Kevin Barrett speaks about growing censorship at a KPFA rally

Listen to Barret cite the growing censorship all over America and now at the home of the free speech movement in Berkeley, California. (I did volunteer work at KPFA in the early 1990s.)

Facebook Allies With U.S. Regime-Change Orgs For 'Fact Checking' In Foreign Countries

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

In consequence of the alleged manipulation of new and opinions during the 2016 election, Congress threatened to regulate social media. It demanded testimony by the owners of social media companies - Facebook, Twitter and Google - about their plans to weed out so called "fake news" distributed through their systems. Instead of defending the freedom of individuals and organizations to publish opinions deviating from the mainstream, the companies promised to increase their censorship capabilities. To avoid to make judgments themselves, they decided to outsource these to 'independent' fact checking organizations. Anything those deem "fake news" will then be censored.

Facebook Inc just gave such powers to two well known U.S. government regime change operators. 

I applaud his concluding paragraph:

The best way to avoid such campaigns and censorship of so called social media is to avoid them entirely. One can still get an objective view of the world by looking for original news sources and by applying a skeptical view towards presented "facts". It on us to teach others how to do this. 

Film review: The Spider’s Web – Britain’s Second Empire [a "best post"]

Click here to access article by Joel Benjamin from OpenDemocracy. (Note on Friday: I watched this video last night and I was very impressed! It's a must-see for all activists.)

I'm short of time today and didn't view the film and only scanned the article-review. However, I am posting it because the article and the one hour 18 minute video (below) regarding the secretive City of London is being posted on other websites that I consider reliable. I will view the video this evening.

The Spider’s Web offers unique insight into the British Empire, both past and present, and its colonies and far flung outposts. This is a story which, if known at all, is often understood through a rose tinted view of what that British Empire actually represented. The Spider’s Web details how the former Empire was transformed after World War 2 into a new financial empire of offshore tax havens and secrecy jurisdictions.

Articles recommended for Thursday, September 20, 2018

• Russia reveals the MH17 ‘smoking gun’ by Pepe Escobar from Asia Times.

• US Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard Blasts America’s Support for Al-Qaeda in Syria, as Trump Threatens Further Military Action by Mohamed Elmaazi from Global Research.

• America: The garrison state by Andre Damon from World Socialist Web Site.

Guest Media Alert by John Pilger: 'Hold the front page. The reporters are missing'

Click here to access article by John Pilger, the unofficial dean of honest reporting, posted on Media Lens. 

Pilger describes the descent of journalism which corresponds in my view with the assent of the US-led transnational capitalist Empire after WWII. Now the imperialist Empire is not only using their media corporations and all institutions of Western societies to spread their propaganda, but is also starting down the road of outright censorship of alternative media that dares to challenge their propaganda. He concludes the article with this very insightful observation:

So much of the mainstream has descended to this level. Subjectivism is all; slogans and outrage are proof enough. What matters is the "perception".

When he was US commander in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus declared what he called "a war of perception... conducted continuously using the news media". What really mattered was not the facts but the way the story played in the United States. The undeclared enemy was, as always, an informed and critical public at home.

Nothing has changed. In the 1970s, I met Leni Riefenstahl, Hitler's film-maker, whose propaganda mesmerised the German public.

She told me the "messages" of her films were dependent not on "orders from above", but on the "submissive void" of an uninformed public.

"Did that include the liberal, educated bourgeoisie?" I asked.

"Everyone," she said. "Propaganda always wins, if you allow it."

Ecosocialism’s Greatest Challenge: The Color-Line and the Twenty-First Century Ecoleft

Click here to access article by Ted Franklin from System Change not Climate Change (SCNCC). 

After describing the recent 30,000 people march in San Francisco organized by It Takes Roots and the doubts about its effectiveness, the author asks "What does this all mean for the future of ecosocialism?" Then he lists the first of three major reasons:

First, it means we means we who belong to largely white ecosocialist groups have many allies with deep roots in communities of color who share our understanding that capitalism is incompatible with a decent future for life on our planet.

Recommended articles for Wednesday, September 19, 2018

• Emma Fiala on the Women's March on the Pentagon, an interview (for activists) with Fiala by James Corbett from his website. Of special interest is the planned demonstration in Washington DC in October as an alternative to the corporate media-supported Women's March of last year.

• Middle Eastern Take on the Turkish-American Face Off by Yuriy Zinin from New Eastern Outlook. He seems to have an informed and sincere understanding of the mysterious role that Turkey under President Erdogan is presently playing vis-à-vis USA and its European puppets.

• Two Major Middle East Projects Are Afoot & Gaining Mass; They May Collide Before Long by Alastair Crooke from Strategic Culture Foundation. 

I don't usually post articles like this that I see as highly speculative; however considering that it is written by Crooke, a former MI-6 agent and now independent geopolitical analyst, I offer it to those who want to follow closely geopolitical political events in the often obscure Middle East. He sees two strategies or projects backed by powerful Empire agents that could have major impacts on political events in the Middle East.

Presenting The Syria Deception: Al Qaeda Goes to Hollywood (VIDEO)

Click here to access article by Dan Cohen from Gray Zone.

This article and especially the video (reproduced below) illustrates how the US Empire uses its massive control over all their media institutions, which includes Hollywood as well as their media corporations, to concoct propaganda in support of its imperialist projects. There is no shortage of people who can be bribed or national governments allied to the Empire to participate in their propaganda campaigns. Click on the video to access it directly from YouTube and notice how YouTube, owned by Google corporation, discourages people from viewing the video. At least they don't have the nerve (yet) to completely censor the video as they have some other websites, videos, and even books.



It is the comprehensive coverage of this propaganda or its pervasive coverage throughout the institutions of media, entertainment, and even education that makes it so effective in convincing ordinary people of its validity. People who are constantly exposed to this insidious propaganda from such a variety of sources are rather easily convinced of its truthfulness.

Other recommended articles for Monday, September 17, 2018

• Global warming’s paper trail by Benjamin Franta from Japan Times.

• Silicon Valley’s corrupt nexus: War, censorship and inequality by Andre Damon from World Socialist Web Site. 

• Amazon’s worth $1 trillion, so why is it robbing taxpayers? by Jim Hightower from Intrepid Report.

Mindful Economics: [a] Review & analysis

Click here to access article and book review by Patrice Greanville from The Greanville Post. 

Although this article is formally entitled "Understanding Capitalism", it is really a very positive scholarly review of the book entitled Mindful Economics by Joel C. Magnuson in which, he argues, leads to a real understanding of capitalism. In his introduction to his review, Greanville goes at some length to show that economic theory as taught and interpreted in the USA has over time degenerated into a method to induce a widespread false consciousness in order to obscure how the economy really works for the benefit of a few at the expense and misery of the vast majority. 

As might be expected the instruments to mould opinion in a significant manner are jealously guarded by the ruling classes everywhere. In capitalist America, these tools are literally priced out of the reach of most common mortals. This is logical and consistent with the wealth and power distribution of such societies, where the savvier sectors of the plutocracy understand that the monopoly of opinion manipulation is vital to the survival of their system. Outright repression can certainly ensure a level of compliance, sometimes for a generation or two, but in the long run intimidation cannot guarantee political stability or legitimacy. Only covert mind control can deliver that. Thus by far the most efficient solution is when we are made to carry the chains and prisons right inside our heads. Policing our own actions while still believing in our total freedom is simply a diabolically effective formula to ensure perpetual bondage, but to make it fly the system requires the confluence of many critical factors, including the complicity of academia.

Articles I recommend for Sunday, September 16, 2018

• Erdogan, Putin to Meet Monday in Sochi as Turkey Moves More Weapons into Syria from 21st Century Wire.

• The Bluffer’s Guide to Bombing Syria by Peter Ford, former British Ambassador to Syria, posted on 21st Century Wire.

• Analyzing the business behind the controversial Nike Kaepernick ads by William Bayless from News Rep. 

• Elections, Power, & the DSA: The Failure of the Left in Power from It's Going Down.

Along with obsession over “ANTIFA,” the growth of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) in the wake of Bernie Sanders’ failed Presidential run has garnished mass attention in the press, been demonized by the Right, and also embraced by some sections of the liberal class as the new shepherds of the Democratic Party.

Meanwhile, the DSA has continued to explode in membership, hitting over 50,000 dues paying members in recent weeks. While some DSA backed politicians have become house hold names as the DNC aligned media smells blood in the water in the lead up to the midterms, DSA chapters have also become a fixture at protests and demonstrations, from fighting against the Alt-Right to supporting strikes.

But key questions remains, will the DSA be used, much as Bernie Sanders’ campaign was used, to activate key sections of millennials and the working poor, and prime them for elections? 

Why we’re blind to the system destroying us [a "best post"]

Click here to access article by Jonathan Cook, a British independent journalist, from his blog. 

This British journalist has been located in the Middle East where it is much easier to identify the obvious evidence of power influencing the way information is shaped by all the powerful owners of media corporations to promote the power and profits of our masters in the ruling capitalist class. He has been among the leaders that led the effort to warn about this encroachment on truth-telling by the powerful; and true to his insights, he has pursued, probably at great material sacrifice, a very independent career in journalism. There is much to be learned from his articles, and we need to support his independent journalism especially because it is disappearing due to the overwhelming presence of corporate media.

In this article he attempts to explain the blinding effects of corporate journalism which functions to prevent us from seeing the truth about important events (and many minor ones) in the world that impinge upon the power of capitalist elites. Although people can recognize abuses of power by individuals, they are prevented from seeing the abuses of power that are promoted by the neoliberal (advanced capitalist) system that sustains power and wealth for a very few who own the media (and nearly everything else of value).

Because the abuse of power by our fundamental system of capitalism is so pervasive and kept well-hidden, I urge readers to not only read this article, but to study it. And the same goes for two major links included in the article: the links to previous articles from Media Lens here (the latter is the same article which he posts in his own blog) and here, and other references in the latter articles.

Recommended online posts for Friday, September 14, 2018

• Ten Years After the Crash, We’ve Learned Nothing by Matt Taibbi from Rolling Stone.

Taibbi, like most reform critics of our capitalist society, complains (sheds crocodile tears) about the effects of the 2008 economic collapse on the poor. Of course, this is true about all the periodic crashes of the capitalist economy.

... everyone in the upper echelon of the finance community got Paid In Full in the bailout, even the exact people who screwed up the worst. But outside Manhattan? It was like Warren Buffet’s partner Charlie Munger sneered: People should just “suck it in and cope.”

The biggest victims in this miserable story turned out to be poor, nonwhite, and elderly.

He also writes:

The deal those bankers cooked up was to save the banks from capitalism.

Losers must be allowed to lose. It’s the first and most important regulatory mechanism in a market economy.

But by 2008, the banks had simply grown too big and interconnected to allow normal market processes to take place.

Notice that Taibbi, like other reformist critics, limits his criticism and suggests that we need only to make improvements on capitalism. He apparently doesn't understand that the system was designed to serve a sociopathic few at the expense of the many, and this phenomenon that he complains about is inevitable. Such critics deflect any basic criticisms of the system which are now becoming obvious: the system itself is the problem.

• Aftermath Of Disasters Reveal A Hidden Truth  This was a segment of last's night RT's Redacted Tonight program (carried on RT every Thursday evening and picked up on YouTube the next day--Fridays) that features comic Lee Camp and others. The "Hidden Truth"? Well, watch the segment and draw your own conclusions. (Tip: it has something to do with the behavior that's promoted under the system of capitalism.) 

Actually, I advise people who need relief from viewing, reading, or listening to mainstream corporate sources and opinions to view this program. It is a powerful antidote to the corporate issued poison which can produce so many kinds of delusional behavior in otherwise normal adults.

9/11 Legacy: Two Contending Fascisms

Click here to access article by Glen Ford, editor of Black Agenda Report. 

I thoroughly agree with this assessment of the 9/11 false-flag event which enabled our capitalist masters to accelerate imperialist adventures, the domestic suppression of dissent, and impose economic sacrifices--all characteristics of the final stage of capitalism which is fascism. Notice that the word "fascism" is not a meaningless smear word, but a very meaningful concept that sheds light on what is happening in the USA and much of its empire. 

Ford describes the two factions of fascist capitalists fighting it out in Washington.

Two contending, yet interrelated, forms of fascism are vying for supremacy in the U.S. Both fascisms are anchored in the leadership of their respective duopoly parties, which together monopolize the national political conversation. Thus, fascism is “mainstream” politics in the United States, as reflected in the daily diatribes between the warmongering, Russian stooge-hunting, neo-McCarthyite, corporate Democratic “Resistance” and the race-mongering, Dixiecrat-Republican, law and order-loving (but also white mob rule-friendly) troglodytes aligned with Donald Trump.

“Fascism is “mainstream” politics in the United States.”

These are not polar opposite fascisms, of course. Both are American exceptionalist — another term for imperialist — and both are thoroughly capitalist, tailored to the rule of the rich. The major difference between the two, is race.

Articles recommended on Thursday, September 13, 2018 as honest attempts to help you understand the global chaos, or cope with the chronic lies of our masters

• How Did the Saudi Government Participate in 9/11 and What’s Happening with JASTA? by Ammar al-Shami from Geopolitics Alert.

• As White House Coups Go, Wall Street Has Staged Plenty by Pam Martens and Russ Martens from their blog Wall Street on Parade.

• The Chorus Grows for the Fed to Buy Up Stocks in the Next Wall Street Crisis by Pam Martens and Russ Martens from their blog Wall Street on Parade.

• Making Quagmires in Syria Is a Step Towards ‘Regime-Change’ in DC by Alastair Crooke from Strategic Culture Foundation. 

• Problem, Reaction, Solution: US Bait Arrives in Idlib, ISIS Now in Position by Vanessa Beeley from 21st Century Wire. 

• Syria - Turkish Tantrum Delays Liberation Of Idleb by Bernhard from Moon of Alabama. 

• On the Censorship of Michael Hoffman's Books by Amazon by The Saker (Andrei Raevsky) from The Unz Review. Yes, Jeff Bezos has joined the censors now that he has a virtual monopoly in the sale of books!

• Putin-Nazi Paranoia by CJ Hopkins from his blog Consent Factory, Inc.  This satirical post is to help you psychologically to cope with the factional fighting among fascist capitalists.

Articles recommended for Wednesday, September 12, 2018

• 17 Years After 911, US Backs Al Qaeda in Syria by Finian Cunningham from Strategic Culture Foundation.

• Washington’s Long War on Syria Isn’t About to End by Stephen Gowans from his blog What's Left.

• YouTube Censors Multiple Accounts Reporting Truth on Idlib Campaign by Julia "Samar" Kassem from Geopolitics Alert.

• Behind the Anglo American War on Russia by F. William Engdahl from New Eastern Outlook.

• Elections and the Illusion of Political Control by Bob Urie from CounterPunch.

It is ironic, and perhaps wholly coincidental, that insurgent groups as diverse as Occupy Wall Street and the Black Panthers were shut down when they began demonstrating that they could build (small scale, ultimately utopian) alternative institutions. Elections are intended to change the cast of characters without challenging existing institutions.

Sorry Urie, but I don't consider this coincidental. Carefully managed elections have been established as a ruse by the ruling class to fool once again the American people into believing that they have they live in some kind of democracy. (This comment was added at 8:15 AM CT on Sept. 13.)

The Case Against Competition [a "best post"]

The following YouTube audio presentation is a speech that, I estimate, was delivered by Alfie Kohn sometime in the latter 1980s. I discovered it as a comment-response to Patrice Greanville's recent post entitled "Of militarism’s wedding to sports—not an accidental match" from his website. I was very surprised that I never encountered his views before--the likely reason is because our capitalist culture forbids such views.



The video made a very powerful connection to my life's experience, and in addition, Kohn's speech touches on a very profound issue of which few leftists are aware: the comprehensive influence that a ruling class has on every aspect of culture--ranging from institutions down to our very behaviors and thoughts. This has been a theme that I have been hammering at for the past nearly nine years that I've devoted to this website. Thus, the topic is very current and will remain so until revolutionaries become aware of this insight and act accordingly.

I don't think that even Alfie Kohn is aware of this comprehensive nature of class rule. In this speech he acknowledges that he doesn't thoroughly understand this overwhelming emphasis on competition and the conventional view of human nature throughout our culture, and he correctly asserts that more study is needed of this phenomenon. He has made a career out of talking to mostly educators about how they can create positive change by teaching cooperative values and encouraging cooperative modes of behavior in their classrooms. This, I am thoroughly convinced, is a mistaken notion. I think his career is an excellent illustration of this faulty notion: these competitive values and behaviors are worse than ever before, and wars and the assaults on the environment threaten our very existence as a human species! We can't change beliefs and behaviors without changing the fundamental structure of our societies!

Nothing less than a thoroughly democratic revolution can promote cooperative values and behavior. Yes, that means taking away the cornerstones of capitalism: the sanctity of ownership of social property (nearly all property beyond strictly private property), inheritance of wealth, etc, and replacing capitalist class rule with a thoroughly bottom-up and a comprehensive participatory governance of our societies. The only question remains is how this can be accomplished. This question must be answered--and soon before it's too late--by a people's revolutionary movement that prefigures in its very organization a participatory governing structure.

The US’s Choice: WWIII or Saving Face in Syria

Click here to access article by Tom Luongo from Strategic Culture Foundation. (I thank an activist for alerting me to this article.)

The author provides three very good reasons why our masters (Deep State) behind the puppet show of the US government will choose the "saving face in Syria" option. The Ziocon faction of the Deep State won't like it, but cooler heads concerned about US power and profits will prevail.

9/11 War Games

Click here to access article by James Corbett of The Corbett Report. (Slightly edited the first paragraph at 6:34 PM CT for greater clarity.

In this brilliant article Corbett furnishes us with an abundance of well-documented evidence that leads to the conclusion that numerous war games, false communications, and other distractions were intentionally planned and executed to disable any effective military response to the real hijacked and/or radio controlled planes. After the fact of 9/11 various government officials only offered more lies and coverups to conceal what really happened, and refuse to re-open an investigation as to what really happened on 9/11/2001.

The truth of what happened that morning would be remarkably easy to come to if those involved in the planning and execution of the day’s training events were to open the records and allow independent examination of the precise situations that were being trained that day, how those scenarios were arrived at, who planned them, who was in charge of them, what radar injects and false reports and live-fly simulations were taking place, how these exercise inputs were relayed to technicians and air traffic controllers, and what steps were taken at what times to allow those events to continue even as the attacks they were supposed to be simulating were actually happening in real life.

But we shouldn’t expect the guilty parties to indict themselves, and so it is no surprise at all that the official government investigation into 9/11 studiously avoided facing any of these issues head on.

Most of the carefully planned preparations for the 9/11 false-flag attack were performed by a top-down command structure of the military. Thus, a number of people simply followed the orders issued at the very top of this command who enjoyed virtually unlimited power, and who now enjoy even more power since 2001. This historical stunt illustrates fascism in action in the USA. It is no surprise to me that there is a vigorous coverup because it is clear to that a monstrous crime of such scale could only be carried out with the approval of a major section of the ruling capitalist class.

The Fakest Fake News: The U.S. Government’s 9/11 Conspiracy Theory – A Review of 9/11Unmasked: An International Review Panel Investigation by David Ray Griffin and Elizabeth Woodworth

Click here to access article by Edward Curtin from his blog. (Note: I added an additional review of the book from OffGuardian at 10:30 AM CT.)

On this 17th anniversary of history's top false-flag event in New York City, many writers and organizations are publishing or posting articles undermining the official story fed to us by the capitalist ruling class via their media corporations. In this article Curtin describes a major contribution in this effort to reveal the criminal deceit of our masters in the form of a book entitled 9/11 Unmasked: An International Review Panel Investigation.

The authors of this essential book, David Ray Griffin and Elizabeth Woodworth, and all their colleagues who have contributed to this volume, have long been at the front lines trying to wake people up to the real news about 9/11.  They have battled against three U.S. presidents, a vast propaganda machine “strangely” allied with well-known leftists, and a corporate mass media intent on serving deep-state interests, all of whom have used illogic, lies, and pseudo-science to conceal the terrible truth.  Yet despite the establishment’s disinformation and deceptions, very many people have come to suspect that the official story of the September 11, 2001 attacks is not true.

With the publication of 9/11Unmasked: An International Review Panel Investigation, they now have a brilliant source book to use to turn their suspicions into certitudes.

Also, you might be interested in an article entitled "9/11 In Context" by "Washington" who reviews much (not all) of the history of false-flag events used by various ruling classes in their rather desperate attempts to acquire wealth and to dominate others. 

                                                                          ****************
For another review of this book you might be interested in reading Piers Robinson's article entitled "9/11 Unmasked by David Ray Griffin and Elizabeth Woodworth: A Review" from OffGuardian.