Some time ago I, at a certain level, removed myself from normal political divisions. The left I was a part of the late sixties has nothing to do with the left today--they seem to be almost on the opposite side. Not that the left was very coherent back in the day--but we gave it a good try. That's all over now. Mainly we didn't believe the mainstream Narrative and it was much less absurd then because the news media still had real journalists some of whom attempted to get at the truth. Today, that type of journalist simply doesn't exist at all and here we are without any honesty at any level of our society as we drift into war and environmental and cultural degradation.
Three incidents immediately stand out that indicate this tendency. First, observe what happened to a the reporter who broke the story on the importation of cocaine by the CIA (which has a long history of importing drugs into the USA that predates even Vietnam) during the famous "Contra War" where the USA to get around a Congressional prohibition of sending arms and money to the "contras" fighting the legit government of Nicaragua because they overthrew the CIA stooges that were the Somoza family that regarded their country as made up of peasants that allowed any military officer to seize women and girls from families and rape them and worse. That journalist's name was Gary Webb. He was forced out of his job as a reporter and harassed and condemned by mainstream journalists and the security services so much that he committed suicide or maybe not.
The second journalist was Chris Hedges, a Pulitzer-prize winning veteran journalist who was the Middle East Bureau Chief of the NYT who made a speech attacking the obvious lies his paper was spreading about WMDs in Iraq in order to attack Iraq and overthrow their government. He was forced to resign. He was right and his editors and his fellow journalists at the Times were not only dead wrong but most of them knew the data was false--of that I am absolutely certain.
The third journalist was another Pulitzer Prize winner who managed to stay in play until about three or four years ago. His name is Seymour Hersh. Hersh had been in the doghouse but the once great The New Yorker picked him up where he wrote about national security affairs since Hersh was one of the few journalists that dissident military officers would speak to because they knew that most mainstream journalists would just report these officers who would have their careers ruined. When Hersh reported on the famed "gas attack" was a fake as told to him by insiders and other and may have been partially responsible for the fact and, worse he went against the narrative about the famous Bin Laden murder. He hasn't written for them in three years--and they only published his stories if the went along with the mainstream Narrative. He could only publish abroad--first in the London Review of Books and the last major story I now of was even too hot for the LRB.
There are many more excellent journalists, experts, ex-CIA, ex-NSA, ex-military officers who are never allowed to comment in the media or invited as experts no matter how high their qualifications are. One such expert, Scott Ritter who was the American who knew the most about WMD's in Iraq who was a media hero in the 90s when he publically stood up to Saddam Hussein and his French counterparts (who Ritter believed were undermining the inspection regime) and made it his personal mission to make sure those WMDs (mainly nerve agents) would be destroyed. He knew personally after years of work that almost every single piece of ordinance was accounted for. He was invited to be interviewed by CNN brass to see what he would say if he was put on the air--he told them the truth during the lead to the invasion of Iraq. The head of CNN told him that hew not only would never be allowed on CNN but he would not be allowed on any network or major media outlet unless he changed his tune.
So here we are on the edge of war with Iran, Russia, Syria and perhaps China. This "war" has been ramping up for some years and its momentum has been unchanged. War in this country is the only way for the federal government which is increasingly corrupt and incompetent to stay in power along with all their cronies in the predatory industries: finance, health-care, "justice", energy, chemicals and so on. They are, naturally, interlocked with the heavies in the government.
As I see it the players in this game have different goals but are now, after a couple of years of confusion, all on the same page. They are pushing for major war. In the past whenever it seemed like an invasion of Iran was about to happen I said "no way" this was not going to happen--there was no reason to upset the profitable apple-cart. Today, I feel differently. Things have changed.
The spur to all this is the rise of so-called "populist" movements in Europe and the USA. As it is Americans elected someone who had been thought of as running a joke campaign who ended up winning! There are serious threats to the Empire in Europe--the EU and NATO have become tools to make sure all European countries continue to be vassals of Washington but the natives are restless despite the fact Washington has control of all the major media there as well as here. Dr. Udo Ulfkotte, the editor of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung claimed he worked for the CIA and said most European outlets did as well.
This global situation is now impossible. The global Empire either asserts power through drastic means or suffers death from a thousand cuts. There is now a close alliance between Russia and China who are not only coming closer militarily but also, even more dangerous, establishing new economic agreements of global significance. China is now a big player (easily dwarfing Russia) which is cultivating countries all round the world including those who are direct vassals of Washington. Remember, the USA wants to be the ONLY superpower and block any rival power from even thinking about asserting power. The USA is the global power and is destined to rule the world--this is now the main ideology of both neoconservatives and neoliberals and they don't need to get approval of the American people to maintain Empire or go to war.
Trump is irrelevant to all this. The best he can do is to drag his feet creatively as Obama did but he does not seem to have any way of reversing the war decision even if he wanted to which I don't think there is any way for us to know but it doesn't matter--Trump has to follow the general policies already in place neither he nor anyone else can change this.
The second
Three incidents immediately stand out that indicate this tendency. First, observe what happened to a the reporter who broke the story on the importation of cocaine by the CIA (which has a long history of importing drugs into the USA that predates even Vietnam) during the famous "Contra War" where the USA to get around a Congressional prohibition of sending arms and money to the "contras" fighting the legit government of Nicaragua because they overthrew the CIA stooges that were the Somoza family that regarded their country as made up of peasants that allowed any military officer to seize women and girls from families and rape them and worse. That journalist's name was Gary Webb. He was forced out of his job as a reporter and harassed and condemned by mainstream journalists and the security services so much that he committed suicide or maybe not.
The second journalist was Chris Hedges, a Pulitzer-prize winning veteran journalist who was the Middle East Bureau Chief of the NYT who made a speech attacking the obvious lies his paper was spreading about WMDs in Iraq in order to attack Iraq and overthrow their government. He was forced to resign. He was right and his editors and his fellow journalists at the Times were not only dead wrong but most of them knew the data was false--of that I am absolutely certain.
The third journalist was another Pulitzer Prize winner who managed to stay in play until about three or four years ago. His name is Seymour Hersh. Hersh had been in the doghouse but the once great The New Yorker picked him up where he wrote about national security affairs since Hersh was one of the few journalists that dissident military officers would speak to because they knew that most mainstream journalists would just report these officers who would have their careers ruined. When Hersh reported on the famed "gas attack" was a fake as told to him by insiders and other and may have been partially responsible for the fact and, worse he went against the narrative about the famous Bin Laden murder. He hasn't written for them in three years--and they only published his stories if the went along with the mainstream Narrative. He could only publish abroad--first in the London Review of Books and the last major story I now of was even too hot for the LRB.
There are many more excellent journalists, experts, ex-CIA, ex-NSA, ex-military officers who are never allowed to comment in the media or invited as experts no matter how high their qualifications are. One such expert, Scott Ritter who was the American who knew the most about WMD's in Iraq who was a media hero in the 90s when he publically stood up to Saddam Hussein and his French counterparts (who Ritter believed were undermining the inspection regime) and made it his personal mission to make sure those WMDs (mainly nerve agents) would be destroyed. He knew personally after years of work that almost every single piece of ordinance was accounted for. He was invited to be interviewed by CNN brass to see what he would say if he was put on the air--he told them the truth during the lead to the invasion of Iraq. The head of CNN told him that hew not only would never be allowed on CNN but he would not be allowed on any network or major media outlet unless he changed his tune.
So here we are on the edge of war with Iran, Russia, Syria and perhaps China. This "war" has been ramping up for some years and its momentum has been unchanged. War in this country is the only way for the federal government which is increasingly corrupt and incompetent to stay in power along with all their cronies in the predatory industries: finance, health-care, "justice", energy, chemicals and so on. They are, naturally, interlocked with the heavies in the government.
As I see it the players in this game have different goals but are now, after a couple of years of confusion, all on the same page. They are pushing for major war. In the past whenever it seemed like an invasion of Iran was about to happen I said "no way" this was not going to happen--there was no reason to upset the profitable apple-cart. Today, I feel differently. Things have changed.
The spur to all this is the rise of so-called "populist" movements in Europe and the USA. As it is Americans elected someone who had been thought of as running a joke campaign who ended up winning! There are serious threats to the Empire in Europe--the EU and NATO have become tools to make sure all European countries continue to be vassals of Washington but the natives are restless despite the fact Washington has control of all the major media there as well as here. Dr. Udo Ulfkotte, the editor of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung claimed he worked for the CIA and said most European outlets did as well.
This global situation is now impossible. The global Empire either asserts power through drastic means or suffers death from a thousand cuts. There is now a close alliance between Russia and China who are not only coming closer militarily but also, even more dangerous, establishing new economic agreements of global significance. China is now a big player (easily dwarfing Russia) which is cultivating countries all round the world including those who are direct vassals of Washington. Remember, the USA wants to be the ONLY superpower and block any rival power from even thinking about asserting power. The USA is the global power and is destined to rule the world--this is now the main ideology of both neoconservatives and neoliberals and they don't need to get approval of the American people to maintain Empire or go to war.
Trump is irrelevant to all this. The best he can do is to drag his feet creatively as Obama did but he does not seem to have any way of reversing the war decision even if he wanted to which I don't think there is any way for us to know but it doesn't matter--Trump has to follow the general policies already in place neither he nor anyone else can change this.
The second
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