The United Nations is empowered, under Article 1 of its Charter, to: "maintain international peace and security", to "develop friendly relations among nations", "to achieve international co-operation", and "to be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends."
Article 2 states that its members, "shall act in accordance with the following principles":
-The Organization is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its members.
-All members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered.
-All members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.
-All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.
The United States of America assumes the role of international arbiter and the role of policing the planet. A role rightfully granted to the United Nations. It is widely and implicitly assumed the USA carries this burden and this assumption is rarely challenged.
The World Court was established by the UN as the body to enforce international law, to ensure that no nation or leader(s) can infringe upon the sovereignty of others. It was established after World War 2 to ensure no nation or body of nations can violate elemental principles of statehood and human rights. Germany did aim to take over control of the world through terror and their own brand of exceptionalism.
The UN and the World Court operate to ensure that basic rational principles governing relations between nations are not violated. The UN is careful to ensure the it does not infringe upon the sovereignty of nations and at the same time, ensure that human beings are protected, however minimally, against war crimes and belligerent states aimed at controlling others.
The United Nations did rule against the United States in 1986 during its war against the government and people of Nicaragua. The American war was in response to the FSLN ouster of dictator Anistosia Samoza in 1979. The World Court ruled that the United States violated International Law. The United States refused to recognize the World Court ruling and broke with UN regulations. From that point on, the United States adopted a policy where it will only accept the Court's jurisdiction on a case-by-case basis or, in less diplomatic language, according to their own interests and whims.
Before and increasingly since that ruling, the United States has violated and continues to violate International Law and generally accepted norms in favour of what it terms its national security or, national interests. It operates arbitrarily and is often outrageously belligerent and aggressive to the enemy du jour.
The time has come for the United Nations to stand up to the United States of America. It is a nation that, similarly to Germany in the last century, aims to take the role of overseer of all nations.
Rogue State Extraordinaire
The USA appears to be under the control of madmen. Barack Obama speaks and appears to be reasonable and even progressive. But his actions indicate that he may be quite mad and or/dull. It appears that he is neither. It appears he is under the control of very wealthy and powerful banks and corporations. His role as President has turned this apparently sensitive and intelligent man into a war criminal. Although he is well educated in Constitutional Law and was a Senior Lecturer on the subject at the University of Chicago Law School, as President, he signed away fundamental Constitutional and habeas corpus rights in favour of political expediency.
Something's amiss.
The problem is not madmen or criminals per se. It is much worse than that. It is systemic. It is a virus. A virus spreading throughout systems the world over. A virus programmed to turn hosts toward funnelling money to finance capitalists. A virus programmed to rule nations, and the world, through violence and fear.
It manifests most noticeably vigorously through the American state. It demands the state assume control of every corner of the world, as if it’s the American state's inalieable right. It renders the UN a servile body existing only to serve its national interests.
If we were to concede that view, that the United States has the moral high ground to police the world, we could take the notion seriously. For instance, if the USA did promote human rights (as it claims), if their interventions were not based in psychopathic designs, and if there was consensus the USA assume the role of the UN as arbiter of international conflicts, doing so would give one nation control of people that have had no choice in its leaders or decisions. Doing so would be patently undemocratic.
Mission Accomplished
No reasonable person could make such arguments. American 'missions' are being carried out all over the world. One such mission has left Iraq critically unstable. Saddam Hussein’s Iraq was a paradise compared to the current mess left behind by the Americans. Carnage and volatility continue in Afghanistan. Drone slaughters in Pakistan are starting up again after a brief hiatus. In short, everything the Empire touches turns to hell on earth. As bystanders, we get the impression this nation, the most heavily armed nation on the planet, should not be trusted to run with scissors.
Their pathetic accomplices like Canada, France, the United Kingdom etc. are no better. After NATO’s intervention, Libya is strained, unstable, and civil war is likely. Gaddafi loyalists and the Libyan people will not turn a blind eye to the loss of the most generous social programs and standard of living in Africa. A standard of living that easily surpassed anything millions of disenfranchised Americans or Canadians could dream of.
NATO, this 'axis of evil', is splattering blood all over the Muslim world and there isn’t much to suggest it’s going to stop.
Criminal Stupidity
Presidential hopefuls Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney are trying to out-do each other in their hawkish posturing. To the shock of anybody listening, they have uttered threats on Cuba and specifically, Castro, who has retired from politics. This doesn’t matter. The American narrative in no more sophisticated than a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Castro is ‘a bad guy’ and as such, is in real mortal danger. If Obama manages to ‘take him out’, it will play large to the mentally dull and extremely violent American audiences they aim to please.
Western nations (includes Israel/ not Venezuela or Cuba in this cartoon) are apparently okay with anything and everything that oozes out of the American insane asylum. Money and power rule, reason and diplomacy are not taken seriously. And now, at Israel's pleasure, Iran appears to be on deck. There promises to be plenty of war and excitement. And once again, politicians mouth dim rationalizations; Iran may produce weapons of mass destruction, they violate human rights, they support terrorism and so on. And in the meantime, the USA and its quisling lapdogs are more guilty of what they accuse ‘the bad guys’ (Iran) of possibly doing sometime in the future - maybe. The 'good guys' in this cartoon terrorize like nobody else. They actually drop bombs on populations, they spit on habeas corpus, they have the most and the largest weapons of mass destruction. And they use them!
The absurdity of all this is whispered behind closed doors. Politicians in Latin America, in Asia, in Russia, in the Middle East and in Africa cautiously discuss the alarming nature of this madness. They are at a loss of possible ways to respond. Obviously, they don't want to be labelled 'a bad guy'. The consequences are dire. Over the past few years, America’s enemies; Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, Mohammar Gaddafi, Anwar al-Awlaki and his son and many others that are not so famous have been murdered by the President of the United States or proxies.
The man America and the world believed would be sane and reasonable, Barack Obama, has just delivered a State of the Union speech where he bragged about the bravery of the American military as they successfully carried out the murder of a sick old man in Pakistan. This was quickly followed up with GOP politicians trying to out-do each other, playing to Florida voters, promising to kill another old man. America has gone completely insane. It is a nation out of control.
The genesis of the United Nations was in response to a world hurting after Germany had gone completely mad. The UN was created to respond to this kind of developing climate. The uncomfortable and possibly dangerous task of standing up to these bullies must be done. The same weather patterns are become clear with each passing month. It is time to stop being polite and diplomatic to a nation that is anything but diplomatic and polite. It is time to make the madmen uncomfortable. The people of Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela are under imminent threat. In reality, the people of all nations, including the United States and Israel, are under the very same threat.
Supporting the UN
To restore sanity and to end the arbitrary and dangerous power held by rogue states (such as the current configuration in the United States) we must make our voices heard through protests and through activism. We must work in concert with the voices of reason at the UN. And they must work with us. The United Nations is far from homogeneous. There are voices for peace, reason, and rule of law that are being drowned out by the psychopath element. Their efforts are stonewalled. We must help them through increasing the level of discomfort for those that aim to wage war.
At this point the people of Iran are in grave danger. We, the people of the United States, Israel, Canada, the UK - and all nations, must stand up and demand that we will not accept war on Iran. We must empowered the voices of reason at the UN to enforce its Charter and demand that this drive to endless war be stopped. We need to develop connections in solidarity with each other and with politicians we may disagree with on many issues but remain committed to rule of law and reason. We may disagree with Ron Paul on the right and President Chavez on the left, but as long as they are committed to rule of law and reason, they are allies. Like them or hate them, they stand on principles and against the madness and irrationality of war and Empire.
Should the UN cower to the designs of the madmen of corporate America and nationalist Israel and sanction war against the people of Iran; if it allows the United States to continue to police the world in 'its' own interests, and if it continues to turn a blind eye to the excessive human rights abuses carried out against men, woman, and children; most notably, the dropping of bombs on them, we must then ask ourselves - and the UN must ask itself, what is the point of existing at all?
This blog is an archive of articles I've published in MWC News, Indymedia, and on Newsgroups.
Showing posts with label war. Show all posts
Showing posts with label war. Show all posts
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Mainstream Bullshit
The media have a responsibility and that responsibility is to inform us of what’s going on. If a nuclear power plant is at risk of spreading nuclear death two miles from our town, it is the responsibility of the media to let us know that the danger exists and why it exists. To a certain extent, we put our trust in them. It is a social contract. They are there to informs us, to warn us, to let us know what's going on. Who, what, where, when, and why; all the information we need regarding the forces that impact us in our daily lives is delivered on our doorsteps, it comes in through the cable. We sleep well knowing that no midnight asteroid is about to send us back to the stone age.
But can we? At this point, trusting mainstream media is not a rational or intelligent choice to make. You may have noticed. They are not always honest. They have lied by saying things that are not true, by not saying things that are true, and very often through spinning bullshit, which is slightly different than lying. Sometimes bullshit is worse than lies. It’s not that they have done so several times, or even often. It’s that they do it all the time and they do it consistently.
Economic Lies
Economists have been lying and continue to lie through a critical time as the world economy becomes increasingly volatile and we become vulnerable to financial devastation. At this point in time the media and countless so-called economists have lulled faithful believers with a pack of lies. They have done it in 2008 and 2009 and they continue with the same lies and backward analysis in 2010. The same economists, experts, and corporate shills that have led us to the doors of the economic slaughterhouse are portrayed as gurus that have the holy grail of economic wisdom and direction. They are the same shysters, criminals, and corporate shills that have orchestrated the biggest sell out in history.
When Wall street falters, they get excited. When Main Street slides into the Third World, they barely notice. While America shivers over burning barrels, Obama fiddles in blissful ignorance; he seems a sort of 'let them eat cake' monarch. A reporter recently asked Obama about his efforts to curb poverty in America. Obama's reply could have come from the mouth of any imbecile or stooge that just walked out of any neo-liberal seminar. Obama said, " the most important anti-poverty effort is growing the economy… It’s more important than any program we could set up. It’s more important than any transfer payment we could have.” Which is code for saying that the ruling class is the filter through which all spending must pass through. And it is implied, in all this, that wealth emanates from the ruling class to the working classes and not the other way around. Will mainstream media even mention this or anything close? The short answer is 'no'.
They are defining and will increasingly define poverty as 'the New Normal'. And as America swirls down the toilet of depression, mainstream media bubbles along with cautious optimism that the stock market will continue to score enormous profits for the ruling class. Not once will they notice that what is good for Wall Street is bad for Main Street. To mention this class dichotomy is incorrect, politically.
War Lies
Even the most serious proponent of the substance and integrity of mainstream media would have to admit, when it comes to war, that the Pentagon, the President of the United States, and mainstream media make Orwell's 1948 imagination seem prophetic. In 2010, doublespeak is expected and as you will read below, the infrastructure for constant surveillance is under construction. War is peace. What's good is bad and what's bad is good. The Iraq war ended but today, alternative media are reporting that American and Iraqi troops killed at least eight civilians in Fallujah, Iraq. American has no intention of leaving. It is just one more pack of lies. There is no end to the examples of doublespeak and outright lies that fill today's media.
If you maintain a watch with war news stories collectors, like Anti War.com, you will see that atrocities happen in Afghanistan with sickening regularity. Civilians are killed by unmanned robots (drones) or NATO forces but mainstream media doesn't report it or, if they do, they present it as just one more 'whoops' moment. American gangsters are running loose in uniform in Afghanistan and kill with impunity. A band of GI Joes has recently been found to have been cutting body parts off Afghan civilians they had killed for sport and had been keeping them for trophies. It was barely mentioned in mainstream media but you'd have to look for it. Imagine, for a moment, how the story would play if this was done by Cubans or Iranians. Do you think they'd notice?
The Americans have been bombing civilian populations in Pakistan with increasing regularity. In the past two days, according to Jason Ditz reporting for Anti-war.com, American drones have killed 37 people, one of which may belong to the Haqqani Network, yet another group on that long list of enemies. The other victims are reported to be civilians or, people that have not conclusively been linked to the group.
In another very disturbing development, the American state is carrying out the extrajudicial execution of an American named Anwar al Awlaki who they allege is a terrorist. The individual case itself is alarming enough. The fact that it re-defines the scope of power of the American state however, is the real issue. Have mainstream media noticed? Currently, for mainstream media, the issue is about how to fight the legal battle against this bizarre development in American law. If they can kill their own citizens above the rule of law, we have entered a horrific new reality.
Then there is the sheer danger consequential to slaughtering, terrorizing and destroying whole nations. Media have the responsibility to let us know how badly the USA, the UK, Canada and all the other NATO participants have destroyed the cultures, livelihoods, and lives of the people they so routinely and mindlessly murder and maim. It is the same as the nuclear plant analogy. There will be consequences for us all. There will be future 9 11s and worse. And it will happen because of what we are doing now. If our tax dollars are in the service of whipping up hate around the world against us, we should know.
The media have been portraying the ongoing atrocities as an aberration; maybe it was rogue soldiers, maybe it was poor communication, maybe the victims were human shields. Victims are dismissed as 'collateral damage'. What will not be discussed is the ugly and likely possibility that these victims are victims of collective punishment.
A dark and sinister reality had emerged within the American dream. Mainstream media isn't reporting it; they are the maestros. The only objective views of this 'new normal/World Order' will be here in alternative media and if you indulge in reading or watching what you are reading at the moment (MWC News), chances are you have not swallowed the kool aid.
The State
Mainstream media is not just a simple money pig. It is much more than that. With the marriage of the corporation and the state fully consummated, it is natural for the corporate media to mouth the interests of both. Mainstream media has become a tool employed by those that want to tell you that the Western world needs to, more than anything else, shore up its security. In a similar vein to Hitler’s fire in the Reichstag, the billionaires that run the White House want us to be terrified. They want a to funnel billions of tax dollars into their own pockets through the sale of weapons systems. As a result we have seen nine years of talking heads discuss, in very serious tones, the need for security. We are in a new age, we are told. We are threatened by Muslim extremists. If you can remember the 60s, 70s or even well before then, you will know that terrorism or guerrilla warfare has been around a long, long time and there is nothing new or more sinister today than there was in 1970. Terrorism is another word for guerrilla warfare which is naturally adopted by those with little or no power.
This thrust is more threatening to freedom than we may notice at first. In a free society, the threat of danger is always present. It's part of the social contract. Criminals run free until they have actually committed the crime; that's the price of living in a free society.
Hyping ubiquitous threats has muted opposition to the construction of a massive, although unseen, state apparatus in the United States that would shame the USSR in its heyday. The Washington Post, to its credit, has recently reported vague parameters on the growing American state apparatus. In an article entitled "Top Secret America" Dana Priest and William Arkin report that the American government has created a massive underworld that "has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work."
Here is an excerpt from the article: "These are some of the findings of a two-year investigation by The Washington Post that discovered what amounts to an alternative geography of the United States, a Top Secret America hidden from public view and lacking in thorough oversight. After nine years of unprecedented spending and growth, the result is that the system put in place to keep the United States safe is so massive that its effectiveness is impossible to determine.
The investigation's other findings include:
* Some 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in about 10,000 locations across the United States.
* An estimated 854,000 people, nearly 1.5 times as many people as live in Washington, D.C., hold top-secret security clearances.
* In Washington and the surrounding area, 33 building complexes for top-secret intelligence work are under construction or have been built since September 2001. Together they occupy the equivalent of almost three Pentagons or 22 U.S. Capitol buildings - about 17 million square feet of space."
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/articles/a-hidden-world-growing-beyond-control/
Kudos to the Washington Post. Given the magnitude of the story however, it is almost hidden from view. Where are the talking heads? The hyped up concern about a Soviet style neighbour watching neighbour reality emerging in the USA?
The common narrative is not aimed to challenge this kind of ominous development. Instead, it is to continue to cry for the need for more security and less freedom. The story line shouts the need for an iron state apparatus.
Corporate media is becoming synonymous with state media, much like Pravda of the old USSR. Corporate media don't just make money and parrot the wishes and plans of the ruling class. They also strive to indoctrinate and shape the rabble into a uniform and docile mass of petty chauvinism.
Ruling Class Media
The term, 'ruling class' has not been in common usage except for that band of serious Marxists selling papers at the university. However, there is no better description for the class that run government. They rule and they rule because they belong to those that are wealthy enough to tell politicians what to do. They are, properly, the ruling class.
They have their own specific interests and those interests happen to be against the interests of the rest of us. These interests include selling weapons, controlling resources, and dominating each and every corner of the world. Those munitions/oil billionaires that set the tone, the content, and the agenda for the media they also own and control. A small-town newspaper does not have the resources to hire investigative journalists and they pick up the main stories from the newswire. Those newswire stories are fed through the filters of the corporate media. Here, Noam Chomsky explains who sets the content and the agenda for the mainstream:
“The New York Times and CBS, for example. Well, first of all, they are major, very profitable, corporations. Furthermore, most of them are either linked to, or outright owned by, much bigger corporations, like General Electric, Westinghouse, and so on. They are way up at the top of the power structure of the private economy which is a very tyrannical structure. Corporations are basically tyrannies, hierarchic, controlled from above. If you don't like what they are doing you get out. The major media are just part of that system.”
Chomsky also makes the point that the media has a specific motive and that motive is the audience itself. That is why news stories are very short and their patterns are quite simplistic. Short attention grabbing sound bites or pleasing optics are important. Content is also important but not in the way it should be. The main thrust of the business is not to inform, the business is about grabbing an audience and people are the product. Chomsky continues:
"Take the New York Times. It’s a corporation and sells a product. The product is audiences. They don’t make money when you buy the newspaper. They are happy to put it on the worldwide web for free. They actually lose money when you buy the newspaper. But the audience is the product. The product is privileged people, just like the people who are writing the newspapers, you know, top-level decision-making people in society. You have to sell a product to a market, and the market is, of course, advertisers (that is, other businesses). Whether it is television or newspapers, or whatever, they are selling audiences. Corporations sell audiences to other corporations. In the case of the elite media, it’s big businesses."
(Lifted from: http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/articles/z9710-mainstream-media.html)
But there is more to this than selling audiences. You will notice that the media will make certain issues relevant and important. They will spin them out in a seamless drum beat to the corporate party line and with each other, sometimes word for word. For example, in the 90s the ruling class wanted to cut social programs in the USA and in Canada. The deficit was the 'terrorist threat' of the time. Right wing think tanks and bond rating agencies like Moody’s of New York suddenly had a lot to say about how societies are governed and how tax money is spent. You may argue; but the deficit was a real problem at the time and it has returned. Notice however that when tax dollars are spent on weapons systems, the media does not make an issue of the deficit. It is rarely mentioned, if at all. That is because those that control the media are the same people that profit from building weapons systems.
According to Peter Phillips, “The eleven largest or most influential media corporations in the United States are General Electric Company (NBC), Viacom Inc. (cable), The Walt Disney Company (ABC), Time Warner Inc.(CNN), Westinghouse Electric Corporation (CBS), The News Corporation Ltd. (Fox), Gannett Co. Inc., Knight-Ridder Inc., New York Times Co., Washington Post Co., and the Times Mirror Co. These eleven major broadcast and print media corporations now represent a major portion of the news information systems in the United states. For many people their entire source of news and information comes from these eleven corporations."
(Source:http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Media/Media%20Censor_ProjCensor.html)
General Electric is in the business of making battlefield computer systems. Their director, former senator Sam Nunn (who also directs Chevron/Texaco) isn’t likely to promote journalists that research his connections or to report any stories that work against the interests of NBC. He is not likely to be happy about his reporters making anti war statements either.
Steve Mizrach points out, “Opinion in our society must be carefully shaped and molded within certain careful boundaries: those who transgress those boundaries are libel to wind up "extremists," "ideologues," "fanatics," or "agitators. Now that dissidents in the U.S. can no longer be labelled 'fellow travellers' of the Moscow-run Commie conspiracy, the task has become more urgent. And how is it that consent, that most valuable of social products, is manufactured?”
(Source: http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Media/Consent_AmerStyle.html)
Mizrach points out that the following tactics are employed by what we may regard, realistically, as the enemy; that is, mainstream media. They mould opinion particularly on Sunday talk shows by parading the opinions of sycophants that are the mouthpieces that have been schooled within the hallowed halls of the university of corporate indoctrination.
These are bolstered by spin doctors, or, PR devils. “PR managers, known as "spin doctors" when working in government, are able to carefully craft speeches and advertisements which evoke powerful images in the American psyche, frequently using "power words" such as freedom, fairness, liberty, justice, and peacekeeping for policies which dominate, discriminate, imprison, exploit, and terrorize much of the rest of the world.” (Mizrach)
Mizrach also points out the real purpose of public opinion polls is not so much to measure public opinion as it is to shape it. They also employ academics and think tanks to shape and mould public opinion.
Together, these tools are used against us. They are more threatening an enemy to the citizens of Western nations than an army of bin Ladens. They are used not only to shape public opinion. They are used to lie to us and to indoctrinate the impressionable and the young.
Class War
Non Americans look upon our American brothers and sisters and what they have served up on a daily basis under a disguise called 'news'. We watched in incredulity as the American health care debate raged. The word socialist, we discovered, is a dirty word in America. Ignorant to a fault, the politicians and the media spun lies and distortions with wide eyed enthusiasm as if the rest of the world wasn't watching. It looked like a Jerry Springer show, a pitiful crowd of beaten down as angry victims proudly showing their own ignorance to the world, utterly oblivious. But that is not America, it is a fraction of America and we find the same backward and angry lumpen attitudes everywhere. The difference is, in the USA, it is cultivated.
It should be obvious by now that we are on the losing side of a very aggressive class war. The ruling elites have the clear advantage. They are waging war on the rest of us and we, as a collective, are only dimly aware that its happening. CNN, Fox, and CTV are not telling. A large part of that ignorance is a result of their slick packaging and their endless supply of Presidents, Prime Ministers, and sexy stories. They are very good at slick visuals and clever sound bites. Their whole focus is on the packaging, the face. They have their reputation and influence. They have paid reporters that are on the scene. They have very little in terms of substance. For that, you turn to us; to alternative media.
It is hard for us to actually recognize them as our enemy. They have such pretty smiles and they tell such human and touching stories. But don't ever forget; these useful idiots are aiming to impoverish you, to strip away your rights. It's happening. They callously disregard the suffering of 'collaterals'. They tell you that they are ensuring that you are 'secure' by whipping up hate all over the planet. The stunned mouthpieces don't even know they are doing it. Some of the worst war crimes in living memory are enabled by these treacherous talking heads. They are taking part in the ultimate economic betrayal of America and the rest of the post-industrial world. They protect the ruling class and work for the benefit of that class against you and me. They are certainly our enemy. What is vital is that you and I recognize this. We can't fight back as long as we allow ourselves to be lulled by the likes of Jerry Springer and CNN.
For our part, we have MWC News, Counterpunch, Democracy Now, and a large choice of alternative media outlets to seek out pertinent news, honest opinions, and insightful analysis. The internet is a genie let out of a bottle. This fluid and democratic flow of information is the blessing of this uncontrolled machine that sits before you. The corporations do not own or control this. They certainly have an advantage but on this front, our fight has just begun. We need to expand, to develop better tools and a wider audience. We need to fight back. Together we stand on the front lines. Recognize it.
But can we? At this point, trusting mainstream media is not a rational or intelligent choice to make. You may have noticed. They are not always honest. They have lied by saying things that are not true, by not saying things that are true, and very often through spinning bullshit, which is slightly different than lying. Sometimes bullshit is worse than lies. It’s not that they have done so several times, or even often. It’s that they do it all the time and they do it consistently.
Economic Lies
Economists have been lying and continue to lie through a critical time as the world economy becomes increasingly volatile and we become vulnerable to financial devastation. At this point in time the media and countless so-called economists have lulled faithful believers with a pack of lies. They have done it in 2008 and 2009 and they continue with the same lies and backward analysis in 2010. The same economists, experts, and corporate shills that have led us to the doors of the economic slaughterhouse are portrayed as gurus that have the holy grail of economic wisdom and direction. They are the same shysters, criminals, and corporate shills that have orchestrated the biggest sell out in history.
When Wall street falters, they get excited. When Main Street slides into the Third World, they barely notice. While America shivers over burning barrels, Obama fiddles in blissful ignorance; he seems a sort of 'let them eat cake' monarch. A reporter recently asked Obama about his efforts to curb poverty in America. Obama's reply could have come from the mouth of any imbecile or stooge that just walked out of any neo-liberal seminar. Obama said, " the most important anti-poverty effort is growing the economy… It’s more important than any program we could set up. It’s more important than any transfer payment we could have.” Which is code for saying that the ruling class is the filter through which all spending must pass through. And it is implied, in all this, that wealth emanates from the ruling class to the working classes and not the other way around. Will mainstream media even mention this or anything close? The short answer is 'no'.
They are defining and will increasingly define poverty as 'the New Normal'. And as America swirls down the toilet of depression, mainstream media bubbles along with cautious optimism that the stock market will continue to score enormous profits for the ruling class. Not once will they notice that what is good for Wall Street is bad for Main Street. To mention this class dichotomy is incorrect, politically.
War Lies
Even the most serious proponent of the substance and integrity of mainstream media would have to admit, when it comes to war, that the Pentagon, the President of the United States, and mainstream media make Orwell's 1948 imagination seem prophetic. In 2010, doublespeak is expected and as you will read below, the infrastructure for constant surveillance is under construction. War is peace. What's good is bad and what's bad is good. The Iraq war ended but today, alternative media are reporting that American and Iraqi troops killed at least eight civilians in Fallujah, Iraq. American has no intention of leaving. It is just one more pack of lies. There is no end to the examples of doublespeak and outright lies that fill today's media.
If you maintain a watch with war news stories collectors, like Anti War.com, you will see that atrocities happen in Afghanistan with sickening regularity. Civilians are killed by unmanned robots (drones) or NATO forces but mainstream media doesn't report it or, if they do, they present it as just one more 'whoops' moment. American gangsters are running loose in uniform in Afghanistan and kill with impunity. A band of GI Joes has recently been found to have been cutting body parts off Afghan civilians they had killed for sport and had been keeping them for trophies. It was barely mentioned in mainstream media but you'd have to look for it. Imagine, for a moment, how the story would play if this was done by Cubans or Iranians. Do you think they'd notice?
The Americans have been bombing civilian populations in Pakistan with increasing regularity. In the past two days, according to Jason Ditz reporting for Anti-war.com, American drones have killed 37 people, one of which may belong to the Haqqani Network, yet another group on that long list of enemies. The other victims are reported to be civilians or, people that have not conclusively been linked to the group.
In another very disturbing development, the American state is carrying out the extrajudicial execution of an American named Anwar al Awlaki who they allege is a terrorist. The individual case itself is alarming enough. The fact that it re-defines the scope of power of the American state however, is the real issue. Have mainstream media noticed? Currently, for mainstream media, the issue is about how to fight the legal battle against this bizarre development in American law. If they can kill their own citizens above the rule of law, we have entered a horrific new reality.
Then there is the sheer danger consequential to slaughtering, terrorizing and destroying whole nations. Media have the responsibility to let us know how badly the USA, the UK, Canada and all the other NATO participants have destroyed the cultures, livelihoods, and lives of the people they so routinely and mindlessly murder and maim. It is the same as the nuclear plant analogy. There will be consequences for us all. There will be future 9 11s and worse. And it will happen because of what we are doing now. If our tax dollars are in the service of whipping up hate around the world against us, we should know.
The media have been portraying the ongoing atrocities as an aberration; maybe it was rogue soldiers, maybe it was poor communication, maybe the victims were human shields. Victims are dismissed as 'collateral damage'. What will not be discussed is the ugly and likely possibility that these victims are victims of collective punishment.
A dark and sinister reality had emerged within the American dream. Mainstream media isn't reporting it; they are the maestros. The only objective views of this 'new normal/World Order' will be here in alternative media and if you indulge in reading or watching what you are reading at the moment (MWC News), chances are you have not swallowed the kool aid.
The State
Mainstream media is not just a simple money pig. It is much more than that. With the marriage of the corporation and the state fully consummated, it is natural for the corporate media to mouth the interests of both. Mainstream media has become a tool employed by those that want to tell you that the Western world needs to, more than anything else, shore up its security. In a similar vein to Hitler’s fire in the Reichstag, the billionaires that run the White House want us to be terrified. They want a to funnel billions of tax dollars into their own pockets through the sale of weapons systems. As a result we have seen nine years of talking heads discuss, in very serious tones, the need for security. We are in a new age, we are told. We are threatened by Muslim extremists. If you can remember the 60s, 70s or even well before then, you will know that terrorism or guerrilla warfare has been around a long, long time and there is nothing new or more sinister today than there was in 1970. Terrorism is another word for guerrilla warfare which is naturally adopted by those with little or no power.
This thrust is more threatening to freedom than we may notice at first. In a free society, the threat of danger is always present. It's part of the social contract. Criminals run free until they have actually committed the crime; that's the price of living in a free society.
Hyping ubiquitous threats has muted opposition to the construction of a massive, although unseen, state apparatus in the United States that would shame the USSR in its heyday. The Washington Post, to its credit, has recently reported vague parameters on the growing American state apparatus. In an article entitled "Top Secret America" Dana Priest and William Arkin report that the American government has created a massive underworld that "has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work."
Here is an excerpt from the article: "These are some of the findings of a two-year investigation by The Washington Post that discovered what amounts to an alternative geography of the United States, a Top Secret America hidden from public view and lacking in thorough oversight. After nine years of unprecedented spending and growth, the result is that the system put in place to keep the United States safe is so massive that its effectiveness is impossible to determine.
The investigation's other findings include:
* Some 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in about 10,000 locations across the United States.
* An estimated 854,000 people, nearly 1.5 times as many people as live in Washington, D.C., hold top-secret security clearances.
* In Washington and the surrounding area, 33 building complexes for top-secret intelligence work are under construction or have been built since September 2001. Together they occupy the equivalent of almost three Pentagons or 22 U.S. Capitol buildings - about 17 million square feet of space."
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/articles/a-hidden-world-growing-beyond-control/
Kudos to the Washington Post. Given the magnitude of the story however, it is almost hidden from view. Where are the talking heads? The hyped up concern about a Soviet style neighbour watching neighbour reality emerging in the USA?
The common narrative is not aimed to challenge this kind of ominous development. Instead, it is to continue to cry for the need for more security and less freedom. The story line shouts the need for an iron state apparatus.
Corporate media is becoming synonymous with state media, much like Pravda of the old USSR. Corporate media don't just make money and parrot the wishes and plans of the ruling class. They also strive to indoctrinate and shape the rabble into a uniform and docile mass of petty chauvinism.
Ruling Class Media
The term, 'ruling class' has not been in common usage except for that band of serious Marxists selling papers at the university. However, there is no better description for the class that run government. They rule and they rule because they belong to those that are wealthy enough to tell politicians what to do. They are, properly, the ruling class.
They have their own specific interests and those interests happen to be against the interests of the rest of us. These interests include selling weapons, controlling resources, and dominating each and every corner of the world. Those munitions/oil billionaires that set the tone, the content, and the agenda for the media they also own and control. A small-town newspaper does not have the resources to hire investigative journalists and they pick up the main stories from the newswire. Those newswire stories are fed through the filters of the corporate media. Here, Noam Chomsky explains who sets the content and the agenda for the mainstream:
“The New York Times and CBS, for example. Well, first of all, they are major, very profitable, corporations. Furthermore, most of them are either linked to, or outright owned by, much bigger corporations, like General Electric, Westinghouse, and so on. They are way up at the top of the power structure of the private economy which is a very tyrannical structure. Corporations are basically tyrannies, hierarchic, controlled from above. If you don't like what they are doing you get out. The major media are just part of that system.”
Chomsky also makes the point that the media has a specific motive and that motive is the audience itself. That is why news stories are very short and their patterns are quite simplistic. Short attention grabbing sound bites or pleasing optics are important. Content is also important but not in the way it should be. The main thrust of the business is not to inform, the business is about grabbing an audience and people are the product. Chomsky continues:
"Take the New York Times. It’s a corporation and sells a product. The product is audiences. They don’t make money when you buy the newspaper. They are happy to put it on the worldwide web for free. They actually lose money when you buy the newspaper. But the audience is the product. The product is privileged people, just like the people who are writing the newspapers, you know, top-level decision-making people in society. You have to sell a product to a market, and the market is, of course, advertisers (that is, other businesses). Whether it is television or newspapers, or whatever, they are selling audiences. Corporations sell audiences to other corporations. In the case of the elite media, it’s big businesses."
(Lifted from: http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/articles/z9710-mainstream-media.html)
But there is more to this than selling audiences. You will notice that the media will make certain issues relevant and important. They will spin them out in a seamless drum beat to the corporate party line and with each other, sometimes word for word. For example, in the 90s the ruling class wanted to cut social programs in the USA and in Canada. The deficit was the 'terrorist threat' of the time. Right wing think tanks and bond rating agencies like Moody’s of New York suddenly had a lot to say about how societies are governed and how tax money is spent. You may argue; but the deficit was a real problem at the time and it has returned. Notice however that when tax dollars are spent on weapons systems, the media does not make an issue of the deficit. It is rarely mentioned, if at all. That is because those that control the media are the same people that profit from building weapons systems.
According to Peter Phillips, “The eleven largest or most influential media corporations in the United States are General Electric Company (NBC), Viacom Inc. (cable), The Walt Disney Company (ABC), Time Warner Inc.(CNN), Westinghouse Electric Corporation (CBS), The News Corporation Ltd. (Fox), Gannett Co. Inc., Knight-Ridder Inc., New York Times Co., Washington Post Co., and the Times Mirror Co. These eleven major broadcast and print media corporations now represent a major portion of the news information systems in the United states. For many people their entire source of news and information comes from these eleven corporations."
(Source:http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Media/Media%20Censor_ProjCensor.html)
General Electric is in the business of making battlefield computer systems. Their director, former senator Sam Nunn (who also directs Chevron/Texaco) isn’t likely to promote journalists that research his connections or to report any stories that work against the interests of NBC. He is not likely to be happy about his reporters making anti war statements either.
Steve Mizrach points out, “Opinion in our society must be carefully shaped and molded within certain careful boundaries: those who transgress those boundaries are libel to wind up "extremists," "ideologues," "fanatics," or "agitators. Now that dissidents in the U.S. can no longer be labelled 'fellow travellers' of the Moscow-run Commie conspiracy, the task has become more urgent. And how is it that consent, that most valuable of social products, is manufactured?”
(Source: http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Media/Consent_AmerStyle.html)
Mizrach points out that the following tactics are employed by what we may regard, realistically, as the enemy; that is, mainstream media. They mould opinion particularly on Sunday talk shows by parading the opinions of sycophants that are the mouthpieces that have been schooled within the hallowed halls of the university of corporate indoctrination.
These are bolstered by spin doctors, or, PR devils. “PR managers, known as "spin doctors" when working in government, are able to carefully craft speeches and advertisements which evoke powerful images in the American psyche, frequently using "power words" such as freedom, fairness, liberty, justice, and peacekeeping for policies which dominate, discriminate, imprison, exploit, and terrorize much of the rest of the world.” (Mizrach)
Mizrach also points out the real purpose of public opinion polls is not so much to measure public opinion as it is to shape it. They also employ academics and think tanks to shape and mould public opinion.
Together, these tools are used against us. They are more threatening an enemy to the citizens of Western nations than an army of bin Ladens. They are used not only to shape public opinion. They are used to lie to us and to indoctrinate the impressionable and the young.
Class War
Non Americans look upon our American brothers and sisters and what they have served up on a daily basis under a disguise called 'news'. We watched in incredulity as the American health care debate raged. The word socialist, we discovered, is a dirty word in America. Ignorant to a fault, the politicians and the media spun lies and distortions with wide eyed enthusiasm as if the rest of the world wasn't watching. It looked like a Jerry Springer show, a pitiful crowd of beaten down as angry victims proudly showing their own ignorance to the world, utterly oblivious. But that is not America, it is a fraction of America and we find the same backward and angry lumpen attitudes everywhere. The difference is, in the USA, it is cultivated.
It should be obvious by now that we are on the losing side of a very aggressive class war. The ruling elites have the clear advantage. They are waging war on the rest of us and we, as a collective, are only dimly aware that its happening. CNN, Fox, and CTV are not telling. A large part of that ignorance is a result of their slick packaging and their endless supply of Presidents, Prime Ministers, and sexy stories. They are very good at slick visuals and clever sound bites. Their whole focus is on the packaging, the face. They have their reputation and influence. They have paid reporters that are on the scene. They have very little in terms of substance. For that, you turn to us; to alternative media.
It is hard for us to actually recognize them as our enemy. They have such pretty smiles and they tell such human and touching stories. But don't ever forget; these useful idiots are aiming to impoverish you, to strip away your rights. It's happening. They callously disregard the suffering of 'collaterals'. They tell you that they are ensuring that you are 'secure' by whipping up hate all over the planet. The stunned mouthpieces don't even know they are doing it. Some of the worst war crimes in living memory are enabled by these treacherous talking heads. They are taking part in the ultimate economic betrayal of America and the rest of the post-industrial world. They protect the ruling class and work for the benefit of that class against you and me. They are certainly our enemy. What is vital is that you and I recognize this. We can't fight back as long as we allow ourselves to be lulled by the likes of Jerry Springer and CNN.
For our part, we have MWC News, Counterpunch, Democracy Now, and a large choice of alternative media outlets to seek out pertinent news, honest opinions, and insightful analysis. The internet is a genie let out of a bottle. This fluid and democratic flow of information is the blessing of this uncontrolled machine that sits before you. The corporations do not own or control this. They certainly have an advantage but on this front, our fight has just begun. We need to expand, to develop better tools and a wider audience. We need to fight back. Together we stand on the front lines. Recognize it.
Saturday, September 05, 2009
Love Me: I'm a Liberal
As Obama ratchets up the war machine and continues to wage economic war on American workers, it is easy to forget his rhetoric prior to the election. As far to the right as he is in his policies, the American right continue to portray him as, God forbid, a socialist.
Commentary from the American right dismiss liberals and relegate them far on the margins of acceptability. They make socialism and liberalism synonymous. In the USA, liberals are socialists and vice versa. Maybe when you are standing next to Augusto Pinochet everything looks left.
That clumsy dismissal of all that is not conservative is a mistake. It's not fair to liberals. It's even less fair to socialists. Liberals, if you examine them now or through history paint the same broad strokes as conservatives. They campaign as if they were socialists but once in power, they not only paint the same broad strokes as the right but they fill in many of the details to the most minute detail - exactly the same.
It wouldn't be fair or accurate to say liberals are the same as conservatives however. They not only talk differently, their approach is different. They may want to achieve the same broad goals but they strategize differently and present differently. Liberals are pragmatic and slick. Conservatives are ideologically principled (notwithstanding a quick buck) and stupid.
Obama is a liberal. He may be called a socialist by the raging right but if you ask any socialist, he or she will explain why, with certainty and passion, Obama is no socialist.
Politicians always sound courageous and principled during an election campaign. Campaign rhetoric is always well to the left. Prior to an election, politicians are going to stand up to the biggest of big business. Even the HMOs and the banks are not safe according to campaign trail bluster. They will end war and they will feed the poor and they will increase social spending and cut taxes. As predictably as rain on a weekend they turn sideways and show the other face once they get the votes. At that point they turn and the soft liberal face vanishes. They become ugly and mean spirited. That conservative face tries to hide its darting eyes and its iron teeth.
This isn't new. It is a very old story. Centrist liberal and social democratic parties have been at it a very long time. The question arises; Is it a matter of dishonesty or is it that once they are elected their real bosses come from the shadows and demand pro business decisions? It is both.
Liberal voters naively believe what politicians say. And even in the face of politicians actions that run contrary to what they promised, they remain loyal. They believe. Like religious zealots they can't be swayed. They defend their liberal hope. They will rationalize, minimize, deny reality. They will blame others. Their leader remains pristine even in the face of obvious election lies. Even when their hero slaughters innocent people in Afghanistan. Even in the face of consistently anti middle class governance.
Big Business
Since Obama has taken the Presidency, the big banks have enjoyed the same unfettered financial freedom to do as they wish as they did under Bush. They also enjoy unconditional support from the state.
They have enjoyed a spending spree courtesy of the American taxpayer that has paved the way for them to take even more control of the finances of America. The big banks hold more of the share of Americans deposits than they did under Bush. Not that Obama is more friendly to them. The process of concentration and accumulation is simply continuing, unabated. The big fish are eating the smaller fish and are growing even more menacing and powerful. The process is eased through government subsidies.
Financial power was highly concentrated prior to the economic crisis. Rather than using policies that would create real economic stimulation by providing money to those that really need it - like workers and homeowners, the crisis resulted in both Bush and Obama facilitating greater concentration. Real stimulation is inflationary and the ultra wealthy don't want their money de-valued.
We might imagine American politicians saying to the to the big banks; 'don't worry. We got your back.' But it doesn't work that way. They didn't say it. They didn't have to. Politicians always keep their promises to big business. They don't even have to make them. They are assumed. Public promises are not really promises, it's just election talk. Private promises are always solid. It's a matter of who controls whom.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was created in the depression to ensure depositors savings are there for them by provided banks with security and backing. The FDIC controls the banks and you can bet your bottom dollar that the people that control the FDIC are the same as those that control the President.
The FDIC has increased the number of banks categorized as 'troubled' to 416 on August 27, 2009. It was 305 three months ago. The financial feeding frenzy continues under Obama. With the help of the FDIC the large fish are eating small ones and have also gorged themselves on some very large ones as well. In the past year JP Morgan Chase swallowed Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual with the help of the federal government. Bank of America and several other mega financial institutions deemed "too big to fall" have been benefiting immensely from this crisis. They are laughing all the way to their own vaults. To be precise, they are laughing all the vaults of JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo.
Through the American state, the taxpayer is funding these takeovers and absorbing the losses through the FDIC.
And there we have it. Mr. 'love me I'm a liberal' Obama is finishing what Bush started. He is moving the process of consolidating power and wealth in American at a faster rate than anyone before him.
The American state has become an extension and a tool of big business. Any President that tries to change that or even question it will be in the sights of another Lee Harvey Oswald. We can't entirely blame Obama. He just knows how to play the game. The problem is systemic.
War
Conventional war and big business are intimately connected to the state. Big business can exist without war but war can't thrive without big business. They thrive on each other.
Obama has fired up the war in Afghanistan like a man possessed. The unfortunate people of Afghanistan and in the mountains of Pakistan that happen to live near Taliban are being incinerated by Obama and his war machine. People are being killed by human-less drones and manned multi-billion dollar war toys with cowboys dropping bombs on some of the most impoverished and oppressed people on the planet.
Cindy Sheehan was a celebrity to the soft left in the USA when she was protesting against Bush's wars. But she isn't so popular nowadays. To her, war, not Bush, is the enemy. That's where Sheehan and many of the liberals part company. She can't even get acknowledgement from the anti-war movement since Obama took the reins. You gotta love him - he's a liberal like many of the anti-Bush protesters.
Obama's expansion of the war both in size and intensity is alarming. The anti-war movement is silent and their voices have been silenced by the liberal Obama supporting quislings in their ranks.
An ominous sign for people in Latin America is an Obama initiative in Latin America. He is building seven new military bases in Colombia to the chagrin of South American leaders. Chavez is particularly worried about this development. The leaders in South America are upset to the point that they are demanding explanations from the United States and Colombia for the reasons for the bases.
Latin Americans are far too familiar with death squads, assassinations, and American dominance.
In Israel Netanyahu has approved hundreds of new housing units on the West Bank. Obama expresses "regret". HIs weak and limp reaction is tantamount to approval. Israel and Obama have agreed to not allow new settlements in the West Bank for one year but the Israelis will continue on with construction. The agreement does not include East Jerusalem.
The Israelis and the Americans will agree to new sanctions against Iran. Watch for more belligerence and sabre rattling on this front.
Medical Care
Obama did shake up the privateers that prey on the sick and the elderly in America; the big insurance companies. He threatened to curb their free- wheeling protection racket. And we have seen what happens in the USA when you go up against organized crime.
Standing outside the USA, watching the lies spread about the Canadian and British health care systems by the American right and big business is quite surreal. For Canadians and for people outside the USA, the practice of paying for health care or not being eligible for health care is alien. Insurance companies turning people down applying for insurance due to sickness seems barbaric. The insurers refusal to pay due to pre-existing conditions certainly is barbaric.
The fact that these discussion even happen appears to the rest of us to be archaic. A chapter from another time; a time way back when people were tortured and thrown in jail without charges and left to die when they are sick. A time that has been erased by rational modernity.
The Americans use the term 'socialist' as if they were uttering a curse. It is poison to them. And the notion of universal health care is socialist - a put down. Socialists must plead guilty. We demand universal health care.
Obama's metamorphosis from a sophisticated and sensitive human being to a crude quisling yes man jumping to the demands of the banks, the oil companies, and the HMOs is almost complete. But the liberals, the tax-paying suburbanites that elected him still squint their eyes to see that first face; the face of change and progress.
But more and more, as people are bombed and incinerated in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as old and sick people continue to die in poverty, they must come to realize there is no change with Obama. And they will change who they vote for. Enter: Sarah Palin.
The whole thing is as American as apple pie.
Once I was young and impulsive
I wore every conceivable pin
Even went to the socialist meetings
Learned all the old union hymns
But I've grown older and wiser
And that's why I'm turning you in
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal
- Phil Ochs
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