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.