Showing posts with label proxy armies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label proxy armies. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 30, 2022

Put The US In The Time Out Chair

 


Put The US In The Time Out Chair

by C.A. Matthews 

When you work in a kindergarten, you see a lot of a particular kind of behavior. One kid—sometimes the biggest physically in the group but not always the most mature emotionally or mentally—will walk over to a fellow student and take a toy or object away from him without a moment’s thought. The big kid just yanks it out of the smaller kid’s hands and might even hit him over the head with it in the process. The teacher is then forced to step in to protect the injured child because obviously the big kid doesn’t understand that he’s acting like a douchebag and has broken all the rules of civilized society.

Placed into the “time out chair,” the big bully sits there and stews, spouting off all sorts of gripes about how the smaller kid didn’t “share” the toy with him when he asked nicely. Of course the teacher or a staff member never witnessed any manners whatsoever on the part of the bigger child. It’s all lies and the big kid knows it, but he sits in his time out chair and continues to whine and cry about how unfair everybody is to him simply because they won’t share their toys and don’t care to be beat up by him. Oh, boo-hoo-hoo!

Flash forward a few decades and you’ll see the “big kid” acting like a douchebag once again, taking things that don’t belong to him and screaming that it’s not fair that the “little kids” don’t like having their resources grabbed in a violent manner without permission. Here is an example of our current president doing just that on the behalf of the American people:

On Tuesday night US Central Command announced that it had "conducted precision airstrikes in Deir ez-Zor Syria" in order to "defend and protect U.S. forces from attacks like the ones on August 15 against U.S. personnel by Iran-backed groups."

"The President gave the direction for these strikes pursuant to his Article II authority to protect and defend U.S. personnel by disrupting or deterring attacks by Iran-backed groups," CENTCOM said.

Iran has denied any link to the troops targeted in the airstrikes, up to ten of whom were reportedly killed. (...)

"US claims to be in Syria to fight ISIS, but it rarely fights ISIS," journalist Aaron MatΓ© tweeted of the exchange. "It's actually there to deny Syria its own oil and wheat, and to occasionally attack Syrians and their allies who defeated US-backed sectarian death squads in the dirty war." -- US Invades Syria, Kills People,Claims Self-Defense

The US simply takes away resources from Syria like a bully grabbing a toy away from a smaller kid. Aren't you pleased that we have such a respectful and neighborly Commander-in-Chief? 


It's not like Americans haven't done it before. After bombing Afghanistan for twenty years and then withdrawing, the US decided to keep $7 billion worth of Afghans' money sitting in our banks. Yeah, the big bullies stole ordinary Afghans' money, and now millions of Afghan children are starving. But when did doing the right and moral thing ever stop a bully from grabbing a smaller kid's lunch box?

The biggest and most destructive sanction currently facing Afghanistan is the seizure of more than $7 billion of the country’s assets that are held at the US Federal Reserve. This is equivalent to about 40 percent of Afghanistan’s economy, and about 14 months of the country’s imports – which include food, medicine, and infrastructure needs that are vital to public health. --US Sanctions on Afghanistan Could Kill More Civilians than 20 Years of War

According to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), nearly 23 million Afghans, or 55% of the population, are facing “extreme levels of hunger.” Of those, almost 9 million are at risk of famine.

UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch called it “a crisis of hunger and starvation.”

Yet there is little discussion inside Washington of the disastrous impact of US sanctions. --Millions in Afghanistan Are Starving Due to US Sanctions

Sometimes, bullies will gather together into a grouping of bullies to make it easier to gang up on a weaker kid or kids. Gangs of bullies are able to grab a ton of toys or "resources", as they’re known to most grown ups. A recent headline tells us that's exactly what a gang consisting of the US, NATO, and a few others are doing in Ukraine:

Representatives of Western governments and corporations met in Switzerland this July to plan a series of harsh neoliberal policies to impose on post-war Ukraine, calling to cut labor laws, “open markets,” drop tariffs, deregulate industries, and “sell state-owned enterprises to private investors.”

Ukraine has been destabilized by violence since 2014, when a US-sponsored coup d’etat overthrew its democratically elected government, setting off a civil war. That conflict dragged on until February 24, 2022, when Russia invaded the country, escalating into a new, even deadlier phase of the war.

The United States and European Union have sought to erase the history of foreign-sponsored civil war in Ukraine from 2014 to early 2022, acting as though the conflict began on February 24. But Washington had sent large sums of weapons to Ukraine and provided extensive military training and support over several years before Russia invaded.

Meanwhile, starting in 2017, representatives of Western governments and corporations quietly held annual conferences in which they discussed ways to profit from the civil war they were fueling in Ukraine.

In these meetings, Western political and business leaders outlined a series of aggressive right-wing reforms they hoped to impose on Ukraine, including widespread privatization of state-owned industries and deregulation of the economy.

On July 4 and 5, 2022, top officials from the US, EU, Britain, Japan, and South Korea met in Switzerland for a so-called “Ukraine Recovery Conference.” There, they planned Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction and performatively announced aid commitments – while salivating over a bonanza of potential contracts.

--West Prepares to Plunder Post-War Ukraine with Neoliberal Shock Therapy: Privatization, Deregulation, Slashing Worker Protections

There’s no aggressive behavior under the sun that would surprise a kindergarten teacher, and there’s nothing new about how stronger nations treat weaker ones. The US and its Western allies want cheap liquid natural gas, and they don’t want to go crying to Russia or even Saudi Arabia to get it. So, they take it from Syria. The indiscriminate bombing and killing of innocent civilians along the way is just the price you pay for being the smaller kid in the global classroom.    

Western corporate interests—especially those of the military industrial complex, such as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, etc.—wanted to make some money off of the disintegrating Soviet Union thirty-something years ago. It seemed like a piece of cake to these capitalists to walk in and take their resources since the Cold War was now officially over. The largest part of the former Soviet Union (now simply “Russia”) helped many of the weaker kids (former Soviet nations) in their classroom get back on their feet economically. This cooperative activity didn’t sit well with the West. The US of Big Bullies and friends started working on angles to grab the natural and man-made resources of the weaker nations of the now defunct USSR. 

The unrest in Ukraine in 2014 gave the West the opportunity they’d been looking for to make a grab for these resources. The CIA helped to instigate a coup against the elected government of Ukraine because the Ukrainian voters (heaven forbid!) elected a pro-Russia president who wanted to increase trade with their much larger neighbor. With Ukraine’s ports and a liquid natural gas (LNG) pipeline (the Russian-German Nord Stream 2), Russia and Ukraine together could make some serious cash by selling LNG to European countries to heat their homes and businesses.

The US of Big Bullies and its gang of NATO wasn’t going to suffer this indignity. How dare a weaker kid keep his toys and share them with another kid—a kid we don’t like (and are possibly even jealous of)! Grabbing Ukraine’s resources and causing the big brotherly country that helped them (Russia) to collapse at the same time became US priority number one. Six months and a lot of death and destruction later, the entire world can see what happens when a big bully like the US tries to get its way by grabbing resources from and then hitting a smaller kid who simply wanted to get along with his fellow classmates, or neighboring countries in this instance. 


I realize that I’m simplifying things, but, like most teachers have discovered, sometimes it’s the best way to get down to the root of an aggressive behavior so we can end the aggression once and for all. We can’t continue hiding this behavior of resource grabbing or else it will never stop. We can't keep denying it, lying about it in our mainstream media, or attempting to rename it. 

The US military intervention in other countries has got nothing to do with giving Syria or Afghanistan or Ukraine "freedom and democracy." It's the US acting like a big bully by bombing weaker nations into submission in order to make a lot of profits for the military industrial complex and other Western corporations. All moral people must expose this evil for what it is so we can deal with it like adults, not children. 

It's time we put the US and NATO in the time out chair.

I sent a few grabber-hitters to the time out chair when I worked in a kindergarten class. Usually by the end of the school year these bullies matured a little emotionally. They began to understand why hitting and stealing toys/objects from their classmates wasn’t a good idea. Their first grade teachers praised our patience and stick-to-it-ness. It (almost) made the stress of dealing with these miniature Napoleons worth it.

Unfortunately, the world doesn’t have a school year to wait and see what will happen if we don’t stop the US and the West’s aggressive behaviors. We’ve got warmongers in Congress who want to provoke a war with China next. What’s sane about a bully taunting and grabbing at resources from other countries who own nuclear weapons? Nothing. Nothing at all. 

The next time you read how a far away country like Syria is a “threat” to the US look at what kind of natural resources they have. Look at where it’s positioned on the globe. Perhaps it’s located next door or within a short bomber’s flight distance of another country we’re jealous of and want to push out of our “classroom” so we can grab all their “toys”.

And stop making excuses for the United States of Bullies—even if you're a member of their "gang." Because how will Americans ever  grow up and stop their aggressive ways if they’re not taught a lesson by sitting in the time out chair?


Related Articles

US Invades Syria, Kills People, Claims Self-Defense https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/us-invades-syria-kills-people-claims

US Carries Out Airstries in Syria's Deir Ez Zor Province https://popularresistance.org/us-carries-out-airstrikes-in-syrias-deir-ez-zor-province/ 

US Sanctions on Afghanistan Could Kill More Civilians Than 20 Years of War  https://multipolarista.com/2022/02/05/us-sanctions-afghanistan-death-war/

Millions in Afghanistan Are Starving Due to US Sanctions https://multipolarista.com/2022/01/23/afghanistan-starving-us-sanctions/

'We Will Die by Poverty before Dying of Covid’: Young Adults and Multi-Layered Crises in Afghanistan  https://areu.org.af/publication/2205e/

US Judge Says Billions in Seized Central Bank Funds Belong to Afghan People https://scheerpost.com/2022/08/30/us-judge-says-billions-in-seized-central-bank-funds-belong-to-afghan-people/ 

West Prepares to Plunder Post-War Ukraine... https://multipolarista.com/2022/07/28/west-neoliberal-recovery-conference/

Revealed: US & EU Plans to Plunder Ukraine (video) https://youtu.be/1WsB-vvMLZk

This is Why the EU Doesn't Want Russian Gas (video) https://youtu.be/vC9yRNYWb84

The Uncomfortable Truth About Zelensky, featuring Scott Ritter (video) https://youtu.be/qmpnVbbqqOE 

Free Speech Doesn't Matter If Propagandists Determine What People Say  https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/free-speech-doesnt-matter-if-propagandists 


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Tuesday, July 26, 2022

More Warfare! Less Health Care! What Bad Air?


 More Warfare! Less Health Care! What Bad Air?

Some observations on too much media consumption by C.A. Matthews 

If I were an active consumer of American mainstream media (i.e., CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, NPR, Wash. Post, NY Times, etc.), I might come to some odd conclusions on what all is happening in the world and what is really important to Americans. 

I might assume that Americans love continual warfare since we're spending $800 billion plus on our defense (offense, more likely) budget. I might assume we don't care much about brown or black people since we give military and economic aid to countries like Saudi Arabia and Israel who are set on genociding the Yemenis and Palestinians. 

I might assume we're good with supporting fascists since we've given massive amounts of military hardware to the Azov Battalion, an openly Neo-Nazi militia. I might assume that America means for all these weapons to wind up on the black market to be sold to terrorists around the world, since that's what's happening to the arms we've sent to Ukraine. I might assume that money laundering through these black market arms sale is agreeable to those who profit the most from them, the top one-percent who own shares in Raytheon and their ilk.

If I were an active consumer of mainstream media, I might come to some odd conclusions about the importance of health care in the US. I might assume that all Americans have private health care and love it. I might assume that we don't place much value on women since we seem to like taking away their rights to bodily autonomy. I might assume that we place zero worth on women of color in particular since their infant and maternal mortality rates are so high. I might assume that the life of a pregnant person is worth less than a fetus since many states have already passed laws declaring it to be so. I might assume that Americans have little empathy for victims of rape and incest--particular the youngest and most vulnerable.

I might assume that it's okay for people to go bankrupt whenever they have an expensive healthcare emergency since the majority of bankruptcies in the US involve some form of medical debt. I might assume that homeless persons do not have the right to health care and especially mental health care since we seem more preoccupied with pushing them out of our cities than in getting them the help they need and a roof over their head. I might assume that COVID-19 was no more, and it no longer posed a threat to human life on the planet. I might assume we'll never have to worry about another pandemic ever again in spite of reports about the spread of monkeypox.

If I were an active consumer of American mainstream media, I might assume there's no such thing as the "climate catastrophe" or climate change since these kind of stories are seldom reported on major outlets. I might assume there's no such thing as "greenhouse gases" and that CAFOs--concentrated animal feedlots--are wonderful and don't dump tons of animal wastes into watersheds. I might assume that Americans don't care about the suffering of animals raised under these horrible conditions. I might assume toxic blue-green algae is rather pretty  and its washing up on the lake shores doesn't poison drinking water for millions.

I might assume that this summer's record high temperatures are just an aberration.  I might assume that wildfires in the south of England are a regular event along with their roads melting. I might assume that coastal erosion and sea level rise are just myths and that a huge icy chunk of Antarctica didn't break off and start melting into the sea. I might assume that Glacier National Park was named after something other than giant ice fields.

I might assume that millions of people suffering from lung disease have nothing to do with the rise of pollutants such as ozone and heavy particulates in our air. I might assume that there's no way microscopic bits of plastic have become a part our drinking water and are now a part of all our bodies thanks to the fossil fuel and plastic industries promotion of non-recyclables.

So, what's wrong with taking mainstream media at its word? If you said, "Everything," then you'd be correct. These erroneous assumptions that American mainstream media encourages demonstrate how propaganda skews our worldviews. Mainstream media propaganda causes more harm than good. People who don't have access to differing viewpoints can form skewed and sometimes dangerous opinions and actions. They need to know that non-violent options exist. (Check out Rad Indie Media for different viewpoints.)

As I sit here at my laptop, listening to the Annual Meeting of the Green Party US this weekend, I hear speakers conversing on related topics that don't support any of these assumptions. In fact, they paint very different pictures and tell very different stories--and give very different responses on how to deal with challenges. Greens don't take corporate money and don't listen to billionaires and do their bidding. Their visions are clear and not clouded by money, unlike members of the establishment factions.

We can't believe the fairy tales our corporate-sponsored,  status quo/duopolist politicians promote any longer. We just don't have the time. The earth is heating up. Crops are failing. People will starve. People are dying in the US now because we don't provide universal health care, and guaranteed food and housing. 

People are dying around the world because the military industrial complex wants the US Empire to grow. The US Empire wants to force other countries to give us their natural resources, whether they want to or not. It's profits over people. The Empire will bomb other countries until they hand their resources over.

When will Americans realize they've been lied to and stop these horrors? Would obvious lying and voter suppression caught on tape perpetrated by the party in power convince them? If not, what will?

How about when they announce it's time for World War III let's all just be like "Nah, we're not doing that."

And then let’s build a healthy world. -- Caitlin Johnstone

 

Related Articles:

When They Announce WW3 Let's Just Say 'Nah' https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/when-they-announce-ww3-lets-just

Medical Debt Is A Rip-Off  https://scheerpost.com/2022/07/21/medical-debt-is-a-rip-off/

Proof US Missiles to Ukraine End Up with Terrorists https://leecamp.com/proof-us-missiles-to-ukraine-end-up-with-terrorists/ 

In Ukraine, A Proxy War on the Planet  https://mate.substack.com/p/in-ukraine-a-proxy-war-on-the-planet-413 

The Imaginary War  https://scheerpost.com/2022/07/17/patrick-lawrence-the-imaginary-war/

The CIA's Worst-Kept Secret: Newly Declassified Files Confirm US Collaboration with Nazis  https://ips-dc.org/the_cias_worst-kept_secret_newly_declassified_files_confirm_united_states_collaboration_with_nazis/

Servant of the Corrupt https://popularresistance.org/servant-of-the-corrupt/

Zelensky's Hidden Offshore Assets and Corruption Exposed (video) https://youtu.be/muA7fZIl08Q

If This Isn't a Climate Emergency What Is https://www.rsn.org/001/if-this-isnt-a-climate-emergency-what-is.html 

As Europe Burns, Biden Puts Profits Over the Climate https://www.leftvoice.org/as-europe-burns-biden-puts-profits-over-the-climate/

Roads Are Literally Melting in Europe During Unprecedented Heat Wave https://truthout.org/articles/roads-are-literally-melting-in-europe-during-unprecedented-heat-wave/

Les Miserables, Living and Dying on American Streets https://scheerpost.com/2022/07/22/les-miserables-living-and-dying-on-american-streets/

NC Democrats' Version of Stop the Steal  https://www.pmrt.org/nc_democrats_version_of_stop_the_steal

We've Been Lied To Our Whole Lives About Everything That Matters https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/weve-been-lied-to-our-whole-lives 

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Tuesday, June 21, 2022

Eat The Rich, Feed The Poor (And Other Revolutionary Recipes)

 

"When the people shall have no more to eat, they will eat the rich." —Jean Jacques Rousseau, 1793

Eat The Rich, Feed The Poor (And Other Revolutionary Recipes)

by Redd Phlagg

So many depressing headlines hit my inbox this past week that they not only made my head spin, they made my entire worldview spin. It became ever more apparent to me that we can no longer afford to wait for the bought-off ruling establishment to take action to save our planet and its peoples. It's time. We the Workers, the little people, the 99% must get off our backsides and grab the reigns of our runaway climate catastrophe and social collapse before it's too late.

Americans need to feed our poor, tax our rich, and make certain that the narcissistic behavior that got us in these desperate straits in the first place doesn't ever return. We need to stop allowing ourselves to become distracted by the silly antics of the duopolists in DC who do only as they're told by their corporate masters. And we need to start yesterday.

A recent study found that 338,000 Americans died due to COVID-19 because our government couldn't take steps to implement Medicare For All or a similar universal single-payer system to provide them needed health care. That's one in every three of the one million plus Americans who contracted and died from the coronavirus and its variants. That's roughly the population of many medium-sized US metropolitan areas, including the one where I live, all gone. Needlessly.

COVID-19 has caused a million and counting deaths in the US. Since these deaths are spread across the country, you might not have noticed so many missing persons yourself but future generations most definitely will. American children will ask what happened to their parents, grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, teachers, friends, babysitters, and even siblings as they grow up. What will we tell them?

Out of the one million plus Americans who have died since 2020 because of the pandemic, what percentage of them could have been saved? If the public's health and safety were the main priority of the ruling establishment rather than making profits for shareholders in the health insurance industry, Big Pharma, and the like how many could have lived? I feel that almost every American who caught COVID could have been saved if they could have received immediate treatment, free of charge, and weren't forced into situations that put their health at risk. There was no scientific reason to stop the lockdowns and force workers back out into low-paying service industry jobs (such as restaurant workers and hotel maids) so soon. In doing so, the politician-puppets of the oligarchy also forced these struggling workers' children back into daycares and public schools where the virus is extremely transmissible and proven deadly for teachers and students alike.

Universal Basic Income (UBI) could have been given to all American families to stay home and stay safe with their children until the virus died out. In countries that implemented such policies, the spread of COVID and its variants was much less, and their death tolls practically non-existent. Putting people over profits means that people win at least another day to live.

But, once again, the establishment duopoly sat on their backsides in Washington DC and moaned about how keeping people safe at home was hurting "the economy." They said this with a straight face while spending billions on the most bloated military budget ever passed in the history of humankind. They continued saying this while starting a proxy war to flush even more money down the drain so they could get rid of a natural gas competitor in Europe (i.e., Russia). No matter what label they give themselves--Republican, Democrat, "The Squad", Bernie Sanders even--these politician-puppets demonstrate by their actions that the profits of the military-industrial complex are infinitely more important than the lives of the vast majority of Americans.

Insult upon insult is dumped upon the poor and working classes' shoulders. We're forced to suffer the consequences of the duopolists' bad decisions to take on a fellow nuclear-power with oil reserves and resources the Western powers envy. We're paying for it every day at the gasoline pump, grocery store, and pharmacy. But to "red and blue" alike it's okay if the working classes grow poorer trying to survive because… well, "democracy" is at stake. Democracy in an already corrupt corner of the world ruled by fascists who took over in a coup in 2014 with the help of our CIA? What larks!

Why do We The People, the working classes continue putting up with this disgusting behavior? Why are these millionaire-idiots still in office wearing smug smiles on their faces? Could it be they've militarized our local police departments to such an extent that they know they can keep us poor folks in our place if we rise up?

I realize now that not every American realizes who is putting them through each and every fresh hell because our freedom of the press has been seriously curtailed. Revealing the dirty secrets of American war crimes put one Australian journalist, Julian Assange, into jail with a threatened 170 year sentence for treason. Yes, it's treasonous to publish news stories that reveal American politicians and officials for the war criminals they are. And if the war criminals in DC can slap an insane charge of treason on a journalist doing his job, you can imagine the charges they've cooked up to slap on us if we dare take our pitchforks to the streets in protest.

 When the French rose up at the end of the 18th century to protest numerous injustices inflicted upon them, they didn't let the fear of the militarized police stop them from punishing the aristocracy who had created the hell they were living in. Marie Antoinette said, "Let them eat cake!" while the French people couldn't even afford to buy a loaf of bread. (Sound familiar?) The commoners responded with the right idea--they built the guillotine and deployed it. Yes, it's bloody and violent, but the detached head of a obscenely wealthy sociopath made their point quite well, don't you think?

Should struggling Americans do likewise? The guillotine dispatched quite a few members of the French establishment along with Marie Antoinette, but it saved many more who saw it as a symbol of how the workers wouldn't take any more shit from those who thought themselves "superior" to the working classes. These smart aristocrats buckled down and cooperated with the common folks, and France was changed. So the guillotine doesn't have to be used indiscriminately and widely to make its point. Just the thought that the abused people have no problems getting rid of their abusers can bring about change.

It's time for Americans to let the money-grubbing, duopolistic puppet-politicians know that our patience is wearing thin. It's time to stop wasting time arguing over "the lesser evil" and being distracted by their idle rich antics that have nothing to do with us and our lives. Whatever symbol We The People choose--the guillotine, the pitchfork, tar and feathers (our founders' favorite means of singling out sociopaths)--we need to post it everywhere. We need to post it along with the message that we are not inferior to those who hoard wealth and play God with our health and safety--and the health and safety of the planet and everyone else on it.

We The People, the workers, the commoners, the 99% are, in fact, their bosses. They need to do what we say or else. And we let them know in no uncertain terms they're going to be a head shorter if they don't.


Related Articles:

UN Food Chief Says Hell on Earth Looms From Hunger Crisis Triggered By Ukraine War  https://scheerpost.com/2022/06/18/un-food-chief-says-hell-on-earth-looms-from-hunger-crisis-triggered-by-ukraine-war/

"A Chilling Message to Journalists": UK Approves Assange Extradition to US https://truthout.org/articles/a-chilling-message-to-journalists-uk-approves-assange-extradition-to-us/

Medicare For All Could Have Prevented 338,000 Deaths in the US https://truthout.org/articles/medicare-for-all-could-have-prevented-338000-covid-deaths-in-the-us/

100 Million People In America Are Saddled With Health Care Debt https://popularresistance.org/100-million-people-in-america-are-saddled-with-health-care-debt/

"No Place For A Child" (The horrors child immigrants experience when they cross the southern border.) https://scheerpost.com/2022/06/18/no-place-for-a-child/

  "Revolting": Senate Panel Raises Biden's Bloated Military Budget By 45 Billion https://truthout.org/articles/revolting-senate-panel-raises-bidens-bloated-military-budget-by-45-billion/

US Secretly Reviews and Approves Israeli Airstrikes in Syria https://scheerpost.com/2022/06/17/report-us-secretly-reviews-and-approves-many-israeli-airstrikes-in-syria 

Chris Hedges: American Empire Is Finished (video) https://youtu.be/OW52qqlQiJQ 

The State of Politics From An Anti-Establishment Perspective (Direct Left Callin podcast) https://www.callin.com/episode/the-state-of-politics-from-an-anti-gQcWTfYQHQ

The Smear Campaign Against Independent Journalism (video) https://youtu.be/nkoIfWt4Z2k

New Global Movement Against Capitalism For Socialism https://popularresistance.org/international-peoples-assembly-new-global-movement-against-capitalism-for-socialism/


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In a near-future dystopian world, hope blossoms where mutual aid and democracy begins...

Zonta’s world is turned upside down when Jake arrives at the commune to investigate the disappearance of agents of the Authority. Can she persuade him to switch sides before the Protectors (antifascist fighters) take action?

Available now from Extasy Books: https://www.extasybooks.com/Where-the-Bodies-Lie 

Please buy direct from the small publisher and not via Amazon. Why? Amazon takes a huge percentage of the book's price and leaves very little for the publisher and author to share. Thanks.

 

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Tuesday, June 7, 2022

Atrocity Propaganda and Narrative Control


Russian propaganda poses a much smaller threat to the western world than the various government agendas that are being rolled out under the justification of fighting Russian propaganda. --Caitlin Johnstone, The US Empire Will Be Defeated By the US Empire

Atrocity Propaganda and Narrative Control

 by C.A. Matthews

There's nothing nasty that's new under the sun. Really, there isn't.

Just when you thought you heard it all, another bit of "disinformation" from the US/NATO proxy war in Ukraine pops up and within a month it's revealed as the grotesque lie that it is.  (More on DHS's Disinformation Governance Board here.)

Human rights ombudsman Lyudmyla Denisova was Ukraine's top human rights official until it was revealed that she has been making up obscene stories of Russian soldiers raping defenseless women and children en masse. The Ukrainian parliament found her lurid storytelling to the Western mainstream media to be such an embarrassment and a liability to their cause that they kicked her out of office. 

According to Tyler Durden of ZeroHedge:

As has been the pattern in prior wars, whether in Syria or Libya, the media claims got more and more sensational and over-the-top as the conflict intensified, and as Western powers became more deeply involved, yet with no concrete or definitive proof.

But one consistent detail in the majority of the stories is that the aforementioned Ukraine human rights ombudsman, Lyudmyla Denisova, is often the central figure feeding Western correspondents the shocking rape stories. (...)

"Ukrainian lawmakers dismissed the country’s ombudsman for human rights, Lyudmyla Denisova, in a no-confidence vote on Tuesday, concluding that she had failed to fulfill obligations including the facilitation of humanitarian corridors and countering the deportation of Ukrainians from occupied territory," The Wall Street Journal reported late in the day.

"Lawmaker Pavlo Frolov said Ms. Denisova was also accused of making insensitive and unverifiable statements about alleged Russian sex crimes and spending too much time in Western Europe during the invasion," the report added.

Frolov said in a Facebook post announcing her dismissal as the country's top human rights investigator: 

"The unclear focus of the Ombudsman's media work on the numerous details of ‘sexual crimes committed in an unnatural way’ and ‘rape of children’ in the occupied territories that could not be confirmed by evidence, only harmed Ukraine."

 It's pretty amazing they shut Lyin' Lyudmyla down since she wasn't afraid of dumping "atrocity propaganda." Atrocity propaganda is a very effective weapon in the arsenal of professional propagandists. It has been used to push for increasing amounts of money and weapons to be given to Ukraine with no debate and little expectation of compensation.

 Nothing makes Westerners more horrified and ready to open their wallets than a supposed "reliable source" (often an "anonymous" or insider source like Ms. Denisova or the CIA) spinning a narrative about newborn babies being kicked out of their incubators (Iraq War I) or soldiers being given massive doses of Viagra in order to rape the helpless populace to death (Libya) or huge stockpiles of "Weapons of Mass Destruction" (Iraq War II). 

Going back even further to World War I, it was posited that the German Kaiser's troops actually ate babies for dinner as they advanced into Belgium. Rape, child endangerment, and cannibalism definitely make for great attention-grabbing, pro-war headlines.

Why do our corporate-owned politician-puppets and their media lackeys put out such outrageous falsehoods? Why do they constantly whip up hatred of others such as the Russians, a people that most Americans don't see as being very different from ourselves? I think it's simply because the vast majority of Americans don't mind being lied to. Some might even enjoy having a scapegoat to blame for all the world's ills. 

Comfortable Americans will allow their emotions and intellect to be manipulated by the current government because somewhere, somehow they feel it will  benefit them not to go against the status quo.  Or perhaps it's simply because many Americans can't be bothered to double-check dubious tales the mainstream media feeds them since they have more important things to attend to--like watching professional sports or the latest Marvel movie release.

And so the US government and its cronies will keep lying to the public in order to keep pumping billions of dollars of weaponry into a faltering proxy war. The capitalists rest assured that their lies will never be called out because We the Workers are all too stressed and busy trying to survive to make a fuss. We're too confused to see that we're being played in order to make billionaires even richer.

Other examples of recent atrocity propaganda include newspaper headlines declaring, "Too high wages are causing inflation" which implies that wage cuts and a possible dropping of the federal minimum wage are in the works. Atrocity propaganda can include news stories about how it's good to lock up homeless persons for up to six years for camping because they cannot afford skyrocketing rents, thus creating  more "slave labor" for the for-profit prison system.

Lyudmyla Denisova may have gone the more salacious route with made-up tales of rape and child abuse, but mainstream media pundits casting doubt about who is at fault for our current hard times is every bit as atrocious. Blaming real-life homeless and dispossessed Americans for their current situation is as cruel and evil as labeling them "cannibals." Hatred is stirred up against the most vulnerable. They are turned into scapegoats, blamed and punished, rather than the actual criminals who put all of us into this untenable proxy war/economic meltdown situation. The wealthy one-percent, who profit immensely from the military-industrial complex, are never held responsible for their actions.

The current government narrative spin says it's working class Americans' fault that gasoline is averaging over $5+ a gallon. We're told we're experiencing food shortages because we won't work during a pandemic. Why are they dumping this atrocity propaganda onto our breaking backs? It's simple--the oligarchs want to keep us lowly workers subdued and confused. If we fall for their lies we'll accept ever-worsening conditions. If today things seem bleak and overwhelming, then we will never have the strength to take on these corrupt bastards and change things and make a better tomorrow.
Only by massive amounts of propaganda would people consent to unprecedented acts of economic warfare which directly hurt them and benefit them in no way, shape or form.  --Caitlin Johnstone

The abusive relationship we have with those in power must end. Reject the oligarchs' atrocity propaganda and the status quo's narrative control. Turn off the mainstream media outlets and turn on to the podcasters and independent journalists you can find via Rad Indie Media and the links below to gain a wider perspective. 

Once you know what's really happening in the world, then you can fight more effectively to make it a better place. We owe it to ourselves to take control of the narrative and tell these professional liars where to shove their atrocious propaganda.
 


Related Articles:

Ukrainian Official Behind Western Media Reports of Russian Atrocities Fired by Ukrainian Parliament  https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/ukrainian-official-behind-western?s=r

Ukraine Fires Own Human Rights Chief For Perpetuating Russian Troop "Systemic Rape" Stories  https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/ukraine-fires-human-rights-chief-perpetuating-russian-troop-systematic-rape-stories 

Guarding Democracy From News https://scheerpost.com/2022/06/03/guarding-democracy-from-news/ 

US State-Affiliated NewsGuard Targets Consortium News https://scheerpost.com/2022/06/03/u-s-state-affiliated-newsguard-targets-consortium-news/

People Who Defend Empire Narratives Are Really Just Defending Their Viewpoint From Destruction https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/people-who-defend-empire-narratives?s=r

The Rulers Are Losing Narrative Control (video) https://youtu.be/JYuSWarS4Pk 

The Power of Lies  https://scheerpost.com/2022/06/03/craig-murray-the-power-of-lies/

US Federal Reserve Says Its Goal is "To Get Wages Down" https://multipolarista.com/2022/05/24/us-federal-reserve-wages-inflation/

Tennessee Makes Public Camping for Homeless a Felony. Violators Could Face Up to 6 Years in Prison https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/tennessee-makes-public-camping-for-homeless-a-felony-violators-could-face-up-to-6-years-in-prison 

The US Empire Will Be Defeated By the US Empire https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/the-us-empire-will-be-defeated-by?s=r 

Mass Psychosis -- How an Entire Population Becomes Mentally Ill (video) https://youtu.be/09maaUaRT4M 

Seen on Twitter:

 ***

In a near-future dystopian world, hope blossoms where mutual aid and democracy begins...

Zonta’s world is turned upside down when Jake arrives at the commune to investigate the disappearance of agents of the Authority. Can she persuade him to switch sides before the Protectors (antifascist fighters) take action?

Available now from Extasy Books: https://www.extasybooks.com/Where-the-Bodies-Lie 

Please buy direct from the small publisher and not via Amazon. Why? Amazon takes a huge percentage of the book's price and leaves very little for the publisher and author to share. Thanks.

 

 

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