in the time remaining, to help us understand how the man-made system of capitalism will lead to the extinction of our human species, and so many others.
This largely Balkan and eastern Europe based website features an interview with Hungarian historian Tamás Krausz who remarks on the state of the political left in Hungary. It is not an attractive picture. However, once again my attention was drawn to the importance of the control of media for propaganda purposes.
Orbán’s secret does not consist merely of the fact that he has installed an authoritarian regime that uses nationalist-populist rhetoric to blame Brussels for Hungary’s problems. .... Through his politics of concentration of power, Orbán has managed to gain control of virtually all electronic media. With an arrogance reminiscent of Goebbels, he has set about an ideological reshaping of the entire Hungarian society, and it appears that indeed the majority of Hungarian society has turned into adherents of nationalistic and xenophobic policies.
Agents of the US-led Empire and their capitalist allies everywhere are excelling at this. Compared to Empire propagandists, the worldwide left seems to be at a tremendous disadvantage; and the results do not bode well for the billions everywhere who hunger for real democracy, peace, and social justice. It seems like Empire propagandists have successfully worked their magic everywhere: Poland, Ukraine, now in Syria, and the use of propaganda by NGOs in color revolutions in other countries.
It is an obvious fact that the oligarchic One Percent have anointed Hillary, despite her myriad problems to be President of the US. There are reports that her staff are already moving into their White House offices. This much confidence before the vote does suggest that the skids have been greased.
The current cause celebre against Trump is his conditional statement that he might not accept the election results if they appear to have been rigged. The presstitutes immediately jumped on him for “discrediting American democracy” and for “breaking American tradition of accepting the people’s will.”
What nonsense! Stolen elections are the American tradition.
This economist and geopolitical analyst is also concerned about the US-led Empire's deep hole that their directors are digging themselves in in the Middle East. Could they be drifting into a Dr. Strangelove frame of mind in order to climb out of this hole by instigating a false-flag event that could bring on a nuclear war conflragration? He examines this insane possibility.
Currently the US is secretly on DEFCON level 3 warning against a Russian nuclear attack (DEFCON = Defense Readiness Condition). The American public doesn’t know it. – Level 3 means an attack could be days away; level one would imply an imminent attack within less than an hour. This in itself is a false flag, a make-believe that a first strike may come from Russia, when the Pentagon hawks openly boast that a first preventive strike is not off the table. Some high level generals even push for it.
There is a massive orchestrated build-up of potential false flags around the globe that would allow a first strike nuclear attack on several fronts against Russia, Syria, Iran and China, by the US armed forces, NATO and the European vassals’ own armies. Israel is poised to launch an attack against Iran.
We don’t believe that Wall Street banking executives have ever plotted the destruction of the United States. We believe the majority want their children and grandchildren to grow up in a socially stable America. But we also believe they have been blinded by their greed, their multi-million dollar bonuses, their mansions in Greenwich, their yachts and penthouses, from consciously acknowledging that their actions brought us to the brink and continue to endanger America’s economy and future.
Congress has known for some time that the structure of Wall Street and its Federal regulators is contributing to egregiously harmful cartel activity.
In spite of Federal anti-trust laws and denials by bank officials, the Martens find that banking officers are meeting in secret. But that is the way the way capitalist government works in the heart of the global US Empire: denials and massive deceptions. They use fig leafs of laws to hide their obscene practices of Wealth by Stealth. Capitalist ruling class pundits always claim that we have regulatory agencies to monitor corporate behavior to insure that they follow the laws. But the catch is that they always staff these regulatory agencies with their own people, and likewise capitalists fund Congressmen who write the Swiss-cheese laws that these agencies are supposed to enforce. The same is true with the banking industry as you will learn in this report.
Click here to access article by James Holbrooks from Mint Press News. (Note: I thank my supporters, Caren and Christopher, who have created a sustainable small farm in northwest Oregon for pointing me to this recent development.)
...Reuters is reporting that Duterte announced his official separation from the U.S while speaking in Beijing at a forum in the Great Hall of the People.
“In this venue, your honors, in this venue, I announce my separation from the United States,” Duterte said on Thursday, to wild applause from both Chinese and Filipino business people. Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli, incidentally, was also in attendance.
Duterte went further than this, however, stating “America has lost” both militarily and economically in its pursuit of imperialistic hegemony. Interestingly, his comments come a day after Filipino police drove a van into a crowd of demonstrators protesting against U.S. imperialism in the region.
I'm sure that the Philippine government and especially its police and military forces are laced with people who are paid by and serve the US Empire. Hence the incident referred to in the last sentence above. There will be many further such incidents to remove Duterte from office or maybe even kill him.
Well, I don't know if he can validly assert that the truth about the alleged email hacking of Hillary's emails is "more shocking than you expected". At least I was not shocked, and I imagine that the followers of my website will not be shocked at all. Anyway I think you will find that he convincingly argues the real background to this Russian hacking fairy tale put out by corporate media.
...there is not one scrap of evidence of Russian government involvement.
The corporate media is trying to lay blame for the hacking of Podesta's and other Clinton campaign officials' email on Russian President Vladimir Putin. That is because the Democrats do not want to be embarrassed by admitting that the real culprits are hackers who want to know more about Podesta's knowledge of the "little gray aliens." It is the fault of Podesta and Mr. and Mrs. Clinton that they have attracted, with their talk about aliens, every computer hacker and script kiddie on the planet hungry for any morsel held in government and private computers about ET.
Just when most people believed the 2016 presidential election could not become any stranger, it has taken a nose dive into the “Twilight Zone.” As far as this writer’s knowledge of hackers, it was my job to monitor hacker operations throughout the 1980s and 1990s for the NSA, Department of State, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and U.S. Navy. It was clear then, as it is evident today, that computer hacking blamed on nefarious “state-supported” hackers was almost always the result of a teenager connected to a modem from his or her parents’ basement.
Unfortunately for the ruling Elite and their army of engorged enablers and apologists, they have already lost the consent of the governed. They have bamboozled, conned and misled the bottom 95% for decades, but their phony facade of political legitimacy and “the rising tide raises all boats” has cracked wide open, and the machinery of oppression, looting and propaganda is now visible to everyone who isn’t being paid to cover their eyes.
Brimming with hubris and self-importance, the ruling Elite and mainstream media cannot believe they have lost the consent of the governed. The disillusioned governed have not fully absorbed this epochal shift of the tides yet, either. They are aware of their own disillusionment and their own declining financial security, but they have yet to grasp that they have, beneath the surface of everyday life, already withdrawn their consent from a self-serving, predatory, parasitic, greedy and ultimately self-destructive ruling Elite.
Click here to access article by Bill Van Auken from World Socialist Web Site. The US-led Empire is waging a massive and comprehensive propaganda war against its own populations, and sources like Wikileaks must be destroyed or access to their information severely restricted in order for the Empire's war-mongers to be successful in their pursuit of profits and domination throughout the world. Because truth is the enemy of the Empire and Julian Assange and Wikileaks have been exposing so many of the Empire's lies and evil deeds, Assange and Wikileaks have become one of many of the Empire's list of enemies to be eliminated. Auken reports in this article the extent to which they have gone to silence him and Wikileaks, and their efforts to smear the many released embarrassing emails as contaminated by the nefarious machinations of Russia, another top enemy of theirs. He smells an odor of desperation in their efforts at suppressing reports of the Empire's war crimes, their ongoing theft of the wealth created by working people in the US and throughout the world, and the corrupt functioning of what is supposed to be a democratic system of rule.
The use of such tactics is a measure of how terrified the US ruling class has become in the face of growing mass hostility to both major political parties and their two abhorrent candidates. Their fear is that the relentless exposure of the inner workings of a government of the rich, by the rich and for the rich is robbing the existing political setup of what little legitimacy it had left within the population, and creating the conditions for a political radicalization within the working class and social upheavals, whoever is elected on November 8.
If you need to know how to interpret corporate media reports on the conflicts in Syria and Yemen, reading this article is a must. Here is a sample:
That Washington protests so vehemently about the humanitarian consequences of Syria’s campaign to liberate East Aleppo from Al Qaeda, while US forces and their allies kill civilians through airstrikes, artillery bombardments and siege-related famine and disease in campaigns to capture territory from Islamic State, Yemen’s Houthi rebels, and Syria’s secular Arab nationalists, invites the obvious question: Why the double standard? Why does the Western heart beat for the civilians harmed in the campaign to liberate East Aleppo but not for the civilians harmed by Western campaigns to bring territory under the control of the United States and its proxies?
The answer, in short, is that Al Qaeda is a US asset in Washington’s campaign to overthrow the Arab nationalists in Damascus, and therefore Washington objects to military operations which threaten its ally.
This article provides an example of a grass-roots, citizen organized media organization. I have often argued that a nationwide network of such organizations is essential to insure the dissemination of accurate information within our nation which is inundated with largely pro-ruling class propaganda from corporate media. Also I believe that the very operation of such an independent media would threaten the rule of the capitalist class and thereby function as the most promising catalyst to organize an effective revolutionary organization throughout the United States.
As you can see in this article, the Unicorn Riot media collective, which is based in Minneapolis, is providing ongoing coverage of the struggle waged by indigenous populations and other concerned citizens against the Dakota Access Pipeline just south of Bismarck, North Dakota.
Since April 1st, 2016, Unicorn Riot has been covering the Sacred Stone Spirit Camp, and the subsequent #NoDAPL movement, to stop construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) underneath both the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers.
Over three hundred tribes have come together to say no to the Dakota Access Pipeline. We’ve lived in a camp alongside these nations, sharing their culture and traditions and standing united in what some have called the largest gathering of Native people since 1898.
Over the last month, various law enforcement agencies, private mercenary organizations, and other DAPL assets, have expanded their aerial surveillance, “information” checkpoints, and use of heavily armed riot police backed by MRAP‘s and Bearcat armored vehicles. Amidst the militarized crackdown on demonstrations against the pipeline, hundreds of people have been arrested, including four Unicorn Riot journalists.
Click here if you wish to access this portion of an audio interview with David Icke directly via YouTube. (Note: this appears to be a radio interview or podcast conducted by some American radio station or website. This morning I have spent far too much time trying, and failing, to locate the source.) (Note 2: edited at 3:45 Pm Seattle time following a comment by one of my astute readers.)
In the following interview with Icke he offers so many accurate insights about current major events--far beyond merely his views about Trump. He is also trying to use many other means of expressing his views mostly by directly talking to audiences across Britain, Canada, Europe, and the United States.
All that I know accurately about David Icke is that he has had an extensive career as a sports broadcaster and commentator in Britain. If you consult Wikipedia regarding him, you will find a major smear piece referring frequently to him as a "conspiracy theorist". While I have often used Wikipedia as an accurate source reference, I know that anyone can enter a piece on this website and have it posted by meeting certain standards of the managers of the website. This involves mostly the furnishing of documentation for the contents. Clearly whoever posted this entry had major motivations to undermine the views of Icke. Look at the length of it! You would think that Icke was a major world figure. But the truthful views expressed by Icke are a major threat to the Empire's fake version of reality as expressed in their corporations' media.
I urge you to listen to the entire 54:41m interview and decide for yourself, as an independent, informed, and critical thinker, if he knows what he is talking about. I think you will agree that the deep state that governs the Empire desperately need to prevent his views from being heard or taken seriously in order to superimpose their ongoing narrative about the major realities of today's world.
On the other hand, this could be a brilliant piece of "psyop" propaganda--see the two comments that follow this post.
Bernhard is a master at dissecting news from major and more obscure, but accurate media sources to find what is really going on especially in the Middle East where US Empire forces are so active. In this piece he takes some information from a NY Times article to construct a fairly new model that the Empire uses (for example in Somalia), and has used, to destabilize countries and spread chaos.
Somalia is an example of the "failed states" the U.S. now creates wherever it goes. A "failed state" then justifies further involvement. The "model" applies around the world:
The Somalia campaign is a blueprint for warfare that President Obama has embraced and will pass along to his successor. It is a model the United States now employs across the Middle East and North Africa — from Syria to Libya — despite the president’s stated aversion to American “boots on the ground” in the world’s war zones. This year alone, the United States has carried out airstrikes in seven countries and conducted Special Operations missions in many more. [from the NY Times]
Such wars are mostly "off the book". Congressional oversight does not happen for them as the impact within the U.S. is too small. The media are practically excluded. The money comes out of secret CIA and special forces accounts or is shaken out of some friendly U.S. client state like Saudi Arabia. No one will find out what methods of force or "interrogation" are used and as those prisoners vanish in some local warlord's dungeon, no one is likely to ever find out....
It was presumably intended as an Israeli history lesson to the world. A video posted to social media by Israel’s foreign ministry shows an everyday Jewish couple, Jacob and Rachel, in a home named the "Land of Israel". A series of knocks on the door brings 3,000 years of interruptions to their happiness. First it’s the Assyrians, followed by the Babylonians, Hellenists, Arabs, Romans, Crusaders, Mamluks, and Ottomans – all straight out of Monty Python central casting.
Jacob and Rachel are forced by the warring factions to relocate to ever smaller parts of their home until finally they have to pitch a tent in the garden. Their fortunes change only with the arrival of a servant of the British Empire who returns the title deeds. A final knock disturbs their celebrations. On the doorstep are a penniless Palestinian couple, craning their necks to see what goodies await them inside.
Click here if you wish to access the 22:31 history as interpreted by Abby Martin and inspired by her recent trip to the area.
Previewing Abby Martin’s on-the-ground investigation in Palestine, The Empire Files looks at the long history of Zionist colonization, expansion and expulsion of Palestine’s indigenous inhabitants.
Giving critical historical context the occupation today, this timeline explores the creation of the state of Israel and how it came to cover so much land since. From the early settlements, to the Nakba, to it’s conquest of the West Bank, Abby Martin reveals the brutally honest root of what is behind the so-called “Israel-Palestine conflict.”
The thought-controlling American intelligentsia essentially serve as
high priests of the state religion—another phrase borrowed from Noam
Chomsky, who has written, “There is indeed something truly religious in
the fervor with which responsible American intellectuals have sought to
deny plain fact and to secure their dogmas concerning American
benevolence, the contemporary version of the ‘civilizing mission.’”
Here the author is referring to the state religion of capitalism and the power that this faith-based system has given a tiny group of people who control the US-led Empire, aka the Anglo-American Empire. To cover up the owners' narcissistic pursuit of profits and power, the well-paid media disciples preach sermons of benevolence, humanitarian wars, "democracy", etc. The capitalist directors of the Empire colluded with Zionists to construct a fortress in the Middle East, known as Israel, to insure that Empire capitalists would control the valuable oil resources of the region.
Bernhard often micro-analyzes conflicts down to obscure details which I am not interested. But my main takeaway from this article is the convincing evidence he provides to explain the Empire's very active promotion and participation in the attack on Mosul in northern Iraq.
The attack on Mosul proceeds on three axes. From the north Kurdish Peshmerga under U.S. special force advisors lead the fighting. Iraqi forces attack from the east and south. The way to the west, towards Syria, is open. The intend of the U.S. is to let ISIS fighters, several thousand of them, flee to Deir Ezzor and Raqqa in Syria. They are needed there to further destroy the Syrian state.
Read the article if you still need to know roughly why all US elections are rigged to exclude anyone that opposes unbridled capitalism.
Is the election rigged? Of course it is—to produce an outcome acceptable to the ruling class. The entire political system is rigged and fundamentally undemocratic because capitalism is a system of class exploitation in which real political power is concentrated in the hands of a corporate-financial oligarchy.
Click here to access article by David Dayen from New Republic. (Edited for clarity around 2:50 PM Seattle time.)
I think that Dayen in this article reveals much more than he intended about the way political power works in the capitalist-ruled United States of America, and especially about the political facade that capitalist power brokers have mostly constructed since WWII. He obscured these revelations by focusing narrowly on factions within the Democratic Party.
It's no wonder that he appeals to so many media executives of what passes for left-of-center media as described in his bio. It is his skill at reporting reality while, at the same time, truncating and obfuscating the real significance of the political realities of what he is writing about. This is a very important skill that the more reputable corporate media really values.
In this piece he lends a leftist cachet to his analysis by using Wikileaks references to emails of the co-chair of Obama's transition team, John Podesta (now Hillary's campaign chairman), that occurred before he was elected. Dayen then brings us up-to-date by describing a minority branch of the Party that represents Elizabeth Warren who wants some sops given to the middle class.
However, it's clear who is really in control of the candidates--the financial oligarchy from Citigroup, Goldman-Sachs, and the private equity firm of Blackstone. However Dayen seems unconcerned about the anti-democratic nature of political power in the US. By focusing our attention only on which faction of this financial oligarchy will determine the key figures or handlers in the Hillary Clinton's administration, he serves to normalize the rule of the highest layer of the capitalist ruling class.
Who gets these cabinet-level and West Wing advisory jobs matters as much as policy papers or legislative initiatives. It will inform executive branch priorities and responses to crises. It will dictate the level of enforcement of existing laws. It will establish the point of view of an administration and the advice Hillary Clinton will receive. Its importance cannot be stressed enough, and the process has already begun.
Could this be what passes for muckraking journalism in 21st century America?
While this military/para-military operation is moving forward, we need to use our diplomatic and more traditional intelligence assets to bring pressure on the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL [Isis] and other radical Sunni groups in the region.
I've often expressed my astonishment regarding the use of gross war propaganda by the most responsible section of corporate media. I ask you, is the functioning of this media any different than what existed in Nazi Germany in the 1930s? This is more evidence that a system of fascism rules in America, but an updated one that rules behind a rather thin facade of "democracy" and perception management. However if our masters have their way, the results will likely be the same--except that the devastation will be infinitely worse.
The U.S. government ... has built extensive propaganda operations around the world that pump out all sorts of half-truths and disinformation to put U.S. adversaries on the defensive, with the American financial hand kept hidden so the public is more likely to trust the claims of supposedly independent voices.
Click here to access article by Adeyinka Makinde from his blog. Makinde reviews the extensive history of the 20th century's Cold War and the current continuing development of Cold War 2.0 in the 21st century which he sees as more dangerous. Whereas the earlier version was prevented from developing into a nuclear conflagration because of a militant peace movement and leaders like John F. Kennedy, nowadays both seem to be missing.
Unlike during the Cold War, there are no large, vocal anti-nuclear campaign groups organising demonstrations and making public appeals. While there is a press, the American mainstream media has failed to put these issues squarely into the public domain. The coverage of dangerous Russo-American confrontations such as Ukraine and Syria which ultimately should bring the wider issue of nuclear strategy to the fore is edited, biased and highly compartmentalized. Among America’s political leadership there is silence and incoherence. This state of affairs has resulted in a misdirected discourse and a cruelly misinformed public.
It is a debate which America continues to bypass at its own peril.
The key to the police state operations of the US in the 21st century is to repress pro-democracy citizens and pre-empt any mass movement without undermining the electoral system, which provides political theater and legitimacy. A police state ‘boundary’ is constructed to ensure that citizens will have little option but to vote for the two pro-police state parties, legislatures and executives without reference to the conduct, conditions and demands of the core, inner and outer circle of victims, critics and activists. Frequent raids, harsh public ‘exemplary’ punishment and mass media stigmatization transmit a message to the passive mass of voters and non-voters that the victims of repression ‘must have been doing something wrong’ or else they would not be under police state repression.
The key to the police state strategy is to not allow its critics to gain a mass base, popular legitimacy or public acceptance.
Also you might be interested to see in the following video how Adeyinka Makinde argues that "NATO is a private club of war criminals".