Bitter in Aleppo Defeat, US and EU Seek to Further Demonize Russia

Click here to access article by Finian Cunningham from Strategic Culture Foundation.

With the defeat of terrorists in Syria's largest city, the US-led Empire is sticking to its script--and turning reality on its head--by reporting in their megaphones of corporate media that "rebels" are losing and that populations are suffering due to Russia's assistance to the Syrian government. The control of media and what people think about their world is of primary concern for those who are addicted to power and profits. 

We in independent media must continue our fight to tell the truth and spread our message over our tiny platforms on the internet. As George Orwell learned when he fought in the Spanish Civil War against fascist forces: telling the truth is a revolutionary act. There has never been so much at stake: a nuclear holocaust, widespread poverty, fascists colluding with terrorist forces and running amok in the world, and climate destabilization. It is imperative that we all become revolutionaries by telling the truth as best we see it.

As Russian forces help liberate the Syrian city of Aleppo this week from a four-year terrorist siege, Washington and Europe step up threats of cyber war and economic aggression with sanctions. That’s no coincidence. It is the response of accomplices bitter in defeat.

Perverse isn’t it? Instead of celebrating with the people of Syria over the liberation of Aleppo from terrorists; instead of sending massive humanitarian aid to the tens of thousands of civilians freed after being held under siege for four years by terrorist gangs; instead of commending Russia for its decisive role in restoring peace to Syria’s second biggest city, the US and European Union turn reality on its head and further demonize Moscow.

After you read this article, I urge you to read a more passionate article in defense of the truth-telling in an age of lies orchestrated by ruling class media corporations. The article is entitled "The Ghost of Goebbels Past: The Mainstream Media Declares War on the Alternative Media" by Timothy Alexander Guzman from Silent Crow News.

The author is far more optimistic than I am by concluding with this upbeat message:

The alternative media is now the enemy. “Fake news” accusations against the alternative media are the only weapon they have as the establishment and their MSM minions move forward in an attempt to censor the “real news.” The ghost of Joseph Goebbels whispers in the ears of the establishment and that is for them to “use all of its powers to repress dissent.” It will be an epic failure because the truth always finds its way.

Finally, I recommend viewing the following dramatic presentation by Anonymous who explains how and why our masters in the capitalist ruling class are so preoccupied with distorting news and information, and why they offer so much mindless entertainment so that most people don't even want to think for themselves. Instead their conditioning is designed to persuade people to look to authorities for understanding the world in which they live.

South China Sea: Failing to Find Asian Allies, US Invites UK to Meddle

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

Client regimes the United States and its European allies have cultivated throughout the region have either turned on them or have been effectively removed from power, or even the prospect of ever holding power again.

Congressman calls out CIA on its refusal to provide evidence on Russia election hack

Click here to access article by Kurt Nimmo from Another Day in the Empire.

The CIA is the premier purveyor of fake news and the establishment media routinely passes off spook created fake news as unvarnished truth.

Meanwhile, the compromised corporate media insists Blacklisted News, Activist Post, and other alternative news websites are in the business of disseminating fake news.

The CIA’s refusal is yet another indication the entire affair is a psychological operation.

The Ongoing ‘Fake News’ Battle Obscures The Truth About Fake Democracies

Click here to access article by Michael Nevradakis from Mint Press News.

And throughout all of this...the U.S. media, which is doing a fantastic job keeping the American people woefully and blissfully unaware of anything happening outside the country’s borders, selling this image of the European Union as a warm and fuzzy force for peace, the sole factor responsible for European countries not waging war against each other over the past 70 years. Never mind that they are waging war; since it’s with non-European countries or is in the form of economic warfare, it doesn’t count.

And the biggest cheerleaders of all are perhaps not even the major news outlets such as The New York Times and the Washington Post, but those oh-so-progressive, oh-so-hip and edgy media outlets targeting the young and supposedly enlightened....

Latin America overdoses on Irony as CIA complains Russia rigged US election

Click here to access article from The Rochdale Herald (Britain). (Note: Their "About" section reads: "Daily news, satire and comment from the world's worst local newspaper.)

While you're on the website, I encourage you to peruse other pieces of their work. This is British satire at its best. Enjoy!

My ("conspiracy") theory about the emergence of the Trump faction of the ruling capitalist class

by Ron Horn for this website. (Edited for clarity around 6:45 PM Seattle time.)

Somehow during my reading of a post, an epiphany within which contains a theory that flashed through my mind. I will attempt in the short time remaining before my posting deadline (noon Seattle time) to bring most of the evidence together to support this theory which might account for the split in the US ruling class that has so dramatically been in evidence by events since the election of Trump in issues that have been targeting "fake news" (alternative media) and the alleged Russian hacking of the election. (See this post of mine.)

I will express this theory as follows. The ruling capitalist class split has been caused by the increasing influence among politicos of this class by a faction ("Rockefeller") that wants to pursue a grand strategy of driving a wedge between Russia and China because of a fear in a powerful section of this class of the increasing power of their collusion that is threatening the dominance of US Empire. Hence, the necessity of driving a wedge between the two countries. The old divide and conquer strategy that has worked so well for empire builders.

I offer as Exhibit 1 in support of this theory an excellent article entitled "Russia and China Together”: The Greatest Fear of Donald Trump" posted last year. In this post author Caleb Maupin argued that this was only in Trump's mind, but my theory holds that this is behind the recent emergence of the ruling class faction that has successfully promoted Trump as president.

Exhibit 2 might be even more significant. Zbigniew Brzezinski's startling essay entitled "Toward a Global Realignment" (posted in April of this year) which subtly argued that some sort of accommodation should be reached with at least one of the two nations.

While no state is likely in the near future to match America’s economic-financial superiority, new weapons systems could suddenly endow some countries with the means to commit suicide in a joint tit-for-tat embrace with the United States, or even to prevail. Without going into speculative detail, the sudden acquisition by some state of the capacity to render America militarily inferior would spell the end of America’s global role. The result would most probably be global chaos. And that is why it behooves the United States to fashion a policy in which at least one of the two potentially threatening states becomes a partner in the quest for regional and then wider global stability, and thus in containing the least predictable but potentially the most likely rival to overreach. Currently, the more likely to overreach is Russia, but in the longer run it could be China.

In my commentary to one of my posts I expressed amazement at this startling turnabout from someone (and a powerful influential of the ruling class representing the Rockefeller clan and associates) who had previously exhibited an obsessive hatred of the Russians and the former Soviet Union.

Because I am running out of time, I will list posts which I think also support this theory: "WaPo Does It Again: CIA “Secret” Assessment Discredited By Top US Spy Agency, FBI And CIA Itself", "China Wary of Tillerson Wooing Away Russia", "Will Trump 'Try to Drive a Wedge Between China and Russia'?", and "CBS Disappointed: James Baker says Rex Tillerson will be 'excellent secretary of state'" (Baker, I believe, has been associated with the Rockefeller crowd.).

The Dominant Sector of the Ruling Class Takes Full Control, Part I: A Brief History of the Ruling Class in the U.S.

Click here to access article by Steven Jonas, MD, MPH from The Greanville Post.

I've only had a chance to scan this article before my noon (Seattle time) deadline for posting, but I have been so impressed with what I've seen so far that I am posting it today. It appears to me that Jonas is arguing that Trump's pick (who will still need to be confirmed by the Senate) of Sec. of State, Rex Tillerson who is the CEO of the world's largest corporation, suggests that the dominant faction (Trump's faction) of the ruling class is taking over. This assertion is the reverse of my assertion in yesterday's commentary that the dominant faction was promoting Hillary Clinton. I still think I am correct if one considers who has been in charge of the Empire in recent decades.

Broken Promises: The Structural Legacy of Capitalist Democracies

Click here to access article by James Petras from his website.

Unless you have been sound asleep the last eight years, I recommend that you skip many of the initial paragraphs that the retired professor of sociology devotes to a review of all the lies of Obama and the promises of President-elect Trump. Start at the sub-heading "The Structural Basis of Capitalist Democracy" to get to the real interesting part of his argument which begins as follows:

Under capitalist democracies, Presidents put on the appearance of ‘talking to real folks’ while skillfully working for the biggest capitalists and bankers.

When ‘capitalist democracy’ is under threat and discredited, the search for populist demagogues kicks in.

The half that will never be told. . .

Click here to access article by David Ruccio from Real-World Economics Review Blog.

"The half that will never be told..." (about US history) refers to the huge contribution that African slavery contributed to capitalist fortunes, and those who have inherited this wealth, and its concomitant power, now constitute our ruling class. Thus our contemporary capitalist ruling class, whose agents control all ideological institution of our society, have a vested interest in covering up this history. Ruccio is outraged by the negative reviews of recent books that reveal the role of slavery in the building of capitalist fortunes.

That’s a problem for those of us who work in and around the discipline of economics: mainstream economists are simply unwilling to give up on homo economicus and doggedly refuse to examine either the economic effects of the brutal system of torture that was central to U.S. slavery or the role slave cotton played in the development of U.S. capitalism. Not to mention their arrogance in responding to the work of anyone who argues otherwise.

And that’s why the other half of the story will never be told by mainstream economists.

Note: You might also be interested in a review of a book entitled Capitalism and Slavery by historian Eric Williams.

A list of the best articles regarding the contest between two capitalist ruling factions

by Ron Horn for this website.

The political campaign contest between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton for president has continued after the November election. It appears that the source of the overwhelming support for Clinton by corporate media was promoted by the dominant neocon faction of the capitalist ruling class, whereas Trump drew his support from an upstart faction that is challenging their dominance. 

This unprecedented struggle is likely a symptom of the recent failed policies of the dominant faction in Syria, the failed effort to undermine Russian nationalism under Putin, the failing Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, the growing power of China, other issues like Philippine President Dutarte's efforts at closer relations with China, and a rejection of the Democratic administration, which represented the dominant faction, due to the dissatisfaction of large numbers of citizens with the deteriorating economy for ordinary people. 

The dominant faction is attacking the Trump faction using issues about "fake news" and the alleged Russian influence over the elections, both of which allegedly led to the election of Trump. Leading the dominant faction are corporate media and the CIA (which I believe exercises strong influence over US and most major European media); whereas the Trump faction is as yet much more amorphous, but is drawing support from many major military and corporate leaders. The dominant faction is using the issue of "fake news" to attack alternative websites and independent journalists who exposed corporate media lies and may have caused Clinton to lose the election. The FBI's re-opening of their investigation about Clinton's alleged misuse of emails only eleven days before the election and their recent denials about Russian influence in the election suggests to me that they have been aligned with the Trump faction. 

It is clear that whichever faction of the tiny capitalist Deep State wins, workers and ordinary people will lose. On one side we have the aggressive neocons who are lusting for war with Russia and China, and on the other side we have those who are, at best, indifferent to social identity issues (ethnic and gender), and want to weaken all social programs and lower taxes on business.  

Anyway, here is the list of the best articles that offer their views on this contest (in reverse chronological order by days):

• White House, Clinton campaign intervene in conflict over Russian hacking charges
• Pro-Hillary Dark Forces Plot Anti-Trump Coup?
• EU/UK/USA Closing Down Free Speech Whilst Producing Propaganda On Industrial      Scale
• US Intel Vets Dispute Russia Hacking Claims
• From ‘Fake News’ to ‘Fake Intelligence’
• Trump Trumpets His Real Plans
• U.S. Foreign Policy and the Electoral College Vote. Towards a December 19 Surprise?
• Stop the CIA Coup: The Deep State versus Donald Trump (thanks to Christopher in northwest Oregon)
• Rogue Elements of the CIA Are Operating Against President-elect Trump 
• What Are The Hearsay Leaks About "Russian Election Hacking" Attempting To Achieve?

The Private Vice of Greed Undermines Public Virtue

Click here to access an excerpt from How Will Capitalism End by Wolfgang Streeck posted on TruthOut.

Capitalism in a nutshell: "stagnation, oligarchic redistribution, the plundering of the public domain, corruption and global anarchy".

Behind hacking allegations: Explosive conflict over US policy toward Russia

Click here to access article by Patrick Martin from World Socialist Web Site. 

So, what is going on? We can only speculate because so many important decisions in our country are made in the secretive Deep State where major capitalists mediate issues behind the scenes of public discourse. Considering that the CIA (the FBI is staying safely out of this fray) is a very important agency of the US ruling class and this kind of opposition is unprecedented since the days of John Kennedy's presidency (and we know what happened to him), I think it is a phenomenon that we should pay attention to in the months ahead. I've noticed that foreign media are certainly paying attention. Martin offers his thoughts:

These rapid-fire events, in which intelligence agencies feed the media and the media seeks to stampede public opinion, only underscore the manipulative character of the election process as a whole. The real issues being fought out within the ruling elite—over what tactics and methods to employ against its global rivals—were concealed from the population while a barrage of slanders and scandals was unleashed to provide political cover for a further shift to the right.

Martin also noticed that other issues are obviously unimportant to the ruling capitalist class:

While the campaign on Trump and Russia escalates, neither the Times nor the Democrats devote a fraction of that energy to condemning the cabinet of billionaire reactionaries and generals Trump is assembling or his plans to dismantle Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and public education and eliminate all restrictions on corporate pollution of the environment and all regulations on the banks and big business.

They are entirely focused on preventing any shift under Trump away from the offensive against Russia.

The Syrian-Sarin ‘False Flag’ Lesson

Click here to access article by Ray McGovern from ConsortiumNews.com.

McGovern reviews the history of the false-flag event that resulted in the terrorist war in Syria, the fleeing of millions of refugees to Europe, the toppling of Ukraine's government as a likely act of revenge by Empire operatives, and the aggressive anti-Russian policies ever since. Only a Russian proposal stopped what likely would have resulted in a US invasion of Syria as happened in Iraq with the phony allegations of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. 

This gross false-flag event, which set in motion all the other lies about "moderate rebels", is an illustration of the enormous destructive effects that such deceptive operations can have, and another illustration of the Empire's intolerance of any country that in anyway interferes with their imperial activities.

A review of events leading to the very edge of full-blown U.S. shock-and-awe on Syria three years ago provides a case study with important lessons for new policymakers as they begin to arrive in Washington.

It is high time to expose the whys and wherefores of the almost-successful attempt to mousetrap President Barack Obama into an open attack on Syria three years ago. Little-known and still less appreciated is the last-minute intervention of Russian President Vladimir Putin as deus ex machina rescuing Obama from the corner into which he had let himself be painted.

Accumulating evidence offers persuasive proof that Syrian rebels supported by Turkish intelligence – not Syrian Army troops – bear responsibility for the infamous sarin nerve-gas attack killing hundreds of people on Aug. 21, 2013 in Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus. The incident bears all the earmarks of a false-flag attack.
 

Counter-Propaganda Bill Quietly Creates US Propaganda Factory

Click here to access article by John Laurits from his blog. 

On Thursday December 8th, the US senate quietly passed the National Defense Authorization Act ( or the ‘NDAA’ ) for the fiscal year of 2017. Basically, the NDAA is passed every year to re-approve & add to the United States’ so-called “defense” spending — which is sort of like Christmas for the officials who run the profitable death-machine called “US foreign policy.” However, many would likely be shocked by the ridiculous & terrifying laws that our treacherous congress usually buries inside the yearly bill — for example, congress just used the NDAA to create a “Global Engagement Center,” headed by the Secretary of State. Sounds harmless, right? Well, it might seem that way until you realize that “Global Engagement Center” is code for our new “Ministry of US Propaganda.”

The Beautiful People

Click here to access article by Jay Taber from The Wrong Kind of Green.

The title is meant to be ironic because he soon refers to co-opted people who only participate in "green" circuit tours with their NGO sponsors and companions.

Like his compatriot Naomi Klein, Tom Goldtooth was once a principled and articulate spokesman in opposition to Wall Street, until he was seduced by the dark money flowing from the oil industry into the non-profit industrial complex. Now, like Klein, he is a caricature of his former self, hobnobbing with the elite of the NGO champagne circuit. Reduced in his role to the status of token indigenous front for the pseudo left?—?living out their psychodrama as Wall Street dependents in the toy revolution entertainment sector?—?Goldtooth has become co-opted, or as Chief George Manuel described the phenomenon?—?assimilated.

Extinction is the End Game

Click here to access article by "xraymike79" from his website Collapse of Industrial Civilization.

The bottom line is that a swing towards authoritarianism happens when resources become scarce. Climate change is simply a symptom of humans overshooting the planet’s carrying capacity. Free market ideologues are nearly always climate ‘skeptics’ because acknowledging the reality of human-induced climate change would be an admission that industry must be curtailed or controlled. Left-leaning people nearly always accept the science because it goes along with their criticisms of capitalism which externalizes social and environmental costs for the benefit of just a few at the top of the economic hierarchy. Thus we see parasitic Trump surrounding himself with right-wing, climate denying, fossil fuel corporatists and insiders who will be doing everything in their power to dismantle health and environmental regulations including privatizing social services which are barriers to capitalist expansion.

To be blunt, our chance of developing a sustainable culture passed us by a long time ago.

‘Fake News’: Who is Really Making the War on Truth?

Click here to access article by Michael Jabara Carley from Strategic Culture Foundation. 

When referring to David Ignatius and his recent interview with Richard Stengel, a State Department official responsible for "public diplomacy, Carley writes:

The more the State Department official goes on, the more surreal his narrative becomes. Let’s call it, "truth speak", borrowing from Orwell’s prophetic dystopian novel 1984. Poor Ignatius is as far from a muckraker as you can get, and swallows the whole State Department gob without blinking. Somebody has got "to restore the currency of truth," says the State Department man. He mentioned Twitter and YouTube deleting several hundred thousand accounts.

There’s the cue for policing "the truth". Shut up the people who don’t speak it, according to State Department lights. Just yesterday, the German chancellor Angela Merkel, said "truth" has to be protected and action contemplated against Alternate Media which could threaten "the stability of our familiar order". Is the groundwork being laid in the west for censorship of discordant narratives?

Carley refers to Seymour Hersh as the only major muckraking journalist left in the US. Hersh, of course, is especially noted for his exposés of the Mai Lai massacre, the development of nuclear weapons by the Israelis, the lies of George Bush and David Rumsfeld regarding their promotion of the invasion of Iraq, torture at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and the very important article entitled "Redirection" that reported on the secret policy plans of the Bush administration to contain Iran and support Sunni extremist groups that espoused a militant vision of Islam which later evolved into ISIS. 

What Carley omits is that Hersh, like many other US journalists, have been forced to seek out independent media abroad to express their views. Hersh no longer publishes his articles in The New Yorker, instead he now has his writings published in the London Review of Books. Other US independent journalists (like Carley) are welcome to express their critical views in foreign media outlets such as RT, Strategic Culture Foundation, teleSUR, etc., in addition to domestic alternative media.

It appears that 1984 arrived a little late, but there is little doubt of its existence now. 

Note: You might also be interested in an article entitled "Washington Post admits article on 'Russian propaganda' and 'fake news' based on sham research" published on RT (another website that is on PropOrNot's blacklist).

Synthetic Terrorism: Federal Court Upholds Another FBI-Manufactured Terror Case

Click here to access a 6:54m video by Spiro Skouras from Newsbud (a non-commercial viewer supported website).

This week the 9th circuit court of appeals upheld the conviction of the would be Portland Oregon Christmas tree bomber. The federal court rejected the defense’s argument that the FBI had entrapped the defendant and that the FBI unconstitutionally collected his emails without a warrant. Not only does this ruling uphold warrantless surveillance, it also legitimizes the government's tactics to manufacture terror plots against Americans.

I remember this incident very well having been a resident of Oregon for 15 years. It was clear to me then, as well as now, that this was a clear case of FBI inducement and entrapment of an unwitting person (a student at Oregon State University) to commit a terrorist incident that would not have occurred without their involvement.

Newsbud Exclusive Report- A Distillation [of] DOD Spending Spree for November 2016

Click here to access article by Christian Sorensen from Newsbud (a non-commercial viewer supported website).

The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) spent at least $33,413,000,000 on 186 individual contracts during November 2016. This amount does not include nineteen Foreign Military Sales transactions worth $1,869,924,000.

This report gives one an understanding of the importance of the military-industrial complex to the functioning of the US war economy. Unfortunately, most of the spending will not improve our infrastructure or have any other benefits to the economic well-being of the vast majority of Americans with the exception of people employed by these companies. In addition there is one tiny segment of the population that will derive major "benefits" by these largely no-bid contracts: they will supply the drugs of power and profits that our masters in the capitalist ruling class are addicted to. 

I wonder how these expenditures compare with those that supposedly promote "human rights" which our masters pretend to vigorously support in the world. What is certain is that while our masters are getting high on their drugs, many in the world will experience more misery from the loss of their loved-ones, the destruction of their countries, and becoming war refugees in foreign lands.