Sunday, December 24, 2017

THE LOW DOWN ON HIGHS

(Counter Punch.org)

"We can all laugh at the ridiculous claims of anti-drug warriors who scorned facts for scare tactics in their efforts to paint Marijuana as the “devil’s weed” over the last century. “Reefer Madness” has become a complete joke for good reason.

As a “good leftist,” I feel like I’m supposed to reject the anti-marijuana propaganda of the prohibitionists (no problem – done) but accept without qualification the claims of its proponents that use of the plant ranges from totally harmless to magnificently beneficial. That’s where I’m skeptical, in part from my own personal experiences with the plant over the last thirty years.

I am willing to believe that in earlier decades, marijuana’s potential for personal mind expansion and social radicalization was real. Many, many people thought so, including luminaries like Carl Sagan, who said: “The illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world.”

But Sagan died in 1996 and I think it’s reasonable to ask if it’s the same drug it was then."

Thursday, December 21, 2017


(Naked Capitalism.com)

"I never thought I’d be the target of an NPR attack piece. Through my twenties I even looked to NPR as an outlet full of good, progressive, thoughtful reporting – You know, the soothing voices occasionally interrupted by music no one really listens to but that sounds good between soft-spoken ivy league journalists over the age of 50.  Everything about NPR subtly reinforced the idea, “Everything is fine. You’re probably a middle to upper class white person or you hope to be one day, and that’s just great. Everything is fine.” They might not SAY that, but they say that. And for a long time, I was cool with that message.

Then I woke up."

Thursday, December 14, 2017

POWER TO THE PEOPLE, FOR A CHANGE

(Gabriel Rockhill at Counter Punch)

"Rather than blindly believing in a golden age of democracy in order to remain at all costs within the gilded cage of an ideology produced specifically for us by the well-paid spin-doctors of a plutocratic oligarchy, we should unlock the gates of history and meticulously scrutinize the founding and evolution of the American imperial republic."

Monday, December 11, 2017

THE PEASANTS ARE REVOLTING

What we need is a good old fashion peasant revolt, but the corporate zombie machine isn't feeding our brains, they're just keeping us off the street.

(Paul Street - Truthdig.com)

"Adding authoritarian insult to plutocratic injury, the Senate tax bill was rammed through the upper chamber with brutal speed and barely a speck of public input. As John Cassidy notes in The New Yorker, “the process … [has] … been a travesty of the legislative process. … [T]here have been no public hearings, and the measure is being rushed through in a few weeks, with virtually no transparency.”
MONEY TO BURN

(Truth-Out.org)

"The US economy is caught in a trap. That trap is the Department of Defense: an increasingly sticky wicket that relies on an annual, trillion-dollar redistribution of government-collected wealth. In fact, it's the biggest "big government" program on the planet, easily beating out China's People's Liberation Army in both size and cost. It is not only the "nation's largest employer," with 2.867 million people currently on the payroll, but it also provides government benefits to 2 million retirees and their family members. And it actively picks private sector winners by targeting billions of dollars to an elite group of profit-seeking contractors.

The top five overall recipients collectively pulled in $109.5 billion in FY2016, and their cohorts consistently dominate the government's list of top 100 contractors. They reap this yearly largesse through a Rube-Goldberg-like system of influence peddlers, revolving doors and wasteful taxpayer-funded boondoggles. Finally, it is all justified by a deadly feedback loop of perpetual warfare that is predicated on a predictable supply of blowback.

But this belligerent cash machine doesn't just produce haphazard interventions and shady partnerships with a motley assortment of strongmen, proxies and frenemies. It also has Uncle Sam caught in a strange cycle of taxpayer-funded dependence that may ultimately be the most expensive -- and least productive -- jobs program in human history."
RALPH NADER RADIO HOUR


"Ralph and Washington Post columnist, E.J. Dionne debate the distinction between “Progressive” and “Liberal,” and Original Nader’s Raider, Robert Fellmeth tells us why he thinks speech on the Internet should not be anonymous."

Friday, December 8, 2017

CUBAN MIS-SELL CRISIS

A wee bit of humor helps the shit go down.

(Redacted Tonight Dec 2, 2017 Show)

Wednesday, December 6, 2017

MOURNING BAG

"THESE are the times that try men's souls."
- Thomas Paine -

 I'm putting on my news blackout bag.

Keeping up with all the myriad daily atrocities is impossible and trying to keep up eventually becomes a downer.

Many of the links found on this page are to people fighting the good fight, sometimes by shining a light on the perpetrators of the atrocities that weigh down anyone of good conscience. Please check them out.

After a break I'll be ready to put on my Talking Bag again.

* * * * * *

(Ralph Nader Radio Hour)

Chris Hedges on the American Empire’s Descent Into Dystopia
(Truthdig.com Video)

Sunday, November 19, 2017

CHRIS HEDGES - ON CONTACT

(On Contact Interview)

"Stuart Ewen is Professor and Chair of the Department of Film & Media at Hunter College and author of “Captains of Consciousness: Advertising and the Social Roots of the Consumer Culture.” Professor Ewen joins Chris Hedges for a conversation on the power of mass propaganda. RT Correspondent Anya Parampil looks at the influence of the public relations industry."
RUSSIAN BOOGIE MEN

(The Real News.com)

"The U.S. government's forced designation of RT America as a "foreign agent" is part of a dangerous effort to brand dissenting views as "Russian disinformation," says The Nation's Katrina vanden Heuvel."

(RT Show - Redacted Tonight)

"The Department of Justice ordered RT to register as a foreign agent, yet refuses to cite what laws were broken. Furthermore, the government has done nothing to demonstrate how RT journalists are taking orders from the Kremlin or that RT employees have lobbied Congress on behalf of the Russian government, which is required by law. This move is clearly political since ACTUAL foreign lobbyists like the Podesta Group and AIPAC were not threatened with arrests and a test case for a wider campaign of media suppression. The fact is the political establishment is scared to death that more and more of us are abandoning its corporate media, and doesn't want us hearing outside perspectives."
* * * * * * * * 
If you want to see what folks outside the mainstream box are saying:

Sunday, November 12, 2017

CORPORATE WELFARE STATE

(by Peter Certo - Counter Punch.org)

"If the tax giveaway doesn’t pass, adds Utah Republican Mike Lee, “We might as well pack up our tent and go home.”

The thing is, that doesn’t make any sense. Gallup polls have shown over and over that most Americans think rich people and corporations should pay more, not less. Even a majority of Republican voters worry about what this wealth grab will do to the deficit.

If they were looking for a win, then, Republicans would be running against their own plan. So what gives?

Well, New York Republican Chris Collins recently offered a clue: “My donors are basically saying, ‘Get it done or don’t ever call me again.’” 
Ah!"
QUESTION EVERYTHING

(by Edward Curtin - Counter Punch.org )

"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."

Sunday, November 5, 2017


During his interview with Greg Palast, Jimmy Dore wonders why Democrats don't call foul when elections are obviously stolen. I think it's because, just like Republicans, they don't want power in the hands of the people. It doesn't serve the oligarchs if we prove they rig our elections. And the sell-outs in corporate media just play along.

Legitimate democracy would fundamentally change life in the United States of American. If enough people would realize that we might...might be able to elect less shitty assholes to public office. But the political carnivals that are sold to us as elections keep charlatans in office. Congress is full of carny folk whose greatest skill is stealing tax dollars for crony capitalists. Dollars collected for the public good is funneled upward to line the pockets of corporate billionaires and their stooges.

Before you throw the bullshit flag watch the interview below, then watch Palast's movie, then followup by tracking down the many news articles that back him up.

(YouTube.com)
Published on Oct 25, 2017
"Greg Palast discusses the theft of the 2016 election with "Aggressive Progressive" comedian Jimmy Dore. Find out how Trump's billionaire buddies stole the White House, get the brand new, post-election edition of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy."

P.S. Some news.

"Republicans prevented more than 350,000 voters in Ohio from casting ballots or having their votes counted -- enough to have put John Kerry in the White House."

"Now, the actual effect of the recount is obviously something of a side issue when assessing the actions of the Court. Nobody knew the outcome of the recount, only that it threatened to make Al Gore president, and stopping it would guarantee Bush’s victory."

P.P.S. Why no Obama?

These tactics work because our two party system keeps votes virtually split down the middle. They just need to jigger things a bit to decide who gets to be president. The Democratic and Republican balance is so finely tuned that the powers that be love it. Obama had a commanding lead so stealing the election was too difficult, but it didn't matter because he was a cooperative member of the establishment. He did not rock the boat. Imperial America stayed on its disastrous course.

P.P.S. The only green in American politics is money.

Jill Stein was willing to pay for a recount in key states following the 2016 election. This might have verified results or it may have revealed irregularities or even fraud. A recount could only have served public interest, but it was aggressively fought and eventually denied by the establishment. Stein was not attempting to gain by the recount, it could only have served Clinton or Trump, but exposing the sorry state of our voting apparatus could not be allowed.

Recount Update: October 17, 2017
(Jill2016.com)

Friday, November 3, 2017

FOG NEWS

The news is screwing us. There are so many ways to acquire information these days, but just as many ways to be conned and manipulated.

Talking Bag is seriously considering another mental health news blackout, but there are reasonable voices out there:

(On Contact)

"Robert Scheer – the Editor-in-Chief of Truthdig, and author of 'They Know Everything About You: How Data-Collecting Corporations and Snooping Government Agencies Are Destroying Democracy' – discusses the New MaCartheyism underway to silence the left-wing press. RT correspondent Anya Parampil looks at the apparent efforts to marginalize online left-wing journalists."

* * * * * * * 

The U.S. hysteria regarding claims that Russia influenced the 2016 election is ridiculous on its face. As if ads on social media are the most dangerous game changer, if without evidence you believe the Russian government posted ads to change the game. How about worrying about how much damage is caused by the reporting on all the major news outlets, Fox being the worst of a sad lot. How about considering election irregularities and voting machine integrity? How about wondering why third party candidates are given short shrift, while the Duopoly gets round the clock coverage. We rigged our own system, not the Ruskies.

The mainstream media and their comedy shows, what passes for real news these days, are tools for the establishment, propaganda that makes you laugh. Regular news programs are propaganda that isn't even funny. 

I heard a few minutes of NPR while driving this week, it drove me crazy. Here's a taste:

After David Green announces that interest in a third party is currently at the highest level ever recorded in a poll, 61%, indicating that the majority of Americans want alternatives to Democrats and Republicans, he discusses our political party system with Cokie Roberts (a career journalist from a privileged family, not an historian).

(Morning Edition)

She of course said nothing substantive. She mentioned that Washington didn't belong to a party, but didn't mention that he was one of the richest men in the colonies and by far the wealthiest president, well...before Trump. Money in politics and an American aristocracy started pretty early.

Cokie said nothing about the legal and illegal suppression of votes, or the suppression of participation in democracy from individuals and organizations outside of the two party system. There is a lot of dirt out there proving that the Rs and Ds crush outsiders using a host of dirty tricks, not just making it very hard to get on a ballot.

She might have said something about the poor ranking the U.S. has compared to other democracies around the world, or that corporations usurped control of the presidential debates that used to be run more fairly by the League of Women Voters, or she might have voiced concern about Citizens United and how political action committees with virtually unlimited funds use propaganda to manipulate public opinion.

She might have said a lot of things, but no, kooky Cokie talked sweetly about irrelevancies before concluding:

"...the main impact of third-party candidates, is to influence an election, not to win it."

Wow! Amazing that we have a democracy where 61% of the electorate can't effect change!

Part of the reason may be that news services serve their masters, not the general population, even when they purport to be public institutions. Check out this piece questioning PBS:

(YouTube.com)

Published on Sep 2, 2016
A Jill Stein interview on PBS with Judy Woodruff was heavily edited to remove portions where she spoke about Hillary's pro-corporate and pro-fracking ties. The full interview was livestreamed but the posted video had the edits. Youtuber Matt Orfalea noticed the discrepancy and made a video detailing the edits. His post went viral but was removed by Facebook.

Monday, October 30, 2017


"Venezuela’s socialist experiment, which seeks to reduce the country’s extreme income equality and alleviate widespread poverty, has upset U.S. policymakers who now have new hopes for regime change, as Dennis J Bernstein explains."
(Consortium News.com)

"The international media was quick to report on potential fraud in Venezuela's regional elections, in which the ruling socialist party won a majority of governorships. But there isn't any evidence of massive fraud, says Alex Main from the Center for Economic and Policy Research."
(The Real News.com video)

"The Governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela won 17 out of 23 governor races in Sunday's regional vote, prompting the opposition to claim fraud once again, without evidence. Lucas Koerner of Venezuelanlaysis.com analyzes the situation."
(The Real News.com video)
BANKSTERS STRIKE AGAIN!

(The Real News.com)

"The Senate voted 51-50 to repeal a rule that would have made it easier for consumers to sue the financial institutions that defraud them. The move is "outrageous," says white-collar criminologist Bill Black. "It should be a national scandal, and require resignations in disgrace."
401 KLUSTER FUCK

A wonky fight brewing over specific rules of the 401(k) system is a shiny distraction from the real action on retirement security.
(Think Progress.org)

"But zeroing in on Trump’s sparring with his colleagues misses the larger point of the nation’s retirement crisis. The blooming fight over the specific rules governing 401(k) savings mechanisms is an act of political sleight-of-hand. The mechanism itself is toxic to working-class economic security. If policymakers are truly interested in “fixing” the 401(k) system – unlikely, as Republican lawmakers are mostly worried about balancing out the cost of their preferred policy of giving rich people more money so that their tax bill won’t look like the debt-hemmorhage it is – their path is far simpler: Kill the 401(k) and bring back the traditional pension.

While retirement savings crises and their policy remedies are treated as a wonky, jumbled thing in most media coverage, the core story of what’s happened to working people’s ability to retire is simple. This is what kleptocracy looks like:..."

(NBC News.com broadcast clip)
I PREFER REDWOODS TO DEADWOODS

(Truth-out.org)

"Darren Frederick Speece's Defending Giants: The Redwood Wars and the Transformation of American Environmental Politics (University of Washington Press, 2017) is a dense, substantial book (not for the faint of heart), yet every bit worth the effort needed to get through it to the end. A "good read," it is itself something of an endangered species, to wit eloquent, inspiring, eminently readable nonfiction with precious lessons for those fighting the ever-greater environmental destruction wrought by corporate greed."
SHILLERY

(Consortiumnews.com)

"Wading through the Clinton book, What Happened, is an unpleasant experience, like a stomach upset. Smears and tears. Threats and enemies. “They” (voters) were brainwashed and herded against her by the odious Donald Trump in cahoots with sinister Slavs sent from the great darkness known as Russia, assisted by an Australian “nihilist,” Julian Assange."
TRUMP'S EPA DOA

(The Washington Post)

As the polluter in chief spends tax payer money to help hide his criminal activity as head of the EPA, there's this...

(APNews.com)

"Environmental pollution — from filthy air to contaminated water — is killing more people every year than all war and violence in the world. More than smoking, hunger or natural disasters. More than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined."
WHY NOT SOCIALISM?

Capitalism seems to be working out for a very few, perhaps it's time that our government worked for the vast majority. Socialism can be governance by and for the people, unlike the corrupt crony administration currently in office in the U.S. So called representatives consistantly make decisions that serve corporations and the very rich, at the expense of the struggling and the very poor. Our broken democracy is an oligarchy, an extremely unjust sham.

Socialism, like Medicare for all, free public education, and the right to seek redress against corporate fraud, sounds a lot better than handing out trillions to defense contractors and banksters.

Socialism can be governance by and for the people, designed and controlled by the ballot box. It is feared because we have learned the lessons taught to us by our overlords. Lying is the lesson they were taught. Break out of the chains forged by fascist capitalists and corporate oligarchs.

(Counter Punch.org)

"Socialism a century ago seemed to be the wave of the future. There were various schools of socialism, but the common ideal was to guarantee support for basic needs, and for state ownership to free society from landlords, predatory banking and monopolies. In the West these hopes are now much further away than they seemed in 1917. Land and natural resources, basic infrastructure monopolies, health care and pensions have been increasingly privatized and financialized.

Instead of Germany and other advanced industrial nations leading the way as expected, Russia’s October 1917 Revolution made the greatest leap. But the failures of Stalinism became an argument against Marxism – guilt-by-association with Soviet bureaucracy. European parties calling themselves socialist or “labour” since the 1980s have supported neoliberal policies that are the opposite of socialist policy. Russia itself has chosen neoliberalism.

Few socialist parties or theorists have dealt with the rise of the Finance, Insurance and Real Estate (FIRE) sector that now accounts for most increase in wealth. Instead of evolving into socialism, Western capitalism is being overcome by predatory finance and rent extraction imposing debt deflation and austerity on industry as well as on labor."


DON'T CARE-OLINA

(Salon.com)

"Republicans in North Carolina hold a strong grip on the state legislature and have sought to limit the powers of the Democratic governor, as well as institute strict voting laws, presumably to prevent further Democratic wins at the ballot box. But after several recent rejections in the courts, the GOP in the Tar Heel state has shifted its agenda to seize control of the judiciary."
* * * * * 
With Gerrymandering, Republicans Have a Starting-Line Advantage of 10 Percent
(Truth-out.org interview)

"Janine Jackson: We are definitely in challenging times, but it's useful to remember that it isn't that Americans per se are opposed to gun control, human rights for LGBTQ people, or affordable healthcare. At the same time, it's painful to remember why it appears that we are. It's because, as a recent piece by Neal Gabler for BillMoyers.com reminds us, we don't have a working democracy where every voice is heard: A minority of people have outsized power.

One of the reasons for that is being considered right now in the Supreme Court. Recalled by many of us as an old-timey graphic in middle school textbooks, the term "gerrymander" refers to the drawing of political districts in such a way as to benefit a particular party. The case Gill v. Whitford is focused on Wisconsin, where in 2012 Republicans won just 48.6 percent of the statewide vote, but captured 60 out of 99 seats in the state assembly.

Here to help us see what's going on and what's at stake is Steven Rosenfeld. He covers national political issues for AlterNet, and he's author of a number of books, including the forthcoming Inside Job: How American Elections Are Still Rigged Against Voters. He joins us now by phone from San Francisco. Welcome to CounterSpin, Steven Rosenfeld."
BATTLECAR WARS

(The Guardian.com)

“Car companies are finally realising that what they sell is just a big computer you sit in,” says Kevin Tighe, a senior systems engineer at the security testing firm Bugcrowd."

Monday, October 16, 2017

BY MR FISH @ TRUTHDIG

(ConsortiumNews.com)

"The mainstream media’s hysteria over “fake news” is aimed less at the few instances of intentionally fabricated stories than at well-reported articles that challenge the U.S. government’s dubious official narratives,
says David P. Hamilton."
BANKSTERS, INC

(Truth-out.org)

"Neoliberalism makes the lower and middle classes poorer, empowers people like Trump and makes the world less safe. But what is it, and who is responsible? This article is excerpted from President Trump, Inc.
(2017, Clairview Books)."
THOM HARTMANN

(Alternate.org)

"They wrote that we still have the “features” of democracy like elections, but ended their paper with this cautionary note: “[W]e believe that if policymaking is dominated by powerful business organizations and a small number of affluent Americans, then America’s claims to being a democratic society are seriously threatened.”

Sunday, October 15, 2017

DOD CON ARTISTS ARE PROS

(Tom Dispatch.com)

The Scandal of Pentagon Spending:

Your Tax Dollars Support Troops of Defense Contractor CEOs

by William D. Hurtung
______________________________
"Here’s a question for you: How do you spell boondoggle?

The answer (in case you didn’t already know): P-e-n-t-a-g-o-n.

Hawks on Capitol Hill and in the U.S. military routinely justify increases in the Defense Department's already munificent budget by arguing that yet more money is needed to “support the troops.”  If you’re already nodding in agreement, let me explain just where a huge chunk of the Pentagon budget -- hundreds of billions of dollars -- really goes.  Keep in mind that it’s your money we’re talking about.
The answer couldn’t be more straightforward: it goes directly to private corporations and much of it is then wasted on useless overhead, fat executive salaries, and startling (yet commonplace) cost overruns on weapons systems and other military hardware that, in the end, won’t even perform as promised.  Too often the result isweapons that aren’t needed at prices we can’t afford.  If anyone truly wanted to help the troops, loosening the corporate grip on the Pentagon budget would be an excellent place to start."

Thursday, October 12, 2017


(Truthdig.com)

"If “What Happened” and their timid inaction are any indicator, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and Al Gore still don’t get it. That they opened the door for Donald Trump will be their most profound collective legacy."

Tuesday, October 10, 2017

RALPH NADER

(blog.nader.org)

"Some fundamental questions are: Will we as citizens use our Constitutional authority to reclaim and redirect the power we’ve too broadly delegated to elected officials? Will we hold these officials accountable through a reformed campaign finance system that serves the people over the plutocrats? Will we realize that a better society starts with just a few people in each electoral district and never requires more than one percent of the voters, organized and reflecting public opinion, to make the corporations our servants, not our masters?"
MORE COMMIE COMEDY
(NY Times)

I usually just delete my daily spam from the New York Times, but this headline seemed like such BS I glanced at the article. So, the Ruskies ingeniously reshape our politics by exploiting our palpable political divide, without having to generate their own material. Simply repeating divisive American talking points put them in the driver's seat. Holy shit! I hope the American Networks don't figure this out.

(ConsortiumNews.com)



(Christopher Koch - Counter Punch)

"There is so much to love about this series. The uncompromising scenes of combat, the voices of both Americans and Vietnamese, the historical context, the exposure of the utter incompetence of our military leaders, the terrific music that is frequently exactly where it should be, the slowly revealed powerful still images and Peter Coyotes’ wonderful narrative voice. Its tragic failure is its inability to hold anyone responsible for their actions."

Monday, October 9, 2017


Roger Waters - US + THEM Tour
Live from Zócalo Square - Mexico City
October 1, 2016

(DemocracyNow! interview)

Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters: US escalation around the world 'desperately dangerous'
(RT on Youtube interview)

"Rock legend Roger Waters speaks to RT America in a wide-ranging interview. In addition to discussing President Donald Trump, ongoing tensions between the US and Russia, and the Israel lobby, Waters called out Radiohead’s Thom Yorke for refusing to participate in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestinian rights"

FROM THE ARCHIVE

Why math will doom silly humans to oblivion.
**************************************

Arithmetic, Population and Energy (Lecture)
(Top Documentary Films video)

"Professor Bartlett has given his celebrated one-hour lecture, Arithmetic, Population and Energy: Sustainability 101 over 1,600 times to audiences with an average attendance of 80 in the United States and world-wide. His audiences have ranged from junior high school and college students to corporate executives and scientists, and to congressional staffs.

He first gave the talk in September, 1969, and subsequently has presented it an average of once every 8.5 days for 36 years. His talk is based on his paper, Forgotten Fundamentals of the Energy Crisis, originally published in the American Journal of Physics, and revised in the Journal of Geological Education.
Professor Al Bartlett begins his one-hour talk with the statement, The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function.
He then gives a basic introduction to the arithmetic of steady growth, including an explanation of the concept of doubling time. He explains the impact of unending steady growth on the population of Boulder, of Colorado, and of the world.
He then examines the consequences steady growth in a finite environment and observes this growth as applied to fossil fuel consumption, the lifetimes of which are much shorter than the optimistic figures most often quoted.
He proceeds to examine oddly reassuring statements from experts, the media and political leaders - statements that are dramatically inconsistent with the facts. He discusses the widespread worship of economic growth and population growth in western society."

Thursday, October 5, 2017

COMMIE COMEDY

We are so easily distracted by anything that blink's red. Russia is being used as a goat to deflect attention away from our own asses. We don't need help rigging elections, we've been doing just fine on our own for a long time.


(Glenn Greenwald at The Intercept)
"They were one small step away from demanding that the election results be nullified, indulging the sentiment expressed by #Resistance icon Carl Reiner the other day: “Is there anything more exciting that [sic] the possibility of Trump’s election being invalidated & Hillary rightfully installed as our President?”
So what was wrong with this story? Just one small thing: it was false. The story began to fall apart yesterday when Associated Press reported that Wisconsin – one of the states included in the original report that, for obvious reasons, caused the most excitement – did not, in fact, have its election systems targeted by Russian hackers:..."

(The Real News.com)
"AARON MATÉ: Just to explain that, Max is quoting there from a video from the newly-formed Committee to Investigate Russia that brings together Hollywood liberals like Rob Reiner and Morgan Freeman with neocons, and Morgan Freeman starred in the advertisement, and Max, to quote Max, Max called it, "Morgan Freeman's worst role since Driving Miss Daisy."
MAX BLUMENTHAL: Yeah, and you know, the chaos narrative operates on the premise that American news audiences don't, or social media consumers don't have agency, so they're easily duped. That anything racially related spreads racial division, especially if it promotes black civil rights. It operates on the premise that whatever is left of American democracy is too weak to resist something like 3000 supposedly Russian Facebook ads. It operates on the premise that these ads were actually taken out by Russian operatives from the Kremlin, from the Federal Security Bureau or GRU, the military intelligence network. There's no proof of that. 
Before I get to the question of evidence, it's important to go back to the statistics I was citing that Facebook released. According to Facebook, again, 56% of the ads appeared after the election, and 25% of these 3000 ads they provided to the Intelligence Committee were never seen by anyone. At best, we have about 1000 ads that appeared before the election that were supposedly seen by someone. Now, let's stack that up. Oh, and then most of the ads appeared or were directed at social media consumers in non-swing states, so you could take the swing state ads and stack that up against billions of dollars in advertising from both presidential candidates, and the fact that Hillary Clinton didn't even campaign in Wisconsin in the critical days.
CNN just dropped another piece. Dylan Byers was on the byline. It was obviously filtered out by the House or Senate Intelligence Committee, and it said that Russia ran Facebook ads specifically targeting Wisconsin and Michigan. Didn't say when, didn't say what the ads were, and I don't think they could even establish that they were before the election, but by doing that, and it was clearly done by the Democratic side on the Intelligence Committee, they were trying to explain away Hillary Clinton's defeat, and this is the shabbiest, most pathetic attempt. Russian Facebook ads was trending on Twitter last night because the Hillary bots were all latching onto this idea that Facebook ads had swung the election for Trump, and not the fact that Hillary Clinton didn't campaign in these two critical states and ran the worst campaign in history. You actually saw her spokesman Brian Fallon, who is the flak for this historic failure, blaming the Las Vegas massacre, on Twitter, on Russia, because there was a meeting between an NRA official and a Russian official in 2015.
AARON MATÉ: Max, I'll read that tweet. This is Brian Fallon. He was the national spokesperson for the 2016 Clinton campaign, and he tweets out a link to an article about that meeting that Max just mentioned, and he says, "The NRA spent $30 million to elect Trump, standing by him after other GOP groups left him. Why? The answer may be in Moscow." He's suggesting that, as other Republicans were abandoning Trump during the campaign, the NRA stood by him, and that is due possibly to the Kremlin's influence. Again, this is the national spokesperson for Hillary Clinton. Max, we'll come back you, but I want to go back to Baynard, who's at that Senate briefing. Baynard, you were there with a lot of journalists. What's your impression of their level of credulity when it comes to this, as Max has just been pointing out, a story with a lot of holes in it. What was your impression of how seriously they're taking this issue?"

Wednesday, October 4, 2017

BILL BLACK ON EQUIFAX HACK

(The Real News.com)

"Economist Bill Black says he's skeptical that either Equifax or its former CEO Richard Smith will be held accountable for the breach that affected an estimated 145.5 million people."

Friday, September 29, 2017

Monday, September 25, 2017

WISDOM FROM THE FUNDITS*
(*FUNNY PUNDITS)

(RT.com)

"Lee sits down with Jimmy Dore, political comedian and host of the “Jimmy Dore Show," to talk the viability of the of the Draft Bernie movement and the fraudulent Democrats. As the Democrats make their move to the center and give nothing but lip service to the progressive left, what should we do to make sure that the Bernie Sanders progressive movement doesn't die? The two also discuss how political content is being suppressed on digital media platforms like Facebook and YouTube. In the second half, Lee covers Steve Bannon’s tell-all interview with 60 minutes."

Saturday, September 23, 2017


(Truth-out.org) 

"Many are concluding that insurers actually add costs to the system and make US businesses less competitive in an increasingly global marketplace."

Thursday, September 21, 2017

WEALTHCARE SHILLS

"As Republicans attempt a last-ditch repeal of Obamacare, Democrats have joined them to overwhelmingly pass massive spending on the military and war.

We speak to economist Dean Baker."

(The Real News.com)

"AARON MATÉ: Now, while Republicans and Democrats spar over healthcare spending, they did agree this week on another very big expense. On Monday, the Senate overwhelmingly passed a measure that would spend more than $700 billion on the military. That's about $61 billion more than President Trump even asked for in his record-setting request a few months ago. The Senate vote was 89 to 9."

"Senator Lindsey Graham says, "Hell no to Berniecare" as his bill takes aim."

Senate Republicans Aren't Just Aiming to Destroy Obamacare and Medicaid; They Want to Provide a Death Blow to Any Future Health Care Reform
(Alternate.org)

SO MUCH FOR STATES’ RIGHTS — 
GOP SENATOR WANTS TO BAN STATE SINGLE PAYER IN NEW HEALTH CARE BILL
(The Intercept.com)

P.S.

New Rule: Liberal States' Rights | 
Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)
(YouTube.com video)