Propaganda Bill in Congress Could Give America Its Very Own Ministry Of Truth

Click here to access article by Claire Bernish from Anti-Media.

I normally don't post articles that emphasize the sensational especially if the post is about something that could only possibly happen. But this article, and the links that follow, I believe are a sign of the times we live in, of the increasingly desperate attempts by our capitalist overlords to hang on to their power and wealth and to the system that delivers these drugs to them.

Of course our capitalist overlords literally didn't introduce this bill in Congress, but this is how they function: through their paid-for members of Congress to preserve the myth that our government functions as some kind of democracy. I simply can't believe that Congressmen Adam Kinzinger and Ted Lieu did this on their own initiative. I can't prove it, but more likely they introduced this draconian bill on the orders of people who serve as well-paid agents of the capitalist ruling class.

You might also be interested in reading an article from Mint Press about how the new right-wing government in Argentina has banned RT and TeleSur in their country. 

The misuse of media and the censorship of media is reported on by two journalists that observed events in Libya and Syria in a translated article entitled "The manipulative role of the western press in regime change". 

The management of independent media is on display at the Bilderberg meeting in Dresden, Germany in this 7:06m video report by Luke Rudkowski of WeAreChange. 

When our masters in the capitalist ruling class can no longer manage us by managing the information we receive, then you can be certain that they will reveal their hidden fist of fascism by using the police, military, and vast prison complex to keep us obedient to their directives.

America, the Runaway Train

Click here to access article by Gordon Duff from New Eastern Outlook.

The author desperately tries to understand why the American people are so passively accepting their the government's lies and wars in contrast with what happened during the Vietnam War.

More than that, being against war, openly discussing the childish pretexts America used to get into conflict after conflict, questioning the propaganda, the lies, the false flag scenarios like “Tonkin Gulf” were mainstream politics. There was an idea that doing right, as hard as that might be, recognizing how powerful the imbedded forces inside America were that loved so very much to do wrong, to profit from war and suffering, to exploit the poor of the world or to wage useless conflicts for profit, Americans knew about this, recognized it, at least the educated, and this was considered a political issue.

The Kennedy’s talked about it, maybe even two were murdered because of speaking up against war or, as is much more likely, speaking up and acting against “the elites” that build the American military machine for one purpose, to cleanse planet Earth of those who oppose “the elites.”

Is it that simple, is it a “right or wrong” issue? How did America become a sick place?

Bernie Sanders White House Driveway Remarks

Click here to access a six minute video and rough transcript of Sen. Bernie Sanders announcement outside the White House from C-Span. (The C-Span video is a bit confusing because it repeats the same address twice on this 12:05m video. In realty his announcement was half that.)

Here in this announcement Sanders performs as expected according to all the evidence that he was merely running on the Democratic Party's primary campaign in exchange for his pledge to support Hillary Clinton in the final presidential election in November against Donald Trump. 

I and a few others have argued all along that this was a strategy conceived by the directors of the capitalist class to engineer the election of their favored candidate, Hillary Clinton, as president. I think this announcement confirms that argument. 

Mrs. Clinton has demonstrated her complete loyalty to this imperial capitalist class while serving as a US Senator from New York (2001 to 2009) and especially in her appointed role as Sec. of State (2009-2013). All the evidence points toward a ruling class plan to insure Clinton's election. The plan is being accomplished by running Donald Trump in the other capitalist party to act as an ogre that would repel most of the citizens of the US and using Bernie Sanders to lure left voters back into the Democratic Party to support Clinton's election in the final presidential election in November. To be sure they had to use many tricks in the various states' primary elections to pull this off in addition to granting her numerous Democratic delegates before the primary elections were held. There are many articles now appearing in mostly alternative online media giving evidence of these voting tricks. 

None of this is surprising after the fraudulent practices used to engineer Bush Jr's election in both 2000 and 2004. (The most likely reason for the extraordinary vote tampering methods was the necessity for Bush Jr to be president in order to safely pull off the 9/11 project.) This confirms the insight that has been attributed to the American anarchist Emma Goldman who said about 100 years ago that "if [capitalist] elections could change anything, they would be illegal". Only a revolutionary movement designed to rid the anti-social and class-serving project of capitalism can do this. 

Read also an article entitled "As Obama endorses Clinton, Sanders signals readiness to back campaign" from the World Socialist Web Site".

US Declares Hegemony Over Asia

Click here to access article by Tony Cartalucci from New Eastern Outlook.

Once again we owe a debt of gratitude to Cartalucci for his research skills at uncovering the realities of the US Empire builders by accessing rather obscure government and other solid sources that others mostly overlook. Unlike more conventional critics of US foreign policies, he acknowledge the realities of the economic and psychological dynamics of capitalist operations.

The United States does not reside in Asia. Turning Asia into a conflict zone suits it perfectly well. An Asia on the rise poses as a direct competitor to the interests on Wall Street and the politicians who serve them in Washington. The US has nothing to gain from a strong Asia that no longer capitulates to disparate trade deals, political coercion, and threats. Containing China at the cost of peace and prosperity across all of Asia is an added bonus for US policymakers – ensuring that indeed the US maintains primacy in all of Asia “for decades to come.”

However like other excellent geopolitical researchers he looks to a multipolar capitalist world for salvation. He, like others who argue from this ideological perspective, see hope for peace and stability in the world by maintaining some kind of precarious balance among competing national ruling classes in a world that is currently dominated by one very aggressive capitalist gang. Thus he concludes his analysis with this statement:

For Asia’s leaders it is important for them to continue on constructive and cooperative means of striking a balance of power between a rising China and the rest of Asia. This must be done while incrementally displacing America’s unwarranted and malicious influence in the region. This does not mean isolating the United States as it seeks to isolate China – but only isolating it to the extent that the US concedes to maintaining normal ties with Asia predicated on equality, not hegemony.

Asian security is no more the United States’ to underwrite as American security is Asia’s to underwrite. Making this clear to US policymakers and the special interests they serve is essential in establishing the fact that no nation is “exceptional” and for any real “international order” to exist, impartial and objective standards must be applied to all – whether they reside in Washington or Beijing, or beyond.

Cartalucci fails to to see that US capitalists like all capitalists are born and bred into a class that seeks to take advantage of increasing their wealth and power in a ruthless capitalist world where one must either grow or die. He only wishes to see these capitalist impulses stopped at the national level and maintained by some kind of balance of forces from competing national ruling classes. He and other critics of neoliberalism like F. William Engdahl, Pepe Escobar, and Naomi Klein refuse to acknowledge these built in tendencies of capitalist ruling classes, and they seem very forgetful of the history of the first half of the 20ths century when competing capitalist classes essentially fought two world wars over control of the world. With their military and industrial infrastructure intact after the carnage of WWII, the US ruling class saw their opportunity to control the entire world, to control access to raw materials, markets, and cheap labor (the essential fuels of the capitalist profit machine), and have embarked on this project ever since.

US capitalists, like all capitalists, are largely born and/or bred into a class that seeks to take advantage of increasing their wealth and power in a ruthless capitalist world where one must either grow or die. I take little comfort from the fact that their main obstacles to world domination are represented by China and Russia, both of whom have mixed economies (capitalist and state owned enterprises) and so far have not been infected with the advanced neoliberal stage of imperial capitalism that has taken hold of the US ruling class. The threat of a nuclear war nightmare now haunts the people of the world. In addition this perspective completely ignores the threat of climate destabilization that is a result of the obsessive search for profits by capitalists.

Empire Files: Propaganda & Engineering Consent for Empire with Mark Crispin Miller [a must-view video]

Click here if you wish to access the 26:24m interview conducted by Abby Martin with Miller directly from YouTube.

With thousands of advertisements seen by Americans everyday, and a corporate media that reinforces the needs of Empire, propaganda in the U.S. is more pervasive and effective than ever before.

The manipulation of public opinion through suggestion can be traced back to the father of modern propaganda, Edward Bernays, who discovered that preying on the subconscious mind was the best way to sell products people don't need, and wars people don't want.

To get a deeper understanding of how propaganda functions in today's society, Abby Martin interviews Dr. Mark Crispin Miller, professor of Media Studies at New York University.

Regulation of financial industry is history if Trade In Services Agreement passes

Click here to access article by Pete Dolack from Systemic Disorder.

Based on Wikileaks' revelations on TISA,  Dolack finds that this third plan, in addition to TPP and TTIP which apply to corporations with investments in commerce, will subordinate governments in most countries to the interests of financial corporations, the primary engines used by capitalists to exercise control over most economies. Thus TISA will further strengthen their domination over member countries.

What reads as bland bureaucratic text will be interpreted not in ordinary courts with at least some democratic checks, but by unaccountable and unappealable secret arbitration panels in which corporate lawyers alternate between representing multi-national corporations and sitting in judgment of corporate complaints against governments.

Puerto Rico Democratic Party Reduced Primary Votes to 8% of What Was Expected

Click here to access article by "Gaius Publius" from Down With Tyranny.

Capitalists have many ways to exercise control over their respective countries: their control of media, education, entertainment, and elections. Here in the US election rules are decided in each state or territory by the two capitalist parties. This piece illustrates how the Democratic Party will insure a suitable outcome to their upcoming primary election in Puerto Rico. 

Meanwhile another illustration of the creative strategies employed by the capitalist parties is reported on by Greg Palast. They were used yesterday in California to insure the results that the Democratic Party wanted (Hillary Clinton). Unfortunately he waited until yesterday to post this warning to the citizens of California. 

You can expect many other reports of such election tricks in alternative websites. Only a few of the usual types will be reported in corporate media such as these from the LA Times and the NY Daily News. 

And of course sitting above all these election shenanigans is the strategy of grooming of candidates by agents of the ruling capitalist class and the selection of candidates to run against each other in both of their parties. Read my commentaries here and here to learn about how they are managing this presidential election, and my post of another article which gives a history of methods they have used in past elections.

Hillary Clinton is Evil! (REMIX)

Thanks to all those people who put this video clip together.

Corporate Media Obscures Muhammad Ali's Anti-Imperialism

Click here to access the 11:10m interview conducted by Paul Jay with the noted African-American intellectual Gerald Horne.

I have been sickened by the plethora of disinformation spread over corporate media for the past several days about the history and significance of the life of Muhammad Ali. In contrast to their fables he was a strong vocal opponent of US aggression in Vietnam to the point where he refused to be drafted. Because the boxer was so popular, our masters in the capitalist ruling class had considerable difficulty in punishing him. What they finally did was to denounce him as a traitor, shut down his boxing career for three and half years, when he was in his prime, and took away his passport so he couldn't box abroad.

Horne explains that this is an illustration of how our masters construct our memory and history for us.

This is part of the crafting of a "cuddly" Mohammad Ali that can be fed as pablum to the US populace, and reducing and shrinking of the militance of Mohammad Ali from an opponent of US imperialism and US interventionism worldwide.

See also this excellent resurrection of the true history of this remarkable boxer entitled "The Greatest - RIP" by Bernhard from Moon of Alabama.

Although many people who lived through this period know that this media coverage is a gross falsification of his life, most of these people fail to understand that all history published by mainstream sources is falsified this way to serve the interests of our masters.

Any revolutionary movement worth supporting is one that has as one of its top priorities a mission to present the truth about contemporary events and our history. 

The Perfect Crime

by Max Gustafson from his website. 

Why So Many Americans Are Voting Against the Status Quo, in One Chart

Click here if you wish to access this reproduced chart and brief introduction directly from Yves Smith's post. 

They know they’ve gotten the short end of the stick for way too long. And with a weak recovery and short job tenures, they’ve got no reason to think this will get better.  

Syria: The U.S. Is Unwilling To Settle - Russia Returns For Another Round

Click here to access article by Bernhard from Moon of Alabama.

The Obama administration does not want peace in Syria. The Russians finally have to admit to themselves that the U.S. is no partner for a continuation of a cease fire, a coordinated attack against the Islamic State and al-Qaeda and for peace in Syria. Indeed, as Lavrov explains, the U.S. has again asked to spare al-Qaeda from Russian air strikes even as two UN Security Council resolutions demand its eradication. Huge supply convoys (vid) from Turkey are again going to the "rebels" who will, as always, share them with al-Qaeda and other terrorists.

The UNO, the EU and Daesh schizophrenia

Click here to access article by Thierry Meyssan from his blog Voltaire Network (France).

Intergovernmental organisations are supposed to unite the efforts of member-states in order to achieve results that they could not manage alone. We might therefore conclude that the UNO and the EU are coordinating the fight against Daesh. Instead of which, these two organisations are hindering the forces on the ground and masking state support for international terrorism.

I often have difficulties with the English translations of Meyssan's articles (from French), but this essay is much better than most. I only had a problem with the use of "occulting" in this sentence:

It would be a mistake to believe that the occulting of the documents mentioned above is the result of anti-Iraqi, anti-Syrian or anti-Russian prejudice.

I had never heard of this use of "occult" as a verb. So in place of this obscure usage, it would have been much better to have used "excluding" instead. Otherwise I think his essay is well developed with linked references to support his thesis.

The use and abuse of the Arab Revolt

Click here to access article by Simon Guy from Socialist Review (Britain). 

To understand the ongoing crises in the Middle East, one needs to understand a little history of European domination of the Middle East particularly after the abundance of fossil fuels were discovered there. An key part of this history that is often referred to in current essays is the nefarious Sykes-Picot Agreement that was secretly decided in May 1916 by British and French agents who wanted to break up the Ottoman Empire. The Balfour Declaration followed a year later, and US interference in the region soon followed. This article tells the early story of the actions by European capitalists and their governments to control this valuable region.

These events are not just of historical interest, but show how the imperialist powers have never been trustworthy partners in the struggle for national independence. They also illustrate how aspiring rulers in the Arab world have long been prepared to compromise with imperial powers to the detriment of the mass of the population. The parcelling out of the Middle East in the Sykes-Picot agreement was a reflection of much deeper processes at work in the world economy a century ago.

Appearance of crater dubbed ‘the Gateway to the Underworld’ in Siberia is a warning to our warming planet

Click here to access article by Ian Johnston from the Independent (Britain).

The article reports on a phenomenon that many people see as insuring runaway climate destabilization.

It is known as “the Gateway to the Underworld” by local people who fear to go near the massive crater that suddenly appeared in the frozen heart of Siberia.

And they are right to be afraid. For as the permafrost melts, the world’s biggest “megaslump” is expanding rapidly. 

9/11′s Conspiracy Trio Falling Apart

Click here to access article by Wayne Madsen from Global Research. (Madsen's article on his website is behind a paywall.)

There are times when my mind is completely boggled by the reports from credible sources that expose so many lies about what the US government and its private agents, both of which are sponsored by the One Percent, say or write about what they are doing, and the contrast between their fictional accounts and the evidence that is being accrued by independent investigators and leaked information is ever widening. This morning is one of those times. My brain's computer crash was first triggered by this article, then accelerated with another article entitled "US Government Intentionally Destroys 9/11 Evidence" from Washington's Blog, and finally crashed after reading many of the numerous and solid supporting links to other articles contained in the latter article. 

(I was forced to stop my work by this brain crash for about 20 minutes, and I hope now having recovered most of my faculties that I can intelligently continue.)

I think the main source of my "bogglement" was the realization that there has been so much information revealed about the many huge deceptions practiced by the official and shadow governments, their corporate sponsors and collaborators and yet they continue rather securely in existence! I really don't know how to make sense of this. How much longer can this sea of lies support the Empire's ship?

Notes on the movement against the loi du travail, by a waitress (May 2016)

Click here to access article from libcom.

If you were to only follow corporate news while living in the US, you would be completely unaware of the ongoing since late March of the growing protests and labor strikes that have been occurring across France precipitated by an attempt at passing a new labor bill that will further weaken workers' rights. Those of us who refuse to be deceived and ignorant about what is going on in the rest of the world need to read this piece by a waitress who gives her perspective on what is happening there up until May 26.

The oil strikes and blockades, which are now being reported more in the international press, have been ongoing since Thursday 19th, and with increasing strength. On Thursday we heard it was not possible to get cash or oil in Rennes, since the ATMs were smashed during the manifestation, and the refineries were on strike. This is an explicit case in which the actions of casseurs support the actions of a strike. Every day there has been news of another refinery blocked, a new one evicted. They are often reoccupied. Road blockades are too many to count. 

Jobs Go Off The Cliff As Suicides and Violence Piles Up

Click here to access article by James Corbett from The International Forecaster. 

Corbett sees in employment numbers, election violence, and other signs that we can look forward to an even more disturbing summer and future.

...there are a number of economic, social and political factors that have brought us here, toward a cycle of violence that seems unlikely to stop no matter what way America votes in November. And they are coming to a head. America's second civil war is coming, and the chances of it remaining civil are declining almost as quickly as the economy.

"I totally agree with you about capitalism...."

by cartoonist Ed Koren.