While trying to research the REAL truth of what is going on with Syria, since clearly the big US media propaganda machine is stenographically on board for yet another massive destruction of a country on the US and NATO’s bloody faux-humanitarian-regime-changing clipboard, I came across a remarkable article by William Hathaway entitled“America Is under Attack!”
Capitalism is inherently predatory. It demands aggressive growth. It’s either dominate or go under.
snip
Since 9-11 the USA has killed over three hundred thousand — a hundred times more than died in the World Trade Center. The overwhelming majority have been civilians. We are the top terrorist, armed to the teeth with weapons of mass destruction. As Martin Luther King stated with simple eloquence: “The greatest purveyor of violence in the world today is my own government.”
Our politicians and media have created an image of fiendish terrorists who “hate us for our freedom.” But they really hate us for subjugating them. Since we started the aggression, the attacks won’t end until we leave their countries.
Leave their countries? Mr. Nobel Peace Prize, Faux-Lesser of Two Evils Obama, who will undoubtedly benefit from his “macho-commander-in-chief” war criminality for the 2012 election has helped embroil us in the massacre of yet another nation.
Fat chance we are going to leave these oil rich countries since these invasions are so economically rewarding for the ruling class one percent elite, and none of that profiteering uber alles clique have to do any of the suffering and dying.
Hathaway explains how the 1 percent use the media to convince a hapless citizenry to go along with the massive evil of war and its obscene impact on global fellow human beings and their own national community. Hathaway:
Motivating us to kill and die for them requires a massive propaganda campaign — America is under attack! — which we confront whenever we turn on their media.
snip
As Hermann Goering, Hitler’s assistant, declared: “Naturally the common people don’t want war…. But… it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship…. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”
Goering was right about the democracies that existed both then and now. In these, the people’s influence in politics is regulated to ensure that only pro-capitalist parties have a chance.
Corporate financing, winner-take-all elections, ballot-access laws, and slanted media coverage effectively exclude alternatives. Democracy means power is in the hands of the people. But the real power in our society — economic power — remains firmly in the hands of the rich elite, enabling them to control politics — and us — to a large degree.
So what is the relentless, drum-banging message delivered over and over in this 24/7 war propaganda filled country? Hathaway:
Vicious fanatics are trying to kill us and destroy our country. They’re blowing up our soldiers overseas. They’ve infiltrated our country. We must defend ourselves against these mad-dog berserkers before it’s too late.
This litany has been repeated by corporate-controlled media and politicians for years now, pumping fear into us. It is used to justify a massive ongoing war that has killed hundreds of thousands of our fellow human beings and almost bankrupted the USA.
Hathaway does a quick review of the history of military domination of weaker countries by stronger ones. The Roman conquests. The Christian crusades. Hathaway emphasizes the particular excitement for conquest inspired by the “ vast reserves of black, liquid gold under the desert sands.”
Hathaway:
During World War One, the British persuaded the Arabs to fight on their side by promising them independence. Thousands of them died in battle for the Brits because of this promise of freedom. But after the victory Britain refused to leave. It maintained control by installing puppet kings — Faisal in Iraq and Ibn Saud in Saudi Arabia — to rule in its interest.
After World War Two, Britain and the USA pressured the United Nations into confiscating Arab land to form the state of Israel, making the Arabs pay for the crimes of the Germans. In addition to providing a nation for the Jews, Israel would be a forward base for Western economic and military power in the Middle East. To the Arabs it was another European invasion of their territory.
In the early 1950s, the USA and Britain overthrew the government of Iran because it tried to nationalize its oil industry, which was under Western control. We installed the Shah as dictator, and he promptly gave the oil back to us. Then he began a twenty-five year reign of terror against his own people. His secret police jailed, tortured, or killed hundreds of thousands of Iranians who opposed him. Since they knew he was kept in power only by American military aid, they began hating the USA. They finally ousted the Shah, but then the CIA started subverting the new government, trying to bring it down. At that point the Iranians fought back by holding US Embassy officials hostage, which was a mild response, considering what we had done to their country.
Hathaway goes on to discuss Egypt’s struggle to nationalize the Suez Canal in the 1950s to put an end to its own national poverty. The Egyptians were willing to compensate the British and French for their shares but Western governments and Israel invaded and bombed Egypt because of such audacity.
Hathaway:
The USA and Britain committed similar atrocities in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Indonesia, and Afghanistan. We overthrew their governments, installed dictators, undermined their economies — all to strengthen our business interests. In every nation where we now have terrorism, we had first assaulted them. America is under attack only because it is on the attack. It’s no wonder they hate us. Imagine how we would feel if a foreign country were doing this to us. We’d be fighting back any way we could.
Since they don’t have our military power, they’re resisting with the only weapons they have: guerrilla warfare.
And fasten your seatbelts and fight off any of your own media-indoctrination-induced hyperventilation, because Hathaway intrepidly goes farther:
Even fanatics like al-Qaeda aren’t really aggressors. They’re fighting a defensive war, trying to force us out. The Western media never publish their demands because they are so reasonable. They basically come down to, “Go home and leave us alone. Pull your soldiers, your CIA agents, your missionaries, your corporations out of Muslim territory. If you do that, we’ll stop attacking you.” Nothing about destroying the West or forcing it to become Islamic. Just that the West should stay in the West.
If people knew this — knew how easy it would be to stop terrorism — they wouldn’t want to fight this war. That’s why the media ignore al-Qaeda’s demands. Western leaders don’t want people to see that the war’s real purpose isn’t to stop terrorism but to control the resources of this region. They actually want the terrorism because that gives them the excuse they need — the threat of an evil enemy.
Let’s repeat that message:
THEY [Western leaders] ACTUALLY WANT THE TERRORISM BECAUSE THAT GIVES THEM THE EXCUSE THEY NEED -- THE THREAT OF AN EVIL ENEMY.
Hathaway goes on:
Capitalism is always at war. The violence, though, is often abstract: forcing us either to accept low-paying, exhausting jobs or starve; denying us adequate health care, education, and economic security; convincing us that human beings are basically isolated, autonomous units seeking self gratification. But when this doesn’t suffice to keep their profits growing, the violence becomes physical, the cannons roar, and the elite rally us to war to defend “our” country and destroy the fiendish enemy.
snip
This drive for domination is the root cause of war, and until we eliminate it, we’re going to continue killing one another.
Sloppy journalism these days is the administration’s best friend, especially our present “lesser evil war criminal's" best friend. The perpetrators of recent Syrian massacres are now under dispute, but our administration and media RUSH to broadcast judgment, and the real truth later takes a back page or never even makes the news at all. Honest reporting is not USEFUL to the US administration's ruthless and sociopathic capitalist agenda.
Syria is now being presented to us US citizens as one more compelling nail the US/NATO proverbial hammer simply -- SIMPLY -- and “pragmatically” must SMASH DOWN.
Fasten your seat-belt one more time, because Mr. Hathaway has the AUDACITY to advise that "democratic socialism" is the way out of chronic-war-dooming capitalism. Too discomforting a consideration? We all know that media-demonized label “socialism”! (As Bill Moyers recently declared, the ghost of Joe McCarthy still walks among us.) What could Hathaway be thinking? Free-market capitalism, after all, has the word "FREE" at the beginning. DUHHHHHH!!!!
As for the sirens for more and more obscene and devastating wars, when collectively will we say, "STOP!!!!"? When will we acknowledge that "American interests" have nothing to do with HUMAN interests, at least of the bottom 99% humans on this planet.
[cross-posted at correntewire and sacramento for democracy]
----------------
Superb sequencing between Mr. Hathaway's account and
Your commentary. ANOTHER superb post to add to a sterling blog posting history.
I am envious of Your determination and courageousness, even while on vacation. The blog is a living testimony to a most extraordinary person, who quite simply will not compromise her morals, nor principles; regardless the storm.
A vibrant example of someone who has learned that: "Life's not about waiting for the storms to pass...It's about learning to dance in the rain."
-R-
Your commentary. ANOTHER superb post to add to a sterling blog posting history.
I am envious of Your determination and courageousness, even while on vacation. The blog is a living testimony to a most extraordinary person, who quite simply will not compromise her morals, nor principles; regardless the storm.
A vibrant example of someone who has learned that: "Life's not about waiting for the storms to pass...It's about learning to dance in the rain."
-R-
You always educate me, Libby, and I appreciate it much. Excellent post. R
We are a drooling, grunting, bloodthirsty species one very thin membrane of sentience removed from our primitive ancestors. In fact, those beings may well have been more civil amongst each other than we are today.
You had me at the title. Wow! Where've I been I haven't seen your work before? Good stuff
Your quote from Hathaway really got me going: "Capitalism is always at war. The violence, though, is often abstract: forcing us either to accept low-paying, exhausting jobs or starve; denying us adequate health care, education, and economic security; convincing us that human beings are basically isolated, autonomous units seeking self gratification. But when this doesn’t suffice to keep their profits growing, the violence becomes physical, the cannons roar, and the elite rally us to war to defend “our” country and destroy the fiendish enemy."
Profoundly not amusing and obviously right on target.
Rated
Your quote from Hathaway really got me going: "Capitalism is always at war. The violence, though, is often abstract: forcing us either to accept low-paying, exhausting jobs or starve; denying us adequate health care, education, and economic security; convincing us that human beings are basically isolated, autonomous units seeking self gratification. But when this doesn’t suffice to keep their profits growing, the violence becomes physical, the cannons roar, and the elite rally us to war to defend “our” country and destroy the fiendish enemy."
Profoundly not amusing and obviously right on target.
Rated
Capitalism cannot work in fact it has laid waste to this planet since its inception. It is a grotesque rationalization for elevating market place merchants to the status of aristocracy. War is what you get because they and their inbreed children never end up participating in it. Exactly the opposite of the historic Aristocrats primary function.
The problem with American interests has always been entangled with business interests. At one time American business interests were American, now they are multinational... as the CEO of Exxon said, "Governments come and go, we're here for the long run."
similar to an old indictment by Smedley Butler. written after wwII or so as far as I know. nice find. Im thinking of unleashing my big bag of links on the warmachine.. just waiting for the right moment. Ive heard of troop & battleship xfers to the mideast, seems like something is up, presumably an invasion of iran or syria. [probably iran I would guess].. syria maybe by guerilla proxy.. like libya.
Resistance is futile.
Sit down, shut up and let the rest of us get on with ignoring what's happening in the world so we can elect, or re-elect, a government that will take us one step closer to the fascist, theocratic oligarchy we so richly deserve.
It just became legal for the US government to lie to and propagandize Americans in America as well as everyone else it always lies to.
This should be fun.....!
.
.
Sit down, shut up and let the rest of us get on with ignoring what's happening in the world so we can elect, or re-elect, a government that will take us one step closer to the fascist, theocratic oligarchy we so richly deserve.
It just became legal for the US government to lie to and propagandize Americans in America as well as everyone else it always lies to.
This should be fun.....!
.
.
Great post as usual!
Capitalism is based on exploitation. War feeds the beast.
You are right, we are being lied to about Syria, but the beast is getting hungry.
Capitalism is based on exploitation. War feeds the beast.
You are right, we are being lied to about Syria, but the beast is getting hungry.
"Capitalism is inherently predatory. It demands aggressive growth. It’s either dominate or go under." Absolutely nailed it, impressive way to start.
When I need to find solutions to most ongoing problems I encounter, I ignore the answers I'm told and study the problem for myself. When I listen to the news I ignore all the answers they give in relation to everything else I know, like reviewing accounts another bookkeeper can't find the error in. The situation with the economy constantly repeats, we are just told the wrong answer is right. It's simple, if you only kill (take/destroy) to survive you're a predator. Over predation will always be the end result of Capitalism.
It's fascinating that it's the same for predators in nature. When they kill they gorge. If there isn't a constant food supply they die off, killing each other in the process after having eaten everything big enough to find. During mass extinctions as soon as the food supply starts to dwindle the most predatory species die off quickly. Predators evolve for aggression not endurance, will kill every weaker predator and are the least adaptive. The most adaptive and able to scavenge will be the species that survives. The little "bottom feeder" trilobite survived for a few hundred million years.
Nothing about being the biggest predator is good news for the US, any more than any other Empire that grew on pure predation. When supply is no longer easy to find predatory allies become enemies. Anyone can see, one CEO will cheerfully destroy a friends Corporation to gobble it up. A lonely person with 20 cats is crazy, a person admired for billions he can't possibly spend who will give it all away when dead (just like everyone else) is admired. Batshit crazy that we are taught to admire lunacy. Nations turn on ally nations. Natural law could run it's frightening course on a man made global scale.
I try to avoid politics in trying to achieve calm but am able to come here and think clearly. I've come to expect outstanding posts from you and take them for granted. Mark said it well, you do not take the luxury of rest and this one is superb.
When I need to find solutions to most ongoing problems I encounter, I ignore the answers I'm told and study the problem for myself. When I listen to the news I ignore all the answers they give in relation to everything else I know, like reviewing accounts another bookkeeper can't find the error in. The situation with the economy constantly repeats, we are just told the wrong answer is right. It's simple, if you only kill (take/destroy) to survive you're a predator. Over predation will always be the end result of Capitalism.
It's fascinating that it's the same for predators in nature. When they kill they gorge. If there isn't a constant food supply they die off, killing each other in the process after having eaten everything big enough to find. During mass extinctions as soon as the food supply starts to dwindle the most predatory species die off quickly. Predators evolve for aggression not endurance, will kill every weaker predator and are the least adaptive. The most adaptive and able to scavenge will be the species that survives. The little "bottom feeder" trilobite survived for a few hundred million years.
Nothing about being the biggest predator is good news for the US, any more than any other Empire that grew on pure predation. When supply is no longer easy to find predatory allies become enemies. Anyone can see, one CEO will cheerfully destroy a friends Corporation to gobble it up. A lonely person with 20 cats is crazy, a person admired for billions he can't possibly spend who will give it all away when dead (just like everyone else) is admired. Batshit crazy that we are taught to admire lunacy. Nations turn on ally nations. Natural law could run it's frightening course on a man made global scale.
I try to avoid politics in trying to achieve calm but am able to come here and think clearly. I've come to expect outstanding posts from you and take them for granted. Mark said it well, you do not take the luxury of rest and this one is superb.
Thanks for sharing this, Libby. I kind of agree with the quote from Goering above: “Naturally the common people don’t want war…. But… it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship…. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”
I don't believe it is capitalism per se that is causing all this. I don't know what it is exactly, when greed and power take on a life of their own, with a good dose of fear and paranoia mixed in, but it seems to happen in all types of ideologies and systems, when certain peoples' human rights go out the window and more and more violence is "justified."
Nelson Mandela gave an interesting interview once about the apartheid government in S. Africa, which made such an impression on me. He said:
"...a man would come to me and say, "Help me. I have lost my job. I have a wife and children in school, and I am now required to leave my home." As a lawyer, I would go to the top authorities and say, "Look, I'm approaching you as a human, and here is my problem. I have to rely on you." Invariably, the person would allow the man to look for a job. So I discovered even before I went to jail that apartheid was not run by people who were monolithic in their approach. Some of them didn't even believe in apartheid.
If you sit down and talk to a person, it's easy to convince him that apartheid can never save a country and will lead to the slaughtering of innocent people—including his own people. So we changed the hardened apartheid rulers into people who could work with us, because we exploited their good qualities."
I think our country and government and people--no people really--are monolithic. Your posts raises a lot of good questions...especially your last sentence, how to bring American interests in alignment with the basic human rights and interests of the majority of people. Great post!
I don't believe it is capitalism per se that is causing all this. I don't know what it is exactly, when greed and power take on a life of their own, with a good dose of fear and paranoia mixed in, but it seems to happen in all types of ideologies and systems, when certain peoples' human rights go out the window and more and more violence is "justified."
Nelson Mandela gave an interesting interview once about the apartheid government in S. Africa, which made such an impression on me. He said:
"...a man would come to me and say, "Help me. I have lost my job. I have a wife and children in school, and I am now required to leave my home." As a lawyer, I would go to the top authorities and say, "Look, I'm approaching you as a human, and here is my problem. I have to rely on you." Invariably, the person would allow the man to look for a job. So I discovered even before I went to jail that apartheid was not run by people who were monolithic in their approach. Some of them didn't even believe in apartheid.
If you sit down and talk to a person, it's easy to convince him that apartheid can never save a country and will lead to the slaughtering of innocent people—including his own people. So we changed the hardened apartheid rulers into people who could work with us, because we exploited their good qualities."
I think our country and government and people--no people really--are monolithic. Your posts raises a lot of good questions...especially your last sentence, how to bring American interests in alignment with the basic human rights and interests of the majority of people. Great post!
I, too, am scratching my head about the way they keep changing the story on Syria. I had the same reaction as a local talk show host when his news director said pro-government said pro-government militia were responsible for the massacre in Houla. "Shabiha? Who the hell is that?" the host asked. His news director talked right over him and changed the subject. There are some questions they don't let you ask, even in New Zealand.
According to the BBC website shabiha (with a small "s") is a colloquial expression used to refer to organized criminal gangs on the Mediterranean coast who used to engage in drug and arms trafficking and protection rackets - who were brutally suppressed in the 1990s by Assad and his father. The only published reference to their recent involvement in pro-government activity was a YouTube video some insurgent posted in March 2011. The Obama administration really seems to be scraping the bottom of the barrel.
According to the BBC website shabiha (with a small "s") is a colloquial expression used to refer to organized criminal gangs on the Mediterranean coast who used to engage in drug and arms trafficking and protection rackets - who were brutally suppressed in the 1990s by Assad and his father. The only published reference to their recent involvement in pro-government activity was a YouTube video some insurgent posted in March 2011. The Obama administration really seems to be scraping the bottom of the barrel.
toritto, here I am worried about the truth with Syria and who slaughtered the women and children in the latest crisis (US says Assad government forces, Assad govt. says AQ, maybe ... US media says whatever WH and military puppets tell them to say, even before it has actually been determined and confirmed ... it is who they want it to be responsible for propaganda usefulness ... to keep the drumbeat going ... yadda yadda yadda ... war ... Syria ... Iran ... yadda ... war ... war... yadda -- if you hear something often enough you are lost to it) and I was so out of it I had no idea until today when I accessed a news program that poor Jessica had plumped up and was it Valerie B. who is giving her advice about weight loss and to remember that size 16 is a respectable size if she is healthy? But she is negotiating with WW to make lemonade out of the lemons of her weight gain? Sigh. So, American minds and now mine after a typical news show are so full of this priority gossip how can we begin to have a grasp on an administration that has made us all accessories to murder, even genocide, torture, environmental desecration, etc.
thanks for your comment once again! you always help put things in their most deserved satiric perspective!
best, libby
thanks for your comment once again! you always help put things in their most deserved satiric perspective!
best, libby
Mark, you are always so kind and validating to me. Thank you! I feel like a second wave blogger, discovering awesome blogs by people of conscience who are on top of what is actually going on and the statistics to support it and rippling their wisdom and facts!
I was serious about struggling to get the truth about Syria. After reading on the more people of conscience liberal blogs that wrong determinations had been made about the latest crisis there I watched news stories on US tv thereafter confidently reporting on the latest crisis in Syria as being government caused without any clarification or acknowledgement on the exploration going on of who was actually responsible -- if not supporting the denial of the Assad government at least honoring the WAFM messaging coming from not only Syria and Russia but independent and non-corporate pimped international reporting.
Are corporate journalists in America craven and complicit or so uninformed and lacking in work ethics and integrity to get to the bottom of stories to report to the citizenry? Just go for the convenient to American interests "truthiness" in the immortal word of Stephen Colbert!
One report conveyed that an old photo of an Iraq slaughter was being used to incite US and Western citizens against Syria. Not even a photo of real Syrian victims they were being so manipulative and callow. I guess what is the diff between one maimed corpse against another to the corporate media as long as the propagandized message is served.
Trust Hillary, Barack, et al. Really? Clearly they have NO INTEREST in promoting PEACE. The new American world order does not put that on the table any more. They are chomping at the bit to get to Iran, and so willing to knock out Syria as recklessly and quickly as they possibly can.
Wow! I am not supporting the Assad regime which is a nightmare to the people, but US/NATO colossal presumption to set up all these domino countries like Syria and Libya, etc., to fall for corporate aggrandizement is surreally evil. To do all they can to destabilize and promote internal conflicts, to set up a bloodbath. The result will be a weakened country the bankster gangsters can exploit to the hilt. The rebels they are enabling who may be sincere are in for big betrayal, but I also suspect and have read they do much better negotiating with people as craven and non-ethical as them. Human life cheap to them and inconsequential, all those faux-humanitarian R2P (Escobar calls it the right to plunder!) bullies. I used to have hope for the UN. Now it is a tool for oligarchy. Perversions of international law. This is what we get for the continuation of the status quo. Obama says look forward not backward. Obama really saying which side he is really on. Not on humanity's to put it simply. But, heck of a personality. Catch him on Jimmy Fallon's show, and Michelle on the View and Daily Show. What more do we need in America?
Thanks again, Mark! :-)
best, libby
I was serious about struggling to get the truth about Syria. After reading on the more people of conscience liberal blogs that wrong determinations had been made about the latest crisis there I watched news stories on US tv thereafter confidently reporting on the latest crisis in Syria as being government caused without any clarification or acknowledgement on the exploration going on of who was actually responsible -- if not supporting the denial of the Assad government at least honoring the WAFM messaging coming from not only Syria and Russia but independent and non-corporate pimped international reporting.
Are corporate journalists in America craven and complicit or so uninformed and lacking in work ethics and integrity to get to the bottom of stories to report to the citizenry? Just go for the convenient to American interests "truthiness" in the immortal word of Stephen Colbert!
One report conveyed that an old photo of an Iraq slaughter was being used to incite US and Western citizens against Syria. Not even a photo of real Syrian victims they were being so manipulative and callow. I guess what is the diff between one maimed corpse against another to the corporate media as long as the propagandized message is served.
Trust Hillary, Barack, et al. Really? Clearly they have NO INTEREST in promoting PEACE. The new American world order does not put that on the table any more. They are chomping at the bit to get to Iran, and so willing to knock out Syria as recklessly and quickly as they possibly can.
Wow! I am not supporting the Assad regime which is a nightmare to the people, but US/NATO colossal presumption to set up all these domino countries like Syria and Libya, etc., to fall for corporate aggrandizement is surreally evil. To do all they can to destabilize and promote internal conflicts, to set up a bloodbath. The result will be a weakened country the bankster gangsters can exploit to the hilt. The rebels they are enabling who may be sincere are in for big betrayal, but I also suspect and have read they do much better negotiating with people as craven and non-ethical as them. Human life cheap to them and inconsequential, all those faux-humanitarian R2P (Escobar calls it the right to plunder!) bullies. I used to have hope for the UN. Now it is a tool for oligarchy. Perversions of international law. This is what we get for the continuation of the status quo. Obama says look forward not backward. Obama really saying which side he is really on. Not on humanity's to put it simply. But, heck of a personality. Catch him on Jimmy Fallon's show, and Michelle on the View and Daily Show. What more do we need in America?
Thanks again, Mark! :-)
best, libby
Thoth, thanks for your visit and validation once again. :-) best, libby
Chicken Maaan, I am fighting not to believe that of my species but am dumbfounded about how a country burned out by the evil Bush years and mandating the Dem candidate in 2008 to put an end to these corporate wars have been, as MarkinJapan says, Stockholm Syndromed by the corporate pimped out Obama administration and the Democratic Party itself. Though I give MSNBC "trust us we are so cool and on top of everything" tv personalities a lot of the credit with their cherry-picking the truth only about Republican craven-ness betrayals.
Karma has brought suffering to the US shores, not as brutal as what our country's governmental international gangsterism has delivered to hundreds of thousands, but it is coming home to roost as the rabid rat bastard one percent and their ever escalating greed addiction is willing to bring down the entire world. Nature and infrastructures of civilization. You would think they would want a little sustainability for their own progeny at the very least, but when evil and sociopathy take over, there is no capacity for empathy.
When good men do nothing! That is the crime. That is enabling to the nth degree by passivity and laziness. Scott Peck says evil is laziness to the nth degree. Greed/power addicts and their authoritarian following enablers. Myself included. I am talking the talk. But it is a start! I am hoping more and more of us the media of course won't acknowledge are waking up to the heart of darkness of our government.
A real lesson with Bush leaving. I and so many assumed they were the bad guys and wanted to exhale, but the horror continued on. The bad guys are still continuing on with the Bush horrors and escalating them. He was despicable but there are a lot of Bush/Cheney types left clearly in both parties.
best, libby
Chicken Maaan, I am fighting not to believe that of my species but am dumbfounded about how a country burned out by the evil Bush years and mandating the Dem candidate in 2008 to put an end to these corporate wars have been, as MarkinJapan says, Stockholm Syndromed by the corporate pimped out Obama administration and the Democratic Party itself. Though I give MSNBC "trust us we are so cool and on top of everything" tv personalities a lot of the credit with their cherry-picking the truth only about Republican craven-ness betrayals.
Karma has brought suffering to the US shores, not as brutal as what our country's governmental international gangsterism has delivered to hundreds of thousands, but it is coming home to roost as the rabid rat bastard one percent and their ever escalating greed addiction is willing to bring down the entire world. Nature and infrastructures of civilization. You would think they would want a little sustainability for their own progeny at the very least, but when evil and sociopathy take over, there is no capacity for empathy.
When good men do nothing! That is the crime. That is enabling to the nth degree by passivity and laziness. Scott Peck says evil is laziness to the nth degree. Greed/power addicts and their authoritarian following enablers. Myself included. I am talking the talk. But it is a start! I am hoping more and more of us the media of course won't acknowledge are waking up to the heart of darkness of our government.
A real lesson with Bush leaving. I and so many assumed they were the bad guys and wanted to exhale, but the horror continued on. The bad guys are still continuing on with the Bush horrors and escalating them. He was despicable but there are a lot of Bush/Cheney types left clearly in both parties.
best, libby
Poor Woman, wonderful to meet you. Thanks for visiting and commenting. Yes, that particular passage you quoted resonated especially with me, too. Somehow the majority of our citizenry live in a fog to the atrocities happening in our name. The collusion of big media is responsible for a large part of the denial and minimization and sense of helplessness. Years ago with the incredible number of lives lost in the Vietnam War there was a saturation of awareness and conscience ultimately, at least for a short time. The collective non-empathetic EGO was penetrated and we were humbled as a country (theory of Eckhart Tolle) and that made some of us experience real empathy at long last for our fellow humans our government had so callously destroyed or abused. To be continued!
best, libby
best, libby
jack, great to see you again. Thanks. Yes, capitalism sets up a sociopathic agenda. I remember the wonderful Canadian documentary, the Corporation, that brought home the contention that the "corporate person" had the personality profile of a psychopath. Thanks to the United decision, "corporate persons" (frankenstein monsters) with all of their money have incredibly even more power and rights they shouldn't be given. best, libby
jmac, yes, globalization sure has disconnected the American population from the perks of national corporations bringing jobs and quality of worklife to American citizens, helped by the power of unions once backed by the Dem party but no longer. What Kevin Zeese calls the F-O-G (forces of greed) have made the corporations and their greedy overlords ruthless in seeking bottom line profiteering at the sacrifice of humanity. Sadly, globalization is making international corporations treat the global 99% like one big third world country to now be exploited at the most bargain basement outlets. Outsourcing to the most desperate to work for practically nothing. Sweatshops becoming sweatier. Lose/lose scenarios. I hadn't heard that quote from the Exxon CEO, but it certainly rings true. best, libby
hope to return soon to address comments I did not get to yet. thanks, guys! best, libby
p.s. Just got a chance to read through this great comment thread... (Also, at the end of my previous comment, I was unclear, but meant to say our government and people and even our corporations are NOT monolithic. That's what gives me some hope that we can rein in the extremes and excesses that are beyond what anyone would consider fair or decent or humane.) In the end, maybe it will be the limitations of the environment that will either do us in, or force us to find more sustainable and fair ways of doing things. Besides everything else, war is trashing the environment in huge ways. Thanks again for posting!
While you're correct, of course, the Second War, whatever else it did, stopped Nazism and that was a moral imperative.
First of all congratulations on your first EP, which is long overdue; you should get more even in the fall months.
This is just the beginning of the list of deceptive foreign policy by the government and the corporate media. there is no way any one Blog or article could cover it all; even a full length book probably couldn't cover it all unless it limited itself to brief descriptions of each event that was based on lies.
This is just the beginning of the list of deceptive foreign policy by the government and the corporate media. there is no way any one Blog or article could cover it all; even a full length book probably couldn't cover it all unless it limited itself to brief descriptions of each event that was based on lies.
Sometimes I am convinced that the efforts of corporate America to take over is directly related to war profiteering. It must really screw them up, that all the money they made (and continue to make) from wars and military activities, might be recouped to take care of the nation's financial distress.
I love hearing Americans whine, "What did we ever do to them?" The answer is "How long do you have to listen and where do you want me to start?" They rarely, if ever, really want a real answer. The ability of both the US government and the people to assume the pose of "innocent bystanders" continues to amaze me. Thanks for another detailed explication of vital issues. [r]
vzn, thanks for visiting and I will be grateful, when you are ready, to see more of your links from researching! my stomach turned reading your share about how things are afoot in the MidEast with US troop movement (since one of the critical probs with the US military is when to say "UNCLE" when they are failing which apparently is not an option -- facing down reality!) and Obama is really milking his hyper-macho commander in chief posturing for the election (dear God!) which is ironic since the anti-war stance is what got him in, but Obama is a master of opportunism if not governance, and we may be getting ready for something big pre-Nov. though the war games have been going on with black ops all over for destabilization of any countries anywhere for economic imperialism.
given that we are so cocky as a country we are not only playing proxy war chess with Russia and China thru their allied countries but we are getting in their faces, too. Every time I read provocative and incendiary quotes from Hillary (what a disappointment she has been!) I am beginning to trust the Russian reporting leaking through more than the US reporting for reality.
Clearly Hillary has used her woman in a man's world positioning to join up with the patriarchy full throttle, power and control and competition, and not going for humanism and cooperation and partnership and serious heeding of the international struggles of women, I am talking SERIOUSLY not rhetorical pretending. Susan Rice, also. Susan Powers. Yeah, Obama picks seemingly strong women who sell out for cronyism and advancement. I remember Carol Browner's bald-faced lying about how the Gulf of Mexico was 80% cleaned up due to Mother Nature after the BP crisis on NewsHour. Even Judy Woodruff's mouth fell open in horror at the mendacity, though Judy managed not to challenge her, of course.
I just googled about the sources of the saying about if you repeat lies often enough they are believed. Here is what I found:
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
Joseph Goebbels.
“A lie told often enough becomes truth”
Vladimir Lenin.
So the drumbeat about Iran goes on. The drumbeat about Syria. It is a buzz in our lives that wears us down. Iran doesn't have a nuclear weapon but how many in the US are ready to go along with war with Iran because of Iran's nuclear threat? It is dazzling how Orwellian it all is.
Someone who challenges me all the time on open salon finally revealed to me that he considers me a fabricator in Obama's gutting the bill of rights with his assassination of Americans power and removing due process from our civil rights if HE warrants it and punishing any American any where any time with indefinite detention. This person who is so righteous was accusing ME of inventing this, lying, and creating a "straw man" (??) when it is the truth! All about cronyism with him so that he is so ostrich-like he can't even have a passing knowledge of the reality of what is happening legally (anti-legally and anti-ethically) in this country on the record???? "Truthiness" ... irrational and cronied up "truthiness" ... and stay true to your team and your candidate in this gamesmanship is everything (forget statesmanship ... that is apparently for losers) American world!
There is no close-up and thoughtful and MORAL reporting on our wars, even on the classier and more respected shows like NewsHour on pbs (and sometimes Frontline goes for the truth and sometimes it stunningly pulls back), though when I look at their corporate sponsorships I know why. I turn to NewsHour often to get something rather than the jingoistic and DC party line bullshit on Meet the Press (talk about war drum-beating), say, or those insidious shows like Morning Joe that are so reckless but powerful in the huge audiences they reach, but I have to take so much of NewsHour with a sadder but wiser huge grain of salt.
And MSNBC horrifies me with its "we gotta elect Obama so his administration gets a PASS on everything and we puff up ANYTHING he remotely does that is good." Sometimes someone says something remotely chiding about Obama but nothing that really has traction, sadly.
Sigh.
best, libby
given that we are so cocky as a country we are not only playing proxy war chess with Russia and China thru their allied countries but we are getting in their faces, too. Every time I read provocative and incendiary quotes from Hillary (what a disappointment she has been!) I am beginning to trust the Russian reporting leaking through more than the US reporting for reality.
Clearly Hillary has used her woman in a man's world positioning to join up with the patriarchy full throttle, power and control and competition, and not going for humanism and cooperation and partnership and serious heeding of the international struggles of women, I am talking SERIOUSLY not rhetorical pretending. Susan Rice, also. Susan Powers. Yeah, Obama picks seemingly strong women who sell out for cronyism and advancement. I remember Carol Browner's bald-faced lying about how the Gulf of Mexico was 80% cleaned up due to Mother Nature after the BP crisis on NewsHour. Even Judy Woodruff's mouth fell open in horror at the mendacity, though Judy managed not to challenge her, of course.
I just googled about the sources of the saying about if you repeat lies often enough they are believed. Here is what I found:
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
Joseph Goebbels.
“A lie told often enough becomes truth”
Vladimir Lenin.
So the drumbeat about Iran goes on. The drumbeat about Syria. It is a buzz in our lives that wears us down. Iran doesn't have a nuclear weapon but how many in the US are ready to go along with war with Iran because of Iran's nuclear threat? It is dazzling how Orwellian it all is.
Someone who challenges me all the time on open salon finally revealed to me that he considers me a fabricator in Obama's gutting the bill of rights with his assassination of Americans power and removing due process from our civil rights if HE warrants it and punishing any American any where any time with indefinite detention. This person who is so righteous was accusing ME of inventing this, lying, and creating a "straw man" (??) when it is the truth! All about cronyism with him so that he is so ostrich-like he can't even have a passing knowledge of the reality of what is happening legally (anti-legally and anti-ethically) in this country on the record???? "Truthiness" ... irrational and cronied up "truthiness" ... and stay true to your team and your candidate in this gamesmanship is everything (forget statesmanship ... that is apparently for losers) American world!
There is no close-up and thoughtful and MORAL reporting on our wars, even on the classier and more respected shows like NewsHour on pbs (and sometimes Frontline goes for the truth and sometimes it stunningly pulls back), though when I look at their corporate sponsorships I know why. I turn to NewsHour often to get something rather than the jingoistic and DC party line bullshit on Meet the Press (talk about war drum-beating), say, or those insidious shows like Morning Joe that are so reckless but powerful in the huge audiences they reach, but I have to take so much of NewsHour with a sadder but wiser huge grain of salt.
And MSNBC horrifies me with its "we gotta elect Obama so his administration gets a PASS on everything and we puff up ANYTHING he remotely does that is good." Sometimes someone says something remotely chiding about Obama but nothing that really has traction, sadly.
Sigh.
best, libby
Sky, thanks for commenting.
Protesting the insanity of US war mongering and economic terrorism at home is like trying to empty the ocean with a teaspoon, and yet to stay spiritually alive ourselves that is what we must do imho. and there are a lot more of us out there than the media is willing to reflect back to us for the benefit of the kleptocracy that America has become.
John Mearshimer wrote a book about why governments lie. He claims it starts out with lying about foreign policy. Infantilizing the citizenry with generalized and jingoistic rhetorical bullshit (one of Obama's supposed gifts). But then the more the leader and administration continues lying re foreign affairs, the easier it becomes to lie lie lie about domestic issues, too.
Mystification (getting the big shot academic crony and selling out experts to support bullshit policies that reward the one percenters) and infantilization and the tool of corporate media is a BIG help! And the government pols know that if they cross the will of the overlords they will be skewered by the media tools themselves. Any one with a serious spine left in Washington? So saturated with corruption, and the money money money game -- to be elected I must compromise my soul immediately.
Jill Stein and people like her fighting to speak truth to power are not given a media mike. They must not challenge the outrageous lying happening from US administration to the people. Why, the pimped out pols and crony pundits might be actually called out for their betrayal of the citizenry. So the media, especially the traitorous faux-progressive media, pretend there is no one seriously "left" of them with some serious challenges to make. Kind of Obama's style. Avoidance, cover up, impression management. Put pr bandaids on the cancers. Winning is everything. Well, not winning for the citizenry but we all know that is not a priority.
best, libby
Protesting the insanity of US war mongering and economic terrorism at home is like trying to empty the ocean with a teaspoon, and yet to stay spiritually alive ourselves that is what we must do imho. and there are a lot more of us out there than the media is willing to reflect back to us for the benefit of the kleptocracy that America has become.
John Mearshimer wrote a book about why governments lie. He claims it starts out with lying about foreign policy. Infantilizing the citizenry with generalized and jingoistic rhetorical bullshit (one of Obama's supposed gifts). But then the more the leader and administration continues lying re foreign affairs, the easier it becomes to lie lie lie about domestic issues, too.
Mystification (getting the big shot academic crony and selling out experts to support bullshit policies that reward the one percenters) and infantilization and the tool of corporate media is a BIG help! And the government pols know that if they cross the will of the overlords they will be skewered by the media tools themselves. Any one with a serious spine left in Washington? So saturated with corruption, and the money money money game -- to be elected I must compromise my soul immediately.
Jill Stein and people like her fighting to speak truth to power are not given a media mike. They must not challenge the outrageous lying happening from US administration to the people. Why, the pimped out pols and crony pundits might be actually called out for their betrayal of the citizenry. So the media, especially the traitorous faux-progressive media, pretend there is no one seriously "left" of them with some serious challenges to make. Kind of Obama's style. Avoidance, cover up, impression management. Put pr bandaids on the cancers. Winning is everything. Well, not winning for the citizenry but we all know that is not a priority.
best, libby
will be back later to continue commenting on comments. did I really get on the cover? a rush but also a challenge to my open salon identity, to my assumption and acceptance I would never make the cover. :-)
Good GOD libby, now will i have to unfavorite you.... ???
Careful, one of the most effective strategies is co-option and absorbtion, you know. Look at how effective it was with a certain generation of "liberal" rockers, movie *stars* and "radical" professors... in short the "Meta life" with a capital 'M' for Meaningless effort.
(yea,yea... there's a couple, two or three...)
Malcolm. Martin. Maurice.... 'M' again. Mostly dead. Odd that.
Saludos ~
Careful, one of the most effective strategies is co-option and absorbtion, you know. Look at how effective it was with a certain generation of "liberal" rockers, movie *stars* and "radical" professors... in short the "Meta life" with a capital 'M' for Meaningless effort.
(yea,yea... there's a couple, two or three...)
Malcolm. Martin. Maurice.... 'M' again. Mostly dead. Odd that.
Saludos ~
Beyond the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and WWII, America has never been involved in a conflict that could be justified. Every other conflict, including the Civil War, has been adventurism aimed at satisfying some business interest, at the very least the military-industrial sector. Even Eisenhower, the General Supremo and a Republican, warned of this on his exit from the White House. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, we had to find another boogey man to keep the populace in line. George Orwell was British--but just as easily could have been an American: "War is Peace."
As a former journalist, I have to agree as well that the media have become almost useless as being the primary line of defense against a growing "love it or leave it" brand of Fascism that has reduced the Constitution to status of toilet paper in only a span of a generation, greatly accelerated by George W. and, stunningly, sustained by Barack "Hope" (should be "Hype") Obama. The radical consolidation of the media that has been allowed in the past 20 years and the rise of the Internet that has hollowed out the profit in news has enabled "facts" to be more readily controlled, not just concerning foreign and economic policy but, sadly, judicial as well. (Three cheers for the Supreme Court!)
The brave folks in the Occupy movement have so many things to be pissed about they can't focus, but it's their efforts that may seed a much-needed third political party; otherwise, I fear I will live long enough to see blood, lots of blood, in our streets given that there is an average of three weapons in this country for every man, woman and child.
Fine reading on a beautiful Saturday morning in New Jersey. Now where did I put that arsenic?
As a former journalist, I have to agree as well that the media have become almost useless as being the primary line of defense against a growing "love it or leave it" brand of Fascism that has reduced the Constitution to status of toilet paper in only a span of a generation, greatly accelerated by George W. and, stunningly, sustained by Barack "Hope" (should be "Hype") Obama. The radical consolidation of the media that has been allowed in the past 20 years and the rise of the Internet that has hollowed out the profit in news has enabled "facts" to be more readily controlled, not just concerning foreign and economic policy but, sadly, judicial as well. (Three cheers for the Supreme Court!)
The brave folks in the Occupy movement have so many things to be pissed about they can't focus, but it's their efforts that may seed a much-needed third political party; otherwise, I fear I will live long enough to see blood, lots of blood, in our streets given that there is an average of three weapons in this country for every man, woman and child.
Fine reading on a beautiful Saturday morning in New Jersey. Now where did I put that arsenic?
still feelin groovy that this made the cover.
libby may have heard of these refs, just wanted everyone to know of two excellent refs [in addition to smedley butlers classic, "war is a racquet"] on how war & predatory/rampaging capitalism are interrelated.
- john perkins, confession of an economic hit man
- naomi klein, the shock doctrine.
both of these books were written substantially before the 2008 crash & look quite prescient in retrospect.
some more on the subj in my blog also.
libby may have heard of these refs, just wanted everyone to know of two excellent refs [in addition to smedley butlers classic, "war is a racquet"] on how war & predatory/rampaging capitalism are interrelated.
- john perkins, confession of an economic hit man
- naomi klein, the shock doctrine.
both of these books were written substantially before the 2008 crash & look quite prescient in retrospect.
some more on the subj in my blog also.
ps keep your eyes out for another false flag incident similar to Gulf of Tonkin except near iran or syria. possibly due right after the summer. just like 911. because everyone knows you cant start a major marketing initiative in the summer.
the american public hasnt been throttled with an intense terror event for years, is starting to get a bit complacent and even contemptuous [eg see recent NYT editorial skeptical of FBI insiders and near-mentally-ill entrapped cohorts being the main instigator of terror plots] & its starting to feel a bit overdue.
the american public hasnt been throttled with an intense terror event for years, is starting to get a bit complacent and even contemptuous [eg see recent NYT editorial skeptical of FBI insiders and near-mentally-ill entrapped cohorts being the main instigator of terror plots] & its starting to feel a bit overdue.
Vital post in its eye opening account of how we allow this behemoth government that is not interested in running the world -- only controlling it. You draw out how we are proficient at air brushing our way to create an other worldly image, one that wreaks of bombings, burnt flesh, blood and gangrene bodies lying there to die. We spend much on this mediagenic gaze, a whole industry creating this noble, nuanced creature that wants to be loved ... and at any price. We have Iraq and other missions to prove it.
When will we wake up? The con has been running since Iran - Contra days ... What has baffled me is why we accept this two party system of trough feeding, incompetent boobs, for whom the jig being up, will allow them to know last .... People, it is time to wake up and tell this bunch of posers that they are not required -- anymore.
Highly R>>>>>>>>>>>
When will we wake up? The con has been running since Iran - Contra days ... What has baffled me is why we accept this two party system of trough feeding, incompetent boobs, for whom the jig being up, will allow them to know last .... People, it is time to wake up and tell this bunch of posers that they are not required -- anymore.
Highly R>>>>>>>>>>>
Alaska Progressive, so happy to see you again! Thanks for the validation. You said it, capitalism is based on exploitation. Survival of the SLICKEST! No room for empathy in the system of capitalism. War feeds the beast -- I so agree. So few true psychopaths directlty engineering the obscene genocides (stunningly more than we would assume) BUT legions of clueless and not so clueless enablers! We as citizens need more and more to move out of our enabling pens and demand decency and even basic legality! There is such shamelessness and full frontal evil that should be acknowledged. WTF is going on???? But that theory of the 100 monkeys gives me hope, when 100 monkeys get it, the whole monkey nation will get on board soon after. We just gotta keep collecting those awakened monkeys. It was said re Vietnam War Walter Cronkite was the 100th monkey that said THIS MUST STOP! best, libby
Going to resume my commenting on the comments, but want to pull Inverted Interrobang out of the line since his -- your -- comment made me especially smile. II -- if it came down to being on your favorites' list OR getting on the front cover with every blog, I would choose your list in a New York second! (And you can take that to the bank, if you can find an honest one!) :) Actually I rather grandiosely thought I was on an establishment "sh*t list" of some kind at o.s., but maybe that just shows some reactive egotism or paranoia ... or .... well, we shall see. I think it is a good sign to be discussing what we are discussing on said cover. I trust if I do begin to slide down any serious slopes of co-ption, egotism and toxic cronyism my true friends will give me mighty helpings of tough love! I, too, II have been stunned at the co-options (I am beginning to see G. Clooney as a male version of Keaton's awesome portrayal of "The Little Drummer Girl" in giving unwitting support to the dark side) of et tu faux-liberals that have entered foggy Obamaworld or just plain toxic corporate-ville and/or narrow cronyville and the ever seductive celebrityville. And then there are those few who defy or defied the down and dirty and deadly machinery of the status quo and get caught in the big wringer and are made to pay dearly but leave their message and their example and their modeling of morality for those straining to keep their hearts and minds open. M for moral message and, yes, sadly, M for mostly dead.
Best! libby
Best! libby
Bleue, how great to see you! Thanks! I love your take on the massive screw up of our economy!
"The situation with the economy constantly repeats, we are just told the wrong answer is right."
YES YES YES!!!!
" It's simple, if you only kill (take/destroy) to survive you're a predator."
snip
"Predators evolve for aggression not endurance, will kill every weaker predator and are the least adaptive. The most adaptive and able to scavenge will be the species that survives. The little "bottom feeder" trilobite survived for a few hundred million years."
I really appreciated the point you make about how predatory allies become enemies. Of course, it is about power opportunism not about genuine partnership and cooperation that self-aggrandizing bonding between entities. I once heard that turning from ally to enemy referred to with people at an office -- when there is blood in the political waters over power brokering. The guppies suddenly turn into piranha the reference was! Rude surprise for the sharks and sharks, sharks and dolphins or whatever, thrashing it out. Where does their control go? Their network?
Aw, Bleue, you are too kind but I appreciate your validation of my blogs. It is very cathartic for me to churn them out as I raise my consciousness and want to share what I am learning and express some deserved outrage especially over what is not accessible to us as citizens or emphasized for us citizens. There a lot going on that deserves to be rippled as fast and as widely as possible!
Energy follows attention and the big media won't put the attention one what we desperately need energy for, but they ignore or deny these issues so there won't be citizen energy generated because the oligarchs would not be pleased!
I know I need as a citizen to be plugged into the buzz of what is happening (I think of that song from Jesus Christ Superstar -- "what's the buzz, tell me what's happening") but I don't want to be sucked into the amoral and skewed values prioritizing of the corporate news which is incredibly insistent and insidious and so often shallow, shallow, shallow.
You take care! thanks again. best, libby
"The situation with the economy constantly repeats, we are just told the wrong answer is right."
YES YES YES!!!!
" It's simple, if you only kill (take/destroy) to survive you're a predator."
snip
"Predators evolve for aggression not endurance, will kill every weaker predator and are the least adaptive. The most adaptive and able to scavenge will be the species that survives. The little "bottom feeder" trilobite survived for a few hundred million years."
I really appreciated the point you make about how predatory allies become enemies. Of course, it is about power opportunism not about genuine partnership and cooperation that self-aggrandizing bonding between entities. I once heard that turning from ally to enemy referred to with people at an office -- when there is blood in the political waters over power brokering. The guppies suddenly turn into piranha the reference was! Rude surprise for the sharks and sharks, sharks and dolphins or whatever, thrashing it out. Where does their control go? Their network?
Aw, Bleue, you are too kind but I appreciate your validation of my blogs. It is very cathartic for me to churn them out as I raise my consciousness and want to share what I am learning and express some deserved outrage especially over what is not accessible to us as citizens or emphasized for us citizens. There a lot going on that deserves to be rippled as fast and as widely as possible!
Energy follows attention and the big media won't put the attention one what we desperately need energy for, but they ignore or deny these issues so there won't be citizen energy generated because the oligarchs would not be pleased!
I know I need as a citizen to be plugged into the buzz of what is happening (I think of that song from Jesus Christ Superstar -- "what's the buzz, tell me what's happening") but I don't want to be sucked into the amoral and skewed values prioritizing of the corporate news which is incredibly insistent and insidious and so often shallow, shallow, shallow.
You take care! thanks again. best, libby
Clay Ball, so great to see you! Thanks for your thoughtful comment.
You describe well the ever-proliferating justifications to jettison human rights and regard human life and lives as "cheap".
Nelson Mandela, now there was a community organizer! Not an ego-driven man, but someone whose wisdom is hard won with courage and patience -- fortitude! I know civility and empathy has to be extended among individuals in communication coming from different beliefs and loyalties but NOT IN POWER GAMESMANSHIP gotcha mode!
Sometimes my eyes glaze over watching the talking heads utter the talking points bullshit of their parties and their parties' corporate overlords. The overlords want us to be divided. Cultural differences, class differences, racial and gender differences. Enflame the differences is their M.O. They want us distrusting and not working together and empathizing with each other let alone empathizing with the world family.
I really appreciate this statement of yours! "I think our country and government and people--no people really--are monolithic."
It makes me think of the refrain POWER TO THE PEOPLE! We have to fight the mass hypnosis that we don't have it. WE DO!!! I feel more empowered (and yes hopeful) communicating back to you right now for example! Thank you!!!! :-)
best, libby
You describe well the ever-proliferating justifications to jettison human rights and regard human life and lives as "cheap".
Nelson Mandela, now there was a community organizer! Not an ego-driven man, but someone whose wisdom is hard won with courage and patience -- fortitude! I know civility and empathy has to be extended among individuals in communication coming from different beliefs and loyalties but NOT IN POWER GAMESMANSHIP gotcha mode!
Sometimes my eyes glaze over watching the talking heads utter the talking points bullshit of their parties and their parties' corporate overlords. The overlords want us to be divided. Cultural differences, class differences, racial and gender differences. Enflame the differences is their M.O. They want us distrusting and not working together and empathizing with each other let alone empathizing with the world family.
I really appreciate this statement of yours! "I think our country and government and people--no people really--are monolithic."
It makes me think of the refrain POWER TO THE PEOPLE! We have to fight the mass hypnosis that we don't have it. WE DO!!! I feel more empowered (and yes hopeful) communicating back to you right now for example! Thank you!!!! :-)
best, libby
Libby, there are No words with which I can convey be severe disappointment for cloney turning to the dark side.
Thank G-d, his buddy, Matt Damon, contiunes, undisturbed to speak truth to fiction
Thank G-d, his buddy, Matt Damon, contiunes, undisturbed to speak truth to fiction
Stuart, thanks! I look forward to reading your blog re Syria. I am confident you can give me some perspective. What stuns me is the total lack of an ability to "pause" or even discern more than two sides re the Syrian crisis ... disaster ... US/NATO-engineered bloodbath in the name of humanitarianism on the part of US/western corporate media!
I was reading about what mistakes had been made rushing to judgment by media and the US government that the Assad government was NOT responsible for the recent slaughters in Houla Syria and yet none of the big media broadcasters dropped the drum beat at all referring to the violence in Syria as a simple, generalized given that the US must do something about it because of the BAD Syrian government and the US/NATO assumes justification to break international LAW. It was useful true or not for propaganda as was said above. Meanwhile, the growing bloodbath was being predicted by sane non-corporate journalists re Syria the same as it was predicted re Libya.
Thanks for this explanation of shabiha, though if the US citizenry or again even or especially newscasters had to juggle three entities involved in any foreign crisis their heads might explode!!! You got the white hats and the black hats. No room for any more hats. K-I-S-S -- "keep it simple, sycophant" I guess. Never time to dwell on reality. NO TIME NO TIME. Like the white rabbit in Alice in Wonderland. Meanwhile how much of the population is keeping up with the Kardashians, able to slow down for them thanks to media time and spotlight? Sigh.
"According to the BBC website shabiha (with a small "s") is a colloquial expression used to refer to organized criminal gangs on the Mediterranean coast who used to engage in drug and arms trafficking and protection rackets - who were brutally suppressed in the 1990s by Assad and his father. The only published reference to their recent involvement in pro-government activity was a YouTube video some insurgent posted in March 2011. The Obama administration really seems to be scraping the bottom of the barrel."
The Obama administration. Ends justifies the means. Bloody ends justifies the bloody means, profits uber alles! Lie lie lie, kill kill kill.
You would think US covert cooperation with AQ thugs would be a big deal in the corporate media news considering how much violence has been perpetrated to supposedly eliminate AQ (that mandate still being used to puff up Obama as macho commander in chief), but no biggie, that unbelievable scenario, apparently re Libya and it seems Syria. If AQ is adding to the destabilization for regime change, they have the US government's blessing at the very least if not the US/NATO's under the radar support. God d*mn! As I type this I feel guilty and that I must be wrong -- I don't remember the exact places I read about such collusion -- but I did! How do we get that surreal reality to ripple and have the military called out for STUPENDOUS HYPOCRISY AND BETRAYAL!
By the way, this from G Greenwald "in America media discourse, the definition of "militant" is ANY human being whose life is extinguishable when an American missile or bomb detonates" [such as Awlaki's 16 year old son Greenwald points out] ... snip ....Greenwald also cites the NYT as declaring that Obama's method of counting or discounting civilian casualties in a STRIKE zone. All military-age males in a strike zone are counted as combatants unless specific posthumous attention rallies to exonerate them. The upside for the Obama team of mass murderers is that the size of collateral damage SEEMS smaller.
Yes, Obama, master of impression management. Sounds like that bootcamp demonization refrain, "Kill 'em all, let God sort 'em out!" Obama's major gift as national leader, the talent for offering his reassuring mendacity! I call that citizenry infantilization and mystification!
Glen Ford recently compared Obama to Cheney with Obama's callousness to destroy human life via droning. In fact Ford said Obama was "Cheney with a halo -- singing Al Green." I'm thinking he is onto something!
Can Americans get through the smoke and mirrors to ever perceive that? Not something to want to be true, but if it is, we oughta face it down, dontchathink?
Take care, Stuart! Tx.
best, libby
I was reading about what mistakes had been made rushing to judgment by media and the US government that the Assad government was NOT responsible for the recent slaughters in Houla Syria and yet none of the big media broadcasters dropped the drum beat at all referring to the violence in Syria as a simple, generalized given that the US must do something about it because of the BAD Syrian government and the US/NATO assumes justification to break international LAW. It was useful true or not for propaganda as was said above. Meanwhile, the growing bloodbath was being predicted by sane non-corporate journalists re Syria the same as it was predicted re Libya.
Thanks for this explanation of shabiha, though if the US citizenry or again even or especially newscasters had to juggle three entities involved in any foreign crisis their heads might explode!!! You got the white hats and the black hats. No room for any more hats. K-I-S-S -- "keep it simple, sycophant" I guess. Never time to dwell on reality. NO TIME NO TIME. Like the white rabbit in Alice in Wonderland. Meanwhile how much of the population is keeping up with the Kardashians, able to slow down for them thanks to media time and spotlight? Sigh.
"According to the BBC website shabiha (with a small "s") is a colloquial expression used to refer to organized criminal gangs on the Mediterranean coast who used to engage in drug and arms trafficking and protection rackets - who were brutally suppressed in the 1990s by Assad and his father. The only published reference to their recent involvement in pro-government activity was a YouTube video some insurgent posted in March 2011. The Obama administration really seems to be scraping the bottom of the barrel."
The Obama administration. Ends justifies the means. Bloody ends justifies the bloody means, profits uber alles! Lie lie lie, kill kill kill.
You would think US covert cooperation with AQ thugs would be a big deal in the corporate media news considering how much violence has been perpetrated to supposedly eliminate AQ (that mandate still being used to puff up Obama as macho commander in chief), but no biggie, that unbelievable scenario, apparently re Libya and it seems Syria. If AQ is adding to the destabilization for regime change, they have the US government's blessing at the very least if not the US/NATO's under the radar support. God d*mn! As I type this I feel guilty and that I must be wrong -- I don't remember the exact places I read about such collusion -- but I did! How do we get that surreal reality to ripple and have the military called out for STUPENDOUS HYPOCRISY AND BETRAYAL!
By the way, this from G Greenwald "in America media discourse, the definition of "militant" is ANY human being whose life is extinguishable when an American missile or bomb detonates" [such as Awlaki's 16 year old son Greenwald points out] ... snip ....Greenwald also cites the NYT as declaring that Obama's method of counting or discounting civilian casualties in a STRIKE zone. All military-age males in a strike zone are counted as combatants unless specific posthumous attention rallies to exonerate them. The upside for the Obama team of mass murderers is that the size of collateral damage SEEMS smaller.
Yes, Obama, master of impression management. Sounds like that bootcamp demonization refrain, "Kill 'em all, let God sort 'em out!" Obama's major gift as national leader, the talent for offering his reassuring mendacity! I call that citizenry infantilization and mystification!
Glen Ford recently compared Obama to Cheney with Obama's callousness to destroy human life via droning. In fact Ford said Obama was "Cheney with a halo -- singing Al Green." I'm thinking he is onto something!
Can Americans get through the smoke and mirrors to ever perceive that? Not something to want to be true, but if it is, we oughta face it down, dontchathink?
Take care, Stuart! Tx.
best, libby
Clay Ball, I understood your point re monolithic! I also appreciate your point about what war is doing to us environmentally and the greedy deaf corporations that do not want to ever respect risk factors and possible crises that can profoundly cripple and harm the planet and its people. Re BP oil drilling, fracking, nuclear power plants, "clean" (hah!) coal, etc. Great line!
"In the end, maybe it will be the limitations of the environment that will either do us in, or force us to find more sustainable and fair ways of doing things."
best, libby
"In the end, maybe it will be the limitations of the environment that will either do us in, or force us to find more sustainable and fair ways of doing things."
best, libby
Baltimore, Hathaway cited those statistics but either did not footnote them or it was not footnoted on the website I cited that maybe reproduced his article. To me it sounded like a low-ball estimate. I know 100,000 is the average estimate for casualties in the Iraq War alone if you go to wikipedia, though I have heard up to 1 million Iraqis dead with 3 million displaced reading articles over the years. I remember during the first "popular" Gulf War there was little mention on the big media of casualties of the Iraqis then. I mean it was so noticeably missing. So much attention to the titillation of scud missiles and dramatic footage of bombing, etc. It was horrifying. There is certainly an incentive to not keep accurate estimates of deaths on the part of the military and US government and thus the media! Also, as I mentioned above to Stuart, how the Obama administration regards people killed in the battle zones as being tallied as insurgents, ESPECIALLY any male "military" age unless actual posthumous proof comes through they are not, but who is even gonna print that seriously in the US stenographic pool media. Read Glenn Greenwald about that "useful for pr" mendacity of counting collateral damage vs. counting the enemy. Obama administration and military put a heavy thumb on the scale for "enemy" casualties. Why do "they" hate us? I call it genocide for profit. best, libby
Jonathan, thanks for commenting. Yes, WWII was war in an entirely different context from the warring Hathaway and I are addressing above, and the troops had a moral imperative lacking in our troops today, except the present day troops' "trust" that our government is responsibly trying to protect our citizenry, rather than destroying people and countries gratuitously and obscenely for corporate interests. I wonder how long that naivete might last. I have read most of the troops are motivated most just to help keep each other alive. With the obscenely cruel re-deployments I can't begin to imagine what their feelings end up being. The government is playing Russian roulette with their lives. 2 million vets from these wars in the US now. Their sensibility will mature those particularly in the Obama "bubble of detachment" from his war-making I am hoping.
Re WWII and corporate opportunism and betrayal, however, Jonathan, I remember watching the brilliant Canadian documentary, the Corporation, years ago that has a main theme, that the "legal person" profile of corporations is that of a "psychopath" ... and it also gave historical perspective on corporations such as IBM and Coca Cola and others during WWII, when, say, IBM made tons of money from the Nazis selling them machines in which to keep records of the populations of their concentration camps, etc. The Coke brand was hidden with Fanta brand if I recall correctly (thought that is fuzzy, my memory of details, sorry), so Coke could also make money and not be limited to selling only to countries opposed to Hitler. I think that was the case. Empathy and human decency? ... not when it comes to the bottom line. And of course, where was our government putting a stop to such BETRAYAL during war time???? Economic opportunism and its political enabling. I wish I could remember more from that troubling documentary. I recommend a watch and maybe I will re-watch. The predictions of what was to come and what was already happening were there from corporatism and capitalism.
My Dad fought in both WWII and Korea and shared a lot of horror stories from there and suffered from PTSD from his experiences. He was at Pearl Harbor when it was bombed. In fact, he was walking to the mess hall for breakfast when a Japanese plane appeared in the sky and suddenly zeroed in on him with a stream of bullets and if he hadn't ducked behind a low wall would have been killed.
My Dad passed on right before 9/11. He was at least saved the horror of processing 9/11 having served his country so much of his life as a soldier. But I also felt my living in NYC when the towers were attacked was similar in so many ways to the shock and horror of the Pearl Harbor ambush and felt he would have understood some of the horror I felt living in the City at the time of the bombing and helped me with that, though granted I was safely uptown at the time unlike those innocent citizens working in the towers along with the brave first responders. There was also in NYC the sustained anthrax scare, too, which really troubled me also. (btw, I had temped a couple times in the trade center in the past which also had resonance after the attack). Anyway, some thoughts on that.
best, libby
Re WWII and corporate opportunism and betrayal, however, Jonathan, I remember watching the brilliant Canadian documentary, the Corporation, years ago that has a main theme, that the "legal person" profile of corporations is that of a "psychopath" ... and it also gave historical perspective on corporations such as IBM and Coca Cola and others during WWII, when, say, IBM made tons of money from the Nazis selling them machines in which to keep records of the populations of their concentration camps, etc. The Coke brand was hidden with Fanta brand if I recall correctly (thought that is fuzzy, my memory of details, sorry), so Coke could also make money and not be limited to selling only to countries opposed to Hitler. I think that was the case. Empathy and human decency? ... not when it comes to the bottom line. And of course, where was our government putting a stop to such BETRAYAL during war time???? Economic opportunism and its political enabling. I wish I could remember more from that troubling documentary. I recommend a watch and maybe I will re-watch. The predictions of what was to come and what was already happening were there from corporatism and capitalism.
My Dad fought in both WWII and Korea and shared a lot of horror stories from there and suffered from PTSD from his experiences. He was at Pearl Harbor when it was bombed. In fact, he was walking to the mess hall for breakfast when a Japanese plane appeared in the sky and suddenly zeroed in on him with a stream of bullets and if he hadn't ducked behind a low wall would have been killed.
My Dad passed on right before 9/11. He was at least saved the horror of processing 9/11 having served his country so much of his life as a soldier. But I also felt my living in NYC when the towers were attacked was similar in so many ways to the shock and horror of the Pearl Harbor ambush and felt he would have understood some of the horror I felt living in the City at the time of the bombing and helped me with that, though granted I was safely uptown at the time unlike those innocent citizens working in the towers along with the brave first responders. There was also in NYC the sustained anthrax scare, too, which really troubled me also. (btw, I had temped a couple times in the trade center in the past which also had resonance after the attack). Anyway, some thoughts on that.
best, libby
Zachd! Thanks for the congrats. :-) I am addressing this stream a lot this week but realize I need to get back to reading and learning from the rich blogs of fellow open saloners especially yours! But the war issue is a huge one for all of us. You are so right about the layers and layers of mendacity and ethical and legal horrors involved in these obscene wars! We citizens collectively must exit the bubble or the fog or whatever of being the accessories to our government's mass murders. War has become so normalized thanks to the craven media and the craven politicians that the citizenry, though suffering emotional burnout at the very least from the years of war and horror, are conditioned to let the inertia, the US killing machine once in motion forever staying in motion, genocidally steamroll on. The bloated military budgets alone should outrage all of us, let alone the obscene human carnage and devastation. Obama won the first election by being anti-war. Now he is trying to win the second one by being the opposite, a war mongering TOUGH ON TERROR Dr. Strangelove in media engaging lesser evil clothing!
best, libby
best, libby
Steven, thanks for commenting! I wonder if those most craven war profiteers are inconvenienced at all by what suffering, economic and human, the wars cost. Instead they press the politicians to take away more from the bottom 99%. Rape their medicare and social security, their pensions, their health care, etc. etc etc. And then the rat bastard politicians with their cadillac lifetime insurance coverage and their millions preach to us about austerity and how we all must tighten our belts. They go after teachers, and postal employees, and debt-ridden students, etc. Blame the victim time. Someone said recently the 1% rabid rat bastards (politicians included) are like Charles Dickens villains they are so collectively heartless and callous with their entitlement and ruthless, sociopathic opportunism and narcissism. profits and power uber alles. winners take all. the war on empathy is winning! best, libby
Donegal, so great to see you! Yes, yes, yes! I agree:
"I love hearing Americans whine, "What did we ever do to them?" The answer is "How long do you have to listen and where do you want me to start?" They rarely, if ever, really want a real answer. The ability of both the US government and the people to assume the pose of "innocent bystanders" continues to amaze me. ..."
The "normalization" of gratuitous genocide! We are all accessories to murder just by being ongoing taxpayers. Our pols never argue about money for Israel or money for wars. Like a blank check. What an incredible racket!!!! Most of the country is locked into a moral coma. When will it unlock? American exceptionalism, stockholm syndrome, learned helplessness, media distraction, pervasive authoritarianism. Those of us objecting to the horror and insanity are marginalized and demonized as fringe people. Just like the 99% are reduced to being third class citizens by the gated community 1%ers. Obama will give plenty of moneyed advertising lip service that he cares. Will this population let obama play lucy and the football one more time? My take is that Obomney is running in 2012. And my choice, Jill Stein of the Green Party, won't even get big media name mention since her integrity and knowledge and citizeny-priorities would illuminate the sham and rogueness of our government! We do not have to stay stuck in this amoral quagmire. We need responsible statespeople at the helm. We hoped Obama might be one, but he is a gamesman not a statesperson. Let's admit it and find someone with a sense of real decency and compassion and intelligence and who is not pimped out to corporations!
best, libby
"I love hearing Americans whine, "What did we ever do to them?" The answer is "How long do you have to listen and where do you want me to start?" They rarely, if ever, really want a real answer. The ability of both the US government and the people to assume the pose of "innocent bystanders" continues to amaze me. ..."
The "normalization" of gratuitous genocide! We are all accessories to murder just by being ongoing taxpayers. Our pols never argue about money for Israel or money for wars. Like a blank check. What an incredible racket!!!! Most of the country is locked into a moral coma. When will it unlock? American exceptionalism, stockholm syndrome, learned helplessness, media distraction, pervasive authoritarianism. Those of us objecting to the horror and insanity are marginalized and demonized as fringe people. Just like the 99% are reduced to being third class citizens by the gated community 1%ers. Obama will give plenty of moneyed advertising lip service that he cares. Will this population let obama play lucy and the football one more time? My take is that Obomney is running in 2012. And my choice, Jill Stein of the Green Party, won't even get big media name mention since her integrity and knowledge and citizeny-priorities would illuminate the sham and rogueness of our government! We do not have to stay stuck in this amoral quagmire. We need responsible statespeople at the helm. We hoped Obama might be one, but he is a gamesman not a statesperson. Let's admit it and find someone with a sense of real decency and compassion and intelligence and who is not pimped out to corporations!
best, libby
James P, my Springsteen friend, how great to see you. Thank you!!! I so appreciate the wisdom of your thoughtful comments!
"Beyond the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and WWII, America has never been involved in a conflict that could be justified. Every other conflict, including the Civil War, has been adventurism aimed at satisfying some business interest, at the very least the military-industrial sector. Even Eisenhower, the General Supremo and a Republican, warned of this on his exit from the White House. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, we had to find another boogey man to keep the populace in line. George Orwell was British--but just as easily could have been an American: "War is Peace.""
James, is there any way to get serious journalism back? Helen Thomas booted out, more I contend for asking Obama real questions than anything else. Even Watergate superstar Woodward is used now for leaking what the administration wants to have leaked more often than not. Access and collusion and what the hey, so many of the journalists get financially and access-rewarded for saying what the administration pimped out to oligarchs insist they say. I mean it is corporate media, save the intrepid ones on the internet but they can be readily co-opted as well (look at the public option crap that happened and sabotaged the single payer movement). I can't watch the Sunday news shows without a vomit bucket nearby.
This passage of yours knocked my socks off:
"As a former journalist, I have to agree as well that the media have become almost useless as being the primary line of defense against a growing "love it or leave it" brand of Fascism that has reduced the Constitution to status of toilet paper in only a span of a generation, greatly accelerated by George W. and, stunningly, sustained by Barack "Hope" (should be "Hype") Obama. The radical consolidation of the media that has been allowed in the past 20 years and the rise of the Internet that has hollowed out the profit in news has enabled "facts" to be more readily controlled, not just concerning foreign and economic policy but, sadly, judicial as well. (Three cheers for the Supreme Court!)"
James, even more provocative thoughts in this paragraph:
"The brave folks in the Occupy movement have so many things to be pissed about they can't focus, but it's their efforts that may seed a much-needed third political party; otherwise, I fear I will live long enough to see blood, lots of blood, in our streets given that there is an average of three weapons in this country for every man, woman and child."
I am stunned it has taken so long and still no third political party has taken hold. The money game, the media access game. But we should all be hitting the streets, not just America's young people. Individuals have got to embrace empathy, and shake off the "Well, it could be worse. It could be directly happening to me." It will eventually is the lesson there, whether health crises, job losses, losing loved ones in war. They may not happen to each of us simultaneously but when they do. Obamacare ... people want to "trust" it is benign. Just wait for more evidence! United we can stand, divided as we are and have been for way too long, we keep falling.
Thanks for your pithy and provocative comments!!!! Expanded my perspective. best, libby
"Beyond the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and WWII, America has never been involved in a conflict that could be justified. Every other conflict, including the Civil War, has been adventurism aimed at satisfying some business interest, at the very least the military-industrial sector. Even Eisenhower, the General Supremo and a Republican, warned of this on his exit from the White House. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, we had to find another boogey man to keep the populace in line. George Orwell was British--but just as easily could have been an American: "War is Peace.""
James, is there any way to get serious journalism back? Helen Thomas booted out, more I contend for asking Obama real questions than anything else. Even Watergate superstar Woodward is used now for leaking what the administration wants to have leaked more often than not. Access and collusion and what the hey, so many of the journalists get financially and access-rewarded for saying what the administration pimped out to oligarchs insist they say. I mean it is corporate media, save the intrepid ones on the internet but they can be readily co-opted as well (look at the public option crap that happened and sabotaged the single payer movement). I can't watch the Sunday news shows without a vomit bucket nearby.
This passage of yours knocked my socks off:
"As a former journalist, I have to agree as well that the media have become almost useless as being the primary line of defense against a growing "love it or leave it" brand of Fascism that has reduced the Constitution to status of toilet paper in only a span of a generation, greatly accelerated by George W. and, stunningly, sustained by Barack "Hope" (should be "Hype") Obama. The radical consolidation of the media that has been allowed in the past 20 years and the rise of the Internet that has hollowed out the profit in news has enabled "facts" to be more readily controlled, not just concerning foreign and economic policy but, sadly, judicial as well. (Three cheers for the Supreme Court!)"
James, even more provocative thoughts in this paragraph:
"The brave folks in the Occupy movement have so many things to be pissed about they can't focus, but it's their efforts that may seed a much-needed third political party; otherwise, I fear I will live long enough to see blood, lots of blood, in our streets given that there is an average of three weapons in this country for every man, woman and child."
I am stunned it has taken so long and still no third political party has taken hold. The money game, the media access game. But we should all be hitting the streets, not just America's young people. Individuals have got to embrace empathy, and shake off the "Well, it could be worse. It could be directly happening to me." It will eventually is the lesson there, whether health crises, job losses, losing loved ones in war. They may not happen to each of us simultaneously but when they do. Obamacare ... people want to "trust" it is benign. Just wait for more evidence! United we can stand, divided as we are and have been for way too long, we keep falling.
Thanks for your pithy and provocative comments!!!! Expanded my perspective. best, libby
vzn, thanks for the great suggestions:
"[in addition to smedley butlers classic, "war is a racquet"] on how war & predatory/rampaging capitalism are interrelated.
- john perkins, confession of an economic hit man
- naomi klein, the shock doctrine."
"both of these books were written substantially before the 2008 crash & look quite prescient in retrospect."
vzn, as Donegal says above, people ask why there is so much violence, and yet the material is accessible explaining the whys and the extent of it all. Reality is repellent, but it needs to be embraced. Like the 12 step recovery, one has got to acknowledge the actual bottom that has been reached, otherwise the bottom will get deeper and deeper. Denial keeps the fall going.
vzn, I agree re false flag set ups. The more the blowback of the citizenry to the horrors, the more diabolical will be a fear-mongering set-up back on us. I don't think we begin to know false flag ops in our history. Obama is using war on terror mantra as much as Cheney and Bush did. I dread what might be coming especially well-timed for the election. So far Obama coasts on media branding to hide his war crimes and callousness about domestic drownings, homelessness, joblessness, poverty. thanks for commenting again! best, libby
"[in addition to smedley butlers classic, "war is a racquet"] on how war & predatory/rampaging capitalism are interrelated.
- john perkins, confession of an economic hit man
- naomi klein, the shock doctrine."
"both of these books were written substantially before the 2008 crash & look quite prescient in retrospect."
vzn, as Donegal says above, people ask why there is so much violence, and yet the material is accessible explaining the whys and the extent of it all. Reality is repellent, but it needs to be embraced. Like the 12 step recovery, one has got to acknowledge the actual bottom that has been reached, otherwise the bottom will get deeper and deeper. Denial keeps the fall going.
vzn, I agree re false flag set ups. The more the blowback of the citizenry to the horrors, the more diabolical will be a fear-mongering set-up back on us. I don't think we begin to know false flag ops in our history. Obama is using war on terror mantra as much as Cheney and Bush did. I dread what might be coming especially well-timed for the election. So far Obama coasts on media branding to hide his war crimes and callousness about domestic drownings, homelessness, joblessness, poverty. thanks for commenting again! best, libby
inthisdeepcalm (I love that screen name!), thanks for commenting. God, I love not only your sensibility but how you express it:
"Vital post in its eye opening account of how we allow this behemoth government that is not interested in running the world -- only controlling it. You draw out how we are proficient at air brushing our way to create an other worldly image, one that wreaks of bombings, burnt flesh, blood and gangrene bodies lying there to die. We spend much on this mediagenic gaze, a whole industry creating this noble, nuanced creature that wants to be loved ... and at any price. We have Iraq and other missions to prove it."
"When will we wake up? The con has been running since Iran - Contra days ... What has baffled me is why we accept this two party system of trough feeding, incompetent boobs, for whom the jig being up, will allow them to know last .... People, it is time to wake up and tell this bunch of posers that they are not required -- anymore."
Yes, yes, yes!!!! Thank you!!! When will the con end? I can't believe we got two terms of George Bush. Now we have Obomney to stay stuck with!!! POSERS! Ya got that right!!! best, libby
"Vital post in its eye opening account of how we allow this behemoth government that is not interested in running the world -- only controlling it. You draw out how we are proficient at air brushing our way to create an other worldly image, one that wreaks of bombings, burnt flesh, blood and gangrene bodies lying there to die. We spend much on this mediagenic gaze, a whole industry creating this noble, nuanced creature that wants to be loved ... and at any price. We have Iraq and other missions to prove it."
"When will we wake up? The con has been running since Iran - Contra days ... What has baffled me is why we accept this two party system of trough feeding, incompetent boobs, for whom the jig being up, will allow them to know last .... People, it is time to wake up and tell this bunch of posers that they are not required -- anymore."
Yes, yes, yes!!!! Thank you!!! When will the con end? I can't believe we got two terms of George Bush. Now we have Obomney to stay stuck with!!! POSERS! Ya got that right!!! best, libby
Thanks, Mark. Clooney stuff I need to look more deeply into (more than just fund raising) but sounds like he is being really naive and useful to this war criminal administration. Hurt Locker's Bigelow is gonna help with war porn hype for Obama near November re bin laden. Stay tuned! best, libby
And frustratingly distressing, the West, especially Americans continue to “follow the leader” because it's so much easier, so much more comfortable to do so rather than to think and pursue the truth; even as we send our very own children off to war to kill and be killed in the name of “the god of democracy” and its 12 Apostles of Corporate America – Lockheed, Boeing, Northrop, General Dynamics, Raytheon, GE, Honeywell, Blackwater, Raytheon, Halliburton, Huntington Ingalls, McDonell Douglas.
Thanks to the well propagandized “War on Terror,” we are now in an ever-widening state of perpetual war with no end in sight and no one willing to stop it. The U.S. 2011 “defense” expenditures (at least those made public) was 711 billion dollars and that’s just the DOD budget. If one considers all the other factors of war such as veteran’s affairs, Homeland Security, satellites, counter-terrorism efforts by the CIA and FBI, the U.S. spent more than 1.4 trillion dollars in our efforts to battle an enemy WE conveniently made.
What of those sinister Chinese and/or Russians hiding in the dark alleys to take us over while we spend our lives happy and oblivious to all else? Well; China spent a paltry 10% of that - 143 billion dollars and Russia ranks a very distant third place at 5% of the U.S. expenditures, or 72 billion dollars.
Thank god for Obamney and their 12 apostles.
Thanks to the well propagandized “War on Terror,” we are now in an ever-widening state of perpetual war with no end in sight and no one willing to stop it. The U.S. 2011 “defense” expenditures (at least those made public) was 711 billion dollars and that’s just the DOD budget. If one considers all the other factors of war such as veteran’s affairs, Homeland Security, satellites, counter-terrorism efforts by the CIA and FBI, the U.S. spent more than 1.4 trillion dollars in our efforts to battle an enemy WE conveniently made.
What of those sinister Chinese and/or Russians hiding in the dark alleys to take us over while we spend our lives happy and oblivious to all else? Well; China spent a paltry 10% of that - 143 billion dollars and Russia ranks a very distant third place at 5% of the U.S. expenditures, or 72 billion dollars.
Thank god for Obamney and their 12 apostles.
Excellent post Libby - here's an article you'll like too
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-quigley/corporations-profit-from_b_586896.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-quigley/corporations-profit-from_b_586896.html
I'll help You with casualty figures, Libby:
"This cost in foreign lives is even higher. Estimates vary widely but the real number is likely much higher than the mere “thousands” that Obama has pegged as the death count in Iraq. In 2006, the Lancet estimated the number of Iraqis to die as a result of the war to be 654,965. The real number is almost certainly in the hundreds of thousands. Many thousands have also died in Afghanistan."
http://onespot.wsj.com/politics/2011/09/10/1d103/anthony-gregory-the-priceless-price-of
If anything, Libby has UNDERSTATED the casualty figures, and as the figures stated above are nine months old, the understatement grows larger every day.
"This cost in foreign lives is even higher. Estimates vary widely but the real number is likely much higher than the mere “thousands” that Obama has pegged as the death count in Iraq. In 2006, the Lancet estimated the number of Iraqis to die as a result of the war to be 654,965. The real number is almost certainly in the hundreds of thousands. Many thousands have also died in Afghanistan."
http://onespot.wsj.com/politics/2011/09/10/1d103/anthony-gregory-the-priceless-price-of
If anything, Libby has UNDERSTATED the casualty figures, and as the figures stated above are nine months old, the understatement grows larger every day.
Glad to see the attention your posts deserve, getting it at last. Thank you for this perspective, Libby, hope it opens a few eyes and ordinary people understand what is going on so they vote better next time or at least be aware ...
Thanks for the rescue on the death toll Mark.
Baltimore is uncharacteristically stifled on this subject.
Baltimore is uncharacteristically stifled on this subject.
I just watched "intolerable cruelty" movie last nite with clooney/zeta jones & am trying to picture clooney as an opportunistic, amoral dupe... hmm, maybe not so much a stretch there.... but I did miss something... what is he accused of?
re capitalism as predation. there is a great book called "red queen race" by matt ridley that studies red queen races in biology & evolution. its strange how few people apply it to economics or warfare.... but it seems quite apt....
re capitalism as predation. there is a great book called "red queen race" by matt ridley that studies red queen races in biology & evolution. its strange how few people apply it to economics or warfare.... but it seems quite apt....
striking news today on cover of huffpost. pakistan says that drones are a violation of their airspace & sovereignty. they have a huge card to play/dangle in the supply line reopening that is reqd for troops to *leave* the country.... it does seem like a uniquely high level escalation of their highly legitimate grievance to say the least.... just weeks ago I heard the conventional wisdom that they were close to ironing out their disagreements with washington so that supply line could be reopened....
Boomer Bob, thanks for great comment and the link from the awesome Mr. Quigley! What horrifying statistics he provides about the profiteering. Strong comments:
"And frustratingly distressing, the West, especially Americans continue to “follow the leader” because it's so much easier, so much more comfortable to do so rather than to think and pursue the truth; even as we send our very own children off to war to kill and be killed in the name of “the god of democracy” and its 12 Apostles of Corporate America – Lockheed, Boeing, Northrop, General Dynamics, Raytheon, GE, Honeywell, Blackwater, Raytheon, Halliburton, Huntington Ingalls, McDonell Douglas."
Good going with the call out!!! And Blackwater and Halliburton especially with their down and dirty trail! Not that the others are clean, mind ya!!
Appreciate:
"Thanks to the well propagandized “War on Terror,” we are now in an ever-widening state of perpetual war with no end in sight and no one willing to stop it. The U.S. 2011 “defense” expenditures (at least those made public) was 711 billion dollars and that’s just the DOD budget. If one considers all the other factors of war such as veteran’s affairs, Homeland Security, satellites, counter-terrorism efforts by the CIA and FBI, the U.S. spent more than 1.4 trillion dollars in our efforts to battle an enemy WE conveniently made."
THOSE BLACK OPS HAVE A BLACK BUDGET dontchaknow!
"What of those sinister Chinese and/or Russians hiding in the dark alleys to take us over while we spend our lives happy and oblivious to all else? Well; China spent a paltry 10% of that - 143 billion dollars and Russia ranks a very distant third place at 5% of the U.S. expenditures, or 72 billion dollars."
More from your Quigley link:
"Our country has 5 percent of the world's population but accounts for more than 40% of the military spending for the whole world.
"Our nation does not respect our soldiers by engaging in permanent war. War is grinding up our children. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have cost over 5000 US lives and tens of thousands more lives of people in those countries. Over 20% of those in our military who served in these two wars, 320,000 people, have war-related traumatic brain injuries. Suicide rates are up by 26 percent among 18 to 29 year old male veterans in the latest Veterans Administration study. Mental health hospitalizations are now the leading cause of hospital admissions for the military, higher than injuries. On any given night, over 100,000 veterans are homeless and living on our nation's streets.
"Since 2001, the US has spent over $6 trillion (a trillion is a million millions) on war and preparations for war. That is about $20,000 for every woman, man and child in the US. Iraq and Afghanistan alone have cost the US taxpayer over a trillion dollars since 2001.
"Earlier this month, Marine General James Cartwright, the Vice-Chair of the military Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Army Times that the US can expect continuing war "for as far as the eye can see."
snip
"War is very big business. People know that private companies are doing much more in war. In January 2010, the Congressional Research Service reported that there are at least 55,000 private armed security contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, and maybe many more - as many as 70,000 in Afghanistan alone.
"But much bigger money is available to defense contractors. In 2008 alone, the top ten defense contractors received nearly $150 billion in federal contracts. These corporations spent millions to lobby for billions more in federal funds and hired ex-military leaders and ex-officials to help them profit off war."
Why doesn't this outrage more people???
Thanks, Bob!!! best, libby
"And frustratingly distressing, the West, especially Americans continue to “follow the leader” because it's so much easier, so much more comfortable to do so rather than to think and pursue the truth; even as we send our very own children off to war to kill and be killed in the name of “the god of democracy” and its 12 Apostles of Corporate America – Lockheed, Boeing, Northrop, General Dynamics, Raytheon, GE, Honeywell, Blackwater, Raytheon, Halliburton, Huntington Ingalls, McDonell Douglas."
Good going with the call out!!! And Blackwater and Halliburton especially with their down and dirty trail! Not that the others are clean, mind ya!!
Appreciate:
"Thanks to the well propagandized “War on Terror,” we are now in an ever-widening state of perpetual war with no end in sight and no one willing to stop it. The U.S. 2011 “defense” expenditures (at least those made public) was 711 billion dollars and that’s just the DOD budget. If one considers all the other factors of war such as veteran’s affairs, Homeland Security, satellites, counter-terrorism efforts by the CIA and FBI, the U.S. spent more than 1.4 trillion dollars in our efforts to battle an enemy WE conveniently made."
THOSE BLACK OPS HAVE A BLACK BUDGET dontchaknow!
"What of those sinister Chinese and/or Russians hiding in the dark alleys to take us over while we spend our lives happy and oblivious to all else? Well; China spent a paltry 10% of that - 143 billion dollars and Russia ranks a very distant third place at 5% of the U.S. expenditures, or 72 billion dollars."
More from your Quigley link:
"Our country has 5 percent of the world's population but accounts for more than 40% of the military spending for the whole world.
"Our nation does not respect our soldiers by engaging in permanent war. War is grinding up our children. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have cost over 5000 US lives and tens of thousands more lives of people in those countries. Over 20% of those in our military who served in these two wars, 320,000 people, have war-related traumatic brain injuries. Suicide rates are up by 26 percent among 18 to 29 year old male veterans in the latest Veterans Administration study. Mental health hospitalizations are now the leading cause of hospital admissions for the military, higher than injuries. On any given night, over 100,000 veterans are homeless and living on our nation's streets.
"Since 2001, the US has spent over $6 trillion (a trillion is a million millions) on war and preparations for war. That is about $20,000 for every woman, man and child in the US. Iraq and Afghanistan alone have cost the US taxpayer over a trillion dollars since 2001.
"Earlier this month, Marine General James Cartwright, the Vice-Chair of the military Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Army Times that the US can expect continuing war "for as far as the eye can see."
snip
"War is very big business. People know that private companies are doing much more in war. In January 2010, the Congressional Research Service reported that there are at least 55,000 private armed security contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, and maybe many more - as many as 70,000 in Afghanistan alone.
"But much bigger money is available to defense contractors. In 2008 alone, the top ten defense contractors received nearly $150 billion in federal contracts. These corporations spent millions to lobby for billions more in federal funds and hired ex-military leaders and ex-officials to help them profit off war."
Why doesn't this outrage more people???
Thanks, Bob!!! best, libby
Mark, thanks for more detail on the numbers. Yes, I felt Hathaway was seriously low-balling it. And of course the military keeping accurate track would go against their and Obama's administration's slick and craven propaganda campaign. The real numbers must be even more staggering than the staggering totals being cited. best, libby
Rolling, lovely to see you and thanks for the validation! Means a lot! best, libby
vzn, thanks for coming back.
Re Clooney I was premature dissing him as little drummer girl tool not because it isn't true but because I haven't seen more details about his specifics over in Africa. What I did glean was his pr exploitation by the administration. There is a journalist for dissident voice named Keith Harmon Snow who writes about how celebrities like Clooney, Affleck, etc. get used by the US government for propaganda to cover up the serious destabilization shenanigans going on in a country by our Pentagon and NATO faux-friends. There is a win/win for the celebs and their pr images and for the administration standing by the celeb "humanitarians". Now does the funding go to the real victims the funds are collected for or go into trickle down or not so trickle down corruption recipients? How much control or knowledge actually do the would-be philanthropists have and how enthralled are they (as Clooney seems to be) by the more effective evil (Glen Ford's coinage) Obama??? I want to do more exploration of this, but I think I got pissed off by Clooney and his fundraising for Obama recently. Also, when asked about Damon's discomfort with Obama Clooney rushes forward to say Damon only has issues with Obama's education policy. Really? I am doubting that.
this is certainly dramatic from you:
"striking news today on cover of huffpost. pakistan says that drones are a violation of their airspace & sovereignty. they have a huge card to play/dangle in the supply line reopening that is reqd for troops to *leave* the country.... it does seem like a uniquely high level escalation of their highly legitimate grievance to say the least.... just weeks ago I heard the conventional wisdom that they were close to ironing out their disagreements with washington so that supply line could be reopened...."
To be continued! Thanks!!!
best, libby
Re Clooney I was premature dissing him as little drummer girl tool not because it isn't true but because I haven't seen more details about his specifics over in Africa. What I did glean was his pr exploitation by the administration. There is a journalist for dissident voice named Keith Harmon Snow who writes about how celebrities like Clooney, Affleck, etc. get used by the US government for propaganda to cover up the serious destabilization shenanigans going on in a country by our Pentagon and NATO faux-friends. There is a win/win for the celebs and their pr images and for the administration standing by the celeb "humanitarians". Now does the funding go to the real victims the funds are collected for or go into trickle down or not so trickle down corruption recipients? How much control or knowledge actually do the would-be philanthropists have and how enthralled are they (as Clooney seems to be) by the more effective evil (Glen Ford's coinage) Obama??? I want to do more exploration of this, but I think I got pissed off by Clooney and his fundraising for Obama recently. Also, when asked about Damon's discomfort with Obama Clooney rushes forward to say Damon only has issues with Obama's education policy. Really? I am doubting that.
this is certainly dramatic from you:
"striking news today on cover of huffpost. pakistan says that drones are a violation of their airspace & sovereignty. they have a huge card to play/dangle in the supply line reopening that is reqd for troops to *leave* the country.... it does seem like a uniquely high level escalation of their highly legitimate grievance to say the least.... just weeks ago I heard the conventional wisdom that they were close to ironing out their disagreements with washington so that supply line could be reopened...."
To be continued! Thanks!!!
best, libby
In stark contrast to george cloney (not an unintentional mistake in spelling, who blows with the wind; celebrity-status intact, Damon has been outspoken in his disappointment with obama for many of the same reasons You blog about, Libby.
Slimebag obama, he of the gilded tongue, in response said he was disappointed in Damon's performance in "The Adjustment Bureau!"
This post deserves so many more multiple rating than it has, already, gotten, and Your unceasing efforts are EXTRAORDINARY.
Slimebag obama, he of the gilded tongue, in response said he was disappointed in Damon's performance in "The Adjustment Bureau!"
This post deserves so many more multiple rating than it has, already, gotten, and Your unceasing efforts are EXTRAORDINARY.
As I've stated elsewhere, I got a fundraising letter inviting me to contribute $3.00 to the liar-in-chief for a chance to have lunch ( a drink?) with obamination and cloney.
My response was: "I'd rather drink arsenic with Idi Amin."
My response was: "I'd rather drink arsenic with Idi Amin."
Congrats! This post just made the cover!!
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