Israel’s Attack on The USS Liberty: An Act of War, A False Flag, A Gross Betrayal

Click here to access article by Craig McKee from Global Research.

Stephen Gowans' excellent new book entitled Israel: A beachhead in the Middle East reveals the context of the wider post WWII by the European nations and the USA to resist the efforts of the more independent Arab countries to possess and manage their own valuable oil and gas resources for the benefit of their countries instead of serving the British, American, and other European investors.

This Six-Day War was a crucial war that led to the decisive crushing of the influence of Gamal Nasser, President of Egypt, who became a hero to the Arabs who struggled to gain control of their oil from the colonial powers and the Americans. As such, the brief war also cemented the support by US capitalists in the emerging US Empire for Zionist Israel. 

As Gowans revealed in his heavily documented book:

In March 1967, tensions grew between Syria and Israel over their demilitarized zone separating the two states. The Soviets warned Nasser that Israel was preparing an attack on his ally. In April, the Jordanians and Saudis, taking their instruction from the CIA, accused Nasser of cowardice. He talked big, they said, but his inaction belied his words. He was nothing but a paper tiger. Their intention was to goad the Arab leader into attacking Israel, or lose face before his adoring Arab supporters if the didn't. 

Nasser built up his troops near the border between Israel and Egypt, and the Israelis went on the attack. The USS Liberty, equipped with power intelligence capabilities, was stationed near the battle-zone to monitor what was going. When the Israeli Army, equipped by the Western powers, launched their attack on nearby Arab countries and were decisive in their quick victory over the poorly equipped Arab nations like Egypt and Syria, the USS Liberty was a liability--they knew too much--and had to be destroyed by Israel. The directors of the emerging US Empire immediately recognized the value of Israel in helping to put down any resistance to their control of the valuable resources of the Middle East. And, as they say, the rest is history.

For an accurate description of the attempted sinking of the USS Liberty by the Israeli Air Force, I recommend my post from 2017 entitled Remembering the USS Liberty.

Washington’s “Tiananmen” Lies Begin to Fray

Click here to access article by Joseph Thomas from New Eastern Outlook. 

Thomas writes about the fake news and propaganda issued by Empire sources concerning what happened in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Thanks to the rise of independent media and to Wikileaks, both of which Empire agents are trying to shut down or censor, we are learning about reality which portrays the Empire's machinations to be the source of so many evils in the world.

He writes:

Washington and its allies across the Western World have been particularly eager in observing this year’s anniversary of their version of the 1989 Tiananmen protests.

It has become an opportunity to add political pressure atop economic pressure already being exerted on Beijing by Washington in its bid to encircle and contain China’s rise.

This pressure comes mainly through the Western media.

But the monopoly the US once enjoyed over the flow of global information is coming to an end. The more attention the US tries to draw to certain events, the more objective scrutiny others apply resulting in growing, irreversible damage to some of Washington’s most valuable propaganda narratives. 

Pompeo's Moment of Truth on Venezuela Recorded; Tell Us What's Really Happening!

Click here to access a post featuring a podcast entitled "The Critical Hour", a podcast by Wilmar Leon from Sputnik News. (Updated at 9:40 AM CT.)

I was impressed by the sophistication of the guests he had on his program to discuss three issues: the failure of the Empire to remove Maduro's administration from Venezuela (roughly from 0:00-25:30), the economic warfare imposed against China and threats of such recently directed against Mexico (roughly 25:30-44:00), and the aggressive campaign against journalists especially in Australia, but also in other places in the Empire (44:17-56:00). 

I believe that these segments illustrate my thesis that the bumbling Trump administration, although being pressed by the neoliberal directors of the Empire (aka "Deep State"), are reacting desperately and recklessly to recent setbacks by concocting uninformed counter-attacks in their quest to preserve the Empire's domination of the world. See if you agree.

I continue to be impressed by Russian news and analysis sources whether funded by the Russian government or function independently: Sputnik, RT, New Eastern Outlook, and Strategic Culture Foundation.

The global war on journalism

Click here to access article by Mike Head from World Socialist Web Site. 

By targeting journalists, as well as the individuals leaking the damning information, the Australian government is directly following the lead of the Trump administration’s charging of Assange, a journalist and publisher, with 17 counts under the US Espionage Act, for which he faces life imprisonment and possibly the death penalty.

The Trust Project: Big Media and Silicon Valley’s Weaponized Algorithms Silence Dissent

Click here to access article by Whitney Webb from MintPress News. (This post was by Caren, an activist from Titanic Lifeboat Academy. She kindly offered to write the introduction for me when my computer was not functioning yesterday.  As you can see, it is much better than I could have done.)

Whitney Webb's exhaustive examination of intelligence agencies' infiltrating and dominating capitalist mainstream "news" is the latest effort to expose this symbiosis. From Carl Bernstein's 1977 Rolling Stone cover story, to Der Spiegel journalist Udo Ulfkotte's 2017 book which has been fully censored in the West, to William Arkin's ("Top Secret America") year-end email which Glenn Greenwald recapped January 3, 2019 in The Intercept, to the entire career and martyrdom of Julian Assange, valiant attempts have been made to alert a sleeping public to the fact that money/power will protect itself by controlling news, what passes for "truth" and "reality," and the behavior of the people who consume both.  Webb's article focuses on their latest weapon designed to make thinking easier by doing it for you:  a refined, Orwellian-titled Prop-or-Not upgrade called The Trust Project.

Superbugs in the Anthropocene: A Profit-Driven Plague

Click here to access article by Ian Angus from Monthly Review.

The subject of superbugs is not new, but this author explains why such antibiotic-resistant bugs have appeared. 

Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) is a global health crisis driven by a pharmaceutical and health care system that puts profit before people. In addition to devastating climate change, the Anthropocene may be defined by epidemics that medicine cannot cure.

But this was not inevitable. As Angus further explains:

Those who hailed the first antibiotics as miracle drugs were not wrong. What those chemicals could have been was a way to work with nature, to use natural processes to overcome diseases that had plagued us for thousands of years. Used with appropriate humility and careful stewardship, in conjunction with a global drive to eradicate the conditions that cause infectious diseases, penicillin and its successors could have been boons to humanity for centuries. But that would have required a radically different economy and society.

With ruling capitalist classes' obsession to obtain profits instead of human welfare, such a result was inevitable along with all the other assaults on our habitat that has produced the threats of climate destabilization, environmental pollution, and species extinctions.

Capitalism always operates in the short term and its defenders always insist that new technology will solve any problems that might arise. For several decades, antibiotics seemed to confirm that superstition—for every drug that stopped working, new ones were discovered. But that did not last. The early discoveries were low-hanging fruit and searching the higher branches has been hard and largely unsuccessful.

Mainstream economists like to claim that the market solves all—if there is a need, customer demand will produce solutions. But today, when bacteria have found ways to resist every available antibiotic, most pharmaceutical companies have abandoned the search for others. Not because new antibiotics would not be profitable, but because they would not be profitable enough. Big Pharma makes double-digit profits from drugs it sells for thousands of dollars a dose to patients who must take them frequently for many years. Antibiotics just do not fit that business model.

Video: “Plutocracy V: Subterranean Fire”. Capitalism and the Historical Trampling of the Working Class

Click here to access this article by Kim Petersen and a nearly two hour film that portrays accurately the true history of workers in the USA. (This post has been forwarded to me by an alert activist.)

This history has been expunged from history classes in public schools and probably most private schools. If you want to recover what our capitalist masters have censored from our worker history, you simply must view this film.

Articles recommended for Wednesday, June 5, 2019

• Unstable polar glaciers lose ice ever faster by Tim Radford from Climate News Network.

• [Small investor] Americans Should Be Gravely Concerned with this Wall Street Court Case by Pam Martens and Russ Martens from their blog Wall Street on Parade.

• Media Gloats About Censoring Opinions of 37% of Americans by Ted Rall from The Unz Review.

• More Police Raids As War On Journalism Escalates Worldwide by Australian Caitlin Johnstone from her blog. 

• Rachel Maddow's Full Meltdown Over Julian Assange! featuring satiric comedian Lee Camp on RT (via YouTube) ridiculing America's favorite mainstream pundit, Rachel Maddow.

Dr. McPherson explains AME at Open Secrets Book Store, San Rafael, CA April 23, 2019

Listen via YouTube his nearly 82 minute address and some questions that he responds to:

The ecosocialist path to 1.5°C sustainability

Click here to access article by Richard Smith from Real-World Economics Review Blog. (I wrote up an extensive commentary on this article, but lost it somehow. This is the reason for this rather late post.)

Here is the latest article by Smith who has co-founded System Change not Climate Change and whose work entitled "Capitalism and the Destruction of Life on Earth: Six Theses on Saving the Humans" forms one the basic foundations for my blog (the other is Power and Powerlessness by Susan Rosenthal). 

Because Dr. Richard Smith is a specialist in the physical sciences and having been educated at an American university, he is limited in his understanding of what it takes to overthrow a well-entrenched social-economic system and the ruling class that benefits from it. If after reading his article, you still believe that the ruling capitalist class will accept his proposals, I have a bridge to sell you (def.). 

I am convinced that our ruling masters have been so addicted to their system which has delivered to them so much power and wealth that they are completely unfit to accept such proposals and act on them. The dire environmental threats we are now facing were well-known to them in the 1970s, and since then our masters have only promised to do something much like an alcoholic who promises to quit drinking (alcoholic beverages). It was clear to many activists in the 1970s that only a revolution could save humans; and I held out hope that the events in the 1960s and 70s (the numerous assassinations, the Anti-Vietnam War Movement, Civil Rights Movement, etc) would enable a revolutionary movement to form and grow. Obviously this did not happen. 

Then I began a blog 10 years ago posting articles that I imagined might alarm people sufficiently to create a revolutionary movement. That did not happen. All we have now are the Extinction Rebellion and the Green New Deal movements; and as revealed by Cory Morningstar in her excellent series entitled "The Manufacturing of Greta Thunberg", these movements are led by capitalists or their agents to insure that the rising chorus of environmental concern does not interfere with "business as usual", and hopefully will provide even greater opportunities for more products, such as electric cars, in order to reap ever greater profits and power.

As I have recently quoted Karl Rove, a prime influential in the Bush Jr. administration, it reveals the secret to the capitalist success to maintain their rule in spite of the fact that it can only end in the extinction as humans and many other species:

We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.

Rove means by this quote that the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire has created an updated version of fascism that includes the ubiquitous control of all significant ideological institutions by infiltrating agents in all media corporations, academia, and even Hollywood to create our understanding of the world--a comprehensive false consciousness. Now most people are led around like dumb sheep into the chutes of nuclear war annihilation or into the nightmare of climate destabilization. Honestly, when I look at all the facts, they won! But, as we shall soon see, it is a Pyrrhic victory.

The Dismemberment Of Yugoslavia 20 Years On

Click here to access article by R. S. Ahthion (he is clearly British) from Medium.

Little did the American people, who were busy amusing themselves with distractions, know that this well-doused in self-serving propaganda campaign to justify the attack on Yugoslavia in 1999 by using NATO's air force, would be the start of much more aggressive campaigns in other countries and to secure their control of the energy-rich Middle East. (But first our masters had to arrange for the 9/11 project to be accomplished to put ordinary Americans in a fighting mood.) He continues on to reveal the hypocrisies and lies of the justifying propaganda campaign.

Later Ahthion argues that "market socialism" and Yugoslavia's ties to the neoliberal institutions like the IMF and World Bank weakened and prepared the way for this nation's destruction by the Empire's army, NATO. (He refers to the Empire using the bland phrase "western nations".) He also argues that after the Soviet Union disintegrated, the directorate of the capitalist Empire ("western nations") arrogantly began more aggressive campaigns to rule the world. They no longer needed Yugoslavia to counter the Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia's brand of socialism had to be destroyed. And, as they say, the rest is history.

US-Iran: Inverted Reality, Real War

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

In an article packed with important links that support his thesis that the USA is engaging in actions that will lead to a real war while serving up propaganda that is loaded with lies. Well, as a well-acknowledged imperialist advisor to Bush, Jr., Karl Rove, once admitted that the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire was in the propaganda business of creating realities while pursing the domination of the world:

We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors...and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.

In other, more succinct words, as a dominant actor in the capitalist world, and their ubiquitous control of nearly all media, our imperial masters will create realities that powerless critics can only study and react to.

The Unrelenting State

Click here to access article by Craig Murray (British) from his blog.

I have been led to believe that the Empire's tenable and increasing tenuous position is expressing itself in the controllers of this Empire to increase their desperate attempts via their disinformation agents to crush those who, like Assange, have broken through their fabricated "realities" and published accounts online that totally deconstructed their "realities".

Signs of Assange's decreasing health while in the custody of the British government may be a perfect example of the desperation that is driving governments of the Empire to use extreme measures. Murray appears convinced that this is the case with Assange.

I confess to feeling an amount of personal relief after his arrest that at least he would now get proper medical treatment. However there now seems to be no intention to provide that and indeed since he has been in Belmarsh his health problems have accelerated. I witnessed enough of the British state’s complicity in torture to know that this may be more than just the consequence of unintended neglect. That the most lucid man I know is now not capable of having a rational conversation is extremely alarming.

Brainwashing in Action: Pence Hails Virtue of ‘Certain War’

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

In an address to West Point military graduates, US Vice President Mike Pence told them they will one day fight for America. “It’s a virtual certainty,” said Pence who was swelling with pride as he spoke, rather than lamenting.

Well, at least, he is being candid.

Cunningham goes on to expose Empire propaganda for what it is: a deceptive and deceitful cover for the outright fascist commitment to the use of force to attain ever greater power and profits. 

France's Yellow Vests, State Violence and The Way Forward

Click here to access an 1:37:01 interview with "three-time French Presidential candidate, Jacques Cheminade, President of the French party Solidarité et Progrès", conducted by Dr. Kirk Meighoo (Trinidad and Tobago). (Updated at 1:10 PM CT)

I am posting this as a way of acquanting you with another independent thinker, Dr. Meighoo, whose interview with "The Sake" I posted today. But, in addition, I think the views of Jacques Cheminade, as well as Dr. Meighoo, are also insightful regarding the ongoing Yellow Vests protests and general issues facing most ordinary people today. On the subject of global warming and some other subjects, I obviously don't agree with the two.

Kirk Meighoo interviews the Saker on The “Russia Question” and the “New Cold War”

Click here if you wish to access the interview directly from "The Saker's" blog, A bird's eye view of the Vineyard. The interview is conducted by Kirk Meighoo (of Trinidad and Tobago and you can access his blog here), an admirer of Andrei Raevsky ("The Saker"). Meighoo succeeds in eliciting the fundamental views and background that has shaped the uniquely independent views and geopolitical analysis that Raevsky has expressed on various major issues over the past decade. I particularly want to draw attention to details provided by Raevsky at roughly 2:40m, 19:05m, and 41:20m. 

Let me be clear that I always don't agree with his views, but I respect him as an independent thinker. I find it strange that he clings to the culture and religion of Orthodox Christianity.

I found it to be well worth my time and effort to listen to the entire 1:06:39 interview. 

 

Articles recommended for Friday, May 31, 2019

• “The X Agenda”: what does XR actually stand for? from Winter Oak (Britain).

• Assange hospitalized, ‘dagger in journalist hearts’ a 5:56m video featuring George Galloway, MP, commenting on the recent news of the persecution of Assange. Produced by RT via YouTube.

The attorney of WikiLeaks founder and journalist Julian Assange’s has revealed that he was too ill to appear in a video chat for his extradition hearing. Assange has spent the past seven weeks at Belmarsh prison, where his health has continued to deteriorate. The WikiLeaks founder faces extradition to the US over “espionage” charges dating back to 2010. Former UK MP George Galloway joins In Question to break this all down.

• Alberta, Canada Smoke Near Me: Air Quality Maps & Forecasts from Heavy. 

Aren't the wildfires early this year? I was wondering why the skies out my window in southern Minnesota were gray when the day was supposed to be sunny. But having turned on a TM weather station, I learned that the residents in the area were warned to stay inside because of the polluted air.

UN Says Assange Tortured: Join Us Live Online at 4pm

Click here to access article from Consortium News. 

Julian Assange is in Belmarsh Prison hospital after his Swedish lawyer said he was too ill to carry on a conversation. Join us live for a discussion of the latest.

The 32nd webcast vigil for Julian Assange can be seen here starting on Friday at 4 pm US Eastern time [3 PM CT, 2 PM MT, and 1 PM PT], 9 PM in London, 10 pm in Europe, and 6 am Saturday in Australia for a three-hour online discussion with hosts Elizabeth Vos and Joe Lauria.  [my link insertion]

Washington’s Silent Weapon for Not-so-quiet Wars. “A World Full of Dollars”, A 2019 Global Economic Crisis

Click here to access article, a re-post from November of 2018, by F. William Engdahl from Global Research.

It's clear that capitalist ruling classes who control the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire don't want a shooting war that would destroy much of their assets, but choose to defend their Empire's domination of the world by waging economic war using their control of the world's primary currency, the US dollar. 

I think the directors of this capitalist Empire are desperately trying to find some way to maintain their control over the world and this is another way. But, will it work? And, what will be the consequences for ordinary people of the world who always suffer when capitalists inevitably resort to war as a means to secure their domination?

Engdahl doesn't report this, but instead places emphasis on the economies of Eurasia if the Empire wins:

If Washington succeeds on November 4 in cutting all Iran oil exports, world (dollar) oil prices could soar above 100 dollars, adding dramatically to the developing world dollar shortage. This is war by other means. The Fed dollar strategy is acting now as a “silent weapon” for not so quiet wars. If it continues it could deal a serious setback to the growing independence of Eurasian countries around the China New Silk Road and the Russia-China-Iran alternative to the dollar system. The role of the dollar as lead global reserve currency and the ability of the Federal Reserve to control it, is a weapon of massive destruction and a strategic pillar of American superpower control. Are the nations of Eurasia or even the ECB [European Central Bank] ready to deal effectively?  [my insertion]

I seriously doubt that the Empire will win this war of desperation. But what is not in doubt in my mind is that we humans are doomed anyway through the machinations of our capitalist masters and our failure to take power away from them. That means to deprive them of the ownership and control of our economy and most of the world's economies.

One true prophet of our failure dates back to the 1960s and 70s--Phil Ochs. Examine his statements that often made it into his songs about our future. He is said to have committed suicide, but informed people dispute that. Could his death be another illustration, among many, of Sen. Chuck Schumer's warning that those who cross the CIA, the Empire's secret organization has many ways to punish them?  

Global Poverty: How the Rich Eat the Poor and the World...[and] The Big Lies

Click here to access article by Prof. John McMurtry re-posted on Global Research (based in Canada).

It isn't often that we find modern day oracles whose perceptions reveal the truth about our existence. Maybe McMurtry was one who three years ago saw what few people saw: rich capitalists eating the poor and the world (the environment). But apparently he hasn't given up because I notice in his bio at the end of the article that he sees a cure in his most recent book entitled The Cancer Stage of Capitalism: From Crisis to Cure. I, on the other hand, am convinced that "The Big Lies" (of the agents of capitalism) won, and now it is too late to prevent our and many life forms from going the way of the Dodo bird. 

We learn from Wikipedia that "It is estimated that more than 99% of all species that ever existed on Earth, amounting to over five billion species, are extinct." Why should anyone believe that human species are exempt from a similar fate (excepting those whose religion in spite of science place a special exemption on humans)? The well-trained, indoctrinated, and well paid media apologists employed by our drugged-out capitalist masters are actively trying to convince us that this threat lies in the distant future and that our masters will come up with all kinds of technological fixes to prevent this from happening. Do you believe this "Big Lie" too?