourth Turning
I doubt that there are many reading these lines who don't already know for a fact that
Kennedy was not killed by one "lone gunman". Likewise, we all know the truth about the "Gulf of
Tonkin" incident. Then there are those who realize that something about the Pearl Harbor attack
stinks to high heaven. Some even remember the USS Liberty. Most specialists know about GLADIO.
And I could go on and on. The fact is that most of the worst lies of the 20th century have been
debunked beyond reasonable doubt, really.
Chris Hedges really nailed it when he spoke of an " Empire of
Illusions ". He names the following types of illusions: the illusion of Literacy , the
illusion of Love , the illusion of Wisdom , the illusion of Happiness and the illusion of
America . The book is most interesting, and I highly recommend it. But I think that there is
one crucial aspect of the Empire being an "Empire of Illusions" and that is the illusion of
Reality . What do I mean by that?
I mean the following: most people are aware that there is a "reality" of some kind out
there. Of course, many people are aware of how difficult it can be to ascertain what the "real
reality" really is, thus they prefer to cautiously state that getting to the truth is a very
difficult endeavor. These are the folks who know enough to know that they really don't know
much. But then there are also those who misinterpret this caution as to mean that there really
is no such thing as reality at all and all there is, is the sum of our subjective perception
thereof (of reality that is). Pretty soon we have slipped from:
to
to
Of course, most people won't directly declare that reality does not exist – they just
act as if it didn't.
It all began centuries ago by a quite formidable indifference to Truth on the part of the
leaders of the Papacy. These folks were all about power, so if religion could give it to them,
then religion was good, but when religion placed limits on what the Latins could or could not
do (say like during the famous " Valladolid debate "), then suddenly
religion became a hindrance which had to be "reformed". And, indeed, once the original
Christianity was "reformed" (be it by the Reform or the Counter-Reformation) all hell broke
lose for most of mankind and the Age of Imperialism was fully ushered in and the ancient motto
" exitus acta probat " became the de facto measure of morality.
Then came the first blow of the scientific revolution of the late Renaissance which left the
Papacy with very little credibility left.
ORDER IT NOW
The next blow came during WWII when the Papacy saw its very last hurrah come and go, pretty
quickly, in fact (it lasted just as long as Hitler's "1000 year Reich" did: 12 years). By the
end of the war, western Christianity was left in shambles and, even worse was the fact that
none of the victors of WWII (Reformed Anglos, Atheist Soviets, Jews – secular and not,
etc.) had any warm feelings left for the Christianity (truth be told, neither did Hitler or
Mussolini). At this point the Papacy decided to commit suicide and organized the Vatican II
Council, which must be the most massive surrender of values previously held for sacred in
history. This ill-advised attempt to show "Roman Catholicism with a human face" resulted in a
total failure. Those who hated the Papacy were unimpressed did not like it any more. As for the
confused rank and file "Roman Catholics" (whom I refer to as "Latins"), they were were left
with the following conundrum: if the Pope is infallible (which he is as per the First Vatican
Council of 1868), how can he so clearly contradict the teachings of his own Church (not to
mention the teachings of his putatively infallible predecessors!)? Some declared that the Pope
was a heretic, others simply declared that the "Holy See" was unoccupied ("
sedevacantism "), but most simply gave up in total disgust (sex scandals did not help!)
and simply stopped asking "what is the truth"?
When a Church which had declared itself " T he C hurch" (all in CAPS, and at the exclusion
of all others) for 910 years (almost a millennium!) suddenly acts as if all religions were
equally "true" (this is logically impossible, but never mind that) and when a once powerful
"Holy Father" (and Vicar of Christ , no less!) becomes just
another public figure somewhere between Kim Kardashian and Greta Thunberg, you know that
something very big has taken place.
Something very bad too.
The truth is not only unwelcome, it does not even exist, right?!
Both world wars were the manifestation of an immense civilizational collapse. WWI saw the
collapse of the traditional European monarchies and empires. WWII, and its absolutely
unprecedented explosion of hatred (political, class, racial, linguistic, religious, etc.) saw
Europe, once the center of our planet, being subjected to a monstrous (but also highly
predictable) bloodbath which resulted in two non-European powers splitting the world into two
spheres of influence (at least that was the plan). More interestingly, while nominally
"Christian" rulers and countries could not openly advocate for mass terror, the "enlightened"
secular folks had no such problems at all. Just read Trotsky's brilliant, if clearly satanic, "
Dictatorship
versus Democracy " or Hitler's 5th chapter in Mein Kampf
(here in
German if you can!).
Both Dostoevskii and Solzhenitsyn predicted what would inevitably happen to a world in which
Nihilism prevails. Dostoevskii very simply summarized it all when he wrote (in the Karamazov
Brothers) " if there is no God, then everything is allowed ". The Nihilists have simply
logically concluded that if there is no God, and everything is allowed, then nothing really
exists, most certainly not any "real" (objective) reality. Even the very notions of "good" and
"evil" are absolutely meaningless absent an absolute reference system.
Bertrand Russel (and, apparently, also Voltaire) once brilliantly wrote that " God
created Man in His image and Man returned Him the favor ". Amazing words, really! If we are
not the creation of God, but God is our creation, that makes us very much God-like, does it
not? And, as "gods" – don't we deserve to define for ourselves what is "good" and what is
"bad"? Of course we do! Once life/existence has no meaning, how could concepts such as "good"
or "evil"? And that is exactly what we have done, especially our post-modern 21 century
Nihilists!
Back to where we started – assessing the "so what?" defense
I have already mentioned many times the mind-blowing hypocrisy of the Dems, who all hate on
Trump for his alleged "so what?" defense (which, by the way, is a mis-characterization –
his defense was much more solid and logical), but have absolutely no problems with people like
the Obamas or, even better, the Clintons next to whom Trump almost sounds like a paragon of
honesty, integrity and an acute sense of decency. I mean, really, the Clintons made even
violent mobsters (Italian or Jewish) look pure and innocent. And when they lie, this is
absolutely no big deal. But when Trump lies, then he elicits the kind of blind, impotent, rage
which in the Gospel is described by the words " weeping and gnashing of teeth ". Maybe
that is what they refer to when they speak of a "Trump derangement syndrome" amongst US
liberals?
The truth is simple: we all know that Trump lied. About the Iranian counter-strike and about
many other things. We also know that Obama lied. And Baby-Bush too. And the Clinton and his
no-sex cigars And we remember " read my lips, no new taxes " just as well as we remember
" We did not, I repeat, did not trade weapons or anything else [to Iran] for hostages, nor
will we ". So yes, we remember.
We just don't care anymore.
We have been completely desensitized not only to truth, but even to reality.
So what, right?
And the consequences are dire indeed!
Conclusion: life in a reality-free world
The fact that we, who live inside the Empire, live in a reality-free world has a huge impact
upon the actions of our rulers. After all, if nobody really believes in, or cares about,
reality, then why should our rulers bother with making reality any better, especially for us?
It is much, much, simpler to simply present a "feelgood" message about how great "America" is
(as in " We have the most powerful and well equipped military anywhere in the world, by
far! ") and never mind that this most powerful military in the Galaxy could not even
protect its own soldiers even though they knew exactly when and where the Iranian
counter-strike would come.
Of course, with time, the entire edifice of lies built by US and EU politicians will come
crashing down, either as a consequence of a military defeat impossible to hide, or from a major
economic shock. This will be totally unexpected for those who choose to live in a reality-free
world.
A very good summary of what I have been feeling and then understanding for the last four
decades. My entire system of family and friends live inside the Empire and only see tbe
illusion. In fact, I too am so bombarded by the illusions that it is difficult to keep my
mind outside the matrix. When I try to break the illusion for others, I receive disbelief,
derision, anger or (at best or worst) attempts to argue based on the illusions they see,
disregarding even the most basic of physical and human principles in their arguments.
Is there really anybody out there who will deny that the US government lies pretty much
about everything and anything?.
Yea! My liberal friends back in the U.S. of A. The intolerant left that hung on
every word that came out of Obama's mouth, but conversely holds everything Trump says with
contempt.
Very partisan!
That's where they get ya .
The fact that we, who live inside the Empire, live in a reality-free world has a huge
impact upon the actions of our rulers. After all, if nobody really believes in, or cares
about, reality, then why should our rulers bother with making reality any better,
especially for us?
Those who live inside the Empire are bedazzled by the sophistry of the elites, like the
senior official of the George W Bush administration, likely Karl Rove, quoted in Ron
Suskind's article:
"We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're
studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new
realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's
actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."
They are the masters, we are just unworthy pupils and and lackeys. Take our money, please,
take streams of it. Rule as you will.
Interesting but a lot loose ends dangling. I'll pull this string:
I'd like to see Saker discuss the heresy of caesaropapism especially in relation to the
Russian Orthodox church and its relation to the Russian State.
the Clintons next to whom Trump almost sounds like a paragon of honesty, integrity and an
acute sense of decency.
Oh come on. Trump is far and away the most corrupt President we have ever had. Second
place probably goes to John F. Kennedy. Both Trump and Kennedy are/were intimate with
mobsters and organized crime. Trump really has no sense of shame or honor whatsoever, he
doesn't need them.
It is interesting that when rich people behave in insanely corrupt and self-dealing
fashion most people don't mind, even admire it. When lower middle class people like the
Clintons try to climb the social ladder using similar methods people hate their guts. It goes
to show how deeply our sense of relative social status determines our reactions to people.
For example, a lot of people admire JFK and find Trump disgusting. Typically those are
members (or wannabe members) of the upper middle class who see the Trump family as nouveau
riche frauds who have no business pretending to be aristocracy. (Ironically of course Joseph
Kennedy built his family's wealth through even more criminal methods than Fred Trump, but the
Kennedys knew how to adopt upper class mannerism. Plus JFK married a woman of good breeding
and Trump keeps marrying sluts, for lack of a better word. )
"The truth is that lies have become the norm of the western political discourse."
Its important to understand the true fundamental nature of all governments. Not
understanding their true nature leads to complaints/observations such as: "The truth is that
lies have become the norm of the western political discourse."
Its a misconception to believe that this phenomena ["lies have become the norm of the
western political discourse."], is something "only" of recent creation. No, no, no, its
always been this way – to believe otherwise is to engage in total, ongoing,
self-delusion, and to seriously damage an individuals mental health.
This "just" in:
"Because they are all ultimately funded via both direct and indirect theft [taxes], and
counterfeiting [central bank monopolies], all governments are essentially, at their very
cores, 100% corrupt criminal scams which cannot be "reformed"or "improved",simply because of
their innate criminal nature." onebornfree
The question is : once an individual reaches this depressing, reality-based conclusion,
what can/should be done about it ?
"Understanding Why They Lie and Why They Get Away with It"
I find the article somewhat jumbled, but its author has managed a few powerful truths on
an important subject.
This phrase does hit the mark, "life in a reality-free world"
It is indeed a realty-free world when it comes to America's activities abroad.
But perhaps there should be little surprise at the fact.
Empire is inherently oppressive and anti-democratic.
We have a tiny percentage of the world's population (America has roughly five percent of
world's population, but America's establishment, the people who truly count, represent a tiny
fraction of one percent) telling everyone else what to do.
And America uses a great deal of violence to enforce its will – bombing,
insurgencies, assassinations, wars, and coups. It cannot be otherwise.
In some cases, as with allies, it uses only the pressure of its globally-dominant
financial institutions and markets, but that is still coercion, and it is very unwelcome.
Even granting American elections are somewhat democratic, the fact means nothing to those
being forced to do what they do not wish to do.
Power is power no matter how granted, as by election, and abuse of that power is abuse no
different than abuse by any other kind of government.
From the world's point of view, America is a form of authoritarian government, and all
authoritarian governments lie about what they are doing.
No one likes being openly credited with oppression and killing and theft. That is true
even for governments as notorious in our memories as Stalin's or Hitler's or the former junta
in Argentina, but it is equally true for America in its affairs abroad or for Israel in its
affairs with its neighbors.
All that dirty work requires a lot of lying to cover over. America still likes to think of
itself as descending from that small group of men pledging their sacred honors, and of course
that is an absurd contradiction with today's reality.
Despite those who work to inform themselves often recognizing the lies, they are a small
minority of any society, and I think the lying, on the whole, does work. Much as with the
tiresome and threadbare claims of commercial advertising, a sizable part of the population
accepts them, or at least does not question them, having no motive for close examination.
And there is no need for guilt on the part of officials doing the lying. If you don't feel
guilty about killing and stealing, why would you feel guilty about some mere lies?
As crimes of empire, lies are just pocket change.
I've said many times that you can have an empire or you can have a decent country, but you
cannot have both. America long ago chose empire.
You can take that principle a step further: you can have an empire or you can have a
democratic state, but you cannot have both.
To say otherwise is as absurd as Israel's claim to being a democracy while it occupies and
abuses millions who enjoy no rights.
If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to
believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people
from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes
vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth
is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of
the State.
Above is dubiously attributed to Goebbels, who himself riffed off Hitler's Mein
Kampf passage on the subject, but Goebbels clearly picked up on the theme in Aus
Churchills Lügenfabrik with this:
The essential English leadership secret does not depend on particular intelligence.
Rather, it depends on a remarkably stupid thick-headedness. The English follow the
principle that when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it. They keep up their lies,
even at the risk of looking ridiculous.
Which we witnessed in spades recently in a number of things, like the Novichok poisoning
cases. America has clearly picked up the mantle on this.
Here I am reminded of a former US intelligence agency head honcho, William Casey's words:
"By the time we finish with the American people, they won't know what to believe."
There's 4 points here:
1. Generally speaking, the reason why propaganda (aka brainwashing) is so, so effective in
the Western (so-called) 'liberal democracies' is because Westerners are not expecting
it – unless of course they have developed their ability for critical thinking, by
asking themselves such questions as:
i) why is this information being presented?;
ii) why is this information being presented in this manner?; &/or
iii) why is this information being presented at this point in time?
2. There's no better understanding as to why the Elites (who I prefer to call the Cabal)
lie than Paul Craig Roberts' short, concise article: Cover Stories are Used to Control
Explanations See:
"Years ago James Jesus Angleton left me with the impression that when an intelligence
agency pulls off an assassination, bombing, or any event with which the agency does not
wish to be associated, the agency uses the media to control the explanation by quickly
putting into "
3. The reason why the Cabal must control explanations is to maintain Plausible
Deniability. Maintaining Plausible Deniability is crucially important to keep the
general public believing in, and functioning, in the politico-economic system (which is
essentially exploitative).
4. Specifically, re: CNN, it is owned by Northrupp Grumann (why would an armaments
manufacturer need to own/operate a TV/online news network?, I hear you ask) and hence is a
propaganda organ of the US Military Industrial Complex (MIC). In order to defend yourself
against propaganda – next time you find yourself viewing a CNN "exclusive", know for
sure the 'report' is purely propaganda.
For once, 'The Saker' (what a ridiculous appellation) finally nails it
You can believe that either God created Man, or else that Man created God.
You can believe that either organized Christianity truly represents God on earth, or else
that belief in God must rise above Christian denominations.
Either illusion is all there is, or else there is an independent reality.
Either the objective Truth of the Logos is grounded in reality, or else there is no truth at
all.
And the final most universal dichotomy: If you are of the one kind, then you absolutely
cannot co-exist with the other.
"Understanding Why They Lie and Why They Get Away with It."
Why they lie is easy, so I don't want to adress that. Why do they get away with it?
1. The mass media repeat the lies ad nauseam. Thus, most people eventually believe the
lies.
2. Most people want to believe the lies. Why? Well, realizing that you've been duped is
painfull and Americans want to believe that their country is noble and good.
3. They must fear virtually no consequences when their lies are exposed.
But things are gradually changing.
I think the story of 9/11 is a case in point. In spite of clear evidence for the
controlled demolition of world trade towers, 1, 2 and 7, the media still repeats the same old
lies and defames anyone who may not go along with lying by calling them truthers and
"conspiracy theorists". Indeed the term "truther" has become a smear. But due to the
internet, 9/11 truth has become very popular.
We'll never get anywhere in answering questions of this nature unless we begin with a
scientific approach and here's just one of a number of relevant article from the field of
evolutionary psychology:
"Effortful control, explicit processing, and the regulation of human evolved
predispositions."
Evolutionary psych is a relatively young field but one that deserves a lot more
attention.
As Francis Bacon realized hundreds of years ago, we humans live in a world of idols that
we make for ourselves and that then come to control us. Science (the scientific method and
spirit of patient and disciplined truth seeking) is the only tool we have for wiping out the
idols so that we can be free from their control.
I'm only an occasional reader of yours, and, at best, a modest fan of Chris Hedges, but
his admirable Empire of Illusions is a fine example of authorial overreach that is
persuasive anyway.
@kikl 9/11 truth may have become very popular on the internet ,but the mainstream media
is still repeating the lies about Muslim hijackers and fires bringing down the Twin Towers ,
try convincing a family member , a friend or neighbor that 9/11 was an "inside job". I have
tried but it's an impossible task as politicians and the media continue to repeat the big lie
. Even today , for a politician to tell the truth about 9/11 would be to touch "the third
rail" and they would be pilloried by the CIA's "Mockingbird" media .
The Saker:
"The worst is not that western politicians lie, the worst is that almost nobody cares."
Not true. The masses believe the lies otherwise they would not be effective. Plausible
deniability, trust in media personalities, suppression of evidence, all are factors in
producing a 'normal' paradigm that keeps the masses on the consensus path
When I was a young conspiracy theorist I continually had difficulty with my brain wanting
to go back into its comfortable non-conspiracist rut. Surely I kept thinking, the US
government would never do anything like, for example, shoot JFK in the head and cover it up.
Eventually I had to force it into accepting the evidence. It protested for about a week, then
magically jumped tracks and I no longer had to think twice about it.
Since the masses never get to this point, their normal paradigm always channels them back
into believing the lies. Democrats actually believe Obama didn't lie, or if he did there must
have been some sound reason for it. Trump followers believe the same thing about Trump. Both
sides see and don't see lies according to their political persuasion.
The only difference in the modern world is the presence of the internet, which allows a
minority to obtain and check facts at least one hundred times more efficiently than in prior
eras. The negative side of the internet sadly is that it is a pool of knowledge about one
inch deep. The lies of the other side of politics are more visible, but the lies of your own
side are invisible or more excusable.
As Nietzsche put it, "The strength of a person's spirit would then be measured by how much
'truth' he could tolerate, or more precisely, to what extent he needs to have it diluted,
disguised, sweetened, muted, falsified."
So it is for the collective spirit of a broken people, a people whose history has been
systematically purged and falsified, whose gods have died, who don't know or care to know
their neighbors, for whom little matters but bread and circus subsistence.
Why? Its very simple once one understands the true, core nature of all governments:
"Because they are all ultimately funded via both direct and indirect theft [taxes], and
counterfeiting [central bank monopolies], all governments are essentially, at their very
cores, 100% corrupt criminal scams which cannot be "reformed"or "improved",simply because of
their innate criminal nature." onebornfree
"People do not expect to find chastity in a whorehouse. Why, then, do they expect to find
honesty and humanity in government, a congeries of institutions whose modus operandi consists
of lying, cheating, stealing, and if need be, murdering those who resist? ". H. L.
Mencken
The King's word is the law, and at the very top, they do whatever they want. They
manage the narrative and the coalition that supports them has a perpetual obligation to
maintain that narrative, forever. It does not matter who is in control.
Not only the Executive and the Legislative branches are corrupt but most notably the
non-Protestant, Jewish and Catholic filled Supreme Court is almost as corrupt, if not more.
When Barney "the fat Jew" Frank used to be in the House of Representatives, at least we
knew that beside giving felatio, his interest lied in helping the cause of his own people but
with androgynous Lindsay Graham you can never tell for which side he is working. And until
America can be sure of its White-Christian-Protestant sons and daughters, ain't nothing gonna
change for the better!
@BiffI deny your claim. The USA Government has never lied, not once.
Denying liars is the beginning of everyone else's freedom.
The government has never, ever lied, in can neither tell the truth nor lie. Government is
a structure, its an an expression of an abstraction that dictates the form and constraints of
an underlying functioning organization.. In my opinion it is important for the minds of
mankind to teach themselves to separate human things and human acts from things humanized
such as inanimate objects, animations and the like. Unless we separate non human from human
we can never ever identify in the minds of mankind, the facts needed to assign the false hood
to a person, and to make that person pay the price for his or her lie.
The USA, a government designed to empower a few to rule the masses of humanity within its
reach, cannot lie, cannot tell the Truth. Colin Powell's Weapons of Mass Destruction Speech,
altered millions of lives. Immunity for lying exist because neither the USA Constitution nor
underlying government it dictates, make lying actionable either criminally or civilly. A
person harmed by a law should be able to recover against the person that uttered the lie.
(<=not one politician has offer a law against lying. No court, I am aware of, has
recognizes harms caused by lying to be recoverable by those harmed by the lie. Yet any
citizen that lies under oath is a criminal? So do we just need to add to the oath of office
that it is a duty and obligation of the person that holds the office not to lie?
Citizens cannot bring a liar to a USA court for his or her lies, I have for years wondered
if lying is a Tort. <=if courts recognized lying as a tort eligible for recovery Trump
would be always in transit between Tort Courts till broke. .. It is not alright to lie. Lying
is not a social event or custom.
Accepting as normal, lying <=is one of the giant reasons we citizens have no means to
deny those who use their positions in government to engage corruption and to commit
atrocities against mankind . Think how different our world would be if no one was allowed to
get away with a lie.
The media is the biggest liar of them all, and if citizens were smart, citizens would all
boycott any media and sponsor who engage in any lie.
This amazingly well thought out analysis will be added to DaLimbraw Library for future
reference because it perfectly complements and characterizes my own personal experience of
overcoming presuppositions and binary thinking which kept me from seeing the real world
– and which I still see darkly – as the Apostle Paul wrote.
Only by relentless reading over the last 15-20 years from various sources did the dawn begin
to arrive for me – and which I am sharing on my website and the linked library for
others – that before one can 'see', you have to remove the filters which prevent you
from seeing.
These 'filters' have been purposely established from our past indoctrination and as Paul also
wrote, 'we are not dealing with flesh and blood but wicked spirits in high places' –
Ephesians 6:12.
No single person or collection of humans can coordinate what has been going on for eons! It's
Old Scratch at his wicked best!
About 10 days ago I posted this – https://crushlimbraw.blogspot.com/2020/02/ingrained-presuppositions-and-binary.html?m=0
– but beware, it's for patient readers only!
The zionists lie to us because they have complete control over us, they own the ZUS
government via their ownership of the money creation aka the FED and IRS and from this comes
complete control, as Nathan Rothschild infamously said, I care not what puppet is placed on
the throne of England to rule the British empire, for the man who controls the money supply
controls the British empire and I am that man.
It is the same here in the ZUS the zionists aka Rothschilds and company control the money
supply and control the people, and can lie and cheat and send young naive Americans to fight
and die in the mideast for the zionist greater Israel project, that is the damn truth!
America is a zionist plantation and we are the slaves!
I have been a working full time in Emergency Medicine for over 20 years. I was a "Flight
Surgeon" in the Army. Soldiers are notorious for playing up any combat related injury in order
to qualify for disability and the financial benefits that flow from being categorized as being
disabled. As far as we know, the most serious claimed injuries were "concussions." As a
practicing specialist in Emergency Medicine, I can explain that the diagnosis of "concussion"
means, by definition, that no abnormality is seen on CT scanning of the brain. The diagnosis is
made based on the injured person's purely subjective complaints, i.e. whatever the allegedly
injured person says. If the allegedly injured person says the right things, then a physician
may call the symptoms that of a concussion.
So, ultimately, a soldier would be diagnosed with a concussion because the soldier (who has
financial benefits to gain) says so, and a physician does not dispute it.
I have seen hundreds if not thousands of diagnoses of "concussion". That diagnosis does not
have to be supported by any specific findings or even a proper understanding of the diagnosis.
It simply has to be entered in the record by a licensed physician. Once that diagnosis is on
the medical record, it is up to subsequent providers to refute that diagnosis if they desire to
do so.
This is something subsequent providers are very unlikely to want to dedicate the time and
effort required to accomplish. There is usually no financial or professional incentive to do so
– often the opposite. There is no specific test to definitively say one way or the other
if a person had a "concussion". Like PTSD it is a "functional" diagnosis based mainly on
subjective symptoms and not objective test results. This is not to say such things do not
exist. They do exist. It is only to say that they can be faked or misinterpreted and that will
happen if there is a financial incentive to do so. Buck Ransom says: Show
Comment
February 16, 2020 at 3:36 pm GMT @The Scalpel Are you suggesting that The Greatest Fighting
Force in the Galaxy in All of History, the military of the world's Exceptional Nation, is
riddled with grifters?
How ironic! "Billionaire" Bloomberg and his identical twin: "Tons of Money Tom Steyer" are
now the favorites of the so called "Party of the People" to win the White House in 2016!
Moveover, Bloomberg supported Iraq was and covered-up 9/11
From the day he entered the race, Joe Biden was the great hope of the Democratic
establishment to spare them from the horrifying prospect of a 2020 race between The Donald and
Bernie Sanders.
Today, that same establishment wants Joe out of the race.
At the end of this essay, you may find a song which reasonably applies to Donald Trump
directed to Democrats.
How does one say Adam Schiff without laughing? It's hard to continue typing while
contemplating the Burbank Buffoon. Yet AS is making obscene flatus-like noises about
impeachment 2.0. He and Nervous Nancy will conspire with chief strategist Gerald Nadler about
extending the charges of 1.0 to 2.0.
Second verse
Same as the first
Obstructing leaking by firing leakers. That's one of the pending charges. Leutnant Oberst
Vindman will be help up as the innocent victim of political retaliation. As I understand the
military code of conduct, it says that the underling, Herr Oberst Vindman, went outside the
chain of command and released classified information. In the military this is called
insubordination, perhaps gross insubordination in view of the classified nature of the
information.
Another charge to be filed on behalf of former Ambassador Yovanovich, is that her God-given
Female rights were brutally violated as retaliation of advising Ukrainian officials to
disregard Commander Cheeto.
There is no telling what additional non-crimes may be thrown at the feet at El Trumpo. All
too horrible to contemplate--like someone throwing feces-contaminated dope needles onto Nervous
Nancy's front lawn in Pacific Heights.
If this Shampeachment 2.0 (S2) occurs before November's election, Democrats will become as
rare as dodo birds. If such proponents of S2 persist after the general election, they better
have secure transportation to an extradition-free country.
If it gets bad enough, considering the Clinton Mafia's body count, would it be unreasonable
to expect some untimely heart attacks and suicides with red scarves? On Clintonites? Soros et
al.?
When the first shot and you don't kill the king, flee. But the DNC is going to attempt shot
number 2. Trump WILL NEVER ALLOW A SECOND IMPEACHMENT TO OCCUR, no matter how patently
worthless? Will the most powerful narcissist in the world allow the DNC / coup perpetrators to
escaping Trumpian retribution?
Those doubting the Wrath of Q be prepared to be disabused of the impression that Q is pure
fantasy. Fantasy--like GPS targeting a single small sniper drone to shoot someone from 3000
feet.
Sorry folks. I live in a swamp. I've stepped in shit with my eyes open. Many of you have
too. Some of the excrement was of my own making.
Think about the singularly most effective and complex plot the world has ever seen, called
9/11. Think of the thousands of lives purposefully snuffed in then name of power and money.
Call yourselves serfs--that's a euphemism. You--including me-- are nothing but ants. Goddam
little ants that only Janes respect. There are no ascetic Janes in the penthouses of the
elites.
But I digressed to the mysterious existence of morality in politics as a whole. Today's
topic is more confined to the Democratic nomination.
Statement of Bias: Go Tulsi. Bravo Andy. The rest of you to the elsewhere--yeah, BS too.
The Dems are determined to grasp Defeat from the jaws of Defeat. Quite a trick. Like trying
to borrow money from the Judge during a Bankruptcy trial.
I talked today with a freshman college student majoring in political science about her
thought about the Shampeachment. She hadn't been paying attention. Not that I blame her. Her
college freshman friend watched C-Span; wasn't impressed. We political aficionados know all
about this political debauchery. If AS and NN attempt S2, expect many defections from the
supporting vote.
Democrat respect has dwindled in the Independent sector. This is not to say the Repugnants
are thereby more popular. They aren't. Trump is. Trump need that NH clown to challenge him in
the Repugnant primary to prove exactly how powerful he is. Anybody notice who were in the
audience, sitting nearby during Trump's post acquittal speech. Rand Paul and Lindsey Graham.
The lamb and the lion laying together. They are both on the Trump Train. Even Richard Burr
voted Trump in the impeachment. Mittens feared both his cojones would be excised if he voted
against Trump on both counts. What a chickenheart.
But where are the Dems? Why, they are Here. Yes. Yes. And they are There. Yes. Yes. And they
are Near. Yes. Yes. But....they are Far. Whither thou goest?
I refrain from pointed comments about AOC in further comments. The Squad is the iceberg
floating away from the glacier which spawned it. Unsuitable to warm weather produced by
political combat, the Squad faction will woke themselves up to dubious futures.
Establishment versus Bernie:
Not a contest. Spineless Bernie pretzelizes during first heated combat (which the Dem Debate
Debacles were not). Won't take a second punch--the first during night 3 of the '16 DNC
convention. Fist-shy now. Open Borders? WTF? Are you so nuts? If one offered a person the
choice personal safety in their own homes and streets and free medical care for all--including
the criminal aliens that A New Path Forward proposes--what do you think 85% of the public would
choose?
Pandering.
The Left is also pushing strenuous avoidance of discussing issues in a platitude-depleted
fashion. Yeah, Bernie's giving the same speech, with suitable modification, over 40 years.
Consistency is a good thing, yeh? How about persistently beating your head with a hammer (while
you still can)? Sounds like something Sun Tzu might not recommend.
Now, speaking of Las Vegas and the Nevada Primary. The culinary workers union will not
endorse Bernie due to well-deserved or ill-deserved claims that M4A will abolish hard won union
health benefits. And don't worry, the Shadow will be there, although Buttjiggle has now
disavowed any further connection, along with David Plouffe.
Keeping the Bern off the campaign trail is going to infuriate the Woke Generation / Antifa.
When--not if--the DNC cheats Bernie out of the nomination, if such proves necessary* will
literally result in blood on the streets along with broken windows and flaming tires. Associate
with that lot, eh? Given the choice of going into a biker bar, where brawls are always on the
menu, or a discreet wine bar, which would one rather choose? Sorry, those are your only
choices.
Nancy Pelosi, impressed by Arnold Schwarzenegger's former physical prowess, tears up her
copy of the state of the union address. How decorous. How courteous. How polite. Seen around
the world. Nigel Farage must be laughing his butt off, thinking about the shallow anti-Brexit
campaigns against his were compared to our Coup. Nigel won. Trump . is. winning. Getting tired
of winning yet?
I could go on for pages more of Dem stupidity, but why bother? Stupidity surrounds us.
Betting odds: DNC 1,999,999 to Bernie 1.
Place your bets.
For all the good it will do and I am sincere about this, I will vote Tulsi in the Dem
primary.
Here is the song Dems need to heed. This is Donald Trump telling' y'all I'M NOT YOUR MAN
Regarding Bloomberg+Clinton:
Everyone on ZH and Drudge's Tweet discussing the Pairing are joking that if they Win 2020,
Bloomberg will Die somewhen btwn the Post-Election Victory Lap and a Month after the
Inauguration.
Hillary as VP?
Why not Netanyahu? He's a dual citizen and I hear he may be looking for a job soon. He brings international experience to the ticket that Bloomberg lacks.
... Steve Bannon predicted that something
like this would happen.
REGAN: Let me turn to 2020. Let me turn to the Democrats. Bloomberg's now in on the mix.
By the way, just to remind the viewers, this is the guy that broke the news here. Watch.
BANNON: They will throw Biden away. They'll throw Biden away to get to Trump and hope
Elizabeth Warren or I even think Hillary Clinton or Bloomberg or some centrist comes in here.
All these other people that could have been the centrist candidate for whatever reason
haven't materialize. And that leaves a huge opportunity for two people, I believe, Michael
Bloomberg and Hillary Clinton.
Is the American deep state that good in being a perfectly timed evil? Wasn't the deep state
designed to assist multinational corporations in stealing foreign resources? Yet the
corporate supply chain is being interrupted in what will be devastating for the bottom line.
The stock market is about all Trump has. The scenario outlined above just quite doesn't add
up, despite its plausibility. Unless it is not about China, but purging Trump .maybe?
There's a lot to read here, and I read all of it. If the virus is engineered to affect only
Chinese people, I feel better and feel no need to worry about it. Though, sorry for the
Chinese people, sad indeed.
"Except China is Communist in name only, just like America is a Republic in name
only."
Here's another view: Zionist Bloomberg and Zionist Biden and Zionist Buttigieg and Zionist
Klubachar and Zionist Warren and Zionist Sanders competing to race against Zionist Trump. I
think I know who the winners and losers are already.
"... Lead paragraph: "Former Vice President Joe Biden outpolled six challengers in yesterday's New Hampshire Democrat presidential primary election. All seven candidates are tied for count of delegates won in the state." ..."
Lead paragraph: "Former Vice President Joe Biden outpolled six challengers in yesterday's
New Hampshire Democrat presidential primary election. All seven candidates are tied for count
of delegates won in the state."
It's not just the White House that is doing serious damage to U.S. interests abroad during
this year's election campaign. Of even greater consequence (absent a new Middle East war) is
the U.S. relationship with Russia. It's currently unthinkable that Washington will try to move
beyond the status quo, even if Russian President Vladimir Putin were prepared to do so. Even
before Trump was inaugurated, many Democrats began calling for his
impeachment . Leading Democrats
laid Hillary Clinton ' s defeat at the feet of Russian interference in the U.S. election --
a claim that stretched credulity past the breaking point. Further, as Democrats looked for
grounds to impeach Trump (or at least terminally to reduce his reelection chances), the "
Russia factor" was the best cudgel available. Charges included the notion that " Putin has something on
Trump," which presumes he would sell out the nation ' s security for a mess of pottage.
All this domestic politicking ignores a geopolitical fact: while the Soviet Union lost the
Cold War and, for some time thereafter, Russia could be dismissed, it was always certain that
it would again become a significant power, at least in Europe. Thus, even before the Berlin
Wall fell, President George H. W. Bush proposed creating a " Europe whole and
free" and at peace. Bill Clinton built on what Bush began. Both understood that a renascent
Russia could embrace revanchism, and for several years their efforts seemed to have a chance of
succeeding.
Then the effort went off the rails. Putin took power in Russia, which made cooperation with
the West difficult if not impossible. He worked to consolidate his domestic position, in part
by alleging that the West was " disrespecting" Russia and trying to encircle it. For its part,
the U.S. played into the Putin narrative by abandoning the Bush-Clinton vision of taking
legitimate Russian interests into account in fashioning European security arrangements. The
breaking point came in 2014, when Russia seized
Crimea and sent " little green men" to fight in some other parts of Ukraine. The West
necessarily responded, with economic sanctions
and NATO's
buildup of " trip wire" forces in Central Europe.
But despite the ensuing standoff, the critical requirement remains: the United States has to
acknowledge Russia's inevitable rise as a major power while also impressing on Putin the need
to trim his ambitions, if he is to avoid a new era of Russian isolation. There is also serious
business that the two countries need to pursue, including strategic arms control, the Middle
East (especially Iran), and climate change. Despite deep disagreements, including over Ukraine
and parts of Central Europe, the U.S. needs to engage in serious discussions with Russia, which
means the renewal of diplomacy which has been in the deep freeze for years.
All of this has been put in pawn by the role that the "Russia factor" has been permitted to
play in American presidential politics, especially by Democrats. Longer-term U.S. interests are
suffering, along with those of the European allies and Middle East partners. The task has been
made even more difficult by those U.S. politicians,
think tanks , and journalists
who prefer to resurrect the term "cold war" rather than clearly examining the nation's
strategic needs because of the blinkers imposed by domestic politics. Open discussion about
alternatives in dealing with Russia is thus stifled, at serious cost to the United States and
others.
In all three of these areas, the U.S. is paying a high price in terms of its national
interests to the games political leaders, both Republicans and Democrats, are playing. Great
efforts will be needed to dig out of this mess, beginning with U.S. willingness to do so.
Leaders elsewhere must also be prepared to join in -- far from a sure thing! Unfortunately,
there is currently little hope that, at least in the three critical areas discussed above,
pursuit of U.S. interests abroad will prevail over today's parochial domestic politics.
You would not ever have seen this on Fox at the last election. Best high voltage spit by
Jimmy Dore I have seen.
Tucker shows a great smirk especially when Jimmy dumps on Guaido.
> five minutes of mirth
>Posted by: uncle tungsten | Feb 13 2020 4:10 utc | 114
Definitely worth five minutes to watch Jimmy Dore on FOX plainly stating the US is a
one-party system. ON FOX NEWS TV! Never thought to see the day when I had anything good to
say about FOX.
Posted by: juliania | Feb 12 2020 5:15 utc | 39
(Artificial Intelligence)
The trouble with Artificial Intelligence is that it's not intelligent.
And it's not intelligent because it's got no experience, no imagination and no
self-control.
The Washington Post must have some reason to dig up this old story but it has nothing to do
with the Chinese. Crypto AG and Huawei have so little in common that nobody will think of
any connection between them.
Crypto AG was a maker of encryption/decryption devices from tiny Switzerland and it
spied for the US and its allies, mainly between the 1950s and the 1980s.
Huawei is known mainly as a producer of consumer products in China in the 21st
century.
My guess is that something about Crypto AG is about to be revealed, and this is a way of
slowly feeding the story in a way that it does not make headlines. When the story comes
out, people will think 'Oh, we know most of that already, it's old news'. Classic news
management.
Crypto AG was involved in all sorts of criminal acts. The most notable was when one of
its devices was used by UN chief Dag Hammarskjold before he died in a plane crash in
1961.
it seems cia and bnd started their work with crypto ag just in that moment, when became
known, that the enigma coding machine was already hacked while wwII. this was a big
surprise for the germans, because they still had this thing in use at their embassies
worldwide. you have to be a worm in this world.
During the research for a book, I discovered that the UK gave Australia a coding machine
(basically a revised Lorenz from WW2). This was in the early 1950s or just before and with
the cipher they were assured to read all Australian secret messages. We, South Africa, to
this day, never use computer storage for reports, etc. but paper that can be protected more
easily. Quite amusing the above. Note also that Chinese internet devices control 80-90% of
the internet in Africa. Okay, why is this important? Simply because sub-Saharan Africa is
where the terrorists fled and flee to from the Middle East and other places. See Code Name
Wednesday 7 how we picked them up via their new mosques. Regards, GMJ
Buttigieg is an empty vessel. He poses no threat to entrenched wealth in this country or to
the neocon foreign policy establishment. He won't do anything to curb the excesses of
American militarism. The only powerful group he offends is the religious right - a group
deeply offended by his homosexuality. They won't want a gay couple in the White House.
Biden performed surprisingly well all year in polls, but he headed into Iowa like a
passenger jet trying to land with one burning engine, hitting trees, cows, cars, sides of
mountains, everything. The poking incidents were bad, but then one of his chief surrogates,
John Kerry, was overheard by NBC talking about the possibility of jumping in to keep Bernie
from "taking down" the party.
"Maybe I'm fucking deluding myself here," Kerry reportedly said -- mainstream Democrats may
not have changed their policies or strategies much since Trump, but they sure are swearing more
-- then noted he would have to raise a "couple of million" from people like venture capitalist
Doug Hickey.
BTW Vindman quit his job so why was it bad for Trump to remove him early? Games
lol, Joe demands a standing ovation for Lt. Col. Vindman, a security state apparatchik
who was offended that Trump didn't read from the talking points he prepared. Beyond
parody
America the country will lose absolutely nothing, folks don't hate Americans, they're
simply baffled at what's going on in the US..
And we've been energetic in informing them that Americans are suffering from deception
induced cerebral delirium, which ought be brought into remission soon..
As a matter of fact, the "full package" treatment, once the illness is treated, will
permit Americans to sally forth and befriend the world again, and folks are expectantly
looking forward to the day when they can say again, my good American friend..
The United States, properly managed, has enough resources to engender prosperity in the
Western Hemisphere, in harmonious cooperation devoid of coercion..
Imagine Major, a thriving Western Hemisphere, where folks visit each other, doing cultural
exchanges, trading amicably..
Anyhow, the reason it's not happening, has to do with the mentality of folks in America's
government, whose incredulous gem we came across thus..
"While the First Amendment protects the free speech rights of Americans -- and Twitter
should not be censoring the political speech of Americans -- the Ayatollah enjoys zero
protection from the United States Bill of Rights," the senators argued..
It beggars belief that these folks are lawmakers in the US government, who don't even
understand the US Constitution, or the reason for the country's founding to be a "Shining
City" on a hill for guidance to the world..
We warned during the impeachment saga, that shredding the due process of the Sacred
Constitution, would eventually breach its core and thus, here we are, as another shoe
drops..
Now, the GOP folks who took a scissors to the constitution have now advanced their attack
to its very core.. The right to speech..
We'll, we warned you, did we not, just like we warned in 2001, when Constitutional
redlines were being crossed..
Anyhow, they're not worth the designation "lawmakers" seeing as they neither understand
law, nor its foundation, upon which the constitution is built..
They do understand aggression however, the antithesis of law and like we averred, if God
did not spare Adam whom he personally begot, he certainly ain't gonna spare those he didn't..
the transgression of His law..
And that, threats or assassination notwithstanding, is the inescapable fact.. Even unto
the 6th and 7th generation or more if necessary.. to satisfy the dues of Justice, Divine,
Unimpeachable, Inescapable Justice..
Anyhow, seeing as we don't utilize social media of those types under consideration, we'd
simply say to the platforms and their users, bed made is bed slept upon..
laba laba fi ará rẹ wé ẹiyẹ ó fo títì
aṣọ rẹ fà yà...
"... Jacques Ellul has argued convincingly that modern propaganda in a technological mass society is more complicated than the state and media lying and deceiving the population. He argues that propaganda meets certain needs of modern people and therefore the process of deceit is reciprocal. ..."
"... The modern person feels lost, powerless, and empty. Ellul says, "He realizes that he depends on decisions over which he has no control, and that realization drives him to despair." But he can't live in despair; desires that life be meaningful; and wants to feel he lives in a world that makes sense. He wants to participate and have opinions that suggest he grasps the flow of events. He doesn't so much want information, but value judgments and preconceived positions that provide him with a framework for living. ..."
"... Great article. But, as the author states, he's preaching to the converts while the overwhelming majority want to remain cocooned within their comfortable ignorance. But even if the veil of ignorance allows a little light through (as with crackpots), it is quickly shut out because it endangers the security of one's worldview built-up over the span of one's life. Why step outside and into the storm of uncertainties if conformity resolves everything without fuss and worry? ..."
"... Considering the above necessary requirements to leave the doll's house, it is not hard to see why so few seek the light. In the old days religion used to be the source and fulfilment of man's questions and needs; now he is a lone traveller on the road to nowhere. ..."
"... CIA's not scared of communism, they're scared of US public contact with the outside world. When Churchill said an iron curtain will come down, he meant it would come down around you. ..."
"... A people that elect corrupt politicians, imposters, thieves and traitors, are not victims but accomplices. – George Orwell ..."
This is an updated and revised version
of the
full
cover-story that appeared in the important publication,
garrison: The Journal of History and Deep Politics
, Issue 003. Issue 004 is due out this week and I urge
readers to purchase it. You will read articles there that you will find no place else, brilliant, eye-opening
analyses of issues that the MSM will never touch.
"It never happened. Nothing ever happened.
Even while it was happening it wasn't happening. It didn't matter. It was of no interest. The crimes of the
United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked
about them. You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide
while masquerading as a force for universal good. It's a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of
hypnosis." –
Harold Pinter's Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech
, 2005
While truth-tellers Julian Assange and
Chelsea Manning sit inside jail cells and Edward Snowden lives in exile in Russia, the American people hole up
in an illusionary dwelling constructed to reduce them to children afraid of the truth. Or is it the dark? This
is not new; it has been so for a very long time, but it has become a more sophisticated haunted doll's house,
an electronic one with many bells and whistles and images that move faster than the eye can see. We now inhabit
a digital technological nightmare controlled by government and corporate forces intent on dominating every
aspect of people's lives. This is true despite the valiant efforts of dissidents to use the technology for
human liberation. The old wooden doll houses, where you needed small fingers to rearrange the furniture, now
only need thumbs that can click you into your cell's fantasy world. So many dwell there in the fabricated
reality otherwise known as propaganda. The result is mass hallucination.
In a 1969 interview, Jim Garrison, the
District Attorney of New Orleans and the only person to ever bring to trial a case involving the assassination
of President John F. Kennedy, said that as a result of the CIA's murderous coup d'état on behalf of the
military-industrial-financial-media-intelligence complex that rules the country to this day, the American
people have been subjected to a fabricated reality that has rendered them a nation of passive Eichmanns, who
sit in their living rooms, popping pills and watching television as their country's military machine mows down
people by the millions and the announcers tell them all the things they should be afraid of, such as bacteria
on cutting boards and Russian spies infiltrating their hair salons. Garrison said:
The creation of such inanities as
acceptable reality and unacceptable reality is necessary for the self-preservation of the super-state
against its greatest danger: understanding on the part of the people as to what is really happening. All
factors which contribute to its burgeoning power are exaggerated. All factors which might reveal its
corrosive effect on the nation are concealed. The result is to place the populace in the position of persons
living in a house whose windows no longer reveal the outside but on which murals have been painted. Some of
the murals are frightening and have the effect of reminding the occupants of the outside menaces against
which the paternal war machine is protecting them. Other murals are pleasant to remind them how nice things
are inside the house.
But to live like this is to live in a
doll's house. If life has one lesson to teach us, it is that to live in illusion is ultimately disastrous.
Fifty years have disappeared behind us since
the eloquent and courageous Garrison (read
On the Trail of the Assassins
)
metaphorically voiced the truth, despite the CIA's persistent efforts to paint him as an unhinged lunatic
through its media mouthpieces. These days they would probably just lock him up or send him fleeing across
borders, as with Assange, Manning, and Snowden.
It is stunning to take a cue from his
comment regarding the JFK assassination, when he suggested that one reverse the lone assassin scenario and
place it in the U.S.S.R. No American could possibly believe a tale that a former Russian soldier, trained in
English and having served at a top Soviet secret military base, who had defected to the U.S. and then returned
home with the help of the K.G.B., could kill the Russian Premier with a defective and shoddy rifle and then be
shot to death in police headquarters in Moscow by a K.G.B. connected hit man so there would be no trial and the
K.G.B. would go scot free. That would be a howler! So too, of course, are the Warren Commission's fictions
about Oswald.
Snowden, Assange, and Manning
If we then update this mental exercise and
imagine that Snowden, Assange, and Manning were all Russian, and that they released information about Russian
war crimes, political corruption, and a system of total electronic surveillance of the Russian population, and
were then jailed or sent fleeing into exile as a result, who in the U.S., liberal, libertarian or conservative,
would possibly believe the Russian government's accusations that these three were criminals.
Nevertheless, Barack Obama, the
transparency president, made sure to treat them as such, all the while parading as a "liberal" concerned for
freedom of speech and the First Amendment. He made sure that Snowden and Manning were charged under the
Espionage Act of 1917, and that Assange was corralled via false Swedish sex charges so he had to seek asylum in
the Ecuadorian Embassy in London (a form of jail). He brought Espionage Act prosecutions against eight people,
more than all former presidents combined. He hypocritically pardoned Manning on his way out the door as if this
would polish his deluded liberal legacy after making her suffer terribly through seven years of imprisonment.
He set the stage for Trump to re-jail Manning to try to get this most courageous woman to testify against
Assange, which she will not do, and for the collaborationist British government to jail Assange in preparation
for his extradition to the United States and a show trial. As for Snowden, he has been relegated to
invisibility, good for news headlines once and for a movie, but now gone and forgotten.
Obama and Trump, arch political "enemies,"
have made sure that those who reveal the sordid acts of the American murderous state are cruelly punished and
silenced. This is how the system works, and for most Americans, it is not happening. It doesn't matter. They
don't care, just as they don't care that Obama backed the 2009 coup d'état in Honduras that has resulted in so
many deaths at the hands of U.S trained killers, and then Trump ranted about all these "non-white" people
fleeing to the U.S. to escape a hell created by the U.S., as it has been doing throughout Latin America for so
long. Who does care about the truth? Has anyone even noticed how the corporate media has disappeared the "news"
of all those desperate people clamoring to enter the U.S.A. from Mexico? One day they were there and in the
headlines; the next day, gone. It's called news.
The Sleepwalkers
But even though a majority of Americans
have never believed the government's explanation for JFK's murder, they nevertheless have insouciantly gone to
sleep for half a century in the doll's house of illusions as the killing and the lies of their own government
have increased over the years and any semblance of a democratic and peaceful America has gone extinct. The
fates of courageous whistle-blowers Assange, Manning, and Snowden don't concern them. The fates of Hondurans
don't concern them. The fates of Syrians don't concern them. The fates of Iraqis, Afghans, Yemenis,
Palestinians don't concern them. The fates of America's victims all around the world don't concern them.
Indifference reigns.
Obviously, if you are reading this, you are
not one of the sleepwalkers and are awake to the parade of endless lies and illusions and do care. But you are
in a minority.
That is not the case for most Americans.
When approximately 129 million people cast their votes for Donald Trump and HilIary Clinton in the 2016
presidential election, you know idiocy reigns and nothing has been learned. Ditto for the votes for Obama,
Bush, Clinton, et al. You can keep counting back. It is an ugly fact and sad to say. Such a repetition
compulsion is a sign of a deep sickness, and it will no doubt be repeated in the 2020 election. The systemic
illusion must be preserved at all costs and the warfare state supported in its killing. It is the American way.
It is true that average Americans have not
built the doll's house; that is the handiwork of the vast interconnected and far-reaching propaganda arms of
the U.S. government and their media accomplices. But that does not render them innocent for accepting decades
of fabricated reality for so-called peace of mind by believing that a totally corrupt system works. The will to
believe is very powerful, as is the propaganda. The lesson that Garrison spoke of has been lost on far too many
people, even on those who occasionally leave the doll house for a walk, but who only go slightly down the path
for fear of seeing too much reality and connecting too many dots. There is plain ignorance, then there is
culpable ignorance, to which I shall return.
Denying Existential Freedom
One of the first things an authoritarian
governing elite must do is to convince people that they are not free. This has been going on for at least forty
years, ever since the Church Committee's revelations about the CIA in the mid-seventies, including its
mind-control program, MKULTRA. Everyone was appalled at the epiphany, so a different tactic was added. Say
those programs have been ended when in fact they were continued under other even deeper secret programs, and
just have "experts" – social, psychological, and biological "scientists" – repeat ad infinitum that there is no
longer any mind control since we now know there is no mind; it is an illusion, and it all comes down to the
brain. Biology is destiny, except in culturally diversionary ways in which freedom to choose is extolled – e.g.
the latest fashions, gender identity, the best hair style, etc. Create and lavishly fund programs for the study
of the brain, while supporting and promoting a vast expansion of pharmaceutical drugs to control people. Do
this in the name of helping people with their emotional and behavioral problems that are rooted in their
biology and are beyond their control. And create criteria to convince people that they are sick and that their
distress has nothing to do with the coup d'état that has rendered them "citizens" of a police state.
We have been interminably told that our
lives revolve around our brains (our bodies) and that the answers to our problems lie with more brain research,
drugs, genetic testing, etc. It is not coincidental that the U. S. government declared the 1990s the decade of
brain research, followed up with 2000-2010 as the decade of the behavior project, and our present decade being
devoted to mapping the brain and artificial intelligence, organized by the Office of Science and Technology
Project and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). How convenient! George H. W. Bush, Clinton,
George W. Bush, Obama, Trump -- what a difference! But this is science and the welfare of the world. Science for
idiots.
Drip by drip, here and there, in the
pattern of the best propaganda, as the French sociologist Jacques Ellul says – "for propaganda is not the touch
of the magic wand. It is based on slow, constant impregnation. It creates conviction and compliance through
imperceptible influences that are effective only by continuous repetition"
[2]
Propaganda:
The Formation of Men's Attitudes
, Jacques Ellul, Vintage Books, 1973, pp. 17-18
– articles,
books, media reports have reiterated that people are "determined" by biological, genetic, social, and
psychological forces over which they have no control. To assert that people are free in the Sartrean sense (
en
soir
, condemned to freedom, or free will) has come to be seen as the belief of a delusional fool living in
the past , a bad philosopher, an anti-scientist, a poorly informed religionist, one nostalgic for existential
cafes, Gauloises, and black berets. One who doesn't grasp the truth since he doesn't read the New York Times or
watch CBS television. One who believes in nutty conspiracy theories.
The conventional propaganda – I almost said
wisdom – created through decades-long media and academic repetition, is that we are not free.
Let me repeat: we are not free. We are not
free.
Investigator reporter John Rappoport has
consistently exposed the propaganda involved in the creation and expansion of the Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual (DSM) with its pseudo-scientific falsehoods and collusion between psychiatrists and the pharmaceutical
industry. As he correctly notes, the CIA's MKULTRA mind-control program has morphed into modern psychiatry,
both with the same objectives of disabling and controlling people by convincing them that they are not free and
are in need of a chemical brain bath.
[3]
"CIA
mind control morphed into psychiatry?" Jon Rappoport,
com
, July 11, 2017
Can anyone with an awareness of this
history doubt there is a hidden hand behind this development? Once you have convinced people that they are not
free in the most profound sense, the rest is child's play. Convinced that they are puppets, they become puppets
to be willingly jerked around.
"He played with me just as I used to play
with dolls," says Nora in Ibsen's
A Doll's House.
Now who would want to get people to believe
they were not free? The answer is obvious given a minute of thought. It is not just Nora's husband Torvald.
Perfect examples of the persistence of the
long-term, repetitive, impregnating propaganda appear in news headlines constantly. Here is an egregious
example concerning the little understood case of the assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy. On Friday, August
30, 2019, Sirhan, who has been in prison for fifty-two years for the murder of RFK that he did not commit, was
stabbed by another prisoner. A quick click through the MSM headlines reporting this showed the same words
repeated by all the corporate media as they fulfilled their function as CIA stenographers. One example, from
CBS News, will suffice: "Robert Kennedy assassin hospitalized after prison stabbing."
[4]
"Robert
Kennedy assassin Sirhan Sirhan hospitalized after prison stabbing," Caroline Linton,
CBS
, August 31,
2019
RFK assassin, RFK assassin, RFK assassin all the media said the same thing, which they have
been doing for fifty-two years. Their persistency endures despite all the facts that refute their
disinformation and show that Senator Kennedy, who was on his way to becoming president, was murdered, like his
brother John, by forces of the national security state.
Sartre and Bad Faith
Lying and dissembling are ubiquitous. Being
deceived by the media liars is mirrored in people's personal lives. People lie and want to be deceived. They
choose to play dumb, to avoid a confrontation with truth. They want to be nice (Latin,
nescire
, not to
know, to be ignorant) and to be liked. They want to tuck themselves into a safe social and cultural framework
where they imagine they will be safe. They like the doll's house. They choose to live in what Jean Paul Sartre
called bad faith (
mauvaise foi
): In
Existential Psychoanalysis
he
put it thus:
In bad faith it is from myself that I am
hiding the truth. But with this 'lie' to myself, the one to whom the lie is told and the one who lies are one
and the same person, which means that I must know in my capacity as deceiver the truth which is hidden from me
in my capacity as the one deceived.
Such bad faith allows people to fabricate a
second act of bad faith: that they are not responsible for their ignorance of the truths behind the
government's and corporate media's lies and propaganda, even as the shades of the prison house ominously close
around us and the world edges toward global death that could arrive in an instant with nuclear war or limp
along for years of increasing suffering.
Those of us who write about the U.S. led
demented wars and provocations around the world and the complementary death of democracy at home are constantly
flabbergasted and discouraged by the willed ignorance of so many Americans. For while the mainstream media does
the bidding of the power elite, there is ample alternative news and analyses available on the internet from
fine journalists and writers committed to truth, not propaganda. There is actually far too much truth
available, which poses another problem. But it doesn't take a genius to learn how to research important issues
and to learn how to distinguish between bogus and genuine information. It takes a bit of effort, and, more
importantly, the desire to compare multiple, opposing viewpoints and untangle the webs the Web weaves. We are
awash in information (and disinformation) and both good and bad reporting, but it is still available to the
caring inquirer.
The problem is the will to know. But why?
Why the refusal to investigate and question; why the indifference? Stupidity? Okay, there is that. Ignorance?
That too. Willful ignorance, ditto. Laziness, indeed. Careerism and ideology? For certain. Upton Sinclair put
it mildly when he said, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on not
understanding it." Difficult? No, it's almost impossible.
But then there are many very intelligent
people who have nothing to lose and yet adamantly refuse to entertain alternative possibilities to the reigning
orthodoxies that have them in their grip. As do many others, I know many such people who will yes me to death
and then never fully research issues. They will remain in limbo or else wink to themselves that what may be
true couldn't be true. They close down. This is a great dilemma and frustration faced by those who seek to
convince people to take an active part in understanding what is really going on in the world today, especially
as the United States wages war across the globe, threatens Russia, China, and Iran, among many others, and
expands and modernizes its nuclear weapons capabilities.
As for Assange, Manning, and Snowden,
their plight matters not a whit. In fact, they have been rendered invisible inside the doll's house, except as
the murals on the windows flash back their images as threats to the occupants, Russian monsters out to eat them
up. As the great poet Constantine Cavafy wrote long ago in his poem "Waiting for the Barbarians" and they never
come: "Now what's going to happen to us without barbarians? Those people were a kind of solution." Then again,
for people like U.S. Representative Adam Schiff, who knows the Russian barbarians have and will come again,
life must be terrifying as he tries so manfully to bar the gates. The Russians have been the American solution
in this fairy tale for so long that it's hard for many Americans to believe another story.
The Two-Headed Monster
On the one hand, there is the massive
propaganda apparatus operated by American intelligence agencies in conjunction with their media partners.
On the other, there is the human
predilection for untruth and illusions, the sad need to be comforted and to submit to greater "authority,"
gratefully to accept the myths proffered by one's masters. This tendency applies not just to the common people,
but even more so to the intellectual classes, who act as though they are immune. Erich Fromm, writing about
Germans and Hitler, but by extension people everywhere, termed this the need to "escape from freedom," since
freedom conjures up fears of vertiginous aloneness and the need to decide, which in turn evokes the fear of
death.
[5]
Escape
from Freedom
, Erich Fromm, Rinehart & Company, Inc., 1941
There are also many kinds of little
deaths that precede the final one: social, career, money, familiar, etc., that are used to keep people in the
doll's house.
Fifty years ago, the CIA coined the term
"conspiracy theory" as a weapon to be used to dismiss the truths expressed by critics of its murder of
President Kennedy, and those of Malcolm X, MLK, and RFK. All the media echoed the CIA line. While they still
use the term to dismiss and denounce, their control of the mainstream media is so complete today that every
evil government action is immediately seconded, whether it be the lies about the attacks of September 11, 2001,
the wars against Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Iran, etc., the coups disguised as color revolutions
in Ukraine, Venezuela, Bolivia, Hong Kong, the downing of the Malaysian jetliner there, drone murders, the
Iranian "threat," the looting of the American people by the elites, alleged sarin gas attacks in Syria, the
anti-Russia bashing and the Russia-gate farce, the "criminals" Assange, Manning, Snowden – everything. The New
York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Fox News, the Washington Post, CNN, NPR, etc. – all are
stenographers for the deep state.
So much of the ongoing propaganda travels
under the banner of "the war on terror," which is, of course, an outgrowth of the attacks of September 11,
2001, appropriately named and constantly reinforced as 9/11 in a wonderful example of linguistic mind-control:
a constant emergency reminder to engender anxiety, depression, panic, and confusion, four of the symptoms that
lead the DSM "experts" and their followers to diagnose and drug individuals. The term 9/11 was first used in
the New York Times on September 12, 2001 by Bill Keller, the future Times' editor and Iraq war cheerleader.
Just a fortuitous coincidence, of course.
Jacques Ellul on Propaganda
Jacques Ellul has argued convincingly that
modern propaganda in a technological mass society is more complicated than the state and media lying and
deceiving the population. He argues that propaganda meets certain needs of modern people and therefore the
process of deceit is reciprocal.
The modern person feels lost, powerless, and empty. Ellul says, "He realizes
that he depends on decisions over which he has no control, and that realization drives him to despair." But he
can't live in despair; desires that life be meaningful; and wants to feel he lives in a world that makes sense.
He wants to participate and have opinions that suggest he grasps the flow of events. He doesn't so much want
information, but value judgments and preconceived positions that provide him with a framework for living. Ellul
wrote the following in 1965 in his classic book
Propaganda
:
The majority prefers expressing
stupidities to not expressing any opinion: this gives them the feeling of participation. For they need
simple thoughts, elementary explanations, a 'key' that will permit them to take a position, and even
ready-made opinions .The man who keeps himself informed needs a framework .the more complicated the problems
are, the more simple the explanations must be; the more fragmented the canvas, the simpler the pattern; the
more difficult the question, the more all-embracing the solution; the more menacing the reduction of his own
worth, the greater the need for boosting his ego. All this propaganda – and only propaganda – can give him.
[6]
Ellul,
op cit., p. 140
Another way of saying this is that people
want to be provided with myths to direct them to the "truth." But such so-called truth has been preconceived
within the overarching myth provided by propaganda, and while it satisfies people's emotional need for
coherence, it also allows them to think of themselves as free individuals arriving at their own conclusions,
which is a basic function of good propaganda. In today's mass technological society, it is essential that
people be convinced that they are free-thinking individuals acting in good faith. Then they can feel good about
themselves as they lie and act in bad faith.
Culpable Ignorance
It is widely accepted that political
leaders and the mass media lie and dissemble regularly, which, of course, they do. That is their job in an
oligarchy. Today we are subjected to almost total, unrelenting media and government propaganda. Depending on
their political leanings, people direct their anger toward politicians of parties they oppose and media they
believe slant their coverage to favor the opposition. Trump is a liar. No, Obama is a liar. And Hillary
Clinton. No, Fox News. Ridiculous! – it's CNN or NBC. And so on and so forth in this theater of the absurd that
plays out within a megaplex of mainstream media propaganda, where there are many shows but one producer, whose
overall aim is to engineer the consent of all who enter, while setting the different audiences against each
other. It is a very successful charade that evokes name-calling from all quarters.
In other words, for many people their
opponents lie, as do other people, but not them. This is as true in personal as well as public life. Here the
personal and the political converge, despite protestations to the contrary. Dedication to truth is very rare.
But there is another issue with propaganda
that complicates the picture further. People of varying political persuasions can agree that propaganda is
widespread. Many people on the left, and some on the right, would agree with Lisa Pease's statement in her book
on the RFK assassination, A Lie Too Big to Fail: The Real History of the Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy,
that "the way the CIA took over America in the 1960s is
the
story of our time."
[7]
A
Lie Too Big To Fail
, Lisa Pease, Feral House, 2018, pp.500-501
That is also what Garrison
thought when he spoke of the doll's house.
If that is so, then today's propaganda is
anchored in the events of the 1960s, specifically the infamous government assassinations of JFK, Malcolm X,
MLK, and RFK, the truth of which the CIA has worked so hard to conceal. In the fifty or so years since, a vast
amount of new information has made it explicitly clear that these murders were carried out by elements within
the U.S. government, and were done so to silence the voices of four charismatic leaders who were opposed to the
American war machine and the continuation of the Cold War. To turn away from this truth and to ignore its
implications can only be described as an act of bad faith and culpable ignorance, or worse. But that is exactly
what many prominent leftists have done. Then to compound the problem, they have done the same with the attacks
of September 11, 2001.
One cannot help thinking of what the CIA
official Cord Meyer called these people in the 1950s: "the compatible left." He felt that effective CIA
propaganda, beside the need for fascist-minded types such as Allen Dulles and James Jesus Angleton, depended on
"courting" leftists and liberal into its orbit. For so many of the compatible left, those making a lot of money
posing as opponents of the ruling elites but often taking the money of the super-rich, the JFK assassination
and the truth of September 11, 2001 are inconsequential, never to be broached, as if they never happened,
except as the authorities say they did. By ignoring these most in-your-face events with their eyes wide shut, a
coterie of influential leftists has done the work of Orwell's crime-stop and has effectively succeeded in
situating current events in an ahistorical and therefore misleading context that abets U.S. propaganda. They
truncate the full story to present a narrative that distorts the truth.
Without drawing a bold line connecting the
dots from November 22, 1963 up to the present, a critique of the murderous forces ruling the United States is
impossible.
Among the most notable of such failures are
Noam Chomsky, Alexander Cockburn, Howard Zinn, and Chris Hedges, men idolized by many liberals and leftists.
And there are many others who have been deeply influenced by Chomsky, Cockburn, and Zinn and follow in their
footsteps. Their motivations remain a mystery, but there is no doubt their refusals have contributed to the
increased power of those who control the doll's house. To know better and do as they have is surely culpable
ignorance.
From Bad to Worse
Ask yourself: Has the power of the
oligarchic, permanent warfare state with its propaganda and spy networks, increased or decreased in the past
half century? Who is winning the battle, the people or the ruling elites? The answer is obvious. It matters not
at all whether the president has been Trump or Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush, Barack Obama or
George H. W. Bush, Richard Nixon or Jimmy Carter. The power of the national security state has grown under them
all and everyone is left to moan and groan and wonder why. All the while the doll's house has become more and
more sophisticated and powerful with the growth of electronic media and cell phone usage.
The new Cold War now being waged against
Russia and China is a bi-partisan affair, as is the confidence game played by the secret government intended to
create a fractured consciousness in the population. This fragmentation of consciousness prevents people from
grasping the present from within because so many suffer from digital dementia as their attention hops from
input to output in a never-ending flow of mediated, disembodied data. Trump and his followers on one side of
the coin; liberal Democrats on the other. The latter, whose bibles are the
New York Times, NPR, The
Washington Post, Democracy Now
,
The Guardian
, etc. – can only see propaganda when they can
attribute it to Trump or the Russians. The former see everything as a liberal conspiracy to take down Trump.
The liberals have embraced a new McCarthyism and allied themselves with the deep-state forces that they were
once allegedly appalled by, including Republicans. Their embrace of the formerly despised war-monger John
Bolton in the impeachment trial of Trump is a laughable case in point, if it weren't so depraved and slimy. It
surely isn't the bloodthirsty policies of the Trump administration or his bloviating personality, for these
liberals allied themselves with Obama's anti-Russian rhetoric, his support for the U.S. orchestrated
neo-fascist Ukrainian coup, his destruction of Libya, his wars of aggression across the Middle East, his war on
terror, his trillion dollar nuclear weapons modernization, his enjoyment of drone killing, his support for the
coup in Honduras, his embrace of the CIA and his CIA Director John Brennan, his prosecution of whistle-blowers,
etc. The same media that served the CIA so admirably over the decades became the liberals' paragons of truth.
It's enough to make your head spin, which is the point. Spin left, spin right, spin all around, because we have
possessed your mind in this spectacular image game where seeming antinomies are the constancy of the same
through difference, all the presidents coined by the same manufacturer who knows that coin flipping serves to
entertain the audience eager for hope and change.
This is how the political system works to
prevent change. It is why little has changed for the better over half a century and the American empire has
expanded. While it may be true that there are signs that this American hegemony is coming to an end (I am not
convinced), I would not underestimate the power of the U.S. propaganda apparatus to keep people docile and
deluded in the doll's house, despite the valiant efforts of independent truth-tellers.
How, for example, is it possible for so
many people to see such a stark difference between the despicable Trump and the pleasant Obama? They are both
puppets dancing to their masters' tunes – the same masters. They both front for the empire.
In his excellent book,
Obama's Unending Wars: Fronting the Foreign Policy of the Permanent Warfare State
, Jeremy Kuzmarov
assiduously documents Obama's crimes, including his CIA background.
[8]
Obama's
Unending Wars: Fronting the Foreign Policy of the Permanent Warfare State
, Jeremy Kuzmarov, Clarity Press,
2019
As Glen Ford, of Black Agenda Report, says in the first sentence of his forward, "Barack Obama
may go down in presidential history as the most effective-and deceptive-imperialist of them all." Read the book
if you want all the details. They form an overwhelming indictment of the con artist and war criminal that is
irrefutable. But will those who worship at the altar of Barack Obama read it? Of course not. Just as those
deluded ones who voted for the reality television flim-flam man Trump will ignore all the accumulating evidence
that they've been had and are living under a president who is Obama's disguised doppelganger, carrying out the
orders of his national security state bosses. This, too, is well documented, and no doubt another writer will
arise in the years to come to put it between a book's covers.
Yet even Jeremy Kuzmarov fails to see the
link between the JFK assassination and Obama's shilling for the warfare state. His few references to Kennedy
are all negative, suggesting he either is unaware of what Kennedy was doing in the last year of his life and
why he was murdered by the CIA, or something else. He seems to follow Noam Chomsky, a Kennedy hater, in this
regard. I point out this slight flaw in an excellent book because it is symptomatic of certain people on the
left who refuse to complete the circle. If, as Kuzmarov, argues, Obama was CIA from the start and that explains
his extraordinarily close relationship with the CIA's John Brennan, an architect, among many things, of the
CIA's extraordinary rendition program, and that Obama told CIA Director Panetta that the CIA would "get
everything it wanted," and the CIA killed JFK, well, something's amiss, an enormous gap in the analysis of our
current condition.
The doll's house is a mind game of
extraordinary proportions, orchestrated by the perverted power elites that run the show and ably abetted by
their partners in the corporate mass media, even some in the alternative press who mean well but are confused,
or are disinformation agents in the business of sowing confusion together with their mainstream Operation
Mockingbird partners. It is a spectacle of open secrecy, in which the CIA has effectively suckered everyone
into a game of to-and-fro in which only they win.
Our only hope for change is to try and
educate as many people as possible about the linkages between events that started with the CIA coup d'état in
Dallas on November 22, 1963, continued through the killings of Malcolm X, MLK, RFK and on through so much else
up to September 11, 2001, and have brought us to the deeply depressing situation we now find ourselves in where
truthtellers like Julian Assange, Chelsey Manning, and Edward Snowden are criminalized, while the real
perpetrators of terrible evils roam free.
Yes, we must educate but also agitate for
the release of this courageous trio. Their freedom is ours; their imprisonment is ours, whether we know it or
not. The walls are closing in.
Lisa Pease is so right: "The way the CIA
took over America in the 1960s is
the
story of our time, and too few recognize this. We can't fix a
problem we can't even acknowledge exists."
If we don't follow her advice, we will be
toyed with like dolls for a long time to come. There will be no one else to blame.
A good dose of reality will drive a man to drink. Where's my beer?
A good summary:
events that started with the CIA coup d'état in Dallas on November 22, 1963, continued through the
killings of Malcolm X, MLK, RFK and on through so much else up to September 11, 2001, and have brought us to
the deeply depressing situation we now find ourselves in where truthtellers like Julian Assange, Chelsey
Manning, and Edward Snowden are criminalized, while the real perpetrators of terrible evils roam free.
Great article. But, as the author states, he's preaching to the converts while the overwhelming majority want
to remain cocooned within their comfortable ignorance. But even if the veil of ignorance allows a little light
through (as with crackpots), it is quickly shut out because it endangers the security of one's worldview
built-up over the span of one's life. Why step outside and into the storm of uncertainties if conformity
resolves everything without fuss and worry?
Intellect or knowledge, logic or reason, spiritual guidance or
revelation, are not enough to excite the common man to step outside the doll's house and confront the reality
of his existence and his place in the world. One needs all that plus, having learned life's lessons, have the
courage to step fearlessly into the unknown and ready to accept the challenges ahead. He also needs a vision or
a beacon – a symbolic "Mamayev Kurgan" ideal – to embolden and steel him to overcome the hurdles on his road of
discovery and instill the fire of curiosity to go further. And he heeds to ask the ultimate question (What's
the meaning of life?) and fulfill his answer to that question. That's a tall order for the common man in the
post-modern world where the self is all there is.
Considering the above necessary requirements to leave the doll's house, it is not hard to see why so few
seek the light. In the old days religion used to be the source and fulfilment of man's questions and needs; now
he is a lone traveller on the road to nowhere.
On the other hand, for the less endowed among us to make the grade, a course in Moral Philosophy and
Marxism, could be a short-cut but not much easier for the turgid prose and cerebral wear.
As a young veteran (grunt) of the war in Vietnam I learned to question everything when Nixon bombed N. Vietnam
to the peace table (Christmas bombing). I said to myself [if he could get the N. Vietnamese to come running
back to the peace negotiations with just ten days of serious bombing, then they could have done it at any time
during that war but didn't]. After that, I question everything. Sure enough, everything coming from our
government is a lie, even the words and, and the.
On The True Nature of All Governments[ Past, Present, or Future]:
"Because they are all ultimately funded via both direct and indirect theft [taxes], and counterfeiting
[central bank monopolies], all governments are essentially, at their very cores, 100% corrupt criminal scams
which cannot be "reformed" or "improved", simply because of their innate criminal nature." onebornfree
"People do not expect to find chastity in a whorehouse. Why, then, do they expect to find honesty and
humanity in government, a congeries of institutions whose modus operandi consists of lying, cheating, stealing,
and if need be, murdering those who resist?" H. L. Mencken
"To be GOVERNED is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated,
enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures
who have neither the right nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so. To be GOVERNED is to be at every operation,
at every transaction noted, registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed,
authorized, admonished, prevented, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under pretext of public
utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be placed under contribution, drilled, fleeced, exploited,
monopolized, extorted from, squeezed, hoaxed, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of
complaint, to be repressed, fined, vilified, harassed, hunted down, abused, clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked,
imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and to crown all, mocked, ridiculed,
derided, outraged, dishonored. That is government; that is its justice; that is its morality." General Idea of
the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century, translated by John Beverly Robinson (London: Freedom Press, 1923),
pp. 293-294." ~ Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
The Nazis had a name for their propaganda and mind-control operations:
weltanschauungskrieg
–
"world view warfare."
Why make "Nazi" the first thought planted in the reader's mind, as if to suggest that USAians -- and CIA --
developed their bad habits from the Nazis?
To be sure, Curtin spent the next sentences and paragraphs explaining that Nazis learned their psychological
warfare techniques from Bernays, and that USA/CIA has perfected and expanded those techniques to the point that
they're all-pervasive.
@Biff
The simple fact is that Americans are not a reality-based people. They are greedy, egotistical and violent and
love to bs themselves to feel better about themselves. They celebrate the abnormal (LGBTQI) and can hold two
opposing notions at the same–e.g. they tear down statues of the Confederate leaders even as they raise slavers
Washington and Jefferson to sainthood.
'It is true that average Americans have not built the doll's house; that is the handiwork of the vast
interconnected and far-reaching propaganda arms of the U.S. government and their media accomplices.'
True,
but what is also true is that there is nothing new or American to this doll house. It's Plato's cave that has
been designed by rulers who need myths (of their greatness) in order to 'justifiably' rule over the population.
That is as old as the world.
That we live in this reality may have nothing to do with bad faith. It could just as well be that people see
no other option than to be believe in the narrative that is spun before their eyes. Please note that propaganda
is not made for people who know from experience (bombs e.g.) how empires work, but for people who live
comfortable as long as they believe in the myth. The prospect of nihilism is what people keep thinking that
what is not true is true. And it could only be bad faith if they could acknowledge that there is an alternative
reality (which they can't, because they consider that nihilism). So here is a job for you, dear reader,
convince your neighbour who believes in the myth that the myth is just that (a myth) AND provide him or her an
alternative reality that is not leading to chaos and nihilism.
I am happy that Curtin calls the phonies by name: Hedges, Chomsky These people have some interesting views,
but very little and if you would believe all their words you would surely end up in a blind alley where you
must vote for a Democrat (Chomsky), or get tear gassed by the police (Hedges)
What's more, Martin/Malcolm et al. is best viewed as a program. CIA also killed two of Malcolm's African
interlocutors and the friend who wrote a screenplay about his life (there's a good book about it by Karl
Evannzz.) Rainbow sparkle pony Jesse Jackson got his start in life by trying and failing to start the gunfight
that was going to get Martin King killed in the 902nd MIG's bazooka crossfire. Dick Ober also killed Fred
Hampton, students at Jackson State, and a long list of others. John Burge prototyped Abu Ghraib with his
torture chamber in Chicago.
The thing that scares CIA most is international solidarity. The outside world
understands the CIA regime perfectly well. And they're assembling the institutional framework for dismantling
CIA and prosecuting the command structure it imposed on our country. CIA's murder panic over the Bandung
Conference dwarfed the Red Scare in scale and intensity. That's because CIA's not scared of communism, they're
scared of US public contact with the outside world. When Churchill said an iron curtain will come down, he
meant it would come down around you.
Is there a way to get more foreign commenters here? Association in a plaintext forum is necessarily limited,
but Unz would be greatly benefited by the geographic reach of e.g.
moonofalabama.org
(I see denk found this place already.)
The Garrison interview is an important piece as an introduction to the subject the author tackles here. Any of
Garrison's observations can be quoted as revelatory for those who have never considered the basic theme of this
article, but here's one in particular:
"Q. 8. Has the change in the administration in Washington
[Johnson to Nixon] affected your relations with the federal agencies whose cooperation until now has been
denied you?
A. There has been no change of any kind in the power base in Washington. There have been seeming changes but
the warfare machine and its extensive intelligence tentacles, domestic as well as foreign, remain untouched.
Congress is free to debate concerning daylight savings time,and the president is free to re-paint the rooms of
the White House any color he chooses,but there is not likely to be any diminution in the power of the warrior
chieftains and their allies in the government.
The President of the United States is a transient official in the regard of the warfare
conglomerate. His assignment is to act as master of ceremonies in the awarding of
posthumous medals, to serve when needed as a salesman for the military hardware
manufacturers,and to speak as often as possible about the nation's desire for peace.
He is not free to trespass on the preserve of the war interests nor even to acknowledge that such an
organism exists. He is not free because of the collective power to remove the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff nor the heads of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He must
re-appoint them because of their amazing efficiency. That is his assignment in the game. The Chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff used to be required to be replaced every two years. No such change has been made since
November 22nd, 1963.
Nor has there ever been any mention in the mass media of the curious
end of what once was not merely custom but a requirement of law. Apparently, like so much else that has
happened since 1963, it is not newsworthy. "
This interviews took place in 1969. Not much has changed since then.
@ThereisaGod
Yes, brilliant in almost all respects except the conclusion, since it's organized Jewry that's taken over the
United States. Focusing on the CIA's activities is confusing cause with effect in the way blaming these endless
wars on the "MIC" deflects attention from the masters behind the screen.
The quotes from Jacque Ellul are right on target all these years later, and more so. But, what the article's
author forgot to add was Ellul's conclusion that it's the most educated among us who are far and away the most
influenced by propaganda because of their need to feel well informed within their social circles. Voltaire
pointed out that in an age of disbelief, as ours is for the educated classes, damnation now takes the form of
social irrelevance. Can you imagine going to a reception in DC and not knowing what the actors were reading on
CNN or Fox News last night?
As the late Underground Grammarian, Richard Mitchell, put it, college
mis
educated Americans fancy
themselves educated and yet generally don't know who authored their thoughts. Ellul called education
"pre-propaganda," and so our brainwashed kids now regard lying crap like climate change as science, accept the
fiendish chemical and surgical transgendering of their emotionally troubled classmates as virtuous, and believe
that male sodomy, which is factually the externalization of coprophilia and often coprophagia, is not only
something rather gay, but an expression of love. If today's college kids vote, we could get Mayor Pete as
president solely because he's "gay."
Voting does little more than legitimize the grave evils committed in our name. Democracy in America is now
close to mobocracy and ensures pretty much the opposite of its supposed virtues read from the same script on
CNN and Fox News every night. The president, in any case, as with every president before him since JFK, has
revealed who his true masters always were by coming very close to criminalizing any hint of criticism of
Israel, which in turn is not so much a country as it is a
de facto
exclave of organized Jewry in
America.
A very nice piece of work.
I love the Harold Pinter quote.
And Jim Garrison, despite some errors, was simply a remarkable man. I read his very articulate books and saw
him in interviews.
He never had quite the complete picture, as you might expect with all the clever, well-paid people of CIA
and FBI working against him. And America's mainline press was dedicated to diminishing and defaming him, how
else could it be?
But he got an awfully lot right, and his efforts should have made more of a difference to more Americans,
but he was literally portrayed as a person with mental problems and as a crook. Just the intensity of the
efforts to do so should tell you something.
I was long a fairly serious student of the Kennedy Assassination, and I understand many of the details that
were routinely glossed over or misrepresented.
The fact is Kennedy was the only President in modern American history to oppose the unelected establishment.
He did so on several important matters.
And he did so at a time when the CIA, under the pleasant and avuncular Eisenhower who wanted to avoid open
military hostilities, had given the Agency free rein pretty much to do as it pleased in many places of the
world.
It was arrogant with its success and privilege and deeply resented Kennedy's approach to exerting
Presidential authority. Kennedy's threats and firings after the Bay of Pigs fiasco plus his later efforts to
establish good backchannel communication with Russia and, to a lesser extent, Cuba, made him a doomed man. His
relations with Israel and its determination to acquire nuclear weapons went against the grain of the
establishment. His important relationship with Mary Pinchot Meyer was also a dark cloud over him, and Mary was
murdered a year after Kennedy, her murder never solved.
An important bottom line consideration concerning the Warren Commission was Bertrand Russell's profound
question, never answered, "If, as we are told, Oswald was the lone assassin, where is the issue of national
security?"
Over the years, I've done a good deal of serious writing on the assassination. Readers will find some
intriguing material in the following:
I note you credited Edward Curtin's epistle as two-x's "brilliant." Okay, okay.
Fyi, early this morning & while quite into the article, I was, as recommended, prepped to activate my debit
card & buy the book, "The Journal of History & Deep Politics," which might yet happen.
Nonetheless, I arrived at the strange part where Ed Curtin opined, "Then again, for people like U.S.
Representative Adam Schiff
,
who knows the Russian barbarians have & will come again, life must be a terrifying as he tries to so manfully
bar the gates."
Haha, (Gasp) The bug-eyed
Jewish & Neo-Bolshie barbarian, Adam Schiff, made ZUS political history by lying about the zealot-Likud Chosen
One, President Trumpstein.
Then, voila, Ed Curtin nobly turned to Jacques Ellul to bring sense into American dumb goyim heads, and who
wrote veritically downward and wordy, yawn:
"The majority prefers expressing stupidities to not expressing any opinion: this gives them the feeling of
participation. For they need simple thoughts, elementary explanations, a 'key' that will permit them to take a
position, and even ready-made opinions .The man who keeps himself informed needs a framework .the more
complicated the problems are, the more simple the explanations must be;"
Well, either Mr. or Ms. ThereisaGod, thank you!
Fyi, & as the unHoly Land & the Netanyahu/Kushner Greater Israel "deal" is about to explode into WW3, I still
might buy the book,
but I
shall never leave behind the plain-spoken & affordable sermon, issued by a Nazarene & nearby the Sea of
Galilee,
,
"The Beatitudes."
But why suggest that it was the drop of Nazi ink that sullied the milk of CIA purity? Why not treat CIA
as its own being, sui generis, and attempt to expose the roots of the evil that CIA represents?
I suggest that that exploration would expose not the evil Nazis but roots entangled in the Hebrew mythos
and in zionism; and that, ironically, rather than exemplifying that evil, Nazis recognized and attempted to
extract that malign influence.
Brilliant!
The "Nazis" were pikers when it came to propaganda, not because they were manipulative but because they
tended to eschew the "big lie" as its operative principle, which is exactly the opposite of the official
narrative. Hitler did not propose the "big lie" as a means of mass control, he condemned it! Goebbels observed
that good propaganda must be based upon the truth.
The archetypal infotainment prole is subjected relentlessly to History Channel level propaganda with Hitler
shrieking wildly (without context or subtitles), the iconic striped pajama pathos and roaring Stuka terror. We
Dumbmericans will buy anything about history provided it has the right packaging.
This is how the system works, and for most Americans, it is not happening. It doesn't matter. They don't
care, just as
they don't care that Obama backed the 2009 coup d'état in Honduras that has resulted in so
many deaths at the hands of U.S trained killers,
and then Trump ranted about all these "non-white"
people fleeing to the U.S. to escape a hell created by the U.S., as it has been doing throughout Latin
America for so long.
Honduras will receive 1,000 Israeli soldiers to train the country's army for border protection, fight
against drug trafficking
,
investigation, and counterterrorism.
[notice how eliminating a comma =
truth-telling]
The main mission of the troops is to train for border protection to stop migrants fleeing Honduras to the
U.S., especially children.
This would be the second time that Honduras is allowing foreign military personnel in the territory and the
first time in Israel's history to send troops abroad.
@Wizard of Oz
You make a good point. The family centres on the children and finding them a place in the world, which means a
place in the doll's house, which means our own place is to believe what the elite tells us.
The Bush bank helped the Thyssens make the Nazi steel that killed Allied solders. As bad as financing the
Nazi war machine may seem, aiding and abetting the Holocaust was worse.
@Nonny Mouse
Perhaps not, but I don't know of any other "civilized" country that serially bombs/invades other countries that
have not even threatened it or have the capacity to do so
@Mulegino1
Am impressed at how Mulegino1 said to SolontoCroesus: "We Dumbmericans will buy anything about history provided
it has the right packaging."
Soon perhaps around Purim time, & after his zio-impeachment acquittal, the
unchained President Trumpstein will take revenge on the ethnically cleansed Palestinians for their leadership's
having snubbed (
)
The Steal/Deal of the Century.
Doubtless, Muley, International Supremacist Jewry has the "right packaging," Thank you!
" The modern person feels lost, powerless, and empty. Ellul says, "He realizes that he depends on decisions
over which he has no control, and that realization drives him to despair." But he can't live in despair;
desires that life be meaningful; and wants to feel he lives in a world that makes sense "
You answer your own
questions I believe.
" Depending on their political leanings, people direct their anger toward politicians of parties they oppose
and media they believe slant their coverage to favor the opposition "
It relieves tension even if ineffectual. They do this because the only other answer is war against the
State. True if it was a mass movement the deep State would be soon overthrown but when someone does this they
pay all the cost and no one else does. To do so is to be dead and no one will likely know. It will end when
enough people feel like they would rather be dead than go on like this.
"And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security
operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and
had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when
they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror
at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing
left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers,
pokers, or whatever else was at hand? The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and
transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If if We
didn't love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation . We purely and simply
deserved everything that happened afterward."
Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
I agree with Solzhenitsyn except for the part that they deserved it. NO they didn't for reasons I stated
above. No one NOT in the camps knew for sure what happened to all these people. They could speculate but they
didn't KNOW. So risking everything for something you suspect is not normal.
There's also the fact that most normal people wouldn't dream of doing some of the vast evil things the
psychopaths that run things do. They couldn't imagine themselves doing anything remotely like this so unless
they have solid proof, and even then, they just have a hard time believing people can be so evil in a such a
straight forward systematic way.
While truth-tellers Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning sit inside jail cells and Edward Snowden lives in
exile in Russia,
I
think this is an excellent essay, as far as it goes, but Assange's declaration that 9/11 is a false
conspiracy rules him out as a truth-teller.
"I'm constantly annoyed that people are distracted by false conspiracies such as 9/11, when all around we
provide evidence of real conspiracies, for war or mass financial fraud."
-- Julian Assange
And Snowden?
I was right outside the NSA [on 9/11], so I remember the tension on that day. I remember hearing on the
radio, 'the plane's hitting,' and I remember thinking my grandfather, who worked for the FBI at the time,
was in the Pentagon when the plane hit it
I predict that someday in the not-so-distant future, the entire world will be shocked to
learn that Andrew Yang is actually the mutated clone splice of Elon Musk and Bob Barker.
Amy Klobuchar says she's a 'fresh face', yet everything about Klobuchar is as stale as a
twenty-year-old Twinkie. If 59 is the new 38, then in Amy's world we're all still living in
1999.
Early on in the debate, ABC briefly showed a split screen with Pete Buttigieg in both
frames, which leads to the inevitable question: technical glitch or wishful thinking?
Tom Steyer is like the high school basketball coach in that old TV show ' The White Shadow '. Tom gave a rousing pep
talk to all the players about the need to beat Donald Trump, although I kept waiting for him to
yell over at Pete, "Watch those elbows, Salami!"
Desperate to revive her flagging campaign, Elizabeth Warren now argues that the way
Democrats win elections is by calling out corruption. Liz then proved her brave commitment to
this bold new strategy by spending the entire evening not uttering a single word about
the Iowa Caucuses.
When Joe Biden yells, clouds tremble.
Joe did have a nice moment when he gave Bernie Sanders a hug in response to a question about
Hillary Clinton's claim that nobody likes Bernie. A very classy gesture. Even so, in the
interests of party unity I think we should ALL be extremely grateful that Bernie does not have
a lot of hair.
"Is anybody else on the stage concerned about having a democratic socialist at the head of
the democratic ticket?" - 10 minutes in and we've had one question asked three different
ways. #DemDebate
... He and his supporters have insisted that he is the "most electable" candidate, but for
some reason he is the candidate that very few actual voters want to elect.
...The embarrassment was lessened by the chaos and incompetence of the Iowa Democratic
Party's handling of the caucus results, but not by much.
[T]oday her model tells her the Democrats are a near lock for the presidency in 2020, and
are likely to gain House seats and have a decent shot at retaking the Senate.
Can someone please tell me where I can bet against her. The PMCs will be enthralled.
I wouldn't be that quick. But in any case, you're missing the biggest tree in her forest
(reversing the old axiom):
The parties don't win elections for the reasons the cognoscenti, which includes at least
pretty much everyone important in the Democratic Party – and a lot of the Republican
Party too if you recall all the gnashing of teeth about Trump in 2016 – believe.
I know Trump didn't win because of "racism, period" for example. The Dems somehow do (hey,
your candidate was white, morons) and weirdly enough, sifting thru Trump's recent verbal
diarrhea (ewww), I think the Republicans think so too.
It's comical in a horrifying way how the people voted to be "representatives" in this
"representative democracy" actually have no idea what the people they are supposedly
representing actually think. That has pretty much brought us to this "voting against" stage,
b/c nobody says anything anybody really wants to vote for.
His "closing arguments" speeches last week were respectively two-and-a-half hours and ninety
minutes long and were inevitably praised by the mainstream media as "magisterial," "powerful,"
and "impressive."
"... Americans were the victims of an elaborate con job, pelted with a daily barrage of threat inflation, distortions, deceptions and lies, not about tactics or strategy or war plans, but about justifications for war. The lies were aimed not at confusing Saddam's regime, but the American people. By the start of the war, 66 per cent of Americans thought Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11 and 79 per cent thought he was close to having a nuclear weapon. ..."
"... This charade wouldn't have worked without a gullible or a complicit press corps. Victoria Clarke, who developed the Pentagon plan for embedded reports, put it succinctly a few weeks before the war began: "Media coverage of any future operation will to a large extent shape public perception." ..."
"... During the Vietnam War, TV images of maimed GIs and napalmed villages suburbanized opposition to the war and helped hasten the U.S. withdrawal. The Bush gang meant to turn the Vietnam phenomenon on its head by using TV as a force to propel the U.S.A. into a war that no one really wanted. ..."
"... When the Pentagon needed a heroic story, the press obliged. Jessica Lynch became the war's first instant celebrity. Here was a neo-gothic tale of a steely young woman wounded in a fierce battle, captured and tortured by ruthless enemies, and dramatically saved from certain death by a team of selfless rescuers, knights in camo and night-vision goggles. ..."
"... Back in 1988, the Post felt much differently about Saddam and his weapons of mass destruction. When reports trickled out about the gassing of Iranian troops, the Washington Post's editorial page shrugged off the massacres, calling the mass poisonings "a quirk of war." ..."
"... The Bush team displayed a similar amnesia. When Iraq used chemical weapons in grisly attacks on Iran, the U.S. government not only didn't object, it encouraged Saddam. ..."
"... Nothing sums up this unctuous approach more brazenly than MSNBC's firing of liberal talk show host Phil Donahue on the eve of the war. The network replaced the Donahue Show with a running segment called Countdown: Iraq, featuring the usual nightly coterie of retired generals, security flacks, and other cheerleaders for invasion. ..."
The war on Iraq won't be remembered for how it was waged so much as for how it was sold. It
was a propaganda war, a war of perception management, where loaded phrases, such as "weapons of
mass destruction" and "rogue state" were hurled like precision weapons at the target audience:
us.
To understand the Iraq war you don't need to consult generals, but the spin doctors and PR
flacks who stage-managed the countdown to war from the murky corridors of Washington where
politics, corporate spin and psy-ops spooks cohabit.
Consider the picaresque journey of Tony Blair's plagiarized dossier on Iraq, from a grad
student's website to a cut-and-paste job in the prime minister's bombastic speech to the House
of Commons. Blair, stubborn and verbose, paid a price for his grandiose puffery. Bush, who
looted whole passages from Blair's speech for his own clumsy presentations, has skated freely
through the tempest. Why?
Unlike Blair, the Bush team never wanted to present a legal case for war. They had no
interest in making any of their allegations about Iraq hold up to a standard of proof. The real
effort was aimed at amping up the mood for war by using the psychology of fear.
Facts were never important to the Bush team. They were disposable nuggets that could be
discarded at will and replaced by whatever new rationale that played favorably with their polls
and focus groups. The war was about weapons of mass destruction one week, al-Qaeda the next.
When neither allegation could be substantiated on the ground, the fall back position became the
mass graves (many from the Iran/Iraq war where the U.S.A. backed Iraq) proving that Saddam was
an evil thug who deserved to be toppled. The motto of the Bush PR machine was: Move on. Don't
explain. Say anything to conceal the perfidy behind the real motives for war. Never look back.
Accuse the questioners of harboring unpatriotic sensibilities. Eventually, even the cagey
Wolfowitz admitted that the official case for war was made mainly to make the invasion
palatable, not to justify it.
The Bush claque of neocon hawks viewed the Iraq war as a product and, just like a new pair
of Nikes, it required a roll-out campaign to soften up the consumers. The same techniques (and
often the same PR gurus) that have been used to hawk cigarettes, SUVs and nuclear waste dumps
were deployed to retail the Iraq war. To peddle the invasion, Donald Rumsfeld and Colin Powell
and company recruited public relations gurus into top-level jobs at the Pentagon and the State
Department. These spinmeisters soon had more say over how the rationale for war on Iraq should
be presented than intelligence agencies and career diplomats. If the intelligence didn't fit
the script, it was shaded, retooled or junked.
Take Charlotte Beers whom Powell picked as undersecretary of state in the post-9/11 world.
Beers wasn't a diplomat. She wasn't even a politician. She was a grand diva of spin, known on
the business and gossip pages as "the queen of Madison Avenue." On the strength of two
advertising campaigns, one for Uncle Ben's Rice and another for Head and Shoulder's dandruff
shampoo, Beers rocketed to the top of the heap in the PR world, heading two giant PR houses:
Ogilvy and Mathers as well as J. Walter Thompson.
At the State Department Beers, who had met Powell in 1995 when they both served on the board
of Gulf Airstream, worked at, in Powell's words, "the branding of U.S. foreign policy." She
extracted more than $500 million from Congress for her Brand America campaign, which largely
focused on beaming U.S. propaganda into the Muslim world, much of it directed at teens.
"Public diplomacy is a vital new arm in what will combat terrorism over time," said Beers.
"All of a sudden we are in this position of redefining who America is, not only for ourselves,
but for the outside world." Note the rapt attention Beers pays to the manipulation of
perception, as opposed, say, to alterations of U.S. policy.
Old-fashioned diplomacy involves direct communication between representatives of nations, a
conversational give and take, often fraught with deception (see April Glaspie), but an exchange
nonetheless. Public diplomacy, as defined by Beers, is something else entirely. It's a one-way
street, a unilateral broadcast of American propaganda directly to the public, domestic and
international, a kind of informational carpet-bombing.
The themes of her campaigns were as simplistic and flimsy as a Bush press conference. The
American incursions into Afghanistan and Iraq were all about bringing the balm of "freedom" to
oppressed peoples. Hence, the title of the U.S. war: Operation Iraqi Freedom, where cruise
missiles were depicted as instruments of liberation. Bush himself distilled the Beers equation
to its bizarre essence: "This war is about peace."
Beers quietly resigned her post a few weeks before the first volley of tomahawk missiles
battered Baghdad. From her point of view, the war itself was already won, the fireworks of
shock and awe were all after play.
Over at the Pentagon, Donald Rumsfeld drafted Victoria "Torie" Clarke as his director of
public affairs. Clarke knew the ropes inside the Beltway. Before becoming Rumsfeld's
mouthpiece, she had commanded one of the world's great parlors for powerbrokers: Hill and
Knowlton's D.C. office.
Almost immediately upon taking up her new gig, Clarke convened regular meetings with a
select group of Washington's top private PR specialists and lobbyists to develop a marketing
plan for the Pentagon's forthcoming terror wars. The group was filled with heavy-hitters and
was strikingly bipartisan in composition. She called it the Rumsfeld Group and it included PR
executive Sheila Tate, columnist Rich Lowry, and Republican political consultant Rich
Galen.
The brain trust also boasted top Democratic fixer Tommy Boggs, brother of NPR's Cokie
Roberts and son of the late Congressman Hale Boggs of Louisiana. At the very time Boggs was
conferring with top Pentagon brass on how to frame the war on terror, he was also working
feverishly for the royal family of Saudi Arabia. In 2002 alone, the Saudis paid his Qorvis PR
firm $20.2 million to protect its interests in Washington. In the wake of hostile press
coverage following the exposure of Saudi links to the 9/11 hijackers, the royal family needed
all the well-placed help it could buy. They seem to have gotten their money's worth. Boggs'
felicitous influence-peddling may help to explain why the references to Saudi funding of
al-Qaeda were dropped from the recent congressional report on the investigation into
intelligence failures and 9/11.
According to the trade publication PR Week, the Rumsfeld Group sent "messaging advice" to
the Pentagon. The group told Clarke and Rumsfeld that in order to get the American public to
buy into the war on terrorism, they needed to suggest a link to nation states, not just
nebulous groups such as al-Qaeda. In other words, there needed to be a fixed target for the
military campaigns, some distant place to drop cruise missiles and cluster bombs. They
suggested the notion (already embedded in Rumsfeld's mind) of playing up the notion of
so-called rogue states as the real masters of terrorism. Thus was born the Axis of Evil, which,
of course, wasn't an "axis" at all, since two of the states, Iran and Iraq, hated each other,
and neither had anything at all to do with the third, North Korea.
Tens of millions in federal money were poured into private public relations and media firms
working to craft and broadcast the Bush dictat that Saddam had to be taken out before the Iraqi
dictator blew up the world by dropping chemical and nuclear bombs from long-range drones. Many
of these PR executives and image consultants were old friends of the high priests in the Bush
inner sanctum. Indeed, they were veterans, like Cheney and Powell, of the previous war against
Iraq, another engagement that was more spin than combat .
At the top of the list was John Rendon, head of the D.C. firm, the Rendon Group. Rendon is
one of Washington's heaviest hitters, a Beltway fixer who never let political affiliation stand
in the way of an assignment. Rendon served as a media consultant for Michael Dukakis and Jimmy
Carter, as well as Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Whenever the Pentagon wanted to go to war, he
offered his services at a price. During Desert Storm, Rendon pulled in $100,000 a month from
the Kuwaiti royal family. He followed this up with a $23 million contract from the CIA to
produce anti-Saddam propaganda in the region.
As part of this CIA project, Rendon created and named the Iraqi National Congress and tapped
his friend Ahmed Chalabi, the shady financier, to head the organization.
Shortly after 9/11, the Pentagon handed the Rendon Group another big assignment: public
relations for the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan. Rendon was also deeply involved in the planning
and public relations for the pre-emptive war on Iraq, though both Rendon and the Pentagon
refuse to disclose the details of the group's work there.
But it's not hard to detect the manipulative hand of Rendon behind many of the Iraq war's
signature events, including the toppling of the Saddam statue (by U.S. troops and Chalabi
associates) and videotape of jubilant Iraqis waving American flags as the Third Infantry rolled
by them. Rendon had pulled off the same stunt in the first Gulf War, handing out American flags
to Kuwaitis and herding the media to the orchestrated demonstration. "Where do you think they
got those American flags?" clucked Rendon in 1991. "That was my assignment."
The Rendon Group may also have had played a role in pushing the phony intelligence that has
now come back to haunt the Bush administration. In December of 2002, Robert Dreyfuss reported
that the inner circle of the Bush White House preferred the intelligence coming from Chalabi
and his associates to that being proffered by analysts at the CIA.
So Rendon and his circle represented a new kind of off-the-shelf PSYOPs , the privatization
of official propaganda. "I am not a national security strategist or a military tactician," said
Rendon. "I am a politician, and a person who uses communication to meet public policy or
corporate policy objectives. In fact, I am an information warrior and a perception
manager."
What exactly, is perception management? The Pentagon defines it this way: "actions to convey
and/or deny selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence their
emotions, motives and objective reasoning." In other words, lying about the intentions of the
U.S. government. In a rare display of public frankness, the Pentagon actually let slip its plan
(developed by Rendon) to establish a high-level den inside the Department Defense for
perception management. They called it the Office of Strategic Influence and among its many
missions was to plant false stories in the press.
Nothing stirs the corporate media into outbursts of pious outrage like an official
government memo bragging about how the media are manipulated for political objectives. So the
New York Times and Washington Post threw indignant fits about the Office of Strategic
Influence; the Pentagon shut down the operation, and the press gloated with satisfaction on its
victory. Yet, Rumsfeld told the Pentagon press corps that while he was killing the office, the
same devious work would continue. "You can have the corpse," said Rumsfeld. "You can have the
name. But I'm going to keep doing every single thing that needs to be done. And I have."
At a diplomatic level, despite the hired guns and the planted stories, this image war was
lost. It failed to convince even America's most fervent allies and dependent client states that
Iraq posed much of a threat. It failed to win the blessing of the U.N. and even NATO, a wholly
owned subsidiary of Washington. At the end of the day, the vaunted coalition of the willing
consisted of Britain, Spain, Italy, Australia, and a cohort of former Soviet bloc nations. Even
so, the citizens of the nations that cast their lot with the U.S.A. overwhelmingly opposed the
war.
Domestically, it was a different story. A population traumatized by terror threats and
shattered economy became easy prey for the saturation bombing of the Bush message that Iraq was
a terrorist state linked to al-Qaeda that was only minutes away from launching attacks on
America with weapons of mass destruction.
Americans were the victims of an elaborate con job, pelted with a daily barrage of
threat inflation, distortions, deceptions and lies, not about tactics or strategy or war plans,
but about justifications for war. The lies were aimed not at confusing Saddam's regime, but the
American people. By the start of the war, 66 per cent of Americans thought Saddam Hussein was
behind 9/11 and 79 per cent thought he was close to having a nuclear weapon.
Of course, the closest Saddam came to possessing a nuke was a rusting gas centrifuge buried
for 13 years in the garden of Mahdi Obeidi, a retired Iraqi scientist. Iraq didn't have any
functional chemical or biological weapons. In fact, it didn't even possess any SCUD missiles,
despite erroneous reports fed by Pentagon PR flacks alleging that it had fired SCUDs into
Kuwait.
This charade wouldn't have worked without a gullible or a complicit press corps.
Victoria Clarke, who developed the Pentagon plan for embedded reports, put it succinctly a few
weeks before the war began: "Media coverage of any future operation will to a large extent
shape public perception."
During the Vietnam War, TV images of maimed GIs and napalmed villages suburbanized
opposition to the war and helped hasten the U.S. withdrawal. The Bush gang meant to turn the
Vietnam phenomenon on its head by using TV as a force to propel the U.S.A. into a war that no
one really wanted.
What the Pentagon sought was a new kind of living room war, where instead of photos of
mangled soldiers and dead Iraqi kids, they could control the images Americans viewed and to a
large extent the content of the stories. By embedding reporters inside selected divisions,
Clarke believed the Pentagon could count on the reporters to build relationships with the
troops and to feel dependent on them for their own safety. It worked, naturally. One reporter
for a national network trembled on camera that the U.S. Army functioned as "our protectors."
The late David Bloom of NBC confessed on the air that he was willing to do "anything and
everything they can ask of us."
When the Pentagon needed a heroic story, the press obliged. Jessica Lynch became the
war's first instant celebrity. Here was a neo-gothic tale of a steely young woman wounded in a
fierce battle, captured and tortured by ruthless enemies, and dramatically saved from certain
death by a team of selfless rescuers, knights in camo and night-vision goggles. Of course,
nearly every detail of her heroic adventure proved to be as fictive and maudlin as any
made-for-TV-movie. But the ordeal of Private Lynch, which dominated the news for more than a
week, served its purpose: to distract attention from a stalled campaign that was beginning to
look at lot riskier than the American public had been hoodwinked into believing.
The Lynch story was fed to the eager press by a Pentagon operation called Combat Camera, the
Army network of photographers, videographers and editors that sends 800 photos and 25 video
clips a day to the media. The editors at Combat Camera carefully culled the footage to present
the Pentagon's montage of the war, eliding such unsettling images as collateral damage, cluster
bombs, dead children and U.S. soldiers, napalm strikes and disgruntled troops.
"A lot of our imagery will have a big impact on world opinion," predicted Lt. Jane Larogue,
director of Combat Camera in Iraq. She was right. But as the hot war turned into an even hotter
occupation, the Pentagon, despite airy rhetoric from occupation supremo Paul Bremer about
installing democratic institutions such as a free press, moved to tighten its monopoly on the
flow images out of Iraq. First, it tried to shut down Al Jazeera, the Arab news channel. Then
the Pentagon intimated that it would like to see all foreign TV news crews banished from
Baghdad.
Few newspapers fanned the hysteria about the threat posed by Saddam's weapons of mass
destruction as sedulously as did the Washington Post. In the months leading up to the war, the
Post's pro-war op-eds outnumbered the anti-war columns by a 3-to-1 margin.
Back in 1988, the Post felt much differently about Saddam and his weapons of mass
destruction. When reports trickled out about the gassing of Iranian troops, the Washington
Post's editorial page shrugged off the massacres, calling the mass poisonings "a quirk of
war."
The Bush team displayed a similar amnesia. When Iraq used chemical weapons in grisly
attacks on Iran, the U.S. government not only didn't object, it encouraged Saddam.
Anything to punish Iran was the message coming from the White House. Donald Rumsfeld himself
was sent as President Ronald Reagan's personal envoy to Baghdad. Rumsfeld conveyed the bold
message than an Iraq defeat would be viewed as a "strategic setback for the United States."
This sleazy alliance was sealed with a handshake caught on videotape. When CNN reporter Jamie
McIntyre replayed the footage for Rumsfeld in the spring of 2003, the secretary of defense
snapped, "Where'd you get that? Iraqi television?"
The current crop of Iraq hawks also saw Saddam much differently then. Take the writer Laura
Mylroie, sometime colleague of the New York Times' Judy Miller, who persists in peddling the
ludicrous conspiracy that Iraq was behind the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.
How times have changed! In 1987, Mylroie felt downright cuddly toward Saddam. She wrote an
article for the New Republic titled "Back Iraq: Time for a U.S. Tilt in the Mideast," arguing
that the U.S. should publicly embrace Saddam's secular regime as a bulwark against the Islamic
fundamentalists in Iran. The co-author of this mesmerizing weave of wonkery was none other than
Daniel Pipes, perhaps the nation's most bellicose Islamophobe. "The American weapons that Iraq
could make good use of include remotely scatterable and anti-personnel mines and
counterartillery radar," wrote Mylroie and Pipes. "The United States might also consider
upgrading intelligence it is supplying Baghdad."
In the rollout for the war, Mylroie seemed to be everywhere hawking the invasion of Iraq.
She would often appear on two or three different networks in the same day. How did the reporter
manage this feat? She had help in the form of Eleana Benador, the media placement guru who runs
Benador Associates. Born in Peru, Benador parlayed her skills as a linguist into a lucrative
career as media relations whiz for the Washington foreign policy elite. She also oversees the
Middle East Forum, a fanatically pro-Zionist white paper mill. Her clients include some of the
nation's most fervid hawks, including Michael Ledeen, Charles Krauthammer, Al Haig, Max Boot,
Daniel Pipes, Richard Perle, and Judy Miller. During the Iraq war, Benador's assignment was to
embed this squadron of pro-war zealots into the national media, on talk shows, and op-ed
pages.
Benador not only got them the gigs, she also crafted the theme and made sure they all stayed
on message. "There are some things, you just have to state them in a different way, in a
slightly different way," said Benador. "If not, people get scared." Scared of intentions of
their own government.
It could have been different. All of the holes in the Bush administration's gossamer case
for war were right there for the mainstream press to expose. Instead, the U.S. press, just like
the oil companies, sought to commercialize the Iraq war and profit from the invasions. They
didn't want to deal with uncomfortable facts or present voices of dissent.
Nothing sums up this unctuous approach more brazenly than MSNBC's firing of liberal talk
show host Phil Donahue on the eve of the war. The network replaced the Donahue Show with a
running segment called Countdown: Iraq, featuring the usual nightly coterie of retired
generals, security flacks, and other cheerleaders for invasion. The network's executives
blamed the cancellation on sagging ratings. In fact, during its run Donahue's show attracted
more viewers than any other program on the network. The real reason for the pre-emptive strike
on Donahue was spelled out in an internal memo from anxious executives at NBC. Donahue, the
memo said, offered "a difficult face for NBC in a time of war. He seems to delight in
presenting guests who are anti-war, anti-Bush and skeptical of the administration's
motives."
The memo warned that Donahue's show risked tarring MSNBC as an unpatriotic network, "a home
for liberal anti-war agenda at the same time that our competitors are waving the flag at every
opportunity." So, with scarcely a second thought, the honchos at MSNBC gave Donahue the boot
and hoisted the battle flag.
It's war that sells.
There's a helluva caveat, of course. Once you buy it, the merchants of war accept no
returns.
A computer glitch unfortunately wiped all the data with bleach bit, the surveillance
cameras had all malfunctioned, and the person tallying the votes hung himself behind the
voter curtain.
Well, the runners up in most beauty pageants usually react to
their loses better than Nancy did last night.
Recent politics in the House have taken a toll on her. Having to deal with the
out-of-control Democratic "kids" in the House and having to give control to The Republicans in
the Senate has taken its toll.
Her reputation for being so masterfully in control and in charge has, with her actions last
night, totally disappeared into history.
I would like to see Trump defeated if for no other reason than to have a new administration
look under the hood of the all the economic government data that has been produced over the
last four years. I bet, just like Trump's tax returns he doesn't want us to see, his
miraculous creation of prosperity will be far less than advertised.
Yes pft, the favored candidate of the DNC is clearly Trump.
Posted by: Blue Dotterel | Feb 6 2020 19:25 utc | 58
Only if the ungrateful commoners who identify as Democrats or moderates can't be brought to
heel and give their full throated support for the DNC's favoured Cookie Cutter candidate who
might as well be one of those dolls with a string and a recording you hear when you pull the
string.
Then yes, they would prefer 'fore moar years!!' of the Ugliest American ever to be
installed as President of the United States.
One of things I respect about Tulsi Gabbard is she ain't no Doll with a string attached.
When she made the comment about cleaning out the rot in the Democratic Party, she left no
doubt her intent and goals. And to take on hillary, the Red Queen to boot, why that was
simply delicious.
Alas, the View, the DNC, it's web of evil rich and the media will never forgive her for
Soldiering for her Country.
Allow me a moment to thank -- and this may be a bit of a surprise -- Adam Schiff. Were it
not for his crack investigation skills, @realDonaldTrump might have had a
tougher time unearthing who all needed to be fired. Thanks, Adam! 🤣 #FullOfSchiff
" Heterosexual couple relationships are really violent . In addition, the vast majority are
relationships based on religion. It may be time to have a conversation about their ban and
abolition ."
Trump is in many ways a narcissistic scumbag...but given the alternative of any of these
degenerate limp wristed faggots and gun grabbing communists who want to pay reparations for
slavery to people who were never slaves, transgender 7 year olds and have their mental
illness rammed down our throats, open borders, and whatever assorted lunacy is in vogue with
their purple haired minions ?
Michael Robertson says: February 3, 2020 at 3:39 pm
Democrats concluded some time ago that the only viable strategy for removing Trump
requires demonization of Russia as our enemy. And Ukraine as our ally. No one questions how
this came to be, or demands any real reporting about Ukraine. It's a black hole, and we are
expected to simply accept the framing of the Dems. Those who question it are accused of being
brainwashed by RT, or of secretly loving Mr. Trump. And they are simply befuddled by
accusations of neo-McCarthyism.
Clark Shanahan says: February 3, 2020 at 8:03 pm
As the professor warns us, we have gone through some very backwards times:
"Speaker Nancy Pelosi is connecting the dots -- "all roads lead to Putin," she says -- and
making the argument that Trump's pressure campaign on Ukraine was not an isolated incident
but part of a troubling bond with the Russian president reaching back to special counsel
Robert Mueller's findings on the 2016 election.
"This has been going on for 2 1/2 years," Pelosi said Friday.
"This isn't about Ukraine," she explained a day earlier. "'It's about Russia. Who
benefited by our withholding of that military assistance? Russia.""
(AP Dec 6, Lisa Mascaro/Mary Clare Jalonick)
Schiff has claimed that the Evil Vlad wakes up every morning, plotting to destroy our
virginal democracy because the US makes Russia look shabby.. He happens to receive a lot of
funding from the arms industry.
Nadler equated Russian meddling to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor..
If these three actually believe their own spin, heaven help us.
It truly is obscene.
The Battle of Stalingrad ended February 2, 1943.
Listening to our Russophobes, it seems the wrong people won that war. It is so ugly.
"... Adam Schiff: If Trump isn't removed he "could offer Alaska to the Russians in exchange for support in the next election or decide to move to Mar-a-Lago permanently and leave Jared Kushner to run the country, delegating to him the decision whether they go to war." pic.twitter.com/VBzkonqpmH ..."
Impeachment manager Adam Schiff (D-CA) argued on Monday during closing remarks that if
President Trump isn't removed from office, he " could offer Alaska to the Russians in exchange
for support in the next election or decide to move to Mar-a-Lago permanently and leave Jared
Kushner to run the country , delegating to him the decision whether they go to war."
Adam Schiff: If Trump isn't removed he "could offer Alaska to the Russians in exchange for support in
the next election or decide to move to Mar-a-Lago permanently and leave Jared Kushner to run
the country, delegating to him the decision whether they go to war." pic.twitter.com/VBzkonqpmH
He [Boris Johnson] is clearly delusional, or he doesn't have a mirror by the door. Anyone
who thinks his unique synthesis of geriatric skateboarder and everyone's last choice as a
babysitter is a good look, needs someone to have a word with them.
Hardly matters in these heady moments. He figures the enforcer/eminence gris role will
protect him. Which it will (given his extraordinarily indolent 'boss') for now.
Russia, China and Iran are already being blamed for using tech to undermine the 2020
election. Yet, the very technologies they are allegedly using were created by a web of
companies with deep ties to Israeli intelligence.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) announced Friday afternoon that the criteria for
making the debate stage will no longer include a requirement about individual donors --
allowing Bloomberg, whose campaign is largely self-funded, to join the candidates if his
polling numbers reach the new threshold.
Comedian and writer Jack Allison took a wry look at
the changes and what they mean about the party. "Remember when they wouldn't even think of
changing them for like Cory Booker," Allison tweeted . "This is what we
mean when we talk about the DNC cheating, obviously and out in the open."
"Thankfully seeing Bloomberg speak can only hurt his standing," Allison added,
"but still."
But it was outspoken filmmaker Michael Moore that really went off on the DNC's decision.
Speaking Friday night at a Sanders rally in Clive, Iowa, Moore went on an expletive-filled rant
against the party.
Gosh Bernie, haven't you read about yourself in Profiles of Corruption . If you can
be corrupt why can't the DNC be corrupt? It's only fair. How do you expect the people running
the DNC to become millionaires like you? Shouldn't they be able to pocket a little of Mike
Bloomberg's $325,000? Don't be a poor loser. Maintain dignity.
Although Bernie Sanders talks a big game about social equality, redistributing the wealth
and all that, he is in fact the epitome of the so-called " limousine liberal ." In 2016,
perhaps as a consolation prize for his campaign loss, he forked out over $575,000 on a
lake-front home in Vermont. He also owns a row house in Washington DC, and another in his home
state. His personal wealth is estimated in the millions. Thus far, his extravagant lifestyle
has not hurt his socialist message, but Trump will certainly not waste the opportunity to mock
it.
How many yachts do billionaires need? How many cars do they need? Give us a break. You
can't have it all.
"Boris Johnson has renounced his US citizenship, ending years of ambiguous loyalties and
probably ridding himself of a hefty tax bill.
A list released by the US Treasury department showed the UK foreign secretary was one of
5,411 individuals to renounce his American citizenship in 2016.
Johnson was born in New York when his parents worked there, but has not lived there since
he was five years old. His decision does not appear to be an attempt to distance himself from
the politics of Donald Trump, but may instead be a move to ensure he is out of reach of
America's Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
In 2014 he publicly said that the US was trying to hit him for tax on the sale of his home
in Islington, north London, something he said he regarded as "absolutely outrageous",
although he later reportedly paid the demand. The US tax authorities have been mounting a
campaign to crack down on the earnings of dual nationals."
How easy is it to switch parties to run for Presidential Campaign? Bloomberg was a
Republican, Biden was both, Warren used to be a Republican, and Trump was a lifelong
Democrat!
Do you guys still believe in the two part duopoly? What happened to integrity and values?
None! Both parties are the same ****!
Britain has finally made the Orwellian Pivot. Brazil is Bolsonaro-fied, Mexico and Canada are
USMCA-ed, Venezuela will be MAGA-cized. The Monroe Doctrine is growing carnivorous incisors.
Oceania is born!
Boris wants Britain to be "Singapore on the Thames". A one party,authoritarian state.
Instead,one generation from now, England will be America's European Puerto Rico.
I never thought I'd hear myself say this, but I'm a little worried about Donald Trump. I'm
worried he may be on the verge of a sudden, major heart attack, or a stroke, or a fatal golfing
accident.
Food poisoning is another possibility. Or he could overdose on prescription medication. A
tanning bed mishap is not out of the question.
He could accidentally hang himself during autoerotic asphyxiation, or get shot by a
lone-wolf white supremacist terrorist trying to start the RaHoWa. The Russians could spray him
with that Novichok perfume.
There are any number of ways he could snuff it.
I don't mean to sound alarmist, but the Resistance is running out of non-lethal options for
removing Donald Trump from office. Here they are, in no particular order
Cute, but seriously: Trump has been pretty much hammered into toeing the party line. The
oligarchy still doesn't like him, and it has taken a lot of effort to reign in him, but
rhetoric aside he's currently governing a lot like Hilary Clinton would have. The borders are
still open to illegal immigrants and the rich have their cheap labor, we're still wasting
trillions on pointless winless foreign wars, our manufacturing base is pretty much hollowed
out, we're still shoveling trillions of dollars in direct and indirect subsidies to Wall
Street, big medicine is still busy with organized looting ('surprise medical billing',
anyone?), you get the idea.
Trump fought the swamp, and the swamp won. The 2020 election looks to be yet another heads
they win/tails we lose circus. Trump is in no danger, IMHO.
Unless Bernie gets the nomination. Now there's a politician that needs to worry about his
health
You're overlooking the obvious contingency plan for the Dems: Biden will recruit Terry Crews
or Tiny Lister for his VP candidate. Of course the Veep will have to dress transgender and
change their name to Cornpop, but that's a small price to pay. The future of the country is
at stake.
It has become clear to Bernie's supporters that they and the Deplorables have the same
enemies. The more the media demonize Bernie in the same way they demonize Trump the stronger
Bernie will become. Bernie doesn't need to be in Iowa. CNN and the NYT are working for him.
Fake news is also stupid news.
CJ Hopkins has to be one of the best political commentators alive today. His writing is
both hilarious and profound. No easy fete.
Yes, absolutely exquisite use of the language to ridicule the ridiculous "resistance."
Clearly, Andy Kaufmann (aka Latka Gravis) did not die: he slinked away to politics and
took on the mantle of Schifty the Popeyed Crackpot California Congressman.
Hopkins entertainingly finds the black humor in all of this -- but none of it is funny, even
darkly so -- the reason it isn't funny is that millions of decent, hard-working Americans are
chained to this amoral freak show via the coercive tax system.
Well nothing of value would be lost Trump hasn't drained the swamp, locked her up, or built
the wall. In fact the only people that have been arrested are Paul Manafort and Roger Stone.
I was going to add a string of "lols" tied together, but this place is classier than that.
Honestly it might be a good thing, because then Pence would be president. Think about it,
then the Evangelicals who the GoP relies on their vote, but have also been strung along for
decades getting none of the social issues addressed while, and then also being blamed for
everything from war in the Middle East to every social problem. I think it would be good for
them to see the righteous avatar Pence ascend to the throne, and then completely shun and
ignore them. Maybe that will finally wake them up.
"We can't beat him so we have to impeach him" no truer words were ever spoken. Too bad
they couldn't come up with a reason. I think November will be a Democrat Slaughter.
@Longfisher Vote
for Bernie. Bernie's got guts and he says what he means and does what he says. I think also:
Bernie's old and he knows it. He might consider a sniper's bullet more humane than
American old-age care even for the relatively wealthy.
That will make whoever he elects as vice president important. I like to think that will be
Bloomberg. Jewish, yeah, but actually not a crook, and sane. He's about all that's left who
can pass that very low bar. It may be Warren which I hope does not happen, because I consider
her a sell-out and much worse than Bloomberg. Same goes for pretty much every else, with the
possible exception of AOC, but she needs more experience.
"... In all countries, doctors work increasingly with two groups of addicts: those for whom they prescribe drugs, and those who suffer from their consequences. The richer the community, the larger the percentage of patients who belong to both In such a society, people come to believe that in health care, as in all fields of endeavor, technology can be used to change the human condition according to almost any design. ..."
"... The frustration is that there is so much information, the vast majority of which can be plain incorrect, depending on subject. For example, the information over global warming. There is clear evidence that the climate is changing – melting glaciers etc – and we can see the north pole marching into Russia at a pace not seen in recoded history, but what is very difficult to determine is the cause or the consequence: so much misinformation that the truth is buried and cannot be found by us mere mortals. ..."
"... I have been living in southern California for the last two years, yet I'm still trying to adjust to what I observe daily in terms of "screen addiction." It is a daily occurrence here to stop at red light, wait all of 30 to 40 seconds for the light to change, only to have one or more cars in line fail to move when light turns green. Why? Because they are completely glued to their cell phones either reading messages, texting, or god knows what? Inevitably one has to honk one's car-horn to get them moving. I've never observed this anywhere else I've lived, but then again the screen addiction thing is growing daily in real-time so who knows if this is just standard operating procedure around the world in all urban areas at this time? ..."
"... I was going to link to the CIA released document which is a translation of USSR studies into the effects of non-ionizing radiation. It has an eye-watering summary of the effect of milimeter waves on biological structure, a fundamental aspect of 5G. It has been pulled and I cannot find it on their website. Very interesting. Luckily the FUllerton INformer has it on his 5G Dangers website. ..."
"... I though it was China (Huawei), the nation that has its citizens even more hooked on mobile phones than the US: even opium was a less popular escape from a top down society. ..."
"... Not only do the Chinese, Americans and many others suffer from cyber addiction but also from gross materialism. Same symptoms, same cause: lack of spirituality. "Money" is just another deficient religion. ..."
We live in a fabricated reality where the visible world became nearly meaningless once the screen world became people's "window
on the world." An electronic nothingness replaced reality as people gleefully embraced digital wraparound apparitions. These days
people still move about in the physical world but live in the electronic one. The result is mass hallucination.
This is the fundamental seismic shift of our era. There is a lot of bitching and joking about it, but when all is said and done,
it is accepted as inevitable. Digital devices are embraced as phantom lovers. Technological "advances" are accepted as human destiny.
We now inhabit a technological nightmare (that seems like a paradise to so many) in which technology and technique – the standardized
means for realizing a predetermined end most efficiently – dominate the world.
In such a world, not only does the end justify the means, but to consider such a moral issue is beside the point. We are speeding
ahead to nowhere in the most "efficient" way possible. No questioning allowed! Unless you wish to ask your phone.
These days there is much political talk and commentary about fascism, tyranny, a police state, etc., while the totalitarianism
of technocracy and technology continues apace. It is not just the ecological (in the human/natural sense) impact of digital technology
where one change generates many others in an endless spiral, but the fact that technical efficiency dominates all aspects of life
and, as Jacques Ellul wrote long ago, "transforms everything it touches into a machine," including humans.
For every problem caused by technology, there is always a technological "solution" that creates further technological problems
ad infinitum. The goal is always to find the most efficient (power) technique to apply as rapidly as possible to all human problems.
Writing nearly fifty years ago in Medical Nemesis , Ivan Illich, explained how in medical care the human touch was being
replaced by this technical mindset. He said,
In all countries, doctors work increasingly with two groups of addicts: those for whom they prescribe drugs, and those
who suffer from their consequences. The richer the community, the larger the percentage of patients who belong to both In such
a society, people come to believe that in health care, as in all fields of endeavor, technology can be used to change the human
condition according to almost any design.
We are of course living with the ongoing results of such medical technical efficiency. The U.S.A. is a country where the majority
of people are drugged in one way or another, legally or illegally, since the human problems of living are considered to have only
technological solutions, whether those remedies are effective or anodyne.
The "accidents" and risks built into the technological fixes are never considered since the ideological grip of the religion of
technology is all-encompassing and infallible. We are caught in its web.
Marshall McLuhan, the media guru of the 1960s – whether he was applauding or bemoaning the fact – was right when he claimed that
the medium is the message.
Cell phones, being the current omnipresent form of the electronification of life, are today's message, a sign that one is always
in touch with the void. To be without this small machine is to be rendered an idiot in the ancient Greek sense of the word – a private
person.
Translation: one who is out of it, detached, at least temporarily, from the screens that separate us from reality, from the incessant
noise and pinging messages that destroy reflection and create reflex reactions.
But to be out of it is the only way to understand it. And to understand it is terrifying, for it means one knows that the religion
of technology has replaced nature as the source of what for eons has been considered sacred. It means one grasps how reality is now
defined by technology.
It means realizing that people are merging with the machines they are attached to by invisible manacles as they replace the human
body with abstractions and interact with machines.
It means recognizing that the internet, despite its positive aspects and usage by dissenters intent on human liberation, is controlled
by private corporations and government forces intent on using it as a weapon to control people.
It means seeing the truth that most people have never considered the price to be paid for the speed and efficiency of a high-tech
world.
But the price is very, very high.
One price, perhaps the most important, is the fragmentation of consciousness, which prevents people from grasping the present
from within – which, as Frederic Jameson has noted, is so crucial and yet one of the mind's most problematic tasks – because so many
suffer from digital dementia as their attention hops from input to output in a never-ending flow of mediated, disembodied data.
As a result, a vicious circle has been created that prevents people from the crucial epistemological task of grasping the double-bind
that is the ultimate propaganda.
Data is Dada by another name, and we are in Dada land, pissing, not into Marcel Duchamp's ridiculous work of
Dada "art," a urinal , but into the wind. And data
piled on data equals a heap of data without knowledge or understanding.
There is no time or space for grasping context or to connect the dots. It is a pointillist painting in the form of inert facts
that few can understand or even realize that they don't.
I am typing these words on a Hermes 3000 manual typewriter, a beautiful piece of technology whose sound and movement creates a
rhythmic sanctuary where my hands, head, and heart work in unison.
It allows me to think slowly, to make mistakes that will necessitate retyping, to do second and third rereadings and revisions,
to roll the paper out of the machine and sit quietly as I review it. My eyes rest on the paper, not a blue-lit screen.
Technology as such is not the problem, for my typewriter is a very useful and endurable machine, a useful technology that has
enhanced life. It does not break or need to be replaced every few years, as computers do. It does not contain coltan, tantalum, or
other minerals mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and other places by poor people working under oppressive conditions
created by international consumer greed that is devouring the world. It does not allow anyone to spy on me as I type.
I am alone and unplugged, disconnected, off-line and out of line, a sine qua non for thinking, and thinking about deep matters.
The typewriter is mine, and mine alone, unlike the connected digital devices that have destroyed aloneness, for to be alone is to
contemplate one's fate and that of all humanity. It is to confront essential things and not feel the loneliness induced and exacerbated
by the illusion of always being in touch.
But while this typing machine allows me to write in peace, I am in no way suggesting that I have escaped the technological condition
that we all find ourselves in. There are little ways to step outside the closing circle, but even then, one is still in it. I will
eventually have to take my paper and type it into a computer document if I wish to publish it in the form you will be reading it.
There is no other way. The technocrats have decreed it so. We are all, as George Orwell once wrote in a different context and
meaning, "inside the whale," the whale, in this case, being a high-tech digital world controlled by technocrats, and we have only
small ways to shield ourselves from it.
Sitting in a quiet room, working on a typewriter, taking a walk in the woods without a cell phone, or not owning a cell phone,
are but small individual acts that have no effect on the structural realty of what Neil Postman calls technopoly in his masterful
book, Technopoly: The Surrender
of Culture to Technology .
And even in the woods one may look up to admire a tree only to find that it is a cell phone tower.
Humans have always created and used technology, but for a very long time that technology was subject to cultural and religious
rules that circumscribed limits to its use. Today there are no limits, no rules to constrain it. The prohibition to prohibit is our
motto.
In our acceptance of technical efficiency, we have handed over our freedom and lost control of the means to ends we can't fathom
but unconsciously fear. Where are we heading? many probably wonder, as they check the latest news ping, no doubt about something
to fear, as a thousand pieces of "news" flash through their devices without pause, like wisps of fleeting dreams one vaguely remembers
but cannot pin down or understand. Incoherence is the result. Speed is king.
Of course, this kaleidoscopic flood of data confuses people who desire some coherence and explanation. This is provided by what
Jacques Ellul calls "the explanatory myth." He writes,
This brings us to the other pole of our bizarre intellectual situation today: the explanatory myth. In addition to its political
and its mystical and spiritual function, the explanatory myth is the veritable spinal column of our whole intellectual system Given
that appearances produce confusion and coherence is needed, a new appearance unifies them all in the viewer's mind and enables everything
to be explained.
This appearance has a spiritual root and is accepted only by completely blind credulity.
It becomes the intellectual key for opening all secrets, interpreting every fact, and recognizing oneself in the whirl of phenomena
this myth [is] their one stable point of thought and consciousness enables everyone to avoid the trouble of thinking for themselves,
the worry of doubt, the questioning, the uncertainty of understanding, and the torture of a bad conscience.
What prodigious savings of time and means, which can be put usefully to work manufacturing some more missiles [they] have a good
conscience because they have an answer for everything; and whatever happens and whatever they do, they can rely on the explanation
that myth provides. This process places them within the most complete unreality possible.
They live in a permanent dream, but a realistic dream, constructed from the countless facts and theories that they believe in
with all the power of 'mass persons' who cannot detach themselves from the mass without dying.
Today that myth is the religion of technology.
So if you have any questions you want answered, you can ask your phone.
Ask your phone why we are living with endless wars on the edge of using our most astounding technological invention: nuclear weapons.
Ask your computer why "nice" Americans will sit behind computer screens and send missiles to kill people half-way around the world
whom they are told they are at war with.
Ask your smart device why so many have become little Eichmanns, carrying out their dutiful little tasks at Raytheon, Lockheed
Martin, and all the other war manufacturers, or not caring what stocks they own.
Ask your phone what really happened to the Ukrainian International Airlines Flight 752 in Iran. See if your phone will say anything
about cyber warfare, electronic jamming, or why the plane's transponder was turned off preventing a signal to be sent indicating
it was a civilian aircraft.
Ask who is behind the push to deploy 5G wireless technology.
Ask that smartphone who is providing the non-answers.
Ask and it won't be given to you; seek and you will not find. The true answers to your questions will remain hidden. This is the
technological society, set up and controlled by the rulers. It is a scam.
Google it!
God may respond.
aspnaz ,
The frustration is that there is so much information, the vast majority of which can be plain incorrect, depending on subject.
For example, the information over global warming. There is clear evidence that the climate is changing – melting glaciers etc
– and we can see the north pole marching into Russia at a pace not seen in recoded history, but what is very difficult to determine
is the cause or the consequence: so much misinformation that the truth is buried and cannot be found by us mere mortals.
In the past we had an editor picking the version of the "truth" that would be exposed to us: was that "truth" also just fabrication
or was it closer to the truth that what we are exposed to today? Was it more healthy to be secure in the knowledge that the BBC
always told the truth, even if that truth was a lie? At least we didn't have the stress of trying to find the real truth, it was
printed there on our daily.
Rhisiart Gwilym ,
Thank god for the Long Descent. This will all be a fading nightmare (though some will dream it as a lost golden age !) in a century
or so; when the Limits To Growth have finally insisted that we stop expanding the Technosphere (aka 'Koyaanisqatsi') – and then
go into reverse. Roll effin' on!
Richard Le Sarc ,
We cannot possibly, on the current trajectory, make another century. A few decades at most, months or years if thermo-nuclear
or biological warfare is unleashed.
Gary Weglarz ,
I have been living in southern California for the last two years, yet I'm still trying to adjust to what I observe daily in
terms of "screen addiction." It is a daily occurrence here to stop at red light, wait all of 30 to 40 seconds for the light to
change, only to have one or more cars in line fail to move when light turns green. Why? Because they are completely glued to their
cell phones either reading messages, texting, or god knows what? Inevitably one has to honk one's car-horn to get them moving.
I've never observed this anywhere else I've lived, but then again the screen addiction thing is growing daily in real-time so
who knows if this is just standard operating procedure around the world in all urban areas at this time?
The most frightening example of the screen addiction here is that in stop and go, bumper to bumper freeway traffic, moving
from 60 miles and hour one moment to a dead stop the next, I've glanced over many times to see drivers next to me literally looking
down at their cell phones instead of at the road in front of them, while driving 60 miles and hour, and when knowing that at any
second they may have to slam their brakes on to avoid a collision. Two years ago I was living in rural France and I NEVER witnessed
behavior like this anywhere, even when driving in Paris. Maybe things have changed there – I just don't know.
What does it say about us here in the U.S. (at least southern California) that we can't drive our car, or sit for 30 seconds
at a traffic light, without pressing a screen into our face? How frightened and alienated and uncomfortable must so many of us
be that we are unable to be alone with ourselves and with our own thoughts for even a few moments? I'm not sure I want to know
the answer to that, though I dare say it is a rather important question. Thank you Mr. Curtain.
George Mc ,
This article made me realise how visionary the SF writer Philip K Dick was – with his spaced out psychotic "heroes", sinister
shady corporations and breakdown in the whole criteria for determining what's real.
Recommended reads:
"A Scanner Darkly" where a schizophrenic main character seems to represent a schizophrenic world in which the ones fighting
against drugs and the ones supplying then are two arms of the same organisation.
"Lies Inc." – A total mindfuck of a book in which psychotropic weapons have spiralled so far out of control that the whole
narrative seems to break down.
Robbobbobin ,
This article made me realise how visionary the SF writer Philip K Dick was
The
Machine Stops , E.M. Forster ( A Room with a View, Howards End, A Passage to India, ), Short Story, published in
The Oxford and Cambridge Review ( November 1909 ).
There are other free versions of the same text as well as several free audiobook versions available online.
Norn ,
This app shows in real time which app on your Android phone is talking/connecting to the outside world. App name: 'Network Connections'
or 'Network Connections for Android'. Not sure if there are other flavours.
You can get it from Google Play, and if you don't like Google, the APK (Android Package) can be found quite easily online.
Full version is paid but to check it out it is free. Sometimes it says you need to pay, but then the message disappears and you
can keep using it (from my experience).
Interesting to see apps, that were forced to stop, coming back to life all by themselves and talking to whatever server they
are supposed to talk to. However, you cannot tell, using this app, what data is being sent to the server. It would be good fun
to find out.
You can click on a connection to see the IP owner and location information which take a few seconds to show. But it is an eye-opener
to see the geolocations of various servers around the world that the mobile phone connects to simultaneously. It shows clearly,
there are no boundaries (and no limits perhaps) on how high-tech companies operate. For example, an app (which I don't need and
could not be disabled) can activate more than one connection and each connection is made to a server in a different country.
Mucho ,
Answers to the author's questions are contained herein:
Wow! I don't praise many articles nowadays but what an excellent article; one of the very few I've read in media (MSM and alternative)
over the last couple of years. Thanks Mr Curtin – bravo!
Incidentally, on a more mundane level – I haven't had a mobile for quite some time now and have never had a smart-phone; corded
landlines are so much better for phone calls (and freedom from stress when you are away from home/office!). Also, if you want
to email, watch films, or play games PCs are infinitely better than mobile phones! Never got the thing about all-in-one devices,
myself.
Mucho ,
The filth in power will use electronic warfare (5G, wifi, blue/white light LED ie cars, homes and streetlights, health harming
devices like CCTV camersa which all emit microwaves at 2.4GHz same as your microwave oven, note: anyone noticed the massive uptick
in radiation you are now exposed to in supermarkets with the ultra powerful new LED lights and wifi routers lining the ceilings?
etc), false flag terrorism, mass poisoning of the food and water, synthetic man-made viuses, geo-engineered climate change and
other methods straight out of the "how to genocide" handbook to conduct WW, reduce the population and destrot the world as we
know it. Oh wait a minute, they're already doing all of those things. Do the maths people, it's pretty simple to figure it out.
This is a silent war being waged against YOU and YOUR FAMILY. Who would have thought streetlights would be turned into a weapon
of war? Well, they have been and with 5G, it won't just be the light they emit that is harmful. They know what all these things
do, that's why they are installing them. WAKE UP!
When the space outside of jail is much smaller than the space inside the jail, those outside become prisoners by default
as their freedom is curtailed by the lack of space and dearth of options.
This is the exact situation with our present Digital Prison that has been built by exploiting science and technology for nefarious
and psychopathic and tyrannical aims.
Another thought provoking peice Edward, thanks. And yeah, I read this while staring at my Huawei smartphone, which also contains
my Email and things like Google Earth.
And, yes, I was wincing.
As someone who boycotts the mainstream presstitutes, and who hasn't bought a newspaper for over 15 years, how then do I find
out what is happening in the world?
How do I find out when a protest is happening, or if a major war breaks out?
I regularly comment here (when it actually posts – major gremlins last 4-5 days) and at a few other independent sites.
It's about connecting with others who also see what is happening – the havoc and rank injustice created by the Neoliberal economic
system and the Empire – epitomised by thugs like Pompeo and Esper.
Connecting with other like minded people is important.
The word to use here is balance. I check the news at a few sites, make comments, but also limit the time I spend on my phone.
Balance.
I read a fair bit as well as listen to quite a lot of music, watch thought provoking films, and also connect with nature in
a spiritual sense. That's an important one.
Mucho ,
Just research the radiation you are exposing your body to by using a smart phone, carrying it in your pocket is plain crazy! They
have tricked you into harming your self with it. That's how they do it, it's all trickery ..illusion ..lies.
Listen to this guy, Kevin Mottus, he is ultra qualified to impart info about this. This presentation is not just about 5G it
is about wireless.
All of the answers to all of the problems that face us are already within us. All we need to do is to switch off from the stuff
that they want us to consume.
This is the providential guidance the masters of the universe receive in Washington .. Thank me for the giggle, and don't miss
the comments below the (1minute 34seconds) video
I think technology reaches an apex then it's downhill from there. The only advantage the internet has over the Gutenberg Press
is that it's faster and easier to use. Both snail mail and email deliver mostly junk. Hey but it's faster and easier to get rid
of and you don't have to recycle it which reminds me of the paragon of political correctness when he isn't planning mass genocide
Bill Gates changing the name of what us Mac users still call trash and called it the "recycle bin". Yet his OS is still a dumpster
fire with an architecture that was designed by a chimpanzee. Too funny 😂
Anyway seriously somewhat. Google is now a joke with its stupid "AI" that only hits on mainstream news and approved sites lest
the holi poli find out what's really going on. Same with YouTube which has gotten as bad as watching cable TV. Like that ol Springsteen
tune 55 channels and still nothing's on. Only there's a lot more of nothing thanks to the holy censors. Unless you're into soft
core porn and cat vids.
Ain't technology great?
Now there's 5G that aside from being an overhyped hoax is dangerous. Hey but if you want to get irradiated in your own home
or walking down the street than go fer it dude! Hope ya'll got a supply of Potassium Iodide because it'll come in handy when that
goes on line but your last words will be sent faster with more ghz. What more can you ask for?
Funny you should mention the bomb Ed because with 5G coming on line we may not have to wait for that mushroom cloud.
It's probably not that bad at least that's what the experts who haven't bothered testing it say 😎👍
milosevic ,
Hope ya'll got a supply of Potassium Iodide because it'll come in handy when that goes on line
why, does 5G technology somehow produce radioactive iodine? how is that supposed to work?
It's possible that high concentrations of EMR can convert natural iodine in the thyroid gland to iodine 131. Just a theory but
better safe than sorry. Also Vitamin K and Niacin have been shown to be somewhat effective as well.
milosevic ,
It's possible
no, it isn't.
otherwise, anybody who uses a microwave oven would have died of cancer, long ago.
take your anti-scientific disinfo someplace where it will be appreciated, like Alex Jones' psyop websites.
Are you referring to yourself again? Personally I'd say that you're not just common but exceptionally moronic.
Mucho ,
I was going to link to the CIA released document which is a translation of USSR studies into the effects of non-ionizing radiation.
It has an eye-watering summary of the effect of milimeter waves on biological structure, a fundamental aspect of 5G. It has been
pulled and I cannot find it on their website. Very interesting. Luckily the FUllerton INformer has it on his 5G Dangers website.
Thanx Mucho. There is also another factor to consider as well and that there is a very fine line spectrally that is almost nonexistent
between Ionizing and Non-ionizing Radiation.
Also as I was trying to point out. There is nothing wrong with taking supplements that may counteract the effects of either.
Just like there is nothing wrong with taking vitamin C to counteract a cold.
Anyone who would should suggest that there is is not only a "disinfo troll" or agent but also a homicidal maniac.
milosevic ,
ionizing radiation produces ionization, which is not at all the same thing as nuclear transmutation.
evidently, you don't know what you're talking about.
Capricornia Man ,
Wasn't it Canadian philosopher John Ralston Saul who said that an obsession with information technology is one of the hallmarks
of a corporate state?
I think it was the editor of a US record magazine who wrote that one of the sicknesses of our society is that perfectly good,
tried and trusted technology is junked the minute something else is invented.
Thoughts worth considering, at least.
BigB ,
And Jacques Ellul and Marshall McLuhan made the similar observation: "First, we take control of our tools, then they take control
of us".
Technology – or technique as Ellul preferred – gains an almost real time velocity, compressing time and space, making ends
and means virtually synchronic but why? Does a 10 millisecond arbitrage trade vastly improve the quality of life compared to a
100 millisecond arbitrage trade or are we in the service of the machine?
Gary Wilson ,
We upset the biology but cling to the technology.
Fair dinkum ,
More bogged than 'hovering' methinks.
Norn ,
"nice" Americans: .. Here is a sample of nice Americans who want to control our breath: Pompeo , Fri 24 Jan 2020: "You Think Americans
Really Give A F**k About Ukraine?"
Michael Richard Pompeo (57 y.o.) is the United States secretary of state. He is a former United States Army officer and
was Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from January 2017 until April 2018
Nuland , earlier than Feb 2014: "Fuck the EU."
Victoria Jane Nuland (59 y.o) is the former Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs at the United
States Department of State. She held the rank of Career Ambassador, the highest diplomatic rank in the United States Foreign
Service. She is the former CEO of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), and is also a Member of the Board of the National
Endowment for Democracy (NED)
Jack_Garbo ,
" my typewriter is a very useful and endurable machine, a useful technology that has enhanced life. It does not break or need
to be replaced every few years, as computers do. It does not contain coltan, tantalum, or other minerals mined in the Democratic
Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and other places by poor people working under oppressive conditions created by international consumer
greed that is devouring the world. It does not allow anyone to spy on me as I type."
Edward, you've slipped into pseudo-Ludditism (and grammar errors). Your noisy, ribbon chewing, paper consuming (think of the
trees!), typing machine is surely "durable" unless you suffer to endure it (Lying to another lover?). It may not contain "conflict
coltan" and other imperial minerals but I'll bet it was produced by low wage serfs somewhere less than ritzy.
Anyone in your room can spy on your work, while my computer can be adjusted to a "narrow pixel view", blocking any spies, and
if I want noise I can simulate the clack of keys hitting the carriage (I don't, can't stand the noise). I can also isolate all
screen distractions in "private" mode, can choose my "paper color", usually a burnt cream mimicking early 19th C manuscripts (Ha,
joke coming, my word processor is called Manuskript). Enough
I'll read the rest after coffee, proofing this electronic creation, and posting. It's all real, not totalitarian electronic
post-modern fascism. Oh, my smartphone? It sits obediently silent, taking messages, reminding me of appointments, like a dutiful
secretary, as I've programmed it. Ain't technology great?
PS. I write for a living and the invention of the computer saved my sanity, since I'm a "backwards" writer – end first, middle,
then start. Years of real "cut & paste" drove me mad.
So, all praise the god Laptop and his children, Word Processors. Anon.
Personally I don't see anything "therapeutic" about staring at a blank screen and a blinking cursor. I write for a living too
at times and still I end up going old school and actually writing notes or doing a handwritten outline before I hit the big empty.
Writing is a personal thing. Actually I admire Ed's method. Anyone who takes the time to type out their piece on a manual typewriter
is a craftsman. Makes me want to haul out my old Smith Corona and give 'er a spin.
Jack_Garbo ,
That's the difference between an amateur (lover) and a pro (expert). I don't caress the keyboard or kiss the screen, but my words
sell or I don't eat. Typewritten words pay the same as electronic words. Nothing's therapeutic about about a blank screen; my
job is to fill it.
I envy amateurs, who enjoy inserting the sheets, adjusting the light, polishing the keys and neatly stacking that final draft,
even if it's never published. I used to do that when I worked as an engineer, when writing was a hobby.
Antonym ,
Who is behind 5G?
I though it was China (Huawei), the nation that has its citizens even more hooked on mobile phones than the US: even opium
was a less popular escape from a top down society.
Not only do the Chinese, Americans and many others suffer from cyber addiction but also from gross materialism. Same symptoms,
same cause: lack of spirituality. "Money" is just another deficient religion.
"nice" Americans: .. Here is a sample of nice Americans who want to control our breath:
Pompeo , Fri 24 Jan 2020: "You Think Americans Really Give A F**k About Ukraine?"
Michael Richard Pompeo (57 y.o.) is the United States secretary of state. He is a former
United States Army officer and was Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from January
2017 until April 2018
Nuland , earlier than Feb 2014: "Fuck the EU."
Victoria Jane Nuland (59 y.o) is the former Assistant Secretary of State for European
and Eurasian Affairs at the United States Department of State. She held the rank of Career
Ambassador, the highest diplomatic rank in the United States Foreign Service. She is the
former CEO of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), and is also a Member of the
Board of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED)
We live in a fabricated reality where the visible world became nearly meaningless once the screen
world became people's "window on the world." An electronic nothingness replaced reality as people gleefully embraced
digital wraparound apparitions. These days people still move about in the physical world but live in the electronic
one. The result is mass hallucination.
This is the fundamental seismic shift of our era. There is a lot of bitching and joking about it, but when all is
said and done, it is accepted as inevitable. Digital devices are embraced as phantom lovers. Technological "advances"
are accepted as human destiny. We now inhabit a technological nightmare (that seems like a paradise to so many) in
which technology and technique – the standardized means for realizing a predetermined end most efficiently – dominate
the world.
In such a world, not only does the end justify the means, but to consider such a moral issue is beside the point.
We are speeding ahead to nowhere in the most "efficient" way possible. No questioning allowed! Unless you wish to ask
your phone.
These days there is much political talk and commentary about fascism, tyranny, a police state, etc., while the
totalitarianism of technocracy and technology continues apace. It is not just the ecological (in the human/natural
sense) impact of digital technology where one change generates many others in an endless spiral, but the fact that
technical efficiency dominates all aspects of life and, as Jacques Ellul wrote long ago,
"transforms everything
it touches into a machine,"
including humans.
For every problem caused by technology, there is always a technological "solution" that creates further
technological problems ad infinitum. The goal is always to find the most efficient (power) technique to apply as
rapidly as possible to all human problems.
Writing nearly fifty years ago in
Medical Nemesis
, Ivan Illich, explained how in medical care the human
touch was being replaced by this technical mindset. He said,
In all countries, doctors work increasingly with two groups of addicts: those for whom they prescribe drugs,
and those who suffer from their consequences. The richer the community, the larger the percentage of patients who
belong to both In such a society, people come to believe that in health care, as in all fields of endeavor,
technology can be used to change the human condition according to almost any design.
We are of course living with the ongoing results of such medical technical efficiency. The U.S.A. is a country
where the majority of people are drugged in one way or another, legally or illegally, since the human problems of
living are considered to have only technological solutions, whether those remedies are effective or anodyne.
The "accidents" and risks built into the technological fixes are never considered since the ideological grip of
the religion of technology is all-encompassing and infallible. We are caught in its web.
Marshall McLuhan, the media guru of the 1960s – whether he was applauding or bemoaning the fact – was right when
he claimed that the medium is the message.
Cell phones, being the current omnipresent form of the electronification of life, are today's message, a sign that
one is always in touch with the void. To be without this small machine is to be rendered an idiot in the ancient
Greek sense of the word – a private person.
Translation: one who is out of it, detached, at least temporarily, from the screens that separate us from reality,
from the incessant noise and pinging messages that destroy reflection and create reflex reactions.
But to be out of it is the only way to understand it. And to understand it is terrifying, for it means one knows
that the religion of technology has replaced nature as the source of what for eons has been considered sacred. It
means one grasps how reality is now defined by technology.
It means realizing that people are merging with the machines they are attached to by invisible manacles as they
replace the human body with abstractions and interact with machines.
It means recognizing that the internet, despite its positive aspects and usage by dissenters intent on human
liberation, is controlled by private corporations and government forces intent on using it as a weapon to control
people.
It means seeing the truth that most people have never considered the price to be paid for the speed and efficiency
of a high-tech world.
But the price is very, very high.
One price, perhaps the most important, is the fragmentation of consciousness, which prevents people from grasping
the present from within – which, as Frederic Jameson has noted, is so crucial and yet one of the mind's most
problematic tasks – because so many suffer from digital dementia as their attention hops from input to output in a
never-ending flow of mediated, disembodied data.
As a result, a vicious circle has been created that prevents people from the crucial epistemological task of
grasping the double-bind that is the ultimate propaganda.
Data is Dada by another name, and we are in Dada land, pissing, not into Marcel Duchamp's ridiculous work of
Dada "art," a
urinal
, but into the wind. And data piled on data equals a heap of data without knowledge or understanding.
There is no time or space for grasping context or to connect the dots. It is a pointillist painting in the form of
inert facts that few can understand or even realize that they don't.
I am typing these words on a Hermes 3000 manual typewriter, a beautiful piece of technology whose sound and
movement creates a rhythmic sanctuary where my hands, head, and heart work in unison.
It allows me to think slowly, to make mistakes that will necessitate retyping, to do second and third rereadings
and revisions, to roll the paper out of the machine and sit quietly as I review it. My eyes rest on the paper, not a
blue-lit screen.
Technology as such is not the problem, for my typewriter is a very useful and endurable machine, a useful
technology that has enhanced life. It does not break or need to be replaced every few years, as computers do. It does
not contain coltan, tantalum, or other minerals mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and other places
by poor people working under oppressive conditions created by international consumer greed that is devouring the
world. It does not allow anyone to spy on me as I type.
I am alone and unplugged, disconnected, off-line and out of line, a sine qua non for thinking, and thinking about
deep matters. The typewriter is mine, and mine alone, unlike the connected digital devices that have destroyed
aloneness, for to be alone is to contemplate one's fate and that of all humanity. It is to confront essential things
and not feel the loneliness induced and exacerbated by the illusion of always being in touch.
But while this typing machine allows me to write in peace, I am in no way suggesting that I have escaped the
technological condition that we all find ourselves in. There are little ways to step outside the closing circle, but
even then, one is still in it. I will eventually have to take my paper and type it into a computer document if I wish
to publish it in the form you will be reading it.
There is no other way. The technocrats have decreed it so. We are all, as George Orwell once wrote in a different
context and meaning, "inside the whale," the whale, in this case, being a high-tech digital world controlled by
technocrats, and we have only small ways to shield ourselves from it.
Sitting in a quiet room, working on a typewriter, taking a walk in the woods without a cell phone, or not owning a
cell phone, are but small individual acts that have no effect on the structural realty of what Neil Postman calls
technopoly in his masterful book,
Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology
.
And even in the woods one may look up to admire a tree only to find that it is a cell phone tower.
Humans have always created and used technology, but for a very long time that technology was subject to cultural
and religious rules that circumscribed limits to its use. Today there are no limits, no rules to constrain it. The
prohibition to prohibit is our motto.
In our acceptance of technical efficiency, we have handed over our freedom and lost control of the means to ends
we can't fathom but unconsciously fear. Where are we heading? many probably wonder, as they check the latest news
ping, no doubt about something to fear, as a thousand pieces of "news" flash through their devices without pause,
like wisps of fleeting dreams one vaguely remembers but cannot pin down or understand. Incoherence is the result.
Speed is king.
Of course, this kaleidoscopic flood of data confuses people who desire some coherence and explanation. This is
provided by what Jacques Ellul calls "the explanatory myth." He writes,
This brings us to the other pole of our bizarre intellectual situation today: the explanatory myth. In addition to
its political and its mystical and spiritual function, the explanatory myth is the veritable spinal column of our
whole intellectual system Given that appearances produce confusion and coherence is needed, a new appearance
unifies them all in the viewer's mind and enables everything to be explained.
This appearance has a spiritual root and is accepted only by completely blind credulity.
It becomes the intellectual key for opening all secrets, interpreting every fact, and recognizing oneself in
the whirl of phenomena this myth [is] their one stable point of thought and consciousness enables everyone to
avoid the trouble of thinking for themselves, the worry of doubt, the questioning, the uncertainty of
understanding, and the torture of a bad conscience.
What prodigious savings of time and means, which can be put usefully to work manufacturing some more
missiles [they] have a good conscience because they have an answer for everything; and whatever happens and
whatever they do, they can rely on the explanation that myth provides. This process places them within the most
complete unreality possible.
They live in a permanent dream, but a realistic dream, constructed from the countless facts and theories that
they believe in with all the power of 'mass persons' who cannot detach themselves from the mass without dying.
Today that myth is the religion of technology.
So if you have any questions you want answered, you can ask your phone.
Ask your phone why we are living with endless wars on the edge of using our most astounding technological
invention: nuclear weapons.
Ask your computer why "nice" Americans will sit behind computer screens and send missiles to kill people half-way
around the world whom they are told they are at war with.
Ask your smart device why so many have become little Eichmanns, carrying out their dutiful little tasks at
Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, and all the other war manufacturers, or not caring what stocks they own.
Ask your phone what really happened to the Ukrainian International Airlines Flight 752 in Iran. See if your phone
will say anything about cyber warfare, electronic jamming, or why the plane's transponder was turned off preventing a
signal to be sent indicating it was a civilian aircraft.
Ask who is behind the push to deploy 5G wireless technology.
Ask that smartphone who is providing the non-answers.
Ask and it won't be given to you; seek and you will not find. The true answers to your questions will remain
hidden. This is the technological society, set up and controlled by the rulers. It is a scam.
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aspnaz
,
The frustration is that there is so much information, the vast majority of which can be plain incorrect,
depending on subject. For example, the information over global warming. There is clear evidence that the
climate is changing – melting glaciers etc – and we can see the north pole marching into Russia at a pace
not seen in recoded history, but what is very difficult to determine is the cause or the consequence: so
much misinformation that the truth is buried and cannot be found by us mere mortals.
In the past we had an editor picking the version of the "truth" that would be exposed to us: was that
"truth" also just fabrication or was it closer to the truth that what we are exposed to today? Was it
more healthy to be secure in the knowledge that the BBC always told the truth, even if that truth was a
lie? At least we didn't have the stress of trying to find the real truth, it was printed there on our
daily.
Our pattern of consciousness development persists until there is a new decision in place of the old.
Normalised insanity can be managed at a cost. While we are willing to pay the cost we 'live in a
fabricated reality' of lies and deceits.
A work that inspires me states; 'There is no life outside
Heaven' – and another way of saying this is that Thoughts never actually leave the mind of their thinker
and so we who are Thoughts – are still living in our Creator no matter how our minds are set in giving
life instead to images, idols and ideas as identities conformed to 'thinking' in a frame of opposition in
fear of loss.
There are 'upstream' perspectives to our virtual reality experience of a displaced and dissociated
'physical' consciousness – which like a Russian doll continues to further displacement and dissociation
as the belief in Separation as survival.
The pattern of modelling Reality as image and concept and now as 'systems' of learned, acquired and
manipulated meanings, from behavioural response patterns of conditioning is an ancient archetype of
psychic separation or 'splitting off' from Source, from Other and from World.
This is the 'death' spiral that works through our defences, to constrict, paralyse and checkmate us in
what we took to be an autonomous free will. As if a Thought could cast itself from the mind of its Living
Inheritance and suffer the belief it not only has such power – but is now trapped in subjection to a
loveless experience in which every move to escape or overcome is weaponised against it.
The idea of Space in a object-modelled reality is 'nothing' and 'distance' or separation.
All Space is a Field of Knowing for there is nothing between us but the objection modelling of a psyche
in denial. Yet in some moment, everyone has had experience of transcendence – upstream to a
thinking-script that resumes 'service' after the temporary disappearance of the conditions of a driven
struggle of a split sense of isolation to somehow regain or restore Life in the forms of a world of
treachery and deceit.
There IS another way of looking at what we have made of ourselves, our world and a Creator in our own
image.But not while everything is seeking to hide, mask over and dump this onto others, world and Life
itself.
The nature of our entanglement in hate has ancient roots that tare at our attempts to reach the fruits
of fulfilment. A mind at war with itself. Many minds set in war as the very basis of their survival in a
world that plasters over the cracks of a managed chaos that only grows the more it is 'controlled'.
Embrace the seeming chaos with the desire to see with new eyes – or persist in diving down rabbit
holes of the lure of the power of deceit.
Wherever you go – there you are. Not just the fragments that remain – but All of You is right here while
a tiny part is aggrandised in victim or victory to fill the space of awareness that remains.
And yet if All of You is here – then there is a potential or indeed opportunity for Communication or
indeed Communion of an intimate recognition. All that blocks such a simple fact reaching awareness is
invested belief in narrative identity. Opening the narrative and its supporting beliefs to the space of
awareness is the opposite of trying to invest light in darkness – as if to change it.
The more you give it the more it feeds and the more it needs.
The darkness eating our world is not in any of the false trails set in the world to sustain it as a
suction upon a captured light. It is in our heart's desecration.
Order set over a chaos assigned to a personally responsible and irrevocable guilt – is the usurping of
an Order arising from wholeness that guilt can no longer see or believe in EXCEPT as the victim made
sacred to power over Life. Because once you have hate in your heart you are convicted by your own
judgement to protect and persist it as the 'only world there is'.
The Script unfolds logically and inexorably from its predicates. And insane world is reliable feedback
to insane premises. One of which is the attempt to kill or eradicate an evil – that thus becomes us – as
we righteously become the thing we hate beneath the bubble of a 'righteousness' that completely blinds us
until our 'world' cracks open to a helpless recognition of our own undoing.
If there is a way to See and know truly, instead of shifting perceptions that repackage ancient hate
in complex instruments of incentivisation, it is a matter of the heart's desire and not technological
ingenuity purposed to self-specialness. For desire vibrates the 'space' – and what we accept and hold in
our heart is given power in our name – regardless it be true or worthy of you to share in.
We 'object' amidst a Universe that is 99.9% Space – and yet filled with energetic order of a kind we are
only just beginning to – somewhat reluctantly – recognise. The only 'nothing' is the false given
acceptance as true. Acting as if something fearful is true MAKES it true in the mind of that experience.
Do we really have choice?
If so – are we even now using it to deny or rule out the only real choice available for an ancient
mis-identification struggling to make itself real?
Rhisiart Gwilym
,
Thank god for the Long Descent. This will all be a fading nightmare (though some will dream it as a lost
golden age !) in a century or so; when the Limits To Growth have finally insisted that we stop expanding
the Technosphere (aka 'Koyaanisqatsi') – and then go into reverse. Roll effin' on!
Richard Le Sarc
,
We cannot possibly, on the current trajectory, make another century. A few decades at most, months or
years if thermo-nuclear or biological warfare is unleashed.
Gary Weglarz
,
I have been living in southern California for the last two years, yet I'm still trying to adjust to what
I observe daily in terms of "screen addiction." It is a daily occurrence here to stop at red light, wait
all of 30 to 40 seconds for the light to change, only to have one or more cars in line fail to move when
light turns green. Why? Because they are completely glued to their cell phones either reading messages,
texting, or god knows what? Inevitably one has to honk one's car-horn to get them moving. I've never
observed this anywhere else I've lived, but then again the screen addiction thing is growing daily in
real-time so who knows if this is just standard operating procedure around the world in all urban areas
at this time?
The most frightening example of the screen addiction here is that in stop and go, bumper to bumper
freeway traffic, moving from 60 miles and hour one moment to a dead stop the next, I've glanced over many
times to see drivers next to me literally looking down at their cell phones instead of at the road in
front of them, while driving 60 miles and hour, and when knowing that at any second they may have to slam
their brakes on to avoid a collision. Two years ago I was living in rural France and I NEVER witnessed
behavior like this anywhere, even when driving in Paris. Maybe things have changed there – I just don't
know.
What does it say about us here in the U.S. (at least southern California) that we can't drive our car,
or sit for 30 seconds at a traffic light, without pressing a screen into our face? How frightened and
alienated and uncomfortable must so many of us be that we are unable to be alone with ourselves and with
our own thoughts for even a few moments? I'm not sure I want to know the answer to that, though I dare
say it is a rather important question. Thank you Mr. Curtain.
George Mc
,
This article made me realise how visionary the SF writer Philip K Dick was – with his spaced out
psychotic "heroes", sinister shady corporations and breakdown in the whole criteria for determining
what's real.
Recommended reads:
"A Scanner Darkly" where a schizophrenic main character seems to represent a schizophrenic world in
which the ones fighting against drugs and the ones supplying then are two arms of the same organisation.
"Lies Inc." – A total mindfuck of a book in which psychotropic weapons have spiralled so far out of
control that the whole narrative seems to break down.
Robbobbobin
,
This article made me realise how visionary the SF writer Philip K Dick was
The Machine Stops
, E.M. Forster (
A Room with a View, Howards End,
A Passage to India,
), Short Story, published in
The Oxford and
Cambridge Review
(
November 1909
).
There are other free versions of the same text as well as several free audiobook versions available
online.
Norn
,
This app shows in real time which app on your Android phone is talking/connecting to the outside world.
App name: 'Network Connections' or 'Network Connections for Android'. Not sure if there are other
flavours.
You can get it from Google Play, and if you don't like Google, the APK (Android Package) can be found
quite easily online. Full version is paid but to check it out it is free. Sometimes it says you need to
pay, but then the message disappears and you can keep using it (from my experience).
Interesting to see apps, that were forced to stop, coming back to life all by themselves and talking to
whatever server they are supposed to talk to. However, you cannot tell, using this app, what data is
being sent to the server. It would be good fun to find out.
You can click on a connection to see the IP owner and location information which take a few seconds to
show. But it is an eye-opener to see the geolocations of various servers around the world that the mobile
phone connects to simultaneously. It shows clearly, there are no boundaries (and no limits perhaps) on
how high-tech companies operate. For example, an app (which I don't need and could not be disabled) can
activate more than one connection and each connection is made to a server in a different country.
Mucho
,
Answers to the author's questions are contained herein:
Wow! I don't praise many articles nowadays but what an excellent article; one of the very few I've read
in media (MSM and alternative) over the last couple of years. Thanks Mr Curtin – bravo!
Incidentally,
on a more mundane level – I haven't had a mobile for quite some time now and have never had a
smart-phone; corded landlines are so much better for phone calls (and freedom from stress when you are
away from home/office!). Also, if you want to email, watch films, or play games PCs are infinitely better
than mobile phones! Never got the thing about all-in-one devices, myself.
Mucho
,
The filth in power will use electronic warfare (5G, wifi, blue/white light LED ie cars, homes and
streetlights, health harming devices like CCTV camersa which all emit microwaves at 2.4GHz same as your
microwave oven, note: anyone noticed the massive uptick in radiation you are now exposed to in
supermarkets with the ultra powerful new LED lights and wifi routers lining the ceilings? etc), false
flag terrorism, mass poisoning of the food and water, synthetic man-made viuses, geo-engineered climate
change and other methods straight out of the "how to genocide" handbook to conduct WW, reduce the
population and destrot the world as we know it. Oh wait a minute, they're already doing all of those
things. Do the maths people, it's pretty simple to figure it out. This is a silent war being waged
against YOU and YOUR FAMILY. Who would have thought streetlights would be turned into a weapon of war?
Well, they have been and with 5G, it won't just be the light they emit that is harmful. They know what
all these things do, that's why they are installing them. WAKE UP!
When the space outside of jail is much smaller than the space inside the jail, those outside become
prisoners by default
as their freedom is curtailed by the lack of space
and dearth of options.
This is the exact situation with our present Digital Prison that has been built
by exploiting science and technology for nefarious and psychopathic and tyrannical aims.
Another thought provoking peice Edward, thanks.
And yeah, I read this while staring at my Huawei smartphone, which also contains my Email and things like
Google Earth.
And, yes, I was wincing.
As someone who boycotts the mainstream presstitutes, and who hasn't bought a newspaper for over 15 years,
how then do I find out what is happening in the world?
How do I find out when a protest is happening, or if a major war breaks out?
I regularly comment here (when it actually posts – major gremlins last 4-5 days) and at a few other
independent sites.
It's about connecting with others who also see what is happening – the havoc and rank injustice created
by the Neoliberal economic system and the Empire – epitomised by thugs like Pompeo and Esper.
Connecting with other like minded people is important.
The word to use here is balance. I check the news at a few sites, make comments, but also limit the time
I spend on my phone. Balance.
I read a fair bit as well as listen to quite a lot of music, watch thought provoking films, and also
connect with nature in a spiritual sense. That's an important one.
Mucho
,
Just research the radiation you are exposing your body to by using a smart phone, carrying it in your
pocket is plain crazy! They have tricked you into harming your self with it. That's how they do it,
it's all trickery ..illusion ..lies.
Listen to this guy, Kevin Mottus, he is ultra qulaified to impart info about this. This presentation
is not just about 5G it is about wireless.
Thanks Mucho for the clip, just heading off to work, will watch it tonight. Hmmm, 40 years ago, we
didn't even have Dvds or Cds.
And now we can watch movies on our phone and Skype people on the other side of the world.
And everyone staring at their phones
All of the answers to all of the problems that face us are already within us. All we need to do is to
switch off from the stuff that they want us to consume.
Norn
,
"switch off"? And miss on Providential Guidance? Here is the White House Spiritual Advisor sharing
their flash of enlightenment:
https://twitter.com/RightWingWatch/status/1220740601781608448
This is the providential guidance the masters of the universe receive in Washington .. Thank me for
the giggle, and don't miss the comments below the (1minute 34seconds) video
I think technology reaches an apex then it's downhill from there. The only advantage the internet has
over the Gutenberg Press is that it's faster and easier to use. Both snail mail and email deliver mostly
junk. Hey but it's faster and easier to get rid of and you don't have to recycle it which reminds me of
the paragon of political correctness when he isn't planning mass genocide Bill Gates changing the name of
what us Mac users still call trash and called it the "recycle bin". Yet his OS is still a dumpster fire
with an architecture that was designed by a chimpanzee. Too funny 😂
Anyway seriously somewhat. Google is now a joke with its stupid "AI" that only hits on mainstream news
and approved sites lest the holi poli find out what's really going on. Same with YouTube which has gotten
as bad as watching cable TV. Like that ol Springsteen tune 55 channels and still nothing's on. Only
there's a lot more of nothing thanks to the holy censors. Unless you're into soft core porn and cat vids.
Ain't technology great?
Now there's 5G that aside from being an overhyped hoax is dangerous. Hey but if you want to get
irradiated in your own home or walking down the street than go fer it dude! Hope ya'll got a supply of
Potassium Iodide because it'll come in handy when that goes on line but your last words will be sent
faster with more ghz. What more can you ask for?
Funny you should mention the bomb Ed because with 5G coming on line we may not have to wait for that
mushroom cloud.
It's probably not that bad at least that's what the experts who haven't bothered testing it say 😎👍
milosevic
,
Hope ya'll got a supply of Potassium Iodide because it'll come in handy
when that goes on line
why, does 5G technology somehow produce radioactive iodine? how is that
supposed to work?
It's possible that high concentrations of EMR can convert natural iodine in the thyroid gland to
iodine 131. Just a theory but better safe than sorry. Also Vitamin K and Niacin have been shown to
be somewhat effective as well.
milosevic
,
It's possible
no, it isn't.
otherwise, anybody who uses a microwave oven would have died of cancer, long ago.
take your anti-scientific disinfo someplace where it will be appreciated, like Alex Jones'
psyop websites.
Are you referring to yourself again? Personally I'd say that you're not just
common but exceptionally moronic.
Mucho
,
I was going to link to the CIA released document which is a translation of
USSR studies into the effects of non-ionizing radiation. It has an
eye-watering summary of the effect of milimeter waves on biological structure,
a fundamental aspect of 5G. It has been pulled and I cannot find it on their
website. Very interesting. Luckily the FUllerton INformer has it on his 5G
Dangers website.
Thanx Mucho. There is also another factor to consider as well and that there
is a very fine line spectrally that is almost nonexistent between Ionizing and
Non-ionizing Radiation.
Also as I was trying to point out. There is nothing
wrong with taking supplements that may counteract the effects of either.
Just like there is nothing wrong with taking vitamin C to counteract a
cold.
Anyone who would should suggest that there is is not only a "disinfo troll"
or agent but also a homicidal maniac.
milosevic
,
ionizing radiation produces ionization, which is not at all the same thing as
nuclear transmutation.
evidently, you don't know what you're talking about.
Capricornia Man
,
Wasn't it Canadian philosopher John Ralston Saul who said that an obsession with information technology
is one of the hallmarks of a corporate state?
I think it was the editor of a US record magazine who
wrote that one of the sicknesses of our society is that perfectly good, tried and trusted technology is
junked the minute something else is invented.
Thoughts worth considering, at least.
BigB
,
And Jacques Ellul and Marshall McLuhan made the similar observation: "First, we take control of our
tools, then they take control of us".
Technology – or technique as Ellul preferred – gains an almost
real time velocity, compressing time and space, making ends and means virtually synchronic but why?
Does a 10 millisecond arbitrage trade vastly improve the quality of life compared to a 100 millisecond
arbitrage trade or are we in the service of the machine?
Gary Wilson
,
We upset the biology but cling to the technology.
Fair dinkum
,
More bogged than 'hovering' methinks.
Norn
,
"nice" Americans: .. Here is a sample of
nice
Americans who want
to control our breath:
Pompeo
, Fri 24 Jan 2020: "You Think Americans Really Give A F**k
About Ukraine?"
Michael Richard Pompeo (57 y.o.) is the United States secretary of state. He is a former United
States Army officer and was Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from January 2017 until April
2018
Nuland
, earlier than Feb 2014: "Fuck the EU."
Victoria Jane Nuland (59 y.o) is the former Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian
Affairs at the United States Department of State. She held the rank of Career Ambassador, the highest
diplomatic rank in the United States Foreign Service. She is the former CEO of the Center for a New
American Security (CNAS), and is also a Member of the Board of the National Endowment for Democracy
(NED)
Jack_Garbo
,
" my typewriter is a very useful and endurable machine, a useful technology that has enhanced life. It
does not break or need to be replaced every few years, as computers do. It does not contain coltan,
tantalum, or other minerals mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and other places by poor
people working under oppressive conditions created by international consumer greed that is devouring the
world. It does not allow anyone to spy on me as I type."
Edward, you've slipped into pseudo-Ludditism
(and grammar errors). Your noisy, ribbon chewing, paper consuming (think of the trees!), typing machine
is surely "durable" unless you suffer to endure it (Lying to another lover?). It may not contain
"conflict coltan" and other imperial minerals but I'll bet it was produced by low wage serfs somewhere
less than ritzy.
Anyone in your room can spy on your work, while my computer can be adjusted to a "narrow pixel view",
blocking any spies, and if I want noise I can simulate the clack of keys hitting the carriage (I don't,
can't stand the noise). I can also isolate all screen distractions in "private" mode, can choose my
"paper color", usually a burnt cream mimicking early 19th C manuscripts (Ha, joke coming, my word
processor is called Manuskript). Enough
I'll read the rest after coffee, proofing this electronic creation, and posting. It's all real, not
totalitarian electronic post-modern fascism. Oh, my smartphone? It sits obediently silent, taking
messages, reminding me of appointments, like a dutiful secretary, as I've programmed it. Ain't technology
great?
PS. I write for a living and the invention of the computer saved my sanity, since I'm a "backwards"
writer – end first, middle, then start. Years of real "cut & paste" drove me mad.
So, all praise the god Laptop and his children, Word Processors. Anon.
Personally I don't see anything "therapeutic" about staring at a blank screen and a blinking cursor. I
write for a living too at times and still I end up going old school and actually writing notes or
doing a handwritten outline before I hit the big empty.
Writing is a personal thing. Actually I admire Ed's method. Anyone who takes the time to type out
their piece on a manual typewriter is a craftsman. Makes me want to haul out my old Smith Corona and
give 'er a spin.
Jack_Garbo
,
That's the difference between an amateur (lover) and a pro (expert). I don't caress the keyboard or
kiss the screen, but my words sell or I don't eat. Typewritten words pay the same as electronic
words. Nothing's therapeutic about about a blank screen; my job is to fill it.
I envy amateurs, who enjoy inserting the sheets, adjusting the light, polishing the keys and neatly
stacking that final draft, even if it's never published. I used to do that when I worked as an
engineer, when writing was a hobby.
Antonym
,
Who is behind 5G?
I though it was China (Huawei), the nation that has its citizens even more hooked on
mobile phones than the US: even opium was a less popular escape from a top down society.
Not only do the Chinese, Americans and many others suffer from cyber addiction but also from gross
materialism. Same symptoms, same cause: lack of spirituality. "Money" is just another deficient religion.
Richard Le Sarc
,
Dear me, Ant-did you forget your own tribe, hooked on materialism for 3500 years.
It is similar to this Lebanese 'Vision for Peace' for a brighter future for the people in
North America which foresees some split of territory between natives and colonial settlers.
Haha.. I had a good laugh seeing the diagram.
Thank you 'b' for keeping us in good spirits!
i always thought it a shame that the war of 1812 ended in a (more or less) draw. the brits
had ideas for cutting up the US that would have been similar to that fake map (which was
kinda amusing until i saw the "derpa derp russia" bit) and kept the settler trash from moving
west and genociding everything that wasn't nailed down.
oh well...at least it's comforting to think ahead a few decades when most of the southwest
will be "little mexico".
I see Alaska and Hawaii have presumably gone back to the original owners, but it's not
shown.
I assume Alaska went to Russia (which is what a pal who fishes there expects!) (there is a
plan, I am told, to run a rail tunnel under Bering Strait, Canada, America, and further South
all the way as part of the OBOR project.). But that can happen if the natives wish
association with Ru and Chin...
(I'm not terribly serious about this, but Times do change and stuff does happen)
I assume the Monarchy is re-established in Hawaii.
In all seriousness, the DoD plans for Alaska if nukewar with USSR went against the US, was
to use Gladio teams to control the natives, who were regarded as unloyal and sympathetic to
the "commies"... no url, but I read this in FOIA stuff years ago.
Jackrabbit | Jan 30 2020 17:14 utc | 55
I assume that American Indians have already agreed to the North American Peace Plan (NAPP)so they can now go ahead and
take 30% of the land that the NAPP grants them - just as with the Trump-Jared Plan to settle the Israeli-Palestinian
Conflict.
Will homes of White Americans that disagree be bulldozed like the Israelis do to Palestinians?
Good map 'b'
I would love to see a political map of the US White House showing percentage of Israeli
influence on American policy! Duel nationals, lobby groups etcetera plus maybe one showing
which states are biased toward Israel as opposed to Palestine.
It's known as 'declaring an interest' those people should be barred from decision making
re Israel.
In a move that is sure to please President Trump, a State Representative in Tennessee has
introduced legislation that would officially designate CNN, as well as The Washington Post, as
fake news.
R.I.P. Uri Avnery: ... reminded of the classic Jewish joke about the Jewish mother in Russia taking leave of
her son, who has been called up to serve the Czar in the war against Turkey. "Don't overexert
yourself'" she implores him, "Kill a Turk and rest. Kill another Turk and rest again
"
"But mother," the son interrupts, "What if the Turk kills me?"
"You?" exclaims the mother, "But why? What have you done to him?"
Putin is nothing if not a pragmatist. A nationalist as well. See where Russia was when he
began his first term as President and where it is now which is even more impressive when
resistance from the US and 'friends' is taken into account.
Being pragmatic doesn't always satisfy everyone. He doesn't have the same political system
as the US and Western Democracies either, so there's that. I think a large part of his appeal
to those who see him objectively is his attempts to be a broker rather than a hot head
reactionary and that would apply to the nasties in Israel. Capt Obvious says Israel isn't a
standalone problem.
Putin and Netanyahu's relationship is too close for comfort.
Posted by: SharonM | Jan 30 2020 13:01 utc | 6
Name one national leader to whom Putin displays a lack of respect?
He's not a big-mouthed AmeriKKKan or a sleazy Pom. It's Russian (and Chinese) policy to keep
the door to the path of diplomacy open at all times.
I'm surprised that everyone is pretending not to notice that Trump hasn't finished helping
the "Israelis" to outsmart themselves. He's made several of their criminally psychotic dreams
come true and they've lapped them up without any apparent reservations about the legal and
moral ramifications.
He'll keep 'giving' them increasingly ridiculous concessions because he's probably as curious
as everyone else to discover if there's a practical limit to the quality and quantity of
asinine bullshit the "Israelis" will believe.
Thank you for the informative article by Sharon Tennison, about Putin.
Those who find it interesting and/or informative will also be interested in this much
earlier, much more detailed article that she wrote six years ago, about her initial and
considerable interactions with him when he was a civil-servant bureaucrat in St Petersbug in
the 90s. http://www.russiaotherpointsofview.com/2014/04/russia-report-putin-.html
I wholeheartedly recommend this linked article (along with the one from Moe, above), and
am sure that anyone reading it will find it informative and a very helpful tool with regard
to understanding Putin's actions in today's world.
Sharon Tennison's rather in-depth account of the Vladimir Putin that she knew and dealt
with when he was a civil-servant bureaucrat in St Petersburg in the 90s will shed a lot of
light on the actions of today's Putin.
Funny that the locals are not happy with our gift-bearing. human pyramid-building saviors.
How so utterly ungrateful. We brought them democracy, human rights and genocide, and they now
want us out. Shame!
We should immediately send them Madeleine Albright to explain to them that the deaths of
600,000 Iraqi babies was actually a good thing and "God's work". That'll do!
Trump doesn't have a thing to fear he's been a huge asset to the security state, whose
Russiagate theatrics provided mainstream media news with just enough bullshit to distract the
public, so that Trump could never be aggressively attacked from the Left. For the last three
years, all the "resistance oxygen" was sucked up by the warmongering against Russia.
Meanwhile, this enabled Trump to successfully pass a slew of reactionary legislation and
fasttrack numerous lifetime appointments to the federal court without barely a whimper from
the phony Dems. In fact, the Democrats unanimously voted for Trump's military budget. The
same idiot they called unhinged was given the power to start WWIII.
No matter how much liberals complain–the wealthy are happy with the status quo and
the right-wing Evangelicals are as pleased as punch. However, there's quite a large number of
disaffected Trump voters looking at Tulsi, but could eventually come Bernie's way.
Especially, if Tulsi endorses Bernie. This discontented bunch includes the working-poor, the
indebted young, and all the folks who are not doing economically well under Trump's fabulous
stock market. It especially includes the military families who were promised an end to the
miserable foreign interventions. Bernie, has some appeal to these folks. His platform
certainly resonates with all those who can barely pay their health insurance
premiums, and whose salary is NOT nearly considered a living wage. But Bernie could win
hands-down and steal Trump's base, if he only had the courage to UNAPOLOGETICALLY speak out
against US imperialism and connect all the dots explaining how the security state plundered
the treasury for decades f–king over the working-class.
"... the West's equivalent to the former Soviet Union's systematic, and equally pervasive, truth-suppression, to fool the public into thinking that the Government represents them, no matter how much it does not. ..."
"... (The chief trick in this regard is to fool them into thinking that since there is more than one political party, one of them will be "good," even though the fact may actually be that each of the parties represents simply a different faction of a psychopathically evil aristocracy. After all: each party lied and supported invading Iraq in 2003, Libya in 2011, and Syria constantly; and no party acknowledges that the 2014 regime-change in Ukraine was a U.S. coup instead of a domestic Ukrainian democratic revolution. On such important matters, they all lie, and in basically the same ways. These lies are bipartisan, even though most of the other political lies are heavily partisan.) ..."
"... The great then-independent investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald headlined about that interview, at Salon on 18 April 2012, "Attacks on RT and Assange reveal much about the critics: Those who pretend to engage in adversarial journalism will invariably hate those who actually do it." How true that was, and unfortunately still is! And Assange himself is the best example of it. ..."
"... Let's examine the unstated premises at work here. There is apparently a rule that says it's perfectly OK for a journalist to work for a media outlet owned and controlled by a weapons manufacturer (GE/NBC/MSNBC), or by the U.S. and British governments (BBC/Stars & Stripes/Voice of America), or by Rupert Murdoch and Saudi Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal (Wall St. Journal/Fox News), or by a banking corporation with long-standing ties to right-wing governments (Politico), or by for-profit corporations whose profits depend upon staying in the good graces of the U.S. government ( Kaplan/The Washington Post ), or by loyalists to one of the two major political parties (National Review/TPM/countless others), but it's an intrinsic violation of journalistic integrity to work for a media outlet owned by the Russian government. Where did that rule come from? ..."
"... This is the American gospel, and it is called "capitalism." Oddly, after Russia switched to capitalism in 1991, the American gospel switched instead to pure global conquest -- über -imperialism -- and the American public didn't even blink. So: nowadays, capitalism has come to mean über-imperialism. That's today's American gospel. Adolf Hitler would be smiling, upon today's Amerika. ..."
All of the lies are still being propounded by the U.S. regime and remain fully enforced by suppression of the truth about these
matters.
That's being done in all news-media except a few of the non -mainstream ones.
So: this is about an actual Western samizdat - the West's equivalent to the former Soviet Union's systematic, and equally pervasive,
truth-suppression, to fool the public into thinking that the Government represents them, no matter how much it does not.
(The chief trick in this regard is to fool them into thinking that since there is more than one political party, one of them will
be "good," even though the fact may actually be that each of the parties represents simply a different faction of a psychopathically
evil aristocracy. After all: each party lied and supported invading Iraq in 2003, Libya in 2011, and Syria constantly; and no party
acknowledges that the 2014 regime-change in Ukraine was a U.S. coup instead of a domestic Ukrainian democratic revolution. On such
important matters, they all lie, and in basically the same ways. These lies are bipartisan, even though most of the other political
lies are heavily partisan.)
The U.S.-and-allied regimes' billionaires-owned-and-controlled 'news'-media
condemned Assange for this interview, because it enabled whomever still had an open mind, amongst the Western public, to hear from
one of those billionares' destruction-targets (Nasrallah), and for Assange's doing this on the TV-news network of the main country
that America's billionaires are especially trying to conquer, which is (and since
26 July 1945 has consistently been ) Russia.
The great
then-independent investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald headlined about that interview, at Salon on 18 April 2012,
"Attacks on RT
and Assange reveal much about the critics: Those who pretend to engage in adversarial journalism will invariably hate those who
actually do it." How true that was, and unfortunately still is! And Assange himself is the best example of it. Greenwald wrote:
Let's examine the unstated premises at work here. There is apparently a rule that says it's perfectly OK for a journalist to
work for a media outlet owned and controlled by a weapons manufacturer (GE/NBC/MSNBC), or by the U.S. and British governments
(BBC/Stars & Stripes/Voice of America), or by Rupert Murdoch
and Saudi Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal (Wall St. Journal/Fox News), or by a banking corporation with
long-standing ties to right-wing governments
(Politico), or by for-profit corporations whose profits depend upon staying in the good graces of the U.S. government (
Kaplan/The Washington Post ), or by loyalists to
one of the two major political parties (National Review/TPM/countless others), but it's an intrinsic violation of journalistic
integrity to work for a media outlet owned by the Russian government. Where did that rule come from?
But from 'temporary' house-arrest there, Assange was allowed asylum by Ecuador's progressive President Rafael Correa on
20 June 2012 , to stay in London's Ecuadoran Embassy, so as not to be seized
by the UK regime to be sent to prison and probable death-without-trial in the U.S. To Correa's shock, it turned out that Correa's
successor, Vice President Lenin Moreno, was actually a U.S. agent, who promptly forced Assange out of the Embassy, into Belmarsh
prison, to die there or else become extradited to die in a U.S. prison, also without trial.
And, for what, then, is Assange being imprisoned, and perhaps murdered? He divulged government secrets that should never even
have been secrets! He raised the blanket of lies, which covers over these actually dictatorial clandestine international operations.
He exposed these evil imperialistic operations, which are hidden behind (and under) that blanket of imperialists' lies. For this,
he is being martyred -- a martyr for democracy, where there is no actual democracy (but only those lies).
Here is an example:
On December 29th, I headlined
"Further Proof: U.S.,
UK, & France Committed War-Crime on 14 April 2018" and reported highlights of the latest Wikileaks document-dumps regarding a
U.S.-UK-French operation to cover-up (via their control over the OPCW) their having committed an international war-crime when they
had fired 105 missiles against Syria on 14 April 2018, which was done allegedly to punish Syria for having perpetrated a gas-attack
in Douma seven days before -- except that there hadn't been any such gas-attack, but the OPCW simply lied and said that there might
have been one, and that the Syrian Government might have done it! That's playing the public for suckers.
Back on 3 November 2019, Fox News bannered
"Fox News Poll: Bipartisan majorities want some U.S. troops to stay in Syria" and reported that when citing ISIS as America's
enemy that must be defeated, 69% of U.S. respondents wanted U.S. troops to stay in Syria. But when did ISIS ever constitute a threat
to U.S. national security? And under what international law is any U.S. soldier, who is inside Syria, anything other than an invader
there? The answer, to both of these questions, is obviously "never" and "none." But if you are an investor in Lockheed Martin, don't
you want Americans to be suckers about both ? And, so, they are . People such as Julian Assange don't want the public anywhere to
be lied-to. Anyone who is in the propaganda-business -- serving companies such as Lockheed Martin -- wants the public to be suckers.
This is the way the free market actually works. It works by lying, and in such a country the Government serves the people who
have the money, and not the people who don't. The people who don't have the money are supposed to be lied-to. And, so, they are.
But this is not democracy.
Democracy, in fact, is impossible if the public are predominantly deceived.
If the public are predominantly deceived, then the people who do the deceiving will be the dictators there. And if a country has
dictators, then it's no democracy. In a totally free market, only the people with the most money will have any freedom at all; everyone
else will be merely their suckers, who are fooled by the professionals at doing that -- lying.
The super-rich enforce their smears, and their other lies, by hiring people to do this.
When Barack Obama said that "The United States is and
remains the one indispensable nation" - so that each other nation is "dispensable" - he was merely exemplifying the view that
only the most powerful is indispensable, and that therefore everyone else is dispensable. Of course, this is the way that he, and
Donald Trump, both have governed in the U.S. And
Americans overwhelmingly endorse
this viewpoint . They're fooled by both parties, because both parties serve only their respective billionaires -- and billionaires
are above the law; they are the law, in America and its allied regimes. That's the way it is.
This is the American gospel, and it is called "capitalism." Oddly, after Russia switched to capitalism in 1991, the American gospel
switched instead to pure global conquest -- über -imperialism -- and the American public didn't even blink. So: nowadays, capitalism
has come to mean über-imperialism. That's today's American gospel. Adolf Hitler would be smiling, upon today's Amerika.
And as far as whistleblowers -- such as Julian Assange, and Edward Snowden, and Chelsea Manning, and other champions of honesty
and of democracy -- are concerned: Americans agree with the billionaires, who detest and destroy such whistleblowers. Champions of
democracy are shunned here, where PR reigns and real journalism is almost non-existent.
Come on Ant-everybody knows that it was the MOSSAD, allied to US sayanim and rogue elements
of the US elite who did 9/11. The Saudis were just the patsies, Oswalds one and all.
Antonym ,
Did you know that even Hamas and Iran are run by the Mossad? And Xi Jinping too! Me too, you
too. No more need for an Off Guardian site, all riddles solved.
paul ,
No, they don't run Hamas any more. They did create it and gave it money and guns. To
undermine Yasser Arafat and his organisation. Standard dirty colonial gam of divide and rule.
When Trump beats Creepy Joe, or Crazy Anti Semitic Bernie, or Pocahontas, or Whoever this
November, and threatens us with another 4 years of merciless, deranged Twittering, you have
to expect an outbreak of Trump Derangement Syndrome that will make the Black Death look like
a 3 day cold.
Looking at this map I am reminded of what Albert Einstein said about insanity, which he
described as "doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a different result each
time." The US of A never seems to ever learn anything from its' mistakes. The US is truly the
United States of Amnesia.
What I'd like to see out of this "Impeachment" baloney is this. Trump is impeached and thrown
out of office and runs for reelection anyway and wins. Of course, if that happened, I think
he'd be eligible to run for reelection of course. There'd be mass suicides as well, which
would suit me just fine.
"... It would be highly ironic if these American military aircraft were shot down with the (in)famous US Stinger missiles that America gave to Afghan jihadists against the Soviet Union in the 1980s. ..."
"... Uncle Sam has declared War on the World, thinking it is just a bunching bag. Now he is finding out that sometimes punching bags can punch back... ..."
If the $1.6 trillion cost of the US military being in Afghanistan is correct, then the loss
of 4 helicopters and even the E11 won't significantly increase US overall spend there. $1.6
trillion over 18 years is a tad under $250 million per day
...I recall a quotation from that good man, Winston C, who wrote long ago about
Afghanistan...{populated by} "poverty-stricken illiterate tribesmen possessed of the finest
Martini-Henry Rifles..."
That was over 100 years ago...
Now, it seem, "possessed of the finest surface to air missiles."
It would be highly ironic if these American military aircraft were shot down with the
(in)famous US Stinger missiles that America gave to Afghan jihadists against the Soviet Union
in the 1980s.
I watched the Washington Posts stream of the impeachment today. The spin began immediately
at the dinner break. There was barely a word about anything the President's team presented.
All they talked about was Bolton. These weasels are completely without shame or ethics. It's
news for spongeheads with no ability to think.
"... They look so great only because the Empire and its sidekicks have morons at the helm (I don't mean disposable figureheads, "presidents", "chancellors", and "PMs", but real powers behind the throne). ..."
I think President Putin is a great leader and the greatest in the world today.
Putin is just a man with normal quite ordinary intelligence, like Xi. They look so great
only because the Empire and its sidekicks have morons at the helm (I don't mean disposable
figureheads, "presidents", "chancellors", and "PMs", but real powers behind the throne).
Protestant televangelists have forgotten their own heritage and the selling of indulgences
for salvation which Luther attacked to start off the Reformation.
3:00
Dude is bragging about buying 2 private jets with 'cash' to an audience who can't even afford
to turn their heaters on in the winter time in Minnesota. Ironically, he used their money to
pay for it. They will still continue to send more.
'When I walk on White House grounds, God walks on White House grounds.' -- Meet Paula White,
spiritual adviser to President Trump and the latest addition to the White House staff.
" Subscribe to NowThis:
http://go.nowth.is/News_Subscribe
Should we start an anti Putin hashtag campaign? #bankerslivesmattermore That'll show him,
since there is not much more we can sanction except for maybe Russian baby mama tourism and
Russian hockey players. Doubt Capital fans (aka swamp dwellers) would tolerate the latter.
T he administrations of George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump all routinely lied to
the American people about the success of the 18-year war in Afghanistan. They exaggerated
progress and inflated statistics to create an illusion that that the war was winnable. But
after the deaths of 157,000 people at a cost of $2 trillion, corruption is rampant and the
carnage continues.
At close of Cold War, George H W Bush exhibited every symptom of a wasp-infected cockroach
(as has every US president since FDR). It may be that some categories of Americans have a
greater Cockroach Coefficient than others...
why is it that the media never refer to Soros, Bezos or the Rockefellers as 'oligarchs'?
Why only Russians?
Because the West is the home of love, milk, honey, puppies, apple pie. There's simply no
room for oligarchs in utopia – and if you disagree, you're an anti-Semite, a Nazi
even.
On Saturday, before his defense team took the Senate
floor, Trump used Twitter to deliver a broadside against Democrats "& the entire Radical
Left."
Notable quotes:
"... Our case against lyin', cheatin', liddle' Adam "Shifty" Schiff, Cryin' Chuck Schumer, Nervous Nancy Pelosi, their leader, dumb as a rock AOC, & the entire Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrat Party, starts today at 10:00 A.M. on @FoxNews ..."
On Saturday, before his defense team took the Senate floor, Trump
used Twitter to deliver a broadside against Democrats "& the entire Radical Left."
Our case against lyin', cheatin', liddle' Adam "Shifty" Schiff, Cryin' Chuck Schumer,
Nervous Nancy Pelosi, their leader, dumb as a rock AOC, & the entire Radical Left, Do
Nothing Democrat Party, starts today at 10:00 A.M. on
@FoxNews
One need not be
Pontius Pilate to understand the false changes against Trump
When this Brennan CIA faction stooge Schiff insists that the US anti-tank missiles
and sniper rifles with help Ukraine and its people to fight nuclear armed Russia (if and when Russian decided to put the end to
the rule of US supported Western Ukrainian far right nationalists in Kiev ) it is over the
top even for completely brainwashed part of the US audience. This is not even funny. They can
help to kill some Donetsk insurgents, but that's about it. If Russia decided to compesate insurgent with supplies of similar
weapons the war simply became more deadly for both sides. Which might be the USA plan.
The neoliberal MSM were crucial in the creation of this farce. "These swine care nothing about truth--their only object is to
create a "narrative" (which used to be known as a "line of ********") to brainwash what few followers can still stomach it and
cover their moral bankruptcy and crimes."
It's amazing all the money in the State Department and other intelligence agencies should be
attracting the best minds. Yet a bunch of us sitting here watching this from our boring
office jobs realize how genuinely stupid US foreign policy has been.
A separate Sunni state in West Iraq would be doomed. We need to leave these people alone,
we've made enough foolish mistakes and this will get a lot of people killed. That's along
with US troops being put in harms way for ridiculous reasons like stealing Syrian oil and now
occupying Iraq against their parliaments wishes.
Back in the day you told someone you were American and they wanted to shake your hand and
ask you about this place or that. Now they want to spit in our faces
A million in HK (sometimes 2 million) is a place where there was room for 150k (the police
estimate). The number was "an organiser estimate" for one day, and then became fact.
1 million Ujghurs in prison - but satellite evidence of less that 10k of prison space.
Gen Hodges reckoned 14,000 Russian troops in Ukraine, but no evidence of more than 5 in
any one spot.
Everyone believed in the Russian invasion and annexation of Crimea, but no photos of more
than 8 in any one place (though the BBC shows pictures of dozens which can be google image
search to be in Sevastopol).
400-800k demonstrators at the Maidan - again 120k is tops in that space - and the source
was Boris Nemstvov, the man who constantly promised proof of Russian troops in Ukraine but
was killed conveniently before he could (having extended his deadline repeatedly).
Bosnia.
And the other way around - nothing happening in France.
Anyone looking with sober eyes upon today's world and the feeble economic and geopolitical
underpinnings holding the system together must accept the fact that a new system WILL be created.
This is not an opinion, but a fact. We are moving towards eight billion lives on this globe and the means of
productive powers to sustain that growing population (at least in the west) has been permitted to decay terribly over
the recent half century while monetary values have grown like a hyperinflationary cancer to unimaginable proportions.
Derivatives speculation alone under the deregulated "too big to fail" banking system has resulted in over $1.5
quadrillion in nominal values which have ZERO connection to the real world (GDP globally barely accounts for $80
trillion). Over the past 5 months
$415 billion of QE bailouts have been released into the bankrupt banks
to prevent a collapse. So, economically
it's foundation of sand.
Militarily, the west has followed the earlier Roman empire of yesteryear by overextending itself beyond capacity
creating situations of global turmoil, death and unbounded resentment at the dominant Anglo American powers
controlling NATO and the Military-industrial complex.
The recent near-war with Iran at the start of 2020 put the world on a fast track towards a nuclear war with Iran's
allies Russia and China.
Culturally, the disconnection from the traditional values that gave western civilization it's moral fitness to
survive and grow has resulted in a post-truth age now spanning over three generations (from the baby boomers to
today's young adults) who have become the most confused class of people in modern history losing all discrimination
of "needs" vs "wants", "right" vs "wrong", "beauty" vs "ugliness" or even "male" and "female".
Without ranting on anymore, it suffices to say that this thing is not sustainable.
So the question is not "will we get a new system?" but rather "whom will this new system serve?"
Will this new system serve an oligarchical agenda at the expense of the nations and people of the earth or will it
serve the interests of the nations and people of the earth at the expense of the oligarchy?
Putin Revives a Forgotten Vision
President Putin's January 15 State of the Union was a breath of fresh air for this reason, as the world leader who
has closely allied his nation's destiny to China's Belt and Road Initiative, laid out a call for a new system to be
created by the five largest nuclear powers as common allies under a multi-polar paradigm.
After speaking about Russia's vision for internal improvements, Putin shifted towards the international arena
saying:
I am convinced that it is high time for a serious and direct discussion about the basic principles of a stable
world order and the most acute problems that humanity is facing. It is necessary to show political will, wisdom
and courage. The time demands an awareness of our shared responsibility and real actions."
Calling for Russia, the USA, UK, China and France to organize a new architecture that goes far beyond merely
military affairs, Putin stated:
The founding countries of the United Nations should set an example. It is the five nuclear powers that bear a
special responsibility for the conservation and sustainable development of humankind. These five nations should
first of all start with measures to remove the prerequisites for a global war and develop updated approaches to
ensuring stability on the planet that would fully take into account the political, economic and military aspects
of modern international relations."
Putin's emphasis that "the United Nations should set an example" is not naïve fantasy, nor "crypto globalist
rhetoric" as some of his critics have stated.
Putin knows that the UN has been misused by anti-nation state ideologues for a very long time. He also knows his
history better than his critics and is aware that the original mandate of the United Nations was premised upon the
defense of the sovereign nation state. Article 2.1 of the charter clearly says:
The Organization is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its Members."
For readers who are perhaps rightfully cynical that such organizations as the UN could ever play a truly positive
role in world affairs, it is important to recall that the UN was never intended to have any unilateral authority over
nation-states, or military power unto itself when was created in 1945.
Its purpose was intended to provide a platform for dialogue where sovereign nation-states could harmonize their
policies and overcome misunderstanding with the aim of protecting the general welfare of the people of the earth.
Articles 1.3-4 state clearly that the UN's is designed
"to achieve international co-operation in solving
international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging
respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or
religion and to be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends."
If the United Nations principles as enunciated
in
its pre-amble
and core articles were to ever be followed (just like America's own admirable constitution): then
wars of aggression and regime change would not be possible.
Article 2.4 directly addresses this saying:
All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the
territorial integrity or political independence of any state".
These principles stand in stark contrast to the earlier 1919 Round Table/RIIA-orchestrated attempt at a
post-national world order under the failed League of Nations which was rightfully
put out of its misery
by nationalists of the 1920s.
FDR's 1944 vision, as Putin is well aware, was based not on "world government", but rather upon the concept of a
community of sovereign nations collaborating on vast development and infrastructure projects which were intended to
be the effect of an "internationalization" of the New Deal that transformed America in the years following the Great
Depression.
Thousands of Asian, African and South American engineers and statesmen were invited to visit the USA during the
1930s and early 1940s to study the Tennessee Valley Authority and other great New Deal water, agriculture and energy
projects in order to bring those ideas back to their countries as a driver to break out of the shackles of
colonialism both politically, culturally and economically.
In opposition to FDR, Churchill the unrepentant racist was okay with offering political independence, but never
the cultural or economic means to achieve it.
Although the world devolved into an Anglo-American alliance with FDR's death in 1945, the other Bretton Woods
Institutions which were
meant to provide
international productive credit to those large scale infrastructure projects to end colonialism
were taken over by FDR's enemies who purged the IMF and World Bank of all loyalists to FDR's international New Deal
vision throughout the years of the red scare.
Whether these corrupt financing institutions can be brought back to their original intention or whether they must
simply be replaced with new lending mechanisms such as the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, BRICS New Development
Bank or Silk Road Investment Fund remains to be seen.
What is vital to keep in mind is that Putin (just like FDR before him) knows that neither Britain nor Britain's
Deep State loyalists in America can trusted.
Yet, in spite of their mistrust, they both knew that a durable world order could only be accomplished if these
forces were reined in under a higher law imposed by the authority of truly sovereign nations, and this is why FDR's
post-war plans involved a USA-Russia-China-UK partnership to provide the impetus to global development initiatives
and achieve the goals of the Atlantic Charter.
This partnership was sabotaged over FDR's dead body as the Cold War and Truman Doctrine broke that alliance. The
goal of ending colonialism had to wait another 80 years.
At the 2007 Munich Security Conference, Putin had already laid his insight into history clearly on the table when
he said:
This universal, indivisible character of security is expressed as the basic principle that "security for one is
security for all."
As Franklin D. Roosevelt said during the first few days that the Second World War was breaking out:
When peace has been broken anywhere, the peace of all countries everywhere is in danger I consider that the
unipolar model is not only unacceptable but also impossible in today's world. And this is not only because if
there was individual leadership in today's – and precisely in today's – world, then the military, political and
economic resources would not suffice. What is even more important is that the model itself is flawed because at
its basis there is and can be no moral foundations for modern civilisation."
Putin is not naïve to call for the United Nations charter to serve as the guiding light of a new military,
political, economic architecture.
Nor is he naïve to think that such untrustworthy nations as the USA, UK and France should serve in partnership
with Russia and China since Putin knows that it will be Russia and China shaping the terms of the new system and not
the collapsing basket-cases of the west whose excess bluff and bluster betrays a losing hand, which is why certain
forces have been so desperate to overthrow the poker table over the past few years.
The fact that Putin, Xi and their growing allies have not permitted this chaos agenda to unfold has not only
driven "end of history" imperialists into rage fits but also gives FDR's vision for a community of sovereign
nation-states a second chance at life.
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The big mistake was giving France, UK and the US or FUKU or FUKUS, USSR NKA Russia and China any veto
over the other independent Nations on the planet. Especially since the first two were responsible for
hobbling together the Frankenstein monster known as the United States of America that was created by
rapacious theft and genocide of the indigenous population followed by almost total ecocide and now has
been loosed upon the world it seems to accomplish the same thing under the cover of bringing it
"freedom and democracy".
Paul
,
It's a pity the experience of the League of Nations isn't examined any longer because it is
instructive. OK Congress declined to approve it so the Pilot Wilson was missing but more serious was
the problem of totally partisan and self serving decisions that made its provisions a mockery. Italy
was 'allowed' to keep on occupying Ethiopia and sanctions eg on oil were simply declined, partly
because the US supplied the oil and wasn't going to stop selling it, especially to Mussolini who was
rapidly becoming a client state of America in enormous debt.
BigB
,
Someone said it was "banal" of me to oppose 'The Western Intellectual Tradition' (TWIT). Well, here is
its vision *in extremis*. If you do not recognise it: this is 'Platonic Humanism' in all its glory.
It reads well. It is sensible and intelligible in its clearly written propositions. It has meaning and
clearly denotes real world events – right? And yet it is ultimately unintelligible and non-sensical
in an early Wittgensteinian sense of its underlying logic. If you did not immediately recognise the
subtextual vision of Lyndon LaRouche: you might want to read it again?
The underlying logic is one of economic infinity: completely decoupled from the neo-Malthusian
sustainable 'green iron cage' that prohibits the *productive* economy growing forever as per the
deluded LaRouchian proscription. Which is utterly banal: if not actually exceedingly dangerous.
This fact of life is the essential proof that not only mankind but the universe is unbounded in
its potential for constant self-perfectibility and thus ANTI-ENTROPIC in its essence.
To illustrate my point: this is from an earlier text. I never actually know where I stand: because
"anti-entropy" is laced through much of the commentary here. Which is why this text may appeal on a
superficial reading? It ticks a lot of boxes: including perpetual capitalist growth; expansion of the
SCO/BRI/BRICS/EAEU/CPEC colonisation of the Eurasian 'supercontinent'; and development of an
anti-hegemonic sovereigntist bloc. All of which seem as a fashionable vogue for the internet
progressive about town. But in multipolar alliance with Donald Trump! Infinite anti-entropic
capitalistic growth – guided by the UN Charter – with Putin, Xi AND Trump at the helm in an "alliance
for a new just economic order"? Sounds like hell to me.
My point is that perhaps we should learn to read more deeply? Perhaps at the underlying
paradigmatic logic of the text? Power is transmitted in mysterious ways. Everyone is paranoid about
"mind-control" and "hidden agendas". Well, Matthew's is a prime exemplar of hidden context perhaps
not to be uncritically assimilated? Unless, perhaps you share the vision of unlimited
self-perfectibility; infinite nuclear fusion powered bourgeois ecumenical consumerism decoupled from
ecological neo-Malthusian 'limits-to-growth'; and ANTI-ENTROPY? In which case you may be a banal
Platonist TWIT too? 🙂
LaRouche was a cultic delusionist who took cherrypicked ideas to assemble an intelligible and
sensible montage of beliefs that did not hang together. Which makes his writing absurd nonsense and a
philosophical non-entity. Any putative logical link to the real world is severed by its premises. This
piece is reduced to a mere a Trojan Horse for gibberish. It is a meaning-less 'language game'.
As unfortunate as it may seem: entropy exists as a fundamental property of the ecosphere. Resources
deplete and growth is thermodynamically limited. We need a new system: one which actually addresses
the extinction level ecological crisis we are in the midst of. Something we need to understand and
embrace: not illogically deny. This text subverts that strategic denial to its own ends. Let the
reader be aware of the paradigmatic subtext.
paul
,
Russia and China have always been status quo powers, more concerned with their own internal
development than implementing insane Neocon/ James Bond Villain-style fantasies of world domination.
This was true even during the period of communist rule. Their growth and influence in the world can
only be viewed as a positive development.
China built the infrastructure in the Third World that was
neglected during centuries of colonialism.
China builds things.
America (and its cringing satellites like Britain and France) bomb things.
Most people in Africa and elsewhere prefer building things to bombing things.
Dungroanin
,
A good piece – The UN is not fit for purpose.
The SCO already operates under a 'charter' – which goes past religion and cultural hagemony by any one
nation or peoples. Since it already represents more than half the worlds population and the majority
of its land mass – it is only a matter of time that the defunct UN is upgraded to these standards and
absorbed into it OR crashes and burns.
Today there were hundreds of thousands of Iraqis – maybe over million, in showing the US and its
allies that they really are serious about their national sovereignty and demand that the foreign
forces fuck off!
The US response? To revive the old divide and rule option. Break up Iraq into religion and
sectarian areas – using the 'never learning Charlie Brown' proxy Kurds by offering them tet another
football to kick!
While the world accelerates towards a new order which puts economic security and mutual defence at
its core, the US and its gunfighter professional gamblers resort to poker terminology – 'we are ALL
IN' in keeping the Iranians and Syrians (and Turkey?) out of the SCO to stop a nonstop link from the
Med to the Pacific and Artic to the Southern Seas.
All in! Lol. They going to lose their shirts and be overturning the table and demanding a shootout
to keep from paying up their bet.
It's a bluff and sitting with pocket rockets a simple CALL by the new, new world order.
Excellent. Worthy of wide dissemination for its first nine paragraphs alone.
BigB
,
Phillip, my friend this is not a personal attack, but – have you heard of Lyndon LaRouche? I
suggest you might want to read up on his agenda then re-read the text in its wider context? The
subtleties are not explicit: but if you are aware of LaRouche – or read some of the authors other
texts – they are obvious in the subtext.
The basic premise – unstated herein – is for Trump,
Putin, and Xi to form a wider multipolar alliance against the British economic empire (the British
Deep State infiltrators) for untrammeled infinite global economic growth – with maximum penetration
of nuclear power (eventually nuclear fission) into every economy of the world. To the ends of a
global bourgeois consumer culture serviced by the BRI intitiative. Unrestricted by neo-Malthusian
ecologists like me, who say this is impossible.
We may not always see eye to eye: but I'm pretty sure you do not envisage a hypothetically-
infinite ecumenical consumerism as humanities apex culture? Not least as I assume that you would
agree that this is actual ecological fantasy – the world is finite, as are resources – which means
this text needs to be shredded not further disseminated?
UN Charter .. "sustainable development of humankind"
One of the top priorities
must be:
Swift actions to STOP poisoning our food.
Seamus Padraig
,
A very sanguine view of FDR. To be sure, it's impossible to say with 100% certainty what he
would have done
had he survived the war, but it boggles the mind to
think that he was going to be forever cool with the idea of sharing the world with Russia and China,
when he abjectly refused to share it with Germany and Japan in his own lifetime.
And please don't believe that old canard about the Japanese wanting to take over America; it was
actually Roosevelt who precipitated the whole war with Japan, with his oil embargo and what not. He
even had advance knowledge of Pearl Harbor from multiple sources, but deliberately withheld that
intelligence from his own navy. FDR clearly wanted the attack on Pearl Harbor to be as devastating as
possible, so as to drag his recalcitrant countrymen to war, and it worked. In fact, eighty years
later, we're still at war. That's the
real
legacy of FDR, not the
long-gone New Deal, of which only Social Security survives (for now). All the other 'alphabet soup'
programs he initiated are gone.
I will always wonder wistfully how our history would have turned out had
Huey Long
become president instead.
seriouslyman
,
Everything Putin says is perfect. There is nothing bad that can be said about Russia on offguardian.
Anyone with any mild criticism of russia is a pro imperialist bastard and cannot be engaged with.
Offguardian has rightly attacked almost every significant political figure on earth from corbyn to
trump. Putin is the only person who can save us. There is no flaw in his character or politics and
anyone who suggests otherwise is a conspiracy theorist. Good on Offguardian for never publishing any
negative stories about this brilliant intelligent fair play hero who will save us all from hell.
paul
,
No, Little Greta is going to save us.
Vlad isn't going to do that, but he has done quite a good job so far of stopping the Exceptional
And Indispensable People from blowing up the planet.
This gives Greta the chance to save us all from the global warming and the polar bears.
Andy
,
Sarcasm can be an effective tool for making a point. This is an example of it not being.
Francis Lee
,
I am trying hard to assess your contribution but couldn't find anything either interesting or
relevant to say about it, other than it is little more than sarcastic rant. How does it, or is it
even meant to, increase our understanding of international relations? Who exactly makes those
claims about Putin?
What I would say about Putin is that he is simply talking like a foreign
policy realist. More power to his elbow I say; we could do with some more realism. His political
position is very similar to American foreign policy realists such John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt
who to their credit put the Zionist noses (AIPAC, JINSA, ADL, AEI) out of joint with the
publication of – "The Israel Lobby". Putin's views could have come straight out of the Treaty of
Westphalia (1648) which brought an end to the Wars of the Reformation could have come straight from
the Treaty, which were based on the following precepts which of course support a multipolar not a
unipolar system. Liberal imperialism, humanitarian intervention, call it what you will is a deadly
threat to the future of mankind. In contrast multipolarism as an alternative. See below.
1. States existed within recognised borders.
2. Each states sovereignty was recognised by the others
3. Principles of non-interference were agreed.
4. Religious differences between states were tolerated.
5. States might be monarchies, republics, democracies, as was their wont
6. Permanent state interests or
raison d'etat
was the organizing
principle of interntional relations.
7. War was not entirely eliminated, yet it was mitigated by diplomacy and balance-of-power
politics.
9. The object of the balance of power was to prevent one state from becoming so powerful that it
could conquer others and destroy world order.
Sounds like straight common sense to me.
BigB
,
seriouslyman has a point. The progressive world is extremely slow to recognise the capitalist
colonisation of 70% of the Eurasian globe as an existential threat to humanity. As I have been
pointing out: capitalism does not transform to a benign humanist alternative as it travels West
to East. Russia and China's economic expansionist extractivisim is inimical to all life on
Earth. Especially as China has taken a coal-fired 'Great Leap Backwards' to maintain growth in
the face of the secular synchronised global economic slowdown.
When the very real extinction
level threat of industrialised financialised capitalism is reduced to a personification and
represented as the personality of one man – VVP – this is nothing more than a masking discourse
that conceals the globalised extinctionism of fossil fuel capitalism. Perhaps the time to
reflect on the superior personality of VVP will come when we are all gasping for our last breath
– breathing in petrol?
Capitalism thrives on such personal Fetishism. Power is the invisibilising of capitalism's
truly destructive force. No one even wants to open the discourse into what underlies Russia's
welfare capitalism. Which is infinite market mechanism extraction and quasi-eternal expansionism
of fossil fueled growth. Which will kill us all just as soon as America's big guns and bombs.
George Mc
,
You know BigB I can't help but get the feeling that behind all that polysyllabic
pontificating, everything you say comes down to a kind of masked reactionary claptrap. You
call yourself "neo-Malthusian". Well that's comparatively candid. Malthus being the most
obvious case of a capitalist apologist of the most brutal sort. And how interesting that you
are having a go at Putin here – as if to suggest that even some kind of socialist
transformation isn't going to save us. So what then? Some kind of reaching back to some
healthy sparsely populated savannah filled with Conan the barbarian types?
And this:
"Perhaps the time to reflect on the superior personality of VVP will come when we are
all gasping for our last breath – breathing in petrol?"
Seems to me you are secretly longing for that moment of last breath when you can finally
gleefully shout, "Nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah – Told you so!" before croaking.
Frank
,
Sorry, but this doesn't sound much like satire.
It sounds like an 8-year-old taught you everything you know about geopolitics, and unfortunately
it all went a bit over your head.
George Mc
,
Two points:
First, I fail to see the point of pillorying Putin when the entire Western media is
already doing so.
Second, to pillory Putin on the pretence of "a plague on all their houses" takes us nicely into
that pleasant non-committal "higher sphere" where all-is-one-and-one-is-all. The old con trick of
"being reasonable" in order to sit on an all-facing fence and basically have no opinion at all.
Estaugh
,
So far, Vlad has being doing a very good job, (saving us all from Hell), and it seems, most of the
world is increasingly backing him up. That's tough on 'pro-imperialist bastards' but that's
cricket.
Ron Paul" "It's always been said that impeachment is a political process. Well that's an understatement when you look
at what's going on now."
This time this is a Kabuki theater in which both size are frantically afraid to touch real issues and to discuss
real crimes. This is completely artificial reality trial.
"We used to stand up to Putin and Russia – I know the party of Ronald Reagan used to," declared Adam Schiff, the Democratic point
man on impeachment, his voice quivering with emotion. The fight to defend the Ukraine is "about more than Ukraine. It's about us.
It's about our national security. Their fight is our fight. Their defense is our defense . And when the President sacrifices our
interests, our national security for his election, he is sacrificing our country for his personal gain."
...This was the Democratic line in a nutshell. In order to safeguard the ancient republic at home, the U.S. must pay foreign satraps
to defend its imperial interests abroad. Since no patriotic American could possibly disagree, any and all problems must stem from
meddling by the evil dictator Vladimir Putin and his traitorous puppet in the Oval Office.
Americans must therefore fulfill the ancient law by impeaching him just as the "founding fathers" would have wanted. Only then
will peace and freedom return to the land of the free and the home of the brave.
There are key indicators that the Trump Impeachment saga is not
going as Democrats hoped:
Opthamologists across the United States have been flooded with patients who had attempted to
claw out their eyes after being forced to watch just one hour of the proceedings.
Radical Muslim prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, who were strapped into their chairs with their
eyes taped open and forced to watch the Impeachment hearings, are demanding to be water boarded
instead.
The UN Commission on Human Rights has weighed in and decreed that compelling prisoners to
watch the hearing is a most dastardly, evil form of torture.
Pharmaceutical manufacturer Sanofi-Aventis has filed suit against the Democrat National
Committee for copyright infringement alleging that the hearings are interfering with the sale
of Ambien.
Pelosi gang is too afraid to point to actual crimes (like Douma false flag, Yemen war, etc),
so they invented this Kabuki theater, as if they can fool already suspicious population.
You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you
can't fool all the people all the time. So said Abraham Lincoln – maybe. But whoever it
was forgot to mention an important corollary: fun as it may be to pull the wool over people's
eyes, you'll writhe in agony for an equal period once the truth emerges and the fraud is
exposed.
...the agony of those responsible for the Russiagate fiasco can only intensify while, for
the rest of us, the fun has just begun. So lean back and enjoy the show. It going to be a
doozy.
On Wednesday, Jan 22 Donald Trump wrote his name in the Guinness records books setting Presidential record in Twits.
According @FactbaseFeed, an account which tracks Trump's Twitter habits, Trump sent 142 tweets and retweets on Wednesday --
eclipsing his previous single-day presidential record of 123.
According to the US diplomat, President Trump has made it very "clear that any attack on Americans or American interests will
be met with a decisive response, which the president demonstrated on January 2".
And American interests are defined very flexibly, sometimes in conflicting tweets.
It has now been over a year since the DOJ "re-opened" its "investigation" into Epstein.
Any prosecutor who has just passed his bar exam would need only a few weeks to compile a
mountain of evidence against Ghislaine Maxwell. Enough to charge her with scores of
crimes.
Because the Federal Bureau of (non) Investigation and the Department of (non) Justice
conducting a (non) investigation probably won't turn up much in my (non) opinion.
A lot of people getting hacked lately. When this all comes to a head (If it does) we know
what their defense is going to be. Too bad. It's not gonna work.
Putin “needs to keep his commie hands” off of the sovereign Independent Baptist church’s affairs
According to sources, local man Clarence Williams has urged his church’s lead pastor as well as local law enforcement to move
forward with an investigation into Russian hacking, claiming that there was ample evidence to support the theory that malicious
foreign agents infiltrated and influenced the outcome of a vote on the date for next month’s potluck at Second Baptist Church.
The Raytheon Institute, a bipartisan think tank that specializes in starting Middle Eastern
wars, has released a report that estimates the imminent Iran War will be approximately one
letter different from the ongoing Iraq War.
"We based our analysis primarily on the words themselves," explained Richard Cheney, the
institute's Bonelli Fellow. "If you look closely, you'll see that both countries' names start
'IRA,' but 'IRAN' ends with an 'N' while 'IRAQ' ends with a 'Q.'"
The report spelled out further similarities , including America's total lack of
justification for initiating hostilities, a draft dodging Republican president who was born
with a silver spoon in his mouth, spinelessness on the left during the buildup despite virtue
signaling of being antiwar, simmering sectarian tensions in the country to be invaded, the
prospective enemy's large standing military that won't be able to face down America's initial
assault but could become deadly in a drawn out guerilla campaign, a complete lack of support
from the rest of the world, large amounts of oil at stake, media reports that have inflamed
overwrought concerns about weapons of mass destruction, and relief from service members in
Kuwait that they finally have something to do
Pompeo reminds me of the pigs in Animal Farm. He is a grotesque figure, steely-eyed,
cold-blooded, fanatical, and hateful. "We lied, cheated, and stole" Pompous Maximus will get
his comeuppance one of these days. I hope he plans more overseas trips for himself. He is a
vile person, a psychopath proud of his psychopathy. He alone would make anyone considering
conversion to Christianity, his brand of it, run screaming into the night. Repulsive man.
Maybe we should put sanctions on Pompeo. He could use the diet. Maybe raiding his pantry
would feed Iraqi for a couple months. He is truly perfect spokesman American empire.
Sadistic, bloated, and corrupt.
One of two things is wrong with America: Either the entire system is broken or is on the
verge of breaking, and we need someone to bring about radical, structural change, or -- we
don't need that at all! Which is it? Who can say? Certainly not me, and that is why I am
telling you now which candidate to vote for.
Definition of cynicism: that the Colombian State, world-renowned for killing social
leaders, financing narco and paramilitarism, is the organizer of a summit against terrorism
where Mike Pompeo, intellectual author of the murder of Soleimani, is the star.
But the article was flimsy even by Russiagate standards, and so certain questions inevitably
arise. What was it really about? Who's behind it? Who's the real target?
Here's a quick answer. It was about boosting Joe Biden, and its real target was his chief
rival, Bernie Sanders. And poor, inept Bernie walked straight into the trap.
The article was flimsy because rather than saying straight out that Russian intelligence
hacked Burisma, the company notorious for hiring Biden's son, Hunter, for $50,000 a month job,
reporters Nicole Perlroth and Matthew Rosenberg had to rely on unnamed "security experts" to
say it for them. While suggesting that the hackers were looking for dirt, they didn't quite say
that as well. Instead, they admitted that "it is not yet clear what the hackers found, or
precisely what they were searching for."
So we have no idea what they were up to, if anything at all. But the Times then quoted
"experts" to the effect that "the timing and scale of the attacks suggest that the Russians
could be searching for potentially embarrassing material on the Bidens – the same kind of
information that Mr. Trump wanted from Ukraine when he pressed for an investigation of the
Bidens and Burisma, setting off a chain of events that led to his impeachment." Since Trump and
the Russians are seeking the same information, they must be in cahoots, which is what Democrats
have been saying from the moment Trump took office. Given the lack of evidence, this was
meaningless as well.
But then came the kicker: two full paragraphs in which a Biden campaign spokesman was
permitted to expound on the notion that the Russians hacked Burisma because Biden is the
candidate that they and Trump fear the most.
"Donald Trump tried to coerce Ukraine into lying about Joe Biden and a major bipartisan,
international anti-corruption victory because he recognized that he can't beat the vice
president," the spokesman, Andrew Bates, said. "Now we know that Vladimir Putin also sees Joe
Biden as a threat. Any American president who had not repeatedly encouraged foreign
interventions of this kind would immediately condemn this attack on the sovereignty of our
elections."
If Biden is the number-one threat, then Sanders is not, presumably because the Times sees
him as soft on Moscow. If so, it means that he could be in for the same neo-McCarthyism that
antiwar candidate Tulsi Gabbard encountered last October when Hillary Clinton blasted her as
"the favorite of the Russians." Gabbard had the good sense to
blast her right back.
"Thank you @Hillary Clinton. You, the queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and
personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party for so long, have finally
come out from behind the curtain. From the day I announced my candidacy, there has been a
concerted campaign to destroy my reputation. We wondered who was behind it and why. Now we know
– it was always you, through your proxies and powerful allies in the corporate media and
war machine ."
If only Sanders did the same. But instead he put out a statement filled with the usual
anti-Russian clichés:
"The 2020 election is likely to be the most consequential election in modern American
history, and I am alarmed by new reports that Russia recently hacked into the Ukrainian gas
company at the center of the impeachment trial, as well as Russia's plans to once again meddle
in our elections and in our democracy. After our intelligence agencies unanimously agreed that
Russia interfered in the 2016 election, including with thousands of paid ads on Facebook, the
New York Times now reports that Russia likely represents the biggest threat of election meddle
in 2020, including through disinformation campaigns, promoting hatred, hacking into voting
systems, and by exploiting the political divisions sewn [sic] by Donald Trump ."
And so on for another 250 words. Not only did the statement put him in bed with the
intelligence agencies, but it makes him party to the big lie that the Kremlin was responsible
for putting Trump over the top in 2016.
Let's get one thing straight. Yes, Russian intelligence may have hacked the Democratic
National Committee. But cybersecurity was so lax that others may have been rummaging about as
well. (CrowdStrike, the company called in to investigate the hack, says it found not one but
two cyber-intruders.) Notwithstanding the Mueller report, all the available evidence
indicates
that Russia did not then pass along thousands of DNC emails that Wikileaks published in July
2016. (Julian Assange's statement six months later that "our source
is not the Russian government and it is not a state party" remains uncontroverted.) Similarly,
there's no evidence that the Kremlin had anything to do with the $45,000 worth of Facebook ads
purchased by a St. Petersburg company known as the Internet Research Agency – Robert
Mueller's 2018 indictment of the IRA was completely silent
on the subject of a Kremlin connection – and no evidence that the ads, which were
politically all over the map, had a remotely significant impact on the 2016 election.
All the rest is a classic CIA disinformation campaign aimed at drumming up anti-Russian
hysteria and delegitimizing anyone who fails to go along. And now Bernie Sanders is trying to
cover his derrière by hopping on board.
It won't work. Sanders will find himself having to take one loyalty oath after another as
the anti-Russia campaign flares anew. But it will never be enough, and he'll only wind up
looking tired and weak. Voters will opt for the supposedly more formidable Biden, who will end
up as a bug splat on the windshield of Donald Trump's speeding election campaign. With
impeachment no longer an issue, he'll be free to behave as dictatorially as he wishes as he
settles into his second term.
After inveighing against billionaire's wars, he'll find himself ensnared by the same
billionaire war machine. The trouble with Sanders is that he thinks he can win by playing by
the rules. But he can't because the rules are stacked against him. He'd know that if his
outlook was more radical. His problem is not that he's too much of a socialist. Rather, it's
that he's not enough.
Again, I don't want to be cruel. But in the Trump Era, we must be prepared to face a certain
amount of callousness in politics. Just imagine all the terrible shots Mr. Trump could take at
Mrs. Warren:
"Liz, I like you a lot. I think you're a nice person. But you need to calm down. I don't
know if you take any medication -- your blood pressure must be very high. I'm worried about
you. I really am. Relax. Put on a nice sweater, have a cup of tea, grade some papers."
"I went to Wharton, okay? A much better school than Harvard, by the way. Harvard used
to be a very good school. Now it's failing, because of people like you. And I did very well at
Wharton. Very well. I don't need any more lectures. Save it for your students,
professor."
"Professor Pocahontas, I call her. Iron Eyes Cody had more Indian blood than Liz! Remember
him? 'Keep America Beautiful.' That was his thing. I like that. He would vote for Trump. But
maybe he'd vote for his fellow Native American. I don't know."
"I'm doing very well with the Latino community, even the Latina community. Not so much with
the Lateen-ex community. But that's okay. Liz can have them. All seven of them. What do
you do with a Lateen-ex ? Blow your nose with it?"
For our frequent fliers who are members of our "Chopping Heads and Eating Livers of
Infidels" Afriqiyah Airways is a code share flight with Turkish Airlines. Also, remember your
points can be used in Paradise to rent hotel rooms for you and your 72 virgins.
Turkish Airlines. The airline of choice for Jihadis.
There are 2 beasts, the first is either America or NATO, or basically "The Empire" or
The Neocon Oligarchy--all work well but America is a bit too broad since there are many
good people in America. The second beast whose number is 666, is Trump. Search: Trump 666
and be amazed.
Financialization killed Boeing. All those MBA's who dreamed up outsourced supply-chains
for the Dreamliner. Thought they were going to make a lot of money through savings.
Silly rabbit MBA's... if you don't spend money? You don't make money.
MBA graduates are f*cking useless retards trained in only one system: FAILURE.
What sank McDonald Douglas - bought out by Boeing? Is the same bullsh*t that is ruining
Boeing. Boeing kept a lot of board member & management failures around from McDonald
Douglas. Poisoned the Boeing culture.
How many of you remember all the McDonald Douglas passenger jet success stories? There
wasnt any - the whole mgmt of MD was to to strip out every possible cost and maximize very
profit at the expense of the end customer and the government - and these are the guys who
bought Boeing - and then made the first step of moving the headquarters to chicago. Guess
which party gave lots and lots of government boondoggles to MD?
I had a Polish executive tell me how proud they were as they were about to hire an
American executive who graduated with an MBA.
That is, until I asked him... "Have you checked what happened to the previous companies
that he worked at?"
So the Polish executive did just that. This led to a ban on hiring any American MBA. Turns
out, the American MBA worked at companies, all of which FAILED.
Though, somehow, despite a track record of working at failed companies? The American was
still quite well off.
The ******* alternative you stupid ******* americunt is already in the air. They are
labelled Airbus A220 and A230, otherwise known as Bombardier CS200 and CS300 and they are
sold out 15 years in advance.
That was part of the problem. The parts from Boeing's foreign suppliers MET
SPECIFICATIONS.
That is, until they went to assemble the Dreamliner. Where parts did not fit together.
You see, Boeing found out LONG, LONG AGO... that it was necessary to have manufacturing
close to design. That way, when parts that "met specifications" did not fit? The engineers
and machinists were there to correct deficiencies. Thus leading to reliable planes that were
fit together very well. Only THEN could Boeing could assemble parts in other locations and
mate them together.
This never happened with the Dreamliner. Quadrupled costs. The Dreamliner only exists
thanks to taxpayer subsidies through the ExIm Bank. The Dreamliner WILL NEVER BE PROFITABLE.
Accounting gimmicks make it appear as if Boeing makes money on the Dreamliner.
Amazing that in less than a generation, we go from "if it's not Boeing, I'm not going" to
wondering what the next Boeing screw-up will be and how many will be killed as a result.
The existing 777 is a fantastic plane and, other than pilot error (Asiana at SFO), a
missile attack (Malaysia 17) and some unknown (but apparently not mechanical) issue (Malaysia
370), the 777 has been the safest plane around.
American executives are incentivized to manipulate their company's stock. So they squeeze
the workforce and cut everything to the bone. That's why Boeing, GM, and other household
names are crashing.
According to economist William Lazonick, Boeing spent $43.1 billion on stock buybacks
from 2013 to 2019, raising the company's stock price to a record high just 10 days before
the second crash of its 737 MAX. Boeing CEO Muilenburg collects most of his pay through
stock or compensation based on financial metrics. Yet the company reportedly avoided
spending the estimated $7 billion it would have needed to engineer a safer plane. Less than
10 years after a public sector bailout, GM has spent $10.6 billion on stock buybacks, while
engaging in layoffs and plant closures. That amounts to $221,308 for each of the 47,897
active UAW members currently on strike at GM. Walmart spent $9.2 billion on stock buybacks
from August 2018 to July 2019, which, by my calculations, could have been used to give a
raise of roughly $5/ hour to each of its 1 million hourly workers instead.
Boeing should have been spending all its supposed profits on R&D. The other problem is
the military side of the business is grossly corrupt. Remember the blowup over Air Force
1?
This is what happens when the Federal Reserve lets the financial cat out the bag, and pump
up the stock market to the tune of 35-60 billion every 3 days, because some hedge funds
"could" fail and topple the financial system.
If multiple entities are now too important and could topple the financial system if they
failed, the Fed has massively screwed up.
In 1991 a Boeing purchaser told me that he would give us a contract if we transferred 51%
of the shares to a minority.
This is God's truth
He added that when he could not find minority businesses that would make components
according to specifications, he would buy stuff from minority owned businesses and not use it
but store it in warehouses around the country indefinitely. this in order to meet a quota of
20% purchases from minority owned businesses mandated by the Feds for all government
suppliers.
I can just imagine how bad the discrimination is now.
These are politically connected animals who feed from the trough of government pork barrel
a.k.a taxpayer money. Exactly what has Nikki Haley achieved in her life, except for being a
pathological liar?
These animals were responsible for our reckless fiscal deficits and looming debt bombs
which will soon come crashing down. Kinda good metaphor for Boeing.
All former CFOs and politicians ( civilian and military - only political types in the
military get stars ). No evidence of any engineering expertise. Sad for a once-proud global
leader.
In the "investor economy", there is no morality. EVERYTHING is "commoditized". Even you ..
your DNA. A pricetag hovers over your head like a dialog bubble. Bean counters can
incorporate your morbidity and mortality into mathematical equations showing investors why
cutting costs and saving 0.01% is worthy of investment. While 911 was the paradigm shift for
Rights ... the Lehman "crisis" was its own "911" -- the death of the labor economy ... and
rise of the "investor economy". Nobody works, trading time for dollars. They "invest" Why
work? Investors can kill without being held personally responsible. They only risk their fiat
capital. You die.
You wanna know who Trump really is? Trump is the dark soul of America. He's everything ugly
that Amerikkka is: greedy, immoral, corrupt, an uncouth bully...more than that, he's a
lawless tyrant, a pretentious hypocrite that sends the dumb masses kids to kill, die and
occupy sovereign property while he, the privileged spends hundreds of millions revelling in
superficial distraction, playing golf, comfortably numb, filthy rich and repulsed at the
sight of tent cities, vets sleeping under bridges and by the migrant help that clean the
toilets, pluck chickens all day and are bent over for hours picking crops at slave wages so
he, his trophy wife and the well-off he favors, can eat.
Trump is America's depraved soul that Republicans and Zionists want to nurture and
protect, because he's the Chosen one delivering everything they dreamed of; that Democrats
are powerless to remove because Trump's the price you pay when your own hands are stained
with the blood of those you killed with those you sent to war, stained with the betrayal of
your principles and your own on behalf of AIPAC and corporate bribery to gain power.
Everything Trump is, Amerikkka is, and that's why he's in power. He's in the White House
because he IS Amerikkka and who Amerikkka desires and deserves. Trump is the irresistable,
uncensored charlatan; the rasputin Amerikkkans lusted after to free their lawless, depraved
nature and latent immorality from the mask of shame, fake decorum and respectability.
He's reassured Amerikkkans that selling your soul to the devil to do God's work is okay, as
long as the end always justifes the means, and they love it!
America can be a force for good in the Middle East. The day is coming when Iran and Israel
will, with US help, partner Israel to lift the ME out of its ignorance and poverty, and
Saudi Arabia will, in the absence of the Shia revolution, be able to ditch its Wahhabist
extremism.
Is Warren Warren the Jussie Smollet of politics. I wonder if she claims Bernie attacked her
while wearing a red hat and screaming, "A woman can't win! This is MAGA country!"
Being one of Liz' constituents and familiar with her career and her base (consisting of
people like me,) I think she faces so little consequence for her "embellishments" at least in
part because "we" (her base) inhabit an environment in which, with ease, we adjust facts and
perceptions to conform to whatever our self-serving narrative of the moment may be.
We know that Liz will say anything she imagines will be to her advantage and it's okay
with "us" that she does. In a way, she's our ideal candidate and media darling because she
reflects and affirms our plastic values.
Yes, with Soleimani assassination and subsequent crisis Trump crossed the red line. But the
House is afraid to tell he whole truth... Obama was probably even bigger threat to the US
national security, especially with Hillary as the Secretary of State and hi Libyan and Syrian
adventures.
The 111-page summons urges the Senate to "eliminate the threat that the President poses to
America's national security" as it lays out the case against President Trump.
Hilarious. What other president would've tolerated this?
**** Cheney would've had the homes of these people "visited" by faceless-looking men long
ago, evidence gathered, and a second visit made a few weeks later to protect himself and
Bush. Just to pluck one recent administration out of thin air.
Trump doesn't seem all that worried. Maybe that's for a reason most of us can't possibly
comprehend.
Yes! The inability to tell the truth about the genuine aim of policy despite its being published because that policy goal--to
attain Full Spectrum Dominance over the planet and its people such that neoliberal bankers can rule the world--is actually 100%
against genuine American Values as expressed by the Four Freedoms (1.Freedom of speech; 2.Freedom of worship; 3.Freedom from want;
4.Freedom from fear) and the articulated goals/vision of the UN Charter--World Peace arrived at via collective security and diplomacy,
not war--which are still taught in schools along with Wilson's 14 Points. Then of course, there's the war against British Tyranny
known as the Spirit of '76 and the Revolutionary War for Independence and the documents that bookend that era. In 1948, Kennan
stated, in an internal discussion that was never censored, the USA consumed 60% of global resources with only 5% of the population
and needed to somehow come up with a policy to both continue and justify that great disparity to both the domestic and international
audience. Yet, those truths were never provided in an overt manner to the American public or the international audience. The upshot
being the US federal government since it dropped the bombs on Japan has been lying or misleading its people such that it's now
habitual. And Trump's diatribe against the generals reflects the reality that he too was taken in by those lies.
'He might be a son-of-a-bitch, but he's OUR son-of-a-bitch'. Surely a 'Yeltsin' must replace
or join 'Quisling' in the popular lexicon as a title for a traitor, in future.
I hear tell that Emperor Trump is also grooming his potential successor/s
It's a neck and neck race between Kim Kardashian, who Trump is giving personal 'hands on'
assistance, and Montgomery Burns, who is one of Trump's role models.
"
"I wouldn't go to war with you people," Trump told the assembled brass.
Addressing the room, the commander in chief barked, "You're a bunch of dopes and babies."
"
"At this stage in the game anyone who still thinks Trump is an honest man with noble
intentions is a complete fool"
That only needs to be changed to: At this stage in the game anyone who still thinks any
system politician is honest and has noble intentions is a complete fool.
But then religious fundamentalists, such as the cultists of electoralism, cannot be
reached by evidence or rational argument.
This is Trump's idiotic tweet earlier today:
"The noble people of Iran -- who love America -- deserve a government that's more interested
in helping them achieve their dreams than killing them for demanding respect. Instead of
leading Iran toward ruin, its leaders should abandon terror and Make Iran Great Again!"
And here's Sharmine Narwani's response:
"I'm in Iran right now. These "noble" people find you disgusting, just like most Americans.
Iranians laugh at you and mock you and really, really want their government to bring you to
your knees."
In another sense, however, the passing of the cold war could not have been more
disorienting. In 1987, Georgi Arbatov, a senior adviser to the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev , had warned:
"We are going to do a terrible thing to you – we are going to deprive you of an
enemy."
...Winning the cold war brought Americans face-to-face with a predicament comparable to that
confronting the lucky person who wins the lottery: hidden within a windfall is the potential
for monumental disaster.
I don't think it will be long before we see Congress in the US calling for invasion of Russia
on the grounds of a lack of diversity, lack of respect for LGBTP and so forth.
"... Why then were all eight House members chosen as managers to prosecute the case against Trump, who ceremoniously escorted the articles across the Capitol, all Democrats? Why did the articles of impeachment receive not a single Republican vote on the House floor? ..."
Why then were all eight House members chosen as managers to prosecute the case against
Trump, who ceremoniously escorted the articles across the Capitol, all Democrats? Why did the
articles of impeachment receive not a single Republican vote on the House floor?
Ban PMs, Ministers, governors, some mayors and judges, from having second citizenships of
foreign residencies; moreover, Presidential candidates should have been resident in Russia
for 25 years (previously 10 years) and never had a foreign citizenship.
I knew that if you kept it up, Putler would get around to targeting you.
This is about fight with fifth column... The time for those changes is long
overdue.
I truly believe that it is time to introduce certain changes to our country's main law,
changes that will directly guarantee the priority of the Russian Constitution in our legal
framework.
What does it mean? It means literally the following: requirements of international law and
treaties as well as decisions of international bodies can be valid on the Russian territory
only to the point that they do not restrict the rights and freedoms of our people and citizens
and do not contradict our Constitution.
Second, I suggest formalising at the constitutional level the obligatory requirements for
those who hold positions of critical significance for national security and sovereignty. More
precisely, the heads of the constituent entities, members of the Federation Council, State Duma
deputies, the prime minister and his/her deputies, federal ministers, heads of federal agencies
and judges should have no foreign citizenship or residence permit or any other document that
allows them to live permanently in a foreign state.
The goal and mission of state service is to serve the people, and those who enter this path
must know that by doing this they inseparably connect their lives with Russia and the Russian
people without any assumptions and allowances.
Requirements must be even stricter for presidential candidates. I suggest formalising a
requirement under which presidential candidates must have had permanent residence in Russia for
at least 25 years and no foreign citizenship or residence permit and not only during the
election campaign but at any time before it too.
I know that people are discussing the constitutional provision under which one person cannot
hold the post of the President of the Russian Federation for two successive terms. I do not
regard this as a matter of principle, but I nevertheless support and share this view.
I have already said before that our goal is to ensure high living standards and equal
opportunities for all throughout the country. It is towards this goal that our national
projects and development plans are aimed.
Stephen Morrell ,
Putin clearly is the most informed and visionary bourgeois politician in the world today, by
a country mile. He not only is attempting to address the very real real social, demographic
and economic needs of Russia, in his usual comprehensive manner, but also and cannily is
co-opting many of the expectations that the USSR used to fulfil, attempting to neutralise any
socialist political sentiments in the Russian population. Putin is the Bismarck of Russia.
richard le sarc ,
Russia's economic situation, within the global capitalist system, with its large reserves,
much in gold, no exposure to the toilet paper of US Treasuries, and substantial local
self-sufficiency in agriculture (thank-you sanctions)means that when the Western debt Ponzi
Himalaya implodes, the Russians will be pretty much immune to the consequences.
richard le sarc ,
I agree entirely, but Putin has no alternative. Any chink in his armour and the USA will
destroy Russia and break it up into fragments as they did in Yugoslavia, the USSR and wish to
do in China. I rather think that Putin knows full well how dire is the global ecological
situation, but he needs to balance less enlightened forces at home, and the 'Atlanticist'
Quislings.
BigB ,
I don't disagree either: but that is not my point. The Atlanticists are waiting in the wings
for another four years. Last time I checked: they still command 80% of Russian private
property. And were expropriating $25bn pa annum in capital flight which has slowed slightly
in the last few years. I read the Saker too. There is a deadlock and uneasy power sharing
arrangement internally. But you may have missed the time when the Saker admitted "Putin is a
neoliberal"?
It may be difficult to disentangle our vision from the neoliberal-statist-market ontology
we are being repressed by but that is what we must do. We cannot expect neoliberal capitalist
social inclusivity to save us from ecological catastrophe. Nor can we expect to grow
economically into humanism: when exponential growth is what is destroying any lasting chance
of a purely sustainable human-emancipatory freedom. Putin may not have a choice: but we do.
The neoliberal-statist-market ontology is globally self-determined to produce total failure
as its inevitable and only possible outcome. This is known a 'parametric determinism' when we
automatically follow a maladaptive 'rational' self-optimising behaviour pattern long after it
failed as it did in 2007. There is no recovery possible, and technology only speeds total
failure whilst masking the ecological destruction it is accelerating.
States have to think and act in a pre-determined way that is true. But we do not have to
think like that. Not if there is to be any alternative or succession of humanity ex-post the
neoliberal-statist-market ontology which is morally, ecologically, humanistically and most
importantly *actually* bankrupt at this point.
Do we exit a 350 year process of exponentially disproportionate wealth distribution,
deliberate maldevelopment and global dehumanisation with all the wealth in the hands of those
who benefited from the expropriation? Or do we attempt a redistribution and develop a new,
hitherto unknown (and unknowable under capitalist alienation), value set where everyone
globally has equal access to resources and a right to life as a birthright?
The decision is not beyond you or I: but it will take the development of the assessment of
capitalism on other than its own neoliberal-statist-market ontological terms. No state or
state leader can develop humanity on the path of less-is-more it needs to take but the people
can. That's all.
richard le sarc ,
Putin is either a believing neo-liberal, in which case he is part of the problem you
identify, or he is using it through necessity. I could not agree more with your diagnosis of
the omnicidal nature of capitalism, and the inability of so many to visualise the end of
capitalism-they more easily can conceive of the end of humanity. In fact I rather think that
that is the way in which the ruling parasites intend to save their own bacon, by allowing the
ecological Holocaust to cull the 90% of 'useless eaters' that the ruling elites fear and
despise, and who they see only as a threat. Their labour is no longer required in an age of
automation, robotisation and computerisation, and even their consumption is today
superfluous. The ecological Holocaust has passed numerous tipping-points and points of no
return, while the IPCC downplays the extremity of our situation, the Right still denies it is
even happening, and the public is slowly waking up, too late of course. We've just
experienced a fire Holocaust, yet the Pentecostal thug PM, 'Smoko' Morrison, who is surely
seeing it all as God's Will and the sign of the coming End Times that his cult so longs for,
utterly refuses to reduce CO2 emissions beyond a ludicrous 28% by 2030 from 2005 (base-line
creep)levels, 'target', that we will not come close to. And now it is raining, a little, so
the Great Austrayan Mediocracy can go back to their slumber. But they'll 'Wake in Fright',
again, soon.
Hugh O'Neill ,
"It is very important that they adopt the true values of a large family –
that family is love, happiness, the joy of motherhood and fatherhood, that family is a strong
bond of several generations, united by respect for the elderly and care for children, giving
everyone a sense of confidence, security, and reliability. If the younger generations accept
this situation as natural, as a moral and an integral part and reliable background support
for their adult life, then we will be able to meet the historical challenge of guaranteeing
Russia's development as a large and successful country."
I know very little of Russia alas, but the over-riding impression I take from this speech
is President Putin's depth and breadth grasp of detail and concern for every aspect of
Russian society – and his frustration that decisions made at federal level do not
transform into concrete action at regional levels. The curse of bureaucracy and local
fiefdoms jealous of their power and autonomy.
I was fully expecting him to come up a resonating phrase like: "Ask not what your country
can do for you. Ask instead what you can for your country." For Russia to have (seemingly)
escaped the rapacious talons of the vulture capitalists unleashed by the Yeltsin puppet ought
to be a lesson for us all.
Finally, in international politics, he remains impeccably diplomatic, restrained and wise.
Would that there were more world leaders of such calibre.
Hugh O'Neill ,
Leadership and Learning are indispensable to each other. Looking at the calibre of Presidents
since JFK, it seems that all the best candidates were either killed off or scared off. All
the Unspeakable can do is kill in answer to any and all problems.
richard le sarc ,
Imagine the money freed if US military expenditure was not 90% graft and inefficiency.
richard le sarc ,
His manifest virtues are precisely why the vermin of the Western ruling elites hate him so
psychotically.
I think they are using an old version of BASIC from the cold war era, called BASIC Russia
Hate.
10 Print "Russia bad!"
20 Goto 10
Run
Russia bad!
Russia bad!
Russia bad!
Russia bad!
Russia bad!
Russia bad!
Russia bad!
Russia bad!
Russia bad!
Russia bad!
Russia bad!
Russia bad!
BREAK IN 10
READY.
10 Print "Russia good!"
20 Goto 10
Run
SYNTAX ERROR!!!!!!!
"U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials are assessing whether Russia is trying to
undermine Joe Biden in its ongoing disinformation efforts with the former vice president
still the front-runner in the race to challenge President Donald Trump, according to two
officials familiar with the matter
Part of the inquiry is to determine whether Russia is trying to weaken Biden by promoting
controversy over his past involvement in U.S. policy toward Ukraine while his son worked for
an energy company there."
... ... ...
Yes, somehow those dastardly Russians have outsmarted the brightest and best-paid political
strategists in Washington, D.C. by brandishing what amounts to some really persuasive memes
over social media, and for just rubles on the dollar. The techies at Wired went so far as to
call this epic assault on the fragile American cranium, "meme warfare to divide America." By
way of evidence, it cited a very creative meme that screamed, "F*CK THE ELECTIONS," which was
intended, as the ironclad argument goes, to cause a number of impressionable Americans to throw
up their hands in a fit of collective exasperation and say, 'Ok, that's it. I'm staying at home
on Election Day.'
Yes, it's really that easy! Imagine all the money the Russians and their radical new
political technologies could have saved guys like casino tycoon, Sheldon Adelson, who
showered the Trump campaign with $100 million dollars.
(Written on the evening of. So subject to reconsideration/revision/outright denial as we
learn more.)
I didn't expect any of it. Neither did anyone else, whatever the so-called experts
outgassing on the US Garbage Media may be pretending. I don't know what it all means. Neither
does anyone else. (Well Putin & Co do, but they keep their cards close to their chests. As
we've just seen.)
What do we know? Putin gave his annual address to the Federal Council ( Rus ) ( Eng ) and started off with how important
it was that the birthrate should be raised. Fair enough: he wants more Russians on the planet,
the government's programs have ensured that there will be quite a few more but there are still
more to come. Many programs planned; some of which will work: after all,
not everything works out as we hoped does it? He mentioned how dangerous the world is
– especially the MENA – and said at least Russia is pretty secure (as indeed it is
except against lunatics addicted to the
Book of Revelation .)
Then the constitutional stuff. He believes the Constitution needs a few tweaks. Important
officials should really be Russians and not people with a
get-out-of-jail-card/alternate-loyalty-card in their vests. Reasonable enough: they should
"inseparably connect their lives with Russia and the Russian people without any assumptions and
allowances." (Good idea actually. Can we in the West steal the idea? We vote for X but who does
he vote for?) Russian law should take precedence over decrees contaminated by the " Rules-Based
International Order" ("
we make the rules ,
you follow our orders "). The PM should be named by the Duma. (A pretty big change,
actually: let's have more details on the division of labour please. In some countries the head
of state is The Boss – USA, Russia (now), France – in others the head of government
is The Boss – Germany, Canada, Denmark. There is a serious carve up of powers question
here that has to be worked out in detail.) Constitutional changes should be approved in a
referendum. The President either should or should not be bound by the
no-three-terms-in-a-row-rule (I personally can't figure out what "этим"
refers to in "Не считаю, что
этот вопрос
принципиальный,
но согласен с
этим. Не считаю,
что этот вопрос
принципиальный,
но согласен с
этим." But, no doubt we will soon learn.)
So, a somewhat less presidential republic. Details to be decided. Many details. But I'm
confident that it's been worked out and we will learn. Putin & Co have shown us over 20
years that they don't make things up on the fly.
Then we learned that the entire government had resigned – but individuals to stay in
place until replaced. Then we learned – a fast few hours indeed! – that Dmitri
Medvedev was replaced by somebody that no one (other than Russian tax specialists) had ever
heard of: Mikhail Vladimirovich Mishustin. (
Russian Wiki entry – none in English so far.) Those cheering Medvedev's dismissal
(something predicted and hoped for by a sector of Russianologists) had to then swallow this:
not tossed out into ignominy and shame, as they wanted, but something else. Putin says that
there is a clear distinction between government and presidential concerns; defence and security
are clearly in the latter. But Medvedev has always been closely following
defence and security issues and it is suitable and appropriate that he continue to do so. So a
new position, deputy heard of the security council, will be created for him. So what are we
to make of this? Medvedev has been given the boot and a sinecure? Or he's been given a crucial
job in the new carve-up of responsibilities?
After all, Russia's problems keep getting bigger but nobody is getting any younger.
Especially the problems from outside. For some years Washington, an implacable enemy of Moscow,
has been getting less and less predictable. Lavrov and Kerry spend hours
locked up negotiating a deal in Syria ;
within a week the US military attacks a Syrian Army unit; "by mistake" . Who's in charge?
Now with the murder of Soleimani, possibly on a Washington-approved peace mission, Washington
has moved to another level of lawlessness and is exploring the next depth as it defies
Baghdad's order to get out. A pirate power. The outside problems for Moscow aren't getting
smaller, are they? Washington is certainly
недоговороспособны
– it's impossible to make an agreement with it and, if you should think you have done so,
it will break it. A dangerous, uncontrollable madman, staggering around blowing everything up
– is any foreign leader now to be assumed to be on Washington's murder list? Surviving
its decay is a big job indeed. The problems are getting bigger in the Final Days of the
Imperium Americanum.
So, maybe Moscow needs more people on the job.
So are we looking at a new division of labour in Moscow as part of managing the Transition?
(To say nothing of the – what's the word? – Thucydides trap ? ).
Mishustin looks after the nuts and bolt of Russia's economy and internal management. Medvedev
looks after defence and security – something not likely to get smaller while Putin looks
after the big picture?
But this is only the first step in The Transition and we will learn more soon.
Donald Trump rode to victory in 2016 on a promise to end the useless wars in the Middle East, but he has now demonstrated
very clearly that he is a liar
He also promised a wall. Maybe he meant the Israeli wall?
Trump is such a douchebag. He claims there were no lives lost due to their "early warning system" -- no mention that the "early
warning system" was a phone call!
Now he's once again justifying assassination, etc.
there was no "better choice" between trump and clinton. i still think clinton represented a greater danger than trump of getting
into a war with russia, but they are both warmongers first class. for our next election, we may have a choice between ebola and
flesh eating bacteria, or brain cancer and leprosy. if the game is rigged there's no winning it playing by the game's "rules".
Also In each episode when Adam Schiff makes announcement about Trump with the USA flag at the background Trump
re-election chances increase one percent.
You have it right. The rhetoric "this is a free country" is only true to an extent now
with the constant chipping away at our freedoms on a daily basis.
In March 2016, the DOJ found that "the FBI had been employing outside contractors who had access to raw Section 702 Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) data, and retained that access after their work for the FBI was completed," as Jeff Carlson reported in
The Epoch Times.
"... Deal finishes October 2020 if I remember correctly. All sanctions will be lifted so long as Iran is in compliance at that time. This is a move to prevent this. ..."
Deal finishes October 2020 if I remember correctly. All sanctions will be lifted so long
as Iran is in compliance at that time. This is a move to prevent this.
I always learn some thing here. For example imagine my surprise to learn the EU had a
reputation worth protecting. All you need to know about the EU is bitches will do what
bitches are told. This is just one more step on the road to war with China, is that really
what the citizens of the EU want? Are the people of the EU ready to die for the Trump and the
Republican party?
Donald J. Trump: "To the brave, long-suffering people of Iran: I've stood with you since
the beginning of my Presidency, and my Administration will continue to stand with you. We
are following your protests closely, and are inspired by your courage."
Is it possible to imagine that such a trump will write to the brave people of France:
Secretary of State Pompeo claimed that Soleimani was responsible for hundreds of thousands
of deaths in Syria. Basically blaming Iran for all deaths in the Syrian war.
"... One of the most elementary moral truisms is that you are responsible for the anticipated consequences of your own actions. It is fine to talk about the crimes of Genghis Khan, but there isn't much that you can do about them.' ..."
"... 'If Soviet intellectuals chose to devote their energies to crimes of the U.S., which they could do nothing about, that is their business. We honor those who recognized that the first duty is to concentrate on your own country.' ..."
Wikipedia – the most popular source of information for most people – boldly
announces:
"Whataboutism, also known as whataboutery, is a variant of the tu quoque logical fallacy
that attempts to discredit an opponent's position by charging them with hypocrisy without
directly refuting or disproving their argument. It is particularly associated with Soviet and
Russian propaganda Prominent usage: Soviet Union propaganda."
Perusal of recent mainstream articles adds one more dimension to the story. Not only
everything negative is habitually associated with Soviets and Russians, unless of course, it is
Iranians or North Koreans, when the equation has frequently been reversed.
If something negative occurs: Cherchez La Russie.
Mass media bias against President Trump has been observed on numerous occasions, but what is
particularly fascinating about this negativity is a persistent desire to paint Trump with the
Russian brush.
So it is hardly surprising that Trump has been turned into a practitioner of Russian
"Whataboutism," allowing Washington Post to
declare triumphantly: "Whataboutism: The Cold War tactic, thawed by Putin, is brandished by
Donald Trump."
The article elaborates:
What about the stock market? What about those 33,000 deleted emails? What about Benghazi?
.. What about what about what about. We've gotten very good at what-abouting. The president
has led the way. His campaign may or may not have conspired with Moscow, but President
Trump has routinely employed a durable old Soviet propaganda tactic."
The WaPo article by Dan Zak goes even further and explains the reasons behind Trump's
embrace of Russian Whataboutism. It is moral relativism, you see. It is a ploy of tyrannical
regimes, which intend to divert attention from their crimes:
That's exactly the kind of argument that Russian propagandists have used for years to
justify some of Putin's most brutal policies,"
wrote Michael McFaul , former ambassador to Russia during the Obama administration. ..
"Moral relativism -- 'whataboutism' -- has always been a favorite weapon of illiberal
regimes," Russian chessmaster and activist Garry Kasparov told the Columbia
Journalism Review in March."For a U.S. president to employ it against his own country
is tragic.
Viewed from the historical perspective, all this is blatantly false.
It is the democratic systems that need propaganda, spinning, and other soft-power weapons.
It is the democracies that rely on one party blaming another party for its own transgressions.
It is the liberal economic structures that need to promote one brand of toothpaste by
denigrating another brand.
"Whataboutism" is an integral fabric of Western society, as both its business and political
models depend on comparing, contrasting, diverting attention and so on.
Soviets, who had difficulty obtaining even one kind of toilet paper, did not need the
commercials that claim that the other brand leaks more. Soviet leadership that relied primarily
on the power of the gun didn't need to spend time and effort and hone its skills in the art of
maligning another party.
In other words, Soviets, and consequently Russians, are plain amateurs when it comes to
"whataboutism." When their government felt the need to resort to it, they would do it rather
sloppily and amateurishly, so that the people would just laugh it off, as the endless political
jokes testify.
Soviets were forced to resort to it during the time of Cold War, however, when there was a
real competition for the hearts and minds of several European countries such as France and
Italy, where post-war sympathies for Communists were running strong.
Needless to say, the Soviets were beaten soundly. The arguments that American freedoms were
worse than Soviets because of American racism did not really work for Europeans, who preferred
their Louis Armstrong to Leonid Utesov and their Jackson Pollock to Alexander Gerasimov. In the
battle between Georgy Alexandrov's Marion Dixon of Circus (1936) and Ernst Lubitsch's
Ninotchka (1939), Ninotchka won.
That's why I find it extremely ironic and peculiar that these methods of "whataboutism,"
these lines of reasoning that have pervaded the Western news coverage to the core, have been
magically turned into a signature method of Soviet Propaganda.
Equally ironic is the fact that any attempt to question Western hypocrisy, spinning, and
relentless brainwashing is deflected by a silly counter-attack: this criticism is nothing but
"whataboutism," the favorite activity of Russians and other moral relativists and denizens of
illiberal regimes.
Additional irony, of course, lies in the fact that Russians are the most self-critical
people that I know. That's the one thing they truly excel at – criticizing themselves,
their state, their people, their customs and their political system. It is another irony that
the information the West habitually exploits in its own shameless "whataboutism" was provided
to it free of charge by Russian dissidents from Herzen all the way to Solzhenitsyn and Masha
Gessen.
There is rarely an article in the mass media which, while addressing some ills of modern
society, doesn't refer to the evils of Gulag, Stalin, lack of democracy and other "ills" of
Soviet life. How many articles in the mass media do we read where references to the
extermination of the native population, of workers burning in their factories, of thugs
dispersing protests or demonstrations, of brutal exploitation, mass incarceration, deportation
of the Japanese, witch hunts, or cruel cynical wars – occur without simultaneous
references to Stalin's Russia?
You complain about the lack of political choices during elections? What, you want Commies to
run you life? You complain about economic inequality? What, you want drab socialism instead? In
other words, instead of a traditionally defined "whataboutism," Western propaganda utilizes a
slightly more subtle version revealing something bad about itself, but then rapidly switching
to demonizing and criticizing its rivals.
The classic example of this approach was described by Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky in
their 1988 study Manufacturing Consent .
In the chapter entitled "Worthy and Unworthy Victims," the authors draw the comparison
between the coverage of Polish priest, murdered by in Poland in 1984 and the media coverage of
Catholic Priests assassinated in Latin America. Jerzy Popieluszko had 78 articles devoted to
him, with ten articles on the front page. In the meantime, seventy-two religious victims in
Latin America during the period of 1964-78 were subject of only eight articles devoted to all
of them combined, with only one article making the front page (Chomsky & Herman,
Manufacturing Consent , Pantheon Books, 2002, p. 40).
Presumably, Soviets become a subject of jokes when, instead of addressing the question of
Stalin's victims, they embark on discussing the lynching of black Americans. What is worth
pondering is why the United States hasn't become the subject of similar jokes when they write
hundreds of articles on one death within the Soviet zone of influence while practically
ignoring persistent right-wing violence in their own sphere.
"Whataboutism" is not just a rhetorical device invented to deflect criticism; the accusation
in "whataboutism" leveled at anyone who defends himself from arbitrary or illogical charges is
the accusation that reveals a particular set of power relations.
These accusations of "whataboutism" imply a certain inequality, when the accuser bullies the
accused into admitting his guilt.
The accuser puts the accused on the defensive, clearly implying his moral superiority. This
moral superiority, of course, is rather fictional, especially if we keep in mind that the
Hebrew word "satan" means an accuser. Accusing and blaming others has a satanic ring to that,
something that anyone engaged in accusations should remember.
– You belched yesterday during dinner. You violated the laws of good table
manners.
– But everybody belches!
– It is irrelevant, please answer the charge and don't try to avoid it by resorting
to 'whataboutism." Did you belch or not?
"Putin's a killer," Bill O'Reilly said to Trump in a February interview. "There
are a lot of killers," Trump
whatabouted . "We've got a lot of killers. What do you think -- our country's so
innocent?"
Here, the media dismisses as "whataboutism" Trump's perfectly logical and correct answer
– the one that Trump highlighted himself last week when he ordered the killing of the
Iranian general Soleimaini.
Trump's answer, however, was interpreted as somehow outrageous. How dare he compare? As if
only a Russian stooge engaged in "whataboutism" can suggest that Western murders and violence
are not different from Russian ones.
Dan Zak, who invents a verb "to whatabout" in reference to Trump's exchange with O'Reilly,
reveals another highly significant dimension of the term. Due to the abuse of the concept
during the Cold War era, and due to the relentless propaganda of the likes of
Edward
Lucas or the former Ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, the charge of "whataboutism"
began to be leveled at anyone who says anything critical about the United States.
You talk about US racism – you are carrying water for Soviet "whataboutists;" you talk
about militarism, police brutality, wars and regime changes, or complain about the destruction
of nature – you are a Russian stooge.
And God forbid you criticize failed policies of the Democrats, the Clintons in particular.
You are worse than a stooge. You are a Soviet troll spitting "whataboutism," while interfering
in the US electoral process.
Trump might have more faults than any of the recent American political leader. Yet, it is
the charge of Russian connection and its merging with the charge of "Whataboutism" that began
to highlight some sort of sick synergy: if Trump uses this trope of Russian propaganda, he has
to be working with Putin. That's the tenor of all recent applications of the term in the mass
media.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, considering the Trump administration's murky
ties to Vladimir Putin and his associates, whataboutism is viewed by many as a Russian
import,"
opines Claire Fallon in her essay on the subject, while the title says it all:
"Whataboutism, A Russian Propaganda Technique, Popular With Trump, His Supporters."
The list of publications with very similar titles can obviously go on and on.
And herein lies the most pernicious legacy of the term.
It subconsciously invokes the spirit of Joe McCarthy. And as such it is still very effective
in stifling discourse, in dismissing criticism, while character-assassinating dissenting
voices.
Never mind that the press, as in the good old days of Father Popieluszko, is still filled to
the brim with endless stories of Russian discrimination of the gay community, of Chinese abuse
of the Uighurs, or the absence of new and old freedoms in the countries that Pentagon
classifies as adversary.
To complain about the lack of balance and the biased focus would be engaging in "Soviet
Style of Whataboutism," wouldn't it be?
Vladimir Golstein, former associate professor at
Yale University, is currently Chair of the Department of Slavic Studies at Brown
University.
Charlotte Russe ,
US propaganda has been quite effective. After all, isn't it merely the merchandising and
selling of ideas. So why wouldn't a hyper-capitalist country be extremely effective at using
words and images to control behavior. That's how multibillion dollar corporations stimulate
consumerism. They convince the public to buy goods and services they don't really need. So
why not use those same marketing skills to impart ideological beliefs.
Essentially, isn't that how the notion of "exceptionalism" became rooted in the American
psyche, establishing a rationale to pursue a slew of military misadventures. And think of the
ingenious propagandist who invented the idea of "spreading democracy" via bombs, drones, and
bullets. For decades this secured public consent for innumerable military escapades.
However, the arrival of Trump changed everything. He unwittingly forced the US propaganda
machine to stumble and fumble with contradictory messages disassembling the control
mainstream media news once happily secured over the entire population.
In desperation to avoid building political consciousness the US state-run media neglected
to attack Trump exclusively over reactionary policies, but misguidedly warmongered against
Russia for more than three years. Liberal media accused right-wing Trump of being a Russian
asset a tactic used more than half a century ago by McCarthyite Russophobes to discredit the
Left. Perhaps, the silliness of this propaganda could only produce "lackluster" results
consequently never gaining substantial traction among the working-class.
The security state ultimately loses its ability to control the population with sloppy
propaganda–they just tune it out. Americans are becoming similar to their Russian
counterparts who just assume that all mainstream media news is contrived and not to be
believed.
George Mc ,
I thought the reference to the Wiki article was a piss take until I went direct to the
source. I see no logical connection between Russia or indeed any country and the rhetorical
device of "whataboutism". But it seems the mighty omniscient Wiki says otherwise. Yes –
and there's Trump getting a prominent place in the Wiki entry. Is every entry in Wiki geared
to the current demands of propaganda? What next I wonder? How about:
"Anti-Semitism": an ideology of hate originating with Corbyn's Labour party.
"Socialists": Misogynists who hate Laura Kuenssberg.
"US/Iran conflict": A distraction to divert everyone's attention away from Harry and
Meghan.
Willem ,
I first read about whataboutism at Chomsky's website. I thought Chomsky made a very good
definition at the time, so I looked up what he actually said and thought of quoting him here.
Well his definition is typical for Chomsky where he says some truthful things, which he
immediately buries under a pack of lies
Chomsky on whataboutism:
'CHOMSKY: One of the most elementary moral truisms is that you are responsible for the
anticipated consequences of your own actions. It is fine to talk about the crimes of Genghis
Khan, but there isn't much that you can do about them.'
That is correct. But unfortunately for the professor, he is not devoid of a little
whataboutism himself, where he continues to say that
'If Soviet intellectuals chose to devote their energies to crimes of the U.S., which they
could do nothing about, that is their business. We honor those who recognized that the first
duty is to concentrate on your own country.'
Then Chomsky buries this whataboutism with another lie saying that:
'And it is interesting that no one ever asks for an explanation, because in the case of
official enemies, truisms are indeed truisms.'
Which isn't a truism at all, but apparantly all official enemies of the US are, by
definition enemies of Chomsky.Then Chomsky continues by saying that
'It is when truisms are applied to ourselves that they become contentious, or even
outrageous. But they remain truisms.'
Not necessarily so, but it's close enough to pass for truth when discussing whataboutism.
After which Chomsky adds another lie, i.e., that
'In fact, the truisms hold far more for us than they did for Soviet dissidents, for the
simple reason that we are in free societies, do not face repression, and can have a
substantial influence on government policy.'
I mean, that is just so much bullshit that I do not even know where to start. For instance
Solzjenitsyn, SU greatest dissident, wrote his books in the SU, the Russians didn't like it,
and they let Solzjenitsyn go to Switzerland where he become famous and a millionaire, a Nobel
price winner, everything that money could buy. He returned to Russia in 1990 and was lauded
by amongst others Putin himself and died peacefully in 2008.
'Free society', bollocks: most of us have the freedom to watch the show that others play
on their behalf and toil, 'no repression': tell that to Assange, 'substantial influence on
government policy': quite difficult when most of the government's decisions are faceless.
This type of lying by Chomsky just goes on and on and I am amazed that I hadn't seen
through it the first time I read Chomsky.
Worst is his hypocrisy where professor Chomsky, the worlds best known 'dissident', whose
books are sold at airports, who received grants from the MIC to work on linguistics, and who
became a millionaire by airing his convoluted views that are not what they are supposed to be
(ie dissident), dares to write in the same interview that
'Elementary honesty is often uncomfortable, in personal life as well, and there are people
who make great efforts to evade it. For intellectuals, throughout history, it has often come
close to being their vocation. Intellectuals are commonly integrated into dominant
institutions. Their privilege and prestige derives from adapting to the interests of power
concentrations, often taking a critical look but in very limited ways.'
I mean that is just Chomsky writing about himself, but pretending a whataboutism about all
those other bad intellectuals.
Chomsky's an example of the establishment "pet intellectual" who quietly rages against his
master. Youthful dissidence, he found after a few police beatings, is a fool's game, noisy,
bloody and futile. Better to growl from a safe distance, repeat the obvious with clear logic
and wallow in unearned respect.
lundiel ,
According to a 2019 Gallop poll 40% of American women under 30 would like to leave the
US.
When you move to a racist, nationalist country, you have to spend every opportunity thanking
them for taking you and congratulating them for allowing you to work yourself to death so you
can pay the mortgage on your shed home.
Many of them are economic refugees who come here after B-52s have turned their country into a
parking lot or the elite of other countries who were caught selling out their nations and
enriching themselves or those that actually believed the PR that the USG actually gives a
flying phuk about "freedom and democracy" propagated by the child molesting perverts in Pedo
Wood.
There are also a number who have specifically come here to get even and who can blame
them?
Dungroanin ,
What about the 'Russian influence' report not published by Bozo The PM?
& while I'm here
What about the Durham investigation into Russiagate which also seems to have disappeared
from imminent publication over a month ago?
Hmm – wasn't it Kruschevs staffers who admired the US propaganda / Perception
Management advertising/PR industry by saying in Russia nobody believed the Russian propaganda
because Russians knew that's what it was; but all westerners swallowed it and rushed out to
buy ever 'better' washing powders, poisonous foods and products without realising they were
being lied to.
What about US violations of international law?
What about US wars of aggression?
What about US regime change operations?
What about US lying propaganda?
What about US murderous sanctions?
What about US funding, arming and training of jihadist terrorists?
What about US funding, arming and training of fascist terrorists?
What about US threats and intimidation of the International Criminal Court?
What about US exceptionalism, which mirrors nothing so much as the Nazi ideas of ubermensch
and untermensch?
richard le sarc ,
In Trump and Pompeo you see the evolution of a new type-the Ubumensch.
The folks who hatched that particular impeachment plan and pitched it to Nancy Pelosi must have been the same idiots in the DNC
who dreamt up the Russiagate scandal and also pursued Paul Manafort to get him off DJT's election campaign team. Dmitri Alperovich /
Crowdstrike, Alexandra Chalupa: we're looking at you.
The real Trump move would be to hit the twitter right before the house impeachment vote and announce that he has
instructed the House Republicans to vote for impeachment.
Notable quotes:
"... At least this mess made it patently clear the Dem obsession with Russia has been all about preserving their Ukraine pickpocketing operation. ..."
I ordered a truckload of pop corn to snack on during the trial in the Senate. Just imagine Joe Biden under cross examination as
he flips 'n flops! "Was that me in the Video, I can't recall."
I can see a Trump marketing consultant designing a campaign centered on the impeachment hearings called "The Swamp Strikes
Back". It might be most effective as a comic strip.
Most people are familiar with at least the outlines of the biblical Samson story: a mighty
warrior who slays the enemies of the Israelites in great numbers using the jawbone of an ass
among other weapons.
Sadly, after the captivating Delilah seduces Samson into revealing the secret of his
extraordinary strength -- his unshorn hair -- he ends up blind, in chains, and held captive in
the temple of the Philistines.
Samson asks the Lord to restore his strength. The King James Bible explains what happens
next: "And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all
the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which
he slew in his life." It was a huge bloodletting, and among the victims was the hero
himself.
It's a dramatic story, made for the movies. The 1949 Technicolor version, directed by Cecil
B. DeMille and starring Victor Mature and Hedy Lamarr, remains a camp classic of the
sandal-and-togas genre. But whether in the original text or on celluloid, the denouement does
not qualify as a happy one. Samson was a fool and his own worst enemy. Something of the same
can be said of the United States in recent decades.
Probably in the medium term the situation for the US in ME will be worse, but in the short term (in an electoral year) the people
I talked, with some knowledge of the recent history of the ME, and me, we think:
a) Trump dares to do what at least 3 former administration did not dare to do: kill the first "terrorist" on the list (as ex-admiral
William J. Fallon has said, Suleimani was the Nº 1 in his list for 12 years), so for the American people is the more resolute
and brave POTUS of at least 10 administration (somebody says from Lincoln times). Obama was a coward.
b) The fact that Suleimani was a national hero for a nation of 82 million people and also for 150 million of shia around the
world, mourned by millions in the streets, make a bigger Trump "victory" over the Iranian "regime", and it is a powerful advice
to the others leaders and commanders in the world that try to fight or oppose to USA.
c) People say that after killing Al-Bagdadi, Suleimani, Muhandis, the next in the list is Nasralah (pure wishful thinking but
right now, why not thinking that?)
d) The USA did no use their AA system to shut-down the incoming missiles to not give a clue to the Iranians of their real effectiveness
in combat situation and because the Russians have many SIGINT platforms following the events to capture the signals, methods,
tactics and technology of the US anti-ballistic missiles systems. So now the Iranians are blind of the real effectiveness of their
missiles in a real combat situation and the Russians do not have a clue also. For sure USA can take down at least some modified
SCUD C missiles, simply it was not worth to do.
e) The fact that Trump did not retaliate is not a symptom of weakness, simply no American was hurt after killing Suleimani
(an act of war), only some holes in the sand.
f) In the speech of today Trump is defiant with the killing of Suleimani and with more economic sanctions to Iran, that will
be more crippling than now. He does not want to escalate (more). There will be a deal in the future, but much less good for the
Iranians than the Obama's JCPOA (it was an electoral promise).
g) The retaliation of the PMU, they say, "will be similar than that of Iran", translating it : "lob some katyusha rockets in
the backyard of few US bases giving advice to the Americans do not go out". No risks at all, the se-escalation is complete.
h) Trump is defiant about not leaving Iraq, I think at the end they will go but after they have a very good deal. Of course
it is all about the Iraqi oil, in exchange for the American blood and money wasted in Iraq. Iraq has the biggest oil reserves
in the world and USA want a good chunk of them, they never ever leave "giving" all of them to the Chinese or Iranians or anybody
else. Trump does not want US soldiers in Iraq, but he wants the oil above anything else (it is condition "sine qua non" to maintain
the Empire)
i) Trump has now the full enthusiastic support of the AIPAC and all the others powerful Israeli lobby he will have more money
than required for the election. He has demonstrated he is the best possible POTUS for Israel
j) In the short term USA will leave Syria and in the medium term Iraq, OK, but they never ever leave "all the region", they
need to be there to maintain the "American Way of Live" (US $ as reserve currency)
If nothing dramatically change, I expect a crushing victory of Trump in the coming US election, he has all the cards now in
his hand, and he will not waste them.
The 5 lightweight hangars at the Ain al-Asad airbase that were destroyed in the Iranian bullseye hit
housed US drones. Possibly the very one
used to assassinate General Qassem Soleimani.
See this tweet by Babak Taghvaee
from yesterday with photos:
#BREAKING: It is now confirmed that the #IRGC backed Kataib Hezbollah (45th Brigade of #PMU) launched 40 unguided rockets at
Ain Al Asad Air Base where the #USArmy's MQ-1Cs are based. At-least one of them participated in the operation for elimination
of #Soleimani in #Baghdad!
1. "Being Santa Claus to Netanyahu, the far right and the very rich (Generous donors)"
2. "Doing the impossible, making Hillary look like the better of 2 terrible choices"
3. " Proving 42% of the American public aren't too swift."
"Nancy Pelosi, pressing the Senate to comply with her demands"...Hey, Nancy, this isn't how it works. You, yourself, are in
"contempt of Senate" by not proceeding with the article of impeachment for a vote.
Is there such a thing as "contempt of Senate?" Probably not. Just like there's no such thing as "contempt of Congress." Hey
the Dems used it, so I used it as an example. Ha, ha, ha...stooges!
Shocking Boeing Emails Reveal Contempt For Management, FAA
"Would you put your family on
a Max simulator trained aircraft? I wouldn't," one employee said to a colleague in another
exchange from 2018, before the first crash. "No," the colleague responded.
Maybe the Russians would be willing to drop a handful of anti-left, baitclick ads on Facebook -- you know? Those weird ads that magically swayed our entire
nation into electing Donald Trump for President. I bet Robert Mueller still has their phone
number. The Dems could mention a quid pro quo and offer to lift some of our
sanctions.
As thousands of American service members prepare for the
worst in the Middle East following an American drone strike that killed Iran's second-most
powerful man, just 23% of registered voters can identify the Islamic republic on an unlabeled
map of the globe, according to a Morning
Consult/Politico survey.
When shown an unlabeled map of just the Middle East, the number rose to a still-abysmal 28%
. Eight percent of those thought Iran was Iraq on the second map - just like Joe Biden
.
Of those surveyed, men were around twice as likely as women to identify Iran on both
maps...
One day after 9/11, Russian president Vladimir Putin said that "we are all Americans, now."
And, on the Sunday following 9/11--at an international soccer match in Tehran, Iran--our
flag was raised as 60,000 Iranian spectators sang our national anthem.
Leave it to George W. Bush to turn GOLD into LEAD.
Mr. Dueck of Seminole is breathing a sigh of relief this morning after it was revealed that
some guy he'd never heard of before was now dead.
"Finally I can sleep at night!" said Dueck, quickly Googling 'General Qasem Solemaini' so he
can look smart at the coffee shop this afternoon. "I'm glad we finally have a President who
looks after our interests instead of just being concerned about his own reelection!"
After skimming the Wikipedia article about Solemaini, Dueck now believes that the
assassination was definitely justified.
"I don't know how we survived and thrived as a country all these years with that guy I just
heard of his morning around," said Dueck. "Good thing that guy from out over there somewhere is
gone!"
Dueck spent the rest of the afternoon arguing with people on the Internet and informing them
about some group he recently learned about, but cannot pronounce, called Quds Force.
"You don't have to be scared of them anymore," said Dueck to his buddies who informed him
they weren't actually afraid to begin with. "Having watched more than three YouTube videos on
the topic, I can tell you that the world is a lot safer now that what's his name is dead!"
After a full day's worth of reading Internet comments, Dueck is now the nation's
self-proclaimed foremost expert on foreign policy and is looking forward to his work as a
pundit on Fox News in the very near future.
The unique, really exceptional feature of the USA is that it does not try to hide idiocy of
its leaders and lack of education and interest in knowing the truth of the majority of
population
A new poll has found that Americans doubt Donald Trump has a clear Iran policy, but
nonetheless they support the decision to kill Qassem Soleimani – who, remarkably, had
been an unknown entity for the majority of respondents.
Forty-three percent of Americans said they approved of the US drone strike that killed the
Iranian commander last week in Baghdad, while 38% disapproved and 19% said they were unsure,
according to the results
of a HuffPost/YouGov survey.
And while almost half the country backs Soleimani's assassination, 60% of Americans conceded
that they had never heard of the Quds Force commander before last week. An additional 14% said
they weren't sure if they had known about him before the strike.
Is there a chorus of politicians singing in there about how lazy they are, and how they
never bothered to verify Browder' story? The story is indeed remarkable, but not in the way
that first appears.
Stephen Fry / @stephenfry
You may or may not know the remarkable story of @Billbrowder and the #MagnitskyAct - find
out the startling truth by listening to
#MagnitskytheMusical by the wondrous @JohnnyFlynnHQ & @roberthudson - @BBCRadio3 7.30 Sun
12th Jan
Book and lyrics by Robert Hudson
Music and lyrics by Johnny Flynn
12 January 2020
О 1 hour, 34 minutes
Johnny Flynn and Robert Hudson bring us a musical based on the
incredible story of an American venture capitalist, a Russian tax
advisor, a crazy heist, the Trump Tower meeting and the very rule of
law.
Blending music and satire, the story explores the truths and fictions
surrounding the origins and aftershocks of the Magnitsky Act; global
legislation which allows governments to sanction those who they see
as offenders of human rights.
It tells the story of a tax adviser's struggle to uncover a huge tax
fraud, his imprisonment by the very authorities he is investigating,
and the American financier's crusade for justice.
Johnny Flynn, Paul Chahidi and members of the cast perform songs in
a epic story that explores democracy, corruption, and how we
undervalue the law at our peril.
Bill Paul Chahidi Sergei Johnny Flynn Jamie Fenella
Woolgar Natalia Ellie Kendrick Kuznetsov Gus Brown Guard Clive Hayward Silchenko Ian
Conningham Jared Will Kirk Fisherman Neil McCaul Judge Jessica Turner
Additional singing by Sinead Maclnnes, Laura Christy, Scarlett
Courtney and Lucy Reynolds.
The cellist is Joe Zeitlin. Sound is by Peter Ringrose.
Directed by Sasha Yevtushenko.
1. Being Santa Claus to Netanyahu, the far right and the very rich (Generous donors)
2. Doing the impossible, making Hillary look like the better of 2 terrible choices
3. Proving 42% of the American public aren't too swift.
My favorite line in this article: "I suspect ... like all too many Americans, Trump has a
hard time grasping the fact that other countries are real." So very dismal, but that gave me
a good laugh.
"Soleimani did 9/11!" - Pence helpfully yet insanely chimed in.
"You're not a wimp like Obama, who refused to assassinate this terrorist," he was probably
told. "You're decisive, a real leader. This one blow will change the entire calculus of the
Middle East," they likely told him. "If you take out Soleimani, I guarantee you that it will
have enormous positive reverberations on the region."
That letter is no mistake. It shows that there are 2 opposing sides in the US Military,
the dark hats and the white hats. One side wants to end wars, the other side do not. Just
like what Q has been saying all along.
Good old USA. Invade illegally by lying, killing, build an airbase and tell everyone that
they'll leave if Iraq will pay for the airbase and if not they'll sanction Iraq into
oblivion.
Is it any wonder why most of the world is disgusted with their behaviour.
CNN has slammed the world's best satire site, The Babylon Bee, after CNN executives
realized that "fake news" articles on the website were getting at least as much social media
traction as their own.
"There ain't room in this internet for the both of us," growled one CNN anchor on the air
Monday evening. "There simply aren't enough people out there for us to fool with our fake
news stories and The Babylon Bee to fool with their satire. There isn't enough clickbait and
outrage traffic to go around. "
"They're obviously amateurs over there at The Bee," said Brian Stelter.
"A lot of times, their reporting comes true. If you're gonna do fake news, do it right --
100% fake, guaranteed, 24/7. They really should learn from the pros over here at CNN."
Eminent threat from Soleimani is a close equivalent to Bush "WDM in Iraq" hoax. And Compo
looks like a better fed version of Gondoliza with her "mushroom cloud" evil war propaganda.
As There was implicit agreement that Iran officials can travel safely in Iraq, which was
breached, the natural result might expulsion of the US forces from Iraq. Which also means the
collapse of US forces in Syrian bases and the Trump's idea of stealing oil.
Like Bush II Trump exceeded his authority and ordered illegal assassination. He needs to be
impeached. Pompeo and Ester need to be fired and tried.
n
2008, Trump told CNN's Wolf Blitzer he thought George W. Bush should have been impeached for
lying about the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. We are still feeling the
blowback from that fatally flawed Iraq war. One can only shudder at the gale force of another
one.
The United States just spent Two Trillion Dollars on Military Equipment. We are the
biggest and by far the BEST in the World! If Iran attacks an American Base, or any American,
we will be sending some of that brand new beautiful equipment their way...and without
hesitation!
shoe 9:18 PM - 4 Jan 2020
fuck healthcare, fuck our veterans, fuck our crumbling infrastructure, fuck the homless
MOMMY MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX NEEDS MORE MONEY HELL YEAH
Cemi | Jan 6 2020 22:15 utc | 97: "The point is: Trump is loose cannon. We can analyse back
and forth but no-one knows what the narcissistic jackass decides next."
Shame on you for using such language with regard to the current President of the United
States of America!
Because he's just a bully with delusions of grandeur.
Steve, LHR|2h ago
Times Pick
It's finally abundantly clear that the great deal maker is nothing more than an emperor with no
clothes. The real shame is the inability of a large part of America to see this for what it is:
a failure of leadership from voter on up. Unfortunately, America has lost its moral ability to
lead, and more's the pity as the ascendancy of others, like China, will not be as progressive
as America was in the past. You'd think that the great deal maker would understand that leaders
are not bullies. Sad.
no money for healthcare or education or infrastructure but we have 2 trillion dollars for
bombs so that a pathetic old draft-dodging coward who deep down inside knows he's a weak
piece of shit can try to pretend he's the man his tyrant father told him he never will be
Stonekettle 8:30 AM - 27 Dec 2019
Is the best part where the market implodes and we lose our homes, jobs, savings while the
rich fucks who got huge tax breaks blame us for the disaster as they bail out in golden
parachutes and we get to pay to save the country yet again while being lectured about
responsibility?
The danger posed by that ignorance is matched daily by the crises created by Trump's own
erraticism. His performance as commander in chief has been shaped by a collection of scattered
grievances, emotional impulses and random tweets. As the Financial Times's Philip Stephens
has
said of Trump's foreign policy, "Looking for a framework is like searching for symmetrical
patterns in a bowl of spaghetti."
CNN has slammed the world's best satire site, The Babylon Bee, after CNN executives
realized that "fake news" articles on the website were getting at least as much social media
traction as their own.
"There ain't room in this internet for the both of us," growled one CNN anchor on the air
Monday evening. "There simply aren't enough people out there for us to fool with our fake
news stories and The Babylon Bee to fool with their satire. There isn't enough clickbait and
outrage traffic to go around. "
"They're obviously amateurs over there at The Bee," said Brian Stelter.
"A lot of times, their reporting comes true. If you're gonna do fake news, do it right --
100% fake, guaranteed, 24/7. They really should learn from the pros over here at CNN."
Keyser Söze
Alexander Mahone •
2 days ago • edited Israel will fight against Iran to the last American soldier
😂😂😂
15 million Jews in the whole world against 90 million Iranians in Iran, I think they will need
to fill their ranks with poor, hungry, uneducated teenagers from Alabama, Tennessee, Virginia
(74% of US army recruits) 😂😂😂
Is Mar-a-Lago a US cultural site? Wait, just looked it up -- it's a national historic
landmark. Since Iran obeys international law, it can't be on their list of 35 Best Places to
Attack. Trump Tower on the other hand....
The Trump administration has assassinated Iran's top military leader, Qassim Suleimani, and with the possibility of a serious escalation
in violent conflict, it's a good time to think about how propaganda works and train ourselves to avoid accidentally swallowing it.
The Iraq War, the bloodiest and costliest U.S. foreign policy calamity of the 21 st century, happened in part because
the population of the United States was insufficiently cynical about its government and got caught up in a wave of nationalistic
fervor. The same thing happened with World War I and the Vietnam War. Since a U.S./Iran war would be a disaster, it is vital that
everyone make sure they do not accidentally end up repeating the kinds of talking points that make war more likely.
Let us bear in mind, then, some of the basic lessons about war propaganda.
Things are not true because a government official says them.
I do not mean to treat you as stupid by making such a basic point, but plenty of journalists and opposition party politicians
do not understand this point's implications, so it needs to be said over and over. What happens in the leadup to war is that government
officials make claims about the enemy, and then those claims appear in newspapers ("U.S. officials say Saddam poses an imminent threat")
and then in the public consciousness, the "U.S. officials say" part disappears, so that the claim is taken for reality without ever
really being scrutinized. This happens because newspapers are incredibly irresponsible and believe that so long as you attach "Experts
say" or "President says" to a claim, you are off the hook when people end up believing it, because all you did was relay the fact
that a person said a thing, you didn't say it was true. This is the approach the New York Times took to Bush administration allegations
in the leadup to the Iraq War, and it meant that false claims could become headline news just because a high-ranking U.S. official
said them. [UPDATE: here's an example
from Vox, today, of a questionable government claim being magically transformed into a certain fact.]
In the context of Iran, let us consider some things Mike Pence tweeted about Qassim Suleimani:
"[Suleimani] assisted in the clandestine travel to Afghanistan of 10 of the 12 terrorists who carried out the September
11 terrorist attacks in the United States Soleimani was plotting imminent attacks on American diplomats and military personnel.
The world is a safer place today because Soleimani is gone."
It is possible, given these tweets, to publish the headline: "Suleimani plotting imminent attacks on American diplomats, says
Pence." That headline is technically true. But you should not publish that headline unless Pence provides some supporting evidence,
because what will happen in the discourse is that people will link to your news story to prove that Suleimani was plotting imminent
attacks.
To see how unsubstantiated claims get spread, let's think about the Afghanistan hijackers bit. David Harsanyi of the National
Review defends
Pence's claim about Suleimani helping the hijackers. Harsanyi cites the 9/11 Commission report, saying that the 9/11 commission
report concluded Iran aided the hijackers. The report
does indeed say that Iran allowed free
travel to some of the men who went on to carry out the 9/11 attacks. (The sentence cut off at the bottom of Harsanyi's screenshot,
however, rather crucially
says : "We have no evidence that Iran or Hezbollah was aware of the planning for what later became the 9/11 attack.") Harsanyi
admits that the report says absolutely nothing about Suleimani. But he argues that Pence was "mostly right," pointing out that Pence
did not say Iran knew these men would be the hijackers, merely that it allowed them passage.
Let's think about what is going on here. Pence is trying to convince us that Suleimani deserved to die, that it was necessary
for the U.S. to kill him, which will also mean that if Iran retaliates violently, that violence will be because Iran is an aggressive
power rather than because the U.S. just committed an unprovoked atrocity against one of its leaders, dropping a bomb on a popular
Iranian leader. So Pence wants to link Suleimani in your mind with 9/11, in order to get you blood boiling the same way you might
have felt in 2001 as you watched the Twin Towers fall.
There is no evidence that either Iran or Suleimani tried to help these men do 9/11. Harsanyi says that Pence does not technically
allege this. But he doesn't have to! What impression are people going to get from helped the hijackers? Pence hopes you'll
conflate Suleimani and Iran as one entity, then assume that if Iran ever aided these men in any way, it basically did 9/11 even if
it didn't have any clue that was what they were going to do.
This brings us to #2:
Do not be bullied into accepting simple-minded sloganeering
Let's say that, long before Ted Kaczynski began sending bombs through the mail, you once rented him an apartment. This was pure
coincidence. Back then he was just a Berkeley professor, you did not know he would turn out to be the Unabomber. It is, however,
possible, for me to say, and claim I am not technically lying, that you "housed and materially aided the Unabomber." (A friend of
mine once sold his house to the guy who turned out to be the Green River Killer, so this kind of situation does happen.)
Of course, it is incredibly dishonest of me to characterize what you did that way. You rented an apartment to a stranger, yet
I'm implying that you intentionally helped the Unabomber knowing he was the Unabomber. In sane times, people would see me as the
duplicitous one. But the leadup to war is often not a sane time, and these distinctions can get lost. In the Pence claim about Afghanistan,
for it to have any relevance to Suleimani, it would be critical to know (assuming the 9/11 commission report is accurate) whether
Iran actually could have known what the men it allowed to pass would ultimately do, and whether Suleimani was involved. But that
would involve thinking, and War Fever thrives on emotion rather than thought.
There are all kinds of ways in which you can bully people into accepting idiocy. Consider, for example, the statement "Nathan
Robinson thinks it's good to help terrorists who murder civilians." There is a way in which this is actually sort of true: I think
lawyers who aid those accused of terrible crimes do important work. If we are simple-minded and manipulative, we can call that "thinking
it's good to help terrorists," and during periods of War Fever, that's exactly what it will be called. There is a kind of cheap sophistry
that becomes ubiquitous:
I don't think Osama bin Laden should have been killed without an attempt to apprehend him. -- > So you think it's good
that Osama bin Laden was alive?
I think Iraqis were justified in resisting the U.S. invasion with force. -- > So you're saying it's good when U.S. soldiers
die?
I do not believe killing other countries' generals during peacetime is acceptable. -- > So you believe terrorists should
be allowed to operate with impunity.
I remember all this bullshit from my high school years. Opposing the invasion of Iraq meant loving Saddam Hussein and hating America.
Thinking 9/11 was the predictable consequence of U.S. actions meant believing 9/11 was justified. Of course, rational discussion
can expose these as completely unfair mischaracterizations, but every time war fever whips up, rational discussion becomes almost
impossible. In World War I, if you opposed the draft you were undermining your country in a time of war. During Vietnam, if you believed
the North Vietnamese had the more just case, you were a Communist traitor who endorsed every atrocity committed in the name of Ho
Chi Minh, and if you thought John McCain shouldn't have been bombing civilians in the first place then clearly you believed he should
have been tortured and you hated America.
"If you oppose assassinating Suleimani you must love terrorists" will be repeated on Fox News (and probably even on MSNBC).
Nationalism advocate Yoram Hazony
says there is something wrong with those who
do not "feel shame when our country is shamed" -- presumably those who do not feel wounded pride when America is emasculated by our
enemies are weak and pitiful. We should refuse to put up with these kind of cheap slurs, or even to let those who deploy them place
the burden of proof on us to refute them. (In 2004, Democrats worried that they did appear unpatriotic, and so they ran a
decorated war veteran, John Kerry, for president. That didn't work.)
Scrutinize the arguments
Here's Mike Pence again:
"[Suleimani] provided advanced deadly explosively formed projectiles, advanced weaponry, training, and guidance to Iraqi
insurgents used to conduct attacks on U.S. and coalition forces; directly responsible for the death of 603 U.S. service members,
along with thousands of wounded."
I am going to say something that is going to sound controversial if you buy into the kind of simple-minded logic we just
discussed: Saying that someone was "responsible for the deaths of U.S. service members" does not, in and of itself, tell us anything
about whether what they did was right or wrong. In order to believe it did, we would have to believe that the United States is
automatically right, and that countries opposing the United States are automatically wrong. That is indeed the logic that many
nationalists in this country follow; remember that when the U.S. shot down an Iranian civilian airliner, causing hundreds of deaths,
George H.W. Bush said
that he would never apologize for America, no matter what the facts were. What if America did something wrong? That was
irrelevant, or rather impossible, because to Bush, a thing was right because America did it, even if that thing was the mass murder
of Iranian civilians.
One of the major justifications for murdering Suleimani is that he "caused the deaths of U.S. soldiers." He was thus an aggressor,
and could/should have been killed. That is where people like Pence want you to end your inquiry. But let us remember where those
soldiers were. Were they in Miami? No. They were in Iraq. Why were they in Iraq? Because we illegally invaded and seized a country.
Now, we can debate whether (1) there is actually sufficient evidence of Suleimani's direct involvement and (2) whether these
acts of violence can be justified, but to say that Suleimani has "American blood on his hands" is to say nothing at all without
an examination of whether the United States was in the right.
We have to think clearly in examining the arguments that are being made.
Here 's the Atlantic 's
George Packer on the execution:
"There was a case for killing Major General Qassem Soleimani. For two decades, as the commander of the Revolutionary Guards'
Quds Force, he executed Iran's long game of strategic depth in the Middle East -- arming and guiding proxy militias in Lebanon
and Iraq that became stronger than either state, giving Bashar al-Assad essential support to win the Syrian civil war at the cost
of half a million lives, waging a proxy war in Yemen against the hated Saudis, and repeatedly testing America and its allies with
military actions around the region for which Iran never seemed to pay a military price."
The article goes on to discuss whether this case is outweighed by the pragmatic case against killing him. But wait. Let's dwell
on this. Does this constitute a case for killing him? He assisted Bashar al-Assad. Okay, but presumably then killing Assad
would have been justified too? Is the rule here that our government is allowed unilaterally to execute the officials of other governments
who are responsible for many deaths? Are we the only ones who can do this? Can any government claim the right?
He assisted Yemen in its fight against "the hated Saudis." But is Saudi Arabia being hated for good reason? It is not enough to
say that someone committed violence without analyzing the underlying justice of the parties' relative claims.
Moreover, assumptions are made that if you can prove somebody committed a heinous act, what Trump did is justified. But that doesn't
follow: Unless we throw all law out the window, and extrajudicial punishment is suddenly acceptable, showing that Suleimani was a
war criminal doesn't prove that you can unilaterally kill him with a drone. Henry Kissinger is a war criminal. So is George W. Bush.
But they should be captured and tried in a court, not bombed from the sky. The argument that Suleimani was planning imminent
attacks is relevant to whether you can stop him with violence (and requires persuasive proof), but mere allegations of murderous
past acts do not show that extrajudicial killings are legitimate.
It's very easy to come up with superficially persuasive arguments that can justify just about anything. The job of an intelligent
populace is to see whether those arguments can actually withstand scrutiny.
Keep the focus on what matters
"The main question about the strike isn't moral or even legal -- it's strategic." --
The Atlantic
"The real question to ask about the American drone attack that killed Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani was not whether it was justified,
but whether it was wise" -- The New York Times
"I think that the question that we ought to focus on is why now? Why not a month ago and why not a month from now?" --
Elizabeth Warren
They're going to try to define the debate for you. Leaving aside the moral questions, is this good strategy? And then you
find yourself arguing on those terms: No, it was bad strategy, it will put "our personnel" in harms way, without noticing that you
are implicitly accepting the sociopathic logic that says "America's interests" are the only ones in the world that matters. This
is how debates about Vietnam went: They were rarely about whether our actions were good for Vietnamese people, but about whether
they were good or bad for us , whether we were squandering U.S. resources and troops in a "fruitless" "mistake." The people
of this country still do not understand the kind of carnage we inflicted on Vietnam because our debates tend to be about whether
things we do are "strategically prudent" rather than whether they are just. The Atlantic calls the strike a "blunder," shifting
the discussion to be about the wisdom of the killing rather than whether it is a choice our country is even permitted to make. "Blunder"
essentially assumes that we are allowed to do these things and the only question is whether it's good for us.
There will be plenty of attempts to distract you with irrelevant issues. We will spent more time talking about whether Trump followed
the right process for war, whether he handled the rollout correctly, and less about whether the underlying action itself is
correct. People like Ben Shapiro will say things
like :
"Barack Obama routinely droned terrorists abroad -- including American citizens -- who presented far less of a threat to
Americans and American interests than Soleimani. So spare me the hysterics about 'assassination."
In order for this to have any bearing on anything, you have to be someone who defends what Obama did. If you are, on the other
hand, someone who belives that Obama, too, assassinated people without due process (which he did), then Shapiro has proved exactly
nothing about whether Trump's actions were legitimate. (Note, too, the presumption that threatening "America's interests" can get
you killed, a standard we would not want any other country using but are happy to use ourselves.)
Emphasis matters
Consider three statements:
"The top priority of a Commander-in-Chief must be to protect Americans and our national security interests. There is no
question that Qassim Suleimani was a threat to that safety and security, and that he masterminded threats and attacks on Americans
and our allies, leading to hundreds of deaths. But there are serious questions about how this decision was made and whether we
are prepared for the consequences."
"Suleimani was a murderer, responsible for the deaths of thousands, including hundreds of Americans. But this reckless
move escalates the situation with Iran and increases the likelihood of more deaths and new Middle East conflict. Our priority
must be to avoid another costly war."
"When I voted against the war in Iraq in 2002, I feared it would lead to greater destabilization of the country and the
region. Today, 17 years later, that fear has unfortunately turned out to be true. The United States has lost approximately 4,500
brave troops, tens of thousands have been wounded, and we've spent trillions on this war. Trump's dangerous escalation brings
us closer to another disastrous war in the Middle East that could cost countless lives and trillions more dollars. Trump promised
to end endless wars, but this action puts us on the path to another one."
These are statements made by Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders, respectively. Note that each of them is
consistent with believing Trump's decision was the wrong one, but their emphasis is different. Buttigieg says Suleimani was a
"threat" but that there are "questions," Warren says Suleimani was a "murderer" but that this was "reckless," and Sanders says this
was a "dangerous escalation." It could be that none of these three would have done the same thing themselves, but the emphasis is
vastly different. Buttigieg and Warren lead with condemnation of the dead man, in ways that imply that there was nothing that
unjust about what happened. Sanders does not dwell on Suleimani but instead talks about the dangers of new wars.
We have to be clear and emphatic in our messaging, because so much effort is made to make what should be clear issues appear murky.
If, for example, you gave a speech in 2002 opposing the Iraq War, but the first half was simply a discussion of what a bad and threatening
person Saddam Hussein was, people might actually get the opposite of the impression you want them to get. Buttigieg and Warren,
while they appear to question the president, have the effect of making his action seem reasonable. After all, they admit that he
got rid of a threatening murderer! Sanders admits nothing of the kind: The only thing he says is that Trump has made the world worse.
He puts the emphasis where it matters.
I do not fully like Sanders' statement, because it still talks a bit more about what war means for our people ,
but it does mention destabilization and the total number of lives that can be lost. It is a far more morally clear and powerful antiwar
statement. Buttigieg's is exactly what you'd expect of a Consultant President and it should give us absolutely no confidence that
he would be a powerful voice against a war, should one happen. Warren confirms that she is not an effective advocate for peace. In
a time when there will be pressure for a violent conflict, we need to make sure that our statements are not watery and do not make
needless concessions to the hawks' propaganda.
Imagine how everything would sound if the other side said it.
If you're going to understand the world clearly, you have to kill your nationalistic emotions. An excellent way to do this is
to try to imagine if all the facts were reversed. If Iraq had invaded the United States, and U.S. militias violently resisted, would
it constitute "aggression" for those militias to kill Iraqi soldiers? If Britain funded those U.S. militias, and Iraq killed the
head of the British military with a drone strike, would this constitute "stopping a terrorist"? Of course, in that situation, the
Iraqi government would certainly spin it that way, because governments call everyone who opposes them terrorists. But rationality
requires us not just to examine whether violence has been committed (e.g., whether Suleimani ordered attacks) but what the
full historical context of that violence is, and who truly deserves the "terrorist" label.
Is there anything Suleimani did that hasn't also been done by the CIA? Remember that we actually engineered the overthrow of the
Iranian government, within living people's lifetimes . Would an Iranian have been justified in assassinating the head of the
CIA? I doubt there are many Americans who think they would. I think most Americans would consider this terrorism. But this is because
terrorism is a word that, by definition, cannot apply to things we do, and only applies to the things others do. When you start to
actually reverse the situations in your mind, and see how things look from the other side, you start to fully grasp just how crude
and irrational so much propaganda is.
"It was not an assassination." -- Noah Rothman, conservative commentator
"That's an outrageous thing to say. Nobody that I know of would think that we did something wrong in getting the general."
-- Michael Bloomberg, on Bernie Sanders' claim that this was an "assassination"
Our access to much of the world is through language alone. We only see our tiny sliver of the world with our own eyes, much of
the rest of it has to be described in words or shown to us through images. That means it's very easy to manipulate our perceptions.
If you control the flow of information, you can completely alter someone's understanding of the things that they can't see firsthand.
Euphemistic language is always used to cover atrocities. Even the Nazis did not say they were "mass murdering innocent civilians."
They said they were defending themselves from subversive elements, guaranteeing sufficient living space for their people, purifying
their culture, etc. When the United States commits murder, it does not say it is committing murder. It says it is engaging in a stabilization
program and restoring democratic rule. We saw during the recent
Bolivian coup how easy it is
to portray the seizure of power as "democracy" and democracy as tyranny. Euphemistic language has been one of the key tools of murderous
regimes. In fact, many of them probably believe their own language; their specialized vocabulary allows them to inhabit a world of
their own invention where they are good people punishing evil.
Assassination sounds bad. It sounds like something illegitimate, something that would call into question the goodness of the United
States, even if the person being assassinated can be argued to have "deserved it." Thus Rothman and Bloomberg will not even admit
that what the U.S. did here was an assassination, even though we literally targeted a high official from a sovereign country and
dropped a bomb on him. Instead, this is " neutralization
." (Read this fascinatingly feeble attempt
by the Associated Press to explain why it isn't calling an obvious assassination an assassination, just as the media declined to
call torture torture when Bush did it.)
Those of us who want to resist marches to war need to insist on calling things exactly what they are and refuse to allow the country
to slide into the use of language that conceals the reality of our actions.
Remember what people were saying five minutes ago
Five minutes ago, hardly anybody was talking about Suleimani. Now they all speak as if he was Public Enemy #1. Remember how much
you hated that guy? Remember how much damage he did? No, I do not remember, because people like Ben Shapiro only just discovered
their hatred for Suleimani once they had to justify his murder.
During the buildup to a war there is a constant effort to make you forget what things were like a few minutes ago. Before World
War I, Americans lived relatively harmoniously with Germans in their midst. The same thing with Japanese people before World War
II. Then, immediately, they began to hate and fear people who had recently been their neighbors.
Let us say Iran responds to this extrajudicial murder with a colossal act of violent reprisal, after the killing
unifies the country around a demand for vengeance. They kill a high-ranking American official, or wage an attack that kills our
civilians. Perhaps it will attack some of the soldiers that are now being moved into the Middle East. The Trump administration will
then want you to forget that it promised this assassination was to "
stop a war ." It will then
want you to focus solely on Iran's most recent act, to see that as the initial aggression. If the attack is particularly bad,
with family members of victims crying on TV and begging for vengeance, you will be told to look into the face of Iranian evil, and
those of us who are anti-war will be branded as not caring about the victims. Nobody wants you to remember the history of U.S./Iran
relations, the civilians we killed of theirs or the time we destabilized their whole country and got rid of its democracy. They want
you to have a two-second memory, to become a blind and unthinking patriot whose sole thought is the avenging of American blood. Resisting
propaganda requires having a memory, looking back on how things were before and not accepting war as the "new normal."
Listen to the Chomsky on your shoulder.
"It is perfectly insane to suggest the U.S. was the aggressor here." -- Ben Shapiro
They are going to try to convince you that you are insane for asking questions, or for not accepting what the government tells
you. They will put you in topsy-turvy land, where thinking that assassinating foreign officials is "aggression" is not just wrong,
but sheer madness. You will have to try your best to remember what things are, because it is not easy, when everyone says
the emperor has clothes, or that Line A is longer than Line B, or that shocking people to death is fine, to have confidence in your
independent judgment.
This is why I keep a little imaginary Noam
Chomsky sitting on my shoulder at all times. Chomsky helps keep me sane, by cutting through lies and euphemisms and showing things
as they really are. I recommend reading his books, especially during times of war. He never swallowed Johnson's nonsense about Vietnam
or Bush's nonsense about Iraq. And of course they called him insane, anti-American, terrorist-loving, anti-Semitic, blah blah blah.
What I really mean here though is: Listen to the dissidents. They will not appear on television. They will be smeared and treated
as lunatics. But you need them if you are going to be able to resist the absolute barrage of misinformation, or to hear yourself
think over the pounding war drums. Times of War Fever can be wearying, because there is just so much aggression against dissent that
your resistance wears down. This is why a community is so necessary. You may watch people who previously seemed reasonable develop
a pathological bloodlust (mild-mannered moderate types like Thomas Friedman and Brian Williams going suck on our missiles
). Find the people who see clearly and stick close to them.
The Trump administration has
assassinated Iran's top military leader, Qassim Suleimani, and with the possibility of a serious escalation in violent
conflict, it's a good time to think about how propaganda works and train ourselves to avoid accidentally swallowing it.
The
Iraq War, the bloodiest and costliest U.S. foreign policy calamity of the 21
st
century, happened in part because
the population of the United States was insufficiently cynical about its government and got caught up in a wave of
nationalistic fervor. The same thing happened with World War I and the Vietnam War. Since a U.S./Iran war would be a disaster,
it is vital that everyone make sure they do not accidentally end up repeating the kinds of talking points that make war more
likely.
Let us bear in mind, then, some of the basic lessons about war propaganda.
Things are not true because a government official says them.
I do not mean to treat you as stupid by making such a basic point, but plenty of journalists and opposition party
politicians do not understand this point's implications, so it needs to be said over and over. What happens in the leadup to
war is that government officials make claims about the enemy, and then those claims appear in newspapers ("U.S. officials say
Saddam poses an imminent threat") and then in the public consciousness, the "U.S. officials say" part disappears, so that the
claim is taken for reality without ever really being scrutinized. This happens because newspapers are incredibly irresponsible
and believe that so long as you attach "Experts say" or "President says" to a claim, you are off the hook when people end up
believing it, because all you did was relay the fact that a person said a thing, you didn't say it was true. This is the
approach the
New York Times
took
to
Bush administration allegations in the leadup to the Iraq War, and it meant that false claims could become headline news just
because a high-ranking U.S. official said them. [UPDATE:
here's an example
from Vox, today, of a
questionable government claim being magically transformed into a certain fact.]
In the context of Iran, let us consider some things Mike Pence tweeted about Qassim Suleimani:
"[Suleimani] assisted in the clandestine travel to Afghanistan of 10 of the 12 terrorists who carried out the
September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States Soleimani was plotting imminent attacks on American diplomats and
military personnel. The world is a safer place today because Soleimani is gone."
It is possible, given these tweets, to publish the headline: "Suleimani plotting imminent attacks on American diplomats,
says Pence." That headline is technically true. But you should not publish that headline unless Pence provides some supporting
evidence, because what will happen in the discourse is that people will link to your news story to prove that Suleimani was
plotting imminent attacks.
To see how unsubstantiated claims get spread, let's think about the Afghanistan hijackers bit. David Harsanyi of the
National Review
defends
Pence's claim about Suleimani helping the hijackers. Harsanyi cites the 9/11 Commission report, saying that the
9/11 commission report concluded Iran aided the hijackers. The report
does indeed
say that Iran allowed free travel to
some of the men who went on to carry out the 9/11 attacks. (The sentence cut off at the bottom of Harsanyi's screenshot,
however,
rather crucially says
:
"We have no evidence that Iran or Hezbollah was aware of the planning for what later became the 9/11 attack.") Harsanyi admits
that the report says absolutely nothing about Suleimani. But he argues that Pence was "mostly right," pointing out that Pence
did not say Iran knew these men would be the hijackers, merely that it allowed them passage.
Let's think about what is going on here. Pence is trying to convince us that Suleimani deserved to die, that it was
necessary for the U.S. to kill him, which will also mean that if Iran retaliates violently, that violence will be because Iran
is an aggressive power rather than because the U.S. just committed an unprovoked atrocity against one of its leaders, dropping
a bomb on a popular Iranian leader. So Pence wants to link Suleimani in your mind with 9/11, in order to get you blood boiling
the same way you might have felt in 2001 as you watched the Twin Towers fall.
There is no evidence that either Iran or Suleimani tried to help these men do 9/11. Harsanyi says that Pence does not
technically allege this. But he doesn't have to! What impression are people going to get from
helped the hijackers?
Pence hopes you'll conflate Suleimani and Iran as one entity, then assume that if Iran ever aided these men in any way, it
basically did 9/11 even if it didn't have any clue that was what they were going to do.
This brings us to #2:
Do not be bullied into accepting simple-minded sloganeering
Let's say that, long before Ted Kaczynski began sending bombs through the mail, you once rented him an apartment. This was
pure coincidence. Back then he was just a Berkeley professor, you did not know he would turn out to be the Unabomber. It is,
however, possible, for me to say, and claim I am not technically lying, that you "housed and materially aided the Unabomber."
(A friend of mine once sold his house to the guy who turned out to be the Green River Killer, so this kind of situation does
happen.)
Of course, it is incredibly dishonest of me to characterize what you did that way. You rented an apartment to a stranger,
yet I'm implying that you intentionally helped the Unabomber knowing he was the Unabomber. In sane times, people would see me
as the duplicitous one. But the leadup to war is often not a sane time, and these distinctions can get lost. In the Pence
claim about Afghanistan, for it to have any relevance to Suleimani, it would be critical to know (assuming the 9/11 commission
report is accurate) whether Iran actually could have known what the men it allowed to pass would ultimately do, and whether
Suleimani was involved. But that would involve thinking, and War Fever thrives on emotion rather than thought.
There are all kinds of ways in which you can bully people into accepting idiocy. Consider, for example, the statement
"Nathan Robinson thinks it's good to help terrorists who murder civilians." There is a way in which this is actually sort of
true: I think lawyers who aid those accused of terrible crimes do important work. If we are simple-minded and manipulative, we
can call that "thinking it's good to help terrorists," and during periods of War Fever, that's exactly what it will be called.
There is a kind of cheap sophistry that becomes ubiquitous:
I don't think Osama bin Laden should have been killed without an attempt to apprehend him. -- > So you think it's
good that Osama bin Laden was alive?
I think Iraqis were justified in resisting the U.S. invasion with force. -- > So you're saying it's good when U.S.
soldiers die?
I do not believe killing other countries' generals during peacetime is acceptable. -- > So you believe terrorists
should be allowed to operate with impunity.
I remember all this bullshit from my high school years. Opposing the invasion of Iraq meant loving Saddam Hussein and
hating America. Thinking 9/11 was the predictable consequence of U.S. actions meant believing 9/11 was justified. Of course,
rational discussion can expose these as completely unfair mischaracterizations, but every time war fever whips up, rational
discussion becomes almost impossible. In World War I, if you opposed the draft you were undermining your country in a time of
war. During Vietnam, if you believed the North Vietnamese had the more just case, you were a Communist traitor who endorsed
every atrocity committed in the name of Ho Chi Minh, and if you thought John McCain shouldn't have been bombing civilians in
the first place then clearly you believed he should have been tortured and you hated America.
"If you oppose assassinating Suleimani you must love terrorists" will be repeated on Fox News (and probably even on MSNBC).
Nationalism advocate
Yoram Hazony
says
there is something wrong with those who do not "feel
shame when our country is shamed" -- presumably those who do not feel wounded pride when America is emasculated by our enemies
are weak and pitiful. We should refuse to put up with these kind of cheap slurs, or even to let those who deploy them place
the burden of proof on us to refute them. (In 2004, Democrats worried that they
did
appear unpatriotic, and so they
ran a decorated war veteran, John Kerry, for president. That didn't work.)
Scrutinize the arguments
Here's Mike Pence again:
"[Suleimani] provided advanced deadly explosively formed projectiles, advanced weaponry, training, and guidance to
Iraqi insurgents used to conduct attacks on U.S. and coalition forces; directly responsible for the death of 603 U.S.
service members, along with thousands of wounded."
I am going to say something that is going to sound controversial
if
you buy into the kind of simple-minded logic
we just discussed: Saying that someone was "responsible for the deaths of U.S. service members" does not, in and of itself,
tell us anything about whether what they did was right or wrong. In order to believe it did, we would have to believe that the
United States is
automatically
right, and that countries opposing the United States are automatically wrong. That is
indeed the logic that many nationalists in this country follow; remember that when the U.S. shot down an Iranian civilian
airliner, causing hundreds of deaths, George H.W. Bush
said
that he would never
apologize for America,
no matter what the facts were.
What if America did something wrong? That was irrelevant, or
rather impossible, because to Bush, a thing was right because America did it, even if that thing was the mass murder of
Iranian civilians.
One of the major justifications for murdering Suleimani is that he "caused the deaths of U.S. soldiers." He was thus an
aggressor, and could/should have been killed. That is where people like Pence want you to end your inquiry. But let us
remember where those soldiers were. Were they in Miami? No. They were in Iraq. Why were they in Iraq?
Because we illegally
invaded and seized a country.
Now, we can debate whether (1) there is actually sufficient evidence of Suleimani's direct
involvement and (2) whether these acts of violence can be justified, but to say that Suleimani has "American blood on his
hands" is to say nothing at all
without
an examination of whether the United States was in the right.
We have to think clearly in examining the arguments that are being made.
Here
's the
Atlantic
's George Packer
on the execution:
"There was a case for killing Major General Qassem Soleimani. For two decades, as the commander of the Revolutionary
Guards' Quds Force, he executed Iran's long game of strategic depth in the Middle East -- arming and guiding proxy militias in
Lebanon and Iraq that became stronger than either state, giving Bashar al-Assad essential support to win the Syrian civil
war at the cost of half a million lives, waging a proxy war in Yemen against the hated Saudis, and repeatedly testing
America and its allies with military actions around the region for which Iran never seemed to pay a military price."
The article goes on to discuss whether this case is outweighed by the pragmatic case against killing him. But wait. Let's
dwell on this.
Does this
constitute a case for killing him? He assisted Bashar al-Assad. Okay, but presumably then
killing Assad would have been justified too? Is the rule here that our government is allowed unilaterally to execute the
officials of other governments who are responsible for many deaths? Are we the only ones who can do this? Can any government
claim the right?
He assisted Yemen in its fight against "the hated Saudis." But is Saudi Arabia being hated for good reason? It is not
enough to say that someone committed violence without analyzing the underlying justice of the parties' relative claims.
Moreover, assumptions are made that if you can prove somebody committed a heinous act, what Trump did is justified. But
that doesn't follow: Unless we throw all law out the window, and extrajudicial punishment is suddenly acceptable, showing that
Suleimani was a war criminal doesn't prove that you can unilaterally kill him with a drone. Henry Kissinger is a war criminal.
So is George W. Bush. But they should be captured and tried in a court, not bombed from the sky. The argument that Suleimani
was planning
imminent
attacks is relevant to whether you can stop him with violence (and requires persuasive proof),
but mere allegations of murderous past acts do not show that extrajudicial killings are legitimate.
It's very easy to come up with superficially persuasive arguments that can justify just about anything. The job of an
intelligent populace is to see whether those arguments can actually withstand scrutiny.
Keep the focus on what matters
"The main question about the strike isn't moral or even legal -- it's strategic." --
The Atlantic
"The real question to ask about the American drone attack that killed Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani was not whether it was
justified, but whether it was wise" --
The New York
Times
"I think that the question that we ought to focus on is why now? Why not a month ago and why not a month from now?" --
Elizabeth Warren
They're going to try to define the debate for you.
Leaving aside the moral questions, is this good strategy?
And
then you find yourself arguing on those terms: No, it was bad strategy, it will put "our personnel" in harms way, without
noticing that you are implicitly accepting the sociopathic logic that says "America's interests" are the only ones in the
world that matters. This is how debates about Vietnam went: They were rarely about whether our actions were good for
Vietnamese people, but about whether they were good or bad for
us
, whether we were squandering U.S. resources and
troops in a "fruitless" "mistake." The people of this country still do not understand the kind of carnage we inflicted on
Vietnam because our debates tend to be about whether things we do are "strategically prudent" rather than whether they are
just. The
Atlantic
calls the strike a "blunder," shifting the discussion to be about the wisdom of the killing rather
than whether it is a choice our country is even permitted to make. "Blunder" essentially assumes that we are allowed to do
these things and the only question is whether it's good for us.
There will be plenty of attempts to distract you with irrelevant issues. We will spent more time talking about whether
Trump followed the right
process
for war, whether he handled the rollout correctly, and less about whether the
underlying action itself is correct. People like Ben Shapiro will
say things like
:
"Barack Obama routinely droned terrorists abroad -- including American citizens -- who presented far less of a threat to
Americans and American interests than Soleimani. So spare me the hysterics about 'assassination."
In order for this to have any bearing on anything, you have to be someone who defends what Obama did. If you are, on the
other hand, someone who belives that Obama, too, assassinated people without due process (which he did), then Shapiro has
proved exactly nothing about whether Trump's actions were legitimate. (Note, too, the presumption that threatening "America's
interests" can get you killed, a standard we would not want any other country using but are happy to use ourselves.)
Emphasis matters
Consider three statements:
"The top priority of a Commander-in-Chief must be to protect Americans and our national security interests. There
is no question that Qassim Suleimani was a threat to that safety and security, and that he masterminded threats and attacks
on Americans and our allies, leading to hundreds of deaths. But there are serious questions about how this decision was
made and whether we are prepared for the consequences."
"Suleimani was a murderer, responsible for the deaths of thousands, including hundreds of Americans. But this
reckless move escalates the situation with Iran and increases the likelihood of more deaths and new Middle East conflict.
Our priority must be to avoid another costly war."
"When I voted against the war in Iraq in 2002, I feared it would lead to greater destabilization of the country and
the region. Today, 17 years later, that fear has unfortunately turned out to be true. The United States has lost
approximately 4,500 brave troops, tens of thousands have been wounded, and we've spent trillions on this war. Trump's
dangerous escalation brings us closer to another disastrous war in the Middle East that could cost countless lives and
trillions more dollars. Trump promised to end endless wars, but this action puts us on the path to another one."
These are statements made by Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders, respectively. Note that each of them is
consistent with
believing Trump's decision was the wrong one, but their emphasis is different. Buttigieg says
Suleimani was a "threat" but that there are "questions," Warren says Suleimani was a "murderer" but that this was "reckless,"
and Sanders says this was a "dangerous escalation." It could be that none of these three would have done the same thing
themselves, but the emphasis is vastly different. Buttigieg and Warren lead with condemnation of the dead man, in ways that
imply that there was nothing
that
unjust about what happened. Sanders does not dwell on Suleimani but instead talks
about the dangers of new wars.
We have to be clear and emphatic in our messaging, because so much effort is made to make what should be clear issues
appear murky. If, for example, you gave a speech in 2002 opposing the Iraq War, but the first half was simply a discussion of
what a bad and threatening person Saddam Hussein was, people might actually get the
opposite
of the impression you
want them to get. Buttigieg and Warren, while they appear to question the president, have the effect of making his action seem
reasonable. After all, they admit that he got rid of a threatening murderer! Sanders admits nothing of the kind: The only
thing he says is that Trump has made the world worse. He puts the emphasis where it matters.
I do not fully like Sanders' statement, because it still talks a bit more about what war means for
our
people
,
but it does mention destabilization and the total number of lives that can be lost. It is a far more morally clear and
powerful antiwar statement. Buttigieg's is exactly what you'd expect of a Consultant President and it should give us
absolutely no confidence that he would be a powerful voice against a war, should one happen. Warren confirms that she is not
an effective advocate for peace. In a time when there will be pressure for a violent conflict, we need to make sure that our
statements are not watery and do not make needless concessions to the hawks' propaganda.
Imagine how everything would sound if the other side said it.
If you're going to understand the world clearly, you have to kill your nationalistic emotions. An excellent way to do this
is to try to imagine if all the facts were reversed. If Iraq had invaded the United States, and U.S. militias violently
resisted, would it constitute "aggression" for those militias to kill Iraqi soldiers? If Britain funded those U.S. militias,
and Iraq killed the head of the British military with a drone strike, would this constitute "stopping a terrorist"? Of course,
in that situation, the Iraqi government would certainly spin it that way, because governments call everyone who opposes them
terrorists. But rationality requires us not just to examine
whether
violence has been committed (e.g., whether
Suleimani ordered attacks) but what the full historical context of that violence is, and who truly deserves the "terrorist"
label.
Is there anything Suleimani did that hasn't also been done by the CIA? Remember that we actually engineered the overthrow
of the Iranian government,
within living people's lifetimes
. Would an Iranian have been justified in assassinating
the head of the CIA? I doubt there are many Americans who think they would. I think most Americans would consider this
terrorism. But this is because terrorism is a word that, by definition, cannot apply to things we do, and only applies to the
things others do. When you start to actually reverse the situations in your mind, and see how things look from the other side,
you start to fully grasp just how crude and irrational so much propaganda is.
"It was not an assassination." -- Noah Rothman, conservative commentator
"That's an outrageous thing to say. Nobody that I know of would think that we did something wrong in getting the
general." -- Michael Bloomberg, on Bernie Sanders' claim that this was an "assassination"
Our access to much of the world is through language alone. We only see our tiny sliver of the world with our own eyes, much
of the rest of it has to be described in words or shown to us through images. That means it's very easy to manipulate our
perceptions. If you control the flow of information, you can completely alter someone's understanding of the things that they
can't see firsthand.
Euphemistic language is always used to cover atrocities. Even the Nazis did not say they were "mass murdering innocent
civilians." They said they were defending themselves from subversive elements, guaranteeing sufficient living space for their
people, purifying their culture, etc. When the United States commits murder, it does not say it is committing murder. It says
it is engaging in a stabilization program and restoring democratic rule. We saw during the recent
Bolivian coup
how easy it is to portray
the seizure of power as "democracy" and democracy as tyranny. Euphemistic language has been one of the key tools of murderous
regimes. In fact, many of them probably believe their own language; their specialized vocabulary allows them to inhabit a
world of their own invention where they are good people punishing evil.
Assassination sounds bad. It sounds like something illegitimate, something that would call into question the goodness of
the United States, even if the person being assassinated can be argued to have "deserved it." Thus Rothman and Bloomberg will
not even admit that what the U.S. did here was an assassination, even though we literally targeted a high official from a
sovereign country and dropped a bomb on him. Instead, this is "
neutralization
."
(Read this
fascinatingly feeble attempt
by the Associated
Press to explain why it isn't calling an obvious assassination an assassination, just as the media declined to call torture
torture when Bush did it.)
Those of us who want to resist marches to war need to insist on calling things exactly what they are and refuse to allow
the country to slide into the use of language that conceals the reality of our actions.
Remember what people were saying five minutes ago
Five minutes ago, hardly anybody was talking about Suleimani. Now they all speak as if he was Public Enemy #1. Remember how
much you hated that guy? Remember how much damage he did? No, I do not remember, because people like Ben Shapiro only just
discovered their hatred for Suleimani once they had to justify his murder.
During the buildup to a war there is a constant effort to make you forget what things were like a few minutes ago. Before
World War I, Americans lived relatively harmoniously with Germans in their midst. The same thing with Japanese people before
World War II. Then, immediately, they began to hate and fear people who had recently been their neighbors.
Let us say Iran responds to this extrajudicial murder with a colossal act of violent reprisal, after the killing
unifies the country
around a demand for vengeance. They kill a high-ranking American official, or wage an attack that
kills our civilians. Perhaps it will attack some of the soldiers that are now being moved into the Middle East. The Trump
administration will then want you to forget that it promised this assassination was to "
stop
a war
." It will then want you to focus solely on Iran's most recent act, to see
that
as the initial aggression.
If the attack is particularly bad, with family members of victims crying on TV and begging for vengeance, you will be told to
look into the face of Iranian evil, and those of us who are anti-war will be branded as not caring about the victims. Nobody
wants you to remember the history of U.S./Iran relations, the civilians we killed of theirs or the time we destabilized their
whole country and got rid of its democracy. They want you to have a two-second memory, to become a blind and unthinking
patriot whose sole thought is the avenging of American blood. Resisting propaganda requires having a memory, looking back on
how things were before and not accepting war as the "new normal."
Listen to the Chomsky on your shoulder.
"It is perfectly insane to suggest the U.S. was the aggressor here." -- Ben Shapiro
They are going to try to convince you that you are insane for asking questions, or for not accepting what the government
tells you. They will put you in topsy-turvy land, where thinking that assassinating foreign officials is "aggression" is not
just wrong, but
sheer madness.
You will have to try your best to remember what things are, because it is not easy,
when everyone says the emperor has clothes, or that Line A is longer than Line B, or that shocking people to death is fine, to
have confidence in your independent judgment.
This is why I keep a little imaginary
Noam Chomsky
sitting on my shoulder at all times. Chomsky helps keep me sane, by cutting through lies and euphemisms and showing things as
they really are. I recommend reading his books, especially during times of war. He never swallowed Johnson's nonsense about
Vietnam or Bush's nonsense about Iraq. And of course they called him insane, anti-American, terrorist-loving, anti-Semitic,
blah blah blah.
What I really mean here though is: Listen to the dissidents. They will not appear on television. They will be smeared and
treated as lunatics. But you need them if you are going to be able to resist the absolute barrage of misinformation, or to
hear yourself think over the pounding war drums. Times of War Fever can be wearying, because there is just so much aggression
against dissent that your resistance wears down. This is why a community is so necessary. You may watch people who previously
seemed reasonable develop a pathological bloodlust (mild-mannered moderate types like Thomas Friedman and Brian Williams going
suck on our missiles
). Find the people who see clearly and stick close to them.
Pelosi hailed the killing just after news broke of Gaddafi's October 2011 death.
She released the following
statement
on her
Congressional website:
Today's news marks the next phase of Libya's march toward democracy. After decades of tyrannical rule in Libya,
the world is hopeful that the next generation of Libyan leaders will bring their country out of this dark chapter.
The strong action taken by the United States, led by President Obama, and NATO, the United Nations and the Arab
League proves the power of the world community working together.
Moscow has a vested interest in the state of affairs in the Persian Gulf; it has tried its best to
contain the impact that the U.S.-Iranian crisis could have on its own national security.
The third area of focus is connected with overlapping humanitarian and economic concerns that impact both Russia and Iran.
These concerns have been footholds in the history of mutual relationships since the time of Russian and Persian empires.
Nowadays both of the countries are trying to compensate for their failures by pursuing policies that promote their own and
unique civilizations. In this situation the humanitarian sphere is one of the strategic ones allowing to pursue long-term
aims. Of note, Russian-Iranian educational and cultural projects have doubled since the Trump administration announced its
strategy for Iran. While the United States has been focused on "bringing Iran to its knees," Russia has been focused on the
future. Economic ties between these two countries have been strengthening over the past few years, with bilateral trade
reaching $2 billion in 2018.
Hopefully, Russia and Iran will maintain a positive relationship despite their differences and past difficulties. For
example, in 2016 Russian forces were pushed off of a military base in Iran that it had used to conduct military operations
in Syria. The strategic shift happened after the Iranians squabbled over whether foreign forces should be allowed to use an
Iranian military base. Also, the two countries have had some disputes over the fate of Syria. Despite these issues, Russia
maintains a positive relationship with Iran, which it further confirmed during a June 25
meeting
between national security advisers John Bolton, Meir Ben-Shabbat and Nikolai Patrushev. During the meeting,
Patrushev, the Secretary of the Russian Security Council, declared that Russia would continue to accommodate Iran's
interests in the Middle East because it remains "the ally and partner" of choice in Syria. Both countries are focused on
preventing further destabilization in the region, he said.
Nadya Glebova is a fellow at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a MENA
researcher.
Like any state Russia is driven foremost by its own national security interests. Given Iran's
proximity to its own near-abroad it seems impossible it could stand by and watch the Islamic
Republic be destabilized or even overthrown. Moscow has vital interests to protect in the
region, as does China. And it seems Moscow, Beijing and Tehran – for all their differences –
have a common interest against what they fear as US encroachment. It is interest that
ultimately drives countries to war. A war between the US and this tripartite alliance will be
a world war.
https://www.ghostsofhistory...
Like any state Russia is driven foremost by its own national security interests.
You hit the nail on the head. I'm amazed that so many Americans fail to understand this
truism about what motivates Russia's actions in world affairs.
Sadly, too many Americans have been brainwashed into thinking that Russia's a US
vassal state, or a banana republic of some sort subject to the West's mandate.
It's plain and simple....our USA government uses TERRORISM to conduct our foreign policy
objectives...for the sake of the corrupt few in power and for our corrupt terrorist allies in
Israel, Saudi, Europe, etc....killing and starving innocent people the world over. We
overthrew Iran's democracy in 1953 to steal its oil and other resources....we need to address
all the terrorism our government and the CIA conducts IN OUR NAME...before we pretend to be
"victims" of other's doings......we have created the vast majority of the world's current
crisis for power and greed.....we do not support democracy....the USA supports TERRORISM
against innocent people all over the world to keep them in line!!!
Putin's Hour Is At Hand was published in the Russian press Monday morning, January 6,
2020.
Putin's Hour Is At Hand
Paul Craig Roberts
Vladimir Putin is the most impressive leader on the world stage. He survived and arose from
a Russia corrupted by Washington and Israel during the Yeltsin years and reestablished Russia
as a world power. He dealt successfully with American/Israeli aggression against South Ossetia
and against Ukraine, incorporating at Crimea's request the Russian province back into Mother
Russia. He has tolerated endless insults and provocations from Washington and its empire
without responding in kind. He is conciliatory and a peacemaker from a position of
strength.
He knows that the American empire based as it is on arrogance and lies is failing
economically, socially, politically, and militarily. He understands that war serves no Russian
interest.
Washington's murder of Qasem Soleimani, a great Iranian leader, indeed, one of the rare
leaders in world history, has dimmed Trump's leadership and placed the limelight on Putin. The
stage is set for Putin and Russia to assume the leadership of the world.
Washington's murder of Soleimani is a criminal act that could start World War 3 just as the
Serbian murder of the Austrian Archduke set World War 1 in motion. Only Putin and Russia with
China's help can stop this war that Washington has set in motion.
Putin understood that the Washington/Israeli intended destabilization of Syria was aimed at
Russia. Without warning Russia intervened, defeated the Washington financed and armed proxy
forces, and restored stability to Syria.
Defeated, Washington and Israel have decided to bypass Syria and take the attack on Russia
directly to Iran. The destabilization of Iran serves both Washington and Israel. For Israel
Iran's demise stops support for Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia that has twice defeated
Israel's army and prevented Israel's occupation of southern Lebanon. For Washington Iran's
demise allows CIA-supported jihadists to bring instability into the Russian Federation.
Unless Putin submits to American and Israeli will, he has no choice but to block any
Washington/Israeli attack on Iran.
The easiest and cleanest way for Putin to do this is to announce that Iran is under Russia's
protection. This protection should be formalized in a mutual defense treaty between Russia,
China, and Iran, with perhaps India and Turkey as members. This is hard for Putin to do,
because incompetent historians have convinced Putin that alliances are the cause of war. But an
alliance such as this would prevent war. Not even the insane criminal Netanyahu and the crazed
American neoconservatives would, even when completely drunk or deluded, declare war on Iran,
Russia, China, and if included in the alliance India and Turkey. It would mean the death of
America, Israel and any European country sufficiently stupid to participate.
If Putin is unable to free himself from the influence of incompetent historians, who in
effect are serving Washington, not Russian, interests, he has other options. He can calm down
Iran by giving Iran the best Russian air defense systems with Russian crews to train the
Iranians and whose presence serve as a warning to Washington and Israel that an attack on
Russian forces is an attack on Russia.
This done, Putin can then, not offer, but insist on mediating. This is Putin's role as there
is no other with the power, influence and objectivity to mediate.
Putin's job is not so much to rescue Iran as to get Trump out of a losing war that would
destroy Trump. Putin could set his own price. For example, Putin's price can be the revival of
the INF/START treaty, the anti-ballistic missile treaty, the removal of NATO from Russian
borders. In effect, Putin is positioned to demand whatever he wants.
Iranian missiles can sink any American vessels anywhere near Iran. Chinese missiles can sink
any American fleets anywhere near China. Russian missiles can sink American fleets anywhere in
the world. The ability of Washington to project power in the Middle East now that everyone,
Shia and Sunni and Washington's former proxies such as ISIS, hates Americans with a passion is
zero. The State Department has had to order Americans out of the Middle East. How does
Washingon count as a force in the Middle East when no American is safe there?
Of course Washington is stupid in its arrogance, and Putin, China, and Iran must take this
into consideration. A stupid government is capable of bringing ruin not only on itself but on
others.
So there are risks for Putin. But there are also risks for Putin failing to take charge. If
Washington and Israel attack Iran, which Israel will try to provoke by some false flag event as
sinking an American warship and blaming Iran, Russia will be at war anyway. Better for the
initiative to be in Putin's hands. And better for the world and life on Earth for Russia to be
in charge.
British comedian Ricky Gervais is dropping red pills at the Golden Globes, joking about
"Epstein didn't kill himself" while telling 'woke' virtue signaling celebrities to stop talking
about politics.
... If ISIS started a streaming service, you'd call your agent,"
"You know nothing about the real world. Most of you spent less time in school than
Greta Thunberg. " as usual David Brett nails it , the british office was one of funniest tv
shows ever
Trump just managed to tweet support for US members of IS and AQ, thus supporting enemies of
the US and committing Treason as per the US Constitution-
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
These Media Posts will serve as notification to the United States Congress that
should Iran strike any U.S. person or target, the United States will quickly & fully
strike back, & perhaps in a disproportionate manner. Such legal notice is not required,
but is given nevertheless!
"We have learned today from #Iraq Prime Minister AdilAbdl Mahdi how @realDonaldTrump uses
diplomacy:
#US asked #Iraq to mediate with #Iran. Iraq PM asks #QassemSoleimani to come and talk to him
and give him the answer of his mediation, Trump &co assassinate an envoy at the airport."
Trump-Kushner is no different than Hillary, Schumer, Nadler, Schiff, Epstein, Maxwell,
Weinstein, Wasserman-Schultz, Bibi. Trump is no friend to American citizens just like all of
Congress.
There will be no draining of any swamps. Trump-Kushner just another Bibi lackey.
@gotmituns I
think we all know the Orange One who is in the pockets of Jews and Israel First nationalists*
will not actually pull out troops. I have also heard someone on this comments board says the
agreement between the US and Iraq stipulates that the US has 1 year to withdraw if requested
to do so by Iraq, so he will no doubt cite that reason for staying there as long as possible
– which leaves ample time for more Jewish tricks and swindles à la USS Liberty
or Lavon Affair.
The real question is whether or not his room-temperature IQ support base will pick up on
the fact that their man in the White House is only increasing troop presence despite being
told to piss off by the Iraqis, thus laying waste to the myth that Iraqis are begging the US
to stay there. Will this be the broken promise that will finally deprogram the hordes of
MAGAtards and awaken them from their slumber?
Not only Mossad but probably many others would like to see a suicide bomber blow himself
up somewhere in the US killing alot of people. That makes it difficult to figure out who
did it and maybe impossible to figure it out. It would be a mess.
But they could always find an un-scorched Iranian passport in mint condition among the
debris of the explosion.
Amusingly, if Trump is indeed serious that Iraq will have to reimburse the US for its
countless military bases, camps and other installations, the US will be able to repay its $23
trillion in debt (and have money leftover), when all is said and done: here is a partial list
of the US camps in iraq:
Camp Abu Naji / FOB Garry Owen (Al Amarah)
Camp Adder also known as Tallil Air Base and Ali Air Base located in Nasiriyah
Just a wild *** guess but what if Maj. Gen. Soleimani was close to kicking the bucket
anyways and wanted to poke America one last time and did so by causing an issue at the
American embassy in Iraq.
If the General was such an asset why be in Iraq? Normally you would send your aide to the
area. If it was really important to meet someone then they would come to Iran.
I don't think Iran is necessarily that careless. I can believe ego can play a big part in
making bad decisions but if he was such an asset for so long why risk it unless you were a
dead man walking already.
The other Iranian leaders could of said to the already dying general if that is the way
you want to go out then by all means do so. It doesn't cost Iran anything if he does.
Just a different look at it. It may also be the reason why Iran won't do anything for
awhile if at all. He might of been a good general in Iran's eyes but still replaceable.
Later.
If our entire dollar racket fueled country were slightly more honestly governed, the Dept.
of Offense would bill Israel for at least 1/2 of its budget.
The actions of the US was a war crime. Those that are responsible should be arrested and
handed over to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for prosecution. This would obviously
include Trump, Pompeo and Esper (as well as a number of others).
The US should then negotiate reparations with Iran.
If the US/West will not do so, if the people of the US/West democracies do not insist, if
we do nothing then we are all guilty of this War Crime. I don't really think we can have this
any other way.
"After all, we want people who are passionate about occupying foreign lands,
not grunts who are just there for the paycheck"
The Babylon Bee 11 hours ago <S> 554 *10
A new policy issued by the United States Department of Defense, in conjunction with online
platforms like Twitter and Facebook, will automatically enlist you to fight in a foreign war if
you post your support for attacking another country.
People who bravely post about how the U.S. needs to invade some country in the Middle East
or Asia or outer space will get a pop-up notice indicating they've been enlisted in the
military. A recruiter will then show up at their house and whisk them away to fight in the
foreign war they wanted to happen so badly.
"Frankly, recruitment numbers are down, and we needed some way to find people who are really
enthusiastic about fighting wars," said a DOD official. "Then it hit us like a drone strike:
there are plenty of people who argue vehemently for foreign intervention. It doesn't matter
what war we're trying to create: Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, North Korea, China -- these
people are always reliable supporters of any invasion abroad. So why not get them there on the
frontlines?"
"After all, we want people who are passionate about occupying foreign lands, not grunts who
are just there for the paycheck," he added.
Strangely, as soon as the policy was implemented, 99% of saber-rattling suddenly ceased.
Some comments reminded me of two sayings at opposite ends of phase space.
The first I learnt from an article of Uri Avnery almost a decade ago. It is the classic
Jewish joke about the Jewish mother in Russia taking leave of her son, who has been called up
to serve the Czar in the war against Turkey. "Don't overexert yourself'" she implores him,
"Kill a Turk and rest. Kill another Turk and rest again "
"But mother," the son interrupts, "What if the Turk kills me?"
"You?" exclaims the mother, "But why? What have you done to him?"
This will end great, a fucked up circus called congress who hasn't had the balls to do their
job and legally declare war for nearly three decades, and a president who can't even defend
himself from a gang of thugs staging a direct coup against him in his own government. What
could possibly go wrong?
The second are the immortal words of Thucydides: "the strong do what they will, the weak
suffer what they must."
Yeah, I heard Thucydides had some issues with resolution of uncertainties for targeting,
especially for stand-off precision guided weapons. Plus there were some issues with long
range air-defense systems in Greece in times of Plato and Socrates. You know, GLONASS wasn't
fully operational, plus EW was a little bit scratchy.
So, surely, it all fully applies today, especially in choke points. Plus those Athenians
they were not exactly good with RPGs and anti-Armour operations. Other than that, Thucydides
nailed it.
Interesting to note that it was the party professing those words - Athens - who started
the Peloponnesian War, driven in large part by that haughty attitude. It was Athens that also ended that war, of course. They did so when they surrendered to the Spartans.
US Congresswoman Maxine Waters has allegedly fallen for a prank call in which she thought
activist Greta Thunberg was offering her a tape of Donald Trump confessing to pressuring
Ukraine into investigating his political rivals. YouTube pranksters Vladimir Kuznetsov and
Alexey Stolyarov, who go by the names Vovan and Lexus, are claiming they tricked Waters
(Dem-Calif.) into thinking she was speaking to teen climate change activist Greta Thunberg.
Vovan and Lexus made names for themselves by previously pranking Congressman Adam Schiff
(Dem-Calif.) into thinking there were nude photos of US President Donald Trump that Schiff
could get his hands on. They also claim to have pranked Waters two years
ago, in a phone call where one posed as Ukraine's prime minister.
Though Waters herself has not responded to the new video, the woman at the other end of the
phone identifies herself as the congresswoman and sounds an awful lot like her.
In the call, the pranksters pretend to be Thunberg and her father, with help from a female
colleague, and claim to have proof that Trump pressured the Ukrainian government into
investigating his political rivals, something Democrats have claimed, for months now, is
true.
Talleyrand remarked that Napoleon's assassination of the Duke of Enghien was worse than a
crime. It was a mistake. Donald Trump's decision to target Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, the head
of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, for destruction brings to mind the French diplomat's
lapidary verdict. Iran is likely to unleash its fearsome Shia proxy militias, wherever and
whenever it can. Nor is support from Europe, which is on the frontlines of Iranian blowback,
likely to be forthcoming. Quite the contrary.
Ironically, the Hollywood film 'Wag the Dog,' which tells the story of a US president caught
in a similar situation as Clinton's, and the lengths he goes to distract public attention from
his plight, was released just months before Clinton ordered the attack on Yugoslvia.
Maybe: but in the short term at least, it will provide Trump and his creatures with exactly
the jingoistic deflection they need to draw attention away from his and his Administration's
criminality and incompetence.
Even at this early date we're seeing an orgy of bellicose gloating from all the usual
suspects: and it will probably not be too long into tomorrow's news cycle before the full
fury of the RW Machine is turned on their REAL targets: not Iran, but any Americans who might
question Glorious Leader's "tough" actions....
Bombing a civilian airport in another country in order to assassinate Iranian and Iraq
leaders is a very bad diplomacy ;-)
It might well be that today this idiot blow up his chances fro reelection because revenge is
dish that should be served cold and Iran can postpone it for 11 months or so.
What is interesting is that neoliberal MSM are glad and still talking about Zelensky and
impeachment. What a country ! It looks like the decade of the twenties can be the decade of
another World War. "In every war the first casualty is truth."
Bombing a civilian airport in another country in order to assassinate Iranian and Iraq
leaders is a very bad diplomacy ;-)
It might well be that today this idiot blow up his chances fro reelection because revenge is
dish that should be served cold and Iran can postpone it for 11 months or so.
What is interesting is that neoliberal MSM are glad and still talking about Zelensky and
impeachment. What a country ! It looks like the decade of the twenties can be the decade of
another World War. "In every war the first casualty is truth."
January
2, 2020 at 6:56 am GMT 200 Words Intelligence agencies recruit pornographers to lead their
disinformation operations, apparently because porn purveyors are so lacking in ethics they will
tell public lies about anything
The alleged 'founder' of Wikipedia is the arch-Zionist Jimmy 'Jimbo' Wales, who attends
intimate birthday parties of Presidents of Israel
Wales was 'selected' for this role after being in the pornography-selling business
For weeks, it was Iranian consulates and facilities that bore the brunt of Iraqi
popular unrest. Iran reacted with restraint. With our lethal attacks on the Kata'ib
Hezbollah, we changed that. Pompeo, Esper and Trump are keeping up the trash talking.
Threatening Iran by killing Iraqis whose ass was that brilliant diplomatic strategy pulled
from?
####
US Ambassador to Poland gets her 2 cents in as regards the comments of Vladimir Putin and
others in the Empire of Evil concerning the Molotov – Ribbentrop Non-Aggression Pact
and Polish pre-WWII connivings with Nazi Germany.
Russian politicians had earlier strongly condemned the position of Warsaw, which does not
consider itself responsible for any of the events leading up to the outbreak of WWII in
Europe. Thus, the speaker of the state Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, urged Polish "colleagues" to
apologize for the anti-Semitic remarks of Jozef Lipsky, former Polish Ambassador to Nazi
Germany, who supported some ideas of Adolf Hitler and even suggested putting up a monument to
him in honour of his plans to deport European Jews to Madagascar. Russian Foreign Ministry
spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also criticized the attempt of Poland to rewrite history in
favour of its political interests.
On Sunday, the Prime Minister of Poland, Mateusz Morawiecki, criticized the signing of the
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and actually laid the blame on the USSR for starting WWII along with
Nazi Germany.
Head of the scientific Department of the Russian Military Historical Society, Yuri
Nikiforov, noted that the Warsaw version of events leading to WWII was a "totally ideologized
interpretation of history by orderr" and had nothing to do with the historical truth, and was
promoting its version of history in order to weaken Russian influence on the world stage.
Drogi Prezydencie Putin, to Hitler i Stalin zmówili się, aby
rozpocząć II wojnę światową. To jest fakt. Polska była
ofiarą tego okropnego konfliktu.
Dear President Putin, it was Hitler and Stalin who agreed to start World War II.
This is a fact. Poland was a victim of this terrible conflict.
Dear American business executive, entrepreneur and untrained diplomat now acting as US
Ambassador to Poland, try studying some history.
By the way, before your plum appointment as ambassador to Poland, wasn't it you who
suggested that Poland was responsible for the re-emergence of anti-Semitism across the
continent of Europe because of a law which criminalizes blaming Poland for the actions of
Nazi Germany on its soil during the Holocaust?
And wasn't it headbanger of a Polish President Andrzej Duda who stated that if you were to
be appointed as the new U.S. ambassador to Poland, then you would be accepted, despite having
made "unnecessary and mistaken" comments about his country?
Can't you see that the truth as regards WWII matters is only that which is approved by the
Poles?
The Poles are putting Germany in an awkward position.
The official position of the modern German government (based on Nurnberg, etc.) is that
Germany, and Germany alone, is responsible for the outbreak of WWII. Not the Soviet Union.
Just Germany, ma'am, just Germany.
So, in the face of this Polish revisionism, as Russian analysts are pointing out, Germany
will either have to (a) bitch-slap Poland, or (b) renounce their entire official state policy
and historical ideology since their defeat in WWII and start singing Horst Wessel Lied
again.
"... Bellingcat is an alleged group of amateur on-line researchers who have spent years shilling for the U.S. instigated war against the Syrian government, blaming the Douma chemical attack and others on the Assad government, and for the anti-Russian propaganda connected to, among other things, the Skripal poisoning case in England, and the downing of flight MH17 plane in Ukraine. ..."
"... The Intercept , along with its parent company First Look Media, recently hosted a workshop for pro-war, Google-funded organization Bellingcat in New York. The workshop, which cost $2,500 per person to attend and lasted five days, aimed to instruct participants in how to perform investigations using "open source" tools -- with Bellingcat's past, controversial investigations for use as case studies Thus, while The Intercept has long publicly promoted itself as an anti-interventionist and progressive media outlet, it is becoming clearer that – largely thanks to its ties to Omidyar – it is increasingly an organization that has more in common with Bellingcat, a group that launders NATO and U.S. propaganda and disguises it as "independent" and "investigative journalism." ..."
In the 1920s, the influential American intellectual Walter Lippman argued that the average
person was incapable of seeing or understanding the world clearly and needed to be guided by
experts behind the social curtain. In a number of books he laid out the theoretical foundations
for the practical work of Edward Bernays , who developed "public relations" (aka propaganda) to
carry out this task for the ruling elites. Bernays had honed his skills while working as a
propagandist for the United States during World War I, and after the war he set himself up as a
public relations counselor in New York City.
There is a fascinating exchange at the beginning of Adam Curtis's documentary, The
Century of Self , where Bernays, then nearly 100 years old but still very sharp, reveals
his manipulative mindset and that of so many of those who have followed in his wake. He says
the reason he couldn't call his new business "propaganda" was because the Germans had given
propaganda a "bad name," and so he came up with the euphemism "public relations." He then adds
that "if you could use it [i.e. propaganda] for war, you certainly could use it for peace." Of
course, he never used PR for peace but just to manipulate public opinion (he helped engineer
the CIA coup against the democratically elected Arbenz government in Guatemala in 1954 with
fake news broadcasts). He says "the Germans gave propaganda a bad name," not Bernays and the
United States with their vast campaign of lies, mainly aimed at the American people to get
their support for going to a war they opposed (think weapons of mass destruction). He sounds
proud of his war propaganda work that resounded to his credit since it led to support for the
"war to end all wars" and subsequently to a hit movie about WWI , Yankee Doodle Dandy
, made in 1942 to promote another war, since the first one somehow didn't achieve its lofty
goal.
As Bernays has said in his book Propaganda ,
The American motion picture is the greatest unconscious carrier of propaganda in the world
today.
He was a propagandist to the end. I suspect most viewers of the film are taken in by these
softly spoken words of an old man sipping a glass of wine at a dinner table with a woman who is
asking him questions. I have shown this film to hundreds of students and none has noticed his
legerdemain. It is an example of the sort of hocus-pocus I will be getting to shortly, the sly
insertion into seemingly liberal or matter-of-fact commentary of statements that imply a
different story. The placement of convincing or confusing disingenuous ingredients into a truth
sandwich – for Bernays knew that the bread of truth is essential to conceal untruth.
In the following years, Bernays, Lippman, and their ilk were joined by social "scientists,"
psychologists, and sundry others intent on making a sham out of the idea of democracy by
developing strategies and techniques for the engineering of social consensus consonant with the
wishes of the ruling classes. Their techniques of propaganda developed exponentially with the
development of technology, the creation of the CIA, its infiltration of all the major media,
and that agency's courting of what the CIA official Cord Meyer called in the 1950s "the
compatible left," having already had the right in its pocket. Today most people are, as is
said, "wired," and they get their information from the electronic media that is mostly
controlled by giant corporations in cahoots with government propagandists. Ask yourself: Has
the power of the oligarchic, permanent warfare state with its propaganda and spy networks
increased or decreased over your lifetime. The answer is obvious: the average people that
Lippman and Bernays trashed are losing and the ruling elites are winning.
This is not just because powerful propagandists are good at controlling so-called "average"
people's thinking, but, perhaps more importantly, because they are also adept – probably
more so – at confusing or directing the thinking of those who consider themselves above
average, those who still might read a book or two or have the concentration to read multiple
articles that offer different perspectives on a topic. This is what some call the professional
and intellectual classes, perhaps 15-20 % of the population, most of whom are not the ruling
elites but their employees and sometimes their mouthpieces. It is this segment of the
population that considers itself "informed," but the information they imbibe is often sprinkled
with bits of misdirection, both intentional and not, that beclouds their understanding of
important public matters but leaves them with the false impression that they are in the
know.
Recently I have noticed a group of interconnected examples of how this group of the
population that exerts influence incommensurate with their numbers has contributed to the
blurring of lines between fact and fiction. Within this group there are opinion makers who are
often journalists, writers, and cultural producers of some sort or other, and then the larger
number of the intellectual or schooled class who follow their opinions. This second group then
passes on their received opinions to those who look up to them.
There is a notorious propaganda outfit called Bellingcat , started by an unemployed
Englishman named Eliot Higgins, that has been funded by The Atlantic Council, a think-tank with
deep ties to the U.S. government, NATO, war manufacturers, and their allies, and the National
Endowment for Democracy (NED), another infamous U.S. front organization heavily involved in
so-called color revolution regime change operations all around the world, that has just won the
International Emmy Award for best documentary. The film with the Orwellian title, Bellingcat: Truth in a Post-Truth World, received its Emmy at a recent ceremony in New
York City.
Bellingcat is an alleged group of amateur on-line researchers who have spent years
shilling for the U.S. instigated war against the Syrian government, blaming the Douma chemical
attack and others on the Assad government, and for the anti-Russian propaganda connected to,
among other things, the Skripal poisoning case in England, and the downing of flight MH17 plane
in Ukraine.
It has been lauded by the corporate mainstream media in the west. Its support for
the equally fraudulent White Helmets (also funded by the US and the UK) in Syria has also been
praised by the western corporate media while being dissected as propaganda by many excellent
independent journalists such as Eva Bartlett, Vanessa Beeley, Catte Black, among others. It's
had its work skewered by the likes of Seymour Hersh and MIT professor Theodore Postol, and its
US government connections pointed out by many others, including Ben Norton and Max Blumenthal
at The Gray Zone. And now we have the mainstream media's wall of silence on the leaks from the
Organization for the Prohibition on Chemical Weapons (OPCW) concerning the Douma chemical
attack and the doctoring of their report that led to the illegal U.S. bombing of Syria in the
spring of 2018. Bellingcat was at the forefront of providing justification for such bombing,
and now the journalists Peter Hitchens, Tareq Harrad (who recently resigned from Newsweek after accusing the publication of suppressing his revelations about the OPCW
scandal) and others are fighting an uphill battle to get the truth out.
Yet Bellingcat: Truth in a Post-Truth World won the Emmy , fulfilling Bernays'
point about films being the greatest unconscious carriers of propaganda in the world today.
Who presented the Emmy Award to the film makers, but none other than the rebel journalist
Chris Hedges . Why he did so, I don't know. But that he did so clearly sends a message to those
who follow his work and trust him that it's okay to give a major cultural award to a propaganda
outfit. But then, perhaps he doesn't consider Bellingcat to be that.
Nor, one presumes, does The Intercept , the billionaire Pierre Omidyar owned
publication associated with Glen Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill, and also read by many
progressive-minded people. The Intercept that earlier this year disbanded the small
team that was tasked with reviewing and releasing more of the massive trove of documents they
received from Edward Snowden six years ago, a minute number of which have ever been released or
probably ever will be. As
Whitney Webb pointed out , last year The Intercept hosted a workshop for
Bellingcat. She wrote:
The Intercept , along with its parent company First Look Media, recently
hosted a workshop for pro-war, Google-funded organization Bellingcat in New York. The
workshop, which
cost $2,500 per person to attend and lasted five days, aimed to instruct participants in
how to perform investigations using "open source" tools -- with Bellingcat's past, controversial
investigations for use as case studies Thus, while The Intercept has long
publicly promoted itself as an anti-interventionist and progressive media outlet, it is
becoming clearer that – largely thanks to its ties to Omidyar – it is
increasingly an organization that has more in common with Bellingcat, a group that launders
NATO and U.S. propaganda and disguises it as "independent" and "investigative
journalism."
Then we have Jefferson Morley , the editor of The Deep State, former Washington
Post journalist, and JFK assassination researcher, who has written a praiseworthy review of the
Bellingcat film and who supports Bellingcat. "In my experience, Bellingcat is credible," he
writes in an Alternet article, "Bellingcat
documentary has the pace and plot of a thriller."
Morley has also just written an article for Counterpunch –
"Why the Douma Chemical Attack Wasn't a 'Managed Massacre'" – in which he disputes
the claim that the April 7, 2018 attack in the Damascus suburb was a false flag operation
carried out by Assad's opponents. "I do not see any evidence proving that Douma was a false
flag incident," he writes in this article that is written in a style that leaves one guessing
as to what exactly he is saying. It sounds convincing unless one concentrates, and then his
double messages emerge. Yet it is the kind of article that certain "sophisticated" left-wing
readers might read and feel is insightful. But then Morley, who has written considerably about
the CIA, edits a website that advertises itself as "the thinking person's portal to the world
of secret government," and recently had an exchange with former CIA Director John Brennan where
"Brennan put a friendly finger on my chest," said in February 2017, less than a month after
Trump was sworn in as president, that:
With a docile Republican majority in Congress and a demoralized Democratic Party in
opposition, the leaders of the Deep State are the most -- perhaps the only -- credible check
in Washington on what Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) calls Trump's "
wrecking ball presidency ."
Is it any wonder that some people might be a bit confused?
"I know what you're thinking about," said Tweedledum; "but it isn't so, nohow."
"Contrariwise," continued Tweedledee, "if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it
would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic."
As a final case in point, there is a recent book by Stephen Kinzer , Poisoner in Chief:
Sidney Gottlieb And The CIA Search For Mind Control, t he story of the chemist known as
Dr. Death who ran the CIA's MK-ULTRA mind control project, using LSD, torture, electric shock
therapy, hypnosis, etc.; developed sadistic methods of torture still used in black sites around
the world; and invented various ingenious techniques for assassination, many of which were
aimed at Fidel Castro. Gottlieb was responsible for brutal prison and hospital experiments and
untold death and suffering inflicted on all sorts of innocent people. His work was depraved in
the deepest sense; he worked with Nazis who experimented on Jews despite being Jewish
himself.
Kinzer writes in depth about this man who considered himself a patriot and a spiritual
person – a humane torturer and killer. It is an eye-opening book for anyone who does not
know about Gottlieb, who gave the CIA the essential tools they use in their "organized crime"
activities around the world – in the words of Douglass Valentine, the author of The
CIA as Organized Crime and The Phoenix Program . Kinzer's book is good history on
Gottlieb; however, he doesn't venture into the present activities of the CIA and Gottlieb's
patriotic followers, who no doubt exist and go about their business in secret.
After recounting in detail the sordid history of Gottlieb's secret work that is nauseating
to read about, Kinzer leaves the reader with these strange words:
Gottlieb was not a sadist, but he might well have been . Above all he was an instrument of
history. Understanding him is a deeply disturbing way of understanding ourselves.
What possibly could this mean? Not a sadist? An instrument of history? Understanding
ourselves? These few sentences, dropped out of nowhere, pull the rug out from under what is
generally an illuminating history and what seems like a moral indictment. This language is pure
mystification.
Kinzer also concludes that because Gottlieb said so, the CIA failed in their efforts to
develop methods of mind control and ended MK-ULTRA's experiments long ago. Why would he believe
the word of a man who personified the agency he worked for: a secret liar? He writes,
When Sydney Gottlieb brough MK-ULTRA to its end in the early 1960s, he told his CIA
superiors that he had found no reliable way to wipe away memory, make people abandon their
consciences, or commit crimes and then forget them.
As for those who might think otherwise, Kinzer suggests they have vivid imaginations and are
caught up in conspiracy thinking: "This [convincing others that the CIA had developed methods
of mind control when they hadn't] is Sydney Gottlieb's most unexpected legacy," he asserts. He
says this although Richard Helms, the CIA Director, destroyed all MK-Ultra records. He says
that Allen Dulles, Gottlieb, and Helms themselves were caught up in a complete fantasy about
mind control because they had seen too many movies and read too many books; mind control was
impossible, a failure, a myth, he maintains. It is the stuff of popular culture, entertainment.
In an interview with Chris Hedges, interestingly posted by Jefferson Morley at his website, The Deep State , Hedges agrees with Kinzer. Gottlieb, Dulles, et al. were all deluded.
Mind control was impossible. You couldn't create a Manchurian Candidate; by implication,
someone like Sirhan Sirhan could not have been programmed to be a fake Manchurian Candidate and
to have no memory of what he did, as he claims. He could not have been mind-controlled by the
CIA to perform his part as the seeming assassin of Senator Robert Kennedy while the real killer
shot RFK from behind. People who think like this should get real.
Furthermore, as is so common in books such as Kinzer's, he repeats the canard that JFK and
RFK knew about and pressured the CIA to assassinate Fidel Castro. This is demonstrably false,
as shown by the Church Committee and the Assassinations Record Review Board, among many others.
That Kinzer takes the word of notorious liars like Richard Helms and the top-level CIA
operative Samuel Halpern is simple incredible, something that is hard to consider a mistake.
Slipped into a truth sandwich, it is devoured and passed on. But it is false. Bullshit meant to
deceive.
But this is how these games are played. If you look carefully, you will see them widely.
Inform, enlighten, while throwing in doubletalk and untruths. The small number of people who
read such books and articles will come away knowing some history that has no current relevance
and being misinformed on other history that does. They will then be in the know, ready to pass
their "wisdom" on to those who care to listen. They will not think they are average.
But they will be mind controlled, and the killer cat will roam freely without a bell, ready
to devour the unsuspecting mice.
Edward Curtin is a writer whose work has appeared widely. He teaches sociology at
Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. His website is http://edwardcurtin.com/
What Armstrong fails to connect is the need for the first to be accomplished so that the
second has a chance of complete success: Russia's political-economy needed resuscitating and
strong-arming in the case of the kleptocrats for Russia's condition to be as bright as it is
on the dawn of a new decade 1/5 of the way into the 21st Century.
Armstrong also tarries at length with Putin's 2007 Munich speech wherein Putin made one
very prescient observation: "It is a world in which there is one master, one sovereign. And
at the end of the day this is pernicious not only for all those within this system, but also
for the sovereign itself because it destroys itself from within."
Armstrong uses Putin's observation made after the Outlaw US Empire's failed attempt to
prolong its Unipolar Moment in Iraq after it attacked itself to cause that conlict to show
the self-inflicted damage has yet to stop:
"Do we not see this today? The USA is tearing itself apart over imagined Russian
collusion, imagined Russian electoral interference and real Ukrainian corruption. And,
meanwhile, the forever wars go on and on."
In 2016, I thought there was an excellent chance the D-Party would splinter in a manner
similar to 1860 that was generated by both bottom->up and top->down forces. And in
light of the court decision allowing the DNC to name whomever it wants as its POTUS and VEEP
candidates regardless of both primary and convention balloting, IMO that possibility is even
greater as like 2016 the DNC will not--cannot--anoint Sanders as its POTUS candidate. But all
that's the subject for another comment.
The dynamics of geopolitics has allowed the China/Russia team and its allies to usher the
EU into Eurasian integration over the next decade while exposing the Outlaw US Empire as
nothing but a Ponzi Scheme that will collapse upon itself at some point in time.
"2020 will be a year of milestone significance. We will finish building a moderately
prosperous society in all respects and realize the first centenary goal. 2020 will also be a
year of decisive victory for the elimination of poverty....
"Human history, like a river, runs forever, witnessing both peaceful moments and great
disturbances. We are not afraid of storms and dangers and barriers. China is determined to
walk along the road of peaceful development and will resolutely safeguard world peace and
promote common development. We are willing to join hands with people of all countries in
the world to build together the Belt and Road Initiative, and push forward the building of a
community with a shared future for mankind, and make unremitting efforts for the creation of
a beautiful future for mankind ." [My Emphasis]
Clearly, China has grasped the leadership role abandoned by the Outlaw US Empire for
promoting humanity, Trump and Pompeo's daily actions giving China's position a continual
boost.
Putin's New
Year speech is short but emphasizes his key points. Do note that for Russians the New
Year celebration is akin to the West's Christmas (or perhaps was is the better verb):
"Friends, we always prepare for the New Year in advance and, despite being busy, we
believe that the warmth of human relations and companionship are the most important thing. We
strive to do something important and useful for other people and to help those who require
our support, to make them happy by giving them presents and our attention.
"Such sincere impulses, pure thoughts and selfless generosity are the true magic of the
New Year holiday. It brings out the best in people and transforms the world filling it with
joy and smiles.
"Uplifting New Year's feelings and wonderful impressions have been living in us since
childhood and come back every New Year, when we hug our loved ones, our parents, prepare
surprises for our children and grandchildren, decorate the New Year tree with them and unpack
once again paper cut-outs, baubles and glass garlands. These, sometimes ancient, but beloved
family trinkets give their warmth to the younger generations."
His preamble is nationalist; his message paternalistic and humanist.
IMO, the Scrooges of the Outlaw US Empire's Current Oligarchy haven't a chance versus the
likes of Putin, Xi and their likeminded allies.
I'll leave my fellow barflies with this 32 year-old music video that IMO well
expresses the heart sets of Putin, Xi, and those of us who want to share the world they're
trying to build instead of what the Outlaw US Empire's trying to pull down and destroy.
The central claim is also addressed to white Christian women, particularly married women,
who are assumed to identify their interests with those of their families.
Plain English Foundation has voted freedom gas as the worst word or phrase of 2019.
The term comes from the United States Department of Energy, which rebranded natural gas as
"freedom gas" and boasted about bringing molecules of US freedom to the world.
"When a simple product like natural gas starts being named through partisan politics, we
are entering dangerous terrain," said the Foundation's Executive Director, Dr Neil James.
"Why can't natural gas just remain natural gas?"
Each year, Plain English Foundation gathers dozens of examples of the worst words to
highlight the importance of clear and ethical public language.
The full list of 2019's worst words and phrases follows.
The Last but not LeastTechnology is dominated by
two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage and those who manage what they do not understand ~Archibald Putt.
Ph.D
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January 20, 2020 © Photo: Wikimedia The New York Times caused a mini-commotion last week with a front-page story suggesting that Russian intelligence had hacked a Ukrainian energy firm known as Burisma Holdings in order to get dirt on Joe Biden and help Donald Trump win re-election.
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A new policy issued by the United States Department of Defense, in conjunction with online platforms like Twitter and Facebook, will automatically enlist you to fight in a foreign war if you post your support for attacking another country.
