Monday, December 30, 2024

POX AMERICANA


Secret CIA report on Syria reveals US plan to overthrow Assad government... in 1986!

(Geopolitical Economy Report on YouTube)
December 30, 2024

"The United States spent decades trying to overthrow the Syrian government, before succeeding in 2024. A declassified CIA document from 1986 outlined US plans for regime change. The blueprint was almost exactly what happened in the proxy war that started in 2011."

* * * * *

A pox o' Pax Americana!

ENDURING TRAUMA


Enduring the Trauma of Genocide
Chris Hedges with Gabor Maté
(The Chris Hedges Report on YouTube)
December 13, 2024

* * * * *

This conversation is worth considering. It illustrates the capacity for human beings to reason. Reasonable people advocate for compassion. Compassion is the path toward peace and well-being.

Sadly, such people do not represent our ruling class and our ruling class doesn't represent most of us. Throughout recorded history the richest and most powerful are the most repugnant and pathological.

If you are happy these days you are either enjoying the fruits of your avarice or not paying attention.

The obsession to accumulate is annihilating us all.

Sunday, December 29, 2024

REASON IN THE SEASON?

(The Chris Hedges YouTube Channel)

with Rev. Munther Isaac
(The Chris Hedges Report on YouTube)

"Rev. Munther Isaac, the pastor at the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem and the Lutheran Church in Beit Sahour, joins host Chris Hedges on this special episode of The Chris Hedges Report to revisit the story of Christmas and how it relates to Palestine then and now."

 
* * * * *
P.S.

For Christ's sake stop slaughtering innocent people around the world!

Consider giving peace a chance by thinking instead of just believing.
 
Happy New Year

Wednesday, December 18, 2024

DRONING ON, & ON, & ON...


 Look! Up in the sky! Is it Stupid Man?

Drone usage in the ‘Global War on Terror’: The need for Justice and Accountability for Afghans
(Kaitlin Kaye article at United Against Inhumanity)
January 19, 2022

"Since the United States’ (US) Reaper drone strike in Kabul on August 29th 2021, multiple moral, legal, and ethical questions have once again come to the fore of the international conversation regarding the use of drones in warfare. This strike by the US military was later confirmed to have not killed the intended ISIS target, but Mr. Ahmadi, a longtime worker for a US aid group and many of his family members. The US military initially claimed the attack may have killed three civilians, but a few weeks later, the New York Times reported that the attack killed ten civilians, including seven children. This was not the first incident of wrongful targeting and false reporting of the fatalities by the US during its occupation of Afghanistan. Wrongful killings have occurred usually using airstrikes and drones, which have had a disastrous effect on Afghan civilians, as documented by the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA)..."

* * * * *

Empires adapt their methods of control and oppression as they learn to perfect the acquisition of territory and influence. The lessons they learn and the methods they employ "over there" inevitably get turned upon their own citizens. As the mask slips off the face of U.S. imperialism and control of the narrative becomes more difficult to maintain, suppression of free discourse and the right to dissent are curtailed.

The militarization of the police is a clear sign the ruling class is afraid of upcoming societal unrest. The use of drones to terrorize our "enemies" overseas are no doubt being considered another means to surveil, terrorize, and potentially eliminate dissent here at home. Whatever specific mission the plague of drones over America are on now, they are just a taste of our future.

CALLIN' A SPUD A SPUD

Ignoring is enabling.


Susan Abulhawa Gives EPIC Speech Against Israel, Lily Greenberg Call & Harrison Mann On RESIGNING
(Katie Halper on YouTube)
December 17, 2024

"Palestinian writer ("Mornings in Jenin") and activist Susan Abulhawa discusses Israel's latest crimes as well as the Oxford Union debate in which she participated on whether "Israel is an apartheid state responsible for genocide." Susan and Katie will show and discuss the portions of Susan's truly epic speech that Oxford censored. Then Katie is joined by Lily Greenberg Call, a former special assistant to the chief of staff at the Department of Interior and the first Jewish political appointee to resign from the Biden administration in protest of U.S. policy in Gaza and Harrison Mann, a former US army major and executive officer of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) Middle East/Africa Regional Center who also resigned in protest of his office’s support for Israel during its Gaza campaign."

* * * * *

Malcolm X. Oxford Union Debate
December 3, 1964
(avereos on YouTube)

* * * * *

James Baldwin v. William F. Buckley | Legendary Debate
February 18, 1965
(ReelBlack One on YouTube)

James Baldwin debates William F. Buckley at the Cambridge University's Union Hall on February 18, 1965.

Without empathy anything can happen and often does.

Tuesday, December 10, 2024

WEIRD WAR THREE


Rebranded Al-Qaeda takes over Syria in big win for US, Israel, & Turkey
(Geopolitical Economy Report on YouTube)
December 9, 2024

"The Syrian government was overthrown, and Salafi-jihadist rebels led by a rebranded version of Al-Qaeda called Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) took power in Damascus. US President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu boasted of helping topple Bashar al-Assad. NATO member Turkey played a key role as well. Ben Norton explains how the West dealt a major blow to the Axis of Resistance and Iran."

* * * * *

If you're short on time, please click this link (41:41 time stamp) to be reminded of the U.S.A.'s long term strategy to have complete control of the Middle East. While proud American's fear a new Russian empire without a shred of evidence that such a thing is even under consideration, the war hawks in Washington are managing an actual empire, waging brutal wars in their attempt to control the world's riches and resources.

Rebranded Al-Qaeda takes over Syria... (41:41)
41:41 Iran: the ultimate US target
42:45 (CLIP) Wesley Clark: US planned to topple 7 governments
43:38 US collapsed 6 of 7 states on regime-change list
44:34 Will US war on Iran be next?
46:24 Outro

* * * * *

The disastrous "War on Terror" has killed millions, cost trillions, spread chaos and instability world-wide and, as we witness the beginning of WWIII, has by no metric made the Earth a safer place. Please consider just a few examples of this American-Made ongoing global shit show.

A 20-year "conflict" with the Taliban has left a country destroyed and the bad guys in charge.

The War in Afghanistan Is a Fraud (and Now We Have Proof)
(Lee Camp article at MintPress News)

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

The U.S.A. managed to turn the most prosperous nation in Africa into a failed state with slave markets.

Yazidi Slave Markets Just the Latest Atrocity in the Syrian Conflict
( Gayle Tzemach Lemmon article at the Council on Foreign Relations)

Clinton on Qaddafi: "We came, we saw, he died!"
(CBS News on YouTube)

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

And finally back to Syria, the U.S.A. has literally handed over Syria to a notorious terrorist as it facilitates a genocide in the region (see above video). 

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

P.S.

We're all cursed by these interesting times.

Saturday, December 7, 2024

HYSTERICAL PRESIDENT


 Hutter - Biden

Rare historical footage of Pete Hutter, an unconfirmed Biden ancestor, establishing the unprecedented family tradition of unaccountability.

Thursday, December 5, 2024

SKULDIGGERY

Everyday I Witness Man's Inhumanity to Man... and Women, Children, Animals, Jungles...
Hold On, is Killing What Humans Do Best?

Blinken Is Pushing For Ukrainian Teens To Die For US Hegemony

"You won’t see anyone in Tony Blinken’s family headed to the frontlines in Ukraine. These freaks see the population of this planet as nothing more than pawns on their grand chessboard, and they will sacrifice them just as casually."

(Caitlin Johnstone)
December 5, 2024

"US Secretary of State Antony Blinken repeated the US government’s new position that Ukraine needs to start sending 18 to 25 year-olds to fight in its war with Russia, telling Reuters on Monday that “getting younger people into the fight, we think, many of us think, is necessary.” This comes even as polls have begun showing that Ukrainians favor making a deal with Russia to end this war as quickly as possible.
 
 This is one of those things that looks more evil the longer you stare at it. They’re pushing for teenagers to be thrown into the fires of an unwinnable war like it’s nothing—like a corporation saying they need to hire more staff to accommodate their growing business. And why? To tie up Russia so that Syria can be turned into a smoking crater and allow the US war machine to focus its crosshairs on Iran and China, with the end goal of total planetary domination. All because some swamp monsters decided after the fall of the Soviet Union that the US must maintain unipolar global hegemony no matter the cost."

 * * * * *

 I can't save civilization or spread peace and justice, but I voted for Jill Stein because she was against genocide. If/when the truth comes out, I'm glad that's what the record shows and I hope those I love consider that when I'm gone.

Friday, November 1, 2024

A MULTI-POLAR WORLD

West DESTROYING Itself as Putin & BRICS Blow Up Dollar Dominance
(Danny Haiphong on YouTube)
October 31, 2024

"Professor and Economist Jeffrey Sachs gives a TOUR DE FORCE historical interpretation of the historic nature of this year's BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia. Sachs holds no punches in destroying Western exceptionalism and detailing how BRICS has created an alternative to a decaying world order."

* * * * *

No one I know personally has ever voiced a desire to rule the world. In fact, wanting to rule the world is most often portrayed as a comically evil ambition of super villains and dangerous psychopaths.

In fiction such maniacs are typically foiled by a good guy working for a benevolent group associated with a Western government. Too bad these days the super villains are non-fiction and Western governments do their bidding with the full support of mainstream media.

 

"THE ARISTOCRATS!" ;)


(available at Project-Censored.org)
_________________
 
An interview with the author.
 (ScheerPost on YouTube)

November 1, 2024

"Amidst the hype, excitement and nervousness of the election, the bigger picture of what the United States is and how it operates often gets lost on people. Many think that choosing one or another candidate will significantly alter their future to better represent their values, but in reality there is only one group of people that matter the most: those who Dr. Peter Phillips, professor emeritus at Sonoma State University, calls the “titans of capital.”

In his new book by the same name, Phillips studies the economic trends following the COVID-19 pandemic and how the wealth concentration in the world took a dramatic turn towards the already ultra-wealthy. He joins host Robert Scheer on this episode of Scheer Intelligence to further analyze these trends and how dire inequality is becoming."

* * * * *

In comedy, especially among stand-ups, there's a tradition of telling a shaggy dog joke wherein during an audition a comic describes acts of increasing depravity until saying the punchline, "I call it The Aristocrats!" Even after watching the documentary about this joke, I'm afraid the comics lacked the imagination required to plum the depths of the depravity of the ruling class.

Aristocrats + Titans of Capital =  Artitsocraps

And they rule!

Thursday, October 31, 2024

NOT MY JEN-SIDE

Do Not Vote for those Who Support Genocide
"Former Socialist Alternative Seattle City Councilwoman Kshama Sawant and Chris Hedges discuss the 2024 election, and the urgent need to take an offensive strategy against the Democrats in the midst of the genocide on Gaza. As Kshama said in Dearborn, Michigan."
(The Chris Hedges Report on YouTube)
October 31, 2024
______________________________
P.S.
(Democracy at Work on YouTube)

"Democracy at Work is a non-profit 501(c)3 that produces media and live events. Our work analyzes capitalism critically as a systemic problem and advocates for democratizing workplaces as part of a systemic solution. We seek a stronger, fuller democracy – in our politics and culture as well as in our economy - based on workers’ equal collaboration and shared leadership inside enterprises and throughout society."

Wednesday, October 30, 2024

FREE TO AGREE... ONLY

(Pamela Drew, Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0)

Journalism & Democracy in a Time of Genocide
"Whilst the political class and mainstream media have no problem with double standards, courts may take a different view in the matter of free speech, writes Mary Kostakidis."
(Consortium News)
October 29, 2024

* * * * *

"If your opinions are imposed upon you under threat from your government, you might be living in "the land of the free."

BRICS NOT BOMBS

Dismantling the U.S. Empire’s Privileges, BRIC by BRIC with Ben Norton
(BreakThrough News on YouTube)
October 29, 2024

"The BRICS group recently concluded its 16th summit in Kazan, Russia, fleshing out in detail what a multilateral order based on mutual respect, sovereign equality, and solidarity could look like.  This week, Ben Norton joins KJ Noh to unpack how the BRICS constitutes a counter-hegemonic order creating “changes not seen in a century”: real development, common prosperity, and the demand–and possibility–for peace.    

Our understanding of China — and U.S.-China relations — has become a defining feature of all global politics. The China Report is a new show produced in collaboration with Pivot to Peace where every week, journalist Amanda Yee and political analyst KJ Noh will be helping you through all the propaganda with an independent view of the country we are taught to hate, but know so little about."

Tuesday, October 29, 2024

KANG NOR KODOS

Michelle Obama SCOLDS Working Class Men For Not Voting Blue
(Due Dissidence on YouTube)
October 29, 2024

* * * * *

The Democrats are not the cure for Trump, they're the cause.

When the Democratic Party abandoned the working class it fled to the Republicans... who also don't give a shit about them. We are in a class struggle and The Duopoly are fighting for power not the people.

Don't blame me, I didn't vote for Kang or Kodos.

Monday, October 28, 2024

PROBLEMS WITH PROBITY

* * * * *

The USA has been toppling governments, eliminating inconvenient political leaders, and exploiting weaker countries by stealing their resources since day one. The greatest perpetrator of election manipulation is the USA but it has the nerve to call out adversaries for doing in secret what they do openly.

Rather than be concerned about a few bots and memes, consider the foreign actors who literally buy our elections. Our representatives do their bidding rather than complain about their interference. They accept vast amounts of foreign donations and do what they're told. They represent wealthy donors, foreign and domestic, rather than average American constituents. It's called oligarchy.

If you don't believe me, believe AIPAC. They brag about it!

2024 AIPAC-Endorsed Primary Winners

"So far this cycle, an AIPAC-endorsed candidate has won in every district (322 races) where an endorsee was on the ballot.

(@ www.aipacpac.org)

All 129 AIPAC-backed Democrats who have had their primary races in 2024 have won. These Democrats are strong pro-Israel voices who are also leaders in the Black, Hispanic, Asian American Pacific Islander, and Progressive Caucuses. This includes 105 Congressional Equality Caucus members, 41 Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus members, 21 Congressional Hispanic Caucus members, 34 Progressive Caucus members and 26 Congressional Black Caucus members.

193 AIPAC-backed Republicans have won their elections."

Sunday, October 27, 2024

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES

How Israel made Sinwar a global icon
(The Grayzone on YouTube)
October 27, 2024

"The Grayzone's Max Blumenthal and Aaron Mate on the public relations backfire that ensued when Israel published the last moments of Yahya Sinwar in Gaza."

* * * * *

Included in this video is quite an interesting video.
 

THE WHITE WASHING POST

 

"I wouldn't line a bird cage with that pulp."

t-bag

Saturday, October 26, 2024

WAGE PEACE

 

How a Peace Chorus Can Silence the Ghouls of War!
(Dialogue Works on YouTube)
October 26, 2024

* * * * *

Give Peace a Chance!

Do you think these folks are crazy?

If so... look in the mirror.

Friday, October 25, 2024

MILITARY POLICE

 
* * * * *
Passé Posse Comitatus Act, what could go wrong?

DANGEROUS IDEAS

Dangerous Ideas with Lee Camp
(Streamed live on Oct 22, 2024)

"Lee is joined by Dr. Jill as we close in on the final two weeks.
Plus an incredible admission from Wall Street and much more!"

* * * * *
Wall Street wins every election because no one gets elected who threatens the ruling class.
 
Please ask yourself this question.

How is it that Congressional approval ratings seldom reach 20%, yet incumbents are reelected 90% (or more) of the time?
 
People who believe they are intelligent correct those who lament the state of our democracy by stating the obvious, that "our government is a representative republic." What these folk don't seem to realize is that the U.S.A. is a violent empire run by crazy oligarchs.
 
Both Teams Red and Blue represent an alternative to classic fascism, they've figured out how to make the F word feel like freedom. Brilliant!

"Of Butterflies & Genocide"

Of Butterflies & Genocide
by Lee Camp

An orange butterfly taking flight for the first time, unaware of the tempestuous unforgiving yet dazzling world it brightens. The dusty bodies of executed children. These are the two defining images of my weekend. And most painful is their lack of exceptionality.

Ten days ago my toddler found and pointed out what looked to be a trinket hanging from a brown, fragile plant—A bright green pod hardly bigger than an adult’s thumbnail, crowned by brilliant gold dots reflecting the afternoon sun. How stunning and out-of-place it appeared. It took me a moment to figure out what it was—I had never seen a monarch butterfly cocoon before.

It feels like it doesn’t belong, an ill fitting accessory for the brown shriveling leaves of autumn. It looks more like something an Egyptian pharaoh would be entombed with, right at home alongside ornate ivory hair brushes and flashy golden necklaces.

Later that day, in between reading about the latest unfathomable atrocities Israel committed, I read up on monarch butterflies and the best temperatures for them to survive the no doubt difficult transformation from caterpillar to majestic kaleidoscopic aerial dream bug. Sure enough I found the odds of her surviving the metamorphosis in 45° F nights on a withering splintering milkweed leaf in the direct path of rambunctious dogs and feral neighborhood children were slim. (The nearly microscopic monarch eggs have a 3% chance of enduring all the way to adult butterflies in the outside elements while they have a 90% chance when brought indoors and given the proper treatment.)

So I took a brief pause from ingesting yet another article about a small child targeted for death by a Zik (Hermes 450) armed attack drone, nearly silent as it rains death from above. I went outside armed with a pair of scissors and some dental floss—The scissors to cut the leaf and the dental floss to tie around the top of the chrysalis (the cocoon) in order to suspend it from the inside of a small plastic container.

Over the next week the cherry tomato-sized bauble turned a gripping rich blue like a raging sea of torment and fury. In that time several hundred innocent people were murdered by Israel—In Gaza, Lebanon, the West Bank.

Occasionally my child, desperately curious about everything both natural and not, would take a look at the dangling chrysalis. Of course since it wasn’t moving, it held his attention 1/100th of the time a matchbox car might. Meanwhile I would peer at it and lose myself in the seething subaquatic abyss, a richness of color that called to mind a collapsing galaxy pulsating with the hopes and desires, anguish and love, pain and passion of legions. Or maybe an expanding galaxy, blossoming into such abundance. …It gripped me.

Israel holds roughly 10,000 Palestinian hostages in its prisons.

On Saturday, after one week in our home, a vibrant orange and black butterfly materialized. I imagine no matter how many times one might see this, it probably always seems magical, otherworldly. How a butterfly fit, metamorphosed, and retailored itself inside that pod I will never understand.

As Israeli officials brainstormed new and interesting ways to stop food from reaching starving children, my small family of three walked outside to release a new butterfly into the world. I trepidatiously lowered my index finger into the container in front of the tiny flier (lepidoptera) as I saw on a YouTube video, and she crawled slowly onto it as if she knew the plan exactly.

I then delicately, ever so carefully, held her next to a small violet flower and she snuck onto it, minding the gap. I had read that monarchs will sit still for several hours after greeting the world in order to dry out their wings (and probably take things in, recalibrating to their new reality). She did exactly that before eventually fluttering away, going about her effervescent orange journey.

Israel fired white phosphorus at UN workers in Lebanon.

The IDF set another hospital in Gaza ablaze.

In hindsight I know why I invested so much time and thought into the growth and maturation toward freedom of a single minuscule creature. It’s tempting to say it was a metaphor for human evolution in a breathtakingly sick, ugly world. To say there’s something better coming. To say humanity sits moments away from breaking out of these stained, sullied dystopian circumstances and into a brand new gleaming reality of possibility and peace.

But that’s not it.

I sunk so much emotion into a bug (albeit an attractive one) as a distraction and a projection. As genocide drips down all our screens, a US-backed genocide at that, I desperately needed to help something live, to facilitate freedom and survival. I ached to show my child something beautiful while he’s still at the age before one comprehends the horrors of the evening news.

Projection won’t save the world. Momentary distraction won’t stop one Israeli bomb from falling or secure one sandwich for a single Gazan child.

But perhaps, just maybe, I’m raising a child with empathy and love for all living things. Maybe he’ll be one more person who accepts no justification for ethnic cleansing and war crimes.

I don’t yet know how to process the moral injury of the true unfettered massacre we’re all absorbing. I don’t know if anyone does. …But there’s one more butterfly in the world.
 

Monday, October 7, 2024

"UNIMAGINABLE"




As a Palestinian living in the US, I have lost friends, job opportunities – and my faith in humanity
Every year has been catastrophic for Palestinians around the world, but the past 12 months have been unimaginable
(Arwa Mahdawi at The Guardian)
October 6, 2024

"It has been a year of heartbreak, a year of horror, a year of hell. I know I am not alone when I say that this has been the very worst year of my life. I have lost friends, I have lost job opportunities and, most of all, I have lost my faith in humanity."

THE DUPED STATES


Prof. Jeffrey Sachs: Why The Deep State Is The Top Issue
(Glenn Greenwald on YouTube)
October 5, 2024

* * * * *

Too bad Jeffrey Sachs is an ethical man, since that disqualifies him to run for president.

Thursday, October 3, 2024

NOVEMBERFEST 2024

 

I'll drink to that!

* * * * *

A lot of folks feel like we're living in an awful science fiction dystopia but can't decide which one.

< Insert your favorite futuristic hellscape here. >

Some days it feels like a brave new 1984 invasion of the zombie snatchers and some days it's simply a day on the beach... by Nevil Shute.

Hey, I love science fiction but I wouldn't want to live there!

Let me be Frank:

"All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted."

-- Missionaria Protectiva, Text QIV (decto) --

Tuesday, September 17, 2024

PARROT HEADS

"Excuse us! We're repeating now."


... W T F ...
(Matt Orfalea on YouTube)
September 13, 2024
 
* * * * *

I've heard it talked about and have experienced this phenomenon myself many times, disparate individuals without any discernible connection to each other making the exact same points using identical words and phrases while stating emphatically that they are critical thinkers... instead of simple parrots.

American mainstream media is state-run media and the state is controlled by Wall Street. Laments by the powerful regarding disinformation is a sign of their fear that a bit of truth might leak out.


MEET THE NEW BOSS...

[Same as the old boss.]

The American Ruling Class Explained
(The Chris Hedges Report on YouTube)
September 13, 2024

 

Wednesday, September 4, 2024

SPEECHLESS

Professor DETAINED AT AIRPORT After Attending Free Palestine Film Festival
(Due Dissidence on YouTube)
Spetember 2, 2024

* * * * *

Free speech has been muzzled. Habeas corpus was disappeared by a pen stroke. The police force has been militarized. The military has become our raison d'être. World War has replaced diplomacy........

What - Me - Worry?

A few receipts:

_________________

President Obama Signs Indefinite Detention Bill Into Law
(American Civil Liberties Union at ACLU.Org)
December 31, 2011)

"WASHINGTON – President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) into law today. The statute contains a sweeping worldwide indefinite detention provision. While President Obama issued a signing statement saying he had “serious reservations” about the provisions, the statement only applies to how his administration would use the authorities granted by the NDAA, and would not affect how the law is interpreted by subsequent administrations. The White House had threatened to veto an earlier version of the NDAA, but reversed course shortly before Congress voted on the final bill.

“President Obama's action today is a blight on his legacy because he will forever be known as the president who signed indefinite detention without charge or trial into law,” said Anthony D. Romero, ACLU executive director. “The statute is particularly dangerous because it has no temporal or geographic limitations, and can be used by this and future presidents to militarily detain people captured far from any battlefield. The ACLU will fight worldwide detention authority wherever we can, be it in court, in Congress, or internationally.”
_________________

Hedges v. Obama
(Wikipedia.org)
January 2012

"Hedges v. Obama was a lawsuit filed in January 2012 against the Obama administration and members of the U.S. Congress by a group including former New York Times reporter Christopher Hedges, challenging the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 (NDAA). The legislation permitted the U.S. government to indefinitely detain people "who are part of or substantially support Al Qaeda, the Taliban or associated forces engaged in hostilities against the United States". The plaintiffs contended that Section 1021(b)(2) of the law allows for detention of citizens and permanent residents taken into custody in the U.S. on "suspicion of providing substantial support" to groups engaged in hostilities against the U.S. such as al-Qaeda and the Taliban respectively that the NDAA arms the U.S. military with the ability to imprison indefinitely journalists, activists and human-rights workers based on vague allegations."
_________________

U.S. policing budgets would rank as the world's third-highest military expenditure
(Rob Beschizza at Boing Boing)
April 20, 2021

"$118bn was spent funding police forces in the U.S. in 2018, according to the Security Policy Reform Institute. It collectively makes American police forces the world's third-most expensive military organization, after the U.S.'s official armed forces and China's.

The chart is somewhat misleading, though, in that the same is basically true of other wealthy countries: per-capita spending on police in Europe is also very high, but the countries are less populous. Police forces in the UK enjoy some $25bn in funding, for example, a spend proportionate to the US total that nonethless places it outside the top ten on the that military spending chart.

But there's one thing that's plainly different: US police are militarized by policy, trained to treat the public as a threat, and kill people in far greater numbers than their foreign counterparts. The declared enemy of American police forces is the American people, and their war on us claims about 1000 lives a year."

THE CRASS STRUGGLE

Report: Flight Attendants Face HUNGER, HOMELESSNESS Due to LOW WAGES
(Due Dissidence on YouTube)

September 3, 2024

* * * * *

Capitalism creates both crushed and comfortable cluelessness.

In general the folks I know are too busy surviving to question The System or too comfortable to care enough to understand it. And virtually all the richest folks I know have no idea they're parasites sucking the life out of the populace and the planet.

Thankfully, I don't mingle with any actual apex predators. I couldn't become one of them and they wouldn't want me around to bring them down... I mean make them sadly reflect on their ghoulish orgy of avarice.

I'm thankful to all who rage against The Machine, like the funny fellows at Due Dissidence, but in the end, I've little hope that the human experiment will end well.

Please prove me wrong.

P.S. Allowing the wealthiest microscopic minority to dictate to the vast struggling majority is a ludicrous solution if peace and prosperity are the endgame. It appears to me that the ruling class is heading toward the end of the game instead. Money can't buy you intelligence (or survival after the balloon goes up).

Tuesday, August 27, 2024

GUILTY OF TRUTH


Are thought crimes next?

On the Arrest of Richard Medhurst
(Chris Hedges on Substack)
August 25, 2024

"The arrest of the reporter Richard Medhurst, who has been one of the most ardent critics of the genocide in Gaza and Israeli apartheid state, at Heathrow airport is part of the steady march towards the criminalization of journalism, something all of us, including Medhurst, understood lay at the heart of the long persecution of Julian Assange.

Where the “norm” was for police to detain people for questioning under Schedule 7, Medhurst became the first journalist in Britain to be arrested under Section 12 of the draconian Terrorism Act."


_________________

JOHN KIRIAKOU: The Slide Into Authoritarianism
(John Kiriakou: Special to Consortium News)
August 27, 2024

"All of us who care about civil liberties, civil rights, human rights and freedom of the press have had a front-row seat lately to a slide toward what can only be described as authoritarianism. The governments of the U.S., U.K. and even Canada have been working hard, sometimes in a coordinated fashion, to silence dissenting voices. The governments’ tactics have been heavy-handed, to say the least."

John Kiriakou is a former C.I.A. counterterrorism officer and a former senior investigator with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. John became the sixth whistleblower indicted by the Obama administration under the Espionage Act—a law designed to punish spies. He served 23 months in prison as a result of his attempts to oppose the Bush administration’s torture program.

Monday, August 26, 2024

VOTE JILL NOT SHILL

 

[A message from Jill Stein]

Harris and her empire of lies

All week long, the nation watched as the true base of the Democratic Party – billionaires, celebrities, national security figureheads and “moderate Republicans” – repeatedly assured us that Kamala Harris will be a different kind of president. A president of “joy.”

But I found little room for joy in Harris’ speech Thursday night.

Instead, it revealed a great deal about what we can expect if Kamala Harris becomes president – and none of it is good.

In a speech that could have easily been delivered by Genocide Joe himself, Harris promised to:

    Sign Biden’s inhumane, militarized “bipartisan border bill” with 80% of the funding allocated to hardening border security and DOUBLING the number of border patrol agents.

    “Ensure America always has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world” with unchecked resources for the Pentagon to continue waging “wars around the world” (to quote our current president).

    Unconditionally supply Israel with endless weapons, as she repeated Israel’s discredited propaganda around the October 7th attacks and pointedly ignored the widespread reports of Israeli soldiers using sexual violence, physical and psychological torture against illegally incarcerated Palestinian prisoners.

Harris absurdly claimed that she and Biden are “working around the clock” to secure a ceasefire for Gaza – even as they’ve authorized another $23 BILLION in arms for Israel in August alone.

Now we learn that the Biden-Harris administration has appointed Mira Resnick, perhaps the most hands-on State Department official involved in speedrunning weapons to Israel since October 7th, to replace Andrew Miller – the 1st official to resign in protest over Gaza.

Harris’ empire of lies delivered on Thursday night firmly established that “nothing will fundamentally change.”

Harris made it clear that she intends to continue this reckless path of capitalistic exploitation and global militarism, even fanning the flames with China and Iran as tens of thousands of the party faithful waved signs and shouted “USA! USA!”

I find no “joy” in any of this.

There are material conditions that must be urgently addressed for this country to meet the basic needs of its citizens and take us off this death march into World War III and climate collapse. NONE of those policy solutions were present in Harris’ speech.

Instead we were promised more of the same. And much like Biden before her, that may prove to be the one promise that Kamala Harris keeps.

Harris has shown her true colors, and we have an urgent choice to make this November.

There is only one campaign with a path to the White House this November that will set us on a radically different course – one that will end the genocide in Gaza and implement an immediate arms embargo on Israel.

There is only one campaign with the credibility to address the climate emergency with the urgency it demands. And there is only one campaign with a radically transformative economic vision that will lift millions out of poverty and build a society free of injustice, inequity, hunger, and want.

There is only one campaign that is challenging empire both at home and abroad – ours. In just over two months, we will make our voices heard at the ballot box.

WHEN SLIT HITS THE FAN


The Overton* Slit** is closing and the cult of The Uniparty is celebrating.
 

Harris-Trump: Uniparty on the same script 

"If it sounds like Democrats and Republicans are reading from the same script, it’s because they both work for the same donors."

(Jill Stein on Youtube)
August 24, 2024

* * * * *

When The Overton Window finally closes, well... an F-Word comes to mind.

Jus sayin.

________________________________

NOTES:

* The Overton window is the range of policies politically acceptable to the mainstream population at a given time. It is also known as the window of discourse.

The term is named after the American policy analyst Joseph Overton, who proposed that an idea's political viability depends mainly on whether it falls within this range, rather than on politicians' individual preferences.

According to Overton, the window frames the range of policies that a politician can recommend without appearing too extreme to gain or keep public office given the climate of public opinion at that time.

** An arrowslit is a narrow vertical aperture in a fortification through which an archer can launch arrows.

HOOF IN MOUTH DISEASE

Rachel: Prop or Not?

Some background:

A Court Ruled Rachel Maddow's Viewers Know She Offers Exaggeration and Opinion, Not Facts
Maddow’s show is different than a typical news segment where anchors inform viewers about the daily news," an Obama-appointed judge ruled.

(Glenn Greenwald)
June 22, 2021

Excerpt:

“In an oddly overlooked ruling, an Obama-appointed federal judge, Cynthia Bashant, dismissed the lawsuit on the ground that even Maddow's own audience understands that her show consists of exaggeration, hyperbole, and pure opinion, and therefore would not assume that such outlandish accusations are factually true even when she uses the language of certainty and truth when presenting them (“literally is paid Russian propaganda”).

In concluding that Maddow's statement would be understood even by her own viewers as non-factual, the judge emphasized that what Maddow does in general is not present news but rather hyperbole and exploitation of actual news to serve her liberal activism…”

_________

Democracy in Peril: Twenty Years of Media Consolidation Under the Telecommunications Act
In 1996, President Clinton signed the bill into law. Today, the media industry is donating big to Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

(Michael Corcoran at Truthout)
February 11, 2016

Excerpt:

“Wall Street’s sinister influence on the political process has, rightly, been a major topic during this presidential campaign. But, history has taught us that the role that the media industry plays in Washington poses a comparable threat to our democracy. Yet, this is a topic rarely discussed by the dominant media, or on the campaign trail.”

* * * * *

Some context:

Mainstream media world wide is owned by about a half dozen major corporations, so basically a few sociopathic billionaires have a strangle hold on almost everything the average person reads, watches, or hears. The American Duopoly, and oddly especially the corporately captured Democratic Party, support censorship of views outside their narrow world view. They are suppressing dissent in the streets and on the web.

Fears of fascism under another Trump administration abound among "Blue No Matter Who" voters but for many outside the party it seems they want to close the barn door after the donkeys and elephants have already burned it down.

America has been waging wars around the world for a long time, almost for its entire existence. What passes for foreign policy for the U.S.A. is perhaps best described in this way: impose crippling and deadly economic sanctions on regular citizens to encourage them to topple governments that the U.S. doesn't control. It always causes devastation, almost never works, and the U.S. unfailingly claims to be the good guys. Add to that brilliant strategy the notion that assassinations as a means of state craft is now considered… a Tuesday?

These crimes against humanity are regularly applauded by mainstream media and especially Rachel Maddow.

Consider the following facts as a thought experiment if you respect Rachel Maddow’s reporting:

Edward Snowden in fulfilling his oath to defend The U.S. Constitution is in exile because he exposed violations of said document by his Security State employers.

Julian Assange revealed U.S. war crimes. There were no consequences for the perpetrators but Assange spent over a decade under arrest and despite his recent release, his life has been destroyed by both Republican and Democratic administrations, ostensibly due to violations of the American Espionage Act despite the fact that he’s an Australian citizen.

Seymour Hersh, who exposed the My Lai massacre, the Watergate scandal, the Abu Ghraib torture, and much much more, is begging for scraps these days from individual donors on Substack.

Chris Hedges, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and Middle East expert was fired from the New York Times for voicing opposition to the disastrous and illegal Iraq war that was based on lies and killed over a million people.

In conclusion:

Rachel Maddow gets paid millions of dollars simply for stating opinions as facts on a major network.

Prop or Not?

Wednesday, August 21, 2024

BOB MENDACIOUS

Face it.

This guy perfectly represents our representatives.

Warhawk Senator Bob Menendez Resigns After Being Found Guilty of Taking Bribes to Be a Foreign Agent
(BreakThrough News on Youtube)
Aug 20, 2024

"Senator Bob Menendez just resigned after being found guilty of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes including gold bars, luxury cars, expensive watches and other gifts to act as a foreign agent of Egypt and Qatar.

It's being called one of the worst corruption scandals in recent congressional memory.

Ironically, he spent most of his career accusing other countries of this type of corruption, and demanding sanctions.

BT's Kei Pritsker reviews the indictment."


* * * * *

One down… the rest to go.

Politicians who make it to Congress are simply paid spokes models for the lobbies and PACS (foreign and domestic) that feed their hunger for wealth and power. Even well-intentioned political figures eventually perform for their masters.

< Insert your clown of choice here. >

The U.S. Constitution prohibits bribes and makes accepting them grounds for removal from public office.

That’s a true but weird fact, since soliciting cash from special interests and big donors is the job description of every single one of our elected officials. Our corrupt ruling class uses euphemisms like soft money to disguise the bribes they thrive on. Since the Citizens United ruling the amount they can receive from anonymous donors is unlimited, resulting in the extraordinary and virtually complete corruption of America’s corporately captured government. The needs and desires of the vast majority of citizens are ignored, belying the farcical notion that 'Murica is in any way a republic or representative democracy.

Study: US is an oligarchy, not a democracy
(BBC News article that includes a link to the famous Princeton University Study)

If our ruling class weren't comprised of sociopathic war criminals, they'd be a joke.

Our system of inverted totalitarianism also affects influential people outside of politics, such as journalists, entertainers, and activists. The reward for obedience is the potential for ever more fame, wealth, and/or power. Of course, compliance due to stupidity is often a free bonus appreciated by the aristocratic elites.

< Insert your clown of choice here. >

Mainstream media across the board is basically paid-for propaganda. Whether on or offline, it’s the 800-pound gorilla in all our rooms, that facilitates our blind march to oblivion. The so called “Information Age” has become the “Disinformation Age.”

< Insert your favorite fake news here. >

What passes for rational commentary these days is a steady stream of hype and horse shit brought to you by the same monied class that benefits from our toxic political system of quid pro quo.

The news media and entertainment industry have become an effective means of narrative control. The Narrative is The Matrix that has trapped the majority who seem unaware that our “reality” is a bizarre psyop. Knowing the importance to a representative government of a well-educated citizenry, the ruling class has created a mob of arrogantly ignorant partisans who fight each other instead of them. Discussions among friends or family about history and current events has become taboo; it’s almost impossible to have a reasoned debate these days and that’s by design.

Nothing serves the ruling class better than the voluntary suppression of discourse. We all regularly self-censor to keep the peace during social intercourse. That’s a neat trick and a total mind fuck. As my dad used to say, “That’s a sad commentary!” Of course those who don’t self-censor, like independent journalists, become victims of actual censorship. Keeping up with trusted news sources as they struggle against suppression is becoming increasingly difficult. The promise of an open internet is quickly evaporating. I can only imagine how shocked Orwell would be about how thoroughly surveilled and controlled we have become.

Anyone who significantly challenges the status quo whether as a part of the machine or fighting against it, is marginalized or removed all together. Threats to absolute control by the ruling class are dealt with by electoral shenanigans, coordinated smear campaigns, or by any means necessary. And idiots applaud the silencing of the truth tellers. Sure, there’s bullshitters out there, but applauding censorship makes throwing the baby out with the bathwater look like child’s play. Sometimes evil looks brilliant but only because they’re dealing with dupes. Rather than banning an idea, try presenting a more cogent alternative viewpoint using evidence and logic. That’s become a crazy idea these days.

Attempts to discuss current events with folks lost in The Narrative is akin to trying to educate a cultist. Like the so called “Presidential Debates,” discourse is reduced to facile and oft time ludicrous talking points that inevitably lead to arguments and insults. I’ve heard the exact same vacuous arguments repeated by friends and relatives who have no contact with each other. They’re not screaming their well-researched conclusions, they’re parroting the news programs that are programming them.

An easy way to defeat big money in politics is to ignore the politicians receiving it. Piss off the oligarchs and vote for a third party. Demand substantial and substantive changes from anyone before offering to vote for them. That sounds a lot better than rewarding out-of-touch assholes for sticking it to you over and over again with outright lies and empty promises.

If you don't do it for yourself, consider doing the world a favor.

Monday, August 19, 2024

YELLOW JOURNALISM

(Lee Camp on Youtube)
 
"Lee and journalist Ben Norton get into why the US hates Venezuela so much, why China is lapping the US in infrastructure and so much more!"
 
* * * * *
When you stop watching mainstream news, things start to make sense. Unplug your cable and become informed.
 
Years ago when the mysterious "Prop or Not" lists came out, I used them as convenient shout outs advertising news sites I should start reading and watching. Many of those resources have disappeared or have been co-opted by Big Brother but if you try very hard you may discover a few news outlets that aren't beholden to the deep state.